i. ^i^ ^ * ^. i ..t . .<^ .^-.t ^.-f ^,,, „.
». *^ s.-^ ft^ V-^TK *' &-^ &■ * «■ ft. .3:. -..t. ^C 4 I., -„
.;s^ t^i'^-
» -ll- a i is "^ *•■
31t,
t:^^^.i-,.m
*:* ^
i )$ li- fts fr :
i !. *
». *
» t
NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES
3 3433 06818606 7
w
>
X
«r Hanry T. Arnold. 29 Apr-l&lS
A COMPLETE HISTORY
OF THE
LIVES, ACTS, AND MARTYRDOMS
OF THE
HOLY APOSTLES,
AND
THE TWO EVANGELISTS, ST. MARK AND LUKE.
TO WHICH IS ADDED, ,
AN INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE THREE GREAT DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH, PATRIARCHAL, MOSAICAL, AND EVANGELICAL.
BEING
A CONTINUATION OF CHRISTL\N ANTIQUITIES.
AND
A BAIEF ENUMERATION" AND ACCOUNT OF THE APOSTLES AND THEIR
SUCCESSORS, rOR THE FIRST THREE HUNDHED YEARS, IN
THE FIVK GREAT APOSTOLICAL CHURCHES.
ALSO,
A COMPLETE HISTORY
OF THE
LIVES, ACTS, DEATHS, AND MARTYRDOMS
OF THOSE WHO WERE CONTEMPORARY WITH, OR IMMEDIATELY SUCCEEDED
THE APOSTLES.
LIKEWISE,
OF THE MOST EMINENT OF THE PRIMITIVE FATHERS,
FOR THE FIRST THREE HUNDRED YEAR?.
TO WHICH IS ADDED,
A' ■MillONOLeiGY
— ,-, -.OF, THE ,.
THREE FIRST AG£!3 6f,^HE <tHRISTIAN CHURCH
BY WIlJLfAM ;i;::;AX'fe, D. D.
VOL. II. ^j^^^x^ PHILADELPHIA :
PUIiHSHED BY SOl»OMON \riATT, NO. 104, NORTH SECOND STREET
1810.
THE N LA ;^ YORK PUBLIC Li. , '.RY
650762
Air •on. Lt^rjox and
Tl rOUMDATIONS.
U ^^'^ L
APOSTOLICl:
OR,
THE HISTORY
OF THE
LIVES, ACTS, DEATH, AND MARTYRDOMS
OF THOSE
■^HO WERE CONTEMPORARY WITH, OR IMMEDIATELY SUCCEEDED THE APOSTLES;
AS ALSO
THE MOST EMINENT OF
THE PRIMITIVE FATHERS,
FOR THE FIRST THREE HUNDRED YEARS.
TO WHICH IS ADDED,
A CHRONOLOGY
OF THE
THREE FIRST,AGES OF THE CHURCH.
BY WXLtUM C4yE, D. D.
PHILADELPHIA :
PUBLISHED BY SOLOMON WIATT, NO. 104, NORTH SECOND-STREET. Sweeny & M'Kenzie, Printejs-
1810.
TO THE READER.
IT is not the least argument for the spiritual anc incorporeal nature of human souls, and that they ar< acted by a higher principle than meer matter and motion their boundless and inquisitive researches after know ledge. Our minds naturally grasp at a kind of omnis ciency, and not content with the speculations of this o: that particular science, hunt over the whole course o nature ; nor are they satisfied with the present state o things, but pursue the notices of former ages and an desirous to comprehend whatever transactions have beei since time itself had a being. We endeavour to make \x\ the shortness of our lives by the extent of our know ledge ; and because we cannot see forwards and spj what lies concealed in the womb of futurity, we lool back, and eagerly trace the footsteps of those times tha went before us Indeed to be ignorant of what hap pened before we ourselves came into the world is, (a* Cicero'' truly observes) to be always children, and to de prive ourselves of what would at once entertain oui minds with the highest pleasure, and add the greatesi authority and advantage to us. The knowledge of an- tiquity, besides that it gratifies one of our noblest curiosi- ties, improves our minds by the wisdom of preceding ages, acquaints us with the most remarkable occurrences of the Divine Providence, and presents us with the most apt and proper rules and instances that may form us to a life of true philosophy and virtue ; History (says Thucydides^) being nothing else but $aoiro<f/* ««, rarApmyy.x •fav, philosophy drawn from examples ; the one is a more
a In Oratore, page 268
a 111 Uratore, page 2b«.
b An, Dif5n liaiis. Tls^i Ao^wy?^??. p. 65, Tom. 2,
4 TO THE READER.
gross and popular philosophy the other a more subtle and refintd history
These considerations, together with a desire to per- petuate the memory of brave and great actions, gave biith to history, and obliged mankind to transmit the more observable passages both of their own and forego- ing times to the notice of posterity. The first in this kind was xMoses, the great prince and legislator of the Jewish nation, who from the creation of the world con- veyed down the records of above 2550 years ; the same course being more or less continued through all the periods of the Jewish state. Among the Babylonians they had their public archives, which were transcribed by Berosus the priest of Belus, who composed the Chal- dean history. The Egyptians were wont to record their memorable acts upon pillars in hieroglyphic notes and sacred cha'^acters, first begun as they pretend,) by Thouth, or the first of their Mercuries ; out of which Manethos, their chief priest, collected his three books of Egyptian dynasties, which he dedicated to Ptolomy Philadelphus, second of that line. The Phoenician his- tory was first attempted by Sanchoniathon, digested part- ly out of the annals of cities, partly out of the books kept in the temple, and communicated to him by Je- rombaal, priest of the god Jao : this he dedicated to Abi- balus king of Berytus, which Philo Byblius, about the tinie if the emperor Adrian, translated into Greek. The Gr /"ks boast of the antiquity of Cadmus, Archilochus, and many others, though the most ancient of their his- tO:iano now extant are Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. Among the Romans the foundations of history were laid in annals, the public acts of every year being made up by the Pontifex Maximus, who kept them at his own house, that the people upon any emer- gency ml.o^iit resort to them for satisfaction. These were the annales maxhni and afforded excellent materials to those who afterwards wrote the history of that great and powerful commonwealth.
But that which of all others challenges the greatest re- .gard both as it more immediately concerns the present
TO THE READER. 5
inquiry, and as it contains accounts of things relating to our biggest interests, is the histor} of the church. For herein, as in a glass, we have the true face of the church in its several ages represented to us. Here we find with what infinite care those divine records, which are the great instruments of our eternal happiness, have through the several periods of time been conveyed down to us ; with what a mighty success religion has triumphed over the greatest oppositions, and spread its banners in the re- motest corners of the world. With how incomparable a zeal good men have contended earnest I ij for that foith •which was once delivered to the saints ; with what a bitter and implacable fury the enemies of religion have set up- on it, and how signally the Divine Providence has ap- peared in its preservation, and returned the mischief upon their own heads. Here we see the constant suc- cession of bishops and the ministers of religion in their several stations, the glorious company of the apostles^ the goodly follow ship of the prophets^ the noble army of mar- tyrs^ who with the most cheerful and composed minds have gone to heaven through the acutest torments. In short, we have here the most admirable examples of a divine and religious life, of a real and unfeigned piety, a sincere and universal charity, a strict temperance and sobriety, an unconquerable patience and submission clearly represented to us. And the higher we go, the more illustrious are the instances of piety and virtue. For however later ages may have improved in know- ledge, experience daily making new additions to arts and sciences, yet former times were most eminent for the practice and virtues of a holy life. The divine laws while newly published, had a stronger influence upon the minds of men, and the spirit of religion was more active and vigorous till men by degrees began to be de- bauched into that impiety and prophaneness, that in these last times has over-run the world.
It were altogether needless and improper for me to consider what records there are of the state of the church before our Saviour's incarnation : it is sufficient to mv purpose to inquire by what hands the first affairs of the
6 ^ TO THE READER.
Christian church have been transmitted to us. As for the iife and death, the actions and miracles of our Sa- viour, and some of the first acts of his apostles they are fully represented by the evangelical historians. Indeed immediately after them we meet with nothing of this na- ture, the apostles and their immediate successors, as Eusebius observes *") not being at leisure to write many books, as being employed in ministries greater and more immediately serviceable to the world. The first that engaged in this way, was Hegesippus, an ancient and apostolic man (as he in Phocius styles him) an Hebrew by descent, and born (as is pj obabie) in Palestine.'^ He flourished principally in the reign of M. Aurelius, and came to Rome in the time of Anicetus, where he resi- ded till the time ofEleutherius. He wrote five books of ecclesiastical history, which he styled Commentaries of the Acts of the Church, wherein in a plain and familiar style he described the apostles' travels and preachings, the remarkable passages of the church, the several schisms, heresies, and persecutions that infested it from our Lord's death till his own time. But these, alas, are long since lost. The next that succeeded in this province, though the first that reduced it to any exactness and perfection, was Eusebius. He was born in Palestine, about the later times of the emperor Gailienus, ordained presbyter by Agapius bishop of Cgesarea, who sufter- ing about the end of the Dioclesian persecution, Euse- bius succeeded in his see. A man of incomparable parts and learning, and of no less industry and diligence in searching out the records and antiquities of the church. After several other volumes in defence of the Christian cause against the assaults both of Jews and Gentiles, he set himself to write an ecclesiastical his- tory, wherein he designed (as himself tells us ^ ) to re- count from the birth of our Lord till his time the most memorable transactions of the church, the apostolical successions, the first preachers and planters of the gos- pel, the bishops that presided in the most eminent sees,
ccl. I. 3. e. 24. p. 94. d Cod. 232. col. 893. e- Lib. 1. c. 1. p. S.
TO THE READER. y
the most not^d errors and heresies, the calamities that befel the Jewish state, the attempts and persecutions made against the Christians by the powers of the world, the torments and sufferings of the martyrs, and the bles- sed and happy period that was put to them by the con- version of Constantine the Great. All this, accordingly, he digested in ten books, which he composed in the declining partvof his life, and (as Vaiesius conjectures,*) some years after the council of Nice, though when not long before he expresly affirms that history to have been written before the Nicene Synod. How he can here- in be excused from a palpable contradiction I cannot imagine. It is true Eusebius takes no notice of that council, but that might be partly because he designed to end in that joyful and prosperous scene of things which Constantine restored to the church (as he himself plain- ly intimates in the beginning of his history) which he was not willing to discompose with the controversies and contentions of that Synod, according to the humour of all historians^ who delight to shut up their histories with some happy and successful period ; and partly be- cause he intended to give some account of the affairs of that council in his book of the life of Constantine the Great,
The materials wherewith he was furnished for this great undertaking (which he complains were very small and inconsiderable) were besides Hegesippus his com- mentariesthen extant, Africanus his chronology, the books and writings of several fLithers, the records of particu- lar cities, ecclesiastical epistles written by the bishops of those times, and kept in the archives of their several churches, especially that famous library at Jerusalem, erected by Alexander, bishop of that place, but chiefly the acts of the martyrs, which in those times were taken at large with great care and accuracy. These, at least a great many of them, Eusebius collected into one volume under the title of 'Ag;^^''' is^^^V*" -^•''^7«"/^' A collection of the ancient martyrdoms ; which he refer!?
f Pi-a:f4t. de Vit. ?c Script. Euscb,
8 TO THE READER.
to at every turn ; besides a particular narrative which lie wrote (still extant as an appendage to the eighth book of his ecclesiastical history) concerjiing the martyrs that suf- fered in Palestine, A great peat of these acts by the negligence and unfaithfulness of succeeding times, were interpolated and corrupted, especially in the darker and more undiscerning ages, when superstition had over- spread the church, and when ignorance and interest con- spired to fill the world with idle and improbable stories, and men took what liberty they pleased in venting the issue of their own brains, insomuch that some of the more wise and moderate, even of the Roman commu- nion have complained not without a just resentment and indignation, that Laertius has written the lives of philo- sophers with more truth and chasteness, than many have done the lives of the saints. Upon this account a great and general outcry has been made against Simeon Me- taphrastes, as the father of incredible legends, and one that has notoriously imposed upon the world by the most fabulous reports. Naj' , some to reflect the more disgrace upon him, have represented him as a petty schoolmaster. A charge, in my mind, rash and inconsiderate, and in a great measure groundless and uncharitable. He was a person of very considerable birth and fortune, advanced to the highest honours and offices, one of the primier ministers of state, and as is probable, great chancellor to the emperor of Constantinople ; learned and eloquent above the common standard, and who, by the persuasions not only of some great ones of that time (he flourished under Leo the wise about the year 900, but principally wrote under the reign of his successor) but of the empe- ror himself, was prevailed with to reduce the lives of the saints into order. To which end by his own infinite labour, and the no less expenses of the emperor, he ran- sacked the libraries of the empire, till he had amassed a vast heap of volumes. The more ancient acts he passed without any considerable alteration, more than the cor- recting them by a collation of several copies, and the en- larging some circumstarxes to render them more plain and easy, as appears by comparing some that are extant
TO THE READER. ,9
at this day. Where lives were confused and immetho- dical, or written in a style rude and barbarous, he digest- ed the history into order, and clothed it in more polite and elegant language. Others that were defective in neither, he left as they were, and gave them place amongst his own. So that I see no reason for so severe a censure, unless it were evident, that he took his account of things not from the writings of those that had gone be- fore him, but forged them of his own head. Not to say that things have been made much worse by translations, seldom appearing in any but the dress of the Latin church, and that many lives are laid at his door of which he ne- ver was the fluher, it being usual with some, when they met with the life of a saint, the author whereof they knew not, presently to fasten it upon Metaphrastes. But to return to Eusebius, from whom we have digressed.
His ecclesiastical history, the almost only remaining records of the ancient church, deserves a just esteem and veneration, without which those very fragments of antiquity had been lost, which by this means have es- caped the common shipwreck. And indeed S. Hierom, Nicephorus, and the rest do not only build upon his foimdation, but almost entirely derive their materials from him. As for Socrates, Sozomen, Theodorit, and the later historians, they relate to times without the limits of my present business, generally conveying down little more than the history of their own times, the church history of those more early ages being either quite ne- glected, or very negligently managed. The first that to any purpose broke the ice after the reformation, were the centuriators of Magdeburg, a combination of learned and industrious men, the chief of whom were John Wigan- dus, Matth. Judex, Basilius Faber, Andreas Corvinus, but especially Matth. Flaccius lilyricus, who was the very soul of the undertaking. They set themselves to traverse the writings of the fathers, and all the ancient monuments of the church, collecting whatever made to their purpose, which with indefatigable pains they digest- ed into an ecclesiastic history. This they divided into centuries, and each centuiy into fifteen chapters, into each
10 TO THE READER.
of which, as into its proper classes and repository, they reduced whatever concerned the propagation of religion, the peace or persecutions of the Christians, the doctrines of the church, the heresies that arose in it, the rites and ceremonies, the government, schisms, councils, bishops, and persons noted either for religion or learning, heretics, martyrs, miracles, the state of the Jews, the religion of them that w€7-e without^ and the political revolutions of that age. A method accurate and useful, and which admi- nisters to a very distinct and particular understanding the aflliirs of the church. The four first centuries were finished in the city of Magdeburg, the rest elsewhere. A work of prodigious diligence and singular use. True it is, that it labours under some faults and imperfections, and is chargeable with considerable errors and mistakes. And no wonder : for besides that the persons themselves may be supposed to have been sometimes betrayed into an rifj^ire^u r strS-oxjtn- by the heats and contentions of those times, it was the first attem^pt in this kind, and which never passed the emendations of a second review ; an un- dertaking vast and diffusive, and engaged in while books were yet more scarce and less correct. Accordingly they modestly enough confess, that they rather attempt- ed a delineation of church -history,^ than one that was complete and absolute, desiring only to minister oppor- tunity to those who were able and willing to furnish out one more entire and perfect. And yet, take it with all the faults and disadvantages that can be charged upon it, and they bear no proportion to the usefulness and excel- lency of the thing itself.
No sooner did this work come abroad but it made a loud nose and bustle at Rome, as wherein the corruptions and innovations of that church were sufficiently exposed and kid open to the world. Accordingly it was necessa- ry that an antidote should be provided against it. For which purpose Philip Nereus (who had lately founded the oratorian order at Rome) commands Baronius, r].u:n a very young man, and ne^vly entered into the congre^-
g Prxfat. in Hist. Eccles. pracfix. Cent. I.
TO THE READER. 11
tion to undertake it, and in order thereunto, daily to read nothing but ecclesiastical lectures in the oratory. This course he held for thirty years together, several times going over the history of the church. Thus trained up, and abundantly furnished with with fit materials, he sets upon the work itself, which he disposed by way of annals comprising the affairs of the whole Christian world in the orderly series and succession of every year. A method much more natural and historical than that of the centu- ries. A noble design, and which it were injustice to de- fraud of its due praise and commendation, as wherein be- sides whatever occurrences that concern the state of the church, reduced (as far as his skill in chronology could enable him) under their proper periods, he has brought to light many passages of the ancients not known before, peculiarly advantaged herein by the many noble libraries that are at Rome. A monument of incredible pains and labour, as which besides the difficulties of the thing it- self was entirely carried on by his single endeavours, and written all with his own hand, and that too in the midst of infinite avocations, the distractions of a parish cure, the private affairs of his own oratory, preaching, hearing confessions, writing other books, not to men- tion the many troublesome though honourable offices and employments, which in the course of the work were heaped upon him. In short, a work it was, by which he had infinitely more obliged the world, than can be well expressed, had he managed it with as much faithfulness and impartiality as he has done with learning and indus- ~ try. But alas, too evident it is, that he designed not so much the advancement of truth, as the honour and in- terest of a cause, and therefore drew the face of the an- cient church, not as antiquity truly represents it, but ac- cording to the present form and complexion of the church of Rome, forcing every thing to look that way, to justify the traditions and practices, and to exalt the superemi- nent power and grandeur of that church, making both the sceptre and the crosier stoop to the triple crown. This is that that runs almost through every page, and in-
12 TO THE READER.
deed both he ^'himself, and the writer' of his life, more than once, expressly affirms, that his design was to defend the traditions, and to preserve the dignity of that church against the late innovators, and the labours of the Mag- deburgensian centuriators. and that the opposing of them was the occasion of that work. So fatally does partiality and the interest of a cause spoil the most brave and ge- nerous undertakings.
What has been hitherto prefaced, the reader, I hope, will not censure as an unprofitable digression, nor think it altogether unsuitable to the present work, whereof 'tis like he will expect some short account. Being some time since engaged, I know not how, in searching after the antiquities of the apostolic age, I was then sti'ongly importuned to have carried on the design for some of the succeeding ages. This I then wholly laid aside, without any further thoughts of resuming it. For experience had made me sufficiently sensible of the diffi- culty of the thing, and I well foresaw how almost im- possible it was to be managed to any tolerable satisfac- tion ; so small and inconsiderable, so broken and imper- fect are the accounts that are left us of those early times. Notwithstanding Avhich, I have once more suffered my- self to be engaged in it, and have endeavoured to hunt out, and gather together those ruins of primitive story that yet remain, that I might do what honour I was able to the memory of those brave and worthy men, who were so instrumental to plant Christianity in the ^vorld, to seal it with their blood, and to oblige posterity by those ex-. cellent monuments of learning and piety which they left behind them. I have bounded my account within the first thi-ee hundred years, notwithstanding the barrenness and obscurity of those ages of the church. Had I con- sulted my own ease or credit, I should have commenced my design from that time, which is the period of my present undertaking, viz. the following sasculum, when Christianity became the religion of the empire, and the records of the church furnish us with large and plentiful
h Epist. Ded. ad Sixt. V. Tci-n. 1. Anna]. Prsefix.
i Hier. Bamab. de vit. Baron, i. 1. c. IB. p. 40. c. 19. p. 43.
TO THE READER. 13
materials for such a work. But I confess my humour and inclination led me to the first and best ages of reli* gion, the memoirs whereof I have picked up, and thereby enabled myself to draw the lineaments of as many of those apostolical persons, as concerning whom 1 could retrieve any considerable notices and accounts of things. With what success, the reader must judge : with whom what entertainment it will find, i know not, nor am I much solicitous. I have done what I could, and am not conscious to myself, that I have been wanting in any point either of fidelity or care. If there be fewer persons here described than the space of almost three hundred years may seem to promise and less said concerning some of them than the reader does expect, he will I pre- sume be more just aud charitable than to charge it up- on me, but rather impute it to the unhappy fate of so many ancient records as have been lost through the carelessness and unfaithfulness of succeeding times. As far as my mean abilities do reach, and the nature of the thing will admit, I have endeavoured the reader's satis- faction ; and though I pretend not to present him an ex- act church history of those times ; yet I think I may without vanity assure him, that there is scarce any ma- terial passage of church antiquity, of which in some of these lives he Avill not find a competent and reasonable account. Nor is the history of those ages maimed and lame only in its main limbs and parts, but (what is great- ly to be bewailed) purblind and defective in its eyes, I mean, confused and uncertain in point of chronologv. The greatest part of what we have is from Eusebius, in whose account of times some things are false, more un- certain, and the whole the worse for passing through other hands after his. Indeed next to the recovering the lost portions of antiquity, I know nothing would be more acceptable, than the setting right the disjointed frame of those times : a cure which we hope for shortly from a very able hand. In the mean time for mv own part, and so far as may be useful to the purposes of the following papers, I have, by the best measures I could take in some haste, drawn up a chronology of these three
14 TO THE READER,
ages, which though it pretends not to the utmost exact- ness and accuracy that is due to a matter of this nature, yet it will serve, however, to give a quick and present prospect of things, and to show the connexion and con- currence of ecclesiastical affairs with the times of the Ro- man empire. So far as I follow Eusebius, I principally rely upon the accounts given in history which being written after his Chronicon, may be supposed the issue of his more exact researches, and to have passed the judgment of his riper and more considering thoughts. And perhaps the reader will say (and I confess I am somewhat of his mind) had I observed the same rule to- wards these papers, he had never been troubled with them. But that is too late now to be recalled ; and it is folly to bewail what is impossible to be remedied.
INTRODUCTION
The several periods of the three first ages. Our Lord's coming, and the seasonableness of it for the propagation of the gospel. His entrance upon his proplietic office, and the sum of his ministry. The success ot his doctrine, and the several places where he preached. The story of Agbarus not altogether improbable. Our Lord's death. What attestation given to the passages concerning Christ by heathen writers, The testimony of Tacitus. Pilate's relation sent to Tiberius. The acts of Pilate what. Pilate's letter now extant spurious. The apostles entering upon their commission, and first acts after our l-.ord's ascension. How long they continued in Judea. Their disper- sion to preach in the Gentile provinces, and the success of it. The state of the Church after the apostolic age. The mighty progress of Christianity. The numbers and quality of its converts. Its speedy and incredible success in all countries, noted out of the writers of those times. The early conversion of Britain to Christianity. The general declension of Paganism. The silence and ceasing of their oracles. This acknowledged by Porphyry to be the effect of the Christian religion appearing in the world. A great argument of its truth and divinity. The means contributing to the success of Chris- tianity. The miraculous powers then resident in the church. This proved at large out of the primitive writers. The great learning and abilities of many of the church's champions. The most eminent of the Christian apologists. The principal of them that engaged against the heresies of those times. Others renowned for other parts of learn- ing. The indefatigable zeal and industry used in the propagation of Christianity. Instructing and catechising new converts. Schools erected. Travelling to preach in all parts of the world. The admi- rable lives of the ancient Christians, The singular efficacy of the Christian doctrine upon the minds of men. A holy life the most accep- table sacrifice. Their incomparable patience and constancy under sufferings. A brief survey of the ten persecutions. The first begun by Nero. His brutish extravagancies, and inhuman cruelties. His burning Rome, and the dreadfulness of that conflagration. This £harged upon the Christians, and their several kinds of punishment noted out of Tacitus. The chief of them that suffered. The perse-^ cution under Domitian. The vices of that prince. The cruel usage of St. John. The third begun by Trajan. His character. His pro- ceeding against the Christians as illegal societies. Pliny's letter to Trajan concerning the Christians, with the emperor's answer. Adrian, Trajan's successor ; a mixture in him of vice and virtue. His persecuting the Christians. This the fourth persecution. The mitigation of it, and its breaking out again under Antoninus Pius. The excellent temper and learning of M. Aurelius. The fifth perse» cution raised by him. Its fierceness in the East, at Rome, especially
16 INTRODUCTION.
in France ; the most eminent that suffered there. The emperor's victory in his German wars gained by the Christians' prayers. Se- verus's temper : his cruelty towards the Christians. The chief of the martyrs under the sixth persecution. Maximinus his immode- rate ambition and barbarous cruelty. The author of the seventh per- secution. This not universal. The common evils and calamities charged upon the Christians. Decius the eighth persecutor ; other- \v\se an excellent prince. The violence of this persecution, and the most noted sufferers. The foundations of monachim when laid. The ninth persecution, and its rage under Valerian. The most emi- nent martyrs. The severe punishment of Valerien : his miserable usage by the Persian king. The tenth pei\secution begun under Dio- clesian, and when. The fierceness and cruelty of that time. The admirable carriage and resolution of the Christians under all these sufferings. The proper influence of this argument to convince the Avorld. The whole concluded with Lactantms's excellent reason- ings to this purpose.
THE state of the Christian church in the three first ages of it may be considered under a three fold pe- riod : as it was first planted and estabhshed by our Lord himself during his residence in the world ; as it was en- larged and propagated by the apostles, and first mission- aries of the Christian faith ; and as it grew up and pros- pered from the apostolic age till the times of Constantine, when the empire submitted itself to Christianity. God, who in former times was pleased by various methods of revelation to convey his will to mankind, hath m these last days spoken to us by his Son. For the great blessing of the promised seed after a long succession of several ages being come to its just maturity and perfection, God was resolved to perform the mercy promised to the fathers^ and to remember his holy covenant^ the oath which he sware to our father Abraham. Accordingly, in the fulness of time God sent his Son. It was in the declining part of Augustus's reign, when this great ambassador arrived from heaven, to publish to the world the glad tidings of salvation. A period of time (as^Origen observes) wisely ordered by the divine Providence. For die Roman em- pire being now in the highest pitch of its grandeur, all its parts united under a monarchical government, and an universal peace spread over all the provinces of the em- pire, that had opened a way to a free and uninterrupted
a. Contr Gets, lib, 2. p. 79.
INTRODUCTION. 17
commerce with all nations, a smoother and speedier pas- sage was hereby prepared for the publishing the doctrine of the gospel, which the apostles and first preachers of re- ligion might with the greater ease and security carry up and down to all quarters of the world. As for the Jews, their minds were awakened about this time with busy expectations of their Messiah's coming : and no sooner was the birth of the holy Jesus proclaimed by the arrival of the eastern magi, who came to pay homage to him, but Jerusalem was filled with noise and tumult, the San- hedrin was convened, and consulted by Herod, who jea= lous of his late gotten sovereignty, was resolved to dis- patch this new competitor out of the way. Deluded in his hopes of discovery by the magi, he betakes himself to acts of open force and cruelty, commanding all infants under two years old to be put to death, and among them it seems his own son, which made ^ Augustus pleasantly say (alluding to the Jewish custom of abstaining from swine's flesh) It is better to be HerocVs hog than his son. But the providence of God secured the holy infant, by timely admonishing his parents to retire into Egypt, where they remained till the death of Herod, which hap- pening not long after, they returned.
2. Near thirty years our Lord remained obscure un- der the retirements of a private life, applying himself, (as the ancients tell us, and the evangelical history plainly intimates) to Joseph's employment, the trade of a carpen- ter. So little patronage did he give to an idle unaccoun- table course of life. But now he was called out of his shades and solitudes, and publicly owned to be that per- son whom God had sent to be the great prophet of his chuixih. This was done at his baptism, when the Holy Ghost in a visible shape descended upon him, and God, by an audible voice testified of him This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Accordingly, he set himself to declare the counsels of God, going about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom. He particularly explained the moral law, and restored it to its just authority aiid do-
b Macrob. Satnrnal. 1. 2. c. A. p. 279. C
18 INTRODUCTION.
minion over the minds of men, redeeming it from those corrupt and perverse interpretations which ihe masters of the Jewish church had put upon it. He next in- sinuated the abrogation of the Mosaic economy, to which he was sent to put a period, to enlarge the bounds of salvation, and admit both Jew and Gentile to terms of mercy : that he came as a mediator between God and man, to reconcile the world to the favour of Heaven by his death and sufferings, and to propound pardon of sin and eternal life to ail that by an hearty belief, a sincere repentance, and an holy life, were willing to embrace and entertain it. This was die sum of the doctrine which he preached ever} where, as opportunity and occasion led him, and which he did not impose upon the world merely upon the account of his own authority and pow- er, or beg a precarious enter tuinment of it ; he did not tell men they must believe him, because he said he came from God, and had his warrant and commission to in- struct and reform the world, but gave them the most sa- tisfactory and convictive evidence, by doing such mira- cles as were beyond all powers and contrivances either of art or nature, whereby he unanswerably demonstrated, that he was a Teacher come from God, in that ?w man could do those miracles which he did except God were with him. And because he himself was in a little time to return back to heaven, he ordained twelve, whom he called apostles as his immediate delegates and vicege- reiiib, to whom he deputed liis authority and power, funvished them with miraculous gifts, and left them to carry on that excellent religion which he himself had begun, to whose assistance he joined seventy disciples, as oidinary coadjutors and companions to them Their commission for the present was limited to Palestine, and they sent out only to seek and to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
3. How great the success of our Saviour's ministry was, may be guessed from that complaint of the phari- sees, Behold the world is gone after him, " people from all parts in such vast multitudes flocking after him, that
c John 12. 19,
INTRODUCTION. 19
they gave him not time for necessary solitude and re- tirement. Indeed he went about doing good, preaching the word throughout all Judea^ and healing all that were possessed of the devil. The seat of his ordinary abode was GaHlee, residing for the most part (says one of the ancients'* )in Galilee of the Gentiles, that he might there sow and reap the first fruits ol the calling of the Gentiles. We usually find him preaching at Nazareth, at Cana, at Corazin and Bethsaida, and the cities about the sea of Tiberias, but especially at Capernaum, the m.etropolis of the province, a place of great commerce and traffic. He often visited Judea, and the parts about Jerusalem, whither he was wont to go up at the paschal solemnities, and some of the greater festivals, that so the general concourse of people at those times might minister the fitter opportunity to spread the net, and to communi- cate and impart his doctrine to them. Nor did he who was to be a common Saviour, and came to break down the partition wall, disdain to converse with the Samari- tans, so contemptible and hateful to the Jews. In Sy- char, not far from Samaria, he freely preached, and gained most of the inhabitants of that city to be prose- lytes to his doctrine. He travelled up and down the towns and villages of Caesarea Philippi, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis, and where he could not come, the renown of him spread itself, bringing him disciples and followers from all quarters. Indeed his fame went throughout all Syria, and there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, Judea, Deca- polis, Idumia, from beyond Jordan, and from Tyre and Sidon. Nay might we believe the story, so solemnly reported by Eusebius "" and the ancients (and excep- ting the silence of the evangelical historians, who record- ed only some of the actions and passages concerning our Saviour, I know no wise argument against it) Acbarus prince of Edessa beyond EAiphrates, having heard of the fame of our Saviour's miracles, by letters humbly besought him to come over to him, whose let- ter, together with our Lord's answer, are extant in Eu-
(1 Euseb. Demonstrat. Evang.l. 9. p. 439. c H.Eccl.l. 1, c. 13. p. 31.
:0 INTRODUCTION.
sebius, there being nothing in the letters themselves that nnay justly shake their credit and authority, with much more to this purpose, transcribed (as he tells us) out of the records of that city, and by him translated out of Syriac into Greek, which may give us some ac- count why none of the ancients before him make any mention of this affair, being generally strangers to the language, the customs, and antiquities of those eastern countries.
4. Our Lord having spent somewhat more than three years in the public exercise of his ministry, kept his last passover with his, apostles ; which done, he instituted the sacramental supper, consigning it to his church as the standing memorial of his death, and the seal of the evangelical covenant, as he appointed bap- tism to be the federal rite of initiation, and the public Tessera or badge of those that should profess his reli- gion. And now the fatal hour was at hand. Being be- trayed by the treachery of one of his own apostles, he was apprehended by the officers and brought before the public tribunals. Heavy v/ere the crimes charged upon him, but as false as spiteful. The two main articles of the charge were blasphemy against God, and treason against the emperor : and though they were not able to make them good by any tolerable pretence of proof, yet did they condemn and execute him upon the cross, several of themselves vindicating his innocency, that he was a righteous man^ and the Son of God. The third day af- ter his interment he rose again, appeared to and con- versed with his disciples and followers, and having taken care of the affairs of his church, given a larger commis- sion, and fuller instructions to his apostles, he took his leave of them, and visibly ascended into Heaven, and sat down on the right hand of God, as head over ail things to the churchy angels^ authorities and pozvers being made subject unto him,
5. The faith of these passages concerning our Sa- viour, are not only secured to us by the report of the evangelical historians, and that justified by eye- wit- nesses, the evidence of miracles, and the successive and
INTRODUCTION. 21
uncontrolled consent of all ages of the church, but (as to the substance of them) by the plain confession of Heathen writers, and the enemies of Christianity. ^ Ta- citus tells us, that the author of this religion was Christ, who under the reign of Tiberius was put to death by Pontius Pilate, the procurator of Judea : whereby, though this detestable superstition was suppressed for the present, yet did it break out again, spreading itself not only through Judea, the fountain oi the mischief, but in the very city of Rome itself, where whatever is wicked and shameful meet together, and is greedily advanced into reputation. ^ Eusebius assures us, that after our Lord's ascension, Pilate according to custom, sent an account of him to the emperor, which Tiberius brought before the senate, but they rejected it under pretence that cognizance had been taken of it before it came to them ; it being a fundamental law of the Roman state, that no new god could betaken in without the de- cree of the senate ; but that however Tiberius conti- nued his good thoughts of Christ and kindness to the Christians. For this he cites the testimony of Ter- tullian, who in his ^ apology presented to the Roman powers affirms, that Tiberius, in whose time the Chris- tian religion entered into the world, having received an account from Pilate out of Palestine in Syria concerning the truth of that di^'inity that was there, brought it to senate with the prerogative of his own vote : but ...at the senate, because they had not before approved of it, would not admit it ; however the emperor conti- nued of the same mind, and threatened punishment to them that accused the Christians. And before Tertul- lian, Justin Martyr ' speaking concerning the death and suiFerings of our Saviour, tells the emperors, that they might satisfy themselves in the truth of these things from the acts written under Pontius Pilate. It being- customary not only at Rome to keep the acts of the se- nate and the people, but for he governors of provin-
f Annal. 1. 15. c 44 p. 319.
g: H. Eccl. 1. 2 c. 2. p. 40. vid. Orns. adv. pn^. 1. 7. c 4. foJ. 292.
h Apolug-. c. 5. p. 6. o; c 21. p< 2(5. i Apolog". II. p. 76,
22 INTRODUCTION.
ces to keep account of what memorable things hap. pened in their government, the acts whereof they ti ans- mitted to the emperor And thus did Piiate during the procuratorship of his province. How long these acts remained in being, I know not : but in the contro- versy about Easter, wt find the Quartodecimans *" jus- tifying the day on which they obsei ved it from the acts of Pilate, wherein they gloried that they had found the truth. Whether these were the acts of Piiate, to which Justin appealed, or rather those acts of Piiate drawn up and published by the command of ^ Maximinus, Dio- clesian's successor, in disparagement of our Lord and his religion, is uncertain, but the latter of the two far more probable. However, Pilate's letter to Tiberius (or, as he is there called Claudius) at this day extant in the Anacephalaeosis "^ of the younger Egesippus, is of no great credit, though that author challenges greater an- tiquity than some allow him, being probably contempo- rary with St. Ambrose, and by many, from the great conformity of style and phrase, thought to be St. Am- brose himself, who with som.e few additions compiled it out of Josephus. But then it is to be considered, whether that Anacephalaeosis be done by the same, or (which is most probable) by a much later hand. Some other particular passages concerning our Saviour are taken notice of by Gentile writers, the appearance of the star by Calcidius, the murder of the infants by Macro- bins, the eclipse at our Saviour's passion by Phlegon Trallianus (not to speak of his miracles frequently ac- know^ledged by Celsus, Julian, and Porphyry) which I shall not insist upon.
6. Immediately after our Lord's ascension (from whence we date the next period of the chuich) the apos- tles began to execute the powtrs intrusted with them. They presently filled up Judas's vacancy by the election of a new apostle, the lot falling upon Matthias^ and he zvas numbered with the eleven apostles. Being next endued with power from on high (as our Lord had promised
k Ap. EDiph. Hxi-es. L. p. 182. i Euseb. H. Eccl. 1. 9. c. 5. p. o50.
m Ad calccm 1. de Excid. nrb. Hieros. p. 683.
INTRODUCTION. 23
them) furnished with the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, they set themselves to preach in places of the greatest concourse, and to the faces of their greatest ene- mies. They who but a while before fled at the approach of danger, now boldly plead the cause of their crucified master, with the immediate hazard of their lives. And that nothing might interrupt them in this employment, they instituted the office of deacons, who might attend the inferior services of the church while they devoted themselves to what was more immediately necessary to the good of souls. By which prudent course religion got ground ap^ce, and innumerable converts were daily added to the f:iith : till a persecution arising upon St. Stephen's martyrdom, banished the church out of Jeru- salem, though this also proved its advantage in the event and issue, Christianity being by this means the sooner spread up and down the: neighbour countries. The apos- tles notwithstanding the rage of the persecution, remained still at Jerus^'iem, only now and then despatching some few of their number to confirm and settle the plantations, and to propagate the faith, as the necessities of the church required. And thus tliey continued for near twelve years together, our Lord himself having commanded them not to depart Jerusalem and the parts thereabouts, till twelve years after his ascension, as the ancient tradi- tion mentioned both by "Apollonius, and "Clemens Alex- a nus informs us. And now^ they thought it high tii J to apply themselves to the full execution of that commission which Christ had given them, to go teach and baptize all nations. Accordingly having settled the general affliirs and concernments of the church, they be- took themselves to the several provinces of the Gentile world, preaching the gospel to every nation under heaven, so that even in a literal sense, their sound went into all the earthy and their' xvords unto the ends of the world. " Infinite multitudes of people in all cities and countries '' (says ^Eusebius) like corn into a well filled granary,
n An. Euseb. H. Ecd. I. 5. c. 18, p. 186.
o Stromat. I. 6. p. 6c>i^. vid. Life of St. Peter, Sect. 11. num. -5.
pLib.2. c.3.p.41.
24 INTRODUCTION.
*' being brought in by that grace of God that brings sal- *' vation. And they whose minds were heretofore dis- '' tempered and overrun with the error and idolatry of ** their ancestors, were cured by the sermons and mira- *' cles of our Lord's disciples, and shaking oif those chains *' of darkness and slavery which the merciless dsemons ** had put upon them, fieely embraced and entertained *' tjie knowledge and service of the only true God, the ** great Creator of the world, whom they worshipped ac- *' cording to the holy rites and rules of that divine and *' wisely contrived religion which our Saviour had intro- *' duced into the world." But concerning the apostles* travels, the success of their ministry, the places and countries to which they went, the churches they planted, their acts and martyrdoms for the faith, we have given an account in a work peculiar to that subject, so far as the records of those times have conveyed any material no- tices of things to us. It may suffice to observe, that God was pleased to continue St. John to a very great age, beyond any of the rest, that he might superintend and cultivate, confirm and establish what they had planted, and be as a standing and lively oracle, to which the}- might from all parts have recourse in any considerable doubts and exigencies of the church, and that he might seal and attest the truth of those things Avhich m^en of corrupt and perverse minds, even then began to call in question.
7. Hence then we pass on to survey the state of the church from the apostolic age till the times of Constan- tine, for the space of at least two hundred years. And under this period we shall principally remark t\A'o things. What progress the christian religion made in the world. Secondly, What it was that contributed to so vast a growth and increase of it. That Christianity^ from the nature of its precepts, the sublimeness of its principles, its contrariety to the established rites and religions of the world, was likely to find bad entertainment, and the fiercest oj)position, could not but be obvious to every impartial considerer of things ; which accordingly came U) pass. For it met with all the discouragement, the
INTRODUCTION. 25
secret undermining, and open assaults which malice and prejudice, wit and parts, learning and power, were able to make upon it. Notwithstanding all which, it lift up its head, and prospered under the greatest oppositions. And the triumph of the christian faith will appear the more considerable, whether we regard the number and quality of its converts, or the vast circumference to which it did extend and diffuse itself. Though it appeared un^ der all manner of disadvantages to recommend itself, yet no sooner did it set up its standard, but persons from all parts, and of all kind of principles and educations, began to flock to it, so admirably affecting very many both of the Greeks and Barbarians (as Origen*^ tells Celsus) and they both wise and unwise, that they contended for the truth of their religion even to the laying down their lives, a thing not known in any other profession in the world. And ''elsewhere he challenges him to show such an un- speakable multitude of Greeks and Barbarians reposing such a cohfidence in iEsculapius, as he could of those that had embraced the faith of the holy Jesus. And when 'Celsus objected that Christianity was a clandestine religion, that skulked and crept up and down in corners ; Origen answers. That the religion of the Christians was better known throughout the whole world, than the dic- tates of their best philosophers. Nor were they only mean and ignorant persons that thus came over, but (as '/ )bius observes) men of the acutest parts and learning ; or. jrs, grammarians, rhetoricians, lawyers, physicians, philosophers, despising their formerly beloved senti- ments, sat down here. "Tertullian addressing himself to the Roman governors in behalf of the Christians, assures them, that although they were of no long standing, yet that they had filled all places of their dominions, their cities, islands, castles, corporations, councils, armies, tribes, companies, the palace, senate, and courts of judi- cature : that if they had a mind to revenge themselves, they need not betake themselves to clancular and sculk-
ri Contr. Gels. 1. 1. p. 21. 22. r Ibid- 1. 3. p 124.
s lb. 1. 1. p r. t Adv. Gent. 1. 2 p. 21.
n Apol. c. 37. p. 30.
26 INTRODUCTION.
ing arts. Their numbers were great enough to appear in open arms, having a party not in this or that province^- but in all quarters of the world : nay, that naked as they were, they could be sufficiently revenged upon them ; for should they but all agree to retire out of the Roman empire, the world would stand amazed at that solitude and desolation that would ensue upon it, and they would have more enemies than friends or citizens left among them. And he ^bids the president Scapula consider, that if he went on with the persecution, what he would do with those many thousands both of men and women, of all ranks and ages, that would readily offer themselves; what fires and swords he must have to despatch them. Nor is this any more than what ''Pliny himself confesses to the emperor, that the case of the Christians was a mat- ter worthy of deliberation, especially by reason of the multitudes that were concerned, for that many of each sex, of every age and quality were and must be called in question, this superstition having infected and overrun not the city only, but towns and countries, the temples and sacrifices being generally desolate and forsaken.
8. Nor was it thus only in some parts and provinces of the Roman empire, but in most nations and countries. ^Justin Martyr tells the Jew, that whatever they might boast of the universality of their religion, there were ma- ny places of the world whither neither they nor it ever came: whereas there was no part of mankind, whether Greeks or Barbarians, or by whut name soever they were called, even the most rude and unpolished nations, where prayers and thanksgivings were not made to the great Creator of the world through the name of the crucified Jesus. The same Bardesanes^' the Syrian, Justin's con- temporary, afiirms, that the followers of the Christian in- stitution, though living in different parts of the world, •and being very numerous in every climate and country, were yet all called by the name of Christians. So ^Lac-
V Ad. Scapul. c. 4 p. 71. w Ad. Traj. lib. 10. Epist. 97,
X Dial, cum Ti-vph. p. 345.
y Lib. de Fat. ap. Euseb. Pra-p Evang-. 1. 6. c. 10, p. 279:
2 Dejustit 1. 5.C. 13.p. 494.
INTRODUCTION. q7
tantius, the christian law (says he) is entertained from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, where every sex, and age, and nation, and country does with one heart and soui worship God. If from generals we descend to particular places and countries, "'Irenasus, who entered upon the see of Lyons Ann. Chr. 179. af- firms, that though there w^ere different languages in the world, yet that the force of tradition, (or that doctrine that had been delivered to the church) was but one and the same ; that there were churches settled in Germany, Spain, France, in the east, in Egypt and Lybia, ^as well as in the middle of the world. ''Tertullian, who probably wrote not above twenty years after Irenasus, gives us in a larger account. " Tlieir sound (says he) went through '' all the earthy and their words to the ends of the world. " For in whom but Christ did all nations believe ? Par- *' thians, Medes, Elamites, the inhabitants of Mesopota- *' mia, Armenia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia, of Pontus, "- Asia, and Pamphylia, those who dwell in Egypt, Af- ** ric, and beyond Cyrene, strangers at Rome, Jew^s at " Jerusalem, and other nations ; as also now the Getuli, *' and the Mauri, the Spaniards, and the Gauls, yea and *' those places of Britain, which were unapproachable by ** the Roman armies, are yet subdued to Christ ; the '* Sarmatcc also and the Daci, the Germans and the Scy- " *' -ans, together with many undiscovered countries, ',/ lany islands and provinces unknown to us, which he '* professes himself unable to reckon up. In all which ^' places (says he) the name of Christ reigns, as before '' whom the gates of all cities are set open, and to whom '' none are shut; before whom gates of brass fly open, " and bars of iron are snapt asunder." To which ^'Arno- bius adds the Indians, the Persians, the Serae, and all the islands and provinces, wdiich are visited by the rising or setting sun, yea, and Rome itself, the empress of all. 9. From Tertuilian's account we have a most authen- tic testimony how^ early Christianity stretched itself over this other world, having before his time conquered the
a Adv. Haeres 1. 1. c. 3. p. 52.
b Adv. Judxos c. 7. p. 189. c Lib. 2. p. 2.3.
28 INTRODUCTION.
most rough and inaccessible parts of Britain to the ban- ner of the cross, which may probably refer to the con- version of king Lucius, (the first Christian king that ever was) a potent and considerable prince in this island, who embraced the Christian religion about the year 186, and sent a solemn embassy to Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, for some who might further instruct him and his people in the faith ; who accordingly despatched Faganus and De» wianus hither upon that errand. Not that this was the first time that the gospel made its way through the dKi^v^c dri^-jiVT(^ (as Clemens'^ calls the British ocean, and so the ancients constantly style it) the impassable ocean^ and those Tvorlds which are beyond it ; that is, the Britannic islands. It had been here many years before, diough probably stifled and overgrown with the ancient pagan- ism and' idolatry. St. Clemens^ tells us of St. Paul, that he preached both in the east and west ; and having in- structed the whole world in righteousness, made his way to the utmost bounds of the west : by wnich he mAist either mean Spain, or more probably Britain, and it may be both. Accordingly Theodoret*' speaking of his com- ing into Spain, says, that besides that, he brought great advantage to the isles of the sea ; and he reckons Hhe Cimbri and the Britains among the nations which the apostles (and he particularly mentions the tent-maker) converted to the Christian faith. If after all this, it were necessary to enter into a more minute and particular dis- quisition, I might inquire not only in what countries, but m what towns and cities in those countries Christianity fixed itself, in what places episcopal sees were erected, and what succession of bishops are mentioned in the re- cords of the church; but that this would not well consist with the designed shortness of this introduction, and would be more perhaps than the reader's patience would allow.
10. The shadows of the night do not more naturally vanish at the rising of the Sun, dian the darkness of
d Epist. ad Corinth, p- 28. e Ibid. p. 8.
f Comment, in Psul. 116
g De curand. Graecor. affect. Serm. 9. p. 125
INTRODUCTION. 29
Pagan Idolatry and superstition fied before the light of the Gospel ; which the more it prevailed, the clearer it discovered the folly and impiety of their worship: their solemn rites appeared more trifling and ridiculous, their sacrifices more barbarous and inhuman, their daemons were expelled by the meanest Christain, their oracles be- came mute and silent, and their very priests began to be ashamed of their magic charms and conjurations ; and the more prudent and subtle heads among them, who stood up for the rites and solemnities of their religion, w^ere forced to turn them into mystical and allegorical meanings, far enough either from the apprehension or in- tention of the vulgar. The truth is, the devil, who for so many ages had usurped an empire and tyranny over the souls of m.en, became more sensible every day, that his kingdom shaked ; and therefore sought, though in vain, by all ways to support and prop it up. Indeed some time before our Saviour's incarnation the most ce- lebrated oracle at Delphos had lost its credit and reputa- tion, as after his appearance in the world they sunk and declined every day ; whereof their best writers univer- sally complain, that their gods had forsaken their temples, and oracular recesses, and had left the w^orld in darkness and obscurity ; and that their votaries did in vain solicit their cornseis and answers. Plutarch, who lived under Traj. ivrote a particular tract (still extant) concerning the ct^siJig of oracles^ which he endeavours to resolve partly into natural, partly into moral, partly into political causes, though all his philosophy was too short to give a just and satisfactory account of it. One cause he assigns of it is, the death and departure of those daemons, that heretofore presided over these oracles. To which pur- pose he relates a memorable passage, concerning a voice that called three times aloud to one Thamus an Egyptian ship-master and his company, as they sailed by the Echinadae islands, commanding him when they came near to Palodes to make proclamation, that the great Pan %vas deadj which he did ; and the news was entertained not with the resentment of one or two, but of many, who re
30 INTRODUCTION.
ceived it with great mourning and consternation.^ The circumstances of this story he there reports more at large, and adds, that the thing being published at Rome, Tha- mus was sent for by Tiberius, to whom he gave an ac- count, and satisfied him in the truth of it. Which circum- stance of time Eusebius' observes corresponds with our Lord's conversing in the world, w4ien he began openly to disposses daemons of that power and tyranny which they had gained over mankind. And (if the calculation which some make, hit right) it fell in about the time of our Sa- viour's passion, who led captivity captive, spoiled princi- palities^ and powers^ and made a show of them openly^ tri- umphing over them in his cross, and by his death destroyed him that had the power of deaths that is, the devil,
11. However that the silence of oracles, and the ener- vating the power of daemons was the effect of the chris- tian religion in the world, we need no more than the plain confession of Porphyry himself (truth will sometimes ex- tort a confession out of the mouth of its greatest enemxy) who says, that ?jow it is no xvojider if the city for so many years has been overrun with sickness, iEsculapius and the rest of the gods having withdrawn their converse with men: for that since Jesus began to be worshipped no man had received any public help or benefit by the gods.^ A great argument, as Eusebiiis well urges, of our Sa- viour's divine authority, and the truth of his doctrine. For when (says he a little before) such numbers of ficti- tious deities fled at our Lord's appearance, who would not with admiration behold it as an uncontrolable demon- stration of his truly saving and excellent reigion, where- by so many churches and oratories through all the world both in cities and villages, and even in the deserts and solitudes of the most barbarous nations have been erected
h Ui^\ T«v iKMXciTr. K^nrxp. p. 419.
i Prxpar. Evang. 1. 5. c. 17. p 207.
k ][ip\ S'i tS f.i.m in J'uvct^-'Ji) ti i i<?-^vtiv rove ^':tvK>i( S'cti/uovac, /Airti rnv to QaTii-
x.st6' if/ji.aiv QjTKiyi} tutov 7f6 hiyooy /uagrvgil <t TpcrarTrov. *' N'jv; tfg ^rtu/uii^iicriy, si TJfTSTav irpcev KATi'iKtt^i T«v TTOAtv » voo-^, ' A(rx.\yi7riis /uiv iTriSn^idic x, rav <a^X&'v ©s- wv fJtHKiT ii<r»c. 'l»CK yd^ TifAu/uiva liJ'i/uiki Tjc Giuv S»fjt.ca-i:t; ax^iMiacg vct-vxto. Toaj'To. fi'iuciirtv sibTolc: o Ilogcjr'fi/®'. Jiusfh. nbisupr. c. 1^ />. \79.
INTRODUCTION. .31
and consecrated to the great Creator, and the only Sove- reign of the world : when such multitudes of books have been written, containing the most incomparable rules and institutions to form mankind to a life of the most perfect virtue and religion, precepts accommodated not to men only, but to women and children : when he shall see that the oracles and divinations of the daemons are ceased and gone ; and that the divine and evangelical virtue of our Saviour no sooner visited mankind, but they began to leave oif their wild and frantic ways of worship, and to abhor those human sacrifices (many times of their dear- est relations) wherewith they had been wont to propitiate and atone their bloody and merciless daemons, and into which their wisest and greatest men had been bewitched and seduced. I add no more but St. Chrysostom's* chal- lenge, *' Judge now with me, O thou incredulous Jew, " and learn the excellency of the truth ; what impostor ''' ever gathered to himself so many churches throughout *' the world, and propagated his worship from one end of *' it to the other, and subdued so many subjects to his *' crown, even wdien thousands of impediments lay in the '*~ way to hinder him? certainly no man : a plain evidence *' that Christ was no impostor, but a Saviour and bene- " fac"^" and the author of our life and happiness."
12 v^e have seen with what a mighty success Christi- anity displayed its banners over the world ; let us next consider what it was that contributed to so vast an in- crease and propagation of it. And here not to insist upon the blessing of the Divine Providence, which did imme- diately superintend its prosperity and welfare, nor upon the intrinsic excellency of the religion itself, which car- ried essential characters of divinity upon it, sufficient to recommend it to every wise and good man, there were five things among others that did especially conduce to make way for it ; the miraculous powers then resident in the church, the great learning and abilities of its cham- pions and defenders, the indefluigable industry used in propagating of it, the incomparable lives of its professors,
1 Orat. 3.^dv. Judx-ns, p 420. Tooi. 1,
S^ INTRODUCTION.
and tlieir patience and constancy under sufferings. It was not the least means that procured the Christian reli- gion a just veneration from the world, the miraculous at- testations that were given to it. I shall not here concern myself to show, that miracles truly and publicly wrought are the highest external evidence that can be given to the truth of that religion, which they are brought to confirm ; the force of the argument is sufficiently pleaded by the Christian apologists. That such miraculous powers were then ordinary in the church, we have the concurrent tes- timonies of all the first writers of it. Justin Martyr ^ tells the emperor and the senate, that our Lord was born for the subversion of the dasmons, which they might know from the very things done in their sight ; for that very many who had been vexed and possessed by dae- mons, throughout the world, and in this very city of theirs, whom ail their exorcists and conjurers were not able to relieve, had been cured by several Christians, through the name of Jesus that was crucified under Pon- tius Pilate ; and that at this very time they still cured them, disarming and expelling the daemons out of those whom they had possessed. The same he affirms in his discourse with Trypho" the Jew, more than once, that the devils trembled and stood in awe of the power of Christ ; and to this day being adjured by the name of Jesus Christ crucified under Pontius Pilate the procurator of Judea, thev were obedient to Christians. IrenEeus'' assures us that in his time, the Christians, enabled by the grace of Christ, raised the dead, ejected daemons^ and unclean spirits ; the persons so dispossessed coming over to the church : others had visions and the gift of prophesy ; others by imposition of hands healed the sick, and re- stored them to perfect health. But I am not able (says he) to reckon up the number of those gifts, which the church throughout the world receiving from God, does every d:;y freely exercise in the name of Jesus Christ crucified under Pontius Pilate, to the benefit of the
Tn Apol. 1. p. 45.
n Dial. cum. Trvph. 247, ^7" p. 502.
o Adv. Ilxre-s. L 2. .-.. 56. p. 215. c. 57. p. 21S
INTRODUCTION. C3
world. Tertullian ^ challenges the Roman governors to let any possessed person be brought before their own tribunals, and they should see, that the sph'it being com- manded to speak, by any Christian, should as truly con- fess himself to be a devil, as at other times he falsely boasted himself to be a god. And he tells Scapula,'* that they rejected, disgraced, and expelled daemons every day, as most could bear them witness. Origen '' bids Celsus take notice, that whatever he might think of the reports which the gospel makes concerning our Saviour, yet that it was the great and magnificent work of Jesus, by his name to heal even to this day, whom God pleased ; that he * himself had seen many, who by having the name of God and Christ called over them, had been delivered from the greatest evils, frenzy and madness, and infi- nite other distempers, which neither men nor devils had been able to cure. What influence these miraculous eftects had upon the world, he lets us know elsewhere. *^ The Apostles of our Lord (says* he) without these *' miraculous powers would never have been able to have " moved their auditors, nor persuaded them to desert the *' institutions of their country ; and to embrace their ** new doctrine ; and having once embraced it, to de- *' fend i*" /en to death, in defiance of the greatest dan- ^ gers. A ea, even to this day the footsteps of that Holy Spirit, which appeared in the shape of a dove, are ** preserved among the Christians ; they exorcise d^- ** mons, perform many cures, and, according to the will ** of God, foresee and foretell things to come. At which, '' though Celsus and his personated Jew may laugh, yet *' I affirm further, that many, even against their inclina- *' tions, have been brought over to the Christian religion, " their former opposition of it being suddenly changed ** into a resolute maintaining of it unto death, after they "** have had visions communicated to them ; several of ^'' which nature we ourselves have seen. And should *' we only reckon up those at which we ourselves have
p Apol. c. 23. p. 22. q Ad Scap. c. 2. p 5. r Contr. Cels. 1. 2. p. 80= s lb. 1. 3 p. 124. t Lib. 1. p. 34.
34 INTRODUCTION.
*' been present and beheld, it may be it would only make " the infidels merry ; supposing that we like themselves *' did forge and feign them. But God bears witness with *• my conscience, that I do not endeavour by falsely- " contrived stories, but by various powerful instances, *' to recommend the divine religion of the holy Jesus." IVIore testimonies of this kind I could easily produce from Minucius Faslix, Cyprian, Arnobius, and Lac- tantius ; but that these are enough to my purpose.
13. Another advantage that exceedingly contributed to the triumph of Christianity, was the singular learning of many, who became champions to defend it : For it could not but be a mighty satisfaction, especially to men of ordinary capacities, and mean employments (which are the far greatest part of mankind) to see persons of the most smart and subtle reasonings, of the most acute and refined understandings, and consequently not easily- capable of being imposed upon by arts of sophistry and plausible stories, trampling upon their former sentiments and opinions, and not only entertaining the Christian faith, but defending it against its most virulent oppo- sers. It is true indeed the gospel at its first setting out was left to its own naked strength, and men of the most unpolished breeding made choice of to convey it to the world, that it might not seem to be an human artifice, or the success of it be ascribed to the parts and powers of man. But after that for an hundred years together it had approved itself to the world, and a sharper edge was set upon the malice and keenness of its adversaries, it was but proper to take in external helps to assist it. And herein the care of the Divine Providence was very remarkable, that as miracles became less common and frequent in the Church, God was pleased to raise up even from among the Gentiles themselves, men of pro- found abilities, and excellent learning, who might ^oh 'oiKu,i;7ricpoh^:iK>Mv, (as JuHau "" said of the Christians of his time) beat them at their own weapons, and wound them with arrows drawn out of their own qui\'er ; and it was
u Theud. H. Ecc!. 1. 3, c. 8. p. 131.
INTRODUCTION. $5
high time to do so : for the Gentiles did not onlv attack the Christians and their religion by methods of cruel- ty, and by arts of insinuation, not only object what wit and subtlety could invent, to bear any shadow and pre- tence of reason, but load them with the blackest crimes, which nothing but the utmost malice and prejudice could ever suspect to be true. This gave occasion to the Christian Apologists, and the first writers against the Gentiles, who by their learned and rational dis- courses assoiled the Christians from the things charged against them; justified the reasonableness, excellency, and divinity of their religion ; and exposed the folly and falsehood, the brutishness and impiety, the absurd and trifling rites of the Pagan worship ; by which means prejudices were removed, and thousands brought over to the faith. In this way they that rendered themselves most renowned, and did greatest service to the Chris- tian cause, were especially these: Quadratus bishop of Athens, and Aristides, formerly a famous philosopher of that city, a man wise and eloquent^ dedicated each an apologetic to the emperor Adrian : Justin the mar- tyr, besides several tracts against the Gentiles, wrote two apologies ; the first presented to Antoninus Pius, the seconc' to M. Aurelius, and the senate : about which time al Uhenagoras presented his apology to M. Au- relius, ciid Aurelius Commodus : not to mention his excellent discourse concerning the resurrection. To the same M. Aurelius, Melito bishop of Sardis exhibi- ted his apologetic oration for the Christians. Under this emperor also flourished Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapo- lis in Asia, and dedicated to him an incomparable dis- course in defence of the Christian faith ; besides five books which he wrote against the Gentiles, and two concerning the truth. Not long after Theophilus bi- shop of Antioch composed his three excellent books for the conviction of Autolycus : and Miltiades presented an apology (probably) to the emperor Commodus. Ta- tian, the Syrian, scholar to Justin martyr, a man learned and eloquent, among other things WTote a book against tlie Gentiles, which sufficiently evidences his great abili-
as INTRODUCTION.
tics. Tertullian, a man of admirable learning, and the first of the Latins that appeared in this cause, under the reign of Scvcrus, published his apologetic, directed to the magistrates of the Roman empire ; besides his books, Ad Nationes, De Idololatria, Ad Scapulam, and many more. After him succeeded Origen, whose eight books against Celus did not greater service to the Chris- tian cause, than they did honour to himself. Minucius Fcclix, an eminent advocate at Rome, wrote a short, but most elegant dialogue between Octavius and Csecil- ius, which (as Lactantius"" long since observed) shows, how fit and able an advocate he would have been to as- sert the truth, had he wholly applied himself to it. About the time of Gallus and Volusian, Cyprian ad- dressed himself in a discourse to Demetrian, the Procon- sul of Africa, in behalf of the Christians and their religion, and published his tract De Idolorum Vanitate, which is nothing but an epitome of Minucius's dialogue. Towards the close of that age under Dioclesian, Arno- bius taught rhetoric with great applause at Sicca in Africa ; and being convinced of the truth of Christianity, could hardly make the Christians at first believe that he was real. In evidence, therefore, of his sincerity, he wrote seven books against the Gentiles, wherein he smartly and rationally pleads the Christian cause : as not long after his scholar Lactantius, who under Dioclesian professed rhetoric at Nicomedia, set himself to the com- posing several discourses in defence of the Christian, and subversion of the Gentile religion. A man witty and eloquent, but more happy in attacking his adversa- ries, than in establishing the principles of his own religion, many whereof he seems not very distinctly to have nndei^ stood. To all these I may add Apollonius, a man ver- sed in all kind of learning and philosophy ; and (if St. Hierom say right) a senator of Rome, who in a set ora- tion, with so brave and generous a confidence, eloquent- ly pleaded his own, and the cause of Christianity before
ar De Instit. 1. 5. c. l.p. 459.
INTRODUCTION. 37
the senate itself; for which he suffered as a mart}^ in the reign of Commodus.
14. And as they thus defended Christianity on the one hand from the open assauhs and calumnies of the Gentiles, so were they no less careful on the other to clear it from the errors and heresies, wherewith men of perverse and evil minds sought to corrupt and poison it. A^id the chief of those that engaged in this way were these : Agrippa Castor, a man of great learning, in the time of Adrian, wrote an accurate refutation of Basilides and his principles in twenty-four books. Theophilus of Antioch against Hermogenes and Maixion; Apollinaris, PhiUp, Bishop of Gortyna in Crete, Musanus, Modes- tus, llhodon, Tatian's scholar, Miltiades, Apollonius, Serapion, Bishop of Antioch, and hundreds more, who engaged against the Marcionites, Montanists, and other heretics of those times. But the principal of all was Irenasus, who took to task the most noted heresies of those ages, and with incomparable industry and quick- ness of reasoning unravelled their principles, exposed their practices, refuted their errors, whereby (as he fre- quently intimates) many were reduced and recovered to the church. I might also mention several others, who, though not known to have particularly adventured in either of these ways, are yet renowned for their ex- cellent skill in all arts and sciences, whereby they be- came eminently useful to the church. Such (besides those whereof an account is given in the following work) were Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, Bardesanes, the Sy- rian, whose learning and eloquence were above the com- mon standard, though he also wrote against almost all the heresies of tlie age he lived in. Ammonius the cele- brated philosopher of Alexandria, Julius Africanus, a man peculiarly eminent for history and chronology ; Dorotheus, Presbyter of Antioch, famous for his skill in Hebrew, as well as other parts of learning , Anatolius the Alexandrian, whom Eusebius magnifies so much as the most learned man, and acute philosopher of his age, exquisitely skilled in arithemetic, geometry, astronomy, logic, physic, rhetoric, and indeed what not ? Pierius,
38 INTRODUCTION.
presbyter of Alexandria, an eloquent preacher, and so great a scholar, that he was commonly styled Origen ju- nior. But this is a field too large to proceed any further in, and therefore I stop here. By all which it is evident, what St. Hierom^ remarks, how little reason Celsus, Por- phyry, and Julian had to clamour against the Christians, as a rude and illiterate generation, who had no learning, no eloquence, or philosophy to recommend them.
15. A third advantage that helped on the progress of Christianity, was the indefatigable zeal and industry used in the propagation of it. No stone was left unturned, no method unattempted,whereby they mightreclaim men from error, and bring them over to the acknowledgment of the truth. Hence in an ancient inscription'^ said to be set up in Spain, to the honour of Nero, they are described un- der this character, Qui Novam Generi Hum. Superstition, Inculcab. Those ^\ho inculcated and obtruded a new superstition upon mankind. Indeed they were infinitely zealous to gain proselytes to the best religion in the world. They preached it boldly, and prayed heartily for the conversion and reformation of mankind, solicited their neighbours that were yet strangers to the faith, instructed and informed new converts, and built them up on the most holy faith. Those that were of greater parts and eminency erected and instituted schools, where they publicly taught those that resorted to them, grounding them in the rudi- ments of the faith, and antidoting them both against heathens on the one side, and heretics on the other. Among us (says Tatian'')not only the rich and the wealthy learn our philosophy, but the poor are freely disciplined and instructed : we admit all that are willing to learn, whether they be old or young. And what the success was, he tells ^ us a little after, that all their virgins were
y'Discant erg-o Celsiis, Porphyrins, Julianas, rabidi adversus Christum caries, discant eorair, sectiitores, qui putant Ecclesiam, nuilus Philosoplios & eloquentes, nnlloshahuisse Doctoies, qutmti & quales viri earn fundaverint, ex- truxerint, Scornaverint, & desinant fidem nostrum rustics tantum simplicitatis arguere, suAtnque potius imperitiam agnoscunt. St. Hieron. praf. ad Catalog. de script. Eccles.
7. Ap. Gruter. Inscript. p. 238. N. IX a ©rat. contr. Grxc. p. 1^7.
b Ibid. p. 168.
INTRODUCTION. 39
sober and modest, and were wont to discourse concern- ing divine things, even while they were sitting at their distafts. Nor did they content themselves only to do thus at home, many of them freely exposing themselves to all manner of hazards and hardships. No pains were thought great, no dangers considerable, no difficulties insuperable, that they might enlarge the bounds of the gospel, travelling into the most barbarous nations, and to the remotest corners of the world. " The divine and '* admirable disciples of the Apostles (says ''Eusebius) ** built up the superstructures of those churches, thefoun- *' dations whereof the Apostles had laid in all places *' where they came : they every where promoted the '' publication of the gospel, sowing the seeds of that ** heavenly doctrine throughout the whole world. For *' their minds being inflamed with the love of a more *' divine philosophy, according to our Lord's counsel, " they distributed their estates to the poor ; and leaving '' their own countries, took upon them the office of evan- *' gelists, preaching Christ, and delivering the evange- ** lical writings to those who had not yet so much as ** heard of the Christian faith. And no sooner had they ^ founded the faith in any foreign countries, and or- " dained guides and pastors, to whom they committed *' the care of those new plantations, but they presently " betook themselves to other nations, ratifying their doc- ** trine with the miraculous powers of that divine Spirit '' that attended them ; so that as soon as ever they began *^ to preach, the people universally flocked to them, and *' cheerfully and heartily embraced the worship of the *' true God, the great Creator of the world." In the number of these evangelical missionai'ies, that were of the first apostolical succesion, were Silas, Sylvanus, Crescens, Andronicus, Trophimus, Marcus, Aristar- chus, &c. as afterwards Pantcenus, who went into In- dia, Pothinus and Ireiiceus, from Smyrna into France, each successively becoming bishop of Lyons, and in- finite others mentioned in the histories and maityrologies
c H.Ecdes.l. 3. c, 37. p. lt)9.
40 INTRODUCTION,
of the church, who counted not their lives to be dear unto them, so that they might finish their course xvith joyy and make known the mystery of the gospel to the ends of the earth."
16. Fourthly, Christianity recommended itself to the world by the admirable lives of its professors, which were so truly consonant to all the laws of virtue and goodness, as could not but reconcile the wiser and more unprejudiced part of the Gentile world to a better opi- nion of it, and vindicate it from those absurd and sense- less cavils that were made against it. For when they saw Christians every where so seriously devout and pi- ous, so incomparably chaste and sober, of such humble and mortified tempers, so strictly just and righteous, so kind and charitable, not to themselves only, but to all mankind, they concluded there must be something more than human in it : as, indeed, no argument is so con- victive, as a demonstration from experience. Their sin- gular piety, and the discipline of their manners weighed down all the disadvantages they were under. The di- vine and most admirable Apostles of Christ (says Euse- bius '^ ) how rude soever they were in speech, were yet
Tov ^/cv Axpa; x5Jt:tS-*§,ulvo/, j, deir^ Trio-,] TtL^ '\,v'j(_'l^ niKCcriuiijuivot, 01 thC mOSt
pure and holy lives, and had their minds adorned with all sorts of virtue. And such generally were the Chris- tians of the succeeding ages : they did not entertain the world with a parcel of good words and a plausible story, but showed their faith by their works, and proved the di- vinity of their religion by the heavenliness of their lives. We (says the Christian in Minucius Faelix ^ ) despise the pride and superciliousness of philosophers, whom we know to be debauched persons and always eloquent a- gainst those vices of which themselves are most guilty. For we measure not wisdom by men's garbs and habits, but by their mind and manners ; nor do we speak great things so much as live them, glor}-ing that we have attained what they earnestly sought, but could never find. Chris- tians were then the only persons that really were what
d ubi. supr. c. 24. p. 94. e M. F«l, Dial. non. longe a fin. p. 31.
INTRODUCTION. 41
they pretended to, men heartily reformed from vice to virtue : " Being persuaded (as Justin Martyr tells ^ the <* emperors) by the word, we have renounced the dae- " mons, and through the Son, worhip the only and un- ** begotten Deity : and we, who heretofore took plea- ** sure in adulteries, do now embrace the strictest chas- *' tity ; and who were addicted to magic arts, have de- *^ voted ourselves to the benign and immortal God : we ** who valued estate and riches before all things in the *' world, do now cast what we have in common, distri- '' buting to every one according to his need : we who by *' hatred and slaughters mutually raged against each ** other, and refused to sit at the same fire with those *• who were not of our own tribe, since Christ's appear- ** ing in the world familiarly converse together, pray *' for our enemies, and for the conversion of those that *' unjustly hate us, endeavouring to persuade them to ** live according to the excellent precepts of Christ, that *' so they may have just ground to hope for the same re- *' wards with us from the great Judge of the world. " In- deed, strange was the efficacy of the Christian doc- trine over t.lie minds of men, which the Christian apo- logists at every turn plead as an uncontrollable evidence of their religion*", that it made all sorts of persons that complied with it, chaste and temperate, quiet and peace- able, meek and modest, and afraid of the least appear- ance and colour of what was evil''. When the Heathens derided them for the mean and unpompous solemnities of their religion, they universally declared, that God respected no man for any external excellencies or ad- vantages, it was the pure and the holy soul he delighted
f Apoi.ll. p. 61.
g Tertul. AdoI. c. 3. p. 4. ad Nation, c. 1. p. 41. Orig-. contr. Cels. 1. 1. p. 9. 15, 21, 36, 50/53 lib. 2. p. 61. 8.5, 88, 110. iib. .3. p. 123, 147, 152, 157. lib. 4» p. 167. iib. 6. p. 306. lib. 7. p. 364. lib. 8. p. 409. & alibi passim. Lactam, lib, 3. c. 26. p. 328. lib. 4. c. 3. p. 351.
h T-'Tart. Orat ad Grjec.p. 40. Athenag-. Le?at. p.13. Clem. Alex.Strdm.l?'. p. 706, 709, 714, 719, 728." Minuc. Txl p. '26. 30. Arnob.adv. Gent. I. 7. p. 104, OrijA • contr. Gels. I. 8. p. 385, 389, 392. T.actant. I. 1. c- 20. p. 103. I 6 c U p. 540. c. 24. p. 636. Epii-jni. c. 2. p, 735.
F
42 INTRODUCTION.
in ; that he stood in no need of blood or smoke, perfumes and incense ; that the greatest and best sacrifice was to offer up a mind truly devoted to him : that meekness and kindness, an humble heart, and an innocent life, was the sacrifice with which God was well pleased, and infinitely beyond all holocausts and oblations ; that a pious and devout mind was the fittest temple for God to dwell in, and that to do one's duty, to abstain from sin, to be intent upon the offices and ministrations of prayer and praise, is the truest festival ; yea, that the whole life of a good man is nothing else but a holy and festival so- lemnity. This was the religion of Christians then, and it rendered their profession amiable and venerable to the world ; and forced many times its most violent opposers to fall down, and say that God was in them of a truth. But the less of this argument is said here, a full account having been given of it in a work peculiar to this subject. 17. Fifthly, the disciples of this holy and excellent religion gained innumerable proselytes to their party, by their patience and constancy under sufferings. They were immutably resolved to maintain their station, not- withstanding all the attempts made to beat them from it. They entertained the fiercest threatenings with an unshaken mind, and fearlessly beheld the racks and en- gines prepared for them ; they laughed at torments, and courted fiam.es, and went out to meet death in its blackest dress : they died rejoicing, and triumphed in the midst of the greatest tortures ; which happening for some ages almost every day, could not but convince their enemies that they were in good earnest, that they heartily believed their religion to be true, and that there must be a divine and supernatural power going along with it, that could support them under it; which Justin Martyr confesses was one main inducement of his conversion to Chris- tianity. \^'hat particular methods of cruelty w^ere used towards the primitive Christians, and with how brave and generous a patience, with what evenness and tran- quillity of mind they bore up under the heaviest and acutest torments, we have sufficiently declared in another place : and therefore sliali here only take a short survey
INTRODUCTION. 43
of those ten famous persecutions/ that so eminently ex- ercised the faith and patience of the primitive saints, and then collect the force of the argument resulting from it. And this the rather, because it will present us with the best prospect of the state of the church in those early ages of it. As to the particular dates and periods of some of these persecutions, different accounts are as- signed by Sulpitius Severus, Eusebius, Orosius, Hierom, and others ; we shall follow that whiph shall appear to be most likely and probable.
18. The first that raised a general persecution against the Christians, was Nero, as Tertuliian'" tells the Gen- tiles ; and for the truth of it, refers them to their own public archieves and records. A prince of that wild and ungovernable temper, of such brutish and extravagant manners, that their own writers scruple not to style him, a beast in human shape, and the very monster of man- kind. He was guilty of the most unbounded pride and ambition, drunkenness, luxury, and all manner of debau- chery, sodomy and incest, which he attempted to com- mit with his own mother. But cruelty seemed to predo- minate among his other vices; besides infinite others, he despatched the greatest part of the senate, put to death his tutor Seneca and his wife, Lucan the poet ; nay, vio- lated all the laws of nature, in falling upon his own near relations : he was privy to, if not guilty of the death of his father Claudius ; killed his two wives, Octavia and Poppasa, aiid murdered Antonia, because refusing to suc- ceed in their bed ; he poisoned his brother Britannicus ; and to complete all his villanies, fell next upon his own mother Agrippina, whom he hated for her free re- proving his looseness and extravagancy ; and having first spoiled her of ail public honours, and caused her to be openly disgraced and derided, then thrice attempted her life by poison, he at last sent an assassin to stab her. And the tradition then went, that not content to do this, he himself came and beheld her naked corps, contemplating and handling its several parts ; commending some and
i Prim. Christ, part 2. ch. T. k Apol. c. 5. p. 6k
44 INTRODUCTION.
dispraising others. And if thus barbarous and inhuman towards his own kindred and subjects, we cannot think he was over favourable to Christians ; wanting this title (says Eusebius') to be added to all the rest, to be styled the first emperor that became an enemy to the Christian religion, publishing laws and edicts for the suppressing of it ; and prosecuting those that professed it, with the utmost rigour in everyplace ; and that upon this occasion. Among infinite other instances of this madness and folly, he took up a resolution to bum Rome, either as being of- fended with the narrowness of the streets, and the defor- Uiity of the buildings, or ambitious to become the author of a moie stately and magnificent city, and to call it after his own name. But however it was, he caused it to be set on fire, about the 19th of July, ann. Christ. 64. The conquering flames quickly prevailed over that city, that had so often triumphed over the rest of the w-orld, in six or seven days spoiling and reducing the far greatest part of it (ten regions of fourteen) into ashes ; laying waste houses and temples, and all the venerable antiquities and monuments of that place, which had been preserved with so much care and reverence for many ages ; himself in the mean while from Mecaenas's tower beholding the sad spectacle with pleasure and delight, and in the habit of a player, singing the destruction of Troy. And when the people would but have searched the ruins of their own houses, he forbade them, not suffering them to reap ^^'^hat the mercy of the flames had spared. This act (as w-eil it might) expos'd him to all the hatred and detestation, wherewith an injured and abused people could resent it, which he endeavoured to remove by large promises, and great rewards, by consulting the Sibylline books, and by public supplications and sacrifices to the gods. Notwith- standing all which, Tacitus'^ tells us, the people still be- lieved him to be the author of the mischief. This not succeeding, he sought to clear himself by deriving the odium upon the Christians, whom he knew to be suffi- ciently hateful to the people, charging them to have been
I H. Eccles. i. 2. c. 25, p. 6/. m Annal 1 15 c 44. p. 319.
INTRODUCTION. 45
th€ incendiaries, and proceeding against them with the most exquisite torments. Having apprehended some, whom they either forced or persuaded to confess them- selves guilty, by their means great numbers of others were betrayed ; whom Tacitus confesses, that not the burning of the city, but the common hatred made crimi- nal. They were treated with all the instances of scorn and cruelty ; some of them were wrapt up in the skins of wild beasts, and worried by dogs ; others crucified ; others burnt alive, being clad in paper coats, dipt in pitch, wax, and such combustible matter; that when day light failed, they might serve for torches in the night. These spectacles Nero exhibited in his own gardens, which yet the people entertained with more pity than pleasure : knowing they were done, not for the public be- nefit, but merely to gratify his own private rage and ma- lice. Little better usage did the Christians meet with in other parts of the empire, as appears from the inscription'' found at Clunie in Spain, dedicated to Nero in memory of his having cleared the province of those that had intro- duced a new superstition amongst mankind. Under this persecution suffered Tecla, Torques, Torquatus, Marcellus, and several others mentioned in the ancient Martyrologies, especially the apostles Peter and Paul ; the one upon the cross, the other by the sword.
19. The troublesome vicissitudes and revolutions of affairs that happened under the succeeding emperors, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, and the mild and merciful disposition of Vespasian and Titus, gave some rest to the Christians, till Domitian succeeding, began a se- cond Persecution. A man of a temper vastly different from that of his father, and his brother ; for though at first he put on a plausible carriage, yet he soon left off the vizor, and appeared like himself ; lazy and inactive, ill-natured and suspicious, griping and covetous, proud and insolent ; yea, so vainly ambitious as to affect di- vinity, in all public edicts assuming to himself, and in all petitions and addresses requiring from others, the titles
n Ap. Grutsr. loc sopr. cltat.
46 INTRODUCTION.
of Lord and God. He never truly loved any man ; and ivhen he most pretended it, it was a sure sign of that man's ruin. His cruelty he exercised first upon flies, thousands whereof he despatched every day ; next upon men, and those of all ranks and states : . putting to death the most illustrious senators, and persons of the greatest honour and nobility upon the most trifling pretences ; and many times for no cause at all. In the fierceness and brutality of his temper he equalled Nero, Portio Neronis de crudelitate, as Tertullian° styles him ; nay, in this exceeded him, that Nero was content to com- mand execution to be done at a distance, while I omi- tian took pleasure in beholding his cruelties exercised before his eyes : an argument of a temper deeper died in blood. But the Chrrstians, alas, bore the heaviest load of rage and malice, whom he every v/here persecuted cither by death or banishment. Under him St. John the evangelist was sent for to Rome, and by his command tlirown into a cauldron of boiling oil : in the midst where- of, when the divine Providence had miraculously preserv- ed him, he immediately banished him into Patmos. He put to death his cousin-german Fl. Clemens (at that time con- sul) for being a Christian, and banished his wife Fl. Do- mitilla (his own kinswoman also) upon the same account into the island Pandataria. At length his brutish and bloody practices rendered him intolerable to his own friends and servants, who conspired against him (his own wife Domitia being of the confederacy) and slew him. His successor Nerva abrogated his acts, and re- called those whom he had proscribed and banished; among whom St. John taking the benefit of that act of revocation, quitted Patmos and returned to Ephesus.
20 The third Persecution commenced under Trajan, whom Nerva had adopted to be his successor. A prince he was of excellent and incomparable virtues, whose justice and impartiality, gentleness and modesty, muni- ficence and liberality, kindness and aflability rendered him infinitely dear and acceptable to the people ; the
o Loc. super, citat.
INTRODUCTION. 4^
extravagancies of his predecessors not a little contribu- ting to sweeten his government to them. He was mild and dispassionate, familiar and courteous; he showed a great reverence to the senate, by whose advice he usually acted ; and they to requite him, gave him the title of Optimus, as whom they judged the best of all their princes. He conversed freely and innocently with all men, being desirous rather to be beloved, than either feared or honoured by the people. The glory of all which is exceedingly stained in the records of the church by his severe proceedings against the Christians. He looked upon the religion of the empire as daily under- mined by this new way of worship, that the numbers of Christians grew formidable, and might possibly endan- ger the peace and tranquillity of the Roman state ; and that there was no better way to secure to himself the favour of the gods, especially in his wars, than to vindicate their cause against the Christians. Accordingly, therefore, he issued out orders to proceed against them, as illegal so- cieties, erected and acting contrary to the laws ; in which number all colleges and corporations were accounted, that were not^ settled either by the emperor's constitu- tion, or the decree of the senate ; and the persons** fre- quenting them adjudged guilty of high treason. Indeed the emperors (as we have elsewhere observed) were in- finitely suspicious of such meetings, as which might easily conspire into faction and treason : and therefore when Pliny'' interceded with Trajan in behalf of the city of Nicomedia, that being so subject to fires, he w^ould constitute a corporation of smiths, though but a small number, which might be easily kept in order, and which he promised to keep a particular eye upon : the empe- ror answered, by no means : for we ought to remember (says he) that that province and especially those cities are greatly disturbed by such kinds of factions ; and whatever the title or occasion be, if they meet together, they will be Heterise, though less numerous than the rest. That
p L 1. ^ 3. ff. de Coileg-. ciTcorp, Lib. 47. tit. 22. q Ulpaiu cte OiT". procons. 1, 6. ib. i, 2. 1- I,ib. W. Epist 43, 43^43.
48 INTRODUCTION.
they looked upon the Christian assemblies as in the number of these unlawful corporations ; and that under this pretence Trajan endeavoured to suppress them, will appear from Pliny's letter to him. In the mean time he commanded them either to offer sacrifice to the gods, or to be punished as contemners of them. The people also in several places by popular tumults falling foul upon them. The chief of those who obtained the crown of Martyrdom under him, were St. Clemens bishop of Rome, St. Simeon bishop of Jerusalem, and St. Ignatius bishop of Antioch, whom Trajan himself condemned, and sent to Rome, there to be thrown to wild beasts.
21. The persecution raged, as in the other parts of the empire, so especially in the provinces of Pontus and Bithynia, where Pliny the younger (w^ho had some time since been consul) then governed as Pro. Pr^tor, with consular power and dignity. Who seeing vast multi- tudes of Christians indicted by others, and pressing on of themselves to execution, and that to proceed severely against all that came would be in a manner to lay waste those provinces, he thought good to write to the empe- ror about this matter ; to know his pleasure in the case. His letter, because acquainting us so exactly with the state of the Christians, and the manner of proceeding against them, and giving so eminent a testimony to their innocency and integrity we shall here insert.
C. Plinius to the Emperor Trajan.
IT is my custom, Sir, in all affairs wherein I doubt, to have recourse to you. For who can better either sway my irresolution, or instruct my ignorance ? I have never been heretofore present at the examination and trial of Christians ; and therefore know not what the crime is, and how far it is wont to be punished, or how to proceed in these inquiries. Nor was I a little at a loss, \vhether regard be to be had to difference of age, whether the young and the weak be to be distinguished from the more strong and aged ? whether place may be allowed to repentance, and it may be of any advantage
INTRODUCTION. 49
to him, who once was a Christian, to cease to be so ? Whether the name alone, without other oitences or the oftences that go along with the name, ought to be punish- ed ? In the mean time towards those who as Christians have been brought before me, I have taken this course ; I asked them whether they were Christians '? if they confessed it, I asked them once and again, threatening punishment ; if they persisted, I commanded them to be executed. For, I did not at all doubt but that, what- ever their confession was, their stubbornness and in- flexible obstinacy ought to be punished. Others there were guilty of the like madness, whom, because they were Roman citizens, I adjudged to be transmitted to Rome. While things thus proceeded, the error, as is usual, spreading further, more cases did ensue. A name- less libei was presented, containing the names of many who denied themselves to be, or to have been Chris- tians. These, when after my example they invocated the gods and offered wine and incense to your statue (which for that purpose I had commanded to be brought together with the images of the gods) and had more- over blasphemed Christ (which it is said none that are true Christians can be compelled to do) I dismissed ; others mentioned in the libel confessed themselves Christians, but presently denied it, that they had indeed been such, but had renounced it ; some by the space of three years, others many years since, and one five and twenty years ago. All which paid their reverence and veneration to your statue, and the images of the gods, and blasphemed Christ. They affirmed that the whole sum of that sect or error lay in this, that they were wont upon a set solemn day to meet together before sun-rise, and to sing among themselves a hymn to Christ, as the God whom they worshipped, and oblige themselves by an oath, not to commit any wickedness, but to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, to keep faith, and when required, to restore any pledge instrusted with them. Which done, then to depart for that time, and to meet again at a common meal, to partake of a promiscuous and harmless food ; which yet tliey laid aside, after I had
50 INTRODUCTION.
published an edict, forbidding, according to your order, the Heterias (or unlawful assemblies) to be kept. To satisfy myself in the truth hereof, I commanded two maidens called deaconesses, to be examined upon the rack. But 1 perceived nothing but a lewd and im- moderate superstition, and therefore surceasing any further process, I have sent to pray your advice : For the case seemed to me very worthy to be consulted about ; especially considering the great numbers that are in danger : for very many of all ages and ranks, both men and women are, and will be called in question : the contagion of this superstition having overspread not only cities, but towns and country villages, which yet seems possible to be stopped and cured. It is very evi- dent that the temples, which were almost quite forsaken, begin to be frequented, that the holy rites and solemni- ties of a long time neglected are set on foot again, and that sacrifices are from all parts brought to be sold, which hitherto found very few to buy them. Whence it is easy to conjecture, wdiat multitudes of persons might be reclaimed, if place be given to repentance*
This letter was written, as is probable, about the year of our Lord 107. Traj. 9. Trajan lying then at Anti- och, in order to his wars in the east, and where the per- secution was very hot. By which it is evident, what unreasonable and inveterate prejudices even the more moderate and ingenuous part of the Gentile world had entertained against the Christian religion ; that though so innocent and unblameabie, as to extort an honourable character from its greatest enemies, and most malicious apostates, though racks and tortures could force out nothing to its disadvantage ; yet rather than not express their resentments (what was unbecoming men of parts and breeding) they loaded it with ill names and hard words. Pliny we see here scruples not to style it not only an error, but madness, and a wicked and immode- rate superstition, charging the constant profession of it, for stubbornness, and an incurable obstinacy, what in itself was the effect of the most brave and generous re- solution. And the very same civility it found from his
INTRODUCTION. 51
two intimate friends, Tacitus and Suteonius, the one whereof calls it a ' detestable, the other a ' novel and mischievous super^stition. By this account also we see, that though the severity of the persecution might tempt some to turn renegades, yet that so vast was the spread which Christianity had made in those parts, that this great man knew not how to deal with them. To direct him, therefore, in this affair, the^ emperor returned this following rescript.
TRAJAN TO PLINY, GREETING.
AS to the manner of your procedure, my Secun- dus, in examining the causes of those who have been brought before you for being Christians, you have taken the course which you ought to take : for no certain and general law can be so framed, as shall provide for all particular cases. Let them not be sought for ; but if they be accused and convicted, let them be punished : yet so, that if any denies himself to be a Christian, and shall give evidence of it by doing sacrifice to our gods, although heretofore he has been suspected, let him be pardoned upon his repentance. But as for libels, pub- lished without the name of the authors, let them not be valid as to the crimes they charge ; for that were an ill precedent, and is not the usage of our reign.
Tertullian " speaking of this imperial edict, calls it " a sentence confounded by a strange necessity : it al- *' lows them not to be sought for, as if they were inno- " cent, and yet commands them to be punished, as if *' they were guilty : it spares and rages, dissembles, '* and yet punishes. Why does he entangle himself in '^ his own censure ? If he condemns them, why does he *^ not hunt them out? if he thinks them not to be *' searched out, why does he not acquit them V Here Tertullian seems to argue more like an orator than lo- gician. For Trajan might be unwilling the Christians
s Tacit. Annal. 1. 15. c. 44. p. 319. t Sueton. in Neron. c. 16. p. 571.
u Apol, c. 2 c. 3.
82 INTRODUCTION.
should be nicely hunted out, and yet not think them in- nocent : he could not find them guilty of any enormous crime, but only of a strange and novel superstition : and therefore while they concealed themselves, did not think it reasonable that they should be left to the malice and rapine of busy under officers, who acted under the pre- sidents and governors of provinces, mere sycophants and calumniators, dvaiS^ih i^ ^ dKxoig(m i^^^xi as'' Melito styles them hihis apology to M. Antonnius,im.pudent accusers, and ravenous devourers of other men's estates, of whom he complains, that, under a pretence of the imperial edicts they day and night openly spoil and plunder the harm- less aud the innocent. These Trajan might thhik fit to restrain; but where there was notoriety of fact, where Christians were duly cited before the public tri- bunals, and the charge substantially made good, there they were to be left to the sentence of the law. But however it was, by this means the edge of their enemies' fury was taken off; and though the popular rage might in some particular places still continue, yet the general force and rigour of the persecution did abate and cease. 22. Trajan dying at Selinusin Cilicia, Adrian (whom he had adopted) succeeded in the empire. A prince of excellent parts, and no inconsiderable learning, ^«^;xd5T=t7(^ ^ATiK\vi, as ^ Athena3us calls him, a prince greatly devoted to the muses, and yet one in whom it is hard to say, whe- ther vice or virtue had the upper hand ; and which is more, who seemed to reconcile most vices Avith their contrary virtues. He highly honoured the senate, with- out w^hose authority he would never transact any affairs of moment ; and upon solemn days would condescend to wait upon the consuls to their own houses ; and yet was proud and vain glorious, and ambitious of honour, which he greedily caught at upon every little occasion. He was magnificent in his works, and liberal in his gifts ; but v/ithal, envious, detracting from the glory of his pre- decessor, censuring and discommending the most emi- nent artists in all kind of faculties. He familiarly con^
X Ap. Euseb. H. Eccl. 1. 4. c. 26. p. 14r. y Deipnqa. 1. S. c. 16. p. 361,
INTRODUCTION. 53
versed with his friends, visited them in their sickness many times twice or thrice a day, treated them with the freedom and kindness of companions ; and yet he was fierce and cruel : as is evident by the many persons of nobiUty and renown whom he put to death. But we have noted enough of his character elsewhere, in the life of St. Quadratus. He was addicted to magic, and a great zealot for religion ; especially the rites of Greece : but despised and hated all other religions, upon which account he was no good friend to Christians. In his time, a fourth Persecution was raised against them, and so Sulpitius Severus'^ positively calls it. I know Eu- sebius, followed by Orosius and some others, assigns the fourth persecution to the reign of M. Aurelius ; but whoever impartially considers the state of things, will see that it ought to be fixed here. It is true, we do not find any new laws which this emperor made against the Christians, but the laws of his predecessors were still in force, and the people in most places were ready enough to run upon this errand of their own accord, and to sa- crifice the poor innocent Christians to their own spite and malice. Whence Eusebius, speaking of the Apolo- gies presented to this emperor, says, ^ it was because wicked and ill-minded men began to vex and disturb the Christians. And S. Hierom'' more particularly tells us, that the zeal which the emperor showed in being initia- ted into the holy mysteries and the rites of Greece, gave opportunity and encouragement to the people (though without any particular warrant) to fall upon them : and this he elsewhere*" calls a most grievous persecution. And so indeed it was, as is evident, not only from the Apolo- gies which both Quadratus and Aristides presented to the emperor in behalf of the Christians, but that when Arrius Antoninus '^ (whom most suppose to have been the same with him that succeeded Adrian) was procon- sul of Asia, and severely prosecuted the Christians there, all the Christians of the city where he resided as
z H. Sacr. I. 2. p. 142. a H. Eccles. !. 4. c. 3 p. 116.
b De script in Qiuidrat. c E[)ist. ad Magn. Orat. p. 32r. Tom. 2.
d Tei-tull. lib. ad. Scapul. c. 4. p, 71.
54 INTRODUCTION.
one man beset his tribunal, openly confessing themselves to be Christians. He, amazed at the multitude, caused some few of them to be executed, telling the rest, that if they had a mind to end their lives, they had precipices and halters enough at home, and need not crowd thither for an execution. Nay so high did it arise, that Serenius Granianus, one of the following proconsuls was forced to write to Adrian for its mitigation : which the emper- or accordingly commanded by a rescript, directed to Minucius Fundanus, Granianus's successor in that Province, as he did also to several others ; as Melito particularly tells us in his apology. But though the fire seemed to be pretty wxll quenched at present, yet did it break out again in the succeeding reign of Antoninus Pius, devouring many, whose sufferings are recorded in the martyrologies of the church, and for the stop- ping whereof, Justin 'Martyr exhibited an apology to this emperor, which produced that excellent letter of his to the common council of Asia, in favour of the Christians, which we have exemplified in the life of Jus- tin Martyr.
23. ToAntonniusPius succeeded M. Aurclius Anto- ninus, and his brother L. Verus. M. Aurelius was a per- son of whom the writers of his life deservedly speak great things. He was a good man, and a great philoso- pher, and whom the historian "" says, it is easier to ad- mire, than to commend. But he was infinitely super- stitious in his religion, and therefore easily blown up by the priests and philosophers that were about him into a prejudice against Christianity, and persuaded to set on foot the fifth Persecution against the Christians, whom he endeavoured to curb and suppress by new laws and edicts, exposing them to all the malice and fierceness of their enemies. The persecution began in the eastern parts about the seventh year of his reign, where it con- tinued almost all his time ; and not content to stay there, spread itself into the west, especially France, where it raged with great severity. That the conflict was very
e Eutrop. H. Rom. lib. 8. p. 1919.
INTRODUCTION. s5
sharp and fierce, may be guessed at by the crowd of apologies that were presented to hhn by Justin Martyr, Melito, Athenagoras, and Apolhnaris. In Asia St. Poly- carp bishop of Smyrna was first condemned to the fire, and then run through with a sword, with twelve more from Philadelphia, who suffered with him, and Germani- cus who a little before was devoured by wild beasts. At Rome, besides Ptolomy and Lucius, Justin the mar- tyr with his six companions, Charito, Charitina, Euel- pistus, Hierax, Peon, and Valerianus were beheaded. In the French persecution suffered Vettius Epagathus, a young man of incomparable piety and magnanimity ; Blandina a lady of singular virtue, who after infinite and inexpressible torments was tied to a beam in fashion of a cross, and thrown to wild beasts ; Biblis, who though at first through frailty she denied the faith, yet recovered her courage, and expired in the midst of the acutest tortures. Pothinus, bishop of Lyons above 90 years old beaten and stoned to death. Sanctus a deacon of Vien, together with Maturus, exposed in the amphitheatre, tormented, and imprisoned several days together, pre- sented to wild beasts, placed in an iron chair red hot, and at last run through with a spear. Attains a Roman citizen disgracefully led up and down in triumph, roast- ed in an iron chair, and then beheaded ; as was also Alexander, the physician, a Phrygian, who readily pro- fessed himself a Christian : and Ponticus a youth of fifteen years of age, who through all the methods of cruelty and torment, which might have shaken a matu- rer age, entered into the kingdom of heaven. A larger and more particular account of all whose matrydoms is recorded in the letter written by the churches of Lyons and Vien, in France, to those of Asia and Phrygia, yet extant in Eusebius. At length the em.peror seems to have relaxed the persecution, inclined to it, as is thought, by the remarkable victory which he gained in his Ger- man wars, by the prayers of the Christian legion, when the fortunes of the Roman empire lay at stake, and the Christians so signally, so immediately engaged heaven in its rescue and deli\ erance, by supplying them
56 INTRODUCTION.
with rain, and fighting against the enemy with lightning and thunder. Whereupon the emperor is said to have written to the senate, acknowledging the greatness of the blessing, and commandmg all just favour and indulgence to be, showed to the Christians. The substance of the storv is universally owned by the Gentile vv^riters, though out of spite to the Christians, they either ascribe it to the power of magic, or the prevalency of the emperor's own prayers. That there were such letters written, is plain, in that Tertulian ^ who lived but a little after, cites them, and appeals to them ; though I confess little stress can be laid upon the epistle that is extant at this day. There is still extant ^ a law of M. Aurelius, and his bro- ther Verus, permitting those who follow the Jewish su- perstition to obtain honours, and granting them guards to defend them from wrong and injury. By this very learned men '' understand Christians, at least equally with the Jews ; these two being commonly confounded by the writers of those times, and superstition the word by which they usually denote Christianity. But however it was, this law was made before that German victory, M. Aure- lius not being engaged in that war, till after the death of his brother Verus.
24. The christian affliirs were tolerably quiet and peaceable during the reig-ns of Commodus, IE]. Pertinax, and Julian, till Severus got into the throne ; a prince witty and learned, prudent and politic, hardy and valiant, but withal crafty and subtle, treacherous and unfaithful, bloody and passionate, and as the historian ' observes, of a nature truly answering to his name, Fere Pertmax, vere Severus, Under him began the sixth Persecution : for though at first he showed himself favourable to the Christians, yet afterwards he changed his mind, and gave ear to those who traduced them as an impious and infa- mous generation ; a people that designed nothing but
f Apol. c. 5. p. 6. vide lib. ad Scap. c. 4. p. 71.
g Ap. Ulpian. I. 3. ff. <5. 3. lib. 50. Tit. 2.
h Alciat. (lispunct. 1. 3. c. 8. A. Augutt. ad Modest, p. 336. Petit, de JLir. Princip. c, 6. vide Selden de Synedr. 1. 1. <:. S. p. 233. Reynaud. Indie. SS. Liisjd. proleg. 3. p. 52.
i Spaitian. in vit. Sever, c- 14. p 349.
INTRODUCTION. 5^.
treason and rebellion against the state. Whereupon lie not only suffered his ministers and governors of provin- ces to treat them with all imaginable cruelty, but he himself gave out edicts forbidding any under the most terrible penalties to profess either the Jewish or Chris- tian religion ; which were executed with that rigour and inhumanity, that the Christians of those days verily be- lieved that the times of Antichrist did then take place. Martyrs of note, whom this Persecution sent to heaven, were Victor bishop of Rome, Leonidas Origen's father beheaded at Alexandria, Serenus, Heraclides, Heron, another Serenus, and Herais a Catechumen, all Origen's scholars, Potamiccna, an iUustrious virgin, and her mother Marcella, after various torments, committed to the flames, and Basilides one of the officers that had led them to execution ; Faelicitas and Perpetua two noble ladies, at Tuburbis in Mauritania, the one brought to bed but the day before, the other at that time a nurse ; Speratus and his companions beheaded at Carthage, by the command of Saturninus the proconsul ; Irenaeus bishop of Lyons, and many thousands of his people mar- tyred with him, whose names and sufferings though un- known to us, are honourably written in the Book of life. 25. The next that created any disturbance to the Christians was Maximinus, by birth a Thracian, a man of base and obscure original, of a mean and sordid educa- cation. He had been first a shepherd, then a highway- man, and last of all a soldier : he was of strength and stature beyond the ordinarv size and standard ; and his manners were as robust and boisterous as his constitution, and savoured wholly of the rudeness of his education. Never did a more cruel beast (says the historian ^) tread upon the earth, relying altogether upon his strength, and upon that account reckoning himself almost immortal.
fif Tve-xyv/cT,^ a/zoTJiT* '/M»Tst^8;v Txyr* tTt;^iTO, i'j^fj.ittii'i ittvixti QvvnJ'uc, oTi Tg
y, T3 ^-5V(^, ^i^^Up'^. TO Tl (^CVIKCV TTdLir^lOV iy^lUt i rariJ^agiOV, "OrgOyO/ay iT0tilT9 /i
i^usTaTcc Tt-.y Ap;^»\ j^iCuiu^toli. Herod, lib. 7. in Maxim, p. 253. k Ciipitol, in vit. Maxim, c. 9. p. 609.
58 INTRODUCTION.
He seized upon whatever came in his way, plundering and destroying v/ithout any difference, without any process or form of law : his strength was the law of justice, and his will the measure of his actions. He spared none, but especially killed all that knew any thing of his mean de- scent, that none might reproach him whh the obscurity of his birth. Having slain his master Alexander Mam- maeus, that excellent and incomparable prince, he usurp- ed the government, and managed it suitable to his own maxim, that the empire could not be maintained but by cruelty. The seventh Persecution was raised by him. Indeed Sulpitius Severus admits not this into the num- ber, and therefore makes no more than nine Pagan Per- secutions, reserving the tenth for the times of Antichrist. But Eusebius ' expressly affirms, that Maximinus stirred up a persecution against the Christians, and that out of hatred to his predecessor, in whose family many Chris- tians had found shelter and patronage, but that it was al- most wholly levelled against the bishops and ministers of religion, as the prime authors and propagators of Chris- tianity. Whence Firmilian, bishop of Cappadocia, in his letter to St. Cyprian, "" says of it, that it was not a gene- ral, but a local persecution, that raged in some particular places, and especially in that province where he lived, Serenianus, the president, driving the Christians out of all those countries. He adds, that many dreadful earth- quakes happening in those parts, whereby towns and cities were overturned and swallowed up, added life and vigour to the persecution, it being usual with the Gentiles, if a famine or pestilence, an earthquake or inundation happened, presently to fall foul upon the Christians, and conclude them the causes of all those evils and mis- chiefs that came upon the world. And this Origen" meant whenhe tells us, that he knew some places overturned with earthquakes, the cause whereof the Heathens cast upon the Christians ; for which their churches were persecuted and burnt to the ground, and that not only the common
1 H. Eccl 1. 6. c. 38. p. 228. m Inter Episl. Cypr. p. 146, n Horn, xxviii. in Matth. lol. 55.^. 2.
INTRODUCTION. 59
<>
people, but the wiser sort among them did not stick openly to affirm, that these things came for the sake of the Christians. Hereupon he wrote his book De Mar- tyrio^ for the comfort and support of those that suffered in this evil time.
26. After Maximinus reigned Pupienus and Balbi- nus, to them succeeded Gordian, and to him Philip : all which time, for at least ten years together, the church enjoyed a competent calmness, and tranquillity ; when Decius was in a manner forced in his own defence to take the empire upon him. A man of great activity and resolution, a stout commander, a wise and prudent governor, so universally acceptable for his modest and excellent carriage, that by the sentence of the senate he was voted not inferior to Trajan, and had the title of Optimus adjudged to him. But he was a bitter and implacable enemy to Christians, against whom he raised the eighth Persecution, which proved, though the short- est, the hottest of all the persecutions that had hitherto afflicted and oppressed the church. The ecclesiastic * historians generally put it upon the account of Decius's hatred to his predecessor Philip, for being a Chris- tian ; whereas it is more truly to be ascribed to his zeal for the cause of declining paganism, which he saw fa- tally undermined by Christianity, and that therefore there was no way to support the one, but by the ruin of the other. We have more than once taken notice of it in some of the following lives, and therefore shall say the less here. Decius reigned somewhat above two years, during which time the storm was very black and violent, and no place but felt the dreadful effects of it. They were every where driven from their houses, spoiled in their estates, tormented in their bodies. Whips and prisons, fires and wild beasts, scalding pitch and melted wax, sharp stakes and burning pincers were but some of the methods of their treatment ; and when the old ones were run over, new were daily invented and
o Euseb. H. Eccl. I. 6. c 39. p. 254. Chron. ad Ann. 252. Oros. 1. 7- c. 21. fol. 310. Niceph. I. 5. c 17. p 377.
60 INTRODUCTION.
contrived. The laws of nature and humanity "were blac- ken down ; friend betrayed his friend, and the nearest relative his own father or brother. Every one was am- bitious to promote the imperial edicts, and thought it meritorious to bring a Christian to the stake. This per- secution swept away at Alexandria, Julian, Chronion, Epimachus, Alexander, Amnion, Zeno, Ptolomy, Am- monaria, Mercuria, Isidore, and many others mentioned by Dionysius bishoj) of that church ; at Carthage, Mappa- licus, Bassus, Fortunio, Paulus, Donatus, Martialis, &.c. it crowned Babylas bishop of Antioch, Alexander of Jerusalem, Fabian bishop of Rome, Victoria, Anatolia, Parthenius, Marcellianus, and thousands more : Nice- phorusP affirming it to be easier to count the sands of the shore, than to reckon up all the martyrs that suft'ered under this persecution. Not to say any thing of those incredible numbers of confessors that were beaten, im- prisoned, tormented ; nor of the far greater number of those who betook themselves to a voluntary exile ; choosing rather to commit themselves to the barrenness of rocks and mountains, and the mercy of wild beasts, than to those that had put off* all reason and humanity. Among whom was Paul of Thebais, a youth of fifteen years of age, who withdrew himself into the Egyptian deserts, where finding a large and convenient cavern in a rock (which heretofore had been a private mint house in the time of Antony and Cleopatra) he took up his abode and residence, led a solitary and anchoretic course of life, and became the father of hermits, and those who afterwards were desirous tq retire from the world, and to resign up themselves to solitude, and a more strict mortified life. In this pious and devout retire- ment he continued till he was 113 years of age, and in the last period of his life was visited by Antonius, who had spent the greatest part of 90 years in those desert places, and who now performed the last offices to him in oommitting his dead body to the earth.:
p Lib. 5.C. 29. p. 379.
INTRODUCTION. gi
27. Gallus succeeded Decius as in his government, so in his enmity to Christians, carrying on what the other had begun. But the cloud soon blew over ; for he being cut off, was succeeded by Valerian, who enter- ed upon the empire with an universal applause and ex- pectation. In the beginning of his reign he was a great patron of Christians, whom he treated with all offices of kindness and humanity, entertaining them in his own family ; so that his court seemed to be a little church for piety, and a sanctuary for refuge to good men. But, alas, this pleasant scene was quickly over ; seduced by a chief magician of Egypt, who persuaded him that the only way to prosper his affairs, was to restore the Gen- tile rites, and to suppress Christianity, so hateful to the gods, he commenced a ninth Persecution, wherein he prosecuted the Christians with all imaginable fury in all parts of the empire. With what fierceness it raged in Egypt, is largely related by Dionysius of Alexandria, and we have in a great part noted in his life. It is need- less (says he '^) particularly to reckon up the Christians that suffered in this persecution : only this you may ob- serve, that both men and women, young and old, sol- diers and country people, persons of all ranks and ages, were some of them scourged and whipped, others be- headed, others overcoming the violence of flames, rgp ceived the crown of martyrdom. Cyprian eleg-antly and passionately bewails the miseries and sufferings which tiie martyrs underwent, in his letter to Nemesian, and the rest that were condemned to the mines. Nor did he himself escape, being beheaded at Carthage, as Xistus and Quartus had been before him, and the three hun- dred martyrs JDe Alaska Candida^ who rather than do sacrifice, chearfully leapt into a mighty pit of burning lime, kindled for that purpose, and were immediately stifled in the smoke and flames. In Spain suffered Frue- tuosus, bishop of Tarragon, together with his two dea- cons, Augurius and Eulogius ; at Rome, Xistus the feishop, and St. Laurence his deacon and treasurer of
q Epist. ad Doinlt. 5c Dhl. ap, f:useb. \. 7 . z. 11'. p. 250,
62 INTRODUCTION.
that church ; at Caesarea, Priscus, Malchus, and Alex- ander, who ashamed, to think that they lay idle and se- cure, while so many others were contending for the crown, unanimously went to the judge, confessed they were Christians, received their sentence, and under- went their martyrdom. But the Divine Providence, which sometimes in this world pleads the cause of oppressed innocence, was resolved to punish the em- peror for his causeless cruelty towards those whose in- terest with heaven (while he continued favourable to tliem) had secured his happiness : and therefore did not only suffer the northern nations to break in upon him, but he himself was taken prisoner by Sapor king of Per- sia, who treated him below the rate of the meanest slave, used him as his footstool to get on horseback, and after several years captivity caused him to be flayed alive, and rubbed with salt, and so put a period to his miserable life. A fair warning to his son Gallienus, who growing wiser by the mischiefs and miscarriages of his father, stopped the persecution, and restored peace and security to Christians. ''
28. A long peace and prosperity (for except a little disturbance in the time of Aurelian, they met with no opposition through the reigns of Gallienus, Claudius, Tacitus, Florianus, Probus, Cams, and Numerian) had somewhat corrupted the manners of Christians, and therefore God was pleased to permit a tenth Persecution to come upon them to purge and winnow the rubbish and the chaff: the ulcer began to putrify, and it was time to call for the knife and the caustic. It began un- under Dioclesian and his colleague Maximian. Diocle- sian was a prince active and diligent, crafty and subtle, fierce in his nature, but which he knew how cunningly to dissemble. His zeal for the Pagan religion engaged him with all possible earnestness to oppose Christianity,
^:i.(riXiicu x3£r_uft\ Tix& Si inro Ii'X^opcs Uie^a-acii' fixcriKiuc lyJupitvAi Kihur^iic x^ Tagi- ;)(^iubiic, Tfc.tra/jv 't avii a-j'^v^jLcLi ir^^T-jLi ciiuyav. Constant. M. Orat. ad SS.Ccc- luiu, cup. 2-*. pag. 600.
INTRODUCTION. 63
which he carried on with a high hand, it being as the last, so the fiercest Persecution, like the last eftbrts of a dying enemy, that summons all his strength to give the parting blow. Dioclesian then residing at Nicomedia published his edicts about the very solemnity of our Sa- viour's passion, commanding the Christian churches to be pulled down, their bibles to be burnt, the better sort of them to be branded with infamy, the vulgar to be made slaves ; as by subsequent orders he commanded the bishops to be every where imprisoned, and forced to sa- crifice. But these were but a pr^eludium to what follow- ed after, other proclamations being put forth, command- ing those that refused to offer sacrifice to be exposed to all manner of torments. It were endless to reckon up particular persons that suffered in this evil time. Euse- bius who lived under this very persecution, has recorded a vast number of them, with the acts of their martyr- dom ; too many to account for in this place. It may suffice to note from him, that they w^re scourged to death, had their flesh torn off* with pincers, or raked off" with pieces of broken pots; ^vere cast to lions and tygers, to wild boars and bears, provoked and enraged wdth fire to set upon them, burnt, beheaded, crucified, thrown in- to the sea, torn in pieces by the distorted boughs of trees, or their legs miserably distended in the stocks, roasted at a gentle fire, or by holes made on purpose had melted lead poured into their bowels. But impossible it is to conceive, much more to express the cruelties of that time. Eusebius himself, who saw them, tells' us, that they were innumerable, and exceeded all relation. All which he assures us they endured with the most ad- mirable and undaunted patience ; they thronged to the tribunals of their judges, and freely told them what they were ; despised the threatenings and barbarity of their enemies, and received the fatal and decretory sentence w4th a smile ; when persuaded to be tender of their lives, and to compassionate the case of their wives and chil- dren, they bore up against the temptation with a manly and philosophic mind, /u^xxov riivcnSu g cf.rAs6=» 4v;^7, as he adds,
s Lib. 8. c. 12. p. 307,
64^ INTRODUCTION.
yea rather with a soul truly pious and devoted unto God; -io that neither fears nor charms could take hold upon them, at once giving undeniable evidences both of their own courage and fortitude, and of that Divine and un- conceivable power of our Lord that went along with them. The acutest torments did not shake the firmness and stability of their minds, but they could with as much unconcernedness lay down their lives (as Origen^ tells Celsus) as the best philosopher could put ofP his coat. They valued their innocency above their ease, or life it- self and sufficiently showed they believed another state, by an argument beyond what any institution of philoso- phy could afford. *' The great philosophers of the Gen- *' tiles (as Eusebius*" reasons in this matter) as much as '* they talk of immortality, and the happiness of the fu- *' ture state, did yet show that they looked upon it only '* as a childish and a trifling report : whereas amongst us *' even boys and girls, and as to outward appearance, the '* meanest and rudest persons, being assisted by the *' power and aid of our blessed Savour, do by their ac- *' tions rather than their words demonstrate the truth of *' this great principle, the immortality of the soul." Ten years this persecution lasted in its strength and vigour, under Dioclesian in the east, and Maximian in the west : and they thought, it seems, they had done their work, and accordingly tell the world, in some ancient inscrip- tions, "" that they had utterly defaced the name and super- stition' of the Christians, and had restored and propaga- ted the worship of the gods ; but were miserably mis- taken in the case ; and as if weary of the work, laid down their purple, and retired to the solitudes of a private life. And though Galerius, Maximianus, Jovius Maximinus, Maxentius, and Licinius did what they could to set the persecution on foot again, yet all in vain ; both they and it in a very few years expiring and dwindling into nothing. 29. Thus we have seen the hardships and miseries, the torments and sufferings which the Christians were expo-
t Contr. Cels. 1. 7. p. 357.
u Prspar. Evan. 1. 1. c 4. p. 15.
X Ap. Gruter. pug. 280. num. 3 & 4.
INTRODUCTION* 6^
sed to for several ages, and with how invincible a patience they went through with them. Let us now a little re- view the argument, and see what force and influence it had to convince the world of the truth of their religion, and bring in converts to the faith. Tertullian ^ tells the Gentiles, ** That all their cruelty was to no purpose, that *' it was but a stronger invitation to bring over others to ** the party ; that the oftener they mowed them down, ** the faster they sprang up again ; and that the blood of '* Christians was a seed that grew up into a more plenti- ** ful harvest ; that several among the Gentiles had ex- " horted their auditors to patience under suffering, but *' coi^ld never make so many proselytes with all their fine *' discourses; as the Christians did by their actions : that *' that very obstinacy which was so much charged upon ** them was a tutor to instruct others. For who when ** they beheld such things, could not but be powerfully '' moved to inquire what really was within? who when ^' he had once found it, would not embrace it ? and having " once embraced it, not be desirous to suffer for it ; that *' so he may obtain the full grace of God, and the pardon ''of his sins assured by the shedding of his blood." Lactantius ^ manages this argument with incomparable eloquence and strength of reason : his discourse is some* what long, bat not unw^orthy the reader's consideration. *' Since our number (says he) is alwa3^s increased from '* amongst the votaries of the heathen deities, and is '' never lessened, no not in the hottest persecution, who *' is so blind and stupid, as not to see in which party true *' w^isdom does reside ? But they, alas, are blinded " with rage and malice, and think all to be fools, who '' when it is in their power to escape punishment, " choose rather to be tortured and to die ; when as *' they might perceive by this, that that can be no *' such folly, wherein so many thousands throughout *' the whole world do so unanimously conspire. Suppose " that women, through the weakness of their sex, may *' miscarry (and they are pleased sometimes to style
y Apoioj. r. uk. p. 40. z De Justit. I 5. c.lS.p. 494 I
66 INTKODUCTION.
*' this religion an efteminate and oldvvives' superstition) *' yet certainly men are wiser. If children and young *' men may be rash, yet at least those of a mature age and '' old men have a more stable judgment. If one city " might play the fool, yet innumerable others cannot be " supposed to be guilty of the same folly. If one pro- " vince, or one nation should want care and providence, *' yet all the rest cannot lack understanding to judge ** what is right. But now when the Divine law is enter- " tained from the rising of the sun to the going down *' thereof, and every sex, age, nation, and country serves " God with one heart and soul ; when there is every *• where the same patience and contempt of death, they " ought to consider that there is some reason for it, and ** that it is not without cause, that it is maintained even *' unto death : that there is some fixed foundation w^hen *' a religion is not only not shattered by injuries and " persecutions, but always increased and rendered more *' lirm and stable. When the very common people see " men torn in pieces by various engines of torment, and " yet maintain a patience unconquerable in the midst of *' their tired tormentors ; they cannot but think what " the truth is, that the consent of so many, and their per- *' severance unto death, cannot be in vain, nor that pa- " tience itself, Avithout the Divine assistance, should be " able to overcome such exquisite tortures. Highway- *' men and persons of the most robust constitutions are " not able to bear such pulling asunder ; they roar, and " groan, and sink under pain because not furnished with ** a Divine patience. But our very children (to say no- *' thing of our men) and our tender women, do by silence ** conquer their tormentors ; nor can the flames extort *' one sigh from them. Let the Romans go now, and ** boast of their Mutius and their Reguius, one of which *' delivered up himself to be put to death by his enemies, " because he was ashamed to live a prisoner , the other ** thrust his hand into the fire when he saw he could not '' escape death. Behold, with us the weaker sex, and '' the more delicate age suffer the whole body to be torn ^^* and burnt ; not because thev could not avoid it if thev
INTRODUCTION. er
t
** would, but voluntarily, because they trust in GocL ** This is true virtue, which philosophers in vain only ^* talk of, when they tell us, that nothing is so suitable *' to the gravity and constancy of a wise man, as not by " any terrors to be driven from his sentiments and opi- *' nions ; but that it is virtuous, and great indeed, to be " tortured and die, rather than betray one's faith, or be *' wanting in his duty, or do any thing that is unjust or " dishonest, though for fear of death, or the acutest tor- ** ment, unless they thought their own poet raved, when ** he said,
yiistin7i £s? tenacem propositi virion^
Noil civium ardor prava juhenti^im^ Non vultus instantis tijranni • Me?ite qiialit solida.^
The just man that resolved stands.
Not tvrants' frowns, nor fierce commands, Nor all the peoples' rage combin'd. Can shake the firmness of his mind.
'* Than which nothing can be more truly said, if meant of *' those who refuse no tortures, nor death itself, that they " may preserve fidelity and justice ; who regard not the *' command of tyrants, nor the swords of the governors, ** that they may with a constant mind preserve real and '* solid liberty, wherein true wisdom alone is to be main- ** tained." Thus far that elegant apologist. And cer- tainly the truth of his reasoning was abundantly verified by the experience of the world. Christians getting ground, and conquering opposition by nothing more than their patience and their constancy, till they had subdued the empire itself to the acknowledgment of the truth. And when once the great Constantine had entertained Chris- tianity, it went along with wind and tide, and bore down all before it. And surely it might be no unpleasant sur- vey, to consider what was the true state of Paganism under the first Christian emperors, and how and by what degrees that religion, which for so many years had govern- ed the world, slunk away into obscurity and silence. But this is a business without the bounds of my present in- quiiy to search into.
a Horat. Carm. I. 3. Od.3. p. 154,
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN,
THE PROTOMARTYR.
THE violent opposition that Christianity at its first appearance met with both from Jews and Gentiles. St. Stephen's kindred unknown. One of the seventy. The great charity of the primitive believers. Dissen- tion between the Hebrews and Grecians. Hellenists who. The ori- ginal of deacons in the Christian church. The nature of their oflice : the number and qualification of the persons. Stephen's eminent ac- complishments for the place. The envy and opposition of the Jews against him. The Synagogue of the Libertines, what. Of the Cyre- nians, Alexandrians, Sec. Their disputation with St. Stephen, and the success of it. False witnesses suborned to depose against him. The several parts of their charge considered. The mighty veneration of the Jews for their temple and the Mosaic institutions. Its destruction by Titus ; and their attempts to rebuild it under Julian frustrated by a miracle. Stephen's apology before the Sanhedrim. The Jews^rage against him. He is encouraged by a vision. Stoning to death, what kind of punishment ; the manner of it among the Jews. St. Stephen's martyrdom. His character, and excellent virtues. The time and place of his suffering. The place and manner of his burial. His body first discovered, when and how. The story of its translation to Constantinople. The miracles said to be done by his reliques, and at hi'.i Memorise. Several reported by St. Augustin. What credit to be given to them. Miracles how long, and why continued in the church. The vain pretences of the church of Rome.
1. THE Christian religion being designed by God for the reformation of mankind, and the rooting out that Barbarism and idolatry wherewith the world was so over- grown, could not but meet with opposition, all corrupt in- terests conspiring to give it no very welcome entertain- ment. Vice and error had too long usurped the throne.
70 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN,
to part with it by a tame and easy resignation, but would rather summon all their forces against a doctrine, that openly proclaimed the subversion and ruin of their empire. Hence this sect was every where spoken against, equally opposed both by Jew and Gentile. The Gentiles despised it for its lateness and novelty, as having no antiquity to re- commend it, nor could they endure that their philosophy^ which then every where ruled the chair, should be con- trolled by a plain simple doctrine, that pretended to no ela- borate schemes, no insinuative strains of eloquence, no nice and subtle arts of reasoning, no abstruse and sub- lime speculations. The Jews were vexed to see their expectations of a mighty prince who should greatly exalt their state, and redeem it from that oppression and sla- very under which it groaned, frustrated by the coming of a Messiah, who appeared under all the circumstances of meanness and disgrace ; and who was so far from res- cuing them from the power of the Roman yoke, that for their obstinacy and unbelief he threatened the final and irrevocable ruin of their country, and, by the doctrine he published, plainly told them he intended to abolish those ancient Mosaic institutions, for which they had such dear regards, and so solemn a veneration. Accordingly when he came amongst them, they entertained him with all the instances of cruelty and contempt, and whatever might expose him to the scorn and odium of the people ; they vilified and reproached his person, as but the son of a carpenter, a glutton and a drunkard, a traitor and an enemy unto Ccesar ; they slighted his doctrine as the talk only of a rude and illiterate person, traduced his mi- racles as tricks of imposture, and the effects of a black confederacy with the infernal powers. And when all this would not do, they violently laid hands upon him and took away his life. And now one would have thought their spite and fury should have cooled and died: but malice and revenge are too fierce and hot to stoj) at the first attempt. On they are resolved to go in these bloody methods, and to let the world see that the disci- ples and followers must expect no better than their mas- ter. It was not many months before they took occasion to
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 71
refresh their rage m St. Stephen's martyrdom : the his- tory of whose life and death we now come to relate, and to make some brief remarks upon it.
2. The sacred story gives us no particular account either of the country or kindred of this holy man. That he was a Jew is unquestionable, himself sufficiently owiis the relation in his apology to the people, but whether originally descended of the stock of Abraham, or of parents incorporated and brought in by the gate of proselytism, whether born at Jerusalem, or among the dispersed in the Gentile provinces is impossible to de- termine. Baronius'' (grounding his conjecture upon an epistle of Lucian, of which more afterwards) makes him to have been one of Gamaliel's disciples, and fellow pupil with St. Paul, who proved afterwards his mortal enemy : but I must confess, I find not in all that epistle the least shadow of probability to countenance that con- jecture. Antiquity ^ makes him, probably enough, to have been one of the 70 disciples, chosen by our Lord as co-adjutors to the apostles in the ministry of the gos- pel : and indeed his admirable knowledge in the Chris- tian doctrine, his singular ability to defend the cause of Christ's Messiaship against its most acute opposers, plainly argue him to have been some considerable time trained up under our Saviour's immediate institutions. Certain it is, that he was a man of great zeal and piety, endowed with extraordinary measures of that divine Spi- rit that was lately shed upon the church, and incompara- bly furnished with miraculous powers, which peculiarly qualified him for a place of honour and usefulness in the church, whereto he w^as advanced upon this occasion.
3. The primitive church among the man}^ instances of religion for which it was famous and venerable, was for none more remarkable than their charity. They lived and loved as brethren ; were of one heart and one souly and continued together xvith one accord, l^ove and chari- ty were the common soul that animated the whole body
a Ad Ann. ?A. n. 27.5, 298.
b Epiph. Hjeres. 20. p. 27. D.)roth. Svnocs. de Vi!". ApT>. in Bjbl. P, F. Tom. 3. p
72 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN.
of believers, and conveyed heat and vital spirits to every part. The}' prayed and worshipped God in the same place, and fed together at the same table. None could want, for they had all in common. The rich sold their estates to minister to the necessities of the poor, and deposited the money into one common treasury, the care whereof w^as committed to the apostles, to see distribution made as every one's case and exigency did require. But in the exactest harmony there will be some jars and discord, heaven only is free from quarrels, and the occasions of oifence. The church increasing every day by vast numbers of converts to the faith, the apostles could not exactly superintend the disposure of the church's stock, and the making provision for every part, and were therefore probably forced to take in the help of others, sometimes more and sometimes less, to assist in this aft air. By a\ hich means a due equality and proportion was not observed, but either through favour and* partiality, or the oversight of those that managed the matter, some had larger portions, others less relief then then' just necessities called for. This begat some present heats and animosities in the first and purest church that ever w^as, the Grecians murmuring against the Hebrews^ because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration, ""
4. Who these Grecians or Hellenists were, opposed here to the Hebrews, liovvcver a matter of some difficul- ty and dispute, it may not be imuseful to inquire. The opinion that has most generally obtained is, that they were originally JeW'S born and bred in Grecian or Hea- then countries, of the dispersed a?nong the Gentiles^ (the ^i'Z'j-.vTo^'X Tav.'hwxvciv. the word e;.\.v,.c in the style of the New Testament, as also in the writings of the fathers being commonly used for the Gentile world) vv'ho accommo- dated themselves lo their manner of living, spoke the Greek language, but altogether uiixed vAih. Hebraisms •and Jewish forms of speech, (arid tljis called Lingua Hellenistica) and used no other bible but the Grick
c Act. 6, 1. d Joh, r. 35.
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 1%
translation of the Septuagint. A notion which Salma- sius^ has taken a great deal of pains to confute, by showing that never any people went under that notion and character, that the Jews, in what parts of the world soever they were, were not a distinct nation from those that lived in Palestine ; that there never was any such peculiar distinct Hellenistic dialect, nor any such ever mentioned by any ancient writer ; that the phrase is very improper to express such a mixt language, yea ra- thar that 'e>xj,v/c)> implies one that expresseth himself in better Greek then ordinar}', as 'AT7;/./r^? denotes one that studies to speak pure Attic Greek. Probable therefore it is, that they were not of the Hebrew race, but Greek or Gentile proselytes, who had either themselves, or in their ancestors deserted the Pagan superstitions, and im- bodied themselves into the Jewish church, taking upon them circumcision and the observation of the rites of the Mosaic laws (which kind the Jew^s call :r:**i:! pl^'H proselytes of justice) and were now converted to Chris- tianity. That there were at this time great numbers of these proselytes at Jerusalem, is evident ; and strange it were, if when at other times they were deirous to have the gospel preached to them, none of them should have been brought over to the faith. Even among the seven made choice of to be Deacons (most, if not all, of whom we may reasonably conclude to have been taken out of these Grecians) we find one expressly said to have been a proselyte of Antioch, as in all likelihood some, if not all the other, might be proselytes of Jerusalem. And thus wherever we meet with the word 'E/x>»v;r^/, or Gre- cians, in the history of the apostolic acts^ (as it is to be met with in two places more) we may, and in reason are to understand it. So that these Hellenists (who spake Greek, and used the translation of the Sevent}) were Jews by religion, and Gentiles by descent ; with the "Eaahvk, or Gentiles, they had the same common original, with the Jews the same common profession ) and therefore
e CoTTiment. de Hellenist. Qii. 1, 2, o^ 4, 5. prsecipue pag. 232. &c. vid, etiam, inter alios, Bez. & Gamer, in loc. f Act. ix. 29. xi. 20.
K
74 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN.
are not here opposed to Jews, (which all those might be styled, who embrace Judaism and the rites of Moses, though they were not born of Jewish ancestors) but to the Hebrews, who were Jews both by their religion and their nation. And this may give us some probable account, wh}^ the widows of these Hellenists had not so much care taken of them as those of the Hebrews, the persons with whom the apostles in a great mea- sure intrusted the ministration, being kinder to those of their own nation, their neighbours, and it may be kin- dred, than to those who only agreed with them in the profession of the same religion, and who indeed were not generally so capable of contributing to the church's stock as the native Jews, who had lands and possessions, which they sold and laid at the apostles feet,
5. The peace and quiet of the church being by this ,means a little ruffled and discomposed, the apostles, who well understood how much order and unity conduced to the ends of religion, presently called the church toge- ther, and told them, that the disposing of the common stock, and the daily providing for the necessities of the poor, however convenient and necessary, w^as yet a matter of too much trouble and distraction to consist with a faithful discharge of the other parts and duties of their office, and that they did not judge it fit and rea- sonable to neglect the one, that they might attend the other ; that therefore they should choose out among themselves some that were duly qualified, and present them to them, that they might set them apart peculiarly to superintend this affair, that so themselves being freed from these incumbrances, might the more freely and un- interruptedly devote themselves to prayer and preaching of the gospel. Not that the apostles thought the care of the poor an office too much below them, but that this might be discharged by other hands, and they, as they were obliged, the better attend upon things of high- er importance, ministeries more immediately serviceable to the souls of men. This was the first original of dea- cons in the Christian church, they were to serve tables, that is, to wait upon the necessities of the poor, to make
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 75
daily provisions for their public feasts, to keep the church's treasure, and to distribute to every one accor- ding to their need. And this admirably agrees to one ordinary notion of the word ao^^ov®- in foreign writers, where it is used for that peculiar servant who waited at feasts, whose office it was to distribute the portions to every guest, either according to the command of the 'hfx^T^iH.Ki^®', the orderer of the feast, or according to the rule of equality, to give every one alike. ^ But though it is true this was a main part of the deacon's office, yet was it not the whole. For had this been all, the apos- tles needed not to have been so exact and curious in their choice of persons, seeing men of an ordinary rank and of a very mean capacity might have served the turn, nor have used such solemn rites of consecration to ordain them to it. No question, therefore, but their serving tables implied also their attendance at the table of the Lord's supper. For in those days their Agapss or common love feasts, (whereat both rich and poor sat down together) were at the same time with the holy Eucharist, and both administered every day, so that their ministration respected both the one and the other.** And thus we find it was in the practice of the church, for so Justin Martyr' tells us it was in his time, that when the president of the assembly had consecrated the Eucharist, the deacons distributed the bread and the wine to all that were present, and afterw^ards carried them to those who were necessarily absent from the congre- gation. Nor were they restrained to this one particular service, but were in some cases allowed to preach, baptize, and absolve penitents, especially where they had the peculiar warrant and authority of the bishop to bear them out : nor need we look far beyond the pre-
g MoT^st x§?av, *, i«v atr^ff/v' 01 AiotKOvc; tt^oc X^oiv ^^icf^vi fxy^i'vj. Mi ttS /i^h jusyd- >.«, ttJ tTg x.oy.iS'j fjLiK^i TTdL^tTtbiT^vi, dfA JcTSTK? 'sT/ Tiiaiy. Lucian. Chronosol. seu tie Leg-g. Saturnal. Tom. 2. p. 823.
h Asi cTg Xj T«; A/*jt6v'jsf oi'7ot? ^yg-n^/ftw ']«(rs X^/s-« K^li TretvTci Tp'^Trov Tr^triv dpi<r>tit^' i yd.^ li^ay.-lTm i Trorm (h. e. noil solum.) eWiv isuaLnovci, d»l anKyyxriAg ©sS Cvm^i- Tate- J'sGvav auTHc <pvxuirffi7^ai -ret s^xAx'/xatJ* a,; irteg, Igiiat. £pist. ad Trall.- Append. Usser. /;. 17.
i Apol. ii. p. 97.
76 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEX.
sent story to find St. Philip, one of the deacons here elected, both preaching the gospel, and baptizing con- verts with <neat success.
6. That this excellent office might be duly managed, the apostles directed and enjoined the church to nomi- nate such persons as were fitted for it, pious and good men, men of known honesty and integrity, of approved and untainted reputations, furnished and endowed with the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, wise and pru- dent men, who would discreetly discharge the trust committed to them. I'he number of these persons was limiced to seven, probably for no other reason but be- cause the apostles thought these sufficient for the busi- ness ; unless w^e will also suppose the whole body of be- lievers to have been disposed into seven several divisi- ons, for the more orderly and convenient managery of their common fcitsts, a.nd distributions to the poor, and that to each of these a deacon was appointed to su- periiUend and direct them ; without further designing any peculiar mvstery, which ^ some would fain pick out of it. However the church thought good for a long tim^e to conform to this primitive institution, insomuch that the fathers of the' Neo-Cccsarean council ordained, that in no city, how great soever, there should be more then seven deacons, a canon which they found upon this place : and Sozomen"' tells us that in his time, though many other churches kept to no certain number, yet that the church of Rome, in compliance wdth this apostolical example, admitted no more then seven deacons in it. The people were infinitely pleased with the order and determination which the apostles had made in this mat- ter, and accordingly made choice of seven, whom they presented to the apostles, who (as the solemnity of the thing required) first made their address to heaven by prayer for the divine blessing upon the undertaking, and then laid their hands upon them, an ancient symbolic rite of investiture and consecration to any extraordina-
k Vid. Baron, ad Ann. 112. n. 7. Tom. 2.
1 Cone. NecCtes. can. 1.5, Cone. Tom. 1. Col. 1484.
m llvA. Eccl. lib. 7. c. 19. p. 7Z4^
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 17
ry office. The issue of all was, that the Christian reli- gion got ground and prospered, converts came flocking over to the faith, yea very many of the priests themselves, and of their tribe and family, of all others the most zea- lous and pertinacious assertors of the Mosaic constitu- tions, the bitterest adversaries of the Christian doctrine, the subtlest defenders of their religion, laid aside their prejudices, and embraced the gospel. So uncontrolla- ble is the efficacy of divine truth, as very often to lead its greatest enemies in triumph after it.
7. The first and chief of the persons here elected, (who were all chosen out of the seventy disciples, as ^ Epiphanius informs us,) and whom the ancients fre- quently style arch deacon, as having the Ta^rg««757^ (as ® Chrysostom speaks) the primacy and precedence among these new elected officers, was our St. Stephen, whom the author c^l the epistle to ^' Hero under the name of Ignatius, as also the Interpolator of that to the *^ Trallians, makes in a more peculiar manner to have been deacon to St. James, as bishop of Jerusalem. He is not only placed first in the catalogue, but particularly recom- mended under this character, a man full of faith , and of the Holy Ghost. He was exquisitely skilled in all parts of the Christian doctrine, and fitted with great elo- quence and elocution to declare and publish it, enriched with many miraculous gifts and powers, and a spirit of courage and resolution to encounter the most potent op- position. He preached and pleaded the cause of Chris- tianity with a firm and undaunted mind, and that nothing might be wanting to render it effectual, he confirmed his doctrine by many public and unquestionable miracles, plain evidences and demonstrations of the truth and di- vinity of that religion that he taught. But truth and innocency, and a better cause, is the usual object of bad men's spite and hatred. The zeal and diligence of his ministry, and the extraordinary success that did attend it, quickly awakened the malice of the Jews, and there
n Haeres. XX. p. 27. o Homil. XV, 'n\ Act. p. 555.
p. Epist. ad Heron Jn Bil^l. PP. Gr. Lai. p. .57. q Ep. ad Trail, p. 6. ibid.
78 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN.
wanted not those that were ready to oppose and contra- dict him. So natural is it for error to rise up against the truth, as light and darkness mutually resist and ex- pel each other.
8. There were at Jerusalem besides the temple, where sacrifices and the more solemn parts of their rehgion were performed, vast numbers of synagogues for prayer and expounding of the law, whereof the Jews themselves tell us there were not less than 480 in that city. In these, or at least some apartments adjoining to them, thei'e were schools or colleges for the instruction and edu- cation of scholars in their laws ; many whereof were erected at the charges of the Jews who lived in foreign countries, and thence denominated after their names : and hither they v/ere wont to send their youth to be trained up in the knowledge of the law, and the myste- rious rites of their religion. Of these, fi\z combined to- gether to send some of their societies to encounter and oppose St. Stephen. An unequa.1 match! dvay^v a^i^i^^Tav UiVTci7r:\n (as St. Chrysostom calls it') a whole army of wick- ed adversaries, the chief of five several synagogues, are brought ou'^ against one, and him but a strippling too, as if they inteneied to oppress him rather with the number of assailants, than to overcome him by strength of argu- ment.
9. The first of them were those of the Synagogue o/'the JLiber tines ; but who these Libertines were, is variously conjectured. Passing by Junius's conceit of Labra\ sig- nifying in the Egyptian language the whole precinct that was under one synagogue, whence Labratemi, or cor- ruptly (says he) Libertini, must denote them that belong- ed to the Synagogue of the Egyptians, omitting this as altogether absurd and fantastical, besides that the Syna- gogue of the Alexandrians is mentioned afterwards ; Sui- das tells us it was the name of a nation,^ but in what part of the world this people or country were, he leaves us wholly in the dark. Most probably, therefore, it relates
r Orat. in St. Steph. Tom. 6. p. 276. s Jun. in loc, L'^ in Gen. 8- 4.
t Suid in voe. Ai*?^rii(S)-.
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 79
to the Jews that were emancipated and set at liberty. For the understanding whereof we must know, that when Pompey had subdued Judea, and reduced it under the Roman government, he carried great numbers of Jews captive to Rome, as also did those generals that succeed- ed him, and diat in such multitudes, that when the Jew- ish state sent an embassy to Augustus, Josephus" tells us, that there were about eight thousand of the Jews who then lived at Rome, that joined themselves to the ambas- sadors at their arrival thither. Here they continued in the condition of slaves, till by degrees they were manu- mitted and set at liberty, which was generally done in the time of Tiberius, who (as Philo informs ') suffered the Jews to inhabit the Transtiberine region : most whereof were Libertines, such who having been made captives by the fortune of war, had been set free by their masters, and permitted to live after the manner of their ancestors. They had their Proseuchas^ or oratories, where they as- sembled, and performed their devotions according to the religion of their country : every year they sent a contri- bution instead of first-fruits to Jerusalem, and deputed certain persons to oft'er sacrifices for them at the temple. Indeed afterwards (as we find in Tacitus'^ and Seutonius'') by an order of senate he caused four thousand Lihertini generis, of those libertine Jews, so many as were young and lusty, to be transported into Sardinia, to clear that island of robbers, (the occasion whereof is related by Jo- sephus^') and the rest, both Jews and proselytes, to be banished the city, Tacitus adds, Italy itself. This oc- casion, I doubt not, many of these Libertine- Jews took to return home into their own country, and at Jerusalem to erect this synagogue for themselves and the use of their countrymen who from Rome resorted thither, styling it from themselves, the Si/nagogue of the Libe? tines ; and such, questionless, St. Luke means, when among the se- verai nations that were at Jerusalem at the day of Pente-
u Antiquit. Jud. lib. 17. c 12. n. 610. v Plill. de legr^t. ad Gai.p 7^5. w Tac. Annal. lib. 2. c 85. p. 88. x Sueton. in v]t. Tib. c. 55. p. 3G'4. y Autifj- 1. 18. c. 5. p.. 62.7.
80 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN.
cost, he mentions strangers of Rome ^ and they both Jews and proselytes,
10. The next antagonists were of the Synagogue of the Cyrenians^ that is, Jews who inhabited Cyrene, a no- ted city of Libya, where (as appears from a rescript of Augustus^) great numbers of them did reside, and who were annually wont to send their holy treasure or accus- tomed offerings to Jerusalem, where also (as we see) they had their peculiar synagogue. Accordingly we find among the several nations at Jerusalem, those xvho dwelt in the parts of Libya about Cyrene,^ Thus we read of Si- mon of Cyrene^ whom the Jews compelled to bear our Saviour's cross : of Lucius of Cyrene^ a famous doctor in the church of Antioch ; of men of Cyrene^ who upon the persecution that followed St. Stephen's death, were scattered abroad from Jerusalem^ and preached as far as Phcenice^ Cyprus, and Antioch. The third were those of the Synagogue of the Alexandrians, there being a mighty intercourse between the Jews at Jerusalem and Alexan- dria, where what vast multitudes of them dwelt, and what great privileges they enjoyed, is too well knov^^n to need insisting on. The fourth were them of Cilicia, a known province of the lesser Asia, the metropolis whereof was Tarsus, well stored with Jews ; it w^as St. Paul's birth- place, whom we cannot doubt to have born a principal part among these assailants, finding him afterwards so active and busy in St. Stephen's death. The last were those of the Synagogue of Asia : where by Asia we are probably to understand no more than part of Asia proper- ly so called (as that was but part of Asia minor) viz. that part that lay near to Ephesus, in which sense it is plain Asia is to be taken in the New Testament. And what infinite numbers of Jews were - in these parts, and .especially at Ephesus, the history of the Apostles' acts does sufficiently inform us.
1 1 . These were the several parties that were to take the field, persons of very different countries, men skilled
z Ap. Joseph. Antiq.Jud Lib 16. c. 10. p. 561. a Act.ii. 10. h Act. xiii. 1. xi. 19, 20.
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. si
In the subtleties of their religion, who all at once rose up to dispute with Stephen. What the particular subject of the disputation was, we find not, but may with St. Chry- sostoni conceive them*" to have accosted him after this manner. " Tell us, young man, what comes into thy " mind thus rashly to reproach the Deity ? Why dost ** thou study with such cunningly contrived discourses ** to inveigle and persuade the people '? and with deceit- *• ful miracles to undo the nation? Here lies the crisis *' of the controversy. Is it likely that he should be *' God who was born of Mary ? that the Maker of the ** world should be the son of a carpenter ? Was not ^* Bethlehem the place of his nativity, and Nazareth of *' his education ? Canst thou imagine him to be God, *' that was born upon earth ? who was so poor that he *' was wrapt up in swaddling clothes and thrown into a ^' manger ? who was forced to fly from the rage of Herod, ** and to wash away his pollution by being baptized in " Jordan '? who was subject to hunger and thirst, to ^* sleep and weariness ? who being bound was not *' able to escape, nor, being buffeted, to rescue or re- *' venge himself? who when he was hanged, could " not come down from the cross, but underwent a '^ cursed and a shameful death ? Wilt thou make us be- *' lieve that he is in heaven, whom we know to have been " buried in his grave ? that he should be the life of the '^' dead, who is so near a kin to mortality himself? Is it ** likely that God should suffer such things as these ? ^' would he not rather with an angry breath have struck '* his adversaries dead at the first approach, and set them *' beyond the reach of making attempts upon his own ** person ? Either cease, therefore, to delude the people ** with these impostures, or prepare thyself to undergo *' the same fate.
12. In answer to which we may imagine St. Stephen thus to have replied upon them. " And why, Sirs, ** should these things seem so incredible ? have you not ^' by you the writings of the prophets? do you not read
c Loc. supra citat
82 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN.
«' the books of Moses, and profess yourselves to be his " disciples? did not Moses say, a prophet shall the Lord " your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto " 77ie, him shall ye hear? Have not the prophets long " since foretold that he should be born at Bethlehem, and " conceived in the womb of a virgin ? that he should fly " into Egypt, that he should bear our griefs and carry " our sorrows? that they should pierce his hands and his ''feet, and hang him on a tree ? tliat he should be buri- ** ed, rise again, and ascend up to heaven with a shout '? *' Either now show me some other in whom all these " prophecies Vv^ere accomplished, or learn with me to *' adore as God our crucified Saviour. Blind and igno- *' rant that you are of the predictions of Moses, you *' thought you crucified a mere man, but had you known " him, you would not have crucified the Lord of Glory : " you denied the Holy One, and the Just, and desired a *' murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the " Prince of Life.
13. This is the sum of what that ingenious and elo- quent father conceives St. Stephen did, or might have returned to their inquiries. Which, Avhatever it was, was delivered with that life and zeal, that evidence and strength of reason, that freedom and majesty of elocution, that his antagonists had not one word to say against it ; tJiey were not able to resist the xuisdom a?id the spirit by which he spake. So particularly did our Lord make good what he had promised to his disciples,*^ settle it in your hearts, not to meditate before what you shall answer, for I ivill give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. Here- upon the men presently began to retreat, and departed the lists, equally divided between shame and grief. 'Ashamed they were to be so openly baffled by one single adversary, vexed and troubled that they had not carried the day, and that the religion which they opposed had hereby received such signal credit and confirmation. And now being no longer able *i'7c<s9sA«27v t« «,\a&sj>. (as the
U Luke xxi. 14, 1 V.
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 83
addition in some very ancient manuscript copies does elegantly express it) ivith open face to resist the ti'utJi^ they betake themselves to clancular arts, to sly and sinis- ter designs, hoping to accomplish by craft and subtlety what they could not carry by fairness and force of reason.
14. To this purpose they tamper with men of debauch- ed profligate consciences, to undermine him by f^ilse accusations, that so he might fall as a sacrifice to their spite and malice, and that by the hand of public justice. St. Chrysostom'" brings them in with smooth and plausi- ble insinuations, encourasrins: the men to this mischiev- ous attempt. ^* Come on, w^orthy and honourable friends, " lend your assistance to our declining cause, and let " your tongues minister to our counsels and contrivan- ** ces. Behold a new patron and advocate of the Gali- *' LEAN is started up : one that worships a God that was '* buried, and preaches a Creator shut up in a tomb ; ** who thinks that he whom the soldiers despised and *' mocked upon earth, is now conversing with the host ** of angels in heaven, and promises that he shall come *^ to judge the world, who was not able to vindicate and •' right himself : His disciples denied him, as if they ** thought him an impostor, and yet this man affirms that ** every tongue shall confess and do homage to him : *' himself was not able to comedown from the cross, and ** yet he talks of his second coming from heaven : the '^ vilest miscreants reproached him at his death, that he ^' could not save either himself or them, and yet this man " peremptorily proclaims him to be the Saviour of the *' world. Did you ever behold such boldness and im- " pudence ? or have you ever heard words of so much ** madness and blasphemy ? Do you, therefore, under- *' take the cause, and find out some specious colour and *' pretence, and thereby purchase to yourselves glory ** and renown from the present generation.
15. The wretches were easily persuaded to the under- taking, and to swTar whatever their tutors should direct them. And now the cause is ripe for action, the case is
c Cod. Bezx. MS. tT C Ccdi. H. Steph. f Ubi. supra, pag. 2r8>
84 THE LIFE OE ST. STEJHElSr.
divulged, the elders and the scribes are dealt with (and a little rhetoric would serve to persuade them) the peo- ple possessed with the horror of the fact, the Sanhedrim is summoned, the malefactor haled to the bar, the witnesses produced, and the charge given in. They suborned men -which said ^ toe have heard him speak blas- phemous words against Moses and aga'mst God ; the false witnesses said^ this man ceaseth not to speak blas- phemous words against this holy place and the lazu ; Jo 7ve have heard him say, that this Jesus of Naza- reth shall destroy this place, and simll change the cus- toms which Moses delivered us : tliat is (that we may- still proceed with that excellent man in opening the se- veral parts of the charge) " he has dared to speak " against our wise and great lawgiver, and blasphemed '* that Moses for whom our whole nation has so just a " veneration ; that Moses who had the whole creation at *' his beck, who freed our ancestors from the house of *' bondage, and with his rod turned the waters into *' walls, and by his prayer drovvned the Egyptian army *' in the bottom of the sea ; who kindled a fiery pillar for '' a light by night, and without plowing or sowing, fed *' them with manna and bread from heaven, and with his '* rod pierced the rock and gave them drink. But what *' do we speak of Moses, when he has whetted his tongue *' and stretched it out against God himself, and set up *' one that is dead as an Anti-God to the great Creator of *' of the world ? He has not blushed to reproach the tem- *' pie, that holy place, where the Divine oracles are ** read, and the writings of the prophets set forth, the *^ repository of the shew-bread and the heavenly manna, *' of the ark of the covenant, and the rod of Aaron ; where *' the hoary and venerable heads of the high-priests, the ** dignity of the elders, and the honour of the scribes is " seen : this is the place which he has reviled and set ** at naught ; and not this only, but the law itself, which *' he boldly declares to be but a shadow, and the ancient ** rites but types and figures. He affirms the Galilean *' to be greater than Moses, and the son of Mary strong- *• er than our law giver : he has not honoured the digni^
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 85
** ty of the elders, nor had any reverence to the society *' of the scribes. He threatens us with a dead master ; *^ the young man dreams sure, when he talks of Jesus qf *' Nazareth rising again, and destroying this holy place : *' he little considers with how much Avisdom it was ** contrived, with what infinite charges it was erected, ** and how long before it was brought to its perfection. *' And yet, forsooth, this Jesus of Nazareth xawst destroy ** it and change the customs which Moses delivered to us : ** our most holy Sabbath must be turned out of doors, ** circumcision abolished, the new-moons rejected, and ** the feast of tabernacles laid aside ; our sacrifices must ^* no longer be accepted with God; our sprinklings and " solemn purgations must be done away : as if we knew *^ not this Nazarene's end, and as if one that is dead could ^* revenge himself upon them that are living. How ma- '* ny of the ancient prophets and holy men have been cru- ** elly murdered, whose death none ever yet undertook ** to revenge ? and yet this man must needs appear in the ** cause of this crucified Nazarene, and tell us of a dead *' man that shall judge us. Silly impostor ! to fright us '^ with a Judge who is himself imprisoned in his own ** grave.
16. This, then, is the sum of the charge, that he should threaten the ruin of the temple, and the abolition of the Mosaic rites, and blaspemously afiirm that Jesus of Nazareth should take away that religion w hich had been established by Moses, and by God himself. In- deed, the Jews had an unmeasurable reverence and ve- neration for the Mosaic institutions, and could not wdth any patience endure to hear of their being laid aside, but accounted it a kind of blasphemy so much as to men- tion their dissolution ; little thinking in how^ short a time these things w^hich they now so highly valued should be taken away, and their temple itself laid level with the ground ; which a few years after came to pass, by the Roman army under the conduct of Titus Vespasian, the Roman general, when the city was sack- ed, and the temple burnt to the ground. And so final ^md irrevocable was the sentence by %vhich it was doom-
86 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN.
ed to ruin, that it could never afterwards be repaired, heaven itself immediately declaring against it. Inso- much that when Julian, the emperor, out of spite and op- position to the Christians, was resolved to give all-pos- sible encouragement to the Jews, and not only permit- ted but commanded them to rebuild the temple, furnish- ing them with all charges and materials necesary for the work (hoping that hereby he should prove our Saviour a false prophet) no sooner had they begun to clear the rubbish, and lay the foundation, but a terrible earthquake shattered the foundation, killed the undertakers, and shaked down all the buildings that were round about it. And when they again attempted it the next day, great balls of fire suddenly breaking out from under the foun- dations, consumed the workmen and those that were near it and forced them to give over the attempt. A strange instance of the displeasure of heaven towards a place which God had fatally devoted to destruction. And this related not only by Christian writers ^, but as to the sub- ^jtance of it, by the ^' Heathen historian himself. And the same curse has ever since pursued and followed them, they having been destitute of temple and sacrifice for sixteen hundred years together. " Were that bloo- ** dy Sanhedrim now in being, and here present, (says "one of the ' ancients, speaking of this accusation) I *-* would ask them about those things for which they ^' were here so much concerned ; what is now become of '' your once famous and renowned temple ? where are ^' those vast stones, and incredible piles of building ? *' where is that gold that once equalled ail the other ^' materials of the temple ? what are become of your " legal sacrifices ? your rams and calves, your lambs ** and heifers, pigeons, turtles, [and scape-goats ? If ^* they, therefore, condemned Stephen to die, that none ** of these miseries might befall them, let them show *' which of them they avoided by putting him to death ;
g Socrat. H. Ecc 1. 3. c. 20. p. 193. Sozom. H. E. 1. 5. c. 22. p. 631.
h A. Marcell. I. 23. non louge ab init.
1 Cre^ ^''y*£f'^. Oral. inS. Stcph. Tom. 2 p. 791.
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. sf
** but if they escaped none of them, why then did thev *' imbrue their hands in his innocent blood '?"
17. The court being thus set, and the charge brought in and opened, that nothing might be wanting to carry on their mock scene of justice, they give him liberty to defend himself. In order whereimto while the judges of the Sanhedrim earnestly looked upon him, they disco- vered the appearances of an extraordinary splendour and brightness upon his face, the innocency of his cause, and the clearness of his conscience manifesting them- selves in the brightness and chearfulness of his coun- tenance. The high-priest having asked him whether guilty or not, he in a large discourse pleaded his own cause to this effect: *' That what apprehensions soever ** they might have of the stateliness and magnificence of *' their temple, of the glory and grandeur of its services '' and ministrations, of those venerable customs and *' usages that were amongst them, as if they looked upon ** them as indispensably necessary, and that it was blas- '' phemy to think God might be acceptably served with- ** out them; yet that if they looked back to the first ori- *^ ginals of their nation, they would find, that God chose *' Abraham to be the father and founder of it, not when ** he lived in a Jerusalem, and worshipped God with *' the pompous services of a temple, but when he dwelt *' among the idolatrous nations: that then it was that *' God called him from the impieties of his father's house, ** and admitted him to a familiar acquaintance and in- '^ tercourse with himself; wherein he continued for "= many years without any of those external and visible '' rites which they laid so much stress upon ; and that ''"when at last God entered into covenant with him, to '' give his posterity the land of Canaan, and that in his *' seed all the nations of the earth should he blessed, he " bound it upon him with no other ceremony, but only *' that of circum.cision, as the badge and seal of that " federal compact that was between them : that without '' any other fixed rile but this, the succeeding patriarchs *' worshipped God for several ages, till the times of '' Moses, a wise, learned, and prudent person, to T\'hom
88 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN.
God particularly revealed himself, and appointed him ruler over his people, to conduct them out of the house of bondage, a great and famous prophet, and who was continually inculcating this lesson to their ancestors, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me^ him shall ye hear ; that is, that God in the latter days would send amongst them a mighty prophet, who should do as Moses had done, introduce new rites, and set up more excellent institutions and ways of worship, to whom they should yield all diligent attention, and ready obedience : that when their fore-fathers had frequent- ly lapsed into idolatry, God commanded Moses to set up a tabernacle, as a place of public and solemn wor- ship where he would manifest himself, and receive the addresses and adorations of his people ; which yet however was but a transient and temporary ministra- tion, and though erected by the immediate order of God himself, w^as yet after some years to give place to a standing temple designed by David, but built by Solomon ; stately indeed and majestic, but not abso- lutely necessary, seeing that infinite Being that made the world, who had the heaven for his throne^ and the earth for his footstool, could not be confined within a mate- rial temple, nor tied to any particular way of w^orship ; and that therefore there could be no such absolute and indispensable necessity for those Mosaical rites and ceremonies, as they pretended ; especially when God w^as resolved to introduce a new and better scene and state of things. But it w^as the humour of this loose and unruly, this refractory and undisciplinable gene- ration (as it ever had been of their ancestors) to resist the Holy Ghosts and oppose him in ail those methods, whereby he sought to reform and reclaim them; that there were few of the prophets whom their fore-fathers had not persecuted, and slain them that had foretold the Messiah's coming, the just and the holy Jesus, as they their unhappy posterity had actually betrayed and murdered him, without any due reverence and regard to that laiv which had been solemnly delivered to them
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 8D
" by the ministry of angels, and which he came to fulfil *' and perfect.
18. The holy man was going on in the application, when the patience of his auditors, which had hitherto holden out, at this began to fail ; that fire which gently warms at a distance, scorches when it comes too near ; their consciences being sensibly stung by the too near approach of the truths he delivered, they began to fume and fret, and express all the signs of rage and fury. But he, regardless of what was done below, had his eyes and thoughts directed to a higher and a nobler object, and looking up, saw the heavens opened^ and some bright and sensible appearances of the Divine Majesty, and the holy Jesus clothed in the robes of our glorified nature, not sit- ting (in which sense he is usually described in scripture) but standing (as ready to protect and help, to crown and reward his suffering servant) at the right hand of God. So easily can Heaven delight and entertain us in the want of all earthly comforts, and divine consolations are then nearest to us, when human assistances are furthest from us. The good man was infinitely ravished with the vi- sion, and it inspired his soul with a fresh zeal and courage, and made him long to arrive at that happy place, and Tit- tle concerned what use they would make of it, he could not but communicate and impart his happiness ; the cup was full, and it easily overflowed ; he tells his adversaries what himself beheld. Behold^ I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. » 19. The heavenly vision had very different eftects : it encouraged Stephen, but enraged the Jews, who now taking it pro eonfesso that he was a blasphemer, resolved upon his death, without any further process. How furi- ous and impatient is misguided zeal ! they did not stand to procure a warrant from the Roman governor (without whose leave they had not power to put any man to death) nay, they had not the patience to stay for the judicial sen- tence of the Sanhedrim, but acted the part of zealots, (who were wont to execute vengeance upon capital of- fenders, without staying for the ordinary formalities of justice) and raising a great noise and clamour, and stop-
M
90 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN.
ping their ears^ that they might hear no further blasphe- mies, and be deaf to all cries for merey, they unanimous- ly rushed upon him. But zeal is superstitious in its maddest fury : they would not execute him within the walls, lest they should pollute the holy city with his blood, but hurried him without the city, and there fell upon him with a shower of stones. Stoning was one of the four capital punishments among the Jews, inflicted upon greater and more enormous crimes, especially blasphemy, idolatry, and strange worship : and the Jews*" tell us of many particular circumstances used in this sort of punish- ment. The malefactor was to be led out of the consisto- ry, at the door whereof a person was to stand with a nap- kin in his hand, and a man on horse back at some dis- tance from him, that if any one came and said, he had something to offer for the deliverance of the malefactor, upon the moving of the napkin the horseman might give notice, and bring the offender back. ♦He had two grave persons to go along with him, to exhoit him to confes- sion by the way ; a crier went before him, proclaiming •who he was, what his crime, and who the witnesses : be- ing come near the place of execution (which was two cu- bits from the ground) he was first stripped, and then stoned, and afterwards hanged, where he was to continue till sun-set, and then being taken down, he and his gib- bet were both buried together.
20. Such were their customs in ordinary cases, but, alas, their greediness of St. Stephen'^ blood would not admit these tedious proceedings ; only one formality we find them using, which the law required, which was, that the hands of the xvitnesses should be first upon him, to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people^ : a law surely contrived with great wisdom and prudence, that so the witness, if forsworn, might derive the guilt of the blood upon himself, and the rest be free ; so thou shaft put the evil aivay from among you. Accordingly here the wdtnecses putting off their upp^r garments (whicli rendered them less nimble and expedite, being loose and
k Vid. P. Fag. in Exod. xxi. 16. 1 Deut. xvi.i. 7,
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 91
long', according to the mode of those eastern countries) laid them down at Saul's feet, a zealous youth, at that time student under GamaUel, the fiery zeal and activity of whose temper made him busy no doubt in this, as we find he was in the following persecution. An action which afterwards cost him tears and penitent rejections, himself preferring the indictment against himself ; when the blood of thy martyr Stephen xvas shed^ I also was stand- ing by^ and consenting imto his deaths and kept the rai- ment of them that slew hitn.^ Thus prepared they began the tragedy, whose example w^as soon followed by the multitude. All which time the innocent and holy man was upon his knees, sending up his prayers faster to hea- ven than they could rain down stones upon him, piously recommending his own soul to God, and charitably in- terceding for his murderers, that God would not charge this guilt upon them, nor severely reckon with them for it ; and then gave up the ghost, or as the sacred histori- an elegantly expresses \l^ fell asleep. So soft a ])ilIow is death to a good man ; so wihingly, so quietly does he leave the w orld, as a weary labourer goes to bed at nlf^ht. What storms or tempests soever may follow him while he lives, his sun, in spite of all the malice and cJiieJty of his enemies, sets serene and calm. Mark the perfect and behold the upright^ for the end of that man is peace,
21. Thus died St. Stephen, the protomartyr of the Christian faith, obtaining tcv Av-nS r^^mvijicv ^Tk^rivn (says Eu- sebius") a reward truly answering to his name, a cp own. He was a man in whom the virtues of a divine life were very eminent and illustrious ; a man full of faith and of the holy ghost. Admirable his zeal for God and for re- ligion, for the propagating whereof he refused no pains, declined no troubles or difficulties : his courage was not baffled either with the angry frowns, or the fierce threat- enings of his enemies, nor did his spirit sink, though he stood alone, and had neither friend nor kinsman to assist and comfort him ; his constancy firm and unshaken, not- withstanding temptations on the one hand, and the dan- gers that assaulted him on the other : in all the opposi-
\n Acts xxii. ,20. n H. Ec€l. i. 2. c. 1. p. 38.
92 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN.
tions that he met with, under all the torments and suffer- ings that he underwent, he discovered nothing but the meek and innocent temper of a lamb, never betraying one passionate and revengeful word, but calmly resigned up his soul to God. He had a charity large enough to cover the highest affronts, and the greatest wrongs and injuries that were put upon him; and accordingly after the example of his master, he prayed for the pardon of his murderers, even while they were raking in his blood"*. And the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availed much ; Heaven was not deaf to his petition, as appeared in the speedy conversion of St. Paul, whose admirable change we may reasonably suppose to have been the birth of the good man's dying groans, the fruit of his prayer and interest in Heaven. And what set off all these excellencies, he was not elated with lofty and arrogant conceits, nor thought more highly of himself than he ought to thinks esteeming meanly of, and prefer- ring others before himself. And therefore the author of the Apostolic^' Constitutions brings in the apostles commending St. Stephen for his humility, that though he was so great a person, and honoured with such sin- gular and extraordinary visions and revelations, yet never attempted any thing above his place, did not con- secrate the Eucharist, nor confer orders upon any ; but (as became a martyr of Christ t«v '?:/7«^'*v *iposrftfc<v, to preserve order and decency) he contented himself with the station of a deacon^ wherein he persevered to the last minute of his life.
22. His martyrdom happened (say some) three years after our Saviour's passion, which Euodius, bishop of An- tioch (if that epistle were his cited by "^Nicephorus, which
o Eg-o sum Jesus Ntizarenus, quem tu persequerls. Qiiid mihi & tibl ? Qjiare te erit^is contra me, ;id tanta mala qux commisisti in me ? Olim quidem debui perdere te,sed Stephauus rr.eus oravit pro te. O Saule luperapax, comedisti ; expecta paululum, ik dii!;ei-es. Dicam plane, elisus est filius perditionis. Nam si Sanctus Stephanus sicnon orasset, Ecclesia Paulum non haberet. Sed ideo erectus est Paulus. quia in terra inclinatus exaiiditus est Stephanus. Qiiod fe- cit persecutor, patitur prx:dicator. August. Serm. 1. de S. Steph. Tom. 10. .,vj/. 1168.
p Lib. 8, cap. 45. Concil. Tom, 1. Col. 509, q H. Etd. 1. 2. c. 3. p. 134.
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 93
jt is probable enough was not) extends to no less than seven years. Doubtless a very wide mistake. Sure I am 'Eusebius affirms, that it was not long after his ordi- nation to his deacon's office, and the author of the Ex- cerpta Chronologica published by 'Scaliger more particu- larly, that it was some few days less than eight months after our Lord's ascension. He is generally supposed to have been young at the time of his martyrdom ; and ^Chrysos- tom makes no scruple of styling him young man at every turn, though for what reason, I confesss I am yet to learn. He was martyred without the walls, near the gate on the north side, that leads to Cedar (as "Lucian tells us) and which was afterwards called S. Stephen's Gate; ancient- ly (say some) styled the Gate of Ephraim, or as others the Valley Gate, or the Fish Gate which stood on the east side of the city, where the place we are told is still show- ed, where S. Paul sat when he kept the clothes of them that slew him. Over this place (wherever it was) the empress ""Eudocia wifeof Theodosius, when she repaired the walls of Jerusalem, erected a beautiful and stately- church to the honour of St. Stephen, wherein she herself was buried afterwards. The great stone upon which he stood while he suffered martyrdom, is '^'said to have been afterwards removed into the church built to the honour of the apostles upon Mount Sion, and there kept with great care and reverence: yea, one of the stones wherewith he was killed, being preserved by some Christian, was afterwards (as we are ''told) carried into Italy, and laid up as a choice treasure at Ancona, and a church there built to the memory of the martvr.
23. The church received a great wound by the death of this pious and good man, and could not but express a very deep resentment of it : Devout men (probably pro- selytes) carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation for him. They carried^ or as the word
r Loc. Supr. laudat.
s Ad. c:dc. Chro. Euseb. p. 82. t Onit. in S. Steph.ubi .supr. u Ep.
de Invent. S. Steph.ap. ^ur. ad Au.^. 5. Bed. de loc S. c. 1. p. 36.T. T. 3. Broc. (lescript. Ttrr. s. p. m. 328. Convic. It in. 1. 2. c. 11, p. 249. v Euagr. H. Ecd. 1. 1. c. 22. p. 280. w Bed. ib. cap. 3. p. 364. x Bar. nou'in
Martyr. Rom. ad. Aug. 3. p. 475. ex Martyrol. S. Cvriac*
94 THE LIFfe OF ST. STEPHEN.
{^vvjxV'o-* properly signifies, they dressed him up, and pre- pared the dead body for the burial. For we cannot rea- sonably suppose, that the Jews being at this time so mightily enraged against him, the apostles would think it prudent further to provoke the exasperated humour by making a solemn and pompous funeral. His burial {if we might believe ''one of the ancients, who pretends it was revealed to him in a vision by Gamaliel, whom many of the ancients make to have been a Christian con- vert) was on this manner. The Jewish Sanhedrim, hav- ing given order that his carcass should remain in the place of its martyrdom to be consumed by wild beasts; here it lay for some time night and day, untouched either by beast or bird of prey. Till Gamaliel, compassionat- ing the case of the holy martyr, persuaded some religious Christian proselytes, who dwelt at Jerusalem, and fur- nished them with all things necessary for it, to go with all possible secrecy and fetch off his body. They brought it av/ay in his own carriage, and conveyed it to a place called Caphargamala (corruptly, as is pro- bable, for Caphargamaliel, otherv/ise ^^Sd:i 1B^ proper- ly signifies the Town of Camels) that is, the Village of Gamaliel, twenty miles distant from Jerusalem; where a solemn mourning vras kept for him seventy days at Gamaliel's charge, who also caused him to be buried in the east side of his own monument, where afterwards he was interred himself. The Greek Menceorv' adds, that his body w^as put into a coffin made of the wood of the tree called persea (this was a large beautiful Egyptian tree, as ^Theophrastus tells us, of which they were wont to make statues, beds, tables, &:c.) though how they came by such very particular intelligence (there being nothing of it in Gamaliel's Revelation) I am not able to imagine. ''Johannes Phocas, a Greek writer of the middle age cf
y Lucian, Ep. de invent. S. Steph. ubi. supr. & apud. Bar, ad. Ann. 415. \\ 371. vid. Nicepii.l. 14. c. 9- Tom.'2.p. 454.
a O -S-jT^ ■WSJeTO/J.dpl'TVi V a.VTl'TtaL'f.CV k.:tT«A(2oftiv, -T yKUKVV VWOV O.ViTTdt.itTdi'rO '
tTi TKTO (puTi:. MenreoM Grscor. t" k; tS iifKifxCp. sub lit. 2. 111. b Histor,
Plant. 1. 4. c. 2. p. 236. c 'Ex^g^s-. Tav *>'. roTtw, &c. c. 14. p. 19. Edit. Aliat.
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 95
the church, agrees in the relation of his interment by Ga- maliel, but adds, that he was first buried in Mount Sion, in the house where the apostles were assembled when our Lord came in to them, the doors being shut, after his re- surrection, and afterwards removed by Gamaliel to ano- ther place, which (says he)*^ was on the left side the city, as it looks towards Samaria, w^here a famous monastery was built afterwards.
24. But wherever his body was interred, it rested quietly for several ages, till we hear of its being found out in the reign of Honorius;' for then as ""Sozomen in- forms us, it was discovered at the same time with the bones of the prophet Zachary, an account of both which he promises to give ; and having spoken of that of the prophet, there abruptly ends his history. But what is wanting in him is fully supplied by other hands, espe- cially the forementioned ^Lucian, presbyter of the town of Caphargamala in the diocese of Jerusalem, who is very large and punctual in his account, the sum where- of (so far as concerns the present case, and is material to relate) is this. Sleeping one night in the baptisteri- um of his church (this was ann. 415. Honor. Imper. 2L) there appeared to him a grave venerable old man, who told him he was Gamaliel, bade him go to John bishop of Jerusalem, and will him to remove his remains and some others (whereof S. Stephen was the principal) that were with him from the place where they lay. Three several tim^es the vision appeared to him before he would be fully satisfied in the thing, and then he acquainted the bishop with it, w^ho comm.anded him to search after the place. After some attempts, he found the place of their repository, and then gave the bishop notice, who came and brought two other bishops, Eleu- therius of Sebaste, and Eleutherius of Hiericho, along with him. The monument being opened, they found an inscription upon S. Stephen's tomb- stone in deep letters, Celiel, signifying (says mine author) the servant
d Ibid. c. 15. p. 25. e H.Eccl. I. 9. c. 16, 17. p. 8i7. fVid. loc. supr,
cltat. 8c Phot. Cod. 171. Col. 383.
06 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN.
of God; at the opening of the coffin there was an earth- quake, and a very pleasant and delightful fragrancy came from it, and several miraculous cures were done by it. The remains being closed up again (only some few bones and a little of the dust that was taken out and bestowed upon Lucian) were with great triumph and rejoicing conveyed to the church that stood upon Mount Sion, the place where he himself wiule alive had discharged the office of a deacon. I add no more of this, but that this story is not only mentioned by ^Photius, and before him by ^MarceHinus Comes, sometimes chancellor or secre- tary to Justinian, afterwards emperor (who sets it down as done in the very same ) ear, and under the same con- suls wherein Lucian's epistle reports it) but before both by 'Gennadius presbyter of Marseilles, who lived Ann. 490, and many years before, and consequently not long after the time of Lucian himself; who also adds, that Lucian wrote a relation of it in Greek to all the churches, which Avitus, a Spanish presbyter, translated into Latin, whose epistle is prefixed to it, wherein he gives an ac- count of it to Balchonius bishop of Braga, and sent it by Orosius into Spain.
25. These remains (whether before or after, the reader must judge by the sequel of the story, though I question whether he will have faith enough to believe all the cir- cumstances of it) were translated to Constantinople upon this occasion. Alexander,^ a nobleman of ihe sejiatoi'ian order, having a particular veneration for the protomartyr, had erected an oratory to him in Palestine, commanding that himself, when dead, being put into a coffin like that of St. Stephen, should be buried by him. Eight years after, his lady (whose name, say some, was Juliana) re- moving to Constantinople, resolved to take her husband's body along with her ; but in a hurry she chanced to mis- take St. Stephen's coffin for that of her husband, and so set forward on her journey . But it soon betrayed itself by
gLoc. citat. h Marcel. Chron. Indict. 13. p. m. 17. i De Script.
Ecc. c 46, 47. p. 55.
k NiccpU. H. Ecc lib. 14. c, 9. p. 454. Tom. 2. Eadem habet Menseon Graec. Ahy^7. Tw ^ sub. lit 6'. II.
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 97
an extraordinary odour, and some miraculous effects ; the fame whereof flying before to Constantinople, had prepared the people to conduct it with great joy and so- lemnity into the imperial palace. Which yet could not be effected ; for the sturdy mules that carried the trea- sure, being come as far as Constantine's Baths, would not advance one step further. And when unreasonably whipped and pricked, they spake aloud, and told those that conducted them, that the martyr was to be reposed and interred in that place. Which was accordingly done, and a beautiful church built there. But certainly they that first added this passage to the story had been at a great loss for invention, had not the story of Balaam's ass been upon record in scripture. I confess Baronius* seems not over forward to believe this relation, not for the tri- fling and ridiculous improbabilities of it, but only because he could not well reconcile it with the time of its being first found out by Lucian. Indeed my authors tell us, that this was done in the time of Constantine, Metro- phanes being then bishop of Constantinople, and that it was only some part of his remains buried again by some devout Christians, that was discovered in a vision to Lu- cian, and that the empress Pulcheria, by the help of her brother Thcodosius, procured from the bishop of Jeru- salem the martyr's right hand, which being arrived at Constantinople, was with singular reverence and rejoicing brought into the palace and there laid up, and a stately and magnificent church erected for it, set off' with all rich and costly ornaments and advantages.
26. Authors'" mention another remove Ann. 439 (and let the curious and inquisitive after these matters recon- cile the different accounts) of his remains to Constanti- nople, by the empress Eudocia, wife to Theodosius," who having been at Jerusalem upon some pious and charita- ble designs, carried back with her to the imperial city the remains of St. Stephen, which she carefully laid up in the church of St. Laurence. The Roman'' martyrolo-
I Bar. ad Ann. 439. Tom. 5. p.'6Sl. m Marcell. chro. Indict. VII. p. 24. n Theodor. Lect. Jib. 2 p. 568. o Ad. VII. Maii. p. 284,
N
98 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN.
gy says, that in the time of Pope Pelagiiis, they were re- moved from Constantinople to Rome, and lodged in the Sepulchre of S. Laurence the martyr in agro VeranOy where they are honoured with great piety and devotion. But I find not any author near those times mentioning their translation into any of these western parts, except the little parcel which Oiosius^ brought from Jerusalem (whither he had been sent by St. Augustin, to know St. Hierom's sense in the question about the original of the soul) which he received from Avitus, who had procured it of Lucian, and brought it along with him into the west, that is, into Africa, for whether it went any further, I find not.
27. As for the miracles reported to have been done by the remains of this martyr, Gregory ,*! bishop of Tours, and the writers of the following ages have furnished the world with abundant instances, which I insist not upon, superstition having been the peculiar genius and humour of those middle ages of the church, and the Christian Vv orld miserably over-run with an excessive and immo- derate veneration of the reliques of departed saints. However, I can venture the reader's displeasure for rela- ting one, and the rather because it is so solemnly averred by Baronius*" himself. S. Gaudiosus, an African bishop, flying from the Vandalic persecution, brought with him a glass vial of St. Stephen's blood to Naples in Italy, where it was famous, especially for one miraculous effect, that being set upon the altar, at the time of mass, it was annually wont upon the third of August (the day where- on St. Stephen's body was first discovered) to melt and bubble, as if it were but newly shed. But the miracle of the miracle lay in this, that when pope Gregory the Xin. reformed the Roman kalendar, and made no less than ten days difference from the former, the blood in the vial ceased to bubble upon the third of August, ac- cording to the old computation, and bubbled upon that
p Vid. Avit. T7p. Praef. Ep. Lucian. Gennad. de script. Eccl. in Oros. c. 39. p. 53. M;ircpU. Chron. p. 17.
q De g-lor. Martyr, lib. 1. cap. 33. p. 42- <Sf<:. r Anuot. in Martyr. Rom. ad Aug. 111. p. 474.
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 99
that fell according to the new reformation. A great jus- tification, I confess (as Baronius well observes) of the Divine authority of the Gregorian kalendar, and the pope's constitutions : but yet it was ill done to set the Calendars at variance, when both had been equally justi- fied by the miracle. But how easy it was to abuse the world with such tricks, especially in these latter ages, wherein the artifice of the priests was arrived to a kind of perfection in these affairs, is no difficult matter to imagine.
28. Let us then look to the more early ages, when covetousness and secular interests had not so generally put men upon arts of craft and subtlety. And we are told, both by Lucian and Photius,' that at the first dis- covery of the martyr's body, many strange miraculous cures were effected, seventy-three healed only by smell- ing the odour and fragrancy of the body ; in some de- mons were cast out, others cured of issues of blood, tu- mours, agues, fevers, and infinite other distempers that were upon them. But that which most sw^ays w ith me, is what St. Augustin reports of these matters ; who seems to have been inquisitive about matters of fact, as the argument he managed did require/ For being to demonstrate against the Gentiles that miracles were not altogether ceased in the Christian church, among several others he produces many instances of cures miraculously done at the remains of St. Stephen, brought thither (as before we noted) by Orosius from Jerusalem, all done thereabouts, and some of them in the place where him- self lived, and of which (as he tells us) they made books, which were solemnly published, and read to the people, whereof (at the time of his writing) there w^re no less than seventy written of the cures done at Hippo (the place where he lived) though it was not full two years since the memorial of St. Stephen's martyrdom had be- gun to be celebrated in that place, besides many where- of no account had been given in writing. To set down
s Loc, ante citat.
t. De Civ. Dei. lib. 22. cap. 8. col. 1346. Sec. Tom. 5
wo THE LIFE Ol^ ST. STEPHEN,
all were to tire the reader's patience beyond all recovery^ a few only for a specimen shall suffice. At the Aquts Tihilitancd Projectus, the bishop bringing the remains of the martyr, in a vast multitude of people, a blind woman desiring to be brought to the bishop, and some flowers which she brought being laid upon them, and after ap- plied to her eyes, to the wonder of all she instantly re- ceived her sight. Lucillus, bishop of Synica, near Hip- po, carrying the same remains, accompanied with all the people, was suddenly freed from a desperate disease un- der which he had a long time laboured, and for which he even then expected the surgeon's knife. Eucharius, a Spanish presbyter, then dwelling at Calama (Avhereof Possidius, w^ho wrote St. Augustin's life, was bishop) was by the same means cured of the stone, which he had a long time been afflicted with, and afterwards recovered of another distemper, when he had been given over for dead. Martialis, an ancient gentleman in that place, of great note and rank, but a pagan, and highly prejudiced ^against the Christian faith, had been often in vain solici- ted by his daughter and her husband (both Christians) to turn Christian, especially in his sickness, but still re- sented tlie motion with indignation. His son-in-law went to the place dedicated to St. Stephen's martyrdom, and there with prayers and tears passionately begged of God his conversion. Departing, he took some flowers thence with him, which at night he put under his father's head, who slept well, and in the morning called for the bishop, in whose absence (for he was at that time with St. Augus- tin at Hippo) the presbyters w^ere sent for, at whose coming he acknowledged himself a Christian, and to the joy and admiration of all, was immediately baptized. As long as he lived he often had these words in his mouth, and they were the last words that he spake (for he died not long after) 0 Christ, receive my spirit, though utterly ignorant that it was the protomartyr's dying speech.
29. Many passages of like nature he relates, done at his own see at Hippo, and this among the rest. Ten children of eminence at Cccsarea in Cappadocia (all the
THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. ioi
children of one man) had for some notorious misdemean- our after their father's death, been cursed by their mo- ther, whereupon they were all seized with a continual trembling and shaking in all parts of their body. Two of these, Paul us and Palladia, came over into Africa, and dwelt at Hippo, notoriously known to the whole city. They arrived fifteen days before Easter, where they fre- quented the church, especially the place dedicated to the martyrdom of St. Stephen, every day, praying that God would forgive them, and restore them to their health. Upon Easter-day the young man, praying as he was wont at the accustomed place, suddenly dropt down, and lay like one asleep, but without any trembling, and awaking found himself perfectly restored to health, who was thereupon, with the joyful acclamations of the people, brought to St. Augustin, who kindly received him, and after the public devotions were over, treated him at din- ner, where he had the whole account of the misery that befel him. The day after, when the narrative of his cure was to be recited to the people, his sister also was healed in the same manner, and at the same place, the particu- lar circumstances of both which St. Augustin relates more at large.
30. What the judicious and unprejudiced reader will think of these and more the like instances there reported by this good father, I know not, or whether he will not think it reasonable to believe, that God might suffer these strange and miraculous cures to be wrought in a place where multitudes yet persisted in their gentilism and in- fidelity," and who made this one great objection against the Christian faith, that whatever miracles might be here- tofore pretended for the confirmation of Christian reli- gion, yet that now they were ceased, when yet they were still necessary to induce the world to the belief of Chris- tianity. Certain it is, that nothing was done herein, but w^hat did very well consist with the wisdom and the good- ness of God, who as he is never wont to be prodigal in multiplying the effects of his omnipotent power beyond
u Vid. Aug. loc. clt. initio cap.
102 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN.
a just necessity, so is never wanting to afford all neces- sary evidences and methods of conviction. That there- fore the unbelieving world (who made this the great re- fuge of their infidelity) might see that his arm was not grown effete and weak, that he had not left the Christian religion wholly destitute of immediate and miraculous attestations, he was pleased to exert these extraordinary powers, that he might baffle their unbelief, and silence their objections against the divinity of the Christian faith. And for this reason God never totally withdrew the pow- er of working miracles from the church, till the world was in a manner wholly subdued to the faith of Christ. And then he left it to be conducted by more human and regular ways, and to preserve its authority over the minds of men by those standing and innate characters of Divinity which he has impressed upon it. It is true that the church of Rome still pretends to this power, which it endeavours to justify by appealing to these and such like instances : but in vain and to no purpose ; the pretended miracles of that church being generally trifling and ludicrous, far beneath that gravity and seriousness that should work upon a wise and considering mind, the manner of their operation obscure and ambiguous, their numbers excessive and immoderate, the occasions of them light and frivolous, and after all, the things themselves for the most part false, and the reports very often so monstrous and extravagant, as would choke any sober and rational belief, so that a man must himself become the greatest miracle that believes them. I shall observe no more, than that in all these cases related by St. Au- gustin, we never find that they invocated or prayed to the martyr, nor begged to be healed by his merits or in- tercession, but immediately directed their addresses to God himself.
THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP,
THE DEACON AND EVANGELIST,
His birth-place. The confounding him with St. PhiUp, the apostle. His election to the office of a deacon. The dispersion of the church at Je- rusalem. Philip's preaching at Samaria. Inveterate prejudices be- tween the Samaritans and the Jews. The great success of St. Philip s ministry. The impostures of Simon Magus, and his embracing Chris- tianity. The Christians at Samaria contirmed by Peter and John. PhiUp sent to Gaza. His meeting with the Ethiopian eunuch. What Ethiopia here meant. Candace who. The custom of retaining eu- nuchs in the courts of the eastern princes. This eunuch who. His office. His religion and great piety. His conversion and baptism by St. Philip. The place where he was baptized. The eunuch's return, and propagating Christianity in his own country. Philip's journey to Cesarea, and fixing his abode there. His four daughters virgin-pro- phetesses. His death.
ST. PHILIP was born (as Isidore the Peleusiot plainly intimates) at Caesarea, a famous port town be- tween Joppa and Ptolemais in the province of Samaria ; but whether he had any other warrant for it than his own conjecture, I know not, there being some circum- stances however that make it probable. He has been by some both formerly and of later times, for want of a due regard to things and persons, carelessly confounded with St. Philip the apostle. A mistake of very ancient date, and which seems to have been embraced by some of the most early writers of the church. But whoever consi- ders that the one was an apostle and one of the twelve^ the other a deacon only, and one of the seven^ chosen out of the people, and set apart by the apostles, that the) themselves might attend the more immediate ministries of their office, that the one was dispersed up and down
104 THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP.
the country, wliile the other remained with the apostolical college at Jerusalem, that the one though commissioned to preach and to baptize, could not impart the Holy Ghost (the peculiar prerogative of the apostolical office) will see just reason to force him to acknowledge a vast difference between them. Our St. Philip was one of the seventy disciples, and St. Stephen's next colleague in the deacon's office, erected for the conveniency of the poor, and as- sisting the apostles in some inferior services and minis- trations : which shows him to have been a person of great esteem and reputation in the church endowed with mi- raculous powers, full of wisdom and of the Holy Ghost ; which were the qualifications required by the apostles in those who were to be constituted to this place. In the discharge of this ministry he continued at Jerusalem for some months after his election, till the church being scat- tered up and down, he was forced to quit his station : as what wonder if the stewards be dismissed, when the household is broken up ?
2. The protomartyr had been lately sacrificed to the rage and fury of his enemies : but the bloody cloud did not so blow over, but increased into a blacker tempest. Cruelty and revenge never say it is enough, like the tem- per of the devil, whose malice is insatiable and eternal. Stephen's death would not suffice, the whole church is now shot at, and they resolve (if possible) to extirpate the religion itself. The great engineer in this persecu- tion was Saul, whose active and fiery genius, and pas- sionate concern for the traditions of the fathers, made him pursue his design with the spirit of a zealot^ and the rage of a madman. He had furnished himself with a commission from the Sanhedrim, he soon put it m execution, broke open houses, seized whoever he met with that looked but like a disciple of the crucified Jesus, and without any regard to sex or age, beat, and haled them into prison, plucking the husband from the bosom of his wife, and the mother from the embraces of her children, blaspheming God, prosecuting and be- ing injurious unto men, breathing out nothing but slaugh- ter and threatenings wherever he came ; whence Euse
THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP. 105
bius calls it the first and most grievous persecution of the church.'' The church by this means was forced to retire, the apostles only remaining privately at Jerusa- lem, that they might the better superintend and steer the affairs of the church, while the rest were dispersed up and down the neighbouring countries, publishing the glad tidings of the gospel, and declaring the nature and design of it in all places where they came ; so that what their enemies intended as the way to ruin them, by break- ing the knot of their fellowship and society, proved an effectual means to enlarge the bounds of Christianity. Thus excellent perfumes, while kept close in a box, few are the better for them, whereas being once, whether casually or maliciously spilt upon the ground, the fra- grant scent presently fills all corners of the house.
3. Among them that were thus dispersed was our .evangelist, so styled not from his writing, but preaching of the gospel. He directed his journey towards the pro- vince of Samaria, and came into a city of Samaria (as those words may be read) probably Gitton, the birth- place of Simon Magus ; though it is safest to understand it of Samaria itself. This was the metropolis of the province, had been for some ages the royal seat of the kings of Israel, but being utterly destroyed by Hyrca- nus, had been lately re-edified by Herod the Great, and in honour of Augustus (^s/Sirof) by him by styled Sebaste, The Samaritans were a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, made up of the remains that were left of the Ten Tribes which were carried away captive, and those heathen co- lonies which the king of Babylon brought into their room ; and their religion accordingly was nothing but Judaism blended with Pagan rites, though so highly prized and valued by them, that they made no scruple to dispute place, and to vie with the w orship of the temple at Jerusalem. Upon this account there had been an an- cient and inveterate pique and quarrel between the Jews and them, so as utterly to refuse all mutual intercourse with each other. Hence the Samaritan woman wonder-
aH.Eccl. 1.2. c.l. p. 39. •o
106 TH£ LIFE OF St. PHILIP*
ed, that our Lord being a Jew, should ask drink of her^ who was a ivoman of Samaria ; for the Jtws have no deaU ings with the Samaritans*^ They despised them at the rate of heathens, devoted them under the most solemn execrations, allowed them not to become proselytes, nor to have any portion in the resurrection of the just, sufter- ed not an Israelite to eat with them, no nor to say amen to their blessing, nor did they think they could fasten Upon our Saviour a greater character of reproach, than to say that he was a Samaritan, and had a DeviL But God regards not the prejudices of men, nor always withholds his kindness from them, whom we are ready to banish the lines of love and friendship. It is true the apostles at their first mission were charged not to go in the way of the Gentiles, nor to enter into any city of the Samaritans,"^ But when Christ by his death had broken down the par- tition wall, and abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances,^ then the gospel came and preached peace as well to them that Were afar off, as to them that were nigh, Philip there- fore freely preached the gospel to these Samaritans, so odiouS) so distasteful to the Jews : to which he effectual- ly prepared his way by many great and uncontrollable miracles, which being arguments fitted to the capacies, and accommodated to the senses of the meanest, do easili- est convey the truth into the minds of men. And the suc- cess here was accordingly^ the people generally embrac- ing the Christian doctrine, while they beheld him cu- ring all manner of diseases, and powerfully dispossessing demons, w ho with great horror and regret were forced to quit their residence, to the equal joy and wonder of that place.
4» In this city was one Simon, bom at a tow^n not far off, who by sorcery and magic arts had strangely insinu- ated himself into the reverence and veneration of the peo- ple* A man crafty and ambitious, daring and insolent, whose diabolical sophistries and devices, had for a long time so amazed the eyes of the vulgar, that they really
b Joh. 4. 9. c MaUh, 10. 5. d Eph. ii. 14, 15. 8c seq.
THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP. lor
thought him (and for sueh no doubt he gave out himself) to be the supreme divinity, probably magnifying him- self as that divine power, that was to visit the Jews as the Messiah, or the Son of God; among the Samaritans, giving out himself to be the Father (as ^'Irenaeus assures us) Tov tt/jStov eeiv, as his countryman ''Justin Martyr tells us the people worshipped him, as the first and chiefest Deity ; as afterwards among the Gentiles he styled him- self the Holy Ghost. And w'hat wonder if by this train of artifices the people were tempted and seduced to ad* mire and adore him. And in this case things stood at St. Philip's arrival, whose greater and more unquestion- able miracles quickly turned the scale. Imposture can- not bear the too near approach of truth, but flies befofe it, as darkness vanishes at the presence of the sun. The people, sensible of their error, universally flocked to St. Philip's sermons, and convinced by the efficacy of his doctrine, and the power of his miracles, gave up them- selves his converts, and were by baptism initiated into the Christian faith : Yea the magician himself, astonish- ed at those mighty things which he saw done by Philip, professed himself his proselyte and disciple, and was baptized by him ; being either really persuaded by the convictive evidence of truth, or else for some sinister de- signs craftily dissembling his belief and profession of Christianity. A piece of artifice which ^Eusebius tells us his disciples and followers still observed in his time, who, in imitation of their father, like a pest or a lepro- sy, were wont to creep in among the Christian societies, that so they might w\x\\ the more advantage poison and infect the rest, many of whom having been discovered, had with shame been ejected and cast out of the church* 5. The fame of St. Philip's success at Samaria quickly flew to Jerusalem, where the apostles immediately took care to despatch some of their ow n number to confirm these new converts in the faith. Peter and John were sent upon this errand, w^ho being come, prayed for them,
e Lib. 1. c. 20. p. 115. f Apol, u. p. 69. vid. Tert. de prsescr. Hwret,
c 46. p. 219. g H, Eccl. lib. 2. c. 1. p. -39.
108 THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP.
and laid their hands upon them, ordaming, probably ,'some to be governors of the church, and mmisters of religion; which was no sooner done, but the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost fell upon them. A plain evidence of the apostolic power : Philip had converted and baptized them, but being only a deacon (as ^Epiphanius and 'jChrysostom truly observe) could not confer the Holy Ghost, this being a faculty bestowed only upon the apos- tles. Simon, the magician, observing this, that a power of working miracles was conveyed by the imposition of the apostles' hands, hoped by obtaining it to recover his credit and reputation with the people ; to which end he sought by such methods as were most apt to prevail upon himself, to corrupt the apostles by a sum of money, to confer this power upon him. Peter resented the mo- tion with that sharpness and severity that became him, told the wretch of the iniquity of his ojffer, and the evil state and condition he was in, advised him by repen- tance to make his peace with Heaven, that if possible, he might prevent the miserable fate that otherwise did attend him. But what passed between Peter and this magician both here, and in their memorable encounter at Rome (so much spoken of by the ancients) we have related more at large in another place.*'
6. Whether St. Philip returned with the apostles to Jerusalem, or (as ^ Chrvsostom thinks) staid at Samaria, and the parts thereabouts, we have no intimations left upon record. But wherever he ^vas, an angel was sent to him with a message from God, to go and instruct a stranger in the faith.'" The angel one would have thought had been most likely himself to have managed this busi- ness with success. But the wise God keeps method and order, and will not suffer an angel to take that work which he has put into the hands of his ministers. The sum of his commission was to go toward the South y
h Epi} ^. Hxres. XXI. p. 29. i Chrys. llotnil. 18. in Act. p. 580.
k Antiquit. App. Life of St. Pet. Sect. 8. n. 1. Sect. 9. u. 4. 1 Hnmil. 19. in Act. App. p. 5^5.
m E<Vs; ctyykKag QvvAvri}.ei/i/.CoiVio.iVisr ttS K}!£vy/ucJi]t' ^ uuth^ fXiV i kh^v'tIcvtac, T«V«? J'i KAhifAs-, TO Jg 5-a/^wac-cv «, ivTiJ^iv SiiayuTitt. Chrysost. ibid. p. 586.
THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP. 109
unto the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza^ which is desert : A circumstance, which whether it re- late to the way, or the city is not easy to decide, it being probably true of both. Gaza, was a city, anciently famous for the strange efforts of Sampson's strength, for his cap- tivity, his death, and the burial of himself and his enemies in the same ruin. It was afterwards sacked and laid waste by Alexander the Great, and as ^ Strabo notes, remain- ed waste and desert in his time ; the prophetical curse being truly accomplished in it, Gaza shall be forsaken ; a fate which the prophet Jeremiah had foretold to be as certain, as if he had seen it already done, baldness is come upon Gaza. ° So certainly do the divine threat- enings arrest and take hold of a proud and impenitent people ; so easily do they set open the gates for ruin to enter into the strongest and best fortified cities, where sin has once undermined, and stripped them naked of the divine protection.
7. No sooner had St. Philip received his orders, though he knew not as yet the intent of his journey, but he addressed himself to it, he arose and went : he did not reason with himself wdiether he might not be mista- ken, and that be a false and deluding vision that sent him upon such an unaccountable errand, and into a desert and a wilderness, ^\here he was more likely to meet with trees and rocks, and wild beasts, then men to preach to : but went however, well knowing God never sends any upon a vain or a foolish errand. An excellent instance of obedience ; as it is also recorded to Abra- ham's eternal honour and commendation, that when God sent his warrant, he obeyed and xvent out, not hioiuing whither he went. As he was on his journey, he espied coming tov.^ards him a man of Ethiopia : an Eunuch of great authority under Ca?idace queen of the Ethiopi- ans ; who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem to worship; though in what part of the world the country here spoken of was situate
n Ceog-rnph. I. 16. p. 759. o Zdch. 2. 4 Jer. 47. 5,
110 THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP.
(the word being variously used in scripture) has been some dispute. ^ Dorotheus and *^ Sophronius of old, and some later writers, place it in Arabia the happy, not far from the Persian Gulf; but it is most generally con- ceived to be meant of the African Ethiopia, lying under or near the torrid zone, the people whereof are describe ed by Homer, to be icrx<t^,oi i>,s^a>v, the remotest part of man- kind ; and accordingly St. Hierom'' says of this eunuch, that he came from Ethiopia, that is, ab extremis mundi JinibiiSy from the furthest corners of the world. The country is sometimes styled Cush, probably from a mixture of the Arabians, who inhabiting on the other side of the Red Sea, might send over colonies hither, who settling in these parts, communicated the names of Cush and Sabaea to them. The manners^of the peo- ple were very rude and barbarous, and the people themselves, especially to the Jews, contemptible even to a proverb ; Are ije not as the children of the Ethiopi- ans unto me, O children of Israel ^ saith the Lord?^ nay the very meeting an Ethiopian was accounted an ill omen, and an unlucky prognostication. But no country is a bar to Heaven, the grace of God that brings salva- tion plucks up the enclosures, and appears to all ; so that in every nation^ he that feareth God and xvorketh righteousness y is accepted -with him,
8. But we cannot reasonably suppose that it should be meant of Ethiopia at large, especially as parallel at this day with the Abyssine empire, but rather of that part of the country whose Metropolis w^as called Meroe, and Saba (as it is called both by Josephus,* and the Abyssines themselves at this day) situate in a large Island, encompassed by the Nile, and the rivers of Asta- pus, and Astoborra, as Josephus informs us, for about these parts it was (as Pliny" tells us) that queens had a long time governed under the title of Candace, a cus- tom (as we find in Strabo) first commencing in the time
p Doroth. Synops. p. 148, q Sophr. ap. Hier.de Scrip. Eccl. in Crescent.
r Hier. ad Paul. Tom. 3. p. 7 . s Amos 9. 7.
\ Antiq. Jud. i. 2. c. 5. p. oB. u Hibt. Nat. 1. 6. c. 29. p. 105.
THE LIFE OJ' ST. PHILIP. m
of Augustus, when a queen of that name having for her incomparable virtues been dear to the people, her suc- cessors in honour of her took the title of Candace, in the same sense that Ptolomy was the common name of the kings of Egypt, Artaxerxes of the kings of Persia, and Cassar of the Roman emperors. Indeed Oecumenius was of opinion that Candace was only the common name of the queen-mothers of Ethiopia, that nation not giv- ing the name of fathers to their kings, as acknowledging the sun only for their common father, and their princes the sons of that common parent/ But in this I think he stands alone, and contradicts the general vote and suf- frage of the ancients, which affirms this nation to have been subject to women; sure I am Eusebius''' express- ly says, it was the custom of this country to be govern, ed by queens even in his time. The name of the pre- sent queen (they say) was Lacasa, daughter of king Baazena, and that she outlived the death of our Saviour four years.
9. Among the great officers of her court she had one (if not more) eunuch, probably to avoid suspicion, it be- ing the fashion of those eastern countries (as it still is at this day) to'employ eunuchs in places of great trust and honour, and especially of near access to, and attendance upon queens. For however among us the very name sounds vile and contemptible, yet in those countries it is otherwise ; among the Barbarians (says Herodotus'') that is, the eastern people, eunuchs are persons of the greatest esteem and value. Our eunuch's name (as we find it in the confession made by Zaga Zabo,'' ambassa- dor from the Ethiopian emperor) was Indich, ^t/yc^^^?, a potent courtier, an officer of state of prime note and qua-
V 'Irsov <?« OT/ KatvJ'atxxv AiB-loTrt? Trla-aiv rh tS ^aL^iKio)? /uari^a ko.^o-iv, imtSn tth-. Ti^dL Aj3-<57ri? Sjc ctvct<|)j§«o-/v, tt?,^,' af oy?*? uii? «x/b ttrA^'uS'iSi^ta-ivy iKi^a Si r>iv /A)iTi^t K(fhii<ri KAvSctKitv. Oecumen. Comment, in Act. viii. p. 82.
w H. Eccl.l. 2. c. l.p.40.
^iav. Herod, lib. 8,
Auctor Sinnaces, insignifamllia ac perinde opibus, J'c proxime huic Abdii:^, ademptsc virilitatis, non despectum id apud barbaros, ultroque potentiiun habet. lacit.Ami. I. 6. c.31./>. 182.
y E-xtat. ad B?.oy. Annal. Eccl. ad Aim. 1524. n. XXXII. p. 543.
112 THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP.
lity, being no less than high treasurer to the queen ; nor do we find that PhiHp, either at his conversion or bap- tism, found fault with him for his place or greatness. Certainly magistracy is no ways inconsistent with Chris- tianity ; the church and the state may well agree, and Moses and Aaron go hand in hand. Peter baptized Cor- nelius, and St. Paul Sergius, the proconsul of Cyprus, into the Christian faith, and yet neither of them found any more fault with them for their places of authority and power than Philip did here with the lord treasurer of the Ethiopian queen. For his religion, he was, if not 2i pro- selyte of justice^ (as some think) circumcised, and under an obligation to observe the rites and precepts of the law of Moses, at least a proselyte of the gate (in which respect it is that one of the ancients calls him a Jew) ^entered al- ready into the knowledge of the true God, and was now come to Jerusalem (probably at the solemnity of the pass- over, or the feast of Pentecost) to give public and solemn evidences of his devotion. Though an Ethiopian, and many thousand miles distant from it, though a great statesman, and necessarily swallowed up in a crowd of business, yet he came to Jerusalem for to worship. No way so long, so rugged and difficult, no charge or inter- est so dear and great, as to hinder a good man from minding the concernments of rehgion. No slender and trifling pretences, no little and ordinary occasions, should excuse our attendance upon places of public worship : behold here a man that thought not much to take a jour- ney of above four thousand miles, that he might appear before God, in the solemn place of Divine adoration, the plnce which God had chosen above all othe; parts of the world, to place his name there.
10. Having performed his homage and worship at the temple, he was now upon his return for his own country ; nor had he left his religion at church behind him, or thought it enough that he had been there, but improved himself while travelling by the way : even while he sat in his chariot (as Chrysostom observes'*) he read the
z Pont. Diac. in vit. Cypr.p. 11. a Homil. 19. in Act. p. 585,
THE LIFE OF ST. PHILlI*. U3
scriptures. A good man is not willing to lose even common minutes, but to redeem what time is possible for holy uses: whether sitting, or walking, or journeying, our thoughts should be at work, and our afiections travelling towards heaven.^ While the eunuch was thus employ- ed, a messenger is sent to him from (psod : the best way to meet with Divine communications/isto be conversant in our duty. By a voice from Heaven, or some imme- diate inspiration, Philip is commanded to go near the chariot, and address himself to him.' He did so, and found him reading a section or paragraph of the prophet Isaiah, concerning the death and suiferings of the Mes< siah, his meek and innocent carria,y;e, under the bloody and barbarous violences of his enemies, who dealt with him with all cruelty and injustice. This the eunuch not well understanding, nor knowing certainly whether the prophet meant it of himself or aiigther, desired St. Phi- lip to explain it, who being courteously taken up into his chariot, showed him that all this was meant of, and had been accomplished in the Holy Jesus, taking occasion thence to discourse to him of his nativity, his actions and miracles, his sufferings and resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven, declaring to him the whole system of the Christian faith. His discourse wanted not its desired effect ; the eunuch was fully satisfied in the Messiahship and Divine authority of our Saviour, and wanted nothing but the solemn rite of initiation to make him a Christian proselyte. Being come to a place where there was conveniency of water, he desired that he might be baptized, and having professed his faith in the Son of God, and his hearty embracing the Christian religion, they both went down into the xvatcr, where Philip baptiz^ ed him, and washed this Ethiopian white,
11. The place where this eunuch was baptised, Beza,*' by a very wide mistake makes to be the river Eleutherit^, which ran near the foot of Mount Lebanon, in the mcst northern borders of Palestine, quite at the other end of
bTantus arnator Leg's clivinxq; scientiae ftvit, ut etiam in yehiculosacrss Hf.e. r..steg-ere.t, Hier. Ef tn. ad Pculin^ T-o- ^.7- q. Annot. ;n Act. VUI. 36.
114 THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP.
the country ; Brocard'' places it nearNehel Escol, or the Torrent of the Grape ^ the place whence the spies fetched the bunch of grapes ; on the left side of which valley, about half a league, runs a brook not far from Sicelech,in which this eunuch was baptized. But Eusebius'' andSt.Hi- erom^ (followed herein by AdOj^the martyrologist)more probably place it near Bethsoron (where we are told** it is still to be seen at this day) a village twenty miles distant from Jerusalem in the way between it and Hebron, near to which there was a spring bubbling up at the foot of a hilL St. Hierom adds, that it was again swallowed up in the same ground that produced it, and that here it was that Philip baptized the Ethiopian ; which was no soon- er done, but Heaven set an extraordinary seal to his con- version and admission into the Christian faith, especial- ly if it be true what some very ancient manuscripts add to the passage, that being baptized, the Holy Ghost fell upon himi furnishing him with miraculous gifts and pow- ers, and that Philip was immediately snatched away from him.
12. Though the eunuch had lost his tutor, yet he re- joiced that he had found so great a treasure, the know- ledge of Christ, and of the true way to Heaven, and he ■went on his journey with infinite peace and tranquillity of mind^ satisfied with the happines that had befallen him. Being returned into his country, he preached and propa- gated the Christian faith, and spread abroad the glad ti- dings of a Saviour : in which respect St. Hierom'' styles him the apostle of the Ethiopians^ and the ancients' gene- rally make that prediction of David fulfilled in him, Ethi- opia shall stretch out her hands unto God, and hence the Ethiopians are wont to glory (as appears by the confes- sion"' made by the Abyssinian ambassador) that by means
d Descript Terr. Sanct. p. m. 330. e Eviscb. de loc. Hebr. invoc Bicfirj<g. p. 66.
f Hieron. de ioc Hebr. in voc. Besur. g Ad. Martyr. VIII. Idas Jun. h Cotovic. Itin. 1. 2. c 9. p. 247
i v. 39. Thi-jfxct'Xyio-i i-riTTi^iv Ir) t Evv^x^y, a.yyix®' cTf Kt/§»8 iipTrcts-t t ^imv ■rci. Cod. Alexand. in Bibl. Reg-. Angl. aliique plures Codd. MSS. k Com. in Esai. 33. T. 5. p. 195.
I Kuseb. H. Eccl. 1. 2. c. p. 40. Cyril. Catech. XVII. p. 457. Psal. Ixviii. 31. © Apud Bzov. ubi supr. vid. Godi^n. de rebus Abyssin. 1. 1. c. 18. p. 113
THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP. lu
of this eunuch they received baptism almost the first of any Christians in the world. Indeed they have a con- stant tradition that for many ages they had the knowledge of the true God of Israel, from the time of the queen of Sheba (and Seba being the name of this country, as we noted before, makes it probable she might govern here) her name (they tell us) was Maqueda, who having learnt from Solomon the knowledge of the Jewish law, and re- ceived the books of their religion, taught them her sub- jects, and sent her son Meilech to Solomon, to be in- structed and educated by him : the story whereof may be read in that confession more at large. I add no more concerning the eunuch, than what Dorotheus" and others relate, that he is reported to have suffered martyrdom, and to have been honourably buried, and that diseases were cured, and other miracles done at his tomb, even in his timc.° The traditions of the country more parti- cularly tell us, that the eunuch being returned home, first converted his mistress, Candace, to the Christian faith, and afterwards by her leave propagated it throughout Ethiopia, till meeting with St. Matthew, the apostle, by their joint endeavours they expelled idolatry out of all those parts. Which done, he crossed the Red Sea, and preached the Christian religion in Arabia, Persia, India, and many other of those eastern nations, till at length in the island Taprobana, since called Ceylon, he sealed his doctrine with his blood.
13. God, who always affords what is sufficient, is not wont to multiply means further than is necessary. Phi- lip having done the errand upon which he was sent, was immediately caught and carried away, no doubt by the ministry of an angel, and landed at Azotus, anciently Ash- dod, a Philistine city in the borders of the tribe of Dan, famous of old for the temple and residence in it of the idol Dagon, and the captivity of the ark kept for some time in this place, and now enlightened with St. Philip's preaching, who went up and down publishing the gospel in all the parts hereabouts till he arrived at Cesarea, This
n Synops. ubi supr. vid. etiam Sophr. ap. Hisr. in Cresc, o Ap. Godign. loc. ciut. p. IIT".
ii6 The life of st. fhilip.
city Was heretofore called Tiirris Stratonis, and after- \vards rebuilt and enlarged by Herod the Great, and in honour of Augustus CjEsar, to whom he was greatly obliged, by him called Cesarea ; for whose sake also he erected in it a stately palace of marble, called HerocTs Judgment Hall ^w\\tr<tin his nephew, ambitious of greater honours and acclamations than became him, had that fa- tal execution served upon him. It was a place remai'k- able for many devout and pious men. Here dwelt Cor- nelius^ who together with his family being baptized by Peter, was in that respect the first fruits of the Gentile \vond ; hither came Agabus the prophetj who foretold Sti Paul his imprisonment and martyrdom : here St. Paul himself was kept prisoner, and made those brave and generous apologies for himself^ first before Felix, as afterwards before Festus and Agrippa* Here also our St. Philip had his house and family^ to which probably he now retired, and where he spent the remainder of his life ; for here many years after we find St. Paiil and his company, coming from Ptoiemais in their journey to Je- rusalem^ entering into the house of Philip the evangelist, xvhich was one of the seven^ and abiding with him ; and the same man had four daughters^ virgins, which did pro- phesyy These virgin prophetesses were endowed with the gift of foretelling future events ; for though prophecy in these times implied also a faculty of explaining the more abstruse and difficult parts of the Christian doctrine, and a peculiar abiUty to derrkonstrate Christ's Messiah- ship from the predictions of Moses and the prophets, and to express themselves on a sudden upon any difficult and emergent occasion^ yet can we not suppose these virgins to have had this part of the prophetic faculty, or at least that they did not publicly exercise it in the congrega- tion * This^ therefore, unquestionably respected things to come, and was art instance of God's accomplishing an ancient promise^ that in the times of the Messiah, he ^vould pour out of his spirit upon all flesh, on their sonSy and daughters, servants and handmaideris, and they should prophesy ^ The names of two of these daughters the.
p Act XXI. 8, 9. q Act. II. 17, 18*
THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIR 117
Greek Menaeon tells us were Hermione and Eutychis, who came into Asia after St. John's death, and the first of them died and was buried at Ephesus.
14. How long St. Philip lived after his return to Ce- sarea, and whether he made any more excursions for the propagation of the faith, is not certainly known. ""Do- rotheus, I know not upon what ground, will have him to have been bishop of Trazellis, a city in Asia : ""others confounding him with St. Philip, the apostle, make him resident at Hierapolis in Phrygia, where he suffered martyrdom, and was buried (say they) together with his daughters.' Most probable it is that he died a peaceable death at Cesarea, where his daughters were also buried, as some ancient^ Marty ologies inform us; where his house and the apartments of his virgin daughters were yet to be seen in "S. Hierom's time, visited and admired by the noble and religious Roman lady Paula, in her journey to the Holy Land.
r S^'nops. de Vit. App. loc. citat. Polycrat. ap. Euseb, 1. 3. c. 31. p. I02.
s Pro'cul. ib.p. 103. t Martvr. Rom. .id VI. Jun.p. 349 Martyr. Adon. VIIL Id. Jun. u Hier. Epitaph. Paul, ad Eusjtoch. T. 1. p. 172.
THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS, THE APOSTLE.
His surname loses. The title of Barnabas whence added to him. His country and parents. His education and conversion to Christianity. His generous charity. St. Paul's address to him, after his conversion. His commission to confirm the church of Antioch. His taking St. Paul into his assistance. Their being sent with contributions to the church at Jerusalem. Their peculiar separation for the ministry of the Gen- tiles. Imposition of hands the usual rite of ordination. Their travels through several countries. Their success in Cyprus. Barnabas at Lystra taken for Jupiter, and why. Their return to Antioch, Their embassy to Jerusalem about the controversy concerning the legal rites. Barnabas seduced by Peter's dissimulation at Antioch. The dissention between him and St. Paul. Barnabas's journey to Cyprus. His voy- age to Rome, and preaching the Christian faith there. His martyr- dom by the Jews in Cyprus. His burial. His body when first disco- vered. St. Matthew's Hebrew gospel found with it. The great pri- vileges hereupon conferred upon the See of Salamis. A description of his person and temper. The epistle anciently published under his name. The design of it. The practical part of it excellently managed under the two ways of hght and darkness.
1. THE proper, and (if I may so term it) original name of this apostle (for with that title St. Luke, and af- ter him the ancients constantly honour him) was loses, by a softer termination familiar with the Greeks for Jo- seph, and so the king's, and several other manuscript co- pies read it. It was the name given him at his circum- sion, in honour no doubt of Joseph, one of the great pa- triarchs of their nation, to which after his embracing Christianity, the apostles added that of Barnabas ; Josesy who by the apostles was sirnamed Barnabas^ either im- plying him a son of prophecy, eminent for his prophetic gifts and endowments, or denoting him (what was a pe-
120 THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS.
culiar part of the prophet^s office) a son of consolation^ for his admirable dexterity in erecting troubled minds, and leading them on by the most mild and gentle me- thods of persuasion: though I rather conceive him so styled for his generous charity in refreshing the bowels of the saints ; especially since the name seems to have been imposed upon him upon that occasion.** He was born in Cyprus, a noted island in the Mediterranean sea, lying between Cilicia, Syria, and Egypt; a large and fer- tile country, the theatre, anciently, of no less than nine several kingdoms, so fruitful and richly furnished with all things that can minister either to the necessity or pleasure of man's life, that it was of old called Macaria, or The Happy ; and the historian reports, that Fortius Cato having conquered this island, brought hence, greater treasures into the exchequer at Rome, than had been done in any other triumph. '^ But in nothing was it more happy, or upon any account more memorable in the re- cords of the church, than that it was the birthplace of our apostle, whose ancestors in the troublesome times of Antiochus Epiphanes, or in the conquest of Judea by Pompey and the Roman army, had lied over hither (as a place best secured from violence and invasion) and set- tied here.
2. He was descended of the tribe ofLevi^ and the line of the priesthood, which rendered his conversion to Christianity the more remarkable, all interests concur- ring to leaven him with mighty prejudices against the Christian faith. But the grace of God delights many times to exert itself against the strongest opposition, and loves to conquer where there is least probability to overcome. His parents were rich and pious, and finding jiim a beautiful and hopeful youth (says my 'Author, de- riving his intelligence concerning him, as he tells us, from Clemens of Alexandria, and other ancient writers)
n Ki/ cTsy.tT iJ.01 cIto v dfirn; ux>i4ha.i to oyc^at, (if ^po{ Ttsro Ikav^c w, ^ tTriT^Sii®' . Chrvsost. Momil. XI. in Act. App. p. 529.
bVjcl. Notker. Martyr, ad. HI. id. Jim. ap. Canis. Antiq. Lect. Tom, 6. cL. Flop, lib 3. C.9. ().67. d Alex. Mouncli. Eacom. S, 13.:riuib. inter vitas S, Metaph. extut. ap. sur. ad. Jun. XI. p. X70. vid. ib. n.4^ o, 6.
THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. 121
they sent, or brought him to Jerusalem, to be trained up in the knowledge of the law, and to that end committed him to the tutorage of Gamaliel, the great doctor of the law, and most famous master at that time in Israel, at whose foot he was brought up together with St. Paul ; which if so, might lay an early foundation of that inti- mate familiarity that was" afterwards between them. Here he improved in learning and piety, frequenting the temple, and devoutly exercising himself in fasting and prayer/ We are further told, that being a fre- quent spectator of our Saviour's miracles, and among the rest, of his curing the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda, he was soon convinced of his divinit}^, and persuaded to deliver up himself to his discipline and institutions : and as the nature of the true goodness is ever communicative, he presently went and acquaint- ed his sister Mary with the notice of the Messiah, who hastened to come to him, and importuned him to come home to her house, where our Lord afterwards (as the church continued to do after his decease) was wont to assemble with his disciples, and that her son Mark was that young man^^ who bore the pitcher of water, whom our Lord commanded the two disciples to follow home, and there prepare for the celebration of the passover.
3. But however that was, he doubtless continued with our Lord to the last, and after his ascension stood fair to be chosen one of the twelve, if it be true (what is generally taken for granted, though I think without any reason, ^Chrysostom I am sure enters his dissent) that he is the same with Joseph called Barsabas, who was put candidate with Matthias for the apostolate in the room of Judas. However that he was one of the Seventy 'Clemens Alexandrinus expressly affirms, as others do after him. And when the necessities of the church daily increasing, required more than ordinary sup- plies, he according to the free and noble spirit of those
f Ibid. n. VII, g Mark xiv. l.*?. h Loc. supr. citat. i Strom,
1. 2. p. 410. Euseb.H. Eccl. 1. 2. c. 1. p. 38. ck Clem. Hypot. \,7> Chi-o. Alex, pag. 530.
122 THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS.
times, having lands of good value, sold them and laid the money at the apostles* feet. If it be inquired how a Le- vite came by lands and possessions, when the Mosaic law allowed them no particular portions- but what were made by public provision, it needs no other answer than to suppose that this estate was his patrimonial inheritance in Cyprus, where the Jewish constitutions did not take place : and surely an estate it was of very considerable value, and the parting with it a greater charity than or- dinary, otherwise the sacred historian would not have made such a particular remark concerning it.
4. The church being dispersed up and down after St. Stephen's martyrdom, we have no certain account what became of him, in all probability he staid with the apos- tles at Jerusalem, w^here we find him not long after St. Paul's conversion. \ or that fierce and active zealot be- ing miraculously taken off in the height of his rage and fury, and putting on now the innocent and inoffensive temper of a lamb, came after some little time to Jerusa- lem, and addressed himself to the church. But they not satisfied in the reality of his change, and fearing it might be nothing but a subtle artifice to betray them, universally shunned his company ; and what wonder if the harmless sheep fled at the sight of the wolf that had made such havockofthe flock: till Barnabas presuming probably upon his former acquaintance, entered into a more fa- miliar converse with him, introduced him to the apostles, and declared to them the manner of his conversion, and what signal evidences he had given of it at Damascus in his bold and resolute disputations with the Jews.
5. There is that scatter eth^ and yet increaseth : the dis- persion of the church by Saul's persecution proved the nieans of a more plentiful harvest, the Christian religion being hereby on ail hands conveyed both to Jews and Gentiles. Among the rest some Cyprian and Cyrenean converts went to Antioch,^where they preached the gospel with mighty success ; great numbers both of Jews and proselytes (wherewith that city did abound) heartily em-
k Acts 11. ea.
THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. 123
bracing the Christian faith. The news whereof coming to the apostles at Jerusalem, they sent down Barnabas to take an account of it, and to settle this new plantation. Being come he rejoiced to see that Christianty had made so fair a progress in that great city, earnestly pressing them cordially and constantly to persevere in that excel- lent religion which they had entertained ; himself like a pious and a good man undergoing any labours and diffi- culties ; which God was pleased to crown w^ith answer- able success, the addition of multitudes of new converts to the faith. But the work was too great to be managed by a single hand : to furnish himself therefore with suit- able assistance, he went to Tarsus, to inquire for St. Paul lately come thither. Him he brings back with him to Antioch, w^here both of them continued industriously ministering to the increase and establishment of the church for a whole year together ; and then and there it was that the disciples of the holy Jesus had the honour- able name of Christians first solemnly fixed upon them,
6. It happened about this time, or not long after, that a severe famine (foretold by Agabus, a Christian prophet, that came down to Antioch) pressed upon the provinces of the Roman empire, and especially Judea, whereby the Christians, whose estates were exhausted by their con- tinual contributions for the maintenance of the poor, were reduced to great extremities. The church of An- tioch compassionating their miserable case, agreed upon a liberal and charitable supply for their relief, which they intrusted with Barnabas and Paul, ^\ hom they sent along with it to the governors of the churches, that they might dispose it as necessity did require. This charitable em- bassy the Greek rituals no doubt respect, when in the office at the promotion of the Magniis^Oeconomus, or high stew^ard of the church^ (whose place it was to ma- nage and dispose of the church's revenues) they make particular mention of the holy and most famous Barnabas the apostle, and generous martyr. Having discharged their trust, they returned back from Jerusalem to An-
1 Rltvial. Grjecor.in promot Oeconom, p. 281
124 THE LIFE OF Sf. BARNABAS.
tioch,"' brini^'ing along with tlicm John sirnamecl Mark, the bon of Mary, sister to Barnabas whose house was the sanctuary, where the cliurch found both shelter for their person.-s, and conveniency for the solemnities of their worship.
7. The church of Antioch being now sufficiently pro- vided of spiritual guides, our two apostles might be the better spared for the conversion of the Gentile worlds As they were therefore engaged in the duties of fasting and prayer, and other public exercises of their religion, the spirit of God by some prophetic afflatus or revelation made to some of tiic prophets there present, commanded that Barnabas and Saul should be set apart to that pecu- liar ministry, to which God had designed them. Ac- cordingly having fasted and prayed, lumds were solemnly laid upon them, to denote their particular designation to that scr\'ice. Imposition of hands had been a cere- mony of ancient date. Even among the Gentiles they were wont to design persons to public functions and of- fices by lifting up, or stretching out the hand, whereby they gave their votes and sullrages for those employ- ments. But herein though they did x«§0TerJv. stretch Jorth^ they did not lay on their hands ; which was the proper ce- remony in use, and of far greater standing in the Jewish church. When Moses made choice of the seventy elders to be his coadjutors in the government, it was (say the Jews) by laying hands upon them : and when he consti- tuted Joshua to be his successor, he laid his hands on him^ and gave him the charge he/ore all the co7igregation. This custom they constantly kept in appointing both ci- \\\ and ecclesiastical ofiicers, and that not only while their temple and polity stood, but long after the fall of their church and state. For so "Benjamin, the Jew, tells us, that in his time all the Israelites of the east, when they wanted a rabbin or teacher in their synagogues, were wont to bring him to the nSi^n t:^sn as they called him the Aixf<*>*Ti^;t«f» o^' head of the captivity^ residing at Baby- lon (at that time R, Daniel, the son of Hasdai) that he
m Act.xi:.2j. n Itlncrar.p. 73.
THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. 125
might receive nvd^ni Mr*,t:Dri power by vnposition of hands to become preacher to them. From the Jews it was, together with some other rites, transferred into the Christian church, in ordaining guides and ministers of religion, and has been so used through all ages and pe- riods to this day. Though the xh'^^^'^'' ^^^d the ;t«?^^oi"a re not of equal extent in the writings and practice of the church ; the one im.plying the bare rite of laying on of hands, while the other denotes ordination itself, and the entire solemnity of the action. Whence the "apostolical constitutor, speaking of the presbyter's interest in this affair, says xh'^^"^ « ;t«'§''7«v«, he lays on his hands, but he does not ordain; meaning it of the custom then, and ever since, of presbyters laying on their hands together with the bishop in that solemn action.
8. Barnabas and Paul having thus received a divine commission for the apostleship of the Gentiles, and takino- Mark along with them as their minister and attendant, immediately entered upon the province. And first they betook themselves to Seleucia, a neighbouring city seat- ed upon the influx of the river Orontes into the Mediter- ranean sea : hence they set sail for Cyprus, Barnabas's native country, and iu-rived at Salamis, a city heretofore of great account, the ruins whereof are two miles distant from the present Famagusta, where they undauntedly preached in the Jewish synagogues. From Salamis they travelled up the island to Paphos, a city remarkable of old for the worship of Venus, Diva potens Cypri, the tu- telar goddess of the island, who was here worshipped with the most wanton and immodest rites, and had a famous temple dedicated to her for that purpose, concerning which the inhabitants have a ^tradition that at St. Barna- bas's prayers it fell fiat to the ground ; and the ruins of an ancient church are still showed to travellers, and under it an arch, where Paul and Barnabas were shut up in pri- son. At this place was the court or residence of the prgetor, or president of the island (not properly 'avS^j
• llTrg.-Tct-
o Lib. 8. c. 28. col, 494. p Cotovic. Itln. 11. c. 16. p. 100.
126 THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS.
1^, the proconsul, for Cyprus was not a proconsular but a praetorian province) who being altogether guided by the counsels and sorceries of Bar- Jesus, an eminent magi- cian, stood off from the proposals of Christianity, till the magician being struck by St. Paul with immediate blind- ness for his malicious opposition of the gospel, this quickly determined the governor's belief, and brought him over a convert to that religion, which, as it made the best offers, so he could not but see had the strongest evidences to attend it.
9. Leaving Cyprus, they sailed over to Perga in Pam- phylia, famous for a temple of Diana ;'^ here Mark, weary it seems of this itinerant course of life, and the unavoid- able dangers that attended it, took his leave and returned to Jerusalem, which laid the foundation of an unhappy difference, that broke out between these two apostles af- terwards. The next place they came to was Antioch in Pisidia, where in the Jewish synagogue St. Paul, by an elegant oration converted great numbers both of Jews and proselytes, but a persecution being raised by others, they were forced to desert the place. Thence they pas- sed to Iconium, a noted city of Lycaonia, where in the synagogues they preached a long time with good success, till a conspiracy being made against them, they withdrew to Lystra, the inhabitants whereof upon a miraculous cure done by St. Paul, treated them as gods come down from heaven in human shape ; St. Paul, as being princi- pal speaker, they termed Mercury the interpreter of the gods ; Barnabas they looked upon as Jupiter, their sove- reign deity, either because of his age, or (as^'Chrysostom thinks) because he was a^ro ^^ ^ea? *|/;.trgsT>)f, for the gravity and comeliness of his person, being (as antiquity represents him) a very goodly man, and of a venerable aspect, where- in he had infinitely the advantage of St. Paul, who was of a verymean and contemptible presence. But the malice of the Jews pursued them hither, and prevailed with the people to stone St. Paul, who presently recovering, he and Barnabas went to Derbe, where, when they had con-
q Act. xiii. 13. V Homil. XXX. in Act. App. p. 361.
THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. 12r
verted many to the faith, they returned back to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, and so through Pisidia toPamphy- lia, thence from Perga to Attalia, confirming as they came back the churches which they had planted at their first going out. At AttaUa they took ship, and sailed to Antioch in Syria, the place whence they had first set out, where they gave the church an account of the whole suc- cess of their travels, and what way was made for the propagation of Christianity in the Gentile world.
10. The restless enemy of all goodness was vexed to see so fair and smooth a progress of the gospel, and therefore resolved to attempt it by the old subtle arts of intestine divisions and animosities : what the envious man could not stifle by open violence, he sought to choke by sowing tares.^ Some zealous converts coming down from Jerusalem to Antioch, started this notion, which they asserted with all possible zeal and stiffness, that un- less together with the Christian religion they joined the observance of the Mosaic rites, there could be no hopes of salvation for them. Paul and Barnabas opposed them- selves against this heterodox opinion with all vigour and smartness, but not able to beat it down, were despatched by the church to advise with the apostles and brethren at Jerusalem about this matter. Whither they were no sooner come, but they were kindly and courteously en- tertained, and the light hand of fellowship given them by the three great apostles, Peter, James, and John, and an agreement made between them, that wherever they came, they should betake themselves to the Jews, while Paul and Barnabas applied themselves unto the Gentiles. And here probably it was that Mai'k reconciled himself to his uncle Barnabas, which *one tells us he did with tears and great importunity, earnestly begging him to forgive his weakness and cowardice, and promising for the future a firmer constancy and more undaunted resolution. But they were especially careful to mind the great affair they were sent about, and accordingly opened the case m a public council convened for that purpose. And Peter
3 Ant XV. 1. t Alexand, IMonacli.ubisupr. n. XVo
128 THE LIEE OF ST. BARNABAS.
having first given his sentence, that the Gentile converts were under no such obligation, Paul and Barnabas ac- quainted the synod what great things God by their mi- nistry had wrought for the conversion of the Gentiles, a plain evidence that they were accepted by God without the Mosaic rites and ceremonies. The matter being de- cided by the council, the determination was drawn up into the form of a synodical epistle, which was delivered to Barnabas and Paul, to whom the council gave this elo- gium and character, that they were men that had hazarded their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, with Vv'hom they joined two of their ow^n, that they might car- ry it to the churches. Being come to Antioch they de- livered the decrees of the council, wherewith the church was abundantly satisfied ; and the controversy for the present laid asleep.
11. It was not long after this, that St. Peter came down to Antioch, " who loth to exasperate the zealous Jews, withdrew all converse with the Gentile converts, contrary to his former practice, and his late vote and suffrage in the Synod at Jerusalem. The minds of the Gentiles were greatly disturbed at this, and the convert Jews tempted by his example, abstain from all communion with the Gentiles ; nay, so strong was the temptation, that St. Barnabas himself was carried down the stream, and be- gan now to scruple, whether it was lawful to hold com- munion with the Gentiles, wAxh whom before he had so familiarly conversed, and been so eminently instrumental in their conversion to Christianity. So prevalent an in- fluence has the example of a great or a good man to de- termine others to what is good or bad. How careful should we be what course we take, lest we seduce and compel others to walk in our crooked paths, and load our- selves with the guilt of those that follow after us? St. Paul shortly after propounded to Barnabas that they might again visit the churches wherein they had lately planted the Christian faith : he liked the motion, but desired his cousin Mark might again go along with them, which St.
u Gal. 2. II.
THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. 129
Paul would by iio means consent to, having found by his cowardly deserting them at Pamphylia, how unfit he was for such a troublesome and dangerous service. This be- gat a sharp contest, and ripened into almost an irrecon- cilable difference between these two holy men. Which as at once it shows, that the best are men of like passions and infirmities with others, subject to be transported with partiality, and carried off with the heats of an irregular passion, so it lets us see hoxv great a matter a little fire kindles^ and how inconsiderable an occasion may minister to strife and division, and hazard the breach of the firmest charity and friendship. The issue was that the to ^rjy<§r TO Ueoy (as ^ Theodoret styles these two apostles) this sacred pair^ that had hitherto equally and unanimously drawn the yoke of the gospel, now drew several ways, and in some discontent parted from each other ; St. Paul taking^ Silas went to the churches of Syria and Cilicia, while Bar- nabas, accompanied with his cousin Mark, set sail for Cyprus, his own country.
12. Thus far the sacred historian has for the main gone before us, who here breaks off his accounts concerning him. What became of him afterwards we are left under great uncertainty. ^ Dorotheus and the ''author of the Recognitions, and some other writings attributed to St. Clemens, make him to have been at Rome, and one of the first that preached the Christian faith in that city ; for which yRaronius falls foul upon them, not being willing that any should be thought to have been there before St. Peter, though after him (and it is but good manners to let him go first) he is not unwilling to grant his being there. Leaving therefore the difference in point of time,, let us see what we find there concerning him. At his first arrival there about autumn he is said thus publicly to have addressed himself to the people, "Av/gccPaYx^To/ dyjcraTt. ** O ye Romans give ear. The Son of God has appear-
V Comment, in Esa. 11, p. 55. Tom. 2. w Doroth. Synops. Bibl. PP. Tom. 3. p. 148. col. 2.
X Recogn. lib. 1. c 7. p. 400. edit. Paris. 1672. CL-mentin. Homil. 1, c, 7- p> 549. ib. Epit. de Gest. B. Petr. c. 7. ib. p. 752. y Baron, ad Ann, 51. n. 52. 54. not. ad Martyr. Rom. p. 359.
R
130 THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS.
** ed in the country of Judea, promising eternal life to " all that are willing to embrace it, and to lead their lives *' according to the wDl of the father that sent him. *' Wherefore change your course of life, and turn from a *' worse to a better state, from things temporal to those *' that are eternal, acknowledge that there is one only God, *^ who is in heaven, and whose world you unjustly possess " before his righteous face. But if you reform, and <* live according to his laws, you shall be translated into " another world, where you shall become immortal, and ** enjoy the ineffable glories and happiness of that state. <i Whereas if you persist in your infidelity, your souls *• after the dissolution of these bodies, shall be cast into '' a place cf liames, where they shall be eternally torment- '* ed under the anguish of an unprofitable and too late '* repentance. For the present life is to e^'cry one the " only space and season of repentance." This was spoken w^ith great plainness and simpiicitj^ and without any artificial schemes of speech, and accordingly took with the attentive populacy : while the philosophers and more inquisitive heads entertained the discourse with scorn and laughter, (this indeed the "^ author of the Trt Khf^uiviicL and the ''Epitome ng^'i^av, somewhat differently from the Recognitions, refers to his being at Alexandria) setting upon him with captious questions and syllogisms, and sophistical arts of reasoning. But he taking no no- tice of their impertinent questions, went on in his plain discourse, concluding that he had nakedly laid these things before them, and that it lay at their door whether they would reject or entertain them ; that for his part he could not without prejudice to himself not declare them, nor they without infinite danger disbelieve them.
j 3. Departing from Rome, he is by different writers made to steer dinerent courses. The ''Greeks tell us he went for Alexandria, and thence for Judea : the ^vriters of the Roman church (with whom agrees "^Dorotheus in
?. Cl-ment. lb. c. 8, 9, 10. a Epitom. c. 8. & seq.
b CleiiT. & Epitom. ibid. Alexand. Monach. loc. cit. n. 1C>, 14. c Baron, ad An. 51. n. 54. Sanct. de prjed. S. Jac. Tr. 3. c. 1. n. 9. d Synops. in Eibl. PP. p. 148. T. 3.
THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. 131
this matter) that he preached the gospel in Ligiiria, and lounded a church at Milain, whereof he became the first bishop, propagating Christianity in all those parts. But however tliat was, probable it is that in the last periods of his life he returned unto Cyprus, where my *" author tells us, he converted many, till some Jews from Syria coming to Salamis, where he then was, enraged with fury set up- on him as he was disputing in the synagogue, in a corner whereof they shut him up till night, when they brought him forth, and after infinite tortures, stoned him to death. He adds (and the faith of it must rest upon the credit of the relater, who ^Baronius tells us, lived at the same time when his corpse was first found out) that they threw his body into the fire with an intent to consume it, but that the flames had not the least power upon it, and that Mark his kinsman privately buried it in a cave not far distant from the city, his friends resenting the loss with solemn lamentation. I omit the miracles reported to have been done at his tomb : the remains of his body were disco- vered in the reign of ^ Zeno the emperor (^' Nicephorus by a mistake makes it the 12th year of Anastasius) ann. 485, dug up under a bean or carob tree, and upon his breast was found St. Matthew's gospel written with Barnabas's own hand, which Anthemius the bishop took along with him to Constantinople, where it was received by tlie emperor with a mighty reverence, and laid ^ip with great care and diligence. The emperor as a testimony of his joy, honouring the epispocal see of Salamis with this pre- rogative, that it should be sedes cf.broyA<pAk®', independent upon any foreign jurisdiction, a privilege ratified by Jus- tinian the emperor, v/hose wife Theodora was a Cypriot : the emperor also greatly enriched the bishop at his re- turn, commanding him to build a church to St. Barna- bas over the place of his interment, which was accord- ingly erected with more than ordinary stateliness and magnificence. It is added in the ' story, that these re-
e Alexand. ib. n. XVIII. iD' seq. f Ad. Ann. 485. n. 4. p. 428.
g Thead. Lect. H. Eccl. 1. 2. p. 557. Alex'. Mon. loc clt. n. ZXXL h Niceph. H. Ecc. 1. 16. c. 37. |). 716. Tom. 2, 1 Alex, ut supr. n. XXIX, XXX.
132 THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS.
mains were discovered by the notice of St. Barnabas himself, who three several times appeared to Anthemius ; which I behold as a meer addition to the story, designed only to serve a present turn. For Peter sirnamed the Fuller, then patriarch of Antioch, challenged at this time a jurisdiction over the Cyprian churches as subject to his see ; this Anthemius would not agree to, but stiffly as- serted his own rights, and how easy was it to take this occasion of finding St. Barnabas's body, to add that of the appearances to him, to gain credit to the cause, and advance it with the emperor ? And accordingly it had its designed effect ; and whoever reads the whole story, and the circumstances of the apparitions as related by my au- thor, will see that they seem plainly calculated for such a purpose.
14. For his outward form and shape, he is thus re- presented by the ^ancients. He was a man of a comely countenance, a grave and venerable aspect, his eye-brows short, his eye chearful and pleasant, darting something of majest}^ but nothing of sourness and austerity, his speech sweet and obliging ; his garb was mean, and such as be- came a man of a mortified life, his gate composed and unallected, grave and decent. This elegant structure was but the lodging of a more noble tenant, a soul rich- ly furnished with divine graces and virtues, a profound humility, diffusive charity, firm faith, an immoveable constancy, and an unconquerable patience, a mighty zeal, and an unwearied diligence in the propagating of Chris- tianity, and for the good of souls. So entirely did he de- vote himself to an ambulatory course of life, so con- tinually was he employed in running up and down from place to place, that he could find little or no time to leave any writings behind him for the benefit of the church ; at least none that have certainly arrived to us. Indeed anciently there were some, and ^ Tertullian parti- cularly, who supposed him to be the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, an opinion generally rejected and thrown out of doors : there is also an epistle still extant under
k Id. ibid. n. XVIII.
i Ue pudicit. c. 20. p. 582. vld. Phll;istr. de Hxres. c. 60.
THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS 133
his name of great antiquity frequently cited by Clemens Alexandrinus, and his scholar Origen (to pass by others) the latter of whom styles it the Catholic Epistle of Bar- nabas,"" but placed by Eusebius" among the t* vo3-*, the wri- tings that were not genuine. The frame and contexture of it is intricate and obscure, made up of uncouth allegories, forced and improbable interpretations of scripture, though the main design of it is to show, that the Christian reli- gion has superseded the rites and usages of the Mosaic law. The latter part of it contains an useful and excel- lent exhortation managed under the notion of two rvays^ the one of light, the other of darkness, the one under the conduct of the angels of God, <f)aT^>a>oi iyrix^i, those il- luminating ministers as he calls them) the other under the guidance of the angels of Satan, the prince of the ini- quity of the age. Under the way of light he presses to most of the particular duties and instances of the Chris- tian and the spiritual life, which are there with admirable accuracy and succinctness reckoned up. Under that of darkness he represents those particular sins and vices, which we are to decline and shun ; and I am confident the pious reader will not think it time lost, nor repent his pains to peruse so ancient and useful a discourse. Thus then he expresses himself.
15. ** The way of life is this.** Whoever travels to- wards the appointed place, will hasten by his works to attain to it. x-Vnd the knowledge that is given us how to walk in the way is this : Thou shalt love thy Creator. Thou shalt glorify him who redeemed thee from death. Thou shalt be simple in heart, and being rich in spirit shalt not join thyself to him that walks in the way of death. Thou shalt hate to do that w^hich is displeasing unto God. Thou shalt hate all manner of hypocrisy Thou shalt not forsake the commandments of the Lord. Exalt not thyself, but be of an humble mind. Thou shalt not assume glory to thyself. Neither shalt thou take evil counsel against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not add bold-
m Contr. Gels. lib. 1. p. 49. n H, Eccl. I. 3. c. C5. p. 97- o Barmb;
Epist. p. 248. Edit. Voss.
ia4 THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS.
ness to thy soul. Thou shall not commit fornication, nor be guilty of adultery or buggery. Thou shalt not ne- glect God's command in correcting other men's impurity, nor shalt thou have respect of persons, when thou re- provest any man for his faults. Thou shalt be meek and silent, and stand in awe of the words which thou hearest. Thou shalt not remember evil against thy brother. Thou shalt not be of a double and unstable mind, doubting whe- thus or thus. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain.!* Thou shalt love thy neighbour above thy life. Thou shalt not destroy a child by abortion, nor make it away when it is born. Thou shalt not withhold thy hand from thy son, or from thy daughter, but from their youth shalt teach them the fear of the Lord. Be not desirous of thy neighbour's goods, nor covet much. Neither shalt thou heartily join with the proud, but shalt be numbered with the just and the humble. Entertain trials and temp- tations when they happen to thee, as instruments of good. Thou shalt not be double minded, nor of a deceitful tongue, for a double tongue is the snare of death. Thou shalt be subject to the Lord, and to masters, as God's re- presentatives, in reverence and fear. Thou shalt not command thy maid or man servant with bitterness and severity, those especially that hope in God, lest thou thy- self prove one that fearest not him, who is over both : For he came not to call men according to outward ap- pearance, but those whom his spirit did prepare. Thou shalt communicate to thy neighbour in all things, and shalt not call what thou hast thine own: For if ye mu-^ tually partake in incorruptible things, how much more in things that are corruptible. Be not rash with thy tongue, for the mouth is the snare of death. Keep thy soul as chaste as thou canst, stretch not forth thy hands to take, and shut them when thou shouldst give. Love all those that speak to thee the word of the Lord, as the apple of thine eye. Remember the day of judgment night and day. Seek out daily the faces of holy men, and searching by the word, go forth to exhort, and b}- it study to save
THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. 135
a soul. And with thy hands shalt thou labour for the redemption of thy sins. Delay not to give, nor begrutch when thou art charitable. Give to every one that asks thee; and thou shalt know wlio is the good recompenser of the reward. Thou shalt keep the things which diou hast received, neither adding to them, nor taking from them. Thou shalt ever hate a wicked person. Judge righteously. Make no schism. Make peace between those that are at difference, reconciling them to each other. Confess thy sins, and come not to prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of light.
16. '' But now the way of darkness is crooked and full of curses. For it is the way of eternal death attended with punishment : wherein are things destructive to their souls, idolatry, audaciousness, height of domina- tion, hypocrisy, double-heartedness, adultery, murder, rapine, pride, transgression, deceit, malice, arrogance, witchcraft, magic, covetousness, want of the fear of God. Persecutors of good men, haters of the truth, men who love but do not know the wages of righteousness. Per- sons that adhere not to what is good, nor who by righte- ous judgment regard the case of the widow and the or- phan ; watchful not for the fear of God, but for what is evil : great strangers to meekness and patience. Lovers of vanity, greedy of revenge, who compassionate not the poor, nor endeavour to relieve the oppressed, prone to detraction, not knovving their maker, murderers of chil- dren, defacers of God's workmanship, such as turn away themselves from the needy, add affliciion to the afflicted, plead for the rich, and unjustly judge the poor, sinners altogether." And having thus described these two dif- ferent ways, he concludes his discourse with a hearty and passionate exhortation, that since the time of rewards and punishments was drawing on, they would mind these things, as those that were taught of God, searching after what God required of them, and setting themselves to the practice of it, that they might be saved at the day of judg- ment. I have no more to remark concerning this ex-
136 THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS.
cellent person, than to add the character given of him by a pen that could not err,"* he was a good man ^ full of faith y and of the Holy Ghost,
q Acts XI. 24.
THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY,
THE APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST.
St. Timothy's country and kindred. His religious education. The great advantages of an early piety. Converted to Christianity by St. Paul, and made choice of to be his companion. Circumcised by St. Paul, and "why. This no contradicting St. Paul's doctrine concerning Circumci- sion. His travels with St. Paul for the propagation of the faith. His return from Thessalonica, and St. Paul's two epistles to that church. St. Timothy consecrated bishop of Ephesus. The consent of antiquity herein. Ordination in those times usually done by prophetic designa- tion, and the reason of it. Timothy's age inquired into. The import > ance of vi& and tiornc (let no man despise thy youth,) the words showed to be used by the best writers for a considerable age. St. Paul's first and second epistle to him, and the importance of them. The manners of the Ephesians noted. Their festival called KAJAyuiym. St. Timothy's martyrdom. The time of his death, place of his burial, and translation of his body. His weak and infirm constitution. His great abstinence, and admirable zeal. St. Paul's singular affection for him. Different from Timotheus in St. Denys the Areopagite. Another Timothy, St. Paul's disciple, martyred under Antoninus.
1. ST. TIMOTHY was, as we may probably conceive, a Lycaonian, born at Lystra, a noted city of that province. He was a person in whom the Jew, the Gentile, and the Christian met altogether. His father was by birth a Greek, by religion a Gentile, or if a proselyte, at most but :2i:'*n ^^ a proselyte of the gate, who did not oblige themselves to circumcision, and the rites of Moses, but only to the observance of the sevcji precepts of the so?is of Noah :"" his mother Eunice, daughter to the devout and pious Lois, was a Jewess, who yet scrupled not to many with this
Homil. 1. in 2 Tim. p, 1627.
138 THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY.
Greek. An argument that the partition wall now totter- ed, and was ready to fall, when Jew and Gentile began thus to match together. His mother and grandmother were women very eminently virtuous and holy, and seem to have been amongst the first that were converted to the Christian faith. Nor was it the least instance of their piety, the cai'e they took of his education, instructing him in the knowledge of divine things, and seasoning his tender years with virtuous and sober principles, so that from a child he was acquainted -with the holy scriptures^ whereby he was admirably prepared for the reception of Christianity, and furnished for the conduct of a strict pious life *" And indeed religion never thrives more kindly, than when it is planted betimes, and the foundations of it laid in an early piety. For the mind being then soft and tender, is easily capable of the best impressions, which by degrees insinuate themselves into it, and insensibly re- concile it to the difficulties of an holy life, so that what must necessarily be harsh and severe to a man that endea- vours to rescue himself from an habitual course of sin, the other is unacquainted with, and goes on smoothly in a way that is become pleasant and delightful. None start with greater advantages, nor usually persevere with a more vigorous constancy, than they who remember their Creator in the days of their youth, and sacrifice the first fruits of their time to God and to religion, before corrupt alFections have clapt a bias upon their inclinations, and a train of vices depraved, and in great measure laid asleep the natural notions of good and evil.
2. Prepared by so excellent a culture in the Jewish re- ligion, God was pleased to transplant him into a better soil. St. Paul in pursuance of his commission to preach the gospel to the Gentiles had come as far as Antioch in Pisidia, thence to Iconium, and so to Lystra, where the miraculous cure of an impotent cripple made way for the entertainment of the Christian doctrine. Among others there converted, we are*" told were St. Timothy's
b 2 Tim. ili. 15.
C. Y\r,y.', i p:'^a ;caA;Ka>ec3-i3t;, Tc\ vcyJ/jLn Ti;,'£jr :rit.ihiA;. PluL de liber, educ. pag. 4.
THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY. 139
parents, who courteously treated and entertained the apostle at their house, wholly resigning up their son to his care and conduct/ About two years after in his review of these late plantations he came again to Lystra, where he made choice of Timothy,^ recommended to him by the universal testimony of the Christians thereabouts, as an evangelist, to be his assistant and the companion of his travels, that he might have somebody always with him, with whom he could intrust matters of importance, and whom he might despatch upon any extraordinary affliir and exigence of the church. Indeed Timothy was not circumcised, for this being a branch of the paternal au- thority, did not lie in his mother's power : tliis was no- toriously known to all the Jews, and this St. Paul knew would be a mighty prejudice to his ministry wherever he came. For the Jews being infinitely zealous for cir- cumcision, would not with any tolerable patience endure any man to preach to them, or so much as to converse with them, who was himself uncircumcised. That this obstacle therefore might be removed, he caused him to be circumcised, becoming in lawful matters all things to all men^ that he might gain the mor^e. Admirable (says ^Chrysostom) the wisdom and prudence of St. Paul, who had this design in it, nrg^Te^sv, 'ivx 'sn^ijo^ut.v jc^6;>.«, he circumci- sed him, that he might take away circumcision, that is, be the more acceptable to th£ Jews, and by that means the more capable to undeceive them in their opinion of the necessity of those legal rites. At other times we find, him smartly contending against circumcision as a justifi- cation of the Mosaic institutions, and a virtual undermin- ing the great ends of Christianity. Nor did he in this instance contradict his own doctrine, or unwarrantably symbolize with the Jews ; it being only (as ^ Clemens of Alexandria observes concerning this passage) a prudent condescension to the present humour of the Jews, whom he was unwilling to disoblige, and make them wholly flj
d S. Metaphr. de S. Tlmoth. ap. Sur. ad Jnn. 24. n. 11. p. 411.
e Act. XVI. 1, 2, 3. f Homil. XXXIV, m Act. App. p. 684.
g Stromat. lib. 7. pag. 730.
140 THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY.
ofF, by a too sudden and violent rending them from the circumcision in the flesh, to bring them over to the cir- cumcision of the heart. So that he who thus accommo- dates himself for the salvation of another, can no ways be charged with dissimulation and hypocrisy; seeing he does that purely for the advantage of others, which he w^ould not do for any other reason, or upon account of the things themselves : this being tS <pixAvbga>7ni ^ ipixoBia TTAihwU the part of a wise and kind instructor, who is atrue lover of God, and the souls of men.
3. St. Paul thus fitted with a meet companion, for- wards they set in their evangelical progress, and having passed through Phrygia and Galatia, came down to Troas, thence they set sail for Samothracia, and so to Neapolis, whence they passed to Philippi, the metropolis of that part of Macedonia : where being evil entreated by the magis- trates and people, they departed to Thessalonica, whence the fury and malice of the Jews made them fly to Bersea. Here they met with people of a more generous and manly temper, ready to embrace the Christian doctrine, but yet not till they had first compared it with the predictions which the prophets had made concerning the Messiah. But even here they could not escape the implacable spirit of the Jews, so that the Christians were forced privately to conduct St. Paul to Athens, while Silas and Timothy, not so much the immediate objects of their spite and cru- elty, staid behind, to instruct and confirm the converts of that place. Whether they came to him during his stay at Athens, is uncertain iSt.Luke takes no further no- tice of them, till their coming to him at Corinth, his next remove. Where at their first arrival (if it was not at Athens) St. Paul despatched away Timothy to Thessalo- nica,^ to inquire into the state of Christianity in that city, and to confirm them in the belief and profession of the gospel,' for he seems to have had a more peculiar kind- ness for that church, having since his last being there, more than once resolved himself to go back to them, but that the great enemy of souls had still thrown some rub in the way to hinder him.
h 1 Thess. iii. 1, 2, 3. 12 Thess. v. 17, 13, 19,
THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY. Ul
4. From Thessalonica Timothy'' returned with the welcome news of their firmness and constancy, notwith- standing the persecutions they endured, their mutual charity to each other, and particular affection to St. Paul ; news, wherewith the good man was infinitely pleased : As certainly nothing can minister greater joy and satis- faction to a faithful guide of souls, than to behold the welfare and prosperity of his people. Nor did his care of them end here, but he presently writes his first epis- tle to them, to animate them under their sufferings, and not to desert the Christian religion, because the cross did attend it, but rather to adorn their Christian profession by a life answerable to the holy designs and precepts of it. In the front of this epistle he inserted not only his own name, but also those of Silas and Timothy, partly to reflect the greater honour upon his fellow- workers, partly that their united authority and consent might have the stronger influence and force upon them. The like he did in a second epistle, which not long after he sent to them, to supply the w^ant of his personal presence, where- of in his former he had given them some hopes, and which he himself seemed so passionately to desire. Eighteen months at least they had continued at Corinth, when St. Paul resolved upon a journey to Jerusukm, where he staid not long, but went for Antioch, and hav- ing travelled over the countries of Galatia and Phrygia to establish Christianity lately planted in those parts, came to Ephesus, where though he met with great opposition, yet he preached with greater success, and w^as so wholly swallowed up with the concerns of that city, that though he had resolved himself to go into Macedonia, he was forced to send Timothy and Erastus in his stead, who having done their errand, returned to Ephesus, to assist him in promoting the affairs of religion in that place.
5. St. Paul having for three years resided at Ephesus and the parts about it, determined to take his leave, and depart for Macedonia. And now it was (as himself plainly intimates,' and the ancients generally conceive)
k 1 Thess. iii. 6, 7, b" seq. 11 Tim. i. 3.
142 THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY.
that he constituted Timothy bishop and governor of that church : he was the first bishop (says '"Eusebius) of the province or diocess of Ephesus ; he did ^§«T(sr r.^i^r^ '£7r/rK0T«<rrt/. says thc "author in Photius,^r^^ c;c^ as bkhop of Ephesus^ and in the council of Chaicedon, 27 bishops are said successively to have sitten in that chair, whereof St. Timothy was the first. In the "Apostolical Consti- tutions he is expressly said to have been ordained bishop of it by St. Paul, or as he in ^Photius expresseth it a lit- tle more after the mode of his time, he ivas ordained and enthroned (or installed) bishop of the metropolis of the Ephesians by the great St, Paid. Ephesus was a great and populous city, and the civil government of the pro- consul, who resided there reached over the whole Ly- dian or proconsular Asia. And such in proportion the ancients make the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of that church, •^S. Chrysostom affirming it to be plain and evident, that St. Timothy had the church, or rather the whole nation of Asia committed to him ; to him (says 'Theodoret) di- vine St. Paul committed T^'AcrkcT«v£^/^i^«cty, the care and the charge of Asia ; upon which account a little after 'he calls him the apostle of the Asians.^ As for the manner of his ordination, or rather designation to the ministeries of religion, it was by particular and extraordinary de- signation, God immediately testifying it to be his will and pleasure ; thence it is said to have been done ^at^ t*? wgart^So-rt? 7r^o<p>f]iU(, ^according to some preceding predictions concerning him^ and that he received it not only by the laying on ofhands^ but by prophecy^ that is, as "Chrysos- tom truly explains it, by the Holy Ghost; it being part of the prophetic office (as he adds, and especially it w^as so at that time) not only to foretell future events, but to declare things present, God extraordinarily manifesting whom he would have set apart for that weighty office. Thus Paul and Barnabas were separated by the special
m H. Eccl. 1. 3. c. 4. p. 7^. n Martyr. Tim. ap. Phot. Cod. CCLIV.
col. 1401. o Cone Chalced. Act. XI. Conc.'Tom. 4. col. 609. p Lib. 7. c.
47. col. 451. q Homil.XV. in ITim.p. 1606. r Arg-um. in 1 ad Tim. p.
463. sCom. inlTlm.S.p. 475.T. 3. 1 1 Tim. i. 18. 1 Tim. iv. 14.
u Homll.V. inl Tim. p. 1545.
THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY. 143
dictate of the Holy Ghost, and of the governors of the Ephesine churches that met at Miletus, it is said, that the Holy Ghost had made them bishops^ or overseers of the church. And this way of election by way of prophetic revelation continued in use at least during the apostolic age . ""Clemens in his epistle to the Corinthians, tells us that the apostles, preaching up and down cities and coun- tries, constituted their first fruits to be the bishops and deacons of those who should believe, <^o>cijucia-*vii;Ti^ TrvrSfxAX making trial of them by the spirit: and another '"Clemens re- ports of St. John, that visiting the neighbouring churches about Ephesus, he ordained bishops and such as were signified^ or pointed out to him, by the spirit,
6. This extraordinary and miraculous way of choosing bishops and ecclesiastic officers, besides other advantages, begat a mighty reverence and veneration for the gover- nors of the church, who were looked upon as God's choice, and as having the more immediate character of heaven upon them. And especially this way seemed more necessary for St. Timothy than others, to secure him from that contempt which his youth might otherwise have exposed him to. For that he w^as but young at that time, is evident from St. Paul's counsel to him, so to de- mean himself, that no man might despise his youth .•'' the governors of the church in those days were ri§e<7/2^T£g^/, in respect of their age as well as office, and indeed there- fore styled elders, because they usually were persons of a considerable age that w^ere admitted into the orders of the church. This Timothy had not attained to. And yet the word vsot*,?, youth, admits a greater latitude than v/e in ordinary speech confine it to. ^Cicero tells us of himself, that he was adolescentulus, but a very youth when he pleaded Roscius's cause ; and yet ^A. Gelliuij proves him to have been at that time no less than twenty- seven years old. Alexander the son of Aristobulus is called \iAvio-K(^, a youths at the time of his death, when y^^^ he vv^as above thirty. liiero in ^Polybius is styled ^■^ij..ii
V Epist. ad Corln. pag-. 54. \v Clem. Al. lib t/co Trxi^Vr^ (j/(^i ^'^\(^ . ap. Euseb. H. Eccl. 1. 3. c 23. p. 92. x 1 Tim. iv. 12 y InOiat r. p. 265.
Tom. 1. z Noct. Atrit. 1. U. c 23. n. 383. a Jv>seph. AriUu. i. l4. c, 13. n.
480.
144 THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY.
y'i®', a very young matiy whom yet Casaubon proves to have been thirty-five years of age -^ and the same historian speaking of T. Flaminius's making war upon Phihp of Macedon, says he was n®- KOfxtj^, a very young man, for that he was not above thirty years old : it being (as Ca- saubon observes) the custom both of Greek and Latin writers to extend the juventus, or youthful age from the thirtieth till the fortieth year of a man's life. To which we may add what 'Grotius observes, that v^Wd? answering to the Hebrew nninri denotes the military age,*' all that ci- vil and manly part of a man's life that is opposed to old age; so that Timothy's youth, without any force or violence of the word, might very well consist with his being at least thirty, or five and thirty years of age, and he so styled only comparatively with respect to that weighty function, which was wont to be conferred upon none but grave and aged men. But of this enough.
7. St. Timothy thus fixedat Ephesus,'' did yet accom- pany St. Paul some part of his journey into Greece, at least went to him thither upon some urgent affairs of the church, and then returned to his charge. Not long after which St. Paul wrote his Jirst epistle to him, to encourage him in his duty, and direct him bow to behave himself in that eminent station wherein he had set him. And be- cause the success of the ministry does in a great mea- sure depend upon the persons employed in it, he gives him more particular rules how to proceed in this matter, and how the persons ought to be qualified, whom he admitted to that honourable and important office,
K^lh tCttbo tov he^np^tx.iv 0sv *, hoycv dYdt.fx.xta)c S'if^sa^v, aS ^NicCpllOrUS
speaks, excellently representing in that epistle, as in a short draught, the life and conversation of the sacred governors of the church, describing the tempers and man- ners of those Vvho are appointed to be the guides and ministers of religion. Well he knew also that crafty teachers and false apostles were creeping into the church, whose principles and practices he remarks, warning him
b Hist. 1. 1. p. 11. Edit. 8. nh\ vid. Casnub. Comment, p. 129. & ejusd. extr- cit ad BuriMi. Appar. n. 99. p. 154. ' c Amiot. in loc. d Acts xx. 2, 3. &Co e K. Etc. lib. 2. c. 34. p. 189.
THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY. 145
to beware of them, and to stand continually upon his guard against them. The holy man followed his instruc- tions, and was no doubt faithful to his trust, which he managed with all care and diligence. About six years after, St. Paul being then a prisoner at Rome, wrote a second epistle to him (for that this epistle was written at his first coming to Rome, we have showed elsewhere^) to excite him to mighty care and fidelity in his business, and in undermining the false and subtle insinuations of seducers. In it he orders Timothy to come to him with all speed toRome,^who accordingly came, and joined with himinthe several epistles written thence to the Philippians, Colossians, and to Philemon, as his name in the front of those epistles does abundantly declare. During his stay at Rome he was, upon some occasion, cast into prison, and thence released and set at liberty about the time of St. Paul's enlargement, as he clearly intimates in the close of his epistle to the Hebrews , ''after which he came back to Ephesus nor is it probable that he any more removed from thence, till his translation into Heaven. And here it was that he became acquainted with St. John, whose apostolical province mainly lay in Asia, and the parts about Ephesus; and so the VActs under the name of Polycrates, one of his successors (doubtless of good an- tiquity, being those mentioned and made use of by Pho- tius) report, that he conversed with, and was an auditor of St. John the divine, who lay in the bosom of our Lord. 8. The Ephesians were a people of great looseness and impiety, their manners were wanton and effeminate, prophane and prodigal : they banished Hermodorus only because be was more sober and thrifty than the rest, enacting a decree Let none of ours be thrifty.^ They were strangely bewitched with the study of magic and the arts of sorcery and divination ; miserably overrun with idolatry, especially the temple and worship of Diana, for which they were famous through the whole world. Among their many idolatrous festivals they had one
f Antiq. Apost, Life of St. Pau^ sect. 7. n. 5. g 2 Tim. iv. 9. h Hebr. iii. 23, 24. i Ap. Bolland. Jam:arXXIV. k Strab. Geogr. lib. 14.
146 THE £lFE OF ST. TIMOTHY.
called ^KATArnnoN, which was celebrated after this manner; habiting themselves in an antic dress, and covering their faces with ugly vizors, that they might not be known, with clubs in their hands, they carried idols in a wild and frantic manner up and down the more eminent places of the city, singing certain songs and verses to them; and without any compassion or respect either to age or sex, setting upon all persons that they met, they beat out their brains, glorying in it as a brave atchievement, and a great honour to their gods. This cursed and execrable custom gave just offence to all pious and good men, es- pecially St. Timothy, whose spirit was grieved to see God so openly dishonoured, human nature sunk into such a deep degeneracy, and so arbitrarily transported to the most savage barbarities by the great murderer of souls. The good man oft endeavoured to reclaim them by lenitive and mild entreaties ; but alas gentle physic works little upon a stubborn constitution. When that would not do, out he comes to them into the midst of the street upon one of these fatal solemnities, and reproves them with some necessary sharpness and severity. But cruelty and licentiousness are too headstrong to brook opposition : impatient of being controlled in their wild extravagancies, they fall upon him with their clubs, beat and drag him up and down, and then leave him for dead, whom some Christians finding yet to breathe, took up, and lodged him without the gate of the city, where the third day after he expired. He suffered martyrdom on the thirtieth day of the fourth month, according to the Asian computation, or in the Roman account on the twenty, second of January, as the Greek church celebrates his memory, or the twenty-fourth, according to the Latin. It happened (as some will have it) in the time of Nerva, while others more probably refer it to the reign of Do- niitian, it being done before St. John's return from his banishment in Patmos, which was about the beginning
1 Martyr Timoth. Apost. ap. Phot. Cod. 254. col. 1401, 1404. Com. de S. Timoth. S. Metaphr.apud Sur. ad Jan. xxiv. n. 9, 10. Fragment, vit. S. Timoth. Grjece ap. P. Halloix in vit. Polycarp. p. 558. forsan ex Act. S Timoth. a Po- lycrat. (uti aiunt) scriplis, ^uxeadem habent, ap. Boilaiid. ad Januar. xxiv. p. 506.
THE LIFE OF ST, TIMOTHY. Ur
of Nerva's reign. Being dead, the Christians of Ephe- sus took his body, and decently intered it in a place called Pion, Piron (says"" Isidore, who adds that it was a mountain) where it securely rested for some ages, till'' Constantine the great, or as others, his son Constantius caused it to be translated to Constantinople, and laid up together with those of St. ndrew and St. Luke, in the great church erected by Constantine to the holy apostles. 9. He was a man of no very firm and healthful con- stitution, frequent distempers assaulting him, besides the constant infirmities that hung upon him. Which St. Chrysostom conceives were in a great measure owing to his extraordinary temperance, and too frequent fastings.'* An effectual course to subdue those youthful lusts which St. Paul cautioned him to shun, there being no such way to extinguish the fire, as to withdraw the fuel : he al- lowed himself no delicious meats, no generous wines ; bread and water was his usual bill of fare, till by exces- sive abstinence, and the meanness and coarseness of his diet he had weakened his appetite, and rendered his stOr mach unfit to serve the ends of nature. Insomuch that St. Paul was forced to impose it as a kind of law upon him, that he should }io longer drink water ^ but use a lit- tie wine for his stomach'' s sake, and his often infirmities.^' And yet in the midst of this weak tottering carcase there dwelt a vigorous and sprightly mind, a soul acted by a mighty zeal, and inspired with a true love to God : he thought no difficulties great, no dangers formidable, that he might be serviceable to the purposes of religion, and the interest of souls ; he flew from place to place with a quicker «peed, and a more unwearied resolution, than could have been expected from a stronger and a healthier person, now to Ephesus, then to Corinth, oft into Mace-
m Be Vlt. & Obit. SS. c. 86. p. 542.
Ti Hieron. adv. Vigil, p. 122. Tom. 2. Niceph. Eccl. H. 1. 2. c. 43. p. 210. Me- taphr. ubi supr. n. X.
Chrssost. Homil. I. ad Pop. Aatioch. lorn. I. p. 5. p 1 Tim . iv. 23.
148 THE LIFE OF ST. TKMOTHY.
donia, then to Italy, crossing sea and land, and surmount- ing a thousand hazards and oppositions : in all which (as *iChrysostom's words are) the weakness of his body did not prejudice the divine philosophy of his mind ; so strangely active and powerful is zeal for God, so nimbly does it wing the soul w ith the swiftest flight. And cer- tainly (as he adds) as a great and robust body is little better for its health, which has nothing but a dull and a heavy soul to inform it ; so bodily weakness is no great impediment, where there is a quick and a generous mind to animate and enliven it.
10. These excellent virtues infinitely endeared him to St, Paul, who seems to have had a very passionate kindness for him, never mentioning him without great tenderness, and titles of reverence and respect : some- times styling him Kisso?i, his brother^ \\\?> fellow -labourer, Timotheus our brother^ and minister of God^ and our feU low-labourer in the gospel of Christ f sometimes with ad- ditions of a particular afiection and honourable regard, Timothy^ my dearly beloved son ; Timotheus^ who is my beloved son ^ and faithful in the Lord', and to the church at Philippi more expressly,' / trust to send TimotJieus shortly to you, for I have no man like-minded [i^i^v^ov, equally dear to me as myself) rvho will naturally care for your state : for all seek their oxvn, not the things that are Jesus Chrisfs ; but ye know the proof of him, that as a son with the father, he hath served -with me in the gospels And because he knew that he was a young man, and of temper easily capable of harsh and unkind impressions, he entered a particular caution en his behalf with the church of QoxmXh,^ If TimotJieus come, see that he may be with you without fear, for he worketh the ivork of the Lord, as I also do : let no man therefore despise him, but conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me."^ Instances of a great care and tenderness, and which plain- ly suppose Timothy to have been an extraordinary per- son. His very calling him his dearly beloved son, Chry-
q Loc. cilat. pag.7. r 1 Tliess. iii. 2. s 2 Tim. i. 2,
t Philip ii. 19, 20, kt. u 1 Cor. xvi. 10, 11.
THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY. 149
sostom thinks a sufficient argument of his virtue/ For such affection not being founded in nature, can flow from nothing but virtue and goodness, the lovely and essential ornaments of a divine and a holy soul. We love our children not only because witty, or handsome, kind and dutiful, but because they are ours, and very often for no other reason ; nor can we do otherwise, so long as we are subject to the impressions and the laws of nature. Whereas true goodness and virtue have no other arts but their own naked worth and beauty to recommend them, nor can by any other argument challenge regard and ve- neration from us.
11. Some dispute there has been among the writers of the church of Rome, v/hether our St. Timotiiy was the same with him, to whom Dionysius the Areopagite dedicates the books said to be written by him ; and troops of arguments are mustered on either side. But the foundation of the controversy is quite taken away with us, who are sufficiently assured, that those books were written some hundreds of years after St. Denys's head was laid in the dust. However it may not be im- proper to remark, that besides ours, bishop of Ephesus, we are'^told of another St. Timothy, disciple also to St. Paul, the son of Pudens and Priscilia, who is said to have lived unto a great age, till the times of Antoninus the em- peror, and Pius bishop of Rome, and that he came over into Brhain, converted and baptized Lucius king of this island, the first king that ever embraced the Christian faith. Pius bishop of Rome in a -^ letter to Justus bishop of Vienna (which though suspected by most, is yet own- ed by ^Baronius) reckons him among the presbyters that had been educated by the aposdes, and had come to Rome, and tells us that he had suffered martyrdom : ac- cordingly the ^ Roman martyrology informs us, that he obtained the crown of martyrdom under Antoninus the
V Homil. 1. in 2 Tim. p. 16 26.
w Pet.de Natal. Hist. SS. 1 1. 24. Naiicler. Chron. vol. 2. gener. 6. confer Adon. Martyr, ad. XII. Kal. jLd. vid. Ussev. de primnrd. c. ". d. 31. X Concil. Tom. 1. col, 576. y Bar. ad Anu. 166. n. 1, 2.
% Martyrol. Rom. ad Mart. 24. p. 190.
l^a THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY.
emperor. A story which as I cannot confute, so I am not over forward to believe, nor is it of moment enough to my purpose more particularly to enquire about it.
THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS,
BISHOP OF CRETE.
His countiy inquired into. The report of his noble extract. His educa- tion and conversion to Christianity. His acquaintance with, and ac- companying St. Paul to the Synod at Jerusalem. St. Paul's refusing to circumcise him, and why. His attending St. Paul in his travels. Their arrival in Crete. Titus constituted by him Bishop of that island. The testimonies of the ancients to that purpose. The intimations of it in St. Paul's Epistle to him. St. Paul's censure of the people of Crete, justi^ fied by the account which Gentile writers give of their evil manners. A short view of the Epistle itself. The directions concerning ecclesi- astic persons. His charge to exhort and convince gain-say ers. Crete abounding with Heretical teachers. Jewish fables and genealogies what, and whence derived. The /Eones and av^vyioL of the ancient Gnostics borrowed from the ^ioyovim of the Heathen poets. This shown by particular instances. Titus commanded to attend S. Paul at Nico- polis. His coming to him into Macedonia. His following St. Paul to kome, and departure into Dalmatia. The story of Pliny the younger's being converted by him in Crete, censured. His age and death. The church erected to his memory.
1. THE ancient writers of the church make little mention of this holy man ; who, and whence he was, is not known, but by uncertain probabilities. *S. Chry- sostom conjectures him to have been born at Corinth, for no other reason, but because in some ancient copies (as still is in several manuscripts at this day) mention is made of St. Paul's going at Corinth into the house of one [Titus] named Justus, one that worshipped.^ The wri- ters of later ages generally make him to be born in Crete, better known by the modern name of Candia, a noble
a HoinU. 1. in Tit. pag. 1^95. b Act. xviii. 7.
152 THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS.
island (as the "" historian calls it, who adds that the only ciiusc of the Romans making war there, was a desire to conquer so brave a country) in the ^gean sea, not more famous of old for being the birth-place of Jupiter, the sovereign of the Heathen gods, and the Daedalean La- byrinth said to be in it, than of late for its having been so long the seat of war between the Turkish emperor and the state of Venice. Antiquity has not certainly con\ eyed down to us any particular notice of his parents, though, might we believe the account which some give, he was of no common extract, but of the blood royal*, his pedigree being derived from no less than Minos king of Crete, whom the poets make the son of Jupiter, and for the equity of his laws, and the impartial justice of his government, prefer him to be one of the three great judges in the infernal regions, whose place it is to deter- mine men's future and eternal state ; while historians more truly affirm him to have been the son of Xanthus king of that island, and that he succeeded his father in the kingdom. But I pass by that.
2. But whatever his parentage was, we are sure that he was a Greek, probably both by nation and religion*". The Greek church in their public offices^, give us this account of his younger years, and conversion to Christi- ai:iity : that being sprung from noble parents, his youth was consecrated to learning and a generous education. At twenty years old he heard a voice, w^hich told him, he must depart thence, that he might save his soul, for that all his learning else would be of little advantage to him. Not satisfied with the warning, he desired again to hear the voice. A year after he was again commanded in a vision to peruse the volume of the Jewish law. He opened the book, and cast his eye upon that of the pro- piiet, keep silence before me^ 0 islands^ and let the people
c Flor. H. Rom. 1. 3. c. 7. p. 65.
d T<'t®' 0 ju:ix.'lpi'&' CM, Muck's. [Leg-end. sine dubio m/vso<S^-] ts? ^Ao-iMm K/)«'t»?
«tTOs-cx(gr Usii/K®'. Mena:on Crc^c, AvynT. th kL bub lit. ,a 111. e 11 bi supr.
awT». Men. ill.
THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS. 153
renew their strength : let them come near^ let them speak : let us come near together to judgment^ ^ &:c. Whereup- on his uncle at that time proconsul of Crete, having heard the fame of our Lord's miracles in Judea, sent him to Jerusalem, where he continued till Christ's ascension, when he was converted by that famous sermon of St. Peter's, whereby he gained at once three thousand souls. I cannot secure the truth of this story, though pretended to be derived out of the Acts, said to be written by Ze- nas the lawyer, mentioned by St. Paul : an authority, I confess, which without better evidence, I dare not encou- rage the reader to lay too much stress upon. Let us therefore come to somewhat more certain and unquesti- onable.
3. Being arrived in Judea, or the parts thereabouts, and convinced of the truth and divinity of the Christian faith, he became St. Pauls convert and disciple, though when or where converted we find not. Likely it is, either that he followed St. Paul in the nature of a companion and attendant, or that he incorporated himself into the church of Antioch : where when the famous controversy arose concerning circumcision and the Mosaic instituti- ons, as equally necessary to be observed with the belief and practice of Christianity, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this questioii^^ nay, a very ancient ' MS. adds, that when Paul earnestly persuaded them to continue in the doctrine which they had been taught, those very Jewish zealots who came down to Antioch, and had first started the scruple, did themselves desire Paul and Barnabas and some others to go and co?2sult with the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, and stand to their sentence and determination of the case. In the number of those who were sent upon this e^'angelical embassy was our St. Titus, w^hom St. Paul (encouraged to his journey by a particular revelation'') was willing to take along with him. No sooner were they come to Je-
pf Isn. xli. 1. h Act. XV. 1,2. i Cod. Bezae MS. ad Act. xv. 2.
k Gal.i. 2, &c.
U
154 THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS.
rusalem, but spies were at hand, some zealous Jews pre- tendiiig themselves to be Christian converts, insinuated themselves into St. Paul's company and acquaintance, narrowly observing what liberty he took in point of legal rites, that thence they might pick an accusation against him. They charged him that he preached to, and con- versed with the Gentiles, and that at this very time Titus an uncircumcised Greek was his intimate familiar ; a scandal which there was no way to avoid, but by circum- cising him, that so it might appear that he had no design to undermine the rites and customs of the law. This St. Paul (who knew when to give ground, and when to maintain his station) would by no means consent to : he who at another time was content to circumcise Timothy, a Jew by the mother's side, that he might please the Jews to their edification, and have the fiurer advantage to win upon them, refused here to circumcise Titus a Gentile, that he might not seem to betray the liberties of the Gospel, harden the Jews in their unreasonable and in- veterate prejudices against the Heathens, and give just ground of scandal and discouragement to the Gentiles^ and make them fly off to a greater distance from Christi- anity. Accordingly he resisted their importunity with an invincible resolution, and his practice was herein im- mediately justified by the decretory sentence of the council, summoned to determine this matter.
4. The affair about which they were sent being des- patched in the Synod, he returned no doubt with St. Paul to Antioch, and thence accompanied him in his travels, till having gone over the churches of Syria and Cilicia, they set sail for Crete. For that period of time I con- ceive with ' Cypelius most probable for their going over to that island, rather then Vvith "^ Baronius and others to place it at St. P:ail's coming out of Macedonia into Greece, which he supposes to have been by a sea- voyage, passing by the Cyclndce islands through the i^gean sea, or with " Grotius to refer it till his voyage to Rome,
I llistsr. Apost ad ann. Chvist. 46. m Ad. ann. 57. n. 212.
n la Arg-iun. Epist. ad Tit. Act. 27. 7.
THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS. 155
founding his conjecture upon a double mistake, that St. Paul and his company put in and staid at Crete, when it is only said that tJiey sailed under it, and passed by it^ and that Titus was then in the company, whereof no loot- steps or intimations appear in the story. Saihng there- fore from some port in Ciiicia, they arrived at Crete, where St. Paul industriously set himself to preach and propagate the Christian faith, delighting (as much as might be) to be the first messenger of the giad tidings of the gospel to all places where he came, not plantiug in another man^s line, or building of things made ready to his hand. But because the care ot other churches called up- on him, and would not permit him to stay long enough here to see Christianity brought to. a due maturity and perfection, he constituted Titus bishop of that island, that he might nourish that infint church, superintend its growth and prosperity, and manage the government and administration of it. This the ancients with one m'.)uth declare, he was the first bishop (says °Eusebius) of the churches in Crete: the apostle consecrated him bishop of it, so P St. Ambrose ; so *^ Dorotheus, and"" Sophronius ; he was (says * Chrysostom) an approved person to whom » vH3-^ oAojtA«§<^, iJiQ ivholc islandwas entirely committed, that he might exercise power and jurisdiction over so ma?iy bishops : he was by St. Paul ordained bishop of Crete^ though a very large islaiid, that he might ordain bishops under him, says* Theodoret expressly. To which might be added the testimonies of Theophylact, Oecumenius, and others, and the subscription at the end of the Epistle to Titus, (which though not dictated by the same hand, is ancient however) where he is said to have been ordamed the first bishop of the church of the Cretians. And " St. Chrysostom gives this as the reason, why of all hts disci- ples and followers St. Paul wrote epistles to Titus and Timothy, and not to Silas or Luke, because he had com- mitted to them the care and government of churches,
o H. Eccl. 1. 3. c. 4. p. 73. p Prsf. in Tit. p. 419. T. 5.
q Doroth-, 8} iiops p 148. r Ap. Hier. de Script, in Tit.
s Homil. 1, in Tit. p 1692. t Argum. Epist. ad Tit. Tom. 3,
u Argum. in 1 ad. Tim. p. 1519.
156 THE LIFE OF ST. TTFUS.
while he reserved the others as attendants and ministers to go along with himself.
5. Nor is this merely the arbitrary sense of antiquity in the case, but seems evidently founded in St. Paul's own intimation, where he tells Titus, yor this cause left 1 thee in Crete y that thou shouldst set in order the things that are luanting, and ordain elders in every city^ as I had ap- pointed thee^ ^ that is, I constituted thee governour of that church, that thou mightst dispose and order the afiairs of it according to the rules and directions which I then gave thee. Ordain elders'] he means bishops (says "'' Chryso- stom) as elsewhere 1 have oft explained it. Elders in every city] he was not willing (as he adds) that the ^vhole administration of so great an island should be managed by one, but that every city might have its proper gover- nor to inspect and take care of it, that so the burthen might be lighter by being laid upon many shoulders, and the people attended with the greater diligence. Indeed Crete w-as famous for number of cities above any other island in the world, thence styled of old Hecatompolis, the island of an hundred cities. In short, ^ plain it is, that Titus had power of jurisdiction, ordination, and ecclesi- astical censures, above any other pastors or ministers in that church conferred and derived upon him.
6. Several years St. Titus continued at his charge in Crete, when he received a summons from St. Paul, then ready to depart from Ephesus. The apostle had desir- ed ApoUos to accompany Timothy and some others whom he had sent to Corinth^ but he choosing rather to go for Crete, by him and Zenas he wrote an epistle to Titus, to stir him up to be active and vigilant, and to teach him how to behave himself in that station wherein he had set him. And indeed he had need of all the counsels which St. Paul could give him, who had so loose and untoward a generation of men to deal with. For the country it- self was not more fruitful and plenteous than the man- ners of the people were debauched and vicious. St. Paul puts Titus'' in mind what a bad character one of
V Tit. i. 5. w Homil. 2. in Tit. p. 1700. vid. etium Theoph. 8^ Oe-
cumen. in luc. x Tit. i. 12.
THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS. 157
their own poets (who certainly knew them best) had given of them :
The Cretians are always liars^ evil beasts, slow -bellies. This verse ^ St. Chrysostom supposes the apostle took from Callimachus, who makes use indeed of the first part of it, charging the Cretians to be like themselves, notorious liars, in pretending that Jupiter was not only born, but died among them, and that they had his tomb with this inscription, entatoa zan y^eitai, here lies Jttpiter, when as the deity is immortal : whereupon the good father perplexes himself with many needless difficulties in recon- ciling' it. Whereas in truth St. Paul borrow^ed it not from Callimachus, but Epimenidcs, a native of Crete, famous among the ancients for his raptures and enthusiastic di-
VmatlOnS, ©eocjjiXMc ^ (^'■-i?^? ■w-s^/ ta ^ilci, t))v svS«c7/sts-iK>)V i; TiKi^iKiiv Qc<tiiu:;
as ^ Plutarch says of him. From him Callimachus cites part of the verse,^and applies it to his particular purpose, while St. Paul quotes it entire from the author himself. 77iis Witness (says he) is true.^ And indeed that herein he did not bely them, we have the concurrent testimonies of most heathen writers, who charge the same things up- on them.^ So famous for lying, that k^ht/^-^ and Kp>,7/<'5^v Trejc K^HTct became proverbial, to lie like a Cretia?i and to cozen a cheat, and nothing more obvious than mendax Creta. ""Polybius tells us of them, that no where could be found more subtle and deceitful wits, and generally more wick- ed and pernicious counsels ; that their manners were so very sordid and covetous, that of all men in the world the Cretians w^ere the only persons who accounted no- thing base or dishonest, that was but gainful and advan- tageous. Besides they w^ere idle and impatient of labour.
y Homil. III. in Tit. pag-. 1707. z In vit. Solon, pag. 84.
a K^nTic dit -^iZ^cti. J, yd^ Tei<^o»j ^ £vct, cnlo
KgjiTEc iriitli^.TcLvro ■ a-u tf' x S-^ivsc' s^c-i ydp a.\ii. Callim. Hymn, li^ t Ai'at. p. 1. rrm^cifxia. eri to Keini^av, Itt] ■i^iuJ'-'T^-ui. Vet. Schol ibi.
b KgXTl^t/V, TO ']^(riuS'iO-^a.t, ^ il'igCt Tr^POlfXldL, K^/)Ti^«JV iTir?OC K^MTslC iTri'Jyi •if.iTiV-
g-Ai, xj dTATixvi? iiTi. Suid. in voc. K/)«T/^«<i'. Eadem Mich. Aostol. in eod. verb.
TlKY'.y'icr^l lJ.i)i' OLilThv 'iVfi-JL-^OcSlKiVAl fXi TUUTA TiPri.TlUOfjt.iVOV ;'^ T» J K SJl Tit.C. Psel. dc
aperat. Dsemon. p. 37.
c Histor. 1. 6. p. 681. S^ 1. 4 p, 3§G. Edk. L. BaUiV.
15« THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS.
gluttonous and intemperate, unwilling to take any pains further than to make provision for the flesh ; as the natu- ral effect of ease, idleness, and plenty, they were wanton and lascivious, and prone to the vilest and basest sort of lust, <ari^t n-u. TTrttS-iKx iuiij>.0Hu>i\7rii>^mdii, (as ^ Athcn^eus informs us) outrageously mad upon that sin that peculiarly derives its name from Sodom. And such being the case, what wonder if St. Paul bids Titus reprove them sharply^ seeing their corrupt and depra^'ed manners would admit of the sharpest lancets, and the most stinging corrosives he could apply to them.
6. In the epistle itself, the main body of it consists of rules and directions for the several ranks and relations of men : and because spiritual and Ecclesiastical affairs are of all others most considerable, he first instructs him in the qualifications of those whom he should set apart to be bishops and guides of souls, that they be holy and harmless, innocent and inoffensive, such as had not di- voixed and put away their first wife that they might maiTy a second, whose children were sober and regular, imd trained up in the Christian faith ; that they be easy and tractable, meek and unpassionate, free from the love of wine, and a desire after riches by sordid and covetous de- signs ; that they be kind and hospitable, lovers of good- ness and good men, modest and prudent, just and honest, strict and temperate, firm and constant in owning and asserting the doctrines of Christianity that have been de- livered to them, that being thoroughly furnished with this pure evangelical doctrine, they may be able both to persuade and comfort others, and mightily to convince those that resist and oppose the truth. And certainly it was not without great reason, that the apostle required that the guides and governors of the church should be thus able to coirvince gainsay ers. For whatever authors report of Crete, that it bred no serpents or venomous creatures, yet certain it is that the poison of errour and heresv had insinuated itself there together with the enter- tainment of Christianity, there being many unruly and
d Dcipnosoph. L 13. pag. 601.
THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS. 159
vai?i talkers, especially tfwy of the circumcision^^ who en- deavoured to corrupt the doctrine of the gospel with Jewish fables/ groundless and unwarrantable traditions, mystical and cabalistic explications., znd foolish questions and genealogies.^ For the Jews borrowing their notions herein from the schools of Plato, wTre fallen into a vein of deriving things from an imaginary generation, first Binah or understanding, then Achmoth or Cochmah wis- dom, and so till they came to Milcah the kingdom, and Schekinah or the divine presence. Much after the same rate as the poets of old deduced the pedigrees of their gods, they had first their several QjcrvyiAi their conjunctions^ the coupling and mixing of things together, and thence proceeded their ym^xoyUi their genealogies or generations ; out of Chaos came Erebus and the dark Night, the con- junction of whom begot iEther and the Day, and thence *'Hesiod proceeds to explain the whole pagan theology concerning the original of their gods.
7, In imitation of all which, and from a mixture of all together the Valentinians, Basilidians, and the rest of the Gnostic crew formed the senseless and unintelligible schemes of their n\«>,uA and thirty ^-Eones, divided into three classes of conjunction; in the first were four couples, Profundity and Silence, Mind and Truth, the Word and Life, Man and the Church ; in the second five, viz. Profound and Mixture, Ageratus and Union, &c. in the third six, the Paraclete and Faith, Patricos and Hope, &c. Of all which if any desire to know more, they mav (if they can understand it) find enough in Irenaeus, Tertul- lian, and Epiphanius, to this purpose. The * last of whom not only affirms expressly that Valentinus and his party- introduced €6yo/xt/3-6v tcjW/v, the fabulous and poetic fancies of the heathens, but drawls a particular parallel between Hesiod'sThe6gonia, and their thirty iEones or ages, con- sisting of fifteen coupjes or conjugations, male and fe- male, which he shows excictly to agree both in the num- ber, design, and order of them. For instance, Valenti- nus's tribe begins thus ;
e Tit. i. 10. f Verse 14. g Verse 3. 9.
h Hesiod. Theoc^on.p. in. 4C6. i Hjeres. XZXl.pa.^. 76. vid. Ter-
tull. de Prscscj'ipt. Hxret. c. 7. p. 204.
160 THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS.
Ampsiu 7 ^^^^ jg C Profundity
Auraa?! 3 C Silence.
Bucua 7 5^ Mind
Tharthun 3 C Truth.
Ubucua "> C Word
Thardeadie 3 ^ Life.
Merexa 1 C Man
Atarharba \ \ Church.
^c, &c.
All which was nothing but a trifling and fantastical imi- tation of Hesiod's progeny and generation of the gods, which being joined in conjugations succeeded in this or- der ; Chaos, Night; Erebus, Earth ; .^ther, Day, &c. There being (as he observes) no diflference between the one scheme and the other, but only the change and alter- ation of the names. This may suffice for a specimen to show whence this idle generation borrowed their extrava- gant conceits, though there were that had set much what the like on foot before the time of Valentinus. By such dark and wild notions and principles the false Apostles both in Crete and elsewhere, sought to undermine the Christian doctrine, mixing it also with principles of great looseness and liberty, that they might the easilier insinu- ate themselves into the aflections of men, whereby they brought over numerous proselytes to their party, of Avhom they made merchandise^^ gaining sufficient advan- tage to themselves. So that it was absolutely necessary that these men's mouths should be stopped, and that they should not be suffered to go on under a show of such lofty
et-JTA OVTct, ^ fccTgy iTi^CV, ^:/.-JU3.^C,V ol Tm ^C/VUArUV ajgS5-/«'p;^:t/ //VS-Wia'/ft'? EvTitpfsX-
CrtgijtM? ovc/ualoiToi'Ug. Id. ibid. k Tit. i. 11.
THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS. IGl
and sublime speculations, and a pretence of Christian li- berty, to pervert men from the Christian religion, and the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel. Having* done with ecclesiastics, he proceeds to give directions for per- sons of all ages and capacities, whether old or young, men or women, children or servants, and then of more public concernment, rulers and people, and indeed how to deport ourselves in the general carriage of our lives. In the close of the epistle he wishes him to furnish Zcnas and Apollos, the two Apostolical messengers by whom this letter was conveyed to him, with all things necessary for their return, commanding that he himself with all conve- nient speed should meet him at Nicopolis (though where that was is not certain, whether Nicopolis in Epirus, so called from Augustus's victory there over Antony and Cleopatra, or rather Nicopolis in Thrace, upon the river Nesus, not far from the borders of Macedonia, whither St. Paul was now going, or some other city, whereof many in those parts of that name) where he had resolved to spend his winter. And that by withdrawing so useful and vigi- lent a shepherd he might not seem to expose his flock to the fury and the rage of the wolves, he promises to send Artemas or Tychicus to supply his place during his ab- sence from them.
8. St. Paul departing from Ephesus was come to Troas, where though he had a fair opportunity to preach the gospel offered to him, yet (as himself tells us) he had no rest in his spirit, because he found not Titus his brother,^ whom he impatiently expected to bring him an account of the state of the church of Corinth ; whether Titus had been with him, and been sent upon this errand, or had been commanded by him to take Co- rinth in his way from Crete, is not known. Not meeting* him here, away he goes for iMacedonia,''' where at length Titus arrived and comforted him under all his other sor- rows and difficulties, with the joyful news of the happy condition of the church of Corinth, and how readily they
I 2 Cor. li. 12, 13. m 2 Cor. vii. 56, r. iind 13, 14, 15.
X
162 THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS.
had reformed those miscarriages, which in his former epistle he had charged upon them, fully making good that gi^eat character which he had given of them to Titus, and whereof they gave no inconsiderable evidence in that kind and welcome entertainment which Titus found amongst them. Soon after St. Paul having re- ceived the collections of the Macedonian churches for the indigent Christians at Jerusalem," sent back Titus and Vv^ith him St. Luke to Corinth, to excite their chari- ty, and prepare their contributions against his own arri- val there, and by them he wTote his second epistle to that church.
9. Titus faithfully discharged his errand to the church of Corinth, and having despatched the services for which he was sent, returned, we may suppose, back to Crete. Nor do we hear any further news of him till St. Paul's imprisonment at Rome, whither he came ( if my "author say true) about two years after him, and continued with him till his martyrdom, whereat he was present, and to- gether with St Luke, committed him to his grave. An account, which I confess I am the less inclined to believe, because assured by St. Paul himself,^ that before his death Titus had left him and was gone to Dalmatia, a pro- vince of Illyricum, to plant that fierce and warlike nation with the gospel of peace, taking it probably in his way in order to his return for Crete. And this is the last notice we find taken of him in the holy writings, nor do the re- cords of the church henceforward furnish us with any certain memoirs or remarks concerning him. Indeed, were the story which some tell us true, one thing alone were enough to make him memorable to posterity, I mean his converting Pliny the Younger, that learned and eloquent man, proconsul of Bithynia, and intimate privy counsellor to Trajan the emperor. For so they tell us,** that returning from his province in Bithynia, he landed in Crete, where the emperor had commanded him to erect
n 2 Cor. viii. 6, 15, 16. o Pet. de Natal. Hist. SS. lib. 7. c 108. p 2 Tim. iv. 10. q Pot. de Notal. loc cit. ex Act. S. Titi a Zena (uti fertur) s:rjj)t Fl. Pseudo-iJext. Cliron. acl Ann. ccxx.
THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS. 163
a temple to Jupiter: which was accordingly done, and no sooner finished, but St. Titus cursed it, and it immedi- ately tumbled to the ground. The man, you may guess, was strangely troubled, and came with tears to the holy man to request his counsel, who advised him to begin it in the name of the God of the Christians, and it would not fail to prosper. He did so, and having firiished it, was him- self, together with his son baptized. Nay, some to make the story perfect, add, that he suffered martyrdcmi for the faith at Novocomum, a city of Insubria in Italy, where he was born. The reader I presume will not expect I should take pains to confute this story, sufficiently im- probable in itself, and which I behold as just of the same metal, and coined in the same mint vrith that of his mas- ter Trajan's soul, being delivered out of hell by the prayers of St. Gregory the Great so gravely told, so se- riously believed by many, not in the Greek church only, but in the church of Rome : nay , which the whole east and west (if we may believe 'Damascen) held to be yrJ,rrm xj x^iiQK>Q'fiv, true and uncontrollable.
10 St. Titus lived, as the ancients tell us, to a great age, dying about the ninety-fourth year of his life. He died in peace (says 'Sophronius and Tsidore) and lies bu- ried in Crete: the "Roman iVlartyrology adds, that he was buried in that very church, wherein S. Paul ordained him bishop of that island I understand him where a church was afterwards built, it not being likely there should be any at that time. At Candia, the metropolis of the island, there is, or lately was, an ancient and beau- tiful ""church dedicated to St. Titus, wherein under the high altar his remains are said to be honourably laid up, and are both by the Greeks and Latins held in great ve- neration. Though what is become of them since that famous city lately fell into the hands of the Turk, that great scourge of Christendom, is to me unknown His festival is celebrated in the western church on the fourth
r Damascen, Serm. Trtft t»v svtt/s*. jcucoi/ut. s Ap, Hieron, de Script, in Tito, t De vit. & ob. SS c. 87. p.542. u Ad diem. iv. Jan. p. 16. v Cotovic,
Itin. lib. 1. c. 12. p. 60.
164 THiE LIFE OF ST. TITUS.
day of January, in the Greek church August the twenty- fifth, and among the Christians in Egypt (as appears by the Arabic calendar pubUshed by "^Mr. Selden) the twen- ty-second of the month Barmahath, answering to our March the eighteenth, is consecrated to his memory.
w De Synedr. Tom. 3. c. 15. p. 396.
THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS
THE AREOPAGITE.
Dionysius born at Athens. The quality of his parents. His domestic studies. His foreign travels. Egypt frequented as tlie staple place of all recondite learning. His residence at Heliopolis. The stiange and miraculous eclipse at our Saviour's passion. Dionysiui^'s remarks upon it. His return to Athens^ and bemg made one of the Judges of the Areopagus. The nature of this court : the number and quality of its Judges. St. Paul arraigned before it : his discourse, and its success. Dionysius's conversion. His further instruction by Hicrotheus. Hie- rotheus, "who. Dionysius constituted bisliop of Athens. A brief ac- count of his story according to those that confound him with Dionysius bishop- of Paris. These shown to be distinct. The original andprcxe- dure of the mistake inquired into. A probable account given of it. Di- onysius's martyrdom at Athens, and the time of it. A fabulous miracle reported of his scull. The desc iption of his person, and the hyperbo- lical commendations which the (ireeks give of him. The books as- scribed to him. These none of his. Apollinaris (probably) showed to be the author of them. Several passages of the ancients noted to that purpose. Books why oft published under other men's names. These books the fountain of enthusiasm and mystical theology. A passage in them instanced in to that purpose.
1. ST. DYONYSIUS was born at Athens, the eye of Greece, and fountain of learnmg and humanity, the only place that without competition had for so many ages maintained an uncontrolled reputation for arts and sci- ences, and to which there was an universal confluence of persons from all parts of the world to accomplish them- selves in the more polite and useful studies. Though we find nothing particularly concerning his parents, yet we may safely conclude them to have been persons of a no- ble quality, at least of a better rank than ordinary, seeing
166 THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS.
none were admitted to be Areopagite Judges (as * one who knew very well informs us) nA«v ol kxkqds yiyovonc, i 7roN^;^v*gsT«v^ Ca^po(r'jv>,v'iv TifS &iu>h<!i<fiiy/uhoi, uuless thev wcre nobly born, and eminently exemplary for a virtuous and a sober life. Be- ing born in the very midst of arts and civility, his educa- tion could not but be learned and ingenuous, especially considering the advantages of his birth and fortunes. Accordingly he was ^ instructed in all the learned sciences of Greece, wherein he made such vast improvements, that he easily outstript any of his time : scarce any sect or institution in philosophy then in vogue, which he had not considered and made trial of : it does not indeed ap- pear to which of them he particularly devoted and applied himself; and they who suppose him to have addicted himself to the school of Plato, do it, I conceive it for no other reason, than because the doctrine contained in the books that bear his name, seems so near of kin to the principles of that noble sect.
2. But it was not an homebred institution, or all the advantages which Athens could afford, that could fill the vast capacities of his mind, which he therefore resolved to polish and improve by foreign travels. Being in the prime and vigour of his youth, about the age of twenty- five years, "^ he took with him one Apollophanes a rheto- rician, his fellow-student, and (if '^ Syncelius say true) his kinsman, who was afterwards at Smyrna, master to Pole- mon the Laodicean, as he was to Aristides the famous philosopher and apologist for the Christians. Thus fur- nislied with a suitable companion, he is said to have gone for Egypt, to converse with their philosophers and wise men, that he might perfect himself in the study of the mathematics, and the more mysterious and recondite parts of learning, Egypt had in all ages been looked upon as the prime school not only of astrology, but of the more abstruse and uncommon speculations of theology, and the great masters of wisdom and divinity among the Gen-
a Isocr. Orar. Areopag-. p. 147. vid. Maxim. Prolog'. Oper. S. Dionys. Pref. pag. 34. b Suid. in voc. Ascvv*^. p. 744.
c Siiid. ubi snpr Maxim. Pachym. Syncel. aliique plures. cl Encom. S. Dionys. p. 349. Tom. 1.
THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ler
tiles never though they had gained enough, till they had crowned their studies by conversing with the Egyptian sages. Hence it was frequented by Orpheus, Ho- mer, Solon, Thales, by Pythagoras and Plato, and whom not? nay, of Pythagoras ^Clemens of Alex- andria reports that he suffered himself to be circum- cised, that so he might be admitted itc r^ oi:svru, to the concealed rites and notions of their religion, and be ac- quainted with their secret and mystical philosophy. The place he fixed at was Heliopolis, a city between Coptus and Alexandria, where the Egyptian priests for the most resided, as a place admirably advantageous for the con- templation of the heavenly bodies, and the study of phi- losophy and astronomy ; and where *Strabo (who lived much about this time) tells us he was showed the habita- tions of the priests, and the apartments of Plato and Eu- doxus, who lived here thirteen years ; nay, a very an- cient ^historian assures us, that Abraham himself lived here, and taught the Egyptian priests astronomy, and other parts of learning.
3. Dionysius no doubt plied his studies in this place, during wdiose stay there, one memorable accident is re- ported. The Son of God about this time was delivered up at Jerusalem to an acute and shameful death by the hands of violence and injustice ; when the sun, as if ashamed to behold so great a wickedness, hid his head, and put on mourning to wait upon the funerals of its maker. This eclipse was contrary to all the know^n rules and laws of nature, it happen iiig in a full moon, when the moon is in its greatest distance from the sun, and consequently not liable to a conjunction with him, the moon moving itself under the sun from its oriental to its occidental point, and thence back by a retrograde motion, causing a strange defection of light for three hours together. That there was such a wonderful and preter- natural darkness over all the earth for three hours at the
e Stromat.lib. 1. p. 302. f Geograph. lib. 17. p. 805. g Alexand.
Polyhist. Hist, de Jud?eis ap.Euseb. p;acp. Evang-. 1,9. c,17, p- 419.
168 THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS.
time of our Saviour's suffering;, whereby the sun was darkened, is unanimously attested by the evangelical his- torians ; and not by them only, but**Phlegon Trallianus sometimes servant to the emperor Trajan, speaks of an eclipse of the sun that happened about that time, m«>/5-» Tiv i^vtfw^yivav TTgoVsgov, the greatest of any that had been ever known, whereby the day was turned into night, and the stars appeared at noon-day, an earthquake also accom- panying it, whereby many houses at Nice in Bithynia were overturned. Apollophanes beholding this strange eclipse, cried out to Dionysius that these were changes and revo- lutions of some great afRiirs, to whom the other replied, that either God suffered^ or at least sympathized and bore part xvith him that did. I confess these passages are not to be found in the most ancient writers of the church ; but that ought to be no just exception, when we consider what little care was then taken to consign things to writing, and how great a part of those few ancient records that were written were quickly lost, whereof Eusebius sufficiently complains ; not to say, that a great many writings might, and did escape his notice ; and 'Maximus, I remember, answering the objection, that the books ascribed to St. Denysare not mentioned by Eusebius, tells us, that him- self had met with several pieces of the ancients, of which not the least footstep in Eusebius. But however that be, it concludes not against the matter of fact, many things though never entered upon record, bein^ as to the sub- stance of them, preserved by constant tradition and re- port. I deny not but that the several authors who report this passage, might immediately derive it out of the epistles said to be written to St Polycarp and Apollo- phanes. But then cannot suppose that tlie author of these epistles did purely feign the matter of fact of his own head, but rather delivered what tradition had conveyed down to his time. Indeed that which would more shrewd- ly shake the foundation of the story, if it be true, is what ^Origen supposes, that this darkness that ivas over ail the
h Chronic, lib. 13. apud Euseb. Chron. ad Ann. Chr. x\xii. vid. Groeca'HT. AV. p. 202. vid. Grig. c;-nt!\ Ceis.l. 2. p. 80 &; Clifo. Alcxandr. ad Ann. Tiber, xviii. Indict. 4. Olympiail. ccii. 4 p. 520. i Prolog-, ante oper. S. Dio- nys. p. 36. k Trad. xxxv. in Matth. fol. iTi.89. col.'l.
THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. 169
earth, and the earthquake that attended our Lord's pas- sion, extended no further than Judea, as some of the prodigies no further than Jerusalem. But to what de- grees of truth or probability that opinion may approve itself, I leave to others to inquire.
4. Dionysius having finished his studies at Heliopolis, returned to Athens, incomparably fitted to serve his country, and accordingly was advanced to be one of the judges of the Areopagus, a place of great honour and renown. The Areopagus was a famous senate house built upon a hill in Athens, wherein assembled their
great court of justice, Tav«yTo7f'E>X«cricl'<)t*r>igi*v T;//i»Ta7oy«j*7//aTat7oK,
as ''one calls it, the most sacred and venerable tri- bunal in all Greece. Under their cognizance came all the greater and more capital causes, and especially ma.t- ters of religion, blasphemy against the gods, and con- tempt of the holy mysteries ; and therefore St. Paul was arraigned before this court, as a setter forth of strange gods, when he preached to them concerning Jesus and Anastasis, or the resurrection. None might be of this council but persons of birth and quality, wise and pru- dent men, and of very strict and severe manners, and so great an awe and reverence did this solemn and gra\ e assembly strike into those that sat in it, that 'Isocrates tells us, that in his time, when they were somewhat de- generated from their ancient virtue, however otherwise men w^ere irregular and exorbitant, yet once chosen into this senate, they presently ceased from their vicious in- clinations, and chose rather to cor.form to the laws and manners of that court, >i tSk a-hTm k^kIclU i/u^fAmiv, than to continue in their wild and debauched course of life. They were exactly upright and impartial in their proceedings, and heard causes at night, or in the dark, that the person of the plaintiff or the pleader might have no undue inflaence upon them. Their sentence was decretory and final, and from their determination lay no appeal. Their num- ber was uncertain, by some restrained to nine, by others enlarged to thirty-one, by others to fifty-one, and to more
k Aristid, Tom. 1. p. 331. 1 Loco supr. laudat.
Y
170 THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS,
by some. Indeed the Novemviri, who were the Basileus or king, the Archon, the Polemarchus, and the six Thes- jnothetse, were the constant seminary and nursery of this great assembly, who having discharged their several offi- ces, annually passed into the Areopagus, and therefore when Socrates was condemned by this "" court, we find no less than two hundred fourscore and one, giving their votes against him, besides those whose white stones were for his absolution : and in an ancient inscription upon a column in the Acropolis at Athens," erected to the memory of Rufus Festus, proconsul of Greece, and one of these Judges, mention is made of the Areopagite Se- nate of three hundred,
5. In this grave and venerable judicature sat our St. Denys, when St. Paul about the year forty-nine or fifty, came to Athens, where he resolutely asserted the cause of Christianity against the attempts of the Stoic and Epi- curean philosophers, who mainly appeared against it. The Athenians, who were infinitely curious and super- stitious in matters of religion, not knowing what to make of this new and strange doctrine that he taught, presently brought him before the Areopagite senate, to whom the proper cognizance of such causes did belong. Here, in a neat and eloquent discourse, delivered not with greater freedom of mind, then strength of reason, he plainly de- monstrated the folly and absurdity of those many vain de- ities, whom they blindly worshipped, explained to them that Infinite Being that made and governed the world, and what indispensable obligations he had laid upon all man- kind to worship and adore him, and how much he had enforced all former engagements to gratitude and obedi- ence, to repentance and reformation by this last and best dispensation, by sending his Son to publish so excellent a religion to the world. His discourse however entertain- ed by some with scorn and laughter, and gravely put oft' by others, yet wanted not a happy influence upon many,
m D. Laert.l. 2. in vlt. Socrat. p. 115.
n H EH APEOllArOT KOTAH TP.N TPTAKGIiriN, KAI O AHMOS O A- ©HNAinN Caetera vid. apud R. Volaterran. Comment. Urban. 1. 8. col. 318,
THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. 171
whom it convinced of the reasonableness and divinity of the Christian faith : among whom was our Dionysius, one of the Judges that sat upon him, and Damaris his wife (for so °St. Chr^sostom and others make her) and probably his whole house. An author (I confess I know not by what authority) relates a particular dispute between Dionysius and St. Paul concerning the unknown God, who as God-man was to appear in the latter ages to reform the world ; this the apostle showed to be the Holy Jesus, lately come down from Heaven, and so satisfied St. Denys that he prayed him to intercede with Heaven, that he might be fully confirmed in this belief. The next day St. Paul having restored sight to one that was born blind, charged him to go to Dionysius, and by that token claim his promise to be his convert ; who be- ing amazed at this sight, readily renounced his idolatry, and was with his house baptized into the faith of Christ. But I know the credit of my author too well to lay any great stress upon this relation, and the rather because I find that Baronius himself is not willing to venture his faith upon it. To which I might add** St.'Chrysostom^s observation, that the Areopagite was converted *'^» ^i^fAMycgUc fjLomy only by St. Paul's discourse, there being no miracle that we know of, that might promote and fur- ther it.
6. Being baptized, he was, we are '' told, committed to the care and tutorage of St. Hierotheus, to be by him further instructed in the faith, a person not so much as mentioned by any of the ancients, which creates with me a vehement suspicion, that it is only a feigned name, and that no such person ever really was in the world. In- deed the ' Greek Meneeon makes him to have been one of the nine Senators of the Areopagus, to have been con- verted by St. Paul, and by him made bishop of Athens, and then appointed tutor to St. Denys. * Others make
o De sacerdot. I. 4. c. 7. p. 67. T. 4. Ambros. Epist. 82. p. 198. Tom. 3. p Hi!d. in passio. S. Dionys. n. 6, 7, 8. ap. Sur. Octob. IX. p. 122. q Loc. supr. citat.
r S. Metaphr. ap. Sur, ibid. Maxim. Syncel. ubi supr. Pseudo Dionys. de di» vin. nomin. c 2- p. 175. T. 1.
t Pseudo-Deit.Chron. ad Ann. Chr. LXXL
172 THE LIFE OF DIONYSIUS.
him by birth a Spaniard, first bishop of Athens, and then travelling into his own countr}% Bishop of Segovia in Spain. And Ijoth I believe with equal truth. Nor pro- bably had such a person ever been thought of, had there not been some intimations of such an instructor in Dio- nysius's works, confirmed by the Scoliasts that writ upon him, and afterwards by others improved into a for- mal story : As for St. Dionysius, he is made to travel with St. Paul for three years after his conversion, and then to have been constituted by him bishop of Athens ; so that it was necessary it seems to pack Hierotheus into Spain, that room might be made for him. Indeed that Dionysius was, and that without any affront to St. Hiero- theus, the first bishop of Athens, w^e are assured by an au- thority, that cannot be doubted, " Dionysius thefamous bishop of Corinth (who lived not long after him) expressly affirming it ; and '^ Nicephorus adds, what is probable enough, that it was done with St. Paul's own hands. I shall but mention his journey to Jerusalem to meet the apostles, who are said to have come from all parts of the world to be present at the last hours of the Blessed Virgin^ and his several visitations of the churches in Phrygia and Achaia, to plant or confirm the faith.
7. All which, supposing they were true, yet here we must take our leave. For now the writei-s of his life ge- nerally make him prepare for a much longer journey. Having settled his affairs at Athens, and substituted a suc- cessor in his see, he is said to go to Rome (a brief ac- count of things shall suffice, where no truth lies at the bottom :) at Rome he was despatched by St. Clemens into France, where he planted the faith, and founded an Episcopal see at Paris, whence after many years, about the ninetieth year of his age, he returned into the east, to converse with St. John at Ephesus thence back again to Paris, where he suffered martyrdom, and among infinite other miracles reported of him, he is said to have taken up his head, after it had been cut off' by the executioners, and to have carried it in his hands (an angel going be-
u Apud Euseb. H. Eccl. 1. 3. c. 4. p. 74. and I. 4. c. 23. p. 144 V Niceph. H. Ecc. 1. 2. c. 20. p. 167.
THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. 173
fore, and an heavenly chorus attending him all the way) for two miles together, till he came to the ])lace of his in- terment, where he gently laid it and himself down, and was there honourably entombed. This is the sum of a ve- ry tedious stor3\ A story so improbable in itself, so di- rectly contrary to what ''' Severus Sulpitius affirms, that none were martyred for the faith in France, till the fifth persecution under the reign of M. Aurelius Antoninus; that I shall not spend much time in its confutation. Es- pecially vrhen the thing has been unanswerably done by so many learned and ingenious men in the church of Rome, and by none more effectually than Sirmond and Launoy, who have cleared it beyond all possibilities of just exception.
8. Indeed we find in several very ancient "" ?vlartyr- ologies, as also in ^' Gregory bishop of Tours, who re- ports it out of the Acts of Saturninus the Martyr, that one Dionysius with some others was sent by the bishop of Rome into France in the time of Decius the emperor, Ann. Chr. CCL. where he preached the Christian faith, and became bishop of Paris, and after great torments and sufferings, was beheaded for his resolute and constant profession of religion, and accordingly his martyrdom is recorded in the most ancient Martyrologies, upon a day distinct from that of tlie Atiienian Dionysius, and the same miracles ascribed to him, that are reported of the other. And that this was the first and true foundation of the story, I suppose no wise man will doubt. Nor in- deed is the least mention made of any such thing, I am sure not any in writer of name and note, till the times of Charles the great : when ''' Ludovicus emperor, and king of France wrote to Hilduin abbot of St. Denys, to pick up whatever memoirs he could find concerning him, either in the books of the Greeks or Latins, or such re- cords as they had at home, and to digest and compile
w Sacr. Hist. Tib. 2, pag". 14^.
X Usiiard. Martyr. Culend. Octob. et VII. Id. Octob. Martyr. BeJx VII. Id. Octob.
y Greg-. Turon. Hist. Franc, lib. 1. c. 28. p. 26.5. Edit, Dn. Chesn. ?■ Vid. Epist. ejus, et Hilduin. Rescript, apud Sur. loc. cit at.
174 • THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS.
them into orderly tracts. He did so, and furnished out a very large and particular relation, Avhich Avas quickly improved and defended by Hincmar, bishop of Rhemes, scholar to Hilduin, and Anastasius Bibliothecarius of Rome, to whom the Greek writers of that and the fol- lowing ages readily gave their vote and sufirage. Nor has a late ^luthor much mended the matter in point of antiquity, who tells us that in a convention of bishops in France, held ann. 825. ten years before Hilduin wrote his Areopagitics, mention is made of St. Dionysius's being sent into France by Clemens St. Peter's successor. For ^vt can easily allow that there might about that time be some blind and obscure tradition, though the fragment of the Synod, which he there produces, speaks not one syllable of this Dionysius's being the Areopagite, or having any relation to Athens. In short the case seems plainly this :
9. Hilduin set on by his potent patron, partly that he might exalt the honour of France, partly to advance the reputation of his particular convent, finding an obscure Dionysius to have been bishop of Paris, removes him an age or two higher, and makes him the same with him of Athens, a person of greater honour and veneration, and partly from the records, partly from the traditions current among themselves, draws up a formal account of him from first to last ; adding, it is like, what he thought good of his own, to make up the story. These commentaries of his, we may suppose, were quickly conveyed to Rome, where being met with by the Greeks, who came upon frequent embassies to that see about that time, they were carried over to Constantinople, out of which Methodius (who had himself been aprocrisiarius or embassador from Nicephorus the Greek patriarch to pope Pascal at Rome, and after infinite troubles was advanced to the patriarchate of Constantinople) furnishes himself with materials to write the life of Dion3'sius ; for that he had them not out of the records of his own church is plain, in that when
a J. Mabillon. not. adEpiat. Hincmar. inter Analect. Veter. p. 63.
F THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. 175
Hildiiin set upon composing his Areopagitics, he ex- pressly says,^ that the Greeks had written nothing con- cerning the niartyrdom of St. Denys, the particulars whereof, by reason of the vast distance, they could not attain. Out of Hilduin, therefore, or at least some re- ports of that time, Methodius must needs derive his in- telligence ; but^ most probably from Hilduin, between whose relation and that of Methodius, there is so exact an agreement, not only in particular passages, but oft- times in the very same words, as "^Monsieur Launoy has demonstrated by a particular collation. Methodiusi's tract was by the Greek embassadors quickly brought from Constantinople to Rome, where ^Anastasius con- fesses he met with it, translated it into Latin, and thence transmitted it into France, where it was read, owned, and published by ''Hincmar, as appears by his epistle to Charles the emperor. Where he plainly tells us, that no sooner had he read this life written by Methodius, but he found it admirably to agree with what he had read in his youth (he means I doubt not, the writings of Hilduin) by whom and how the acts of St, Denys and his companions came to the knowledge of the Romans, and thence to the notice of the Greeks. This is the most likely pedigree and procedure of the story that I can think of ; and from hence how easy was it for the after writers both of the v^es- tern and the eastern church to swallow down a story, thus plausibly fitted to their taste ? Nor had the Greenes any reason over nicely to examine, or reject what made so much for the honour of their church and nation, and seemed to lay not France only, but the whole western church under an obligation to them, for furnishing them with so great and excellent a person. But to return to our Dionysius.
10. Though we cannot doubt but that he behaved him- self with all diligence and fidelity in the discharge of his office ; yet because the ancients have conveyed down no
b Rescript, ad. Ludov. Impcr. n. 10. ibid. c Respons. discuss, cap 9 p
120^ d Epist. ad Carol. Calv. Imp. apud. Sur. ibid. p. 132. eExtut
apud. Sur. ubi supi-. J'j; MabillonJoc. citat.
176 THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS.
particulars to our hands, we shall not venture upon re- ports of false, or at best doubtful credit. Nothing of cer- tainty can be recovered of him, more than what Aristides the Christian philoso];her (who himself lived, and was probabi}- born at Athens, not long after Dionysius , relates in the ^Apology which he published for the Christian religion, that after ii most resolute and eminent confession of the faith, afkr iia\ ing undergone several of the seve- rest kinds of torment, he gave the last and great testimony to it by layii}g down his life. This was done, as is most probable, under the reign of Domitian, as is confessed (betrayed into it by a secret instinct of truth) by abbot Kilduin., Methodius, and their followers: while others ex- tend it to the times of Trajan, others to the reignof Adrian, who entered upon the empire ann. 1 17, partly that they mieht leave room enough for the account which they give of him, partly to presei ve the authority of his writings, wherein a passage is cited out of Ignatius's epistles, writ- ten just before his martyrdom, ann. 107. The reader I hope will not expect from me an account of the miracles said to be done by him either before or since his death, or of the fierce contests that are between several places in the Roman church concerning his reliques. One pas- sage hovrever I shall not omit. In a village in Luxem- bu/ g, not far from Treves, is a church dedicated to St. Denys, wherein is kept his scull, at least a piece of it, on the crown w hereof there is a white cross while the other parts of the scull are black. This common tradition, and some ^authors to avouch it, will have to be made, when St. Paul laid his hands upon him at his consecration. Which if so, I have no more to observe, but that orders (which the church of Rome make a sacrament) did here even in a literal sense confer an indelible character and mark upon him.
11. His 'TiTT®' Qr^fxctiiKor^ the shape and figure of his body is by the ''Greek Menason thus described : he was of a middle stature, slender, fair, but inclining to paleness,
f Ap.id usuard. 8c Adon. Mart. v. Non. Octobr. g Vid. author, citat
ap. P. Hidloix. nut. ud vit. Dionjs. 241. L Ki; y t« OkI'.'x.^.
THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. 177
his nose gracefully bending, hollow-eyed with short eye- brows, his ear large, his hair thick and white, his beard moderately long, but very thin. For the image of his mind expressed in his discourses, and the excellent con- duct of his life, the Greeks according to their magnifying humour as well as language, bestow most hyperbolical clogies and commendations on him. ^ They style him, I c^o<f Avro^ct, g o-Sv ct7rcpp)iT»v ^t^^ov, thc sacrcd interpreter and con- templator of hidden and unspeakable mysteries, and an unsearchable depth of heavenly knowledge; t^iuSwv ^ioKo-
yoVf rm uursg iivoiAV ^anTroim ;^'^g<T^t.aTav ^^scipj^ov o^^rtvjp, tuC / TlTlltlf CtWlTlff^
the divine instrument of those enlivening graces that are above all comprehension. They say of him that his life was wonderful, his discourse more wonderful; his tongue full of light, his mouth breathing an holy fire ; but his mind *Kg/f<Sc ^i^n^WATOr, most exactly like to God ; v^^jth a great deal more of the like nature up and down their offices. And certainly were the notions which he has given us of the celestial hierarchy and orders of angels^ and the things of that supramundane state, as clear and certain, as some would persuade us, he might deserve that title which 'others gave him ^7«gi/'>/cv » Triium tS sgstvs^ the TFing^ or the bird of heaven.
12. The great and evident demonstration of his wis- dom and eloquence, we are told,^ are the works which he left behind him, the notions and language wherewith they are clothed, being so lofty and sublime, as are scarce- ly capable to be the issue of a mere mortal creature, fiooks infinitely intricate and perplext (as our country- man ^Johannes Scotus, who first translated them into Latin, tell us) far beyond the reach of modern apprehen^ sions, and which few are able to pierce into, both for their antiquity, and sublimeness of those heavenly mysteries, whereof they treat. A work so grateful to all specula- tive inquirers, into the natures of things, and the more
h Ibid. V
i Vid. Anastas. Biblioth. Ep'ist. ap. Sur. loc. cit.p. 132. Chry30St. de Pselidt« Proph. p. 401. Tom. 6.
k Suid. in voce hiwiai®'^ p. 745. Niceph, H. Eccl.l. 2. c. 20. p. 167, 1 Epist. ad Carol. Calf, Franc. Reg, ap.Usser.Epist. Hibern p. 59.
178 THE LIFE OF ST. DOINYSIUS;
abstruse and recondite parts of learning, that (if Suidas say true) some of the heathen philosophers, and particu- larly Proclus, often borrows not only his notions, but his very words and phrases from him ; whence he suspects, that some of the philosophers at Athens stole those books of his mentioned in the epistle dedicatory to St. Timo- thy, and which now are wanting, and published them under their own names. But had I been to make the conjecture, I should rather have suspected that this Pseudo-Dionysius fetched his speculations, and good part of his expressions from Plotinus, lamblichus, and the rest of the later Platonists. For certainly one tgg is not more like another, than this man's divinity is like the theology of that school, especially as explained by the philosophers who lived in the first ages of Christianity, That our Dionysius was not the author of the bocks at this day extant under his name, I shall not concern my- self to show. For however it be contended for by many with all imaginable zeal and stiffness, yet want there not those, and men of note, even in the Roman communion, w ho clearly disown and deny it ; as among the reformed it has been largely disproved by many, and by none with greater learning and industry than Monsieur Daille, w^ho has said whatever is necessary, if not more than enough upon this argument : though as to the date of their birth and first appearance, when he thrusts them down to the sixth century, he takes somewhat oiffrom the antiquity, w^hich may with probability be allowed them.
15. Who was the particular author of these books, is not easy to determine. Among the several conjectures about this matter, none methinks deserves a fairer regard, then what '""Laurentius Valla tells us some learned Greeks of his time conceived, that it was ApoUinaris, but whether father or son, it matters not, both being men of parts, and of the same strain and humour, et/u^^in^oi l>x»». vuaY Kiyo^v U-!- ck^xci, " both of thcm mastcrs in all the learn- ing of the Greeks, though of the two the son w^as most
m Annot. In Act- Ajiost. c. 17. n Spcrat. H. Ecc. 1. 2. c. 46. p. 160.
THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. 179
likely to be the man. Certain it is, that Apollinaris was
:rgof ■retvliJ'ctrtiv lUntriv, 5 \^ym iMxv 'ra.^i<rKT;iuA<rjuh(^, aS **S0Z0mCn clc-
scribes him, trained up to all sorts of learning, and skill- ed in the artifices and frames of words and speeches, and PSto Basil says of him, that being endued with a facility of writing upon any argument, joined with a great readi- ness and volubility of language, he filled the world with his books : though even in his theologic tracts he sought not to establish them by scripture proofs, but from hu- man arguments and ways of reasoning : Jiirxv^i^ii-. Se to j'^y^uu. oii/TS:, lijc ct^cprSw^ d^' dvo Trig/ve/stf, as "^auotlier also says of him. He was born and bred at Alexandria (than which no place more famous for schools of human learning, espe- cially the profession of the Platonic philosophy) and af- terwards lived at Laodicea, where he was so intimately familiar with the Gentile philosophers, that Theodotus bishop of the place forbade him (though in vain) any lon- ger to keep company with them, fearing lest he might be perverted to paganism ; as afterwards George his suc- cessor excommunicated him for his insolent contempt in not doing it. This is said to have given the first occa- sion to his starting aside from the orthodox doctrines of the church. For resenting it as an high affront, and be- ing T« h^oU tS Qocptfui xoya ^:ip'am, " promptcd witli a bold conceit of his sophistical wit, and subtle ways of reason- ing, he began to innovate in matters of doctrine, and set up a sect after his own name. And certainly whoever thoroughly considers ApoUinaris's principles, as they are represented by ' Socrates, ^ So z omen, " Theodoret, "" Basil, and ^ Epiphanius, wull find many of them to have a great affinity with the Platonic notions, and some of them not un-akin to those in Dionysius's books, and that as to the doctrine of the Trinity they were right in the main, which ^Socrates particularly tells us the Apoliinari-
o H. Eccl. 1. 5. c. 18. p. 623. Soci-. loc. citat.
p Ep. LXXIV. p. 125. Tom. 2. q Leont. de Sect. Act. IV. p. 44&.
r Socrat. ib. p. 161. s Socrat. loc. citat.
t Sozom. 1. 6. c. 27. p. 676. ex Ep. Nazian. de Nectar.
u Theodor. 1. 5. c. 3. p. 200. v Basil, ubi supr.
w Epiph. Ilxre3. 77. p. 42i. x Ibid. vki. Leunt. loc. citat.
im THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS.
ans confessed to be consubstantial. To which I add, what a learntd * man of our own has observed upon this argu- ment, that ApolUnaris and his followers were guilty of forg-ing ecclesiastical writings, which they fastened upon Gregory Thaumaturgus, Athanasius, and Pope Julius, as "" Leontius particularly proves at large. So that they rriight be probably enough forged in the school of ApoU linaris, either by himself, or some of his disciples.
14. It makes the conjecture look yet more favourable, that there was one ^ Dionysius, a friend probably of Apol- Unaris, to n^hom he is said to have written that famous epistle that went under the name of Pope Julius: and then among his own scholars he had a Timotheus (con- demned together with his master by ^ Damasus, and the synod at Rome) so that they might easily enough take occasion from their own to vent their conceptions under the more venerable names of those ancient and apostolic peri>ons. Or, which is more probable, ApolUnaris him* self so well versed in the arts of counterfeiting, might from them take the hint to compose and publish them under the name of the ancient Dionysius. Nor indeed could he likely pitch upon a name more favourable and agreeable to his purpose, a man born in the very centre of learning and eloquence, and who might easily be sup- posed to be bred up in all the institutions of philosophy, and in a peculiar manner acquainted with the writings and theorems of Plato and his followers, so famous, so generally entertained in that place. And there wiU be the more reason to believe it still, when we consider, that ' ApolUnaris reduced the gospels and the writings of the apostles into the form of dialogues in imitation of Plato among the Greeks. And then for the style, which is very lofty and affected we noted before how peculiarly qualified Apoliinaris was witli a quick invention of words, and a sophistical way of speech, and the *^histo-
y Dr. Sfining^fl. his answer to Cress. Apobff. c. 2. «. 17 p. 133.
2 De Se-t. Act. VIII. p. 527. "" ^ !>• i/ • p. iJJ.
a V\d. Coliat. Cnthol. cum Severian. Cone. Tom. 4. col 1T67
h Th.od. H^Etc I. 5. c 9, 10. p. 212. c Socr.t 1. 3. c. 16 p. 187.
•1 Suzoitt, I. 6. c. 25. p. 672.
THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. 181
rian observes that the great instrument by which he set on foot his heresy, and wherein he had a singular talent, was ^ix^» y^iym, artificial schemes of words, and subtle ways to express himself. Besides he was an incomparable poet^ (not only the father but the son) to the study where- of he peculiarly addicted himself, and wrote poems to the imitation, and the envy of the best among the hea- thens. In imitation of Homer he wrote heroic poems of the history of the Old Testament till the reign of Saul, comedies after the manner of Menander, tragedies in imitation of Euripides, and odes in imitation of Pindar : he composed divine hymns,^ that w^ere publicly sung in the churches of his separation, and songs which men sung both in their feasts and at their trades, and even women at the distaff. By this means he was admirably prepared for lofty and poetic strains, and might be easily tempted, especially the matter admitting it, to give way to a wan- ton and luxuriant fancy in the choice, composition, and use of words. And certainly never was there a stranger heap (A?|»a,y TroKvTTxuB-Uv, Maximus himself calls it) of sublime affected bombast, and poetic phrases, than is to be met with in these books attributed to St. Denys.
15. If it shall be inquired why a man should after so much pains choose to publish his labours rather under another man's name than his own, there needs no other answer than that this has been an old trade, which some men have taken up, either because it was their humour to lay their own children at other men's doors, or to de- cline the censure which the notions they published were likely to expose them to, or principally to conciliate the greater esteem and value for them, by thrusting them forth under the name of those for whom the world has a just regard and veneration. x'Vs for Monsieur Dailles's conjecture,^ that the reason why several learned volumes were written and fastened upon the fathers of the ancient church, was to vindicate them from that common impu- tation of the Gentiles, who were wont to charge the
e Sozom. 1. 5. c. 18 p 623. fid. 1. 6. c 25. p. 6'1. g- De Script-
Dionys. c.39. p.221.
182 THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS.
Christians for being a rude and illiterate generation, whose books were stuffed with nothing but plain simple doctrines, and who were strangers to all kind of learning and eloquence ; that to obviate this objection, several took upon them to compose books full of learning and philosophy, which they published under the names of the first preachers and propagators of the Christian faith, and that this particularly was the case of the Recognitions ascribed to Clemens, and the writings attributed to Dio- nysius : The first I grant very likely and rational, the Recognitions being probably written about the second century, when (as appears from Celsus's book against the Christians) this objection was most rife, and when few learned discourses had been published by them : But can by no means allow it as to the second, Dionysi- us's works being written long after the learning and elo- quence of the Christians had sufiiciendy approved itself to the world, to the shame and conviction, the envy and admiration of its greatest enemies. And there was far less need of them for this purpose, if it be true what Daille himself so confidendy asserts, and so earnestly contends for, that they were not written till the begin- ning of the sixth century, about the year 520, when there were few learned Gentiles left to make this objec- tion, heathenism being almost wholly banished out of the civilized world.
16. But whoever was their genuine parent, or upon what account soever he wrote them, it is plain that he laid the foundation of a mystical and unintelligible divi- nity among Christians, and that hence proceeded all those wild Rosicrucean notions, which some men are so fond of, and the life and practice whereof they cry up as the very soul and perfection of the Christian state. And that this author docs immediately minister to this design, let the reader judge by one instance, and I assure him it is none of the most obscure and intricate passages in these books. I have set it down in its own language as well as ours, not being confident of my own version (though expressed word for word) for I pretend to no great faculty in translating what I do not understand.
THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. 183
Thus then he discourses concerning the knowledge of God. '* 'God," saith he, " is known in all things, and without all things : he is known by knowledge, and by- ignorance ; there is both a cogitation of him, and a word, and a science, and a touch, and a sense, and an opinion, and an imagination, and a name, and all other things ; and yet he is neither thought, nor spoken, nor named. He is not any thing of those things that are, nor is he known in any of the things that are ; he is both all things in all, and nothing in nothing ; out of all things he is known to all, and out of nothing to nothing. These are the things which we rightly discourse concerning God. And this again is the most divine knowledge of God, that which is known by ignorance, according to the union that is above understanding; when the mind getting at a distance from all things that are, and having dismissed it- self, is united to those super- illustrious beams, from whence and w^here it is enlightened in the unfiithomable depth of wisdom " More of this and the like stuff is plentifully scattered up and dow^n these books. And if this be not mystical and profound enough, I know not what is ; and which certainly any man but one well ver- sed in this sort of theology, would look upon as a strange jargon of nonsense and contradiction. And yet this is the height of devotion and piety, which some men ear- nestly press after, and wherein they glory. As if a man could not truly understand the mysteries of religion, till he had resigned his reason, nor be a Christian, without first becoming an enthusiast, nor be able to speak sense, unless in a language which none can understand.
1 A/0 X, IV rrlo-ty o Qtoc ytvoiTKiTttt, x, ;:^a5/f Trdvrm- x. Stx yvaxriuc oQtcs yiyuTtci-rutt x. J'tx dyvceTiu?. Kcti 5s-/v --tUT« x. vi>i(rt^, x, Kiy(Sr, I Wtg-ii/u>i, x, i:TdL:p», ii AiT^ha-ic, Xj ^'•'K^i f; «?><yT«i!7/ai, X. hcu^^ i t* rt.'/Aa TTctvrn, i «t« viJt*/, in Kiytrri, 8T5 ovcud^iroj. K*/ »x. 55"5 rt rm o^Tav, icTs h tivi twv ovrav yivocmnt. Kt) b rS.<Ti ttuyta «r/, a '
y®-. Dionys. de Divin. Nomin. csp. 7. p. 2.'?S
184
THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS-
WRITINGS FALSELY ATTRIBUTED TO HIM.
De Coelesti Hierarchia. Lib. 1. De Divinis Nominibus. 1. DeEcclesiastica Hierarchia. 1. De Mystica Theologi?.. 1. Epistolae ad Caium. 4.
Ad Dorotheum. 1.
Ad Sosipatrum. Epistola I, Ad Polycarpum. 1,
Ad Demophilum. 1.
Ad Titum. 1.
Ad Joannem Evangelistam. 1. Ad Apollophanem. i.
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS,
BISHOP OF ROME.
His birth-place. His parents, kindred, education, and conversion to cliristianity noted out of the books extant under his name. His relation to the imperial family showed to be a mistake. His being made bishop of Rome. The great confusion about the first bishops of that see. A probable account endeavoured concerning the order of St. Clemens's succession, and the reconciling it with the times of the other bishops. What account given of him in the ancient Epistle to St. James. Cle- mens his appointing notaries to write the acts of the Martyrs, and des- patching messengers to propagate the gospel. The schism in the church of Corinth ; and Clemehs's Epistle to that church. An inquiry into the time when that Epistle was written. The persecution under Trajan. His proceeding against the Heteri^. A short relation of St. Clemens's troubles out of Simeon Metaphrastes. His banishment to Cherson. Damnatio ad Metalla, what. The great success of his mi- nistry in the place of his exile. St. Clemens's martyrdom, and the kind of it. The annivei'sary miracle reported on the day of his solemnity. The time of his martyrdom. His genuine writings. His Epistle to the Corinthians : the commendations given of it by the ancients. Its style and character. The great modesty and humility that appears in it. The fragment of his second Epistle. Suppositious writings. The re- cognitions ; their several titles, and different editions. Their antiqui- ty, what. A conjecture concerning the author of them. The censures of the ancients concerning the corrupting of them, considered. The Epistle to St. James.
1. IT makes not a little for the honour of this venera- ble apostolical man (for of him all antiquity understands it) that he was fellow-labourer with St. Paul, and one of those whose names were written in the book of life. He was born at Rome, upon mount Caelius, as, besides others, the ^ Pontifical under the name of Damasus, in-
a Vit Clement, concil. Tom. 1. col. 74.
A Jl
186 THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS.
forms us. His flither's name was Faustinus, but who he was and what his profession and course of life is not re- corded. Lideed in the book of the Recognitions, and the ta KK>iiAiviij (mentioned by the ancients, and lately publish- ed) we have more particular accounts concerning him : books which however falsely attributed to St. Clemens, and liable in some cases to just exception, yet, being of great antiquity in the church, written not long after the Apostolic age (as we shall show hereafter) we shall thence derive some few notices to our purpose, though we can- not absolutely engage for the certainty of them. There we find St. Clemens brought in, giving this account of himself.
2. He ^ was descended of a noble race, sprung from the family of the Caesars, his father Faustinianus, or Faustus, being near akin to the emperor (I suppose Ti- berius) and educated together with him, and by his pro- curejnent matched with Mattidia, a woman of a prime fa- mily in Rome. He was the youngest of three sons, his two elder brothers being Faustinus and Faustus, who af- ter changed their names for Nicetas and Aquila. His mother, a woman it seems of exquisite beauty, was by her husband's own brother strongly solicited to unchaste embraces. To avoid whose troublesome importunities, and yet loath to reveal it to her husband, lest it should break out to the disturbance and dishonour of their fami- ly, she found out this expedient : she pretended to her husband that she was warned in a dream together with her two eldest sons to depart for some time from Rome. He accordingly sent them to reside at Athens, for the greater conveniency of their education. But hearing- nothing of them, though he sent messengers on purpose every year, he resolved at last to go himself in pursuit of them ; which he did, leaving his youngest son, then twelve years of age, at home, under the care of tutors and guardians. *" St. Clemens grew up in all manly studies,
b Re:o.a:n. 1. 7. n. 8. p. 476. Clem. Homil. 12. n. 8. p. 678. Epitom. n. 76. n. /fei. ^. lie' P •■ c Ilecogn. 1. 1. n. 1. p. 399. CI. Horn. 1. p. 546. Epist. p. 7i9.
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS. 187
and virtuous actions, till falling under some great dissa- tisfactions of mind concerning the immortality of the soul, and the state of the other life, he applied himself to search more narrowly into the nature and the irufh of things. After having baffled all his own notions, he be- took himself to the schools of the philosophers, where he met with nothing but fierce contentions, endless disputes, so}!fhistical and uncertain arts of reasoning ; thence he re- solved to consult the Egyptian Hierophantce, and to see if he could meet with any who by arts of magic was able to fetch back one of those who were departed to the invi- sible world, the very sight of whom might satisfy his cu- , rious inquiries about this matter. While he was under this suspense, he heard of the Son of God appearing in the world, and the excellent doctrines he had published in Judea, wherein he was further instructed by the minis- try of St. Barnabas, who came to Rome. Him he fol- lowed first to Alexandria, and thence after a little time to Judea. Arriving at Cassarea he met with St. Peter, by whom he was instructed and baptized, whose compa- nion and disciple he continued for a great part of his life. 3. This is the sum of what I thought good to borrow from those ancient writings. As for his relations, what various misadventures his father and mother, and his two brothers severally met with, by what strange accidents they all afterwards met together, were converted and bap- tized into the Christian faith, I omit, partly as less proper to my purpose, partly because it looks more like a dra- matic scene of fancy, than a true and real history. As to that part of the account of his being related to the imperial f-UPiily, though it be more than once and again confident- ly asserted by ^ ]Nicephorus (who transcribes a good i)art of the story) and by *" others before him, yet I cannot but behold it as an evident mistake, arising from no other fountain than the story of Flavins Clemens, the consul, who was cousin-german to the emperor Domitian, and his wife Flavia Domitilla near akin also to the empe-
d H. Eccl. I. 2. c. 35. p. 191. 1. 3. c. 2. et 18. p. 247.
e Evicher. Liiijd. ad Valerian, de contempt. .MLiud. Anonym, de vit. Petr. et Paul. ap. P. Jun. not. in Clem. Ep. ad Corinth.
188 THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS.
ror : concerning whose conversion to, and martyrdom for the faith of Christ, we have ^ elsewhere given an ac- count from the writers of those times. Probable it is, that St. Clemens for the main attended St. Peter's motions, and came with him to Rome, where he had at last the go- vernment of that church committed to him. ^ Dorotheus tells us, that he was the first of the Gentiles that em- braced the Christian faith, and that he was first made bishop of Sarclica, a city in Thrace, afterwards called Triaditza, and then of Rome. But herein 1 think he stands alone, I am sure has none of the ancients to join with him ; unless he understands it of another Clemens, whom the ^ Chronicon Alexandrinum also makes one of the LXX disciples, but withal seems to confound with ours. That he was bishop of Rome, there is an unani- mous and unquestionable agreement of all ancient wri- ters, though they strangely vary about the place and order of his coming to it. The writers of the Roman church, how great words soever they speak of the constant and uninterrupted succession of St. Peter's chair, are yet in- volved in an inextricable labryinth about the succession of the four first bishops of that See, scarce two of them of any note bringing in the same account. I shall not at- tempt to accommodate the difference between the several schemes that are given in, but only propose w^hat I con- ceive most likely and probable.
4. Evident it is both from ' Ireneeus and ^ Epiphanius, as also before them from ^ Caius an ancient WTiter, and from "^ Dionysius bishop of Corinth, that Peter and Paul jointly laid the foundations of the church of Rom.e, and are therefore equally styled bishops of it, the one as apos- tle of the Gentiles (as wt may probably suppose) taking care of the Gentile Christians, while the other as the apostle of the circumcision^ applied himself to the Jewish
f Primlt. Christ, p. 1. ch. iii.
g Sviaops. de vit. App. in Bibl. PP. Tom. iii. p. 150. col. 1.
h Chron. Alex. p. 508. i Adv. Hseres 1. 3.C.3. p. 232.
k Epiph. Hxres. ZXVII. p. 51. vid. Hum. Dissert. V. c. 1. p. 25&.
1 Cai. adv. Procul. et
Tn Dionys. Epist. ad Rom. ap«d £useb. I. 2.c. 25- p. 68.
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS. 189
converts at Rome. For we cannot imagine, that there being" such chronical and inveterate prejudices between Jews and Gentiles, especially in matters of religion, they should be suddenly laid aside, and both enter- common in one public society. We know that in the church of Jerusalem till the destruction of the temple, none were admitted but Jewish converts : and so it might be at first at Rome, where infinite numbers of Jews then resided, they might keep themselves for some time in distinct as- semblies, the one under St. Paul, the other under Peter. And some foundation for such a conjecture there seems tobeeven in the apostolic history, where St. Luke tells us, that St. Paul at his first coming to Rome, being rejected by the Jews, turned to the Gentiles, declaring to them the mlvatmi of God, who gladly heard and entertained it, and that he continued thus preaching the kmgdoni of God, and receiving ail that came in unto him for two years together^" "I'his I look upon as the first settled founda- tion of a Gentile church at Rome, the further care and presidency whereof St. Paul might devolve upon Linus (whom the interpolated Ignatius makes his deacon or minister) as St. Peter having established a church of Jewish converts might turn it over to St. Clemens, of whom ° Tertullian expressly says, that Peter ordained him bishop of Rome. Accordingly the compiler of the ^ apostolic constitutions makes Linus to be ordained bishop of Rome by St. Paul, and Clemens by St. Peter. He says, indeed, that Linus was the first, and so he might very well be, seeing St. Paul (whatever the modern writers of that church say to the contrary) was some considerable time at Rome, before St. Peter came hither. Linus dying, was probably succeeded by Cletus or Anacletus (for the Greeks, and doubtless most truly^, generally make him the same person) in his distinct ca- pacity. At which time Clemens, whom St. Peter had ordained to be his successor, continued to act as presi- dent over the church of Jewish converts : and thus things
n Act. xxvili. 23, 24, 25, 28, 39,31.
o De Praescript, Hccret. c, 32. p. 213. p Lib, 7. c. 4r. col. 451,
190 THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS.
remained till the death of-Cletiis, when the dif/erence be- tween Jew and Gentile being quite worn off, the entire presidency and governrfient of the whole church of Rome might devolve upon St. Clemens as the surviver ; and from this period of time, the years of his episcopacy, ac- cording to the common computation, are to begin their date. By this account, not only that of '^ Optatus and the "" Bucherian catalogue may be true, who make Cle- mens to follow Linus, but also that of Baronius and ma- ny of the ancients, who make both Linus and Cletus to go before him, as we can allow they did as bishops and pastors of the Gentile church. As for a more distinct and particular account of the times, I thus compute them : Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom in the Nero- nian persecution (as we have elsewhere probably showed) Ann. LXV. After which Linus sat twelve years, four months, and twelve days : Cletus twelve years, one (but as Baronius, seven) months, and eleven days, which be- tween them make twenty-five years, and extend to Ann. Chr. XC. after Vv^hich if we add the nine years, eleven months and twelve days, wherein Clemens sat sole bishop over that whole church, they fall in exactly with the third year of Trajan, the time assigned for his mar- tyrdom, by Eusebius, Hierom, Damasus, and many others. Or if with Petavius, Kicciolus, and some others, we assign the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, Ann. 67, two years later, the computation will still run more smooth and easy, and there will be time enough to be al- lowed for the odd months and days assigned by the dif- ferent accounts, and to make the years of their ponificate complete and full. Nor can I think of any way, consi- dering the great intricacy and perplexity of the thing, that can bid fairer for an easy solution of this matter. For granting Clemens to have been ordained by St. Peter for his successor, (as several of the ancients expressly af- firm) and yet withal (v>hat is evident enough) that he died not till Ann. Chr. C. Traj. IIL it will be ver}- difii-
q T)e Schism. Donat lib. 2. p. 38.
r A Buciicr. edit, comment, in Vict. Can. Pasch. c. 15. p. 269.
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS. 191
cult to find any way so proper to reconcile it. As for that fancy of 'Epiphanius, that Clemens might receive imposition of hands from St. Peter, but refused the ac- tual exercise of the episcopal office, so long as Linus and Cletus lived : he only proposes it as a conjecture, found- ed merely upon a mistaken passage of Clemens in his epistle to the Corinthians, and confesses it is a thing wherein he dare not be positive, not being confident whether it were so or no.
5. Might the ancient ^epistle written to St. James the brother of our Lord, under the name of our St. Clemens, be admitted as a competent evidence, there we find not only that Clemens was constituted bishop by St. Peter, but with what formality the whole affivir was transacted. It tells us that the apostle, sensible of his approaching dis- .solution, presented Clemens before the church as a fit person to be his successor ; the good man with all ima- ginable modesty declined the honour, which St. Peter, in a long discourse urged upon him, and set out at large the particular duties both of ministers in their respective orders and capacities, as also of the people ; which done, he laid his hands upon him and compelled him to take his scat. Flow he administered this great but difficult province, the ecclesiastical records give us very little account. The author of the "Pontifical, that fathers him- self upon pope Damasus, tells us, that he divided Rome^ into seven regions, in each of Vvhich he appointed a no- tary, who should diligently inquire after all the martyrs thatsuftered within his division, and fiiithfully record the acts of their martyrdom. I confess the credit of this au- thor is not good enough absolutely to rely upon his sin- gle testimony in matters so remote and distant : though we are otherwise sufficiently assured, that the custom of notaries taking the speeches, acts, and suftcrings of the martyrs did obtain in the early ages of the church. Besides this, we are told by others that he despatched
s Contr. Carpocrat. Hxrcs. xxvii. p. 51. vid. Clem. Epist. ad Corinth. p, 69. t Extat Grssce & Lat. inter PP. Apost. a Coteler. edit. u Lib, Pontif, ia
vit. Clem. Cone. T. 1. col. 74.
192 THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS.
away several persons to preach and propagate the Chris- tian reHgion in those countries, whither the sound of the gospel had not yet amved. Nor did he only concern himself to propagate Christianit}'^, where it wanted, but to preserve the peace of those churches where it was al- ready planted/ For an unhappy schism having broken out in the church of Corinth, they sent to Rome to require his advice and assistance in it, who in the name of the church, whereof he was governor, wrote back an incomparable epistle to them, to compose and quell y.i*e,^vy^dvicrtov^irriy^ as ^'he calls it, that impious and abominable sedition that was arisen amongst them. And indeed there seems to have been a more intimate and friendly intercourse between these two churches in these times, than between any other mentioned in the writings of the church. The exact time of writing this epistle is not known, the date of it not being certainly determinable by any notices of antiquity, or any intimations in the epistle itself. The conjecture that has obtained with some of most note and learning is, that it was written before the destruction of Jerusalem, while the temple and the Levitical minis- tration were yet standing. Which they collect, I sup- pose, from a 'passage, where he speaks of them in the present tense But whoever impartially considers the place, will find no necessary foundation for such an in- ference, and that St. Clemens's design was only to illus- trate his argument, and to show the reasonableness of ob- serving those particular stations and ministries which God has appointed us, by alluding to the ordinances of the Mosaic institution. To me it seems most probable to have been written a little after the persecution under Domitian, and probably not long before Clemens's exile. For excusing the no sooner answering the letters of the church of Corinth, he ^tells them it was ^/* yivoiAvcm ^fjTiv C^ix^ ocgo^? i 7ris,i7rlu>aii^, by rcasou of those calamities and sad acci- dents that had happened to them. Now plain it is, that no persecution had been raised against the Christians,
V Pleo^e-sip. ap. Euseb. 1. 3. c 16. p. 88. \x Epist. ad Corinth, p. 2. x Ibid.
^.;cr. 5:^, V Ib.natr. 1.
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS. 19S
especidly at Rome, from the time of Nero till Domitian. As for Mr. Young's conjecture from this place, that it was written in the time of his banishment ; he forgot to consider that the epistle was written not in Clemens's own name, but in the person of the church of Rome. A circumstance that renders the place incapable of being particularly applied to him.
6. By a firm patience and a prudent care he weathered out the stormy and troublesome times of Domitian, and the short but peaceable reign of Nerva. When alas the clouds returned after rain^ and began to thicken into a blacker storm in the time of Trajan, an excellent prince indeed, of so sweet and plausible a disposition, of so mild and inoffensive a conversation, that it Avas ever after a part of their solemn acclamation at the choice of a new elected emperor, MELIOR TRAJANO," better than Trajan. But withal he w^as zealous for his religion, and upon that account a severe enemy to the Christians. Among several laws enacted in the beginning of his reign, he published one ( if ""Baronius, which I much question, conjecture the time aright, for ^Pliny's epistle, upon which he seems to ground it, was probably written at least nine or ten years after) whereby he forbad the he- terice, the societies or colleges erected up and down the Roman empire, Avhereat men were wont to meet, and li- berally feast under a pretence of more convenient des- patch of business, and the maintenance of mutual love and fiitndship ; wdiich yet the Roman state beheld with a jealous eye, as fit nurseries for treason and sedition. Un- der the notion of these unlawful combinations, the Chris- tian assemblies w^ere looked upon by their enemxies; for finding them confederated under one common president, and constantly meeting at their solemn love-feasts, and especially being of a way of worship different from the religion of the empire, they thought they might se- curely proceed against them as illegal societies, and con- temners of the imperial constitution, \vherein St. Cle-
z Eutrop. H. Rom. 1. 8. non longe ab initio. a Ad. Ann- 100. n. viii. Tom 2. b Fpist. 97. I. 10.
B b
194 THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS.
mens, as head of the society at Rome, was sure to bear the deepest share. And indeed it was no more than what himself had long expected, as appears from his letter to the Corinthians ; where having spoken of the torments and sufferings which the holy apostles had undergone, he tells them,*" that he looked upon himself and his people as «v atuTO TiT (TK'iy.fj.'Mi- set to run the same race, '^o cdirhg ^/uh 'lym iTrt - Kursii, and that the same fight and conflict was laid up for them.
7. Simeon the metaphrast in the account of his ^ mar- tyrdom (much what the same with that life of St. Cle- mens, said to be written by an uncertain author, publish- ed long since by Lazius at the end of Abdias Babylonius) sets down the beginning of his troubles to this eftect. St. Clemens having converted Theodora, a noble lady, and afterwards her husband Sisinnius, a kinsman and favour- ite of the late emperor Nerva, the gaining so great a man quickly drew on others of chief note and quality to em- brace the faith. So prevalent is the example of religi- ous greatness to sway men to piety and virtue. But envy naturally maligns the good of others, and hates the instrument that procures it. This good success deriv- ed upon him the particular odium of Torcutianus,'' a man of great power and authority at that time in Rome, who by the inferior magistrates of the city, excited the people to a mutiny against the holy man, charging him with magic and sorcery, and for being an enemy and bias- phemer of the gods, crying out either that he should do sacrifice to them, or expiate his impiety with his blood. Mamertinus pr^efect of the city, a moderate and prudent man, being willing to appease the uproar, sent for St. Clemens, and mildly persuaded him to comply. But finding his resolution inflexible, he sent to acquaint the emperor with the case, who returned this short rescript, that he should either sacrifice to the gods, or be banish- ed to Cherson, a disconsolate city beyond the Pontic sea. Mamertinus having received the imperial mandate,
c ubi supr. p. 9.
d Habiuir Grxc. & Lat. integrum ap. Coteler. loc. cit. p. 825.
e Id. ibid p. 832.
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS. 195
unwillingly complied with it, and gave orders that all things should be made read}^ for the voyage, and accord- ingly he was transported thither, to dig in the marble quarries, and labour in the mines. Damnntio ad Me- talla is a punishment frequendy mentioned in the Roman laws, where it is said to be proxima morti pcena^ the very next to capital punishments. Indeed the usage under it was very extreme and rigorous : for besides the severest labour and most intolerable hardship, the condemned person was treated with all the instances of inhumanity, whipped and beaten, chained and fettered, deprived of his estate,^ which was forfeited to the exchequer, and the person himself perpetually degraded into the condition of a slave, and consequently rendered incapable to make a w ill.' And not this only, but they were further exposed to the most public marks of infamy and dishonour, ''their heads half shaved, their right eye bored out, their left leg disabled, their foreheads branded with an infamous mark, a piece of disgrace first used in this case by 'Caligula (and the historian notes it as an instance of his cruel 'temper) and from him continued till the times of Con- stantine, who abolished it by a ''law ann. Chr. 315, not to mention the hunger and thirst, the cold and nakednes, the filth and nastiness, which they vv^ere forced t-o conflict with in those miserable places.
8. Arriving at the place of his uncomfortable exile, he found vast numbers of Christians condemned to the same miserable fate, whose minds were not a little erected un- der all their pressures at the sight of so good a man, by whose constant preaching, and the frequent miracles that he wrought, their enemies were converted into a better opinion of them and their religion, the inhabitants of those countries daily flocking over to the faith, so that iu a little time Christianity had beaten paganism out of the field, and all monuments of idolatry thereabouts were de-
f L. 28 ff. de p,-^!!. lib. 48. Tit 19.
^ L. 36. ubi supr. 1. 12. fF. de jur. flsc. 1. 49. Tit. 14, 1. 1. de bon, damnat. 1. 8, Q^ii test, fac poss. §. 4,
h Cypr, Epist 77 . ad Nemes. p. 155. Euseb. I. 8. c. 12. p. '^:>^7- i Sueton. in vit. Calig. c 17 p. 428. k L.2. Cod.Th. de'pzen. 1. 9. Tit. 40.
196 THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS.
faced and overturned. The fame whereof was quickly- carried to the emperor, who despatched Aufidianus the president, to put a stop to this growing sect, which by methods ot" terror and crueky he set upon, putting great numbers of them to death. But finding how leadiiy and resolutely they pressed up to execution, and that this day's martyrs did but prepare others for to-morrow's torments, he gave over contending with the multitude, and resolved to single out one of note above the rest, whose exemplary punishment might strike dread and terror into the rest. To this purpose St. Clemens is pitched on, and all temp- tations being in vain tried upon him, the executioners are commanded to carry him aboard and throw him into the bottom of the sea, where the Christians might despair to find him. This kind of death was called K^tia^ovpvT/uo?, and was in use not only among the Greeks, as appears by the instance mentioned by ' Diodorus Siculus, but the Romans, as we find in several malefactors con- demned to be thrown mto the sea both by '""Tiberius and Avidius Cassius. To this our Lord has respect, when in the case of wilful scandal, he pronounces it defte?' for the man that a mill- stone were hanged about his neck ^ and he cast into the bottom of the sea,'' Where though ^ St. Hierom tells us that this punishment was usual among the ancient Jews in case of more enormous crimes, yet do I not remember that any such capital punishment ever prevailed among them. I shall not here relate what I find concerning the strange and miraculous discovery of St. Clemens's body, nor the particular miracle of a little child preserved in the church erected to him in the mid- dle of the sea for a whole year together (though solemnly averred by ^'Ephrasm bishop of the place) as despairing they would ever find a belief wide enough to swallow them, nor those infinite other miracles said to be done there ; it shall only suffice to mention one ; that upon the anniversary solemnity of his martyrdom the sea retreats
1 Biblioth. 1 16.
m Siieon. in vit. Tib. c. 6 . p. 366. V-l Gallic, in Avid Cass. c. 4. p. 247, n Ma-k ix. 42. o Com. in Matt. 18. p. 5o. Tom. 9.
p Sei m. cie mirac. in puer. a St. Clem. fact. ap. Sur. Novemb. 23. & Gr. & Lat. ap. Coteler. p. 837.
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS. 19/
on each side into heaps, and leaves a fair and dry passage for three miles together to the martyr's tomb, erected within a church, built (as it must be supposed by angels) within the sea, and the people's devotions being ended, the sea returns to its own place, t/«*vt(^ t« gs^ kIvI^v^-j. t^v {jAs^- T(/§*, says 1 one of my authors, God by this means doing honour to the martyr. I only add, that these traditions were current before the time of Gregory bishop of Tours, "■ who speaks of them with great reverence and devotion. St. Clemens died (as both ' Eusebius and *St. Hierom w^itness, for I heed not the account of the Alexandrin Chronicon, which places it four years after, Trajan VIL though the consuls which he there assigns properlv be- long to the IV. of that emperor)'' in the third year of Tra- jan, a little more than two years after his banishment, after he had been sole bishop of Rome nine years six months and so many days, 'say Baronius and others, though Bucherius's catalogue, more to be trusted (as be- ing composed before the death of po-^e Liberius, ann. 354,) nine years eleven months and tvvcive days His martyrdom happened on the 24th of November', accord- ing to Baronius and the ordinary Roman computation but on the ninth of that month, says the little martyrolo- gy published by '"Bucherius, and which unquestionably was one of the true and genuine calendars of the ancient church. He was honoured at Rome by a church erect- ed to his memory, yet standing in ''St. Hierom's time.
9. The writings which at this day bear the name of this apostolic man, are of two sorts, genuine or supposi- tious In the first class is that famous epistle to the Co- rinthians, so much magnified by the ancients, ;;c-.v®T^'r>, 7^tf<5.(as ^'Irenasus calls it) the most excellent and absolute writing, ^s>a\H te g .3-iy/xtf3-/:«, says ''Eusebius a truly great and admirable epistle, and very useful as "" St. Hierom adds
q Ibid. p. 841. r De miralc. 1. 1. c. 25, o6. p. 46.
s Lib. 3. c 34. p. 105. t De Script. Eccl. in Clem.
U Ann. 4. Olymp. CCZX. Ind 1. p. 594.
V ubi supra. w Loc. supr. citat. p. 269.
X De Script, in Clement.
y Adv. Hxres. 1. 3. ap. Euseb. 1, 5. c. 6. p. 170.
z Lib. 3. c. 16. p. 88. a De Script. Fccles. in Clem.
198 THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS.
d^ioxoy®^, as ^Photiiis styles it, worthy of all esteem and ve- neration, dvu^uoKoya/uivntiTct^diT'^cri, as '^Eusebius assures us, re- ceived by all, and indeed reverenced by them next to the Holy Scriptures, and therefore publicly read in their churches for some ages, even till his time, and it may be a long time after. The style of it (as *^Photius truly ob^ serves) is very plain and simple, imitating an ecclesias- tical and unaffected way of writing, and which breathes the true genius and spirit of the apostolic age. It was written upon occasion of a great schism and sedition in the church of Corinth, begun by two or three factious persons against the governors of the church, who envy- ing either the gifts, or the authority and esteem of their guides and teachers, had attempted to depose them, and had drawn the greatest part of the church into the con- spiracy : whom therefore he endeavours by soft words and hard arguments to reduce back to peace and unity. His modesty and humility in it are peculiarly discernible, ii0t only that he wholly writes it in the name of the church of Rome, without so much as ever mentioning his own, but in that he treats them with such gentle and mild persuasives. Nothing of sourness, or an imperi- ous lo7'ding it over God's heritage to be seen in the whole epistle. Had hf known himself to be the infallible j udge of controversies', to whose sentence the whole Christian world was bound to stand, invested with a supreme un* accountable power, from which there lay no appeal, we might have expected to have heard him argue at another rate. But these were the encroachments and usurpa- tions of later ages, when a spirit of covetousness and se- cular ambition had stifled the modesty and simplicity of those first and best ages of religion. There is so great an afiinity in many things both as to words and matter between this and the episde to the Hebrews, as tempted Eusebius and St. Hierom of old, and some others before then, to conclude St. Clemens at least the translator of that epistle.^ This epistle to the Corinthians after it had
b Cod. CXII. col.289. ■ c Ibid. c. 38. p. 110.
d Cod. CXXVI. col. 305. e Ibid.
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS. 199
been generally bewailed as lost for many ages, was, not more to the benefit of the church in general, than the honour of our own in particular, some forty years since published here in England, a treasure not sufficiently to ^ be valued. Besides this first, there is the fragment of a second Epistle, or rather homily, containing a serious ex- hortation and direction to a pious life: ancient indeed, and which many will persuade us to be his, and to have been written many years before the former, as that which betrays no footsteps of troublesome and unquiet times : *but Euscbius. St. Hierom, and Photius assure us, that it was rejected, and never obtained among the ancients equal approbation with the first. And therefore though we do not peremptorily determine against its being his, yet we think it safer to acquiesce in the judgment of the ancients, than of some few late writers in this matter.
10. As for those writings that are undoubtedly spuri- ous and suppositious, disowned (as ^Eusebius says) be- cause they did not 3t^'S-:tg5y T'^'TorcA/K/K o/33-ctfj|/ct?avTV5-£4'^£.'y'r(5v;:^<§a;tT«-
gu, retain the true stamp of orthodox apostolic doctrine, though the truth is, ue speaks it only of the dialogues of Peter and Appion, not mentioning the decretal epistles, as not worth taking notice of, there are four extant at this day that are entitled to him, the Apostolical canons and the Constitutions (said to be penned by him, though dictated by the Apostles) the Recognitions, and the Epistle to St. James. For the two first, the Apostolic Canons and Constitutions,^' I have declared my, sense of them in ano- ther place, to which I shall add nothing here. The Re- cognitions succeed, conveyed to us under different titles by the ancients, sometimes styled St. Clemens'ti acts, history, chronicle, sometimes St. Peter's acts, itinerary, periods, dialogues with Appion, ail which are unquesti- onably but different inscriptions (or it may be parcels of the same book. True it is what 'Photius suspected, and ^Rufinus (who translated it) expressly tells us, that there
f Locis supr. citat, g- Ibid. nag. 110.
h Prxf. to Primit. Christianity. i Cod. CXII. col. 289.
k Proefat. ad Gaiident. p. "9T.
200 THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS.
were two several editions of this book, difibring in some things, but the same in most. And it deserves to be considered, whether the tu Kxnjuivii^ mentioned by 'Nice- phorus, and which he says the church received, and de- nies to be those meant by Eusebius, and those Cle- mentine homilies lately published under that very name, be not that other edition of the Recognitions seeing they exactly answer Rufinus's character, difieiing in some things, but in most agreeing with them. There is yet a third edition, or rather abstract out of all, styled, k?.»',«sv7®- ^5g* Tuv ^g^fsav. he. Clemens's epitome of the acts, tra- vels, and preachings of St. Peter, agreeing with the for- mer, though keeping more close to the homilies than the other. This I guess to have been compiled by Simeon the metaphrast, as for other reasons, so especially because the appendage added to it by the same hand concerning Clemens's martyrdom is word for word the same with that of Metaphrastes, the close of it only excepted, which is taken out of St. Ephrsem's homily of the miracle done at his tomb.
IE The Recognitions themselves are undoubtedly of very great antiquity, written about the same time, and by the same hand (as Elondel probably conjectures) with the Constitutions about the year 180, or not long after. Sure I am, they are cited by '"Origen as the work of Clemens in his periods, and his large quotation is in so many w^ords "extant in them at this day. Nay before him we meet with a very long fragment of Bardesanes the "Syri- an (who flourished ann. 180.) concerning Fate, word for word the same with what we find in the Recognitions, and it seems equally reasonable to suppose that Barde- sanes had it thence, as that the other borrowed it from him. Nay what if Bardesanes himself was the author of these books? It is certain that he was a man of great parts and learning, a man prompt and eloquent, * J"/«^4x7«4,- rr^ioi,^ an acute and subtle disputant, heretically inclined','^
1 H. Eccl. 3. c. 18. p 248. m P.seudo-Isid. p. 28.
ii Philocal. c. 23. p. 81, 82. o Reco.^nit. 1. 10.
p Exlat ap. Euseb. Prsep. Evan. I. 6. c. 10. p. " 9. p. 503, S;o.
q Euseb. H. Eccl. 1, 4. c. 30. p. ISl.Epiph. Hxres. LVI. p. 207
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS. ^t
for he came out of the school of Valentinus, whose un- couth notions he had so deeply imbibed, that even after his recantation, he could never get clear from the dregs of them, as Eusebius informs us : though Epiphanius tells us he was first orthodox, and afterwards fell into the errors of that sect, like a well freighted ship that having duly performed its voyage, is cast away in the very sight of the harbour. He was a great mathematician and astrologer, w aixgov -f xa?.<j"*i»Mf €3-/s-»/««? «\«Att;£»c, "accurately versed in the Chaldean learning, and wrote incomparable dialogues concerning fate, which he dedicated to the emperor Antoninus* And surely none can have looked into the Recognitions, but he he must see what a consi? derable part the doctrines concerning fate, the Genesis, the influence of the stars and heavenly constellations, and such like notions make there of St. Peter's and St. Cle- mens's dialogues and discourses. To which we may add what Photius has observed,^ and is abundantly evi- dent from the thing itself, that these books are consider- able for their clearness and perspicuity, their eloquent style, and grave discourses, and that great variety of learning that is in them, plainly showing their composer to have been a master in all human learning, and the study of philosophy. I might further remark, that Bar= desanes seems to have had a peculiar genius for books of this nature, it being particularly ^noted of him^ that besides the Scriptures, he had traded in certain apocry- phal writings. He wrote ^x«7r* c^r>g*/"/"«^^> *■ which St. Hie» rom renders infinite volumes, written Jndeed for the most part in Syriac, but which his scholars translated into Greek, though he himself was sufficiently skilfull ip that language, as Epiphanius nptes. In the number of these books might be the Recognitions, plausibly father.- ed upon St. Clemens, who was notoriously known tg be St. Peter's companion and disciple : and were but some of his many books now extant, I doubt not but a much greater affinity both in style and notions would ap-
o Euseb. prsep. Evan. 1. 6. c. 9. p. 27S. p Ubi supra. q Epiph, logo
cit. r Eus.-b. K Eccl. ubi snpr.de Script. EpcU in Bardcs.
C C
202 THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS.
pear between them. But this I propose only as a pro- bable conjecture, and leave it at the reader's pleasure either to reject or entertain it. I am not ignorant that both 'St. Hierom, and Thotius charge these books with heretical opinions, especially some derogatory to the ho- nour of the Son of God, which it may be Rufinus (who "confesses the same thing, and supposes them to have been inserted by some heretical hand) concealed in his translation : Nay, ""Epiphanius tells us, that the Ebion- ites did so extremely corrupt them, that they scarce left any thing of St, Clemens' s sound and true in them, wliioh he observes from their repugnancy to his other writings, those Encyclical epistles of his (as he calls them) which were read in the churches. But then it is plain, he means it only of those copies which were in the posses- sion of those heretics, probably not now extant, nor do any of those particular adulterations which he says they made in them, appear in our books, nor in those large and to be sure uncorrupt fragments of Bardesanes and Origen is there the least considerable variation from those books which we have at this day. But of this enough. 12. The epistle to St. James the brother of our Lord is, no doubt, of equal date with the rest, in the close whereof the author pretends that he was commanded by St. Peter to give him an account of his travels, dis- courses, and the success of his ministry, under the title of Clemens' s Epitome of Petefs popular preach- ings^ to which he tells him he would next proceed. So that this epistle originally was nothing but a preface to St. Peter's Acts or Periods (the same in effect with the Recognitions) and accordingly in the late edition of the Clementine homilies (which have the very title mention- tioned in that epistle) it is found prefixed before them. This epistle (as Photius tells us^) varied according to different editions, sometimes pretending that it, and the account of St. Peter's acts annexed to it, were written by St. Peter himself, and by him sent to St. James ;
s Apol. adv. Rufin. p. 219. t Phot. Cod. cxa. col. 289. u Apology,
pre. Orig-. ap. Hieron. Tom. 4. p.. 195. v Hsres. xxx. p. ^5. x Loc
supra citat.
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS. 203
sometimes that they were written by St. Clemens at St. Peter's instance and command. Whence he conjectures that there was a twofold edition of St. Peter's acts, one said to be written by himself, the other by St. Clemens, and that when in time the first was lost, that pretending to St. Clemens did remain : For so he assures us he con- stantly found it in those many copies that he met with, notwithstanding that the epistle and inscription were sometimes different and various. By the original whereof now published appears the fraud of the factors of the Ro- mish church, who in all Latin editions have added an appendix almost twice as large as the epistle itself. And well had it been, had this been the only instance wherein some men to shore up a tottering cause, have made bold with the writers of the ancient church.
HIS WRITINGS.
Genuine, Recognltionum lib. IQ*
Epistola ad Corinthios.
DouhtfuL seu^
Epistola ad Corinth, secunda. Homllise Clementinas.
Stippositkims, Constitutionum App. lib. 8.
Epistola ad Jacobum
Fratrem Domini. Canones Apostolici.
THE LIFE OF ST. SIMEON
BISHOP OF JERUSALEM.
The heedless confounding him with others of the like name. His pa- rents and near relation to our Saviour. The time of his birth. His strict education and way of life. The order and institution of the Re- ehabites, what. His conversion to Christianity. The great care about a successor to St. James bishop of Jerusalem. Simeon chosen to that place, when and why. The causes of the destruction of the Jewish state. The original and progress of those wars briefly related. The miserable state of Jerusalem by siege, pestilence, and famine. Jeru- salem stormed. The burning of the temple, and the rage of the fire. The number of the slain and captives. The just accomplishment of our Lord's predictions. The many prodigies portending this destruc- tion. The Christians forwarned to depart before Jerusalem was shut up. Theil' withdrawment to Pella. The admirable care of the Di- vine Providence over them. Their return back to Jerusalem, when. The flourishing condition of the Christian church there. The occasion of St. Simeon's martyrdom. The infinite jealousy of the Roman empe- rors concerning the line of David. Simeon's apprehension and cruci- fixion. His singular torments and patience. His great age, and the time of his death.
1. IT cannot be unobserved by any that have but looked into the antiquities of the church, what confusion the identity or similitude of names has bred among eccle- siastic writers, especially in the more early ages, where the records are but short and few. An instance whereof, were there no other, we have in the person of whom we write* : whom some will have to be the same with St. Simon the Canaanite, one of the twelve apostles ; others
a Vid. Chron, <?^lexandr. Olymp, CCXX. Ind. 1, Traj, VII. et Ann. sequent.
206 THE LIFE OF ST. SIMEON.
confound him with Simon, one of the four brethren of our Lord, while a third sort make all three to be but one and the same person : the sound and similitude of names giving birth to the several mistakes. For that Simeon of Jerusalem w^as a person altogether distinct from Simon the apostle, is undeniably evident from the most ancient martyrologies both of the Greek and the Latin church, where vastly different accounts are given concerning their persons, employments, and the time and places of their death ; Simon the apostle, being martyred in Bri- tain, or as others, in Persia, while Simeon the bishop is notoriously known to have suifered in Palestine or in Sy- ria. Nor are the testimonies of Dorotheus, Sophroni- us, or Isidore, considerable enough to be weighed against the authorities of Hegesippus, Eusebius, Epiphanius, and others. But of this enough.
2. St. Simeon was the son of ^ Cleophas, brother to Joseph, husband to the blessed Virgin, and so his father had the honour to be uncle to our Saviour, in the same sense that Joseph was his father. His mother (say *" some) was Mary the wife of Cleophas, mentioned in the history of the Gospel, sister or cousin-german to the mo- ther of our Lord : And if so, he was by both sides nearly related to our Saviour. He was born (as appears from his age, and the date of his martyrdom assigned by Eu- sebius) Ann. Mundi 3936, thirteen years according to the vulgar computation before our Saviour's incarnation. His education was according to the severest rules of religion professed in the Jewish church, being entered into the or- der of the Rechabites, as may be probably collected from the ancients. For ^ Hegesippus informs us, that when the Jews were busily engaged in the martyrdom of St. James the just, a Rechabite priest, one of the generation of the sons of Rechab mentioned by the prophet Jeremy, stept in, and interceeded with the people to spare so just and
b He.^esip. ap. Euseb. 1. 5. c. 11. p. 87. Epiph. Haeres. LZVI. p. 274. et omnia antiqux Martyrolog-ia, Adonis, Bedas, Notkeri, Usuardi apud Bolland. de Vit. SS. ad diem XVlii. Fehr. pag. 53, 54.
c Hegesip. ib. c. 32. p. 104. Nieeph. 1. 3. c. 16. p. 245.
dibid.l. 2. c. 23. p. 65.
THE LIFE OF ST. SIMEON. 207
good a man, and one that was then praying to Heaven for them. This person ^ Epiphanius expressly tells us was St. Simeon the son of Cleophas, and cousin-german to the holy martyr. The Rechabites were an ancient insti- tution, founded by Jonadab the son of Rechab, who flou- rished in the reign of Jehu, and obliged his posterity to these following rules, to drink no wine, sow no fields, plant no ^ vineyards, build no houses, but to dwell only in tents and tabernacles. All which precepts (the last only excepted, which wars and foreign invasions would not suffer them to observe) they kept with the most reli- gious reverence, and are therefore highly commended by God for their exact conformity to the laws of their insti- tution, and brought in to upbraid the degeneracy of the house of Israel, in violating the commands he had laid upon them. They continued it seems (and so God had promised them, that they should not xvant a man to stand before him for ever J till the very last times of the Jewish church, though little notice be taken of them, as indeed they are but once mentioned throughout the whole histo- ry of the bible, and that only accidentally, and then too no less than three hundred years after their first institution. Probable it is, that in after-times all Rechabites were not Jonadab's immediate descendants, but that all were ac- counted such, who took upon them the observance of the same rules and orders which Jonadab had prescribed to his immediate posterity. It further seems probable to me, that from these Rechabites, the Essenes, that fa- mous sect among the Jews, borrowed their original ; that part of them especially, that dwelt in towns and cities, and in many things conformed themselves to the rules of the civil and sociable life. For as for the eint^^iiKc) describ- ed ^ by Philo, they gave up themselves mainly to solitude and contemplation, lived in forests and among groves of palm-trees, and shunned all intercourse and converse with other men. While the practic part of them (more par-
e Haeres. LXX VIII. p. 441. f Jer. xxxv. 2, 3, &c:-
g; Lib. Ui^i /jjV Qia^nTuif n Uaroc;) acrrm. p. 891. & S6q.
208 THE LIFE OF ST. SIMEON.
ticularly taken notice of by ^ Josephus) though abstaining from marriage, and despising the riches and pleasures of this world, did yet reside in cities, and places of public concourse, labour in their several trades and callings, maintain hospitality, and were united in a common col- lege and society, where they were kept to a solemn ob- servance of the great duties of religion, and devoted to the orders of a very strict pious life* And among these, I doubt not, the Rechabites were incorporated and swal- lowed up, though it may be together with the general name of Essenes, they might still retain their particular and proper name. But to return.
3. His first institution in Christianity was probably laid under the discipline of our Lord himself, whose au-. ditor and follower * Hegesippus supposes him to have been ; and in all likelihood he was one of the seventy disciples, in which capacity he continued many years, when he was advanced to a place of great honour and eminency in the church. About the year sixty-two, St. James the just, bishop of Jerusalem, by the artifices of Ananus the high priest, had been cruelly martyred by the Jews. The providing for whose place was so far thought to be the concernment of the whole Christian church, that the apostles and disciples of our Lord are said*" to have come from all parts to advise and consult with those of our Saviour's kindred and relations, about a fit successor in his room. None was thought meet to be a candidate for the place, but one of our Lord's own relations ; and accordingly with one consent they de- volved the honour upon Simeon, ojjr Lord's next kins- man, whom they all judged most worthy of the place. I know Eusebius seems to intimate that this election was made not only after St. James's death, but after the destruction of Jerusalem, between which there was the distance of no less than eight or nine years. But (be- sides that Eusebius makes the destruction of Jerusalem immediately to succeed upon St. James's martyrdom^
h De Bell. Jud. I. 2. K«^. i0 p. 785. et. Antiq. Jud. 1. 18. c. 2, p. 61".
i Ap Euseb.l.3.c. 32. p. 104.
k Ibid, c, 11. p. 86. vid. lib. 4. c. 22- D. 142.
THE LIFE OF ST. SIMEON. 209
when yet there was so great a space) it is very unreason* able to suppose that so famous and eminent a church, a church newly constituted, and planted in the midst of the most bitter and inveterate enemies, should for so long a time be destitute of a guide and pastor, especially seeing the apostles were all long since dispersed into se^ veral remote quarters of the world : not to say that most of the apostles were dead before that time ; or if they had not, could not very conveniently have returned and met together about this affair in so dismal and distracted a state of things, as the Roman wars, and the utter ruin and overthrow of the Jewish nation had then put thos^ parts into. Besides that ' Kusebius himself elsewhere places Simeon's succession immediately after St. James's martyrdom. Nor is the least vacancy in that see men- tioned by any other writer. The ™ Chronicle of Alexan- dria places his succession Ann. LXIX. for it tells us, that this year St, James the apostle and patriarch of Jeru^ salem (whom St. Peter at the time of his going to Rome, as his proper see, had ordained to that place ; this pas^ sage, it is plain the publisher for want of rightly distin<= guishing, did not understand) dying, Simeon or Simon was made patriarch in his room. But this account is against the faith of all the ancients, who make St. James to have suffered martyrdom several years before ; nor do any of them say that he was ordained by St. Peter, many of them expressly affirming, that he immediately received his consecration from the hands of our Lord himself.
4. How he managed the affairs of that church, is not distinctly known, few particidar accounts of things being transmitted to us. Confident we may be that his presi- dency was attended with sufficient trouble and difficulty^ not only from the malicious and turbulent temper of tha^ people, whom he was continually exposed to, but be? cause it fell in with the most black and fat^l period of the Jewish church. For the sins of that nation being now ripe for vengeance, and having filled up the measure
1 Chron, ad. Ann, Chr. Uii, m Ann I. Olympiad, ccxil Indict. x|,
Vespas. 2. p. 580,
p d
210 THE LIFE OF ST. SIMEON.
of their iniquities by their cruel usage of the apostles and messengers of our Saviour, their barbarous treatment of St. Stephen, and afterwards of St. James the great, and their last bloody murder of St. James the less, but above all, by their insolent and merciless carriage towards the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world, the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost^ and the Romans broke in upon them, and took away both their place and nation. The sum whereof, because containing such re- markable passages of Providence, such instances of severe displeasure towards a people that for so many ages had enjoyed the peculiar influences of the Divine favour, and ^vhose destruction at last so evidently justified the pre- dictions of our Saviour, and made such immediate way for the honour and advancement of Christianity, we shall here relate.
5. The Jew^s, a stubborn and unquiet people, impa- patiently resented the tyranny of the Roman yoke, which, seemed heavier to their necks than it did to other na- tions, because they looked upon themselves as a more freeborn people, and were elated with those great charters and immunities which heaven had immediately conferred upon them. This made them willing to catch at any opportunity to re-assert themselves into their ancient li- berty. A thing which they more unanimously attempt-, ed under the government oPCestius Florus, whom Nero had sent to be procurator of that province : by whose in- tolerable oppressions and insolent cruelties for two years together, nothing abated by prayers and importunities, and the solicitations of potent intercessors, their patience was tired out, and they broke out into rebellion. The fatal assault began at Cesarea,"" which instantly like light- ning spread itself over tlie whole nation, till all places were full of blood and violence. Florus unable himself to deal with them, called in to his assistance Cestius Gallus the president of Syria, who came from Antioch with an army, took Joppa and some other places, and
n Joseph, de Bell. Judaic. 1. 2. c. 4. p. 798. Egesip. de cxcid. Hierosol. 1. % c. 14. p. 272, &c. 0 Ibid. k. ?/. p. 809.
THE LIFE OF ST. SIMEON. 211
sat down before Jerusalem, but after all was forced to depart, and indeed to fly with his whole army, leaving all his warlike instruments and provisions behind him. The news of this ill success was soon carried to ^Nero, then residing in Achaia, who presently despatched Ves- pasian (a man of prudent conduct, experienced valour, the best commander of his time) to be general of the ar- my. He coming into Syria, united the Roman forces, fell into Galilee, burnt Gadara, and destroyed Jotapata, where **Josephus him.self was taken prisoner. He pursued his conquests with an unwearied diligence, victory every where attending upon his svvord, and was repairing to besiege Jerusalem,'' when hearing of the distractions of Italy by the death of Nero, and the usurpations of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, he resolved for Rome, to free it from those unhappy incumbrances that were upon it ; whose resolutions herein were so far applauded by the army, that they presently proclaimed him emperor. Who thereupon hastened into Egypt to secure that coun- try, a place of so considerable importance to the empire. 6. From Alexandria 'Vespasian remanded his son Ti- tus back into Judea to carry on the war, who thought no way quicker to bring it to a period, than to attempt the capital city, to strike at Jerusalem itself, and accordingly put all things in readiness to besiege it. The state of ^Je- rusalem at this time was very sad. That place, whose honour and security once it was to be a city at unity 'Within itself^ was now torn in pieces v/ith intestine fac- tions ; and how unlikely is that kingdom long to stand, that is once divided against itself? Simon the son of Giora, a bold and ambitious man, had possessed himself of the upper city ; John who headed the zealots, an inso- lent and ungovernable generation, commanded the lower parts, and the out skirts of the temple ; the inner parts whereof were secured by Eleazar the son of Simon, who had drawn over a considerable number of the soldiers to
p Ibkl. I. 3. c. 1. p. 830. q lb. Kgcj). Ui. p. 850. Egesip. I. 3. c. 18. p. 351, rlbid.1.5. K6^)l«^p. 892. s Ibid. Kt<^ ^w^S'/ p. 903. t Ibid.l 6. c. 1.
p. 904 TL*;}). /a'.p.910.
212 THE LIFE OF ST. SIMEON.
his party ; and all those mutually quarrelling with and opposing one another. Titus with his army approaching, a little before the paschal solemnity begirt the city, drawing it by degrees into a closer siege^ he straitly blocked up all avenues and passages of escape, building a wall of thirty nine "furlongs, which he strengthened with thirteen forts ; whereby he prevented all possibility of either coming into, or going out of the city. And now was exactly acconipiished what our Lord had some time since told them would come to pass, when he beheld the city nnd -wept over it, saying, if thou hadst known, even thou at least i?i this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace/ but now they are hidden from thine eyes. For the days ^hall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee^ and compass thee found, and keep thee in o?i every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, because thou knowest not the time of thy visitations^ The truth is, whoever would be at the pains to compare what our Lord has said concern* iiig this war and the sackage of Jerusalem,'' with the ac- counts given of them by Josephlis, would find so just a eotrespondence between the prophecy and the success, as Would tempt him to think that the historian had taken his Iheasures as much from our Lord's predictions as from the event of things* But to proceed : Terms of mercy Were offered upon surrender, but scornfully rejected, Which exasperated the Roman army to fall on w^ith great- er fierceness and severity. And now God and man, hea- ven and earth seemed to fight against them. Besides the Roman army without, and the irreconcilable factions and disorders within, a ^famine (hastened by those vast multi- tudes that flocked to the passover) raged so horribly with- in the city, that they took more care to prey upon one another, and to plunder their provisions, than how to de^ fend themselves against the common enemy : thousands
U Ibid. i. 6. ki4). vi. p. 9^6. tv Luke xix. 41, 42, 43, 44.
^X 2u}'XgJv:tc Si T/c Tat? -nj iffiTM^®' j;/y.ai' -Ki^mi tSlic xoittoa; ■tk Qvly^eti^im^ Iro^iatg *ttil(; ml^l Tis ^«v7i<; TToKifAH, TTwr tK Av eiimQdctvfA.eii7itiV, ^-iiuv wc axxS^Sc J^ vfcripcpva; ^a-
f' dir/^ov T«v ns-goyvceo-iv t« x^ 7r^jp»T(v ts Qari)^©' njuLav o/Aohoyta-ctc- Euseb. H. Ecci* . 3. e. t. p. Bh y Ibid. K«<f . Ajg'.p. 93?. & I 7. Kf<f . *'. p. 954,
THE LIFE OF ST. SIMEON. 213
were starved for Want of food, who died so fast, that they were not capable of performmg to them the last offices of humanity, but were forced to throw them upon common heaps ; nay, were reduced to that extremity, that some offered violence to all the laws of nature, among which was ^Mary the daughter of Eleazar, who being undone by the soldiers, and no longer able to bear the force and rage of hunger, boiled her sucking child and eat him. So plainly had our Lord foretold the daughters of Jeru- salem^ that the days were coming, in the xvhich they should say^ blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare^ and the paps which never gave suck,
7. Titus went on with the siege, and finding that no methods either of kindness or cruelty would work upon this obstinate generation of men, gave order that all things should be made ready for a storm. Having gain- ed the tower of Antonia, the Jews fled to the temple which was hard by, the ^outer gates and porches whereof were immediately set on fire, the Jews like persons stupified and amazed, never endeavouring to quench it. Titus, the sweetness of whose nature ever enclined him to pity and compassion, was greatly desirous to have spared the people and saved the temple. But all in vain ; an obscure soldier threw a firebrand into the chambers that were about the temple, which presently took fire, and though the general ran and stormed, and commanded to put it out, yet so great was the clamour and confusion, that his orders could not be heard ; and when they v/ere it was too late, the conquering and triumphant flames prevailing in spite of all opposition, and making their way with so fierce aVage, as if they threatened to burn up Mount Sion to the very roots. So effectually did our Saviour's commination take place, who told his disciples, when they admired the stately and magnificent buildings of the temple, Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here 6ne stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And that nothing might be wanting to verify our Lord's prediction, Turnus Rufus was commanded to plow up
Z Ke<;>. K%'. ubi supr. a lb. Ksc;,. k/2' x,y'. &c. p. 956. h Ibid. Ke$ .x«', p. 959.
314 THE LIFE OF ST. SIMEON.
the very foundations of it. How sad a sight must it needs be to behold all things hurled into a mixture of blood, smoke, and flames ! the Jews were slain like sheep or dogs, and many, to prevent the enemy's sword, volun- tarily leapt into the fire ; the 'number of them that pe- rished in this siege amounted to no less than eleven hun- di*ed thousand, besides ninety-seven thousand that were made slaves ; the infinite multitudes that from all parts had flocked to the feast of the passover, and were by the Roman army crowded up within the city, rendering the account not improbable.
8. Such was the period of the Jewish church and state ; thus fell Jerusalem (by far the most eminent city not of Judea only, but of the whole east, as "^Pliny himself con- fesses) notwithstanding its antiquity, wealth and strength, after it had stood from the time of David, 1579 years. And memorable it is, that this fatal siege began a little before the passover, about that very time when they had so barbarously treated and put to death the Son of God. So exact a proportion does the Divine Justice sometimes observe in the retribution of its vengeance. A fate not only predicted by our Lord and his apostles, but lately presignified by immediate ''prodigies and signs from hea^ ven. A blazing comet in the fashion of a sword, hung directly over the city for a whole year together. In the feast of unleavened bread, a little before the breaking out of the war, at nine of the clock of the night, a light sud- denly shined out between the altar and the temple, as bright as if it had been noon-day. About the same time a heifer, as she was led to sacrifice, brought forth a lamb in the very midst of the temple. The east gate of the inner part of the temple, all of massy brass, and which twenty men could hardly shut, after it had been fast locked and barred, was at night seen to open of its own accord. Cha- riots and armies were beheld in the air, all in their mar- tial posture, and preparing to surround the city. At Pen- tecost, when the priests entered into the inner temple,
c Ibid.Kep. {xL p. 968. dNat. Hist. 15. c. 14. p. 80. e Joseph. ubL
Slip. 1. 7.K6<^. xc^.p. 960»
THE LIFE OF ST. SIMEON. 2iS
they first perceived a noise and motion, and immediately heard a voice that said, UiraCctivoiuiv hiiu^iv, Let us depart hence. And four years before ever the war began, while all things were peaceable and secure, one Jesus, a plain country fellow, pronounced many dreadful woes against the temple, the city, and the people, wherein he conti- mied, especially at festival times, notwithstanding all the cruelties used towards him for seven years together, when some made a shift to despatch him by a violent death. But alas, an angel itself cannot stop men that are riding post towards their own destruction. So little will warn- ings, or threatnings or miracles signify with them, whom Heaven hath once given up to an incurable infatuation.^ 9. But it is high time to return and inquire, in the midst of this sad and calamitous state of things, what be- came of St. Simeon and the Christians of that place. And of them we find, that being timely warned by the caution which our Lord had given them, that wheTi they shoula see Jerusalem compassed with armies, and the abomina- tion oj' desolation (that is the Roman army) standing in tlie holy place, they should then flee into the mountains^ be- take themselves to some obscure place of refuge : and having been lately commanded by a particular ^revelation communicated to some pious and good men among them (which says Epiphanius was done by the ministry of an angel) to leave Jerusalem and go to Pella, they universally withdrew themselves, and seasonably retreats ed thither, as to a little Zoar from the flames of Sodom^ and so not one perished in the common ruin. This Pell^ was a little town in Coelo-Syria beyond Jordan, deriving its name probably from Pella, a city of iVlacedonia, as being founded and peopled by the Macedonians of Alex- ander's army, who sat down in Asia. That its inhabi- tants were Gentiles, it is plain, in that the ^Jews, under Alexander Jannseus their king, sacked it, because they would not receive the rites of their religion. And God,
'V Q^^'^'^etf' yivii T^t Cu>Ti; e^iA, T^i? J' unir dvclaig J, jcstxay itbd-atf,irm a.irof't^uy.iVii?. Jo- seph, loc. citat. g Euseb. 1. 3. c. 5. p. 75. Epipii. Hceres. xxix. p 58., Hjeres. XXX. p. 59. dc Pond. 8t raens. p. 5-37. h Joseph. Antic. Jud. L 13, c. 23. p. 462. ' ' ,
216 THE LIFE OF ST. SIMEON.
it is like on purpose, directed the Christians hither, that they might be out of the reach of the besovi of destruc- tion that was to sweep away the Jews wherever it came- Nor was it a less remarkable instance of the care and tenderness of the Divine Providence over them, that when Cestius Gallus had besieged Jerusalem, on a sud- den he should unexpectedly break up the siege, at once giving them warning of their danger, and an opportunity to escape. How long St Simeon and the church conti- nued in this little sanctuary, and when they returned to Jerusalem, appears not. If I might conjecture, I should place their return about the beginning of Trajan's reign, when the fright being sufficiently over, and the hatred and severity of the Romans assuaged, they might come back "with more safety. Certain it is, that they returned before ^Adrian's time, who forty-seven years after the devasta- tion coming to Jerusalem in order to its reparation, found there a few houses, and a little church of Christians built upon Mount Sion, in that very place where that upper room was, into which the disciples went up when they returned from our Lord's ascension. Here the Chris- tians who were returned from Pella, kept their solemn assemblies, and were so renowned for the flourishing state of their religion, and the eminency of their miracles, that Aquila, the emperor's kinsman, and whom he had made governor and overseer of the rebuilding of the city, being convinced, embraced Christianity. But still pursuing his old magic and astrological studies, notwith- standing the frequent admonitions that were given him, he was cast out of the Church. Which he resented as so great an affront, that he apostatized to Judaism, and aftervv^ards translated the Bible into Greek. But to return back to Simeon : confident we may be that he adminis- tered his province with all diligence and fidelity, in the discharge whereof God was pleased to preserve him as a person highly useful to his church, to a very great age, till the middle of Trajan's reign, when he was brought to give his last testimony to his religion, and upon a very slight pretence.
i Epipb. de Pond. & Mens, ibid.
THE LIFE OF ST. SIMEON. Sir
10. 'Hie Roman emperors were infinitely jealous of their new established sovereignty, and of any that might seem to be corrivals with them, especially in Palestine and the eastern parts. For an ancient and constant tra- dition (as appears besides Josephus, both from Sueto- nius and Tacitus) had been entertained throughout the east, that out of Judea should arise a prince, that should be the great monarch of the world. Which, though Jo- sephus to ingratiate himself with the Romans, flatteringly applied to Vespasian, yet did not this quiet their minds, but that still they beheld all that were of the Une of Da« vid with a jealous eye.*' This made Domitian, Vespa- sian's son, resolve to destroy all that were of the blood royal of the house of Judah ; upon which account two nephews of St. Jude, one of the brothers of our Lord, were brought before him, and despised by him for their poverty and meanness, as persons very unlikely to stand competitors for a crown. The very same indictment was brought against our ancient bishop ; for some of the sects of the 'Jews not able to bear his activity and zeal in the cause of his religion, and finding nothing else to charge upon him, accused him to Atticus, at that time consular legate of Syria, for being of the posterity of the kings of Judah, and withal a Christian, Hereupon he w^as apprehended and brought before the proconsul, who commanded him for several days together to be wrecked with the most exquisite torments. All which he under- went with so composed a mind, so unconquerable a pa- tience, that the proconsul and all that were present were amazed to see a person of so great age able to endure such and so many tortures : at last he was commanded to be crucified. He suffered in the hundred and twen- tieth year of his age, and in the tenth year of Tra- jan's reign, Ann. Chr. 107 (the Alexandrina Chro-
k Ov6TTi5-/*vcc ixiT-l Ti;\i T»y 'liPOffoKv/jLOiV otAttT/v :T*yTrtf Ti< ? drro /uiva; J^^CtS a(.V*. Q'',U(rd-ni fss-^og-drlii d)c /u.ii 'sngiKU'^^r^vui Ttvx ta-aga-'lK/^JCf tmv d-ro t* ^Ayi>.iK)ii ^wxii?, Xf *)c ix, T^TK «5>/r:v ']{sJ*/i/c QjiuCitvAi Sia>y/uov 7rct.rAv. Cliron Alexandr. ad Ami. 1, Olympiad, ccxiii. Indict, xv. Vespas. V. p. 586. eadem liabetde Domitian ad An. 1. Oh-mp, ccxviii. Ind. V. Domit. xiii. p. 5^^. I Easpb. 1. 3. c, S2. p,
•tO^t 104. ■
E e
218 THE LIFE OF ST. SIMEON,
nicon"" places it Traj. 7, Ann. Chr. as appears by the consuls, 104, though as doubtful of that, he places it again in the following year) after he had sat bishop of Jerusalem (computing his succession from St. James's martyrdom) forty-three or forty-four years ; "Petavius makes it no less than sixty- seven, though Ni- cephorus, patriarch of Constantinople (probably by a mis- take of the figure) assigns him but twenty-three. A longer portion of time than a dozen of his immediate successors were able to make up, God probably length- ening out his life, that as a skilful and faithful pilot he might steer and conduct the affairs of that church in those dismal and stormy days.
m An. 4. Olymp. ccxx. Ind. I. p. 594. n Animadv. ad Eoinh, Hxres. Ixv. p. 266.
THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS,
BISHOP OF ANTIOCH.
His original unknown. Called Theophorus, and why. The story of his being taken up into our Saviour's arms refuted. His apostolic edu- cation. St. John's disciple. His being made bishop of Antioch. The eminency of that see. The order of his succession stated. His pini- dent government of that church. The tradition of his appointing An- tiphonal hymns by revelation. Trajan's persecuting the church at Antioch. His discourse with Ignatius. Ignatius's cruel usage. His sentence passed. His being transmitted to Rome : and ^\ hy sent so far to his execution. His arrival at Smyrna, and meeting with St. Polycarp. His epistles to several churches. His coming to Troas, and epistles thence. His arrival at Porto Romano. Met on the way by the Christians at Rome. His earnest desire of martyrdom. His praying for the prosperity of the church. The time of his passion. His being thrown to wild beasts. What kind of punishment that among the Romans. The collection of his remains, and their trans- portation to Antioch ; and the great honours done to them. The great plenty of them in the church of Rome. Trajan's surceasing the persecution against the Christians. The dreadful earthquakes hap- pening at Antioch. Ignatius's admirable piety. His general solici- tude for the preservation and propagation of the Christian doctrine, as an apostle. His care, diligence, and fidelity as a bishop. His pa- tience and fortitude as a martyr. His epistles. Polycarp's commen- dation of them.
1. FINDING nothing recorded concerning the coun^ try or parentage of this holy man, I shall not build upon mere fancy and conjecture. He is ordinarily styled both by himself and others Theophorus, which though like
^20 THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS.
Justus it be oft no more than a common epithet, yet is it sometimes used as a proper name. It is written accord- ing to the different accents, either eti^o^(§r, and then it notes a divine person, a man whose soul is full of God, and all holy and divine qualities, o 4 x§is-cv «v tm -^vx^ <Br«g«;>s§a'v, as Ignatius himself is said to explain it ; or Qii<^og(^, and so in a passive signification it implies one that is born or carried by God. And in this latter sense he is said to have derived the tide from our Lord's taking him up into his arms. For thus we are told, that he was that very child whom our Saviour"" took into his arms, and set in the midst of his disciples, as the most lively instance of innocency and humility. And this affirmed (if. number might cany it) not only by the '"Greeks in their public rituals, by ''Metaphrastes, '^Nicephorus, and others, but (as the primate of Armagh^ observes from the manu- scripts in his own possession) by two Syriac writers, more ancient than they. But how^ confidently or generally soever it be reported, the story at best is precarious and uncertain, not to say absolutely false and groundless. Sure lam ^St. Chrysostom (who had far better oppor- tunities of knowing than they) expressly affimis of Igna- tius, that he never saw our Saviour, or enjoyed any fa- miliaiity or converse with him.
2. In his younger years he was brought up under apostolical institution : so ^Chrysostom tells us, that he was intimately conversant with tlie apostles, educated and nursed up by them, every where at hand, and made par- taker 'p>i^m i d7r4}:nuy, botli of thclr familiar discourses, and more secret and unconimon mysteries. Which though it is probable he means of his particular conversation ivith St. Peter and Paul, yet some of the forementioned authors, and not they only, but the ''Acts of his Martyr- dom, written as is supposed by some present at it, fur-
a M.rk ix.36. Matt, xvlli 2, o, 4.
c >Jc taphr. ad Decembr 20 Grxc. & Lat. apud Cottier, p. 991.
d >Keph. H. Ecci.l. 2.C.35. p. 192, e Annot. in Ignat. Act. p. 37-
f "OvT&i- :iiga:vvaa>r ninAna'aii QiO<pc^@", TTitri^. Nji'tt/^ yd^ tTl KOjj.tJ^i vmrde^y^cei «»? yjH^'J^' ' r v^in <j>egcwsyof, i^AdO civA(fa.\i\l@' turgor ufAic) y'iM7^t fj-oi^ af to Tcu^ivr 'j^Ts'. ^Me:.. Gixc. loc. citat.
g Ibid. p. 499. h Act. I^at. p. 1. & 5. Edit, usse^.
THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS. 221
ther assure us, that he was St. John's disciple. Being fully instructed in the doctrines of Christianity, he was for his eminent parts, and the great piety of his life, cho- sen to be bishop of Antioch the metropolis of Syria, and the most famous and renowned city of the East; not more remarkable among foreign writers for being the Oriental seat of the Roman emperors, and their viceroys and governors ; than it is in Ecclesiastics for its eminent entertainment of the Christian faith, its giving the vene- rable title of Christians to the disciples of the holy Jesus, and St. Peter's first and peculiar residence in this place. When the Synod of ^Constantinople assembled under Nectarius, in their Synodical epistle to the Western bishops, deservedly call it, the most ancient and truly npostolic church of Antioch^ in which the honourable name q/'Christians did first commence In all which respects it is frequently in the writings of the church by a proud kind of title styled ee^'-nroxic, or the City of God, That Ig- natius was constituted bishop of this church, is allowed on all hands, though as to the time and order of his coming to it, almost the same difficulties occur, which be- fore did in Clemens's succession to the see of Rome, pos- sibly not readily to be removed but by the same method of solution, easily granted in this case by ''Baronius him- self, and some other writers of note in that church. I shall not need to prove what is evident enough in itself, and plainly acknowledged by the ancients, that Peter and Paul planted Christianity in this city, and both con- curred to the foundation of this church, the one applying himself to the Jews, the other to the Gentiles. And large enough was the vineyard to admit the joint endea- vours of these two great planters of the gospel, it being a vast populous city, containing at that time according to St. Chrysostom's computation no less than two hundred thousand souls. But the apostles (who could not stay always in one place) being called off to the ministry of other churches, saw it necessary to substitute others in their room, the one resigning his trust to Euodius, the
1 Ap. Theodora. H. Eccl. 1. 5. c. 9. p. 211.
k Ad Ann. 45. n. 14. vid. Ad. Martyr. Rom. Feb. 1. p. 8«.
222 THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS.
other to Ignatius. Hence in the Apostolic Constitutions 'Euodius is said to be ordained bishop of Antioch by St. Peter, and Ignatius by St. Paul ; till Euodius dying, and the Jewish converts being better reconciled to the Gen- tiles, Ignatius succeeded in the sole care and presidency over that church, wherein he might possibly be after- wards confirmed by Peter himself. In which respect probably the author of the ""Alexandrine Chronicon meant it, when he affirms that Ignatius was constituted bishop of Antioch by the apostles. By this means he may be said both immediately to succeed the apostle, as "Origen, ^'Eusebius, ^Athanasius, and '^Chrysostom affirm, and withal to be the next after Euodius, as ""St. Hierom, 'So- crates, *Metaphrastes and others place him. However Euodius dying, and he being settled in it by the apos- ties' hands, might be justly said to succeed St. Peter ; in which sense it is that some of the ancients expressly affirm him to have received his consecration from St. Peter, ^t*. t^ tS fjnyoiha Tiiie^'6 j'i^iS.5 Tw'c ct^^ii^oavvfi^ t«v x^i'^ iSi^aiot says '"Theodoret; and so their own ""historian relates it, that Peter coming to Antioch in his passage to Rome, and finding Euodius lately dead, committed the government of it to Ignatius, whom he made bishop of that place : though it will be a little difficult to reconcile the times to an agreement with that account.
3. Somewhat above forty years St. Ignatius continu- ed in his charge at Antioch, (Nicephorus patriarch of Constantinople assigns him but four years, the figure ft for forty, being probably through the carelessness of transcribers slipt out of the account) in the midst of very stormy and tempestuous times. But "^he, like a wise and prudent pilot, sat at the stern, and declined the dangers that threatened them by his prayers and tears, his fast-
1 Lib. 7. c. 47. p. 451. m Ad Ann. Tib. XIX. p, 536.
n Grig-. Hom. 6. in Luc. p. 214. o Euseb. H. Eccl. 1. 3. c. 36. p. 106,
p Athan. de Synod. Arim. & Seleu. p. 922.
q Chrysost. loc. cit.p. 500. r Hier. de script, in Ignat.
s Socr. H. Eccl. 1. 6. c. 8. p. 313. t Metaphr. ubi supr.
u De Immutab. Dialog-. 1. p. 33. Tom. 4.
V Jo Malel Chron. 1. 10. ap usser. Not. in Epist. ad Antioch pag. 107,
\v Aat. Ignat. p. 1, 2.
THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS. 22'3
ings and the constancy of his preaching, and those inde- fatigable pains he took among them, fearing lest any of the more weak and unsettled Christians might be over- bom with the storms of persecution. Never did a little calm and quiet interval happen, but he rejoiced in the prosperity of the church : though as to himself he some- what impatiently expected and longed for martyrdom, without which he accounted he could never perfectly attain to the love of Christ, nor fill up the duty and mea- sures of a true disciple, which accordingly afterwards became his portion. Indeed as to the particular acts of his government, nothing memorable is recorded of him in the antiquities of the church, more than what ''Socrates relates, by what authority, I confess, I know not) that he saw a vision, wherein he heard the angels with alternate hymns celebrating the honour of the Holy Trinity, in imi- tation whereof he instituted the way of Antiphonal hymns in the church of Antioch, which thence spread itself over the whole Christian church. Whether this story was made on purpose to outvie the Arians who were wont on the Sabbaths and Lord's days to sing alternate hymns in their congregations, with some tart reflections upon the orthodox, insomuch that Chrysostom was for- ced to introduce the same way of singing into the ortho* dox assemblies : or whether it was really instituted by Ignatius, but afterwards grown into disuse, I will not say. Certain it is, that Flavianus afterwards bishop of Antioch in the reign of Constantius is ''said to have been the first that thus established the quire, and appointed David's psalms to be sung by turns, which thence propagated it- self to other churches. St. Ambrose was the first that brought it into the western church, reviving (says the ^historian) the ancient institution of Ignatius, long dis- used among the Greeks. But to return.
4. It was about the year of Christ 107. When Tra- jan the emperor, swelled with his late victory over the Scythians and the Daci, about the ninth year of his reign came to Antioch, to make preparation for the war which
X H. Eccl. loc, citat. y Theodoret. Fl Ectl 1. 3. c. 24. p. 1S7.
z Sigebert. Chr. ad ATin.CJw. 387,
224 THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS.
he was resolved to make upon the Parthians and Arme- nians. He entered the city with the pomps and solemni- ties of a triumph, and as his first care usually was about the concernments of religion, he began presently to in- quire into that affair. Indeed he ''looked upon it as an affront to his other victories to be conquered by Chris- tians ; and therefore to make this religion stoop, had al- ready commenced a persecution against them in other parts of the empire, which he resolved to carry on here. St. Ignatius (whose solicitude for the good of his flock made him continually stand upon his guard) thinking it more prudent to go himself, than stay to be sent for, of his own ^'accord presented himself to the emperor, be- tween whom there is said to have passed a large and par- ticular discourse, the emperor wondering that he dai'ed to transgress his laws, while the good man asserted his own innocency, and the power which God hath given them over evil spirits, and that the gods of the Gentiles were no better than daemons, there being but one su- preme deity, who m.ade the world, and his only begotten son Jesus Christ, who though crucified under Pilate, had yet destroyed him that had the power of sin, that is, the Devil, and would ruin the whole power and empire of the dsemons, and tread it under the feet of those, who car- ried God in their hearts. The issue was, that he was cast into prison, where (if what the ^'Greek rituals and some others report, be true) he was for the constancy and resolution of his profession, subjected to the most, severe and merciless torments, Vv hipped with plumbatge,, scourges with leaden bullets at the end of them, forced to hold fire in his hands, while his sides were burnt with papers dipt in oil, his feet stood upon live coals, and hi^s flesh was torn off" with burning pincers. Having by an invincible patience overcome the malice and cruelty of his tormentors, the emperor pronounced the "^final sen- tence upon him, that being incurably overrun with su- perstition, he should be carried bound by soldiers to
a Act. ib. p. 2. b Act. Ign. p. 3.
c T^ J-'/MP^- K fjLK', tS /i^me/AC. d Act. Martyr, p. 4i
THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS. 225
\
Rome, and there thrown as a prey to wild beasts. The good man heartily rejoiced at the fatal decree, I thank theCy 0 Lord (said he) that thou hast condescended thus perfectly to honour me with thy love, and hast thought me worthy with thy apostle Paul to be bound ivith iron chains. With that he chearfully embraced his chains, and having fervently prayed for his church, and with tears recom- mended it to the divine care and providence, he deliver- ed up himself into the hands of his keepers, that were appointed to transport him to the place of execution.
5. It may justly seem strange, and it was that which puzzled the great ''Scaliger, why he should be sent so vast a way from Antioch in Syria to be martyred at Rome. Whereof these probable accounts may be ren- dered. First, it was usual with tlie governors of pro- vinces, where the malefactors were more then ordinarily eminent, either for the quality of their persons, or the nature of their crimes, to send them to Rome, that their punishment might be made exemplary in the eye of the world. Secondly his enemies were not willing he should suffer at home, where he w^as too much honoured and esteemed already, and where his death would but raise him into a higher veneration with the people, and settle their minds in a firmer belief of that faith, which he had taught them, and which they then saw him sealing with his blood. Thirdly, by so long a journey, they hoped that in all places where he came, men would be more effectually terrified from embracing that religion, which they saw so much distasted and resented by the empe- ror, and the profession whereof could not be purchased but at so dear a rate ; besides the probability, that by this usage the constancy of Ignatius himself might be bro- ken, and he forced to yield. Fourthly, they designed to make the good man's punishment as severe and hea- vy as they could, and therefore so contrived it, that there might be a concurrence of circumstances to render it bitter and grievous to him. His great age, being then
e Animadv. nti. Euseb. Chron. p. 2t37.
226 THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS.
probably above fourscore years old, the vast length and tcdiousness of the journey, which was not a little in- creased by the /uAK^ortgoiSiMhoirii j^:^xK as ^ St. Chrysostom observes, their gomg the furthest way about, for they went not the direct passage to Rome, but by infinite windings, diverted from place to place) the trouble and difficulty of the passage, bad at all times, but much worse now in winter, the want of all necessary conve- niences and accomodations for so aged and infirm a per- son, the rude and merciless usage of his keepers, who treated him with all ruggedness and inhumanity : Frotn Syria even to Rome both by Sea and land I fight with beasts, night and day I am chained to ten leopards, [which is my military guard) who, the kinder I am to them, are the more cruel and fierce to me, as ^ himself complains. .Besides what was dearer to him then all this, his credit and reputation might be in danger to suffer with him, seeing at so great a distance the Romans were generally more likely to understand him to suft'er as a malefactor for some notorious crime, then as a martyr for religion, and this ^ Metaphrastes assures us, w^as one particular end of his sending thither. Not to say that beyond all this, the Divine Providence (which knows how to bring good out of evil, and to overrule the designs of bad men to wise and excellent purposes) might the rather permit it to be so, that the leading so great a man so far in triumph, might make the faith more remarkable and illustrious, that he might have the better opportunity to establish and confirm the Christians, * who flocked to him from ail parts as he came along ; and by giving^ them the example of a generous virtue, arm them with the stronger resolution to die for their religion, and es- pecially that he might seal the truth of his religion at Rome, where his death might be Si^xan^uOr -^ivcnQiiitg, (as Chrisostom ^ speaks) a tutor of piety, and teach K^iivi^v <ti- xoro<;)6lv,the city that was so famous for arts and wisdom, a
f Homil. cit. p. 504.
g- Epist. ad. Rom. p. 23. & ap. Euseb. 1. 3. c. 36. p. 107.
It Martyr, ubi. supr. p. 995.^ i Vid. Chrysost. Homii.cit. pag". 505.
k Ibid.
THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS. 227 •
Tiew and better philosophy then they had learned before. To all which may be added, that this was done not by the provincial governor, who had indeed power of exe- cuting capital punishments within his own province (which seems to have been the main ground of Scaliger's scruple) but immediately by the emperor himself, whose pleasure and command it was that he should be sent to Rome ; whither we must now follow him to his martyr- dom : in the account whereof we shall for the main keep to the acts of it, written in all probability by Philo and Agathopus, the companions of his journey, and present at his passion ; two ancient versions whereof the incom- parable bishop Usher first recovered and published to the world.
6. Being ^ consigned to a guard of ten soldiers, he took his leave of his beloved Antioch (and a sad parting no doubt there was between him and his people ; who were to see his face no more) and was conducted on foot to Seleucia, a port town of Syria, about sixteen miles distant thence, the very place whence Paul and Barna- bas set sail for Cyprus. Here going aboard, after a tedious and difficult voyage they arrived at Smyrna, a famous city of Ionia, where they were no sooner set on shore, but he went to salute St. Poly carp, bishop of the place, his old fellow pupil under St. John the apostle. Joyful was the meeting of these two holy men, St. Poly- carp being so far from being discouraged, that he re- joiced in the other's chains, and earnestly pressed him to a firm and final perseverance. Hither came in the country round about, especially the bishops, presby- ters and deacons of the Asian churches, to behold so venerable a sight, to partake of the holy martyr's pray- ers and blessing, and to encourage him to hold on to his consummation. To requite whose kindness, and for their further instruction and establishment in the faith, he wrote '" letters from hence to several churches, one to the Ephesians, wherein he commends Onesimus their
I Act. Ignat. pa^. 5. m Euseb. H. Eccl. I. 3. c. 36. p. 107.
iJfiS THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS.
bishop for his singular charity ; another to the Magne- sians, a city seated upon the river Meander, which he sent by Damas their bishop, Bassus and Apollonius, presbyters, and Sotio deacon of that church ; a third to the Trallians by Polybius their bishop, wherein he par- ticularly presses them to subjection to their spiritual guides, and to avoid those pestilent heretical doctrines that were then risen in the church. A fourth he wrote to the Christians at Rome, to acquaint them with his pre- sent state, and passionate desire not to be hindered in that course of martyrdom, which he was now hastening to accomplish.
7. His keepers, a little impatient of their stay at Smyr^ na, set sail for Troas, a noted city of the lesser Phrygia, not far from the ruins of the ancient Troy : where at his arrival he was not a little refreshed with the news that he received of the persecution ceasing in the church of Antioch. Hither several churches sent their mes- sengers to visit and salute him, and hence he despatched two epistles, one to the church at Philadelphia, to press them to love and unity, and to stand fast in the truth and simplicity of the gospel, the other to the church of Smyrna, from whence he lately departed, which he sent, as also the former, by Burrhus, the deacon, whom they and the Ephesians had sent to wait upon him ; and to- gether with that (as " Eusebius informs us) he wrote privately to St. Polycarp, particularly recommending to him the care and oversight of the church of Antioch, for which as a vigilant pastor he could not but have a tender and very dear regard ; though very -learned men (but certainly without any just reason) think this not to have been a distinct epistle from the former, but jointly directed and intended to St. Polycarp and his church of Smyrna. Which however it be, they conclude it as certain that the epistle to St. Polycarp now extant, is none of it, as in which nothing of the true temper and spirit of Ignatius does appear, while others of great note
n Loc. oit.p. lOT.
THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS, 229
not improbably contend for it as genuine and sincere. From Troas they sailed to Neapolis, a maritime town of Macedonia, thence to Philippi, a Roman colony^' (the very same journey which St. Paul had gone before him,) where (as "* St. Poly carp intimates in liis epistle to that church) they were entertained with all imaginable kindness and courtesy, and conducted forwards in their journey. Hence they passed on foot through Mace- donia and Epirus, till they came to Epidamnum, a city of Dalmatia, where again taking ship they sailed through the Adriatic, and arrived at Rhegium a port town in Italy, whence they directed their course through the Tyrhenian sea to Puteoli, Ignatius desiring (if it might have been granted) thence to have gone by land, that he might have traced the same way, by which St Paul went to Rome. After a day and a night's stay at Puteoli, a prosperous wind quickly carried them to the Roman port, the great harbour and station for their navy, built near Ostia, at the mouth of Tyber, about sixteen miles from Rome, whither the holy martyr longed to come, as much desirous to be at the end of his race, as his keep- ers weary of their voyage, were to be at the end of their journey.
8. The Christians at Rome, daily expecting his arrival, were come out to meet and entertain him, and accor- dingly received him with an equal resentment of joy and sorrow. Glad tliey were of the presence and com- pany of so great and good a man, but quickly found their joy allayed with the remembrance, how soon, and by how severe a death he was to be taken from them : and when some of them did but intimate, that possibly the people might be taken off from desiring his death, he expressed a pious indignation, entreating them to cast no rubs in his way, nor do any thing that might hinder him, now he was hastening to his crown. Being con- ducted to Rome, he was presented to the prcefect of the city, and as it is probable, the emperor's letters con- cerning him were delivered. In the mean time while
br Act xvU. U. 12. p Epist Pclycarp. ad Philip, p "iS. non. longe rJ>, ioit.
230 THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS.
tilings were preparing for his martyrdom, he and the brethren that resorted to him iniproved their time to pious purposes ; he prayed with them, and for them, heartily recommended the state of the church to the care and protection of our blessed Saviour, and earnestly solicited heaven, that it would stop the persecution that was begun, and bless Christians with a true love and charity towards one another. That his punishment might be the more pompous and public, one of their solemn festivals, the time of their Saturnalia, and that part of it when they celebrated their Sigillaria, was pitched on for his execution : at which times they were wont to entertain the people with the bloody conflicts of the Gladiators, and the hunting of, and fighting v/ith wild beasts. Accordingly on the thirteenth of the Kalends of January, that is, December 20. he was brought out into the Amphitheatre, and according to his own fer- vent desire, that he might have no other grave but the bellies of wild beasts, the lions w^ere let loose upon him, w^hose roaring alarm he entertained with no other con- cernment, than that now as God's owqi corn he should be ground between the teeth of these wild beasts, and become white bread for his heavenly Master. The lions were not long doing their work, but quickly despatched their meal, and left nothing but what they could not well devour, a few hard and solid bones. This throwing of persons to wild beasts was accounted among the Romans, "^intc}' summa siipplicia, and was never used but for very capital oiiences, and towards the vilest and most despica- ble malefactors, under which rank they beheld the Chris- tians, w^ho w^ere so familiarly destined to this kind of death,. that (as ''Tertullian tells us) upon any trifling and frivolous pretence, if a famine or an earthquake did but happen, the common outcry was, Christianos ad leojies^ Away with the Christians to the lions.
9. Among other Christians that were mournful spec- tators of this tragic scene, were the deacons I mention'*
q Paul. JC. Sent. lib. 5. Tit. 23. L. 3. §. 5. ff. ad le^. Cornel, de Sicar. & Ve- nef. I* Apolog. c. 40. p. 32.
THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS. 231
ed, who had been the companions of his journey, who bore not the least part in the sorrows of that day. And that they might not return home with nothing but the ac- count of so sad a story, they gathered up the bones which the wild beasts had spared, and transported them to Antioch, Vvdiere they wxre joyfully received, and ho- nourably entombed in the ceme'cery without the gate that leads to Daphne.' A passage which Chrysostom accord- ing to his rhetorical vein elegantly ampliRes as the great honour and treasure of that place. From hence, in the reign *of Theodosius they were by his command, with mighty pomp and solemnity removed to the Tych:eOii within the city, a temple heretofore dedicated to the pub- lie genius of the city, but now consecrated" to the memo- ry of the martyr. And for their translation afterwards to Home, and the miracles said to be done by them, they that are further curious may inquire. For indeed I am not now at leisure for these things. But I can direct the reader to one that will give him very punctual and parti- cular account of them, and in what places the several parcels of his reiiques are bestowed ;" no less than five churches in Rome enriched with them, besides others ia Naples, Sicily, France, Flanders, Germany, and indeed where not. And verily but that some men have a very happy faculty at doing wonders by multiplication, a maa would be apt to wonder how a few bones (and they w^ere not many which the lions spared) could be able to serve so many several churches. I could likevvise tell him a long story of the various travels and donations of St. %» natius's head, and by what good fortune it came at last to the Jesuit's college at Rome, where it is richly en- shrined, solemnly and religiously worshipped, but that I am afraid my reader w^ould give me no thanks for my pains.
10. About this time, or a little before, w^hile Trajan was yet at Antioch, he stopped, or at least mitigated the
s Act. Ignat. p. 8. Metophr. loc. clt. M^n. Gvarc. T? >:S'. Td Trfvt;*^, HierKtn. de Script, in If^p.at.
t Euagr. H. Ec". I 1. c 16, p. 274. u BoUancl. ad diem. ?. Fehr ^
35. &c, ■ -
232 THE LIFE OP' ST. IGNATIUS.
prosecution against Christians : For having had an ac- count from Pliny,'' the proconsul of Bithynia (whom he had employed to that purpose) concerning the innocency and simplicity of the Christians, that they were a harm- less and inoffensive generation ; and lately received a let- ter from Tiberianus,'' governor of Palestina Prima, where- in he told him that he was wearied out in executing the laws against the Galileeans, who crowded themselves in such multitudes to execution, that he could neither by persuasions nor threatnings keep them from owning them- selves to be Christians, further praying his majesty's ad- vice in that affair : Hereupon he gave command that no inquisition should be made after the Christians, though if any of them offered themselves, execution should be done upon them. So that the fire which had heretofore flamed and burnt out, began now to be extinguished and only crept up and down in private corners. There are that tell us^ that Trajan having heard a full account of Ig- natius and his sufferings, and how undauntedly he had undergone that bitter death, repented of what he had done, and was particularly moved to mitigate and relax the persecution: whereby (as Metaphrastes observes) not only Ignatius's life, but his very death became fM x^v <crgc|£v(^ dyx^s^vy the procurer of great peace and pros- perity, and the glory and establishment of the Christian faith. Some not improbably conceive, that the severe judgments which happened not long after, might have a peculiar influence to dispose the emperor's mind to more tenderness and pity for the remainder of his life. For during his abode at Antiocb, there were dreadful and unusual earthquakes,^' fatal to other places, but which fell most heavy upon Antiocb, at that time lilled more than ordinary with a vast army and confluence of people from all parts of the world. Among thousands that died, and
V Epist.97. I. 10. Euseb. I. 3. c. 34. p. 105. J. ISXalel. Cliron. 1. 11. ap. Usser.. not. in. Ignat. Epist. p. 43.
w Extiit ap. Jo. Mulel. loc. cit. £ip. Usser. Appcn. Ig-nat. p. 9. vid. Excerpt. ex. Jo. Antioch. a Val. edit. j). 818.
X Sim. Metaphr. Martyr. Ig-nat. apud Coteler. p, 1002.
y Dio. Cass. Hist. Rom. 1. 68. £i XtpLil. in vit. Traj. p. 2?!?» ^50, 551, Jcc Malcl. Chro. I. 10. ubi supr.
THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS. 233
fhr greater numbers that were maimed and wounded, Pedo, the consul, lost his life, and Trajan himself, had he not escaped out at a window, had undergone the same fate. Accidents which I doubt not prepared his mind to a more serious consideration and regard of things. Though these calamities happened not till some years after Ignatius's death.
11. Whether these judgments were immediate in- stances of the Divine displeasure for the severity used against the Christians, and particularly for their cruelty to Ignatius, I vvill not say. Certain it is, that the Chris- tian church had a mighty loss in so useful and excellent a person. For he was a good man, one in whose breast the true spirit of religion did eminently dwell, a man of very moderate and mortified affections, in which sense he doubtless intended that famous saying, so much ce- lebrated by the ancients, o emo2 hpos estatphtai, 7722/ love is crucified, that is (for to that purpose he explains it in the very words that follow) his appetites and desires were crucified to the world, and all the lusts and pleasures of it. We may with St. Crysostom^ consider him in a three- fold capacity, as an apostle, a bishop, and a martyr. As an apostle (in the larger acception of the word, he being d-gomv Jus^x^ '^*»' 'ATTo^.hm, as thc Grcck oiBces^ style him, the hnmediate successor of the apostles in their see) he was care- ful to diftlise and propagate the genuine doctrine which he had received of the apostles, and took a kind of oecu- menical care of ail the churches ; even in his passage to Rome he surveyed t-1; y^ TroMVTrx^ouia^, as Eusebius^ tells us, the diocesses, or churches, that belonged to all the cities whither he came, confirming them by his sermons and exhortations, and directing epistles to several of the prin- cipal, for their further order and establishment in the faith. As a bishop, he was a diligent, faithful and indus- trious pastor, infinitely careful of his charge ; which though so exceedingly vast and numerous, he prudent- ly instructed, governed, and superintended, and that in
z Oral, svipr.laud. p. 499. a Men. Grjcc. t?; h.' tv -isxf^^.
b H.Eccl.!-3. c. r.p. n. 106.
234 THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS;
the midst of ticklish and troublesome times, above forty years together. He had a true and unchangeable love for his people, and when ravished from them in order to his martyrdom, there was not any church to whom he wrote,'' but he particularly begged their prayers to God for his church at Antioch, and of some of them desired that they would send ^io-x^r^i^durw, a divine ambassador thi> ther on purpose to comfort them, and to congratulate their happy deliverance from the persecution. And be- cause he knew that the prosperity of the church and the good of souls were no less undermined by heresy from ^vithin, than assaulted by violence and persecution from without, he had a peculiar eye to that, and took all occa- sions of warning the church to beware of heretics and seducers t* ^>-5:« ^d d;-f}^o:7r,y.o^^^, as he styles them,*^ those beasts in the shape of men, whose wild notions and brut- ish manners began even then to embase religion, and corrupt the simplicity of the faith. Indeed he duly filled up all the measiu'es of a wise governor, and an excellent p-uide of souls, and St. Chrysostom'' runs through the particular characters of the bishop delineated by St. Paul, and finds them all accomplished and made good in him ; with so generous a care^ (says he) so exact a dili- gence did he preside over the flock of Christ, even to the making good what our Lord describes, &-c fAyi^ov i^ov g ^avov* t «;r<7x'.T>,r, as the utmost pitch and line of episcopal fidelity, to laij doivn his life for the sheep ; and this he did with all courage and fortitude ; which is the last consideration we shall remark concerning him.
12. As a martyr he gave the highest testimony to his fidelity, and to the truth of that religion which he both preached and practised. He gloried in his sufferings as his honour and his privilege, and looked upon his chains, Tx; TrnufAiicKic y.ct^ya^iisi^, hc calls tlicm,^ as liis jewels and his or- naments : he was raised above either the love or fear of the present state, and could with as much ease and free-
c Ep'St ad Eph. p. 9. ad Magnes. p. 15. ;id Tralllan. p. 20. ad Rom. p. C5. ad pliilad^'ipii. p. 31. ad Smyrn. p. 37.
d Eplst. ad Smyrn. p. 34. & Eu.scb. ub;.- supr. c Ubi supr. p. 500. S;c. f Ibid. p. 499. g-Epist, ud £:ph. p. 6
THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS. 23^
xiom (says Chrysostom'') lay down his life, as another man could put off his clothes. The truth is, his soul was strangely inflamed w'ith a desire of martyrdom, he wished every step of his journey to meet with the wild beasts that were prepared for him, and tells the Romans,* he desired nothing more than they might presently do his work, that he would invite and court them speedily to devour him, and if he found them backward, as they had been towards others, he would provoke and force them. And though the death he was to undergo was most savage and barbarous, and dressed up in the most horrid and frightful shapes, enough to startle the firmest resolution, yet could they make no impression i?r] -r^v s-ip'^iv i do'u./uL^vitvov -^vxh (as the Greeks say of him*") upon his im- pregnable adamantine mind, any more than the dashes of a wave upon a rock of marble. Let thejire (said he') arid the cross^ the assaults of wiUl beasts^ the breaking of bones, cutting of limbs^ battering the whole body in pieces^ yea andall the torments which the devil can invent come upon me, so I may but attain to be with Jesus Christ ; professing he thought it much betier to die for Christ, than to live and reign the sole monarch of the world. Expressions certainly of a mighty zeal, and a divine passion woundup to its highest note. And yet after all, this excellent per- son was humble to the lowest step of abasure : he oft professes that he looked upon himself as an abortive, and the very least of the faithful in the whole church of An- tioch,"' and that though it was his utmost ambition, yet he did not know whether he was worthy to sufier for reli- gion. I might in the last place enter into a discourse concerning his epistles (the true indices of the piety and divine temper of his mind) those seven I mean, enume- rated and quoted by Eusebius, and collected by St. Po- lycarp, as himself expressly testifies f but shall forbear, despairing to offer any thing considerable after so much as has been said by learned men about them : only ob»
h Loc laudat. i Epist. ad Rom. p. 23. & np'id Euseb. loc. cit. k Men, Grzec. ubisupr. 1 Epist." ad Rom. p. 24. & ap. Euseb. ubisupr m Epist. ad Eph. p. 9. ad Rom. p. 25. Epist. ad Trail, p. 17. n Enist.
Polycar. p. 23- edit. Usser. & ap. Euseb. loc, cIt. p, 103
236
THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS.
serving, that in the exceptions to the argument from St, Polycarp's testimony, little more is said even by those who have managed it to the best advantage, than what might be urged against the most genuine writing in the world. I add St. Polycarp's character of these epistles, whereby he recommends them as highly useful and ad- vantageous, that they contain in them instructions and exhortations to faith and patience^ and whatever is ne- cessary to build us up in the religion of our Lord and Saviour,
HIS WRITINGS.
Genuine. Ad Ephesios Epistola. Ad Magnesianos. Ad Trallianos, Ad Romanos, Ad Philadelphenos, Ad^Symrnaeos.
Doubtful. Epistola ad Polycarpum.
Spurious. Ad Mariam Cossobolitam Ad Tarsenses. Ad Antiochenos. Ad Phlllppenses. Ad Heronem. Ad B. Viro-, Mariam. Ad Joannem Apostolum. 2.
rilE IJFE OF ST. POLYCARP
BISHOP OF SMYRNA.
The place of his Nativity. The honour and eminencey of Smyrna. His education under St. John. By him constituted Bishop of Smyrna, Whether the same with the Bishop to whom St. John committed the the young man. St. Polycarp the Angel of the'Church of Smyrna men- tioned in the Apocalyps. Ignatius his arrival at Smyrna. His letters to tliat Churcli, and to St. Polycarp. His Journe)' to Rome about the Quartodeciman Controversy. The time of it enquired into. Anice- tus his succession to the see of Rome. His reception there by Ani- cetus. Their mutual kindness notwithstanding the difference. His stout opposing heretics at Rome. His sharp treatment of Murcion, and mighty zeal against those early corrupters of the Christian Doc- trine. Irenxus his particular remarks of St. Polycarp's actions. The Persecution under M. Antoninus, 'Hie time of Polycarp's Martyrdom noted. The acts of it written by the Church of Smyrna : their great esteem and value. St. Polycarp sought for. His Martyrdom fore- told by a dream. His apprehension. Conducted to Smyrna. Ire- narchai, who. Polycarp's rude treatment by Herodcs. His being brought before the Proconsul. Christians refused to swear by the Emperor's genius, and why. His pious and resolute answers. His slighting the Proconsul's threatnings. His sentence proclaimed. Asiarchx who. Preparation for liis burning. His prayer before his death. Miraculously preserved in the fire. Despatched vvith a Sword. The care of the Christians about his Remains : this far from a super- stitious veneration. Their annual meeting at the place of his mar- tyrdom. His great age at his death. The day of his passion. His tomb how honoured at this day. The judgments happening to Smyrna after his death. The Faith and Patience of the Primitive Christians noted out of the Preface to the Acts of his Martyrdom. His Epistle to the Philippians. Its usefulness. Highly valued and publicly read in the ancient Church. The Epistle itself.
1. ST. POLYCARP was bom towards the latter end of Nero's reign, or it may be a little sooner, his great age at the time of his death, with some other circumstan- ces rendering it highly probable, if not certain. Uncer- tain it is where he was born, and I see no suiScient rea-
238 THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARF.
son to the contrary, why we may not fix his nativity at Smyrna, an eminent city of Ionia in the lesser Asia, the first of the seven that entered their claim of being the birth-place of the famous ''Homer, in memory whereof they had a library, and a four-square portico, called Homereum, with a temple and statute of Homer ad- joining to it, and used a sort of brass coin, which they called 'Ofxy^efi^v, after his name, and probably with his image stamped upon it. A place it was of great honour and re- nown, and has not only very magnificent titles heaped upon it by the writers of those times, but in several ancient inscriptions, set up by public order of the se- nate, not long after the time of Adrian, it is styled, The chief City of Asia ^ both for beauty and greatness^ the most splendid^ the Metropolis of Asia, and the Orna7nent of Ionia. ''But it had a far greater and more honourable pri- vilege to glory in, if it was (as we suppose) the place of St. Polycarp's nativit}^, however of his education, the seat of his episcopal care and charge, and the scene of his tragedy and martyrdom. The ''Greeks in their Menceon, report that he was educated at the charge of a certain noble matron (whose namewe are told was Callisto) a woman of great piety and charity, who when she had exhausted all her granaries in relieving the poor, had them suddenly fill- ed again by St. Polycarp's prayers. The circumstances whereof are more particularly related by Pionius (who suffered, if, which I much question, it was the same, un- der the Decian persecutiou) to this •^effect. Callisto warned by an angel in a dream sent and redeemed Po- lycarp (then but a child) of some who sold him, brought him home, took care of his education, and finding him a
a Strab. Geograph. 1. 14 p. C46.
b H KPAT12TH BOTAH
TH2 riPHTHS TH2; ASIAX
KAAAEl KAl MHrEeEl KAI
AAMRPOTATHS KAl MHTPO
nOAEP.S TH2 A21A2
KAI K02M0T
TH2 iriNlAS 2MTPNAI
HN nOAEP.S. Marmor. Oxon. II. p 47. Eydem babet Marm. LXXVIIl. p. 129. CXLIII. p. 277. Append. XV. p. 296, C T« M.y'. Tb fx:w 'i 'Jsojui^i.
d Pion. vit. S. Polycarp. ex MS. Grxc. apud. BoUanU Januar.XXVl. p. 696,.
THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP, 23$
youth of ripe arid pregnant parts, as he grew up, made him the major-domo and steward of her house; whose cha- rity it seems he dispensed with a very liberal hand, inso- much that, during her absence, he had emptied all her barns and store-houses to the uses of the poor. For which being charged by his fellow- servants at her reurn, she not knowing then to what purpose he had imployed them, called for the keys, and commanded him to re- sign his trust, which was no sooner done, but at her en- trance in, she found all places full, and in as good condi- tion as she had left them, which his prayers and inter- cession with heaven had again replenished. As indeed heaven can be sometimes content rather to work a mi- racle, than charity should suffer and fare the worse for its kindness and bounty. In his younger years he is said to have been instructed in the Christian faith by Bucolus, whom the same "^^Meuceon elsewhere informs us St. John had consecrated bishop of vSmyrna ; however ^authors of more uncjuestionable credit and ancient date tell us, that he was St. John's disciple, and not his only, but as ^Ire- na^us, who was his scholar (followed herein by St. Hie- rom) assures us, he was taught by the apostles, and fa- miliarly conversed with many who had seen our Lord in the flesh.
2. Bucolus the vigilant and industrious bishop of Smyrna being dead, (by whom St. Poly carp was as we are ''told, made deacon and catechist of that church, an office which he discharged with great diligence and suc- cess) Polycarp was ordained in his room, according to Bucolus's own prediction, who as the 'Greeks report, had in his lifetime foretold that he should be his succes- sor. He was constituted by St. John, say the ''ancients generally ; though ^Iren^eus followed herein by the '"Chronicle of Alexandria, affirms it to have been done by
C Tw cl'JTU I'.HVi T»i 5-',
f Acr. Ip:nut. p. 5. Hieron.de Script, in Polycarp. Eiise"b. X^iv. Aoy. p. 81.
g Adv. Hxvco. 1. 3. c. 3. p. 233. & ap. Euseb. 1. 4. c. 14. p. 127.
h Plon. c. 3- n. 12. ubi supr. i Men. 23. Febr. ubi supr.
k TertuU. de prsescript. Hxretic. c. 32. p. 213. Hieron. ubi supr. vid. Suid in voc. nn^vK^ipTr. Niceph. H. Eccl. 1. 3. c. 2. p. 225. Maityr. Rom, ad 26. Jan. p. 71. I Loc. supr. citat.
m Olymp. CCJfZIV, 1. Anton. X7A. p. 602.
240 THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP.
the apostles, whether any of the apostles beside St. John were then alive, or whether he means apostolic persons (commonly styled apostles in the writings of the church) who joined with St. John in the consecration. "Euse- bius says, that Polycarp was familiarly conversant with the apostles, and received the government of the church of Smyrna from those who had been eye witnesses and ministers of our Lord, It makes not a little for the hoir nour of St. PolycaiT), and argues his mighty diligence and solicitude for the good of souls, that (as we shall note more anon) Ignatius passing to his m.artyrdom, wrote to him, and particularly recommended to him the inspection and oversight of his church at Antioch, knowing him (says ""Eusebius) to be truly an apostolical man, and be- ing assured that he would use his utmost care and fidelity in that matter. The ^author of the Alexandrian Chro- nicle tells us, that it was the bishop of Smyrna (who could not well be any other than St. Polycarp) to whom St. John committed the tutorage and education of the young man, whom he took up in his visitation, who ran away, and became captain of a company of loose and de- bauched highwaymen, and was afterwards reduced and reclaimed by that apostle. But seeing Clemens Alexan- drinus, who relates the story, sets down neither the name of the bishop, nor the city, though he •^confesses there were some tliat made mention of it, nor is this circum- stance taken notice of by any other ancient wrher, nor that bishop's neglecting of his charge well consistent with St. Polycarp's care and industry, I shall leave the story as I find it. Though it cannot be denied but that Smyrna was near to Ephesus, as St. Clem.ens says, that city also was, and that St. John seems to have had a more than ordinary regard to that church, it being next Ephesus, the first of those seven famous Asian churches, to whom he directed his epistles, and St. Polycarp at this time bishop of it : for that he was that angel of the church of Smyrna^ to whom that Apocalyptical epistle was sent,
r. H. Eccl. 1. 3. c. 36. p. 106. o ib. p. 137.
^ Ad. Ann. 1. Olvmpiad. CCXZ. Indict. XIII. ann. Traj. 4, p. !^5A,
q Ap. Euseb. 1. 3.'c. 23. p, 92.
THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP, 241
is not only highly probable, but by a "^learned man put past all question. I must confess that the character and circumstances ascribed by St. John to the angel of that church seem very exactly to agree with Polycarp, and with no other bishop of that church (about those times especially) that we read of in the history of the church. And whoever compares the account of St. Polycarp's martyrdom, with the notices and intimations which the Apocalypst there gives of that person's sufferings and death, will find the prophecy and the event suit together. That which may seem to make most against it is, the long time of his presidency over that see : seeing by this account he must sit at least 74 years bishop of that church, from the latter end of Domitian's reign (when the Apocalyps was written) to the persecution under M. Aurelius, when he suffered. To which no other solution needs be given, than that his great, nay extreme age at the time of his death renders it not at all improbable ; especially when we find several ages after, that Remigius bishop of Rhemes, sat 74 years bishop of that place.
3. It was not many j^ears after St. John's death, w^hen the persecution under Trajan began to be reenforced, wherein the eastern parts had a very large share. Ann. Chr. 107, Ignatius was condemned by the emperor at Antioch, and sentenced to be transported to Rome in or- der to his execution. In his voyage thither he put in at Smyrna, to salute and converse with Polycarp, these holy men mutually comforting and encouraging each other, and conferring together about the affairs of the church. From Smyrna Ignatius and his company sailed toTroas, whence he sent back an epistle to the church of Smyrna, wherein he endeavours to fortify them against the errors ©f the times which had crept in amongst them, especially against those who undermined our Lord's humanity, ancj denied his coming in the flesh, affirming him to have suf- fered only in an imaginary and phantastic body. An ©pinion, (which as it deserved) he severely censures, and strongly refutes. He further presses them to a due
r Uss^r Pfftlt^gom ?.d J*?nat. Epist. c 2 p. 9.
h' h
242 THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP
observance and regard of their bishop, and those spiri- tual guides and ministers which under him were set over them ; and that they would despatch a messenger on purpose to the church of Antioch, to congratulate that peace and tranquillity which then began to be restored to them. Besides this he wrote particularly to St. Poly- carp, whom he knew to be a man of apostolic temper, a person of singular faithfulness and integrity, recommend- ing to him the care and superintendency of his discon- solate church of Antioch. In the epistle itself, as ex- tant at this day, there are many short and useful rules and precepts of life, especially such as concern the pastoral and episcopal office. And here again he renews his re- quest concerning Antioch, that a messenger might be sent from Smyrna to that Church, and that St. Polycarp would write to other churches to do the like ; a thing which he would have done himself, had not his hasty de- parture from Troas prevented him. And more than this we find not concerning Polycarp for many years after, till some unhappy difference'.:) in the church brought him upon the public stage.
4. It happened that the quartodeciman controversy about the observation of Easter began to grow very high between the eastern and western churches, each standing very stifly upon tlieir own way, and justifying themselves by apostolical practice and tradition. That this fire might not break out into a greater flame, St. Polycarp' under- takes a journey to Rome to interpose with those who were the main supports and champions of the opposite party, and gave life and spirit to the controversy. Though the exact time of his coming hither cannot precisely be defined, yet will it in a great measure depend upon Ani- cetus's succession to that see, in w^hose time he came thither. Now evident it is that almost all the ancient catalogues place him before Soter, and next to Pius, whom he succeeded. This succession ^Eusebius places Ann. Chr. 154, a computation certainly much truer dian that of Baronius, who places it in the year 167, and con
s Iren. apiid. Eiis^b, H. Eccl. I. 4. c. 14. p. 127- t Chron. ud An. cliv
THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP. 24a
sonantly to this the chronicle of Alexandria'' places St. Polycarp's coming to Rome Ann. Chr. 158, Anton. Imp. 21. It is true, indeed, that in two ancient catalogues of the bishops of Rome, set down by 'Optatus and St. Au- gustine"^, Anicetus is set before Pius, and made imme- diately to succeed Hyginus ; by which account he must be removed fifteen years higher, for so long Eusebius positively says Pius sat. And methinks it seems to look a little this way, that Eusebius having given an account of the emperor Antoninus Pius's rescript in behalf of the Christians (granted by him in his third consulship, Ann. Chr. 140, or thereabouts) immediately adds, that about the time of the things spoken^ of Anicetus governed the church of Rome, and Polycarp came thither upon this er- rand; the late peace and indulgence granted to the Chris- tians probably administering both opportunity and en- couragement to his journey. But seeing this scheme of times contradicts Eusebius's plain and positive account in other places, and that most ancient catalogues, espe- cially that of Ireuceus^ and Hegesippus^ (who both lived and were at Rome in the time of Anicetus himself) con- stantly place Anicetus next to Pius, I dare not disturb this ancient and almost uncontrolled account of things, till I can meet with better evidence for this matter. But whenever it was, over he came to Anicetus to confer with him about this affair. Which makes me the more won- der at the learned Monsieur Valois'' who with so peremp- tory a confidence denies that Polycarp came to Rome upon this errand, and that it was not the difierence about the pascal solemnity, but some other controversies that brought him thither, when as ^Irenaeus's express words are (if Eusebius rightly represent them) that he came to Rome to confer and discourse with Anicetus, J^i* t£^«t«, fiA 'uri^i T^ y^ TO vti^x* i5jwsg*r, by reasoiiofii certain controversy con- cerning the day -whereon Easter was to be celebrated. It is true, he says*", that they differed a little ^sgi i^^v rimv, about
u Loc. infra cit. v De Schism. Donatist. I. 2. p. 38. w Epist.
clxv. ad Generos. col. 751. x H. Eccl. I. 4 c. 14 p. 127. y Lib. 3. c.
3. Scap.Eus. 1. 4. c. 13.p. 126. z Ap. Euseb. ib. c. 22. p.l42. a An-
not. ia Euseb. p. 11)9. b Ap, Euseb. ioc cit vid. etiam. Chron. Alex, ad
An. 2. Olym. 224. Ind. x. p. 602. ubi habet, <r<st ^^t-^ij.a <ari^^i t»\- tsj Tr^ta-^a eogr^;,
c Ibid. 1. 5. c. 24. pag. 193
244 THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP.
some other things, but this hindered not, but that thp other was the main errand and inducement of his voyage thither : though even about that (as he adds) there was no great contention between them. For those holy and blessed souls knowing the main and vital parts of religion not to be concerned in rituals and external observances, mutually saluted and embraced each other. They could not indeed so satisfy one another, as that either would quit the customs which they had observed, but were con- tent still to retain their own sentiments, without violating that charity, which was the great and common law of their religion In token whereof they communicated together at the holy sacrament ; and Anicetus to put the greater honour upon St. Poly carp, gave him leave to consecrate the eucharist in his own church : after which they parted peaceably, each side though retaining their ancient rites, yet maintaining the peace and communion of the church. The ancient Synodicon'' tells us that a provincial synod was held at Rome about this matter by Anicetus, Poly- carp, and ten other bishops, where it was decreed that Edster should not be kept at the time, nor after the rites and manner of the Jew's, but be celebrated ^y7«< t«/ ^t^ij'^^cf, 2,/>t6>i.v) K-j^t^KU^ on the eminent and great Lord's day that followed after it. But improbable it is that St. Polycarp should give his vote to any such determination, when we know that he could not agree with Anicetus in this con- troversy, and that he left Rome with the same judgment and practice herein, wherewith he came thither.
• 5. During his stay at "'ome^ he mainly set himself to convince gainsayers, testifying the truth of those doc- trines which he ha'^ received from the apostles, whereby he reclaimed many to the communion of the church, who had been infected and overrun with errors, especially the pernicious heresies of Marcion and Valentinus. And when Marcion meeting him one day accidentally in the street, and ill resenting it that he did not salute him,
d Synod, a P app. edit. gr. l.p. 5. & Concil. Tom. 1. col. 583. edit. no\[sS. e Iren. adv. hxres. I. S. c. 3. p. 233. & p. Euseb. 1. 4. c, 14.
THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP. 245
called out to him, Poly carp own us; the good man replied in a just indignation, J own thee to be the first born of Satan, So religiously cautious (says Iren^us^) were the apostles and their followers, not so much as by dis- course to communicate with any that did adulterate and corrupt the truth ; observing St. Paul's rule, a man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject ; knowing that he that is such is preverted, and sinneth^ be- ing condemned of himself^. Indeed St. Polycarp's pious and devout mind was fermented with a mighty zeai and abhorrency of the poisonous and pestilent principles, which in those times corrupted the simplicity of the Christian faith, insomuch that when at any timt' he heard any thing of that nature, he was wont **presentlv to stop his ears, and cry out, good God, info what times hast thou reserved me, that I should hear such things ! imme- diately avoiding the place where he had heard any such discourse. And the same dislike he manifested in all the epistles, which he wrote either to neighbour churches, or particular persons, warning them of errors, and ex- horting them to continue steadfast in the truth. This zeal against heretics, and especially his carriage towards Marcion, we may suppose he learnt in a great measure from St. John, of whom he w^as wont to Hell, that going into a bath at Ephesus, and espying Cerinthus, the here- aiarch there, he presently started back, let us be gone (said he to his companions) lest the bath, wherein there is Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, fall upon our heads. This passage (says Irenaeus) some yet alive heard from St. Polycarp's own mouth, and himself no doubt among the rest; for so he tells us ''elsewhere, that in his youth when he waS with St. Polycarp in the lesser Asia, he took such particular notice of things, that he perfectly re- membered the very place where he used to sit while he discoursed, his goings out and coming in, the shape of
Men, Graecor. ubi supr. g- Tit. iii, 9»10.
h Iren. Epist. ad Fiorin. ap. Euseb. I, 5. c. 20. p. 88.
I Iren, 1. 3, c. 3- p. 233 & ap. Euseb. 1. 4. c. X4. k Epist. ad. Florin, ubi supr.
246f THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP.
his body, and tlie manner of his Hfe, his discourses to die people, and the account he was wont to give of his fa- miliar converse with St. John and others, who had seen our Lord, whose sayings he rehearsed, and whatever they had told him concerning our Saviour, concerning his miracles and his doctrine, which themselves had either seen or heard, agreeing exactly with the relations of the sacred history. All which Irenasus tells us he particu- larly took notice of, and faithfully treasured them up in his mind, and made them part of his constant meditation. These are all the material remarks which I find among the ancients concerning Poly carp during the time of his government of the church at Smyrna. Indeed there are several miracles and particular passages of his life related by the above-mentioned Pionius, which tend in- finitely to exalt the honour of this holy man. But see- ing the author is obscure, and that we can have no rea- sonable satisfaction who he was, and whence he borrow- ed his notices and accounts of things, I choose rather to suspend my belief, than to enterty.in the reader with those (at best uncertain) relations which he has given us.
6. IN thereign of M. Antoninus andL. Verus, began a severe persecution, (whether fourth or fifth, let others inquire) against the Christians, Meiito Bishop of Sardis, who lived at that time, and dedicated his Apology to the Emperors, making mention of ^^'v^^ <r ^«v Aaiav i'.yiAcTictxjii^t^dy- //:£7'x,* new edicts and decrees which the Emperors had issued out through Asia, by virtue whereof impudent and greedy informers spoiled and vexed the innocent Christians. But the storm increased into a more violent tempest about the seventh year of their reign, Ann. Chr. 167. when the emperor Marcus Antoninus de- signing an expedition against the '"Marcomanni, the terror of whom had sufficiently awakened them at Rome, summoned the priests together, and began more so- lemnly to celebrate their religious rites, and no doubt but he was told that there was no better way to propiti-
1 Apud. Euseb. i. 4. c. 26. p. 147.
m Jul. Capit. in vit. M. Antonin. c. 13. p. 181<
THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP. 24r
ate and 'atone the gods, then to bear hard upon the Christians, generally looked upon as the most open and hateful enemies to their gods. And now it was that St. Pol} earp after a long and diligent discharge of his duty in his episcopal station received his crown. So vastly wide of the mark are the later "Greeks, making him in their public offices to suffer martyrdom under the Decian persecution. Nor much nearer is that of °So- crates (however he fell into the error) w^ho tells us that he was martyred under Gordianus. Mistakes so extra- vagant, that there needs no more to confute them, than to mention them. Concerning his sufferings and mar- tyrdom we have a full and particular relation in a letter of the church of Smyrna written not long after his death to the church of Philomelium (or more truly Philadel- phia) and in the nature of an encyclical epistle, to all the Dioceses [^u^ouUt^) of the Holy Catholic Church ; the fur greatest part whereof Eusebius has inserted into his History, leaving out only the beginning and the end, though the entire epistle together with its ancient ver- sion, or rather paraphrase, is since published by Bishop Usher. It was penned by Euaristus, and afterwards (as appears by their several subscriptions at the end of it) transcribed out of Irenaeus's copy by Caius, con- temporary and familiar with Irengeus, out of his by one Socrates at Cornith, and from his by Pionius, who had with great diligence found it out. A piece it is that challenges a singular esteem and reverence both for the subject matter and the antiquity of it, with which ^Scali- ger thinks every serious and devout mind must needs be so affected, as never to think it has enough on't ; professing for his own part that he never met with any thing in all the history of the church, with the reading whereof he was more transported, so that he seemed no longer to be him- self. Which effect that it may have upon the pious well- disposed reader, we shall present him with this following account.
n Men. Gr<cc. t« Ky' tov ^iCpv?^.
o H. Eccl. I. 5. c, 22. p. 284.
p Aaimadv. ad Euseb. Chr. ad N. MMCLXXXIII. p. 221.
248 THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP.
7. THE persecution growing hot at ^^Smyrna, and many having aheady sealed their confession with their blood, the general outcry was, away with the impious, (or the Atheists, such they generally called and accounted the Christians) let Poly carp be sought for. The good man was not disturbed at the news, but resolved to en- dure the brunt : till his friends, knowing his singular usefulness, and that our Lord had given leave to his dis- ciples, when persecuted in one city to flee to another, prevailed with him to withdraw into a neighbouring vil- lage, where with a few companions he continued day and night in prayer, earnestly interceding with heaven (as afore- time it had ever been his custom) for the peace and tranquillity of all the churches in the world. Three days before his apprehension falling at night as he was at prayer into a trance, he dreamt that his pillow was on fire, and burned to ashes ; which when he wakened,, he told his friends was a prophetic presage, that he should be burnt alive for the cause of Christ. In the mean time he was every where narrowly sought for, up- on notice whereof his friends persuaded him to retire into another village, whither he was no sooner come but his enemies were at hand, who seizing upon a couple of youths (one of whom by stripes they forced to a con- fession,) were by them conducted to his lodging. En- tering the house at evening, they perceived him to be in bed in an upper room ; and though upon notice be- forehand of their coming he might easily have saved him- self by slipping into another house, yet he refused, say- ing, the will of the Lord be done. Understanding his per- secutors were there, he came down and saluted them with a very chearful and gentle countenance ; inso- much that they who had not hitherto known him, won- dered to behold so venerable a person, of so great age, and so grave and composed a presence, and what needed all this stir to hunt and take this poor old man. He nothing concerned, ordered a table to be spread, and
q Epist. Eccles. Smvm. dc Mart. Polycarp. Edit Usser. p. 16. & apad Euseb, 1. 4. c. 15. p. 129.
THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP. 349
provisions to be set upon it, inviting theni to partake of them, and only requesting for himself, that in the mean while he might have one hour for prayer. Leave being granted, he rose up, and betook himself to his devotions, wherein be had such mighty assistances of divine grace, that he con- tinued praying near two hours together heartily recom- mending to God the case of all his friends and acquaint- ance, whether great or little, honourable or ignoble, and the state of the Catholic church throughout the world, all that heard him being astonished at it, and many of them now repenting that so divine and venerable an old man should be put to death.
8. His prayer being ended, and they ready to depart, he was set upon an ass, and (it being then the great, sabbath^ though what that great sabbath was, learned men, I believe, w^ill hardly agree till the coming of Elias) conducted into the city. As the}' were upon the road, they were met by Herod and his father Nicetes, who in- deed were the main springs of the persecution, and had put the tumult into motion. ThisHerod was an irenarcha, one of those, adqiios tuenda publico pacts v'lgilautia per- tinebat^ as ""St. Augustin describes them ; their office was mostwhat the same with that of our modern jus- tices of the peace, they being set to guard the provinces, and to secure the pubUc peace and quietness within their several jurisdictions, to prevent and suppress riots and tumults, robberies, and rapines, and to inquire into the companions and receivers of all such persons, and to transmit to the magistrates the examinations and no- tices which they had received of such matters. They were appointed either by the emperor himself, or the Prafecti Prcetor'io^ or the Decurios ; and at this time the custom in the provinces of the lesser Asia was, that every city did yearly send ten of the names of their prin- cipal persons to the governor of the province, who chose out one to be the irenarcha, the keeper, or justice of the peace. Being afterwards found grievous and troublesome to the people, they were taken away by a law of the
r Epist. CLIX. col. 720. CLX- c. 722. vid. 1. 18. $ 4. fF. de mnner. 8; horror. Tit. 4. & I. 6, § 2. ft", d'e custod. c^ exhib reor. Tit* 5.
I i
250 THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP.
younger Theodosius% though the office remained un- der another name- This office at Smyrna was at thivS time managed by this Herod, whom Baronius* conjec- tures to be Herodes Atticus", a man of consular dignity, and of great learning and eloquence, and who had been tutor to the present emperor. Certain it is that that He- rod governed in the free cities of Asia"", and resided some- times at Smyrna : though it cramps the conjecture, that the name of that Herod's father was Atticus, of this Ni cetes, unless we will suppose him to have had two names- But whoever he be, a great enemy he was to Poly carp, whom meeting upon the way, he took him up into his chariot, v/here both he and his father by plausible insi- nuations sought to undermine his constancy, asking him what great harm there was in saying, my lord the emperor^ and in sacrificing, by which means he might escape. This was an usual way of attempting the Chris- tians ; not that they made any scruple to acknowledge the emperor to be their lord, (none were so forward, so earnest to pay all due subjection and reverence to prin- ces) but because they knew that the Romans, too apt to flatter the ambition of their emperors into a fondly usurpt divinity, by that title usually understood God, as Ter- tullian'' tells them ; in any other notion of the word they could as freely as any call him Lord, though, as he adds, even Augustus himself '^ modestly forbad that title to be ascribed to him.
9. St. Polycarp returned no answer to their de- mand, till importunately urging him, he replied, that he would not at an}- rate comply with their persuasi- ons. Frustrated of the ends which they had upon him, they now lay aside the vizor of their dissembled friend- ship, and turn their kindness into scorn and reproaches, thrusting him out of the chariot with so much violence, that he bruised his thigh with the fail. Whereat no- thing daunted, as if he had received no hurt, he cheer ^
s C. Th. I. unic. Tit. 14. de Hirenarch. t Ad Ann. CLXIX. n. 7- u A Gell. noct. Att. I. 1. c. 2. p. 2. J. C;ipit. in vit. M. Anton, c. 3. p. 151. V PliiUstp. de vit. Sophist.!. 2. in Her.>d. p. m. 646. & I. 1. in Polemon. p 64-2. w Apoiog. c. 34 p. 2y. x Vid. Sueton. in vit. Aug. c. 53. p 192.
THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP. 2S1
fully hastened on to the place of his execution under the conduct of his guard : whither when they were come, and a confused noise and tumult was arisen, a voice came from Heaven (heard by many, but none seen who spake it,) saying. Poly carp be stro?ig, and quit thyself like a man. Immediately he was brought before the public tribunal, where a great shout was made, all re- joicing that he was apprehended. The proconsul (whose name was L. Statins Quadratus) this very year, as Aristides^ the orator who lived at this time at Smyrna informs us, the proconsul of Asia, (as not long before he had been consul at Rome,) asked him whether he was Polycarp? which being confessed, he began to persuade him to recant ; Regard^ said he, thy great age^ nvear by the genius of Ca^'sar, repent, and say with us, take axvay the impious. These were * Qvr'P^n cthruc, as my author tru- ly observes, their usual terms and proposals to Christians, who stoutly refused to swear by the emperor's genius; upon which account the heathens generally traducecj them as traitors and enemies to the state, though to wipe off that charge, they openly professed^, that though they could not swear by the fortune of the emperor, (their genii being accounted deities, whom the Christi- ans knew to be butdcemons, and cast out at every turn) yetthe}^ scrupled not to swear by the emperor's safety, a thing more august and sacred than all the genii in the world.
10. The holy martyr looking about the stadium, and with a severe and angry countenance, beholding the crowd, beckoned to them with his hand, sighed and look- ed up to Heaven, saying, (though quite in another sense then they intended) take away the impious. The pro- consul still persuaded him to swear, with promise to re- lease him, withal urging him to blaspheme Christ ; for with that temptation they were wont to assault Chris- tians, and thereby to try the sincerity of their renegadoes, a course which Pliny tells us"" he observed towards apos-
y Orat. Sacr. 4. z Tert. Apol. c. 32. p. 28. Orig. contr. Cel^. 1. 8. p. 42!. . a Eplst. ad Trajan. Imp. Ep. 97 1. 10.
^52 THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP.
tate Christians, though he withal confesses, that none of them that were really Christians could ever be brought to it. The motion w^as resented with a noble scorn, and drew from Poly carp this generous confession, *' Four- score and six years I have served him, and he never did me any harm, how then shall I now blaspheme my king and my Saviour?" But nothing will satisfy a malicious misguided zeal : the proconsul still importuned him to swear by Caesar's genius ; to whom he replied, " Since you are so vainly ambitious that I should swear by the emperor's genius, as you call it, as if you knew not who I am, hear my free confession. I am a Christian, If you have a mind to learn the Christian religion, appoint me a time, and I will instruct you in it. The proconsul advised him to persuade the people ; he answered, '' Ta you I rather choose to address my discourse ; for we are commanded by the laws of our religion to give to prin- ces and the powers ordained of God, ail that due honour and reverence, that is not prejudicial and contrary to the precepts of religion. As lor them" meaning the com- mon herd " I think them not competent judges to whom I should apologize, or give an account of my faith."
li. The proconsul now saw it was in vain to use any further persuasives and entreaties, and therefore be- took himself to severer arguments : '' I have wild beasts at hand" said he "to which L will cast thee, unless thou recant." '' Call for them" cried the martyr, " for we are immutably resolved not to change the better for the worse, accounting it fit and comely only to turn from vice to virtue. Since thou makest so light of wild beasts (added the proconsul) I have a fire that shall tame thee, unless thou repent. *' Thou threatenest me with afire" answered Poly carp *' that burns for an hour, and is pre- sently extinct but art ignorant, alas, of the fire of eternal damnation and the judgment to come, reserved for the wicked in the other world. But why delay est thou ? bring forth whatever thou hast a mind to." This and much more he spake with a pleasant and cheerful confi- deace, and a divine grace was conspicuous in his very
THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP. 253
looks, so far was he from cowardly sinking under the great threatenings made against him. Yea the procon- sul himself was astonished at it, though finding no good could be done upon him, he commanded the crier in the middle of the stadium thrice to make open proclama- tion (as was the manner of the Romans in all capital trials) Polijcarp has confessed himself a Christian. Whereat the whole multitude both of Jews and Gentiles that were present, (and probable it is that the to ko^vov -/AWa?, the com- mon council, or assembly of Asia, might about this time be held at Smyrna for the celebration of their common shows and sports ; for that it was sometimes held here is evident from an ancient inscription making mention of it,) gave a mighty shout, crying out aloud. This is the great doctor of Asia, and the father of the Christians; this is the destroyer of our gods^ that teaches men ?wt to do sacrifice, or worship the deities.
12. The cry being a little over, they immediately ad- dressed themselves to Philip the asiarch: these ''asiarchs were Gentile priests belonging to the comnionalty of Asia, yearly chosen at the common-council or assembly of Asia, to the number of about ten, (whereof one was principal) out of the names returned by the several cities. It was an office of great honour and credit, but withal of great expense and charge, they being obliged to enter- ^tain the people with sights and sports upon the festival solemnities, and therefore it was not conferred but upon the more wealthy and substantial citizens. In this place was Philip at this time, whom the people clamorously re- quested, to let out a lion upon the malefactor. Which he told them he could not do, having already exhibited rJ Kvviiyi<rtx^ tlic huutiug of wild bcasts with men, one of the famous shows of the amphitheatre, Then they unani- mously demanded, that he might be burnt alive ; a fate which he himself from the vision in his dream had pro- phetically foretold should be his portion. The thing was no sooner said than done, each one striving to bear a part
b — SMTPNAN KGlNON A2IA2. Marm. Oxon. III. p. 70. c Vicl. 1. 6.
§. 14. tt". de Excusat. Tit. 1. & 1. 8. J. 1. de Vacat. Tit. 5. ibid. vid. etiam Aris. tid. Oi-at. Sacr. IV.
254 THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP.
in this fatal tragedy, wilh incredible speed fetching wood and faggots from several places, but especially the Jews were peculiarly active in the service, maUce to Christians being almost as natural to them as it is for the lire to burn. The lire being prepared, St. Polycarp untied his girdle, laid aside his garments, and began to put oft' his shoes ; ministeries which he before was not wont to be put to ; the Christians ambitiously striving to be admit- ted to do them for him, and happy he that could first touch his body. So great a reverence even in his younger years had he from all for the admirable strictness and re- gularity of his holy life.
13. The officers that were employed in his execution having disposed all other things, came according to cus- tom to nail him to the stake ; which he desired them to omit, assuring them, that he who gave him strength to endure the fire, would enable him without nailing to siand immovable in the hottest flames. So they only tied him, who standing like a sheep ready for the slaughter, de- signed as a grateful sacrifice to the Almighty, clasping his hands which were bound behind him, he poured out his soul to Heaven in the following prayer. '' O Lord God Almighty, the father of thy well -be loved and ever blessed son Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the knowledge of thee ; the God of angels, powers, and of every creature, and of the whole race of the righteous, who live before thee ; I bless thee that thou hast graci- ously condescended to bring me to this day and hour, that'l may receive a portion in the number of thy holy martyrs, and drink of Christ's cup, for the resurrection to eternal life both of soul and body in the incorruptible- ness of the holy Spirit. Into which number grant I may be received this day, being found in thy sight as a fair and acceptable sacrifice, such a one as thou thyself hast prepared, that so thou mayest accomplish what thou, O true and faithful God, hast foreshown. Wherefore I praise thee for all thy mercies, I bless thee, I glorify thee, through the eternal high priest, thy beloved son Jesus Christ; with whom to thyself and the Holy Ghost, be glwy both now ajid for ever. Amen." Which last
THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP. 255
word he pronounced with a more clear audible voice, and having done his pra3^er, the ministers of execution blew up the fire, which increasing to a mighty flame, behold a wonder (seen, say my authors, by us, who were purposely reserved, that we might declare it to others) the flames disposing themselves into the resemblance of an arch, like the sails of a ship swelled with the wind, gently en- circled the body of the martyr, who stood all the while hi the midst, not like roasted flesh, but like gold or sil- ver purified in the furnace, his body sending forth a de- lightful fragrancy, which like frankincense, or some other costly spices, presented itself to our senses'*.
14. How blind and incorrigibly obstinate is unbelief! The infidels were so far from being convinced, that they were rather exasperated by the miracle, commanding a spearman, one of those who were wont to despatch wild beasts when they became outrageous, to go near and run him through with a sword^ ; which he had no sooner done, but such a vast quantity of blood flowed from the wound, as extinguished and put out the fire ; together with which a dove was seen to fly from the wounds of his body, which some suppose to have been his soul, clothed in a visible shape at the time of its departure ; though true it is, that this circumstance is not mentioned in Eu- sebius's account, and probably never was in the originals Nor did the malice of Satan end here, he knew by the in- nocent and unblamable course of his life, and the glori- ous constancy of his martyrdom, that he had certainly attained the crown of immortality, and nothing now was left for his spite to work on, but to deprive them even of
d PhceRicem si quis medio miretur in igne Emori, & exlructo se repanue Togo. Obsu;i)eut PULYCARPc:, avidas tih'i parcere flammas,
Non ausas sacia te violare face. Mille nitent tedse, rutilar.tq ; hinc inde favillis,
Atque in te Dominum, quem colis ipse, colunt. Prsemia nunc majora tibi scd reddit Olympus, Ig'iiea qui |)edibus subjicit astrasuis. inscript. Romae in Ecclesia S. Slephaui in Ccelio, suprascripta hasc Slracid?e ^ententia :
Ecclesiastic. LI. 6. IN MEDIO IGNIS NON SUM .^STUATUS. e Vid. usser. not. 74. in Acr. Polycarp. p. 67.
256 THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARR
the honour of his bones. For many were desirous to have given his body decent and honourable burial, and to have assembled there for the celebration of his memory ; but were prevented by some who prompted Nicetes, the father of Herod, and brother to Alee, to advise the pro- consul not to bestow his body upon the Christians, lest leaving their crucified master, they should henceforth worship Polycarpus. A suggestion however managed by the Heathens, yet first contrived and prompted by the Jews, who narrowly watched the Christians when they would have taken away his body from the place of exe- cution : *' Little considering (they are the very words of my authors) how impossible it is that either we should forsake Christ, who died for the salvation of the whol^ world, or that we should worship any other. Him we adore as the Son of God, but martyrs as the disciples and followers of our Lord, we deservedly love for their eminent kindness towards their own prince and master, whose companions and fellow-disciples we also by all means desire to be.'* So far were those primitive and better ages from that undue and superstitious veneration of the relics of martyrs and departed saints which after- ages introduced into the church, as elsewhere we have showed more at large^.
15. The centurion beholding the perverseness and ob- stinacy of the Jews, commanded the body to be placed in the midst, and in the usual manner to be burnt to ashes ; whose bones the Christians gathered up as a choice and inestimable treasure, and decently interred them. In which place they resolved, if possible, (and they prayed God nothing might hinder it) to meet and celebrate the birth-day of his martyrdom, both to do ho- nour to the memory of the departed, and to prepare and. encourage others hereafter to give the like testimony to the faith. Both which considerations gave birth and ori- ginal to the Memori<^ Martyrum^ those solemn anniver- sary commemorations of the martyrs which we have in another place more fully showed^, were generally kept in
f Prim. Christ, part I. chap. 5. g Ibicl. chap. 7-
'FHE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP. 25/
the primitive church. Thus died this aposiolical man Ann. Chr. 167, about the hundredth year of his age ; for those eighty six years^ which himself speaks of, wherein he had served Christ, cannot be said to commence from his birth, but from his baptism or new birth, at which time we cannot well suppose him to have been less than sixteen or twenty years old : besides his converse with the apostles, and consecration by St. John, reasonably suppose him of some competent years, for v/e cannot think he would ordain a youth, or a very young man bishop, especially of so great and populous a city. The incomparabh ^primate, from a passage in his epistle, con- jectures him to have lived (though not then converted to Christianity) at the time when St. Paul wrote his epistles ; which if so, must argue him to have been of a greater age : nor is this any more improbable than what ^ ua- dratus, the Christian apologist, who lived under Hadrian, and dedicated his Apologetic to that emperor, reports ; that there were some of those whom our Lord had heal- ed, and raised from the dead alive even in his time : and of Simeon successor to St. James in the bishoprick of Jerusalem, ''Hegesippus expressly relates that he was 120 years old, at the time of his matryrdom Sure I am, ^Irenaeus particularly notes of our St. Poly carp, that he lived a very long time, and was arrived to an exceeding great age, when he underwent a most glorious and illus- trious martyrdom for the faith.
16. He suffered on the second of the month Xanthi- cus, the 7th of the kalends of May, though whether mis- taken for the 7th of the kalends of April, and so to be re» ferred to March 26, as some will have it, or for the 7th of the kalends of March, and so to be adjudged to Febru- ary 23, as others, is difficult to determine. It shall suf- fice to note, that his memory is cekbrated by the Greek church, February the 2Sd, by the Latin, January the 26th. The amphitheatre where he sulFered is in a great measure yet re-iiaining, (as a late ""eye-witness and dili-
h Annot. in Ep. St. Polycarp. p. 2. i Ap. Euscb. 1. 4. c. 3. p. 116.
k Ibid. 1. 3. c 32. p. 104. I Adv. Hsres 1. 3. c. 3. & ap. Eus. I. 4. c. 14. p.
12r. m Th. Smiih Epist. de VII. Asix Eccles. p. 164-
Kk
258 THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP.
gent searcher into antiquity informs us) in the two oppo- site sides whereof are the dens where the hons were wont to be kept. His tomb is in a little chapel in the side of a mountain on the south-east part of the city, solemnly visited by the Greeks upon his festival day ; and for the maintenance and reparation whereof, travellers are wont to throw in a few aspres into an earthen pot that stands there for that purpose. How miserable the state of this city is under the Turkish yoke at this day, is without the limits of my business to inquire : to look a little higher to the times we write of, though I love not to make se- vere and ill-natured interpretations of the actions of di- vine providence, yet I cannot but observe, how heavy the divine displeasure not long after Polycarp's death fell, as upon other places, so more particularly upon this city, by plague, fire, and earthquakes, mentioned by "others, but more fully described by "Aristides, their 0's\'n orator, who was contemporary with St. Polycarp. By which means their city, before one of the glories and ornaments of Asia, was turned into rubbish and ashes, their stately houses overturned, their temples ruined ; one especially, w^hich as it advanced Asia above other countries, so gave SmjT- na the honour and precedence above other cities of Asia ; their traffic spoiled, their marts and ports laid waste, be- sides the great numbers of people that lost their lives. Indeed the fate so sad, that the orator was forced to give over, professing himself unable to describe it.
17. I cannot better close the story of Polycarp's mar- tyrdom, than with the preface which the church of Smyr- na has in the beginning of it, as what eminently represents the illustrious faith and patience of those primitive Chris- tians. *' Evident it is (say they^*) that all those martyr- doms are great and blessed, which happen by the will of God ; for it becomes us Christians, who have a more di- vine religion than others, to ascribe to God the sovereign disposure of all events. Who would not stand and ad- mire the generous greatness of their mind, their singular
n Xiphil Epit. Dion, in M. Anton, p. 261. • o In Orat. Monodia diet. vJd, Pliilaslr. de vit Sopliist. 1. 2- in Aristid. p. m. 659. p Edit, usscr. p. 14,
Conitr Euseb. i. 4. c, 15. p. 129.
THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP. 259
patience, and admirable love to God ? who when their flesh was with scourges so torn off their backs, that the whole frame and contexture of their bodies, even to their inmost veins and arteries, might be seen, yet patiently en- dured it. Insomuch that those who were present, pitied and grieved at the sight of it, while they themselves were endued with so invincible a resolution, that none of them gave one sigh or groan : the holy martyrs of Christ let- ting us see, that at that time when they were thus tor- mented, they were strangers to their own bodies ; or ra- ther that our Lord stood by them to assist and comfort them. Animated by the grace of Christ, they despised the torments of men, by one short hour delivering them- selves from eternal miseries : the fire which their tor- mentors put to them seemed cool and little, while they hud it in their eye, to avoid the everlasting and unextin- guishing flames of another world ; their thoughts being fixed upon those rewards which are prepared for them that endure to the end, such as neither ear hath heard, nor eye hath seen, nor hath it entered into the heart of man ; but which were shown to them by our Lord, as being now no longer mortals, but entering upon the state, of angels. In like manner those who were condemned to be devoured by wild beasts, for a long time endured the most grievous tortures ; shells of fishes were strewed under their naked bodies, and they forced to lie upon sharp pointed stakes driven into the ground, and several such like engines of torture devised for them, that (if possible) by the constancy of their torments, the enemy might drive them to renounce the faith of Christ : vari- ous were the methods of punishment which the Devil did invent, though, blessed be God, there were not many,
whom they were able to prevail upon. And at the
end of the epistle^^ they particularly remark concerning Polycarp, that he was not only a famous doctor, but an eminent martyr, whose martyrdom all strove to imitate, as one who by his patience conquered an unrighteous judge, and by that means having attained an immortal
q Ubi. supr. p. 28.
260 THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP,
crown was triumphing with the apostles, and all the souls of the righteous glorifying God the Father, and praising of our Lord, the disposer of our bodies, and the bishop and pastor of the Catholic church throughout the world. Nor were the Christians the only persons that reverenced his memory, but the very Gentiles (as 'Eusebius tells us) every where spoke honourably of him.
i8. As for his writings, besides that 'St. Hierom men- tions the volumes of Papias and Polycarp, and the above mentioned ^Pionius his Epistles and Homilies, "Ireuccus evidently intimates that he wrote several Epistles, of all which none are extant at this day, but the Epistle to the Philippians, an epistle peculiarly celebrated by the an- cients, very useful says ""St. Hierom, Wvt/ s^^^v/watr^ (as "^Sui- das and "Sophronius style it) a most admirable epistle, ^Irenseus gives it this eulogium, that it is a most perfect and absolute epistle^ whence they that are careful of their salvation, may learn the character of his faith^ and the truth which he preached. To which Eusebiiis adds, that in this epistle he makes use of some quotations out of the first epistle of St. Peter. An observation that holds good with the epi'^tle, as we have it at this day, there be- ing many places in it cited out of the first, not one out of the second epistle. Photius passes this just and true judgment of it, that it is full of many admonitions, deli- vered with clearness and simiplicity, according to the ec- clesiastic w^ay and manner of interpretation. It seems to hold a great affinity both in style and substance with Cle- mens's epistle to the Corinthians, often suggesting the same rules, and making use of the same words and phra- ses, so that it is not to be doubted, but he had that ex- cellent epistle particularly in his eye at the writing of it. Indeed it is a pious and truly Christian epistle, furnished with short and useful precepts and rules of life, and pen- ned with the modesty and simplicity of the apostolic times, valued by the ancients next to the writings of the
r Loc. supr. cit. p. 135. s Epist. ad Lucin p. 194. torn. 1. t Vit. Po.
lycarp c. 3. n. 1?. p. 697- ubi supr. u EpLst. ad Florin, ap. Euseh. uhi supr.
▼ De Script, in Polycarp. w Suid. in voc. rioxt/xcrgia-. x Sophron. ap.
Hieron 'b. y Adv. Hares. I. 3. c. 3.& ap. Lus. I. 4. c. 15. p 128.
THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP. 261
holy canon ; and St Hierom tells us that even in his time* it was read in ^si^ conventu^ in the public assem- blies of the Asian church. It was first published in Greek by P. Halloix the Jesuit, ^nn. 1633, and not ma- ny years after by bishop Usher : and I presume the pious Reader will think it no unuseful digression, if I here subjoin so venerable a monument of the ancient church.
THE EPISTLE OF ST. POLYCARP,
BISIISOP OF SMYRNA AND MARTYR, TO THE PHILLIPIANS.
Polycarp and the Presbyters that are with him, to the Church of God which is at Phiiippi : Mercy unto you, and Peace from God Almighty, aud Jesus Christ our Saviour, be multiplied.
1. I REJOICED with you greatly in our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye entertained the patterns of true love, and (as became you) conducted onwards those who were bound with chains which are the ornaments of saints, and the crowns of those that are the truly elect of God, and of our Lord : and that the firm root of your faith, formerly published, does yet remain, and bring forth fruit in our Lord Jesus Christ, who was pleased to offer up himself even unto death for our sins :* whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death :^ in who?n., though you sec him noty ye believe^ and believing^ ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory ; whereinto many desire to enter, knowing that by grace, ye are saved,® not by works, but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.
IL Wherefore girding up your loins ^^ serve God in fear and truth, forsaking empty and vain talking, and the error wherein so many are involved,* believing in him -who raised up our Lord yesus Christ from the dead^ and gave him glory ^ and a throne at his right hand ; to whom all things both in heaven and in earth are put in subjection, whom every thing that has breath wor- ships, who comes to judge the quick and the dead, whose blood
z Ubi sup. a Acts ii. 24. b 1 Pet. i, 8. c Eph- ii. 8.
dlPet. i. 13. clFct.i.21,
262 THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP.
God will require of them that helieve-not in him. But he who raised him up from the dead, will raise up us also, if we do his will, and walk in his commandments, and love what he loved, abstaining from all unrighteousness, inordinate desire, covetous- ness, detraction, false witness ; f not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, or striking for striking, or cursing for curs- ing, but remembering what the Lord said when he taught thus,^ judge not., that ye he not judged^ forgive and ye shall be for gro em he mercful^ that ye may obtain mercy : rvith what measure ye mete., it shall be measured to you again : and that blessed are the poor^ and they which are persecuted for righteousness sake., for theirs is the kingdom of God,
3. These things, brethren, I write to you concerning righte- ousness, not of my own humour, but because yoursehes did provoke me to it. For neither I, nor any other such as I am, can attain to the wisdom of blessed and glorious St. Paul, who being among you, and conversing personally with those who were then alive, firmly and accurately taught the word of truth ; and when absent, wrote epistles to you, by vrhich, if you look into them, ye may be built in the faith, delivered unto you, Vv'hich is the mother of us all, being followed by hope, and led on by love, both towards God, and Christ, and to our neigh- bour. For whoever is inwardly replenished with these things, has fulfilled the law of righteousness ; and he that is furnished vrith love, stands at a distance from all sin. But the love of money is the beginning of all eviU KnoAving therefore that zve brought nothing into the ivorld^ and that we shall carry nothing ozU., let us arm ourselves with the armour of righteousness, and in the first place be instructed ourselves to v/alk in the com- mands of the Lord, and next teach your wives to live in the faith delivered to them, in love, and chastity, that they embrace their own husbands with all integrit) , and others also with all tem- perance and continency, and that they educate and discipline their children in the fear of God. The widows, that they be sober and modest concerning the faith of the Lord, that they incessantly intercede for all, and keep themselves from all slan- dering detraction, false w^itness, covetousness, and every evil work : as knowing that they are the altars of God, and that he accurate!}' surveys the sacrifice, and that nothing can be con- cealed from him, neither of our reasonings, nor thoughts, nor the secrets of the heart. Accordingly knowing that God is not mocked, we ought to walk worthy of his command, and of his glory.
f 1 Pet. iii. 9. g Man. vii. 1. Luke vi. 36, 37.
h Matt. V. 3. 10. i 1 Tim. vi. 7.
THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP. 26.3
4. Likewise let the deacons be unblamable before his righte- ous presence, as the ministers of God in Christ, and not of men ; not accusers, not double-tongued, not covetous, but temperate in all things, compassionate, diligent, walking according to the truth of the Lord, who became the deacon or servant of all : of whom, if we be careful to please him in this world, we shall re- ceive the reward of the other life according as he has promised to raise us from the dead : and if we walk v/orthy of him, ~cue believe that we shall also reign zuith him. Let the young men also be unblamable in all things, studying in the first place to to be chaste, and to restrain themselves from all that is evil.... For it is a good thing to get above the lusts of the world, seeing every lust wars against the spirit; and that neither fornicators^ nor effeminate^ nor abusers of themselves xvith mankind shall ifiherit the kingdom of God^ nor whoever commits base things.
5. Wherefore it is necessary that ye abstain from all these things, being subject to the presbyters and deacons, as to God and Christ : that the virgins also walk with a chaste and un- defiled conscience. Let the presbyters be tender and merciful, compassionate towards all, reducing those that are in error, vi- siting all that are weak, not negligent of the v/idow and the or- phan, and him that is poor, but ever providing what is honest in the sight of God and men ; abstaining from ail wrath, respect of persons, and unrighteous judgment, being far from covetous- ness, not hastily believing a report against any man, not rigid in judgment, knowing that we are all faulty, and obnoxious to punishment. If therefore we stand in need to pray the Lord that he would forgive us, we ourselves ought also to forgive. For we are before the eyes of him, who is Lord and God, and all must stand before the judgment seat of Christy and every one give an account of himself } Wherefore let us serve him with all fear and reverence, as he himself has commanded us, and as the apostles have preaclied and taught us, and the prophets who foreshowed the coming of our Lord. Be zealous of that which is good, abstaining from offences and false brethren, and those who bear the nalne of the Lord in hypocrisy, w^ho seduce and deceive vain men. For evei^y one, that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is oQme in the flesh, is Antichrist ;ra and he who 4oth not acknowledge the martyrdom of the cross, is of the devil, and whoever shall pervert the oracles of the Lord to his private dusts, and shall say, that there is neither resurrection nor judgment to come, that man is the first-born of Satan. Leav- ing therefore the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to that doctrine, that from the beginning was delivered
k 1 Cof. vi. 9. 10. 1 Rom. x\v. 9, 10, m 1 Jo]m xv. 3- 5 Eprst. v, 7.
264 THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARR
to us : let us be watchful in prayers, persevering in fasting, and supplications, beseeching the all-seeing God that he would not lead us into temptation ; as the Lord has said, the spirit indeed is -willing^ but the Jlesh is lueak.^ Let us unweariedly and con- stantly adhere to Jesus Christ, who is our hope and the pledge of our righteousness, xvho bare our sins in his own body on the tree^ xvho did no sin^ neither ivas guile found in his viouth^^hxit endured all things for our sakes, that we might live through him. Let us then imitate his patience, and if we suffer for his name, we glorify him ; for such a pattern he set us in himself, and this we have believed and entertained.
6. I exhort you therefore all, that ye be obedient to the word €f righteousness, and that you exercise all manner of patience, as you have seen it set forth before your eyes, not only in the blessed Ignatius, and Zosimus, and Rufus, but in others also among you, and in Paul himself, and the rest of the apostles ; being assured that all these have not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and are arrived at the place, due and pro- mised to them by the Lord, of whose sufferings they were made partakers. For they loved not this present world, but him who both died, and was raised up again by God for us. Stand fast therefore in these things, and follow the example of the Lord^ being firm and immutable in the faith, lovers of the brethren, and kindly affectionate one towards another, united in the truth, carrying yourselves meekly to each other, despising no man.... When it is in your power to do good, defer it not, for alms de- hvereth from death. Be all of you subject one to another^ having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that both you yourselves may receive praise by your good works, and that God he not blasphemed through you. For wo unto him, by whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed. Wherefore teach all men sobriety, and be yourselves conversant in it.
7. I am exceedingly troubled for Valens, who was some- times ordained a presbyter among you, that he so little under- stands the place wherein he was set. I therefore warn you, that you abstain from covetousness, and that ye be chaste and true. Keep yourselves from every evil work. But he that in these things cannot govern himself, how shall he preach it to another ? If a man refrain not from covetousness, he will be de- filed with idolatry, and shall be judged among the Heathen...* Who is ignorant of the judgment of the Lord? Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world ?v as Paul teaches. But I have neither found any such thing in you, nor heard any such of you, among whom the blessed Paul laboured, and who arc
n Matt. xxvi. 41. o 1 Pet. ii. 22, :;4. p Cor. vi. 2.
THE LIFE OF ST. POLYCARP. 265
in the beginning of his epistle. For of you he boasts in all those churches, which only knew God at that time, whom as yet we had not known. I am therefore, brethren, greatly troubled for him, and for his wife, the Lord give them true repentance. Be ye also sober as to this matter, and account not such as ene- mies, but restore them as weak and erring members, that the whole body of you may be saved ; for in so doing, ye build up yourselves.
8. I trust that ye are well exercised in the holy scriptures, and that nothing is hid from you ; a thing as yet not granted to me. As it is said in these places, be angry and sin not : and, let not the stm go down upon your wrath. Blessed is he that is mindful of these things, which I believe you are. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ Jesus the eternal High-priest, and Son of God, build you up in faith and truth, and in all meekness that you may be without anger, in patience, forbearance, long-suffering, and chastity, and give you a portion and inheritance amongst his saints, and to us to- gether with you, and to all under heaven, who shall believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in his Father, who raised him from the dead. Pray for all saints. Pray also for kings, magistrates, and princes, and even for them that hate and persecute you, and for the enemies of the cross, that your fruit may be manifest in all, that you may be complete in him.
9. Ye wrote unto me, both ye and Ignatius, that if any one go into Syria^ he might carry your letters along with him : which I will do so soon as I shall have a convenient opportu- nity, either myself, or by some other, whom I will send upon your errand. According to your request we have sent you those epistles of Ignatius, which he wrote to us, and as many others of his as we had by us, which are annexed to this epistle, by which ye may be greatly profited. For they contain in them faith, and patience, and w^hateverelse is necessary to build you up in our Lord. Send us word what you certainly know both con- cerning Ignatius himself, and his companions. These things have I written unto you by Crescens, whom I have hitherto commended to you, and do still recommend. For he has un- blamably conversed among us, as also I believe amongst you. His sister also ye shall have recommended, when she shall come unto you. Be ye safe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be xvith you all. Amen*
1. 1
THE LIFE OF ST. QUADRATUS,
BISHOP OF ATHENS.
His birth place inquired into. His learning. His education under the apostles. Publius bishop of Athens. Quadratus his succession in that see. The degenerate state of that church at his coming to it. His in- defatigable zeal and industry in its reformation. Its purity and flou- rishing condition noted by Oi-igen. Quadratus*s being endowed with a spirit of prophecy, and a power of miracles. This person proved to be the same with our Athenian bishop. The troubles raised against the Christians under the reign of Hadrian. Hadrian's character. His disposition towards religion, and base thoughts of the Christians. His fondness for the learning and religion of Greece. His coming to Athens, and kindness to that city. His being initiated into the Eleusinian mys- teries. These mysteries what, and the degrees of initiation. Several addresses made to the emperor in behalf of the Christians. Quadra- tus's A])oiogetic. Ser. Granianus's letter to Hadrian concerning the Christians. The emperor's rescript. His good opinion afterwards of Christ and his religion. Quadratus driven from his charge. His mar- tyrdom and place of burial.
1. WHETHER St. Quadratus was born at Athens, no notices of church antiquity enable us to determine : though the thing itself be not improbable, his education and residence there, and the government of that church seeming to give some colour to it. And as nature had furnished him with incomparable parts, [excellens inge- niu7n, as ^St. Hierom says of him) so the place gave him mighty advantages in his education, to be thoroughly trained up in the choicest parts of learning, and most ex-
a De Script, in t^adrat.
268 THE LIFE OF ST. QUADRATUS.
cellent institutions of philosophy, upon which account the ^Greeks truly style him, avcT^* TroKvi^agu, a man of great learning and knowledge. He became acquainted with the doctrines and principles of Christianity, by being brought up under apostolical instruction, for so ''Euse- bius and ^St. Hierom more than once tell us, that he was an auditor and a disciple of the apostles ; which must be understood of the longer lived apostles, and par- ticularly of St. John, whose scholar in all probability he was, as were also Ignatius, Polycarp, Papias, and others ; and therefore ^Eusebius places him among those that had T»y ^5aT«v rci^iv, that were of the very first rank and order among the apostles' successors. There are that make him, and that too constituted by St. John (though I con- fess I know not by what authority, the ancients being wholly silent in this matter) bishop of Philadelphia, one of the seven famous churches of Asia, and at that time, when St. John sent his epistle to that church : which I pass by as a groundless and precarious assertion, seeing they might with equal warrant have made him bishop of any other place
2. Under the reign of Trajan, as is probable, though Baronius places it under Hadrian, J?i?i Imp. VI. ^Pub- lius, bishop of Athens, suffered martyrdom, who is thought by some to have been that very Publius whom St. Paul converted in the island Melita in his voyage to Rome, and who afterwards succeeded Dionysius the Areopagite in the see of Athens. To hini succeeded our Quadra- tus, (as ^Dionysius bishop of Corinth, who lived not long after that time, informs us) who found the state of that church in a bad condition at his coming to it. For upon Publius's martyrdom, and the persecution that attended it, the people were generally dispersed and fled, as what wonder, if when the shepherd is smitten^ the sheep be scat- tered^ and go astray ? their public and solemn assemblies were deserted, their zeal grown cold and languid, their lives and manners corrupted, and there wanted but little
b !"^en. Grxc. Tm xat' too 2i7r'h/uC. C KH<t^gsiT@' o /rgoc t&v 'Atos-oxov dxug-^f. Euseb. ~,giv. Kctv. ad ann. PKZ'. p. 211. d Hier. de Scrip, jn Quadr. &
Epist. id M:*gn. Orat. torn. 2. p. 327. e H. Eccl. 1. 3. c. 37. p. 109. fEu- eeb. 1. 4. c. 23. p. 143. g Epist. ad Athen. upud Euseb. loc. citat
THE LIFE OF ST. QUADRATUS. 269
of a total apostasy from the Christian faith. This good man therefore, set himself with a mighty zeal to retrieve the ancient spirit of religion, he re-settled order and dis- cipline, brought back the people to the public assem- blies, kindled and blew up their faith into an holy flame. Nor did he content himself with a bare reformation of what was amiss, but with infinite diligence preached the faith, and by daily converts enlarged the bounds of his church, so that (as the ^Greek ritulas express it) the sages and wise men of Greece being convinced by his doctrines and wise discourses, embraced the gospel, and acknowledged Christ to be the creator of the world, and the great wisdom and power of God. And in a short time reduced it to such an excellent temper, that 'Origen (who lived some years after) demonstrating the admirable efficacy of the Christian faith over the minds of men, and its triumph over all other religions in the world, instances in this very church of Athens for its good order and constitution, its meekness, quietness, and constancy, and its care to approve itself to God, in- finitely beyond the common assembly at Athens, which was factious and tumultuary, and no way to be compared with the Christian church in that city ; that the church- es of Christ v/hen examined by the heathen convocations, shone like lights in the world, and that every one must confess that the worst parts of the Christian church were better than the best of their popular assemblies ; that the senators of the church (as he calls them) were fit to govern in any part of the church of God, while the vulgar senate had nothing worthy of that honourable dignity, nor were raised above the manners of the com- mon people.
3. Thus excellently constituted was the Athenian church ; for which it was chiefly beholden to the indefa- tigable industry, and the prudent care and conduct of its present bishop, whose success herein was not a little advantaged by those extraordinary supernatural powers which God had conferred upon him. That he was en^
h. Men. Grace . ubi supr. ; Coiitr. Cels^.l. 3. p. 12^.
sro THE LIFE OF ST. QUADRATUS.
dued with a spirit of prophecy, of speaking suddenly upon great and emergent occasions, in interpreting ob- scure and difficult scriptures, but especially of foretel- ling future events, we have the express testimonies of Eu- sebius'', affirming him to have lived at the same time with Philip's virgin daughters, and to have had ^§o<?>«7<»!v x*§"i«*» the gift of prophecy, and of another author* much anci- enter then he, who confuting the error of the Cataphryges, reckons him among the prophets who flourished under the economy of the gospel. I know a learned ""man would fain persuade us, that the Quadratus who had the prephetic gifts, was a person distinct from our Athenian bishop. But tlie grounds he preceeds upon seem to me very weak and inconckiding. For whereas he says, that that Quadratus is not by fckisebius styled a bishop, who knows not that persons are not in every place men- tioned under all their capacities? and less need was there for it here, Quadratus when first spoken of by Euse- bius, not being then bishop of Athens, and so not pro- per to be taken notice of in that capacity. Nor is his other exception of greater weight, that the prophetic Quadratus did not survive the times of Adrian whereas ours was in the same time with Dionysius, bishop of Cornith, who lived under M. Antoninus, and speaks of him as his contemporary, and lately ordained bishop of Athens. But whoever looks into that pas- sage of Dionysius"", will find no foundation for such an assertion, but rather the quite contrary, that he speaks of him as if dead before his time, as I believe any one that impartially considers the place, must needs confess. Not to say, that St. Hierom and ail after him without any scruple niake them to be the same. So that we may still leave him his gift of prophecy, which procured him so much reverence while he lived, and so much honour to his memory since his death. To which may be add- ed what the Greeks in their Menseon*' not improbably
k H.Ecd.13. cSr. p. 109. 1 Ap. Euseb. 1. 5. c. 17. p. X83 m Vales. Aniiot. and Euseb. 1. 4. c. 23. p. 81. n Ap Euseb. 1. 4 c. 23. p. 143.
o TsxSiv ret (poCiPilf Kr,SpdTi, ^a.ufx*Jity <iT»Vt;? s'c Trig-tv 'J5 7.0^ ^■iV.-ATrlQrf x; (TiTrlo;, Ue,afX*iy Uia^tCii. Men. Grxc. Ice. !
supr. cit.
THE LIFE OF ST. QUADRATUS. 27t
^y of him, that he was furnished with a power of work- ing miracles, and that by his prayers he ruined the idola- trous temples of the heathens, whereby he mightily eon- founded the infidels, and brought in great numbers to the faith.
4. But the fair weather and prosperity of the church was not wont to last long in those days. They had en- joyed a short tranquillity about the latter end of Trajan's reign, but now, alas, under Adrian, his successor the weather changed, and there arose (as ^St. Hierom calls it) a most grievous and heavy persecution, and which ^Sulpitius Severus expressly says was the fourth perse^ dution. And indeed, how grievous it was, sufficiently appears from those many thousands of martyrs that then suffered, mentioned in the ancient martyrologies of the church ; yea, even at ""Rome itself Eustachius and his wife Theopistis with their two sons, are said by the em- peror's command to have been thrown to the lions, and when the mercy of the savage beasts had spared them, they were ordered to be burnt to death in the belly of a brazen bull. It is true 'Tertullian says that Adrian published no laws or edicts against the Christians ; but the laws enacted by Trajan being yet unrepealed, or not laid aside, there would not want those who would put them in execution. We find 'that though Trajan com- manded a stop to be put to the persecution against Chris- tians, yet even then both people and governors of pro- vinces went on with their accustomed cruelties, and though there was not a general, there were particular and provincial persecutions. And no doubt it was much more so after his death, when Adrian came to the em- pire, whom they knew too well, to think he would be an enemy to such proceedings. For whatever some have said concerning the clemency and good nature of that prince, there are "others that plainly affirm, that it was but personated and put on, that he really was in his
p Epist. ad Mag. iibi. siipr. q Hist. sacr. 1. 2. p. 142. r Vi 1 Rom.
Mart\ r. ad Septemb. XX. p. 583. s Apol. c. 6. p. 6. t Euseb. 1. 3. c. 33. p. 105. u Mar. Maxim, ap. ,£1. Spart. in viu Adrran. c. 20. p. §S vid.
Dion. I. 69. non long, ab init.
272 THE LIFE OF ST. QUADRATUS.
nature cruel, and that (according to the true genius of superstition) whatever works of piety he did, it was for fear lest the same evil fate should happen to him, that fell upon Domitian ; and of his cruelty instances enough may be met with in the writers of his life. In short, there was in him a strange mixture and contemperation of vice and virtue, it being a true character which the historian"" gives of him, that he was severe and cheerful, grave and affable, deliberate and yet eagerly wanton^ covetous and liberal, cruel and merciful, a great dissem- bler, and perpetually inconstant in all his actions.
5. For religion he was a deligent and superstitious observer "^of their own rites of worship, but hated and despised all strange and foreign religions, and especially the Christian. Indeed how well he thought of the Christians, appears sufficiently from his ''letter to Ser- vianus the consul, written a little after his return out of Egypt, wherein he gives the Christians there so lewd and base a character ; not sticking to affirm that the people, yea their priests, their bishops, and their very patriarch himself would worship both Christ and Sera- pis, and that they were a most turbulent, vain, and inju- rious generation. From which epistle it seems plain to me, tliat at his being there, he had severely persecuted the Christians, and compelled some light or false profes* sors to worship the deities of the country, which proba- bly gave ground to his censure, and to charge the im- putation upon all. And since he loooked upon the Christians as such a vile sort of men, it is the less to be wondred, that he should connive at, or encourage their being persecuted in other parts of the empire. He principally applied himself to the studies of ''Greece^ whereof he was so strangely fond, that he was commonly styled Gr^ cuius, the Little Greek : this made him de- light much in those parts, and to converse with the learning and philosophy of those countries. About the- sixth or seventh year of his reign he came to Athens,
V Spartian. ib.c 14. p. 69. w Id. ib. c. 22. p. 96. x Extftt ap. fL
Vopisc. in vit. Saturn, p. 959. y Span. c. 1. p. 4,
THE LIFE OF ST. QUADRATUS. 273
v/here he took upon him the place and honour of an ar- chon, celebrated their solemn sports, and gave many par- ticular laws and privileges to that city, but especially was entered into their Eleusinian mysteries, accounted the most sacred and venerable of the whole Gentile world, and which particularly carried the title of The mysteries. They were solemn and religious rites performed to Ceres in memory of great benefits received from her, the candi- dates whereof were styled iav^^li, and to the full participa- tion whereof they were many times not admitted till af- ter a five years preparatory trial, which had many several steps, and each its peculiar rites : first there were ^^rcTa/.Mjx jt:i3-xg3-«f, the common purgations^ then */ dTrm^Qirr^^i, those that were more secret, next the ^t/r^cr«?, or stations, then the /xv«v«;?, the initiations, and lastly, (which was the top of all) the iTroTriu'M, or the inspections. Others reckon them thus ; that first there were the t* x^s-*§^/=t, the purifications, and expiations; then followed the T*>;;cg:t,«urx'§/:t, the lesser mysteries, when they were solemnly initiated and taken in ; and lastly, after some time they arrived at the greater mysteries, the t* iTroTrii^d, which were the most hidden so- lemnities of all, w4ien they w^ere admitted to a full sight of the whole mystic scene, and thenceforth called eottt?*/, or inspectors, and were obliged, under a solemn oath, not to discover these mysterious rites to any. We cannot well suppose that the emperor Adrian was put to observe those tedious methods of initiation, their mystic laws were no doubt dispensed with for so extraordinary a per- son, and he at once became both a candidate and an 'ettottIhc, a thing which they sometimes granted in some extraor- dinary cases. And not content to do thus at Athens, ^St. Hierom tells us he was initiated into almost all the sa- cred rites of Greece, whence ""Tertullian justly styles him, the searcher into all curious and hidden mysteries, and ^Dion himself tells us of him, that he was infinitely curi- ous, and strangely addicted to all sorts of divination and magic arts.
z I%e Script, in Qiiadrat. a Loc. supr. cit. B Excerpt, ex Dion, a
yales. edit. p. TH.
M m
274 THE LIFE OF ST. QUADRATUS.
6. At Athens Adrian staid the whole winter, where his busy and superstitious zeal being taken notice of; was warrant enough without further order for active zea- lots to pursue and oppress the Christians, the persecu- tion gro ving so fierce and hot, that the Christians were forced to remonstrate and declare their case to the em- peror ; among whom besides ''Aristides a Christian phi- losopher at this time at Athens, who in an apology ad- dressed himself to Adrian, our Quadratus presented an apologetic to the emperor, defending the Christian reli- gion from the calumnies and exceptions of its enemies, and vindicating it from those pretences, upon which ill minded men sought to ruin and undo the innocent Chris- tians, wherein also he particularly took notice of our Saviour's miracles, his curing diseases, and raising the v*ead, some instances whereof, he says, were alive in his time. Besides this apology (wherein, as Eusebius says, he gave large evidences both of his excellent parts, and true apostolic doctrine) it is probable he left no other writings behind him, none being mentioned by any of the ancients : where I cannot but note the strange heedless- ness of the compilers of the 'V'e?ituries, where they tell us out of Eusebius, that besides the apology, he composed another excellent book called Syngramma, when nothing can be more plain, than that by that writing Eusebius means not a distinct book, but that very apologetic ora- tion, which he there speaks of: and yet a modern Ger- man ^professor (who frequently transcribes their errors as well as their labours) securely swallows it, purely (I sup- pose upon their authority ; ) though strange it is, that he could read that passage in Eusebius himself, which he seems to have done, and not palpably feel the mistake.
7. It happened about this time that Serenius Graninaus the proconsul of Asia, wrote ^letters to the emperor, re- presenting to him the injustice of the common proceed- ings against Christians, how unfit it was that without any le^al trial, or crime laid to their charge, they should be
c Euseb. I. 4. c 3. p 116. Hieron, iibi supr. & in Epist. i<d Magn. Otator. d Cent. II. cap. 10. col. 152. e Bebel. Antiq Eccles. Secul. 2. Aitic. 1. p 183. f J. Mart. Apol. II. p. 99. & ap. Euseb. 1. 4. c. 8. p. 122.
THE LIFE OF ST. QUADRATUS. 275
])ut to death merely to gratify the unreasonable and tu- multuary clamours of the people. With this letter and the apologies that had been offered him by the Christians, the keenness of the emperor's fury was taken off, and care was taken that greater moderation should be used to- wards them. To which purpose he despatched away ^'to Fundanus, Granianus's successor in the proconsulship of Asia this following rescript.
'' I received the letters which were sent me by the most excellent Serenius Granianus, your predecessor. Nor do I look upon it as a matter fit to be passed over without due inquiry, that the men may not be needlessly disquieted, nor informers have occasion and encourage- ment of fraudulent accusations ministered unto them. Wherefore if the subjects of our provinces be able open- ly to appear to their indictments against the Christians, so as to answer to them before the public tribunal, let them take that course, and not deal by petition and mere noise and clamour : it being much fitter, if any accusation be brought, that you should have the cognizance of it. If any one shall prefer an indictment, and prove that they have transgressed the laws, then give you sentence against them according to the quality of the crime. But if it shall appear, that he brought it only out of spite and malice, take care to punish that man according to the heinousness of so mischievous a design." The same rescripts (as ''Melito bishop of Sardis, who pre- sented an apology to M. Antoninus informs us) Adrian sent to several other governors of provinces. Nay was so far wrought into a good mood, that if it be true what their own historian reports of him', he designed to build a temple to Christ, and to receive him into the number of their gods, and that he commanded temples to be built in all cities without images, which were for a long time after called Adriani ; but was prohibited to go on by
g Justin, ib. Euseb. c. 9. p. 123. h Ap. Euseb. 1. 4. c- 26. p= 148,
i Lamprid. in vit. Alex. Saver, c. 43. p. 568.
276 THE LIFE OF ST. QUADRATUS.
some, who having consulted the oracle, had been told, that if this succeeded according to some men's desires, the temples would be deserted and all men become Chris- tians.
8. What became of St. Quadratus after Adrian's de- parture from Athens, we find not more than what the ^Greeks in their Menceon relate, that by the violence of persecutors he was driven from his charge at Athens, and being first set upon by stones, then tormented by fire, aiul several other punishments, he at last under Adrian (probably about the latter end of his reign) received the crown of martyrdom\ To what place he fled when he left Athens, and where he suffered martyrdom is uncer- tain, unless it were at Magnesia, a city of Ionia, in Asia Minor, where the same Menaeon tells us, he preached the gospel, as he did at Athens, and that his body was there entombed, and his remains famous for miracles done there. A place memorable for the death of The- mistocles, that great commander and citizen of Athens, banished also by his own fellow-citizens, who after his brave and honourable achievements, did here by a fatal draught put a period to his own life ; where (as ""Plu- tarch tells us) his posterity had certain honours and pri- vileges conferred upon them by the Magnesians, and which his friend Themistocles the Athenian enjoyed in his time.
k Loc. supra cit. 1 a/S-o/? nfjuiv B-ixcvlat. ytojcTa//*; (C*^*? t KocTgstTovj /33»»k»-
ortTi u<^^oni hi'^ois. Men. ibid. m In vit. Themist.p. 128.
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN,
THE MARTYR,
His vicinity to the apostolic times. His birth-place and kindred. His studies. His travels into Egypt. To what sect of philosophy he ap- plied himself. The occasions and manner of his strange conversion to Christianity related by himself. Christianity the only safe and satis- factory philosophy. The great influence which the patience and forti- tude of the Christians had upon his conversion. The force of that ar- gument to persuade men. His vindication of himself from the charges of the Gentiles. His continuance in his philosophic habit. The «i>/Ai<ro- <pov 2;t«^* what, and by whom worn. 'O y^cLulc t7r/3-«TH?, His coming to Rome, and opposing heretics. Marcion who, and what his principles. Justin's first apology to the emperors, and the design of it. Antoninus's letter to the common-council of Asia in favour of the Christians. This showed not to be the edict of Marcus Antoninus. Justin's journey into the east, and conference with Trypho the Jew. Trypho who. The malice of the Jews against the Christians. Justin's return to Rome. His contests with Crescens the philosopher. Crescens's temper and principles. Justin's second apology. To whom presented. The occa- sion of it. M. Antoninus's temper. Justin foretels his own fate. The acts of his martyrdom. His arraignment before Rusticus prxfect of Rome. Rusticus who : the great honours done him by the emperor. Justin's discourse with the prefect. His freedom and courage. His sentence and execution. The time of his death. His great piety, cha- rity, impartiality, &c. His natural parts, and excellent learning. His unskiliulness in the Hebrew language noted. A late author censured. His writings. The epistle to Diognetus. Diognetus who. His style and character. The unwarrantable opinions he is charged with. 'His indulgence to Heathens. Kat* xiyov /ith, what, ao^®" in what sense used by the ancient fathers. How applied to Christ, how to reason. His opinion concerning Chiliasm. The concurrence of the ancients with him herein. This by whom first started; by whom corrupted. Concerning the state of the soul after this life. The doctrine of the an- cients in this matter. His assertion concerning angels, maintained by most of the first fathers. The original of it. Their opijiion concerning free will showed not to be opposed by them to the grace of God. What influence Justin's philosophic education had upon his ophiions. His writings enumerated.
1. JUSTIN the martyr was one, as of the most learned, so of the most early writers of the eastern church, not long after the apostles, as ^Eusebius says of
aH, Eccl.i. 2>c. 13. p. 50.
278 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
him, near to them xt'^^ i- h''""^ says Methodius ^bibhop of Tyre, both in time and virtue. And near indeed, if we strictly understand what he *=says of himself, that he was a disciple of the apostles ; which surely is meant either of the apostles at large, as comprehending their immediate successors, or probably not of the persons, but doctrine and writings of the aposdes, by which he was instructed in the knowledge of Christianity. He was "*born at Neapolis, a noted city of Palestine within the province of Samaria, anciently called Sichem, after- wards as ^Josephus, tells us, by the inhabitants Mabartha, (corruptly by ^Pliny Mamortha) by the Romans Neapo- lis, and from a colony sent thither by Flavins Vespasian, styled Flavia Ccesarea. His father was Prisons, the son of Bacchius (for so the n^iV^is iS boc;^*/*;, Tn~N a.7ro <t>}.Avitic, as Sylburgius and Valesius observe, must necessarily be understood, implying the one to have been his father,^ the other his grandfather) a Gentile, and (as ^Sca- liger probably thinks) one of those Greeks which were in that colony transplanted thither, v/ho took care, to- gether with religion, to have him educated in all the learning and philosophy of the Gentile world. And indeed how great and exact a master he was in all their arts and learning, how thoroughly he had digested the best and most useful notions, which their institutions of philosophy could afford, his writings at this day are an abundant evidence.
2. In his younger years, and as it is probable, before his conversion to Christianity, he travelled into foreign parts for the accomplishment of his studies, andparticu- larlv into Egypt, the staple place of all the more myste- rious and recondite parts of learning and religion, and therefore constantly visited by all the niore grave and sage philosophers among the heathens. That he was atX'Vlexandria himself assures us, where he tells us
b Ap. Phot. Cod. CCXXXIV. col. 921. c 'Attos-oxov yivofxiv^ /waS-xTiSc,
yivou'JU iiU<TK'i.\@' i^vm. Epist. ad Diognet. p. 501. d Apol. II. p. 53.
e De Bel!. Jad. 1. 5. c. 4. p. 890. f H. Nat. 1. 5. c 13. p. 79.
g Animadv. ad Eus, Chron. n. MMCVIl. p. 219. h Parxnes. ad Grsc. p. 14.
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN. 279
what account he received from the inhabitants of the seventy translators, and was showed the cells wherein they performed that famous and elaborate work, which probably his inquisitive curiosity as a philosopher, and the reports he had heard of it by living among the Jews had more particularly induced him to inquire after. Among the several sects of philosophers, after he had run through and surveyed all the forms, he pitched his tent among the Platonists, whose 'notions were most agreeable to the natural sentiments of his mind, and which no doubt particularly disposed him for the en- tertainment of Christianity, ^himself telling us, that the principles of that philosophy, though not in all things alike, were yet not alien or contrary to the doctrines of the Christian faith. But, alas, he found no satisfaction to his mind either in this, or any other, till he arrived at a full persuasion of the truth and divinity of that religion which was so much despised by the wise and the learn* ed, so much opposed and trampled on by the grandees and powers of the world. Whereof, and of the manner of his conversion to the Christian religion, he has given us a very large and punctual account in his discourse with Trypho. I know this account is suspected by some to be only a prosopopoeia, to represent the grounds of his becoming a Christian after the platonic mode by way of dialogue, a way familiar with the philoso- phers of tliat sect. But however it may be granted that some few circumstances might be added to make up the decorum of the conference, yet I see no reason (nor is any thing offered to the contrary besides a bare conjec- ture) to question the foundation of the story, whereof the sum is briefly this.
3. Being from his youth acted by an inquisitive phi- losophic genius, to make researches and inquiries after trutlV he first betook himself to the stoics, but not sa- tisfied with his master, he left him, and went to a peripa- tetic tutor, whose sordid covetousness soon made him
i Apol. I. (revera II.) pag, 50. k Ibid, p.t^ 51. 1 Dialog", cum Tryph. p. 213. Lc.
Z&) THE LIFE OF St. JUSTIN-
conclude that truth could not dwell with him, accord- ingly he turned himself over to a Pythagorean, who re- quiring the preparatory knowledge of music, astronomy, and geometry, him he quickly deserted, and last of all delivered himself over to the institution of an eminent platonist, lately come to reside at Neapolis ; with whose intellectual notions he was greatly taken, and resolved for some time to give up himself to solitude and contem- plation. Walking out therefore into a solitary place by the sea side, there met him a grave ancient man, of a venerable aspect, who fell into discourse with him. I'he dispute between them was concerning the excellency of philosophy in general, and of Platonism in particular ; which Ju*stin asserted to be the only true way to happi- ness, and of knowing and seeing God. This grave per- son refutes at large, and at last comes to show him, who were the most likely persons to set him in the right way. He tells him, that there were long before his reputed philosophers, certain blessed and holy men, lovers of God, and divinely inspired, called prophets, who fore- told things which have since come to pass ; who alone understood the truth, and undesignedly declared it to the world, whose books, yet extant, would instruct a man in what most became a philosopher to know , the ac- complishment of whose predictions did sufficiently at- test their faithfulness and integrity, and the mighty mira- cles which they wrought, set the truth of what they said beyond all exception ; that they magnified God the great creator of the world, and published his son Christ to the world : concluding his discourse with this advice, jBta as for thyself above all things pray that the gates of light may be set open to thee ; for these are not things dis- cerned and understood by all^ unless God and Christ grant to a man the knowledge of them. Which discourse be- ing ended, he immediately departed from him.
4. The wise discourse of this venerable man made a deep impression upon the martyr's mind"", kindled in his soul a divine flame, and begot in him a sincere love di
m Ibid, pag. 22*5.
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN. ^si
the prophets, and those excellent men that were friends to Christ : and now he beg;m seriously to inquire into, and examine the Christian religion, which he confesses h^ found ,Miv»v <piKOTo<^i!iv d7<pstxif ri X. 76fji<^r,g:,vy tlic only certain and pro- fi table philosophy, and which he could not but commend as containing a certain majesty and dread in it, and ad- mirably adapted to terrify and persuade those who were out of the right way, and to beget the sweetest serenity and peace in the minds of those who are conversant in it. Nor was it the least inducement to turn the scale with him, when he beheld the innocency of the Christians' lives, and the constancy of their death, with what fearless and undaunted resolutions they courted torments, and en- countered death in its blackest shape. This very account he gives of it to the Roman emperor. " For my own part" says ""he " being yet detained under the Platonic institu- tions, when I heard the Christians traduced and re- proached, and yet saw them fearlesly rushing upon death, and venturing upon all those things that are accounted most dreadful and amazing to human nature, I con- cluded with myself, it was impossible that those men should wallow in vice, and be carried away with the love of lust and pleasure. For what man that is a slave to pleasure and intemperance, that looks upon the eating human flesh as a delicacy, can cheerfully bid death welcome, which he knows must put a period to all his pleasures and delights ; and would not rather by all means endeavour to prolong his life as much as is pos- sible, and to delude his adversaries, and conceal him- self from the notice of the magistrate, rather than vo- luntarily betray and ofler himself to a present execu- tion ? And certainly the mart}r's reasonings were unan- swerable ; seeing there could not be a more effectual proof of their innocency, than their laying down their lives to attest it. Zeno was wont to say, he had ra- ther see one Indian burnt alive, than hear a hundred arguments about enduring labour and suffering. Whence Clemens Alexandrinus" infers the great advantages ef
n Apd. I. p. 50. o Stromat. 1. 2. p. 41-1.
N n
282 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
Christianity, wherein there were daily fountains of mar- tyrs springing up, who before their eyes were roasted, tormented, and beheaded, every day, whom regard to the law of their master had taught and obliged, to ivxaCn <f/ a.>*Tav ivSiiKVivo-^cuy to demonstrate the truth and excellency of their religion, by sealing it wdth their blood.
5. We cannot exactly fix the date of his conversion, yet may we, I think, make a very near conjecture. I'Eusebius tells us, that at the time when Hadrian conse- crated Antinous, Justin did yet adhere to the studies and religion of the Greeks. Now for this we are to know that Hadrian coming into Egypt lost there his beloved catamite Antinous, whose death he so resented, that he advanced him into the reputation of a deity ; whence in an ancient inscription at *^ Rome, he is styled CTNepoNo:^
TfiN EN AirrnT.Q eE.QN, t/ic assessor of the gods in Egypt
He built a city to him in the place where he died called Antinoe, erected a temple, and appointed priests and pro- phets to attend it, instituted annual solemnities, and every live years sacred games, called 'Av7m«*, held not in Egypt only, but in other parts ; whence an "■ inscription not long after those times, set up by the senate of Smyrna, men- tions Lerenius Septlmius Heliodorus Antinoea, who
overcame in the sports at Symrna. But to return
'Tis very evident that Hadrian had not been in Egypt, till about the time of Servianus or Severianus's being consul (as appears from that emperor's letters ' to himj whose consulship fell in with Ann. Chr, CXXXH...., Troj. XVI. So that this of Antinous must be done either, that, or at most, the foregoing year ; and accord- ingly about this time (as Eusebius intimates) Justin de- serted the Greeks, and came over to the Christians
Whence in his first apology presented not many years after to Antoninus Pius, Adrian's successor, he speaks ^ of Antinous -^ ^Zv yiym:,y.Ui(, who very lately lived and was consecrated, and of the Jewish war, headed by Barcha- chab, as but lately past, which we knov/ was concurrent
p H. Eccl. 1. 4. c. 8. p. 132. q Ap. Cresau. not. In Jf\. Spart. vit. Adr. p e^6. r Marni. Oxon. CXLIH. p. '277. s Ext. .ip. Vopisc in vit. Saturn, n. 959 Apol H. (revcral.) p. 72.
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN. 283
with the death and apotheosis of Antinous. For that Justin's 0 vuy yiyivn!JLiv(^ iw both passagcs, cannot be precisely confined to the time of presenting that apology, is evident to all, and therefore (as the phrase is sometimes used) must be extended to what was lately done.
6. The wiser and more considerate part of the Gen- tiles were not a little troubled at the loss of so useful and eminent a person, and wondered what should cause so sudden a change. For whose satisfaction and conver- sion, as well as his own vindication, he thought good particularly to write a discourse to them, in the very first words whereof he thus bespeaks thtm. " '' Think not, *' O ye Greeks, that I have rashly, and without any judg- ^' ment or deliberation departed from the rites of your ** rehgion. F"or I could find nothing in it really sacred, *' and worthy of the divine acceptance. The matters '* among you, as your poets have ordered them, are '' monuments of nothing but madness and intemper- '^ ance : and a man can no sooner apply himself even to *' the most learned among you for instruction, but he *' shall be entangled in a thousand difficulties, and be- ** come the most confused man in the world," And then proceeds with a great deal of wit and eloquence to expose the folly and absurdness of the main foundations of the Pagan creed, concluding his address with these exhortations; *' ^ Come hither, O ye Greeks, and par- " take of a most incomparable wisdom, and be instruct- '' ed in a divine religion, and acquaint yourselves with '' an immortal King. Become as I am, for I sometimes •' was as you are. These are the arguments that pre- *^ vailed with me, this the efficacy and divinity of the doc- ^' trine, which like a skilful charm expels all corrupt and *' poisonous affisctions out of the soul, and banishes that *' lust that is the fountain of all evil, whence enmities, " strifes, envy, emulations, anger, and such like mis- ** chievous passions do proceed: which being once *' driven out, the soul presently enjoys a pleasant calm- *' ness and tranquillity. And being delivered from that
u Orat. ad Grxc. p. 2,7. v Ibid, p, 40.
684 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
'' yoke of evils, that before lay upon its neck, it aspires " and mounts up to its Creator ; it being but suitable " that it should return to that place, from whence it bor- *^ rowed its original."
7. But though he laid aside his former profession, he still retained his ancient garb, h ^jkjt':^)^ o-;t>»>=tT/ ^r^irQiCa^v tov ^jTjk xi>ov, as ''Eusebius, and after him ""St. Hierom reports, preaching and defending the Christian religion under his old philosophic habit, which was iht pallium or cloak, the usual badge of the Greek philosophers (difterent from that which was worn by the ordinary Greeks) and which those Christians still kept to, who before their conver- sion had been professed philosophers. So ^' St. Hierom tells us of Aristides, the Athenian philosopher, contem- porary with Quadratus, that under his former habit he became Christ's disciple ; and ^ Origen of Heraclas, af- terwards bishop of Alexandria, that giving up himself to the more strict study of philosophy, he put on <^tKocro^,v <ry}y.^ the philosophic habit, which he constantly wore even after he became presbyter of that church. This custom con- tinned long in the Christian church, that those who did et^gzCac x§'f'-'"'^^'^ (as ""Socrates speaks) enter upon an ascetic course of life, and a more severe profession of religion, always wore the philosopher's cloak, and he tells us of Silvanus the rhetorician, that when he became christian, and professed this ascetic life, he was the first that laid aside the cloak, and contrary to custom put on the com- mon garb. Indeed it was so common, that i y^^uU^^ibin^t became proverbial among the Heathens, when any Christian actot;;? passed by, there goes a Greek impostor, because of their being clad after the same manner, and professing a severer life than ordinary, like the philoso- phers among the Grecians, many of whom, notwithstand- ing, were mere cheats and hypocrites" ; and "" St. Hierom
w Lib, 4. c, 11. p. 125. X De script, in Justin, v De script, mi Aristid. z Ap. Euseb. 1. 6. c. 19. p. 221. a H. Eccl. 1. 7. c. 37.
(ri-X^aa-t «T« StV-yiKUTt, xoyi^ojuivot tv;j(OV, volvti^c sciv o sl'vS-ga^T^, x, oti k'cTsv Su KATtt- yiKAV TKTXJygK.*. — iTTiiS'it Si T/V'X "UaTit iyirrmA h l/utrio', x.o/xcevTcL''rhv >c2<fca!>i«v x, Tst yivitA, HH. o'toi Ti ita-i tar^oc tsstkc tmv tta-u^inv ayUv, ih Qiy;-> Trupi^X-y^^' ' *''^-' *^''' S"*VTs« 5 ?§s-9-/^»3-/, X) nroi n-ATiyiKiTctVy « iKaid'-^pucrsLV x, TAvrct sicTsTg?, oti to7c x,AM/uivot( <i>iXQ<ro<;)oic '^vvi)i'k Iti « rox« aur» ; «, tp6 ttIv T<va dTrrJcJityfjLivcv. Dion. Chrys. Orat. LXXl. ^tgi -re ;).^y p. 627. c Epist. ud Marcel, p. 115. Tom .' 1.
tHE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIjNT. 285
notes of iiis time, that if such a Christian were not so fine and spruce in his garb as others, presently the com- mon saying was clapt upon him, he is an impostor and a Greek. This habit it seems was generally black, and sordid enough. Whence the monks who succeeded in this strict and regular course of life, are severely noted by the Gentile writers of those times under this charac- ter. Libanius calls them fj^iK^mtxovividLc, black coat monksy and says of them, that the greatest demonstration of their virtue was Ti ^jTv b i>*]n/c -n^^i^^m, to walk about in mourning garments.*^ Much at the same rate *" Eunapius describes the monks of Egypt, that they were clad in black, and were ambitious v^^^'V *c^;c«^svs/r, to go abroad in the most slovenly and sordid garb. But it is time to return to our St. Justin, who (as *"Photius and ^Epiphanius note) showed himself in his words and actions, as well as in his habit to be a true philosopher.
8. He came to Rome, (upon what occasion is^ uncer- tain) probably about the beginning of Antoninus Pius's reign, where he fixed his habitation, dwelling, as ap- pears from the acts of his martyrdom, about the Timo- thine baths, which were upon the Viminal mount. Here he strenuously employed himself to defend and promote the cause of Christianity, and particularh' to confute and beat down the heresies that then mainly infested and dis- turbed the church, writing a book '* against all sorts of heresies ; but more especially opposed himself to Mar- cion, who was the son of a bishop, born in Pontus, and for his deflowering a virgin had been cast out of the church, ^vhereupon he fled to Rome, ^here he broached many damnable errors, and among the rest, that there were two Gods, one the Creator of the world, whom he made to be the God of the Old Testament, and the au- thor of evil ; the other a more Sovereign and Supreme Being, Creator of more excellent things, the Father of Christ, whom he sent into the world to dissolve the law and the prophets, and to destroy the works of the other
d Orat. de Tempi, p. 10. Ibid. p. 2S. e In vit. ^des. p. ^!S.
f <i>i\'jfT'j<i^m i TOic \iyoic 4 T^ /SJff, ^ ttv cr'^>i/i/'."Ti. Cod. 12.5. col. 304. ^ Heres. 46 p. 171. ' h Apofc. II. p. 70
286 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
Deity, whom he styled the God of the Jews. Odicrs, and among them especially * Epiphanius, and a more an- cient author ^ of the dialogues against the Marcionites under the name of Origen (for that it was Origen himself, I much question) make him to have established three diifering principles or beings ; an «§;;c«' «*>'*^«> or ^oo^ prin- ciple, the father of Christ, and this was the god of the Christians ; an ds,xi> <f>»A</«g>/x«, or creating principle, that made the visible frame of things, which presided over the Jews, and an d^^x^ ttcv^^, or evil principle, which was the devil, and ruled over the Gentiles. With him Jus- tin encountered both by word and writing, particularly publishing a book which he had composed against him and his pernicious principles.
8. About the year of our Lord 140, the Christians seem to have been more severely dealt with ; for though Antoninus the emperor was a mild and excellent prince, and who put out no edicts, that we know of, to the pre- judice of Christianity, yet the Christians being generally traduced and defamed as a wicked and barbarous gene- ration, had a hard hand born upon them in all places, and were persecuted by virtue of the particular edicts of former emperors, and the general standing lavv^s of the Roman empire. To vindicate them from the aspersions cast upon them, and to mitigate the severities used to- vrards them, Justin about this time published his first apology, (for though in all editions it be set in the second j)lace, it was unquestionably the first) presenting it (as appears from the inscription) to Antoninus Pius^ the em- peror, and to his two sons Verus and Lucius^ to the se- nate, and by them to the whole people of Rome, wherein with great strength and e\idence of reason he defends the Christians from the common objections of their ene- mies, proves the divinity of the Christian faith, and shows how unjust and unreasonable it was to proceed against them without due conviction and form of law, acquaints them with the innocent rites and usages of the Christian assemblies,^ and lastly puts the emperor in mind of the
i Haeres.xlii.p. 135. k Dial, contr. Marcion. p. 3, 4. Basil, edit. 1&74. 4. i Vicl.Euseb.1.4. c. 18. p. 139.
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN. 5187
course wfiicli Adrian, his predecessor, had taken in this matter ; who had commanded that Christians should not be needlessly and unjustly vexed, but that their cause should be traversed and determined in open judicatures ; annexing to his apology a copy of the rescript which Adrian had sent to Minucius Fundanus to that purpose. 10. His address wanted not it seems its desired success"". For the emperor, in his own nature of a merciful and ge- nerous disposition, being moved partly by this apology, partly by the notices he had received from other parts of the empire, gave orders that Christians henceforward should be treated in more gentle and regular w^ays, as ap- pears among others by his "letter to the commonalty of Asia, yet extant, which I shall here insert.
** Emperor Caesar Titus, iElius Adrian, Antoninus, Augustus, Pius, high priest, the 15th time tribune, thrice consul, father of the country, to the common assembly of Asia, greeting. I am very well assured, that the gods tliemselves will take care, that this kind of men shall not escape, it being much more their concern, than it can be yours, to punish those that refuse to worship them ; whom you do but the stronglier confirm in their own sentiments and opinions, while you vex and oppress them, accuse them for atheists, and charge other things upon them, which you are not able to make good : nor can a more acceptable kindness be done them, than thut being accused they may seem to choose to die rather than live, for the sake of that God whom they worship. By which means they get the better, being ready to lay down their lives, rather than be persuaded to comply with your command. As for the earthquakes that have been, or that do yet happen, it may not be amiss to advertise you, whose minds are ready to despond under any such acci- dents, to compare your case with theirs. They at such a time are much more secure and confident in their God, , whereas you, seeming to disown God all the while, ne- glect both the rites of other g(xls, and the religion of that
V m Oros. Hist. I. 7- c. 14. fol. 505. n Ap. J. Mart, ad Calc. Apo]. if p.
TOO. Sc ap. Eiiseb. 1, 4. c. 13. p. 126. ik Chron, AIc.k. Ann. 2. Olvmp, CCXZXVIi Ind, VII. p. 503. ' *
5J88 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
immortal deity, nay banish and persecute to death the Christians that worship him. Concerning these men se- veral governors of provinces have heretofore written to my father of sacred memory : to w^hom he returned this answer, That they should be no way molested, unless it appeared that they attempted something against the state of the Roman empire. Yea, and I myself have received many notices of this nature, to which I answer according to the tenor of my father's constitution. After all which if any shall still go on to create them trouble, merely be- cause they are Christians, let him that is indicted be dis- charged, although it appear that he be a Christian, and let the informer himself undergo the punishment.
Published at Ephesus in the place of the com- mon assembly of Asia.
11. This letter was sent (as appears from the year of his consulship) Ann. Chr. 140, Antonini III. if it be ob- jected, that this seems not consistent with the year of his being tribune, said here to be the 15th, I answer that the ^■^[x^zx^,.^ i^>i<riAy or tribunitian power did not always com- mence with the beginning of their reign, but was some- times granted, and that more than once, to persons in a private capacity, especially those who were candidates for the empire. Thus (as appears from the Fasti ConsU' lares'") M. Agrippa had the Jribunitia potestas seven, as after his death Tiberius had it fifteen times during the life of Augustus. So that Antoninus's fifteenth tribune- ship might wx41 enough consist with the third year of his empire. Though I confess I am apt to suspect an error in the number, and the rather because ^Sylburgius tells us, that these J 5 years were not in the edict, as it is in Justin martyr, but were supplied out of Eusebius's copy, which I have some reason to think to be corrupted in other parts of this epistle. I am not ignorant that some learned men would have this imperial edict to be the de- cree of Marcus Aurelius, son of Antoninus. Indeed in the inscription of it, as it is extant in Eusebius, it is
.© Vides'isFast. Consul, a Si.?on. Edit. ad. Ann. V. C. DCCXLI .et DCCLXVL p Anuot. in Justin, M. p. 10. c 2.»
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN. 289
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus : but then nothing can be more evident, than that that part of it is corrupted, as is plain, both because Eusebius himself a few lines before expressly ascribes it to Antoninus Pius, and because in the original inscription in Justin's own apology (from whence FAisebius transcribed his) it is Titus iElius An- toninus Pius. And besides that nothing else of moment is offered to make good the conjecture, the whole con- sent of antiquity, and the tenor of the epistle itself clear- ly adjudge it to the elder Antoninus ; and *^Melito bi- shop of Sardis, who presented an apology to his son and successor, tells him of the letters which his father at the time when he was his partner in the empire, wrote to the cities that they should not raise any new troubles against the Christians.
12. Not long after his first apology, Justin seems to have revisited the eastern parts : for besides what he says in the acts of his martyrdom, that he was twice at Rome, "Eusebius expressly affirms, that he w^as at Ephesus, where he had his discourse with Tryphon, which it is ^plain was after the presenting his first apology to the em- peror. And it is no ways improbable but that he wxnt to Ephesus in company with those who carried the em- peror's edict to the common-council of Asia, then assem- bled in that city, where he fell into acquaintance with Tryphon the Jew. This Tryphon was probably that rabbi Tarphon, -ni2?;Ti pDn as they commonly call him, the 'iVealthy priest^ the master or associate of R. Aquiba, of whom mention is often made in the Jewish writings. A man of great note and eminency, who had fled his coun- try^ in the late war, where Barchochab had excited and headed the Jews to a rebellion against the Romans, since which time he had lived in Greece, and especially at Co- rinth, and had mightily improved himself by converse with the philosophers of those countries. With him Justin enters the lists in a two day's dispute, the account whereof he has given us in his dialogue with that subtle
q Ap. Eiiscb. 1. 4. c 26. p. 148. vkl. c. 13. p. 127. r Lib. 4. Vicl. Dialog-, cum Tryph. p. 349. t Dialog-, cwxn Tr\ ph. p. 21J
4. c. ir. p. 140. ilog-. ciitn Tr\ ph. p. ;
o o
290 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
man, wherein he so admirably defends and makes good the truth of the Christian religion, cuts the very sinews of the Jewish cause, dissolves all their pleas and pretences against Christianity, and discovers their implacable spite and malice, who not barely content to reject Christianity, sent peculiar persons "up and down the world to spread abroad, that Jesus the Galilsean was a deceiver and sedu- cer, and his whole religion nothing but a cheat and an imposture, that in their public synagogues they solemnly anathematized all that turned Christians, hated them, as elsewhere'' he tells us, with a mortal enmity, oppressed and murdered them whenever they got them in their pow- er ; Barchochab, their late general, making them the only objects of his greatest severity and revenge, unless they would renounce and blaspheme Christ. The issue of the conference was, that the Jew acknowledged himself high- ly pleased with his discourse, professing he found more in it than he thought could have been expected from it, wishing he might enjoy it oftener, as what would greatly conduce to the true understanding of the scripture, and begging his friendship in what part of the world soever he was.
13. In the conclusion of this discourse with Tryphon, he tells us, he was ready to set sail, and depart from Ephesus, but whether in order to his return to Rome, or some other place, is not known. That he returned thi- ther at last, is unquestionable, the thing being evident, though the time uncertain, whether it was while Antoni- nus was yet alive, or in the beginning of his successor's reign, I will not venture to determine. At his coming he had, among others, frequent contests with Crescens, the philosopher, a man of some note at that time in Rome. He was a "^cynic, and according to the genius of that sect, proud and conceited, surly and ill-natured, a philosopher in appearance, but a notorious slave to all vice and wickedness. ''I'atian, Justin's scholar, (who saw the man at Rome, admired and despised him for his childish
u Ibid. pag. 335. Stap. Euseb. I. 4. c. 18. p. 140. v Pag". 323, Apolng-, II.
pag-. 7'1. w Vid. Hieion. de Script, in Justin. x Orat. contr. Grace.
p. leo.
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN. 291
and trifling, his wanton and efFeminate manners) gives him this character, that he was the traducer of all their gods, the epitome of superstition, the accuser of generous and heroic actions, the subtle contriver of murders, the prompter of adultery, a pursuer of wealth even to rage and madness, a tutor of the vilest sort of lust, and the great engine and instigator of men's being condemned to execution : he tells us ^of him, that when at Rome, he was above all others miserably enslaved to sodomy and covetousness ; and though he pretended to despise death, yet did he himself abhor it, and to which, as the greatest evil, he sought to betray Justin and Tatian, for their free reproving the vicious and degenerate lives of those philosophical impostors. This was his adversary, ^iKo-^6<t>^ « 'jfiKoa-o<p@', as he calls him^, a lover of popular ap- plause, not of true wisdom and philosophy, and who by all the base arts of insinuation endeavoured to traduce the Christians, and to represent their religion under the most infamous character. But in all his disputes the martyr found him wretchedly ignorant of the affairs of Christians, and strongly biassed by malice and envy, which he oiTered to make good (if it might be admitted) in a public disputation with him before the emperor and the senate ; assuring them, that either he had never con- sidered the Christian doctrines, and then he was worse than the meanest ideots, who are not wont to bear wit- ness and pronounce sentence in matters whereof they have no knowledge ; or if he had taken notice of them, it was plain that either he did not understand them, or if he did, out of a base compliance with his auditors, dis- sembled his knowledge and approbation, for fear of being accounted a Christian, and lest freely speaking his mind, he should fall under the sentence and tlie fate of Socrates; so far was he from the excellent principle of that wise man, that fio man was to be regarded before the truth. Which free and impartial censure did but more exaspe- rate the man,, the sooner to hasten and promote his ruin.
y Orat.contr. Graec. p. 15* r Apol. I. (verius II.) p. 46.
292 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
14. In the mean time Justin presented his second apo- logy to M. Antoninus (his colleague, L. erus, being then, probably, absent from the city) and the senate ; for that it was not addressed to the senate alone, is evi- dent from several passages in the apology itself. There are, that will have this as well as the former to have been presented to Antoninus Pius, but certainly without any just ground of evidence, besides that Eusebius and the ancients expressly ascribe it to Marcus Aurelius, his son and successor. And were the inscription and beginning of it, which are now wantinjr, extant, they would quickly determine and resolve the doubt. The occasion of it was this. ^A woman at Rome had, together with her husband, lived in all manner of wantonness and debauch- ery, but being converted to Christianity, she sought by all arguments and persuasions to reclaim him from his loose and vicious course. But the man was obstinate, and deaf to all reason and importunity ; however by the advice of her friends, she still continued with him, hoping in time she might reduce him ; till finding him to grow intolerable, she procured a bill of divorce from him. The man was so far from being cured, that he was more enraged by his wife's departure, and accused her to the emperor for being a Christian ; she also put in her petition, to obtain leave to ansvv'-er for herself. Where- upon he deserted the prosecution of his wife, and fell up- on one Ptolemeus, by whom she had been converted to the Christian faith, whom he procured to be cast into prison, and there a long time tortured merely upon his confessing himself a Christian. At last being brought before Urbicius, prefect to the city, he was condemned to death. Whereat Lucius, a Christian that stood by, could not forbear to tell the judge, it was very hard that an innocent and virtuous man, charged with no crime, should be adjudged to die merely for bearing the name of a Christian, a thing no way creditable to the government of such emperors as they had, and of the august senate of Rome, Which he had no sooner said, but he was
a Apolog. I. p. 41.
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN. 293
together with a third person sentenced to the same fate. The severity of these proceedings awakened Justin's solicitude and care for the rest of his brethren, who im- mediately drew up an apology for them, wherein he lays down a true and naked relation of the case, complains of the injustice and cruelty of such procedures, to punish men merely for the name of Christians, without ever ac- cusing them of any material crimes, answers the objec- tions usually urged against them, and desires no more favour, dian that what determination soever they should make of it, his apology might be put before it, that so the whole world might judge of them, when they had been once truly acquainted with their case.
15. The martyr's activity and zeal in the cause of Christianity did but set the keener edge upon Crescens's malice and rage against him. llie philosopher could not confute him by force of argument, and therefore resolved to attack him by clancular and ignoble arts, and could think of no surer way to oppress him, than by engaging the secular powers against him. Pvlarcus Antoninus, the emperor, was a great philosopher, but withal zealous of Pagan rites to the highest degree of superstition ; he had from his youth been educated in the ^Salian college, all the offices whereof he had gone through in his own person, affecting an imitation of Numa Pompilius, the first master of religious cere- monies among the Romans, from whom he pretended to derive his pedigree and original : nay, so very strict in his way of religion (says ""Dion) that even upon the Dies Nefasti, the unlucky and inauspicious days, when all public sacrifices were prohibited, he would then pri- vately offer sacrifices at home. What apprehensions he had of the Christians is evident from hence, that he ascribes '^their ready and resolute undergoing death, not to a judicious and deliberate consideration, but to a 4<\« rnr:t^di'rrj^i^, a 7?iere stubborness and obstinacy ; which he, being so eminent and professed a Stoic, had of all men
b J. Capitol in vit. M. Anton, c. 4. p. 156. c Excerpt Dion. p. 721. d Xay iU ixvT.l 11. :). 3 p. 106.
294 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
in the world the least reiison to charge them with. With him it was no hard matter for Crescens to insinuate himself, and to procure his particular disfavour towards Justin, a man so able, and so active to promote the interest of the Christian religion Indeed * Justin him- self had publicly told the emperor what he expected should be his own fate, that he looked that Crescens, or some of their titular philosophers, should lay snares to undermine, torment, or crucify him. Nor was he at all mistaken, the envious man procuring him to be cast in prison, where if the ^Greeks say true, he was exercis- ed with many preparatory tortures in order to his mar- tyrdom. I confess Eusebius gives us no particular ac- count of his death, but the acts of his martyrdom are still ^extant, and (as there is reason to believe) ge- nuine and uncorrupt, the shortness of them being not the least argument diat they are the sincere transcripts of the primitive records, and that they have for the main escaped the interpolations of later ages, which most others have been obnoxious to. I know it is doubted by ^one, whether these acts contain the martyrdom of ours, or another Justin : but whoever considers the par- ticulars of them, most agreeable to our Justin, and espe- cially their fixing his death under the prefecture of Rus- ticus, which Epiphanius expressly affirms of our St. Justin, will see little reason to question, whether they belong to him. In them then we have this following account.
16. Justin and six of his companions having been ap- prehended, were brought before Rusticus, prefect of the city. This Rusticus was 'Q. Junius Rusticus, a man fa- mous both for court and camp, a wise statesman and great philosopher, peculiarly addicted to the sect of the Stoics. He was tutor to the present emperor M. Aurelms, and what remarkable rules and instructions he had given him, Antoninus himself sets down at large^. Above all his masters he had a particular reverence and regard to
e Apologv I p. 46. f Men. Gr^ec. T«/ st'. to 'Isi'. g Apud Sur. an
Xil jun. p. 382 & Baron, ad. Ann 165. n. 2. h seq. h Sur. loc. cit. at, i J. Capit. ubi supr. c. 9. p. 154. k T«y e« e«t/J. 1. 1- J» 7. p. 1.
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN 295
him, communicated to him all his public and private counsels, showed him respect before all the great officers of the empire, and after his death required of the senate that he might be honoured with a pubhc statue. He- had been consul in the second year of Hadrian, and again in the second of the present emperor's, rnd was now prefect of Rome : before whom these good men being brought, he persuaded Justin to obey the gods, and comply with the emperor's edicts. The martyr told him, that no man could be justly found fault with, or con- demned, that obejed the commands of our Saviour Jesus Christ, Then the governor inquired in what khid of learning and discipUne he had been brought up : he told him, that he had endeavoured to understand all kinds of discipline, and tried all methods of learning, but had finally taken up his rest in the Christian disci- pline, how little soever it was esteemed by those who were led by error and false opinions. Wretch that thou art (said the governor) art thou then taken with that discipline ? I am, replied the martyr, for with right doctrine do I follow the Christians. And when asked what that doctrine was ; he answered, the right doctrine which we Christians piously profess, is this, We be- lieve the one only God to be the creator of all things visible and invisible, and confess our Lord Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, foretold by the prophets of old, and who shall hereafter come to be the judge of mankind, a saviour, preacher, and master to all those, who are duly instructed by him -.that as for himself, he thought him- self too mean to be able to say any thing becoming his infinite deity ; that this was the business of the prophets, who had many ages before foretold the coming of this Son of God into the world.
17. The prefect next inquired where the Christians were wont to assemble, and being told, that the God of the Christians was not confined to a particular place, he asked in what place Justin was wont to instruct his dis- ciples, who gave him an account of the place where he dwelt, and told him that there he preached the Christian doctrine to all that resorted to him. Then having se-
296 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
verally examined his companions, he again addressed himself to Justin in this manner. Hear thou that art noted for thy eloquence, and thinkest thou art in the truth ; if I cause thee to be scourged from head to foot, thinkest thou thou shal go to heaven? He answered, that although he should suffer what the other had threat- ened, yet he hoped he should enjoy the portion of all true Christians, well knowing that the divine grace and favour was laid up for all such, and should be as long as the world endured. And when again asked, whether he thought he should go to heaven, and receive a re- ward ; he replied, that he did not think it only, but knew, and was so certain of it, that there was no cause to doubt it. The governor seeing it was to no purpose to argue, came closer to the matter in hand, and bid them go to- gether, and unanimously sacrifice to the gods. No man (replied the martyr) that is in his right mind, will desert true religion to fall into error and impiety. And when threatened that unless they complied, they should be tormented without mercy ; There is nothing (said Justin) which wq more earnestly desire, than to endure torments for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved. For this is that which will promote our happi- ness, and procure us confidence before that dreadful tribunal of our Lord and Saviour, before which by the divine appointment, the whole world must appear. To which the rest assented, adding, despatch quickly what thou hast a mind to, for we are Christians, and cannot sacrifice to idols. Whereupon the governor pronounc- ed this sentence ; The?/ xvho refuse to do sacrifice to the gods^ and obey the imperial edict, let them be first scourg- ed, and then beheaded according to the laws. The holy martyrs rejoiced and blessed God for the sentence pass- ed upon them, and being led back to prison, were ac- cordingly whipped, and afterwards beheaded.^ The Greeks* in their rituals, though very briefly, give the
1 'liirnev Kci>\:iiov y^ev Ik fiia.
Men. Grxcor. T>? *'. iS 'Ihk
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN. 297
same account, only they differ in the manner of the martyr's death, which they tell us was by a draught of poison, while the rest of his companions lost their heads. Though there are that by that fatal potion un- derstand no more than the poisonous malice and en- vy of Crescensthe philosopher, by which Justin's death was procured. And indeed, if literally taken, the ac- count of the Greeks in that place will not be very consist- ent with itself. Their dead bodies the Christians took up and decently interred. This was done, as Baronius conjectures, Ann. Chr. CLXV. with whom seems to concur the "'Alexandrine Chronicle, which says, that Justin having presented his second apology to the em- perors, was not long after crowned with martyrdom. This is all the certainty that can be recovered concern- ing the time of his death, the date of it not being con- bigned by any other ancient writer. It is a vast mis- take (or rather error of transcribers) of ""Epiphanius, who makes him suiter under Adrian, when yet he could not be ignorant that he dedicated his first apology to Antoninus Pius, his successor, in the close whereof he makes mention of Adrian, his illustrious parent and predecessor, and annexes the letter which he had written to Minucius Fundanus in favour of the Christians ; and no less his mistake (if it was not an error in the number) concerning his age, making him but thirty years old at the time of his death, a thing no ways consistent with the course of his life : and for what he adds of ^v >c«s-£ra,cr» itKuU, that he died in a firm and consistent age, it may be very well applied to many vears after that period of his life.
18. Thus have we traced the martyr through the se- veral stages of his life, and brought him to his last fatal period. And now let us view him a little nearer. He was a man of a pious mind, and a very virtuous life ; tenderly sensible of the honour of God, and the great interests of religion. lie was not elated, nor valued
m Acl ann. 2 Olymp. 236. M. Aurel. &. L. Ver. Imp. 6. Indict. 3. p. 60o. n Heeres. XLVL p. in..
P p
298 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
himself upon the account of his great abilities, but upon every occasion entirely resolved the glory of all into the divine grace and goodness. He had a true love to all men, and a mighty concern for the good of souls, whose happiness he continually prayed for and promoted, yea, that of their fiercest enemies. From none did he and his religion receive more bitter affronts and oppositions than from the Jews, yet he tells ''Tryphon that they hear- tily prayed for them and all other persecutors, that they might repent and, ceasing to blaspheme Christ, might be- lieve in him, and be saved from eternal vengeance at his glorious appearing: ^that though they were wont so- lemnly to curse them in their synagogues, and to join with any that would persecute them to death, yet they returned no other answer than that, you are our brethren, we beseech you own and embrace the truth of God. And in|his*^apology to the emperor and the senate, he thus concludes, I have no more to say, but that we shall en- deavour what in us lies, and heartily pray, that all men in the world may be blessed with the knowledge and entertainment of the truth. In the pursuit of this no- ble and generous design he feared no dangers, but deli- vered himself with the greatest freedom and impartiality ; he acquaints the ''emperors, how much it was their duty to honour and esteem the truth, that he came not to smooth and flatter them, but to desire them to pass sen- tence accbrding to the exactest rules of justice ; "that it w^as their place and infinitely reasonable when they had heard the cause, to discharge the duty of righteous judges, which if they did not, they would at length be found inexcusable before God, ^nay that if they went on to punish and persecute such innocent persons, he tells them beforehand, it was impossible they should escape the future judgment of God, Vv^hilethey persisted in this evil and unrighteous course. In tills case he re- garded not the persons of men, nor was scared with the dangers that attended it, and therefore in his conference
o Dial, cum Tryph. p. 254. p Ib".d. pag. 323 q Apolug-. I. p ,52.
r Apol. II. p. i3." s Ibid. p. o4. t Ibid. p. 99,
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN. 299
with the Jew, tells " him, that he regarded nothing but to speak the truth, not caring whom in this matter he dis- obliged, yea, though they should presently tear him all in pieces ; neither fearing nor favouring his own country- men the Samaritans, whom he had accused in his apo- logy to the emperor, for being so much bewitched and seduced with the impostures of Simon Magus, whom they cried up as a supreme deity, above all principality and power.
1 9. For his natural endowments, he was a man of acute parts, a smart and pleasant wit, a judgment able to weigh the differences of things, and to adapt and accom- modate them to the most useful purposes ; all which were mightily improved and accomplished by the advan- tages of foreign studies, being both in the Christian and
Ethnic philosophy, tUdn^ov dvny^^iv'Sr', TrcKvfjLAQiU t-€ xj ho^im 'sri^4c,tojui-
v(§r 7rKiTu>, says "^ Photius, arrived at the very height, flow- ing with abundance of history, and all sorts of learning. In one thing, indeed, he seems to have come short, and wherein the first fathers were generally defective, skill in the Hebrev/, and other eastern languages, as appears (to omit others) by one instance, his derivation of the word Satanas ; Sata (as he tells '"^ us) in the Hebrew and the Syriac signifying an apostate^ and Nas the same with the Hebrew Sata, out of the composition of both which arises this one word Satanas. A trifling conceit, and the less to be pardoned in one that was born and lived among the Samaritans and the Jews; every one that has but con- versed with those languages at a distance, knowing it to spring from I^^^' to be an adversary, which being formed according to the mode of the Greeks, (as ''Origen long since observed in this veiy instance) who were wont to add *c to the termination of words borrowed from a fo- reign language, becomes Satanas, an adversary. And therefore a late -author (who has weeded the writings of the ancients, and whose quotations savour of infinitely greater ostentation, than either judgment or fidelity) suf-
u Dial, cum Tryph. p. 349. v Cod CXZV- col. 304.
w Dialog^ cum Tryph. p. 331. x Contr. Gels. 1. 6. p. 305.
y Sand. Tract, de Vet. ScripL Eccl. Hist. Eccles. Tom. 1. Prsfix. p, 44.
300 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
ficiently betrays his ignorance in those very fathers, with which he pretends so much acquaintance, when to prove the Quest. ^ Resp. ad Orthodoxos^ not to be the genuine work of our Justin, he urges the odd and ridiculous in- terpretation of the word osanna, there rendered ^ by /««>*- \r,a--.m vTrigKitixm, supev excellent magmjicence : of the true signification whereof (says he) Justin himself being a Samaritan couid not be ignorant. When as his unques- tionable tracts afford such evident footsteps of his lament- able unskilfulnes in that language. But the man must be excused, seeing in this (as in many other things) he traded purely upon trust, securely stealing the whole passage, word for word, out of another author *" : so little skill had he to distinguish between true and false, and to know when to follow his guides, and where to leave them. As for Justin himself his ignorance herein is the less to be wondered at, if we consider that his religion, as a Gentile born, his early and almost sole converse with the Greeks, his constant study of the writings of the Gentile philosophers, might well make him a stranger to that language, which had not much in it to tempt a mere philosopher to learn it. In all other parts of learning, how great his abilities were, may be seen in his writings yet extant (to say nothing of them that are lost) -TViT^iSiuuk-.
^ Eusebius says of them, the monuments of his sin- gular parts, and of a mind studiously conversant about divine things, richly fraught with excellent and useful knowledge. They are all designed either in defence of the Christian religion both against Jews and Gentiles, or in beating down that common religion, and those pro- phane and ridiculous rites of worship which then go- verned the world, or in prescribing rules for the ordinary conduct of the Christian life, all which he has managed with an admirable acuteness and dexterity. Some books indeed have obtruded themselves under his name, as the Expositio Fidei, Qucestiones EsP Responsa ad OrthodoxoSy
z Vid. Qiic^st. L. p. 421. a Vid. Rivet. Crlt Sacr. I, 2. c. 5. p. ^.98.
bH. Ecd, 1. 4.C. 18.p. 139.
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN. 3G)1
Qu£stiones Gvitcanic^ ad C/iristia7ios, Qu^stiones V, ad Gri€cos^ ^c. ail which are undoubtedly of a later age, composed after Christianity was fully settled in the world, and the Arian controversies had begun to disturb the Christian church. Or if any of them were originally his, they have been so miserably interpolated and defa- ced by after ages, that it is almost impossible to discern true from false.
20. As for the epistle to Diognetus, though excepted against by some, yet is it fairly able to maintain its title, without any just cause alleged against it. Nor is it im- probable but that this might be that very Diognetus vfh6 was tutor to the emperor M. Aurelius, who (as himself confesses "") persuaded him to the study of philosophy, and gave him wise counsels and directions to that pur- pose, and being a person of note and eminency, is accord- ingly saluted by the martyr with a ^^^li^i AioyvnTi, most excel- lent Diognetus. His temper and course of life had made him infinitely curious (as is evident from the first part of that epistle) to know particularly what was the religion, what the manners and rites of Christians, what it was that inspired them with so brave and generous a courage, as to contemn the world, and to despise death ; upon what grounds they rejected the religion, and disowned the deities of the Gentiles, and yet separated themselves from the Jewish discipline and way of worship ; what was that admirable love and friendship b}" which they were so fast knit together, and why this novel institution came so late into the world. To all which inquiries (suitable enough to a man of a philosophic genius) Jus- tin (to whom probably he had addressed himself as the most noted champion of the Christian cause) returns a very particular and rational satisfaction in this epistle, though what effect it had upon the philosopher is un- known. That this epistle is not mentioned by P^usebius, is no just exception, seeing he confesses '^ there were many other books of Justin's besides those which he there reckons up : that it is a little more than ordinary
G M. Aurel. tSv ei? \i.ulA. I. §:. 6. p. I. d H. Eccl. I. 4. c. 18. p. 140.
302 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
polite and philosophical, is yet less; for who can won der if so great a scholar as Justin, writing to a person so eminent for learning and philosophy, endeavoured to give it all the advantages of a florid and eloquent dis- course. It must be confessed that his ordinary style does not reach this ; for which let us take Photius's ^ cen- sure, a man able to pass a judgment in this case : he studied not (says he) to set off the native beauty of philo- sophy -with the paint and varnish of rhetorical art. For which cause his discourses^ though otherwise very weighty and powerful^ and observing a composure agreeable enough to art and science, have not yet those sweet and luscious in- sinuations^ those attractives and allurements that are wont to prevail upon vulgar auditors^ and to draw them after them,
21. That which may seem most to impair the credit of this ancient and venerable man, is that he is commonly said to be guilty of some unorthodox sentiments and opinions, disagreeing with the received doctrines of the church. True it is, that he has some notions not war- ranted by general entertainment or the sense of the church, especially in later ages, but yet scarce any but what were held by most of the fathers in those early times, and which for the main are speculative and have no ill influence upon a good life ; the most considerable whereof we shall here remark. First he is charged with too much kindness and indulgence to the more eminent sort of Heathens, and particularly towards Socrates, Heraclitus, and suchlike^: such indeed he seems to al- low to have been in some sense Christians, and of So- crates particularly ^affirms that Christ tt^a^ «^o ^i*g«f in part known to him, and the like elsewhere more than once..... The ground of all which was this, that such persons did ^jT*>.o'>«/3»5v, live according to the ^h^ the word, or reason^ and that this naturally is in every man, and manifest to him, if he but govern himself according to it. For the
e Loc. supr. cittit.
f Toy X5/V-0V .is-gaTOTOKOV tS ©«« sTi-iv i^iMx^n/m^v, Xj <ar^c(/u»vtj<r:t/^iv hiyoy cvtsl, k WAV /J.h<^ dv^pmTTay /uiTiT^i. KatJ ol fAird Koyx ^la^a-ctfrn, Xa/s-vavs/ sitr/, KdLv i^iof
puge 83. g Apol, I. p. 48.
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN. 303
clearer understanding whereof it may not be amiss briefly to inquire in what sense the primitive fathers, and espe- cially our Justin use this word hoy^. And their notion was plainly this, that Christ was the eternal xiy®- or word of the Father, the sum and centre of all reason and wis- dom, as the sun is the fountain of light, and that from him there was a \oy@' or reason naturally derived into every man, as a beam and emanation of light from that sun ; to which purpose they usually bring that of St. John, Jn the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word xvas God: that was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world^, God (says Justin) 'first and before the production of any creatures begot of himself Svv^t/xn t/v* ko>«;;v, a certain rational power, sometimes styled in scripture the glory of God, the Son, Wisdom, an Angel, God, Lord, and Word ; by all which names he is described both according to the economy of his Father's will, and according to his volun- tary generation of him. And elsewhere''; we love and worship the word of the unbegotten and ineffable God, which (Word) for our sakes became man, that by par- taking of our sufferings he might work out our cure
Hence Christ is called ' t^ Wv?®^ xoy®', the universal Word, and with respect to him reason is styled (rtrs^^«7/xcf ^iy©^, the seminal Word that is sown in our natures, ^ o-^sg^*7wK s^j/j? Koya TO Qvfytvic, aud™ jj tvjscra «^cf,t/Vj< tS xo>^}< (T-tB-opji, thc iutcmal semina- tion of the implanted Word, which he there distinguishes from the dwo to cr^i^^uA, the primary and original seed itself, from which according to the measure of grace given by it, all participation and imitation does proceed. This is that which he means by the <7.z!reg/^.a7ct dx-MUc, the seeds of truth, which he "" tells us seem to be in all men in the world ; they are a derivation from Christ, who is the root, a kind of participation of a divine nature from him. Clemens of Alexandria thus deduces the pedigree. The
h O t/e C'^Th^ oKXil/uTrccr tolc XcytKole x. hyiuoyuoJc, J'y* Avrm o v»c tu ioiA o^-j''*
^fc., Sic. Ori,^. Com. in Joan. p. 25. vid. etiam. p. 40.
i Dial, cum Tryph. p. 234. p. 285. D. Is: Apol. I. p. 51.
iibid. p. 46. ' mlbidp.5r a Apoi. 1. 2. p. S%
304 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
image of God (says ° he) is his word, (for the divine word is the genuine oftspring of the mind, the archetypal light of light) and the image of the word is man. I'he true mind that is in man (and therefore to be made after the image and Ukeness of God) as to the frame of the heart is conformed to the divine word, and by that means partakes of the word or reason.
22. Origen, Clemens's scholar, treads exactly in his master's steps. He tells us^, that as God the father is a^ro^i®-, the fountain of deity to the Son, so God the Son, ^My(ir, the word, or the supreme and eternal reason, is the fountain and orignal that communicates reason to all rational beings, who as such are iiKon<; -^ ^Ikov®- , the image of the image, that is, some kind of shadow of the word, who is the brightness of his father's glory, and the express image of his person. And he further adds, that x^.y^r with an article is meant of Christ, but without it of that word or reason that is derived from him. The case then in short is this, every man naturally is endued with princi- ples of reason, and lively notices of good and evil, as a light kindled from him, who is the word and wisdom of the father, and may so far be said to partake of Christ, the primitive and original word, and that more or less ac- cording to their improvement of them ; so that whatever wise and excellent things either philosophers or poets have spoken, says Justin the martyr"*, it was s-u^o 'i,^<puicv •Truii] yim dv^pdrrav T.-srf^fxdL to ^.s>a, from that sccd of the \iy&, word, or reason that is implanted in all mankind : thus he says that Socrates'" exhorted the Greeks to the knowledge of the unknown God by the inquisition of the word. To conclude this, he no where affirms, that Gentiles might be saved without the entertainment of Christianity, nor
O Admonit. arl Gent. p. 62.
p 'O ytt^h ejtatra fxiy®" -raty A.e^uSv'rKTtf tsv Xo^ov «;;(^8; <tjrgof t sv «ig;tV >'^>«v -cr^i? Tiir S-eov ovt* Xo^gv S-rt-v, ok o ©64f Koy^<; n^go; t ^iiy. 'ilc y%^ ctliT-^^i'&'j) i d/Ji-^u'd ©«c 0 TTatTxp (orgi? UKOva, ^ eixOKstc 't tiKOv®' (J'lx «i x-at]' UK'jvct hiyovTai iivstv ot Av^pai- vrai, i^ iiicivK) KTa? oaturc? xiyQf 'sr^s? -f sy «x*r&) xoyov' dfxc^on^ct yd.^ Trytyng \yji ;^-*g«y, c TTaiT/ip 3-j;'r«7@r, o </e t^ii?, Asya. Tim. 1. Coniiiient. in Jouii. p. 47. Edit. Huet. Tom. 2- o» TPO^raK ystg o \7t\ 7ra.<Ti 06Of, o 0«Cf, >^^x dTrKcc; ©soc, utoj? d 7r;)^^J tS £y J)c*r» Totv xoyiKtif /.oyn, o Koy®' -n iviitdgrcf Koyti a^ ay nu^'ce; oy.aice; m" <tp^-C- Tte o¥o/U3LT'^ivl<§r xj Atx^hl®', 0 Ac>@*. I'o'id. p. 40.
q Apolog. I, p. 46, vid. p. 48. C. r Ibid. p. 48;»
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN. SOS
that their knowledge was of itself sufficient to that end (no man more strongly proves reason and natural philo^ scphy to be of themselves insufficient to salvation) but that so far a. they improved their reason and internal word to the great and excellent purposes of religion, so far th^y were Christians, and akin to the eternal and ori- ginal word, and that 'whatever was rightly dictated or reformed by this inward word, either by Socrates among the Greeks, or by others among the Barbarians, was in effect done by Christ himself, the word made flesh.
23. Another opinion with which he was charged is Chihasm, or the reign of a thousand years. This in- deed he expressly asserts^ that after the resurrection of the dead is over, Jerusalem should be rebuilt, beautified and enlarged, where our Saviour with all the holy patri- archs and prophets, the saints and martyrs should visibly reign a thousand years. He confesses indeed that there are many sincere and devout Christians that would not subscribe to this opinion; but withal affirms that there were abundance of the same mind with him. As indeed there were, ""Papias bishop of Hierapolis, ""Irenaeus bishop of Lyons, ''Nepos, ''Apollinaris, ^TertuUian, ^Victorinus, ^Lactantius, ''Severus Gallus, and many more. The first that started this notion among the orthodox Christians of those early tim.es seems to have been the before mention- ed Papias, who (as ^'Eusebius tells us) pretended it to be an apostolical tradition, misunderstanding the apostles' discourses, and too lightly running away with what they meant in a mystical and hidden sense. For he was, though a good man, yet of no great depth of understanding, and so easily mistaken ; and yet as he observes, his mistake imposed upon several ecclesiastical persons, the venera-
S Ou /xovov*'E?X»»-i S'il locza^^Tin; -j-vro xo^i; i^}i'yx^^ r^.vTH, dn.A x. \v 0teCi^oi? v-aro J<J^H Td K'jyti fji-jfoobivr'^ i 'iv-S-ca).T» yivjy.ivt;, ij 'l>icr« X§jg-£ ;tX»5-JVT@'. Just. Apol. II.p 56. t^Dialog". cum. Tryph. p. 306, 307. vid. p. 3o9.
u Apud Iren. 1. 5. c. 33. p. 498. vid. Euseb. 1. 3. c. ult. p. 112.
V Loc. cit. &. ap. Eiisc'i). ubi supr. w Ap. Eiiseb. I. 7. c. 24. p. 270.
X Ap. Hieron. CommciU. in Ezech. c. 36. Tom. 3. p. 507.
y Adv. Mai-ciou. I. 3. c. 23. p. 411. de Resur. Ciirn. c. 25. p. 340.
z Apud Hiei-on., loc. supv." ciL a De vit. beat 1.7. c. 24. p. 722. c. 26-
p- 727. & seq. b Ap. Mieron. ubi s'.:pr. vid. etiam de script. Eccles. in
PUpia. 0. Lib. 3. c 39. p. 112.
306 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
ble antiquity of the man recommending the error to them with great advantage. Among which especially wereour St. Justin and Irenseus, who held it in an innocent and harmless sense. It is true "^Cerinthus and his followers, mixing it with Jewish dreams and fables, and pretending divine revelations to patronise and countenance it, im- proved it to brutish and sensual purposes, placing it in a state of eating and drinking, and all manner of bodily pleasures and delights. And what use heretics of later times have made of it, and how much they have improv- ed and enlarged it, is not my present business to inquire. 24. Concerning the state of the soul after this life, he affirms ^that the souls even of the prophets and righteous men fell under the power of dcemons^ though how far that power should extend, he tells us not, grounding his assertion upon no other basis than the single instance of Samuel's being summoned up by the enchantments of the Pythoness. Nor does he assert it to be necessarily so, seeing he grants that by our hearty endeavours and prayers to God, our souls at the hour of their departure may escape the seizure of those evil powers. To this we may add, what he seems ^to maintain, that the souls of good men, are not received into heaven till the resur- rection ; that when they depart the body, they remain iv ,cp«T7oy< TTci ;^£ig«, ^in a better state, where being gathered within itself, the soul perpetually enjoys what it loved ; but that the souls of the unrighteous and the wicked are thrust into a worse condition, where they expect the judg- ment of the great day : and he reckons** it among the errors of some pretended Christians, who denied the re- surrection, and affirmed that their souls immediately af- ter death were taken into heaven. Nor herein did he stand alone, but had the almost unanimous suffrage of primitive writers voting with him, 'Irenseus, ''Tertullian, 'Origen, ^ Hilary, " Prudentius, " Ambrose, ^ Augustin,
d Cains ap. Euseb. 1. 3. c. 28. p. 100. Dionvs. Corinth, ibid. & 1. T-c 25. p. 273.
e Dial, cum Trvph. p. 333. f Ibid. p. 223. g lb. p. 222. C. h Ibid, p. 307.
i Adv. Haeres. \. 3. c, 31. p. 491 . h Apol. c. 47. p. 37.
I nj§. ipx- 1. 2c. 12 fol. 136. 1. 4 c. 2. fol. 154. confer. Philoc. c.l. p. 18. & Homil 7. Lcvit. fol. 71. m Enarrat. in Psal CXX. p. 532.
n Cathemep. Hymn. X. p. 485. o Ambros. de Cain &. Ab.iib. 2. p- 131.
T. 4 de bon. Mori, c 10. p. 240.
TvHE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN. S07
'Anastasius Sinaita, and indeed who not, there being a general concurrence in this matter, that the souls of the righteous were not upon the dissolution presently trans- lated into Heaven, that is, not admitted to a full and per- fect fruition of the divine presence, but determined to certain secret and unknown repositories, where they en- joyed a state of imperfect blessedness, waiting for the accomplishment of it at the general resurrection, which intermediate state they will have described under the no- tion of Paradise and Abraham'' s bosom^ and which some of them make to be a subterranean region within the bowels of the earth.
25. The like conciliTence, though not altogether so inicontrollably entertained of the ancients with our Jus- tin, we may observe in his opinion concerning the '^an- gels, that God having committed to them the care and superintendency of this sublunary world, they abused the power intrusted with them, mixing themselves with women in wanton and sensual embraces, of whom they begat a race and posterity of dasmons. An assertion not only intimated by 'Philo and ""Josephus, but express- ly owned by * Papias, "Athenagoras, 'Clemens Alexan- drinus, ''Tertullian, ""Cyprian, ^Lactantius, ^Sulpitius Se- verus, "St. Ambrose, and many more. That which first gave birth to this opinion (easily embraced by those who held angels to be corporeal) was a misunderstanding that place, the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them to wife, and they bare chil- dren to them, the same became mighty men, men of re- 7iown, And it more particularly furthered the miiitake, that many ancient copies of the Septuagint (as is evident from Philo and St. Augustin, and the king's ancient Alexandrian manuscript at this day) instead of the sons read the angels of God, which the f^uhers, who generally
p Enchirid. c. 109. col. 190. Tom o. in Psdm. 36. Cone. 1. col. 281. T. 8.
q Qviacst. XCI. q Apol. I. p. 44. r De Giffant.l. 1. p. 221.
s Antiq.l. 1. c. 4. p. 8. t Apad Andr. Csesar. Comment, in Apoc. Serm. 12.
u Legat pro Christ, p. 27. v Stromal. 1. 5. p. 550.
w De Hab. mui. seu de Cult, foemin. 1. 1 c. 2. p )50. x De Discipl.
8c hab. Virg.p. 166. y De Grig-, error. I. 2. c. 14. p 216. z Sacr.
Hist. lib. 1. p. 8. a Dc Noe & Arc. c, 4. p. 141. T. 4,
308 THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
understood no Hebrew, were not able to correct. And I doubt not what gave further patronage to this error, was the authority of the book of Enoch, (highly valued by many in those days) wherein this story was related, as appears from the fragments of it still extant.
26. I might here also insist upon, what some find so much fault with in our martyr, his magnifying the power of man's will, which is notoriously known to have been the current doctrine of the fathers through all the first ages till the rise of the Pelagian controversies, though still they generally own ;t*§«' '^I*'§stov, a mighty assistance of divine grace to raise up and enable the soul for divine and spiritual things. ^Justin tells his adversary that it is in vain for a man to think rightly to understand the mind of the ancient prophets, unless he be assisted ^er* //6>*k«c x*§/. q®' r-nr«g*0£S,by 2L mighty grace derived from God. As well may the dry ground (says ''Irengeus) produce fruit with- out rain to moisten it, as we who at first are like dried sticks, be fruitful unto a good life, without voluntary showers from above, that is, (as he adds) the laver of the spirit. Clemens, of Alexandria'^, affirms expressly, that as there is a free choice in us, so all is not placed in our own power, but that bi/ grace we are saved, though not with- out good works ; and that to the doing of what is good fAdxt^a ^ ^iU? xp'-'^'i^^^ X'ig/TS^-.we especially need the grace of God, a right institution, an honest temper of mind, and that the Father draws us to him : and that the ro h^/uh dhm^Uiov, the powers of the will are never able to wing the soul for a due flight for heaven, without a mighty portion of grace to assist it. The mysteries of Christianity (as ''Origen discourses against Celsus) cannot be duly contemplated without a better affiatiis and a more divine power ; for
b Dialog, cum Tryph. p. 3- 19. c Adv. Hxres. I. 3. c. 19. p. 280.
cl To sv«ft7v auTs^jsV/ov j«? ^va3"/v «fc^i;co^svsv Ta.ya.b'iy a-x-igja, n i ttuJa vsrto to. i<r- xHfAfxiyA, 11 <;>cLa-iv o\ yu/uvng-a.), ttkw « Xat'giT®^ eivij "T i^itipi<Tii7rTiPi'ra.i Ti jc, c/.vig-stTa.i, .X, diyo) T co'j i/<nripKit/uivcDV d^iTcU « -^v^^^iiy ■vSiy to ^pi^ov dTroTtBt/uiv iuTTcJ'i^iiiru'n! Qvfynii. Clem Alexand. Stromat. I. 5. p. 588. Oun yi, aiviv -tr-^oA/gsa-sa); 4'^%"" °^'*' ''"^ ' ^ ftijv iS% TO TrSiv iTr) tm yvei'/an tH h juiTipit. kutai' iivAV to XTroQy.a-iy.ivov. XagiTi ^ a-ct-
^OfJLl^dLy iK dviV fAiV TCt tS)V KCtXaV 'ipyKV. cTs/cTf Xj T>iv yVoi/UHV vytif X.iKTi^a-^'Uti TMV d/Jti-
TavonTov ^§ic T»v 3-«§*v tS Kctxi ■ (argo? o tsrip fxAKi^a. t«? 3-«/«tc ^gjf^o^uev X«^/7©', S^iSu- a-x-ctxiu^ Ti 'op^y.c-, Xj iuTTABiiu.; dyvnc'^ r^c -re o-ctrgcr (jSTgojac/TSP o?.Kt]i. Id. ibid, p. 54tT^
e Lib. 4. p. 181. vid. etiam ib. p. 22T.
THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN. 309
as no man knows the things of a 7nan save the spirit of a man that is in him^ so no man knows the things of God, but the spirit of God : it being all to no purpose (as he else- where observes) unless God by his grace does <?o7.f«v to «^6. pLovinhv, enlighten the understanding. I add no more but that of TertuUian^, who asserts, that there is a power of divine grace, stronger than nature, v/hich has in subjec- tion the power of our free will. So evident it is, that when the fathers talk highest of the uin'^i^ioy, and the pow- ers of nature, they never intended to exclude and banish the grace of God. Some other disputable or disallowed opinions may be probably met with in this good man's writings, but which are mostly nice and philosophical. And indeed having been brought up under so many seve- ral institutions of philosoph}', and commg (as most of the first fathers did) fresh out of the schools of Plato, it is the less to be wondered at, if the notions which he had there imbibed stuck to him, and he endeavoured, as much as might be, to reconcile the Platonic principles with the dictates of Christianity.
HIS WRITINGS.
Genuine. Not extant.
Parfenesis ad GraBcos.
Elenchus, seu Oratio ad Gr^e- Liber de Anima.
COS. Liber Psaltes dictus.
Apologia pro Christianis pri- Contra omnes Haereses.
ma. Contra Marcionem.
Apologia pro Christianis se- Commentarius in Hexameron
cunda. (cujus meminit Anastasius
Liber de Monarchia Dei, for- Sinaita.)
san in fine mudlus. De Resurrectione Carnis teste
Dialogus cum Tryphone Ju- Damasceno.
daeo. Epistola ad Diognetum.
f Haec erit vis divinae gratiae, potentlor utique natura, habens In nobis gub- jacentem si!)i liberam arbitrii potestatem, quod oo/T^b^oi^ dicitur. Tertul de Anim, c. 21. p. 279.
no THE LIFE OF ST. JUSTIN.
Doubtful. Quaestionum CXLVI. Res»
Aristotelicorum quorundam ponsio ad Orthodoxos.
Dogmatum eversio. Vid. an hie liber sit idem (sed
Epistolaad Zenam & Serenum. interpolatus) de quo Photius
hoc titulo. Supposititious, Duhitationum adversus Reli-
gionem summariae solutio- Quffistiones & Respons. ad nes. ^ ^ ^
Grscos. Expositio Fidei de S. Trini-
Quaestiones Grsecanicse, de in- tate. corporeo, &c. & ad easdem Christianie Responsicmes,
THE LIFE OF ST. IREN^US,
BISHOP OF LYONS.
His country inquired into. His philosophical studies. His institution b>^ Papias. Papias who. His education under St, Polycarp. His com- ing into France, and being made presbyter of Lyons. Pothinus who ; how and by whom sent into France. The grievous persecution there under M. Aurelius. The letters of the martyrs to the bishop of Rome Pope Eleutherius guilty of Montanism. Irenxus sent to Rome. His writing against Florinus and Blastus. The martyrdom of Pothinus Bishop of Lyons, and the cruelty exercised towards him. Irenxus succeeds. His great diligence in his charge, His opposition of he- retics. The Synods said to have been held under him to that pur- pose. The Gnostic heresies spread in France. Their monstrous vil- lanies. His confutation of them by word and writing. Variety of sects and divisions objected by the heathens against Christianity. This largely answered by Clemens of Alexandria. Pope Victor's reviving the controversy about Easter. The contests between him and the Asiatics. Several synods to determine this matter. Ireasus his mo- derate interposal. His Synodical epistle to Victor. The persecution under Severus. Its rage about Lyons. Irenscus's martyrdom, and and place of burial. .His virtues. His industrious and elaborate con- futation of the Gnostics. His style and phrase. Photius his censure of his works. His error concerning Christ's age, Miraculous gifts and powers common in his time. His writings.
1. ST. IRENiEUS may justly challenge to go next the martyr o '«f>yc tSv «7roroxay>iyo^«v^, as * S. Basil styles him, one near to the apostles, which ^ S. Hierom expresses by- being a man of the apostolic times. His originals are so obscure, that some dispute has been to what part of the world he belonged, whether east or west, though that he was a Greek, there can be no just cause to doubt.
a'De Spirit. S. c. 29. p. 358. Tom, 2. b Epist. ad ThcodoP. p. 196. T. 1.
312 THE LIFE OF ST. IRENtEUS.
The ancients having not particularly fixed the place of his nativity, he is generally supposed to have been born at Smyrna, or thereabouts. In his youth he wanted not an ingenuous education in the studies of philosophy and human learning, whereby he was prepared to be afterwards an useful instrument in the church. His first institution in the doctrine of Christianity was laid under some of the most eminent persons that then were in the Christian church. St. Hierom'' makes him scho- lar to Papias bishop of Hierapolis, who had himself con- versed with the apostles and their followers. This Pa- pias (as "^Irenaeus and others inform us) was one of St. John's disciples.; by whom though Eusebius under- stands not the apostle, but one sirnamed the Elder, which he seems to collect from a passage of ""Papias himself; yet evident it is, that though Papias in that place afiirms, that he diligently picked up what memoirs he could meet with concerning the apostles from those that had attended and followed them, yet he no where denies that he himself conversed with them. He was (as ^Eusebius characters him) a man very learned and eloquent, and knowing in the scriptures ; though as ^else- where he adds, C'p^J'i* Ci^iH°^ «v tov v£v, of a very weak and undiscerning judgment, especially in the more abstruse and mysterious parts of the Christian doctrine, which easily betrayed him, and others that followed him, into great errors and mistakes. He wrote five books entitled, Aoyiu>v Kv^iixm i^^ynTtc, the explanation of our Lord's discourses* and, as he in ^'Photius intimates, and' the 'Alexandrine Chronicon expressly affirms, died a martyr, being put to death at Pergamus in the persecution under M. Aure- lius. He is said to have trained up many scholars in the Christian institution, and among the rest our Irenaeus. Which though not improbable, yet we are sure not only from the testimonies of ^ Eusebius and * Theodoret, but what is more, from his '" own, that he
c Loc. cit at. d Adv. Ha:res. I. 5. c. 33. p. 498. & ap. Euseb. 1. 3. c. 39. p. 110. e Euseb. loc. ci^ f Ibid. c. 36. p. 106. g Ibid. c. 39. p. 123.
h Steph. Gob. ap- Phot. Cod. CCXXXII col. 901. i An. III. Olymp. 235. Ind. I. M. Aurel.4. k H Eccl.l. 5. c. 5. p. ITO. 1 Adv. H^eres. dial. 1.
mEpist. ad Fbr. apud Euseb. ib. c. 20. p. 188. 5; Hieron. de Script, in litn.
THE LIFE OF ST. IREN^EUS. 313
was trained up under the tutorage and instructions of St. Poly carp bishop of Smyrna, and St* John's disciple, from whom he received the seeds of the true apostolic doc» trine, and for whom he had so great a reverence and re- gard, that he took a most exact and particular notice of whatever was memorable in him, even to the minutest circumstances of his conversation, the memory whereof he preserved fresh and lively to his dying day.
2. By whose hands he was consecrated to the minis- teries of religion, as also when, and upon what occasion he came into France is not known. Probable it is that he accompanied St. Polycarp in his journey to Rome about the Paschal controversv, where bv his and Ani- cetus's persuasions he might be prevailed with to go for France, (in some parts whereof, and especially about Marseilles, great numbers of Greeks did reside) then beginning to be over-run with those pernicious heresies which at that time invaded and disturbed the church, that so he might be helpful and assisting to Pothinus the aged bishop of Lyons in quelling and subduing of them. This Pothinus (if we may believe Gregory, bishop of Tours", who resided some time in this city with his un- cle Nicetius bishop of it) came out of the East, and had been despatched hither also by St. Polycarp to govern and superintend this church. If it seem strange to any how St. Polycarp's care came to extend so far, as to send a bishop into so remote and distant parts of the world ; it seems not improbable to suppose, that Lyons being a city famous for commerce and traffic, some of its mer- chants might trade to Smyrna, where being converted by Polycarp, they might desire of him to send some grave and able person along with them to plant and propagate the Christian faith in their own country, which accord- ingly fell to Pothinus's share. But then that this must needs be done by the authority, and ratified by the de- cree of the bishop of Rome, a learned man*" will never be able to convince us, though he offers at three arguments
n Hist, Franc lib. 1, c. Sf9. o P. de Marc. disr.Prt de Primat. n lU.
p. 2^2r.
Ti r
14 THE LIFE OF ST. IRENiEUS.
to make it good : weak I must needs say, and incon- eluding, and which rather show that he designed thereby to reconcile himself to the court of Rome (whose favour at the time of his writing that tract, he stood in need of, in order to his admission to the bishoprick of St. Leiger de Conserans, to which he was nominated, and wherein he was delayed by that court, offended with his late book De Concordia Sacerdotii h Imperii) than argue the truth of what he asserts, so unsuitable are they to the learning and judgment of that great man. But I return to Ire- naius. He came to Lyons, the metropolis of Gallia Celtica, situate upon the confluence of the two famous rivers the Roan and La Saona, or the ancient Arar, fa- mous among other things for its temple and altars, erected to the honour of Augustus at the common charge of all France, where they held an annual solemnity from all parts of the country upon the first of August : and upon P this day it was that most of the martyrs suffered in the following persecution. These festival solemni- ties were usually celebrated not only with great conten- tions for learning and eloquence, but with sports and shows, and especially with the bloody conflicts of gla- diators, with barbarous usages, and throwing malefactors to wild beasts in the Ampitheatre ; wherein the martyrs mentioned by Eusebius bore a sad and miserable part.... Irenasus being arrived at Lyons, continued several rears in the station of a presbyter, under the care and government of Pothinus, till a heavy storm arose upon them. For in the reign of M. Aurelius Antoninus, Ann. Chr. CLXXVII. began a violent persecution "^ against the Christians, which broke out in all places, but more peculiarly raged in France, whereof the churches of Ly- ons and Vein in a "" letter to them of Asia and Phrygia, give them an account; where they tell them, 'twas im^ possible for them exactly to describe the brutish fierce- ness and cruelty of their enemies, and the severity of those torments which the martyrs suffered, banished from their houses, and forbid so much as to show their heads.
p Eusel). H. Eccl 1. 5. c. 1. p. 162. q Euseb. 1. 5. Prxf, p. 153.
Apud F^Ubcb. ibid. p. 154, 155, he
THE LIFE OF ST. IRENiEUS. 31 >
reproaclfed, beaten, hurried from place to place, plun- dered, stoned, imprisoned, and there treated with all the expressions of an ungovernable rage and fury, as they particularly relate at large, The occasion ' of writing this account, was a controversy lately raised in tlie Asian churches by Montanus and his followers, concerning the prophetic spirit, to which they pretended : for the com- posing whereof these churches thought good to send their judgment and opinion in the case, adjoining the epistles which several of the martyrs (while in prison) had written to those churches about that very matter, all which they annexed to their commentary about the mar- tyrs, sufferings, penned, no doubt, by the hand of Irenaeus. 3. Nor did the martyrs write only to the Asian churches, but to Eleutherius bishop of Rome about these controversies. And just occasion there was for it, if (which is most probable) this very Eleutherius was in- fected with the errors of Montanus : for ^ 'J'ertuUian tells us, that the bishop of Rome did then own and embrace the prophecies of Montanus and his two prophetesses, and upon that account had given letters of peace to the churches of Asia and Phrygia, though by the persuasions of one Praxeas he was afterwards prevailed with to revoke them. \\'"here by the w-ay may be observed, that the infallibility of the Pope was then from home, or so fast asleep, that the envious man could sow tares in the very pontifical chair itself. This bishop "" Baroniuf will have to be Anicetus, but in all likelihood was our Eleutherius, who in his after-condemnation of the Mon- tanists followed the example of his ' predecessors, (no doubt Soter and Anicetus) who had disowned and re- jected Montanus's prophecy ; nor can it w^ell be other- wise conceived why the martyrs should so particularly write to him about it. And whereas '' Baronius would have pope Eleutherius dead long before Tertullian be- came a Montanist, because, in his book against heresies, he styles "" him the blessed Eleutherius, as if it were tan-
s Euseb. ibid. c. 3- p. 163 t Adv. Prax. c. 1. p. 501 .
u Ad. Ann. 173. n. IV. v TertuU. ibid. w AJ. Ann. 201. n. IX.
X De Praescrint. Hxres. c. 30. p. 212.
316 THE LIFE OF ST. IRENiEUS.
tamount with cujus memoria est in befiedictiorw, nothing' was more common than to give that title to eminent per- sons while alive, as Alexander of Jerusalem calls ^' Cle- mens Alexandrinus, who carried the letter, the blessed Clemens, in his epistle to the church of Antioch, and the clergy of the church of Rome styles ^ St. Cyprian (then in his retirement) the blessed pope Cyprian, in their letter to them of Carthage. To this Eleutherius, then, these martyrs directed their epistle : for the martyrs in those times had a mighty honour and reverence paid to them, and their sentence in any weighty case was always entertained with a just esteem and veneration. These letters they sent to Rome by ^ Irenaeus, whom they per- suaded to undertake the journey, and whom they parti- ticularly recommended to Eleutherius by a very honour- able testimony, desiring him to receive him not only as their brother and companion, but as a zealous professor and defender of that religion which Christ had ratified with his blood. I know ^ Mons. Valois will not allow that Irenaeus actually went this journey, that the martyrs indeed had desired him, and he had promised to under- take it, but that the heat of the persecution coming on, and he being fixed in the government and presidency over that church, could not be spared personally to un- dergo it. But since Eusebius clearly intimates and "" St. Hierom expressly afiirms, that the martyrs sent him upon this errand, it is safest to grant his journey thither, though it must be while he was yet presbyter, for so they particularly say he was in their epistle to the bishop of Rome. And there probably it was that he took more particular notice of Florinus and Blastus ^, who being presbyters of the church of Rome, were about this time fallen into the Valentinian heresy, the first of whom he had formerly known " with St. Poly carp in Asia, and noted him for his soft and delicate manners, and to whom after his return home, as also to Blastus, he wrote epis^
y Euseb. I. 6. c. 11. p. 113. z Ad. Cler. Carthag-. Eplst. II p. 8.
a Euseb. ib. c 4. b Annot. in Euseb. p. 91, & 92. c De Script. juU'en- d Euseb, ibid. c. 15, p. 178. e Id- ikid. c. 20.
THE LIFE OF ST. IREN^US. 317
ties to cortvince them of those novel and dangerous sen- timents which they had espoused.
4. And now the persecution at Lyons was daily car- ried on with a fiercer violence. Vast numbers had al- ready gone to heaven through infinite and inexpressible racks and torments, and to crown all, ^Pothinus their reverend and aged bishop, above ninety years old, was seized in order to his being sent the same way. Age and' sickness had rendered him so infirm and weak, that he was hardly able to crawl to his execution. But he had a vigorous and sprightl)^ soul in a decayed and ru- inous body, and his great desire to give the highest tes- timony to his religion, and that Christ might triumph in his martyrdom, added new life and spirit to him. Be- ing apprehended by the officers, he was brought before the public tribunal, the magistrates of the city follow- ing after, and the common people giving such loud and joyful acclamations, as if our Lord himself had been leading to execution. The governor presently asked him, w4io the God of the Christians was ? Which he knowing to be a captious and sarcastic question, re- turned no other answer than, IFert thou ivorthy^ thou shouldst know. Instruction takes hold only of the hum- ble and obedient ear. Truth is usually lost by being exposed to the vitious and the scornful : it is in vain to hold a candle either to the blind that cannot, or to them that shut their eyes, and ^vill not see : there is a rever- ence due to the principles of religion that obliges us not to cast pearls before sxv'me, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend us. ^Hereupon with- out any reverence to his age, or so much respect to hu- manity itself, he was rudely dragged away, and unmer- cifully beaten, they that were near, kicking him with their feet, and striking him with their fists ; they that were further off, throwing at him what they could meet with, making whatsoever came next to hand the instru- ments of their fury : every man looking upon it as im-
f Epist. Eccles. Lugd, & Vien. ap. Euseb ubi supr. c. l.p. 159. yoilaiviTrAvop^airiy. Orig-en, de Martyr, p. 169.
318 THE LIFE OF ST. IRENiEUS.
pious and piacular, not to do something that might tes tify his petulant scorn and rage against him. For by this means they thought to revenge the quarrel of their gods. But their savage cruelty thought it too much kindness to despatch him at once, it is like they intend- ed him a second tragedy, which if so, heaven disap- pointed their designs. For being taken up with scare t so much breath us would entitle him to live, he was thrown into the prison, where two days after he resigned up his soul to God.
5. The church of Lyons being thus deprived of its venerable guide, none could stand fairer for the chair than Irenasus, a person honoured and admired by all, who succeeded accordingly about the year CLXXIX. in a troublesome and tempestuous time. But he was a wise and skilful pilot, and steered the ship with a pru- dent conduct. And need enough there was both of his courage and his conduct; for the church at this time was not only assaulted by enemies from without, but undermined and betrayed by heresies within. The at- tempts of the one he endured with meekness and pati- ence, while he endeavoured to prevent the infection and poison of the other by a diligent and vigilant circum- spection, discovering their persons, laying open their designs, confuting and condemning their errours, so that their folly wa^ made manifest unto all. The author of the ancient ^'Synodicon published by Pappus, tells us of a provincial Synod held at Lyons by Irenaeus, where with the assistance and suffrage of twelve other bishops he condemned the heresies of Valentinus, Marcion, Basili- des, and the rest of that antichristian crew. Whence he derived this intelligence, I know not, it not being menti- oned by any other of the ancients. Flowever the thing itself is not improbable, Irenaeus's zeal against that sort of men engaging him to oppose them both by word and writing, and especiallly when it is remembered what him- self informs us of, that they had invaded his own province, and were come home to his very door. For having given
h Edit. Arg■en^ 1601. 4. pag-. 2.
THE LIFE OF ST. IREN.EUS. 319
usan account of Marcus, one of those Gnostic heresiarchs, and his followers, their beastly and licentious practices, and by what ludicrous and senseless arts, what magic and hellish rites they were wont to ensnare and initiate their seduced proselytes, he tells us', they were come into the countries round him, all along the Roan, where they ge- nerally prevailed (which seems to have been observed as a maxim and first principle by all authors of sects) up- on the weaker sex, corrupting their minds, and debauch- ing their bodies, whose cauterized consciences being af- terwards awakened, some of them made public confes- sion of their crimes, others though deserting their party, were ashamed to return to the church, while others made a desperate and total apostasy from any pretences to the faith. With some of these ringleaders ''Irenaeus had personally encountered, and read the books of others, which gave him occasion (what the desires of many had importuned him to undertake) to set upon that elabo- rate work agai?ist IwresieSy wherein he has fully display- ed their wild and fantastic principles, their brutish and abominable practices, and with such infinite pains endea- voured to refute them : though indeed so prodigiously extravagant, so utterly irreconcilable were they to any principles of sober reason, that as he himself observes, it was victory enough over them, only to discover and detect them. This work he composed in the time of Eleutherius bishop of Rome, as is evident from his cata- logue '"^of the bishops of that see, ending in Eleutherius, the twelfth successive bishop, who did then possess the place.
6. And indeed it was but time for Ireuceus and the rest of the wise and holy bishops of those days to bestir themselves, grievous xvolves haviJig entered in, and made havoc of the jiock. The field of the church was mise- rably, over-run with tares, which did not only endan- ger the choking of religion within the church, but ob- struct the planting and propagating the faith among
i Adv. Hares. 1. 1. c. 9. p,72. vid. Hieron, Epist. ad Theodor. p. 196. k Prjcf. ad lib. 1. p. 2. I Lib. 1, c. ult. p. 139. m Lib. S. c. 3. p. '^oo.
& ap. Eus. 1. 5. c 6. p. ITl
320 THE LIFE OF ST. IRENi£US.
• them that were without. Nothing being more common- ly objected against the truth and divinity of the Christi- an religion, than that they were rent and torn into so many schisms and heresies. "St. Clemens of Alexan- dria particularly encounters this exception, some of whose excellent reasonings are to this eftect. The first thing (says he) they charge upon us, and pretend wh^ they cannot embrace the faith, is the diversity of sects thatareamongus,truth being delayed andneglected, while some assert one thing and some another. To which he answers, that there were various sects and parties both among the Jews, and the philosophers of the Gentiles, and yet no man thought this a sufficient reason why they should cease to study philosophy, or adhere to the Jew- ish rites and discipline : that our Lord had foretold, that errours would spring up with truth, like tares growing up with the wheat, and that therefore it was no wonder if it accordingly came to pass, and that we ought not to he wanting to our duty because others cast oft' theirs, but rather stick closer to them who continue constant in the profession of the truth : that a mind diseased and dis- tempered with error and idolatry, ought no more to be discouraged from complying with an institution that will cure it, by reason of some dift'erences and divisions that are in it, than a sick man would refuse to take any medicine, because of the different opinions that are among physici- ans, and that they do not all use the same prescriptions : that the apostles hath told us, that there must be heresiesy that they that are approved may be made manifest, that they heartily entertain the Christain doctrine, improve and persevere in faith and a holy life : that if truth be difficult to be discerned, yet the finding it out will abun- dantly recompense the trouble and the labour : that a wise man would not refuse to eat of fruit, because he must take a little pains to discover what is ripe and real, from that which is only painted and counterfeit : Shall the traveller resolve not to go his journey because there are a great many ways that cross and thwart the
n Strom at. I. 7. p, ^53,
THE LIFE OF ST. IRENiEUS. 321
common road, and not rather inquire which is the plain and king's high- way ? or the husbandman refuse to till his ground, because weeds grow up together with the plants ? We ought rather to make these differences an argument and incentive the more accurately to examine truth from falsehood, and realities from pretences, that escaping the snares that are plausibly laid, we may attain eif 67ri>va^.v T^c)'vTft)fsV»?AK«esiatf, to the knowlcdgc of that which is really truth indeed, and which is not hard to find, of them that sincerely seek it. But to return back to Ire- nasus.
7. Having passed over the times of the emperor Com- modus (the only honour of whose reign was, that he created no great disturbance to the Christians, being otherwise a most debauched and dissolute prince, in whom the vices of all his predecessors seemed to meet as in one common-sewer) Eleutherius died, and Victor succeeded in the see of Rome. A man furious and in- temperate, impatient of contradiction, and who let loose the reins to an impotent and ungovernable passion. He revived the controversy about the celebration of Eas- ter, and endeavoured imperiously to impose the Roman custom, of keeping it on the next Lord's day after the Jewish passover, upon the churches of the lesser Asia, and those who observed the contrary usage ; and because they would not yield, rashly thundered out an excommu- nication against them, not only endeavouring, but as^Eu- sebius explains it in the following words, actually pro- scribing, and pronouncing them cut off from the com- munion of the church. The Asiatics, little regarding the fierce threatenings from Rome, under the conduct of Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, stood their ground, justifying their observing it upon the fourteenth day after the appearance of the moon, let it fall upon what day of the week it would, after the rule of the Jewish passover, and this by constant tradition, and uninterrupt- ed usage derived from St. John and St. Philip the apos- tles, St. Polycarp and several others to that very day. All
0 .Lib. 5. c. 24. p. 192. S S
522 THE LIFE OF ST. IRENiEUS.
which he told Pope Victor, but prevailed nothing as what will satisfy a wilful and passionate mind ?) to prevent his rending the church in sunder. For the composure of this unhappy schism ^'synods were called in several places as besides one at Rome, one in Palestine under Theophilus, bishop of Caesarea Palestina, and Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem, another in Pontus under Palmas, and many more in other places, who were willing to lend their hands toward the quenching of the common flame, '^vvho all wrote to Victor, sharply reproving him, and advising him rather to mind what concerned the peace of the church, and the love and unity of Christians among one another. And among the rest our Irenaeus (who as Eusebius observes, truly answered his name in his peaceable and peace-making temper) convened a 'synod of the churches of France under his jurisdiction, where with thirteen bishops besides himself (says the foremen- tioned 'Synodicon) he considered and determined of this matter. In whose name he wrote a synodical epistle to Pope * Victor, wherein he told him that they agreed with him in the main of the controversy, but withal duly and gravely advised him to take heed how he excommunica- ted whole churches for observing the ancient customs derived down to them from their ancestors : that there was as little agreement in the manner of the preparatory fast before Easter, as in the day itself, some thinking that they were to fast but one day, (probably he means of the great or solemn week) others two, others more, and some measuring the time by a continued fast of forty hours (whether in memory of Christ lying so long in the grave, or in imitation of his forty days fast in the wilderness, I know not) and that this variety was of long standing, and had crept into several places, while the governors of the church took less care about these different customs, who yet maintained a sincere and mutual love and peace towards one another, a thing prac- tised by all his own pious predecessors, putting him in mind of Anicetus and Polycarp, who though they could
p Euseb. ibid. c. 23. p. 190. q Ibid. c. 24. p. 192. r Ibid. c. 23. p.
191. s Ubi supr. p. 7. t Ibid. c. 24. p. 192.
The life of st. iren^us. 323
not so far convince each other as to lay aside their differ- ent usages, did yet mutually embrace, orderly receive the communion together, and peaceably part from one another. And letters to the same effect he wrote to se- veral other bishops for allaying the difference thus unhap- pily started in the church.
8. The calm and quiet days which the church had for some years of late enjoyed, now expired, and the wind changed into a more stormy quarter, Sever us the empe- ror, hitherto favourable, began a bitter and bloody per- secution against the Christians, prosecuted with great severity in all parts of the empire. Himself had here- tofore governed "this very province of Lyons, and pro» bably had taken peculiar notice of Irena^us, and the flou- rishing state of the church in that city, and might there- fore give more particular orders for the proceeding against them in this place. The persecution, that in other parts picked out some few to make them exem- plary here served all alike, and went through with the work. For so ""Gregory of Tours, and tl^ ancient martyrologies"^ inform us, that Irengeus having been pre- pared by several torments, was at length put to death (beheaded say the Greeks", likely enough) and together with him almost all the Christians of that vast populous city, whose numbers could not be reckoned up, so that the streets of the city flowed with the blood of Christians. His body was taken up by Zacharias his presbyter, and buried in a vault, laid between Epipudius and Alexan- der, who had suffered in the persecution under Antoni- nus. It is not easy to assign the certain date of his martyrdom, which may with almost equal probability be referred to a double period, either to the time of that bloody edict which Severus published against the Chris- tians about the tenth year of his reign, Ann, Chr. CCIL or to his expedition in Britain, Ann. Chr. CCVIII. when he took Lyons in his way, and might see execu- tion done with his own eyes. And indeed the vast num«
u JE\. Spartian. in vit. Sever, c. 3. p. 335. v Hist. Franc. 1. 1. c 29.
w Martyr. Rom. ad Jun. XXVllI. Adon. Martyr. IV Kalend. Jul. X Men. Grjec. T« ny'. li Avyx.
324 THE LIFE OF ST. IRENtEUS.
bers that are there said to have suffered, agree well enough with the temper of that fierce and cruel prince, who had conceived before a particular displeasure against the citizens of Lyons, and a worse against the Christians there.
9. He was a true lover of God> and of the souls of men, for the promoting whose happiness he thought no dangers or difficulties to be great ; he scrupled not to leave his own country, to take so troublesome and tedi- ous a journey, and instead of the smooth and polite man- ners of the Eastern nations to fix his dwelling among a people of a wild and savage temper, and whom he must
convert to civility, before he gained them to religion
Nor was it the least part of his trouble (as himself ^ plain- ly intimates) that he was forced to learn the language of tiie country, a rugged and (as he calls it) barbarous dia- lect before he could do any good upon them. All which and a great deal more, he cheerfully underwent, that he might be serviceable to the great interests of men. And because he knew that nothing usually more hinders the progress of piety, than to have men's minds vitiated and depraved widi false and corrupt notions and principles, and that nothing could more expose the Christian reli- gion to the scorn and contempt of wise and discerning men, than the wild schemes of those absurd and ridicu- lous opinions that were then set on foot, therefore he set himself with all imaginable industry to oppose them, reading over all their writings, considering and unra- velling all their principles with incomparable patience as well as diligence, whence he is deservedly styled by . ^ Tertullian, Omnium doctrinarum curiosissimus explora- tory the most curious searcher into all kinds of doctrines. In the successful managery whereof he was greatly ad- vantaged by the wdlwv^ acumen and subtelty of his parts, and those studies of philosophy and human literature, of which he had made himself master in his younger days, sufficient footsteps whereof appear in the writings which he left behind him* For besides his epistles, he wrote
y Prxf. ad. 1. 1. p. 4. z Adv. Valent. c. 5 p. 252.
THE LIFE OF ST. IREN^US. 325
many volumes (though he ^ that tells us that he compo- sed an ecclesiastical history, which Eusebius made use of, reckons up one more than ever he wrote, and doubt- less mistook it for his Avork, Adversus Hsereses) which are lost, except his five books against heresies^ entitled anciently nsg} sMi^« ^ ava]go7rM j t«c ■^ivSmvfxa yvatnac, The confutation and subverson of knowledge falsely so called^ i. e. of Gnos- ticism, those abstruse and mystical heretics pretending that all sublime and excellent knowledge dwelt with them. What his proper style and phrase was in these books is not easily guessed, the far greatest part of the original Greek being wanting (the conjecture of those who will have them originally penned in Latin is not worth the mentioning) probably it was simple and un- affected, vulgar and ordinary, embased, it is like, and he seems to confess as much, with the natural language ** of the country where he lived, nor had he studied the arts of rhetoric, the ornaments of speech, or had any skill in the elaborate methods and artifices of persuasion, as he modestly *" apologizes for himself. However his discourses are grave and well digested, and (as far as the argument he manages would admit) clear and perspicu- ous, in all which he betrays a mighty zeal, and a spirit prepared for martyrdom. For the martyrs (as '^ Eras- mus truly notes) have a certain serious, strenuous, and masculine way of writing beyond other men.
10. As for his works themselves ^ Photius thus cen> sures them, that in some of them the accuracy of truth in ecclesiastic doctrines is sophisticated voa./; xi>/sr,wo7?, with false and spurious reasonings, which ought to be taken notice of. In the books yet extant there are some assertions, that will not bear a strict rigorous examina- tion, the principal whereof are such as we have already remarked in the life of Justin martyr, the rest are of an inferior and more inconsiderable notice. As for his af- firming that our Lord was near ^ fifty years of age at the
a Volaterr. Comment. Urban. 1. 16, col. 590.
b Loc. citat. c Prsefat. ut supr. d Pracf. in Irscn.
e Cod. CXX. col 301.
f Adv. Hacies. 1. 2. c. 39. p. 192 8t c. 40. ibid.
326 THE LIFE OF ST. IREX.EUS.
time of his public ministry, it was an error into which he was betrayed partly from a false supposition, that our Lord must be of a more mature and elderly age, that so he might deliver his doctrine with the greater authority ; partly from a mistaken rcport (which he had somewhere picked up, and it may be from his master Papias) that St. John and the rest of the apostles had so affirmed and taught it ; and partly out of opposition to his adver- saries, who maintained that our Saviour staid no longer upon earth than till the thirty-first year of his age ; against whom the eagerness of disputation tempted him to make good his assertion from any plausible pretence, and to take the hint (though his impetus^ and the desire of prosecuting his argument would not give his thoughts leave to cool, and take the place into solder consideration) from that question of the Jews to Christ, thou art not yet fifty years oich <^^c^ ^^^^^ ^^^ou seen Abi'aham ? whence in transitu he took it for granted that the Jews had sonije s;round for what they said, and that he must be near
that age.
11. His care to have his writings derived pure and uncorrupted to posterity was great and admirable, add- ins: to his book n^^i hySo^s®'^ this solemn and religious ob- testation ; ^ 1 adjure thee, whoever thou art that shalt transcribe this book, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by his glorious coming, wherein he shall judge the quick and the dead, that thou compare what thou transcribest, and dili- gently correct it by the copy from whence thou trans- cribest it, and that thou likewise transcribe this adjuration^ and ajinex it to thy copy. And well had it been with the ancient writers of the church, had their books been treated with this care and reverence : more of them had been conveyed down to us ; at least those few that are, had arrived more sound and unpolluted. I note no more (audit is what Eusebius long since thought worth tak- ing notice of) than that in his time miraculous gifts and powers were very common in the church. For so he ^ tells us, that some expelled and cast out devils, the per-
g Ap. Euseb. H. Eccl. 1. 5. c. 20. p. 187.
h Adv. Hxres. 1. 2. c. 57 p. CIS. k up. Luseb. I. 5. c. i. p. 171 ^
THE LIEE OF ST. IREN.EUS.
32/
sons ofteli embracing Christianity upon it ; others had visions and revelations, and foretold things to come ; some spake all manner of languages, and as occasion was, discovered men's thoughts and secret purposes, and expounded the mysteries and deep things of God ; others miraculously healed the sick, and by laying their hands upon them restored their health, and many who raised the dead, the persons so raised living among them many years after. The gifts (as he speaks) which God in the name of our crucified Lord then bestowed upon the church being innumerable, all which they sincerely and freely improved to the great advantage and benefit of the world. Whence with just reason he urges the truth of our religion in general, and how much advan- tage true Christians had to triumph over all those impos- tors and seducers, who sheltered themselves under the venerable title of being Christians.
HIS WRITIXGS.
Extant. Liber de Ogdoade.
Adversus Haereses, Epistola ad Blastum de Schis-
seu mate.
De refiitatione & eversione Ad Florinum de Monarchia, falsse scienti^, Libri V. sen,
Quod Deus non sit conditor Not extant. mali, Epistola.
Ad Victorem Episcopum Ro-, Libellus de Scientia adversus manum de Paschate, Epis-
Gentes. tola.
Demonstratio Apostolicae pr?e- Ad varios Episcopos de eadem dicationis, ad Marcianum re, Epistolce plures. fiatrem. Variorum Tractatuum Liber.
THE LIFE OF ST. THEOPHILUS,
BISHOP OF ANTIOCH.
The great obscurity of his originals. His learned and ingenuous educa- tion, and natural parts. An account of his conversion to Christianity, and the reasons inducing him thereunto, collected out of his own wri- tings. His scrupling the doctrine of the resurrection. The great difficulty of entertaining that principle. Synesius his case. Theo- philus his conquiring this objection. His great satisfaction in the Christian religion. His election to the bishoprick of Antioch. His desire to convert Autolycus. Autolycus who. His mighty prejudice against Christianity. Theophilus's undertaking him, and his free and impartial debating the case with him. His excellent menage of the controversy. His vigorous opposing the heresies of those times. His books against Maricon and Hermogenes. His death, and the time of it. St. Hicrom's Character of his works. His writings.
1. THOUGH the ancients furnish us with very few notices concerning this venerable bishop, yet perhaps it may not be unacceptable to the reader to pick up that little which may be found. The mistake is not worth confuting and scarce deserves mentioning, that makes him the same with that Theophilus of Antioch, to whom St. Luke dedicates his evangelical writings, so great the distance of time (if there were nothing more) be- tween them. Whether he was born at Antioch is un- certain : but wherever he was born, his parents were Gentiles, by whom he was brought up in the common rites of that religion that then governed the world. They gave him all the accomplishments of a learned and libe* ral education, and vast improvements he made in the progress of his studies, so that he was thoroughly versed * X t
.JO
THE LIFE OF ST. THEOPHILUS.
in the writings of all the great masters of learning and philosophy in the heathen world : which being set oft" with a quick and a pleasant wit (as appears from his disputes against the Gentiles) rendered him a man of no inconsiderable note and account among them.
2. When or by what means converted to Christiani- ty, is impossible particularly to determine : thus much only may be gathered from the discourses which he left behind him. Being a man of an inquisitive tem- per, and doubtless of a very honest mind, he gave up himself to a more free and impartial search into the na- ture and state of things. He found that the account of things which that religion gave, wherein he was then en- gaged, was altogether unsatisfactory, that the stories of their gods were absurd and frivolous, and some of them prophane and impious, that their rites of worship were trifling and ridiculous ; he considered the several parts of the creation, and that excellent providence that govern- ed the world, wherein he easily descerned the plain notices of a wife and omnipotent being, and that God had pur- posely disposed things thus, that his grandeur and ma- jesty might appear to all. Accordingly he directs his friend to this method of conviction, as that which doubt- less he had found most successful and satisfactory to himself. He bids ^him survey and consider the works of God, the vicissitude and alteration of the times accord- ing to their proper seasons, the revolutions of the hea- venly bodies, the wisely established course of the ele- ments, the beautiful order and disposition of nights and days, and months and years, the pleasant and admirable variety of seeds, plants, and fruits, the manifold genera- tions of beasts, birds, creeping things, fishes, and the inhabitants of the watery regions ; the prudent instinct by which all these creatures are excited to preserve their kind and nourish their young, and that not for their own advantage, but for the necessity and pleasure of man- kind, God by a wise and secret providence having so or- dained, that all things should be in subjection unto man-
a Ad Av.tolyc.l. 1. p. r2. •
THE LIFE OF ST. THEOPHILUS. S3t
And indeed so strangely was he ravished with the consi- deration of this argument , that he professes ^ that no man is able duly to describe the singular order &, econo- my of the creation, no though he had a thousand mouths, and as many tongues, and were to live in tlie world a thousand 3^ears, tf'* to iiTsn^fixr^oy ^5756®-, ^ t&v ttaktov -/ a-'i<^Ui tS ©s?, so incomprehensibly great and unfathomable is that Divine Wisdom that shines in the works of the creation. Thus prepared he seems to have betaken himself (and to this also he advises Autolycus '') to the consideration of other volumes, the books that contained the religion of the Christians, especially the writings of the prophets, and to have weighed the importance of their revelations, the variety of the persons, the meanness and obscurity of their education, their exact harmony and agreement, the certainty of their predictions, and how accurately the prophecy and the event met together, so that (as he adds**) whoever would but seriously apply himself to the study of them, had a way ready open to come to the exact knowledge of the truth.
3. One thing there was, which he himself^ seems to intimate, did more especially obstruct his full compliance with the Christian doctrine, the belief of the resurrec- tion. He had been brought up in the schools of philo- sophy, where he had been taught that from a privation of life there can be no return to the possession of it ; it is like he could not perceive how men's scattered dust after so many ages could be recollected, and built up a- gain into the same bodies. Indeed there is scarce any principle of the Christian faith, that generally met with more opposition from the wise and the learned, and which was more difficultly admitted into their creed. When S. Paul preached to' the philosophers at Athens, while he told them of a judgment to come, they made no scruple to give it entertainment, it being a principle evident by natural light, till he discoursed of a future resurrection ; and this they rejected with contempt and scorn, and when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked^-,
bibid. 1.2. p. 51. c Ibid. p. 110, in. (1 Ibid. p. 112. e IJb. 1. p T^T f Acts XVII. 32.
332 THE LIFE OK ST. THEOPHILUS.
and the most grave and sober took time to consider of it ^ others said, we will hear thee again of this matter. And Synesius himself, that great philosopher, after his being baptized into the christian religion, when courted by Theophilus of Alexandria to take upon him the bishop- rick of Ptolemais, would not yield till he had publicly entered his dissent to the doctrine of the resurrection^ at least as to the common explication of the article : he looked upon it as 'Vv 7/ ^ itVoppxTov, as containing a kind of sacred and ineffable mystery in it, but could not com- ply with the vulgar and received opinions. ; being wil- ling probably to admit it, if he might explain it accord- ing to the principles of philosophy, and after the Platonic mode. Though why the incredibility of this article should stick with any that OAvn a Being of infinite power, I see not : it being equally easy to Omnipotence (as '' Athenagoras and others discourse upon this argument) to restore our scattered parts, and to combine them a- gain into the same mass, as it was at first to create ihem out of nothing. But to return to our Theophilus. By a frequent reflection ' upon the many shadows of a re- surrection which God had impressed upon the course of nature, and the standing phenomena of Divine Provi- dence, he conquered this objection, especially after he had conversed with, and embraced the holy volumes, wherein these things were so positively declared and published. And thus he became a Christian, being baf- fled and disappointed in all other refuges, he took sanc- tuary in the church, which (as himself expresses it*') God has set in the world, like an island in the midst of the sea,into whose safe and convenient harbours the lovers of truth might fly, and all those who desired to be saved^ and to escape the judgement and the wrath to come. And glad was he that he' w^as got thither, rejoicing that he bore the name of a Christian, to ego<|>/Asc ovo^st, that name was so dear to God, how much soever otherwise despis- ed and scorned by an ignorant and evil age.
g Synes. Epist, CV p. 249. vid. Euagr. H. Ecc!. 1. 1. c. 15. p. 273. h De .esurr. mort. p. 43. i Loc. supr. c tat, k Lib. 2. p. 93, V-4. 1. Vrd. 1. 1. p. 69.
THE LIFE OF ST. THEOPHILUS. o36
4. About the year^ CLXIX ("Eutychius refers it to the sixteenth year of Antoninus's reign) or rather the year before, his predecessor Eros being dead, he was made bishop of Antioch, accounted by some the sixth, by oth- ers the seventh bishop of that see. And neither of them mistaken, both being true according to different compu- tations, some reckoning S. Peter the first, while others beholding him as an apostle, and as acting in a larger and a more ecumenical sphere than a private bishop, be- gin the account from Euodius as the first bishop of it. S. Theophilus thus fixed in his charge, set himself to promote the true interest and happiness of men, and as goodness always delights to communicate and diffuse it- self, he studied to bring over others to that faith which he had entertained himself. Among the rest he attempt- ed a person of note, his great friend Autolycus. Who this Autolycus was we have no account, more than what is given us by Theophilus himself. ° He was a person learned and eloquent, curious in all arts and sciences, the acquist whereof he pursued with so indefatigable a dili- gence, that he would bury himself among books, and steal hours for study from his necessary rest, spending whole nights in libraries, and in conversing whh the mo- numents of the dead. But withal a Gentile, ^' infinitely zealous for his religion, and unreasonably prejudiced a- gainst Christianity, which he cried out of as the highest folly and madness, and loaded with all the common char- ges and calumnies which either the wit or malice of those times had invented to make it odious, and for the defence and vindication whereof he had bitterly quarrelled w^ith Theophilus. This notwithstanding, he is not affrighted from undertaking him, but treats him with all the freedom and ingenuity that became a friend and a philosopher, tells '^ him that the cause w\is in himself, why he did not discern and embrace the truth, that his wickedness and impieties had depraved his mind, and darkened his un- derstanding, and that men w^re not to blame the sun for
m Euseb. Chron.eod. anno, n Anna!, p. 359. o Theoph. I o n. 119. p Ibid. 1. 2. p. 80. qlbid. I. l.p.70.
334 THE LIFE OF ST. THEOPHILUS.
want of light, when themselves were blind and wanted eyes to see it ; that the rust and soil must be wiped oiF from the glass before it would make a true and clear re- presentation of the object ; and that God would not dis- cover himself, but to purged and prepared minds, and such who by innocency and a divine life were become fit and disposed to receive and entertain him. Then he ex- plains to him the nature of God, and gives him an ac- count of the origin of the world according to the Chris- tian doctrine, disproves and derides the ridiculous deities of the heathens, and particularly answers those black im- putations usually laid upon the Christians ; and because Autolycus had mainly urged the lateness and novelty of the Christian faith, he shows at large how much superi- or it was in many parts of it in point of seniority, and that by many ages, to any thing which the heathen reli- gion could pretend to : pressing him at every turn to comply with so excellent a religion, and assuring him the "" people whom he invited him to, were so fcU* from being such as he represented them, that they lived under the conduct of modesty and sobriety, temperance and chastity, banished injustice, and rooted up all .vice and wickedness, loved righteousness, lived under law and rule, exercised a divine religion, acknowledged God, served the truth, were under the preservation of grace and peace, directed by a sacred word, taught by wisdom, rewarded by a life immortal, and governed by God him- self. What the issue of his discourses was, we cannot tell, but may probably hope they had the desired success, es- pecially since we find * Autolycus after the first confer- ence a little more favourable to the cause, abating of his conceived displeasure against Theophilus, and desiring ofhim a further account of his religion. And certainly if wisdom and eloquence, if strength of reason, and a prudent management of the controversy were able to do it, he could not well fail of reclaiming the man from his error and idolatry.
5. Nor was he more solicitous to gain others to the faith, than he was to keep those who already had em»
r Lib. 3- p. 127. s Lib. 2. p. 80
THE LIFE OF ST. THEOPHILUS. 335
braced it from being infected and depraved with er- rour. For which cause he continually stood upon his guard, faithfully gave warning of the approach of here- sy, and vigorously set himself against it. For notwith- standing the care and vigilance of the good and pious men of those days (as ^Eusebius observes) envious men crept in, and sowed tares among the sincere apostolic doctrine : so that the pastors of the church were forced to rise up in every place, and to set themselves to drive away these wild beasts from Christ's sheep-fold, partly by exhorting and warning the brethren, partly by en- tering the lists with the heretics themselves, some per- sonally disputing with, and confuting them, others accu- rately convincing and refuting their opinions by the books which they wrote against them. Among whom he tells us was our Theophilus, who conflicted with these here- tics, and particularly wrote against Marcion, vv^ho assert- ed tw o deities, and that the soul only, as being the di- vine and better part, and not the body, was capable of the happiness of the other world, and this too granted to none but his followers, with many such impious and fond opinions. Another book he wrote against Hermogenes, one better skilled in painting, than drawing schemes of new divinity. He forsook the church, and fled to the sto- ics, and being tinctured with their principles maintained matter to be eternal, out of which God created all things, and that all evils proceeded out of matter, asserting moreover (as Clemens of Alexandria" informs us) that our Lord's body was lodged in the sun, ridiculously in- terpreting that place, in them hath he set a tabernacle for the Sim, Nor did our Theophilus neglect the weak and younger part of the charge, he had not only physic for the sick, and strong meat for them of full age, but milk for babes, and such as were yet unskilful in the -word of righteousness, composing many catechetic discourses, that contained the first rudiments of the faith.
tH. Eccl. 1 4. c, ?4. p. 146. u In excerpt. Grzc. Theo, ap, cl. Alex. p. 808. D.
536 THE LIFE OF ST. THEOPHILUS.
6. He sat thirteen years "in his bishoprick, (XXL says the Patriarch of Alexandria"') and died about the second or third year of the emperour Commodus, for that he out Uved M. Antoninus, is evident from his mentioning his'' death and the time of his reign in his discourses with Autolycus, after which he composed those discourses, but what kind of death it was, whether natural or vio- lent, is to me unknown. From the calmness and tran» quiUity of Commodus's reign, as to any persecution against the Christians, we may probably guess it to have been a peaceable and quiet death. Books he wrote ma- ny, whereof ^St Hierom gives this character, that they were elegant tracts, and greatly conducive to the edifica- tion of the church. And further adds, that he had met with commentaries upon the gospel and the proverbs of Solomon, bearing his name, but which seemed not to answer his other writings in the elegancy and politeness of the style.
HIS WRITINGS.
Extant. Libri aliquot Catechetici. Ad Autolycum Libri IIL Doubtful.
Not Extant. Commentarii in Evangelium.
Contra H^resin Hermogenis. Commentarii in Proverbia Adversus Marcionem. Solomonis.
V NJceph. C. P. Chronograph, ap. Scalig. p. 311. w Eutych. Annal. p. 359. x Ad Autol. I. 3, p. 138. y Hieron. de
Script, in Theoph.
THE LIFE OF ST. MELITO,
BISHOP OF SARDIS.
His country and birth-place. His excellent parts and learning. His being made bishop of Sardis. His celibacy His prophetic gifts. The persecution under Marcus Aurelius. Melito his apology for the Christians. A fragment of it cited out of Eusebius. The great advan- tages of Christianity to the empire. His endeavour to compose the Paschal controversy. His book concerning that subject. His journey to Jerusalem to search what books of the Old Testament were received by that church. The copy of his letter to his brother Onesimus con- cerning the canon of the Old Testament. What books admitted by the ancient church. Solomon's Proverbs styled by the ancients the Book of Wisdom. His death and burial. The great variety of his works. Unjustly suspected of dangerous notions. An account given of the titles of two of his books most liable to suspicion. His writings enumerated.
1. ST. MELITO was born in Asia, and probably at Sardis, the metropolis of Lydia, a great and ancient city, the seat of the Lydian kings ; it was one of the seven churches to which St. John wrote epistles, and wherein he takes notice of some that durst own and stand up for God and religion in that great degeneracy that was come upon it. He was a man of admirable parts, enriched with the furniture of all useful^earnlng, acute and eloquent, but especially conversant in the paths of divine knowledge, having made deep inquiries into all the more uncommon parts and speculations of the Chris- tian doctrine. He was for his singular eminency and usefulness chosen bishop of Sardis^ though we can-.
IT n
JJ8 IHK LIFE OF ST. MELITO.
not exactly define the time, which, were I to conjecture^ 1 should guess it about the latter end of iVntoninus Pius's • reign, or the beginning of his successor's. He filled up all the parts of a very excellent governor and guide of souls, whose good he was careful to advance both by Avord and WTiting. Which that he might attend with less solicitude and distraction, he not only kept himself within the compass of a single life, but was more than or- dinarily exemplary for his chastity and sobriety, his self- denial and contempt of the world ; upon which account he is by Polycrates bishop of Ephesus "" styled an eu- nuch, that is, in our Saviour's explication, one of those, who make themselves eunuchs for the Jdngdom of heaven'' s sake ; who, for the service of Religion, and the hopes of a better life> are content to deny themselves the comforts of a married state, and to renounce even the lawful plea- sures of this world. And God, who delights to multiply his grace upon pious and holy souls, cro\\'ned his other virtues with the gift of prophecy, for so '' Tertullian tells us, that he was accounted by the orthodox Christians as a prophet, and Polycratas says "^ of him, that he did h iym TrnvfjLaii TrdvrA Trcxiriuicr^xi, was iu all thiugs govcmed aud di- rected by the afflatus and suggestion of the Holy Ghost. Accordingly in the catalogue '^ of his writings we find one ^c^i TTOKCnUi, >: ■■ors^^^nTT'h, of the right way of livhigj and con- cerning prophets, and another concerning prophecy.
2. It was about the year CLXX. and the tenth "" of M. Antoninus, (Ins brother L. W^rus, having died the year before of an apoplexy, as he sat in his chariot) when the persecution grew high against the Christians, greedy and malicious men taking occasion from the imperial edicts lately published, by all the methods of cruelty and rapine to oppress and spoil innocent Christians. Where- upon as others, so especially ^ St. Melito presents an apology and hmnble supplication in their behalf to the emperor, wherein, among other things, he thus bespeaks him. " If these things, sir, be done by your order, let
a Ap. Euseb. 1. 5. c. 24. p. 191. b Ap. Hieron. de Script, in Melit.
c Loc. siipr. citat. d Ap Euseb. I. 4. c 26. p. 147.
e Euseb. Chron. :id Ann. CLXXI. f Eutitb. H. Eccl. loc. supr. citat.
THE LIFE OF ST. MELTrO. 339
them be thought well done. For a righteous prince will not at any time command what is unjust ; and we shall not think much to undergo the award of such a death.... This only request we beg, that yourself would please first to examine the case of these resolute persons, and then impartially determine, whether the}* deserve pun- ishment and death, or safety and protection. But if this new edict and decree, which ought not to have been pro- claimed against the most barbarous enemies, did not come out with yom' cognizance and consent, we humbly pray^ and that with the greater importunity, that you would not suffer us to be any longer exposed to this public rapine."
3. After this he put him in mind how much the em- pire had prospered since the rise of Christianity, and that none but the worst of his predecessors had entertained an implacable spite against the Christians. " This new sect of philosophy (says he) which we profess, hereto- fore flourished among the barbarians (by which probably he means the Jews.) Afterwards under the reign of Au- gustus, your predecessor, it spread itself over the pro- vinces of your eiTpire, commencing with a happy omen to it : since which time the majesty and greatness of the Roman empire hath mightily increased, whereof you are the wished-for heir and successor, and together with your son shall sc continue, especially while you pro- tect that religion, ivhich began with Augustus, and grew up together with the empire, and for which youY prede- cessors had togetlier with other rites of worship, some kind of reverence and regard. Anel that our religion, which was bred up with the prosperity of the empire, was born for public good, there is this great argument to convince you, tiat since the reign of Augustus there has no considerable mischief happened ; but on the con- trary all things according to every one's desire have fallen out glorious and successful. None but Nero and Do- mitian, instigated by cruel and ill-minded men, have at- tempted to reproach and calumniate our religion ; whence sprang the common slanders concerning us, the injudicious vulgar, greedily entertaining such reports
S40 THE LIFE OF ST. MELITO.
without any strict examination. But your parents of re- ligious memory gave a check to this ignorance and injus- tice, by frequent rescripts reproving those who made any new attempts in this matter. Among whom was your grandfather Adrian, who wrote, as to several others, so to Fundanus the proconsul of Asia ; and your father, at what time yourself was colleague mth him in the em- pire, wrote to several cities (particvflitjly to Larissaea, Thessalonica, Athens, and all the cities of Greece) that they should not create any new disttirbance about this affair. And for yourself, who have Jie same opinion of us which they had, and a great deal better, more becom- ing a good man and a philosopher, w^rt promise ourselves that you will grant all our petitions aird requests." An address managed with great prudeiice and ingenuous freedom, and which striking in with mher apologies pre- sented about the same time, did not a little contribute to the general quiet and prosperity of C^uiytians.
4. Nor was he so wholly swallowed tip with care for the general peace of Christians, as tcneglect the parti cular good of his own, or neighbour ihurches. During the government of Servilius Paulus proconsul of Asia, Sagaris bishop of Laodicea had suft red martyrdom in the late persecution , ^ at what tirrx tjie controversy about the paschal solemnity was hotl;» ventilated in that church, some, strangers probably, u'ging the observa- tion of the festival according to the Roman usage cele- brating it upon the Lord's day, contrary to the custom of those churches, who had ever kept it upon the four- teenth day of the moon, according to the manner of the Jews. For the quieting of which contention Melito pre- sently wrote two books trt^i tS u^^x* cmcernmg the pass- over^ wherein no doubt he treated at large of the cele- bration of Easter according to the observacion of the Asian churches, and therefore Polycrates, in his letter to pope Victor particularly reckons ^ Saj^aris and Melito, among the chief champions of the cau:^. This Paschal
g Ipse Milet. ap. Euseb. 1. 4. c.26. p. 147. \ Ap. Euseb. 1. 5. c. 24. p. 191.
THE LIFE OF ST. MELITO. 341
book of St. Melito was mentioned also by * Clemens of Alexandria in a tract concerning the same subject, wherein he confesses that he was moved to that under- taking by the discourse which Melito had published upon that subject.
5. How unwearied is true goodness and a love to souls ! how willing to digest any difficulties, by which another's happiness may be advanced ! his brother One- simus had desired of him to remark such passages of the Old Testament as principally made for the confir- mation of the Christian religion, and to let him knov/ how many of those books were admitted into the holy canon. Wherein that he might at once thoroughly sa- tisfy both his brother and himself, he took a journey on purpose into the East, that is, I suppose, to Jerusalem, where he was likeliest to receive full satisfaction in this matter, and where having informed himself, he gave his brother at his return an account of it. The letter itself, because but short, and containing so authentic an evi- dence what books of the Old Testament were received by the ancient church, we shall here subjoin.
Melito to his brother Onesimiis, greeting.
FORASMUCH as out of your great love to and de- light in the holy scriptures, you have oft desired me to collect such passages out of the law and the prophets as relate to our Saviour and the several parts of our Chris- tian faith, and to be certainly informed of the books of the Old Testament, how many in number, and in what order they were written, I have endeavoured to comph' with your desires in this affair. For I know your great zeal and care concerning the faith, and how much you desire to be instructed in matters of religion, and espe- cially out of your love to God how infinitely you prefer these above all other things, and are solicitous about your eternal salvation. In order hereunto I travelled into the East, and being arrived at the place where these
i Ap. Euseb. ubi supr.p. 147.
342 THE LIFE OF ST. MELITO. ,
tilings were done and published, and having accurately informed myself of the books of the old testament, I have sent you the following account. The five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deu- teronomy, Jesus or Joshua the son of Nun ; Judges, Ruth ; the four books of Kings. Two books of Chroni- cles. The Psalms of David. The Proverbs, of Solomon, which is Wisdom; Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, Job. The Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the twelve [wzi/zor] pro phets in one book. Daniel, Ezekiel : Esdras or Ezra. Out of all which I have made collections, which I have digested into sixbooks.
6. In which catalogue we may observe the book of Esther is omitted, as it is also by *^St. Athanasius, ^Gregory Nazianzen, and "'Leontius, in their enumera- tion of the books of the holy canon: though for what reason is uncertain, unless (as "Sixtus Senensis, not im- probably conjectures) because it was not in those times looked upon as of such unquestionable credit and au- thority as the rest ; the spurious additions at the end of it causing the whole book to be called in question. Nor is here any particular mention made of Nehemiah, pro- bably because it was anciently comprehended under that of Esdras. And by that of Wisdom we see is not meant the apocryphal book, called the Wisdom of Solomon (as Bellarmine ''and most writers of that church confidently enough assert) but his proverbs, of which ^'Eusebius ex- pressly tells us, that not only Hegesippus but Irenaeus, and all the ancients were wont to call the Proverbs of So- lomon by the name of wisdom, 7rsivǤs7o> Cj^^itv,, a wisdom containing a system of all kind of virtues. And indeed that Melito in this place could mean no other, the words of his letter as restored by Valesius(22x^Vw^ cra^ci^/^t/, 5^ sc^**) according to Nicephorus's quotation, and the faith of all the best and most ancient manuscrips, puts the case beyond all peradventure.
V. At last this good man, broken with infinite pains and labours, and wearied with the inquietudes of a trou-
k Synops. 5. Script, p 471. I Carm. XXXIII p. 98. Tom. 2. td Sect. Act. II. p. 408. n Biblioth. S. 1. 1. p. 5. o De Script, Eccl. in Mclit. ad Aun. 150. p Lib. 4. c. 22. p. 143.
THE LIFE OF ST. MELITO. 343
blesome world, retreated to the place of rest. The time and manner of his death is unknown ; this only we find "^that he died, and lies buried at Sardis, waiting T«vaVo roZ i^rtvm iT/sr>to^«v the episcopal visitation from heaven, when our Lord shall come and raise him up from the dead. He was a man, besides the piety of his mind, and the strict- ness and innocency of his life, of great parts and learn- ing, he had elegans et declamatorium ingenium, as "^Ter- tullian said of him, a smart elegant wit, able to represent things with their most proper aggravations. He wrote books almost in all kinds of subjects, divine, moral, and philosophical, the monuments of no less industry than learning, which are all long since lost, some very few fragments only excepted. I know there are that sus- pected him to have had notions less orthodox about some of the great principles of religion : which I confess seems to me a most uncharitable and unjust reflection upon so holy and so good a man, especially seeing the conjec- ture is founded upon the mere titles of some of his books, none of the books themselves being extant, and of those titles a fair account might be given to satisfy any sober and impartial man ; there being but two that can be liable to exception, the one Ui^i haajuctm e^i, de Deo, not Corpore, (however ^'J^'heodoret, and as it seems from ori- gen, understands it) but Corporato) as Tertullian would express it) de Deo corpere im/uto, as Rufinus of old trans- lated it, concerning God clothed with a body, or the zvord made jlesh ; the other ns^i x7<Vjct? (most copies read ^iVfac) /; yinTio,^ x^/rS, of thc crcatiou and generation of Christ. Where admit it to have been yCii^no,,, creation, he alluded I doubt not to that of Solomon, the Lord possessed, uii^-., created me in the beginning of his way. And evident it is, that before the rise of the Arian controversies the fathers' used the word for any manner of production, and
q Polycrat. Ep. ap. Eiiseb. ubi p. 191. r Apud Hieron. de Script, in Melit.
S 'fly sit} 4 Uihiru^Ti avyy^ctfxiAula. kxtsw.httuk, -nrip) ^ h^d/xxlov ilvsiv TiV 0jov. Theod. Qiiest. XX. in Genes. Tom. 1. pag-. 21.
/^t dfxnv oSm duT^ ii; i^ya. Constit. Apost, 1, 5. c. 19. col. 370. Cxterumne tunc quidem solus; habc bat enim secum, quern liabebat in semetipso, ratio- nem suam scilicet : banc Graci >>^t,. dicunt.— Iiaque Sophiam quoq ; exaud:
344
THE LIFE OF ST. MELITO.
usually understand that place of Solomon of the ineffable generation of the Son of God.
HIS WRITINGS,
None whereof are now extant.
De Paschate, Libri II.
De recta vivendi ratione,& de
Prophetis, liber unus. De Ecclesia. De die Dominica. De Natura Hominis. De Creatione.
De obedientia sensuum fidei. De Anima, & corpore, & mente. De Lavacro. De Veritate.
De fide [Creatione] & Genera-
tione Christi. De Prophetia. De Hospitalitate. Liber Clavis dictus, De Diabolo.
De Joannis Apocalypsi. " De Incarnatione Dei. Apologia ad Imp. Antoninum. Exerptorum ex libris Veteris
Testamenti, Libri VI.
ut secundnm personam condltam. Prlmo, Dominus creavit me initum vjarum in opera sua, &c. nam ut primum Deus voluit ea quae cum Sophiae ratione Sc sermone disposuerat intra se, ipsum primum protuUt sermonem. — Haec est na- tivitas perfecta sermonis, dum ex deo procedit : conditns abeo primum ad co- gitatum in nomine Sophise, Dominus condidit me initium viarum. Tertul adv. Prax. c. 5, 6, 7. p. 203. ubi plura.
THE LIFE OF ST. PANT^NUS
CATECHIST OF ALEXANDRIA.
The various conjectures concerning his origin. The probabilities of his Jewish descent, what. Whether born in Sicily or at Alexandria. His first institution. The famous Platonic school erected by Ammonius at Alexandria. The renown of that place for other parts of learning. Pan- taenus addicted to a sect of the Stoics. The principles of that sect show- ed to agree best with the dictates of Christianity. His great improve- ments in the Christian doctrine. The catechetic school at Alexan- dria, with its antiquity. Pant^enus made regent of it. When he first entered upon this office. An embassy from India to the bishop of Alex- andria for some to preach the Christian faith. Pantaenus sent upon this errand. This country where situate. His arrival in India, and converse with the Brachmans. Their temper, principles, and way of life. Their agreement with the Stoics. Foot steps of Christianity formerly planted there. St. Matthew's Hebrew gospel found among them and brought by Pantxnus to Alexandria. How far and by whom Christianity was propagated in India afterwards. PantJenus's return to Alexandria, and resuming his catechetic office. His death. His great piety and learning.
1. THE silence of antiquity as to the country and kindred of this excellent person has administered to va- riety of conjectures concerning his origin. Some con- ceive him to have been born of Jewish parents, and they of note and quality, for * Clemens Alexandrinus, reck- oning up his tutors, tells us that one (whom he names last) was of Palestine, an Hebrew of very long descent; and then adds, that having found the last (meaning, say some, the last of those whom he had reckoned up) though
a Stromat. 1. 1. p. 274 X X
346 THE LIFE OF ST. PANTtENUS.
he justly deserved to be placed first, after which he had with infinite diligence and curiosity hunted him out in Egypt, where he lay obscure, he sat down under his discipline and institution. This person^ Eusebius plain- ly supposes to have been our Pantasnus ; and that he in- tended him in the latter clause there is no cause to doubt, the former only is ambiguous, it not being clear, whe- ther the latter sentence be necessarily connected and joined to the former, or that he designed any more, than to intimate the last master he addressed to, as distinct from those he had named before. And this I am the ra- ther inclined to think, because whoever considerately weighs Clemens's period, will find that by his Hebrew or Palestine master, he means one of the two whom he heard in the east, whereas Pantaenus was his master in Egypt, whom he both found and heard there. "" Others make him born in Sicily, because Clemens in the fol- lowing words styles him, a truly Sicilian bee : but whe- ther there may not be something proverbial in that ex- pression even as it relates to Sicily, I shall not now in* quire. However it is certain that the inhabitants of that island were generally Greeks, that many eminent philo- sophers were born, or resided there, and particularly the famous Porphyry, who had retired hither for some years, and here wrote his virulent books against the Chris- tians. Let this then stand for his country, till something more probable offer itself, unless we w ill say, that being descended of Sicilian ancestors, he was born at Alexan- dria, the place of his education.
2. His younger years were seasoned with all learned and philosophical studies, under the best masters which Alexandria (for there I presume to place his education) afforded, at that time a noted staple place of learning. As Egypt had in all ages been famous for the choicest parts of literature, and the more uncommon speculations of theology, so more especially Alexandria, where*there
b H. Eccl. L5, c. 11. p. 175, 176. c^Vales. Annot. in Euseb. p. 96.
THE LIEE OF ST. PANTiENUS. 347
were professors in all arts and sciences, and public schools of institution, not a little advantaged by that noble libra- ry, placed here by Ptolomy Philadelphus, and so much celebrated by the ancients. In after-times here was a fixed and settled succession of philosophers :n the Plato- nic school, begun by Ammonius Saccas and carried on by Photinusand Origen, and their successors for several ages. ^ Ammianus Marcellinus tells us that in his time, though not so famous as formerly, yet in some good de- gree it still maintained its reputation, and that all ingenu- ous arts and methods of recondite learning, and celebra- ted professors of all sorts flourished here, and that it was enough to recommend a physician to public notice, if he had studied at Alexandria. Nay, many ages after him^ Benjamin the Jew^ at his being there, found near twenty several schools of Aristotelians (the only men that then ruled the chair) whither men flocked from all parts of the world to learn the Peripatetic philosophy.
3. Among all the sects of philosophy he principally applied himself ^ to the Stoics, with whose notions and rules of life he was most enamoured ; and no wonder, seeing (as St. Hierom ^ observes) their dogmata in many things come nearest to the doctrines of Christianity. As indeed they do, especially as to the moral and practical part of their principles. They held that nothing was good but what was just and pious, nothing evil but what w^as vicious and dishonest : that a bad man could never be happy, nor a good man miserable, who was always free, generous, and dear to heaven ; that the deity was perpetually concerned for human affairs, and that there was a wise and powerful providence that particularly su- perintended the happiness of mankind, and was ready to assist men in all lawful and virtuous undertakings ; that therefore this God was above all things to be admired, adored, and worshipped, prayed to, acknowledged, obey- ed, praised, and that it is the most comely and reasona- ble thing in the world, that we should universally sub-
d Lib. 22. noti longe a fin. p. 1638. e Itiner p. 12J. f Euseb. I 5. c, 10, 'i^^S. g Com. in Esa. c. 11. p. 49. Tom. 5.
348 THE LIFE OF ST. PANT^ENUS.
niit to his will, and dvtBikQt.a^ai \^ ox«? ^ -^v/Jn^ i"** £vfxC:Li,n\r^.'?rh':(t.t
cheerfully embrace with all our souls all the issues and determinations of his providence ; that we ought not to think it enough to be happy alone, but that it is our duty «To K^fiU, 0/xm, to love men from the very heart, to jelieve and help them, advise and assist them, and contribute what is in our power to their welfare and safe- ty, and this not once or twice, but throughout the whole life, and that unbiasedly, without any little designs of ap- plause, or advantage to ourselves ; that nothing should be equally dear to a man as honesty and virtue, and that this is the first thing he should look at, whether the thing he is going about be good or bad, and the part of a good or wicked man, and if excellent and virtuous, that he ought not to let any loss or damage, torment, or death it- self deter him from it. And whoever runs over the wri- tings of Seneca, Antoninus, Epictetus, Arrian, &c. will find these, and a great many more, claiming a very near kindred with the main rules of life prescribed in the Christian faith. And what wonder if Pantasnus was in love with such generous and manly principles, which he liked so well, that as he always retained the title of the Stoic philosopher, so for the main he owned the profes- sion of that sect, even after his being admitted to emi- nent offices and employments in the Christian Church.
4. By whom he was instructed in the principles of the Christain religion, I find not ; *" Photius tells us that he was scholar to those who had seen the apostles, though I cannot allow of what he adds, that he had been an audi- tor of some of the apostles themselves, his great distance from their times rendering it next door to impossible. But whoever were his tutors, he made such vast profici- encies in his learning, that his singular eminency quickly recommended him to a place of great trust and honour in the churchjto be master of the catechetic school at Alex- andria, For there were not only academies and schools of human literature, but an ecclesiastical school for the training persons up in divine knowledge and the first
hCod.CXVHI,col.29r,
THE LIFE OF ST. PANT^NUS. 349
principles of Christianity : and this €| de,x^i^ '«9«?. says * Eur sebius, of very ancie?it custom^ from the very times of St. Mark (says '^ St. Hierom) the first planter of Christiani- ty and bishop of that place. From whose time there had been a constant succession of catechists in that school, which Eusebius tells us, continued in his time, and was managed by men famous for eloquence and the stud}/ of divine things. The fame and glory of Pantaenus did a- bove all others at that time design him for this place, ia which he accordingly succeeded, and that (as * Eusebius intimates) about the beginning of Commodus's reign, when Julian entered upon the see of Alexandria, for a- bout that time (says he) he became governour of the school of the faithful there. And whereas others before him had discharged the place in a more private way, he made the school more open and public, freely teaching all that addressed themselves to him. In this employment he continued without intermission the whole time of Julian (who sat ten years) till under his successor he was des- patched upon a long and dangerous journey, whereof this the occasion.
5. Alexandria was Trownv^paTrorATH Trttam iroKt? (as the orator ^ styles it) one of the most populous and frequented ci- ties in the world, whither there was a constant resort not only of neighbour nations but of the most remote and distant countries, Ethiopians, Arabians, Bactrians, Scy- thians, Persians, and even Indians themselves. It hap- pened that some Indian ambassadors (whether sent for this particular purpose is not certain) entreated " Deme- trius,then bishop of Alexandria,to send some worthy and excellent person along with them to preach the faith in those countries. None appeared qualified for this errand like Pantenus, a grave man, a great philosopher, incom- parably furnished with both divine and secular learning. Him Demetrius persuades to undertake the embassy ; and though he could not but be sufficiently apprehensive that he quitted a pleasant and delightful country, a place
i Lac. supr citat. k De script, in Pantaen. I Cap. 9, &. 10. ut supr,
m Dion. Chrj sto-. Orat. XXXII. p. 375. vld. p 37.5, n Hieron. de Script, ubi. supr.
sm THE LIFE OF ST. PANT^NUS.
where he was beloved and honoured by all with a just es- teem and reverence, and that he ventured upon a journey where he must expect to encounter with dangers and hardships, and the greatest difficulties and oppositions, yet were all these easily conquered by his insatiable desire to propagate the Christian religion, even to the remotest corners of the world. For there were many evangelical preachers even at that time (as ° Eusebius adds upon this occasion) who inflamed with a divine and holy zeal, in imitation of the apostles were willing to travel up and down the world for enlarging the bounds of Christianity, and building men up on die most holy faith. What In- dia this was to which Pantaenus, and after him Frumen- tins (for that they both went to the same country, is highly probable) was despatched, is not easy to deter- mine. There are, and they men of no inconsiderable note, that conceive it was not the Oriental, but African India, conterminous to Ethiopia, or rather a part of it. These Indians were a colony and plantation derived at first out of the east. For so ^ Eusebius tells us, that in the more early ages the ^Ethiopians quitting the parts about the river Indus, sat down near Egypt. Whence '^ Philostra- tus expressly styles the ^Ethiopians, a colony of Indians, as "" elsewhere he calls them yiv®' 'hSiKov, an Indian genera- tion. The metropolis of this country was Axumis, of which Frumentius is afterwards said to be ordained bi- shop by Athanasius. An opinion, which I confess my- self very inclinable to embrace, and should without any scruple comply with^ did not ' Eusebius expressly say, that Pant^nus preached the gospel to the eastern nations, and came as far as to India itself. A passsage, which how it can suit with the African India, and the countries that lie so directly south of Egypt, I am not able to ima- gine. For which reason we have elsewhere fixed it in the east. Nor is there any need to send them as far as India intra Gangem, there are places in Asia nearer hand, and particularly some parts of Arabia that anciently pas-
o Loc.citat. p Chron. ad An. Abrah, CCCCIV. q Vit. Appollon. I. 6. c. 8. p. 287. r Ibid. I. 3 . c. 6. p. 125. s Hist. EgcI. ubi supr.
THE LIFE OF ST. PANT^NUS. 351^
sed under that name, whence the Persian gulf is some- times called the Indian sea. But let the judicious rea- der determine as he please in this matter.
6. Being arrived in India, he set himself to plant the Christian faith in those parts, especially conversing with the ^Brachmans, the sages and philosophers of those countries, whose principles and way of life seemed more immediately to dispose them for the entertainment of Christianity. Their children as soon as born they committed to nurses, and then to guardians according to their different ages, who instructed them in principles ac- cording to their capacities and improvements : they were educated with all imaginable severity of discipline, not suffered so much as to speak or spit, or cough, while their masters were discoursing to them, and this till they were seven and thirty years of age."" They were infi- nitely strict and abstemious in their diet, eat no flesh, drank no wine or strong drink, feeding only upon wild acorns, and such roots as nature furnish them withal, and quenching their thirst at the next spring or river, and, abstaining from all other lawful pleasures and delights. They adored no images, but sincerely worshipped God, to whom they continually prayed, and instead of the custom of those eastern nations of turning to the east, they devoutly lift up their eyes to heaven, and while they drew near to God, took a peculiar care to keep them- selves from being defiled with any vice or wickedness, spending a great part both of night and day in hymns and prayers to God. They accounted themselves the most free and victorious people, having hardened their bodies against all external accidents, and subdued in their minds all irregular passions and desires. Gold and silver they despised, as that which could neither quench their thirst nor allay their hunger, nor heal their
t Hieron. Epist. ad Magn. Orat. p. 327. Tom. 2.
u De Brachman. morib. & instit. vid. inter alios Alexand. Polyb. de reb. In- die, ap. Clem. Alex. Stromat. I. 3. p. 451. Strab. Geogr. I. 15. p. 712. Barde- san. Syr. I. de fat. ap. Euseb, Prsep, Evang. 1. 6. c. 10. p. 275. Plutarc!i de vit. Alexand. p. 701. Porphyr. ns§. o.ttq'x}:;, 1. 4. § 17, IB. p. 167. SiC. Pallad. de Bragman. p. 8, 9, 15, 16, 17. Tract, de Grig. & Morib. Brachman, inter Am- bi'osii oper.ad Calc.Tom 5. Suidin voc. B§«;^**stvi;, p. 578,
352 THE LIFE OF ST. PANTiENUS.
wounds, nor cure their distempers, nor serve any real and necessary ends of nature, but only minister to vice and luxury, to trouble and inquietude, and set the mind upon racks and tenters. They looked upon none of the little accidents of this world to be either good or evil, frequently discoursed concerning death, which they maintained to hQy'-n^ivuiTovovTm/^iov, a being born into a real and happy life, and in order whereunto they made use of the present time only as a state of preparation for a better life. In short, they seemed in most things to conspire and agree with the stoics, whom therefore of all other sects they esteemed to be Myw^iKo^^:<piii, ^the most excellent philosophers ; and upon that account could not but be somewhat the more acceptable to Pan- tsenus, who had so thoroughly imbibed all the wise and rational principles of that institution.
7. What success he had in these parts, we are not par- ticularly told. Certainly his preaching could not want some considerable effect, especially where persons were by the rules of their order, and the course of their life so well qualified to receive it, and that too where christinity had been heretofore planted, though now overgrown with weeds and rubbish for want of due care and culture. For he met with several"^ that retained the knowledge of Christ, preached here long since by St. Bartholomew the apostle (as we have elsewhere showed in his life) whereof not the least evidence was his finding St. Mat- thew's gospel \\Titten in Hebrew, which St. Bartholo- mew had left at his being there, and which Pantasnus (as St. Hierom informs us, though I question whether it be any more than his own conjecture) brought back with him to Alexandria, and there no doubt laid it up as an inestimable treasure. And as our philosopher succeeded in the labours of St. Bartholomew in these Indian plantations, so another afterwards succeeded in his, an account whereof, to make the story more entire, the reader I presume, will not think it impertinent, if I
V Pallad. de Brachman. p. 52. w Euseb. 1. 5, c. 10. p. 175. Hier. de Script, in PaiUserio
THE LIFE OF ST. PANT.i^NUS. 553
here insert. ''^Edesius and Frumentius, two youths of Tyre, accompanied Meropius the philosopher into In- dia, where being taken by the natives, they were pre- sented to the king of the country, who pleased with their persons and their parts, made one of them his butler, the other (Frumentius) the keeper of his records, or as Sozomen will have it, his treasurer and major-domo, committing to his care the goverment of his house. For their great diligence and fidelity the king at his death gave them their liberty, who thereupon determined to return to their own country, but were prevailed with by the queen to stay, and superintend affairs during the minority of her son. Which they did, the main of the government being in the hands of Frumentius, who, as- sisted by some Christian merchants that trafficked there, built an oratory, where they assembled to worship God according to the rites of Christianity, and instructed se- veral of the natives, who joined themselves to their as- seml^ly. The young king, now of age, Frumentius re» signed his trust, and begged leave to return ; which be- ing with some difficulty obtained, they presently depart- eci, /Edesius going for Tyre, while Frumentius went to Alexandria, where he gave Athanasius, then bishop of that place, an account of the whole affiiir, showing him what hopes there were that the Indians would come over to the faith of Christ, withal begging of him, to send a bishop and some clergymen among them, and not to ne- glect so fair an opportunity of advancing their salvation. Athanasius, having advised with his clergy, persuaded Frumentius to accept the office, assuring him he had none fitter for it than himself. Which was done accord- ingly, and Frumentius being made bishop, returned back into India, where he preached the Christian faith, erected many churches, and being assisted by the divine grace and favour, healed both the souls and bodies of many at the same time. An account of all which Rufinus professes to have received from iEde»
X Socrat. H. EccU 1. 1. c 19. p, 50. Sozom. lib. 2. c. 24, p. M7 . Theod. H.Eccl. 1. I.e. 23. p. 54.
Y y
05A THE LIFE OF ST. PANT^NUS.
5ius's own mouth, then presbyter of the church of Tyre. But it is time to look back to Pantasnus.
8. Being returned to Alexandria, he resumed his ca- techetic office, which I gather partly from ^ Eusebius, tvho again mentions it just after his Indian expedition^ and adds nkiurav HyCirui that after all, or when he drew near to his latter end, he governed the school of A^lexandria ; partly from St. Hierom^, who says expressly, that he taught in the reigns of Severus and Caracalla, his first regency being under Commodus. He died in the time of Antoninus Caracalla, who began his reign./4?2w. CCXI. though the exact date and manner of his death be lost ; his memory is preserved in the Roman calendar on the seventh of July. And certainly a just tribute of honour is due to his memory for his admirable zeal and piety, his indefatigable pains and industry, his exquisite abili- ties, Tay tfVi TT^ti^iU? dv^'^iTrao'^oTuK^, as Euscbius truly characters him, a man singularly eminent in all kinds of learning ; and *" Origen, who lived nearer to him, and was one of his successors, commends him for his great usefulness and ability both in philosophical speculations, and theo- logical studies, in the one able to deal with philosophers, in the other to refute heretics and seducers. In his school he displayed (as Eusebius tells us) both by word and writing the treasures of the sacred doctrines ; though he taught (says St. Hierom) rather viva voce, than by books, who mentions only his commentaries upon the holy scripture, and of them not the least fragment is re^ maining at this day.
y Ubi supra. z Loc. citat. a Apiid Euseb. 1.6. c. 19. p. 221."
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS,
BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA.
His country. Tlie progress of his studies. His instruction in the Chrs- tian doctrine. His several masters. His impartial inquiry after truth. The elective sect, what. Its excellent genius. Clemens of this sect. His succeeding Pantjenns in the Caiechetic school. He is made pres- byter of Alexandria. His Strom ata published, when. Lawfulness of flying in time of persecution. His journey into the East. What tracts he wrote there. His going from Jerusalem to Antioch, and return to Alexandria. His death. The elogia given of him by the ancients. His admirable learning. His writings. His hypotyposes : Photius his account of them ; corrupted by the Arians. His books yet extant^ and the orderly gradation of them. His Stromata, what the design of it. His style, what in this, what in his other books. A short apology for some unwary assertions in his writings. His writings enumerated.
1. TITUS Flavius Clemens was, probably, born at Athens. For when ^ Epiphanius tells us, that some af- firmed him to be an Alexandrian, others an Athenian, he might well be both ; the one being the place of his nativity, as the other was of his constant residence and employment. Nor can I imagine any other account, upon which the title of Athenian should be given to him. And the conjecture is further countenanced from the course and progress of his studies, the foundations whereof were laid in Greece, improved in the East, and perfected in Egypt. And indeed his incomparable abi- lities in all parts of science render it a little more pro- bable, that his early years commenced in that great school of arts and learning. But he staid not here, his insatiable thirst after knowledge made him traverse al-
a Hseres. XXXIL p. 95.
35-6 THE LIFE OF SI. CLEMENS,
most all parts of the world, and converse with the learned of all nations, that he might furnish himself with the knowledge of whatever was useful and excellent, especi- ally a thorough acquaintance with the mysteries of the Christian doctrine. He tells us ^ of those lively and pow- erful discourses, which he had the happiness to hear from blessed and truly worthy and memorable persons, who preserving that sincere and excellent doctrine, which like children from the hands of their parents, they had immediately received from Peter, James, John, and Paul, the holy apostles, whereby God's blessing came down to his time, sowing those ancient and apostolic seeds of truth. A passage, which I doubt not *" Eusebius intended, when he says, that Clemens, speaking concern- ing himself in the first book of his Stromata, affirms him- self to have been of the next succession to the apostles, 2. Of these venerable men to whose tuition he com- mitted himelf, he himself has given "^ us some, though but obscure account. The first was lonicus, a Ccelo- Syrian, whom he heard in Greece, and whom ^Baronius conjectures to have been Caius, or Dionysius, bishop of Corinth ; a second an Egyptian, under whose discipline he was, in that part of Italy called Magna Grascia, and since Calabria. Hence he travelled into the East, where the first of his masters was an Assyrian, supposed by some to have been Bardesanes, by others Tatian, the scholar of Justin martyr: the next originally a Jew, of a very ancient stock, whom he heard in Palestine, whom Barpnius will have to have been Theophilus, bishop of Caesarea (though for his Hebrew descent there be no evi= de.nce among the ancients) others ^ more probably Theo- dotus, whence the excerpta out of his hypotyposes still extant, are styled, a^^s>vQi'^^.^^'ivxiohiy.^z£iSua>LdiKUz, the epitome of Theodotus's oriental doctrine^ that is, the doctrine which he learnt from Theodotus in the East. The last of the masters whom he met with, ^u^xfAuii ^^a. ^§sit^, as he says of him, but the first and chief in power and virtue,
b Stromal. I. l.p. 274. & ap. Euseb. I. 5. c. 11. p. 176.
c Lib. 6. c. 13. p. 215. d Loc cltat e Ad Ann. 185. n. IV.
f Vaies. Annot. in Euseb, p. 95.
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS. ^57
was one whom he inquisitively sought out, and found in Egypt, and in whose institution he fully acquiesced, and sought no further* This person is generally sup- posed to have been Pantasnus, whom Clemens elsewhere ^ expressly affirms to have been his master, and whom in the forementioned epitome he styles ^ our Pantsenus. 3. But though he put himself under the discipline of so many several masters, yet was it not out of any vain desultory lightness, or phantastic curiosity, but to make researches after truth with an honest and inquisitive mind. He loved what was manly and generous, where- ver he met it : and therefore tells us', he did not simply approve all philosophy, but that of which Socrates in Plato speaks concerning their mysterious rites,
imitating as he expresses it in the style of the scripture, that many are called^ but few elect, or who make the right choice. And such (adis Socrates) and such only, in my opinion, are those who embrace the true philosophy. Of which sort (says Clemens) through my whole life I have to my power approved myself, desiring and endea- vouring by all means to become one of that number
For this purpose he never tied himself to any particular institution of philosophy, but took up in the i/^s^/? UKiKiui,, the elective sect, who obliged not themselves to the dic- tates and sentiments of any one philosopher, but freely made choice of the most excellent principles out of all. This sect (as the philosophic historian ^ informs us) was begun by Potamon, an Alexandrian too, who out of every sect of philosophy selected what he judged best.... He gave himself liberty impartially to inquire into the natures of things, and what was the true standard and measure of truth ; he considered, that no man knows every thing, that some things are obvious to one, that are overseen or neglected by another, that there are wholesome herbs and flowers in every field, and that if
g In lib. Hypot.ap. Euseb. 1, 5. c. 11. p. 175. h Ad Calc. Clem. p. 808. i Stromal. 1. 1. p. 315. k D. Laert, proem, ad vit. Philos. p. 1\.
358 THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS-
the thing be well said, it is no matter who it is that says it ; that reason is to be submitted to, before authority, and though a fair regard be due to the opinions and principles of our friends, yet that it is oV/ov ^§o7i^a:v t«v «txi)'es/rtv, (as ^ Aristotle himself confesses) more pious and reason- able to honour and esteem the trtuh. And thus he pick- ed up a system of noble principles, like so many flowers out of scA^eral gardens, professing "" this to be the great end of all his disquisitions, fa«vx*Ti ^rSiaciv de^iVm Tsxsiav, a life per- fected according to all the rules of virtue. Of this incom- parable order was our divine philosopher : / espoused not (says he") this or that philosophy^ not the stoic or pla- tonic, nor the epicurean, or that of Aristotle, hut what- ever any of these sects had said, that was fit arid just, that taught righteousness with a divine and religious know- ledge, TKTo <TVfx7r<iy ro MKiKJiKiv, all that being selected I call phi- losophy. Though it cannot be denied, but that of any sect, he came nearest to the stoics, as appears from his discoursing by way of paradoxes, and his affected novel- ty of words, two things peculiar to the men of that way, as a very learned and ingenious person " has observed.... And I doubt not but he was more peculiarly disposed towards this sect by the instructions of his master Pan- ta^nus, so great and professed an admirer of the stoical philosophy.
4. Pantienus being dead, he succeeded him in the schola Kury,x^iamv, thc catcchctic school at Alexandria, though questionless he taught in it long before that, and probably during Pantaenus's absence in India, supplying his place till his return, and succeeding in it after his death, for that he was Pantssnus's successor, the ancients p are all agreed. Here he taught with great industry and fidelity, and with no less success, some of the most emi- nent men of those times, Origen, Alexander, bishop of Hierusalem, and others being bred under him. And now (as *! himself confesses) he found his philosophy and
1 Ethic. 1. I. c. 4 p. 3. Tom. 2. m Laert. loc. cit.
n Strom. I 1. p. 288. o H. Dodwel. Prole^om. Apol. ad lib. D.
Stearn de Obstin. p. 115. p Euseb. 1. 6. c. 6. p. 208. Hieron. de
Script, in Clement. Phot. Cod. CXVIII, col. 297. q Strom. 1. 1. p. 278.
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS. 359
Gentile learning very useful to him : for as the husband- man first waters the soil, and then casts in the seed, so the notions he derived out of the writings of the Gen- tiles, served first to water and soften to yt^^^c du^^v, the gross and terrestrial parts of the soul, that the spiritual seed might be the better cast in, and take vital root in the minds of men. Besides the office of a catechist, he was made presbyter of the church of Alexandria, and that at least about the beginning of Severus's reign, for under that capacity Eusebius takes notice of him, Ann, CXCV. About which time prompted by his own zeal, and oblig- ed by the iniquity of the times, he set himself to vindi- cate the cause of Christianity both against heathens and heretics, which he has done at large with singular learn- ing and dexterity in his book called Stromata, published about this time; for drawing down a chronological "" ^lc- count of things, he ends his computation in the death of the emperor Commodus. Whence it is evident, as ' Eu- sebius observes, that he compiled that volume in the reign of Severus that succeeded him.
5. The persecution under Severus raged in all pro- vinces of the empire, and particularly at Alexandria, which made many of the Christians for the present will- ing to retire, and Clemens probably among the rest, whom we therefore find particularly discoursing * the lawfulness of withdrawing in a time of persecution : that though we may not cowardly decline a danger or death, when it is necessary for the sake of religion, yet in other cases we are to follow the direction of our Saviour, when they persecute you in one city^ flee ye into another ; and not to obey in such a case, is to be bold and rash, and unwarrantably to precipitate ourselves into danger, that if it be a great sin against God to destroy a man, who is his image, that man makes himself guilty of the crime,, who offers himself to the public tribunal ; and little bet- ter does he, that when he may, declines not the persecu- tion, but rashly exposes himself to be apprehended, thereby to his power conspiring with the wickedness of
r Strom. 1. 1. p. 336. s Lib. 6, c. 6. p. 203. t Stromat. I. 4. p. 504.
^60 THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS.
his persecutors. And if further, he irritate and provoke them, he is unquestionably the cause of his own ruin, like a man that needlesly rouses and enrages a wild beast to fall upon him. And this opportunity I doubt not he took to visit the Eastern parts, where he had studied in his younger days. We find him about this time at Jerusa- lem with Alexander, shortly after bishop of that place, between whom there seems to have been a peculiar inti- macy, insomuch that St. Clemens dedicated " his book to him, called The Ecclesiastical Canon, ^ -cr^i? t«? 'i«cr:6/^ovTrt?, or against them that Judaize, During his stay here he preached constantly, and declined no pains even in that evil time, and with what success we may see by a piece of a letter written by Alexander, then in prison, and sent by our St. Clemens to Antioch, which we here insert. " '' Alexander, a servant of God, and a prisoner of Jesus Christ, to the blessed church at Antioch, in the Lord greeting. Our Lord has made my bonds in this time of my imprisonment light and easy to me, while I understood that Asclepiades, a person admirably quali- fied by his eminency in the faith, was by the divine Pro- vidence become bishop of your holy church of Antioch. Concluding these letters, worthy brethren, I have sent you by Clemens, the blessed presbyter, a man virtuous and approved, whom ye both do, and shall yet further know : who having been here with us according to the good will and providence of God, has greatly established and increased the church of Christ." By which epistle we may by the way remark the error of '^ Eusebius, who places Asclepiades's coming to the see of Antioch in the first year of Caracalla, Ann. CCXIL whereas we see it was while Alexander was yet in prison under Severus, which he himself makes to be Amu CC V. From Jeru- salem then Clemens went to Antioch, where we cannot question but he took the same pains, and laboured with the same seal and industry. After which he returned to Alexandria, and the discharge of his office, where, how long he continued, or by what death he died, antiquity
u Eseub. I. 6. c. 14. p. 214. Hieron. in Clement.
V Apud. Euseb. ib.c. 11. p. 212. w In Chron. ad Aiiji. CCXil,
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS. S61
is silent. Certain it is, that for some considerable time he outlived Pantasnus, who died in the time of Caracalla ; and when he wrote his Stromata, he tells us that he did it that he might lay up things in store against old age : a plain intimation that he was then pretty far from it. I add no more but what Alexander of Hierusalem ''says in a letter to Origen, where having told him that their friendship which had commenced under their predeces- sors should continue sacred and inviolable, yea grow more firm and fervent, he adds, '' For we acknowledge for our fathers those blessed saints, who are gone before us, and to whom we shall go after a little time ; Pantse- nus I mean, the truly happy, and my master ; and the holy Clemens, my master, and one that was greatly use- ful and helpful to me."
6. To commend this excellent man after the great things spoken of him by the ancients, were to hold a candle to the sun. Let us hear the character which some of them give of him. The holy and the blessed Clemens, a man very virtuous and approved, as we have seen Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, who knew him best, testifying of him. Indeed his zeal and piety, mo- desty, and humility, could not but endear him unto all. For his learning, he was in ^St. Hierom's judgment the most learned of all the ancients. A man admirably learn- ed and skilful^ and that searched to the very bottom of all the learning of the Greeks with that exactness that per- haps few before him ever attained to, says ^St. Cyril of Alexandria. An holy man {s2i\ s^l'heodore) y^ ^oKvTru^u aTrav- Uc dTToKiTTdv, and one that for his vast and diffusive learning incomparably surpassed all other men. Nor was he less accurate in matters of theology than human learning, an incomparable master in the Christian philosophy, as Eusebius styles him. Witness his many books, crowd- ed, as ^Eusebius tells us, with variety and plenty of useful knowledge, derived (as ''St. Hicrom adds) both
X Ap. Eus-b. I. 6. c. 14. p. 216. v Epist. ad Mag-n. Orat. p. 327.
z Contr. Julian. 1.7. p. 231. Toin. 6. vid. 1.6. p 2t'5. a Hsret. Fabal. 1 I.e. 6. p. 197. b H. Eccl. i. 6. c. 13. p. 215. c De Script, in Clem. ?c ad Miign- O:'. loc.rit.
7. ^.
362 THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS.
from the holy scriptures and secular learning, wherein there is nothing unlearned, nothing that it is not fetched out of the very centre and bowels of philosophy. The titles of them those two authors have preserved, the far greatest part of the books themselves having perished, among which the most memorable was the Hypotyposes or Books of institution, so often cited by Eusebius, which contained short and strict explications of many passages of holy scriptures, wherein '^Photius tells us there were many wild and impious opinions, as, that matter was eternal, and that ideas were introduced by certain decrees, that there is a transmigration of souls, and were many worlds before Adam, that the Son is among the number of created beings, and that the Word was not really made flesh, but only appeared so, and ma- ny more liUo-<^i,fj.ot Ti^ctrohoyius, monstrous blasphemies : But withal insinuates, that probably these things were insert- ed by another hand, as Rufinus, expressly assures us, that heretics, had corrupted Clemens's writings. Cer- tainly had these books been infected with these pro- phane and poisonous dogmatia in Eusebius's time, we can hardly think, but that he would have given us at least some obscure intimations of it. And considera- ble it is what Photius observes, thtit these things are not countenanced by his other books, nay many of them plainly contradicted by them.
7. The books yet extant (beside the little tract, enti- tled T/s 3 cra^o^sv©- TTAb^/i^, lately published) are chiefly three, which seem to have been written in a very wise and ex- cellent order, the a^>/#' u^cr^iTriiKi?, or exhortation of the Gen- tiles^ the Pasdagogus, or Christian instructor, and the Stromata, or various discourses ; in the first he very ra- tionally refutes the follies and impieties of the Gentile religion, and strongly persuades men to embrace Chris- tianity : in the second he tutors and instructs new con- verts, and by the most admirable rules, and pathetical insinuations prepares and forms them to an holy and tru- ly Christian life : in the third he administers strong meat
d Cod. CIZ. col. 285. e Apol.pro Orig. inter. Oper. Hier. Tom. 4. p. 195
. THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS. 363
to tliem tliat are of a more full age, a clearer explication of the Christian doctrine, and a more particular confu- tation both of Gentile and heretical opinions, admitting the disciple after his first purgation and initiation into a more immediate acquaintance, with the sacred myste- ries of religion. His Stromata^ are nothing but miscel- laneous discourses composed out of the holy writings, and the books of the Gentiles, explaining and (as occa- sion is) confuting the opinions of the Greeks and barba- rians, the sentiments of philosophers, the notions of heretics, inserting a variety of stories, and treasures out of all sorts of learning ; which as himself tells us", he there- fore styled Stromata, that is, a va?'iegated coiitexture of discourses, and which ^'he compares not to a curious gar- den, wherein the trees and plants are disposed according to the exactest rules of method and order, but to a thick shady mountain, whereon trees of all sorts, the cypress and the plantane, and laurel, and the ivy, the apple, the olive, and the figtree, promiscuously grow together. In the two former of his books (as 'Photius observes) his style is florid, but set off with a well proportioned gravity, and a becoming variety of learning : In the lat- ter he neither designed the ornaments of eloquence, nor v/ould the nature of his design well admit it, as he truly apologizes^ for himself; his main care Vas so to express things that he might be understood, and further eloquence than this, he neither studied nor desired. If in thesq books of his there be what ""Photius affirms, some few things here and there ^x h'^^^ not soundly or wearily ex- pressed, yet not, as he adds, like those of the Hypotypo- ses, but capable of a candid and benign interpretation, not considerably prejudicial either to the doctrine and practice of religion, and such as are generally to be met with in the writers of those early ages. And it is no %vonder, if the good and pious men of those times, who were continually engaged in fierce disputes Avith hea-
fVid.Euseb. I. 6. c. 13. p. 214 g Strom. 1. 1. p. 278.1.4. p. 476.
h Lib. 7. p. 766. i Loc. supr. cit. col. 288.
k Ubi. supr, p. 767. 1 lb. 1- 1- P- 293. in Ubi, supr.
364
THE LIFE OF ST. CLEMENS.
thcns on the one side, and Jews and heretics on the other, did not always o^^oiofxav, divide the truth aright ^ in some nicer lines and strokes of it. The best is, their great piety and serviceableness in their generations, while they lived, and the singular usefulness of their writings to posterity since they are dead, are abundantly enough to weigh down any little failures or mistakes that dropt from them.
HIS WRITINGS.
Extant. Protrepticon ad Gentes. Psedagogi, Libri III. Stromateon, Libri VIII. Orat. Quisnam dives ille sit,
qui salvetur. I)pitome doctrine Orientalis
Theodoti, &c.
Not Extant. Hypot) poseon, seu Institutio- num, Libri VIII.
Canon Eccleslasticus.
seu Adversus Judaizantes. De Paschate. De obtrectatione, Disputationes de jejunio. Exhortatio ad Patientiam ad
Neophytos.
Supposititious. Commentariola in Prim. Cano-
nicam S. Petri, in Epistolam
Judae, & tres Epistolas S.
Joannis Apostoli.
THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAK
PRESBYTER OF CARTHAGE.
His names, whence. His father, who. His education in all kinds of learning. His skill in the Roman laws. Different from Tertylian the lawyer. His way of life before his conversion, inquired into. His married condition. His conversion to Christianity, when. The great cruelty used towards the Christians. Severus's kindness to them. Tertullian's excellent apology in their behalf. His address to Scapu- la, and the tendency of that discourse. Severus's violent persecuting the Christians. His prohibition of the Heteriae. Tertullian's book to the martyrs, and concerning patience. His zeal against heresies, and writings that way. His book De Pallio, when written, and upon what occasion. His becoming presbyter, when. His book De Corona^ and what the occasion of it. His declining from the Catholic party. Montanus who and whence. His principles and practices. Tertulli- an's owning them, and upon what occasion. His morose and stubborn temper. How far he complied with the Montanists, and acknow- ledged the paraclete. How he was imposed upon. His writings against the Catholics. The severity of the ancient discipline. E- piscopus Episcoporum^ in what sense meant by Tertullian concern- ing the bishop of Rome. His separate meetings at Carthage. His death. His character. His singular parts and learning. His books. His phrase and style. What contributed to its perplexedness and ob- scurity. His unorthodox opinions. A brief plea for him .
1. QUINTUS Septimus FlorensTertullianus, was (as tlie ancients ^affirm, and himself implies when he calls it his country) born at Carthage, the Metropolis of Africa, famous above all others for antiquity, sovereignty, and power, insomuch that for some ages it contended for glory and superiority even with Rome itself. He was
a Hieron. de script, in Tertul. Niceph. H, EccU 1. 4, c. 34. p. 334. b. De Pall. c. 1. p. 112. & Apolog. c. 9. p. 9.
366 THE LIFE OF TERTULHAN.
called Septimiiis, because descended of the Gens Septi] mia, a tribe of great account among the Romans, being first regal, afterwards plebeian, and last of all consular and patrician. Florens, from some particular family of that house so called, and Quintus (a title common among the Romans) probably because the fifth child which his parents had ; ana Tertullian, a derivative from Tertul- lus, it is like from his immediate parent. His father was a soldier, a Centurion under the proconsul of Africa (called therefore by St. Hierom and others Centurio pro- consularis) not a man of proconsular dignity, as some make him; he was a Gentile, in which religion Tertul- lian also was brought up, as himself ^'confesses. He was educated in all the accomplishments which the learning either of the Greeks or Romans could add to him, he seems to have left no paths untraced, to have in- timately conversed with poets, historians, orators, not to have looked only, but to have entered into the secrets of philosophy and the mathematics, not unseen in physic, and the curiosities of nature, and as Eusebius ^notes, a man famous for other things, but especially admirably skilled in the Roman laws ; though they who would hence infer him to have been a professed lawyer and the same with him whose excerpta are yet extant in the pandects, are guilty of a notorious mistake, the name of that lawyer being Tertylianus ; besides that dissonancy that is in their style and language. Or suppose wdth others that this Tertylian was one of Papinian's scholars in the reign of Alexander Severus, he must by this account be at least thirty years after the other's conversion to Christia- nity. The original of the error doubtless arose from the nearness and similitude of the names, and the charac- ter of his skill in the Roman laws given by Eusebius, which indeed is evident from his works, and especially his apology for the Christians.
2. What was his particular course of life before he came over to the Christian religion, is uncertain. They that conceive him to have been an advocate, and publicly
a Apol. c. 18. p. 17. d H. Eccl. 1. 2. c. 2. p. 4t
THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN. 367
to have pleaded causes, because after his conversion he "^ says of himself, that he owed nothing to the forum, took up no place among the rostra, made no noise among the benches, did not toss about the laws, nor clamour out causes, as if he had done all this before, might by the same reason conclude him to have been a soldier, because he adds in the same place, that he owed nothing to the camp, with some other offices there mentioned by him. That he was married is evident, though whether before or after his embracing the Christian faith, I cannot posi- tively determine, probably before. However, according to the severity of his principles, he lived with his wife a great part of his life in a state of continency, conversing with her as his sister, exhorting her to perpetual celibacy and the utmost strictnesses of a single life, as appears by his two books written to her on that subject.
3. His conversion to Christianity Ave may conceive to have happened not long after the beginning of Severus's reign, and a little before the conclusion of the second century. Being a man of an inquisitive and sagacious mind, he had observed the powerful and triumphant effi- cacy of the Christian faith over the minds and lives of men, its great antiquity, the admirable consent and truth of the predictions recorded in the books of the Chris- tians, the frequent testimonies which the heathen deities themselves gave to its truth and divinity, the ordinary confessions of their daemons when forced to abandon the persons they had possessed, at the command of a Chris- tian, all which he shows * at large (at least as we may pro- bably guess) to have been the main inducements of his conversion. In the very entrance of the following secu- lum, Severus being gone to make war upon the Parthi» ans, the magistrates at Rome, and proportionably the go- vernors of provinces, began to bear hard upon the Christians, beholding them as infamous persons, and es- pecially traitors to the empire. Among whom the most principal person, I doubt not, was Plautianus, a man in
e De Pall. c. 5. p. U8. f Vld. Apol. c. 19, 20. p. 18. c, ^3. p. 22, 23, & ali- bi passim.
368 THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN.
great favour with the emperdur, whose daughter was mar- ried to Antoninus, the emperor's eldest son, and whom Severus at his going into the east, had made praefect of Rome ; of him we read ^ that in the emperor's absence he put to death an infinite number both of the nobiUty and common people. Among whom we cannot question but the Christians had theirs, audit is like, the far great- est share. And so notorious was the cruelty, that ^ Se- verus at his return was forced to apologize for himself, that he had no hand in it. And indeed Severus in the first part of his reign (was as Tertullian informs' us) very benign and favourable to the Christians ; for having been cured of a dangerous distemper by one Proculus a Chris- tian, who anointed him with oil, he kept him at court with him ever after. Nor did his kindness terminate here, for when he knew that several both men and women of the senatorian order were Christians, he was so far from persecuting them upon that account, that he gave them an honourable testimony, and restrained the people, when they were raging against the Christians. This I suppose to have been done at his return from the Parthian expe- dition, when he found both govemours and people en- gaged in so hot and severe a persecution of the Chris- tians.
4. The barbarous and cruel usage which the Chris- tians generally met with, engagedTertullian to vindicate and plead their cause both against the malice and cruelty of their enemies. For which purpose he published and sent abroad his Apology, dedicating it to the magistrates of the Roman empire, and especially the senate at Rome (for that he went to Rome himself and personally present- ed it to the senate, I confess I see no convincing evi- dence) wherein with incomparable learning and elo- quence, with all possible evidence and strength of rea- son he pleads their cause, complains of the iniquity and injustice of their enemies, and the methods of their pro- ceedings, particularly demonstrates the vanity and fiilse- hood of those crimes that were commonly charged upon
g Dio. Cass. H. Rom. 1. 75. & Xiphil. in Vit. Sever, p. 328. h Spartian in vit. Sever, c. 15. p. 350. i Ad Scuj>ul. c. 4. p. 7\.
THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN. 369
ihe Christians, arguing their meekness and innocency, their temperance and sobriety, their piety to God, and obedience to their prince, the reasonableness of their prin- ciples, and the holiness of their lives beyond all just ex- ception. An apology which undoubtedly contributed towards the cooling and qualifying of the present calen- tures, especially at Severus's return. And indeed it ap- pears not by the whole series of that discourse, that the emperor had given any particular countenance to those se- verities ; nay, on the contrary he expressly styles ^' him the inost constant prince. Not long after this, Tertullian found work nearer home, Scapula, the president, and pro- consul of Africa (the same probably with ScapulaTertyl- lus, a provincial president, to whom there is a Rescript of Marcus and Commodus') treating theChristians much at the same rate that Platianus had done at Rome. To him therefore he addresses himself in a neat and pa- thetical discourse, representing the honesty and simplici- ty of Christians, and their hearty prayers and endeavours for the prosperity of the empire, and those particular in- stances of severity which the Divine Providence had late- ly inflicted upon it, which could not be reasonably sup- posed to have been sent upon any other errand, so much as to revenge the innocent blood that had been shed; laying before him the clemency and indulgence of former princes and presidents, yea, and of the present emperor himself, so great a friend to Christians. A plain evi- dence that this book was written at this time, before Se.- verus broke out into open violence against them.
5. The Christians now enjoyed a little respite : but, alas, it was but like the intermitting fits of a fever, w^hich being over, the paroxysm returns with a fiercer violence, Ann. Chr, CCII. Severi X. '"^ the persecution revived, and was now carried on by the command of the emperor. For Severus in his journey through Palestine forbade ^ any under the heaviest penalties to become Jews ; and the same orders he issued out concerning Christians.
k Apol. c. 4. p. 5. 1 L, 14. fi'.do Offic. Prxskl. lib. 1. Tit. 18.
m En.seb. Chron. Ad- eiinckui An. u /tli. Snnrtian.in vit. Sever: c. 17. p.'35S.
3 A
S70 THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN.
The general pretence it is like was the prohibiting the heterias, or unlawful societies (which we have elsewhere described) for such a rescript "" Ulpian mentions, where- by Severus forbade the illegal colleges, commanding the persons frequenting them to be accused before the Prse- fect of the city, in which number they usually beheld the Christians ; though I doubt not but there were (as Spar- tianus plainly affirms) particular edicts issued out against them. The people, who could hardly be held in before, having now the reins thrown upon their necks, and spur- red on by the imperial orders ran apace upon the execu- tion, so that the churches in all places ^' were filled with martyrdoms and the blood of the saints, and it grew so hot, that "^ Jude, a writer of those times, drawing down his chronology of Daniel's LXX. weeks, to this 5'ear, broke off his computation, supposing that the so much celebrated coming of antichrist was now at hand. So exceedingly (says the historian) were the minds of many shaken and disturbed with the present persecution. Ter- tullian, that he might speak a word in season, took hold of the present opportunity, and wrote to the martyrs in prison, to comfort them under their sufferings, and exhort them to constancy and final perseverance ; as also for the same reason and about the same time he published his discourse concerning patience, wherein he very elegantly describes the advantages and commendations of that vir- tue, and especially urges it from the example of God, our blessed Saviour, and speaks therein m^ore favourably than he did afterwards of retiring in a time of persecution. Nor was he less watchful to defend and preserve the church from errour and heresy, writing his Prescription against Heretics (for that it was written about this time is evident from several passages, especially where he men- tions the time of persecution, the place of the tribunal, the person of the judge, the bringing forth of lions, and the like) wherein he enumerates and insists upon the se- veral heresies which had infested the church till that
o L. 1. ff. de offic. Prefect. tirb. § 14. Tit. IS. "ib. 1. p F/iseb. H. Eccl. i 6. c. 1. p. 201, q Ibid c. 6. p. 208.
THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN. 271
time ; censuring and confuting their absurd opinions, and promising' a more distinct and particular confutation of the :> afterwards. Which accordingly he performed in his discourses against the Jews, against Hermogenes, the Valentinians, Marcion, Praxeas, and some others of their proselytes and disciples, and some of the Monta- nists themselves, writing a particular tract concerning baptism, and the use of water in it, and its necessity to salvation, against Quintilla, a woman of great note and eminency among the followers of Montanus, what value soever he afterwards seemed to put upon that sect.
6. About the XV. of Severus, J/in, Chr, CCVII. he published his book De Pallio upon this occasion. He had lately left of the gown, the garment ordinarily worn in all parts of the Roman empire, and had put on the cloak, the usual habit of philosophers, and of all those Christians that entered upon a severer state of life, as we have shown in the life of Justin martyr. Hereupon he was derided by them of Carthage for his lightness and vanity, in so wantonly skipping d toga ad pallium^ from the gown to the cloak, satyrically taxing his inconstancy \xi turning from one course of life to another. To vindi- cate himself he writes this discourse, wherein he puts forth the keenness of a sarcastic v;it, and spreads all the sails of his African eloquence, retorts the case upon his accusers, shows the antiquity, simplicity, easiness, and gravity of this habit, and smartly upbraids that luxury and prodigality that had overrun all orders and ranks of men. And that this was done about this time, and not at his first taking upon him the profession of Christianity, is judiciously observed and urged by Baronius,' and more fully proved by the learned Salmasius, in his notes upon that book. Indeed the circumstances mentioned by ^ Tertullian do not well suit with any other time, as the prasentis Imperii triplex virtus, which cannot reasonably be meant of any, but Severus and his two sons, Antoni- nus and Geta, whence in several ancient inscriptions, they
r De Prjescrlpt. Haeret. c. 45. p. 219. s Ad. Ann, 197 n. 3. & se^.
t DePjUl.cap.2. p. 114.
Sr2 THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAK.
are put together under the title of AUGUSTI, and Env perours ; the present happiness, security, enlargement, and tranquillity of the Roman state, which these three powers of the empire had made like a well cultivated field, eradicato omni aconito hostilitatis^ every poisonous weed of hostility and sedition being rooted up, with a great deal more to the same purpose. Which evidently refers both to his conquest of Pescennius Niger, who usurped the empire, and whom he overthrew and killed at Cyzicum in the east, and to his last year's victory (as ""Eusebius places it) over Clodius Albinus and his party, whom he subdued and slew as Lyons in France, for attempting to make himself emperor, as afterwards he came into Britain [maxiininn ejus Imperii Decus^ as the ^ historian styles it, the greatest honour and ornament of his empire) where he conquered the natives, and secu^ red his conquests by the famous Pict's wall, which he built : by which means he rendered the state of the Ro- man empire pacate and quiet. At the same time we may suppose it was that TertuUian was made presbyter of Carthage, and that that was the particular occasion of al- tering his habit, and assuming the philosophic pall'mm^ the clergy of those times being generally those who took tipon them an ascetic course of life, and for which reason doubtless the cloak is called by TertuUian in his dialect,"^ sacerdos suggestus^ the priestly habit. Accordingly '^Eusebius takes notice of him this very year as becoming famous in theaccount and esteem of all christian churches. 7. Before Severus left Rome in order to his Britannic expedition, were solemnized the decenalia of Antoninus Caracalla, when besides many magnificent sports a .d shows, and a largess bestowed upon the people, the em-, peror gave a donative to the soldiers, which eveiy one that received, was to come up to the tribune with a lau- rel crown upon his head. Among the rest there was one a ''Christian, who brought his crown along with him in
u Easeb. Chron, ad eund. Ann. v Spart. in vit. Sever, c. l^ p. 354;.
\v Ibid. c. 4. p. 118. X Chrnn. ad An. CCVIH.
y De Coron. Millit. c. 1. p. 100.
THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN. 373
his hand, and being asked the reason why like others he wore it not upon his head ? answered, he could not for that he was a Christian. A council oF war was presently calied, and the man accused before the general, stripped of his military ornaments, his cloak, shoes, and sword, unmercifully beaten, till he was died in his own blood, ^nd then cast into prison, there expecting martyrdom,, and a better donative and reward from Christ. The rest of the Christians, who were fellow- soldiers in the same army, took offence at his over nice scrupulosity. What was this but needlessly to betray their liberty, and to sa- crifice the general quiet and peace of Christians to one man's private humour ? to give the common enemy too just a provocation to fliU upon them ? Where did the laws of their religion forbid such an innocent compliance, nay rather not only give leave, but commanded us pru- dently to decline a danger, by u'ithdrawing from it ? what was this but a sturdy and an affected singularity, as if he had been the only Christian ? Tertullian, whose mighty zeal engaged him to be a patron to whatever had but the shadow of strictness and severity, presently set himself to defend the fact, and wrote his book De Corona MilU tis, wherein he cries up the act as an heroic piece of zeal and christian magnanimity, not only warrantable, but honourable, not only lawful, but just and necessary, for- tifying his assertion with several arguments, and endea- vouring to disable the most specious objections that were made against it. Tliis military act, and Tertullian's vindication of it, happened (as we have here placed it) Ann. Chr. 208, Sever. 16, while others refer it to the year 196. Sever. 7, when the emperor, by the decree of the senate, created his elder son Antoninus emperor, and his younger Geta, Cassar, in testimoniy whereof he en- tertained the people with various shows and solemnities, and bestowed a donative upon the soldiers. If the rea- der like this period of time better, I will not contend with him, it being what I myself, upon second thought?, do not think improbable.
8. But let him that tlnnlceth he stcmdeth, take heed lest hefalL Tertullian, who had hitherto stood firm and right
374 THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN,
in the communion of the Catholic church, began now, about the middle of his age, says ^St. Hicrom (which I am inclinable rather to understand of his age as a Christian, than the currentof hislife)to incline towards the errours of the Montanists, of which before we give an account. It may not be amiss a little to inquire into the author and principles of that sect. ^Montanus was born at Ardaba, a little village in Mysia in the confines of Phrygia, where, about the latter times of Antoninus Pius, but es- pecially in the reign of his successor, he began to show himself. Pride and immoderate ambition betrayed the man into the snares and condemnation of the deviL At which breach Satan having entered, took possession of the man, who actuated by the influence of an evil spi- rit, was wont on a sudden to fall into enthusiastic fits and ecstatic raptures, and while he was in them, in a furious and a frantic manner he poured out wild and unheard of things, prophesying of what was to come in a way and strain that had not been used hitherto in the church. Proselytes he wanted not, that came over to his party. At first only some few of his county men, the Phrygians (whence his sect derived the title of Cata- phryges) were drawn into the snare, whom he instruct- ed in the arts of evil speaking, teaching them to reproach the whole Christian church for refusing to entertain and honour his pseudo-prophetic spirit, the same spirit on the contrary pronouncing them blessed that joined them- selves to this new prophet, and swelling them with the mighty hopes and promises of what should happen to them, sometimes also gently reproving and condemning them. Among the rest of his disciples two women were especially remarkable, Prisca, and Maximilla, whom having first corrupted, he imparted his daemon to them, whereby they were presently enabled to utter the most frantic, incoherent and extravagant discourses. The truth is he seemed to lay his scene with all imagina-
z De Script, in Tertull a Vet. Script, ap. Euseb. 1. 5. c. 16. p. 180 SiC.
Apollon. ibid, c 18. p. 184. Epiph. Haeres. XLVIII. p. 175. Tertull. de Prae- script. Hxretic. C' 52. p. 2*23.
THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN. 3TS^
ble craft and subtlety ; in the great and foundation prin- ciples of religion he agreed with the Catholics, embra- ced entirely the holy scriptures, and pretended that he must receive the gifts of divine grace extraordinarily con- ferred upon him, which he gave out were more immedi- ately the Holy Ghost: he made a singular show of some uncommon rigours and severities in religion, gave laws for more strict and solemn fasts, and more frequently to be observed, than were among the orthodox, taught divorces to be lawful, and forbid all second marriages, called Pepuza and Tymium, two little towns of Phry- gia, Jerusalem, that so he might the more plausibly in- vite simple and unwary proselytes to flock thither. And because he knew no surer way to oblige such persons as would be serviceable to him, than proposals of gain and advantage, he used all methods of extorting money from his deluded followers, especially under the notion of gifts and offerings, for which purpose he appointed collectors to receive the oblations that were brought in, with which he maintained under- officers, and paid sala- ries to those that propagated his doctrines up and down the world. Such were the arts, such the principles of the sect first started by Montanus ; what additions were made by his followers in after ages, I am not now con- cerned to inquire.
9. Allured with the smooth and specious pretences of this sect, TertuUian began to look that way, though the particular occasion of his starting aside ''St. Hierom tells us, was the envy and reproaches which he met with from the clergy of the church of Rome. They that con ceive him to have sued for the see of Carthage, vacant by the death of Agrippinus, and that he was opposed and repulsed in it by the clergy of Rome, and so highly re- sented the affront, as thereupon to quit the communion of the Catholic church, talk at random, and little consi- der the mortified temper of the man, and his known con> tempt of the world. Probabieit is, that being generally noted for the excessive and over rigorous strictness of
b Ubi supra, vid, Niceph. 1. 4. c. 12. tj. 298.
376 THE LIKE OF TERTULLIAK.
his manners, he had been charged by some of the Ro- man clergy for compliance with Montanus, and, it may be, admonished to recant, or disown those principles. Which his stubborn and resolute temper not admitting, he was, together with Proclus and the rest of the Cata- phrygian party, cut oif by the bishop of Rome from all communion with that church. For there had been late- ly a disputation held at Rome between Caius, an anci- ent orthodox divine, and Proclus, one of the heads of the Montanist party (as ''Eusebius, who read the account of it published by Caius, informs us) wherein Proclus being worsted, was, together with all the followers of that sect, excommunicated, and Tertullian himself among the rest, as he sufficiently *^intimates. This, a man of a morose and unyielding disposition, and w^ho could brook no moderation that seemed to intrench upon the disci- pline and practice of religion, could not bear, and there- fore making light of the judgment and censures of that church, fiew oiF, and joined himself to Montanus's party, whose pretended austerities seemed of all others most agreeable to his humour and genius, and most ex- actly to conspire with the course and method of his life. But as it cannot be doubted that he looked no further than to the appearances and pretensions of that sect (not seeing the corrupt springs by which the engine was ma- naged within) so it is most reasonable and charitable to conceive, that he never understood their principles in the utmost latitude and extent of them. If beseems sometimes to acknowledge Montanus to be the paraclete that was to come into the world, probably he meant not something distinct from the Holy Spirit bestowed upon the apostles, but a mighty power and extraordinary as- sistance of the Holy Ghost shed upon Montanus, whom God had sent into the world, more Hilly and perfectly to explain the doctrines of the gospel, and to urge the rules and institutions of the Christian life, which our lord had delivered when he was upon earth, but did not with the
c Lib. 6. c. 20 p. 222. 1 . 2. c. 25. p. 67. Hlcron. de Script. In Cai^. d De jeJLin. c. 1. p. 544.
THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN. 377
greatest accuracy the things were capable of, the m inds of men not being then duly qualified to receive them. That for this end he thought Montanus invested with miraculous powers and a spirit of prophecy (a thing not unusual even in those times) and might believe his two prophetesses to be acted with the same spirit. All which might consist with an honest mind, imposed upon by crafty and plausible pretences. And plain it is that for some considerable time Montanus maintained the repu- tation of great piety, zeal, sanctity, and extraordinary gifts, before he was discovered to the world. And Ter- tullian in all likelihood had his accounts concerning him, not from himself, but from Proclus, or some others of the party, who might easily delude him, especially in matters of fact, with false informations. However no- thing can be more evident, than that he looked '^upon these new prophets as innovating nothing in the princi- ples of Christianity, that Montanus preached no other God, nor asserted any thing to the prejudice of our bles- sed Saviour, nor subverted any rule of faith or hope, but only introduced greater severities than other men : that he was not the author, but the restorer of discipline, and only reduced things to that ancient strictness, from which he supposed they had degenerated, especially in the cases of celibacy, single marriages, and such like, as he ^more than once particularly tells us. Not to say, that Montanus's followers (as is usual with the after brood of every sect) asserted many things, which their master himself never dreamt of, which yet without dis- tinction are laid at his door, and Tertuliian too because a favourer of the party, drawn iato the guilt, and made liable to many improvements, to the hay and stubble which the successors of that sect built upon it.
10. But however it was, he stomached his excommu- nication, and was highly offended at the looseness and re- missness of the discipline among the Catholics, whom with great smartness he persecutes under the name of psychici, or animal persons, as those that took too much
d De Jejun. loc. citat. e Vid 1. de ■Mono^am. c, 1. p. 52'^. &. c. 3. 8c 4 Sc passim d'^^'jeiiTn, c. 1?. p- 550, 5?^.
3 B
S7S THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN.
liberty in their manners and practices of devotion, styling his own party Spiritales, as whom he thought more imme- diately guided by the spirit, more plentifully endowed with the gifts of it, and conversant in a more divine and spiritual life. Against these Psychici he presently pub- lished a tract De Jejuniis, wherein he defends the Mon- tanists in the observation of their fasts, their abstinence from flesh, and feeding only upon dried meats, their sta- tionary days, and the keeping them till the very evening, while the orthodox broke up theirs about three of the clock in the afternoon ; in all which respects he makes many tart and severe reflections upon them. Indeed, the devotions of those times were brisk and fervent, their usages strict and punctual, their ecclesiastic discipline generally very rigid and extreme, seldom admitting per- sons that had lapsed after baptism to penance and the communion of the church. But this was looked upon by moderate and sober men as making the gate too strait,^ and that which could not but discourage converts from coming in. Accordingly it began to be relaxed in seve- ral places, and particularly the bishop of Rome ^ had late- ly published a constitution, wherein he admitted persons guilty of adultery and fornication (and probably other crimes) to a place among the penitents. Against this Tertullian storms, cries up the severity of the ancient discipline, writes his book De Pudicitia^ wherein he con- siders and disputes the case, arid aggravates the greatness of those offences, and undertakes the arguments that pleaded for remission and indulgence. And if in the mentioning this decree the bishop of Rome be styled E- piscopus Episcoporom^ the champions of that church be- fore they make such advantage of it, should do well to prove it to liave been a part of the decree, or, if it was, that it was mentioned by Tertullian as his just right and privilege, and not rather (which is infinitely more proba- ble) Tertullian' s sarcasm, intended by him as an ironical reflection and a tart upbraiding the pride and ambition of the bishops of that church, who took too much upon
f Tcjt. dc Pudicit. c. 1. p. 555,
THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN. 379
them, and began (as appears from pope Victor's carriage towards the Asian Churches in the case of Easter) to do- tnineer over their brethren, and usurp an insolent autho- rity over the whole Christian church. And that this was his meaning, I am abundantly satisfied from ^ Cy- prian's using the phrase in this very sense in the famous synod at Carthage, where reflecting upon the rash and vi- olent proceedings of the bishops of Rome (whom though he particularly names not, yet all who are acquainted with the story know whom he means) against those who were engaged in thejcause of rebaptizing heretics, he adds, " that as for themselves (the bishops then in the synod) none of them made himself bishop of bishops^ or by a tyrannical threatening forced his colleagues into a necessity of compliance : since every bishop according to the power and liberty granted to him, had his proper urisdiction, and could no more be judged by another, ihan he himself could judge others."
11. Whether ever he was reconciled to the catholic communion, appears not ; it is certain that for the main he forsook the ^' Cataphrygians, and kept his separate meetings at Carthage, and his church was yet remaining till St. Augustin's time, by whose labours the very re- lics of his followers, called TertuUianists, were dis- persed, and quite disappeared. How long he continued after his departure from the church, is not known ; St. Hierom ' says that he lived to a very decrepit age, but whether he died under the reign of Alexander Severus, or before, the ancients tell us not, as neither whether he died a natural or violent death. He seemed indeed to have been possessed with a passionate desire of laying down his life for the faith ; though had he been a martyr, some mention would without peradventure have been made of it in the writings of the church.
12. He was a man of a smart and acute wit, though a little too much edged with keenness and satyrism, acris et vehementis ingeniif as '' St. Hierom characters him,'onc
g Apud Cyprian, p. 282. h August, de Hacrcs. c. 85. Tom. 6. col. 31.
i De Scrip, in Tertull. k Loc. citat.
380 THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAX.
that knew not how to treat an adversary \A-ithoiit salt and sharpness. He was of a stiff and rui^ged disposition, a rigid censor, inclined to choler, and impatient of opposi- tion, a strict observer of rites and disciphne, and a zeal- ous asserter of the highest rigors and most nice severities of religion. His learning was admirable, wherein though many excelled, he had no superiours, and few equals, in the age he lived in : Tertidliano quid erudit'ius^ quid acutius? says* St. Hierom, who adds that \ns> Apology, and book against the Gentiles took in all the treasures of human learning. '" Vincentius of Lire gives him this notable eulogium. ** He is justly (says he) to be esteem- ed the prince among the writers of the Latin church. For what more learned ? who more conversant both in divine and human studies ? who by a strange largeness and capacity of mind had drawn all philosophy, and its several sects, the authors and abettors of heresies with all their rites and principles, and the whole circumference of history and all kind of study within the compass of his own breast. A man of such quick and weighty parts, that there was scarce any thing which he set himself against, which he did not either pierce through with the acumen of his wit, or batter down Avith the strength and soHdity of his arguments. Who can sufficiently com- mend his discourses, so thick set with troops of reasons, that whom they cannot persuade, they are ready to force to an assent ? who hath almost as many sentences as words, and not more periods than victories over those whom he hath to deal with."
13. For his books, though time has devoured many, yet a great number still remain, and some of them writ- ten after his withdrawment from the church. His style is for the most part abrupt and haughty, and its fece full of ancient wrinkles, of which '^ Lactantius long since gave this censure, that though he himself was skilled in all points of learning, yet his style was rugged and uneasy, and very obscure ; as indeed it requires a very attentive
I Epist. ad Mag. Orator, p. 328. T. 2. m Commonit. adv. Hsr^s. cap.
24. |). 59, 6a. n Lib. 5. cap. 1. p. 459. ^
THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN. 381
and diligent, a sharp and sagacious understanding, yet is it lofty and masculine, and carries a kind of majestic eloquence along with it, that gives a pleasant relish to the judicious and inquisitive reader. It is deeply tine- tured u^ith the African dialect, and owes not a little of its perplexedness and obscurity to his conversing so much in the writings of the Greeks, whose forms and idioms he had so made his own, that they naturally flow- ed into his pen ; and how great a master he was of that tongue is plain, in that himself" tells us, he wrote a book concerning baptism, and some others, in Greek ; which could not but exceedingly vitiate and infect his native style, and render it less smooth, elegant, and delightful, as we see in Ammianus Marcellinus, who being a Greek born, wrote his Roman history in Latin, in a style rough and unpleasant, and next door to barbarous. Besides what was in itself obscure and uneven, became infinitely worse by the ignorance of succeeding ages, who changed, what they did not understand, and crowded in spurious words in the room of those which were proper and na- tural, till they had made it look like quite another thing than what it was when it first came from under the hand of its author.
14. His errors and unsound opinions are frequently noted by St. Augustin and the ancients (not to mention later censors) and Pamelius has reduced his paradoxes to thirty one, which together with their explications and antidotes he has prefixed before the editions of his works. That of Montanus's being the paraclete, we noted before, and for other things relating to that sect, they are rather matters concerning order and discipline, then articles and points of faith. It caimot be denied but that he has some unwarrantable notions, common with other writers of those times, and some more pecu- liar to himself. But he lived in an age, when the faith was yet green and tender, when the church had not pub- licly and solemnly defined things by explicit articles and nice propositions, when the philosophy of the schools was
o De Baptism, c. 15, p. 230. de Coron. c . 6. p. 104.
382
THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN.
mainly predominant, and men ran immediately from the stoa and the academy to the church, when a greater lati. tude of opening was indulged, and good men were infi- nitely more solicitous about piety and a good life, than about modes of speech, and how to express every thing so critically and exactly, that it should not be liable to a severe scrutiny and examinatipn.
HIS WRITINGS.
Genuine.
Apologeticus.
Ad Nationes, Libri 2.
De Testimonio Animse.
Ad Scapulam.
De Spectaculis,
De Idololatria.
De Corona.
De Pallio.
De Pcenitentia.
De Oratione.
Ad Martyras.
De Patientia.
De Cultii foeminarum Lib. 2.
AdUxorem, Lib. 2.
De Virginibus Velandis.
Adversus Judaos.
De Praescriptione Haeretico-
rum. De Baptismo. Adversus Hermogenem. Adversus Valentin ianos. De Anima. De Carne Christi. De Resurrectione Carnis. Adversus Marcionem, Lib. 5. Scorpiace. Adversus Praxeam.
Libri post Lapsum in Monta-
nismum scripti. De Exhortatione Castitatis. De Monogamia. De Fuga in Persecutione. De Jejuniis. De Pudicitia.
Supposititious.
Poemata. Adversus Marcionem, Lib. ^. De judicio Domini. Genesis. Sodoma.
Not extant. De Paradiso. De Spe Fidelium. De Ecstasi.
Adversus Apollonium. Adversus Apellecianos. De Vestibus Aaron. De Censu Aninice.
GrsEce, De Corona. De Virginibus Velanls. De Baptismo.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN,
PRESBYTER, CATECHIST OF ALEXANDRIA.
OH gen, where and when born. Several conjectures about the original of his name. His father, who. His juvenile education, and great to- wardliness in the knowledge of the scriptures. His philosophical stu- dies under Clemens Alexandrinus. His institution under Ammonius. Animonius. who. His fame and excellency confessed by the Gentile phi- losophers. Another Origen his contemporary : these two heedlessly con- founded. His father's martyrdom, and the confiscation of his estate. Ori- gen's resolute encouragement of his father. His own passionate desire of martyrdom. His maintenance by an honourable matron of Alexan- dria. His zeal against heretics. His setting up a private school. His succeeding Clemens in the catechetic school at eighteen years of age. The frequency of his auditors. Many of them martyrs for the faith. Origen's resolution in attending upon the martyrs. His danger. His courageous act at the temple of Serapis. His emasculating him- self, and the reasons of it. The eminent chastity of those prfmitive tunes. Origen's journey to Rome, and return to Alexandria. His taking in a colleague into the catechetic office. His learning the He- brew tongue. The prudent method of his teaching. Ambrosius con- verted. Who he was. His great intimacy with Origen. Origen sent for by the governour of Arabia. His jcurney into Palestine, and teach- ing at Caesaria. Remanded by the bishop of Alexandria. Alexander Severus, his excellent virtues, and kindness for the christian religion. Origen sent for by the empress Mammaea to Antioch. Fie begins to write his commentaries. How many notaries, and transcribers em- ployed, and by whom maintained. Notaries, their original and office - their use and institution in the primitive church. His journey inf Greece. His passage through Palestine, and being ordained presbyti at Caesarea. Demetrius of Alexandria, his envy and rage against him. Origen condemned in two synods at Alexandria, and one at Home. The resignation of his catechetic school to Heraclas. Hera- cias, who. The story of his offering sacrifice. The credit of this stoiy questioned, sind why. His departure from Alexandria, and fixing at
384 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
Caesarca. The eminency of his school there. Gregorius Thauma*^ turgus his scholar. His friendship with Firmilian. Firmilian, who. The persecution under Maximinus. Origen's book written to the martyrs. His retirement whither. His comparing the versions of the Bible. Hi? Tetrapla, Hexapla, and Octapla, what, and how managed : His second journey to Athens. His going to Nicomedia, and let- ter to Africanus about the history of Susanna. His confutation of Beiyllus in Arabia. His answer to Celsus. Celsus, who. Origen's letters to Philip the emperor. The vanity of making him a Christian. Origen's journey into Arabia to refute heresies. The Helcesaitae, who : what their principles. Alexander's miraculous election to the see of Jerusalem ; his coadjutorship, government, suf- ferings, and martyrdom. Origen's grievous sufferings at Tyre, under the Decian persecution. His deliverance out of prison ; age, and death. His character. His strict life. His mighty zeal, abstinence, contempt "of the world, indefatigable diligence, and patience noted. His natural parts : incomparable learnmg. His books, and their se- veral classes. His style, what. His unsound opinions. The great outcry against him in all ages. The apologies written in his behalf, several things noted out of the ancients to extenuate the charge. His assertions not dogmatical. Not intended for public view^ Generally such as were not determined by the church. His books corrupted, and by whom. His own complaints to that purpose. The testimonies of Athanasius, and Theotimus, and Haymo in his vindication. Great erroi's and mistakes acknowledged. What things contributed to them. His great kindness for the PI li tonic principles. St. Hierom's moderate censure of him. His repenting of his rash propositions. His ■writings enumerated, and what now extant.
1. ORIGEN, called also Adamantius (either from the unwearied temper of his mind, and that strength of reason wherewith he compacted his discourses, or his iirmness and constancy in religion, notwithstanding aU the assaults made against it) was born at Alexandriaj tiie known metropolis of Egypt ; unless we will suppose, that upon some particular tumult or persecution raised against the Christians in that city, his parents fled for re- fuge to the mountainous parts thereabouts, where his mother was delivered of him, and that thence he was called Origenes, quasi h igii yim^bCn (which most conceive to the etymology of his name) one born in the mountains.*' But w^hether that be the proper derivation of the word, or the other the particular occasion of its imposition, let the reader determine as he please. However I believe the reader will think it a much more probable and reason- able conjecture, than what one ^supposes, that he was so
a 'Og/Q^eyiic, 0 h to? l^tt yim^^iie:. Suid. in voc 'O^;^.. p. 330. T. 2. b Halloix not. ad Grig-, defcns. c. I. p, i.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 385
called because born of holy parents ; the saints in scrip- ture being (as he tells us) sometimes metaphorically styled Mountains. The first and the last I dare say that ever made that conjecture. A learned man ''supposes him rather (and thinks no doubt can be made of it) so called from Orus, an Egyptian word, and with them the title of Apollo or the sun (from iin no question, which signifies light or fire) one of their principal deities. Hence Orus, the name of one of the Egyptian kings, as it has been also of many others. And thus as «Vo ^ a«c comes Diogenes, one born of Jupiter, sO'i^sTS'n^^is derived Origenes, one descended of Or, or Orus, a Deity so- lemnly worshipped at Alexandria. A conjecture that might have commanded its own entertainment, did not one prejudice lie against it, that we can hardly conceive so good a man, and so severe a Christian as Origen's father would impose a name upon his child for which he must be beholden to an heathen deity, and whom he might see every day worshipped with the most sottish idolatry, that he should lethim perpetually carry about that remem- brance of Pagan idolatry in his name, which thc}^ so par- ■ ticularly, and so solemnly renounced in their baptism/ But to return.
2. He was born about the year of our Lord 186, be- ing seventeen'^ years of age at his father's death, who suffered Ann. Chr. 202, Severi 10. His father was Le- onidas, whom Suidas^and some others (without any au- thority that I know of from the ancients) make a bishop. To be sure he was a good man, and a martyr for the faith. In his younger years he was brought up under the tutor- age of his own ^father, who instructed him in all the grounds of human literature, and together with them, took especial care to instil the principles of religion, sea- soning his early age with the notices of divine things, so that like another Timothy, fro?n a child he knew the holy Scriptures, and was thoroughl}^ exercised and instructed in them. Nor was his father more diligent to insinuate
c Voss.de Idol. 1. 2. c. 10. p. 18'1>.
d Euseb, H. EccL 1.6. c. 2. p. 203. e In \oz. 'nf>iyivn;,p. 389. Tom. 2
f Euseb. Ibid. p. 202.
5 C
586 TI^E LIFE OF ORICxEX.
his instructions, than the subject he managed was capa-- ble to receive them. Part of his daily task was to learn and repeat some parts of the holy Scriptures, which he readily discharged. But not satisfied wath the bare reading or recital of them, he began to inquire more narrowly into the more profound sense of them, often im- portuning his father with questions, what such or such a passage of scripture meant. The good man, though seemingly reproving his busy forwardness, and admo- nishing him to be content with the plain obvious sense, and not to ask questions above his age, did yet inwardly rejoice in his own mind, and heartily bless God that he had made him the father of such a child. Much ado had the prudent man to keep the exuberance of his love and joy from running over before others, but in private he gave it vent, frequently going into the chaniber where the youth lay asleep, and reverently kissing his naked breast, the treasury of an early piety and a divine spirit, reflected upon himself how happy he was in so excellent a son. So great a comfort, so invaluable a blessing is it to pious parents to see their children setting out betimes in the way of righteousness, and sucking in religion al- most with their mother's milk.
3. Having passed over his paternal education, he was put to perfect his studies under the institution of Cle- mens Alexandrinus, then regent of the catechist school at Alexandria, where according to the acuteness of his parts, and the greatness of his industry he made vast im- provements in all sorts of learning. From him he be- took himself to Ammonius, who had then newly set up a platonic school at Alexandria, and had reconciled s those inveterate feuds and differences that had been be- tween the schools of Plato and Aristotle, and which had reigned among their disciples till his time, which he did (says my author) hGarida-^cargoc ro ■^ cpixo^ccpi^g dx>,^ivcv, out of a divine transport for the truth of philosophy, despising the little opinions, and wrangling contentions of peevish men, and propounding a more free and generous kind of
g Hierccl. 1. 1. de provkl. & Fat, ap. Phot. Cod. CCXIV. col, 549. & Cod. CCLI. coi. 1381.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 38r
^^n, as Porphyry '^ besides other witnesses, who saw Origen when hnnself but a youth. This Ammonius was called Saccas, (from his carrying ' sacks of corn upon his back, being a porter by eniploynient, before he betook himself to the study of philosoph} ) one of the most learn- ed and eloquent men of those times, a great philosopher, and the chief of the platonic sect, and which was above all, a Christian, born and brought up among them, as ^ Por- phyry himself is forced to confess ; though when he tells us, that afterwards upon maturer consideration, and his entering upon philosophy, he renounced Christianity, and embraced Paganism and the religion of the empire, he is as little to be credited, and guilty of as notorious a false- hood (as Eusebius observes) as when he affirms that Origen was born and bred up a gentile, and then turned oft to Christianity, when as nothing was more evident, than that Origen was born of Christian parents, and that Ammonius retained hiis Christian and divine philosophy to the very last minute of his life, whereof the books which he left behind him were a standing evidence. In- deed '"^ Eutychius patriarch of Alexandria (if he means tlie same) seems to give some countenance to Porphyry's report, and further adds, that Ammonius was one of the twenty bishops, which Heraclas, then bishop of Alexan- dria, constituted over the Egyptian churches, but that he deserted his religion, which Heraclas no sooner heard of, but he convened a synod of bishops and went to the city, where Ammonius was bishop, \\here having thoroughly scanned and discussed the matter, he redu- ced him back again to the trudi. Whether he found this among the records of that church, or took it from the mouth of tradition and report, is uncertain, the thing not being mentioned by any other writer. But however it was, it is plain that Ammonius was a man of incompara- ble parts and learning, " Hierocles himself styles him kdiJj'XKh,, one taught of God, and when Plotinus the great
h Apv.fl Euseb. ibid. c. 19. p. 220. vid. Tlieod. Serm. VI. de Prov'.d p. 96. i Vul T :Cv;d. loco citat. k Lnc. ciiat.
m Anna'i. p. 332 Edit. Pocnck. vid. etiam SeUler,. not. in Eutych. Sect. 2". p. 147. Lib. de P.orid, & fat. ubi supr.
388 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
platonist had found him out, he ''told his friend in a kind of triumph, that this was the man whom he had sought after. Under him Origen made himself perfect master of the platonic notions, being daily conversant in the writings of Plato, Numenius, Cronius, Apollophanes, Longinus, Moderatus, Nicomachus, and the most prin- cipal among the Pythagoreans, as also of Chaeremon and Cornatus, Stoics ; from whom (as Porphyry truly enough observes) he learned that allegorical and mystical way of interpretation, which he introduced into the Chris- tian doctrine.
4. Besides our Adamantiu:^, there was another Ori- gen, his contemporary, a Gentile philosopher, honourably mentioned by ^'Longinus, ^^Porphyry, 'Hierocles, *Euna- pius, ^Proclus, and others; a person of that learning and accurate judgment, that coming "one day into Plotinus's school, the grave philosopher was ashamed, and would have given place : and when intreated by Origen to go on with his lecture, he answered widi a compliment, that a man could have but little mind to speak there, where he was to discourse to them, who understood things as well as himself, and so after a very short discourse, broke up the meeting. I am not ignorant that most learned men have carelesly confounded this person with our Origen : Whence 'Holstenius wonders why Eunapius should make him school-fellow with Porphyry, who was much his junior, whom Porphyry says indeed he knew, being himself then very young, and this probably not at Alex- andria but at Tyre, where he was born, and where Ori- gen a long time resided. So that his wonder would have ceased, had he considered what is plain enough, tliat Eunapius meant it of this other Origen, Porphyry's fellow pupil, not under Ammonius at Alexandria, but under Plotinus at Rome. Indeed were there nothing else, this were enough to distinguish them, that the ac- count given of Origen and what he wrote by Longinus,
o Porphyi\ in vit. Plotln. p 2. Plotiii. Opcr. Pi\tf. Porphyr. ap Euseb. ubi.
[> Lib. <arsei Ttxss? apiul. Poi-phvr. in vit. Plotin. q Ibid. r Lib. de Fat
..hi. supr. s In vit. Prophyr. p. 19. t In Plat. Theol. I. %c. 4. p. 9l>. u Ap. Porpbvr. loc, cit. v Dc Vit. &. Script. Forpliyv. c. 2. p. IL
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 389
by Porphyry in the life of Plotinus, and others, does no ways agree to our Christian writer.
5. The persecution under Severus in the tenth year of his reign was now grown hot at Alexandria, Lcctus the governor daily adding fuel to the flames, where among the great numbers of martyrs ''Leonides, Ori- gen's father, was first imprisoned, then beheaded, and his estate confiscated and reduced into the public exche- quer. During his imprisonment ''Origen began to dis- cover a most impatient desire of martyrdom, from which scarce any intreaties or considerations could restrain him. He knew the deplorable estate wherein he was like to leave his wife and children, could not but have a sad influence upon his father's mind, whom therefore by letters he passionately exhorted to persevere unto mar- tyrdom, adding this clause among the rest, Take heed sir, that for our sakes you do not change your mind. And himself had gone not only to prison, but to the very block with his father, if the divine providence had not interposed. His mother, perceiving his resolutions, treat- ed him with all the charms and endearments of so affec- tionate a relation, attempted him with prayers and tears, ir^treating him if not for his own, that at least for her sake, and his nearest relatives, he would spare himself. All which not prevailing, especially after his father's ap- prehension, she was forced to betake herself to little arts, hiding all his clothes, that mere shame might confine him to the house. A mighty instance, as the historian notes, of a juvenile forwardness and maturity, and a most hearty affection for the true religion.
6. His father being dead, and the ^estate seized for the emperor's use, he and the family were reduced to great straits. When behold the providence of God (who peculiarly takes care of widows and orphans, and especially the relicts of those that suffer for him) mad \\'\\ for their relief. A rich and honourable matron of Alexandria, pitying his miserable case, liberally contri-
w Euseb. ib. c 1. p. ^M. x Id q. ? p. 20?. Euseb. ibUi. p. 203.
390 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
butcd to his necessities, as she did to others, and among them maintained one Paul of Antioch, a ringleader of all the heretics at Alexandria, who by subtle artifices had so far insinuated himself into her, that she had adopted him to be her son. Origen, though he held his livelihood purely at her bounty, would not yet comply wuth this favourite, not so much as to join in prayer with him, no not when an innumerable multitude not only of heretics, but of orthodox daily flocked to him, taken with the elo- quence of his discourses. For from his childhood he had religiously observed the rule and canon of the churcla, and abominated (as himself expresses it) all heretical doctrines. Whether this noble lady upon this occasion withdrew her charity, or wdiether he thought it more agreeable to the Christian rule to live by his own labour, than to depend wholly upon another's bounty, I know- not : but having perfected those studies of foreign learn- ing, the foundations whereof he had laid under the dis- cipline of his father, he now began to set up for himself, opening a school for the profession of the learned arts, where besides the good he did to others, he raised a con- siderable maintenance to himself. And though then, but a very youth, yet did not the grave and the learned, the philosophers, and greatest masters of heresy disdain to be present at his lectures, whose opinions he imparti- ally w^eighed and examined, as himself ^informs us : many of whom of auditors ''became his converts, yea and martyrs for the faith, as we shall see by and by.
7. By this time his fame had recommended him to public notice, and he was thought fit, though but eigh- teen years of age, to be made master of the Catechetic school at Alexandria, whether as colleague with his mas- ter Clemens, or upon resignation, his successor, is un- certain ; the latter seems most probable, because ^Eu- sebius reports that Demetrius bishop of Alexandria com- mitted the instruction of the Catechumens to him only, unless we will understand it of some private andparticu- liar school, distinct from the ordinary catechetic school,
2 Epist. ap. Euseb, ib. c. 19. p. 221. a Ibid. c. 30. p. 204. b Ibid
p. 205.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. S91
philosophy to his auditors. Among whom was our Ori- till Clcmens's death, whose successor the ancients gene- fallv make him. Scholars in very great numbers daily crowded in upon him, so that finding he had enough to do, and that his different imployments did not well con- sisc together, he left off teaching the arts and sciences, and gave up himself entire]}^ to the instructing his disci- ples in the rudiments of Christianity. Being settled in this office, he followed it with infinite diligence, and no less success. For he not onl}" built up those who were already Christians, but ''gained over a great number of Gentile philosophers to the faith, who embraced Chris- tianity with so hearty and sincere a mind, as readily to seal it wdth their blood. Among which of most note Avere Plutarch, whom Origen attending to his martyr- dom was like to have been killed by the people for be- ing the author of his conversion ; Sere n us, who was burnt for his religion, Heraciides and Heron, both^be- headed, the one while but a Catechumen, the other a novice ; next came a second Serenus, who after he had endured infinite torments, lost his head, and gained a crown. Nay the weaker sex also put in for a share, one Herais, a catechumen, and Origen's scholar, being as himself expresses it, to ySaTr?/^-^^ to cT;* 7tv(ok xaCK?-*, baptized by fire^ left this world, and in those flames mounted up to heaven. Nor was Origen so wholly swallowed up with the care of his school, as not to perform Muties of piety and humanity towards others, especially martyrs, and those that w^ere condemned to die. For Aquila, Laitus's successor, in the government of Alexandria, that he might do something singular in the entrance upon his place, renewed the persecution, which was so severe, that every one consulted his own safety, and kept close ; so that when the martyrs were in prison, or led to trial, or execution, there was none to comfort them, or minister unto them. This ofiice Origen boldly took upon him, attending the martyrs to the very place of execution, embracing and saluting them as they were led along, till the enraged multitude pelted him with
c M. Ibid. c. 4. p. 206. d Ibid. p. 204.
392 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
showers of stones, and an hundred times was he in danger of his hfe, had not the divine providence immediately in- terposed to rescue him. At last the}^ resolved to find him out, great multitudes besetting his house, and because he had vast numbers of scholars, they brought a guard of soldiers along with them, who hunted him from house to house, so that no place could afford him a quiet re- fuge. And to this period of time I find some learned men (and I think very probably) ascribing that passage which ''Epiphanius reports concerning him, that he was hauled up and down the city, reviled and reproached, and treated with insolent scorn and fury. Once having shaved his head after the manner of the Egyptian priests^ they set him upon the steps of Serapis's temple, comman- ding him to give branches of palm-trees, as the priests used to do, to them that went up to perform their holy rites. He taking the branches with a ready and unterri- fied mind, cried out aloud, Come hither^ and take the brarich, not of an idol- temple^ hut of Christ, A piece of courage which I suppose did not contribute to mitigate their rage against him.
8. About this time he made that famous attempt upon himself, so much commended by some, but condemned by others, his making himself an eunuch, which, as ap- pears from ^ Epiphanius, some of the ancients conceived to have been done by medicinal applications, which en- ervated the powers and tendencies of nature that way, though others, and ^ St. Hierom expressly, say it was done with the knife. But how^ever it was, he did it part- ly out of a perverse interpretation ^ of our Saviour's mean- ing, when he says, there be some xvhich make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven"* s sake^ which he would needs literally understand ; partly out of a desire to take away all suspicion of wantonness and incontinency, which the Gentiles might be apt enough to cast upon him, when they saw him admit not men only, but women into his discipliae ; besides that hereby he himself was
e Heres. LXIV.p. 227. f Ubi snpr. p. 228. g Ad Palnach. de
error. Orig. Tom. 2. p. 192. h Euseb. ibid. c. 8. p. 209.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 393
secured from any temptations to immodest and irregular embraces. How strict and severe was the chastity of those primitive times, we have showed at large in another place ; so great, that ' Justin the martyr tells us of a young man of Alexandria, who to convince the Gentiles of the false- hood of that malicious charge upon the incontinency and promiscuous mixtures, which they usually laid upon the Christians, presented a petition to Fselix, the president of Alexandria, desiring his leave that the physicians might make him an eunuch, which the president refused, as prohibited by the laws of the Roman empire ; as it was afterwards by several provisos and canons of the church. This fact though Origen endeavoured to conceal from some of his friends, yet did it quickly break out, and De- metrius the bishop who now admired it as an heroic act of temperance, and an instance of a great and a daring mind, did afterwards load it with all its aggravations, and bringit in as an inexcusable charge against him. I add no more concerning this than that whatever Origen might do now in the vigor of his youth, and through the sprightliness of his devout zeal, yet in his more considerate and reduced age he was of another mind, condemning ^ such kind of attempts, soberly enough expounding that passage of our Saviour, which before he had so fatally misunderstood.
9. Severus, the emperor, that violentenemy of Christians being dead, Ann. Chr, CCXI. Origen ' had a great desire to see the church of Rome, so venerable for its antiquity and renown, and accordingly came thither, while pope Zephyrin sat bishop of that see, where he staid not long, but returned back to Alexandria, and to his accustomed catechetic office, Demetrius earnestly importuning him to resume it But finding the employment '" grow upon him, and so wholly to engross his time, as not to allow him the least leisure for retirement and contemplation, and the study of the scriptures, so fast did auditors press in up- on him from morning till night, he took in Heraclas, who had been his scholar, a man versed both in olivine and
i Ap(-log. 11. p. 71. k Via. Comment, in Matt. p. 368. & p. 370, 371.
Edit. HueV i K..^eb.ib. c. 14. p. 216. m ibid. c. 15. p. 217.
3 D
a94 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
human studies, to be his partner, dividing the work be> tween them, the younger and more untutored catechu- mens he committed to him ; the maturer, and those who had been of a longer standing he reserved to be instruct- ed by himself. And now he gave up himself to a closer and more accurate study of the holy scriptures, which that he might manage with the better success, he set him- self to learn the Hebrew tongue, the true key to unlock the door (wherein as " St. Hierom probably inti- mates, he was assisted by the help of Huillus the Jew- ish patriarch at that time, at least in the Rabbinic ex- position of the scripture) a thing little understood in those times, and the place he lived in, and to him who was nov/ in the prime of his age, and the flower of more plea- sing and delightful studies, no doubt very difficult and uneasy. But nothing is hard to an industrious diligence, and a v/ilhng mind.
10. Nor did his pains in this interrupt his activity in his other employments ; Vviiere he perceived ° any of his scho- lars of more smart and acute understandings, he first in- structed them in geometry, arithmetic, and other prepa- ratory institutions, and then brought them through^ a course of philosophy, discovering the principles of each sect, and explaining the books of the ancients, and some- times himself writing comments upon them, so that the very Gentiles cried him up for an eminent philosopher. The ruder and more unpolished part of his auditory he w^ouid often exhort to the study of human arts, assuring them that they would not a little conduce to the right un- derstanding of the holy scriptures. Many flocked to him to make trial uf his famed skill and learning ; others to be instructed in the precepts both of philosophy and Chris- tianity. Great numbers of heretics were his auditors, .some of whom he converted from the error of their way ; and among the rest ^ x^mbrosius, a man of nobility and estate at Alexandria, having been seduced into the errors of Marcion and Valentinus, being convinced by Origen's
n Apolog. adv. Ruffin. Tom 2. p 201. o Eus. ib. c. 18 p 218,
p Kuscb. ib. liieron. do Sc-ip. h\ Ambros. Siiid. in Voc. 'ii^i-y, iipiph. ubi supr
r- ?^^-
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 395
discourses, renounced his former heresies, and returned to the catholic doctrine of the cliurch, and ever after became his intimate friend, his great patron and benefactor. He was a man of neat elegant parts, and was continually prompting Origen to explain and interpret some part of the scripture ; as oft as they were together (as '^ Origen himself informs us) he sufi'ered not a supper time to pass without discourses to this purpose, nor their very walks and recreations to be without them ; a great part of the night, besides their morning studies, were spent upon these pious exercises ; their meals and their rest were ushered in with continual lectures, and both night and day where prayer ended, reading began, as after reading they again betook themselves to prayer. Indeed this Ambrose was a pious and good man, and though so great a person, did not disdain to take upon him the office of a deacon in the church, nay to undergo great hardships and suiferings, becoming an eminent confessor for the faith. And there is only this blot, ""that I know of, that sticks upon his memory, that when he died rich, he re- membered not his dear and ancient friend whose low and mean condition might well have admitted, as his pains and intimacy might deservedly have challenged, a bountiful legacy to have been bequeathed to him.
11. About this time came a messenger' from the go- vernor of Arabia with letters to Demetrius the bishop, and to the praefect of Egypt, desiring that with all speed Origen might be sent to impart the Christian doctrine to him : so considerable had the fame of this great man rendered him abroad in foreign nations. Accordingly he went into Arabia, where having despatched his errand, he came back to Alexandria. Not long after whose re- turn, the emperor Caracalla drew his army into those parts, intending to fall severely upon that city. To avoid whose rage and cruelty Origen thought good to withdraw himself, and not knowing any place in Egypt that could afford him shelter, he retired into Palestine, and fixed his residence at Caesarea, where his excel-
b Epist. ap. Suid. ubi. supp. p. 390. vid. Hieron. Ep. ad Marcell. p. 129. Tom. 1. r Hieron. i]e Script. in Agnbros. sEu^cb. ibici. c. 19. p. 221.
396 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
lent abilities being soon taken notice of, he was request- ed by the bishops of those parts, though but then in the capacity of a laic, publicly in the church, and before themseives to expound the scriptures to the people. The news hereof was presently carried to Alexandria, and highly resented by Demetrius, who by letters ex- postulated the case with Theoctistus, bishop of Cgesarea, and Alexander of Jerusalem, as a thing never heard of before in the Christian church ; who in their answer put him in mind, that this had been no such unusual thing, whereof they give him particular instances. All which satisfied not Demetrius, who by letters commanded Origen to return, and sent deacons on purpose to urge him to it, whereupon he came back and applied him- self to his wonted charge.
12. Alexander Severus, ^the present emperor, in or- der to his expedition against the Persians, was come to Antioch, attended with his mother Mammasa, a wise and prudent, and (says *Eusebius) a most pious and religious princess; a great influence she had upon her son, whom she engaged in a most strict and constant administration of justice, and the affiiirs of the empire, that he might have no leisure to be debauched by vice and luxury. Indeed he was a prince of incomparable virtues, histori- ans representing him as mild and gentle, compassionate and charitable, sober and temperate, just and impartial, devout and pious, one advanced to the empire for the recovery and happiness of mankind. He was no enemy to Christians, whom he did not only not persecute, but favour at every turn: and in his private oratory he had among other heroes the images of Abraham and of Christ, and was once minded to have built a temple to him, and publicly admitted him into the number of their gods. He highly admired some precepts of the Chris- tian religion, and from their discipline learned some rites which he made use of in the government of the empire. But to return to Mammaea : being a Syrian born, she could not be unacquainted with the aifairs both of Jews
t Ibid. c. 31. p. 223. vid. excerpt, ex Jo. Antioch. p. 850.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 39/
and Christians, and having heard of the great fame of Origen" was very desirous to see him, and hear him dis- course concerning religion, that she might know what it was, for which the whole world had him in such vene- ration. And for this purpose she sent for him, order- ing a military guard to conduct him to Antioch, where he stayed some considerable time, and having fully opened the doctrines of our religion, and given her ma- ny demonstrations of the faith of Christians, to the great honour of God and of religion, he was dismissed, and permitted to return to his old charge at Alexandria.
13 Henceforward he set upon writing ^commentaries on the Holy Scripture, at the instigation of his dear friend Ambrosius, who did not only earnestly importune him to it, but furnish him with all conveniences neces- sary for it ; allovving him besides his maintenance, seven (and as occasion was more) notaries to attend upon him, who by turns might take from his mouth what he dicta- ted to them ; and as many transcribers, besides virgins employed for that purpose, who copied out fair, what the others had hastily taken from his mouth. These notaries were very common both among the Greeks and Romans, making use of certain peculiar notes and signs, either by way of occult or short writing, being able by the dexterity of their art to take not words only but en- tire sentences. The original of it is by some ascribed to Tyro, Cicero's servant, by others to Aquila, servant to Meccenas, by others to Ennius, and that it was polish- ed and enlarged afterwards, first by Tyro, then by Aqui- la and some others. It may be in its first rudeness it was much more ancient, and improved and perfected by degrees, every new addition entitling itself to the first invention, till it arrived to that accuracy and perfection, that (as appears from what "" Martial says in the case, and Ausonius ""reports of his amanuensis) they were able not only to keep pace with, but many times to out run the speaker. That they were of frequent use in the
u Euseb. loc. cit. v Ibid. c. 23. p. 224. w Lib. 14. Epigr. 20S,
X Epigram. 36.
39^ THE LIFE OF ORIGIN.
primitive church, is without all doubt, being chiefly imployed to write the acts of the martyrs ; for which end they were wont to frequent the prisons, to be pre- sent at all trials and examinations ; and if the thing was done intra velum, within the secretarium, they used by bribes to procure copies of the examinations and answers from the proconsul's register ; thence they followed \ht^ martyrs to the place cf execution, there to remark their sayings and their suiferings. I'his was done in the most early ages, as is evident from ^Tertullian's mentioning i\\^ fasti ecclesice^ and from what ^St. Cyprian says in his epistle to the clergy of his church, and ^Pontius the deacon in his life : where he tells us, that their fore- fathers were wont to register whatever concerned the martyrdom of the meanest Christian, the acts whereof descended down to his time. Thus ^'Eusebius speak- ing of the martyrdom of Apollonius in the reign of Com- modus, tells us, that all his answers and discourses be- fore the president's tribunal, and his brave apology before the senate, were contained in the acts of his martyrdom, which together with others, he had collected into one volume. So that the original of the institution is not widiout probability referred to the times of St. Clemens, bishop of Rome. All which I the rather note because it gives us a reasonable account how the answers and speeches of the martyrs, the arguments and discourses of synods and councils, and extempore homilies of the fathers came to be transmitted so entire and perfect to us. But I return to Origen, whom we left dictating to his notaries, and they dehvering it to those many trans- cribers that were allowed him ; all which were maintain- ed at Ambrosius's sole expense. Thotius indeed makes this charge to have been allowed by Hippolytus, deriv- ing his mistake it is plain, from the Greek interpreter of '^St. Hierom's catalogue, who did not rightly appre- hend St. Hierom's meaning, and who himself speaking of Hippolytus, inserts this passage concerning Ambrose
V De Coron. c. 13. p. 109, z Epist. XXXVII. p. 51. a In vit Cypr. non. lon^. ab init. b H. Eccl. 1. 5. c. 21. p. 189. c Cod. CXXI. col. SOL
^ Vid. Hieron.de Scrjpt. in HippoV
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 39^
I know not how, and for no other reason that I can ima- gin, but because in Eusebius's history he found it im- mediately following the account that was given of Hip- polytus's works. *" Epiphanus will have these commen- taries written, and the expenses allowed for that purpose by Ambrosius at T^re, and that for that end he resided there 28 years together. An intolerable mistake, not only disagreeing with Eusebius's account, but plainly in- consistent with the course of Origen's life. And indeed Epiphanius alleges no better author than «? o Koy®- ixu, ha- ving picked up the story from some vulgar tradition and report. His industry and diligence in these studies was incredible, few parts of the bible escaping his narrow and critical researches : wherein he attained to so admirable an accuracy and perfection, that ^ St. Hierom himself (not always over civil to him) professes he could be content to bear that load of envy that was cast upon his name, so that he had but withal his skill and knowledge in the scriptures. A passage which ^ Ruffinus afterwards smartly enough returns upon him.
14. But a stop for the present was put to this work by some affairs of the church, which called him into Achaia,. then disturbed with divers heresies that over ran those churches. And at this time doubtless it was that he stayed awhile at Athens, where (as ^ Epiphanius tells us) he frequented the schools of the philosophers, and con- versed with the sages of that place. In his journey to Achaia he went through ' Palestine, and took Csesarea in his way, where producing his letters of recommendation from Demetrius, he was ordained presbyter by Alexan- der of Jerusalem, and Theoctistus, bishop of Csesarea. Not that this was done by any sinister arts, or fhe ambi- tious procurement of Origen himself, but was entirely the act of those two excellent persons, Vvho designed by
eHeres.LXIV.p. 228.
f Hoc unum dico, fjuod vcUem cum invidia nomiois ejus habere etiam sci- eniiam sciipturai uni, floccipendens imagiues umbrasque lavarnm : quarum iia- tura esse dicitur, terrere parvulos, et in anguUs gavrire lenebiosis, HLeroii; Praet". in Qiixst. in Genes. Tom. 3. p. 201,
g- Invxctiv. II. in Hieron. Inter oper. Hier. Tom. 4. p. ^5. h XJh'i supt,
p. 227, i Eiiseb. loc. cit. Hicr. ch; Script in A?e\:.
400 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
this means to furnish him with a greater authority for the management of his embassy, and to render him more ser- viceable to the affairs of the church. However the thing was infinitely resented by Demetrius, as an affront against his jurisdiction, and a contempt of his authority, and now the wind is turned into a blustering quarter, and no- thing but anathemas are thundered out against him from Alexandria. Demetrius had for some time born him a se- cret grudge, and he takes this occasion to fall upon him. The truth is, he '^ envied the honour and reputation which Origen's learning and virtue had raised him in the thoughts and mouths of all men, and wanting hitherto an opportunity to vent his emulation, he had now one put into his hand, and accordingly charges him with all that spite and spleen can invent, publicly accusing him (what before he admired in him) for making himself an eunuch, and severely reflectmg upon the bishops that ordained him. Nay, so high did he raise the storm, that he pro- cured Origen to be condemned ' in two several synods, one of bishops and presbyters, who decreed that he should be banished Alexandria, and not permitted either to live or teach there : the other under Demetrius, who with some bishops of Egypt pronounced him to be degraded from his priesthood, his greatest favourers subscribing the decree. "" St. Hierom adds, that the greatest part of the Christian world consented to this condemnation, and that Rome itself convened a synod against him, not for heresy or innovations in doctrine ; but merely out of en- vy, as not able to bear the glory and renown of his learn- ing and eloquence ; seeing while he taught they were looked upon as mute and dumb, as the stars disappear at the presence of the sun. And yet all this combustion vanished into smoke, Origen still retaining his priest- hood, publicly preaching in the church, and being honour - ably entertained wherever he came by the wiser and more moderate party of the church.
kEuseb. ib.c 8. p. 209. I Panphil. Apolog. ap. Phot. Cod. CXVIII,
col. 29r. m Apud Ruffin, luvecl. II. in Hierou. inter ope;-. Hier. T.-4.
p. 225.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 401
15. Wearied out with .the vexatious assaults of his enemies, he resolved to quit Alexandria, where the sen- tence of the synods would not suffer him long to abide, having first resigned the government of his catechetie school entirely to his colleague Heraclas. " This Hera- clas was a Gentile born^ brother to Plutarch, who (as be- fore we noted) suftered martyrdom for the faith, together with whom he became Origen's scholar, by whom he was converted, and built up in the faith, then taken in as his usher or partner in the catechetic office, afterwards his successor, and last of all bishop of Alexandria. A man of unwearied diligence and a strict life ; learned and elo- quent, a great master in philosophy and all human, but especially versed in divine, studies. He retained his phi- losophic habit even after he was made presbyter of Alex- andria, and ceased not with a mighty industry still to read over and converse with the writings of the Gentiles ; in- deed arrived to that singular fame and reputation, tliat Julius Africanus, one of the most learned men of those times came ° on purpose to Alexandria to see and hear him. No wonder, therefore, if Origin committed this great care and trust to him, whose personal merit, and particular obligation as his scholar, might seem to chal- lenge it. Before his departure (for they that refer it to the time ofDecius, speak at random, Origen not being then at Alexandria) an accident fell out, which (if true) hastened his flight with more shame and sorrow than ail the malice of his bitterest enemies could create him. Thus then we are told ; ^ some Gentiles that were his mortal enemies, seized upon him, and reduced him to this strait, that either he should abuse his body with a Blackmoor^ or do sacrifice to an idol. Of the two he chose to sacrifice, though it was rather their act than his, for putting frankincense into his hand, they led him up to the akar, and forced him to throw it into the lire. Which yet drew so great a blot upon his mime, and de- rived so much guilt upon his conscience, that not able to
n Euseb. ib. c. 26. p. 228. o Ibid. c. 31. p. 230. P E^^'PH. u^i
sup. p. 228. P.eont. de Sect. Act. X. p
3 E
402 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
bear the public reproach, he immediately left the city. The credit of this story is not a little shaken by the uni- versal silence of the more ancient writers in this matter, not so much as intimated by Eusebius, Pamphilus, or Origin's own contemporary, Dionysius of Alexandria ; not objected by his greatest adversaries, as is plain from the apologies written in his behalf ; not mentioned by Porphyry who lived in those times, and whom we can- not suppose either to have been ignorant of it, or willing to conceal it, when we find him falsely reporting of Am- monius, that he apostatized from Christianity, and of Origen himself, that he was born and bred a heathen. In short, not mentioned by any before Epiphanius, and besides him, not by any else of that time, not St. Hie- rom, Rufinus, Vincentius Lerinensis, or Theophilus of Alexandria, some of whom were enemies enough to Ori- gen. So that it was not without some plausibility of reason that '^ Baronius suspected this passage to have been foisted into Epiphanius, and not to have been the genu- ine issue of his pen. Though in my mind Epiphanius himself says enough to make any wise man ready to sus- pend his belief ; for he tells '^ us, that many strange things were reported concerning Origen, v/hich he him- self gave no credit to, though bethought good to set down the reports ; and how often he catches up any common rumours and builds upon them, none need be told that are acquainted with his writings. Nor is it likely he would baulk any story that tended to Origen's disgrace, who had himself so bitter a zeal and spleen against him. I might further argue the improbability of this story from hence, that this being a long time after his famous emascu- lating of himself which by this time was known all abroad, it is not reasonable to suppose, that the heathens should make the prostituting himself in committing adultery one part of his choice, which his self contracted impotency and eunuchism had long since made it impossible to him. However, supposing the matter of fact to be true, it sounds not more (especially considering how much there
q Ad Ann. 253. n. CZXIII. r Ibid. p. 229.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 403
was of force and compulsion in it) to his disparagement, than his solemn repentance afterwards made for his ho- nour, and when the desire to preserve his chastity invio- lable is laid in the scale with his offering sacrifice.
16. Jnn. CCXXXIII. » Origen left^ Alexandria, and directing his course for Palestine, went to his good friend and patron Theoctistus, bishop of Cgesarea, and from thence to Jerusalem to salute Alexander, bishop of it, and to visit the venerable antiquities of that place.... And here Epiphanius in pursuance of the foregoing story tells us, that being mightily importuned to preach, he stood up in the congregation, and having pronounced those words of penitent David, But unto the wicked God saith, what hast thou to do to declare my statutes^ and that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth ? he could go on no further, but shut the book, and laid it dowu^ and sitting down burst out into sighs and tears, the whole congregation bearing part with him in that mourn- ful scene. And to carry on the humour, and make the story more complete, after ages present us with a * dis- course under his name, called Origen's Complaint, wherein he passionately resents and laments his fall, as a desperate wound to himself, a grief to good men, and an inconceivable dishonour to God, and to religion. And pity it is, if the story be true, that this lamentation were not genuine ; but as it is, the best ground it has to sup- port itself is, that it is calculated to gratify a pious fan- cy and a melting passion, there being nothing in it other- wise worthy of this great man, and I fear was first de- signed by him that made it, as a reflection upon him, and to give countenance to the report that was raised con- cerning him. From Jerusale m he not long after return, ed back to Caesarea, where (as before he had done at Alexandria) he set up a " school both for divine and hu- man learning, and his great name quickly procured him scholars from all parts, not only of the country there- abouts, but from the remotest provinces. Among which
s Euseb. ib. c. 26. p. 228. t Extat inter Oper. Grig. Tom. 1. p. 752.
Edit. Erasm. u Id. ibid. c. 30. p. 229.
404 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN*
of most remark were Gregory, called afterwards Thau^ maluigus, and his brother Athenodorus, who leaving the study of the law, as being more delighted with philosophy and humane arts, committed themselves to his conduct and tutorage, who first instructed them in philosophy, and then trained them up to a more accurate knowledge of the Christian faith. Five years they remained under his discipline, when being sufficiently enriched with the knowledge cf religion, they returned into Pontus, their own country, where they both became bishops, and proved eminent lights and governors of the church.... During his residence at Ccesarea, there was a firm inti- macy and league "" of friendship contracted between Ori- gen and Firmilian, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, who had so great a kindness for him that sometimes he would prevail with him to come over into that province for the edification of the churches in those parts, some- times he himself would go into Judasa to visit him, and stay a considerable while with him to perfect himself by his society and converse. This Firmilian was a gentle- man of Cappadocia, afterwards made bishop of Cassarea in that country. A person of great name and note, and who held correspondence with most of the eminent men of those times. Few considerable afiairs of the church, wherein he was not concerned either by his presence or advice. Great contests were betw^een him and Stephen, bishop of Rome, concerning the baptism of heretical per- sons, wherein he took part with Cyprian. He was twice at Antioch to examine the case of Paul of Samoijata, bishop of that church, and coming a third time to a synod convened there for that purpose, died at Tarsus by the way. Nor was Origen admired and courted only by foreigners and young men who had been his scholars, but by the grave and the wise at home : both Alexander nnd Theoctistus, though ancient bishops, did not dis- dain in a manner to become his disciples, committing to his single care the pow^r of interpreting the holy scrip, tures, and whatever concerned the ecclesiastical doc- trine
V.Ibid.c. 2r. p. 2&.
THE IJFE OF ORIGEN. 405
17. Tt was now about the year CCXXXV. when Maximinus, the Thracian succeeded in the emph'e : a man fierce and ill-natured, and accordmg to his educa- tion brutish and cruel. He hated whatever had relation to his predecessor, and because the "^ Christians had found some favourable entertainment in his family, he began first with them, and especially the bishops, as the chief pillars and promoters of their religion, whom he every where commanded to be put to death. To con- tribute toward the consolation of Christians in this evil time, Origen wrote his book concerning martyrdoni^y v/hich he jointly dedicated to his dear Ambrosius, and to Protoctetus, presbyter of Cassarea, as who had undergone a joint share of imprisonment and sufferings under the present persecution, and had made a glorious and illus- trious confession of the Christian faith. As for Origen himself, he is said to have taken sanctuary in the house of Juliana, a wealthy and charitable lady, who courteous- ly entertained him, and furnished him with books useful for him, particularly with Symmachus's ^ version of the Old Testament, and his Commentaries in defence of the Ebionites, particularly levelled against St. Matthew's (xospel, books which Juliana enjoyed as by right of in^ heritance devolved upon her.
18. While he enjoyed the happy opportunity of this retirement, he, more directly applied himself to what he had long since designed, the collecting and collating the several editions and versions of the Old Testament with the original text, which he finished by three several parts% the Tetrapla, the Hexapla, and the Octapla. In the first (which considered as a distinct part, was made last) where four translations, set one over against another, that of Aquila, Symmachus, the Septuagint, and Theodo- lion ; these made up the Tetrapla. In the second were
w Id. ibid. c. 28.
^gouyov ri; \vi yiyejuovsLg Xj /ina-iKiit, i'v* auto; toi (Tvy.-rcpiv3-u<;, etuToglQctJo) § fOjUa Xf (TO^iitv. fc QoiT^ (TvvAyaviT'A civtv UpairiKThlt' i QufAjwipTvpirrtv ii/juv, Toh ciV!t7rKnpS<ri T-ivg-i^iifxxlit Tciv Tra^-ufxciTav t5 Xp/g-«, Quv i^uh y'ivnTAi W) t Trct^-JJ'it'Tov ib @6«. OrigExhort. ad Martyr, p. 200. y Euseb. ib. c 17. p. 218.
z Id ibid. c. 16. p. 217. Epiph. loc. supr. citat. de ponder. & memur. p. m. SG4, 539. Hier. de ScripL in Orig. &, Suid. in voc. Orig.
406 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
these four versions disposed in the same order, and two other columns set before them, thus ; first the Hebrew text in its own letters, then in a cohimn next adjoining the same Hebrew text in Greek characters, that they who were strangers to the one, might be able to read the other : next followed the several versions of Aquila, Symmachus, the Septuagint, and Theodotion. And these constituted the Hexapla. Where the Septuagint being placed after that of Aquila and Symmachus, gave some ignorant undiscerning persons occasion to think, that it had been made alter the two former : whereas it was placed in the middle (as Epiphanius "* informs us) only as a standard, by which the goodness and sincerity of the rest were to be tried and judged. In the third, whicli made the Octapla, were all that were in the former, and in the same manner, and two if.:- ore versions added at the end of them, one called xht fifth edition, found by a student at Jerusalem, in a hogshead at Jericho, in the time of the emperor Caracalia ; and another styled the sixth edition, fr-urd by one cf Origen's scholars at Nico- polis near Actium, in the reign of Alexander Severus. All which in the Octapla were disposed in several co- lumns in this order : in the first column was the original Hebrew, in its native characteis, in the next the Hebrew^ in Greek letters, in the third the translation of Aquila, then that of Symmachus, next the Septuagint, in the sixth that of Theodotion, and in the two last that of Jeri- cho, and the other of Nicopolis. Indeed plain it is from what ^ St. Hierom tells us, that these two last were not complete and entire translations, but contained only some parts of the Old Testament, especially the prophetical books. But whether from iience v/e may conclude the Hexapla and the Octapla to have been but one and the same work, only receiving its difterent title according to those parts that had these two last versions annexed to them, I v/ill not say. Besides these there was a seventh edition ; but this belonging only to the book of Psalms, made no alteration in the title of the whole.
a Ibid. p. io9. b Comment, in Tit, c. 3. p. ZSe. T. 9,
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 407
And to make the work more complete and useful, he distin- guished the additions and deficiences by several marks% where any thing had been added by the LXX. besides the faith of the original text, he prefixed an obelus before it; where any thing was wanting, \a hich yet was in the He- brew, he inserted the words with an asteric, to distinguish them from the rest of the Septan gint translation. Where various lections were confirmed by the greater number of translations, he added a note called Lemniscus, where two of them only concurred, an Hypolemniscus. By which means he did right to truth, without doing wrong^ to miy. A work of infinite labour and admirable use, and which was therefore peculiarly styled by the ancients Opus Eccksiof, the work of the church, upon the account whereof St. Hierom '^calls him Lnmortale Ulud higcniiim^ as indeed had there been nothing else, ihis alone had been sufficient to have eternized his name, and to have rendered him memorable to posterity : and how happy had it been, had it been preserved, the loss whereof I can attribute to nothing more than the pains and charge, the trouble and difficulty of transcribing it. Though some part of it, viz. the Septuagint was taken out, and published more exact and correct from the faults which had crept into it by transcribing by Eusebius and Pam- philus afterwards. It w^as a work of time, and not finish- ed by Origen all at once, begun by him at Csesarea, and perfected at Tyre, as Epiphanius plainly intimates.
19. From C^sarea Origen, upon what occasion I know not, seems to have taken a second journey to Athens. For during his stay there, we find him finishing his com- mentaries, *^^upon Ezekiel, and beginning his exposition upon the Canticles, five books whereof he there perfect- ed, making an end of the rest at his return to Caisarea. The opportunity of this journey, it is conceived by some, he took to go to Nicomedia, to visit his friend Ambro- sius, who with his wife and children at that time resid-
c Vid. prxter script, citat. Orlg. Comment in Matth.Eflit. Hiict. gr. t. p^ 381. & Resp. adEj'.ist. AfHc. p. 226,227. Edit. Basil, vid. Ru^Hm, Invect. II. in Hleron. inter opei-. Hier. T. 4. p. 230.
d InTit.loc. supr. cit. e Euseb. vb c 32. p. 231
40« THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
ed there. While he continued here (which was not long) he returned an answer to the letter which he had lately received from Julius Africanus concerning the history of Susanna, which Africanus by short but very forcible arguments maintained to be a fictitious and spuriotis re- lation. Origen undertakes the case, and justifies the story to be sincere and genuine, but by arguments, which rather manifest the acuteness of his parts, than the goodness of his cause, and clearly show how much men of the greatest learning and abilities are put to it, when engaged to uphold a weak side, and which has no truth of its own to support itself. It happened about this time that Beryllus, 'bishop of Bostra in Arabia fell into absurd and dangerous errors, asserting, that our lord before his incarnation had no proper subsistence, no personal deity, but only a derivative divinity from his father. The bishops of those parts met about it, but could not reclaim the man, whereupon Origen's assistance was requested, who went thither, and treated with him both in private conferences and in public sy- nods. His greatest difficulty was to know what the man meant, which when he had once found out, he plied him so hard with co2:ent reasonings and demonstrations, that he w^as forced to let go his hold, recant his errors, and return back into the way of truth. Which done, Ori- gen took his leaA'C, and came back for Palestine. And Beryllus", as became a true convert, in several letters gave thanks to Origen for his kind pains in his convic- tion, kissing the hand that brought him back.
20. Origen was now advanced^ above the age of three- score, and yet remitted nothing of his incredible indus- try either in preaching or writing. At Ambrosius's intreaty he took to task Celsus's book against the Christians. This Celsus was an epicurean philosopher, contemporary with Lucian, the witty Atheist, who de- dicated his pseudomantis to him, as indeed there seems to have been a more than ordinary sympathy of humour and genius between these two persons. Celsus was a
f Ibid. c. 33. g Hieron.dc^S-crlpt. in BerjU. h Eus«. Ibid. c. 36. p. 232
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 409
man of wit and parts, and had all the advantages which learning, philosophy, and eloquence could add to him ; but a severe and incurable enemy to the Christian reli- gion, against which he wrote a book entitled ak»^>,; xiy<^ or the true discourse^ wherein he attempted Christianity with all the arts of insinuation, all the witty reflections, virulent aspersions, plausible reasonings, wherewith a man of parts and malice was capable to assault it. To this Origen returns a full and solid answer in eight books^ wherein as he had the better cause, so he managed it with that strength of reason, clearness of argument, an convictive evidence of truth, that were there nothing else to testify the abilities of this great man, this book alone were enough to do it. It w^as written probably about the beginning of the reign of Philip the emperor, with whom Origen seems to have had some acquaintance, who wrote' one letter to him, and another to t'le empress. From whence, and some other little probaoilities, Eu- sebius first, and after him the generality of Ecclesiastic- writers, have made that emperor to have been a Chris- tian, and the first of the imperial line that was so. The vanity of which mistake, and the original from whence it sprung, we have showed elsewhere. Nor is the mat- ter mended by those who say that Philip was privately baptized by Fabian bishop of Rome, and so his Chris- tian profession was known only to the Christians, but concealed from the Gentiles ; which being but a conjec- ture, and a gratis dictum^ without any authority to con- firm it, may with the same ease and as much justice be rejected, as it is obtruded and imposed upon us. Nor has the late learned publisher ''of some tracts of Origen (who in order to the securing the dialogue against the Mar do- nites to belong to Origen, has newly enforced this argu- ment) said any thiug diat may persuade a wise man to believe a story, so improbable in all its circumstances, and which must have made a louder noise in the v\^orid, and have had more and better witnesses to attest it, than
i Id. iSjId. p. 233. k Rod. Wetsteinios Pra^fat. in Ont,^ Di:il, co-,V'. Marc &.C. il s'e Ltli'l. Basil, 1674. 4.
3 F
4iO THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
an obscure and uncertain report, the only authority which Eusebius, who gave the first hint of it, pretends in this matter,
21. The good success which Origen lately had in Arabia in the cause ofBeryllus made him famous in all those parts, and his help was now again 'desired upon a like occasion. For a sort of heretics were started up, who affirmed, that at death both body and soul did expire to- gether, and were resolved into the same state of corrup- tion, and that at the resurrection they should revive and rise together to eternal life. For this purpose a gene- ral synod of those parts was called, and Origen desired to be present at it, who managed the cause with such weighty arguments, such unanswerable and clear con- victions, that the adverse party threw down their wea- pons, and relinquished the sentiments which they main- tained before. Another heretical crew appeared at this time in the east, the impious and abominable sect of the Helcesaitse, against whom also Origen seems to have been engaged, concerning whom himself '"gives us this account. They rejected a great part both of the old and new canon, making use onl}^ of some few parts of scrip - ture, and such without question as they could make look most favourably upon their cause. "^ St. Paul they wholly rejected, and held that it was lawful and indiffer- ent to deny the faith ; and that he was the wise man, that in his words would renounce Christianity in a time of danger and persecution, but maintain the truth in his heart. They carried a book about with them which tliey affirmed to have been immediately dropped down from heaven, which whoever received and gave credit to, should receive remission of sins, though different from that pardon which our Lord Jesus bestowed upon his followers. But how far Origen was concerned against this absurd and senseless generation, is to me unknown. The best of it is, this sect, like a blazing comet, though its influence was malignant and pestilential, suddenly arose, and as suddenly disappeai^d.
1 K)ld.c. ST. m Homil. in Psal. ^. ap. Euseb.ibid. c. 38. p 233.
THE LIFE OF GRIGEN, 411
22. Philip, the emperor, being slain by the soldiers, Decius made a shift by the help of the army to step into the throne j a mortal enemy to the " church, in whose short reign more martyrs, especially men of note and eminency came to the stake, than in those who governed that empire ten times his reign. In Palestine Alex- ander, the aged and venerable bishop of Jerusalem, was thrown into prison, where, after long and hard usage, and an illustrious confession of the Christian faith before the public tribunal, he died. This Alexander (whom we have often mentioned) had been first bishop in Cappado- cia, ° where out of a religious curiosity he had resolved upon a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to visit the holy and ve- nerable antiquities of that place, whereto he was particu- larly excited by a divine revelation intimating to him that it was the will of God that he should be assistant to the bishop of that place. It happened at this time that Nar- cissus, bishop of Jerusalem, being some years since re- turned to his see (which he had deserted many years be- fore) was become incapable through his great age and in- firmity (being 116 years old) duly to manage his charge, Alexander approaching near Jerusalem, they were warn- ed by a vision and a voice from heaven, to go out of the city, and there receive him whom heaven had designed to be their bishop. They did so, and finding Alexander, entertained and introduced him with all possible kindness and respect, where, by the importunity of the people, and the consent of all the neighbour bishops, he was con- strained to become colleague with Narcissus in the go- vernment of that church. This I suppose is the first ex- press instance that we meet with in church antiquity of two bishops sitting at once (and that by consent) m one see. But the case was warranted by an extraordinary authority ; besides that. Narcissus seems rather to have resigned and quitted the place, retaining nothing but the title, nor intermeddling any further, than by joining in prayers and devotions for the good of the church, survi- ving not above three or four years at most. Alexander
n Ibid c. 39 p. 234. o Ibid c. H. p. 212,
4i2 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
succeeding in the sole presidency, governed his church with singular prudence and fidelity, and among other memorable acts, erected a library at Jerusalem, ^ which he especially stored with ecclesiastical epistles and re- cords, from whence Eusebius confesses he furnished himself with many considerable memoirs and materials for the composing of his history. He sat bishop 39 years, and after several arraignments and various impri- sonments and sufferings, died now in prison at Cassarea, to the inconceivable loss and resentment of the whole church, and especially of Origen, who had been ordained by him, and whom he had ever found a fast friend and patron. Nor did Origen himself, who was at this time at Tyre, escape without his share. I^usebius does but brieiiy intimate his sufterings, having given a larger ac- count of thetn in another book, long since lost, he tells** us that the devil mustered up all his forces against him, and assaulted him with all his arts and engines, singling him out above all others of that time to make him the object of his utmost rage and fury. He was cast into the bottom of a loathsome and uncomfortable dungeon, loa- ded with irons, a chain about his neck, his feet set in the stocks, with his legs stretched four holes distant from each other many days together ; he was threatened with fire, and tried with all the torments that a merciless ene- my could inflict. Which meeting with a person of his age, and a body broken with such and so many cares and labours, must needs render it a very heavy burden. And yet ne bore all with a generous patience, and was ready to submit to the last fatal stroke, but that the judge to give dl possible accents to his misery, ordered them so to torment him, that they should not kill him.
23. Human councils and resolutions, when most ac- tive and violent, y^the that is higher than the highest can overrule them, and there be that are higher than they. His enemies had hitherto exercised him only with prepa- ratory cruelties, reserving him for a more solemn execu- tion. But God, to whom belongs the issues from death,
p Ibid. c. 20. p. 222. q Ubi stspr. p. 234.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 413
prevented their malice, and made way for him to escape, vvhich in all probability was effected by the death of De- cius, who was cut off, when he had reigned two years and an half. Being delivered out of prison, "" he improved his time to pious purposes, comforting the weak and the disconsolate, and writing letters to that end up and down the world. Some few years he out-lived the Decian per- secution, and died at Tyre about the first year of Valeri- an. Indeed Eusebius intimates that he departed this life about the beginning of Gallus's reign. But I cannot see how that can stand : for seeing elsewhere he positively affirms that he was seventeen years old at the time of his father's martyrdom, Ann. CCII. his death must happen the first of Valerian, Ann. Chr. CCLIV. which falls in with the 69th year of his age, in which Eusebius tells us he left this world. Otherwise he could not be more than 67 years old, whereas none make him less than 69. Pamphilus ' the martyr, and some others, from the rela- tion of those that had seen him, reports that an honoura- ble martyrdom put a period to his life, when Decius rai- sed the persecution at Caesarea. But besides that * Epi- phimius expressly denies that he died a martyr, others (as Photius adds, and among them Eusebius "" and St. Hierom ") tell us, that he continued till the time of Cal- lus and Volusian, and being 69 years old died, and was buried at Tyre. Which, as he observes, must needs be so, seeing he wrote many epistles after the Decian per- secution. And probable it is, that Pamphilus meant it, or at least his mistake thence arose, of that great and glo- rious confession, a preparatory martyrdom, which he made under the reign of Decius, which he survived two or three years, peaceably ending his days at Tyre, where his body found a place of rest, and wherein a great church dedicated to the memory of our Saviour's sepulchre, be- hind the high altar, his remains were laid up, as the tradi- tion "^ of the last age informs us. Nay, long before that Brocard -^ the monk tells us that when he was there, he
r Euseb. Ibid. p. 235. s Apud. Phot. Cod. CXVIII. col. 297. t De
pond. & mensur. p. 539. u Lib. 7. c. i. p. 250. v De script, in Origen. v Cotovic, ititier. 1. 1 .c. 19. p. 121. x Descript. Terr. S, c. 2.
414 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
saw his tomb, and read his epitaph ; and before both ^ William, who was himself archbishop of Tyre, reckons Origen's tomb among the monuments and venerable an- tiquities of that city, his marble monument being adorn- ed with gold and precious stones.
24. HaA'ing thus brought this great man to his grave, let us a little look back upon him, and we shall find him a more than ordinary person. His life was truly strict and philosophical, ^ and an admirable instance of discipline and virtue ; such as his discourses were, such were his manners, and his life the image of his mind : that wise and good man, whom he was wont to describe in his lec- tures to his scholars (as one * of the most eminent of them assures us) he himself had first formed, and drawn in the example of his own life. He had a mighty regard to the glory of God, and the good of souls, whose happiness he studied by all ways to promote, and thought nothing hard, nothing mean or servile that might advance it. He w^as modest and humble, chaste and temperate ; so ex- emplary his abstinence and sobriety, that he lived upon what was next door to nothing, for many years ^ abstain- ing from wine, and every thing but what was absolutely necessary for the support of life, till by too much absti- nence he had almost ruined his health, and endangered the weakening of nature past recovery. Singular his contempt of the world, literally making good that precept of our Lord to his disciples, not to have two cloaks, to provide no shoes, nor to be anxiously careful for to-mor- row. When many out of consideration of his unwearied diligence would have communicated part of what they had towards his necessities, he would not, but rather than be needlessly burdensome to any, sold his library, agree- ing with the buyer to allow him four oboli, or five pence, for his daily maintenance. His diligence in study, in preaching, writing, travelling, confuting heathens and heretics, composing schisms and differences in the ohurch was indefatigable, upon which account the titles
y Guiliel. Tyr. H. sacr. 1. 13. non longe ab init. vid, etiara Adrlcom. Theatr. Te^r. S. in Trib. Aser. n. 84. in fin. z Euseb. 1. 6. c 3. p. 205. a Creg^.
Naeocxfiar. Orat. Paneg-yr. in Orig". p. 205. b Euseb. ib. p. 2QG.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 4:15
of Adamantius and Chalcenterus are supposed by the ancients to have been given to him, nothing but an in- dustry of brass and iron being able to hold out un- der such infinite labours. The day he spent part in fast- ing, part in other religious exercises and employments ; the night he bestowed upon the study of the scripture, re- serving some little portion for sleep and rest, which he usually took not in bed, but upon the bare ground. This admirably exercised and advanced his patience, which he improved by further austerities, fasting, and enduring cold and nakedness, studying standing, and for many years together going barefoot, remitting nothing of his ri- gours and hardships, notwithstanding all the counsels and persuasions of his friends, who were troubled at the ex- cessive severities of his life. Whereby notwithstanding he gained upon men, and converted many of the Gentile philosophers, famous for learning and philosophy, not only to the admiration, but imitation of himself.
25. View him in his natural parts and acquired abili- ties, and he had a quick, piercing apprehension, a strong and faithful memory, an acute judgment, a ready utter- ance. All which were adorned and accomplished with a prodigious furniture of learning, and all the improvements which Rome or Greece could afford ; being incompara- bly skilled (as '' St. Hierom and ^ Suidas observes) both in Gentile and Christian learning, logic, geometry, arith- metic, music, philosophy, rhetoric, and the several senti- ments and opinions of all the sects of philosophy, and who always entertained his auditors with something above common observation. So great the force and acuteness of his parts (says Vincentius Lerinensis *") so profound, quick and elegant, that none could come near him : so vast his stock of all sorts of learning, that there were few^ corners of divine, and perhaps none of human philosophy, which he had not accurately searched into ; and when the Greeks could l^d him no further, with an unparalleled industry he conquered the language and learning of the Jews. But no other character need be given him than
c De script, in Orig". d In Ong. p. SS7, e CoStr. Ilaeres. c 23. p. 53.
416 THE LIFE OF ORlGEN.
what Porphyry, ^ who knew him (though a learned man, ^ who from that passage in Eusebius makes him to have been his scholar, proceeds doubtless a great mistake) and was an enemy, bestows upon him, that he was held in very great esteem in those times, and had pur- chased a more than ordinary glory and renown from the greatest masters which Christianity then had in the world, and that under the discipline ofAmmonius he attained to an admirable skill in learning and philosophy. The monuments and evidences whereof (as he there observes) were the books and writings which he left behind him, considerable not for their subjects only, but their multi- tude, arising to that vast number, that Epiphanius ^ tells us, it was commonly reported that he wrote six thousand volumes : the greatest part of which being understood of epistles, and single homiles, the account will not be above belief, nor give any just foundation for Rufinus and St. Hierom to wrangle so much about it, the latter of whom point-blank denies, that ever himself read, or that Origen himself wrote so many. ' Vincentius affirms, that no man ever v/rote so much as he, and that all his. books could not only not be read, but not so much as be found out by any. So that it was not v/ithout reason that antiquity festened the title of Syntacticus, or the compo- ser upon him, his innumerable discourses upon all sorts of subjects justly appropriating that title to him. His books were of old enumerated by many, and digested in- to their proper classes, whether Scholia, short strictures upon obscure difficult places, Homilies and Tomes, as the ancients divided them ; or Exegetica and Syntagmata, under which rank some modern writers comprehend them, the greatest part whereof though they have long since perished through the carelessness and ill will of suc- ceeding times, yet does a very large portion of them still remain. His phrase and way of writing is clear and un- affected, fluent and copious. ^ Erasmus gives a high en- comium of it, preferring it before most other writers of
f Ap. Euseb. 1. 6. c. 19. p. 220. g L. Holsten. de vit. Sc script. Porphyr. r.i 6. p. 27. h Ubi. supr. p. 256. vld. Ruffin. Apol. pro Orig'. intfer Oper. Hier;-
T. 4. p. 197. i Loc. citat. k Censur. de Oper. Ori^.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 417
the church, that it is neither turgid and lofty, like that of St. Hilary, flying above the reach of ordinary readers ; nor set off with gaudy and far-fetched ornaments, like that of St. Hierom ; nor abounding with flowers of rhe- toric, and smart witty sentences, like that of St. Am- brose; nor over- seasoned with tart and satyrical reflec- tions, and obscured with obsolete and antiquated terms, as that of TertuUian ; not superstitious in the curious and accurate structure of its several parts, like that of St. Gregory ; nor running out into large digressions, nor affecting a chiming cadency of words, like that of St. Augustin : but always brisk and lively, easy and natu- ral. But when he commends it for its conciseness and brevity, he certainly forgot himself, or mistook (and what w^onder he should, when it is like he took his mea- sures not so much from the original as translations.) For his style though it be generally plain and perspicuous, yet is it diffusive and luxuriant, flowing with plenty of words, w^hich might be often spared, and therefore char- ged by some of his critical ad\ersaries that he did irifint- ta verba midtiplicare^ * multiply an infinite crowd of words : and that ^" xs<t5Ao> i^ 'nrso/;,^^ ^v^ij *t«5o^a;.&£7 tcv k^o^«cv, he filled the world with a company of needless and idle words, which he unmeasurably poured out, and that he did <f>;.oag^ cT5«^»i Taf.7sAc>s7v, exceedingly trifle with vain tautolo- logies and repetitions. A censure wherein envy and emulation must be supposed to have had the predomi- nant and over-ruling stroke. For though abounding with words, he was always allowed to be eloquent, for wdiich Vincentius" highly commends him, affirming his phrase to be so sweet, pleasant, and delightful, that there seemed to him to have dropped not words so much as honey from his mouth.
26. But that, alas, which has cast clouds and darkness upon all his glory, and buried so much of his fame in ignominy and reproach, is the dangerous and unsound doctrines and principles which are scattered up and down his writings, for which almost all ages without any
1 Epiph. Ep. ad Joan. Hiercsol.ap. Hieron. T. 2. p. l58. m Eustath. An- tioch. dissert, de Engastrym. adv. Ori^. inter. Grit. S. Tom. 8. col. 441, 453 nUbi supr.
3 G
418 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
reverence to his parts, learning, piety, and the judgment of the wisest and best of the times he hved in, have vvith- outany mercy pronouncedhim heretic, and his sentiments and speculations rash, absurd, pernicious, blasphemous, and indeed what not. The alarm began of old, and was pursued with a mighty clamour and fierceness, especially by Methodius, bishop of Olympus, Eustathius of Anti- och, Apoilinaris, Theophilus of Alexandria, and Epipha- nius ; and the cry carried on with a loud noise in after- ages, insomuch that the very mention of his name is in the Greek church abominable at this day. I had once resolved to have considered the chief of those notions and principles for which Origen is so heavily charged by the ancients, but superceded that labour, when I found that the industry of the learned Monsieur Huet in his Origeniana had left no room for any to come after him, so fully, so clearly, so impartially, with such infinite va- riety of reading has he discussed and canvassed this mat- ter, and thither I remit the learned and capable reader.... And for those that cannot or will not he at the pains to read his large and excellent discourses, they may consult nearer hand the ingenious author oitheLetter of resolution concerning Origen and the chief of his opinions'" ; where they will find the most obnoxious of his dogmata reck- oned up, and the apologies and defences which a sincere lover of Origen might be supposed to make in his be- half, and these pleas represented with all the advantages with which wit, reason, and eloquence could set them off.
27. Nor wanted there of old those who stood up to plead and defend his cause, especially Pamphilus the martyr, and Eusebius who published an apology in six books in his behalf; the first five whereof were written by Pamphilus with Eusebius's assistance, while they were in prison, the last finished and added by Eusebius after the other's martyrdom. Besides which, ^ Photius tells us there were many other famous men in those times, who wrote apologies for him, he gives us a particular
0 Edit. Lend. 1661, 4. p* Cod. CXVIII. col. .297.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 419
account **of one, though without a name, where in five books the author endeavours to justify Origen as sound and orthodox, and cites Dionysius, Demetrius, and Cle- mens, all of Alexandria, and several others to give in evidence for him. The main of these apologies are pe- rished long ago, otherwise probably Origen's cause might appear with a better face, seeing we have now nothing but his notions dressed up and glossed by his professed enemies, and many things ascribed to him which he never owned, but were coined by his pretend- ed followers. For my own part, I shall only note from the ancients some general remarks, which may be plead- ed in abatement of the rigour and severity of the sentence iisuall}^ passed upon him. And j^r^^, many things were said and written by him, not positively and dogmatically, but yvfxv^tcrU; ;t«§"'' says the "■ author of his apology in Pho- tius, by way of exercitation ; and this he himself was^ wont to plead at every turn, and to beg the reader's par- don, and profess that he propounded these things not as doctrines, but as dispijtable problems, and with a design to search and find out the truth, as ' Pamphilus assures us, and St. Hierom himself ^ cannot but confess : and if we had the testimony of neither, there is enough to this purpose in his books still extant, to put it beyond all just exception. Thus discoursing concerning the union of the two natures in the person of our blessed Saviour, he affirms " it to be a mystery which no created understand- ing can sufficiently explain ; concerning which (says he) not from any rashness of ours, but only as the order of discourse requires, we shall briefly speak rather what oiu' faith contains, that what human reason is wont to as- sert, producing rather our own conjectures, than any plain and peremptory affirmations. And to the same purpose he expresses himself at every turn. Not to say that he wrote many things in the heat of disputation, which it may be his cooler and more considering thoughts would have set right. So the apologist in Pho-
qCofl. CXVII. col,293.
r ibid. col. 295 s Apolog. ap. Hieron. Tom. 4. p. 172.
t Ad. Avit. p. 1.51. Tom. 2. u llt^i *,:/. I. 2. o. 6. p. 69a.
420 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
tins "'pleads, that Avhatever he said amiss in the doctrine of the trinity, proceeded merely from a vehement oppo- sition of Sabellius, who confounded the number and dif- ference of persons, and whose sect was one of the most prevailing heresies of that time. The confutation where- of made him attempt a greater difference and distinction in the persons, than the rules of faith did strictly allow. Secondly, those books of his'% wherein he betrays the most unsound and unwarrantable notions, were written privately, and with no intention of being made public, but as secrets communicable among friends, and not as doctrines to disturb the church. And this he freely ac- knowledged in his letter to Fabian ^bishop of Rome, and cast the blame upon his friend Ambrosius, quod secreto edita hi publicum protulerit that he had published those things which he meant should go no further than the breasts or hands of his dearest friends. And there is always allowed a greater freedom and latitude in debat- ing things among friends, the secrets whereof ought not to be divulged, nor the public made judges of that in- nocent liberty which is taken within men's private walls. Thirdly, the disallowed opinions that he maintains are many of them such as were not the Catholic and deter- mined doctrines of the church, not defined by synods, nor disputed by divines, but either philosophical, or speculations which had not been thought on before, and which he himself at every turn cautiously distinguishes from those propositions which were entertained by the common and current consent and approbation of the Christian church. Sure I am he lays it down as a fun- damental maxim, in the very entrance upon that ^book, wherein his m.ost dangerous assertions are contained, that those ecclesiastic doctrines are to be preserved, which had been successively delivered from the apostles, and were then received, and that nothing was to be em- braced for truth that any ways differed from the tradi- tion of the church.
V Cod. CXVII. col 29G. w Pamph. Apo!. ubl supr. p. 174, 177.
X Ap. Hieron. in lip'st. ad Painmach. de err. Oiitj. p. 193. T. 2. > Pi'zef. lid lib, \\i(i d^. p. 66 J.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 421
28. Fourthly, divers of Origen's works have been corrupted and interpolated by evil hands, and heretics to add a lustre and authority to their opinions by the veneration of so great a name, have inserted their own assertions, or altered his, and made him speak their lan- guage. An argument which however laughed at by St. Hierom'', is yet stiffly maintained by Rufinus*, who shows this to have been an old and common art of here- tics, and that they dealt thus with the writings of Clemens Romanus, of Clemens and Dionysius of Alexandria, of Athanasius, Hilary, Cyprian, and many more. Diony- sius*' the famous bishop of Cornith, who lived many years before Origen, assures us he was served at this rate ; that at the request of the brethren he had written several epistles, but that the apostles and emissaries of the devil had filled them with weeds and tares, expun- ging some things, and adding others. The apologist in Photius ''tells us Origen himself complained of this in his life time ; and so indeed he does in his "^letter to them of Alexandria, where he smartly resents that charge of blasphemy had been ascribed to him and his doctrine, of which he was never guilty, and that it was less won, der if his doctrine was adulterated when the great St. Paul could not escape their hands ; he tells them of an eminent heretic, that having taken a copy of a dispute which he had had with him, did afterwards cut off, and add what he pleased, and change it into another thing, carrying it about with him, and glorying in it. And w^hen some friends in Palestine sent it to him then at Athens, he returned them a true and authentic copy of it. And the same foul play he lets them know he had met with in other places, as at Ephesus and at Antioch, as he there particularly relates. And if they durst do this while he was yet alive, and able (as he did) to right himself, what may we think they would do after his death, when there were none to control them? And upon this account most of those assertions must especially be
z Ad Pammach. ubi supr. a Apol. pro. Orig". apud Hier. Tom.'4. p, 194, 195. &,c. & Pi-xf. ad lib. m^t do^. ib. Tom. 2. p. 188. b Ap. Eased. H.
Ecd. 1 4. c. 23. p. 145. a Ubi. supr , d A^x Rv(ffin. ib, 1 owi, 4. p. 1^5.
422 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
discharged, wherein Origen is made to contradict him- self, it being highly improbable (as Rufinus %vell urges) that so prudent and learned a person, one far enough from being either fool or madman, should write things so contrary and repugnant to one another. And that not only in divers, but in one and the same book.
29. I might further observe his constant zeal against heretics, his opposing and refuting of them wherever he came both by word and writing, his being sent for into foreign countries to convince gainsayers, his professing to abominate all heretical doctrines, and his refusing so much as to communicate in prayer with Paul, the heretic of Antioch, though his whole maintenance did depend upon it. And methinks it deserves to be considered, that Athanasius in all the heat of the Arian controversy (than whom certainly none was ever more diligent to search out heretical persons and opinions, or more accu- rate in examining and refuting the chief of those doc- trines, that are laid at Origen's door) should never charge him upon that account. Nay he particularly quotes him ^to prove our Lord's coeternity and coessentiality with the father exactly according to the decisions of the Nicene synod, dismissing him with the honourable cha- racter of ^'-^vfxirk i, <ptxo7ro,ciTa]Qr, thc most admirable and in- finitely industrious person. Nor is there any hetero- dox opinion of his, that I know of, once taken notice of in all his works, but only that concerning the duration of future torments, and that too but ^obliquely mention- ed. Whence I am apt to conclude, either that Origen's writings were not then so notoriously guilty, or that this great man, and zealous defender of the church's doc- trine (who being bishop of Alexandria could not be ig- norant of what Origen had taught or written, nay assures us, he had read his books) did not look upon those dan- gerous things that were in them, as his sense. And indeed so he says expressly ; that what things he wrote by way of controversy and disputation, are not to be
e Loc. cit. p. 194. f Decret. Sj-norl. Nic. contr. Hxres. Arrlan. p. 27r.
T. 1. vid. de Blasph. in S. S, p. 971. l< Socr. H. E. 1. 6, c. 13 p 320. g De Com. essent. Patr.F. &. SS. p. 2^S. T. 1,
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 42^
looked upon as his own words and sentiments, but as those of his contentious adversaries whom he had to deal with, which accordingly in the passages he cites he carefully distinguishes from Origin's own v/ords and sense. To all which I may add, that when the contro- versy about the condemnation of his books was driven on'' most furiously by Theophilus and Epiphanius, The- otimus the good Scythian bishop plainly told Epipha- nius, that for his part he would never so much dishonour a person so venerable for his piety and antiquity, nor durst he condemn what their ancestors never rejected, especially when there were no ill and mischievous doc- trines in Origen's w^orks ; therewithal pulling out a book of Origen's which he read before the whole convention, and showed it to contain expositions agreeable to the articles of the church. With these two excellent per- sons let me join the judgment of a writer of the middle ages of the church, 'Haymo, bishop of Halberstad, who speaking of the things laid to Origen's charge: " For my part (says he) saving the faith of the ancients, I affirm of him, either that he never wrote these things, but that they were wickedly forged by heretics, and fathered upon his name ; or if he did write them, he wrote them not as his ow^n judgment, but as the opinion of others. And if, as some would have it, they were his own sentiments, we ought rather to deal compassion- ately with so learned a man, who has conveyed so vast a treasury of learning to us. What faults there are in his writings, those orthodox and useful things which they contain, are abundantly sufficient to over ballance." 30. This a great deal more, is, and may be pleaded in Origen's defence. And yet after all it must be con- fessed, that he was guilty of great mistakes, and rash propositions, which the largest charity cannot excuse. He had a natural warmth and fervor of mind, a compre- hensive wit, an insatiable thirst after knowledge, and a desire to understand the most abstruse and mysterious
h Socrat, H. Exl. I 6. c. 12. p. 319. i Breviar. H. Eccl. 1. 6. c, 3. nl
JOS, 199. ' •
424 THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
speculations of theology, which made him give himself an unbounded liberty in inquiring into, and discoursing of the nature of things, he wrote much, and dictated apace, and was engaged in infinite variety of business, which seldom gave hira leisure to review and correct his writings, and to let them pass the censure of second and maturer thoughts ; he traded greatly in the writings of the heathens, and was infinitely solicitous to make the doctrines of Christianity look as little unlike as might be to their best and beloved notions. And certainly what Marcellus*" bishop of Ancyra iong since objected against him, is unquestionably true (notwithstanding what Euse- bius has said to salve it) that coming fresh out of the philosophic schools, and havmg been a long time accu- rately trained up in the principles and books of Plato, he applied himself to divine things, before he was sufficient- ly disposed to receive them, and fell upon writing con- cerning them, while secular learning had yet the predo- minancy in his mind, and so unwarily mingled philosophic notions with Christian principles, further than the analog^' of the Christian faith would allow. And I doubt not but whoever would parallel his and the Platonic princi- ples, would find that most of tht Kv^^^a^^uA^Q is charg- ed with, his master notions, were brought out of the school of Plato, as the above mentioned ^Huetius has in many things particularly observed. St. Hierom him- self (whom the torrent of that time made a severe enemy to Origen) could but have so much tenderness for him, even in that very tract Vherein he passes the deepest censures upon him, after he had commended him for his parts, zeal, and strictness of life; "Which of us (says he) is able to read so much as he has written ? who would not admire the ardent and sprightly temper of his mind towards the holy scriptures ? But if any envious zealot shall object his errors to us, let him freely hear what was said of old :
Quandoque bojiiis dormitat Homerus^,
Verum opere in longo fas est ohrepere somnum.
k Ap.Euseb. contr. Marcel. 1. 1, p. 2g. 1 Ad Pamnnach. de error. Grig ,oA T. c ^ Horat. de Art. poet. v. 359. p. 815.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN. 425
In a long work each slip the censor's rod
Does not deserve. Homer does sometimes nod.
" Let us not imitate his faults, whose virtues we cannot reach. Others both Greeks and Latins have erred in the faith as well as he, whom it is not necessary to name, lest we might seem to defend him, not by his own merit, but by the mistakes of other men." To all that has been hitherto said, I may add this, that suppose him guilty of as pestilent and dangerous errors as the worst of his enemies lay to his charge, yet he afterwards re- pented of what he had rashly and unadvisedly written, as appears by his epistle to Fabian, ""bishop of Rome. And is it not intolerable rudeness and incivility at least, perpetually to upbraid and reproach a man with the faults of his past life, and which he himself has disown- ed ? Sorrow for what is past in some measure repairs the breach, and repentance must be allowed next door to innocence.
His writings mentioned by the ancients and which of them extant at this day.
Homillarum mysticarum In In Deteronomium Homiliae,
Genes. Lib. II. In Libr. Jesu Nave ext. Ho-
Commentar. in Genes.* Lib. mil. XXVI. Lat.
XIII. Extant Latine Homi- In Libr. Jadicum ext. Horn.
lise XVIL IX. Lat.
Commentar. Tomi in Exo- In I. Lib. Regum Homil. IV.
dum. Ext. Latine Homilias In Lib. II. extat Homilia una.
XII. In Lib. Paralipom. Komil. I.
Scholia in Levlticum In duos Esdrse Libros Homi-
Ext. Homilise XVI. li£s.
In Numeros extant Lat. Ho- In Libr. Job Tractatus.
mills XXVIIL
n Ap. Hier. ubi supr. p. 193. vid. RufF. Invect. I. in Hieron. inter, oper Hier. T. 4. p. 219. Primus fselicitatis gradus est, non delinquere : Secundus, delicta cognoscere. Illic currit innocentiaintegra Scillibata qiix servet, hie s'lcceditmedela quae sanet. Cvpr. ad Cornel- Epist 55. p, S:!.
S H
42(
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN.
r Commentarii. In Psaimos < Homiliaj.
(.Scholia. Ext. Lat. in Psalm. 36. Horn. V. in Psai. 37. Horn. li. in Psal. 38. Horn. 11. In Proverbia Salom. Com-
mentar. Explicatio Ecclesiastis. In Canticum Cantic. Com- mentarii. Ext. Lat. Homi- lis II.
fCommentar. Li- » T^ . j bri XXX.
L.Scholia.
Ext. Lat. Horn ill ae IX. In Jeremiam Homilise XLV.
Extant Gr. Lat. Homil. XVIL In Threnos Tonii IX. In Ezechielem Tomi XXV.
Ext. Lat. Homil. XIV. In Danielem Expositio. In XII. Prophetas Tomi
XXV.
(^Comment. Lib. In Mat- • XXy. thseum | Homilise XXV. ^.Scholia.
Ext. Gr. Lat. Tomi VII. In Lucam Commentar. Tomi
V.
Ext. Lat. Homiliae. XXXIX. In Joannem Commentar. Tom.
XXXIL
Ext. Gr. Lat. Tom. IX. In Acta Apostolorum Homil.
aliquot. In Epistolam ad Romanos
Explanationum Lib. XX.
Ext. Lat. Libri X. In I. ad Corinthios Commen- tarii.
T r* • X J r Commentarii. In Epist. ad I TT -r ^ S ^ < Homiiise.
^""^^'^^ Ischolia.
In Epist. ap Ephes. Comment. Lib. III.
In Epist. ad Coloss. Commen- tarii.
In I. ad Thess. Vol. (ut mini- mum) III.
In Epist. ad Titum.
T 17 • X J r Commentarii In Epist. ad J
Hebraeos J tt -r
(.Homilise.
Tetrapla.
Hexapla.
Octapla. Commentarii in Veteres Phi-
losophos. De Resurrectione Libri II. De Resurrectione Dialogi. Stromateon Libri X. Disputationes cum Beryllo. Uie) dgx^, sen de Principiis
Lib. IV. Ext. Lat. Contra Celsum Lib VIIL
Ext. Gr. L. De Martyrio. Ext. Gr. L. Homil. de Engastrimytho.
Ext. Gr. L. De Oratione. Ext. Gr. Ms. Philocalia de aliquot praecipuis
Theologise locis & qu^es-
tionibus ex Origenis scrip-
tis a S. Basilio & Gregor.
Naz. excerptis, cap. XXVII
ext. Gr. L.
Epistolae fere infinitae ex his hodie ext. Epistola ad Jul. Africanum
de Histor. Susannae, Gr. L. Epistola ad Gregorium Thau-
maturgum. Ext. Gr. L.
in Philocalia.
THE LIFE OF ORIGEN, 427
Doubtful. De Philosophorum Sectis &
Bialogus contra Marcionitas, dogmatibus.
de recta in Deum fide. Ext. Lamentum Origenis.
Gr. L. Scholia in Orationem Domi-
Supposititioiis, nicam, & in Cantica B,
In Libri Job Tract. Ill & Virginis, Zachariae, ?c Si-
Comment, in eundem. meonis. Commentarius in Evangel. S. Marci. Homiliae in diver*
SOS.
THE LIFE OF ST. BABYLAS,
BISHOP OF ANTIOCH.
His originals obscure. His education and accomplishments inquired into. Made bishop of Antioch, when. Antioch taken by the king of Persia. Recovered by the Roman emperor. Baljylas's fidelity in his charge. The Decian persecution, and the grounds of it : severely urged by the emperor's edicts. Decius's coming to Antioch. His attempt to break into the Christian congregation. Babylas's bold resistance. This applied to Numerianus, and the ground of the mistake. The like reported of Philip the emperor. Decius's bloody act related by St. Chrysostom. His rage against Babylas, and his examination of him. The martyr's resolute answer. His imprisonment and hard usage. The different accounts concerning his death. Three youths his fellow-sufferers, in vain attempted by the emperor. Their mar- tyrdom first and why. Babylas beheaded. His command that his chains should be buried with him. The translation of his body under Constantius. The great sweetness and pleasantness of the Daphne- Apollo's temple there. St. Babylas's bones translated thither bv Gal- lus Caesar. The oracle immediately rendered dumb. In vain con- sulted by Julian. The confession of the demon. Julian's command for removing Babylas's bones. The martyrs' remains triumphantly carried into the city. The credit of this story suiiiciently attested. The thing owned by Libanius and Julian. Why such honour suffered to be done to the martyr. Julian afraid of an immediate vengeance. His persecution against the Christians at Antioch. The sufferings of Theodorus. The temple of Apollo hred from Heaven;
1. SO great and general is the silence of church an- tiquity in the acts of this holy martyr, especially the former part of his life, that I should wholly pass him over, did not his latter times furnish us with some few memorable passages concerning him. His country, pa- rents, education, and way of life, are all unknown, as also whether he was born and bred a gentile, or a Chris- tian. No doubt he was trained up under the advantages of a liberal and ingenuous education, living in places that opportunely ministred unto it, and in times when none but men of known parts and eminency both for
430 THE LIFE OF ST. BABYLAS.
learning and piety were advanced to the government of the church: and when great measures of arts and learn- ing were not only commendable, but necessary, both to feed and preserve the flock of God, to resist and convince gainsayers, and to defend Christianity against the at- tempts both of secret and open enemies. For as the Christian church never wanted professed adversaries from without, who endeavoured both by sword and pen to stifle and suppress its growth, nor pretended friends from within, who by schisms and heresies disturbed its peace, and tore out its very bowels; so never were these more predominant than in those times and parts of the world wherein this good man lived.
2. ANN. Chr. CCXXXIX. Gordian Imper, I. died Zebinus"" bishop of Antioch, in whose room Babylas succeeded. He was a stout and prudent pilot, who (as St. Chrysostom ^ says of him) guided the holy vessel of that church in the midst of storms and tempests, and the many waves that beat upon it. Indeed in the beginning of his presidency over that church he met not with much trouble from the Roman powers, the old enemies of Christianity, but a fierce storm blew from another quar- ter. For Sapor king of Persia *" had lately invaded the Roman empire, and having overrun all Syria, had be- sieged and taken Antioch, and so great a dread did his conquests strike into all parts, that the terror of them flew into Italy, and startled them even at Rome itself. He grievously oppressed the people of Antioch, and what treatment the Christians there must needs find under so merciless and insolent an enemy (at no time favourable to Christians) is no hard matter to imagine. But it was not long before God broke this yoke from off* their necks. For Gordian, the emperor, raising a mighty ar- my, marched into the east, and having cleared the coun- tries as he went along, came into Syria, and went directly for Antioch, where he totally routed the Persian army, recovered Antioch and the conquered cities, and gained some considerable places belonging to Sapor, whom
a Euseb. H. Eccl. I. 16. c. 29. p. 229. b HomlJ. de S, Bab\l. p. 641. torn 1, c Capitol, in Gordian. III. c. 26. p. (^9.
THE LIFE OF ST. BABYLAS. 431
he forced to retire back into his own country : of all which he gives an account in a letter ^ to the senate, who joy- fully received the news, and decreed him a triumph at his return to Rome.
3. The church of Antioch being thus restored to its former tranquillity. Baby las attended his charge with all diligence and fidelity, instructing, feeding, and govern- ing his flock, preparing both young and old to undergo the hardest things, which their religion might expose them to, as if he had particularly foreseen that black and dismal persecution that was shortly to overtake them. Having quietly passed through the reign of Philip (who was so far from creating any disturbance to the Christians, that he is generally though groundlesly, supposed to have been a Christian himself) he fell into the troublesome and stormy times of Decius, who was unexpectedly advanced, and in a manner forced upon the empire. One, whose character might have passed among none of the worst of princes, if he had not so in- delebly stained his memory with his outragious violence against the Christians. The main cause whereof the generality of writers, taking the hint from Eusebius% make to have been hatred to his predecessor Philip, a Christian, as they account him, and whom he resolved to punish in his spleen and malice against them. But methinks much more probable is the account which Gregory Nyssen^ gives of this matter, viz. the large spread and triumphant pre valency of the Christian faith, which had diffused itself over all parts, and planted every corner, and filled not cities only, but countr}^ villages'; the temples were forsaken, and churches frequented, altars overthrown, and sacrifices turned out of doors. This vast increase of Christianity, and great declension of paganism, awakened Decius to look about him : he was vexed to see the religion of the empire trodden un- der foot, and the worship of the gods every where slight- ed and neglected, opposed and undermined by a novel
d Ibid. c. 27. p. 670. e H. Eccl. !. 6. c. 39. n. 2:34. f De vit. Gre,?
Thaum. p. 999. Tom. e.
432 THE LIFE OF ST. BABYLAS.
and upstart sect of Christians, which daily multiplied into greater numbers. This made him resolve with all pos- sible force to check and control this growing sect, and to try by methods of cruelty to weary Christians out of their profession, and to reduce the people to the religion of their ancestors. Whereupon he issued out edicts to governors of provinces, strictly commanding them to proceed with all severity against Christians, and to spare no manner of torments, unless they returned to the obe- dience and worship of the gods. Though I doubt not but this was the main spring that set the rage and malice of their enemies on work, yet Cyprian^ like a man of great piety and modesty, seeks a cause nearer home, in- genuously confessing, that their own sins had set open the flood-gates for the divine displeasure to break in upon them, while pride, and self-seeking, schism and faction reigned so much among them, the very martyrs themselves, who should have been a good example unto others, casting off the order and discipline of the church ; and being swelled with so vain and immoderate a tumour, it was time God should send them a thorn in the flesh to cure it.
4. The provincial governors, forward enough to run of themselves upon such an errand, made much more haste, when they were not only encouraged, but threat- ed into it by the imperial edicts, so that the persecution was carried on in all parts with a quick and a high hand, concerning the severity whereof we shall speak more elsewhere. At present it may suffice to remark that it swept away many of the most eminent bishops of the church, Fabian bishop of Rome, Alexander, bishop of Hierusalem, and several others. Nor was it long before it came to St. Babylas's door. For Decius probably about the middle of his reign, or some time before his Thracian expedition, wherein he lost his life, came into Syria, and so to Antioch, to take order about his affairs that concerned the Persian war. I confess his coming into these parts is not mentioned in the Roman histories,
g Epist. VII. p. 16.
THE LIFE OF ST. BABYLAS. 433
and no wonder, die accounts of his life either not having been written by the Historic August ^e Scriptores^ or if they were, having long since perished, and few of his acts are taken notice of in those historians that yet r*^- main. However the thing is plainly enough ov*iieu ^j ^ ecclesiastical writers. While ^' he continued here, either'^ out of curiosity, or a design to take some more plausiblet advantage to fall upon them, he would needs go into the Christian congregation, ^vhen the public assembly was met together. This Babylas ^\'ould by no means give way to, but standing in the church porch, with an un- daunted courage and resolution opposed him, telling him, that as much as lay in his power, he would never endure that a wolf should break in upon Christ's sheep- fold. 'J'he emperor urged it no further at present, ei- ther being unwilling to exasperate the rage and fury of the people, or designing to effect it some' other way. This passage there are, and Nicephorus among the rest (with whom accord exactly the Meneea and Menologies of the Greek church) that ascribe not to Decius, but Numeri- anus (whom Suidas's translator corruptly styles Mari- anus) who reigned at least thirty years after. A mistake without any pillar or ground of truth to support it, there being at that time no Babylas, bishop of Antioch, whom all agree to have suffered under the Decian persecution. And it is not improbable what Baronius ' conjectures, but the mistake might at first arise from this, that there was under Decius one Numerius, one of the generals of the army, a violent persecutor of the Christians, whom it is not to be doubted the first mistakes of the report confounded with Numerianus, and applied to him what belonged to the emperor, under whom he served.
5. Eusebius '^ relates a like passage to this, but attri- butes it to the emperor Philip, Decius's predecessor, tell- ing us, that when on the Vigils of Easter he would have gone with the rest of the Christians into the church, to be
li Chrvsost. lib. de S. Babyl. Tom. 6. p. 658 &. passim. Philost. H. Eccl. 1. 7. c. 8. p. 94. Suid. in voc. Y.iQuKic, Niceph. H. Eccl. 1. 10. c. 28. p. 63.
i Ad. Ann. 253. n. CZXVI. vid S. Metaphr. in Martyr. S. Isidor. apiul. Sur, Feb. V, p. 48. k H.Eccl. 1. 6. c. 34. p. 232,
3 r
434 THE LIFE OF ST. BABYLAS.
present at their prayers, the bishop of the place would by no means suffer him, unless he would make public confession of his sins, and pass through the order of the penitents, for that he had been guilty of many heinous and enormous crimes, which he readily submitted to. But besides that, this is laid as the main foundation of Philip's falsely supposed Christianity, Eusebius justifies it by no better authority than fame and mere report. And indeed stands alone in this matter. For though some of the ancients referred it to Numerian, yet none but he entitled Philip to it. St. Chrysostom in a large ^encomiastic (wherein he describes this act of Babylas in all the colours wherein wit and eloquence could re- present it, particularly equalling it with the spirit and freedom of Elias, and John the baptist) tells us, that when the emperor made this attempt, he had newly wash- ed his hands in innocent blood, liaving barbarously, and against the faith of his most solemn oath, and the laws of nations, put to death the little son of a certain king, whom his father had given in hostage to secure a peace made between them. This probably was either the son of some petty prince in those parts, who entered into a league with him while he was at Antioch, or some young prince of Persia, pawned as a pledge to ensure the peace between those two crowns, and whom he had no sooner received, but either to gratify his cruelty, or else pre- tending some fraud in the articles, he inhumanly butch- ered. The author of the '"Alexandrian Chronicon, tells us, and vouches Leontius bishop of Antioch for the re- lation, that Philip (in the Greek is added o j^w'^g, probably Tor ° ']KA<(^, the sirnameof that emperor, andnot junior, the younger, as the translator renders it, and elsewhere cor- rects it by ugi<rCuTi^<§r, the elder) being governor of a pro- vince in the reign of Gordianus, Gordian had committed the care of his young son to him, whom after his father's death he slew, and usurped the empire : that being thus guilty of murder, though he was a Christian, yet St. Babylas would not admit him or his
1 Ubi siipr, p. supr. p. 655. m Olymp. 25T. 4. Decii. 1. Indict. 14. p. 630. vid. ibid. p. 628.
THE LIFE OF ST. BABYLAS. 435
wife into' the church ; for which affront offered to so great persons, and not merely because he was a Christian himself, Decius afterwards put St. Babylas to death. A strange medley of true and false, as indeed it is the custom of that author to confound times, things, and persons. However, most evident it is from Chrysostom, that it was the same emperor by whom this young prince was murdered, and St. Babylas put to death, which could be no other than Decius; who with hands thus reeking in the blood of the innocent, would have irreverently rushed into the holy place of the Christian sanctuary, where none but pure hands were lift up to heaven.
VI. Decius, though for the present he dissembled" his anger and went away, yet inwardly resented the af- front, and being returned to the palace, sent for Baby- las, and having sharply expostulated with him for the boldness and insolency of the fact, cornmanded him to do sacrifice to the gods, assuring him that this was the only expedient to expiate his crime, divert his punish- ment, and to purchase him honour and renown. The martyr answered to all his inquiries with a generous con- fidence, despised his proffers, and defied his threats, told him, that as to the offence wherewith he charged him, he was obliged as a pastor readily to do whatever was con- ducive to the benefit of his flock; and for his command, he was resolved never to apostatize from the service of the true God and sacrifice to devils, and those who falsely usurped the name and honour of deities. ■ The emperor finding his resolutions firm and inflex- ible, gave order that chains and fetters should be clapt upon him, with which he was sent to prison, where he endured ° many severe hardships and sufferings, but yet rejoiced in his bonds, and was more troubled at the misery that attended him that sent him thither, than at the weight of his own chains, or the sharpness of those torments that were heaped upon him. So naturally does Christianity teach us to bless them that curse us, to pray
n Phllost et Suid. iibi j-wp;'. o Chrysost. loc. cit. p ()fyi^ ■, 608. nartw
Kom. ad Juiiaar. XZIV
436 THE LIFE OF ST. BABYLAS.
for them that despite fuUy use and persecute usy and to overcome evil with good,
7. There is some little difference in the accounts of the ancients, concerning the manner of his martyrdom. Eusebius ^ and some others make him after a famous Confession to die in prison; while Chrysostom ** (whom I rather incline to believe in this matter, as more capable to know the traditions and examine the records of that church) and Suidas affirm, that being bound he was led forth out of prison to undergo his martyrdom, the one plainly intimating, the other positively expressing it, that he was beheaded. The fatal sentence being passed, as he w^as led to execution, he began his song of triumph, Return unto thy rest, 0 my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with me. Together with him were led along three youths, brothers (whose names the Roman Mar- tyrology '' tells us, were Urbanus, Prilidianus, and Epo- lonius) whom he had Carefully instructed in the faith, and had trained up for so se"\'ere a trial. The emperor, not doubting to prevail upon their tender years, had taken them from their tutor, and treated them with all kinds of hardship and cruelty, as methods most apt to make impression upon weak and timorous minds. But per- ceiving them immovably determiricd not to sacrifice, he commanded them also to be beheaded. Being arrived at the place of execution, Babylas placed the children first, giving them the precedency of martyrdom, lest the spec- tacle of his bloody fate should relax their constancy, and make them desert their station. As the officer was tak- ing off their heads, he cried aloud. Behold, I and the children xvhich the Lord hath given me; and after that laid down his own neck upon the block, having first ' given order to his friends, to w hom he had committed the care of his body, that his chains and fetters should be buried in the same grave \vith him, that they might there remain as ensigns of honour, and the badges of his suf- ferings, and as evidences how much he accounted those things which seem most ignominious among men, to be for Christ's sake most splendid and honourable : imitat-
p Lib. 6. c. 39. p. 234. q L')c. cir.p. 6^ v Loc citat.
s Chrysost. Suid. Martyr. Rom. ubi supra.
THE LIFE OF ST. BABYLAS. 437
ing therebi the great St. Paul, who took pleasure in bonds, chains, imprisonments, reproaches, professing to rejoice and glory in nothing so much as in his sufferings, and in the cross of Christ. Accordingly his chains were laid up with him in the grave, w^here Chrysostom assures us they remained in his time.
8. Where his body w^as first buried, we are not told; but wherever it was, there it remained till the time of Constantius, when it had a more magnificent interment, which proved the occasion of one of the most remarkable occurrences that church-antiquity has conveyed to us. There was a '^ place in the suburbs of Antioch called Daphne, a place that seemed to be contrived by nature on purpose as the highest scene of pleasure and delight. It was a delicate grove thick set with cypress, and other trees, which according to the season afforded all manner of fruits and flowers. Furnished it was with infinite variety of shady walks, the trees joining their bushy heads forbade the approaches of the sun to annoy and scorch them; watered with plenty of chrystal fountains and pleasant rivulets, the air cool and temperate, and the wand playing within the boughs of the trees, added a na- tural harmony and delightful murmur. It was the usual scene of the poets' amorous and v/anton fancies, and in- deed so great a temptation to intemperance and riot, that it w^as accounted scandalous for a good man to be seen there. But that which was the greatest glory of the place was a stately and magnificent temple, said to be erected there by Seleucus, father to Antiochus, who built Anti- och, and by him dedicated to Apollo Daphnasus, who also had a very costly and ancient image placed within the temple, where oracles were given forth, which gave not the least addition to the renown and honour of it. And in this condition it remained, till Gallus, Julian's elder brother, being lately created Cesar by his cousin Con- stantius, was sent to reside at Antioch, to secure those frontier parts of the empire against the incursions of the enemy. He having a singular veneration for the memo- ries of Christian martyrs, resolved to purge this place from its lewd customs and pagan superstitions. Which
t Clirysost. ibid. p. 671. Sozom. !. G. c. 19. p. 635. Nicepli. 1. 10- c. 28. p 6j.
438 THE LIFE OF ST. BABYLAS.
he thought he could not more efFectually compass than by building a church over against Apollo's temple ; which was no sooner finished and beautified, but he caused St. Babylas's coffin to be translated thither.
9. The devil it seems liked him not for so near a neighbour, his presence striking him dumb, so that henceforth not one syllable of an oracle was given out. This silence was at first " looked upon as the effect only of neglect, that the sullen demon w ould not answer, be- cause he had not his usual tribute of sacrifices, incense, and other ritual honours paid to him; but wasfound afterwards to arise from the neighbourhood of St. Babylas's ashes, which caused their second removal upon this occasion. Julian, having succeeded Constantius in the empire, came to Antioch in order to his expedition into Persia, and being intolerably overgrown with superstition, presently wentup to Apollo's temple, to consult the oracle about the success of the war, "" and some other important afRiirs of the em- pire, offering the choicest sacrifices, and making very rich and costly presents. But, alas, all in vain, his prayers, and gifts, and sacrifices availed nothing, the demon giv- ing him to understand that the dead kept him from speak- ing, and that till the place was cleared from the corpse that lay hard by, he could return no answ^ers by the ora- cle. Julian, quickly perceived his meaning, and though many dead bodies had been buried there, he suspected it was Babylas's remains that were particularly aimed at, and therefore commanded the Christians to remove them thence. Who thereupon assembled in infinite numbers, persons of all ages and sexes, and laying the coffin upon an open chariot, brought it into the city with the most solemn triumph, singing psalms of joy all the way they went; and the end of every period adding this tart sting- ing versicle, Confounded be all they, that worship carved images.
10. The reader 'tis like may be apt to scruple this story, as savouring a little of superstition, and giving
u Chrvsost. p, 674, et scriptorcs supra citat.
V Chrys. Hornil. de S. Babyl.p. 641 et I. de S.Babv!. p. 671, &77, 679. Soz. et Niceph. ubi supr. Soci-at/l. 3. c. 18. p. 191. Tlieodur. H.L. I. ). c. la^^ , 132. Conf. Phllust. loc. siipi-. citut.
THE LIFE OF ST. BABYLAS. 439
too much honour to the relics of saints. To which I shall say no more, than that the credit of it seems un- questionable, it being reported not only by Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret (who all lived very near that time) but by Chrysostom, who was born at Antioch, and was a long time presbyter of that church, and was scho- lar there to Libanius the sophister at that very time when the thing was done, and an ^^ eye-witness of it, and who not only preached the thing, but wrote a discourse against the gentiles upon this very subject, wherein he appeals " to the knowledge both of young and old then alive, who had seen it, and challenges them to stand up, and contradict, if they could, the truth of what he relat- ed. Nay, which further puts the case past all perad- venture, ^ Libanius the orator evidently confesses it, when he tells us, that Apollo Daphn?eus, though before neglected and forgotten, yet when Julian came with sa- crifices and oblations to kiss his foot, he appeared again in his rites of worship, after that he had been freed from the unwelcome neighbourhood of a certain dead maii^ ^vho lay hard by, to his great trouble and disturbance. And Julian himself tells the Christians that he had sent back Tov vey.^cvT Ai^v«?, theiT dead man that had been buried in Daphne, Nor is it improbable that God should suffer such an extraordinary passage to happen, especially at this time, to demonstrate the vanity of the gentile reli- gion, to correct the infidelity of the emperor, and to give testimony to that religion which he scorned with so much insolence and sarcasm, and pursued with so much vigour and opposition. If any inquire why Julian should so far gratify the Christians, as to bestow the martyr's bones upon them, and suffer them to convey them with so much pomp and honour into the city, and not rather scatter the ashes into the air, throw them into the fire, or drown the cofiin in the river? ^ Chrysostom answers, that he durst not, he was afraid lest the divine vengeance sliouldovertake him,lestathunderbolt from heaven should
w Vicl. lib. citat. p. 654. et Horn, de Bab. p. 641. x Ibic]. p. 6r6,
y Monod. sup. Apoll, funum igni exust. p. 1H.5. /. Misapog. p. 96. a Ibid. p. 681.
440 THE LIFE OF ST. BABYLAS.
strike him, or an incurable disease arrest him, as such kind of miserable fates had overtaken some of his prede- cessors in the height of their activity against the Chris- tians, and he had lately seen sad instances of it that came very near him ; his uncle Julian prefect of the east, a pe- tulant scorner and apostate derider of Christians, who having broken into the great church at Antioch, had treated their communion plate with the greatest irre- verence and contempt, throwing it upon the ground, spurning, and sitting upon it, and after all carrying it away into the emperor's exchequer, was immediately seized with a loathsome disease, which I am not willing to mention, which, within a few days, in spite of all the arts of physic, put an end to his miserable life. And Felix, the treasurer, a man of the same spirit and tem- per, and engaged with him in the same design, coming up to the palace, on a sudden fell down upon the top of the steps and burst asunder. Ammianus Marcellinus ^ himself confessing that he died of a sudden flux of blood. Others there were, who about that time came to wretch- ed and untimely ends, but these two only are particu- larly noted by Chrysostom. Examples, which it is pro- bable had put an awe and restraint upon him.
11. But evihnemvax rvorse and worse, Julian, how^- ever awed at present, yet his rage quickly found a vent, which all his philosophy could not stop. Vexed *" to see the Christians pay so solemn a veneration to the martyr, and especially stung with the hymns which the Christians sung, the very next day he gave order, against the advice of his privy council, to Salust, the prefect, to persecute the Christians, many of whom were accord- ingly apprehend and cast into prison. And among the rest one Theodorus, a youth, was caught up in the streets, and put upon the rack, his flesh torn oft' with iron pincers, scourged and beaten, and when no tortures could shake his constancy, or so much as move his pa- tience, he was at length dismissed. Rufinus afterwards met with this Theodorus, and asking him v/hether in
b Lib. 23. p 1641. c Socr. c. 19. p. 191. Sozom. etTheocI. ibid.
THE LIFE OF ST. BABYLAS. 441
the midst of his torments he felt any pain, he told him, at first he was a little sensible, but that one in the shape of a voting man stood by him, who gently wiped off the sweat from his face, refreshed him with cold water, and supported his spirit with present consolations, so that his rack was rather a pleasure than a torment to him. But to return.
12. Heaven showed itself not well pleased with the proceedings of the emperor. For immediately the tem- ple of Apollo in the Daphne took fire, which in a few hours burnt the famed image of the god, and reduced the temple, excepting only the walls and pillars, into ashes. This the Christians ascribed to the divine vengeance, the gentiles imputed it to the malice of the Christians; and though the priests and warders of the temple were rack- ed to make them say so, yet could they not be brought to affirm any more, than that it was fired by a light from heaven. This conflagration is mentioned not only by Christian writers, but by ^ Ammianus Marcellinus, and by ^ Julian himself, but especially by Libanius, the ora- tor, who, in an oration on purpose made to the people, elegantly bewails its unhappy fate; whose discourse St. Chrysostom takes to task, and makes witty and eloquent remarks upon it. If the reader ask what became of Ba- bylas's remains after all this noise and bustle, they were entombed within the city, in a church dedicated to his name and memory, and in after-ages are ^ said to have been translated (by some Christian princes, probably, during their wars in the holy land) to Cremona in Italy, where how oft they have been honourably reposed and with how much pomp and ceremonious veneration they are still entertained, they who are curious after such things may inquire.
d Lib. 22. p. 1629. e Loc. supr. cit. f. Vid. Uolland. ad Jan. XZIV. p. 580.
3 K
THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN.
BISHOP OF CARTHAGE.
Hrs birth-place. The nobility of his family exploded. The confounding him with another Cyprian, bishop of Antioch. These two vastly dis- tinct. St. Cyprian's education. His professing rhetoric. His conver- sion to Christianity by the persuasions of Caecilius. Their mutual en- dearment. His great charity to the poor. His baptism. Made presbyter, and bishop of Carthage. His modest declining the honour. His proscription, recess, and care of his church during that retire- ment. The case of the lapsed. A brief account of the rise of the Novatian sect. The fierceness of the persecution at Carthage under Decius. The courage and patience of the Christians. Cyprian's re- turn. A synod at Carthage about the case of the lapsed, and the cause of Novatian. Their determination of these matters. Ratified by a synod at Rome : and another at Antioch. A second synod about the same affair. Moderation in the ecclesiastic discipline used in the time of persecution. The great pestilence at Carthage. The misera- ble state of that city. The mighty charity of St. Cyprian and the Christians at that time. These evils charged upon the Christians. St. Cyprian's vindication of them. The time of baptizing infants de- termined in a synod. Another synod to decide the case of the Spanish bishops that had lapsed in the time of persecution. The controversy concerning the re-baptizing those who had been baptized by heretics. This resolved upon in a synod of 87 African bishops. The immoderate heats befween Cyprian, Firmilian, and Stephen, bishop of Rome, about this matter. Cyprian arraigned before the proconsul. His re- solute carriage. His banishment to Curubis. His martyrdom fore- told him by a vision. His letters during his exile. The severe usage of the Christians His withdrawment, and why. His apprehension and examination before the proconsul. The sentence passed upon him. His martyrdom, and place of burial. His piety, fidelity, chastity, hu- mility, modesty, charity, &c. His natural parts. His learning, where- in it mainly consisted. The politeness and elegancy of his style. His quick proficiency in Christian studies. His frequent converse with T-ertullian's writings. His books. The excellency of those ascribed to him. The great honours done to his mempry.
444 THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN.
1. THASCIUS C^cilius Cyprian was born at Car- thage, in the declining part of the foregoing saeculum, though the particular year cannot be ascertained. Who or what his parents were, is unknown. ^Cardinal Baro- nius (not to mention others) makes him descended of a rich honourable family, and himself to have been one of the chief of the senatorian order ; and this upon the au- thority of Nazianzen,^ who indeed affirms it ; but then certainly forgot that in very few lines before, he had ex- ploded as a fabulous mistake, the confounding our Cyp- rian with another of the same name, of whom Nazianzen unquestionably meant it. For besides our Carthaginian Cyprian, there was another born at Antioch, a person of great learning and eminency, who travelled through Greece, Phrygia, Kgypt, India, Chaldaea, and where not ? famous for the study and the arts of magic, by which he sought to compass the affections of Justina, a noble Christian virgin at Antioch, by whose prayers and en- deavours he was converted, baptized, made first sexton, then deacon of that church, was endowed with miracu- lous powers, and afterwards consecrated bishop of that church, (though I confess I find not his name in the cata- logue of the bishops of that see, drawn up by Nicephorus of Constantinople) and at last having been miserably tor- mented at Antioch, was sent to Dioclesian himself, then at Nicomedia, by whose command together with Justi- na, sent thither also at the same time from Damascus, he was beheaded. The history of all which was largely described in three books in verse, written by the noble empress Eudocia, the excerpta whereof are still extant in 'Photius. This account Simeon the metaphrast, Ni- cephorus, and the later Greeks without any scruple at- tribute to St. Cyprian of Carthage, nay some of them make him to suffer martyrdom under the Decian perse- cution. Though in the vrhole mistake the more to be pardoned, in that not only Prudentius, but Nazianzen had long before manifestly confounded these two emi-
a Ad Ann. 250 n. V. vld. no^ nd Martvrol. Rom. Sept. 26. p. 600. b Orat. in l;md. .S . Ox pr. p. 2/ o. c Cod. CLXXXiV. col. 4It).
THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN. 445
nent persons, who finding several passages of the Anti- ochian Cyprian very near akin to the other, carried all the rest along with them, as two persons very like are oft mistaken the one for the other. To prove that our Cyprian was not him described by Nazianzen, were a vain and needless attempt, the accounts concerning them being so vastly different, both as to their country, educa- tion, manner of life, episcopal charge, the time, place, and companions of their death, that it is plainly impossi- ble to reconcile them. But of this enough.
2. St. Cyprian's education was ingenuous,'* polished by study and the liberal arts, though he principally ad- dicted himself to the study of oratory and eloquence, wherein he made such vast improvements, that publicly and with great applause, he taught rhetoric at ^Carthage. AH which time he lived in great pomp and plenty, in honour and power, his garb splendid, his retinue stately ; never going abroad (as himself tells us^) but he was thronged with a crowd of clients and followers. The far greatest part of his life he passed among the errors of the Gentile religion, and was at least upon the borders of old age when he was rescued from the vassalage of in- veterate customs, the darkness of idolatrj^, and the er- rours and vices of his past life, as ^himself intimates in his epistle to Donatus. He was converted to Christianity by the arguments and importunities of Csecilius,*' a pres- byter of Carthage, a person whom ever after he loved as a friend, and reverenced as a father. And so mutual an endearment was there between them, that Cyprian in honour to him, assumed the title of Csecilius ; and the other at his death made him his executor, and committed his wife and children to his sole care and tutelage. Be- ing yet a catechumen,' he gave early instances of a great and generous piety : professed a strict and severe tem- perance and sobriety, accounting it one of the best pre- parations for the entertainm.ent of the truth, to subdue
d Pont. Biac. in vit. Cypr. nan Innge ab init. e Hter. de script in C\pniii'.o. f Ad Donat. Epist. 1. p. 2.
g- Ubi supra. h Pont- ibid, p 12. i Id. ibid. p. 11,
^6 THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN.
and tread down all irregular appetites and inclinations. His estate, at least the greatest part of it, he sold, and distributed it among the necessities of the poor, at once triumphing over the love of the world, and exercising that great duty of mercy and charity, which God values above all the ritual devotions in the world. So that by the speedy progress of his piety (says Pontius his friend and deacon) he became almost a perfect Christian, before he had learnt the rules of Christianity.
3. Being fully instructed in the rudiments of the Chris- tian faith, he was baptized,^ when the mighty assistances which he received from above, perfectly dispelled all doubts, enlightened all obscurities, and enabled him with ease to do things which before he looked upon as impossible to be discharged. Not long after, he was called to the inferior ecclesiastic offices, and then ad- vanced to the degree of presbyter, wherein he so admira- bly behaved himself, that he was quickly summoned to the highest order and honour in the church. Donatus his immediate predecessor in the see of Carthage (as his own words' seem to imply) being dead, the general vogue both of clergy and people (Felicissimus the presbyter and some very few of his party only dissenting"') was for Cyprian to succeed him. But the great modesty and humility of the man made him fly" from the first ap- proaches of the news, he thought himself unfit for so weighty and honourable an emplo}ment, and therefore desired that a more worthy person, and some of his se- niors in the faith might possess the place. His declining it did but set so much the keener an edge upon the desires and expectations of the people ; his doors were immedi- ately crowded, and all passages of escape blocked up ; he would indeed have fled out at the window, but finding it in vain, he unwillingly yielded, the people in the mean while impatiently waiting, divided between hope and fear, till seeing him come forth, they received him with an universal joy and satisfaction. This charge he en-
kEpIst. 1. p, 2, 3. 1 Enist. 55. p. &2\ m Epi.st.4C. p. 5.1
nP. Diac.p. l^'.
THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN. UT
tered upon Ann. 248, as himself "plainly intimates, when in his letter to Cornelius, he tells him he had been four years bishop of Carthage : which epistle was writ- ten not long after the beginning of Cornelius's pdntifi^ cate, Ann. 251. It was the third consulship of Philip the emperor ; a memorable time, it being the thousandth year ab urbe condita, when the Ludi Saculares were ce- lebrated at Rome, with all imaginable magnificence and solemnity. Though indeed it was then but the decli- ning part of the Annus Miliesimus, which began with the Palilia, about April 21, of the foregoing year, and ended with the Palilia of this : whence in the ancient coins of this emperor, these secular sports are sometimes ascribed to his second, sometimes to his third consulship, as com- mencing in the one, and being completed in the other.
4. The entrance upon his care and government was calm and peaceable, ^but he had not been long in it be- fore a storm overtook him, and upon what occasion I know not, he was publicly^ proscribed by the name of Caecilius Cyprian, bishop of the Christians, and every man commanded not to hide or conceal his goods. And not satisfied with this, they frequently called out, that he might be thrown to the lions. So that being warned by a divine admonition and command from God, (as he pleads for himself) and lest by his resolute defiance of the public sentence, he should provoke his adversaries** to fall more severely upon the whole church, he thought good at present to w^ithdraw himself, hoping that malice would cool and die, and the fire go out when the fuel that kindled it was taken away. During this recess, though absent in body, yet was he present in spirit, sup- plying the want of his presence by letters,' (whereof he wrote no less than 38) by pious counsels, grave admo- nitions, frequent reproofs, earnest exhortations, and es- pecially by hearty prayers to Heaven for the welfare and prosperity of the church. That which created him the
<3 Epist. 55. p. 80. p Epist, 69. p. 117. Ep. 55. p. 80.vId.Pont.de vit.C} pr. p.l2. q Epist. 9- p. 22. Epist. 14. p. 27. r Loc. citat.
448 THE LIFE OF ST. CVPRIAN.
greatest trouble, was the case of the lapsed, whom some presbyters without the knowledge and consent of the bishop, rashly admitted to the communion of the church upon very easy terms. Cyprian, a stiff assertor of eccle- siastic discipline, and the rights of his place, would not brook this, but by several letters not only complained of it, but endeavoured to reform it, not sparing the mar- tyrs themselves, who presuming upon their great merits in the cause of religion, took upon them to give libels of peace to the lapsed, whereby they were again taken into communion, sooner than the rules of the church did allow.
5. This remissness of discipline, and eas}^ admission of penitents, gave occasion to Novatus, one of the presby- ters of Carthage to start aside, and draw a faction after him, denying any place to the lapsed, though penitent, in the peace and communion of the church ; not that they absolutely excluded them the mercy and pardon of God (for they left them to the sentence of the divine tribunal) but maintained that the church had no power to absolve them that once lapsed after baptism, and to receive them again into communion. Having suffici- ently imbroiledthe church at home (where he was in danger to be excommunicated by Cyprian for his scan- dalous, irregular, and unpeaceable practices) over he goes with some of his party to Rome, where by a pre- tence of uncommon sanctity and severity, besides some confessors lately delivered out of prison, he seduced Novatianus (who by the Greek fathers is almost perpetu- ally confounded with Novatus) a presbyter of the Ro- man church, a man of an insolent and ambitious temper, and who had attempted to thrust himself into that chair. Him the party procures by clancular arts and uncanoni- cal means to be consecrated bishop, and then set him up against Cornelius, lately ordained bishop of that see, whom they peculiarly charged *with holding a commu- nion with Trophimus and some others of the ThurljicatU who had done sacrifice in the late persecution. Which
s Vid, Epist. 55, ad Antonkn. p. 66^
THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN. 449
though plausibly pretended, was yet a false allegation ; Trophimus and his party not being taken in, till by great humility^ and a public penance they had given satisfaction to the church, nor he then suffered to com- municate any otherwise than in a lay capacity. Being disappointed in their designs, they now openly show themselves in their own colours, separate from the church, which they charge with looseness and licentiousness in admitting scandalous offenders, and by way of distinc- tion, styling themselves Cathari^ the pure undefiled par- ty, those who kept themselves from all society with the lapsed, or them that communicated with them. Here- upon they were on all hands opposed by private persons, and condemned by public synods, and cried down by the common vote of the church, probably not so much upon the account of their different sentiments and opi- nions in point of pardon of sin, and ecclesiastical penance (wherein they stood not at so wide a distance from the doctrine and practice of the early ages of the church) as for their insolent and domineering temper, their proud and surly carriage, their rigorous and imperious impo- sing their way upon other churches, their taking upon them by their own private authority to judge, censure, and condemn those that joined not with them, or oppo- sed them, their bold divesting the governors of the church of that great power lodged in them, of remitting crimes upon repentance, which seem to have been the very soul and spirit of the Novatian sect.
6. In the mean while the persecution under Decius raged with an uncontrolled fury over the African pro- vinces, and especially at Carthage, concerning which Cyprian every where" gives large and sad accounts, whereof this the sum. I'hey were scourged, and beaten, and racked, and roasted, and their flesh pulled oft' with burning pincers, beheaded with swords, and run through with spears, more instruments of torment being many times employed about the man at once, than there were
t Ibid. p. 69. u Bpist. 53. p. 75. Epist. 7. p. 16. Epist. 8. p. 19 lib. ad Demetr. p. 200.
3 L
450 THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN.
limbs and members of his body : they were spoiled and plundered, chained and in^prisoned, thrown to wild beasts, and burnt at the stake. And when they had run over all their old methods of execution, they studied for more, excogitat novas p^nas ingeniosa crudelitas^ as he complains. Nor did they only vary, but repeat the tor- ments, and where one ended another began ; they tor- tured them without hopes of dying, and added this cru- elty to all the rest, to stop them in their journey to hea- ven ; many who were importunately desirous of death^ were so tortured, that they might not die, they were pur- posely kept upon the rack, that they might die by piece- meals, that their pains might be lingering, and their sense of them without intermission, they gave them no intervals, or times of respite, unless any of them chanced to ^ive them the slip and expire in the midst of torments. All which did but render their faith and patience more illustrious, and make them more earnestly long for Hea- ven. They tired out their tormentors, and overcame the sharpest engines of execution, and smiled at the busy officers that were raking in their wounds, and when their flesh was wearied, their faith was unconquerable. The muhitude beheld with admiration these heavenly conflicts, and stood astonished to he ar the servants of Christ in the midst of all this with an unshaken mind m.aking a free and bold confesssion of him, destitute of any external succour, but armed with a divine powder, and defending themselves with the shield of faith,
7. Two full years St. Cyprian had remained in his re- tirement, when the persecution being somewhat abated by the death of Decius, he returned to Carthage, Ann. 2*51, where he set himself to reform disorders, and to compose the differences that disturbed his church. For which purpose he convened a synod of his neighbour bishops to consult about the cause of the lapsed. Who were no sooner met,^ but there arrived messengers with letters from Novatian, signifying his ordination to the see of Rome, and bringing an accusation and charge
V Ad Cornel' Epist. 41. p. 55.
THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN. 451
against Cornelius. But the men no sooner appeared, but were disowned, and rejected from communion, es- pecially after that Pompeius and Stephanas were arrived from Rome, and had brought a true account and relation of the case. The Synod, therefore, advised and charged them to desist from their turbulent and schismatical pro- ceedings, not to rend the church by propagating a perni- cious faction, that it was their best way and the safest counsel they could take, to show themselves true Chris- tians, by returning back to the p;race of the church. As for the lapsed, having discussed their case"^ according to the rules of the holy scripture, they concluded upon this wise and moderate expedient, that neither all hopes of peace and communion should be denied them, lest look- ing upon themselves as in a desperate case, they should start back into a total apostacy from the faith, nor yet the censures of the church be soUir relaxed, as rashly to admit them to communion : but that the causes being- examined, and regard being had to the will of the delin- quents, and the aggravations of partic ular cases,their time of penance should be accordingly prolonged, and the divine clemency be obtained by acts of a great sorrow and re- pentance. Their meaning is, that the hipsed being of several sorts, should be treated according to the nature of their crimes ; the Libeliatici,, who had only purchased libels of security and dismission from the heathen ma- gistrate to excuse them from doing sacrifice in time of persecution, should have a shorter time of penance as- signed them, the Sacrificati who had actually sacrificed to idols, should not be taken in till they had expiated their offence by a very long penance, and (as they some- times call it) satisfaction. This Synodical determination'' was presently sent to Rome, and ratiried by Cornelius and a counsel of sixty bishops, and above as many pres- byters and deacons, concluding (and the decree examin- ed, assented to, and published by the bishops in their se- veral provhices) that Novatus and his insolejit party, and all that adhered to his inhuman and merciless opinion,
w Ail Anion Epi-'t 52. p. 6;\ x Id- ib.d. Easeb, 1. 6, 43, p. 242.
452 THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN.
should be excluded the communion of the church ; but that tlie brethren, who had fallen into that calamity, should be gently dealt with, and restored by methods of repentance. About the same time there was a synod also held at Antioch by the eastern bishops about the same affair. For so Dionysius,^ bishop of Alexandria, in his letter to Cornelius of Rome, tells him, that he had been summoned by Helenus, bishop of Tarsus, Firmi- lian of Cappadocia, and Theoctistus of C^sarea in Pales- tine, to meet in council at Antioch, to suppress the en- deavours of some, who sought there to establish the No- vatian schism.
8. The next year. May XV. Jnn. CCLII. began an- other ^ council at Carthage about this matter, and wherein they steered the same course they had done before, being rather swayed to moderate counsels herein, because frequently admonished by divine revelations of an approaching persecution, and therefore did not think it prudent and reasonable, that men should be left naked and unarmed in the day of battle, but that they might be able to defend themselves with the shield of Christ's body and blood. For how should they ever hope to persuade them to shed their own blood in the cause of Christ, if they denied them the benefit of his blood? how could it be expected they should be ready to drink the cup of martyrdom, whom the church debarred the pri- vilege to drink of the cup of Christ? While peace and tranquillity smiled upon the church, they protracted the time of penance, and allowed not the Sacrificati to be readmitted, but at the hour of death. But that now the enemy was breaking in upon them, and Christians were to be prepared and heartened on for suffering, and en- couragement to be given to those ^vho, by the sincerity of their repentance, had showed themselves ready to re- sist unto blood, and to contend earnestly for the faith. This they did not to patronise the lazy, but excite the diligent, the church's peace being granted not in order to
y Ap. Euseb. H. Eccl 1. 6. c. 4G. p. 247. z Epist, Synod, ad Cernel. Ep.
S4.p.7.6.etEp. i5. i>. »2.
THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN. 453
ease and softness, but to conflict and contention. And if any improved the indulgence to worse purposes, they did but cheat themselves, and such they remitted to the divine tribunal. At this synod appeared one * Privatus, who having some years since been condemned for here- sy and other crimes by a council of ninety bishops, de- sired that his cause might be heard over again, but was rejected by the synod, whereupon gathering a party of the lapsed, or the schismatics, he ordained, at Carthage, one Fortunatus bishop, giving out that no less than five and twenty bishops were present at the consecration. But the notorious falsehood and vanity of their pretences being discovered, they left the place and fled over to Rome.
9. About this time happened that miserable plague, that so much afflicted the Roman world, wherein Car- thage had a very deep share. ^ Vast multitudes were swept away every day, the fatal messenger knocking, as he went along, at every door. The streets were filled with the carcasses of the dead, which seemed to implore the assistance of the living, and to chalfe^^vge it as a right by the laws of nature and humanity, as thuc which shortly themselves might stand in need of. But, alas, all in vain, every one trembled and fled, and shifted for himself, de- serted their dearest friends and nearest relations ; none considered what might be his own case, nor how reason- able it was that he should do for another, what he would another should do for him, and if any staid behind, it was only to make a prey. In this calamitous and tragic scene, St. Cyprian calls the Christians together, instructs them in the duties of mercy and charity, and from the precepts and examples of the holy scripture, shows them what a mighty influence they have to oblige God to us; that it was no wonder if their charity extended only to their own party, the w^ay to be perfect, and to be Chris- tians indeed, was to do something more than heathens and publicans, to overcome evil with good, and in imitation of the divine benignity, to love our e?2emies, and accord-
a Ibid. p. 82. b Pont. Diac. in vit. Cj-pr. p. 13.
454 THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN.
ing to our Lord's advice, to pray for the happiness of them that persecute us ; that God constantly makes his sun to rise and his rain to fall upon the seeds and plants^ not only for the advantage of his own children, but of ail other men ; that therefore they should act as became the nobility of their new birth, and imitate the example of such a Father, who professed themselves to be his chil- dren. Persuaded by this, and much more that he dis- coursed to the same effect, enough to convmce the very gentiles themselves, they presently divided their help according to each one's rank and quality. Those who by reason of poverty could contribute nothing to the charge, did what was infinitely more, personally labour- ed in the common calamity, an assistance infinitely be- yond all other contributions. Indeed every one was am- bitious to engage under the conduct of such a comman- der, and in a service wherein they might so eminently approve themselves to God the Father, and Christ the Judge of all, and in the meantime to so pious and good a bishop. And by this large and abundant charity great advantage redounded not to themselves only, who were of the household of faith, but universally to all. And that he might not be wanting to any, he penned at this time his excellent discourse concerning Mortality, wli^rein he so eloquently teaches a Christian to triumph over the fears of death, and shows how little reason there is exces- sively to mourn for those friends and relations, that are taken from us.
10. This horrible pestilence, together with the wars, which of late had, and even then did, overrun the em- pire, the gentiles generally charged upon the Christian religion, as that for which the gods were implacably an- gry with the world. To vindicate it from this common objection, Cyprian addresses himself in a discourse to Demetrian the proconsul wherein he proves that these evils that came upon the world, could not be laid at the door of Christianity, assigning other reasons of them, and among the rest their wild and brutish rage agahist the Christians, which had provoked the Deity to bring tiiese calamities upon them, as a just punishment of theii?
THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN. 455
lolly and madness in persecuting a religion, so innocent and dear to heaven *^ The persecution being OA^er, a controversy arose concerning the time of baptizing in- fants, started especially by Fidus, ^ an African bishop, who asserted that baptism was not to be administered on the third or fourth, but as circumcision under the Jewish state, to be deferred till the eighth day. St. Cyprian, in a synod of sixty-six bishops, determined this question, that it was not necessary to be dt ferred >,o long, nor the grace and mercy of God to be denied to any as soon as born into the world; that it was then- universal sentence and resolution, that none ought to be prohibited baptism and the grace of God ; which, as it was to be observed and retained towards all, so much more towards infants and new-born children. Not long after which, another council was held by ^ Cyprian (importuned thereunto by the bishops of Spain) to consult concerning the case of Basilides, bishop of Asturica, and Martial, bishop of Emerita in Spain, who had lapsed into the most horrible idolatry in the late persecution, and yet still retained their places in the church. The synod resolved, that they were fallen from their episcopal order, and the very lowest degree of the ministry, and that upon their repent- ance they were to be restored to no more than the capa- city of laics in the communion of the church.
11. In this synod, or another called not long after, the famous contest about rebaptizing those who had been baptized by heretics, received its first approbation. It had been some time since, by occasion of the Monta- nists and Novatians, canvassed in the eastern parts, thence it flew over to Numidia, by the bishops whereof it had been brought before Cyprian, and the council at Carthage, who determined that the thing was necessary to be ob- served, and that this was no novel sentence, but had been
c Exoritur ultio violati nominis Christian!, ct usqueqiio ad proflig-andas ec- clesias edicta Deciicucuvreiunt, catenus incredibilium morborum pestis ex- tenditur. Nulla fere provincia Romana, nulla civitas, nulla domus fuit, quae non ilia general! pestilentia correpta atque vastata sit. P. Orosius Hist. adv. Pagan. 1. 7. c 21. ibl. 310. p. 2.
d Vid, Epist. Synod, ad Fid. Ep. S9. p. 94- e Epist. 68. p. 112. et seq.
456 THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN.
so decreed by his predecessors, and die thing constantly practised and observed among them, as he assures them in the Synodical Epistle ^ about this matter. Among others, to whom they sent their decrees, the synod ^ espe- cially wrote to Stephen, bishop of Rome (who had so far espoused the contrary opinion, as to excommunicate the synod at Iconium, for making the like determination) him they acquaint with the sentence they had passed, and the reasons of it, which th .y hoped he also would assent to, however did not magisterially impose it upon him, every bishop having a proper authority within the jurisdiction of his own church, whereof he is to render an account to God. Pope Stephen (with whom stood a great part of the church) liked not their proceedings; whereupon a more general council was summoned, where no less than eighty-seven bishops, from all parts of the African churches, met together, who unanimously ratified the former sentence, whose names and particular votes are extant in the ^ Acts of that council. But numbers made the cause never the better resented at Rome, and indeed the controversy arose to that height between these two good men, that Stephen gave Cyprian very rude and un- christian language, 'styling h'mi jTalse Christ, Jaise apos- tle, deceitful worker, and such like: while on the other hand Cyprian treated him with more than ordinary sharp- ness and severity, charging ^ him with pride and imper- tinence, and self-contradicticn, with ignorance and indis- cretion, with childishness and obstinacy, and other ex- pressions, far enough from that reverence and regard, which St. Stephen's successors claim at this day. And no better usage did he find from Firmilian, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, as may be seen in his letter to Cyprian, ' charging Stephen with sacrificing the church's peace to a petulant humour, where inhumanity, auda- ciousness, insolence, wickedness, are some of the cha- racters bestowed upon him. A great instance how far
f Epist. 69. p. 117. g'Epist. 72 • p. 121. Apud Cyr. p. 282. et concil. Tom. 1. col. 786. edit, noviss. i Firmil. Epist. ad Cypr. p. 150. k Ad
Fompei. Epist. 74. p. 129. 1 Apud Cypr. ^ 143.
THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN. 457
passion aitd prejudice may transport wise and good men beyond the merits of the cause, and what the laws of kindness and charity do allow. I note no more con- cerning this, than that Cyprian and liis party '"" expressly disowned anabaptism, or rebaptization, they freely con- fessed that there was but one baptism, and that those who came over from heretical churches, where they had had their baptism, were not rebaptized, but baptized, their former baptism being ipso facto null and invalid, and they did then receive, what (lawfully) they had not before.
12. It was now the year 257, when Aspasius Paternus, the proconsul of Africa, sent " for Cyprian to appear be- fore him, telling him, that he had lately received orders from the emperors (Valerian and Gaiiienus) command- ing that all that were of a foreign religion, should wor- ship the gods according to the Roman rites, desiring to know what was his resolution ? Cyprian answered, / am a Clir'istian and a bishops I acknowledge no other godsy but one only true God^ who made heaven and earthy and all that therein is. This is he whom we Christians se?'ve, to 'whom we pray day and nighty for ourselves and for all men, and for the happiness and prosperity of the emperors. And is this then thy resolution? said the proconsul. TJmt resolution, replied the martyi , which is founded in God, cannot be altered. Then he told l)im, that he was to search out the presbyters as well as bishops, requiiing him to discover them. To which Cyprian gave no other answer, than that according to their own laws, they were not bound to be informers. The pi^oconsul then ac- quainted him, that he was commanded to prohibit all private assemblies, and to proceed with capital severity against them that frequented them. VvMieieat the good miin told him that his best way was to do as he was commanded. The proconsul finding it was in vain to treat with him, commanded him to be banished, and ac- cordingly he was transported to Curubis, a little city, standing in a peninsula, within the Lybian sea, not far
m AdQiiint. Epist. Tl. p. 119. n Act. Pass. S. Cvpriani. ap. Cvpr. p. 17i 24.
3.JVI
458 THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIA IST.
from Pentapolis ; a "place pleasant and delightful enough, and where he met with a kind and a courteous usage, was frequendy visited by the brethren, and furnished with all conveniences necessary for him.
13. But the greatest entertainment in this retirement, were those divine and heavenly visions with which God was pleased to honour him, by one whereof the very first day of his coming thither he was particularly forewarned of his approaching martyrdom, whereof Pontius, the dea- con, who L'.ccompanied him in his banishment, gives us this account fi^om the martyr's own mouth.^* There ap- peared to him as he was going to rest, a young man of a prodigious stature, who seemed to lead him to the pr^- torium, and to preserst him to the proconsul, then sitting upon the bench : who looking upon him, began to WTite something in a book, which the young man who looked over his shoulder, read, but not daring to speak, intima- ted by signs what it was : for extending one of his hands at length, he made across stroke over it with the other, by v/hich Cyprian presently guessed the manner of his death. Whereupon he importunately begged of the pro- consul but one day's respite to dispose his affairs, and partly by the pleasingness of the judge's countenance, partly by the signs which the young man made of what the proconsul was noting in his book, he immediately gathered that his request was granted. And just so it accordingly came to pass, both as to the time and man- ner of his martyrdom, that very day twelve-month, whereon he had this vision, proving the period of his life.
14. How active and diligent he was to improve his opportunities to the best advantage, appears from the se- veral letters he wrote during his confinement, especially to the martyrs in prison, whose spirit he refreshed by proper consolations, and pressed them to persevere unto the crown. While he was here he had news brought ''him of the daily increase of the persecution, the emperor
o p. Diac. in vit. Cyp p. 14. p Loc. citat.
q Ad Success. Epi»t. 82. p. 160.
THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN. 459
Valerian having sent a rescript to the senate, that bishops, presbyters, and deacons, should be put to death without delay ; that senators, and persons of rank and quality should lose their honours and preferments, forfeit their estates, and if still they continued Christians, lose their heads ; and that matrons having had their goods confis- cated, should be banished : that Xystus and Quartus had already suffered in the cemetery, where their solemn assemblies were held ; and that the governors of the city carried on the persecution with might and main^ spoiling and putting to death all that they could meet with. This sad and uncomfortable news' gave the good man just reason to expect and provide for his own fate, which he waited and wished for every day. Indeed some persons of the highest rank and quality, his ancient friends, came to him, and persuaded him for the present to withdraw, offering to provide a secure place for his retreat. But the desire of that crown which he had in his eye, had set him above the world, and made him deaf to their kind offers and entreaties. True it is that when news was brought that the officers were coming for him, to carry him to Utica to suffer there, by the advice of his friends he stept aside, being unwilling to suffer any where but at Carthage, in the eye of the people, where he had so long, and so successfully preached the Chris- tian faith, the truth whereof he was desirous to seal with his blood ; it being very fit and congruous, that a bishop should suffer for our Lord in that place where he had governed his church, and by that eminent confession edify and encourage the flock committed to him, as he tells' the people of his charge in the last letter that ever he wrote. As for themselves, he advised them to peace and unity, not to create trouble to one another, not to of- fer themselves to the Gentiles, but if any was apprehend- ed, to stand to it, and freely confess, as God should ena- ble him to declare himself,
r P. Diac. ubi, supr. p. 15. s Epist. 82. p. 161.
460 THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN.
15. Galerius Maximns the new proconsul, being re- turned to Carthage,' Cyprian (who resolved but till then to conceal himscit ) came home, and took up his residence in his own gardens. Where officers were presently sent to apprehend him, who putting him into a chariot, car- ried him to the place wnere the proconsul was i etired lor his heahh, who commanded him to be kept till the next day, which was done in the house of one of the oliicers that secuj^d him, the people, alarmed with the news of his retunt'and apprehension, flocking to the doors, and watching there all night. The next morning being Sep- tember 14, Ann. Chr. 258, he was led to the proconsul's palace, who not being yet come forth, he was carried aside into a by-place, where he rested himself upon a seat, which by chance was covered with a linen cloth, that so (says my author) even in the hour of his passion, he might enjoy some part of episcopal honour. The length and hurry of his walk, had put the infirm and aged man into a violent sweat, which being observed by a mili- tary messenger, who had formerly been a Christian, he came to him and offered to accommodate him with dry linen instead of that wet and moist that was about him : this he did in a pretended civility, but really with de- sign to have secured some monument of the martyr's last agony and labour, who returned no other answer, than, PFe seek to cure complaints^ ami sorrows^ ivhich perhaps to day shall be ?io more for ever. By this time the proconsul was come out, Vvho looking upon him, said, Art thou Thascius Cypriari, who hast been bishop and father to men of an impious mind ? the sacred empe- rors command thee to do sacrifice. Be xvell advised, and do not throw away thy life. The holy martyr replied, / am Cyprian, I am a Christian, and I cannot sacrifice to the gods ; do as thou art commanded ; as for me, in so just a cause there ncifds no consultation. The proconsul was angry at his resoluie constancy, and told him, that he had been a long time of this sacrilegious humour, had sedu-
t Pont. ib. p. 15- Act, Passion, ib. p. 16, 18, 19, 24.
THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN. 461
ced abundance into the same wicked conspiracy with himself, and sho'wn himself an enemy to the gods and religion of the Roman empire, one whom the pious and religious emperors could never reduce to the observance of their holy rites : that therefore being found to be the author and ring-leader of so heinous a crime, he should be made an example to those whom he had seduced into so great a wickedness, and that discipline and severity should be established in his blood. Whereupon he read his sentence out of a table book, / will that Thasckis Cyprian be beheaded. To which the martyr only answer- ed, 1 heartily t/iank Almighty God, who is pleased to set mefr ee from the chains of the body.
16. Sentence being passed, he was led away from the tribunal with a strong guard of soldiers, infinite numbers of people crowding after, the Christians weeping and mourning, and crying out, let us also be beheaded with him. The place of execution was Sextus's field, a large circuit of ground, where the trees (whereof the place was full) were loaded with persons to behold the spectacle. The martyr presently began to ^trip himself, iirsi put- ting off his cloak, which he folded up, and laid at his feet,' and falling down upon his knees, recommended his soul to God in prayer ; after which he put off his dal- matic, or under coat, which he delivered to the deacons, and so standing in nothing but a linen vestment, expect- ed the headsman, to whom he commanded the sum of about six pounds to be given, the brethren spreading linen cloths about him to preserve his blood from being spread upon the ground." His shirt sleeves being tied by Julian (or as one of the acts calls him, Tuliian) the presbyter, and Julian the sub-deacon, he covered his eyes with his own hand, and the executioner did his of- fice. His body was by the Christians deposited not far
Ti Cum venisset Spiculator, jussltsuis, ut eidem Spiculatori XXV. (alia Ac- la habent XX.) aureos darent. Act. Cypr. p. 18. Aureus sub imperatoribus Romanis viiluit de nostro 15 s, sed sub Alexandro Severe primo cusi sunt Se- missis Aurei (de nostro 7 s. 6 d.) & Tremissis Aurei, qui valuit de nostro 5 s. vid. Brierw. de num. cap. 14, de ultir^ohunc ex Aciis Cypriani Jocum intelli- g-endum puto.
462 THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN.
off, but at night for fear of the Gentiles, removed, and with abundance of lights and torches solemnly interred in the cemetery of Macrobiiis Candidus, a procurator, near the fish-ponds in the Mappalian way. This was done Ann. 258, Valeriani and Galiien. 5. So extrava- gantly wide is the account of the "Alexandrine Chronicle (if it means the same person) when it tells us, that St. Cyprian suffered martyrdom Ann. Alexandri Imp. 13, that is Ann. Chr. 234, though the consuls under which he places it (and this agrees better with his other ac- counts, both of the Olympiads, and of Christ's ascension) assign it to the last year of Maximinus, Ann. Chr. 237, for so he says, that it was 205 years after our Lord's as- cension into heaven. Which was, however, far enough from truth. Indeed elsewhere"^ he places St. Cypiian's martyrdom Valeriani 2, which (as appears by the con- suls) should be 5, that is, Ann. Chr. 258. But it is no new thing with that author to confound times and persons, and assign the same events to different years. Thus di- ed this good man, the first bishop of his see that suffered martyrdom, as ""Pontius his deacon informs us, who was a true lover of him, and followed him to the last, and professes himself not to rejoice so much at the glor^ and triumph of his master, as to mourn that he himself was left behind.
17. St. Cyprian though starting late, ran apace in the Christian race. He had a soul inflamed with a migh- ty love and zeal for God, whose honour he studied by all ways to promote. A wise and prudent governor, a great assertor of the church's rights, a resolute patron and defender of the truth, a faithful and vigilant overseer of his flock, powerful and diligent in preaching, prudent in his determinations, moderate in his counsels, grave and severe in his admonitions, pathetical and affectionate in his persuasives, indulgent to the penitent, but inflexi- ble to the obstinate and contumacious ^Infinite pains
V Ann. 4 Olympiad. CCLIII. Indict. XIII. p. 626. w An. I. Olymp*
259. Ind. IV. Valer. II. x Ibid. pag. 16.
y Q^iaecunque bona in multis libris tuis intulisti, nescius ipsnm te nobis dc- srrgnasti : es enim omnibu* in tractatu major, in sermone facundior, in const-
THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN. 463
he took tb reclaim the lapsed, and to restore them to the church by methods of penance^ and due humiliation : he invited them kindly, treated them tenderly ; if their minds were honest, and their desires sincere, he would not rigorously examine their crimes by over nice weights and measures ; so prone to pity and compassion, that he was afraid lest he himself offended in remitting other men's offences. He valued the good of souls above the love of his own life, constant in the profession of re- ligion, from w^hich neither by hopes nor fears could he be drawn aside. How strictly chaste and continent he was, even in his first entrance upon Christianity, we have noted in the beginning of his life. His humility emi- nently appeared in his declining the honour of the epis- copal order, and desire that it might be conferred upon a more deserving person ; and when some fiictious and schimatical persons traduced him as taking too much upon him, because he controlled their wild and licenti- ous courses, he vindicates his humility at large in a letter to Pupianus', who had made himself head of the party that appeared against him. So modest, that in all great transactions concerning the church, he always consulted both" his colleagues and his flock, himself assuring us**, that from the very entrance upon his bishopric he deter- mined, not to adjudge any thing by his own private order, without the counsel of the clergy, and the consent of the people. His behaviour was composed and sober% his countenance grave, yet cheerful, neither guilty of a frowning severity, nor an over pleasant mirth, but an equal decorum and temperament of both, it being hard to say whether he more deserved to be loved or feared, but that he equally deserved both. And the very same he was in his garb, sober and moderate, observing a just distance both from slovenliness and superfluity, such as neither argued him to be swelled with pride and vanity,
lio sapientori, in patientia simplicior, in operibus largior, in abstientia sanction, in obsequio humilior, & in actubono innocentior. Nemes. &.c. Martyr. Epist. ad Cvpr. p. 157.
z Vid. ad Cornel. Epist. 55. p. 85. a Epist. 69. p. 116. b Ad. Presb. h piac. Epist. 5. p. 14. c P. Diac. in vit, Cypr. p. 12.
464 THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN.
nor infected with a sordid and penurious mind. But that which set the crown upon the head ot all his other virtues, was his admirable and exemplary charity. He was of a kind and compassionate temper and he gave it vent. X Upon his first embracing the Christian religion he sold his estate (which was not mean and inconsidera- ble) and gave almost all of it to the poor, from which he suffered no considerations to restrain him. His hand, and tongue, and heart, were open upon all occasions ; we find him at one time not only earnestly '^pressing others to contribute towards the redemption of Christi- ans taken captive by the Barbarians, but himself sending a collection of a great many thousand crowns. Nor was this a single act done once in his life, but his ordinary practice ; his doors*" were open to all that came, the widow never returned empty from him ; to any that were blind, he would be their guide to direct them; those that were lame, he was ready to lend his assistance to support them ; if any were oppressed by might, he was at hand to rescue and protect them. Which things, he was wont to say, they ought to do, who desired to render themselves truly acceptable and dear to God
18. His natural parts seem to have been ready and acute enough, which how far he improved by secular and Gentile learning, is unknown. He seems to have laid no deep foundations in the study of philosophy, whereof few or no footsteps are to be seen in any of his writings : his main excellency was eloquence, rhetoric being his proper profession before his conversion to Christianity ; wherein he attained to so great a pitch, that Erasmus, a competent judge of these matters, sticks not to afiirm^, that among all the ecclesiastics he is the only African writer, that attained the native purity of the Latin tongue. Tertullian is difficult and obscure, St. Augustin strangely perplexed and dry; but Cyprian (as St, liierom/ long since truly censured) like a pure foun- tain is smooth and sweet. And Lactantius'' long before
d Ad Episc. Ntiinld. Epist. 60. p. 97"- e Pont, ubl supr, f Praef. in
Cypr. inter Erasm. Ep. I 28. Epist. 6. col. 1616, g Epist. ad Paulin. p. 104, Tom. 1-. h De Justit. I. 5. c. 1 . p. 459.
THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN. 465
him passed this judgment, that Cyprian alone was the chief and famous writer, eminent for his teaching ora- tory, and writing books admirable in their kind : that he had a facile, copious, pleasant, and (which is the greatest grace of speech) clear and perspicuous wit, that a man can hardly discern whether he be more eloquent in his expressions, easy in his exphcations, or potent in his persuasives'. Indeed his style is very natural and easy, nothing elaborate or aifected in it, or which savours of craft and ostentation, but such every where the tenor of his language (I speak ''Erasmus's sense as well as my own) that you will think you hear a truly Christian bishop, and one designed for martyrdom speaking to you. His mind was inflamed with piety, and his speech was answerable to his mind : he spake elegantly, and yet things more powerful than elegant, nor did he speak powerful things so much as live them. After his com- ing over to the church, he made such quick and vast proficiencies in Christian theology, that ^Baronius thinks it not improbable to suppose either that before his con- version he had been conversant in the books of Chris- tians, or that he was miraculously instructed from above. It is certain that afterwards he kept close to Tertullian's writings, without which he scarce ever passed one day, often saying to his notary. Reach hither my master^ meaning Tertuliian. A passage which St. Hierom"" tells us he received from Paulus of Concordia in Italy, who had it from the mouth of Cyprian's own amanuen- sis at Rome. And certainly it sounds not a little to the
i Incubatln Lybia sang'uis, sed ubique lingua pollet :
Sola superstes ag'it de corpora, solaobire nescit.
Dum genus esse hominum Christus sinet Sc vigere rnundum,
Dam liber ullus erit, dum scrinia sacra literarum,
Te leget omnis amans Christuni, tua, Cypriane, discct.
Spiritus ille Dei, qui fluxerat autor in Prophetac,
Fontibus eloquii te coelitus actus inig-avit.
O nive candidius linguae genus ! O novum saporem !
Ut liquor aivibrosius, cormitig'at, imbuit palatum,
Sedem anims penetrat,iTientem fovet, & pererrat artus :
Sic Deus interius sentitur, & inditur raedallis. Prudent, risgi '^^in^-xv. Hymn. XII. in Passion. Cypr. Maityris, et Episc, Carthag.
k Log, citat. 1 Ad. ann. 250. n. XI. m De script, in I'ertull.
3 N
466. THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN.
commendation of his judgment, that he could drink so freely at the fountain, and suck in none of his odd and uncouth opinions, that he could pick the flowers, and pass by the useless or noxious weeds; as a wise man many times is so far from being corrupted, that he is the more warned and confirmed in the right by another man's errors and mistakes. As for his writings, St. Hieroni " passes them over with this character, that it was superfluous to reckon them up, being clearer and more obvious than the sun. Many of them are undoubtedly lost, the greatest part of what remain, are epistles, and all of them such as admirably tend to promote the peace and order of the church, and advance piety and a good life. A great number of tracts, either dubious or evi- dently supposititious, are laid at his door, some of them very ancient, and most of them useful, it being his happi- ness above all other writers of the church (says ° Eras- mus) that nothing is fathered upon him but what is learned, and what was the issue of some considerable pen.
19. He was highly honoured while he lived, not only by men, consulted and appealed to in all weighty cases by foreign churches, but by frequent visions and divine condescensions, (as he was wont to call them) whereby he was immediately warned and directed in all important affairs and exigencies of the church. After his death his memory was had in great veneration, the people of Carthage ^ erecting two eminent churches to it, one in the place of his martyrdom, the other in the Mappalian way, where he was buried. The former was styled 31e?isa Cypriaiii, Cyprian's Table, because there he had been offered up a sacrifice acceptable unto God. And here they had their anniversary commemorations of him. Whether this was the church mentioned by "^ Procopius, I cannot tell, v/ho informs us, that the Carthaginians, alcove all people in the world, honoured St. Cyprian, building a magnificent church to his memory without
n Ibid, in Cvpr. o Ubi supr. p Vict, de Persec. Vandal. 1.1. inter
Ootbod. PP. p' 801. Tom. % qDe Bell. Vandall. I. 1. vid. Niceph. 1. 17. c.
12. p. 751.
THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN.
46;
the city walls, near the sea side, and besides other ex- pressions of honour done to him, they kept a yearly fes- tival, which they called Cypriana. This church Honori- cus, king of the Vandals, afterwards took from the Ca- tholics, casting out the orthodox clergy with disgrace and contempt, and bestowed it upon the Arians, which, ninety-live years after, was recovered by the emperor Justinian, under the conduct of Belisarius, who besiged and took Carthage, and drove the Va^idals out of all those parts.
HIS WRITINGS
Genuine. Epistola ad Donatum statim a
Baptismo conscripta. Epistolae in Secessu toto bien-
nio conscriptae XXXVIII. Epistolae sub Pontificatu Cor-
nelii et Lucii XVIII. Epistolae Miscellaneae in pace
variis temporibus conscrip- tae VIII. Epistolae sub Pontificatu Ste-
phani, et de rebaptizandis
Haereticis X. Epistolae in exilio scriptae sub
finem Vitae VII. De disciplina et habitu Virgi-
num. De Lapsis. De Unitate Ecclesiae Catho-
licae, De Oratione Dominica. Ad Demetrianum. De Idolorum Vanitate. De Mortalitate. De Opere et Eleemosynis. De Bono Patientiae. De Zelo et Livore. De exhortatione Martyrii ad
Fortunatum. Testimoniorum Adversus Ju-
daeos Lib, III. Concilium Carthaginense, de baptizandis Haereticis.
Supposititious.
De Spectaculis.
De Disciplina etbono pudici-
tiae. De Laude Martyrii ad Mo- sen, &c. Ad Novatianum, quod Lapsis
spes veniae non sit dene-
ganda. De Cardinalibus Christi ope-
ribus. De Nativitate Christi. De ratione Circumcisionis. De Stella et Magis, ac inno-
centium nece. De baptismo Christi, et mani-
festatione Trinitatis. De jejunio et tentationibus
Christi. De Coena Domini. De Ablutione pedum. De Unctione Chrismatis, et
aliis Sacramentis. De Passione Christi. De Resurrectione Christi.
468 THE LIFE OF ST. CYPRIAN.
De Ascensione Christi, De singularitate Clericorum.
De Spiritu Sancto. In Symbolum Apostolorum D€ Aleatoribus. Expositio.
De montibus Sina et Sion De Judaica incredulitate.
contr. Judaeos. Adv. Judaeos, qui Christum Carmen, Genesis. insecuti sunt.
Carmen, Sodoma. De revelatione Capitis B. Jo- Carmen, ad Senatorem Apos- an. Baptistae.
tatam. De duplici Martyrio, ad For- Hymnus de Pascha Domini. tunatum
Oratio pro Martyribus. De XII. Abusionibus Saeculi.
Oratio in die Passionjs suaf. Dispositio Coenae.
THE LIFE OF ST. GREGORY,
BISHOP OF NEOCaESAREA.
St. Gregory where born. His kindred and relations. The rank and qua- lity of his parents. His youthful studies. His study of the laws. His travels to Alexandria. The calumny there fixed upon him, and his miraculous vindication. His return through Greece. His studying the law at Berytus, and upon what occasion. His fixing at Caesarea, and puttmg himself under the tutorage of Origen. The course of his studies. His Panegyric to Origen at his departure. Origen's letter to him. and the nnportance of it. His refusal to stay at Neocaesarea, and re- tirement into the wilderness. His shunning to be made bishop of Neo- caesarea. Consecrated bishop of that city during his absence. His ac- ceptance of the charge, and the state of that place at his entrance upon It. His miraculous instruction in the great mysteries of Christi- anity. His creed. The miracles wrought by him in his return. His ex- expelhng demons out of a gentile temple, and the success of it. His welcome entrance into the city, and kind entertainment. His diligent preaching to the people. His erecting a church for divine worship, and Its signal preservation. An horrible plague stopped by his prayers. 1 he great influence of it upon the minds of the people. His judging in civil causes. His drying up a lake by his prayers, which had been the cause ot an implacable quarrel between two brothers ; and his restraining the overflowings of the river Lycus. The signal vengeance inflicted upon two Jews, counterfeit beggars. The fame and multitude of his miracles, and the authorities to justify the credibility of them. The rage and cruelty of the Decian persecution in the regions of Pontus and Cappadocia. His persuading the Christians to withdraw. His own retirement. The narrow search made for him, and his miraculous escape. His betrayer converted. His return to Neocaesarea, and in- stituting solemnities to the memories of the martyrs, and the reasons ot It. 1 he inundations of the northern nations upon the Roman em- pire. His canonical epistle to rectify the disorders committed by oc- casion ot those inroads. His meeting with others in the synod at An- tioch about the cause of PaulusSamosatenus. His return home, age, and death; His solemn thanks to God for the flourishing state of his church and command concerning his burial . The excellent character given ot him by St. Basil. His writings. The charge of Sabellianism. St. Ba- sil s apology for him in that behalf. Modestv to be used in censurin^r the ancient fathers, and whv.
470 LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS.
1. ST. GREGORY, called originally Theodorus, was born at ^ Neocaesarea, the metropolis of Cappado- cia, situate upon the riv^r Lycus. His parents were gentiles, but eminent for their birth and fortunes. He had a brother called Athenodorus, his fellow-pupil, and afterwards colleague in the episcopal order in his own country, and one sister at least, married to a judge under the governor of Palestine. His father ^ was a zealot for his religion, wherein he took care to educate him, toge- ther with the learning of the gentile world. Vv^hen he was fourteen years of age his father died, after which he took a greater liberty of inquiring into things, and as his reason grew more quick and manly, and was advan- taged by the improvements of education, he savv^ more plainly the foily and vanity of tliat religion, wherein he had been brought up, which presently abated his edge, and turned his inclinations towards Christianity. But though he had lost his father, his mother *" took care to complete his breeding, placing him and his brother un- der masters of rhetoric and eloquence. By one of which, who was appointed to teach him the Latin tongue, as a necessary piece of noble and ingenious education, he was persuaded to the study of the Roman laws, as what would be a mighty advantage to him in what way soever he should make use of his rhetorical studies afterwards. And the man himself being no inconsiderable lawyer, read lectures to him with great accuracy and diligence, which he as sedulously attended to, rather to gratify his humour and his fancy, than out of any love to those stu- dies, or design to arrive at perfection in them. Which however sufficiently commends his industry, those laws (as himself observes'') being vast and various, and not to be learned without trouble and difficulty. And which above all increased the labour, was, that they were all written in Latin, a language (as he confesses) great in- deed and admirable, and suited to the majesty of the empire; but which he found troublesome enough to make himself but a competent master of.
a Greg. Nvss. in vit. Gr. Thaum. p. 969. Tom. 2. b Gr. Tliaum. Paneg-yr. ad Orig. p. i82. c Ibid. p. 184. d Ibid. p. IH.
LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. 471
2. Having laid the foundations of his first and most necessary studies at home, he designed yet further to accomplish himself by foreign travels, going probably first for Alexandria, grown more than ordinarily famous the Platonic school lately erected there. Indeed I am not confident of the precise assigning this period of his life, but know that I cannot be much wide the mark, Gregory of Nissa^ assuring us, that he came thither in his youth, where by the closeness of his studies, but espe- cially by the admirable sobriety and strictness of his life, he visibly reproached the debaucheries of his fellow stu- dents, who were of more wanton and dissolute manners. They presently fall a meditating revenge, confederating with a common strumpet to put an abuse and affront up- on him. Accordingly dressed in a loose wanton garb, she came to him one day as he was engaged in a serious and grave discourse with some learned and peculiar friends, impudently charging him with over familiar con- verses, relating what she thought good to affirm had ei- ther been said, or had passed between them ; charging him moreover with cheating her of the reward of their lewd embraces. The company, who knew him to be a person of quite another temper, stormed at the boldness and impudence of the woman, while he, regardless of the affront, said nothing to it, calmly desiring a friend to give her the money that she asked, that they might be no longer interrupted in their discourses. But behold how ready Heaven is to vindicate the cause of injured inno- cence. The money was no sooner paid into her hand, but as if acted by a furious daemon, she fell into fits of the most wild and extravagant madness, roaring out the most horrid noise, throw ing herself upon the ground, pulling and tearing of her hair, distorting her eyes, and foaming at the mouth, nor could she be freed from the rude treatments of the merciless *dasmon, till he whom she had wronged had forgiven her, and interceded with Heaven for her.
e Ubi supv. p. 972.
472 LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS.
3. Departing from Alexandria, he came back, as we may probably suppose, through Greece, and staid awhile at Athens, where ^ Socrates tells us he studied, and thence returned to his own country, applying himself to his old study of the law, which he had now a great op- portunity to improve, by going to Berytus, a city of Phoenicia, and a famous university for the profession of the Roman laws, whence Eunapius^ says of Anatolius, it was no wonder if he was incomparably skilled in the laws, being born at Berytus, the mother of those studies. Hither he came upon this occasion.*' The president of Palestine had taken his brother-in-law, an eminent law- yer, along with him to be his assessor and assistant in governing the affairs of that province, who not long after sent for his wife, and a request that he also would come along with her. All things conspired to make him wil- ling to undertake this journey, the gratifying his sister with his company, the importunity and persuasion of his friends, the conveniency of residing at Berytus, for the study of the law, and the advantage of conveyance, and the public carriages that were sent to fetch his sister and her retinue into those parts. Whether he actually stu- died at Berytus cannot be gathered from any account that he himself gives of it, nay rather the contrary,' though St. Hieron and others expressly affirm it. If he did, he staid not long, quickly growing weary of his law studies, being tempted with the more pleasant and charming spe- culations of philosophy. The fame of Origen, who at that time had opened a school at Cassarea in Palestine, and whose renown no doubt he had heard sufficiently celebrated at Alexandria, soon reached him, to whom he immediately betook himself, where meeting ^acciden- tally with Firmilian, a Cappadocian gentleman, and af- terwards bishop of Cccsarea in that country, and finding a more than ordinary sympathy and agreeableness in their tempers and studies, they entered into a league of
H. Eccl. 1. 4. c. 27. p. 2-4.4. g In vit. Projeres. p. 117.
h Panegyr. ad Grig. p. 1S6. i id. ibid. p. 188.
k Gr. Nyss. ib p.Pr4.
LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. 473
friendship, and jointly put themselves, together with his brother Athenonorus, under the tutorage of that so much celebrated master. Where ^Erasmus's mistake must be pardoned, making our Gregory and Theodorus two dis- tinct scholars of Origen, when it is so notoriously known they were but two names of the same person. Though herein the more easily to be excused, that '"Nicephorus Callistus long before him, had besides ours, made ano- ther Theodorus scholar also to Origen at that same time at C^esarea, who was, as he tells us, an eminent bishop in Palestine. But herein there is an universal silence in all other writers, not the least intimation of it in Eusebi- iis, from whom he derives his accounts of things. So plain it is, that of two several names, he made two diifer- ent persons.
4. Glad he was to have fallen under so happy an insti- tution, Origen l)y the most apt and easy methods leading him through the whole region and circumference of phi- losophy. By how many stages he brought him through the several parts of discipline, logic, physics, mathemat- ics, ethics, metaphysics, and how he introduced him into the mysteries of theology, St. Gregory himself has given us" large and particular accounts, which it is not mate- rial here to insist upon. Above all he endeavoured to settle him in the full belief and persuasion of the Chris- tian religion, whereinto he had some insight before, and to ground him in the knowledge of the holy scriptures, as the best system of true wisdom and philosophy. Five years he continued Origen's disciple, when he was re- called into his own country. Being to take his leave, he made an oration before his master, and in a numerous auditory, wherein as he gives Origen his just commen- dations, so he particularly blesses God° for the happy advantages of his instructions, and returns thanks to his tutelar and guardian angel, which as it had superintended him from his birth, so had especially conducted him to so good a master : elegatitly bewailing^ his departure
1 Vit Orii^. Pi-sef. Ov]g. Oper. m H. Eccl. 1 . 5. c. 20. p. 369.
n Paneg-. p. 197, SiC o Ibid. p. l7o. 181. p Ibid, p 21i>, &c,
3 0
474 LIFE OF ST. GREGORY TH AUM ATURGUS.
from that school, as a kind of banishment out of Paradise, a being turned like the prodigal out of his father's house, and a being carried captive as the Jews were into Baby- lon : concluding, that of all things upon earth, nothing could give so great an ease and consolation to his mind, as if his kind and benign angel would bring him back to that place again.
5. He was no sooner returned to Neocaesarea, but Ori- gen followed him with a letter, "^ commending his excel- lent parts, able to render him an eminent lav^^yer among the Romans, or a great philosopher among the Greeks, but especially persuading him to improve them to the ends of Christianity, and the practice of piety and virtue. For w^hich purpose he lets him know that he instructed him mainly in those sciences and parts of philosophy, which might be introductory to the Christian religion, acquainting him with those things in geometry and as- tronomy, which might be useful for the understanding and explaining the holy scriptures, these things being as previously advantageous to the knowledge of the Christian doctrine, as geometry, music, grammar, rhe- toric, and astronomy, are preparatory to the study of phi- losophy. Advising him before all things to read the scripture, and that with the most profound and diligent attention, and not rashly to entertain notions of divine things, or to speak of them w^ithout solemn premedita tion; and not only to seek but knock to pray with faith and fervency, it being in vain to think that the door should be opened where prayer is not sent beforehand to unlock it. At his return' all men's eyes were upon him, expecting that in public meetings he should show him- self, and let them reap some fruit of all his studies; and to this he was universally courted and importuned, and especially by the wise and great men of the city, entreat- ing him to reside among them, ^nd by his excellent pre- cepts and rules of life to reform and direct the manners of men. But the modest young man, knowing how un- fit they generally were to entertain the dictates of true
qExUt in Grig-, Phirocal. c. 13. p. 41. r Gr. Nyss. ib. p. 97$.
LIFE OF St. GREGORY THAUPvIA TURGUS. 475
philosophy, and fearing; lest by a great concourse and applause he might be insensibly ensnared into pride and vain glory, resisted all addresses, and withdrew himseli* into the wilderness, where he resigned up himself to solitude and contemplation, conversing with God and his own mind, and delighting his thoughts with the plea- sant speculations of nature, and the curious and admira- ble works of the great Artificer of the world.
6. Neocaesarea was a place large and populous, but miserably overgrown with superstition and idolatry, so that it seemed the place where Satan^s seatw?is, and whi- ther Christianity had as vet scarce made its entrance, to the great grief and resentment of all good men, who heartily wished that religion and the fear of God were planted in that place. ' Phaedimus, bishop of Amasea, a neighbour city in that province, a man endued with a prophetic spirit, had cast his eye upon our young philo- sopher, as one whose ripe parts and piety did more thart weigh down his want of age, and rendered him a person fit to be a guide of souls to the place of his nativity, whose re- lation to the place would more endear the employment to him. The notice hereof being intimated to him, h^ shifted his quarters, and as oft as sought f5r, fled from one desert and solitary shelter to another, so that the good man by all his arts and industry could not lay hold of him, the one not being more earnest to find him out, than the other was vigilant to decline him. Phaedimus at last despairing to meet with him, resolved however to go on with his design, and being acted, h^-"^ nvt B-uonpd:, by a divine and immediate impetus^ betook himself to this pious stratagem (the like precedent probably not to be met with in the antiquities of the church) not regarding Gregorius's absence (who was at that time no less than three days' journey distant from him) he made his ad- dress and prayer to God, and having declared that both himself and Gregory were at that moment equally seen by God, as if they were present, instead of imposition of hands, he directed a discourse to St, Gregory, wherein
sId. \h. p. 976.
476 LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS.
he set him apart to God, and constituted him bishop of that place, and God, who steers the hearts of men, in- clined him, how averse soever before, to accept the charge, when, probably, he had a more formal and so- lemn consecration.
7. The province he entered upon was difficult, the city and parts thereabouts being wholly given to the wor- ship of demons, ^ and enslaved to the observance of dia- bolic rites, there not being above seventeen Christians in those parts, so that he must found a church before he could govern it; and, which was not the least inconve- nience, heresies had spread themselves over those coun- tries, and he himself, though accomplished with a suffi- cient furniture of human learning, yet altogether unex- ercised ii theological studies, and the mysteries of reli- gion. For remedy whereof he is said to have had an im- mediate assistance from heaven. For while one night he was deeply considering of these things, and discussing matters of faith in his own mind, he had a vision, wherein two august and venerable persons (whom he understood to be St. John the Evangelist and the blessed virgin) appeared in the chamber where he was, and dis- coursed before him concerning those points of faith, which he had been before debating with himself. After whose departure he immediately penned that canon and rule of faith which they had declared, and which he ever after made the standard of his doctrine, and bequeathed as an inestimable legacy and depositum to his successors, the tenor whereof we shall here insert, together with the original Greek; which being very difficult to be exactly rendered into our language, the learned reader (if he likes not mine) may translate for himself.
E<; ©go? 5raT«§ Kiyz ^ievl(^, aa^iiai.? J <})«;-« a-«? 5 SuvdfJUMiy I, X'^P^^^^^^ dlSia'
©68 • 3^stg;tK7«g i ii)cm 'f ^iin-}f](^ , Koy®' ivig^yoc, (ro<pU -t tm oKctv c-yr^Vea? ^igiaCu- x.«, X, S6vtf.uc '/oAw? Kllascor 7r(itiilu>i, doc axjiSvvof *\})9-/yS TTctl^oc ' do^di]®' dcedTHy x. a<p&!i:pl@' ■i^.S^'gTif, «, eLB-Avtlt^ dd'xvdris, x, ciUi(^ d'Ma. Ksii iv TrnvfAA dyiov, U ®i^ T>iv v^of^iv i^ov XjS'i Cm TTi^itvoc <r«A5d'« To7f 4y3-gttvTCK • ium nv J/s, Texs/jf rsKtU
t Id. iibi 6\ipr. p. 977.
LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. 477
<^at«, ^&'v7a)v diltx' vnyvi dyiu, dytor^c, dyiAo-juS ;it;,o/>»)-oc * €v a (^{tvip^Tut Qio? o- tta-
There is one God, the Father of the living Word, and of the subsistijig Wisdom and Poxver, and of Him xvho is his eternal image, the perfect Begetter of Him that is per- fect, the Father of the only begotten Son. There is one Lord, the only \^So7i~\ of the only [Father^ God of God^ the character and image of the Godhead, the powerful Word, the comprehensive Wisdom, by xvhich all things were made, and the Power that gave being to the whole creation, the true So7t of the true P'ather, the Invisible of the Invisible, the Incorruptible of the Incorruptible, the Immortal of the Immortal, and the eternal of him that is eternal. There is one Holy Ghost, having its subsistence of God, xvhich appeared through the Son to mankind, the perfect Image of the perfect Son., the life giving life, the holy fountain, the sanctity, and the author of sanctifica- tioji : by xvhom God the father is made manifest, who is over all, and in all ; and God the Son, who is through all, A perfect Trinity, xvhich neither in glory, eternity, or dotninion is divided^ or separated from itself
To this creed he always kept himself, the original where- of written with his own hand, my author assures us was preserved in that church in his time.
8. Thus incomparably furnished, he began to apply himself more directly to the charge committed to him, in the happy success whereof he was infinitely advan- taged by a power of working miracles (so much talked of among the ancients) bestowed upon him. As he was ^returning home from the wilderness, being benighted, and overtaken wuth a storm, he, together with his com- pany, turned aside to shelter themselves in a Gentile temple, famous for oracles and divinations, where they spent the night in prayers and hymns ta God. f>.rly
u Ibid. p. 980.
478 LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS,
in the morniiig^ came the Gentile priest to pay the accus- tomed devotions to the dssmons of the place, who had told them, it seems^ that they must henceforth relinquish It by reason of him that lodged there ; he made his lus- trations, and offered his sacrifices, but all in vain,, the dcgmons being deaf to all importunities and invocations. Whereupon he burst out into a rage and passion, ex- claiming against the holy man, and threatening to com- plain of him to the magistrates, and the emperor. But when he saw him generously despising all his threaten- ings, and invested with a power of commanding d2emons in and out at pleasure, he turned his fury into admiration, a;id intreated the bishop as a further evidence of that di- vine authority that anended him, to bring the daemons once more back again into the temple. For whose satis- fation he is said to have torn off a piece of paper, and therein to have written these words, Gregory to Satariy enter. Which schedule was no sooner laid upon the altar, and the usual incense and oblations made, but the daemons appeared again as they were wont to do. Whereby he was plainly convinced that it was an autho- rity superior to all infernal powers, and accordingly re- solved to accompany him ; but being unsatisfied in some parts of the Christian doctrine, was fully brought over after he had seen St. Gregory confirm his discourse by another evident miracle ; whereupon he freely forsook house and home, friends, and relations, and resigned up himself to the instructions of his divine wisdom and phi- losophy.
9. The fame of his strange and miraculous actions had prepared ""the people of Neocsesarea to entertain him with a prodigious reverence and regard, the people gene- rally flocking out of the city to meet him, every one be- ing ambitious to see the person of whom such great things were spoken. He unconcerned in the applause and expectations of all the spectators that were about bim, without so much as casting his eye on the one side or the other, passed directly through the midst of the
V Id. ibicL p. 983.
LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. 479
crowds iilto the city. Whither being come, his friends that had accompanied him out of his solitudes, were very solicitous where and by whom he should be entertained. But he reproving their anxiety, asked them, whether they thought themselves banished the divine protection? whether God's providence was not the best and safest refuge and habitation ? that whatever became of their bodies, it was of infinitely more importance to look after their minds, as the only fit and proper habitations, which were by the virtues of a good life to be trimmed and prepared, furnished, and built up for heaven. But there wanted not many, who were ready enough to set open their doors to so welcome a guest, among which especially was Musonius, a person of greatest honour, estate, and power in the city, who entreated him to ho- nour his house with his presence, and to take up his lodging there : whose kindness, as being first offered he accepted, dismissing the rest with a grateful acknowledg- ment of that civility and respect which they had offered to him.
10. It was no little abatement to the good man's joy to think in what a prophane and idolatrous place his lot was fallen, and that therefore it concerned him to lose no time. Accordingly that very day '"he fell to preach- ing, and with so good success, that before night he had converted a little church. Early the next morning the doors were crowded, persons of all ranks, ages, infirmi- ties and distempers flocking to him, upon whom he wrought two cures at once, healing both soul and body, instructing their minds, convincing their errors, re- claiming and reforming their manners, and that with case, because at the same time strengthening the infirm, curing the sick, healing the diseased, banishing demons out of the possessed ; men greedily embracing the reli- gion he taught, while they beheld such sensible demon- strations of its power and divinity before their eyes, and heard nothing reported but what was verified by the testimony of their own senses. Having thus prepared
"Vv Ubi. snpr. p. 985.
480 LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS.
a numerous congregation, his next care was to erect a church where they might assemble for the public solem- nities of religion, which, by the cheerful contributions of some, and the industrious labour of others, was in a lit- tle time both begun and finished. And the foundations of it seem to have been laid upon a firmer basis than other buildings, seeing it outstood not only earthquakes, frequent in those parts, but the violent storm of Diocle- sian's reign, who commanded the churches of the Chris- tians in all places to be demolished ; and was still stand- ing in Gregory Nyssen's time, who further tells us, that when a terrible earthquake lately happened in that place, wherewith almost all the buildings both public and private were destroyed and ruined, this church only remained entire, and not the least stone was shaken to the ground.
11. St. Gregory Nyssen'' reports one more memora- ble passage than the rest ; which at his first coming to the place made his conversion of the people much more quick and easy. There was a public festival held in honour of one of the gods of that country, whereto not only the NeocDgsareans, but all the inhabitants of the neighbour country came in, and that in such infinite numbers, that the theatre was quickly full, and the crowd so great, and the noise so confused and loud, that the shows could not begin, nor the solemn rites be perform- ed. The people hereupon universally cried out to the dcsmon, Jupiter^ we beseech thee make us room, St. Gre- gory being told of this, sent them this message, that their prayer would be granted, and that greater room would be quickly made them, than they desired. Im- mediately a terrible plague breake in upon them, that turned their music into weeping, and filled all places with cries and dying groans. The distemper spread like wild-fire, and persons were sick and dead in a fev/ moments. The temples, whither many fled in hopes of cure, were filled with carcasses ; the fountains and the ditches, whither the heat and fervour of the mfec-
X Ibid, p, 100?:.
LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. 431
tion had led them to quench their thirst, were dammed up with the multitudes of those that fell into them ; some of their own accord went and sat among the tombs, securing a sepulchre to themselves, there not being liv- ing enough to perform the last offices to the dead. The cause of this sad calamity being understood, that it pro- ceeded from their rash and foolish invocation of the daemon, they addressed themselves to the bishop, entreat- ing him to intercede with his God (whom they believed to be a more potent and superior being) in their behalf, that he would restrain that violent distemper that raged amongst them. He did so, and the pestilence abated, and the destroying angel took his leave. And the issue was, that the people generally deserted their temples, oracles, sacrifices, and the idolatrous rites of their reli- gion, and took sanctuary in Christianity, as the securest refuge, and the best way to oblige heaven to protect them.
12. His known prudence, and the reputation of his mighty and (as my author ^'calls them) apostolical mira- cles advanced him into so much favour and veneration with the people, that they looked upon whatever he said or did, as the effect of a divine power. And even in secular causes, w^here the case was any thing knotty and difficult, it was usually brought to him, whose sentence was accounted more just and impartial, more firm and valid than any other decision whatsoever. It happened that two brothers were at law about a lake, w^hich both challenged as belonging to that part of their inheritance their father had left them. The umpirage of the case was left to him, who by all the persuasive arts of insinu- ation first endeavoured to reconcile them, and peaceably to accommodate the difference between them. But his pains proved fruitless and ineffectual, the young men stormed, and resolved each to maintain his right by force of arms, and a day was set when they were to try their titles by all the power which their tenants of each side could bring into the field. To prevent which the
vld. ib. p. 986. 3 P
482 LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS.
holy bishop went the night before to the place, where he continued all nigh:: in the exercises of devotion, and by his praj ersto heaven procured the lake to be turned into a parcel of dry and solid ground, removing thereby the bone of contention that was between them, the re- mains of which lake were showed many ages after. Thus also"" he is said to have miraculously restrained the violence of the river Lycus, which coming down fiom the mountains of Armenia with a swift rapid torrent, and swelled by the tributary concurrence of other rivers, fell down into a plain champain country, where oversweiiing and sometimes breaking down its banks, it oveviiowed the country thereabouts, to the irreparable damage of the inhabitants, and very often to the hazard and loss of their lives. Unable to deal with it any other way, they applied themselves to St. Gregory to improve his interest in heaven, that God, who alone rules the raging of the sea, would put a stop to it. He goes along with them to the place, makes his address to him who has set a bound to the waters., that they may not pass over, nor turn again to cover the earth, thrust his staff down into the bank, and prayed that that might be the boun- dary of the insolent and raging stream, and so departed. And it took effect, the river ever after mannerly keeping within its banks, and the tradition adds, that the staff itself grew up into a large spreading tree, and was show- ed to travellers together with the relation of the miracle in my author's days. In his return from Comana'*(whi. ther he had been invited and importuned both by the magistrates and people, to constitute a fit person bishop of that city) he was espied by two Jews, who knowing his chciritable temper, either out of covetousness, or a design to abuse him, agreed to'put a trick upon him. To that purpose one of them lies along upon the ground and feigns himself dead, the other deplores the miserable fate of his companion, and begs of the holy bishop as he pas- sed by to give somewhat towards his burial, wh.') \u ing off his coat that was upon him, cast It upon the man, and
7. Ibid. p. 990, a Ibid. p. 99r.
LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. 485
went on his way. No sooner was he gone out of sight, but the impostor came laughing to his fellow, bad him rise, and let them make themselves merry with the cheat. He called, pulled, and kicked him, but alas in vain, the comical sport ended in a real tragedy, the man was dead indeed, his breath expiring that very moment the garment was oast vipon him, and so the coat really served for what he intended it, as a covering to his burial.
1-3. In an age so remote from the miraculous ages of the church and after that the world has been so long abused by the mipostures of a church, pretending to miracles as one of the main notes and evidences of its Catholicism and ti-uth, these passages may possibly seem suspicious, and not obtain a very easy belief with the more scrupulous reader. To which perhaps it may be enough to say, at least to justify my relating them, that the tilings are reported by persons of undoubted credit and integrity, especially St. Basil and his brother Gre- gory, both of them wise and good men, and who Viv^d themselves within less than an hundred years after our St. Gregory ; and what is more considerable, were capa- ble of deriving their intelligence from a surer hand than ordinary, their aged grandmother Macrina, who taught them in their youth, and superintended their education, having in her younger years been scholar and auditor of our St. Gregory, and from her I doubt not they re- ceived the most material passages of his life, and the ac- count of his miracles, of many whereof she herself was capable of being an eye witness, and wherewith she ac- quainted them, as she also did with the doctrine that he taught, wherein St. BasiP particularly tells us she in- structed them, and told them the very words which she had heard from him, and which she perfectly remembered at that age. Besides, that his brother solemnly *" professes in recounting this great man's miracles, to set them down in a plain and naked relation, without any rhetorical arts to amplify and set them oif, ^'and to mention only some
b AdNeocaesar. Epist. LXXV. p. 131. Tom. 3. c Ubi. supr. p. 985, d lb. p. 985.
484 LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS.
few of those great things that had been done by him, and purposely to suppress ^many yet in memory, lest men of incredulous minds should disbelieve them, and count all iabies which were above the standard of their sentiments and apprehensions. Indeed as to the main of the thing, I might challenge the faith of all ages ever since, who have unanimously believed, and conveyed the report of it down to us, and upon this account the title of Thaumaturgus, the wonder-worker, is constantly and uncontrollably ascribed to him in the writings of the church. And St. BasiF assures us, that upon this very account the Gentiles were wont to call him a second Mo- ses, and that in his time he was had in such universal admiration among the people of that country, and his memory so fresh among them, that no time would be able to blot it out.
14, In this faithful and successful management of his place, he quietly continued till about the year 250, when thg emperor ^Decius, vexed to seethe Christian religion so much yet the ground of declining paganism, publish- ed very sevei'e edicts against the Christians, commanding the governors of provinces as they valued their heads, to put them into a strict and rigorous execution ; wherein Pontus and Ca])padocia shared if not deeper, to be sure equal with the rest. All other business seemed to give way to this, persecuting the Christians was the debate of ail public councils, and the great care of magistrates, which did not vent itself in a few threatenings, and hard words, but in studying methods of cruelty, and instru- ments of torment, the very apprehension whereof is dreadful and amazing to human nature, swords and axes, fire, wild beasts, stakes, and engines to stretch and dis- tend the limbs, iron chairs made red hot, frames of tim- ber set up strait, in which the bodies of the tormented, as they stood were raked with nails that tore oif the flesh, and innumerable other arts daily invented, every great man being careful that another should not seem to be more fierce and cruel than himself, Some came in as
e Ibid. p. 1009. f Dfi Spir. S. c. 29.p. 360.Tom. 2. ^ Id ibid. p. 990.
LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. 485
informers, others as witnesses, some searched all private corners, others seized upon them that fled, and some who gaped for their neighbours' estiUes, took hold of the op- portunity to accuse and persecute them for being Chris- tians. So that there was a general confusion and con- sternation, every man being afraid of his nearest relatives^ the father not consulting the safety of his child, nor the child regarding its duty to its parents ; the Gentile son betraying his Christian father, and the infidel father accu- sing his son for embracing Christianity, and the brother ac- counting it a piece of piety to violate the laws of nature hi the cause of religion, and to condemn his own brother, because a Christian. By this means the woods became full, and the cities empty, and yet no sooner were many houses rid of their proper owners, but they were turned into common goals, the public prisons not being able to contain the multitudes of Christians, that were sent to them. You could not go into the markets, or places of usual concourse, but you might have seen some appre- hended, others led to trial or execution, some weeping, others laughing and rejoicing at the common misery : no regard had to age, or sex, or virtue, or merit, but as in a city stormed by a proud and potent conqueror, eve- ry thing was without mercy exposed to the rage and rudeness of a barbaroiis and inhuman enemy.
15. St. Gregory beholding the sad and calamitous state of the present time, and having considered ^seriously with himself the frailty and imbecility of human nature, and how few (of his new converts especially) would be able to bear up under tho&e fierce conflicts which the cause of religion would engage them in, timely advised his church a little to decline the force of the present storms, telling them it was better by flying to save their souls, than by abiding those furious trials, to hazard their fall- ing from the faith. And to let them see that this might be done, and that herein there was no prejudice to their souls, he resolved to show them the way by his example, himself first retiring out of danger, retreating to a desert
h Ibid. p. 1001.
486 LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS.
moimtain, accompanied with none but the Gentile priest whom he had converted, and who ministered to him in the capacity of a deacon. And it was but time he should withdraw, the enemy chiefly aiming at him as the head of the party, and laying all possible snares to take him. Being informed where he lay concealed, they went in vast numbers to hunt him out, some besetting round the foot of the mountain, that he might not escape, others going up searched every place till they came very near him. He persuading his deacon to a firm confidence of the divine protection, presently fell to prayer, as the other also did by his example, with eyes and hands lift up to Heaven. The persecutors in the mean time pried into all places, examined every bush and shrub, every crevise of a rock, every nook and hole, but finding no- thing, returned back to their companions at the bottom, hoping that by this time he might be fallen into their hands. And when the informer described the very place where he lay, they affirmed they saw nothing there but a couple of trees a little distant from each other. The company being gone, the informer staid behind, and went directly to the place, where finding them at their devotions, and concluding their escape to be the imme- diate effect of a divine preservation (God having blinded their eyes that they should not see them) fell down at the bishop's feet, gave up himself to be a Christian, and a companion of his solitudes and dangers.
16. Despairing now of meeting with the Shepherd, the wolves fell with the fiercer rage upon the flock that staid behind, and not there only, but ran up and down all parts of the province, seizing upon men, women, and children, that had but any reverence for the name of Christ, dragging them to the city, and casting them into prison, where they were sure to be entertained with va- riety of tortures.' St. Gregory in the mean time remain- ed in his solitary retirement, till God having mercifully commas ided the storm to blow over, and the tyranny of the persecution to cease, he quitted his shady and melan-
I Ibid. p. 1002,
LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. 48^
choly walks, and came back to Neocaesarea, and visiting his diocess all about, established in every place anniver- sary festivals and solemnities, to do honour to the me- mory of the martyrs, that had suffered in the late perse- cution. A great instance of his wisdom and prudence at that time, not only in doing right to the memory of the martyrs, but by this means training up people to a readier embracing of religion, when they saw that it in- dulged them a little mirth and freedom in the midst of those severe yokes that it put upon them. He had ob- served what advantage the idolatry of the Gentiles made by permitting its votaries liberty (indeed licentiousness) m their religious solemnities, and he reasonably presumed it would be no little encouragement to some to desert their superstitions, and come over to Christianity, if they were suffered to rejoice, and use a little more innocent freedom than at other times, which could not be better done than at the memorials of the martyrs, though it can- not be denied, but that this custom produced ill effects afterwards.
17. In the reign of the emperor Gallienus about the year 260, and for some years before, God being (as Oso- rius*" truly enough conjectures) offended with the cruel usage which the Christians met withal from the present powers, was resolved to punish the world. And to that end did not only suffer Valerian, the emperor (friendly enough at first, but afterwards a bitter persecutor of the Christians) to be betrayed into the hands of Sapor, king of Persia (who treated him with the highest instances of scorn and insolence) but permitted the northern^ nations like a mighty inundation to break down the banks, and overflow most parts of the Roman empire. The Ger- mans betook themselves some into Spain, others passed the Alps, and came through Italy as far as Ravenna ; the Alemanni foraged France, and invaded Italy ; theQuades and Samatae wasted Pannonia, the Parthians fell into
k Hist. 1. 7. c. 22. fol.311. ITreb. Poll, in vlt. Gallien. c. 4,5. p. 717, 718. vid. Zosim. Hist. lib. 1. p. 352, kc, 359. & Treb. Poll, in vlt. Cian.d. c. S. n, 806.
488 LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS.
Mesopotamia and Syria, and the Goths broke in upon Pontus, Asia, and some parts of Greece. Intolerable were the outrages which these barbarous people commit- ted wherever they came, but especially upon the Chris- tians, whose goods they plundered, ravished their wives and daughters, tortured their persons, and compelled them to offer sacrifice, and communicate in their idol feasts : many of the renegadoes spoiling their fellow Christians, and some under a pretence of finding, stole» or at least kept their neighbours' goods to their own use. In this general confusion, a neighbour bishop of those parts writes to St. Gregory of Neocaesarea to beg his advice what to do in this sad state of affairs. Who by Euphrosynus sent back a canonical epistle (so often cited and magnified by the ancients, and still extant) to rectify these irregularities and disorders, wherein he prescribes the several stations and orders of penitents, but e>>pecially reproves and censures their inordinate avarice, showing how uncomely it is in itself, how unsuitable to Christians, how abhorrent to God and all good men to covet and grasp what is another man's ; and how much more bar- barous and inhuman in this calamitous time to spoil the oppressed, and to enrich themselves by the blood and ruins of their miserable brethren. And because some might be apt to plead they did not steal, but only take up what they accidentally met with, he lets them know, that whatever they had found of their neighbour's, nay though it were their enemy's, they were bound by God's law to restore it, much more to their brethren, who were fellow- sufferers with them in the same condition. And if any thought it were warrant enough to keep what they had found, though belonging to others, having been such deep losers themselves, he tells them, this is to justify one wickedness with another, and because the Goths had been enemies to them, they would become Goths and barbarians unto others. Nay many (as he tells us) join- ed in with the barbarians in open persecuting, captiva- ting, and tormenting of their brethren. In all which cases he pronounces them fit to be excluded the commu- nion of the saints, and not to be re-admitted, till by a
LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. 48,9
just penance according to the various circumstances of the case, they had made public and solemn satisfaction to the church.
18. Not long after this, Paulus of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, began to broach very pernicious doctrines con- cerning the person of our blessed Saviour. To prevent the infection whereof, the most eminent of the bishops and clergy of all those parts frequently met in Synod at Antioch, the chief of whom were *" Firmilian, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, our St. Gregory, and his bro- ther Athenodorus, bishop also in Pontus, and some others. The synod being sat, and having canvassed the matter, the crafty heretic saw it was in vain to con- tend, and therefore dissembling his errors as well as he could, he confessed what could not be hid, and by a feigned repentance salved his credit for the present, and secured his continuance in that honourable place he held in the church. This council was held Ann. Chr. CCLXIV. which our St. Gregory seems not long to have survived, dying either this, or most probably the following year. Nicephorus ° makes him to have lived to a very great age, which he must, if (as he affirms) he died under Di- oclesian ; and *" Suidas, by a mistake much more prodi- gious, makes him to decease in the reign of Julian. A little before his death, being sensible that his time drew near, he sent ^' up and down the city and the vicinage to make a strict inquiry whether there were any that yet were strangers to the Christian faith. And being told that there were but seventeen in all, he sighed, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, appealed to God how much it troubled him, that he should leave any part of men's salvation incomplete, but that withal it was a mercy that challenged the most grateful resentment, that when he himself had found but seventeen Christians at his first coming thither, he should leave but seventeen idolaters to his successor. Having heartily prayed for the con- version of infidels, and the increase and consumma-
mEuseb. H. E. l.r. c. 27.p. 278. n Lib. 6. c. 17. p. 408. o Inv&c. Yc)r-o^i(§r. p. 628. p Gr. Nvss. ubi supr. p. 1006.
3q.
490 LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS.
tioii of those that were converted, he calmly and peace- ably resigned up his soul to God: having first en- joined his friends to make no trouble about his funeral, nor procure him any proper and peculiar place of bu- rial, but that, as in his lifetime he had carried himself as a pilgrim and foreigner in the world, claiming nothing for himself, so after death he might enjoy the portion of a stranger, and be cast into the common lot.
IQ. lie was a man (says "^ St. Basil) of a prophetical and apostolic temper, and who in the whole of his life ex- pressed the height and accuracy of an evangelical conver- sation. In all his devotions "" he was wont to show the greatest reverence, never covering his head in prayer, as accounting that of the apostle most proper and rational, that every one praying or prophesying with his head cover- ed^ dishonoureth his head. All oaths he avoided, making yea and nay the usual measure of his communication. Out of regard to our Lord's threatening, he durst never call his brother yoo/; no anger, wrath, or bitterness pro- ceeded out of his mouth. Slandering and reproaching others he greatly hated, as a quality opposite to a state of salvation. FLnvy and pride were strangers to his inno- cent and guileless soul. Never did he approach the holy altar, till first reconciled to his brother. He severely abominated lies and falsehood, and all cunning and arti- ficial methods of detraction; well knowing that every lie is the spawn and issue of the devil, and that God will de- stroy all those that speak lies.
20. His writings are first particularly mentioned by St. Hierom, ' who reckons up his Eucharistical Panegy- ric to Origen, his short, and (as he calls it) very useful Metaphrase upon Ecclesiastes, several Epistles (in which doubtless his Canonical Epistle had the first place) and his Creed or short exposition of faith, which, though not taken notice of in some, is extant in other editions of St. Hierom's catalogue. All which (some of his epistles ex- cepted) are still extant, and probably are all he ever wrote-
q De Spii-. S. c. 29. p. 359. torn. 2. r Id. ad Cler. Neocaes. Epist. LXIII p. 97.1. 3. s De Script, in Theodor.
LIFE OI^ ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. 491
For though there are other tracts commonly ascribed to him,yet without any great reason or evidence to warrant, their legitimacy, whereof their strongest assert ors are not very confident. It appears from * St. Basil, that he was by some of old suspected as inclining to Sabellianism, which confounded the persons in the Holy Trinity, and that many sheltered themselves under his authority from an expression of his, affirming that the Father and Son are two in the consideration of the mind^ but one in person. For this St. Basil makes a large apology, and shows that it was spoken in the heat of disputation against iElian, a gentile, •^ ^'.yfj^ATiKH^, i>^ a.yuin9um* uot dogmatically as a point of doc- trine, but in haste and in the fervency of disputation, when judgment and consideration is not at leisure to weigh every thing by nice scruples; that his earnest desire to gain the gentile made him less cautious and solicitous about exactness of words, and that he indulged some- thing to the apprehensions of his aclversary, that so he might get the better advantage upon him in the greater and more important principles; that this betrayed him into some unwary expressions, which the heretics of af- ter times improved to bad purposes, and strained to ano- ther sense than what was originally intended by him that spake them : That as to the particular charge of the Sabel- lian error, " he was so far from it, that it had been chiefly confuted and laid asleep by the evidence of that very doctrine which St. Gregory had preached, the memory whereof was preserved fresh among them. However nothing can be more true and modest than what ' St. Hierom observes in such cases, that it is great rashness and irreverence presently to charge the ancients with he- resy for a few obnoxious expressions, since it may be, they erred with a simple and an honest mind, or wrote them in another sense, or the passages have been since altered by ignorant transcribers, or they took less heed and care to deliver their minds with the utmost accuracy and exactness, while as yet men of perverse minds had not
t Ad Doct. Eccles. Neocaesar. Epist. LXIV. p. 101. u Ibid. p. 99. V Apol, adv. Rufiii. lib 2. p. 219. torn. 2.
492 LIFE OF ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS.
sown their tares, nor disturbed the church with the cla- mour of their disputations, nor infected men's minds with their poisonous and corrupt opinions.
HIS WRITINGS.
Genuine.
Metaphrasis in Ecclesiastem. Brevis expositio fidei, Epistola Canonica.
Alia Epistolae plures quae non extant.
Supposititious.
'H KfltTSt fxip^ n«V'f»
Capita XII de fide, cum Ana-
thematismis. In Annunciationem S. Dei Ge-
nitricis Sermones III. Sermo in Sancta Theophania. Ad Tatianum de Anima xiy^
THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS,
BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA.
The place of his nativity. His family and relations. His conversion how. His studies under Origen. Whether a professed rhetorician. His suc- ceeding Heraclas in the catechetic school. His being constituted bishop of Alexandria, and the time of it. A preparatory persecution at Alexandria, how begun. The severity of it. The martyrdom of Apol- lonia, and the fend honours done her in the church of Rome. The per- secution continued and promoted by Decius's edicts. The miserable condition of the Christians. The sudden conversion and martyrdom of of a guard of soldiers. Dionysius apprehended and carried into banish- ment, there to be beheaded. A pleasant account of his unexpected de- liverance by means of a drunken rout. His retirement into the deserts. His return to Alexandria. The great number and quality of the lapsed in the late persecution. The contests about this matter. Dionysius*s judgment and practice herein. The case of Serapion. His dealing with Novatian about his schism, and the copy of his letter to him. His being engaged in the controversy about rebaptization, and great moderation in it. His letter to pope Sixtus about a person baptized by heretics. Valerianus, the emperor's kindness to Christians. How turned to cru- elty. Dionysius brought before ^i^milian. His discourse with him and resolute constancy. He is condemned to be banished. His transporta- tion into the deserts of Lybia. The success of his ministry there. Innu- merable barbarians converted to the faith. GalUenus's relaxing the persecution. His letter to Dionysius granting liberty to the Christians. Alexandria shut up by the usurpation of iEmilian. TThe divisions with- in, and siege without. The horrible pestilence at Alexandria; and the singular kindness and compassion of the Christians there above the heathens. Dionysius's confutation of Sabellius. His unwary expressions and the charge against him. His vindication, both by himself and by St. x\thanasius. His writings against Nepos. Nepos who, and what his principles and followers. Dionysius's encounter with the heads of the party ; his convincing and reducing them back to the orthodox church. His engaging in the controversy against Paulus Samosatenus. The loose, extravagant, and insolent temper and manners of that man. Diony- sius's letter to the synod at Antioch concerning him. The success of that affair. Dionysius's death. His writings and epistles. The loss of them bewailed.
49.4 LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS.
1. DIONYSIUS was in all probability born at Alex- andria, where his parents "seem to have been persons of considerable note and quality, and his father, and possi- bly his ancestors, to have born very honourable offices, and himself to have lived some time in great secular pomp and power. He was born and bred a Gentile, but by what particular occasion converted to Christianity, I know not, more than what we learn from a vision and voice that spake to him, mentioned by ^himself, that by a diligent reading whatever books fell into his hand, and an impartial examination of the things contained in them, he was first brought over to the faith. Having passed his juvenile studies, he put himself under the institution of the renowned 'Origen, the great master at that time at Alexandria, famous both for philosophic and Christian lectures, after which he is said by some^ to have publicly professed rhetoric and eloquence ; as indeed there seems a more peculiar vein of fancy and rhetoric to run through those fragments of his discourses which do yet remain. But I can scarce believe that the Dionysius mentioned by Anastasius and Maximus, and by them said of a rhetorician to be made bishop of Alexandria, to have been the same with ours, were it for no other reason, than that he is said to have written Scholia on the works of St. Denys the Areopagite, which we are well assured had no being in the world till many years after his time. Ann. 232, Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, being dead, Heraclas one of Origen's scholars, and his successor in the catechetic school, succeeded in his room ; upon whose preferment Dionysius then presbyter of that church was advanced to his place. Wherein he dis- charged himself with so much care and diligence, such universal applause and satisfaction, that "pon Heraclas's death, who sat fifteen or sixteen years, none was thought so fit to be again his successor as Dionysius, who ac- cordingly entered upon that see^ Ann, 246, though Eu-
a Vid.Euseb.l. /. c. 11. p. 260. A. bEpist. ad Phllem ib. c. 7. p. 253. clbid 1. 6. c. 29. p. 229. Hie; on de Script, in Dionys. d Anastas. Sinait.
'oSAy. C.22. p. 341. Maxim. S Jiol. inc. 5. de Cttkst. Hierarch. p. 2i Tom. 2. e Euseb. ib. c. 35. p. 232.
LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS. 49^^
sebius's Chronicon places it two years after, Philippi Imp. Ann. 5, expressly contrary to his history, where he assigns the third year of that emperor, for the time of his consecration to that place.
2. The first years of his episcopal charge were calm and peaceable, till Decius succeeding in the empire Ann. 249, turned all into hurry and combustion, persecuting the Christians with the utmost violence, whereof the church of Alexandria had a heavy portion. Indeed the persecution there hadbegun^a year before, while Philip the emperor was yet alive, upon this occasion : A certain Gentile priest or poet led the dance, exciting the people of that place (naturally prone to superstition) to revenge the quarrel of their gods. The multitude once raised, ran on with an uncontrollable fury, accounting cruelty to the Christians, the only instance of piety to their gods. Immediately they lay hands upon one Metras, an aged man, who refusing to blaspheme his Saviour, they beat him with clubs, pricked him in the face and eyes with sharp reeds, and afterwards leading him into the suburbs, stoned him. The next they seized on was a woman called Quinta, whom they carried to the temple, where having refused to worship the idol, she was dragged by the feet through the streets of the city over the sharp flints, dashed against great stones, scourged with whips, and in the same place despatched by the same death. Apollonia, an ancient virgin, being apprehended, had all her teeth dashed out, and was threatened to be burnt alive, who only begging a little respite, of her own ac- cord cheerfully leapt into the flames. Incredible it is (but that the case is evident from more instances than one) with how fond a veneration the church of Rome celebrates the memory of this martyr.^ They infinitely extol her for the nobility of her birth, the eminent piety and virtues of her life, her chastity, humility, frequent fastings, fervent devotions, &c. (though not one syllable of all this mentioned by any ancient writer) bring in a
f Ep. ejus ad. Fab. ibid. c. 41. p. 236. g- Vid. Holland, de ut. SS. ad
Febr. IX.
496 LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS,
voice from Heaven styling her, the spouse of Christy and telling her, that God had granted her what she had asked. They make her the tutelar goddess or guardian of all that are troubled with the tooth or headach, and in many so- lemn offices of that church, pray that at her intercession God would cure them of those pains ; nay formally ad- dress their prayers to her, that she would intercede with God for them on that behalf, and by her passion obtain for them (they are the very words of the prayer) the remis- sion of all the sins -which with teeth and mouth they had cofnfnitted through gluttony and speaking. Innumerable are the miracles reported of her, and to me, it seems a miracle, and to exceed all the rest, were it true, what is related of the vast number of her teeth. For besides those which are preserved among the reliques of foreign churches (which are not a few) we are ^'told, that when king Edward, then afflicted with the tooth-ache, com- manded that all St. Apollonia's teeth in the kingdom should be sought out and sent him ; so many were brought in, that several great tuns could not hold them. It seems they were resolved to make her ample amends for those few teeth she lost at the time of her martyrdom. But it is time to return to the Alexandrian persecution, where they every where broke open the Christian's houses, taking away the best of their goods, and burning what was 'not worth the carrying away. A Christian could not stir out day or night, but they presently cried out, Away with him to the fire. In which manner they continued, till quarrelling among themselves they fell foul upon one another, and gave the Christians a little breathing time from the pursuits of their malice and in- humanity.
3. In this posture stood affairs when Decius having usurped the empire, routed and killed his master Philip, his edict arrived at Alexandria, which gave new life to their rage and cruelty. And now they fall on afresh, and persons of all ages, qualities, and professions, are accu- sed, summoned, dragged, tortured, and executed, with
h Vid. Chemnit. exam. Concil. Trid, Part. IV. de reliq. SS. p. 13. col. 1.
LIFE OF ST. DIONYSrUS ALEXANDRINUS. 497
all imagnable severity; multitudes of whom 'Dionysius particularly reckons up, together with the manner of their martyrdom and execution. Vast numbers'' that fled for shelter to the woods and mountains, met with a Worse death abroad, than that which they sought to avoid at home, being famished with hunger and thirst, starved with cold, overrun with diseases, surprised by thieves, or worried by wild beasts, and many taken by the Arabs and barbarous Saracens, who reduced them into a state of slavery more miserable than death itself. In this evil time though many revolted from the faith, yet others maintained their station with a firm and unshaken cou- rage, and several who till that moment had been stran- gers and enemies to the Christian religion, on a sudden came in and publicly professed themselves Christians in open defiance of those immediate dangers that attended it. Whereof one instance may suffice. One who was thought to be a Christian, and ready to renounce his re- ligion, being led into the place of judicature, Ammon, Zeno, and the rest of the military guard that stood at the door, derided him as he was going in, gnashing upon him with their teeth, and making such grimaces, such mimic and antic gestures, that all men's eyes were upon them. When behold on a sudden before any one laid hand upon them, they came into open court, and unanimously professed themselves to be Christians. Au accident wherewith the governors and assessors upon the bench were strangely surprised and troubled. The con- demned were cheerful and courageous, and most ready to undergo their torments, while the judges themselves were amazed and trembled. Sentence being passed up- on them, they went out of court in a kind of pomp and state, rejoicing in the testimony they were to give to the faith, and that God would so gloriously triumph in their execution.
4. St. Dionysius bore a part in the common tragedy, though God was pleased to preserve him from the Libt
1 Ibid, p. 238. k lb. c. 4?. p. 2iO.
3 R
498 LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS*
and severest act, as a person eminently useful to his church. No sooner had ^Sabinus the prsefect received the imperial orders, but he immediately despatched a frumentarius, or military officer (whose place it was to seize delinquents, and inquire out seditious reports and practices againsc the state, and therefore particularly be- longed to judges and governors of provinces) to appre- hend him. The serjeant went all about, and narrowly ransacked every corner, searching all ways and places where he thought he might hide himself, but in the mean time never searched his own house, concluding he would not dare to abide at home, and yet there he stayed four days together, expecting the officers coming thither. At length being warned of God, he left his house with his servants and some of the brethren that attended him, but not long after fell into the hands of the soldiers, and having received his sentence, was conducted by a guard under the command and conduct of a centurion and some other officers to Taposiris, a little town between Alexandria and Canopus, there probably to be beheaded with less noise and clamour. It happened in the mean while that Timotheus one of his friends, knowing nothing of his apprehension, came to the house where he had been, and finding it empty, and a guard at the door, fled after him in a great amazement and distraction, whom a coun- tryman meeting upon the road, inquired of him the cause why he made so much haste. He probably sup- posing to have heard some news of them, gave him a broken and imperfect relation of the matter. The man was going to a wadding feast (which there they were wont to keep all night) and entering the house told his company what he had heard. They heated with wine, and elevated with mirth, rose all up and ran out of doors, and with a mighty clamour came towards the place where he Vvas. I'he guard hearing such a noise and con- fusion at that time of night, left their prisoner and ran away, whom the rabble coming in found in bed. The good man supposing them to be thieves, was reaching
1 Ej-ist Dicn. a>l Go: mar. Wnd c, 40. p. 235.
LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS. 4>m
his clothes that lay by him to give them; but they com- manded him to rise preseiUly and go along with them, whereat he besought them (understanding now the errand upon which they came) to dismiss him and depart, at least to be so kind to him, as to take the soldier's office upon them, and themselves behead him. While he was thus passionately importuning them, they forced him to rise, and when he hail thrown himself upon the ground, they began to drag him out by the hands and feet, but quitted him not long after, and returned it is like to their drunken sports. This tragi-comic scene thus over, Caius and Faustus, Peter and Paul, presbyters, and his fellow- prisoners, took him up, and leaving the town, set him upon an ass, and conveyed him away™ into a desolate and uncomfortable part of the desarts of Lybia, where he, together with Peter and Caius, lay concealed, till the storm was over-past.
5. The persecution being in a great measure blown over by the death of Decius, Dionysius came out of his solitudes, and returned to Alexandria, where he found the affairs of his church infinitely entangled and out of order, especially by reason of those great numbers that had denied the faith, and lapsed into idolatry in the late persecution, among which were many of the wealthy and the honourable, and who had places of authority and power ; some freely renouncing others so far degene- rating from the gallantry of a Christian spirit, that when cited to appear and sacrifice to the gods (as he tells us") they trembled, and looked as pale and ghastly, as if they had come not to offer, but to be made a sacrifice, inso- much that the very Gentiles derided and despised them. Most of these, after his return, sued to be readmitted to the communion of the church, which the ecclesiastic discipline of those times did not easily allow of, especi- ally after the Novation principles began to prevail, which denied all communion to the lapsed, though expressing^ their sorrow by never so long and great a penance.
m Vid. Epist. ejus ud Domit. ib. I. 7. c. 11. p. 260, n ib. 1. 6. c. 40. p.
J38.
500 LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS.
Upon what occasion Novatus and his partner Novatian first started this rigorous and severe opinion, how ea- gerly Cyprian and the African bishops stickled against it, how far it was condemned both there and at Rome, in whiit cases and by what measures of penance the lapsed penitents were to be taken in, we have already noted in Cyprian's life. St. Dionysius was of the moderate party, wherein he had the concurrence of most of the eastern bishops, and as he ""pleads the general judgment and practice of the holy martyrs, many of whom had before their death received the lapsed upon their repentance again into the church, and had themselves freely com- municated with them. Whose judgment he thought it not reasonable should be despised, nor their practice controlled, nor the accustomed order overturned. In- deed he himself had ever observed this course, and there- fore at the beginning of the persecution had given I'order to the presbyters of the church to restore peace, and give the eucharist to penitents, especially in danger of death, and where the y had before earnestly desired it. Which was done accordingly, as appears from the memorable instance of Serapion, an aged person, mentioned by him, who having lapsed in the time of persecution, had often desired reconciliation, but in that confused time could not obtain it : but being suddenly surprised by a sum- mons of death, and having laid three days speechless, on the fourth had only so much use of his tongue re- stored him, as to bid his nephew, a boy that attended him, go for one of the presbyters, to give him absolu- tion, without which he could not die. The presbyter was at that time sick, btit pitying the man's case, gave the boy a little part of the consecrated eucharist, which he kept by him, bidding him moisten it, and put it into his mouth. Which was no sooner done, but he breath, ed out his soul with unspeakable comfort and satisfac- tion, that he now died in communion with the church.
6. Nor was his care herein confined to his single dio- cess, but he wrote letters about this matter to most of
o Epist. 4d Fab. ibid. c. 42. p. 241. p Ibid. c. 44. p. 246.
LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS. 50t
the eminent bishops and governors of the church. And that he might leave nothing unattempted, he treat- ed with Novatian (or as he calls him Novatus) himself, endeavouring by all mild and gentle methods to reduce him to the peace and order of the church. His epistle to him, being but short and very pathetical, we shall here subjoin.^
Dionysius to Novatus our brother, greeting :
Forasmuch as yourself confess you were unwillingly drawn into this schism, make it appear so by your wil- ling and ready returning to the church. For better it were to suffer any thing, than that the church of God should be rent asunder. Nor is it less glorious to suffer martyrdom upon this account, than in the case of not sacrificing to idols. Yea, in my mind much more ho- nourable. For in the one case a man suffers only for his own soul, but in this he undergoes martyrdom for the whole church of God. And if now thou shalt per- suade and reduce thy brethren to peace and concord, thy merit will outweigh thy crime. The one will not be charged to thy reproach, and the other will be men- tioned to thy praise. And suppose thou shalt not be able to persuade them, yet however save thy own soul, I pray that thou mayest live peaceably, and farewell in the Lord.
7. No sooner had he well rid his hands of this, but he was engaged in another controversy, which involved and disturbed the v/hole Christian church : I mean that concerning the rebaptizing those who had been baptized by heretics, so hotly disputed between St. Cyprian and Stephen bishop of Rome. ""Dionysius, together with Firmilian bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, and a great many others in the east, stood on Cyprian's side, main- taining that they ought to be baptized. But however carried himself in it with great temper and modera-
q Ibid. c. 45. p. 2i7. V Ibid. !. 7. c. 4. p. 250.
502 LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEX ANDRINUS.
tion ; he distinguished between apostates who had re- ceived their baptism in the Catholic church, and those upon their return they did not baptize (as Cyprian also affirms) but only admitted by imposition of hands, and this rule and practice, he tells ii&% he had learned from his predecessor HeracldS r but then for pure heretics, who had no other baptism than what had been conferred by heretical persons (which in reality was null and of no affect) these he thought fit to be entered into the church by Catholic baptism. Besides that, he engaged more as a mediator, than a party, writing to Pope Stephen to use moderation in the v!^ ae, as he did also to Sixtus's succes- sor, r^nd most other bishops of that tim.e. Indeed that he was not stiff and rigorous in his sentiments, may ap- pear from the instance he relates* in his epistle to pope Sixtus, wherein he begs his advice. A certain man in his church, who went among the class of the faithful, both in his and his predecessor's days, beholding the form and manner of baptism as it was administered among the orthodox, came to Dionysius, and with tears bewailed his own case, and falling at his feet, confessed that the baptism which he had received among the here- tics was nothing like this, but full of blasphemy and im- piety ; that for this reason he was infinitely troubled in conscience, and durst not lift up his eyes to heaven, beg- ging that he might partake of the true and sincere bap- tism, and that grace and acceptation that was conferred by it. This Dionysius would not admit, telling him that his long communion with the church was equivalent to it, that he that had so often been present at the giving of thanks, and said Amen to the prayers of the congrega- tion, that had stood before the holy table, and had taken the holy food into his hands, and been so very long par- taker of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, that having done thus for so many years together, he durst not admit him to another baptism : bidding him to be of good cheer, and with a firm faith and a good conscience approach the holy sacrament. All which
s Ib.c. 7. p. 253. t Ibid. c. 9. p. 254.
LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS. 5Q3
notwithstanding did not quiet the man's mind, but that still he drooped under his fears and scruples, durst not be present at the Lord's table, nor could hardly be per- suaded to come to the public prayers. What answer Sixtus returned to this instance is uncertain : but by this it is evident that St. Dionysius was no zealot for the contrary opinion, though it must be confessed, there was something particular in this, that occurred not in ordinary cases, he presuming that so long a com- munion with the church, so continued and open a pro- fession of the orthodox faith did tantamount a being le- gally initiated and baptized into it.
8. In these contests he passed over the short reign, of Gallus, Decius's successor, who not taking warning" by his predecessor's error, stumbled at the same stone. And when he found all things quiet and peaceable, must needs fall a persecuting the Christians, whose pravers with heaven secured the peace and prosperity of^ the empire. But this, alas, was but a preparatory storm to that which followed in the reign of Valerian, whom our Dionysius 'makes to be the beast in the Revelation, to whom xvas give?! a mouth speaking great things, and blas- phemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. He was at first extraordinarily kind to Christians beyond any of the precedent emperors, even those who were themselves accounted Christians : so that his whole family was full of pious and good men, and his house a kind of church. But this weather was too fliir and benign to last long : Being seduced and de- luded by an arch magician of Egypt, he was prevailed with to fall from his kindness, and to persecute the Chris- tians, whom the conjurer represented as persons, who by wicked and execrable charms hindred the emperor's prosperity, colouring his pretence from their power over daemons, whose mischievous arts they abstracted, and whom they ordinarily banished with the speaking of a word ; and persuading; him that to urge the Gentile rites, to maintain lustrations, sacrifices, divinations by the
u Dion Epist. ad Hermariira. ib. c. 1. p. 250. v Ibid. c. 10 p. 255.
504 LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS,
blood and entrails of men and beasts, was the ready way to make him happy. Whereupon edicts were every where pubHshed against the Christians, and they without the least protection exposed to the common rage.
9. Orders being come to Alexandria, Dionysius '^'ac companied with some of his clergy, addressed himself to itmilian the governor, who did not at first downright forbid him to hold their solemn assemblies, but endea- voured to persuade him to leave off that way of worship, presuming others would quickly follow his example. The answer he returned was short and apostolical, that we must obey God rather than men^ openly assuring him, that he would worship the true God, and none but him, from which resolution he would never start, nor ever cease to be a Christian. The governor told them, that both by word and writing he had acquainted them with the great clemency of the emperors towards them, per- mitting them to be safe, if they would but act agreeably to nature, and adore the gods that were protectors of the empire, and he hoped they would be more grateful than to refuse it. The bishop replied, that every one worshipped those whom they thought to be gods, that as for themselves they adored and served that one God who is the creator of the world, and who gave that govern- ment to the emperors, and to whom they offered up daily prayers for the permanency and stability of their empire. To which the other rejoined, that if he were a God, none hindred them from worshipping him toge- ther with them who were truly gods, they being enjoin- ed to worship (not one, but) gods, and those whom all men owned to be so. Dionysius answered, we cannot worship any other, " I see, replied ZEmilian, that you are a company of foolish and ungrateful people, and not sensible of the favour of our lords the emperours : where- fore you shall stay no longer in this city, but be sent to Cephro in the parts of Lybia, for thither according to the emperor's command, I resolve to banish you. Nor shall either you, or any of your sect have leave to keep
•w Ep. ejus ad Germ. ib. c. 11. p. 257-
LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS. 50^5
your meetings, or to frequent your coemeteria ; which if any dare to attempt, it shall be at his peril, and he shall be punished suitably to his crime. Be gone, therefore, to the place allotted you."
10. The sentence was speedily put into execution, Di- onysius though then sick, not being allowed one day's respite to recover himself, or provide for his journey thither. Indeed when he came distinctly to understand the place of his exile, he was a little troubled, knowing it to be a place destitute of the society of good men, and perpetually exposed to the incursions of thieves and rob- bers ; but was better satisfied when told that it was near a great and populous city, whose neighbourhood would furnish him with persons both for converse, and for op- portunities of conversion. Cephro was the most rude and barbarous tract of the Lybian desert, and Colythius (which as ""Nicephorus tells us, was that particular part of it to which Dionysius was designed) the most un- comfortable it is like of all the rest. Thither, therefore, was he sent, whom great numbers of Christians quickly followed, partly from Alexandria, and partly out of other parts of Egypt. At his first arrival he was treated with rudeness and showers of stones, but had not been long there, before he not only civilized their barbarous man- ners, but reclaimed them from idolatry, and brought them to embrace the Christian faith. And as he met with success, so he shifted his quarters, preaching up and down those wild and disconsolate parts, and turning the wilderness into a church. Nor could all the malice and threatenings of the governor hinder, but that the Christians still assembled at Alexandria, notwithstanding that their beloved bishop was ravished from them, and tha.t /Emilian proceeded with the utmost rigour against all that were brought before him, killing many with all the arts of cruelty, keeping others for the rack and tor- ment, loading them with chains, and thrusting them into squailid and nasty dungeons, forbidding any of their friends to come near them. Though even in the height
X Lib. 6. c. 10. p. 40^.
3 s
506 LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS.
of these afflictions God supported their spirits, and ani- mated others to venture in, and to administer comfort and necessaries to them, not scrupling though with the peril of their heads to inter the bodies of the martyrs.
11. Ho.v long Dionysius continued in his banishment, I find not, probably till Valerian was taken captive by the king of Persia, Ann. 259, when Gallienus's son ruled alone, who from the unhappiness of his father took the measures of his carriage towards the Christians : he saw that while he favoured the Christians, Heaven smiled upon his designs, and things went on in a smooth and uninterrupted course ; but when once he began to bear hard upon them, the tide turned, and the divine ven- geance pursued and overtook them, and that therefore nothing could be more prudent and reasonable, than to give a check to the present fury, and suffer them to go on securely in the exercise of their religion, which he did by this following edict.^
Emperoiir Casar P, Licinius GALLIENUS, Fws, Fe- lixy Augustus^ to DionysiuSy Pinnas^ Demetrius^ and the rest of the Bishops,
WE have giv^en order that the indulgence of our bounty shall be extended throughout the world, that all religious places shall be freed from force and violence. Wherefore ye also may freely enjoy the benefit of our rescript, so as no man shall dare to vex or molest you, and what you now may lawfully enjoy has been long since granted by us. And for this end Aurelius Cyrenius, our high steward shall keep the copy of this edict which we have now granted.
The like rescript he also sent to other bishops, giving them the free leave of their coemeteria, the places where they buried their dead, and often assembled for their re-
y Eussb. 1. r. c. 13. p. 262,
LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS. 507
ligious'solemnities, especially tHe memorials of the mar- tyrs.
12. Scarce was Dionysius quietly re-settled at home, when he was alarmed by another accident, which forced him for awhile again, if not to retire, at least to keep so close, that he was not capable to execute his charge, ^^milianus the prsefect partly by his own ambition, and partly forced by an unhappy accident wherein he was in- volved, took the empire upon him, the Roman army in Egypt joining with him, partly out of dislike to Gallie- nus, partly out of affection to iEmilian, who was a brisk active man. Immediately he seiztd upon the store- houses, that country being the common granary of the empire. Gallienus being acquainted with the news, or- dered Theodotus his general to march with an army in- to those parts, who besieged Alexandria, and reduced the city to great extremity. For they were not more vigourously assaulted by the enemy from without, than undermined* by parties and factions within, the city be- ing divided into two fractions, one contending for Gallie- nus, and the other for i^milian. So that there was no converse nor commerce between them, Dionysius being compelled in all his private affairs, and the public con- cernment of his church to transact with his friends by letters, it being safer, as he tells us, for a man to travel from east to west, than to pass from one part of Alexan- dria to another, so barbarous and inhuman were the out- rages committed there. The issue was, that Gallienus's party prevailed to let in Theodotus and his army, who seized the tyrant, and sent him to the emperor, who caused him to be strangled in prison.
13. How stormy and tempestuous is the region of this lower world ! one wave perpetually pressing upon the neck of another. The persecution was seconded by a civil war and a cruel famine, and that no sooner over, but a terrible plague followed close at the heels of it;
2 Tr. Poll. in vit. iKmil. p. 7r8. & in vit. Gall. c. 4. p. 715. a Dionys. Epist. adHievarcli. ib. c. 21. p. 266.
598 LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS.
one of the most dreadful and amazing judgments which God sends upon mankind. It overran city and coun- try, sweeping away what the fury of the late wars had left, there not having been known (saith the historian^) in any age so great a destruction of mankind. This pes- tilence (which some say*^ came first out of Ethiopia) be- gan in the reign of Gallus and Volusian, and ever since more or less straggled over most parts of the Roman empire, and now kept its fatal residence at Alexandria, where by an impartial severity it movv^ed down both Gentiles and Christians, and turned the paschal solem- nity (it being then the time"* of Easter) into days of weeping and mourning, all places were filled with dying groans, and sorrows either for friends already dead, or those that were ready to depart, it being now, as former- ly under that great Egyptian plague, and something worse, there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not an house where there xvas not only one, but many dead. In this sad and miserable time how vastly diiferent was the carriage of the Christians and the heathens. The Christians out of the superabundance of their kindness and charity, without any regard to their own health and life, boldly ventured into the thickest dangers, daily vi- siting, assisting, and ministering to their sick and in- fected brethren, cheerfully taking their pains and distem- pers upon them, and themselves expiring with them. And when many of those whom they thus attended, re- covered and lived, they died themselves, as if by a pro- digious and unheard of charity, they had willingly taken their diseases upon them, and died to savethemfrom death. And these the most considerable both of clergy and peo- ple, cheerfully embracing a death that deserved a title iitiie less than that of martyrdom. They embraced the bodies of the dead, closed their eyes, laid them out, washed and dressed them up in their funeral weeds, took them upon their shoulders, and carried them to their graves, it not being long before others did the same of-
b Zosim. Histor. 1 1. p. 347'. c Pomp. Lset. in vit Galli.p. m. 1235.
Eutrop. H. Rom. I. 9. p. 1924* <l Dionys. ib. c. 22. p. 268.
LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS. 509
fices for them. The gentiles on the contrary put off all sense of humanity, when any began to fall sick, they pre- sently cast them out, ran from their dearest friends and relations, and either left them half dead in the highways, or threw them out as soon as they were dead, dreading to fall under the same infection, which yet with all their care and diligence they could not avoid.
14. Nor were these the only troubles the good man ivas exercised with, he had contests of another nature that swallowed up his time and care. Sabellius, a Li- byan, born at Ptolemais, a city of Pentapolis, had lately started ^ dangerous notions and opinions about the doc- trine of the holy Trinity, affirming the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to be but one subsistence, one person under three several names which in the time ot the Old Tes- tament gave the law under the notion of the Father, in the New, was made man in the capacity of the Son, and descended afterwards upon the aposdes in the quality of the Holy Ghost. Dionysius, as became a vigilant pastor of his flock, presently undertakes the man, and while he managed the cause with too much eagerness and ferven- cy of disputation, he bent the stick too much the other way, asserting not only l^iio-TmdTav i'^ro^dcnmy *"a distinc- tion of persons, but 8Vkc ^i^c^o^^^v, a difference of essence, and an inequality of power and glory. For which he is severely censured by St. Basil and some of the ancients, as one of those that mainly opened the gap to those Ari- an impieties that after broke in upon the world. Though St. Basil s could not but so far do him right, as to say that it was not any ill meaning, but only an over-vehe- ment desire to oppose his adversary that betrayed him into those unwary and inconsiderate assertions. Some bishops of Pentapolis, immediately took hold of this, and going over to Rome represented his dangerous errors ; where the case was discussed in a synod, and letters written to Dionysius about it, who in a set apology an- swered for himself, and declared his sense more expli-
e Dion f Basil
. Eplst. ad Sex. ib. c. 6. p. 252. Nlceph. 1. 6. c. 26. p. 419. . ad Magn. Philos. Epist. XL I. p. 60. g Ubi supr.
510 LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS.
citly in this controversy, as may be seen at large in Athanasius, '' who has with infinite pains vindicated our Dionysius, his predecessor, as a man sound and ortho- dox, and who v/as never condemned by the governors of the church for impious opinions, or that he held those abominable tenets which Arius broached afterwards. And certainly St. Basil might and w^ould have passed a milder censure, had he either perused all Dionysius's wTitings, or remembered how much he concerned himself to clear St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, Dionysius's contemporary, from the very same charge, for which he could not but confess he had given too just occasion.
15. No sooner was this controversy a little over, but he was engaged in another. ' Nepos, an Egyptian bishop lately dead (a man eminent for his constancy in the faith, his industry and skill in the holy scriptures, the many psalms and hymns he had composed, which the breth- ren sung in their public meetings) had not long since fallen into the error of the Millenaries, and had published books to show that the promises made in the scriptures to good men, were 'uuiKceTigov, according to the sense and opinion of the Jews to be literally understood, and that there was to be a thousand years state upon earth, wherein they were to enjoy sensual pleasures and delights. Endeavouring to make good his assertions from some passages in St. John's Revelation, styling his book "'EKifx®' dmyo^tg-m, A Confutation of Allegorical Expositors* This book was greedily caught up and read by many, and advanced into that esteem and repu- tation, that law and prophets, and the writings of the evangelists and apostles were neglected and thrown aside, and the doctrine of this book cried up, as containing ^^yl ri ^ KiKfufAfxim />tus-»g/ov, somc great and extraordinary mystery, concealed before from the world : the more simple and unwary being taught to disband all sub- lime and magnificent thoughts of our Lord's glorious coming, the resurrection and final judgment, and our
h De Sentent. nionvs.tom. 1. p. 548. &c, vid. Pliot. Cod. CCXXXII. ool. 901. i Euseb. ibid. c. 24. p. 270.
LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS. 511
conformity to him in glory, and to hope for a state in the kingdom of God, wherein they should be entertained with such little and trifling, such fading and transitory thmgs as this world does afford. Dionysius, being then in the province of the Arsenoitae, where this opinion had prevailed so far as to draw whole churches into schism and separation, summoned the presbyters and teachers, who preached in the country villages, and as many of the people as had a mind to come, advising them that in their sermons they would publicly examine this doctrine. They presently defended themselves with this book, whereupon he began more closely to join issue with them, continuing with them three days together from morning to night, weighing and discussing the doctrines contained in it. In all which time he admired their con- stancy and love to truth, their great quickness and readi- ness of understanding, with so much order and decency, so much modesty and moderation were the discourses managed on both sides, doubts propounded, and assent yielded. For they took an especial care not pertinaci- ously to defend their former opinions, when once they found them to be erroneous, nor to shun any objections which on either part were made against them. As near as might be they kept to the present question, which they endeavoured to make good ; but if convinced by argu- ment that they were in the wrong, made no scruple to change their minds, and go over to the other side, with honest minds, and sincere intentions, and hearts truly de- voted to God, embracing whatever was demonstrated by the holy scriptures. The issue was, that Coracion, the commander and champion of the other party, publicly promised and protested before them all, that he would not henceforth either entertain, or dispute, or discourse, or preach these opinions, being sufficiently convinced by the arguments which the other side had offered to him : all the brethren departing with mutual love, unanimity, and satisfaction. Such was the peaceable conclusion of this meeting, and less could not be expected from such pious and honest souls, such wise and regular disputers. And happy had it been for the Christian world, had all
512 LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS.
those controversies that have disturbed the church, been managed by such prudent and orderly debates, which, as usually conducted, rather widen the breach, than heal and mend it. Dionysius, to strike the controversy dead, while his hand was in, wrote a book concerning the Promises^ (which St. Hierom, forgetting what he had truly said elsewhere ^ that it was written against Nepos, tells * us was written against Ireneeus, bishop of Lyons, mistaking the person probably for his opinion) in the first part whereof he stated the question, laid down his sense con- cerning it : in the second he treated concerning the Re- velation of St. John (the main pillar and buttress of this opinion) where both by reason and the testimony of others, he "" contends that it was not written by St. John, the apostle and evangelist, but by another of that name, an account of whose judgment herein we have represent- ed in another place.
16. The last controversy wherein he was concerned was that against Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, who had " confidently vented these and such like impious dogmata^ that there is but one person in the Godhead, that our blessed Saviour was, though a holy, yet a mere man, who came not down from heaven, but was of a mere earthly extract and original, in whom the Word (which he made not any thing distinct from the Father) did sometimes reside, and sometimes depart from him, with abundance of the like wicked and senseless propositions. Besides all which he was infinitely obnoxious in his morals (as few men but serve the design of some lust by schism and bad opi- nions) covetous without any bounds, heaping up a vast estate (though born a poor man's son) partly by fraud and sacrilege, partly by cruel and unjust vexations of his brethren, partly by fomenting differences, and taking bribes to assist the weaker party. "" Proud and vainglo- rious he was beyond all measure, affecting pomp and
kDescript. in Dioms. 1 Prxfat. in 1. 18. Com. in Esa. p. 242. T 5e
in Antiq. Apost. Life of St. John, n. 14. n Euseb. ubi supr. r. Sr. p.
277, i>81- Epiph. Hseres. LXV.p. 262. Athanas. de Synod. Arim . & St leiic .
p. 920. Nic'eph. 1. 6. c. 27. p. 420. o Epi»t. Synod. II. Antioch. ap:
kusttb. ib. e. SO. p. 280. Sic
LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS. 513
train, and secular power, and rather to be styled a tem- poral prince than a bishop, going through the streets and all public places in solemn state with persons walking before him, and crowds of people following after him. In the church he caused to be erected a throne higher than ordinary, and a place which he called Secretum, after the manner of civil magistrates, who, in the inner part of the pr(Storium^ had a place railed in, with curtains hung be- fore it, where they sat to hear causes. He was wont to clap his hand upon his thigh, and to stamp with his feet upon the bench, frowning upon, and reproaching those, who did not theatrically shout and make a noise while he was discoursing to them, wherein he used also to refiect upon his predecessors and the most eminent persons that had been before him, with all imaginable scorn and petu- lancy, magnifying himself as far beyond them. The hymns that were ordinarily sung in honour of our Lord, he abolished as late and novel, and instead thereof taught some of his proselyted females, upon the Easter solem- nity to chant out some which he had composed in his own commendation, to the horror and astonishment of all that heard them, procuring the bishops and presbyters of the neighbouring parts to publish the same things of him in their sermons to the people, some of his proselytes not sticking to affirm, that he was an angel come down from heaven. All which he was so far from controlling, that he highly encouraged them, and heard them himself not only with patience but delight. He was more- over vehemently suspected of incontinency, maintaining OjM<rci.yL^^iyvv!UKAi, subintroduced' xuomen in his house, and some of them persons of exquisite beauty, contrary to the canons of the church, and to the great scandal of reli- gion. And that he might not be much reproached by those that were about him, he endeavoured to debauch his clergy, conniving at their vices and irregularities, and corrupting others with pensions, and whom he could not prevail with by evil arts, he awed by power, and his mighty interest in the princes and great ones of those parts, so that they were forced with sadness to bewail at home what thev durst not publish and declare abroad.
3 c
514 LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS.
17. To rectify these enormities most of the chief bi- shops of the east resolved to meet in a synod at ^ Antioch, to which they earnestly invited our Dionysius. But, alas, age and infirmities had rendered him incapable of such a journey, and had given him a writ of ease, upon which account he begged to be excused from it. But that he might not be wanting in what he could, he sent letters, wherein he declared his sense and opinion of those mat- ters, and in his epistle to the church of Antioch, to show his resentment of the thing, he not only wrote not to the man, but gave him not so much as the civility of a salu- tation. In this synod the crafty fox hid his head, dissem- bling his sentiments, and palliating his disorders, and confessing and recanting what he was not able to con- ceal, so that for the present he still continued in his place. How he was afterwards discovered and laid open, con- victed, condemned, and deposed in another synod in that city, and Domnus substituted in his room ; how he re- fused to submit to the sentence of the council, and for some time maintained his station by the power of Zeno- bia, a queen in those parts, and a Jewish proselyte, whose favour he had courted and obtained ; and how at last upon the bishops' appeal he was turned out, and the synodical decree executed by the immediate order of the emperor Valerian, is without the limits of my business to inquire.
18. A little after this first synod at Antioch died our St. Denys in the twelfth year of *» Gallienus, Ann. 265, when he had sitten seventeen years bishop of Alexandria, dying probably the same year and on the same day with St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, whose me- mories are accordingly celebrated September 17, in the calendar of the Roman church. His memory was con- tinued at Alexandria (as we learn from ' Epiphanius) by a church dedicated to him, but flourished much more in the incomparable virtues of his past life, and those excel- lent writings he left behind him, which mainly consisted of vast numbers of epistles; and it is probable all his
p Euseb. ib. c. 27. p. 277. & c. 30. p. 279. q Vid. ib. c. 28. p. 27«.
cHacres. LXIX. p. 31!.
LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS. 515
writings were nothing else, his larger tracts being writ- ten in the nature of epistles. Which, were they still ex- tant, instead of those little fragments preserved by Euse- bius, besides other advantages, they would probably fur- nish us with the most material transactions of the Chris- tian world in those times, than which in those early ages there was not a more active and busy period of the church.
HIS WRITINGS,
Whereof some fragments only are now extant.
Liber de Poenitentia ad Cono- nem Episcopum Hermapo- litanum.
Libellus de Martyrio ad Ori- ginem.
De Promisslonibus adversus Nepotem Libri II.
Ad Dionisium Romanum ad- versus Sabellium, Libri IV.
Ad Timotheum Libri de Na- tura.
DeTentationibus Liber ad Eu- phran.
Commentarlus in primam par- tem Ecclesiastis.
Epistola ad Cornelium Epis- copum Romanum.
Epistola ad Stephanum Epis- cop. Rom. de Baptismo.
Ad Sixtum Papam de Baptis- mo Epistolse III.
Adversus Germanum Episc. Epistola.
Epistola ad Fabium Antiochiae Episc.
Epistola ad Novatianum de Schismate.
Epistola de Poenitentia ad Fra- tres per iEgyptum constitu- ^$y^ tos.
Ad gregem suum Alexandri- num Epistola objurgatoria.
Epistola ad Laodicenos.
Epistola ad Armenios de Poe- nitentia.
Epistola ad Romanes <r(A»ov/v>».
Alia ad eosdem de Pace £3* Pcenitent.
Ad Confessores Novatianos Romae Epistolse III.
Ad Philemonem Presbyterum Romanum de Baptismo.
Epistola itidem ad Dionysium PresbyternumRom.de Bap- tismo.
Epistola suo & Ecclesise suae nomine ad Sixtum & Eccl. Rom. de eadem re.
Ad Dionysium Romanum de Luciano Epistola.
Epistola ad Hermammonem.
Epistola ad Domitium & Dy- dymum.
Epistola ad Compresbyteros Alexand.
Epistola ad Hieracem Episc. iEgyptiac.
Epistola de Sabbato.
Epistola de Mortalitate.
De Exercitatione Epistola.
516 LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRINUS.
Epistola ad Ammonem Ber- nenicensem Episcopum, con- tra Sabellium.
Alia ad Telesphorum.
Ad Euphranorem alia.
Ad Ammonem & Euporum Epistola.
Ad BasilidemEpiscopum Pen- tapolit,
Epistolse plures. Ex his super- est Epistola Canonica de diversis Capitibus. Extat Gr. L. Tom. 1. Concil. & alibi cum Commentario Bal- samonis.
Epistolae 'Eogcrrts-wa/, seu Pascha-
les plurimas. Epistola ad Ecclesiam Anti-
ochenam adversus Paulum
Samosatenum.
Doubtful, or rather Suppositi- tious.
Epistola ad Paulum Samosa- tenum Gr. L. Concil. Tom. 1.
Responsiones ad Pauli Samo- teni decem Quasstiones^ Gr. L. ibid.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
OF THE
THREE FIRST AGES
OF THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
PHILADELPHIA
PUBLISHID BY SOLOMON WIATT, NO. 104, NORTH
SECOND STREET.
SWEENY & M'KENZIE, PRINTERS.
1811.
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
|
Ann. Chr. |
Roman emperors. |
Consuls. |
Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
|
1 |
Augusti. 43 |
C. Julius Caesar Vipsania- nus. L. iEmil. Paulus. |
Our Lord's circumcision : His being presented in the temple. His flight into Egypt. The massacre of the infants at Bethlehem. The death of Herod about the time of the passover. |
|
2 |
44 |
P. Vniicius iSepos. P. Alphinius Varus. |
Archelaus declared Te- trarch of Judaea. |
|
3 |
45 |
L. iElius Lamia. L. Servilius Geminus. |
In the begmning of this (or rather the end of the foregoing year) our Lord returned out of His education and abode at Nazareth. |
|
4 |
46 |
Sex. /Elius Catws. C. Sentius Saturninus. |
Augustus refuses the title of Lord, |
|
5 |
47 |
L. Valerius Messala. Cn. Cornelius Cinna. |
Cireat earthquakes hap^ pened. Tiber overflows. An eclipse of the sun, March 28. |
|
6 |
48 |
M. iEmil. Lepidus. L. Arruntius Nepos. |
About this iime the Jews and Samaritans accused Ar- chelaus to Augustus, who ban- ished him to Vein in France. |
|
7 |
49 |
A. Licinius Nerva. Q. Cec. Metellus Creticus. |
|
|
8 |
50 |
M. Funus Camillus. S. Nonius Quinctilianus. |
|
|
9 |
51 |
Q. Sulp. Camerinus. C. Poppccus Sabinus. |
|
|
10 |
1 - |
P. Corn. Dolabella. C. Junius Salanus. |
|
|
11 |
53 |
M. .t^mil. Lepidus. T- Statilius Taurus. |
The Jews taxed by Quiri- nus the Roman governor. In those days rose up Judas of Galilee, and drew away much people after him. He is ^lain, and his two sons crucified. |
Our Lord is generally supposed to have been born December XXV^ six days before the commencement of the common jEra. jinn. Augusti Imfi. XLIL For though hi strictness the XLIL year of August . ^Xidjtdi Jsto-v ^
«520
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
Ann. Chr.
I Roman I emperors.
Consuls.
Ecclesiastical Affairs.
54
T. Germanicus Caesar. C. Fonteius Capito.
By occasion of the pass- over our Lord goes up with his parents to Jerusalem, and there disputes with the rabins in the temple^
55
C. Silius Nepos.
L. Munacius Plancus.
Augustus solemnly makes his will, and lays it up with the vestal virgins.
56 Tibe- T rius ab L Aug. j 19. J
Sex. Pompeius Nepos. Sex. Apuleius Nepos.
Augustus dies, and is in- terred with great funeral honours. Serv. Numerius affirms upon his oath, that he saw him ascend into hea- ven.
Drusus J. Cxsar.
C. Norbanus Flaccus.
T. Statil. Se senna. L. Scribonius Libo.
The magicians and ma- thematicians banished Rome by Tiberius.
C. Cxlius Rufus.
L. Pomponius Flaccus.
CI. Tib. Nero III.
D. German. Csesar II.
M. Junius Silanus. L. Norbanus Balbus.
Josephus called Caiaphas made high priest of the Jews by the favour of Valerius Gratus the Roman governor.
L. Valerius Messala. M. Aurelius Cotta.
CI. Tib. Nero IV. Drusus J. Cxsar II.
C. Sulpicius Galba.
D. Haterius Agrippa.
C. Asinius Poilio. C. Antistius Vetus*
Sex. Cornel. Cethegus. L. VitelJius Varro.
Towards the end of this year Pontius Pilate is sent to be procurator of Judea,
Cossus Cornel. Lentuius.
M. Asinius Agrippa.
12
Cn. Cornel. Lentuius.
G:et.
C. Calvisius Sabinus.
Pilate commands the Ro- man standards with the image of Tiberius upon them to be brought into the tem- ple to the great offence of the Jews.
XXVII. (accounting his reign from his entering upon the Triumvirate) yet seeing the civil Roman year expired not till the last of Dccemb. it may be said to extend ?dl that time. His XLIII. year in common reckon- ing, and the first year of the vulgar JEra of our Lord commencing Jan. ^ when the Romans began their year and the new consuls took place.
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
521
|
Ann. I R<iman 1 „ , ' " ' I ~~ - Chr. I emperors. j Consuls. | Ecclesiastical Affairs, |
|||
|
27 |
13 14 |
J Herod Antipas putting M. Licinius Crassus. away the daughter of Aretas king of Arabia, marries He- L. Calphurnius Piso. rodias, his brother Philip's wife. |
|
|
28 |
i4 15 |
Ap. Junius Silanus. P. Silius Nerva. |
Joseph our Lord's reputed father is by some said to de- cease this year. |
|
29 |
15 16 |
C. Rubellius ") ^ . . C.Fusius JGemmi. |
John the Baptist begins to preach and baptize, (proba- bly) about mid-summer, or as B. Usher thinks, Oct. 19. |
|
30 |
16 17 |
C. Cassius Longinus. M. Vinucius Quartinus. |
Our Lord baptized Jan. 6. having completed the 29Lh year of his age, and 13 days. His iirs* pa<-sover Anril 6. |
|
31 |
17 18 |
Tiber. Nero Caesar, V. L. .^lius Sejanus. |
His seconrt passover, March 28. His cure of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda. His sending out the 12 apostles. John the Baptist behead- ed. |
|
32 |
18 19 |
Cn. Domitius iEnobar- bus. A. Vitellius Ncpos. Suf. M. Fur. Camill9 Scrib. |
The third passover, April 14. 4000 fed with 7 loaves. Christ's transfiguration The LXX. disciples sent out. Zachjeus converted, Bartimseus cured of his blindness. |
|
33 |
19 20 |
Ser. Sulpit. Galba. L. Cornelius Sylla. |
Lazarus raised. Our Lord's triumphant entry in- to Jerusalem. The Lord's supper instituted. The fourth passover. Our Lord apprehended, arraigned, crucified April 3, rises again and ascends into heaven. The 7 deacons chosen. St. Stephen stoned, Dec. 25. |
|
34 |
20 21 |
P. Fabhis Persicus. L. Vitellius Nepos. |
The persecution follow ing St. Stephen's death. St. Philip's preaching at Samaria. His converting and baptizing the Eunuch. Peter and John return to Jenis^:ilem. |
3 V
522
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
|
Chr. |
Roman emperors. |
Consuls. |
Ecclesiastical Affairi. |
|
S5 |
Tiber. 21 22 |
C. Cestius Gallus Ca- merinus. M. Servilius Rufus. |
St. Paul converted, Jan. 25. St. Peter visits the churches. Jonathan the son of Annas made high priest. Many- favours conferred upon the Jews by Vitellius. |
|
36 |
22 23 |
• 1 Q. Plautius Plautianus. al. Laelianus. Sex. Papinius Gallienus. |
Peter's vision. Cornehus's conversion. Peter accused for his con- verse with the Gentiles at his return to Jerusalem. |
|
37 |
23 24 Caligula a Mart, ^l Ifl. J |
Cn. AcerroniusProculus. C. Pontius Nigrinus. |
St. Paul comes to Jerusa- lem, and after 15 days is by revelation commanded to depart thence. He goes for Tarsus. |
|
38 |
1 2 |
C. Ciesar Caligula. II. L. Apronius Cxsianus. |
A cruel persecution raised against the Jews at Alexan- dria, by Flaccus the prefect of Egypt. |
|
39 |
2 3 |
M. Aquilius Julianus. P. Nonius Asprenas. |
Pontius Pilate lays violent hands upon himself. The great increase of the church of Antioch. The be- lievers first called Christians there. |
|
40 |
3 4 |
C. Caesar Calieula III. Suf. L. GehiusPub- hcola. M. Cocceius Nerva. |
Caligula commands Pe- tronius to set up his statue in the temple at Jerusalem : but at the great instance of the Jews it is deferred. |
|
41 |
4 Claudius -^ a 1 Feb. J |
C. Cxsar Caligula IV. 6w/: Q. Pompon. Secun- dus. Cn. Sentius Saturninus. |
St. James the great, the apostle, beheaded by the command of Herod. Peter delivered out of prison. |
|
42 |
1 2 |
Tib. Claudius Imp. II. C. Licinius Cscina Lar- gus. |
Barnabas and Paul set forward in their preaching of the gospel. They plant the Christian faith 'in Se- leucia, Cyprus, and other places. |
|
43 |
2 3 |
T. Claudius Imp. III. L. Vitellius II. |
Claudius abrogates many of the Roman festivals. Elion is made high priest of the Jews in the room of Matthias the son of Ananus deposed. |
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
523
|
Ann. J Roman Chr. i emperors. |
Consuls. |
Ecclesiastical Affairs, |
|
|
44 |
Claudii 3 4 |
L. Q. Crispin US 11. T. Statilius Taurus. |
Herod dies, being imme- diately struck by an angel for his pride and ambition. |
|
45 |
4 5 |
M. Vicinius Quartinus. M. Statilius Corvinus. |
The blessed virgin said by some to die this year, by others three years after. The apostles disperse themselves to preach the gospel to the several pro- vinces of the Gentile world. |
|
46 |
5 6 |
C. Valerius Asiaticus. M. Valerius Messala. |
Paul and Barnabas preach at Lystra : Paul stoned there. Their return to An- tioch. |
|
47 |
6 7 |
T. Claudius Imp. IV. L. Vitellius III. |
30,000 ot the Jews, raising a tumult in the feast of un- leavened bread, slain by Ventidius Cumanus, procu- rator of Judea. |
|
48 |
7 8 |
A. Vitellius postea Imp. L. Vipsanius Poplicola. |
A council holden by the apostles and others at Jeru- salem, to determine the con- troversy about legal rites. The decrees of the synod sent to the churches. |
|
49 |
8 9 |
Cn. Pompeius Gallus. Q.Verannius Laetus. |
Barnabas preaches the gospel in Cyprus : St. Paul in Syria, Cilicia, &c. The Jews banished Rome by the edict of Claudius. |
|
50 |
9 10 |
C. Antistius Vetus. M. Sailli9 Rufus Nervi- lian9. |
St. Paul having travelled through Macedonia, comes to Athens, disputes with the philosophers, converts Dio- nysius the Areopagite, and thence passeth to Corinth, where he resides 18 months. |
|
51 |
10 11 |
T. Claudius Imp. V. Ser. Cornelius Orfilus. |
St. Paul continues at Co- rinth, where he meets with Aquila and Priscilla not long before banished Rome by the decree of Claudius. Hence he writes to the Thessalonians. |
|
52 |
11 12 |
P. Cornelius Sylla Faus- tus. L. Salvius Otho Titian- us. |
St. Paul departs irom Co- rinth, passes to Ephesus, thence to Jerusalem, and re- turns back to Ephesus. |
524
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE,
|
Chr |
emperors. |
Consuls. 1 Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
|
|
53 |
Claudii V2 1. |
D. Junius Silanus. Q. Haterius Antoninus. |
He preache. ai.J disputes daily in the school of Tyran- nus, convinces the Jews, and converts great numbers to the faith. |
|
54 |
13 14 Nero a^ ■3 Oct. J |
: iVi. Asiniub Marceilus. M. Acilius Aviola. |
St. Paul fights with beasts, i. e. men of evil and brutish manners at Ephesus. He preaches there still, and in the parts thereabouts. |
|
55 |
1 2 |
Nero Claudius Imp. L. Antistius Vetus. |
St. Paul's departure from Ephesus. He passes through Macedonia and Greece, and gathers con- tribution for the saints of Jeriisp.lem. |
|
56 |
2 3 |
Q. Volusius Saturninus. P. Cornelius Scipio. |
St. Paul comes to Jerusa- lem, and is apprehended in the temple, and secured in the castle. His imprison- ment at Caesarea, and ar- raignment before Felix the Roman governor. |
|
57 |
3 4 |
Nero Claud. Imp. II. L. Calpurnius Plso. |
St. Paul kept prisoner at Caesare? undo- Felix. |
|
58 |
4 5 |
Nero CI. Imp. III. M. Valerius Messala. |
St. Paul's arrignment be- fore Festus. He is sent to Rome, where he arrives about the end of this, or the beginning of the following year.* |
|
59 |
5 6 |
C. Vipsanius Poplicola. al. Apronianus. C. Fonteius Capito. |
St. Paul's free imprison- ment at Rome. He >' rites his epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, to Timothy and Philemon. |
|
60 |
6 r |
Nero Ci. Imp. IV. Cossus Cornelius Lentu- lus. |
About the latter end of this year St. Paul is set at liberty, and before his de- parture out of Italy, writes his epistle to the Hebrews. |
* The time of St. Paul's being sent to Rome, depends upon Festus's comhig into Judea to succeed in the room of Felix : which though it can- not be precisely determined, yet plain it is, that it must be Avhile Pallas (Felix's brother, by whose mediation with the emperor, Felix at his re- turn had his life spared when accused by the Jews for his mal-adminis- tration) was yet in some favour with Nero, wherein he was declining some time before, and from which he seems wholly to have fallen upon Agrippina's death (upon whose interest he stood at court) who was slain NeroTL V. 4nn. Chr. LIX. Pallas himself being poisoned, Neron. VIIL Ann. LXII.
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
525
Ann. I Roman I ^
Chr. I emperor. | Consuls.
Ecclesiastical Affairs.
61
Neronis 7.
62
63
64
C. Cxsonius Pxtus.
C. Petronius Turpilianus al. Sabinus.
8 i P. Marius Celsus. I L. Asiniub Gallus. Suff. Seneca & Trebel- lius.
10
10
11
L. Memmius Regulus. Paulus Virginius Rufus.
St. Paul now released, travels for the propagation of the gospel especially in the western parts, Wi to tI^, fxa. T^At/srsfiDf 4x9-^v, Clem. Rom. I Ep. ad Corinth, p. 8. proba- I bly into Spain, or Britain.
St. James the less, the brother of our Lord and bi- shop of Jerusalem, thrown by the Jews from the Tem- ple, and knocked on the head with a fuller's club.
Simeon chosen by St. James his successor in the see of Jerusalem.
Anianus succeeds St. Mark in the bishopric of Alexan- dria. Euseb. Chron.
C. Lecanius Bassus.
M. Licinius Crassus Frugi.
Nero burns the city of Rome, and to wipe off the odium from himself, char- ges it upon the Christians, and raises the first persecu- tion against them under that pretext.
|
65 |
11 12 |
P. Siiius iNervH. C. Julius Atticus Vesti- nus. Suff. Anicius Cerealis. |
* St. Peter and Paul suf- fer martyrdom at Rome. Several prodigies at Jeru- salem foreshow the distruc- tion of that church afid state |
|
66 |
12 13 |
C. Suetonius Paulinus. L. Pontius Telesinus. |
Nero residing in Achaia, commits the management ©f the war against the Jews to Vespasian. |
|
er |
13 14 |
L. Fonteius Capito. C. Julius Rufus. |
Vespasian carries on the war with great diligence and success. Josephus is taken priso- ner. |
|
68 |
Galba a -1 Jun. 10. J |
C. Siiius Italicus. M. Galerius Trachalus Turpilianus. |
Phanassus the son of Sa- muel the last High Priest of the Jews. |
* Some of the most learned Chronologists of the Roman church place the martyrdom of these two great Apostles two years later, viz. Ann. Chr. LXVII. which if any like better, I will not contend, the persecution pro- bably extending to the last of Nero, though it seems most probable that tlity should suffer about the beginning of it.
526
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
Anu. Chr.
Roman J :raperor. f
Consuls.
Ecclesiastical Affairs.
|
69 |
Oilio a 1 Jan. 15. 5 Vitellius -1 ab April > 20. J Vespasi- ~) ano a 1 {>l Juiu. J |
Ser. Sulpitius Galba Imp. 11. T. Vinius Rufinus. al. Crispinianus. |
Vespasian being proclaim- ed emperor, leaves Judea, goes to Alexandria, and thence for Rome. |
|
70 |
1 2 |
Fl. Vespasianus Imp. II. T. Vespasianus Cxsar. |
Titus remanded by Ves- pasian to prosecute the Jew- ish war. Jerusalem besieged, taken, sacked, and burnt. 1100000 of the Jews pe- rish, 97000 taken prisoners. |
|
71 |
2 3 |
Imp. Vespasianus III. M. Cocceius Nerva, postea Imper. |
The Jewish nobility, and the spoils of the temple car- ried in triumph to Rome. St. Bartholomew the A- postle said to be martyred this, by others, the following year. |
|
72 |
3 4 |
Imp. Vespasianus IV. T. Vespasianus C sesar II. |
Ebion, so called from an affected poverty, bom at Cocaba a village in Basani- tis, and Cerinthus noted he- retics, begin more openly to show themselves about this time. |
|
73 |
4 5 |
Fl. Domitianus. M. Valerius Messalinus. |
St. Thomas slain at Mali- apor in India. St. Martialis at Ravenna in Italy. |
|
74 |
5 6 |
Imp. Vespasianus V. T. Vespasianus III. |
The last census made at Rome : several very aged persons then noted, men- tioned by Pliny, lib. 7. c. 49. Justifying the great age of several Ecclesiastic persons of those times. |
|
75 |
6 7 |
Imp. Vespasianus VI. Tit. Vespasianus IV. ^uff. Domitianus IV. |
The Temple of Peace de- dicated by Vespasian, and the Jewish spoils laid up in it. |
|
76 |
7 8 |
Imp. Vespasianus VIL Tit. Vespasianus V. Suff. Domitianus V. |
|
|
77 |
— p 8 9 |
Imp. Vespasianus VIII. Tit. Vespasianus VI. Suff. Domitianus VI. |
Linus bishop of the church of the Gentile Christians at Rome suffers martyrdom, having sat 12 years, four months, and twelve days : though others allow but 11 years, 2 months, and 23 davs. |
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE,
527
|
Ann. Chr. |
emJSors. ! ^«»»"J^- 1 Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
||
|
78 |
Vespasiani 9 10 |
L. Ceionius Commodus Verus. C. Cornelius Priscus. |
Antipas a faithful martyr slain at Pergamus. Onuphr. by others referred to Ann 9S. |
|
79 |
10 June 24. J |
Imp. Vespasianus IX. Tit. Vespasianus VII. |
_ A great eruption of Vesu- vius: in the over-curious search whereof Pliny the elder perished the following year. |
|
80 |
1 2 |
Titus Vespas. Imp. Vill. Fl. Dnmitianus VII. |
Titus commands Jose- phus's history of the Jewish war to be laid up in the li- brary at Rome. |
|
81 |
2 3 Domit. a^ Sep. 13. J |
iM. Piuutms byivanus. M. Annius Verus Poliio. |
|
|
82 |
1 2 |
Domitianus Imp. VIII. T. Flavius ftabinus. |
|
|
83 |
2 o |
Imp. Domitianus IX. T. Virginius Rufus. II. |
Domitian banishes the philosophers out of Rome and Italy, and severely pun- ishes the incest of the Vestal virgins. |
|
84' |
3 4 |
Imp. Domitianus X. Ap. Junius Sabinus. |
|
|
85 |
4 5 |
Anianus i5t. Mark's suc- Imp. Domitianus XL cessor in the bishopric of Al- T. Aurelius Fulvus. exandria, dies and is suc- ceeded by A villus. |
|
|
86 |
5 6 |
Imp. Domitianus XII. Ser. Cornelius Dolabella. |
|
|
87 |
6 7 |
Imp. Domitianus XIII. A. Volusius Saturninns. |
Domitian assumes divine honours, commanding him- self to be styled Lord and c;od. |
|
88 |
7 8 |
Imp. Domitianus XIV. M. Minucius Rufus. |
|
|
89 |
8 9 |
T. Aurelius Ful\ ms. A. Sempronius Atrati- nus. |
Philosophers and Mathe- maticians again banished out of Rome. |
|
90 |
9 10 |
Imp. Domitianus XV. M. Cocceius Nerva II. |
Apollonius Tyansus the famous magician, set up by the Gentiles as rival to our Saviour, is brought before Domitian, shows triclcs of magic, and is said immedi- ately to vanish out of his sight. The second persecution. |
528
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
|
Ann. Chr. |
( Roman 1 emperors. |
Consuls. |
Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
|
* Cletus bishop of Rome |
|||
|
Domit.lO |
M. Ulpius Trajanus. |
martyred this (if not rather |
|
|
yi |
the foregoing) year, April |
||
|
11 |
M. Acihus Glabrio. |
26, he is succeeded by Cle> mens, May 16. |
|
|
About this time St. Juhi. is |
|||
|
11 |
Imp. Domitianus XVI. |
supposed to be sent by the Proconsul of Asia to Rome, |
|
|
92 |
and by Domitian to have |
||
|
been put into a vessel of hot |
|||
|
12 |
A.Volusius Saturninus II |
oil, and then banished into Patmos. |
|
|
93 |
12 |
Sex. Pompeius Coilega. |
|
|
13 |
Cornelius Pi-iscus. |
||
|
13 |
L. Nonius Asprenas |
St. John writes his Book of |
|
|
94 |
Torquatus. |
Revelations. |
|
|
Josephus finishes his books |
|||
|
14 |
M. Arricinius Clemens, |
of Je>-':ch Antiquivie^'- |
|
|
1 1. (^iei.uens, uoautian s |
|||
|
14 |
Imp. Domitianus XVII. |
cousin-german and consul with him this year, put to |
|
|
95 |
death for being a christian. |
||
|
15 |
T. Flavius Clemens |
His wife Fl. Domitilla, Do- |
|
|
Mart. |
mitian's niece, banished for the same cause. |
||
|
15 |
C. Fulvius Valens. |
>Jerva re\oking the acts |
|
|
16 |
of Domitian, St. John is re- |
||
|
96 |
leased of his banishment, and |
||
|
Nerva a ^ |
C. Antistius Vetus |
returns to Ephesus. |
|
|
18. Sept. J |
|||
|
1 |
Coc. Nerva Imp. III. |
St. John (this year proba- |
|
|
T. Virginius Rufus III. |
bably after solemn prepara- |
||
|
97 |
Suff. C. Cornelius Taci- |
tion writes his gospel at the |
|
|
tus, historicus. |
earnest request of the Asian |
||
|
2 |
Churches. |
||
|
Avilus dving, Cerdo suc- |
|||
|
2 |
Imp. Nerva IV. |
ceeds in the see of Alexan- dria. |
|
|
98 |
St. Clemens bishop of Rome is banished, and con- |
||
|
Trajan, ■-) a Jan. 27 J |
M. Ulpius Trajanus II. |
demned to the marble quar- |
|
|
ries in the Taurica Cherso- |
|||
|
nesus. |
|||
|
1 |
C. Sosius Senecio II. |
||
|
99 |
2 |
A Cornelius Palm a. |
* This Cletus is bv the Greeks, and that with greatest probabihty, made the same with Anacletus, which breeds a grent difference in their account of years. But because the account of the Greeks is not so clear and smooth, we have chosen, in assignmg the times of the Bishops of Rome, to follow the writers of that church.
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
m
|
Cf ! e.n^'p-er. ! <^o-'- ! te^de.ia.tical Affair.. |
|||
|
100 |
Trajani. 2 3 |
Imp. Traj anus III. M. Cornelius Frojito III. Suff. iPlinius Junior. |
St. John dies, and is buri- ed at Ephesus. St. Clemens of Rome i» thrown into the sea, with an anchor tied about his neck, November 9, having been sole bishop of Rome 9 years, 11 months and 12 days. |
|
101 |
3 4 |
Imp. Trajanus IV. Sex. Articuleius Paetus. |
Anacletus (according to the computation of the church of Rome) succeeds in that see, April 3. |
|
10^ |
4 5 |
C. Sosius Senecio III. L. Licinius Sura. |
|
|
103 |
5 Imp. Traj anus V. 6 L. Appius Maximus. |
Jixai, a false prophet, author of a new sect, arises. Epiph. Haeres. 19. |
|
|
104 |
6 7 |
L. Licinius Sura II. P. Neratius Marcellus. |
|
|
105 |
7 8 |
T. Julius Candidus. A. Julius Quadr atus. |
Barsimaeus bishop of E- dessa suffers martyrdom; others place it, Ann. 109. |
|
106 |
8 9 |
L. Ceionius Commodus Verus. L. Tullius Cereaiis. |
The Greek Menology mentions 11000 Christian Soldiers banished by Trajan into Armenia, and that 10000 of them were crucified upon Mount Ararat. |
|
107 |
9 10 |
C. Sosius Senecio IV. L. Licinius Sura HI. |
Ihe third persecution wherein Simeon bishop of Jerusalem is crucified in the 120th year of his age. Ignatius bishop of Antioch. condemned, and sent to Rome to be thrown to wild Beasts. |
|
108 |
10 11 |
Ap. Annius Trebonius Gallus. M. Atilius Bradua. |
Ignatius*s bones are con- veyed back to Antioch, and there solemnly interred. |
|
I!t9 |
11 12 |
A. Cornel. Palma IL C. Calvisius Tullus IL |
Onesimus, St. Paul's dis» ciple, whom the martyrolo- gies make bishop of Ephe* sus, stoned at Rome, Feb. 16. Primus made bishop of Alexandria. |
|
110 |
12 13 |
Clodius Crispinus. Solenus Orfilus Hasta. |
Euaristus succeeds Ana- cletus bishop of Rome, though the Greeks, who makes Cletus and Anacle- tus the same person, make him immediately to follow Clemens. |
530
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE,
Ann. I Roman Chr. I emperors.
Ill
Trajani 13
14
Consuls.
Ecclesiastical Affairs,
L. Caipurnius Piso. Vettius RusticusBolanus
Justus dying Zacchaeus succeeds in the see of Jeru- salem.
112
Imp. Trajanus VI. C. Julius Africanus.
ii:
114
115
17
18
L, Publius Celsus. C. Clcdius Crispinus.
Q. Ninnius Hasta. P, Manlius Vopiscus.
M. Valerius Messala. vel ut al. Adrianus & Salinator. C. Popilius Carus Pedo.
The Jews at Alexandria, and about Cyrene in Egypt rebel, who are slain in great numbers.
116
iEmiiius A^lianus. L. Antistius Vetus.
Papias bishop of Hierapo- lis sets on foot the Millena- rian doctrine.
iir
19 20 Adrian9 n
ab.Au^.9j
Quinctius Niger.
T. Vipsanius Apronia- nus.
118
Imp. Adrianus II. T. Claudius Fuscus.
119
2 Imp. Adrianus III. Q. Junius Rusticus.
The fourth persecution, raised against the Chris- tians, reenforcing that which had been set on foot by Tra-r Jan.
Pope Evaristus martyred. He sat 9 years, 3 months, 10 days. He was succeeded by- Alexander a Roman.
Justus made bishop of A- lexandria.
120
L. Catilius Severus. j
T. Aurelius Fulvus, j
fiostea
Imp. Antoninus.
121
M. Annius Verus II.
L. Augur.
The Christians severelv prosecuted at Rome, where- of many martyrs, and more driven to hide themselves in the Cryptx and Cosmeteria under ground.
A great tumult at Alexan- dria about the idol Apis found there.
122
123
M.Acilius Avioia.
Corellius Pansa.
The persecution rages in Asia, under the government of Arrius Antoninus the Pro- consul.
Q. Arrius Paetinus.
C. Ventidius Apronianus.
Adrian comes to Athens, and is initiated in the Eleu- sinian mysteries.
Quadratus bishop of A- thens, and Aristides present apologies to the emperor in behalf of the Christians.
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
531
Ann. Chr.
Roman emperors.
Consuls.
Ecclesiastical Affairs.
Adriani.
M. Acilius Glabrio.
C. Bellicius Torquatus.
SereniusGranianus writes to the emperor in favour of the Christians, by whose re- script to M. Fundanus Pro- consul of Asia (Granianus'a successor) the proceedings against them are miti- gated^
P. CorneUus Scipio
Asiaticus II. Q. Vettius Aquilinus.
10
Vesproni9 Candid9
Ver9 11. Ambiguus Bibulus. al M. Loll. Pedius. Q. Jun. Juepidns.
Adrian revisits Athens, finishes and dedicates the temple of Jupiter Olympius, and an altar to himself.
Galiicanus.
C. Caelius Titianus.
11
12
L. Nonius Asprenas
Torquatus- M. Annius Libo.
Aquiia, a kinsman of the emperors, first turns Chris- tian, then apostatizing to Ju- daism, translates the Old Testament into Greek.
Q. Juventius Celsus. Q. Julius Balbus.
13
14
Q. Fabius CatuUinus.
M. Flavins Aper.
/Elius Adrianus having repaired Jerusalem, calls it after his own name, ifelia.
The martyrdom of Alex- ander bishop of Rome, after he had sat 10 years, five months 80 days, to whom succeeded Sixtus a Romaii.
Ser.Octavius Laenas
Pontianus. M. Antonius Rufinus.
Hymenaius made bishop of Alexandria, being the 6th bishop of that see.
15
16
Sentius Augurinus.
Arrius Severianus.
Ihe Jews rebel agamst the Romans under the con- duct.of Barchochab an im- postor.
Justin Martyr coiw^erted to Christianity about this time, or it may be, the fol- lowing year.
133
16
17
Hiberus.
Jul. Silanus Sisenna.
The Jews dispersed and overcome by the prudent arts of Julius Severus the Roman general, though not fully suppressed till the fol- lowing year, when- Barcho^ chab was executed.
^ajj
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
|
Ann. 1 Romaa 1 i ■* Chr. ■ emperor. | Consuls. 1 Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
|||
|
134 |
Adriani 17 18 |
C. Julius Serviiius Ursu§ Severianus. C. Vibius Juventius Ve- rus. |
Basilides the Haeresiarch makes himself famous at Alexandria. |
|
135 |
18 19 |
Pompeianus Lupercus. L, Juni9 Atticus AcUi- anus. |
Marcus, the first of the Gentile converts, made bi- shop of Jerusalem, all hith- erto having been of the cir- cumcision. |
|
136 |
19 20 |
L. Ceionius Com modus Verus. Sex, Vetulenus Pompe- ianus. |
Getulius, Amantius, Ce- realis, and several others suffer martyrdom. |
|
137 |
20 21 |
L. iElius Verus C»sar 11. P. Cxlius Balbinus Vibullius Pius. |
Plilegonthe Trallian, for- merly servant to the empe- ror Adrian here ends his book of Olympiads. Olym. 229. An. 1. |
|
138 |
' ^1 Antoninus Piut Jul. 10 1, |
Suipicius Camerinus, Quinct. Niger Magnus, |
|
|
139 |
1 2 |
Imp. Antoninus Pius 11. Bi uttius Prxsens. |
|
|
140 |
3 6 |
Imp. Anton. Piua III, M. Aurelius Csesar. |
Upon Sixtus's martyr* dom Telesphorus is chosen bishop of Rome, according to the Roman account. J. Martyr presents his first (usually put second) apology for the Christians. |
|
141 |
3 4 |
M- Peducaeus Sylogaj Priicir.'^is. T. Hoenius Severus. |
|
|
142 |
4 5 |
L. Cuspius Kutinus.^ L. Statius Quadratus. |
About this time the most absurd and sensless here- tics, the Ophitae Cainitae, and Sethiani arise. |
|
143 |
5 6 |
C. Bellicius Torquatus. T. Claudius Atticus Herodes. |
|
|
144 |
6 7 |
Lollianus Avitus, C, Gavius Maximus. |
Eumenes or Hymenaeus bishop of Alexandria dies, Marcus the seventh bishop of that see succeeds. Valentinu^ the heretic ap- pears. |
|
145 |
7 8 |
Imp. Anton. Pius IV. M. Aurelius Caesar II. |
A €HRONeLeGICAL TABLE.
553
|
Chn! eS^rs. | ^^^^^^^ 1 Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
|||
|
146 |
Antoiiiui Pii. g 9 |
Sex. Erucius Claims II. Cn. Claudius Severus. |
Marcion afterhistrequent recantations, again lapses into heresy, which he pro- pagates more industriously than before. |
|
U7 |
9 10 |
iM. Valerius Largus. M. Valerius Messali- nus. |
|
|
148 |
10 11 |
C. Beilicius Torquatus II. M. Salvius Julianus II. |
|
|
149 |
11 12 |
Ser. Corneli9 Scipio Or- fit9. Q. Nonius Priscus. |
(cl.dion succeeds as the eighth bishop of Alexan- dria. |
|
150 |
12 13 |
Romulus GuLicanus. Antistius Vetus. |
|
|
151 |
13 14 |
Sex Quinctiiius Gordi- an9. Sex. Quinct. Maximus. |
|
|
152 |
14 15 |
Sex. Acilius Glabrio. C. Valerius OmoUus Va- rianus. |
Pope Telesphorus mar- tyred, having sat 11 years^ 9 months, 3 days. Petav. &c. Hyginus succeeds. |
|
153 |
15 16 |
Bruttius Prxsens II. M. Antonius Rufinus. |
|
|
154 |
16 17 |
L. Auvelius Caesar- Sextilius Lateranus. |
=* Anicetus according tg the account of the Greeks, succeeds about this time in the see of Rome, not long after which St. Polycarp comes thither : and this no doubt much truer than the computation of the church of Rome. |
|
155 |
17 18 |
C. Julius Severus. M. Rufinus Sabinianus. |
|
|
156 |
18 19 |
Plautius Sylvanus. Sentius Augurinys. |
Pope Hyginus martyred, after he had sitten 4 years, wanting two days, to whom Pius succeeds. Petav. Ric- ciol. Briet. &c. |
|
157 |
19 20 |
Barbatus. Regulus. |
|
|
168 |
20 21 |
Q. Fl. TertuUus. Licinius Sacerdos. |
* In the catalogue of the bishops of Rome recorded by Optatus and St. Augustin, Anicetus is set before Pius : accordiug to which account Ani- cetus's succession in that see, and consequently Polycarp's coming to Rome, must be placed fifteen years sooner. See the life of St. Polycarp, Num. IV,
5^34
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
|
"Ann. j Roman Chr. ', emperors. |
Consuls. |
Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
|
|
159 |
Antonini 21 ^"- 22 |
Plautius Quinctillus. Statius Priscus. |
|
|
160 |
22 23 |
T. Vibius Barus. Ap. Annius Bradua. |
|
|
161 |
23 M. Aure--\ lius L. 1 Aelius >l Verus a6. Martii. . |
M. Aurelius Ciesar III. L.iElius Verus Cxsar II. |
|
|
162 |
1 2 |
Q. Junius Rusticus. Vettius Aquilinus. |
Justin the martyr pre- sents his other apology to the emperor in behalf of the Christians. The fifth persecution be- gun. |
|
163 |
2 3 |
L. Papirius .^lianus. Junius Pastor. |
Justin suffered martyrdom (probably about this time) at Rome, or at most, the next year. |
|
164 |
3 4 |
C. Julius Macrinus. L. Cornelius Celsus. |
Marcus and Timotheus martyred at Rr me. |
|
165 |
4 5 |
L. Arrius Pudens. M. Gavius Orfitus. |
Upon pope Pius's mar- tyrdom, Anicetus is advan- ced into the chair: though Eusebius and the Greeks according to their account, make his pontificate com- mence, Ann. Christ. 154, and accordingly fix the time of Polycarp's coming to Rome. |
|
166 |
5 6 |
Q. Servilius Pudens. L. Fusidius Pollio. |
|
|
167 |
6 7 |
L. Aurelius Verus. T. Numidius Quadratus. |
St. Poiycarp, bishop of Smyrna, suffers martyrdom there, together with Ger- manicus and others. |
|
168 |
7 s |
T. Junius Montanus. L. Vettius Paulus. |
Theophilus made bishop of Antioch, who learnedly defends the cause of Chris- tianity against the Gentiles, Eusebius refers it to the fol- lowing year. |
|
169 |
8 9 |
Sosius Priscus. Q. Cjelius Apollinaris. |
Gervasius and Protasius undergo martyrdom about this time at Millain. |
|
170 |
9 10 |
L. Julius Clarus. yl. Aurelius Cethegus. |
Melito, bishop of Sardis, and Apollinaris, bishop *of Hierapolis, present their apologetics to the emperor for the Christians. |
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE,
53S
|
Ann. 1 «.oman Chr. i emperors. |
Consuls. Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
||
|
171 |
M. Aurt--^ liiL.Aelu}> Veri. J 10 11 |
L. Septimius Severus II. ai. T. Tibinus Serenus. Herennianus. al. C. Scoedius Natta. |
Montanus and his accom- plices, authors of the new prophecy, begin now more plainly to discover them-» selves, having craftily broached their errors some years before. |
|
• 172 |
11 12 |
Claudius Maximus. Cornelius Scipio Orfitus. |
Tatian, heretofore Justin martyr's scholar, becomes author of the sect, called Bardesanes the Syrian in- fected with Valentinianism: |
|
173 |
12 13 |
Claudius Severus. T. Claudius Pompeia- nus. |
Pope Anicetus crowned with martyrdom, having been bishop of Rome 8 years. 2 months, 7 days. Soter succeeds. |
|
174 |
13 14 |
Anniiis Trebonius Cal- lus. L. Flaccus, |
M. Aurelius's victory over the Quadi and Marcomanni in Germany, gained by the prayers of the Christian le- gion. |
|
175 |
14 1.5 |
Caipurnius Piso. M. Salvias Julianus. |
|
|
176 |
15 16 |
T. Vitrasius PoUio. M. Flavius Aper. |
|
|
177 |
16 17 |
L. Aurel. Commodus. Imp. Plautius Quinctillus. |
Soter being taken aAvay by martyrdom, Eleutherus a Greek sacceeds in the church of Rome. Athenagoras the Chris- tian philosopher of Athens is now supposed to have pre- sented his apology. |
|
irs |
17 18 |
Vittius Rufus. Cornelius Scipio Orfitus. |
The foregoing year a per- secution raged horribly in France, wherein besides many others died Pothinus, bishop of Lyons, to whom succeeded Irenxus, the year following. |
|
179 |
18 19 |
Imp. L. Aurelius Com- dus II. Vespronius Candidas Verus. |
TheCataphrygian heresy greatly prevails. |
|
180 |
19 Commo- ") dus a ^1 Mart. 16.J |
Bruttius Prxsens II. Sex. Quinctili9 Gordia- nus. |
Julianus created bishop of Alexandria. Pantsenus a Christian philosopher, opens the ca- techetic school at Alexan- dria. |
s^
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
|
Ann. 1 Roman | Consuls. 1 Chr. ', f^mperor. f . ^ • |
Ectlesiastical Affairs. |
||
|
181 |
Commodi l 2 |
Imp. Commodus 111. Antistius Burrhus. |
I'he periecuiion against the Christians much abated. |
|
182 |
2 o |
Petronius Mamertinus. Trebellius Rufus. |
Theodotion of Pontus, first a Marcionite, then a Jew, translates the Old Testa- ment into Greek. The temple of Serapis at Alexandria burnt down. |
|
183 |
o 4 |
Imp. Commodus IV . M. Aufidius Victorinus. |
|
|
184 |
4 5 |
M. Eggius Marullus seu Marcellus. M. Papirius ^Elianus. |
Commodus introduces the worship of I sis (formerly- prohibited) into Rome. |
|
185 |
5 6 |
Triarius Maternus. M. Atilius Metilius Bra- dua. |
|
|
186 |
6 7 |
Imp. Commodus V. M. Acilius Glabrio, |
About this time Lucius a Prince of Britain is said to have sent letters to Pope Eleutherius to furnish him with preachers to publish the Christian faith in these parts. Origen born. |
|
187 |
7 8 |
TuUius seu Clodius Crispinus. Papirius ^lianus. |
ApoUonius a great Philo- sopher, and (as St Hierom affirms) a senator, pleads his own, and the cause of the Christian religion before the senate, for which he suf- fers martyrdom. |
|
188 |
8 9 |
C. Allius Fusciamis. Duillius Silanus. |
The Capitol burnt by lightning, which destroyed the adjacent buildings, es- pecially the famous Libra- ries. |
|
189 |
9 10 |
Junius Silanus. Q. Servilius Silanus. |
Demetrius ordaiued bi- shop of Alexandria, who sat 43 years. Serapion made bishop of Antioch, this, or as others, the following year. |
|
190 |
10 11 |
Imp. Commodus VI. Petronius Septimianus. |
Commodus will have him- self accounted Hercules, the son of Jupiter, and accord- ingly habits himself; with other extravagant instances of folly. |
|
11 J91 12 |
Cassius Apronianus. M. Attilius Melilius Bradua II. |
Julian a Senator, and ma- ny others said to be martyr- ed about this time. |
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
sat
|
clu-' ! enTperors. '• ^^ns^^^- 1 Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
|||
|
Commodi 12 192 13 |
imp. Commodus VII. P. Helvius Pertinax. |
Pope Eleutherius having sat 15 years and 23 days, dies ; in whose room Victor, an African, succeeds. |
|
|
193 |
1 Pertiiiax 1 a 1 Januar. 1 Did. Julian9 a Mart. 28. 1 Sevevus "J 1 a ISIaii llj |
Q. Sosius Falco. C. Julius Clarus. |
|
|
194 |
1 2 |
Imp. Severus II. Clodius Albinus Caesar II. |
Clemens Alexandrinus Pantaenus's scholar and successor in the Catechetic school, was famous about this time. Pope Victor excommuni- cates Theodorus the heretic. |
|
195 |
2 3 |
Q. Fi. TenuUus. T. Fl. Clemens. |
Narcissuss made bishop of Jerusalem. He is famous for miracles and an holy life. |
|
196 |
3 4 |
Cn. Domitius Dexter. L. Valeri9 Messala Priscus. |
Pope Victor revives the ct)ntroversy about the cele- bration of Easter, threatens to excommunicate the Asi- atic Churches, for which he is severely reproved by ma- ny, and especially by Ire- naeus. Several Synods holden to this purpose. |
|
197 |
4 5 |
Ap. Claudius Lateranus. M. Marius Rufimis. |
The Jews and Samaritans rebel, and are overcome, and their religion strictly forbid- den. Severus triumphs for that victory. |
|
198 |
5 6 |
Tib. Aterius Saturninus. C. Annius Treboni9 Gallus. |
|
|
199 |
6 7 |
P. Cornelius Anulinus. M. Aufidius Pronto. |
Severus creates hig son Antoninus emperor, his son Geta Caesar, and bestows a large donative upon the sol- diers, which gave occasion to Tertullian to write his book De Corona. |
|
200 |
7 8 |
Tib. Claudius Severus. C. Aufidius Victorinus. |
The Christians at Rome severely treated by Plauti- anus Prefect of the city, and in Africa by Saturninus the Proconsul. Tertullian writes his A- pologetic either this, or the following year. |
'^> Y
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
|
Ann. 1 Roman | r„T,^»u J Chr. I emperor. ! <^»°^"'^- \ |
Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
||
|
'ZOl |
Severi 8 9 |
L. Annius Fabianus. M. Nonius Mucianus. |
Pope Victor after 9 years, and 2 months, being martyr- ed, leaves the place to Ze- phyrinus. TertuUian presents his discourse to the president Scapula. |
|
^02 |
9 10 |
Imp. Severus III- Imp. Antoninus Cara- calla. |
The sixth persecution ; wherein Leonidas, Origen's father suffers martyrdom at Alexandria : Irenaeus at Lyons in France. |
|
iOS |
10 11 |
P. Septimius Geta. L. Septimius Plautianus. |
Origen a very youth sets up a grammar school at A- lexandria, and becomes fa- mous. At 18 years of age he is preferred by Demetrius the bishop to be instructor of the Chatechumens. |
|
C04 |
11 12 |
L. Fabius Chilo Septi- mius. M. Annius Libo. |
The Secular games cele- brated at Rome, upon which occasion, probably, Tertul- lian wrote his book De Spec- taculis, and it may be that De Idololatria. |
|
205 |
12 13 |
Imp. Antoninus Caracalla II. P. Septimius Geta Cssar. |
|
|
206 |
13 14 |
M. Nummi9 Annius Albin9 Fulvius ^^milianus. |
Origen makes tiie tamous attempt upon himself, in ma- king himself an Eunuch. |
|
^207 |
14 15 |
M. Flavins Aper. Q. AUius Maximus. |
TertuUian writes against the Marcionites ; and his book De PalHo, and w^s then (probably) made Pres- byter of Carthage. About this time Minucius Felix is supposed to pub- Ush his dialogue called Oc- tavius. |
|
208 |
15 16 |
Imp. Antoninus Caracalla III. P. Spetimius Geta Caesar II. |
|
|
209 |
16 17 |
T. Claudius Pompeia- nus. Lollianus Avitus. |
|
|
210 |
17 18 |
M. Acilius Faustinus. C. Csesonius Macer Rufinianus. |
1 |
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
539
Ann. I Roman | Chr. ! emperors. |
P^cclesiastical Affairs.
|
211 |
Severi 18 Antoni- ~) nus Caracal- H la a 4 1 Febr. J |
Q. Epidius Rutus LoUia- nus Gentianus. Pomponius Bassus. |
|
|
212 |
1 2 |
M. Pompcius Asper. P. Asper. |
Alexander a Cappadocian bishop, made bishop of Je- rusalem. |
|
213 |
2 3 |
Imp. Caracalla IV. P. Caslius Balbinus. |
|
|
214 |
3 4 |
Silius Messala. Q. Aquilius Sabinus. |
A disputation held at Rome between Caius and Proclus one of Montanus's disciples ; whereupon Pope Zephyr in excluded Proclus and Tcrtulian communion with the church of Rome, which occasioned Tertui- lian's starting aside to Mon- tanus's party. |
|
21o |
4 5 |
iEmilius Lxtus. Anicius Cerealis. |
TertuUian writes against the Orthodox, against whom he inveighs under the name of Psychici. |
|
216 |
5 6 |
Q. Aquilius Sabinus II. Sex. Corn. Annuliniis. |
|
|
217 |
6 7 Macrimis^ & Diadu- 1 men. F. a >.l 10 April. J |
Bruttius Praesens. Extricatus. |
A Greek translation of the Bible, called the fifth edi- tion, found in a hogshead at Jericho, inseited by Origcri into his Octapla. |
|
218 |
2 Antoni- "^ nusEla- 1 gabalus r-1 a 7 Jun. J |
Anton. Diadumenus Caesar. Adventus. |
|
|
219 |
1 2 |
Imp. Elagabalus II. Licinius Sacerdos. |
Pope Zeph);rin dies. He sat 22 years and so many days. Succeeded by Callistus. Julius Africanus a famous Christian writer, sent upon an embassy to the emperor, for the rebuilding of Nicopo- lis (anciently Emmaus) a city in Palestine. |
|
220 |
2 3 |
Imp. Elagabalus III. M. Aurelius Eutychia- nus Comazon. |
|
|
221 |
3 4 |
Annius Gratus. Claudius Seleucus. |
I 4 I Imp. Elagabalus IV.
:22 I ^\!^";nli I M. Aurelius Severus aMart^^o'. J Alexander Caesar.
I Hippolytus bishop of Por- " tus composes his Paschal canon.
S40
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
|
Ann. Chr. |
1 Roman 1 emperors. |
Consuls. |
1 Ecclesjastiial Affairs. |
|
223 |
Alexandri. j 2 |
Maximus. Papirius .^lianus. |
Among the famous men of this time was Ulpian the lawyer, who collected all the imperial edicts formerly- published against the Chris- tians. |
|
224 |
2 3 |
Claudius Julianus. Claudius Crispinus. |
The Christians cruelly persecuted at Rome, at the instigation of Ulpian the great lawyer. Pope Callistus martyred, after he had sat 5 years, 1 month, 12 days. Urban chosen in ].i> room. |
|
225 |
3 4 |
L. lurpiiius Dexter. M. Maecins Rufus. |
|
|
226 |
4 5 |
Imp. Alexander II. C. Quinctilius MarceP Ills. |
' |
|
227 |
6 |
D. C^lius baibinus 11. M. Clodius Pupieiuis Maximus. |
Hippolytus, bishoi) of Por- Lus, suffers manyrdom. |
|
228 |
6 7 |
Vettius Modestus. Probus. |
Origen ordained presby- ter by Alexander, bishop of Jeiusidem, and Theociistus of Qsesarea. |
|
229 |
7 8 |
Imp. Aiexaiider ill. Dio Cassius, histOTJcvs. |
The sixth Greek edition found at Nico])Oiis. |
|
230 |
8 9 |
Calpn.rnius Agricola. Clementinus. |
Origen prosecuted, and synodically condemned by Demetrius bishop of Alex- .ndriu. |
|
231 |
9 10 |
T. Claudius Pompeia- nus. Felicianus. |
0:ig(jn j-esigus up his ca- techetic school to his scholar Heraclas, who is soon after chosen bishop of Alexan- dria. Pope Urban beheaded He is succeeded by Ponti- anus. |
|
232 |
10 11 |
Julius Lupus. Maximus. |
Origen departs from Alexandria, and fixes his residence at Cxsarea in Pa- lestine. Plotinus becomes Ammo- nius's scholar at Alexan- dria, |
|
233 |
11 12 |
?>laximus 11. Oviiuus Paternus. |
|
|
^34 |
12 13 |
Maximum lil. Urbanus. |
Pontiaims bishop of Rome banished into Sardinia. |
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
541
|
Aim. Clir. |
Roman emperors. |
Consuls. |
Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
|
235 |
Alexandri. 13 14 Maxirai- ") nus a 18 J.-1 Martii. J |
L. Catilius Scverus. L. Ragonius Urinatius Quintianus. |
Maximinus raises the se- venth persecution against the Christians. Origen writes his exhor- tation to Martyrdom. Pope Pontianus suffers martyrdom in Sardinia. ^ Anterus succeeds in the chair. |
|
236 |
1 2 |
Imp. Maximinus. C. Julius Africanus. |
Anterus scarce having possessed his place one month, is slain; and Fabian elected hi his room. |
|
237 |
2 3 Pupienus-^ Baibinus J-l aMaii26^ |
P. Tilius Perpetuus. L. Ovinius Rusticus Cor- nelianus. |
|
|
238 |
1 Gordia- ") nus a ! mcnse [ ivlavtij. J |
M. Ulpius Crinitub. C. Nonius Proculus Pon- tianus. |
|
|
239 |
1 2 |
imp. Gordianus. M. Acilius Aviola. |
Zebinus, bishop of Anti- och, dies; Babylas is cho- sen to that See. |
|
240 |
2 3 |
Vettius Sabiuus. Venustus. |
About this time Origen is thought to have taken his second journey to Athens, where he finished his com- mentaries upon Ezekiel. |
|
241 |
3 4 |
Imp. Gordianus 11. T. Claudi9 Pompeian9 II. |
|
|
242 |
4 5 |
C. Aufidius Atticus. C. Asinius Prxtextatus. |
|
|
243 |
5 6 |
C. Julius Africanus. .-Emilius Pappus. |
Origen is sent for into Arabia, where he disputes with, and converts Beryllus from his unsound and erro- neous o])inions. |
|
244 |
6 PhilippQ -j a niense ^l April. J |
Fulvms iEmilianus. Peregrin us. |
|
|
245 |
1 2 |
imp. Pliilippus. Tib. Fabius Titianus. |
|
|
246 |
2 o |
Bruttius Prxsens. Nummius Albinu.s. |
Dionysius, one of Origen's scholars, and successors in the schola K«tT«;t«V6av, made bishop of Alexandriai |
542
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
|
Ann. 1 Roman Chr. i emperors. |
Consuls. |
Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
|
|
■:a7 |
■phiUppi. 3 4 |
Imp. Philippus II. M. Philippus F. Cjcsav. |
The Annus Millesimus ab U. C. begun this, ended the followmg year, and cele- brated by the emperor with all imaginable solemnity and magnificence. |
|
248 |
4 5 |
Imp. Philippus 111. M. Julius Philippus F. |
Cyprian chosen bishop of Carthage. |
|
249- |
5 6 Decius a "^ Mail. J |
Fulvius ^^.milianus 11. Vettius Aquilinus. |
A tumult raised at Alex- andria by an impostor, gives occasion to a preliminary persecution against the Christians there. |
|
250 1 |
1 o |
Imp. Messius Decius. Annius Maximus Gra- tus. |
The eighth persecution raised by Decius. St. Cyprian in retire- ment. Pope Fabian martyred.... After whose decease a va- cancy in that See for above a year, Novatian endeavour- ing to thrust himself in. |
|
251 |
2 3 Gall US &1 Volusia- 1 , nus F. a 1 Dec. J |
Imp. Decius 11. Q. Etruscus Deci9 F. Csesar. |
Great sclusn)s in the Af- rican churches about the lapsed. Cornelius elected bishop of Rome. |
|
252 |
1 2 |
Imp. Trebonian9 Gallus II. C. Vibius Volusianus. |
The Novatian doctrines condemned in a synod of 60 bishops of Rome. The emperors renew the persecution begun undei- Decius. A great mortality through- out the world. |
|
253 |
2 3 Valeria- 1 nus cum '. ^ Gallieno , F.a Dec. J |
C Vibius Volusianus 11. M. Valerius Maximus. |
Cornelius first banished, recalled, cruelly beaten, and at last beheaded. Lucius succeeds him. |
|
254 |
1 9 ■it |
Imp. Licinius Valeriamis II. Imp. Gallienus. |
Origeu dies, and is buried at Tyre. Valerian the emperor at first a great patron of the Christians. |
|
255 |
2 3 |
Imp. Valerianus III. Imp. Gallienus. II. |
Pope Lucius, after orie year and three months, suf- fers martyrdom. Stephen, a Roman, chosen to be his successor. |
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
sm
|
Ann. j Homan j Consuls. C'hr. 1 emperors. | ■^ui«ui». |
j Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
||
|
256 |
Valeriani. 3 4 |
M. Valerius Maximus. M. Acilius Glabrio. |
The great controversy about the re-baptizing such as had been baptized by he- retics hotly ventilated. The heats between Cyp- rian and Stephen of Rome. |
|
257 |
4 5 |
Imp. Valerianus IV. Imp. Gallienus III. |
The ninth persecution be- gun by Valerian. Sabellius confounds the persons in the Trinity, and spreads his heresy. |
|
258 |
5 6 |
M. Aurelius Memmius Fuscus. Pomponius Bassus. |
Pope Stephen slain Aug. 2. which others refer to the foregoing year. Sixtus suc- ceeds. St. Cyprian beheaded at Carthage, Sept. 14. |
|
239 |
6 Gallienus solus, caplo Valer. 7 |
Fvilvius ^iimilianus. al. Gallienus IV. Pomponius Bassus 11. al. Valerianus^?;/?. |
Pope Sixtus and his dea- con Laurentius receive the crown of martyrdom. Dionysius succeeds in the See of Rome. |
|
260 |
7 8 |
Cornelius Secularis. Junius Donatus. |
Paul of Samosata made bishop of Antioch. Gallienus stops the perse- cution against the Chris- tians. |
|
261 |
8 9 |
Imp. Gallienus IV. Volusianus. |
Dionysius, bishop of Alex- andria, writes to pope Dio- nysius to vindicate himself from the suspicion of Sabel- lianism charged upon him. |
|
262 |
9 10 |
Imp. Gallienus V. App. Pompeius Fausti- nus. |
iEmilian attempts to make himself emperor, and besieges Alexandria, where the Christians are reduced to great straits. |
|
263 |
10 11 |
Numniius Albinus. Maximus Dexter. |
|
|
264 |
11 12 |
Imp. Gallienus VI. iEmilius Saturninus. |
|
|
265 |
12 13 |
Valerianus Cxsar II. L. Caesonius Lucillus Macer Rufinianus. |
A synod held lat Antioch against Paulus Samosatenus the bishop of it. Dionysius, bishop of Alex- andria, and Gregory, bishop of Neocssarea depart this life. |
|
266 |
13 14 |
Imp. Gallienus Vil. j Hymenacus ordained bi- Sabinillus. | shop of Jerusalem. |
544
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
|
cZ. ! empX. ! ^°"^"'^- ! EcclesiasticalAffair. |
|||
|
257 |
Gallieni 14 15 |
Ovinias Paternus. 'Arcesilaus. |
|
|
268 |
15 Claudius T aMart.lJ |
Ovinius Paternus II. |
Claudius the emperorper- secutes the Christians at Rome. |
|
269 |
2 |
...'^ •. utuus. O .inus Paternus TTI. |
|
|
sro |
2 Aureli- "j anus Yl a Mart. J |
Flavius Antiochianus. urius Orfitus. |
Another Synod held at Antioch, wherein Paul of Samosata is condemned and deposed, and Domnus placed in his room. Pope Dionysius dies, De- cember 26. |
|
271 |
1 2 |
Imp. Aurelianus. Pomponius Bassus al. C. Jul. Capitolinus. |
Felix chosen Bishop of Rome. |
|
272 |
2 3 |
Quietus. Voldumianus. |
Many suffer martyrdom about this time. |
|
273 |
3 4 |
M. Claudius Tacitus. Furius Placidianus. |
|
|
274 |
4 5 |
Imp. Aurelianus II. C. Julius Capitolinus. |
Zenobia queen of the Pal- myreni, a Jewess, and (if some might be credited) a Christian, overcome by Au- relian, and cariied in tri- umph to Rome. |
|
7 3 |
5 Tacitus -1 a25Sep.J |
Imp. Aurelianus III. T. Nonius MarccUinus, |
Pope Felix crowned with maityrdom, after he had sitten 4 years and 5 months. His successor was Eutychi- anus a Tuscan. |
|
^76 |
1 Florianus^ April 12. J Frobus a ") -1 Jul. 1. J |
iin^, 2vi. v.i. i acitus li. Fulvius iEmilianus. |
|
|
277 |
1 2 |
Imp. Aurelius Probus. Anicius Paulinus a/.M. FurinsLupus. |
The Manichaean heresy s])rings up, planted by Manes a Persian, originally called Curbicum, the author of that wild and execrable sect. |
|
278 |
9 |
Imp. Probus II. 1 M. Furius Lupus I al. Virius. | |
Anatoaus bLsiiop or l.acd.- cea, eminent tor his skill in philosophy and humane learning. He had formerly been colleague with Theo- tecnus bishop of Caesarea in Palestine. Cy rill us the 18th bishop of Antioch. |
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE,
54^5
|
Ann. j -'Roman Chr. 1 emperors. |
Consuls. |
Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
|
|
279 |
Probi. 3 4 |
Imp. Probus III. Ovinius Paternus al. C. Junius Tiberianus. |
|
|
280 |
4 5 |
Junius Messalu. Gratus. |
|
|
281 |
5 6 |
Imp. Probus IV. C. Junius Tiberianus. |
Theonas created bishop of Alexandria, the 15 bishop of that church. |
|
282 |
6 7. Cams -^ cum F.P. 1 Numeria- 1 . DO, Cavi- f ^ no Aug. 1 12. J |
Imp. Probus V. Pomponius Victorinus. |
|
|
283 |
1 2 |
Imp. M. Carus. M. A. Carinus Cresar. |
|
|
284 |
2 Diodesi- ~j anus a ^l Sept. 17. J |
Imp. Carinus. Imp. Numerianus. |
Eutychianus, bishop of Rome, "crowned with mar- tyrdom, December 8. His successor was Caius, a Dal- matian, and a kinsman (as is said) of Dioclesian. The Dioclesian asra be- gius here. |
|
285 |
1 2 |
Imp. Uiociesianus II. Aristobulus. |
|
|
286 |
2 3 |
Maximus Junius Priscil- lianus. Vettius Aquilinus. |
* The Thebsean legion, under the command of Mau- ricius, being sent to attend upon Maximian in his ex- pedition against the Bagau- dx, and refusing to do sa» critice, are lirst decimated, and then universally des- troyed at Octodurus in France. |
|
9.87 |
3 4 |
Imp. Dioclesianus III. Imp. Maximianus Her- culeus. |
Dioclesian and Maximian write to the proconsul of Africa to punish the Mani- chees, to burn their books, execute their persons, and confiscate their estates. |
|
288 |
4 5 |
M. Aurelius Maximus. Pomponius Januarius. |
* Though this seems the most proper period for the martyrdom of the Thebaean legion when Maximian was sent against the rebels in France ; yet is it said in the acts of their martyrdom, that in their journey out of the east, they came to Rome, and were confirmed in the faith by Mar- cellinus then bishop of it. Which if so, they could not suffer sooner than Ann. Chr. CCXCVI. wUen Marcellinus succeeded in that se.e«
5-46
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
|
Ann. Chr. |
Roman emperor. ' |
Consuls. 1 |
Ecclesiastical Affairs. |
|
289 |
Dioclesianij 6 |
Annius Bassus. L. Ragonius Quinctianus. |
■ |
|
290 |
6 7 |
Imp. Dioclesianus IV. Imp. Maximianus Her- culeus II. |
Tharacus, Probus, and Andronicus suffer martyr- dom at Tarsus in Cilicia. |
|
291 |
7 8 |
C. Junius Tiberianus. Cassius Dio. |
|
|
292 |
8 9 |
Atranius Hannibalianus. M. Aur. Asclepiodotus. |
|
|
293 |
9 10 |
Imp. Dioclesianus V. Imp. Maximianus III. |
Dioclesian assumes the ti- tle of Lord, challenges di- vine honours, and suffers himself to be adored as Cod. |
|
294 |
10 11 |
Constantius Chlorus Cs- sar. Galerius Maximianus Cxsar. |
|
|
295 |
11 12 |
Nummius Tuscus. Annius Cornelius Anu- linus. |
|
|
96 |
12 13 |
Imp. Dioclesianus VI. Constantius Cxsar II. |
Caius, bishop of Rome, martyred April 22. MarceUinus. a Roman, succeeds in the government of that church, who in the Dioclesian persecution lap- sed and sacrificed to idols, though recovering he died a martyr. |
|
297 |
13 14 |
Imp. IVIaximianus Her- | culeus V. Galerius Cassar II. |
|
|
298 |
14 15 |
Anicius Faustus. Severus Gallus. |
Zabdas ordained the 27 bishop of Jerusalem. |
|
299 |
15 16 |
Imp. Dioclesianus VII. Imp. Maximianus Her- culeus VI. |
|
|
oOO |
16 17 |
Constantius Chlorus Cx- sarllL Galerius Armentarius Caesar III. |
The Christians at Rome harassed out in working at Dioclesian's baths, most of whom, when the work was finished, were put to death, though the tenth persecu- tion did not universally be- gin till three yeai-s after, Ann. Chr. 303. Diodes. 19. |
THE END.
SUBSCRIBERS' NAMES.
A.
|
ANDERSON, William Philad. |
|
|
Alexander, Rev. A. |
do. |
|
Allison, Dr. Burg-ess |
do. |
|
Antly, Robert D. |
do. |
|
Amos, Abr. |
do. |
|
Arnold, Catharine |
do. |
|
Annison, John |
do. |
|
Axe, Frederick |
Germantovvn. |
|
Armstrong-, John |
Wilmington |
|
Avery, M. |
Philad. |
|
Allison, D. 10 copies, |
Burlington. |
|
Armstrong-, Thomas |
do. |
|
Ayres, D. Springfield, N. J. |
|
|
Alden, Rev. Timothy |
Newark. |
|
Anderson, Samuel D. |
Del. CO. |
|
Ackerman, Ja. J- |
Newark. |
|
Allwood, Marquis |
do. |
|
Allum, Samuel |
Orange, N. J. |
|
Ailing, David |
do. |
|
B. |
|
|
Budd, Rev. Thomas L |
Philad. |
|
Brown, David |
do. |
|
Burch, James K. |
do. |
|
Bateman, Rev. James |
do. |
|
Brown, Jacob |
do. |
|
Boyle, Niel |
do. |
|
Bergerie, Jos. |
do. |
|
Brewer, George |
do. |
|
Barnes, Mahlon |
do. |
|
Burch, Rev. Thomas |
do. |
|
Billings, Thomas |
do. |
|
Bounard, J. |
do. |
|
Burch, James |
do. |
|
Barnett, W. |
do. |
|
Benger, Mary |
do. |
|
Bruner, Jacob |
Germantown. |
|
Butcher, W. |
do. |
|
Butcher, Thomas |
do. |
|
Backman, J B. |
do. |
|
Barnet, Racliel |
do. |
|
Boisbran, Stephen, M. |
D. do. |
|
Baldwin, Dr. |
Wilmington. |
|
Bonus, Milton |
Newport |
|
Baylie, John |
Bucks CO. |
|
"Barnes, Milla |
Newport. |
Bend, Rev. Jos. G. Beasley, Rev. Frederick Bunbury, H. A. Bull, John Bach, John Brainies, Ed. Baker, Samuel Bayard, Jonathan Balwid, Col. W. Boudinot, Hon. Judge Baldwin, Caleb C. Balwin, Johnson Bacon, Job Brinseley, Leonard Brewer, Caleb W. Bro\\'n, Ebenezar Baldwin, Jabez Beach, Daniel Y. Bowman, Mary Brown, Samuel B, Beach, Jos. jun. Bolks, Nathan Blaything, Joseph Bahu, Mathias Baldwin, Caleb T. Baldwin, Israel T. Baldwin, Mathias Baker, Mary, 2 copies, Barton, Eden
Baltimore.
do„
do.
do.
do, Burlington. Brunswick
do. Newark.
do.
do. Newark .
do.
do.
do.
do„
do.
do.
do.
dOi
Orange, N. J.
Newark.
Belville.
Bloomfield, N.J.
do.
do,
do.
do. Del. CO.
C.
Cooper, Thomas Carter, Thomas Charles, Henry Crane, Joseph Crane, Josias Corry, Molleston Cadmud, T. J.B. Cole, Sarah Clarke, Mary Clement Jos. T. Can, W.
Cartwright, G. F. Cury, Martin Clark, W. Clark, Jer, Casdorf.E.
Philad.
do.
do. Bloomfield, N. J.
do.
Philad.
N.J.
Philad.
do.
do.
do.
do,
do.
do.
do.
do,
SUBSCRIBERS* NAMES.
Comly, Henry Comiton, Daniel Cross, Joseph Channon, Joseph Colliday, Charles Ciilpp, Abraham Clemmins, Kettural Cripp, John Comeygs, John Cannahan, Samuel Creasy, Josiah Cunningham, John Cochrane, Isaac Curry, Benjamin L. Coal, J. A. Chambers, Dr. Curwen, Geo. F. Clark, Samuel Carr, Robert Clark, Rev. Jos. Croes, John, Conditt, Rev. Ira Correll, John P. Clady, Jacob Cai-sevvell, John Cook, Benjamin Cummings, D. Collie, Samuel Clackson, Belinda Cumming. Hooper Christie, Thonas Coe, Benjamin Crane, Rebecca Crane, James Cougen, Ira Caldwell, Hugh Craig, John Caldwell, John Crane, Ichabod Clark, H. jun. Courtie, William Crane, Elira B. Coley, Daniel Cochasais, Michael
Dodd, Abijah, Dodd, Hiram Dercamerge, Peter Drummond, Josiah Dunn, William Davis Noah Doak, Rev. S. Doak, Kev. J. M, Dedi'^r, John jun. DaVis, James Dougberty, Dennis Dixon, Deborah
Philad.
do.
Germantovvn.
do.
do,
do.
do.
Wilntiington.
do.
do.
Newport, D.
Philad.
Del. CO.
Christiana.
Baltimore
do.
do.
do.
Burlington.
Brunswick.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
Somerset co.
Springfield, J
Newark.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
Del. CO.
do,
do.
Newark.
do.
do.
Orange, N J.
Belville.
Bloomfield.
Bloomfield N. J.
do.
do.
Philad.
do.
do.
Frankford
do.
Germantovvn.
Derbv.
W I
Christiana.
Dunker, Perry Dorsey, Owen Debovv, John I Davis, Martha Dunn, George Dunn, Mary Arsteen Dunn, Jonathan Duffee, Alexander Donne, Nathan Davison, James Dorsett, Samuel Douglass, David Davis, William Doe, John Dyson, George Dodd, Samuel Dodd, Daniel Dodd, Abner Donahue, John Dodd, Isaac Dodd, Silas Dodd, Abitha
Evans, Samuel Evans, Cadwallader Engle, Rebecca Elliott, W. Egbert, Abraham English, Isaac Everitt, William Euble, W H. Each, Joseph
Dashield, Rev. Geofge Baltimore.
Baltimore.
do.
New Btunswick.
do.
do.
do.
do.
Del. CO.
do.
• Newark.
do.
Orange, N. J.
Newark.
Belville, N. J.
do.
Bloomfield.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
Philad.
do.
Germantown.
Philad.
Christiana.
Burlington.
Brunswick
Newark.
do.
Fisher, Rev. W. Furman, Rev. Rich. Ford ice, John Frailev, James Fox, Rev. William Forbes, Joseph Fox, George Fry, George Fryhoffer, W. Fr'ailey, Leonard Freeman, Rev. Jos. Fidder, Rev. D. Fisher, George D. Finkinoolitt, Isaac Fail-Iamb, Robert Freeman, Nathaniel Fordham, Stephen
Philad.
Charleston, S. C.
Philad.
do.
do.
Germantown.
do.
do.
do.
do.
R. Staunton. Va.
Baltimore.
Biunswick.
Newark.
Del co-
Newark.
Belville.
Greene, Rev. Dr. Ashbel Philad. Garretson, Rev. F. 12 copies, N.York. Gartin.Maiy Philad,.
SUBSCRIBERS' NAMES.
|
Oiass, ReV, Francis |
Clermont college . |
Hiches, Thomas |
Jfrwark, |
|
Glass, Francis |
Lower Dublin. |
Hillyer, Rev. |
do. |
|
Gardner, Charles |
Philad. |
Headen, Electa |
do. |
|
Guilhey, Joseph |
do. |
Hacher, Hetty |
Orange, J^ |
|
GilfiUan, Edward |
do. |
Holmes, W. |
Newark. |
|
Glendy, Rev. Joha |
Baltimore . |
Hendricks, Walter |
do. |
|
Grosse, Henry |
Brunswick. |
Hughes, Jos. |
BellvilIe,J. |
|
Garrettson, Jane |
do. |
Howel, John, |
Bloorafield, J, |
|
C^rummond, W. |
Newark. |
Harrison, George. |
do. |
|
Gordon, W. G. |
do. |
Harrison, Caleb |
do. |
|
Grant, William M. |
do. |
Hall, Eliphalet |
do. |
|
Gable, Mary |
do. |
Hamilton, W. |
do. |
|
Gold, John |
Bloorafield. |
I.J. |
|
|
H. |
Jones, David |
Philad. |
|
|
Harrison, Moses |
Bloomfield, N. J. |
Joyent, Charles |
do. |
|
Hopkins, B. B. & Co.50 Copies. Phil. |
Jaquett, Thomas |
do. |
|
|
Hamilton, W. |
Bloomlield. N. J. |
Justice, Jos, |
do- |
|
Howich, W. |
Philad. |
Jones, Elvy, |
do. |
|
Hill, Mary |
do |
Jones, George |
do. |
|
Hall, John |
do. |
Johnson, John |
do. |
|
Horsey, Samuel |
do. |
Jacobs Joseph |
Germantown. |
|
Harmer, Samuel |
Germantown |
Jeflries, James |
Wilmington. |
|
Hergersheimer, Anthony. do. |
Inglis, Rev. James, |
Baltimore^ |
|
|
Hooper, James |
do. |
Jones, James A. |
do . |
|
Hassinger, George |
do. |
Jones, James D. |
do. |
|
Harmer, David |
J2 Copies, do. |
Irving, Edw. |
Burlington. |
|
Humphrey, Dr. Gideon do. |
Jeffries, Benjannin |
do. |
|
|
Henderson, Rev. Saml. Wilming |
Johnson, Henry |
Brunswick, |
|
|
Henderson, Thomas |
do. |
Joline, WiUiam. |
do. |
|
Highlands Henry, |
Newport |
Johnson, Dr, Uzal, |
Newark. |
|
Hemphill, Thomas, |
Thornbo. |
Jones, David |
do. |
|
Hopkins, Mat. Esq, |
Snow-hill |
Johnson, James |
do. |
|
Healy, Rev. John |
Baltimore. |
Johnson, Nathaniel |
do. |
|
Hargrove, Rev. Mr. |
do. |
Jeffers, Lsaac |
do |
|
Henderson, Rev. Jos |
iah do. |
Johnson, David G. |
do. |
|
Hawkins, John |
do. |
James, Mary, |
Del. Co. |
|
Hanson, Mr. |
do. |
James, Frederick, |
do. |
|
Haicrout, G. |
do. |
Jones, Nicholas. |
Newark. |
|
Hail, Thomas |
Burlington. |
Johnson, Theodocius |
do. |
|
Hanse, Thomas |
Brunswick. |
Jones, James |
do. |
|
Hughes, David |
do. |
Jones, G. T. |
Bloomfield. |
|
Haghm, Henry |
do. |
Jaques, David |
do. |
|
Hunt, Mary |
do. |
Joyce, Rev. John |
Philad |
|
Hagas, James |
do. |
||
|
Hill, Aaron |
do. |
K |
|
|
Hornblower, Jos. C. |
Newark. |
||
|
Halstead, Caleb |
do. |
Keyser, Peter |
Philad |
|
Headen, Aaron |
do. |
Kane, Francis |
do. |
|
Haye«, Moses |
do. |
Keyser, Samuel |
Germantown. |
|
Harrison, Isaac |
do. |
Keyser Jacob |
do. |
|
Hughes, Issachar |
do. |
Keyser, Thomas |
do. |
|
Harrison, Josiah, |
Newark. |
Kitchen, Thomas |
Bucks Co. |
|
Humphrey, Gideon |
Del. Co. |
Kaighn, Abraham, |
Christiana. |
|
Hews, Samuel |
do. |
Kernes, Levi, |
Staunton, Vir, |
|
Hall, Robert |
do. |
Knox, Rev. Saml. A.M. Baltimore. |
|
|
Hart, John D. |
do. |
Keider, W. jun. |
Brunswick* |
|
Heuden, James. |
Newai-k. |
KenEeld, Sarah, |
Ne wark . |
SUBSCRIBERS' NAMES.
Kurney, Hannah Kenfield, Thomas King, Stephen, Keen, Thomas
Newark.
do.
do.
Bloomfield.
L.
Lumn, John Bloomfield, N.J.
Lyon, Rev. Richard do.
Lenor, Jacob,
Loyness, Levi
Locke, Nathan
Lacy, R. W. B.
Lasley, Rev. T .
Lippord, Daniel B.
Lackins, Edward,
Leveren, Charles
Latta, Rev. John E.
Lettig-, George,
Lot. Uriah, Law, William Little, Stephens. Looker, Nathaniel Lamplugh, Daniel Levis, Cyrus Lindsey, James Levis, John, Lee, John, Laycraft, Richard Leish, WilUam
M
Markoe, Francis Mintonoye, David B. Mullen, Thomas Mollersan, W. M'Leighan, D. Morrow, Samuel Miller, George I. M'Cochle, James Moyer, W. M'Clune, John Matson, Aaron M 'Arthur, James M'llhenny, James Mason, B. Mete, George M'Clung, W. Moore, Mordecai Mott, Laurence M'Kimsey, Mor. M'Menn, Joseph M'Mahan, Cuss. Murdoch, L G. M*Machen, Charles Madock, J. G. Massington, Jacob M'Laughlin, Rev. J.
Philad.
do.
do.
6 Copies .
do.
Germantown.
Milford.
Del. County.
Christiana.
Baltimore.
Brunswick.
do.
do.
Newark
Del. County.
do.
do.
do.
Orange, N. J.
Newark.
Bellville, J.
Philad.
N.J.
Philad.
do.
Bush-Hill.
Philad.
Germantown
do.
do.
do.
Del. CO.
Philad.
do.
do.
Wilmington.
do.
do
Newport, Del.
Newcastle.
Del. CO.
Baltimore.
do.
do.
do.
do.
Burlington.
Mundy, Fred- Moser, James Machay, E.G. Marvell, John W, Muckle, Richard M'Gogg, Daniel Mathew, David Munn, Moses Marcell, Jacob Marehouse, Silas Morney, John M*Gill, Adley Miller, Jona. Mansu, John
N
Naglee, James Newman, Daniel Nutz, Leon. J, Nutt, W. Naglee, James Neilson, John Nathy, Jacob North, Silas Nevinus, John W. Nichols, Aaron Nichols, David Nape, Joseph Nichols Johnson]
Orange, J. Osburn, Jeremiah Oliver, David Outcalt, Henry B . Oram, John Oglivie, Ann Ogden, James C. Ogden, Joseph O wings, Robert. T. Osburn, Henry
Brunswick.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do,
Del. CO.
do.
Newark.
BelviUe.
Pliilad.
do.
Germantown.
Newport Del.
Burlington.
Brunswick.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
Bloomfield, N. J.
Philad.
Brunswick.
do.
do.
Newark.
do.
Del. CO.
Bloomfield.
do.
Pitt, Samuel Bloomfield N. J.
Potts, Rev. George C. Philad
Patterson, Robert Payne, W. Prentice, E. Peacock, E. Probassco, Henry Esq. Parmer, Clement
Provest, Abraham Pahner, Henry Poulson, Samuel Porter, Mary Penn, Jacob M.
do. do. do. do. do. do.
Germantown.
Wilmington.
Newport.
Staunton Va.
Baltimore.
SUBSCRIBERS' NAMES,
|
Porter, Samuel |
Philad |
|
Peters, Samuel |
Trenton |
|
Poole, Michael |
Brunswick. |
|
Perin, Peter |
do. |
|
Philipps, Dr. John |
do. |
|
Packhurst, John |
Newark. |
|
Pearson, Catherine |
do. |
|
Pickins, Samuel |
do. |
|
Packhurst, Henry L. |
do. |
|
Pyle, Israel |
Del. CO. |
|
Piper, Joseph |
do. |
|
Peanon, Eliza |
Newark |
|
Poener. Isaac |
do |
|
Pearson, Thomas |
Bloomfield. |
Qiiicksall, John Burlington.
R
W
Range, Mary, Riker, David H. Rogers, Rev. Dr Rup, Christopher Rock, Sarah Renshaw, F. Reed, Elizabeth Ann Rorces, John Rapp, Joseph Royal, Georg-e Rose, John Rodman John Read, Rev. Thomas Redman, Joseph Ross, James, Rogers, Mary Rice, Jesse Richards. Rev. Lewis Randolph, Moses Roland, William Rosegrant, Alexander Richards, James Ryerson, Cornelius J. Roberts, Moses Reader, John Riker, Michael
Stewart, William Smith, John Stout Jonathan B. Smith, Mathias Strieker Daniel Staughton, Rev. Dr. W. Sergeant, Rev. Thomas Sailor, Henry Stockton, John Smith, Thomas
Bloomfield, N. J.
do.
Philad.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
Germantown.
do.
de.
Del. CO.
Wilmington.
Bucks CO.
Christiana.
do.
Baltimore.
do.
Burlington.
Brunswick.
do.
Newark.
do.
do. Bellville.
do.
Philad.
Bloomfield.
do.
do. do. Philad. do. do. do. do.
Stratton, William Stock, John Shutts, Charles Jun. Shane, Arthur Saunders, Sarah Snyder, William Swartz, George Street, John Sheets, Robert Smith Henry Smith, Yost Swartz, Daniel Sweyer, Henry Stephenson W. Sterling, J. W. Stewart, Robert Sneath, Rev. Richard Stewart, Perry Stevenson, Isaac Smith, John Standerst, Susan Spencer, Price Smith, R. S. Shields, Susan Savage, Dr. W. Stoop, Ephraim, Summerville, Samuel Stiles, James, Slake, Philip, Silcock, Joseph Shirdlow, William Scott, J. W. Smith, Jasper Sturges, Thomas T. Sandford, John P. Sharp, Rev. Daniel Stuart, W. Y. Sandford, J. P. Searings, J. Salter, Jos. H. Sayrs, Isaac Spencer, JosiaU Salten, Amos Sharpless, Daniel Stircer, Samuel Springer, Jos. Stuart, Jo. Steely Enos Smith, Abraham, Swan, Caleb
Tompkins, Daniel Thambut, George Thomas Robert Trites, Barbara Thomas, Owen Twvford, W.J.
Philad.
do,
do,
do.
do.
do.
Germantown,
do.
do.
do.
do.
Germantown,
do.
do.
Mount Holly.
Wilmingion .
do.
do.
do.
do.
Newport.
Christiana.
do.
do.
Snow-hill Mar.
Newport.
Baltimore .
Burlington.
Brunswick
do.
do.
do.
do.
Springfield, J ,
Newark.
do.
do.
do.
do,
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
Orange, N. J.
do.
Bloomfield.
do.
Philad.
do, Germantown.
do.
do. Germantown.
SUBSCRIBERS* NAMES.
Taylor, John Wilming.
Tripp, Samuel do.
Thompson, John Spring-field.
Thompson, Daniel Del. co.
Thomas, Lambert Baltimore.
Tennison, William Brunswick.
Tennison, Cornelius do. Thompson, Philetius M. Newark.
Taylor, Thomas do.
Tillon, William do. Thatcher, Enos & Thomas Del. co.
Tyson, James do.
Thompson, Sarah D. do.
Taylor, John do.
Taylor, Thomas Newark.
Tichenor, James do.
Tichenor, Isaac C . Orange J .
Thomas, Cor. Bloomfield.
Tucker, Benjamin do.
Turner, Francis Philad.
Veasy, Edward Baltimore.
Vanderbitt, Jeramus, Brunswick.
Vorhees, Jacob do.
Upshur, Nancy do.
Vorhees, John do.
Van Houten, James Newark.
Vincent, Rachel N. Y.
Vanderslice,, George Philad.
W
Waikxn, Samuel Philad
Wright, Joseph do.
Woodward, W. W. 50 Copies do. Ward, Samuel Bloomfield, N. J. Wilson, Rev. Dr. James P. Philad. Wilson, Samuel do.
Wallace, John Maryland.
Williams, Samuel Philad.
Walter, P. B. do.
Wallace, Alexander do.
Williams, Benjamin do.
Willihandan, Mary do.
Wiser, John do.
Whitaker, Robert do.
Williams, Edmund do.
Warner, Sarah Germantown .
Wells, Robert, Jnn. do.
Wunder, J. S. Germantowti ,
Williamson, John do.
Wander, George Del. cOo
Wylie, Rev. Samuel I> . do>
Witsell John Wilmington.
Webster, John do.
Wilson, Ann do.
Wells Enos Newport >
Weaver, Samuel Del. co.
Wright, W. Christiana.
Welch, Sylvester do. Whittington, W. Esq. Snow-hill, Md.
Williams, Mary Burlington.
Whittlesey, Samuel do.^
Wilier, Moses Brunswick.
Webster, Lewis . do.
Woodward, W. do.
Wycoff, Peter S. do.
Whitelock, John do. Williams, Rev. Gershom Spring. J.
Wade, Oliver Newark.
Whelpay, Rev. Samuel do.
Wolley, Abraham R. do.
Wade, OUver do.
Williams, James do.
Wade, Charles do.
Wiljard, Rev. J. do.
Wallace George do.
Ward, Amos do.
Ward, John do. Watson, J. F. 50 Copies, Philad,
Williamson, Jesse l3el. co.
Wright, John Newark.
Wheeler, Caleb do.
Williamson, Alexander Bloomfield.
Woodruff i Abigial do.
Ward, David do.
Wright, Nathaniel Chester co.
Yearly, Alexander Baltimore.
Young, James Germantown.
Young, W. Springfield, N.J.
Yeudenu, John Newark.
Youngs, Abijah do.
Zoralemeon, Abr. Bloomfield N.J. Zoralemeon, J. L Belville.
«"
-ft. ^- .:t«=it^ Jt«:^
.S...S
-»•-(
t ... % . *^
* » •■ a>
;*■ : i% ■■ «
d; w
* *
|
F^T 1 1 |
|
|
m . ,.M m.^^M |
|
|
!■ |
|
|
■ ■■ |
|
|
■ ■II |
|
|
_■ 1 |
|
|
^^ ^ |
B _^ |
|
■ ■ |
H |
|
m^H |
|
|
O 1 |
|
|
■ ■■ |
» ;$»
^:*
1" »
i 1*
» *•
t . .»
4. ' u
^ v-^- « '** ■»■■ 'S'
S» ■ "I:*