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1 


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li- 


GENERAl  HISTORY 


OF  THE 


CHEISTM  EELIGM  AND  CHURCH : 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  GERMAN   OF 


DR.    AUGUSTUS    NEANDER. 


BY 


JOSEPH  TORREY, 


raOFESSOR  of  MORAZ.  PHIXiOSOFHT  IN  THE  UMXVEK8ZTZ  OF  VZR^ONT. 


VEW  EDITION,  CAREFULLT  REVISED. 


"  Let  both  grow  together  until  the  harvest."— ^or<fc  cfour  Lord. 
**Jjea  uns  Christianisan^'Je'  &rA  'st  Se  -^oli^Jiv^k,  'tbs  aiitxei  ctvilisant  la 
Christianisme,  il^pt^  df^^p^elan^u^  mn^:t\fiJi-^St.Mar*-^- 


irtiH. 


*  ' ,  *     *  *  ' » 

« «    ^     » t » » 

»  *    %  -  ^ 


: -'• 


**  »  ' « • 


«« 

4 


voLtiiiE*  thihd:  ' 


LONDON: 
HENRY  G.  BOHN,  YORK  STREET,  COVENT  GARDEN. 

1851. 


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LONDON:    PRINTED  BV  W.  CLOWES  AND  80M%  STAMFORD  STREET. 


y-3 


(    iu    ) 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  III. 


SECOND  PEBIOD  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 
FROM  THE  END  OF  THE  DIOCLESIAN  PERSECUTION  TO  THE 
TIME  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT,  BISHOP  OF  ROME ;  OR  FROM 
THE  YEAR  312  TO  THE  YEAR  690. 


SECTION  FIRST. 

RELATION    OF  THE  CHitlSTIAN  CHUBCB  TO  THE  WOBLD.     ITS  EXTENSION 

AMP  LIMITS,  p.  1 — 183. 

Wtthm  the  Roman  Empire,  1 — 146. 

A.  Relation  cfthe  Bomm  En^Msron  to  the  Christian,  Church,  1->120. 

Page 

Import  of  the  edict  of  Galerlns 1 — 2 

Maximin.  His  measares  in  relation  to  the  Christians.  Far 
your  shown  to  Paganism.  Means  adopted  for  its  resto- 
ration (Acta  Pilati).  Last  effusion  of  blood  in  conse- 
qaence  of  the  Diodesian  persecution 2—6 

ConstarUine,  His  early  history  and  education.  Resides  while 
a  youth  at  the  courts  of  IJdoclesian  and  of  Galerius.  Be- 
comes Augustus,  A.D.  306.  Offers  in  the  temple  of  ApoUo, 
at  Augustodunum,  a.i>.  3Ct8. 1  HfUtss  ^is.'^ul^Hlb  dfe^Ur^^ttori 
in  favour  of  Christianity,  ^Vii/Qie  tifttdty  oi^^r^udsfct^l 
A.D.  312.  Legend  respecdng^^the  ^ion*of  the"  cross. 
(Examination  of  the  evidence  ^3Sbpt>6ff.  ^f  it);  ^d  of  the 
various  theories  in  explanation!6f  it.  ^  ^l^sult.^  I  •>    •     •        7-^16 

First  religious  edict  of  Constantine*and*Lic{niu8.''  ^^trictive 
clause  in  it  Second  edict  ^3lJ^j[^^(^u^^^j^  ^^eral 
and  unconditional  liberty  of  eo9i|Ctei)i:et^  Inw^eDce  of  this 
law  of  the  two  emperors  on  SSaximin.^  Eoict  oi  the  latter. 
A  later  and  still  xnilder  rescript      .     .  ^ 16—21 

Constantine  and  Licinius  sole  rulers.  Death  of  Constantia. 
Growing  hostility  of  Licinius  to  the  Christians.  War  be« 
twixt  the  two  emperors  (323).  Preparations  of  Licinius. 
Constantine's  reliance  on  the  sign  of  the  cross.  Constan- 
tine victorious,  and  sole  ruler     21 — 26 

Constantine's  directions  respecting  the  pagan  cultus.  His  tole- 
rance of  the  pagans.  His  law  of  the  year  321.  Indica- 
tions of  his  relapse  into  pagan  superstition.  His  procla- 
mation to  the  provinces  of  the  East.    Letter  to  EosebVvxa 

a1 


iv  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  UI. 


Page 


of  Csesarea.  Explanation  of  his  conduct.  His  self-decep- 
tion. Flattery  bestowed  on  him  by  the  bishops  at  his 
court     . 26—32 

Constantine's  vfish  to  unite  together  all  his  subjects  in  the  wor- 
ship of  one  God.  His  tolerance.  Causes  heathen  temples 
to  be  destroyed  in  Phcenicia  and  Cilicia.  Grounds  of  this 
proceeding.    Its  effects  on  different  classes  of  Pagans       .       32 — 36 

Kew  prohibitions  by  Constantine.  Law  forbidding  idols  and 
idolatrous  sacrifices.  Rules  for  the  army  (for  the  sol- 
diers, Christian  and  pagan).  Constantine  resorts  to  every 
outward  means,  except  force,  to  promote  the  extension  of 
Christianity.  His  words  to  the  Council  of  Nice.  Hypo- 
crisy encouraged  .     .     ,     .     , 36 — 39 

Constantine  still  a  catechumen  in  the  sixty-fourth  year  of  his 

age.    Receives  baptism  from  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia,  a       -^  ^  <^ 
short  time  before  his  death  (373).    Reasons  for  deferring  ^ 
baptism.     Story  among  the  fmgans  respecting  the  cause  of 
his  conversion.    Reasons  for  suspecting  its  truth.    Gene- 
ral truth  in  it 39—43 

His  successors:  Constans,  Constantius,  Constantine.  Law 
passed  by  the  two  latter,  a.d.  346,  for  the  extirpation  of 
paganism.  Laws  against  nightly  sacrifices  (353).  Perse- 
cutions of  paganism.  (Yet,  for  the  purpose  of  preserving 
the  national  antiquities,  the  emperors  forbid  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  temples.)  Several  of  the  Christian  clergy  op- 
posed to  the  employment  of  forcible  measures.  Others  in 
favour  of  it    The  flatterer  Matemus 43 — 48 

TTfty  opened  for  the  reaction  of  paganism.  Attempts  to  revive 
paganism.  Julian,  Early  training  and  formation  of  his 
character.  His  destination  for  the  spiritual  order.  Resi- 
dence at  Constantinople.  His  instructor  Ecebolius.  Con- 
tinuation. pf«hig,studde&  Iq  l^iispp)edia.  His  connexion 
with  ttiS»|p!aia|i  p^^*  ^d^nS^nci^  ^jcCrted  upon  him  by 
the  philosoplier.Maz.imu&r  ''•^uUaSi^oliceals  his  opinions. 
His  stupes  in  ^siju    •ms.Qpnwaoions  in  Gaul :  Oribasius 

— Saiiust  .  *. :i    :;.^2.i%: 49—53 

Julian  emperor,  *Ass2unel  *4l]Se*«offic^  of  Pontifex  Maximus. 
Attempts  t^  fe^tore  <Jhe««PO»hi|>  o^  images.  Julian's  de- 
fence of  imi^e|«;  p.t^  ineQ|po^;th&  priesthood,  and  of  the 
business  and»occttpafi<n/of  prieStsf*  Borrows  many  things 
from  Christianity.  Bj^  laws  for  the  priests.  Restoration 
of  the  pagan  sanctuaries.  Injustice  in  this  transaction. 
Intercession  of  Libanius  in  behalf  of  Christians.  Attempts 
to  gain  proselytes  to  paganism  by  means  of  money  and 
posts  of  honour.  Julian's  views  concerning  Judaism. 
His  attempt  to  rebuild  the  temple  of  Jerusalem     .     .     .       58 — 71 

Julianas    behaviour  towards  the   Christians.    His  tolerance. 

Reasons  of  it    Covert  attacks  by  the  emperor.    Julianas 

edict,  granting  equal  freedom  to  all  the  church  parties. 

His  motives  in  this.  Edict  recalling  the' bishops.  Julian's 

behaviour  towards  Athauasios.    Tme  cnooperor  resorts  to 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  UI.  \^ 

PAKe 

unworthy  tricks.  Forbids  Christians  to  teach  ancient 
literature.  Sophistical  defence  of  this  prohibition.  Per- 
mission given  for  Christian  youth  to  attend  the  pa^an 
schools.  Proseresius  and  Fabius  Marius  Victorinus  resign 
their  posts  as  rhetorical  teachers.  Labours  of  the  learned 
Syrians :  ApoUinaris,  &ther  and  son.  Julian  prejudiced 
against  bishops  educated  in  the  Grecian  schools:  e. ^.« 
l^il,  Gregory,  &c.  His  behaviour  towards  Titus,  bishop 
of  Bostra,  in  Arabia.  His  mildness  towards  inimicid 
Christian  bishops.  Outbreak  of  pagan  fury  against  tiw 
Christians  in  Alexandria.  Julian's  mild  treatment  of  the 
insurgents.  Persecutions  of  Mark  of  Arethusa  .  .  .  72 — SG 
Julian  in  Antioch.  His  zeal  in  the  pagan  worship.  Julian 
hated  among  the  Antiochians, — especially  on  account  of 
his  restoration  of  the  temple  of  Apollo.  The  bones  of 
Babylas,  the  martyr,  exhumed.  Julian  celebrates  the 
festival  of  Apollo  Daphnicus.  Burning  of  the  temple  of 
Apollo  leads  Julian  to  adopt  harsh  measures.  Repeated 
intercessions  of  Libanius  in  behalf  of  the  Christians. 
Julian's  journey  to  Syria,  in  his  campaign  against  the 
Persians.    His  death,  a.d.  363 87 — 94 

Advice  of  Chregory  Nazianzen  to  the  Christians,  Jovian 
grants  universal  religious  liberty.  Speech  of  Themistius 
to  the  emperor 94 — 97 

VaUntinian,  His  tolerance  condaces  to  the  ^read  of  Chris- 
tianity.   (Heathenism — Paganismns.) 98 — 99 

Valens,    Address  of  Thenustins  to  him •     99 — 100 

Gratian  declines  taking  the  office  of  Pontifex  Maximns.  Re- 
fuses to  grant  an  audience  to  the  Pagan  delegates.     .     •  100 — 101 

VaUntinian  iL  Grants  an  audi^ce  to  the  pagan  party, 
represented  by  the  prsefect  Symmachus.  Symmachus 
opposed  by  Ambrose,  bishop  of  Milan 101 — 102 

Theodosius.  In  his  reign,  Chrysostom  composes  his  book 
on  the  martyr  Babylas.  Laws  of  the  emperor  against 
paganism.  Wild  bands  of  monks  go  about  destroying  the 
temples.  Inconsistency  of  the  emperor.  Suppression  of 
the  pagan  worship  by  the  prsefect  Cynegius.  Contest  be- 
twixt Sie  Christians  and  the  pagans  at  Alexandria.  The- 
ophilus  exposes  the  sacred  things  of  the  pagans  to  the 
sport  of  the  people.  Insurrection  of  the  pagans.  Edict 
of  Theodosius,  in  consequence  of  these  disturbances.  De- 
struction of  the  temple  of  Serapis.  Destractive  fury 
manifested  by  Marcellus,  bishop  of  Apamea.  Laws  of  the 
year  391,  and  of  the  following  year 103—111 

Arcadius.  Gradual  increase  of  severity  against  the  pagans  of 
the  East.  Porphyry  of  Gaza.  Eudoxia.  New  law  of 
the  year  423.  Paganism  cherished  in  secret.  The  pagan 
philosopher  Proclus Ill — U8 

Justinian,    Persecution  of  the  pagan  philosophers.    They  fly 

to  Persia    ...••....«.«««    V^— wa 


vi  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  III. 

B.  Polemical  Wrilingi  of  the  PagoM  agtiinst  Christianity —  General 
Charges  which  they  orought  against  it — Manner  in  which  these 
Charges  were  met  hy  the  Teachers  cf  the  Christian  Church,  120 — 132 

Page 

Polemical  writings  of  the  pagans.  Julian.  Finds  contradic- 
tions in  the  New  Testament 120—1! 

The  dialogue  PhUopatris.    Ridicules  the  Christian  doctrine  of 

the  Trinity 127—1: 

Particular  objections  of  the  pagans  to  Christianity  and  the 
Christians.  Charges  laid  against  the  conduct  of  the 
Christians  and  against  Christian  princes.  Keply  of  An- 
gustin.  Pagan  objections  to  Christian  doctrines.  Work 
of  Orosins,  in  reply  to  the  objections  of  Eonapius  and  Zosi- 
mus 4 128—1; 

C.  VariottS  obstacles  which  hindered  the  progress  of  Christianity 
among  the  heathen — Means  and  methods  oy  which  it  teas  promoted 
— Different  kinds  of  Conversion,  IS2. 

Hindrances  to  the  spread  of  Christianity.  Pagan  superstition, 
pagan  self-sufficiency.  Some  seek  repose  in  New  Platon- 
ism.  Outward  means  of  expiation.  Longinian.  Different 
classes  of  pagans.  The  partially  educat^.  Against  these, 
Augustin  and  Theodoret.  Pagan  views  concerning  the 
necessity  of  different  religions.  (Simplicius — Proclus — 
Themistius— Symmachus.)  Relation  of  Christianity  to 
this  way  of  thinking 132 — 1. 

Different  ways  in  which  pagans  were  conyerted.  Numbers  of 
formal  and  nominal  Christians.  Gross  worldly  motives, 
the  source  of  hypocritical  conversions.  More  or  less  of 
intentional  deception.  An  uneasy  state  of  conscience  con- 
ducting to  Christianity.  InsinceriQr  of  Christian  ecclesi- 
astics. Sophistical  defence  of  superficial  conversions. 
Combated  by  Augustin.  New  Platonism  leads  to  Chris- 
tianity   (Augnstiifr^Synesius)  .     .     •     •     .     •     *     .138—1 

Extension  of  ChristianUy  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Roman 

Jampire,  146. 

Its  iprwd  in  Asia, 

Persia,  ConStantine  recommends  the  Christians  to  the  pro- 
tection of  Sapor,  in  Persia.  Pefsecution  of  the  Christians 
in  Persia.  Principal  persecution  in  343.  Occasion  of  it. 
Objections  of  Persian  magistrates  to  Christianity.  Pro- 
clamation of  Mihr-Nerseh,  First  order  of  the  Persian 
emperor.  Simeon,  bishop  of  Seleucia — ^his  letter  to  the 
emperor.  Second  imperial  decree.  Simeon  declines  pay- 
ing homage  to  the  sun.  Martyrs:  Guhsciatazades, 
Simeon,  Phusik.  Continuation  of  the  persecution  till  344. 
Activity  of  Maruthas,  bishop  of  Tagrit — favourable  to  the 
Christians.  Imprudent  conduct  of  Abdas,  bishop  of  Siiza, 
In  destroyiDg  a  iSre-temple.    New  perBecution  beginning 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  UU  Tii 

A.D.  418.  The  martyrs.  Jacobus,  Hormisdas,  and  others. 
Theodoret's  letter  to  the  bishop  Ensebins,  in  Armenia. 
Flight  of  the  Christians  into  the  Roman  empire  leads  to  a 
war.  Acasios  of  Amida.  Schism  betwixt  the  churches 
of  the  Persian  and  of  the  Koman  empire  (in  the  fifth. 
centarj)    •••••••••••••.  146"- 160 

Armenia.  Gregory,  the  illuminator.  MiesroVt  labours  to 
promote  the  spread  and  secnre  the  establishment  of  Chris- 
tianity. Persecution  of  the  Armenian  Christians  by  the 
Persians • 160 — 161 

Conversion  of  the  IberianK  (roread  of  Christiani^  in  Georgia, 
by  means  of  a  captive  Christian  female)— ot  the  lazians 
and  Abasgians.    Justinian  fiivours  the  latter  .     .     •     •  162 — 164 

Indians.  Theophilus^  tlie  Indian.  Accounts  preserved  in  the 
writings  of  Cosmas  Indieoplenstes.  Christians  in  Tapro- 
bane,  Male,  Calliana  •     •     • 164 — 165 

Arabia,  Theophilus,  imperial  ambassador  to  the  king  of  the 
Hamyares.  Churches  founded  in  Arabia.  Labours  of 
the  monks  among  the  Arab  tribes.  Simeon,  the  Stylite. 
The  Saraeenian  Ssheikh,  Aq;>ebethos  ^by  baptism,  Peter)| 
first  Saracenian  camp-bii^op  in  Palestme 16C — 168 

^n-ead  of  Christianity  in  Africa, 

Abyssinia.  Meropius,  with  .^Idesius  and  FrumentiuS)  comes 
to  that  country.  FrumentittS  ordained  bishq>  of  Auxuma 
by  Athanasius.  Theophilus  visits  that  city.  Constantius 
persecutes  Frumentius,  as  being  a  disciple  of  Athanasius. 
The  Abyssinian  king,  E^esbt^y  takes  part  with  the 
Christiaiis  in  Arabia.  Christianity  cm  the  island  of 
Socotora 168—171 

Spread  of  Christianity  in  Europe. 

Ireland.  Founding  of  the  Christian  Church  in  that  island  by 
Patricius.  Account  of  his  life.  Kesidence  in  Ireland;  in 
Gaul.  Return  to  his  countnr.  Whether  Patrick  was 
commissioned  from  Rome.  Labours  of  Patrick  among 
the  country  people  and  the  chiefs.  (Benignus.)  He 
founds  Irish  monasteries.  Provides  for  the  cSducation  of 
the  people 172—176 

Goths.  Receive  Christianity  by  occasion  of  their  wars  with 
the  Roman  empire.  Theophilus,  a  Gothic  bishop.  Ul- 
philaM.  His  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  Goths.  Time  of  his 
appearance  in  the  reign  of  Constantine.   Reports  concern- 

•V  ing  Arianism  among  the  Goths.  Athanasius  on  their 
conversion.  Martyrs  among  the  Goths.  Missionary  in- 
stitutions established  by  Chrysostom.  Invites  Goths  to 
preach  in  Constantinople.  The  Gothic  clergy  cultivate 
biblical  studies.  West  Goths.  Alaric  in  Ilome^  ▲.d. 
410 177—183 


viu  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  III. 


SECTION     SECOND. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  CONSTITDTIOy,  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE,   SCHISMS 

OF  THE  CHURCH,  184 — 315. 

History  of  the  Church  Constitution,  184 — 253, 
Relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State,  184—207. 
General  Remarks, 

New  relation  of  the  church  to  the  state.  Advantages  and 
dangers  accruing  from  it  to  the  church.  The  church 
calls  upon  the  state  for  assistance  in  the  promotion  of  its 
objects.  Causes  of  this  great  change :  the  conversion  of 
the  Roman  emperor  to  Christianity.  Emperor*s  views  of 
the  church  constitution.  Constantine,  In  what  sense  he 
styled  himself  an  EfnVxMir*;  tUv  ixros  riis  ixxXn^tas,  Call- 
ing of  general  coundls  by  the  Emperors.  Publication  of 
their  decrees  by  imperial  authority.  Influence  of  the 
emperors  on  the  councils  (Constantine  at  Nice.  Theodo* 
sius  II.)  Isidore  of  Pelusinm.  Individuals  opposed  to 
the  confounding  together  of  things  spiritual  and  things 
secular.  (Hilary  of  Poictiers.)  Of  no  avail  against  the 
spirit  of  the  times.  The  emperors  decide  doctrinal  dis- 
putes by  command.  Basiliscus,  Zeno,  Justinian.  Inde- 
pendent development  of  the  Western  Church  .     .     .     .   184 — 191 

Eelation  of  the  church  to  the  state  in  particular  things.  TJie 
state  takes  some  part  in  providing  for  the  support  of  the 
churches.  Churches  authorized  to  receive  bequests.  Nu- 
merous presents  to  the  churches.  Abuse  of  this  permis- 
sion. Jerome  on  this  point.  Other  bishops  renounce 
this  right.    Augustin 191 — 193 

Benevolent  Institutions.  Public  charities  for  strangers,  for  the 
poor,  the  old,  the  sick,  and  for  orphans.  The  Basilias. 
Alms-houses  in  the  country.  Care  of  Theodoret  for  his 
flock , 194—195 

Privileges  bestowed  hy  the  state.  Exemption  of  the  clergy  from 
all  public  burdens  (muneribus  publicist  Law  of  Constan- 
tine, A.D.  319.  Evils  resulting  from  it.  Great  flocking 
to  the  spiritual  office.  Limitations  of  the  law,  aj>.  320. 
This  restriction  evaded 195 — 197 

Judicial  authority  conferred  on  the  bishops.  Advantages  of 
this  arrangement.  Complaints  of  the  bishops.  Self- 
denial  of  Augustin .     .     ,     .   197 — 198 

Intercessions  of  the  bishops.  Decrees  of  the  Council  of  Elvira, 
(305,)  of  Aries,  (314,)  respecting  the  administration  of 
civil  offices.  Ambrose  and  Studius.  Intercessions  of 
Basil  of  Caesarea,  of  Flavian  of  Antioch,  of  Theodoret. 
Advantages  of  these  intercessions  in  times  of  despotism. 

Evils  and  abuses «     .     .  199 — 203 

a^jbiweltes  used  as  asylums.    The  ecdesiastical  usage  limited 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL,  lU.  Ix 

P«g« 
by  Eatropius,  ▲.d.  398.    Chrjsostom.   Behaviour  of  cer- 
tain slaves  who  fled  to  a  church  under  the  reign  of  Theo- 
doeius  II.    Law  in  fiivour  of  asylums,  A.D.  431     •     .     •  204 — 206 

Internal  Organization  of  the  Ckurdt,  207 — 253. 

Central  point  of  the  theocratic  system  of  the  church.  The 
idea  of  a  priestly  caste.  False  view  of  opposition  between 
things  secular  and  spiritual.  Celibacy.  Laws  of  the 
council  of  Elvira,  in  305 ;  of  Neo-Csesarea,  in  314 ;  and  of 
Ancyra,  in  314,  relating  to  this  subject.  Proceedings  at 
Nice.  Paphnutius.  The  old  custom  retained,  that  only 
ecclesiastics  of  the  first  three  grades,  after  having  been 
once  ordained,  should  not  re-marrv.  The  more  liberal 
council  of  Gangra.  Custom  of  married  bishops  to  forsake 
the  marriage  relation.  Exceptions,  like  that  of  S^rnesiuB, 
still  to  be  met  with  in  the  fifth  century.  Ecclesiastical 
law  by  Siricius,  bishop  of  Rome,  a.d.  385.  Jovinian  and 
Vigilantius %  207 — 211 

Education  of  the  spiritual  order.  Reliance  on  the  supposed 
magical  effect  of  ordination.  Want  of  institutions  for 
theological  education.  Theological  school  at  Antioch. 
Attendance  on  the  schools  for  general  education.  The 
cloisters,  as  seminaries  for  the  clergy.  Education  of  the 
clergy  under  the  care  of  individual  bishops     .     •     •     •  211 — 214 

Intrusion  of  the  unworthy  into  spiritual  offices — agunst  which 
decrees  of  councils  avail  nothing.  (In  the  West,  the  case 
better.)  Participation  of  the  laity  in  elections.  Form  of 
election.  Strife  after  bishoprics  in  the  capital  cities.  De- 
crees of  councils  against  the  transfer  of  ecclesiastics  of 
little  avail;  but  are  strictly  carried  out  by  Damasus 
of  Rome.  Orders  forbidding  the  bishops  to  be  absent 
from  their  communities,  or  to  reside  at  court  •     •     .     .  215 — 219 

Progress  of  the  episcopal  power  towards  the  monarchical  form. 
Prerogatives  of  bishops;  ordination,  confirmation,  &c. 
(Chrysostom  and  Jerome  in  favour  of  the  originally 
equal  dignity  of  bishops  and  presbyters.)  Presbyters  dis- 
tinguished above  the  deacons.  Office  and  number  of  the 
deacons.  Influence  of  arch-deacons.  Deaconesses.  Their 
ordination — at  a  later  period,  considered  offensive.  Laws 
of  the  Western  church  against  their  appointment.  In  the 
East,  they  continued  to  exist  for  a  longer  time      •     .     .  219 — 223 

New  church  offices.  Oixm a/cm/,  if»3i«M,  notarii,  parobolanii  (nume- 
rous in  Alexandria),  KM-tareu •  224—226 

Chor- bishops.  Restriction  of  their  power.  Councils  of  Sar- 
dica  and  Laodicea  abolish  the  office :  the  latter  substitutes 
in  their  place  the  ^ttfultureti.  Traces  of  country  bishops 
in  later  times  .     .  ' 227—228 

City  churches.    Head  churches  and  filial  churches.    Their 

relation  to  each  other  at  Constantinople  and  at  Rome       .  228 — 229 

Metropolitan  constitution.    Further  development  of  it.    Pro* 

Tujcial  synods  co-ordinate  to  the  MetropoUtan.     •     «     •  "i^^^— ^"^ 


X  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  III. 

Page 

PcUriarchdl  constitution.  Sixth  canon  of  the  coancil  of  Nice. 
Exarchs,  next  Patriarchs.  In  the  beginning  at  Rome, 
Alexandria,  Antioch — next  at  Constantinople  [on  account 
of  its  political  importance]  and  Jerusalem.  Spirit  of  free- 
dom in  the  North-African  church, — their  declaration  at 
Hippor^us,  A.i>.  393.  Patriarehal  constitution  prepares  ' 
the  way  for  the  papacf    .     .     .♦ .  231—23 

Eome,    Runnus's  explanation  of  the  sixth  canon  of  the  Nicene 
council.     Wealth  and  political  importance  of  Rome. 
(Theodoret's  letter  to  Leo  the  Great)   In  addition  to  this, 
came  the  idea^  assumed  as  a  fhndalnental  principle  by  the 
people  of  the  West,  that  the  unity  of  the  church  must 
necessarily  have  an  outward  representationi  which  was 
supposed  to  be  realixed  in  the  cathedra  Petri^  at  Home, 
Progress  of  this  idea,  especially  in  the  church  of  North 
Africa*    Optattts  of  Milere.    Augustin.    (His  exposition 
of  Matth.  xri.  18.     Two  different  points  of  view  con- 
founded togetiier  by  him  in  considering  this  subject  as 
well  as  oth^.)    Yet  the  Africans  are  unwilling  to  con- 
cede all  the  consequences  following  from  this  pontion. 
The  Roman  bishops  consider  themselves  the  successors 
and  representatives  of  Peter^    Leo's  letter  to  Anatolius. 
Innocent  to  the  North- Africans,  a.d.  417.    Leo  to  the 
Illyrian  bishops.   More  &vourable  situation  of  the  Roman 
church  compared  with  the  church  of  the  East^    More  in- 
dependent of  political  influences.    Rome,  the  sole  Patri- 
archate of  the  West.    Greater  tranquillity  of  doctrinal 
development  in  the  West.    The  Eastern  parties  appeal  to 
Rome — this  advantage  improved  br  the  Roman  bishops. 
The  three  decrees  of  the  council  of  Sardica.    Confound- 
ing of  these  with  the  decrees  of  the  Nicene  council. 
Gratian's  declaration  in  favour  of  Damasus.    Hilary  of 
Aries  and  Celidonius.    Leo^s  arrogant  clums.    Recogni- 
tion of  them  by  Valentinian  III.,  a.b.  445.     Spirit  of 
freedom  contiiities  to  be  maintained  in  the  North- African 
church.    Councils  of  Carthage  in  407  and  418,  against 
appealing  to  any  jurisdiction  beyond  the  sea    •     .  "  .     .  235—2^ 
General  councils^    Their  object.    Description  of  them  by 
Gregory  of  Nazian2.    Atigustin's  Theory  of  councils. 
Christianity  opposed  to  the  requisition  of  a  blind  obedi- 
ence to  human  authority.   Facundus  of  Hermiane.    Otiier 
objects  of  the  councils.   Decretals  and  canons  of  the  coun- 
cils collected  by  Dionysius  ^iguus  (after  the  year  500)  247 — 2J 

History  of  Church  Discipline^  253 — 257. 

Persons  convicted  of  gross  offences,  excluded  from  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  chur^.  (In  case  of  sincere  repentance,  none 
refused  the  communion  in  the  hour  of  deatii.)  Different 
classes  of  penitents.  Conditions  of  re-admission.  Diffi- 
culties attending  the  application*  of  the  principles  of 
church  peDaDce^-partlf  in  the  case  of  fiohisms,  partly  in 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL*  IIL  xi 

the  caie  of  perscfns  of  rank.  (Chrysostom.  Ambrose. 
The  case  of  Theodosius.])  Aiuithema  of  the  church. 
(Synesins  against  Andronicus.)  Nectarius  rescinds  the 
office  of  a  presbyter  to  administer  penance      •     •     .     •  253—257 

HisUyry  qf  Church  Schisms,  257--316. 
Danatkt  Schism,  258. 

Important  as  representing  the  contest  betwixt  Catholieism  and 
Separatism,  and  the  reaction  against  the  confusion  afecclo' 
siastical  matters  with  polities.  Iminediate,  local  occasion  ; 
a  certain  enthusiastic  spirit  in  North  Africa    «     *     «     •  258 

The  prudent  bishop  Mensnrius  of  Clirthage,  and  )m  arch-dea- 
con Ceecilian.  Charges  laid  against  Mensuriua  by  tiie 
fanatical  parhr^  favoured  by  SecimduB  of  Tigids.  Assem- 
bly of  Numidian  provincial  bishops  at  Cirta,  under  the 
presidency  of  Secundns,  aj>.  305.  Mensurius  dies.  The 
superstitioils  "widoW)  LncillfL  an  enemy  to  Oecilian. 
Donatus  <if  Casse  Nigral.  Meetings  in  the  house  of 
Lucilla.  Csecilian  ordained  by  Felix  of  Aptnngis  before 
the  arriyal  of  the  Numidian  bishops.  Ceolian  accused. 
The  reader  Majorinus  set  up  as  anti-bkhop.  Ck>n8tantine 
opposed  to  the  party  of  MajorinuS.  Trial  before  Mel- 
chiades,  bishop  of  Rome,  and  five  bishops  Of  Gaul,  aj>. 
313.  (Donatus  complainant  against  OBciUan.)  Council 
of  Aries,  a.d.  314  (against  frivolous  charges  of  denying 
the  fkith,  and  on  the  objective  validity  of  sacramental 
acts).  Appeal  to  the  emperor,  who  also  deddes  in  fiivour 
of  CsBcilian.  Donatus  of  Casce  Nigrse,  and  next  Donatus 
Magnus,  successors  of  Majorin,  take  the  lead  of  the  party. 
Pars  Donati.  Harsh  proceedings  of  the  Count  Ursacius 
against  the  Donatists.  Circmncilliones.  Forbearance  of 
Constantine  towards  the  Donatists 259 — 273 

Constans  seeks  to  gain  the  Donatists  W  pecuniary  presents. 
Severe  measures  against  them.  Vehement  discourses 
preached  against  the-  confounding  together  of  church 
and  state.  Desperate  bands  of  Circumcillions,  under  the 
command  of  Fasir  aiid  Axid.  Beactiob  in  the  reign  of 
Julian.     Party  of  Maximinian  •..••*..  273 — 279 

Distracted  state  of  the  North-African  church,  occasioned  by 
this  schism.  Augustin  as  an  opponent  of  the  Donatists. 
His  confidence  in  the  force  of  his  arguments.  Plan  of 
Augustin  and  Fortunius.  The  Donatists  fear  the  logical 
talents  of  Augustin.  Council  of  Carthage,  a.d.  403. 
Augnstin's  letter  to  the  Donatist  churches.  Penal  laws 
demanded  against  the  Donatists  (Augustin,  at  this  time, 
still  opposed  to  forcible  measures) — enacted  in  part,  a.d. 
405.  Iteligious  conference  held  at  Carthage,  a.d.  411, 
under  the  presidency  of  Marcellin.  (Proposals  of  the 
Catholic  party.  Augnstln's  sermons.  DistniBt  on  \h& 
part  of  the  Donatists,    AngQ&im  and  Petalian.)    ^e^wKi 


xii  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  UI. 

Pax* 
la'ws  agjunst  the  Donatists.    Gaadentius  of  Thamogade. 
Donatists  continue  to  exist  until  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
century 279 — 287 

Theological  Controversy  betwixt  the  Donatists  and  the  Catholic 

party. 

Fundamental  error  common  to  both  parties, — the  failure  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  visible  and  the  invisible  church.  Augus- 
tin's  course  of  religious  deyelopment  had  led  him  to  his 
outward  conception  of  the  church — hence  the  great  im- 
portance of  this  conception  in  his  own  view.  He  admits 
(the  Donatists  appealed  to  miracles,  etc.)  of  the  external 
and  objective  evidence  only  of  the  divine  word  (not  so  in 
his  contest  with  the  Manichseans).  The  Donatists  re- 
quire severity  of  church  discipline.  Controversy  respect- 
ing the  biblical  term,  **  World."  The  Donatists  appeal 
(in  this  case  inconsistently)  to  Old  Testament  examples. 
The  Catholics  subordinate  the  predicates  of  purity  and 
holiness  to  the  notion  of  Catholicity  ;  the  Donatists  do  the 
reverse.  They  protest  against  the  arrogant  claims  of  the 
Apostolical  See.  Midway  between  both  parties,  Tichonius, 
the  grammarian:  corpus  Domini  bipartitum.  Petition 
against  the  Catholic  church.  Augustin  in  defence  of  it. 
Controversy  on  the  employment  of  force  in  religious  mat- 
ters. Augustin  defendB  the  right  of  resorting  to  such 
measures.  False  comparison  of  the  divine  method  of 
educating  mankind  with  the  laws  of  the  state.  Deduc- 
tions of  Augustin  from  these  erroneous  principles.  Foun- 
dation of  the  theory  expressed  in  the  phrase :  Compelle 
iutrare  in  ecclesiam 289 — 307 

The  Meletian  Schism  in  Egypt,  308—313. 

More  rigid  party  (in  respect  to  the  lapsed)  under  Meletius  of 
Lycopolis.  The  more  mild  and  discreet  pastoral  letter  of 
Peter  of  Alexandria.  Meletius  arbitrarily  ordains  and  ex- 
communicates persons  within  the  diocese  of  Peter.  Mele- 
tius excommunicated.  [Critical  examination  of  the  sources 
of  information  respecting  this  schism.]  Meletians.  Orders 
of  the  Nicene  council.  Yet  the  schism  continues  down  to 
the  fifth  century 308—313 

Schism  between  Damasus  and  Ursinus  at  Rome.,  313< — 315. 

Liberius  of  Rome  deposed  and  banished  by  Constantine  in  356. 
Felix  made  bishop.  Liberius  afterwards  recalled.  Sepa- 
rate party,  under  the  Presbyter  Eusebius,  in  opposition  to 
the  court  party.  Contest  between  Ursinus  (belonging  to 
the  par^  of  Liberius)  and  Damasus  (belonging  to  the 
party  of  Felix),  afker  the  death  of  Liberius,  a.d.  366. 
Damasus  prevails.  Gratian*s  law,  in  order  to  the  sup- 
pression of  this  schism 313 — 315 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  UU  xili 

SECTION  THIRD. 

CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  WORSHIP,  316—487. 

Christian  Life,  316—393. 

Its  general  character  tn  this  Period^  316 — 321. 

Page 
Outward  Christiaiiit^^.  False  confidence  in  externals.  Ten- 
dency to  partial  views  of  doctrine.  The  idea  of  the 
universal  spiritual  priesthood  obscured.  Amurca  per 
publicum  cttrrit.  Sincerity  in  religion  exposed  to  ob- 
loquy. Pious  wives  and  mothers  (Nonna,  Anthusa, 
Monica,  and  others) •     .     .  316 — 321 

Peculiar  Tendencies  of  Christian  Life,     The  Ascdic  Tendency  and 

Monasticism,  322—375. 

Its  earlier  opposition  to  Paganism — now  to  a  mere  outward 
Christianity.  Transition  from  the  earlier  and  freer  form 
of  the  ascetic  life  to  the  more  stable  organization  of 
Monasticism.    Relation  of  Chi^istianity  to  Monasticism  .  322 — 324 

Anthony  (bom  a.d.  251,  of  a  Coptic  femily),  and  not  Paul  of 
Thebes,  the  father  of  monastic  orders.  How  he  was  led 
to  adopt  the  Monastic  life.  His  wrong  conception  of  self- 
denial,  which  he  afterwards  corrected.  His  strictly  ab- 
stemious life.  His  influence.  Did  not  wish  to  be  regarded 
as  a  worker  of  miracles.  Visit  to  Alexandria  in  311  and 
341.  Apothegms  of  Anthony.  (Letter  to  him  from  Con- 
stantine.)  His  gentleness  to  others.  Opposed  to  the 
superstitious  veneration  of  relics.  Spread  of  Monasticism. 
Hilarion  promotes  it  in  Palestine 324 — 333 

Pachomius,  founder  of  the  cloister  life.  The  Ccenobium  of 
Tabennse,  an  island  in  the  Nile  in  Upper  Egypt.  Abbots. 
Classes  of  monks.  Their  occupations.  Noviciate.  Pa- 
chomius also  founds  cloisters  for  nuns 334 — 335 

Fanatical  tendencies  which  became  united  with  Monasticism. 
Suicide.  (Stagirius.)  Morbid  state  of  mind.  Ascetic 
pride.  Sayings  of  Pachomius  and  Nilus.  (Valens. 
Heron.    Ptolemseus) 337—340 

The  Euchites  (in  Syria).  Different  names.  Their  principles 
and  doctrines  to  be  traced  to  a  practical  error,  purely 
contemplative  repose.  (The  first  begging  friars.)  An  ex- 
cessive leaning  to  externals  in  the  monastic  life  leads  to 
the  opposite  error  of  mysticism.  Doctrine  of  inward 
prayer,  with  its  mischievous  consequences  (depreciation 
of  the  means  of  grace ;  Antinomianism :  sensuous  mysti- 
cism, and  Pantheism).  Flavian  of  Antioch  and  Adel- 
phius.  Kindred  sect  of  the  Eustathians — opposed  to 
these,  the  council  of  Gangra.  Opposition  to  these  fanatic 
tendencies  serves  to  promote  the  Ccenobite  life.  Contest 
of  the  Coenobites  with  those  who  clung  to  the  older  form 
of  asceticism,    (Sarabaites,  Remoboth)      %     •     •     •     •  ^W— ^^ 


XIV  CONTENTS  OP  VOL.  III. 

UghU  and  Shada  cfMomadunm, 

Anchorites,  DeHMed  hj  Aagnstin  and  Chrysostom  i^ainst 
the  chari^  of  being  devoid  of  ncdre  charity.  Their 
healthfhl  infliienoe,    (Macedonins) 349— S52 

Canolntea,  ChiiitaaB  upaietj.  Prayer  and  labour.  Promi- 
nence ffiveA  ito  th^ori^mal  equality  of  all  men.  The 
cloisters  as  iastitntioiw  of  education.  (Rule  of  BasiL) 
Hospitality.  Taideacy  to  degenerate.  Miachieyous 
fanaticisBU  The  seclusioii  of  t^  monastic  li&  mi^ht 
lead  to  deep  self-knowledge,  to  a  conyiction  of  the  vanity 
of  righteoHsness  by  outward  works,  to  childlike  submis- 
sion to  God  (Chrysostom,  Nilus,  Marcus,  Mardan) ;  but 
it  ofttimes  engendered  the  spirit  of  lened  righteousness, 
spiritual  pride,  servility  of  disposition  (EoseMus  in  Syria 
and  others) S53— 362 

Sitneoiiy  the  St^liie,  His  labouis.  (Theodoref  s  remarks  con- 
cerning lum.)  ^meon's  vision.  Warning  given  to  the 
Stylites  by  KikaB 363r-365 

Monachism  in  the  West.  At  first  ^posed.  Encouraged  by 
Athanasius,  Jerome,  and  others.  Augustin's  views  of  the 
monastic  life ;  he  teases  that  monks  are  bound  to  labour 
(de  opere  monachorum).  His  account  of  the  corruption 
of  monachism.  Cassian  introduces  the  monasUc  institu- 
tions of  the  East  into  southern  France  (his  institutiones 
ccenobiales  and  Collations),  Practical  Christian  spirit  in 
these  cloisters,  which  also  became  seminaries  for  the 
clergy 365—376 

Reformation  of  the  monastic  life  hy  Benedict  of  Nursia,  His 
education.  (Residence  in  Rome.  Romanus.  General 
respect  in  which  he  was  held.)  Foundation  of  the  abbey 
of  Monte  Cassino.  Rules  of  the  Benedictines.  Wise 
moderation  shewn  in  them.    Benedict's  disciples  •     .     •  370 — 374 

Different  Spiritual  Tendencies  in  Beligion^  in  theur  Selation  to 
Monachism  and  Asceticism,  375. 

Secular  opposition  to  monachism.    Law  of  Valens,  a.d.  365  .  376—378 
More  moderate  views  of  the  monastic  life  (recognition  of  its 
value,  opposition  only  to  the  extravagant  overvaluation  of 
it)  expressed  at  the  council  of  Gangra  and  by  Chrysostom  378 — 380 
Jovinian,    Evangelical  opponent  of  the  one-sided  ascetic  ten- 
dency.   Contends  against  the  distinction  between  pracepta 
and  consilia  evaugelica.    Gives  prominence  to  common 
fellowship  with  Christ.    Rejects  &sti|ig,  the  unmarried 
life,  monachism,  though  not  unconditionally  (he  himself 
continues  to  remsdn  a  monk),  contends  only  against  the 
tendency  to  depreciate  the  high  worth  of  the  marriage 
relation,    and   to  overvalue  &sting  (also  martyrdom). 
Jovinian  opposed  to  the  righteousness  of  works,  and  allows 
himself  to  be  misled  by  this  opposition  to  deny  all  differ- 
eni  stages  of  the  Christian  life.    His  couception  of  the 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL,  HI.  xr 

Page 

inTisible  charch.  Influence  of  JoYinian.  Siridos  of 
Rome,  and  Ambrose  his  opponent.  Sarmatio  and  Bar- 
batian.  Angnstln  (de  bono  conjogali)  in  relation  to 
JoTiniaii.  Vigilantias  (see  above;  aiso  opposed  to  mon- 
achism.     ;..••.••,.••••  361 — 393 

Christiaa  Warship,  ^9S--4B7. 

Relation  cf  Christian  Wonitip  to  the  Entire  Christian  LifSf 

393-400. 

Chrysostom  and  Angostin  on  the  Christian  worship  of  Grod, 
as  not  confined  to  any  particular  time  nor  place.  General 
reading  of  the  Bible  (^MyrM-ni^Mt) — strongly  recom- 
mended by  CiuTsostom  and  Angostin — ^hind^red  by  the 
want  of  mowing  how  to  read,  and  the  excessively  high 
price  of  nannscripts.  Public  reading  of  the  sacred 
scriptures •••.•  893—400 

Relation  of  Wortih^  to  Art,    Church  BuHdii^t,  their  Omameat*-^ 

Jmo^uM,  400—487. 

Appropriation  of  art»  corresponding  to  the  altered  relations  of 
different  periocUu  Zeal  (often  impure)  manifested  in  the 
building  of  new  cfiurches.  Remodelling  of  temples — 
oftentimes,  however,  the  simpler  places  of  meeting  are 
still  retained.  Churches  constructed  after  the  pattern  of 
the  temple  of  Jerusalem  (the  fore-court,  temple  proper, 
and  holy  of  holies,  where  were  to  be  found  the  altar  and 
the  bishop's  chair).    Festive  dedication  of  churches  .     •  400 — 404 

The  sign  of  the  cross 405—406 

Images,  Begin  to  be  opposed.  Employment  of  images  pro- 
ceeded from  the  ^reat  mass  of  Christians.  Asterius  of 
Amasea.  Opposition  to  pictures  and  images  of  Christ. 
(Letter  of  Eusebius  to  Constantia.)  Decoration  of 
churches  with  pictures  (Nilus— conduct  of  Epiphanius). 
Moderate  tendency  of  Christians  in  the  West.  n^0r»v- 
vfifftf  la  the  East.  Leontius  of  Neapolis  on  the  use  of 
images,  in  opposition  to  the  Jews.    Xenayas  ....  409 — 118 

Times  of  Assemblinfffor  Divine  Worship  and  Festivals. 

Every  day  a  festival :  Jerome,  Chrysostom.    Socrates  on  this 

matter.    Celebration  of  the  dies  stationum 419^-420 

Festival  of  the  Sabbath,  Ordinance  of  the  council  of  Laodicea. 
Different  usage  of  the  churches  of  the  East  and  West  in 
respect  to  fasting  on  the  Sabbath  (Saturday).  Liberal 
views  of  Augustin  and  others  on  this  subject  Decision 
by  Innocent  of  Rome 421 — 424 

Festival  of  Sunday,  Cessation  of  business.  Laws  of  the  years 
321  and  386.  Spectacles  on  Sunday  and  ou  the  ptrnd^V 
ftBst-^fs £jrbidden  AD,  425    •..•..,%  VL\— ^'ife 


i 


XVI  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  III. 

Yearbf  Festivals, 


Pag( 


DifiFerence  of  views  in  respect  to  the  feast  of  the  pcLssooer. 
Decrees  of  the  councils  of  Aries  and  of  Nice  (Quartodeci- 
manl).  Mode  of  announcing  the  time  of  Easter  by  the 
bishop  of  Alexandria.    Dionysias  Exignos     ....  427 — ^ 

Times  of  fasting.  Their  salutary  influence.  Hypocritical 
fasting.  The  great  week.  The  great  Sabbatii — white 
dress  of  the  candidates  for  baptism  worn  till  the  octava 
infantium.    The  fifty  days  succeeding  Easter  ....  429 — ' 

Feast  of  Epiphany.  The  ancient  principal  festival  in  the  East 
in  celebration  of  the  baptism  of  Christ  (at  first  not  accom- 
panied by  the  Christmas  festival).  First  indications  of  the 
spread  of  this  festival  in  the  West  about  360.  Altered 
views  of  it  (as  the  revelation  of  Christ  to  the  pagan  world) 
in  the  West 434 — > 

Festival  of  Christmas,  Ori^nated  in  the  West  (about  350 
generally  recognised :)— m  the  East,  a  new  festival  in  the 
times  of  Chrysostom.  Arguments  of  Chrysostom  in  &vour 
of  the  time  fixed  for  this  festival.  Union  of  the  two  festi- 
vals of  Epiphany  and  Christmas  at  Jerusalem  and  Alex- 
andria, lie  celebration  of  this  festival  on  the  25th  Decem- 
ber, founded  doubtless  ut>on  some  apocryphal  account, 
which  is  to  be  traced,  not  to  any  disposition  to  fall  in  with 
the  pagan  ceremonies  (Saturnalia,  Sigillaria),  but  to  the 
mystical  interpretation  given  to  that  season  of  the  year    .  437 — A 

New  Year's  Festival,  Not  the  remodelling  of  the  civil  cele- 
bration into  an  ecclesiastical  one ;  but  opposition  to  the 
licentious  pagan  celebration  led  to  an  ecclesiastical  cele- 
bration accompanied  with  fasting 445 — A 

Particular  Acts  of  Christian  Worship. 

Public  reading  of  the  sacred  scriptures.  Origin  of  the  pericopes. 
Sermon.  Applause  by  the  clapping  of  hands.  Short- 
hand writers.  Church  psalmody.  Psalms  and  church 
hymns  (often  heretical).  Pambo,  Isidore  of  Jerusalem, 
and  Jerome  opposed  to  theatrical  church  psalmody    .     .  448^ 

Administration  of  the  Sacrament. 

Infant  baptism  not  as  yet  universally  recognised  in  the  East. 
Causes  and  effects  of  it.     Catechumens.    At  first  com- 
posed of  two,  at  present  of  three  classes ;  audientes,  genu- 
flectentes,    competentes.    [Whether  there  was    a    class 
styled  ileahv/Atvot.']    Symbolical  customs  in  admmister- 
ing  baptism  (veiling  of  the  head ;  sufflation ;  distribution 
of  the  consecrated  salt ;  double  unction).    Confirmation. 
Clothing  the  candidates  in  white  robes.     Seasons  of  bap- 
tism.   Missa  catechumenorum  and  fidelium     ....  453 — 4 
Lord's  Supper.   Agapse.    Eucharistical  liturgy.  More  frequent 
or  more  rare  celebration  of  the  communion.    (Augustin, 
Jerome,  Chrysostom,  on  this  subject.)    Communion  at 
Ik 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  lU.  Xldi 

Page 
home.    Partieipatkni  of  it  under  one  form.    Idea  of  an 
offering.      Intereessions  for  the  departed.     Augustin's 
spiritoal,  bat  still  onscriptural  idea  of  an  offering.     •     .  4C3— 470 

Veueration  of  the  Saints,  Genuine  Christian  interest  con- 
nected with  this.  Festival  of  St,  Stephen  the  martyr. 
Worship  of  relics.  CSostoms  bordering  on  Paganism. 
Augustin's  views  respecting  the  worship  of  the  saints. 
Vigilantius  combats  the  idolatrous  wor&iiip  of  martyrs. 
Opposed  by  Jerome.  Worship  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
Collyridians.  HeWidius  (a  layman  at  Borne,  contro- 
versy with  Jerome)  and  Bonosus.  Pilgrimages.  Chry- 
sostom*s  views  of  them.  Jerome  and  Gregory  of  Nyssa 
opposed  to  the  over  valuation  of  externals  m  this  practice  471 — 485 

Acrius.  His  controversy  with  E^tathius  of  Sebaste :  aims  at 
a  total  severing  of  Christianity  from  Judaism.  He  is 
persecuted ■••••  486—487 


SECTION  FOURTH. 

HISTOBY  OF  CUKISTIANITY  APPREHENDED  AND  JDEVBLOFED  AS  A  SYSTEM 

Of  DOCTRINES,  p.  488. 

General  Introductory  Bemarks,  488. 

Influence  of  Origen  and  his  school.  Opposite  ways  of  appre- 
hending the  doctrines  of  Christian  dieology  appear  more 
openly.  Imperfect  mode  of  distinguishing  between  actual 
life  and  speculative. ccmception ;  between  me  fundamental 
essence  of  the  gospel  and  particular  doctrines  of  Christi- 
anity.   LamentaUe  interference  of  the  civil  power  .     .  488—490 

Opposite  views  in  respect  to  single  doctrines,  more  than  in 

respect  to  general  doctrinal-tendencies 490 

Difference  of  prevailing  tendency  in  the  doctrinal  spirit  of  the 
Oriental  and  of  tiie  Western  church:  the  former  busied 
with  speculative  distinctions  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
and  the  doctrine  concerning  Christ ;  while  the  attention  of 
the  latter  is  directed  to  ^e  central  point  of  practical  Chris- 
tianity, the  doctrine  concerning  man's  nature,  and  concern- 
ing redemption     • • 490 — 493 

Gregory  of  Nazianz,  respecting  tiie  most  important  matters  of 

doctrine 498 

I.ater  influences  of  the  Origenistic  spirit  less  discernible  in  the 
Alexandrian  church  than  in  the  particular  cases  of  Ease- 
bins  of  Csesarea,  and  the  three  great  church-teachers  from 
Cappadocia,  and  in  bringing  about  a  more  spiritual  mode 
of  apprehending  the  Christian  system  of  doctrines  gene- 
rally      V^V-Vi^ 

VOL.  III.  t 


XViii  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  III. 

Page 
Platonism  constantly,  except  in  the  case  of  Ennomios,  the 

scientific  form  ior  expressing  the  doctrines  of  faith     .     .  496 

New  combination  of  Platonic  with  Christian  elements  in  the 

case  of  Sjmesius 49S 

The    mystico-theurgical    system    in    the  Pseudo-Dionysian 

writings  which  sprang  out  of  a  combination  of  this  sort  •  496 

Interpretation  of  8<ny)ture  and  Itupiration, 

Great  influence  of  Origen  in  bringing  about  a  more  scientific 
method  of  expounding  the  scriptures ;  of  Jerome,  also,  ou 
the  church  of  the  West.    The  Antiochian  school  .     •     •  497 

More  accurate  distinction  of  the  divine  and  human  elements 

in  holy  writ  among  the  Antiochiaus     ..••.•  498 

Chrysostom  on  the  difference  of  the  gospels 499 

Jerome  on  Gal.  y.  12 499 

The  difference  in  the  prevailing  method  of  interpretation  among 
the  Antiochians  and  the  Alexandrians — owing  to  a  radical 
difference  between  the  two  schools  (the  latter  being  more 
inclined  to  the  mystical  side — to  give  an  undue  promi- 
nence to  the  divine  element ;  the  former  being  more  in- 
clined to  logical  reflection,  and  striving  to  apprehend  the 
divine  and  human  elements  in  harmony  with  each  other). 
The  Antiochian  tendency  tempered  by  Theodoret  and  the 
great  homelist,  Chrysostom 499 — 501 

Augtatiny  £he  Church-Father  oftJte  West, 

Compared  with  Origen,  more  systematic,  but  inferior  in  learn- 
ing and  historical  discipline.  Platonism,  in  his  case,  but 
an  inferior  stage  of  development  Faith  and  gnosis  in 
him  reconciled  and  united.  Connection  of  his  system  of 
faith  with  the  development  of  his  Christian  life    •     .     .  501 — 502 

His  training  and  progressive  development.  Pious  education. 
Given,  when  a  young  man,  to  the  pleasures  of  the  world. 
Awakened  by  a  passage  in  the  Hortensius  of  Cicero. 
Manichsean.  His  interview  with  Faustus.  In  danger  of 
falling  into  utter  scepticism.  Led  by  means  of  the  Chris- 
tian associations  of  his  youth  to  Platonism.  From  the  im- 
pulse of  a  practical  need,  becomes  a  Christian.  Studies 
the  epistles  of  Paul.  Gradually  emerges  from  the  Pla- 
tonic intellect ualistn.  Fides  prsecedit  intellectum.  Har- 
mony of  "faith"  and  "reason."  His  dependence  on 
church  tradition 502—510 


CHUKCH  HISTORY. 


SECOND  PEEIOD  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHEISTIAN 
CHURCH.  FROM  THE  END  OF  THE  DIOCLESIAN  PER- 
SECUTION TO  THE  TIME  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT, 
BISHOP  OF  ROME,  OR  FROM  THE  YEAR  312  TO  THE 
YEAR  590. 


SECTION  FIRST. 

RELATION  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH  TO  THE  WORLD. 
ITS  EXTENSION  AND  LIMITATION. 

I.  Within  the  Roman  Empiiie. 
A.  Relation  of  the  RoTnan  Emperors  to  the  Chistian  Church, 

The  Christian  Church  had  come  forth  victorious  out  of  its 
last  bloody  conflict  in  the  Dioclesian  persecution.  The  very- 
author  of  the  persecution,  the  Emperor  Galerius  himself,  had 
been  forced  to  acknowledg^e  that  the  power  of  conviction 
was  not  to  be  overcome  by  lire  and  sword.  But  in  truth  no 
experience  can  subdue  the  obstinacy  of  fanaticism  and  of  des- 
potism ;  and  had  not  everything  assumed  another  shape,  under 
the  influence  of  a  great  political  change  in  the  Roman  empire, 
deeply  affecting  the  history  of  the  world,  the  attempt  would, 
perhaps,  even  after  that  last  edict  of  toleration,  have  been  re- 
newed in  many  districts  to  suppress  Christianity  by  force ;  as 
indeed  it  had  often  been  the  case  before  that  the  persecution, 
after  a  momentary  pause,  broke  forth  again  with  increased 
violence. 

One  of  the  r^ents  of  that  period  was  Caius  Galerius  Vale- 
rius Maximinus,  who  ruled  at  first  over  Egypt  and  Syria ;  then, 
after  the  death  of  his  uncle  Galerius  in  the  'jeat  ^\\^  tssa.^^ 

vox.  JII,  "B 


2  MAXIMINUS. 

himself  master  of  all  the  Asiatic  provinces ; — the  bitterest 
enemy  of  Christianity  and  of  the  Christians.  Sprung  from 
the  lowest  condition, — having  been  originally  a  shepherd,-7- 
he  was  blindly  devoted  to  all  the  popular  superstitions  of 
paganism,  inclined  by  his  own  disposition  to  serve  as  a  tool  to 
the  priests,  and  possessed  withal  of  a  rough,  violent,  despotic 
temper.  He  had  no  wish  now,  it  is  true,  to  be  the  only  one 
among  the  regents  of  the  Roman  empire  to  oppose  the  edict 
which  had  been  issued  by  the  oldest  Augustus ;  but  still  he 
could  not  be  satisfied  to  publish  it  in  the  same  open  manner  in 
which  it  had  been  published  in  the  other  parts  of  the  empire. 
He  had  only  directed,  under  the  hand  of  his  first  officer  of 
state,  Sabinus,  the  praetorian  prefect,  that  it  should  be  an- 
nounced to  all  the  provincial  magistrates,  as  the  emperor's  will, 
that  the  Christians  should  no  longer  be  molested.  The  pre- 
fect issued  a  mandate,  which  agreed  in  substance  with  the  edict 
of  Valerius,  *'  Tliat  it  had  long  been  with  the  emperors  an 
object  of  their  most  anxious  desire  to  bring  back  the  souls  ckf 
all  men  to  the  right  ways  of  a  pious  life ;  so  that  those  who 
followed  any  usage  foreign  from  that  of  the  Romans  might  be 
induced  to  pay  to  the  immortal  gods  the  homage  which  is  due 
to  them ;  but  such  had  been  the  obstinacy  of  many  people,  that 
they  would  neither  be  drawn  away  from  their  purpose  by  a 
reasonable  obedience  to  the  imperial  command,  nor  awed  by 
the  punishments  with  which  they  were  threatened.  Inasmuch, 
then,  as  their  imperial  majesties*  had  graciously  ccxisidered 
that  it  woiJd  be  contrary  to  their  mild  intentions  to  involve 
so  many  in  danger,  they  had  resolved  that,  for  the  future,  no 
Christian  should  be  punished  or  disturbed  on  account  of  his 
religion  ;  since  it  had  been  made  evident  by  the  experience  of 
so  long  a  period  that  they  could  in  no  way  be  persuaded  to 
desist  from  their  own  wilful  determination."t 

The  more  violent  the  persecution  had  been,  a^pecially  in  the 
countries  subject  to  the  government  of  Maximinus,  the  greater 
was  the  joy  of  the  Christians  in  those  countries  when  this 
command  of  the  emperor  was  everywhere  put  in  execution. 
From  their  difier&nt  places  of  exile,  from  the  prisons,  from 

*  The  Namen  dominoram  nostrorum,  n  ^Mrtis  reHv  lur^arvf  n/Mtv, — 
as  the  dehasing,  idolatrous  flattery  which  had  become  already  the 
diplomatic  laugiiage,  then  expressed  itself. 

t  Euseb.  hist,  eccies.  1.  IX.  c.  1.    De  mort.  persecutor,  c.  36. 


HIS  HOSTILITY  TO  THfi  CHRISTIANS.  3 

the  mines  in  which  they  had  been  condemned  to  labour,  crowds 
of  tfaankflil  Christians  returned  to  their  homes ;  and  the  public 
vay&res  resounded  with  their  songs  of  praise.     The  churches 
b^an  to  be  rebuilt,  and  to  be  filled  once  more  with  worship- 
ping assemblies.     Scarcely  for  half  a  year  did  their  joy  and 
tranquillity  remain  undisturbed.     As  was  to  be  expected,  the  • 
restoration  of  the  Christian  churches,  and  the  great  number 
of  those  who  now  freely  and  publicly  joined  in  the  religious 
services,  excited  afresh  the   fanatic  rage  of  the  heathens, 
w^ich  could  once  more  readily  find  an  organ  for  its  expression 
in  that  Maximinus,   who,   at  heart,  haid    never   ceased   to 
cherish  his  blind  zeal  for  the  old  idolatry,  and  his  hatred  of 
Chnstiaoity. 

At  first  they  could  not  bear  to  see  the  enthusiasm  which 
the  memmy  of  the  martyrs  enkindled  in  the  Christians  who 
assembled  at  their  graves.  It  was  very  easy,  too,  in  pretend- 
ing fear  lest  some  disturbance  might  happen  to  the  public 
peace,  to  find  a  reason  for  prohibiting  the  Christians  from 
assembling  at  their  places  of  burial — ^the  cemeteries.  The 
religious  views  of  the  empecor  being  well  known,  the  heathen 
{niests,  conjurors,  and  magistrates,  in  various  cities  both  of  his 
old  and  of  his  new  province,  where  from  the  earliest  times  the 
pagan  worship  stood  in  high  repute,  and  certain  forms  of  it  in 
particular  were  exhibited  with  much  antique  display  (as  at 
Antioch,  Tyre,  and  Nicomedia  in  Bithynia),  instigated  their 
fellow-citizens  to  beg  it  as  a  favour  of  the  emperor  that  no 
enemy  to  the  gods  of  their  fathers  might  be  permitted  to  dwell 
or  practise  his  own  rites  of  worship  within  their  walls.  In 
part  it  was  fanatical  intolerance,  and  in  part  a  spirit  of  servile 
flattery,  more  anxious  to  obtain  the  favour  of  the  prince  than 
to  promote  the  honour  o£  the  gods,  which  dictated  these  peti- 
tions. Christian  authors,  it  is  true,  affirm  that  the  emperor 
himself  secretly  encouraged  these  persons  to  present  such 
petitions,  that  he  might  have  a'feir  pretext  for  persecuting  the 
Christians.*  But  it  is  plain  that  they  do  not  here  report  a 
feet  which  was  known  to  themselves,  but  only  represent  as  a 
fact  the  inference  which  they  thought  themselves  warranted 

*  Thas,  De  mortib.  persecat.  c.  36 :  Saboroatis  legationibns  cmtatom, 
que  peterent  ne  intra  orvitatea  suas  Christianis  conventicala  extruere 
liceret,  ut  quasi  coactus  et  impulsus  facere  videratur,  quod  erat  %Y()tste 
factunxs;  and  Enseb.  JX  2 ;  Aurig  Uvrf  K»f  ^mmv  ^Pif^iiktuu 


4  MAXTMTNUS. 

to  draw  from  the  maimer  in  which  Maximinus  received  such 
petitions,  and  firom  his  known  disposition.  The  reception 
which  these  petitions  met  with  from  the  emperor  was,  at  all 
events,  without  any  further  action  on  his  part,  a  sufficient 
encouragement  to  repeat  them.  True,  when  he  first  took  pos- 
session of  the  Asiatic  provinces,  which  had  belonged  to  the 
empire  of  Ckderius,  and  when,  on  his  arrival  at  Nicomedia, 
many  of  the  citizens  appeared  before  him  with  the  images  of 
their  gods,  and  presented  him,  in  the  name  of  the  city,  a  peti- 
tion of  this  sort,  he  was  still  just  enough — ^unless  we  may  sup- 
pose he  was  restrained  for  the  present  by  reasons  of  policy — ^to 
refuse  granting  their  petition  immediately.  He  caused  himself, 
in  the  first  place,  to  be  informed  of  the  true  state  of  things ;  and 
on  finding  that  there  were  many  Christians  in  the  city,  he  told  the 
deputies  that  he  would  have  been  pleased  to  grant  their  request, 
but  he  understood  that  it  was  not  the  wish  of  all  the  citizens,  and 
he  desired  to  leave  every  man  at  liberty  to  follow  his  own  con- 
victions.* When,  however,  similar  petitions  came  to  him  from 
other  cities,  testifying  great  zeal  for  the  worship  of  the  gods ; 
when,  moreover,  pious  firauds,  so  called,  were  employed  to  ope- 
rate on  the  mind  of  the  superstitious  and  credulous  prince — as 
at  Antioch,  where  it  was  said  a  voice  had  issued  from  a  wonder- 
working statue  of  Jupiter-Philios,  lately  set  up,  and  the  god 
required  that  his  enemies  should  be  driven  from  the  city  and 
its  territory, t — Maximin  could  no  longer  maintain  that  tone  of 
impartiality  which  was  so  foreign  from  his  nature.  He  thought 
it  due  to  the  honour  of  the  gods,  as  he  expressed  it  in  the  later 
edict,  those  gods  to  whom  the  state  owed  its  preservation,  that 
he  should  not  reject  a  request  which  aimed  at  nothing  but  the 
promotion  of  that  honour.  He  not  only  granted  such  petitions, 
but  expressed  to  those  who  presented  them  his  particular 
approbation  of  their  pious  disposition.  At  Tyre  he  caused  to 
be  publicly  fixed  up,  in  answer  to  a  proposal  of  this  sort,  and 
as  an  encouraging  token  of  his  satisfaction  with  its  pious  spirit, 
a  laudatory  writing,  composed  in  the  pompous,  declamatory 

*  This  is  stated  by  Maximin  himself,  in  the  edict  which  he  sab- 
sequently  published  in  favour  of  the  Christians,  and  which  Eusebins, 
after  his  usual  manner,  has  translated  in  very  obscure  language  from 
the  Latin  ori^al;  or  else  it  was  composed  in  a  very  barbarous 
diplomatic  style. 

t  Euseb.  IX.  8. 


HIS  HOSTILITY  TO  THE  CHRISTIANS.  5 

style  of  the  rhetorical  schools  of-  that  period,  by  some  master 
or  pupil  of  the  same.  Among  other  things  it  was  here  said, 
"Tliat  highest  and  greatest  Jupiter  who  presides  over  your 
&mous  city,  who  saved  the  gods  of  your  fathers,  your  wives, 
children,  hearths,  and  homes,  from  every  pestilent  infection, 
he  it  was  who  inspired  your  souls  with  this  wholesome  purpose, 
revealing  to  you  how  noble  and  salutary  it  is  to  approach  the 
worship  of  the  inmiortal  gods  with  becoming  reverence."  Next 
is  set  forth,  in  swollen  expressions,  how,  by  the  renewed  wor- 
ship of  the  gods,  men  had  been  delivered  from  the  distresses  of 
£unine  and  of  war,  from  contagious  pestilence,  and  other  public 
calamities,  which  formerly  had  been  brought  on  by  the  guilt  of 
the  Christians : — "  For  these  things  happened  in  consequence 
of  the  pernicious  error  of  those  reckless  men,  when  it  had  taken 
possession  of  their  souls,  and  covered  almost  the  whole  world 
with  disgrace."  It  is  then  said  of  the  Christians,  "  If  they 
persist  in  their  accursed  folly,  let  them  be  banished,  as  you 
demand,  far  from  your  city  and  its  territory."  And  that  they 
themselves  might  know  with  what  good>will  the  emperor  re* 
ceived  their  proposition,  they  were  invited  to  ask  for  some 
special  favour,  which  should  be  granted  them  at  once,  as  a 
memorial  to  tiieir  children  and  children's  children  of  their 
piety  towards  the  immortal  gods.* 

In  every  way  Maximin  sought  to  restore  the  splendour  of 
paganism,  and,  by  giving  new  power  and  new  consequence  to 
its  zealous  votaries,  to  supplant  the  Christians,  without  pub- 
lishing any  new  edict  against  them.  The  appointment  to 
sacerdotal  offices  in  the  provinces  had  hitherto  been  lodged 
with  the  senatorial  colleges  (the  collegio  decurionum,  curia- 
lium),  who  chose  to  such  posts  those  of  their  own  number  who 
had  been  already  tried  in  various  municipal  employments. 
But  Maximin  now  reserved  the  appointment  to  such  places  in 
his  own  hands,  that  he  might  be  sure  to  have  promoted  to 
them  the  most  distinguished  men  of  the  senate,  and  those 
frx)m  whom  he  could  expect  the  most  zealous  and  influential 
exertions  to  reanimate  paganism.  To  the  highest  posts  of 
the  sacerdotal  colleges  he  chose,  in  fact,  men  who  had  already 
filled  the  higher  civil  offices ;  and,  to  procure  for  them  greater 
respect,  he  gave  them  the  mantle  of  glistening  white,  in- 


♦  The  edict,  in  a  Greek  translation,  is  in  Euse\)\\xs,  VX.. 


I  % 


b  MAXIMIND8. 

wrought  with  gold,  which  before  was  the  distinguishing  badge 
of  the  court  offices.* 

Trials  before  Pilate  (acta  Pilati)  were  now  forged,  full  of 
blasphemies  against  Christ.'f  These  fabricated  documents  were 
distributed  through  the  city  and  country  schools,  in  order  that 
hatred  to  Christianity  might  be  seasonably  instilled  into  the 
miuds  of  the  children, — a  well-chosen  means,  no  doubt,  for 
giving  currency  to  convictions  such  as  men  wished  to  have 
them. 

The  declamatory  notice  above  cited,  that  public  calamities 
were  warded  off  by  the  worship  of  the  gods,  was  soon  refuted  by 
experience.  There  was  a  failure  of  harvest,  and  a  £unine ; 
pestilential  disorders  raged.  Meanwhile  the  Christians  ehoee 
the  best  way  to  manifest  the  spirit  of  their  faith,  and  to  show 
the  heathens  the  groundlessness  of  their  accusations.  They 
collected  the  whole  multitude  of  the  starving  population  in 
the  city  (probably  Nicomedia)  into  one  place,  and  distributed 
bread  to  them.  Thus  it  might  be  tliat  more  was  accomplished 
by  this  work  of  faith  than  could  have  been  effected  by  any 
demonstration  of  words ;  that,  as  Eusebius  says,  j:  the  heathens 
praised  the  Christians'  God,  and  pronounccNi  the  Christians 
themselves  to  be  the  only  truly  pious  and  God-fearing  men. 
But  there  is  always  a  fanaticism  which  the  strongest  racts  can 
neither  confute  nor  embarrass. 

Although  no  new  edicts  of  a  sanguinary  character  were 
issued,  yet  it  could  not  fail  to  be  the  case,  under  the  impulse 
of  freshly  excited  passions,  the  outbreaks  of  which  were  rather 

*  Easeb.  IX.  4.    De  mortib.  p.  c.  36. 

t  Euseb.  IX.  5.  Still  earlier  thaji  this  there  may  have  been  variou 
recensions  of  the  acta  Pilati  by  Christians  and  pagans  ;  and  so  tkis  new 
device  of  malice  may  have  sprung  out  of  some  older  root.  PMrhu% 
also,  it  is  inexact,  when  it  is  said  that  those  acta  vere  then  fbrged  ftr 
the  first  time ;  perhaps  the  fanatical  hate  of  the  pagans  had  alretdj 
devised  some  contrivance  of  this  sort  in  the  earlier  times  of  the  Diode" 
sian  persecution,  and  special  pains  were  now  taken  to  pat  it  in  dr* 
eolation.  This  we  are  obliged  to  suppose,  if  these  act(f  are  altogether 
the  same  with  those  to  which  a  pagan  priest,  in  some  earlier  year  of  the 
Dioclesiau  persecution,  appealed  before  a  tribunal  as  testimony  against 
the  divinity  of  Christ.  Acta  Tarachi,  Probi,  et  Andronici,  c  9.  His 
words  to  the  Christians  are,  MS^t,  rovrt  »v»  etiett,  in,  h  Wi»«X^ 
cLt^^uvcf  met  ytytvufiUov   xazov^ycv,  inri   i^to^ia   %    UiXArw  riMf  ^ytftivf 

i  L.  IX.  C.  8. 


.CONSTANTIKE.  7 

jfiurotired  than  chedLed  by  the  supreme  power  of  the  state,  that 
io  various  scattered  spots  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  would  flow 
copiously.  Individuals  who,  by  their  zeal  for  the  spread  of 
the  faith,  and  by  the  authority  in  which  they  stood  among 
their  fellow-believers,  had  drawn  particularly  upon  themselves 
the  hatred  of  the  governors  or  of  the  emperor,  suffered  martyr- 
dom. Instances  of  this  kind  occurred*  at  Emesa  in  Phoenicia, 
at  Alexandria,  and  at  Antioch.*  This  was  the  last  martyr's 
blood  which  flowed  in  consequence  of  the  Dioclesian  persecu- 
tion. From  the  West  began  a  train  of  events  which  placed 
the  whole  Christian  church  in  a  different  relation  to  the  civil 
power  in  the  Eoman  state  ;  and  the  influence  of  these  events 
soon  extended,  at  least  indirectly,  to  the  Eastern  portion  of  the 
empire. 

Ck>nstantine,  the  son  of  Constantius  Chlorus,  was  the  in- 
dividual by  whom  this  change  was  brought  about.  The 
manner  in  which  it  took  place  had  an  important  influence  on 
the  entire  shaping  of  the  church  within  the  bounds  of  the 
"Roiyian  empire  during  the  period  commencing  with  this  epoch. 
In  order  to  a  correct  understanding  of  the  whole  matter,  it  is 
certainly  much  to  be  desired  that  we  possessed  better  means 
of  information  respecting  the  early  religious  education  of  the 
person  from  whom  all  this  proceeded.  But,  as  often  happens, 
the  facts  which  have  reached  us  concerning  the  mental  de- 
vdopment  of  the  author  of  a  great  outward  change  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  are  scanty  and  meagre ;  and  it  only  re- 
mains for  us  to  gather  our  conclusions  from  a  few  scattered 
hints. 

His  fether,  Constantius  Chlorus,  was,  as  we  have  already 
xemarked  in  another  place,  friendly  to  the  Christians,  and  pro- 
bably a  follower  of  that  species  of  religious  eclecticism  which 
ttmted  Christ  along  with  the  gods  of  Rome.  His  mother, 
Helena,,  the  first  wife  of  Constantius,  becomes  known,  at 
a  somewhat  later  p^iod,  as  a  zealous  Christian  according  to 
the  measure  of  her  religious  knowledge — devoted  and  punc- 
tilious in  the  performance  of  all  the  external  duties  of  religion. 
There  are  no  existing  grounds  for  supposing  that  she  came  to 
this  conviction  sudd^y,  or  that  she  was  led  to  embrace  it,  in 
her  later  years,  by  the  example  of  her  son.     Notliing  forbids 

*  Eoseb.  IX.  c.  6. 


I 
GONSTAiniNS, 


US  to  suppose  that  she  was,  in  the  earlier  period  of  her  fife,  if 
not  a  Christian,  at  least  inclined  to  Christiaiiity.*  Possibly 
it  was  through  her  influence  that  this  direction  had  been  given 
to  the  mind  of  her  husband :  since  it  not  unfrequently  hi^ 
penecl  that  the  husband  came  to  the  knowledge  of  Christianity 
through  means  of  the  wife.  Slight  as  must  have  been  the  im- 
mediate influence  of  his  parents  on  the  education  of  Constan* 
tine,  who  was  so  early  removed  from  their  side,  yet  it  may 
w^ell  be  supposed  that  the  religious  principles  of  the  parraits 
would  not  fail  to  make  some  impression  on  the  mind  of  their 
son.  The  Christians  being  at  that  time  so  numerous  and 
so  widely  dispersed,  Constantine  would,  without  doubt,  fre- 
quently come  in  contact  with  them ;  and,  as  we  may  readily 
suppose,  they  would  neglect  no  opportunity  which  offered  of 
making  the  prince  favourably  disposed  towards  their  religion 
and  their  party.  While  a  youth  he  resided  at  the  court  of 
Dioclesian,  and  afterwards  at  that  of  Galerius.  He  witnessed 
at  Nicomedia  the  outburst  of  the  persecution  against  the 
Christians.f  This  example  of  bloodthirsty  fanaticism  could 
have  no  other  eflect  than  to  revolt  his  youthflQ,  and,  in 
respect  to  such  proceedings,  unprejudiced  mind.  When  he 
compared  the  religious  tolerance  of  his  father  with  the  spirit 

*  Nothing  certain  is  known  with  regard  to  the  relations  between 
Helena  and  her  son  as  to  this  matter.  Theodoret,  it  is  true,  says 
expressly  (H,  £.  1. 1,  c.  18)  that  Constantine  received  his  first  impre^ 
sions  of  Christianity  from  her ;  but  we  cannot  be  sure  that  his  aathority 
for  this  statement  is  deserving  of  confidence.  Eusebius  might  hare  been 
more  correctly  informed ;  and  he  says  (De  vita  Constant.  1.  III.  c  47) 
it  was  by  means  of  Constantine  that  his  mother  first  became  a  Christiaii, 
— ^lofifiti  Kttretfrnr»rret^  »u»  ti^tiv  ^^ort^ov.  But  we  shoold  remark  that 
Eusebius  was  strongly  inclined  to  turn  everyti^ng  to  the  advantage  of 
his  hero ;  and  that  it  is  in  nowise  inconsistent  with  this  statement  to 
suppose  that  Helena,  while  professing  to  be  on  the  side  of  heathenism, 
still  cherished  a  certain  veneration  for  Christ,  as  a  divine  being,  and 
was  disposed  to  favour  Christianity. 

f  See  the  religious  discourse  which  the  Christian  emperor  is  said  to 
have  pronounced  before  a  Christian  assembly, — Oratio  ad  sanctorum 
coBtum,— appended  to  the  life  of  this  emperor  by  Eusebius,  c.  25.  Though 
it  assuredly  cannot  be  supp<»ed  that  the  discourse  was  delivered  by  &e 
emperor  precisely  as  it  stands  here,  yet  the  substance  of  it  is  nevertheless 
uot  wholly  unlike  what  we  might  naturally  expect  from  him.  Compare 
also  what  Constantine  says  concerning  the  persecution  of  Dioclesian,  in 
bis  proclamation  issued  in  the  East,  after  the  victory  over  Licinios. 
Euseb.  de  vita  Constantin.  1.  II.  c.  49. 


HIS  EARLY  HISTOBT.  9 

which  he  here  saw  displayed,  it  was  no  difficult  task  for  him 
to  decide  which  way  of  thinking  would  best  contribute  to  pro- 
mote the  tranquillity  and  well-being  of  the  state.  He  wit- 
nessed here,  too,  such  proo&  of  the  power  of  Christian  j^th 
as  might  well  make  an  impression  on  him.  He  saw  there  was 
something  in  Christianity  which  was  not  to  be  subdued  by  fire 
and  sword. 

In  the  next  following  years,  after  Constantine,  as  his  father's 
successor,  had  been  proclaimed  Augustus,  in  306,  by  the 
l^ons  in  Britain,  he  appears  to  have  been  still  attached  to 
the  pagan  forms  of  worship.  When,  in  the  year  308,  after 
the  successful  termination  of  the  war  with  that  Maximianus 
Herculius  who  had  a  second  time  set  himself  up  as  emperor, 
he  received  the  unexpected  intelligence  that  the  Franks, 
against  whom  he  was  just  commencing  a  campaign,  had 
ceased  from  their  hostile  demonstrations,  he  gave  public 
thanks  in  a  celebrated  temple  of  Apollo,  probably  at  Autun 
(Augustodunum),  and  presented  a  magnificent  ofiering  to  the 
god.*  From  this  circumstance  we  may  gather,  not  only  that 
Constantine  still  professed  an  attachment  to  the  old  heathen 
ceremonies,  but  also  that  he  did  not  belong  to  the  class  of 
warriors  and  princes  who  make  no  account  of  the  religious 
interest,  and  who^  strangers  to  all  emotions  and  impulses  of 
that  nature,  have  an  eye  only  to  the  human  means  of  pro- 
secuting their  undertakings.  He  believed  himself  to  be  in- 
debted for  his  good  fortune  to  the  protection  of  a  god. 

-It  was  not  until  after  his  victory  over  the  tyrant  Maxentiusf 
that  Constantine  publicly  declared  in  &,vour  of  the  Christians. 
The  question  here  presents  itself,  whether,  as  we  must  suppose 
according  to  one  of  the  traditions,  it  was  this  victory  itself,  in 
connection  with  the  extraordinary  circumstances  preceding  it, 
which  gave  this  new  and  decided  direction,  not  to  the  public 
conduct  only,  but  also  to  the  religious  opinions  of  this  em- 
peror. 

*  Eomenii  Panegyricas  Constantini,  c.  21. 

t  Maxentius,  son  of  Maximianus  Herculius,  had  seized  upon  the 
sovereignty  in  Italy  and  in  North  Africa,  and  by  his  abandoned  and 
voluptuous  life,  his  oppressions,  and  his  despotic  acts  in  every  way,  had 
rendered  himself  alike  odious  to  heathens  and  to  Christians ;  though  at 
Rome  he  had  in  the  outset  showed  himself  fiivourable  to  the  Christians, 
with  a  view  to  secure  on  his  side  the  interest  of  their  party.  Euseb*  H« 
E.  1.  Vni.  c  14. 


10  OONSTAimNE. 

According  to  Eiisebius,*  the  way  in  which  this  important 
change  was  brought  about  was  as  follows: — ^Maxentius,  in 
making  his  preparations  for  the  war,  had  scrupulously  ob- 
served all  the  customary  ceremonies  of  paganism,  and  was 
relying  for  success  on  the  agency  of  supernatural  powers. 
Hence  Constautine  was  the  more  strongly  persuaded  that  he 
ought  not  to  place  his  whole  confidence  in  an  arm  of  flesh. 
He  revolved  in  his  mind  to  what  god  it  would  be  suitable  for 
him  to  apply  for  aid.  The  misfortunes  of  the  kst  emperon, 
who  had  been  so  zealously  devoted  to  the  cause  of  paganism, 
and  the  example  of  his  mther,  who  had  trusted  in  the  one  true 
and  almighty  God  alone,  admonished  him  that  he  also  should 
place  confidence  in  no  other.  To  this  Grod,  therefore,  he 
applied,  praying  that  he  would  reveal  himsdf  to  him,  and 
lend  him  the  protection  of  his  arm  in  the  approaching  contest 
While  thus  praying,  a  short  time  after  noon,*]*  he  beheld, 
spread  on  the  ^u«  of  the  heavens,  a  glittering  cross,  and  above 
it  the  inscription,  ^^By  this  conquer.":^  The  emperor  and 
his  whole  array,  now  just  about  to  commence  their  march  to- 
wards Italy,  were  seized  with  awe.  While  Constantine  was 
still  pondering  the  import  of  this  sign,  night  came  cm ;  and  in 
a  dream  Christ  appeared  to  him,  with  the  same  symbol  which 
he  had  seen  in  the  heavens,  and  directed  him  to  cause  a  banner 
to  be  prepared  after  the  same  pattern,  and  to  use  it  as  his  pro- 
tection against  the  power  of  the  enemy.  The  emperor  obeyed ; 
he  caused  to  be  made,  after  the  pattern  he  had  seen,  the  re- 
splendent banner  of  the  cross  (called  the  Labarum),  on  the 
shaft  of  which  was  affixed,  with  the  s3^bol  of  the  cross,  tJie 
monogram  of  the  name  of  Christ.  He  then  sent  for  Chris- 
tian teachers,  of  whom  he  inquired  concerning  the  God  that 
had  appeared  to  him,  and  the  import  of  the  symbol.  This 
gave  them  an  opportunity  of  instructing  him  in  Uie  knowledge 
of  Christianity. 

Taking  the  account  of  Eusebius  as  literally  true,  we  should 
have  to  recognise  in  this  occurrence  a  real  miracle.     We 

*  De  vita  Constant  c  L  SKT. 

t  The  obscure  language  of  Eusebius — d.u^i  fjuimif^^^  ^i^ff  ^  ^f 
iifiX^ett  aivruvrnwcnt — is^  1  think,  BiMt  naturaliy  interpi^Kted  by  snppoimg 
the  last  clause  to  contain  a  limitation  of  the  fint. 

X  TsuTif  fi»tt, — undoubtedly,  in  the  native  language  of  the  emperor 
and  of  the  Roman  soldiers,  Hoc  vince. 


STOBY  OF  THE  SIGN  OF  THE  CBOSS.  1 1 

should  be  the  less  tempted  to  separate  the  &ct  at  bottom  from 
the  su1]jective  conceptioa  and  representation  of  it  by  the  nar- 
rator, and  thus  to  reduce  it  from  the  form  of  a  supernatural  to 
that  of  a  natural  phenomenon,  because  the  pagan  army,  whidb 
Constantine  was  leading  from  Gaul,  and  which,  according  to 
the  pagan  rhetorician  Libanius,  conquered,  praying  to  the 
gods,*  is  said  also  to  have  beheld  the  words  inscribed  in  the 
heavens.  But  the  supposition  of  a  miracle  here  is  one  which 
has  in  itself  nothing  to  recommend  it,  especially  when  we  con- 
fiider^  that  the  eanversiony  as  it  is  called,  of  the  Roman  em- 
peror y  such  as  it  really  was,  could  in  nowise  possess  the  same 
significance  in  the  sight  of  God,  who  re^)ecteth  not  the  per- 
son, but  looks  up(m  the  heart  alone  as  an  acceptable  sacrifice, 
as  it  had  in  the  eyes  of  men  dazzled  and  deceived  by  outward 
diow.  In  this  particular  way  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  con- 
ceive that  a  change  of  heart,  which  is  the  only  change  that 
deserves  to  be  called  a  conversion,  could  have  been  wrought. 
Much  rather  mi^t  we  presume  that  in  this  way  the  emperor 
would  be  misled  to  combine  pagan  superstition  with  a  mere 
colouring  of  Chiistianity.  And  were  we  to  judge  of  the  end 
which  this  miracle  was  designed  to  subserve  by  the  general 
consequences  of  the  emperor's  conversion  on  the  Christian 
church  within  the  Roman  empire,  it  might  be  i|uestioned 
whether  these  consequences  were  really  so  benign  in  their  in- 
fluence oa  the  progress  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  as  they  were 
imagined  to  be  by  those  persons  who,  dazzled  by  outward 
show,  saw  in  the  external  power  and  splendour  of  the  Chris- 
tian  church  a  triumph  of  Christianity. 

But,  aside  firom  all  this,  in  order  to  suppose  a  real  miracle, 
we  need  better  testimony  to  the  truth  of  the  fiicts,  as  they  are 
stated  by  Eusebius.  The  only  witness  is  Constantine  himself, 
who,  many  years  after  the  event,  had  related  the  circumstances 
to  this  writer.^    But,  in  the  case  of  Constantine  himself,  it 

*  Liban.  v*^  c«^  /Wy,  ed.  B«iske,  vol.  II.  p.  160,  ma^iu^u  /ui*  rn 

IrnX^tfy  st^oTifiOf  tl^fittot. 

f  As  Eusebiiu  does  not  mention  this  in  his  Chnrch  History,  and  yet  we 
can  hardly  suppose  that,  when  he  composed  this  history,  he  did  not  know 
tomething  about  it  through  the  popular  tradition  of  the  Christians,  we 
tamst  explain  the  circumstance  by  supposing  that  what  he  then  knew 
about  it  seemed  to  him  either  not  well  authenticated,  or  else  not  import- 
ant enough  for  his  purpose ;  for  it  was  then  his  opmion  t.\^t  CmoMxiS^i&i^ 


i 


12  CONST  ANTINE. 

might  easily  happen  that  what  was  in  itself  a  natural  pheno- 
menon would,  by  his  own  subjective  apprehension  of  it,  by 
the  power  of  fancy,  the  length  of  the  intervening  time,  the 
wish  to  be  regarded  by  the  bishops  as  a  person  peculiarly 
favoured  of  God,  gradually  assume  to  itself  the  shape  of  a 
miracle.  Add  to  this,  that  Eusebius  himself,  in  the  character 
of  a  rhetorical  panegyrist,  might  indulge  in  some  exaggeration. 
His  story  is  not  wholly  consistent  with  itself;  but  contains, 
besides  the  miraculous  part  of  it,  much  that  seems  altogether 
improbable.  Constantine  must  have  received  some  knowledge 
of  the  God  of  the  Christians  from  his  &ther ;  yet  he  inquires 
who  he  is.  It  seems  that  he  needed  to  be  informed  what  was 
meant  by  the  symbol  of  the  cross ;  but  the  import  of  this  sign, 
which  appeared  in  the  daily  life  of  every  Christian,  and  con- 
cerning the  supernatural  influence  of  which  so  much  was  said, 
could  at  that  time  hardly  remain  unknown  to  any  one  who 
was  in  the  habit  of  associating  with  Christians.  The  very 
style  of  the  narration,  then,  as  drawn  up  by  Eusebius,  would 
lead  us  of  itself  to  be  cautious  how  we  take  everything  it  con- 
tains as  literally  true ;  and  to  conjecture  that  a  natural  pheno- 
menon was  the  basis  of  what  he  has  represented  as  a  superna- 
tural event.  Now  we  do  actually  find  other  accounts  which 
may,  perhaps,  be  traced  back  to  a  still  older  and  purer  source, 
— to  an  account  given  by  Constantine,  or  by  Christians  who 
were  with  him,  soon  after  the  event, — ^and  which  point  more 
directly  to  a  natural  incident.  According  to  Eufinus,  he  sees, 
in  a  dream,  towards  the  East,  the  flaming  sign  of  a  cross ;  and, 
waking  in  a  fright,  beholds  at  his  side  an.  angel,  who  exclaims^ 
"  By  this  conquer."*  The  work,  "Z>e  martibtis persecutorum^'^ 
reports  that  he  was  directed  in  a  vision  to  cause  the  sign  of 
the  Christian's  God  to  be  placed  on  the  shields  of  his  soldiers.f 
These  statements  point  to  a  psychological  explanation.  Tet 
we  must  admit  that  what  then  transpired  in  the  mind  of  Con- 
tantine  would  have  an  important  influence  on  his  way  of  think- 
ing and  on  his  conduct  in  regard  to  matters  of  religion. 

following  the  example  of  his  Either,  was  already  a  Christian,  and  marched 
against  Maxentios,  calling  on  God  and  Christ  to  assist  him. 

*  Rufln.  hist  eccles.  1.  IX.  c.  9. 

t  De  m.  p.  c.  44.  Commonitus  est  in  quiete  Constantinus  at  coBleste 
signum  Dei  (the  monogram  of  Christ)  notaret  in  scutis  atque  ita  proeliom 
committeret 


STOBT  OF  THE  SIGN  OF  THE  CROSS.  13 

But  it  may  be  doubted  whether  we  have  sufficient  warrant 
for  adopting  this  hypothesb.  It  is  possible  that  the  whole 
story  may  have  sprung  up  after  the  event.  In  the  eyes  of  both 
pagans  and  Christians,  the  victory  over  Maxentius  was  an 
event  of  the  utmost  importance.  Pagans  and  Christians  were 
at  that  time  inclined,  each  party  in  their  own  way,  to  intro- 
duce, under  such  circumstances,  the  aid  of  higher  powers ;  and 
the  rhetorical  panegyrists  especially  contributed  to  the  propa- 
gation of  such  legends.  Pagans  saw,  in  this  case,  the  gods  of 
the  eternal  city  engaged  to  deliver  them  from  the  disgraceful 
yoke.  Among  them,  accordingly,  was  circulated  the  legend 
of  a  heavenly  army  seen  in  the  air,  and  sent  by  the  gods  to  the 
succour  of  Constantine.*  Among  the  Christians,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  story  was  propagated  of  an  appearance  of  the  cross. 
Constantine  having  been  observed,  in  the  later  years  of  his 
life,  to  show  a  peculiar  veneration  for  the  cross,  men  would 
&in  trace  this  habit  to  the  fact  that  it  was  by  the  aid  of  the 
cross  he  had  obtained  his  victory ;  and  by  an  anachronistic 
combination  of  events  which  is  of  no  unfrequent  occurrence, 
they  referred  many  things  which  belonged  to  a  later  period 
of  the  reign  of  Constantine — as,  for  instance,  the  erection  of 
the  banner  of  the  cross — back  to  the  present  time.  In  the 
later  part  of  his  life  Constantine  may  have  acknowledged 
this  account  of  the  popular  tradition,  to  give  himself  im- 
portance in  the  eyes  of  the  Christians ;  perhaps,  by  degrees, 
persuading  himself  that  the  event  had  actually  so  happened. 
This,  we  must  admit,  is  possible.  But,  in  this  case,  we 
should  have  to  trace  those  regulations  of  Constantine  in  favour 
of  the  Christian  church,  which  immediately  ensued,  to  some 
other  cause.  It  is  altogether  inadmissible,  however,  to  explain 
these  regulations  as  resulting  from  the  policy  of  Constantine. 
In  gaining  over  the  Christian  party  to  his  side,  he  lost  ground 
with  the  heathen ;  and  yet  the  heathen  party,  if  not  the  most 
numerous,  was  for  the  most  part  still  in  possession  of  the 
power.     Many  things,  moreover,  are  to  be  observed  in  the 

*  Nazarii  Panegyricus  in  Constantin.  c.  14.  In  ore  denique  est  om- 
ninm  Galliamm,  exercitas  vi/tos,  qui  se  divinitus  missos  prs  se  ferebant. 
The  words  are  even  put  into  their  mouth,  Coustantinum  petimus,  Con- 
stantino imus  aoxilio.  And  the  pitiable  flattery  adds  to  this,  Habent 
profecto  et  divina  jactantiam  et  coelestia  quoque  tangit  ambitio.  lUi, 
divinitos  missi,  gioriabantur  quod  tibi  militabant. 


14  (xmKTAwrnnL 

proceedings  of  Constantine  after  this  time,  which  assaredly 
do  not  admit  of  being  explained  from  anj  plan  of  policy^  bit 
only  on  the  ground  of  a  peculiar  religioos  interest.  From 
what  has  been  said  above,  however,  respecting  the  early 
education  of  Constantitte,  we  might  veiy  easily  account  ror 
the  fact,  even  without  resorting  to  the  visicm  of  the  cross, 
that,  like  Alexander  Severus  and  Philip  the  Arabian,  be  had 
become  convinced  that  the  God  of  the  Christians  was  a 
powerful  Divine  Being,  who  was  to  be  worshipped  along  with 
the  ancient  gods  of  the  nation  ;  and  that  he  was  led,  after  the 
defeat  of  Maxentius,  when  his  power  vras  increased,  and  he 
had  obtained  the  sovereignty  over  those  lands  where  Chris- 
tianity had  become  more  widely  diffused,  to  express,  in  hit 
public  and  civil  acts,  a  conviction  which  he  had  already  lon£^ 
entertained. 

But  although  the  origin  of  this  l^end  might  be  thus  ex** 
plained,  and  although  we  are  not  driven  to  a  ^t  of  this  sort  - 
in  order  to  account  for  th^  conduct  of  Ccmstantine  towards  the 
Christian  church,  yet  we  ought  not,  without  weighty  reasons, 
to  reject  the  l^end  altogether;  nor  should  we,  without 
weighty  reasons,  charge  Constantine  with  a  partly  intentional 
fraud ;  especially  as  he  himself  here  furnishes  us  with  a  key  ta 
explain  his  way  of  thinking  and  acting  in  matters  of  religion, 
which  is  in  every  respect  exceedingly  well  suited  to  that  end, 
and  which  in  many  ways  is  proved  to  be  the  right  one.  We 
have  already  observed  that  Constantine  in  his  wars  was  in  the 
habit  of  looking  to  the  gods  for  assistance.*  Christian  and 
pagan  historians  are  agreed  that  Maxentius,  whose  supersti- 
tion, as  it  frequently  happens,  was  equal  to  his  crimes,  offered 
many  sacrifices  to  secure  the  victory  on  his  side ;  and  that  he 
relied  more  upon  supernatural  powers  than  upon  the  might  of  his 
arms.f  Even  in  the  later  period  of  Constantine's  life  we  meet 
with  many  things  which  show  that  he  dreaded  the  effects  of  the 
pagan  rites.  Supposing  this  to  be  the  case,  we  may  readily 
conceive  that  he,  too,  would  wish  to  have  some  superior  power 
on  his  own  side;  and  that  with  this  feeling,  in  accordance  with 
the  pagan  mode  of  thinking,  which,  for  the  most  part,  still 

*  Comp.  vith  the  above  remark  the  coins  of  Constantine  with  the  in- 
scription Soli  invicto  comiti,  Eckhel,  doctrina  nommoram  vetemm, 
vol.  VI II.  p.  75. 

t  Vid.  Zosim.  1.  II.  c.  16. 


STOKT  OF  THE  SIGN  OF  THE  GROSS.  15 

clung  to  him,  his  attention  woold  be  directed  to  watch  for 
dgns  in  the  heavens,  from  which  he  coold  gather  an  omen.* 
In  his  intercourse  with  the  Christians  he  had  heard  of  the 
miraculous  power  of  the  cross ;  he  already  believed  in  the  God 
of  the  Christians  as  a  powerful  being.  Now  it  is  very  pos- 
sible that,  either  of  himself,  or  at  the  suggestion  of  Christians 
about  his  person,  he  imagined  he  perc^ved,.  in  the  shape  of 
the  clouds,  or  in  some  other  object,  a  sign  of  the  cross — ^the 
Cliristians  being  disposed  to  trace  their  &vourite  symbol  in 
ahnost  every  object  of  nature.  The  vision  in  his  sleep,  which 
perhaps  immediately  followed,  admits  itself  also,  in  this  case, 
of  an  easy  explanation.  Thus,  then,  Constantino  was  led  to 
cmiceive  the  hope  that,  by  the  power  of  the  God  of  the  Chris- 
tians and  the  sacred  symbol  of  the  cross,  he  should  conquer.f 
He  obtained  the  victory,  and  now  felt  that  he  was  indebted  for 
it  to  the  God  of  the  Christians.  The  sign  of  the  cross  became 
his  amulet,  of  yfhkh  &ct  we  find  many  and  various  indications 
in  the  ensuing  life  of  Constantino.  After  the  victory  he 
caused  to  be  erected  in  the  Forum  at  Borne  his  own  statue, 
holding  in  the  right  hand  a  standard,  in  the  shape  of  a  cross, 
with  the  following  inscription  beneath  it :  '^  By  this  salutary 
sign,  the  true  symbol  of  valour,  I  freed  your  city  from  the 
jdce  of  the  tyrant.":^     He  was  afterwards  in  the  frequent 

*  We  may  compare  the  ^toa-mfiJa  in  Eosebins,  vita  Const.  1.  xxviii., 
with  a  )M«*ff^u7«y. 

t  Althoogh  the  remark  is  certainly  just  in  itself,  that  tbe  Christian 
historians  were  very  ready  to  imagine  they  saw  the  sign  of  the  cross 
where  there  was  noddng  of  the  kind,  yet  there  are  no  existing  grounds 
for  applying  this  remark,  with  Eckhel  and  Manso,  to  all  the  monuments 
belonging  to  the  time  of  Constantine,  and  for  regarding  the  Labamm  as 
no  mcHre  than  an  ordinary  Eoman  banner ;  still  less  is  there  any  good 
reason  for  seeking  in  the  Attic  antiquities  an  explanation  of  the  mono- 
gram of  Christ,  the  meaning  of  which  is  so  obvious. 

I  Eoseb.  hist  eccles.  IX.  9;  de  v.  C.  II.  40.     Twr^  rcy  a-ttrn^uiht 

Tv^mtfu  ^MfttBu^civ  lAit/^ifAltf'a.  Rufinus  bas  it,  Hoc  singular!  signo  :  he 
seems,  however,  not  to  luive  bad  before  him  the  original  Latin  wor^s, 
bat,  in  his  usual  way,  to  give  an  arbitrary  translation  of  tbe  Greek 
words  in  Eusebius.  As  Eusebius  lays  a  particular  stress  on  the  word 
^ttrn^whif,  we  may  condnde  that  in  the  Latin  there  was  something 
exactlv  corresponding  to  it,  as  '*  salutari."  Now  unquestionably  it  may 
be  said  that  the  emperor  had  perhaps  caused  himself  to  be  represented 
simply  with  a  Roman  hasta  (ii^o  rvwtfZ  r^ii/MTi,  says  Eusebius),  and 
that  it  was  only  the  word  *<  salotare/'  and  8om«  acddeut&L  i^cuU.«x\t^ 


16  CONSTANTINE  AND  LICmiUS. 

habit  of  making  this  sign  (to  which  he  ascribed  a  super- 
natural power  of  protection)  on  the  most  ordinary  occasions. 
and  was  often  observed  to  draw  the  cross  upon  his 
forehead.* 

This  hypothesis  is  rendered  probable  by  similar  examples 
belonging  to  the  same  period,  where  superstition  became  the 
way  to  faith,  and  men  who  imagined  they  perceived  super- 
natural effects  to  proceed  from  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  the 
common  occurrences  of  life  were  thereby  first  led  to  repose 
faith  in  the  God  of  the  Christians.'!'  Examples  of  this  sort 
occur  also  at  other  periods,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  conversion 
of  warlike  princes,  such  as  Clovis  and  Olof  Trygwaeson. 

In  this  way  we  may  best  explain  how  in  Constantine's  mind 
there  was  at  first  only  a  mixture  of  heathen  with  Christian 
views, — ^how  at  first  he  could  worship  the  God  of  the  Chris- 
tians along  with  the  gods  of  paganism,  until,  gradually  led  on 
by  the  conviction  that  this  his  patron  God  had  procured  him 
the  victory  over  all  his  enemies,  and  made  him  master  of  the 
whole  Roman  empire,  in  order  that  His  own  worship  might 
by  his  means  become  universally  diffused,  he  came  at  length  to 
believe  that  this  God  was  the  Almighty  Being  who  alone 
deserved  to  be  worshipped,  and  that  the  gods  of  the  heathen 
were  malignant  spirits,  opposed  to  the  only  true  God — ^spirits 
whose  kingdom    was,   through    his  instrumentality,   to    be 

in  the  shape  of  the  spear,  coupled  with  what  was  known  respecting 
Constantine  in  his  later  life,  which  led  to  the  explanation  of  that  83rmb<3 
as  the  cross ;  hnt  the  truth  is,  we  have  not  the  least  warrant  for  accusing 
Eusebius  of  any  such  misapprehension,  especially  when  we  consider  that 
in  his  Church  History,  where  this  circumstance  is  already  related, 
nothing  as  yet  occurs  respecting  the  supernatural  appearance  of  the 
cross.  The  language  certainly  applies  more  naturally  to  the  symbol  of 
the  cross  than  to  an  ordinary  spear;  yet  we  should  remember  that,  in 
the  language  of  Constantine,  Roman  and  Christian  notions  flow  together. 

*  Euseb.  III.  2.      T0  r^tfVaffTtff  r^  ^mr^^tu  »etreiff(Pfayi^o[j,iU(  rrifAiief. 

t  In  the  poem  of  Severus,  belonging  to  the  fifth  century,  which  may 
he  taken  as  a  picture  drawn  from  real  life,  the  pagan  shepherd  is  led  to 
embrace  the  faith,  from  observing,  as  he  supposes,  that  the  fold  of  the 
Christian  shepherd  is  preserved  by  the  sign  of  the  cross  from  the  conta- 
gious murrain  which  &11  on  the  other  folds.    He  concludes, — 

Nam  cor  addubitem,  quin  homini  quoque 
Signum  prodt  idem  perpeti  saeculo. 
Quo  vis  morbida  vincitur  ? 

In  the  same  manner,  a  warrior,  from  observing,  as  he  supposes,  the  power 
of  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  battle,  becomes  more  inclined  to  the  &ith. 


THEIR  FIRST  AND  SECOND  EDICTS.  ]  7 

destroyed.  In  the  first  instance,  his  religious  convictions 
moved  him,  in  conformity  mrith  his  eclecticism,  simply  to 
grant  equal  toleration  and  freedom  to  all  the  religions  existing 
in  the  Roman  empire ;  and  this,  certainly,  was  the  course  best 
suited,  under  the  existing  circumstances,  to  secure  tranquillity 
to  the  state.  His  peculiar  veneration  for  the  God  of  the 
Christians  moved  him  to  give  special  distinction  to  the 
Christian  worship,  without  prejudice  to  the  old  Boman 
religion.  The  paganism  of  Greece  and  Rome  was,  in  &ct, 
as  the  religion  of  the  state,  already  in  possession  of  the 
privileges ;  the  Christian  worship,  hitherto  oppressed,  had  yet 
to  be  elevated  to  the  same  rank  with  the  other. 

The  first  law  relating  to  matters  of  religion  which  Con- 
stantine  enacted  in  conmion  with  Licinius  has  not  come 
down  to  us.  The  nature  of  its  contents,  therefore,  can  be 
gathered  only  from  the  character  of  the  second  law,  published 
in  the  following  year,  in  which  the  first  is  said  to  be  amended. 
But  this  latter  rescript  has  also  come  down  to  us  in  a  form 
which  renders  the  attempt  to  do  this  both  difficult  and  unsafe.* 
It  is  most  probable  that,  in  the  first  rescript,  all  the  religious 
parties  then  existing  in  the  Roman  empire — ^including  the 
Christian  party,  with  its  various  sects — were  mention^  by 
name,  and  then  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion  accorded  to 
all  the  members  of  these  different  religious  parties.  This, 
however,  was  so  expressed  that  it  might  at  least  be  inter- 
preted to  mean  that  each  individual  was  allowed  indeed  to 
follow,  with  unlimited  freedom,  the  principles  of  that  re- 
ligious party  with  which  he  happened  to  be  connected  when 
this  rescript  appeared;  but  could  not  be  permitted  to  leave 
the  religious  party  with  which  he  then  happened  to  be  con- 

*  We  have  this  rescript  in  an  abbreviated  form,  in  the  book  de  mort* 
persecut.  chap.  48.  Conditions  are  here  spoken  of,  by  which  the  free 
exercise  of  we  Christian  worship  seemed  to  have  been  limited  in  the 
first  rescript :  the  nature  of  these  conditions,  however,  is  not  mentioned. 
In  the  next  place,  we  have  the  same,  after  a  Greek  translation,  in  the 
Church  History  of  Eusebius  (x.  5),  but  somewhat  obscurely  expressed, 
as  such  translations  from  the  Latin  in  Eusebius  usually  are  (and  perhaps 
distorted  fromthe  true  sense  by  various  misapprehensions  of  the  Latin 
original).  Yet  we  may  infer,  even  from  a  comparison  of  Eusebius  with 
the  passage  in  the  book  de  mortibus,  that  the  translation  was  made  from 
a  somew^tt  different  form  of  the  rescript  than  that  which  is  found  io 
the  book  de  mortibus. 

VOL.  III.  c 


18  OOKSTANTINE  AND  UCDVIUS. 

nected,  in  order  to  unite  himself  with  another.*  This  ad- 
dition must  have  been  felt  to  be  a  great  constraint,  especially 
by  the  Christians ;  for  it  may  be  conceived  that,  under  a  nev 
gOYemment  so  fiivourable  to  the  Christians,  many  who  had 

*  In  the  book  de  mortibns  it  wys,  in  tiie  seeond  rescript,  amctit 
omnibus  omnino  conditionibuM^  qus  (in)  prios  scriptif  ad  offidom  tnom 
datis  super  Christianonim  nomine  Yidebantor.  If  we  chose  to  take  the 
word  al^tfii  in  tiie  expression  of  Eusebins,  £f«i^Sii#wv  «rcvnX«r  fwr 
tu^tftttf,  as  synonymous  with  conditio,  then  Eusebius  would  agree  word 
Ibr  word  with  the  book  de  mortibus ;  but  to  take  the  word  aSfwtt  m 
meaning  simply  the  same  thing  with  conditio  is  what  neither  the 
general  usage  of  the  Greek  language,  nor  the  way  in  which  EkuebinB 
uniformly  employs  this  word  in  the  rescript,  will  permit  It  alwa3rB 
retains  in  Eusebius  the  significations,  choice,  choice  arising  from  firee 
conviction,  the  religious  sect  which  one  embraces  from  conviction, — ^henee 
sect  in  general.  If  the  word  itl»%ftt  in  this  rescript  occurred  nowhere 
else  in  Eusebius,  it  might  be  said  that  the  translator  had  misunderstood 
the  Latin  word  conditiones ;  as,  in  fiict,  it  seems  quite  evident  that  in 
one  passage  of  the  rescript  an  error  of  translation  has  arisen  oat  of  a 
misunderstanding  of  the  Latin,  where  the  question  relates  to  the  indetn- 
nity  which  those  were  to  receive  who  gave  up  to  the  churches  the 
landed  estates  they  had  been  deprived  of,  and  where  in  the  book  de 
mortibus  the  rescript  runs  thus :  Si  putaverint,  de  nostra  benevolentia 
aliquid  vicarium  postulent  (if  they  think  good  to  do  so,  th^^y  may  ask  of 
our  benevolence  some  indemnity),  and  where  the  translator  in  Eusebius 
anderstands  the  word  vicarium  as  a  masculine  noun,  designating  tiie 
name  of  an  office,  hence  reads  the  passase  as  if  it  stood  thus :  aliqiud 
Vicarium  postulent  (may  demand  something  from  the  Vicarius  of  the 
province),  and  translates,  vr^cei\.^atft  r^  W)  riw^f  'Eva^;^^  S^jui^mti. 
But  since  the  same  word  occurs  several  times  in  a  similar  connecti(m  in 
Eusebius,  and  since,  moreover,  as  we  have  remarked,  the  form  of  the 
original  document  as  known  to  Eusebius,  and  the  form  of  the  rescript  in 
the  book  de  mortibus,  seem  not  to  have  been  in  all  respects  the  same, 
we  are  not  warranted  to  suppose  here  a  misconstruction  of  words,  but 
must  rather  endeavour  to  gather  the  nature  of  the  conditions,  which  are 
not  clearly  stated  in  the  book  de  mortibus,  from  the  rescript  in  its  more 
detailed  rorm,  as  it  appears  in  Eusebius.  The  connection  in  Eusebius  is 
as  follows :  as  in  the  first  rescript  many  sects  of  different  kinds  seem  to 
have  been  expressly  added,  the  case  was  perhaps,  that  many  belonging 
to  the  above-named  sects,  soon  after  the  appearance  of  this  rescript, 
abandoned  their  previous  religion  ((£«•«  rh  ratavnis  vrtt^et^Xa^utt  avi- 
Mffwevrt),  These  now  seemed  by  that  rescript,  which  extended  religious 
freedom  expressly  to  the  then  members  of  the  respective  sects,  to  be 
hindered  from  passing  over  to  any  other  religious  party  ;  hence  in  the 
second  edict  it  was  determined,  iireHg  /An^tM  v-wTtXaif  H^evffia  a^mttsc  ^ 
rov  i/toXaoi^itf  xa)  ai^tUBttt   rtiv    tuv  ^^tvrutiwv    9'»^K<pvXa,^tf    ti    d^ftr»£MBr, 


TBSIB  FIRST  AND  SECOND  EDICTS  19 

hefetoibre  been  held  back  hj  fear  would  wish  to  go  over  to  the 
Qmstian  church.  The  attention  of  the  emperor  having  been 
directed  to  the  injurious  consequences  of  the  first  law,  he 
jmblishedat  Milan,  in  the  year  313,  in  common  with  Licinius, 
a  second  edict,  in  which  it  was  declared,  without  mentioning 
by  name  any  of  the  different  religious  parties,  that,  in  general, 
every  one  might  be  permitted  to  adopt  the  principles  of  the 
leligioas  party  which  he  held  to  be  right ;  and,  in  particular, 
every  one  without  exception  to  profess  Christianity.  This 
rescript  contained,  in  fact,  far  more  than  the  first  edict  of 
toleration  published  by  the  emperor  Gallienus ;  since,  by  the 
latter,  Christianity  was  merely  received  into  the  class  of  the 
reUgtOHei  liciUe  of  the  Boman  empire ;  while  this  new  law 
implied  the  introduction  of  a  universal  and  unconditional 
religious  freedom  and  liberty  of  conscience ;  a  thing,  in  &ct, 
wholly  new,  and  in  direct  contradiction  with  the  political  and 
idig^us  mode  of  thinking  which  had  hitherto  prevailed, 
grounded  on  the  dominant  stcUe  religion  ; — a  principle  which, 
without  the  indirect  influence  of  Christianity,  would  hardly 
have  been  brought  to  light,  although  the  groimd  on  which 
this  general  toleration  was  established,  in  the  present  instance, 
is  by  no  means  the  purely  Christian  position.  The  emperors 
expressly  declared  it  to  be  their  intention  that  the  interest  of 
DO  religion  whatever  should  seem  to  be  injured  by  them:* 
and  for  this  they  assign  political  and  religious  motives ;  first, 
thai  it  would  be  conducive  to  the  tranquillity  of  tlie  times ; 
and,  secondly,  that  it  might  conciliate  the  good  will  of  what- 
ever there  was  possessed  of  a  divine  and  heavenly  nature  to 
the  emperor  and  his  subjects,  f 

1/^hile  under  the  influence  of  this  eclectic  liberality,  it  was 
really  of  great  importance  to  Constantino  that  he  should  be 
accurately  informed  respecting  the  different  religious  sects  in 
the  Roman  empire,  and  especially  respecting  those  which  were 
little  known  and  much  decried  (as,  for  example,  the  Manichean 
sect)  in  order  to  see  whether  he  might  not,  consistently  with 

f  "Oiroff  Srt  ir»Tt  tfTi  Btiirtts  Koi  olpancu  vr^ayftar»Si  hfun  xau  vreirt 
tmV  ^9*0  TQf  fi/Mrifiaf  ^ourtaf  itayw^iff  ivfjuins  ureu  ivwiBvi.  In  the  book 
de  mortibus :  qaod  quidem  (shoald  perhaps  be  quid  quid  est),  diviuitas 
(perhaps  divinitatis)  in  sede  ccelesti  nobis  atque  omnibus,  qui  sub 
potestate  nostra  sunt  conslituti,  placatum  ac  propitium  posslt  exlstere. 


20  BEPOBT  OONCEBinKO  THE  SECTS. 

the  welfare  of  the  state,  extend  the  aboye-mentioned  toleration 
to  these  sects  also.  He  made  it  the  special  duty  of  Strat^usi 
a  man  well  fitted  for  this  business  by  his  educaticm  and  leaming, 
to  examine  fully  into  the  character  of  the  difierent  sects,  par- 
ticularly of  the  Manicheans,  and  to  draw  up  for  him  a  report 
on  the  whole  matter.* 

He  at  the  same  time  directed,  with  r^ard  to  the  Christiaii^ 
that  the  places  of  assembly  and  other  estates  which  belonged  to 
the  Christian  church,  but  which  had  been  publicly  confiscated 
in  the  Dioclesian  persecution,  should  be  restored  to  the  origi- 
nal proprietors.  But  he  did  this  with  a  just  provision  for  Uie 
indemnification  of  those  private  individuals  who  had  purchased 
these  estates,  or  received  them  as  presents.  In  this  case,  too^ 
he  assigned  as  the  reason  of  his  conduct,  ^'that  the  pabEc 
tranquillity  would  thereby  be  promoted,  since,  by  this  method 
of  proceeding,  the  care  of  the  divine  Providence,  which  we 
have  already  experienced  in  many  things,  will  remain  secure 
to  us  through  all  time." 

This  union  of  two  Augustuses  to  promote  the  interests  of 
the  Christians  would  necessarily  have  a  &,vourable  influence 
upon  their  situation  in  the  other  provinces.  As  the  two 
emperors  transmitted  their  laws  also  to  Maximinus,  who  then 
stood  on  good  terms  with  them,  the  latter,  from  special  con- 
siderations, would  be  unwilling  alone  to  exasperate  the  Chris- 
tians against  liimself.  He  wished  to  introduce  a  change  in  his 
conduct  towards  that  class  of  his  subjects,  without  appearing 
to  contradict  his  previous  regulations,  and  to  acconmiodate 
himself  to  influences  from  another  quarter ;  but  to  do  this  he 
was  obliged  to  resort  to  various  shifts  and  evasions.  In  a 
rescript  addressed  to  Sabinus,  his  praetorian  prefect,  he  declared 
it  to  be  generally  known  that  Dioclesian  and  Maximian,  when 
they  observed  how  almost  all  were  forsaking  the  worship  of 
the  gods  and  joining  themselves  to  the  Christian  party ^  had 
rightly  decreed  that  whoever  forsook  the  worship  of  the  im- 
mortal gods  should  be  brought  back  again  to  the  same  by 

*  Ammian.  Marcelliu.  1.  XV.  c.  13.  Constantiims  cum  limatius  sa- 
perstitionom  qusereret  sectas,  Manichscorum  et  similium,  oec  interpres 
inveniretur  idoneus,  hnnc  sibi  commendatum  at  snfficientem  elegit. 
Having  fulfilled  this  duty  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  emperor,  he  was 
afterwards  called  by  him  Mosonianus,  rose  to  a  still  higher  post,  and 
finally  became  prsefectos  prstorio  in  the  East 


THE  CHEISTIANS  FAVOURED.  21 

open  punishments.  But  when  he  first  came  to  the  East,* 
and  found  that  very  many  such  people,  who  might  be 
serviceable  to  the  state,  had  on  this  ground  been  banished  by 
the  judges  to  certain  places,  he  had  given  directions  to  the 
several  judges  that  they  should  no  longer  use  forcible  measures 
with  the  inhabitants  of  the  provinces,  but  rather  endeavour  to 
bring  them  back  to  the  worship  of  the  gods  by  friendly  per- 
soasion  and  admonition.  Now,  so  long  as  the  judges  had 
acted  agreeably  to  these  directions,  no  one  in  the  Eastern  pro- 
vinces had  been  exiled  or  otherwise  treated  with  violence ;  but 
for  the  very  reason  that  no  forcible  measures  were  employed 
against  them,  they  had  been  reclaimed  to  the  worship  of  the 
^s.  The  emperor  proceeds  to  explain  how  he  had  been 
afterwards  induced  to  yield  to  the  petitions  of  certain  heathen 
cities,  who  were  unwilling  to  tolerate  any  Christians  within 
their  walls.  He  next  renewed  the  ordinance  which  secured 
the  Christians  against  all  oppressive  measures,  and  forbade 
other  means  to  be  employed  than  those  of  kindness  for  bring- 
ing his  subjects  to  acknowledge  the  providence  of  the  gods. 
If  any  individual  was  led,  out  of  his  own  free  conviction,  to 
profess  veneration  for  the  gods,  he  should  be  joyfully  received ; 
but  every  other  one  was  to  be  left  to  his  own  inclination,  and 
no  reproachful  and  oppressive  conduct  was  to  be  allowed  in 
any  man.  This  will  of  the  emperor  was  everywhere  to  be 
made  publicly  known.  But  although  this  was  done,  yet  the 
Christians  had  so  little  confidence  in  the  disposition  of  the 
man  who  had  deceived  them  once  already — the  rescript  itself 
wore  so  plainly  the  marks  of  constraint,  and  gave  them  so 
little  security,  inasmuch  as  the  public  and  common  exercise  of 
their  religious  worship  was  nowhere  distinctly  permitted,  that 
they  could  have  no  encouragement  to  avail  themselves  of  this 
more  favourable  declaration.  It  >vas  the  misfortune  of  the 
emperor  which  procured  for  them  what  they  could  hardly 
have  expected  from  his  free  inclination. 

After  Maximin  had  with  the  greatest  difficulty  barely  saved 
himself  out  of  the  war  with  Licinius  in  the  year  313,  which 
was  so  unfortunate  for  him,  he  proceeded  to  arm  himself  for  a 
new  conflict  with  the  enemy,  who  was  pursuing  him  and  laying 

*  This  took  place  in  fiict  after  he  had  already,  in  his  older  possessions^ 
followed  in  some  measure  the  edict  of  Galerius.  (See  abo^e.) 


22  XDICT  OF  MAXIMUrUB. 

waste  liis  provinces.  In  this  diflBcult  situatioD  the  exaspeia- 
tion  of  so  considerable  a  party  as  the  Christians  alreadj 
formed  could  not  be  regarded  by  him  as  a  matter  of  indiffier- 
ence:  perhaps,  too,  he  had  been  led  by  his  misfortunes  to 
believe  that  the  God  of  the  Christians  might,  after  all,  be  a 
powerful  being,  whose  vengeance  he  was  now  made  to  espe- 
rience.  He  therefore  publSihed  another  rescript,  in  which  lia 
declared,  that  a  misconception  in  some  of  the  judges  had 
betrayed  his  subjects  into  a  distrust  of  his  ordiimnces.  In 
order,  therefore,  that  all  ambiguity  and  all  suspicion  might 
thencefortli  be  removed,  it  should  be  made  publicly  known 
that  all  who  were  disposed  to  profess  the  religion  of  the 
Christians  were  left  free  to  engage  in  the  public  exercise  of 
this  religion  in  whatever  way  they  chose.  The  Chrislians 
were  expressly  permitted  to  found  churches,  and  the  houses 
and  estates  of  which  they  had  been  deprived  were  to  be  restored 
back  to  them.  Shortly  afterwards,  he  met  with  a  terrible 
death  at  Tarsus.  Constantino  and  Licinius,  who  had  heret<^ 
fore  both  shown  themselves  favourable  to  the  ChristianSi 
became,  by  the  death  of  this  last  persecutor  of  the  Christian 
church,  sole  masters  of  the  Roman  empire. 

Ambition,  love  of  power,  and  the  strife  for  absolute  sove- 
reignty in  the  Roman  empire,  particularly  on  the  part  of 
Constantine,  would  not  allow  them  to  remain  long  peaceful 
neighbours  to  each  other.  By  the  battle  of  Cibalm  in  lower 
Pannonia,  in  the  year  314,  the  war  was  decided  in  fiivour 
of  Constantine.  It  ended,  it  is  true,  in  a  treaty  between 
the  two  princes ;  but  their  respective  interests  still  continued 
to  conflict  with  each  other.  Licinius,  who  perhaps  was  but 
little  interested  in  the  afMrs  of  religion  in  themselves  con- 
sidered, had  been  only  moved  by  his  connection  with  Constan- 
tine, and  perhaps  also  by  the  influence  of  his  wife  Constantia, 
the  sister  of  Constantine,  whom  he  had  married  in  the  year 
313,  to  participate  in  the  favourable  proceedings  begun  towards 
the  Christians.  The  former  reason  for  &vouring  them  was 
now  removed.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Christians,  as  the 
friends  of  Constantine,  especially  the  bishops,  to  whom  Con- 
stantine paid  so  much  honour,  would  become  objects  of  sus- 
picion to  him.*     Perhaps  many  of  the  bishops  gave  occasion 

*  Probably  Sozomen  represents  the  matter  most  correctly  (i.  7),  when 


LICINIUS  EXCITED  AGAINST  THE  CHRISTIANS.  23 

for  this  by  the  public  manner  in  which  they  avowed  their 
finendship  for  Constantine.*  The  pagans  would  naturally 
a^ail  themselyes  of  this  state  of  feeling  in  Licinius, — would 
eodeavour  to  confirm  him  in  his  hostile  sentiments  against  the 
Christians,  and  to  inspire  him  with  the  hope  that  he  was 
destined  by  the  gods  to  re-establish  their  worship,  and  pros* 
ttftte  the  power  of  their  enemies.  His  ordinances  against  the 
Christians  proceeded  in  part  from  his  political  suspicions ;  and 
partly  it  was  their  design  to  present  the  Christians,  and  espe- 
cially their  bishops,  in  an  unBivourable  light.  He  forbade 
the  latter  to  assemble  together:  no  bishop  was  allowed  to 
pass  over  the  limits  of  his  own  diocese ;  where,  however,  to 
allow  to  the  pagan  emperor  what  is  justly  his  due,  we  should 
notice  that,  as  is  evident  from  the  synodal  laws  of  the  fourth 
century,  worldly-minded  bishops,  instead  of  caring  for  the 
nlvaticm  of  their  flocks,  were  often  but  too  much  inclined  to 
travel  about,  and  entangle  themselves  in  worldly  concerns. 
Wb^ther,  however,  in  the  case  of  licinius,  any  well-grounded 
occasion  existed  for  these  proceedings,  aside  from  his  excessive 
suspicion  and  unwarranted  hostility,  we  are  unable  to  deter- 
mine with  certainty »  as  the  only  accounts  we  have  respecting 
these  matters  come  frt>m  prejudiced  Christian  writers.  He 
moreover  directed  that  the  seats  of  the  men  and  the  women 
should  be  separate  (a  custom  which  afterwards  the  ecclesi- 
astical authorities  themselves  thought  proper  to  retain) ;  that 
no  bishop  should  instruct  a  female  in  Christianity,  but  the 
women  should  be  instructed  only  by  women.  The  same 
remark  which  we  have  just  made  applies  also  to  these  regula- 
tions :  it  is  impossible  to  decide  whether  the  hostile  disposition 
of  Licinius  led  him  to  adopt  all  these  measures  on  false  pre- 
tences, merely  with  a  view  to  de^^de  the  Christians  in  the 
eyes  of  the  people,  or  whether  he  was  led  to  them  by  indivi- 
dual examples  of  abuse  and  criminality.  He  commanded  the 
Christians  at  his  residence  at  Nicomedia  to  hold  their  assem- 
blies, not  in  the  churches,  but  in  the  open  fields  without  the 
city,  under  the  sarcastic  pretence  that  the  fresh  air  was  ^lore 
healthful  in  such  multitudinous  assemblies.  He  caused  the 
churches  in  Pontus  to  be  closed,  and  others  to  be  demolished ; 

be  states  that  Lidnins  first  altered  his  oondact  toirards  the  Cbrustians 
after  his  unfortunate  war  with  Coustantine. 
*  Euseb.  de  ▼.  C.  I.  56. 


i 


24  WAR  BETWEEN 

accusing  the  Christians  that  they  had  piayed,  not  £)r  his 
welfare,  but  for  that  of  the  emperor  OdnstaDtine.  Here- 
moved  the  Christians,  who  refused  to  ofier,  finom  his  palace, 
also  from  all  the  high  civil  and  military  posts,  and  firom  the 
service  of  the  military  police  in  the  cities.  There  were  not 
wanting  those  who  would  have  been  willing  to  surrender 
even  more  than  their  earthly  means  of  subsistence  and  their 
honours  as  a  sacrifice  to  their  &ith ;  but  there  were  also  to  be 
found  those  who,  being  Christians  rather  from  habit  than  hom 
any  inward  reason,  or  who,  having  become  Christians  only 
from  outward  motives,  were  hence  ready  again,. from  similar 
motives,  to  change  their  religion.*  Others  stood  firm,  it  is 
true,  at  first,  but  afterwards  the  love  of  the  world  overcame 
their  love  of  religion ;  they  denied  the  highest  and  only  true 
good  for  an  empty  name,  and  gave  bribes  and  good  words  into 
the  bargain,  so  they  might  but  be  restored  to  their  offioes.f 
Licinius  published  no  edict  authorising  sanguinary  measures ; 
even  the  canons  of  the  Nicene  council  represent  this  per- 
secution as  one  which  was  attended  with  no  efiiision  of  blood. 
Yet  it  may  have  been  the  case  that,  in  consequence  of  the 
popular  fury,  and  the  malice  of  individual  magistrates  in 
many  districts,  and  the  opportunity  which  presented  itself  in 
the  execution  of  the  imperial  laws  themselves,  the  Christians 
suffered  from  occasional  acts  of  violence  and  bloodshed.  But 
on  this  point  we  are  left  without  any  sufficiently  distinct  and 
credible  information.]; 

*  Against  such  the  eleventh  canon  of  the  Nicene  council  is  directed : 

t  Against  such  the  twelfth  canon  of  the  Nicene  council  is  directed :  Oi 

avrtfiifAtfot  rat  l^iivetf  (the  cingulum  utriusque  militise,  palatinsB  et  mili- 
taris),  fjbtra  It  rmura  M  rov  oiKttOf  tfttrav   etfeti^dfMVTtf  is  *Vf%t,  Zv  vtfis 

X  Particularly  famous  in  the  ancient  church  were  the  forty  soldiers  at 
Sebaste  in  Armenia,  whom  their  commander  endeavoured  to  compel  to 
offer  incense,  by  exposing  them  naked  to  the  most  extreme  cold,  of  whom 
thirty-nine  are  said  to  have  remained  stead&st,  and  were  brought  to  the 
stake  almost  frozen.  By  the  rhetorical  descriptions  of  the  ancient  Homi- 
lists,  Basil  of  CsBsarea,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  (Jhrysostom,  Gaudentius  of 
Brescia,  Ephraem  Syrus,  this  story  has  been  variously  embellished ;  but 
we  are  in  want  of  credible  historical  accounts,  such  as  would  enable  us 
to  determine  what  degree  of  truth  lies  at  tiie  bottom  of  this  tale. 


GONSTANTINE  AND  LICINIUS.  25 

ally,  in  the  year  323,  the  second  war  broke  out  between 
mtine  and  Licinius.  This  war  was,  it  is  true,  very  far 
being  a  religious  war,  inasmuch  as  on  both  sides  the 
ds  of  contention  were  merely  political,  and  not  religious, 
'et  it  may  notwithstanding  be  truly  affirmed  that  the 
)h  of  the  pagan  or  Christian  party  was  hanging  on  the 
This,  too,  was  well  understood  on  both  sides ;  and  it 
*efore  natural  to  suppose  that  the  pagan  and  the  Christian 
i  would  embark  in  the  war  each  with  the  feeling  of  their 
int  interests,  and  that  the  two  emperors  also,  in  different 
according  to  the  difference  of  their  religious  convictions, 

place  their  hopes  of  success  in  religion.  A  character* 
ict  to  denote  the  state  of  feeling  among  the  Christians 

provinces  of  Licinius  is  containai  in  the  tradition  cited 
isebius,*  that,  even  before  the  commencement  of  the 
nen  believed  they  saw  several  legions  of  Constantino 
ing  victoriously  through  the  streets  at  mid-day.f 
^rs,  haruspices,  pagan  soothsayers  of  all  sorts,  fired 
►pes  of  Licinius.  Before  proceeding  to  the  war  he  con- 
1  the  heads  of  his  prsetorians,  and  the  most  distinguished 
s  of  his  court,  into  a  grove  consecrated  to  the  gods, 

their  images  had  been  set  up,  and  wax  candles  placed 
ig  before  them.J  After  having  sacrificed  to  the  gods, 
)ke  as  follows:  ^^Here  stand  the  images  of  the  gods, 

worship  we  have  received  from  our  Others.  But  our 
',  who  has  impiously  abandoned  the  sanctuaries  of  his 
-y,  worships  a  foreign  god,  who  has  come  from  I  know 
[lence,  and  dishonours  his  army  by  the  disgraceful  sign 

god.  Placing  his  confidence  upon  this,  he  carries  on 
ir,  not  so  much  with  ourselves  as  with  the  gods  whom 
8  forsaken.  The  issue  of  this  war  must  settle  the 
on  between  his  God  and  our  gods.  If  that  foreign 
which  we  now  deride  come  off  victorious,  we  too  shall 
iged  to  acknowledge  and  worship  it,  and  we  must  dismiss 
ds  to  whom  we  vainly  kindle  these  lights.     But  if  our 

}T.  C.ll.  6. 

is  well  known  that  sinular  legends  respecting  such  visions  occor 

the  case  of  other  wars. 

sebius  relates  this  after  the  report  of  eye-witnesses  (de  v.  C.  II.  5) 

;re  is  no  existing  reason  for  doubting  tne  essential  ^rt  of  the  nas- 


26  COHSTAimHX  80LB  SMPKBOB. 

gods  conquer,  as  we  doubt  not  they  will,  we  will  torn  our- 
selves, after  this  victory,  to  the  war  agunst  their  enemies." 

Constantine,  on  the  other  hand,  relied  upon  the  God  whose 
symbol  accompanied  his  army.  He  caused  the  Labanun  to 
be  borne  in  turn  by  fifty  of  his  choicest  soldiers,  who  constantly 
surrounded  it.  ELe  had  observed,  as  he  supposed,  that  victory 
everywhere  accompanied  the  appearance  of  this  sign,  operating 
with  supernatural  power,  and  that  those  divisions  of  his  army 
which  had  already  begmi  to  give  way  were  often  rallied  by 
its  means;  an  observation  which,  especially  if  the  emperor 
had  a  considerable  number  of  Christians  in  his  army,  mig^t 
doubtless  be  correct,  and  which  may  be  easily  explained  from 
natural  causes.  Constantino  imagined  that,  among  other 
instances,  he  had  met  with  a  proof  of  the  magical  power  of 
the  sign  of  the  cross  in  an  incident  which  he  aiierward 
related  to  the  bishop  Eusebius,  and  which  we  may  cite  as 
furnishing  a  characteristic  trait  of  Constantino's  religious  way 
of  thinking.*  A  soldier  who  bore  the  ensign  of  the  cross,  sud- 
denly overcome  witli  fear,  gave  It  over  to  another,  meaning  to 
save  himself  by  flight  Soon  after  he  was  transfixed  by  an 
arrow ;  while  he  who  bore  the  ensign,  although  many  arrows 
were  shot  at  him,  and  the  staff  of  the  ensign  was  struck,  was 
yet  unharmed  himself,  and  came  out  of  the  battle  without 
receiving  a  wound. 

The  defeat  of  Licinius,  whom  Constantino  dishonourably  and 
faithlessly  allowed  to  be  killed,  made  the  latter  sole  master  o€ 
the  Roman  empire ;  and  certainly,  this  fortunate  accomplish- 
ment of  his  politiod  plans  had  also  an  important  influence 
upon  his  religious  convictions,  and  the  manner  in  which  he 
exhibited  them.  Before  we  pass  to  these  matters,  we  may 
take  a  retrospective  glance  of  the  manner  in  which  he  con- 
ducted himself  in  relation  to  matters  of  religion,  from  the 
time  of  the  above-cited  edict  until  this  decisive  epoch.  To 
form  a  correct  judgment  of  his  conduct  during  this  period,  we 
must  make  the  following  remarks. 

Constantino  had  indeed  gradually  abandoned  his  system  of 
religious  eclecticism,  and  gone  over  to  monotheism ;  but  yet 
the  belief  in  the  power  of  the  heathen  ceremonies  (sacra), 
which  had  taken  so  deep  root  in  his  soul,  could  not  at  once  be 
entirely  removed,  especially  as  his  superstition  had  in  many 

♦  Euseb.  V.  C.  II.  9. 


TOLBBATES  PAfiAH ISM.  27 

inspects  but  altered  its  dress,  in  exchanging  the  pagan  for  a 
Cliristian  form;    and  it  was  natural  tkit  the  influence  of 
lieathens  who  were  about  him,  of  the  philosophers  and  rhe- 
toricians, such  as  Sopatros,  who  still  retained  much  of  their 
ancient  authority,  as  well  as  ^ther  circumstances,  would  again 
call  forth  the  superstition  that  had  been  suppressed.     In  the 
next  place,  although  Constantine  already  looked  upon   the 
pagan  deities  as  eyil  spirits,  yet,  on  this  very  account,  he 
might  still  attribute  a  supernatural  power  to  the  magical  arts 
of  paganism,  and  regard  them  with  dread.    To  this  we  must 
add  the  political  motives  that  forbade  him  to  destroy  at  once 
the  ancient  religion  of  the  state,  which  still  had  a  considerable 
party  in  its  favour ;  while  it  may  be  observed  in  genera],  that, 
by  his  naturally  unbiassed  judgment,  by  the  experience  which 
he  had  already  obtained  in  the  persecution  of  IMoclesian,  and 
by  his  earlier  eclecticism,  Constantine  was  for  the  most  part 
inclined  to  toleration,  except  when  his  mind  had  been  thrown 
in  an  opposite  direction  through    some  paramount  foreign 
influence. 

Although  Constantine  had  manifested  in  many  ways,  be* 
fore  that  first  edict,*  a  dispostion  to  promote  the  Christian 
form  of  worship,  yet,  even  down  to  the  year  317,  we  find 
marks  of  the  pagan  state-religion  upon  the  imperial  coins.f 
Laws  of  the  year  319  presuppose  the  prohibition  of  sacrifices 
in  private  dwellings.  No  haruspex  was  allowed  to  pass  the 
threshold  of  another's  house.  Whoever  transgressed  this 
law  should  be  burned ;  whoever  had  called  an  hwispex  into 
his  house  should  be  banished,  after  the  confiscation  of  his 
goods.  Haruspices,  priests,  and  other  ministers  of  the  pagan 
worship,  were  not  allowed  to  go  into  the  private  dwelling  of 
another,  even  under  the  plea  of  friendship.  I'hese  rigid  ordi* 
nances  are  still  insufiicient  of  themselves  to  prove  that  Con- 
stantine meant  to  suppress  the  heathen  worship  out  of  religious 
motives.  His  motives  may  have  been  merely  political  He 
may  have  feared  that  the  consultation  of  the  haruspices  and 
the  use  of  the  heathen  rites  (sacra)  might  be  taken  advantage 
of  to  form  conspiracies  against  his  govemmait  and  against  his 
life,  the  suspicions  of  men  being  at  that  time  constantly  awake 
on  these  matters ;  and  he  might  be  the  more  fearful  of  all  this, 

^  See  onward,  the  section  concerning  the  relation  of  the  charch  to  the 
state.  t  Vid.  Eckhel  doctrina  nnmism.   "VoX.  YVW.  v«"^- 


28  OONSTANTDTK. 

since  he  was  by  no  means  free  as  yet  from  all  fiuth  in  the 
power  of  the  pagan  magic* 

How  far  he  was,  at  the  same  time,  firom  wishing  to  sappiess 
the  public  rites  of  heathenism  by  force  is  sufficiently  mani- 
fest from  what  he  declares  in  thf  two  cited  laws  of  the  year 
319 :  t  '^  They  who  are  desirous  of  being  slaves  to  their  super- 
stition have  liberty  for  the  public  exercise  of  their  worship  ;*'  J 
and  <<  You,  who  consider  this  profitable  to  yourselves,  ccm- 
tinue  to  visit  the  public  altars  and  temples,  and  to  observe  the 
solemnities  of  your  usage ;  for  we  do  not  forbid  the  rites  of 
an  antiquated  usage  to  be  performed  in  the  open  light."  §  In 
this  concession  we  see  only  a  wise  toleration,  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  natural  limits  of  civil  power,  and  a  knowledge  of 
that  human  nature  whose  cravings  are  but  the  more  strongly 
excited  for  that  which  has  been  forbidden.  By  the  manner 
in  which  the  emperor  speaks  of  the  heathen  worship, — ^when 
he  calls  it  a  superstition,  a  praterita  usurpation — ^he  lets  it  be 
sufficiently  seen  that  he  was  no  longer  held  by  any  religious 
interest  in  favour  of  paganism.  With  this,  however,  a  law 
of  the  year  821  seems  to  conflict,  in  which  Constantine  not 
only  repeats  that  permission  in  respect  to  the  institution  of  the 
haruspicia,  but  expressly  ordains  that,  ^'  whenever  lightning 
should  strike  the  imperial  palace  or  any  other  public  building, 
the  haruspices,  according  to  ancient  uss^e,  should  be  consulted 

^  Libanius  says  of  Constantine,  praising  his  gentleness  in  other 
respects,  p^aXiVMrartfj  3t  ^y  r»7s  o^tyof^itotf    fiet^tXtiaf  xai  rek  Ttmurm  !«'«- 

^at^rtfftt  rk  Sxi/vAry  "iaXiy^rr^i  xa)  aliitfititt  rix^*l  4'«y  yi  ruwrtv  l^i/Xtr'  if 
vov  ^v^eg'  fT.  iioiof,  vri^t  ffvaifftMf,  II.  vol.  I.  ed.  Reiske,  p.  635. 
Eunapius,  whose  testimony  to  be  sare  in  such  things  is  not  wholly  to  be 
relied  on,  beins  a  zealous  pagan,  relates  that  Constantine,  at  the  delay  of 
the  provision  fleet  from  Alexandria,  whereby  Constantine  was  exposed 
to  the  danger  of  a  fiuniue,  ordered  Sopatros,  who  had  stood  high  in  his 
£Eivour,  to  be  executed,  because  the  people  accused  Sopatros  of  being  the 
cause  of  this  delay,  alleging  that  he  had  bound  the  winds  by  the  power 
of  the  heathen  magic.  See  Eunapius,  vit.  ^des.  vol.  I.  p.  23,  ed. 
Boissonade.  Similar  accusations  are  sud  to  have  been  brought  even 
against  the  bishop  Athanasius.    Ammian.  Marcellin.  hist.  1.  XV.  c  7. 

t  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  IX.  Tit  16,  c.  1  et  2. 

X  Superstitioni  suse  servire  cupientes  poterunt  publice  ritum  proprium 
exercere. 

§  Qui  vero  id  vobis  existimatis  conducere,  adite  aras  publicas  atque 
delubra,  et  consuetudinis  vestrse  celebrate  solemnia.  Nee  enim  prohi- 
bemus  prscteritse  usurpationis  officia  libera  luce  tractari. 


HIS  SUPERSTITION.  29 

as  to  what  it  might  signify,  and  a  careful  report  of  the  answer 
should  be  drawn  up  for  his  use."  *  It  is,  indeed,  possible  that 
he  gave  this  direction,  simply  because  he  knew  the  power 
of  tMs  kind  of  superstition,  of  the  belief  in  omens  and  similar 
things,  which  continued  for  so  long  a  time  over  the  minds  of 
the  Roman  people ;  and  because  he  feared  that,  if  the  ham- 
spices  and  their  consultors  were  left  wholly  to  themselves,  or  if 
none  but  indefinite  reports  of  their  interpretations  went  abroad, 
the  thing  might  be  followed  by  still  more  dangerous  conse- 
quences. On  the  other  hand,  he  might  hope  to  be  able  to  dissi- 
pate  more  easily  the  public  anxieties,  if  he  reserved  to  himself, 
as  the  Pontifex  Maximus,  the  supreme  control  of  the  whole. 
In  this  manner  might  we  defend  Constantine  against  the 
reproach  of  having  rallen  back  into  pagan  superstition,  and 
explain  the  whole  as  proceeding  from  a  Roman  policy,  by 
which  he  seemed  to  confirm  the  pagan  superstition ;  although 
we  must  admit  that  such  a  course  can  never  be  justified  in  a 
Christian  prince.  Yet  the  other  hypothesis,  namely,  that 
Constantine  had  actually  fallen  back  into  heathen  supersti* 
tion,  may  undoubtedly  be  regarded  as  the  more  natural.  By 
a  law  of  the  same  year  he  declares  also  the  employment  of 
heathen  magic,  for  good  ends,  as  for  the  prevention  or  healing 
of  diseases,  for  the  protection  of  harvests,  for  the  prevention  of 
rain  and  of  hail,  to  be  permitted,  and  in  such  expressions  too 
as  certainly  betray  a  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  these  pretended 
supernatural  means,  unless  the  whole  is  to  be  ascribed  simply 
to  the  legal  forms  of  paganism,  f 

•  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  X.  Tit  10,  c.  1.  Altogether  in  the  technical  lan- 
guage :  Si  quid  de  palatio  nostro  aut  cseteris  operibus  publicis  degostatum 
folgore  esse  consdterit,  retento  more  veteris  observantiee,  quid  portendat* 
ab  hamspicibus  reqairatur. 

f  L.  c.  c.  8.  Nullis  vero  criminationibus  implicanda  sunt  remedia 
humanis  qussita  oorporibus,  aut  in  agrestibus  locis,  ne  maturis  viu- 
demiis  xnetuerentnr  imbres  aut  mentis  grandinis  lapidatione  quaterentur 
innocenter  adhibita  sufiragia,  quibus  non  cujusc^ue  sal  us  aut  existimatio 
Isedentur ;  sed  quorum  proficerent  actus,  ne  divina  munera  et  labores 
homiuum  stemerentur.  So  that  what  the  devotedly  pagan,  and  on  this 
point  extremely  prejudiced  historian,  Zosimus,  says  of  Constautine  (Hi 
120), — t;^^?r0  oi  trt  xeti  ro7s  vmrpUis  U^o7s,  ch  rtftrit  in*a  fjMkXev  *)  x^tMSf 

xavup6otfi,ivoii,  alrei, — may  be  true  so  far  as  this,  namely,  that,  at  a  time 
when  Constantine' would  no  longer  be  consciously  a  pagan,  he  was  still 
mvoluntarily  governed  by  pagan  superstition. 


80  OONSTANTINB. 

As  Coiifltantine,  by  the  defeat  of  Idcinius,  had  now  become 
master  of  the  whcde  Roman  empire,  he  expresses  everywhere, 
in  his  proclamation  issued  to  his  new  subjects  in  the  East,  the 
conviction  that  the  only  true  and  Almighty  Grod  had,  by  his 
undeniable  interpositions,  given  him  the  victory  over  all  the 
powers  of  darkness,  in  order  that  his  own  worship  mi^t  by 
his  means  be  universally  diffused.  Thus,  in  one  of  the  pro- 
clamations of  this  sort  issued  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Eaeiem 
provinces  of  the  Roman  empire,  he  says,  '^  Thee  the  Supreme 
God,  I  invoke ;  be  gracious  to  all  thy  citizens  of  the  Easton 
provinces,  who  have  been  worn  down  by  longp-continued  dis- 
tress, bestowing  on  them,  through  me  thj  servant,  salvation. 
And  well  may  I  ask  this  of  thee,  Lord  of  the  universe,  bciy 
God ;  for  by  the  leading  of  tiiy  hand  have  I  undertaken  and 
accomplished  salutary  things.  Everywhere,  preceded  by  <fty 
sign,*  have  I  led  on  a  victorious  army.  And  if  anywhere 
the  public  affidrs  demand  it,  I  go  against  the  enemy,  follow- 
ing  the  same  symbol  of  thy  power,  f  For  this  reason  I  have 
consecrated  to  thee  my  soul,  deeply  imbued  with  love  and 
with  fear;  for  I  sincerely  love  thy  name,  I  venerate  thy 
power,  which  thouhcut  revecded  to  me  by  so  many  proofs^  and 
by  which  tliou  hast  confirmed  my  faiths  %  And  in  a  letter 
to  the  bishop  Eusebius  of  Caisarea  he  says,  '*  Freedom  being 
once  more  restored,  and,  by  the  providence  of  the  great  God 
and  my  own  ministry,  that  dragon  driven  from  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  state,  I  trust  that  the  divine  power  has  become 
manifest  even  to  all ;  and  that  they  who  through  fear  or  un- 
belief have  fallen  into  many  crimes  will  come  to  the  know- 
ledge of  the  true  God,§  and  to  the  true  and  right  ordering  of 
their  lives."  What  Constantine  expresses  in  this  written  de- 
claration he  represented  visibly  under  an  emblem  which  he 
caused  to  be  publicly  exhibited  before  the  palace  in  his  new 
residence  at  Constantinople,  consisting  of  a  group  of  wax 
figures,  in  which  the  emperor  was  seen  with  the  sign  of  the 

*  Tny  0'riy  9(p^»yih»  (the  symbol  of  the  cross)  ^anr^x,^  v^oliakX.ofctvas, 
f  Tois    auTote    vni    9'nt    et^trns    titofttfof    rZfSnfAetfiVy    fa*}   roug    vroXtfjuws 

X  EvLseh.  de  v.  C.  II.  54. 

§  To  ovTvs  w,  after  the  Platonic  form  of  expression.  The  languoge 
of  the  imperial  court  inclined  sometimes  to  the  doctrinal  and  biblical 
style  of  the  church,  at  others  to  that  of  the  Greek  philosophy. 


HIS  SUPERSTITION.  81 

cross  over  his  head,  treading  under  foot  a  dragon  transfixed 
by  an  arrow.* 

It  would  be  a  ver^r  unjust  thins:  to  suppose  that  all  these 
public  declarations  and  exhibitions  amounted  to  nothing  but 
mere  Christian  cant,  or  deliberate  and  intentional  hypocrisy. 
Constantine's  language  and  conduct  admit  of  a  far  more  natu- 
ral explanation  when  we  consider  them  as  in  part  the  expres- 
sicm  of  his  real  convictions.  We  have  already  remarked  that 
he  was  not  lacking  in  susceptibility  to  certain  religious  im- 
pressions ;  he  acknowledged  the  peculiar  providence  of  God 
in  the  manner  in  which  he  had  been  delivered  from  dangers, 
made  victorious  over  all  his  pagan  adversaries,  and  finally 
rendered  master  of  the  Boman  world.  It  Battered  his  vanity 
to  be  considered  the  favourite  of  God,  and  his  destined  instru- 
ment to  destroy  the  empire  of  the  evil  spirits  (the  heathen 
deities).  The  Christians  belonging  to  his  court  were  certainly 
not  wanting  on  their  part  to  confirm  him  in  this  persuasion, 
having  many  of  them  come  to  the  same  conclusion  themselves, 
dazzled  by  the  outward  splendour  which  surrounded  the  em- 
peror, ami  which  passed  over  from  him  to  the  visible  church, 
and  by  looking  at  what  the  imperial  power,  which  nothing 
any  longer  withstood,  could  secure  for  the  outward  interests 
of  the  church. 

Constantine  must  indeed  have  been  conscious  that  he  was 
striving  not  so  much  for  the  cause  of  Gtxl  as  for  the  gra- 
tification of  his  own  ambition  and  love  of  power ;  and  that 
such  acts  of  perfidy,  mean  revenge,  or  despotic  jealousy,  as  oc- 
curred in  his  political  course,  did  not  well  befit  an  instrument 
and  servant  of  Grod,  such  as  he  claimed  to  be  considered  ;  but 
there  was  here  the  same  lamenfable  self-deception,  the  same 

*  Ekiseb.  de  ▼.  C.  III.  3.  Quite  like  the  coins  which  Eckhel  represents, 
1.  c.  p.  88 :  a  serpent  lying  beneath  the  Labanim — abov^  it,  the  monogram 
of  Christ,  symbol  of  the  spes  publica.  Although  many  coins  of  Con- 
stantine  are  not  to  be  found  which  allude  to  the  victory  by  means  of  the 
cross,  yet  this  cannot  be  considered  as  any  proof  that  the  above  legend 
has  no  true  foundation.  Else  we  might  also  argue,  from  the  general  fkct 
of  so  few  coins  of  Constantine  bemg  found  with  Christian  symbols, 
against  the  undeniable  public  measures  adopted  by  that  emperor  in  fiivour 
of  the  Christian  church.  It  may  be  questioned  also  whether  there  arc 
any  sufficient  grounds  for  pronouncing  the  coins  to  be  not  genuine,  which 
in  Eckhel  (I.  c.  84,  col.  II.)  present  an  exhibition  of  the  whole  event,  as 
Constantine  related  it  to  Eusebius. 


32  ooNSTijrmnB. 

imposition  upon  one's  own  oonsci^ce,  which  is  to  often  to  be 
seen  in  the  mighty  of  the  earth,  who  wear  religion  as  thdr 
motto,  and  which,  in  their  case,  so  easily  insinuates  itself,  and 
gains  the  mastery,  because  it  is  so  difficult  for  truth  to  find  ift 
way  through  the  trappings  of  pomp  which  surround  them; 
because  they  are  approached  by  so  many  who,  blinded  them- 
selves,  dazzled  by  this  splendour,  blind  them  still  more  in 
return,  and  because  no  one  has  ever  got  access  to  them  who 
had  the  impartiality  or  the  courage  to  discover  to  them  the 
cheat,  and  teach  them  how  to  distinguish  between  outward 
show  and  truth.  Thus  was  it  with  Constantine.  And  whit 
wonder  that  he  should  proceed  under  such  a  delusion,  when 
even  Eusebius,  one  of  the  best  among  the  bishops  at  his  court, 
is  so  dazzled  by  what  the  emperor  had  achieved  for  the  out- 
ward extension  and  splendour  of  the  church  as  to  be  capable 
of  tracing  to  the  purest  motives  of  a  servant  of  God  aU  the 
acts  which  a  love  of  power  that  would  not  brook  a  rival  had, 
at  the  expense  of  truth  and  humanity,  put  into  the  heart  of  the 
emperor  in  the  war  against  Idcinius ;  and  of  even  going  so  fiur 
as  to  represent  him  giving  out  the  orders  of  battle  by  a  spedsl 
divine  inspiration,  bestowed  in  answer  to  his  prayers,  in  a  war 
that  beyond  all  question  had  been  undertaken  on  no  other 
grounds 'than  those  of  a  selfish  policy?  although  we  most 
allow  that,  waged  as  it  was  against  a  persecutor  of  the  Chris- 
tians, it  would  naturally  be  regarded  by  Eusebius  as  a  con* 
test  in  behalf  of  the  cause  of  God.*  Bishops  in  immediate 
attendance  on  the  emperor  so  far  forgot  indeed  to  what  master 
they  belonged,  that,  at  the  celebration  of  the  third  decennium 
of  his  reign  (the  tricennalia),  one  of  them  congratulated  him 
as  constituted  by  God  the  ruler  over  all  in  the  present  world, 
and  destined  to  reign  with  the  Son  of  God  in  the  world  to 
come.  The  feelings  of  Constantine  himself  were  shocked  at 
such  a  parallel.  He  admonished  the  bishop  that  he  should  not 
venture  to  use  such  language  as  that,  but  should  rather  pray 
for  him,  that  he  might  be  deemed  worthy  to  be  a  servant  of 
God  both  in  this  world  and  in  the  next.f 

It  was  now  the  wish  of  Constantine  that  all  his  subjects 
might  be  united  in  the  worship  of  the  same  God.     This  wish 

*  De  y.  C.  11*  12.     Bto<paniaf  ivvyx»ftVf  iiuripx  xtfniiis  St&nWi/. 
t  Easeb.  v.  C.  1.  IV.  48. 


HIS  TOLERANCE.  33 

he  expressed  publicly,  and  gladly  employed  every  means  in 
his  power  to  bring  it  about;  but  he  was  determined  not  to 
nsort  to  any  forcible  measures.    He  still  continued  to  express 
publicly  the  principles  of  toleration  and  of  universal  freedom 
of  conscience,  and  distinctly  contradicted  the  report,  which 
kd  arisen  from  very  natural  causes,  that  he  intended  to  sup- 
press pi^anism  by  force.    Thus  he  declares  in  the  proclama- 
tion, alr^y  cited,  to  the  people  of  the  East, — "  Let  the  fol- 
lowers of  error  enjoy  the  liberty  of  sharing  in  the  same  peace 
aod  tranquillity  with  the  faithful :  this  very  restoration  of 
common  intercourse  among  men*  may  lead  these  people  to 
the  way  of  truth.     Let  no  one  molest  his  neighbour,  but  let 
each  act  according  to  the  inclination  of  his  own  soul.     The 
Well-disposed  must  be  convinced  that  they  alone  will  live  in 
holiness  and  purity  whom  Thou  thyself  dost  call  to  find  rest 
in  thy  holy  laws.   But  let  those  who  remain  strangers  to  them 
l^tain,  since  th^  wish  it,  the  temples  of  &lsehood :  we  have 
the  resplendent  house  of  thy  truth,  which  thou  hast  given  us 
in  answer  to  the  cravings  of  our  nature.    We  could  wish  that 
they  too  might  share  with  us  the  joy  of  a  common  harmony. 
Yet  let  no  one  trouble  his  neighbour  by  that  which  is  his  own 
conviction.      With  the  knowledge  which  he  has  gained  let 
him,  if  possible,  profit  his  neighbour.    If  it  is  not  possible,  he 
should  allow  his  neighbour  to  go  on  in  his  own  way ;  for  it  is 
one  thing  to  enter  voluntarily  into  the  contest  for  eternal  life, 
and  another  to  force  one  to  it  against   his  will.      I  have 
entered  more  fully  into  the  exposition  of  these  matters,  because 
I  was  unwilling  to  keep  concealed  my  own  belief  in  the  truth ; 
and  especially  because,  as  I  hear,  certain  persons  affirm  t  that 
the  temple-worship  and  the  power  of  darkness  are  abolished. 
I  would  avow  this  as  my  counsel  to  all  men,  if  the  mighty 

*  AvTfi  yt^i^  ^nt  M^nmiat  Wttw^$M0t$  (perhaps  ipsa  hsec  commercii 
restitatio).  The  indefinite  words  ma^  also  mean  '*  the  improving 
influence  of  intercourse."  The  connection,  however,  favours  die  first 
interpretation. 

t  These  ''certain  persons"  may  have  been  fearful  pagans,  or  Chris- 
tians triumphing  in  a  fidse  zeal — more  naturally  the  latter,  especially  as 
the  emperor  xnade  use  of  expressions  which  only  a  Christian  could 
employ.  At  all  events,  it  is  clear  how  imjportant  it  was  considered  by 
Constantine  to  repress  the  zeal  of  the  Christians,  which  might  easily 
lead  to  violent  proceedingSi  and  to  inspire  confidence  in  the  anxious 
pagans. 

VOL.  III.  T> 


84  CONSTANTIHB. 

dominion  of  error  were  not  too  firmly  rooted  in  the  soak  flf 
some  to  permit  the  Testorati(»  of  the  common  hftppinesB."  ^ 

In  the  particular  instances  in  which  Coostantine  first  cnond 
temples  to  be  destroyed,  and  ancient  forms  of  wonhip  to  be 
suppressed  by  force,  tl^  criminal  excesses  sanetioned  onto 
the  name  of  religion,  or  the  fraudulent  tricks  resorted  to  ftr 
the  maintenance  of  teithen  superstition  among  the  crediilen 
multitude,  gave  him  special  and  just  occasion  fat  these  pn>- 
ceedtngs ;  as,  for  example,  when  he  caused  to  be  demofidnd 
the  temple  and  sacred  grove  of  Venus  at  Aphaca  in  Fh(Bmc]a,f 
where  froui  the  remotest  times  the  most  abominable  liccntiol 
ness  yros  practised  under  the  name  of  religion ;  and  when  he 
suppressed  the  like  abominable  rites  at  Heliopoilis  in  Fhoenieii. 
At  the  same  time  he  sent  to  the  inhabitants  of  tius  aocMot 
heathen  city  a  letter,  in  which  he  represented  to  them  the 
hatefulness  of  these  rites,  and  exhorted  them  to  emliFBoe  Cbauh 
tianity.  He  founded  here  a  church,  with  a  complete  body  of 
clergymen  and  a  bishop ; — somewhat  too  early,  indeed,  mam 
there  were  as  yet  no  Christians  in  the  place.  He  bestoiwed  on 
this  church  large  sums  for  the  support  of  the  poor  ;  so  thit 
the  conversion  of  the  heathen  might  be  promt^edby  doing  good 
to  their  bodies — a  measure,  doubtless,  which  was  calculated 
rather  to  mislead  these  people  into  hypocrisy  than  to  coodoet 
them  to  the  faith.  %  Again,  there  was  at  JBE^  in  Cilksia  a 
temple  of  ^sculapius  of  ancient  fame,  where  the  poriflSti 
availed  themselves  of  their  knowledge  of  certain  powen  of  na- 
ture, perhaps  of  magnetism  (the  incubationes),  for  the  heafiag 
of  diseases ;  and  these  cures  were  ascribed  to  the  power  of  the 
god  who  appeared  there,  and  employed  as  a  means  to  promote 
the  declining  paganism.  The  temple  was  filled  with  the  con- 
secrated gifts  and  the  inscriptions  of  those  who  supposed  them- 
selves indebted  to  it  for  their  recovery.  Far-fiuned  in  parti- 
cular were  the  remedies  which,  as  it  was  pretended,  the  god 

*  Euseb.  de  v.  C  II.  56  and  60.  f  Euseb.  de  v.  C.  III.  55. 

%  Eusebius  (1.  c.  III.  58)  says  that  the  views  of  Comttantiiie  on  ftis 
matter  were  precisely  like  those  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  Flulippiaiis  i  16: 
<*  Notwithstanding,  every  way,  whether  in  pretence  or  in  tmu,  CkanA  ii 
preached."  This,  however,  is  manifestly  a  wrong  application  of  Ihst 
passage,  ^  which  has  been  often  enough  repeated.  Pam  is  speakhig  of 
a  preaching  of  the  gospel  from  motives  not  altogether  pare,  and  not  of  a 
hypocritical  conversion. 


HIS  PROCEEDINGS  AGAINST  PAGANISM.  M 

hhaseif  pvescribed  in  dreams  to  the  sick  who  slept  in  the 
temple.  Not  only  the  populace,  but  many  even  of  the  better 
cImb,  men  of  learning,  and  self-styled  phUosophers,  lauded 
t&ese  wonderful  cures.  With  a  view  to  put  an  end  to  the 
knavery  at  a  single  blow,  Constantine  ordered  the  temple  to 
be  destroyed.*  How  important  a  prop  of  heathenism,  which 
leeded  such  means  for  its  support,  was  taken  away  by  the 
ftestruction  of  this  temple,  appears  from  the  complaints  whidi 
i  wMon  like  Libanius  utters  over  this  impiety  and  its  attendant 
jOBsequences :  '*  The  sick  now,"  he  says,  ^  in  vain  make 
iifiir  pilgrimages  to  Cilicia."  f  By  dismantling  and  publicly 
SKhH)iting  those  images  of  the  gods  to  which  miraculoos 
Mfwers  had  been  ascribed,  many  a  trick  of  the  priests  was  ex- 
xised,  and  what  had  been  venerated  by  the  deluded  populace 
leeame  the  objects  of  their  sport.  Magnificent  temples  and 
itotiies  of  the  gods  were  despoiled  of  their  treasures,  and 
stripped  of  all  their  costly  materials ;  and  then  were  either 
tamed  to  the  public  use,  or  bestowed  as  presents  on  private 
aidividuals.  Many  objects  of  art  taken  finom  the  temples  were 
ued  for  the  decoration  of  the  imperial  residence.:|: 

For  the  rest,  this  method  of  proceeding  against  the  heathen 
ndtas  did  not  everywhere  produce  upon  the  heathen  them^ 
idves  the  same  effect,  owing  to  the  differences  of  character. 
rhe  £matical  heathen,  especially  the  educated,  who  had  ccm- 
itnicted  fcff  themselves  a  mystical  heathenism  spiritualized  by 
Platonic  ideas,  and  reasoned  themselves  into  an  artificial  sys- 
xm  composed  of  heterogeneous  elements,  could  not  be  dis- 
»rbed  by  any  exposure  of  fiicts,  and  only  Mt  exasperated  by 
Jiat  desecration  of  their  venerated  sanctuaries  which  they 
irare  obliged  patiently  to  endure.     There  were  others  who 

•  Eoseb.  de  v.  C.  III.  56. 

t  Liban.  de  templis,  vol.  II.  187.    Km  wt  oug  oLytt  fjui»  i/V  Ki^azUt  Mn{- 

i^fti»T»vf  et^o^ifAicovfft,  Ana  quoting  from  the  eulogy  of  a  pagan 
'hetorician,  in  the  time  of  the  emperor  Julian,  probably  in  reference  to 
he  destruction  of  "diis  temple :  Nt;»  (au  7^»  rw  $iw  2vy«/tMy  ^uxws  t»  <r*fv 

LibttD.  ep.  607. 

{  De  Y.  C.  III.  54,  Liban.  ed.  Beiske,  III.  436,  concerning  Con- 
teatine,  'Byti/tvi^t  rw  ^Xavtou  Touf  6iw(,  He  calls  him  plainly  the 
nrvXiTMVf.    Pro  templis,  vol.  II.  p.  IBS. 


36  OONSTANTIKE. 

were  under  the  dominion  of  no  such  fanaticism,  and  whose 
superstition  therefore,  when  it  was  stripped  of  its  pompous 
array,  might  be  more  easily  exposed  in  its  emptiness.  Thau 
might,  by  such  sudden  impressions,  be  brought  to  a  sense  d 
their  error,  and  by  degrees  made  capable  of  receiving  a  know- 
ledge of  the  gospel.  Others  made  sport  of  that  which  thqr 
had  formerly  believed,  without  receiving  the  true  &ith  in 
place  of  their  superstition.  They  fell  into  total  scepticism,  or 
contented  themselves  with  a  general  system  of  Deism.*  It  is 
a  fact  worthy  of  remark,  and  a  proof  of  the  already  Himiniahfld 
power  of  heathenism  over  the  popular  mind,  that  officers,  com- 
missioned with  full  powers  "by  the  emperor,  could  venture,  with- 
out any  protection  of  an  armed  force,  to  pass  through  immense 
crowds  of  people,  and  plunder  famous  temples,  bearing  off 
their  venerated  treasures,  j  What  fierce  commotions,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  excited  at  a  later  period  by  the  s^ure  of 
the  Christian  images  in  the  Byzantine  empire  I 

Again,  Constantine  endeavoured  to  place  Christians  in  the 
highest  offices  of  state,  and  to  appoint  them  governors  in  the 
provinces.  Since,  however,  it  was  difficult  at  that  time  to 
carry  this  plan  into  execution,  and  wholly  exclude  the  pagans 
from  the  public  service  of  the  state,  and  since,  moreover,  he 
was  unwilling  to  pass  any  law  of  this  kind,  he  contented  him- 
self with  forbidding  the  holders  of  office  to  sacrifice — a  pracr 
tice  which  the  previous  importance  of  paganism,  as  the  reli- 
gion of  the  state,  had  made  a  duty  incumbent  upon  them  in 
the  execution  of  many  kinds  of  public  business.  At  length 
the  erection  of  idolatrous  images,  and  the  performance  of  re- 
ligious sacrifices,  were  universally  forbidden.  But  as  many 
pagans  still  occupied  important  civil  stations,  and  as  Con- 
stantine, moreover,  was  not  inclined  to  resort  in  this  case  to 
arbitrary  force,  it  naturally  followed  that  these  laws  were  but 
little  observed.  Hence  the  succeeding  emperor,  Constantius, 
^as  under  the  necessity  of  re-enforcing  this  ordinance.^ 

*  Euseb.  de  v.  C.  III.  57.  t  Euseb.  III.  64. 

X  This  prohibition  of  the  emperor,  Eusebius  cites  in  his  work,  De  v. 
<^,  II.  44,  45;  IV.  23;  and  Sozomen,  I.  8,  who  seems,  however,  here 
merely  to  copy  from  Eusebius,  and  that  not  accurately.  The  surest 
proof  that  Constantine  did  actually  enact  such  a  law  lies  in  the  &ct 
that  Constantius,  by  renewing  the  prohibition  in  the  year  341,  pre- 
supposed this  law  as  already  existing.    If  Libanius,  on  me  contnury,  in 


HIS  ENCOURAGEMENT  OF  HTPOCRIST.  37 

It  was  a  religious  interest  which  actuated  Constantine  in 
ills  attempts  to  introduce  the  Christian  form  of  worship ;  but 
lie  never  employed  forcible  measures  for  its  extension:  he 
never  compelled  any  person  whatever  to  act  in  matters  of 
religion  against  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience.  To  those 
of  his  soldiers  \^ho  were  Christians  he  gave  full  liberty  to 
attend  church  on  Sunday,  Upon  those  of  them  who  were  not 
Christians  he  did  not  enforce  a  Christian  form  of  prayer,  nor 
did  he  compel  them  to  unite  in  any  of  the  Christian  forms,  as 
the  pagan  emperors  had  endeavoured  to  force  Christians  to 
join  in  the  pagan  ceremonies.  He  simply  required  the 
pagans  among  his  soldiers  to  assemble  before  the  city,  in  the 
open  fields,  and  here,  at  a  given  signal,  to  repeat,  in  the  Latin 
language,  the  following  form  of  prayer :  "  Thee  alone  we 
acknowledge  as  the  true  God ;  thee  we  acknowledge  as  ruler;, 
thee  we  invoke  for  help ;  from  thee  have  we  received  the  vic- 
tory ;  through  thee  have  we  conquered  our  enemies ;  to  thee^ 
are  we  indebted  for  our  present  blessings ;  from  thee  also  we 
hope  for  future  £ivours;  to  thee  we  all  direct  our  prayer.- 
We  beseech  thee  that  thou  wouldst  preserve  our  emperor 
Constantine,  and  his  pious  sons,  in  health  and  prosperity 
through  the  longest  life."  *  The  same  thing  indeed  becomes 
clearly  apparent  here,  which  we  have  observed  on  various 
other  occasions,  that  the  emperor  had  no  just  conception  of 
the  true  nature  of  divine  worship  and  of  prayer,  and  that  he 
laid  an  undue  stress  on  outward  religious  forms ;  for  it  was 
hardly  possible  surely,  that,  in  repeating,  at  the  word  of  com- 
mand, a  prayer  committed  to  memory,  and  that  in  a  language 
which  to  a  part  of  the  soldiers  was  not  their  own,  there  could 
be  any  of  that  devotion  which  alone  gives  to  prayer  its  signi- 
ficance; but  yet  it  is  worthy  of  remark  how  the  emperor 
respected  the  religious  convictions  of  his  soldiers.  He  avoided 
in  this  prayer  everything  peculiar  to  Christianity,  and  nothing 

his  discourse  defending  the  temple  (vol.  II.  162),  says  of  Constantine, 

Ins  ««T«  fofjbcus  Sua^tictf  Ixivtiftv  aifTi  h,  and   183,  vf    9v»  M  rag  ^ufiag 

^•(•n^.St,  we  remember  not  only  that  Libanius  was  interested  here  to  re- 
present what  had  been  done  by  the  first  Christian  emperor  for  the  sup- 
presdou  of  paganism  as  of  the  least  possible  account,  but  also  that  he 
confounded  what  was  done  at  different  times,  and  that  he  was  looking  at 
the  effects  of  those  laws,  which  it  must  be  allowed  were  insignificant. 
♦  Euseb,  de  v.  C  IV.  18,  19. 


38  OOHBTAimNE. 

in  it  but  the  moiiotheism  would  be  iocoai{mtible  with  the 
pagan  religion.  As  it  respects  this,  Constantino  periu^ 
regarded  the  belief  in  one  God  as  that  which  the  eontempkr 
tion  of  the  universe  would  teach  every  man,  and  the  necemarj 
acknowledgment  of  which  might  be  presapposed  in  every  man  :* 
besides,  the  heathen  soldiers,  vrho  were  not  so  sempnloiis  in 
regard  to  every  word,  might  easily  interpret  the  whole  as  an 
address  to  their  own  Jupiter. 

But,  if  Constantino  was  unwilling  to  employ  any  forcible 
measures  for  the  extension  of  Christianity,  it  by  no  means 
follows  that  he  rejected  all  otUward  means  fbr  this  end,  and 
that  he  had  come  to  understand  how  Christianity,  disddmnr 
all  outward  means  of  persuasion  and  outward  supports,  would 
make  its  own  way,  simply  by  the  power  with  which  it  opearataB 
upon  the  inner  convictions  and  in  the  life  of  men.  We  have 
firom  himself  a  remarkable  declaration  concerning  the  means 
which  he  supposed  necessary  to  promote  the  spread  of  Christ- 
ianity. At  the  council  of  Nice  he  exhorted  the  bishops  not 
to  be  envious  of  each  other  on  account  of  the  applause  be- 
stowed on  their  discourses  and  the  reputation  of  oratorical 
gifts ;  not  to  lay  the  foundations  of  schisms  by  their  mutual 
jealousies,  lest  they  should  give  occasion  to  tiie  heathen  of 
blaspheming  the  Christian  religion.  The  heathen,  he  said, 
would  be  most  easily  led  to  salvation,  if  the  condition  of  the 
Christians  were  made  to  appear  to  them  in  aU  respects  enviaUe. 
They  should  consider  that  the  advantage  to  be  derived frem 
preaching  could  not  belong  to  all,  Some^  he  said,  mighi  be 
drawn  to  the  faith  by  being  seasoncMy  supplied  with  lft« 
means  of  subsistence  ;  othei's  were  accustomed  to  repair  to  that 
quarter  where  they  found  protection  and  intercession  (alluding 
to  the  intercessions  of  the  bishops,  see  below) ;  others  woM 
be  won  by  an  affable  reception;  others^  by  being  honoured 
unth  presents.  There  were  but  few  who  honestly  laved  the 
exhibitions  of  religious  doctrine;  but  few  who  were  the  friends 
of  truth   (therefore  few   sincere   conversk)ns).f      For   this 

*  See  his  declaration  in  Euseb.  II.  58. 

f  Euseb.  III.  21.  I  place  the  passage  here,  which,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
has  been  corrupted  by  a  transposition  of  the  words,  in  the  way  in  wUdi 
I  suppose  it  ought  to  be  corrected,  by  restoring  the  words  to  their  proper 
order :  ^12v  futXirra  trttfiiiiai  ^vv»/u>sy*>y,  1/  9reirr»  tk  »eif  fi/uif  ewvMt  ^nxiitrk 
(palvoivTo,  (An  Suy  ifuptyvouvf  otg  ov  roTr  9'Zftv  fi  1%   kiyetf   i<pikum  nmnXu, 


HIS  XSrCOCTEAaEMEUf  X  OF  HTFOCBISY.  39 

reaaon  they  idiould  accommodate  themselves  to  the  chaiacten 
cf  all,  and,  like  skilful  phyucians,  give  to  each  man  that 
which  might  contribute  to  has  cure,  so  that  in  every  way  the 
saving  cbctrine  might  be  glorified  in  all.  A  course  of  pro- 
ceeding upon  sueh  principles  must  naturally  have  thrown  open 
a  wide  door  for  all  manner  of  hypocrisy.  Even  Eusebius,  the 
panegyrist  of  Ccmstantine,  blind^  as  he  was  by  the  splendour 
which  the  latter  had  cast  over  the  outward  church,  although 
he  would  gladly  say  nothing  but  good  of  his  hero,  yet  even 
he  is  obliged  to  reckon  among  the  grievous  evils  of  this 
period,  of  which  he  was  an  eye-witness,  the  indeserihahle 
kiffocriiy  of  those  who  gave  themselves  out  as  Christians 
merely  for  temporal  advantage,  and  who,  by  their  outward 
show  of  zeal  £»  the  fiiith,  contrived  to  win  the  confidence  of 
the  empennr,  which  he  suffered  them  to  abuse.* 

It  must  appear  surprising  that  Constantine,  although  he 
eKhifaited  so  much  zeal  for  all  the  concerns  of  the  church, 
although  he  took  part  in  the  transactions  of  a  council  assembled 
to  diacoss  matters  of  controversy,  had  never  as  yet  received 
biq[»ti«m ;  that  he  continued  to  r^ooain  without  the  pale  of  the 
community  of  believers;  that  he  could  still  assist  at  no  com- 
plete form  of  wordiip,  no  complete  celebration  of  a  festivaL 
He  continued  to  remain  in  the  first  class  of  catechumens  (not 
catechumens  in  the  stricter  saise  of  the  word,  see  below), 
though  already  »xty-&»ur  years  of  age.  Thus  &x  he  had 
enjoyed  sound  and  uninterrupted  health.  He  now,  for  the 
first  time,  began  to  ledl  the  infirmities  of  age;  and  illness 
induced  1dm  to  leave  Constantinople,  and  r^tair  to  the  neigh- 
bouring city  of  Helenopolis  in  Bithynia,  Asia  Minor,  recently 
founded  by  his  mother,  in  order  to  enjoy  the  benefit  of  the 
warm  springs  in  that  place.  When  his  malady  grew  worse, 
and  he  felt  a  presentiment  of  the  approach  of  death,  he  repaired, 
ioT  the  purpose  of  prayer,  to  the  church  consecrated  to  the 
memory  of  the  martyr  Lucian.     Here  first  he  made  the  c(m- 

jtmfMftuf    mjr^ril^atvtu^    xai   ^nUi$    n/uifitvot    kyet^Sifn    trt^et'   ^Mtxfit    T   ol 
3i§yttf  cXirlHr  Ua^ro^  »mi  f^vug  aZ  0  riff  ikfihiag  ^ikag, 

*  See  C.   IV.   53.      Ei^AWiMBv  AXtxraf  tUv  rhv  ixxXWav  i^^vofxittiv  »eti 
va   ^oitTM^teif   %9rt^%Mffrms  9%fifMtTtT^ofA%vant  ovtfjut,   01$    \avrot    xttrairtfnuw 


40  constahtute:  hibbaftibic 

fession  which  was  customary  before  entering  into  the  dasB  of 
the  catechumens,  so  called  in  the  stricter  sense ;  and  the  bishops 
gave  him  the  blessing.*  He  next  repaired  to  a  castle  near 
the  city  of  Nicomedia,  where  he  called  together  an  assemhlj 
of  the  bishops,  and,  surrounded  by  them,  received  baptism 
£rom  Eusebius  bishop  of  Nicomedia.  This  took  place  shortly 
before  his  death,  in  the  year  337.  Now,  for  the  first  time, 
he  could  profess  it  to  be  his  purpose  that,  if  Grod  spared  his 
life,  he  would  join  in  the  assembly  of  Gkxl's  people,  and  jom 
with  all  the  faithful  in  all  the  prayers  of  the  church.f 

Doubtless  we  should  consider  here  that  it  was  not  the 
custom  in  this  period  for  all  to  receiye  baptism  inunediately 
after  embracing  the  faith ;  but  many,  especially  in  the  East, 
deferred  it  until  some  special  occasion,  inward  or  outward, 
brought  about  in  them  a  new  crisis  of  lifcf  But  still  it  must 
ever  seem  strange  that  an  emperor  who  took  such  interest  in 
the  concerns  of  the  Christian  church  should  remain  without 
baptism  till  his  sixty-fourth  year.  We  may  indeed  give  credit 
to  what  he  says,  and  suppose — ^what  was  quite  in  character 
with  his  religious  notions — that  he  entertained  the  design  to 
receive  baptism  in  the  Jordan,  whose  water  Christ  had  first 
consecrated  by  his  own  baptism.§  This  does  not  suffice, 
however,  to  explain  his  long  delay.  It  is  most  probable  that, 
carrying  his  heathen  superstition  into  Christianity,  he  looked 
upon  baptism  as  a  sort  of  rite  for  the  magical  removal  of  sin, 
and  so  delayed  it,  in  the  confidence  that,  although  he  had  not 
lived  an  exemplary  life,  he  might  yet  in  the  end  be  enabled  to 
enter  into  bliss,  purified  from  all  his  sins.  He  was  doubtless 
sincere,  therefore,  when,  on  receiving  baptism,  he  said,  as 
Eusebius  reports,  that  from  thenceforth,  if  God  spared  him  his 
life,  he  would  devote  himself  to  God's  worthy  laws  of  life.  J 
This  remark  leads  us  to  notice  a  report,  which  circulated 
among  the  heathen  of  this  period,  respecting  the  cause  of 
Constantine's  conversion;    for  the  mode  of  thinking  which 

*  He  received  for  the  first  time  the  XH^^^*»9  &iid  was  thus  taken 
among  the  yowxXivifrif, 

t  Euseb.  IV,  62.     Ovrug    i/M   gvwytXotT^tfiou   >.onrn    rS  r«u  Stov  ?i«y 

X  See  below,  mider  the  history  of  worship. 
\  Euseb.  V.  C.  IV.  62. 


HEATHEN  AOCX)UNT  OF  HIS  OONVEBSIOBT,  41 

betrays  itself  in  his  notion  of  baptism  furnishes  us  also  with  a 
key  to  the  right  interpretation  of  this  story. 

Constantine,  instigated  by  the  calumnious  representations  of 
his  second  wife,  Fausta,  had,  in  a  paroxysm  of  anger,  caused 
his  son,  the  Caesar  Crispus,  step-son  of  Fausta,  to  be  put  to 
death.  Reproached  for  this  act  by  his  mother  Helena,  and 
convinced  afterwards  himself  that  he  had  been  fidsely  informed, 
he  had  added  another  crime  to  this  by  a  cruel  revenge  on 
Fausta,  whom  he  caused  to  be  thrown  into  the  glowing  furnace 
of  a  bath.  Suspicious  jealousy  had  misled  him  to  order  the 
execution  of  his  nephew,  a  hope&l  prince,  the  son  of  the 
unfortunate  Licinius ;  and  several  others,  connected  with  the 
court,  are  said  to  have  fallen  victims  to  his  anger  or  his  sus- 
picion. When  at  length  he  began  to  feel  the  reproaches  of 
conscience,  he  inquired  of  the  Platonic  philosopher  Sopatros, 
or,  according  to  others,  of  heathen  priests,  what  he  could  do 
to  atone  for  these  crimes.  It  was  replied  to  him  that  there 
was  no  lustration  for  such  atrocious  conduct.  At  that  time 
an  Egyptian  bishop  from  Spain  (probably  Hosius  of  Cordova 
is  meant)  became  known  at  the  palace,  through  the  ladies  of 
the  court.  He  said  to  the  emperor  that  in  the  Christian  i^th 
he  could  find  a  remedy  for  every  sin ;  and  this  promise,  which 
soothed  the  conscience  of  Constantine,  first  led  him  to  declare 
decidedly  in  favour  of  Christianity.*  Certain  it  is  that  any 
true  herald  of  the  gospel,  if  he  found  the  emperor  suffering 
under  these  misgivings  of  conscience,  would  not  have  begun 
with  calming  his  fears ;  but  he  would  have  endeavoured  first 
of  all  to  bring  him  to  the  full  conviction  of  the  corruption 
within,  of  which  these  gross  and  striking  outbreaks  of  sin 
were  but  individual  manifestations ;  he  would  also  have  dis- 
covered to  him  the  vanity  of  those  seeming  virtues  by  which 
he  had  often  sought  to  gloss  over  this  inward  corruption ;  he 
would  have  shown  him  that  in  general  no  opus  operatum  by 
outward  lustrations  could  have  any  effect  to  cleanse  the  inner 
man  from  sin  ; — and  then,  after  having  cleared  the  wounded 
conscience  of  all  those  deceitful  and  soothing  hopes  which  serve 
only  as  a  prop  for  sin,  and  shown  him  what  true  repentance 
is,  he  would  have  presented  before  him  Christ,  as  the  Re- 
deemer of  the  truly  penitent  and  believing  sinner ;  constantly 
warning  him  against  the  seeming  faith  which  leads  men  to 

*  Zosini.  II.  29 ;  Sbzom.  I.  ^, 


42  cQa&iASTJJsm:  stost  of  his  coKVEBSioir. 

seek  in  Christ  only  a  deliverer  firom  that  outward  sufiering 
which  a  violated  consdence  holds  up  to  their  feus,  and  a  stay 
ioT  the  sinfuloess  of  their  nature.  But  we  may  well  suppose 
that,  among  the  biahops  of  the  court,  there  was  none  who 
would  have  spoken  to  the  emperor  in  this  manner.  As  it 
would  be  quite  in  character  for  Constantine,  when  sufierinff 
imder  the  reproadies  of  conscience,  to  seek  after  some  "*«»g'^ 
expiation,  so  we  may  easily  suppose  that  a  bishop  who  pos- 
sessed little  of  the  simple  temper  of  the  gospel  and  of  pure 
Christian  knowledge,  and  who  was  moreover  blinded  by  the 
splendour  of  the  court,  might  point  the  emperor  to  such  a 
means  of  expiation  in  the  rite  of  baptism,  or  in  an  oopty 
profession  of  £uth,  and  thus  poison  for  him  the  very  fountain 
of  salvation.  But  the  testimony  of  pagans^  inimical  to 
Christianity  and  the  emperor,  furnishes  no  sufficient  evidence 
for  the  truth  of  a  story  which  they  could  have  so  easily  in- 
vented; while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  silence  of  Christian  his- 
torians, whose  prejudices  were  all  on  one  side,  furnishes  no  evi; 
dence  agaimt  its  truth.  That  this  account  cannot,  however,  be 
literally  true  appears,  as  Sozomenus  has  justly  remarked,  fbom 
the  gross  anachromsm  which  it  contains ;  for,  long  before 
Constantino  had  committed  these  crimes,*  he  had  taken  his 
decided  stand  in  fiivour  of  Christianity.  The  whole  story, 
therefore,  may  have  no  other  foundation  than  the  &ct  that 
Constantine  strove  to  quiet  his  sins  by  relying  on  the  opus 
operatum  of  outward  means  of  justification,  especially  upon  the 
justifying  power  of  outward  baptism,  which  he  reserved  against 
the  time  of  his  death,  and  upon  the  merit  of  what  he  had  done 
to  promote  the  outward  splendour  of  the  church ;  and  it  may 
be  that  the  bishops  of  the  court,  instead  of  teaching  him 
better,  confirmed  him  in  this  destructive  error.f     This  doubt- 

^  *  The  execution  of  Crispns  took  place  at  the  same  time  with  the 
vicennalia  of  Constantine,  or  the  celebration  of  the  twentieth  anniYersBry 
of  his  assuming  the  dignity  of  Augustus,  that  is,  in  326 ;  and  it  was  ia 
the  preceding  year  that  G<ni8tantine  displayed,  at  the  council  of  Nioe»  so 
decided  a  zeal  in  fiEiyoar  of  the  Christian  fiuth. 

f  Eusebius  of  Csesarea  was  a  man  conversant  with  still  higher  things 
than  mere  worldly  interests,  and  cannot  be  reckoned  among  the  number 
of  tiie  ordinary  court  bishops  of  this  period ;  yet  mai^  how  he  describes 
a  banquet  which  the  emperor  gare  to  the  bishops  at  the  breakiiig  np 
of  the  Nicene  council,  ia  celebration  of  tiie  vicennalia  of  his  entrance 
upon  the  dignity  of  Cffisar :  "  When  the  emperor  held  a  banquet  with 


0OS8TASTJJJS,  43 

leis  would  be  obserred  by  the  pagans,  vrho  would  not  be  slow 
in  taking  advanlage  of  k  to  misrepresent  Christianity.* 

If  the  reign  c^  Constantine  bectrs  witness  that  the  state 
which  seeks  to  adwmee  Christianity  by  the  worldly  means  at 
its  command  may  be  the  occasion  of  more  injury  to  this  holy 
cause  than  the  earthly  power  which  opposes  it  with  whatever 
virtdenee,  thift  troth  is  still  more  clearly  demonstrated  by  the 
reign  of  his  socoeasor  Ck)nstantius. 

ConstantiuS)  in  the  outset,  shared  the  government  with  his 
tw«  brothers,  Clbnstantme  the  younger  and  Constans,  to  whose 
portion  fell  ihe  dominion  of  the  West.  The  younger  Constan- 
tine having,  in  the  war  against  his  brother  Constans,  lost  his 
life,  Constans  made  himself  master  of  the  whole  Western,  as 
Gonstantius  was  already  of  the  whole  Eastern  entire;  and 
wh^i  Constans  perished,  in  the  year  350,  in  the  revolt  of 
Magaentius,  Constantius  was  left  sole  master  of  the  entire 
Roman  empire.    Now,  although  the  measures  adopted  for  the 

the  Imhopfl^  among  whom  he  hsd  established  peace,  he  presented  it 
duongfa  them,  as  it  were  an  ofiferin^  worthy  of  God.  No  one  of  the 
bishops  was  excluded  from  the  imperial  table.  The  proceedings  on  diis 
ooeanon  were  sublime  b^ond  description.  The  soldiers  of  the  emperor^s 
body-gnaid  were  drawn  up  before  the  door  of  the  palace  with  their 
biife  swords.  The  men  of  God  (the  bishops)  passed  along  undaonted 
between  their  files  isCo  the  interior  of  the  palace.  Some  sat  at  the  same 
table  with  the  emperor  himself  the  others  at  ade-tables.  One  might 
eadly  ima^^ne  that  one  beheld  the  type  of  Christ's  kingdom."  Enseb. 
Tit.  Ckmstant  1.  III.  c.  15.  Making  due  allowance  for  the  cormpt  ihe- 
tocical  taste  of  those  times  in  passing  our  judgment  on  these  expres- 
mooB,  still  we  must  feel  certain  that  a  man  who  was  ci^ble  of  usin^ 
such  language  was  in  no  condition  to  speak  to  the  emperor  in  the  spirit 
of  tbe  gospel,  as  one  charged  with  the  care  of  souls. 

*  Thus  JoUan,  in  his  satirical  performance  entitled  ^*  The  Cssars," 
makes  Constantine  in  the  lower  world  proclaim  to  all,  **  Whoever  is  a 
voAnptnary,  a  murderer,  whoever  is  a  vicious  man,  a  profligate,  let  him 
Ix^dlj  come  hithe^.  Having  washed  him  with  this  water,  I  will  in- 
stantly make  him  pure.  And  should  he  fall  into  the  same  crimes  again, 
let  him  only  beat  on  his  breast  and  on  his  head,  and  I  will  bestow  on 
Um  power  to  become  pore."    *0mf  ^•^tu(,  ^^tg  ftuu^i*»ij  ofrig  hmyiis, 

jMEi  ^Xttf^  trm  ttt^^m,  aMt^anti  ya^  avr^y  wrifi  rS  Shir*  Xauffrng,  athrixm 
nmim^wf,  xm  vicXiy  %9tX9t  *^  eutrois  yiftiren,  iti^»t  re  rrntog  Tkri^etvri  »eu 
9^9  »i(p«x^ir  «'«rj^«y74,  »at«^^  ytvurieu.  And  Libanius  sees  in  the 
cruelty  of  Constantine  towards  his  own  fisimily  a  punishment  inflicted  on 
him  for  his  plundering  of  the  temples :  T);  wrat  fnyAxnv  rSv  in^)  rk 
4uat  Xpn/ietTti  m»rtu  V»fi*  r«  fM9  tuirog  airhv  fiwivf ;  Pro  templis,  p.  1 84, 
VOL  II. 


44  GONSTANTIUS. 

suppression  of  paganism  proceeded  directly  from  Constantiiis, 
although  they  were  executed  in  his  empire  with  the  greatest 
severity  and  rigour — despotism  in  the  East  being,  as  a  genend 
thing,  the  most  oppressive — ^yet,  on  the  whole,  the  principles 
upon  which  he  proceeded  were  those  which  prevailed  through- 
out the  entire  empire.  Constantius,  in  re-enacting,  in  the 
year  341,  the  law  of  the  previous  reign  against  sacrifices,  gave 
the  following  peremptory  command :  ^^  Let  superstition  cease; 
let  the  folly  of  sacrifices  be  abolished.*  Whoever,  after  the 
publication  of  this  law,  continues  to  sacrifice,  shall  be  punished 
according  to  his  deserts ;"  yet  the  nature  of  the  punishment  is 
not  clearly  defined. 

Although  this  law  might  properly  refer  only  to  the  Eastern 
empire,  yet  in  a  law  of  the  year  346,  enacted  in  conunon  by 
the  emperors  Constantius  and  Constans,  and  therefore  valid  for 
the  whole  Western  and  Eastern  empire,  it  is  presupposed  that 
the  extirpation  of  the  entire  pagan  superstition  had  sdready  been 
commanded ;!  and  in  the  same  year  the  two  emperors  again 
conjointly  directed  that  the  temples  should  everywhere  be 
closed,  that  access  to  them  should  be  forbidden  to  all,  and  thus 
liberty  for  crime  taken  away  from  abandoned  men.|  Sacri- 
fices were  forbidden  on  pain  of  death  and  the  confiscation  of 
goods.  When  at  a  still  later  period,  under  the  usurper  Mag- 
nentius,  who  himself  professed  to  be  a  Christian,§  the  pagan 
cultus  in  the  West  had  recovered  a  certain  degree  of  freedom 
— whether  it  was  that  the  usurper,  from  political  reasons  or 
want  of  interest  in  religious  matters,  made  show  of  greater 
toleration ;  or  whether  it  was  that,  without  any  interference  of 
his  own,  the  laws  which  had  been  passed  against  the  pagan 
worship  had,  in  the  turmoils  of  this  revolution,  lost  their 
power — yet  for  this  cause  Constantius  thought  it  necessary, 
after  he  had  suppressed  the  insurrection  in  the  year  353,  and 
became  the  sole  ruler,  to  issue  a  new  law  against  sacrifices  by 
night,  which  had  been  again  introduced.  Three  years  later, 
in  356,  he  passed  a  law,  in  the  name  also  of  the  Caesar  Julian, 
who  was  even  then  secretly  inclined  to  paganism,  by  which 
law  he  made  it  once  more  capital  to  sacrifice  and  worship  the 

*  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XVI.  Tit.  X.  c.  2.  Cesset  superstitio,  sacrificiorum 
aboleatur  insania.  f  Omnis  superstitio  penitus  eruenda. 

X  Licentiam  delinquendi  perditis  abnegari. 
§  As  the  ensigns  of  the  cross  on  his  coins  prove.  See  Eckhel,  VIII.  122. 


ms  PERSECUTION  OF  THE  PAGANS.  45 

images  of  the  gods.  The  relation  of  things  had  become 
reversed.  As  in  former  times  the  observance  of  the  pagan 
ceremonies,  the  religion  of  the  state,  had  appeared  in  the  light 
of  a  civil  duty,  and  the  profession  of  Christianity  in  that  of  a 
crime  against  the  state,  so  now  it  was  the  case,  not  indeed  that 
the  outward  profession  of  Christianity  was  commanded  as  a 
uiiversal  civil  duty,  for  against  this  the  spirit  of  Christianity 
too  earnestly  remonstrated,  but  that  the  exercise  of  the  pagan 
religion  was  made  politically  dangerous.  There  was  an  inclina- 
tion to  regard  the  heathens  as  unsatisfied  with  the  present  order 
of  things ;  and  the  suspicious  despot  Constantius  feared,  when- 
ever he  heard  about  the  celebration  of  pagan  rites,  especially 
about  augurs,  haruspices,  consultation  of  oracles  and  sacrifices^ 
that  conspiracies  were  brooding  against  his  government  and 
his  life.  It  was  especially  the  notary  Paulus,  widely  known 
under  his  well-deserved  soubriquet,  the  Chain  (catena),  who, 
in  the  latter  times  of  this  reign,  working  upon  the  suspicious 
temper  of  Constantius,  and  using  him  as  the  instrument  of  his 
own  designs,  ravaged  the  land  as  a  cruel  persecutor.  It  thus 
happened  that  a  heathen  philosopher,  Demetrius  Chytas  of 
Alexandria,  viras  convicted  of  having  repeatedly  sacrificed. 
Not  so  much  for  religious  as  for  political  reasons,  this  trans- 
gression of  the  laws  was  interpreted  as  a  grievous  crime ;  his 
judges  pretending  to  look  upon  it  as  a  magical  ceremony,  un- 
dertaken in  a  hostile  spirit  against  the  emperor.*  No  credit 
was  given  to  his  assurances  that  from  his  early  youth  he  had 
been  accustomed  to  sacrifice,  simply  to  propitiate  the  favour  of 
the  gods.  But  when  he  steadfastly  persisted  in  the  same  asser- 
tion under  the  rack,  he  was  dismissed  to  his  home ;  although, 
if  the  iiiiperial  law  had  been  strictly  carried  into  execution,  he 
must  have  suffered  the  penalty  of  death,  as  a  heathen  who,  by 
his  own  confession,  had  offered  sacrifices.  To  wear  heathen 
amulets  for  keeping  off  diseases,  to  consult  an  astrologer  on 
any  private  a£^  whatever,  might  easily  involve  one  in  a 
crimen  majestatis,  leading  to  tortures  and  deatli.! 

To  the  great  vexation  of  the  pagans,  Constantius  caused 

*  See  Ammian.  Marcellin.  1.  XIX.  c.  12. 

t  Ammian.  Marcellin.  1.  c.  Liban.  pro  Aristophane,  vol.  I.  p.  430. 
The  words  of  Ammianns  Marcellinns  are  particularly  worthy  of  notice : 
**  Prorsns  ita  res  aeebator,  ^oasi  Clarium,  DodonsBas  arbores  et  e£&Lta 
Delphomm,  dUm  wSenma  in  imperatoris  exitiimi  soUidtaverint  molti." 


46  OONSTAHTIUB. 

several  celebrated  temples  to  be  destroyed.  Some  fae  pln- 
dered,  and  presented  others  or  their  treasures  to  Gfariitiu 
churches,  or  to  his  fiivoarltes  among  the  coortiers ;  and  mnfr- 
times,  therefore,  to  the  most  unworthy  of  men.  The  pruperty 
of  the  temples,  which  might  have  been  onployed  to  a  better 
purpose  in  the  cause  of  religion,  often  became  a  prey  to 
cupidity  and  rapine  ;*  and  when  many,  who  had  become  lidi 
by  the  plundering  of  temples,  abandoned  themselTea  to  e?eiy 
lust,  and  finally  brought  ruin  upon  themselyes  by  their  own 
wickedness,  the  pagans  looked  upon  this  as  the  pwnishnwt 
sent  by  their  gods  for  robbing  die  temples;  and  tkej pre- 
dicted that  similar  punishments  would  follow  every  inHtanoB 
in  which  the  temples  were  desecrated,  as  appears  fiom  the 
asseverations  of  Libanius  and  Julian. 

The  emperor,  however,  thought  it  advisirible  to  keep  under 
some  restraint  the  fury  for  destroying  temples,  in  order  to  pie- 
serve  certain  national  antiquities  which  were  dear  to  the 
people.  By  a  law  of  the  year  346  he  ordained  that  all 
temples  existing  without  the  walls  of  the  city  should  be  prfr* 
served  uninjured,  since  with  many  of  them  were  connected 
national  festivities,  and  certain  of  the  public  games  and  con- 
tests had  derived  their  origin  from  them.t  When  Conetantiiis^ 
after  his  victory  over  Magnentius,  resided  in  Rome,  and  there 
saw  the  heathen  temples  in  their  full  splendour,  he  to<^  no 
measures  against  them ;  and  heathenism,  as  the  old  religioii 
of  the  Eoman  state,  still  retained  so  much  consequence^  that 
much  that  belonged  to  the  heathen  forms  of  worship  was  left 
unaltered  in  the  Western  empire.  Thus  it  was  with  the  privi- 
leges of  the  vestals  and  the  priestly  dignities,  which  were 
given  to  Romans  belonging  to  the  noblest  headien  fiunilies^ 
although  we  must  allow  that  these  dignities  had  lost  mudi  of 
their  ancient  importance.  Subsequently  to  the  establishment 
of  the  law  which  made  the  offering  of  sacrifice  a  capital  crime, 


*  Liban.  de  accusatorib.  III.  436.     KuTtnut^pt  rghg  vmmig  ««i  ^'mmm 


quidam  templonun  spol 
t  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XVI.  Tit.  X.  c.  3.    Nam  cum  ex  nonniillis  vel 
Indorum  vel  circensium  vel  agonum  origo  fuerit  exorta,  non  convenit 
ea  convelli,  ex  qoibus  populo  Romano  prsbentnr  priscanun  sollenmitas 
Toluptatnm. 
X  See  Symmach.  relat  ad  ValentiDiaD.  1.  X.  ep.  •€!. 


HIS  PERSECUTION  OF  THE  PAGANS.  47 

Tertolliis,  the  prefect  of  the  city,  did  not  hesitate,  when  a 
storm  at  sea  Mndered  the  provisi(»  fleet  from  arriving  at 
Rome  and  threatened  a  &mine,  to  offer  public  sacrifices  in  the 
temple  of  Castor,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber,  that  the  gods 
might  caLn  the  farj  of  the  storm.* 

Whilst  wisely  flattering  pagan  rhetoridans,  such  as  liba- 
nius  and  Themistins,  publicfy  spoke  in  praise  of  the  emperor, 
whom  at  heart  they  detested  as  the  enemy  of  the  gods,  there 
were  still  among  the  teachers  of  the  Christian  church  many 
bold  and  fearless  voices,  whidb  plainly  told  him  that  he  rather 
injured  than  aided  Christianity  when  he  sought  to  advance  its 
interests  by  outward  power, — voices  which  now  presented 
before  a  professedly  Christiaii  emperor,  who  confoimded  the 
Christtan  with  the  political  standing-ground,  the  principles  «f 
liberty  of  conscience  and  belief  brought  to  light  by  dmstian- 
ity,  just  as  they  had  been  presented  before  the  pagan  emperors 
by  its  first  defenders.  Very  pertinently  says  Hilary  to  the 
emperor  Constantius,  '^  With  the  gold  of  the  state  you  bur- 
deaied  the  sanctuary  of  God ;  and  what  has  been  torn  from  the 
t^nples,  or  gained  by  the  ccmfiscation  of  goods,  or  extorted 
by  panishments,  that  you  force  upon  Grod."t  Conceming  the 
resort  to  violent  measures  for  the  advancement  of  rdigion, 
Athanasius  finely  remarics,}  <^  It  is  an  evidaice  that  they 
want  confidence  in  their  own  fliith,  when  they  use  force, 
and  constrain  men  against  their  wills.  So  Satan,  because 
there  is  no  truth  in  him,  wherever  he  gadns  admittance, 
pays  away  with  hatchet  and  sword.  But  the  Saviour  is 
so  gentle  that  he  teaches,  it  is  true,  ^  Witt  any  one  come 
after  me,  and  who  will  be  my  disciple?'  while  he  forces 
wme  to  whom  he  comes,  but  only  knocks  at  the  door  of  the 
soul,  and  says,  ^  Open  to  me,  my  sister ;'  and  if  the  door  is 
opened,  he  goes  in.  But  if  any  one  is  unwilling  to  open,  he 
withdraws;  for  the  truth  is  not  preached  by  sword  and 
javelin,  nor  by  armies,  but  by  persuasion  and  admonition.§ 
How  can  there  be  anything  like  persuasion  where  the  fear  of 
the  ^nperor  rules  ?  How  can  there  be  anything  like  admoni- 
tion where  be  who  contradicts  has  to  expect  banishment  and 

*  Ammiao.  Marcellin.  1.  XIX.  c.  10. 

t  0.  Constant  imperator.  lib.  c.  10.  %  Hist  Amn.  s.  3. 


48  OONSTANTIUS. 

death  ?  "  Says  the  same  writer  in  another  place,*  *'  It  is  the 
character  of  true  piety,  not  to  force,  but  to  convince ;  since 
our  Lord  himself  forced  no  man,  but  left  free  the  choice  of 
each  individual,  saying  to  all, '  If  any  man  willy  let  him  come 
after  me;'  but  to  his  disciples,  ^WiU  ye  also  go  away?'" 
The  men  who  expressed  such  truths  with  Christian  boldness 
were  thinking  indeed,  in  this  case,  not  so  much  of  the  conduct 
of  tlie  emperor  towards  the  pagans  as  of  his  conduct  towards 
the  contending  parties  of  the  Christian  church ;  their  own 
interest  (for  tiiey  belonged  to  a  party  which  lay  under  the 
constraint  of  outward  power)  coincided  in  this  case  with  what 
the  spirit  of  Christianity  requires ;  and  hence  they  might  the 
more  readily  perceive  this,  and  be  led  to  make  it  a  prominent 
point  in  opposition  to  the  prevailing  sentiments  of  their  time. 
It  is  plain  that  the  same  could  have  been  said  also  concerning 
the  emperor's  conduct  towards  the  pagans;  but  it  may  be 
justly  questioned  whether  they  would  have  been  equally  free 
to  recognise  and  proclaim  the  same  truths  in  this  wider  appli- 
cation. It  is  certain,  at  least,  that  many  of  the  Withers  were 
actuated  by  another  spirit  than  this  Christian  one :  they  were 
concerned  only  for  the  outward  suppression  of  paganism, 
without  considering  whether  the  means  employed  for  this  pur- 
pose agreed  with  the  spirit  of  the  gospel,  and  were  suited  to 
destroy  paganism  in  the  hearts  of  men.  Julius  Firmicus 
Maternus  f  thus  addresses  the  emperors  Constantius  and  Con- 
stans:  "  Take  off  without  scruple  the  decorations  of  the  tem- 
ples ;  use  all  their  consecrated  gifts  for  your  own  profit,  and 
that  of  the  Lord.  After  destroying  the  temples,  ye  are,  by 
tlie  power  of  God,  exalted  higher."  He  paid  homage  to  the 
error,  so  ruinous  to  the  emperors,  which  led  them  to  imag^e 
that,  by  merely  destroying  the  outward  monuments  of  pagan- 
ism, they  proved  themselves  to  be  Christians,  and  secured  the 
divine  favour.  He  also  describes  the  political  success  of  the 
emperors  in  the  usual  style  of  exaggerated  flattery,  peculiar 
to  the  panegyrists  of  the  age,  and  says  nothing  of  their  mis- 
fortunes. He  next  invites  them  to  punish  idolatry,  and 
assures  them  that  the  divine  law  required  them  to  suppress  all 

*  Hist.  Ariaii.  s.  67. 

t  Concerning  whom  we  shall  speak  farther  in  another  place^  nnder 
the  head  of  the  Apologists. 


REACTION  OF  PAGANISM.  49 

paganism  by  force.*  Forgetting  the  spirit  which  it  became 
Christians  to  cherish,  and  by  what  means  the  Christian  church 
had  overcome  all  earthly  powers  that  had  opposed  her  and 
finally  rendered  them  subservient  to  her  own  interests,  he 
employs  those  passages  of  the  Old  Testament  which  threatened 
with  the  pimishment  of  death  those  who  became  idolaters  from 
among  the  people  of  Grod,  to  show  how  Christian  emperors 
should  deal  with  the  same  class  of  men.  Worldly-minded 
bishops,  who  by  their  proceedings  caused  the  name  of  the 
Lord  to  be  blasphemed  among  the  Gentiles^  such  as  Georgius 
of  Alexandria,  raged  against  paganism,  and  stood  ready  to 
reward  with  everything  which  their  powerful  influence  at 
court  enabled  them  to  procure,  with  the  favour  of  the  prince, 
and  titles,  and  stations  of  honour,  the  hypocrisy  of  those  who 
accounted  earthly  things  of  more  value  than  divine.f 

If  we  consider  more  closely  the  relation,  as  it  now  stood,  of 
Christianity  to  paganism  in  the  Roman  empire,  we  cannot  fail 
to  see  that  a  reaction  of  the  latter,  to  recover  itself  from  its 
depression,  was  already  prepared.  As  nothing  can  be  more 
hurtful  to  the  cause  of  truth  than  attempting  to  support  and 
further  it  by  some  other  power  than  its  own,  thus  converting 
truth  itself  into  a  &lsehood ;  so  nothing,  on  the  other  hand, 
can  contribute  more  to  promote  the  cause  of  error  than  raising 
up  martyrs  for  it,  and  thus  lending  it  the  appearance  of  truth. 

*  C.  30.  Vt  severitas  vestra  idololatrise  facinus  omni&riam  per- 
sequatar.  ^ 

t  Libamns  doubtless  expresses  what  he  had  seized  from  the  life  of 
the  times,  when  he  says,  speaking  of  a  certain  Aristophanes,  who,  even 
under  the  reign  of  Constantius,  hsA  continued  steadfast  in  the  profession 
of  heatiienism,  "  What  rewards  might  he  not  have  obtained  from 
Greorgius,  if  he  had  been  willing  to  make  in  the  church  a  public  pro- 
fession of  Christianity,  and  to  insult  the  gods?  What  prefecture  of 
Egypt,  what  power  with  the  eunuchs  of  the  court,  and  with  the  emperor 
himself,  woiUd  not  Georgius  have  procured  for  him?  Utiaw  »o»  &» 
ir^Sirnt  Jjyvrm  d.rri  raurns  rnf  tut/i^i/»s ;  ira^ti  vUtt  »vk  «y  tuuux,ts 
ro9  a.»fi^a*9r»9  anti^i^nv  iV;^(;{0»;  n^rir  uv  iZ  fr^i,  xat  rm  KMv^Tetvriw 
xi^aXiif  u  rhv  iaOrw  Kt^akh*  *^os  Tuufytn  ^fiiitf."  Pro  Aristophane, 
voL  I.  p.  448.  This  agrees  with  the  description  which  Athanasius  gives 
of  those  who  became  Christians  for  the  sake  of  spiritual  offices,  to  obtain 
exemption  from  the  burdens  of  the  state,  and  to  secure  powerful  con- 
nections,— men  who  were  satisfied  with  any  creed,  provided  only  they 
could  be  released  from  state  burdens,  and  maintain  their  connections 

with  those  in  power:  "Eati  /»»«»  lUU  aXurw^ynr»t  xeu  ir^§fTttfiav  Jiv^ft^ 

^ifn9  tx»v9*»    Athanas.  hist  Arianor.  ad  monachos,  s.  78. 

VOL.  III.  ISi 


50  OOFSTAKTJUCL 

It  oertainly  had  been  poBsible  for  paganiiwii  '•ader  4b 
ing  circumstances,  to  gain  vastly  more  if  this  Tdigfioas  syiten, 
which  consisted  of  the  old  popokur  superstition,  ooming  out  ii 
a  new  dress  from  the  school  of  pompous  mystical  sophists  aad 
conceited  rhetoricians,  had  not  been  in  itself  so  utteify  vm-f 
substantial  and  powerless ;  an  idle  gewgaw,  hardly  capukof 
imparting  to  any  soul  enthusiasm  enon^  to  become  a  nmrtyiv 

Many  had  hypocritically  assumed  the  profesnon  of  Chnrti- 
anity,  while  at  heart  they  were  still  inclined  to  paganism,  m 
were  ready  to  adopt  any  religion  which  hi^pened  to  be  ii 
fiiyour  at  court ;  others  had  muned  a  system  for  themselvei^ 
mixed  up  of  paganism  and  Christianity,  in  which  often 
there  was  nothing  more  than  merely  an  exchange  of  pagan  Wt 
Christian  names — ^in  which  only  Christian  forms  and  cerennoniei 
were  substituted  in  place  of  the  pagan,  and  from  which,  under  a 
change  of  circumstances,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  retreat 
back  to  paganism.  The  passions  which  in  oontpaveniial  dis- 
putes excited  the  Christians  to  rail  at  each  other ;  the  Impiiie 
motives  which  crept  in  on  these  occasions,  especially  throogh 
the  influence  of  the  court ;  the  zeal  for  a  formal  oithodoiy 
and  church  ceremonial  among  so  nuiny  who  in  their  lives 
manifested  a  spirit  so  different  from  that  of  the  go^wl — aH 
this  must  have  served  to  give  support  to  the  flEdse  aocusatiooi 
against  Christianity  current  among  the  pagans;  as  in  the 
earlier  times  the  effects  of  the  gospel  on  the  lives  of  its  fol- 
lowers had  tended  to  further  its  progress.  Thus  a  heathen 
party  had  kept  itself  alive,  which,  in^ts  fanaticism,  rising 
under  the  pressure  of  distress,  and  taking  advantage  of  all  dnt 
was  bad  in  the  Christian  church,  flattei^  itself  with  the  hope 
of  one  day  seeing  the  worship  of  its  gods  victoriously  restored. 

The  spirit  which  for  the  most  part  animated  this  party  was 
by  no  means  a  purely  religious  fimaticism.  It  was  a  blind  love 
for  the  old  antiquities  of  Greece  and  Rome ;  for  Gredan  art 
and  science,  which,  to  these  pagans,  seemed,  not  without  rea- 
son, to  be  closely  connected  with  the  old  religion.  It  was 
their  enthusiastic  attachment  to  everything  connected  with 
the  old  Greek  and  Roman  manners  which  filled  them  with 
hatred  to  Christianity, — a  religion  which  introduced  a  new, 
spiritual,  and  to  them  unintelligible,  creation.  Hence  it  was 
that  paganism  found  its  most  zealous  promoters  among  the 
rhetoricians,  philosophers,  and  men  of  learning ;  and  that  the 


REACTIOK  OF  PAGANISM.  61 

attachment  to  it  kBgered  especially  in  many  of  the  ancient  and 
noble  £unilie8  of  Greece  and  Borne.  The  rhetoricians  who 
made  an  open  profes&don  of  paganism,  or  who,  although  they 
professed  Christianity,  were  pagans  at  heart,  had  opportunities 
'enough,  although  they  did  not  venture  publicly  to  attack  the 
latter  in  tbdr  lectures,  yet,  in  expounding  the  ancient  authors, 
to  communicate  imperceptibly  to  the  minds  of  the  youth  a 
direction  hostile  to  Christianily.  What  we  have  already  re- 
marked with  reference  to  the  preceding  period  still  continued 
to  be  true — that  the  religious  symbolism,  derived  from  the 
^eo-Platonic  philosophy,  was  the  most  important  means  re- 
sorted to  for  dressing  out  paganism  as  a  rival  of  Christianity, 
and  for  imparting  an  artificial  life  to  that  which  was  already 
effete.  Speculative  ideas  and  mystical  intuitions  were  to  infuse 
into  the  old  insipid  superstition  a  liigher  meaning.  Theurgy, 
and  the  low  traffic  in  boastful  mysteries,  contributed  greatly 
also  to  attract  and  enchain,  by  tiieir  deceptive  arts,  many 
minds,  influenced  more  by  a  vain  curiosity,  which  would  pene- 
trate into  what  lies  beyond  the  province  of  the  human  mind, 
than  by  any  true  religious  need.  Yet  in  art  and  science  there 
was  nothing  truly  creative  which  could  spring  any  longer  out 
of  the  withered  trunk  of  paganism.  AU  the  creative  power 
dwelt  in  Christianity.  This  alone  could  impart  the  spirit  of 
a  new  life  into  the  forms  borrowed  from  the  Grecian  art  and 
science.  Those  who,  instead  of  yielding  to  the  new  creation 
by  which  everything  was  to  be  restor^  to  the  freshness  of 
youth,  moum^  over  the  grave  of  the  ancient  world,  which 
had  long  since  perished,  could  do  nothing  more  than  form  an 
idle  patchwork  out  of  the  old  fragments  of  rhetoric,  philo- 
sojdiy,  and  literature. 

From  what  has  now  be^a  said,  it  is  easy  to  see  that,  should 
a  pagan  emperor  once  more  ascend  the  throne,  this  paganism 
would  make  another  attempt  to  gain  the  supremacy ;  since  for 
the  moment  everything  in  &ct  depended  upon  the  will  of  the 
emperor,  although  indeed  no  human  will  had  the  power  of 
actually  calling  back  to  life  what  was  already  dead.  And  to 
this  very  end,  that  a  pagan  emperor  should  once  more  be 
established  on  the  throne,  Constantius  was  to  prove  the  instru- 
ment,— Constantius,  who  had  ever  been  the  chief  cause  of 
mischief  to  the  Christian  church,  for  which  he  displayed  so 
much  zeal* 

Y.1 


12  JULIAN*S  YOUTH 

The  new  emperor  was  Julian,  the  nephew  of  ConstantioB, 
whose  desertion  to  paganism  admits  of  an  easy  explanation, 
both  from  the  peculiarity  of  his  character,  and  mmi  his  oourse 
of  life  and  education.  In  hct,  a  very  slight  turn  seemed  all 
that  was  necessary  to  change  the  peculiar  bent,  manifested  by 
the  whole  fiimily  of  Constantines  for  the  outward  show  and 
form  of  religion,  from  Christianity  to  paganism ;  and  this  turn 
Julian  took  from  his  earliest  youth.  Having  lost,  as  it  is  said, 
early  in  life,  his  nearest  relatives,  through  the  joilousy  of  his 
uncle,  who  discarded  the  natural  feelings  of  kindred,  this  dr- 
cumstance  would  leave  on  the  mind  of  Julian  no  very  fiivour- 
able  impression  of  the  religion  wiiich  prevailed  at  the  imperial 
court,  and  for  which  Constantius  manifested  such  excessive 
zeal ;  although,  at  the  time  this  took  place,  he  was  too  young 
to  be  conscious  of  any  such  impression.  Every  pains  was  taken 
to  keep  him  away,  while  a  boy  and  a  young  man,  from  the 
infection  of  paganism,  and  to  fasten  him  to  Christianity.  This 
was  done  as  well  from  political  as  from  reli^ous  motives,  since 
any  connection  of  the  prince  with  the  pagan  party  might  prove 
dangerous  to  the  state.  But  the  right  means  were  not  chosen 
to  secure  this  end.  What  was  thus  forced  upon  him  could  not 
easily  take  root  in  a  mind  which  naturally  hated  constraint 
This  careful  surveillance  would  only  have  the  natural  effect 
to  excite  his  longing  after  that  which  they  were  so  anxious  to 
keep  from  him.  And  the  men,  too,  whom  the  court  employed 
as  its  instruments,  were  not  such  as  would  be  likely  to  scatter 
in  the  mind  of  Julian  the  seeds  of  a  thorough  (Christianity, 
and  to  leave  impressions  on  his  heart  calculated  to  give  a  de- 
cided Christian  direction  to  his  inner  life.  It  was  in  a  diligent 
attention  to  those  outward  religious  forms  which  busy  the 
imagination  that  he  and  his  brother  Gallus  were  chiefly  exer- 
cised while  pursuing  their  education  imder  vigilant  masters, 
in  the  solitude  of  Macellum,  a  country  seat  in  Cappadoda. 
Their  very  sports  were  made  to  wear  the  colour  of  devotional 
exercises ;  as  when  they  were  taught  to  emulate  each  other  in 
erecting  a  chapel  over  the  tomb  of  Mamas,  a  pretended  mar- 
tyr, held  in  special  veneration  throughout  this  district.  The 
boys  might  easily  become  accustomed  to  all  this ;  and,  unless 
some  mightier  reaction  took  place  in  the  inmost  recesses  of 
the  mind,  the  habits  thus  formed  might  become  fixed,  as  they 
actually  were  in  the  case  of  Gallus;  but  not  so,  where  a 


ASD  EDUCATION.  58 

3;htier  influence  than  religious  mechanism  began  to  work  in 
opposite  direction,  as  in  the  case  of  Julian. 
Both  are  said  to  have  been  educated  as  ecclesiastics ;  they 
re  consecrated  as  pre-lectors  in  the  church,  little  as  the 
position  of  either  one  of  them  was  suited  for  the  clerical  pro- 
sion.  This  office,  which  had  been  given  to  Julian  when 
ing,  must  have  made  him  quite  familiar  with  the  scriptures; 
i  the  writings  of  Julian  do  actually  show  that  he  possessed 
eady  acquaintance  with  the  letter  of  the  scriptures ;  but  of 
at  avail  could  that  be  when  his  mind  had  taken  a  direction 
ich  unfitted  him  altogether  for  entering  into  their  inward 
aning,  and  his  heart  was  ever  wholly  disinclined  from  sub- 
tting  to  the  doctrines  which  they  taught  ?  Homer,  on  the 
ler  hand,  was  expounded  to  him  by  a  man  much  more  skilful 
imparting  to  the  imagination  of  the  young  student  an  en- 
isiasm  for  his  author,  than  the  clergy  had  proved  to  be  in 
planting  a  love  of  the  divine  word  in  his  heart.  This  was 
cocles,  a  civilian,  enthusiastically  devoted  to  the  Grecian 
^rature,  who,  after  the  &shion  of  the  Platonists  of  that 
iod,  contemplated  Homer,  through  the  medium  of  an  alle- 
rical  interpretation,  as  the  guide  to  a  higher  wisdom.* 
obably,  in  his  own  convictions,  he  was  a  pagan,')'  although 
might  not  openly  avow  this  to  be  the  case ;  and  we  may 
11  conceive  that  such  a  person  was  far  more  fitted  to  dis- 
dinate  imperceptibly  in  the  mind  of  the  young  student 
nething  hostile  to  Christianity,  than  to  cherish  in  him  the 
iristiau  tendency.  Besides,  the  light  in  which  such  an  in- 
uctor  must  have  taught  him  to  contemplate  Homer  would 
b  be  likely  to  harmonize  with  Christianity.  Two  heteroge- 
)us  and  hostile  elements  were  here  brought  at  once  into  his 
il ;  the  one  penetrated  deeply,  the  other  only  touched  lightly 
on  the  surface.  These  two  elements  might,  it  is  true,  rest 
iceably  side  by  side;  and  the  more  so,  the  less  deeply 
iristianity  took  hold  of  the  life ;  but  a  conflict  between  them 
ght  afterwards  easily  be  excited  by  outward  causes,  and  a 
igion  afterwards  find  its  way  to  his  soul,  the  medium  of 
trance  for  which  had  been  prepared  by  that  fundamental 

'  Liban.    Uft^fitunxif  ir^h  'Uv^Mti*.    Vol.  I.  p.  459.    *Ziiits  lin^  '"St 

Otherwise  Ldbanius  -would  hardly  have  bestowed  on  him  so  much 
iise  in  ^e  passage  just  referred  to. 


54  Julian's  touth 

element  of  his  education.  Thus  he  contracted  a  great  fond- 
ness for  the  study  of  the  ancient  Greek  poets  and  omton 
generally ;  and  this  love  for  ancient  literature  next  formed  a 
point  of  transition  to  the  love  of  ancient  paganism,  as  the 
living  spring  of  this  literature,  the  two  things  being  in  fibct 
intimately  connected  in  the  view  of  the  pagan  party  among 
the  learned.  It  was  said,  indeed,  that  the  ancient  literatore 
had  sunk  with  the  ancient  religion,  and  that  the  disgrace  of 
that  literature  had  followed  close  after  the  degradation  of  the 
temples  in  the  time  of  Constantino; — a  complaint  which  in 
one  respect  was  wholly  groundless,  inasmuch  as  this  literature, 
without  inward  life,  had  long  carried  within  it  the  germ  of  it» 
own  decay,  and  nothing  but  Christianity  remained  to  inlose 
new  life  into  the  dead  bones  of  antiquity.* 

After  six  years'  residence  at  the  country-seat  in  Cappadoci% 
Julian  wQs  called  in  the  year  350  to  Constantinople,  where 
he  occupied  himself  exclusively  with  literary  pursuits.  Here 
he  was  not  allowed  to  avail  himself  of  the  instructions  of  the 
rhetorician  Libanius,  who  openly  acknowledged  himself  a 
pagan ;  but  the  rhetorician  Ecebolius,  a  man  of  less  elevated 
mind,  who  accommodated  his  religion  to  the  air  of  the  courts 
and  who,  under  Constantius,  was  a  zealous  Christian  and  a 
violent  antagonist  of  paganism,  while  under  Julian  he  became 
an  equally  zealous  pagan  and  antagonist  of  Christianity, 
obtained,  as  the  reward  of  his  hypocrisy,  the  charge  of  the 
prince's  education,  f  How  could  such  an  instructor  imbue 
the  youthftil  mind  of  his  pupil  with  the  love  of  Christianity? 

The  foolish  Constantius,  who  must  be  so  often  deceived  and 
led  to  act  contrary  to  his  own  interests  where  he  thought  that 
he  was  doing  the  utmost  to  promote  them,  was  afraid  to  leave 

*  Libanius,  not  without  reason,  says  to  Julian,  "On  xa)  «^f  nftih 
rSv  hu9  vvr*  aurHf  ixiffi^f  r£v  Xoyotv.  IT^of  (petvtiriM.  Vol.  I.  p.  ^M, 
otxiia  xeu  fuyyitvti  rmura  afjup»ri^v,  ii^  jmm  Xiytu     VoL  III.  p.  437. 

t  Liban.  epitaph.  Julian,  vol.  I.  p.  526,  ^t^rtit  vis  ir»»n^it  roS  Mmmmt 
ifyoftuiiv  raiit  hoiig  fttff^n  iT;^!  rh  Hm,  Socrates  (1.  III.  c.  1)  mentloiis 
his  name.  The  same  writer  also  relates  the  rest  which  is  noticed  in  the 
text,  and  moreover  adds,  that  after  Julian's  death  he  was  for  once  more 
playing  the  Christian,  and  proposed  to  subject  himself  to  the  penance  of 
the  church,  that  he  might  be  again  admitted  to  its  communion  ;  that  be 
prostrated  himself  on  tibe  earth  before  the  door  of  the  church,  and  called 
out  to  the  people,—**  Tread  me  under  foot ;  I  am  the  senseless  salt," 

Tratfirari  fit,   to  uXttg  to  avui^finTov,     Socrat.  1.  III.  C  13. 


AND  KDUCJlTIOS,  55 

a  youDg  prince,  that  already  began  to  attract  a  good  deal  of 
attrition,  behind  him  at  Constantinople,  while  he  himself 
wait  to  the  West  on  his  expedition  against  Magnentius  •  He 
gave  him  ]eave>  therefore,  to  visit  Nicomedia,  in  Bithynia^ 
for  the  purpose  of  prosecuting  his  literary  pursuits  at  a 
flourishing  seat  of  learning,  where  several  disting^hed  rheto- 
ricians were  teachers.  Yet  there  he  was  exposed  much  more 
to  the  infection  of  paganism  than  at  Constantinople,  where 
foar  and  worldly  interest  induced  even  those  who  were  pagans 
at  heart  to  wear  the  mask  of  Christianity.  He  was  obliged 
to  promijse,  on  departing  from  Constantinople,  that  he  would 
not  attend  the  lectures  of  the  pagan  Libanius,  who  also  then 
taught  at  Nicomediac  But  the  prohibition,  as  might  be  exp- 
pected,  served  only  to  stimulate  his  curiosity;  and  he  con- 
trived to  procure  copies  of  the  lectures  of  Libanius,  which 
indeed,  if  we  may  judge  from  his  writings  that  remain,  barren 
as  they  were  of  ideas  and  sentiments,  dry  in  their  contents, 
and  rich  only  in  the  ornaments  of  rhetoric,  could  have  attrac- 
tions only  for  a  very  disordered  mind,  unaccustomed  to  healthy 
nourishment,  weaned  from  simplicity,  and  easily  pleased  with 
the  glare  of  superficial  ornament.  The  gratification  which 
he  found  in  the  lectures  of  Libanius  doubtless  brought  him 
gradually  into  conneetion  with  the  whole  pagan  party.  At 
its  head  stood  at  tliat  time,  along  with  the  rhetoricians,  Me 
Platonists,  who  had  schoolis  in  Asia  Minor,  particularly  at 
Pergamos.  The  most  renowned  among  these  Platonists  were 
the  old  jEdesins,  Chrysanthius,  Eusebius,  Maximus.  The 
last-mentioned  was  also  an  adroit  juggler,  who  boasted  of  his 
power  to  do  great  things  by  means  of  supernatural  agents.' 
These  Platonists  maintained  a  close  correspondence  with  the 
pagans  at  Nicomedia.  To  gain  over  a  young  man  who  was 
destined  to  hold  so  important  a  position  in  the  state  was  natu- 
rally regarded  by  them  as  a  great  object,  worthy  of  the  most 
skilM  finesse.  It  may  easily  be  conceived  that  the  mind  of 
Julian,  already  perverted  and  made  vain  by  his  rhetorical 
education,  and  eagerly  catching  at  the  glitter  and  pomp  of 
words,  would  be  more  strongly  attracted  by  the  dainty  philo- 
fiophico-mystical  paganism  which  these  people  set  forth — ^by 
their  high-sounding  phrases  about  the  heavenly  derivation  of 
the  soul,  its  debasement  to  matter,  its  bondage  and  its  freedom^ 
and  by  their  pretended  clearing  up  of  the  doctrine  eou^^TMcw^ 


56  juluk's  ooNVEBUoar 

gods  and  demons — than  by  the  simple  gotpely  even  if  this  had 
been  preached  to  him.  But  the  Christianity  which  he  actually 
possessed,  a  Christianity  that  turned  wholly  on  eztemalsy  could 
easily  make  the  transition  to  paganism.  They  now  gave  him 
proo&  of  the  pagan  art  of  divination,  which  sarpnsed  and 
deceived  him.  They  showed  him  predictions  *  of  an  approach- 
ing triumph  of  the  gods,  and,  indeed,  flattered  him  with  the 
hope  that  he  himself  was  the  destined  instrument  to  achieve 
it.  The  greatest  influence  over  him  was  possessed  by  the 
braggart  Maximus,  who  had  come  over  from  Ephesos ;  for 
he  was  precisely  the  man  to  entrap  a  youth  like  Julian.  He 
took  him  along  with  him  to  Ionia ;  and  there,  in  the  society 
of  Neo>Platonic  philosophers  and  hierophants,  the  wo^  b^ 
gun  at  Nicomedia  was  finished.  Julian  was  converted,  from 
being  an  outward  Christian,  with  a  secret  leaning  to  paganism, 
of  which  perhaps  he  was  himself  unconscious,  into  a  decided 
and  zealous  pagan. f 

*  To  this  Libanins  alludes  in  ep.  701,  when,  nnder  Julian's  leigu,  be 

writes :    Nm  rii;  iXn^tiat   ra    n^mrist    vm  /dv   X^yiV/iMtf,   vti    &   /MMriMMf 

*t  Here  especially  the  narratives  of  Libanius,  who  was  then  a 
rhetorician  at  Nicomedia,  and  in  part  an  eye-witness  of  the  fiiets,  are  of 
weight  n^tr^nTix,  it^f  *lw>.Mfiu  vol.  1.  p.  408.  Bespecting  Julian's 
residence  in  Nicomedia,  he  says,  ^Hv  ym^  ns  rr/vlf^  funrMm  mMii 
K^vTrifitvof,  fiuXjf  impvyin  rag  x^V^f  ^'^  weniisiv  (the  Severe  persecB- 
tious,  by  the  Christian  emperors,  of  the  pagan  art  of  divination,  see 

above)   u^'  £  ^  ir^£r»f  rai(paAf  aivi^nvatv   TO   ^^ah^it   fM99t  Marti  tSw  tw» 

ix'wx*f  (perhaps  hopes,  which  were  entertained  by  himself  with  regard 
to  what  he  should  one  day  become)  ;  then  he  mentions  his  journey  to 
Ionia,  where,  by  the  S«x«t;yr«  juu  •vrm  ^a^n,  that  is,  by  Maximus,  he 
was  led  to  the  full  knowledge  of  the  truth.  Epitaph.  Julian.  1.  c.  528* 
he  mentions  less  distinctly  how  Julian,  during  his  residence  in  Nice- 
media,  having  once  fallen  into  company  with  Platonicians,  and  heard 
them  discourse  on  divine  things,  suddenly  changed  his  opiuions.  E« 
I«vX<«y«i»  Ai/r««^aT^.  Snearw,  1.  C  376,  %»uvw  tyi*  r^r  hfitifii*  tifx***  iXsv^^wcf 
rri  y^  «aX<w,  »ut  ftaKXfi^at  r»9r»ii  rt  Sg  riiv  (JuiTaifioXh9  (H^ara  jb«m  rif  nt 
ywfiris  ietrpoff  Sf  xniuvn  riv  xuXXjvrov  alr»$  r%  xtvitniwagf  xat  rlfii 
vrii^etff  fitrei  rtv  fjM$nrtiu  rag  xvxuetf  iAv-Xtunf  (the  voyage  to  lonia  in 
company  with  Maximus,  which  beyond  question  would  have  exposed 
both  him  and  Julian  to  great  danger,  if  Julian's  conversion  to  paganism 
had  been  discovered^.  What  Eunapius  relates,  particularlv  in  ue  life 
of  Maximus  (ed.  Boissonade,  vol.  1.  p.  49,  ff.),  cannot  indeed  be  received 
as  literally  true ;  and,  besides,  it  is  too  inexact  to  be  used  in  dedding 
about  the  time  when  events  occurred  in  this  porUon  of  Julian's  historv; 
yet  these  accounts  contain  a  good  deal  which  serves  to  illustrate  tno 


TO  PAGANISM.  57 

Althoi^h  Julian  had  special  reasons  for  concealing  his  con- 
version to  paganism,  which,  if  it  became  known  to  Constan- 
tius,  might  have  cost  him  his  life,  yet  he  could  not  avoid  ex- 
citing suspicions  with  regard  to  his  connections  in  Ionia.  His 
brother  G  alius,  who  happened  to  be  at  that  time  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, heard  reports  which  troubled  him.  But  ^tius,  an 
ecclesiastic  of  Antioch,  who  was  on  friendly  terms  with  Julian, 
quieted  his  suspicions  by  informing  him  that  Julian  frequented 
the  churches,  and  especially  the  chapels  of  the  martyrs ;  * 
and  since  it  can  hardly  be  supposed  that  jEtius  invented  this 
story  merely  to  soothe  Gallus,  it  may  hence  be  gathered  to 
what  arts  of  dissimulation  Julian  descended.  The  assassina^ 
tion  of  G  alius  (in  354) ;  the  danger  in  which  he  was  himself 
for  a  long  time  involved  through  the  jealousy  of  Constantius ; 
the  imprisonment  in  which  he  was  held — all  this  could  only 
serve  to  render  the  Byzantine  court,  and  the  Christianity 
which  was  here  worn  for  a  show,  still  more  hateful  to  him. 
The  ever-deluded  Constantius  finally  gave  him  permission  to 
reside  for  some  time  at  Athens,  the  ancient  flourishing  seat 
of  literary  studies  and  Hellenism.f   Pagan  priests,  hieropbants, 

characters  of  both  Jnlian  and  Maximns.  When  Chrysanthins  first  tells 
the  yonng  man  about  the  magical  arts  of  Maximns  (how  by  his  forms  of 
incantation  he  had  caused  the  statue  of  Hecate  to  laugh,  and  the  torches 
in  her  hands  to  kindle  of  themselves),  as  it  is  said,  for  the  purpose  of 
warning  him  against  these  things,  so  foreign  from  the  pure  spiritual 
philosophy,  Julian  exclaims — **  Keep  to  your  books ;  you  have  shown 
me  the  man  whom  I  seek ;"  and  he  hastens  from  Pergamos  to  meet  him 
at  Ephesos.  Something  like  this  may  perhaps  have  happened,  though 
the  time,  place,  and  circumstances  are  here  not  correctly  stated.  The 
warning  letter  which  Gallus  wrote  to  Julian  during  the  residence  of  the 
latter  in  Ionia,  because  the  reports  that  Julian  had  gone  over  to 
paganism  had  excited  his  alarm,  agrees  with  the  above  account ;  as  also 
the  remark  of  Julian  in  his  proclamation  to  the  Athenians,  that  he  was 
a  zealous  and  decided  Christian  until  his  one-and-twentieth  year ;  for 
this  would  coincide  with  the  time  of  his  residence  in  Nicomedia,  with 
the  year  351 ;  though  it  ought  to  be  taken  into  consideration  that  this 
cannot  well  be  unaerstood  literally,  and  that  Julian  himself  perhaps 
would  not  be  able  distinctly  to  recall  that  which  had  taken  place  in  his 
mind  by  cradual  and  progressive  changes. 

*  See  me  letter  of  Gallus  to  Julian.    Julian,  opp.  454. 

t  Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  who  just  at  that  time  was  also  studying  at 
Athens,  writes  in  his  orat  XC  p.  331,  BKafiipm  roTs  dxxtTs  *Afin*at  r»  tU 

/tMXX09  rjff    iUXns    lXX«2«f,    »m}   ;^«Xtir/y  fih    ^U9afv»90nv»t  vo7t   vwratw 


58  JULIAN  BECOMES  EMPEROB. 

and  rhetoricians,  here  combined  their  efibrts  to  stimulate  his 
zeal  in  the  cause  of  pagamsm ;  pagan  youth  were  his  com- 
panions ;  and  he  became  the  secret  hope  of  the  whole  pagan 
party. 

While  Julian,  already  elevated  to  the  dig^ty  of  Cassar, 
was  carrying  on  the  war  in  Gaul,  his  fear  of  the  jealous  temper 
of  Constant]  us  led  him  to  adopt  every  possible  expedi^it  for 
keeping  his  pagan  way  of  thinking  conc^ed ;  and  so,  on  the 
feast  of  Epiphsuiy  of  the  year  361,  he  assbted  at  the  celefan^ 
tion  of  the  Christian  worship  at  Vienna.*  He  was  attended 
by  only  three  men,  who  agreed  with  him  in  their  religioitt 
views,  and  joined  with  him  in  his  secret  observance  of  the 
pagan  cultus, — a  slave  who  was  his  librarian ;  his  physician 
Oribasius,f  an  enterprising  man,  whose  pretended  knowledge 
of  magic,  divination,  and  the  interpretation  of  dreams,  gave 
him  great  influence  with  Julian;  and  Sallustius,  a  learned 
civilian,  whom  the  emperor  had  sent  with  him  for  the  purpose 
of  watching  his  proceedings,  but  who,  by  his  friencUy  inti- 
macy with  Julian,  soon  excited  suspicion,  and  was  removed. 

Thus  the  religious  convictions  of  Julian  had  been  rendered 
doubly  dear  to  him  by  these  measures  of  constraint,  when,  in 
the  year  361,  he  was  placed  himself  on  the  imperial  throne, 
and  found  it  in  his  power  not  only  freely  to  express  his  true 
principles,  but  also  to  aim  at  remodelling  after  them  the 
whole  state  of  religion  in  the  Roman  empire. 

Perhaps  beyond  any  one  of  his  predecessors  among  the  Bo- 
man  emperors  he  made  account  of  the  office  of  supreme  pontiff. 
He  took  special  delight  in  offering  multitudes  of  sacrifices  and 
in  slaughtering  the  victims  with  his  own  hand,  and,  by  the 
great  zeal  which  he  manifested  on  these  occasions,  often  ex- 
posed himself  to  the  ridicule  of  the  Christians.  He  laboured 
to  found  a  mystical  hierarchy,  fashioned  after  his  own  Neo- 
Platonic  ideas,  leaving  ample  room,  however,  for  the  admis- 
sion of  the  old  superstitions  of  paganism ;  a  phenomenon  of 

*  Ammian.  MarcelUn.  l!  XXL  c.  2. 

t  Comp.  Julian,  ep.  ad  Atheniens.  Eunap.  vit.  Oribas.  EmiaiHiis 
says,  indeed,  that  he  made  Julian  emperor,  which  probably  has  reference 
to  those  higher  arts  in  which  Oribasius  was  supposed  to  be  a  prolBicieiit 
See  the  letter  of  Julian  to  Oribasius  in  his  critical  situation,  where  he 
also  communicates  to  him  a  dream.  Ep.  XVII.  Respecting  Salhut, 
Zosim.  1.  III.  c.  9.  Julian's  consolatory  address  at  taking  leave  of 
SuIIust,  orat.  VIII.,  and  ep.  ad  Athenienses. 


BIS  DEFENCE  OF  IMAOSS.  59 

which  history  furnishes  many  examples,  where  it  is  attempted, 
by  means  of  some  arbitrary  speculative  system,  to  infuse  arti- 
ficial life  into  the  dead  form  of  an  antiquated  superstition. 
In  his  letter  to  a  hi^  priest  Julian  declares  himself  an  enemy 
to  all  innovation,  especially  in  whatever  pertains  to  the  gods : 
"  The  traditional  laws  of  the  coimtry  ought  invariably  to  be 
observed  from  the  beginning ;  for  these  were  manifestly  ^ven 
by  the  gods,  otherwise  they  could  not  have  been  so  excellent.'- • 
We  may  learn  from  a  set  of  instructions,  which  he  probably 
drew  up  for  the  use  of  his  priest^,  how  he  would  attempt  to 
restore  the  whole  worship  of  images,  and  defend  himself 
against  the  objections  of  the  Christians :  ^^  Out  of  the  supreme 
unity  emanated  first  the  pure  world  of  intelligence,']'  embracing 
the  gods,  who  are  exalted  above  all  contact  with  sendble 
things,  and  who  live  only  in  pure  spiritual  intuition :  the  in- 
termediate link  between  these  and  the  partly  spiritual,  partly 
sensual  race  of  mankind,  is  formed  by  the  eternal  living 
images  of  those  invisible  gods  in  the  heavens — ^viz.  the  divine 
souls  veiled  under  the  resplendent  heavenly  orbs,  which  visi- 
bly represent  the  former,  and  by  which  their  influence  is 
diffused  down  to  the  earth.  But  since  these  great  heavenly 
beings  are  still  too  far  removed  frt)m  the  sensual  race  of  man, 
and  since,  moreover,  no  sensual  worship,  such  as  is  adieipted 
to  man's  sensual  nature,  can  be  paid  to  these,  images  of  the 
sods  have  been  invented  on  earth,  in  ord^er  that,  by  paying* 
homage  to  them  through  these,  we  might  thereby  obtain  their 
&vour;  just  as  those  who  pay  homage  to  the  emperors' 
images  obtain  thereby  the  &vour  of  the  emperors,  not  because 
the  emperors  stand  in  need  of  such  homage,  but  because,  by 
showing  our  willingness  in  whatever  it  is  possible  for  us  to 
do,  we  evince  the  true  piety  of  our  dispositions.  But  who- 
ever, neglecting  that  which  lies  in  his  power,  pretends  to 
strive  after  what  transcends  his  powers,  only  neglects  the  for- 
mer, without  really  being  in  earnest  about  the  latter.  If  we 
are  to  offer  God  no  sensible  worship,  because  he  is  the  self- 
sufficint  Being,  it  would  also  follow  that  we  must  not  praise 
him  by  words,  nor  honour  him  by  our  actions.  Accuse  us 
not  of  holding  the  gods  to  be  wood,  stone,  and  brass.    When 

*  Ep.    LXIII.   ad   TheodoS.      iivyu   rhv   xaiforo/Maf  i»  at^iat  /th,  &s 
Urh  U9-U9,  tZief,  "Si  Iv  rtls  ir^og  rovg  hws, 
t  The  »^(»^s  ittmrat. 


60  JI7LLiK*S  DEFENCE  OF  IMAGES. 

we  look  at  the  images  of  the  gods,  we  ought  not  to  see  in 
them  stone  and  wooid ;  but  neither  ought  we  to  suppose  that 
\i'e  see  the  gods  themselves.     We  should  not  think  of  callingp 
the  images  of  the  emperors  stone,  wood,  and  brass,  nor  the 
emperors  themselves,  but  we  should  call  them  images  of  the 
emperors.     Now,  whoever  loves  the  emperor  is  pleased  at 
beholding  his  image — whoever  loves  his  child  is  pleased  at 
beholding  the  image  of  his  child.     So  whoever  loves  the  gods 
looks  M  ith  pleasure  on  their  images,  penetrated  with  awe  to- 
wards those  invisible  beings  that  look  down  upon  him."* 
But  what  good  could  that  man's  heart,  whose  necessities  im- 
pelled  him  to  seek  afler  the  fountain  of  salvation,  and  to  whmn 
religion  was  something  more  than  a  mere  play  of  idle  specu- 
lations or  an  entertainment  of  rhetoric  or  poetry,  derive  from 
all  these  fine-spun  explanations  ?    How  great  the  difference 
between  this  religion^  which,  flattering  man's  sensual  nature, 
offers  him  the  most  beautiful  forms,  only  that  he  may  never 
come  to  the  consciousness  of  what  he  is  and  of  what  he  needs, 
and  the  religion  which  deprives  man  of  every  sensual  prop 
to  which  he  would  fain  cling  in  order  to  evade  this  sacrifice 
and  self-renunciation,  so  that  he  may  rise  through  £uth  in  the 
only  Redeemer,  who  has  come  down  to  him  in  order  to  raise 
him  up  to  himself,  to  heaven,  to  that  life  which  is  hid  in  Grod, 
to  the  worship  of  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth !     And  of  what 
advantage  were  Julian's  explanations  to  the  rude  populace, 
who  did  not  understand  them?     They,  at  least,  saw  their 
gods  in  the  images  of  wood,  stone,  and  brass.     The  emperor, 
therefore,  is  right  indeed,  when,  from  his  own  point  of  view, 
he  says  that  the  Christians  could  not  derive  from  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  idols  and  of  the  temples  under  the  former  reigns 
any  evidence  against  them,  since  everything  that  is  transient 
and  temporal  must  share  the  fate  of  the  temporal.     '^  Let  no 
one,"  says  he,  '*  refuse  to  believe  in  the  gods,  because  he  has 
seen  or  heard  that  some  have  committed  sacrilege  on  the 
images  of  the  gods  and  on  the  temples."     But  against  the 
popular  superstition  this  evidence  was  after  all  by  no  means 
so  feeble.     And  of  this  Julian  himself  seems  to  be  aware— 
hence  he  is  so  indignant  on  the  subject.f     He  proceeds  next 

*  See  opp.  Julian,  fol.  293  seq. 

t  He  appeals  to  the  fiust  that  at  this  time  all  the  insults  oa  the 
sanctuaries  had  uiet  with  due  punishment. '  An  argument  which,  we 


APOLOGY  FOR  THE  PRIESTS.  61 

to  deduce  the  whole  sensual  pagan  worsliip  out  of  those 
general  ideas :  "  We  are  bound,"  he  says,  "  to  pay  religious 
worship,  not  only  to  the  images  of  the  gods,  but  also  to  the 
temples, — to  the  sacred  groves  and  the  altars.  It  is  rights 
moreover,  to  honour  the  priests,  as  ministers  of  the  gods,  the 
mediators  between  us  and  the  gods,  who  help  to  procure  for 
us  those  blessings  which  flow  to  us  from  the  gods,  since  it  is 
they  who  sacrifice  and  pray  for  all."  Here  indeed  Julian 
necMied  only  to  transfer  the  ideas  of  the  priesthood  which  he 
might  have  derived  from  his  Christian  education  back  again 
to  the  pagan  soil  which  was  most  congenial  to  them.  Very 
consistently,  he  required  that  even  in  unworthy  priests  the 
objected  dignity  of  the  priesthood  should  be  honoured :  <'  So 
long  as  he  sacrifices  for  us,  and  stands  before  the  gods  as  our 
representative,  we  are  bound  to  look  upon  him  with  reverence 
and  awe,  as  an  organ  of  the  gods  most  worthy  of  all  honour. 
K  the  priest  were  only  spirit,  not  soul  and  body  together,  he 
might  uniformly  maintain  the  same  tenor  of  life.  But  since 
this  is  not  so,  the  life  which  he  devotes  to  his  sacred  functions 
must  be  distinguished  from  the  rest.  During  the  whole  of 
that  time  he  must  live  like  a  super-earthly  being,  be  con- 
stantly in  the  temple,  occupied  with  holy  contemplations ;  he 
may  not  go  into  any  private  house,  visit  any  public  place,  nor 
even  see  a  public  magistrate  elsewhere  than  in  the  temple. 
In  performing  the  functions  of  his  office  he  should  also  wear 
the  most  costly  apparelJ^  The  divine,  therefore,  was  to  be 
represented  by  earthly  pomp — quite  in  accordance  with  the 
pctgan  way  of  thinking. 

The  species  of  intellectual  and  moral  culture  which  Julian 
would  give  to  his  priests  had  been,  until  now,  foreign  from  the 
mechanical  ritual  of  paganism.  The  priest  was  to  live  a  life 
worthy  of  the  gods, — he  was  never  to  hear  or  to  use  any 

must  allow,  was  often  employed  in  like  manner  by  the  Christians ;  and 
which  in  no  case  proves  anything,  since  Grod's  judgments  are  unsearch- 
able to  men.  In  many  cases,  without  doubt,  the  divine  judgments,  so 
£cir  as  they  had  their  ground  in  the  uniform  law  of  moral  order  in  the 
world,  could  be  very  justly  pointed  out ;  and  Julian  was  mistaken  only 
in  his  interpretation  of  them.  The  depraved  men  who,  under  the  reign 
of  Constantine,  had  enriched  themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  temples, 
met  with  the  punishment  of  their  wickedness ;  and  sometimes  Julian 
himself  did  his  own  part  to  bring  about  these  pretended  punishments  of 
the  gods. 


62  jullln's  ijlwb 

unbecoming  language,  nor  to  read  any  improper  poet.  It 
behoved  him  especially  to  occupy  himself  wholly  with  philo* 
sophy,  and  particularly  with  that  which  begins  from  the  gods, 
as  the  philosophy  of  Pythagoras,  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  of 
Chrysippus  and  Zeno.  The  priest  should  restrict  himself  to 
those  doctrines  of  philosophy  which  lead  to  piefy ;  and  these^ 
we  mast  allow,  make  up  a  very  meagre  list :  "  First,  that  the 
gods  exist ;  next,  that  they  take  an  interest  in  the  affidrs  of 
tiiis  world ;  and  next,  that  they  bring  no  evil  on  men,  that 
they  are  fiee  from  jealousy,  not  the  enemies  of  mankind." 
The  last,  he  says,  ought  to  have  been  taught  by  the  Grecian 
poets,  and  by  the  prophets  whom  the  Galileans  admire.  Thus 
to  Julian,  who  had  very  superficial  notions  respecting  the 
nature  of  God's  holiness,  and  of  sin,  which  is  opposed  to  it, 
everything  said  in  the  Old  Testament  of  God's  vindictive 
justice  seemed  jealousy  and  enmity  to  mankind.  '^  Of  Epicu- 
rus, of  Pyrrho,  the  priest  should  read  nothing ;  indeed,  it  had 
been  so  ordered  by  the  gods  for  the  general  good,  that  of 
the  writings  of  these  men  the  greatest  part  had  already 
perished."  * 

Julian  was  obliged  to  borrow  much  from  the  Christian 
church,  in  order  to  bring  about,  by  means  of  his  spiritualized 
paganism,  a  reaction  against  Christianity; — a  thing  which 
could  not  last,  however,  but  which  must  eventually  turn  to 
the  advantage  of  Christianity.  He  wished  to  introduce  the 
didactic  element  from  the  Christian  church  into  his  pagan 
forms  of  worship.  Garlanded  priests  appeared  upon  the 
tribune,  clothed  in  a  purple  mantle ;  it  being  the  wish  of 
Julian  that,  in  performing  the  functions  of  their  office,  they 
should  wear  sumptuous  vestments,  and  thereby  command  re- 
spect, t      Here,  in  pompous  language,  they  gave  allegorical 

^  In  like  manner  as  when  Christian  ecclesiastics  were  forbidden  to 
read  the  writings  of  pagan  authors  or  of  the  heretics. 

t  Gregory  of  Nazianzen  pertinently  remarks  on  the  conduct  of  these 
pagans  in  this  particular,  "  I  have  often  observed  that  they  study  after 
what  is  dignified  and  imposing,  what  surpasses  the  ordinary  experience; 
as  if  the  common  things  of  every  day  were  easily  despised,  while  the 
pompous  and  seemingly  sublime  inspired  faith."     UeWax"'  ^^  nftptt 

tyvuf  aitroTe  r70t/^ce^0/Lbiy«y,  xet)    va    vvripeifat    too   tiwriVy  ug    t»v   /tki    luhw 

alioTiifTgv,     Gregor.  Nazianz.   orat  stelitent.  I.  vel  orat.  III.  opp.  I. 
p.  103. 


FOR  THE  PRIESTS.  63 

expositions  -of  the  pagan  fiibles,  expositions  which  the  popu- 
lace did  not  miderstandy  or  which  at  least  could  not  affect 
their  hearts. 

Julian  would  not  admit  that  there  was  anything  of  divine 
power  in  Christianity :  he  sought,  therefore,  to  explain  and 
to  account  for  its  spread  by  outward  causes ;  and  he  endea- 
voured to  make  these  available  for  the  promotion  of  his  own 
new  pagan  Merarchy,  without  duly  considering  that  these 
otttwaMi  means  were  closely  connected  with  the  peculiar  spirit 
of  Christianity.  In  his  letter  to  Arsacius,*  supreme  pontiff 
of  Gralatia,  he  says,  what  has  especially  contributed  to  the 
spread  of  atheism  is  pManthropy  towards  strangers,  care  for 
the  burial  of  the  dead,  and  an  affected  dignity  of  life  (thiugSy 
evidently,  winch  had  sprung  of  their  own  accord  out  of  the 
peculiar  influence  of  Christianity  on  the  minds  of  men) ; 
Christian  brotherly  love,  that  tenderness  of  feeling  which 
aiiowed  itself  in  honouring  the  memory  of  the  dead,  and  the 
moral  sobriety  which  was  so  opposed  to  pagan  licentiousness.f 
^  All  these  things  the  pagans  should  make  matters  of  earnest 
study.  And  let  it  not  be  thou^t  enough  if  Arsacius  himself 
leads  a  worthy  life ;  %  he  must  prevail  upon  the  priests  gene- 

*  Eph.  49. 

f  So  also  in  the  fragmexit  of  the  Instruction  for  a  high  priest,  opp. 
305.  The  Gralileans,  having  observed  that  the  poor  were  neglected  l^ 
the  priests,  had  taken  care  to  pay  spedal  attention  to  these  acts  of 
philanthropy,  and  had  thus  enticed  men  to  their  ruin.  In  the  same 
manner  as  men  coax  children  with  cakes,  so  they  had  commenced  at 
once  with  the  agaps,  with  the  liberal  reception  of  strangers,  and  witib 
the  office  of  deacons — a.p\oi(Atvat  ^tk  Ttif  XiyofAitn*  wa^'  Avirots  iyei^fis  Juti 
iflrtf3»;^?f  jBoi  iutxavieis  rpa^tXim — alladiug  to  the  oldest  institutions  and 
arrangements  of  the  chnrch.  From  this  point  should  begin  the  cure. 
In  other  words,  then,  Julian  was  in  hopes  to  bring  aver  many  to  paganism 
by  the  distribution  of  money  ;  and  doubtless,  where  there  were  so  many 
whose  highest  object  was  the  satisfaction  of  their  earthly  wants,  he  may 
not  have  calculated  wrong.  Constantine  had  in  fact  pursued  a  similar 
ooarse  (see  above).  To  be  sure,  this  method  of  conversion  accords 
badly  with  Julian's  declamation — that  the  gods  had  respect  only  to  the 
disposition  of  the  heart  But  there  was  a  similar  contradiction  also 
between  Constantine's  proclamations  and  his  conduct. 

i  That,  however,  no  great  stress  was  laid  on  the  moral  character  of 
those  who  were  thought  to  assist  towards  restoring  the  pagan  worship, 
and  that  sometimes  the  moral  principles  of  those  persons  were  extremely 
lax,  may  he  shown  from  a  passage  in  Libanius.  He  applauds  it  as  a 
proof  of  the  chastity  of  his  Aristopdianes,  that  he  had  never  been  guilty 
of  adultery, — aXV  if  rm$  ek^ttftifuts  us  *A><PfohirfK  ^wcria*  <r»f  ttis  (pu^titg 


64  Julian's  laws 

rally  in  Galatia  to  pursue  the  same  course,  or  depose  them 
from  the  priestly  office,  if  they  would  not,  with  their  tmeer, 
children,  and  slavas,  devote  themselves  to  the  honour  of  the 
gods ;  if  they  would  suffer  their  wives,  servants,  or  sons  to 
unite  themselves  with  the  Galileans.  Their  priests  were  not 
to  visit  the  theatre  nor  the  shops ;  they  were  not  to  engage 
in  any  unsuitable  occupation.*  In  every  city  houses  were 
to  be  established  for  the  reception  of  strangers  (£cyo2bxcta),t 
where  not  only  pagans,  but  all  others  who  needed  assi&taneSf 
might  find  entertainment,  %  To  meet  the  expense  of  these 
establishments,  he  caused  to  be  distributed  among  the  priests 
thirty  thousand  measures  of  grain:  and  whatever  was. left, 
afler  they  had  provided  for  their  own  support,  was  to  be  dis- 
tributed among  the  strangers  and  paupers ;  since  it  was  shame- 
ful, he  said,  ihsX  no  Jew  ever  b%ged,  and  that  the  godlev 
Galileans,  besides  their  own  poor,  supported  those  of  the 
pagans,  while  the  pagan  poor  obtained  no  assistance  fiom 
their  own  people.  He  should  also  accustom  the  pagans 
themselves  to  such  acts  of  kindness,  and  the  pagan  vUlagen 
to  offer  their  first  fruits  to  the  gods.  §  The  governors  he 
should  seldom  see  in  his  house ;  for  the  most  part  he  should 
only  write  to  them.  Whenever  they  made  their  entrance  into 
the  city,  no  priest  should  go  out  to  meet  them  ;  but  if  they 
came  to  the  temple,  the  priest  might  go  out  to  meet  them  as 
far  as  the  court.  In  that  case,  no  guard  should  accompany 
them  ;  for  as  soon  as  he  crossed  the  threshold  of  the  sons' 
tuary,  the  magistrate  became  a  private  man  ;  the  priest  was 
supreme  in  the  interior  of  the  temple." 

This  last  principle  Julian  applied  to  his  own  person,  and 
not  without  reason,  at  that  time ;  since  he  could  not  fail  to 
remark  that  in  the  temples  many  paid  more  attention  to  the 

vcw^tT^iv  avdyxas*  And  yet  he  says,  'Eyit  /utr  ytip  titV  hpti  rSiv  »u/»Um 
avoixahofiiiv  ii^i  rmf  70t;^  ^p^fvUif  ^tclnf  &f  vXnfJtftikify  ifi£  yap  »vx  i)Jym 
TeJv  yt/y  Itr'  fxt/yy  riruyfAUctv  r«y^c  ffu(pp»Aartfa¥,  vol.  I.  p>  446. 

♦  Imitation  of  the  laws  of  the  church  respecting  the  clergy. 

t  Imitation  of  the  Christian  ^tytfid^t/a  and  «rra»x«T^«^i/a. 

%  It  is  easy  to  see  Julian's  design  in  this. 

§  Imitation  of  the  church  collects  and  of  the  oblations  among  the 
Christians.  To  this  imitation  of  the  ecclesiastical  regulations  of  the 
Christians  in  the  founding  of  schools,  in  the  institutions  of  charity,  in 
the  epistolis  formatis  for  travellers,  and  in  the  system  of  penance,  Gre- 
gory of  Nazianzen  very  justly  refers  in  orat.  III.  p.  102. 


FOB  THE  PRIESTS.  65 

emperor  than  to  the  gods.  Thus  he  was  not  pleased  with  the 
general  salutation,  "  Long  live  the  emperor !  "  which  broke 
forth  when  on  a  certain  occasion  he  unexpectedly  (as  he  sup- 
posed, although,  perhaps,  the  assembled  crowd  had  been  long 
waiting  only  for  him)  appeared  in  the  temple  of  Fortune  at 
Constantinople ;  and  he  therefore  issued  the  following  rescript 
to  the  people  of  that  city :  "  Whenever  I  appear  unexpect- 
edly in  the  theatre,  you  are  permitted  to  salute  me  with 
acclamations.  But  when  I  come  unexpectedly  into  the  temple, 
preserve  quiet,  and  transfer  your  praises  to  the  gods,  or 
lather  the  gods  require  no  praise."* 

The  objective  dignity  of  the  priesthood  Julian  sought 
zealously  to  maintain.  For  example,  an  officer,  whose  duties 
urere  in  some  way  or  another  connected  with  the  administra- 
tion of  the  pagan  cultus,  had  caused  a  pagan  priest  to  be 
beaten,  and  on  this  ground  was  accused  before  the  emperor 
by  the  high  priest  of  his  province.  Julian  severely  repri- 
manded hun  for  not  respecting  the  priesthood,  even  in  its 
unworthy  representative,  if  such  he  were;  and  for  having 
dared  to  expose  to  such  violent  treatment  the  priest  before 
whom  he  was  bound  to  rise  even  from  his  chair  of  office. 
Having  observed  probably  that  many,  to  please  him,  repre- 
sented themselves  as  cherishing  different  opinions  from  what 
they  really  entertained,  he  added,  "  Perhaps  the  bishops  and 
presbyters  of  the  Galileans  sit  with  you,  if  not  publicly  out  of 
r^ard  to  me,  yet  secretly  in  your  house."  The  individual 
here  addressed  was  punished  by  being  excluded  for  three 
months  from  all  business  which  stood  connected  with  the 
functions  of  the  pagan  priesthood. f 

*  Published  by  Maratori,  anecdote  Grseca.  Patav.  1709,  p.  332.    E* 

tLyiTt  xai  funnyxttrt  vfjmf  rat  ttupm/Mas  <'V  rcvg  6Uvs^  fueX.A,«y  ^  cl  6%ct 
rSf  urtpnfAwv  tu  ^pnZ'^^*^'  Muratori  was  of  opinion  that  the  ovt  which 
the  manoscript  has  here,  originated  in  a  misconception ;  but  the  negation 
is  required  by  the  It,  by  the  whole  construction  of  the  passage,  and  by 
the  sense.  It  is  moreover  altogether  in  Julian's  manner  to  conclude 
with  a  dignified  philosophical  sentence  of  this  sort,  in  whatever  contra- 
diction it  might  stand  with  his  superstition. 

t  Julian,  ep.  LXII.    It  is  difficult  to  determine  to  whom  this  letter 

was  addressed.     From  the  condemning  sentence,   rSv  tU  hpia  fAfiii* 

if^XuV,  it  might  be  conjectured  that  the  matter  related  to  a  priest ;  yet 

Hke  whole  contents  of  the  letter  contradict  this  supposition.    The  Ian* 

VOL.  III.  1 


66  JDLIAV. 

As  Constantine  caused  the  churches  which  had  been  d^ 
strayed  in  the  Diodesian  persecution  to  be  rebnilty  and  rer 
stored  to  them  the  estates  of  which  they  had  been  deprife^ 
so  Julian  undertook  to  pursue  a  similar  course  in  regazd  to 
the  temples  which  had  been  destroyed  and  plundered  in  the 
preceding  reign.  Many  of  the  governors  prosecuted  tUi 
business  with  great  zeal ;  some,  led  on  by  their  own  intemt 
in  the  cause ;  others,  because  they  knew  that  by  so  dmng  thsf 
would  in  the  surest  and  easiest  way  gain  fiivour  witii  the 
emperor.  The  images  of  the  gods,  which  had  been  resooed 
from  the  hands  of  the  Christians,  were  conveyed  back  to  thft 
temples  in  the  midst  of  festive  processions.* 

But,  in  rebuilding  the  temples,  Julian  did  not  proceed  in 
the  same  upright  and  honourable  manner  as  Constantine  hsd 
done  in  restoring  the  churches.  The  latter,  as  we  have 
remarked,  had  caused  these  to  be  rebuilt  at  his  own  expeme; 
and  he  had  indemnified  those  who  had  legally  come  into  pos* 
session  of  the  buildings  belonging  to  the  churches,  or  of  the 
grounds  upon  which  they  stood.  But  Julian  compelled  tin 
Christians  who  had  taken  any  share  in  the  destruction  of  Ifae 
temples  during  the  preceding  reign,  or  who  perhaps  were  onlj 
accused  of  this  by  popular  rumour,  to  be  at  the  expense  of 
rebuilding  them.  To  those  who  were  required  to  give  op 
property  of  this  sort  he  allowed  no  indemnification;  thm 
giving  occasion  to  many  acts  of  oppression  and  violeneoi 
resorted  to  against  individual  Christians  under  the  pretenoaof 

gnage,  moreover,  does  not  lead  ns  to  snppose  that  a  mere  excommiai* 
cation  from  the  pagan  ceremonies  (sacris)  is  here  meant.  Hence  Ihaie 
represented  the  matter  as  it  stands  in  the  text. 

*  See  respecting  the  festivities  at  the  restoration  of  an  image  of  Arte- 
mis, which  had  been  torn  down  by  the  Christians,  Liban.  ep.  esS,  etc. ' 
The  emperor  himself  was  informed  by  the  gOTemor  of  the  proviiice  bcnr 
great  expense  had  been  made  at  this  festival,  and  how  many  saerifleci 
had  been  offered,  ep.  624.  Libanius  writes  to  a  certain  Selencnsy.iriio 
probably  held  civil  office,  **  At  present  we  behold  altars,  temples,  saeifd- 
groves,  and  images  of  the  gods,  which  have  been  decorated  by  yoa,  bit 
which  will  also  decorate  you  and  your  posterity.  Since  yoa  havew 
great  allies,  count  the  arrows  of  the  godless  race  to  be  pointless  (be  tbaakk 
give  himself  no  concern  about  the  enmity  of  the  Christians).  Make  thcB 
to  weep,  who  have  long  time  made  merry  with  the  better  cause.  Too 
are  bound  to  pve  thanks  to  the  gods  that  they  have  caused  you  to  be 
a  father ;  which  thanks  yon  must  render  to  them,  by  helping  to 
their  prostrate  templesi"  ep.  680. 


BESTORATION  OF  THE  TEMPLES.  67 

nttoring  the  temples* — which  oppressions  sometimes  fell  on 
tiwse  who  in  the  fonner  reign  had  been  distingnished  for  tiieir 
gentleness  and  forbearance,  and  the^ moderate  use  of  the  power 
vineh  was  in  their  hands.  The  letters  of  Libanius  the  rheto* 
lieian  to  Antioch,  in  which  he  intercedes  with  the  pagan 
governors  and  priests  in  behalf  of  those  who  are  said  to  have 
floflered  under  snch  acts  of  injustice,  furnish  indubitable  evi« 
denee  of^  tins,  while  they  redound  to  the  honour  of  the  man, 
in  spite  of  his  many  foibles,  who,  zealous  pagan  as  he  was, 
80  earnestly  remonstrated  against  the  injustice  done  to  tha 
(Jhri8tian8.t 

* '  See  Sozomen,  Hist  v.  5.'  The  edict  was  made  known  at  Alexandria 
on  tiie  X.  Mechir  (4tii  of  Fehmary),  362 :— "  Reddi  idolis  et  neoooris  et 
publics  rationiy  quie-' pretends  temporibus  illis  sublata."  See  the  anony- 
mMU  biography  of  AthanasioB,  p.  69. 

t  Thus  to  Hesychins,  a  priest  at  Antioch  (ep.  636) ;  *'  That  I  am  no  lets 
denroos  than  you  priests  that  the  temples  should  be  preserved  in  their 
bMntjy  yoa  are  aware  of  more  than  others.  Yet  I  should  be  unwilling 
tfrhave  that  done  by  the  destrncdon  of  houses,  which  might  be  done  if  they 
remained  standing ;  sinoe  I  prefer  that  what  already  exists  should  remain, 
and  what  has  been  prostrated  should  be  restored ;  and  not  that  we  shonld 
biBandfy  the  cities  in  one  respect,  while  we  deform  them  in  another.  Trae 
it  is  easy  to  bring  a  complunt  against  the  house  of  Theodulus ;  but  it  de- 
serves to  be  spared,  since  it  is  beautiful  and  spacious,  and  makes  oov 
oi^  more  beautiful  than  other  cities.  In  the  next  place  for  this  reason 
-^-because  Theodulus  did  not  plunder  the  temple  with  arrogance  and 
im^ety,  but  purchased  it  from'  the  sellers,  paying  the  price  for  it,  which 
iriB  a  privilege  allowed  to  all  those  who  could  buy."  In  like  manner  he 
intercedes  with  Bacchius,  one  of  those  who  had  it  in  charge  to  restore 
the  temple  worship,  as  he  was  about  to  re-erect  a  demolished  temple  of 
the  Graces,  and  intended  to  c(dlect  the  necessary  money  in  ready  cash 
from  a  certain  Christian,  named  Basiliscus,  who  had  perhaps  had  a  hand 
in  Uie  destruction  of  the  temple,  or  had  in  some  way  come  into  possesnon 
of  Its  treasures,  thus  throwing  the  latter  into  ^eat  embarrassment.  Liba- 
nhu  petitions  for  this  individual,  that  he  might  be  required  to  pay  only, 
half  the  sum  at  once,  and  permitted  to  discharge  the  remainder  of  the 
demand  at  a' future  time.  He  entreats  Bacchius  to  have  some  regard  to 
.fimylianus,  the  &ther  or  relative  of  this  Christian,  who,  although  the 
power  was  in  his  hands,  yet  under  the  former  reign  had  conducted  Umself 
towards  the  pagans  with  so  much  moderation :  o^  ym^ .  h  m  vfi^tt^ifrttff 
nmi  Tmvra  ivh,  tivrl^  ifiovXtTo.  This  noble  feeling  deserved  to  be  rewarded. 
''Show  your  care  for  the  sanctuaries,  by  increasing  the  multitude  of  sa- 
crifices, by  seeing  that  the  sacred  rites  are  accurately  performed,  and 
by  restoring  the  prostrate  temples;  for  you  must  be  devout  to  the  gods, 
most  show  yourself  compliant  to  the  will  of  the  emperor  {rei  ^iXu 
Xt^iW^*")*  ^''^^  embellish  your  native  city.*'  Ep.  669.  Thus  he  in- 
tercedes with  a  certain  Belseus,  who,  from  a  rhetorician  had  b^CQ\&A 


68  JUUAN. 

It  was  a  topic  on  which  Julian  oft^i  declaimed  that  the  . 
gods  regard  only  the  disposition  of  their  worshippers.  He 
declared  that  no  godless  person  ought  to  take  part  in  the  hotj 
sacrifices,  until  he  had  purified  his  soul  by  prayer  to  the  gods, 
and  Iiis  body  by  the  prescribed  lustrations.*  Yet  he  was  quite 
satisfied  if  he  could  but  induce  goodly  numbers  to  sacrifice^ 
without  troubling  himself  any  further  about  their  dbposition; 
and  to  promote  this  object  he  spared  neither  money  nor  places 

a  judge  at  Antioch,  in  behalf  of  a  certain  Orion,  who  in  the  prceedmy 
reign  had  distingnished  himself  in  a  public  office  by  his  moderation,  but 
who  now  was  charged  with  haying  robbed  the  temples  of  their  treasorec, 
and,  although  he  was  quite  poor,  was  called  upon  to  pay  large  soms  of 
money,  and,  as  he  found  himself  unable  to  do  this,  was  to  be  compelled  Is 
it  by  bodily  punishment  In  his  first  letter  to  Belsns,  ep.  673,  oe  ssji^ 
**  Orion  proved  himself,  under  the  preceding  reign,  to  be  a  mild  and  gene- 
rous man ;  he  did  not  imitate  those  who  made  a  bad  use  of  their  power, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  blamed  them.  But  I  have  also  heard  fbom  the 
citizens  of  Bostra  that  he  neither  made  war  against  our  worship^  nor  per- 
secuted priests ;  and  that  he  saved  many  from  misery  by  tlie  mUd  aami- 
nistration  of  his  office.  This  man  I  have  now  seen  cast  down  and  fiill  of 
distress.  And  shedding  a  flood  of  tears  before  he  could  give  ntterance  to 
his  words,  he  said,  '  I  have  but  just  escaped  from  the  hands  of  those  to 
whom  I  have  shown  kindness.  Though  I  have  done  evil  to  no  manwha 
I  had  the  power  to  do  so,  I  have  notwithstanding  been  almost  torn  in  pieces.' 
And  he  added  to  this,  the  flight  of  his  brother,  the  breaking  up  and 
scattering  of  his  whole  £imily,  and  the  plundering  of  his  furniture;  all 
which,  as  I  know,  is  not  according  to  the  will  of  uie  emperor.  But  the 
emperor  says,  that,  if  he  has  any  of  the  property  which  belongs  to  iSbe 
temples,  let  him  be  called  upon  to  give  it  up ;  but  if  he  has  not,  then  let 
him  neither  be  insulted  nor  abused.  Tet  it  is  manifest,  that  those  ma 
are  coveting  the  goods  of  others,  while  they  pretend  to  he  desirous  rfhdmng 
the  gods,'*  In  the  second  letter  he  writes,  '*  Although  he  diners  mm 
us  in  his  religious  persuasion,  it  redounds  to  his  own  injury  that  he  has 
deceived  himself;  but  he  ought  not  in  justice  to  be  persecuted  by  his 
acquaintance.  I  could  wish  that  those  very  persons  who  now  <mre8i 
him  would  only  recollect  the  cases  in  which  he  has  so  often  assisted 
them,  and  would  prefer  rather  to  show  him  their  gratitude  than  sedc 
to  bury  their  bene&ctor  alive.  Having  long  since  persecuted  and  plun- 
dered his  relations,  they  seized  at  last  upon  the  person  of  this  msiii ' 
as  if  they  would  thereby  fulfil  the  wishes  of  the  gods,  while  in  tmUy^ 
they  are  very  fas  from  honouring  the  gods  by  any  such  conduct  as  thfr- . 
But  it  can  be  no  matter  of  surprise  that  the  mullitude  allowed  thank- 
selves  to  be  hurried  along  without  reflection,  and  follow  their  impulses* 
Instead  of  that  which  is  right.  He  says,  he  made  no  robbery.  But 
•granting  that  he  did,  how  is  it  that  you  now  hope,  when  the  whole 
lias  been  consumed,  to  find  mines  of  gold  in  his  skin?"  £p.  731. 
*  Ep.  52  ad  Bostrenos. 


HIS  VIEWS  OF  JUDAISM.  69 

'  honour ;  though  we  must  admit  that  the  Christian  emperors 
id  done  the  same  thing,  and  in  a  manner  still  less  becoming, 
ith  regard  to  Christianity.*  In  this  way,  as  a  matter  of 
yurse,  many  would  be  gained  over,  who,  in  the  preceding 
dgn,  had  been  induced,  by  similar  motives,  to  profess  Chris- 
suiity ;  men  who,  as  a  £atther  of  this  period  (Asterius  of 
jnasea,  in  Pontus),  remarks,  changed  their  religion  as  easily 
I  their  dress.f     In  a  discourse  preached  in  the  reign  of  one 

*  the  next  succeeding  emperors,  the  same  contemporaneous 
riter  describes  this  class  of  people  as  follows :  ^^  How  many 
jandoned  the  church,  and  ran  to  the  altars?  How  many 
lowed  themselves  to  be  enticed  to  apostacy  by  the  bait  of 
)nourable  offices?  Branded  with  disgrace,  and  despised, 
ley  wander  about  the  cities,  and  are  pointed  at  by  the  finger 
r  scorn,  as  those  who  also  have  betrayed  Christ  for  a  lew 
ieces  of  silver."):  As  Julian  attached  a  superstitious  value 
t  sacrifices,  he  laboured,  for  nine  months,  to  prevail  upon  the 
ildiers  of  the  army  which  he  Was  preparing  against  the  Per- 
ans  to  offer  to  the  gods.  When  the  arts  of  persuasion  had 
sen  tried  in  vain,  he  employ eii  gold  and  silver  for  the  pur* 
366  of  buying  over  the  soldiers  to  his  views.§ 

His  hatred  of  Christianity  and  of  the  Christians  might  of 
self,  it  is  true,  have  rendered  Julian  more  &vourably  dis- 
38ed  towards  Judaism  and  the  Jews ;  but,  as  in  everything 
s  was  glad  to  take  the  contrary  course  from  that  which  had 
Ben  pursued  in  the  previous  reign,  it  was  agreeable,  both  to 

*  Gregor.  Nazianz.  orat  faneb.  in  Caesar,  orat  X.  fol.  1 67.    Ttut  a^» 

9^fkm^h    ^'^^S    ^   a^fiars,    rovs    ^\    vvra^^^i^wiy    revs    Yt    vravreieus    rifuut 

f  Adv.  Avaritiam,  ed.  Bulben.  Antverp.  1615,  p.  43.    'n^-a-t^  l/Amrtw 

X  See  1.  ci  ModestuSy  an  officer  of  state,  who  had  for  a  long  time 
ipported  the  party  of  the  emperor  Constantine  in  opposition  to  Julian, 
robably  in  order  to  acquire  the  favour  of  the  latter,  embraced  paganism, 
id  obtained  for  this  not  only  pardon,  but  the  prefecture  of  Coustan- 
nople,  although  Libanius  writes  to  him,  llfcs  rSn  hiv,  6vs  vaXm 
UMtmH^  W9  Jt/MX»yne'ecf.     Ep.  714. 

i  This  Libanius  narrates  in  praise  of  the  emperor,  Epitaph,  in  Julian. 
of.  I.  p.  578.  He  says  on  this  occasion,  **  By  means  of  a  small  gain, 
le  soldier  obtained  a  greater  one ;  by  gold,  the  friendship  of  the  gods, 
a  whom  depends  the  fortune  of  war.  Such  was  the  religion  of  these 
ersons,  who,  in  contrast  with  the  Christians,  assumed  the  air  of 
nlightened  men! 


70  juuAir. 

his  inclination  and  his  principles  of  govennnflnt,  'to  patraua 
the  Jews,  who  had  been  oppressed  under  Constantius.  It 
must  be  added,  however,  that  he  was  more '&Toiixab]e  to 
Judaism  than  to  Christianity,  for  the  same  reasons  that  hid 
influenced  the  pagans  before  him.  He  saw  in  that  leligioii, 
at  least,  a  national  ritual  addressed  to  the  senses,  firom  which 
he  conceived  it  possible  to  prove  an  affinity  between  Jixfadim 
and  paganism.  Said  he  to  the  Christians,  *'  I  am  a  truewor- 
shipper  of  the  Grod  of  Abraham,  who  is  a  great  and  mighty 
Grod ;  but  you  have  no  concern  with  him.  For  I  worshipped 
him  as  Abraham  worshipped  him;  but  you  do  not  fi^loiir 
Abraham.  You  erect  no  altars  to  God,  nor  do  jou  woaitdp 
him,  as  Abraham  did,  with  sacrifices."  *  In  his  (^linion  the 
worship  of  the  God  of  Abraham  mig^t  blend  haniionioii% 
with  the  worship  of  the  Grecian  gods ;  he  blamed  only  the 
exclusive,  intolerant  character  of  Judaism.  So  Tery  inqper* 
fectly  did  he  understand  the  nature  of  pure  Theism,  wlddi, 
wherever  it  exists,  wOl  have  absolute  supremacy,  and  mnit 
strive  to  destroy,  as  an  ungodly  element,  everything  which 
claims  authority  along  with  it,  that  the  jealous  God  of  the 
Old  Testament,  who,  to  all  the  ungodly,  is  a  consuming  fire, 
appeared  to  him  as  an  envious  God,  subject  to  human  passicns. 
He  supposed  there  could  be  only  two  possible  cases :  eitlur 
that  the  God  whom  the  Jews  worshipped  was  the  univeBnl 
Architect  of  the  world,  the  Eti fuovpyo  c  to  whom  the  other  par- 
ticular divinities  were  subordinated ;  in  which  case  it  was  only 
his  prophets  who  had  been  unworthy  of  him ;  men  who,  b^ 
cause  their  minds  had  not  been  punned  by  scientiOc  culture, 
had  transferred  to  him  their  own  false  notions,  and  represented 
him  as  so  selfish  and  intolerant;  or  else,  that  they  had  in 
reality  had  only  a  limited  national  God,  whom  they  regarded, 
however,  as  that  Supreme  Being ;  just  as  the  Gnostics  main- 
tained that  the  Jews  had  confounded  their  Demiurge  with  the 
Supreme  Deity  .f  He  seems  to  have  inclined,  fi^r  the  most  part| 
to  the  former  view, — that  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament  was, 
in  truth,  the  great  Architect  and  Ruler  of  the  whole  visible 
world,  whom  the  pagans  also  worship  under  other  names.'f 

*  Juliar..  ap.  Cyrill.  c.  Julian.  1.  X.  p.  354. 

t  L.  c.  1.  IV.  f.  48,  155,  where  he  oalls  the  doctrine  of  a  ith 

X  Ep.  G3|  p.  454,  fragment.   Epist.   ad  sacerdot.  p.  295.     Th  ^t 


HIS  ATTEMPT  TO  BEBUILD  THE  TEMPLE.  71 

Since,  then,  he  entertained  a  high  respect  for  the  Jewish 
worship,  as  an  ancient  national  institution,  he  conceived  the 
wish  to  restore  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem,  as  a  splendid  memo- 
nal  of  his  reign ;  in  doing  which  he  perhaps  hoped,  also,  that 
he  should  be  able  to  defeat  the  prophecy  of  Jesus,  although 
this  had  already  been  fully  accomplished.  He  expended  vast 
flams  upon  this  object ;  but  the  work  which  had  been  under- 
taken with  so  much  labour  did  not  succeed.  Volumes  of  fire, 
boxsting  forth  from  the  subterranean  vaults  which  had  been 
opened,  destroyed  the  unfinished  labours,  and  frightened  the 
workm^i.*  Although  this  may  have  proceeded  from  natural 
,  yet  might  it  be  a  warning  rebuke  to  the  emperor  that 

human  will  could  rebuild  what  had  once  been  destroyed  by 
a  divine  judgment.!  But  he  did  not,  on  this  account,  as  yet 
lelinquish  his  plan.|  Having  relieved  the  Jews  from  the  heavy 
impositions  by  which  they  hitherto  had  been  oppressed,  he 
invited  them  now,  with  minds  free  from  anxiety,  to  implore 
their  great  God,  who  could  turn  everything  to  the  advantage 
of  ills  government,  that,  after  having  brought  the  Persian  war 
to- a  successful  termination,  he  might  be  enabled,  with  them, 

F.  a06,  Cyrill.  c.  Julian.  1.  IX. 

■*  The  historian  Ammianns  Maroellinus,  who  was  not  a  Christian, 
gives  the  simplest  and  most  impartial  accoant  of  this  event,  1.  XXIII.  c 
1 :  Metaendi  glohi  flammorum  prope  fdndamenta  crebris  assultibos 
enunpentes,  fecere  locum  deustis  aliquoties  operantibus  inaccessum: 
hooque  modo  elemento  destinatius  repellente  cessavit  inceptum.  The 
exaggerating  legend  added  a  great  ded  more  about  fire  falling  from 
heaven,  fiery  shapes  of  the  cross  on  the  clothes  of  the  workmen,  &c. 

t  It  is  noticeable  how  lightly  he  himself  touches  on  the  subject 
Fragm.  epist.  p.  295 :  T/  9rt^)  rod  vuv  (pn^owt,  rod  vk^  aurtts  r^triv  i£»a- 
vfmariwos,  iyu^efiUcv  It  ovhl  »t/y.  Pagi  places  the  command  for  the  re- 
building of  the  temple  in  the  year  3C3,  in  which  fell  the  celebration  of 
the  Decennalia  in  honour  of  Julian's  accession  to  the  Cesarean  dignity ; 
and  the  position  which  Ammianns  Marcellinus  gives  to  this  event  might 
•eem  to  fiivour  this  view.  But  as  the  above-cited  letter  of  Julian  must 
have  been  written  after  the  firustration  of  the  plan  for  rebuilding  of  the 
'temple,  and  that  letter  cannot  be  placed  in  so  late  a  period,  this  circum-  ^ 
•vlance  would  stand  opposed  to  such  a  determination  of  the  chronological 
date. 

X  That  is,  in  case  the  letter  mentioned  in  what  follows  in  the  text  was 
written  after  the  finistrated  attempt  to  rebuild  the  temple,  which  is  indeed 
possible,  idthough  the  contrary  is  generally  assumed  to  be  the  £aict. 


72  JULIAN  S  TOLERATIOar. 

to  dwell  and  worship  the  Almighty  in  the  holy  city  Jenualeniy 
rebuilt  by  his  labours.* 

As  it  respects  Julian's  conduct  towards  the  Christians,  he 
was  not  inclined  by  nature  to  cruel  and  violent  measura. 
Besides,  he  was  fond  of  assuming  an  air  of  philosophical  tole- 
ration, and,  in  this  particular  respect,  wished  to  present  a 
direct  contrast  to  the  character  of  Constantius,  who  had  occa- 
sioned so  much  evil  by  his  fanatical  and  despotic  spirit  of 
persecution.  Moreover,  the  Christian  party  was  already  so 
powerful,  that  violent  measures  might  easily  prove  dangerous 
to  the  public  peace,  which  he  sought  to  preserve.  And  Julian 
was  wise  enough  to  learn  from  the  oft-repeated  trials  that 
persecution  would  but  tend  to  increase  the  spread  of  Chris- 
tianity. There  were,  moreover,  examples,  under  his  own  reign, 
of  individual  Christians  who,  after  having  been  exposed  to 
ill-treatment,  on  account  of  their  faith,  from  a  fanatical  pagan 
populace  or  cruel  governors,  and  exhibited  constancy  under 
all  their  sufferings,  became  objects  of  universal  reverence 
among  the  Christian  population,  and  obtained  the  greatest- 
influence  ;  as  was  remarkably  shown  in  the  case  of  Marcus 
bishop  of  Arethusa  in  Syria.  When,  therefore,  Libanius,  in 
the  letter  which  we  have  just  cited,  would  restrain  a  governor 
from  indulging  in  the  cruel  persecution  of  a  Christian  who 
had  been  accused  of  robbing  the  temples,  he  warned  him  thus: 
^^  If  he  is  to  die,  then,  in  his  chains,  look  well  before  you, 
and  consider  what  will  be  the  result.  Take  heed  lest  you 
bring  upon  us  many  others  like  Marcus.  This  Marcus  was 
hung  up,  scourged,  plucked  in  the  beard,  and  bore  all  with 
constancy.  He  is  now  honoured  as  a  god,  and,  wherever  he 
appears,  everybody  is  eager  to  take  him  by  the  hand.  As  the 
emperor  is  aware  of  this,  lie  has  not  allowed  the  man  to  be  exe* 
euted,  much  as  he  is  grieved  at  the  destruction  of  the  temple. 
Let  the  preservation  of  Marcus  be  a  law  for  us."  j* 

*  See  ep.  25,  f.  397. 

f  See  Liban.  ep.  731.  The  same  Libanins  says,  in  his  Epitaph,  in 
Julian,  p.  562,  that  the  Christians,  in  the  begiDnins  of  Julian's  reign, 
expected  to  suffer  similar  persecutions  as  they  did  under  the  earlier  pagan 
emperors.  But  Julian,  he  observes,  censured  those  measures,  by  which* 
after  all,  they  could  not  attain  their  end.  "  For  men  may  indeed  bind 
the  bodily  sick  in  order  to  heal  them,  but  a  false  opinion  respecting  the 
gods  cannoc  be  expelled  by  the  knife  and  cautery.  Though  the  hand  may 
offer  incense,  the  soul  is  still  dissatisfied  with  it,  and  there  is  only  a 


HIS  COVERT  ATTACKS.  73 

It  may,  indeed,  be  questioDed,  whether  rational  grounds, 
wise  purposes,  and  humane  feelings,  would  have  availed 
anything  against  a  fanaticism  made  up  of  such  heterogeneous 
elements, — a  fanaticism  which  is  ever  the  most  easily  inclined 
to  persecution, — whether  they  could  have  checked  his  natural 
disposition,  which  impelled  him  to  violence  wherever  he 
met  with  opposition.  Yet  deep  within  his  soul  there  existed 
another  principle,  which  prompted  him  to  bring  back  the 
erring  to  their  own  good,  to  the  way  of  truth,  though  at  first 
it  might  be  against  their  will.  This  he  undesignedly  illus- 
trates in  a  rescript,  issued  by  him  in  a  state  of  mind  very  much 
excited  by  opposition,  where  he  says,  '^  It  were  right  that 
these  persons,  like  madmen,  should  be  cured  In  spite  of  them- 
selves. Yet  to  all  who  are  suffering  imder  this  sort  of  disease 
indulgence  must  be  shown  ;  for  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  we 
ought  to  instruct,  and  not  punish,  the  unreasonable."  *  Hoiv 
easily  might  it  happen,  under  some  particular  outward  excite- 
ment, that  the  principle  to  which  the  voice  of  reason  and  the 
feelings  of  humanity  were  still  opposed  should  finally  become 
the  ruling  one ! 

At  first,  however,  Julian  was  best  pleased  when,  by  covert 
attacks,  in  which  indeed  he  often  forgot  what  honesty  and 
justice  required  even  in  an  opponent,  and  what  became  the 
dignity  of  an  emperor,  he  could  injure  the  church,  and  under- 
mine its  interests,  by  means  which  betrayed  no  hostile  design. 
To  this  class  of  measures  belongs  that  edict,  well  conceived 
for  this  purpose,  by  which,  at  the  very  beginning  of  his  reign, 
he  recalled  all  the  bishops  and  clergy  who  had  been  banished 
in  the  reign  of  Constantius^  and  granted  equal  freedom  to  all 
parties  of  the  Christian  church.  He  might  have  found  suffi- 
cient inducement  for  enacting  such  a  law  in  the  relation  he 
stood  in  to  the  Christian  church ;  for  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  take  the  same  interest  in  the  controversies  of  the  Chris- 
tians which  Constantius  had  done.  Although  some  among 
the  Christian  sects  may  have  come  nearer  to  his  own  views, 
in  the  character  of  their  doctrinal  opinions,  than  others — as 

seeming  change.  Some  afterwards  obtained  pardon  (those  who,  yielding 
to  force,  had  offered,  and  were  afterwards  restored*  to  the  fellowship  of 
the  church).  But  those  who  died  for  their  convictions  were  honoured 
as  gods."  Yet  it  is  very  evident  that  these  truths  were  rather  worn  for 
a  show  than  consistenly  carried  out.  *  £p.  42. 


74  JUUAV. 

indeed  he  himeelf  allowed,* — yet  all  the  ChriitHan  paitieB 
were  exposed  to  his  hatred,  on  account  of  their  oppoaition  to 
pagauism.f  He  was  desirous  also,  at  the  same  tuncy  to  plaoe 
the  mildness  of  his  own  gOTemment,  in  this  respect,  in  direct 
contrast  with  the  severity  of  Constantius.  '^  I  beliei^"  he 
says  in  a  letter  to  the  inhabitants  of  Bostra,:^  "  the  leadiflg 
men  of  the  Galileans  would  feel  tliemselves  more  indebted  to 
me  than  to  my  predecessors  in  the  government ;  for  it  hi|p- 
pened  under  the  latter  that  many  of  them  were  banished,  .per- 
secuted, deprived  of  their  property ;  and,  indeed,  whole  massfls 
of  heretics,  as  they  are  cidled,  were  swept  off  at  a  stroke ;  lo 
that,  in  Samosata,  Cyzicus,  Paphlagonia,  Bithynia,  Galatia, 
and  among  many  other  races  of  .people,  entire  villages  were 
made  utterly  desolate.  But  under  my  government  the  fict 
has  been  the  very  reverse ;  for  the  buiished  have  been  jier- 
mitted  to  return,  and  their  property  is  restored  back  by  oar 
laws  to  those  whose  estates  had  been  confiscated."  But 
Julian  certainly  entertained  the  hope, — a  fiust  refpectiDg 
which  both  Christian  and  pagan  historians  aie  ^nenl^ 
agreed, — that  the  different  parties  of  the  Christians,  who  per- 
secuted each  other  with  so  much  fury,  would  in  this  way 
each  destroy  the  other.  In  this  hope  he  was  doomed  to  he 
disappointed ;  and  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case  it  could 
not  be  otherwise.  Party  passion  among  the  Christians  would, 
undoubtedly,  never  have  risen  to  so  high  a  pitch,  .had  it  not 
been  for  the  interference  of  the  state.  As  this  disturbing  and 
circumscribing  influence  of  a  foreign  power  now  fell  away  of 
itself,  and  the  church  was  left  to  follow  out  naturally  its  own 
development  from  within  itself,  the  right  relations  were  every- 
where more  easily  restored.  No  patronage  of  the  Christian 
church  by  the  civil  power  could  have  been  so  advantageous  to 

*  Thus,  for  ins tanoe,  be  praises  Photinus,  because  his  reprpBentalion 
of  Cbrisf s  person  was  more  rational  than  the  prevailing  doctrine  of  fbe 
cbnrcb.  See  the  fragment  of  Julian's  letter  to  I'hotinus  in  Faoand. 
Hermian.  defensio  trium  capitulor.  1.  IV.  p.  379.  Sirmond.  opp.  t  II.  1 
376,  ed.  Venet  1728.  The  special  honour  whidi  he  showed  to  the  Arian 
^tius  was  owing,  not  so  much  to  his  doctrinal  opinions  as  to  his  earlier 
personal  connection  with  the  emperor.    See  ep.  31,  Julian. 

t  Thus,  in  imother  passage,  to  be  fimnd  in  Cyrill.  c  Julian.  VII.  t  S6S, 
he  places  Photinus  in  one  and  the  same  class  with  the  other  ChristiBn 
dogmatists,  and  says  be  did  not  concern  himself  with  their  doctrinal  dis- 
putes, d^ififct  itiTct  T^y  fAoixw  vfuv,  ^  £p.  62. 


BfiCALL  OF  THE  EXILED  CLEBaT.  T5 

it,  under  the  then  circumstanoes,  as  this  indifierenee  of  the 
state  towards  all  that  tzaospired  within  its  pale. 

The  edict  by- which  Julian  recalled  the  bishops  from  their 
banishment  may,  without  doubt,  have  been  very  indistinctly 
eacpressed  ;*  so  that  it  could  be  understood  to  refer  merely  to 
their  return  into  their  country,  or  also  to  their  return  to  their 
posts.  As  Julian  allowed  to  all  religious  parties  the  firee 
exercise  of  their  religion,  it  was  understood,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  that  the  bishops  of  all  Christian  parties  could  enter 
freely  into  the  administration  of  their  oftices.  But  the  em- 
peror might  have  expressed  himself  indistinctly  on  purpose ; 
or  he  might  some  time  afterwards  have  given  the  law  this  con- 
struction of  indistinctness,  in  order  to  provide  himself  with 
liberty  to  act  against  those  bishops  whose  influence  seemed  to 
him  too  powerful  a  counterpoise  to  his  own  designs.  To  this 
class  belonged  the  zealous  and  energetic  bishop  Athanasius  of 
Alexandria. 

After  this  bishop  had  again  administered  his  office  for  eight 
moathsyf  earnestly  labouring  for  the  interests  of  the  Christian 
church,  there  appeared  an  edict  of  the  ^nperor,  addressed  to 
the  Alexandrians,  in  which  it  was  charged  upon  him  as  a 
grievous  crime,  that,  after  having  been  banished  by  many 
rescripts  of  many  emperors, j:  that  is,  of  Constantine  and 
ConstantiuSy  he  had  not  waited  for  a  single  imperial  edict 
anthorisittg  him  to  return  back  again  to  his  church ;  §  for 
the  emperor  had  given  permission  to  those  who  had  been 
banished  by  Constantius  to  return  home,  not  to  their  churches, 
but  <mly  to  their  country.  Yet  Athanasius,  it  was  alleged, 
hurried  on  by  his  usual  pride,  had  arrogated  to  himself  what 

*  The  edict  arrived  at  Alexandria  on  the  XIV.  Machir  (the  8th  of 
February,  according  to  Ideler's  tables)  of  the  year  362,  and  was  published 
on  the  day  following:  "Episoopos  omnes  &ctionihus  antehac  circoxn- 
Tcntos  et  exiliatos  revert!  ad  soas  civitates  et  provincias."  Thus  it  is 
stated  in  the  life  of  AthanasiuSi  which  was  composed  by  an  anonymoiis 
eootemporary  writer,  and  of  which  a  fragment  in  an  ancient  Latin  trans- 
lation has  been  published  by  Mafiei,  CSservazioni  letterarie.  Verona, 
1738.     Tom.  111.  p.  69. 

f  See  the  above-cited  Life. 

X  Where  Julian  might  take  advantage  of  the  fact  that  various  charges 
were  brought  against  Athanasius,  which  did  not  relate  barely  to  doctrine, 
passion  at  that  time  mixing  everything  up  together. 

§  Yet  Gerontius,  the  prefect  of  Egypt,  had  thought  himself  authorized 
to  recall  Athanasius  to  his  bishopric.    (^See  1.  c.) 


76  JULIAN. 

among  them  was  called  the  episcopal  throne.    But  this  was  not 
a  little  displeasing  to  that  Grod-feaiing  people  the  Alexan- 
drians.   By  this  God-fearing  people  Jmiaoi  meant,  of  coune, 
only  the  pagans,  to  whom,  indeed,  it  could  be  no  otherwise 
than  in  the  highest  degree  unpleasant  that  Athanasius  should 
be  bishop.     As  soon  as  this  letter*  arrived  at  Alexandria, 
Athanasius  was  commanded  to  leave  the  city,  under  the  threat 
of  far  severer  pwushments.     Sorely  vexed  must  have  been 
Julian  when  he  found    that    the    diseased    portion,  as  he 
expressed  it,  of  the  Alexandrians  (the  Christians),  showed  no 
disposition  to  follow  the  healthy  portion  (the  pagans);  bat 
the  diseased  part,  who  in  fact  constituted  by  far  the  majority, 
ventured  to  call  themselves  the  city,  and,  in  the  name  of  the 
whole  city  of  Alexandria,  to  send  him  a  petition,  in  which  the 
community  besought  him  that  their  bishop  might  be  spared  to 
them.     In  a  declamatory  letterf  he  not  only  rejected  titeir 
request,  but  immediately  banished  Athanasius  from  the  whole 
province  of  Egypt.     His  remarks  to  the  Alexandrians  on  this 
occasion  show  how  little  he  knew  what  the  heart  of  man, 
thirsting  after  righteousness,  requires,  and  what  religion  is 
designed  to  bestow  on  man, — how  accustomed  he  was  to  con- 
found worldly  and  spiritual  things.     '^  Tell  me,"  says  he  to 
them,  "  what  good  have  they  ever  done  to  your  city,  who  have 
now  introduced  among  you  this  new  proclamation?     Your 
founder  was  Alexander  the  Macedonian,  who,  indeed,  ought 
not  to  be  brought  into  comparison  with  any  of  these ;  nay,  not 
even  with  the  Hebrews,  who  were  far  superior  to  these.      He 
then  goes  on  to  rebuke  them  severely  for  refusing  to  worship 
the  god  visible  to  all,  the  Sun,  whose  powerful  and  benign 
influence  they  must  all  experience ;  and  for  thinking  them- 
selves bound  to  receive  Jesus,  whom  neither  they  nor  their 
fathers  had  seen,  as  the  God-Logos.   He  descends  to  rude  and 
vulgar  language,  equally  unbecoming  a  philosopher  and  an 
emperor,  in  speaking  of  the  great  man  whom  he  ridiculed,} 
without  a  sense  to  appreciate  the  spirit  which  actuated  him ; 
and  yet  the  anger  he  shows  towards  him  proves  how  much  he 
dreaded  his  influence.     In  this  letter  he  assigns,  it  is  true^ 

*  Seeep.  26.  t  Ep.  51. 

X  He  styles  him  a  man  who  deserved  not  to  be  called  a  man,  a  miser- 
able little  man — df^patrlfKos  ivrtXit; — alluding  probably  to  his  bodily 
stature. 


HIS  ARTIFICES.  77 

political  reasons  as  his  motives  for  banishing  Athanasius: 
'^  It  was  a  dangerous  thing  for  so  cunning  and  restless  a  man 
to  be  at  the  head  of  the  people.'*  Yet,  in  his  letter  to  the 
prefect  of  Egypt,  he  betrays  the  true  cause  of  his  displeasure 
against  the  roan,  expressing  his  vexation  that,  through  the 
influence  of  Athanasius,  all  the  gods  should  be  despised ;  and 
declaring  that  nothing  would  give  him  greater  joy  than  to  hear 
that  Athanasius,  the  godless  wretch  who  had  dared  under  his 
reign  to  baptize  noble  Grecian  women,  was  banished  from 
every  district  of  Egypt.* 

Julian  descended  to  many  an  unworthy  trick  for  the  pur- 
pose of  bringing  men,  without  a  resort  to  forcible  measures,  to 
,join  against  their  will  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  pagan  religion. 
He  caused  his  statues,  which  were  set  up  in  the  public  places, 
to  be  surrounded  with  emblems  taken  from  the  pagan  religion. 
A  Jupiter  over  his  head  reached  down  to  him  the  purple 
mantle  and  the  crown,  while  Mercury  and  Mars  looked  on 
with  an  approving  smile.  Whoever  now  paid  obeisance,  as 
was  customary  at  that  time,  to  the  emperor's  image,  must  at 
the  same  time  testify  respect  to  the  gods ;  and  whoever 
declined  to  do  so  was  liable  to  be  accused  as  a  violator  of  the 
imperial  authority.t  It  might  here  be  said  that  Julian, 
according  to  his  own  religious  principles,  was  compelled 
to  regard  all  the  affairs  of  state  as  standing  in  this  connection 
with  religion ;  and  was  without  any  design,  in  this  case,  of 
injuring  the  conscience  of  the  Christians.  But,  judging  from 
the  spirit  which  he  evinces  on  other  occasions,  we  may  well 
believe  him  capable  of  such  banter :  and,  at  all  events,  if  he 
understood  the  rights  of  conscience,  he  ought  to  have  been 
more  indulgent  to  the  religious  convictions  of  a  majority  of 
his  subjects.  In  like  manner,  when  he  distributed  from  the 
imperial  throne  a  donative  among  the  soldiers,  he  had  placed 
beside  him  a  censer,  with  a  dish  of  incense.  He  who  would 
receive  the  donative  from  his  hands  must  first  cast  some  of  the 
incense  into  the  censer.  This  was  to  signify  that  he  offered 
incense  to  the  gods,  whose  images,  perhaps,  were*  standing 
somewhere  near  by.  If  Julian  looked  upon  it  as  so  important 
a  thing,  when,  by  the  distribution  of  money,  he  could  prevail 
upon  his  soldiers  to  sacrifice,  it  would  doubtless  gratify  him, 
even  when  he  could  do  no  more  than  bring  them  to  the  me- 
♦  Ep.  6.  t  ^zom.  V.  1 7. 


78  JULIAH'b  RKTRICnOH 

chaiiical  act  of  scattering  incenae ;  and  he  might  hope,  bj 
accustoming  them  to  such  a  mechanismy  and  by  the  golden 
bait,  to  cany  them  a  step  fhrther.  When  they  had  once  be- 
come aware  that  by  such  conduct  they  had  violated  the  ohli» 
gations  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  that  the  loye  of  euth^ 
gain  had  overpowered  the  voice  of  conscience,  one  step  in  on 
would  easily  lead  them  to  another.  Bat  many  were  n§Dj- 
not  aware  of  what  they  had  done ;  and  when  they  afterwaidt 
learned  that  they  had  been  betrayed  into  an  act  of  idolatnoi 
worship,  they  became  despondent,  publicly  declared  before  tfas 
emperor  that  they  were  Christians,  and  begged  him  to  take 
back  the  money,  if  it  was  to  be  the  price  of  their  denial  of  the 
faith.  A  particular  case  of  this  sort  is  related,  in  which  a 
number  of  soldio^  were  first  made  aware  of  what  they  hMl 
done  at  a  festival  which  followed  the  distribntion  of  thedooiF 
tive,  when,  drinking  to  their  comrades,  as  was  customary  w 
such  occasions,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  they  were  reminded 
that  they  had  just  denied  him  whose  name  they  now  invoked.* 
Among  the  artifices  by  which  Julian  hoped  to  uDdermine 
the  Christian  church  without  resorting  to  sanguinary  pern* 
cations,  was  also  his  forbidding  the  Christians  to  set  upschoela 
of  rhetoric  and  grammar,  and  to  explain  the  ancient  authon* 
He  supposed  that  Christianity  could  not  dispense  with  theM 
foreign  supports ;  that,  unless  it  had  af^firopriated  to  its  own 
purposes  the  scientific  culture  of  the  Greeks,  it  would  not 
have  spread  so  hx ;  and  that  the  scriptures,  which  the  Chris- 
tians called  divine,  did  not  afibrd  a  sufficient  fountain  in  itself 
of  human  cultivation,  but  that  this  must  be  derived  by  them 
from  the  creations  of  the  gods  whom  they  denied,  from  the 
literature  of  the  Greeks.  In  his  work  against  Christianityi 
says  Julian  to  the  Christians,  ^'  Why  waste  your  energies 
on  the  literature  of  the  heathens,  if  the  reading  of  your  own 
scriptures  content  you?  Certainly  you  ought  to  be  more 
solicitous  to  keep  men  from  the  former,  than  from  eating  the 
meat  of  the  sacrifices  ;  for,  according  to  Paul  himself^  the  latter 
can  harm  no  one ;  but,  by  those  sciences,  every  noble  spirit 
that  nature  has  produced  among  you  has  been  led  to  renounce 

*  See  Sozom.  v.  1 7.  Gregor.  Naz.  orat  III.  steliteat  i.  foL  85» 
AccordiDg  to  the  latter's  description,  it  took  place  when,  at  the  oondii* 
sion  of  the  meal,  the  cup  of  cola  water  was  handed  round,  and  each,  be- 
fore he  drank,  made  over  it  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  the  name  of  Christ 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS.  79^ 

four  godless  doetrine.'*  A^  very  bold  asssertion,  directly  in 
tbe  &ce  of  plain  &ct8 ;  sucb,  for  example,  as  that  the  most, 
zealous  students  of  the  ancient  writers  were  precisely  those 
iriio  had  become  the  most  distinguished  teachers  of  the  churdu 
But,  if  Julian  really  believed  his  own  assertion,  he  must  have 
mtly  preferred  that  the  Christians  should  teach  the  ancient 
dassios  than  that  they  should  explain  the  Bible  to  their 
youth.  ^^  Let  them,"  said  he,  '^  try  the  experiment  of  instruct- 
ing a  boy  from  the  first  in  nothing  but  the  Bible,  and  see  if 
he  would  turn  out  anything  better  than  a  slave."  * 

The  truth  is,  however,  that  it  was  not  the  design  of  these 
senptares  to  serve  as  a  means  of  human  etdtivcUion,  but  rather 
to  impart  the  element  of  a  divine  life,  without  which  no 
human  cultivation  can  truly  thrive, — an  element  whereby  the 
human  education  becomes  minobled  to  a  divine  one.  And 
what  the  spirit  of  these  scriptures,  wherever  received  in  its 
purity,-  can  accomplish,  independent  of  any  means  of  human 
csolture,  is  taught  by  the  history  of  the  effects  of  Christianity 
among  the  laity  at  all  times — effects  of  which  even  Julian 
might  have  found  examples,  if  he  had  only  inquired  into  what 
took  place  in  the  retirement  of  private  life.  Christianity, 
indeed,  as  Julian  understood  it; — a  Christianity  which  consisted 
merely  in  a  certain  mechanical  routine  of  outward  actions,  or 
in  a  system  of  formal  and  lifeless  notions — was  incapable  of 
producing  such  effects. 

Ancient  art  and  literature  appeared  to  Julian,  as  we  have 
already  remarked,  closely  connected  with  the  worship  of  the 
gods ;  but  it  was  unjust,  and  a  manifest  tyranny  over  con« 
science,  to  force  these,  his  own  subjective  opinions,  on  all  his 
subjects.  It  was  a  policy  which  unprejudiced  pagans  them- 
selves— as,  for  example,  Ammianus  Marcellinus  f  —  openly 
condemned.  We  see  to  what  result  this  system  of  religion, 
at  once  sophistic  and  fanatical,  could  lead.  "  How  scanda- 
lous," he  declares  in  his  law  relating  to  this  matter,  ^'  that 
they  should  expressly  teach  that  which  they  hold  to  be  most 
detestable ;  that  they  should  entice  away  by  their  flatteries 
those  to  whom  they  would  inculcate  their  own  bad  opinions ! 
All  teachers,  in  whatever  department  they  teach,  should  be 
lionest  men,  and  cherish  in  their  soul  no  opinions  at  variafice 

♦  C.  Christian.  1.  VII.  p.  229.  t  L,  XXV.  c  4, 


80  juuiar. 

with  tliose  which  art  publicly  recognised.*  Bat  they,  beyond 
all  others,  should  be  such  who,  as  ezpounden  of  the  ancient 
authors,  exert  an  influence  upon  the  education  of  the  yoath, 
whether  they  be  rhetoricians,  or  gprammarians,  or,  above  all, 
sophists ;  f  for  they  will  be  teachers  net  of  words  only,  hot 
also  of  morals."  They  might  either  avoid  teaching  whit 
they  tliemselves  considered  not  good ;  or  else,  by  their  own 
act,  first  convince  their  pupils  that  none  of  the  authors  whom 
they  explained  erred  and  blasphemed  in  religion,  as  they  bid 
hitherto  been  accustomed  to  say.  But  in  attempting  to  gvn 
tlicir  subsistence  in  so  dishonourable  a  manner,  by  means  of 
the  writings  of  those  authors,  they  must  confess  themtelves  the 
most  covetous  of  men,  and  ready  to  oonunit  any  meanness  bt 
a  few  drachms. 

Julian  would  have  had  good  cause  for  this  accusation,  if 
Christians  had  consented  to  become  pagan  priests,  and,  under 
this  outward  appearance,  made  sport  of  the  pagan  religion.  But 
tlie  case  was  different  when  they  gave  instruction  in  such  matten 
as  in  their  own  opinion  stood  in  no  connection  whatever  with 
religion,  and  at  the  same  time  openly  avowed  their  Chrbtian" 
ity  ;  so  that  it  was  at  the  pleasure  of  heathen  parents,  if  they 
feared  the  influence  of  these  teachers  upon  their  children,  to 
keep  them  away  from  such  schools.  We  see  here  a  most  unjus- 
tifiable instance  of  arguing  consequences,  which  all  others 
must  be  obliged  to  adopt,  because  they  seemed  just  as  re- 
garded from  the  emperor*s  own  religious  point  of  view  ;  but 
in  tills  we  must  allow  tiiat  Julian  was  by  no  means  alone.  He 
goes  on  to  say,  ^^  If  they  believe  those  men  to  be  in  error  on 
the  most  important  subjects,  then  let  them  go  into  the 
churches  of  the  Galileans,  and  expound  Matthew  and  Luke." 
At  the  same  time,  however,  he  permitted  the  Christian  youth 
to  attend  the  schools  of  pagan  teachers, :( — a  permission  of 

*  Ka)  fjuh  futx^fjuifa  roTt  2n/Mffi»  ret  U  r^  ^v;^*>  (pi^in  ^«9/Mer«,— ^ 
principle  "which,  avowed  with  some  consistency  on  the  gronnd  assumed 
by  Julian,  who  was  for  establishing  a  pagan  state-religion,  was  often 
Tery  inconsistently  expressed  by  Christian  magistrates,  on  the  ground 
of  Christianity,  which  should  never  be  a  state-religion. 

f  The  sophists,  in  the  stricter  sense  of  the  word,  who  were  to  diffose 
an  influence  into  the  whole  literary  and  intellectual  culture,  were  then 
distinguished  from  the  rhetoricians  in  the  more  restricted  sense  of  the 
word. 

t  Without  troubling  ourselves   about  manifestly  exaggerated   and 


HIS  ARTIFICES.  81 

lAuch  he  would  of  course  be  gratified  to  have  them  avail 
themselves,  as  he  might  hope  they  would  be  gained  over  by 
fagan  teachers  to  embrace  their  religion.* 

Two  celebrated  men  of  that  age  are  known  to  us,  who  re- 
Bnquished  their  stations  as  rhetorical  teachers  for  the  sake  of 
'  their  &ith ;  Proseresius,  a  distinguished  rhetorician  at  Athens,f 
and  Fabius  Marius  Victorinus  at  Rome.      The  latter  had 
Aortly  before  embraced  Christianity  in  his  old  age.     He  had 
been  a  diligent  student  of  the  Greek  philosophy,  and  had 
translated  several  of  the  works  of  Plato  into  liitin.     He  was 
probably  attached  to  the  Neo-Platonic  Hellenism,  and  was 
esteemed  one  of  the  most  important  pillars  of  the  old  reli* 
gion.    But  in  his  old  age  he  became  conscious  of  a  craving 
after  some  more  certain  and  stable  ground  of  faith.    He  went 
to  the  study  of  the  Bible,  and  examined  it  carefully.     He  was 
convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  divine  doctrine ;   and  in  confi- 
dence informed  the  presbyter  Simplicianus  of  Milan  that 
he  was  at  heart  a  Christian.     The  latter  replied  to  him  that 
he  would  not  believe  it  until  he  saw  him  within  a  Chris- 
tian church.     "  What !  then,"  rejoined  Victorinus,  "  do  walls 
make  Christians  ?  "     The  truth  was,  however,  that  his  heart 
still  clung  too  strongly  to  the  world, — he  was  not  willing  to 
sacrifice  everything  to  the  Lord ;  and  it  was  this  which  pre- 
vented him  from  imd&ing  a  public  profession.     He  was  afraid 
of  those  zealous  ps^ans,  the  noble  Romans  who  were  his  dis- 
ciples, and  with  whom  he  stood  in  the  highest  consideration. 
But  as  the  word  entered  more  deeply  into  his  heart,  his  own 
conscience  forced  him  to  a  public  profession;  and  he  de- 
manded that  it  should  be  made  in  the  most  public  manner, 
when,  to  spare  his  feelings,  the  presbyters  of  the  church  pro- 
posed to  omit  some  part  of  the  usual  ceremony.     After  this  i^ 
cost  him  no  struggle  to  lay  aside  his  rhetorical  office.} 
The  two  learned  Christians  from  Syria,  Apollinaris,  father 

inaccarate  accounts,  we  confine  ourselves  simply  to  the  words  of  Julian 
and  to  the  narrative  of  the  impartial  Ammianus. 

*  I  suppose  that  in  the  passage  above  referred  to,  £p.  42,  the  read- 
ing shonld  be  •vli  ^//3^  mJ.  ...  Otherwise  the  second  oitH  required 
here  would  be  wanting,  and  the  appropriate  reference  would  be  wanting 
to  the  following  antithesis.  Besides  in  Julian,  r«  irar^U  is  always  used 
to  designate  the  national  pagan  sacra. 

t  See  Eunap.  vit.  Pnweres.  T.  I.  p.  92. 

X  Augusnn.  Confession'.  1.  VIII.  c  2  et  seq. 

VOI-.  IJI.  ^ 


82  JULIAN^  HATRED 

and  son,  as  a  eompenaation  to  tho  Cfaristiaii  joiitb  for  tfaal 
which  they  had  been  deprired  of,  were  in  the  habit  of  writing 
historical  and  doctrinal  portions  of  scripture  in  all  the  hnm 
of  Greek  verse.     This,  however,  would  prove  but  a  SGny 
suljstitute  for  that  which  the  study  of  claswcal  amtiqutf 
was  designed  to  furnish,  in  order  to  that  natural  devdop>  ] 
ment  of  the  human  mind  which   Christianitj  ptresuppOiK 
As  the  church  historian  Socrates  very  justly  remarks,  id 
stating  this   fact,   "  Divine  Providence  was  mightier  thn 
the  painstaking  of  these  two  men,  and  than  the  will  of  tto 
emperor,"  * 

'  Julian  hated  especially  the  bish(^,  who  were  so  active  is 
propagating  the  faith ;  aiid  these  would  most  easily  have  be- 
come the  objects  of  persecution,  if  his  fiinatieiam  had  btt 
once  proved  too  strong  for  his  feelings  of  humanity  and  pri^ 
ciples  of  civil  polity.  Like  the  pagan  emperofs  befen  him, 
he  saw  in  those  who  presided  over  the  instruction  and  goven- 
ment  of  the  Christian  communities  the  chief  supports  of 
Atheism  (hOionjg),  He  imagined  that  by  a  crafty  p(»liey  he 
could  easily  gain  over  the  misguided  people,  if  he  was  not 
counteracted  by  the  bishops.  And  for  the  reasons  just  nwor 
tioned,  hated  above  all  others  by  him  were  those  bishqps  wha 
had  been  zealous  students  of  the  Greek  literature,  ami  who 
applied  this  literature  itself  to  the  service  of  Christtanity  ni 
the  subversion  of  paganism ;  for  instance,  those  men  with 
whom,  when  a  youth,  he  had  studied  at  Athens,  the  two 
friends,  Basilius  bishop  of  Csesarea,  and  Gregory  of  Naziaa- 
2en  ;  and  those  who,  under  his  reign,  dared  to  employ  6ie* 
cian  science  in  combating  paganism  and  in  defendhig  Ghiia- 
tianity,  such  as  Apollinaris  of  Laodicea,  and  Diedorus  bishop 
of  Tarsus  in  Cicilia.f 

*  The  remarks  of  Socrates  on  this  occasion,  respecting  the  neceiatjrof 
the  stady  of  ancient  literature,  iu  order  to  the  progressive  culture  ofthe 
Christian  church,  are  very  correct.     L.  III.  c.  IG. 

f  Well  worthy  of  notice  are  the  fierce  declamations  of  Julian  agaiDit 
this  latter,  in  his  letter  to  Photiuus,  of  which  Facundus  of  Hermiane  has 
preserved  to  us  the  fragment  already  mentioned,  in  a  bad  Latin  trai» 
lation,  Defens.  trinm  capitulor.  1.  IV.  379.  He  reproaches  him  with 
having  attended  the  school  at  Athens ;  there  studied  philosopfaj,  mnsifl^ 
and  rhetoric ;  and  thereby  armed  his  tongue  to  fight  against  the  godi. 
Hence  he  was  punished  by  the  gods  with  consumption ;  for  his  sunken 
features,  full  of  wrinkles,  and  his  emaciated  body,  were  not^  as  those 


OF  THE  BISHOPS.  83 

In  a  very  unworthy  manner  did  he  conduct  himself  towards 
Titus  bishop  of  Bostra  in  Arabia.  When  he  had  made  him  re- 
spcmsible  for  the  preservation  of  the  public  peace  and  order  in 
datcity,  where,  on  account  of  the  excited  state  of  feeling  be- 
tween pagans  and  Christians,  the  slightest  cause  might  lead 
to  scenes  of  violence,  the  bishop,  in  a  memorial  drawn  up  in 
the  name  of  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy,  and  intended  for 
thdr  defence,  declared  to  him,  ^^  Although  the  Christians,  oa 
account  of  their  numbers,  might  bid  defiance  to  the  pagans, 
yet  they  were  restrained  firom  disorders  by  the  admonitions  of 
the  clergy."  Upon  this  Julian  despatched  a  letter  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Bostra,  in  which  he  exhorted  both  parties, 
Quistians  and  pagans,  to  maintain  quiet  and  use  forbearance 
towards  each  other ;  and  then  proceeds  to  describe  the  clergy 
(whose  conduct,  indeed,  in  many  countries,  had,  imder  former 
reigns,  well  deserved  this  reproach)  as  being  the  authors  of 
all  the  disturbances.  ^'  It  is,"  says  he,  ''  because  they  look 
back  with  longing  to  their  former  authority,  because  they  are 
not  permitted  to  hold  tribunals,  to  dictate  wills,*  to  seize 
upon  the  possessions  of  others,  and  appropriate  the  whole  to 
their  own  uses,  that  they  throw  ever}' thing  into  confusion." 
He  next  quotes  to  the  Christian  communities  the  above-cited 
declaration  fix)m  the  bishop's  letter,  wrested  out  of  its  proper 
connection,  for  the  purpose  of  representing  him  as  their 
accuser,  and  of  holding  him  up  to  their  detestation.  They 
oi^ht,  he  said,  to  rise  of  their  own  accord  against  such  an 
accusing  bishop,  and  drive  him  from  the  city,  and  the  masses 
should  be  united  together.  This  latter  hint,  certainly,  did  not 
agree  well  with  his  general  exhortation  to  quiet ;  but  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  Julian  hoped,  if  he  could  get  them  into  a 

'wbom  he  deceived  would  have  it  appear,  the  effects  of  his  rigidly  ascetic 
life  (of  his  ^»>.tr%m  pXMro^txn)^  but  the  jast  punishment  of  the  gods. 
Quod  non  est  philosophicse  conversationis  judicio,  sicut  yideri  vult  a  se 
deceptis ;  sed  justitise  pro  certo  deorumque  poense,  qua  percutitnr  com- 
peteBti  ratione  usque  ad  novissimum  vitse  suso  finem  asperam  et 
amaram  vitam  vivens  et  faciem  pallore  confectam.  Assuredly  >ye  can 
more  easily  pardon  such  judgments  in  pagans  than  in  Christian  teachers 
and  writers  of  this  period,  the  altogether  similar  way  in  which,  un- 
mindiul  of  the  book  of  Job,  and  of  the  words  of  our  Saviour,  John  ix.  S, 
they  interpret  attacks  of  disease  and  other  calamities  which  befel 
heretics. 
*  See  below^  in  the  section  concerning  the  constitution  of  the  church. 


84  GREOORY.      MJiaiB. 

quarrel  with  their  bishop,  to  make  iheni  unite  more  easily 
with  the  pagans.* 

Sometimes  the  bishops  forgot  the  duties  which,  accordir^ 
to  the  Christiau  doctrine,  they  owed  to  the  supreme  magistrate^ 
even  though  a  pagan,  and  gave  the  emperor  just  cause  for 
persecuting  them ;  yet,  in  such  cases,  he  did  not  do  everytfaiD^ 
which  in  strict  justice  he  might  have  done.  In  general  he 
was  more  apt  to  be  excited  where  anything  was  attempted  in 
his  reign  against  the  Gods  and  their  worship,  than  where  the 
honour  due  to  his  person  was  attacked.  Gregory  bishop  of 
Noziauzus,  the  old  father  of  the  celebrated  Gregory,  had 
allowed  public  prayers  to  be  offered  in  the  church  against  the 
emperor,  as  a  godless  man.  The  occasion  of  this,  witlK>ut  much 
doubt,  was,  that  the  governor  of  tlie  province  had  sent  soldien 
to  tear  down  the  church ;  but,  oppc^ed  by  the  firmness  of  the 
old  man,  who  failed,  indeed,  to  unite  to  this  quality  the  gen- 
tleness becoming  the  Christian  and  his  own  spiritual  office,  they 
did  not  venture  to  make  the  attempt.^  Tlie  bishop  Maris  of 
Chalcedon,  an  old  man  almost  blind,  who  had  to  be  led  about 
by  the  hand,  seeing  the  emperor  offering  a  sacrifice  in  the 
temple  of  Fortune  at  Constantinople,  went  in,  and,  hurried  on 
by  liis  over-passionate  zeal,  publicly  called  him  a  renegade 
and  an  infidel.  Julian  forbore,  it  is  true,  from  punishing  such 
a  violation  of  tlie  duty  of  a  subject,  as  he  might  justly  have 
done  ;  but  he  forgot,  too.  Ids  own  dignity,  by  indulging  in 
vulgar  sarcasms  after  his  usual  way ;  and,  bantering  the  old 
man  on  his  blindness,  said,  "Will  not  thy  Galilean  God, 
then,  heal  thee  too  ?  "J 

It  could  not  fail  to  be  the  case,  however,  that,  even  without 
any  instigation  from  Julian,  in  those  cities  where  there  still 
existed  a  considerable  pagan  party,  and  this  party  had  not, 
till  now,  given  loose  to  its  pent-up  fury,  and  where  they  had 
been  exasperated  by  the  violent  proceedings  of  the  bishops 
under  the  previous  government,  sanguinary  tumults  would 
sometimes  arise.     Thus  it  happened  at  Alexandria,  soon  after 

*  Julian,  ep.  52.  It  should  be  remarked,  however,  that  Julian  wrote 
this  letter  to  Antioch  in  an  excited  state  of  mind. 

f  Gregor.  Nazianz.  orat.  XIX.  f.  308. 

X  This  Sozomen  (V.  4)  cites  as  a  flying  story ;  but  many  a  bishop  at 
that  time  might  venture  to  do  this,  and  Julian's  conduct  on  the  occasiod 
is  not  imlike  him ;  bo  that  the  story  may  perhaps  be  true. 


OfiOROIUS  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  85 

Julian's  accession  to  the  throne.  The  bishop  Georgius,  a  worldly- 
man,  of  a  violent  and  headstrong  temper,  who  had  been  thrust 
by  an  armed  force  upon  the  community  devoted  to  the  bishop 
Athanasius,  had  administered  his  office  after  the  same  manner 
with  its  commencement ;  and  by  his  persecuting  spirit  towards 
all  n^ho  thought  differently  from  himself,  by  acting  as  a  spy 
and  an  informer  to  the  emperor  Constantius,  by  misusing  his 
influence  at  court  for  the  gratification  of  his  own  passions, 
had  made  himself  hateful  to  all  parties  except  his  own.*  He 
had  drawn  upon  himself  the  anger  of  the  pagans,  by  destroy- 
ing splendid  temples,  by  exposing  the  sanctuary  of  the  Mithras 
worship  to  universal  derision,  and,  finally,  because  he  had  been 
heard  to  say  to  his  attendants,  when  passing  by  a  temple  at 
TychsB,  "  How  much  longer  shall  this  tomb  stand  ?  "  Scarcely 
had  Julian's  accession  to  the  throne  become  known  at  Alex- 
andria, when  the  pagan  populace  seized  upon  Georgius ;  upon 
the  knight  Dracontius,  director  of  the  mint ;  and  upon  a  third, 
who  had  also  rendered  himself  hateful  to  tiie  pagans ;  and 
threw  them  into  prison.  After  they  had  been  kept  in  prison 
twenty-four  days,  the  multitude  poured  together  again.  All 
three  were  murdered;  the  body  of  Georgius  was  carried 
through  the  city  upon  a  camel,  and,  after  being  exposed  to 
every  indignity,  was  towards  evening  burnt.l  Probably  it 
was  not  pagans  alone  who  engaged  in  this  riot :  at  all  events, 
the  affair  could  never  have  been  carried  to  such  an  extreme 
if  Georgius  had  not  made  himself  so  universally  hated.  In 
consequence  of  these  riotous  proceedings,  Julian  addressed  to 
the  Alexandrians  one  of  his  declamatory  rescripts,  censuring 
their  conduct  in  most  emphatic  language ;  but  he  punished  no 
one.  So,  too,  in  other  similar  cases,  the  emperor  went  no 
&rther  than  words,  which,  however,  were  of  little  use,  espe- 
cially as  men  were  aware  how  much  the  emperor  was  pleased 
by  any  manifestation  of  zeal  for  the  gods.  He  seems,  in  fact^ 
in  many  cases,  to  have  approved  rather  than  rebuked  the  out- 
breaks of  popular  fiiry  against  those  who  had  been  guilty  of 

*  Ammianas  Marcellinas  says  of  him  (I.  XXII.  c.  11),  Professionis 
sose  oblitus,  quae  nihil  nisi  jostum  suadet  et  lene,  ad  delatorum  aasa 
feralia  desciscebat. 

t  Sozom.  V.  7 ;  Ammian.  Marcellin.  XXII.  1 1 ;  and  the  most  accurate 
account  in  the  aboye>cited  anonymous  life  of  Athanasius,  p.  68. 


B6  MARCUS  OF  ARETHUSA. 

destroying  the  temples,  or  who  were  unwilling  to  rebuild  the 
temples  which  had  been  destroyed. 

Marcus,  a  bishop  of  Arethusa,  on  Mount  Lebanon,  had  in 
the  preceding  reign  drawn  upon  himself  the  hatred  of  the 
pagan  inhabitants,  by  causing  the  destruction  of  a  magnifioent 
temple,  and  by  resorting  to  forcible  measures  to  make  con- 
verts. According  to  the  law  which  Julian  everywhere  pab> 
lished,*  he  M-as,  under  these  circumstances,  bound  to  make 
good  the  value  of  the  temple  in  money,  or  else  to  cause  it  to 
be  rebuilt.  Being  in  no  condition  to  do  the  former,  and  think- 
ing he  could  not  conscientiously  do  the  latter ;  fearing,  at  the 
same  time,  for  his  life,  amidst  a  ferocious  populace,  he  betook 
himself  to  flight.  As  others,  however,  were  involved  in 
danger  on  his  account,  he  turned  back,  and  voluntarily 
offered  himself  to  his  enemies.  The  &natical  multitude  now 
fell  upon  him ;  he  was  dragged  through  the  streets,  treated 
^vith  every  sort  of  abuse,  and  at  last  given  up  to  be  made  sport 
of  by  ungoverned  schoolboys.  When  the  old  nian  had  almost 
done  breathing,  they  besmeared  him  with  honey  and  other 
liquids,  laid  him  in  a  basket,  in  which  he  was  swung  up  in  the 
air,  and  left  to  be  preyed  upon  by  bees  and  wasps.  Mareiis 
shamed  his  cruel  enemies  by  the  cool  indifference  which  he 
exhibited  under  all  his  sufferings — an  indifference,  however, 
which  seemed  more  that  of  the  cynic  than  of  the  Christian. 
The  governor,  himself  a  pagan,  is  said  to  have  represented  to 
Julian  what  scandal  it  must  occasion  if  they  allowed  them- 
selves to  be  outdone  by  the  constancy  of  a  weak  old  man ;  and 
the  emperor  finally  commanded  him  to  be  set  free ;  for  it  was 
not  his  wish  to  give  the  Christians  any  martyrs.t 

As  Julian  was  in  the  habit  of  appointing  zealous  pagans  to 
the  high  sacerdotal  and  civil  offices,  and  as  the  latter  were 
aware  that  nothing  would  serve  better  to  ingratiate  them  with 
the  emperor  than  zeal  for  the  spread  of  paganism ;  as  thej 
were  incited  by  the  double  stimulus  of  their  own  fainaticism, 
and  of  their  wish  to  please  the  emperor ;  so  it  was  a  matter  of 
course  that  individual  instances  of  the  oppression  and  pense- 

*  See  above. 

f  See  above,  the  letter  of  Libanios,  who  confirms  the  assereratioia  of 
the  Christian  authors,  Sozomen,  Socrates,  Theodoretos,  and  Gregory  of 
Nazianzen.  > 


JUIMN's  T181T  TO  ANTIOCH.  87 

of  Chrutians  would  easily  happen,  which  might  proceed 
►  cruelty, 

in  became  stiJl  more  embittered  against  the  Christians 
summer  of  362,  during  his  stay  at  Antioch.  In  this 
iristianity  had  for  a  long  time  been  the  prevailing  reli- 
insomueh  that  Libanius  remarked  on  the  spot,  that  only 
Id  men  remained  who  were  still  ^uniliar  with  the  aBcieiit 
festivals,  wheu  Julian  came  to  the  government.*  In 
sat  capital  of  Asia,  which,  while  maintaining  the  form 
istiauity,  had  become  the  seat  of  mingled  (mental  and 
splendour,  licentiousness  and  corruption  of  manners, 
the  emperor,  was  resolved  to  affect  die  ancient  simpli- 
lich  was  wholly  abhorrent  to  the  prevailing  manners, 
such  a  place  could  only  expose  hhn  to  the  jeers  and  sar- 
»f  ihe  disaffected.  His  zeal  in  the  pagan  worship,  in 
le  would  fkm  set  an  example  to  his  subjects,  only  made 
liculous  to  the  higher  classes  and  hated  by  the  people 
nncient  Christian  city.  Frugal  in  his  expenses  for  the 
lance  of  his  court,  he  spared  no  cost  in  offering  sacri- 
all  kinds.  He  often  slaughtered  a  hecatomb  of  cattle ; 
Rras  his  delight  to  bring  the  victims  to  the  priests  with 
1  hands,  followed  by  a  train  of  old  women,  who  still 
to  paganism.  Wherever  an  ancient  temple  was  to  be 
n  the  mountains  around  Antioch,  Julian  clambered  to 
t,  however  steep  and  rugged  the  path,  lor  the  purpose 
mting  an  offering.f 

wtLs  seen  standing  at  the  altar,  under  an  open  ^y, 
the  rain  poured  down  in  toirents,  and  all  the  othens 
fiought  protection  under  the  roof  of  the  temple,  and 
:h  his  attendants  besought  him  to  pay  some  regard  to 
\di.^  The  greater  his  zeal  for  the  pagan  worship,  the 
^nfidenUy  he  had  hoped  that,  when  the  heathen  sanctu- 

BiL  de  vita,  sua,  vol.  I.  p.  81.  Libanius  plays  the  rhetoridaii 
haps  onlv  in  this  respect,  that  he  represents  what  might  be  sud 
ch  as  uniyersaily  the  case. 

mian.  Maroellhi.  1.  XXII.  c  12,  ff.  Angebantar  csrimonianim 
modice  com  impensaram  amplitudine  antehac  innsitata  et  gravi. 
le  writer  relates  that,  owing  to  the  vast  multitade  of  sacrificial 
;,  rioting  and  drankenness  were  spread  among  the  soldiers. 

\i$,    Liiban.  Monodia  in  Julian,  vol.  1.  p.  513. 
an.  presbeut.  Julian,  vol.  I.  p.  476. 


i 


88  TITIJAN  AT  ANTIOCH. 

aries,  which  had  so  long  been  closed,  were  re-opened,  lie  should 
witness  the  same  enthusiasm  among  the  people  at  Antioch  bj 
which  he  was  inspired  himself;  and  the  more  painful  it  mart 
have  been  to  him  to  find  his  expectations  so  completely  disap- 
pointed. True,  multitudes  of  the  people  and  of  the  higher 
classes  assembled  in  the  temples  and  groves  which  he  visited; 
not,  however,  for  the  sake  of  the  gods,  but  for  the  purpose  of 
seeing  the  emperor,  and  being  seen  by  him,  as  he  binudf 
must  have  known.  He  was  saluted  on  these  occasions  withtbe 
loud  shout  of  *'  Long  live  the  emperor !  '^  just  as  if  he  had 
made  his  appearance  in  the  theatre.  Hence  he  was  led  to  ad- 
dress to  the  people  of  Antioch  an  admonitory  discourse,  com- 
plaining that  they  converted  the  temple  into  a  theatre,  to 
which  they  resorted  rather  for  his  own  sake  than  on  acooimt 
of  the  gods.*  Yet  soon  the  voice  of  praise,  with  which  he  had 
been  received  out  of  respect  for  his  person,  was  exchanged  ftr 
that  of  mockery  and  disdain ;  for  an  injudicious  r^^latioo, 
the  object  of  which  was  to  force  a  reduction  of  the  price  of 
provisions  to  a  degree  disproportionate  to  the  produce  of  the 
year,  and  the  result  of  which  was  directly  the  reverse  of  what 
had  been  intended,  made  him  hated  botii  among  the  higher 
classes  and  the  populace,  and  his  attempts  to  injure  Chri^aan 
sanctuaries  alienated  the  popular  feeling ;  and  he  was  obliged 
to  hear  men  express  their  longing  for  the  return  of  the 
E^appa  and  the  Chi,  that  is,  of  the  reign  of  Constantius  and 
Christianity.! 

One  incident  which  made  him  extremely  unpopular  with 
the  zealous  Christians  was  this :  In  the  grove  of  Daphne, 
about  five  miles  from  Antioch,  but  still  reckoned  as  belonging 
to  the  suburbs  of  the  city,  stood  a  fiunous  temple  of  Apollo; 
and  the  fountain  which  flowed  near  by  was  said  to  possev 
virtues  which  communicated  the  gift  of  divination. j:  Henoe 
an  oracle  of  Apollo  had  sprung  up  on  this  spot.  But,  ever 
since  the  times  of  the  emperor  Hadrian,  this  fountain  had 
been  neglected  and  had  gone  to  decay.  With  a  view  to 
suppress  the  old  pagan  cultus,  as  well  as  to  check  the  dis- 

*  Julian  in  Misopogon.  p.  344.    Liban.  de  vita  sua,  p.  82. 

t  Misopogon.  357. 

I  To  which  le^nd  perhaps,  in  this  and  in  similar  cases,  the  exhilarat- 
ing and  intoxicating  influence  of  the  exhalations  of  some  mineral  spring 
had  given  occasion. 


BEYIYES  THE  WOBSHIP  OF  APOLLO.  89 

npatton  which  the  amenity  of  this  spot,  &inous  as  the  seat  of 
irieious  pleasures,  invited,  Gallus,  when  governor  of  the  pro- 
vince,  had  caused  to  be  buried  here  the  bones  of  the  martyr 
Baby  las,  and  had  erected  a  church  for  the  use  of  those  who 
vished  to  perform  their  devotftns  at  the  tomb  of  the  martyr. 
Julian  caused  the  long-closed  temple  of  Apollo  to  be  re- 
opened, and  surrounded   it  with   a   new    and   magnificent 
peristyle.     Setting  great  value  upon  soothsaying  of  idl  kinds, 
he  wished  to  restore  also  the  ancient  oracle,  and  directed  the 
fonotain  to  be  cleared  out.     The  priests  now  declared  that 
the  oracle  could  not  go  into  operation.    The  god  would  g^ve 
no  response,  on  account  of  the  vicinity  of  the  dead ;  besides, 
according  to  the  pagan  notions,  no  dead  body  could  be  suf- 
fered to  remain  in  contact  with  the  holy  place.     Julian  con- 
strued this  as  referring  particularly  to  the  neighbouring  bones 
of  fiabylas ;  for  the  Christian  worship  among  the  tombs,  as 
he  call^  it,  was  his  special  abomination,  and,  above  all,  in 
the  present  case,  so  near  to  the  shrine  of  his  own  Apollo.    He 
caused  the  bones  to  be  exhumated.    Multitudes  of  Christians, 
young  and  old,  men  and  women,  now  assembled  to  bear  away 
the  bones  of  the  martyr,  in  solemn  procession,  to  a  place  about 
forty  stadia  (five  miles)  distant ;  and,  through  the  whole  of 
the  way,  they  chanted  choral  psalms  which  alluded  to  the 
vanity  of  idolatry.     The  whole  throng  joined  with  one  voice 
in  tlie  words,   "  Confounded  be  all  Qiey  that  serve  graven 
images,  and  boast  themselves  in  idols  !"*     Julian,  who  saw 
himself  and  his  gods  insulted  at  the  same  time,  did  not  mani- 
fest on  this  occasion  the  philosophical  calmness  which  he  was 
JO  fond  of  exhibiting  in  other  cases  of  a  like  nature.     He 
commanded  the  prefect  Salustius  to  search  out  the  guiltiest 
of  those  engaged  in  the  tumult,  and  punish  them  severely. 
Salust,  although  a  pagan,  yet,  from  motives  of  humanity  and 
prudence,  reluctantly  executed  the  command.     He  cauised  a 
number  of  individuals  to  be  seized,  but  subjected  only  one, 
Theodorus,  a  young  man,  to  torture.     The  latter  continued 
firm  and  uomoved,  and  in  the  midst  of  his  sufferings  sang  the 
psalms  which  the  day  before  he  had  sung  with  the  others 
in  the  procession.']'     Salust  now  reminded  the  emperor  how 

*  Amraian.  Marcellin.  1.  XXII.  c.  12, 13.    Sosom.  V.  19. 

f  The  presbyter  Rufinns,  who  knew  him  when  an  old  man  at  Antiocfa, 


\ 


90  JULIAN  AT  ANTIOGH. 

much  the  cause  of  the  Christians  gained  by  such  constancy  ib 
their  suffering  companions.  This  led  to  the  xeLemae  of  the 
young  man  and  of  all  the  rest.* 

When  Julian,  for  the  first  time  after  so  long  a  period, 
restored  the  ancient  feast  of  Afbllo  Daphnicus,  he  hoped  tint 
it  would  be  celebrated  by  the  inhabitants  of  Antioch  with 
great  display.  But,  as  he  says  in  a  sarcastic  defence  of 
himself  against  the  reproaches  of  the  people  of  Antioeh^t 
"  Not  an  individual  brought  oil  to  kindle  a  lamp  to  the  god ; 
not  one  brought  incense ;  not  one  a  libation  or  a  sacrifice."^ 
But  one  solitary  priest  appeared,  bringing  a  gooee  for  an 
offering.  The  emperor  was  greatly  astonished  and  excited  at 
this  result ;  he  severely  reprimanded  the  noble  inhabitants  d 
Antioch,  who  knew  no  better  how  to  appreciate  the  restoratioB 
of  an  ancient  national  festival ;  just  as  if  his  religion  most 
necessarily  be  theirs.  He  complains  of  them  in  this  writings 
that  they  allowed  their  wives  to  carry  away  everything  from 
the  house  for  the  support  of  the  Gkilileans,  or  to  bestow  it 
upon  the  poor;  while  they  themselves  were  unwilling  to 
expend  the  smallest  trifle  to  sustain  the  worship  of  the  gods.{ 

It  happened  afterwards  that  a  fire  broke  out  in  this  tem[^ 
as  it  was  said  through  the  carelessness  of  Asclepiades,  a  pagan 
philosopher,  who  had  come  on  a  visit  to  the  pious,  phiio* 
sophical  emperor.  Asclepiades  had  left  standing,  with  lighted 
tapers  before  the  statue  of  Apollo,  a  small  silver  image  of  the 
Dea  ccelestis  (Venus  Urania),  which  he  carried  about  wiA 
him  to  perform  his  devotions  by,  wherever  he  travelled.  But 
Julian  attributed  it  to  the  revengeful  spirit  of  the  Christians ; 
and  they  were  accused  as  the  authors  of  the  conflagratioD* 


relates  that  he  told  him  that  during  all  his  sufferings  he  ima^ned  he  i 
a  young  man  standing  by  him  who  wiped  away  ms  sweat  aud  pourei 
over  him  cold  water.    Rnfin.  vers.  Ekuseb.  X.  36. 

*  Sozom.  V.  20. 

t  The  Misopogon,  in  allusion  to  the  jokes  on  the  long  beard  of  tibe 
emperor. 

X  Misopogon.  p.  363. 

§  Misopogon.  p.  363.  This  passage  deserves  notice,  inasnmch  ts  W9 
may  see  from  it  that  Julian  was  well  aware  of  the  indifference  entov 
tained  by  many  of  the  higher  class  of  the  Antiochians  towards  the  affiuxi 
of  religion ;  and  that  he  considered  the  females  as  the  chief  supporters  of 
Christianity  in  the  fiunilies  of  such  persons.  See^  below,  a  like  asser- 
tion of  libanios. 


J17LIAN  AT  ANTIOCH.  91 

He  directed  torture  to  be  employed  for  the  purpose  of  finding 
out  the  guilty,  and  ordered  the  great  church  of  Antioch  to  fa« 
dosed,  to  show  his  displeasure  against  the  whole  body  of 
Christians.*  Although  judicial  investigation  could  elicit  no 
evidence  against  the  Christians,  yet  Julian  did  not  give  up 
bis  suspicions.  He  complained  that  the  senate  of  Antioch 
kd  not  done  all  in  their  power  to  detect  the  guilty.*]*  The 
people  of  Antioch  feared  the  worst ;  as  we  see  from  the  dis- 
courses delivered  or  written  in  their  defence  by  Libanius. 
Julian  exhibited  on  several  occasions  his  excited  state  of 
feeling  against  the  Christians.  He  said  himself  that,  at  a 
signal  g^ven  by  his  own  hand,  the  tombs  of  the  martyrs  in  the 
neighbouring  towns,  together  with  the  churches  erected  over 
them,  had  been  destroyed ;  and  that  the  people  had  even  gone 
fiurther  against  the  enemies  of  the  gods  than  he  himself 
designed,  j:  Before  leaving  Antioch  he  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  judicial  department  in  Syria  a  man  of  a  passionate  and 
naturally  cruel  disposition  named  Alexander.  He  is  reported 
to  have  said  that  Alexander  was  not  worthy  of  the  office ;  but 
that  the  covetous  and  slanderous  Antiochians  deserved  no 
better  judge.§  It  is  evident,  from  particular  instances  of  his 
conduct,  that  the  administration  of  justice  by  this  Alexander 
corresponded  entirely  with  the  natural  charactei*  of  the  man. 
He  took  great  pains  to  prevail  on  Christians  to  deny  their 
&ith.  Many,  indeed,  suffered  themselves  to  be  induced  by 
promises,  persuasions,  and  threats,  to  sacrifice;  but  the  re- 
proaches and  tears  of  their  wives, — among  whom,  at  Antioch, 
there  seems  to  have  been  more  true  piety  than  among  the 
men, — and  the  silence  of  night,  suited  to  lead  men  to  the 
recesses  of  their  own  hearts,  roused  their  conscience,  and  they 
returned  again  to  Christianity.  This  excited  Alexander  even 
to  fiiry ;  he  not  only  persecuted  these  individuals,  but  asserted 
that  they  could  not  have  gone  so  £ir  of  themselves.  He 
thought  he  could  trace  the  frustration  of  all  his  efforts  to 
propagate  the  worship  of  the  gods  to  the  secret  plots  of  a 
Christian.  He  was  persuaded  by  the  enemies  of  a  certain 
Eiisebius  to  believe  that  the  whole  mischief  proceeded  from  * 
him.     This  man  was  about  to  be  thrown  into  prison  and  con- 

*  Ammian.  Marcellin.  h  XXII.  c  13.        f  See  Misopogon.  p.  361. 
X  Misopogon.  p.  361.  §  Ammian.  MarcelUn.  I.  XXUt.  <^  1. 


92  LlBANinS  TO  ALEXANDER. 

fined  in  chains ;  but  he  succeeded  in  effecting  his  escape,  and 
took  refuge  with  the  pagan  rhetorician  Libanius,  whose  friend- 
ship he  had  gained  by  the  moderation  and  mildness  of  hii 
conduct  towfuxis  the  pagans  under  the  preceding  rdgD. 
Libanius  behaved  in  the  same  noble  manner  as  he  was  evv 
accustomed  to  do  in  like  cases.  He  boldly  rebuked  Alex- 
ander for  his  conduct,  and  assured  him  that  he  would  not  give 
up  Eusebius.* 

But,  although  Libanius  did  not  wish  to  see  men  persecuted 
for  the  sake  of  religion,  yet  he  was  gratified  whoi  any,  even 
though  it  might  be  at  first  by  mere  external  consideration^ 
were  brought  back  to  the  worship  of  the  gods.  This  is  en- 
dent  from  the  manner  in  which  he  endeavours  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  dread  of  Julian's  anger,  as  a  means  of  persuading 
the  noble  Antiochians  that  they  had  better  restore  the  worsiup 
of  the  gods,  which,  he  said,  was  the  only  effectual  and  eertam 
means  of  appeasing  the  emperor, \     In  this,  doubtless,  he  wu 

*  In  his  letter  to  Alexander  (ep.  1057)  he  thus  expresses  hhnsdf: 
**  It  was  my  wish  that  you  might  be  zealous  indeed  for  the  ^ods,  and  gaki 
over  many  to  their  law :  but  that  you  should  not  be  surprised,  hoveWr, 
if  many  a  one  of  those  who  have  just  offered  should  consid^  what  he 
has  done  as  a  very  wicked  thing,  and  praise  again  the  refusing  to  ofB?r. 
For,  away  from  home,  they  follow  you  when  you  advise  them  what  is  hest, 
and  go  to  the  altars.  At  home  they  are  turned  about,  and  withdrawn 
from  the  altars  by  the  wife,  by  tears,  and  b^  the  night.  But  as  to  Eos^ 
bins,  who  is  accused  of  having  undone  again  what  was  accomplished  b]r 
your  pains,  he  is  manifestly  calumniated,  and  far  from  that  which  hss 
been  laid  to  his  charge ;  for  he  well  understands  the  times,  and  acts  ani* 
formly  with  reflection  rather  than  with  foolhardiness ;  and,  as  he  knovs 
your  wrath,  he  would  not,  were  he  ever  so  foolish,  thus  throw  himsdf 
upon  a  sheaf  of  swords.  But  he  is  not  one  of  those  ordinary  men  who  easlv 
change  with  the  changes  of  the  times;  but,  as  one  who  has  busied  himself 
with  science,  and  cultivated  his  mind,  he  was,  even  in  the  time  when  he 
had  the  power,  oppressive  to  no  one,  and  arrogant  to  no  one.  One  nu^ 
say  he  foresaw  the  future,  so  moderate  was  he.  It  was  this  indeed  whieh 
made  the  man  dear  to  me  and  to  Nicocles  (see  above ;  I  suppose  tfaat^  in- 
stead of  £  xeki  ^iX0y  \vomfftts,  we  should  read*  «  xai  ^iX^  W^lnni) ;  ix 
while  he  honoured  his  own  religion,  he  yet  did  not  annoy  those  who 
swore  by  the  name  of  Jupiter."  In  like  manner  Libanius  warned  this 
Alexander,  in  ep.  1375,  to  take  care  lest,  by  the  way  in  which  he  pro- 
posed to  help  the  insulted  gods,  he  might  rather  do  them  injury.  Pro- 
bably letter  1346  also  has  a  similar  reference. 

t  In  the  discourse,  ^ip)  riit  rov  ^^tXtif  i^yhft  which  perhaps  was  only 
written  and  not  delivered  (vol.  I.  p.  502),  "  Ye  will  appease  the  anger 
of  the  emperor,"  says  he  to  the  nobles  of  Antioch,  **  by  no  petitions,  no 
clamour,  no  ambassadors  (even  though  you  sent  your  most  talented 


Julian's  march  THBOuaH  stbia.  dS 

right ;  for  when  the  town  of  Pessinus  in  Galatia^  celebrated 
in  earlier  times  on  account  of  the  worship  of  Cybele,  petitioned 
tbe  emperor  for  assistance,  on  some  occasion  or  other,  he  re- 
plied that,  if  they  wished  to  enjoy  his  fiivour,  they  must  first, 
by  a  general  procession  of  penitence,  propitiate  the  mother  of 
the  gods,  from  whose  worship  they  had  fallen.* 

Wherever,  in  his  march  against  the  Persians,  Julian  passed 
through  any  of  the  Christian  cities  of  Syria,  he  took  this 
opjgortunity  of  exhorting  the  senators  who  welcomed  him  to 
le^re  the  worship  of  the  gods.  Thus  it  was,  for  example, 
when,  after  two  days'  journey,  he  came  to  Beroa  in  Syria. 
But  he  complained  that  the  senators  all  applauded  his 
speeches,  though  only  a  few  followed  his  advice ;  indeed,  none 
but  those  who  seemed  already  to  have  cherished  sound  views 
in  religion,  but,  until  now,  had  been  ashamed  to  express  their 
convictions  openly.  His  pleasure  was  the  greater  when,  on 
the  third  day's  journey,  he  came  to  a  place  f  where  the  odour 
of  incense  breathed  upon  him  from  all  sides,  and  he  every- 
where beheld  sacrifices  publicly  ofiered;  although  he  could 
not  avoid  suspecting  that  these  public  exhibitions  were  in- 
tended more  for  himself  than  for  the  gods.| 

orators),  unless  you  desist  from  these  tricks,  and  give  up  your  city  to 
Jnpiter  and  the  other  gods, — about  whom,  long  before  the  emperor,  even 
from  your  childhood,  Hesiod  and  Homer  have  taught  you.  But  you  seek 
after  the  honour  of  being  cultivated,  and  call  an  acquaintance  with  those 
poets  cultivation.  In  respect  to  man's  highest  interests,  however,  you 
follow  other  teachers  (see  above) ;  and  you  fly  from  the  temples,  which  are 
once  more  thrown  open,  when  you  ought  to  sigh  that  tiiey  were  ever 
closed.  In  the  next  place,  when  the  authority  of  a  Plato  and  a  Pytha- 
goras is  appealed  to  in  your  presence,  you  hold  out  on  the  other  hand  that 
ef  your  mothers  and  wives,  of  your  butlers  and  cooks,  and  the  tenacity  of 
your  early  convictions;  thus  allowing  yourselves  to  be  led  by  those 
whom  you  ought  to  lead.*'  A  great  deal  in  this  description  of  nominal 
Christians  among  the  fashionable  people  of  the  higher  ranks,  who  were 
held  to  Christianity  by  the  force  of  custom  and  the  influence  of  their 
domestic  associations,  is  doubtless  taken  from  the  real  life.  He  concludes 
thus :  ''Shall  we  not  hasten  to  the  temples,  persuading  some,  and  forcing 
the  rest  to  follow  us?" 

*  Julian,  ep.  49.  t  Barvtcu 

X  See  Julian's  letter  to  Libanius,  describing  his  journey  (ep.  27).  So- 
zomen  (VI.  1)  reports  that  Julian,  in  a  menacing  letter,  summoned 
Arsaces  king  of  Armenia,  who  was  a  Christian,  to  arm  himself  for  the 
war  against  the  Persians ;  that  he  announced  to  him  the  God  whom  he 
worshipped  would  not  be  able  to  help  him ;  that  this  letter  contained 
blasphemies  against  Christ.    Muratori  has  published  this  letter  in  the 


94  Julian's  death. 

As  the  feelings  of  Julian  against  the  ChxistiaiiB  and  against 
Christianity  were  continually  moie  and  more  ezaaperated  by 
the  opposition  which  he  experienced,  it  may  be  rnulily  coa- 
jectured  that,  if  he  had  returned  back  successfully  from  his 
Persian  campaign,  he  would  have  become  a  violent  persecutor 
of  the  church.  But  in  this  war  he  perished,  in  the  year  363 ; 
and  at  a  single  blow  the  frail  ikbric  erected  by  mere  human 
will  was  dissolved ;  although  Julian,  deceived  by  his  apparent 
success  in  making  proselytes,  had  boasted  of  having  produced, 
in  a  short  time,  a  wonderful  change ;  for  in  a  letter,  in  whieh, 
indeed,  he  complained  that  the  cause  of  Hellenism,  througli 
the  fault  of  its  professors,  did  not  yet  progress  according  to 
his  wishes,  he  had  asserted  that  the  friends  of  the  gods  ought 
to  be  satisfied ;  for  who,  a  short  time  before,  would  have  ven- 
tured to  predict  that  so  great  and  so  important  a  change  could 
be  produced  in  so  brief  a  period  ?• 

Had  the  Christians  searched  after  the  real  cause  of  this 
transient  victory  of  the  heathen  party,  they  might  have  de- 
rived from  it  many  important  lessons  for  the  future.  In  die 
beginning  of  Julian's  reign,  the  wise  Gregory  of  Nazianzen, 
contemplating  those  evils  within  the  church,  without  which 
even  this  transient  ascendancy  of  paganism  could  hardly  have 
been  gained,  had  expressed  the  great  truth,  that  the  Christian 
church  had  still  more  to  fear  from  its  enemies  within  thorn 
from  those  without.f  The  same  father  exhorted  the  Christians, 
(ifter  the  death  of  Julian,  now  to  show,  by  their  actions,  that 
they  had  profited  by  the  divine  discipline  ;  to  show  that  Grod 
had  not  given  them  up  as  evil-doers  into  the  hands  of  the 
pagans,  but  that  he  bad  chastised  them  as  his  children ;  to  be 
careful  that  they  did  not  forget  the  storm  in  the  time  of  calm, 

anecdot.  GrtRC,  Patav.  (see  above),  p.  334.  All  the  boastful  language^ 
perhaps  in  imitation  of  oriental  taste,  which  Sozomen  refers  to,  is  foond 
in  it;  nothing,  however,  which  would  seem  expressly  pointed  against 
Christ.  Yet,  when  Julian  says  to  the  king, ''  You  seek  to  keep  concealed 
witli  you  an  enemy  of  the  public  weal,"  Sozomen,  perhaps  with  reason, 
may  have  supposed  this  referred  to  Christ.  At  all  events,  in  the  threat 
expressed  against  the  city  Nisibis,  which  should  share  that  misfortune  of 
king  Arsaces  the  gods  had  long  since  predicted  against  him,  we  perceive 
the  hatred  he  entertained  against  this  city,  which  for  many  years  bad 
been  zealously  Christian. 

'*'   Ep.   49.      Tii  ya^  iy  ixiy^  ro^avTm  fieti  mktJcavTfit  pura^oXnt  ixiyf 

t  Gregor.  Nazianz.  orat  I.  p.  35. 


JOYIAN.  95 

after  the  deliyerance  from  Egypt.  ^^  It  ought  not  to  appear," 
he  said,  '^  as  if  the  time  of  suifering  was  better  for  them  than 
the  time  of  rest ;  for  so  it  would  appear,  if  then  they  were 
humble  and  moderate,  and  pointed  all  their  hopes  to  heaven, 
but  now  proud  and  haughty,  ready  to  fall  back  again  into  the 
same  sins  which  brought  them  into  all  their  misfortunes."  He 
then  gave  the  Christians  the  advice  to  which  he  was  conscious 
that  he  should  find  the  most  dilEculty  in  making  them  listen. 
He  advised  them  to  take  no  advantage  of  the  power  which 
they  obtained  through  the  change  of  the  times,  in  retali" 
aiing  upon  the  pagans  the  injuries  which  they  had  received. 
^'  Let  us  show,"  says  he,  '^  what  a  difference  there  is  between 
what  these  men  learn  from  their  gods,  and  the  lessons  which 
Christ  teaches  us, — Christ,  who,  glorified  through  sufferings, 
obtained  the  victory  by  forbearing  to  use  his  power.  Let  us 
pay  God  our  united  thanks ;  let  us,  by  long  suffering,  pro- 
mote the  spread  of  the  gospel ;  for  this,  let  us  take  advantage 
of  the  times.     Let  us  by  gentleness  subdue  our  oppressors."* 

The  pagans  now  saw  all  their  brilliant  hopes  destroyed ; 
and  in  their  faith  they  found  nothing  to  console  them.  Liba- 
nius  says  he  supposed  that  the  emperor,  who  had  rebuilt  the 
tonples  and  altars ;  who  had  forgotten  no  god  and  no  goddess, 
and  sacrificed  upon  the  altars  whole  herds  of  oxen  and  lambs ; 
who  had  called  forth  troops  of  priests  from  their  hiding-places, 
would  need  no  mighty  armed  force,  but  must  conquer  through 
the  power  of  the  gods.f  Now  he  quarrelled  with  his  gods, 
because  they  had  permitted  Constantius  to  reign  forty  years, 
but  Julian  only  for  so  short  a  period,  and  then,  with  him, 
suffered  his  whole  work  to  fall  to  the  ground.^ 

Julian  was  immediately  succeeded  by  Jovianus,  an  emperor 
who  professed  Christianity.  He  had  learned  from  the  preced- 
ing times  the  lesson  that  religion  could  not  be  helped  by  out- 
ward force.  Hence,  although  for  his  own  part  a  zealous 
Christian,  yet  he  left  to  all  his  subjects  the  liberty  of  exer- 

♦  GregcM*.  Naziaiiz.  X»y.  v^nXtrtur,  II.  orat.  IV.  f.  130,  131. 

t  Monod  in  Julian,  t.  i.  508.  He  had  actually  propliesied  that  the 
gods  themsel'ves  would  smite  the  Persians.    £p.  649. 

X  L.  c.  p.  510.  How  strongly  contrasted  with  this  is  the  spirit  of 
Augustin,  when  he  says  ''that  no  emperor  should  be  a  Christian  in 
order  to  procure  for  himself  the  fortune  of  Constantine — as  each  should 
be  a  Chnstianybr  the  sake  of  eternal  Itfe.  God  took  away  Jovian  sooner 
than  he  did  Julian."    De  civitate  Dei,  1.  V.  c.  25. 


96  JOVIAIT. 

cising  the  religion  which  they  preferred,— a  principle  which 
he  expressed  in  one  of  the  laws  published  on  his  accession  to 
the  throne.  He  permitted  the  temple-worship  and  the  sacri- 
fices to  go  on  unmolested ;  and  expressly  prohibited  nothing, 
except  employing  the  pagan  rites  for  the  purposes  of  magic* 

*  That  Jovian  enacted  a  law  of  this  import  can  hardly  be  doabted,— 
jadging  fit>m  what  Themistios  said  to  him  at  the  consolar  celebration. 
We  must  admit  that  the  accounts  of  persecutions  against  the  pagans,  and 
of  measures  for  the  suppression  of  paganism,  under  the  reien  of  this  em- 
pen)r,  seem  to  conflict  with  this  supposition ;  as,  for  example,  when  tdbt- 
nins,  in  his  epitaph,  in  Julian,  p.  619,  says  that,  after  Julian's  death,  those 
who  spoke  openly  against  the  gods  once  more  stood  in  authority,  but  the 
priests  were  unjustinably  called  to  an  account.  An  indemmfication  wis 
demanded  for  the  money  expended  in  sacrifices.  The  rich  anticipated  a 
judicial  investigation,  and  paid  the  money  down ;  the  poor  were  thrown 
in  chains.  (We  may  conjecture  that  the  writer  is  here  speaking  of  those 
who  were  accused  of  having  expended  money  which  ^d  not  belone  to  them 
— whether  taken  from  the  public  coffer  or  from  elsewhere — for  Sie  ofier* 
ing  of  sacrifices.)  The  temples,  he  continues,  were  in  part  demolished, 
and  in  part  stood  unfinished — objects  of  mockery  and  sport  to  the  Chris- 
tians. The  philosophers  (i.  e.  all  those  who,  in  the  time  of  Julian,  had 
appeared  in  the  philosopher's  cloak,  and  thereby  acquired  specially  great 
influence  with  him)  were  abused.  AH  who  had  received  presents  from  the 
emperor  Julian  were  accused  of  theft,  and  subjected  to  every  sort  of  tor- 
ment, in  order  to  extort  from  them  the  money  they  were  supposed  to 
have  received.  In  respect  to  this  report  of  Libauius,  what  he  says  as  a 
passionate  opponent  of  the  emperor,  and  with  rhetorical  exaggeradon, 
cannot  be  received  as  altogether  credible.  It  may  have  been  the  case  that 
many  pagans,  believing  that  the  end  sanctioned  the  means,  stimulated  by 
zeal  for  their  religion,  or  making  this  a  mere  pretence  and  out  of  sheer 
cupidity,  had  allowed  themselves,  under  the  preceding  reign,  in  practices 
which  might  in  some  measure  give  just  occasion  for  judicial  investigations 
against  the  heathens.  But  it  also  may  have  been  the  case  that  indemni- 
fication was  unjustly  required  for  that  which  had  been  done  in  a  perfectly 
legal  manner,  and  in  compliance  with  supreme  imperial  authority— jast 
as  Julian  had  proceeded  in  respect  to  what  had  been  done  under  his  pre- 
decessor. And,  finally,  it  would  be  wrong  to  suppose  that  everything 
which  Christian  governors,  or  those  that  used  Christianity  as  a  pretext, 
imder  an  emperor  who  appeared  zealous  for  Christianity,  thought  tiiem- 
selves  entitled  to  do.  without  being  authorized  by  his  laws,  ought  to  be 
laid  to  his  charge.  Jovian  himself  showed  respect  to  Maximus  and  Pris- 
cus — the  two  philosophers  who  possessed  the  highest  influence  under  the 
emperor  Julian,  and  the  former  of  whom  had  laboured  earnestly  for  the 
support  of  paganism.  See  Eunap.  vita  Maxinii,  p.  58.  But  yet,  withoat 
some  occasion  given  by  the  emperor,  it  could  not  happen  that  pagan 
philosophers  should  be  persecuted.  This,  in  fact,  is  intimated  by  Tbemi- 
stius,  although  he  absolves  the  emperor  from  the  charge  of  haying  lum- 
self  had  any  hand  in  it, — ad  Valentem,  de  bello  victis.  ed.  Harduin,  f,  99.0; 


JOVIAN.  97 

Grolden  words  were  those  which  the  moderate  pagan  The- 
mistius  addressed  to  Jovian,  on  his  entrance  upon  the  consular 
office,  with  a  view  to  confirm  him  in  those  principles  recog- 
nising man's  universal  rights,  and  the  toleration  in  matters  of 
religion  connected  therewith,  which  he  had  expressed  imme- 
diately after  coming  to  the  throne.  Having  congratulated 
the  emperor  that  the  first  law  of  his  reign  related  to  religion, 
he  says,  '^  You  alone  seem  to  be  aware  that  the  monarch 
cannot  force  everything  from  his  subjects;  that  there  are 
things  which  are  superior  to  all  constraint,  threatenings,  and 
laws ;  as,  for  instance,  virtue  generally,  and,  in  particular, 
piety  towards  God.  And  you  have  very  wisely  considered, 
that  in  all  these  matters,  unless  there  is  hypocrisy,  the  uncon- 
strained and  absolutely  free  will  of  the  soul  must  move  first. 
For  if  it  is  not  possible,  emperor,  by  any  new  edicts  to  make 
a  man  well  disposed  towards  you,  if  he  is  not  so  at  heart,  how 
much  less  is  it  possible,  by  the  fear  of  human  edicts,  by  tran- 
sient constraint,  and  those  weak  images  of  terror  which  the 
times  have  often  produced,  and  as  often  annihilated,  to  make 
men  truly  pious,  and  lovers  of  God  !  We  play,  in  such  cases 
often,  the  ridiculous  part  of  serving,  not  God,  but  the  purple ; 
and  change  our  religion  more  easily  than  the  sea  is  moved  by 
the  stonu.  There  used  to  be  but  one  Theramenes ;  but  now 
all  are  fickle-minded.*  He  who  but  yesterday  was  one  of  the 
ten  (deputies  of  the  Athenians  to  the  Lacedemonians)  is  to- 
day one  of  the  thirty  (tyrants).  The  man  who  yesterday 
stood  by  the  altars,  the  sacrifices,  and  the  images,  stands  to- 

Socrates  (1.  III.  c.  24)  says  that,  under  Jovian,  all  the  temples  were  im- 
mediatelv  closed ;  that  the  pagans  concealed  themselves ;  that  the  philo- 
sophers laid  aside  their  cloaks ;  that  the  public  sacrifices  ceased.  All 
tbiSy  although  not  taken  in  so  general  a  sense,  may  have  been  true — as  a 
natural  consequence  of  the  fears  entertained  by  the  pagans,  or  of  their 
lakewarmness  entering  of  its  own  accord,  when  the  atmosphere  of  the  court 
ceased  to  be  favourable  to  paganism.  Socrates  himself  seems  to  be  aware 
that  Jo-vian  was  not  disposed  to  oppress  any  party.  L.  III.  c.  25,  etc. 
What  Sozomen  says  (1.  VI.  c.  3),  req[>ecting  a  letter  of  the  emperor  ad- 
dressed  to  all  the  governors,  may  be  understood,  supposing  it  to  be 
correct,  as  only  meaning  that  JoTian  expressed  a  wish  to  have  all  his 
subjects  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  in  Christianity,  and  distin- 

Saished  the  Christian  church  once  more  by  peculiar  privileges.  Libaniua 
imself  (orat.  pro  templis,  vol.  ii.  p.  163)  says  that  after  Julian's  death, 
down  to  the  time  of  Valens,  fiiui  rttk  ra  iuut  U^it%  ;^««y«y. 


98  YALENTISIAN. 

day  by  the  holy  tables  of  the  Chiistians.  Tet  this,  O  emperor  I 
is  not  what  you  desire.  While  you  vould  now  and  ever  be 
sovereign  as  to  everything  else,  you  cmnmand  that  religioa 
should  be  left  to  the  free  choice  of  each  individual.  And  in 
this  you  follow  the  example  of  the  Deity,  who  has  implanted 
the  capacity  for  religion  in  the  whole  human  nature,  but  hit 
left  the  particular  kind  of  worship  to  the  will  of  each  man. 
But  whoever  employs  force  here  takes  away  the  fireedom 
which  God  has  bestowed  on  every  man.  For  this  reason,  the 
laws  of  a  Cheops  and  of  a  Cambyses  hardly  lasted  as  long  n 
their  authors'  lives.  But  the  law  of  Grod,  and  your  law, 
remains  for  ever  unchangeable, — the  law  that  every  man's 
soul  is  free  in  reference  to  its  own  peculiar  mode  of  worship. 
This  law,  no  pillage  of  goods,  no  death  on  the  cross  or  at  the 
stake,  has  ever  been  able  to  extinguish.  Tou  may,  indeed, 
force  and  kill  the  body;  but,  though  the  tongue  may  be 
forced  to  silence,  the  soul  will  rise,  and  carry  along  with  it 
its  own  will,  free  from  the  constraint  of  authority." 

The  same  principles,  in  r^ard  to  matters  of  religion,  were 
followed  by  Yalentinian,  who  succeeded  Jovian  in  the  year 
364.  As  Yalentinian,  by  his  stead&st  profession  of  Chris- 
tianity, had  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  emperor  Julian;* 
as  he  hated  Julian  and  his  friends;  as  he  was,  in  other 
respects,  inclined  to  despotism;  it  is  the  more  remarkable 
that  he  still  recognised  on  this  point  the  limits  of  human 
power,  and  perceived  the  folly  and  ruinous  consequences  of 
attempting  to  overstep  them.^  By  laws  which  he  issued  at 
the  very  commencement  of  his  reign,  he  allowed  each  of  his 
subjects  unlimited  freedom  of  exercising  the  religion  which 
he  conceived  to  be  true-l    By  another  law,  of  the  year  Z7l, 

*  The  thing  itself  admits  of  no  donbt,  since  pagan  and  Christian 
historians  here  agree.  The  only  question  relates  to  the  particiilani 
which  are  stated  in  many  Tarioos  ways. 

t  Ammianns  Marcellinus,  who  frankly  describes  the  despotic  acts  of 
this  emperor,  says  of  him,  1.  XXX.  c.  9,  *'  Postremo  hoc  moderamine 
principatus  inclarnit,  qaod  inter  religionom  diversitates  medins  stetit, 
nee  quemc^nam  inquietavit,  neque  ut  hue  ooleretar  imperavit  ant  illiid» 
nee  interdictis  minacibas  subjectorom  cervioem  ad  id  quod  ipse  eoliiit 
inclinabat,  sed  intemeratas  reliquit  has  partes,  at  reperit." 

%  Unicoiqae,  quod  animo  imbibisset,  colendi  libera  fiumltas.  This 
law  is  cited  in  a  law  of  the  emperor  belonging  to  the  year  371.  Cod. 
Theod.  L  IX.  Tit  16. 1.  9. 


YALENS.  99 

be  expressly  declares  that  neither  the  practice  of  the  hanis- 
pkes,  nor  any  other  form  of  worship  permitted  by  the  fiithers, 
should  be  forbidden.* 

This  toleration  of  Yalentinian  was  rather  helpfiil  than 
injurious  to  the  spread  of  Christianity.  This  appears  from 
ikte  fiict,  that,  under  the  reign  of  this  emperor,  heathenism 
began  first  to  be  called  by  tiie  name  of  the  peasants'  religion 
(paganismusl) ;  just  as^  in  the  primitive  times,  Christianity 
was  considered  as  the  religion  of  shoemakers,  weavers,  and 
slaves.  To  be  sure,  we  are  not  to  conclude,  because  heathoi- 
ism  was  called  distinctively  the  religion  of  the  ignorant  coun- 
trjmeay  that  it  had  lost  all  its  followers  among  the  educated 
and  higher  classes. 

In  the  East  the  political  suspicicHis  of  the  emperor  Yalens 
brought  many  a  persecution  upon  those  pagans  who  practised 
divination  and  sorcery,:^  although  the  same  tolerant  laws  were 
recognised  also  in  the  East.  The  pagan  rhetorician  Themis- 
tius  addressed  the  emperor  Yalens  in  terms  very  similar  to 
those  which  he  had  used  before  Jovian,  extolling  these  prin- 
ciples of  toleration.§   According  to  the  testimony  of  Libanius, 

*  He  gave  this  direction,  perhaps,  expressly  because  a  law  which  he 
had  enacted  against  the  noctoma  sacrificia  and  pagan  magic  might  be 
misinterpreted ;  and  even  that  first  law,  in  consequence  of  Ae  remon> 
stranoes  of  an  influential  pagan  statesman,  did  not  go  into  g»:ieral  execiK 
tion — if  Zodmoi  (IV.  3)  speaks  the  truth. 

t  The  name  religio  paganorum,  applied  to  heathenism,  first  occurs  in 
a  law  of  the  emperor  Yalentinian,  of  the  year  368.  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XYl. 
Tit,  ii.  1.  18.  The  above  derivation  of  the  name  is,  however,  the  only 
tenable  one,  and  is  moreover  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  Panlus  Oro- 
sins.  This  writer,  in  the  pre&ce  to  his  short  history  of  the  world,  says. 
Qui  ex  looomm  a^restium  compitis  et  pagis  pagani  vocantur.  To  this 
derivation  the  Christian  poet  Prudentius  also  allules,  when  (contra  Synv- 
machnm,  L  I.  v.  620)  he  calls  the  heathens  "  pago  implicitos.'' 

X  Liban.  de  vita  sua,  p.  113,  vol.  1.  Chrjrsostom.  hom.  38,  in  act» 
apost.  fin. 

§  Orat.  VI.  de  religionibus,  which  hitherto  has  been  known  to  us  only 
in  a  Latin  translatkm.  Socrates  (IV.  32)  and  Soxomen  (VI.  36)  cite  a 
discourse  of  similar  import  which  Themistius  is  said  to  have  delivered 
before  Yalens,  ^ssuading  him  from  the  persecution  of  Christians  enter' 
taining  other  opinions  in  the  time  of  the  Arian  controversies.  If  we  must 
suppose  that  this  refers  to  the  discourse  above  cited,  it  oould  not  be  correct; 
for  that  discourse  manifiastiy  treats  of  toleration  only  to  paganism.  But 
both  tiiose  authors,  however,  quote  distinct  expressions  of  Themistius, 
wUch  are  not  to  be  found  in  that  discourse.  Although  they  quote 
many  other  thoughts  which  do  actually  occur  in  it,  ^^  ^&a  S&  \tf^  >^x^ 


100  G&ATIAK. 

Valentinian  and  Valens  were  finally  moved,  by  the  political 
jealousies  growing  out  of  the  frequent  conspiracies,  to  forh^ 
entirely  aU  bloody  sacrifices  ;  though  the  other  kinds  of  hea- 
then worship  continued  to  be  permitted  \*  yet  no  such  law  of 
these  emperors  has  come  down  to  us.! 

The  empennr  Gratian,  who  succeeded  his  fiither  in  the  year 
375,  had  not,  like  the  latter,  adopted  it  as  an  absolute  prin- 
ciple to  alter  nothing  pertaining  to  the  religious  condition  of 
his  empire ;  but  still  he  adhered  to  the  rule  of  allowing  a  free 
exercise  of  the  pagan  rites.  So  accustomed  were  men  to  con- 
sider the  pagan  religion  as  the  religion  of  the  state,  and  the 
emperors  as  its  chiefs,  that  even  the  Christian  emperors  stiU 
retained  the  title  of  supreme  pontif&,  and,  on  ascendii^  the 
throne,  received,  along  with  the  other  badges  of  the  imperial 
dignity,  the  robe  of  the  supreme  pontiff;  but  it  had  now 
i)ecome  a  mere  formality. 

Gratian  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  who  declined  to  receive 
«this  robe  because  he  could  not  conscientiously  do  it  as  a  Chris- 
tian \X  yet  he  still  retained  the  title.§  Moreover,  in  the  place 
where  the  Roman  senate  met  there  stood  an  altar  dedicated  to 
Yietory,  at  which  the  pagan  senators  were  accustomed  to  take 
their  oaths,  and  upon  which  they  scattered  incense  and  made 
offerings.  It  had  been  first  removed  by  Constantius,  and 
afterwards  replaced  by  Julian.  Jovian  and  Valentinian  had 
made  no  alteration,  allowing  things  to  remain  as  they  were ; 
but  Gratian  caused  the  altar  to  be  removed  again.  lie  con- 
fiscated estates  belonging  to  the  temples.  He  deprived  the 
priests  and  vestals  of  the  support  they  had  received  from  the 

that  fhey  have  in  view  the  same  performance ;  since,  in  the  discourse  also 
irhich  was  delivered  before  Joviau,  a  good  deal  is  expressed  in  preciady 
the  same  way  as  in  the  oration  before  valens.  It  is  therefore  more  pro- 
bable that  Tnemistins  actoally  delivered  a  discourse  of  this  sort,  of  whidi, 
however,  nothing  has  come  down  to  our  times. 

*  Orat  pro  templis,.p.  163. 

t  It  may  be  possible  that  Libamus  did  not  in  this  case  duly  separate 
the  flairs  of  the  East  and  of  the  West ;  yet  he  was  doubtless  interested 
in  that  discourse  to  bring  together  everything  which  could  he  found,  in 
the  ordinances  of  the  earlier  eav^rors,  favourable  to  paganism. 

X  Zosim.  1.  lY.  c.  36. 

§  Thus,  for  example,  Ausonius  gives  it  to  him,  in  his  gratiarum  actio 
pro  consulatu,  where  he  styles  him  **pontifex  religione  ;'*  and  he  bean  it 
m  inscriptions.  See  Inscripdonum  latiinarum  amplissima  collection  ed. 
Orem,  Yol  I.  p.  245. 


VALENTINIAN  H.  101 

public  treasury,  and  of  all  their  other  privileges.*  He  took 
away  also  from  the  college  of  priests  the  right  of  receiving 
legacies  of  real  estate.  All  this  took  place  in  the  year  382. 
As  a  considerable  number  of  pagans  were  then  still  to  be 
found  in  the  Roman  senate,  it  being  generally  the  case  that 
the  first  and  oldest  fiunilies  in  Rome  adhered  to  the  old  Roman 
religion,  along  with  all  the  other  old  Roman  customs,  they 
chose  a  man  out  of  their  number,  distingubhed  for  his  personal 
merits,  Quintus  Aurelius  Symmachus,  as  their  delegate,  to 
procure  from  the  emperor,  in  the  name  of  the  senate,  the 
abrogation  of  these  laws.  But  the  Christian  party  of  the 
senate,  who  claimed  to  be  the  majority ,t  transmitted  through 
the  Roman  bishop  Damasus  a  memorial  to  the  emperor, 
complaining  of  this  proceeding  on  the  part  of  the  heathens. 
Ambrose  bishop  of  Milan,  who  possessed  great  influence 
with  Gratian,  presented  him  with  this  petition;  and  Gra- 
tian  was  so  indignant  at  the  demands  of  the  pagan  party 
as  to  refuse  even  to  gprant  an  audience  to  their  delegate.]; 
As  Rome  was  visited  in  the  following  year,  383,  by  a 
great  famine,  the  zealous  pagans  looked  upon  this  as  a  punish- 
ment sent  by  the  gods,  on  account  of  the  wrong  done  to  their 
religion.  § 

When  the  young  Yalentinian  II.  succeeded  his  brotlier 
Gratian  in  the  government,  the  pagan  party  of  the  senate  ut- 

*  See  the  reports  of  Symmachns  and  Ambrosius  to  Valentinian  11. 
directly  to  be  quoted,  and  the  edict  of  Honorios  of  the  year  415.  Cod. 
Theodos.  1.  XVl.  Tit.  x.  1.  20.  Omnia  loco,  qnse  sacris  error  -veterum 
deputayit,  secunduni  D,  Gratiani  constituta  nostrse  rei  jubemus  so- 
ciari.  * 

t  Having  here  nothing  but  the  reports  of  parties,  we  cannot  determine 
with  certainty  as  to  that  which  was  formally  right  in  the  case. 

X  Evil-minded  men,  says  Symmachus  in  ms  memorial  to  the  successors 
of  this  emperor,  had  brought  this  about ;  because  they  well  knew  that,  if 
the  emperor  heard  the  deputies,  he  would  not  refuse  them  justice.  De- 
negata  est  cUf  improbU  audientia,  quia  non  erat  justitia  deftitura. 

§  Synmiachus  writes,  in  his  great  extremity,  to  his  brother,  with  a 
certain  simple  piety,  wMch,  with  all  his  superstition,  yet  renders  him  far 
more  worthy  of  respect  than  those  were  who  embraced  Christianity  to 
honour  the  emperor,  Dii  patrii  I  iacite  gratiam  neglectorum  sacrorum  I 
Miseram  feunem  pellite.  Quamprimum  revocet  urbs  nostra,  quos  invita 
dimisit  (this  is  ambiguous,  and  may  refer  either  to  the  strangers  banished 
from  Borne,  with  a  view  to  spare  the  means  of  subsistence,  or  to  the  gods). 
Quicquid  humana  ope  majus  est,  Diis  permitte  curandum.  Symuiacii. 
epistolse,  1.  II.  ep.  7. 


102  VALKErrnnAH  IL 

tempted  once  more  (in  the  year  384),  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  Symmachus,  at  that  time  prefect  of  the  city,  to  obtain 
from  the  emperor  a  compliance  with  their  demands.    He  asks 
of  the  emperor,  that  he  would  disting^h  his  own  private 
religion  from  the  religio  urbis.    Taking  his  stand  at  the  posi- 
tion of  paganism,  he  explains  that  men  would  do  better,  inas- 
much  as  they  are  excluded  from  the  knowledge  of  divine 
things,*  to  abide  by,  and  to  follow,  the  authority  of  antiquity ; 
in  doing  which  their  Withers  for  so  many  centuries  had  ex- 
perienced so  much  prosperity.    Rome  is  personified,  and  made 
to  address  the  emperor  in  the  following  lang^uage :  ^^  I  wish, 
as  I  am  free,  to  live  after  my  own  manner.    These  rites  of 
worship  have  subjected  the  whole  world  to  my  laws."    The 
famine  of  the  preceding  year  he  represented  as  ^sllowing  in 
consequence  of  the  wrong  done  to  the  pagan  rites.     ^^  What 
was  there,"  he  says,  ^'  like  this,  which  our  fiithers  were  ever 
compelled  to  suffer,  when  the  ministers  of  religion  enjoyed  the 
honour  of  a  public  maintenance  ?"     As  Symmachus  was  well 
aware  that  the  Christians  would  have  the  emperor  make  it  a 
matter  of  conscience  to  refuse  all  support  to  the  idolatrom 
worship,  he  endeavoured  to  quiet  his  scruples  on  this  point 
by  the  distinction  already  alluded  to  between  the  religio  urbis 
and  the  religio  imperatoris.      If  he  did  but  suffer  that  to 
remain  which  the  city  (urbs)  could  demand  by  ancient  right, 
he  would  by  so  doing  concede  no  privilege  to  a  religion  wMch 
was  not  his  own.f 

But  Ambrose  bishop  of  Milan,  on  hearing  of  this,  sent  to 
the  young  emperor  YaJentinian  a  letter  written  with  dignified 
earnestness.  He  represented  that  this  compliance  on  the 
part  of  the  emperor  would  be  a  sanction  of  paganism,  and  a 
tacit  denial  of  his  own  Christian  convictions.  The  emperor 
ought  to  allow  liberty  of  conscience  to  every  one  of  his  sub- 
jects ;  but  he  must  also  maintain  the  freedom  of  his  own  con- 
science. "  Wrong  is  done  no  man,"  he  writes,  "  when  the 
Almighty  God  is  preferred  before  him.  To  him  belong  your 
convictions.  You  force  no  one  yourself  to  worship  Gk)d 
against  his  own  will ;  let  the  same  right  be  conceded  also  to 
yourself.  But  if  some  nominal  Christians  advise  you  to  such 
a  decision,  do  not  suffer  yourself  to  be  deceived  by  mere 

*  Cum  ratio  omnb  in  operto  sit.  f  Symmach.  1.  X.  ep.  61* 


THEOD06IUS.  lOS 

names.*  He  who  advises  this,  and^e  who  decrees  this,  sacri- 
fices. We,  bishops,  could  not  qidetly  tolerate  this.  Yoa 
might  come  to  the  church,  but  you  would  iind  there  no  priest ; 
or  a  priest  who  would  forbid  your  approach.  What  would 
you  have  to  reply  to  the  priest,  when  he  says  the  church 
wants  not  your  gifts,  since  you  have  honoured  with  presents 
the  temples  of  the  heathen  ?  The  altar  of  Christ  disdains 
your  offerings,  since  you  have  erected  an  altar  to  idols ;  for 
your  word,  your  hand,  your  signature,  are  your  works.  The 
Lord  wishes  not  for  your  service,  since  you  have  become  the 
servant  of  idols ;  for  he  has  said  to  you,  ^  Ye  cannot  serve 
two  masters.'  "f  The  strong  representations  of  Ambrose  had 
their  effect,  and  Yalentinian  rejected  the  petition. 

In  the  b^inning  of  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Theodosius, 
Chrysostom  composed  at  Antioch  his  noble  discourse  on  the 
martyr  Babylas,|  in  which  he  described  the  divine  power 
wherewith  Christianity  had  penetrated  into  the  life  of  human- 
ity, and  obtained  the  victory  over  heathenism.  He  rightly 
maintained  that  Christianity  disdained  in  this  warfare  all 
weapons  which  were  not  her  own;  and  he  predicted  the 
aitire  destructicm  of  paganism,  which  was  crumbling  in  ruins 
through  its  own  nothingness.  He  says,  *'  It  is  not  permitted 
the  Christians  to  destroy  error  by  violence  and  constraint : 
they  are  allowed  to  labour  for  the  salvation  of  men  only  by 
persuasion,  by  rational  instruction,  and  by  acts  of  love.'*§ 
He  affirms  that  zeal  for  paganism  was  still  to  be  seen  only  in 
a  few  cities ;  and  that  in  these  the  pagan  worship  was  pro- 

*  Ambrosias  was  afraid,  as  it  seems,  of  several  of  the  members  of  the 
emperor's  privy  coancil,  of  the  consistory,  to  whom  the  political  interest 
might  be  of  greater  account  than  the  religious.  There  were  several 
members  of  the  emperor's  privy  council  also  who  were  pagans.  See 
Ambros.  ep.  57,  ad  Eugen.  s.  3. 

t  For  the  rest,  the  quesdon  whether  the  emperor  was  obligated  to 
grant  this,  and  whe&er  he  could  grant  it  with  a  good  conscience,  admits 
not  of  being  answered  from  the  purely  religious  point  of  view ;  the  con- 
sideration of  civil  rights  also  enters  in  here,  which  Symmachus  doubtless 
alluded  to,  but  at  the  same  time  confounded  too  much  with  the  religious 

Question,  and  which,  as  the  matter  then  stood,  would  certainly  make  the 
ecision  more  favourable  to  Ambrosius  than  to  Symmachus. 

§  Ov2«    ya^    &%fi.ts    j^urrmwSt    ivmyxri    xm    fiiet  xetTafr^i^uv  r^»  trkavfiv, 

ffUTfio/etv, 


104  THEOD06IUS. 

moted  by  the  respectable  and  wealthy  citizens,  who  allowed 
the  poor  to  join  them  in  their  heathen  and  sensual  festivities, 
and  thus  chained  them  to  their  interests.  Chrysostom  wis 
assuredly  right  in  this,  that  men  might  rely  upon  the  divine 
power  of  the  gospel,  which  would  carry  the  work,  hitherto  so 
successful,  completely  to  its  end:  but  so  thought  not  the 
emperors. 

Theodosius,  the  reigning  emperor  in  the  East,  but  whose 
influence  extended  also  to  the  West,  went  in  his  proceedings 
against  paganism  gradually  farther  in  the  way  struck  out  by 
Gratian.  At  first  he  was  content  to  abide  by  those  measures 
against  the  sacrifices  which  had  already  been  adopted  by  him 
in  common  with  Gratian.  Properly  speaking,  indeed,  the 
employment  of  sacrifices  for  the  purposes  of  magic  and  sooth- 
saying alone  had  been  forbidden ;  and  even  by  the  new  law 
which  Theodosius  gave,  in  the  year  385,  to  the  preetorian  pre* 
feet  Cynegius,  a  man  extremely  zealous  for  the  extinction  of 
paganism,  soothsaying  from  the  sacrifices  only  was  prohibited; 
yet  these  laws  were,  in  their  execution,  certainly  applied,  &x 
the  most  part,  to  all  the  forms  of  sacrificial  worship ;  as  ap- 
pears from  the  plea  of  Libanius  in  defence  of  the  temples — a 
discourse  shortly  after  to  be  more  particularly  noticed,  in 
which  the  writer,  however,  drew  arguments  from  every  quar- 
ter, to  limit,  as  far  as  possible,  the  meaning  of  the  existing 
laws  against  paganism.  Undoubtedly  an  exception  was  made 
in  favour  of  those  capital  towns  where  paganism  still  had  a 
considerable  party,  and  in  favour  of  the  more  noble  families; 
since  Libanius  could  appeal  to  the  fact,  before  the  emperor 
Theodosius,  that  the  sacrificial  worship  still  existed  at  liome 
and  Alexandria.* 

Now,  these  laws  might  easily  furnish  a  pretext  for  the  de- 
struction of  the  temples.  The  pagans  were  found  assembled 
in  the  temples  for  the  purpose  of  sacrificing,  or  they  were 
accused  of  having  sacrificed.  Blind  zealots,  or  those  whose 
avarice  prompted  them  to  wish  for  the  plunder  of  the  temples, 
immediately  seized  upon  this  circumstance  as  a  lawful  reason 
for  destroying  them,  pretending  that  they  had  caused  the  im- 
perial laws  to  be  broken.  The  wild  troops  of  monks,  to  whom 
any  object  which,  under  the  name  of  religion,  excited  tiieir 
passions,  was  welcome,  undertook,  especially  in  the  country, 
*  Oratio  pro  templis,  vol.  II.  p.  180  et  seq. 


DESTRUCTION  OF  TEMPLES.  105 

these  campaigns  for  the  destruction  of  temples  in  which  sacri- 
fices were  alleged  to  have  been  performed.*  As  the  syna- 
gogues of  the  Jews,  whose  worship  was  protected  by  the  laws 
of  the  state,f  were  not  secure  against  the  fanatical  fury  of  blind 
zealots  and  the  avarice  of  men  who  used  religion  as  a  pretext, 
80  the  temples  of  the  pagans,  against  which  they  might  act 
under  some  show  of  legal  authority,  must  have  been  much 
more  exposed  to  danger.  In  countries  where  the  pagans  still 
constituted  the  majority,  they  returned  the  Christians  like  for 
hke,  and  burnt  the  churches,  as  at  Gaza  and  Askelon  in 
Palestine,  and  at  Berytus  in  Phoenicia.}  The  emperor  him- 
self declared  at  first  against  those  who  were  for  turning  the 
laws  which  forbade  sacrificial  worship  into  a  means  for  wholly 
suppressing  the  worship  of  the  temples.§ 

When  the  temple-destroying  fury  was  now  increasing  and 
spreading  on  all  sides,  the  pagans  could  not  but  fear  that  the 
emperor  would  gradimlly  go  further.     Libanius  addressed  to 

*  What  Libanius  (p.  164)  says  of  this  destruction  of  the  temples  by 
ibe  monks  (the  iM?ntveufA9f»inrts)  may,  compared  with  vhat  we  otherwise 
know  respecting  the  way  of  a  i^rt  of  these  people,  doubtless  be  received 
as  true.  Godofredos,  meanwhile,  has  assuredly  misconceived  this 
passa^  (p.  170),  when,  by  t-t^g^uareuf,  he  understands  here  those  whose 
daty  It  was  to  see  to  the  execution  of  the  imperial  laws  on  this  point. 
lilMuius  evidently  means  to  say  that  the  monks  had,  upon  their  own 
authority,  thrust  themselves  in  as  rtt^^cvtffreus* 

t  Secta  nulla  lege  prohibita;  see  the  law  of  the  emperor  Theodosius, 
in  the  year  393,  cited  below. 

X  See  Ambros.  ep.  ad  Theodos.  1.  V.  ep.  29. 

I  By  a  law  of  the  year  382  he  ordered  that  the  temple  at  Edessa,  in 
which  statues  were  to  be  found,  deserving  of  estimation  more  on  account 
of  their  artistic  than  of  their  religious  worth  (artis  pretio  quam  divinitate 
metienda),  should  always  stand  open.  The  emperor  was  no  doubt  in- 
clined, in  cases  where  such  violences  were  committed,  to  exercise  justice, 
when  his  purpose  was  not  counteracted  by  the  powerful  influence  of  the 
bishops.  Thus,  upon  the  report  of  the  Comes  orientis,  in  the  year  388, 
he  was  in  fact  on  Uie  point  of  punishing  the  monks,  who  had  destroyed  a 
temple  of  the  Valentinians  near  the  castle  of  Callinicum  in  Mesopotamia, 
and  to  oblige  the  bishop,  who  by  his  discourses  had  stirred  up  the  people 
there  to  demolish  a  Jewish  synagogue,  to  cause  it  to  be  rebuilt ;  but  the 
declamations  of  Ambrose  bishop  of  Milan  led  him  to  change  his  mind. 
See  Ambros.  ep.  40  ad  Theodos.  ep.  42  ad  sororem.  Paulin.  vit.  Ambros. 
Still,  in  the  year  393,  he  issued  to  this  part  of  Asia  a  law,  that  those,  qui 
sub  ChristiansB  religionis  nomine  illicita  quseque  prsesumunt,  et  destruere 
synagogBS  atque  exspoliare  conantur,  should  be  punished  congrua  scveii- 
tate.    Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XVI.  Tit  viii.  1.  9. 


106  THIODOSIirS. 

him  his  remarkable  plea  in  defence  of  the  temples.  The  im- 
mediate occasion  of  it  seems  to  have  been  the  destruction  oft 
very  ma^ificent  ancient  temple,  on  the  borders  of  the  Eoidbb 
empire,  towards  Persia.*  In  this  discourse  he  calls  to  his  aid 
all  the  political  and  all  the  religious  reasons  which  he  could 
possibly  find  in  defence  of  the  temples.  Together  with  much 
that  is  sophistical  and  declamatory,  he  made  also  many  excd- 
lent  remarks.  Among  these  belongs  what  he  says  to  refbie 
the  argument  for  the  destruction  of  the  temples,  that  pagu- 
ism,  by  being  deprived  of  these,  would  lose  tiie  <^ef  means  of 
its  support  among  the  people;  that  the  people  would  nov 
visit  die  churches  instead  of  the  temples,  and  thus  by  degrea 
be  led  to  embrace  Christianity.  "  That  is,"  says  he,  '^  they 
would  not  embrace  another  kind  of  worship,  but  hypocriticilly 
pretend  to  embrace  it.  They  would  join,  it  is  true,  in  the 
assemblies  with  the  rest,  and  do  everything  like  the  othen ; 
but  when  they  assumed  the  posture  of  prayer,  it  would  be 
either  to  invoke  no  one,  or  else  the  gods.  In  the  next  place, 
he  very  justly  appeals  to  the  Christian  doctrine  itsielftf 
^'  Force  is  said  not  to  be  permitted,  even  according  to  the 
laws  of  your  own  religion ;  persuasion  is  said  to  be  praised, 
but  force  condemned  by  them.  Why,  then,  do  you  reek  your 
fury  against  the  temples,  when  this  surely  is  not  to  per8Ufuie4 

*  Compariog  the  above-cited  law  of  Theodoaus  with  the  description 
which  Libanius  gives  of  the  magnificence  of  this  temple,  we  mi^t  sup- 
pose that  the  temple  at  Edessa  was  here  meant.  The  connection  of  erents 
may  be  conceived  to  be  as  follows : — that  Theodosios  at  some  earlier 
period  had  been  persoaded  to  approve  of  the  shutting  up  of  the  temple^ 
but  had  been  afterwards  induced  by  the  representations  of  the  heathn 
party  to  pass  the  ordinances  already  cited  in  favour  of  the  temple.  But 
It  having  been  reported  to  him  by  a  governor  in  these  districts — (the  Du 
Osrhoeuse),  who  (if  Libanius  does  not  misrepresent)  was  led  on  by  his 
wife,  as  she  was  by  the  monks — that  the  devotional  exercises  in  the 
neighbouring  cloisters  were  disturbed  by  the  fumes  of  the  sacrifices  dil^ 
fused  abroad  from  the  temple,  the  emperor  finally  was  prevailed  upon  to 
allow  it  to  be  destroyed.  (The  supposition,  however,  that  this  governor 
was  the  Prsefectus  Prsetorio  Cynegius,  as  well  as  the  fixing  of  uie  cfaro- 
nological  date  by  Godofredus  on  the  assumption  of  this  fact,  is  (me 
which  has  not  been  duly  proved.)  Meanwhile  this  hypothesis  is  still  not 
altogether  certain ;  for  there  may  have  been  many  magnific^it  temples 
on  the  borders  of  Syria,  as,  ifor  example,  at  Palmyra. 

t  Page  179. 

X  Instead  of  tl  r^,  (he  reading,  as  it  seems  to  me,  should  be  u  rtun. 


DESTBUCTION  OF  TEMPLES.  107 

iMLt  to  use  force  ?    Thus,  then,  it  is  plaiu  you  would  transgress 
even  the  laws  of  your  own  religion."  * 

Many  pagans  being  still  to  be  found  in  Idgh  civil  offices,  a 
fiu^  which  Libanius  refers  to  in  the  above-mentioned  discourse 
as  showing  the  fitvourable  disposition  of  the  emperor  towards 
this  party,  f  the  imperial  commands,  of  course,  were  still  very 
£ir  fiom  being  carried  into  rigid  execution ;  and  this  experi- 
ence led  again  to  new  authoritative  measures. 

We  are  by  no  means  to  suppose,  however,  that  in  these 
matters  Theodosius  always  acted  afler  the  same  consistent 
plan.  On  the  contrary,  he  might,  at  one  and  the  same  time, 
publish  ordinances  of  an  opposite  character,  according  as  he 
allowed  himself  to.  be  influenced  either  by  those  members  of 
his  privy  council  (the  consistorium  imperatoris)  who,  if  they 
were  not  themselves  pagans,  yet  were  governed  &r  more  by 
the  political  than  the  religious  interest,  or  by  the  exhortations 
of  the  bishops.  In  the  year  384  or  386  j:  he  directed  the  prae- 
torian prefect  Cynegius,  well  known  on  account  of  his  zeal  for 
the  spread  of  Christianity,  to  shut  up  all  the  temples,  and 
make  an  end  of  the  entire  temple- worship  in  the  East  (that  is, 
in  the  eastern  part  of  the  Roman  empire,  and  in  Egypt).§ 
And  yet  a  law  of  the  emperor,  published  about  the  middle  of 
June,  386,  presupposes  the  toleration  of  the  temple-worship, 
uid  the  recognisance  of  the  collie  of  priests.  || 

*  What  Libanius  elsewhere  says  in  this  discourse,  so  recklessly  to  the 
idvantage  of  paganism  and  in  praise  of  Julian,  is  of  a  sort  which  he 
Doold  hardly  have  ventored  to  utter  before  the  emperor.  We  may  con- 
jeetnre  that  this  discourse  was  delivered  or  written  only  as  a  specimen  of 
rhetorical  art  f  L.  c  p.  293. 

t  The  question  comes  up,  whether  Cynegius  received  this  commission 
when  he  was  appointed  prsefectus  prsetorio,  or  not  till  afterwards.  The 
accurate  determination  of  the  chronological  date  is  attended  in  this  case 
with  many  difficulties.  See  Tillemont,  hist,  des  empereurs  Romains, 
Theedose,  N.  15.  We  must  either  suppose  that  the  historians  have  given 
too  wide  an  extension  to  the  conmiission  intrusted  to  Cynegius,  and  that 
it  omcemed  only  Egypt,  where  the  influence  of  a  certain  Theophilus  had 
occasioned  it ;  or  that  Tlieodosius,  in  the  same  period  of  time,  acted  in 
absolute  contradiction  to  himself,  or  that  this  commission  was  first  given 
to  Cynegius  after  the  passage  of  the.  above-cited  law  of  June,  386. 

§  See  Zosimus,  1.  IV.  c.  37,  and  Idatii  Chrouicon,  at  the  death  of  Cyne- 
gius in  388. 

II  In  consequenda  achierosyna  ille  sit  potior,  qui  patriae  plura  prsestite- 
rit,  nee  tamen  a  templorum  cultu  observatione  Christianitatis  abscesserit. 
Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XII.  Tit.  i.  1. 112. 


108  THKHKNUUSL 

After  the  suppression  of  the  public  pagan  worshipy  by  the 
commission  given  to  Cynegius,  had  been  effected,  so  &r  as  that 
was  possible,  certain  events  occurred  which  led  to  the  adop- 
tion of  still  more  decisive  measures.  The  first  occasion  vru 
given  to  these  events  by  Theophilus  bishop  of  Alexandria,  i 
man  of  an  altogether  worldly  spirit,  who  had  little  or  no 
hearty  interest  in  the  cause  of  Christ,  and  whoee  manner  of 
administering  the  episcopal  office  was  least  of  all  calculated  to 
exert  a  good  influence  in  building  up  the  temple  of  the  Lord 
in  the  hearts  of  men.  This  bishop,  who  was  much  more 
interested  in  erecting  large  and  splendid  edifices  than  in  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  his  flock,  had,  in  the  year  389,  obtained 
from  the  emperor  the  gift  of  a  temple  of  Bacchus,  and  was 
busily  employed  in  converting  it  into  a  Christian  church. 
The  symbols  of  the  worship  of  Bacchus  which  were  fbood 
here,  and  many  of  which  were  offensive  to  the  sense  of  decencjr 
and  good  morals,*  he  ordered  to  be  carried  in  a  processioa 
through  the  streets,  and  publicly  exposed,  so  as  to  bring  the 
Grecian  mysteries  into  universal  contempt.  Since  Alexandria 
was  considered  as  a  central  point  of  the  Hellenic  religion,  a 
principal  seat  of  the  mystical  Neo-Platonic  heathenism,  wheie 
its  votaries  poured  together  from  all  countries  of  the  Bonum 
empire,!  and  since  the  Alexandrian  pagans  were,  from  the 
most  ancient  times,  extremely  ^maticied,  such  a  transaction 
could  not  fail  to  occasion  the  most  violent  excitement.  The 
exasperated  pagans  assembled  in  crowds ;  they  made  a  furious 
onset  upon  the  Christians,  wounded  and  killed  many  of  them, 
and  then  retired  to  the  colossal  and  splendid  temple  of  Serapis, 
situated  upon  a  hill,  which  was  ranked  among  the  greatest 
pagan  sanctuaries  in  these  times4  Here,  under  the  direction 
of  a  certain  Olympius,  a  fanatical  pagan,  who  went  clad  in 

*  As  the  PhalluSj  Lbgam,  the  symbol  of  the  productive  power  of  life 
in  nature. 

t  Eunap.  vita  ^desii,  p.   43.     'H  'AXf^ay^t/«  3j^  t«  r§v  ImMtin 

X  lu  what  high  yeneration  this  temple  stood  among  the  heathens  we 
may  gather  from  the  words  of  Libanius,  who  already  expressed  his 
alarm  for  its  fate,  when,  in  speaking  of  the  temple  at  Edessa  (Orat  pro 
tempi.    194),  he  said,  "Hxovffct    li    net)  i^tt^otrttv  rtuiv  tv  «flr«TS^y  ri  kuifUi 


DESTBUCTION  OF  TEMPLES.  109 

the  philosopher's  cloak,  they  formed  a  regular  camp.  This 
man  exhorted  them  to  sacrifice  even  their  lives  for  the  sanc- 
tuaries of  their  fathers.  From  their  stronghold  they  sallied 
out  upon  the  Christians :  those  who  were  dragged  away  by 
them  as  prisoners  they  endeavoured  to  force  by  tortures 
to  sacrifice ;  and  such  as  remained  steadfast  were  often  put  to 
death  in  the  most  cruel  manner.  After  these  acts  of  violence, 
having  the  worst  to  fear,  desperation,  united  with  fanaticism, 
drove  them  onward,  and  all  the  efforts  of  the  civil  and  mili- 
tary authorities  to  restore  order  were  to  no  piu'pose.  The 
emperor  Theodosius  endeavoured  to  profit  by  this  favourable 
conjuncture  to  effect  the  suppression  of  paganism  in  Egypt. 
Upon  the  report  of  these  disturbances,  there  appeared  from 
Constantinople,  probably  in  the  year  391,  a  rescript  ordering 
that  all  the  pagans  who  had  shared  in  this  tumult  should  be 
pardoned;  and  that,  as  an  acknowledgment  of  the  mercy 
which  they  had  experienced,  they  might  the  more  easily  be 
converted  to  Christianity,  all  the  heathen  temples  at  Alexan- 
dria should,  as  the  cause  of  this  tumult,  be  destroyed. 

Whilst  the  heathen  were  rejoicing  at  the  prospect  of  saving 
their  lives,  and  had  but  just  recovered  from  their  alarm,  it 
was  a  favourable  juncture  for  carrying  into  execution  a  stroke 
of  policy,  which,  under  the  state  of  feeling  that  existed  at 
Alexandria,  might  at  all  times  be  attended  with  great  hazard. 
Large  bodies  of  men  assembled  around  the  temple  of  Serapis, 
upon  which  the  imperial  command  was  now  about  to  be  exe- 
cuted.* But  there  prevailed  among  the  heathen  a  reverential 
awe  before  the  colossal  statue  of  Serapis ;  and  from  ancient 
times  the  report  had  been  propagated,  that,  when  this  statue 
was  demolished,  heaven  and  earth  would  fall  in  one  common 
ruin.  This  report  had  some  influence  even  upon  the  multi- 
tude of  nominal  Christians,  who  were  still  inclined  to  the 
ancient  superstition.  No  one  ventured  to  attack  the  image, 
until  at  last  a  believing  soldier  seized  an  axe,  and,  exerting  all 
his  strength,  clove  asunder  the  vast  jaw-bone  of  the  image, 
amidst  the  universal  shouts  of  the  Pagan  and  Christian  multi- 
tude. After  the  first  stroke  had  confuted  the  superstition,  the 
whole  image  was  easily  demolished  and  consumed  to  ashes. 
And,  upon  this,  all  the  temples  at  Alexandria,  and  in  the 

*  The  case  was  somewhat  similar  here,  as  it  was  in  later  times  with 
the  thunder-oak  of  Boni&ce. 


110  THBODOSIUS. 

neighbouring  district,  taking  its  name  £ram  the  Canopia 
branch  of  the  Nile  (6  KdytiPoo),  which  particularly  abounded 
in  Egyptian  sanctuaries,  were  in  part  levellecf  with  tht 
ground,  and  in  part  converted  into  churches  and  cloisters.* 

The  same  course  was  followed  in  other  countries;  some- 
times not  without  bloody  conflicts,  which  might  have  been  1 
avoided  if  the  bishops  had  been  more  governed  by  the  spirit 
of  love  and  of  wisdom.  Marcellus  bishop  of  Apamea  in 
S3rria  proceeded  with  great  zeal  to  destroy  all  the  templet 
in  the  city  and  in  the  country,  because  he  supposed  that  by 
these  ancient  monuments  of  their  worship,  so  venerated  by  the 
people,  paganism  would  always  continue  to  preserve  itadf 
alive.  With  a  train  of  followers  little  becoming  the  Christian 
bL<thop,  an  armed  force  of  soldiers  and  gladiators,  he  advanced 
to  destroy  the  largest  temple.  It  was  necessary  that  the 
temple  should  be  forcibly  wrested  out  of  the  hands  of  iti 
pagan  defenders.  While  the  conflict  was  going  on,  some 
pagans  seized  upon  the  old  bishop,  who  had  been  left  behind 
alone,  and  hurried  him  to  the  stake.  The  sons  of  the  bishop 
were  desirous  of  punishing  his  murdereis,  but  the  provineisl 
synod  dissuaded  them  from  this,  calling  upon,  them  rather  to 
thank  God  that  their  father  had  be^  deemed  winrthy  of 
martyrdom. f  From  the  present  year,  391,  and  <Hiward,  fid- 
lowed  many  laws,  forbidding  every  description  of  pagan 
worship,  under  penalty  of  a  pecuniary  mulct,  and  still  severer 
punishments.  As  the  pagan  magistrates  themselves  encou- 
raged the  violation  of  these  imperud  laws,  pecuniary  fines 
were  established  against  these  and  against  aU  their  attendants 
in  such  cases.  By  a  law  of  the  year  392  the  ofiering  of 
sacrifice  was  in  fiict  placed  upon  the  same  level  with  the  crime 
of  high  treason  (crimen  majestatis) ;  and,  accordingly,  the 
offerer  incurred  the  penalty  of  death.^ 

Whilst  these  events  were  transpiring  in  the  East,  everything 
in  the  western  part  of  the  empire  continued  to  remain  as  it 
was;    and  men  belonging  to  ancient  and  noble  fisunilies  in 

*  Ennapii  vit.  ^des.  Rnfin.  hist,  eocles.  c.  23.  Soaom.  YII.  !& 
Socrates,  V.  16.  Marcellini  Comitis  Cbronicon  ad  A.  389,  ff.  in  SimKndL 
opp.  t.  ii.  t  See  Sozom.  VII.  15. 

X  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XVI.  Tit.  x.  1.  12.  Qaodsi  qaispiam  immolare 
hostiam  sacrificatams  audebit,  ad  exemplam  nujestatis  reus  aodpiat 
sententiam  competentem. 


THEODOSIUS.  Ill 

lome  still  ventuied  to  raise  their  voice  in  behalf  of  the 
leligioii  of  the  eternal  city.  When  Theodosius,  after  the 
irfeat  of  the  usurper  Maxim  us,  was,  in  the  year  388,  holding 
tds  residence  in  the  West,  the  heathen  party  of  the  Roman 
lenate  proposed  to  hitn  once  more,  perhaps  through  Sym- 
dachus,  their  former  agent,  that  the  revenues  and  privileges 
ihould  be  restored  to  -the  temples  and  collies  of  priests  of 
rhich  they  had  b^n  deprived.  Theodosius  seems  to  have 
leen  very  near  granting  them  theur  petition ;  but  the  pointed 
^presentations  which  Ambrosius  bishop  of  Milan  made 
igainst  this  measure  restrained  him.*  The  heathen  party 
ucceeded,  on  the  other  hand,  under  more  favourable  circum- 
lances,  in  obtaining  from  the  emperor  Eugenius,  who,  after 
he  murd^  of  the  young  Yalentinian  II.,  had,  in  the  year  392, 
leen  raised  to  the  imperial  throne  by  the  pagan  commander 
^jfoogast,  ev^thing  which  had  been  refused  them  by  Gratian, 
(Talentinian,  and  Theodosius.  The  voice  of  those  influential 
ngans,  upon  whom  Eugenius  felt  himself  to  be  dependent, 
iviuled  more  with  him  than  what  Ambrosius,  with  incon- 
oderate  boldness,  wrote  to  him  in  the  name  of  religion.f 

Bat  when  Theodosius  marched  into  Rome,  after  the  defeat 
if  Eugenius,  in  the  year  394,  he  made  a  speech  before  the 
iflsembled  senate,  in  which  he  called  upon  the  pagans,  who, 
iDder  the  short  reign  of  Eugenius,  had  once  more  enjoyed  the 
Tee  exercise  of  their  religion,  to  desist  from  their  idolatry, 
md  to  embrace  the  religion  in  which  alone  they  could  find 
brg^veness  of  all  their  sins.  In  spite  of  all  their  repre- 
lentations,  he  took  back  from  the  pagans  what  Eugenius  had 
iccorded  to  then.f 

The  successors  of  the  emperor  Theodosius,  Arcadius  in  the 
East,  and  Honorius  in  the  West,  from  the  year  395  and  onwards, 
^nfirmed,  it  is  true,  soon  after  their  accession  to  the  throne, 
;he  laws  of  their  father  against  the  pagan  worship  with  new 

*  InsiDaationi  me«  tandem  adsensionem  detulit,  says  Ambrosias,  ep. 
i7  ad  Engen.  s.  4.  What  the  pretended  Prosper  (de  Promiss.  et  Prsedict. 
[)ei,  pars  iiL  Promiss.  38)  says  about  the  disgraoeftd  banishment  of  Sym- 
naehns  may  perhaps  be  a  &ble.  t  See  Ambros.  ep.  57. 

X  Zosimns,  a  zealous  pagan,  is  in  this  case  a  snspicious  witness.  It 
iannot  therefore  be  certainly  determined  how  &r  what  he  reports  re- 
(pecting  the  constancy  and  boldness  of  the  pagan  senators  is  true  or 
SEdse. 


1 12  ABCADIUS  AND  HOKOSIim. 

sanctions ;  but  the  weakness  of  their  govemment,  the  Tarioiif 
political  disturbances,  especially  in  the  West,  the  corruptiOB 
or  pagan  views  of  individual  governors,  would  all  fiivoor  tht 
preservation  of  paganism  in  many  districts ;  and  hence  it  ww 
necessary  that  those  laws  should  be  continually  re-enacted. 

Whilst  in  Rome  the  public  monuments  of  the  pagan  wonhf 
had  already  vanished,  the  images  of  the  old  Tyrian  Herenki 
could  still  be  worshipped  and  decorated  by  the  pagans  in 
Carthage.  As  in  earlier  times  the  popular  cry  in  that  cttj 
had  demanded  the  destruction  of  the  Christian  churches,  lO 
now  resounded  there  the  cry  of  the  Christian  populace,  de- 
manding that  all  idols  should  be  destroyed  at  Carthage,  it 
they  hs^  been  at  Rome.  The  people  were  excited  l^  the 
folly  of  a  heathen  magistrate,  who  had  ventured  to  order  the 
beard  of  Hercules  to  be  gilded.*  The  prudent  bishopB  wen 
obliged  to  take  special  measures  for  moderating  the  foodoni 
zeal,  so  as  to  prevent  acts  of  violence.^ 

Pagan  landlords  endeavoured  to  maintain  the  heatheo 
worship  on  their  estates,  and,  by  means  of  sacrificial  leasts  and 
other  means  which  their  power  over  the  peasants  gave  them  in 
spite  of  the  existing  laws,  to  bind  them  to  heathenism.  Pious 
and  prudent  bishops  like  Augustin  were  obliged,  in  such 
cases,  to  exhort  the  Christian  country  people  to  obey  God 
rather  than  men  ;{  but  they  were  also  obliged  to  restrain  the 
blind  zeal  of  the  Christian  populace,  which  was  for  destroying, 
in  an  illegal  manner,  the  idols  upon  the  estates  of  other  men. 
On  this  point  Augustin  speaks  thus : — ^^  Many  of  the  heathen 
have  those  abominations  upon  their  estates.  Shall  we  go 
about  to  destroy  them  ?  No  ;  let  us  make  it  our  first  businev 
to  extirpate  the  idols  in   their  hearts.     When   they  have 

*  Quomodo  Roma,  sic  et  Carthago !  excliumed  the  populace. 

f  Augustini  Sermo  24,  t.  v.  ed.  Ben. 

X  On  this  point  he  says  (p.  62),  '*  The  martyrs  endured  the  laceratioa 
of  their  members,  and  Christians  stood  in  fear  of  the  wrong  which  mi^ 
be  done  them  in  Christian  times.  Whoever  at  present  doa  yoa  wrong 
does  it  in  fear.  He  does  not  openly  say.  '  Come  to  the  idols ;'  he  does 
not  openly  say,  'Come  to  my  altars,  and  feast  yourself.'  And  if  he  said 
it,  and  you  would  not  do  it,  he  might,  in  presenting  hb  complaint  against 
you.  testify  this : — <He  would  not  come  to  my  altars — to  the  temples  which 
I  venerate.'  Let  him  even  say  this.  He  dares  not  say  it.  But  in  a 
fraudulent  manner  he  calls  you  to  answer  for  something  else.  He  will 
rob  you  of  your  superfluity." 


ABCIDIUS  AND  HONOBIUS.  113 

become  Christiaiis  they  will  either  invite  us  to  so  good  a  work, 
cr  they  will  anticipate  us  in  it*  At  present  we  must  pray  for 
them,  not  exasperate  them/'* 

But  it  was  not  pagan  landholders  alone  that  promoted  the 
warship  to  which  they  themselves  were  attached;  even 
Chiistkn  proprietors  were  wUIing  to  ignore  it,  when  their 
peasants  brought  offerings  into  the  temples,  l)ecause  the  im- 
posts which  were  laid  upon  the  temples  were  a  source  of  profit 
to  them.f  No  doubt  they  could  effect  more  by  instruction 
and  zeal  for  the  spiritual  wel&re  of  their  tenants  in  the  spirit 
of  love  than  by  any  forcible  tneasures.  The  bishop  Chrysoe- 
torn,  in  a  discourse  delivered  at  Constantinople  about  the  year 
400,  justly  rebukes  them  because  they  did  not  procure  the 
erection  of  churches  and  the  settlem^it  of  ministers  who  could 
preach  the  gospel  upon  their  estates.  '*  Is  it  not  the  duty," 
he  says,  ^f  of  the  Christian  proprietor  first  to  see  to  it  that  all 
his  tenants  are  Christians  ?  Tell  me,  how  is  the  countryman 
to  become  a  Christian  when  he  sees  the  welfare  of  his  soul  is 
80  much  a  matter  of  indifference  to  you  ?  You  can  perform 
no  miracles  to  convert  men.  Well,  then,  convert  tiiem  by 
those  means  which  lie  in  your  power;  by  charity,  by  your 
care  for  men,  by  a  gentle  disposition,  by  a  kind  address,  and 
by  whatever  other  means  you  possess.  Many  erect  baths  and 
fiurums;  but  none  churches,  or  everything  else  sooner  than 
these.  Therefore,"  said  the  zealous  preacher,  whose  heart 
glowed  so  warmly  for  the  welfexe  of  men,  "  I  exhort  you,  I 
beseech  you,  I  require  it  of  you  as  a  favour  to  be  shown  me, 
or  rather  1  lay  it  down  as  the  law,  that  no  man  aUow  his 
estate  to  be  toithoiU  a  church,*''^ 

It  being  now  represented  to  the  government  that  the  idola- 
trous temples  and  images  on  the  country  estates  contributed 
much  to  tlie  promotion  of  paganism  among  the  peasantry,  the 
emperor  Honorius  passed  a  law,  in  the  year  399,  directing 
that  all  temples  in  the  country  should  be  destroyed  without 
tumuU^  so  that  all  occasion  of  superstition  might  everywhere 

♦  li.  c.  8.  17. 

f  Zeno  bishop  of  Venma  (1. 1.  Tract,  xv.  s.  6)  complains  on  this  sub- 
ject. In  prsediis  vestris  fumantia  undique  &na  tunc  non  nostis,  qus  (si 
vera  dicenda  sunt)  disnmulando  sabtiliter  custoditis.  Probatio  longe  non 
est.    Jns  templorum  ne  quis  vobis  eripiat,  qaoti^e  litigatis. 

X  Homil.  18,  act  ap. 

VOL.  III.  1 


I 


I- 


114  ABCADIUS  AND  HOKOEIUS. 

be  removed.*  This  law  was  expresBly  confined  to  the  (en^Ai 
in  the  country,  which  could  not  reasonably  be  considered  it 
monuments  of  art  contributing  to  the  omament  of  the  countiy  ;t 
for  the  latter  were  protected  by  new  laws  against  the  fbiy  df 
destruction.^  Yet,  on  the  one  hand,  it  is  certain  that  in  tbw 
cities  in  which  only  a  comparatively  small  number  of  pagani 
were  still  to  be  found,  and  where  this  small  number  wen 
kept  together  by  the  temples  which  were  still  remaining,  ths 
zeal  of  the  Christian  population  would  easily  bring  about  the 
destruction  also  of  these  ;S  but,  on  the  other  hand,  however, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  law  was  never  univenaOy 
executed  according  to  the  letter.  1^ 

Among  the  pagans  in  many  countries  an  impresBion  p»-  L 
vailed,  in  consequence  of  one  of  those  predictions  by  whiek 
they  were  so  often  deluded,  that  Christianity  would  last  for 
only  three  hundred  and  sixfy^ve  yeart ;  and  this  predictian,  • 
by  a  loose  reckoning  from  the  time  of  Christ's  passion,  seemed 
now  to  be  near  the  time  for  its  accomplishment.  Hence  the 
destruction  of  the  temples,  which  took  place  this  year,  made 
the  greater  impression  upon  many  of  the  pagans.  ||  Yet  thej 
were  still  powerful  enough  on  many  of  the  country  estates  oif 
North  Africa  to  commit  acts  of  violence  on  the  ChristianB) 
while  engaged  in  the  exercises  of  worship.^ 

Afler  the  death  of  the  powerful  Stilicho,  by  whom  Hooo- 
rius  had  been  governed,  the  latter,  probably  through  the 

'*'  Si  qua  in  agris  templa  sunt,  sine  tnrba  ac  tumnlta  dimantor.  ffii 
enim  dejectis  atque  sublatis,  omnis  snperstilioiius  materia  consumetnr. 

f  Thus  in  the  Codex  canonum  eccles.  AfricansB  (c  58)  it  is  said,  Qos 
-in  agris  vel  in  locis  abditis  constitata  nullo  oruamento  sunt 

X  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XVI.  Tit.  10. 1.  18. 

§  Augustin  (de  civitate  Dei,  1.  XVIII.  c.  54)  says  that  in  this  yearaU 
the  idolatrous  temples  and  images  at  Carthage  were  destroyed,  by  tbe 
two  comites,  Gandentios  and  Jovins. 

II  See  Augustin.  1.  c. 

^  Thus  sixty  Christians  were  murdered  at  Suffetnm  in  Nnmidia,  pro> 
bably  in  consequence  of  an  attack  on  the  statue  of  Hercules,  Augustin. 
ep.  50.  At  Calame  in  Numidia,  a.d.  408,  the  pagans  ventured,  in  defiance 
of  the  laws  enacted  shortly  before  by  the  emperor  Honorius  against  all 
pagan  festivities,  to  march  in  an  indecent  heathen  procession  before  the 
Christian  churches ;  and,  when  the  clergy  remonstrated,  a  wild  uproar 
arose.  The  church  was  attacked  with  stones,  finally  set  fire  to,  and 
a  Christian  murdered.  The  bishop,  who  was  hunted  after,  was  obliged 
to  conceal  himself.    Augustin.  ep.  90.  91.  104. 


PA&AKISM  IN  THE  EAST.  115 

Anence  of  some  of  the  great  who  were  £ivourably  disposed 
i  paganism,  enacted  a  law  which  contradicted  the  laws 
ithertQ  issned.  For,  between  the  years  409  and  410,  there 
ppeared  in  the  western  empire  a  law  which  ordained  universal 
etigious  freedom.*  Tet  this  law  remained  in  force  certainly 
mt  a  very  short  time ;  and  the  old  ones  soon  went  once  more 
nto  operation.  By  an  edict  of  the  year  4161  pagans  were 
moluded  from  all  civil  and  military  places  of  trust,  yet  the 
lecessities  of  the  time  and  the  weakness  of  the  empire  hardly 
illowed  of  its  being  carried  into  strict  execution.^ 

The  consequences  which  followed  the  emigrations  of  tribes 
in  the  western  empire ;  the  political  disturbances  which  threw 
Bvery thing  into  confusion  ;  the  irruptions  of  savage  and  pagan 
hordes,  might  sometimes  light  up  a  ray  of  hope  in  the  small 
pagan  party ;  but  it  soon  dwindled  away  again  to  nothing. 

In  many  districts  of  the  East  paganism  maintained  itself 
fior  a  longer  time ;  and  the  party  of  pagan  Platonists,  which 
continued  down  into  the  sixth  century,  was  its  principal  sup- 
port. The  emperors  were  moved  by  their  political  interests 
Id  avoid  destroying  everything  at  once  in  tliose  cities  where 
p^^g1fcy^^OTn  predominated,  lest  they  might  destroy  those  interests 
also.  They  chose  rather  to  proceied  gradually.  This  prin- 
ciple may  be  detected  in  the  remarkable  answer  which  the 

♦  Ut  libera  voluntate  quis  cultum  Christianitatis  exciperet,  cod.  eccles. 
Afnc.  c.  107.  It  is  true,  this  law,  as  it  here  reads,  can  be  understood, 
tcoording  to  its  letter,  to  mean  on\j  that  no  one  should  be  forced  to  em- 
Iniuse  Christianity.  And  this  was  in  fact  a  thing  which,  proj^erly  speak- 
ing, had  as  yet  never  been  done.  But  it  is  clear  that  it  was  so  interpreted, 
as  if  the  legal  penalties  which  had  been  in  force  against  those  who  exer- 
cised any  other  form  of  worship  than  that  of  the  catholic  Christians 
should  be  done  away. 

t  As  late  as  the  year  403  the  Spanish  Christian  poet  Prudentius  had 

Bflserted  that  difference  in  respect  to  religion  had  no  influence  in  the  be- 

stowment  of  posts  of  honour,  and  declared  this  to  be  right    L.  1.  c.  5ym- 

machnm,  v.  617. 

Draique,  foto  xneritis  terrestribos  aequa  rependens 
Mnnera,  sacricolis  summos  impeitit  honoies 
Dux  bonos,  et  certare  sivit  cum  laude  suonim, 
Nee  TMigo  implieitos  per  debita  culmina  mundi 
Jre  Tuod  prohibot :  qnoniam  coelestia  nunquam 
Terrenis  aolitum  per  iter  gradientibus  obsiant. 

X  If  the  account  of  Zosimus  (1.  V.  c.  46)  is  true,  the  feeble  Honoring, 
unable  to  dispense  with  the  services  of  one  of  his  pagan  generals,  Generid, 
who  would  serve  only  on  this  condition,  was  oUiged  immediately  to 
repeal  this  law. 

1^ 


1 16  ARCADnig  AHD  HOMOUim, 

emperor  Arcadius  gave  Porphyry  bishqp  of  Ckoa  in  Palestine^ 
when  the  latter,  in  the  year  401,  prayed  for  the  destmctioQ  of 
the  idolatrous  temples  in  this  city,  inhabited  for  the  most  put 
by  fanatical  pagans.*  '<  I  am  aware,"  says  he,  *^  that  yoor 
city  is  given  to  idolatry ;  but  it  fidthfully  pays  its  tribata^ 
and  brings  a  g^reat  deal  into  the  public  treasury.  If  we  pro- 
ceed now  to  disturb  it  thus  suddenly,  the  inhabitants  wiU  flj 
away  in  fear  (namely,  that  the  attempt  would  finally  be  mada 
to  bring  them  over  to  Christianity  hy  force),  and  we  shouU 
lose  so  much  in  our  revenue.  But  we  will  rather  opprw 
them  by  degrees,  depriving  the  idolaters  of  their  dignitieB  and 
places  of  trust,  and  issuing  our  conunands  that  the  tem]^ 
shall  be  closed  and  oracles  no  longer  be  delivered ;  for  ^Hm 
they  are  oppressed  on  all  sides,  they  will  come  to  the  kncMr- 
ledge  of  the  truth,'* — a  fine  mode  of  conversion,  to  be  sure  I—* 
^'  for  all  sudden  and  too  authoritative  measures  are  hard  fat 
the  subjects."  Yet  finally  the  cunning  of  the  empress  Eo- 
doxia  prevailed — a  woman  who  perfectly  understood  hoir 
Arcadius  was  to  be  managed,  by  taking  advantage  of  his 
weaknesses ;  and  who  was  led  to  think  that  her  zeal  for  the 
destruction  of  id^atrous  temples,  and  her  many  gifts  to  the 
clergy  and  the  monks,  would  make  atonement  for  her  sins. 
By  her  influence  the  reasonable  hesitation  of  the  weak  Arcadins 
was  finally  overcome. 

*  The  life  of  Porphyry  bishop  of  Gaza,  fi*om  which  this  ttoiy  it 
taken,  and  which  was  composed  by  his  disciple  the  deacon  Marcos,— ft 
work  which  is  important  as  furnishing  many  facts  illustrative  of  the 
history  of  the  church  and  of  manners  in  this  period, — has  as  yet  beea 
published  only  in  a  Latin  translation,  whose  author  seems  not  even  to 
have  given  himself  the  pains  of  accurately  deciphering  the  Greek  text: 
see  Acta  Sanctorum,  at  the  26th  of  February,  and  the  Bibliothea 
Patrum,  Galland,  T.  IX.  From  a  promising  young  Etamish  scholar.  Dr. 
Clausen,  we  are  led  to  expect  the  publication  of  the  Greek  origiDtl 
work,  which  is  still  extant  among  the  treasures  of  the  imperial  hbarf 
at  Vienna.  Meantime  I  shall  insert  here  the  passage  relating  to  i& 
present  subject,  as  it  reads  in  the  original.    The  words  of  Arcadius  are, 

(poj^M  (pvyri  ;i^(n^ivTett,  xeu    iir»Xaufi,iv   Twurtu    K«My«,  aXX'  tl   ^nu,  nmrk 


ABGADIUS  AND  HONORIUS.  117 

It  is  true,  in  a  law  of  the  year  423,  it  is  expressed  as  doubt- 
ftd  whether  any  pagans  still  remained  :*  but  as  it  was  consi- 
dered necessary,  in  confirming  the  ancient  laws  against  them, 
to  change  the  punishment  of  death,  which  had  hitherto  been 
established  against  those  who  sacrificed,  into  the  confiscation 
of  goods  and  banishment ;  as  it  was  considered  necessary  to 
protect  the  still  remaining  pagans,  who  attempted  nothing 
oontrary  to  the  laws,  against  being  abused  and  plundered  by 
nominal  Christians,  who  used  religion  as  a  pretext  ;t  it  follows 
from  all  this,  that  there  still  continued  to  be  pagans,  which 
b  proved  moreover  by  the  laws  issued  under  this  reign  against 
those  who  apostatized  from  Christianity  to  paganism.  Had 
there  been  good  reason  to  doubt  whether  there  were  any  more 
pagans,  there  certainly  would  have  been  no  occasion  for  a  law 
of  this  sort.  But  undoubtedly  the  fact,  that  few  remained 
who  openly  declared  themselves  pagans,  may  be  reconciled 
with  the  other,  that  it  was  necessary  to  devise  laws  of  this  sort, 
if  the  matter  is  presented  in  the  following  point  of  light ; 
namely,  that  many  were  called  apostates  from  Christianity 
who  had  never  seriously  passed  over  to  the  Christian  church — 
individuals  who  had  submitted  to  baptism  only  as  an  outward 
fi)rm,  but  had  ever  continued  to  practise  the  pagan  rites  in 
secret.     Whenever  they  were  discovered,  they  were  called 

apostates.} 

The  heathens,  then,  were  compelled,  from  the  present  time 
in  the  fifth  century,  to  practise  and  propagate  their  religion  in 
secret,  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  persecutions ;  and  by  this 

*  L.  XVI.  Tit  X.  1.  22.  Paganos  qui  supersunt,  qnanquam  jam 
nnllos  esse  credamos. 

t  L.  c.  1.  23  et  24.  Hoc  Christianis,  qui  vel  vere  sunt,  vel  esse 
dieuxtitr,  specialiter  demandamus,  ut  Judseis  ac  paganis,  in  quiete 
degentibus,  nihilque  tentantibus  turbulentum  legibnsque  contrarium,  non 
aadeant  manibos  inferre,  religionis  auctoritate  abusi.  Against  those 
who,  under  the  pretext  of  religion,  robbed  the  pagans,  Augustin  also  felt 
himself  called  npon  to  preach :  *'  Perhaps,  in  order  that  Christ  may  not 
say  to  you,  I  was  clothed,  and  thou  hast  robbed  me,  tbou  alterest  the 
custom,  and  thinkest  to  rob  a  pagan  and  to  clothe  a  Christian.  Here 
also  Christ  will  answer  thee ;  nay,  he  answers  thee  even  now  by  his 
servant,  whoever  he  may  be  :  Here  too  do  me  no  harm ;  wheu,  being  a 
Christian,  thou  robbest  tlie  heathen,  thou  hinderest  him  from  becoming 
a  Christian."    Sermo  179,  s.  5. 

X  Qui  nomen  Christianitatis  indnti,  sacrificia  fecerint.  Cod.  Theodos. 
L  XVI.  Tit.  VIII.  1.  7. 


118  ABGADIUS  AND  HONQRIUB* 

means  their  religion  was  rendered  the  deurer  to  tfaysm.  The 
holding  of  the  knowledge  of  divine  things  as  a  seoret,  wiiidl 
could  be  the  property  only  of  the  philosophically  educatad; 
the  engrafting  of  it  upon  the  mythical  r^resentatioDSy  beyood 
which  the  people  knew  nothing  ;  this  bdonged  necesnurily  to 
the  system  of  the  Neo-Platonists,  and  these  principles  made  it 
possible  for  them,  with  all  their  enthusiasm  for  He11eniiBB» 
yet  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  character  of  the  times.*  A 
remarkable  example  of  this  is  presented  in  the  life  of  tiiS 
pagan  philosopher  Proclu8,f  which  his  disciple  Marinus  his 
written.  J 


*  The  art  represented  in  the  symbol  of  Proteos :  lanumt  rmt 
w  hltusi  mXajb  vtXmtiZt.  See  Synes.  ep.  137  ad  Hercnlian.  (St.  tliB 
pagans  ^ho  were  arrested  in  the  exercise  of  the  caltos  fbrludden  by  dv 
laws,  Angustin  says  (EInarrat.  in  i^.  140»  s.  20),  Qois  eonmi  eaoh 
prehensus  est  in  sacrificio,  cnm  his  legibus  ista  prahiberentnr,  et  bob 
negavit  ?  Quis  eomm  comprehensns  est  adorare  idolom,  et  ntm  olamtfit: 
non  feci ;  ct  timuit  ne  convinceretor  ? 

f  Boru  A.D.  412,  died  487. 

I  As  a  proof  of  the  confidence  which  Heron  the  msttemaidoian  had  in 
the  young  Proclus,  it  is  mentioned  here  that  he  commnnicated  to  him 
the  whole  method  of  his  worsJiip  of  God,  When  he  first  Tisited  the 
heathen  Platonic  pnilosopher  S^Tlanus  at  Athens,  the  moon  having 
hegun  to  shine,  the  latter  sought  to  get  him  out  of  the  way,  so  that  he 
might  perform  his  devotions  unobserved  with  another  pagan,  ell.  We 
see  from  this  biographical  narrative,  that  the  worship  of  Isis  still  pre- 
vailed at  Philffi  in  £g3rpt  (p.  47) ;  that  in  Athens  the  worship  of  Esen- 
lapius  was  secretly  practised  in  the  temple,  which,  however,  was  flooa 
afterwards  destroyed ;  and  that  the  pagans  prayed  there  fbr  their  ucL 
Proclus  thought  himself  happy  in  that  he  occupied  a  dwelling  near  the 
temple,  so  as  to  be  able  to  perform  his  devotions  there  without  bdng 
observed,  aud  invoke  the  aid  of  E^ulapios  in  behalf  of  the  sick,  p.  73. 
Kxt  Totcvrev  toyov  ittT^d^ecTo  ovk  aXXw;  v  x^9  rauiet  rtvt  ^aXXavf  XMf4»imtf 
xai  ev^iiAietv  ^^oip»fn  vilt  fri/Sot/XiutiV  XhlMVi    itaottr^tTv.     MarinuS  extfds 

it  as  a  proof  of  the  Herculean  courage  and  spirit  of  Proclus,  that  under 
all  the  storms  of  this  Titanic  period  he  sted&stly  and  without  onee 
wavering,  though  not  without  danger,  maintained  himself  to  the  end,  «• 

Ta^ixSuit  Kui  T^mufttiet  'Xoayft.oiTotf  riMpmntetv  avr)  XtiifTMt  «r^  ivm^^^  (thS* 
ancient  national  cultus),  ifA^tSSf  nurU  eivn*  xeu  am/tt^wf,  ti  »mi  mtfU' 
xi*lvnvTiKUiy  T09  fiiov  htvnimTt.  Once,  probably  by  his  over-zealoiis 
observance  of  the  pagan  rites,  he  drew  on  himself  a  persecution  firom 
the  Christians,  and  took  refuge  for  some  length  of  time  in  Ana 
Minor,  p.  35.  At  Adrota  in  Lydia  there  was  still  practised  among  the 
heathens,  in  an  ancient  temple,  a  worship  respecting  the  name  of  which 
they  were  not  agreed.  According  to  some,  the  temple  belonged  to  Escn- 
lapius ;  according  to  others,  to  the  Dioscurse.    Remedies  fbr  the  cure  of 


JUSTINIAN.  119 

The  emperor  Justinian  (from  the  year  527  and  onwards), 
whose  despotism  even  in  spiritual  things  was  the  source  of  so 
many  disorders  to  the  Eastern  church,  endeavoured,  soon  after 
the  conunencement  of  his  reign,  to  suppress  the  last  remains 
of  paganism  by  force,  so  far  as  this  could  be  done  in  such  a. 
way.  The  persecutions  were  aimed  particularly  at  men  in  the 
civil  service.  They  were  deprived  of  their  property,  tortured^ 
executed.  Many  hypocritically  assumed  the  profession  of 
Christianity  to  escape  the  persecutions :  of  course,  in  such 
cases  they  soon  took  off  the  mask,  and  were  once  more  seen 
attending  the  performance  of  sacrifices.*  The  emperor,  doubt- 
less having  heard  that  Athensf  still  continued  to  be  a  seat  of 
paganism,  and  that  this  religion  was  propagated  by  the  pagan 
Platonists  who  still  taught  there,  forbad  the  holding  of  philo- 
sophical lectures  in  that  place.^  These  persecutions  induced 
the  pagan  philosophers,  among  whom  were  Damascius  and 
Iddorus  and  the  renowned  Simplicius,§  to  take  refuge  with 
the  Persian  king  Chosroes,  respecting  whose  love  for  philo- 
sophy they  had  heard  exaggerated  accounts.  This  prince,  it 
is  true,  received  them  in  a  friendly  manner ;  but  their  expec- 

^seftses  were  aiid  to  he  here  suggested  by  sapemataral  inspiration,  and 
nnracalons  cures  effeeted.    Many  legends  were  circulated  respectixig  it, 

C  32. 

*  Theophanes  Clironograph.  ad.  A.  522,  i.e.  according  to  our  reckoning, 
531  from  the  birth  of  Qirist.  See  Ideler*s  Manual  of  Chronology,  ii. 
458.  Procop.  hist,  arcana,  p.  90,  c  xi.  ed.  Orelli.  The  same  author  (c 
19)  relates  that  Justinian  employed  the  accusation  of  heathenism  as  a 
poretext  to  get  into  possession  of  the  estates  which  his  cupidity  thirsted 
after.  Ctmip.  the  chronicle  of  Johannes  Malala,  pars  ii.  p.  184,  ed» 
Oxim. 

f  The  Athenian  schools  had  sunk  so  low  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifdi 
century,  that  Synesius  could  write,  Athens  is  now  ^mous  only  for  her 
Hymettian  honey,  and  that  he  could  compare  the  then  Athens»  in  her 
relation  to  the  ancient,  with  the  hide  of  a  slaughtered  victim ;  so  com- 
pletely was  philosophy  banished  from  the  place,  while  only  those  dead 
and  silent  spots,  the  Academy,  the  Stoa,  the  Lyceum,  were  shown  to 
and  wondered  at  by  strangers.  See  the  ld6th  letter  of  Synesius  to  his 
brother ;  but,  after  this  time,  Athens  was  somewhat  restored  to  its  bloom 
by  the  Nco-Platonic  philosophy. 

X  Joh.  Malala,  1.  c.  p.  187. 

§  Simplicius  (in  Epictet  Enchiridion,  c  13,  ed.  Lugd.  Batav.  1640,  p. 
79)  probably  alludes  to  the  fact  that  the  pagans  were  to  be  forced  to 

renounce  their  convictions.     Tv^awittaf  ^ictt,  /mix^i  xeu  rod  enri^uv  avay 
xa^tv^etf. 


120  POLEMICAL  WRITINGS  OF  THE  PAUAXS. 

tations  were  by  no  means  realized.  Fundsm  was  as  little 
agreeable  to  them  as  Christianity ;  and  they  had  many  a  long- 
ing wish  after  the  Grecian  customs.  Chosroes,  in  the  treatj 
of  peace,  prevailed  upon  the  emperor  Justinian  to  allow  ihm 
the  free  exercise  of  their  religion  in  the  Roman  empire.* 

B.  Of  the  polemical  writing*  of  the  Pagans  against  CkrisA' 
anity ;  of  the  charges  which  they  brought  againsi  it  gem' 
rally ;  and  of  the  manner  in  which  these  charges  wen 
answered  by  tlis  teachers  of  the  Christian  church. 

In  respect  to  the  attacks  on  Christianity  by  pagan  writeiii 
it  may  be  observed  that  it  was  a  necessary  consequence  of  the 
altered  circumstances  of  the  times,  that  few  would  yenture  to 
combat  Christianity  in  works  devoted  expressly  to  that  object 
Julian,  who  endeavoured  to  supplant  Christianity  as  an  en^ 
ror,  appeared  against  it  also  as  an  author ;  and  hb  work,  of 
which  considerable  fragments  have  been  preserved  to  our 
times,  in  the  refutation  of  it  by  Cyril  bishop  of  Alexandrii, 
is  the  most  important  one,  in  this  respect,  belonging  to  the 
present  period.f  Although,  as  we  have  remarked  beware, 
much  that  was  bad,  and  which  had  been  presented  to  Julian 
under  the  Christian  name,  had,  from  the  first,  exerted  its 
influence  in  giving  his  mind  an  impression  un&,vourable  to 
Christianity,  yet  it  is  also  true  that  his  hatred  was  not  confined 
to  the  corrupt  and  distorted  representations  of  Christianity 
prevailing  at  that  period,  but  was  turned  against  Christianity 
itself;  that  Christianity,  though  presented  in  all  the  purity  of 
its  essential  character,  could  not  have  appeared  to  him,  in  the 
temper  of  mind  which  he  actually  cherished,  otherwise  than 
hateful.  It  may,  indeed,  be  said,  that  many  of  the  foreign 
elements  which  had  engrafted  themselves  on  Christianity 
came  nearer  to  Julian's  pagan  mode  of  thinking  than  the 
purely  Christian  doctrine.  He  was  sufficiently  well  acquainted 
with  the  written  records  of  Christianity  to  discern  the  diffe^ 
ence  between  many  of  the  notions  which  prevailed  among 
Christians  at  this  time  and  the  doctrines  of  the  New  Testa- 

♦  See  Agathias  de  rebus  Justiniani,  1.  II.  c.  30,  p.  69,  ed.  Paris.  L.II. 
c.  30,  p.  131,  ed.  Niebuhr. 

t  Julian  wrote  this  work  in  the  winter,  during  his  residence  at  Antioch. 
Liban  epitaph.  Julian,  vol.  I.  p.  581. 


JULIAN.  121 

ment ;  between  the  life  of  the  Chrifttians  of  this  period  and 
the  requisitions  of  the  original  doctrine  of  Christ.  Thus,  in 
reference  to  the  honour  paid  to  martyrs,  concerning  which 
nothing  indeed  is  to  be  found  in  the  New  Testament,  he  re- 
proached the  Christians  with  departing  from  the  words  of 
Christ.  Yet  Julian  knew  too  little  of  the  spirit  of  Christi 
anity,  which,  with  all  his  knowledge  of  the  letter  of  the  New 
Testament,  yet  could  not  be  understood  by  him  while  he 
cherished  such  inward  opposition  to  the  essence  of  the  gospel, 
— he  knew  too  little  of  that  spirit  to  see  wherein  the  honour 
paid  to  the  martyrs  conflicted  with  the  primitive  religion.  To 
him,  looking  at  the  matter  from  his  own  pagan  position,  the 
Christian  element,  which  lay  at  the  root  even  of  this  supersti- 
tion, was  precisely  the  thing  which  appeared  hateful.  It  was 
the  importance  which  the  Christian  feeling  atta<ihed  to  the 
remains  of  a  body  that  had  once  been  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  was  destined  to  be  so  again;  the  new  views  of 
death,  and  of  the  sanctification  and  transfiguration  of  the 
earthly,  of  all  that  is  peculiar  to  humanity,  which  Christianity 
brought  with  it.  To  him,  the  pagan,  whatever  was  dead  was 
impure  and  defiling:  hence  he  tauntingly  remarked  s^inst 
the  Christians  that  they  had  filled  everything  with  graves  and 
monuments,  and  that  they  rolled  themselves  upon  graves.*  He 
accused  them  of  practising  magic  in  this  way,  and  of  seeking 
prophetic  dreams  by  sleeping  upon  the  graves  (incubationes). 
The  apostles,  he  said,  had  from  the  first  instructed  the  faithful 
in  these  things ;  and  among  the  Jews  the  art  had  long  been 
known,  for  they  often  had  been  reproached  with  it  by  the  pro* 
phets  (Isaiah  Ixv.).!     So,  again,  he  rightly  perceived  that  the 

*  He  also  emplo3r8  arguments  wholly  irrelevant  and  out  of  place,  for 
the  purpose  of  showing  them  that  this  was  an  unchristian  thing ;  as  for 
example,  from  Matth.  chap.  23 :  *'  How  then  do  you  call  upon  the  same 
God,  when  Jesus  says  that  the  sepulchres  are  full  of  all  uncleanness  T* 
Again,  Christ  had  said,  **Ifet  the  d^  bury  their  dead."  Though  the 
trutii  was,  those  who  called  on  the  martyrs  looked  upon  them,  not  as  the 
dead,  but  as  those  who  were  living  with  God. 

t  Cyrill.  c.  Julian.  1.  X.  335—40.  Perhaps  the  Christians  may  have 
themselves  given  occasion  for  this  charge,  by  their  stories  about  appear- 
ances of  the  martyrs  in  visions  by  night  in  the  chapels  of  the  martyrs— 
about  cures  of  diseases,  which  had  been  wrought  by  them;  and  by  their 
custom  of  transferring  a  great  deal  from  the  pagan  superstition  of  incu- 
bations to  the  martyrs. 


122  POLEMICAL  WRITINGS  OF  THE  PAQAH8. 

persecutions  against  heretics  and  pagani,  which  had  hitherto 
been  resorted  to,  were  contrary  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ  and 
of  the  apostles.     '<  You  destroy  temples  and  altars,"  says  he,* 
^'  and  you  have  not  only  murdered  thoee  among  us  who  pene- 
vere  in  the  religion  of  our  fiithen^  but  also  those  amcmg  the 
heretics  who  are  in  the  same  error  with  youTselves,  but  who 
do  not  mourn  the  dead  man  (so  he  sarcastically  calls  the 
worship  of  Christ)  in  the  same  way  that  you  do.     But  this  it 
something  which  must  be  ascribed  to  your  own  inventicm ;  fbr 
neither  Jesus  nor  Paul  inyited  you  to  do  it.'*     Instead  of 
acknowledging,  however,  that  this  was  contrary  to  the  spirit 
of  the  gospel,  or  at  least  to  the  character  of  Christ  and  the 
apostles,  Julian  maliciously  gives  it  the  following  explanatbn. 
He  says  that  Christ — ^which,  however,  is  refuted  by  Chiist^i 
own  language — ^and  the  apostles  did  not  expect  their  partf 
would  ever  acquire  such  power ;  and  here  again  he  repeats  the 
old  objection  to  Christianity,  which  in  truth  redounds  to  its 
honour,  that  it  did  not  first  spread  among  the  wise  and  mighty 
of  the  world.     ^*  But  the  reason  is,"  says  he^  ^^  they  nerar 
looked  forward  to  such  mighty  things ;  for  they  were  satisfied 
if  they  could  deceive  maids  and  slaves,  and  through  these  the 
women  and  their  husbands,  such  as  Cornelius  and  Sergios. 
You  may  put  me  down  for  a  liar,  if  a  single  author  of  that 
period  (for  these  events  happened  under  Tiberius  or  Claudius) 
ever  mentioned  these  men."    How  could  he  possibly  have  pos- 
sessed the  least  sense  for  the  godlike  in  the  life  of  Christ,  when 
he  was  capable  of  bringing  up  such  a  question  as  the  one  which 
follows,  where,  comparing  Christ  with  great  kii^,f  he  says, 
'^  But  Jesus,  who  has  persuaded  a  few  of  the  worst  among 
you,  has  been  named  these  three  hundred  years;  yet  what 
remarkable  thing  had  he  done,  unless  you  suppose  that  healing 
the  lame  and  the  blind  and  exorcising  demoniacs  in  the  vil- 
lages of  Bethsaida  and  Bethany  are  to  be  ranked  among  the 
greatest  works  ?" — when  he  alleges  against  the  sovereignty  of 
ChrLst,  that  he  was  one  of  the  subjects  of  the  emperor ;  that 
he  who  commanded  the  spirits,  who  walked  upon  the  mo,  and 
ejected  evil  spirits,  could  not  change  the  will  of  his  friends 
and  kinsmen  so  as  to  secure  tiieir  own  salvation ;  could  not 
bring  tljem  to  believe  in  him  ?     How  little  did  he  who  could 
say  this  understand  the  nature  of  a  moral  change  I 

*  L.  c,  1.  vi.  p.  206.  t  VI.  491. 


JULIAN.  123 

No  less  characteriistic  of  the  man  waA  the  credulity  with 
irhich,  after  ridiculing  the  well-authenticated  faith  of  the 
Christians,  he  received  one  of  the  absurd  tales  of  heathenism^ 
objecting  to  the  Christians  that  they  had  forsaken  the  ancilia 
irhich  had  £edlen  from  heaven,  and  which  secured  eternal  pro- 
becticHi  to  the  city  of  Rome  and  the  Roman  empire ;   and, 
instead  of  these,  wor^pped  the  wood  of  the  cross.  *     And 
equally  characteristic  is  his  objection  to  Christianity, -— an 
Direction  which  contains  some  truth,  but  truth  which  redounds 
to  the  honour  of  Christianity, — ^when  he  says  that  the  Chris- 
dans  had  let  the  best  things  of  Judaism  and  paganism  go,  and 
biended  together  the  worst  out  of  both;    They  had^   for 
instance,  thrown  away  from  Judaism  the  sacred  rites,  the 
farious  legal  prescriptions,  which  required  the  holiest  life, 
wad  from  paganism  the  devout  feeling  towards  all   higher 
oatures;   while,  on  the  contrary,  they  had  taken  from  the 
Jews   their  intolerant  monotheism,   and  from   the    pagans 
their  freedom  and  indifference  of  living ;  f  or,  as  Julkn  ex- 
pressed it,  their  custom  of  eating  everything,  like  the  green 
herb.     The  truth  here  is,  that  Christianity  delivered  men  from 
the  yt>ke  of  the  ceremonial  law,  and  from  a  religion  which 
eleaTed  to  the  elements  of  the  world;   and  that,  on  other 
grounds,  it  gave  a  f^reedom  of  outward  life,  which,  in  outward 
appearance,  might  seem  like  the  pagan  freedom,  although  it 
eame  from  an  entirely  different  spirit.     The  relation  here  is 
pcecisely  the  same  as  that  between  the  freedom  of  the  man 
idio  hais  never  felt  the  power  and  the  burden  of  sin,  and  the 
freedom  of  him  who  1ms  been  actually  redeemed  from  its 
bondage. 

He  says  the  Christians  had  given  to  the  pagan  freedom  a 
still  wider  scope ;— correctly,  we  must  admit,  so  &r  as  it  con- 
cerned outward  things ; — and  this  they  had  been  compelled 
to  do  as  a  matter  of  course,  ^'  because  their  religion  was  to  suit 
aU  nations,,  all  forms  of  human  life ;  the  innkeeper,  the  pub- 
lican, the  dancer,  &c."  ^  Bating  the  circiunstance  that  Julian 
carries  the  case  out  to  the  extreme  of  caricature,  there  is, 
undoubtedly,  a  foundation  of  truth  underlying  even  this  accu- 
sation, conformably  to  what  has  just  been  remarked.     It  was 

♦  L.  c.  VI.  194. 

t  Tfif  mim^Uf  m)  ;cii3MMTiir«.    Genesis  ix.  3.    Bom.  xiv.  2. 

;  VII.  238. 


124  I'OLEMICAL  WRITINGS  OF  THE  PAGANS. 

precisely  because  Christianity  started  with  this  freedom,  be- 
cause it  was  bound  to  no  particular  outward  and  earthly  forms 
of  life,  because  its  transforming'  influence  operated  from 
within,  that  it  was  capable  of  approaching',  in  like  manner, 
people  of  all  nations,  ranks,  and  relations,  so  as  to  difiiise  iti 
sanctifying  influence  over  them  all.  So,  too,  he  glorifies  the 
gospel,  which  was  given  to  make  returning  sinners  holy  and 
happy,  when  he  reckons  it  as  a  reproach  to  Christianity  that  it 
came  first  of  all  to  sinners ;  and  when,  to  give  the  satire  more 
point,  he  cites  the  testimony  of  the  apostle  Paul  himself^  1 
Corinthians  vi.  11.  In  this  case,  however,  instead  of  dream- 
ing of  the  justifying  and  sanctifying  power  of  faith  in  Christ, 
to  which  Paul  alludes,  he  perverts  the  sense  of  the  apostle's 
language,  as  if  he  referred  to  some  magical  power  of  baptism 
to  destroy  sin.  *'  Dost  thou  see,"  he  says,  ^'  that  these  were 
also  such  ?  But  they  have  been  sanctified  and  cleansed,  be- 
cause tliey  have  received  a  water  that  penetrates  to  the  souly 
by  which  they  could  be  purified.  Baptism  cannot  remove 
leprosy,  gout,  warts,  and  other  less  or  greater  bodily  defects; 
but  it  was  able  to  purge  away  all  the  sins  of  the  soul."* 

As  Julian  did  not  recognise  the  one  image  of  one  only  God 
ill  all  humanity, — but  imagined  that  he  saw  in  the  diflerent 
races  of  men  only  the  impress  of  the  diflbreut  individualities 
of  their  presiding  deities ;  or  rather  as  he  carried  out  the 
principle  of  the  deification  of  nature,  and  his  gods  were 
merely  the  different  human  individualities  of  character,  ab- 
stracted and  deified, — a  national  character  once  in  existoice 
appeared  to  him  to  be  incapable  of  change.  He  adduces  the 
Western  nations  as  a  proof  of  this,  who,  although  they  had 
been  for  so  long  a  time  under  the  Roman  dominion,  yet 
continued  to  remain  for  the  most  part  uncultivated :  f  but 
history,  to  whose  testimony  he  appealed,  has  confuted  what  he 
says ;  for  Christianity  has  been  able,  without  destroying  the 
more  essential  national  peculiarities,  to  develop  and  bring  out 
the  spiritual  and  moral  elements  which  lie  at  the  foundation 
of  the  human  nature  in  all. 

'*'  y  II.  f.  245.  And  so  indeed  it  must  appear  to  a  man  who  reads  these 
words  with  such  a  temper  and  habit  of  mind ;  because  such  a  temper  of 
mind  clings  only  to  the  outward.  The  Christians,  moreover,  promoted 
this  misapprehension  by  their  own  representations  of  the  magical  effects 
of  baptism  t  IV.  131. 


JinjAN.  125 

Julian  labours  to  show  that  Christiaiiity  generallj  had 
taken  its  shape  only  by  d^^rees,  through  the  co^ration  of 
various  outward  causes ;  as  the  &ct  would  easily  seem  to  be 
to  the  superficial  observer,  and  in  general  to  every  man  who 
does  not  look  at  it  from  the  very  centre  of  Christian  intui- 
tion; since  he  will  not  know  how  to  distinguish  in  Chris- 
tianity itself  the  unchangeable  essence  from  the  changeable 
form,  nor  that  which  springs  out  of  the  essence  of  Christianity 
from  the  foreign  elements  which  have  mixed  in  with  it.  Now, 
although  Julian  undoubtedly  perceived  the  difference  between 
the  Christian  life  and  the  Church  doctrines  of  his  time  and 
that  which  was  contained  in  the  letter  of  the  sacred  scriptures, 
yet  he  could  not  separate  what  was  really  foreign  in  the  pre- 
vailing church  doctrines  of  the  Christians  of  his  time,  and  had 
been  added  to  the  original  doctrines  of  the  New  Testament, 
from  what  was  merely  the  drapery  of  a  particular  age  in  which 
the  essential  Christian  truth  hath  clothed  itself ;  and  thus  he 
m^ht  easily  be  led  to  suppose  that  he  found  contradictions  in 
the  .doctrines  of  the  New  Testament,  because  he  was  inca- 
pable of  recognising  the  unity  of  the  essence  in  the  variety 
of  its  forms  of  representation. 

Thus,  for  instance,  he  imagined  that  he  perceived  a  contra- 
diction of  this  sort  in  the  case  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  divi- 
nity ;  and,  in  his  remarks  on  this  point,  he  does  not  even 
agree  with  himself.  In  one  passage  he  says  of  Christ  to  the 
Christians  of  his  time,  *  '^  As  yon  would  have  it,  he  has 
created  heaven  and  earth ;  for  none  of  his  disciples  has  said 
this  of  him,  except  John  alone,  and  even  he  not  clearly  and 
explicitly."  And  in  another  place  he  saysf  that  neither 
Paul  nor  any  one  of  the  evangelists  ventured  to  call  Jesus 
God ;  but  that  John,  on  hearing  that  in  the  cities  of  Greece  and 
Italy  many  had  already  become  infected  with  this  contagion, 
and  that  the  graves  of  Peter  and  Paul  were  secretly  wor- 
shipped,^ had  first  endeavoured,  by  stealth  and  artifice,  to  foist 
in  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  divinity. §  And  yet  in  another 
place,  II  where  he  wishes  to  point  out  contradictions  between 

•  VI.  218.  t  L.  X.  f.  317. 

X  We  see  with  what  assarance  Julian  here  created  facts  after  hiB  own 
imagination. 
§  L.  X.  f.  827. 
I  L.  IX.  f  291. 


126  POLEMICAL  wBimres  of  the  PA0Aira. 

the  Old  and  New  TestamentSy*  he  finds  in  the  fimnnla  of 
baptism,  which  he  nowhere  attempts  to  eaqplain  away  as  t 
foreign  addition  to  the  gospels,  a  direction  to  invoke  Cfaikl, 
and  the  doctrine  of  three  divine  essences.']'  He  aocnses  the 
apostle  Paul  of  self-contradiction,  of  a  wayering  between  mii* 
veraalism  and  particularism  in  the  doctrine  concemii^  God; 
simply  because,  while  looking  himself  upcm  the  outside  of  the 
matter,  and  everywhere  hunting  up  contradictions,  he  m 
incapable  of  perceiving  the  inner  connection  of  the  Ptonline 
system.  ''  Paul,"  says  he,}  ^  changes  his  doctrine  cancenuB^ 
God,  as  a  polypus  changes  colour  on  the  Todcs.  At  one  time 
he  calls  the  Jews  God's  only  inheritance ;  at  another,  he  pe^ 
suades  the  Gentiles  that  God  is  not  the  God  of  the  Jews  imlj, 
but  also  of  the  Gentiles.  We  might  riglitly  ask  Fiaul,  if  God 
was  not  the  God  of  the  Jews  only,  but  also  of  tlie  GeotQei, 
why  did  he  send  Moses,  the  prophets,  and  the  miiBcles  of  ths 
fabulous  legends,  to  the  Jews  alone  ?  "  §  Yet  this  qnestioa 
might  have  been  easily  answered,  by  simply  unfolding  the 
Pauline  doctrines  concerning  the  law  of  Gkid  which  is  widm 
man ;  concerning  the  divine  descent  of  humanity ;  concendng 
the  God  in  whom  we  live,  move,  and  have  our  being,  and  who 
has  nowhere  left  himself  without  a  witness ;  concerning  the 
revelation  of  God  in  the  works  of  creation,  and  in  the  eon* 
science ;  concerning  the  reaction  between  moral  corruption  and 
spiritual  blindness ;  concerning  the  object  of  the  Old  Teslap 
ment  theocracy,  as  a  preparatory  system  to  the  spread  of 
God's  kingdom  among  all  mankind ;  concerning  the  fixed  time 
of  God's  grace  to  all,  after  all  had  been  brought  to  the  con- 

*  In  respect  to  the  relation  of  the  Old  Testament  idea  of  the  Menh 
to  that  of  the  New  Testament,  the  Christian  teachere  here  laid  them- 
selves open  to  his  attacks,  in  a  way  which  he  well  knew  how  to  take 
advantage  of,  when  they  professed  to  find  the  whole  doctrine  cancerung 
Christ,  as  it  was  first  clearly  unfolded  in  the  New  Testament,  or  even  h 
with  all  the  later  church  definitions,  contained  already  in  the  Old  Testik- 
ment. 

t  L.  Vin.  f.  262,  he  says  that  in  the  Old  Testament  no  such  desifl- 
nation  of  a  higher  nature  belonging  to  the  Messiah,  as  in  the  worat 
'T^uroTOKos  freiftis  xTiffteug,  is  to  be  found ;  and  yet  this  expression  belongs 
to  Paul,  whom  Julian  had  placed,  on  this  subject,  in  such  direct  oppo- 
sition to  John. 

I  T..  III.  f.  106. 

§  Thus  he  speaks  who  cited  the  fable  of  the  Ancllia  aboTe-mentioned 
as  an  undoubted  fact. 


JULUK.      THE  PHILOPATRIS.  127 

mess  of  guilt.  In  like  manner  he  accuses  the  apostle 
and  the  Christians  of  that  period  of  contradicting  the 
ines  of  Clmst  himself,  when  they  held  that  it  was  not 
sary  to  observe  the  Mosaic  ceremonial  law,  notwithstand- 
lat  Christ,  in  his  sermon  on  the  mount,  had  said  that  he 
ot  c<Hne  to  destroy  the  law,  but  to  fulfil,  and  had  declared 
the  least  of  the  commandments  to  be  binding  * — a  diffi- 
which  admitted  of  i)eing  easily  resolved,  by  rightly  de- 
ning  the  meaning  and  the  references  of  our  Saviour's 
rks. 

the  reign  of  Julian,  some  one,  probably  a  pagan  rheto- 
I,  wrote  the  dialogue  in  imitation  of  Ludan,  called  Phu 
ris.  This  contains  a  satirical  account  of  the  church  doc- 
of  the  Trinity,  and  of  the  monks,  who,  as  they  were  the 
ror's  most  violent  enemies,  predicted  nothing  but  failure 
3  enterprises.  They  are  represented  as  men  who  took 
[ire  in  the  public  misfortunes,  as  the  enemies  of  their 
ry;   and  hence  the  title  of  the  dialogue.!     In  order 

.  X.  351. 

lie  very  way  in  which  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  ridiculed  in 
jdogae  (s.  12)  fiivonrs  the  sapposition  that  it  was  composed  at 
lenod  subsequent  to  the  Nicene  council,  and  this  is  confirmed  by 
sseription  ox  the  persons  (s.  20  and  26),  who  are  represented 
tfaer  after  the  same  manner  as  the  monks  were  usually  dejected  by 
kgasis  of  this  period.  "Die  expression,  m  »i«4mm^iim  rnv  'ymp^y 
mtij  alludes  to  the  monkish  tonsure.  The  monks  sa^,  that  when 
uive  fasted  ten  days,  and  watched  ten  nights,  singmg  spiritual 
ihey  received  reveladons  of  future  events  m  dreams.  Prophetic 
s  onen  occur  in  this  age,  both  among  pagans  and  Christians.  Not 
rhat  the  friend  of  the  emperor  says  respecting  the  entire  victory 
be  Persians,  but  also  what  he  remarks  concerning  the  cessation  of 
roads  of  the  Scythians  (t»}^f*Mt  t£v  ^KvCZi),  is  in  keeping  with 
eriod.  And  this  latter  passage  has  been  wrongly  aaduced  by 
who  attributes  the  production  to  Lucian  (see  his  dissertation  on 
alogue  in  the  CommentationesHheol.  of  Rosenmuller,  Fuldner,  and 
•r,  Lips.  1826,  T.  1.  p.  11.  p.  246),  against  Gessner's  hypothesis, 
Hrhich  we  agree ;  foe,  by  the  authors  of  the  fourth  century,  the 
were  assuredly  sometimes  designated  by  die  general  appellation  of 
ans  (see,  for  example,  Eunapii  excerpta,  c  26,  in  Majus  scriptorum 
m  nova  collectio,  torn.  II.  p.  272).  But  there  is  one  point  in 
Kelle  is  unquestionably  right,  viz.  in  saying  that  what  is  affirmed 
ning  the  subjection  of  Egypt,  a  country  w^ch  had  then  been  so 
me  already  a  Roman  province,  cannot  without  force  be  interpreted 
)  period.  Yet  it  may  be  questioned  whether  all  the  particular 
denoting  the  time  in  this  dialogue  are  to  be  understood  as 
cally  true ;    whether  the  author  did  not   purposely  intend  to 


128  PAOAN  OBJEGTIQirS. 

to  understand  the  nature  of  the  charges  which  the  pagam 
brought  against  Christianity  and  the  Christiaii  church,  ve 
must  not  only  look  into  their  polemical  worka,  which,  for  tbe 
reasons  alreaidy  allied,  could  in  this  period  be  but  few  in 
number ;  but  we  must  also  endeavour  to  find  out  the  current 
objections  brought  against  Christianity  by  the  pagans  in  the 
ordinary  intercourse  of  life.  The  sources  from  which  such 
knowledge  nay  be  obtained  are  partly  such  writings  of  the 
pagans  in  which  they  occasionally  allude  to  Christiani^  or 
the  Christians;  and  partly  the  apologetical  writings  of  the 
fathers,  and  the  homilies  of  Chrysostom  and  Aug^tin. 

Although  many  of  the  objections  of  the  paeans  to  Ghrifr- 
tianity,  springing  out  of  the  natural  relation  of  paganism,  or 
of  man  in  liis  corrupt  state  of  nature,  to  Christiaiiity,  must 
ever  be  recurring,  yet  there  are  many  also  which  were  called 
forth  by  the  particular  condition  of  the  Christian  church  in 
this  period.  This  is  the  case  with  all  such  objections  as  aroM 
from  the  confounding  together  of  church  and  state,  and  from 
the  mass  of  corruption  which,  under  the  garb  of  Christianity, 
had  attached  itself  to  the  church.  If,  in  the  former  period| 
the  extension  of  the  church,  in  spite  of  all  persecution,  wit- 
nessed of  that  which  the  divine  power  of  the  gospel  alone  was 
able  to  effect ;  now,  on  the  other  hand,  the  ps^ans,  lookiig, 
as  men  are  wont  to  do,  at  the  present  moment,  and  forgetting 
the  experience  of  the  preceding  centuries,  could  object  against 
the  divine  character  of  the  religion,  thcU  Christianity  de* 
pendedfor  its  spread  on  the  favour  of  the  princes.*  To  re- 
fute this  objection,  Theodoretus  must  appeal  to  the  experience 
of  the  past,  and  to  what  was  transpiring  in  Persia  f  when 
he  wrote,  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century. 

In  the  preceding  period  the  Christians  had  been  accused 
of  irreverence  towards  the  Caesars  (irreligiositas  in  Caesares), 

transpose  the  age,  and  therefore  purposely  introduce  many  things  whidi 
belonged  in  no  respect  to  the  existing  period.  In  Gieseler's  Kirchenm* 
schichte,  I.  bd.  2te  Auflage,  s.  131, 1  see  that  the  Herr  Staatsrath  Niebuur 
makes  this  dialogue  to  have  been  written  at  Constantinople,  under  the 
emperor  Nicephorus  Phocas.  in  the  year  968.  But,  as  I  am  ignorant  of 
the  reasons  which  are  supposed  to  recommend  this  hypothesis  above  thit 
of  Gessner,  I  can  only  mention  the  &ct. 

*  'Ex  ^etfftxUfis  fii^^fffiett  IvfcifCMg.  Theodoret.  Grsc.  Affect,  cunt 
Disputat.  IX.  p.  935,  T.  IV.  ed.  Schultz. 

t  See  below,  persecutions  in  Persia.  » 


TO  CHRISTIANITY.  129 

ecause  they  refused  to  join  in  those  demonstrations  of  respect 
rhich  idolatrous  pagan  flattery  paid  to  the  emperors.  But 
irhen  the  Christians  now  reproached  the  pagans  with  pros- 
nting  themselves  before  the  images  of  the  gods,  the  reply 
they  sometimes  received  was,  that  they  did  not  scruple  them- 
lelves  to  fall  down  before  the  images  of  the  emperor ;  which 
was  the  less  excusable  in  them,  since,  according  to  their  own 
doctrine,  it  was  an  honour  due  to  God  alone.*  The  Christian, 
indeed,  had  an  answer — that  this  was  an  abuse  which  had 
ipmng  from  paganism,  and,  having  become  deeply  rooted  by 
the  length  of  time,  could  not  be  extirpated  by  Christianity ; 
though  the  church  did  not  cease  to  condemn  it.f 

Next,  while  in  the  earlier  times  the  conduct  of  the  Chris- 
tians had  been  the  most  expressive  and  convincing  proof  of 
tlie  divine  power  of  their  faith,  now,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
enormous  corruption  which,  under  the  show  of  Christianity, 
loanifested  itself  in  the  public  relations  and  among  the  great 
mass  of  nominal  Christians  was  seized  upon  by  the  ps^ns  as 
i  testimony  against  Christianity,  and  against  the  Christian 
3eriod  which  had  led  to  such  results.  They  did  not  reflect 
iiat  the  evils  which  float  on  the  surface  are  ever  easily  detected, 
3ut  that  it  requires  more  penetration  to  discern  the  truly 
j;ood,  which  loves  concealment  and  is  less  obtrusive.  They 
law,  as  Augustin  justly  expresses  himself  with  regard  to  such 
characters,  the  scum  only,  which  swims  above,  but  did  not  re- 
oiark  the  good  oil,  which  had  its  secret  channels,  and,  silently 
passing  through  them,  made  increase  without  notice,  f 

Thus  it  was  urged  as  an  objection  to  Christianity,  which 
the  bishop  Augustin  was  required  to  answer,§  how  it  was  that 

*  The  pa^n  Apollonins,  in  the  CoiisultatioDes  Zachsei  Christiani  et 
ApoUoDii  philosophi,  1. 1,  c.  28 :  Cur  imagines  hominum,  vel  ceris  pictas, 
vd  metallis  depictas,  sub  regum  reverentia,  etiam  publica  adoratione 
veneramini,  et,  ut  ipsi  prsedicatis,  Deo  tantam  honorem  debitum  etiam 
homiiiibus  datis  ?    D'Achery,  spicileg.  T.  i. 

t  l!i.  c  and  cons,  the  work  De  promiss.  et  prsedict.  Dei,  pars  V.  De 
dimidio  temporis,  where,  in  c.  vii.,  this  transfer  of  pagan  adulation  is 
retrnked :  Sterna  cum  dicitur,  quoc  temporalis  est,  utique  nomen  est 
blasphemise :  cum  mortales  licet  re^s,  in  ea  dicantur  Divi,  eisque  sup- 
plioes  dicant:  numini  vestro  altanbus  vestris,  perennitati  vestrse,  et 
eeterft,  qusB  vanitas,  non  Veritas  tradit,  atque  exsecrabilia  sunt. 

t  Augustin.  Sermo  xv.  s.  9.  Amurca  per  publicum  currit,  oleum  au- 
tem  ad  sedem  suam  occultos  transitus  habet:  et  cum  occulte  transeat,  in 
magnitadine  apparet.  §  See  Augustin.  ep.  136  ad  MarcelUu. 

VOL.  III.  IL 


130  PAGAN  OBJBCnOHB 

such  great  and  manifest  evils  had  befiillen  the  dbnreh  under 
Christian  princes,  who  for  the  moH  part  were  dUigeni  ohter* 
vers  of  the  Christian  religion.^  Augiudn,  it  is  true,  in  hb 
answer  does  not  undertake  (as  would  have  been  best)  to  4b- 
pute  the  position  that  such  princes  had  been  diligent  obserrav 
of  Christianity ;  but  wliat  he  says  tacitly  supposes  that  he  did 
not  himself  concede  this  position,  and  in  some  measure  touches 
the  merits  of  the  case,  althoudb  he  does  not  enter  de^ly  iirfD 
it.  ^^  It  were  to  be  wished,'  he  says,  *'  that  something,  at 
least,  had  been  said  of  the  conduct  of  the  earlier  empenni: 
thus  examples  would  have  been  adduced  of  a  similar  or  even 
worse  character  under  emperors  who  were  not  Christians ;  and 
it  might  be  seen  that  this  is  the  &ult  of  the  men,  and  not  of 
the  doctrine ;  or  else,  not  of  the  emperors  themselyesi  but  of 
others,  without  whom  the  emperors  could  have  done  nothing.*^ 
The  position  itself  he  disputes  in  his  exceUent  apologetiflu 
work,  "  The  City  of  God,"  where  he  says,  <<  If  all  the  kinp 
of  the  earth,  all  the  nations,  all  the  great,  and  all  judges;  if 
young  and  old  together  would  hear  and  obey  the  doctrines  of 
Christ,  such  a  people  would  at  once  participate  of  all  dvQ 
prosperity  in  this  present  life,  and  of  eternal  blessedness  in  the 
next.  But,"  he  adds,  ^'  because  one  man  listens  to  these  doe- 
trines,  and  another  despises  them ;  and  because  the  great  nuuw 
are  more  attached  to  the  vices  which  flatter  their  oorruptioD) 
than  to  the  salutary  rigour  of  the  virtues ;  the  servants  of 
Christ,  whether  they  be  kings  or  subjects,  rich  or  poor,  fiee- 
men  or  slaves,  endure,  if  n^  be,  even  the  worst  of  goven- 
ments  ;  and,  by  that  patient  endurance,  contribute  to  prepare 
for  themselves  a  place  in  that  holiest  and  most  exalted  com* 
munity  of  angels,  in  that  heavenly  city  where  the  will  of  Grod 
is  law.":(  Augustin,  moreover,  very  justly  remarks  that  the 
fountain  of  those  evils  which  were  improperly  charged  on 
Christianity  was  to  be  traced  to  a  far  earlier  time — ^to  the 
corruption  of  the  Roman  state,  which  had  been  introduced  by 


*  Christianam  religionem  maxima  de  parte  servantes.  This  was  joit 
the  evil  of  it  that  the  pagans  heard  sach  princes  extolled  as  seakoi 
Christians,  that  such  incorrect,  such  meagre  notions  were  entertained  of 
what  belonged  to  the  observance  of  Christianitv ;  that  zeal  for  fonns  of 
belief,  for  the  external  interests  of  the  church,  for  outward  matters  oltiie 
church,  were  confounded  with  vital  Christianity. 

t  Ep.  138  ad  Marceliin.  |  De  civitate  Dei,  1.  II.  o.  19. 


TO  CHRISTIAinTT*  131 

earthly  prosperity,  and  which  had  been  checked  by  no  earthly 
counterpoise.  He  justly  appeals  here  to  the  testimony  of  the 
older  Boman  authors  themselves;  and,  convinced  that  the 
Christian  religion  furnished  the  only  thorough  remedy  for  the 
evil,  he  thanks  God  that  he  had  bestowed  the  means  of  a  radi- 
cal cure  precisely  at  the  time  of  the  greatest  corruption, 
wb^ice  mankind  would  have  ever  sunk  lower  in  ruin.  ^<  Thanks 
be  to  the  Lord  our  Grod,"  he  exclaims,  ^'  who  Bent  us  his  own 
special  assL<ttance  against  those  evils."* 

Another  objection  was  urged  against  Christianity  on  politi- 
cal grounds,  which  sprang,  however,  not  from  any  confound- 
ing of  the  precepts  of  Christianity  with  the  behaviour  of  those 
who  called  thexnselves  Christians,  but  partly  from,  a  misap- 
prehension of  these  precepts  themselves,  and  partly  from  the 
necessary  opposition  between  the  more  political  way  of  think- 
ing peculiar  to  antiquity  and  the  theocratical  and  moral  spirit 
of  Christianity.  The  pagans,  for  instance,  supposed  that  the 
Christian  doctrine  was  irreconcilable  with  the  fundamental 
principles  of  a  state,  and  that  no  state  could  subsist  in  connec- 
tion with  it ;  since  the  precepts  of  the  sermon  on  the  mount 
forbade  war  even  on  the  justest  occasions,  and  thus  the  state 
must  be  exposed  to  every  kind  of  insult  and  wrong  from  the 
barbarians.l  To  this  Augustin  replies  that  these  precepts 
had  refer^ice  to  the  disposition  of  heart,  which,  in  Christians^ 
should  always  be  the  same,  rather  than  to  the  outward  actions. 
They  required  that  the  heart  should  constantly  cherish  the 
same  disposition  of  patience  and  good  will,  while  the  outward 
actions  must  differ  according  as  the  best  interests  of  those 
towards  whom  we  are  thus  disposed  require4  "^o  those  who 
maintained  that  Christianity  necessarily  conflicted  with  the 

*  Aognstin,  in  the  letter  above  cited,  (s.  171,)  comparing  the  effects  of 
Christianity  wiih  the  civic  virtues  of  the  andent  Roman  republic,  finally 
remarks,  **  Thus  Grod  showed,  in  the  example  of  that  flourishing  empire 
of  the  ELomans,  how  much  the  civil  virtues  could  effect  even  without  the 
true  religion,  ihat  it  might  appear  evident  that  men,  when  this  is  also 
added,  b^me  the  citizens  of  another  state,  whose  king  is  the  truth,  whose 
laws  are  love,  and  whose  duration  is  eternity." 

t  Augustin.  ep.  136. 

X  Augustin.  ep.  138.  Ista  praecepta  magis  ad  prseparationem  cordis, 
quse  intus  est*  pertinere,  quam  ad  opus,  quod  in  aperto  fit,  ut  teneatur  in 
secreto  animi  patientia  cum  benevolentia,  in  manifesto  aotem  id  fiat,  quod 
eis  videator  prodesse  posse,  quibus  bene  velle  debemos. 

il2 


132  HINDBANGES  TO  THS 

welfare  of  states,  he  says,  ''  L^  them  give  us  such  warrion 
as  the  Christian  doctrine  requires  they  should  be ;  such  sub- 
jects, such  husbands  and  wives ;  such  fathers,  sons,  masten, 
and  servants;  such  kings  and  judges;  such  payers  and  re- 
ceivers of  tribute  as  they  ought  to  be  according  to  the  precepte 
of  the  Christian  doctrine ; — and  would  they  still  venture  to 
assert  that  this  doctrine  is  opposed  to  the  state  ?  Nay,  would 
they  not  rather  confess,  without  hesitation,  that,  ii  it  wero 
followed,  it  would  prove  the  salvation  of  the  state  ?" 

The  pagans  also  laboured  to  show  in  the  historical  wbj 
that  it  was  by  forsaking  the  national  gods,  to  whom  the  Roman 
empire  owed  its  increase  and  prosperity,  and  by  the  spread  of 
Christianity,  the  state  had  been  ruined.  Such  was  the  aim  of 
Eunapius  and  of  Zosimus  in  their  historical  works,  written  in 
the  fifth  century.  The  Spanish  presbyter  Paulus  Orosius,  ci 
Tarraco,  in  Spain,  at  the  request  of  Augustin,  wrote,  in  the 
year  417,*  his  historical  compend,  for  the  purpose  of  refuting 
this  charge  by  facts  of  history;  and  for  the  same  reason 
Augustin  himself  was  led  to  write  his  profound  work  concern- 
ing the  origin,  character,  progress,  and  ultimate  aim  of  the 
city  of  God.  f 

C.  Various  obstacles  which  hindered  the  Progress  of  Ckris^ 
tianity  among  the  Heathen ;  various  means  and  methods 
by  which  it  was  promoted ;  and  the  different  kinds  of  Con- 
version. 

The  obstacles  which,  in  this  particular  period,  hindered  the 
progress  of  Christianity  among  the  heathen,  varied  among 
the  different  classes  of  the  heathen  according  to  their  differaat 
tendencies  of  mind  and  feeling.  Some  to  heathen  superstition 
united  the  consciousness  of  great  crime,  and  sought  in  the 
former  an  antidote  against  the  stings  of  the  latter.  They  were 
unwilling  to  abandon  the  superstition  in  which  they  had  been 
used  to  find  so  convenient  a  prop ;  and  a  religion  presenting 
moral  claims  had  no  attractions  for  them,  unless  when  un- 
worthy priests,  who  made  Christianity  itself  to  be  only  another 
paganism,  had  either  lowered,  or  concealed  from  them,  these 
moral  claims,  for  the  purpose  of  converting  avowed  pagans 

*  Adversns  Paganos  historiamm  libri  vii. 
t  De  civitate  Dei,  libri  xxii. 


SPREAD  OF  CHBISTIANITY.  133 

into  nominal  Christians.     Others,  who,  to  the  eyes  of  men  or 
in  their  own  superficial  view,  had  led  blameless  lives,  imagined 
they  possessed  all  they  needed  in  their  own  religion,  and  espe- 
cially that  they  needed  not  a  Redeemer.     In  this  delusion 
they  were  more  confirmed,  when,  instead  of  examining  their 
hearts  by  the  demands  of  the  holy  law  in  their  conscience,  or 
of  comparing  themselves  with  real  and  living  Christians,  of 
whom  perhaps  they  never  saw  an  example  within  the  circle  of 
their  acquaintance,  they  contrasted  themselves  with  the  vastly 
great  number  of  nominal  Christians.     It  is  of  such  August  in 
speaks  :*  "  You  will  find,"  he  says,  "  many  pagans  refusing 
to  embrace  Christianity,  because  they  are  satisfied  with  their 
own  good  lives.    One  should  live,  say  they,  uprightly.    What 
further  precept  can  Christ  give  us?     We  lead  good  lives 
already :  what  need  have  we  of  Christ  ?  We  commit  no  mur- 
der, theft,  nor  robbery;  we  covet  no  man's  possessions,  we 
are  guilty  of  no  breach  of  the  matrimonial  bond.     Let  some- 
thing worthy  of  censure  be  found  in  our  lives,  and  whoever 
can  point  it  out  may  make  us  Christians."     Comparing  him- 
self with  the  nominal  Christians  •  "  Why  would  you  persuade 
me  to  become  a  Christian?     I  have  been  defrauded  bv  a 
Christian ;  I  never  defrauded  any  man ;  a  Christian  has  broken 
his  oath  to  me,  and  I  never  broke  my  word  to  any  man."! 
Others,  men  of  profounder  feelings,  men  who  were  animated 
by  a  loflier  moral  idea,  and  who  perceived  the  contrast  be- 
tween this  and  their  own  life,  sought  for  peace  in  doctrines 
which  no  doubt  had  sprung  from  the  universal  religious  sense 
of  mankind — those  doctrines  which  formed  the  system  of  the 
Neo-Platonists  concerning  a  God  who  would  purify  from  the 
stains  that  adhered  to  them,  and  free  from  their  chains  the 
struggling  and  suffering  souls  which,  derived  from  himself, 
were  fettered  in  the  bonds  of  a  sensual  nature,  and  sighed 
after  their  original  source.J     With  this  they  united  a  thteory 
which  taught  various  mysterious  outward  methods  of  expiation 
and  cleansing,  whereby  men  could  draw  down  upon  themselves 
the  redeeming  and  sanctifying  powers  of  the  deity  to  purify 
and  preserve  both  body  and  soul ;   where,  however,  it  was 
doubtless  at  the  same  time  assumed  that  the  right  disposition 

*  In  Ps.  xzi.    Enarrat  II.  s.  2. 

t  In  Ps.  xxY.    £Inarrat  II.  s.  14. 

X  Ztuf  fvwusy  »m6»^ru(f  ii.u>Jxm'    See  the  Hymns  of  Synesius. 


134  DIFFEREHT  GLASSES 

existed  withio.*  To  many  this  presentiment  of  a  redeeming 
God  became  afterwards,  when  they  perceived  the  insufficiencf 
of  those  outward  means  of  expiation,  a  point  of  transition  to 
Christianity. 

Again,  from  the  rude  and  uncultivated  mass  who  wen 
wholly  sunk  in  blind  superstition,  we  should  distinguish  the 
men  of  education.  In  particular,  there  were  then  among  the 
pagans  in  the  large  cities  multitudes  of  half-educated  men, 
from  the  rhetorical  schools,  with  whom  certain  rhetarieal 
flourishes,  a  certain  round  of  fine  set  phrases,  which  they  had 
learned  to  repeat,  passed  for  a  genuine  culture  of  mind  and 
heart;  men  whose  taste,  train^  to  efieminacy  from  their 
youth  upwards  in  those  showy  and  superficial  schools,  had 
contracted  a  disrelinh  for  all  vigorous  and  sound  nourishment, 
both  of  mind  and  heart.  The  difficulty  of  approaching  such 
persons  increased  in  the  same  proporticm  with  their  shallow 
and  superficial  way  of  thinking,  and  their  dulness  of  sense  to 
all  the  deeper  moral  and  religious  wants  of  their  nature^  Such 
men  could  put  up  with  nothing  but  that  which  came  recom- 
mended to  them  in  beautiful  phrases.  The  plainness  and  sirnpU- 
city  of  the  sacred  word  wbls  to  them  reason  enough  for  despising 
it.  And,  although  they  knew  very  little  about  philosopi^ 
themselves,  yet  they  wanted  a  philosophical  religion,  and 
reproached  the  Christians  on  account  of  their  blind  credulity. 
Of  such,  Theodoretus  says,  "  Some  who  have  read  the  poets 
and  orators,  some  who  have  also  had  a  taste  of  Plato's  elo- 
quence, despise  the  sacred  scriptures,  because  they  are  not  set 

*  E.  g.,  Longinianus,  a  pagan  of  North  Africa,  writes  to  Augustin, 
Yrho  had  questioned  him  with  regard  to  his  own  opinion  on  the  ri^ 
way  which  leads  to  God  (ep.  234^,  Via. est  in  Deum  melior,  qua  vir 
bonus  piis,  justis,  veris,  castis  dictis  factisque  probatns,  et  Deomm 
comitatu  valhitus,  in  Deum  intentione  animi  mentisque  ire  festimt.  Via 
est,  quse  purgati  antiquorum  sacrorum  piis  prseceptis,  expiatiombusqiie 
purissimis,  et  abstemiis  obsenrationibus  decocti,  anima  et  corpora  oon- 
stautes  deproperant.  Also  Simplicius  holds  that,  along  with  the  inner 
spiritual  purification  of  the  soul  by  the  rational  knowledge  of  Grod  and  a 
life  iu  harmony  with  nature,  the  external  means  of  purificatioo  handed 
down  from  the  gods,  by  which  the  body  is  sanctified  as  the  organ  of  die 
soul,  are  also  necessary  in  order  that  the  whole  man  may  partake  of  the 
hTet  iXkdft^is.  Simplicii  in  Epictet.  enchiridion,  p.  218.  It  must  be 
confessed  that  a  great  deal  may  be  found  here  which  is  analogous  to  the 
church  doctrine  of  that  period  respecting  the  magical  sanctifying  effects 
of  the  sacraments. 


OF  PAGANS.  135 

out  with  beautiful  phrases ;  and  tbey  are  ashamed  to  learn  the 
truth  from  fishermen.  And  this  pride  is  found  in  men  who 
possessed  but  a  superficial  knowledge  of  the  Greek  philosophy, 
— ^who  have  only  scnqped  together,  from  one  quarter  and 
another,  a  sort  of  literary  medley.*  Of  such,  Augustin,  in 
his  beautiful  tract,  entitled,  ^^  A  guide  to  the  instruction  of 
the  different  classes  of  pagan  catechumens,"  says  that  their 
4eachers  must  accustom  them  to  hear  scripture  read,  without 
despising  it  because  its  lauguage  is  so  simple  and  free  from  all 
riietorical  embellishments.')'  It  is  to  such  Theodoretus  says,^ 
« It  was  God's  will  that  all  men,  Greeks  and  barbarians, 
kamed  and  unlearned,  shoemakers,  weavers,  and  other  me- 
chanics, moreover  slaves,  beggars,  women,  both  such  as  live 
in  the  abundance  of  all  things,  and  such  as  depend  on  the 
work  of  their  own  hands,  should  draw  from  the  same  fountain 
of  salvation :  for  this  reason  he  employed  fishermen,  and  one 
who  was  a  shoemaker  (he  should  have  said  a  tent-maker, 
Paul),  as  his  instruments ;  and  he  let  their  language  remain 
■OM  U  was  in  the  beginning^  but  poured  through  the  same  the 
dear  streams  of  haiivenly  wisdom." 

Chrysostom  once  heard  a  Christian,  in  disputing  with  a 
rhetorically  educated  pagan  of  this  class,  contend  that,  in  the 
elegant  and  proper  use  of  the  Greek  language,  Paul  was  supe- 
rior to  Plato.  He  censured  the  Christian  who  so  badly  under- 
stood hSw  to  defend  his  own  cause ;  since  the  very  point  he 
was  chiefly  concerned  to  make  out  was,  that  the  apostles  were 
men  destitute  of  human  learning  and  art,  in  order  to  show 
that  it  was  not  human  power,  but  the  power  of  God,  which 
<^>erated  through  them.§ 

Among  the  cultivated  pagans  the  following  view  of  religion 
extensively  prevailed :  that  with  the  diversity  of  nations  and 
the  varieties  of  the  human  race  was  necessarily  connected  the 
diversity  of  religions.  There  was,  indeed,  but  one  original 
divine  Essence ;  but  the  union  between  this  highest  one  and 

*  Theodoret  Grac.  afiect  carat  Disputat.  I.  p.  696,  T.  IV. 

t  I>e  catechizand.  mdib.  c  9.  Sunt  quidam  de  scholis  nsitatissixnis 
gnunmatioorum  oratonimque  Yeniexites,  quos  neque  inter  idiotas  name- 
rare  audeas  neque  inter  illos  doctissimos.  Docendi  sint  scripturas  audire 
divinas,  ne  sordeat  eis  solidam  eloqaiam,  quia  non  est  ihflatom. 

X  Dispntat.  VI IT.  p.  899. 

§  Chi^eostom.  «p.  ad  Corinth.  I.  H.  III. 


1 36  EDUCATED  PAO AHB. 

the  endlessly  diversified  forms  of  humanity  coold  only  be 
mediated  throu^^h  certain  higher  natures  which  had  emaiiated 
from  that  original  Essence,  viz.  the  gods,  imder  whoie 
dominion  the  several  portions  of  the  earth  were  distributed. 
Or,  again,  they  conceived  all  the  different  religions  to  be  otSj 
different  forms  of  the  revelation  of  one  and  the  same  divine 
substance — to  be  one  essence  in  manifold  forms ;  and  it  wti 
precisely  by  this  manifoldness,  as  they  supposed,  that  Grod  mi 
most  highly  honoured.  There  could  not  be  one  single  way 
alone  which  conducted,  exclusive  of  all  others,  to  the  supreme^ 
hidden,  original  Essence ;  it  was  only  by  different  ways  thtt 
men  could  attain  to  the  most  hidden  mystery  of  the  divine 
Being.  Accordingly,  says  Simplicius,*  God  is  every whoe 
present,  with  all  his  divine  powers ;  but  limited  men,  who  are 
confined  to  their  several  determinate  spots  of  the  earth,  oould 
not  grasp  the  immense  whole.  The  divine  powers,  like  natozal 
p:ifts,  must  be  variously  distributed.  Accordingly,  the  Neo* 
Platonic  pagan  philosopher  Proclus  worshipped  Greek  and 
Oriental  divinities,  according  to  the  peculiar  Greek  and  Ori- 
ental modes  of  worship;  it  being  his  wont  to  say,  that  the 
philosoper  ought  not  to  bind  himself  to  the  observance  of  this 
or  that  national  form  of  worship,  but,  as  the  conuoion  hiero* 
phant  for  the  whole  world,  be  ^miliar  with  every  form  of 
religion.f  '*  The  rivalship  of  the  different  religions,"  says 
Themistius  to  the  emperor  Jovian,:(  "  directly  contnbutes  to 
stir  up  zeal  in  worship.  There  are  different  ways — some  more 
difficult,  others  easier ;  some  rougher,  others  more  plain  and 
even — which  lead  to  the  same  goal.  If  you  allow  but  one 
way  to  be  good,  and  hedge  up  the  others,  emulation  is  at  an 
end.  God  desires  no  such  agreement  among  men.  As  Hera- 
clitus  says.  Nature  loves  to  hide  herself,  and  still  more  than 
nature,  the  Creator  of  it — whom  we  reverence  particularly  on 
this  account,  because  the  knowledge  of  him  does  not  lie  on 
the  surface,  and  is  not  to  be  acquired  Mrithout  toil.  As  you 
have  various  ranks  and  conditions  among  your  subjects,  who 
all  in  like  manner  depend  on  you,  and  look  up  to  you,  so,  be 
assured,  the  Lord  of  the  universe  also  takes  pleasure  in  variety 
and  in  the  diversities  of  condition.      It  is  his  will  that  the 

*  In  Epictet.  enchiridion,  pp.  219,  220. 

t  See  Marini  vita  Procli,  p.  74. 

X  See  the  above-cited  discourse^  pp.  67,  68. 


EDUCATED  PAGANS.  137 

Syrians  should  worship  him  in  one  way,  the  Greeks  in  another, 
and  the  Egyptians  in  still  another.  And,  again,  the  Syrians 
are  not  agreed  among  themselves,  but  are  subdivided  into  dif- 
lierent  minor  sects.  None  have  precisely  the  same  notions 
with  the  others.  Why,  then,  should  we  try  to  force  that 
which  is  impossible  in  the  nature  of  things  ?"  In  like  manner 
writes  Symmachus,  in  the  above-cited  Belatio  ad  Yalen- 
tmianum :  ^'  It  is  reasonable  that  we  should  hold  that  Being 
whom  all  worship  to  be  one  and  the  same.  We  all  see  the 
same  stars ;  there  is  a  common  cope  of  heaven  ;  the  same  uni- 
verse contains  us.  What  matters  it  in  what  way  each  finds 
tiie  truth  ?  By  one  way  it  is  impossible  to  reach  so  hidden  a 
matter."  If  no  regard  were  paid  to  the  essential  oppositioi 
between  Christian  Iheism  and  paganism,  it  might  seem  as  if 
Christianity  too  easily  admitted  of  being  taken  up  into  this 
eclecticism,  and  might  find  its  place,  along  with  the  others,  as 
one  of  the  manifold  forms  of  religion.  But  the  peculiar 
essence  of  Christianity  struggled  against  everything  like  this ; 
and  on  this  account  it  was  exposed  the  more  to  the  reproach 
of  a  stiff  and  uncompromising  intolerance.  It  substituted  an 
objective,  firm,  and  stedfast  word  of  God  in  place  of  the  im- 
pure and  barely  subjective  presentiment,  feeling,  and  opinion 
of  man,  which  confounded  godlike  and  ungodlike ;  and  it 
made  that  divine  word  a  judge  of  the  thoughts  and  feelings. 
Ambrosius  says  rightly  to  Symmachus,  '^  Come  and  learn  on 
the  earth  the  walk  in  heaven.  Here  we  live,  and  there  is  our 
walk.  Let  God,  my  Creator,  teach  me  himself  the  mysteries 
of  heaven.  Let  not  man  teach  me,  who  knows  not  even 
himself." 

It  is  true,  the  religious  way  of  thinking  we  have  just 
described  possessed  some  truth  at  bottom  ;  which  truth,  how- 
ever,  Christianity  alone  teaches  us  how  to  separate  from  the 
&lsehood  with  which  it  is  associated.  That  free  development 
of  the  individualities  of  human  character  in  religion  is. to  be 
found  in  Christianity,  as  it  had  nowhere  been  seen  before ;  but 
it  is  here  subordinated  to  a  higher,  all-transforming  principle ; 
and  by  this  it  was  to  be  gradually  purged  from  all  intermixture 
of  the  ungodlike  element.  To  that  equalization  of  all  forms 
of  religion,  which  sprang  out  of  the  principle  of  the  deifica- 
tion of  nature,  an  error  of  the  contrary  kind  did,  indeed,  oppose 
itself  at  that  time  in  the  Christian  church.     This  error  had  its 


188  DIFFERENT  WATS  OF  CONYEBSION — 

ground,  however,  not  in  CSiristianitj  itaelf,  but  in  human  ift- 
ventions,  confounded  with  Christianity — in  a  nazrow  dognar 
tism,  which  would  adhere  to  one  fixed  and  detenninate  fbrmot 
the  human  apprehension  of  Christianity,  which  farm  couldy  flo 
more  than  anything  else  human,  be  exempt  from  error  and 
adapted  to  all  human  minds  and  all  stages  of  the  developmoit 
of  Christian  faith  and  Christian  knowledge.  Yet  this  ftna 
was  to  be  maintained  as  complete,  eternally  Talid,  the  oo^ 
true  way  of  apprehending  Christianity ;  amd  all  minds  finroed 
into  this  one  yoke.  As  opposed  to  this  other  extreme^  the 
erroneous,  pagan  way  of  thinking  might  the  more  easily  Been 
to  present  a  semblance  of  truth. 

As  the  relation  of  the  different  classes  of  pagans  to  Chris- 
tianity varied,  so  also  the  ways  were  various  by  which  they 
were  led  to  embrace  the  gospel ;  and  in  the  great  variety  cf 
these  leadings  was  shown  tiie  manifold  wisdom  of  Grod.  But 
we  must  first  distinguish  in  this  period  betweoi  conveEHioii  in 
the  proper  and  Chi^tian  sense — an  inward  diange  of  dispo- 
sition wrought  by  Christianity — and  the  mere  outward  adoptiaii 
of  Christianity;  that  is,  of  its  name  and  ceremonial  observ- 
ances, or  an  exchange  of  open,  undisguised  paganism,  fixr  a 
nominal  Christianity  covering  a  pagan  way  of  thinking.  It 
must  foe  evident,  from  what  has  already  been  observed  respect- 
ing the  spread  of  Christianity  under  the  Christian  emperon, 
that  in  this  period  the  number  of  conversions  of  the  latter 
kind  &r  exceeded  those  of  the  former.  And  this  is  confirmed 
by  the  testimony  of  those  church-teachers  who  were  right 
earnest  in  bringing  about  conversions  of  the  genuine  stamp. 
Thus  Augustiu,  for  instance,  in  remarking  on  John  vL  &, 
complains,  '^  How  many  seek  Jesus  only  that  he  may  benefit 
them  in  earthly  matters!  One  man  has  a  lawsuit, — so  he 
seeks  the  intercession  of  the  clergy ;  another  is  oppressed  hj 
his  superior, — so  he  takes  refuge  in  the  church.  Others  are 
seeking,  one  in  this  way,  and  another  in  that,  to  be  interceded 
for  in  some  quarter  where  they  have  but  little  influence  them- 
selves. The  church  is  daily  full  of  such  persons.  Seldom  is 
Jesus  sought  for  Jesus'  sake.*** 

*  In  John.  Tract.  XXV.  c.  10.  Augustin  also  notices  as  ontwtid 
reasons  which  led  many  to  adopt  Christianity  (p.  47^,  Ut  majorem 
amicnm  conciliet,  nt  ad  concupitam  uxorem  pervemat,  nt  aliqnam 
prcssuram  hujus  seculi  evadat. 


TBUE  AJSJ>  FALSE.  139 

Doubtless  it  might  happen  that  many,  whose  sole  intention 
hypocritically  to  put  on  the  profession  of  Christianity, 
VDold  be  led  fiirther  tiian  they  meant  to  be,  by  some  bishop  or 
ciKtecliist  who  understood  his  calling  and  its  duties.  Such  an 
me  first  took  pains  to  infoim  himself,  in  the  way  prescribed 
fay  Augustin  in  his  excellent  guide  to  the  catechist  (the  tract 
.  de  catechizandis  rudibus),  of  the  reasons  which  induced  the 
pagan  to  seek  bi^tism.  If  he  showed  that  he  was  actuated 
liy  impure  motives,  such  an  enlightened  teacher  would  gently 
repel  him.  Or  if,  which  was  most  often  the  case,  he  answered 
the  inquiries  of  the  catechist  in  conformity  with  his  own  hypo- 
critical disposition,  still  the  catechist  endeavoured  to  give  his 
conversation  such  a  turn  as  to  reach  the  heart  of  the  heathen 
Mm.  '^  Often,"  says  the  bishop  Augustin, — speaking  here 
^om  the  experience  which  must  belong  to  all  men  of  the  like 
ipirit, — "  often  the  mercy  of  God  so  comes  to  the  help  of  the 
catechist's  ministry,  that  the  pagan,  moved  by  his  diiscoiuse, 
resolves  to  become  that  which  he  meant  to  feign  ."''^  But  if 
pBgans  of  this  character  came  to  one  of  the  great  majority  of 
those  ecclesiastics,  men  wholly  without  experience  in  the  trial 
of  spirits,  or  who  were  only  interested  to  multiply  the  number 
of  nominal  Christians,  they  were  received  at  once  into  the 
same  number  without  further  question.  Yet  even  these,  afta* 
being  incorporated  with  the  visible  church,  might  be  led  by 
what  was  there  presented  to  them ;  by  the  impressions  which 
they  involuntarily  received ;  by  the  society  of  Christians ;  by 
participating  in  the  acts  of  worship ;  by  some  word  of  the  ser- 
mon to  which  they  might  be  listening  with  others  on  some 
great  festival, — by  such  or  other  means, — to  find  in  the  church 
a  good  of  a  higher  kind  than  any  which  they  had  sought  for 
in  it.  Hence,  Augustin  remarks,  ^^  Many,  who  presented 
themselves  to  the  church  with  such  impure  motives,  were, 
notwithstanding,  reformed  after  they  had  once  come  into  it."f 

*  De  catechiz.  rodib.  c.  5.  Seepe  adest  misericordia  Dei,  per  ministe- 
riom  cathechizantis,  at  sermone  commotus  jam  fieri  velit,  quod  decreverat 
fingere.  So  also  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  in  the  prologue  to  his  Catechesis, 
8.  4,  remarks,  "  A  man  may  present  himself  for  baptism  to  please  his 
wife,  a  wife  to  please  her  husband,  a  servant  to  please  his  master,  a 
fiiend  to  please  his  friend.  And  now  it  is  incumbent  on  the  catechist, 
through  whatever  motives  the  individual  may  have  come,  to  lead  him  to 
find  in  the  church  something  higher  and  better  than  he  was  seeking  for.'* 

t  Augustin.  s.  47.    Multi  etiam  sic  intrantes  corriguntur  ingressi. 


I 

J 

140  DIFFERENT  WAYS  OF  (XHTVEBSION — 

But,  assuredly,  no  one  was  warranted  for  this  reason  to  ooon- 
tenanee  such  hypocrisy, — to  approve  the  evil,  that  good  migfel 
come  out  of  it.  And  beyond  all  doubt,  the  number  was  fir 
greater  of  those  who  grew  hardened  in  that  worldly  sense,  by 
which  from  the  first  they  had  profaned  a  holy  profession,  and 
who  were  thus  the  means  of  introducing  into  the  church  a 
gTeat  mass  of  corruption.  Among  the  fruits  of  such  mere  oo^ 
ward  conversions  were  those  who  were  found,  soon  after¥rard% 
at  the  altars  of  the  false  gods.  We  have  proof  of  this  in  the 
laws  enacted  against  apostates  in  the  reign  of  the  emperor 
Tlieodosius  (see  above).* 

Yet  these  gross  worldly  motives  were  not  the  only  onei 
which  led  to  hypocritical  conversions ;  as,  indeed,  there  wera 
many  different  stages  of  hypocrisy  in  these  conversions,  accord- 
ing as  the  consciousness  of  deception  was  more  or  less  presmt; 
according  as  intentional  fraud  or  unconscious  self-deception 
more  or  less  predominated.  Many  were  first  awakened  by 
outward  impressions,  which  might  lead  them  to  a  superstition 
wliich  had  simply  changed  its  colour,  as  well  as  from  superstitioD 
to  the  faith.  Many  supposed  they  had  seen  miraculous  effixti 
produced  by  the  sign  of  the  cross,  similar  to  what  had  bees 
witnessed,  though  under  different  circumstances,  by  Constan- 
tine ;  others,  who  had  heard  of  the  divine  power  of  Christ) 
driven  in  some  strait  to  seek  for  assistance  from  tlie  unknown 
God,  believed  they  had  seen  him  visibly  manifested,  and  that 
they  were  thus  delivered.f  To  others,  some  occurrence  of 
the  day,  which  was  afterwards  forgotten,  but  which  had  made 
an  impression  on  tlieir  souls,  of  whicii,  however,  they  were  but 
vaguely  conscious,  would  reappear  in  the  form  of  a  dream, 
where  they  imagined  they  saw  Christ,  or  some  martyr,  threat- 
ening, warning,  admonishing  them.  In  all  such  cases,  how- 
ever, it  might  be  that  the  individual  was  seeking  in  Christianity 
only  for  some  earthly  good,  although  he  was  not  hoping  to 
obtain  it  from  man,  like  the  class  of  hypocritical  professoro 
first  mentioned,  but  from  God.  Not  love,  but  fear,  which 
easily  creates  idols,  or  not  the  love  which  is  bent  on  heavenly 
things,  but  a  material  craving  after  miraculous  revelations  to 
tlie  senses,  which  he  hoped  to  find  in  Christianity,  led  him  to 

*  See  the  entire  Titulus  VII.  of  the  1.  XVI.  Cod.  Theodos.    Coinp. 
the  decrees  of  Siricius  ad  Himerium,  of  the  year  385,  s.  4. 
f  See,  e,  g.,  Paulin.  Nolan,  ep.  3G  ad  Macarium. 


TBUE  AND  FALSE.  141 

i  cbuTch.  Much  depended  also  on  the  circumstance  \Fhether 
found  a  teacher  who  could  point  him  away  from  sensuous 
spiritual  things.  According  to  Augustin's  directions  to 
e  catechist,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  latter  to  take  advantage 
^  such  conmiunications  to  impress  it  on  the  heathen's  heart 
iw  great  was  God's  care  for  men ;  but  then  he  should  abo 
im  to  divert  his  mind  from  such  wonders  and  dreams,  and  lead 
in  the  more  certain  way,  and  to  the  surer  testimonies  of 
Idy  Scripture ; — he  should  inform  him  that  God  would  not 
waken  him  by  such  signs  and  dreams,  if  a  safer  way  had  not 
een  already  prepared  for  him  in  Holy  Scripture,  where  he 
ras  not  to  seek  for  visible  miracles,  but  accustom  himself  to 
lit  for  invisible  ones ; — where  he  would  be  taught  of  God, 
ot  in  the  visions  of  sleep,  but  while  awake,*  But  when  such 
iftchers  in  Christianity  were  wanting,  individuals  of  this  class 
light  easily  be  so  misled  as  merely  to  substitute,  in  place  of 
re  pagan  superstition,  another  under  the  Christian  dress. 
It  so  happened  that  many  had  their  fears  excited  by  parti- 
liar  outward  impressions,  or  by  the  inner  excitements  of 
XKscience.f  They  felt  the  need  of  pardon ;  but  they  had  no 
ght  conception  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  or  of  what  must  be 
>iie  on  man's  part  in  order  to  obtain  it.  They  dreamed  of 
jtaining  at  once,  by  the  opus  operatum  of  baptism,  the 
lagical  extinction  of  their  sins,  although  they  still  continued 
I  the  practice  of  them.  Now,  in  case  such  individuals  came 
>  a  bishop  or  catechist,  of  the  character  required  in  the  above- 
ted  work  of  Augustin,  such  a  teacher  would  avail  himself  of 
le  disturbed  conscience,  which  had  brought  them  to  him,  as 
fiivourable  opportunity  for  preaching  to  them  repentance, 
xl  of  leading  them  from  the  way  of  a  hypocritical  to  an 
)nest  conversion.  But,  unhappily,  there  were  bishops  whose 
dy  wish  was  to  make  the  conversion  to  Christianity  a  right 
isy  tiling  for  the  pagans ;  and  whose  instructions,  tlierefore, 
rved  much  rather  to  confirm  them  in  this  wrong  state  of 
ind  than  to  draw  them  away  from  it.  They  merely  told 
lem  what  they  would  have  to  believe  in  order  to  be  Christians ; 
it  they  were  silent  as  to  the  obligations  to  a  holy  life  which 

*  De  catechiz.  nidib.  c.  6. 

t  Augustin.  de  catechizand.  mdib.  c.  v.  Karissime  qnippe  accidit, 
uno  vero  nunquam,  at  quisquam  veniat  volens  fieri  Christianus,  qui 
m  sit  fdiquo  Dei  timore  percmsus. 


142  EAST  00NV£KSI02r& 

flowed  out  of  this  faith,  lest  they  might  thus  be  deterred  hom  % 
baptism.  Hence  they  baptized  evea  those  who  lived  in  ojpm  |, 
sin,  and  who  plainly  enough  manifested  that  it  was  not  thdli  \i 
purpose  to  forsake  it.  They  imagined  that,  when  these  wem- 
once  baptized  and  introduced  into  the  fisUowship  of  thft 
church,  it  was  then  time  enough  to  admonish  them  agaiait 
sin.  These  corrupt  modes  of  procedure  originated  partly  ni 
the  erroneous  notions  of  worth  attached  to  a  barely  ontwnd 
baptism  and  outward  church  fellowship ;  and  partly  in  As 
^Ise  notions  of  what  constituted  faith,  and  of  the  relation 
of  the  doctrines  of  fiuth  and  of  morals  in  Christianity  to  eaek 
other.* 

Against  this  mode  of  procedure,  and  the  errors  out  of  whieh. 
it  sprang,  Augustin  wrote  his  excellent  work  de  fide  et  (^leri-, 
bus.  He  says  here,  §  9,  ''  What  more  befitting  time  can  be 
found  for  one  to  hear  about  the  fidth  which  he  ought  to  cheriih^ 
and  how  he  ought  to  live,  than  that  time  when,  with  a  soul 
full  of  longing  desire,  he  pants  after  the  sacrament  of  ftith 
that  conducts  to  salvation  ?  What  other  season  can  be  a  mim 
appropriate  oae  for  learning  what  manner  of  walk  is  salted 
to  so  great  a  sacrament,  which  they  are  longing  to  receife? 
Will  it  be  after  they  have  received  it ;  even  tiiough  after  bap- 
tism they  should  be  in  the  practice  of  great  sins, — even  thoogik 
they  have  never  as  yet  become  new  men,  but  remain  in  thor 
former  guilt?  Then,  by  a  strange  perversion  of  language,  it 
would  first  be  said  to  them,  'Put  on  the  new  man;'  and 
then,  after  they  have  done  so,  '  Put  off  the  old  man ;'  whereai 
the  apostle,  observing  the  proper  order  of  things,  says, '  Pot 

*  They  imagined  that  such  persons,  by  means  of  that  outward  bap^tt 
and  the  outward  fellowship  of  the  church,  by  means  of  tibat  wbiefa  f% 
called  faith,  had  at  least  a  hope  of  salTation  beyond  that  of  the  psf^i^ 
although,  ere  they  could  attain  to  it,  it  would  be  necessary  for  taem.  to 
pass  through  a  refining  fire,  ignis  purgatorius.  Against  such  hiahM 
animated  with  this  fiilse  zeal  for  muldpiying  the  numbers  of  the  Cfam- 
tians,  Chrysostom  takes  ground  in  his  tract  vr^it  ro  AnfMir^ln  «n^j  mmm 
vv^Mt,  T.  VI.  ed.  Savil.  f.  145.  **  Our  Lord  utters  it  as  a  precept,  Ghe 
not  that  which  is  holy  unto  the  dop,  neither  cast  ye  your  peuis  befti* 
swine.  But  through  foolish  vanity  and  ambition  we  have  sabverled 
this  commaud  too,  by  admitting  those  corrupt,  unbelieving  men,  who  ire 
full  of  evil,  before  they  have  given  us  any  satis&ctory  evidenoe  of  t 
change  of  mind,  to  partake  of  the  sacraments.  It  is  on  this  aoeoat 
many  of  those  who  were  thus  baptized  have  fallen  away,  and  have  oeei- 
sioned  much  scandal." 


EAST  OOSTEBSRXaB.  143 

ff  tbe  kM  mui,  and  pat  on  the  new.'  CoIoe.  iii.  9.  10 ;  and 
bs  Lioid  himself  exclaims,  '  No  man  puttetli  a  piece  of  new 
iodi  into  an  old  garment ;  neither  do  men  pat  new  wine  into 
M  bottles,'  Mattfa.  ix.  16,  17." 

The  adTocates  of  these  measoies  aUeged  in  their  defence, 
ftat  in  the  letters  of  the  apostles  the  doctrines  of  fiuth  pre- 
eeded  those  of  morals.  To  this  Aogostin  replied,  ^^  This  might 
hKve  some  weight,  if  it  were  tbe  &ct  that  there  are  panicu- 
kr  writings  of  the  apostles  addressed  to  the  catechumens,  and 
other  particolar  epistles  addressed  to  the  baptized  ;  and  in  the 
ftrmer  nothing  bat  the  doctrines  of  fiuth  were  presented  ;  in 
the  latter  nothing  bat  the  doctrine  of  morals.  But  the  truth 
ii,  all  the  epistles  are  addressed  to  ChrisHmu  already  hap- 
^zed.  Why,  then,  do  we  find  the  two  things  combined  ?  We 
iDBst  grant,  both  belong  to  the  complete  sum  of  Christian  doc- 
trine ;  bat  that  they  have  commonly  placed  the  doctrines  of 
fidth  before  the  precepts  of  liring,  because  a  holy  life  presup- 
pmes  the  £uth  out  of  which  it  springs."  Next,  they  defended 
their  mode  of  proceeding  by  appealing  to  the  example  of  the 
apoatle  Peter,  who  preaiched  nothing  but  fiuth  to  the  three 
thousand  who  were  baptized  after  his  first  discourse,  and  who, 
when  they  asked  him  what  they  should  do,  simply  replied, 
"  Bep«it  and  be  baptized,  every  one  of  you,  in  the  name  of 
Jesos  Christ,  for  the  remission  of  sins,"  Acts  ii.  38.  To  this 
Aogostin  replied,  that  in  the  requisition  of  repentance  was  in 
fint  implied  already  the  requisition  to  put  off  the  old  man  and 
to  pot  on  the  new ;  and  the  remark  in  verse  40,  that  Peter  with 
many  other  words  testified  and  exhorted,  saying,  '^  Save  your- 
selves from  this  untoward  generation,"  certainly  supposes  that 
they  were  required  to  r^iounce  every  sinful  practice  which 
belonged  to  the  character  of  that  sinful  generation. 

In  opposition  to  the  practice  of  citing  exclusively  those 
passages  of  scripture  which  speak  solely  of  the  preaching  of 
Hdth  in  Christ,  or  of  Christ  crucified,  as  Acts  viii.  37,  and  2 
Cor.  ii.  2,  iii.  10,  Augustin  very  justly  remarks,  "  One  im- 
portant piart  of  preaching  faith  in  Christ  is,  to  teach  how  the 
members  must  be  constituted,  which  he  seeks  in  order  to  be 
their  head ;  which  he  forms,  loves,  redeems,  and  conducts  to 
eternal  life.  An  important  part  of  preaching  Christ  crucified 
is,  to  teach  how  we  ought  to  be  crucified  with  him  to  the 
world, — consequently  everything  that  relates  to  the  duty  of 


144  NEW  PLATOJSnSM, 

self-denial.  By  that  &ith  in  Christ  whidi  Paul  makes  the 
foundation  of  the  whole  Christian  life,  he  does  not  undeistaiid 
such  faith  as  wicked  spirits  also  might  pooacos,  but  that  filth- 
by  which  Christ  dwells  in  the  heart, — that  living  fidth  whiefa 
works  by  love,  and  comprehends  in  itself  every  other  gmce." 

Many  educated  pagans  were  conducted  to  the  fiith,  not  at 
once,  by  means  of  some  sudden  excitement,  but  after  they  had 
beea  led  by  particular  providences,  by  the  great  multitude  of 
Christians  around  them,  to  entertain  doubts  of  the  pagan  leli-. 
gion  they  had  received  from  their  ancestors,  and  to  enter  upon- 
a  serious  examination  of  the  several  systems  of  religion  within 
tiieir  reach.  They  read  the  holy  scriptures  and  the  writinn 
of  the  Christian  fathers;  they  proposed  their  doubts, -their 
difficulties  to  Christian  friends,*  and  finally  made  up  their 
minds  to  go  to  the  bishop.  Many  came,  by  slow  degpreei, 
through  many  intervening  steps  to  Christianity ;  and  the  Neo- 
Platonic,  religious  idealism  formed  one  stage  in  particular  by 
which  they  were  brought  nearer  to  Christian  ideas^  as  is  seeo 
in  the  examples  of  a  Synesius  and  an  Augustin.  This  system 
made  them  ^miliar  with  the  doctrine  of  a  Triad.  Although 
this  doctrine,  in  its  speculative  matter  and  its  speculative  tend* 
€ncy,  was  altogether  different  from  the  Christian  doctrine, 
which  is  in  its  essence  practical  throughout,  yet  they  were 
thereby  made  attentive  to  Christian  ideas.  They  were  con-; 
ducted  still  nearer  to  practical  Christianity  by  the  doctrine  ' 
that  man  needed  to  be  redeemed  and  purified  from  the  might 
of  the  vXrj,  which  not  only  fettered  and  clogged,  but  corruiMted 
that  element  of  his  soul  which  stands  related  to  Grod.  It  is 
true  they  believed  only  in  a  general  redeeming  power  of  God, 
which  was  imparted  to  individuals  in  proportion  to  their  worth; 
or  the  communication  of  which  was  connected  with  various 
religious  institutions  under  different  forms.  But,  notwith-  ^ 
standing,  all  this  was  calculated  gradually  to  pave  the  way- 
both  for  the  speculative  mind  and  for  the  heart  to  embrace 
Christianity ;  even  though  Christianity  might  be  r^arded  at 
first  only  as  one  of  the  manifold  forms  of  the  revelation  of  the  . 
divine,  as  we  see  illustrated  in  the  case  of  Synesius. 

In  the  idea  of  a  divine  Logos  or  Nus,  the  eternal  revealer 

*  AagustiD.  de  catechizand.  radib.  8.  12.  Tales  non  eadem  hors.  qos 
Christiani  fient,  sed  antea  solent  omnia  diligentef  inquirere^  et  motiif 
animi  sui  cum  quibus  possunt  commanicare  atqae  disculerc. 


NEW  PLATONISM.  145 

if  God,  these  Flatonicians  would  perhaps  find  themselves  at 

kome  ;  not  so  with  regard  to  the  £iith  in  the  historical  Christ 

cmcified.     They  would  have  been  pleased  to  place  Christ  on  a 

levelr  with  those  enlightened  sages  by  whom  the  divine  Log^s 

Ittd  revealed  himself  under  different  forms,  and  who,  by  the 

tffihly  multitude,  too  prone  to  cleave  to  the  personal  being, 

had  been  misunderstood.    But  to  abide  by  this  historical  Christ 

alone,  to  seek  in  him  their  salvation,  this  was  requiring  too 

much  from  their  speculative  idealism.*     Augustin,  in  his  con- 

fesions  (1.  YII.  §  13),  after  having  described  this  state  of  mind 

ttom  his  own  experience,  since  it  was  from  a  position  of  this 

tort  that  he  himself  passed  over  to  the  simple  gospel,  says^ 

''Thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and 

revealed  them  unto  babes,  that  so  they  who  feel  themselves 

weary  and  heavy  laden  might  come  unto  him,  and  he  might 

give  them  rest,  because  he  is  meek  and  lowly  of  spirit.     But 

those  who  are  inflated  with  the  pride  of  a  doctrine  that  stylea 

itself  sublime,  hear  not  the  call  of  him  who  says,  '  Learn  of 

me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  of  spirit,  and  ye  shall  find  rest 

to  your  souls.'    Matth.  xi.  29." 

Yet  when  those  to  whom  Christianity  appeared  at  first  as 
Dne  peculiar  revelation  of  the  divine,  co-ordinate  to  other  forms 
of  manifestation,  and  not  as  the  absolute  religion  of  humanity, 
Y^  induced  to  read  the  holy  scriptures,  and  to  attend  divine 
worship  in  Christian  churches,  so  far  as  this  stood  free  and 
(^pen  to  the  unbaptized  (i.e.  the  reading  of  the  scriptures  and 
the  sermon),  they  might  by  their  own  study  of  the  scriptures, 
and  through  numberless  inmiediate  impressions  derived  from 
the  church  life,  be  let  more  deeply  into  the  Christian  truth 
than  they  had  divined  of  it,  until  at  last  they  found  the  re- 
deeming God  only  in  X3hrist ;  and  the  ideal  Christ,  by  means 
of  their  own  inward  experience,  became  to  them  the  real  one. 
Thus  Synesius,  for  example,  came  from  the  position  above 
described  still  nearer  to  Christianity,  when,  in  the  year  399, 
llhdng  been  sent  to  Constantinople,  as  a  delegate  from  his 

^  Many  of  these,  had  they  been  as  clear  to  themselves,  as  honest  and 
Immble;  as  iras  Jacobi,  might  have  said  what  that  devout  and  noble 
spirit,  so  full  of  earnest  longing  after  the  tmUi,  said  in  a  letter  to  Lavater, 
that  Christianity  met  their  wants,  so  far  as  it  was  mysticism,  but  that  on 
that  very  account  it  was  the  more  difficult  for  them  to  get  along  with  the 
historical  fiedth.    See  Jacobi's  Auserlesenen  Briefwechsel,  II.  S.  S.  55. 

YOJm  III.  1« 


146  CHRISTIANITY  BEYOND  THE  BOMAN  EMPIKE. 

native  city  Cyrene,  driveii  to  a  great  strait,  wbere  h 
abandoned  of  all  human  help,  he  visited  the  chuich, 
much  time  in  prayer,  and  in  this  place  felt  the  near  pn 
of  Grod.  Thus  he  was  first  left  to  desire  baptism  ; — a 
was  doubtless  brought  to  a  still  more  profound  aoqoaii 
with  the  deep  things  of  Christianity  by  the  ezperienceB  • 
episcopal  office,  which  he  had  reluctantly  been  indm 
assume.  Thus  it  happened  to  Augustin,  who  fix>m  thii 
tion  came  to  the  study  of  the  apostle  Faiil,  in  the  ezpec 
of  finding  here  the  same  things  that  he  had  found  in  Flati 
only  in  a  difierent  form ;  instead  of  which,  he  found  j 
spirit  as  brought  about  the  great  ferment  and  crifiu 
inner  life. 

XL  Spread  of  ChrisHaniiy  beyond  the  Umiis  of  the  I 

Empire. 

Among  the  means  which  contributed  to  further  the  pr 
of  Christianity  in  nations  not  subjected  to  the  Roou 
minion,  may  be  mentioned,  first,  the  commercial  intercoi 
nations.  Along  with  the  goods  of  the  earth,  the  h 
Ueasings  of  the  Spirit  also  were  thus  often  transmit 
distant  lands.  In  the  next  place,  many  of  those  monk 
lived  in  the  Libyan  and  the  Syrian  deserts,  on  the  boT< 
barbarian  tribes,  acquired,  by  the  godly  character  which 
forth  in  their  lives,  and  which  exercised  a  mighty  powe 
over  those  rude  minds,  the  respect  and  confidence  < 
wandering  nomadic  hordes;  and  they  would  doubtless 
themselves  of  the  opportunity  thus  afiPorded  of  bringing 
the  gospel  to  their  hearts.  Even  that  which  seemed  to  th 
destruction  to  the  church  must  contribute  to  its  extf 
Many  Christians  who  had  been  driven  by  the  persecul 
Dioclesian  out  of  Egypt,  Libya,  and  Syria,  took  refuge 
the  neighbouring  barbarian  tribes,*  and  there  enjoyei 
freedom  in  the  worship  of  God  which  they  could  not  1 
the  Roman  empire.  The  pagans  murmured  when  the 
the  idolatrous  homage  they  had  been  used  to  pay  1 
'^  eternal  city"  exhibited  by  history  in  its  nothingncH 
the  colossal  creation  which  had  sprung  forth  from 
crumbling  daily  to  ruin.     But  through  Christianity,  to 

*  Euseb.  vit  Constant.  1.  II.  c  53. 


PEBSIA.  147 

j^MBj  ascribed  all  the  public  misfortunes,  a  new  and  more 

l^rious  creation  was  to  be  called  forth  out  of  the  ruins  of  the 

idd  one.     Both  the  hostile  and  the  peaceful  relations  of  the 

Bomans  with  the  rude  tribes,  particularly  those  of  German 

4rigin,  which  were  the  first,  after  the  general  migration  of 

noes,  to  take  an  important  part  in  the  grand  historical  events 

d  the  world,  contributed  to  bring  these  tribes  to  their  furst 

•equaintance  with  the  gospel.    A  man  who  lived  in  the  early 

part  of  the  fifth  century,  and  was  an  eye-witness  of  these 

events, — the  author  of  the  work  ^'de  vocatione  gentium" 

probably  Leo  the  Great,  afterwards  bishop  of  Rome,  but  then 

t  deacon)* — ^remarks  finely  on  this  point,  "  The  very  weapons 

by  which  the  world  is  upturned  must  serve  to  promote  the 

ends  of  Christian  grace.     Many  sons  of  the  church,  who  had 

been  taken  captive  by  the  enemy,  made  their  masters  the 

servants  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  and  were  teachers  of  the  faith 

to  those  whose  slaves  they  had  become  by  the  fortune  of  war. 

Bat  other  barbarians,  who  aided  the  Romans  in  war,  learned 

among  our  people  what  they  could  not  have  learned  at  their 

Ofwn  homes,  and  returned  to  their  native  land  carrying  with 

them  the  instruction  they  had  received  in  Christianity." 

We  turn  first  to  Asia.  In  the  former  period  it  was  re- 
marked that  Christianity  had  already  made  progress  in  Persia. 
The  number  of  Christians  had  gone  on  increasing  among  all 
links  imtil  the  beginning  of  the  present  period.  At  the  head 
of  the  Christian  church  in  Persia  stood  the  bishop  of  the 
loyal  residence  and  chief  city  of  the  ancient  Parthian  kingdom, 
namely,  Seleucia  Ctesiphon.  But  the  Magians,  the  Persian 
aacerdotal  caste,  applied  every  means  to  counteract  the  spread 
of  Christianity ;  and  the  Jews,  who  were  thickly  scattered  over 
the  Persian  empire,  joined  also  in  these  hostile  machinations. 

The  emperor  Constantino  recommended  the  Christians  to 
the  protection  of  the  Persian  emperor  Shapur  (Sapor)  II., 
taking  occasion  of  an  embassy  which  the  latter  prince  sent  to 
him.'t'  ^^  letter  contains  nothing  which  alludes  to  the  ex- 
istence as  yet  of  any  persecution  against  the  Christians  in  the 
Persian  empire.  At  all  events  it  is  certain,  according  to  the 
more  accurate  chronology  of  the  oriental  accounts,  that  the 
banning  of  the  most  violent  and  harassing  persecution  must 
not  be  placed,  as  the  Greek  writers  on  church  history  assert, 
♦  L.  II.  c  32.  t  Euseb.  IV.  9. 

1.^ 


! 


148  CHBISTIANITT  BETOND  THE  BOICAN  XMPIBE. 

under  the  reign  of  Constantine,  but  under  that  of  hissucceaBon 
But,  if  some  oriental  notices  *  are  entitled  to  credit,  this  po^ 
secution  was  preceded  by  two  others  of  shorter  duration,  in 
which  many  Christians  suffered  martyrdom-— one  in  the  yev 
330,t  the  other  in  the  year  3424  Still  it  may  be  a  questkn  ^ 
whether  those  documents  are  worthy  of  entire  confidence,  and 
whether  their  narratives  are  chronologically  accurate.  The 
credible  records  of  the  principal  persecution  above  mentioned 
contain  not  a  hint  that  others  had  preceded  it.  Moreover, 
the  Greek  church  historians,  notwithstanding  the  anachronism 
just  mentioned,  speak  of  but  one  persecution,  and  make  no 
mention  of  any  befo^  this.  They  state  that  at  the  time  of 
the  commencement  of  that  principal  persecution  the  Christian 
church  was  in  a  flourishing  condition. 

Now,  with  regard  to  the  main  persecution,  which  broke  out 
in  the  year  343,§  it  is  manifest  that  the  hostile  relation 
existing  between  the  Boman  and  the  Persian  empires  were 
the  immediate  occasion  of  it.  It  was  attempted  to  excite  the 
suspicions  of  the  emperor  against  the  Christians  on  poUticii 
grounds,  because  of  the  correspondence  which  they  maintained 
with  their  brethren  of  the  same  faith  in  the  Boman  empire. 
For  this  purpose  advantage  was  taken  of  the  respect  usuallj 
paid  by  the  emperors  at  Constantinople  to  the  chief  of  tbe 
Persian  bishops.  Thus,  for  example,  the  Persian  Jews  re- 
presented  to   the   emperor   Sapor,   that,  when   the   Boman 

*  See  the  two  Chaldee  documents  extracted  fh)m  the  history  of  tbe 
Persian  martyrs,  in  Stephan.  Euod.  Assemani  acta  martyrom  orientaluim 
et  occideutalium  appendix,  p.  215. 

f  In  the  eighteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  Shapar,  the  beginning  of  whidi 
should  be  pla^,  according  to  Ideler's  chronology  (see  b.  II.  s.  558),  in 
the  year  312. 

X  In  the  thirtieth  year  of  his  reign.  The  passage  in  the  Acts  of  the 
second  persecution  (Assemani,  1.  c  227),  where  Sapor,  addressing  die 
Christians,  says,  "  What  God  is  better  than  Hormuzd,  or  mightier  thai 
the  terrible  Ahriman  ?"  is  hardly  in  agreement  with  the  Persian  rellgioDi 
ideas ;  for,  according  to  these,  Ahriman,  the  object  of  abhorrence,  would 
scarcely  be  mentioned  in  such  connection  with  Ormuzd. 

§  Tlie  most  important  records  of  its  history,  of  which  we  shall  say 
more  hereafter,  may  be  found  in  the  collection  of  the  acta  martymnit 
made  under  the  direction  of  the  bishop  Marathas,  (see  Assemani  nUio- 
theca  oriental.  T.  III.  P.  I.  p.  73,)  from  which  were  derived  also  those 
narratives  already  made  use  of  by  the  Greek  historians  of  the  choreli. 
These  acta  were  published  by  Stephan.  Euod.  Assemani,  in  the  work  al- 
ready cited. 


PEBSECUTION  IN  PEBSIA.  149 

emperor  received  from  him  magnificent  epistles  and  costly- 
presents,  they  were  scarcely  noticed,  in  comparison  with  a 
miserable  note  from  the  bishop  of  Seleucia  Ctesiphon,  to  which 
the  emperor  paid  every  mark  of  respect.*  So  also  Christian 
ecclesiastics  were  accused  of  harbouring  in  their  houses  Roman 
spies;  of  betraying  to  them  the  secrets  of  the  empire;  of 
writing  letters  themselves  to  the  Roman  emperor,  informing 
lum  of  everything  that  transpired  in  the  East.f 

The  objections  brought  against  Christianity  by  the  Persian 
dvil  authorities  mark  the  peculiar  relation  in  which  Parsism 
stood,  both  to  Christianity  generally,  and  to  that  prevailing 
tendency  of  the  religious  and  moral  spirit  which  obtained  par- 
ticularly among  the  Persian  Christians.  To  those  who  held 
to  the  principles  of  the  Parsic  Dualism,  in  which  the  op- 
position between  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  and  their  respective 
creations,  a  pure  and  an  impure  one,  was  uniformly  adhered 
to,  the  Christian  monotheistic  view  of  the  universe  must  have 
appeared  as  a  confounding  of  good  and  evil,  of  the  godlike 
and  the  ungodlike,  as  a  profanation  of  the  holy  essence  of 
Grod ;  since  God  was  made  to  be  the  creator  of  that  which 
could  proceed  only  from  the  evil  principle.  Accordingly,  in 
the  proclamation  issued  by  the  Persian  commander  and 
governor,  Mihr-Nerseh,  to  the  Christians  in  Armenia,  about 
the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  it  is  said,|  ''  All  that  is  good 
in  heaven  Ormuzd  created,  and  all  that  is  evil  was  produced 
by  Ahriman.  Hatred,  calamity,  unhappy  wars,  all  these 
things  are  the  working  of  the  evil  principle;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  good  fortune,  dominion,  glory,  health  of  body, 
beauty  of  person,  truthfulness  in  language,  length  of  years, 
all  these  things  proceed  from  the  good  principle.  Evil,  how- 
ever, is  mixed  with  alL  They  who  afHrm  that  God  created 
death,  and  that  evil  and  good  proceed  from  him,  are  in  error : 
for  instance,  the  Christians,  who  say  that  God,  being  angry 
with  his  servant  because  he  had  eaten  a  fig,  §  created  death, 

♦  Acta  martynun,  1.  c.  p.  20.  t  L.  c.  fl  152. 

X  In  the  French  version,  in  the  Memoires  historiques  et  gcographiqaes 
sar  rArm^nie  par  St  Martin.    T.  II.  Paris,  1819,  p.  472. 

§  The  reason  why  the  fig  in  particular  comes  to  be  mentioned  here  is, 
that  many  of  the  fathers  of  the  oriental  church,  as,  for  instance,  Theo- 
doms  of  Mopsoestia  (see  his  observations  on  the  first  chapters  of  Genesis, 
in  the  catena  of  Nicephorus,  on  the  Octoteuch.  Lips.  1770),  supposed  it 
might  be  inferred  from  Grenesis  iii.  7,  that  this  'was  the  forbidden  fruit. 


150  CHUISTIANITY  BEYOND  THE  KOlfAK  EMPIBE. 

and  thereby  punished  men/'  In  like  manner  it  was  objected 
to  the  Christians,  that  they  taught  that  insects,  serpenti^ 
scorpions,  were  created  by  God,  and  not  by  the  devil.* 
Although  the  Parsic  religion  acknowledged  the  being  of  one 
primal  Essence,  under  the  name  of  Zenran  (Rpovoc  =  al^y 
j^vOos  of  the  Gnostics),  from  whom  all  existence  flowed,  yet 
this  idea  of  the  one  hidden,  primal  Essence,  from  the  veiy 
nature  of  the  case,  retreated  into  the  obscure ;  and  the  idea 
constantly  predominant  was  that  of  Ormuzd,  the  revealer  of 
this  hidden,  divine,  primal  Elssence ;  the  creator,  the  victorioos 
antagonist  of  Ahriman ;  and,  although  he  was  the  object  of 
all  prayer  and  adoration,  yet  various  genii  and  powers  of  a 
pure,  holy  nature,  which  were  supposed  to  have  emanated 
from  Ormuzd,  received  also  a  certain  share  of  worship,  so  &r 
as  they  represented  him.  The  sun,  fire,  water,  earth,  ai 
elements  of  a  pure  nature,  working  with  the  energy  of  Or- 
muzd, were  objects  of  worship  with  the  Persians  ;  and  hence 
it  was  objected  to  the  Christians  that  they  worshipped  only 
one  God,  but  did  not  pay  due  honour  to  the  sun,  the  fire,  the 
water ;  especially,  that  they  profaned  the  water  by  usinff  it 
for  improper  lustrations.  In  the  ritual  of  the  Parsic  religion, 
however,  lustrations  by  water  were  frequently  used.  In  the 
case  last  cited,  either  Christian  baptism  itself  is  represented 
as  a  profanation  of  the  holy  element,  or  else  it  is  meant  that 
the  Christians  paid  no  regard  to  the  sacredness  of  water  in 
their  daily  use  of  it.f  As  to  the  holy  earth,  the  Persians 
believed,  doubtless,  that  they  saw  it  pro&ned  by  the  burial  of 
the  dead;  for  this  practice,  too,  was  \irged  as  an  objection 
against  the  Christians4  It  constituted  again  a  part  of  the 
nature-worship  of  the  Persians,  that  they  looked  upon  many  of 

*  Assemani)  1.  c.  fol.  181. 

t  See  Herodot.  1. 1,  c.  138. 

X  The  custom  of  barying  tlie  dead  contrasted  strongly  with  the  mage 
of  the  Persians  at  that  period.  The  dead  body  was  cast  into  the  open 
field,  as  a  prey  for  dogs  and  ravenous  birds.  They  regarded  it  as  a  bad 
token,  a  sign  that  the  deceased  was  an  abandoned  wretch  and  bis  bodI 
belonged  to  the  Dews,  if  the  body  was  left  untouched  by  the  beasts  of 
prey.  The  bones  that  were  left  were  allowed  to  moulder  away  on  the 
ground.  See  Agathias,  II.  22  and  23,  p.  113,  ed.  Niebidir.  This  his- 
torian says  expressly  of  the  Persians,  Bvmi^  rm  l/t^ti^Luv  n  Xm^huu  rm 
TtSnuTaS)  fi  xeii  rti  yri  xaraxt^vtZveu  fixiffra  fifuf '  avrttf.  The  fonntf 
practice  is  noticed  already  by  Ueredotus,  I.  140.  He  says,  however, 
that  the  bones  left  behind  were  besoieax^^  '^VJa.'^WL  ^u<l  buried. 


PEBSBCUnON  IN  PERSIA.  151 

tbe  brute  animals  as  being  speciallj  consecrated  to  Ormuzd, 
•ad  sacred,  while  others  were  consecrated  to  Ahriman ; — ^and 
lieDce  the  Christians  were  censured  for  slaughtering  brute 
vumals  indiscriminately.  Necessarily  connected  with  the 
nature- worship  of  the  Persians,  with  the  idea  pervading  the 
irhole  life  of  the  Persians  that  every  man  should  be  a  servant 
of  Ormuzd  in  the  struggle  to  defend  his  holy  creation  against 
the  destructive  powers  of  Ahriman,  was  the  precept  of  their 
idigion  which  required  a  life  of  activity  and  industry  devoted 
to  the  culture  of  nature.  All  employments,  even  that  of  war 
against  the  enemies  of  the  servants  of  Ormuzd,  were  reckoned 
as  belonging  alike  to  the  contest  for  Ormuzd  against  Ahriman. 
The  gifts  of  nature  were  to  be  enjoyed  as  holy  gifts  of  Ormuzd ; 
every  fortunate  event  was  thus  made  holy ;  riches,  and  espe- 
eially  a  numerous  progeny,*  were  considered  as  blessings  con- 
ferred by  Ormuzd.  But  at  this  time  an  ascetic  spirit  had 
become  diffused  among  the  Christians  of  the  East ;  and  it 
IB  easy  to  imagine  what  a  contrast  this  must  have  presented 
to  the  Persian  view  of  life.  Hence  it  was  affirmed  of  the 
Christians  that  they  forbade  men  to  marry  and  beget  child- 
ren ;  to  do  military  service  for  the  king ;  to  strike  any  one.f 
And,  in  the  above-cited  proclamation  of  Mihr-Nerseh,  it 
is  said,  '^  Believe  not  your  leaders,  whom  you  call  Naza- 
lenes  ;|  they  are  deceitful  knaves,  teaching  one  thing  and 
doing  the  contrary.  They  say  it  is  no  sin  to  eat  flesh,  and 
yet  they  eat  none.  They  say  it  is  right  and  befitting  to 
take  a  wife,  and  yet  they  refuse  even  to  look  upon  a  woman. 
According  to  them,  whoever  accumulates  riches  is  guilty  of  a 

*  See  Herod.  1.  136. 

t  Assemani,  1.  c  181.  Thns  it  was  required  of  a  ChristiaD  priest,  if 
he  would  save  his  life,  to  worship  the  sun,  to  partake  of  blood  (the 
oriental  ChristiaDS  holding  the  ordinance  mentioned  in  Acts  xv.  29,  to 
be  still  binding),  and  to  marry.    Ass.  1.  c.  188. 

I  St.  Martin  is  of  opinion  that  this  name  is  used  here  as  a  general 
npeUation  of  the  Christians :  bat  this  will  not  do ;  for  the  subject  of 
discourse  here  is  the  heads  and  teachers  of  the  communities ;  and,  more- 
over, the  other  remarks  here  cannot  be  referred  to  all  Christians.  We 
are  to  conceive  rather  that  this  name  (the  monks  being  compared  with 
tiie  Nazarenes  of  the  Old  Testament)  was  in  the  East  a  common  desig- 
nation of  the  monks ;  and  the  clergy  in  these  districts  were  then  chosen, 
for  the  most  part,  from  among  the  monks.  Comp.  e.  g,  Gregor.  Nazianz, 
OfTEt.  p.  527,  concerning  the  monks :  N«i^«fciA»y  x*t^'*''^*'"i  ^^^  *'  *^^* 
^fMog  "Sa^^a^euti,  orat.  19,  p.  310. 


152  CaBISriANITY  beyond  the  BOXAlf  SaiFIRE, 

great  sin.  They  place  poverty  far  above  wealth ;  they  praise  } 
poverty,  and  they  defiune  the  rich. '  They  scorn  the  name  of 
good  fortune,  and  ridicule  those  we  stand  on  the  pinnacle  of 
glory.  They  affect  coarse  garments,  and  they  prefer  oonmioa 
things  to  the  costly.  They  praise  death,  and  they  have  a 
contempt  for  life.  They  hold  it  an  unworthy  thing  to  b^et 
men,  and  they  praise  barrenness.  Follow  their  example,  and 
the  world  would  soon  come  to  an  end." 

A  Persian  governor  asks  the  Christians,  Which  is  the 
true  religion,  that  which  was  professed  by  the  kings,  the 
lords  of  the  world,  the  nobles  of  the  empire,  the  men  of  rank 
and  of  wealth  ;  or  that  which  they,  poor  people,  had  preferred 
to  it  ?  He  reproached  them  as  a  people  too  indolent  to  apply  j 
themselves  to  those  useful  occupations  by  which  men  obtein 
wealth,  and  therefore  so  fond  of  praising  poverty.*  The  doc- 
trine, too,  of  the  crucified  Redeemer  of  mankind  appeared  to 
the  Persians  preeminently  foolish.  Thus,  in  the  proclamatioo 
above  cited,  it  is  said,  ^^  But  what  they  have  written,  still 
more  detestable  than  anything  mentioned  as  yet,  is  this :  that 
God  was  crucified  for  men  ;  that  he  died,  was  buried,  rose 
again,  and  finally  ascended  to  heaven.'  Do  such  detestable 
opinions  really  deserve  an  answer?  Even  the  Dews  (the 
demons  of  the  Persians,  the  creatures  of  Ahriman),who  are  bad, 
cannot  be  imprisoned  and  tortured  by  men  ;  and  it  is  pretended 
that  this  could  be  done  to  God,  the  Creator  of  all  things  I  ** 

The  first  ordinance  of  the  emperor  probably  ran  as  follows: 
—  Tke  Christians,  unless  they  lootdd  consent  to  worship  the 
Persian  deities,  should  be  required  to  pay  an  inordincUe  taXy 
levied  on  each  individual.  This  law  may  have  been  directed, 
perhaps,  to  the  bishop  of  Seleucia,  who  was  expected  to  col- 
lect the  required  sum  from  all  the  Christians,  and  pay  it  over. 
Simeon,'!'  the  venerable  old  man  who  then  held  this  office, 
gave  a  high-hearted  answer,  which  stood  out  in  bold  and 
striking  contrast  with  the  servile  spirit  of  the  Orientals ; 
though  it  is  wanting  in  the  temper  of  Christian  humility,  and 
fails  to  mark  the  distinction  between  spiritual  and  political 
freedom.  Yet  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  emperor 
probably  demanded  of  the  Christians  an  amount  of  money 

*  Assemani,  1,  c.  186. 

t  Barsaboe,  son  of  the  leather-dresser.    His  father  was  the  king's 
purple-dyer. 


FKBSECUTION  IN  PEB6IA.  153 

bey  could  not  possibly  raise,  thinking  to  compel  them  in 
nner  to  abjure  their  religion.  The  Christians,  Simeon 
),  whom  their  Saviour  had  emancipated  by  bis  blood 
e  most  shameful  yoke,  and  whom  he  had  delivered 
16  most  oppressive  of  burthens,  could  not  submit  to 
ch  a  yoke  imposed  on  them.  Far  was  it  from  them 
»  foolish  and  sinful  a^  to  exchange  the  liberty  which 
had  bestowed  on  them  for  slavery  to  men.  "  The 
^hom  we  are  resolved  to  obey,  is  the  upholder  and 
•  of  your  government.  We  cannot  subject  ourselves 
inrighteous  command  of  our  fellow-servant." — "  As 
the  Creator  of  your  divinity  (the  sun),  so  they  held  it 
reckless  thing  to  place  God's  creature  on  a  level  with 
.  They  had  neither  gold  nor  silver,  as  the  Lord  had 
en  them  to  heap  up  such  treasures ;  and  Paul  had  said 
I,  '  Ye  are  bought  with  a  price;  be  no  man's  ser- 
"  *  The  emperor  interpreted  this  letter  as  if  Simeon 
the  Christians  to  insurrection,  and  commanded  that 
his  people  should  be  threatened  with  severe  punish- 
To  this  Simeon  replied  that  it  was  far  from  any 
;  of  his  to  betray  his  flock  for  the  purpose  of  saving 
and  purchasing  peace.  He  was  ready,  following  the 
3  of  his  Saviour,  to  give  up  his  life  for  his  flock.  Sapor 
blared,  "  Whereas  Simeon  scorns  my  authority,  and 
lie  Boman  emperor,  whose  God  alone  he  worships,  but 
despises  my  God,  he  must  present  himself  before  me 
executed.'*  And  he  immediately  issued  another  decree 
the  Christians : — The  clergy  of  the  three  first  grades 
be  immediately  executed j  the  churches  of  the  Chris^ 
fnolished,  their  church  utensils  devoted  to  profane  uses, 
on,  with  two  presbyters  of  his  church,  was  conveyed 
OS  to  Ledan,  a  city  in  the  province  of  Iluzitis,  where 
>eror  then  resided.  Before  this  he  had  never  hesitated 
rate  himself,  aflter  the  oriental  manner,  in  the  king's 
f^ — this  being  a  custom  of  the  country,  which  in  itself 
^  nothing  idolatrous.  But  now,  when  he  was  called 
>  renounce  the  sole  worship  of  his  God,  he  declined 
tiis  ;  since  it  behoved  him  at  present  to  avoid  every  act 
;ould  be  interpreted  as  if  he  gave  to  a  creature  the 
due  to  God  alone.     The  emperor  then  required  him 

♦  L.  c.  iv. 


154  CHRISTIANITY  BEYOND  THE  BOMAK  EMPIBE. 

to  do  homage  to  the  sun, — assuring  him  that  he  mighl 
deliver  himself  and  his  people.  To  this  Simeon  repliec 
he  could  still  less  pay  to  the  sun,  a  lifeless  being,  that  h( 
which  he  had  declined  showing  to  the  king,  who  was  a  ra 
being,  and  therefore  far  more  than  the  sun.  As  neithe 
mises  nor  threats  had  any  power  to  move  him,  the  en. 
ordered  him  to  be  thrown  into  prison  till  the  next  d 
see  if  he  would  not  come  to  his  senses. 

To  the  Christians  belonged  at  that  time  the  head  c 
imperial  household,  and  most  considerable  of  the  eunuc 
whose  care  Sapor  had  been  intrusted  when  a  child 
venerable  Guhsciatazades.  This  person  had  been  pre^ 
upon  to  do  homage  to  the  sun.  When  Simeon  was  cond 
by  him  in  chains,  he  fell  on  his  knee,  after  the  oriental  ma 
and  saluted  him.  But  Simeon  turned  away  his  head ;  i 
had  denied  the  fiuth.  His  conscience  was  awakened  b; 
silent  reproof:  he  witnessed  a  bold  confession  before  th* 
peror,  and  was  sentenced  to  lose  his  head.  When  bn 
already  to  the  place  of  execution,  he  begged  of  the  em[ 
as  a  reward  for  the  services  he  had  rendered  to  his  ^ 
£imlly,  that  it  might  be  publicly  made  known  how  Guh» 
zades  died, — not  because  he  had  betrayed  the  secrets  o 
empire,  or  committed  any  other  crime,  but  simply  becan 
a  Christian,  he  refused  to  deny  the  Grod  whom  he  prol 
to  worship.  He  hoped  that  the  example  of  his  death  in  I: 
of  the  faith  which  he  had  once  denied  would  have  the 
powerful  effect  on  others.  Sapor  consented,  not  knowin 
power  of  faith,  and  expecting  that  the  terrible  example  ^ 
prove  a  warning  to  many ;  but  he  soon  learned  the  conti 

The  aged  Simeon,  in  his  dungeon,  had  thanked  God  fc 
repentance  and  martyrdom  of  this  brother  in  the  &ith. 
rejoiced  to  learn  that  his  own  death  would  probably  take 
on  the  very  day  which  the  Persian  Christians  had  consec 
to  the  memory  of  Christ's  passion.  So  it  happened.  The 
day  after  his  arrest,  and  after  the  martyrdom  of  Guhs 
zades,  he  appeared  before  the  emperor ;  and  showing  th 
was  firm  in  his  confession,  he  likewise  was  condemned  t 
A  hundred  others  of  the  clerical  order,  who  had  been 
demned  at  the  same  time,  were  led  out  with  him  to  the 
of  execution.  Simeon  and  his  two  companions  were 
reserved  till  the  last.     The  whole  design  of  the  empero 


PEBSECDTION  IK  VEBSHA.  156 

to  shake  his  constancy,  so  that,  through  his  example,  he  might 
work  on  the  great  mass  of  the  Christians ;  and  he  hoped  that 
the  blood  of  so  many  shed  before  his  eyes  would  make  him 
^ver ;  but  he  was  mistaken.  Simeon  confirmed  the  band 
of  confessors  by  his  exhortations,  and  at  last  died  himself  with 
Ms  two  companions.  It  happened  that  one  of  these  latter, 
Ananias,  when  it  was  his  turn  to  strip  himself  and  be  bound, 
in  order  to  receive  the  stroke  of  the  axe,  suddenly  seized  by 
flie  natural  fear  of  death,  trembled  through  his  whole  frame ; 
the  flesh  only  being  weak,  while  the  spirit  was  strong  as 
before.  When  this  was  observed  by  Phusik,  an  officer  of 
some  rank,  superintendent  of  all  the  workmen  in  the  palace, 
who  was  himself  a  Christian,  said  he  to  him,  *'  Never  mind ; 
shut  your  eyes  but  a  moment,  and  partake  of  the  light  of 
Christ.''  This  was  immediately  communicated  to  the  king. 
Sapor  was  the  more  incensed  at  the  disobedience  of  Phusik, 
because  but  a  short  time  had  elapsed  since  he  had  conferred 
GD.  him  his  new  honours.  Phusik  declared  that  he  would 
gladly  exchange  these  poor  honours  for  the  crown  of  martyr- 
dom. His  tongue  was  torn  out  in  the  most  cruel  manner,  and 
thus  he  died.* 

Still  more  violent  was  the  persecution  in  the  following  year, 
344.  An  edict  appeared  which  commanded  that  all  Chris- 
tians should  be  thrown  into  chains  and  executed.  Many  be- 
longing to  every  rank  died  as  martyrs.  Among  these  was 
a  eunuch  of  the  palace,  named  Azades,  a  man  greatly  prized 
by  the  king.  So  much  was  the  latter  affected  by  his  death, 
^t  he  commanded  the  punishment  of  death  should  be  inflicted 
£rom  thenceforth  only  on  the  leaders  of  the  Christian  sect ; 
that  is,  only  on  persons  of  the  clerical  order.  Of  these  a 
great  niunber  suffered  martydom.  Yet,  within  the  space  of 
die  forty  years  during  which  this  persecution  lasted,  it  became 
occasionally  more  general  and  violent  again,  which  was  espe- 
ciidly  the  case  towards  its  close. 

The  treaty  of  peace  which  terminated  the  unfortunate  war 
of  the  Bomans  with  the  Persians  under  the  emperor  Jovian, 
was  un&vourable  to  the  interests  of  the  Christians ;  the 
ancient  Christian  city  Nisibis,  on  the  border  of  Mesopotamia, 
being  given  up  to  the  Persians.  Yet  the  Christian  inhabit- 
ants had  permission  to  leave  the  country. 

*  Assemeni^  torn.  I.  35.    Sozom.  1.  II.  c.  W. 


156  CHRISTIANITY  BEYOND  THE  BOXAN  EMPIRE. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  fifth  century,  by  the  wise  and 
prudent  conduct  of  a  man  zealously  engaged  in  promoting  the 
spread  of  the  gospel,  a  very  favourable  change  was  brought 
about  in  the  situation  of  the  Christians,  which  might  have 
been  attended  with  important  consequences  for  a  long  time  in 
the  future,  if  his  labours  had  not  been  defeated  by  the  impni- 
dent  zeal  of  another  bishop.  The  bishop  Manithas,  of  Tagritin 
Mesopotamia,*  consented  to  serve  as  an  agent  in  the  negotia- 
tions between  the  emperors  Arcadius  and  Theodosius  II.  and 
the  Persian  emperor  Jezdegerdes  II. ;  and,  in  these  negotia- 
tions, he  gained  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  the  Persian 
emperor.  The  intrigues  of  the  Magians  to  effect  his  downfall 
he  was  enabled  to  defeat  by  his  sagacity,  and  his  reputation 
only  rose  higher.  He  obtained  permission  for  the  Christians 
to  rebuild  their  churches,  and  to  hold  their  meetings  for 
divine  worship ;  but  the  Whole  was  made  nought  by  the  im- 
prudent behaviour  of  Abdas  bishop  of  Susa.  The  latter  caused 
one  of  the  Persian  temples  (a  irvpeiov),  in  which  fire,  the  sym- 
bol of  Orm'uzd,  was  worshipped,  to  be  demolished.  Owing, 
perhaps,  to  the  still  remaining  influence  of  the  bishop  Mara- 
thas,  Jezdegerdes  at  first  showed  a  moderation  seldom  wit- 
nessed lamong  oriental  princes  under  the  like  circumstances. 
He  summoned  Abdas  into  his  presence,  mildly  upbraided  him 
for  this  act  of  violence,  and  simply  required  him  to  rebuild 
the  temple.  As  the  latter  thought,  however,  that  lie  could 
not  conscientiously  do  this,  and  resolutely  declined  to  do  it, 
the  king  was  greatly  exasperated.  He  ordered  the  Christian 
churches  to  be  destroyed,  and  Abdas  to  be  executed  (about 
the  year  418).t  This  was  the  commencement  of  a  thirty  years' 
persecution  of  the  Christians  in  Persia,  which,  under  the  reign 
of  Varanes,  the  successor  of  Jezdegerdes,  from  the  year  421  and 
onward,  became  far  more  violent.     Oriental  cruelty  invented 

*  Maipheracta,  Martyropolis. 

f  The  judgment  which  the  mild  Theodoretus,  who  relates  this,  passes 
on  the  bishop's  conduct,  is  worthy  of  notice  (h,  eccles.  1.  V.  c39): 
"  I  affirm,  indeed,  that  the  wrong  time  was  chosen  for  the  destruction  of 
the  fire-temple ;  for  the  apostle  Paul  himself,  when  he  came  to  Athens 
and  found  the  whole  city  given  to  idolatry,  destroyed  none  of  the  altars 
which  they  reverenced,  but  by  instruction  refuted  their  ignorance,  and 
showed  them  the  truth.  But  that  the  bishop  preferred  rather  to  die  than 
kto  rebuild  the  temple  commands  my  admiration ;  for  to  me  it  seems  the 
■une  thing  to  worship  fire,  and  to  rebuild  the  temple  for  such  worship.'* 


FEBSECUTION  IN  PSBSIA.  157 

•gainst  the  Christians  the  most  painful  modes  of  death  ;  and 
men  of  all  ranks,  even  the  highest,  suffered  martyrdom. 
Jacobus,  a  man  belonging  to  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
&milies,  had  already  been  moved  by  his  bene&ctor,  the  king 
Jezdegerdes,  to  deny  the  faith.  But  through  the  remon- 
strances of  his  mother  and  his  wife,  filled  with  remorse,  he 
repented,  and  after  this  remained  steadfast  under  protracted 
tortures,  one  limb  being  severed  from  his  body  after  another. 
Once  only,  when  his  thigh  was  dismembered,  a  cry  of  anguish 
iras  heard  from  him :  "  Lord  Jesus,  help  and  deliver  me,  for 
the  bands  of  death  are  about  me."  ♦  Another  noble  Persian, 
Hormisdas,  who  was  ordered  by  the  king  to  deny  his  faith, 
answered,  ^'  You  bid  me  do  what  is  in  itself  a  sin,  and  what 
you  yourself  cannot  approve;  for  he  who  can  consent  to  deny 
the  Amighty  God  will  still  more  easily  deny  his  king,  who 
is  a  mortal  man."  The  king  thereupon  deprived  him  of  all  his 
honours,  confiscated  his  estate,  and  condemned  him,  naked, 
with  only  a  girdle  about  his  loins,  to  drive  the  camels  in  the 
rear  of  the  army.  But  some  days  after,  observing  him,  from 
his  palace  windows,  in  this  pitiable  condition,  scorched  by  the 
sun  and  covered  with  dust,  he  was  seized  with  compunction. 
Summoning  him  to  his  presence,  he  ordered  him  to  be  clothed 
in  a  linen  robe,  and  called  on  him  anew  to  renounce  his  faith. 
But  Hormisdas  rent  the  linen  robe  in  twain,  saying,  <^  If  you 
suppose  I  shall  renounce  my  fidth  for  this,  keep  the  gift  by 
which  you  would  bribe  me  to  deny  God."  Of  another  Chris- 
tian, by  the  name  of  Suenes,  the  master  of  a  thousand  slaves, 
Jezdegerdes  demanded,  after  he  had  refused  to  deny  his  faith, 
which  was  the  worst  of  his  slaves,  and  immediately  made  the 
latter  lord  over  the  whole,  including  his  old  master. 

Among  other  incidents,  it  so  happened  that  a  certain  deacon, 
named  Benjamin,  was  cast  into  prison.  He  pined  away  two 
years  in  his  dungeon,  until  the  arrival  of  an  ambassador  sent 
on  other  business  from  the  Roman  empire.  The  latter  peti- 
tioned the  king  for  the  release  of  Benjamin  ;  and  it  was  ac- 
corded to  him,  on  condition  that  he  would  never  preach  Chris- 
tianity to  any  adherent  of  the  Persian  system  of  religion.  The 
ambassador  assented  to  this  condition  without  consulting  with 
Benjamin.  But,  on  communicating  it  to  the  latter,  he  declined 
it  altogether,  saying,  '^  It  is  impossible  for  me  not  to  impart  to 
*  See  Assemani,  acta  Martynun,  1.  c  p.  243. 


158  GUBISTIANITY  BEYOND  THE  BGXAN  EMPIRE. 

Others  the  light  that  I  have  received  myself;  for  the  go^el 
history  teaches  us  to  what  sorer  punishment  he  justly  ezposei 
himself  who  hides  his  talent."  Notwithstanding  he  obtained 
his  freedom,  under  the  presumption  that  after  all  he  wouM 
comply  with  the  condition.  He  continued  to  preach  the  gos- 
pel ;  and,  having  laboured  a  year  in  this  way,  he  was  accused 
before  the  king,  who  required  him  to  deny  the  fidth.  Upon 
this,  he  asked  the  king  to  what  punishment  he  would  sentence 
the  man  who  deserted  his  government,  and  swore  allegianfle 
to  another.  The  king  repHed  that  he  should  sentence  him  to 
death.  "Then,"  said  Benjamin,  ''what  punishment  might 
not  that  person  justly  suffer,  who  should  disown  his  Creator^ 
and  give  the  honour  due  to  God  alone  to  one  of  his  fellow- 
servants?"  He  was  executed  with  cruel  torments.*  Tlie 
bishop  Theodoretus  of  Gyros,  on  the  Euphrates,  wrote  on  thb 
occasion  to  Eusebius  bishop  of  Persian  Armenia  a  letter  of 
exhortation,  breathing  the  genuine  Christian  spirit,  in  whiek 
he  admonishes  him  to  be  not  only  steadfiut  in  maintaining  ik 
own  conflict,  but  forbearing  and  kindly  provident  towards  the 
weak — an  exhortation  which  perhaps  was  not  unnecessaiy  to 
the  Persian  Christians,  who  were  somewhat  inclined,  as  it 
would  seem,  to  a  fimatical  pride.  "  Let  us  be  watchful,"  he 
writes,!  "  ^"^  ^ght  for  the  sheep  of  our  Lord.  Their  master 
is  at  hand  ;  he  will  surely  appear,  will  scatter  the  wolves,  and 
bestow  honour  on  the  shepherds.  '  For  the  Lord  is  good 
unto  them  that  wait  for  him,  to  the  soul  that  seeketh  him.' — 
Lam.  iii.  25.  Let  us  not  murmur  at  this  storm  which  has 
arisen ;  for  the  Lord  knows  what  is  best.  On  this  account  he 
did  not  grant  the  request  even  of  his  apostle,  who  besought 
him  to  deliver  him  from  his  trials ;  but  said  to  him,  '  My 
grace  is  sufficient  for  thee,  for  my  strength  is  made  perfect  in 
weakness.'  But  I  beseech  you,  let  not  our  only  care  be 
for  oiurselves;  but  let  us  bestow  still  greater  care  on  the 
others ;  for  the  precept  has  come  down  to  us  from  the  apostles, 
to  *  comfort  the  feeble-minded,  and  support  the  weak.' — 
1  Thess.  v.  14.     Let  us  reach  forth  our  hand  also  to  the  iisdlea ; 

*  Theodoret.  V.  c  39.  The  same  Theodoretus  speaks  of  the  stead- 
fastness of  the  Persian  Christians  under  all  their  tortures,  de  Grsc  affect 
curat,  disput.  ix.  pag.  935,  t.  iv.  He  finely  remarks,  ••  They  mutilate 
and  destroy  the  body,  but  cannot  get  at  the  treasury  of  fidth." 

t  Epist.  78. 


I 


PfiBSSCUTIOir  IN  FEBSIA.  159 

let  US  heal  their  wounds,  that  we  may  put  them  also  in  battle 
wray  against  the  wicked  spirit.  The  Lord  loves  men;  he 
receives  the  sinner's  repentance ; — ^let  us  hear  his  own  words : 

*  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord  God,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the 
death  of  the  wicked,  but  that  the  wicked  turn  from  his  way  and 
live.' — Ezek.  xxziii.  1 1 .  For  this  reason  he  has  even  confirmed 
his  words  by  an  oath,  although  he  forbids  the  oath  to  others, 
in  order  to  convince  us  that  he  longs  after  our  repentance  and 
our  salvation.  But  the  God  of  peace  will  shortly  cause  Satan 
to  be  trodden  under  your  feet,  and  rejoice  your  ears  with  the 
tidings  of  your  peace,  when  he  shall  say  to  the  raging  sea, 

*  Peace,  be  still.'  "* 

As  many  were  inclined  to  save  themselves  by  fleeing  from 
the  Persian  dominion  into  the  Roman  empire,  command  was 
given  to  all  the  garrisons  on  the  fixintiers,  and  to  the  chiefs  of 
the  nomadic  hordes  in  the  Persian  service,  who  kept  watch 
over  the  boundaries  of  the  empire,  to  arrest  all  Christians 
who  might  attempt  to  leave  the  kingdom. f  Many,  neverthe- 
less, succeeded  in  effecting  their  escape,  and  sought  aid, 
throu^  Atticus  bishop  of  Constantinople,  from  the  Eoman 
emperor.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Persian  king  demanded  the 
surrender  of  the  fugitives.  This  being  refused,  led,  in  con- 
junction with  various  other  difficulties,  to  the  war  between 
the  two  empires^  which  again  operated  unfavourably  on  the 
situation  of  the  Persian  Christians.  But  with  the  restoration 
of  peace  their  prospects  once  more  grew  better.  In  particu- 
lar, the  charitable  and  Christian  conduct  of  a  pious  bishop 
could  not  £ul  to  make  a  favourable  impression  on  the  Persians. 
The  Soman  soldiers  had  carried  off  seven  thousand  Persian 
prisoners,  whom  nothing  would  prevail  upon  them  to  release, 
and  who,  deprived  of  all  the  necessary  means  of  subsistence, 
were  in  the  most  pitiable  condition.  Then  Acacius  bishop 
of  Amida  in  Mesopotamia  called  together  his  clergy,  and 
said  to  them,  ^<  Our  God  needs  neither  dishes  nor  drinking- 
vessels,  since  he  is  all-sufficient  in  himself.  Now,  as  the 
church,  through  the  love  of  its  children,  possesses  many  uten- 
sils of  gold  and  silver,  we  must  dispose  of  these  to  ransom 

•  Ep.  78. 

t  Vit  Enthym.  c.  18.  Coteler.  Ecclesis  Grsec®  Monumenta,  t.  II. 
If  this  account  is  quite  accurate,  the  order  was  issued  already  under  the 
reign  of  Jezdegerdes — ^unless  he  is  confounded  with  Varanes. 


160  GHRISTIANITT  BEYOND  THE  BOMAH  EMPIBE. 

and  to  refresh  the  prisoners."  No  sooner  said  than  done: 
the  prisoners  were  not  only  redeemed,  but,  after  being  pro- 
vided with  the  means  of  subsistence,  and  with  money  to  defray 
their  travelling  expenses,  were  sent  back  to  their  homes. 
This  work  of  charity  is  said  to  have  affected  so  deeply  the 
heart  of  the  emperor,  embittered  as  it  was  against  the  Chris- 
tians, that  he  desired  an  interview  with  the  bishop.* 

As  doctrinal  controversies  in  the  Roman  church,  in  the 
course  of  the  fifth  century,  led  to  a  schism  between  the  Chni- 
tian  church  of  the  Persian  and  that  of  the  Roman  empire 
(concerning  which  we  shall  speak  in  the  fourth  section),  the 
political  cause  of  the  persecutions  in  Persia  would  thus  be 
removed,  and  this  circumstance  would  operate  favourably  on 
the  situation  of  the  Persian  Christians, 

By  means  of  Persia,  Syria,  and  other  bordering  provinces 
of  the  Roman  empire,  many  seeds  of  Christianity  would  early 
find  their  way  to  Armenia ;  but  the  fiuiatical  spirit  of  the 
Persico-Parthian  religion  was  here  for  a  long  time  an  insur- 
mountable obstacle  to  the  spread  of  the  gospel.  The  Arme- 
nian Gregory,  who  on  account  of  his  apostolical  activi^ 
obtained  the  cognomen  of  *'  the  Enlightener"  (6  {fxaritrHji:), 
first  led  the  way,  by  his  active  zeal,  to  a  more  general  diffio- 
sion  of  Christianity  in  his  native  country,  from  the  commence- 
ment of  the  fourth  century  and  onwards ;  and  it  was  by  his 
means  also  that  the  Armenian  king  Tiridates  was  converted.^ 
The  old  religion,  notwithstanding  this  event,  still  continued 
to  maintain  itself  in  many  of  the  Armenian  provinces.  In 
the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  Miesrob,  who  had  once 
been  the  royal  secretary,  having  devoted  himself  wholly  to  the 
service  of  religion,  disseminated  Christianity  still  more  widely 
in  countries  to  which  it  had  not  yet  penetrated,  by  taking  up 
his  abode  in  those  regions  as  a  hermit.  Up  to  this  time  the 
Syrian  version  of  the  Bible,  the  authority  of  which  was  recog- 
nised in  the  Persian  church,  had  been  used  in  Armenia ;  and 
hence  an  interpreter  was  always  needed  to  translate  into  the 
vernacular  tongue  the  portions  of  scripture  read  at  the  public 
worship.  Miesrob  first  gave  his  people  an  alphabet,  and 
translated  the  Bible  into  their  language.}    Thus  was  the  pre- 

*  Sozom.  1.  VII.  c.  21,  22. 

t  See  Moses  Chorenens.  hist.  Armen.  1.  II.  c.  77  and  c  88. 

I  Moses  ChoreneDB.  1.  III.  c.  47  and  52. 


CONYEBSION  OF  THE  ARMENIANS.  161 

fiervatioQ  of  Christianity  among  this  people  made  sure,  even 
while  the  country  was  subjected  to  such  dynasties  as  were 
devoted  to  the  Zoroastrian  or  to  the  Mohammedan  religion, 
and  sought  to  supplant  Christianity  ; — ^and  a  Christian  litera- 
ture proceeded  from  this  time  forward  to  form  itself  in  Arme- 
nia. Miesrob  was  a  successful  and  well -deserving  labourer 
also  among  the  neighbouring  kindred  populations. 

A  party  devoted  to  the  ancient  cultus,  who  continued  to 
maintain  tiiemselves  in  some  districts  of  Armenia,  were  en- 
couraged and  supported  by  those  who  held  the  same  faith  in 
Persia.  The  Persian  kings  were  striving  continually  to 
extend  their  dominion  over  Armenia.  Where  they  were  vic- 
torious, they  persecuted  Christianity,  and  sought  to  restore 
the  old  religion.  The  Persian  commander  and  governor, 
Mihr-Nerseh,  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  addressed 
a  proclamation  to  all  the  Armenians,  in  which  he  affirmed 
that  all  who  did  not  adopt  the  religion  of  Mazdejesnan  (the 
Zoroastrian  faith)  must  be  mentally  blind,  and  deceived  by  the 
wicked  spirits  (the  Dews).*  The  Armenian  governors  and 
chie&  are  said  either  to  have  answered  in  a  written  document 
the  objections  here  made  to  Christianity,  or  to  have  appeared 
before  a  great  tribunal,  which  wa&  to  decide  the  question  on 
the  affairs  of  religion.  On  this  occasion  the  Armenian 
noblesy  whom  the  patriarch  Joseph  had  assembled,  a.d.  4o0, 
iu  the  city  of  Ardaschad,  declared  that  they  preferred  to  die 
as  martyrs  rather  than  to  deny  their  faith.  After  the  Persian 
king,  however,  had  summoned  them  to  his  court,  and  threat- 
en^ them  with  a  cruel  death,  they  were  prevailed  upon  to 
give  in  their  denial.  But  the  attempt  of  the  Persians  to 
extirpate  Christianity  by  force,  and  to  introduce  the  Zoroas- 
trian religion,  brought  about  a  universal  popular  movement, 
and  a  religious  war,  a  thing  of  frequent  occurrence  in  those 
regions.f  It  was  amidst  the  distractions  in  whicii  the  Persian 
church,  as  well  as  the  whole  country,  was  then  involved,  that 
the  Armenian  Moses  of  Choretie  wrote  the  history  of  his 
native  land,  which  he  concludes  with  sorrow  and  complaint. 

The  conversion  of  the  race  of  Iberians^  bordering  on  tlie 

*  See  the  proclamation,  'which  has  been  already  cited,  in  the  Mdmoires 
historiqaes  et  g^ographiques  sur  TArmenie  par  St.  Martin.  Paris,  1819. 
T.  11.  p.  472. 

t  See  the  M^mres  sur  rArm^nie,  cited  above,  T.  1.  p.  323. 

VOL.  Ill,  ^ 


162  CHRISTIANITY  BEYOND  TH£  ROMAN  BlfPlCE. 

north,  (within  the  present  Georgia  znd  Grusinia^)  proceeded 
from  a  very  remarkable,  insignificant  b^nning^.* 

Under  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Constaotine,  a  ChristiaD 
female,  perhaps  a  nun,  was  carried  off  captive  l^  the  Iberiani^ 
and  became  the  slave  of  one  of  the  natives  of  the  countiy. 
Here  her  rigidly  ascetic  and  devotional  life  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  people,  and  she  acquired  their  confidence  and 
respect.      It  happened  that  a  child  who  had  fallen  sick  vns, 
after  the  manner  of  the  tribe,  conveyed  from  house  to  boose, 
tiiat  any  person  who  knew  of  a  remedy  against  the  disease 
might  prescribe  for  it.     The  child,  whom  no  one  could  help, 
having  been  brought  to  the  Christian  woman,  she  said  that 
she  knew  of  no  remedy,  but  that  Christ,  her  God,  could  help 
even  where  human  help  was  found  to  be  unavailing.    She 
prayed  for  the  child,  and  it  recovered.     The  recovery  was 
ascribed  to  the  prayer ;  this  made  a  great  impression,  and  the 
matter  finally  reached  the  ear  of  the  queen.    The  latter  afte^ 
wards  fell  severely  sick,  and  sent  for  this  Christian  female. 
Having  no  wish  to  be  considered  a  worker  of  miracles,  she 
declined  the  call.     Upon  this,  the  queen  caused  herself  to  be 
conveyed  to  her ;  and  sfie  also  recovered  from  her  sickness, 
through  the  prayers  of  this  female.     The  king,  on  hearing  of 
the  fact,  was  about  to  send  her  a  rich  present ;  but  his  j/rUn 
informed  him  tliat  the  Christian  woman  despised  all  earthly 
goods,  and  that  the  only  thing  she  would  consider  as  her 
reward  was  when  others  joined  her  in  worshipping  her  God. 
This,  at  the  moment,  made  no  farther  impression  on  him. 
But  some  time  afterwards,  being  overtaken,  while  hunting, 
with  gloomy  weather,  by  which  he  was  separated  from  his 
companions,  and  finally  lost  his  way,  he  called  to  mind  what 
had  been  told  him  concerning  the  almighty  power  of  the  God 
of  the  Christians,  and  addressed  him  with  a  vow  that,  if  he 
found  his  way  out  of  the  desert,  he  would  devote  himself 
entirely  to  his  worship.     Soon  after  the  sky  cleared  up,  and 
the  king  safely  found  his  way  back.     His  mind  was  now  well 
disposed  to  be  affected  by  the  preaching  of  the  Christian 
female.     Afterwards  he  himself  engaged  in  instructing  the 

♦  Among  this  people,  too,  the  prevailing  religion  wag  probably  some 
modification  of  the  Persian  cultus,  adapted  to  their  rude  manners.  Tbey 
worshipped  an  image  of  Ormuzd,  notwithstanding  that  the  genuine  Zbroas- 
trian  religion  allowed  of  no  images.    See  Moses  Chorenens.  1.  II.  c  83. 


CONVEBSIOX  OF  THE  IBEIUANS,  ETC.  163 

men,  wbile  liis  queen  instructed  the  women  of  his  people. 
Next  they  sent  in  quest  of  teacliers  of  the  gospel  and  clergy- 
men from  the  Roman  empire;  and  this  was  the  begin- 
ning of  Christianity  among  a  people*  where  it  has  been 
preserved,  though  mixed  with  superstition,  down  to  the 
present  times. f 

From  this  tribe  the  knowledge  of  Christianity  may  have 
been  extended  also  to  the  neighbouring  populations.  About 
the  year  520,  j:  Tzathus,  prince  of  the  Lazians,  one  of  the  tribes 
of  this  country,  came  on  a  visit  to  the  emperor  Justin.  He 
received  baptism,  and  Justin  stood  as  his  godfather.  He  re- 
turned back  to  his  people  with  a  noble  Greek  lady,  whom  he 
had  married,  richly  loaded  with  presents  from  the  emperor, 
who  acknowledged  him  as  a  king.  In  the  time  of  the  emperor 
Justinian,  the  assassination  of  a  prince  of  this  tribe,  by  a  Ro- 
man ^neral,  produced  among  them  a  great  excitement ;  and 
some  individuals  took  advantage  of  this  state  of  feeling  to  per- 
suade them  to  drop  their  connection  with  the  Roman  people, 
and  attach  themselves  to  the  Persian  empire.  But  the  fear 
lest  a  connection  with  the  Persians  would  endanger  their 
Christian  faith  is  said  to  have  contributed  especially  to  deter 

*  Betwixt  the  years  320  and  330. 

t  One  of  the  original  sources  of  this  story  is  Rufinns,  from  whom  the 
Greek  diurch  historians  have  borrowed  it.  Rufinus  had  it  iVom  the 
month  of  the  Iberian  chieftain  Bacnrius,  who  had  risen  to  the  dignity  of 
a  CcHDes  Domesticorum  in  the  Roman  empire,  and,  at  the  time  Hunnus 
knew  him,  had  become  Dux  over  the  borders  of  Palestine  (see  Rufin.  h.  e. 
c  10).  The  simple  tale  bears  within  itself  the  marks  of  truth :  and,  in- 
deed, the  spread  of  Christianity  has  often  received  an  impulse  from  similar 
occurrences.  The  seccmd,  perhaps  independent,  channel  is  the  history  of 
Moses  of  Chorene  (1.  II.  c  83).  It  is  possible,  indeed,  that  this  historian 
took  his  account  indirectly  from  the  Greek  writers,  who  were  indebted 
for  it  to  Bufinus.  But,  considering  the  vicinity  of  the  country,  it  may  be 
conceived,  too,  that  he  derived  his  account  immediately  from  the  spot  In 
fiivoar  of  this  latter  supposition  would  be  the  slight  discrepancies  in  the 
two  several  accounts,  though  these,  too,  might  be  accounted  for  by  the 
story's  being  given  in  an  Armenian  dress.  According  to  this  writer,  the 
name  of  the  Christian  woman  was  Nunia,  and  that  of  the  prince  Miraus. 
The  Christian  woman  was  an  Armenian ;  and  the  application  for  teachem 
of  Christianity  was  made,  not  to  the  church  of  the  Roman  empire,  but  to 
the  Armenian  bishop  Gregory,  who  has  been  already  mentioned.  It  may 
be  a  question,  however,  whether  this  modification  of  the  story  was  not 
invented  in  fkvour  of  the  Armenian  church,  to  which  the  Iberian  became 
subsequently  united. 

$512  according  to  the  era  of  Thcophanes. 


164  CllRiSriANlTY  i;£YOXD  TU£  K0MA5  EMPUIE. 

theiu  from  following  this  advice.*    Another  tribe  also,  beloii** 
ing  tit  this  district,  bordering  on  Mount  Caucasus,  namely, 
the  Abasgiatis,  were  converted  under  the  reign  of  the  emperor 
Justinian.     Until  this  time  groves  and  lofty  trees  (after  the 
manner  of  the  ancient  Germans)  had  been  the  objects  of  their 
worship.    The  emperor  Justinian  sent  them  ecclesiastics,  and 
founded  among  them  a  church.     He  produced  a  fitvourable    j 
disposition  towards  Christianity  among  the  people,  by  forbid- 
ding tiicir  rulers  to  engage  in  the  scandalous  traffic  in  cas- 
trated slaves,  to  which  many  of  the  male  children  of  the  people 
were  sacrificed.! 

AVliat  we  had  to  say  respecting  the  vagueness  of  the  ac- 
counts relative  to  the  spread  of  Christianity  in  the  earliest 
times  in  India  applies  also  to  many  of  the  accounts  belonging 
to  tlie  earlier  times  of  this  period.  The  same  cause  of  the 
obscurity  still  continued  to  exist;  namely,  the  unsettled  use  of 
the  name  India,  by  which  was  understood  sometimes  Ethiopia, 
sometimes  Arabia,  and  sometimes  East  India  proper.  At  the 
same  time,  however,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  that  there  was 
at  this  time  a  constant  intercourse  between  all  these  countries 
by  commercial  connections  and  colonies,  which  also  might 
serve  as  a  channel  for  communicating  Christianity  from  one  of 
these  districts  to  the  other.  The  various  passages,  therefore, 
in  which  Chrysostom  names  the  Indian  among  the  different 
languages  into  which  the  holy  scriptures  had  been  translated, 
can  settle  nothing  definitely ;  and  even  if  it  could  be  made 
probable,  by  the  accompanying  descriptions,  that  Chrysostom 
had  really  East  India  proper  before  his  mind,  still  such  rheto- 
rical representations  could  not  properly  be  considered  as  evi- 
dence to  be  relied  upon,  especially  as  he  himself  might  possibly 
have  been  deceived  by  the  vague  meaning  of  the  name.  Of 
more  importance,  on  tliis  point,  is  what  the  Arian  historian 
Philostorgius  relates  concerning  the  missionary  Theophilus, 
who  bore  the  cognomen  of  Indicus  (6  'Ii'3oc).  This  Theo- 
philus  had  been  sent  by  his  countrymen,  the  inhabitants  of 
the  island  Diu,|  in  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Constantine,  as 
a  hostage  to  Constantinople.  He  was  there  educated,  and 
t  rained  for  the  spiritual  ofliice ;  afterwards  consecrated  as  dea- 
con, and  still  later  made  a  bishop,  that  he  might  be  prepared 

*  See  Agathias  HI.  12,  p.  165,  ed.  Niebuhr. 

t  See  Procop.  de  bello  Gothico,  1.  IV.  c.  3.  {  At^tvt* 


INDIA — ARABIA.  165 

to  preach  the  gospel  to  his  countrymen  and  to  the  Arabians. 
According  to  the  representation  of  Philostorgius,  in  the  ex- 
tracts made  by  Photius,  we  should  conceive,  it  is  true,  no  other 
country  to  be  meant  here  than  Arabia.  But  the  name  Diu 
reminds  us  rather  of  East  India  proper,  and,  in  particular,  of 
the  place  by  this  name  near  the  entrance  of  the  Persian  Gulf; 
the  situation  of  which  harmonizes,  moreover,  with  Theophilus' 
journey  from  Arabia.  Theophilus,  it  is  said,  went  from  Arabia 
to  Diu,  his  native  land ;  and  from  thence  visited  the  other 
countries  of  India.  Here  he  found  still  existinp^  the  Christi- 
anity which  had  been  already  planted  in  that  region  at  an  earlier 
period.*  Perfectly  certain  and  distinct  accounts  of  the  diffusion 
of  Christianity  in  India  we  meet  with  first  in  Cosmas,  who,  on 
account  of  his  travels  in  India,  received  the  name  Indicopleti^ 
stes.^  He  found  Christians  in  three  different  places  in  India ; 
first,on  the  island  Taprobane,  called  by  the  inhabitants  Sieledibu 
(the  present  Ceylon).  Here  he  found  a  church,  which  had  been 
planted  by  Persian  merchants  residing  on  the  spot,  and  which 
was  presided  over  by  a  presbyter  who  had  been  ordained  in 
Persia.  This  island  carried  on  a  brisk  commerce  with  Persia  and 
Ethiopia.  Maritime  commerce  was  the  channel  by  which  Chris- 
tianity had  reached  this  spot  from  Persia.  Again,  he  met  with 
Christians,  and  an  ordained  clergy,  at  Male,  **  where  the  pep- 
per grows"  (perhaps  the  present  Malabar)  ;  next  at  Calliana 
(perhaps  Calcutta),  where  there  was  a  Persian  bishop.  J  From 
the  accounts  of  Cosmas  it  is  by  no  means  to  be  gathered  that 
Christianity  had  spread  among  the  native  population  of  these 
countries:  it  is  only  clear  that  commercial  colonies  of  the 
Persians  here  practised  the  rites  of  Christian  worship.     These 

*  When  the  Arian  Philostorgius  says  the  inhabitants  of  this  countr}- 
needed  no  correction  of  their  doctrine,  i.  e.  their  doctrine  did  not  at  all 
coincide  with  the  Nicene  creed, — ^they  had  preserved  the  irtpoovffm  un- 
altered from  the  beginning,  this  can  only  be  understood  to  mean  thiit 
they  had  the  older,  more  simple  form  of  church  doctrine,  the  subordina- 
tion system,  before  it  had  undergone  any  further  change  by  the  dialectic 
process,  —  that  form  which  would  have  satisfied  the  Arians.  See 
Philostorg.  III.  14. 

+  He  had  made  these  journeys  first  as  a  merchant,  and  afterwards 
communicated  the  geographical  and  ethnographical  facts  T^hich  he  had 
collected  in  the  ro^oy^a^iat  x^itf-T/avixjj,  which  he  wrote  when  a  monk,  in 
the  year  585,  published  by  Montfaucon  in  the  coUectio  nova  patrum  et 
ficriptomm  Grsec.  T.  II. 

\  See  Cosmas.  1.  III.  p.  178,  in  Montfaucon,  and  1.  XI.  p.  3o(i. 


16G  CHRISTIANITY  BEYOND  THE  ROMAN  EVPIIUi:. 

Persian  Christians  are  the  progenitors  of  the  Christian  oolonia 
«tiU  existing  on  the  coast  of  Malabar.* 

We  observed,  it  is  true,  that,  perhaps  already  in  the  preYiotu 
period,  isolated  attempts  had  been  made  to  dineminate  Chris- 
tianity even  in  those  parts  of  Arabia  which  were  not  subject 
to  the  Roman  dominion ;  but  concerning  the  success  and  issue 
of  those  attempts  we  have  no  accurate  information.  The 
nomadic  life,  which  prevailed  over  the  largest  portion  of 
Arabia,  ever  presented  a  powerful  hindrance  to  the  spread  of 
Christianity.  For  it  is  certain  that  Christianity  could  strike 
its  root  deeply  and  firmly  only  where  it  entered  as  a  fbraung 
power  into  the  whole  life  of  the  people.  The  extensive  com- 
menrial  intercourse  between  a  part  of  Arabia  and  the  Roman 
empire  induced  the  emperor  Constantine  to  send  an  embeaiyi 
with  numerous  presents,  to  one  of  the  powerful  Arabian  chie&i 
the  king  of  the  ancient  and  mighty  nation  of  the  Hamyara 
(Uomerites),  or  Sabseans,  in  Yemen,  Arabia  Felix.  He  was 
at  pains  to  select  for  this  mission  the  above-mentioned  Theo* 
philus  of  Diu,  wlio,  by  reason  of  the  old  commercial  con* 
nections  between  his  country  and  Arabia,  and  perhaps  of  \m 
descent  from  some  ancient  Arabian  colony,!  might  claioi 
affinity  with  the  race  with  whose  language  he  was  acquainted. 
This  Theophilus,  it  is  said,  obtained  permission  from  the  Ara- 
bian chieftain  to  found  a  church,  at  the  emperor*s  expense,  in 
which  Christian  worship  might  be  held  for  the  bene^t  of  the 
Ivoinan  merchants.  The  labours  of  Theophilus  were  attended 
with  the  happiest  effects.  He  converted  the  prince  of  the 
country,  who  founded,  at  his  own  cost,  three  churches :  one  in 
the  principal  town  of  the  nation,  which  was  called  Zaphar; 
another  at  the  Roman  port  and  commercial  depot,  Aden ;  and 
the  third  at  I/ormuz,  the  Persian  place  of  trade  on  the  Persian 
Gulf.f     Theophilus,  from  the  first,  encountered  the  fiercest 

*"  The  deciphering  of  the  ancient  documents  of  these  Christians  will 
(K'rhaps  throw  more  light  on  the  subject  of  the  spread  of  Christianity  in 
India.  See  Tychseu's  Dissertation  de  inscriptionibus  ludicis  in  the 
Commentationes  See.  Keg.  Getting,  recentiores,  T.  V. 

t  See  Arabia  in  Kitter's  Geography ;  and,  in  particular,  b.  II.  p.  292 ; 
and  llartmann's  Aufklarungen  iiber  Asien,  b.  II.  s.  125,  u.  d.  f. 

I  See  Philostorg.  II.  s.  6 ;  III.  s.  4.  As  Theophilus  was  on  Arian, 
we  cannot  think  it  strange  that  the  other  Greek  writers  of  church  history, 
vrho  belonged  to  the  orthodox  party,  make  no  mention  of  these  meri- 
torious labours  of  an  Arian. 


INDIA — ARABIA.  167 

Opposition  from  the  Jews,  whose  influence  in  this  country  was 
great.  The  same  party  succeeded  afterwards  to  supplant  the 
Christian  communities  which  had  been  able  to  maintain  them- 
selves here.     See  below. 

Monks  who  lived  in  the  deserts  bordering  on  Arabia,  and 
who  came  in  contact  with  the  wandering  hordes  of  nomadic 
Arabians,  acquired  the  respect  and  confidence  of  these  rude 
men,  and  could  take  advantage  of  it  to  preach  the  gospel  to 
them.  £usebius  of  Csesarea  relates  that,  in  his  time,  Christian 
churches  were  planted  in  the  deserts  of  tlie  Saracens."^  Bands 
of  Saracens  came,  with  their  wives  and  children,  to  the  monk 
Hilarion,  and  besought  his  blessing.  He  availed  himself  of 
these  opportunities  of  exhorting  them  to  the  worsliip  of  tiic 
trae  God,  and  to  faith  in  Christ.']'  Still  later,  about  the  year 
372,  it  happened  that  a  Saracenian  queen,  Mavia  or  Mauvia, 
vfho  was  at  war  with  the  Eomans,  heard  much  of  a  Saracenian 
monk  in  the  neighbouring  desert,  by  the  name  of  Moses.  She 
made  it  one  of  the  conditions  of  peace  that  this  Moses  should 
be  given  to  her  people  as  their  bishop,  which  was  granted. | 

In  the  first  half  of  the  fifth  century  Simeon  the  Syrian 
monk  (and  Stylite),  who  spent  several  years  standing  on  a 
pillar  thirty-six  ells  in  height,  by  this  extraordinary  spectacle, 
and  the  complete  subjection  which  he  seemed  to  exercise  over 
his  body,  drew  upon  himself,  as  might  have  been  expected,  the 
attention  of  the  nomadic  Saracens.  They  looked  upon  him  as 
a  ^uper-earthly  being,  and  placed  great  confidence  in  blessings 
which  they  obtained  from  him,  a.s  well  as  in  his  prayers. 
Hundreds  and  thousands  came  to  him  and  were  moved  by  iiis 
exhortations  to  receive  baptism.  Theodoretus  relates  this  as 
an  eye-witness.§ 

Ajuong  the  examples.of  conversion  most  deserving  of  notice 
belongs  the  following : — The  chief  of  a  Saracenic  tribe,  whose 
name,  according  to  the  Greeks,  was  Ashebethos,  was,  at  the 
banning  of  the  fifth  century,  attached  to  the  service  of  the 
Persian  empire;   and  the  business  assigned  to  him  was  to 

*  Commentar.  in  Jesaiam,  in  Montfaucon's  collectio  nova  patrum,  T. 

II.  f.  521.      'EKxXtivwv  X^tffTou  xat  iv  vats  i^ii/Aeis  riv  ^u^etKnveayf  xec$'  fifjteis 

t  See  Hieronymi  vita  Hilarionis,  T.  IV.  ed.  Martianay,  p.  II.  f.  82. 
i  Socrat.  IV.  36.    Sozom.  VI.  38.     Kufin.  II.  6.    Theodoret.  IV.  23. 
§  Hist,  religios.  c  26,  T.  III.  p.  1274. 


168  CHRISTIANITY  BEYOND  THE  BOHAN  EMPICE. 

watch  over  the  boundaries.  Now,  the  Christians  in  the 
Persian  empire  were  at  this  time  sufferinsf  persecution,  and 
the  Saracenic  commander  was  ordered  to  seize  and  confine 
every  Christian  fugitive  who  attempted  to  pass  the  limits. 
But  he  was  touched  with  pity  towards  them,  and  allowed 
them  to  pass  free.  Thus  having  brought  persecution  on  himseU^ 
he  fled  to  the  Romans.  He  became  head  of  an  Arabian  tribe 
in  alliance  with  the  latter.  Some  time  afterwards,  believing 
himself  indebted  for  the  cure  of  his  son,  Terebon^  to  the 
prayer  of  the  venerable  monk  Euthymius,  he  caused  himself 
and  his  sou  to  be  baptized  by  the  latter ;  and  many  of  his 
tribe  followed  his  example.  He  encamped  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Euthymius,  and  many  other  Saracens  also  pitched 
their  tents  near  by.  Euthymius  had  great  influence  over 
their  minds.  Finally,  Terebon,  having  now  arrived  at  mature 
age,  became  the  chief  of  his  tribe,  and  Ashebethos,  who  had 
taken  the  baptismal  name  of  Peter,  was  made  bishop  of  the 
several  Saracenic  bands.  He  was  called  the  first  Saracenic 
camp-bishop*  in  Palestine.f  Somewhat  later,  in  the  beginning 
of  the  sixth  century,  occurred  the  conversion  of-  a  Saracenic 
skeikh  ((^uXap^oc),  Almundor ;  perhaps  not  without  some 
connection  with  the  facts  above  related.f 

We  pass  from  Asia  to  Africa.  The  most  important  event 
in  the  present  period,  connected  with  the  conversion  of  thw 
quarter  of  the  world,  was  the  founding  of  the  Christian 
churcli  among  the  Abyssinians,  in  a  population  among  whom 
it  lias  preserved  itself  down  to  the  present  time  as  the  do- 
minant religion,  amidst  surrounding  Pagan  and  Mahommedan 
tribes,  and  which  is  perhaps  de-^tined  to  be  an  instrument  in 
the  hands  of  Providence  for  the  benefit  of  this  entire  quarter 
of  the  world.  In  this  case,  also,  the  great  work  proceeded 
from  an  inconsiderable  beginning.  A  learned  Greek  of  Tjre, 
nametl  Meropius,  had,  in  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Constan- 
tine,  undertaken  a  voyage  of  scientific  discovery.  Already 
on  the  point  of  returning,  he  landed  on  the  coast  of  Ethiopia 
or  Abyssinia,  to  procure  fresh  water,  where  he  was  attacked, 
robbed,   and   himself  and   crew   nmrdered,  by   the   "warlike 

t  See  vita  Euthyniii  hi  Cotclerii  monumenta  ecclesiai  Gracca,  T.  II. 
c.  181'J,  na,  39. 
X  See  Tlioodoret.  lector.  1.  II.  fol.  564,  ed.  Mogimt.  1679. 


ABYSSINIA.  169 

\atives,  who  were  at  that  time  in  a  state  of  hostility  with  the 
Roman  empire.  Two  young  men,  his  companions,  Fni- 
mentius  and  JEdesius,  alone  were  spared,  out  of  pity  for  their 
tender  age.  These  two  youths  were  taken  into  the  service  of 
the  prince  of  the  tribe,  and  made  themselves  beloved.  -Sklesius 
became  his  cup-bearer;  Frumentius,  who  was  distinguished 
for  intelligence  and  sagacity,  was  appointed  his  secretary  and 
accountant.  After  the  death  of  the  prince,  the  education  of 
JSizanes,  the  young  heir,  was  intrusted  to  them ;  and  Fru- 
mentius obtained  great  influence  as  administrator  of  the 
Government.  He  made  use  of  this  influence  already  in  behalf 
of  Christianity.  He  sought  the  acquaintance  of  the  Roman 
merchants  visiting  those  parts,  who  were  Christiana  ;  assisted 
them  in  founding  a  church,  and  united  with  them  in  the 
Christian  worship  of  God.  Finally,  they  obtained  liberty  to 
return  home  to  their  country.  -3iklesius  repaired  to  Tyre, 
where  he  was  made  a  presbyter.  Here  Rufinus  became 
acquainted  with  him,  and  learned  all  the  particulars  of  the 
story  from  his  own  mouth.*  But  Frumentius  felt  himself 
called  to  a  higher  work.  He  felt  bound  to  see  to  it  that  the 
people  with  whom  he  had  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  youth, 
and  from  whom  he  had  received  so  many  favours,  should  be 
made  to  share  in  the  highest  blessing  of  mankind.  He 
travelled,  therefore,  to  Alexandria,  where  the  great  Athana- 
sius  had  recently  been  made  bishop  (a.d.  326),  Athanasius 
entered  at  once  with  ready  sympathy  into  the  plan  of  Fru- 
mentius. But  he  found,  very  justly,  that  no  one  could  be 
a  more  suitable  agent  for  the  prosecution  of  this  work  than 
Frumentius  himself;  and  he  consecrated  him  bishop  of 
4uxuma  (Axum),  the  chief  city  of  the  Abyssinians,  and  a 
^mous  commercial  town.  Frumentius  returned  back  to  this 
)lace,  and  laboured  there  with  great  success.  Subsequently 
rheophilus  of  Arabia,  who  has  already  been  mentioned, 
irisited  the  «ame  country  and  repaired  to  the  principal  town, 
Auxuma  (Axum).  Theophilus  being  an  Arian,  and  Fru- 
mentius, the  friend  of  Athanasius,  professing  in  all  pro- 
bability the  doctrines  of  the  council  of  Nice,  it  is  possible  a 
dispute  may  have  arisen  in  their  announcement  here  of  their 
respective  doctrines,  which  would  necessarily  be  attended 
with  unfavourable  eifects  on  the  nascent  church  ;  but  perhaps, 

*  Kufin.  hist,  eccles.  I.  c.  9. 


170  CHRISTIANITY  BEYOND  THE  BOMAN  EMPIBE. 

too,  Frumentius,  who  bad  not  received  a  theological  education, 
did  not  enter  so  deeply  into  theological  questions.  Still  the 
emperor  Constantius  considered  it  necessary  to  persecute  the 
disciples  of  the  hated  Athanasius,  even  in  these  remote  regiou. 
Afler  Athanasius  had  been  banished  from  Alexandria,  in  the 
year  356,  Constantius  required  the  princes  of  tlie  Abyssioiaa 
people  to  send  Frumentius  to  Alexandria,  in  order  that  the 
Arian  bishop  Georgius,  who  had  been  set  up  in  place  of 
Athanasius,  might  inquire  into  his  orthodoxy,  and  into  the 
regularity  of  his  ordination.* 

The  fate  of  the  Christian  church  among  the  Homerites  in 
Arabia  Felix  afibrded  an  opportunity  for  the  Abyssioiaos, 
under  the  reigns  of  the  emperors  Justin  and  Justinian,  to  shoir 
their  zeal  in  behalf  of  the  cause  of  the  Christians.  The  prince 
of  that  Arabian  population,  Dunaan,  or  Dsunovas,  was  a 
zealous  adherent  of  Judaism  ;  and,  under  pretext  of  avengii^ 
the  oppressions  which  his  fellow-believers  were  obliged  to 
suffer  in  the  Roman  empire,  he  caused  the  Christian  merchants 
who  came  from  that  quarter  and  visited  Arabia  for  the  purposes 
of  trade,  or  passed  through  the  country  to  Abyssinia,  to  be 
murdered.     Elesbaan,'|'  the  Christian  king  of  Abyssinia,  made 

*  See  the  letter  of  Constantius,  in  the  Apologia  Athanasii  ad  CSon- 
staiitium,  s.  31.  The  princes  of  the  Abjssinians  are  here  called  aA^^ms 
and  ^a^etvAf.  A  Greek  inscription,  which  proceeded  from  the  former  of 
these  while  he  was  still  a  pagan  (he  is  here  called  'AuZ»vxf),  has  recently 
been  discovered  by  the  English  in  Abyssinia,  and  is  given  in  Sallys 
Voyage  to  Abyssinia,  p.  411.  In  this  inscription,  *A*tZ»^^(  alone  is 
called  king.  Sduc^avc;,  on  the  other  hand,  together  with  An^ar,  is 
named  his  brother.  But  the  fact  may  have  been,  Uiat,  when  Constantius 
wrote  his  letter,  the  first  of  these  had  become  co-regent.  It  is  singolar, 
however,  that  Constantius  expresses  himself  as  if  Frumentius  had  then 
visited  Auxuma  for  the  first  time.  This  might  lead  us  to  infer  tlttt 
there  is  some  chronological  inaccuracy  in  the  narrative  of  Rnfinus ;  as  he 
places  the  ordination  of  Frumentius  in  the  beginning  of  the  episcopal 
presidency  of  Athanasius. 

t  Theophanes  is  certainly  mistaken  when,  at  the  year  524,  he  relates 
tliat  these  events  first  led  the  Jewish  king  of  Ethiopia  to  embrace  Chris- 
tianity, and  to  obtain  a  bishop  from  the  emperor  Justinian.  Nor  have 
wc  any  good  reason  to  presume,  on  the  authority  of  this  historian,  that 
Christianity  in  Abyssinia  had  become  extinct  again,  and  was  restored  in 
consequence  of  these  events.  Much  rather,  the  zeal  of  the  Abyssinian 
monarch  in  the  cause  of  the  Christians,  together  with  his  own  com- 
mercial interests  and  his  connection  with  the  Roman  empire,  was  a 
sufficient  reason  why  he  should  espouse  the  cause  of  the  persecuted 
Christians  in  the  neighbouring  countiy.   Nor  would  it  be  difficult  to  show 


ARABIA — ABYSSINIA.  171 

ibis  a  cause  for  declariDg  war  on  the  Arabian  prince.     He 

conquered  Dsonovas,  deprived  him  of  the  government,  and 

iet  up  a  Christian,  by  the  name  of  Abraham,  as  king  in  his 

itoul.     But  at  the  death  of  the  latter,  which  happened  soon 

after,  Dsunovas  again  made  himself  master  of  the  throne ; 

and  it  was  a  natural  consequence  of  what  he  had  suffered, 

ftat  he  now  became  a  fiercer  and   more  cruel  persecutor 

tlian  he  was  before.     Against  the  native  Christians  he  raged 

vith  fire  and  sword.     Many  died  as  martyrs,  especially  in  a 

town  called  Negran,  inhabited  for  the  most  part  by  Christians. 

Upon  this,  Elesbaan  interfered  once  more,  under  the  reign  of 

the  emperor  Justinian,  who  stimulated  him  to  the  undertaking. 

He  made  a  second  expedition  to  Arabia  Felix,  and  was  again 

▼ictorioiis.    Dsunovas  lost  his  life  in  this  war ;  the  Abyssinian 

prince  put  an  end  to  the  ancient,  independent  empire  of  the 

Homerites,  and  established  a  new  government  favourable  to 

the  Christians.* 

The  Cosmas  already  mentioned,  who  composed  his  descrip- 
tion of  the  earth  in  the  time  of  the  emperor  Justinian,  was 
aware  that  Christian  churches,  bishops,  and  monks,  were  tiien 
existing  in  Homeria,  and  the  country  of  the  Au\umites,  or 
Ethiopia.l  We  learn  also  from  him  that  many  Christians, 
and  persons  of  the  clerical  order,  resided  in  the  island  of\ 
Socotora  {yrjcrog  AioaKopldovs).  The  latter  had  been  or- 
dained in  Persia,  and  it  seems  that  Christianity  had  been 
conveyed  there  by  means  of  the  commercial  connections  with 

Persia.t 

We  now  return  to  Europe.  But  we  shall  reserve  many  of 
the  most  important  l&cts  of  this  section — the  greatest  part  of 
that  which  relates  to  the  diffusion  of  Christianity  and  the 

fliat  it  was  the  effort  to  ascribe  great  effects  to  the  zeal  of  the  emperor 
Justinian  in  behalf  of  the  Christian  church  ivhich  led  to  this  false 
report ;  as  it  was  moreover  ignorauce  respecting  the  precise  time  of  the 
Abyssinian  coBversions  which  led  to  the  natural  effort  at  explaining 
wliBt  was  unknown  by  the  method  of  combination.  Procopius,  a  con- 
temporary, calls  the  Ethiopian  king,  tt hose  name  with  him  is  ^Exxirhxtofy 
a  anions  Christian,  de  bello  Pers.  1. 1,  c.  20. 

.  *  F.  Walch  has  undertaken  to  collect  and  compare  all  the  conflicting 
oriental  and  Grecian  notices  of  these  events — respecting  \irhich  every 
particular  fact  cannot  be  certainly  determined — in  the  two  dissertations 
on  this  subject,  in  the  4th  volume  of  the  novi  commentarii  soc.  reg. 
Gotting.  1774. 
t  L.  III.  t  179,1.  c.  X  Seel,  c 


172  CHRISTIANITY  BEYOND  THE  BOMAN  EMPIRE. 

planting  of  the  Christian  church  among  the  populati 
German  descent,  who  established  themselves,  after  the  i 
tion  of  the  nations,  on  the  ruins  of  the  Roman  empire- 
following  period,  so  as  not  to  separate  what  strictly  b 
together,  and  that  we  may  be  enabled  to  survey,  at  a 
glance,  the  whole  missionary  work  among  these  popul 
We  shall  notice  here,  therefore,  only  those  matters 
may  be  separately  considered,  and  which  may  most  eaj 
connected  with  the  history  of  the  church  in  the  ] 
empire. 

Christianity  had  long  since  extended  itself,  as  we  ren 
already  in  the  previous  period,  among  the  Britons,  the  a 
inhabitants  of  England  ;  while  as  yet  the  natives  of  Sc 
and  Ireland,  the  Picts  and  Scots,  had  heard  nothing  • 
grospel.  The  incursions  of  these  tribes  into  the  provii 
the  Britons  often  spread  terror  and  devastation ;  and  ic 
forages  they  frequently  carried  away  with  them,  as  i 
larsje  numbers  of  prisoners. 

It  was  by  an  altogether  peculiar  combination  of  d 
stances  that,  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifth  century,  the  m« 
trained  and  prepared  for  his  work  who  was  the  means  c 
planting  the  Christian  church  in  Ireland.  This  was  Pa 
•  (or,  as  he  was  called  in  his  native  country,  Succath), 
place  of  his  birth  was  JBonnaven,  which  lay  betwec 
Scottish  towns  Dumbarton  and  Glasgow,  and  was 
reckoned  to  the  province  of  Britain.  This  village,  in  m< 
of  P^tricius,  received  the  name  of  Kil-Patrick,  or 
Patrick.*  His  father,  a  deacon  in  the  village  church, 
him  a  careful  education.  He  was  instructed,  indeed,  i 
doctrines  of  Christianity ;  but  he  did  not  come  to  know 
he  possessed  in  this  knowledge  until  the  experience  of 
trials  brought  him  to  the  consciousness  of  it.  At  the  ; 
sixteen  he,  with  many  others  of  his  countrymen,  was  c 
off  by  Scottish  pirates  to  the  northern  part  of  the 
Hibernia  (Ireland).  He  was  sold  to  a  chieftain  i 
people,  who  made  him  the  overseer  of  his  flocks, 
employment  compelled  him  to  spend  much  time  in  the 
air ;  and  solitude  became  pleasant  to  him.    Abandoned 

*  The  collection  of  old  traditions  in  User.  Britannicarom  ecdi 
antiquitates,  f.  429. 


EUROPE:   PATRICIUS.  173 

liaman  aid,  he  found  protection,  help,  and  solace  in  God,  and 
found  his  chief  delight  in  prayer  and  pious  meditation.  He 
speaks  of  all  this  himself,  in  his  confessions  :*  '  I  was  sixteen 
years  old,  and  I  knew  not  the  true  God ;  but,  in  a  strange 
kixl,  the  Lord  brought  me  to  the  sense  of  my  unbelief,  so 
titat,  although  late,  I  minded  me  of  my  sins,  and  turned  with 
my  whole  heart  to  the  Lord  my  God  :  who  looked  down  on 
ay  lowliness,  had  pity  on  my  youth  and  my  ignorance,  who 
preserved  me  ere  I  knew  him,  and  who  protected  and  com- 
ibrted  me,  as  a  Either  does  his  son,  ere  I  knew  how  to  di^ttin- 
guish  between  good  and  evil." 

He  had  spent  six  years  in  this  bondage,  when  twice  in 
dreams  he  thought  he  heard  a  voice  bidding  him  fly  in  a  cer- 
tain direction  to  the  sea-coast,  where  he  would  find  a  ship 
ready  to  take  him,  and  convey  him  back  to  his  country.  He 
obeyed ;  and,  after  various  remarkable  experiences  of  a 
guidiug  Providence,  he  found  his  way  back  to  his  friends. 

Ten  years  afterwards  he  was  a  second  time  taken  captive 
by  Scottish  freebooters,  and  conveyed  to  Gaul,  where,  by 
means  of  Christian  merchants,  he  obtained  his  freedom.     He 
tlieo  returned  back  to  his  country,  and  his  friends  were  greatly 
rejoiced  to  have  him  once  more  among  them.    He  might  now 
lave  lived  quietly  with  his  friends  ;    but  he  felt  within  him 
an  irrepressible  desire  to  carry  the  blessing  of  the  gospel  to  • 
those  pagans  with  whom  he  had  spent  a  great  part  of  Iiis 
youth.     He  thought  he  was  called  upon,  by  nightly  visions, 
to  visit  Ireland,  and  there  consecrate  his  life  to  Him  who  had 
given  his  own  life  for  his  ransom.     The  remonstrances  and 
fi&treaties  of  kindred  and  friends  could  not  prevent  him  from 
obeying  this  call.     "  It  was  not  in  my  own  power,"  says 
l^tricius,  "  but  it  was  God  who  conquered  in  me,  and  with- 
stood them  all."     It  seems  that  he  now  betook  himself  first 
to  France,!  for  the  purpose  of  fitting  himself  still  better  for 
his  work  in  the  society  of  pious  monks  and  clergymen. 

*  This  work  bears  in  its  simple,  rude  style,  an  impress  that  corre- 
BfKxids  entirely  to  Patricias*  stage  of  culture.  There  are  to  be  found  in  it 
Qooe  of  the  traditions  which  perhaps  proceeded  only  from  English  monks 
—nothing  wonderftil,  except  wbiat  may  be  very  easily  explained  on 
pvsehological  principles.  AH  this  vouches  for  the  authenticity  of  the 
piece. 

t  His  biographer,  Jocelin,  a  writer  in  the  12th  century,  makes  his 
\aatnej  to  France  follow  after  lus  return  to  Ireland ;  and  this  harmonizes, 


174  CIIKISTIANITT  BEYOND  THE  BOMAX  £3fPIRE. 

As  the  old  legends  relate,  he  next  made  a  journey  to  Kome, 
in  order  to  receive  full  powers  and  consecration  to  his  office 
from  the  Roman  bishop.     The  news  of  the  death  of  the  arch- 
deacon Palladius,*  who  had  been  sent  from  Rome  as  a  mission- 
ary to  Ireland,  but  had  accomplished  very  little  on  account 
of  his  ignorance  of  the  language,  liaving  just  arrived  there 
(in  the  year  432),  tlie  Roman  bi^op,  Sixtus  III.,  did  not 
hesitate  to  appoint  Patrick  in  his  place.     We  cannot,  it  is 
true,  pronounce  this  tradition  at  once  to  be  fiilse ;  yet  m 
shall  be  struck  with  many  difficulties  upon  examining  it.    If 
Patrick  came  to  Ireland  as  a  deputy  from  Rome,  it  might 
naturally  be  expected  that  in  tiie  Irish  church  a  certain  sense 
of  dependence  would  always  have  been  preserved  towards  the 
mother  church  at  Rome.     But  we  find,  on  the  contrary,  ia 
the  Irish  church  afterwards,  a  spirit  of  churcii  freedom  shnilar 
to  that  shown  by  the  ancient  British  church,  which  struggled 
against  the  yoke  of  Roman  ordinances.    We  find  subseqaeui!]F 
among  the  Irish  a  much  greater  agreement  with  the  ancient 
British  than  with  Roman  ecclesiastical  usages.     This  goes  to 
prove  that  the  origin  of  this  church  was  independent  of  Rome^ 
and  must  be  traced  solely  to  the  people  of  Britain.    Mere- 
over,  Patrick  could  not  have  held  it  so  necessary  as  this  tup 
dition  supposes  he  did,  either  as  a  Briton  or  according  to  the 

moreover,  with  the  confessions  of  Patrick ;  althoagh  it  is  poinble  Uat, 
immediately  after  his  release,  since  this  took  place  in  France  itseli^  to 
entered  on  his  travels  to  visit  the  more  celebrated  cloisters  of  this  ooontij. 
That  he  maintained  an  intimate  correspondence  with  the  pious  men  of 
southern  France  may  be  gathered  from  his  confessions,  where  he  nyi 
that  he  would  be  glad  to  visit  once  more,  not  only  his  native  ooontryi 
but  also  Gaul :  Eram  usque  Gallias,  visitare  fratres,  et  at  viderem  fiuaen 
sanctorum  Domini  mei. 

"*  From  the  notices  of  Prosper  Aquitanicus,  it  appears  that  the  bishop 
Coelestinus  of  Eome  had  ordained  Palladius  as  a  bishop  for  the  Scots,  hjr 
whom  perhaps  may  have  been  intended  the  Irish ;  and,  according  to 
these  accounts,  he  must  have  accomplished  a  good  deaL    Bat  Proraer 
may  perhaps  have  received  at  his  distance  from  Kome  exaggerated  stontf. 
He  says  in  his  Chronicle,  under  the  year  431,  Ad  Scotos  tit  Chriitwrn 
credentes  ordinatus  a  Papa  Coelestino  Palladius,  et  primus  epiacopos 
raittitur ;  and  in  the  liber  contra  Collatorem,  c.  21,  s.  2,  Ordinate  Scolis 
episcopo,  fecit  etiam  barbaram  (insulam)  Christianam.    T\\e  tradition  of 
the  mission  of  Palladius  to  Ireland  seems,  according  to  the  dtatiooB  of 
Jocelin,  to  have  been  preserved  in  that  country  for  a  long  period ;  bat 
also  the  tradition  that  the  conversicm  of  the  natiun  was  not  doe  to  his 
lal>ours,  but  was  reserved  for  those  of  Patrick 


CONVERSION  OF  TIIE  IRISH.  ITo 

principles  of  the  Gallic  church,  to  obtain  first  from  the  Ro- 
man bishop  full  powers  and  consecration  for  such  a  work. 
Again,  no  iDciication  of  his  connection  with  the  Roman 
church  is  to  be  found  in  his  confession ;  rather  ever^-thing 
seems  to  favour  the  supposition  that  he  was  ordained  bishop 
m  Britain  itself,  and  in  his  ibrty-fiflh  year.*  And  it  may  be 
easily  explained  how  the  tendency  of  later  monks  to  trace 
the  founding  of  new  churches  to  Rome,  miu^ht,  among  so 
many  other  bibulous  legends,  give  rise  also  to  tiiis. 

Arrived  in  Ireland,  he  possessed  a  great  advantage  in  pro- 
secuting his  work  from  his  knowledge  of  the  customs  and  tlie 
language  of  the  country.     He  assembled  around  him  in  the 
open  fields,  at  the  beat  of  a  drum,  a  concourse  of  people ;  where 
he  related  to  them  the  story  of  Christ,  which  relation  mani- 
fested its  divine  power  on  their  rude  minds.     It  is  true  the 
people  were  excited  against  him  by  those  powerful  priests 
the  Druids ;  but  he  did  not  allow  himself  to  be  frightened  on 
this  account.     As  the  chief  men  had  it  in  their  power  to  do 
him  the  most  injury  while  they  remained  under  the  dominion 
of  these  Druids,  he  laboured  especially  to  gain  access  to  them. 
Perhaps  numbers  were  already  prepared  for  the  faith  m  the 
go^l,  like  that  Cormac,  an  Irish  prince,  belonging  to  the 
last  times  of  the  fourth  century,  who,  after  having  abdicated 
his  government  and  given  himself  up  to  silent  reflection  and 
religious  contemplation  in  solitude,  is  said  to  have  come  to  the 
coQviction  of  the  vanity  of  the  Druidical  doctrines  concerning 
the  gods.*!* 
A  proof  of  the  power  exercised  by  Patrick  over  the  youthful 

*  Patrick  intimates  in  his  confession,  c.  3,  that  some  respectable  clergy- 
Ben  in  Britain  opposed  his  consecration  to  the  episcopal  office.  He  in- 
timates that  his  enemies  tamed  against  him  the  confession  of  a  sin,  com- 
lutted  thirty  years  before,  -which  confession  he  had  made  before  he  was 
chosen  deacon.  And  from  what  follows  it  is  quite  evident  that  this  has 
reference  to  something  he  had  done  when  a  boy  o^  fifteen.  It  would 
follow  from  this  then  that  he  was  ordained  bishop  in  his  forty-fifth  year, 
tod  so  probably  commenced  his  labours  in  Ireland  in  the  same  year  of 
his  life.  Now  if  we  could  also  determine  with  accuracy  the  year  of  his 
birth,  we  might  fix  precisely  the  year  of  his  episcopal  ordination  and  his 
missionary  journey.  But  this  is  a  point  with  regard  to  which  nothing 
can  be  considered  as  settled ;  the  chronological  data  of  the  traditions, 
both  in  Usher  and  in  Jocelin,  being,  to  say  the  least,  extremely  un- 
certain. 

f  See  the  History  of  Ireland,  by  F.  Warner,  Vol.  I.  p.  247. 


176  CUCISTIAXITY  BEYOND  THE  BOHAN  EliPIRE. 

mind  is  seen  in  the  way  in  which  he  is  said  to  have  drawn  to 
him  those  who  were  to  be  his  successors  in  the  guidance  of  the 
Irish  church.     He  came  into  the  house  of  a  person  of  rank, 
taught  there,  and  baptized  the  family.     The  young  son  of  the 
house  was  so  attracted  by  the  impression  of  the  looks  and  words 
of  Patrick,  that  he  could  never  afterwards  be  separated  finom 
him.     He  followed  him  and  kept  close  to  him  amid  all  his 
dangers  and  sufferings.     Patrick  is  said  to  have  named  him 
Benignus,  on  account  of  his  kindly  nature.     He  is  said  also  to 
liave  converted  one  of  the  cliief  bards,  called  Dubrach  Mac 
Valubair ;  and  the  minstrel,  who  had  been  used  to  rehearse  the 
Druidical  doctrine  of  the  gods,  now  composed  songs  in  praise 
of  Christianity* — a  circumstance  which  would  have  no  incon- 
siderable influence  on  a  people  naturally  inclined  to  poetiy 
and  music. 

The  lands  which  he  received  as  presents  from  converted 
chieftains  Patrick  applied  to  the  founding  of  cloisters,  having 
contracted  in  France  a  predilection  for  the  monastic  life.  The  ^ 
cloisters  were  designed  to  serve  as  nursing  schools  for  teacheis 
of  the  people,  and  fi*om  them  was  to  proceed  the  civilizatioo 
of  the  country.  Although  Patrick  was  qualified  himself  to 
impart  but  little  scientific  instruction  to  his  monks,  yet  he  in- 
fused into  them  the  love  of  learning,  which  inipelled  them 
subsequently  to  seek  for  more  information,  and  &r  books,  in 
Britain  and  France.  Yet  he  gave  them  the  first  means  of  all 
culture^  in  inventing  an  alphabet  for  the  Irish  language.^ 
He  had  nmch  to  bear  continually  from  the  opposition  of  the 
pagan  chiefs.  He  was  once,  with  his  attendants,  fallen  upon 
by  one  of  these  chiefs,  robbed,  and  detained  fourteen  days  in 
captivity.J  Often  he  sought  to  purchase  quiet  for  himself 
and  his  friends  by  presents.  And  it  was  not  with  Irish  pk- 
gaiis  alone  that  he  had  to  contend.  A  piratical  British  chief- 
tain, named  Corotic,  from  the  district  of  Wallia  (Wales),  fell 
upon  a  number  who  had  been  recently  baptized  by  Patrick, 
carried  off  a  part  of  them  captives,  and  sold  them  as  slaves  to 
heathen  Picts  and  Scots.     To  this  man,  who  professed  out- 

*  Jocelin,  c.  V.  s.  38.     Mensis  Mart  d.  17. 

t  Of  the  zeal  for  the  monastic  life  which  he  inspired,  Patrick  speaks 
himself  in  his  confessions:  Filii  Scotorum  et  filitc  regalorom  moDaclu<^ 
virgiues  Christi  esse  videutur.   Opuscula  Patricii,  ed.  J.  Wansi,  pag.  16. 

X  L.  c.  Waixcus,  p.  20. 


IRELAND — THE  (JOTHS.  177 

iy  to  be  a  Christian,  Patrick  wrote  an  emphatically 
tening  letter,  which  has  been  preserved,  and  excommu- 
3d  him  from  the  church.  Glad  as  he  would  have  been 
it  his  old  friends  in  Britain  and  France,  yet  he  could  not 

it  right  to  leave  the  new  church.  "1  pray  God,*'  he 
after  a  long  residence  among  this  people,  "  that  he  would 
t  me  perseverance  to  enable  me  to  approve  myself  a  faith- 
itness,  for  the  sake  of  my  G  od,  to  the  end.    And  if  I  have 

laboured  to  accomplish  anything  good  for  the  sake  of 
rod, whom  I  love,  may  He  grant  that,  with  those  converts 
»aptives  of  mine,  I  may  pour  out  my  blood  for  his  name !  *' 
le  Goths  belonging -to  the  stocks  of  Germanic  descent, 
had  opportunity  of  coming  to  the  knowledge  of  Christi- 
'  by  means  of  their  wars  with  the  Roman  empire,  probably 
xly  as  the  second  half  of  the  preceding  period.  During 
}  incursions  which,  in  the  time  of  the  emperor  Valerian, 
made  into  Cappadocia  and  the  bordering  countries,  they 
odi  to  have  carried  away  captive  many  Christians,  and, 
ig  the  rest,  persons  of  the  clerical  order.    These  remained 

the  Goths,  propagated  themselves  among  them,  and 
ured  for  the  diflfiision  of  Christianity.*  Accordingly  we 
already,  among  the  bishops  who  subscribed  their  names  to 
iecisions  of  the  Nicene  coimcil,  a  certain  Theophiltis,  who 
lied  bishop  of  the  Goths.f 

rem  one  of  these  Christian  families  of  Roman  origin,  which 
thus  continued  to  propagate  itself  among  the  Got  lis, 
hilasy  who  is  entitled  to  tlie  credit  of  having  done  most  for 
spread  of  Christianity  and  Christian  culture  among  the 
is,  is  said  to  have  sprung.J  Ulphilas  did  the  Goths  im- 
mt  service  in  their  negotiations  with  the  Roman  emperors, 
siness  for  which  he  was  eminently  fitted  on  account  of  his 
ionship  with  both  nations.     He  thus  won  their  love  and 

?liilostor|;.  II.  5. 

k>crat.  hist,  eccles.  1.  II.  c.  41. 

Ls  Philostorgius,  himself  a  Cappadocian,  distinctly  mentions  the 

^  to  which  tbe  fkmily  of  Ulphilas  ori^nally  belonged,  we  have  the 

ight  to  call  in  question  his  statement.    The  manifestly  German 

Wolf,  Wolfel,  famishes  no  proof  to  the  contrary ;  for  their  readence 

g  the  Groths  might  miquestionably  have  induced  the  members  of 

ramily  to  give  themselves  German  names.     Moreover,  Basil  of 

rea  (ep.  165)  says  that  the  Goths  received  the  first  seeds  of  Chris- 

y  from  Cappadocia. 

>L.  III.  1& 


17y  CHUlSriAXlTY  BEYOND  THE  ROaiAN  EMPIRE. 

cuiiBdence,  of  %vhich  he  could  avail  himself  to  promote  the 
spread  of  ChrLstiauity.      He  was  consecrated  bishop  of  the 
(juths,  and  secured  the  means  for  a  permanent  propagation  of 
Christianity  among  them,  particularly  by  inventing  an  alpha- 
bet for  them,  and  by  translating  the  holy  scriptures  into  thdr 
language.     He  is  said,  however,  to  have  omitted  in  this  trans- 
lation the  books  of  the  Kings,  to  which  the  books  of  Samuel, 
also,  were  then  reckoned,  that  uotliing  might  be  presented 
which  ^\  as  calculated  to  foster  the  warlike  spirit  of  the  Goths.* 
Certain  as  these  facts  are  in  general,  yet  it  is  difficult  to  fix 
with  precision  the  time  when  Ulphilas  first  made  his  appear- 
ance as  a  teacher  amongst  his  people,  and  when  he  was  em- 
ployed in  the  negotiations  with  the  Roman  empire ;  for  cm 
tiiese  points  there  are  many  contradictory  statements  in  the 

historians  of  the  church.']'     These,  however,  admit  of  being    l- 

k 

*  Philostorg.  II.  5.  ^         | 

t  According  to  Philostorgius,  Ulphilas  was  employed  in  negotiatiocs     f 
\Titli  the  emperor  Constantiue,  who  had  a  high  respect  for  him,  and  km     i 
used  to  call  him  the  Moses  of  his  time.  Constantine  permitted  the  Goths      • 
to  settle  down  iu  the  district  of  Mcesia.    At  this  time  Ulphilas  was  con* 
secrated  bishop  of  the  Goths  by  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia.     According  to 
Socrati's,  ii.  41,  Ulphilas  subscribed,  in  the  first  place,  the  Arian  creed, 
drawn  up  at  Constantinople,  in  the  year  360,  under  the  emperor  Constsn- 
tius.     Ik'fore  this  he  was  an  adherent  of  the  Nicene  doctrine ;  ibr  he 
followed  the  teaching  of  the  Gothic  bishop  Theophilus,  who  had  been  one 
of  the  signers  of  the  Nicene  creed.     Next,  the  same  church  historian  re- 
lates, iv.  33,  that  the  assistance  and  support  which  the  emperor  Valens 
affordetl  to  that  portion  of  the  Goths  to  which  Ulphilas  belonged,  induced 
many  of  them  at  that  time  to  embrace  Chrisdanity,  but  at  the  same  time 
also  to  espouse  the  Arian  doctrine  then  prevailing  in  the  Koman  empire. 
He  places  the  origin  of  Ulphilas'  version  of  the  Scriptures  as  late  as  the 
time  just  referred  to.  Sozomen  (IV.  24  and  VI.  37)  agrees  in  the  main  with 
Socrates,  and  only  adds  that  Ulphilas  was  at  first  a  follower  of  the  doe- 
trincs  of  the  Nicene  council ;  that,  in  the  time  of  the  emperor  Constan- 
tius,  he  had,  indeed,  imprudently  become  intimate  with  certain  bishops 
of  the  Koman  empire  who  professed  Arianism,  yet  confmned  to  maintain 
his  fellowship  with  the  orthodox  bishops  according  to  the  Nicene  council. 
But,  having  come  to  Constantinople  on  occasion  of  certain  negotiatioDS 
with  the  emperor  Valens,  he  was  moved  by  the  persuasions  of  the  dom-      t 
naut  Arian  bishops,  and  by  their  promises  to  give  him  their  support  with 
the  emperor,  to  embrace  Arianism.     Theodoretus,  IV.  37,  reports  that      ! 
the  Goths  were  devoted  to  the  true  faith  until  the  time  of  the  emperor      j 
Valens ;  but  that,  uuder  this  emperor,  the  Arian  dominant  bishop  at 
court,  Eudoxius,  represented  to  them  that  agreement  in  religious  doc- 
trine would  render  the  union  between  them  and  the  Romans  more  secure. 
But  he  was  able  to  effect  nothing  with  them  until  he  applied  himself  to 


THE  GOTHS  :   ULPfllLAS.  179 

reconciled  with  each  other  by  supposing  that  Ulphilas  first 
began  his  labours,  as  a  bishop  among  the  Goths,  in  the  time 
of  Constantine ;  and  that  he  contiuu^  to  prosecute  them  until 
liear  the  close  of  the  reigu  of  the  emperor  Yalens ;  that  he 
repeatedly  conducted  the  negotiations  between  the  Goths  and 
the  Roman  empire,  and  in  this  way  ever  rose  higher  in  the 
confidence  of  the  former. 

Atbanasius,  in  a  work  which  he  wrote  while  a  deacon,  pre- 
vioas  to  the  time  of  the  Nicene  council,  speaks  of  the  diffusion 
of  Christianity  among  the  Goths,  and  alludes  to  the  fact  that 
the  ameliorating  influence  of  this  religion  had  already  begun 
to  manifest  itself  on  that  people.*  He  says,  with  regard  to 
the  effects  of  Christianity  among  these  rude  tribes,  "  "Who  is 

their  influential  bishop,  Ulphilas,  and  succeeded,  by  persuasive  speeches 
and  by  money,  to  win  him  over.  He  so  represented  the  matter  as  if  the 
£nmte  between  the  two  parties  related  only  to  unimportant  differences, 
and  waB  made  so  important  merely  through  their  obstinacy  and  love  of 
dispnte. 

If  we  compare  together  these  accounts,  we  find  that  Philostorgius 
draarts  from  all  the  oSier  church  historians  in  placing  the  whole  period  of 
U^ilas'  labours  within  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Constantine,  and  making 
w  mention  whatever  of  the  negotiations  in  the  time  of  Yalens,  which 
wne  the  most  important  But  as  the  accounts  of  the  others  presuppose 
also  that  the  Groths  had  long  been  Christians ;  as  Socrates  and  Sozomen 
issome  that  Ulphilas  was  already  bishop  in  the  reign  of  Constantius,  the 
aeeount  of  Philostor^us  may  certainly  be  brought  into  agreement  with 
these  reports.  If  it  may  only  be  supposed— ^against  which  supposition 
there  is  no  reasonable  ground  of  objection — that  Ulphilas  lived  to  a  very 
dd  age,  it  may  be  assumed  that  he  began  his  labours  as  a  bishop  among 
the  dotbs  as  early  as  the  time  of  Constantine ;  for  it  is  very  possible, 
certainly,  that  he  may  have  exercised  the  functions  of  the  episcopal  office 
trough  a  period  oijifty  years. 

In  the  next  place,  it  must  be  remarked  that  Philostorgius,  being  an 
Arian,  had  an  mterest  in  making  it  appear  that  Ulphilas  was  an  Arian 
from  the  first ;  while,  on  the  otiber  hand,  the  other  church  historians, 
as  opponents  of  Arianism,  were  interested  to  represent  the  fact  as  if 
Ulphilas  was  in  the  first  place  orthodox,  and  to  trace  his  defection  from 
tiie  orthodox  doctrines  to  outward  influences  and  causes,  and  hence  to  fix 
the  time  of  this  defection  under  the  reign  of  an  emperor  who  was  zeal- 
onsly  devoted  to  Arianism.  It  is  very  possible  that  Ulphilas  had 
received  the  simple  form  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  divinity  from  the 
older  Boman  church ;  that  in  the  beginning  he  held  simply  to  this,  with- 
oat  taking  any  part  in  the  dialectic  doctrinal  controversies,  until,  by 
coming  in  contact,  in  various  ways,  with  the  Arian  bishops,  he  'Aas  led 
to  embrace  the  Arian  system. 

*  Athiemas.  de  iucarnatione  verbi,  s.  51  et  52. 


\ 


180  CHUISTIAXITY  BEYOND  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE. 

it  that  lias  wTought  this ;  that  has  united  in  the  bonds  of  peace 
those  wlio  once  hated  one  another ; — who  else  than  the  beloved 
Son  of  the  Father,  the  commun  Saviour  of  all,  Jesus  Christ, 
who,  through  love  to  us,  suffered  everything  for  our  salvation? 
For  already  of  old  the  peace  that  should  go  out  from  him  had 
been  the  subject  of  prophecy,  since  the  holy  scriptures  say, 
Isa.  ii.  4,  ^  Then  they  f^hall  beat  their  swords  into  plough- 
shares, and  their  spears  hito  pruning-hooks ;  nation  shall  not 
lift  up  sword  against  nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war  any 
more.'     And  this  is  nothing  incredible ;  since  even  now  the 
barbarians,  to  whom  savagery  of  manners  is  a  nature  so  long 
as  they  worship  dumb  idols,  rage  against  each  other,  and  can- 
not remain  one  moment  without  the  sword ;  but,  when  they 
Iiear  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  immediately  they  turn  away  from 
war  to  agriculture ;    instead  of  arming  their  hands  with  the 
sword,  they  lifl  them  up  in  prayer ;   and,  in  a  word,  from 
henceforth,  instead  of  carrying  on  war  with  each  other,  arm 
themselves  against  Satan,  striving  to  conquer  him  by  the  bra- 
very of  the  soul.     And  the  wonder  is,  that  even  they  despise 
death,  and  become  martyrs,  for  the  sake  of  Christ." 

The  division  of  the  Goths  among  whom  Ulphilas  appeared 
were  the  Thervingians,  imder  king  Fritiger — the  West  Goths; 
and  these  were  at  war  with  the  Greuthingians,  whose  king  was 
Athanarich — the  East  Goths.*  When,  therefore,  Ulphilas 
laboured  to  difiuse  Christianity  also  among  the  Greuthingians, 
his  efforts  met  with  opposition ;  Christianity  was  persecuted 
by  them,  and  many  died  as  martyrs.f  The  martyrs  certainly 
contributed  greatly  among  the  Goths  also  to  the  spread  of  the 

gospel.J 

The  historian  Eunapius  relates  that  the  Goths,  in  the  time 
of  the  emperor  Valens,  while  they  contrived  to  maintain  in 

*  See  the  passages  above  cited  from  Socrates  and  Sozomen,  and 
Ammian.  Marcellin.  XXXI.  4,  &c. 

t  It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  Socrates,  IV.  33,  recognised  even 
among  the  Goths,  although  they  were  Arians,  the  genuine  spirit  of 
martyrdom.  For  he  says,  although  the  barbarians  erred  through  their 
simplicity,  yet  they  despised  the  earthly  life  for  the  sake  of  the  faith  in 

Christ :    'A^'Xatj^ti  roy  x^iffTtetu^fAov  ^t|^^s»4/,  vTt^  Ttif   ttg  X^«^r«»  virvtits 

X  Comp.  Basil.  Csesareens.  ep.  155,  164,  165,  in  which  letters,  of  about 
the  jear  374,  mention  is  made  of  the  martyrs  among  the  Goths.  Basil 
procured  relics  of  tlie  martyrs  who  died  there. 


PB06RESS  AMONG  THE  QOTHS.  181 

preat  secrecy  the  ancient  rites  of  their  national  religion,  often 
issumed  the  outward  show  of  Christianity,  and  carried  about 
¥ith  them  pretended  bishops  in  their  waggons,  for  the  piurpose 
)f  gaining  thereby  the  favour  and  confidence  of  the  Byzantine 
X)urt ;  which  they  could  the  more  easily  deceive,  as  they  had 
imong  them  people  who  wore  the  monkish  dress,  and  whom 
:hey  pretended  to  call  monks,  because  they  understood  in  what 
ligh  esteem  this  class  of  men  stood  among  the  Christians.*  It 
is  true  the  mere  assertion  of  this  violent  enemy  of  the  Chris- 
dans  is  no  sufticient  authority  for  a  fact  of  this  sort.  At  all 
events,  he  expresses  himself  in  too  general  terms.  Yet  very 
possibly  the  Goths  were  shrewd  enough  to  discern  that  in  this 
ivay  they  could  most  easily  deceive  the  Byzantine  court ;  and 
it  may  be  that,  in  some  particular  cases,  they  resorted  to  this 
means  of  deception ;  although,  in  the  main,  there  can  be  no 
question  with  regard  to  the  reality  of  the  conversion  of  the 
Goths  to  Christianity. 

The  great  Chrysostom,  while  patriarch  of  Constantinople, 
and  during  his  exile  after  he  was  expelled  from  Constanti- 
nople, laboured  earnestly  for  the  establishment  of  mission^ 
among  the  Goths.  He  set  apart  a  particular  church  at  Con- 
stantinople for  the  religious  worship  of  tiie  Goths ;  where  the 
Bible  was  read  in  the  Gothic  translation,  and  discourses  were 
preached  by  Gothic  clergymen  in  the  language  of  their  coun- 
try. He  adopted  the  wise  plan  of  here  training  up  mission- 
aries for  the  people  from  among  the  people  themselves.  On 
i  certain  Sunday  in  the  year  398  or  399,  after  causing  divine 
(roTship  to  be  celebrated,  the  Bible  to  be  read,  and  a  dis- 
burse to  be  preached,  by  Gothic  ecclesiastics,  in  the  Gothic 
;ongue,  to  the  great  surprise,  no  doubt,  of  the  refined  Byzan- 
ians  in  the  assembly,  who  looked  down  upon  tlie  Goths  as 
barbarians,  he  took  advantage  of  this  remarkable  scene  to 
><)int  out  to  them  in  the  example  before  their  own  eyes  the 
:ransforming  and  plastic  power  of  Christianity  over  the  entire 

♦  See  Eonapii  Excerpta,  in  Mali  scriptorum  veterum  nova  collectio, 
r.   II.      Romse,   1827,  pp.  277,  278.     ''Hv  li  kk).  rm  xxXovfjuivuv  (mvolx,"* 

>v2iv    {"XfOvcns    rm    /utAttffUJS    vr^ecy/MXTu'hts    kui    ^verKoXeVf    aXX*    i^npxt7   ^euet 
fUtTtet    ffvedufft    X''^''**'^*   vovfi^eii    <ri    tlviu   xa,)  ^trivifffieHf    wllicll  tlie   fierce 

;xiemy  of  Christian  monastlcism  cculd  not  deny  himself  the  gratification 
>f  adding. 


182  CHEISTrANITY  BEYOND  THE  ROMAH  EMPIBE. 

human  nature,  and  (o  enlist  their  sympathies  in  the  cause  of 
the  mission.  He  delivered  a  discourse,  which  has  come  dovn 
to  us,  full  of  a  divine  eloquence,  on  the  might  of  the  gospd, 
and  the  plan  of  God  in  the  education  of  mankind.*  Among 
other  things  he  remarics,  quoting  the  passage  in  Isa.  Ixv.  2*), 
^'  ^  The  wolf  and  the  lamb  shall  feed  together,  and  the  lion 
shall  eat  straw  like  the  bullock.'  The  prophet  is  not  speak- 
ing here  of  lions  and  lambs,  but  predicting  to  vm  that,  sub- 
dued by  the  power  of  the  divine  doctrine,  the  bnital  senae 
of  rude  men  should  be  transformed  to  such  gentleness  of 
spirit,  that  they  should  unite  together  in  one  and  the  same 
community  with  the  mildest.  And  this  have  you  witnessed  to- 
day— the  most  savage  race  of  men  standing  together  with  the 
lambs  of  the  church — one  pasture,  one  fold  for  all — one  table 
set  before  all."  Which  may  refer  either  to  the  common  par- 
ticipation in  the  sacred  word,  which  had  been  presented  fint 
iu  the  Gothic  and  then  in  the  Greek  langui^,  or  to  the  com- 
mon participation  in  the  communion. 

The  Gothic  clergy  began  already  to  busy  themselves  with 
the  study  of  the  Bible.  The  learned  Jerome  was  surprise^) 
while  residing  at  Bethlehem  (in  403),  by  receiving  a  letter 
from  two  Goths,  Sunnia  and  Fretela,  making  inquiries  abont 
several  discrepancies  which  they  had  observed  between  the 
vulgar  Latin  and  the  Alexandrian  version  of  the  Psalms; 
and  Jerome  begins  his  answer f  in  the  following  words: 
"  Who  would  have  believed  that  the  barbarian  tongue  of  the 
Goths  would  inquire  respecting  the  pure  sense  of  the  Hebrew 
original ;  and  that,  while  the  Greeks  were  sleeping,  or  rather 
disputing  with  each  other"  (according  to  another  reading— 
"  despising  it"),  **  Germany  itself  would  be  investigating 
the  divine  word?"{  Jerome  could  say  that  the  red  and 
yellow  haired  Goths  carried  the  church  about  with  them  in 
tents ;  and  perhaps,  for  this  reason,  battled  with  equal  fortune 
against  the  Romans,  because  they  trusted  in  the  same  religioni 

*  The  8th  Homily,  among  those  first  published  by  Mont&ucon,  tom* 
XII.  opp.  Chrj'sostom. 

t  Ep.  106,  in  the  edition  of  Vallarsi;  in  other  editions,  ep.  98. 

X  Quis  hoc  crederet,  ut  barbara  Getanim  lingua  Hebraicam  qnsererct 
veritatem ;  et  dormitantibus,  immo  contendentibus  (or  contemnentibus) 
Gnpcis,  ipsa  Germania  Spiritus  Sancti  eloquia  serutaretur? 

§  Ep.  107  ad  Letam,  s.  2.  Getarum  rutilus  et  flavus  exercitns  eccle- 
siarum  circumfert  tentoria. 


FBOGRESS  AMONG  THE  GOTHS.  183 

The  influence  of  Christianity  was,  perhaps,  seen  also  in 
those  who  as  yet  made  no  profession  of  it,  when  Alaric,  the 
leader  of  the  West-Gothic  army,  captured  Rome,  and  spread 
consternation  all  around.  The  churches  of  St.  Peter  and 
St.  Paul,  and  the  chapels  of  the  martyrs,  became  the  univer- 
sal places  of  refuge ;  and  they  remained  with  all  their  trea- 
sures, and  all  the  men  who  had  fled  to  them,  respected  and 
spared  aniid  all  the  havoc  of  devastation.  Not  a  man  of  the 
Wbarians  touched  these  spots ;  nay,  they  conveyed  thither 
themselves  many  unhappy  individuals  who  had  excited  their 
pity,  as  to  a  place  of  safety.  Pagans,  who  had  ascribed  to 
Christianity  all  the  calamities  of  the  period,  and  Christians, 
united  here  in  giving  thanks  to  God.  "  He  who  does  not 
see,"  exclaims  Augustin,  speaking  of  this  fact,*  ''that  the 
thanks  for  this  are  due  to  the  name  of  Christ,  to  the  Christian 
period,  must  be  blind ;  he  who  does  see  it,  and  praises  not 
God,  is  an  ingrate ;  he  who  would  hinder  them  that  praise 
God  is  a  madman.  Far  be  it  from  any  intelligent  man  to 
t»cribe  this  to  the  rudeness  of  barbarians.  He  bridled  and 
tempered  the  savage  nature  of  the  barbarians  in  a  miraculous 
maimer  who  had  said  long  before,  '  Then  will  I  visit  their 
transgression  with  the  rod,  and  their  iniquity  with  stripes. 
Nevertheless,  my  lovingkindness  will  I  not  utterly  take  from 
them/  "— Ps.  Ixxxix.  32,  33. 

*  De  civitate  Dei,  1. 1,  c.  7. 


184  UlSTCKY  OF  THE  CIIURCU  CONSTITUTION. 


SECTION    SECOND, 

HISTORY   OF    THE    CHURCH    CONSTITUTION.     CHURCH 
DISCIPLINE.    SCHISMS  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

I.    IIlSTOBr    OF    THE    ChURCH   CONSTITUTION, 

1.  ReUUion  of  Church  to  StcUe, 

In  the  relation  of  the  church  to  the  state  there  occurred, 
with  the  commencciuent  of  this  period,  a  most  important 
change,  the  consequences  of  which  extended  to  all  parts  of  the 
church  constitution,  and  which  had  an  influence  in  various 
ways  on  the  whole  course  and  shaping  of  the  church  deve-. 
lopmcnt.  In  the  preceding  period  the  church  stood  to  the 
state  in  the  relation  of  an  independent,  self-included  whole, 
and  was  to  the  state,  for  the  most  part,  an  object  of  hostility. 
At  all  events,  the  utmost  which  she  could  expect  from  the 
state  was  bare  toleration.  The  important  consequence  of  this 
was,  that  the  church  was  \eitfree  to  develop  itself  outwardly 
from  its  own  inward  principle ;  that  no  foreign  might  could 
introduce  its  disturbing  influence  ;  and  that  tlie  church  itself 
could  not  be  exposed  to  the  temptation  of  employing  an  alien 
power  for  the  prosecution  of  its  ends,  and  of  thus  entering 
into  a  province  that  did  not  belong  to  it.  But,  on  the  otho* 
hand,  the  church  had  no  immediate  influence  on  civil  society 
and  its  different  relations.  In  this  there  was  much  which 
stood  in  contradiction  with  the  spirit  that  animated  the 
church  ;  the  transforming  influence  which  Christianity  neces- 
sarily exercises  on  all  with  which  it  comes  in  contact  could 
not  as  yet  here  manifest  itself.  Only  in  an  indirect  manner 
— and,  in  this  respect,  we  must  allow,  although  in  a  very  slow, 
yet  in  the  safest  and  purest  way — could  the  church  exert  an 
influence  on  the  state,  by  ever  drawing  over  more  of  its  mem- 
bers into  itself,  and  communicating  to  them  the  spirit  by 
whose  influence  everything  must  be  made  better.     Yet  this, 


r 
I 

I 


RELATION  OF  CHURCH  TO  STATE.  185 

r,  could  not  take  place  in  all  the  members  of  the 
at  once  ;  but  only  in  those  who,  while  they  belonged 
vrisible  church,  belonged  at  the  same  time  also,  by  the 
ion  of  their  minds,  to  the  invisible  church.  From  such 
uld  proceed  the  new  creation  which  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
produces,  as  they  alone  had  experienced  this  creation 
*  own  hearts.  But,  with  the  commencement  of  this 
the  church  entered  into  an  entirely  different  relation 
itate.  It  did  not  merely  become  a  whole,  recognised 
J,  and  tolerated  by  the  state, — which  it  had  been 
from  the  reign  of  Gallien  down  to  the  Dioclesian  perse- 
— but  the  state  itself  declared  its  principles  to  be  those 
h  everything  must  be  subordinated.  Christianity  be- 
y  degrees  the  dominant  state  religion,  though  not 
^  in  the  same  sense  as  paganism  had  been   before. 

and  state  constituted  henceforth  two  wholes,  one 
letrating  the  other,  and  standing  in  a  relation  of 
action  and  reaction.  The  advantageous  influence  of 
s,  that  the  church  could  now  exert  its  transforming 
Jso  on  the  relations  of  the  state ;  but  the  measure  and 
racter  of  this  power  depepded  on  the  state  of  tiie  inner 
he  church  itself.  The  hesdthful  influence  of  the  church 
d  to  be  perceived  in  many  particular  cases ;  though  it 
ry  far  from  being  so  mighty  as  it  must  have  been  had 
ing  proceeded  from  the  spirit  of  genuine  Christianity, 
[  die  state  actually  subordinated  itself  to  this  spirit. 

the  other  hand,  the  church  had  now  to  struggle  under 
disadvantage  ;  for,  instead  of  being  left  free,  as  it  was 
to  pursue  its  own  course  of  development,  it  was  sub- 

0  the  influence  of  a  foreign,  secular  power,  which  in 
ways  would  operate  to  check  and  disturb  it ;  and  the 
in  this  case,  increased  in  the  same  proportion  as  the 

1  life  with  which  the  church  came  in  contact  was  cor- 
id  a  lawless,  despotic  will  ruled  supreme, — a  will 
cknowledged  no  restraints,  and  which  therefore,  when- 
intermeddled  with  the  church  development,  was  prone 
after  the  same  arbitrary  manner  as  it  did  elsewhere, 
tually  happened  in  the  East  Roman  empire.  Without 
it  belongs  to  the  essential  character  of  Christianity 
tan  propagate  itself  even  under  the  most  depressing  of 

relations,  and  by  the  surpassing  energy  of  its  spirit 


186       RELATION  OF  THE  CHURCH  TO  THK  STATE. 

break  through  every  species  of  temporal  bondage.  This  vas 
seen  under  the  empire  of  pagan  Rome,  and  in  thePersiaa 
empire.  Despotism,  arrayed  in  open  hostility  to  Christianity, 
only  served  to  call  forth,  in  still  greater  strength,  the  Chra- 
tian  sense  of  freedom  rising  superior  to  all  earthly  constraint 
But  despotism  in  outward  alliance  witli  the  church,  proved 
a  more  dangerous  enemy.  It  was  now  necessary  that  one  of 
two  things  should  happen  ; — either  the  spirit  of  Christianity, 
as  it  became  more  widely  diffused,  must — ^not  by  a  sudden  and 
glaring  revolution,  but  by  its  power  in  the  heart,  which  is 
far  mightier  than  any  arm  of  flesh — gradually  introduce  the 
order  of  law  in  the  place  of  arbitrary  despotism ;  or  the  cch> 
ruption  of  the  state  would  introduce  itself  into  the  church,  as 
it  actually  did  in  the  Byzantine  empire.  Furthermore,  the 
church  was  now  exposed  to  tlie  temptation  of  appropriating  t 
foreign  might  for  the  prosecution  of  its  ends ;  a  temptatioB 
ever  ready  to  assail  man  the  moment  the  spirit  is  no  longer 
sovereign  alone,  but  the  flesh  intermeddles  with  its  pn^ 
work.  Looking  only  at  the  holy  end  which  he  &ncies  himself  . 
in  pursuit  of,  any  means  that  can  subserve  it  seem  good  to 
him.  He  does  not  consider  tliat  the  truth  itself^  ferced  on 
man  otherwise  than  by  its  own  inward  power,  becomes  fakt- 
hood.  How  easily  might  the  bishops  in  their  zeal, — ^more 
or  less  unwise,  more  or  less  directed  by  selfish  views,— be 
tempted  to  invite  those  emperors  who  professed  to  belong  to 
the  Catholic  church  to  assist  in  securing  the  victory  ft* 
that  which  they  deemed  the  pure  doctrine,  and  in  crushing  its 
adversaries,  when  in  fact  the  Syrian  bishops,  in  the  previous 
period,  had  already  sought  after  the  aid  of  a  pt^au  emperor^ 
Aurelian,  in  a  similar  case !  And  in  cases  of  this  sort,  hov 
invariably  did  the  wrong  proceeding  bring  along  its  o^ 
punishment !  In  forgetting  and  denying  its  own  essential 
character,  on  the  simple  preservation  of  which  its  true  power 
depends, — in  consenting  to  make  use  of  a  fcwreign  m%ht  for 
the  furtherance  of  its  ends,  the  church  succumbed  to  that 
miglit.  Such  is  the  lesson. taught  by  the  history  of  the  church 
of  the  Roman  empire  in  the  East. 

The  great  change  of  which  we  speak,  in  the  relation  of  the 
church  to  the  state,  must  be  ascribed  to  the  tranjsition  <]fth^ 
Roman  emperors  to  the  side  of  Christianity.  The  supreme 
ma;;istrates  now  considered   themselves  as  members  of  the 


BANGERS  RESTTLTIire  FROM  IT.  187 

1,  and  took  a  pertional  share  in  its  concerns ;  but  it  was 
ly  matter  for  them  to  fix  the  proper  limits  to  this  par- 
ion,  and,  by  so  doing,  to  give  up  their  relation  as 
ors  to  subjects.  They  would  be  strongly  inclined  to 
3r  the  relation  they  had  stood  in  as  pagans  to  the  pagan 
^ligion,  over  to  their  relation  to  the  Christian  church, 
hey  were  here  met  by  that  independent  spirit  of  the 
1  which  in  the  course  of  three  centuries  had  been 
rping  itself  and  acquiring  a  determinate  shape ;  and 
would  make  them  see  tlwit  Christianity  could  not,  like 
Lsm,  be  subordinated  to  the  political  interest.  There 
fiict  arisen  in  the  church,  as  we  observed  in  the  pre- 
period,  a  false  theocratical  theory,  originating,  not  in  the 
e  of  the  gospel,  but  in  the  confusion  of  the  religious 
tutions  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  which,  ground- 
self  on  the  idea  of  a  "visible  priesthood  belonging  to  the 
e  of  the  church,  and  governing  the  church,  brought 
with  it  an  unchristian  opposition  of  the  spiritual  to 
K;nlar  power,  and  which  might  easily  result  in  the 
tion  of  a  sacerdotal  state,  subordinating  the  secular  to 
in  a  false  and  outward  way.  The  emperors  did  in 
ntertain  precisely  that  view  of  the  <Aurch  which  was 
ited  to  them  by  tradition  ;  or  rather,  since — ^if  we  except 
tinian  II.,  who  seems  to  have  consistently  carried 
rh  one  determinate  theory — they  had  no  judgment  of 
)wn,  they  were  involuntarily  borne  along  by  the  domi- 
pirit.  The  entire  church  constitution,  as  it  then  stood, 
red  to  them,  equally  with  Christianity,  a  divine  institu- 
)uilt  on  the  foundation  of  Christ  and  the  apostles,  in 
nothing  could  be  altered  by  arbitrary  human  will.  Add 
By  that  the  same  church  constitution  had  acquired  its 
a  a  time  when  the  church  was  an  independent  society 
?lf,  under  the  government  of  the  bishops. 
3  theocratical  theory  was  already  the  prevailing  one  in 
ne  of  Constantine ;  and,  had  not  the  bishops  voluntarily 
themselves  dependent  on  him  by  their  disputes,  and  by 
letermination  to  make  use  of  the  power  of  the  state  for 
rtherance  of  their  aims,  it  lay  in  their  power,  by  con- 
ly  and  uniformly  availing  themselves  of  this  theory,  to 
a  great  deal  from  him.  Thus,  for  example,  in  a  rescript 
year  314,  when  an  appeal  was  made  from  an  episcopal 


188  EELATIOX  OF  THE  CHURCH  TO  THE  STATE, 

tribunal  to  the  imperial  decision,  he  declared,  ''  The  sentence 
of  the  bisliops  must  be  regarded  as  the  sentence  of  Christ  him- 
self.''* But,  on  tlie  other  hand,  it  flattered  Constantine  so  to 
regard  the  matter  as  if  God  had  made  him  master  of  the 
whole  Roman  empire,  to  the  end  that,  through  his  instrumen- 
tality, the  worship  of  the  true  God  might  be  everywhere 
extended  and  promoted.  When,  in  a  jesting  tone,  he  ooce 
observed  to  the  bishops,  at  a  banquet,  that  he  too  was  a  bishop 
in  his  own  way, — namely,  a  bishop  over  whatever  lay  without 
the  church, — ^he  meant  by  this,  that  God  had  made  him  over- 
seer of  that  which  was  without  the  church,  ue.  the  political 
relations,  for  the  purpose  of  ordering  these  according  to  the 
will  of  God ;  of  giving  the  whole  such  a  direction  as  that  his 
subjects  might  be  led  to  pious  living. f  The  disputes  among 
the  bishops  on  doctrinal  matters  led  him,  on  the  matter  of  hu 
relation  to  the  church,  to  derive  from  this,  his  supposed  vocep 
tiou,  many  consequences  which,  at  the  beginning,  had  never 
entered  into  his  thoughts.  Ue  exhorted  them  to  unanimity; 
and,  when  his  exhortations  were  unheeded,  he  resorted  to  such 
means  for  uniting  the  opposite  parties  as  his  sovereignty  over 
the  whole  Roman  state  put  into  his  hands.  He  convoked  an 
assembly  of  bishops  from  all  parts  of  the  empire,  in  order  to 
give  a  decision  for  all  the  Christians  under  his  govemment| 

*  Sacerdotum  judicium  ita  debet  haberi,  ut  si  ipse  Dominus  residens 
judicet.    See  Optav.  Milev.  de  schismate  Donatistar.  f.  184. 

t  This  remark  of  Constantine,  which  Eusebius  quotes  (de  vita  Con- 
stantini,  IV.  24),  as  he  heard  it  at  table  from  the  emperor's  lips,  has  not 
so  great  importance  in  itself  considered ;  for  in  truth  it  was  a  mere  pun, 
from  which  no  theory  about  church  rights  could  be  drawn — a  sportiie 
allusion  to  the  ambiguity  of  the  Greek  word  WlnuvcSi  which  may  be 
used  to  denote  either  a  particular  ecclesiastical  officer,  or  an  overseer 
generally:  *iU  «^«  i^n  km  awrig  iitiir»9it9t,  «XX'  l/ttTf  fiU  nw*  iH^v  ns 
i»K>.fig'iasy  iyit  2i  rit  t»raf  vvo  htv  Kafitrrdfttivos  ltr<V]Mir«f  if  unv,  EkuW- 
bius,  who  could  best  know  in  what  sense  Coustantine  meant  this  to  be 
takeU)  understands  by  \*rot  t^  *nc*^witcs,  simply  the  state,  so  far  is 
Constantine  exercised  such  oversight  over  his  subjects  as  to  lead  them,  to 
the  best  of  his  ability,  in  the  way  of  pious  living :  *A»dX9uitt  I'  w*  rv 
XayM  'itaveovfittogf   rohg  i^x^/jbivovg  ivdvrecf    ivrtrxoitu,  tr^evr^i^rk    rt    »m  «^ 

ay  Ivvaust;  rov  ti/rtSti  fAtreSu!>xxn  ^i»v.  And,  in  fact,  he  expresses  himself 
in  precisely  the  same  way  in  other  public  declarations  respecting  the 
office  intrusted  to  him  by  God.    See  the  1st  section. 

I  Eusebius  of  Csesarea,  the  court  bishop, — whose  views  of  the  case 
cannot  be  considered,  however,  as  the  prevailing  one  at  that  time,— 
derives  this  authority  from  the  fact  that  God  had  intrusted  the  general 


DANOEBS  RESULTING  FROM  IT.  189 

The  decrees  of  these  synods  were  published  under  the  imperial 
authority,  and  thus  obtained  a  political  importance.  Those 
imly  who  adopted  them  could  enjoy  all  the  privileges  of  catho* 
lie  Christians  &youred  by  the  state ;  and,  in  the  end,  civil 
poialties  were  threatened  against  those  who  refused  to  acknow- 
ledge them. 

The  cooperation  of  the  emperors  having  once  become  so 
necessary  in  order  to  the  assembling  of  these  councils  and  the 
carrying  out  of  their  decisions,  it  could,  of  course,  no  longer 
remain  a  matter  of  indifference  to  them  which  of  the  contend- 
ing parties  they  should  sustain  with  their  power.     However 
emphatically  they  might  declare  in  theory  that  the  bishops 
alone  were  entitled  to  decide  in  matters  of  doctrine,  still  human 
passions  proved  mightiei-  than  theoretical  forms.     Although 
these  councils  were  to  serve  as  organs  to  express  the  decision 
of  the  divine  Spirit,  yet  the  Byzantine  court  had  already  pre- 
judged the  question  as  to  which  party  ought  to  be  considered 
pious  and  which  impious  wherever  it  could  be  contrived  to  gain 
over  the  court  in  favour  of  any  particular  doctrinal  interest  ;* 
—or  in  case  the  court  persecuted  one  of  the  contending  doc- 
trinal parties  merely  out  of  dislike  to  the  man  who  stood  at  the 
head  of  it,  then  the  doctrinal  question  must  be  turned  into  a 
means  of  gratifying  personal  grudges,  f     The  emperors  were 
under  no  necessity  of  employing  force  against  the  bishops :  by 
indirect  means  they  could  sufficiently  influence  the  minds  of 
all  those  with  whom  worldly  interests  stood  for  more  than  the 
caose  of  truth,  or  who  were  not  yet  superior  to  the  fear  of 
man.     It  was  nothing  but  the  influence  of  the  emperor  Con- 
stantine  which  induced  the  Eastern  bishops,  at  the  council  of 
Nice,  to  suffer  the  imposition  of  a  doctrinal  formula  which 

OTersight  of  the  'whole  church  to  the  emperor,  just  as  the  oversight  of 
their  particular  dioceses  belonged  to  the  bishops — a  sort  of  universal 
episcopate  in  relation  to  the  several  individual  bishoprics :  o'la  rU  xMot 

De  vita  Coustantini,  I.  I.  c.  44. 

*  As  it  had  been  contrived,  before  the  assembling  of  the  Council  of 
Nice,  to  persuade  the  emperor  Constantino  that  the  Arian  doctrine  con- 
tain^ a  blasphemy  against  the  divinity  of  Christ,  and  that  the  o/noovfiof 
vas  absolutely  required  in  order  to  maintain  the  dignity  of  Christ's 
person. 

t  As  at  the  first  council  of  Ephesus,  where  the  revenge  of  Pnlcheria, 
who  governed  the  imperial  court,  turned  the  doctrinal  controversy  into  a 
means  of  removing  the  patriarch  Nestor ius  from  Constantinople. 


190  RELATION  OF  THE  GHUBCH  TO  THE  STATE. 

they  detested,  and  from  whidi,  indeed,  they  sought  immediatetf 
to  rid  themselves.  The  emperor  Theodosius  II.  declared  to 
tlie  first  comieil  of  Ephesus  that  no  person  who  was  not  a 
bujliop  should  interfere  with  the  ecclesiastical  proceedings  ;* 
and  in  this  declaration  he  himself  may  have  been  in  earnest : 
but  he  was  borne  along  by  the  current  of  a  powerful  ooort 
party,  which  itself  had  combined  with  a  party  of  the  bishops, 
and  to  this  party  he  must  serve  as  the  instrument  The  pioai 
and  free-hearted  abbot,  Isidore,  of  Felusium,  wrote  to  the 
emperor  that  no  remedy  existed  for  the  evil  in  the  churefa, 
unless  he  placed  some  check  on  the  dogmatizing  tpirit  of  kit 
courtiers;^ — and  the  sequel  proved  how  entirely  he  was  in  the 
right. 

It  is  true,  powerful  voices  were  heard  simply  proteeting 
against  this  confusion  of  political  and  spiritual  interests;}  aSf 
for  example,  Hilary  of  Poitiers,  who  remarked  well  and  beaA- 
tifully  to  the  emperor  Constantius,  ''  It  is  £ot  this  purpose 
you  govern  and  watch,  that  all  may  enjoy  sweet  liberty.  The 
peace  of  the  church  can  no  otherwise  be  restored,  its  distno- 
tious  can  in  no  other  way  be  healed,  than  by  permitting  eveiy 
man  to  live  wholly  according  to  his  own  convictions,  free  firam 
all  slavery  of  opinion.  Even  though  such  force  should  be 
employed  for  the  support  of  the  true  faith,  yet  the  bishops 
would  come  before  you  and  say,  God  is  the  Lord  of  the 
universe ;  he  requires  not  an  obedience  which  is  oonstrained, 
a  profession  which  is  forced.  He  does  not  want  hypocrisy 
but  sincere  worship.''§  But  these  isolated  voices  could  accom- 
plish nothing  in  opposition  to  the  great  mass ;  and  they  pro- 
ceeded mainly  from  those  who  were  themselves  made  sore  by 
oppression.  Now,  as  so  much  depended  on  the  fiict  whethff 
a  party  had  the  emperor's  vote  on  its  side,  consequently  eveiy 
art  was  employed  to  secure  this ;  all  that  was  corrupt  in  the 
Byzantine  court  found  its  way  into  the  bosom  of  the  church, 
— court  parties  became  doctrinal  parties,  and  the  reverse. 

*  ^Afii/Airav,  rot  (An  rov  JtaraXayou  vZf  kyieirttrff  WtfUHtan  Tvy^xnif* 
Tots  ixAXncMo-rUois  ffxifjtfAa^n  Wifjtty»Zw6eu.  See  the  Sacra  Theodos.  IL  in 
the  acts  of  this  council. 

t   Isidor.  Pelusiot.  1.  I.  ep.  311.     Tlaet^iias  rouratg  fit^a^tiecf,  u  xattftint 

voiv  ^oyfAarlf/jbuv  rods  ffous  httttivovf. 

I  Coin  p.  the  examples  cited  in  the  1st  section,  pp.  35,  36. 
^  Ad  Constantium,  1. 1 


VBOYISIOIX  FOR  THE  SUPPORT  OF  CHURCHES.  191 

joQpexial  chamberlains  (cubicularii),  eunuchfi,  directors  of  the 
idnoes'  kitchen,*  disputed  on  formulas  of  faith,  and  affected 
\o  set  themselves  up  as  judges  in  theological  disputes.  I'hat 
which  must  pass  current  for  sound  doctrine  in  the  church  was 
subjected  to  the  same  fluctuations  with  the  parties  at  court. 
At  l^igth,  in  476,  the  usurper  Basiliscus,  who  enjoyed  a  brief 
aathority,  set  an  example  wholly  in  accordance  with  the  spirit 
of  the  Byzantine  court  of  effecting  changes  in  the  ruling  doc- 
trines of  the  church  by  imperial  decrees,  and  of  settling  dog- 
matic controversies  by  a  resort  to  the  same  expedient ; — and 
this  example  was  soon  after  but  too  eagerly  followed  by  other 
emperors,  such  as  Zeno  and  Justinian.  These  attempts  to  rule 
oyer  the  conscience  by  imperial  mandates  opened  a  new 
norce  of  disturbances  and  disorders  in  the  Greek  church.  It 
s  true,  that  which  had  been  obtruded  upon  it  from  without, 
ind  which  was  alien  from  the  whole  course  of  the  development 
}f  the  church  at  that  time,  could  gain  no  substantial  existence 
nthin  it ;  but  then  a  violent  crisis  was  always  necessary  to 
hrow  it  off  again.  The  proof  of  what  has  been  asserted  will 
36  Aumished  in  the  history  of  the  disputes  on  doctrine.  The 
arreek  chiirch  presents  here  a  warning  example  for  all  ages. 
The  church  of  the  West  developed  itself,  in  the  main,  with 
nore  independence ;  because  the  theocratic  principle,  of  which 
we  have  spoken,  obtained  more  power  in  it;  because  the  pre- 
iominant  authority  of  the  Boman  bishops  formed  a  certain 
aounterpoise  to  the  interference  of  the  state ;  and  because  the 
more  rig^d  and  less  versatile  spirit  of  the  Western  church  gave 
less  frequent  occasion  for  the  interposition  of  a  foreign  power. 

We  shall  now  proceed  to  consider  the  relations  of  the  church 
p'the  state  more  in  detail. 

The  state  at  present  took  some  part  in  providing  for  the 
mpport  of  the  churches.  More  was  effected  in  this  respect  by 
me  law  of  Cbnstantine  than  by  all  other  means  put  together. 
This  was  a  law  which  expressly  secured  to  the  churches  a 
ight  which,  perhaps,  they  had  already  now  and  then  tacitly 
ixercised,')-  namely,  the  right  of  receiving  legacies ;  which,  in 

*  As,  for  example,  that  chief  cook  who  was  sent  as  a  deputy  from  the 
mrt  of  the  emperor  Valens  to  persuade  Basil  of  Cscsarea  not  to  show 
ay  opposition  to  doctrines  of  the  court  See  Gregor.  Naz.  orat.  20,  f.. 
48.    Theodoret  hist  ecdes.  IV.  c  19. 

For,  during  the  persecutions  in  the  third  century,  we  find  it  inti- 


( 


192  RELATION  OF  THE  CHURCH  TO  THE  STATE. 

the  Roman  empire,  no  corporation  whatever  was  oititled  to 
('xercise,  unless  it  had  been  expressly  authorized  to  do  so  by 
the  state.  Such  a  law  Constantine  enacted  in  321,  assignmg 
as  the  reason  for  it,  not  the  interests  of  the  church,  but  the 
inviolable  sacredness  of  the  last  wilL* 

In  part  zeal  for  the  cause  of  the  church,  but  partly  also  the 
delusive  notion  that  such  gifls,  as  meritorious  works,  were 
particularly  acceptable  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  that  it  was 
ix)ssible  thereby  to  atone  for  a  multitude  of  sins,  or  both 
together,  procured  for  the  churches,  especially  in  large  towDS,| 
very  considerable  and  very  numerous  donations.  But  it  was 
undoubtedly  the  case,  too,  that  the  wealth  of  the  church  often 
led  the  bishops  of  the  large  towns  to  forget  the  nature  of  their 
calling ;  and  dishonourable  means  were  not  seldom  employed 
by  worldly-minded  ecclesiastics  to  increase  the  bequests  in 
favour  of  the  churches.  It  was  on  this  account  the  emperor 
Yalentinian  I.  restricted  this  right  by  various  limitations; 
and  distinguished  church-teachers  complained,  not  so  much  of 

mated  that  attempts  were  made  to  deprive  the  churches  of  their  estates, 
which  evidently  they  could  have  come  in  possession  of  in  no  other  way. 
Consult  the  edict  of  Galllen.  And  Alexander  Severos  liad  already  con- 
ceded to  the  Christians  a  public  place  as  legally  belonging  tolthem.  See 
iEIii  Lampridii  vita,  c.  49. 

*  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XVI.  Tit.  II.  s.  4. 

t  Ammianos  Marcellinus  (1.  XXVII.  c.  3)  speaks  of  the  great  wealth 
which  the  fioman  bishops  owed  to  the  donations  of  the  matrons.  His 
description  shows  to  what  an  extent  the  bishops  of  the  great  capital 
of  the  world  had,  amidst  the  wealth  and  in  the  splendour  of  their  churcbt 
forgotten  or  forfeited  their  spiritual  character.  He  says  it  ought  not  to 
be  wondered  at  that  the  candidates  for  the  fioman  episcopate  were  readv 
to  sacrifice  everything  to  obtain  it :  Cum,  id  adepti,  futuri  sint  ita  secon, 
ut  ditentur  oblationibus  matronarum  procedantque  vehiculis  instdentes, 
circumspecte  vestiti,  epulas  curantes  profusas,  adeo  ut  eorum  convivia 
regales  superent  mensas.  He  says  it  had  been  happy  for  them  if  they 
had  followed  the  example  of  many  of  the  provincial  bishops,  who,  l^ 
their  frugal  and  simple  mode  of  life,  commended  themselves  in  tM 
sight  of  God  and  all  his  true  worshippers  as  pure  men.  So  speaks  the 
pagan.  In  like  manner  Gregory  of  Nazianzen  describes  the  state 
which  the  bishops  of  Constantinople  were  used  to  afifect — ^how,  at  their 
tables  and  in  the  pomp  and  train  of  their  attendants  with  which  they 
appeared  in  public,  they  vied  with  the  first  men  of  the  state  (orat. 
xxxii.  f.  526).  Hence  it  was  too,  that  men  who  were  disposed  to  live 
as  it  became  bishops,  such  for  example  as  Gregory  oC  Nazianzen  and 
Chrysostom,  were  far  from  being  agreeable  to  the  taste  of  many  in 
Constantinople. 


GIFTS  TO  THE  CHUBCHES.  19S 

nitaticMis,  as  of  the  fact  that  the  clergy  had  rendered 
cessary.* 

n  this  case^  too,  as  in  all  the  appearances  of  the 
it  this  period,  the  lights  and  shades  should  be  compared 
'.  We  see,  on  the  other  hand,  pious  bishops  giving 
1  Christian  motives  their  title  to  bequests  which, 
ig  to  the  civil  law,  they  might  have  received.  A 
if  Carthage  made  over  all  his  property,  in  the  expec- 
tat  he  should  have  no  children,  to  the  church,  reserving 
'If  only  the  use  of  it  while  he  lived.  But  afterwards, 
e  had  children,  Aurelius,  contrary  to  the  legator'ft 
bions,  gave  back  the  whole :  ^'  For,  according  to  the 
w"  says  Augustin,  who  relates  the  case,f  ''he 
[lave  retained  it,  but  not  according  to  the  law  of 
'  And  Augustin  himself,  who,  indeed,  was  found 
th  by  many  because  he  had  done  so  little  to  enrich 
rch,  declared  "  That  he  who  would  disinherit  his  son 
3  the  church  his  legatee  might  look  for  some  other 
receive  the  inheritance  besides  Augustin ;  nay,  he 
nd  prayed  that  he  might  look  in  vain  for  any  one."} 

Hieronym.  in  the  celebrated  letter  to  Nepotianus,  ep.  52,  in 
i  places  the  cormption  of  the  clergy  in  contrast  with  the  end  of 
Img:  Nee  de  lege  conqueror ;  sea  doleo  cur  memerimus  banc 
Jerome  doubtless  had  floating  before  his  mind,  when  he  spoke 
irruption  of  the  clergy,  what  he  had  seen  particularly  at  Rome 
S2  ad  Eustochium,  s.  28),  where  he  presents  a  sad  picture  of  the 
mning  dbout  to  the  houses  of  the  rich  matrons,  and  seeking  only 
lonations  out  of  them.  Si  pulvillum  viderit,  si  mantile  elegans, 
d  domesticse  suppellectilis,  laudat,  miratur,  attrectat,  et  se  his 

conqnerens ;  non  tam  impetrat  quam  extorquet,  quia  singulsB 
yeredarium  urbis  offendere. 
DO  356,  s.  5. 

i  certain  Bonifacius,  belonging  to  the  guild  of  the  nayicularii, 
Qployment  was  to  conyey  grain  in  their  yessels  to  Rome,  Con* 
»le,  or  Alexandria,  made  the  church  at  Hippo  his  legatee ;  but 
1  declined  the  bequest,  because,  in  case  of  shipwreck,  9ie  church 
ther  be  obliged,  by  a  judicial  process  and  the  application  of  tor- 
inst  the  crew,  to  prove  that  the  misl^^p  was  unavoidable,  or 

good  the  loss  to  the  state  exchequer.  In  respect  to  the  first 
ye,  it  did  not  befit  the  church,  in  the  opinion  of  Augustin,  to 
aariners  who  had  been  rescued  from  the  waves  to  the  pains  of 
As  to  the  second,  the  church  might  not  be  possessed  of  the  means, 
gays  Augi^tin,  *'  it  is  not  befitting  the  bishop  to  be  amassing 
and  to  pu^  back  the  hand  of  the  beggar."  Possidius  states,  in 
of  Augustin,  c.  24,  that  the  latter  would  never  receive  a  bequest 

lU.  o 


im  RELATION  OP  THE  CHUBCH  TO  THE  STATE. 

And  if  it  was  often  the  case,  especially  in  the  larger  towns, 
that  bishops  might  be  found  who  applied  the  great  incomes  of 
their  churches  to  diffuse  around  them  an  air  of  state  and 
splendour,  there  were,  on  the  other  hand,  shining  examples  of 
other  bishops  who,  living  frugally  themselves,  applied  all  they 
had  to  spare  for  the  support  of  charitable  institutions.  Beyond 
question,  it  lay  in  the  power  of  the  bishops  to  make  use  cf  tlie 
largest  revenues  for  good  and  benevolent  purposes ;  for  th«y 
not  only  had  to  provide  for  the  expense  of  preserving  the 
churches,  of  maintaining  divine  service,  of  supporting  the 
clergy,  of  supplying  the  means  of  subsistence  for  the  poor, 
who,  in  the  great  cities,  such  as  Constantinople,  were  veiy 
numerous  and  but  too  often  suffered  to  live  in  indolence,  bi^ 
also,  as  a  general  thing,  the  establishments  for  the  reception  of 
strangers  {ieyuiyec*),  the  almshouses  (xrcoxorpo^cta  f),  the  in- 
stitutions for  the  support  of  helpless  aged  persons  (yrjpoKoiulai, 
the  hospitals  and  orphan-houses  (the  voaoKOfuia  and  dp^ 
^orpo^ela),  originated  in  the  churches,  and  the  churches  baa  to 
provide  the  means  for  their  support.  A  celebrated  estabHshment 
of  this  kind  was  the  one  founded  by  Basil  bishop  of  Csesares^ 
and  which  existed  in  the  third  and  fourth  century — the  Ba- 
silias — an  institution  designed  for  the  reception  of  strangexBy 
and  to  provide  medical  attendance  and  nursing  for  the  sick  d 
whatever  disease.  Here  everything  was  brought  together  that 
could  contribute  to  the  welrare  and  comfort  of  the  patients. 
The  physicians  of  the  establishment  resided  within  its  waDs^ 
and  workshops  were  provided  for  all  the  artizans  and  labourers 

-which  injured  in  any  way  the  relations  of  the  individual  by  whom  the 
gift  was  made.  A  respectable  citizen  of  Hippo  had  made  over  to  tlie 
church  an  estate,  merely  reserving  to  himself  the  use  of  it  while  he  lived. 
Afterwards  he  repented  of  what  he  had  done,  and  requested  that  tlie 
^pers  might  be  returned  to  him,  sending  in  lieu  of  them  a  sum  of  money. 
JBut  Austin  sent  back  both,  declaring  that  the  church  would  not  reoeire 
forced  gifts,  but  those  only  which  were  made  with  a  tree  will. 

*  With  regard  to  the  Itw* :  "E^rt  luUov  tSunfiMf  Mr«  rvs  iKxXnritit  ifif' 
^ifffjbtvtv.  Chrysostom,  in  act  ap.  hom.  45,  near  the  end.  Of  uiif 
institution,  as  an  ancient  one  in  the  church,  though  the  name  was  new, 
see  Augustin.  Tractat.  97,  in  Joh.  s.  4.  Xenedochia  postea  sunt  appeUaH 
novis  nominibus,  res  tamen  ipsse  et  ante  nonuna  sua  erant,  et  religionis 
veritate  firmantur. 

t  These  institutions  for  the  poor  were  under  the  supervision  of 
clergymen,  also  of  monks,  «/  »Xv^t$i4t  rZf  ^rrtx^tm,  ODnc.  Chalc 
canon.  8. 


BEITETOLENT  INSTITnTIONS.  195 

whose  services  were  needed  ;*  so  that  Gregory  of  Nazianzen, 
in  his  funeral  discourse  at  the  death  of  Basil,f  could  call  this 
institution  a  city  m  miniature.  Basil  had  also  caused  similar 
almshouses  to  be  established  in  the  country,  one  in  each 
provincial  diocese  {ovfAfiopia),  placed  under  the  care  of  a 
eountry  Inshop,  who  had  the  supervision  of  its  concerns.} 
Theodoiet  bishop  of  Gyros,  who  had  a  diocese  which  was 
poor  on  account  of  its  location,  was,  notwithstanding,  able  to 
aave  enough  to  erect  porticos  for  the  use  of  the  city,  to  build 
two  large  bridges,  to  construct  a  canal  from  the  Euphrates  to 
the  town,  which  had  before  suffered  for  the  want  of  water, 
and  to  rq[>air  and  improve  the  public  bath,  which  was  so 
important  a  means  of  health  to  the  inhabitants  of  those  hot 
d]strictB.§ 

Among  the  favours  bestowed  by  the  state  to  further  the 
Olds  of  the  church,  belonged  the  exemption  of  the  clerical 
order  £rom  certain  public  services  (munera  publica,  XeiTovpyiat). 
Such  pertained  partly  to  certain  classes  of  citizens,  and  in 
part  they  were  attached  to  the  possession  of  a  certain  amount 
of  property.  Now,  with  these  state  burdens  stood  connected 
for  the  most  part  the  undertaking  of  certain  kinds  of  business 
and  employments  which  were  incompatible  with  the  nature  of 
the  spiritual  calling.  For  this  reason,  in  thei  previous  period, 
when  no  calculation  could  be  made  on  the  disposition  of  the 
state  to  accommodate  the  clerical  order,  a  law  had  been  passed 
that  no  person  who  was  liable  to  any  civil  imposition  (seculo 
obstrictus)  should  be  ordained  to  the  spiritual  office.  ||  But 
the  church  having  now  been  freed  by  Gonstantine  from  these 
restrictions,  it  might  be  hoped  that  the  like  privileges  would 
be  accorded  to  the  clergy  as  were  allowed  to  pagan  priests^ 
physicians,  and  rhetoricians.  In  fact,  Gonstantine  ordered  by 
a  law  of  the  year  319,  after  having  already  conceded  to  the 
clergy  previous  to  313  a  certain  degree  of  exemption,  that 
they  should  be  freed  from  all  burdens  of  the  state.^  This 
unconditional  exemption  of  the  clergy  from  those  civil  duties 

*  See  Basil.  Csesareens.  ep.  94,  and  Sozomen.  VI.  34. 

f  See  his  orat  30  and  27.  X  Basil,  ep.  142, 143. 

§  See  Theodoret  ep.  81. 

I  When,  for  instance,  Tertollian  all^;es  a^nst  the  heretics  (prsescript 
e.  41),  that  ^ey  ordained  seculo  obstrictos,  it  may  be  gathered  from  this 
that  the  practice  was  forbidden  in  the  dominant  church. 

%  Coi.  Theodos.  1.  XVI.  Tit.  II.  1.  2. 


196  RELATION  OF  THE  CHURCH  TO  THE  STATE. 

was  destined  to  prove,  however,  the  source  of  many  evils  both 
to  church  and  to  state ;  since  it  was  the  natural  consequence  that 
numbers,  without  any  inward  call  to  the  spiritual  office,  and 
without  any  fitness  for  it  whatever,  now  got  themselves 
ordained  as  ecclesiastics  for  the  sake  of  enjoying  this  es» 
emption; — whereby  many  of  the  worst  cla»  came  to  the 
administration  of  the  most  sacred  calling,*  while  at  the  same 
time  the  state  was  deprived  of  much  useful  service.  The 
emperor  Constantine,  in  this  collision  of  interests,  sought  to 
secure  only  those  of  the  state.  That  the  true  interests  of  the 
church  could  not  have  been  foremost  in  his  thoughts  is  the 
more  evident,  since  he  shows  by  this  law  itself  how  imperfecdj 
he  understood  them.  By  a  law  of  the  year  320,  which  pre- 
supposes the  existence  of  a  still  earlier  one,  he  ordered  that  ftr 
the  future  no  person  belong  to  the  families  of  Decurionsj  no 
one  provided  with  sufficient  means  of  living,  no  one  who  was 
fitted  for  the  performance  of  those  civil  duties,  should  take 
refuge  in  the  spiritual  order ;  that,  as  a  general  thing,  new 
-clergymen  should  be  chosen  only  to  supply  the  places  of  those 
^ho  had  deceased,t  and  these  should  be  persons  of  small 
means,  and  such  as  were  not  bound  to  take  upon  them  any  of 
those  burdens  of  the  state.  They  who  were  obligated  to  any 
of  those  duties,  if  they  had  crept  into  the  clerical  order,  were 
to  be  forcibly  thrust  back  to  their  former  condition, — for  which 
regulation  Constantine  gave  this  singular  reason :  '^  The  rich 
must  bear  the  burdens  of  the  world,  the  poor  must  be  main- 

*  Comp.  "what  Athanasius  (hist.  Arianorum  ad  Monachos,  s.  78)  says 
of  the  pagans  who  passed  over  from  the  senatorial  families  to  Chru- 
tianity  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  as  ecclesiastics  the  raXttiirm^ 
akuTovfynfU.  Basil.  Cffisar.  ep.  54,  respecting  such  as  got  themselves 
ordained  to  the  inferior  ecclesiastical  offices  in  the  country,  merely  ftr 
the  sake  of  eluding  the  obligation  to  do  military  service :  Tm»  9-\iiVn» 
^o(iy  Tfis  rr^etraXoyixf  ilffToioviHrw  lavrtitt    t^    uvMtfia,      Comu.   also  the 

acts  of  the  process  against  the  bishop  Anton'ius  of  Ephesus,  in  Palladium 
life  of  Chrysostom,  opp.  ed.  Montfauc.  T.  XIII.,  where  it  comes  out  that 
that  metropolitan  bishop  sold  episcopal  dignities  to  such  as  were  merely 
seeking  by  episcopal  ordination  to  be  released  from  the  burdensome 
curial  duties. 

t  But  what  had  prompted  this  certainly  excessive  multiplication  of 
ecclesiastics  was  partly  the  number  and  magnitude  of  the  external  advan- 
tages, whereby  the  spiritual  order  now  became  attractive  to  so  many 
who  were  not  spiritually  minded,  and  in  part  the  existence  of  so  many 
church  offices  which  required  for  their  discharge  merely  outward  litur- 
gical services. 


f 


ECCLESIASTICAL  JX7BISDICTI0K.  197 

tained  by  the  wealth  of  the  church  ;"*  as  if  this  were  the 
object  of  church  property  and  of  the  church  offices !  But 
this  restriction  was  not  less  unjust  than  the  reason  alleged  for 
it  was  false ;  for  it  well  might  be  that  the  very  men  who  felt 
the  inward  call,  and  possessed  the  best  qualifications  for  the 
spiritual  office,  were  to  be  found  among  the  higher  ranks  in 
the  provinces ;  while  by  such  a  law  these  were  excluded. 
Tet  with  the  powerful  influence  of  the  spiritual  order  at 
court,  under  the  Christian  emperors,  it  must  often  happen  as 
a  matter  of  course  that  such  laws  would  be  evaded,  and  not 
anfrequently  to  the  injury  of  the  church.  Some  wavering 
and  uncertainty  too  soon  began  to  show  itself  in  the  execution 
of  the  law ;  expedients  were  devised  to  avoid  injuring  the 
interests  either  of  the  state  or  of  the  church ;  and,  finally,  the 
law  was  enacted  that  those  who  were  under  obligation  to 
render  such  civil  services  should,  upon  entering  the  eccle- 
siastical order,  give  up  their  property  to  others  who  could  dis- 
charge those  services  in  their  stead.  It  was  very  justly  given 
as  a  reason  for  this  regulation,  that,  if  they  were  really  in 
earnest  in  what  they  proposed,  they  must  despise  earthly 
things.  But  it  was  certainly  far  from  being  the  case  that 
this  law  could  be  strictly  kept.f 

The  state  allowed  to  the  church  a  particular  jurisdiction, 
when  it  recognised  in  a  legal  form  what  had  already  obtained 
in  the  church  before.  It  was  the  rule  from  the  first,  in  the 
Christian  conununities,  that  disputes  between  their  members 
abould  not  be  brought  before  heathen  tribunals,  but  settled  within 
th«r  own  body.  This  was  befitting  the  mutual  brotherly  re- 
lation subsisting  between  Christians;  and  it  had  been  the 
course  adopted  already  in  the  Jewish  synagogues.  Paul  had, 
in  fact,  expressly  required  this  method  of  procedure,  while  he 
regretted  that  such  differences  should  exist  at  all  among 
Christians.  When  the  episcopal  form  of  church  government 
became  matured,  it  was  made  a  part  of  the  function  of  the 
episcopal  office  to  decide  these  disputes.  Yet,  hitherto,  the 
sentence  of  the  bishop  stood  valid  only  so  far  as  both  parties 
bad  voluntarily  agreed  to  submit  to  it.  Constantine  made  the 
sentence  of  the  bishops  legally  binding  whenever  the  two 

♦  See  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XVI.,  Tit  II.  1.  6.    Opuleutos  enim  saculi 
nbire  necessitates  oportet,  pauperes  ecclesiarum  dWitiis  sustentari. 
t  See  the  laws  of  the  year  383,  in  the  Titalus  de  Decurionibus. 


198  RELATION  OF  THE  CHURCH  TO  THE  STATE. 

parties  had  once  ag^rced  to  repair  to  their  tribunal,  so  that  no 
farther  appeal  could  be  made  from  it.*     Thus  a  great  deal  ol 
business  of  a  foreign  nature  came  upon  the  episcopal  office. 
Bishops  more  spiritually  disposed  made  it  a  matter  of  com- 
plaint that  so  much  of  the  time  which  they  were  prompted, 
by  the  inclination  of  their  hearts,  to  bestow  on  the  things  of 
God,  must  be  employed  for  the  purpose  of  inuneiBing  them- 
selves in  the  investigation  of  secular  affidis.'l'     At  tfa«  same! 
time  they  had  to  suffer  no  little  vexation ;  for,  however  im- 
partially they  mi^t  decide,  they  still  exposed  themsdves  to 
many  an  accusation  on  the  part  of  those  who  were  looking 
merely  at  their  own  advantage,  and  who,  when  the  decisian 
of  the  bishop  was  adverse  to  their  interests,  could  not  pardon 
it  in  them  that  they  must  submit  without  any  right  of  aj^peal 
from  an  unfavourable  sentence.^     Yetj  from  love  to  their 
communities,  they  bore  this  burthen  attsiched  to  their  calling, 
grievous  as  it  was  to  them,  with  the  self-denial  which  u 
Augustin  evinces  when  from  a  full  heart  he  exclaims  in  the 
language  of  the  119th  Psalm,  ver.  115  (as  it  is  found  in  the 
Alexandrian  version),  "  Depart  from  me,  ye  evil  doers,  fiw  I 

*  Sozomen,  1.  I.  c.  9. 

t  When  certain  theolo^cal  labours  had  been  committed  by  two  Afriem 
councils  to  the  care  of  the  bishop  Aucustiu.  who  was  now  advanced  in 
years,  he  agreed  with  his  community,  mat,  for  the  purpose  of  execotiDg 
these,  he  should  be  spared  from  attending  to  their  business  during  five 
days  in  the  week.  A  formal  protocol  or  bill  (gesta  ecclesiastica)  wai 
drawn  up,  specifying  what  the  church  had  conceaed  to  him ;  but  he  wai 
soon  besieged  again,  so  that  he  was  compelled  to  say.  Ante  meridiem  et 
post  meridiem  occupationibus  hominum  implioor.  (See  the  gesta  eooloi- 
astica  Augusti.  ep.  213.)  In  the  Greek  church  the  case  may  have  been, 
however,  that  bishops,  whether  for  the  purpose  of  devoting  themselves 
with  greater  blessing  to  other  kinds  of  labour,  or  whether  it  was  simplj 
out  of  indolence,' turned  over  these  matters  of  business  to  certain  members 
of  their  clergy,  whom  they  invested  with  full  powers  for  transacting 
them.  At  least,  Socrates  incidentally  relates  this  of  a  certain  Silvanns 
bishop  of  Troas,  a  man  inclined  to  ascetic  retirement,  belon^ng  to  the 
first  times  of  the  fifth  century,  without  remarking  that  it  was  anytlung 
unusual.  But  when  this  good  bishop  observed  that  the  clergy  to  whom 
he  had  intrusted  this  business  were  endeavouring  to  make  gain  of  it 
without  regard  to  right,  he  conmiitted  the  investigation  to  a  justioe- 
loving  layman.     Socrat  VII.  37. 

I  See  Augustin.  in  y^.  25,  s.  13,  t.  IV.  f.  115.  Etsi  jam  effringi  non 
potest,  quia  tenetur  jure  forte  non  ecclesiastico,  sed  principum  seculi,  qui 
tantum  detulerunt  ecclesiro,  ut  quidqmd  in  ea  judicatum  fuerity  disBom 
ncn  possit. 


^^^E1lC£88IONB.  199 

vould  study  the  commandments  of  my  God ;"  and  when  he 
frooeeds  to  say,  ^'  Wicked  men  exercise  us  in  observing  the 
iommandmenU  of  God ;  but  they  call  us  away  from  ea> 
fkfring  them  (from  the  study  of  holy  scripture),  not  only  when 
they  would  persecute  us  or  contend  with  us,  but  even  when 
they  obey  us  and  honour  us,  and  yet  compel  us  to  busy  our- 
selves in  lending  support  to  their  sinful  and  contentious 
desires ;  and  when  they  require  of  us  that  we  should  sacrifice 
our  time  to  them ;  or  when  at  least  they  oppress  the  weak, 
and  £>rce  them  to  bring  their  affidrs  before  us.  To  these  we 
daie  not  say,  Man,  who  has  made  me  a  judge  or  a  divider  of 
inheritance  over  you  ?  For  the  apostle  has  instituted  eccle- 
abstical  juc^es  for  such  a£^irs,  in  forbidding  Christians  to 
bring  suits  before  the  civil  tribunals."  Such  bishops  might 
undoubtedly  avail  themselves  also  of  this  opportuni^  of 
becoming  better  acquainted  with  the  members  of  their  nock, 
d  diffusing  among  them  the  spirit  of  unanimity,  and  of  op- 
portunely dropping  many  a  practical  admonition.  But  to 
irorldly-minded  bishops  it  furnished  a  welcome  occasion  for 
devoting  themselves  to  any  foreign  and  secular  affairs,  rather 
than  to  the  appropriate  business  of  their  spiritual  calling ;  and 
the  same  class  might  also  allow  themselves  to  be  governed  by 
imipure  motives  in  the  settlement  of  these  disputes. 

In  many  cases  it  was  apparent  that  the  gradually  forming 
liierarchy  furnished  a  salutary  counterpoise  against  political 
despotism.  The  bishops  acquired  a  great  deal  of  influence  in 
this  respect,  owing  to  the  point  of  view  in  which  the  external 
church  and  its  representatives  appeared  to  the  men  of  this 
period,  and  gradually  also  through  the  habits  and  customs  of 
the  people ;  since  the  prevailing  ideas  passed  over  into  life, 
before  anything  came  to  be  determined  by  the  laws. 

To  this  kind  of  influence  belongs  that  which  the  bishops 
obtained  by  their  intercessions  (intercessiones).  It  was  then 
not  unusual  for  persons  who  enjoyed  some  reputation  as  men 
of  learning,  as  rhetoricians,  to  avail  themselves  of  this  for  the 
purpose  of  interceding  with  the  great,  who  affected  to  patronize 
science,  in  behalf  of  the  unfortunate.  But  that  this  custom 
should  pass  over  especially  to  the  bishops  was  a  natural  con- 
sequence of  the  new  direction  which  Christianity  gave  to  the 
mode  of  contemplating  the  forms  of  social  life.  New  ideas  of 
the  equality  of  all  men  in  the  sight  of  God ;  of  the  equal 


200      RELATION  OF  TBB  CHUBCH  TO  THE  STATE. 

accountableness  of  all ;  of  mercj,  love,  and  oompaasion,  were 
difTused  abroad  by  Christianity.  Christian  judges  and  magis- 
trates were  uncertain  how  they  should  unite  the  discharge  of 
their  official  duties  with  what  was  required  of  them  by  the 
precepts  of  Christ.  In  the  previous  period  one  party  of 
Christians,  in  &ct,  held  the  administration  of  such  offices  to 
be  incompatible  with  the  nature  of  the  Christian  calling.  The 
council  of  Elvira  (in  305)  directed  that  the  supreme  magit- 
trates  in  the  municipal  towns,  the  Duumviri  (though  ttoe 
were  not  called  upon  to  pronounce  sentence  of  death),  should 
not  enter  the  church  during  the  year  of  their  office.*  The 
council  of  Aries,  in  314,  directed  indeed  that  the  presidetUt 
in  the  provinces,  and  others  who  were  incumbents  of  any  civil 
office,  should  continue  to  remain  in  the  conununion  of  the 
church,f  yet  charged  the  bishops  in  the  places  where  th€j 
exerciseid  their  civil  functions  with  a  special  oversight  ii 
them ;  and,  when  they  began  to  act  inconsistently  with  their 
Christian  duties,}  they  were  then  to  be  cut  off  from  the  church 
fellowship.  Thus,  then,  it  came  about  that  conscientioDi 
Christians  who  occupied  official  stations,  whenever  they  wer6 
beset  with  doubts  from  the  above-mentioned  causes,  had 
recourse  to  the  bishops  for  instruction  and  for  the  quieting  of 
their  scruples.  For  example,  a  certain  functionary,  by  the 
name  of  Studius,  betook  himself,  in  a  case  of  this  sort,  to 
Ambrosius  bishop  of  Milan.  The  latter  told  him  that  ac* 
cording  to  Homans  xiii.  he  was  authorized  to  employ  the 
sword  for  the  punishment  of  crime,  yet  proposed  for  his  imi- 
tation the  pattern  of  Christ  in  his  conduct  towards  the  woman 
taken  in  adultery  (John,  c.  viii.).§  If  the  transgressor  had 
never  been  baptized,  he  might  still  be  converted,  and  obtain 
the  forgiveness  of  sin :  if  he  had  been  already  baptized,  he 
could  yet  repent  and  reform.  Ambrosius  says  on  this  occasion 
that  those  who  pass  sentence  of  death  would  not,  indeed,  be 
excluded  from  the  communion  of  the  church,  since  they  are 

^  C.  56.  Magistratum  uno  anno,  qao  agit  daumyiratum,  prohibenduia 
placuit,  ut  se  ab  ecclesia  cohibeat. 

t  Literas  accipiant  ecclesiasticas  communicatorias,  c  7. 

X  Cum  cceperint  contra  disciplinam  agere. 

§  An  example,  indeed,  which  did  not  wholly  apply  in  the  present  case; 
for  it  was  one  where  the  question  was  not  a  juridical,  but  a  religious  and 
moral  one.  But  Ambrose  was  for  ennobling  the  juridical  position  by 
that  of  morality  and  religion. 


INTERCESSIONS.  201 

justified,  by  the  above-cited  declaration  of  the  apostle,  to  pass 
nch  a  sentence ;  but  that  the  majority,  however,  did  abstain 
from  the  commmiion,  and  tliat  their  conduct  in  this  respect 
ttts  to  be  approved.* 

In  this  way  it  came  about  that  the  bishops  gradually  obtained 
the  right  of  exercising  a  sort  of  moral  superintendence  over 
the  discharge  of  their  official  duties  by  the  governors,  the 
judges,  the  proprietors,  who  belonged  to  their  communities  f 
— an  authority  which  was  not  always,  indeed,  alike  respected ; 
— 4Jiat  they  were  empowered,  in  the  name  of  religion,  to  inter- 
oede  with  governors,  with  the  nobles  of  the  empire,  and  even 
with  the  emperors,  in  behalf  of  the  unfortunate,  the  persecuted, 
the  oppressed ;  in  behalf  of  individuals,  entire  cities  and  pro- 
vinces, who  sighed  imder  grievous  burdens,  laid  on  them  by 
leickless,  arbitrary  caprice,  or  who  trembled  in  fear  of  heavy 
punishments  amidst  civil  disturbances.  Where  the  fear  of  man 
made  all  others  mute,  it  was  not  seldom  they  alone  who  spoke 
out  in  the  name  of  religion  and  of  the  church,  who  ventured 
to  utter  themseves  with  fireedom ;  and  their  voice  might  some- 
times penetrate  to  the  consciences  of  those  who  were  intoxi- 
cated by  the  feeling  of  their  absolute  power,  and  surrounded 
hj  servile  flatterers. 

Some  examples  will  render  this  clear.  When  the  separation 
of  the  province  of  Cappadocia  into  two  provinces  (Cappadocia 
prima  et  secunda),  imder  the  emperor  Yalens,  in  the  year  37 1^ 
bad  reduced  the  inhabitants,  who  thus  lost  much  of  their  gain 
and  were  oppressed  by  a  double  weight  of  civil  burdens,  to 

*  According  to  thq  old  editions,  ep.  ad  Studium,  1.  VII.  ep.  58. 

j  By  a  law  of  the  year  409,  which  directed  the  judges  on  all  Sundays 
to  interrogate  prisoners  whether  they  had  experienced  humane  treatment, 
it  was  at  die  same  time  presupposed  that  tiie  bishops  felt  it  incumbent  ou 
them  to  exhort  the  jud^  to  humane  treatment  of  their  prisoners :  Nee 
deerit  antistitum  Christians  religionis  cura  laudabiiis  quse  ad  observa- 
tionem  constituti  judicls  hanc  ingerat  monitionem.  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XI. 
Tit  III.  I.  7.  By  a  law  of  the  emperor  Justinian,  of  the  year  529,  it  was 
derolved  on  the  bishop,  on  Thursday  and  Frida;^  (probably  on  these  davs 
in  particular,  on  account  of  the  memory  of  Chrisf  s  passion),  to  visit  the 
prisons,  to  inquire  into  the  crimes  for  which  each  person  was  confined, 
and  accurately  infonn  himself  with  regard  to  the  treatment  he  met  with, 
and  point  out  to  the  higher  authorities  everything  that  was  done  contrary 
to  good  order.  Th^  were  also  to  see  to  it  that  no  one  should  be  held 
in  confinement  elsewhere  than  in  the  public  prisons.  See  Codex  Justinian. 
L  I.  Tit  IV.  1.  22  and  23. 


202  RELATION  OF  THE  CHURCH  TO  THE  STATE. 

great  distress,  it  was  the  bishop  Basil  of  CflBsarea  who  inter- 
ceded— to  no  purpose  indeed — ^with  the  g^reat,  and,  throogb 
them,  with  the  emperor,  in  behalf  of  the  whole  provinoSi 
Among  other  things,  he  thus  wrote  to  one  of  the  nobles :  *^  Ht 
could  boldly  tell  the  court  that  they  were  not  to  imagine  thej 
should  have  two  provinces  instead  of  one ;  for  they  would  not 
have  secured  another  province  from  some  other  world,  but 
have  done  just  the  same  as  if  the  owner  of  a  horse  or  of  an  ax 
should  cut  him  in  halves,  and  suppose  that  by  so  doing  he 
obtained  two  instead  of  one."*  When,  in  the  year  887,  a 
popular  movement  at  Antioch,  which  had  been  brought  about 
by  the  oppression  of  excessive  taxes,  gave  reason  to  fear  a 
severe  retribution  from  the  emperor  Theodosius,  who  migitf 
easily  be  hurried,  in  a  momentary  paroxysm  of  passion,  to  the 
extremest  measures,  and  all  was  in  a  state  of  the  utmost  ooih 
fusion,  the  aged  and  sick  bishop  Flavianus  proceeded  himsdf 
to  Constantinople.  Said  he  to  the  emperor,  '^  I  am  come,  u 
the  deputy  of  our  conmion  Master,  to  address  this  word  in 
your  heart :  '  K  ye  forgive  men  their  trespasses,  then  will  your 
heavenly  Father  also  forgive  you  your  trespasses.' "  lltese 
words,  to  which  he  gave  a  still  more  pointed  emphasis  bj 
alluding  to  the  import  of  the  approaching  festival  of  Easter^ 
so  profoundly  affected  the  heart  of  an  emperor  easily  suscep- 
tible of  religious  impressions,  that  he  exclaimed,  '^  How  could 
it  be  a  great  thing  for  me,  who  am  but  a  man,  to  remit  my 
anger  towards  men,  when  the  Lord  of  the  world  himself,  who 
for  pur  sakes  took  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  was  crucified  by 
those  to  whom  he  was  doing  good,  interceded  with  his  Father 
in  behalf  of  his  cruciiiers,  saying,  *  Forgive  them,  since  they 
know  not  what  they  do '  ?"  All  that  had  been  done  he  pro- 
mised should  be  forgotten,  and  Flavian  should  hasten  back  to 
convey  the  glad  tidings  to  his  commimity  before  the  commence- 
ment of  the  Easter.f 

*  £p.  74  ad  Martiniao. 

f  See  Chrysostom.  orat.  20,  de  statuis,  near  the  end.  In  the  sum 
maimer  Theodoret  interceded  with  great  men  and  with  the  imperial 
princess  Pulcheria  in  behalf  of  the  inhabitants  of  his  poor  charch  diooeKi 
who  were  calumniated  at  the  court  and  oppressed  by  heavy  trihntei. 
(See  ep.  42,  and  the  following.)  So  Augustin  used  the  most  earnest  le- 
monstrances  with  a  rich  landholder,  by  the  name  of  Romulus^  who  was  in 
the  practice  of  unjustly  oppressing  the  poor  people  of  the  coontry,  and 
YFho  had  avoided  spesJting  with  Augustm  himself;  and  he  closed  with 


INTEBCSSSIONS.  203 

It  cannot  be  denied,  indeed,  that  while  pious  and  prudent 
nhops  efi^ted  much  good  by  a  discreet  resort  to  these  inter- 
enons,  others,  bj  a  haughty  abuse  of  them,  by  hierarchical 
irogance,  by  a  confusion  of  the  Christian  and  the  juridical 
mat  of  view,  to  which  they  obstinately  clung,  might  seriously 
Bterfere  with  the  civil  order.*  Yet  the  injury  which  thence 
reralted  in  the  case  of  particular  individuals  is  certainly  not  to 
be  compared  with  the  benefits  wliich  accrued,  in  various  ways, 
bom  the  intercessions  of  the  bishops  in  behalf  of  the  innocent  who 
■ere  oppressed,  and  of  the  weak  who  were  abandoned  to  the  ca- 
prices of  passion  and  arbitrary  power. f  The  bishops  were  con- 
adered  particularly  as  the  protectors  of  widows  and  orphans. 
He  dying,  who  left  orphan  children  behind  them,  commended 
them,  in  that  period  of  despotic  authority,  to  the  protection  of 
he  bishops.  The  property  of  widows  and  orphans,  which 
here  was  cause  to  fear  might  mil  a  prey  to  the  rapacity  of 
be  powerful,  was  placed  under  the  guardianship  of  the  churches 
nd  the  bishops.;^     Ambrosius  bishop  of  MUan  reminds  his 


words :  "Fear  God,  unless  yoa  wish  to  deceive  yourself:  I  call 
to  -witness  on  your  soul,  that,  while  saying  this,  I  fear  more  for  you 
bfon  fiyr  those  in  behalf  of  whom  I  may  seem  to  intercede.  If  you  beliere, 
Bt  God  be  thanked.  If  you  do  not  believe,  I  comfort  myself  in  what 
he  Lord  says,  Matth.  x.  13."    Augustin.  ep.  247. 

*  Bespectinff  such  haughtiness  of  the  bishops,  a  certain  judge,  by  the 
•me  of  Maoe&nius,  complains  in  a  letter  to  Augustin  (ep.  152),  to  whom 
le  states  his  doubts  about  the  reasonableness  of  intercessions.  He  de- 
mmces  those  who  compUdned  of  wrong  when  their  intercessions,  how- 
fferimreasonable,  met  with  no  hearing;  from  whom,  however,  he  alto- 
^bUkt  distinguishes  such  men  as  Augustin.  The  latter,  in  reply,  explains 
rt  large  his  deliberate  judgment  respecting  the  end,  the  right  and  the 
frcmg  use  of  the  episcopal  intercessiones,  ep.  153.  To  guard  against 
ach  abuses,  it  was  ordered  by  a  law  of  the  year  398  that  the  monks  and 
he  dergy  should  not  be  permitted  to  snatch  condemned  malefactors  from 
heir  merited  punishment :  yet  they  were  allowed,  even  by  this  law,  to 
esort  to  a  legal  intercession,  as  a  sort  of  reparation  for  this  infringement 
n  their  rights.    Cod.  Theodos.  1.  IX.  Tit  40, 1.  16. 

t  How  common  it  was  for  those  whose  life  or  freedom  was  suddenly 
ndangered  by  powerful  enemies,  or  for  their  relatives  and  friends,  to 
Mer  the  church  and  apply  to  the  bishop  for  his  speedy  assistance,  is  seen 
h)m  Augustin.  p.  161>  s.  4,  p.  368,  s.  3.  Videtis,  si  cujus  vita  prsesentis 
ecnli  periclitetur,  quomodo  amici  ejus  currunt  pro  eo,  quomodo  curritur 
d  ecdesiam,  rogatur  episct^Mis,  ut  intermittat,  si  quas  habet  actiones, 
amtt,  iestinet* 

X  See  Augustin.  ep.  252;  according  to  other  editions,  217.  Sermo 
76^  s.  2. 


204  RELATION  OF  THE  CHURCH  TO  THE  STATE.  ! 

j 

clergy  of  the  fact  how  often  he  had  withstood  the  attacks  of  ^ 
the  imperial  power  in  defending  the  property  of  the  widow; 
nay,  of  all ; — and  he  says  to  those  clergy  that  they  would  i 
thereby  magnify  their  office,  if  the  attacks  of  the  poweifolf  ]. 
under  which  the  widow  and  the  orphan  must  succumb,  wen  1^ 
warded  off  by  the  protection  of  the  church ;  if  they  showed  ^ 
that  the  precept  of  the  Lord  had  more  weight  with  them  thu  U 
the  favour  of  the  rich.*  b 

It  was  the  same  with  another  right  which  the  churchs 
gradually  obtained  by  traditional  usage.  As  the  pagan  tempki 
liad  been  already  considered  asylums  for  such  as  fled  to 
them  for  refuge,  and  as  the  images  of  the  emperor  served  the 
same  purpose,  so  now  this  use  passed  over  to  the  ChristiiB 
churches.  It  is  evident,  from  what  has  been  said,  how  salu- 
tary a  thing  this  might  prove  under  the  circumstances  of 
those  times ;  since  taking  refuge  in  the  asylum  of  the  church, 
particularly  at  the  altar,  afforded  time  for  the  bishops  to  inter- 
cede for  the  unfortunate,  before  any  injury  could  be  done 
them.  They  who  were  persecuted  by  a  victorious  party,  in 
times  of  civil  disturbance,  could,  in  the  first  instance,  here 
find  protection  against  the  sword ;  and  the  bishops,  meanwhile^ 
gain  time  to  apply  to  the  powerful  for  their  pardon.  Maoj 
examples  of  this  kind  are  furnished  in  the  labours  of  Ambroee 
during  the  Western  revolutions  of  his  period.  Slaves  couW 
here  find  protection,  for  the  first  moment,  against  the  cruel 
rage  of  their  masters,  and  subsequently,  by  the  interpositioa 
of  the  bishops,  appease  their  anger.  Such  as  were  by  misfiu^ 
tune  involved  in  debt,  and  persecuted  by  their  creditors,  could 
here  gain  shelter  for  the  first  moment;  and  pious  bishops 
could,  in  the  mean  time,  find  means,  either  by  a  collection  in 
their  communities,  or  by  an  advance  of  money  from  the  church 
funds,  of  cancelling  their  debt,  or  of  effecting  a  compromise 
between  them  and  their  creditors.f  It  is  true,  this  right  of 
the  churches,  which,  under  the  circumstances  of  those  times, 
could  be  applied  to  such  salutary  purposes,  might  also  be 
abused  by  the  hierarchical  arrogance  of  some  bishops.;^    This 

♦  Ambrosius  de  officiis,  1.  II.  c.  29. 

t  See  Augustin.  ep.  268  ad  plebem ;  according  to  other  editions,  815. 

X  An  example  in  Augustin.  ep.  250.  Certain  individuals  gnihj  of 
perjury  having  taken  refage  in  the  church,  the  Comes  Claadcuums,  le- 
companied  by  a  few  men,  went  to  Auxilius  the  bishop,  for  the  puipose  of 


CHUBCH  ASYLUMS.  205 

ras  at  first  not  conceded  to  the  churches  by  a  law,  but 
t  ground  simply  in  the  universal  belief;  and  hence  it 
ted,  too,  that  it  was  often  violated  by  rude,  tyrannical 
Pious  bishops  here  had  an  opportunity  of  evincing  their 
St  courage  in  protecting  the  unfortunate  who  had  taken 
with  them,  against  the  rage  of  powerful  enemies  who 
not  suffer  themselves  to  be  restrained  by  any  respect 
i  asylum.*  The  first  imperial  law  which  appeared  with 
ice  to  the  asylum  was  in  fact  directed  against  it.  The 
appened  thus: — Chrysostom,  the  venerable  bishop  of 
jitinople,  had  defended  a  number  of  unfortunate  indi- 
3  against  the  arbitrary  violence  of  the  unprincipled,  but 
ime  powerful,  £utropius ;  in  consequence  of  which,  the 
procured  the  enactment  of  an  express  law,  in  398, 

-  sach  representations  to  him  as  woald  prevent  him  from  receiving 
Bot  though  the  guilty  persons  voluntarily  left  the  church,  the 
f  bishop,  notwithstanding,  pronounced  excommunication  on  the 
iunily  of  the  Comes.  Augusdn,  on  the  other  hand,  received  the 
into  his  own  communion,  telling  him  that  he  had  nothing  to  fear 
,  unjust  excommunication ;  and  he  wrote  to  the  bishop,  **  Believe  not 
may  not  be  hurried  on  by  an  unjust  anger  because  we  are  bishops ; 
us  rather  think  that  we  live  in  the  greatest  danger  of  bemg 
In  the  snares  of  temptation,  because  we  are  men/' 
fre  follow  two  examples.  A  man  of  some  consequence  and  in- 
,  owing  to  his  connection  with  the  vicar-general  of  Pontus,  with 
he  acted  as  assessor  judge,  wished  to  compel  a  noble  widow 
y  him.  She  fled  to  the  asylum  of  the  church  at  Csesarea.  That 
)r,  who  was  besides  an  enemy  of  the  bishop  Basil,  gladly  availed 
^  of  this  opportunity  to  make  him  feel  his  power.  But  Basil  re- 
>  deliver  up  the  widow.  The  vicar  caused  him  to  be  arraigned 
bis  tribunal ;  but  the  people  were  excited  by  this  course  of  pro- 
;  to  such  violent  agitation,  that  the  governor,  struck  with  fear, 
himself  implored  Basil  to  use  his  influence  in  soothing  them.  See 
.  Naz.  orat.  20,  p.  353.  In  like  manner,  the  bishop  Synesius  of 
ais,  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifth  century,  had  to  contend  with 
nor,  Andronicus,  who  dealt  in  an  arbitrary  manner  with  the  lives 
fperty  of  the  citizens,  sacrificing  everything  to  his  avarice  and  his 
B.  lie  caused  an  edict  to  be  posted  up  on  the  doors  of  the  church, 
:h  he  threatened  every  ecclesiastic  who  should  give  protection  to 
tappy  victims.  He  declared  that  not  one  should  escape  his  hand, 
!iou^h  he  clasped  the  feet  of  Christ.  No  asylum  could  afibrd 
agamst  such  a  man.  The  only  course  that  was  left  for  Synesius 
pronounce  on  him  the  sentence  of  excommunication,  ep.  58.  Yet 
liens,  who  fell  into  disgrace  with  the  court,  and  was  plunged  in 
one,  was  forced  himself  to  seek  protection  from  the  church,  and 
18  received  him.    £p.  90  ad  Theophilum. 


206  RELATION  OF  THE  CHURCH  TO  THE  STATE. 

restricting  this  right  of  the  church,  which  had  grown  out  of 
common  usage  and  custom.*  So  much  the  stronger,  therefim^  L 
must  have  been  the  impression  made  on  the  popular  mind  ^, 
when,  in  the  following  year,  £utropius  himself,  having  fidlen  j^ 
from  the  summit  of  earthly  fortune  to  the  lowest  in&my,  wai  : 
obliged  to  seek  shelter,  at  the  altar  of  the  church,  from  the  " 
fury  of  the  exasperated  Gothic  troops  to  which  the  weak  Am* 
dius  was  willing  to  abandon  him ;  and  it  was  Ohrysostom  vho 
defended  him  there.  A  great  effect  was  also  produced  by  an 
incident  which  occurred  in  Constantinople  itself,  under  the 
reign  of  Theodosius  II.  Certain  slaves  of  one  of  the 
men  of  the  city  took  refuge,  from  the  harsh  treatment  of 
cruel  master,  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  principal  church.  Then^ 
for  several  days  in  succession,  they  disturbed  the  divine  service; 
and  when  at  length  resort  was  had  to  force  against  them,  tbej 
killed  one  of  the  ecclesiastics,  wounded  another,  and  then  pirt 
an  end  to  their  own  lives.f  This  and  similar  occurrences  led 
finally  to  the  enactment  of  the^rst  law  for  the  asylum  of  ihe 
church,  in  the  year  431.  It  was  here  settled  that  not  qoIt 
the  altar,  but  whatever  formed  any  part  of  the  church  bmlfr 
ings,  should  be  an  inviolable  place  of  refuge. |  It  was  fo- 
bidden,  on  pain  of  death,  forcibly  to  remove  those  who  fled 
thither  unarmed.  Resort  might  be  had  to  force  only  against 
such  as  took  refuge  in  those  places  with  weapons  in  their 
hands,  and  who  re^ed  to  give  them  up  at  the  repeated  solici- 
tations of  the  clergy.  §  In  a  law,  passed  in  the  following  year, 
it  was  ordered  that,  whenever  a  servant  fled  unarmed  to  the 
church,  the  clergy  should  delay  giving  information  of  it  tD 
the  master,  or  to  the  person  whose  vengeance  he  was  endeavouiw 

*  See  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  IX.  Tit.  45, 1.  3;  which  law,  to  be  siue,  isnot    j 
expressed  in  general  terms,  but  is  properly  directed  only  against  thoM     ! 
who  were  bound  under  some  obligation  to  the  state  or  to  private  persotf^ 
which  they  were  wishing  to  evade.    Yet  the  law,  in  the  form  in  wUeh 
it  stood,  might  easily  be  farther  made  use  of  also  against  the  asylum. 

t  Socrates,  VII.  38. 

t  The  reason  alleged  probably  had  some  reference  to  the  fiust  thit 
those  cases  in  which  the  violators  of  the  asylum  were  subsequently 
visited  by  some  great  calamity,  which  was  generally  regarded  as  a  diTine 
punishment,  particularly  contributed  to  promote  the  feeling  of  reverenoe 
for  the  asylum:  Ne  in  detrahendos  eos  oonetur  quisquam  sacrikgM 
manus  immittere  ;  ne,  qui  hoc  ausus  sit,  cum  discrimen  saom  vid(eat,'ad 
expetendam  opem  ipse  quoque  confngiat. 

§  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  IX.  Tit.  46, 1.  4. 


INTERNAL  OfiGANIZATION  OF  THE  CHURCH.  207 

escape,  no  longer  than  a  day ;  and  that  the  latter,  out 
ard  to  him  to  whom  the  fugitive  had  fled  for  refuge, 
grant  him  full  forgiveness,  and  receive  him  back  with- 
i  infliction  of  any  further  pimishment. 

2.  Internal  Organization  of  the  Church. 

>  things  had  a  special  influence  in  modifying  the  develop- 
of  the  church  constitution  in  this  period ;  first,  that 
inding  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament  view  of  the 
acy  which  had  prevailed  and  proved  so  influential  in  the 
us  period ;  secondly, — ^what  became  accessory  to  this  in 
riod  before  us, — the  imion  of  the  church  with  the  state ; 

union,  although  really  in  conflict  with  the  theocratic 
pie  above  mentioned,  was,  notwithstanding,  indirectly 
Fted  by  it.  For  the  more  the  church  strove  after  out- 
dominion,  the  more  was  she  liable  to  go  astray,  and  to 
;,  in  this  outward  power,  her  own  intrinsic  essence  as  a 
i.  of  the  spirit,  and  the  more  easy  it  became  for  outward 
'  to  obtain  dominion  over  her ;  as  it  was  true,  on  the 
hand,  that  the  more  clearly  she  retained  the  conscious- 
f  her  own  intrinsic  essence  as  a  church  of  the  spirit,  and 
w  she  was  tempted  to  strive  after  dominion  otherwise 
through  the  spirit,  through  the  power  of  the  gospel,  the 

she  was  ambled  to  maintain  herself  fix)m  all  corrupt 
lixture  of  the  worldly  principle. 

e  central  point  of  the  theocratic  church  system  was  the 
)f  a  visible,  outward  priesthood,  serving  as  the  medium 
inection  between  Christ  and  the  church ;  of  a  sacerdotal 

distinctively  consecrated  to  God,  and  requisite  for  the 
r  the  church, — through  which  order  alone  the  influences 
9  Holy  Spirit  could  be  difiused  among  the  laity.  This 
liad,  in  the  previous  period,  become  idready  a  dominant 
n  the  church,  and  had  exerted  the  greatest  influence  in 
;ing  and  mocUfying  all  ecclesiastical  relations.  Though 
lea  was  employed  by  such  church  teachers  as  Chrysostom 
Lugustin  only  for  the  purpose  of  setting  in  its  true  light 
iligious  and  moral  dignity  of  the  spiritual  order,  and  of 
ing  it  home  to  the  hearts  of  such  as  were  intending  to 
tiiemaelves  for  this  order,  and  though  such  men  meant 

means  to  disparage  thereby  the  dignity  of  the  universal 


208  INTEENAL  ORGANIZATION. 

Christian  calling,  yet  thus  the  genn  of  many  other  errors  came 
to  be  once  introduced.  Hence  the  fidse  antithesis  now  set  up 
between  spiritual  and  secular,  which  had  so  injurious  an  infln-i 
enee  on  the  whole  Christian  life,  and  by  which  the  lofty  chane-> 
ter  of  the  universal  Christian  calling  was  so  much  lowered. 
Hence  the  delusive  notion  that  the  clergy,  as  super-earthly 
beings,  must  withdraw  themselves  from  idl  contact  with  the 
things  of  sense ;  and  hence  the  erroneous  notion  that  the  priead/ 
dignity  was  desecrated,  was  too  much  drawn  down  to  the  eartfc, 
by  the  married  life.  It  would  be  doing  wrong  to  this  period 
to  assert  that  such  an  opinion  was  purposely  invented,  or  est 
afloat,  with  a  view  to  enhance  thereby  the  dignity  of  the  spin* 
tual  order.  Ideas  of  this  sort,  whi(^  reign  supreme  over  n  4 
age,  are,  in  general,  not  the  contrivance  of  a  few ;  and  whti  '- 
has  been  thus  purposely  contrived  can  never  acquire  such  vait 
influence  in  shaping  human  relations.  As  that  idea  of  tlie 
priesthood  had  originated,  as  we  have  seen,  in  a  declensian 
from  the  primitive  Christian  mode  of  thinking ;  the  same  iras 
true  also  of  this  opinion,  which  naturally  grew  out  of  the  idea 
of  the  priesthood, — the  opinion  that  the  clergy,  as  mediaton 
between  God  and  men,  as  the  channels  through  whom  alone 
the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit  must  flow  to  the  rest  of  mao^ 
kind,  encliained  to  the  world  of  sense,  must  hence,  in  their 
whole  life,  be  elevated  above  that  world, — ^must  keep  them- 
selves free  from  all  earthly  ties  and  family  relations.  It  is 
plain,  indeed,  that  in  many  nations  not  Christian  the  idea  of 
such  a  priesthood  led  to  the  same  conclusion  of  the  necessity 
of  celibacy  in  the  priests ;  and  already,  in  the  previous  period, 
we  observed  a  tendency  of  the  same  kind  among  the  Mon-^ 
tanists. 

This  idea  could  not  penetrate  at  once  everywhere  alike ;  the 
primitive  Christian  spirit  still  ofiered  considerable  resistance 
to  it.  The  council  of  Elvira  in  Spain,  which  met  in  the  year 
305,  and  was  governed  by  the  ascetic  and  hierarchical  spirit 
that  prevailed  particularly  in  the  Spanish  and  North- African 
churches,  was  the  first  to  announce  the  law,  that  the  clergy  of 
the  three  first  grades  should  abstain  firom  all  marriage  inter* 
course,  or  be  deposed.*     Men  of  the  same  bent  of  spirit  were 

*  Placuit  in^  totnm  prohiberi  episcopis,  presbyteris  et  diaoonibnu,  vel 
omnibus  clericis  positis  in  ministerio,  abstinere  a  conjagibus  snis. 


CeUBACY  OF  THE  CLEBGY.  209 

making  this  a  general  law  of  the  church  at  the  council  of 
ce ;  but  a  bishop,  whose  opinion  may  have  had  the  more 
aght  because  it  was  unbiassed,  as  he  had  himself  led  a  strictly 
setic  life  from  his  youth  upward, — ^the  bishop  and  confessor 
iphnutius,— opposed  this  motion,  declaring  that  wedlock  was 
10  a  holy  estate,  as  Paul  affirmed ;  and  that  the  clergy  who 
Id  that  relation  might  lead,  notwithstanding,  a  holy  life.  No 
ke  ought  to  be  imposed  on  men  which  the  weakness  of 
man  nature  could  not  bear ;  and  it  would  be  well  to  use  cau- 
n,  lest  the  church  might  be  injured  by  excessive  severity.* 
et  even  Paphnutius,  plainly  as  he  saw  the  mischief  which 
ost  accrue  from  such  an  ordinance  universally  imposed,  was 
3  much  governed  by  the  spirit  of  his  time  to  speak  generally 
gainst  the  practice  of  binding  the  spiritual  order  to  celibacy. 
lie  old  order  of  things  was  simply  retained,  tliat  ecclesiastics 
the  first  three  grades,  when  once  ordained,  should  no  longer 
I  permitted  to  marry ;  and  the  rest  was  lef^  to  the  free  choice 
each  individual.  And  this  was  not  a  thing  altogether  new : 
B  council  of  Neocsesarea,  in  the  year  314,1  had  already  de- 
eed  that  the  presbyter  who  married  should  forfeit  his  standing ; 
d  the  council  of  Ancyra,  in  the  same  year, $  that  the  deacons 
lOy  at  the  time  of  their  ordination,  should  declare  that  they 
old  not  tolerate  the  life  of  celibacy,  might  subsequently  be 
lowed  to  marry ;  while  those  who  said  nothing  on  this  point 
their  ordination,  yet  afterwards  married,  should  be  deposed 
3m  their  office.  How  much  the  ascetic  spirit  of  the  moral 
stem  which  prevailed  in  many  portions  of  the  Eastern  church, 
8t  giving  rise  to  monasticism,  and  then  receiving  support 
sm  the  same  system,  contributed  to  spread  the  erroneous 
>tion  of  the  necessity  of  celibacy  to  the  sacred  character  of 
e  priesthood,  is  made  evident  by  the  decisions  of  the  council 
'  Gkmgra  in  Paphlagonia,  somewhere  about  the  middle  of 
e  fourth  century ;  which  council,  at  the  same  time,  deserves 
itice,  as  being  opposed  to  this  spiritual  tendency  and  to  this 
lusion.  Its  fourth  canon  pronounces  sentence  of  condemna- 
m  on  those  who  would  not  hold  communion  with  married 
desiastics.  The  practice  became  continually  more  prevalent, 
is  true,  in  the  Eastern  churchy  for  the  bishops  at  least,  if 
ey  were  married,  to  abandon  the  marriage  relation :  yet  we 

*  Socrat  I.  II.  jk  Canon  1.  X  Canon  10. 

VOL,  III.  Y 


210  INTERNAL  OBGiJflZATION, 

still  find  exceptions,  even  in  the  fifth  centuiy ;  as  in  the 
of  Synesiu9,  who,  when  about  to  be  made  bishop  of  Ptolemni 
in  Pentapolis,  signified  to  Theophilus  patriarch  of  AJezandm 
his  intention  of  living  in  the  same  relations  with  the  wifis  ii 
whom  he  himself  had  joined  him ;  and  yet  he  was  ordainef 
bishop.*  It  was  difiTerent  with  the  Western  church,  niias 
the  law  which  Paphnutius  had  turned  aside  at  the  coondl 
of  Nice  succeeded,  nevertheless,  to  establish  itself.  It  kid 
hitherto  been  nothing  more  than  a  fundamental  piincqda  in 
the  usages  of  the  church,  when  the  Roman  bishop  Siricius  de- 
creed the  first  ecclesiastical  law  on  the  subject.  The  oocarioi 
of  it  was  this : — Spanish  presbyters  and  deacons  resisted  tte 
unmarried  life ;  and,  as  the  whole  idea  of  the  church  priarti 
and  sacrifices  was  derived  from  the  Old  Testament,  th^ 
appealed  in  their  defence  to  the  fact  that  the  Old-Testamflnt 
priests  lived  in  the  state  of  wedlock.  Himerius  bishop  of 
Taraco,  in  a  letter  to  the  Roman  bishop  Damasus,  wUck 
treated  of  various  other  ecclesiastical  afisurs,  had  also  men- 
tioned this  circumstance,  and  asked  for  advice.  SiiicioSy  idN 
in  the  mean  time  had  succeeded  Damasus  in  the  episcqiil 
ofiice,  replied  in  a  letter  of  the  year  385,  in  which,  by  a  aiii* 
gular  perversion  of  holy  writ,  he  endeavoured  to  prove  the 
necessity  of  celibacy  in  priests ;  and  in  which  letter,  moreover, 
the  connection  of  this  error  with  the  unevangelical  idea  of  the 
priesthood  and  the  unevangelical  idea  of  wh^  constitutes  hoi^ 
ness  is  very  clearly  brought  to  view.  The  r^uisition  to  be 
holy  (Levit.  xx.  7)  is  here  confined  solely  to  the  priests,  and 
referred  simply  to  abstinence  from  marriage  intercourse ;  and 
the  bishop  appeals  for  proof  to  the  i&ct  that  the  priests  of  the 
Old  Testament,  during  the  period  of  their  service  in  the  tonple, 
were  obliged  to  dwell  there,  and  to  abstain  from  all  marriage 
intercourse ; — that  Paul  (Rom.  viii.  8,  9)  says,  they  that  are 
m  the  flesh  cannot  please  God.  And  he  adds,  ^'  Could  the 
Spirit  of  God  dwell,  indeed,  in  any  other  than  holy  bodies?" 
as  though  true  holiness  accordingly  were  incompatible  withthe 
marriage  estate,  and  the  clergy  were  the  only  ones  in  whom 

*  Jerome  may  perhaps  have  expressed  himself,  in  his  zeal,  too  gene- 
rally, when  he  says,  in  the  beginning  of  his  book  against  VigilaDtiitf» 
Quid  facient  orientis  ecclesise,  quid  ^gypti  et  sedis  apostolicse,  qos  ant 
virgines  Clericos  accipiunt,  aut  continentes,  ant  si  uxores  habiieriiil» 
mariti  esse  desistunt.  •    .  * 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  CLEROT.  211 

tiie  Spirit  of  Grod  resided.     It  was  indeed  true  that  a  <H>nsi- 
iismble  time  elapsed  before  the  principle,  established  in  theoiy, 
mild  be  generally  adopted  also  in  practice.     There  arose,  even 
.in  the  last  times  of  the  fourth  century,  many  men  superior  to 
Ae  pirejudices  of  their  age,  such  as  Jovinian,  and  perhaps  also 
Tig^lantius,  who  combated  the  doctrine  of  celibacy  in  the  spi- 
ritual order.     Jovinian  rightly  appeals  to  the  fact  that  the 
apostle  Paul  allowed  one  to  be  chosen  a  bishop  who  had  a  wife 
ud  children.     And  Jerome  names  bishops  among  the  friends 
of  Yigilantius,  who,  because  they  feared  the  pernicious  conse- 
qaences  to  morals  of  a  constrained  celibacy,  would  ordain  tig 
others  as  deacons  but  those  who  were  married,* 

This  idea  of  the  priesthood  was  bad,  also,  in  its  influence  on 
Ihe  prevailing  notions  with  regard  to  the  training  necessary  for 
those  who  were  preparing  for  the  spiritual  order.  As  many 
placed  implicit  confidence  in  the  magical  effects  of  the  priestly 
4iidination,  whereby  the  supernatural  powers,  of  which  the 
priest  was  to  be  the  channel,  were  communicated  at  once  ;  as 
they  held  the  outward  acts  of  the  church,  by  which  the  priest 
W9M  supposed  to  set  in  motion  the  higher  energies  communi- 
Cftted  to  him,  to  be  the  principal  thing  in  the  administration  of 
hb  office ;  they  were,  for  this  very  reason,  led  to  suppose  that 
&o  special  previous  culture  was  necessary  for  this  office,  f  It 
ii  me  the  more  eminent  teachers  of  the  church — such  men  as 
Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  Chrysostom,;]:  and  Augustin§ — com- 
bated this  delusion,  and  laid  down  many  wholesome  and  judicious 
Tales  for  the  education  of  the  spiritual  order ;  yet  these  in- 
joDctions,  proceeding  from  individuals,  could  produce  no  ade- 
quate  effects,  as  they  were  not  sufficiently  sanctioned  and  upheld 

*  See  Ifieronym.  adv.  Vigilant,  at  the  beginning.  The  frequent  com- 
pinnts  about  the  nnti^axru  of  the  clergy, — against  whom  canon  3  of  the 
Kioene  oooncil  is  directed  (vol.  I.,  s.  2,  p.  4ti7),— prove  the  bad  effects 
K^iioh  the  roles  of  celibacy  had  on  morels. 

t  Gregory  of  Na2daDZ.  sarcastically  denounces  this  erroneous  notion 
in  his  satirical  poem  against  the  bishops,  V.  503 :  *e/tci  rax'  ^^  ^*f  '^f 

chmce 

iMqitisni) 

ry  aJLirii  (prayer  over  the  candidate  who  was  kneeling)  |  »a}  rS  rv^ttitn- 

0^frt  Kf^iv  w^tufunrt  (as  if  the  Holy  Ghost  at  the  ordination  wrought  with 

inenstible  powtf)  |  »fim  htuucn  »»)  rtf^MV  Wta-KOTw. 

%  In  his  work  m^}  S^m^iw 

f  In  his  work  de  doctriua  Christiana. 


212  INTEBNAL  OROANIZATIOSr. 


by  the  decrees  of  councils.*  There  was,  moreover,  a  greit 
want  of  institutions  for  the  theolo^cal  education  of  the  spiri- 
tual order.  The  school  at  Alexandria  was  at  first  the  only  [ 
one.  This  became  distinguished  under  the  superintendence  a  ^ 
the  learned  Didymus,  who,  although  blind  from  his  youth,  was  ■ 
one  of  the  most  accomplished  church-teachers  of  his  time. 
Then  arose,  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  the  theologieal 
school  of  Antioch,  the  formation  of  which  had  been  already 
prepared,  a  century  earlier,  by  the  learned  presbyters  of  that 
church.  This  school  rendered  itself  particularly  distinguished 
by  diffusing  a  taste  among  the  clergy  for  the  thorough  study 
of  the  scriptures.f  From  this,  as  the  mother,  several  otben 
sprang  up  in  the  Syrian  church,  whose  salutary  influence  on 
that  church  continued  long  to  be  felt.  In  the  Greek  churcb 
it  was  the  practice,  as  we  may  see  in  the  examples  of  Basil  of 
Csesarea  and  Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  for  such  young  men  ai 
were  destined,  by  the  wish  of  their  femiles,  to  consecrate  them- 
selves to  the  service  of  the  church,  to  visit  the  schools  of  genenl 
education,  then  flourishing  at  Athens,  Alexandria,  ConstantU 
nople,  Csesarea  in  Cappadocia,  and  Csesarea  in  Palestine.  Next, 
they  passed  some  time  in  pursuing  the  study  of  the  ancieut 

*  In  an  old  collection  of  ecclesiastical  laws,  belonging  to  the  fifth 
century,  falsely  called  the  decisions  of  the  fourth  syn(d  at  Carthage,  e. 
I.,  yre  find  the  only  decree  of  this  sort,  which  is  itself,  however,  vay 
generally  expressed :  Qui  episcopus  ordinandus  est,  antea  ezaminetar,  B  i 
sit  literatus,  si  in  lege  Domini  instructus,  si  in  scripturamm  sensibos  • 
cautus,  si  in  dogmatibus  ecclesiasticis  exercitatus.  See  Mansi  CoDciL 
III.  949. 

t  Hence  the  Nestorian  seminaries  for  the  clergy  were  at  the  beginmng 
particularly  distinguished ;  as,  for  example,  their  school  at  Nisibis  in 
Mesopotamia,  which  had  a  settled  course  of  studies,  and  was  divided  into 
several  classes.  The  teachers  and  students  enjoyed  special  privileges  in 
the  Nestorian  churches  (see  Assemani  Bibl.  Vat.  t.  III.  p.  2,  f  .927).  TTie 
North- African  bishop  Junilius,  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth  centor?) 
describes  this  school,  in  the  preface  to  his  work  de  partibus  divinse  legis, 
as  one  "  where  the  holy  scriptures  were  expounded  by  teachers  publicly 
appointed,  in  the  same  manner  as  grammar  and  rhetoric  were  among 
the  Komans."  The  well-known  East-Gothic  statesman  and  sdiolar  Cas- 
siodorus,  who  was  troubled  to  find  that  in  the  West  there  were  no  public 
teachers  of  the  right  method  of  scriptural  exposition,  as  there  were  of 
the  right  method  of  understanding  the  ancient  authors,  entered  into  an 
understanding  with  the  Roman  bishop  Agapetus  that  sudi  a  school 
should  be  founded  at  Home ;  but  the  stormy  times  prevented  the  execa- 
tioD  of  that  plan.    See  pncfat.  1. 1.  de  institutione  £v.  Script 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  CLEBGT.  213 

literature,  either  with  particular  reference  to  their  own  im- 
proTement,  or  as  rhetorical  teachers  in  their  native  towns ; 
until,  by  the  course  of  their  own  meditations,  or  by  some 
impression  from  without,  a  new  direction,  of  more  decided 
Christian  seriousness,  was  given  to  their  life.  In  this  case,  it 
BOW  became  their  settled  plan  to  consecrate  their  entire  life  to 
tlie  service  of  the  faith  and  of  the  church ;  whether  it  was  that 
ftey  entered  immediately  into  some  one  of  the  subordinate 
grades  of  the  spiritual  order,  or  that  they  preferred,  in  the  first 
place,  in  silent  retirement,  by  sober  collection  of  thought, 
ijr  the  study  of  the  holy  scriptures,  and  of  the  older  church- 
ftthers,  either  in  solitude  or  in  some  society  of  monks,  to  prepare 
tiiemselves  for  the  spiritual  office.  That  previous  discipline 
in  general  literature  had,  in  one  respect,  a  beneficial  influence ; 
inasmuch  as  it  gave  a  scientific  direction  to  their  minds  in 
theology,  and  thus  fitted  them  also  for  more  eminent  usefulness 
as  church-teachers;  as  becomes  evident  when  we  compare 
the  bishops  so  educated  with  others.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  habits  of  style  thus  contracted,  the  vanity  and  fondness  for 
display  which  were  nourished  in  those  rhetorical  schools,  had 
OQ  many  an  influence  un^tvourable  to  the  simplicity  of  the 
gospel,  as  may  be  seen,  for  example,  after  a  manner  not  to  be 
mistaken,  in  the  case  of  Gregory  of  Nazianzus. 

The  cloisters,  moreover,  are  to  be  reckoned,  in  the  Greek 
church,  among  the  seminaries  for  educating  the  clergy ;  and, 
indeed,  among  those  of  a  healthful  influence ;  in  so  far  as  a 
jnractical  Christian  bent,  a  rich  fund  of  Christian  experience, 
and  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  holy  scripture,  was  to  be 
acquired  in  them ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  true,  also,  that 
a  certain  narrowness  of  theological  spirit  was  engendered  in 
the  cloisters,  injurious  in  its  influence  on  the  education  of 
church-teachers,  as  may  be  perceived  in  the  case  of  an  Epipha- 
nius  ;  and  those  that  received  their  education  there  were  often 
at  a  loss  how  to  adapt  themselves  to  wider  spheres  of  spiritual 
activity,  especially  when  they  were  transferred  at  once  to  the 
great  capital  towns,  as  the  example  of  Nestorius  shows.  The 
awkwardness  of  their  movements,  amid  the  intricate  relations 
into  which  they  were  thrown,  operated  not  seldom  to  hinder 
and  disturb  them  in  their  labours. 

An  excellent  seminary  for  the  ecclesiastics,  not  merely  of 
a  single  church,  but  of  an  entire  province,  was  oflen  the  clems 


214  INTERNAL  OBGimZAnOV. 

i 

of  a  pious  and  well-informed  bishop.  Yonng  men  in  this  eaie  I 
were  first  admitted  into  the  body  as  church  readers  or  copyisti  ! 
(lectores  or  excerptores) ;  they  were  trained  up  under  his  fje,  f 
formed  after  his  example,  las  counsels,  his  guidanee;  thq^  ) 
availed  themselves  of  his  experience,  and  were  Sius  introducecL  j 
under  the  most  favourable  auspices,  into  the  field  of  practiev 
labour.  Many  pious  bishops,  such  as  Augustin  and  Eusdlnni 
of  Vercelli,  endeavoured,  by  drawing  still  closer  the  bond  of 
union  among  their  clergy,  and  inducing  them  to  live  together 
in  common,  to  carry  still  farther  this  disciplinary  influence  ef 
theirs  on  the  younger  members  of  their  order — ihe  first  gam 
of  the  canonical  life,  afterwards  so  called. 

We  have  already  observed  that,  by  the  temporal  advantags 
connected  with  the  spiritual  profession,  many  who  had  neither 
the  inward  call  nor  any  other  qualifications  for  this  Older 
were  led  to  aspire  after  church  offices ;  so  that,  in  fact,  nnm* 
bers  became  Christians  solely  with  a  view  of  obtaining  some 
post  in  the  church,  and  enjoying  the  emoluments  therewith 
connected.  Several  synods  of  these  times  endeavoured  ta 
suppress  this  abuse.  Already  the  Nicene  council,  in  its 
second  canon,  ordered  that  no  one,  after  being  instructed  fi>r  a 
short  time,  and  then  baptized,  should  for  the  future,  as  had 
been  done  before,  be  ordained  a  presbyter  or  a  bishop ;  fer 
some  time  was  necessary'-  for  the  probation  of  a  catechumen^ 
and  a  still  longer  trial  was  requisite  after  baptism  ;  and  the 
council  of  Sardica,  in  its  tenth  canon,  directed  that,  if  a  per- 
son of  wealth,  or  from  the  arena  of  the  forum,  wished  to  become 
a  bishop,  he  should  not  attain  to  that  office  until  he  had  gooe 
through  the  functions  of  a  reader,  deacon,  and  presbyter,  and 
spent  sufficient  time  in  each  of  these  offices  to  make  proof  of 
his  faith  and  temper.  Yet  these  and  similar  laws  availed  but 
little  to  diminish  the  evil ;  as  it  ever  proves  true  that  abuses 
grounded  in  the  wrong  character  of  general  relations  are  not 
to  be  fundamentally  cured  by  single  prohibitory  laws,  but  only 
by  the  improvement  of  these  general  relations  themselves. 
The  confounding  of  spiritual  and  worldly  things  was  the 
source  of  these  abuses.  Hence  it  happened  that  the  spiritual 
offices  presented  so  many  attractions  to  those  who  would  have 
been  the  last  men  to  be  drawn  by  the  essential  character  of 
the  spiritual  calling  itself;  and  hence,  in  the  choice  of  candi- 
dates to  spiritual  offices,  especially  the  most  elevated,  more 


AFFOnmfENTS  TO  OFFICE.  215 

ittention  was  paid  to  erery  one  of  the  others  than  to  the  spiri- 
Inal  qualifications.  Men  considered  what  they  had  to  expect, 
not  so  much  firom  the  spiritual  qualifications  of  the  candidate 
feo  care  for  the  good  of  souls,  as  from  his  political  influence  to 
promote  the  external  splendour  of  the  church,  the  temporal 
well-being  of  the  community.*  As  the  source  of  these  abuses 
continued  ever  to  remain  the  same,  these  ecclesiastical  laws 
were  often  enough  violated ;  and  in  the  Eastern  church  the 
evil  was  increased  by  the  disorders  growing  out  of  disputes  on 
matters  of  doctrine.  Greater  strictness  on  this  point  prevailed, 
k  the  main,  with  individual  exceptions,  in  the  church  of  the 
West,  where  the  Roman  bishops  took  ground  decidedly  against 
the  practice  by  which  laymen  were  elevated  at  once  from 
worldly  professions  of  an  altc^ther  difierent  character  to  the 
Ughest  stations  in  the  church.f 

This  method  of  appointment  to  spiritual  ofiices  was  not  only 
Ittended  with  the  mischievous  consequence  that,  by  these 
beans,  when  such  offices  came  thus  to  be  filled  by  men  altoge- 
ther unworthy  of  them,  every  sort  of  corruption  was  intro- 
duced intb  the  church ;  but  also,  in  the  most  favourable  cases, 
when  men  having  the  inward  call  for  the  spiritual  standing 
were  chosen  at  once,  from  some  entirely  foreign  circle  of 
action,  to  spiritual  ofiices,  without  any  preparatory  training, 
H  was  natural  that  such  persons,  owing  to  their  w^nt  of  an 
mdependent  theological  education,  instead  of  guiding,  by  a 
clear    theological   consciousness,   the  existing  ecclesiastical 

*  The  abuses  in  the  appointment  to  episcopal  offices,  the  methods  by 
which  men  of  the  most  alien  occupations  and  modes  of  life  found  their 
way  into  them,  are  set  forth  by  Gregory  of  Nazianzus  in  the  caricature 
description  of  his  carmen  de  episoopis,  V.  150.  He  names  collectors  cf 
ikt  trtbute,  seamen,  people  who  came  from  the  plough  and  from  the  army. 
Although  it  is  his  object  in  this  poem  to  expose  the  faults  of  the  Eastern 
ehoreh  in  the  most  Tivid  light,  yet  his  picture  is  assuredly  not  without 
Imth.  And  the  same  writer  says,  in  his  remarkable  fiEirewell  disoourM 
before  the  diurch  assembly  at  Constantinople,  in  the  year  381  (orat  32, 
£  526\  "  People  at  present  are  on  the  look-out,  not  for  priests,  but  for 
riietoncians ;  not  for  those  who  understand  the  cure  of  souls,  but  for 
ttose  who  are  skilled  in  the  management  of  fiinds ;  not  for  those  who 
cfier  with  a  pure  heart,  but  for  powerful  intercessors." 

f  Thus  the  Boman  bishop  Siricios,  in  his  letter  ad  Gallos  episcc^xM, 
declares  himself  very  emphatically  against  the  practice  of  elevating  to 
episcopal  offices,  by  the  favor  popular  is,  those  qui,  secularem  adepti 
potestatem,  jus  seculi  exercuenmt. 


216  INTERNAL  OROANIZATIQir. 

spirit  of  their  time,  instead  of  separating  the  true  from  the 
false  in  the  existing  church  tradition,  rather  sufiered  them- 
selves to  be  unconsciously  borne  along  by  the  spirit  of  the 
church  for  the  time  being ;  and  thus  contributed,  by  their  in- 
struction and  by  their  course  of  procedure,  to  confirm  and  giye 
wider  spread  to  those  errors  which  had  been  transmitted  mm 
earlier  times. 

As  regards  the  participation  of  the  laity  in  the  election  to 
church  offices,  traces  are  still  to  be  found  in  thb  period  of  the 
share  which  the  communities  had  once  taken  in  this  proceed* 
ing.  It  continued  to  be  the  prevailing  form  that  the  bishop 
m  the  first  place  named  to  the  community  the  persons  whom 
he  proposed  as  candidates  to  fill  the  vacant  offices,  and  de- 
manded if  any  one  had  aught  to  object  to  the  choice  ;  and, 
the  acquiescence  of  the  church  being  publicly  expressed,  an 
official  instrument  (gesta  ecclesiastica)  was  drawn  up  accord* 
ingly.  Through  the  preponderating  influence  of  the  bishops, 
this,  it  is  true,  might  often  be  no  more  than  a  mere  formali^; 
but  it  was  precisely  in  the  case  of  appointments  to  the  highest 
offices  of  the  church  that  this  influence  still  often  proved  to 
be  greatest.  Before  the  provincial  bishops  could  introduce  a 
regular  choice  according  to  the  ecclesiastical  laws,  it  some- 
times happened  that,  by  the  voice  of  the  whole  conoununity, 
or  of  a  powerfid  party  in  it,  some  individual  standing  high  in 
their  confidence  was  proclaimed  bishop.  But  as,  in  the  then 
existing  state  of  the  church,  the  most  pious,  and  they  who 
had  a  right  conception  of  the  essence  of  the  spiritual  office, 
and  who  had  at  heart  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  commu- 
nity, did  not  constitute  the  majority  and  the  most  powerful 
party,  but  rather,  particularly  in  the  more  considerable  towns, 
it  was  often  those  very  persons  with  whom  impure  motives 
and  a  worldly  interest  mainly  predominated  who,  as  the  most 
reputable  of  the  citizens,  possessed  the  greatest  influence; 
the  elections,  accordingly,  which  were  made  after  this  manner, 
were  not  always  the  best ;  and  cases  are  to  be  met  with  in 
which  bishops  and  ecclesiastics  who  had  at  heart  the  true  in- 
terests of  the  church,  were  brought  into  conflict  with  the  bois- 
terous demands  of  some  popular  party,  governed  by  a  bad 
influence.*    This  abuse  of  the  influence  of  the  communities  in 

*  Thus  in  the  year  361  the  popular  party  at  Csesarea  in  Cappadoda, 


TBANSFEB  OF  BISHOPS  AND  PRESBTTERS.  217 

choice  of  church  officers  furnished  some  good  reason  for 
xicting  it. 

Worldly  interest,  ambition,  and  the  love  of  rule,  frequently 
bishops  of  the  provincial  towns,  in  the  Eastern  church,  to 
ire  after  the  vacant  bishoprics  of  the  chief  cities.  Mis- 
evous  quarrels  and  disputes  must  often  have  arisen  from 
\  source,  and  the  erroneous  notion  obtained,  which  was 
ly  denounced  by  the  emperor  Constantine,  that  the  large 
es  had  greater  claims  than  others  to  a  bishop  who  was  soli- 
nis  for  the  cure  of  souls.*  Soon  after  the  church  in  the 
It  had  become  the  dominant  church  of  the  state,  it  was 
med  necessary  to  find  some  preventive  against  these  abuses ; 
whatever  measures  were  adopted,  these,  for  the  reasons 
3ady  nientioned,  like  all  similar  precautionary  legal  mea- 
es  against  abuses  springing  out  of  the  circumstances  of  the 
es,  proved  of  little  avail.  The  council  of  Nice,  in  its  fif- 
Qth  canon,  forbade  the  transfer,  not  only  of  bishops,  but  of 
sbyters  and  deacons,  from  one  church  to  another,  on 
oont  of  the  many  disorders  and  schisms  resulting  from  this 

[Knted  by  the  garrison  of  the  place,  insisted  on  having  for  their 
lop  one  of  the  civil  magistrates,  Eusebius,  who  had  as  yet  not  been 
dzed ;  and  the  provincial  bishops,  many  of  whom  perhaps  had  a 
at  man  in  mind,  allowed  themselves  to  be  forced  to  ordain  him.  A 
ilar  schism  arose  ag^  on  the  demise  of  Eusebius,  in  choosing  his 
«88or.  Basilins  possessed,  without  doubt,  so  far  as  spiritual  quail- 
dons  were  concerned,  the  best  claims  to  the  office;  but  he  was 
osed  by  a  party  to  whom  his  spiritual  strictness  and  his  purely 
itoal  mode  of  thinking  were  not  acceptable.  As  Gregory  of  Na- 
ixos  affirms  (orat  20,  f.  342),  the  most  considerable  persons  of  the 
mice  were  against  him,  and  these  had  the  worst  men  of  the  city  on 
r  side.  Gregory  says  (orat.  19,  f.  310),  on  this  occasion,  that  the 
tioQ  ought  to  proceed  particularly  from  the  clergy  and  from  the 
iks ;  but  not  from  the  most  wealthy  and  powerful,  or  the  blind  impe- 
dty  of  the  populace.  In  the  negative  part  of  his  remark  he  is 
oabtedly  in  the  right;  but,  with  regard  to  the  positive  part,  it  may 
[nestioned  whether,  if  the  whole  choice  was  made  to  depend  on  the 
ses  mentioned,  other  impure  motives  might  not  equally  enter  in. 
the  letter  which  Gregory  of  Nazianzus  wrote,  in  the  name  of  his 
er,  to  the  collective  inhabitants  of  Csesarea,  he  spoke  against  those 
tions  which  were  decided  by  combinations  and  clanships  (x«r« 
r^Mcf  xai  ^vyyUutti).  As  the  ill  health  of  Basil  had  been  made  use 
IS  an  objection  to  his  appointment,  he  wrote  to  them  that  it  became 
n  to  consider  they  were  not  choosing  an  athlete^  but  a  spiritual 
'hier.  See  Gregor.  Naz.  ep.  18  et  19. 
See  vit  Constant.  III.  60. 


i 


218  INTERNAL  OBOANIZATIQK. 

practice,  which,  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  church,  prevailed 
in  some  districts.  But  although  this  law,  which,  In  lefereooe 
to  the  bishops,  was  sanctioned  anew  by  the  twentieth  caooaof 
the  Antiochian  council,  a.d.  341,  was  adhered  to  in  all  cam 
where  there  was  a  particular  interest  that  it  should  be,  yet  it 
was  often  enough  violated  in  the  Eastern  church,  and  treated 
in  the  same  way,  in  &ct,  as  if  it  had  no  existence ;  as,  indeed, 
we  find  that  Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  about  the  year  382,  could 
reckon  it  among  the  laws  which  had  long  been  defuncL*  Ie 
the  same  period,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Boman  bishop  DUr 
masus  declared  it — and,  on  the  principles  held  by  the  Weat* 
em  church,  very  justly — a  law  of  the  Others  which  had  al«^ 
been  in  force,  that  no  officer  ought  to  be  transferred  ficom  one 
church  to  another,  because  it  gave  occasion  for  disputes  and 
divisions.*!*  True,  it  was  for  £he  most  part  ambition  that  led 
to  the  violation  of  this  law  of  the  church ;  but  there  wen 
cases  too  where  this  measure  might  conduce  to  the  best  inte- 
rests of  the  church ;  as,  for  e^uunple,  when  the  peculiar  gifts  of 
an  eminent  individual,  whose  place  of  labour  in  some  smaller 
town  might  be  easUy  made  good,  were  peculiarly  needed  in 
some  wider  field  of  action. 

We  remarked  above  that  the  bishops  were  often  under  the 
necessity  of  interceding  at  the  court  in  behalf  of  oppreseed 
cities  or  individuals ;  but  this  description  of  labour  would 
often  furnish  a  pretext  for  worldly-minded  men,  who  preferred 
residing  at  court  rather  than  with  their  flocks,  and  who  more 
willingly  busied  themselves  with  secular  than  with  spiritual 
matters,  to  absent  themselves  from  their  communities.  Thii 
restless  and  meddlesome  activity  of  the  bishops  beyond  the 
limits  of  their  calling  proved  the  source  of  many  disorders  ia 
the  Eastern  church.  To  counteract  the  evil,  the  council  of 
Antioch,  in  the  year  341  (canon  11),  ordained  that  eveif 
bishop,  or  ecclesiastic  generally,  who,  without  permission  and 
a  recommendatory  letter  on  the  part  of  the  provincial  bishops, 
and  particularly  of  his  metropolitan,  presumed  to  visit  the 
emperor,  should  be  excommunicated  from  the  church  and 
deposed  from  his  ofiice.  Hosius  bishop  of  Cordova  complained  at 
the  council  of  Sardica,  because  the  bishops  repaired  to  the  court 
so  frequently  and  often  so  unseasonably  with  demands  having 

f  See  Damasi  epistola  9  ad  Acholiam  Thessalonicensiam  episoopom. 


PBEBOGATiySS  OF  BISHOPS.  219 

9  eoimection  with  their  calling ;  leaving  their  dioceses,  not, 
s  it  became  them,  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  poor  and  the 
idows,  but  for  the  purpose  of  securing  places  of  honour  and 
Tofit  for  this  or  that  individual,  and  to  manage  for  them 
beir  worldly  concerns ; — a  practice  which  injured  not  a  little 
lie  good  name  of  the  bishops,  and  which  hindered  them  from 
peaking  out  with  the  same  boldness  where  necessity  called 
or  it.  Upon  his  motion  it  was  resolved  that  in  future  no 
Rshop,  unless  he  had  been  specially  summoned  by  the  em- 
)eror,  should  visit  the  court ;  but,  as  it  was  the  case  that  per- 
nns  deserving  compassion,  who  had  been  condemned  for 
nme  offence  to  exile,  to  transportation,  or  to  some  other 
vanishment,  often  took  reftige  in  the  church,  and  the  latter 
must  not  refuse  its  aid  to  such  individuals,  it  was  on  his  mo- 
ion  resolved  that  the  bishops,  in  such  cases,  should  transmit 
iie  petition  of  such  offenders  by  the  hands  of  a  deacon,  and 
iiat  the  metropolitan  should  assist  him  by  letters  of  recom- 
nendation. 

The  foundation  having  been  already  laid  in  the  preceding 
Kiiod  foT  distinguishing  the  bishops  above  the  presbyters,  and 
or  gradually  maturing  the  monarchical  power  of  the  episco- 
Micy,  this  relation  was  carried  out  still  j&rther,  according  to 
he  same  principles,  in  the  present  period.  Men  were  accus- 
omed,  iiKleed,  already,  to  consider  the  bishops  as  the  suc-^ 
iesBors  of  the  apostles,  as  the  necessary  intermediate  links  of 
icmiection  between  the  church  and  the  original  apostolic 
iimndation,  through  whom  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
irere  to  be  transmitted  to  all  the  other  grades  of  the  clertis,  the 
atter  being  organs  for  their  wider  diffusion.  It  followed  as  a 
tttoral  consequence  from  this  idea,  that  the  bishops  alone 
ioald  impart  spiritual  ordination.  Again,  it  was  in  the 
PTestem  church  considered  as  the  distinctive  mark  of  the 
bishops,  that  they  alone  were  empowered  to  administer  the  rite 
i  confirmation  {a<l>payiQ,  signaculum) — (see  vol.  i.,  section 
!).  Hence  at  certain  periods  they  visited  the  different 
larts  of  their  dioceses  for  the  purpose  of  imparting  this  seal 
0  those  who  had  been  baptized  by  their  presbyters.*  It 
held  that  they  alone  could  consecrate  the  holy  oil  used 


*  See  Hierooym.  adv.  Lucif.  T.  IV.  f.  295,  ed.  Martianay.  Qui  in 
aftellis  aat  in  remotioribus  locis  per  presbyteros  et  diaconos  baptizati 
lule  dormierout,  quam  ab  epiacopis  inviserentur. 


( 


220  INTERNAL  ORGANIZATION. 

in  the  rite  of  baptism ;  and  that  the  pre8b3rters  coul 
unless  empowered  by  them,  even  bestow  absolution.* 
a  Chiysostom  and  a  Jerome  still  asserted  the  pri 
equal  dignity  of  the  presbyters  and  the  bishops ;  very 
believing  that  they  found  authority  for  this  in  the  Nei 
tament.f 

As,  from  the  idea  of  the  bishops  considered  as  the  suc( 
of  the  apostles,  everything  else  pertaining  to  the  prim 
these  over  the  presbyters  followed  as  a  matter  of  court 
from  the  idea  of  the  priesthood  necessarily  proceeded  tl 
tinction  of  the  presbyters  above  the  deacons.  The  d< 
continued,  in  the  main,  to  be  the  same  as  they  were 
preceding  period  ;  they  attended  on  the  bishops  and  the 
byters,  while  performing  their  official  functions,  and  th< 
various  liturgical  services  of  their  own.  It  devolved  oi 
to  recite  the  church  prayers,  and  to  give  the  signal  f< 
commencement  of  the  different  portions  of  divine  st 
In  the  Western  churches  the  gospels,  as  containing  our '. 
discourses,  were  distinguished  horn  the  other  selectic 
Scripture,  in  that  they  were  read,  not  by  the  prelectoi 
by  the  deacons,  at  the  public  worship.  {  The  office  of  d< 
having  been  rightly  derived  from  those  seven  deacoi 
pointed  by  the  apostles  at  Jerusalem,  it  was  held,  th 
a  superstitious  notion  of  the  unchangeableness  of  the  fom 
even  in  large  churches  there  should  be  but  seven  dea 
and  hence,  in  large  cities,  the  great  number  of  presbyters  i 
larly  contrasted  with  the  small  number  of  deacons.  §  Li 
came  about  in  large  cities  that  the  original  number  was  g 

♦  Ut,  sine  chrismate  et  episcopi  jussione,  neqne  presbyter 
diacoDUS  jus  habeant  baptizandi.  Comp.  Innocentii  epistola  ad  . 
tmm,  s.  6,  codex  canonnm  ecclesis  AfricansB,  canon.  6  et  7.  Chr 
eonfectio  et  puellanim  consecratio  a  presbyteris  non  fiat,  yel  recoi 
quemquam  in  pablica  missa  presbytero  non  licere. 

t  See  Chrysostom,  horn.  1 1  on  Timoth.,  at  the  beginning.    Jerc 
his  commentary  on  the  epistle  of  Titos,  and  ep.   101  ad  Evan 
Quid  facit,  excepta  ordinatione,  episcopns,  quod  presbyter  non 
where  perhaps  he  only  had  in  mind  the  usage  of  the  East. 

X  See  Hieronym.  ep.  93  ad  Sabinian.  vol.  IV.  f.  758.  Coi 
Vasense  (at  Vaison)  529,  canon  2. 

§  See  Euseb.  VI.  43.  Hieronymns,  ep.  146  or  101  ad  Evanj 
diaconos  paucitas  honorabiles  facit.  The  order  of  the  council  o 
csesarea,  c.  15,  that  even  in  large  towns  not  more  than  seven  d 
should  be  appointed. 


DSAOONS — ^DEAO0N£8SEB.  221 

aioeedcd,  so  tbat  in  the  sixth  century,  in  the  time  of  the  em- 
peror Justinian,  the  principal  church  in  Constantinople  could 
count  a  hundred  deacons ;  *  and  it  was  now  attempted  to 
obviate  the  objection  that  this  was  a  deviation  from  the  apos- 
tolic usage,  by  maintaining  that  the  deacons  of  this  period 
ought  not  to  be  compared  with  those  of  the  apostolic  institu- 
tion. The  latter  were  only  a  temporary  order,  designed  for 
the  dispensation  of  alms  to  the  poor ; — and,  in  support  of  this 
view,  an  argument,  on  an  insufficient  basis,  was  drawn  from 
the  changes  which,  since  those  times,  had  taken  place  in  the 
business  of  the  deacons  and  in  the  management  of  the  church 

fiuids.t 

Although  the  deaconsy  according  to  the  original  institution, 
▼ere  to  occupy  a  position  far  below  that  of  the  presbyters,  yet 
it  so  h^pened  in  many  districts  that  they  sought  to  exalt 
themselves  above  the  latter,|  and  it  became  necessary  for  the 
synods  to  make  laws  by  which  they  should  be  once  more  con- 
fined within  the  appropriate  bounds  of  their  order.§  The 
reason  of  this,  in  the  opinion  of  Jerome,]  was  not  that  the 
deacons,  being  fewer  in  number,  were,  like  other  rare  things, 
more  highly  esteemed,  but  rather  because,  owing  to  their 
closer  connection  with  the  bishops,  they  enjoyed  special  regard 
as  the  confidential  agents  of  the  latter.  Hence,  this  was  par- 
tbolarly  the  case  with  the  archdeacons,  who  stood  at  the  head 
of  the  order,  just  as  the  arch-presbyters  stood  at  the  head  of 
the  presbyters  ;  for,  as  the  former  were  often  employed  by  the 
bishops  as  their  deputies  and  plenipotentiaries,  they  thus  ob- 
tained a  predominant  influence,  which,  doubtless,  under  weak 
bishops,  they  sometimes  abused.lf 

The  institution  of  deaconesses  had,  as  we  remarked  in  speak- 
ing^ of  the  origin  of  this  office  in  the  preceding  period,  its  special 

*  See  Justinian.  Novell.  1. 1.  N.  3. 

t  See  Chrysostom,  h.  14,  act.  ap.  and  Concil.  Trullan.  2,  can.  16. 

X  Jerome,  for  instance,  complains  of  this,  particularly  in  reference  to 
the  Roman  charch,  ep.  145  ad  Evangelum. 

§  Con<^.  Nic  c.  18,  and  Concil.  Laodicen.  c.  25.  ||  L.  c. 

^  Thus  Isidoms  of  Pelusiam  objects  to  a  certain  Lucius  of  Pelusium, 
an  archdeacon,  that  by  his  wicked  arts  he  kept  the  bishop,  who  blindly 
followed  him  (tm  9ti4ofMvo9  rM  an^lrvs  SfTiVxtfirtfv),  in  the  dark ;  that  he 
made  traffic  of  ordination.  He  calls  here  the  deacons  ipecXfMus  'wifMittu ; 
the  archdeacon  should  therefore  0X0;  i^fiakfMg  v^ei^uK  Isidor.  Pelusiot 
L IV.  ep.  188. 


222  INTKRlTil.  OBOANIZATIOH. 

reason  in  the  drenmstances  of  those  times.  When  these  dr^ 
cnmstances  changed,  the  office  leould  also  lose  its  significancML 
Originally  the  deaconesses  were  looked  upon  as  the  female  put 
of  the  clerus ;  and  ordination  was  given  them  for  the  pnspon 
of  consecrating  them  to  their  office,  in  the  same  sense  as  it  mi 
given  to  the  other  clergy.*  The  Nicene  council  seems  fltifl 
to  have  recognised  this  also  to  be  rightf  But  now,  wha 
exaggerated  notions  about  the  magical  effects  of  ordinatioBi 
and  the  dignity  of  the  clerical  order  became  continually  man 
predominant,  men  began  to  conceive  something  offensive  in 
the  practice  of  ordaining  deaconesses,  and  associating  then 
with  the  clerus — which  practice  was,  perhaps,  already  foribid- 
den  by  the  council  of  Laodicea  in  their  eleventh  canon.:^    The 

*  We  see  this  fh>m  Tertallian.  ad  uzorem,  1.  I.  o.  7»  vidoam  aUtgi 
in  ordinem.  Also  the  apostolic  constitatioDB  still  know  of  no  difierenee 
between  the  ordinaticm  of  deaconesses  and  other  clerical  ordinatkn 
The  ordinary  prayer  of  the  bishop  should,  according  to  the  same  anth^ 
rity,  run  thus :  **  Eternal  Grod,  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Chriit^ 
Creator  of  man  and  of  woman ;  thou  who  didst  fill  with  thy  Sfbit 
Miriam,  Deborah,  Hannah,  and  Hnldah ;  thou  who  didst  vouchsafe  to  t 
woman  the  birth  of  thy  only-begotten  Son ;  thou  who  didst,  in  the 
tabernacle  and  in  the  temple,  place  female  keepers  of  thy  holy  gates  ^ 
look  down  now  also  upon  this  thy  handmai((  and  bestow  on  her  the 
Holy  Ghost,  that  she  may  worthily  perform  the  work  conunitted  to  hefi 
to  thy  honour,  and  to  the  glory  of  Christ." 

t  Connected  with  this  matter  is  the  obscure  passage  in  the  19Ch 
canon,  where,  moreover,  the  reading  is  disputed.  The  subject  of  dis- 
course in  this  canon  relates  to  the  SamoscUenean  clergy,  who,  if  thej 
joined  the  Catholic  church,  and  were  found  qualified  and  able,  were  to 
be  permitted  to  retain  their  places ;  and  it  is  then  added,  accordmr  to 
the  common  reading,  **  The  same  rule  shall  hold  good  with  regard  to 
the  deaconesses;**  and  it  is  accordingly  presupposed  that  the  latter 
belonged  to  the  spiritual  order.  Shortly  afterwards,  from  the  proper 
deaconesses  are  distinguished  the  {abusive)  so-called  widows,  who,  a 
they  had  not  received  the  ;^«<ffl^tfl-ia,  belonged  generally  to  the  laity* 
According  to  this,  the  proper  deaconesses  received  clerical  ordination. 
Following  the  other  reading,  it  would  in  the  first  place  run  as  follows; 
'*  The  same  rale  shall  hold  good  with  respect  to  the  deacons,**  And  in 
this  case,  what  comes  after  would  relate  to  the  proper  deaconesses,  and 
it  would  follow  from  this  that  they  had  received  no  ordination  whatever, 
and  were  reckoned  with  the  laity.  The  whole  connection,  however, 
seems  chiefly  to  fkvour  the  first  reading ;  for  it  is  difilcult  to  see  any 
reason  why,  after  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy  had  been  mentioned  in 
general,  anything  should  now  be  said  with  regard  to  the  deacons  in 
particular. 
}  This  canon  is  likewise  of  doubtful  interpretation:    ifji  hTv  ««# 


DEACONESSES.  228 

Vestenm  church,  in  particular,  declared  very  strongly  against 
h»  custom.*  Western  synods  of  the  fifth  and  six  centuries 
Msade  generally  the  appointment  of  deaconesses.  Where 
xdained  deaconesses  were  still  to  be  found,  it  was  ordered 
that  they  should  receive  in  future  the  blessing  of  the  bishop 
ikmg  with  the  laity ; — another  proof  that  before  this  they  were 
nokoned  as  belonging  to  the  clergy.^  Those  prohibitions 
eame,  however,  only  firom  French  synods ;  and  it  cannot  be 
infeFred  from  them  that  the  appointment  of  deaconesses  in  the 
Western  church  ceased  at  once,  and  in  all  the  districts  alike. 
In  the  East  the  deaconesses  maintained  a  certain  kind  of 
nthority  for  a  longer  period.  We  find  among  them  widows 
possessed  of  property,  who  devoted  their  substance  to  pious 
ynrks  and  institutions ;  like  Olympias,  known  on  account  of 
W  connection  with  Chrysostom.     They  there  had  it  in  charge 

itytftUvas  ftfw^or^s  ^m  w^otu^fiUets    h  UxAtr/a    KatiffTavtau,      It  may 

te»  that  the  canon  had  no  reference  whatever  to  deaconesses  generally, 
bidfc  only  to  the  oldest  of  them,  who,  according  to  Epiphanius  (heeres.  79), 
vere  styled  distinctively  ftft^fiuTtits,  The  phrase  >y  Ixxktiriet  mi^ht 
tei  be  connected  either  with  the  preceding  or  with  the  following 
inrd,  and  the  passage  explained  thus :  **  As  the  oldest  of  the  deaconesses 
bare  arrogated  to  themselves  a  special  authority  over  the  female  portion 
of  the  chnrch,  the  synod  forbids  the  appointment  of  such."  But  since  it 
vas  reqiured  generally,  according  to  the  ancient  rule,  that  the  deacon- 
ma  should  be  sixty  years  old,  and  since  they  were  the  presiding  officers 
Bvier  the  female  part  of  the  community,  nothing  forbids  us  to  suppose 
Ikat  the  name  stands  for  the  deaconesses  generally.  Now,  if  we  suppose, 
vhat  to  be  sure  is  not  impossible,  that  the  synod  forbade  the  appoint- 
BBent  of  deaconesses  generally,  then  this  would  conflict  with  the  usage  of 
be  Greek  church  during  this  whole  period.  Or  we  mi^ht  lay  a  parti- 
eiilar  emphasis  on  the  phrase  |y  f««X9ir/^,  and,  connecting  it  with  the 
void  that  follows,  understand  the  sense  to  be,  that  ecclesiastical  con- 
ttcreUion  or  ordination  only  was  forbidden  to  the  deaconesses.  The 
article  in  the  passage  would  fkvour  this  last  explanation. 

•  Hilarius  (called  the  Ambrosiast)  says  of  the  Montanists,  Etiam 
rasas  diaconas  ordinari  debere  vana  prsesumptione  defendunt.  But  the 
MoDtanists  adhered  in  this  case  simply  to  the  ancient  usage  of  the  church ; 
ftir,  as  to  the  rest,  they  too  followed  the  general  rule  which  excluded 
women  from  speaking  publicly  before  the  church. 

f  The  first  council  of  Orange  (Arausicanum,  in  the  year  441),  c.  26. 
Kaconse  omnimodis  non  ordinandse :  si  quee  jam  sunt,  benedictioni,  quse 
pi^lo  impenditur,  capita  submittant.  So,  too,  the  council  of  Epaon,  in 
the  year  517,  c.  27 ;  the  second  council  of  Orleans,  in  the  year  5S3,  c.  18. 
Yet  this  council  attributed  to  such  an  ordination  a  certain  validity ; 
nnce,  in  its  1 7th  canon,  it  directed  that  the  ordained  deaconesses  who 
liad  remarried  should  be  excluded  from  the  fellowship  of  the  church. 


224  INTERNAL  0B6ANIZATI0N. 

also,  by  private  instruction,  to  prepare  the  women  io  th 
try  for  baptism,  and  to  be  present  at  their  baptism.* 
considered  the  privilege  of  the  wives  of  bishqps,  who,  I 
mon  understanding,  separated  from  their  husbands  ai 
latter  had  bound  themselves  to  a  life  of  celibacy,  ' 
found  worthy,  they  might  be  consecrated  as  deacon 
and  thus  the  female  church-office  continued  to  be  prese 
the  East  down  into  the  twelfth  century. 

Without  any  change  in  the  grades  of  the  clerica 
hitherto  existing  to  the  church-offices  already  esta] 
many  new  ones,  of  greater  or  less  importance,  were 
which  had  been  rendered  necessary  in  part  by  the 
increase  of  ecclesiastical  business  in  large  towns.  . 
chief  wealth  of  the  churches  consisted  in  landed  estai 
the  care  of  improving  and  farming  these  estates  r 
much  labour  and  attention,  the  management  of  these  i 
was  specially  intrusted  to  one  of  the  clergy,  under  th< 
of  "  steward "  (otVovo/xoc),}  and  this  officer  obtained 
grees  the  supervision  generally  over  the  income  and  e 
tures  of  the  church.  This  method  of  procedure  was  no 
ever,  everywhere  followed  alike  ;  and,  for  this  reasi 
council  of  Chalcedon  directed,  in  its  25th  canon,  t 
bishops  should  appoint  such  "  stewards,"  who,  in 
under  their  authority  with  the  management  of  the 
revenues,  could  be  witnesses  of  the  manner  in  whic 
were  administered.  Thus  the  malappropriation  of  ti 
perty  of  the  churches  by  the  bishops,  as  well  as  the  su 
of  any  such  thing,  was  to  be  provided  against.  But,  ins 
as  the  management  of  property  and  the  protection  of  tl 
who  were  supported  by  the  church  might  sometimes  '. 
lawsuits ;  and  inasmuch  as  the  conducting  of  such  si 
not  seem  compatible  with  the  standing  of  the  clergy,  ai 

^  See  Pelagius  on  Komans  xvi.  1.  This  custom  most  havi 
also  in  other  places  besides  the  East ;  for  in  a  collection  of  Weri 
haps  North-African  church  ordmances,  which  are  wrongly  qi 
coming  from  a  fourth  council  of  Carthage,  a  canon  (c.  12)  occurs 
Tel  sanctimoniales,  qasi  ad  ministerium  baptizandarum  mulierun 
tur,  tarn  instructai  sint  ad  officium,  ut  possint  et  sano  serm(Mi> 
imperitas  et  rusticas  mulieres,  tempore,  quo  baptizandae  sunt, 
baptizatori  interrogate  respondeant  et  qualitcr  accepto  baptismat 

f  Concil.  Trull.  II.  691.  canon  48. 

J  Vid.  Basil.  Caisar.  ep.  285  and  237. 


8TEWABDS.  225 

wen  wanting,  moreover,  in  the  requisite  legal  knowledge ; 
Efce  expedient  was  finally  adopted  that  the  church,  like  other 
XMporations,  should  have,  for  the  management  of  its  affairs,  a 
lenon  skilled  in  the  law,  who  should  always  stand  prepared 
0  defend  its  rights.  This  individual  was  called  the  eK^tKog, 
efensor.* 

Again,  the  drawing  up  of  the  protocols,  or  reports,  of  the 
ublic  acts  of  the  church  (the  gesta  ecclesiastica),  which 
rere  prepared  with  great  exactness,  rendered  necessary  the 
ppcHntment  of  trust-worthy  secretaries,  familiar  with  short- 
tiid  writing,  out  of  the  body  of  the  clergy  (the  notarii,  ex- 
iptores).  The  choice  in  this  case,  as  in  that  of  the  prelectors, 
ns  made,  by  many  of  the  churches,  out  of  the  class  of  young 
an  who  were  to  be  trained  up  for  the  service  of  the  church.^ 

As  we  observed,  in  the  preceding  period  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
kn  charity  and  tenderness  was  shown,  j&om  the  first,  in  the 
arre  of  providing  for  the  sick,  and  in  the  attention  bestowed 
m  the  burial  of  the  dead.  Yet  perhaps  no  particular  church- 
ifiees  were,  till  now,  instituted  with  reference  to  these  objects ; 
t  had  been  a  voluntary  work  of  Christian  love.l  But,  as  in 
ins  period  general  hospitals  had  been  established  under  the 
lirection  of  the  churches,  it  became  necessary  that  particular 
idividuals  should  be  appointed  in  the  churches  to  take  care 
f  the  sick.    They  were  called  ParaholanL%    At  Alexandria, 

*  The  couucil  of  Carthage,  of  the  year  401,  resolved  to  petition  the 
mperor,  that  persons  might  be  assigned  to  the  churches,  with  the  appro- 
■txm  of  the  bishops,  who  should  be  prepared  to  defend  the  poor  against 
he  oppressions  of  the  rich.  See  canon  10,  in  the  Cod.  canon,  eccles. 
kfr.  e.  75 ;  the  council  of  Carthage,  in  the  year  407,  c.  3,  Cod.  Afr.  c.  97, 
it  dent  facultatem  defensores  constituendi  scholasticos  (advocates). 
SHiich  was  granted :  see  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XVI.  Tit.  II.  1. 88,  comp.  Possid. 
rit  Angostin.  c.  12.  Different  from  these  defensores  were  the  stewards 
lad  agents  of  the  bishops,  occurring  under  the  same  name  in  the  Roman 
ehorch.  These  latter  tiie  bishops  chose  from  their  clergy ;  and  they  are 
frequently  mentioned  in  the  letters  of  Gre^ry  the  Great. 

t  Epiphanius,  afterwards  bishop  of  Tidnum  (Pavia),  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, fliter  havine  been  prelector  when  eight  years  of  age,  was  admitted, 
tt  Kxm  as  he  had  made  some  proficiency  in  the  art  of  short-hand  writing, 

•mong  the  ezceptores  of  the  church.     See  his  life  by  Eunodius. 
\  In  respect  to  burial,  comp.  Cyprian's  behaviour  during  the  pestilence, 

'oLI.  8.  1. 
%  Tlm^mfiJjiaft,  from  the  Greek  itei^eifietxxirfieu  lyif  ^Mtiv,  ^pu^^mvt  since 

^lu»e  pe<^le,  in  cases  of  contagious  disease,  exposed  their  lives  to 

danger. 

VOL.  III.  O 


226  ROTRAL  BISHOPS. 

they  formed,' in  the  fifth  century,  a  distinct  order*  or 
which  might  legally  oongist  of  six  hundred  members, 
it  must  be  admitted,  the  same  abuse  seems  to  have  cr 
here  which  infected  so  many  of  the  institutions  of  the  oh 
in  tlie  principal  cities.     Wealthy  citizens,  who  of  ooun 
aloof  from  actual  attendance  on  the  sick,  obtained  admi 
into  this  guild,  merely  for  the  sake  of  enjoying  the  exem 
to  which  it  was  entitled ;  and  the  ambitious  prelates  of 
andria  sought,  by  the  multitude  <^  these  Parabolanif  U 
around  them  a  body  of  men  devoted  to  their  interests, 
they  could  employ  for  purposes  which  were  not  alwa; 
purest.   Hence  it  became  necessary  to  provide  by  civil  st 
against  the  abuses  to  which  this  institution  was  liable.* 

The  burial  of  the  dead  was  also  committed  to  the  cai 
particular  class  of  men,  retained  in  the  service  of  the  ( 
(the  icoTTiarat,  copiatae,  fossores).'|' 

In  respect  to  the  constitution  of  the  episcopal  dioces 
country  bishops  {;)^ktptiriaKtnroi)  (see  voL  i.),  who  pr 
had  their  origin  in  very  early  times,  first  appear  in  c 
with  the  city  bishops  in  the  fourth  century.  The  formei 
was  borne  by  such  as  presided  over  the  church  of  a  pri 
village,  and  to  whom  a  certain  number  of  village  chi 
which  had  their  own  presbyters  or  pastors,  were  subj< 
As  the  episcopal  system  connected  with  the  city  church 
at  so  early  a  period  become  already  matured,  this  i 
would  now,  as  a  matter  of  course,  be  extended  also 
relation  of  the  churches  subordinated  to  the  rural  oi 
bishops ;  and  these  latter  themselves  provoked  the  rest 
of  their  power  by  the  abuse  which  they  made  of  it.§  By 

♦  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XVI.  Tit  II.  I.  XLII.  et  XLIII. 

t  Vid.  Hieronymi,  ep.  17  ad  Innocent  Clorid,  quibus  id  offi 
cruentum,  linteo  cadaver  obvolvuDt  (of  one  who  had  been  execat 
Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XIII.    Tit  1. 1. 1,  and  1.  XVI.    Tit.  II.  1.  XV, 

X  Such  a  circle  of  village  churches  under  a  chor-bishop  was  < 
ffufAfM^ia.     Oi  9'^orrfia'ttU'ivoi  rns  ffufitfto^iaf.    Basil,  ep.  290,  and 
The  several  places  subordinate  to  the  episcopal  main  villag 
denominated  iy^o)  v^axtifjutvcif  or  v^crtkovvTss  r«  .    •    .  Basil.  < 
or  canonica  I.  canon  10. 

§  Basil  of  Csesarea  learned  that  his  chor-bishops  had  reod^ 
the  service  of  the  church  many  unworthy  men,  who  were  only 
to  escape  the  military  service  by  procuring  themselves  to  be  ord 
ecclesiastics.  For  this  reason  he  required  them  to  send  him  an  i 
list  of  all  the  ecclesiastics  in  their  (Uoceses^  and  directed  them  U 


SURAL  BISHOPS.  227 

the  fourth  century  it  was  settled  that  the  chor-bishops  should 
dy  have  power  to  nominate  and  ordain,  without  consulting 
le  city  bishop,  ecclesiastics  of  the  lower  grade.* 
The  council  of  Sardica,  and  the  council  of  Laodicea,  at 
ngth  forbade  wholly  the  appointment  of  chor-bishops.  The 
inner,  indeed,  prohibited  the  appointment  of  bishops  in  those 
mailer  towns  where  one  presbyter  would  suffice  as  presiding 
fficer  over  the  church.  The  reason  given  for  this  ordinance 
res  one  which  grew  out  of  a  pervCTted  hierarchical  pride 
Hoamely,  that  the  name  and  the  atUhority  of  the  fnshopt 
hndd  not  be  degraded,^  The  council  of  Laodicea  ordained, 
loieover,  that  in  place  of  the  country  bishops,  visitors 
[vtpio^evTat)  should  be  appointed ;  that  is,  probably, 
ittit  the  bishops  should  nominate  certain  presbyters  of  their 
Jwn  clergy  to  make  visitations  of  the  country  churches  in 
iuar  name;  and  thus,  in  respect  to  general  oversight  and 
rttier  business,  to  supply  the  place  of  the  chor-bishops.|    Yet, 

10  one  for  the  future  without  informing  and  consulting  him.     He 
aerfced,  however,  that  this  had  been  the  ancient  usage.    Basil,  ep.  54. 

*  See  the  thirteenth  canon  of  the  council  of  Ancyra.  Concil.  Antic- 
lien,  canon  9.  The  coondl  of  Laodicea  directed,  indeed,  in  its  fifty- 
evnth  canon,  that  they  should  have  power  to  do  nothing  without 
onsnlting  the  dty  Irishop. 

t  Concil.  Laocucen.  c.  57.    Concil.  Sardic.  c.  6. 

X  The  word  ftt^iohvav  is  employed  to  denote  those  tours  of  visitation 
rhich  the  bishops,  accompanied  by  a  number  of  clergy  and  laity,  made 
hroogh  the  several  parts  of  their  dioceses.  Athanas.  Apolog.  c.  Ariauos, 
.  74>  according  to  ed.  Patav.  T.  1.  p.  I.  f.  151,  a.  We  might  accordingly 
oppose  that  those  presbyters  whom  the  bishops  empowered,  in  their 
tead,  to  make  such  tours  of  visitation  in  particular  portions  of  their 
lioceses,  would  be  designated  with  the  name  ^t^nhvrau  Accordingly, 
aeh  occur  in  the  times  of  the  Dioclesian  persecution,  who,  during  the 
ibsence  of  the  captured  Egyptian  bishops,  were  invested  with  fiill 
mwers  to  make  the  visitations  in  their  dioceses.  The  bishops  say, 
Ifolti  euntes  et  redeuntes  ad  nos,  qui  poterant  visitare.  See  the  letter  of 
he  Egyptian  bishops  to  Miletias,  in  Maffei  Osservazioni  letterarie,  T. 
IL  p.  15.  At  the  same  time,  the  notion  of  a  person  travelling  about  as 
I  visitor,  is  by  no  means  necessarily  implied  in  the  term  ^tftohurm.  It 
aight  also  signiiy  simply  an  inspector,  who,  the  name  ouly  being 
iumged,  was  the  same  as  the  chor-bishop  before  him ;  for  itt^tahunv, 
n^Mltvrtif  are  terms  which  sometimes  occur  in  the  sense  to  attend  upon, 
o  heal,  physician.  See  the  Homily,  erroneously  ascribed  to  Athanasius, 
n  ocecnm,  s.  9  and  s.  12.  The  former  signification  is,  however,  the 
nore  probable  one.  The  predicate  Ttpiohurnf  is  given  to  a  presbyter : 
Sif yMf  it^tfffiuTi^es  xa,)  iti^toUvrtiet  in  the  acts  of  the  council  under  the 
Patriarch  Mennas,  at  Constantinople,  in  the  year  5dG,  actio  1. 


228  CITT  CHURCHES. 

chor-bishops  are  still  to  be  met  with,  at  later  periods,  in  thtf 
churches  of  Syria  and  in  the  West. 

But  the  practice  became  continually  more  general  of  sub- 
stituting, in  the  place  of  the  chor-bishops,  presbyters  placed 
by  the  city  bishops  over  the  country  churches,  which  pres- 
byters stood  in  a  relation  of  more  immediate  dependence  on  the 
latter.* 

In  respect  to  the  city  churches,  it  was  absolutely  necessaiy, 
it  is  true,  in  this  period,  that,  besides  the  old  episcopal  and 
principal  church,  other  churches  should  be  founded ;  in  which, 
since  all  could  not  be  conveniently  acconmiodated  with  room 
in  the  principal  church,  the  portions  of  the  community  dwell- 
ing at  a  distance  might  hold  their  assemblies  on  Sundays  and 
feast-days.  Still  it  was  by  no  means  as  yet  a  general  regula- 
tion that  in  the  cities,  as  in  the  country,  separate  filial  com- 
munities arose  under  the  supervision  of  the  episcopal  head- 
church.  £piphanius  cites  it  as  a  peculiarity  of  the  Alexan- 
drian church,  that  there,  on  account  of  the  wants  of  the 
inhabitants,  different  churches  under  particular  presbyters,  as 
parish  clergymen,  were  founded,  to  which  the  residents  in 
adjacent  streets  belonged .f  At  Constantinople,  each  church* 
had  also  its  own  particular  clergy.  The  founders  of  churches 
determined,  at  the  same  time,  the  number  of  clergy  for  them, 
and  the  proportional  amount  of  revenue.  The  three  filial 
churches  of  the  mother  church  at  Constantinople  formed  here 
the  only  exception ;  these  had  no  separate  body  of  clergy ; 
but  a  certain  number,  taken  interchangeably,  according  to  a 
certain  routine,  from  the  clerus  of  the  principal  church,  were 
sent  on  Sundays  and  feast-days  to  conduct  the  public  worship 
in  these  churches.  We  are  not  warranted,  however,  from 
this  fact,  to  determine  anything  as  to  the  regulations  of  the 

*  The  term  ^ra^Mxia  denoted  ori^nally  each  church :  'ExxXtifm  i 
ira^eiKou^et,  Euseb.  III.  28,  subsequently  the  greater  divisions  of  the 
church,  which  in  the  political  phraseology  were  denominated  luixtinnf 
Basil,  ep.  66 ;  so  also  a  smaller  ecclesiastical  whole,  the  city  church,  with 
its  filial  country  communities;  and  finally  the  country  communities  in 
particular,  Basil,  ep.  206  and  240.  Hence  the  Latin  Parcecia,  Parochia, 
Presbyter  regens  parochiam,  Sulpic.  Sever,  dial.  1.  I.  c.  8.  And  hence 
Parochus. 

f  HsBres.  29,  Arian.    *Oa'eii  i»»Xnflat  rns  xuSoXixns  ixxXn^tae  l»  'aXi|- 

9'PtffiunQ9i  3ia  rag    ixxXnrteifTixaf   ;^(ii«;    rUt   ciKtiri^nvj  irkfifiup  t»«mt< 


MSTAOPOLITAN  OONSTITUTION.  229 

rches  in  this  great  capital.*  At  Rome,  the  relation 
other  churches  to  the  episcopal  head-church  seems 
sen  very  nearly  like  the  relation  of  those  three  filial 
to  the  head-church  at  Constantinople ;  but  perhaps 
iifference,  that  though  all  the  clergy  were  incorpo- 
i  the  clerus  of  the  episcopal  head-church,  yet  they 
nduct  the  public  worship  in  the  other  churches  by 
t  its  own  particular  presbyter  was  constantly  assigned 
le  of  these  churches  (tituli).f  The  Roman  presbytera 
ucted  the  public  worship  in  the  filial  churches  had 
vcTj  the  right  of  consecrating  the  holy  supper ;  but 
ch  had  been  consecrated  by  the  bishop  was  sent  to 
i  the  principal  church :  this  they  simply  distributed^ 
f  symbol  serving  at  the  same  time  to  denote  the  un- 
^lesiastical  bond  between  them  and  the  bishop  of  the 
church. 

tropolitan  constitution,  which  we  saw  growing  up  ia 
ling  period,  became  in  this  more  generally  difiGsed 
perfectly  matured  and  consolidated.  On  the  on& 
he  metropolitans  was  conceded  the  superintendence 
scclesiastical  affairs  of  the  province  to  which  their 
\  belonged ;  it  was  decided  that  they  should  convoke 
blies  of  provincial  bishops,  and  preside  over  their 
ms;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  their  relation  to  the 
legium  of  the  provincial  bishops,  and  to  the  Indi- 
an. I.  T.  III.  Novell.  III.  Oh»  thiaT^ofrai  xkn^lx6V(,  m^i  iir 
T«ly  T^iA>y  nlxMV,  Kaivti  2t  iifi  rns  rX  kytoroirns  fitycLktis  IxxXif- 
-«il»9  xeci  Tovrtvs  &«teivTif  Ti^tvcffTovvrts  xttra  rivet  «rtfii»iof  Mmi 
kuroufyiets  ('  xifToTi  ircuuvrat, 

le  presbyters  of  the  filial  churches  at  Rome  did  not  quit  their 
itrith  the  clerus  of  the  principal  church,  seems  to  follow  from 
}f  the  Roman  bishop  Innocent,  in  his  letter  to  the  bishop 
>f  the  year  416,  s.  8,  Quarum  (ecclesiarum)  presbyteri,  quia 
opter  plebem  sibi  creditam,  nobiscum  convenire  non  possunt 
OS  to  be  understood  the  words, — sicuti  ester  is  diebus  nobis — 
liunt),  as  also  the  words — ut  se  a  nostra  communione,  maxime 
1  judicent  separatos.  But  that  the  presbyters  were  usually 
n  the  case  of  these  filial  churches,  to  minister  for  some  con- 
Dgth  of  time,  seems  evident  from  the  designation  of  a  church 
it  Rome  :  "Et^a  e/TA»r  i  <r^i0'/3u<rf«0f  ^vvnytv  (the  church  where 
istomed  to  conduct  the  worship).^    Athanas.  apolog.  c  Arian. 

&bove-cited  passages  from  the  letter  of  Innocent,  Fermentum 
'ectum  per  acolythos  accipiunt. 


230  MLTROPOUTAN  CONSTITUTION. 

viduals  composing  it,  were  also  more  strictly  defined,  so  as  to 
prevent  any  arbitrary  extension  of  their  power,  and  to  esta- 
blish on  a  secure  footing  the  independence  of  all  the  other 
bishops  in  the  exercise  of  their  functions.  For  this  reason, 
the  provincial  synods,  which  were  bound  to  assemble  twice  in. 
each  year,  as  the  highest  ecclesiastical  tribunal  for  the  whole 
province,  were  to  assist  the  metropolitans  in  determining  all 
questions  relating  to  the  general  afl^drs  of  the  church ;  and 
without  their  participation,  the  former  were  to  be  held  incooH 
petent  to  undertake  any  business  relating  to  these  matten  of 
general  concern.  Each  bishop  was  to  be  independent  in  the 
administration  of  his  own  particular  diocese,  although  he  could 
be  arraigned  before  the  tribunal  of  the  provincial  synods  ftr 
ecclesiastical  or  moral  delinquencies.  No  choice  of  a  bishop 
could  possess  validity  without  the  concurrence  of  the  metro- 
politan ;  he  was  to  conduct  the  ordination  ;  yet  not  alone,  hot 
with  the  assistance  of  at  least  two  other  bi^ops ;  and  all  the 
bishops  of  the  province  were  to  be  present  at  the  ordination  of 
the  metropolitan. 

We  noticed  already,  in  the  preceding  period,  that  the 
churches  in  some  of  the  larger  capital  towns  of  entire  great 
divisions  of  the  Roman  empire,  from  which  towns  also  Chris- 
tianity had  extended  itself  in  wider  circles,  had  attained  to  a 
certain  pre-eminence  and  peculiar  dignity  in  the  estimation  of 
Chi  istians.  This,  by  force  of  custom,  passed  over  also  into 
the  present  period ;  yet  without  any  distinct  expression  at  first 
of  the  views  of  the  church  on  thiat  point.  The  council  of 
Nice,  in  its  sixth  canon,  which,  by  its  vague,  indetermiDate 
language,  gave  occasion  for  many  disputes,  was  the  first  to 
attempt  to  settle  some  definite  rule  on  this  point,  particularly 
with  reference  to  the  Alexandrian  church ;  having  been  led 
to  do  this,  perhaps,  by  occasion  of  the  Meletian  controversies 
in  Egypt.  It  is  here  said :  "  Let  the  ancient  custom  which 
has  prevailed  in  Egypt,  Libya,  and  Pentapolis,  that  the 
bishop  of  Alexandria  should  have  authority  over  all  these 
places,  be  still  maintained,  since  this  is  the  custom  also  with 
the  Roman  bishop.  In  like  manner,  at  Antioch,  and  in  the 
other  provinces,  the  churches  shall  retain  their  ancient  pre- 
rogatives." *     Aflerwards  this  canon  goes  on  to  speak  of  the 


EXABCHB.      PATBIARCHS.  231 

BgfitiB  of  the  metropolitans-  generally  ;  from  which,  however, 
ve  are  not  to  infer  that  the  bishops  first  named  were  placed  in 
ife  same  class  with  all  the  other  metropolitans :  on  the  con- 
tniy,  they  are  cited  as  metropolitans  of  higher  rank,  though 
nothing  was  definitely  said  respecting  their  precise  relation  to 
the  other  metropolitans.  As  in  the  provinces  here  named, 
iHkich  were  to  be  subordinate  to  the  Alexandrian  church, 
Aere  were  also  particular  metropolitans,  it  is  plainly  evident 
tkit  scMne  higher  rank  must  have  been  intended,  in  tlib  case, 
tittQ  that  which  was  attributed  to  the  ordinary  metropolitan. 
The  whole  relation  having  been  in  the  first  place  of  political 
origin,  it  was  designated  at  first  by  a  name  borrowed  from  the 
pi^ticsal  administration  of  the  empire.  As  the  magistrates 
Aat  presided  over  the  political  administration  in  these  main 
divisions  of  the  Roman  empire  were  denominated  Exarchs 
(ISopxo*)?  ^^  appellation  was  transferred  also  to  those  who 
presided  over  the  ecclesiastical  government.*  Subsequently, 
eboice  was  made  of  the  more  ecclesiastical  name  oiPatriaTcJisj\ 
Originally,  it  was  the  churches  of  the  three  great  capital  cities 

aJ^  rSf  ks  rri  "Ptiftif  WtrtUv^  roura  o'tnmfiit  t^rn*  ifMuis  3»  »tu  nara  mv 
'AtTMx^iav  xtu  »  reus  SXXtuf  iiretfxt»ts,  rk  irgtr/Si/a  ftt^Uieti  rats 
hutktiwiudS' 

*  See  Condi.  Chalc.  canon  8  :  'O  ^^x*f  "^^  h»i»nru»s,  and  canon  16. 
Doubtless  many  eminent  bishops  were  then  still  reckoned  among  the 
cnnshs,  who  subsequently  were  not  recognized  as  patriarchs. 

f  This  name  occors  first  at  the  council  of  Constantinople  in  the  year 
flsi,  in  an  application  somewhat  different  from  that  which  it  afterwards 
iceerred.  When,  in  consequence  of  the  preceding  controversies  con- 
CRning  doctrines,  many  schisms  arose  in  the  Eastern  church,  and  it 
becune  necessary  to  correct  various  disorders,  it  was  determined,  for  the 
■ke  of  restoring  unanimity  and  order  iu  the  church,  to  appoint — ^besides 
Ifae  bishops  of  Alexandria,  Antioch,  and  Constantinople,  who  were 
ilready,  through  their  churches,  possessed  of  a  peculiar  precedence  of 
rank — certain  individual  bishops  that  had  acquired  this  distinction  by 
rirtne  of  their  personal  character;  and  these  were  intrusted  with  a 
Bipervisory  power  over  the  several  dioceses  and  provinces  of  the  Roman 
flOdpire — as  Asia  Minor,  Pontns,  and  Cappadocia — under  the  name  of 
Patriarchs.  In  particular  it  was  decided  that  none  but  such  as  stood 
m.  terms  of  church  fellowship  with  these  individuals  should  share  in  the 
ioamion  rites  of  the  Catholic  church  (see  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XVI.  Tit. 
X  L  III.  Socrat  hist.  V.  S).  To  this  arrangement,  and  the  quarrel 
imong  the  bishops  whieh  sprung  out  of  it,  Gregory  of  Nazianzus  alludes, 
u  his  Carmen  de  Episcopis,  V.  798,  where  he  says  to  the  bishops, 
i^MVf  fikf  •;^0m  *a}  rv^eivvi^as  \  vfuis,  *i^u  Mcii  ^r^vret  rowf  itfuv  ^oxw  | 
^ms^tirif  v/S^i^tf/rc,  irar^m^I»s  \  »Xn^ovffh'  xtffios  v/mv  ttKirat  fiiyag* 


232  PATBIABCBS. 

of  the  Roman  empire,  Rome,  Alexandria,  and  Antioch,  which 
held  this  prominent  rank.  In  these  churches,  which  wan 
regarded,  moreover,  as  ecclesise  apostolicse,  ecclesiastical  and 
political  considerations  were  conjoined.  But  to  these  there 
was  now  added  another  church,  which  had  in  its  fiiyour  neither 
antiquity  of  political  nor  of  ecclesiastical  dignity ;  while  manj 
churches  which  were  subordinated  to  it,  as,  for  instance,  the 
church  of  £phesus,  had  precedence  over  it,  as  by  ecclesiaBtical 
character,  so  by  its  political  relation  in  the  ancient  constitution 
of  the  Roman  empire.  When  the  city  of  Byzantium,  which 
in  earlier  times  was  itself  subordinate  to  the  metropolis  at 
Heraclea  in  Thrace,  became,  under  the  name  of  Constao* 
tinople,  the  seat  of  government  for  the  whole  of  the  Roman 
empire  in  the  East,  and  the  second  capital  of  the  entire  Roman 
world,  it  was  necessary  that  its  church  also  should  be  distin- 
guished as  the  church  of  the  second  imperial  residence,  and 
should  receive  the  rank  of  a  patriarchate.  Accordingly,  the 
second  ecumenical  council  of  Constantinople  directed  alreaik 
in  381,  in  its  second  canon,  that  the  bishop  of  Constantinople 
should  take  rank  next  after  the  Roman  bishop,  since  Coor 
Stan  tinople  was  New  Rome ;  *  and  the  council  of  ChalcedoB  \ 
(a.d.  451),  in  its  last  canon  but  one,  confirmed  this  decree 
with  the  following  noticeable  comparison  between  the  church 
of  the  ancient  and  that  of  the  new  Rome :  "  The  fcUAen 
rightly  conceded  that  rank  to  the  episcopcUe  of  ancient  JRome^ 
because  Home  was  the  mistress  city ;"  and  following  out  the 
same  principle,  the  fathers  of  this  council  of  Constantinople 
attributed  equal  rank  to  the  episcopate  of  the  new  Rome, 
because  they  rightly  judged  that  the  city  which  was  the  seat 
of  the  imperial  government  and  of  the  senate,  enjoyed  equal 
dignity  with  ancient  Rome,  had  the  same  precedence  in  eccle- 
siastical affairs,  and  must  take  the  second  place  after  the  latter; 
so  that  the  bishop  of  Constantinople  ought  to  ordain  the  metro- 
politans of  the  dioceses  of  Fontus,  i^sia  Minor,  and  Thrace, 
and  also  the  collective  bishops  of  the  barbarian  tribes  widiin 
those  dioceses.  Finally,  after  many  disputes  with  the  church 
of  Antioch,  there  was  added  still  the  fifth  patriarchate,  of  a 
church  distinguished  simply  in  a  spiritual  respect,  enjoying 

*  "E^^tiv  «r«  ^^iff^ilec  vyii    r'njbns    /Asra    rif    rtis  *P«^«j  i<rjr««fr«i*,  3w»  »• 


PATBIABCH6,  288 

Jly  not  even  tke  rank  of  a  metropolis,  the  patriarchate 
isalem.* 

division  of  the  whole  Romish  church  jurisdiction  into 
r  five  patriarchates,  intimately  connected  as  it  was,  in 
¥ith  the  political  constitution  of  the  Roman  empire, 
naturally  have  respect,  in  the  first  place,  to  those 
les  only  which  lay  within  the  bounds  of  the  Roman 
» ;  although  it  naturally  exerted  some  indirect  influence 
1  those  churches  without  the  empire,  which  had  been 
1  by  the  churches  within  it.  But  it  did  not  apply  in 
ne  sense,  and  in  the  same  way,  even  to  all  those  parts 
belonged  to  the  empire.  A  peculiar  spirit  of  freedom 
tushed,  from  the  earliest  times,  the  church  of  North 
«  The  church  at  Carthage  had,  it  is  true,  enjoyed  by 
i  particular  consideration  as  the  church  of  the  principid 
'  North  Africa ;  her  bishop  presided  in  all  the  general 
»lies  of  the  North-African  church  ;^  yet  he  by  no  means 
in  the  same  relation  to  the  bishops  of  the  other  five 
-African  churches,  as  the  patriarchs  did  to  the  bishops 
r  greater  church  dioceses ;  and  even  the  bishop  of  Rome 
»t  properly  possess  the  authority  of  a  patriarch  in  the 
-Afidcan  church.  This  church,  in  a  council  at  Hippo- 
(now  Bona,  in  the  district  of  Algiers),  a.d.  393,  pro- 
expressly  against  such  a  title  as  the  patriarchs  bore  in 
M)untries,  and  would  recognize  the  validity  of  no  other 
lian  that  of  bishop  of  the  first  church.;^ 
;e  the  patriarchal  constitution  formed  a  still  more  uni-» 
bond  of  unity  for  the  church  than  that  of  the  metro- 
1  bishops,  and  since  the  patriarchs  stood  related  to  the 
[K>litans  in  the  same  manner  as  the  latter  to  the  bishops, 
ossible  that,  by  this  means,  greater  unity  and  order  were 
uced  into  the  management  of  all  the  ecclesiastical  afi^drs 
i  Roman  church:  but  it  may  be  questioned  if  the 
rd  unity  which  was  brought  about  by  ^is  system  of 
aint,  proved  salutary  in  its  influence  on  the  church 
>pment.     The  bond  of  outward  constraint  could  never 

mciL  Chalc.  act.  VII. 

SDcilia  plenaria  Africse. 

inon  39  in  Cod.  Canon.  Eccles.  Afr.    Ut  primse  sedis  cpiscopus 

ipelletur  princeps  sacerdotum,  aut  summns  sacerdos  (f|«f%«f  rS^ 

ftut  aliqoid  huju&modi :  sed  tantum  primse  sedis  episcopus. 


i 


234         AUTHORITY,  or  THE  SOMAN  CHUBCH. 

rightly  adjiurt  itself  to  the  spirit  of  Christiuiity,  which 
requires  a  free  outward  development  of  the  indiriduality  of 
character  from  within.  The  history  of  the  church  in  the 
fifth  century,  in  particular,  teaches  how  oppressive  the  det- 
potism  of  the  patriarchs  at  Alexandria  and  at  Antioch  scm^ 
times  became.  And  if,  on  the  oue  hand,  four  principal  po^ 
tions  of  the  Romish  church  were  in  thb  manner  brought  intD 
closer  unity ;  yet,  on  the  other,  oppositions  so  much  the  wan 
violent  were  thereby  engendered  between  the  patriarchal 
churches  of  the  East, — the  sources  of  numberless  schisms  and 
disorders.  The  history  of  the  church  in  these  centuries  shovi 
liow  much  of  impure,  worldly  interest  became  difiixsed  in  tiw 
church,  through  the  eager  thirst  and  strife  of  the  bishops  fir 
precedence  of  rank ;  what  mischievous  disputes  sprang  oat  of 
the  mutual  jealousies  of  the  patriarchs, — particularly  the 
jealousies  of  the  patriarchs  of  Alexandria  towards  the  patri- 
archs of  Constantinople, — and  how  this  state  of  things  contii- 
buted  to  check  the  oppositions  of  the  difierent  tendencies  ef 
the  dogmatic  spirit  in  their  free  evolution,  and  to  intenninglB 
with  them  worldly  and  party  passions ;  so  that,  by  the  in^pan 
motives  which  maide  use  of  the  doctrinal  interest  as  a  pretext, 
this  interest  itself  was  smothered.  Very  justly  could  Gregoij 
of  Naziaiizus  say,  as  he  did  at  Constantinople  in  380,  what 
lamenting  over  the  evils  of  the  church,  which  he  had  learned 
from  his  own  experience :  '^  Would  to  heaven  there  were  no 
primacy,  no  eminence  of  place,  and  no  tyrannical  precedence 
of  rank ;  that  we  might  be  known  by  eminence  of  virtue  alone! 
But,  as  the  case  now  stands,  the  distinction  of  a  seat  at  the 
right  hand  or  the  left,  or  in  the  middle ;  at  a  higher  or  a  lower 
p  ace ;  of  going  before  or  aside  of  each  other,  has  given  risB 
to  many  disorders  among  us  to  no  salutary  purpose  whatever^ 
and  plunged  multitudes  in  ruin."  * 

In  proceeding  to  speak,  then,  of  the  Roman  bishop  in  pa^ 
ticular,  regard  must  be  had  to  two  different  points  of  view: 
the  Roman  bishop,  considered  as  one  of  those  four  patriarchi, 
in  his  relation  to  the  more  extended  church  jurisdiction,  which 
was  subordinate  to  the  Roman  church  in  especial ;  and  the 
Roman  bishop  in  his  relation  to  the  entire  church,  or  particur 
larly  to  that  of  the  West,  As  it  respects  the  first ; — ^it  is  to 
this,  the  above-cited  sixth  canon  of  the  Nicene  council  has 

*  Orat.  XXVIII.  f.  484. 


AUmOBITT  OF  THE  SOMAN  CHUBCH.  235 

rfiarence ;  and  probably  Rufinus*  gives,  in  this  case,  the  most 
ionect  explanation  of  the  matter,  when  he  expounds  this 
anon  as  implying  that  the  diocese  of  the  Roman  bishop  em- 
bnced  the  whole  circle  or  district  which  belonged  to  the  ad- 
■imistration  of  the  Ticarius  urbis  Bomee  (the  provincias  subur- 
iRcarias,  i.e.,  the  major  part  of  middle  Italy ;  all  lower  Italy, 
Scily,  Sardinia,  and  Gorsicat).  Add  to  this,  that  the  Roman 
dbrch  had  become  possessed,  by  donations  and  legacies,  of 
nny  landed  estates  lying  without  these  limits,  which  gave 
hat  opportunity  of  knitting  firmly  to  her  interests  many  influ- 
otial  connections.  Again,  as  the  whole  constitution  of  the 
church  in  the  Roman  empire  hung  closely  connected  with  the 
political  constitution,  the  Roman  church  necessarily  possessed 
ting  advantage  over  all  the  patriarchal  churches,  that  it  was 
the  church  of  the  ancient  capital  of  the  Roman  empire.  This 
^tico-ecclesiastical  point  of  view  was  always  made  of  promi- 
WBt  importance  by  the  Orientals,  as  is  shown  in  the  above- 
nted  decrees  of  the  Constantinopolitan  and  of  the  Chalcedonian 
BOimcils.  Theodoretus,  bishop  of  Cyprus,  says,  in  a  letter  in 
irfaich  he  solicited  the  aid  of  the  Roman  bishop,  Leo  the 
6reat,{  that  everything  conspired  to  give  the  church  of 
Bome  the  primacy :  those  advantages  which,  in  other  cases, 
were  found  distributed  among  difierent  churches,  and  whatever 
tfistinguishes  a  city,  either  in  a  political  or  in  a  spiritual  re- 
elect, were  here  conjoined ; — and  he  then  proceeds  to  notice 
ftnt  the  political  superiority.  Rome  was  the  lai^est,  the  most 
^lendid,  the  most  populous  city :  from  her  proceeded  the 
existing  magisterial  power ;  from  her  the  whole  empire  took 
ite  name.  Fuially,  the  great  distinction  of  the  Roman  church, 
in  respect  to  religion,  was,  that  she  had  been  honoured  by  the 
nufftyrdom  of  the  apostles  Peter  and  Paul,  and  possessed  their 
tombs,  which  were  objects  of  reverence  also  to  the  East.  § 

*  Rufin.  I.  5,  nt  sabarbicariaram  ecclesiamm  sollidtadinem  gerat. 

t  See  Notitia  Dimitatam  imperii  Romani,  sectio  45,  and  the  letter  of 
tka  council  of  Sardica  to  the  Roman  bishop  Julius,  s.  5.  Ut  per  tua 
ttripta  qui  in  Sicilia,  qui  in  Sardinia,  et  in  Italia,  sunt  fratres  nostri> 
ptB  acta  sunt  cognoscant 

X  Ep.  113. 

I  Tbeoduretns,  in  the  letter  above  referred  to,  expresses  himself  on 

tblB  TObject  as  follows,  *'Ex**  ^"^  '''"*  xoivMV  ^rari^Mv  xeu  "httetffxotXuv  rvif 
■Xqlucf,  nir^eu  xa}  Uavktv,  rag  fir,xas,  reuv  vrlvTuv  Tag  yj/v^ag  (purtl^ouTetg, 

So  an  iJliuninating  inflnence,  which  issued  from  their  proximity. 


the  church,  the  idea  had  there  sprung  up  of  an  unint 
outward  representation  of  this  unity,  necessarily  ex 
all  times ;  and  how  this  idea  had  been  transferred  tc 
thedra  Petri  in  the  Roman  church.  This  idea,  haode 
in  its  yet  vague  and  unsettled  sliape,  to  the  present  p 
connection  with  its  root,  the  Mse  and  grossly  concei 
Testament  view  of  the  Theocracy,  contains  within  it  tl 
germ  of  the  papacy,  which  needed  nothmg  more  than  t 
itself,  under  favourable  circumstances,  in  the  congenit 
the  spirit  of  an  age  in  which  the  confusion  of  the  outws 
with  the  inner  essence  became  continually  more  invetc 
We  saw  this  idea  carried  out  to  some  extent  in  the  pi 
period,  particularly  in  the  North- African  church : — i 
this  tendency  of  the  Christian  mind  prevailed  more  tl 
where  in  the  North- African  church ;  but  rather,  becai 
was  the  dogmatic  spirit  which  apprehended  this  tendei 
the  clearest  consciousness, — and  in  this  church  it^ 
again,  during  the  present  period,  with  peculiar  pron 
Optatus  of  Mileve,  who  wrote  in  the  last  half  of  the  fou 
tury,  represents  the  apostle  Peter  as  the  head  of  the  s 
— as  the  representative  of  the  unity  of  the  church 
the  apostolic  power,  who  had  received  the  keys  of  it 
dom  of  heaven  for  the  purpose  of  giving  them  to  the 
He  finds  it  worthy  of  remark,  that  Peter,  notwiths 
that  he  had  denied  Christ,  yet  continued  to  hold  this : 


peteb's  primact.  237 

Peter,  from  which  the  apostolic  powers  of  the  others  issued 
th,  as  it  were  like  so  many  different  streams ;  and,  in  like 
inner,  there  is  one  episcopal  power  in  the  Eoman  church, 
Hn  which  the  other  episcopal  powers  are  but  so  many  differ- 
t  streams.  How  much  might  be  derived  out  of  this  idea  so 
iprehended  ?  Far  more  than  the  individual  who  thus  ex- 
«Bed  himself  was  aware  of.  Augustin  would  be  led  by  his 
oioaghly  Christian  character ;  by  the  prevailing  tendency  in 
4  inner  life  and  in  his  system  of  faith  to  the  objectively  god- 
In ;  by  that  spirit  of  protestation  against  all  deification  of 
tn  which  actuated  him, — and  by  which  no  inconsiderable 
iposition  was,  in  the  next  succeeding  centuries,  actually  ex* 
ted  against  the  Catholic  element,  although,  in  the  case  of  Au- 
OBtin  himself,  this  religious  element  had  become  completely 
md  with  the  Catholic ;  by  all  these  inward  causes  Augustin 
Mild  be  led  to  more  correct  views  of  the  words  of  our  Lord  in 
eb  reference  to  Peter.  He  rightly  perceived  that  not  Peter, 
it  Christ  himself  is  the  Rock  on  which  the  church  has  been 
nnded ;  that  this  word  of  our  Lord,  therefore,  has  reference 
hr  to  that  faith  in  Christ  in  the  person  of  Peter,  through 
ijch  he  was  the  man  of  rock;  and  that  consequently  the 
lole  church,  which  rests  on  this  £dth,  is  represented  by 
ster.  ^^  He  was,"  says  Augustin,  ^'  in  this  case,  the  image 
the  whole  church,  which  in  the  present  world  is  shaken  by 
7en  trials,  as  by  floods  and  storms ;  and  yet  does  not  £dl, 
eaose  it  is  founded  on  the  rock  from  which  Peter  received 
I  name.  For  the  rock  is  not  so  called  after  Peter,  but  Peter 
80  called  after  the  rock ;  just  as  Christ  is  not  so  denominated 
ter  the  Christian,  but  the  Christian  after  Christ ;  for  it  is  on 
is  account  our  Lord  declares.  On  this  rock  I  will  found  my 
nreh,  because  Peter  had  said :  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son 

post  quod  negarit,  solam  veniam  consequeretur,  et  prsferri  apostolis. 
nuhas  meroit.  et  claves  regni  ccelorum  communicandas  cseteris,  solos 
9epit.  Thns  men  confounded  the  faith  which  Peter  expressed  in  the 
rit  of  all  believers,  and  to  which  alone  Christ's  words  referred,  with 
(person  of  Peter  as  a  man ;  instead  of  drawing  the  conclusion  from 
s  very  drcutkistance  of  Peter's  denial,  that  his  person  could,  as  little 
that  of  any  other  man,  furnish  the  rock  on  which  the  kingdom  of 
irist  was  to  be  built.  And  1.  II.  c.  2 :  In  urbe  Roma  a  Petro  primo 
thedram  episcopalcm  esse  collatam,  in  qua  sederit  omnium  apostolorum 
pat  Petms,  in  qua  una  cathedra  nnitas  ab  omnibus  servaretur,  ne  csteri 
oMoH  singolas  sibi  quisque  defenderent. 


i 


i 

i 

r 
J 

e 
I 

( 


I'  ■ 

ii 


I 


£uth  is  aD  inward  invisible  &ct — to  the  conception 
invisible  church;  and  consequently  this  passage  wo 
longer  have  retained  with  him  the  sense  which  meii 
fiedn  g^ve  it  in  reference  to  the  visible  church,  to  the  ep 
power,  and  to  the  relation  of  the  Roman  church  in  pai 
to  the  church  universal.  Having  once  been  led,  hower 
the  whole  course  of  his  religious  and  theological  trainin 
the  habit  of  confounding  together  the  visible  and  the  if 
church,  and  having  allowed  this  error  to  become  firmly 
in  his  doctrinal  system,  his  views  became  thereby  nan 
and  instead  of  holding  fast  by  the  purely  spiritual  com 
of  the  church  which  must  have  here  presented  itself  i 
he  involmitarily  substituted  for  it  the  conception  of  the 
church,  which  had  already  been  firmly  established 
system ;  and  so  it  may  have  happened  that  even  in  hi 
too,  with  the  notion  of  Peter  as  a  representative  of  the  < 
there  came  to  be  associated  the  idea  of  a  permanent  re 
tation  in  the  Boman  church^     But,  without  questi( 

*  lliis  exposition  is  certainly  correct  as  to  its  rairit,  bat  not 
according  to  the  letter ;  as  these  words  refer  literally  not  to  Chr 
self,  but  to  Peter  personally, — but  at  the  same  time  only  in  so  i 
had  borne  witness  of  this  faith. 

t  Ecclesia  non  cadit,  qnoniam  fundata  est  super  petram,  nndi 
nomen  accepit.  Non  enim  a  Petro  petra,  sed  Petms  a  petra ;  s 
Christus  a  Christiano.  sed  Christianus  a  Christo  vocatur.    Ide 


feteb's  pbimact.  239 

ipirit  of  ecclesiastical  freedom  among  the  North  Africans  was 
the  farthest  possible  removed,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  from 
any  inclination  to  concede  all  the  consequences  which  there 
was  a  disposition  already  in  the  Boman  church  to  derive  from 
these  notions. 

In  the  minds  of  the  Roman  bishops  we  perceive  the  idea 

beginning  already  to  develope  itself  more  clearly  and  distinctly, 

that  to  them,  as  the  successors  and  representatives  of  the 

aposHe  Peter t  belonged  the  sovereign  guidance  of  the  whole 

dhurch.     Although  it  may  be  observ^,  doubtless,  here  and 

there,   in  occasional  instances,   that  the  idea  of  universal 

dominion,  associated  with  Borne,  was  transferred   from  its 

political  meaning,  and   clothed   in  a  spiritual  dress;*   yet 

nothing  was  to  them  more  offensive  than  that  confusion  of 

the  political  and  spiritual  provinces  which  they  believed  they 

discovered,   whenever  their  higher  dignity  and    authority, 

instead  of  being  suffered  to  rest  on  £e  foundation  of  the 

fiyine  institution,   was  attempted  to  be  derived  from   the 

political  superiority  of  Rome.     The  delegates  of  the  Roman 

bishq),  Leo  the  Great,  protested  emphatically  against   the 

above-mentioned  decree  c^  the  council  of  Chalcedou,  which 

ipoBtoHca  sede  per  successiones  episcoporam.  This  book  he  wrote,  to 
K  rare,  before  he  had  come  to  deviate,  as  he  did  afterwards,  from  the 
ordinary  exposition  of  this  passage,  as  it  was  understood  at  Rome  and  in 
North  Africa;  but  the  &ct  is  explained  in  Uie  way  above  described,  that, 
\n  this  change  of  views  as  to  the  exegetical  meaning,  nothing  was 
(Ranged  in  Augustin's  doctrinal  system.  He  distinguishes,  iu  the  place 
aboTe  referred  to,  a  threefold  relation  of  Peter ; — the  same  person  being 
eonsidered  in  respect  to  his  individual  nature  as  a  man,  in  respect  to  his 
Mtnre  by  divine  grace  as  a  Christian,  and  at  the  same  time  as  abnndan- 
tbre  sratia  primus  apostolorum.  Those  words,  it  is  true,  ought  properly 
to  re&  to  the  second  relation  of  Peter,  inasmuch  as  he  represented  the 
perion  of  all  Christians ;  but  it  is  easy  to  see,  that,  in  substituting  the 
Botion  of  the  church  in  the  place  of  Christians,  he  might  be  led  to  con- 
fbond  the  second  and  the  third  together.  Thus  Peter  was  distinguished 
M  the  first  of-  the  aposties  by  the  very  circumstance  that  he  was  to  re- 
]>resent  the  visible  church  in  his  own  person,  and  that  its  development 
^as  to  proceed  forth  from  him.  And  what  was  considered  true  of  Peter, 
^  transferred  to  the  church  of  Rome. 

*  In  the  remarkable  work,  de  vocatione  gentium,  which  was  probably 
Written  by  I^eo  the  Great  while  he  was  still  a  deacon,  1.  II.  c.  6,  it  is 
nid:  Roma,  quse  tamen  per  apostolici  sacerdotii  principatum  amplior 
&cta  est  arce  religionis  quam  solio  potestatis ;  and  Leo  M.  p.  80 :  Civitas 
lacerdotalis  et  regia,  per  sacram  b.  Petri  sedem  caput  orbis  effecta,  latins 
pnesidens  religione  divina,  quam  dominatione  terrena. 


.. 


! 


240  AUTHORITT  OF  THE  KOMAK  CHimCH. 

on  this  ground  attributed  to  the  bishopric  of  Con8tantinoiib<  I 
the  same  rights  as  to  the  episcopate  of  Borne.  When  tldi 
decree  came  to  be  made  known  to  Leo,  he  despatched  yariow  ': 
letters  to  the  emperor,  to  Anatolius  the  patriarch  of  Ck)nftttK  a 
tinople,  and  to  the  whole  council,  in  which  he  strongly  de- 
clared his  disapprobation  of  what  he  pronounced  to  be  a 
usurpation.  In  the  letter  to  the  emperor  he  says,*  '^The 
case  is  quite  different  with  worldly  relations,  and  with  thon 
that  concern  the  things  of  God ;  a^  without  that  rock  wtiA 
our  Lord  has  wonderftilly  laid  as  the  foundation,  no  stmctun 
can  stand  firm.  Let  it  satisfy  Anatolius  that,  by  your  asrii^ 
ance.  and  by  my  ready  assent,!  he  has  attained  to  the  bishopriB 
of  so  g^reat  a  city.  Let  not  the  imperial  city  be  too  small  ftr 
him,  which  yet  he  cannot  convert  into  an  apostolic  see"  (sedei 
apostolica).  Leo  appealed  to  the  inviolable  authority  of  the 
Kicene  council :  he  alluded  very  probably  to  the  above-cited 
sixth  canon  of  that  council,  which  really  stood  in  necesseij 
contradiction  with  this  new  arrangement,  only  on  the  principle 
that  the  dignity  of  the  church  stood  wholly  independent  of 
political  relations.  He  contended  for  the  rights  of  the  Alex- 
andrian and  of  the  Antiochian  churches,  which  would  be  im- 
paired in  case  that  the  church  at  Constantinople  claimed  to 
itself  the  primacy  over  the  entire  East ;  he  contended  for  the 
rights  of  the  metropolitan  bishops,  which  would  be  jeopardized 
by  the  patriarchate  which  Anatolius  assumed  over  Asia  Minor, 
Pontus,  and  Thrace.  And  he  contrived,  in  the  end,  to  trace 
back  the  higher  inviolable  dignity  of  the  Alexandrian  and 
Antiochian  churches  also  to  the  apostle  Peter ;  of  the  former, 
namely,  to  Mark,  the  disciple  of  the  apostle  Peter ;  and  of  the 
second,  immediately  to  Peter  himself,  since  he  was  the  first  to 
preach  the  gospel  in  that  place.  Anatolius  having  appealed 
to  the  authority  of  the  second  ecumenical  council,  which  bad 
adjudged  this  rank  to  the  church  of  Constantinople,  Leo  re* 
plied,  that  no  assembly  of  bishops,  whether  large  or  small, 
could  decide  any  thing  against  the  authority  of  the  Nicene 

♦  Ep.  78. 

t  Which  refers  to  Leo's  approval  of  the  choice  of  Anatolim,  which 
had  been  sought  after  in  consequence  of  certain  disputes  as  to  matters  of 
doctrine.  The  Roman  bishops  well  understood,  however,  how  to  take 
advantage  of  every  occasion  which  could  be  interpreted  into  the  recogni- 
tion of  a  right  conceded  to  them. 


Peter's  prihact.  241 

nmcil.  He  speaks  on  this  occasion  with  singular  contempt  of 
eouncil  which  was  afterwards  generally  reckoned,  both  in 
e  Western  and  in  the  Eastern  church,  among  the  number  of 
nnnenieal  councils.  The  canon  drawn  up  by  that  body  he 
Bdaied  to  be  null  and  void ;  and  would  allow  it  no  validity, 
'  for  no  other  reason,  because  it  had  never  been  communicated 
>  the  Roman  church.* 

It  is  impossible  to  doubt  as  to  what  the  popes,  even  as  early 
1  the  fifth  century,  believed  themselves  to  be,  or  would  &xa 
iBf  in  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  church,  after  having  once 
krtened  to  the  language  which  they  themselves  hold  on  this- 
object.     When  a  North- African  council  at  Carthage  had 
mt  a  report  of  their  conclusions,  in  the  decision  of  a  contra* 
rerted  point  of  doctrine,  to  tlie  Roman  bishop  Innocent,  and 
demanded  his  assent  to  these  conclusions ;  in  his  answer  of  the 
year  417,  he  first  praised  them  because  they  had  considered 
fhemselves  bound  to  submit  the  matter  to  his  judgment,  since 
ttey  were  aware  what  was  due  to  the  apostolical  chair ;  since 
iH  who  occupied  this  seat  strove  to  follow  in  the  steps  of  that 
ipostle  from  whom  the  episcopal  dignity  itself,  and  the  entire 
nthority  of  this  name,  had  emanated.     With  good  right  had 
titey  held  sacred  the  institutions  of  the  Others,  who  had  de* 
tided,  not  according  to  human,  but  according  to  the  divine 
eouDsels,  that  whatever  was  transacted  in  provinces,  let  them 
k  ever  so  remote,  should  not  be  considered  as  ratified  until  it 
jad  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  apostolic  chair ;  so  that,  by 
it»  entire  authority,  every  just  decision  might  be  confirmed, 
«mI  the  other  churches  (as  the  pure  streams  should  be  distri- 
hited  firom  the  original,  undisturbed  source,  through  the  dif- 
ferent countries  of  the  whole  world)  "j"  might  learn  fi-om  this 

*  Ep.  80,  c  5.  Persuasioni  tuae  in  nullo  penitus  suffragatur  quorum- 
te  episcopomm  ante  sexaginta  (ut  jactas)  annos  facta  conscriptio,  nun- 
^oamque  a  pnedecessoribus  tuis  ad  apostolicse  sedis  transmissa  notitiam, 
nuab  initio  cuicaducse  dudumque  collapsoe  sera  nunc  et  inutilia  subjicere 
^damenta  voluisti.  It  hardly  answers  the  purpose  to  attempt,  as  has 
^  done,  to  make  out  that  the  authority  of  this  council  was  recognized 
^y  Leo,  and  thus  to  bring  the  latter  into  agreement  with  the  opinion 
^  the  later  Roman  church,  by  referring  this  disparaging  judgment  of 
Uo,  widiout  any  regard  to  the  natural  sense  of  the  passage,  simply  to 
tins  single  canon  of  the  council. 

t  The  thought  is  plainly  implied,  that  all  the  churches  could  hold 
&st  to  the  pure  doctrine  only  by  remaining  steadfast  in  their  connection 
with  the  Roman,  as  the  moflier  church — the  original,  in-vincible  foun- 

VOL.  III.  IX 


"242        AUTHOBITT  OF  THE  BOMAV  CHURCH. 

charch  what  they  had  to  ordain,  wham  tihej  had  to  prononnoe 
innocent,  and  whom  to  ic^t  aa  ineclaiinably  wrong.  LaD  ^. 
the  Great  declares,  in  a  letter  to  the  Illyrian  bishops,  in  whie^  ^ 
after  the  example  of  the  Roman  bishc^  Siridus,  he  names  the  } 
bishop  of  Thessalonica  the  representative  of  the  ^kmIoGb  r 
power  (vicarius  apostolicus),  ^^  that  on  him,  as  the  suoceMT  |^ 
of  the  apostle  Peter,  on  whom,  as  the  reward  of  his  fidth,  the  ? 
Lord  had  conferred  the  primacy  of  iqxMtolic  rank,  and  on  |> 
whom  he  had  firmly  grounded  the  universal  church,  na  r 
devolved  the  care  of  all  the  churches,  to  participate  in  wloA 
he  invited  his  colleagues,  the  other  bishops."  * 

The  fiivourable  situation  of  the  Boman  church  in  its  rdip 
tion  to  the  Eastern  churches,  brought  along  with  it  mtflj 
circumstances  which  might  be  turned  in  support  of  tin 
assumption  of  the  Rcxnan  bishops.  As  we  have  already  lad 
occasion  to  observe,  the  Eastern  church  stood  iu  &r  greats 
dependence  on  political  influences  than  the  Western;  aid 
what,  in  some  respects,  stood  connected  with  this  &ct,  then 
was  m  the  former  no  church  possessed  of  such  decided  exteml 
preponderance  as  the  Boman  church  enjoyed  in  relation  to  the 
West.  On  the  contrary,  the  oppositions  and  jealousies  among 
the  patriarchal  churches,  as  we  have  said,  were  the  source  of 
many  disputes ;  and  the  higher  authority  of  the  recently  pio- 
moted  Byzantine  church,  in  particular,  was,  at  all  times,  t 
thing  extremely  offensive  to  the  ancient  patriarchal  church  of 
Alexandria.  Again,  the  Western  church,  by  reason  of  Us 
predominant  Roman  spirit,  so  unbending  and  practical,  and 
by  reason  of  its  characteristic  life,  which  was  not  so  restleBsly 
iscientific,  preserved  greater  tranquillity  in  the  course  of  its 
doctrinal  development.  On  the  other  hand,  the  more  ex* 
citable  and  actively  scientific  spirit  of  the  Greeks,  the  specula- 
tive bent  of  mind,  the  manifold  spiritual  elements  which  hsste 
came  in  contact  with  each  other, — all  this  was  a  source  of 
manifold  disputes  in  the  Greek  church,  which,  through  the 

tain-head  of  the  transmitted,  divine  doctrine,  as  well  as  of  all  spiritul 
power. 

*  Quia  per  omues  ecclesias  cura  nostra  distenditar,  esigente  hoc  t 
nobis  J)oniino,  qui  apostolico)  dignitatis  beatissimo  apostolo  Petro  pnmtr 
turn  fidei  suae  remuneratione  commisit,  universalem  ecclesiam  in  fondt- 
mento  ipsius  soliditate  constituens,  necessitatem  sollicitudinig,  qoani 
habeinus,  cum  his,  qui  nobis  collegii,  caritate  juncti  sunt,  sodanun. 
Leo.  ep.  5,  ad  Metropolitanos  lUyr. 


CIBCUMffrAirCBB  FAYOIJB  ITS  INCREASE.  243 

llHtaAmg  interference  of  the  state,  were  still  further  pro- 
taptad,  and  at  the  nine  time  rendered  more  intricate  and  per- 
plexing.    Now,  while  in  the  Western  church  the  greatest 
tnnquillity  prevailed,  contrasted  with  this  agitated  condition 
trf  the  Greek  church,  it  came  about  that  the  contending  parties 
lif  the  latter,  and  especially  those  who  had  against  them  the 
dominant  power,  sought  to  obtain  on  their  side  the  voice  of 
Ihe  Western  church,  and  especially  of  the  Soman  as  the  most 
faflnential,  and  the  one  which  gave  the  tone  to  all  the  rest ; 
and  that  those  who  were  persecuted  by  the  dominant  party 
took  refuge  at  Bome.    Now,  as  it  was  of  the  utmost  import- 
anoe  to  such  persons  to  gain  in  their  favour  the  voice  of  the 
Bonuin  church,  so  this  interest  influenced  them  in  the  choice  of 
dnb  expressions ;  and  to  show  their  respect  for  the  Roman 
dunch,  they  made  use  of  such  expressions  as  they  would  not 
„  kftTe  employed  under  other  circumstances.     But  the  Roman 
Uihops,  who  were  already  in  the  habit  of  passing  judgment  on 
tQ  the  relations  of  the  church  from  that  once  established  and 
nttled  point  of  view  which  we  have  just  described,  found 
•ooindingly  in  such  expressions,  looking  as  they  did  at  nothing 
\ut  the  letter,  an  acknowledgment  of  that  point  of  view  with- 
mt  concerning  themselves  to  inquire  what  the  persons  who 
ved  these  expresnons  really  had  in  their  minds.   Protestations 
vadoubtedly  sometimes  followed  from  the  dominant  party  of 
^  £a8t,  when  the  decisions  of  the  Roman  bishops  ran  con- 
tniy  to  their  interests.     Thus,  for  example,  when  the  Roman 
baop  Julius,  instead  of  concurring  with  the  dominant  party 
tf  the  Eastern  church,  which  had  deposed  from  his  oflice  the 
^Mbop  Athanasius  of  Alexandria,  had  invited  both  parties  to 
preient  the  matter,  by  their  delegates,  before  an  assembly  of 
the  Western  church;  the  Eastern  bishops,  convened  at  An- 
tioeh,  declared  that  it  did  not  belong  to  him,  a  foreign  bishop, 
to  Bet  liimiipilf  up  as  a  judge  in  the  affidrs  of  the  Eastern 
church ;  that  every  synod  was  independent  in  its  decis>ions ; 
thtt  he,  as  bidiiop  of  a  larger  city,  was  no  more  than  the  other 
biahops ;  that  it  had,  in  truth,  just  as  little  entered  into  the 
ndiids  of  his  predecessors  to  interfere  in  the  interior  affairs  of 
the  Eastern  church,  to  set  themselves  up  as  judges  over  the 
decisions  of  the  Eastern  synods  in  the  Samosatenian  disputes, 
as  it  had  occurred  to  the  older  bishops  of  the  East  to  consti- 
tute themselves  judges  in  the  controversies  of  l\ve  "W^i^ts  ^&^ 


r 


portance  to  them.  To  this  class  belong  the  three  fol 
decrees  of  the  council  of  Sardica : t  "I.  When  a  bi 
condemned  in  a  matter,  and  he  believes  that  injustice  hi 
done  him,  the  synod  which  judged  him  shall  write 
Boman  bishop  Julius ;  so  that,  if  necessary,  the  investi 
may  be  renewed  by  the  bishops  of  the  neighbouring  pn 
and  he  himself  name  the  judges.  II.  That,  in  such  i 
no  other  person  shall  be  nominated  to  fill  the  place 
deposed  bishop  until  the  Roman  bishop  shall  have  re 
notice  of  it,  and  decided  on  the  point.  III.  If,  in  such  \ 
the  deposed  bishop  appeal  to  the  bishop  of  Rome,  ai 
latter  considers  a  new  investigation  to  be  advisable,  h 
commit  such  investigation  to  the  bishops  of  the  neighb 
province,  and  may  also  send  to  it  presbyters  out  of  th( 
of  his  clergy  to  assist  in  the  inquiry,"  Thus  this  syn 
doubt,  assigned  to  the  Roman  bishop  a  certain  supreme 
of  jurisdiction,  a  right  of  revision  in  the  affairs  of  the  bi 
But  it  admits  also  of  being  easily  explained  how  they  ca 
do  this.  Besides  the  Western  bishops,  those  only  fix) 
East  were  present  at  this  council  who  had  been  cond 
and  deposed  there  by  the  party  hostile  to  them.  It  w 
interest  of  the  dominant  party  in  this  council,  that  the 
ment  of  the  Eastern  synods  with  regard  to  Athanasius  i 
be  reversed,  and  the  latter 'restored  to  his  place  again, 
council  of  Sardica  was  intended,  it  is  true,  in  its  first  an 


CIBCUM8TAKCES  FAYOUB  ITS  INCREASE.  245 

I  this  church,  therefore,  they  could  not  be  forgotten.  So 
mch  the  more  easily  might  it  here  happen  that  these  canons, 
>  which  a  peculiar  importance  must  have  been  attached, 
roolci  be  unconsciously  confounded  and  given  out  for  the 
line  with  those  of  the  Nicene  council.  A  second  declaration, 
ij  which,  in  the  year  378  or  381,  a  certain  supreme  authority 
i  jurisdiction  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  was  conceded  to  the 
Etonian  bishop  Damasus,  proceeded,  however,  only  from  an 
Bmperor,  Gratian ;  and  had  reference  simply  to  a  schism 
irliich  had  arisen  in  Rome,  in  which  the  Roman  bishop  was 
particularly  interested.     (See,  below,  History  of  Schisms.) 

A  third  case  was  this :  The  bishop  Hilarius  of  Aries,  whose 
weal  in  discharging  the  duties  of  his  spiritual  office,  whose  life 
of  strict  piety  and  active  benevolence,  commanded  universal  re- 
nect,  had  proceeded,  oil  a  certain  occasion,  while  visiting  the 
dmrcbes  as  metropolitan  bishop  of  this  part  of  Gaul  (Gallia 
Varbonnensis) — ^ri'hich  authority  the  bishops  of  Aries  had  exer- 
dsed  for  a  long  time,  though  not  without  its  being  disputed, — 
to  depose  from  his  office,  with  the  consent  of  a  synod,  a  certain 
Wiop  by  the  name  of  Celidonius.*      The  latter,  however, 
ipplied  to  Rome,  and  succeeded  in  persuading  Leo  that  injus- 
tkie  had  been  done  him.     Hilarius  himself  hastened  to  Rome, 
Bid  openly  defended  his  cause.     But  when  he  perceived  that 
leo  was  idready  committed  on  the  side  of  Celidonius,  and  de- 
termined to  take  his  part,  he  judged  it  advisable  to  leave  Rome 
igain.    At  this  proceeding,  Leo  was  still  more  exasperated : 
Tt  iqipeared  to  him  a  very  punishable  act  of  disobedience,  that 
Biiarius  ventured  to  withdraw  himself  from  his  ecclesiastical 
'  jvisdiction.    He,  without  further  ado,  reinstated  Celidonius  in 
lu  office ;  though,  even  according  to  the  decrees  of  Sardica,  it 
an^ly  belonged  to  him  to  direct  that  a  new  investigation  of 
^  matter  should  be  instituted  in  the  province  itself,  by  the 
oa^bouring  bishops,  in  which  he  himself  might  participate  by 
Beans  of  his  delegates.     He  went  so  far  as  to  declare  that,  as 
tte  metropolitan  authority  had  been  conferred  by  his  prede- 
Mors  on  the  bishop  of  Aries  only  by  a  special  grant,  Hilarius 
hd  forfeited  this  power  by  his  abuse  of  it,  and  that  it  should 

*  It  is  disputed,  whether  this  bishop  belonged  to  the  metropolitan  dio- 
^  of  Hilarius,  or  whether  zeal  for  church  discipline,  or  passion,  led 
luia  to  the  wroug  step  of  stretching  his  power  beyond  the  limits  of  that 
^^iocese,  and  thus  to  violate  ecclesiastical  forms. 


246  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  BOMAJf  CHUBCH. 

again  be  transferred  to  the  bishop  of  Yienna:  His  unspizitaii 
mode  of  apprehending  the  idea  of  the  church,  and  the  hiesHi 
chical  arrogance  so  easily  combined  therewith,  carried  him  M 
such  an  extreme  that  he  could  say :  ^'  He  who  thinks  himwifi 
called  upon  to  dispute  the  primacy  of  the  apostle  Peter, 
find  himself  in  nowise  able  to  lessen  that  dignity ;  but, 
up  by  the  spirit  of  his  own  pride,  will  plunge  hiingfllf  h 
hell . "  *  Thus,  w  hoever  refused  to  subject  himself  to  the  uBurprfT 
spiritual  domination  of  a  man,  was  to  be  excluded  tram  tk# 
kingdom  of  heaven.  It  had  been  well  for  Leo,  if  he  iat 
applied  to  himself  what  he  addressed  to  the  Grallic  bishofBi 
<^  That  the  fellowship  of  the  church  was  not  to  be  fbrfoiddea  t» 
any  Christian  by  the  arbitrary  will  of  an  angry  priest ;  thatM 
soul  for  which  Christ  has  shed  his  blood,  must  not  be  ezolndal 
from  the  privilege  of  church  communion  on  account  of  soap 
insignificant  word.*'  The  young  emperor,  Yalentinian  IIIl^' 
who  was  at  the  beck  of  the  Roman  bishop,  issued  tfaerenpon-ll 
law  in  the  year  445,  in  which  he  says :  '^  The  primacy  of  te 
apostolic  seat  having  been  established  by  the  merit  of  the  i^ioitti 
Peter,  by  the  dignity  of  the  city  of  Rome,  and  by  the  anthofW 
of  a  holy  synod,|  no  pretended  power  shall  arrogate  to  itHB 
anything  against  the  authority  of  that  seat.  For  peace  can  bit 
universally  preserved  only  when  the  whole  church  acknowledge 
its  ruler."  Resistance  to  the  authority  of  the  Roman  faisho|^ 
is  declared  to  be  an  offence  against  the  Roman  state.  It  wf 
established  as  a  settled  ordinance  for  all  times,  that  as  well  ihB« 
Gallic  bishops,  as  the  bishops  of  all  the  other  provinces,  could; 
not  properly  undertake  anything  without  authority  iimn  Hm 
Pope  of  the  eternal  city  (Papa  urbis  etemie).  What  te 
authority  of  the  apostolic  seat  ordained,  should  be  law  for  ally 
so  that  every  bishop  who,  when  summoned  before  the  tribmal 
of  the  Roman  bishop,  declined  to  appear,  should  be  forced  t» 
do  so  by  the  governor  of  the  province. 

The  emperor,  by  whom  the  spiritual  and  the  political  poinls 
of  view  were  here  confounded  together,  willed  that  the  ekmnk 
of  his  empire,  just  as  the  latter  itself ^  should  have  one  acknov 
lodged  principal  head ;  but  the  whole  previous  constitution  ^i 
the  church  could  not  possibly  be  overthrown  by  an  imperial 
edict.     Hilarius  seems,  notwithstanding,  to  have  remained  in 

*  Vid.  ep.  9,  10. 

t  The  couQcil  of  Nice,  or  of  Sardica. 


GENERAL  COUNCILS.  247 

of  his  metropolitan  dignit  J ;  he  maintained  the  rights 
if  ills  church,  although  he  sought  by  a  respectful  deportment 
» beoonie  reconciled  with  the  Koman  bishop.* 
The  North- African  church,  which  most  distinctly  expressed 
IB  principle  from  which  these  consequences  were  derived,  was, 
nrever,  the  furthest  ronoved  from  conceding  these  latter. 
liat  spirit  of  ecclesiastical  freedom  which  had  already,  in  the 
of  Cyprian,  opposed  itself  to  the  Roman  assumptions,  was 
ever  predominant    As  cases  were  frequently  occurring 
k  which  members  of  the  clerical  body  that  had  been  deposed 
Bieconnt  of  their  offences,  took  refuge  with  the  Roman  church, 
■d  were  there  reoeiyed ;  the  councils  of  Carthage,  in  the  years 
107  and  418,  ordainedf  that  whoever  thereafter,  instead  of 
fpfflling  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  North- African  church  itself, 
■pealed  to  one  beyond  the  sea,  should  be  excluded  from  the 
UUowBhip  of  the  church.     Yet  it  subsequently  happened  that 
fc  deposed  presbyter,  Apiarius,  appealed  to  the  Roman  bishop 
Znriinus.     The  latter  was  disposed  to  bring  the  matter  before 
hk  tribunal ;  and  when  this  met  with  some  resistance,  he  fell 
Uk  for  support  on  the  recited  canons  of  the  council  of  Sar- 
iki ;  which,  however,  he  caused  to  be  presented  by  his  dele* 
ptes  at  the  council  of  Carthage  in  the  year  419,  as  Nicene 
Mniis.-   To  the  Africans  it  appeared  extremely  strange  that 
ftese  canons,  which  were  wholly  unknown  to  liiem,  were  no- 
itoe  to  be  found  in  their  collection  of  the  doings  of  the  Nicene 
WOBciL    They  resolved  that  they  would  assume  them  for  the 
inwait  to  be  valid ;  yet  cause  inquiry  to  be  made  by  consulting 
tbe  genuine  ancient  manuscripts  of  the  doings  of  the  Nicene 
ooDusil,  preserved  in  the  Eastern  churches  at  Constantinople, 
Aloandria,  and  Antioch,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining 
viether  they  really  belonged  to  them.     This  they  gave  notice 
of  to  the  Roman  bishop  Bonifacius,  who  had  meanwhile  suc- 
ceeded Zosimus.     They  invited  him  also  to  make  inquiries  of 

*  It  is  to  be  regretted,  that  there  are  no  remaimnff  records  of  these 
tVttsaedoDS  between  Hilary  and  Leo.  The  words  which  the  city  pne- 
fte^(prsfecto8  nrbis,)  Anxiliaris,  who  songht  to  make  himself  mediator, 
imaed  to  Hilary,  are  worthy  of  notice :  Impatienter  ferunt  homines, 
SBeloquamnr,  quomodo  nobis  cousdi  tiimus.  A  ores  prsterea  Boma- 
ooram  qaadam  teneritudine  plus  trahuntur,  in  quam  si  se  Sanctitas  tua 
^ttat,  plorimum  tu  nihil  perditurns  acquiris. 

T  Cod.  Afr.  c  28. 


versy  and  that  concerning  the  edict  de  tribus  capUuHs, 
often  the  Africans  maintaining  their  doctrinal  princip] 
when  in  contradiction  with  the  Roman  ;  and  we  see, 
the  Roman  bishop  Zosimus  finally  yielding  to  the  ded 
the  Africans. 

We  must  accordingly  hold  fast  to  thb  as  the  resuli 
church  development  of  this  period, — that  the  idea  of 
temal  church  theocracy  under  one  sovereign  head  was 
present  in  the  minds  of  the  Roman  bishops ;  and  alt] 
spirit  of  ecclesiastical  independence,  which  flowed  fi: 
earliest  Christian  antiquity,  still  presented  many  obstadi 
realization  of  this  idea,  and  the  Eastern  church  ever  n 
disinclined  to  acknowledge  it,  yet  important  germs  of 
realization  were  already  existing  in  the  Western  di 
which,  under  favourable  circumstances,  in  later  times 
doubtless  be  taken  advantage  of. 

To  represent  the  outward  unity  of  the  church,  anol 
portant  institution  came  in  during  this  period,  which,  it 
originated  also  in  that  general,  fundamental  idea  of  the  i 
visible  church ;  yet,  if  the  Christian  doctrine  had  e 
evolved  itself  into  precisely  this  form  of  a  universal  mo 
could  not  so  easily  have  shaped  itself  in  the  way  it  di 
mean  the  general  assemblies  of  the  churchy  concilia  unii 
tntvohoi  oiKovfuy'iKai  (by  oUovfiivri  was  understood,  on 


GENERAL  COUNCILS.  249 

bis  was  soon  transferred,  generally,  to  the  entire  church  uni- 
'ersal.  The  provuicial  synods  then  being  customarily  regarded 
18  organs  of  the  Holy  Spirit  for  the  guidance  of  the  churches 
if  a  certain  district,  so  now  this  was  applied  to  the  relation  of 
miversal  councils  to  the  whole  church.  These  universal  coim- 
als  had  a  twofold  aim,  to  decide  disputes  concerning  doctrines, 
ind  to  detarmine  the  constitution,  the  forms  of  worship,  and 
the  discipline  of  the  church ;  to  which  latter  the  canons  of  these 
iflsanblies  had  reference. 

It  was  not  possible,  at  these  councils,  to  arrive  at  a  calm 

Dnderstanding  of  disputed  points  of  doctrine.     Each  party  was 

fettered  to  its  system  already  made  out,  and  judged  everything 

by  it  without  entering  at  all  into  the  examination  of  the 

BOtkms  entertained  by  others.   It  was  a  strife  of  party  passions ; 

nd  the  result  of  the  proceedings  was  already  predetermined 

br  the  relation  of  the  contending  parties  to  the  dominant  power. 

Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  who  expressed  the  result  of  a  large  and 

nrioos  experience,  gives  the  following  remarkable  account 

•f  the  mode  of  proceeding  at  such  assemblies  :* — ^^  I  am  so 

OQostituted,"  he  writes,  '^that,  to  speak  the  truth,  I  dread 

every  assembly  of  Bishops  ;  for  I  have  never  yet  seen  a  good 

€Dd  of  any  one, — ^never  been  at  a  synod  which  did  more  for  the 

wqipression  than  it  did  for  the  increase  of  evils ;  for  an  inde- 

icribable  thirst  for  contention  and  for  rule  prevails  in  them, 

nd  a  man  will  be  fiur  more  likely  to  draw  upon  himself  the 

tq^Toach  of  wishing  to  set  himself  up  as  a  judge  of  other  men's 

^^edness,  than  he  will  be  to  succeed  in  any  attempts  of  his 

to  remove  it." 

Tet,  despite  of  the  many  impure  human  motives  which 
tttruded  themselves  into  these  councils,  men  r^arded  them 
^  the  organs  by  which  the  Holy  Ghost  guided  the  progressive 
iQinrement  of  the  church, — as  the  voice  by  which  the  Holy 
Crhost  determined  what  had  before  been  doubtful,  and  to  which 
every  man  was  bound,  therefore,  to  submit  his  own  fiillible, 
^objective  judgment.  The  theory  of  Augustin  on  this  subject 
^  that  'Hhe  decision  of  controverted  questions  does  not 
proceed  in  the  Urst  instance  and  directly  from  the  transactions 
of  these  councils;  but  that  these  transactions,  rather,  are  pre- 
peied  by  the  theological  investigations  which  have  preceded 
tbem.   The  decisions  of  councils  simply  give  the  expression  of 

*  Ep.  ad  Procop.  55, 


250  GENERAL  C0UNG1I& 

public  authority  to  the  result  at  which  the  church,  in  its  deve- 
lopment thus  rar,  has  arrived.     Hence  it  may  happen  that  a 
controverted  matter,  at  a  particular  time,  cannot  as  yet  be 
decided,  even  by  a  general  council ;  because  the  previous  in- 
vestigations have  not  as  yet  sufficiently  prepared  the  way  £at 
a  definitive,  a  settled  result."   According  to  this  theory,  genenl 
coimcils  should  express  and  settle  firmly  the  universal  Christisifc 
consciousness,  up  to  that  point  of  its  development  which,  under 
the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  is  the  actuating  principle: 
of  the  whole  life  of  the  church,  it  has  reached  at  a  certain 
period  of  time.     The  universal  Christian  consciousness  is  thw 
merely  fixed  in  a  determinate  expression, — ^the  sum  and  con- 
tents of  Christian  truth  more  clearly  and  distinctly  evolved  is 
opposition  to  the  latest  errors.     Hence  an  enlightened  chnrdb- 
teacher  may,  at  a  particular  period,  be  in  error  on  some  one* 
important  point,  without  therefore  falling  into  heresy ;  sinx^ 
in  respect  to  this  one  point,  there  may  as  yet  have  been  no* 
general  decision  of  the  Christian  consciousness.    But  when,  bf 
continual  investigation,  the  evolution  of  the  universal  ChrisdaU' 
consciousness  has  reached  this  point,  and  expressed  itself  ot- 
the  matter  in  question  through  the  voice  of  a  general  council, 
a  proper  humility  requires  it  of  the  individual,  that  he  shoald' 
submit  his  own  subjective  judgment  to  that  general  decieBon 
guided  by  the  Holy  Ghost.     It  is  only  the  pride  of  self-wiD 
that  revolts  against  lawful  authority ;  it  is,  in  truth^  a  principto- 
grounded  in  nature,  that  the  part  should  subordinate  itself  to 
the  whole.     According  to  the  theory  of  Augustin,  however, 
the   earlier   councils   might   be   corrected  and  improved  by- 
later  ones ;  since  each  council  gives  only  that  decision  which 
answers  to  the  stage  of  development  which  the  church  has 
arrived  at  in  each  several  period.     Yet  it  may  be  a  question 
whether  Augustin  really  supposed  that  a  council  could  expran 
positive  errors ;  or  whether  his  opinion  was  simply  like  that 
soon  afterwards  expressed  by  Yincentius  of  Sirinum,  in  his 
Commonitorium,  a  work  written  somewhere  about  the  year 
434 ;  namely,  that  a  later  council  should  correct  the  dedaons 
of  the  earlier,  only  so  &r  as  to  define  what  the  other  had  left 
undetermined,  just  as  the  more  advanced  devel(^ment  of  the' 
church  might  require  in  its  opposition  to  new  forms  of  error.* 

*  Augustin.  de  baptismo  contra  Donatistas,  1.  11.  c.  3.    Ipsa  plenam' 
coDcilia  S3dpe  priora  posterioribus  emendari,  cum  aliquo  experimento 


QENERAL  COUNCILS.  251 

Thus  the  freedom  of  the  spiritual  evolution  of  Christianity 
among  mankind  was  to  £nd  an  impaasable  barrier  in  the  de- 
cisive authority  of  general  councils.*  We  see  here,  fully  de- 
veloped already,  the  germs  of  that  system  of  restriction  which 
grew  out  of  the  habit  of  confounding  together  the  visible  and 
the  invisible  church,  and  which  reigned  supreme,  until  by  the 
imtk  of  Grod  in  the  Reformation,  was  produced  that  free  life 
of  the  spirit  which  has  its  ground  in  the  essence  of  the  gospel, 
and  uniformly  accompanies  it  where  it  is  preached  in  its 
parity. 

The  essence  of  Christianity  struggles  against  the  demand  of 
a  blind  submission  to  human  authority ;  it  requires  no  other 
obedience  than  that  which  answers  to  the  true  nature  and 
ifignity  of  man's  spirit ;  and  it  stands  in  no  sort  of  contradiction 
With  true  freedom,  but  rather  is  the  only  thing  that  can  pro- 
duce it.  All  that  it  requires  is,  that  man's  spirit,  having 
teoome  conscious  of  its  true  wants,  should  submit  to  the  teach- 
ings of  God's  eternal  ^irit,  who  alone  can  communicate  that 
vfaieh  will  satisfy  all  its  longings.  The  spirit  speaks,  through 
tte  divine  word,  to  each  individual,  in  the  inner  recesses  of  £uus 
keart,  according  to  the  measure  of  his  recipiency ;  and  it  is 
only  what  each  one  knows  from  this  source  and  through  this 
vevelation,  in  the  inner  recesses  of  his  heart,  that  he  can  vitally 
beheve,  and  from  his  inmost  consciousness  acknowledge  to  be 
' tee.  Faeundus  of  Hermiane  says :  t ' '  To  his  priests,  assembled 
in  his  name,  Christ  can  never  be  wanting ;  because  he,  being 
iknighty  truth,  can  in  no  way  prove  false  to  his  promise." 
But  the  condition  here  presupposed,  without  which  the  fulfil^ 
ment  of  that  promise  could  not  be  realized,  was  in  &ct 
fKcisely  the  tlnng  ao  often  wanting  in  these  assemblies.    Al- 

mnni  speritnr  quod  dausim  enX  et  cognoscitur  quod  latebat,  sine  uHo 
typlko  sacrilegiB  superbisB,  flue  alia  inflata  cervice  arrogantifle,  sine  ulla 
eontentioae  livids  invidise,  com  sancta  humilitate,  cum  pace  catholica» 
OQm  caritate  Christiana.  But  where  did  ever  such  a  spirit  prevail  in  a 
QMm^?  Compare  with  this  the  above-cited  words  of  Uregory  of 
Kazianz. 

*  Thus  the  exoeUent  bashop  Facnndus  of  Hermiane— a  man  wko  bhows 
great  freedom  within  certain  limits— says,  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
eentnry  (defens.  trinm  capitolorum,  1.  V.  c.  5) :  Neque  enim  est  alia 
eondlionim  fhciendorum  utilitas,  quam  ut  quod  intellectu  non  capimus, 
ex  anctoritate  credamns. 

t  Jb  the  Ylllw  voL  of  his  work,  Deftns.  triom  capitnlomm,  o.  7. 


252  UENERAL  COUNCILS. 

most  anything  else  might,  in  many  cases,  be  affirmed  of  them, 
than  that  they  were  assembled  in  the  name  of  Christ.  What 
warrant  had  men  to  believe  that  they  who  had  not  brousht 
with  them  the  temper  which  was  required  in  order  to  hear  the 
voice  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  ought  to  be  considered  as  its  organs 
for  the  rest  of  the  church  ?  In  things  spiritual  and  divine,  it 
cannot  hold  good  that  the  individual  must  subordinate  himsdf 
to  the  whole ;  for  the  individual  spirit  may,  in  truth,  by  its 
freedom,  and  by  the  purity  of  its  will,  outrun,  in  its  own  course 
of  development,  the  whole  multitude  chained  to  that  spirit  of 
the  age  which  is  not  the  spirit  of  truth.  The  individual  may 
have  fought  his  way  to  freedom,  where  the  multitude  are  in 
bondage.  Errors  are  often  propagated  without  design,  when 
they  have  made  good  their  dominion  over  the  consciousness  of 
men.  Individuals  who  surrender  themselves  to  the  spirit  of 
truth,  which  speaks  not  barely  to  the  masses,  but  also  to  each 
individual  according  to  the  recipient  temper  of  his  mind,  attain 
by  clear  consciousness  to  the  separation  of  the  true  frcnn  the 
false ;  and  how  could  they  possibly  be  under  any  obligatum 
to  subject  themselves  to  the  dominant  spirit  of  untruth  ?  Bat 
even  in  case  the  spirit  of  truth  had  been  spoken  by  a  general 
council,  still  this  expression  could  be  binding  only  on  him 
who,  by  the  same  spirit  of  truth,  had  recognized  the  same  as 
true  from  the  divine  word.  Thus  there  was  substituted  here 
a  cringing  to  human  authority  and  consequent  servility  of 
spirit,  in  place  of  that  true  humility  which  gives  all  the  honour 
to  Grod,  the  Spirit  of  absolute  truth  alone;  and  which,  there- 
fore, in  freeing  men  frt)m  bondage  to  human  opinions,  makes 
them  free  indeed. 

As  the  decisions  of  general  councils  had  respect  not  only  to 
matters  of  doctrine,  but  also  to,  matters  connected  with  the 
outward  life  of  the  church,  to  the  church  constitution,  and  to 
church  usages,  another  evil  ensued ;  namely,  that  by  means 
of  them  the  forms  of  training,  which  by  their  own  nature  are 
multiform  and  variable,  were  subjected  to  an  unchangeable  law 
of  dead  uniformity. 

Again,  since  the  general  councils  constituted  a  legislative 
tribunal  for  the  entire  church,  the  material  was  now  at  hand 
for  a  universal  ecclesiastical  legislation.  The  Roman  abbot, 
Dionysius  Exiguus,  presented  to  the  Western  church,  in  the 
early  times  of  the  sixth  century,  a  book  of  ecclesiastical  laws ; 


CHUBCH  DISCIFLINE.  258 

conosting  of  a  collection  which  he  had  made  from  the  written 
decisions  (decretales)  of  the  Roman  bishops — in  answer  to 
ecclesiastical  questions  addressed  to  them — from  the  time  of 
Sricius,  or  from  the  year  386  and  onward,  and  from  decrees 
(canones)  of  the  general,  and  of  the  more  important  provincial 
coancils.  This  work  soon  obtained  paramount  authority ;  and 
it  had  an  important  influence  in  shaping  out  the  papal  monarchy 
in  the  Western  church,  that  he  had  assigned  so  prominent  a 
place  to  the  papal  decrees, 

11.    The  Discipline  op  the  Church. 

The  principle  was  transmitted  from  the  preceding  to  the 
present  times,  that  those  who  had  by  gross  transgressions 
violated  their  baptismal  vows,  should  be  excluded  from  the 
fellowship  of  the  church  and  fix)m  participating  in  the  com- 
Buinion;  and  not  till  they  had  given  satisfactory  proo&  of 
repentance  were  they  to  receive  absolution  from  the  bishop, 
ani  to  be  admitted  again  to  church  fellowship.  During  the 
Novatian  controversies  of  the  preceding  period,  men  had 
agreed  on  certain  common  principles  respecting  the  nature  of 
penitence.  It  was  agreed  that  to  no  one,  of  whatever  offence 
hb  might  have  been  guilty,  provided  that  by  his  conduct  thus 
&r  he  had  shown  the  marks  of  sincere  repentance,  should  be 
lefused  the  communion  in  the  hour  of  death.*  Gradually  the 
penitents  came  to  be  distributed  into  different  classes,  after  the 
same  manner  as  the  catechumens,  according  to  their  different 
degrees  of  fitness  for  being  restored  back  to  the  fellowship  of 
the  church.  The  first  class  was  formed  of  those  who  were  not 
yet  allowed  to  enter  the  church.*]'  They  were  boimd  to  stand 
without  the  doors  of  the  church,  and  to  implore  with  weeping 
the  intercession  of  the  members  of  the  community  as  they 
entered ;  at  the  same  time  prostrating  themselves  to  the  earth, 
hence  they  were  called  irpocrKXaiovrec*  Next  followed  those 
who  were  permitted  to  listen  with  all  the  imbaptized  in  the 
outer  area  of  the  church  (the  vdpdrj^y  the  ferula)  to  the  sermon 
and  to  the  reading  of  the  scriptures.     Then  followed  those  in 

♦  See  CoDcil.  Nic.  canon  13.  If  such  a  person  subsequently  recovered, 
he  was  to  be  placed  back  once  more  in  the  fourth  class  of  pcnnitentes. 

t  *Aflr«/^7«/AiMi  rns  \KKXn<ri»t  they  are  called,  in  Gregory  Nyssen. 
epigtola  canonica  ad  Letojum. 


254 


PEVANCE. 


||    ; 


|\ 


whose  behalf  a  s|>ecial  prayer  of  the  church  was  offier 
-which  occasion  they  fell  on  their  knees,  and  hence  wen 
vnoTTiirToyTic,  substrati.  Finally,  those  who  were  alio 
be  present  at  all  the  prayers  and  transactions  of  the  i 
font  yet  could  not  themselves  bring  a  gift  to  the  altar, 
ticipate  in  the  communion  (x^'/'^C  vpofrfopac  Koiviitvov^i 
irfio<nv\wv.* 

Entering  undar  obligations  to  do  penance  £or  particu 
within  a  determinate  time,  was  a  jMtu^ce  which  had 
istence  in  this  period.  The  only  cases  which  could  occu 
either  tha,t  the  bishop  excluded  from  chimsh  fellowshi] 
whose  transgressions  had  become  sufficiently  notoriov 
granted  to  them  the  privilege  of  readmission  only  on  co: 
of  subjecting  themselves  to  a  church  penance  fixed  u' 
himself  in  some  proportion  to  their  crime ;  or  else  tha 
voluntarily  made  confession  of  their  sins  to  the  bishqp, 
act  was  considered  in  itself  a  token  of  repoitance,  and  tb 
had  some  influence  in  mitigating  the  penance  of  the  chv 

Still,  in  carrying  out  the  principles  which  had  been 
lished  on  the  subject  of  admission  to  the  communion  i 
penance,  the  church,  since  it  no  longer  constituted,  as 
preceding  period,  a  body  subsisting  by  itself  and  indep 
of  all  others,  found  many  difficulties  which  could  not  c 
the  foregoing  period,  at  least  in  the  same  d^ree-J  Ca 
curred  in  which  the  bishop,  by  rigidly  carrying  out 
principles,  must  necessarily  fear  that  a  schism  would  b 
duced  in  the  church.  The  Donatists,  of  whom  we  shall  pn 
speak,  maintained  that,  in  such  cases,  in  order  to  kei 

*  Basil,  ep.  canonica,  III.  Ambros.  de  pcenitentia,  1.  II.  c.  10. 

t  It  is  uncertain  what  is  meant  in  the  seventeenth  canon 
council  of  Ancyra  by  tls  rm  x"l^'*Z*/'^'^*'^s  tv;^ifffieu — whether  it 
those  among  the  first  class  of  catechumens  without  the  doors 


255 

b  pure,  no  regard  should  be  paid  to  consequenoes ; 
igh  even  their  own  bishops,  it  was  alleged,  could  not 
s  proceed  in  exact  aocordanoe  with  this  principle.  Others, 
i  contnuy — as,  for  instance,  Augustin — maintained  that 
faoold  be  content  nmply  to  rebuke  many  of  the  evils 
.  were  widely  spread.  Much,  they  said,  must  be  reserved 
'  judgment  of  Grod.  At  the  same  time  it  was  necessary 
leeed  with  wisdom  and  patience,  so  as  to  avoid  a  worse 
md  not  to  root  up  the  good  fruit  with  the  tares.*  The 
1  difficulty  was,  to  carry  out  these  principles  in  their 
sition  to  the  great  men  of  this  world,  who,  even  in  the 
h,  could  not  be  forgetful  of  their  worldly  rank.  It  was 
where  an  acknowledged  principle  that  here,  before  the 
lal  of  God's  word,  no  respect  to  persons  ought  to  be  ad- 
i.  Chrysostom,  in  requiring  the  deacons  to  debar  the 
rtliy  from  participating  in  the  Lord's  suppor,  says: 
Nigh  the  commander  of  an  army  or  the  gov^nor  of  a 
loe,  though  one  decked  with  the  imperial  crown,  should 
ach,  yet,  if  he  is  unworthy,  refuse  him."']'  But  there 
edso  hsive  been  men,  like  Chrysostom,  who  spoke  thus 
Bted  accordingly ;  who  did  not  fear  to  sacrifice  everything 
val,  in  rigidly  carrying  out  what  they  owned  to  be  their 
as  shepherds  of  the  flock.  In  the  western  church  the 
lAe  of  an  Ambrose  of  Milan,  who  declared  to  several 
tMRs,  that  if  they  proceeded  to  execute  a  purpose  which 
red  to  him  in  violation  of  the  duty  of  a  Christian  emperor, 
lid  not  admit  them  to  the  communion,  showed  how  much 
be  effected  in  these  times  of  despotism  by  the  firmness  of 
op  deeply  penetrated  with  a  sense  of  the  elevation  and 
isibleness  of  his  calling.  The  emperor  Theodosius  I., 
led  at  a  seditious  tumult  which  broke  out  in  the  year  390 
essalonica,  abandoned  thousands,  the  innocent  with  the 
,  to  the  blind  fury  of  his  soldiers.  When  the  emperor 
afterwards  to  Milan,  Ambrose,  who  had  taken  advantage 
sickness  to  retire  into  the  country,  at  first  avoided  an 
lew  with  him,  supposing  that  passion  left  in  his  soul  no 
as  yet  for  the  lessons  of  religion.  He  thought  that  a 
which  the  emperor  might  find  time  to  peruse  silently  by 
If,  might  make  a  more  salutary  impression  on  him.     He 

*  See  Angustin,  c.  Parmenian.  1.  III.  c.  13,  etseqq. 
t  Horn.  82,  Matth.  near  the  end. 


256  PENANCK. 

placed  before  him  the  example  of  the  penitent  King  David, 
and  wrote :  '^  Sin  can  be  removed  only  by  tears  and  r^>entanoe. 
No  angeL  or  archangel  can  forgive  sin ;  and  the  Lord  himseli^ 
who  only  was  able  to  say  to  us,  /  am  with  you,  when  we  nn, 
forgives  the  sins  of  those  only  who  come  to  him  with  repentance. 
Add  not  to  the  sin  already  committed  still  another — that  of  • 
presuming  to  partake  of  the  holy  supper  unworthily,  which 
has  redounded  to  the  ruin  of  many.     I  have  no  occasion  to  be 
obstinate  with  you ;  but  I  have  cause  to  fear  for  you.     I  dare 
not  distribute  the  holy  elements,  if  you  mean  to  be  present  and 
receive  them.     Shall  I  venture  to  do  that  which  I  should  not 
presume  to  do  if  the  blood  of  one  innocent  individual  had  been 
shed,  where  the  blood  of  so  many  innocent  persons  has  been 
shed  ?"*     These  words  of  Ambrose  made  such  an  impression 
on  the  heart  of  Theodosius,  that,  penetrated  with  the  deepest 
anguish,  he  subjected  himself  to  the  public  penance  of  the 
church,  having  first  laid  aside  his  imperial  robes ;  and  as  Am- 
brose says,  not  a  day  of  his  life  passed  afterwards  in  which  he 
did  not  remember  with  pain  that  cruel  transaction.'!'   Ambrose^ 
it  is  said,  did  not  give  him  absolution  until,  to  prevent  the  like 
effect  of  his  irascible  disposition  for  the  future,  he  had  renewed 
the  law  of  the  emperor  Gratian,  which  forbade  any  sentence 
of  death  pronounced  by  the  emperor  to  be  executed  short  of  an 
interval  of  thirty  days  ;  so  that  the  sentence  might  be  recalled, 
if,    after   the   subsiding  of  passion,    he   found   occasion  to 
repent  of  it.      The  excellent  bishop  Facundus  of  Hermiane 
observed  subsequently   to  the   emperor  Justinian,  who  was 
distracting  the  church  by  his  despotic  conduct :  "  Would  God 

*  Paulinas  in  his  life  of  Ambrose.  Theodoretus  and  Hufinus  speak, 
it  is  true,  of  a  personal  interview  of  Ambrose  with  the  emperor,  whom 
he  met  at  the  threshold  of  the  church.  In  this  case  We  must  suppose 
that  the  emperor,  notwithstanding  the  written  representations  in  this 
letter,  still  ventured  to  come  to  the  communion ;  which  is  not  probable. 
And  as  those  writers  make  no  mention  at  all  of  Ambrose's  letter,  but  make 
Ambrose  say  orally  to  the  emperor  nearly  the  same  things  which  are 
written  in  this  letter,  it  is  quite  probable,  that  what  was  contained  in  the 
letter  came  to  be  transferred  to  an  oral  interview  which  never  took  place. 
How  is  it  conceivable,  that  the  emperor,  as  Paulinus  states,  should  have 
adduced  in  his  defence  on  this  occasion,  that  very  example  of  king  David 
which  Ambrose,  in  the  letter,  had  already  used  against  him ! 

t  Ambrose,  in  his  funeral  discourse  over  this  emperor :  Stravit  omne, 
quo  utebatur,  insigne  regium,  deflevit  in  ecclesia  publice  peccatum  suuro» 
neque  ullas  postea  dies  fuit,  qu.o  non  ilium  doleret  errorem. 


SCHISMS  OF  THE  GHUBCU.  257 

hat  nose  up  another  Ambrose,  there  would  be  no  want  of 
another  Theodosius."* 

When  powerful  individuals  bade  defiance  to  all  the  tribunals 
of  the  church,  one  means  still  remained  in  the  hands  of  the 
iMsbops,  that  of  solemnly  excluding  them  from  the  church  by 
the  anathema,  and  making  this,  together  with  the  crimes  com- 
mitted by  such  individual,  known  to  all  their  colleagues  in  a 
circular  letter.  These  means  were  employed  by  Synesius  against 
Andionicus,  the  worthless  governor  of  Pentapolis,  who  had 
oppressed  the  poor  in  the  most  cruel  manner ;  and  the  means 
irere  attended  with  a  happy  result. 

In  the  lai^  cities,  especially  within  the  Greek  church,  a 
special  presbyter  was  appointed,  for  the  purpose  of  attending  to 
the  duty  of  confession,  and  of  determining  for  the  penitents 
tkeir  due  proportion  of  church  penance.  But  when  the 
patriarch  Nectarius  of  Constantinople  was  led,  by  the  scandal 
oeated  by  the  crime  of  an  ecclesiastic  thus  made  publicly 
bowii,  to  rescind  this  office  (about  the  year  390),  the  conse- 
qoence  of  this  was,  that  the  whole  system  of  confession  and 
peoance,  as  it  had  till  now  existed  in  the  Greek  church,  came 
to  an  «id ;  and  it  was  left  free  to  each  individual,  accord- 
ing to  his  conscience,  to  partake  in  the  communion.']'  Still 
bialiops — even  the  Greek  church,  as  examples  of  the  next  suc- 
t^eeding  times  teach  us — ever  reserved  to  themselves  the  right 
of  refusing  the  communion  to  vicious  men.  That  abolition, 
however,  of  the  ancient  system  of  church  penance  had,  if  we 
may  believe  the  church  historian  Sozomene,  an  injurious  in- 
fluence on  the  general  state  of  morals. 


III.     HiSTOBY  OP   THE   ScHISMS   OP   THE   ChUHCH. 

Aff  in  the  preceding  period,  so  also  in  this,  we  have  con- 
eluded  to  separate  the  history  of  chxurch  schisms  from  that  of 
the  disputes  concerning  doctrine ;  the  former  standing  closely 
comiected  with  the  history  of  the  development  of  the  idea  of 

*  Quia  d  nimo  Dens  aliquem  Ambrosiam  suscitaret,  etiam  Theodosius 
oon  deesset    Pro  defens.  trium  capitolorum,  1.  XII.  c.  5. 

t  Socrates,  v.  19.  Sozom.  VII.  16.  Comp.  Morin.  de  Pcenitentia,  1.  VI. 
22.  The  homilies  of  Chrysostom,  which  still  presuppose  the  ancient 
usage,  were  preached  by  him  at  Antioch. 

VOI-.  in,  % 


258  scmsMs  of  the  church. 

the  church,  and  the  history  of  the  church  constitution,  and 
hence  finding  here  its  most  natural  place. 

1.   The  Donatitt  Schum. 

The  most  important  and  influential  church  division  which 
we  have  to  mention  in  this  period  is  the  Donatist,  which  had 
its  seat  in  North  Africa*  This  schism  may  be  compared,  in 
many  respects,  with  that  of  Novatian  in  the  preceding  perk)d. 
In  this,  too,  we  see  the  conflict,  for  example,  of  Separatiani 
with  Catholicism  ;  and  it  is  therefore  important,  in  so  &r  as  it 
tended  to  settle  and  establish  the  notion  of  the  visible,  outwaid 
unity  of  the  church,  and  of  the  objective  element  in  the  thingi 
of  religion  and  of  the  church.  That  which  distinguishes  the 
present  case  is,  the  reaction,  proceeding  out  of  the  essence  of 
the  Christian  church,  and  called  forth,  in  this  instance,  by  a 
peculiar  occasion,  against  the  confounding  of  the  ecclesiastical 
and  political  elements ;  on  which  occasion,  for  the  first  timoy 
the  ideas  which  Christianity,  as  opposed  to  the  papal  religioQ 
of  the  state,  had  first  made  men  distinctly  conscious  of,  beouae 
an  object  of  contention  within  the  Christian  church  itself, — 
the  ideas  concerning  universal,  inalienable  human  rights; 
concerning  liberty  of  conscience ;  concerning  the  rights  of 
free  religious  conviction.  The  more  immediate  and  local 
occasion  of  these  disputes  lay  in  a  certain  spirit  of  £uiatici8i% 
which,  ever  since  the  spread  of  Montanism,  had  prevailed  in 
North  Africa,  and  also  in  various  circumstances  superinduced 
by  the  Dioclesian  persecution. 

We  observed  already,  in  our  account  of  the  persecution 
under  Dioclesian,  that  as  there  were  many  at  that  time  who 
had  been  induced,  by  force  or  by  fear,  to  deliver  up  the  sacred 
writings  in  their  possession  (the  traditores),  so,  too,  there  were  , 
many  accused  of  this,  against  whom  the  accusation  could  by 
no  means  be  proved.  Such  a  charge  might  easily  be  con- 
verted into  a  weapon  for  the  gratification  of  personal  malice : 
the  propensity  to  mistake  inferences  for  feicts  rendered  it  no 
difficult  matter  to  prove  the  accusations.  When,  for  example, 
an  individual  who  had  been  arrested  by  the  pagan  magistrates, 
found  means,  through  some  favourable  circumstances  or  other, 
to  deliver  himself  without  denying ;  yet  men  were  prone  to 
draw  tlie  conclusion  that  if  he  had  remained  true  to  the  faith, 


,  THE  DONATIST  SCHISM.  259 

le  would  assuredly,  like  other  true  confessors,  have  suffered 
lartyrdom, — he  could  have  escaped  only  by  denying.  Again, 
s  we  have  also  remarked  already  in  the  history  of  that  per- 
Xiution,  the  same  principles  were  not  held  by  all  with  regard 
>  the  proper  mode  of  conduct  on  these  occasions.  Two 
arties  stood  opposed  to  each  other  ;  a  prudent  and  a  fanatical 
Qe.  At  the  head  of  the  prudent  party  was  the  bishop  Men- 
uius  of  Carthage ;  and  as  it  was  common,  especially  in  the 
Western  church,  for  the  archdeacons  to  be  the  confidants  of 
le  bishops,  and  to  take  pains  that  the  regulations  ordained  by 
tiem  should  be  carried  into  effect,  and  that  the  discipline  oi 
lie  church  should  be  maintained ;  so  it  happened  that  his 
rchdeaau;on,  Ceecilianus,  stood  in  this  relation  to  Mensurius. 
Hie  two  seem  to  have  been  united  in  a  mutual  understanding 
0  oppose  superstition  and  fanaticism. 

There  were  many  who,  with  broken  credit,  having  become 
reary  of  life,  and  anxious  to  get  rid  of  it,  hoped  in  martyrdom 
0  find  a  death  honourable  among  the  Christians  and  meri- 
orious  in  the  sight  of  God ;  or  who,  persecuted  by  the  con- 
ciousness  of  guilt,  hoped  in  this  way  to  free  themselves  at 
ooe  £rom  all  their  sins ;  or  who  were  eager  to  be  thrown  into 
810011  as  confessors,  that  they  might  there  be  loaded  with 
ODOuTy  kind  treatment,  and  presents  of  all  kinds  by  their 
sUow-Christians.  Mensurius  could  not  endure  that  such 
ergons  should  be  confirmed  in  their  knavery  or  their  delusion, 
nd  that  other  Christians  should  be  deceived  and  abused  by 
bem.  He  was  desirous  also  of  preventing  the  scandal  which 
rould  thus  be  given  to  the  pagans.  He  therefore  endeavoured 
0  put  a  stop  to  the  expressions  of  honour  and  respect  which 
rere  paid  to  such  men  in  their  prisons,  as  well  as  to  the 
everence  shown  them  as  martyrs  after  their  death.  In  general, 
his  prudent  man  was  unwilUng  to  allow  that  i^matics  who, 
dthout  being  accused  or  called  for,  surrendered  themselves  to 
be  pagan  authorities,  and,  though  unasked,  yet  publicly 
eclsured  they  had  Bibles  in  their  houses,  but  that  they  would 
ot  deliver  them  up — that  such  enthusiasts  should  be  reverenced 
8  martyrs.  Since  the  Christians,  moreover,  without  reflection 
r  prudence,  thronged  in  crowds  to  their  dimgeons,  and  un- 
asiness  and  alarm  might  in  this  way  be  easily  excited  among 
be  pagans,  he  directed  his  archdeacon  to  take  precautions 
gainst  such  results.    As  Mensurius  disapproved  of  everything 


260  THE  DONATIST  SCHISM. 

like  fanatical  imprudence,  so  he  considered  it  his  duty  to  do 
everything  for  the  preservation  of  his  own  life,  and  for  the 
external  quiet  of  his  community,  which  could  be  done  without 
directly  or  indirectly  denying  the  faith.  When  he  heard  that 
a  church  at  Carthage  was  to  be  searched  by  the  pagans,  he 
caused  all  the  manuscripts  of  the  Bible  to  be  removed  from  it 
to  a  place  of  safety,  and  writings  of  heretics  to  be  substituted 
in  their  stead,  which  the  inquisitors  were  satisfied  to  find  there, 
and  asked  no  further  questions.*  Mensurius,  as  a  natural  con- 
sequence, made  all  with  whose  superstition  and  fanaticism,  or 
with  whose  selfisli  interests,  his  own  prudence  and  firmneiB 
came  in  conflict,  his  fiercest  enemies ;  and  these  persons  took 
pains  to  propagate  the  most  infamous  stories  of  his  condoct 
Whether  in  this  matter  he  and  Csecilianus  were  wholly  in- 
nocent, or  whether,  misled  by  a  well-meant  but  over-earnest 
zeal  against  fanaticism,  they  allowed  themselves  to  be  drawn 
into  various  acts  of  violence  which  might  furnish  grounds  for 
just  crimination,  cannot,  for  the  want  of  impartial  sources  of 
information,  be  certainly  known.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  the 
antagonists  of  Mensurius  accused  him  of  concealing  the  truth, 
and  of  asserting  that  none,  but  writings  of  heretics  were  sur- 
rendered to  the  pagans,  for  the  purpose  of  clearing  himself  from 
the  charge  of  giving  up  the  sacred  scriptures.  And  even  if  the 
pretence  were  well-grounded,  yet,  declared  they,  it  was  not 
allowable  for  a  Christian  to  use  such  deception.  Again,  they 
accused  him  of  having  caused  the  most  harsh  and  violent 
measures  to  be  adopted  by  Caecilian  for  the  purpose  of  hindering 
the  Christians  generally  from  testifying  their  love  and  their 
sympathy  for  the  imprisoned  confessors.| 

♦  Vid.  Augustin.  breviculus  coUationis  cum  Donatistis  diei  III.  c  13, 
N.  25,  and  the  monumenta  Vetera  ad  Donatistarum  historiam  pertinentia 
in  Optat.  Milevitan.  de  schismate  Donatistarum,  p.  174. 

t  See  the  representation  of  this  matter  by  a  Donatist,  in  the  collection 
of  Du  Pin,  above  referred  to,  f.  155  et  156.  The  &natical,  fact-perverting 
hatred  of  the  Donatists,  the  language  of  unbridled  passion,  which  is  not 
to  be  mistaken  even  in  this  representation  itself,  inspire  the  reader  with 
but  little  hope  of  finding  here  any  historical  truth.  Thus  among  other 
things  it  is  said :  Et  csedebantur  a  Occiliano  passim,  qui  ad  alendos  ma^ 
tyres  veniebant,  sitientibus  intas  in  vinculis  confessonbus,  pocula  frange- 
bantur  ante  carceris  limina,  cibi  passim  lacerandi  canibus  spargebantor, 
jacebant  ante  carceris  fores  martyrum  patres  matresque  sanctissimse,  et 
ab  extremo  conspectu  liberorum  excussi,  graves  nocte  dieque  vigilias  ad 
ostium  carceris  exercebant    Erat  fietus  horribilis,  et  acerba  omnium, 


CHARGE  AGAINST  SECUNDUS.  261 

The  fanatical  party  was  patronized  by  the  then  primate  of 
rumidia,  Secundus,  bishop  of  Tigisis.  In  a  letter  to  Men- 
urius,  he  disapproved  the  manner  in  which  that  bishop  had 
aisured  the  fanatical  confessors  ;  and  declared  that  all  those 
ho  had  suffered  martyrdom  rather  than  deliver  up  their 
4bles,  deserved  to  be  honoured  as  martyrs.  Following  the 
revailing  style  of  allegorical  exposition  peculiar  to  that  age 
nd  coimtry,  he  appealed  to  the  example  of  Rahab,  who 
•fused  to  surrender  up  the  two  spies ;  for  these  were  a  symbol 
f  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  "  When  the  soldiers  of  the 
olice/'  as  he  reported,  "  came  also  to  him  and  demanded 
opies  of  the  Bible,  he  said  to  them — I  am  a  Christian  and  a 
i^op  ;  I  am  no  traditor.  And  when  they  asked  only  for  a 
ew  useless  pieces  as  a  show  (such  as  writings  of  heretics),  he 
efused  to  give  them  even  these ; — imitating  the  example  of 
he  Maccabee  Eleazar,  who  would  not  consent  even  to  appear 
s  if  he  partook  of  the  swine's  flesh,  lest  he  might  set  an 
lample  of  apostacy  to  others."* 

It  is  certain  that  the  opinion  was  still  prevailing  with  many 
ft  the  North- African  church,  which  had  maintained  its  ground 
rom  the  time  of  Cyprian,  t  that  the  validity  of  all  sacerdotal 
cts  depended  on  the  subjective  character  of  the  persons  who 
eribrmed  them,  and  that  therefore  they  were  valid  only  in 
Bse  they  were  performed  by  members  of  the  true  Catholic 
hurch ; — that  consequently  a  sacerdotal  act  executed  by  an 
zcommunicated  person  was  wholly  without  force.  When, 
lierefore,  in  the  year  305,  the  Numidian  provincial  bishops, 
uder  the  presidency  of  the  above-named  Secundus,  assembled 
t  Cirta  in  Numidia,  for  the  purpose  of  ordaining  a  new 
ishop  for  this  city,  the  president  opened  the  meeting  by  de- 
laring  that  they  ought  first  to  examine  themselves,  and  make 
ure  that  there  was  no  traditor  among  them,  since  a  person  of 
his  description,  excluded  by  the  fact  itself  from  the  commu- 
ion  of  the  church,  was  unfit  for  the  performance  of  any  sacra- 
lental  act.     Several  among  the  existing  bishops  were  accused 

ai  aderant,  lamentatio,  prohibere  pios  martynim  complexus  et  divelli  a 
ietatis  officio  Cliristianos,  Cxciliano  sseviente  tyranno  ct  crudeli  car* 
ifice. 

*  Augostin.  breviculus  collat.  cum  Douatistis.  d.  III.  c.  13,  s.  25. 
Umumenta  in  Du  Pin,  1.  c.  f.  174. 

f  See  above,  the  disputes  concerning  baptism  by  heretics,  vol.  I.  s.  2. 


262  THE  DONATIST  SCHISM. 

by  rumour ;  several  could  excuse  themselTes  on  the  ground  of  '^ 
having  given  up  other  writings  (e.  g.  on  medicine)  instead  of  the  ^ 
Bible ;  one,  who  plainly  had  no  such  excuse  to  offer,  but,  though  P 
he  had  surrendered  a  copy  of  the  Bible,  yet  remained  sted&il  ?- 
in  the  confession  of  the  faith,  said  to  the  bishop  Secundut  f. 
"  You  know  how  long  Ilonis  (the  police-officer)  persecuted   '^ 
me,  to  induce  me  to  scatter  incense,  and  God  delivered  me   '- 
from  his  hands,  my  brother ;  but  since  God  has  forgiven  me^   ^ 
do  you  also  leave  me  to  the  judgment  of  God  ?'*     Hereupon   j 
Secundus,   in  a  way  characteristic  of  his  fimatic,  spiritual   I 
pride,  exclaimed :  "  What  are  we  to  do,  then,  with  the  mar^   ! 
ti/rs  ?     Because  they  did  not  give  up  their  Bibles,  was  the 
very  reason  for  which  they  have  been  crowned."     The  aocnsed 
said :  '*  Leave  me  till  I  appear  before  the  judgment-seat  of 
God  ;  there  I  will  render  my  account."     A  certain  bishop, 
Purpurius,   of  irascible  temperament— against  whom  a  &r 
weightier  charge  was  pending,  which  doubtless  required  to  be 
more  carefully  looked  into — instead  of  speaking  in  his  own 
defence,  cast  suspicion  on  Secundus  himself:  ^^  How  could  it 
be  believed  that  when  he  had  been  seized,  and  had  dedaraf 
that  he  possessed  copies  of  the  Bible,  and  yet  did  not  deliver 
them  up,  the  officers  of  police  would  quietly  receive  such  a 
declaration,  and  allow  him  to  go  free,  while  so  many  othen 
who  liad  declined  to  surrender  their  Bibles,  were  compelled  to 
suffer  severe  tortures  and  death  ?"     Since,  however,  the  con- 
duct of  the  Pagan  authorities  varied  so  much  according  to 
their  different  tempers,  and  since  so  many  particular  circum- 
stances might  procure  for  one  a  better  lot  than  fell  to  the 
others,  this  conclusion,  which  was  intended  to  bring  suspicion 
on   Secundus,   was  at   least  a  very   unsafe   one.     Another 
Secundus  among  the  assembled  bishops,  nephew  of  the  one 
first  mentioned,  begged  the  latter  to  consider  what  danger 
threatened  the  peace  of  the  church  if  men  should  be  disposed 
to  push  the  matter  further.     All  the  accused  would  in  the  end 
unite  against  him ;  and,  consequently,  a  schism  was  inevitable. 
Therefore  it  was  finally  resolved,  for  the  preservation  of  the 
quiet  of  the  church,  to  leave  all  that  was  past  to  the  judgment 
of  God.* 

*  See  the  transactions  of  this  assembly  in  Augnstin.  contra  Cresconiom, 
1.  III.  c.  17,  s.  30,  and  the  monumenta  in  Du  Pin,  f.  175.  Tlie  Dona- 
tists  declared,  it  is  true,  at  the  relifi;iou8  conference  in  Carthage,  a.d.  411, 


C^GILIAN  ORDAINED  BISHOP  OF  CARTHAGE.  263 

We  have  brought  together  these  characteristic  traits  out  of 
flie  times  that  preceded  the  Donatist  schism,  because  it  is  in 
Idle  excitement  of  temper  which  here  betrays  itself,  and  in  the 
koidle  relations  betwixt  the  prudent  party  of  Mensurius  of 
Cburthage,  and  the  opposite  fanatical  party  of  the  Numidian 
iMshops,  we  must  look  for  the  original  causes  of  this  schism. 

The  bishop  Mensurius  died  soon  after  the  Dioclesian  per- 
iecution  was  ended,  in  the  year  311,  by  the  edict  of  Galerius. 
Having,  been  called  on  some  special  business  to  appear  before 
tiie  emperor  Maxentius  at  Rome,  he  died  on  the  way  when  he 
VB8  r^rning  home.  It  was  frequently  the  case,  on  the 
demise  of  a  bishop,  that  his  archdeacon  was  chosen  to  fill  the 
vacancy ;  because,  having  possessed  the  confidence  and  been 
«ft6Q  vested  with  the  full  powers  of  the  bishop,  he  had  already 
acquired  the  greatest  influence  in  the  church.  But  inasmuch 
IB  the  archdeacon  was  inferior  in  rank  to  the  presbyters,  this 
practice  would  easily  become  an  occa^iion  of  jealousies  and 

dut  these  docaments  were  interpolated  (vid.  Augastin.  brevicul.  collat.  d. 
m.  c.  1 7,  and  1.  c.  Du  Pin,  fol.  32 1 );  bat  their  assertions  can  be  regarded  no 
Otherwise  than  as  very  sospicious,  as  they  were  inclined  to  deny  every- 
idog  that  connoted  with  the  interests  of  their  party ;  and  the  reasons 
alleged  by  than  against  the  genuineness  of  these  writings  have  no  deci- 
Ufe  weight  whatever.  One  reason  was,  the  definite  statement  of  the  date 
and  of  the  consuls,  which  common  practice  in  civil  transactions  was  con- 
trary to  the  ecclesiastical  custom.  Without  doubt  this  was  censured,  too, 
by  Athanasius,  as  an  unchurchlike  thing,  in  the  Sirmian  formulas  of 
aiith ;  ^et  it  was  in  the  instance  where  he  censured  it,  an  entirely  differ- 
ent afiair — it  related  there  to  a  determination  of  doctrines,  which  could 
sot  be  so  bound  to  a  particular  time ;  but  here,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
related  to  a  judicial  investigation,  and  an  external  act  of  the  church, 
where  dates  were  of  more  importance.  At  all  events,  enough  has  not 
been  left  us  of  the  older  synodal  transactions  to  render  it  possible  to 
dedde  whether  this  was  really  so  unprecedented.  The  other  party 
could,  however,  adduce  an  example  to  the  contrary.  To  the  Donatists, 
who  pushed  their  opposition  to  the  confounding  of  ecclesiastical  and  poli- 
tical matters  to  the  extreme  of  fanaticism,  such  a  determinate  date  was  in 
itself  a  hatefiil  thing,  because  it  looked  like  such  confusion.  It  is  worthy 
of  remark,  that  they  even  required  an  example  of  such  an  ecclesiastical 
determination  of  date  from  the  Holy  Scriptures — a  proof  of  the  very 
narrow  character  of  their  criticism.  The  second  reason  was,  that  at  the 
lime  of  the  persecution  no  such  assembly  could  have  been  held.  This 
reason,  Marcellinus,  the  president  of  the  religious  conference,  who  re^ 
jected  the  first  as  amounting  to  nothing,  declared  to  be  more  weighty. 
Bat  the  bishops  of  the  other  party  could  easily  cite  examples  out  of  the 
history  of  the  persecutions,  by  which  the  possibility  of  such  an  assembly, 
even  under  these  circumstances,  might  be  proved. 


^ 


264  THE  DONATIST  8CBISM. 

divisions.  Csecilian  had  particular]y  against  him  that  party 
in  the  Carthaginian  community  and  in  the  Numidian  church  ^i 
who  disputed  the  principles  of  Mensurius.  At  the  head  of  > 
his  enemies  in  Carthage  stood  a  bigoted  widow  by  the  name  ^ 
of  Lucilla,  a  person  of  wealth,  and,  by  means  of  her  wealth, 
of  power.  This  individual  attached  great  importance  to  ce^ 
tain  fragments  of  human  bones  which  she  had  obtained  from 
some  quarter  or  other,  and  which  she  gave  out  to  be  relics. 
These  pretended  relics  she  was  in  the  habit  of  kissing  eveiy 
morning  previously  to  partaking,  as  was  customary  in  this 
country,*  of  the  consecrated  bread.f  She  usually  took  them 
along  with  her  also  to  the  early  morning  service,  and  here  too 
kissed  her  relics  previously  to  partaking  of  the  communion. 
The  archdeacon,  whose  duty  it  was  to  look  after  the  order  of 
the  church,  reprimanded  her  for  this  superstitious  custom, 
and  threatened  her,  in  case  she  did  not  desist  from  it,  with 
ecclesiastical  censures.  It  was  undoubtedly  necessary  that 
some  check  should  be  given  to  the  spreading  superstition  with 
regard  to  relics,  and  perhaps  Csecilian  found  it  particularly 
offensive  that  she  seemed  to  attribute  a  higher  sanctifying 
power  to  her  relics  than  to  the  sacrament  of  the  supper.J 
Many  indications  go  to  show  that  the  Numidian  bishops  anti- 
cipated the  choice  of  Csecilian,  and  immediately  after  Men- 
surius' death  endeavoured  to  secure  for  themselves  a  party  in 
the  community,  and  to  oppose  this  party  to  Caecilian.  Dona- 
tus,  bishop  of  Casse  Nigrae  in  Numidia,  is  said  to  have  been 
busy  even  at  this  early  stage.  §     Secundus  of  Tigisis,  primate 

*  See  vol.  I.  sect  2,  respecting  the  daily  communion  in  the  church  of 
North  Africa. 

t  See  Optatus  Milevit.  de  schlsmate  Donatistar.  1.  I.  c.  1 6.  In  this 
place  it  is  said :  ante  spiritalem  cibum  et  potum ;  which  cannot  refer  to 
the  domestic  communion  alone,  for  in  this  the  second  had  no  place.  Pro- 
bably Lucilla  observed  the  same  custom  in  the  church  communion  which 
she  had  been  in  the  practice  of  at  home,  and  thus  her  superstitious  observ- 
ances became  known  to  Csecilian.  The  opinion  of  Aubespin  (Albaspi- 
neus),  that  she  had  been  led  by  the  custom  of  the  mutual  kiss  of  brotherly 
love  preceding  the  communion,  to  transfer  this  form  to  her  relics,  for  the 
purpose  of  maintaining  thereby  the  communion  with  her  patron  saint,  i» 
not  sufficiently  well-grounded,  since  the  practice  of  kissing  relics,  espe- 
cially with  females,  existed  elsewhere  also. 

X  Optatus  :  cum  prcBponeret  calici  salutari  os,  etc. — although  the  jpr<E- 
poneret  may  be  referred  also  simply  to  time. 

§  By  the  investigations  of  the  tribunal  which  sat  subsequently  at 


CiECILIAN  OBDAINED  BISHOP  OF  CARTHAGE.  266 

of  Numidia,  the  zealous  antagonist  of  the  Csecilian  party,  sent 
certain  ecclesiastics  to  Carthage,  who  held  separate  assemblies 
ID  the  house  of  Lucilla,  and  placed  a  pro  visionary  superin- 
tendent, under  the  customary  title  of  visitor,  (frepiohvTrjQ,) 
over  the  entire  affidrs  of  the  church.*  The  more  resistance 
the  party  of  Csecilian  had  to  fear  against  his  choice,  the  more 
urgent  reason  had  they  for  hastening  the  whole  thing  to  a 
conclusion.  But,  without  doubt,  it  was  difficult  here  to  hit 
iq>on  the  right  course  for  preserving  unanimity  and  quiet ; 
for  if  they  waited  until  the  arrival  of  the  Numidian  provincial 
Inshops,  who  were  in  the  practice  of  assisting  at  the  ordination 
of  the  bishop  of  Carthage,  it  was  to  be  foreseen  that  these 
would  oppose  the  election.  Should  the  ordination  be  com- 
pleted before  their  arrival,  new  cause  would  be  given  them  for 
dissatisfaction  and  complaint;  but  still  they  could  not  pro- 
nounce the  episcopal  consecration,  after  it  had  once  been 
solemnized,  null  and  void ;  since,  although  the  Numidian 
{nrovincial  bishops  might  often  be  invited  to  assist  on  these 
occasions,  yet  nothing  had  been  expressly  settled  on  this 
point  in  the  ecclesiastical  laws.^     The  election  and  ordina- 

B(Hne^  under  the  Boman  bishop  Melchiades,  it  is  said  to  have  been 
proyed :  Donatam  a  Oasis  Nigris  adhuc  diacono  Cseciliano  schisma 
fecisse  Carthagine.    See  Aagnstin.  breyicolus,  1.  c  apud  Du  Pin,  f.  319. 

♦  Thus  says  Augostin,  Sermo  46,  s.  39,  T.  v.  ea.  Benedict.  Paris,  f. 
146,  D.  The  assertion  of  Augustin,  a  violent  opponent  of  the  Donatists, 
is  testimony,  indeed,  which  cannot  be  wholly  relied  on.  Yet  the  thing 
IS  in  itself  not  improbable ;  and  all  these  preceding  circumstances  place 
the  origin  of  the  Donatist  schism  in  a  clearer  light. 

t  The  opponents  of  the  Donatist  party,  at  the  religious  conference  in 
Carthage,  affirmed  that  it  was  bv  no  means  a  common  custom  for  the 
Inshop  of  Carthage  to  be  ordained  by  a  Numidian  Metropolitan  bishop, 
com  aliud  habeat  ecclesise  Catholics  consuetude,  ut  non  Numidise,  sed 
propinquiores  episcopi  episcopum  ecclesise  Carthaginis  ordinent,  sicut 
nee  Romanae  ecclesise  ordinat  aliquis  episcopus  metropolitanus ;  sed  de 
proximo  Ostiensis  episcopus.  Augustin,  breviculus  d.  III.  in  Du  Pin 
monomenta,  f.  321.  According  to  Optatus,  I.. 18,  there  were  two  indi- 
^duals,  Botrus  and  Celestius,  probably  presbyters  in  the  Carthaginian 
ehurch,  who  hastened  the  election  in  the  hopes  that  the  choice  might  fall 
on  one  of  themselves.  The  £ict  that  so  many  reasons  were  hunted  up 
from  one  quarter  and  another  to  invalidate  that  objection  of  the  Donatist 
party,  renders  it  probable,  that  the  ordination  of  the  bishop  of  Carthage 
was,  according  to  the  more  common  practice,  solemnized  in  the  presence 
and  with  the  co-operation  of  the  Numidian  bishops.  Optatus,  however, 
introduces  that  remark  of  his  only  as  a  report  (dicitur).  Perhaps  the 
truth  at  bottom  was  simply  this,  that  those  two  presbyters  aspired  after 


266  THE  do:katist  schism. 

tion  were  therefore  hastened  to  a  completion,  and  the  latter 
ofRce  was  performed  by  a  neighbouring  bishop,  Felix  of 
Aptungis.*  Against  the  new  bishop,  the  powerfiil  LuciUa, 
with  her  party,  now  took  her  stand ;  and  to  this  party  be- 
longed the  elders  of  the  Carthaginian  church.f 

The  primate  of  Numidia  came  afterwards,  with  his  bishops, 
to  Carthage,  either  without  being  sent  for,  or,  as  the  other 
party  alleged,  at  the  invitation  of  LuciUa  and  those  connected 
with  her.  They  met  from  the  latter  with  a  very  friendly 
reception ;  and  they  manifested,  from  the  first,  hostile  feelings 
towards  Ceecilian,  whom  they  refused  to  acknowledge  as  a 
bishop.  Caecilian  now  challenged  his  adversaries  to  produce 
their  charges,  if  they  had  any  against  him :  but  they  began  by 
accusing  as  a  traditor  the  bishop  who  had  ordained  him; 
and,  in  conformity  with  that  old  principle  of  the  North- 
African  church,  they  refused  to  rec(^ize  as  valid  an  ordiDSr 
tion  which  had  been  performed  by  a  traditor.  Caecilian  went 
still  farther :  he  offered  to  resign  his  office,  and  return  to  his 
former  post  as  a  deacon,  so  that  he  could  be  ordained  anew  by 
the  Numidian  bishops.^     But  the  latter  were  too  far  com-> 

the  episcopal  dignity,  and,  having  been  disappointed,  were  for  this  reaaoD 
led  to  foster  the  division. 

*  The  name  of  this  town  is  written  variously :  Aptugnensis,  Apton^ 
tanus,  Autumuitanus. 

t  The  seniores  plebis,  according  to  the  system  of  organization  which 
prevailed  in  the  North- African  church  (see  vol.  I.  s.  1).  The  adversa- 
ries of  the  Donatists  explain  this  as  follows :  when  the  bishop  MensnriiUt 
uucertaiu  as  to  the  issue  of  his  business,  left  Carthage,  he  entrusted  the 
precious  movables  of  the  church  to  the  care  of  these  elders,  with  the 
charge  to  deliver  them  over,  in  case  he  died  before  his  return,  to  his  soc- 
cessor  in  the  bishopric.  But,  as  these  seniores  wished  to  retain  the  whole 
in  their  own  possession,  it  grieved  them  to  be  obliged  to  deliver  than 
over  into  the  hands  of  Csecilian,  and  this  was  the  cause  of  their  enmi^  to 
him.  Optatus,  I.  19:  Qui  faucibus  avaritise  commendatam  ebiberant 
prsedam.  Ciun  reddere  cogerentur,  subduxenmt  oommunioni  pedem. 
but  how  was  this  known  to  be  the  feet  ?  For  these  persons  certainly 
could  not  decline  ^ving  up  what  had  been  entrusted  to  them ;  and.  at  aU 
events,  must  have  been  obliged  to  give  up  the  whole  to  the  new  bishop, 
whoever  he  might  be.  It  is  quite  evident  that,  as  often  happens  in  simi- 
lar cases,  such  motives,  the  existence  of  which  could  not  possibly  be 
proved,  were  falsely  imputed  to  these  persons — after  they  b^^ame  hated 
as  the  promoters  of  Donatism. 

X  Optat.  I.  19.  Caecilian  would  hardly  have  been  induced  to  consent 
to  this,  had  he  not  at  that  time  conceded  the  principle,  that  an  ordination 
performed  by  a  traditor  was  invalid. 


CJECILIAN  OBBAINED  BISHOP  OF  CARTHAGE.  267 

Bitted  against  him  to  enter  into  any  such  compromise.  They 
now  proceeded  to  accuse  Csecilian  himself ;  and,  as  they  did 
not  aclcnowledge  him  to  be  a  regular  bishop,  they  chose  in 
Ins  stead  the  reader  Majorinus,  a  favourite  of  Lucilla.  An 
assembly  of  seventy  Numidian  bishops  at  Carthage  excom- 
■nmicated  Csecilian,  because  he  had  allowed  himself  to  be 
ordained  by  a  traditor.*  The  fanaticism  which  prevailed 
already  at  this  assembly  is  characteristically  shown  by  the 
Showing  expression  of  one  of  its  members :  '^  As  unfruitful 
weeds  are  mown  down  and  cast  away,  so  the  thurificati  and 
tiaditores,'!'  and  those  who  are  schismatically  ordained  by  tra- 
ditors,  cannot  remain  in  the  church  of  God,  except  they  ac- 
knowledge their  error,  and  become  reconciled  with  the  church 
by  the  tears  of  repentance."  J 

Thus  was  laid  the  foundation  of  the  schism  in  the  North- 
Aiiican  church.  According  to  the  usual  mode  of  proceeding 
in  such  cases,  each  of  the  two  parties  now  endeavoured  to 
secure  for  itself  the  recc^ition  of  other  churches ;  and  thus 
the  breach  would  necessarily  be  extended.  The  emperor  Con- 
stantine,  who  just  at  the  present  juncture  had  obtained  the 
sovereignty  over  this  part  of  the  Roman  empire,  must  have 
been  prejudiced  from  the  beginning  against  the  party  of 
Majorinus ;  jfor,  in  the  very  first  laws  by  which  he  bestowed 
various  privileges  on  the  Catholic  church  in  this  quarter  of 
the  world  9  he  expressly  excluded  the  party  from  all  share  in 
them,  and  declared  himself  decidedly  opposed  to  it ;  although 
th's  proceeding  was  in  direct  contradiction  to  those  principles 
of  universal  toleration  which  Constantine  had  avowed  in  the 
laws  enacted  about  the  same  time.  The  fanaticism  which  we 
find  prevailing  in  this  party  at  its  very  origin,  may  doubtless 
have  furnished  occasion  enough  for  representing  it  to  the  em- 
peror as  composed  of  dangerous  men,  without  his  knowing 
anything  more  about  the  character  of  these  disputes.§  The 
party  of  Majorinus,  which  saw  itself  condenmed  without  a 
bearing,  presented  to  the  emperor,  then  residing  in  Gaul,  a 

♦  Augastin.  breviculus  d.  III.  c.  14,  s.  26. 

t  See  vol.  I.  8.  1. 

X  Liber  c.  Fulgentiam  Donatistam,  c.  26.  Du  Pin  inoimmenta,  p.  176. 

§  In  a  rescript  issued  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  313,  addressed  to 
Csecilianos,  bishop  of  Carthage,  and  cited  in  Eusebius,  X.  6,  the 
adherents  of  the  other  party  are  styled  fih  xethfreuo'iis  havoUs  cLv4pMT9t ; 
mention  is  made  of  their  flutvl*. 


268  THE  DONATJST  SCHISM. 

petition,  entreating  him,  by  his  love  of  justice,  to  name  judges 
iu  that  country  itself  for  the  purpose  of  inquiring  into  the 
nature  of  the  controversy  which  had  arisen  in  the  North- 
African  church.*  They  probably  chose  to  have  their  judges 
from  Gaul,  because  these  would  be  least  liable  to  suspicion; 
inasmuch  as  this  country  had  escaped  the  last  persecutions  of 
the  Christian  church,  and  therefore  no  traditors  were  to  be 
found  there  as  in  the  other  churches.  The  emperor  thereupon 
directed  that  Melchiades  (Miltiaides),  bishop  of  Home,  with 
five  other  Gallic  bishops,  should  inquire  into  the  afiair ;  that 
Csecilian  should  appear  before  them,  with  ten  bishops  who 
were  to  present  the  charges  against  him,  and  ten  other  bishops 
who  were  to  defend  him.  The  trial  was  holden  in  the  year 
313 ;  and  Melchiades  came,  attended  with  fifteen  other  Italian 
bishops.  The  bishop  Donatus  of  Casse  Nigrse  in  Numidia, 
with  whom,  as  we  remarked  above,  the  germ  of  the  schism 
began,  now  also  stood  at  the  head  of  Csecilian's  accusers ;  as 
indeed  he  seems  generally  to  have  been  at  that  time  the  sool 
of  the  whole  party.  His  charges  against  the  latter  were  found 
to  be  unsustained ;  but  he  himself  was  declared  guilty  of 
various  acts  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  church.  The  party  of 
Majorinus  having  declared,  as  was  to  be  expected,  that  in- 
justice had  been  done  them  by  this  decision,  Constantine 
directed,  in  the  year  314,  that  the  charges  against  theordainer 
of  Caecilian,  the  above-named  bishop  Felix,  should  be  examined 
according  to  the  usual  judicial  form  at  Carthage,  where  access 
could  be  had  to  all  the  records  and  witnesses  tiiat  might  be 
needed  in  the  trial ;  and  that  an  ecclesiastical  convention  at 
Aries  should  hear  delegates  from  the  two  parties,  and  so  enter 
into  a  new  investigation  of  the  whole  matter.  "The  result  of 
the  first  inquiry  was,  that  Felix  was  declared  innocent.  The 
council  of  Aries  decided  likewise  against  the  party  of  Majori- 
nus, and  established  at  the  same  time  three  canons,  which  in 
part  were  opposed  to  the  conduct  of  this  party,  and  partly 
were  designed  to  prevent  the  occurrence  of  similar  divisions  for 
the  future.  As  the  charge  of  denying  the  faith  in  the  Dio- 
clesian  persecution  had  been  one  of  the  principal  occasions 
which  led  to  this  schism,  and  such  accusations,  repeated  over 
merely  on  the  ground  of  vague  report,  might  often  result  in 
similar  consequences,  it  was  decided  in  the  thirteenth  canon 
*  The  petition  is  to  be  found  in  Optatos,  I,  s.  22. 


COUNCIL  OF  ARLES.  269 

that  those  only  who  could  he  convicted  by  public  documents 
of  having  delivered  up  copies  of  the  holy  scriptures  or  property 
of  the  church,  or  of  having  informed  against  other  Christians 
before  the  tribunals,  should  be  deposed  from  their  spiritual 
offices.  No  other  accusation  but  those  which  could  be  thus 
substantiated,  should  be  received.  As,  moreover,  the  party 
of  Majorinus  held  fast  to  the  ancient  principle  of  the 
North- African  church,  that  the  validity  of  a  sacramental 
act  depended  on  the  fact  that  the  performer  of  it  was  a 
member  of  the  Catholic  church,  it  was  established  as  a 
role,  in  reference  to  ordination,  that,  although  this  ceremony 
had  been  performed  by  a  person  who  could  be  legally  con- 
victed of  those  transgressions,  it  should  still  remain  valid  in 
case  nothing  else  was  to  be  objected  against  it.  The  same 
principle  of  the  objectivity  of  sacramental  acts  was,  moreover, 
m  the  eighth  canon,  so  defined — ^probably  with  reference  to  the 
proceedings  of  the  North- African  schismatics — that  baptism 
was  always  to  be  considered  valid  if  it  had  been  performed  in 
the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.*  For  the  rest, 
it  may  well  be  inferred,  from  the  passionate  tone  of  the  report 
drawn  up  by  this  council,  and  sent  to  the  Eoman  bishop  Sil- 
vester, that  the  spirit  which  prevailed  in  it  was  not  calculated 
to  dispose  the  other  party  for  peace.  The  party  of  Majorinus 
appealed  from  this  decision  to  the  judgment  of  the  emperor 
himself.  We  have  observed  before,  how  very  strange  it  then 
appeared  to  Constantino,  that  an  appeal  should  be  made  from 
an  episcopal  decision  on  ecclesiastical  matters  to  his  own  tri- 
bunal. In  his  reply  to  the  bishops,  he  manifests  his  displeasure 
against  the  party  of  Majorinus  by  the  most  violent  expressions.! 
X  et  he  accepted  the  appeal,  and  listened  himself  to  the  dele- 
gates of  the  two  parties  at  Milan,  in  the  year  316 ;  his  decision 
also  went  in  &vour  of  Csecilian.  From  this  time  the  whole 
matter  took  another  turn;  laws  of  the  state  now  appeared 
against  the  party  of  Majorinus ;  they  were  deprived  of  their 
churches,  and  the  places  where  they  assembled  were  confis- 

*  According  to  one  reading,  this  canon  would  be  pointed,  not  against 
these  North  Africans,  but  against  the  Arlans.  But  the  other  is  most 
probably  the  original  reading.  What  possible  occasion  could  there  be 
at  that  time,  especially  in  the  Western  church,  for  the  expression  of  any 
such  (^position  to  the  Arians  ? 

t  See  this  letter  in  Da  Pin,  acta,  f.  184. 


270  THE  DONATIST  SCHISM. 

cated.*  They  were  treated  as  transgressorB  of  the  imj 
laws.  The  force  by  which  it  was  sought  to  destroy  thea 
proved,  as  usually  happens,  only  the  means  of  giving  them  i 
new  impulse,  and  pushed  the  spirit  of  enthusiasm,  already  exist- 
ing among  them  in  the  bud,  into  full  development.  MajorimHi 
'  indeed,  died  in  the  year  315  ;  but  with  him  the  schism,  which 
had  struck  deeper  root,  by  no  means  ceased.  Besides,  he  had 
rather  served  to  give  an  outward  name  to  the  party,  than 
really  constituted  the  head  and  soul  of  it.  The  latter  had  till 
now  been  Donatus,  bishop  of  Casae  Nigrse  in  Numidia,  wha 
stood  in  the  same  relation  to  Majorinus  as,  under  similar  cir* 
cumstances,  Novatus  had  done  to  Novatian  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Novatian  schism.  But  Donatus,  the  successor  of 
Majorinus,  was  himself  the  liead  and  soul  of  the  sect.  And  he 
wa^  well  suited  to  stand  at  the  head  of  a  party,  being  a  man 
of  fiery  untutored  eloquence,  of  great  firmness  of  principle, 
and  of  great  energy  of  action.  The  excessive  adnuration  of 
his  party  converted  him  into  a  worker  of  miracles,  and  gave 
him  the  title  of  the  Great. \  From  him,  too,  they  received 
their  name,  the  Donatists ;  and  by  this  name  we  shall  hence- 
forth call  them.j: 

*  Aug.  ep.  88,  s.  3.    Contra  lit.  Pedliani,  c  92,  s.  205. 

fit  went  to  such  a  pass  that  they  were  in  the  habit  of  swearing  per 
canos  Douati.    August.  Enarrat.  in  Ps.  X.  s.  5. 

X  One  might  be  doubtful,  whether  the  names  pars  Donati,  Donatistse, 
Donatiani,  were  derived  originally  from  Donatus  a  Casis  Nigris,  or  from 
Donatus  Ma^us.  The  explanation  given  by  Donatists  themselves  points, 
it  is  true,  quite  distinctly,  to  the  latter  derivation  (see  the  words  of  PfetiH- 
anus,  bishop  of  Cirta  in  Numidia,  which  will  presently  be  quoted,  collat 
c.  Donatist  fol.  296,  s.  32).  But  it  may  be  that  although  this  name  was 
taken  originally  from  Donatus  a  Casis  Nigris,  yet  this  person  was  afte^ 
wards  forgotten  among  his  party,  in  consequence  of  the  far  greater  influ- 
ence of  the  second  Donatus.  The  title  pars  Donati  actually  occois 
already  in  the  petition  of  the  Donatist  party  addressed  to  the  emperor 
Constantine,  in  the  year  313  (in  Optatus,  1.  I.  s.  22)  ;  and  if  this  citation 
is  perfectly  correct,  no  further  doubt  could  exist  about  the  correctness  of 
the  derivation  of  the  name  from  Donatus  a  Casis  Nigris.  But  it  is  cer- 
tain that  Optatus  does  not  give  us  the  original  title  of  this  petition,  but 
has  modified  it  by  the  name  which  the  Donatist  party  then  bore.  The 
original  title  we  find  rather  in  the  relatio  Anulini  proconsulis  Africa?, 
where  it  is  said,  libellus  traditur  a  parte  Majorini.  Thus  the  party  was 
styled,  till  the  time  when  the  name  of  Majorinus  became  wholly  eclipsed 
by  that  of  Donatus  Magnus.  Yet  there  is  one  other  possible  supposition 
— that  Donatus  a  Casis  Nigris  and  Donatus  Magnus  were  one  and  the 
same  individual  j  that  the  former,  on  account  of  having  so  greatly  dis- 


DONATUS  MAGNUa.      PABS  DONATI.  271 

Phe  Donatists,  in  their  public  declarations,  must,  of  course, 
ly  to  themselves  some  appropriate  title,  in  order  to  distin- 
ah  their  own  sect  from  the  party  of  their  opponents,  and 
n  the  dominant  church  in  North  Africa.  They  therefore 
fid  themselves  by  a  name  wholly  inoffensive  in  itself,  the 
ais  Donati,"  as  the  most  convenient  way  of  making  ^em- 
res  known  in  their  relation  to  another  determinate  human 
ty.  This  other  party,  it  is  true,  following  the  unjustifiable 
ctice  of  imputing  iiiierences  of  their  own  as  facts  against 
ir  adversaries,  ai^ued  from  this  party  name  that  they  were 
being  something  else  than  the  church  of  Clirist  and  the 
iiolic  church ;  that  they  thus  set  themselves  off  as  a  mere 
oan  party ;  just  as  in  after  times  a  similar  licence  of  impu- 
on  was  often  indulged  in  by  the  church  dominant  against 
Teh  parties  which  had  seceded  from  it.  The  Donatists  by 
means  admitted  the  thing  which  was  assumed  in  these  accu- 
ODS ;  they  declared  that  they  called  themselves  after  the 
ae  of  Donatus,  not  as  the  founder  of  a  new  church,  but  as 
I  of  the  bishops  of  the  ancient  church  derived  from  Christ.* 
d  not  without  reason  could  they  say  that  they  might  rightly 
I  their  adversaries,  precisely  after  the  same  manner,  Mensu- 
s  and   Gseciliamsts.f      The  name  Donatists,  which  was 

nished  himself  by  his  activity  in  behalf  of  the  interests  of  his  party 
,  after  the  death  of  Majorinus,  obtained  the  first  bishopric  of  his  party. 
Bvoar  of  this  would  be  the  fact,  that  Optatus  of  Mileve  seems  to  have 
vledge  of  only  one  Donatus ;  but  against  it  is  the  fact,  that  the  Dona- 
expressly  diBtanguished  one  of  these  two  Donatuses  fi'om  the  other — 
Angustin.  breviculus  coUat.  c.  Donatistis  d.  III.  Du  Pin,  f.  323,  c.  20); 
moreover,  the  Catholic  bishops  recognized,  at  the  religious  confer- 
)  in  Carthage,  this  distinction  as  a  correct  one;  and  Augustin — 
ttt  an  earlier  period,  as  he  says  in  his  Retractions,  had  confounded 
dier  the  two  Donati — expressly  distinguishes  them,  c  Cresconium 
atjstam,  1.  II.  s.  2.  Again :  the  translation  of  bishops,  forbidden  by 
laws  of  the  church,  was  by  no  means  so  common  in  the  Western 
rch  as  it  was  in  the  Eastern;  and,  had  Donatus  M.  incurred  the 
«e  of  an  act  90  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  church,  his  adversaries 
d  hardly  have  failed  to  make  use  of  such  an  advantage  against  him. 
The  words  of  the  Donatist  Cresconius  are :  Quod  Donatus  non  auctor 
istitator  eoclesise,  qusB  antea  non  fuerat,  sed  a  Christo  deducts)  et 
{use  uniis  ex  episcopis  fuerit.  In  Augustin.  c.  Cresconius  Donatistam, 
iT.  s.  7. 

The  words  of  the  Donatist  bishop  Petilianus  at  the  conference  in 
ihage  :  Ego  eos  dicere  possum,  immo  palam  aperteque  designo  Men- 
stas  et  Cscilianistas,  1.  c.  f.  296,  N..30. 


272  THE  DOKATIST  SCHISM. 

applied  to  them  by  their  opponents,  may,  in  its  intended 
meaning,  perhaps,  have  implied  from  the  beginning  something 
that  was  offensive:  they  themselves  would  never  acknow* 
ledge  it.* 

Ursacius,  a  count  of  the  empire,  had  been  directed  to  canj 
the  laws  against  the  Donatists  into  effect ;  and  a  person  of  this 
description,  accustomed  to  military  despotism,  was  certainly  not 
calculated  to  proceed  in  an  afifair  of  this  kind  with  that  spirit 
of  kindness  and  forbearance,  without  which  the  enthuaastic 
spirit,  already  in  existence,  might  easily  be  fanned  into  a 
fiercer  flame.     The  forcible  measures  to  which  Ursacius  re- 
sorted,!  for  the  purpose  of  compelling  the  Donatists  to  unite 
with  the  dominant  church,  produced  the  most  violent  fermeit 
of  spirits.     There  existed  in  North  Africa  a  band  of  £matical 
ascetics,  who,  despising  all  labour,  wandered  about  the  countiy 
among  the  huts  of  the  peasants  (whence  they  were  called  by 
their  adversaries  circumcelliones)^  and  supported  themselves 
by  begging.     They  styled  themselves  the  Christian  cham-' 
pions,  agonisiici.     These  people  could  easily  be  excited  to 
any  species  of  fanaticism :  whilst  the  pagans  were  still  in 
power,  parties  of  these  circumcelliones  had  often,  to  no  useful 
purpose,  demolished  the  idols  on  their  estates,  and  thus  exposed 
themselves — which  was  in  fact  their  object — to  martyrdom. J 
It  is  no  more  than  natural  that  these  persons,  stimulated  per- 
haps by  the  discourses  of  their  bishops,  and  roused  by  the  per- 

*  The  Donatist  grammarian  Cresconios  affirmed  that,  according  to  the 
Latin  grammatical  use,  they  ought  at  least  to  be  called,  not  Donatists, 
bat  Donatiani,  1.  II.  c  1,  s.  2. 

t  The  Donatists  were  persuaded  that  the  death  of  this  man,  who  wtt 
killed  some  time  afterwards  in  an  affray  with  the  barbarians,  was  a 
divine  judgment  in  punishment  for  his  cnmes.  But  the  logic  of  fiEmati' 
cism,  as  usual,  argued  from  one  or  two  cases  to  all,  and  hence  the  Dona- 
tist bishop  Petilianus  said :  Peri  it  Macarius,  periit  Ursacius,  cunctiqae 
comites  vestri  Dei  pariter  vindicta  perierunt.  Augustin.  c.  literas  Petili- 
ani,  1.  II.  8.  208. 

X  That  it  was  by  their  opponents  alone  these  people  were  called  ctrcmn- 
celUonesy  while  they  gave  themselves  the  name  of  agonistici^  is  clear  from 
Augustin.  enarrat.  in  •4^.  132,  s.  6.  They  sprang  n'om  the  ancient  asce- 
tics, and  hence  were  opposed  to  the  more  recent  monasticism.  Augustin 
describes  them  as  follows :  Genus  hominum,  ab  utilibus  operibus  ottosHwij 
crudelissimum  in  mortibus  alienis,  vilissimum  in  suis  (&natical  contempt 
of  life)  maxime  in  agris  territansy  ab  agris  vcuxins,  et  victus  sui  cavsa  celku 
circumiens  rusticorum,  unde  et  circumcelliones  nomen  accepit  c  Gauden- 
tiom  Dooatistam,  1. 1,  s.  32. 


THE  CIBCUMCELUONES.  278 

ions  against  the  Donatist  party,  should  be  easily  hurried 
)  every  species  of  fanaticism  and  violence. 
le  emperor  Constantine  was  perhaps  cool  and  prudent 
^h  to  have  learned,  from  what  had  fallen  under  his  own 
experience,  the  disastrous  consequences  of  persecutions ; 
3  may  have  been  guided  by  the  counsels  of  some  one  of 
riser  bishops.  For,  as  early  as  the  year  317,  he  sent  a 
ipt  to  the  North- African  bishops  and  communities,  in 
h  he  exhorted  them  to  forbear  retaliating  with  wrong  the 
ig  which  they  suffered  from  the  Circumcellions.  They 
it  not,  with  foolish  hands,  to  intermeddle  with  the  ven- 
ce  which  God  had  reserved  to  himself;  especially  in  a 
where  what  they  suffered  from  the  rage  of  such  men 
•d,  in  the  sight  of  God,  be  equivalent  to  martyrdom.  If 
adhered  to  this  principle,  they  would  soon  see  the  fanati- 
perish  of  its  own  accord.*  When  now  the  Donatists,  in 
tion  to  what  they  had  done  already,  transmitted  to  the 
aror,  in  the  year  321,  a  petition,  in  which  they  declared 
nothing  woidd  induce  them  to  enter  into  church  fellow- 
with  that  scoundrel,  his  bishop  ;^  that  they  would  rather 
r  everything  he  might  choose  to  inflict  on  them ;{  Con- 
ine became  convinced,  doubtless,  still  more  than  ever, 
be  tone  of  this  document,  of  the  dangerous  consequences 
h  must  follow,  if  violent  measures  for  the  restoration 
le  peace  of  the  church  were  pursued  any  farther.  Expe- 
ie  led  him  to  act  according  to  the  principles  which,  in 
ience  to  the  voice  of  reason  and  the  spirit  of  Christianity, 
light  to  have  pursued  from  the  beginning.  In  a  rescript 
essed  to  the  Vicar  Verinus  in  North  Africa,  §  he  granted 
le  Donatists  full  liberty  to  act  according  to  their  own 
ictions,  declaring  that  this  was  a  matter  which  belonged 
le  judgment  of  God.  || 

^  these  principles  Constantine  remained  firm  to  the  end. 
tn  the  Circumcellions,  with  force  of  arms,  demolished 

lee  Constantine's  rescript  in  the  Monumenia.    Da  Pin,  f.  138. 

^ullo  modo  se  t^ommumcaturos  antistlti  ipsius  nebuloni. 

n  Angastin.  breviculos  coUationis  diei  III.  c.  21,  n.  39. 

Spistnla  Constantini,  qua    libertatem    ageudi    tribait  Donatiistis. 

L  CoUationis,  III.  cap.  549. 

n  expressionsi  it  must  bie  allowed,  which  were  wounding  to  the 

tistSy  since  he  does  not  avoid  such  terms  as  eorum,  furor, 

)L.  III.  T 


2t4  THE  DONATIST  SCHISM. 

a  church  which  he  had  caused  to  be  erected  for  txte  Catholics 
in  the  town  of  Constantina,  the  emperor  ordered   it  to  be 
rebuilt  at  his  own  expense,  and  d^oianded  no  indemnification 
of  the  Donatists.*    If  men  had  onlj  remained  true  to  these 
doctrines  of  toleration,  and  simply  punished  the  acts  of  vio- 
lence committed  on  both  sides,  acconling  to  the  laws ;  had  the 
emperor  always  spoken  and  acted  on  this  principle  of  the 
Christian  politician  (which  consists  precisely  in  acknowledg- 
ing the  just  limits  of  all  civil  power),  a  principle  which  is 
capable  of  exhibiting  itself  in  the  province  of  religion  only  qq 
the  negative  side ;  the  North- Afirican  church  doubtless  would 
not  have  been  exposed  to  any  of  those  disorders  which  subse- 
quently ensued,  although  the  Donatists  might  have  long  sub- 
sisted as  a  distinct  party  in  the  church.     But  disastrous  was 
the  result  whenever  an  emperor  was  disposed  to  pursue  auy 
other  than  a  negative  course  in  relation  to  religious  disputes. 
The  Western  emperor,  Constans,  to  whom  North  AfincA 
fell  after  the  death  of  his  &ther,  was  not  at  first  inclined  to 
resort  to  any  forcible  measures  for  uniting  the  Donatists  once 
more  to  the  dominant  church.     He  simply  employed  thow 
means  which  were  then  frequently  resorted  to  on  the  part  of 
the  court,  for  the  purpose  of  making  proselytes.^    He  directed 
his  two   commissaries,   Ursacius  and  Leontius,  in  the  year 
340,  to  endeavour,  by  the  distribution  of  money  under  the 
name  of  alms,  to  win  over  the  Donatist  churches. {     As  the 

*  The  rescript  in  Da  Pin,  189,  composed,  it  mnst  be  admitted,  in  too 
theological  a  style  for  an  emperor. 

t  See  above,  in  the  cases  of  Constantino  and  Julian. 

X  Optatus  represents  this  as  having  been  done  Jirst  by  Macarios.  He 
mentions,  indeed,  the  preceding  persecutions  by  Leontius,  Ursacius,  and 
Gre^orius ;  but,  as  he  gives  no  precise  dates,  it  is  nevertheless  quite 
possible  that  the  whole  ought  to  be  referred  to  the  first  persecution  under 
the  emperor  Constantine :  and  consequently  the  persecution  under  the 
emperor  Constans  would  have  first  commenced  after  the  death  of  the 
bishop  Csecilian  of  Carthage,  and  under  the  new  bishop  Gratus.  Bot 
the  discourse  (sermo)  in  memory  of  the  two  martyrs,  Donatus  et  Advoct- 
tus,  first  published  by  Du  Pin  in  the  collection  of  monumenia  (1,  c.  fbL 
190),  represents  the  persecution  as  having  begun  already,  under  Leontins 
and  Ursacius,  in  the  attempt  to  win  over  the  Donatist  churches  by 
means  of  the  distribution  of  money.  It  is  here  said  (c.  3) :  **  Mittit  (vii. 
diabolous,  salutis  inimicis)  pecunias,  quibus  vel  fidem  caperet,  vel  pro- 
fessione  legis  occasiouem  faceret  avaritis  (foster  avarice  under  the  pre* 
text  that  nothing  more  was  intended  than  a  profession  of  divine  truth— 
the  prqfessio  being  in  this  case  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  means  of 


POLICY  OFCMIBTAXTINE.      OF  CONSTANS.  275 

ir  Constans  issued  at  the  same  time  an  edict  whereby 
led  upon  the  North- African  Christians  to  return  back 
unity  of  the  church  which  Christ  loved,*  it  was  the  less 
e  that  the  object  of  these  measures  should  remain  con- 
frotn.  the  Donatist  bishops.  This  covert  attack  served 
exasperate  them ;  they  excited  their  communities  to  the 
etermined  resistance.  More  forcible  measures  soon  sue- 
; — ^the  Donatists  were  to  be  deprived  of  their  churches ; 
were  &llen  upon  by  armed  troops  while  assembled  for 
rship  of  Grod.  Such  acts  could  not  be  committed  with- 
i  effbision  of  blood ;  those  that  fell  victims  to  the  per- 

g  inoiie7  from  the  emperor).''  Bat  this  hardly  agrees  with  the 
juming  of  the  persecution  under  the  emperor  Constantiue ;  for 
I  Donatists  were  attacked  at  once  with  severe  measures  as  viola- 
he  imperial  decree.  The  question  now  arises,  whether  we  ought 
x>  follow  the  representation  of  the  case  in  the  sermo,  or  that  of 
;  or  whetiier  we  should  seek  to  unite  them  both  together.  In  the 
tf,  it  mi^  be  assumed  that  everything  said  by  Optatus,  relative 
istribution  of  money  and  the  measures  taken  by  Donatus  against 
Id  be  transferred  to  an  earlier  time  than  that  which  he  assigns — 
to  the  first  part  of  the  reign  of  Constans ;  that  what  he  relates  of 
IS  ahoold  be  ascribed  to  Leontius  and  Ursacins ;  and  that  in  place 
lisbcm,  Gratus  of  Carthage,  should  be  substituted  his  predecessor, 
tu  Thus  Optatus  must  have  wholly  confounded  the  times — as 
he  is  not  remarkably  exact  in  such  matters.  At  the  same  time, 
r,  we  cannot  be  certain  that  we  are  justified  in  attributing  to  the 
n  andior  of  the  "  Discourse,"  although  it  is  highly  probable  that 
lot  Uve  at  a  period  fiir  remote  from  the  time  of  these  events,  so 
igher  authority  as  an  historical  witness.  It  may  furthermore  be 
a,  on  the  other  side,  that  the  author  of  the  '*  Discourse  "  might 
have  confi)unded  times  and  names ;  and  that  thus  the  persecution 
he  emperor  Constans  began  first  with  Macarins,  in  the  year  347. 
1  it  is  not  probable  that  the  bishops  of  the  Catholic  party  would 
ietly  observed,  for  so  long  a  time,  the  toleration  widi  which  the 
ts  were  treated,  without  making  any  attempt  to  draw  from  the 
r  Constans  some  new  measures  for  the  suppression  of  the  schism, 
[xirts  of  the  **  Discourse  **  and  of  Optatus  may  perhaps  be  reo(m- 
f  supposing  that  three  separate  attempts  were  made  in  the  reign 
tans — the  first  by  Leontius  and  Ursacius,  the  second  by  Gregorius, 
last  by  Macarius.  In  the  case  of  the  first  and  of  &e  second  of 
tempts,  the  beginning  may  have  been  made  by  the  distribution  of 
It  cannot  assuredly  be  affinned  to  be  improbable,  that  Constans 
lave  resorted  twice  in  succession  to  the  same  means  with  such  un- 
esnlts ;  since  we  are  but  too  well  aware  how  slow  the  Byzantine 
•s  were  to  grow  wise  by  experience. 

ristus  amator  unitatis  est,  unitas  igitur  fiat  L  c.    Passio  Donati  et 
i,8.d. 


i 


276  THE  DONATIST  SCHISM* 

secution  were  honoured  by  their  party  as  martyrs  ;*  and  the 
annual  celebration  of  the  days  of  their  death  furnished  new 
means  for  enkindling  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Donatist  party. 

The  second  attempt  was  made  by  a  count  of  the  empire, 
named  Gregorius.     The  bishop  Donatus  wrote  to  him  in  a 
wild,  insurrectionary  spirit,'|'  with  abusive  language  little  be- 
cx)ming  the  character  of  a  bishop.      But  the  most  furious 
persecution  began  in  the  year  347.     The  imperial  commis- 
saries, Paul  and  Macarius,  traversed,  in  the  first  place,  the 
whole  of  Northern  Africa,  distributed  money  to  the  poor 
in    the    name    of   the    emperor,    presented   costly  church 
utensils  to  individual  communities,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
exhorted  all   to   offer  no  resistance   to  the  unity  of  the 
church.    In  this  connection,  the  object  of  these  presents  was 
perfectly  clear  to  every  one.    The  bishop  Donatus  of  Carthage 
repelled  the  advances  of  the  imperial  officer  with  the  remark: 
"  What  has  the  emperor  to  do  with  the  church  ?" J     He  sent 
admonitions  to  all  the  Donatist  churches,  charging  them  to 
receive  none  of  the  money.     Judging  from  the  character  of 
Donatus,  it  may  well  be  presumed  that  he  betrayed  a  great 
want  of  Christian  reflection  and  prudence — qualities  most 
needful  at  this  time  to  prevent  the  worst  excesses  of  fiinaticism, 
when  parties  of  enthusiastic  Circumcellions  were  wandering 
about  through  the  country. 

The  principle  expressed  in  those  words  of  Donatus,  that 
church  and  state  should  be  kept  wholly  distinct  from  each 
other,  had  at  that  time,  through  the  reaction  which  began  to 
manifest  itself  against  the  dominant  church  party,  become 
universally  recognised  among  the  Donatists.  In  their  sermons, 
the  Donatist  bishops  spoke  of  the  corruption  of  the  church, 
which  had  originated  in  the  confusion  of  the  church  and  the 
state.  "  The  evil  spirit,  before  openly  combated  in  the  church," 
said  they,  "  was  now  a  still  more  dangerous  enemy  in  its 
covert  attacks,  since  it  made  a  pretext  of  religion  itself,  and 
strove  to  insinuate  itself  into  men's  hearts  by  flattery.§    Those 

*  Thus  it  was  with  Honoratus,  bishop  of  Siciliba,  whose  life  is  related 
in  the  tract  above  referred  to. 

f  Gregori,  macula  senatus  ct  dedecus  prsefectorum ;  words  quoted  by 
Optatus,  1.  III.  c.  3. 

X  Quid  est  imperatori  cum  ecclesia?    Optat.  1.  III.  c  3. 

^  In  the  Donatist  sermon,  quoted  iu  Da  Pin,  fl  191 :  Blandx  decep- 


FJLNATICISM  OF  THE  CIKCUMCELUONES.  277 

whom  it  seduced  to  apostacy,  (the  traditors,)  and  who,  by 
humbling  themselves,  might  have  been  able  to  regain  the 
divine  favour,  it  now  endeavoured  to  make  secure  by  flatter- 
ing them  that  they  could  still  be  Christians,  and,  in  truth, 
bishops,  and  by  tempting  their  ambition  and  their  avarice  with 
the  favour  of  princes  and  worldly  gifts."     What  impression 
must  these  and  the  like  discourses  have  produced  on  the  minds 
of  the  Circumcellions,  inclined  already  to  every  fanatical  ex- 
travagance !     Accustomed  to  trace  all  corruption  among  the 
Christians  to  the  influence  of  earthly  power  and  grandeur,  and 
to  the  abundance  of  worldly  goods,  this  ruling  idea  mounted 
with  them  to  a  fanatical  spirit,  that  breathed  hatred  against 
all  who  possessed  power,  rank,  or  wealth.     They  roved  about 
the  country,  pretending  to  be  the  protectors  of  the  oppressed 
and  sufiering — a  sacred  band  who  were  fighting  for  the  rights 
of  God.    Perhaps  they  rightly  perceived  that  there  was  a  great 
deal  in  the  relation  between  the  proprietors  and  their  oftentimes 
heavily  oppressed  boors,*  between  masters  and  slaves,  that 
was  at  variance  with  the  spirit  and  doctrines  of  Christianity. 
But  in  the  way  in  which  they  were  disposed  to  better  the 
matter,  all  civil  order  must  be  turned  into  confusion.     They 
took  the  part  of  all  debtors  against  their  creditors:   their 
chiefe,  Fasir  and  Axid,  who  styled  themselves  the  leaders  of 
the  sons  of  the  Holy  One,t  sent  threatening  letters  to  all  credi- 
tors, in  which  they  were  ordered  to  give  up  the  obligations  of 
their  debtors.    Whoever  refused  to  obey  was  attacked  on  his 
own  estate  by  the  furious  company,  and  might  congratulate 
himself  if  he  could  purchase  back  his  life  by  the  remission  of 
the  debt.     Whenever  they  met  a  master  with  his  slave,  they 
obliged  the  former  to  take  the  place  of  the  latter.    They  com- 
pelled venerable  heads  of  families  to  perform  the  most  menial 
services.    All  slaves  who  complained  of  their  masters,  whether 
justly  or  unjustly,  were  sure  of  finding  with  them  assistance 
and  the  means  of  revenge.:^     Several  of  the  Donatist  bishops, 

tioius  inddise,  quse  sub  obtextu  religionis  animas  fraudnlenta  circumven- 
tio&e  sabvertunt. 

*  Of  which  oppressions  the  bishops  by  their  intercessiones  and  Libanios 
frequently  testify. 

t  The  phrase :  Deo  laades  I  constituted  the  watch-word  of  their  &na- 
t'cism.    Vid.  Angnstin.  c.  Petilian.  1.  II.  s.  146. 

X  See,  among  others,  Angustin.  ep.  185,  ad.  Bonifac.  s.  \^. 


278  THE  DONATIST  SCHISM. 

desirous  of  clearing  their  party  from  the  reproach  of  beiDg  the 
abettors  or  advocates  of  such  atrocities,  when  they  found  them- 
selves unable  to  produce  any  e£Ssct  by  their  representations  on 
the  fanatics,  are  said  to  have  besought  themselves  the  inter- 
position of  the  civil  power  against  men  who  refused  to  be 
governed  and  set  right  by  the  church  ;*  and  this  gave  the  first 
occasion  for  resorting  to  force  for  the  purpose  of  checking  the 
outrages  of  the  CircumoellicHis.     Now  came  in  those  exhorta- 
tions of  Donatus,  and  other  like-minded  bishops,  to  excite  the 
Circumcellions  to  revolt.     Their  ferocious  deeds  furnished  a 
welcome  pretext  for  resorting  to  other  persecuting  measurei. 
It  was  determined  that  the  unity  of  the  church  should  be 
forcibly  restored ;  the  Donatists  were  to  be  deprived  of  their 
churches,  and  compelled  to  worship  with  the  Catholics.    It 
cannot  be  exactly  determined,  how  much,  in  all  that  was 
done,  proceeded  from  imperial  edicts,  and  how  much  from  tfae 
despotism,  the  passion,  or  the  cruelty  of  individual  commanders. 
Force  continually  excited  the  fanatic  spirit  still  more;  the 
report  spread  that  the  emperor's  image  was  set  up  after  tiie 
pagan  manner  in  the  churches,  and  the  worship  paid  to  it 
whicii  is  due  only  to  God.    Many  Donatist  bishops  and  clergy- 
men, many  Circumcellions,  fell  victims  to  the  persecution.  It 
is  natural  to  suppose  that  the  reporters  of  the  £icts  on  the 
Catholic  side  would  seek  to  curtail,  and  those  on  the  other 
side  to  exaggerate,  the  truth ;  hence  an  accurate  statement  is 
out  of  the  question.     Certam  it  is,  that  many  Circumcellions 
sought  only  the  glory  of  martyrdom.     Finally  it  came  to  that 
pass,  that  they  threw  themselves  from  precipices,  cast  them- 
selves into  the  fire,  and  hired  others  to  kill  them.f     The  most 
eminent  bishops  of  the  Donatist  party,  such  as  Donatus  of 
Carthage,  were  exiled ;  and  thus  it  was  imagined  a  final  check 
had  been  given  to  the  resistance  of  the  Donatists.      So  much 
the  more  violent  was  the  reaction  when  a  change  of  poUtical 
relations  took  place,  and  the  party  hitherto  oppressed  thereby 
recovered  once  more  its  freedom.    This  came  about  under  the 
reign  of  the  emperor  Julian,  in  the  year  361.    The  Donatists, 
in  conformity  with  their  peculiar  principles,  were  quite  satis- 
fied that  Christianity  should  cease,  under  the  pagan  ruler,  to 

*  According  to  Optatus,  III.  4,  this  appears  to  have  taken  place  before 
the  attempt  of  Macarius  to  restore  union. 
f  yid.  Optat.  111.  4aiidV2. 


FANATICISM  OF  THE  CIBCfUMCELLIOXES.  279 

be  the  dominant  Teligion  of  the  state.  Their  bishops  trans- 
mitted to  him  a  petition,  in  which  they  besought  a  ruler  who 
regarded  only  jastice,  to  rescind  the  unjust  decrees  that  had 
been  issued  against  them.  There  could  be  no  difficulty  in 
obtaining  a  fevourable  answer,  since  the  petition  perfectly 
agreed  with  the  principles  of  this  emperor  (see  section  i.  p.  73). 
He  therefore  issued  an  edict  by  which  everything  which  under 
the  preceding  reign  had  been  unlawfully  undertaken  against 
them,  was  to  be  annulled.  As  they  were  now  reinstated  in 
possession  of  the  churches  which  had  been  taken  from  them, 
their  separatist  &naticism  displayed  itself  in  the  wildest  freaks. 
They  regarded  those  churches,  and  the  church  furniture,  as 
having  been  stained  and  polluted  by  the  use  which  the  proiane 
had  made  of  them  while  they  were  in  their  possession ;  they 
dashed  the  utensils  of  the  church  to  pieces  ;  they  painted  over 
the  walls  of  the  churches ;  they  polished  down  the  altars,  or 
removed  them  entirely  from  the  churches.* 

Under  the  succeeding  emperors,  the  situation  of  the  Dona- 
tists  again  became  worse ;  and  they  themselves  did  the  most 
injury  to  their  cause  by  their  wild  fanaticism.  The  passionate 
temper  of  their  bishops  natiu*ally  led  to  new  divisions  among 
themselves.  A  Donatist  deacon  in  Carthage,  by  the  name  of 
Maximian,  who  had  fallen  into  a  quarrel  with  Primianus,  the 
Dcmatist  bishop  of  that  city,  and  who  had  been  excommuni- 
cated by  the  latter,  finding  followers,  set  up  a  separate  party, 
which  stood  in  precisely  the  same  relation  to  the  main  body  ot 
the  Donatists  as  the  Donatists  themselves  did  to  the  Catholic 
church.  In  this  controversy,  the  Donatists  were  driven  into 
many  inconsistencies,  of  which  their  adversaries  were  not  slow 
to  tsLJke  advantage. 

The  deplorable  effects  of  this  long-continued  schism  on  the 
peace  and  prosperity  of  the  African  church, t  and  also,  as  it 
must  be  allowed,  the  prevailing  conviction  that  there  was  nc 
way  of  salvation  out  of  the  Catholic  church,  fired  the  zeal  ol 
the  North- African  bishops  to  use  every  effort  in  order  to  heal 
the  division.     Particularly  deserving  of  mention  here  as  a  dis- 

*  See  Optat.  Milevit.  II.  25,  and  1.  VI. 

t  The  &natical  intolerance  went  so  far,  that  when  the  Donatists  were 
the  dominant  party  at  Hippo,  none  of  them  would  venture  to  bake  bread 
for  the  Catholics,  who  were  in  the  minority.  See  Augustin.  c.  lit.  Petili- 
ani,l.  U.S.  184. 


280  THE  DOXATIST  SCHISM. 

tinguished  theological  polemic,  is  Aug^tio,  a  presbyter,  and 
subsequently  a  bishop,  of  Hippor^us  in  Numidia.     His  con- 
fidence in  the  validity  of  his  logi(^  and  dogmatic  principles 
made  him  feel  perfectly  sure,  that,  if  the  Donatist  bislK)p9 
could  only  be  induced  to  enter  into  a  calm  investigation  of 
arguments,  they  might  easily  be  led  to  an  acknowle^ment  of 
their  errors.*     But,  not  to  mention  that  a  fundamental  error 
in  the  notion  entertained  on  both  sides  concerning  the  church, 
presented  a  great  difficulty  in  the  way  of  a  mutual  understand- 
ing between  the  two  parties,  the  chief  obstacle  of  all,  which 
prevented  any  hearty  and  permanent  union,  the  prejudices  of 
party  spirit  and  passion  did  not  admit  of  being  banished  from 
the  dispositions  of  men  by  any  power  of  logic ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  it  was  far  more  natural  that  disputation  would  serve 
only  to  excite  the  passions  to  a  fiercer  flame,  and  to  cause  the 
differences  to  appear  still  greater  on  both  sides.     It  was  an 
excellent  plan  which  Augustin  proposed  to  the  aged  bish(^ 
Fortunius — both  of  them  men  distinguished,  in  their  respectiTe 
parties,  for  Christian  love  and  moderation — ^that  each  of  them, 
with  ten  others,  lovers  of  peace,  and  agreeing  with  them  in 
doctrine,  should  come  together  in  some  villa,  where  there  was 
no  church  of  either  party,  and  where  members  of  both  parties 
dwelt ;  that  each  should  prepare  himself,  by  silent  prayer  to 
the  God  of  peace,  for  the  common  investigation  ;"!•  and  that 
they  should  agree  not  to  separate  till  they  had  come  to  the 
wished-for  union.     But  where  would  it  have  been  possible  to 
find  ten  such  men  of  both  parties,  who  would  be  able  constantly 
to  maintain,  even  in  the  heat  of  dispute,  that  tone  of  mind  which 
Augustin  required  ?      Since  the  Donatists  contended  as  the 
oppressed  party  with  the  dominant  one,  they  had  reasons,  not 

*  The  Donatist  Ci*escoiiius  was  not  so  much  out  of  the  way,  when  he 
censured  the  confidence  of  Augustin,  who  professed  to  be  able  to  dispose 
so  easily  of  a  controversy,  on  which,  for  so  long  a  time,  so  many  things 
had  been  said  on  both  sides ;  Hoc  velle  finire  post  tot  annos,  post  jadices 
atque  arbitros,  quod  apud  principes  tot  disceptantibas  litteratis  ab  utrins- 
que  partis  episcopis  finiri  non  potuit.  See  Augustin.  c.  Cresconinm 
Donatistam,  1.  I.  s.  4.  He  ought  indeed  to  have  learned  something  from 
so  long  experience  :  but  the  only  difficulty  on  the  part  of  Augustin  was 
not  surely,  as  Crescouius  complains,  an  intoleranda  arrogantia,  but  the 
natural  confidence  of  one  who  was  firmly  rooted,  with  all  his  habits  of 
thinking,  in  a  dogmatic  system. 

f  See  Augustin.  ep.  44,  a.d.  398. 


▲UGUSTIN  AGAINST  THE  DOKATISTS.  231 

ithout  some  foundation,  for  mistrust  with  regard  to  any  pro- 
yeal  coming  from  that  quarter ;  and,  besides  this,  they  feared 
id  hated  the  superior  logic  of  Augustin.* 
At  the  genersd  African  council  held  at  Carthage,  a.d.  403, 
form  was  drawn  up,  whereby  all  the  Donatist  bishops  were 
I  be  invited  to  choose  delegates  out  of  their  oWn  body,  pre- 
iied  to  discuss  the  contested  points  with  chosen  men  from  the 
atholic  party.  The  forms  of  this  invitation  were  conceived, 
is  true,  in  the  spirit  of  love ;  yet  it  contained  a  good  deal 
iiich  was  calculated  to  irritate  the  minds  of  the  Donatists. 
lie  Catholic  bishops  could  not  consent  to  forget  that  they 
)oke,  in  the  secure  possession  of  the  truth,  with  men  who  were 
I  error y  and  whose  errwrs  it  was  their  business  to  correct,  t  It 
li  to  be  expected  that  the  Donatists  would  refuse  to  comply 
ith  any  such  proposal.  And  when  now,  in  addition  to  this, 
Lugustin,  in  the  name  of  the  church,  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
bmitist  churches,:^  in  which  he  exposed  the  inconsistencies  of 
leir  party,  and  interpreted  the  conduct  of  their  bishops  in 
iclimng  the  invitation  held  out  to  them,  as  a  token  of  distrust 
the  goodness  of  their  cause,  the  eifect  could  only  be  to  in* 
ease  their  indignation.  Hence  it  happened  that  the  Circum- 
Uions  were  stirred  up  to  new  fury,  and  that  those  ecclesiastics 
bo  had  taken  a  zealous  part  in  the  disputation  with  the  Dona- 
fts  became  the  special  objects  of  it.  Such  occurrences  would 
mish  occasion  for  new  penal  statutes  against  the  Donatist 
irty ;  though  influential  voices  already  protested  against  the 
ractice  of  applying  to  the  emperors  for  the  passage  of  such 
ws. 
In  respect  to  Augustin,  he,  at  least,  who  through  so  many 

*  The  Donatist  Cresconius  objects  to  Augustin,  that  dialectics  <<non 
agmat  Christianse  veritati/'  and  that  the  Donatist  teachers  would 
terefore  much  sooner  avoid  than  refute  him,  as  a  homo  dialecticus 
'» Cresconium.  1. 1,  s.  16).  In  repl^  to  this,  Augustin  says :  Hanc  artem, 
lam  dialecticam  vocant,  quae  nihil  quam  consequentia  demonstrare, 
n  vera  veris  sen  falsa^  falsis,  nunquam  doctrina  Christiano  formidat. 
e  refers  to  the  fact  that  Paul  did  not  avoid  a  disputation  with  the  Dia- 
etic  Stoics :  that  Christ  repelled  the  entrapping  questions  of  the  Phari- 
esy  Matth.  xxii.  17,  with  a  syllogism;  and  he  says  of  these  latter. 
They  had  not  learned  from  you  to  revile ;  else  perhaps  they  would 
ive  chosen,  with  more  bitterness,  to  call  him  a,  dialectitian  rather  than  a 
imaritanj* 
t  De  vestra  correctione  gaudere  cnpientes.    Cod.  canon,  eccles.  Afr.  c. 


I. 


X  Ep.  76. 


282  THE  DONATIST  SGHIffli, 

devious  ways  and  severe  struggles  had  come  to  the  ka 
of  the  truth  in  which  he  found  rest,  must  doubtless  ha 
on  this  very  account,  more  mildly  disposed  towards  th 
in  his  opinion,  were  in  error.  He  may  have  learned 
own  experience,  that  errors  were  not  to  be  expelled  b 
that  it  required  something'  else  besides  human  wisdom 
the  development  and  purification  of  a  human  soul.  T 
deeply  penetrated  he  was  with  the  truth  that  grace  alo 
truly  enlighten  and  sanctify  men,  the  less  would  he  be 
to  attempt  producing  religious  conviction  by  outwarc 
In  fact,  Augustin,  before  his  habits  of  thinking  becai 
and  particularly  before  they  had  attained  to  a  systenu 
mony  around  a  single  point,  was  far  from  inducing  i 
to  subject  to  outward  constraint  that  which  only  can 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  out  of  the 
velopment  of  the  inner  man. 

In  the  meeting  above  alluded  to  with  the  Donatis 
Fortunius,  it  came  about  that  the  latter,  as  the  Donati 
frequently  in  the  habit  of  doing,  urged  against  the  < 
church  the  violent  measures  of  which  it  had  been  the  < 
Augustin,  feeling  compelled  to  say  something  in  vin 
of  his  party,  was  so  far  misled  as  to  appeal  to  the  exi 
Elijah,  who  slew,  with  his  own  hand,  the  prophets  • 
But  when  Fortunius  replied  that  a  distinction  was  to 
in  such  matters  between  the  times  of  the  Old  and  of  i 
Testament,  Augustin  acknowledged  that  he  was  right.* 
what  later,  he  published  a  work  against  the  party  of  1 
in  the  first  book  of  which  he  decidedly  condemns  all  1 
sures  which  had  been  employed  to  force  back  the  Doe 
the  ruling  church.'f'  And  when,  at  the  council  of  the 
African  church,  held  at  Carthage,  a.d.  404,  the  ques 
agitated  about  requiring  the  emperor  to  pass  new  pei 

♦  Ep.  44.  Hie  revera  vidit,  quod  videndam  erat,  talia  tui 
jostis.  Hffic  enim  prophetico  spiritu  auctoritate  Dei  faciebant,  c 
dabio  novit,  cui  etiam  prosit  occidi. 

t  This  work,  contra  partem  Donati,  has  not  come  down  to  u 
tendency  has  been  thus  described  by  Augustin,  in  Retractation, 
He  says  in  this  place,  he  had  then  so  conceive!  it  because  he  1 
yet  learned  by  experience  how  much  sin  the  Donatlsts  were  bo 
to  commit,  while  they  went  unpunished,  or  how  much  a  severe 
conduct  would  contribute  to  their  improvement.  But  one  "9 
never  justify  another,  nor  the  end  sanctify  the  means. 


OCNTNCIL  AT  CARTHAGE.  283 

igainst  the  Donatists,  by  which  numbers  might  be  the  more 
easily  brought  back  to  the  Catholic  church,  AugustiD,  with 
jevefal  others  of  the  younger  bishops,  declared  against  it.  He 
said  men  must  go  forward  simply  with  the  word  of  truth,  must 
»ek  to  conquer  by  arguments,  unless,  instead  of  open  and 
lYowed  heretics,  they  would  have  hypocritical  Catholic  Chris- 
tiams.  Hence  the  council  ought  not  to  be  satisfied  with  merely 
providing  for  the  safety  of  those  who,  by  defending  the  cause 
of  the  Catholic  church,  exposed  themselves  to  the  fury  of  the 
Ciicumcellions.*  This  opinion  was  adopted  in  part  by  the 
eoonciL  It  was  proposed  to  the  emperor  Honorius  by  the 
d^uties  of  the  North- African  church,  that  the  fixed  pecuniary 
mnlct  of  ten  pounds  of  gold,  which  had  been  laid  by  his  father 
Theodosius  against  the  clei^  of  the  heretics,  or  the  owners 
of  those  places  where  they  held  their  assemblies  for  worship, 
sbould  be  assessed  only  against  those  Donatist  bishops  and 
clergy,  within  whose  dioceses  acts  of  violence  against  the 
Cathotic  clergy  should  be  perpetrated.  Yet  the  attempt  is 
nid  to  have  been  made,  at  the  same  time,  to  procure  that  the 
kw  whereby  heretics  were  excluded  from  the  right  of  receiving 
donations  and  legacies,  and  of  leaving  legacies  in  their  wills, 
diould  be  expressly  extended  to  the  Donatists,  who  would  not 
consent  to  be  reckoned  among  the  heretics. f  When,  moreover, 
to  the  proposal  of  the  North- African  council  were  added 
the  complaints  of  individuals  who  had  been  abused  by  the 
Circumcellions,  there  were  enacted,  in  the  year  405,  against 
the  entire  Donatist  party,  as  a  heretical  one,   various  laws 

*  £p.  93.  Angustuii  ad  Vinoentiiim,  s.  17,  and  epist.  185,  ad  Bonifa- 
dnm,  8.  25. 

t  Cod.  Afi*.  canon  93.  If  we  compare  these  minutes  of  the  proceedings 
of  the  cooncil  "with  the  report  of  them  drawn  up  by  Augustin,  in  the 
letter  already  referred  to,  addressed  to  Boniface,  we  shall  doubtless  see 
that  this  report  is  not  strictly  correct;  perhaps  because  the  whole  matter 
was  no  longer  present  to  Augustin's  memory ;  for  this  council  certainly 
required,  as  is  evident  from  Sie  appendix,  a  penal  law  against  the  Dona- 
tiste  generally,  as  such,  but  one  by  no  means  so  severe ;  and  such  a  spirit 
of  mildness  and  liberality  as  is  described  by  Augustin  in  the  two  letters 
ibonre  referred  to,  as  peculiar  to  his  earlier  mode  of  thinking,  by  no 
BKans  expresses  itself  in  those  minutes.  Moreover,  it  may  be  gathered 
fimn  many  of  the  works  against  the  Donatists  which  Augustin  had  at 
that  time  already  written,  and  which  we  shall  hereafter  cite,  that  he  had 
then  actually  made  the  transition  from  his  earlier  liberal  principles,  to 
nore  strict  and  rigid  ones. 


284  THE  DONATIST  SCHISM. 

which  were  still  more  severe  than  the  council  itself  had 
required. 

The  North- African  bishops,  of  whom  Aug^tin  was  the  sool, 
laboured  incessantly  to  bring  about  a  religious  conference  with  - 
the  Donatists,  where  they  might  be  brought  over  to  the  true  ^ 
faith  by  the  force  of  arguments.  The  Donatists,  generally,  f" 
sought  every  means  of  avoiding  so  useless  an  experiment.  But  f 
it  so  happened,  in  the  year  410,  that  certain  Donatist  bishops 
who  had  been  summoned  before  the  higher  civil  authorities 
were,  by  some  means  or  other,  perhaps  by  some  objecti(m 
which  was  brought  against  them,  led  to  assert,  for  the  first 
time,  that  they  would  doubtless  be  able  to  prove  the  truth  of 
their  cause,  were  they  but  allowed  a  patient  hearing.*  They 
were  immediately  taken  at  their  word;  and  the  Catholic 
bishops,  urgently  renewing  their  request  that  a  religious  con- 
ference might  be  appointed,  appealed  to  the  fact  that  the  Dooa- 
tists  themselves  were  ready  to  acquiesce  in  that  movement. 
And  the  emperor  Honorius  ordered  a  religious  conference  to 
be  held  between  the  two  parties  at  Cathage,  a.d.  41 1.  If  the 
Donatist  bishops,  af^er  being  three  times  invited,  still  declined 
taking  any  share  in  the  religious  conference,  their  conduct 
should  be  interpreted  to  signify  a  consciousness  of  being  unable 
to  defend  their  cause,  and  their  communities  should  therefore 
be  compelled  to  unite  with  the  Catholic  church.  On  the  othff 
hand,  any  who  might  comply  with  the  invitation,  should  at 
some  future  time  receive  again  the  churches  of  which  they  were 
deprived.  The  imperial  tribune  and  notary,  Flavins  Mareel- 
linus,  Augustin's  friend,  was  appointed  to  preside  over  this 
religious  conference  as  the  emperor's  commissioner,  and  to  act 
as  judge. 

The  Catholic  bishops  made  such  overtures  to  the  Donatiste 
as  were  calculated  to  give  them  confidence.  They  declared 
themselves  ready  to  resign  their  bishoprics,  and  to  surrender 
them  into  the  hands  of  the  Donatist  bishops  alone,  in  case  the 
latter  gained  the  victory  in  the   conference.     Such   a  pro- 

*  In  the  letters  missive  of  this  conference,  the  &ct  was  appealed  to. 
that  the  Donatists  themselves  had  demanded  it  (sic  ante  brevissimom 
tempos  Donatistamm  episcopos  in  judicio  illustrinm  potestatom  coUa- 
tionem  postulasse  non  dubium  est.  Gesta  collationis  in  Da  Pin,  f.  247), 
although  the  Donatists  denied  all  knowledge  of  having  demanded  any 
such  thing. 


COUNCIL  AT  CARTHAGE.  285 

ition,  it  may  be  granted,  required  but  little  self-denial, 
3e,  beyond  all  doubt,  they  were  well  convinced  that  the 
e  supposed  could  never  happen.  There  was  more  in  the 
er  proposal,  that  if  the  cause  of  the  Donatists  was  lost,  and 
heir  bishops  would  come  over  to  the  Catholic  church,  they 
old  be  recognized  in  their  episcopal  character,  and  stand 
the  same  level  with  the  Catholic  bishops  in  the  exercise  of 
ar  functions.  But  if  the  communities  were  not  satisfied  with 
s,  both  i^ould  resign  their  dignities,  and  the  Donatists  and 
tholics,  now  united,  choose  a  new  bishop.  ''Be  brothers 
Ai  us  in  the  Lord's  inheritance,"  said  Augustin ;  ''  let  us' 
k,  for  the  sake  of  preserving  our  own  stations,  hinder  the 
ice  of  Christ."*  Augustin  preached  in  Carthage  before 
i  conunencement  of  the  conference  two  discourses,  in  which 
endeavoured  to  inspire  the  Catholics  there  with  love  and 
titleness  towards  the  Donatists,  and  called  on  them  sedulously 
avoid  everything  which  might  be  calculated  to  give  offence 
their  excitable  feelings,  or  to  arouse  their  passions.  ''  Their 
»  are  inflamed,"  said  he :  ''  they  must  be  treated  prudently 
1  with  forbearance.  Let  no  one  enter  into  controversy  with 
>  other — ^let  no  one  at  this  moment  even  defend  his  faith  by 
putation,  lest  some  spark  from  the  controversy  kindle  into 
preat  fire,  lest  occasion  of  offence  be  given  to  those  who  seek 
Mis&on  for  it.  Do  you  hear  reviling  language,  endure  it ; 
willing  not  to  have  heard  it ;  be  silent.  Do  you  say,  he 
Ings  charges  against  my  bishop,  and  shall  I  be  silent  ?  Yes ; 
^ent  at  those  charges ;  not  that  you  are  to  allow  them, 
t  to  bear  them.  You  best  subserve  the  interests  of  your 
{hop  at  the  present  moment,  when  you  forbear  meddling 
th  his  cause.     Repay  not  revilings  with  revilings,  but  pray 

p  hhn."t 

There  met  together  at  Carthage,  a.d.  41 1,  two  hundred  and 
jhty-six  bishops  of  the  Catholic,  and  two  hundred  seventy- 
ae  of  the  Donatist  party.  The  Donatists  liad  evidently 
me  to  the  conference  with  reluctance,  and  full  of  distrust : 
is  was  shown  on  all  occasions.  The  tribune  Marcellinus,  in 
nformity  with  the  imperial  edict,  made  known  to  them  the 
oposal,  that,  in  case  they  wanted  confidence  in  him,  they 
are  at  liberty  to  choose  another  person  of  equal  or  of  superior 
ok  to  preside  along  with  him.  The  Donatist  bishop  Pe- 
*  Augustin.  ep.  128,  Sermo  358,  f.  4.  f  ?.  357,  s.  4. 


286  THE  DONATIST  SGHISX. 

tilianus  thereupon  declared — "  It  b  none  of  our  concem  to 
ask  fur  another  judge,  since  in  &et  we  did  not  ask  for  the^r«l. 
The  business  belongs  to  those  who  have  been  the  coDtrivers  of 
this  whole  affeir."* 

Amid  such  vast  numbers  on  both  sides,  the  transactions 
could  hardly  be  conducted  in  a  quiet  and  orderly  manner. 
Marcellinus  demanded,  in  compliance  with  the  imperial  letten 
missive,  that,  according  to  the  common  mode  of  judicial  pro- 
ceedings, deputies  should  be  chosen  from  each  of  the  two 
l)artie8,  seven  in  number,  to  advocate  the  cause  of  thdr 
respective  sides  in  the  name  of  the  rest.  But  the  distrustful 
Donatists,  prejudiced  against  the  whole  business,  at  first  posi- 
tively refused  to  enter  into  such  an  arrangement.  They 
declared  tliat  the  judicial  mode  of  piroceeding  was  not  ap- 
plicable to  tliis  spiritual  concem.  Amid  wearisome,  firuitl^ 
disputes  about  this  and  other  matters  relating  to  the  fi>nn  oi 
transacting  business,  the  time  of  the  meeting  during  the  greater 
})art  of  the  first  day  was  spoit.  At  length  the  Donatists  were 
obliged  to  yield,  and  to  choose  seven  bishops.  Augustin  wu 
the  ablest  speaker  on  the  one  side,  Fetilianus  on  the  other. 

When,  on  the  second  day  of  the  assembly,  the  seven  deputies 
of  each  party  entered  the  hall,  the  imperial  commissioner 
invited  them  to  take  tlieir  seats  as  he  took  his  own.  The 
Catholic  bishops  followed  the  invitation ;  but  Fetilianus  said, 
in  the  name  of  the  Donatists — "  We  do  not  sit  in  the  absence 
of  our  fathers,  (the  other  bishops,  who  could  not  assist  at  the 
conference,)  especially  as  the  divine  law,  Ps.  xxvi.  4,  forbids 
us  to  sit  down  vAi\\  such  adversaries."  Marcellinus  thereupoa 
declared,  that  respect  for  the  character  of  the  bishops  forbade 
that  he  should  remain  seated,  if  they  chose  to  stand ;  and  he 
ordered  his  chair  to  be  removed. 

The  matters  brought  forward  at  this  religious  conference 
related  to  two  disputed  questions ;  the  one,  as  to  the  &ct 
whether  Felix  of  Aptunga,  and  Csecilian,  were  traditors ;  the 
other  was  a  question  of  doctrine,  viz.  what  belonged  to  the 
essence  of  the  Catholic  church, — whether  the  church,  by 
communion  with  imworthy  members,  lost  the  predicate  of  the 
genuine  Christian  Catholic  church.  The  controversy  on  the 
first  point  can  have  no  farther  interest  for  us :  in  respect  to 
the  controversy  on  the  second  point,  we  shall  treat  upon  it 

"^  GestacoUat.  £248. 


CQUNOIL  AT  CARTHAGE.  287 

oonoefttedly,  when  We  eome  to  survey  the  whole  matter  of 
(tispute  between  the  two  parties. 

The  imperial  commissioner  decided,  as  was  to  be  expected, 

in  j&vour  of  the  CSatholic  church.     The  decision  was  followed 

by  severer  laws,  by  which  all  the  Donatist  clergy  were  banished 

horn  their  country,  and  the  laity  of  the  party  were  condemned 

to  pecuniary  fines.    The  fanaticism  of  the  oppressed  party  was 

thereby  excited  to  new  and  more  violent  outbreaks.     When, 

in  the  year  420,  the  imperial  tribune  Dulcitius  signified  his 

iDtention  to  cany  the  laws  against  the  Donatists  into  execution, 

Gaudentius,  bishop  of  Thamugade,  who  had  been  one  of  the 

seven  speakers  on  the  side  of  the  Donatists  at  the  conference 

of  Carthage,  declared  that,  if  force  were  used  to  take  away 

lus  church,  he  woidd  bum  himself  up  in  it,  together  with  his 

eommunity.     The  tribune  having  written  to  him  that  such  a 

pioceeding  would  not  be  in  conformity  with  the  doctrine  of 

Christ ;  that,  according  to  this,  he  must  rather  seek  safety  in 

ight;    Gaudentius  defended  his  premeditated  suicide,   and 

^^ealed,  among  other  arguments,  to  the  example  of  Razis, 

2  Maocab.  xiv.     This  was  the  occasion  of  Augustin's  writing 

lis  work  against  Gaudentius  ;  a  treatise  important  on  account 

(tf  its  bearing  on  the  question  of  suicide,  and  on  other  points 

connected  with  the  history  of  Christian  morals  (see  the  fourth 

Section).     When  the  Vandals,  in  the  fiflh  century,  made 

themselves  masters  of  this  country,  the  Donatists,  as  such,  had 

to  suffer  no  persecuticMis  from  them.    It  was  only  as  adherents 

of  the  Nicene  creed  that  they  were  persecuted  in  common 

with  other  confessors  of  the  same  system.     They  continued  to 

survive  as  a  distinct  party  down  to  the  sixth  century,  as  may 

be  seen  £rom  the  letters  of  the  Roman  bishop  Gregory  the 

Great. 

We  now  pass  to  consider  the  theological  points  of  dispute 
between  the  two  parties.  The  first  point  related  to  the  doc- 
trine concerning  the  church.  The  same  remarks  which  we 
made  on  this  subject,  in  speaking  of  the  Novatian  controversies 
m  the  preceding  period,  apply  also  to  the  Donatist  disputes. 
Both  parties  were  involved  in  the  same  grand  mistake  with 
regard  to  the  conception  of  the  church,  by  tiieir  habit  of  con- 
founding the  notions  of  the  invisible  and  of  the  visible  church 
with  each  other.  Proceeding  on  this  fundamental  error,  the 
Catholic  fiithers  maintained  that,  separate  from  the  communion 


288 


THE  DONATIST  SCHISlf • 


I 


of  the  one  visible  Catholic  church,  derived,  through 
cessioQ  of  the  bishops,  from  the  apostles,  there  is  n< 
participating  in  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
obtaining  salvation ;  and  hence  it  could  not  seem  o 
than  a  matter  of  the  highest  importance  to  those  of  tl 
were  actuated  by  a  pure  zeal  of  Christian  charity,  to  1 
Donatists  to  acknowledge  this  universal  visible  church,  i 
they  were  not  separated  from  them  by  any  difierence 
On  the  other  hand  the  Donatists,  owing  to  this  same  c 
of  notions,  held  that  every  church  which  tolerated  u 
members  in  its  bosom  was  itself  polluted  by  the  coi 
with  them ;  it  thus  ceased  to  deserve  the  predicates  c 
and  holiness,  and  consequently  ceased  to  be  a  true  ( 
church,  since  such  a  church  could  not  subsist  with( 
predicates. 

As  it  concerns  Augustin,  the  principal  manager  of 
troversy,  it  is  easy  to  explain,  from  the  course  of  his  : 
and  theological  development,  how  this  notion  of  th< 
came  to  be  considered  by  him  of  so  much  importan 
the  foundation  on  which  this  notion  was  establishec 
logical,  systematizing  mind,  exerted  a  great  influenc 
succeeding  times.  Augustin  had  been  carefully  edu 
his  pious  mother,  Monica,  in  the  faith,  early  implant< 
soul,  that  the  way  to  heaven  was  to  be  found  onl^ 
Catholic  church.  From  the  years  of  his  youth  and 
he  had  fallen  into  many  errors  of  theory  and  practice,  j 
a  series  of  violent  conflicts.  He  passed.  Anally,  fror 
cheism,  which  had  disappointed  the  expectations  < 
years,  to  Scepticism.  Whilst  he  was  in  this  state  of  see 
and  whilst  an  inward  impulse  of  his  intellect  and  h 
compelled  him  still  to  believe  in  some  objective  tn 
thought  took  possession  of  his  soul :  Must  not  G< 
instituted  an  authority,  capable  of  being  known  by  s 
certain  marks,  to  conduct  the  restless  doubting  spirit 
to  the  truth  which  he  needs  ?  From  scepticism,  the  ti 
was  here  formed  in  his  case, — which  was  a  case  often  i 
in  history, — to  the  faith  in  the  authority  of  a  visible 
proved  to  be  of  divine  origin  by  evidences  not  to  be  n 
Again,  although  the  belief  in  the  truth  and  diviniti 
doctrines  of  Christ,  which  had  attended  him  from  hi 
hood,  and  never  foisaken  him,  even  when  he  embrace 


OOUNCIL  AT  CABTHA6E.  289 

assented  its  power  in  his  soul  more  strongly  as  he 
der ;  yet  he  was  in  doubt  as  to  the  question  where 
ictrines  of  Christ  were  to  be  found,  since  each  one  of 
s  claimed  to  be  itself  in  possession  of  them.  He 
that  knowledge  of  the  right  hermeneutical,  exegetical, 
ical  principles,  which  would  have  enabled  him  to 
this  question,  as  to  what  were  the  true  doctrines  of 
)ut  of  the  sacred  scriptures  alone.  The  henpeneutical 
tical  principles  of  the  Manicheans  liad  completely 
i  him:  he  wanted  a  stable  authority,  which  could 
n  where  the  pure  doctrines  of  Christ,  the  imfalsified 
n  of  religious  records,  and  the  correct  doctrinal  ex- 
of  them,  were  already  present.  This  authority  he 
he  found  in  the  tradition  of  the  universal  church, 
.ugustin  considered  that  this  church  had  come  forth 
Ls  out  of  all  her  conflicts  with  tlie  powers  that  had 
her  from  without,  and  with  the  manifold  corruptions 
tianity  in  erroneous  forms  of  doctrine ;  when  he  per- 
hat  a  revolution  in  the  whole  mode  of  human  tliought, 
he  entire  life  of  man,  had  been  effected  by  means  of 
rch,  how  the  loftiest  truths  of  religion  had  passed  into 
[non  consciousness  of  humanity  where  this  church  had 
iominant ;  he  confounded,  in  this  case,  what  the  church 
cted  through  Christianity,  and  what  Christianity  had 
through  the  church,  as  the  instrument  and  vessel  for 
ion  and  propagation,  with  what  the  church  had  done 
of  itself  as  a  visible,  outward  institution,  in  this 
late  earthly  form.  What  he  might  justly  regard  as  a 
for  the  divine,  world-transforming  power  of  the  gospel, 
i  to  him  as  a  witness  for  the  divine  authority  of  the 
universal  church ;  and  he  did'  not  consider  that  the 
Tuth  would  have  been  able  to  bring  about  effects 
great,  by  its  inherent  divine  power,  in  some  other 
which  it  could  have  been  diflused  among  mankind  ; 
t  it  would  have  been  able  to  produce  still  purer  and 
r  effects,  had  it  not  been  in  many  ways  disturbed  and 
in  its  operation  by  the  impure  and  confining  vehicle 
insmission.* 

anthorities  for  this  delineation  are  furnished  by  Augustin's 
IS,  by  the  works  which  he  composed  during  the  gteat  crisis  of 
life  until  the  first  years  of  his  spiritual  office,  and  especially 
III.  U 


290  THE  DONATIST  SCHI8V. 

As  Augustin,  at  the  time  of  his  controversy  with  the 
Donatists,  had  already  incorporated  into  his  life,  and  wovcd 
into  the  very  texture  of  hb  thoughts,  this  confused  mixture  of 
conceptions  necessarily  distinct ;  as  this  error  then  imiverBaUy 
prevailing   in  the  Western,  and  particularly  in  the  N(H*tb- 
African  church,  liad  thus  psissed  over  into  his  inmost  habits  </ 
thinking,  it  is  easy  to  see  of  what  weight  this  point  must  have 
seemed  to  him  in  the  present  dispute.     Hence  he  could  say:* 
''  No  one  attains  to  salvation,  and  to  eternal  life,  who  has  not 
Christ  for  his  Head.     But  no  one  can  have  Christ  for  a  Head, 
who  does  not  belong  to  his  Body,  which  is  the  Church."f 
Hence  the  error,  growing  out  of  this  confounding  and  mixii^ 
together  of  distinct  notions,  that  the  union  of  believers  wid 
Christ  was  brought  about  through  the  union  with  this  visiUe 
church.    And  hence,  in  following  out  this  principle,  he  asserts: 
'^  The  entire  Christ  is  the  Head  and  the  Body ; — the  Head  is 
the  only  begotten  Son  of  God,  and  the  Body  is  the  Church. 
He  who  agrees  not  with  scripture  in  the  doctrine  concenung 
the  Head,  although  he  may  stand  in  external  communion  witii 
the  church,  notwithstanding  belongs  not  to  her.     But,  moro- 
over,  he  who  holds  fast  to  all  that  scripture  teaches  respecting 
the  Head,  and  yet  cleaves  not  to  the  unity  of  the  church,  be- 
longs not  to  her."t 

It  is  a  fact  particularly  worthy  of  notice  in  the  polemical 
writings  of  Augustin,  that,  whenever  the  Donatists  made 
appeals  to  miracles,  answers  to  prayer,  visions,  and  to  the  holy 
lives  of  their  bishops,  as  evidences  that  the  true  church  was 
with  them,  he,  on  the  other  hand,  will  allow  the  validity  of  no 
other  evidence  than  the  objective  testimony  of  the  divine  word. 
"  Let  them  not  try  to  prove  the  genuineness  of  their  church,** 
says  he,§  "  by  the  councils  of  their  bishops,  by  deceitful  mi- 
raculous signs,  since  we  have  been  warned  and  put  on  oar 
guard  against  such  proofs  by  the  word  of  the  Lord  (Matth. 
xxiv.  25),  but  let  them  do  it  by  the  law  and  prophets,  and  by 
the  word  of  the  only  Shepherd.  ||     Neither  do  we  ourselves 

the  works  de  ordine,  de  moribos  ecclesicc  catholictc  et  moribns  Manidtfe- 
orum,  de  vera  religione,  and  de  utilitate  credendi. 

*  De  auitate  ecclesise,  c.  49. 

f  Habere  caput  Christum  nemo  potent^  nisi  qm  in  ejus  corpore  fuent, 
quod  est  ecclesia. 

J  De  unitate  ecclesia;,  s.  7.  }  L.  c  s,  47.  ||  L.  c.  s.  50. 


THE  POINTS  m  DISPUTE.  291 

affinn  that  men  ought  to  believe  us  in  maintaining  that  we  are 
in  the  Catholic  church,  because  this  Church  is  recommended 
liy  an  Optatus  of  Mileve,  or  by  an  Ambrose  of  Milan,  or 
other  numberless  bishops  of  our  communion  ;  or  because  it  has 
been  approved  by  the  assemblies  of  our  colleagues ;  or  because 
sach  wonderful  instances  of  answers  to  prayer,  or  of  the  healing 
of  the  sick,  have  been  witnessed  on  sacred  spots  in  the  whole 
world,  which  have  been  visited  by  the  members  of  our  com- 
munion; or  because  this  person  has  had  a  vision,  and  that 
other  has  heard  in  a  trance,  that  he  should  not  unite  himself 
with  the  Donatist  party,  or  that  he  should  forsake  it."  It 
must  be  admitted,  however,  that  Augustin  is  inconsistent  with 
himself,  and  moves  round  in  a  circle,  when,  in  disputing  with 
the  Donatists,  he  allows  validity  to  no  evidence  but  that  of  the 
fleriptures,  in  fevour  of  the  Catholic  church ;  while,  in  his  con- 
troversy with  the  Manicheans,  he  makes  the  authority  of  the 
holy  scriptures  themselves  to  depend  on  that  of  the  church 
wfaxsh  referred  to  them,  and  from  which  we  have  received  the 
lusred  canon.* 

The  Donatists  maintained  that  the  church  should  cast  out 
from  its  body  those  who  were  known,  by  open  and  manifest 
sins,  to  be  unworthy  members.  To  prove  this,  they  adduced 
the  fifth  chapter  of  Paul's  first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians, 
where  the  apostle  has  given  certain  rules  for  the  practice  of 
church  discipline.  ^'  When  the  Church  did  not  act  in  accord- 
ance with  these  rules,"  said  they,  "  but  tolerated  such  unwor- 
thy members  in  her  communion,  she  lost  the  predicates  of 
purity  and  holiness."  All  those  passages  of  holy  writ  which 
bid  us  avoid  the  company  of  the  wicked,  they  referred— con- 
feunding  inward  disposition  with  outward  conduct — to  the 
avoiding  of  external  companionship  with  them.  Augustin, 
takii^  the  position  of  the  Catholic  church,  replied  that,  it  was 
true,  church  discipline  should,  by  all  means,  be  vigorously 

*  The  well-known  and  remarkable  words,  contra  epistolam  Manichsei, 
8.  6 :  'EgQ  verg  evangelio  non  crederem,  nisi  me  catholicse  ecclesise  com- 
moveret  anctoritas ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  what  he  says  against  the 
Donatists  woold  admit,  perhaps,  of  being  expressed  by  reversing  the 
proposition :  Ego  vero  catiiolicai  ecclesise  non  crederem,  nisi  me  evangelii 
oommoveret  anctoritas.  But  if  tradition  conducts,  through  the  church,  lo 
the  scriptures,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  the^  are  believed  on  tnc 
ground  of  its  authority.  We  see  here  that  confusion  of  ideas,  the  cause 
of  wMch  is  so  easi]^  accounted  for  by  what  has  been  said  above. 


292  THE  DOXATIST  SCHISM.  i 

maintained ;  but  that  still  such  a  complete  separation  from  p 
the  rest  even  of  manifest  transgressors,  was,  in   the  existing  ji 
state  of  the  church,  impracticable ;  that  the  evil  must  be  pa-  > 
tiently  endured,  to  avoid  a  still  greater  one,  and  to  give  oppor-   ^f 
tunity  for  reformation  to  such  as  could  be  reformed,  especially   s 
in  those  cases  where  the  wickedness  which  was  to  be  corrected    \ 
by  church  discipline,  was  shared  by  too  many.     The  Apostle     j 
Paul,  he  attempts  to  show,  by  what  we  must  allow  to  be  a 
rather  forced  interpretation,*  was  speaking  only  of  individuals^ 
wliose  vices  were  not  common  to  many,  and  whose  vices  were 
universally  known  ;  so  that  the  sentence  of  excommunication 
pronounced  against  such  persons  must  have  been  acknowledged 
as  just  by  all.     But  when  the  same  disease  had  infected  many, 
notliing  was  left  to  the  good  but  pain  and  grief,  that  so  by  the 
mark  revealed  to  Ezekiel  (Ezek.  ix.  4),  they  might  be  pre- 
served from  the  destruction  with  which  all  were  threatened. 
Where  the  infection  of  sin  had  seized  on  the  many,  tlie  severi^ 
oi  a  divine  chastisement  was  required ;  for  the  counsels  of 
human  separation  were  vain  and  mischievous ;  they  proceeded 
from  pride ;  they  rather  disturbed  the  weak  among  the  good, 
than  exerted  any  power  of  reformation  on  the  boldly  wicked. 
Let  man  then  punish,  what  he  may  punish,  in  the  spirit  of  love. 
Where  he  may  not,  let  him  suffer  patiently,  sigh  and  moum 
with  love,  until  either  chastisement  and  reformation  come  firom 
above,  or,  at  the  general  harvest,  the  tares  be  rooted  out,  and 
the  chaff  sifted  away.     Thus  the  good  and  faithful  Christians, 
certain  of  their  own  salvation,  may  persevere  to  dwell  in  unity 
among  the  corrupt,  whom  it  is  beyond  their  power  to  punish, 
seeking  to  extirpate  the  sin  which  is  in  their  own   heart.t 
The  Catholic  party  appealed  to  those  parables  of  our  Lord 
which  treat  of  the  separation  of  the  good  and  bad,  reserved 
unto  the  final  judgment ;  the  parables  of  the  tares,  of  the  good 
fruit,  of  the  draught  of  fishes.     The  Donatists  replied,  either 
that  these  passages  referred  simply  to  the  mixing  together  of 
the  good  and  the  bad  in  the  worlds  and  not  within  the  church ; 
that  by  the  Jield,  the  net,  was  to  be  understood,  not  the  church, 
but  the  world ;  or  they  maintained  that  those  passages  referred 

*  In  the  phrase,  *'si  quis,"  he  maintained,  was  implied  one  among 
many  differently  disposed ;  and  in  the  words,  **  fratres  nominantor/'  that 
his  offence  was  generally  known. 

t  Augustin,  c.  epist.  Parmenian,  I.  III.  s.  12,  et  seqq. 


VIEWS  OF  TH£  PARTIES.  293 

imply  to  the  mixing  in  of  secret  sinners  with  the  saints ;  since 
»yen  they  allowed  that  a  complete  separation  was  in  this  life 
mpossible,  and  demanded  only  the  exclusion  of  those  who 
irere  manifestly  vicious.*  As  it  respects  the  first  of  these  po- 
sitions, we  may  remark  here  a  noticeable  dispute  between  the 
Donatists  and  their  antagonists,  relative  to  the  use  of  the  term 
"world/*  in  the  sacred  scriptures;  where  it  becomes  evident, 
how  the  same  fundamental  error  in  confounding  the  notions  of 
the  invisible  and  of  the  visible  church,  in  which  both  parties 
were  involved,  prevented  their  coming  to  a  mutual  under- 
standing. The  Donatists  appealed  to  the  fact,  that  Christ 
himself,  in  explaining  this  parable,  taught  that  the  field  is  the 
world.  Augustin,  on  the  other  hand,  replied,  that  in  this 
passage,  Christ  used  the  term, "  world,"  in  place  of  the  church. f 
This  was  perhaps  correct ;  but  the  question  comes  up,  In  what 
particular  point  of  view  was  this  notion  of  the  church  employed  ? 
That  portion  of  the  visible  church  which  belongs  at  the  same 
time  to  the  invisible,  could,  however,  only  form  an  antithesis 
to  that  portion  which  the  New  Testament  calls,  in  a  peculiar 
sen&e,  the  world.  But  of  the  external  visible  church,  in  so 
for  as  it  is  not  one  with  the  invisible,  it  may  with  propriety  be 
said  that  it  belongs  to  the  world  in  the  sense  of  the  Bible. 
E^recisely  because  the  Donatist  bishop  Emeritus  failed  to  mark 
this  distinction  of  ideas,  he  uttered — as  Augustin  expressed  it 
— ^that  petulant  exclamation.  He  then  proceeded  directly  to 
quote  those  passages  from  John,  where  the  world  expresses 
that  which  is  opposed  to  the  kingdom  of  God ;  and  demanded 
whether  that  could  be  said  of  the  church  ? — for  example,  the 
world  knows  not  God,  therefore  the  church  knows  not  God. 
But  of  one  portion  of  the  visible  church  all  this  may  with 
propriety  be  said ;  <ind  the  Donatist  himself  could  have  no 
hesitation  in  applying  all  this  to  the  secret  unworthy  members 
who  yet  belonged  to  the  visible  church.    Pity  that  he  had  not 

*  As  it  respects  the  second  position,  the  Donatists  explained ;  Hoc  de 
reis  laientibus  dictum,  quoniam  reticulum  in  mari  positum  quid  habeat  a 
piscatoribus,  id  est  a  sae^rdotibus,  ignoratur,  donee  extractum  ad  littus 
ad  pargationem  boni  sea  mali  prodantur.  Ita  et  latentes  et  in  ecclesia 
ocmstituti  et  a  sacerdotibus  iynorati^  in  divino  judicio  proditi,  tanquam 
pisces  mali  a  sanctorum  consortio  separantur.  See  Collat.  Carthag.  d. 
III.  ed.  Du  Pin,  fol.  314,  and  the  breviculus  of  Augustin  concerning  this 
day. 

t  Mundom  ipsum  appellatum  esse  pro  ecclesix  nomine. 


294  THE  DONATIST  SCHISM. 

made  himself  distinctly  conscious  of  this  I  Augustin  answered, 
that  the  holy  scriptures  used  the  term,  ^^  world/'  sometimes  in 
a  good,  and  sometimes  in  a  bad  sense.  In  the  former,  fw 
example,  when  it  is  said,  the  world  belieyes  in  Christ,  is 
redeemed  by  him  ;  but  he  ought  to  have  considered,  that  the 
invisible  church  receives  its  members  out  of  the  world ;  that 
they  who  once  belonged  to  the  world,  in  that  biblical  senses 
do,  by  becoming  incorporated,  by  &ith  and  participation  in 
the  redemption,  into  the  invisible  church,  cease  belonging  to 
it  any  longer.  Augustin  says,  one  need  only  distinguish  the 
different  senses  of  the  term  ^^  world,"  and  one  would  no  longer 
find  any  contradiction  here  in  the  scriptures.  But  he  would 
have  advanced  farther,  and  been  still  more  free  from  prejudice, 
in  his  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  if  he  had  duly  distinguished 
the  different  significations  of  the  word  ^^  church."  He  says : 
<'  Behold  the  world  in  the  bad  sense,  all  who  cleave  to  earddy 
things  among  all  the  nations : — behold,  on  the  other  hand,  the 

(  world  in  the  good  sense,  all  who  believe  and  have  hope  of 
eternal  life  among  all  nations."*    But  are  not  the  last  men- 

^  tioned  precisely  the  members  of  the  genuine  church  of  Christ, 
of  the  invisible  church,  among  all  the  nations  where  the  gospel 
has  found  its  way, — among  all  the  dififerent  earthly  forms  of 
appearance  of  the  visible  church  ? 

It  is  remarkable,  but  also  very  natural,  that  the  Donatists, 
to  show  the  necessity  of  a  severe  sifting  in  the  church,  and  to 
prove  that  the  church  was  corrupt  where  such  a  sifting  had 
not  been  made,  drew  their  arguments,  for  the  most  part,  firom 
the  Old  Testament,  and  from  such  passages  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment as  treat  of  the  external  purity  of  the  people  of  God.! 
They  ought,  however,  in  this  case,  to  have  paid  some  regard 
to  that  necessary  distinction  between  the  positions  of  the  Old 
and  of  the  New  Testament,  which  they  were  not  slow  to  insist 
on,  in  other  cases,  against  their  opponents. 

According  to  the  Catholic  point  of  view,  to  the  essence  of 
the  genuine  Catholic  church  belonged  its  general  spread 
through  the  medium  of  the  episcopal  succession  down  from  the 
apostles.  From  the  conception  of  the  Catholic  church  in  this 
sense  was  then  first  derived  the  predicates  of  purity  and  holi- 
ness.    On  the  other  hand,  according  to  the  Donatist  point  of 

*  L.  c.  f.  317.  t  Collat  L  c  foL  313,  314. 


VIEWS  OF  THE  PARTIES.  295 

view,  the  predicate  of  Catholic  ought  to  be  subordinate  to 
those  of  purity  and  holiness.     When  the  church,  however 
widely  extended, — they  inferred, — ^became  corrupted  by  inter- 
course with  unworthy  members,  then  that  church,  in  whatever 
nook  or  comer  of  the  earth  it  might  be,  which  had  no  mani- 
festly vicious  members  within  its  pale,  is  the  genuinely  Catho- 
lic one.*    They  appealed,  not  without  reason,  from  the  pre- 
judgment grounded  on  numbers  and  universality,  to  the  pas- 
fiiges  of  scripture  where  the  little  band  of  genuine  confessors 
wcfe  distinguished  from  the  great  mass  of  apostates,  or  of 
those  belonging  to  the  kingdom  of  God  merely  in  outward 
iqDpearance ;  as,  for  example,  the  seven  thousand  tliat  had  not 
b(^ired  the  knee  to  Baal, — where  the  few,  who  went  in  the 
strait  way  towards  heaven,  were  opposed  to  the  multitude  of 
those  who  went  in  the  broad  way  to  destruction.    They  main- 
tained that  when  Clirist  represented  it  as  so  doubtful  (Luke 
iviii.  8),  whether  at  his  reappearance  he  should  find  faith  on 
the  earth,  this  indicated  that  the  &ithful,  in  the  true  sense, 
would  not  be  thus  diffused  in  one  mass  over  the  whole  earth. f 
But  although  they  were  right  here,  in  distinguishing  those 
who  in  the  visible  church  constituted  the  church  proper,  the 
invisible  one,  from  the  great  mass  of  those  who  made  up  the 
af^pearance  of  the  visible  church ;  yet  they  were  wrong  in  this 
leqpect,  that,  confounding  (mce  more,  on  another  side,  notions 
di^inct  in  themselves,  they  persisted  in  forming  this  genuine 
church  only  according  to  the  dictates  of  a  separatist  pride. 
They  imagined  the  saying  was  here  confirmed,  that  the  last 
should  be  first;    the   holy,  pure  church  was  at  present  in 
Africa;    while  the  East,  where  Christianity  commenced  its 
progress,  had   ^len  from  purity; — and  although  in  Africa 
(i.e.  North  Africa)  no  church  was  to  be  found  which  was  of 
apostolic  origin.     Hiey  protested  here,  therefore,  against  the 
claims  of  the  sedes  apostolicse,  and  against  those  who  were  for 

*  Th«  Donatist  bishop  Emeritus  says,  in  opposiue  the  assumption  of 
the  other  party,  who  always  preceded  on  the  supposition  that  they  were 
tbe  Catholic  church  according  to  the  principle  of  uniyersality  :  Quicun- 
<{iie  jostis  legitimisque  ex  causis  Christianus  fuerit  approbatus,  ille  mens 
est  Catholicus.  And  the  bishop  Gaudentius :  Catholicum  nomen  non  ad 
provincias  vel  gentes  referendum :  cum  hoc  sit  quod  sacrameulis  plenum, 
qnod  perfectum,  quod  immaculatum.    Collat.  d.  III.  f.  301  et  2. 

t  Augostin.  de  unitate  ecclesis,  s.  33,  et  seqq. 


296  THE  DONATIST  SCHISIC 

uniformly  attaching  to  the  outward  fellowship  with  these  the 
predicate  of  a  Catholic  church.* 

Midway  between  both  parties  stood  the  Donatist  grammariaD, 
Tichonius,  approving  neither  of  the  intolerant,  proud  spirit  of 
separatism,  nor  of  Catholicism,  which  was  for  forcing  men 
into  an  external  unity.  He  allowed  that  his  party  was  wrong 
in  holding  themselves  to  be  the  alone  pure  church ;  and  in 
making  the  fulfilment  of  the  divine  promise,  as  to  the  blessing 
which  should  be  dispensed  through  the  posterity  of  Abraham 
to  all  mankind, — the  blessing  of  a  preached  gospel  whick 
should  reach  the  whole  world, — to  depend  on  a  subjective 
human  purity  which  nowhere  existed.  He  could  not  agree 
that,  by  communion  with  unworthy  members  wluch  it  did  not 
expel  from  itself,  the  church  could  lose  its  character,  which 
rested  on  an  objective,  divine  foundation.!  He  doubtless 
made  his  own  party  mark  their  inconsistency  in  the  ^ict,  that 
the  Donatists  might  perceive  a  great  deal  of  the  same  impurity 
in  their  own  conununities  which  they  so  sharply  reproved  in 
the  Catholic  church  as  a  pro&nation  of  its  character.  What 
was  holy  or  not  holy  must  be  determined  by  their  own  caprice.} 
Augustin,  however,  accused  Tichonius  himself  of  inconsis- 
tency,§  because  he  did  not,  in  accordance  with  these  principles, 
abandon  his  party,  and  acknowledge  those  who  stood  in  church 
fellowship  with  the  Christendom  extending  throughout  the 
entire  world,  as  the  Catholic  church.  This  inconsistency, 
however,  he  could  find  in  Tichonius,  only  by  supposing  in  his 
mind  the  same  confusion  of  the  invisible  with  the  visible 
church  in  which  he  himself  was  involved,  and  the  same  prin- 
ciples of  a  necessary  visible  imity  of  the  church.  But  on  this 
very  point  he  was  mistaken.  Tichonius  distinguished  two 
parts  of  the  body  of  Christ  (corpus  Domini  bipartitum),  i.  e. 
of  that  which  exhibits  itself  in  manifestation  as  the  body  of 
Christ,  as  the  church;    one  part,  the  individuals  scattered 

*  De  unitate  ecclesiic,  s.  37. 

t  See  Augustin.  c.  epistolam  Parmeniani,  1.  I.  c.  1  et  2 ;  1.  III.  8.  17* 
Comp.  also  the  hermeneutic  rules  of  Tichonius,  reg.  I.,  where,  probably 
in  opposition  to  the  other  Donatists,  he  remarks :  Non  enim  sicut  qmdam 
dicunt,  in  contumeliam  regni  Dei  invictaque  hcereditcUiH  Christie  quod 
non  sine  dolore  dico,  Domiuus  totum  mundam  potestate  et  non  sui  cor- 
poris plenitudine  occupavit.    Bibl.  patr.  Lugd.  t.  VI.  f.  50. 

X  Quod  Yolumus  sanctum  est.  Augustin.  c.  epist.  Parmeniani,  1.  II.  s.  31 

§  C.  epist.  Parmeniani,  1. 1,  c.  1. 


VIEWS  OF  THE  PARTIES.  297 

r 

tiirough  the  whole  world,  who,  by  faith  and  temper  of  mind, 
really  belong  to  Christ's  spiritual  body,  who  are  truly  one 
with  him  as  the  Head  of  the  spiritual  body ;  in  whom  he  is 
daily  born  and  grows  up  into  the  holy  temple  of  God  ;*  to 
whom  the  description  applies  which  Paul  gives  in  Ephesians 
V.  27,  inasmuch  as  they  are  purified  in  the  faith  by  the  blood 
of  Christ — therefore  the  true  community  of  the  saints; — 
another  part,  those  scattered  throughout  the  world,  who  belong 
indeed,  as  to  visile  appearance,  to  the  same  body  of  Christ, 
and  draw  nigh  to  God  with  their  lips,  but  in  heart  are  far 
fiom  him.f  Accordingly,  Tichonius  could  say  that  the  two 
portions  of  the  manifested  body  of  Christ  remained  connected 
with  each  other  throughout  the  whole  world ;  and  the  import- 
ant question  was,  to  which  of  these  two  portions  did  each 
individual  belong,  by  the  temper  of  his  mind.  Owing  to  this 
intermediate  relation  to  both  parties,  he  could  of  course  make 
his  cause  good  to  neither;  in  addition  to  which  it  must  be 
remarked  that  he  seems  to  have  been  somewhat  obscure  in  his 
mode  of  expressing  himself.:^ 

That  separatist  pride  of  the  Donatists,  which  attributed  so 
much  weight  to  the  subjectively  human  element,  as  their 
principle  compelled  them  to  do,  often  expressed  itself,  in  the 
heat  of  controversy,  in  an  extremely  harsh  and  unchristian 
manner.  On  the  other  hand,  Augustin  not  unfrequently 
explains  his  own  views  in  a  very  beautiful  style,  and  in  the 
genuinely  Christian  sense,  respecting  the  might  and  validity 
of  the  objectively  divine  element ;  respecting  the  relation  oi 
the  human  element  to  the  same,  as  a  mere  organ ;  and  respect- 
ing the  vanity  and  emptiness  of  the  human  element,  whenever 
it  aspires  to  be  anything  more  than  this. 

When  the  Donatist  bishop  Petilian  pressed  Augustin  to 
declare  explicitly  whether  he  acknowledged  Csecilian  as  his 

*  Beg.  I.  God  as  the  fount^un  of  divine  life  in  human  nature  through 
Christ  Deus  in  corpore  suo  filius  est  hommis,  qui  quotidie  nascendo  (the 
spiritual  becoming  odhe  divine  life)  venitet  crescit  in  templum  sanctum  Dei » 

t  Reg.  II.  Qui  ejusdem  corporis  sunt  visibiliter,  et  Deo  labiis  quidem 
adpropinquant,  corde  tamen  eeparati  sunt. 

X  Augustin  doubtless  perceived  much  that  was  anti-catholic  in  the 
h^meneutical  rules  of  Tichonius  relative  to  the  significations  of  the  bodj 
of  Christ.  These  he  calls  Donatist  views :  Quee  sicut  Donatista  hsere- 
ticus  loquitur :  he  could  not,  however,  exactly  specify  what  they  were. 
De  doctrina  Christiana,  1.  III.  s.  43. 


xo  cne  gospel,  men,  x  irace  my  pareniage.  xi  is  one 
when,  from  motives  of  respect,  we  call  the  more  aged 
more  deserving,  our  &thers ;  and  it  is  quite  another,  wfa 
question  is  put  to  us,  whom  have  we  for  our  fiUher  as 
spects  eternal  salvation, — ^as  it  respects  the  communion 
church,  and  the  participation  in  the  divine  promises  as  i 
cems  eternal  salvation, — I  beg  pardon  of  the  apostle,  or 
it  is  he  that  bids  me  so  speak, — the  apostle  is  not  my 
in  respect  to  that ; — he  who  tells  me :  ^  I  have  plantec 
.  Apollos  watered,  but  God  gave  the  increase.  So,  then,  i 
is  he  that  planteth  anything,  neither  he  that  wateretl 
God  that  giveth  the  increase.'  In  respect  to  my  salvat 
acknowledge  no  other  father  than  God ;  of  whom  our 
says :  ^  Ye  shall  call  no  man  father  on  the  earth,  for  < 
your  Father,  who  is  in  heaven,'  and  to  whom  we  dail] 
'  Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven.'  "*  When  Petilian 
use  of  the  strongest  expressions  to  show  that  all  religion 
possessed  their  true  significance  only  in  their  (the  Dona 
alone  pure  and  holy  church,  that  none  but  a  clergyman 
out  spot  or  blame  could  duly  administer  the  sacraments ; 
Petilian  expressed  himself  to  this  purport,  that  everythii 
pended  on  the  conscience  of  him  who  imparted  baptism, 
it  was  through  him  the  conscience  of  the  recipient  was 
cleansed ;  Augustin  replied :  ^^  Often  the  conscience  oi 
is  unknown  to  me,  but  I  am  certain  of  the  mercy  of  CI 


VIEWB  OF  THE  PABTIES.  299 

genuine  new  birth  can  proceed  only  from  good  seed," 
Augustin  replied :  ^^  My  origin  is  Christ,  my  root  is  Christ, 
my  Head  is  Christ.  The  seed,  from  which  I  am  regenerated, 
is  the  word  of  Grod,  which  my  Lord  exhorts  me  obediently  to 
£^ow,  although  he  through  whom  I  hear  it  may  not  himself 
practise  what  he  teaches."  To  the  remark  of  Petiliau :  "  How 
absurd  to  suppose  that  he  who  is  guilty  through  his  own  trans- 
gressions, can  absolve  others  from  guilt !"  he  replied :  <'  He ; 
done  makes  me  free  firom  guilt  who  died  for  our  sins,  and  ^ 
lose  again  for  our  justification ;  for  I  believe  not  in  the  minis- 
ter by  whom  I  am  baptized,  but  in  Him  who  justifies  the  sin- 
ner, so  that  my  &ith  is  accounted  unto  me  for  righteousness."* 

As  Fetilian,  in  his  pastoral  letters  against  the  Catholic 
church,  had  brought  many  charges  against  Augustin  himself, 
the  latter  replied  to  these  charges  in  his  third  book  against 
Petilian,  confining  himself  wholly  to  the  interests  of  the  cause. 
"  Let  no  man,"  he  says,  "  glory  in  man.  If  you  see  anything 
praiseworthy  in  us,  let  Him  be  praised  from  whom  cometh 
down  every  good  and  perfect  gift.  And  in  all  which  you 
acknowledge  to  be  good  in  us,  be  followers  of  us,  if  we  also 
are  followers  of  Chnst.  But  if  ye  surmise,  believe,  or  seek 
after  things  that  are  bad  in  us,  hold  fast  to  the  word  of  the 
Lrad,  and,  throwing  yourselves  on  that,  forsake  not  his  church 
on  account  of  the  wickedness  of  men,  Matt,  xxiii.  3.  Observe, 
do  what  we  bid  you ;  but,  where  ye  believe  or  know  that  we 
do  wrong,  do  not  after  our  works ;  for  at  present  it  is  not  the 
time  fiur  me  to  justify  myself  before  you,  since  I  have  under- 
take! to  recqmmend  to  you  the  cause  of  truth  and  salvation 
without  regard  to  my  own  personal  concerns,  that  none  may 
glory  in  a  man.  For  cursed  is  he  that  putteth  his  trust  in  man. 
If  this  word  of  the  Lord  is  kept  and  observed,  even  though  I 
may  fidl,  so  far  as  it  concerns  my  own  personal  interests,  yet 
the  cause  I  serve  will  come  off  victorious."t 

Since  the  Catholics,  in  their  controversy  with  the  Donatists, 
distinguiBhed  the  church  on  earth,  in  which  genuine  and  spu- 
rious members  are  mixed  together,  from  the  church  of  heaven, 
purified  from  its  spiuious  members,  they  might  easily  have 
been  led,  by  pursuing  this  distinction  still  further,  to  distin- 
guish the  conceptions  of  the  visible  and  of  the  invisible  church. 
In  this  way  they  furnished  occasion  to  the  Donatists  of  charg- 

*  AagQStin.  c.  Petilian.  1.  i.  s.  8.  t  Contra  Petilian.  1.  III.  s.  4. 


300  THE  DONATIST  SCmSH . 

ing  them  with  supposing  the  existence  of  two  churches ;  but 
they  were  extremely  uneasy  under  this  accusation,  and  would 
allow  of  no  other  distinction  than  that  of  two  different  condi- 
tions of  one  and  the  same  church,  inasmuch  as  it  was  at 
present  a  mortal  church,  but  would  hereafter  be  an  immortal 
one.*  And  Augustin,  in  his  book,  ^'de  unitate  ecclesise/' 
says :  ^'  Many  stand,  in  the  communion  of  the  sacraments, 
tvith  the  church,  and  are  still  not  in  the  church."t  Bat 
what  means  this :  They  are  not  in  the  church,  and  they  yet  ] 
stand  in  communion  with  the  church  ?  In  the  outward,  ap-  j 
parent  church  they  are  certainly ;  but  in  the  inner,  invisible 
cliurch,  to  which  none  can  belong  otherwise  than  by  the 
temper  of  the  heart,  they  are  not.  And  with  what  church 
can  they  stand  in  communion  by  a  bare  outward  participatioa 
of  the  sacraments  alone  ?  Certainly  with  no  other  but  with 
that  which  is  itself  merely  an  outwsuxl  and  visible  one ;  from 
which,  inasmuch  as  it  t^  the  bare  form  of  manifestation,  desti- 
tute of  the  inner  life,  no  true  life  can  proceed.  Augustin 
would,  therefore,  if  he  had  made  himself  distinctly  consdons 
of  what  was  implied  in  his  own  conceptions,  have  properly 
said  :  "  Many  stand  in  outward  communion  with  the  visible 
church,  who  are  yet,  by  the  temper  of  their  hearts,  by  no 
means  members  of  the  invisible  church."  And  he  himself 
does  in  fact  intimate,  in  another  place,  that  there  is  a  church, 
which  is  the  body  of  Christ,  something  other  than  the  bare 
appearance  of  a  church,  or  the  bare  visible  church — a  church 
with  which  they  who  did  not  belong  to  it  by  the  temper  d 
tlieir  hearts,  stood  in  no  sort  of  connection, — when  he  says  of 
such ;  "  We  ought  not  to  believe  that  they  are  in  the  body  of 
Christ,  which  is  the  church,  because,  in  a  bodily  maimer, 
they  participate  in  its  sacraments.  But  they  are  not  in  that 
communion  of  the  church,  which,  in  the  members  of  Christ 
by  mutual  union,  makes  increase  to  that  measure  of  its  growth 
which  God  has  appointed  ;  for  that  church  is  founded  on  a 
rock,  as  the  Lord  says :  On  this  rock  will  I  build  my  church. 
But  such  persons  build  on  the  sand."f     To  what  results  would 

*  CoUat.  fol.  318.  Eandem  ipsam  unam  et  sanctam  ecclesiam  dudc 
esse  aliter,  tunc  autem  aliter  futaram. 

f  s.  74.  Multi  sunt  in  sacrameutorum  communione  cum  ecclesia,  et 
tanien  jam  non  sunt  in  ecclesia. 

J  C.  Petilian.  1.  II.  s.  247.  and  de doctrina  Christiana,  1.  III.  s.  45.  He 


VIEWS  OF  THE  PARTIES.  301 

Augustin  have  arrived,  if  he  had  made  clear  to  himself  the 
distinction  of  ideas  which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  these  words  ? 

Another  more  important  point  of  dispute  related  to  the 

employment  of  force  in  matters  of  religion.     The  Donatists 

bore  their  testimony  on  this  point  ^vith  emphasis  in  favour  of 

that  course  which  the  example  of  Christ  and  the  apostles, 

which  the  spirit  of  the  gospel,  and  the  sense  of  man's  universal 

rights,  called  forth  by  the  latter,  required.     The  point   of 

view  first  set  forth  in  a  clear  light  by  Christianity,  when  it 

made  religion  the  common  good  of  all  mankind  and  raised  it 

above  all  narrow  political  restrictions,  was  by  the  Donatists 

manfully  asserted,  in  opposition  to  a  theory  of  ecclesiastical 

rights  at  variance  with  the  spirit  of  the  gospel,  and  which  had 

sprung  up  out  of  a  new  mixture  of  ecclesiastical  with  political 

interests.     They  could  not  succeed  so  well  in  unfolding  the 

relation  of  the  church  to  the  state,  for  here  they  easily  passed 

fix>in  one  extreme  over  to  Ihe  other.     If  their  opponents  erred 

<m  the  side  of  confounding  too  much  the  church  with  the  state, 

they,  oh  the  other  hand,  were  too  much  inclined  to  represent 

the  opposition  between  the  two,  which  was  grounded  in  the 

early  relation  of  the  church  to  a  pagan  state,  as  a  relation 

that  must  ever  continue  to  exist. 

The  Donatist  bishop  Petilian  says :  "  Did  the  apostles 
ever  persecute  any  one,  or  did  Christ  ever  deliver  any  one 
over  to  the  secular  power  ?  Christ  commands  us  to  flee  per- 
secutors, Matt.  X.  23.  Thou  who  callest  thyself  a  disciple  of 
Christ  oughtest  not  to  imitate  the  evil  deeds  of  the  heathens. 
Think  you  thus  to  serve  God, — by  destroying  us  with  your 
own  hand  ?  Ye  err,  ye  err,  poor  mortals,  if  ye  believe  this ; 
for  God  has  not  executioners  for  his  priests.  Christ  perse- 
cotes  no  one ;  for  he  was  for  inviting,  not  forcing,  men  to  the 
fiith ;  and  when  the  apostles  complained  to  him  of  the  founders 
of  separate  parties,  Luke  ix.  50,  he  said  to  them :  ^  He  who 
is  not  against  us,  is  for  us ;'  and  so  too  Paul,  in  Philippians 
1 18.*     Our  Lord  Christ  says :  '  No  man  can  come  unto  me, 

himself,  in  censariug  the  expression  of  Tlcbonias,  bipartitum  corpus 
BomiDi,  distingaisbes  the  corpus  Christi  verum  atque  simulatum. 

♦  Petilian  would  say,  that  to  Christians  every  one  should  be  welcome 
who  preached  Christ;  but  this  the  Catholics  could  not  see,  since  to  them 
Hbtt  &ith  in  Christ  was  nothing  without  faith  in  the  visible  church.  And 
even  the  Donatists,  in  recognizing  nothing  as  genuinely  Christian  beyond 


302  THE  DONATIST  SCmSM. 

unless  the  Father,  who  hath  sent  me,  draw  him.'  But  whj 
do  you  not  permit  every  man  to  follow  his  own  free  will,  sinoe  , 
God,  the  Lord  himself,  has  bestowed  this  free  will  on  man? 
He  has  simply  pointed  out  to  man  the  way  to  righteou8Qefl% 
tliat  none  might  be  lost  through  ignorance.  Christ,  in  dying 
for  men,  has  given  Christians  the  example  to  die,  but  not  to 
kill.  Christ  teaches  us  to  suffer  wrong,  not  to  requite  it 
The  apostle  tells  us  of  what  he  had  endured,  not  of  what  he 
had  done  to  others.  But  what  have  you  to  do  with  the  princes 
of  this  world,  in  whom  the  Christian  cause  has  ever  found 
only  its  enemies  ?"  He  cites  examples  firom  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testament ;  he  supposes  he  finds  mention  made  of 
princes  hostile  to  the  church  in  1  Corinth,  ii.  6.  Yet  he 
adds :  ^^  This  may  have  been  said,  however,  of  the  ancient 
pagan  princes  ;  but  you  suffer  not  the  emperors  of  this  worlds 
who  would  be  Christians,  to  be  such,  since  you  mislead  them, 
by  your  false  representations,  to  turn  the  weapons  prepared 
against  the  enemies  of  the  state,  against  Christians."  The 
Donatist  bishop  Gaudentius  says:  ^^God  created  man  free^ 
afier  his  own  itnage.  How  am  I  to  be  deprived  of  that  \ff 
human  lordship  which  God  has  bestowed  on  me?  What 
sacrilege,  that  human  arrogance  should  take  away  what  God 
has  bestowed,  and  idly  boast  of  doing  this  in  G^'s  behalf  I 
It  is  a  great  offence  against  God,  when  he  is  defended  by 
men.  Wliat  must  he  think  of  God,  who  would  defend  hin 
with  outward  force  ?  Is  it  that  God  is  unable  to  pumflh 
offences  against  himself?  Hear  what  the  Lord  says :  *  Peace 
I  leave  with  you,  my  peace  I  give  unto  you ;  not  as  the 
world  giveth,  give  I  unto  you.'  The  peace  of  the  world  mart 
be  introduced  among  contending  nations  by  arms.  The 
peace  of  Christ  invites  the  willing  with  wholesome  mildness; 
it  never  forces  men  against  their  wills.  The  almighty  God 
employed  prophets  to  convert  the  people  of  Israel ;  he  en- 
joined it  not  on  princes ;  the  Saviour  of  souls,  the  Lord  Christy 
sent  fishermen,  and  not  soldiers,  to  preach  his  faith." 

Augustiu,  in  attacking  these  arguments  of  the  Donatists, 
now  appeared  as  the  advocate  of  a  theory  of  ecclesiasticel 

the  pale  of  their  own  spotless  church,  did  not  act  consistently  aocord- 
iug  to  this  principle ;  with  which  inconsistency  Augnstin  took  cue 
to  reproach  them.    Vid.  Augustiu.  contra  literas  Petiliani.  1.  XL  1 

178et  180. 


VIEWS  OF  THE  PARTIES.  308 

rights,  of  which  he  himself,  as  we  have  already  remarked,  was 
at  an  earlier  period  the  opponent.  He  was,  in  this  case, 
curried  along  by  the  spirit  of  the  times ;  and  this  spirit  had 
foond  a  point  of  union  for  such  errors  in  his  habit  of  confouud- 
iDg  the  visible  and  the  invisible  church.  He  who  possesses  at 
ill  times  a  clear  c(Hisciousness  that  the  true  and  real  church 
of  Christ  is  an  invisible  one,  is  also  constantly  aware  that  it 
cannot  be  built  up  and  advanced  by  any  outward  human 
nechanism,  but  only  by  that  which  penetrates  into  the 
inmost  recesses  of  the  mind,  and  begets  a  free  conviction. 
But  he  who  overvalues  the  vehicle  of  the  outward  church, 
will  also  deem  it  a  matter  of  high  importance  that  men 
should,  in  the  first  place,  be  introduced  into  this — and  that 
indeed  can  be  effected  by  a  great  variety  of  outward,  human 
means. 

As  early  as  the  year  400,  Augustin  had  changed  his  prin- 
ciples on  this  subject;  for  already  he  defended  against  the 
Donatist  bishop  Parmenianus,  the  resort  to  force  against  the 
Donatists,  though,  in  his  advice  given  at  the  same  time  before 
a  council  in  Carthage  (see  above),  he  did  not  yet  allow  himself 
to  be  determined  by  these  principles.  But,  even  at  a  still  sub- 
sequent period,  we  find  examples  to  show  that  he  suffered  him- 
self to  be  guided  in  his  mode  of  action  by  a  milder  Christian 
spirit  than  that  was  which  could  give  birth  to  such  principles.* 
Pity  it  was  that  errors  which  grew  first  out  of  practice  should, 
by  the  application  of  Augustin's  logic, — so  adroit  in  combining 
things  true,  half  true,  and  false,  into  a  plausible  whole, — be 
wrought  into  a  systematic  theory,  and  thereby  become  the 
mcxre  firmly  rooted  in  the  ecclesiastical  polity.  Augustin  did 
indeed  know  too  well  what  constituted  the  essence  of  inward 
Christianity, — ^the  Christianity  of  faith  and  of  temper, — to  be 
aqmble  of  entertaining  the  opinion  that  faith  could  be  brought 
into  the  heart  by  outward  arrangements ; — ^penetrated  as  he 
was  with  the  conviction  that  man's  conversion  can  only  be  a 
work  of  divine  grace  operating  on  the  soul.     Moreover,  he 

*  He  demanded  that  even  deeds  of  violence,  which  had  been  committed 
by  ftuions  Circumcellions  ou  the  clergy,  should  be  punished,  not  accord- 
ing to  the  strictness  of  the  laws,  but  according  to  the  spirit  of  Christian 
Kcntleness ;  and  if  he  could  accomplish  his  end  in  no  other  way,  he  was 
letermined  himself  to  make  application  to  the  emperors.  See  Augustin. 
*p.  139  ad  Maroelliniim. 


304  THE  DONATIST  BCHISir. 

never  lost  sight  of  the  truth,  that  mere  external  communioD 
with  the  church,  which  alone  was  capable  of  being  forciblj 
brought  about  by  means  of  fear  and  punishment,  can  make  no 
one  a  member  of  the  kingdom  of  Gk)d.     But  he  msanf^mf^ 
that  man  may  nevertheless  be  prepared  in  various  ways,  hj 
outward  means,  by  suffering,  for  faith  and  conversion,    fie 
appealed  to  the  highest  example,  that  of  God,  who  by  sufier- 
ing  educates  men,  brings  them  to  a  consciousness  of  them-    / 
selves,  and  conducts  them  to  faith ; — ^to  the  example  of  the 
parent  who  corrects  the  son  for  his  profit.     ^^  Who  doubts  but 
what  it  is  better  to  be  led  to  God  by  instruction,  than  by  fear 
of  punishment  or  affliction?     But  because  the  former,  who 
will  be  guided  only  by  instruction,  are  better,  the  others  are 
still  not  to  be  neglected.    Show  me  the  man  who,  in  real  fidth 
and  true  consciousness,  says  with  the  whole  strength  of  his 
soul :  '  My  soul  thirsteth  after  God ;'  and  I  will  allow  that, 
for  such  a  person,  not  only  the  fear  of  temporal  punishments 
or  imperial  laws,  but  even  the  fear  of  hell,  is  unnecessary : 
whatever  separates  him  from  his  highest  good,  is  punishment 
enough  for  him.     But  many,  like  bad  servants,  must  often  be 
reclaimed  to  their  master  by  the  rod  of  temporal  suffering,  ere 
they  can  attain  to  this  highest  stage  of  religious  develop- 
ment."*    We  are  shown  here  how  seductive  may  be  a  com- 
parison of  two  relations  altogether  differing  in  kind.    Augustin 
forgot  to  inquire  into  the  natural  limits  of  the  civil  power, 
and  of  all  outward  human  might,  in  conformity  with  what  the 
sacredness  of  man's  universal  rights,  grounded  in  God's  crea- 
tion, requires.      He  failed  to  consider  that,  owing  to  the 
natural  limits  fixed  and  determined  by  these  universal  rights 
of  man,  the  government  of  a  state  can  be  compared,  neither 
with  the  divine  government  of  the  world,  nor  even  with  the 
course  of  training  to  which  the  parent  subjects  his  son  in  the 
years  of  his  pupilage.     What,  according  to  this  principle  set 
up  by  Augustin,  might  not  despotism  hold  to  be  allowable, 
for  the  sake  of  the  pretended  holy  end,  the  general  good ;  as 
soon  as  the  question,  which  is  the  only  one  here,   WhcU  is 
right  ?  came  ouce  to  be  subordinated  to  the  question.  What  i» 
expedient  and  salutary  ? 

Very  justly  Augustin  observes :  "  The  etate  is  as  far  fronv- 

'*'  See  c.  Petiliau,  1.  II.  ep.  185  ad  BonifiiciQiii. 


VIEWS  OF  THE  PABTIES.  305 

mg  able,  by  punishment,  to  exert  an  influence  on  the  moral 
sposition,  as  on  inward  piety.  Goodness,  too,  comes  only 
m  firee  will."*  But  he  wrongly  infers  from  this,  that,  as 
e  state  is  authorized  and  bound  to  restrain  the  outward 
lUes  of  wickedness  by  punishment,  the  same  holds  good  also 

the  outward  sallies  of  heresy  or  schism.  Here  again  he 
tnpares  things  wholly  differing  in  kind.  Not  everything 
it  exhibits  itself  outwardly,  becomes  subject  thereby  to  the 
jsdiction  of  the  state.  Much  evil  reveals  itself  outwardly 
actions,  and  nevertheless  cannot  on  that  account  be  brought 
der  the  jurisdiction  of  the  state.  This  latter  extends  only 
that  evil  which  can  be  judged  on  principles  of  political  law 
d  equity,  and  which  violates  the  outwaid  order  of  the  civil 
mmuni^.  But  with  this,  the  individual  or  common  ex- 
ession  and  the  individual  or  common  profession  of  religious 
•nvictions,  of  whatever  sort  they  may  be,  do  not  of  them- 
Ives  come  in  conflict.  It  might  be  agreeable  to  the  spirit  of 
Lganism,  but  it  was  in  contradiction  with  the  spirit  of  the 
)6pel,  to  subject  the  individual  or  common  expressions  of 
digious  faith  to  maxims  of  civil  jurisprudence. 

On  these  false  premises,  Augustin  goes  on  to  affirm,  from 
16  principle  that  the  state  has  no  concern  with  the  piety  of 
s  subjects,  because  this  must  spring  solely  out  of  free  con- 
ictlon,  *'  that  the  state  must  here  leave  everything  to  the 
eedom  of  each  individual ;  from  this  principle  it  would  fol- 
w  that  the  state  must  also  leave  fvll  freedom  to  its  subjects 
ir  every  crime.  Or  ought  murder,  adultery,  and  all  other 
imes  to  be  punished,  and  sacrilege  alone  be  left  to  go 
ipunished P"'!'  He  descended  to  the  sophistic  reasoning: 
Divisions  and  sects  are  derived  by  Paul,  Gal.  v.  19,  like  all 
her  transgressions,  from  one  and  the  same  fountain  of 
ward  corruption,  the  flesh  —  hence  classed  in  the  same  cate- 
nry.  If,  then,  the  state  is  not  authorized  to  employ  punish- 
ent  against  some  fruits  of  the  flesh,  neither  can  it  be  autho- 
Eed  to  employ  it  against  others ;" — ^where  he  makes  no 
icount  whatever  of  the  consideration  that  the  religious-moral 
)int  of  view,  from  which  Paul  here  regards  the  matter,  is 

♦  C.  lit  Petiliani,  1.  II.  184. 

t  C.  Gaudent.  Douatist.  1.  I.  s.  20.    Puniantur  homicidia,  paniantar 
lolteria,  puniantur  csetera  quantalibet  sceleris  sive  libidinis  facinora 
!a  flagitia,  sola  sacrilegia  volumus  a  rcgnanliam  legibus  impunita. 
VOL.  III.  X. 


806  THE  DONATIST  SCHISM. 

altogether  different  from  the  civil  and  judicial^  from  which 
alone  the  state  can  regard  it.* 

With  good  right,  it  is  true,  Augustin  asserts,  in  opposition 
to  the  Donatists,  that  even  kings  are  bound  as  Christiaos  ta 
serve  their  particular  vocation  in  a  Christian  spirit ;  that  ag 
each  must  serve  God  in  his  own  peculiar  way,  according  to 
his  particular  vocation^  so  they,  too,  must  serve  Grod  in  a 
peculiar  way,  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  duties  of  their  (^ccf 
But  he  erred  only  in  deriving,  from  this  correct  position,  con- 
sequences which  he  was  in  no  way  authorized  to  derive  fiom 
it.  The  question  arose,  in  the  first  place,  in  what  does  a 
government  in  the  Christian  sense  consist ;  and  how  far  does 
the  province  of  kingly  power,  or  of  civO  power  generally,  in 
human  affiiirs,  reach  ?  To  make  use  of  their  power  against 
heretics,  cost  the  emperors  no  sacrifice  of  self-denial.  On  the 
contrary,  it  flattered  the  consciousness  of  the  sovereign's 
rights ;  and  he  might  believe  that  in  this  way,  which  was  so 
easy  for  him,  he  could  atone  for  many  transgressions.  But  if 
he  allowed  himself  to  be  actuated,  in  his  whole  conduct  as 
emperor,  by  the  spirit  of  Christian  self-denial,  he  would 
assuredly  have  far  better  subserved  the  cause  of  Christianity 
than  he  could  have  served  it  by  the  demolition  of  every  idol, 
which  work  Au^ustin  so  highly  extols  as  the  prerogative  of 
imperial  power.J 

But  wo  may  allow  that  Augustin  was  perhaps  authorized  to 
avail  himself,  m  defending  the  church,  of  a  principle  which  at 
this  time  had  already  become  universally  predominant  in 
church  practice,  and  of  which  this  theory  of  church  rights 
already  lay  at  the  foundation.  "  Who,"  says  Augustin,  "  will 
not  give  his  approbation  to  the  laws  by  which  the  emperors 
forbid  sacrifices  even  on  penalty  of  death?  Will  not  the 
Donatists  themselves  agree  with  us  here  ?"     If  they  did  so,  it 

♦  Augustin.  against  the  Donatists  :  Cum  in  veueficos  vigorem  legoxit 
exerceri  juste  fateantur ;  in  hajreticos  antem  atque  impias  dissensione^ 
nolint  fateri,  cum  in  iisdem  iniquitatis  fructibus  auctoritate  apostolic^ 
numerentur  ?    C.  epist  Parmeniani,  1. 1,  s.  16. 

\  C.  lit.  Petiliani,  1.  II.  s.  210.  Habent  reges  excepta  human!  generic 
societate,  eo  ipso  quo  reges  sunt,  unde  sic  Domino  serviaut,  qnomodo  no^ 
possunt,  qui  reges  non  sunt. 

%  Non  enim  auferenda  idola  de  terra  posset  quisquam  jubere  pmatii^' 
Augi;stin.  1.  c. 


VIEWB  OF  THE  PABTIES.  307 

must  be  allowed  that  they  were  defeated  by  theur  own  incon- 
sistency.* 

It  was  the  case  with  Augustin  here,  as  in  many  other 
instances,  that,  owing  to  his  ignorance  of  the  rules  of  a  right 
interpretation  of  scripture,  he  imagined  he  had  found,  in  some 
detached  and  misapprehended  passages  of  the  Bible,  a  false 
theory,  which,  in  his  systematizing  mind,  he  had  framed  to 
Idmself  independently  of  holy  writ ;  and  thus,  by  his  means, 
he  wrong  apprehension  of  such  a  passage  of  scripture  was 
stablished  as  the  classical  foundation  of  an  error  that  pre- 
railed  for  c^ituries.  Thus,  in  his  exposition  of  the  parable  of 
the  supper,  Luke  xiv.,  paying  no  regard  to  the  rule  which 
requires  that  the  point  of  comparison  should  be  ascertained 
ind  held  &st,  and  affixing  too  literal  a  sense  to  the  word 
ayayKd^eiv,  v.  23,  he  supposed  he  found  the  theory  expressed 
here,  that  men  were  authorized  and  boimd  to  employ  force, 
and  compel  men  to  participate  in  the  supper ; — that  is,  to  enter 
into  coDMnunion  with  the  universal  visible  church,  out  of  whose 
pale  salvation  was  not  to  be  obtained.  Thus  he  laid  the 
fimndation  of  the  theory,  "  Coge,"  or  "  compelle  intrare  in 
ecclesiam."  f 

True,  Augustin  continually  explains,  that  everything  must 
flow  firom  the  temper  of  love ;  but  of  what  use  was  this  prin- 
dple  in  a  theory  which  gave  full  sway  to  arbitrary  will  ?  How 
often  was  not  the  holy  name  of  love  abused  by  fanaticism  and 
the  love  of  power  ?  It  was  by  Augustin,  then,  that  a  theory 
was  proposed  and  founded,  which,  tempered  though  it  was,  in 
its  practical  application,  by  his  own  pious,  philanthropic  spirit, 
nevertheless  contained  the   germ  of  that  whole   system   of 

♦  This  inconsistency  could  not,  perhaps,  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  all  the 
[)onatists.  In  the  passage  referred  to  above  against  Parmenian,  Angus- 
in  speaks  doubt^Uy  on  this  point :  Quid  istis  videatur,  nt  crimen  idolo- 
atris  patent  juste  ab  imperatoribus  vindicari  aut  si  nee  hoc  volunt,  etc. ; 
Ind  he  says  here,  that  many  Donatists  would,  in  general,  allow  only  of  a 
rindicta  spiritalis  by  excommunication  in  religious  matters.  On  the 
Jther  hand,  ep.  93,  directed  to  the  Donatist  Vincentius,  he  says,  s.  10 :' 
Qois  vestmm  non  laudat  leges  ab  imperatoribus  datas  adversus  sacrificia 
Paganorum  ? 

t  Vid.  ep.  93  ad  Vincent,  ep.  185  ad  Bonifacium.  Hi  qui  inveniuntur 
in  viis  et  sepibns,  id  est,  in  heeresibus  et  schismatibus,  coguntur  intrare. 
In  illis  qui  leniter  primo  adducti  sunt,  completa  est  prior  obedientia :  in 
istis  autem  qui  coguntur,  inobedientia  coercetur. 


308  THE  MELETIAK  6CHI81C 

Spiritual  despotism,   of  intolerance  and  persecution,  whicb 
ended  in  the  tribunals  of  the  inquisition. 

2.  The  Melettan  Sehitm  im  Eff^pL 


I 


The  second  schism  which  deserves  notice  in  this  period  wav 
the  Meletian,  which  originated  in  Egypt  The  causes  which  jt 
led  to  it  were  in  many  respects  similar  to  those  that  gave  js 
occasion  to  the  Novatian  and  to  the  Donatist  schisms.  In  the 
very  place  where  the  spirit  of  peace  and  of  love  should  have 
most  prevailed,  in  the  prison  ceUs,  where  many  bishops,  com- 
panions of  the  same  sufferings,  were  together,  arose  a  dispute 
about  the  different  principles  of  proceeding  with  those  who 
had  fallen  away  during  the  Dioclesian  persecution.  There 
existed  among  the  prisoners  a  more  rigid  party,  who  main- 
tained, on  the  same  principle  which  Cyprian  had  once  advo- 
cated under  the  persecution  of  Decius,  that  all  who  should 
have  violated,  in  any  way,  their  fidelity  to  the  Christian  £utb, 
ought  to  be  excluded  from  the  fellowship  of  the  church  until 
the  perfect  restoration  of  peace ;  and  that  if,  up  to  that  time, 
they  had  manifested  a  spirit  of  sincere  contrition,  they  should 
then  first  obtain  forgiveness,  according  to  the  measure  of  their 
guilt.  At  the  head  of  this  more  rigid  party  stood  Meletius, 
bishop  of  Lycopolis  in  the  Thebaid.  The  bishop  of  this  city, 
being  a  metropolitan,  possessed  the  highest  rank  next  afler  the 
bishop  of  Alexandria,  and  frequently  stood  on  the  same  level 
with  him  in  administering  the  general  concerns  of  tlie  church.* 

Peter,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  on  the  other  hand,  who,  as  it 
seems,  had,  like  Cyprian,  in  the  Decian  persecution,  for 
special  reasons  withdrawn  himself  awhile  from  his  commu- 
nity, agreed  in  his  principles  ^vith  the  milder  party.  The 
pastoral  letter  on  church  penance,  which,  in  the  year  306,  this 
bishop  addressed  to  the  Egyptian  church,  breathes  a  spirit  of 
Christian  love  and  wisdom.f     He  displayed  in  it  a  more  cor- 

*  Epiphan.  hseres.  Meletian.  68,     Tuv  ttttra.  ri*  hlyvTm  srpovititn  ««< 

It  is  also  highly  probable  that  the  sixth  canon  of  the  Nicene  council  bad 
its  origin  in  this  relation ;  and  its  object  was  to  secure  as  incontestable, 
to  the  bishop  of  Alexandria,  his  general  primacy  over  the  entire  Egyptian 
church,  which  was  not  to  be  encroached  upon  by  the  rank  of  the  church 
of  Lycopolis. 

f  This  letter  was  received  by  the  Greek  church  into  the  number  of 


THE  MELETIAK  SCHISM.  309 

tect  appreciation  of  penitence  as  a  moral  duty  than  generally 
prevailed ;  attaching  more  importance  to  the  temper  than  to 
the  external  conduct,  and  judging  with  less  severity  those  who, 
yielding  solely  to  physical  weakness,  had  been  forced,  by  the 
anguish  of  torture,  to  a  momentary  denial  of  the  faith,  which 
they  afterwards  deeply  r^retted.*    Many  Christians  had  been 
mean  enough  to  force  their  Clu*istian  slaves  to  offer,  instead  of 
themselves,  under  the  delusive  notion  that  God's  tribunal  could 
be  deceived  like  a  human  one.    The  bishop  Peter  showed  in 
this  case  his  correct  moral  judgment,  in  treating  the  slaves 
with  more  lenity  than  the  masters.    Inasmuch  as  tlie  former 
had  been  in  a  sense  constrained  by  force  and  fear,  their  church 
penance  was  therefore  to  last  only  a  year ;  and  they  were  thus 
to  learn,  for  the  ^ture,  to  do  the  will  of  Christ  and  to  fear 
only  him.    But  the  masters  were  to  be  subjected  to  three 
years  of  penance,  as  hypocrites,  and  because  they  had  forced 
thdr  fellow-servants  to  offer,  not  having  learned  from  the 
apostle  Paul   that  servants  and  masters  have  one  Lord  in 
lieaven.     "  But  if  we  all  have  one  Lord,  with  whom  there  is 
DO  respect  of  persons,  as  Christ  is  all  in  all  among  barbarians, 
Scythians,  bond,  and  free,  they  should  consider  what  they  had 
done,  when  they  would  fain  deliver  their  own  souls,  but  com- 
pdl^  their  ffeUow-servants  to  the  worship  of  idols."    His 
correct  judgment  was  seen  again  in  the  severity  which  he 
8lM)wed  to  those  of  the  clergy  who,  instead  of  caring  solely  for 
the  salvation  of  the  communities  entrusted  to  them,  and  wait- 
fag,  in  their  appointed  sphere  of  labour,  the  will  of  the  Lord, 
had,  in  the  pride  of  fanaticism,  abandoned  their  communities,f 
tod  voluntarily  given  themselves  up  to  martyrdom,  and  then 
• — ^what  was  frequently  the  punishment  of  fanatical  presump- 
tion— shrunk  back  and  denied  in  the  inunediate  prospect  of 
death. 

the  letters  incorporated  into  the  ecclesiastical  code  of  laws,  under  the 

title  of  WwtoTm)  xaMuxal, 

f  Touching  this  point  he  says,  c.  10 :  "So  did  no  one  of  the  apostles ; 
for  the  aposUe  Paul,  who  had  gone  through  many  conflicts,  and  who 
fanew  that  it  was  better  to  depart  and  be  with  Christ,  added,  *  Neverthe- 
less, to  abide  in  the  flesh  is  more  needful  for  you.'  Since  he  did  not 
seek  his  own  profit,  but  what  would  be  for  the  good  of  many,  that  they 
should  be  saved,  he  held  it  to  be  more  necessary  than  his  own  rest,  to 
abide  with  the  brethren  and  care  for  them." 


310  THE  MELSTIAK  SCHISM. 

Meletius,  at  a  imbsequent  period,  obtained  his  freedom ; 
while  those  bishops  who  held  other  and  milder  principles  of 
penitence,  remained  still  in  the  prison.     He  exercised  his  au- 
thority as  the  second  metropolitan  in  £^ypt,  during  the  absence 
of  the  bishop  Peter,  whom,  being  a  confessor,  he  thought  him- 
self entitled,  perhaps,  to  despise,  on  accomit  of  his  flight ;  he 
travelled  through  the  whole  diocese  of  the  Alexandrian  patri- 
arch, within  which,  relying  on  the  authority  jnst  described,  he 
undertook  to  ordain,  and  to  excommunicate,  according  to  his 
own  pleasure.    He  did  not  recognize  the  official  power  of  those 
to  whose  charge,  as  Periodeutce^  or  visitors,  the  bishop  Peter 
of  Alexandria  had  committed  the  destitute  communities.  Their 
different  views  respecting  the  proper  mode  of  treating  thoie 
who  had  fallen,  or  who  had  become  suspected  of  denying  God 
in  some  way  or  other,  was  here,  too,  probably  made  a  subject 
of  discussion,  or  at  least  used  as  a  pretext ;  since  the  Meletians 
boasted  of  representing  the  pure  church  of  the  martyrs.   Four 
Egyptian  bishops,  among  the  imprisoned  confessors,  declared 
themselves  firmly  against  the  arbitrary  proceedings  of  MeletitH, 
who,  however,  took  no  notice  of  this  protestation.    The  bishop 
Peter  of  Alexandria  issued  a  writing  to  the  Alexandrian  church, 
wherein  he  bade  all  to  avoid  fellowship  with  him  until  tiie 
matter  could  be  more  closely  investigated  in  connection  with 
other  bishops ;  and  at  length  he  excluded  him — probably  after 
his  own  return — from  the  functions  of  the  episcopal  office,  and 
from  the  fellowship  of  his  church,  as  a  disturber  of  the  peace 
of  the  communities.*     Also,  subsequently  to  the  martyrdom 

*  Among  the  sources  which  treat  of  the  origin  of  the  Meletian  schismt 
there  is  found  a  good  deal  of  contradiction.  The  first  place  among  these 
sources  is  certainly  due  to  the  documents  published  by  Maffei,  from  a  mano- 
script  of  the  chapter  of  the  cathedral  of  Verona  (in  the  osservazioni  let- 
terarie,  t  III.  Verona,  1738),  which,  therefore,  we  must  make  the  point  of 
departure  in  inquiring  into  these  contradictions.  First,  a  letter  of  ibor 
imprisoned  confessors  from  Egypt,  the  bishops  Hesychios,  Pachomius, 
Theodorus,  and  Philcas,  who  subsequently  died  as  martyrs  (according  to 
Euseb.  h.  e.  VIII.  13),  addressed  to  the  bishop  Meletius.  In  this  letter 
it  is  urged  against  Meletius,  whom  still  they  call  dilectos  et  comminister 
in  Domino,  that  in  violation  of  the  rights  of  foreign  bishops,  and  partico- 
larly  of  Peter  of  Alexandria,  he  is  reported  to  have  undertaken  to  ordain 
in  foreign  dioceses ;  which,  nevertheless,  was  altogether  at  varianoe  with 
the  ancient  laws  of  the  church.  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  amang  the 
grounds  of  excuse  here  mentioned,  to  which  Meletius  might  perhaps  ap- 
peal, that  borrowed  from  the  difference  in  the  principles  of  penitenoeis 


THE  M£L£TIAN  SCHISM.  311 

of  the  bishop  Peter,  a.  d.  311,  and  in  the  time  of  the  bishop 
Alexander,  under  whom  the  Arian  controversies  broke  out, 
this  schism  still  continued  to  exist. 

The  council  of  Nice  endeavoured  to  get  rid  of  this  schism 
byndlder  regulations.  The  council  directed  that  Meletius, 
since  no  confidence  could  be  placed  in  his  restless  character, 

not  dted  at  all,  as  if  no  dispute  had  as  yet  arisen  on  that  point.  Next 
follows  the  story,  that,  when  Meletius  had  received  this  letter,  he  did  not 
answer  it,  did  not  even  repair  to  the  bishops  in  prison,  nor  seek  for  the 
bidiop  Peter ;  but  after  those  bishops  had  already  perished  by  martyrdom, 
that  he  came  to  Alexandria,  and  there  entered  into  a  combination  with 
two  restless  men,  who  were  anxious  to  obtrude  themselves  on  the  com- 
munities as  teachers,  of  whom  Arius  was  one  (see  the  section  relating  to 
doctrinal  controversies).  These  discovered  to  him  two  presbyters,  nomi- 
nated by  Peter  as  church  visitors,  who  had  concealed  themselves.  The 
text  now  reads :  Commendans  eis  occasionem  Meletius  separavit  eos  (^m 
tiie  Greek  probably  u^v^t^iv).  The  sense  of  the  obscure  passage  is  pro- 
kibly  this:  Meletius  accused  these  presbyters  of  having  shown  inconstancy 
to  the  &ith,  or  cowardice  under  the  persecutions ;  he  excluded  them  for 
a  season  from  the  fellowship  of  the  church,  or  suspended  them  from  their 
offices,  recommending  to  them  to  improve  the  opportunity  furnished 
Ihem  by  the  persecution,  of  restoring  themselves  to  their  good  standing, 
by  showing  steadfastness  in  confessing  the  faith.  He  himself  ordained 
two  as  presbyters,  one  of  whom  was  in  prison,  and  the  other  had  been 
condemned  to  work  in  the  mines  as  a  reward  of  their  constancy. 

From  this  narrative  it  is  apparent,  that  the  disputes  which  Meletius 
exdted  were,  beyond  all  doubt,  connected  with  his  severe  principles  as 
to  the  proper  mode  of  conduct  during  the  persecutions ;  although  no 
mention  is  made  of  this  in  the  preceding  letters.  The  third  document  is 
the  letter  of  the  bishop  Peter  to  the  Alexandrian  commxmity,  in  which  he 
bids  them,  on  account  of  the  difficulties  with  Meletius,  to  hold  no  commu- 
nion with  him.  With  the  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Meletian  controver- 
fiies  which  is  to  be  gathered  from  these  documents,  the  report  of  Epipha- 
nius  for  the  most  part  agrees.  He  represents  the  separation,  which  had 
hs  gronnd  in  the  difference  of  views  as  to  the  principles  of  penance,  to 
have  taken  place  already  in  the  prison.  Of  this  the  letters  above  cited  do 
indeed  say  nothing.  The  zealous  Meletian  author  whom  Epiphanius 
makes  use  of,  may  perhaps  also  have  represented  the  afi^r  in  an  exag- 
gerated light ;  still  it  is  quite  possible  that  a  dispute  bf  this  sort  may  have 
already  occurred,  although  it  had  as  yet  led  to  no  open  rupture.  The 
narrative,  which  is  the  second  of  those  documents  oi  Mafiei,  intimates 
this.  According  to  Epiphanius,  Meletius,  when  he  left  the  common  prison, 
had  been  condemned  to  labour  in  the  mines.  On  his  journey  to  the  place 
of  his  punishment,  he  is  represented  as  having  undertaken  to  ordain  ac- 
cording to  his  own  pleasure.  This  story  is  perhaps  false—perhaps  it  is 
a  romoor  which  gradually  arose  and  spread  among  the  Meletian  party  in 
Older  to  shield  him  against  some  evil  suspicion.  The  documents  nf 
Maffd  seem  to  presuppose  that  Meletius  had  then  obtained  his  entire 


312  THE  MELETIAN  SCHISli. 

should  reside,  simply  as  a  titular  bishop,  without  active  juris- 
iliction,  at  Lycopolis ;  and  for  the  future  refinain  altogether 
from  bestowing  ordination,  whether  in  the  city  or  in  the  country. 
Yet  the  clergy  who  had  been  already  ordained  by  him,  should 
remain  in  possession  of  their  offices,  only  taking  rank  afler 
the  others  who  had  received  ordination  from  the  bishop  of 

freedom.  What  Epiphanios  relates  is,  on  the  other  hand,  in  aocordanoe 
-with  the  narrative  of  Maffei,  that  as  the  party  of  Peter  had  styled  them- 
selves the  Catholic  church,  so  the  party  of  Meletius  styled  itself  the  church 
of  the  martyrs ;  for  it  is  clear,  in  feict,  from  that  narradve,  that  Meletiiu 
was  fond  of  making  confessors  ecclesiastics.  In  the  church  history  of 
Socrates,  I.  24,  one  account  is  especially  deserving  of  notice,  that  while 
ihe  bishop  Peter,  who  afterwards  died  as  a  martyr,  had  taken  refuge  in 
flight  {pvytvTes  Ita  rn  rort  limy/Mv)  Melctius  usurped  the  right  ofordainiDg 
in  his  diocese.  If  this  account  were  correct,  the  origin  of  the  schisin 
would  be  still  more  clear.  Meletins  had,  perhaps,  remonstrated  against 
his  flight  with  Peter  himself;  and  imagined  himself  to  be  the  more  wa^ 
ranted,  on  that  account,  to  interfere  with  his  authority.  The  narradTe  of 
Epipbanius  does  indeed  conflict  with  tins  view ;  but  anachronisms  are  no 
uncommon  thing  in  this  author.  From  the  documents  edited  by  Mi^Ed, 
the  absence  of  Peter  from  Alexandria  at  this  time  is  clearly  made  oat 
indeed,  but  not  his  imprisonment  The  bishops  who  style  themselves 
prisoners  say  nothing,  however,  of  the  imprisonment  of  Peter  ;  neither 
does  he  mention  it  himself  in  his  letter.  Moreover,  Euscbius,  ix.  6,  re- 
ports  that  under  the  persecution  renewed  by  Maximinus,  in  411,  the 
bishop  Peter  was  suddenly  seized  and  beheaded,  without  making  mention 
of  any  earlier  imprisonment  of  his.  On  the  contrary,  from  the  last  words 
of  Peter,  which,  to  be  sure,  in  the  Latin  translation,  in  which  they  are 
preserved  to  us,  sound  somewhat  obscure,  it  might  be  inferred  that  he 
was  in  a  state  of  freedom,  and  was  intending  soon  to  appoint  an  ecdesias- 
tical  trial  in  Alexandria  itself:  Ne  ei  communicetis,  donee  occurram  illi 
cum  sapientibus  viris  et  videam  quae  sunt,  quee  cogitavit. 

With  these  narratives,  however,  the  story  of  Athanasius,  Apolog.  c 
Arianos,  s.  59  (which  Socrates  follows),  in  part  conflicts ;  that  the  bishop 
Petrus  (MiXit/ov)    it)    ^oXXttg    iXty^fiivra    sra^afOfAtatf    Ktu    ffvffitf    it    xtitif 

ffuvooM  ruv  WiffMTuv  Kttd^  f/xty.  As  it  conccms  the  ^rtK^av^fcteUf  this 
coincides  with  the  reports  above  cited ;  for  by  them  would  of  course  be 
understood  these  very  arbitrary  ordinations.  In  respect  to  the  second 
matter,  however,  the  passionate  opponents  of  the  Meletians  are  not  to  be 
wholly  believed.  It  might  perhaps  be,  that  this  charge  was  conjured  up 
at  a  later  period  by  enemies  of  Meletius.  They  inferred  from  the  fact 
that  Meletius  had  been  released  from  the  same  imprisonment  in  which 
the  others  had  experienced  martyrdom,  according  to  the  same  licentious 
mode  of  drawing  conclusions  we  have  already  noticed,  that  he  must 
have  procured  his  freedom  by  consenting  to  offer.  For  the  rest,  this 
story  of  Athanasius,  too,  seems  to  go  in  favour  of  the  supposition  that 
the  bishop  Peter  was  still  in  a  state  of  freedom,  that  he  subsequently 
returned  to  Alexandria,  and  there  convoked  a  synod  against  Meletius. 


SCHISM  BETWEEN  DAMASUS  AND  (JBSDIUS.  313 

Alexandria.  But  if  these,  should  be  removed  by  death  before 
them,  then  they  might  take  their  places,  in  case  they  should, 
by  the  vote  of  the  communities,  be  found  worthy ;  and  this 
was  con6rmed  by  the  bishop  of  Alexandria.*  But  the  Mele- 
tian  schism,  which,  moreover,  found  fresh  sources  of  nourish- 
meut  amid  the  Arian  disputes,  continued  to  propagate  itself 
till  into  the  fifth  century. 

3.  Schism  between  Damasus  and  Ursinus,  at  Rome, 

In  this  schism,  we  observe  the  corrupting  influence  of  worldly 
prosperity  and  abundance,  and  of  the  confusion  of  spiritual 
things  with  secular,  on  the  spirit  of  the  Roman  church.f  We 
see  what  a  mighty  interest  of  profane  passions  was  already 
existing  there.  The  particular  occasion  m  hich  led  to  the  break- 
ing out  of  this  schism,  lay  in  the  immediate  circumstances  of 
the  times.  The  Roman  bishop  Liberius  had,  in  356,  been 
deposed  from  his  place,  and  sent  into  exile,  by  the  emperor 
Constantius,  because  he  would  not  consent  to  the  condenmation 
of  Athanasius.f  The  archdeacon  Felix,  who  acceded  to  the 
emperor's  wishes,  was  elevated  to  the  place  of  Liberius.  But, 
when  the  latter  subsequently  consented  to  subscribe  a  creed 
drawn  up  at  Sirmium  by  the  Arian  party,  Constantius  per- 
mitted him,  in  the  year  358,  to  return  to  Rome ;  and  he  was 
again  at  liberty  to  resume  his  bishopric.  Meanwhile  a  distinct 
party  had  been  formed  in  the  church  by  a  certain  presbyter, 
named  Eusebius ;  which  party  held  their  conventicle  in  a  pri- 
vate house,  and  avoided  all  fellowship  with  those  who  were 
£ivoured  by  the  party  at  court. §  Now  this  party  refused  to 
recognize  Liberius  as  bishop,  on  account  of  his  recantation, 
and  hence  continued  to  hold  their  separate  assemblies.  Felix 
was  banished ;  and  he  is  reported,  at  least  by  the  enemies  of 
Liberius,  II  to  have  subsequently  repented  of  his  transition  to 
Arianism,  and,  for  this  reason,  to  have  led  a  life  of  penance  at 

*  See  the  letter  of  the  Nicene  council,  in  Socrates  I.  9. 

t  As  Amxnianus  Marcellinus  very  justly  remarks  ou  occasion  of  this 
controversy,  1.  xxvii.  c.  3. 

t  See  below,  under  the  head  of  doctrinal  controversies. 

}  See  the  history  of  the  sufferings  of  this  Eusebius,  which,  it  must  be 
allowed,  as  it  comes  from  an  enthusiastic  admirer,  is  not  entitled  to  full 
belief.    Published  by  Baluz,  Miscellan.  1.  II.  pag.  141. 

Q  See  vita  Eusebii,  1.  c. 


314  SCHISM  BETWEEN  DAMASUS  AND  UBSDrUS. 

the  villa  to  which  he  had  withdrawn  himself.  The  meetings 
of  the  Eusebian  party  were  forcibly  brokoi  up ;  Eusdoius  wm 
kept  confined  in  a  room  of  his  own  house,  wl^re  the  meetings 
had  been  held. 

In  this  ferment  of  the  Roman  couununities,  schisms  might 
easily  be  occasioned  by  the  new  election  of  a  bishop  in  ih» 
place  of  Liberius,  after  his  death,  in  366.  The  real  course 
which  matters  took,  as  we  have  two  opposite  repoils,  which 
proceed  from  the  opposite  parties,  cannot  be  certainly  traced. 
According  to  the  account  of  one  party,  Damasus  was,  in  the 
first  place,  regularly  chosen  and  ordained  bishop ;  but  after- 
wards a  deacon,  Ursinus  or  Ursicinus,  who  had  aspired  to  the 
episcopal  dignity,  with  Ins  party,  took  possession  of  the  church, 
which  was  called  after  its  builder,  or  the  presbyter  who  con- 
ducted divine  worship  in  it,  the  church  of  Sicininus,*  and 
caused  himself  here  to  be  ordained  bishop.l  According  to 
the  other  report,  J  the  party  which  had  always  continued  to 
be  faithfully  devoted  to  the  bishop  Liberius,  immediately  afier 
his  death  made  choice  of  Ursicinus.  But  Damasus,  who  be- 
longed to  those  who,  during  the  banishment  of  Liberius,  had 
attached  themselves  to  Felix,  and  who  had  ever  aspired  after 
the  episcopate,  was  nominated  bishop  by  the  party  of  Felix. 
Thus  it  cannot  be  determined  which  one  of  the  two  competitors 
had  the  principal  share  in  the  disturbances  and  deeds  of  vio- 
lence. Although  the  truth  is,  that,  whenever  any  matter 
became  an  object  of  zealous  contention  among  the  lower 
classes  of  the  passionate  and  restless  Roman  people,  many 
things  might  be  done  which  the  heads  of  both  parties  would 
gladly  have  avoided ;  yet  it  is  most  probable  that  neither  of 
the  two,  in  this  case,  could  be  wholly  exempted  from  blame. 
Damasus  appears,  moreover,  on  other  occasions,  to  have  been 
a  proud  man.§  Bishops,  who  should  be  ministers  of  peace, 
and  surrender  up  everything  sooner  than  allow  any  strife  to 
go  on  for  their  own  honour,  suffered  the  matter  to  take  such 

*  Basilica  Sicinini. 

t  See  the  accounts  in  the  chronicle  of  Jerome,  in  Socrates  and  Soa)- 
men. 

I  The  introduction  to  the  petition  of  Marcellinns  and  of  Faustinns, 
two  presbyters  belonging  to  the  party  of  Ursicinus,  and  of  Lucifer  of 
Calaris,  to  the  emperors  Theodosius  and  Arcadius.  Published  by  Sir- 
mond.  opp.  1. 1. 

See  Basil.  Csesar,  ep.  239,  s.  2. 


•H 


SCHISM  BETWEEN  DAMASUS  AKD  UBSINUS.  315 

course,  that  a  bloody  struggle  must  decide  the  question, 
hich  of  the  two  was  the  regidar  bishop.  On  one  day  there 
ere  found,  in  the  church  occupied  by  Ursicinus,  which  was 
ormed  by  the  party  of  Damasus,  the  dead  bodies  of  a  hun- 
red  and  thirty-seven  men.*  Damasus  at  last  conquered,  and 
Frsicinus  was  banished.  But  the  division  continued  to  exist 
mger ;  and,  moreover,  other  foreign  bishops  were  drawn 
ito  it.  To  suppress  this  schism,  and  the  quarrels  that  grew 
ut  of  it,  the  emperor  Gratian  issued,  in  the  year  378  or  381, 
be  law  wliich  we  have  noticed  already  in  a  cursory  manner, 
nd  to  which  he  was  moved  by  the  petition  of  a  Roman 
ooncil.  By  this  law,  he  conferred  on  the  Roman  bishop  the 
ght  of  deciding,  in  the  last  instance,  on  the  affairs  of  the 
ishops  who  were  implicated  in  this  schism;!  providing, 
iwever,  that  they  should  not  encroach,  by  so  doing,  on .  the 
ithority  of  the  metropolitans  in  the  provinces. 

■ 

Bemakk. — The  schisms  of  Lucifer  of  Calaris  and  of  Mele- 
08  of  Antioch,  on  account  of  the  intimate  connection  in 
hich  they  stand  with  the  history  of  doctrinal  controversies, 
ce  reserved  for  the  fourth  section. 

*  Ammian.  Marcellin.  1.  xzvii.  c.  3. 

f  By  tlus  schism,  occasion  was  given  for  the  law,  although  its  expres- 

OBI  are  goiend* 


316  CHBISTIAK  LIFB-* 


i 


SECTION    THIRD. 

CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  CHEISTIAN  WOBSHIP. 

I.  Christian  Life. 
] .  Its  general  Character  in  this  Period, 

From  the  changes  which,  in  the  preceding  sections,  we  saw 
taking  place  in  the  relations  and  circumstances  of  the  church, 
it  would  be  easy  to  form  some  probable  conjecture  as  to  what 
would  be  the  new  shaping  of  the  whole  Christian  life  m  the 
present  period.     The  vast  numbers  who,  from  ei[temal  con- 
siderations, without  any  inward  call,  joined  themselves  to  the 
Christian  communities,  served  to  introduce  into  the  church  all 
the  corruptions  of  the  heathen  world.     Pi^an  vices,  pagan 
delusions,   pagan  superstition,  took  the  garb  and   name  of 
Christianity,  and  were  thus  enabled  to  exert  a  more  corruptiDg 
influence  on  the  Christian  life.     Such  were  those  who,  without 
any  real  interest  whatever  in  the  concerns  of  religion,  living 
half  in  Paganism  and  half  in  an  outward  show  of  Christianity, 
composed  the  crowds  that  thronged  the  churches  on  the  festi- 
vals of  the  Christians,  and  the  theatres  on  the  festivals  of  the 
Pagans.  *  Such  were  those  who  accounted  themselves  C  hristians, 
if  they  but  attended  church  once  or  twice  in  a  year  ;1[  while, 
without  a  thought  of  any  higher  life,  they  abandoned  them- 
selves to  every  species  of  worldly  pursuit  and  pleasure.  There 
were  multitudes,  especially  in  the  large  towns  of  the  East, 
who,  although  no  longer  Pagans,  and  although  they  were 
denominated,  in  the  most  general  sense  of  the  word,  believers, 
yet  kept  back,  during  the  greatest  part,  or  even  the  whole  of 
their  lives,  from  the  communion  of  the  church ;  and  only 
when  -admonished  by  the  actual  or  apprehended  approach  of 

'*'  Augnstin.  de  catechizandis  rudib.  s.  48.  Ills  turbsc  implent 
ecclesias  per  dies  festos  Christianorum,  quse  implent  theatra  per  dies 
solennes  Paganorum. 

t  *'A«r«|  «  2tvTt(»9  fjJxif  rou  iravrog  iviavrev,  Chrysostom.  in  baptism. 
Christi,  T.  V.  f.  523,  Savil. 


ITS  GENERAL  CHABACTEB  AT  THIS  PEBIOD.  817 

death,  in  sudden  attacks  of  sickness,  in  earthquakes,  or  the 
unforeseen  calamities  of  war,  took  refuge  in  baptism.  Others, 
who  had  received  baptism,  thought  themselves  religious  enough, 
if  they  attended  church  on  all  the  festivals, — a  practice  de- 
nounced, therefore,  by  Chrysostom,  as  a  mere  form, — wholly 
without  influence  on  the  inner  life ; — custom,  but  not  piety.* 

The  greater  the  number  of  these  nominal  Christians,  the 
more  mischievous  became  the  errors  which  made  them  feel 
secure  in  this  outward  Christianity,  which  confirmed  them  in 
the  delusive  notion  that  they  could  live  in  sin,  and  yet  obtain 
salvation.     Of  this  kind  were  those  many  corruptions  of  purely 
Christian  ideas  which  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  notice 
in  the  preceding  period; — false  notions  of  what  constitutes 
&ith ;  the  confounding  of  the  inward  thing  with  the  outward 
8ign ;  that  reliance  on  externals  in  religion,  which  grew  out 
of  this  very  habit  of  overlooking  what  belongs  to  faith  and  to 
the  life  of  faith,  and  of  confounding  the  divine  realities  which 
&ith  apprehends,  with  the  outward,  earthly  forms  which  were 
designed  merely  to  symbolize  them.     To  sum  up  the  whole 
liere  at  once, — which  it  will  be  our  object  afterwards  to  explain 
mare  fully  in  detail, — the  mischief  presents  itself  in  the  delu- 
sive persuasion  that  any  man,  no  matter  what  his  life,  could 
make  sure  of  being  delivered  from  divine  punishment,  and 
introduced  into  the  community  of  the  blessed,  by  the  charm 
of  outward  baptism  ;  which  mistaken  confidence  in  the  magi- 
cal cleansing  and  atoning   efRcacy  of  baptism   encouraged 
numbers  to  persevere  to  the  last  in  the  indulgence  of  their 
lusts,  hoping  to  avail  themselves  of  this  as  a  final  remedy.    It 
presents  itself  again  in  the  delusive  persuasion  respecting  the 
sanctifying  effects   of  the  communion,  even  when  received 
without  suitable  preparation,  and  only  on  the  principal  festi- 
vals; in  the  delusive  persuasion  respecting  the  merit  of  an 
outward  attendance  on  church,  of  pilgrimages  to  certain  spots 
consecrated    by    religious    remembrances,    of   donations    to 
churches,  of  alms-giving,  especially  to  ecclesiastics  and  monks, 
^Hio  respect  being  paid  to  the  manner  in  which  what  was 
thus  bestowed  had  been  acquired,  nor  to  the  disposition  with 
which  it  was  given.     Instead  of  bearing  the  cross  in  their 
hearts,  men  relied  on  the  magical  power  of  the  outward  sign. 

*  JmnitMs  t^Tif,  ouK  tvXttfitms.    In  Annam,  H.  V.  T.  V.  f.  73. 


316  CHRISTIAK  LIFE. 

Instead  of  soberly  carrying  out  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel  in 
their  lives,  they  folded  up  the  scroll  on  which  it  was  written, 
to  wear  about  the  neck  as  an  amulet* 

Mischievous  was  the  influence  resulting  fix)m  the  doctrinal 
controversies,  inasmuch  as  they  were  conducted  with  an  incon- 
siderate zeal,  inasmuch  as  the  leaders  of  the  contending  parties 
sacrificed  everything  else  to  the  one  interest  of  a  formal, 
orthodox  theory ;  inasmuch  as  the  attention  of  men  wai 
directed  away  from  the  true  essence  and  from  the  demands  of 
practical  Christianity.  Mischievous  was  the  influence,  also, 
of  the  unevangelical  notion,  which  continually  gained  ground, 
of  a  distinct  outward  priesthood,  confined  to  a  single  class  of 
men, — ^^vhereby  the  original  idea  of  the  priestly  character 
belonging  in  common  to  all  Christians,  ever  became  more 
completely  obscured  and  suppressed.  That  which  should  be 
the  concern  of  all  Christians,  and  which  should  be  required  l 
of  them  all  as  spiritually-minded  men,  was  supposed  to  belong 
exclusively  to  the  spiritual  order  and  to  monks ;  and  whoever 
was  exhorted  to  l^ul  a  more  sober  and  holy  life,  was  e?er 
ready  to  reply :  ^^  I  am  of  the  world ;  and  secular  men,  if 
they  are  believers,  if  they  abide  in  the  communion  of  the 
church,  and  do  not  lead  an  extremely  vicious  life,  will  doubt- 
less reach  heaven ;  though  they  may  not  attain  to  those  higher 
seats  which  are  reserved  for  the  saints.  I  have  not  left  the 
world.  I  am  no  clergyman,  no  monk.  Of  such  alone  these 
loftier  virtues  can  be  required." 

At  the  same  time,  however,  it  would  be  >vrong  to  judge, 
from  the  great  mass  of  nominal  Christians,  the  character  of 
the  whole  church.  The  many  examples  of  individual  church- 
teachers,  who  were  truly  penetrated  with  the  gospel  spirit, 
and  earnestly  laboured  to  promote  it,  may  rightly  be  con- 
sidered as  testifying  to  what  was  within  the  church  itself;  for, 
without  the  Christian  spirit  under  which  they  had  been  trained 
and  educated,  they  assuredly  never  could  have  become  what 

*  Jerome,  after  having  spoken  of  the  Pharisees :  Haec  in  corde  por- 
tanda  sunt,  non  in  corpore.  Hoc  apud  nos  superstitiosse  muliercols  in 
parvulis  evangeliis  et  in  crucis  ligno  et  istiusmodi  rebus  usque  hodie 
factitaut.  In  c.  23,  Matth.  1.  IV.  ed.  Martianay,  IV.  fol.  109.  Chrysos- 
tora,  ad  pop.  Antiocheu.  H.  XIX.  s.  4,  T.  II.  ed.  Montfaucon,  f.  197, 

At   yvvatxis   xa]  ra.  fAix^ai  taihia,  auvr)  (pvkxKVJs  (Aiyei\ns   ivayyiXtet  i^aoriffi 


FOKMALISIC.  319 

were.    So,  too,  in  many  of  the  appearances  of  Monasti- 
notwithstanding  all  its  aberrations,  there  was  still  ex- 
ad  a  warm  Christian  spirit,  which  must  have  come  origi- 
£rom  the  church. 

was  natural,  however,  that  the  bad  element,  which  had 
%rdly  assumed  the   Christian  garh^  should  push  itself 
prominently  to  notice  in  public  life.     Hence  it  was  more 
to  attract  the  common  gaze,  while  the  gcQuinely  Chris- 
temper  loved  retirement,  and  created  less  sensation; 
3t   in   those  cases,   which  were  not  unfrequent  in   this 
d,  where  oppodtion  elicited  the  hidden  Christian  life,  and 
J  it  appear  brighter  in  the  conflict.     "Watch  the  oil- 
,"  said  Augustin  to  those  who  saw  nothing  but  the  evil 
iming  on  the  surface ;  "  watch  it  a  little  more  narrowly, 
do  not  look  at  the  sciun  alone  that  floats  on  the  top. 
'  seek,  and  you  will  find  something."* 
t  the  present  time,  the  relation  of  vital  Christianity  to  the 
istianity  of  mere  form  resembled  that  which,  in  the  pre- 
ig  period,  existed  between  the  Christianity  of  those  to 
n  religion  was  a  serious  concern,  and  Paganism,  which 
tituted  the  prevailing   rule  of  life.     As,  in  the  earlier 
s,  the  life  of  genuine  Christians  had  stood  out  in  strong 
rast  with  the  life  of  the  pagan  world ;  so  now  the  life  of 
.  as  were  Christians  not  merely  by  outward  profession,  but 
in  the  temper  of  their  hearts,  presented  a  strong  contrast 
the  careless  and  abandoned  life  of  the  ordinary  nominal 
istians.     By  these  latter,  the  others,  to  whom  Christianity 
a  serious  concern,  and  who  placed  it  neither  in  a  formal 
odoxy,  nor  in  a  round  of  outward  ceremonies,  were  re- 
led  in  the  same  light  as,  in  the  earlier  times,  the  Christians 
been  regarded  by  the  Pagans.     They  also  were  reproached 
hese  nominal  Christians,  just  as  the  Christians  generally 
been  taunted  before  by  the  Pagans,  with  seeking  to  be 
\teous  overmuch.     Suph  is  the  picture  which  Augustin 
drawn  from  the  life  of  these  times.     "  As  the  Pagan  who 
Id  be  a  Christian,  hears  rude  words  from  the  Pagans ;  so 
eunong  the  Christians,  who  would  live  a  better  and  more 
Kiientious   life,    hears  himself  abused   by  the  Christians 
Qselves.     He  who  would  be  sober  among  the  intemperate, 
ite  among  the  incontinent ;  he  who  would  honestly  serve 

*  Enarrat.  ^,  80,  s.  1. 


320  CHRISTIAN  LIFE. 

God  among  those  who  consult  astrologen ;  he  who  would  go 
nowhere  but  to  church  among  those  who  flock  to  the  silly 
shows,  must  hear  rude  language  from  Christians  thanselvefl^ 
who  will  say :  '  You  are  reaUy  a  very  great  and  righteoos 
man,  a  second  Elijah  or  Peter ; — ^you  must  have  descended 
from  heaven.' "  *  In  another  place,  he  says :  f  "  As  soon  at 
a  man  begins  to  live  for  Grod,  to  despise  the  world,  to  abstain 
from  revenging  injuries,  from  seeking  afler  riches,  or  any 
earthly  goods ;  to  look  down  upon  all  these  things,  and  to 
think  of  nothing  but  God,  and  to  walk  fidthfully  in  the  way 
of  Christ, — not  only  the  Pagans  say  of  him,  '  He  is  mad ;'  bk 
what  should  give  us  greater  concern,  because  it  shows  that^ 
even  in  the  church,  many  sleep  and  will  not  be  awakened,  he 
must  expect  to  hear  Christians  themselves  remark :  ^  What  is 
the  man  about?  What  can  have  entered  into  his  head?***t 
Such  individuals  of  the  laity  as  were  distinguished  by  their 
piety  from  the  great  mass  of  nominal  Christians,  and  from  the 
worldly-minded  members  of  the  clergy,  often  excited  thejeo* 
lousy  of  these  latter,  and  had  to  sifier  their  persecutions.} 
Such  examples  were  too  troublesome ;  they  were  too  severe 
censors'  of  morals. 

We   have  already  observed,  in  describing  the  spread  of 
Christianity,  where  we  adduced  the  testimony  of  Pagans  them- 
selves, as  unimpeachable  evidence  of  the  fact,  that  pious  Chris- 
tian females,  presenting  patterns  of  genuine  wives  and  mothers, 
often  furnished  a  beautiful  contrast  to  the  prevailing  deprava- 
tion of  manners  and  reckless  pursuit  of  earthly  things,  to  be 
found  in  the  families  of  Pagans,  or  of  mere  nominal  Christians. 
From  such  wives  and  mothers,  the  true  religious  instruction 
of  the  husband,  or  at  least  the  pious  education  of  the  children, 
often  proceeded.     By  them  the  first  seeds  of  Christianity  were 
planted  in  the  souls  of  those  who  afterwards  produced  great 
effects  as  teachers  of  the  church.     The  pious  Nonna,  by  her 
prayers  and  the  silent  influence  of  the  religion  which  shone 

*  In  ^^.  90,  T.  I.  s.  4. 

t  In  ^.  48,  T.  II.  s.  4.  X  In  >;^.  48,  T.  II.  s.  4. 

A»  So  says  Jerome,  Vere  nunc  est  cernere,  in  plerisque  arbibus  epis- 
copos  sive  presbyteras,  si  laicos  viderint  hospitales,  amatores  bonorum, 
iuvidere,  fremere,  quasi  non  liceat  facere  quod  episcopus  non  feciat,  et 
tales  esse  laicos  damnatio  saccrdotum  sit.  Graves  itaque  eos  hal)ent,  et 
quasi  cervicibus  suis  impositos ;  ut  a  bono  abducant  opere,  variis  perse- 
cutionibus  inquietant.    In  ep.  ad  Tit.  c.  1.  T.  IV.  f.  417. 


PIOXJS  MOTHERS.  321 

hiough  her  life,  gradually  won  over  to  the  gospel  her  husband 
GrT^ory,  who  had  belonged  to  an  unchristian  sect,  and  he 
became  a  devoted  bishop.  Their  first-born  son,  whom  they 
ktd  long  yearned  after,  was  carried,  soon  after  his  birth,  to 
tk  altar  of  the  church,  where  they  placed  a  volume  of  the 
gQ^ls  in  his  hands,  and  dedicated  him  to  the  service  of  the 
Lord.  The  example  of  a  pious  education,  and  this  early  con- 
secration, first  received  from  his  mother,  of  which  he  was 
often  reminded,  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  son ;  and  he 
compares  his  mother  with  Hannah  who  consecrated  Samuel  to 
6od.  This  impression  abode  upon  him,  while  exposed  during 
4e  years  of  his  youth,  which  he  spent  at  Athens,  to  the  con- 
i^gion  of  the  Paganism  which  there  prevailed.  This  son,  the 
listinguished  church-teacher  Gregory  of  Nazianzum,  says  of 
lis  mother,  that  her  emotions,  when  dwelling  on  the  historical 
lets  connected  with  her  faith,  overcame  all  sense  of  pain  from 
er  own  sufferings :  hence,  on  festival  days,  she  was  never 
HDwn  to  be  sorrowful,  and  death  surprised  her  while  praying 
»elbre  the  altar.*  The  pious  Anthusa  of  Antioch  retired 
rom  the  bustle  of  the  great  world,  to  which  she  belonged- by 
ter  condition,  into  the  still  retreat  of  domestic  life.  Having 
ost  her  husband  at  the  age  of  twenty,  from  regard  to  his 
Qemory,  and  a  desire  to  devote  herself  wholly  to  the  educa- 
ion  of  her  son,  she  chose  to  remain  a  widow;  and  it  was 
»wing  in  part  to  this  early,  pious,  and  careful  education,  that 
he  boy  became  afterwards  so  well  known  as  the  great  church- 
eacher,  John  Chrysostom.  Similar  was  the  influence  exerted 
m  the  education  of  her  son  by  the  mother  of  Theodoret.  In 
ike  manner,  Monica,  by  her  submissive,  amiable,  and  gentle 
^irit,  softened  the  temper  of  a  violently  passionate  husband ; 
find,  while  she  had  much  to  suffer  from  him,  scattered  the 
seeds  of  Christianity  in  the  young  soul  of  her  son  Augustin, 
which,  afler  many  stormy  passages  of  life,  brought  forth 
their  fruit  in  him  abundantly.  To  make  their  children  early 
acquainted  with  the  holy  scriptures,  was  considered  by  such 
mothers  as  a  task  which  belonged  peculiarly  to  them.'j* 

♦  Gregor.  Naziauz.  orat.  19,  f.  292,  and  the  epigrams  of  Gregory, 
Nazianzeo,  in  Muratori  anecdota  Grseca,  Patav.  .1709,  p.  92. 

t  Daughters  also  were  early  made  familiar  with  such  portions  of 
the  holy  scriptures  as  were  deemed  to  be  especially  suited  to  the 
capadty  of  childhood.    They  were  taught  to  coimmX  ^^^m&  \s^  T&ft^mssr^, 

VOL,  III,  X 


322  ASCETIC  TENDENCY. 


2.  AsceHe  Tendatey^  and  the  Mcnastic  l^e  takidt  proceeded  from  it 

In  the  preceding  period,  we  saw  that  the  tendency  to  ai- 
ceticism  was  promoted,  in  the  more  earnest  Christian  minds,  b^ 
the  opposition  to  the  pagan  depravation  of  manners.  Now, 
as  it  was  the  case  in  the  present  period,  that,  owing  to  the 
great  multitude  who  outwardly  professed  Christianity,  espe- 
cially in  the  large  cities,  this  depravation  obtruded  itself  on 
these  more  earnest  souls,  even  under  the  external  forms  of 
Christianity ;  and  as  within  the  outward  church  itself  so  maiked 
a  contrast  had  arisen  between  those  who  were  Christijuis  in 
spirit  and  disposition,  and  those  whose  Christianity  consisted 
only  in  profession  and  ceremonial  performances,  the  necessaij 
consequence  was,  that,  by  pushing  this  opposition,  i^re- 
hended  in  too  outward  a  manner,  to  an  undue  extr^e,  this 
ascetic  separation  from  the  world  was  carried  to  a  still  greater 
extent :  as  indeed  it  is  quite  evident  that  the  first  appearances 
of  this  sort  manifested  themselves  in  the  vicinity  of  laige 
cities,  which  were  seats  of  corruption. 

In  the  preceding  period,  the  ascetics  were  accustomed  to 
live  singly,  each  according  to  his  own  inclination,  without  any 
specific  form  of  union,  within  the  precincts  of  the  church  to 
which  he  belonged.  In  Egypt  it  was  customary  for  the 
ascetics  to  settle  down  singly  in  the  country,  at  no  great  dis- 
tance from  some  village,  where  they  supported  themselves  by 
the  labour  of  their  own  hands,  and  devoted  the  surplus  to 
charitable  purposes.*  It  was  first  in  this  present  period, 
when  the  previously  existing  germs  of  all  tendencies  of  life 
attained  to  a  more  settled  and  definite  mode  of  growth,  that 

See  Gregor.  Nysseni  vita  MacrinsB  opp.  torn.  II.  f.  179.  What  iM 
generally  supposed  to  constitute  the  pattern  of  a  Christian  -woman  may 
be  seen  from  the  description  which  Nilus  gives  of  Peristera :  constant 
study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  (fnxirn  tSv  him  Xoyiuy  ^mnxni),  ferrent 
prayer  proceeding  from  a  broken  heart,  liberal  support  of  the  poor,  care 
for  the  burial  of  the  dead  who  were  poor  or  strangers,  active  pity  for  all 
in  distress,  reverence  for  the  pious,  care  for  the  monks,  providing  ftr 
their  support  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  their  bodily  wants,  so  that  they 
might  devote  themselves  to  their  calling  without  disturbance.  Vid,  Nil 
Perister.  c.  III. 

*  Athanas.  vita  S.  Anton.  "EMtffrcs  tSv  fievXtaivuv  tavrS  v-ptcixuh  *^ 
fjMJt^av  tni  "ihiai  xufAns  xaroi  fUvas  nffxCre,  ^ 


ORIGIN  OF  IfONACHISM.  323 

the  freer  form  of  the  ascetic  life  shaped  itself  into  Monasticism 
—a  phenomenon  of  great  importance,  as  well  on  account  of 
the  influence  which  it  had  already  in  this  period,  on  the  evo- 
lation  of  Christianity,  and  of  the  Christian  and  church  life  in 
file  East,  as  on  account  of  the  vast  influence  which  it  had  in 
later  times  on  the  culture  of  the  Western  nations. 

As  it  is  true  of  this  whole  ascetic  tendency,  that,  although 
H  might  find  some  foothold  in  a  partial  and  one-sided  appre- 
Itension  of  Christianity,  yet  in  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  pheno- 
aienon  peculiarly  Chnstian ;  so  is  it  also  true  that  this  par-  . 
ticular  product  of  the  ascetic  tendency  cannot,  in  itself  con- 
tidered,  be  regarded  as  a  phenomenon  peculiar  to  Christianity, 
Hid  springing  simply  out  of  the  spirit  of  this  religion.  Some- 
thing like  it  is  in  fact  to  be  found  in  other  religions  (as  for 
szample  in  Buddhaism)  ;  and  particularly  in  those  countries 
>f  the  East  where  Monasticism  first  devoloped  itself,  the  way 
fras  already  prepared  for  it  in  the  circumstances  of  the  climate, 
ind  in  the  prevailing  habits  of  feeling,  which  were  in  some 
measure  due  to  these  circumstances.  In  Egypt,  the  birth- 
place of  Monasticism,  something  like  it  had,  in  fact,  already 
appeared  among  the  Jews,  in  the  sect  of  the  Therapeutse ;  and 
in  Palestine,  where  Monasticism  early  founds  its  way,  the 
Eflsenes,  with  many  other  societies  of  a  similar  kind,  had  pre- 
ceded it.  Monasticism,  on  the  contrary,  was  at  variance  with 
the  pure  spirit  of  Christianity ;  inasmuch  as  it  impelled  men, 
instead  of  remaining  as  a  salt  to  the  corrupt  world  in  which 
they  lived,  outwardly  to  withdraw  from  it,  and  to  bury  the 
talent  which  otherwise  they  might  have  used  for  the  benefit  of 
many.  But  though  Monasticism  was  not  a  form  of  life  that 
fsgmng  originally  and  purely  out  of  Christianity,  yet  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  by  Christianity  a  new  spirit  was  infused  into 
this  foreign  mode  of  life,  whereby  with  many  it  became  en- 
nobled, and  cpnverted  into  an  instrument  of  effecting  much 
which  could  not  otherwise  have  been  effected  by  any  such 
mode  of  living. 

In  the  fourth  century,  men  were  not  agreed  on  the  question 
as  to  who  was  to  be  considered  the  founder  of  Monasticism, 
vhether  Paul  or  Anthony.  If  by  this  was  to  be  understood 
Hie  individual  from  whom  the  spread  of  this  mode  of  life  pro- 
ceeded, the  name  was  unquestionably  due  to  the  latter ;  for  if 
Paul  was  the  first  Christian  hermit,  yet  he  must  have  remained 


324  MONACHISM. 

unknown  to  the  rest  of  the  Christian  world,  and,  without  the 
influence  of  Anthony,  would  have  found  no  followers.*  Before 
Anthony  there  may  have  been  many  who,  by  inclination  or 
by  peculiar  outward  circumstances,  were  led  to  adopt  this 
mode  of  life ;   but  they  remained,  at  least,  unknown.    The 
first  whom  tradition — which,  in  this  case,  it  must  be  confessed, 
is  entitled  to  little  confidence,  and  much  distorted  by  fable- 
cites  by  name,  is  the  above-mentioned  Paul.f     He  is  said  to 
have  been  moved  by  the  Decian  persecution,  whichj  no  doubt, 
^  raged  with  peculiar  violence  in  his  native  land,  the  Thebaid 
in  Upper  Egypt,  to  withdraw  himself,  when  a  young  man,  to 
a  grotto  in  a  remote  mountain.     By  degrees  he  became  at- 
tached to  the  mode  of  life  he  had  adopted  at  fir^t  out  of 
necessity.     Nourishment  and  clothing  were  supplied  to  him 
by  a  palm-tree  that  had  sprung  up  near  the  grotto.     Whether 
everything  in  this  legend,  or,  if  not  everything,  what  part  of 
it,  is  historically  true,  it  is  impossible  to  determine.    Ac- 
cording to  the  tradition,  Anthony,  of  whom  we  shall  presently 
give  a  more  detailed  account,  having  heard  of  Paul,  visited 
him,  and  made  him  known  to  others.     But  as  Athanasius,  in 
his  life  of  Anthony,  is  wholly  silent  as  to  this  matter,  which 
he  certainly  would  have  deemed  an  important  circumstance,— 
though  he  states  that  Anthony  visited  all  ascetics  who  were 
experienced  in  the  spiritual  life, — the  story  must  be  dismissed 
as  unworthy  of  credit. 

Anthony,  whom  we  may  regard,  therefore,  as  the  father  of 
Monasticism,  sprang  from  a  respectable  and  wealthy  family  in 
the  village  of  Coma,  in  the  province  of  Heracleopolis  (magna), 
a  city  of  the  Heptanome,  bordering  on  the  Thebaid.}  He 
was  JDorn  about  the  year  251.  He  received  a  simple,  pious 
education,  but  no  literary  training;  a  thing,  indeed,  hardly 
known  in  the  old  Coptic  families,  into  which  the  influence  of 
the  Alexandrian  Hellenism  had  not  penetrated.  The  Coptic 
language  was  his  vernacular  tongue;   he  would  have  been 

*  Jerome,  in  his  accoant  of  the  life  of  Paul,  says  very  justly  of 
Anthony,  Non  tam  ipse  ante  omues  fuit,  quam  ab  eo  omnium  incitata 
sunt  studia. 

f  Jerome  himself  speaks  of  the  absurd  fables  which  were  circulated 
about  Paul ;  but  even  his  own  biography  of  him  is  not  free  from  them, 
and  it  gives  no  distinct  picture  of  the  man. 

I  Sozom.  1. 1,  c.  13. 


AKTHONY.  325 

ftbliged  to  learn  the  Greek  in  order  to  make  himself  master  of 
the  Greek  culture :  and,  as  often  happens  with  such  men,  in 
whom  the  contemplative  bent  of  mind  predominates,  he  had 
no  disposition  to  learn  a  foreign  language.  He  would  have 
heen  under  the  necessity,  moreover,  of  resorting  to  the  school 
in  which  instruction  in  the  Greek  language  was  given ;  but, 
oving  to  the  more  serious,  retiring  disposition  for  which  he 
Was  early  distinguished,  he  avoided  the  society  of  noisy  boys.* 
From  the  first,  too,  he  took  little  interest  in  matters  of  worldly 
learning ;  but  a  deep  religious  feeling,  and  a  craving  after  the  ' 
intuition  of  divine  things,  were  the  predominant  characteristics 
of  the  youth  as  he  grew  up  to  maturity.  He  was  a  constant 
attendant  at  church,  and  what  he  read  himself  in  the  Bible,  as 
well  as  what  he  heard  read  in  the  scripture  lessons  at  church, 
became  deeply  imprinted  on  his  soul :  it  was  to  him  matter 
Tor  spiritual  nourishment,  which  he  constantly  carried  with 
him,  so  that  in  his  subsequent  years  he  could  wholly  dispense 

*  Athanasius  says  of  him,  in  the  account  of  his  life,  s.  1,  r^a^/uaca 
jM^ciy  oitK  fjvt^x*'^'-  We  might  take  this  to  mean  that  Anthony  did  not 
leam  how  to  read  at  all.  Thus  Augustin  understood  it,  who,  in  the  pro- 
logue to  his  work,  de  doctrina  Cljristiana,  s.  4,  says  of  Anthony,  that  with- 
out knowing  how  to  read,  he  committed  the  Bible  to  memory  by  merely 
hearing  it  read.  But  this  is  inconsistent  with^what  Athanasius  says  of 
him,  in  the  same  paragraph.  TeTg  cLvetyvuffAete't  ^poaixe^v,  rhv  t^  aureiv 
i^tXtletv  ly  iavTw  ^nr^psi.  This  might,  perhaps,  still  be  understood  as 
referring  solely  to  those  portions  of  scripture  which  he  heard  read  in 
the  church.    But  afterwards  too,  where  he  is  speaking  of  Anthony's 

ascetic   life,   he   says   of  him,   Kui   yu^  v^offux,*v  evrvs  rri  avayveuffu.     It 

would  be  possible,  indeed,  still  to  understand  Athanasius,  not  as  speaking 
in  this  passage  of  Anthony's  private  exercises,  but  only  explaining  why 
it  was  that  to  him  the  invitation  of  scripture,  to  pray  without  ceasing, 
was  so  constantly  present,  namely,  because  he  had  everything  which  he 
had  heard  read  from  the  scriptures  so  deeply  imprinted  on  his  memory. 
If  the  passage  is  so  explained,  it  might  be  understood  here  also  as 
speaking  simply  of  the  public  reading  at  church,  and  it  would  be 
unnecessary  to  suppose  that  Anthony  knew  how  to  read.  This  interpre- 
tation, however,  is  at  any  rate  not  the  most  simple.  But  even  supposing 
that  Anthony  had  first  read  the  Bible  himself  in  the  Coptic  translation, 
yet  it  follows,  from  the  narrative  of  Athanasius,  that  at  a  later  period  he 
could  dispense  entirely  with  the  written  scripture,  because  its  words  were 
80  deeply  impressed  on  his  memory  as  to  be  constantly  present  to  him : 
Kcl  XmWv  aur^  Ttiv  fiv^fiyiv  Avrt  fiifixiatv  ytntrfiai.  Thus  the  statement 
of  Augustin,  and  what  we  shall  afterwards  cite  from  a  conversation 
between  Anthony  and  a  man  of  learning,  may  be  reconciled  with  the 
above  account. 


326  MONACHISM. 

with   the  ATiitten   scriptures.     Between  his  eighteenth  and 
twentieth  years  he  lost  his  parents ;  and  on  him  al<»ie  devolved 
the  care  of  a  young  sister,  left  with  himself  an  orphan,  and  of 
all  the  ai&irs  of  the  fiunily.     These  cares  may,  perhaps,  hare 
proved  irksome  to  him,  unsuited  to  his  peculiar  temperament 
Once,  as  he  was  walking  in  the  church, — whichy  for  the  pur- 
pose of  elevating  his  heart  to  God  in  sdlent  devotion,  he  fre- 
quently visited,  even  at  seasons  when  there  was  no  service,— 
lus  imagination  set  vividly  before  him  the  contrast  between 
a  man  perplexed  with  the  care  of  earthly  mattersy  and  the 
primitive  apostolical  community,  in  which,  as  it  was  usoaHy 
conceived,  no  one  possessed  any  earthly  property  of  his  own. 
Occupied  with  such  thoughts,  he  once  attended  a  meeting  of 
the  church ;  and  it  so  happened  that  the  gospel  concerning 
the  rich  'young  man  was  read  before  the  assembly.     Anthony 
considered  these  words  of  the  Saviour  to  the  rich  young  man, 
which  he  heard  in  this  particular  state  of  mind,  as  words  pa^ 
ticularly   addressed   from  heaven   to  himself.     And  as  the 
language  was  understood  by  him,  in  conmion  with  many  of 
his  time,  in  a  sense  which  Clement  of  Alexandria  had  already 
shown  to  be  incorrect  (see  vol.  i.,  sec.  ii.,  p.  387),  as  if  it  had 
reference,  not  to  the  inward  disposition  alone,  but  to  the  out- 
ward deed ;  he  persuaded  himself  that  he  was  thus  called  to 
make  an  outward  renunciation  of  all  his  earthly  goods  and 
possessions.     The  considerable  landed  estates  which  belonged 
to  him,  he  gave  to  the  inhabitants  of  his  village,  under  the 
condition  that,  for  the  future,  they  would  trouble  neither  him 
nor  his  sister  with  demands  for  the  payment  of  the  public 
taxes  and  other  claims  of  that  kind.*     He  sold  everything 
that  was  moveable,  and  distributed  the  avails  to  the  poor, 
reserving  only  the  smallest  portion  of  it  for  his  sister.     Whik 
listening  a  second  time,  during  divine  service,  to  those  words 
of  our  Lord  which  bid  us  take  no  care  for  the  morrow,  taking 
the  language  once  more  in  too  literal  and  outward  a  aeoaSj 
and  not  according  to  the  spirit  and  connection  of  the  whole, 
he  now  gave  away  to  the  poor  the  small  remainder  of  his  pro- 
perty which  he  had  reserved  particularly  for  the  maintenance 
of  his  sister,  that  he  might  free  himself  entirely  from  all  cares 
about  earthly  things.     He  placed  his  sister  to  be  educated 

*   Vita,  S.  2  :  *I»a  lU   fiitiV   otiou»  ox.'^^Kiawtfw  auTM  «r\  kou  tij  dUtX^n* 


ANTHONY.  327 

with  a  society  of  pious  virgins,*  and,  settling  down  near  his 
paternal  mansion,  b^an  a  life  of  rigid  asceticism.  He  heard 
of  a  venerable  old  man,  who  was  living  as  an  ascetic  on  the 
border  of  a  neighbouring  village.  He  sought  him  out,  and 
made  him  his  pattern,  fixing  his  own  residence  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  village;  and,  whenever  he  chanced  to  hear  of  approved 
ascetics  living  anywhere  in  those  districts,  he  visited  them, 
abode  with  them  for  a  season,  and  then  returned  to  his  former 
place.  He  supported  himself  by  the  labour  of  his  own  hands, 
and  distributed  what  he  did  not  need  for  himself  to  the  poor. 

Anthony  wanted  a  right  conception  of  the  Christian  renun- 
dation  of  property.     He  failed  of  the  right  conception  of 
supreme  love  to  God,  which,  instead  of  destroying  man's 
oatoral  feelings,  would  include  them  in  itself,  would  refine, 
sanctify,  and  ennoble  them.    Starting  with  these  wrong  views, 
he  struggled  forcibly  to  suppress  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of 
love  which  drew  him  to  his  sister  and  other  members  of  his 
fionily.     He  wanted  to  forget  everything  that  bound  him  to 
the  earth ;  but  nature  claimed  her  rights :  these  feelings  and 
thoughts  would  intrude  upon  him,  in  spite  of  himself,  and  dis- 
turb him  in  his  meditations.     In  feelings  which  God  himself 
plai^ted  in  man's  heart,  he  imagined  that  he  saw  a  temptation 
of  the  adversary,  when  he  should  rather  have  perceived  in  his 
own  self-will  and  presumption,  which  aspired  to  rise  above  the 
natural  feelings  of  humanity,  a  perversion  of  the  pure  divine 
inqralse,  and  a  temptation  of  the  ungodly  spirit,  which  vitiated 
and  disturbed  in  him  the  pure  longing  after  holiness.     More- 
Ofer,  the  lower  impulses  and  energies  of  nature  were  excited 
to  greater  activity,  the  less  they  were  employed.     Hence,  in 
his  solitude,  he  had  to  endure  many  conflicts  with  sense,  which 
in  some  active  vocation,  demanding  the  exertion  of  all  his 
powers,  might  perhaps  have  been  avoided.     The  temptations 
he  had   to  battle   with  were  so  much  the  more  nmnerous 
and  powerful,  as  he  was  given  to  idle  self-meditation,  as  he 
busied  himself  in  fighting  down  the  impure  images  that  wera 
constantly  rising  up  from  the  abyss  of  corruption  within  his 
heart,  instead  of  despising  them,  and  forgetting  himself  in 
worthier  employments,  or  in  looking  away  to  the  everlasting 
floorce  of  purity  and  holiness.    'At  a  later  period,  Anthony, 
with  a  conviction  grounded  on  long  years  of  experience,  ac- 


328  MONACHISM. 

knowledged  this,  and  said  to  his  monks :  ^^  Let  us  not  busy 
our  imaginations  in  painting  spectres  of  evil  spirits ;  let  us  not 
trouble  our  minds  as  if  we  were  lost.   Let  us  rather  be  cheerfid 
and  comforted  at  all  times,  as  those  who  have  been  redeemed ; 
and  let  us  be  mindful,  that  the  Lord  is  with  us,  who  has 
conquered  them  and  made  them  nothing.    Let  us  ever  remem- 
ber that,  if  the  Lord  is  with  us,  the  enemy  can  do  us  no  harm. 
The  spirits  of  evil  appear  different  to  us,  according  to  the 
different  moods  of  mind  in  which  they  find  us.     If  they  find 
that  we  are  weak-hearted  and  cowardly,  they  increase  our  feais 
by  the  frightful  images  they  excite  in  us,  and  then  the  unhappy 
soul  torments  itself  with  these.     But  if  they  find  us  joyful  in 
the  Lord,  occupied  in  the  contemplation  of  future  blessedness, 
and  of  the  things  of  the  Lord,  reflecting  that  everything  is  in 
the  liord's  hand,  and  that  no  evil  spirit  can  do  any  harm  to 
the  (Christian,  they  turn  away  in  confusion  from  the  soul  which 
they  see  preserved  by  such  good  thoughts.* 

At  that  time  he  \^'as  for  overcoming  the  evil  spirits,  in  whom 
he  beheld  the  enemies  of  his  holy  endeavours,  by  still  stricter 
regimen  of  life.     He  betook  himself  to  a  certain  grotto  in  the 
rock  at  some   distance  from  the  village,  which  ^rved  the 
purpose  of  a  tomb  (called  in  the  East  a  mausoleum).     Here, 
as  it  is  probable,  by  excessive  fasting,  and  by  exhaustion  from 
his  inward  conflicts  in  this  unnatural  place  of  abode,  he  brought 
himself  into  states  of  an  over-excited  imagination  and  nervous 
derangement,  in  which  he  fancied  he  had  received  bodily  harm 
from  the  spirits  of  darkness.     He  fell  at  last  into  a  swoon,  and 
was  conveyed  back  to  the  village  in  a  state  of  unconsciousness. 
At  a  later  period,  he  retired  to  a  still  more  distant  mountain, 
where  he  passed  twenty  years  amidst  the  ruins  of  a  dilapidated 
castle.     After  this,  he  yielded  to  the  entreaties  of  those  who 
desired  to  have  him  for  their  guide  in  the  spiritual  life.    He 
gave  himself  up  to  the  men  who  sought  him  out.   Many  joined 
themselves  to  him,  and,  under  his  guidance,  trained  thenaselves 
to  the  abstemious  life  of  hermits.   The  deserts  of  Egypt  became 
filled  with  the  cells  of  these  eremites.     Many  flocked  to  him, 
from  different  countries,  partly  to  see  the  wonderful  man, 
partly  for  advice  and  consolation,  and  to  obtain  the  cure  of 
diseases  (particularly  of  those  fits  which  men  were  in  the  cus- 
tom of  tracing  to  the  influence  of  malignant  spirits)  by  the 

*  Atbaiias.  \\t.  Anton,  s.  42. 


ANTHONY.  329 

virtue  of  his  prayers.  Parties  in  strife  submitted  their 
matters  of  dispute  to  his  arbitration.  He  exhorted  all  to 
sacrifice  everything  to  the  love  of  Christ ;  striving  to  make 
them  feel  the  love  of  God,  who  spared  not  his  only-begotten 
Sod,  but  gave  him  up  for  all. 

To  escape  the  wonder  of  the  multitude,  and  deliver  himseli 
from  the  throng  of  men,  of  all  conditions,  that  disturbed  him 
in  his  prayers  and  meditations,  Anthony  betook  himself  to  a 
more  distant  solitude  among  the  mountains.  Certain  Nomadic 
Saracens,  who  wandered  over  this  district,  were  seized  with 
reverence  at  the  impression  of  his  appearance  and  brought  him 
bread.  This,  together  with  the  fruit  of  some  date  trees  which 
he  found  on  the  spot,  sufficed  for  hi$  nourishment.  But  as  soon 
as  the  monks  whom  he  had  left  behind  him,  discovered  the 
place  of  his  retreat,  they  provided  him  with  bread.  Yet 
Anthony  was  resolved  to  save  them  this  labour.  He  procured 
some  implements  of  agriculture,  sought  out  a  spot  near  the 
mountain,  capable  of  tillage,  and  well  watered  and  sowed 
it  with  grain  from  which  he  harvested  what  sufficed  for  his 
mpport.  As  he  was  afterwards  visited  here,  too,  by  strangers, 
le  raised  a  supply  of  vegetables,  that  he  might  have  wherewith 
JO  refresh  those  who  had  made  the  long  and  wearisome 
oumey  to  find  him.  He  wove  baskets,  and  exchanged  these 
i>r  such  articles  of  nourishment  as  were  brought  to  him. 

He  could  easily  acquire  the  fame  of  being  a  worker  of  mi- 
racles ;  since  many,  particularly  of  those  who  were  thought  to 
oe  possessed  of  evil  spirits,  were  indebted  to  his  prayers,  and 
to  the  impression  of  tranquillity  and  peace  which  went  forth 
from  him  for  the  soothing  of  the  tumultuous  powers  which  had 
igitated  their  inner  being.  But  he  pointed  those  who  applied 
to  him  for  help,  or  had  been  indebted  to  him  for  it,  away  from 
bimself  to  God  and  Christ.  Thus .  to  a  military  officer  wha 
ipplied  to  him  for  the  healing  of  his  daughter,  he  said  :  ^'  I 
dso  am  a  man  like  thyself.  If  thou  believest  in  the  Christ 
whom.  I  serve,  only  depart  and  pray  to  God  in  "thy  faith,  and 
it  shall  be  done."*  Usually  he  exhorted  the  suffering  to 
patience.  They  were  to  know  that  the  power  of  healing  be- 
longed neither  to  him,  nor  to  any  other  man,  but  was  the  work 
rf  God  alone,  who  wrought  it  when  and  for  whom  he  pleased. 
Fhus  those  who  left  him  without  having  obtained  the  bodily 

*  Vit.  Anton,  s.  48. 


330  MONACHISM. 

relief  they  expected,  learned  from  him  a  lesson  more  yaluable 
than  any  deliverance  from  bodily  ills, — submissioii  to  the 
divine  wUL*  He  exhorted  his  monks  not  to  attribute  too  great 
worth  to  miraculous  gifls  and  wonderful  cures:  and  not  to 
estimate  by  these,  the  degree  of  progress  in  the  Christian  life, 
but  to  esteem  holiness  of  living  still  higher.     "  To  do  won- 
ders," he  told  them,  "  is  not  our  woric,  but  the  Saviour^s." 
Hence  he  said  to  his  disciples :  ^^  Rejoice  not  that  the  spirits 
are  subject  to  you,  but  rather  rejoice  that  your  names  are 
written  in  heaven :  for  that  our  names  are  written  in  heaven 
is  a  witness  of  our  virtue,  and  of  our  life ;  but  to  expel  evil 
spirits  is  the  grace  of  the  Saviour,  which  he  has  bestowed  on 

us."t 

It  was  only  on  extraordinary  occasions  that  Anthony  made 

his  appearance  at  Alexandria ;  and  then  his  appearance  always 
produced  a  great  effect.  Thus  it  was,  when,  in  the  year  311, 
the  emperor  Maximin  renewed  the  persecution  in  Egypt 
True,  Anthony  did  not  think  it  proper  to  give  himself  up  as 
a  victim ;  but  neither  did  he  fear  danger,  in  firing  the  courage 
of  other  Christians  to  unwavering  confession,  in  manifesting 
love  to  the  confessors  in  the  prisons  and  the  mines.  His  ex- 
ample and  his  words  did  so  much,  that,  to  hinder  them,  the 
governor  issued  a  command  for  all  monks  to  leave  the  city. 
Other  monks,  who,  on  this  occasion,  had  also  come  into  the 
city,  concealed  themselves  ;  but  Anthony  appeared  in  public, 
yet  no  one  dared  to  touch  him. 

A  second  time,  in  the  year  352,  when  he  was  a  hundred 
years  old,  he  made  his  appearance  in  Alexandria,  to  coimter- 
act  the  spread  of  Arianism,  which  was  then  supported  there 
by  the  power  of  the  state.  His  appearance  made,  at  that 
time,  so  great  a  sensation,  that  pagans  themselves  and  even 
their  priests,  came  to  church  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  the 
man  of  God,  as  they  themselves  called  him.f  People  belong- 
ing to  the  Pagan  ranks  pressed  forward  with  the  rest,  to 

♦  L.  c.  s.  56.  t  L.  c  s.  38. 

X  What  Athanasius  relates,  s.  70,  is  confirmed  by  the  reverence  TrMch 
a  SynesiuSy  while  yet  a  pagan,  shows  towards  Anthony.  He  names  him 
among  the  rarer  men,  w£),  by  virtne  of  their  greatness  of  mind,  could 
dispense  with  scholastic  culture,  whose  flashes  of  n^t  might  serve 
instead  of  syllogisms,  and  places  him  by  the  side  or  Hermes  and  Zo- 
roaster.   In  his  Dion.  ed.  PeXav.  1.  ^\. 


ANTHONY.  331 

touch  the  gannents  of  Anthony,  in  hopes  of  being  healed,  if 
tbey  conld  only  do  that.  It  is  said  more  pagans  were  con- 
verted to  Christianity  during  the  few  days  of  his  residence  in 
Alexandria,  than  during  a  year  at  other  times. 

Many  sayings  of  tlus  remarkable  man,  which  have  come 
down  through  the  oral  tradition  of  his  disciples,  lead  us,  indeed, 
to  recognize  in  him  a  great  soul.     The  favour  of  princes,  by 
which  so  many,  in  other  respects  distinguished  men  of  the 
church,  have  still  allowed  themselves  to  be  corrupted,  could 
not  touch  the  mind  of  Anthony.  When  the  emperor  Constan- 
tine  and  his  sons  wrote  to  him  as  their  spiritual  father,  and 
begged  of  him  an  answer,  it  made  no  impression  on  him.    He 
said  to  his  monks :  "  Wonder  not  that  the  emperor  writes  to 
as,  for  he  is  a  man ;  but  wonder  much  rather  at  this,  that  God 
has  written  his  law  for  men,  and  spoken  to  them  by  his  own 
S<m/'     At  first  it  was  with  some  difficulty  he  could  be  pre- 
vailed on  to  receive  the  letter,  since  he  knew  not  how  to 
answer  a  letter  of  that  sort.     But  when  the  other  monks  re- 
presented to  him  that  they  were  Christian  princes,  and  that 
they  might  look  upon  his  neglect  as  a  mark  of  contempt,  and 
thereby  take  offence,  he  allowed  the  letter  to  be  read.    In  his 
answer,  he  first  congratulated  them  that  they  were  Christians, 
and  next  told  them  what  he  considered  would  be  most  con- 
ducive to  their  welfare;  that  they  ought  not  to  look  upon 
their  earthly  power  and  glory  as  a  great  thing,  but  rather  to 
tiunk  of  the  future  judgment;    that  they  ought   to   know 
that  Christ  is  the  only  true  and  eternal  King.      He  exhorted 
them  to  philanthropy,  to  justice,  and  to  care  for  the  poor.* 

Once  there  came  to  him  a  learned  man  of  the  pagans  and 
Bade  merry  with  him  because  he  could  not  read.  He  asked 
him  how  he  could  endure  to  live  without  books.  Anthony 
thereupon  asked  him  which  was  first,  *'  spirit  or  letter."  The 
kamed  man  replied :  "  Spirit  is  the  first."  "  Well,"  said 
Anthony,  "  the  healthy  spirit,  then,  needs  not  letters.  My 
book  is  the  whole  creation ;  this  book  lies  open  there  before 
me,  and  I  can  read  in^it  when  I  please — the  word  of  God."! 

*  Ij.  c.  1. 31. 

t  Vit  Anton.  8.  73.  Socrates,  hist  eccles.  IV.  23.  Perhaps  diis  story 
VM  floatiii^  before  the  mind  of  Synesias,  and  he  merely  confounded 
Aaamnn  -prith  Anthony,  when  he  said  of  the  former,  Ou»  i^tv^tf^  aXX' 
U^m  X^*»*  ygg^rfraw^  rt^wm  avr^  rov  you  v'ipiDiv,  f.  4S» 


1 


332  MONACHISM. 

When  others  were  ridiculing  the  &ith  of  the  Christians,  An* 
thony  asked  them  which,  irom  the  very  nature  of  the  case, 
went  first  in  the  knowledge  of  all  things,  and  especially  in  the 
knowledge  of  God,  and  which  gave  the  more  assured  convic- 
tion, ^^  the  conclusions  of  reason,  or  the  faith  which  comes 
from  immediate  contact."*  When  they  said  the  last,  he 
rejoined :  "  You  are  right ;  for  faith  proceeds  from  a  state  of 
the  soul  (a  certain  determination  of  the  whole  inner  life).t 
What  we  know  by  faith,  that  you  seek  to  prove  by  argument* 
and  oftentimes  you  cannot  even  express  that  which  we  behold 
in  the  spirit." 

Anthony,  who,  in  the  early  years  of  his  monastic  life,  had 
tormented  himself  so  much  with  temptations,  and  been  able  to 
find  no  rest  in  constant  self-contemplation,  observed  after- 
wards, from  his  own  experience :  "  This  is  man's  great  work, 
to  take  his  guilt  upon  himself  before  God,  and  expect  tempta- 
tions till  his  latest  breath.  Without  temptation  no  one  can 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  To  an  abbot,  who  asked 
him  what  he  ought  to  do,  he  replied :  "  Trust  not  in  your 
own  righteousness,  and  regret  not  what  is  already  past."} 

Severe  to  himself,   Anthony  was  mild  to  all  others.    A 
monk,  for  some  offence,  had  been  expelled  from  his  cloister, 
and  his  brethren  were  unwilling  to  receive  him  back.  Anthony 
sent  him  back  again  to  his  cloister,  vAih  these  words  to  the 
monks :  "A  ship  stranded,  lost  her  cargo,  and  was  with  diffi- 
culty drawn  to  the  shore ;  but  ye  are  for  sinking  again  at  sea 
what  has  been  safely  brought  into  harbour."§     To  Didymus, 
the  learned  superintendent  of  the  catechetical  school  at  Alex- 
andria, who  from  his  youth  up  was  blind,  he  said,  on  meeting 
with  him  during  his  last  residence  in  Alexandria  :  **  Let  it  not 
trouble  you  that  you  are  in  want  of  eyes,  with  which  even 
flies  and  gnats  can  see ;  but  rejoice  that  you  have  the  eyes 
with  which  angels  see,  by  which,  too,  God  is  beheld,  and  his 
light  received." II     At  the  age  of  a  hundred  and  five  years* 
feeling  the  approach  of  death,  and,  with  entire  consciousness, 

H  01    inpyuets   vtffris. 

T    H  fiXv  ycto  ^la-Tis  d^o  ^ia6iffiui  yj/v^iis  yinrut, 

X  lie  would  probably  say,  men  should  not  spend  so  much  time  in 
reflecting  on  their  sins,  instead  of  getting  free  from  themselves,  and 
striving  continually  forward  in  the  work  of  holiness.  (See  Apophthegm* 
patr.  s.  4.  Coteler.  monument,  eccles.  Graec.) 

§  L,  c.  s.  21 .  VV  Soctat.  I.  c. 


1 


ANTHONY,      HILARION.  833 

calmly  and  cheerfully  awaiting  the  end  of  his  earthly  career, 
he  was  solicitous  that  the  exaggerated  reverence  of  the  Egyp- 
tians towards  him  should  not  convert  his  remains  into  an 
object  of  superstition.  It  w^  their  custom,  after  the  ancient 
manner,  to  embalm  the  bodies,  especially  of  those  who  were 
venerated  as  saints,  as  mummies,  take  them  into  their  houses, 
and  place  them  there  on  small  couches.  The  superstitious 
veneration  of  reliques  might  here  easily  find  a  foothold.  To 
guard  against  this,  Antony  urgently  recommended  to  his 
monks  to  keep  the  place  of  his  burial  concealed,  lest  his  body 
might  be  dug  up  by  others,  and  preserved  in  the  manner 
above  described ;  for  he  wished  not  to  be  more  highly  honoured 
than  the  patriarchs,  and  Christ  liimself,  who  had  all  been 
buried. 

Anthony  gave  to  his  age  a  pattern,  which  was  seized  with 
love  and  enthusiasm  by  many  hearts  that  longed  after  Christian 
Perfection,  and  which  excited  many  to  emulate  it.  Disciples 
f  Anthony,  belonging  to  Greek  and  to  old  Egyptian  families, 
pread  Monachism  throughout  every  part  of  Egypt ;  and  the 
leserts  of  this  country,  to  the  borders  of  Libya,  were  sprinkled 
rith  numerous  monkish  societies  and  monkish  cells.  From 
lence  Monachism  spread  to  Palestine  and  Syria,  where  the 
tlimate  was  most  favourable  to  such  a  mode  of  life,  and  where, 
00,  even  at  an  earlier  period, — among  the  Jews,* — much 
,hat  was  analogous  had  already  existed.  Anthony,  indeed, 
WSLS  visited,  not  only  by  monks  belonging  to  Egypt,  but  also 
)y  monks  from  Jerusalem.f  The  person  who  most  contributed 
x>  the  promotion  of  Monachism  in  Palestine  was  Hilarion, 
Bom  in  the  village  of  Thabatha,  or  Thanatha,  in  Palestine, 
four  miles  south  of  Gaza,  he  resided,  while  a  youth,  for  the 
purpose  of  study,  at  Alexandria,  when  the  fame  of  Anthony 

*  We  might  refer  here  to  the  example  of  the  Essenes,  of  a  Banus. 
fosepb.  de  vita  sua,  s.  2.  At  this  time  Nilus  speaks  of  Jewish  monks,  in 
iie   Tractatus  ad    Mngnam,  c.  39,    opuscula,   Romse,   1673,  f.   279. 

f^irm^MrrOf  ty  ^Kweuf  xaroiKwavTif  It  may  be,  as  Nilus  seems  to  sup- 
pose, that  this  was  at  that  time  a  new  appearance  among  tiiem,  and 
perhaps  had  arisen  from  an  emulation  of  the  Christian  monlu ;  but  may 
ilso  have  been  a  mode  of  life  which  had  come  down  from  ancient  times, 
nd  which  was  incorrectly  thought  to  be  something  new. 

t  See  Palladii  Lausiaca,  c.  26,  biblioth.  patrum  Parisiensis,  T.  XIIL 
r.  939. 


884  .     MONAGHISlf. 

moved  him  to  seek  out  the  great  anachoret ;  and,  after  having 
spent  several  montlis  in  Anthony's  society,  he  returned  to  his 
native  country,  with  the  intention  of  pursuing  there  the  same 
mode  of  life.*     Anthony,  without  any  conscious  design  of  his 
own,  had  become  the  founder  of  a  new  mode  of  living  in  com- 
mon ;  for  it  had,  in  truth,  happened  of  its  accord,  without 
any  special  efforts  of  his,  that  persons  of  similar  disposition 
had  attached  themselves  to  him,  and,  building  their  ceUs 
around  his,  made  him  their  spiritual  guide  and  governor. 
Thus  arose  the  first  societies  of  Anachorets,  who  lived  scat- 
tered, in  single  cells  or  huts,  united  together  under  one  supe« 
rior.     But,  independent  of  Anthony,  an  individual  made  his 
appearance  in  Egypt,  who  brought  together  the  monks  in  one 
large  connected  building,  and  gave  to  the  entire  monastic  li& 
a  more  regular  and  systematic  shaping.   This  was  Pachomius, 
the  founder  of  the  cloister  life.   The  societies  of  the  Anacho- 
rets, who  lived  in  a  certain  union  with  each  other  in  single 
cells,  were  called  Aavpai  (laurse);    a  term  which,  derived 
from  the  ancient  G-reek  adjective  Xavpoc,  denoted  properly  a 
large  open  place,  a  street ;  the  connected  buildings,  in  which 
monks  dwelt  together,  under  a  common  superior,  were  called 
Koiy6j3ia  (coenobia),  fjLoyaarfipia  (monasteria),  ^ovrioT^pia.f 
Pachomius,  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  when  a 
young  man,  after  having  obtained  his  release  from  the  mili- 
tary service,  into  which  he  had  been  forced,  attached  himself 
to  an  aged  hermit,  with  whom  he  passed  twelve  years  of  his 
life.    Here  he  felt  the  impulse  of  Christian  love,  which  taught 
him  that  he  ought  not  live  merely  so  as  to  promote  his  own 
growth  to  perfection,  but  to  seek  also  the  salvation  of  lus 

♦  Hieronymi  vita  Hilarionis.     Sozomen  III.  14. 

t  Thus  Evagrius,  hist,  eccles.  I.  I.  c.  21,  distinguishes  (p^ovrtrrn^M  uu 
Txs  xa>.ov/u,ivets  >.(tv^etf :  and  in  the  life  of  the  abbot  Sabas,  which  Cyril 
of  Scythopolis  composed,  we  find  a  distinction  made  between  Xau^  and 
xoivof-ttcty  s.  58,  in  Coteler.  ecclesise  Graecse  monumenta,  T.  III.  The  mune 
fAovatTTtl^ix  appears  here  as  uniting  the  meaning  of  both.  Anthony  him- 
self, in  the  ancient  life  of  Pachomius,  s.  77,  names  the  latter  as  the 
founder  of  the  more  closely  connected  societies  of  monks:    Kara  ri^ 

ci^^9)Vj  on  fAovoix,os  yiyovet,  ovk  nv  xeivo(itoVf  aA.A.  XKavreg  tSv  kp^aun 
fAovap^euv  fitru  <rov  ^tuy/Aov  xara    fjuovxf    hvxuroy    xeu    f/uira    ravra    i    trarnf 

vfiMv  i'jromffi  TovTo  ro  uyeiffov  nrx^a  xv^iev.  Even  before  Pachomios,  a 
person  by  the  name  of  Aotas  (^AeaTag)  made  an  attempt,  but  withoat 
success,  to  found  some  similar  institution.  Acta  Sanctorum  mens.  Maj. 
T.  III.  in  the  appendix,  s.  "37. 


PACHOMIUS.      INSTrrUTIOK  OF  (XENOBU.  335 

brethren.  He  supposed — unless  this  is  a  decoration  of  the 
legend — that,  in  a  vision,  he  heard  the  voice  of  an  angel  giv- 
ing utterance  to  the  call  in  his  own  breast, — ^it  was  the  divine 
will  that  he  should  be  an  instniment  for  the  good  of  his  bre- 
thren, by  reconciling  them  to  G-od.*  On  Tabennae,  an  island 
of  the  Nile,  in  Upper  Egypt,  betwixt  the  Nomes  of  Tenthyra 
and  Thebes,  he  founded  a  society  of  monks,  which,  during  the 
lifetime  of  JPachomius  himself,  numbered  three  thousand,  and 
afterwards  seven  thousand  members ;  and  thus  went  on  in- 
creasing, until,  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifth  century,  it  could 
reckon  within  its  rules  fifty  thousand  monks.f  This  whole 
association  was  called  a  Koivofiioyy  coenobium — ^a  term  which, 
origrinally  designating  the  entire  whole  of  a  monkish  society, 
although  distributed  through  several  buildings,  was  afterwards 
transferred  to  single  cloisters ;  of  which,  too,  it  was  usually 
tlie  case  that  each  one  embraced  a  distinct  society.  The  en- 
tire body  of  monks  stood  under  the  guidance  of  Pachomius ; 
lad  afterwards  his  successors,  the  abbots  of  the  cloister  in 
rhich  the  institution  had  its  origin,  continued  to  be  the  heads 
)f  the  whole  order.j:  He  was  regarded  as  the  superior  of  the 
rhole  coenobium,  the  abbot  or  abbas-general  (the  Hebrew 
ind  Syriac  word  for  father)  ;  or,  as  he  was  styled  in  Greek, 
he  archimandrite  ;§  and,  at  certain  seasons,  he  made  visita- 
ions  to  the  several  cloisters.  The  entire  monkish  society  was 
listributed,  according  to  the  various  degrees  of  progress  which 
ts  members  had  attained  in  the  spiritual  life,  into  several 
classes,  twenty-four  in  all,  after  the  number  of  lettei-s  in  the 
ilphabet ;  and  each  of  these  classes  had  its  own  presiding 
)fficer,  as  to  each  also  was  assigned  its  particular  labours.  They 
employed  themselves  in  the  ordinary  monkish  avocations; 
nich  as  weaving  baskets,  for  which  they  made  use  of  the 
rushes  of  the  Nile,  fabricating  mats  or  coverings  (i//tadot), 
lot  n^lecting,  however,  other  kinds  of  business,  such  as 
igriculture,  and  ship-building.  At  the  end  of  the  fourth 
^ntury,  each  cloister  possessed  a  vessel  of  its  own,  built  by 

*  Vit  Pachom.  s.  15. 

f  Pallad.  Lausiaca,  c.  6,  1.  c.  909,  also  c.  38,  f.  957.  Hieronymi 
ine&t  in  regulam  Pachomii,  s.  7. 

X  The  first  example  of  a  like  rale,  which  was  introduced  into  the 
ater  congregations  and  orders  of  monks. 

§  From  the  word  fMvl^et,  the  fold,  flock.    Vid.  Nilns,  ].  IL  ep.  52, 


336  MONACHis&r. 

the  monks  themselves.     Falladius,  who  visited  the  Egyptian 
cloisters  about  this  time,  found,  in  the  cloister  of  Panopolis, 
— which  also  belonged  to  this  association  of  monks,  and  con- 
tained within  it  three  hundred  members, — ^fifteen  tailors, 
seven  smiths,  four  carpenters,  twelve  camel-drivers,  and  fifteen 
tanners.*      Each  cloister  had  its  steward  (plKovofwg)^  who 
provided  for  the  bodily  wants  of  all,  and  with  whom  the 
fabrics,  when  finished,  were  deposited ;  and  all  these  stewards 
were  placed  under  a  general  steward  of  the  whole  association 
(fiiyag  olKovofwo),  who  was  stationed  at  the  principal  cloister. 
The  latter  had  the  oversight  of  the  income  and  expenditure 
of  the  entire  cocnobium ;  to  him  were  given  over  all  the  pro- 
ducts of  monkish  labour.    He  shipped  them  to  Alexandria, 
where  they  were  sold,  to  provide  means  for  purchasing  such 
stores  as  the  cloisters  needed ;  and  whatever  remained,  after 
these  wants  were  supplied,  was  distributed  among  the  poor, 
the  sick,  and  the  decrepit,  of  this  populous,  though  impover- 
ished country.     A  part  also  was  sent  to  the  prisons.^     Twice 
in  the  year,  on  the  feast  of  Easter  and  in  the  month  Meson 
(about  the  season  of  our  August),  all  the  superiors  of  the. 
single  cloisters  met  together  in  the  principal  cloister.    At  the 
last  meeting,  they  brought  in  reports  of  the  administration  of 
their  office.    It  was  at  this  time,  the  reconciliation  of  all  with 
God  and  with  each  other  was  celebrated. J 

2so  person  who  wished  to  be  taken  into  the  society  of  the 
monks  was  admitted  at  once  ;  but  he  was  first  asked,  whether 
he  had  not  committed  a  crime,  and  was  not  seeking  refuge, 
among  the  monks,  from  civil  penalties ;  whether  he  was  his 
own  master,  and  therefore  warranted  to  decide  on  his  mode  of 
life ;  whether  he  deemed  himself  capable  of  renouncing  his 
property,  and  everything  he  called  his  own.  He  must,  in  tlie 
next  place,  submit  to  a  period  of  probation,  before  he  could  be 
received  into  the  number  of  regular  monks.§  He  was  adopted 
on  pledging  himself  to  live  according  to  the  monastic  rules.jl 
Pachoniius  also  founded,  at  this  early  period,  cloisters  of  nuns, 

*  Lausiac.  c.  39. 

t  Vit.  Pachom.  1.  c.  s.  19,  s.  73,  s.  85.  Hieroiiymi  prsefiit.  in  regoL 
Pachom.  Lausiaca,  f.  957. 

X  Vit  Pachom.  s.  52.     Hieronym.  1.  c.  s.  8. 

^  A  novitiate,  according  to  the  earlier  practice  of  the  Essenes.  ^ 

II  The  ofMXoymrtt,  called  afterwards  the  votum,  row,  s.  66,  Hieronym. 
prsefat  s.  49* 


MORBID  EXTRAVAGANCES.  337 

«ceived  the  means  of  support  from  the  cloisters  of  the 

enthusiasm  for  the  monastic  life  having  spread  with 
olence,  and  vast  numbers  of  men,  possessing  different 
ions,  and  utterly  without  the  inward  strength  and  tran- 

necessary  to  endure  the  solitary,  contemplative  habits 
jloister,  having  withdrawn  into  the  deserts,  it  could  not 
rwise,  than  that  the  sudden  and  uncalled  for  adoption 
Lnachoret  mode  of  life,  the  extravagances  of  asceticism, 

accompanying ,  pride,  should  give  birth  to  many  wild 
)f  the  fanatical  spirit,  and  many  mental  disorders.  We 
imples  of  anachorets,  who  were  so  persecuted  by  their 
ting  thoughts,  as  to  end  their  lives  by  suicide.f     We 

many  who,  after  having  pushed  their  abstinence  and 

loaca,  f.  300. 

mples  of  temptation  to  suicide  among  the  monks  amid  thdbr 
conflicts,  occurred  frequently.  See  that  of  Stagirius,  to  whom 
torn  addressed  his  beautiful  letter  of  consolation ;  a  young  man 
le  iamily,  who,  feeling  the  emptiness  of  life  in  the  high  world, 
Quch  the  more  strongly  attracted  by  the  ideal  of  the  monastic 
»at  through  the  sudden  change  of  life,  which  his  mind  was  not 
mough  to  bear,  was  thrown  into  violent  fits  of  mental  disease, 
led  to  imagine  himself  tempted  of  Satan  to  commit  suicide. 
II.  ep.  140,  f.  182,  says  that  many  monks  who  could  find  no 
from  the  inward  temptations  wMch  assailed  them  in  their 
,  filled  with  desperation,  plunged  the  knife  into  their  bodies,  or 
lemselves  headlong  from  precipices.  Many  &ncied  that  in  this 
•y  should  die  martyrs.  See  Gregor.  Nazianz.  Carmen  47,  ad 
im  opp.  T.  II.  f.  107 : 

(They  died  by  voluntary  starvation.) 

O/  ^i  Kara  vxe'TiXwv  /Stv^ir/  r*  fil  ^^^Xfits 
Ma^TU^iS  oir^ixifis'  9roXifMV  ^  a^o  net)  0rwiivro$ 

rejoice  to  be  redeemed  firom  this  inward  conflict  and  this  melancholy  life.) 

he  purpose  of  warning  them  against  such  dangers  from  the 
conflicts  of  the  soul,  the  abbot  Pachomius  said  to  his  monks: 
gestions  to  blaspheme  God  present  themselves  to  one  who  wants 
prudent  and  collected  spirit,  they  will  soon  plunge  him  to 
ion.  Hence,  many  have  destroyed  themselves;  some,  bereft  of 
ises,  have  cast  themselves  from  precipices,  others  laid  open  their 
oUiers-  killed  themselves  in  different  ways ;  for  it  is  something 
d,  if  one  who  understands  the  evil  does  not  point  it  out  to  such 
ere  it  becomes  rooted."  Vit.  Pachom.  s.  61. 
.  III.  x 


338  MOXAGHISM. 

iielf-castigation  to  the  utmost   extreme,  imagined  they  had 
reached  the  summit  of  Christian  perfection,  and  might  now 
soon  dispense  altogether  with  those  means  of -grace  which 
other  w^k  Christians  needed.    They  despised  assembling  with 
others  for  devotional  purposes,  and  even  for  the  c(»nmunioo. 
Finally,  they  imagined  that  they  were  honoured  with  special  ^ 
visions  and  revelations.     The  end  of  it  all  was,  that  they  fell   ] 
into  a  state  of  complete  insanity ;  or  else  what  had  hitherto   i 
inspired  them  appeared  at  once  to  be  self-delusion.     From  the    * 
temptation  to  seek  an  entire  estrangement  from  the  ordinarj    . 
feelings  of  humanity,  into  which  they  had  forcibly  wrought 
themselves,  they  sunk  back  to  entire  abandonment  and  vul-    . 
garity.     The  sensual  impulses,  which,  in  the  intoxication  of    . 
pride,  they  had  succeeded,  for  a  short  time,  wholly  to  suppress, 
broke  forth  with  still  greater  violence.*    They  not  only  rushed 
back  to  their  ordinary  earthly  pursuits,  but  now  went  to  the 
opposite  extreme  of  giving  themselves  up  to  every  sensual  en- 
joyment.   Sometimes,  after  having  been  tossed  to  and  firo  firam 
one  extreme  to  the  other,  they  at  length  arrived,  out  of  these 
hard  trials,  to  the  knowledge  of  themselves,  and  to  a  discreet 
piety. t     We  see  a  mark  of  true  ^visdom  in  the  practice  of  en- 
deavouring to  heal  those  who,  through  the  pride  of  asceticism,    ■ 
had  fallen,  or  were  in  danger  of  falling,  into  insanity,  by  for- 
bidding them  to  engage  in  such  eiforts  any  longer,  and  obUging 
them  to  live  after  the  manner  of  ordinary  men. 

The  history  of  incipient  Monachism  is  rich  in  remarkahle 
phenomena,  conveying  the  most  important  instruction  on  the 
subject  of  the  development  of  religious  morality,  and  on  the 
manifold  states  of  the  inner  life.  We  will  here  introduce  a 
few  examples  to  illustrate  the  remarks  which  have  just  been 
made. 

A  monk,  by  the  name  of  Valens,  belonging  to  a  monastic 
order  in  Palestine,  had   become  proud  of  his  great  ascetic 

*  Hence  Nilus,  who  was  a  man  of  large  inward  experience,  gare  to 
one  who  asked  him  why  many  of  the  monks  had  so  sadly  fidlen,  the 
following  answer :  **  Priding  themselves  on  their  ascedc  perfectioD,  they 
lost  by  their  presmnption  the  protection  of  good  spirits,  and  the  evil  onef 
became  their  masters."  KarafiaXXevft  rc»  9r%^wttfiiw  gig  ir$(ptUu  i 
»AV*r»jv  if  ^avazTOfiav  t{  fMtxtieiit,     Nil.  1.  I.  ep.  326. 

t  Which,  in  spiritoal  therapeutics,  was  designated  by  the  naxne 
axftvis  (discretio) :  Atk  t*J»  wu»»^fAiliv  l9»tfimfh)sf  ^X^rau  ir^  rnf  *t^ 


h»»ftfts  (discretio)  :  Am  r«»  wu»m^fMiv  %aMtfi 


FANATICAL  PRIDE.   VALENS.   HERON.         339 

>ffiKrts.  Some  friends,  perhaps  according  to  a  usual  custom, 
laying  made  a  present  of  certain  articles  of  food  to  the  monks, 
iie  presbyter  Macarius,  who  presided  over  the  society,  sent  a 
Mrtion  to  each  in  his  cell.  But  Valens,  with  scornful  lan- 
;;iiage,  bade  the  bearer  carry  it  back  to  Macarius.  The  latter 
perceived  the  danger  which  threatened  the  sanity  of  Valens' 
mind.  The  next  day  he  went  to  him,  endeavoured  to  bring 
him  to  a  sense  of  his  dangerous  self-delusion,  and  entreated 
him  to  pray  Gud  that  he  might  be  healed.  As  he  refused  to 
listen  to  all  advice,  his  case  continually  grew  worse.  He  had 
viffions,  and  imagined  the  Saviour  himself  iiad  appeared  to  him, 
in  a  form  of  light,  testifying  his  approbation  of  so  holy  a  life. 
When,  on  the  next  day,  the  monks  assembled  to  unite  in  par- 
ticipation of  the  holy  supper,  Valens  refused  to  unite  with  them. 
"I  need  not  the  supper,"  said  he,  "  for  I  have  this  day  seen 
the  Lord  Christ  himself."  The  monks  found  it  necessary  to 
bind  the  insane  man.  For  the  space  of  a  year  they  had  re 
coarse  to  prayer,  and  to  a  tranquil  mode  of  life,  directly  opposed 
to  his  previous  ascetic  habits,  for  his  recovery  ;  proceeding  on 
ti»e  principle,  that  one  extreme  must  be  cured  by  resorting  to 
the  other.* 

Another,  by  the  name  of  Heron,  belonging  to  Alexandria, 
who  was  a  member  of  the  monastic  society  in  the  desert  of 
Kitria,  had  carried  the  mortification  of  his  senses  to  such  ex- 
tent, that  he  could  travel  thirty  miles  into  the  desert,  under 
the  scorching  rays  of  the  sun,  without  food  or  drink,  repeating 
QoQBtantly,  as  he  went,  certain  passages  of  the  Bible  from 
memory  ;  and  that  he  often  lived,  for  three  months,  on  nothing 
but  the  bread  of  the  eucharist,  and  wild  herbs.  This  man  be- 
came so  proud  as  to  fancy  himself  superior  to  all  others.  He 
Woald  be  advised  by  no  one ;  affirming  that,  as  Christ  had 
said,  *'  Let  no  man  on  earth  be  called  your  master,"  it  was 
men's  <luty  to  acknowledge  no  earthly  superior.  He  also  came, 
at  length,  to  consider  it  beneath  liis  dignity  to  take  any  part  in 
the  communion.  Finally,  he  felt  within  him  such  a  tire,  such 
a  restless  fever,  that  he  could  no  longer  endure  to  remain  in 
his  cell.f     He  iSed  from  the  desert  to  Alexandria,  and  there 


nmhXitTtf,   xaJtis  Xiyirai*   ra  ivavria  <reiis  ivafrioif  lafAetra.      Laus.  C.  31. 

t  This,  too,  was  do  nnfrequent  occurreLce,  that  the  moiik&  u^  «9j(s»^ 
thdr  inward  tem/^taCious,  forsook  their  cells,  and.  TSiii  «\)0\x\  ic(^\£L  ^^ofe 


840  MONACHISM.     PTOLEMY. 

plunged  into  a  directly  opposite  mode  of  life.  He  was  a  fi«- 
quent  visitor  at  the  theatre,  the  circus,  and  the  houses  of  enteiw 
tainment ;  he  ran  into  all  sorts  of  extravagance :  these  threw 
him  into  a  severe  sickness,  in  which  he  came  to  his  senses,  and 
was  seized  once  more  with  the  craving  after  the  higher  life  lie 
had  lost.     Afterwards  he  found  a  calm  and  cheerM  death.* 

Another,  by  the  name  of  Ptolemy,  settled  down  by  himself 
on  a  spot  lying  beyond  the  Scetic  desert  in  Egypt,  known 
under  the  name  of  the  "  Ladder,"  (fcXi/ia£,)  where  no  man 
had  ever  dared  to  dwell,  because  the  only  spring  which  could 
provide  water  for  this  spot  in  the  parched  wilderness,  lay  finir- 
teen  miles  distant.  There  he  persevered  to  dwell  alone,  ht 
fifteen  years,  collecting,  in  earthen  vessels,  during  the  months 
of  December  and  January,  the  dew,  which  at  this  season  plen- 
tifully covered  the  rocks  in  this  country,  and,  with  the  mois- 
ture thus  preserved,  quenching  his  thirst.  This  unnatunl 
mode  of  life  was  too  much  for  his  nature.  The  attempt  at  a 
proud  estrangement  from  all  human  passions  was  the  means  of 
its  own  punishment.  In  striving  to  deny  his  human  nature, 
he  lost  all  firm  hold  of  real  existence ;  he  grew  sceptical  about 
his  own,  about  the  existence  of  God,  and  of  all  things  else  ;— 
everything  appeared  to  him  like  a  phantasm.  The  thought 
seized  him,  that  the  world  had  sprung  into  existence  of  itself, 
without  any  Creator ;  that  it  moved  in  a  constant  show,  with- 
out any  substantial  ground  of  existing  things.  In  desperate 
insanity,  he  forsook  the  desert,  wandered  about  dumb  from  one 
city  to  another,  frequented  the  places  of  public  resort,  and 
gave  himself  up  to  all  manner  of  gluttony.f 

Besides  these  individual  examples  of  monks,  whose  spiritual 
pride  led  them  into  such  self-delusion  that  they  imagined  them- 
selves superior  to  the  ordinary  means  of  grace,  and,  by  virtue 
of  the  extraordinary  revelations  and  visions  which  they  re- 
ceived, enabled  to  dispense  with  all  human  instruction  and 
help  from  others,  we  see  this  spirit  of  fanatical  pride  carried 
to  the  pitch  of  self-deification,  extending  itself  with  Mona- 

place  to  another.  Nilus  says  of  a  person  of  this  description  :  He  "will 
chan^  his  place,  but  not  the  anguish  of  his  heart.  He  will  rather 
nourish  and  increase  his  temptations.    L.  1.  ep.  295. 

*  L.  c.  c.  39. 

t  Lausiac.  1.  c.  c.  33.  Similar  cases  must  have  often  occurred,  as 
we  may  see  from  Laus.  c.  ^5. 


THE  EUCHITES.  341 

;hism  in  a  widening  circle,  like  a  contagious  disease,  through 
Sfesopotamia,  Syria,  and  as  far  as  to  Famphylia.  Thus  arose 
I  sect  which,  according  to  the  expressed  reports  of  the  ancients, 
lad  its  origin  in  the  Syrian  Monachism,  and  which,  moreover, 
rears  on  its  front  the  undeniable  marks  of  its  origin.  This 
sect  propagated  itself  from  the  second  half  of  the  fourth  century 
lown  into  the  sixth,  and,  in  its  after  effects,  reached  perhaps 
itill  further ;  that  is,  if  we  may  suppose  this  sect  stood  in  any 
outward  connection  with  later  appearances  which  bear,  in 
many  respects,  a  strong  affinity  to  it.*  They  were  called 
sometimes  after  the  name  of  those  who  at  different  times  were 
their  leaders,  Lampetians,  Adelphians,  Eustathians,  and  Mar- 
eianists ;  sometimes  after  various  peculiarities  supposed  to  be 
observed  in  them;  Euchites  (^evxiTai),  Messalians,t  on  ac- 
lount  of  their  theory  about  constant  inward  prayer;  also 
[/horeutes  (xopevrai),  from  their  mystic  dances ;{  Enthu- 
siasts {ivOovtTiaaTai),  on  account  of  the  pretended  commu- 
dcations  which  they  received  from  the  Holy  Spirit.§ 

*  In  case  the  Euchites  of  the  fourth  century  stood  in  any  immediate 
lonnection  with  the  Euchites  of  the  eleventh  century,  and  the  so-called 
iogomiles  of  the  twelfth.  Without  question,  the  affinity  may  also  be 
eoounted  for  from  an  inward  analogy,  which  is  found  to  exist  hetween 
aystic  sects  of  this  sort  It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  Theodoretos 
ilready  describes  the  iv^^/ra;  i*  /Aova*^iK^  «r^0^;^«7^ari  t»  fMutxj'^wv 
•ftSrras,  Hist,  religios.  c.  3.  ed.  Halens.  T.  III.  p.  1146.  To  be  sure, 
Theodoretos  may  also  have  held,  on  no  good  grounds,  analogous  dec- 
lines of  this  monkish  mysticism  to  be  Manichean  or  Gnostic;  or  he 
nay  have,  through  mistake,  confounded  Manicheans  who  concealed 
hemselves  under  the  monkish  garb,  with  the  ordinary  Euchites.  The 
hct  that  the  monks  had  their  imaginations  constantly  busied  with  the 
ma^es  of  evil  spirits  persecuting  them,  may  have  furnished  ground  for 
Jie  introduction  of  the  Manichean,  as  it  did  really  give  rise  to  the  Euchi- 
aan  doctrines.  See,  respecting  the  spread  of  Manicheism  among  the 
ncmks,  Vita  Euthymii,  s.  33.  Coteler.'monumenta  ecclesise  Grsecse,  T. 
EL  p.  227.  '  . 

t  Signifying  the  same,  according  to  the  Chaldee  ]x^' 

X  Comp.  vol.  I.  the  llierapeutae. 

§  All  these  different  names  are  found  in  Timotheus  de  receptione 
uereticorum,  in  Coteler.  monumenta  ecclesise  Grsecse,  T.  III.  The 
name  ijMpxMJtUreu  is  from  Marcian,  an  exchanger,  under  the  emperors 
Justin  and  Justinian.  The  name  Eustathians  is  worthy  of  notice.  It 
night  lead  us  to  think  of  Eustathius  of  Sebaste,  from  whom,  in  fact,  a 
fiuiatical  monkish  bent  derived  its  origin ;  and  the  more,  as  Photius, 
Cod.  52,  who  had  old  synodal  acts  for  his  authority,  calls  this  Eusta- 
thius, from  whom  ibey  bore  the  name  oJitfifAos, 


342  MONASTICISM. 

Most  probably  it  was  in  the  first  place  a  practical  error, 
without  any  tendency  to  theoretical  heresies.  They  were 
monks  who  fancied  themselves  to  have  reached  the  summit  of 
ascetic  perfection ;  and,  as  tliey  now  enjoyed  such  intimate 
communion  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  such  complete  dominion 
over  sense,  as  to  be  no  longer  under  the  necessity  of  making 
the  same  efforts  as  before,  supposed  that,  deliv^ed  £rom  the 
yoke  of  law,  they  needed  only  to  follow  the  impulse  of  the 
Spirit,  without  rule  or  discipline.  They  would  allow  nothing 
to  disturb  them  in  the  purely  contemplative  repose,  the  state 
of  inward  prayer,  which  they  represented  as  being  the  highest 
of  attainments.  They  discarded  all  the  occupations  of  commoD 
life, — all  manual  labour,  by  which  the  monks  were  used  to 
provide  for  their  own  support  and  for  tlie  relief  of  others,  hut 
which  they  regarded  as  a  degradation  of  the  higher  life  of  the 
spirit.  They  were  for  living  by  alms  alone,  and  were  ike 
first*  mendicant  friars.  From  this  practical  error  proceeded, 
by  degi'ees,  all  the  principles  and  doctrines  peculiar  to  the 
Euchites. 

Their  fundamental  principle  was  this,  that  every  man,  by 
virtue  of  his  origin  from  the  first  fallen  man,  brings  with  him 
into  this  world  an  «vil  spirit,  under  whose  dominion  he  lives. 
Here  we  recognise  again  the  monkish  theory  about  evil  spirits 
that  awaken  in  men  the  sensual  desires.  All  ascetic  discipline, 
all  the  means  of  grace  in  the  church,  are  without  power  to 

*  Epiphanius  says  distinctly,  h.  8G,  that  it  was  the  monkish  spirit 
carried  to  excess,  a  misconception  of  what  the  gospel  means  by  renun- 
ciation of  the  world,  in  fact,  the  false  notion  lying  at  the  bottom  of  the 
whole  system  of  Monachism,  pushed  to  the  utmost  extreme,  which  led  to 
this  error  of  the  Euchites.  "E^^o^  ti  ri  /SA-o/Smw  rovre  (p^tmfut  d.*i  nt 
a.fAiTpioc;  rSJv  rtvuv  ceMx^mv  euptXinif.  This  direction  of  the  monkish  spint 
is  attacked  also  by  Nilus,  in  the  Tractatus  ad  Magnam,  s.  21  and  22. 
He  there  very  justly  remarks  that  the  faculties  of  sense,  in  men  in  the 
full  -vigour  of  age,  being  employed  on  nothing,  they  must  operate  so 
much  the  more  powerfully  to  disturb  and  confuse  the  higher  life ;  that 
consequently  the  prayer,  which  they  used  as  a  pretext,  must  in  their  case 
suffer  the  greatest  interruption.  He  derives  this  false  tendency  firwn 
Adelphius  of  Mesopotamia  (the  Euchite  who  has  already  been  mentioned), 
and  from  Alexander,  who  had  been  the  author  of  disturbances  for  some 
time  in  Constantinople  (perhaps  that  Alexander  who  was  the  founder  of 
a  monkish  order  in  which  prayer  and  singing  were  kept  up  without  inteiv 
mission,  day  and  night,  the  members  of  the  order  continually  relieving 
each  other.    They  were  called  Acoemetes  (aMtfMrrmt), 


THE  EUCHITES.  343 

deliver  the  soul  fiom  the  tjranny  of  this  evil  spirit.  These 
can  only  avail  to  check  the  single  outbreaks  of  sin,  while  the 
man  still  remains  under  its  dominion.  He  is,  therefore,  under 
tiie  necessity  of  a  continual  struggle  with  sin ;  and  stands 
tranbling  before  it,  under  the  discipline  of  the  law.  They 
oombated  the  prevailing  notions  about  a  magical  transforma- 
tiim  by  virtue  of  baptism,  adhering,  however,  to  the  ordinary 
view  in  another  respect  ^'  Baptism,"  said  they,  ^'  like  shears, 
may,  indeed,  clip  away  the  earlier  ana  (procure  the  forgive- 
ness of  past  transgressions),  but  the  root  of  the  evil  still  re- 
mains behind,  from  which,  therefore,  new  sins  will  continually 
genninate ;  for  the  evil  spirit  still  retains,  in  £ict,  his  dominion 
over  the  soul.''*  But  what  could  not  be  brought  about  by  any 
outward  means,  or  by  any  ascetic  discipline,  might  be  effected, 
kowever,  by  the  true  inward  prayer.  Whoever '  attained  to 
tids,  would  thereby  be  delivered  from  the  power  of  the  evil 
^nrit  that  had  governed  him  from  his  birth,  whose  departure 
would  be  sensibly  perceived ;  and  he  would  enter,  in  a  way 
sensibly  manifest  to  his  own  feelings,  into  communion  with 
the  divine  Spirit.  He  would  put  on  the  divine  raiment,  and 
at  once  become  inaccessible  to  all  temptations  of  sin.  That 
freedom  from  the  affections  of  sense,  to  the  attainment  of 
which  others  sought  to  fight  their  way  through  a  course  of 
severe  ascetic  discipline,  he  would  immediately  reach  by  this 
inward  prayer.  Hence,  too,  such  a  man  was  no  longer  under 
the  necessity  of  fasting  or  of  self-mortification.  Freed  from 
the  law,  he  might  abandon  himself  with  confidence  to  all  those 
exposures  which  others  must  avoid  through  the  fear  of  temp- 
taticm.  Owing  to  the  immediate  divine  revelation  which  he 
would  now  enjoy,  such  a  person  stood  exempted  from  all 
farther  need  of  instruction  from  others,  all  further  need  of 
human  guidauce.f  By  this  doctrine  the  essence  of  the  mo- 
nastic lifo  of  that  period,  which  was  founded  upon  obedience 

^  Timotil.  L  C  2.  *'OTt  r»  ayin  fia^rUfui  tiiilp  ^vftfiakJamm  dg  vn* 
9tS  imfU9tg  T§ur$u  ^MtfSnr,  aaXi  yk^  trrtv  Uaitov,  ri^  p*^»(  vSv  a/uba^rutv  Tm§ 
nM9^m/M9»f  it^n^vt  r»tf  mvhm^ott  imrifAin,    TheodoveL  hsret  filb.  IV. 

iMMTTu  riir  a/jbo^Tien,    By  this  we  must  supply  what  is  wanting  in  the 
lem  aoearate  acoount  of  Theodoretns,  hist,  eocles.  IV.  10. 

t  Tfaeodoret  IV.  10,  h.  e.  Timoth.  de  reeeptione  fanretieor.  a.  9. 
Joh.  Damasoen.  hseres.  s.  9. 


344  M0KASTICI8M. 

and  subordination,  would  necessarily  be  destroyed.  For,  d  ft 
course,  to  the  Euchites,  their  prayer  supplied  the  place  of  all 
other  modes  of  devotion  and  means  of  grace ;  and  they  looked 
upon  themselves  as  exalted  fiur  above  other  Christians,  who  were 
still  in  bondage  to  sense,  and  under  the  yoke  of  the  law.  They 
were  persuaded  that  the  true  spiritual  sacrament  of  the  supper 
was  only  among  themselves ;  the  outward  ordinance  of  the 
church  they  represented  to  be  a  matter  of  indifferenoe. 
Although  they  believed  that  they  could  derive  no  benefit  from 
it,  yet  tiiey  joined  in  the  celebration  of  it,  in  order  that  they 
might  still  be  considered  members  of  the  Catholic  church. 
They  also  discarded,  in  particular,  sacred  music,  as  their 
mystic  tendency  would  naturally  lead  them  to  do.*  That 
they  sought  after  revelations  in  dreams  we  may  easily  believe, 
according  to  the  unanimous  testimony  of  their  opponents; 
since  many  indications  of  the  tendency  to  that  enthusiasm 
which  looked  for  divine  suggestions  in  dreams,  is  elsewhere  to 
be  found  also  in  this  period.  Their  adversaries,  moreover, 
report  of  them  that  they  were,  for  this  reason,  much  givai  to 
sleep  ;  which  is  possibly  an  exaggeration,  but  it  may  also  be 
true  ;f  for  it  is  easy  to  see  that  such  a  monotonous  direction  of 
the  soul,  so  much  at  variance  with  the  essential  constitution 
of  human  nature,  must  have  often  passed  off  into  sleep  and 
dreams. 

The  mystical  bent  of  this  sect  led  to  various  other  errors, 
which  are  often  found  connected  with  similar  appearances.  In 
various  ways  we  see,  connected  with  such  appearances,  the 
habit  of  confounding  sensual  with  spiritual  feelings,  par- 
ticularly sensual  with  spiritual  love, — a  habit  which  has  often 
been  attended  with  the  most  pernicious  consequences.  Thus, 
too,  the  Euchites  compared  the  spiritual  marriage  of  the  soul 

*  This  is  seen  from  a  fragment  of  the  tract  of  the  monophysite  Severns, 
written  against  the  work  of  the  Euchite  Lampetios,  which  was  entitled 
the  Testament.  We  gather  from  the  opposite  position  taken  by  the 
former,  that  the  Euchites  approved  only  of  a  v/ivm  U  xafhiit.  See  Wolf, 
anecdota  Grseca,  T.  III.  p.  182 ;  and  this  inference  is  confirmed  by  the 
acts  of  a  synod  held  in  opposition  to  the  Euchites,  cited  by  Photios,  c. 
62.     Of  this  Lampetios,  it  is  here  said,  *0t)  vols  rets  &a»f  ^PeixXofT•s 

f  Cases  at  least  occur  elsewhere  of  monks  who,  in  despair  from  not 
being  able  to  escape  temptations  in  singing  and  prayer,  sought  relief  in 
/mmoderate  sleep.    See  l^il.  lU.  ep.  ^^^. 


THE  EUCHITES.  845 

to  its  heavenly  bridegroom,  in  a  grossly  sensual  manner,  with 
an  earthly  union,* 

The  pnde  of  the  mystical  sects,  and  the  tendency  of  ideal- 
ism to  reduce  everything  to  a  subjective  form,  led  frequently 
to  a  pantheistic  self-deification.     This  seems  to  have  been  the 
ease  also  with  the  Euchites.     They  asserted  that  they  had  be- 
come partakers  of  the  divine  nature.     The  Deity  was  able  to 
assume  all  possible  forms,  and  did  actually  assume  all  forms, 
particularly  for  the  purpose  of  communicating  himself  to 
floch  souls  as  were  fitted  to  receive  him.     '^  The  three  hypos- 
tasies  of  the  Triad,"  they  taught,  *'  are  nothing  but  different 
forms  of  revelation  of  the  one  divine  Essence, — the  Trinity 
lesolves  again  into  Unity."f     Thus  they  were  led  to  look 
upon  the  appearances  of  the  angels  in  the  Old  Testament, 
upon  the  patriarchs  and  prophets,  and  upon  Christ  himself,  as 
only  different  forms  of  the  manifestation  and  revelation  of  the 
one  divine  Essence ;  and  they  were  persuaded  that,  by  virtue 
of  their  own  spiritual  perfection,  all  was  concentrated  in  them. 
If  angel,  patriarch,  prophet,  Christ  himself,  were  named  to 
such  a  person,  his  reply,  in  each  case,  was,  "  That  am  I  my- 
self."!|:     Perhaps  they  were  likewise,  by  their  mystical  ideal- 
ism,  led  to  deny  the  reality  of  Christ's  miracles,  to  explain 
them  as  only  symbolical;  since  such  facts  in  the  sensible 
world  seem  to  have  been  regarded  by  them  as  wholly  unim- 
portant to  the  religion  of  the  spirit.  § 

It  should  be   mentioned  also,   as    among  their  peculiar 
opinions,  that  they  considered  fire  as  the  creative  principle  | 
of  the  universe,  an  opinion  of  which  we  find  mAr  traces  also  \  0\ 
in  other  theosophic  sects. 

*  Timoth.  IV.  Teteturtis  alv^tivtrai  fi  '^'hc^  xetvaviets  ynaftUnt  ethv^ 
9rm0»  reu  ov^atUu  vvfiUpieu,  tlag  alvianrat  h  yvv»i  Iv  rri  ffvvevviti  rou  iivo^asm 

f  Tlmoth.  8.  6.  Atyoufftf  iri  v^us  h^avraurut  us  fitictv  v^offretvut  kwr 
X609TM1  »mi  /AtT»^Xkovr»t,  met}  trt  h  hia  ^vvtf  r^l^trai  xtu  fjutrecfiaXXirat 
u$  tvi^  «»  i^/A.f(  Uk  0uy»^a0fi  vtut  ietvrns  aJ^ieut  ^(/%«if,  C.  11.  'H  '4'uxn 
TM  it*Uffiutrtx«v  fttrafieiXXiTai  itg    rhv    6ilen  (pirn.     The  EuchiteS  having 

propagated  themselyes  for  a  long  period,  and  mysticism  being  in  its  own 
nature  an  inconstant  thing,  it  is  quite  possible  that  different  parties  may 
have  arisen  among  then>;  and  thus  the  party  which  asserted  these  things 
of  the  Trinity,  may  not  have  been  the  same  with  the  one  which  taught 
that  those  who  were  enlightened  by  their  prayer  had  a  sensuous  intuition 
of  Ae  Trinity.  J  Epiphan.  1.  c. 

§  Tet  this  cannot  be  certainly  inferred  from  the  opposite  position  of 
Sevems.    Wolf,  anecdota,  T.  III.  p.  17. 


846  MONASTlCISlf. 

It  was  sometimes  objected  to  the  Euchites,  that  they  poshed 
their  Antinomianism  and  their  mistaken  freedom  to  mch  an 
excess  as  even  to  permit  those  who  were  called  perfect  to 
abandon  themselves  to  every  vice.  True,  we  ought  not  to 
give  too  much  credit  here  to  the  report  of  adverBanes ;  jei  it 
must  be  allowed  that  this  practical  error  did  not  at  least  lie  so 
very  remote  from  their  principles  and  their  spirit.  Their 
presumptuous  self-confidence,  their  defiance  of  the  fralltieB  of 
human  nature,  might  thus,  perhaps,  meet  with  its  own  punidi- 
ment ;  and  we  have,  in  fisict,  noticed  above,  in  the  case  of  the 
monks,  many  examples  of  transition  from  the  extreme  of 
ascetic  severity  to  an  unbridled  licentiousness  of  morals. 

As  it  was  a  principle  held  by  the  Euchites,  in  ccxnmon 
with  many  similar  sects,  that  the  end  sanctifies  the  means,  and 
that  it  was  right  to  conceal  from  common  men,  who  were  en- 
slaved to  their  senses,  the  higher  truths,  which  they  were  not 
yet  prepared  to  receive,  and  to  affect  an  assent  to  their  ofi- 
nions ;  it  was  on  this  account  difficult  to  discover  the  memben 
of  this  sect,  and  to  seize  upon  any  clue  to  their  doctrines. 
Flavianus,  bishop  of  Antioch  (after  the  year  381),  conde- 
scended to  act  according  to  the  same  principle,  with  a  view  to 
find  them  out,  punish,  and  expel  them.  He  managed  to  enter 
into  a  conference  with  their  superior,  Adelphius,  as  if  he  were 
entirely  of  the  same  opinion  with  him,  and  thus  enticed  him 
to  a  confession,  which  he  then  made  use  of  ag^ainst  Adelphins 
himself,  and  his  whole  sect.* 

A  similar  spirit  of  ascetic  fanaticism  threatened  to  spread 
far  and  wide,  when,  after  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century, 
the  zeal  for  monastic  life  was  diffused  by  Eustathius,  after- 
wards bishop  of  Sebaste  in  Armenia,  through  Paphlagonia, 
and  the  districts  of  Pontus ;  and  there  are  indeed  many  indi- 
cations which  serve  to  show  that  some  outward  connection  ex- 
isted between  the  Euchites  and  the  Eustathians, — a  fact  which 
the  name  JEtistathians,  given  also  to  the  Euchites,  seems  to 
confirm.  The  synodal  writings,  and  the  canons  of  t^e  council 
of  Gangra,  the  metropolis  of  Paphlagonia,']'  which  was  as- 

♦  Theodoret.  h.  e.  IV.  12. 

f  There  are,  in  relation  to  this  matter,  two  disputed  points,  vis.  tiK 
question  whether  the  Eustathians  (ju  n^^'  FMvreiiiov),  against  whom  tibii 
council  was  directed,  really  sprung  firom  Eustathius  oi  Sebaste,  and  to 
what  time  the  meeting  of  1^  co\m!C\l  i&  to  be  assigned.     The  fint 


THE  EUCHITES.  347 

d  for  the  purpose  of  opposing  these  errors,  furnish  us  the 
eans  of  informing  ourselves  with  regard  to  their  charac- 
hile  they  present,  at  the  same  time,  a  remarkable  me- 
of  the  healthful  spirit  of  Christian  morals,  which  set 
3  oppose  this  one-sided  tendency  of  asceticism.  Wives 
L  their  husbands  and  children,  husbands  thdr  wives,  ser- 
heir  masters,  to  devote  themselves  to  the  ascetic  life.* 
L  who  had  placed  too  great  confidence  in  themselves  fell 
amoral  practices.  They  despised  marriage  and  the 
ic  life.  Those  who  wore  the  ascetic  garb,  fimcied  that 
!  they  had  become  perfect  Christians,  and  looked  down 
ontempt  on  others  who  went  about  in  their  ordinary 
•  They  refused  to  take  any  part  in  the  sacrament  of 
)per,  where  married  priests  had  consecrated  the  ele- 
Where,  in  the  country,  no  churches  had  as  yet  been 
,  and  divine  worship  was  held  in  private  houses,  they 
to  join  either  in  prayer  or  in  the  communi<Hi,  because 
M  that  no  dwelling  was  holy  enough  for  such  purposes, 

admits  of  being  more  easily  settled  than  the  last.  All  the  Ikcts 
lYoar  of  an  affirmative  answer  to  this  question.  Not  only  is  ibe 
J  of  Socrates,  IL  43,  and  of  Sozomen,  111.  14,  to  this  effect,  bat 
le  is  in  perfect  accordance  with  the  character  of  Eostathios,  who 
ealoQS  ascetic,  and  the  first  preacher  of  the  ascetic  life  in  the 
3  roond  the  Pontus,  and  had  formed  a  whole  school.  See  Basilii 
OS.  ep.  223,  (Here  we  find  mentioned,  in  fiict,  the  ascetic  dress, 
li  the  Eustathians,  according  to  the  report  of  the  oooncil  of 

ascribed  a  peculiar  sanctity  —  the  ^iw  ifA^uivfsMTet^  that  is, 
g  to  the  letter  of  Basilius,  rl  ^»x^  Ifharmf  xa)  n  T^mn  »tti 
nrou  fiv^fffis  ra  vTeHuMTa)^  and  ep.  119.  Epiphanius,  hseres.  75. 
^Te  also,  in  the  letters  of  Basilius,  a  trace  of  opposition  to  the 
nastic  spirit  in  the  districts  of  the  Pontus.  At  least  at  Neo- 
where  the  attachment  to  old  usages  prevailed,  the  spreading  of 
ic  life  among  men  and  virgins  was  brought  up  as  an  objection 
Sasilius  of  Grosarea.  See  ep.  207  ad  Neocsesareens.  s.  2. 
A  second  question  is  among  the  ^ost  difficult  of-  decision.  If 
jse  with  Pagi,  who  follows  Socrates  and  Sozomen,  the  ooondl  to 
n  held  a.d.  360,  then  there  is  something  strange  in  the  manner 
1  the  oooncil  name  Eustathius,  since  he  was  then  bishop ;  unless 
Me  that  tibe  eoundl  did  not  consider  Eostathius,  who  by  a  party 
I  deposed,  as  really  a  bishop,  and  thought  themselTes  justified  to 
I  contenq)taously.  But,  if  we  assume  that  the  council  was  held 
Aiiier  ds^,  it  is  singular  again  that  no  allasion  to  it  is  to  be 
the  letters  of  Basil.  Still  the  case  may  have  been,  that  Easily 
Bt  of  the  relation  in  which  he  stood  with  the  party  by  whom 
idl  was  held,  did  not  recognise  it  as  a  legal  one. 
I  same  was  the  case  among  the  Euchites.    Joh,  Damasc,  \^  997* 


\ 


348  MONASTICISM. 

the  owners  of  which  lived  in  wedlock.  They  celebrated  their 
private  worship  in  separate  assemblies,  ascribing  to  that  'wo> 
ship  a  sacredness  which  was  wanting  to  the  church  as- 
semblies.* 

As  these  fanatical  tendencies,  which  grew  out  of  the  ascetic 
enthusiasm,  threatened  to  be  the  cause  of  so  much  disturbance 
to  the  church  life,  it  became  necessary  to  devise  some  means  of 
protecting  it  against  this  danger,  and  of  guiding  the  ascetic 
life,  which  was  highly  prized  in  a  cour^  of  development 
which  would  be  salutary  to  the  church,  and  consistent  with 
good  order.     For  this  purpose,  in  the  first  place,  particular 
encouragement  was  given  to  the  *r^ular  institution  of  the 
cenobitic  life ;  and  next,  it  was  attempted  to  bring  this  into 
closer  connection  with  the  whole  body  of  the  church,  and  into 
a  condition  of  greater  dependence  on  the  episcopal  supervision 
in  each  diocese.']'     In  the  cenobitic  life  everything  was  sub- 
jected to  one  guidance,  after  a  regular  plan ;  to  each  individual 
was  assigned  his  particular  place  and  sphere  of  action ;  obedi- 
ence and  humility,  the  unconditional  submission  of  the  will  of 
the  individual  to  that  of  the  superior,  who  should  be  obeyed, 
even  to  the  utter  sacrifice  of  one's  own  inclinations,— these 
stood  in  the  highest  rank  of  monkish  virtues.     Every  extrava- 
gance was  to  be  immediately  checked,  and  reduced  within 
proper  limits,  by  the  guidance  of  the  superior.     "Whoever  felt 
himself  in  any  way  restless  and  uneasy,  was  not  only  required 
not  to  conceal  it  from  his  leaders,  but  to  disclose  to  them  his 
whole  heart,  that  through  their  experience  and  wisdom  he 
might  receive  advice  and  consolation,  lest  the  evil  concealed 
in  his  own  breast  should  spread  wider,  and  at  last  become  in- 
curable.    It  must  be  admitted  that,  in  the  monastic  life,  the 
essence  of  true  humility,  which  has  its  foundation  within,  in  a 
temper  proceeding  from  the  sense  of  dependence  on  God,  was 
often  misconceived,  and  otUward  humiliation  before  men  sub- 

*  The  same  was  trae  among  the  Euchites.    Job.  Damasc.  p.  37. 

t  The  examples  of  such  men  as  Basil  of  Csesarea  and  Chrysostom 
teach  this.  The  life  of  Basil  of  Csesarea,  of  Gregory  of  Nazianzom,  and 
the  doctrinal  controversies  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  show  what 
divisions  in  the  churches  could  grow  out  of  the  influence  of  the  monks. 
The  council  of  Chalcedon  decreed,  in  its  fourth  canon,  that  no  person 
should  be  allowed  to  found  a  cloister  without  permission  of  the  bishopj 
and  that  the  monks  in  town  and  country  should  be  obedient  to  the 


THE  EUCHITES.  849 

stituted  in  the  place  of  inward  humiliation  before  God.    A 
servile  spirit  grew  out  of  this  confusion  of  ideas.     But  it  is 
not  to  be  denied  that  order,  strict  discipline,  subjection  of  the 
iodiyiduals  to  the  laws  of  the  whole  and  wise  guidance  were 
absolutely  necessary  to  keep  in  the  right  course  a  multitude  of 
men,  of  different  humours,  and  often  rude  and  uncultivated. 
Good  and  pertinent  are  the  remarks  of  Basil  of  Caesarea, 
lespecting  the  advantages  of  the  common  life  of  the  Cenobites 
over  the  solitary  life  of  the  Anachorets ;  while  at  the  same 
dme,  they  furnish  one  example  of  a  truly  evangelical  judg- 
ment on  the  subject  of  Monachism : — "  The  eremetical  life 
conflicts  with  the  essential  character  of  Christian  love,  since 
here  each  individual  is  concerned  only  for  what  pertains  to  his 
own  good ;  while  the  essence  of  Christian  love  prompts  each 
to  seek,  not  alone  what  serves  for  his  own  advantage,  but  also 
the  good  of  others.     Neither  will  such  a  person  find  it  easy  to 
oome  to  the  knowledge  of  his  failings  and  deficiencies  ;  since 
he  has  no  one  to  correct  him  with  love  and  gentleness.     What 
is  written  in  Ecclesiastes  iv.  10,  applies  to  the  case  of  such  a 
person :  ^'  Woe  to  him  that  is  alone  when  he  falleth ;  for  he 
hath  not  another  to  help  him  up."     In  a  society  many  can 
work  together  so  as  to  fulfil  the  divine  commands  on  different 
sides.     But  he  who  lives  alone  is  ever  confined  to  one  single 
work;   and  while  this  is  being  done  other  works  must  be 
neglected.    Next,  if  all  Christians  constitute  together  one 
body,  under  one  Head,  and  stand  related  to  each  other  as  the 
members  of  one  body ;  how  can  any  such  relation  subsist, 
when  they  live  thus  separated  from  one  another,  each  striving 
to  be  enough  for  himself?    But  if  they  do  not  And  themselves 
standing  in  the  right  relation  to  each  other  as  members  of  the 
same  body,  neither  can  they  stand  in  the  right  relation  to  their 
common  Head.    In  one  society,  the  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  each  individual  passes  over  to  all ;  the  gifts  of  grace 
imparted  to  each  become  a  common  possession  of  all,  and  the 
gracious  ^ts  of  all  redound  to  the  advantage  of  each  indi- 
vidual.    But  he  who  lives  for  himself  alone  has,  perhaps,  a 
gracious  gift ;  but  he  makes  it  unprofitable,  since  he  buries  it 
in  his  own  bosom ;  and  whoever  is  acquainted  with  the  parable 
of  the  talents,  must  know  how  great  a  responsibility  is  thus 
incurred.* 
I   *  See  Basil,  regnla  fus.  vii.  ii.  346.    It  is  finely  t^isaxVftil  «3»^  \s^ 


i 


350  MONASnCISM. 

A  struggle  now  arose  between  the  Cmobites  and 
ascetics  who  traced  their  origin  back  to  an  earlier  period; 
inasmuch  as  the  latter  were  un¥dlling  to  submit  to  the  new 
rules  of  the  monks,  but  wished  to  maintain  their  ancient  inde« 
pendence.  They  were  in  the  habit  of  living  two  or  three 
tc^ther;  and  they  built  their  cells,  for  the  most  part,  in 
cities,  or  in  the  larger  villages.  They  supported  themselTes, 
like  other  monks,  by  the  labour  of  their  own  hands ;  and  tkdr 
very  opponents,  the  adherents  of  the  new  order  of  the  Geno- 
bites,  were  constrained  to  acknowledge  that  they  were  dili- 
gent and  industrious.  The  latter,  who  alone  have  left  behind 
any  accounts  of  these  classes  of  ascetics  (known  in  f^ypt 
under  the  name  of  Sarabaites,  in  Syria  under  that  of  Remo- 
both),  give,  it  is  true,  a  very  unfavourable  description  of 
them ;  and,  as  they  could  be  no  otherwise  than  hostilelj  dis- 
posed towards  these  adversaries  of  the  new  form  of  the  monas- 
tic life,*  what  they  have  to  say  on  this  subject  is  of  itself  liable 
to  suspicion ;  and  many  of  their  objections  show  at  once  that 
they  originated  in  hatred,  and  were  without  any  just  founda- 
tion. Cassian,  for  example,  accuses  them  of  misappropriating 
to  purposes  of  sensual  indulgence,  or  covetously  hoarding  up 
the  surplus  of  their  earnings."]"  Or  even  supposing  this  was 
managed  by  them  in  the  best  possible  manner,  still  it  was  im- 
possible for  them  to  attain  to  the  virtue  of  the  monks.  For 
the  monks  practised  daily  the  same  self-denial ;  but  to  the 
ascetics  their  very  bounty  to  the  poor  was  an  occasion  of 
pride,  which  daily  received  nourishment.  Now  we  see  here 
at  once  what  Cassian  himself  was  unable  to  conceal,  that  the 
first  of  these  charges  could  not,  in  so  sweeping  a  manner,  be 
laid  against  the  Sarabaites  ;  and,  as  it  concerns  the  second,  it 

Nilos,  against  the  exaggerated  estimate  of  the  hermit  life,  ill.  73: 
"  Whoever  says,  *  I  become  an  anachoret,  that  I  may  have  no  one  to 
excite  my  anger/  is  not  essentially  different  from  an  irrational  bnite, 
for  we  see  such  also  quiet  when  a  man  does  not  excite  them  to  aDger." 
And  he  quotes,  as  opposed  to  the  anachoret  life,  the  text  in  Ephes.  v.  21 ; 
Pet.  iv.  10;  Pet.  ii.  13;  Philip^,  ii.  4. 

*  In  the  rule  of  the  Benedictines,  c.  i.  it  is  also  plainly  evident,  that 
they  were  particularly  accused  of  a  spirit  of  freedom  unbecoming  in 
monks  (sine  pastore  et  lege  vivere),  and  to  this  same  spirit  everything 
bad  in  them  was  attribute.  In  this  very  place,  it  is  conceded  that  they 
were  of  a  far  better  kind  than  the  degenerate  monks  that  strolled  about 
through  the  country  (the  Gyrovagi). 
f  Collat  18,  c.  vii. 


THE  CEKOBITES.  361 

k  evidently  a  mere  inference  in  the  writer's  own  mind,  from 
tke  &]se  assumption  that,  without  the  outward  and  uncondi- 
tional submission  to  another's  will,  without  the  servile  obedi- 
oice  of  the  monks,  there  is  no  true  humility.  Bad  qualities 
and  good  were  no  doubt  to  be  found  among  these  people,  as 
among  the  Cenobites ;  but  their  enemies  of  course  held  up  to 
notice  the  worst  side.  Jerome  charges  them  with  hypocrisy^* 
a  which  there  was  no  lack  indeed  among  many  of  the 
nonks.  He  says  of  them,  that  they  availed  themselves  of 
lie  outward  show  of  sanctity,  which  they  affected,  to  dispose 
>f  their  wares  at  a  higher  rate  than  others  ;  which  might  be 
10  less  true  of  the  monks. I  He  accuses  them  of  speaking 
igainst  the  clergy.  It  may  well  be  that,  as  laymen,  they  were 
inclined  to  boast  of  their  superiority  to  the  clergy,  on  the 
MXHre  of  their  ascetic  mode  of  life.  It  may  be  that  they  op- 
posed the  pride  of  asceticism  to  that  of  the  hierarchy  ;  but  it 
tnay  also  be,  that  among  these  people  many  pious  laymen 
were  led,  by  their  zeal  for  the  cause  of  religion,  to  attack  the 
vices  of  a  worldly-minded  clergy.  There  may  have  been 
some  grounds  for  the  opinion  that  most  of  the  objections 
brought  against  them,  as  well  as  the  quarrels  of  which  they 
were  the  occasion,  would  have  ceased  or  never  existed,  had 
they  subjected  themselves  to  the  same  strict  oversight  which 
prevailed  among  the  Cenobites. 

We  shall  now  proceed  to  contemplate  Monachism  in  its 
various  relations,  during  this  period,  to  the  Eastern  church. 
A»  it  commonly  happens  with  historical  phenomena  of  this 
kind,  deeply  grounded  in  the  life  of  an  age  and  pervading  all 
its  manifestations,  that  the  best  and  worst  qualities,  springing 
from  the  Christian  and  the  imchristian  spirit,  meet  together, ' 
and  are  found  in  closest  contact,  so  it  happened  in  the  case  of 
Monachism.  Some  care,  therefore,  must  be  exercised  here, 
in  separating  the  opposite  elements,  if  we  would  neither 
unjustly  condemn,  nor,  through  the  influence  of  party  feelings, 
without  regard  to  historical  facts,  approve  the  phenomenon 
here  presented ;  as,  in  truth,  we  may  find  abundant  examples, 
in  this  very  period,  of  both  these  equally  partial  and  erroneous 
ways  of  passing  judgment  on  Monachism. 

*  Ep.  22  ad  Enstochium. 

t  Kilns  himself  objects  to  a  class  of  the  monks,  that  9rx^»9  frsft^rUm 
furi^irftu  rix*i*'     -^d  Maguam,  c  30. 


352  voNAsncisM. 

And  here,  in  the  first  place,  it  is  necessary  to  distinguish 
the  Anachorets  from  the  Cenobites.     To  the  former  it  vas 
objected  in  this  period  itself,  that  they  lived  solely  for  them- 
selves ;  were  wanting  in  active  charity  ;* — in  defending  them 
against  which  objection,  Augustin  observes,  that  those  vho 
brought  against  them  such  complaints,  did  not  reflect  bow 
useful  those  might  be  in  a  spiritual  sense,  who  were  not  pe^ 
sonally  visible,  by  means  of  their  prayers,  and  the  example  of 
their  life."]"     Chrysostom,  however,  says  that  it  were  certainly 
better,  if  the  Anachorets  also  could  live  together  in  a  society, 
so  as  to  manifest,  in  an  outward  manner,  the  bond  of  charily. 
Yet,  in  either  case,  he  observed,  the  essential  requisite  of  love 
might  be  present  in  the  disposition ;  for  love,  assuredly,  is  not 
restricted  to  the  limits  of  space.     They  had,  in  truth,  many 
admirers ;  and  these  would  cease  to  admire^  if  they  did  vsK 
love  them ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  they  prayed  for  the  whole 
worldj  wliich  is  the  greatest  evidence  of  love.)     Even  those 
among  the  Anachorets  who  lived  entirely  secluded  and  separate 
from  the  world,  were  not  therefore,  by  any  means,  excluded 
from  all  exercise  of  influence  upon  others.     The  greater  the 
reverence  they  inspired  by  their  strict  eremetic  life,  the  more 
they  were  sought  out,  in  their  grottoes  or  cells,  on  their  rocks 
or  in  their  deserts,  by  men  of  every  rank,  fix)m  the  emperor's 
palace  to  the  lowest  hovel,  who  visited  them  for  counsel  and 
consolation.§     Men  who,  in  the  crowd  of  earthly  a£^drs,  in  the 
dazzling  glitter  of  the  world,  were  not  easily  brought  to  think 
of  any  higher  concerns,  would  approach  one  of  these  recluses 
in  a  state  of  mind  which  rendered  them  at  once  susceptible  for 
higher  impressions.     A  word  spoken  to  them  in  that  state  of 
feeling,  sustained  by  the  whole  venerable  aspect  of  the  recluse, 
might  produce  greater  effects  than  long  discourses  under  other 
circumstances.  II     Oftentimes  these  hermits,  after  having  re- 
mained for  years  hidden  from  the  eye  of  the  world,  appeared 
publicly,  on  the  occurrence  of  great  and  general  calamities,  or 

*  Videntar  nonnullis  res  homanas  plus  quam  oportet  desemisse. 
Augustin.  de  moribos  ecclesise  catholics,  1. 1,  s.  66. 

t  Augustin.  1.  c.  non  intelligentibus,  quantum  nobis  eorum  animus 
in  orationibus  prosit  et  vita  ad  exemplum,  quorum  corpora  videre  non 
sinimur. 

X  Chrysostom.  H.  78,  in  Joannem,  s.  4,  opp.  ed.  Montf.  T.  VITI.  f.  464. 

§  See  the  II.  book  of  Chrysostom  contra  oppugnatores  vitSB  monasUcK. 

//  To  such  experiences  ^ilus  refers,  I,  II.  ep.  310. 


THE  CENOBITES.  853 

18  protectors  of  entire  cities  and  provinces,  who  were  dreading 
be  heavy  vengeance  of  some  exasperated  emperor.  A  spirit 
^Mch,  living  by  faith,  was  conscious  of  being  free  from  the 
ondage  of  thie  world  and  independent  of  earthly  things,  gave 
^lem  courage  and  power  to  speak  boldly,  where  no  other  man 
ired  to  do  so :  their  independence  and  their  reverence  for  a 
igher  power,  which  even  the  mightiest  of  the  earth  acknow- 
dged,  procured  for  them  a  hearing.  When,  after  the  insur- 
)Ction  at  Antioch,  a.d.  387,  the  emperor  Theodosius,  under 
16  impulse  of  violent  anger,  threatened  the  whole  city  with 
estruction,  the  monk  Macedonius,  who  for  many  years  had 
ot  suffered  himself  to  be  seen  in  the  world,  came  forth  from 
is  seclusion,  hurried  to  Antioch,  and  put  himself  in  the  way 
f  the  two  imperial  commissioners,  who  had  been  sent  for  the 
mrpose  of  holding  the  judicial  trials.  They  dismounted  re- 
pectfully  from  their  horses,  and  embraced  his  hands  and  knees, 
le  bid  them  tell  the  emperor,  that  he  ought  to  remember  he 
ras  a  man,  and  possessed  of  the  same  nature  with  those  who 
lad  done  the  wrong.  "  The  emperor  \s  thus  angry,"  said  he, 
'because  the  imperial  images  have  been  destroyed,  which, 
lowever,  may  easily  be  restored ;  and  he  was  intending,  for 
bis  reason,  to  destroy  men  who  are  the  living  images  of  God, 
md  one  hair  of  whose  head  it  was  beyond  his  power  to  re- 
itore.*  The  monks  were  frequently  visited  by  the  sick,  who, 
iirhen  they  failed  of  relief  from  medical  skill,  hoped  to  obtain 
I  cure  through  the  intercessions  of  these  pious  men.  Those, 
specially,  ^ho  were  suffering  under  mental  disorders,  and 
supposed  to  be  possessed  of  evil  spirits,  frequently  applied  to 
iiem ;  and  it  may  be  easily  conceived  that,  in  such  states  of 
nind,  the  immediate  impression  of  a  life  so  exalted  above  the 
nrorld  might  produce  extraordinary  effects.  Pious  monks,  rich 
n  inward  experience,  might  avail  themselves  of  such  oppor- 
;unities,  even  where  it  was  beyond  their  power  to  bestow  what 
;he  unfortunate  patients  came  in  quest  of,  to  leave  on  their 
ninds,  and  on  those  of  the  attendants  or  friends  who  brought 
them,  some  salutary  lesson.  Women  came  to  them  to  ask  for 
their  intercession  with  God,  that  he  would  send  them  children. 
ULothers  brought  their  children  that  they  might  bestow  on 
them  their  blessing,  and,  at  the  same  time,  scatter  in  their 
youthful  minds  some  seed  of  religious  truth ;  as  in  the  case  of 

*  Theodoret.  religioe.  hist.  c.  \^. 
roL,  III.  ^  K 


854  voNAsncisif. 

Theodoret,  who  often  recurs  to  a  salutary  impression  of  this 
sort,  which  he  had  received  in  his  childhood.*  Monks  were 
also  called  to  pray  in  families,  and  could  avail  themselves  of 
this  opportunity  of  doing  good.f  Especially  did  the  societies 
of  monks  form  a  striking  contrast  in  the  more  or  less  remote 
neighbourhood  of  such  large  cities  as  Antioch,  which  wero 
seats  of  wealth,  splendour,  and  luxury,  and  of  dissolute  man- 
ners. What  an  impression  must  it  have  produced,  when, 
either  from  curiosity  or  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  the 
coimsel  and  consolation  or  obtaining  the  intercession  of  these 
men,  the  citizens  visited  them  from  the  midst  of  their  hwf 
pursuits,  and,  in  a  mode  of  life  destitute  of  every  saisoal 
enjoyment  and  comfort,  witnessed,  amidst  all  these  depriva- 
tions, a  tranquillity  of  soul  of  which  .they  had  not  even  formed 
a  conception  !  Easily  may  it  be  explained  why  so  many  of 
the  youth,  of  both  sexes,  should  feel  themselves  constraioed  to 
exchange  their  affluence  for  this  poverty!  To  the  monks^ 
those  persons,  in  the  Greek  empire,  often  betook  themselvee, 
who,  after  an  agitated  and  restless  public  life,  through  maay 
political  storms  and  reverses,  either  disgusted  at  the  vain  par- 
suits  of  the  world  and  craving  for  repose,  or  driven  by  neces- 
sity to  escape  from  some  threatening  danger,  sought  here  a 
still  retreat,  where  they  might  end  their  days ;  as  in  the  case 
of  that  venerable  monk  Nilus,  who,  having  retired  from  a 
station  of  trust  and  dignity  in  Constantinople  to  Mount  Sinai) 
in  the  beginning  of  the  fiflh  century,  could  write  as  follows  4 
"  So  great  grace  has  God  bestowed  on  the  monks,  even  in 
anticipation  of  the  future  world,  that  they  vidsh  for  no  honouis 
from  men,  and  feel  no  longing  after  the  greatness  of  this  world ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  often  seek  rather  to  remain  concealed  fipMi 
men :  while,  on  the  other  hand,  many  of  the  great,  who  possess 
all  the  glory  of  the  world,  either  of  their  own  accord,  or  com- 
pelled by  misfortune,  take  refuge  with  thejlowly  monks,  and, 
delivered  from  fatal  dangers,  obtain  at  once  a  temporal  aiid  an 
eternal  salvation."  And  in  the  monastic  profession,  might  they 
now  find  a  new  inner  life,  and  turn  the  treasure  of  experience 
they  had  acquired  to  their  own  benefit  and  that  of  others. 

As  to  the  difference  between  the  solitary  life  of  the  Ana- 
chorets  and  the  common  life  of  the  Cenobites,  it  is  to  be 

*  Theodoret.  hist,  relig.  page  1188  et  1214,  T.  Ill; 

f  Nil.  1.  II.  ep.  46.  X  Lib.  I.  ep.  i 


THE  CENOBITES.  355 

observed,  that  the  same  objection  cannot  be  made  against  the 
aaoetic  mode  of  living  in  common  which  might  be  brought 
against  the  insulated  life  of  the  Anachorets,  viz.,  that  the 
ipirit  of  active  charity  was  here  wanting;  for,  as  we  have 
dieady  remarked,  judged  on  the  principle  of  Christian  love, 
tbe  CSenobitic  mode  of  life  had  the  advantage  over  the  other. 
The  ccenobuB  formed,  in  &ct,  little  communities,  in  which 
erery  kind  of  Christian  activity  and  virtue  found  room  for 
exercise,  with  the  exception  only  of  such  as  are  strictly  con- 
nected with  the  ties  of  fiunily.  Chrysostom  says  of  this  class, 
that  they  had  fled  from  amicUt  the  bickerings  of  the  world,  for 
tbe  purpose  of  cultivating  charity  with  less  disturbance.* 
People  of  all  ranks  might  here  associate  together,  and  find  a 
soitable  occupation,  sanctified  by  the  spirit  of  Christian  fellow- 
ship. Every  kind  of  employment  not  interfering  with  tran- 
qcdllity  and  the  other  relations  of  the  monastic  life,  was  here 
pursued,  and  prosecuted  with  the  feelings  which  ought  to 
animate  every  Christian  calling.  Prayer,  reading  of  the 
scriptiires,  sacred  music,  here  alternated  with,  and  accom- 
panied, bodily  labour.!  The  bond  of  Christian  fellowship 
here  united  together  what  was  separated  by  the  relations  of 
the  world.  Slaves,  on  whom  their  masters  had  bestowed 
freedom  that  they  might  enter  a  cloister,  here  joined  in 
brotherly  fellowship  with  those  who  had  sprung  from  the 
noblest  &milies ;  and  here  they  were  trained  for  a  higher  life. 

*  'Ev'ij^n  y»f  fi  tZv  ^^atyftMron  (ptkovuxitt  ^oXXttf  ^otu  rug  iv/lecs*  ita 
vtCv*  i»  fti^M  ytti/itfctf  rhv  iyMm  ytet^youffi  fiXr  dxpiBttas  ^ikXtig.     Ht  78» 

in  Evangel.  Job.  s.  4. 

f  In  the  greater  monastic  rule  of  Basilios,  those  occupations  are  per- 
Butled  and  recommended  to  the  monks  which  did  not  compel  them  to 
be  too  much  separated  from  one  another,  as  well  in  the  labours  them- 
selves, as  in  the  sale  of  the  products  of  their  industry ;  such  occupations 
as  sabserred  the  necessary  purposes  of  life,  and  not  unseemly  or  hurtftd 
pttsioiis ;  as,  for  example,  the  occupation  of  the  weaver,  of  the  shoe- 
maker, so  feir  as  these  trades  did  not  administer  to  luxury.  Architec- 
ture, the  carpenter's  trade,  the  smith,  the  cultivator  of  the  soil,  were  not 
to  be  rejected  on  their  own  account,  provided  only  they  created  no  dis- 
tarbance,  and  did  not  interrupt  the  life  of  the  community.  In  this  case, 
sadi  occapations,  agriculture  especially,  were  to  be  preferred  to  many 
other  employments.  The  views  on  this  subject  were  not  everywhere 
precisely  the  same.  They  differed  according  as  the  barely  contemplative 
or  the  practical  point  of  view  in  the  monastic  life  predommated.  Nilns, 
who  proceeded  on  the  former,  is  against  the  employment  of  monks  in 
agriculture.    See  Nil.  de  monastica  exercitadone,  c*  ^\. 


356  VONASTICISM. 

It  was  the  spirit  of  Monachism  which  gave  special  pro* 
minence  to  that  Christian  point  of  view,  from  which  all  men 
were  regarded  as  originally  equal  in  the  sight  of  God  ;  which 
opposed  the  consciousness  of  Grod's  image  in  human  nature,  to 
the  grades  and  distinctions  flowing  out  of  the  relations  of  the 
state.  Hence  this  spirit,  where  it  was  pure,  not  recognizii^ 
the  distance  which  the  earthly  relations  had  fixed  between 
slaves  and  freemen,  plebeians  and  nobles,  invited  and  admitted 
all,  without  distinction,  to  the  fellowship  of  that  higher  life 
which  had  respect  only  to  the  universal  interests  of  humanitj. 
The  spirit  of  contempt  for  earthly  show,  the  spirit  of  universal 
philanthropy,  revealed  itself  in  the  pure  appearances  of  Mon- 
achism, and  in  much  that  proceeded  from  it.  Nilus  says: 
^^  In  raising  recruits  for  the  military  service  of  this  world, 
slaves  are  rejected  ;  but  into  the  ranks  of  the  soldiers  for 
piety,  slaves  enter  with  joy  and  confidence."  *  The  same 
writer,  citing  the  example  of  Job,  chap,  xxxi.,  gives  special 
prominence  to  compassion  for  the  race  of  slaves,  whom  a 
mastership  of  violence,  destroying  the  fellowship  of  nature,  had 
converted  into  tools."]"  Among  the  works  of  Christian  piety, 
he  names  the  redeeming  of  slaves  from  bondage  to  cruel  mas- 
ters. J  Slaves,  who  were  oppressed,  fled  for  protection  to  pious 
monks;  and  the  latter  interceded  for  those  in  trouble  with 
their  masters.  The  abbot  Isidore  of  Pelusium,  writing  in 
behalf  of  one  of  these  to  his  master,  observes :  "  I  did  not 
suppose  that  a  man  who  loves  Christ,  who  knows  the  grace 
which  has  made  all  men  free,  could  still  hold  a  slave;"  §  and 
to  another  he  said :  "  The  noble  disposition  frees  those  whom 
violence  has  made  slaves  ;  wherever  this  blameless  disposition 
was  found,  Paul  knew  no  difference  between  bond  and  free."|| 
The  cloisters,  moreover,  were  institutions  of  education,  and 
as  such  were  the  more  distinguished  on  account  of  the  care 
they  bestowed  on  religious  and  moral  culture,  because  educa- 

*  Nil.  IV.  4. 

t  Nil.  Perister.  sect.  10,  c.  vi.  f.  165.    T«v  Ari^)  ro  «i«it/»o»  yif*f  tvfu- 

^  The  question  to  the  rich  man  who  came  to  meet  death  vithoot 
having  used  his  property  in  accordance  with  the  impulses  of  Christi- 
anity. T/ya  ^tff^OTUv  oivpofAtvot  MfAornru  Ttjs  axXfi^etf  ^9vX.uebS  auTnkXa^'t 
1.  c.  sect  ix.  c.  l.f.  134. 

irui/Ttti  iXtvfitpvffetffM,    "Ep^.  \.  \.  e^.  \V1.  ([  I.  306. 


THE  CENOBITES.  357 

Hon  generally,  in  this  period,  as  may  be  gathered  from  the 
complaints  of  libanius  and  Chrysostom,  had  Allien  into 
neglect.  Vanity  and  the  love  of  display  were  among  the 
ftnst  lessons  learned  in  the  schools  of  the  sophists ;  and,  in  the 
large  cities,  corruptions  of  all  sorts  threatened  the  tender  age. 
Basil  of  Caesarea,  in  his  rules  for  the  education  of  the  cloister, 
gives  the  following  directions:  "Inasmuch  as  our  Lord  has 
said,  '  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me,*  and  the  apostle 
praises  those  who  from  their  youth  had  been  taught  the  holy 
scriptures,  and  exhorts  men  to  bring  up  their  children  in  the 
nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord,  let  it  be  understood  that 
the  earliest  acre  is  particularly  well  suited  for  being  received 
into  the  cloisters.  Orphan  children  should  be  received 
P'otuitously ;  and  those  who  have  parents  should  be  admitted, 
irhen  brought  by  them,  in  the  presence  of  many  witnesses. 
They  should  receive  a  pious  education,  as  children  belonging 
in  common  to  the  whole  society  of  brethren.  Separate  build- 
ings should  be  specially  appropriated  to  their  use ;  a  particu- 
lar diet  and  mode  of  living,  carefully  adapted  to  their  age, 
should  be  appointed  for  them ;  the  superintendence  of  their 
education  should  be  entrusted  to  a  person  of  years,  experience, 
and  well-tried  patience,  who  understood  how  to  manage  them 
with  parental  tenderness.  Every  fault  should  be  so  punished, 
that  the  punishment  might  prove  at  the  same  time  an  exercise 
of  discipline  over  the  temper  which  had  led  to  its  commission. 
For  example,  if  one  indulged  angry  passions  towards  another, 
the  &ult  should  be  punished  by  causing  him  to  serve  the  other,, 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  offence :  greediness  should  be 
punished  by  &sting.  From  the  beginning,  they  should  obtain 
a&miliar  acquaintance  with  the  holy  scriptures ;  instead  of  the 
Gibles  of  the  poets  they  should  commit  to  memory  the  narratives 
}f  the  miracles ;  instead  of  the  Gnomes,  passages  from  the  Pro- 
i^erbs  of  Solomon.  Only  at  the  stated  hours  of  social  prayer, 
should  the  grown  people  and  the  children  come  together.  As. 
nauy  handicrafts  must  be  learned  early,  the  boys  should,  in  such 
sases,  be  allowed  to  spend  the  day  with  the  master- workmen,  but 
ihould  sleep  and  eat  with  the  others.  They  should  not  be  per- 
nitted  to  take  the  monastic  vow  until  grown  up,  and  then  only 
xrhen  they  showed  an  inclination  and  aptitude  for  the  monastic 
ife :  in  the  opposite  case,  they  should  not  be  bound  to  do  so.*** 

*  Basil,  reg.  fus.  8. 15. 


358  MONASTICISIC. 

The  cloisters  were  distiuguished  for  their  hospitality  and 
benevolence  to  the  poor.  The  dcusters  of  Egypt,  for  example, 
provided  means  of  subsistence  for  the  unfruitful  districts  of 
Libya  ;  they  sent  i^hips,  laden  with  grain  and  articles  of 
clothing,  to  Alexandria,  for  distribution  among  the  poor.* 

In  the  cloisters  on  the  mountain  of  Nitria,  there  were  seven 
bake-houses,  which  provided  the  Anachorets  of  the  bordering 
Libyan  desert  with  bread.  Travellers  who,  after  a  weazy 
pilgrimage,  arrived  here  from  the  wilderness,  were  suddenly 
surprised  by  the  sight  of  a  large  body  of  men  at  labour  amid^ 
prayer  and  spiritual  songs ;  and  they  found  among  them  a 
brotherly,  hospitable  reception ;  they  were  refireshed  in  hoAj 
and  mind.  These  monks  were  not  prevented,  by  any  ascetie 
scruples,  from  providing  themselves  with  wine,  for  the  refresh- 
ment of  their  guests.  Every  stranger  might  tarry  with  them 
as  long  as  he  pleased;  but,  if  he  remained  longer  than  a 
week,  they  did  not  allow  him  to  be  idle,  but  required  him 
either  to  join  in  the  manual  labours,  or  to  occupy  himself 
with  a  book.l 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  many  evils 
resulted  from  the  monastic  institution ;  which  is  to  be  attri- 
buted partly  to  its  having  degenerated,  a  necessary  consequence 
of  the  excessive  multiplication  of  the  monks ;  partly  to  the 
tendency  itself  so  alien  from  the  pure  spirit  of  the  gospel,  which 
had  first  led  to  this  form  of  Clu*istian  life,  and  which  was 
then  still  more  promoted  by  it.   In  respect  to  the  first  of  these 
causes,  the  same  thing  happened  here  which  so  frequently 
occurs  in  connection  with  phenomena  entering  deeply  into  the 
life  of  a  period,  that  numbers,  without  any  special  inner  call, 
were  hurried  into  the  current  by  the  general  enthusiasm  or  the 
love  of  imitation ;  or,  by  some  momentary  shock  which  served 
to  deceive  them  as  to  their  own  character,  were  impelled  to 
withdraw  from  the  world,  without  being  in  the  least  degree 
fitted  for  the  tranquil  uniform  life  of  Monachism.     Others 

*  See  Cassian.  iostitut.  coenob.  1.  X.  c.  22.  Hist.  Lans.  c  76.  In  this 
last  place,  it  is  also  narrated,  that  a  certain  abbot  and  presbyter,  named 
Serapion,  under  whose  direction  stood  many  cloisters  and  ten  thoosand 
monks,  obtained  and  could  distribute  annually  at  the  harvest,  in  the 
Nomos  of  Arsenoe  in  Egrpt,  such  a  quantity  of  grain,  that  not  only  no 
poor  person  in  the  whole  country  suffered  want,  but  he  found  it  in  his 
power  also  to  support  the  poor  in  Alexandria. 

f  Hist.  Laus.  c.  vi. 


TH£  CENOBITES.  359 

this  mode  of  life  on  account  of  the  imposing  show  of 
MinesB  with  which  it  was  invested,  induced  by  the  opportu- 
litjj  which  it  promised  them,  of  indolently  gratifying  their 
denres  and  passions  under  the  mask  of  religion.  People  of 
the  lower  classes  renounced  no  earthly  enjoyment  by  entering 
qion  the  monastic  life,  but,  under  the  appearance  of  renoun- 
eing^  the  world,  secured  earthly  goods,  on  which  they  never 
could  have  reckoned.*  What  must  have  been  the  result,  when 
mde  people  of  the  lowest  class  set  themselves  up  all  at  once  as 
leaders  of  monkish  societies  ?  Yet  Nilus  complains,  that  a 
man  who  was  but  yesterday  a  water-carrier  at  an  inn,  might 
to-day  make  himself  pass  as  an  abbot ;  and  Isidore  of  Pelu- 
lium  that  shepherds  and  runaway  slaves  founded  cloisters,t— - 
for  all  which,  indeed,  the  bishops  were  answerable,  since  it 
showed  a  want  of  oversight  over  the  whole  diocese  of  the 
church ;  unless  the  truth  was,  that  the  swarms  of  monks  had 
now  become  too  powerful  even  for  the  bishops.  Uneducated 
men,  of  rude  and  savage  character,];  who  brought  their  restless 
Bpiait  with  them  into  the  seats  of  quiet,  were  eager  to  seize  on 
every  occasion  which  gave  employment  to  their  passions. 
Hence  the  troops  of  wild  zealots,  who  raved  against  pagans 
and  heretics,  demolished  and  plundered  temples ;  who  often 
took  so  mischievous  a  part  in  doctrinal  controversies;  who 
were  eager  to  be  employed  as  tools  of  fanaticism,  and  of  the 
ambition  of  those  who  stood  leaders  of  the  church  party.  Add 
to  this,  that  to  such  men,  who  constantly  moved  in  one  narrow 
circle  of  intuitions  and  feelings,  and  who  were  in  no  sense  in 
&  condition  to  step  beyond  this  narrow  range,  that  to  such, 
every  deviation  from  their  own  accustomed  modes  of  thought 
and  expression  easily  appeared  as  a  departure  from  the  essen- 
tials of  Christianity  itself.  It  was  persons  of  this  class  who 
led  the  heathens,  men  like  Libanius  and  Rutilius,§  to  draw 
up  such  unfavourable  pictures  of  the  monastic  institution, 
about  which  they  formed  their  judgment  from  such  spurious 

*  NiL  .Tractat  ad  Magnam,  page  297.     oM  xaretXtvevrts  rt  »m*  i 

t  Nilus  de  monastica  exercitat  c.  22.    Isidor.  Pelus.  L  I.  ep.  262. 
X  As  Indenis  of  Pelusiom  writes :  ^ri^n  »mi  ^mXayytt  au  fMm^^Sv, 

I  See  his  poetical  description  of  his  travels. 


360  MONASTIGISM. 

off-shoots.  Disting^hed,  on  the  other  hand,  for  moderation 
and  love  of  truth,  is  the  judgment  which  Synesius,  while  yet 
a  pagan,  pronounces  on  Monachism,  when  he  says :  "  Soch 
men  as  Amus  of  Egypt,  with  whom  intellectual  intuition  sup- 
plied the  place  of  scientific  culture,  might  be  allowed  ta 
discourse  of  divine  things,  ¥athout  scientific  preparation;  but 
the  case  was  different  with  the  great  crowd  of  those  who 
wished  to  pass  judgment  on  spiritual  matters  without  the 
spiritual  sense,  especially  with  such  as  had  not  been  led  ta 
adopt  this  mode  of  life  by  any  original  inclination  of  nature, 
but,  sprung  from  different  classes  of  society,  had  seized  upon 
it  merely  on  account  of  the  peculiar  consideration  in  which  it 
was  held, — ^people  whom  their  necessities  alone  had  brought 
together.* 

Out  of  Monachism  sprang  the  most  heterogeneous  tenden- 
cies of  the  religious  spirit.     It  was  the  case  with  many,  that 
the  incessant  struggles  with  their  own  nature,  and  the  large 
and  various  inward  experience  thus  acquired,  opened  to  them 
a  profound  knowledge  of  themselves,  as  well  as  of  the  remedy 
wliich  alone  can  secure  to  man  the  healing  of  his  moral  evil, 
and  gave  him  inward  peace  and  repose.    They  became  satisfied 
from  their  own  experience,  of  the  vanity  of  the  righteousness 
which  is  founded  on  works  ;  while,  in  reliance  on  the  grace  of 
redemption,  in  child-like  submission  to  God,  they  found  a 
spring  of  comfort,  of  peace  and  power,  which  they  could  never 
have  found  in  all  the  discipline  of  asceticism.    Thus  there  oc- 
casionally sprung  up  out  of  Monachism,  a  warm  and  living 
Christianity,   having  its  seat  in  the  heart,  and  exerting  its 
influence  there; — a  Christianity  directly  opposed  to  the  opus 
operatum  of  asceticism.     We  see  this  in  the  example  of  Chry- 
sostom,  who  was  trained  up  under  the  influence  of  the  monastic 
life ;  in  that  of  Nilus,  who,  in  his  letters,  on  trusting  in  works 
which  cannot  stand,  often  points  away  from  this,  to  trust  in 
the  Redeemer  alone  ;t  and  in  the  example  of  their  contempo- 

*  Synesii  Dion.     Ovs  w^c  ^  ^pt^Tti  (pwtf   iv)  rovh  rov  j3/dy  i^tipfittmf' 

re  ovTts  va  yivti  xeti  »etr»  %f f/«y  iKOvrat  ^oinrrafAUOt. 

t  For  iustance,  in  his  beautiful  exposition  of  Bom.  ii.  15,  1.  III.  ep. 
284.  **  We  shall  be  our  own  accusers  in  the  day  of  judgment,  if  our 
own  conscience  condemns  us.  What  other  defence  or  help  shall  we  then 
find,  in  that  state  of  anxiety,  besides  reliance  on  our  most  compassionate 
Lord  Christ  alone?    Like  a  bene-voUiitt  i^oe-bringing,  friendly  angel, 


THE  CEKOBITES.  861 

Jsry,  Marcus.*  Nor  were  cUl  those  who  exercised  themselves 
in  subduing  the  power  of  sense  by  the  severest  abstinence, 
therefore  governed  by  the  delusive  notion  that  the  essence  of 
Christian  perfection  consisted  in  such  works  of  renunciation 
and  mortification  of  self,  and  that  it  was  possible,  in  this  way, 
to  obtain  especial  merit  in  the  sight  of  God.  The  monk  Mar- 
cianus,  who  lived  towards  the  close  of  the  fourth  century,  in  a 
desert  of  Syria,  and  was  famed  for  the  rigid  austerity  of  his 
life,  furnishes  a  remarkable  example  to  the  contrary.  At- 
tracted by  his  universal  renown,  Avitus,  an  aged  monk,  came 
from  another  desert  to  visit  him.  Mercian,  out  of  his  scanty 
means,  had  provided  himself  with  the  best  meal  which  could 
be  procured.  Having  conversed  awhile  with  each  other,  and 
anited  in  prayer  about  the  third  hour  after  noon,  the  hermit 
served  up  his  meal  in  a  dish,  and  invited  Avitus  to  partake  of 
it  But  the  latter  declined,  saying  that  it  was  not  his  custom  to 
eat  before  evening,  and  that  he  often  fasted  two  and  even  three 
days  together.  "  Well  then,"  said  Marcian,  "  to  oblige  me, 
deviate  a  little  to-day  from  your  usual  habits ;  for  I  am  ill,  and 
cannot  wait  till  evening."  As  this  representation  of  the  case, 
however,  made  no  difference  with  his  guest,  who  was  deter- 
mined not  to  relax  in  the  least  from  his  austere  rule,  Marcian 
said :  "I  am  very  sorry  you  have  come  so  far  in  the  expecta- 
tion of  seeing  a  man  of  strict  self-control,  and  that  you  must 
)e  disappointed  of  your  hopes,  since,  insteaxi  of  that,  you  have 
bund  in  me  a  person  who  indulges  himself."  At  hearing  this 
l^vitus  was  troubled,  and  declared  he  would  prefer  rather  to 
sat  flesh,  than  allow  any  such  thing  to  be  said.  Then  said 
MIkrcian :  ^'  I  also  lead  the  same  life  as  you  do,  and  am  accus- 

he  remembranoe  of  Christ,  our  dearly  beloved  Master,  presents  itself  to 
18  in  the  midst  of  our  despondency,  and  the  deep-rooted,  unshaken  &ith  in 
lim  has  banished  trembling  and  shame,  filled  the  heart  with  joy,  and 
)roiight  back  the  wanderer  from  God  to  union  and  fellowship  with  him. 
*  See,  e.  g.  in  his  smaller  tracts,  the  section  «*!«<  rSv  cUfjAwv  t^  t^yn 
\t*auvv0atu  Bibl.  patr.  Galland.  T.  VIII.  f.  13.  He  says,  for  example : 
'  Some  suppose  they  possess  true  faith,  without  keeping  the  commandr 
nents ;  but  others,  who  keep  them,  expect  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a 
reward,  which  God  is  bound  to  bestow  on  them :  both  are  far  from  the 
kbgdom  of  heaven.  If  Christ  died  for  us  according  to  the  Scriptures^ 
ind  we  live  not  to  ourselves,  but  to  him  who  died  for  us  and  rose  again, 
ire  are  assuredly  pledged  to  serve  him,  even  tiU'  death.  How  can  we, 
then,  look  upon  our  adoption  by  God  as  a  reward  which  he  is  bound  to 
ionlbr  on  us  V* 


362  VONASTIOISM. 

tomed  to  eat  only  when  night  approaches.  But  we  know  that 
love  is  better  thm  fasting ;  for  the  former  is  a  divine  law^  while 
the  latter,  on  the  contrary,  is  a  rule  which  we  impose  on  our- 
selves of  free  choice."* 

But  on  the  other  hand,  there  also  sprang  up,  out  of  Mooa- 
chism,  the  spirit  of  self-righteousness  on  the  ground  of  worb; 
a  legal  morality  separated  from  all  connection  with  the  inward 
essence  of  the  gospel,  and  tending  especially  to  keep  back  the 
consciousness  of  the  need  of  redemption ;  the  spirit  of  a  slavish 
self-mortification,  at  war  with  the  essence  of  Christian  liberty; 
the  spirit  of  a  pharisaical,  ascetic  pride.  Many  who  felt  the 
ungodly  impulses  in  human  nature,  were  persecuted  the  more 
by  impure  thoughts,  the  more  they  gave  heed  to  them,  insteeid 
of  employing  their  minds  on  other  subjects  capable  of  tasking 
their  utmost  powers.  Many,  who  would  violently  suppress 
the  purely  human  impulses  of  their  nature,  as  if  they  were  a 
hindrance  to  the  striving  after  moral  perfection,t  and  yet  could 
not  wholly  stifle  the  voice  of  nature,  as  we  saw  above  in  the 
example  of  Anthony, — many  of  these  tormeited  themselves  in 
vain  ;  they  devised  the  strangest  expedients  for  the  crucifixion 
of  self  and  the  mortification  of  their  nature ;  yet  without  ad- 
vancing a  step  in  true  inward  holiness.  The  legal,  slavish 
spirit  of  Pharisaism ;  fear  of  malignant  fiends  and  of  the  evil 
one  ;  fear  of  the  dreadful  images  of  divine  wrath,  came  in 
place  of  the  child-like,  free,  cheerful,  God-trusting  spirit  o£ 
Christian  love.  We  are  here  presented  with  appearances 
which  remind  us  rather  of  the  spirit  of  the  self-torturing 

♦  Theodoret,  reli^os.  hist.  c.  3. 

t  Even  those  who  were  influenced  more  by  the  spirit  of  pure  Christ!-' 
anity,  yet  suflFered  themselves  to  be  so  far  misled,  by  the  false  notions  of 
the  monks  respecting  estrangement  from  the  world,  by  seeking  aftef 
likeness  to  God  in  the  renunciation  of  their  own  human  nature,  as  to  wa^ 
take  altogether,  on  this  point,  the  essential  character  of  Christianity^ 
which  would  adopt  into  itself  all  the  pure  feelings  of  humanity,  aiming 
simply  to  inspire  into  them  a  new  life,  to  sanctify  and  ennoble  them' 
Thus  Nil  us  himself  requires  of  a  mouk,  that  he  should  suppress  within 
him  all  remembrance  of  earthly  relationships,  reckoning  this  a  part  of 
the  duty  of  becoming  dead  to  the  world  ;  so  entirely  did  he  misappre* 
hend  the  nature  of  Christian  renunciation  of  the  world,  which  has  refef' 
ence  to  the  world  only  as  opposed  to  God  and  his  kingdom;  to  that 
which  is  ungodly.     In  like  manner,  he  requires  of  the  monk,  that  he 
should  show  acts  of  kindness  to  his  necessitous  relatiyes,  in  precisely  the 
same  way  as  to  the  poor  who  are  entirely  strangers.    See  Nil.  1.  III. 
ep.  2.90. 


SIMEON  THE  STYLITE.  868 

Saniahs  of  India  striving  to  unman  themselves,  than  of  the 
temper  of  child-like  love,  resignation,  and  cheerfulness,  which 
the  gospel  brings  with  it.  A  few  examples  will  illustrate 
this. 

Eusebius,  a  monk  in  Syria,  employed  another,  by  the  name 
of  Ammianus,  to  read  to  him  from  the  gospels.  But  certain 
countrymen  who  happened  to  be  ploughing  in  a  neighbouring 
field  drew  off  his  attention,  so  that  a  portion  which  he  had  not 
distinctly  understood  must  be  read  over  a  second  time.  To 
punish  himself  for  this,  he  took  a  vow  that  he  would  never  go 
in  any  other  way  or  direction  than  one  narrow  path  that  led 
to  the  church.  And,  to  compel  himself  always  to  look  to  the 
earth,  he  fastened  about  his  loins  an  iron  girdle,  riveted  to  his 
neck  a  heavy  iron  collar,  and  by  a  chain  connected  this  collar 
to  his  girdle,  thus  bringing  himself  into  such  a  bending  pos- 
ture, that  he  must  always  look  to  the  earth.  Being  asked  for 
what  useful  purpose  he  was  submitting  to  so  painful  a  con- 
straint, which  allowed  him  neither  to  look  up  to  heaven  nor 
iround  on  the  fields,  he  replied :  it  was  a  stratagem  he  was 
employing  against  Satan;  thus  confining  his  conflict  with 
Satan  to  such  trifling  matters,  where  he  had  but  little  to  lose 
nor  Satan  much  to  gain,  and  where,  if  the  latter  was  over- 
oome,  still  the  victory  would  appear  to  be  not  worth  the  con- 
test. This,  to  be  sure,  was  reducing  the  struggle  against  sin, 
uid  the  work  of  sanctification,  from  the  interior  of  the  heart  to 
%  mere  outward  play  with  mechanics!  Another,  who  had 
invented  a  refined  species  of  torture  for  the  castigation  of  him- 
self, assigned  as  a  reason  for  it,  that,  conscious  of  his  sins  and 
the  punishment  they  deserved,  he  was  seeking,  by  means  of 
these  self-inflicted  pains,  to  lessen  the  severer  punishment 
which  threataied  him  in  hell.*  Here,  in  the  obscuration  of 
the  Christian  consciousness  of  redemption,  we  find  the  germ 
of  the  whole  unevangelical  theory  respecting  penance,  as  a 
voluntary  satisfiiction  paid  to  divine  justice:  out  of  which 
grew  the  doctrine  of  indulgences,  and  many  other  superstitious 
notions. 

In  this  way  arose  the  class  called  the  Stylites,  who  spent 
whole  years  standing  on  lofty  pillars.  Thus  Simeon,  for 
example,  who  was  the  first  of  this  order,  and  lived  about  the 
b^finning  of  the  fifth  century,  finally  established  himself  on  a 

'*'  Hist  religios.  c.  28. 


864  HONAGHISlf. 

column  which  measured  six  and  thirty  ells^  <Hr  sixty  feet  from 
the  g^und.     We  have  already  spoken  of  the  impression  pro- 
duced by  this  extraordinary  spectacle,  and  of  its  effects  in 
leading  to  the  conversion  of  rude  pagan  tribes.*    Simeon  is 
said  to  have  been  the  instrument  of  much  good,  also,  by  the 
exhortations  to  repentance  which  he  gave  from  his  pillar,  and 
by  settling  disputes  and  restoring  peace  between  enemies.  To 
these  benevolent  labours  of  the  man,  Theodoret  appeals,  in 
endeavouring  to  defend  him  from  the  reproach  with  which  lie 
might,  not  without  reason,  be  charged,  for  expending  the  ener- 
gies of  his  will  upon  so  frivolous  a  thing.     Divine  grace— so 
he  supposes — had  thus  operated  through  him,  in  order  to 
arrest,  by  such  an  extraordinary  phenomenon,  the  attention  of 
men  who  were  not  to  be  instructed  except  through  their  seises, 
and  to  bring  them  by  this  means  to  the  divine  doctrine  itself. 
His  language  deserves  notice :    ^^  As  princes,  after  certain 
periods,  change  the  emblems  on  their  coins,  choosing  some- 
times the  lion,   at  others  stars  or  angels,  for  the  die,  and 
endeavouring  to  give  a  higher  value  to  the  gold  by  the 
striking  character  of  the  impression ;  so  Grod  has  made  piety 
assume  these  novel  and  varied  forms  of  life,  like  so  many  new 
characters  to  awaken  the  admiration,  not  only  of  the  disciples 
of  the  £iith,  but  also  of  the  unbelieving  world."  f     DoubUess 
he  was  right  in  supposing  that  the  spirit  of  Christian  piety, 
although  ever  one  and  the  same,  is  yet  capable  of  exhibiting 
itself  in  manifold  forms  of  life,  as  these  vary  with  the  chang- 
ing forms  of  cultui'e ;  yet  this  spirit,  nevertheless,  cannot  take 
such  forms  as  contradict,  and  threaten  to  suppress  or  to  render 
indistinct,  its  own  essential  character.    Christian  piety  needed 
not  to  be  stamped  with  a  form  so  foreign  to  its  own  nature, 
and  adapted  to  excite  the  wonder  of  rude  men,  in  order  to 
prepare  the  way  for  exerting  its  appropriate  influence.     The 
divine  power  within  it  operates  by  its  own  energy,  though  not 
always  in  so  sudden  and  surprising  a  manner,  yet  the  more 
deeply  and  thoroughly,  just  because  it  operates,  not  on  the 
senses  and  the  imagination,  but  on  that  which  affines  to  God 
in  human  nature.     Had  Simeon  planted  himself  down  among 
those  rude  men,  and  laboured  among  them,  by  preaching  the 
gospel  in  words  and  works,  by  a  life  animated  by  the  spirit  of 
self-sacrificing  love,  he  would  not  perhaps  have  so  speedily 
♦  See  p.  167.  t  Hist,  religios.  c  25,  T.  III.  pag.  1274. 


SIMEON  THE  STYUTE.  365 

oduced  thousands  to  submit  to  baptism ;  but,  what  is  far 
acre,  he  would  have  gradually  introduced  the  power  of  the 
pospel  into  their  hearts,  and,  bj  its  means,  brought  about  ji 
lew  creation.  On  the  other  hand,  after  so  sudden  an  impres- 
ion,  which  was  in  all  respects  agreeable  to  the  taste  of  the 
tatural  man,  who  looks  after  the  godlike  in  outward  appear- 
nces,  men  were  easily  led  to  form  their  conception  of  Chris- 
ianity  accordingly,  as  a  religion  designed  to  communicate  to 
heir  previous  modes  of  feeling  and  thinking — as  we  so  often 
ind  it  in  the  case  of  conversions  produced  after  this  manner — 
L  different  form,  much  rather  than  a  different  spirit.  The 
latural  man,  under  which  scriptural  name  we  include  alike 
lie  rude  and  the  wrongly  educated,  is,  beyond  question,  more 
sasily  impressed  by  that  which  strikes  the  eye  as  something 
niperhuman,  than  by  the  appearance  of  the  truly  godlike, 
nfhich  lies  concealed  under  the  cover  of  the  purely  human 
form ;  but  that  impression,  too,  will  be  far  more  likely  to  lead 
men  to  deify  that  which  has  produced  such  an  effect  on  the 
senses,  than  to  worship  Him  who  alone  is  to  be  worshipped. 
And  of  this  we  have  an  example  in  the  present  case ;  for  the 
images  of  this  Simeon  were  regarded  with  a  sort  of  super- 
stitious veneration,  and  the  figure  of  him,  as  Theodoret 
informs  us,  presented  under  the  form  of  a  protecting  spirit, 
was  set  up,  as  a  species  of  amulet,  at  the  entrance  of  the 
shops  in  Eome. 

Many  a  person  might,  doubtless,  be  prompted  by  ambition 
to  subdue  and  bring  under  his  sensuous  nature,  even  to  as 
great  an  extent  as  this  Simeon  did,  and  still  be  very  £ir  firom 
presenting  the  vastly  more  difficult  offering  of  inward  self- 
denial,  which  was  not  to  be  done  by  such  artificial  modes 
of  discipline.*     That  truly  devout  and  pious  monk,  Nilus, 

'*'  The  story  perhaps  may  be  true,  although  there  was  nothing  super- 
natural in  it,  but  only  "what  may  be  very  naturally  explained,  that 
ffimeon  had  a  vision,  which  at  first  he  was  tempted  to  consider  as  real, — 
a  vision  nvhich  presented  before  the  much-admired  man  the  reflected  effer- 
vescence of  his  own  spiritual  pride,  and  which  he  subsequentlv  recog- 
nised as  an  outward  temptation  of  the  devil,  but  which  he  might  in  M 
more  salutary  way  have  recognized  as  a  temptation  arising  out  of  inward 
corruption.  He  once  imagined  he  saw  an  angel  appear  berore  him  with  fl 
chariot  of  fire,  who  wanted  to  transport  him  to  heaven  like  Elijah,  becaoM 
the  angels  and  blessed  spirits  were  longing  after  him  ;  and  he  was  alreadj 
on  the  point  of  moimting  into  the  chariot  with  his  right  foot,  which  ^^ 


366  MONAcmsM. 

rightly  directs  ttie  attention  of  one  of  these  Stylites  to  the  very 
point  where  he  feiiled,  to  the  radical  evil  within,  which,  in  thui 
j^artial  victory  itself  over  the  flesh,  foond  such  means  of 
nourishment.  ^^  Whoever  exalts  himself,"  he  writes  to  him, 
<<  shall  be  abased.  You  have  done  nothing  worthy  of  praise, 
in  having  stationed  yourself  on  a  lofty  pillar ;  Bjad  yet  you 
wish  to  obtain  the  greatest  praise.  But  look  to  it,  lest  for  tbe 
moment  you  be  extravagantly  praised  here  by  mortals,  bat  be 
obliged  hereafter,  contrary  to  your  hopes,  to  appear  wretched 
before  the  eternal  Grod ;  because  you  were  intoxicated  here  by 
the  undeserved  praise  of  men."  * 

There  were,  in  &ct,  monks  who  carried  dehumanization  to 
such  an  extreme,  as  to  divest  themselves  of  every  attribute 
which  gives  dignity  to  humanity,  and  to  become  mere  brutes. 
As  if  without  consciousness,  and  as  if  deprived  of  their  senses 
in  broad  day,  they  wandered  about,  like  wild  animals,  in 
deserts  and  on  mountains,  supporting  their  wretched  existence 
on  the  herbs  with  which  nature  supplied  them.f 

While  Monachism  must  be  regarded  as  an  institution  which 
properly  originated  in  the  Eastern  church,  and  which  cor- 
responded particularly  to  the  climate,  no  less  than  to  the 
spirit  of  the  East ;  it  was,  on  the  other  hand,  an  institution 
which  found  little  to  favour  it  in  the  ruder  and  more  variable 
climate,  and  in  the  more  active  spirit,  of  the  West.  Hence, 
too,  it  was  a  longer  time  before  this  product  of  the  East  could 
find  its  way  from  that  quarter  into  the  Western  districts ;  and, 
in  the  first  instance,  it  met  here  with  a  more  strenuous  resist* 
ance  than  in  the  East.  Athanasius  was  the  first  who,  during 
his  residence,  at  different  times  when  banished  from  the  East, 
among  the  Western  people,  introduced  among  them  a  better 
knowledge  of  the  Oriental  Monachism.     His  biographical 

therefore  sprained,  when,  as  he  made  the  sign  of  the  cross,  the  phantom 
of  Satan  vanished.  See  acta  sanctorum  mens.  Januar.  T.  I.  f.  271.  If 
this  is  not  a  true  story,  yet  the  inner  truth  at  least  reflected  itself  in  this 
legend. 

*  L.  II.  114. — ^The  same  writer  warns  one  of  these  Stylites,  1.  c  ep. 
115,  to  take  heed  lest  while  he  raised  his  body  aloft,  his  soul  should 
grovel  on  the  earth,  and  with  its  thoughts  be  fer  removed  from  heavenly 
things.  Before,  he  had  conversed  with  men,  whom  admiration  had  drawn 
around  him ;  now  he  addressed  himself  particularly  to  women. 

t  According  to  an  apt  similitude,  the  monks  that  grazed  like  animahfy 
the  ^^Mou    See  Sozomen,  Yl.  ^d. 


INFLUENCE  OP  JEROME  AND  AUGUSTIN.  367 

account  of  the  monk  Anthony,  which  was  early  translated 
into  the  Latin,  had  a  great  influence  in  this  matter.     Besides, 
respectable  biidiops  of  the  West,  who  had  been  banished  to  the 
East  during  the  Arian  controversies,  brought  back  with  them, 
on  their  return,  the  enthusiasm  for  the  monastic  life ;  as  for 
instance,  Eusebius  of  Yercelli.     Men  possessing  such  great 
influence  as  Ambrose  of  Milan,  Martin  of  Tours,  the  Pres- 
byter Jerome,  contributed  subsequently,  in  the  course  of  the 
^Mirth  century,  still  further  to  awaken  and  diffuse  this  ten- 
dency of  the  Christian  spirit  in  Italy  and  in  Graul.     Men  and 
women  of  the  highest  rank  in  Rome  were  impelled  by  the 
ascetic  spirit,  which  was  spread  by  Jerome  during  his  resi- 
dence in  that  city,  to  retire  from  the  great  world  in  which 
they  had  shone,  and  devote  themselves,  in  Palestine  or  else- 
where, to  the  monastic  life.     But  Jerome  created  for  himself, 
by  this  very  influence,  a  multitude  of  enemies  at  Home,  whose 
attacks  induced  him  to  leave  that  city;   and  we  need  not 
doubt,  that  the  extravagances  into  which  this  man  was  so 
easily  hurried  with  regard  to  everything  which  he  undertook 
to  advocate,  contributed  rather  to  injure  than  advance  the 
cause  of  Monachism  which  he  espoused.      Augustin,  who 
softened  the  exaggerations  of  Jerome,  endeavoured  to  diffuse 
Monachism  in  North  Africa.     He  opposed  it  to  the  licentious 
spirit  of  the  strolling,  wildly  fanatical  Donatist  ascetics  (the 
Gircumcelliones) ;  and,  beyond  question,  it  had  here  become 
quite  evident  that  the  ascetic  spirit,  which  had  continued  to 
prevail  in  these  districts  ever  since  the  spread  of  Montanism 
by  Tertullian,  needed  a  more  rigid  discipline  and  restraint,  to 
keep  it  from  breaking  out  in  those  sallies  of  wild  fanaticism, 
into  which  it  was  so  apt  to  be  betrayed  when  left  to  itself. 
In  the  mind  of  Augustin,  Monachism  was  associated  with  the 
ideal,  which  even  before  his  conversion  had  floated  before  a 
soul  so  smitten  with  the  craving  after  the  divine ;  and  first,  in 
a  form  which  adapted  itself  to  the  Platonism  to  which  he  was 
then  devoted.     While  living,  during  that  memorable  period 
of  his  life  in  which  the  great  crisis  with  him  was  preparing, 
in  high  intellectual  society  with  his  friends  at  Milan,  he  was 
seized  with  the  idea  of  an  association  of  like-minded  men,  who, 
united  by  one  spirit,  renouncing  the  cares  of  the  world,  and 
throwing  up  all  worldly  property,  should  live  together  in  the 
common  striving  after  the  contemplation  «i\\d  W\!kQi^\ft^<^  ^ 


868  augustin's  views. 

divine  things  (in  the  trvfjL^tXoeo^iv) ;  all  the  means  of  the 
individuals  being  thrown  into  a  common  fund,  out  of  which 
the  common  wants  should  be  supplied.  In  his  then  existing 
state  of  mind,  this  ideal,  with  which  the  passions  and  desires 
that  still  governed  him  were  in  conflict,  could  serve  no  other 
purpose  than  to  bring  him  to  the  consciousness  of  his  own 
moral  impotency.  But  when  afterwards  he  obtained  through 
the  gospel  the  power  of  bringing  his  ideal  nearer  to  a  realization, 
the  image  of  that  Platonic  association  was  supplanted  in  his 
mind  by  the  idea  of  that  primitive  apostolical  conmiunity  at 
Jerusalem,  which  he  strove  after,  and  which,  when  he  became 
acquainted  with  Monachism,  he  supposed  he  found  there  once 
more  restored.  From  this  starting  point  was  unfolded  in  his 
mind  the  idea  of  a  spiritual  seminary,  which  he  founded. 
After  this  model  he  planned,  when  he  afterwards  became 
bishop,  the  canonical  conmiunity  of  his  clergy. 

But  he  was  aware,  also,  of  the  corruptions  which  grew  out 
of  the  monastic  life,  and  sought  to  counteract  them,  and  to 
purify  Monachism  from  the  bad  influences  which  were  coa- 
nected  with  it.  To  this  end,  he  wrote  his  work  on  the  obliga- 
tion of  the  monks  to  labour  (de  opere  monachorum),  which 
he  dedicated  to  Aurelius,  bishop  of  Carthage ;  hoping,  through 
his  authority  and  influence,  to  eflect  a  change  for  the  better. 
Augustin  observes  that,  in  these  countries,  the  majority  of  the 
monks  consisted  of  persons  from  the  lower  ranks  of  society ; — 
slaves,  to  whom  their  masters  had  for  this  object  either  given, 
or  been  willing  to  give,  their  freedom,*  or  persons  who  came 
from  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  or  fix)m  the  vvorkshops.f  It 
would  be  a  grievous  sin,  in  his  opinion,  not  to  admit  such  per- 
sons ;  for  from  the  ranks  of  such  many  truly  great  men  had 
proceeded  ;  since  it  is  by  that  which  is  inconsiderable  and  vile 
in  the  estimation  of  the  world,  that  God  is  used  to  produce 
the  greatest  effects,  1  Corinth,  i.  27,  But  he  rightly  feared 
the  danger  of  idleness  and  too  great  freedom,  in  the  case  of 
men  who  had  been  accustomed  to  severe  corporeal  labour  and 
to  rigid  restraint.     Many  were  there,  who  would  be  right  well 

*  See  above. 

t  Nunc  autem  veniunt  plerumque  ad  banc  professionem  et  ex  con- 
ditione  servili,  vel  etiam  liberti,  vel  propter  hoc  a  dominis  liberati  sive 
liberandi,  et  ex  vita  rusticana  et  ex  opificum  exercitatione  et  plebeio 
lahore. 


GASSIANUS.  369 

disposed  to  exchange  a  needy,  sorrowful,  and  laborious  life,  for 
one  free  from  all  care,  exempt  from  labour,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  looked  up  to  with  universal  respect.  They  who  dis- 
carded the  obligation  to  manual  labour,  ventured,  in  defending 
their  principles,  to  pervert  many  passages  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. When  that  precept  of  the  apostle  Paul,  in  2  Thessal. 
iii.  12,  was  objected  to  them,  they  appealed,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  those  misconceived  passages  in  the  sermon  on  the  mount,  in 
which  all  care  for  the  wants  of  the  morrow,  hence  all  labour 
to  acquire  the  means  of  sustenance  for  the  morrow,  were  for- 
bidden. Christian  perfection  was  made  to  consist  in  thb, — 
that  men  should  expect,  without  labouring  for  their  support, 
to  be  provided  for  by  the  hand  of  God,  like  the  fowls  of  the 
air.  This  precept  of  Christ,  they  contended,  Paul  could  not 
mean  to  contradict;  the  labouring,  accordingly,  as  well  as 
the  eating,  in  those  words  of  Paul,  must  be  understood,  not 
in  the  literal,  but  in  a  spiritual  sense — as  referring  to  the 
obligation  of  communicating  the  nourishment  of  the  divine 
word,  which  men  had  themselves  received,  to  others  also  — 
an  example  of  the  perversion  of  scripture,  worthy  to  be 
noticed. 

Augustin,  in  this  work,  also  describes  the  mischievous  con- 
sequences which  had  arisen  from  the  abuse  of  their  liberty, 
and  frt>m  idle  habits  among  the  monks  in  the  West.  In  the 
monkish  garb  which  made  them  respected,  they  were  accus- 
tomed to  stroll  about  in  the  provinces  trading  in  reliques, 
which  were  something  trumped  up  for  the  occasion,  or  pre- 
tending that  they  had  parents  or  relatives  in  this  or  that  coun- 
try, whom  they  were  going  to  visit:  they  everywhere  took 
advantage  of  the  outward  impression  of  their  sanctity  to  extort 
money,  and  oftentimes  their  hypocrisy  was  exposed  by  the 
vices  in  the  indulgence  of  which  they  were  surprised.* 

In  the  early  times  of  the  fifth  century,  John  Cassianus,  who 
became  president  of  a  cloister  in  Massillia  (Marseilles),  intro- 
duced the  monastic  institutions  of  the  East  into  the  South  of 
France,  where  he  made  them  known  by  his  works  on  tlie  rules 
of  the  cloisters  (institutiones  coenobiales),  and  his  sketches  of 
the  spiritual  conversations  of  the  Oriental  monks.f  The  clois- 
ters of  Southern  France  became  the  seats  of  a  practical  Chris- 
tian spirit,  which,  amid  the  distractions  and  devastations  which 
'*'  S.36.  t  Collationes. 

VOL.  III.  ^1^ 


370  MONACHISM. 

came  over  this  country  during  the  marauding  incursions  of 
barbarous  tribes,  proved  a  great  blessing  to  the  people ;  as  for 
instance,  the  cloister  on  the  island  of  Lerina  (Lerins),  in  Pro* 
vence  in  particular.  These  cloisters  became  also  spiritual  semi- 
naries, M^hich  sent  forth  the  bishops  most  distinguished  for  their 
self-sacrificing  and  pious  labours ;  such  as  Faustus  of  Biez 
(Khegium,  Rheji),  and  Caesarius  of  Aries.  Yet  Monachism 
would  perhaps  have  been  unable  to  withstand  the  destructiTe 
influences  which,  in  this  and  the  next  following  times,  were 
spreading  &r  and  wide,  and  the  irregularities  prevailing  in 
the  spiritual  order  would  have  become  more  widdy  diffused  in 
Monachism,  which  had  a  still  laser  constitution,  had  not  a 
remarkable  man  introduced  into  the  monastic  life  a  more  set- 
tled order  and  a  more  rigid  discipline,  and  given  it  that  shaplnf^ 
and  direction  by  which  it  became  so  influential  an  instrument, 
particularly  for  the  conversion  and  the  culture  of  rude  nations 
oy  Christianity.  This  remarkable  man  was  Benedict.  And 
since  he  contributed  so  much,  by  the  spirit  and  form  which  he 
gave  Monachism,  to  the  Christian  education  of  the  westan 
nations,  we  must  endeavour  to  become  better  acquainted  with 
the  history  of  the  foimation  of  his  character,  and  with  the 
work  which  proceeded  from  him,  in  its  earliest  development. 

It  is  to  be  lamented,  however,  that  we  possess  so  little  that 
is  trustworthy  and  precise  relative  to  the  education,  the  life, 
and  labours  of  this  individual ;  the  oldest  source  of  information 
— namely,  the  narrative  of  the  Roman  bishop,  Gregory  the 
Great,  though  derived,  according  to  his  account,  from  dis- 
ciples of  Benedict — ^being  so  distorted  by  exaggerations,  and 
the  effort  to  give  the  whole  story  a  miraculous  air,  that  the 
facts  at  bottom  do  not,  in  many  cases,  admit  of  being  any 
longer  ascertained ;  and  in  the  general  type  of  the  wonder- 
working saint,  as  seized  and  delineated  in  the  colours  of  that 
age,  it  is  the  less  possible  to  find  out  what  in  fact  were  the 
peculiar  characteristics  of  the  man. 

Benedict,  born  a.d.  480,  sprang  from  a  respectable  family 
in  the  Italian  province  of  Nursia.  His  parents  sent  him  to 
Rome,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a  literary  education  ;  but 
well  might  the  ingenuous  disposition  of  the  young  man  be 
only  shocked  at  the  dissolute  morals  by  which,  at  that  time, 
he  must  have  found  himself  surrounded  at  Rome.  He  had 
probably  heard  and  read  aboMt  the  Uves  of  the  Anachorets  of 


B1BKEDICT.       •  871 

st ;  and  these  holy  examples  possessed  so  much  the  more 
ion  for  him,  as  they  were  contrasted  with  the  impure 
tions  of  character  which  he  saw  everywhere  around  him. 
iged  for  solitude,  and  left  Rome,  accompanied,  for  the 
renty-four  miles  from  that  city,  by  the  nurse  whom  his 
8  had  sent  with  him  as  an  attendant  to  Bome,  and  who, 
ifiection,  was  unwilling  to  leave  him.  But  Benedict, 
ing  his  ascetic  bent,  deserted  her  also ;  and,  proceeding 
miles  further,  finally  came  to  a  deserted  country  lying 
ike,  which  hence  bore  the  name  of  Sublacus  (Subiaco). 
he  fell  in  with  a  monk,  named  Romanus,  to  whom  he 
known  his  purpose.  Struck  with  admiration  at  the 
ag  zeal  of  the  young  man,  Romanus  promised  him  his 
nee  and  protection.  To  this  person  alone  Benedict  dis* 
d  the  g^tto  in  which  he  had  taken  up  his  residence, 
loister  of  Romanus  was  near  by,  and  he  could  therefore 
le  the  young  hermit,  who  was  here  destitute  of  all 
of  subsistence,  with  bread,  by  sparing  what  he  brought 
rem  his  own  daily  allowance.  A  steep  rock  lying  be- 
the  cloister  and  the  grotto  of  Benedict,  he  had  agreed 
he  latter,  that  he  should  let  down  the  bread  from  the  top 
5  rock,  by  means  of  a  long  rope.  To  the  rope  was 
ed  a  bell,  by  the  sound  of  which  Benedict  might  be 
ed  to  the  spot  where  the  rope  was  let  down. 
er  having  spent  three  years  in  this  grotto,  he  was  dis^ 
sd  by  some  shepherds  who  were  pasturing  their  flocks 
I  region ;  and  the  story  soon  spread  abroad  about  the 
b  who  had  here  been  found.  He  was  shortly  held  in 
veneration  through  the  whole  country  around,  and  num- 
agerly  pressed  forward  to  supply  him  with  the  means  of 
rt.  His  £une  became  at  once  so  great,  that,  the  place  of 
having  &llen  vacant  in  a  neighbouring  convent,  the 
\  conferred  the  office  on  him.  He  told  them,  it  is  true^ 
ihand,  that  he  would  not  be  able  to  endure  their  savage 
;rs.  Yet  he  suffered  himself  to  be  over-persuaded.  The 
erate  monks,  displeased  with  his  severity,  Sought  to  take 
e :  he  told  them  they  might  choose  themselves  an  abbot 
luited  their  own  disposition,  and  retired  again  to  his 
r  solitude.  But  he  continually  became  an  object  of 
Bfeneral  attention,  both  on  account  of  his  contests  with 
Id  monks,  and  on  account  of  his  deliverance  froixL  iVNft 


372  HONACHISH. 

dangers  which  threatened  him,  which  tradition  afterwards 
magnified  into  a  miracle.  The  disturbance  of  all  easting^ 
eai^ly  relations,  which  followed  as  one  of  the  consequences 
resulting  from  the  migration  of  the  nations,  would  at  that 
period  impel  men  to  seek  the  more,  and  cling  firmly  to  that 
which  was  independent  of  and  superior  to  all  earthly  vicissi- 
tudes, and  could  secure  them  peace  and  shelter  amid  the 
storms  of  the  world.  Hence  multitudes  thronged  to  him,  for 
the  purpose  of  training  themselves  under  his  guidance  to  the 
way  of  life  which  proimsed  such  a  refuge,  which  taught  meo 
how  to  adopt  from  choice  and  to  love  these  deprivations,  to 
which  many  were  driven  by  the  necessity  of  the  times.  Men 
of  consideration  at  Rome  placed  their  sons  with  him,  that  he 
might  educate  and  train  them  for  the  spiritual  life.  He  was 
enabled  to  fournd  twelve  cloisters ;  and  to  each  he  distributed 
twelve  monks  under  a  superior.  Some  he  retained  under  his 
own  guidance.  Even  Goths  of  the  lower  ranks  came  to  him :  he 
employed  them  in  such  labours  as  were  adapted  to  their  phy- 
sical powers  and  stage  of  culture,  as  agriculture,  and  the  re- 
moval of  the  wild  vegetable  growth  where  gardens  were  to  be 
planted.* 

To  get  rid  of  the  disputes  with  Florentius,  a  neighbouring 
priest,  Benedict  left  this  district  also,  after  he  had  distributed 
his  monks  into  different  cloisters  under  suitable  superiors.  He 
himself,  accompanied  by  a  few  of  his  followers,  retired  to  the 
ruins  of  an  ancient  castle,  which  lay  on  a  high  mountain, 
called  Castrum  Cassinum,  where  he  laid  the  foimdation  of  one 
of  the  most  famous  of  monastic  establishments,  out  of  which 
sprang  afterwards  the  rich  abbey  of  Monte  Cassino.  Amid  the 
revolutions  of  these  times.  Paganism  had  still  been  able  to 
maintain  [itself  here  among  the  country  people,  or  to  spring 
up  and  extend  itself  anew.  He  found  standing  here  a  grove 
and  temple  dedicated  to  Apollo,  in  which  the  peasants  made 
their  offerings.  He  conducted  the  people,  by  his  preaching,  to 
the  faith  of  the  gospel,  and  induced  them  to  cut  down  the 
grove  and  demolish  the  temple.  In  place  of  the  latter,  he 
erected  a  chapel,  consecrated  to  St.  Martin.  Even  Totila, 
the  king  of  the  Ostro-Goths,  evinced  his  respect  for  Benedict ; 
and  the  latter  spoke  to  him  with  freedom.  The  labours  of 
this  man  were  a  foretype  of  the  labours  of  his  successors,  who, 

*  Vitx  Beaedicti,  c.  vi. 


BENEDICT.  873 

himself,  were  occupied  mainly  in  preaching  the  faith^  de- 
ling Pi^;anism,  educating  the  youth,  and  cultivating  the 
,  and  by  these  means  were  enabled  to  accomplish  so  much, 
the  monastic  rules  of  which  he  was  the  author,  are  par^ 
larly  worthy  of  notice,  as  an  enduring  monument  of  his 
spirit,  and  of  the  new  shaping  which,  through  his  instru- 
tality,  was  given  to  the  Monachism  of  the  West, 
enedict  aimed  to  counteract  the  licentious  life  of  the  irre- 
ir  monks,  who  roamed  about  the  country,  and  spread  a 
upting  influence  both  on  manners  and  on  religion,  by 
introduction  of  a  severer  discipline  and  spirit  of  order, 
abbot  should  appear  to  the  monks  as  the  representative 
hrist ;  to  his  will,  every  other  will  should  be  subjected ; 
vere  to  follow  his  direction  and  guidance  unconditionally, 
with  entire  resignation.  No  one  was  received  into  the 
iber  of  the  monks  until  after  a  year's  noviciate,  during 
;h  he  had  often  been  reminded  of  the  strict  obligations  of 
monastic  rule,  and  had  withstood  many  trials.  Then  he 
obliged  to  place  himself  under  a  solemn  vow,  which  more- 
-  was  recorded  by  himself  in  writing,  that  he  would  remain 
tantly  in  the  cloister,*  live  in  all  respects  according  to 
rules,  and  obey  the  abbot.  But  the  rules  admonished  the 
)t  to  temper  the  severity  necessary  for  discipline  by  the 
t  of  love.  He  was  to  let  mercy  prevail  over  rigid  justice, 
he  might  himself  find  mercy.  He  should  love  the  bre- 
n,  while  he  hated  their  faults.  Where  he  was  obliged  to 
^h,  he  should  do  it  with  prudence,  and  beware  of  going 
icess.  His  own  fallibility  should  be  ever  present  to  his 
1,  and  he  should  remember  that  the  bruised  reed  ought  not 
e  broken.  Not  that  he  should  give  countenance  and  en- 
ttgement  to  vice,  but  that  he  should  endeavour  to  extir- 
it  with  prudence  and  love,  just  as  he  should  see  it  would 
edutary  for  each  individual ;  and  he  should  strive  rather 
3  loved  than  to  be  feared.  He  should  not  be  restless  and 
-anxious.  In  no  affair  whatever  should  he  be  inclined  to 
emes  and  obstinate.  He  should  not  be  jealous,  nor  too 
icious ;  since  otherwise  he  never  could  find  peace.  In 
commands,  even  where  they  related  to  worldly  employ- 
ts  and  labours,  he  should  proceed  with  foresight  and  re- 
ion.  He  should  discriminate  and  moderate  the  labours 
^  The  Yotom  stabilitatis,  as  opposed  to  the  Gyrova^ 


874  MONAcmsif. 

which  he  imposed  on  each  hidividual.     He  should  take  for 
his  pattern  the  example  of  prudence  presented  in  the  words  ol 
the  patriarch  Jacob,  Gen.  xxxiii.  13,  "  If  men  should  over- 
drive them  one  day,  all  the  flock  will  die.*'   With  that  discre- 
tion which  is  the  mother  of  the  virtues,  he  should  so  order  all 
thin^  as  to  give  full  employment  to  the  enterprise  of  tke 
strong,  without  discouraging  the  weak.     True,  humility  ww 
too  much  confounded  with  slavish  fear,  and  too  much  import- 
ance was  attached  to  the  outward  demeanour.      The  monk 
was  to  let  his  humility  be  seen  in  the  postures  of  lus  body; 
his  head  should  be  constantly  bowed  down  with  his  eyes  directed 
to  the  earth,  and  he  should  hourly  accuse  himself  for  fail 
sins ;  he  should  ever  be  in  the  same  state  of  mind  as  if  he 
were  momently  to  appear  before  the  dread  judgment-seat 
of  God.     But  all  this,  however,  Benedict  represented  to  be 
only  a  means  of  culture,  whereby  the  monks  were  to  attain 
to  the  highest  end  of  love,  that  makes  men  free ;  respecting 
the  nature  of  which,  he  thus  beautifully  expresses  himself: 
'^  When  the  monk  has  passed  through  all  these  stages  of  fas^ 
mility,  he  will  soon  attain  to  that  love  of  God,  which  being 
perfect,  casteth  out  fear,  and  through  which  he  will  begin  to 
practise  naturally  and  from  custom,  without  anxiety  or  pains, 
all  those  rules  which  he  before  observed  not  without  fear. 
He  will  no  longer  act  from  any  fear  of  hell,  but  from  love  to 
Christ,  from  the  energy  of  right  habits,  and  joy  in  that  which 
is  good." 

Benedict  was  doubtless  aware,  that  the  ascetic  severity  of 
many  of  the  monastic  orders  in  the  East  was  unsuited  to  the 
rude  men  of  the  West,  and  also  to  the  more  unfriendly  climate. 
Hence  he  did  not  require  of  his  monks  many  of  the  mortifica- 
tions which  were  sometimes  imposed  upon  those  of  the  East, 
and  allowed  them  in  several  indulgences,  which  were  there 
sometimes  forbidden ;  as,  for  example,  the  use  of  wine  in  a 
prescribed  quantity.*  As  the  monks,  in  addition  to  their 
devotional  exercises  and  spiritual  studies,  were  also  to  be  em- 
ployed at  hard  labour  in  the  field  or  in  their  different  trades, 

't'  C.  40.    Licet  legamns.  vinum  onmino  monachorum  non  esse,  ttd 

quia  nostris  temporibus  id  monachis  persuaderi  non  potest ;  and  c  73,  he 

explains  himself  that  his  role  was  to  lead  only  ad  honestatem  momm  et 

initiam  conversationis,  not  ad  perfectionem  conversationis — that  the  btler 

^  innst  be  learned  from  the  T\)\es  kH  xYie  ffttVuen. 


BENEDICT.  S75 

nd  in  some  seasons  of  the  year,  particularly  seed-time  and 
urvest,  mip^ht  be  exposed  to  severe  toil,  the  prudent  Bene- 
iet^  was  careful  not  to  prescribe  any  pa^icular  measure  of 
lod  or  drink,  which  was  never  to  be  exceeded.  The  abbot  was 
t  liberty  to  deviate  from  the  general  rule,  according  to  the 
ibours  which  devolved  on  the  monks,  and  according  to  the 
BBSon  of  the  year.  In  like  manner,  it  was  strictly  enjoined 
n  the  abbot,  that  he  should  have  respect  to  the  necessities  of 
lie  sick  and  the  feeble,  of  old  men  and  of  children,  in  the 
egolation  of  their  diet,  and  of  their  occupations.  He  doubt- 
Bss  foresaw  that  the  monks  might  settle  down  in  rough  and 
ftvage  countries,  as  they  afterwards  often  did,  where  they 
roold  not  find  even  that  measure  of  food  and  drink  which  he 
ad  allowed  them.  Reckoning  on  this,  he  exhorted  them  to 
idimission :  even  then  they  should  praise  God  and  not  mur- 
mr.f  Worthy  of  notice,  too,  is  the  pains  he  took  to  avoid 
U's^»pearance  of  the  love  of  gain ;  laying  it  down  as  a  rule, 
\utt  the  monks  should  always  sell  the  products  of  their  indus- 
ry  at  a  somewhat  lower  price  than  was  given  for  other  worldly 
^rics,  so  that  in  all  things  God  might  be  praised4 
The  same  circumstances  of  the  times  by  which  so  many 
Fere  induceid  to  apply  to  Benedict  for  the  purpose  of  being 
)rmed  and  disciplined  under  his  guidance  for  the  spiritual 
fe,  tended  also  to  promote  the  enthusiasm  for  the  monastic 
fe  which  proceeded  from  Benedict*s  disciples,  and  to  further 
le  rapid  spread  of  this  form  of  it  by  means  of  his  disciples, 
ich  as  Flacidus  and  Maurus,  in  Sicily  and  in  Gaul. 

3.   ITie  d^erent  Tendencies  of  the  Reliffious  Spirit  in  their  relation  to  ^ 

Monastic  Ufe  and  to  Asceticism, 

We  will  now  once  more  cast  a  glance  at  the  relation  of 
fonachism  to  the  different  tendencies  of  the  religious  spirit 
1  this  period.  There  was  a  very  narrow  and  bigoted  enthu- 
asm  for  the  monastic  life,  proceeding  from  the  same  narrow 
ieetic  tendency  which  first  gave  birth  to  Monachism,  and 
Wch  was  greatly  promoted  by  it ; — a  tendency  which,  while 
iming  to  exhibit  Christian  perfection  in  the  monastic  life, 
uued  the  dignity  and  elevation  of  the  universal  Christian 

*  Who  seems  to  have  possessed  himself  the  donom  ^Bseretionis. 
t  C  40.    Benedicant  Deum  et  non  murmurent  %  C*  ^7. 


376  MONACHISIC. 

calling  to  be  misapprehended,  and  contributed  very  much  to 
lower  the  standard  of  piety  in  the  subordinate  posdtiona  of  the 
ordinary  Christian  life.  This  distinction  betwixt  Christian 
perfection  in  Monacbism,'*'  and  the  ordinary  Christianity  of 
the  world  and  of  social  life,  was  taken  advantage  of  by  many 
worldly  men,  particularly  in  large  towns,  who  excused  thdi 
want  of  Christian  earnestness  and  zeal,  and  the  many  stains 
of  their  lives,  with  the  plea  that  they  were  no  monks,  but  pe^ 
sons  living  in  the  midst  of  the  world. 

But,  along  with  the  fanatical  enthusiasm  in  favour  of  Mona- 
chism,  there  arose  also  a  blind  zeal  of  another  kind  in  c^pfpo- 
sition  to  it.  Certainly  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  many 
worthless  individuals,  who  only  abused  Monasticism  to  cover 
up  their  own  wickedness  under  the  show  of  sanctity,  and, 
under  this  deceptive  veil,  to  gratify  their  own  worldly  passions, 
mainly  contributed  to  bring  the  monastic  life  into  hatred  and 
contempt.  True,  Salvianus,  who  lived  about  the  middle  of 
the  fifth  century,  brings  as  a  proof  of  the  rude  and  trifling 
worldly  taste  which  prevailed  at  that  time  in  Carthage,  that, 
when  monks  visited  that  place  from  the  cloisters  of  Egypt  or 
Jerusalem,  they  were  recjeived  in  the  streets  with  jeers  and 
curses  ;f — and  there  may  have  been  some  ground  for  his  com- 
plaint. But  Nilus,  the  monk  and  the  zealous  friend  of  Mona- 
chism,  himself  accuses  the  worthless  monks,  who  roamed  about 
in  the  cities,  pestered  families  by  their  impudent  mendicancy, 
and,  hiding  all  wickedness  under  the  mask  of  their  seeming 
holiness,  often  robbed  their  hospitable  entertainers.  It  was 
owing  to  such  men,  that  the  once  universally  respected  mode 
of  life  had  become  an  abomination,  and  even  the  true  virtue  of 
the  monk  looked  upon  as  no  better  than  hypocrisy  ;J — ^that 
those  who  were  once  regarded  as  the  censors  of  manners,  were 
expelled  from  the  cities  as  introducers  of  corruption  ;§ — tliat 

♦  The  ^ikoffe^U,  as  it  was  commonly  denominated. 

t  Salvian.  de  gubernatione  Dei,  1.  8,  pag.  194,  ed.  Baloz.  Si  qnando 
aliquis  Dei  servus  aut  de  iEgyptiorum  ccenobiis  aut  de  sacros  Hierusalem 
locis  aut  de  Sanctis  eremi  venerandisque  secretis  ad  urbem  illam  officio 
divini  operis  accessit,  simul  ut  populoapparuit,  contumelias,  sacrilegiaet 
maledictiones  accipit. 

X  Nilus  de  monastica  exercitatione,  c.  9.  *0  in^ntafinref  (ii«s  iyiftra 
(ihkuzTos  Ku)  h  TMV  ukti^ejf  xxT*  aoi-nif  ^owruv  xn^^is  (it  should  read 
perhaps  cif»^^if)  aireirfi  nvoft.'nrrett. 


WORLDLY  OPPOSITION.  377 

looks — which  doubtless  is  an  exaggeration — ^were  objects 
iversal  ridicule.* 

it  there  were  many  who,  instead  of  detesting  this  degene- 
species  of  Monachism,  rather  took  advantage  of  the 
trous  births  in  which  this  degeneracy  was  seen,  to  bring 
disrepute  this  whole  mode  of  life ;  and  who  hated,  in 
sichism,  not  those  excesses  which  ran  in  the  direction 
from  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  but  precisely  those  quali- 
ehich  were  most  truly  and  profoundly  Christian  in  this 
i  of  life ; — who,  with  no  friendly  feelings,  felt  themselves 
&ed  and  disturbed  in  their  frivolous  pursuit  after  pleasure 
ich  Christian  seriousness  and  strictness  of  Christian  life, 
blind  zeal  of  this  party  for  their  convenient,  worldly 
stianity  flamed  out  with  the  most  violence  on  those  occa- 

when  the  view  of  the  monastic  life,  or  the  influence  of 
( monks  in  noble  families  themselves,  had  served  to  awaken 
!  a  more  earnest  and  elevated  sense  of  religion ;  when 
witnessed  in  these  cases  a  change  of  life  extending  itself 
h  was  entirely  opposed  to  their  inclinations.!  Especially 
I  young  men  of  noble  birth  were  induced  by  sudden  im- 
ions,  exciting  them  to  a  more  serious  turn  of  life,  or 
igh  the  influence  of  pious  mothers,  to  pass  over  to  the 
:s,  not  only  was  the  opposition  between  worldly-minded 
inds  and  their  Christian  wives,  on  such  occasions,  often 

strongly  expressed,  but  kinsmen  and  friends  took  a 
f  interest  in  the  matter ;  they  considered  it  a  disgrace  to 
oble  family,  that  young  men  who  might  one  day  rise  to 
lost  splendid  posts,  shoiild  betake  themselves  to  the  moun- 

and  the  deserts,  go  about  in  the  squalid  dress  of  the 
:s,  weave  baskets,  cultivate  the  soil,  water  gardens,  and 
oy  themselves  in  other  such  menial  occupations. J  The 
B  party  who  detested  Monachism,  but  with  it  also  every 

.  22.     Ua^u  ^eimtf  x^"'^?^'*'''''* 

lus,  in  the  times  of  cardinal  Richelieu  and  Louis  the  Fourteenth  in 

e,  it  was  assuredly  not  the  free  spirit  of  the  gospel,  but  the  frivolous, 

ly  temper,  the  Christianity  of  politics,  the  ceremonial  religion  of 

ism,  which  is  doubtless  reconcilable  with  them  both,  which  set  itself 

x>8e  the  effects  whidb  flowed  from  the  glowing  ascetic  zeal  of  an 

it.  CVran  and  his  followers. 

ee  Chrysostomus  adversus  oppugnatores  vitse  monastics,  1. 1,  s.  2. 

rtvs  iXtvh^»ys  tuii  tvytnTs  zai  ^vfaftivevs  Iv  r^vifif  ^^y,  lirt  rev  ^»Xn^ov 


378  MONACHISM. 

form  of  earnest  Christian  life,  was  roused  to  activity  on  soch 
occasions.  When  the  emperor  Yalens,  in  365,  promulgated 
a  law  which,  perhaps  not  without  good  grounds,  was  aimed 
against  those  who,  under  the  pretext  of  religion,  but  really 
for  the  sake  of  indulging  their  indolent  propensities  and  rid- 
ding themselves  of  the  burdens  of  the  state,  had  withdrawn 
th^iselves  into  the  monkish^  firaternities  ;*  the  partj  above- 
mentioned  availed  themselves  of  this  opportunity  to  institute 
persecutions  against  the  monks.  Chrysostom,  who  was  at 
that  time  himself  a  zealous  monk,  felt  himself  called  upon,  on 
this  occasion,  to  write  his  three  books  on  Monachism. 

But  between  these  two  extremes  there  was  a  more  moderate 
party,  which,  while  they  recognized  all  that  was  truly  of  worth 
in  Monachism,  opposed  on  evangelical  grounds  the  one-sided 
over- valuation  of  this,  and  the  under- valuation  of  every  other, 
form  of  life  which  should  equaUy  be  pervaded  with  the  Chris- 
tian spirit.  This  tendency  is  apparent  in  the  council  of  Gran- 
gra,  already  mentioned.  Here  the  ascetic  and  unmarried  life 
was  admitted  to  be,  in  itself  considered,  and  so  &r  as  it  pro- 
ceeded from  a  pious  disposition,  a  good  thing ;  but  the  married 
life  also,  and  life  in  the  ordinary  civil  and  social  relations, 
together  with  the  use  of  earthly  goods,  were  represented  as 
capable  of  being  sanctified  by  a  right  temper ;  and  sentence  of 
condemnation  was  pronounced  on  the  proud  ascetic  spirit  that 
despised  the  common  relations  of  life.  This  tendency  parti- 
cularly characterizes  Chrysostom.  Although  himself  greatly 
indebted  to  Monachism  for  the  character  of  his  inner  life ; 
although  everywhere  inclined  to  place  a  very  high  value  on 
the  victorious  power  of  the  will  over  the  sensuous  nature,  where 
it  was  enlivened  by  the  spirit  of  love ;  although  enthusiastically 
alive  to  the  ideal  of  holy  temper  and  holy  living  in  Monachism; 
yet  he  was  too  deeply  penetrated  by  the  essence  of  the  gospel) 
not  to  be  aware  that  the  latter  should  pervade  all  the  relations 
of  life.  And  his  large  experience,  gained  at  Antioch  and  at 
Constantinople,  had  led  him  to  see  how  mischievous  the  dela- 
sive  notion  that  men  could  not  strive  after  the  ideal  of  the 

*^  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XII.  Tit.  1. 1.  63.  Qaidam  ignavise  sectatoi«s  de- 
aertis  ctvitatam  maneribus  captant  solitadhies  ae  secreta,  et  specie  i^ 
^onis  com  coetibus  monazontdn  congregantar, — they  should  be  ^drawa 
forth  j&om  their  larking-places,  and  compelled  to  take  on  them  tiie 
burdens  of  the  state ;  or  they  should,  like  the  clergy,  give  up  their  pro- 
perty to  others. 


chrysostom's  views.  879 

Cliristian  life  amid  ordinary  earthly  relations,  must  be,  and 
had  actually  been,  to  practical  Christianity.  This  delusion, 
therefore,  he  sought  in  every  way  to  counteract.  After  having 
described,  in  one  of  his  discourses,  the  various  means  of  grace 
which  Christianity  furnishes,  he  supposes  the  objection  to  be 
ndsed :  ^^  Why  say  you  this  to  us,  who  are  no  monks  ?  "  And 
he  answers,  "  Do  you  put  this  question  to  me  ?  Ask  Paul, 
when  he  says,  *  Watch  with  all  perseverance  and  supplication,* 
Ephes.  vi.  18,  and  ^Put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,'  Rom. 
Kiii.  14 ;  for  surely  he  wrote  these  words,  not  for  monks  only, 
but  for  all  inhabitants  of  cities.  Except  in  relation  to  mar- 
riage, there  ought  to  be  no  distincticm  between  the  secular  and 
the  monk ;  everything  else  the  former  is  bound  to  do  equally 
with  the  latter.  And  Christ,  in  the  sermon  on  the  mount, 
confines  not  bis  benediction  to  the  monk.  Enjoy  the  marriage 
estate  with  due  moderation,  and  you  shall  be  first  in  the  kii^- 
dom  of  heaven,  and  entitled  to  all  its  blessings."*  And  in 
another  place,  where  he  is  speaking  of  the  prophetic  visions 
ai  Isaiah  if  ^^  Would  you  know  how  the  prophet  saw  Grod  ? 
Be  youreelf,  too,  a  prophet.  And  how  is  this  possible,  do  you 
ask,  since  I  have  a  wife,  and  must  provide  for  the  bringing  up 
(kf  my  children  ?  It  is  possible,  if  you  do  but  will  it ;  for  the 
prophet  also  had  a  wife,  and  was  the  father  of  two  children ; 
bat  none  of  these  things  was  a  hindrance  to  him."  In  ex- 
pounding the  first  words  of  salutation  in  the  epistle  to  the 
Ephesians,  he  lays  particular  stress  on  the  circumstance  that 
to  men  who  had  wives,  children,  and  servants,  Paul  neverthe- 
less, applies  the  appellation  of  saints.  Although  Chrysostom 
— ^which  may  easily  be  accounted  for  in  a  man  of  such  pre- 
dominant and  lively  feelings — did  not  always  express  himself 
after  the  same  manner ;  yet  wh^i  he  had  become  acquainted. 
fipom  his  own  experience,  with  the  corruption  of  the  church, 
he  oiten  declared  himself  with  great  energy  against  the  want 
ci  Christian  love  among  the  better  disposed,  who  in  solitude 
lived  only  for  their  own  improvement,  instead  of  employii^ 
ike  gifts  bestowed  on  them  for  the  good  of  otliers.  ^^  Behold 
what  pervers^iess  now  reigns,"  says  he  in  one  passage.  '^  They 
who  possess  some  of  the  joy  of  a  good  conscience  dwell  on  the 
tops  of  mountains,  and  have  torn  themselves  from  the  body  of 

♦  Horn.  VII.  Hebr.  s.  4. 

f  Homilia  in  Seraphim,  s.  1.    Mout&ofiOii^  VI.  C  1^%. 


880  MONAGHTSM. 

the  church,  as  if  it  were  inimical  and  alien  to  them ;  some- 
thing not  their  own."*     Thus,  too,  he  complains  in  his  sixlh 
homily  on  the  first  epistle  to  the  Corinth]ans,f'that  they  in 
whom  there  were  still  some  remains  of  the  old  Christian  wis- 
dom, had  forsaken  the  cities,  the  market,  and  the  intercourse 
of  life,  and,  instead  of  forming  others,  took  possession  of  the 
mountains.   ''  How  shall  we  conquer  the  enemy,"  he  exclaims, 
^^  when  some  have  no  care  for  virtue,  and  those  who  are  inter- 
ested for  it,  retreat  to  a  distance  from  the  order  of  battle?" 
And  in  another  discourse  he  very  justly  refers  to  the  parahle 
of  the  talents,  as  a  proof  that  there  can  be  nothing  truly  good, 
the  advantage  of  which  does  not  extend  also  to  others ;  and  he 
goes  on  to  say :  "  Though  you  fast,  though  you  sleep  on  the 
ground,  though  you  eat  ashes  and  mourn  perpetuiJIy,  but 
without  benefiting  any  other  individual,  you  will  not  bring 
much  to  pass.     Though  you  exercise  the  highest  perfection  of 
the  monk,  but  give  yourself  no  concern  that  others  are  going 
to  ruin,  you  cannot  maintain  a  good  conscience  in  the  sight  of 
God.J     Neither  voluntary  poverty,  nor  martyrdom,  nor  any- 
thing else  we  may  do,  can  testify  in  our  favour,  if  we  have  not 
attained  to  the  crowning  virtue  of  love."§ 

As  we  here  perceive,  Chrysostom  attacked  the  exaggerated 
opinion  of  Monachism,  by  assuming  for  his  position  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  universal  Christian  calling,  the  sense  of  the 
principle  of  holy  living,  which  he  recognized  as  belonging  in 
common  to  all  true  believers ;  but  he  was  still  too  much  influ- 
enced by  the  prevailing  views  of  his  time  to  be  able  always  to 
carry  out  and  apply  that  position  with  logical  consistency.  It 
is  apparent  here,  as  it  often  is  in  his  case,  that  on  one  side  he 
was  confined  by  the  prevailing  spirit  of  his  age ;  while,  on  the 
other,  by  his  profound  insight  into  the  essence  of  the  gospel) 
he  rose  above  it  and  was  thus  betrayed  into  self-contradiction. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  arose  in  the  Western  church,  at  Eome, 
another  man,  who  had  the  courage  and  freedom  of  spirit  to 
express  and  apply  that  fundamental  principle,  in  direct  oppo- 
sition to  the  prevailing  views  of  the  time,  and,  from  this  main 
position,  to  attack  the  whole  ascetic  way  of  estimating  moral 

♦  Horn.  VII.  Ephes.  s.  4.  f  Horn.  VI.  ep.  i.  ad  Corinth.  &  4. 

i  Epist.  i.  ad  Cormt\i.\i.  ^5. 


JOVINIAK.  381 

vorth.  This  was  the  monk  Jovinian,  who  flourished  near  the 
end  of  the  fourth  century.  It  may  appear  singular,  that  this 
reaction  against  Monachism  should  proceed  from  Monachism 
itself;  but  this  was  a  natural  reaction  springing  from  the  inner 
Christian  life,  which  in  many  was  roused  into  action  by  Mo- 
nachism— a  phenomenon  which  often  occurred.  Thus  we  saw 
ahready  the  indications  of  such  a  reaction  in  the  case  of  a  Nilus 
and  of  a  Marcus. 

Jovinian,  the  protestant  of  his  time,  went  on  the  principle, 
^'  that  there  is  but  one  divine  element  of  life,  which  all  be- 
lievers shar^  in  common ;  but  one  fellowship  with  Christ,  which 
proceeds  from  faith  in  him ;  but  one  new  birth.  All  who  pos- 
sess this  in  common  with  each  other — ^all,  therefore,  who  are 
Christians  in  the  true  sense,  not  barely  in  outward  profession — 
have  the  same  calling,  the  same  dignity,  the  same  heavenly 
blessings ;  the  diversity  of  outward  circumstances  creating  no 
difference  in  this  respect."  Accordingly,  he  supposes  an  oppo- 
dtion  altogether  universal,  admitting  of  no  intermediate  link, 
no  grade  of  difierence,  between  those  who  find  themselves  in 
this  state  of  grace  and  those  who  are  shut  out  from  it.  Hence 
he  derives  the  conclusion,  that  the  life  of  celibacy,  or  that  of 
marriage,  eating,  or  &sting,  the  using  or  forbearing  to  use 
earthly  goods,  all  this  can  make  no  difference  between  Chris- 
tians, where  the  same  one  ground  of  the  Christian  life  is  pre- 
sent. Everything  depends  on  the  inward  Christian  life,  on  the 
temper  of  the  heart,  not  on  the  outward  forms  of  life  and  on 
outward  works  by  themselves  considered,  in  which  forms  and 
works  the  temper  which  makes  the  Christian  only  reveals  itself. 
Of  course,  the  whole  theory  respecting  a  loftier,  ascetic  stage 
of  Christian  perfection,  respecting  the  difierence  between  the 
counsels  which  Christ  gave  to  those  only  who  strove  after  that 
stage  of  perfection,  and  the  ordinary  duties  incumbent  on  all 
Christians  respecting  the  merit  of  certain  outward  works,  fell 
to  the  ground.  "  Virgins,  widows,  and  married  women,"  said 
he,  ^^  who  have  been  once  baptized  into  Christ,  have  the  same 
merit,  if,  in  respect  to  works,  there  is  otherwise  no  difierence 
between  theiA.*  The  apostle  Paul  says,  *  Know  ye  not,  that 
your  body  is  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ? '  He  speaks  of  one 
temple,  not  in  the  plural  number,  to  denote  that  God  dwells 

*  Virgines,  vidnas,  et  maritatas,  quse  semel  in  Christo  lots  sunt,  si  non 
^screpant  cceteris  operibus,  ejusdem  esse  meriti. 


JOVINIAN.  383 

of  the  married  saints,  from  the  Old  Testament,  to 
imself  against  the  oommon  objection,  that  this  applied 
he  early  in&ney  of  mankind,  when  the  multiplication 
ice  was  particularly  necessary ;  and  added  such  proof 
from  the  New  Testament  as  1  Tim.  v,  14 ;  Heb.  xiii. 
>r.  vii.  39 ;  1  Tim.  ii.  14.*  He  pointed  to  the  fitct, 
il  required  of  the  bishop  and  deacon  only  that  each 
le  the  husband  of  one  wife,  that  he  accordingly  sane- 
he  marriage  of  the  clergy.  In  respect  of  &sts,  he 
m.  xiv.  20 ;  1  Tim.  iv,  3 ;  that,  according  to  the  de- 
of  Paul,  to  the  pure  all  things  are  pure ;  that  Christ 
lounced  by  the  Pharisees  a  man  gluttonous  and  a 
ber,  a  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners ;  that  he  did  not 
;he  banquet  of  Zaccheus,  and  that  he  attended  the 
-feast  at  Cana.'f  Christ  chose  the  wine  for  the  saera- 
the  supper,  the  wine  as  a  holy  symbol. J  He  says, 
lat  those  mortifications  could  not  be  possessed  of  any 
Christian  character,  since  they  were  practised  also 
fie  Pagans  in  the  worship  of  Cybele  and  of  Isis.§  But 
lave  been  an  extremely  contracted  notion  of  final  ends, 


rorthy  of  notice,  that  Jerome  (1. 1,  s.  30.  contra  Jovinian.)  cited 
book  of  Solomon's  Song  as  an  evidence  in  favour  of  marriage, 
ve  might  infer,  that  he  rejected  the  mystical  interpretati<Hi  of 
,  -which  was  then  common  ;  and  in  this  case  we  should  have 
ler  proof  of  the  more  liberal  inquiring  spirit  of  the  man.  But 
ige  which  he  employs  respecting  the  church  (Jerome,  1.  II.  s. 
ovit  canticum  Christ),  seems,  notwithstanding,  to  point  to  a  mys- 
pretation  of  Solomon's  Song.    In  the  present  case  we  can  onder- 

argumentation  of  Jovinian  only  as  follows :  The  holiest  of 
J  union  of  Christ  with  his  church,  would  not  have  been  repre- 
'e  under  such  images,  so  carried  out,  if  the  union  betwixt  the 
were  not  a  sacred  thing. 

ian's  manner  is  characteristically  presented  in  the  words :  Potto 
d  stulta  conteutione  dicitis,  eum  isse  ad  prandium  jejunaturum* 
trum  more  dixisse :  hoc  comedo,  illud  non  comedo,  nolo  vinum 
od  ex  aquis  creavi. 

10  sanguinis  sui  non  obtulit  aquam,  sed  vinum.  From  the  taci 
ord  **  typus"  is  here  employed,  it  cannot  be  directly  inferred, 
sribed  to  the  sacrament  of  the  supper  only  a  symbolical  signifi- 
r  tiiis  name  is  given  to  the  external  symbols,  as  such,  even 
irho  attached  other  notions  to  them ;  for  example  by  Cyril  of 
u 

BOD  et  sup^^tio  gentilium  castum  matris  Denm  obeervet  et 


384  HONACHISM. 

which  led  him  to  understand  the  proposition,  that  all  other 
creatures  are  made  for  the  use  of  man,  in  the  sense  that  they 
were  intended  only  to  subserve  mmCs  sensual  vmnts.  Accord- 
ingly he  reckoned  up  a  number  of  animals,  which,  if  they  were 
not  to  serve  as  food  for  man,  were  created  by  God  to  no  pur- 
pose, and  he  inferred  that  therefore  it  must  have  been  the 
Creator's  design  that  man  should  eat  flesh  ;*  a  conclusion  which 
Jerome  found  it  quite  easy  to  refute. 

Not  merely'in  reference  to  the  outward  works  of  (zsceticismi 
but  also  in  other  respects,  Jovinian  took  a  decided  stand 
against  that  false  direction  of  the  moral  spirit  of  his  age, 
which  looked  to  external  works  alone,  instead  of  looking  only 
at  the  temper  of  the  heait ;  as  was  seen,  for  example,  in  ibe 
exaggerated  opinion  entertained  of  mar^rrdom,  solely  on  the 
ground  of  the  outward  sufiering.  He  expressed  himself  as 
follows : — ^^  A  person  may  be  burnt,  strangled,  beheaded,  in  a 
time  of  persecution,  or  he  may  flee  or  die  in  the  prison.  These 
are,  indeed,  diflerent  kinds  of  conflict ;  but  there  is  only  one 
crown  of  victory." 

The  false  direction  of  morals  against  which  Jovinian  took 
his  stand,  having  its  ground  in  the  fact  that  men  did  not  ap- 
prehend the  Christian  life  on  the  side  of  its  inward  connection 
with  faith,  it  came  about  for  this  very  reason,  that  to  outward 
works  was  ascribed  a  meritoriousness  of  various  degrees ;  and 
the  fear  of  future  punishment,  the  aspiration  after  the  higher 
stages  of  blessedness,  were  employed  as  incentives  to  moral 
and  ascetic  exertions.  Jovinian,  on  the  other  hand,  went  on 
the  principle  that  the  true  Christian,  who  by  faith  lias  become 
partaker  of  a  divine  life,  is  already  certain  of  his  salvation. 
He  has  nothing  higher  to  aspire  after  than  that  which  is  already 
secured  to  him  by  faith :  he  needs  only  to  preserve  what  he 
has  received,  to  seek  to  persevere  in  the  state  of  grace  in 
which  he  has  once  been  placed ;  and  this  can  be  done  only 
in  the  progressive  life  of  holiness.  "  If  you  ask  me,"  said  he, 
"  wherefore  the  just  man  should  be  actively  exerting  himself, 
whether  in  times  of  peace  or  of  persecution,  when  there  is 
no  progress,  when  there  are  no  greater  rewards,  I  answer,  he 

*  Quis  usus  porcorum  absque  esu  camium  ?  Quid  caprese,  cervuli,  etc. 
Cur  in  domibus  gallina  discurrit  ?  Si  non  comeduntur,  hsec  omnia  frus- 
tra  a  Deo  creata  sunt 


jovmiAN.  385 

^M»  this,  not  that  he  may  deserve  something  more,  but  that 
Q  may  not  lose  what  he  has  already  received."* 

Wherever  there  is  a  living  faith,  there,  according  to  Jo- 
inian,  is  fellowship  with  the  Redeemer ;  there  is  divine  life ; 
tid  wherever  this  is,  there  it  comes  off  victorious,  by  its  own 
itrinsic  power  over  all  evil ;  there  sin  can  find  no  entrance. 
he  good  tree  can  bring  forth  only  good  fruit ;  the  evil  tree 
list  bring  forth  evil  fruit.  He  who  is  born  of  God  doth  not 
mmit  sin.  Hence  it  also  followed  that  whoever  had,  by 
generation,  received  the  divine  life,  could  not  any  longer 
re  in  that  slavish  fear  of  sin  to  which  the  monastic  asceticism 
id  linked  itself,  together  with  its  preventive  remedies  and 
imiingly  devised  tricks  for  foiling  Satan.  See  above.  In 
I^Kising  this  painful  asceticism,  Jovinian  remarked,  ^'He 
ho  is  baptized,  cannot  be  tempted  of  the  devil."  As  he  pro« 
3eded  on  the  principle  of  referring  the  inward  life  to  Christ 
I  its  source,  he  must  have  understood  here  by  baptism,  not  so 
Luch  an  outward  baptism,  operating  with  the  power  of  a 
barm,  as  the  inward  baptism,  growing  out  of  faith,  the  baptism 
f  the  Spirit.  "  In  those  who  are  tempted,"  says  he,  "it  is 
3611  that,  like  Simon  Magus,  they  have  received  only  the 
uter,  not  the  spiritual  baptism.  The  spiritual  baptism  they 
nly  have  received  who  have  been  baptized  with  the  genuine 
ddi  by  which  regeneration  is  obtained."f  The  first  of  the 
l)OTe-eited  passages  might  be  so  understood  as  if  Jovinian 
onsidered  the  state  of  the  regenerate  to  be  one  beyond  the 
each  of  all  temptations ;  in  which  view  he  might  justly  be 
tharged  with  teaching  a  practically  mischievous  error.  But 
his  assuredly  could  not  be  his  meaning;  for  otherwise  he 
ould  not  have  spoken  of  the  moral  efforts  of  the  just  man. 

*  As  we  hare  remarked  already,  that  the  views  of  Jovinian  are  not 
9  be  considered  as  wholly  insulated  from  all  other  phenomena  of  the 
fe,  \mt  as  connected  with  a  more  general  reaction  of  the  Christian 
pint  excited  by  Monachism  itself ;  iso  we  may  observe,  in  the  present 
ase,  a  remarkable  analogy  between  Jovinian's  expressions  and  those  of 
he  monk  Marcus ;  for  also  Marcus  says :  "  We  who  have  been  deemed 
rorthy  of  the  laver  of  regeneration,  offer  good  works,  not  for  the  sake 
fa  reward,  but  to  preserve  the  purity  which  has  been  imparted  to  us." 

roU^n  W0O0^i^ofitf,  aXXa  ita  <pvXaxn9  rns  ^ohtftit  fifitv  xtt^a^irnros,     Bibl. 
MKtr.  GaUand.  T.  VIII.  f.  1 4,  s.  22. 

t  Plena  fide  in  baptismate  renati. 

voi*  iJ/.  *2.  ^ 


886  HOifAcmsM. 

See  above.  And,  moreover,  he  himself  clearly  explains  hov 
he  understands  the  phrase  ^^  to  be  tempted"  in  that  propo- 
sition, when  he  says  that  soch  a  person  cannot  be  ovecoome 
by  Satan  in  temptations,  cannot  be  plwiged  into  guilt* 

Without  doubt,  however,  Jovinian  must  have  scqpposed, 
according  to  this  assertion,  that  he  who  had  been  once  really 
regenerated  could  not  again  &11  from  the  state  of  grace  ;— 
that  whenever  one  who  appeared  to  have  been  baptized,  to 
believe,  was  surprised  into  sin,  this  was  evidence  that  he  did  not 
as  yet  possess  living  faith,  had  not  as  yet  been  really  renewed. 

As  it  is  extremely  easy  for  a  man  in  combating  one  error, 
to  &11  into  another  of  an  opposite  kind,  so  it  seems  to  hare 
happened  with  Jovinian.    We  noticed  how,  in  opposition  to 
the  over-valuation  of  a  certain  species  of  outward  works,  and 
to  the  theory  of  a  certain  loftier  ascetic  Christian  perfectkn, 
he  gave  prominence  to  the  unity  c^  the  divine  life  in  aU 
believers.     Again,  Jovinian  attacked  the  arbitrary  theoi^) 
grounded  on  a  misconception  of  the  passage  in  1  John  v.  17) 
according  to  which  sins  were  classified  by  r^rence  solely  to  the 
outward  act,  into  mortal  (peccata  mortalia),  and  venial  sins 
(peecata  venialia),  a  division  by  which  the  number  of  sins 
excluding  from  eternal  life  was  often  extremely  limited.    In 
opposition  to  such  a  theory,  he  maintained  that  the  gospd 
required  and  brought  along  with  it  a  new  holy  disposition, 
with  which  every  sin,  of  whatever  kind  it  might  be,  stood 
directly  opposed ;  that  the  new  man,  the  new  Ufe  frcHU  God, 
excluded  everything  sinful ;  that  as  all  goodness  springs  oot 
of  the  same  disposition  of  love  to  God,  so,  too,  all  sin,  however 
different  it  might  be  in  outward  appearance,  proceeded  from 
the  same  fountain,  manifested  the  same  ungodly  life.     Christ 
says, — "  Whoso   eateth  my  flesh   and  dnnketh  my  Iblood, 
dwelleth  in  me,  and  I  in  him."     As  Christ  then  dwells  in  ns 
without  any  grade  of  distinction  whatever,  so  we  also  dwell 
in  Christ  without  any  degree  of  difference.     "  If  a  man  love 
me,"  saith  the  Lord,   "he  will  keep  my  words;  and  my 
Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  unto  him  and  make 
our  abode  with  him."     Whoever  is  righteous  loves,  and  who- 
ever loves,  to  him  come  the  Father  and  Son,  and  they  dwell 
in  his  tabernacle.    But  where  such  an  inhabitant  is,  there,  I 

*  Earn  a  diabolo  non  posse  subverti.    Accor^g  to  Jerome,  in  tte 
begiunlDg  of  his  first  book  against  Jovinian. 


JOVINIAN.  887 

think,  nothing  ean  be  wanting  to  the  owner  of  the  dwelling. 
The  gospel  presents  five  virgins  that  were  foolish,  and  five 
that  were  wise:  the  five  who  had  no  oil  remained  withoat; 
the  other  five,  who  had  prepared  themselves  with  the  light  of 
good  works,  entered  with  the  bridegroom  into  the  bride 
chamber.  The  righteous  were  saved  with  Noah,  the  sinners 
were  destroyed  together.  In  Sodom  and  Gromorrah,  no  other 
distinction  viras  made  account  of  than  that  between  the  right- 
eous and  the  wicked.  The  just  were  delivered,  all  the  sinners 
were  consumed  by  the  same  fire.  One  salvation  for  those  that 
were  saved,  one  destruction  for  those  that  remained  behind. 
Lot's  wife  is  a  witness  how  no  allowance  can  be  made  for 
swerving  from  righteousness,  even  in  the  least  respect.  Who- 
ever says  to  his  brother,  ^'Thou  fool,  and  Baca,"  is  in 
danger  of  heU-fire.  And  whoever  is  a  murderer,  or  an 
adulterer,  is  in  like  manner  cast  into  hell-fire.  So,  too,  he 
maintained  that  it  was  the  same  thing  whether  a  man  became 
converted  early  or  late.  The  moment  men  entered  through 
£dth  into  fellowship  with  the  Redeemer,  there  was  no  longer 
any  difference  between  them;  they  all  possessed  the  same. 
"  Between  the  brother  who  was  always  with  the  &ther,  and 
him  who  was  received  afterwards  because  he  had  repented, 
there  was  no  difference.  The  labourers  of  the  first,  the  third, 
the  sixth,  the  ninth,  and  the  eleventh  hour,  received  each 
alike  one  penny;  and  that  you  may  wonder  the  more,  the 
payment  begins  with  those  who  had  laboured  the  shortest 
time  in  the  vineyard."  But  Jovinian  did  not  here  consider 
that,  although  the  divine  life,  as  a  conunon  property  ^of  all 
who  believe,  is  one  and  the  same,  yet  different  stages  are  to  be 
found  in  its  development,  and  in  the  degree  in  which  man's 
nature  is  assimilated  and  pervaded  by  it :  that,  along  with  the 
divine  life,  the  principle  of  sin  still  continues  to  linger  in 
believers,  which  may  more  or  less  prevail,  or  be  overcome 
and  suppressed  by  the  divine  principle  of  life ;  and  that  in 
this  respect  it  is  assuredly  right  to  speak  of  a  more  or  lessj  of 
a  distinction  of  degrees,  as  well  with  regard  to  goodness  as  to 
on.*     This  error  lies  at  the  root  also  of  Jovinian's  mode  of 

*  Excellent  are  the  remarks  "which  Liicke  takes  occasion  to  introdace 
respecting  Jovinian,  in  his  beautiful  commentary  on  the  epistles  of  John, 
fi»r  which,  certainly,  many  -will  join  me  in  thanking  him.  P.  166.  "  Jo' 
vinian  stood  at  the  same  ideal  position  with  John :  and  his  ethioo-critical 


388  HONAcmsM. 

expression,  whereby  he  represents  sanctification  as  a  mere 
preserving  of  that  which  had  been  once  received,*  but  not  as 
a  progressive  development  of  it.t 

If,  then,  in  connection  with  this  doctrine,  he  maintained 
that  a  person  once  regenerated  could  not  be  drawn  into  sin, 
and  if  he  allowed  of  no  distinction  between  the  outward  mani- 
festations of  sin,  the  consequence  necessarily  follows  that  the 
regenerate  individual  might  indeed  be  tempted  to  sin,  but 
could  never  be  so  overcome  by  temptation  as  to  be  led  into 
actual  sin.  Thus  his  theory  would  unquestionably  conduct  to 
a  result  contradictory  to  the  universal  experience  of  Christians, 

efforts,  in  the  spirit  of  a  reformer,  were  aimed  especially  in  opposition  to 
the  mock  holiness,  the  externality  and  half-way  character  of  the  Chris- 
tian life  of  his  time,  to  re-assert,  in  its  full  deamess,  precnsion,  and  trath, 
the  fundamental  moral  conception  and  ideal  of  the  gospel."  I  could  only 
wish  to  say,  in  addition,  that  Jovinian,  in  opposing  the  ideal  standard  of 
Christianity  to  that  which,  having  regard  barely  to  the  manifestation,  and 
hence  overlooking  its  connection  with  the  idea,  respected  the  mere  appear- 
ance, failed  to  distinguish  sufficiently  between  the  ideal  position,  and  that 
of  the  manifestation — a  distinction  which  John  was  careful  to  obserre. 
Thus  he  was  led  in  a  certain  sense  to  confound  the  two  positions  with  each 
other. 

*  Undoubtedly  this  expression,  in  itself  considered,  may  admit  also  of 
being  understood  in  an  altogether  &ultless  sense,  so  far  as  all  pure  deve- 
lopment may  be  regarded  as  a  preserving,  securing,  and  maintaining  in 
its  purity  of  the  original  principle ;  and  so,  too,  all  progressive  sanctifica- 
tion may  be  considered  as  the  preserving  of  the  divine  life  imparted  by 
regeneration ;  as  the  preserving  of  the  state  of  innocence  into  which  man 
has  entered  through  justification.  Yet,  at  the  same  time,  it  seems  to  me 
to  follow  necessarily  from  the  whole  connection  of  ideas  to  be  found  in 
the  rest  of  Jovinian's  writings,  that  he  gave  such  undue  prominence  to  the 
notion  of  constancy,  as  was  inconsistent  with  the  notion  of  progressive 
development  in  the  Christian  life. 

t  In  the  case  above  cited,  where  Jovinian  remarks  that  there  is  no 
difference  between  virgins,  widows,  and  married  women,  provided  only 
they  do  not  differ  in  respect  to  their  other  works,  the  passage  might,  to  be 
sure,  be  so  understood  as  if  he  meant  to  assert  a  possible  difference  in  re- 
spect to  good  works,  and  accordingly  would  admit  the  existence  of  dis* 
tinctions  in  the  estimation  of  moral  character.  But  according  to  the 
connection  of  his  ideas,  as  elsewhere  exhibited,  with  which  this  assertion 
would  otherwise  clash,  we  must  conceive,  unless  we  are  willin~g  to  suppose 
him  inconsistent  with  himself,  that  he  understood  his  own  position  in  tiie 
following  sense :  provided  only  they  did  not  so  differ  in  respect  to  their 
other  works,  as  that  some  of  them  manifested  by  their  conduct  the  true 
baptism  of  the  Spirit,  while  the  others  showed  by  their  conduct  that 
they  had  not  received  any  such  baptism,  but  only  the  outward  baptism 
of  appearance. 


JOVTOIAN.  389 

"which  could  only  be  adhered  to  by  a  system  of  self-deception. 
How  far  he  was  really  involved  in  this  his  one-sided  theory, 
plainly  appears  from  the  extremely  tortuous  methods  of  ex- 
planation by  which  he  seeks  to  bring  the  passages  of  scripture, 
adduced  against  him  by  the  other  party,  into  harmony  with 
that  theory.* 

We  must  notice,  too,  by  the  way,  a  point  which  belongs 
strictly  to  the  evolution  of  the  idea  of  the  church,  but  which 
we  bring  in  here  on  account  of  the  connection  in  which  this 
point  stands  also  with  Jovinian's  whole  mode  of  thinking.  As 
he  begins  and  proceeds  in  his  entire  theory,  by  immediately 
referring  the  inner  life  of  each  individual,  through  faith,  to 
Christ,  without  presupposing  any  external  medium  of  com- 
munication ;  as,  in  his  way  of  thinking,  the  notion  of  fellow- 
ship with  Christ  had  precedence  of  the  notion  of  the  church, 
80  this  latter  notion,  too,  must,  in  his  system,  take  an  altogether 
different  position.  The  notion  of  the  invisible  church,  as  a 
community  of  believers  and  redeemed  sinners,  spiritually 
united,  was  by  him  made  far  more  prominent  than  the  notion 
of  the  visible  church,  derived  from  outward  tradition.  "  The 
church,  founded  on  hope,  faith,  and  charity,  is  exalted  above 
every  attack.  No  unripe  member  is  within  it — all  its  members 
are  taught  of  God.    No  person  can  break  within  its  enclosure 

♦  Thus  when,  in  objection  to  his  views,  the  parable  was  cited  of  a  dif- 
ferent measure  of  increase  from  the  scattered  seed,  according  to  the  differ- 
ent quality  of  the  soil  on  which  it  fell,  Matth.  xiii.,  Luke  viii.,  Mark  iv.^ 
he  maintained  that  the  only  point  to  be  held  fast  here  was,  the  difference 
between  the  good  and  the  bad  ground.  All  the  rest  belonged  not  to  the 
matter  of  comparison,  but  to  the  decoration  of  the  figure ;  and  in  fiEivour 
of  this  explanation  he  urged  the  absurd  argument,  that  the  difference  of 
numbers  could  be  of  no  importance  here,  because  Mark  pursued  the  re- 
verse order  in  his  enumeration.  Numerum  non  facere  prsejudicium,  prse- 
sertim  quum  et  evangelista  Marcus  retrorsum  numeret.  To  defend  him- 
self against  the  application  of  the  words  in  John  xiv.  2,  *^  In  my  Father's 
boose  are  many  mansions,**  which  in  feet  could  be  employed  by  his  adver- 
saries in  &vour  of  their  own  side  only  in  a  way  running  directly  counter 
to  the  connection  in  which  they  are  found,  he  opposed  it  by  another 
interpretation  no  less  contradictory  to  the  connection  of  the  passage, 
maintaining  that  by  the  different  mansions  were  to  be  understood  simplv 
the  different  church  communities  on  earth,  which  still  constituted, 
however,  but  one  church  of  Grod.  Non  in  regno  coelorum  diversas 
ngnificat  mansiones ;  sed  ecclesiarum  in  toto  orbe  numerum,  quee  con- 
stat una  per  septem  (h.  e.  in  septem  ecclesiis  apocalypseos  nonnisi  una 
ecclesia). 


390  MONACmSM. 

by  violence,  nor  creep  in  by  fraud."*  It  is  plainly  endent 
that  Jovinian  could  only  have  understood  by  the  church  kre, 
the  invisible  church.  So,  too,  in  the  following  predicates 
which  he  applies  to  the  church — '^The  titles  bride,  sister, 
mother — ^and  whatever  other  names  you  may  think  of-Hi|fo 
to  the  community  of  the  one  church,  which  is  never  witboat 
her  bridegroom,  without  her  brother,  without  her  son.  She 
has  one  &ith,  and  within  her  there  arise  no  schinns  by  metos 
of  erroneous  doctrines.  She  ever  remains  a  virgin  to  whom 
the  Lamb  goes ;  him  she  follows,  and  she  alone  knows  tiie 
song  of  Christ."  Of  course  he  can  understand  by  the  chnrdi 
here  only  the  community  of  true  believers. 

Jovinian's  reasons  against  the  worth  of  the  unmarried  life 
found  admittance  among  the  laity,  monks,  and  nuns  in  Bome.t 
But  it  was  natural  that  the  Roman  bishop  Siricius,  with  whom 
we  have  already  become  acquainted  as  a  zealous  opponent  of 
married  priests,  should  declare  strongly  against  the  doctrines 
of  Jovinian«  At  a  Homan  83rnod,  held  in  390,  he  pronounced 
in*the  harshest  and  most  unjustifiable  language  |  sentence  of  con- 
demnation on  Jovinian  and  eight  of  his  adherents.  §  Joviniao 
betook  himself  to  Milan,  and  there  perhaps  sought  to  shelter 
himself  under  the  protection  of  the  emperor,  then  residing  in 
that  place.  But  here  he  was  opposed  by  the  mighty  influence 
of  the  bishop  Ambrose,  who  had  already  been  made  ac- 
quainted with  the  afi^r  by  the  synodial  letter  of  Siricius,  and 
who,  as  a  zealous  promoter  of  the  ascetic  tendency  and  of 
Monachism,  could  be  no  otherwise  than  a  zealous  opponent  of 
Jovinian.  In  his  reply  to  Siricius,  written  in  the  name  of  a 
synod  held  at  Milan,  he  declared  his  agreement  with  the 
judgment  pronounced  by  the  latter.  Jovinian  and  his  friends 
were  banished  from  Milan.     But  perhaps  the  silent  working 

*  Scimus  ecclesiam  spe,  fide,  caritate,  inaccessibilem,  inezpagnabilem; 
non  est  in  ea  immatuniB,  omnis  docibilis,  (scil.  a  Deo,  as  the  Vulgate 
translates  the  term  fitoh^a»Tts,)  impetu  irrumpere  vel  arte  eludere,  Qi 
should  read  perhaps,  illudere,  enter  in  by  trick,  by  deoeption,)  poteet 
nullus. 

t  Augustin.  Hseres.  82,  Retract  ii.  22. 

X  He  calls  Jovinian  Inxurise  magister. 

§  Incentores  noYse  hseresis  et  blasphemise  divina  sententia  et  nostra 
judicio  in  perpetuum  damnati.  For  the  rest,  even  Siricius  -vitnefises  cf 
the  spread  of  these  doctrines,  when  he  says;  Sermo  haereticonmi  intra 
ecclesia  caneri  more  serpebal. 


joymiAK.  391 

of  Ins  influence  continued  to  be  felt  there,  if  it  were  not  the 
ease  that,  independent  of  him,  a  shnilar  reaction  proceeding 
out  of  M(Hiachism  itself,  called  forth  there  an  opposition  to 
the  ^rit  of  monkish  morality. 

Ambrose  must  also  witness  the  influence  of  these  principles 
among  his  own  monks  at  Milan.  Two  persons  of  this  order, 
Sanaatio  and  Barbatianus,  attracted  notice,  who,  like  Jovinian, 
disputed  the  peculiar  merit  of  the  unmarried  iife.*  Not  being 
allowed  freel j  to  express  their  principles  in  the  cloister,  they 
ideased  themselves  from  that  yoke.t  Next,  they  repaired  to 
the  church  at  Yeroelli,  where,  perhaps,  as  the  church  hap- 
pened at  that  time  to  be  without  a  bishop,  they  hoped  to  find 
a  better  reception,  and  to  be  able  to  propi^ate  their  principles 
with  less  danger  of  disturbance.  But  the  bishop  Ambrose 
kmnediately  sent  warning  of  them  in  a  letter  which  he  ad- 
dressed to  the  church.}  He  accused  them  of  spreading  such 
doctrines  as  that  the  baptized  needed  not  concern  themselves 
about  striving  after  virtue ;  that  excess  in  eating  and  drinking 
eould  do  them  no  harm ;  that  it  was  foolish  in  them  to  ab- 
stain fix>m  the  enjoyments  of  life ;  that  virgins  and  widows 
ooght  to  marry.  But,  in  a  statement  of  this  sort,  it  is  easy  to 
see  the  distorting  influence  of  passion.  Taking  these  charges 
in  connection  with  the  doctrine  of  Jovinian  and  the  other 
positions  held  by  these  men,  it  becomes  probable,  that  with 
Jovinian  they  intended  merely  to  afiirm :  "  Whoever  received 
the  baptism  of  the  Spirit  possessed  means  enough  for  over- 
coming sin,  and  needed  not  to  have  recourse  to  a  painful 
asceticism." 

As  to  the  rest,  Jerome,  the  warm  opponent  of  Jovinian,  by 
the  exaggerated  statements  into  which  he  continually  fell  in 
conducting  his  attacks,  served  rather  to  place  the  cause  which 

*  When  Ambrose  accnses  them  besides  of  asserting :  Delirare  eos,  qui 
jcjmiis  castigent  camem  soam,  at  menti  subditam  fiuuaut, — this  may  per- 
hm  be  a  consequence  of  his  own  drawing. 

t  Ambrose  intimates  himself,  that  nothing  could  be  objected  to  tbem  as 
kmg  as  they  were  at  Milan.  He  points  to  the  reason  which  chiefly  in- 
duced them  to  leave  the  cloister,  when  he  says .  interdicta  ludibrioso 
dispotationi  licentia.  But  it  was  an  ungrounded  inference  of  his  own 
making,  when  he  accuses  them  of  having  left  the  cloister  because  Hiey 
could  not  indulge,  as  they  wished,  in  riotous  living,  noUus  erat  luxuriss 
loess. 

%  lib.  X.  ep.  82,  ed.  Basil. 


392  MONAcmsH. 

he  defended  in  an  un&vourable  light,  and  to  further  that  of 
his  opponent ;  for  it  seemed,  accoiding  to  the  statements  of 
the  former,  that  his  opponent  was  right  in  asserting  that  mea 
could  not  extol  the  life  of  celibacy  without  depreciating  the 
state  of  marriage,  which  Christ  has  sanctioned,  and  th^by 
outraging  the  common  sense  and  feeling  of  Christian  men. 
Augustin,  perceiving  this,  was  led  to  write  his  book  de  bono 
conjugally  in  which  he  sought  to  do  away  with  the  above- 
mentioned  objection  by  acknowledging  the  worth  of  marriage, 
and  yet  ascribing  a  stUl  higher  state  of  Christian  life  to  the 
state  of  celibacy  when  chosen  out  of  a  right  temper  of  heart 
In  this  tract  he  distinguishes  himselj^  not  only  for  his  greater 
moderation,  but  also  for  a  more  correct  judgment  of  the 
ascetic  life  in  its  connection  with  the  whole  Christian  temper; 
as  it  is  in  fact  the  great  merit  generally  of  his  mode  of  s^pre- 
hending  the  Christian  system  of  morals,  that,  like  Jovinian,  he 
opposed  the  tendency  to  set  a  value  upon  the  outward  conduct, 
outward  works,  as  an  opus  operatum,  without  regard  to  their 
relation  to  the  disposition  of  the  heart.  By  giving  prominence 
to  the  latter,  Augustin  approached  Jovinian,  and  he  would 
have  come  still  nearer  to  him,  had  he  not  been  on  so  many 
sides  fettered  to  the  church  spirit  of  his  times.* 

Among  the  opponents  of  the  ascetic  spirit  and  of  Mona^ 
chism  should  be  noticed  also  a  person  respecting  whom  we  shall 
have  occasion  to  speak  again,  as  an  antagonist  of  the  prevail- 
ing tendencies  of  the  church  spirit, — the  presbyter  Vigilantius, 
He  probably  believed  that  the  words  of  our  Lord  to  the  rich 
young  man  were  misapprehended  (see  above),  when  taken,  as 
they  were  by  many,  in  the  sense  of  an  invitation  to  give  all 
they  possessed  at  once  to  the  poor,  and  to  retire  among  the 
monks.  They,  he  maintained,  who  managed  their  own  pro- 
perty and  distributed  its  income  gradually  among  the  poor, 

^  *  Thus  Augustin,  as  well  as  Jovinian,  says,  that  true  martyrdom  con- 
sists in  the  disposition  of  the  mind ;  and  that  a  man  who  had  no  outward 
call  to  become  a  martyr,  yet,  in  the  temper  on  which  all  moral  worth 
depends,  might  be  quite  equal  to  the  martyrs.  Thus  it  was  also  with  re- 
gard to  abstinence.  So  Abraham,  although  he  lived  in  marriage,  because 
this  was  agreeable  to  the  then  stage  of  the  development  of  God's  king- 
dom, might,  in  the  Christian  virtue  of  abstinence  and  self-deniid,  be  fully 
equal  to  the  Christians  who  led  a  life  of  celibacy  in  a  holy  temper. 
Continentise  virtutem  in  habitu  animi  semper  esse  debere,  in  opere  au- 
tern  pro  rerum  et  tempoxum  opi^TtQj^ta.tft  ixumifestari. 


BELATION  OF  WORSHIP  TO  CHRISTIAN  LIFE.  393 

did  better  than  those  who  gave  away  the  whole  at  once.  It 
behoved  each  individual  to  provide  rather  for  the  wants  of  the 
poor  of  his  own  neighbourhood  instead  of  sending  his  money 
to  Jerusalem  for  the  support  of  the  poor  who  were  there  (the 
monks).  <^  Should  all  retire  from  the  world  and  live  in 
deserts,"  said  he,  ^^  who  would  remain  to  support  the  public 
worship  of  God?  Who  would  exhort  sinners  to  virtue? 
This  would  be  not  to  tight  but  to  fly." 

But  such  individual  voices  could  effect  nothing  of  import- 
ance against  a  tendency  of  the  church  which  was  so  decided, 
nor  could  they  counteract  a  form  of  church  life  which  had 
already  become  so  prevalent.  Monachism,  in  fact,  was  to  be 
preserved,  furnishing,  as  it  did,  so  important  a  means  for  the 
diffusion  of  Christianity  and  of  Christian  culture  in  the  suc- 
ceeding centuries. 

II. — Christian  Worship. 

1.  Belation  cf  Christian  Worship  to  the  whole  tphare  of  the  Christian 

JLife, 

As  the  consciousness  of  the  universal  Christian  priesthood 
was  gradually  supplanted  by  the  idea  of  a  class  of  men  par- 
ticularly consecrated  to  God,  whose  peculiar  business  it  was  to 
devote  their  time  and  thoughts  to  divine  things ;  so,  too,  the 
original  relation,  grounded  in  the  essence  of  Christianity,  of 
the  common  worship  of  Christians  to  the  whole  circle  of 
Christian  life,  respecting  which  we  spoke  in  the  preceding 
period,  was  continually  becoming  obliterated.  Men  forgot  that 
Christian  worship  is  not  contined  to  any  particular  place,  times, 
or  actions,  but  was  meant  to  embrace  the  entire  life,  con- 
secrated to  God.  Yet  the  more  distinguished  church  teachers, 
such  as  Chrysostom  and  Augustin,  well  understood  that  living 
Christianity  could  proceed  only  out  of  that  original  Christian 
consciousness  to  which  the  whole  Christian  life  presented  itself 
as  a  worship  of  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  and  they  laboured 
to  revive  this  consciousness, — to  counteract  in  every  way  that 
delusive  notion  which  placed  the  essence  of  Christianity  in  the 
opus  operatum  of  joining  in  outward  acts  of  worship,  and  to 
introduce  the  point  of  view  into  practical  life,  that  instruction 
in  divine  truth,  reading  of  the  holy  scriptures,  and  prayer, 
were  not  to  be  coniin^  solely  to  the  church  assemblve&^h^t 


394  RELATION  OF  WOBSHIP  TO  CBBJSriAJS  LIFE. 


should  be  difibsed  through  the  whole  of  the  Chiittiiii  life. 
Accordingly  Chrysostom,  in  his  sixth  discourse  against  the 
confounding  of  Christianity  and  Judaism,*   obs^es  tlbat 
^^  God  permitted  the  single  temple  at  Jerusalem  to  be  de- 
stroyed, and  erected  in  its  stead  a  thousand  others  of  &r 
higher  dignity  than  that :  for  the  apostle  declares, '  Ye  an 
the  temple  of  the  living  God.'    Adorn  this  house  of  God, 
drive  from  it  all  wicked  thoughts,  so  that  you  may  be  a 
temple  of  the  spirit,  and  make  others  do  so  too."     '<  Christ- 
ians," he  remarks  in  another  discourse,  ^^  should  not  merely 
celebrate  one  single  day  as  a  feast,  for  the  apostle  fiaji, 
1  Corinth,  v.  8 :  '  Let  us  keep  the  feast,  not  with  old  leavai,' 
&c.     We  are  not  to  stand  by  the  ark  of  the  cov^iant  and  by 
the  golden  altar, — ^we,  whom  the  Lord  of  all  existence  himsdf 
has  made  his  own  dwelling,  and  who  continually  hold  con- 
verse with  him  by  prayer,  ty  the  celebration  of  the  holy 
supper,  by  the  sacred  scriptures,  by  alms,  and  by  the  £ict  that 
we  bear  him  in  our  hearts.     What  need  therefore  of  the  Sab- 
bath to  him  who  celebrates  a  continual  feast,  who  has  his  con- 
versation in  heaven?     Let  us  then  celebrate  a  continual  feast, 
and  let  us  do  no  sin,  for  this  is  the  keeping  of  the  feast."f  In 
opposition  to  those  who  thought  themselves  righteous  because 
they  regularly  attended  church,  he  says :  '^  If  a  child  daily  goes 
to  school  and  yet  learns  nothing,  would  that  be  any  excuse  for 
him  ? — would  it  not  rather  serve  to  aggravate  his  &ult?   Just 
so  it  is  with  us ;  for  we  go  to  the  church,  not  merely  for  the 
sake  of  spending  a  few  moments  there,  but  that  we  may  go 
away  with  some  great  gain  in  spiritual  things.     If  we  depart 
empty,  our  very  zeal  in  attending  the  sanctuary  will  redound 
to  our  condemnation.     But  that  this  may  not  be  the  result,  let 
us,  on  leaving  this  place,  friends  with  friends,  &thers  with 
their  children,  masters  with  their  servants,  exercise  ourselveB 
in  reducing  to  practice  the  lessons  we  have  here  learned.     This 
momentary  exhortation  cannot  extirpate  every  evil ;  the  hus- 
band should  hear  it  again  at  home  from  his  wife,  the  wife 
from  her  husband  ."J     And  in  another  discourse  :§  "  When 
you  have  sung  together  two  or  three  psalms,  and  superficially 

*  Adv.  JudflBOS,  VI.  s.  7,  T.  I.  661. 

t  H.  39,  in  Matth.  s.  3,  ed.  Montf.  T.j^I.  f  435. 

t  H.  5,  de  statnis,  s.  7,  T.  II.  f.  71. 

§  Horn.  l\,'m'MV«.\5ih.%.';. 


CHBYSOBTOM's  views  of  WOESfflP.  395 

gone  through  the  ordinary  prayers,  and  then  return  home,  you 
suppose  this  suffices  for  your  salvation.  Have  you  not  heard 
what  the  prophet,  or  rather  what  God,  through  the  mouth  of 
the  prophet,  says :  ^  This  people  honour  me  with  their  lips, 
but  their  heart  is  £ir  from  me  ? '  "  He  was  ever  pressing  this 
point,  that  every  house  should  be  a  church  ;  every  father  of  a 
fiunily  a  shepherd  for  his  household ;  that  he  was  equally  re- 
q)onsible  for  the  welfare  of  all  its  members,  even  for  that  of 
dhe  domestics,  whom  the  gospel  placed  on  a  level  with  all  other 
men  in  their  relation  to  God.*  He  complains  that,  whilst  in 
ibe  early  Christian  times  the  house  was  by  the  love  of  heavenly 
tiuDgs  converted  into  a  church,  the  church  itself  was  now, 
through  the  earthly  direction  of  thought  in  those  that  visited 
it,  converted  into  an  ordinary  house. f  Augustin  likewise  says 
to  the  members  of  his  community:  '^  It  is  your  business  to 
make  the  most  of  your  talent :  each  man  should  be  a  bishop 
ID  his  own  house ;  he  must  see  to  it  that  his  wife,  his  son,  his 
daughter,  his  servant  (since  he  is  bought  with  so  great  a  price), 
porsevere  in  the  true  faith.  The  apostolical  teaching  placed 
the  master  above  the  servant,  and  bound  the  servant  to  obe- 
dience towards  his  master ;  btU  Christ  has  paid  one  ransom 
for  baihJ'X 

In  respect  particularly  to  prayer,  Chrysostom  often  took 
gioond  against  the  delusive  notion  which  grew  out  of  that 
Jewish  tendency,  that  unevangelical  distinction  of  secular  and 
spiritual  things  which  we  must  so  often  allude  to,  as  though 
this  duty  might  not  and  ought  not  to  be  performed  in  every 
place,  and  during  the  ordinary  business  of  life,  which  indeed 
should  be  sanctified  thereby,  as  well  as  in  the  chiurch.  ^^  When 
Christ  came,"  says  he,  "  he  purified  the  whole  world ;  every 
place  became  a  house  of  prayer.  For  this  reason,  Paul  ex- 
hcMrts  us  to  pray  everywhere  with  boldness,  and,  moreover, 
without  doubting,  1  Tim.  ii.  8.  Mark  you,  how  the  world 
has  been  purified  ?  As  it  regards  the  place,  we  may  every' 
where  lift  up  holy  hands;  for  the  whole  earth  has  become 
consecrated,  more  consecrated  than  the  holy  of  holies.§     After 

*  Hom.  6  in  GrttHesillf  S.  2.     *Ex»kfia'iav  ^am^cv  ^w  rnv  ol»taD,  *al  yaf 
u  v^iv4uvis  i7  Koti  Ttis  TA>v  ^oihittv  xai  rtis  rSv  otKiratv  ffotrfifiiets* 
t  In  Matth.  H.  32,  S.  7.     TdVt  ed  »l»im  UzXr^ius  wav,  v»9  il  n  ixxkuffia 
«UM«  yiymttu 

t  S.  94.  §  Homil.  1,  de  cruce  et  latrone,  s.  1,  T,  II.  f,  404, 


»m 


396  CHRISTIAN  WOBSHIP. 

having  remarked  that  all  the  works  of  the  frail  earthly  life 
should  flow  from  prayer,  and  find  support  in  the  same,  he 
supposes  it  objected  by  a  worldly  man  of  those  times :  '^How 
can  a  man  of  business,  a  man  tied  to  the  courts  of  justice,  jnay 
and  resort  to  the  church  thrice  in  a  day  ?"  And  he  replies:  '*& 
is  possible  and  very  easy ;  for  if  you  cannot  easily  repair  to  the 
church,  you  may  at  least  pray  before  the  door ;  and  that  even 
though  you  may  be  tied  to  the  courts  of  justice,  for  it  needs 
not  so  much  the  voice  as  the  disposition  of  the  heart ;  not  so 
much  the  outstretched  hands  as  the  devotional  soul ;  not  so 
much  this  or  the  other  posture  as  the  mind."  He  then  goes 
on  to  say :  ^^  It  is  not  here  as  in  the  Old  Testament.  Where- 
ever  you  may  be,  you  still  have  the  altar,  the  sacrificial  knife, 
and  the  ofiering  by  you ;  for  you  yourself  are  priest,  altar,  and 
sacrifice.  Wherever  you  are,  you  may  raise  an  altar  by  sim- 
ply  cherishing  a  devout  and  serious  temper.  Place  and  time 
are  no  hindrance.  Though  you  bow  not  the  knee,  though  yoa 
beat  not  the  breast,  though  you  stretch  not  your  lurnds  to 
heaven,  but  only  manifest  a  warm  heart,  you  have  all  that 
belongs  to  prayer.  The  wife,  while  she  holds  in  her  lap  the 
spindle  and  spins,  can  with  her  soul  look  up  to  heaven,  and 
call  with  fervency  on  the  name  of  the  Lord.  It  is  possible  for 
this  man  to  offer  a  fervent  prayer  while  he  is  on  his  way  alone 
to  the  market ;  for  that  other  to  lift  up  his  soul  to  God,  who 
sits  in  his  shop  and  sews  leather ;  and  the  servant  who  makes 
purchases,  goes  errands,  or  sits  in  the  kitchen,  has  nothing  to 
hinder  him  from  doing  the  same  thing."* 

To  this  period  also  was  transmitted  from  the  primitive 
Christian  times  the  right,  closely  connected  with  the  consci- 
ousness of  the  universal  Christian  priesthood,  and  belonging  to 
all  Christians,  of  instructing  and  edifying  themselves  by  going 
directly  to  the  fountain  of  the  divine  word.  Hence  manu- 
scripts of  the  Bible  were  multiplied  and  exposed  for  sale.t 
It  was  regarded  as  the  chief  part  of  a  pious  Christian  educa- 
tion, both  in  men  and  women,  to  become  early  ^miliar  with 
the  holy  scriptures.  Thus  Jerome  notices  it  of  Lseta,  a  noble 
Koman  lady,  that  she  taught  her  daughter,  from  early  child- 
hood, to  cultivate  a  love  for  the  sacred  scriptures  instead  of 

*  De  Anna  S.  IV.  s.  6,  T.  IV.  f.  738. 
t  Scriptura  venalis  fertur  per  pnblicam.    Angustin.  in  Ps. 
J.  8.  2, 


GEISrSRAL  BEADING  OF  THE  BIBLE.  397 

jewelry  and  silks  ;*  that  she  learned  patience  from  the  example 
of  Job ;  that  she  never  suffered  the  gospel  to  be  out  of  her 
reach,  j*     Among  both  women  and  men,  of  whatever  rank  in 
society,  it  was  regarded  as  the  characteristic  mark  of  those 
with  whom  Christianity  was  a  serious  concern  of  the  heart, 
that  they  were  much  occupied  with  the  study  of  the  Bible : — 
as  the  examples  of  Monica  and  Nonna  show.    The  rhetorical 
preacher  who  pronounced  the  funeral  discourse  on  the  yoimger 
Constantine,  mentions  it  to  his  praise  that  he  constantly 
nourished  his  soul  out  of  the  sacred  writings,  and  formed  his 
life  by  their  precepts.^    This,  perhaps,  may  be  regarded  as 
nothing  more  than  empty  eulogy ;  but  it  enables  us,  neverthe- 
less, to  see  what  was  reckoned  in  this  age  as  belonging  to  the 
qualities  of  a  pious  prince.     When  Pagans  who  were  inquir- 
ing after  the  truth,  found  difficulties  in  the  Christian  doctrines, 
they  did  not  repair  at  once,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  the  clergy, 
but  oftentimes  to  their  firiends  among  the  Christian  laity. 
These  sought  for  a  solution  of  the  questions  proposed  to  them 
in  the  holy  scriptures ;  and  when  they  met  with  difficulties 
there  too  hard  for  them  to  solve,  Augustin  invites  them  not  so 
much  to  seek  instruction  from  their  spiritual  guides,  as  to  pray 
for  light  from  above.§    For  those  who  were  awakened  by  the 
public  worship  of  God  to  more  serious  reflection  on  divine 
truth,  or  who  were  desirous  of  studying  the  scriptures  in  a 
more  quiet  way,  rooms  were  provided  and  furnished  with 
Bibles  in  the  ^leries  of  the  church  (^povrtor^pm),  to  which 
they  could  retire  for  the  purpose  of  reading  and  meditation.  || 
Jerome  complains  of  it  as  an  evil  that  men  and  women  all 
thought  themselves  competent  to  discourse,  however  deficient 
thdr  knowledge,  on  the  right  interpretation  of  the  sacred 

volume.lT 

*  £p.  107,  8.  12.    Pro  gemmis  et  serico,  divinos  codices  amet. 

t  In  Job  virtutis  et  patientise  exempla  sectetar,  ad  evangelia  transeat, 
nnnqnam  ea  positura  de  manibus.  Compare  aboye,  the  examples  from 
the  rale  of  Basil,  and  -what  Gregory  of  Nyssa  says  respecting  Uie  educa- 
tion of  Macrina.  . 

X  Anonym!  monod.  in  Constantin.  jun.  p.  7,  ed.  MoreU.    'Evriv^t»  xeu 

!>  Ad  ipsnm-Dominnm  pulsa  orando^  pete,  insta.    Sermo  105,  s.  3. 
I  Panhnus  of  Nola,  ep.  321,  T.  I.  p.  209. 

Si  quern  sancta  tenet  meditanda  in  le^e  volantas. 
Hie  poterit  residens  sacris  intendere  libris. 

^  Sola  scriptora  ars  est,  quam  sibi  omnes  passim  vindicant,  hanc 


d98  CHBISTIAN  WOBSHIP. 

The  clergy  were  not  the  first  to  deriTe  from  the  unevaDgeli- 
cal  theory  respecting  a  distinct  priestly  caste,  the  inference, 
which  lay  not  very  remote,  that  the  fountain  of  the  diyine 
word  was  to  be  approached  only  by  themselves ;  that  the  hatj 
must  depend  for  all  their  instruction  in  divine  things  simply  on 
the  clergy,  without  being  entitled  to  go  to  the  original  flouree 
itself;  but  it  was  the  altogether  worldly-minded  laity,  who^as 
they  had  taken  advantage  of  the  distinction  between  a  flpiritnal 
and  a  secular  class,  to  set  up  for  themselves  a  convenient 
Christianity,  subservient  to  their  pleasures,  so  made  use  of  the 
same  pretext  as  a  reason  for  avoiding  all  intercourse  with  the 
divine  word,  and  an  excuse  for  their  indifference  to  higher  in- 
terests, alleging  that  the  study  of  the  Bible  was  a  business  pro- 
perly belonging  to  ecclesiastics  and  monks.  But  distinguished 
church-teachers,  such  as  Chrysostom  and  Augustin,  contended 
strenuously  against  this  way  of  thinking.  The  former  denomi- 
nates the  excuses :  ^'  I  am  a  man  of  business ;  I  am  no  monk; 
I  have  a  wife  and  children  to  provide  for,"*  cold  and  exceed- 
ingly censurable  words ;  and  maintained,  on  the  contrary,  that 
just  those  persons  who  were  in  the  midst  of  the  storms  of  the 
world  and  exposed  to  its  many  temptations,  stood  most  of  all 
in  need  of  those  means  of  preservation  and  safety  which  the 
holy  scriptures  furnish — more  even  than  those  who  led  a  life 
of  silent  retirement,  far  firom  all  strife  with  the  outward 
world.f  Frequently,  both  in  private  conversation  and  in  his 
public  discourses,  he  exhorted  his  hearers  not  to  rest  satisfied 
with  that  wliich  they  heard  read  from  the  scriptures  in  the 
church,  but  to  read  them  also  with  their  families  at  home  ;| 
for  what  food  was  for  the  body,  such  the  holy  scriptures  were 
for  the  soul, — the  source  whence  it  derived  substantial 
strength.§     To  induce  his  hearers   to  study  the  scriptures, 

garnila  anus,  hanc  delims  senex,  hanc  sophista  verbosus,  hanc  nnivera 
prsesumuDt,  lacerant,  docent,  antequam  discant  Alii  adducto  snperdlio 
grandia  verba  tratinantes,  inter  muliercalas  de  sacris  Uteris  philoM- 
phantur,  alii  discunt  a  feminis  quod  viros  doceant.  Ep.  53  ad  Pftalinum, 
8.  5. 

\f  *  Avtip  ufii  ^luriKos'  cuK  tffrn  tfiov,  y^ei<paf  uLHtynu^xutf  oAX'  vmttn 
riSy  dv'oTit^afiiveiiK  f  H.  3  de  Lazaro,  T.  I. 

Horn.  29,  in  Genes,  s.  2. 

n  oivayve^is  rn  '^vx^  ynirou,    L,  C  T»  IV.  f.  281. 


OENEBAL  BEADDSTG  OF  THE  BIBLE.  399 

he  was  often  accustomed — ^when  there  was  as  yet  no  set  les- 
aon  of  the  sacred  word  prescribed  for  erery  Sunday — ^to  give 
OQt  lor  some  time  beforehand  the  text  which  he  designed  to 
make  a  subject  of  discourse  on  some  particular  occasion,  and 
to  exhort  them  in  order  that  they  might  be  better  prepared  for 
Ids  remarks,  in  the  meantime  to  reflect  upon  it  themselves.* 
In  like  manner,  Augustin  says :  ^'  Do  not  allow  yourselves  to 
be  so  immersed  in  present  earthly  things,  as  to  be  obliged  to 
say,  I  have  no  time  to  read  or  to  hear  Grod's  word."!  Among 
the  characters  of  the  zealous  Christian,  whom  he  describes  un- 
der the  figure  of  the  ant,  as  one  that  treasures  up  from  the 
divine  word  that  which  he  may  have  occasion  to  use  in  the 
time  of  need,  he  places  the  following :  ^^  He  goes  to  church 
and  listens  to  God's  word ;  he  returns  home,  finds  a  Bible 
there,  and  opens  and  reads  it"^  Often  does  Chrysostom 
iiaoe  the  corruptions  of  the  church,  as  well  in  doctrine  as  in 
life, — ^the  spread  of  error  and  of  vice, — to  the  prevailing 
ignorance  of  the  scriptures.§ 

Two  hindrances  to  the  general  reading  of  the  Bible  might 
then,  lor  the  first  time,  unquestionably  have  been  removed,  had 
Christianity  been  directed  also  to  multiply  and  diffiise  the 
means  of  general  mental  cultivation,  and  by  associations 
farmed  in  the  spirit  of  love,  to  supply  what  individuals  could 
not  obtain  for  themselves.  These  two  hindrances  were,  first, 
the  &ct  that  but  few  knew  how  to  read,  and  second,  the 
high  price  of  manuscripts.  I| 

In  respect  to  this  second  hindrance,  of  poverty,  which  for- 

*  This  he  describes  as  his  method  in  the  discourse  on  Lazarus,  referred 
to  m  the  preceding  note.    T.  I.  f.  737. 

f  Non  mihi  vaeat  legere.    In  Psalm  Ixvi.  s.  10. 

X  Andire  sermonem,  audire  lecticmem,  invenire  librum,  aperire  et 
legere.    In  Pttahn  IzvL  s.  3. 

J  I  K  g.  PiOGBm.  in  epist  ad  Rom.  T.  IX.  t  426. 
I  Cyrill  of  Jerosalem  adduces  as  a  reason  -why  all  could  not  read  the 
)le,  **  Ignorance  and  the  pressure  of  business/'  cv  tr»vTis  UtetvTM  vks 

ymdfmt  ivmyiMt^Mny  aXXk  Toitf  fAtf    timrtietf  rout  ^  »0%0X/«  rts  i/tMTtf^i^fi. 

Cateches.  Y.  s.  7.  Augustin  makes  a  distinction  between  the  book  of 
creation  and  the  book  of  the  sacred  writings :  In  istis  codicibus  non  ea 
legunt,  nisi  qui  litteras  noverunt,  in  toto  mundo  legat  et  idiota.  In 
pBalm  zIt.  8.  7.  Augustin  was  in  want  of  a  Bible,  when  the  desire  first 
arose  in  his  mind  at  Milan  to  become  more  accurately  acquainted  with 
the  divine  doctrines :  Ubi  ipsos  codices  quserunus  ?  Unde  aut  quando 
eomparamus?  Confess.  L  Vl.  s.  18.  A  difficulty  which,  to  be  sure,  he 
could  easily  surmount,  when  he  was  in  right  earnest  about  the  matter.  .  j 


400  CHBICTIAN  WORSHIP. 

bade  the  purchase  of  a  Bible,  ChrysoBtom  reckoned  it  among 
those  pretexts  wliich  would  certainly  g^ve  way  to  real  earnest- 
ness and  zeal  about  Christianity.  *^  As  many  of  the  poorer 
class,"  said  he,  ^^  are  constantly  making  this  excuse,  that  they 
have  no  Bibles,  I  would  like  to  ask  them  can  poverty,  how- 
ever great  it  may  be,  hinder  a  man  when  he  does  not  possess, 
complete,  all  the  tools  of  his  trade  ?  What,  then !  is  it  not 
singular  that  in  this  case  he  never  thinks  of  laying  the  blame 
to  his  poverty,  but  does  his  best  that  it  may  not  hinder  him; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  in  a  case  where  he  is  to  be  so  great 
a  gainer,  he  complains  of  his  poverty  ?"* 

As  to  those  who  were  prevented  from  studying  the  scrip- 
tures themselves,  the  reading  of  the  scriptures  in  the  church, 
as  Chrysostom  explains  in  the  passage  last  referred  to,  and  in 
other  places,  was  to  serve  as  a  remedy  for  this  want ;  for  on 
these  occasions  not  single  passages  merely,  but  entire  sections 
and  whole  books  of  the  Bible  were  read  in  connection.  Hence 
many  who  could  not  read  had  still  been  able,  by  a  constant 
attaidance  at  church,  and  by  carefully  listening  to  the  portions 
read  in  each  year,  to  treasure  up  in  their  memories  a  fiuuiliar 
knowledge  of  the  sacred  scriptures.f 

2.  Relation  of  Public  Worshy)  to  Art.      Church  BuOdrngt ;  their  EmbelM- 

meuts,  Imageg, 

We  remarked  in  the  preceding  period,  that  the  primitive 
Christian  way  of  thinking  was  averse  to  the  employment  of 
art,  as  being  a  heathen  practice.  This  stem  opposition  to  art 
would  naturally  cease  as  the  opposition  to  the  now  constantly 
declining  Paganism  relaxed.  Christianity  might,  and  indeed 
by  its  very  nature  should,  appropriate  to  its  own  use,  purify, 
ennoble,  and  sanctify  even  art ;  but  the  danger  now  threatened, 
that  the  artistic  element  would  become  too  predonunant  for  the 
healthful  development  of  religious  morals ;  that  external  splen- 
dour and  ornament  would  supplant  the. simple  devotion  of  the 
heart ;  that  sense  and  the  imagination  would  be  called  into 

*  Horn.  11,  in  Johan.  8.  1. 

t  As  was  done  by  Parthenios,  afterwards  bishop  in  Lampsacos,  in 
whose  yonth  it  is  related,  literarum  imperitos,  sanctarum  antem  scripta 
rarum  vel  maxime  valens  memoria.  See  his  life,  which  seems  to  be  at 
least  not  without  a  genuine  foundation.  Acta  Sanctorum  mens.  Febr. 
T.  H.  f.  38. 


ITS  BELATION  TO  ART.      CHURCH  EDIFICES,  401 

exercise  more  than  the  mind  and  the  affections.  Yet  it  is  evi- 
dent, nevertheless,  that  the  primitive  evangelical  temper,  di- 
rected to  the  worship  of  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  main- 
tained the  struggle  with  this  new  tendency  which  threatened 
to  torn  devotion  away  from  the  inner  essence  of  religion. 

As,  in  the  preceding  period,  the  whole  outward  form  of  the 
church  and  of  church  life  betokened  a  community  propagating 
itself  in  opposition  to  the  dominant  power,  a  community  per- 
secuted and  oppressed ;  so,  in  the  present,  the  altered  situ- 
ation of  this  community  manifested  itself  in  its  whole  external 
appearance.  The  churches  destroyed  under  the  Dioclesian 
persecution  were  again  rebuilt  in  greater  magnificence ;  the 
Christian  emperors  emulated  each  other  in  erecting  splendid 
structures,  and  in  embellishing  and  enriching  them  in  every 
way.  Wealthy  and  noble  laymen  followed  their  example; 
and  the  delusive  notion  insinuated  itself,  that  in  so  doing  men 
performed  a  work  of  peculiar  merit  and  of  the  highest  service 
to  religion.  Many  believed  that  by  thus  contributing  to 
adorn  the  churches,  by  presenting  them  with  costly  vessels, 
mounted  with  gold,  silver,  and  precious  stones,  they  could 
atone  for  their  sins.  Hence  Chrysostom  felt  himself  con- 
strained to  say :  ^'  God  forbid  that  we  should  believe  it  is 
enough  for  our  salvation,  if  we  rob  widows  and  orphans,  and 
present  to  the  altar  a  golden  chalice,  set  with  precious  stones ! 
Wouldst  thou  honour  the  offering  of  Christ  ?  Then  present 
him  thy  own  soul  as  an  offering,  for  which  he  himself  has 
oflfered  up  his  life.  Let  this  become  a  golden  one ;  for  the 
church  is  not  a  storehouse  of  gold  and  silver  manufactures, 
bat  it  is  the  community  of  angels  ;  hence  we  ask  for  souls ; 
for  even  this  (donation  made  to  the  church)  God  accepts  only 
for  the  sake  of  souls."  *  The  pious  and  enlightened  abbot, 
Isidorus  of  Pelusium,  in  a  beautifully  written  letter,  com- 
plains of  his  bishop,  that  he  superfluously  decorated,  vidth 
costly  marbles,  the  outward  structure  6f  the  church ;  whilst 

*  Chr7806t.  in  Matth.  h.  50,  s.  3.  So  also  he  says  in  his  80th  homily 
on  Matthew,  s.  2 :  **  Instead  of  presenting  to  the  church  splendid  vessels, 
and  expending  large  snms  in  omamentine  the  trails  and  the  grounds 
of  the  church,  it  would  be  better  to  provide  first  for  the  support  of  the 
poor."  There  were,  on  the  other  hand,  to  be  sure,  bishops  like  Theophllna 
of  Alexandria  (who  hence  bore  the  surname  of  Xt4ofAJvtif)i  that  were 
very  willing  to  deprive  the  poor  of  what  was  their  due,  and  expend  it 
on  the  erectioa  of  splendid  bmldiogs. 

vor.  III.  ^"B 


402  CHRISTIAN  WOBSHIP. 

he  persecuted  the  pious,  and  thus  destroyed  the  true  chmch^ 
coDsisting  of  the  commuDity  of  believers.  He  admoniahes^ 
him  to  be  careful,  and  distinguish  between  the  church  build- 
ing and  the  church  itself;  the  latter  being  composed  of  pure 
souls,  the  former  of  wood  and  stone.*  In  the  time  of  the 
apostles,  said  he,  church  buildings  did  not  as  yet  exist ;  but 
the  church  consisting  of  the  communities  was  rich  in  the  gifb 
of  the  Spirit  Now,  the  church  structures  were  respl^doit 
with  marbles,  but  the  church  itself  was  barren  of  those  gifts 
of  the  Spirit| 

Magnificent  public  buildings,  already  erected,  and  pagaiL 
temples,  were  also  occasionally  presented  as  gifts  to  the 
churches,  and  were  consecrated  and  altered  for  the  purposes 
of  Christian  worship.  Yet  it  might  well  be  that,  in  the  pro- 
vincial towns,  the  more  simple  places  of  assembly,  which  bore 
the  impress  of  Christian  antiquity,  continued  for  a  long  time 
to  form  a  striking  contrast  with  the  splendid  church  edifices 
in  the  large  cities.  Zeno,  bbhop  of  Verona  (who  lived  after 
the  middle  of  the  fourth  century),  labours  to  show,  in  one  of 
his  discourses,  that  the  distinguishing  mark  of  Christianity,  as 
compared  with  Judaism  and  Paganism,  could  not  consbt  in 
the  beauty  of  its  outward  buildings,  in  which  it  was  excelled 
by  both  those  religions ;  but  what  constituted  the  peculiarity 
of  Christianity,  what  it  had  in  preference  to  both  these  reli- 
gions, was,  the  spiritual  being  of  the  church,  the  community 
of  believers,  God's  true  temple.  The  living  God  would  have 
living  temples.  In  this  discourse  he  remarks,  that  no  Chris- 
tian churches  were  to  be  found,  or  at  least  but  very  few, 
which  could  be  compared  with  the  ruins  of  the  n^lected 
heathen  temples.j:  Doubtless  this  language  is  not  to  be  taken 
as  literally  true.  We  must  make  allowance  for  what  should 
be  attributed  to  rhetorical  exaggeration,  or  explained  as  too 
general  a  conclusion  from  individual  examples. 

The  Christian  churches  were  planned  after  the  pattern  of 
the  temple  at  Jerusalem;    and  this  threefold  division  was 

*     On    aAA.0   t^rn    i»»kfio'i»    »eti    ibXXa  [UxXn^MM'Tii^My,    h    fuv.   yk^    i^ 

f  See  lib.  II.  ep.  246. 

X  Lib.  I.  Tract.  14.  Quod  aut  nallum  ant  perrarum  est  per  omnem 
ecclesiam  Dei  orationis  loci  membmmy  quod  possit  quavis  ruina  in  se 
mergentibos  idololatnce  «sid\b\i&  nunc  usque  aliquatenns  comparari. 


CONSBCBATION  OF  CHURCHES.  403 

ekeely  connected  with  the  whole  peculiar  form  of  worship,  as 
it  hftd  sprung  out  of  the  idea  of  a  Christian  priesthood,  corre- 
qmndiDg  to  the  Jewish,  and  of  a  New  Testament  sacrificial 
sendee  corresponding  to  that  of  the  Old  Testament.  The 
three  parts  were, ^rst,  the  front  court,*  where  all  the  unbap- 
tiaed,  Pagans,  Jews,  and  Catechumens,  could  stand  and  hear 
the  sermon  and  the  reading  of  the  scriptures:  the  place 
assigned  to  all  the  uninitiated ;  next,  the  proper  temple,  the 
place  assigned  to  the  conmiunity  of  laymen,  believers  and 
baptized  persons  ;t  finally,  the  sanctuary ,|  the  place  appro>* 
priated  to  the  offering  of  the  New  Testament  sacrifices,  and 
to  the  priests  who  presented  them,  and  therefore  separated  by 
a  veil  §  and  railing  ||  from  the  other  parts  of  the  church.  Here 
stood  the  altar ;  here  stood  the  QpovoQ,  the  chair  (cathedra)  of 
the  bishop ;  and  in  a  semicircle  around  it  were  seats  for  the 
clergy.  The  clergy  alone  had  the  privilege  of  receiving  the 
holy  supper  within  the  limits  which  separated  the  altar  from 
the  other  parts  of  the  church.T 

The  consecration  of  new  churches  was  celebrated  with  great 
aolannity.  It  was  a  popular  festival,  which  such  bishops  as 
Theodoret  courteously  invited  even  pagans  to  attend ;  and  the 
day  of  the  year  in  which  this  consecration  had  been  made  was 
likewise  solemnized.  The  unevangelical  notion  which,  like 
la  iqany  other  errors  of  church  life,  grew  out  of  the  confusion 
of  outward  things  with  spiritual,  was  already  becoming  fixed, 

*  ITf fMMf,  M^^«S,  femla,  so  called  from  its  oblong  form. 

t  The  MMf,  toe  Itp^t  in  the  more  restricted  sense  of  the  term  ;  called 
from  its  shape  «  ums  or  navis  ecclesise  (the  nave),  where  also  was  the 
ehmcely  from  -which  the  holy  scriptures  were  read,  and  occasionally  the 
ttrmon  was  delivered  (JtfA^m,  pulpitum,  suggestus).  Usage  was  not 
always  alike  m  this  respect  Sometimes  the  sermon  was  preached  from 
the  steps  of  the  altar,  sometimes  from  the  tribune,  finfi»,  or  exedra  of  the 
bisbop. 

}  T«  &ym  rSv  kyUtv,  vk  eCivra,  sanctuarium,  (irifi»  metonjmice. 

§  A^tiu^  il  Ki7»AJtf,  cancelli. 

^  As  in  this  distinction  of  the  clergy  is  exhibited  the  false  notion  of 
the  priesthood,  so  the  Byzantine  spirit,  which  tended  to  drag  into  the 
cfanrdi  even  the  distinctions  of  worldly  rank,  is  betrayed  in  the  cir- 
emnstanoe  that  an  exception  was  made  in  this  case  with  regard  to  the 
emperors^  who  were  also  permitted  to  take  their  place  withiu  the  limits 
of  tne  sanctuary.  Ambrose  is  reported  to  have  been  the  first  to  make  a 
change  in  this  respect  in  favour  of  the  emperor  Theodosius ;  he  assigned 
the  latter  a  place  at  the.  head  of  the  church,  immediately  in  front  of  the 
limits  (v;^  r«v  ^if^MTm),    Sozom.  hist  eccles.  VII.  25. 


404  CHBISTIAN  WORSHIP. 

that  by  this  consecration  the  churches  acquired  a  peculiar 
sanctity  of  their  own  ;  although,  as  maybe  gathered  from  what 
has  already  been  said,  an  evangelical  tendency  of  spirit,  which 
placed  the  essence  of  the  church  rather  in  the  communion 
of  hearts,  and  derived  all  true  consecration  and  holiness  solely 
from  the  direction  of  the  spirit,  opposed  itself  to  this  error.* 
Chrysostom  represents  the  benefit  of  prayer  in  the  church  to 
consist,  not  in  the  holiness  of  the  place,  but  in  the  elevation 
of  the  feelings  by  Christian  communion,  by  the  bond  of  love;] 
although  the  very  men  who,  on  the  one  hand,  under  the  im- 
pulse of  their  purely  Christian  conscioumess,  uttered  so  many 
noble  thoughts  in  opposition  to  the  sensuous  and  Judaizing 
tendency  of  the  spirit  of  those  times,  were  nevertheless  urged 
on  by  that  spirit,  unconsciously,  to  warrant  and  confirm  many 
a  practice  which  was  at  war  with  that  purely  Christian  con- 
sciousness. Thus  Chrysostom,  for  example,  who,  as  is  evident 
from  the  proofs  already  given,  understood  so  well  how  to  dis- 
tinguish and  hold  apart  the  New  Testament  point  of  view 
from  that  of  the  Old,  yet,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the 
superiority  of  the  church  to  the  temple  of  the  Old  Testament, 
mentioned,  among  other  things,  the  higher  virtue  of  the  sacred 
lamp  in  the  church,  compared  to  that  in  the  temple ;  since,  hy 
the  oil  of  the  former,  miraculous  cures  had  been  wrought  by 
those  who  used  it  in  the  exercise  of  true  &ith4  It  was  charged 
as  a  high  misdemeanour  on  Athanasius,  that  on  the  Easter  fes- 
tival he  had  assembled  the  community,  whom  the  other  churches 
had  not  room  enough  to  accommodate,  in  a  large  edifice  re- 
cently founded  by  the  emperor  Constantine,  before  it  had  been 
consecrated  according  to  the  usual  form.  Prayer  and  worship, 
it  was  alleged,  ought  never  to  be  offered  on  any  unconsecrated 
spot.  Athanasius  met  his  accusers  with  the  words  of  our  Lord, 
that  he  who  would  pray  should  shut  himself  in  his  chamber :  no 

*  The  term  *'  church/'  says  Chrysostom,  is  a  designation  of  fellowship 

— l»»Xifr/«  g-vrr^ftartt  km  ffvtohov  t^rn  ivaftM,     In  Plsalm  cxiix.  Ti  V^  f> 

498.  The  church  is  not  wall  and  roof,  but  fidth  and  life— «  iMXnrat  d 
*r»ix»s  »«M  Sft^cff  akXa  irig-rn  *at  fiiog.    Senno  in  Eutrop.  T.  III.  f.  386. 

i  rvv^ir/EMf .  It  is  true,  he  adds,  on  the  false  principle  of  the  priesthood, 
by  which  he  too  yftis  fettered ;  »»}  at  tUv  ii^im  tSx»t*  De  incompreben- 
sihiii,  T.  I.  f.  469,  s.  6. 

I  Horn.  32,  Matth.  S.  6.    ^\9ktn  •«*»  (i.\<rk  nt\Mxiu\  «««  %Ikm^  IXtltf 


aiaN  OF  THE  CROSS.  405 

place  therefore  was,  in  itself  considered,  too  pro&ne  for 

jaayer.* 

.  As  it  r^ards  the  decoration  of  churches  with  representations 
of  religious  objects,  it  is  necessary  first  to  distinguish  here,  from 
.other  images,  the  symbol  of  the  cross,  the  sign  of  the  victory 
of  Christ  over  the  kingdom  of  evil,  the  token  of  redemption. 
From  the  actions  of  daily  life,  in  which  this  sign  was  every- 
where customarily  employed,  and  which  were  thus  to  be  con- 
secrated and  sanctified,  the  sign  probably  passed  over,  at  an 
early  period,  to  the  places  where  the  Christian  communities 
assembled  for  worship,t  although  other  symbols  were  still  kept 
away  £x>m  them  as  savouring  of  Paganism.  A  true  and  genu- 
ine Christian  feeling  lay  at  the  basis  of  the  practice,  when  this 
symbol  was  employed  not  only  in  the  consecration  of  all  eccle- 
siastical transactions,  as  in  baptism,  clerical  ordination,  the 
ordinance  of  the  supper,  the  religious  celebration  of  marriage, 
but  also  in  other  transactions  of  life,  whether  of  a  more  sor- 
rowful or  joyful  kind ;  the  feeling,  that  the  Christian's  whole 
life,  in  sorrow  and  in  joy,  should  be  passed  with  one  constant 
reference  to  the  redemption,  and  sanctified  thereby.  But  with 
most,  this  resort  to  the  sign  of  the  cross  had  become  a  mere 
mechanical  act,  in  performing  which  they  either  were  not  con- 
scious themselves  of  the  ideas  thus  symbolized,  or  else  trans- 
ferred to  the  outward  sign  what  should  have  been  ascribed  to 

^  *  Athanas.  apologia  ad  Constantinm,  s.  17.  To  what  profanation  of 
holy  things  that  superstitious  reverence  for  the  external  signs  of  the  holy 
was  capable  of  lea^g,  this  example  may  show.  Two  bishops  in  Libya, 
about  the  year  420,  were  engaged  in  a  quarrel  about  the  possession  of  a 
place  wMch  may  have  been  of  some  importance  as  a  fortified  place  of 
lefoge  from  the  incurious  of  the  barbarians.  To  secure  this  spot  for  his 
ehurch,  one  of  them  resorted  to  the  following  stratagem.  He  pressed 
his  way  in  by  force,  caused  an  altar  to  be  brought,  and  consecrated  upon 
it  the  sacrament  of  the  supper.  Now  in  the  opinion  of  the  superstitious 
muldtade  the  whole  place  was  consecrated,  and  could  no  longer  be  used 
Ibr  any  ordinary  purpose  of  social  life.  Very  justly  was  it  remarked  by 
the  bishop  Svnesius,  complaining  of  this  transaction  to  Theophilus, 
patriarch  of  Uonstantinople,  that  in  this  way  the  holiest  ordinances  could 
be  abased  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  vilest  purposes.  He  said  it  was 
not  ^e  manner  of  Christianity,  to  exhibit  the  divine  as  a  thing  which 
oonld  be  charmed  with  magical  necessity  by  certain  formulas  of  conse- 
cration ;  but  as  something  that  had  its  dwelling  in  the  pure  and  godlike 

temper   of  mind  t    "iVn    treu^vect  rmg  a^ei4wt  jmb)  ratf  ctKUects    rf    ^ 

^imdn^n.    Synes.  ep.  67,  ad  Theophilum. 
t  See  vol.  I.  p.  406. 


406  OHRISTLIK  WOBSmP. 

&ith  and  to  the  temper  of  the  heart  alone,  and  thus  fell  into  a 
superstitious  veneration  of  the  symbol  itself.  The  cross,  hitherto 
aimple  and  destitute  of  all  ornaments,  -was  now  gorgeously  de- 
corated, as  the  altered  condition  of  the  church  was  thought  to 
require,  with  gold,  pearls,  and  precious  stones.     The  univenal 
use  of  this  symbol  is  thus  described  by  Chrysostom:  ^The 
sign  of  universal  execration,  the  sign  of  extremest  punishment, 
has  now  become  the  object  of  universal  longing  and  love.  We 
see  it  everywhere  triumphant :   we  find  it  in  houses,  on  the 
roofs  and  the  walls ;  in  cities  and  villages ;  on  the  market 
place,  the  great  roads,  and  in  deserts;  on  mountains  and  in 
valleys  ;*  on  the  sea,  on  ships ;  on  books  and  on  weapons ;  oi 
wearing  apparel,  in  the  marriage  chamber,  at  banquets,  od 
vessels  of  gold  and  of  silver,  in  pearls,  in  pictures  on  the  trails, 
on  beds ;  on  the  bodies  of  brute  animals  that  are  diseased  ;f  on 
the  bodies  of  those  possessed  by  evil  spirits ;}  in  the  dances  of 
those  going  to  pleasure,  and  in  the  associations  of  those  that 
mortify  their  bodies."§     Men  like  Augustin  denounced  the 
mere  mechanical  practice  of  making  the  sign  of  the  cross,  aad, 
on  tlie  otiier  hand,  gave  prominence  to  that  which  it  was  de- 
signed to  indicate,  the  inward  bent  of  the  affections,  to  that 
which  should  have  a  living  existence  in  the  temper  of  the  heart 
The  sign  of  the  cross  was  to  remind  believers  of  the  nature  of 
the  Christian  calling,  of  their  destination  to  suffer  for  the  cause 

*  Also  on  windows, — 54  in  Matth.  s.  4.  *Eirt  t£v  fiy»t^9 ;  paveme&tSi 
too,  were  laid  with  signs  of  the  cross;  a  practice  rorbidden  by  the 
second  council  of  Trnlla,  691,  c.  73. 

f  See  above,  the  account  of  the  rhetorician  Severus. 

t  It  being  the  intention  to  expel  evil  spirits  by  the  power  of  the  crofiS. 

§  See  the  homily  on  Christ's  Idivinity,  s.  9.  T.  I.  f.  571.  We  fre- 
quently find  it  mentioned,  also,  that  Christians  wore  the  sign  <f  the  crtm 
on  their  foreheads,  effingere  crucem  in  ftonte,  UrtMrwf  iv  r^  fMrtt^TM,  por- 
tare  crucem  in  fronte ; — and  in  several  places,  we  are  to  understand  by 
it,  or  at  least  may  without  hazard  understand  by  it,  that  they  frequently 
made  the  sign  of  the  cross  with  the  finger  on  uieir  foreheads.  Bat 
there  are  also  several  places  where  this  explanation  does  not  8affioe,'aiii 
which,  perhaps,  can  be  understood  in  no  other  sense  than  that  ChristiaiiB 
actually  imprinted  in  some  way  or  other,  or  hung  the  sign  of  the  croM 
on  their  foreheads.  Augustin^  in  Psalm  budlL  s.  6.  Jam  in  frontihiif 
regum  pretiosius  est  signum  crucis,  quam  gemma  diadematis.  In  Pb. 
xxxii.  Enarrat  III.  s.  13,  compared  with  what  Chrysostom  says,  Ex- 
posit,  in  Ps.  cix.  p.  6,  T.  V.  f.  250.     lUvr%«  W)  rw  fAtr^iifv  r^  rmug^ 


^^ 


.    OTHEB  SY3IB0LS.  407 

of  Grod,  and  tbroi^  nuflferings  to  follow  Chrigt  to  glory.  God 
vanted  not  such  as  described  this  sign  on  their  foreheads,  bat 
siteh  as  practised  what  this  sign  denoted  in  their  daily  liyes, 
such  as  bore  the  imitaticm  of  Christ's  humility  in  their  hearts.* 

It  was  a  somewhat  different  case,  where  representettions  of 
the  human  form  were  employed  with  religious  albisions.  That 
tendency  of  the  Christian  spirit,  of  which  we  spoke  in  the  pre- 
ceding period,  still  expressed,  at  the  beginning,  its  opposition 
to  such  representations.  But  as  Christianity  giadually  pressed 
ks  way  into  popular  and  domestic  life,  the  cases  must  con- 
tinually become  more  frequent,  where,  in  place  of  the  objects 
of  pagan  worship,  those  would  be  substituted  which  were  dear 
to  the  faith  and  feelings  of  Christians.  Besides  this,  a  change 
had  now  taken  place  in  the  views  and  in  the  taste  of  the  Chris- 
tians. Those  who,  at  an  earlier  period,  had  shrunk  from  the 
outward  splendour  of  religion  as  savouring  of  Paganism,  as 
cqpposed  to  the  idea  so  often  mentioned  of  Christ's  appearance 
in  the  form  of  a  servant,  were,  by  the  altered  condition  of  the 
church,  led  rather  to  wish  to  see  Christianity  emblazoned  by 
external  pomp ;  and  the  conversion  of  many  was  of  such  a 
kind,  that  in  truth  their  tendency  to  materialism  in  religion 
merely  took  another  shape  and  l;urn.  They  would  fain  have, 
in  Christianity  too,  a  religion  presented  under  images  of 
s^ise.  This  tendency,  the  imperial  family  of  the  Constantines 
certainly  had  to  a  remarkable  degree,  and  in  many  things  they 
gave  the  tone  to  others.  As  a  substitute  for  the  remains  of 
old  pagan  art,  Constantino  lavished  on  the  public  monumen1;s 
with  which  he  embellished  the  new  imperial  city,  the  repre- 
sentations of  religious  objects  taken  from  the  circle  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments ;  as,  for  example,  Daniel  in  the  lion's 
den,  Christ  under  the  image  of  the  Grood  Shepherd. f  The 
sister  of  this  emperor,  Constantia,  the  widow  of  licinius,  peti- 
tioned the  bishop  Eusebius  of  Caesarea  for  a  figure  of  Christ. 

It  was  not  the  church-teachers,  then,  nor  the  leaders  and 
heads  of  the  communities,  but  the  great  mass  of  the  Christians, 
with  whom  we  reckon  also  the  lofty  ones  of  the  earth,  that 
introduced  the  use  of  religious  images.  At  Rome,  the  names 
ttf  the  apostles  Peter  and  Paul  being  often  coupled  together 
as  martyrs,  and  the  memory  of  both  celebrated  on  the  same 
day,  it  came  about,  that  the  figure  of  Christ,  attended  by  these 

*  Augostin.  p.  302,  s.  3.  p.  32,  s.  13.  f  Enseb.  de  v.  c.  iii.  49. 


«> 


406  OHBISTIAN  W0B8HIP, 

two  apostles,  was  painted  on  the  walls  ;  a  fiict  by  which  many 
of  the  heathen  were  misled  to  suppose  that  Paul  had  been 
chosen  among  the  apostles  bj  Christ  during  his  earthly  lifetime.* 
Images  of  martyrs,  venerated  monks,  and  bishops,  were  dis- 
persed &r  and  widcf  The  Antiochians  had  the  likeness  of 
their  deceased  bishop  Meletius  engrav^i  on  their  signets,  and 
painted  on  cups,  goblets,  and  on  the  walls  of  their  chamben.t 
The  ^gure  of  Abraham  offering  up  Isaac  was  a  faLVOurite  sub* 
ject  of  Christian  art.§  Among  the  rich  and  noble  men  and 
women  in  the  large  cities  of  the  Byzantine  empire,  Christianity 
was  affected  even  in  the  mode  of  dress ;  and,  as  often  happens, 
it  was  supposed  the  corrupt  inclinations  which  remained  essen- 
tially the  same,  were  sanctified  by  the  seemly  show  of  a 
Christian  outside.  When  it  was  the  &shion  for  men  and 
women  of  rank  to  wear  garments  on  which  the  whole  repre- 
sentation of  a  chase  was  embroidered  in  gold  and  silver 
threads,  they  who  made  pretensions  to  piety,  on  the  other 
hand,  chose  the  representation  of  the  marriage  feast  at  Cana; 
of  the  man  sick  of  the  palsy,,  who  took  up  his  bed  and  walked ; 
of  the  blind  man  restored  to  sight ;  of  the  woman  with  the 
issue  of  blood  ;  of  the  Magdalene  who  embraced  the  feet  of 
Jesus ;  of  the  resurrection  of  Xazarus.  Bedizened  with  sach 
figures,  they  supposed — as  AMsterius,  bishop  of  Amasia,  in 
Pontus,  in  the  last  half  of  the  fourth  century,  asserts— that 
their  dress  must  be  well  approved  in  the  sight  of  God.|  This 
excellent  church-teacher  advises  them  rather  to  dispose  of  such 
garments  for  as  much  as  they  would  bring,  and  use  the  avails 
to  honour  the  living  images  of  Gk)d ;  instead  of  carrying  about 
the  sick  of  the  palsy  on  their  garments,  rather  to  look  up  the 
actually  sick  and  relieve  them ;  instead  of  wearing  on  their 
bodies  a  kneeling  penitent  in  embroidery,  rather  to  mourn  over 
their  own  sins  with  a  penitent  spirit.^ 

At  the  same  time,  we  should  take  pains  to  disting^h  the 

*  Christas  simal  com  Petro  et  Paulo  in  pictis  parieUbus.  Angostin. 
de  coDsensa  Evangelistarum,  1. 1,  s.  16. 

t  As,  for  example,  Simeon  the  Stylite.    See  above. 

X  Cbrysostom.  Homil.  in  Meletium,  T.  II.  f.  519. 

§  See  Gregor.  Nyss.  orat.  in  Abrah.  T.  III.  opp.  Paris.  1638,  f.  476. 
Comp.  Auguslin.  c.  Faustum,  L  XXII.  c.  73,  tot  locis  pictum. 

II  Asterius  de  divite  et  Lazaro :  TauT»  irauwrts  ivW/Sm?  vt/Jiw^n,  «« 

T  See  above. 


THE  USE  OF  IMAQES.  409 

different  points  of  view  in  which  images  nvere  regarded  by  in- 
dividual church-teachers.  If  they  opposed  the  use  of  images 
in  the  church,  because  they  feared  it  would  degenerate  into  an 
idolatrous  veneration ;  if  they  strove  to  elevate  the  religion  of 
the  senses  to  that  of  the  spirit ;  if  they  especially  rejected  the 
images  of  Christ  on  the  score  of  some  particular  principle  of 
doctrine,  yet  we  are  not  warranted  for  these  reasons  to  conclude 
that  they  condenmed,  in  general,  all  representations  of  religious 
objects. 

Against  images  of  Christ  in  particular,  there  might  be  the 
more  decided  opposition,  inasmuch  as  the  whole  tradition  of 
the  church  witn^sed  that  no  genuine  likeness  of  Christ  existed : 
in  &ct,  the  very  reason  why  men  resorted  so  much  to  symbol- 
ical and  parabolical  representations,  in  reference  to  the  Saviour 
and  his  work,  was,  that  they  were  conscious  of  possessing  no 
genuine  inu^e  of  his  person. 

The  strongest  to  declare  himself  against  images,  was  Eusebius 
of  Csesarea,  in  his  letter  in  reply  to  Constantia's  request  for 
an  image  of  Christ.  On  the  one  hand,  we  observe,  still 
manifesting  itself  in  Eusebius,  that  aversion  to  images  which 
was  closely  connected  with  the  more  ancient  Christian  view 
of  Christ's  appearance,  and  with  that  sterner  opposition  to 
every  tiling  bordering  on  Paganism ;  not  less,  too,  the  by  no 
means  ungrounded  anxiety,  lest  the  devotion  of  the  princess, 
taking  too  sensuous  a  direction,  might  be  turned  wholly  aside 
from  the  essence  of  Christianity :  on  the  other  hand,  along 
with  these  common  traits  of  Christianity,  we  see  a  great  desd 
besides,  derived  from  the  peculiar  notions  in  Origen's  system 
of  faith,  which  Eusebius  was  inclined  to  favour  '^  What  do 
you  understand,  may  I  ask,  by  an  image  of  Christ?" — says 
Eusebius.  ^'  You  can  surely  mean  nothing  else  but  a  repre- 
sentation of  the  earthly  form  of  a  servant,  which,  for  man's 
sake,  he  for  a  short  time  assumed.  Even  when,  in  this,  his 
divine  majesty  beamed  forth  at  the  transfiguration,  his  disciples 
were  unable  to  bear  the  sight  of  such  glory ;  but  now  the 
figure  of  Christ  is  become  wholly  deified  and  spiritualized, — 
transfigured  into  a  form  analogous  to  his  divine  nature.* 


xmXtiv  Tnv  ifhn  xai  foifav  »w/»*,  tlxna  vis  ^*»7^«^*iVuty ;   We  recogniae 

A.  I,  8,  3,    : 


tiie  Origenist     Comp.  vol.  I.  s.  3.     Tiff  t»»  %wXuf  /Jf^s  to  ttif  its 


410  CHRISTIAN  WOBSHIP. 

Who,  then,  has  power  to  draw  the  image  of  such  a  glory, 
exalted  above  every  eartUj  form  ?     Who,  to  represent  in 
lifeless  colours  the  splendonr  which  radiates  from  such  tarn- 
oendent  majesty  ?*     Or  could  you  be  satisfied  with  such  an 
image  as  the  pagans  made  of  their  gods  and  hevoes,  which 
bore  no  resemblance  to  the  thing  represented  ?     But  if  yoa 
are  not  seeking  for  an  image  of  the  transfigured  godlike  form, 
but  for  one  of  the  earthly,  mortal  body,  so  as  it  wasoonstitiited 
before  this  change,  you  must  have  forgotten  those  passages 
in  the  Old  Testament,  which  forbid  us  to  make  any  image  of 
that  which  is  in  heaven  above  or  on  the  earth  beneath.  T^ere 
have  you  ever  seen  any  such  in  the  church,  or  heard  of  tbdr 
being  there  from  others?     Have  not  such  things  (images, 
therefore,  of  religious  objects)  been  banished  fiur  from  the 
churches  over  the  world  ?"']'     He  said  he  once  saw  in  a 
woman's  possession,  two  figures  of  men  in  the  garb  of  philo* 
sophers,  which  she  pretended  were  Christ  and  PauL    But  he 
made  her  give  them  up,  lest  some  scandal  might  result  firom 
them  either  to  herself  or  to  others ;  lest  it  might  seem  that  the 
Christians,  like  idolaters,  carried  about  their  God  in  an  image.! 
Paul,  he  observed,  exhorts  all  Christians  to  cleave  no  longer 
to  the  things  of  sense,§  saying :  ^^  Though  we  have  known 
Christ  after  the  flesh,  yet  now  henceforth  know  we  him  thus 
no  longer."    The  godless  sect  of  the  Simonians  had  an  image 
of  Simon  Magus ;  and  he  himself  had  seen  among  the  Mani- 
cheans  a  figure  of  Mani.     "But  we,'*  he  concludes,  "who 
confess  that  our  Lord  is  God,  we  must  let  the  whole  longing 
of  our  hearts  be  directed  to  the  intuition  of  him  in  his  divine 
character;  we  must  therefore  cleanse  our  hearts  with  aQ 
earnestness,  since  none  but  the  pure  in  heart  can  see  God. 
Still,  should  any  one  be  anxious  to  see  an  image  of  the  Savi- 
our, instead  of  beholding  him  &ce  to  &ce,  what  better  could 
we  have,  than  that  which  he  himself  has  drawn  in  the  sa- 
cred writings  ?*'||     Thus,  a  truer  image  of  Christ  could  be 

*  Tif  y  auif  rnf  ra^eufviif  aJ^ittg  r%  xeu  ^ol^ns  'rag  «t«'«rr<Xj3««MKf  ««}  a««r* 
r^»9rTow»f  fMt^fiet^oyctf  ttos  t\  a*  tSfi  xaree^etfeS^cu  nx^oTg  »ai  ii^MT 
^ttfAm/rt  ttati  0m«y^tt(pmt$, 

f  Oo^t  ^t  itetf  Mf  rnt  »l»»ufAiffif  ^v^Urett  ««}  irifftn  rUf  UkXikmm  in- 

§  n«t/X«v  vi  aixoiMt  hftSig  ireuhvovrog,  ft^MtTi  rug  gmmnUttg  icft^an^u*. 

])  A  fragment  of  this  letter  is  preserved  «m(mg  tibe  transaetioiK  of  ^ 


THE  USE  OF  IMAGES.  411 

found  in  the  exhibiticm  of  his  life,  as  recorded  in  the  gospel 
historj,  than  in  the  representation  of  his  bodily  form.  The 
manner  in  which  Eusebius  speaks,  in  his  church  history,  con- 
cerning the  busts  of  Christ,  which  it  was  said  the  woman 
cored  of  the  issue  of  blood  at  Csesarea  Philippi  had  made,  as  a 
memorial  of  her  gratitude  to  Christ ;  and  the  manner  in  which 
he  there  speaks  of  other  ancient  images  of  Christ  and  of  Paul, 
perfectly  accord  with  the  views  expressed  by  him  in  the 
present  letter :  for  in  this  latter  passage  also,  he  considers  it 
as  a  pagan  way  of  expressing  reverence  to  the  bene&ctors  of 
mankind.* 

In  respect  to  Asterius,  his  polemical  attacks  were  directed, 
as  may  be  gathered  from  the  passages  already  cited,  not  so 
much  against  the  use  of  religious  images  generally,  as  against 
that  pomp  and  display,  which,  to  the  injury  of  active  Christian 
charity,  followed  in  its  train.  Yet  even  he  expressed  his  dis- 
approbation on  the  same  grounds  with  Eusebius,  particularly 
of  images  to  represent  Christ ;  and  maintained  that  men  ought 
not  to  renew  and  multiply  the  servant-form  which  Christ  once, 
during  the  days  of  his  flesh,  voluntarily  assumed  for  the  salva- 
tion of  mankind.  <'  Bear,"  said  he,  ^^  the  Logos,  who  is  a 
spirit,  in  a  spiritual  manner,  within  your  souls."t  ^^  these 
viewsof  Eusebius  and  Asterius  there  was  manifestly,  however, 
something  of  a  one-sided  character.  They  betray,  in  part, 
tiie  restricted  notions  peculiar  to  the  earlier  Christian  period, 
of  Christ's  servant-form ;  and  in  part  they  show  a  certain  Neo- 
Platonic  contempt  of  the  body.  The  earthly  human  nature  of 
Christ  was  not  recognized  here  in  the  profound  meaning  which 
it  must  and  should  have  for  the  Christian  feelings :  for  to  these, 
every  thing  that  pertains  to  the  purely  human  nature,  even  now, 

eomcil  of  Iconoclasts  at  Constantinople,  a.i>.  754 ;  and  fhim  these  it  has 
baea  adopted  into  the  sixth  action  of  the  seventh  eBcnmenioal  coonoil,  or 
of  the  aeoood  cooncil  of  Nioe,  a.d.  787.  More  of  it  has  been  pahlished 
l)j  Boi^n,  in  the  remarks  on  the  second  volume  of  Nicephonis  Gregoras, 
1795.  ^ 

XmoTMt  T»vm  ^if^v  iUtidrmp  r^v  i^pwrM.    Snseb.  Vli.  O.  IS. 

wm  iJiym  wt^ift^  Respecting  the  connection  of  these  views  with  the 
peculiar  form  of  his  system  of  fiuth,  see  below,   in  the  fourth  sec* 


412  CHRISTIAN  WOBSHIP. 

in  its  present  earthly  fi>nn,  has  been  sanctified  and  ennobled 
by  Christ;  and  on  this  side,  the  universal  Christian  feeling 
would  naturally  plead  in  &vour  of  the  images  of  Christ  against 
their  opponents ;  although,  on  the  other  side,  the  truly  evan- 
gelical direction  of  these  latter,  which  points  away  £rom  the 
sensible  to  the  spiritual  Christ,  communicating  himself  in 
spiritual  fellowship,  is  not  to  be  mistaken.     With  this  ten- 
dency, Asterius  could  nevertheless  approve  of  the  pictures 
of  suffering  martyrs,  and  speak  with  lively  interest  of  the 
impression  which  a  pcture  of  this  sort  had  made  on  himsel£* 
In  the  same  sense  in  which  Asterius  spoke  against  those  ^o 
were  in  the  habit  of  displaying  on  their  dress  the  representation 
of  sacred  stories  as  a  mark  of  piety,  in  this  same  sense  another 
church-teacher,  near  the  close  of  the  fourth  century,  Amphi- 
lochius,  bishop  of  Iconium  in  Phrygia,  rebuked  those  whose 
piety  consisted  in  multiplying  dead  images  of  the  saints,  in- 
stead of  copying  their  example  in  the  practice  of  Christian 
virtues.f    Thus,  too,  Chrysostom  agrees  with  Eusebius  in 
disclaiming  all  knowledge  of  a  sensuous  image  of  Christ,  but 
ever  speaking  of  Christ's  moral  image  alone  in  the  copying  of 
his  holy  walk,  or  pointing  away  to  the  intuition  of  Christ 
glorified  in  the  eternal  life.     In  respect  to  the  former,  he 
remarks :  '^  Teach  the  soul  to  form  a  mouth  which  is  like  the 
mouth  of  Christ ;  for  she  can  form  such  a  one  if  she  wilL 
And  how  is  this  to  be  done  ?     By  what  colours  ?     By  what 
materials  ?     By  no  colours,  no  materials ;  but  only  by  virtue, 
by  meekness,  and  humility.     How  many  are  there  amongst  us 
who  wish  to  see  his  form  ?     Behold  we  can  not  only  see  him, 
but  also  be  like  him,  if  we  are  really  in  earnest."f    And  with 
regard  to  the  latter  he  says,  after  having  spoken  of  the  majesty 
of  Christ's  appearance :  "  Perhaps  you  are  now  seized  with 
the  desire  of  beholding  that  image.     But  if  we  willy  we  may 
see  a  far  better  one."§     The  same  spirit  is  manifest  also  in 
Augustin,  as  when  he  says :  "  Let  us  hear  the  gospel  with 
such  a  mind,  as  if  we  saw  the  Lord  present  before  us ;  and 

♦  See  his  discourse  on  the  martyrdom  of  Euphemia. 

J  Oil    yd^    Tois     ^ifo,^    ret     ffei^xtxa    ir^oo'eitra  rSf   kyim*  %m    ;^«/MM'Mr 
WtiAiXif  fi/Atv  ivTtntovt,  or)  »h  XV^^^f'^*  rovrm,  aXXa  t«»  iTtfX/ri/Ay,    airan  V 

uftTfis  \x(MfAua0eu,    See  this  fragment  in  the  Vl.  act  of  the  second  Niceae 
council. 
J  In  Matth.H.  78,  ^e\  1^,  s.  4,  %  In  Matth.  H.  27,  vel  28,  s.  2. 


THE  USE  OF  IMAQES.  413 

let  US  not  say  to  ourselves,  ^  Blessed  are  they  who  could  see 
Jiiin ;'  since  many  among  those  who  saw  him  have  perished ; 
but  many  among  us  who  have  not  seen  him,  believe  on  him. 
The  Lord  is  above ;  but  here,  too,  in  the  very  midst  of  us,  is 
the  Lord  of  truth."* 

In  the  course  of  the  fourth  century,  men  began,  by  degrees, 
to  decorate  the  churches  also  with  images — a  practice,  how- 
ever, which  did  not  become  general  until  near  the  close  of 
this  century,  t  Men  of  wealth  and  rank  who  founded  churches, 
wished  them  to  be  set  out  with  all  the  embellishments  of  art, 
and  so,  too,  with  the  rich  ornament  of  pictures  ;  and,  in  par- 
ticular, the  churches  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  martyrs 
were  adorned  with  the  representations  of  their  sufferings,  and 
with  pictures  from  the  historical  parts  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments.  When,  on  the  festivals  of  the  martyrs,  great 
multitudes  of  the  people  flocked  to  these  churches,  these  paint- 
ings were  to  serve  the  purpose  of  entertaining,  touching,  edi- 
fying, and  instructing  the  rude  and  ignorant,  who  could  not 
be  instructed  and  edified  by  means  of  books4  Still,  many 
influential  voices  were  heard  objecting  to  the  superfluity  of 
picture  ornaments ;  and  others,  against  the  use  of  them  at  .all 
in  the  churches.  .  A  respectable  man  at  Constantinople,  who 
wished  to  erect  a  chiurch  in  memory  of  the  martyrs,  conceived 
the  plan  of  ornamenting  it  with  various  pictures  from  nature, 
whidi  perhaps  were  to  have  some  symbolical  meaning,  and 
also  with  many  signs  of  the  cross.  But  the  pious  Monk  Nilus, 
a  worthy  disciple  of  Chrysostom,  to  whom  he  communicated 
his  design,  advised  him  to  be  sparing  of  picture  ornaments : 
it  was  a  childish  thing,  said  he,  to  dissipate  the  eyes  and  atten- 

r 

*  In  Evang.  Job.  Tract.  30,  s.  4. 
'  t  In  the  sermong  deliyered  by  Chrysostom  at  Onstantinople,  as  well 
as  at  Antiochy  there  is  not  to  be  found — though  he  frequently  alludes  in 
his  figures,  metaphors,  and  comparisons,  to  Sie  manners  and  customs  of 
his  time — any  reference  to  images  in  the  churches.  Montfaucon,  indeed, 
aapposed  that  he  found  such  an  allusion  in  the  H.  10,  Epbes.  s.  2,  but 
wrongly ;  for,  in  this  place,  Chrysostom  is  speaking,  not  of  the  visible 
bat  of  the  inyisible  church,— of  the  pillars  in  fliis  according  to  a  spiritual 
sense;  and  in  truth  he  there  compares  the  invisible  churdi,  not  with'  a 
s^endid  church  edifice^  in  which  case  unquestionably  we  should  find  an 
allusion  here  to  images  in  the  churches,  but  with  the  palace  of  ^  lord, 
wMch  is  ornamented  with  columns  and  statues. 

}  See  Paulinos  of  Nola,  carmen  IX.  et  X.  de  S.  Felicis  natali. 


4t-:  raZUTZiJ^   TVOSBaBU-. 


u*u    tt    tfti^    fijtrani    ir    iwn    oDfeeb.*     IhsgbhiI  of  'dik  lie 
iitfinui  -rP'-'^   II  tMR  fiXHSiuzn.  aai.n  cueti  ceam}aaxiDemcH  tiw 

T  III  lAiiiiiiiusv  ii  frdrn»  tran  Uit  Oil  aiici  J(«iw  TtistBDcnft: 
i^i  \is^  liuvt  v'Ki  -.'iHiu  iirt  TOAi  tJH  fiucred  acazqitiiree  tkn- 
Aiiv«b  niixru  itt  muiMifeH,.  tn  imuhuiic^  xc  tlir  jHonniies.  of 
liiLWt  0A;niiifs«>  iv  iiMT\.  aui  tnik-  cxchfid  ti>  imitste  tben. 
.Tin  iiiuri.  ri  ulusuiu  imn  al.  ^iniettiiinMb.  und  am^  bli^kt, 
i««  Hr-vt*ii  )m\v*r.  i^  ^^m^»^  ioui;.  br  iuvhicibl^  hope  ii 
^fiiL.  V}  l.lll>^.  niiniilp  .  xfuat  tr  fur  uiirr  «napaixie&,  coaq»- 
Ml  in  ln«v.^l*'lj^  lll^  it!]iiw-<iiKn..  «a»niitMK  ti-  jurmnsite.  and  obsft- 
«vim  It'  ul  iiK  '.•imnuiniih^  if  iim  Itivr..  lo  afiam  and  to  pR- 
wr«'t  iimiM!:^  inn.  i.L  iih'  iuiiiirr  r  "WiKm  thf  agfid  Ustep^ 
jU)mnH«iin»  ,f  ^t^amiiK.  nr  .^lUMimniu  is  xbe  »ie  of  CrpnSk 
ji  iiii.unf£  t  ^:isn  Ti  t'*tmfiiMin;.  caiiiK-  7{i  a  chuR^  ia  fmt  of 
zxtt  iK'.iiLn  :i.nriifc  ^':'.aic>>t;s  uiiL  ziifre-  immd  oa  a  eBnain  a 
tmnaj-  m:iiir)e.  v:iRnaKr  r  -v^Uh  .if  whim  rnnreflamaxiaD  of  CbiiEt 
ttf-  ".i!  «  (ft».^:^.  iK  mmAKiu'/tirT  T<e!r:  'zite  eilciciu  -es^MreBsLoe  peat 
ruC;jger.a-Ui.ii^  I:  -*«»  £Tvni:za;rr.  su:.  ittu  v^  the  ans^ontr  of 
Wy  Mvn^v?^.  ::*.a.T  uie  aoaire  -ctf  a  jblb  «aicisQd  he  limz-  imii 
«.  CVjri<i::ajL  iai-^^a.^  T&f  cj.cr  tnioiMi  he  ia  kemer  use  ti 
Htf)^./;  *.£*  v.CT  i*f  tfjoDf  w.v  SBBL  Tlif  arbanniy  pnweed- 
i^K^  i:«^£jc.v  ^-voa  ciflat:.:<:aict3uflL  afW  ak  pnram  ke  sCflC  to 
uwr  ^rMi  yrjtuA  vf  stuir  cLvicL  iZK^cJMT  «nRa3iu  lo  jppiare  ife 
<A«;  Lat  i^ftAi  c«/rri  Ci^vn,  aui  cgl!«d  vcvm  die  hv^op  Joka  of 
J^rutftlftitt  D^  M:«  u#  it  cLat  fur  :fae  Idvure  do  ««rii  dMich- 
^tiinititt^^  Mi  c^fitnuiictorj  to  th«  Cluistian  rdisioiu  shoaU 
Imt  u*4r<i.$  We  »««  iu  this  the  pioii^,  indeed,  bat  iMparintt 
and  iiarrow  z<:«il  which  cliaracttrrized  this  naan  eeBeflalhr. 
ILiiii  he  tjetUrr  understood  the  <pint  of  the  Old  Testament 
crf/nimand,  and  iK'en  ca|jable  of  duly  distingiiKhing  6oai<adi 
oilurr  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament  ecoDoiiues>  he  woM 
not  have  l^en  no  greatly  excited  by  what  he  saw.  SdU,  kov- 
ever,  it  wan  the  way  of  thinking  of  the  ancient  church,  whkfc 


4  Nil.  1.1V.  up.  61. 
Ii  I  UtftMtAtiu  in  ecdetia  Chriiti,  contra  aoctoritateni  acri] 
Vlinii  poBiiero  iuiaginmu. 

I  Quiu  centra  ri'ligiunem  noftram  veniunt    See  ep.  51, 
ijasd.  opora  ad.  Vnllani,  1. 1,  f.  S52. 


THE  USE  OF  IMAGES.  415 

lie  followed  out  in  this  case ;  and  at  all  events  it  is  to  be 
ranarked  that  it  was  not  the  principlcy  as  it  seems,  on  which 
he  proceeded  here,  but  simply  his  arbitrary  mode  of  proceed- 
ing, which  excited  opposition.*  But,  without  much  question, 
this  zeal  of  pious  men  is  justified,  when  we  reflect  how  easily 
the  prevailing  spirit  of  piety,  which  was  directed  on  sensible 
and  outward  things,  might  betray  the  rude  multitude,  who 
were  to  be  gradually  weaned  from  Paganism  to  the  supersti- 
tious veneration  of  images ;  especially,  as  the  excessive  reve- 
rence paid  to  saints  would  soon  be  transferred  also  to  theii* 
pictures,  and  as  reports  of  the  marvellous  effects  produced  by 
the  images  which  men  were  accustomed  to  regard  with  pecu- 
liar veneration,  as  also  by  the  reliques  of  the  saints,  soon  be- 
came widely  spread. 

Augustin,  as  early  as  the  last  times  of  the  fourth  century, 
was  forced  to  complain  of  the  fact  that  many  worshippers  of 
images  were  to  be  found  among  the  rude  Christian  multitudet 

♦  The  council  of  the  Iconoclasts  at  Constantinople  cited  several  writ- 
ings of  Epiphanias  against  images,  in  which  he  maintained  that  they  ought 
to  be  used  neither  in  the  church,  nor  at  the  cemeteries  of  the  martyrs,  nor 
in  private  dwellings ;  but  the  genuineness  of  these  pieces  is  extremely 
liable  to  suspicion.  As  well  the  enemies  as  the  fnends  of  images  in- 
dulged tiiemselves  in  &bricating  writings  under  ancient  venerated  names, 
in  fiivoor  of  their  respective  principles.  The  friends  of  images  appealed 
to  the  fisu^  that  these  writings,  ascribed  to  Epiphanius,  had  remained 
lutherto  unknown  to  eyerybody.  And  though  this  cannot  be  considered 
a  dedsive  proof  against  their  genuineness,  yet  these  fragments  bear  on 
their  fiice  many  marks  of  having  been  fabricated.  The  first  cited  words 
of  Epiphanius  (Concil.  Nic.  u.  actio  vi.  Concil.  ed.  Harduin.  T.  IV. 
1 890)  correspom,  in  fiict,  too  nearly  with  the  ordinary  modes  of  expres- 
sion among  the  enemies  of  images  in  the  period.  Next  occurs  a  letteil  of 
Epiphanius  to  the  emperor  Theodosius,  f.  391,  in  which  he  writes  to  him» 
that  he  had  often  called  on  his  colleagues  to  abolish  the  images,  but  they 
would  not  listen  a  moment  to  his  representations.  It  is  hardly  probable, 
however,  that  at  this  early  period  Epiphanius  would  have  found  any  occa- 
sion for  resorting  to  the  authority  of  an  emperor  against  the  images ;  and 
this  very  incident  with  John,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  renders  it  improbable 
that  Epiphanius,  in  his  declarations  against  the  images,  could  have  found 
at  that  time  so  violent  a  resistance.  It  should  rather  seem  that  the  enemies 
of  iiiiages  in  the  eighth  century  &bricated,  in  this  case  also,  occurrences 
of  an  earlier  period,  corresponding  to  what  was  done  in  their  own  time. 
Probably  that  single  incident  in  tiie  life  of  Epiphanius  which  has  been 
related,  was  the  occasion  of  such  writings  being  forged  in  his  name. 

t  Novi  mnltos  e8se]^ctiirarum  adoratores.  De  moribuF  ecclesise  catho- 
licte,  1. 1.  s.  75. 


416  CHRISTIAK  WORSHIP. 

— which  worship  of  images  the  Manicheans  laid  as  a  reproach 
agaiost  the  whole  church ;  but  he  reckoned  those  image-wor- 
shippers as  belongiDg  to  the  great  mass  of  nominal  Christians 
to  whom  the  essence  of  Christianity  was  unknown.* 

In  the  Western  church  this  modem  tendency,  between 
unconditional  opposition  to  images  and  image-worship,  main- 
tained itself  till  late  into  the  following  period ;  as  we  see,  for 
example,  in  the  case  of  the  Roman  bishop,  G-regory  the  Great, 
with  whom  we  shall  begin  the  next  following  period. 

But  this  moderate  tendency  did  not  so  maintain  itself  in  the 
Eastern  church.  Here  the  progress  was  rapid  from  one  step 
to  another.  The  spirit  of  the  East,  prone  to  excess  in  the 
expression  of  feelings ;  its  more  lively,  warm  imagination ; 
its  confounding  of  the  sign  with  the  thing  represented ;  its 
predominant  artistic  sense;  all  this  brought  it  about  at  an 
early  period  in  the  Oriental  church,  that  not  only  the  muUi'' 
tude  passed  from  the  use  of  inures  to  the  worship  of  them, 
but  even  the  church-teachers  suf^red  themselves  to  be  carried 
along  by  the  prevailing  spirit,  and  sought  to  defend  their 
coiurse  on  scientific  grounds.  In  the  course  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury, it  was  already  a  ruling  custom  in  the  Greek  church  for 
persons  to  prostrate  themselves  before  images  as  a  token  of 
reverence  to  those  represented  by  them  (the  irpoorKvvriffiQ), 
Already  did  the  Jews  lay  hold  of  this  prevailing  worship  of 
images  to  accuse  the  Christians  of  apostacy  from  the  divine 
law,  which  forbade  the  use  of  images  in  religion,  and  of  idola- 
try. Leontius,  bishop  of  Neapolis,  in  the  isle  of  Cyprus, 
who,  near  the  end  of  the  sixth  century,  wrote  an  apology  for 
Christianity  and  for  the  Christian  church,  against  the  accusa- 
tions of  the  Jews,  was  forced  already  to  pay  particular  atten- 
tion to  these  charges.  What  remains  to  us  of  this  writing  t 
is  of  importance,  as  giving  us  information  respecting  the 
character  of  the  veneration  paid  to  images  in  this  period,  and 
respecting  the  light  in  which  this  practice  was  regarded  by 
those  who  expressed  with  consciousness  the  prevailing  spirit 
of  the  times. 

He  maintains,  against  the  Jews,  that  the  Mosaic  law  was 

*  Professores  nomlDis  Christiani  nee  professionis  Base  vim  autscientes 
aut  exhibentes. 

t  The  fragments  in  the  fourth  action  of  the  second  Nicene  cooncU. 
Harduin.  Concil.  IV.  f.  194, 


THE  USE  OF  IMAGES.  417 

not  directed  unconditionally  against  all  devotional  use  of 
images,  but  only  against  the  idolatrous  use  of  them ;  since, 
in  fiict,  the  tabernacle  and  the  temple  both  had  their  images. 
But  from  the  idolatrous  adoration  of  images,  the  Christians 
were  assuredly  far  removed.  They  showed,  in  the  sign  of 
the  cross,  their  love  and  reverence  towards  Christ,  who  was 
represented  by  it,  in  accordance  with  a  principle  grounded 
in  human  nature.  As  affectionate  children,  whose  father  is 
on  a  journey,  if  they  do  but  see  his  coat,  his  hair,  or  his  mantle 
in  the  house,  embrace  every  such  article  and  kiss  it  with 
tears,  so,  too,  we  believers,  out  of  transcendent  love  to  Christ, 
reverence  everything  which  he  did  but  touch ;  and  for  this 
reason  we  represent  the  symbol  of  his  passion  in  churches,  in 
houses  and  shops,  in  the  market  place,  on  the  articles  of 
clothing ;  so  that  we  may  have  it  constantly  before  our  eyes, 
and  may  be  reminded  of  it,  and  not  forget  it,  as  the  Jews 
have  forgotten  their  God.  He  argues  that  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment the  ceremony  of  prostration  sometimes  occurs  as  a  mark 
of  respect  even  to  men,  and  therefore  could  not  by  any  means 
imply  the  notion  of  idolatry.  He  refers  to  the  cures  said  to 
have  been  wrought  on  energumens  by  means  of  images ; — 
and  indeed  it  may  easily  be  conceived  that  the  impression 
made  on  the  imagination  and  feelings  by  the  sight  of  such 
objects  might,  in  the  case  of  diseases  of  this  sort,  arising  from 
the  peculiar  nervous  system  and  disposition  of  the  individual, 
produce  extraordinary  effects.  In  the  same  manner  may  be 
explained  also  what  he  says  about  the  sudden  conversions 
wrought  by  the  sight  of  images,  as  evidence  of  the  virtue 
residing  in  them ; — that,  in  almost  every  part  of  the  world, 
abandoned  men,  murderers,  robbers,  profligates,  idolaters, 
were  every  day,  by  the  sight  of  the  cross,  awakened  to  con- 
viction, and  not  only  so,  but  led  to  renounce  the  world  and 
practise  every  virtue.  All  which,  though  rhetorically  over- 
wrought, yet  cannot  be  pure  fabrication,  but  was  probably 
drawn  from  some  few  individual  examples  in  which  rude 
minds,  by  the  sight  of  the  cross  or  of  other  images,  were  sud- 
denly overpowered,  and  quit  a  life  wholly  abandoned  to  sin 
for  penitence  in  Monachism.  But  it  may  indeed  be  a  ques- 
tion whether  the  crisis  to  which  men  were  brought  by  sudden 
impressions  of  this  sort  had  not  been  prepared  long  before- 
hand, and  whether  the  effect  produced  was  of  a  permanent  cha* 

vol*.  III.  ^  'K* 


E?.  Tn  Thar.  Vuiri)  tnlDt  ociciDTHL  die  ready  imagination 
itf  TUt  Eft?c  iinv  aadftd  b  crneiKt  deal  that  never  happened. 
Tiiitf-  aniw  xirt-  ^anrie^  khciui  miraraloas  images,  from  which 
tijiNtc  iiac  VieftL  «eeii  70  tnriLif*.  Socfa  fiicts,  also,  Leontius 
aodiiRe^  is  dt^feDuinr  tii«-  -vcvsLip  of  images.*  Summing  all 
"tcc««ui«r,  iit  «aT^  :  *"  Tiit-  inuurss  *i>e  not  our  gods ;  but  they 
a?t  11  >^  im&p^^  «f  CLrisC  And  io^  saiDts,  which  exist  and  are 
^ffUffrut^  in  Temflmhmiire  and  in  honour  of  these,  and  as 
(i^'iiuiH<ia$>  nf  liii'  rirawhe^''  '^  We  see  here  how  closely  the 
^*iif«raTi.iii  wacl  to  imacf*  wa^  roonected  with  the  whole  Ori- 
aaiiau  loiot*  cd*  iDrurricin :  how  tiiis  expression  of  reverence  by 
iK>  iD«iui«>  aiDC*iiD*<«a  TO  fo  iDDch.  at  the  beginning,  among  the 
C^rxoiialN.  as  the  same  censocmy  wcmld  have  done  among  the 
pcviiOe  oif  the  Wesn,  whosie  caWer  temperament  was  less  in- 
ciDed  lo  any  vioHem  expne!St^»on  of  the  feelings.  So  much  the 
»ow  aaag«ixwt^  however,  would  this  tend^icy  of  the  Oriental 
spdiii  lo  seoivaliiie  evervthin^  threaten  to  become  to  Christia- 
itiTT.  if  the  pTPv^aiiinz  spirit  of  Christianity  had  not  opposed 
t^-t  it,  a>  it  <^  at  the  be^innii^,  a  sufficient  counterpoise. 
Yet  even  in  this  century  there  are  still  to  be  found  the  Tes- 
lis^es  of  an  opposition,  growing  out  of  the  purely  Christian 
5>pirii,  against  the  spreading  superstition.  The  respectable 
Mooophysite  chum^h-teacher,  Xenayas,  or  Philoxenos,  bishop 
of  Hierapolis.  in  Syria,  in  the  early  times  of  the  sixth  century, 
decidedly  opposed  the  representations  of  angels  in  the  human 
form,  and  the  representation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  shape 
of  a  dove ;  doubtless  led  to  it  by  the  rude  sensuous  notions 
which  were  attached  to  these  symbols.  He  said  men  should 
not  think  they  honoured  Christ  through  the  images  of  Christ; 
no  worship  was  pleasing  to  him  but  the  worship  in  spirit  and 
in  truth.  Such  images,  with  which  a  superstitious  reverence 
had  probably  become  connected,  he  removed  from  the  churches.} 
We  now  proceed  to  consider  the  seasons  for  divine  worship 
and  the  festivals. 

f   TT^^;  OLtafhrAvn  kbu  Ttfith*  »«u  tinr^t^iietv  i»x>.ii9tan  it^gziifUftt  juu  itftf' 

X  So  relates  the  momophysite  historian,  John  the  Schismatic,  'Wrw* 
i  'itaKoiiofAtioi,  in  his  church  history,  from  which  a  fragment  has  been 
preserved  in  the  fifth  action  oi  \\ift  ^«>\x^  ^\<:feiLe  council.    Hardoin. 
CoflciJ.  IV.  f.  306. 


SEASONS  OF  WORSHIP.  419 


3.  Secuonsfor  holding  Divine  Worship  and  Festivals. 

Although  the  habit  of  confounding  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
tament points  of  view  had  already  in  various  ways,  as  we  have 
seen  in  the  earlier  sections,  struck  deeply  into  the  church  life, 
yet  the  most  distinguished  church-teachers  of  this  period  con- 
tinued still  to  express  the  purely  Christian  idea  of  the  relation 
of  the  festivals  to  the  whole  Christian  life,  which,  as  we 
remarked  in  the  preceding  period,  had  first  grown  out  of 
Christianity  in  its  opposition  to  Judaism.  Thus  Jerome 
asserts,*  that,  considered  from  the  purely  Christian  point  of 
view,  all  days  are  alike,  every  day  is  for  the  Christian  a 
Friday,  to  be  consecrated  by  the  remembrance  of  Christ 
crucified ;  every  day  a  Sunday,  since  on  every  day  he  could 
solemnize  in  the  communion  the  fellowship  with  Christ  though 
risen.  But  festivals  and  meetings  for  divine  worship  at  stated 
seasons  were  instituted  for  the  good  of  those  who  were  not  yet 
capable  of  rising  to  this  position,  who  were  not  yet  so  minded 
or  so  disciplined  as  every  day  of  their  life,  before  esgaging  in 
the  business  of  the  world,  to  offer  God  the  sacrifice  of  prayer. 
Chrysostom  delivered  a  discourse  at  Antioch,  in  which  he 
showed  that  those  who  never  attended  church,  except  on  the 
principal  festivals,  adopted  the  Jewish  point  of  view  ;  that  on 
the  other  hand,  the  Christian  celebration  of  festivals  was  not 
necessarily  restricted  to  certain  times,  but  embraced  the  whole 
life  grounded  in  fiiith,  and  that  this  was  so,  he  endeavoured  to 
demonstrate  from  the  nature  and  design  of  the  principal 
Christian  festivals.  "  Our  first  feast,"  said  he,  "  is  the  feast 
of  Christ's  appearance  (the  Epiphany,  ra  eirKpdina).  What 
then  is  the  object  of  this  feast  ?  To  show  that  God  appeared 
on  earth  and  dwelt  with  men  ;  that  the  only-begotten  Son  of 
God  was  with  us.  JBtit  he  is  ever  with  us.  We  may  then  every 
day  celebrate  the  feast  of  Christ's  appearance.  What  is  the 
meaning  of  the  feast  of  the  passover  ?  We  then  announce  the 
Lord's  death.  But  this  too  we  do  not  signify  merely  at  one 
stated  season,  for  when  Paul  would  free  us  from  being  con- 
fined to  stated  times,  he  showed  that  it  was  possible  continu- 
ally to  celebrate  the  passover,  and  said,  '  As  often  as  ye  eat 

*  L.  II.  ep.  ad  Galat.  c.  iv.  ed.  Martianay,  T.  IV.  f.  272. 


420  CHRISTIAN  WORSHIP. 

this  bread  and  drink  this  cup,  ye  do  show  forth  the  Lord's 
death/  And  what  is  the  import  of  the  feast  of  Pentecost  ? 
That  the  Spirit  has  visited  us.  Now  as  Christ  is  ever  with 
us,  so  the  Holy  Spirit  too  is  ever  with  us  ;  we  may  then  con- 
tinually celebrate  also  the  feast  of  Pentecost."*  In  like  man- 
ner, the  church  historian  Socrates  remarks,  that  Christ  and  the 
apostles,  conformably  to  Christian  freedom,  gave  no  law  respect- 
ing feasts,  but  left  everything  open  here  to  the  free  expression 
of  the  feelings.  The  diversity  that  existed  in  the  celebration 
of  festivals  among  the  Christian  churches  of  different  countries 
he  traces  to  this  very  fact,  that  everything  here  had  from  the 
beginning,  with  perfect  freedom  and  by  slow  degrees,  spon- 
taneously shaped  itself  after  different  ways.*)"  In  the  principle 
lying  at  the  basis  of  the  state  laws  on  this  point,  and  from 
which  many  of  the  arrangements  of  the  Ronoian  church  pro- 
ceeded, we  do,  indeed,  perceive  already  the  predominance  of 
Jewish  notions,  which  had  repressed  the  original  Christian 
consciousness. 

The  reference  to  Christ  crucified,  arisen,  and  glorified,  con- 
tinued to  be,  as  in  the  preceding  period,  the  central  point  of 
the  weekly  and  of  the  yearly  festivals  and  fast-days.  The 
celebration  of  the  dies  stationum,  of  Wednesday  and  of 
Friday,  respecting  the  origin  of  which  we  have  spoken  in  the 
preceding  period,  passed  over  into  this,  but  was  observed  only 
in  several  of  the  churches,  and  in  these  not  after  the  same 
manner.  Socrates  mentions  it  as  a  peculiarity  of  the  Alex- 
andrian church,  that  on  Wednesday  and  on  Friday ,f  the  ho^ 
scriptures  were  there  read  in  the  church  and  expounded  by 
homilies,  and  in  general  the  whole  service  conducted  as  on 
Sunday,  the  celebration  of  the  communion  excepted.  This 
custom  probably  vanished  by  degrees  in  most  of  the  churches,§ 

*  In  Pentecost  h.  1.  s.  1,  T.  f.  458.  f  Socrat.  V.  22. 

X  On  the  TtT^eti  and  on  the  ^a^aciavvi.  Respecting  the  service  whicli 
was  held  at  Alexandria  on  Friday  morning,  see  Athajias.  hist.  Arianor* 

ad  monachos,  S.  81.      '2tna^if  rn  TagetffKivr,, 

§  Yet  Epiphanius,  in  his  exposit.  fid.  cathol.  c.  22,  still  mentions  Mv 
on  the  rir^ets  and  on  the  ^eoaet^^arey  as  a  uDiversal  custom  of  the  choid* 
Also  in  the  churches  of  Milan,  it  seems  to  have  been  the  costom  to 
assemble  on  these  days  about  noon,  slug  together,  and  partake  of  tk 
communion,  and  with  this  terminated  the  fast.  Ambros.  ezpootio  a 
Psalm  118,  s.  48,  in  case  we  are  to  understand  the  plerique  diesintlif 
passage^  as  we  probably  should,  to  refer  to  the  dies  stationom.    Aooofd* 


SEASONS  OF  WORSHIP.  421 

only  Friday  continued  to  be  consecrated  to  the  memory  of 
Christ's  passion.  The  emperor  Constantine,  as  Sozomen  re- 
lates,* enacted  a  law  that  on  Friday,  as  on  Sunday,  there 
should  be  a  suspension  of  business  at  the  courts  and  in  other 
civil  offices,  so  that  the  day  might  be  devoted  with  less  inter- 
ruption to  the  purposes  of  devotion. "f  At  Antioch  the  com- 
munion was  celebrated  on  Friday  as  well  as  on  Sunday.J 
Also  at  Constantinople  Friday  was  observed  by  the  more 
serious  Christians  as  a  day  of  penitence  and  fasting,  conse- 
crated to  the  memory  of  Christ's  passion,  §  and  the  sacrament 
of  the  supper  was  distributed.  It  is  true  the  great  mass  of  the 
citizens  took  no  concern  in  it,  as  we  learn  from  a  discourse  of 
Chrysostom's,||  complaining  of  the  people  because  while  he, 
with  a  few  who  had  met  with  him,  were  rendering  thanks  to 
God  on  a  Friday,  for  deliverance  from  threatening  famine ; 
most  of  them  had  flocked  to  the  public  games  of  the  circus. 

We  noticed  in  the  preceding  period  the  origin  of  the  differ- 
ence which  prevailed  as  to  the  celebration  of  the  Sabbath. 
The  custom,  derived  from  the  Jews,  of  paying  a  certain 
respect  to  the  Sabbath  still  continued  to  be  handed  down  in 
the  Oriental  communities. If  In  several  of  the  Eastern 
churches  the  Sabbath  was  celebrated  nearly  after  the  same 
manner  as  Sunday.  Church  assemblies  were  held,  sermons 
delivered,  and  the  communion  celebrated  on  this  day.**    The 

ing  to  Epiphanius,  these  assemblies  convened  about  three  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon.  *  L.  8. 

t  This  may  have  stood  in  the  law,  which  has  not  been  preserved  to 
onr  times,  by  which  Constantine  ordered  this  in  respect  to  Sunday 
already  before  the  year  321.    See  cod.  Theodos.  1.  II.  Tit.  VIII.,  1. 1. 

X  See  Chrysostom,  hom.  5,  in  epist.  i.  ad  Timoth.  s.  3. 

§  GhrysostcHn.  h.  in  the  sermon  first  published  by  Montfaucon,  T. 

VI.  f.  272,  S«  1.    "Hfjutfa,   |y  it  vttfrivitv  xa)  ofJuoXoyiiv  tlu. 

II  The  one  just  referred  to. 

^  In  the  apostolic  constitutions,  II.  .59,  the  Sabbath  is  particularly 
mentioned  along  with  Sunday  as  a  day  for  the  assembling  together  of 
the  church  ;  VIII.  c.  33,  that  on  the  Sabbath  and  on  Sunday  ^e  slaves 
should  rest  from  their  labours,  and  attend  church  with  the  rest  to  hear 
the  sermon.  L.  V.  15,  that  the  Easter  Sabbath  excepted,  there  should 
be  no  fasting  on  the  Sabbath,  when  God  rested  from  the  work  of  crea- 
tion. The  66,  among  the  apostolic  canons,  excludes  from  the  fellowship 
of  the  church  those  who  fested  on  the  Sabbath  and  on  Sunday. 

*♦  As  it  concerns  the  last  at  Antioch,  see  the  passage  referred  to  above 
respecting  Friday. 


422  CHRISTIAN  WORSHIP. 

direction  g^ven  by  the  council  of  Laodicea  deserves  to  be 
noticed,*  viz. :  that  on  the  Sabbath,  the  gospels  should  be  read 
along  with  the  other  parts  of  the  holy  scriptures.  It  may  be 
that  tlie  new  arrangement  which  this  council  designed  to  in- 
troduce by  the  above-cited  canon  was  simply  that  the  scriptures 
generally  should  be  read  in  church  on  the  Sabbath  in  the  same 
manner  as  on  Sunday ;  and  in  this  case  we  must  suppose  the 
council  wished  to  restore  the  custom,  formerly  observed,  of 
assembling  for  worship  on  the  Sabbath  as  well  as  on  Sunday, 
which  had  now  become  obsolete  in  many  of  the  Eastern 
churches.  Or  this  ordinance  may  be  understood  as  simply 
indicating  the  design  of  the  council,  that  in  the  meetings  for 
divine  worship  on  the  Sabbath  the  gospels  should  be  read, 
together  with  other  parts  of  the  holy  scriptures  ;  whence  we 
might  infer  that,  as  the  celebration  of  the  Sabbath  had  been 
taken  from  tlie  Jews,  it  had  been  the  custom  also  to  make  use 
of  the  Old  Testament  only  on  this  day  in  the  church  lessons.! 
In  many  districts  a  punctual  Jewish  observance  of  the  Sabbath 
must  doubtless  have  become  common,  hence  the  council  of 
Laodicea  considered  it  necessary  to  ordain  that  Christians  should 
not  celebrate  tliis  day  after  the  Jewish  manner,  nor  consider 
themselves  bound  to  abstain  from  labour.^;  It  was  a  general 
rule  in  the  Eastern  church  that  there  should  be  no  fasting  on 
the  Sabbath,  hence  the  Sabbath  also,  as  well  as  Sunday,  was 
excepted  from  the  period  of  fasting  before  Easter.  §  But  in 
many  of  the  Western  churches,  particularly  in  the  Roman  and 
the  Spanish,  opposition  to  the  Jews  and  Judaists||  had  led  to  the 

*  C.  16.    Ili^}  T«i/  {y  ffafi^artjt  ihayyi\ta  /Mret  Iri^^f  y»ti(pety  etitetynetrMiiu, 

t  It  is  an  objection  to  the  last  interpretation,  that  both  ivayyi>.la.  and 
irt««y  y^i(patt  Stand  without  the  article ;  accordingly  do  not  express  here 
any  antithesis ;  but  the  whole  of  the  sacred  writings,  according  to  their 
different  parts,  seems  to  be  indicated  here  generally.  Moreover,  if  such 
an  antithesis  had  been  intended,  instead  of  iri^jwy  yea^ait^  the  phrase 
9raXaUf  itttivtxm  would  doubtless  have  been  used.  J3ut  the  difficulty 
with  the  first  interpretation  is,  that  the  customary  celebration  of  the 
Sabbath  is  everywhere  presupposed  by  this  council,  and  they  considered 
themselves  bound  rather  to  moderate  the  Judaizing  tendency  to  carry 
this  celebration  to  an  extreme. 

%  C.  29.    'Or}  ob  ^%7  x^ig'Tta90Ui  Iwhti^tn  xa)  |y  r^  cmfslieiT^  0';^0Xfl^^t/f. 

§  Hence,  by  the  decrees  of  the  council  of  Laodicea,  c.  49  and  .51,  the 
communion  and  the  commemoration  of  the  martyrs  might  be  celebrated, 
during  the  period  of  fasting,  on  the  Sabbath  as  well  as  on  Sunday. 

J  See  vol.  I.  p.  408. 


SEASONS  OF  WORSHIP.  423 

custom  of  observing  the  Sabbath  rather  as  a  day  of  fasting.* 
They  who  were  truly  enlightened  by  the  gospel  spirit,  and 
knew  how  to  distinguish  essentials  &om  non-essentials  in  reli- 
gion, such  men  as  Ambrose  of  Milan,  Jerome,  and  Augustin, 
sought  to  avoid  all  controversy  on  matters  of  this  sort  which 
had  not  been  decided  by  divine  authority,  and  which  had  no 
particular  connection  with  the  essence  of  faith  and  of  sanctifi- 
cation.  They  held  it  as  a  principle,  that,  in  such  matters,  each 
individual  should  follow  the  custom  of  his  own  church,  or  of 
the  country  in  which  he  resided,  and  strive  that  the  bond  of 
charity  might  not  be  broken  by  differences  in  such  unimport- 
ant matters,  and  that  occasion  of  offence  might  not  be  given 
to  any  man.  Ambrose,,  when  questioned  on  ihis  point,  replied 
that  at  Rome  he  was  accustomed  to  fast  on  the  Sabbath,  but 
in  Milan  he  did  not.  Augustin  rightly  applies  the  rules 
given  by  Paul,  in  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  the  epistle  to  the 
Romans,  to  this  diversity  of  practice.  He  complains  that  weak 
minds  were  disturbed  by  the  controversial  obstinacy  or  the 
superstitious  scruples  of  many  who  would  insist  on  that  prac- 
tice as  being  the  only  right  one,  for  which  they  supposed 
they  had  found  certain  reasons,  no  matter  how  weak,  or  which 
they  had  brought  with  them  as  the  ecclesiastical  usage  of 
their  own  country,  or  which  they  had  seen  in  foreign  lands, 
although  neither  the  holy  scriptures  nor  the  universal  tradi- 
tion of  the  church  decided  any  thing  as  to  the  point,  and 
although  it  was  a  matter  of  perfect  indifference  as  to  any 
practical  advantage,  f  But  that  rigid  hierarchical  spirit  of 
the  Roman  church,  which  from  a  very  early  period  required 
uniformity  in  things  unessential,  would  in  this  case  also  put  a 

*  See  Cassian.  institut.  coenobial.  1.  III.  c.  9  et  10.  Hieronym.  ep. 
71  ad  Lucinium,  &  6. 

t  £p.  54  ad  JaDuarium,  &  3.  Sensi  ssepe  dolens  et  gemens  moltas 
mfirmomm  perturbationes  fieri  per  quorundam  fratrum  contentiosam 
obBtiiiatioDem  vel  superstitiosam  timiditatem,  qui  in  rebus  hujusmodi,  quse 
neque  scripturse  sanctse  auctoritate,  ueque  uuiversalis  ecclesiie  traditione, 
neqae  vitse  corrigendse  utilitate,  ad  certum  possunt  terminum  pervenire 
(tantam  quia  subest  qualiscuDque  ratiocinatio  cogitaotis,  aut  quia  in  sua 
patria  sic  ipse  consuevit,  aut  quia  ibi  yidit,  ubi  peregrinatiouem  suam, 
qao  remotiorem  a  suis^  eo  doctiorem  factam  putat),  tarn  litigiosas  exci- 
tant qusestiones,  ut,  nisi  quod  ipsi  faciunt,  nihil  rectum  existiment.  To 
this  point  of  dispute,  the  two  beautiful  letters  of  Augustin  relate,  the  one 
just  cited,  and  ep.  36  ad  Casulanum. 


424  CHRISTIAN  WOBSHIP. 

restraint  on  religious  freedom.     In  the  Roman  church  it  wszf 
affirmed  that  this  custom  came  down  from  Peter,  the  first  of 
the  apostles,  and  hence  ought  to  be  universally  observec/. 
The  idle  tale  was  there  set  afloat,  when  the  origin  of  that 
custom  from  the  old  opposition  between  the  originally  pagan 
and  the  originally  Jewish  communities  was  no  longer  known, 
that  the  apostle  Peter  instituted  a  fast  on  the  Sabbath,  in  pie- 
paring   for  the  dispute  with  Simon  Magus.*      The  Roman 
bishop  Innocent  decided,  in  his  decretals  addressed  to  the 
Spanish  bishop  Decentius  (at  the  very  time  that  men  like 
Augustin  expressed  themselves  with  so  much  liberality  on  this 
difference),  that  the  Sabbath,  like  Friday,  must  be  observed 
as  a  fast  day.f     In  defence  of  this  rule  he  offered  a  better 
reason  at  least  than  those  monks,  viz. :  that,  in  its  historieal 
import,  the  Sabbath  necessarily  belonged   to  the  period  of 
sorrow  which  preceded  Sunday,  the  joyfiil  day  of  the  feast  of 
the  resurrection,  since  on  both  the  former  days  the  apostles 
were  plunged  in  grief,  and  on  the  Sabbath  had  hid  themselves 
for  fear. 

As  to  the  celebration  of  Sunday,  the  custom,  which  tetd 
long  prevailed  in  the  church,  of  ccmsecratiug  this  day  in  a 
special  manner  to  religious  employments,  and  of  abstaining 
from  all  worldly  business,  was  established  by  a  synodal  law, 
the  twenty-ninth  canon  of  the  council  of  Laodicea,  yet  with 
this  restriction,  that  alJ  Christians  should  abstain  from  their 
worldly  business  if  they  were  able.J  A  collision  betwixt  this 
ecclesiastical  ordinance  and  the  relations  to  the  state,  which 
must  have  arisen  in  the  earlier  situation  of  the  church,  could 
now  be  easily  removed,  when  the  state  itself  recognized  the 
church  as  such,  and  endeavoured  to  uphold  her  in  the  prose- 

*  That  Roman  spirit  expresses  itself  after  a  characteristic  manner  in 
the  following  language  of  a  treatise  which  was  probably  composed  by 
some  member  of  the  Roman.clergy,  and  was  intended  to  procure  the 
general  recognition  of  the  Roman  custom :  Petrus,  apostolorum  caput, 
cceli  janitor  et  ecclesise  fundamentum,  extincto  Simone,  qui  diaboli  fuerat, 
nonnisi  jejunis  vincendi  figura  (that  Simon  Magus  could  be  vanquished 
by  Peter  only  through  fasting,  was  represented  as  a  typical  allusion  to 
the  fact,  that  Satan  also,  whom  Simon  Magus  represented,  could  be  con- 
quered only  by  fasting),  id  ipsum  Eomauos  edocuit,  quorum  fides  annun- 
tiatur  universo  orbi  terrarum. 

t  S.  7.  Sabbato  jejunandum  esse  ratio  evidentissima  demonstrat 


SEASONS  OF  WORSHIP.  425 

^(ition  of  her  principles  and  the  attainment  of  her  ends.     We 
have  already  said,  that  the  emperor  Constantine,  in  a  law 
enacted  previous  to  the  year  321,  commanded  the  suspension 
of  all  suits  and  courts  of  justice  on  Sunday.     It  was  a  beauti- 
fid  exception,  wholly  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity, by  which  he  provided  that  the  emancipation  of  slaves, 
after  the  usual  forms,  should  be  permitted  to  take  place  on 
Sunday.*     As  Eusebius,  in  his  life  of  Constantine,  relates,  he 
also  forbad  all  military  exercises  on  this  day.")*     By  a  law  of 
the  year  386,  those  older  changes  effected  by  the  emperor 
Constantine  were  more  rigorously  enforced,  and,  in  general, 
civil  transactions  of  every  kind  on  Sunday  were  strictly  for- 
bidden.    Whoever  transgressed  was  to  be  considered,  in  fact, 
as  guilty  of  sacrilege  (as  a  sacrilegus).  \ 

Owing  ito  the  prevailing  passion  at  that  time,  especially  in 
the  large  cities,  to  run  after  the  various  public  shows,  it  so 
happened,  that  when  these  spectacles  fell  on  the  same  days 
which  had  been  consecrated  by  the  church  to  some  religious 
festival,  they  proved  a  great  hindrance  to  the  devotion  of 
Christians,  though  chiefly,  it  must  be  allowed,  to  those  whose 
Christianity  was  the  least  an  affair  of  the  life  and  of  the  heart. 
Church  teachers,  such  as  Chrysostom  (see  above)  were,  in 
truth,  often  forced  to  complain,  that  in  such  competitions  the 
theatre  was  vastly  more  frequented  than  the  church.  And 
among  those  who  gave  up  the  church  for  the  theatre,  many 
might  be  found  not  wholly  unsusceptible  of  right  feelings, 
who,  if  they  had  not  been  hurried  along  by  the  prevailing 
corruption,  would  have  employed  Sunday  in  a  way  more 
serious  and  more  healthful  for  their  inner  life.  Moreover,  by 
the  civil  relations  of  those  times,  many  were  obliged,  on 
account  of  their  particular  place  among  the  citizens,  to  take 
part  in  the  arrangements  necessary  for  the  support  of  the 
public  shows,  and  so  to  be  interrupted  in  their  devotions  even 
against  their  will.  Hence,  the  North-African  church  resolved, 
at  an  ecclesiastical  convention  held  at  Carthage  in  401,  to 
petition  the  emperor,  that  the  public  shows  might  be  trans- 
ferred from  the  Christian  Sunday  and  from  feast  days  to  some 
other  days  of  the  week.§     Owing  to  the  prevailing  passion  for 

*  L.  II.  Tit.  VIII.  1.  U         t  Euseb.  Vit.  Constantin.  IV.  18,  19,  20. 

X  Cod.  Theodos.  lib.  VIII.  Tit.  VIII.  1.  3. 

§  It  is  adduced  as  a  reason :  Populi  ad  clTcum  m^a^v^  q^q^tsv  ^ 


426  CBBIBTUir  WOBSmP. 

the  shows,  this  petition  could  not  be  granted,  perhaps,  without 
considerable  difficulty.  First,  in  the  year  425,  the  exhibitioa 
of  spectacles  on  Sunday,  and  on  the  principal  feast  days  of  the 
Christians,  was  forbidden,  in  order  that  the  devotion  of  the 
faithful  might  be  free  from  all  disturbance.*  In  this  way  the 
church  received  help  from  the  state  for  the  furtherance  of  her 
ends,  which  could  not  be  obtained  in  the  preceding  period. 
But  had  it  not  been  for  that  confusion  of  spiritual  and  secular 
interests ;  had  it  not  been  for  the  vast  number  of  mere  outward 
conversiofts  thus  brought  about,  she  would  have  needed  no 
sftch  help.  The  spirit  of  church  fellowship  could  effect  more 
in  those  ancient  times  than  all  which  the  outward  force  of 
political  law  and  a  stilcter  church  discipline  could  now  do, 
towards  restraining  or  expelling  such  as  had  never  been 
broujrht  to  feel  the  inwaixi  power  of  that  spirit ;  and  the 
church  of  those  times  could  well  dispense,  therefore,  with  the 
outward  support. 

In  respect  to  the  yearly  festivals,  those  still  continued,  at 
first,  to  be  universally  observed,  which  answered  to  the  weekly 
feast-days ;  for,  as  we  observed  in  the  preceding  period,  the 
circle  of  yearly  feasts  had  sprung  out  of  that  of  the  weekly 
feasts,  and  both  had  arisen  from  the  same  fundamental  idea, 
around  which  the  whole  Christian  life  revolved. "j"  Hence, 
Augustin,  about  the  year  400,  still  mentions,  as  the  celebra- 
tions recognized  in  the  whole  church,  only  those  of  Christ's 
passion  and  resurrection,  of  his  ascension,  and  of  the  outpour- 
ing of  the  Holy  Ghost.  J 

ecclesiam  conveniunt, — and  on  the  score  of  those  obligations  devolving 
on  many  classes  of  citizens:  Nee  oportere  quemquam  Christianornm 
cogi  ad  hajc  spectacula,  maxime,  quia  in  his  exercendis,  quae  contra 
praecepta  Dei  sunt,  nulla  persecutionis  necessitas  a  quopiam  adhibenda 
est ;  sed,  uti  oportet,  homo  in  libera  voluntate  subsistat  sibi  divinitns 
concessa.    Cod.  can.  eccles.  Afr.  c.  61. 

*  Totae  Christianornm  ac  fidelium  mentes  Dei  cultibus  occupentnr. 
Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XV.  Tit.  VII.  1.  5. 

t  This  was  acknowledged  even  by  the  Roman  bishop  Innocentins, 
and  from  this  very  fact  he  inferred,  that  as  fasting  was  practised  not 
merely  on  Good  Friday,  but  on  the  Friday  of  each  week,  the  same 
practice  should  be  observed  also  in  respect  to  the  Sabbath.  (L.  c  s.  7. 
Quod  si  putant  semel  atque  uno  sabbato  jejunandum  ;  ergo  et  Dominica 
et  sexta  feria  semel  in  Pascho  erit  utique  celebranda.) 

X  Quae  toto  terrarum  orbe  servantur, — quod  Domini  passio  etresnr- 
rectio  et  adsceusio  in  cceA.\mi  ^\>  ^<^N^\i\xvs>  ^<^  <:jc£Iq  Syiritus  Sancti  anni* 


SEASONS  OF  WORSHIP*  427 

The  difference  of  views  with  regaxd  to  the  feast  of  the 
passover,  which  we  had  occasion  to  notice  in  the  preceding 
period,  continued  to  exist  also  in  this ;  but  men  were  wise 
enough  not  to  allow  the  bond  of  Christian  fellowship  to  be 
ruptured  by  this  difference.*  Yet  the  spirit  of  church  uni- 
formity which  sprung  up  in  the  West,  sought  to  insinuate 
itself  also  here.  The  council  of  Aries,  in  314,  already  decreed 
that  the  paschal  feast  should  be  celebrated  on  the  same  day 
throughout  the  world  ;f  but  this  ecclesiastical  assembly,  to 
which  the  people  of  the  East  paid  little  attention,  had  no  such 
great  and  general  influence  as  to  be  able  to  triumph  over  the 
old  Asiatic  custom.  Now,  to  the  emperor  Constantine  it 
seemed  scandalous,  that  the  commexnoration  of  the  fact  which 
laid  the  foundation  for  the  recovery  of  mankind  should  not  be 
celebrated  by  all  Christians  on  the  same  day ;  and  that,  while 
some  were  fasting,  others  should  be  feasting.  To  him,  such 
a  difference  would  perhaps  appear  more  grave,  and  less  com- 
patible with  the  unity  of  the  Catholic  church,  than  an  import- 
ant dogmatical  difference,  known  by  him  to  exist  about  this 
time,  in  respect  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  divinity.  He 
attempted,  first  through  the  negotiations  of  Hosius,  bishop  of 
Cordova,  to  bring  the  churches  together  in  one  usage.  In  this, 
however,  he  did  not  succeed ;  he  therefore  convoked,  partly 
f<»r  this  object,  the  general  council  of  !Nice,  in  325.  As  the 
reason  which,  in  earlier  times,  had  led  to  the  Oriental  custom, 
and  which  especially  contributed  to  preserve  it,  viz.,  the 
adherence  to  Judaism,  no  longer  existed, — but,  on  the  con- 
trary, a  polemical  tendency,  in  opposition  to  the  Jewish  spirit, 
lather  predominated, — this  change  in  the  way  of  thinking 
would  naturally  lead  to  the  laying  aside  of  the  ancient  cus- 
tom. I  Accordingly,  an  agreement  was  entered  into,  at  this 
council,  to  abandon  the  old  Jewish  custom,  and  to  celebrate 
the  remembrance  of  Christ's  passion  always  on  Friday ;  the 

versaria  solennitate  celebrantur,  ep.  54  ad  Januar.,  and  the  passage  above 
referred  to  from  Hieronym.  comment,  ep.  ad  Galat.  1.  II.  c.  4. 

♦  Sozom.  I.  16.  t  C.  1. 

%  This  reason,  that  it  was  so  disgraceful  a  thing  for  the  Christian 
church  to  govern  itself  by  the  pattern  of  the  unbelieving  Jews,  who  had 
craclfied  the  Lord,  is  made  particularly  prominent   therefore  by  the 

emperor,    fAfiUf    irret    h/Atv    xcivof  fAtra    Tou    kx^iffrou    reHf  *lovhaieiiv    o^^w* 

See  Eoseb.  de  vita  Constaatini,  1.  III.  c.  18. 


4S8  CHRISTIAN  WORSHIP. 

remembrance  of  Christ's  resurrection  on   Sunday.    It  was 
acknowledged  that,  by  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  for  mankind,  the 
feast  of  the  passover  had  lost  its  significance ;  that  the  thanks- 
giving for  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  in  the  sacrament  of  the  sup- 
per had  taken  the  place  of  the  passover,  and  that  the  former 
was  restricted  to  no  particular  time.*    But,  as  it  usually  hap- 
pens, there  were  still  many  communities  and  individuals  in  the 
East  who  refused  to  depart  from  the  old  traditional  custom,  on 
account  of  its  very  antiquity,  without  assigning  any  further 
reason  for  their  refusal.     Instead  of  winning  them  over  by 
love,  the  church  excluded  them  from  her  communion.'l'    Per- 
secution  made  the   old  custom  still  dearer  to  them ;  they 
accused  the  Nicene  council  of  having  altered  it  out  of  flattery 
to  Constantine. 

The  council  of  Nice,  it  is  true,  had  decreed  ^  that  the  feast 
of  the  passover  should,  for  the  future,  be  celebrated  on  one  and 
the  same  day ;  but  they  had  suggested  no  means  for  securing 
uniformity  in  the  reckoning  of  the  time  ;  and  the  purpose  of 
the  council,  therefore,  was  still  far  from  being  attained.  In 
the  Alexandrian  churches,  where  astronomical  and  mathe- 
matical knowledge  was  very  generally  diffused,  the  most 
accurate  calculations  were  instituted,  which  the  whole  Eastern 
church  followed.  The  bishop  of  Alexandria  made  known 
every  year,  at  the  feast  of  Epiphany,  by  a  circular  letter  §  to 
his  whole  diocese,  the  day  on  which  the  next  Easter  festival 
would  fall.  But,  as  the  Roman  church  was  not  so  exact, 
differences  arose  as  to  the  time  of  Easter,  between  the  Eastern 
churches  and  those  of  the  West,  which  amounted  sometimes 
to  a  week,  occasionally  even  to  a  month  ;  until  at  length, 
particulariy  by  means  of  the  Roman  abbot,  Dionysius  Exi- 

*  This  is  now  ro  Tivx'*-  W/TiXt<y,  says  Chrysostom  against  the  advo- 
cates of  the  Jewish  custom.     Orat.  c.  Judeeos.  III.  s.  4,  T.  I.  f.  611. 

t  They  were  denominated  as  a  separate  sect  (after  that  fourteenth 
day  of  the  month  Nisau),  Quartodecimani,  rKraa.^ttrKo.ibixa.'r'iTa.i,  nr^iChirau 
(pn)bably  by  an  abbreviation),  vr^iuro'raffxt'rat. 

X  It  is  remarkable  that  this  decree  occurs  only  in  the  letter  in  which 
the  emperor  Constantine  (see  above)  made  known  and  recommended  the 
decisions  of  this  council,  and  that  among  its  own  canons  no  one  is  to  be 
found  which  has  any  reference  to  it.  Perhaps  it  was  omitted  out  of 
indulgence  to  the  adherents  of  the  ancient  custom,  who,  it  was  hoped, 
would  be  induced  to  yield  by  degrees. 

§  Libellus  paschalis,  •ypdpt.t&o.TCfc  nttuxyjct^w.. 


SEASONS  OF  WORSHIP.  429 

guus,  in  the  sixth  century,  the  Alexandrian  mode  of  reckoning 
Was  introduced  also  into  the  Roman  church.^ 

It  became,  by  degrees,  as  we  have  observed  already  in  the 
preceding  period,  a  more  universally  prevailing  custom  to 
prepare  &r  the  jubilee  of  the  feast  of  the  resurrection  by  a 
season  of  penitence,  and  ^ting.  This  fast  was  compared  with 
the  forty  days'  fiist  of  Christ  (see  vol.  i.  p.  408) ;  hence  it 
received  the  name  of  TeffffapaKotrrii,  quadrigesima ;  although 
the  whole  time  of  forty  days  was  by  no  means  observed  so 
generally  as  the  name  was  applied.!  It  was  sought  by  degrees, 
however,  to  make  the  perioid  of  fasting,  in  its  whole  extent, 
actually  correspond  to  the  ancient  name  (quadrigesima).  In 
determining,  then,  the  number  of  weeks  before  Easter,  that 
difference  'of  usage  between  the  Eastern  and  the  Western 
church  by  which  the  Sabbath  was  excepted  from  the  fiist-days 
in  the  former  and  not  in  the  latter  church,  must  have  had  its 
influence. 

This  period  of  fasting  was  designed  to  furnish  the  Chris- 
tians an  opportunity  of  preparing  themselves,  by  a  more 
moderate  indulgence  of  the  sensual  appetites,  by  abstinence 
fix)m  the  pleasures  of  the  world,  and  by  the  diligent  reading 
of  God's  word,  to  enter  more  worthily  upon  the  celebration  of 
the  days  consecrated  to  higher  spiritual  enjoyments, — to  com- 
memorate the  new  creation  in  humanity  which  came  from  the 
resurrection  and  glorification  of  Christ, — to  engage,  by  means 
of  self-examination  and  repentance,  in  a  worthy  celebration  of 

*  The  more  accarate  and  detailed  development  of  this  point  is  to  be 
found  in  a  dissertation  of  F.  Walch,  in  the  novis  commentariis  Soc.  Reg. 
Grottingensifi,  T.  I.  Ideler*s  Chronology,  T.  II.  p.  202,  etc. 

t  About  this  difference  Socrates  treats,  V.  22.  At  Antioch  the  number 
of  forty  days  "was  accurately  observed  as  early  as  the  fourth  century ;  for 
ChrjTSostom  says,  orat.  3,  c.  Judseos,  s.  4,  T.  I.  f.  611,  in  a  discourse 

delivered    during  the  fast :    Vfi^rivofAtf  Tag  Ttf^a^axovrec    ravTag    ftfci^aff 

where  the  only  question  that  arises  is,  whether  the  Sundays  and  Sab- 
baths, in  which  no  fasts  were  observed,  were  also  reckoned  among  these 
forty  days.  The  difference  related  not  alone  to  the  number  of  days,  but 
also  to  the  extending  of  the  fast  to  each  day,  and  to  the  kind  of  absti- 
nence which  was  practised  at  meals  during  this  period.  Not  onlv 
among  the  communities  of  different  countries,  but  also  among  indi- 
viduals, a  different  custom  existed  in  this  respect.  Some,  who  would  be 
eminently  pious,  passed  two  entire  days  without  food.  Others  not  only 
refrained,  like  the  rest,  from  wine,  fiesh,  and  oil  at  their  meals,  but 
supported  themselves  wholly  on  bread  and  water.    H.  IV.  de  statins,  s.  6. 


430  CHRISTIAN  WORSHIP. 

the  holy  sapper,  in  which  so  many  participated  at  the  time  of 
the  Easter  festival.^ 

A  portion  of  the  year  so  consecrated  might  also  send  a 
healthful  influence  through  the  rest  of  it.     An  occasion  was 
offered  to  those  who  divided  their  whole  time  between  worldly 
business  and  sensual  pleasures,  for  collecting  their  thoughts 
from  this  dissipation  and  for   self  examination.      The  holy 
scriptures,  which  at  least  they  heard  read  in  the  church,  and 
sermons  pointedly  exhorting  to  repentance,  would  lead  them 
to  this.     Their  minds,  less  absorbed  in  the  things  of  sense, 
would  be  more  open  to  spiritual  impressions.     The  solemn, 
earnest  stillness  following  at  once  upon  tumult  and  dissipation 
in  the  large  cities,  the  sudden  change  in  the  aspect  of  public 
life,  was  calculated  to  arouse  the  trifling  mind  out  of  its  sleep 
of  security,  and  render  it  susceptible  of  higher  influences.    In 
truth,   the  commencement  of  the  fiists  must  have  produced  a 
striking  change  in  the  large  towns.     "  Quiet,   to-day,  is  no- 
where disturbed,"  says  Chrysostom  in  a  ^t  sermon  preached 
at  Antiochjf  "  nowhere  do  we  hear  cries  ;  nowhere  ike  noise 
of  the  shambles,  the  bustle  of  cooks.     All  this  is  past ;  and 
our   city   presents   to-day  the   appearance  of  a  sedate  and 
modest  matron.     To-day  there  is  no  difference  between  the 
table  of  the  emperor  and  that  of  the  poor  man."     And  in  an- 
other sermon :  J  "  Then,  no  songs  are  heard  in  the  evening, 
no  revels  of  the  drunkard  in  the  day ;  the  voice  of  clamour 
and  contention   is  hushed,   and   profound   quiet    everywhere 
reigns."     Still,  as  it  usually  happens  with  such  sudden  revo- 
lutions of  life,  this  change  was  more  often  transient  than  en- 
during, more  apparent  than  real.     If  there  was  a  horse-race 
at  the  circus  during  the  fast,  all  was  over  ;  the  city  rapidly 
assumed  another  look.     The  same  persons  who  had  been  mo- 
mentarily aroused  by  the  earnest,  impressive  words  of  a  Chry- 
sostom, who  had   beaten  their  breasts  and  sighed  over  their 
sins,  now  filled  the  circus,  and  took  a  passionate  interest  in 

*  This  aim  is  assigned  to  the  institation  by  Chroysostom,  orat  adv. 

Jadsos,    HI.  S.  4,  T.  I.  f.  611.      0<*  vcrt^s;  IryVAfrc*  hiAi*itf   Ti^^a^mwvit 

>ftTTUtts,   iv;^on,  ax.»9ei0^t^s,  rv*«2«».    It    >»    Ttus    nfitisass  Tmvrtus    xtJm^iifns 

ft-iT^  a.x»i^utti  SivatTti  xou   Bi*   &£%«»»  xau  V  IXffi/t«rv»if$  xou   Sue   mt^nims  tuu 

osei    9'afvux*ovf    *eu    iiit    Bcx^Mvy     *«ci  it*    i^fJuXmynruti  xtu    Sue     Ttn    iXXm^ 

t  H.  2  in  Genesin,  s.  1,  T.  IV.  £  8. 
X  In  Annam.  II.  1,  s.  1,  T.  IV.  f.  700. 


\ 


SEASONS  OF  FASTIKQ.  431 

the  contending  8ides.^  True;,  men  soon  returned  back  again 
to  their  previous  quiet  and  repose  of  the  fast ;  but,  if  this  could 
be  so  easily  disturbed  by  other  impressions  from  abroad,  it  is 
plain  how  superficial  must  have  been  the  change  produced  on 
these  occasions.  As  is  usually  the  case  with  such  changes, 
prescribed  by  law  and  enforced  by  constraint,  the  end  often 
&iled  of  being  attained,  because  confounded  with  the  means. 
Men  looked  for  justification  and  increase  in  holiness  in  out- 
ward fasting,  and  entirely  forgot  in  this  the  essential  things, 
true  repentance  and  sanctification,  which  the  period  of  fasting 
was  only  designed  to  remind  them  of.  Or  the  end  was  missed 
because  men  submitted  to  the  laws  of  the  church  from  con- 
straint and  in  opposition  to  their  inward  feelings,  partly  in- 
fluenced by  the  sense  of  shame,  and  partly  by  the  dread  of  the 
divine  punishment.  Hence  many  sought  to  indemnify  them- 
selves beforehand  for  the  forced  abstinence  imposed  on  them 
by  the  fasts,  by  indulging  in  the  more  riotous  excess  on  the 
days  immediately  preceding  them.!  Many  only  complied  with 
the  laws  of  fasting  in  their  literal  sense;  refraining  from 
meat,  but  taking  care  to  provide  themselves  with  the  daintier 
fere  out  of  what  was  permitted  by  the  fast  laws  literally 

interpreted,} 

The  more  eminent  church-teachers  of  this  period,  Chrysos- 
tom,  Augustin,  Maximus  of  Turin,  Caesarius  of  Aries,  Leo  the 
Great,  often  warned  against  this  hypocritical  tendency  of  the 
fiists.  They  showed  that  fasting  was  without  force  or  meaning, 
except  as  accompanied  with  the  hearty  forsaking  of  sin  and 
sincere  penitence.  They  exhorted  Christians  to  use  fasting  as  a 
means  of  learning  how  to  subdue  sinful  passions  and  desires, 
propensities  and  habits.  They  gave  examples,  especially  Chry- 
sostom,  to  show  how  this  must  be  done.  They  took  this  occa- 
sion to  rebuke  the  corrupt  tendencies  particularly  prevailing 
in  their  own  times  and  under  their  own  eyes,  and  warned  men 
against  them.     They  called  upon  Christians  to  unite  charity 

*  See  the  admonitory  discourse  of  Chrysostom,  preached  after  an 
mcident  of  this  sort  at  Antioch.     H.  6  in  Genesin,  T.  IV.  opp. 

t  Chrysost.  de  Poenitentia,  H,  5,  s.  5,  T.  II.  f.  315.  Ua^alw  uvri  ftM 
r«»  \x,  Ttis  vf)^TU»s  l^of&ivriv  d>(ptXuav  it^oanXuv  Xaifict^ydif  *eti  fjt.i6^» 

X  Aagustin.  p.  209,  s.  3,  et  108,  s.  1.  Pretiosiores  sine  carnibus 
animalium  escas.  On  the  other  hand,  Restringendse  sunt  delicise,  noB. 
mutandse. 


482  CHRI8TIAK  W0B8HIP. 

and  benevolence  with  fasting ;  to  appropriate  to  these  pur- 
poses what  they  saved  by  abstinence ;  to  forgive  each  other's 
offences ;  to  lay  aside  contentions ;  as,  in  &ct,  the  bishops 
made  it  a  point,  at  this  particular  season  of  listing,  to  close 
all  diiiputes  in  the  communities,  and  bring  about  a  recondlia- 
tion  between  the  contending  parties;  using  as  a  means  for 
this  end,  the  conviction  of  universal  sinfulness  and  need  of 
redemption  awakened  by  the  season,  and  the  approaching 
celebration  of  the  remembrance  of  Christ's  sufferings  for  tiie 
sins  of  mankind ;  they  moreover  called  on  masters  in  particu- 
lar to  treat  their  servants  with  kindness. 

The  season  of  &sting  ended  with  the  week  which,  on  ac- 
count of  the  great  events  connected  with  the  salvation  of 
mankind,  and  conmiemorated  in  it,  was  called  the  great  week 
{kScofjiag  ij  fieydXrj).*  It  began  with  Palm  Sunday  (fifupa 
ruv  fiaiwv),  and  closed  with  the  great  Sabbath,  as  it  was  called. 
The  approach  of  the  Easter  festival  reminded  all,  high  and 
low,  of  their  individual  sins,  and  of  the  grace  to  which  they 
owed  their  forgiveness.  Hence  the  emperors  made  laws  f  to 
release  those  who  had  been  arrested  for  minor  offences ;  and 
on  Palm  Sunday  special  decrees  of  mercy  were  frequently 
issued  by  them.  ^^  As  on  this  day,"  says  Chrysostom  in  one 
of  his  discourses,  ^^  our  Lord  delivered  men  from  the  chains  of 
sin,  so  his  servants  will  do  all  in  their  power  to  imitate  his 
love  to  mankind,  and  as  they  cannot  deliver  men  from  ^iritual 
fetters,  will  release  those  who  are  bodily  bound." 

In  this  week  of  solemnities,  some  days  were  particularlj 
distinguished,  Thursday,  for  example,  in  which  was  comme- 
morated the  last  supper  of  Christ  with  his  disciples,  and  the 
institution  of  the  Eucharist,  j:  On  this  occasion  great  numbers 
were  accustomed  to  participate  in  the  sacrament  of  the  supper.f 
While,  on  other  occasions,  the  holy  supper  was  only  to  be  re- 
ceived with  fasting,  it  was  dispensed  on  this  day  in  memory  of 
the  original  institution,  in  the  afternoon,  and  could  be  received 
after  a  meal.||     Next,  came  the  day  commemorative  of  Christ's 

*  See  the  Homily  of  Chrysostom  respecting  the  meaniDg  of  this  name. 
t  See  in  the  Ckxlex  Theoidos.  the  titulus  de  indalgentiis. 

I  'H  ayU  itivTetf,  quinta  feria  Paschse,  dies  anniyersarius,  quo  oceoa 
Dominica  celebratnr. 

§  See  Chrysostom's  discourse  delivered  on  this  day.     T.  II.  f.  386. 

II  Thus  it  was  at  least  in  the  North- African  church,  by  the  decree  of 


THE  GREAT  WEEK.  433 

lassioii.*  At  Antioch,  perhaps  also  in  other  churches  of  the 
Sast,  it  was  customary  for  the  church  on  this  day  to  hold  its 
ssemblies  in  the  grave-yard,  to  commemorate  the  crucifixion 
f  Christ  without  the  gates  of  Jerusalem.')*  The  week  was 
losed  by  the  great  Sabbath  (to  fiiya  o'd/3j3arov),  on  which 
lany  were  baptized,  and  put  on  their  white  robes  ;  and  in  the 
irening  the  cities  were  illuminated,  and  appeared  like  streamr 
F  fire.  The  whole  population  poured  along  with  torches  tc 
[lurch,  and  vigils  were  kept  till  the  dawn  of  the  morning  of 
niversal  jubilee,  the  feast  of  the  resurrection.  The  small 
umber  of  pagans  who  still  dwelt  amongst  the  Christians  must 
Iso,  in  one  way  or  another,  have  been  affected,  in  spite  of 
lemselves  by  what  so  moved  the  whole  multitude  on  this 
ccasion  of  general  Easter  vigils. :( 

The  custom  having  been  borrowed  from  the  Jews  of  hold- 
ig>  a  last  festival  on  the  eighth  day  after  the  commencement 
f  the  series,  the  celebration  of  the  passover  was  concluded  with 
he  following  Sunday  as  the  eighth  day  of  the  feast.  Through- 
«ut  the  whole  of  this  week,  from  the  Easter  Sabbath  and  on- 
Fard,  the  persons  then  baptized  had  worn  their  white  gar- 
ments, and,  as  new  Christians,  the  new-born, §  had  formed  a 
eparate  division  of  the  community,  easily  distinguished  by 
hfiir  dress.  This  sacred  time  of  the  celebration  of  their  new 
rirth  being  now  over,  they  laid  aside  their  white  robes ;  the 
lishop  exhorted  them  to  a  faithful  observance  of  their  bap- 
ismal  vow,  and  they  joined  the  rest  of  the  community.  This 
mportant  transaction  gave  its  name  to  this  Sunday.  So  it 
fas  at  least  in  the  Western  church.  ||     Thus,  then,  the  whole 

he  conncil  of  Hippo,  a.d.  393,  in  the  cod.  canon,  eccles.  Afr.  c.  41. 
Vagostin.  ep.  54  ad  Januar.  s.  9. 

*  The  fifjui^a  rov  aravfov,  also  called  in  a  more  restricted  sense,  Pascha. 

t  See  the  discourse  of  Chrysostom  on  this  day,  V.  2. 

X  Kespecting  this  Sabhath  :  AafA^t^o^e^iet  xeii  (patrayetyia,  rtv  ihiit  ri  xai 

ri  irv^t  rhv  vvxTtc  xecTet^uriZcvrte.  Gregor.  Nazianz.  orat.  2  in  Pascha 
V.  orat.  42,  at  the  beginning.  Augustin :  Clara  vigiliee  hujus  celebritas 
oto  orbe  terrarum.  Respecting  the  Pagans:  Ista  nocte  multi  dolore, 
Qttlli  pudore,  nonnulli  etiam,  quifidei  propinquanty  Dei  jam  timore  non 
lorminnt,  p.  219.  §  Novi,  infantes. 

H  Octava  infantium,  dies  novorum,  dominica  in  albis,  xv»td»ti  U  ktvxots, 
Ugostin.  p.  376.  Hodie  octavse  dicuntur  infantium ;  miscentur  hodie 
delibus  infantes  nostri.   P.  260.    Hodie  comp\e\^  ^cs«ni^\i\»ss^  c)K:^3bl- 

VOL,  III,  ^  \? 


43^  CBBJSTLkS  WOa^EIP. 

periiMl  of  fimneea  ihiv^  ciickoiiiiit^  firom  I^klm  SozidaT,  was  i 
fi^val.  A:»  :mtiii  it  wat^  ret:oeni:ce<i  dlso  bj  the  ciTil  autho 
ritv.  aiiil  in  it  no  i!f)iirt  of  jii^dce  coiiLd  be  beltL*  Moreover 
the  titty  <iayr^  atixnr  £a:«ter  wen*  :^pe€iaIlT  distinguished,  al- 
thomih  the  iHiLst  of  A^iceoiaoiu  ami  the  feast  of  Pentecost  ii 
the  more  rejrtxictei  seoiie — the  tease  of  the  oatpouring  of  th( 
Holy  Trhort.  were  selecteii  irf^ni  the  rest  fi>r  particular  cele- 
bntioo.  In  the  £a^^ce^I  churuh.  the  Acrts  of  the  Apostles 
were  reoii  (inrin;;  this  time,  in  the  pablic  worsiiip.  as  recording 
what  tiie  risen  ami  :;lorilie<i  Christ  had  wrought  through  tk 
ap«>ftles  :  ami  in  the  year  42o,  it  was  decreed^  that  during  thii 
whole  perio<i  the  devotinxi  of  Christians  should  not  be  dis- 
turber i  by  any  public  >ports..f 

To  the?e  were  adiieii  two  principal  festivals,  which,  as  w€ 
observeii  in  the  precetiing  period,  most  probably  existed  in 
their  orerm  in  verr  earlv  timesv  bat  which  first  began  to  be 
more  generally  ♦>bserveii  during  the  course  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, aJiid  that  in  an  opposite  ordar, — the  one  coming  from 
the  East  to  the  West*  and  the  other  firom  the  West  to  the 
East ;  the  feititctl  of  Ckrufs  bajJiismy  and  the  festival  of  his 
nativitv. 

x\ji  to  the  first*  we  find  it  mentioned  by  Chrvsostom,  as  an 
ancient  principal  feast  of  the  church  in  Eastern  Asia,  under  the 
name  of  the  feast  of  the  appearance  or  manifestation  of  Christ, 
who  had  till  then  been  hidden  from  the  world ;  //  eTcn^vna 
or  TO,  i-ifaraia  according  to  Tit.  II.  11. J  But  if,  in  the 
ngion   where  this  feast  originated,  another  festival  having 


vamm  vestramm.  Comp.  ep.  55,  s.  35.  Bespecting  the  newly  baptized, 
Veste  dealbatos  intra  octavas  soas.  £p.  34,  s.  3.  It  may  perhaps  haTe 
been  other  «rise  in  the  Eastern  charch,  where,  as  it  seems,  the  newly 
baptized  wore  their  white  garments  until  the  end  of  the  feast  of  Pente- 
cost.   See  the  passage  presently  to  be  referred  to  from  the  Cod.  Theodos. 

*  Dies  feriamm,  sancti  qaoqae  Paschse  dies,  qui  septeno  Tel  prsecedunt 
numero  vel  sequuntur.     Cod.  Theodos.  1.  II.  T.  VIII.  1.  2. 

t  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  XV.  T.  VII.  1.  5.  Quamdiu  coelestis  lumen 
lavacri  imitantia  novam  sancti  baptismatis  lucem  Testimenta  testantur 
f  which  is  probably  said  only  in  conformity  with  the  use  of  the  Eastern 
church)  quo  tempore  et  commemoratio  apostolics  passionis,  totius  Chris- 
tiaiiitatis  magistrae,  a  cunctis  jure  celebratur.  WTiich  refers  to  the 
reading  of  the  Acts. 

I  (yhrysostom  in  his  Homily  on  this  feast,  s.  2,  T.  II.  f.  369.    'JSrtiJfl 


FEAST  OF  THE  EPIPHANY.  435 

reference  to  the  first  appearance  of  the  Logos  in  human  nature, 
a  feast  of  Christ's  nativity,  was  already  existing,  the  latter 
would  hardly  have  become  so  entirely  lost  sight  of,  and  a 
name  which  belonged  to  it  transferred  to  the  feast  of  Christ's 
baptism.  More  probably  this  was  the  only  festival  which  in 
that  district  had  reference  to  the  first  appearance  of  Christ. 
Accordingly,  Chrysostom  actually  denominates  it  in  the  dis- 
course already  cited,  which  he  pronounced  at  the  feast  of 
Pentecost  in  Antioch,  the  festival  of  Epiphany,  the  first 
among  the  principal  feasts,  and  the  only  one  which  had 
reference  to  the  appearance  of  Christ  among  men.*  He  speaks 
here  according  to  the  views  of  Christian  antiquity  which  pre- 
vailed in  those  countries  where  a  Christmas  festival  was  as  yet 
wholly  unknown.  In  a  certain  sense,  men  doubtless  had  some 
reason  for  placing  this  festival  in  special  connection  with  the 
baptism  of  Christians, — inasmuch  as  the  divine  life,  which  was 
to  proceed  forth  from  Christ  to  all  the  faithful,  here  first 
b^an  to  reveal  itself  in  a  visible  way  to  the  greater  portion 
of  men.  But  as  the  age,  confounding  the  outward  sign  with 
the  inward  grace,  ascribed  to  the  water  in  baptism  a  super- 
natural power  to  sanctify,  so  it  supposed  that  Christ  first 
imparted  to  the  water  its  power  to  sanctify  by  his  own  baptism."]* 
The  first  indication  of  the  celebration  of  this  feast  having 
spread  to  the  Western  church  we  find  about  the  year  360 ; 
for  the  historian  Ammianns  Marcelliiius  relates  J  that  the 
emperor  Julian,  then  residing  at  Vienna  in  the  month  of 
January,  celebrated  the  feast  of  Epiphany  in  the  Christian 
church.  By  means  of  the  union  of  the  Greek  colonial  and 
mercantile  towns  in  the  south  of  France  with  the  East,  this 
feast  may  have  been  adopted,  perhaps,  in  these  districts  at  an 
earlier  period  than  in  the  other  countries  of  the  West.    It  was 

*  H.   1,  in  Pentecost.  S.   1,  T.   II.  f.  458,     Ua^*  fiiu,7v  io^rri  ^^um  rm 
i^t(pci9ta'  rig    fl    vxefiio'is    tjjj    io^rhs  \    iTti^n    6ios    W)  rtis  yns  tu^^n  xoti  reTs 

t  T^y  rm  vhdrm  viyietffi  (piffnt.  Chrysostomus.  Out  of  this  false  no- 
tion also  sprang  the  custom  at  Antioch,  of  very  zealously  drawing  water 
about  midnight  of  this  feast,  to  which  water  was  attributed  the  wonderful 
property  of  remaining  fresh  several  years.  Even  Chrysostom  partook  of 
this  superstition*  h.  de  baptismo  Christi,  s.'2.  Being  the  feast  of  Christ's 
baptism,  and  of  baptism  generally,  it  was  also  called  in  the  Eastern 
churchy  itfjTjf  T«»  ^urvf,  or  t«  ^ut».    So  in  Gregory  of  Nazianzen. 

t  L.  XXL  c.  2. 


486  CHRISTIAN  WOBSHIP. 

bocaujic  this  festival  was  originally  unknown  to  the  Western 
churcli  that  the  Donatists,  who  had  separated  themselves  fipom 
the  dominant  churcli  at  a  time  when  as  yet  no  knowledge  of 
any  such  feast  existed  among  the  people  of  the  West,  rejected 
it  as  an  innovation ;  as  they  did  other  regulations  that  arose 
alter  their  secession.*     And  as  this  festival  was  originally 
unknown  to  the  Western  church,   so  it  happened  that  its 
moaning  also  was  changed,  though  in  such  a  way  as  to  be 
easily  connected  with  the  fundamental  idea  of  the  festival. 
Tlie  general  conception  of  a  manifestation  of  Christ  in  his 
diviiK*  dignity,  or  in  Iiis  divine  calling  as  a  Redeemer,  was 
applieil  in  a  way  which  must  have  been  more  agreeable  to  the 
|H>int  of  view  taken  by  the  communities  of  the  West,  which 
were  fonned  of  pagan  Christians,  than  the  view  of  it  which 
had  first  spnmg  out  of  the  peculiar  conceptions  of  Jewish 
Christians  (see  vol.  i.  sect.  3,  p.  408) :  and,  at  the  same  time, 
tliis  festival  was  brought  into  closer  connection  with  Christmas, 
which  had  been  established  here  for  a  long  time  already. 
While,  in  the  countries  where  the  feast  of  Christ's  baptism 
had  its  distinct  traditional  meaning  as  the  feast  of  Epiphany, 
and  where  it  was  adhered  to,  therefore,  without  any  change, 
over)* thing  which  had  reference  to  Christ's  infancy  was  con- 
noctod  with  the  festival  of  Christmas ;  in  the  Eastern  church, 
on  tlu'  other  hand,  the  idea  of  the  manifestation  of  Christ  was 
appliiHl  in  a  pre-eminent  sense  to  his  manifestation  to  the 
heathen  world  as  the  Redeemer  of  all  mankind.     The  festival 
was  referred  to  the  coming  of  the  three  wise  men  from  the 
East,  who  were  supposed  to  be  heathens ;  and  so  this  feast 
becuinie  the  feast  of  the  first  announcement  of  salvation  to  the 
htHitheu  world,  of  the  first  conversion  of  some  heathens,  as  the 
prtH'ursors  of  the  approaching  general  conversion  of  the  pagan 
uations.t     When  these  two  points  of  view  became  united  in 
one,  the  general  conception  of  the  Epiphany  was  referred  to 
the  first  manifestation  of  the  miraculous  power  of  Jesus  afier 

**  Augostin.  p.  202,  s.  2.  Merito  istum  diem  nunqnam  nobiscom 
Douatista>  celebrare  voluenint,  quia  nee  unitatem  amant,  nee  Orientali 
ecdesiie  commuuicant 

f  Augustin.  p.  203.     Hodiemo  (Ue  manifestatos  redemptor  onmiain 
gentium,  fecit  sollenuitateni  omnibus  gentibus.    The  mystic  interpre- 
tation of  Psalm  Ixxii.  10,  led  to  the  converting  of  the  three  Magi  into 
^^UKt  kings.    See  Tertollian.  adv.  Judsos,  c  9. 


CHRISTMAS,  437 

bk  baptism,  in  the  first  mimcle  at  Cana,  the  dies  natali^ 
rirtutum  Domini.* 

The  case  was  directly  the  reverse  with  the  festival  of 
Christ's  nativity,  which  in  its  origin  belonged  to  the  Western 
church.  As  it  was  particularly  from  the  church  of  the  West 
the  dogmatic  tendency  proceeded,  by  which  the  doctrine  of 
original  sin  cleaving  to  all  men  from  their  birth,  and  of  the 
necessity  of  their  being  renewed  and  sanctified  in  order  to 
deliverance  from  this  corrupt  nature,  was  clearly  unfolded — 
as  it  was  in  the  church  of  the  West  that  the  practice  of  infant 
baptism  first  became  generally  spread,  so  too  in  the  Western 
ehurch  originated  the  festival  which  refers  to  the  sanctification 
of  man's  nature  from  its  first  germ  by  participation  in  a  divine 
life.  This  feast  first  makes  its  appearance  as  one  generally 
celebrated  in  the  Eoman  church,  under  the  Roman  bishop 
Liberius,  after  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century.!  '^^®  &®" 
neral  participation  in  the  celebration  of  this  feast  leads  to  the 
inference  that  it  was  not  at  that  time  a  festival  wholly  new. 
It  was  not  till  later,  however,  that  it  spread  from  the  Roman 
church  to  Eastern  Asia.  From  what  we  have  previously 
observed  respecting  the  celebration  of  the  feast  of  Epiphany 
in  this  part  of  the  church,  it  would  already  seem  clear  that 
the  Christmas  feast  could  not  be  one  which  originated  there ; 
but  Chrysostom  says  expressly,  in  a  discourse  pronounced  at 
Antioch  in  celebration  of  this  festival,  on  the  25th  of  De- 
cember of  the  year  386,  that  it  had  first  become  known  there 
less  than  ten  years  before,\     In  a  sermon  which  Chrysostom 

*  Maximus  of  Turin,  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  says,  after 
having  cited  all  the  three  modes  of  explaining  the  feast:  Sed  quid 
potissimum  hoc  factum  die,  novit  ipse,  qui  fecit.  H.  6.  He  calls  it  a 
certain  tradition,  that  the  three  facts  collectively  occurred  on  the  same 
day,  the  sixth  of  January;  but  in  H.  7  he  says,  that  although  the 
tradition  respecting  what  occurred  on  that  day,  and  respecting  that  to 
which  the  feast  alluded,  was  different,  yet  there  was  but  one  mth  and 
one  devotion. 

f  Ambrose  relates,  that  when  his  sister  Marcella  was  consecrated  as  a 
nun  on  the  dies  natalis  Salvatoris,  in  St.  Peter's  church,  by  the  bishop 
Liberius,  the  latter  said  to  her,  Yides  quantus  ad  natalem  sponsi  tui 
popolus  convenerit.    Ambros.  de  virginib.  1.  III.  c  1. 

X  Hom.  in  diem  natal.  Christi,  s.  1,  T.  II.  f.  355.  oS^u  'hizaTot  t^ra 
trof^  (^  ev  2iny.fl  mH  yvM^ifiog  ftfu*  avTfi  h  vifil^a  ytyvmreu.  True,  he  is 
qpeaking  in  that  place  particularly  of  the  celebration  of  this  feast  on  the 
tiDenty-fifth  of  December;  yet  the  course  and  mode  of  his  ar^iiment 


488  CHRISTIAN  WORSHIP. 

pronounced  on  the  20th  of  December  in  the  same  year,  on 
the  feast  of  a  martyr,*  he  digresses  from  the  proper  subject 
of  Ins  discourse  for  the  purj^ose  of  inviting  his  hearers  to 
participate  in  the  approaching  festival  of  Christmas.f  The 
way  in  which  he  speaks  of  it  shows  how  desirous  he  was  of 
making  the  interest  more  general,  which  he  himself  felt  in  a 
festival  still  new  to  this  portion  of  the  church.  J  In  the  next 
following  discourse,  on  the  25th  of  December,  he  says,  indeed, 
tliat  this  feast,  although  still  new  in  that  part  of  the  world, 
yet  soon  acquired  equal  authority  with  the  more  ancient  high 
festivals  :  of  this  the  crowded  assemblies,  which  the  churches 
could  scarcely  contain,  bore  witness.  But  still,  it  is  evident 
from   his  own  remarks  that,   as   usually  happens  with  new 


shows  that  it  was  only  on  the  assumption  of  the  twenty-fifth  of  De- 
cember as  the  birth-day  of  Christ,  a  distinct  feast  for  the  celebration 
of  this  birth-day  had  there  been  founded.  If  it  had  already  been  the 
custom  there  at  an  earlier  period  to  celebrate  some  festival  of  this  sort, 
but  on  a  different  day,  he  would  without  doubt  have  separated  the  cele- 
bration of  such  a  feast  generally  from  the  assumption  of  the  twenty-fifth 
of  December  for  its  celebration.  He  would  have  endeavoured  to  show 
the  want  of  foundation  for  reckoning  of  the  time  previously  fixed  upon, 
before  he  adduced  the  reasons  for  the  new  calculation.  Moreover,  it 
would  assuredly  have  been  yet  more  difficult  to  introduce  the  determinate 
time  adopted  at  Rome  into  the  Antiochian  chnrdi,  if  another  time  had 
there  already  been  fixed  upon.  The  authority  of  the  Roman  charch 
would  hardly  have  been  such  as  to  induce  the  whole  community  to 
transfer  a  feast  already  existing,  to  another  day.  It  may  be  conjectured, 
that,  previous  to  this  time,  people  were  as  far  from  thinking  to  consecrate 
a  feast  to  the  birtli-day  of  Christ,  as  they  were  from  the  thought  of 
chronologically  determininff  when  this  birth-day  occurred  :  for  we  find 
■the  bishop  of  Edessa  still  declaring  in  the  seventh  century,  that  nobody 
knew  on  what  day  Christ  was  bom.  See  Assemani  bibl.  oriental.  T.  II. 
f.  16t36.  It  was  not  until  men  believed  that  there  was  some  account 
which  could  be  relied  on  respecting  this  last-mentioned  fact,  that  they 
were  led  to  connect  with  it  the  celebration  of  a  particular  feast.  At  the 
same  time  it  may  be  said,  perhaps  with  truth,  that  the  interest  in  behalf 
of  a  festival  which  must  have  commended  itself  to  the  feelings  of  Chris- 
tians, contributed  to  create  the  belief  and  admission  that  the  time  had 
been  truly  determined. 

*  Philogonius.    T.  I.  f.  492.  t  L.  c^s.  3. 

X  Which  he  here  styles  **  the  mother  of  all  other  feasts,  finniraXts 
warZf  ru9  ta^rivv,**  as  indeed  all  the  others  presuppose  the  birth  of  Ubrist; 
and  he  names  on  this  occasion  the  principal  leasts,  ««-«  ykf  ratntif  ri 

Tn9  itvaSwn  tXttfi«9. 


CHRISTMAS.  439 

church  regulations,  all  were  not  satisfied  with  the  celebration 
of  this  new  festival.  A  controversy  arose  about  it.  While 
some  denounced  the  festival  as  an  innovation,  others  affinned 
in  its  defence  that  it  had  been  known  of  old  from  Thrace  to 
Cadiz.*  This  difference  of  opinion  led  him  into  a  detailed 
argument  in  support  of  the  festival.  Its  object  would  of 
course  be  acknowledged  by  every  Christian  of  the"  orthodox 
church  at  that  time  as  worthy  of  commemoration.  The 
grounds  of  opposition,  therefore,  could  relate  only  to  the 
arbitrary  determination  of  the  time :  hence  Chrysostom  la- 
boured only  to  show  that  the  true  time  was  determined. 

He  appeals,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  rapid  and  general 
reception  of  the  festival,  to  its  authority  increasing  every  year, 
as  evidence  that  the  time  had  been  rightly  assumed ;  applying 
here  the  well-known  remark  of  Gamaliel.  But  it  is  plain  that 
in  the  settling  of  a  date  this  argument  can  decide  nothing ; 
although  there  is  certainly  good  reason  for  supposing  that  the 
natural  propriety  of  such  a  festival,  its  entire  accordance  with 
the  feelings  which  glowed  in  every  Christian  breast,  promoted 
its  reception  on  its  own  account,  and  created  a  general  belief 
that  the  true  time  for  it  had  been  rightly  determined.  Next 
he  appeals  to  the  precise  time,  preserved  in  the  Roman  archives, 
of  the  census  of  the  Procurator  Quirinus.  On  this  point  it  is 
possible  he  may  have  been  deceived  by  false  reports ;  or 
perhaps,  at  Eome  itself,  certain  apocryphal  records  had  been 
allowed  to  pass  as  genuine.  In  other  homilies,  also,  written 
towards  the  close  of  the  fourth  century,  by  Greek  fathers, 
who  notice  this  festival  as  one  which  Christians  very  generally 
observed,  there  are  nevertheless  marks  of  its  comparatively 
recent  introduction. j* 

UttnifMs  yiyon.  Though  this  assertioD  cannot  pass  for  a  credible  histo- 
rical testimony,  yet  it  is  something  in  favour  of  the  supposition,  that  the 
festival  existed  from  early  times  in  many  countries  of  the  West. 

t  It  seems  to  be  the  wish  of  Gregory  of  Nyssa  to  defend  the  authority 
of  this  festival  against  those  who  were  not  disposed  to  place  it  on  the 
same  level  with  the  ancient  principal  feasts,  which  commemorated  the 
passion,  the  resurrection,  and  the  ascension  of  Christ,  when  he  says 
(Horn,  in  natalem  Christi,  T.  II.  ed.  Paris,  1638,  f.  352) :    yiMs  rSf 

and  therefore  endeavours  to  show,  like  Chrysostom,  that  that  which  con- 
stituted the  object  of  this  festival  was  presupposed  by  everything  else 


440  CHBISTIAN  WORSHIP. 

On  account  of  this  more  recent  introduction  of  the  Chnstmas 
festival  from  the  West  into  the  East,  the  Christians  in  many 
countries  of  the  East  preferred,'instead  of  adopting  a  festival 
altogether  new,  to  unite  the  commemoration  of  Christ's  nativity 
with  the  ancient  feast  of  the  Epiphany,  Thus  it  was  at 
Jerusalem,  and  in  the  Alexandrian  church.  And  it  was 
attempted  to  justify  this  simultaneous  celebration  on  the  au- 
thority of  Luke  iii.  23,  from  which  passage  it  was  inferred 
that  the  baptism  of  Christ  took  place  on  the  very  day  of  his 
nativity.*  Hence  again  it  was,  that,  in  many  of  the  Greek 
churches  where  from  the  earliest  times  neither  of  the  two 
feasts  had  been  observed,  and  where  the  feast  of  Christ's 
nativity  was  now  introduced  because  it  appeared  the  more 
important  of  the  two,  the  name  Epiphany  or  Theopkany  was 
transferred  to  the  latter.f 

But  to  explain  how  the  Christmas  festival  came  to  be  ob- 

Christ  had  wrought  for  the  salvation  of  mankind.  So,  in  a  homily, 
ascribed  incorrecUy  to  Basil  of  Cssarea  (T.  II.'  opp.  ed.  Gamier,  f.  602, 
s.  6),  it  is  said:  Ovhut  k^urriknt  (let  there  be  no  one  but  -what  con- 
tributes something  to  the  general  joy),  tuUis  »xV^'^osf  ^6ty^fjt%ia  viut 
xa)  hfAUf  (ptivtiv  ayukXtaffitaSj  otoua  6t/fAt6»  rn  ^(9^  n^ui*  fiu(paviatf — from 
which  passage  we  may  infer,  perhaps,  that  in  the  country  where  this 
was  said,  not  even  the  old  Epiphany  festival  of  the  Syrian  church  was  as 
yet  introduced ;  since,  were  it  otherwise,  its  name  would  hardly  have 
been  transferred  to  the  new  feast  of  Christ's  nativity. 

*  See  Cosmas  Indicopleust.  topographia  Christiana  in  Montfancon, 
collectio  nova  patrum,  T.  II.  1,  V.  f.  194 :  Cassian.  CoUat.  X.  c.  ii, 
respecting  the  simultaneous  celebration  of  these  festivals  by  the 
Egyptians.  This  custom  of  the  Alexandrian  church  must  have  been 
altered,  it  is  true,  at  a  later  period ;  for  in  a  homily  delivered  at  Alez- 
undria,  in  the  vear  432,  by  Paulus,  bishop  of  Emisa  in  Phoenicia,  we 
lind  the  feast  or  Christ's  nativity  described  as  an  independent  feast  by 
itself.  According  to  the  title,  this  festival  was  held  on  the  twenty-ninth 
of  the  Egyptian  month  Choyac,  which  answers  to  the  twenty-fifth  of 
December.  See  acta  concilii  Epbesini  pars  iv.  Harduini  Concil.  T.  I.  i 
1694.  It  might  be,  that  the  intimate  connection  of  the  Alexandrian 
church  with  tihe  Roman  in  the  time  of  Cyril,  the  posture  of  opposition  in 
which  the  former  stood  at  that  time  to  the  churches  of  Eastern  Asia ;  the 
dogmatical  interest  in  the  polemics  waged  against  the  Antiochian  type 
of  doctrine — all  this  contributed  to  bring  about  the  change. 

t  So  in  the  passage  above  cited  from  the  sermon  extant  under  the 
name  of  Basil,  and  in  the  expositio  fidei  of  Epiphanius :  'Hfcifia  tUv 
i*s<p»9i»i)>f  0Tt  lytv1^n!:^t^  iv  ffti^xt  I  KUPias.  Jerome  disputed  the  propriety  of 
this  use  of  the  term  Epipkania,  m  his  Commentary  on  Elzekiel,  c.  I : 
Epiphaniorum  dies  non,  ut  quidam  putant,  natalis  in  came,  turn  enim 
absconditus  est  et  non  apparuit 


CHRISTMAS.  441 

served  first  in  the  Boman  church,  and  to  pass  from  this  to 
the  other  churches ;  and  how  the  time  for  its  observance 
came  to  be  transferred  to  this  particular  date  of  the  25th 
December;  certain  antagonistic  tendencies  were  referred  to, 
gprowing  out  of  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  Roman 
church,  of  which  mention  is  abeady  made  in  older  writ- 
ings.* 

Precisely  in  this  season  of  the  year,  a  series  of  heathen 
festivals  occurred,  the  celebration  of  which  among  the  Romans 
was,  in  many  ways,  closely  interwoven  with  the  whole  civil 
and  social  life.  The  Christians,  on  this  very  account,  were 
often  exposed  to  be  led  astray  into  many  of  the  customs  and 
solemnities  peculiar  to  these  festivals.  Besides,  these  festivals 
had  an  import  which  easily  admitted  of  being  spiritualized, 
and  with  some  slight  change  transformed  into  a  Chnstian 
sense.  First  came  the  saturnalia^  which  represented  the 
peaceful  times  of  the  golden  age,  and  abolished  for  a  while  the 
distinction  of  ranks,  the  distance  between  servants  and  free 
men.  This  admitted  of  being  easily  transferred  to  Christianity, 
which,  through  the  reconciliation  of  man  with  God,  through 
the  restoration  of  the  fellowship  between  God  and  man,  had 
introduced  the  true  golden  age,  representing  the  equality  of  all 
men  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  brought  the  like  true  liberty  as 
well  to  the  freeman  as  to  the  slave.  Then  came  the  custom, 
peculiar  to  this  season,  of  making  presents  (the  strense),! 
which  afterwards  passed  over  to  the  Christmas  festival ;  next, 
the  festival  of  infants^  with  which  the  saturnalia  concluded, 
— ^tjie  sigillaria,  where  the  children  were  presented  with 
images ;}  just  as  Christmas  was  the  true  festival  of  the  chil- 
dren. Next  came  a  festival  still  more  analogous  to  the 
Christmas,  that  of  the  shortest  day,  the  winter  solstice ;  the 
birth-day  of  the  new  sun  about  to  return  once  more  towards 

*  The  account  of  Johannes,  bishop  of  Nice,  in  Combefis.  auctariom 
bibliothecse  patrum  novissimum,  Paris,  1648,  T.  II.,  and  with  supple- 
mentary additions  in  the  edition  of  the  patres  apostolici,  by  Coteler.  T. 
I.  313,  is  from  too  late  a  period,  and  too  bibulous,  to  possess  any  histori- 
cal importiudce  whatever. 

t  The  participation  in  the  customs  of  this  pagan  festival,  as  well  as 
the  mutusd  sending  of  presents,  were  practices  for  which  the  Christians 
were  already  reprimanded  by  Tertullian. 

X  Macrob.  Satumal.  1.  I.  c.  XI.  quse  lusom  reptanti  adhuc  in&ntisD 
oaraillisftctilibtts  prsebent 


442  CHRISTIAN  WORSHIP. 

the  earth  (dies  natalis  invieti  solis).*  In  the  case  of  this  last 
named  feast,  a  transition  to  the  Christian  point  of  view  naturally 
presented  itself,  when  Christ,  the  sun  of  the  spiritual  world, 
was  compared  with  that  of  the  material.  But  the  comparison 
was  carried  still  further ;  for,  as  in  the  material  world,  it  is 
after  the  darkness  has  reached  its  highest  point  that  the  end  of 
its  dominion  is  already  near,  and  the  light  begins  to  acquire 
fresh  power  ;  so,  too,  in  the  spiritual  world,  after  the  darkness 
had  reached  its  utmost  height,  Christ,  the  spiritual  sun,  must 
appear,  to  make  an  end  of  the  kingdom  of  darkness.  In  fact, 
many  allusions  of  this  kind  are  to  be  found  in  the  discourses  of 
the  church  fathers  on  the  festival  of  Christmas.f 

That  Christian  festival  which  could  be  so  easily  connected 
with  the  feelings  and  presentiments  lying  at  the  ground  of  the 
whole  series  of  pagan  festivals  belonging  to  this  season,  was 
now,  therefore,  to  be  opposed  to  these  latter ;  and  hence  the 
celebration  of  Christmas  was  transferred  to  the  25th  of  Decem- 
ber, for  the  purpose  of  drawing  away  the  Christian  people 
from  all  participation  in  the  heathen  festivals,  and  of  gradually 

*  I'he  Manichscan  Faustus  actually  brings  it  as  a  charge  agsdnst  the 
Christians  of  the  Catholic  church,  that  they  celebrated  the  solstitia  with 
the  Pagans :  Solennes  gentium  dies  cum  ipsis  celebratis,  ut  kalendas  et 
solstitia.  See  Augustin.  I.  XX.  c.  Faustum.  The  Roman  bishop,  Leo 
the  Great,  complains  that  many  Christians  had  retjuned  the  pagan  cus- 
tom of  paying  obeisance  from  some  lofty  eminence  to  the  rising  son ; 
so  too,  vrhen  in  the  morning  they  were  ascending  the  steps  of  St.  Peter^s 
church.  Leo,  p.  26,  c.  4.  The  second  Council  of  Trulla,  or  quinisextum, 
691,  were  still  under  the  necessity  of  forbidding  the  Christians  to  take 
any  part  in  the  celebration  of  the  Brumalia.  Now,  if  it  was  the  case 
that  the  remains  of  heathen  customs  still  existed  among  the  Greeks 
at  a  time  when  Paganism  had  already  almost  wholly  vanished,  much 
more  must  this  have  been  the  case  among  the  Roman  Christians  in  the 
earlier  centuries. 

f  Thus  says  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  in  his  sermon  on  this  festival,  T.  III. 
f.  340. — It  was  not  a  matter  of  chance  that  Christ's  nativity  took  place 

at   this   season,   it  tT  fjuuovo'^ai  ri  ffxiros  li^tTen  xat    tbL    Tfif    tuxrif  ftirf* 
(paivofAiVMV    re7s    ^tofetrixttri^ug    itfiyiTreit  ti   xriffK,      AugUStiu.  p.    1-90,  S.  1. 

**  Since  the  infidelity  which  covered  the  whole  world  like  a  night,  was  to 
diminish,  while  faith  increased ;  for  this  reason,  on  the  nativity  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  the  night  begins  to  grow  less,  and  the  day  to  increase.  Let 
us,  then,  celebrate  this  festival,  not  like  the  unbelievers,  on  account  of  this 
sun,  but  on  account  of  the  Creator  of  this  sun."  So,  too,  Leo  the  Great 
(p.  25,  s.  1)  says,  that  this  day,  more  than  any  other,  presents,  by  the  new 
light  beaming  forth  even,in  the  elements,  an  imageof  this  wonderfol  birth 


CHRISTMAS.  443 

drawing  over  the  pagans  themselves  from  their  heatlien  cus- 
toms to  the  Christian  celebration.  This  view  of  the  matter 
seems  to  be  particularly  favoured  in  a  New  Year's  discourse 
by  Maximius,  bishop  of  Turin,  near  the  close  of  the  fourth 
century,  where  he  recognizes  a  special  divine  providence  in 
appointing  the  birth  of  Christ  to  take  place  in  the  midst  of 
the  pagan  festivals  ;  so  that  men  might  be  led  to  feel  ashamed 
of  pagan  superstition  and  pagan  excesses.  * 

But  these  allusions  to  the  series  of  heathen  festivals  happen- 
ing in  this  season  of  the  year,  furnish,  however,  no  decisive 
evidence  that  the  Christian  festival  was  instituted  on  this  ac- 
count generally,  or  that  it  was  transferred  to  this  particular 
time  for  the  purpose  of  being  opposed  to  the  pagan  celebra- 
tions. In  fact,  the  resorting  to  this  means  for  drawing  away 
men  from  the  pagan  superstitions  was  a  very  hazardous  experi- 
ment, which  might  easily  lead  men  to  confound  Christianity 
with  Heathenism,  and  to  lose  out  of  sight  the  true  import  of 
the  Christian  festival.  Of  this,  indeed,  Leo  the  Great  found  it 
necessary  tp  give  warning.f  Yet  we  must  allow  that,  from 
the  unsuitableness  of  the  means,  it  in  nowise  follows  that  such 
a  means  was  not  then  resorted  to.  Easily  might  it  happen 
that,  with  their  eyes  intently  fixed  on  the  single  object  proposed, 
men  might  overlook  the  evil  naturally  connected  with  it.  In  a 
later  period  such  a  mode  of  proceeding  would  be  no  matter 
of  surprise.  But  it  may  be  questioned  whether  we  could 
rightly  presume  it  of  the  period  to  which,  according  to  what 
has  been  said,  the  origin  of  the  Christmas  festival  must  be 
referred.  We  can  hanlly  separate  the  origin  of  this  festival, 
considered  by  itself,  from  the  particular  designation  of  its 
time ;  for  it  can  hardly  be  conceived  that,  after  a  tradition  had 
once  obtained  credit  respecting  the  day  of  Christ's  nativity,  and 
after  the  festival  of  Christmas  had  been  fixed  on  this  day,  the 

*  Maximos  Taurinens.  H.  5,  in  Kal.  Jan.  bibl.  patr.  Galland.  T.  IX.  f. 
353.  Bene  quodammodo  Deo  providente  dispositum,  ut  inter  medias 
gentilium  festivitates  Christus  Domiuus  oriretur  et  inter  ipsas  tene- 
brosas  superstitiones  errorum  veri  luminis  splendor  effulgeret,  nt  per- 
spicientes  homines  in  vanis  superstitionibus  suis  parse  divinitatis  emi- 
cuisse  jastitiam,  prseterita  obliviscerentur  sacrilegia,  futura  non  colerent. 

t  P.  21.  c.  6.  Diabolus  illadens  simplicioribus  animis  de  quorun- 
dam  persuasione  peslifera,  quibus  hsec  dies  soUennitatis  nostrse  non  tarn 
de  natiritate  Christi,  quam  de  novi,  ut  dicnnt,  solis  ortu  honorabilis  vi- 
deatur. 


444  CHBISTIAN  WORSHIP. 

gpecific  time  would  be  altered  out  of  regard  to  the  festivals  of 
the  pagans.     Yet  it  should  be  remarked,  in.  general,  that  the 
accommodation  of  Christian  to  pagan  institutions  proceeded, 
in  most  cases,  from  the  side  of  the  people ;  the  church-teachers 
resisted,  at  first,  the  intermingling  of  pagan  customs  with 
Christian ;  afterwards  they  gave  way,  or  were  themselves  car- 
ried along  by  the  spirit  of  the  times.     Individual  exceptions, 
it  \s  true,  are  to  be  met  with ;  yet  in  no  point  which  could  he 
compared  with  the  institution  of  such  a  principal  festival,  and 
which  reached  back  to  so  early  a  period  as  the  origin  of  Christ- 
mas.    Originally  the  prevaiHng  mode  of  procedure  in  the 
Western  church  was  by  no  means  to  connect  the  celebratioD  of 
Christian  festivals  with  pagan ;  but  rather  to  set  over  against 
the  pagan  festivals  days  of  fiisting  and  penitence.*     The  pas- 
sage of  Faustus,  in  which  Christians  of  the  Catholic  church  are 
accused  of  taking  part  in  the  festivities  of  Paganism  (see 
above),  seems,  it  is  true,  at  first  glance,  to  confirm  the  con- 
jecture above  mentioned  ;  but  on  closer  examination  it  will  he 
found  rather  opposed  to  it.     Faustus  accuses  the  Christians, 
first,  of  merely  changing  the  heathen  into  a  Christian  super- 
stition ;  for  example,  substituting  the  worship  of  the  martyrs 
in  place  of  the  worsUp  of  idols ;  f  and  secondly,  of  imitating, 
without  any  change,  heathen  festivities  as  heathen ;  and  here 
he  names  the  kalendtB  and  the  soUtitia.     Now,  with  r^rd 
to  the  first  of  these  charges,  we  know  certainly — ^a  fact  pre- 
sently to  be  mentioned — that  the  church  never  had  anything  to 
do  with  those  pagan  festivities,  but  constantly  expressed  the 
warmest  opposition  to  all  participation  in  them.     The  same 
would  be  true  therefore  of  the  celebration  of  the  solstitia, 
since  this  belonged  in  the  same  category  with  the  rest.     But  if 
Faustus  had  had  any  ground  whatever  for  accusing  the  Chris- 
tians of  altering  the  pagan  celebration  of  the  solstitia  into  a 
seeming  Christian  celebration  of  the  nativity,  it  is  the  less  to 
be  supposed  that  he  would  have  omitted  to  bring  such  an 

*  Leo  the  Great  cites  it,  in  his  vii.  Sermo,  as  an  old  tradition,  ut  quo- 
ties  coecitas  paganonim  in  superstitionibus  esset  intentior,  tunc  prs- 
cij^ae  populus  Dei  orationibus  et  operibus  pietatis  (under  which  he  com- 
prised alms  and  fitsts,  which  were  not  allowable  on  the  principal  festi- 
vals) instaret. 

t  Idola  eorum  vertistis  in  Martyres,  to  which  passage  we  shall  agaia 
revert  on  a  fixture  occasion. 


CELEBRATION  OF  NEW  YEAK's  DAY.  446 

accusation  against  them,  as  the  feast  of  Christ's  nativity  must 
have  been  particularly  disagreeable  to  him  as  a  Manichaean, 
who  looked  upon  the  birth  of  Christ  in  the  flesh  as  a  sorry 
superstition. 

And  what  necessity  is  there,  in  truth,  of  searching  for  out- 
ward causes  to  account  for  a  fact  which,  as  we  have  already 
remarked,  explains  itself  as  growing  out  ot  the  inner  develop- 
ment of  the  Christian  life?  As  it  respects,  however,  the 
specific  time  of  the  25th  of  December,  designated  for  the 
festival  of  Christmas,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that,  in  the 
earlier  sges,  there  were  several  different  determinations  of  the 
day  of  Christ's  nativity ;  and  we  might,  with  the  same  good 
reason,  repeat  the  question  with  regard  to  each  one  of  these. 
How  was  this  ascertained  ?  It  is  very  probable  that,  in  the 
Roman  church,  this  point  was  settled  by  the  authority  of  some 
historical  tradition,  founded  on  apocryphal  records.  Now  it  is 
very  possible,  we  may  admit,  that,  allowing  the  existence  of 
such  an  apocryphal  tradition,  it  might  have  been  helped  along 
— not  indeed  by  any  design  of  imitating  or  rivalling  the  pagan 
ceremonies,  but  quite  independently  of  these — by  the  mystical 
interpretation  given  to  that  season  of  the  year.* 

We  find  that  it  was  originally  a  principle  with  teachers 
and  governors  of  the  church  to  resist  the  tendency,  among  the 
multitude,  to  confound  pagan  rites  with  Christian.  We  see 
this  particularly  illustrated  in  the  case  of  the  New  Year's  fes- 
tival, the  Kalendae  Januarise.  The  celebration  of  this  grandest 
of  the  Roman  festivals,  which  began  with  the  end  of  Decem- 
ber and  lasted  several  days,  was,  more  than  that  of  any  other, 
interwoven  with  the  whole  public  and  private  life  of  the  Ro- 
mans ;  with  all  civil,  social,  and  domestic  arrangements,  man- 
ners, and  customs.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  commencement  of  the 
civil  year,  according  to  which  all  sorts  of  business  had  to  be 
adjusted  and  arranged.  It  was  the  time  when  the  magistrates 
entered  upon  their  several  offices.     It  was  therefore  the  ordi- 

*  How  easily  the  determination  of  chronological  questions  of  this  sort 
might  proceed  from  mystical  interpretations  of  scripture  texts,  may  be 
seen,  e.  g.,  by  consulting  Hieronym.  in  Ezechiel.  c.  i.  v.  1,  where,  on  the 
principle  that  the  first  month  of  the  civil  year  of  the  Jews  must  nearly 
correspond  to  the  month  of  October,  the  fourth  month  therefore  to 
January,  the  author  concludes  that  the  baptism  of  Jesus,  on  the  fifth  of 
January,  is  here  typified. 


446  CHRISTIAN  WORSHIP* 

nary  season  of  congratulations,  when  presents  were  mutually 
given  and  received.     Tertullian  already  found  reason  to  com- 
plain that  Christians  participated  in  all  these  customs.   In 
defence  of  this  participation  it  could  ever  be  alleged,  as  it  was 
still  alleged  by  many  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century, 
that  this  whole  festival  was  in  truth  of  a  purely  civil  nature, 
having  no  necessary  connection  with  religion,  and  that  it 
might  be  joined  in,  therefore,  without  the  least  danger  to  the 
faith.*     But  with  this  celebration  were  united  customs  stand- 
ing directly  at  variance  with  the  principles  of  the  Christian 
faith  and  the  rules  of  Christian  conduct — ^riotous  excesses, 
abandoned  revelry,  and  various  kinds  of  heathen  superstition, 
which  sought,  by  means  of  omens  and  the  arts  of  divination, 
to  unveil  the  destinies  of  the  whole  year.     The  first  day  was 
spent  by  many  of  the  pagans  in  an  unrestrained  indulgence 
of  sensual  enjoyments,  under  the  persuasion  that  such  a  begin- 
ning would  be  followed  by  a  corresponding  year  of  pleasure.^ 
It  is  manifest  what  a  corrupting  influence  tlus  contagious  ex- 
ample of  pagan  immorality  and  superstition  would  exert  on  the 
Christian  life :  indeed,  the  Christian  teachers  were  often  forced 
to  complain  of  it  in  their  homilies.  J     Yet  even  in  this  case, 
the  pagan  festival  could  have  been  converted  into  a  Christian 
one,  having  no  connection  with  the  pagan  in  religion,  by  sim- 
ply giving  to  the  commencement  of  the  civil  year  a  Christian 
import,  on  the  principle  that  every  change  and  new  beginning 
in  earthly  things  should  be  sanctified  by  religion.     Thus  the 
commencement  of  the  year,  as  it  was  to  be  regarded  from  the 
Christian  point  of  view,  would  be  most  appropriately  opposed 
to  the  pagan  celebration  of  the  day.     Such  considerations  are 
to  be  met  with ;  for  instance,  in  Chrysostom's  discourse  on 
the  commencement  of  the  new  year.     But  to  no  one  does  the 
obvious  thought  seem  to  have  occurred,  of  converting  the 
civil  observance  wholly  into  an  ecclesiastical  one ;  for  this 
thought  lay  too  remote  from  the  original  Christian  point  of 
view,  conformably  to  which  all  festivals  were  referred  exclu- 
sively to  the  momentous  facts  connected  with  man's  salvation, 

*  Petrus  Chrysologus,  p.  155.  Esse  novitatis  Isetitiam,  non  vetustatis 
errorem,  anni  principium,  non  gentilitatis  offensam. 

t  See  Liban.  U^^dffis  KuX-U^atv.    Chrysost.  Homil.  Kalend. 

j  See  the  homilies  of  Asterius  of  Amasea,  of  Maximus  of  Turin,  of 
Chr  jsostom,  Augustin,  Leo  the  Great. 


CELEBRATION  OF  NEW  YEAR's  DAY.  447 

and  had  their  origm  in  a  purely  religious  interest :  while,  at 
the  same  time,  there  was  a  strong  reluctance  to  fall  in  with 
the  pagan  custom  of  celebrating  the  commencement  of  the 
year  with  religious  observances.  It  would  have  been  nearer 
the  Christian  point  of  view,  to  separate  the  ecclesiastical  year 
from  the  civil,  and  to  make  the  year  begin  either  with  Easter 
or  the  Christmas  festival.*  It  was  only  to  oppose  a  counter 
influence  to  the  pagan  celebration,  that  Christian  assemblies 
were  finally  held  on  the  first  day  of  January  ;  and  they  were 
designed  to  protect  Christians  against  the  contagious  influence 
of  pagan  debauchery  and  superstition.  Thus,  when  Augustin 
had  assembled  his  church,  on  one  of  these  occasions,  he  first 
caused  to  be  sung  the  words,  "  Save  us,  O  Lord  our  God ! 
and  gather  us  from  among  the  heathen,"  Psalm  cvi.  47  ;  and 
hence  he  took  occasion  to  remind  his  flock  of  their  duty,  espe- 
cially on  this  day,  to  show,  that  as  they  had,  in  truth,  been 
gathered  from  among  the  heathen,  to  exhibit  in  their  life  the 
contrast  between  the  Christian  and  the  heathen  temper;  to 
substitute  alms  for  New- Year's  gifts  (the  strenae),  edification 
from  scripture  for  merry  songs,  and  fasts  for  riotous  feasting. 
This  principle  was  gradually  adopted  in  the  practice  of  the 
Western  church,  and  three  days  of  penitence  and  fasting  op- 
posed to  the  pagan  celebration  of  January, f  until,  the  time 
being  designated,  the  festival  of  Christ's  circumcision  was 
transferred  to  this  season ;  when  a  Jewish  rite  was  opposed  to 
the  pagan  observances,  and  its  reference  to  the  circumcision 
of  the  heart  by  repentance,  to  heathen  revelry. 

Besides  these  festivals,  should  be  mentioned  also  the  days 
consecrated  to  the  memory  of  holy  men,  who  had  endeared 

*  With  the  Piaster  festival,  since  the  resurrection  of  Christ  was  the 
beginning  of  anew  creation,  and  the  spiritual  spring  might  be  associated 
with  the  spring  of  nature.  With  the  Christmas  festival,  since  the  na- 
tivity of  Christ  was  the  beginning  of  his  life,  which  laid  the  foundation 
for  man's  salvation,  and  the  festival  was  the  one  from  which  all  the  others 
jffoceeded. 

f  See  Isidor.  1.  I.  c.  40,  de  officiis  and  Concil.  Turonense  II.  aj). 
567,  c.  17.  Triduum  illud,  quo,  ad  calcandum  gentilium  cousuetudinem, 
patres  nostri  statuerunt  privatas  in  Kalendis  Januariis  fieri  litanias,  ut  in 
ecclesiis  psallatur,  et  bora  octava  in  ipsis  Kalendis  circumcisionis  missa 
Deo  propitio  celebretur.  It  may  be  a  question,  whether  the  latter  refers 
to  the  circamcisio  cordis,  or  already  to  the  memoria  circumcisionis 
Christi. 


4^  CHRISTIAN  WORSHIP. 

themselves  to  the  church  as  teachers,  or  as  martyrs  to  the  faith. 
Of  these  we  shall  speak  more  particularly  hereafter.  We  now 
pass  to  consider  the  particular  acts  of  Christian  worship. 

4.  Particular  Acts  of  Chrutian  Worship, 

The  principal  acts  of  Christian   worship,  respectinpj  the 
origin  of  which  we  spoke  in  the  preceding  period,  continued  to 
be  observed  also  in  the  present.     To  this  class  belongs  first 
the  reading  of  the  holy  scriptures.     We  have  already  spoken 
of  the  important  influence  which  the  reading  of  large  portions 
of  the  sacred  scriptures  had  on  the  church  life  of  this  period. 
At  the  beginning,  it  was  left  for  each  bishop  to  appoint  such 
portions  of  the  Bible  as  he  chose,  to  be  read  at  each  meeting 
of  the  church.     The  historical  and  practical  allusions  to  the 
above-mentioned  parts  in  the  cycle  of  Christian  festivals,  first 
led  to  the  practice  of  selecting  certain  portions  of  scripture 
with  reference  to  the  principal  feasts ;  and  this  practice  was 
gradually  converted,  by  tradition,  into  a  standing  rule.* 

As  to  the  relation  of  the  sermon  to  the  whole  office  of  wor- 
ship, this  is  a  point  on  which  we  meet  with  the  most  opposite 
errors  of  judgment.  Some,  who  looked  upon  the  clergy  as 
only  offering  priests,  and  who  considered  the  main  part  of 
Christian  worship  to  consist  in  the  magical  effects  of  the  priestly 

*  What  Augostin  says,  in  the  prologae  to  his  homilies  oa  the  first 
epistle  of  John,  may  serve  as  a  proof:  Solennitas  sanctorum  dienun, 
quibus  certas  ex  evangelio  lectiones  oportet  recitari,  quae  ita  sunt  annas, 
Qt  aliae  esse  non  possint.  Thus,  in  Easter  week,  the  history  of  Cbrisfs 
resurrection  was  read  in  turn  from  all  the  gospels.  See  Augustin.  p. 
231  and  39.  Chrysostom.  in  Hom.  4,  in  principio  actomm,  T.  III.  f. 
85,  says,  the  fathers  had  introduced  such  apportionments  of  scripture  to 
particular  times,  not  for  the  sake  of  abridging  Christian  liberty  {ovx  «»• 

v*o  oiteiyKns  xai^atv  Trtt  iXivh^ietv  hfAit  v*a^XMatv\  but  OUt  of  condescen- 
sion to  the  necessities  of  the  weak.  But  the  natural  propensity  of  men  to 
bind  themselves  to  forms  once  sanctioned  by  use,  was  shown  also  in  the 
present  case.  In  the  African  church  it  was  customary  to  read  on  Good 
Friday  the  history  of  the  passion  from  Matthew.  When  Augustin,  to 
give  his  church  a  more  varied  and  full  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the 
passion,  proposed  to  read  the  different  gospels  yearly,  in  turn,  and  on  a 
certain  Good  Friday  caused  the  portion  to  be  read  from  anodier  gospel, 
disturbances  arose,  for  many  were  disappointed  not  to  hear  what  they 
had  been  accustomed  to :  Volueram  aliquando,  ut  per  singulos  annos 
secundum  omnes  evangelistas  ctiam  passlo  \^%et^\x« .  '^^^voass.  <ist^non 
gdierunt  homines  quc^L  conBue'vetMx\^  eX  ^t\s«\»JC\  «MiX«  ^ ,  '=L^'=i.^'6.,\. 


THE  SERMONS.  449 

^'vices,  were  hence  inclined  greatly  to  overvalue  the  litur- 
S^cal,  and  wholly  to  overlook  the  necessity  of  the  didactic 
element  of  worship.  The  gift  of  teaching  they  regarded  as 
^mething  foreign  from  the  spiritual  office,  as  they  supposed 
the  Holy  Ghost,  imparted  to  the  priest  by  ordination,  could  be 
3'ansmitted  to  others  only  by  his  sensible  mediation.  Others, 
lowever, — and  on  account  of  the  rhetorical  style  of  culture 
rhich  prevailed  among  the  higher  classes  in  the  large  cities  of 
he  'Rast,  this  was  especially  the  case  in  the  Greek  church-^ 
ave  undue  importance  to  the  didactic  and  rhetorical  part  of 
rorship  ;  and  did  not  attach  importance  enough  to  the  essen- 
ials  of  Christian  fellowship,  and  of  common  edification  and 
ievotion.  Hence  the  church  would  be  thronged  when  some 
amous  speaker  was  to  be  heard  ;  but  only  a  few  remained  be- 
dnd  when  the  sermon  was  ended  and  the  church  prayers  fol- 
owed.  "  The  sermons,"  said  they,  "  we  can  hear  nowhere  but 
it  church ;  but  we  can  pray  just  as  well  at  home."*  Against 
Ms  abuse  Chrysostom  had  frequent  occasion  to  speak,  in  his 
iiscourses  preached  at  Antioch  and  Constantinople.  Hence, 
joOy  without  regard  to  the  essential  character  of  the  chiu*ch,  a 
jtyle  borrowed  from  the  theatre  or  the  lecture  rooms  of  de- 
slaimers  was  introduced  into  the  church  assemblies ;  as  these 
were  frequented  for  the  purpose  of  hearing  some  orator,  cele- 
brated for  his  elegant  language,  or  his  power  of  producing  a 
momentary  effect  on  the  imagination  or  the  feelings.  Hence 
the  custom  of  interrupting  such  speakers,  at  their  more  striking 
Dr  impressive  passages,  with  noisy  testimonials  of  approbation 
[KpoTog).  Vain  ecclesiastics,  men  whose  hearts  were  not  full 
of  the  holy  cause  they  professed,  made  it  the  chief  or  only  aim 
of  their  discourses  to  secure  the  applause  of  such  hearers,  and 
hence  laboured  solely  to  display  their  brilliant  eloquence  or  wit, 
to  say  something  with  point  and  effect.  But  many  of  the  better 
class,  too,  such  men  as  Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  could  not  wholly 
overcome  the  vanity  which  this  custom  tended  to  foster,  and 
thus  fell  into  the  mistake  of  being  too  rhetorical  in  their  ser- 
mons.']' Men  of  holy  seriousness,  like  Chrysostom,  strongly 
rebuked  this  declamatory  and  theatrical  style,|  and  said  tlmt, 

*  See  Chrysostom.  H.  3,  de  iDComprehensib.  8.  6,  T.  I.  469. 
f  Gre^ry  of  Nazianzen  says  himself,  in  his  Dsurewell  discourse  at 
Constantinople  :  K^orwecrt  X^'P'^h  ^'^  fitn^ari,  ifiart  us  v^p»i  riv  pnro^ct  ufiHv, 

X  Thus  on  one  occasion  he  says:  *<  This  \B  no  t\ied.\x«\^o'QLW<&\v^x. 

VOL,  III,  i  Qi 


450  CHRISTIAN  WOfiSHIP. 

through  such  vanity  the  whole  ChristiaQ  cause  would  come  to 
be  suspected  by  the  heathens. 

Many  short-hand  writers  eagerly  employed  themselves  in 
taking  down  on  the  spot  the  discourses  of  famous  speakers,  m 
order  to  give  them  a  wider  circulation.*     The  sermons  were 
sometimes — though  rarely — ^read  off  entirely  firom  notes,  or  com- 
mitted to  memory ;  sometimes  they  were  fireely  delivered,  after 
a  plan  prepared  beforehand ;  and  sometimes  th^  were  alto- 
gether extemporary.      The  last  we  learn  incidentally,  firom 
being  informed  that  Augustin  was  occasionally  directed  to  the 
choice  of  a  subject  by  the  passage  which  the  "  prselector  "  had 
selected  for  reading ;  when,  he  tells  us,  he  was  sometimes  urged 
by  some  impression  of  the  moment,  to  give  his  sermon  a  differ- 
ent turn  from  what  he  had  originally  proposed.f    We]are  also 
informed  by  Chrysostom,  that  his  subject  was  frequently  sug- 
gested to  him  by  something  he  met  with  on  his  way  to  church, 
or  which  suddenly  occurred  during  divine  service.^ 

Church  music  was  cultivated,  in  this  period,  m^re  according 
to  rule.  In  connection  with  the  "  pr8electors,"§  wer6  appointed 
church-choristers,  who  sung  sometimes  alone,  sometimes  inter- 
changeably with  the  choirs  of  the  congregation.  It  was  con- 
sidered very  important  that  the  whole  church  should  take  part 
in  the  psalmody.  Q 

sittiiig  here  as  spectators  of  comedians."  OlTt  ya^  itAr^M  irrt  r»  irm^in^ 
w  r^y^iws  Moinffit  htifAivM  vvv.    In  Matth.  H.  17}  8.  7. 

*  Hence  Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  in  his  farewell  discourse,  preadied  at 
Constantinople,  says:  Xai^trt  yfim^titt  pttvi^au  »ci  x»»^avwnu.  Hence 
the  complunt  of  Gaudentius  of  Brescia,  that  his  sermons  had  been 
inaccurately  transcribed  by  note-takers,  who  sat  out  of  sight.  See  the 
Prsefat.  to  his  Sermones.  Hence  the  different  recensions  we  have  of  so 
many  of  the  ancient  homilies. 

f  Augustin.  in  Psalm  cxxxviii.  s.  1.  Maluimus  nos  in  errore  lectoris 
sequi  Yoluntatem  Dei,  quam  nostram  in  uostro  poposito. 

I  See  the  sermon  of  Chrysostom,  of  which  the  theme  was  chosen  on 
lus  way  to  church,  when  he  saw,  in  tiie  winter  time,  lying  in  the  vidiiity 
of  the  church,  many  sick  persons  and  beggars,  and  touched  with  pity> 
felt  constrained  to.  exhort  his  hearers  to  works  of  brotherly  kindness  aod 
charity.  T.  III.  opp.  ed.  Montf.  f.  248.  Compare  also  the  turn  wlueh 
he  gave  to  his  discourse  in  a  certain  sermon,  when  the  lighting  of  the 
lamps  drew  away  the  attention  of  his  hearers.    See  T.  IV.  f.  662. 

§  YaXr«/,  cantores,  who,  like  the  lectores,  were  taken  from  the 
younger  clerey. 

II  In  the  fineenih  canon  of  the  council  of  Laodicea,  it  was  ordered, 
that  no  others  besides  the  regularly  appointed  churdh  cantores  shovld 


PSALMODY.  461 

Besides  the  Psalms,  which  had  been  used  from  the  earliest 
times,  and  the  short  doxologies  and  hymns,  consisting  of  verses 
£x>m  the  holy  scriptures,  spiritual  songs  composed  by  distin- 
g'uished  church-teachers,  such  as  Ambrose  of  Milan  and  Hilary 
of  Poictiers,  were  also  introduced  among  the  pieces  used  for 
public  worship  in  the  Western  church.  To  the  last-named 
practice,  much  (^position,  it  is  true,  was  expressed.  It  was 
demanded  that,  in  conformity  with  the  ancient  usage^  nothing 
should  be  used  in  the  music  of  public  worship  but  what  was 
taken  from  the  sacred  scriptures.  And  as  sectaries  and  here- 
tical parties  often  had  recourse  to  church  psalmody,  as  a  means 
for  giving  spread  to  their  own  peculiar  religious  opinions,  all 
those  songs  which  had  not  been  for  a  long  time  in  use  in  the 
church,  were  particularly  liable  to  suspicion.* 

It  must  already  have  become  a  matter  of  complaint,  how- 
ever, as  well  in  the  Western  as  in  the  Greek  church,  that  the 
ecclesiastical  music  had  taken  too  artificial  and  theatrical  a 
direction,  and  departed  from  its  ancient  simplicity ;  for  we  find 
the  Egyptian  abbot  Pambo,  in  the  fourth  century,  inveighing 
against  the  introduction  of  heathen  melodies  into  church  psal- 
mody^t  ^^^  ^6  abbot  Isidore  of  Pelusium  complaining  of  the 

sinff  in  divine  serrice  (*t^^  tw  fih  ^uv  trxlov  tSv  xctvwtKvi  \l/eixrtin  rSr 
{«■}  T§9  iftfidw  int^wvTtti  »»)  atro  It^^i^etf  (the  chufch  song-books), 
^akxJfrmf  iri^oof  rivets  yjfcikkuv  if  i»HX.nfi»)»  But  this  is  hardly  to  be 
understood  as  meaning  that  the  participation  of  the  congregation  in  the 
church  music  was  to  be  wholly  excluded.  At  least,  if  this  were  the 
oese,  it  must  be  regarded  as  a  temporary  and  provincial  regulation ;  and 
it  would  be  in  direct  contradiction  to  the  usage  of  the  Eastern  church,  in 
which  the  distinguished  church  teachers,  such  as  Basil  of  Csesarea  and 
Chrysostom,  expended  much  labour  in  improving  the  style  of  church 
music.  Most  probably  this  canon  is  to  be  understood  in  the  sense  that 
none  but  persons  of  the  clerical  order  should  hold  the  post  of  professed 
cfaureh-Mngers,  so  that  the  singing  of  the  congregation  was  to  be  re- 
garded as  a  wholly  independent  thing. 

*  See  Concil.  Laodicen.  C.  59.  'Or)  eu  hT  ihwrUovs  yJ/aiXfAous  y.iyt^§»t 
b  Tf  \»K\fi*U'  The  first  council  of  Braga,  in  the  year  561,  c.  12, 
against  the  rriscillianists,  directed,  ut  extra  psalmos  vel  scripturas 
canonicas  nihil  poetice  compositum  in  ecclesia  psallatur.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  fourth  council  of  Toledo,  a.d.  633,  c.  13,  defended  the  use  of 
such  8ai»«d  hymns  as  were  composed  by  Hilary  and  Ambrose.  Even 
fhe  ancient  hynms  and  doxologies  taken  from  scripture  were  not,  they 
said,  wholly  free  from  human  additions.  As  prayers  and  liturgical 
forms  of  human  composition  were  used  in  divine  service,  the  same  use 
might  be  made  also  ox  sa<»«d  hymns  indited  by  men. 

t  See  the  conference  of  the  abbot  Pambo  with  his  disciples,  on  the  too 


452  THE  SACRAMENTS. 

theatrical  style  of  singing,  particularly  among  the  women, 
which,  instead  of  exciting  emotions  of  penitence,  served  rather 
to  awaken  sinful  passions  ;*  and  Jerome,  in  remarking  on  the 
words  of  the  Apostle  Paid,  in  Ephes.  v.  19,t  says,  *'  Let  our 
youth  hear  this  ;  let  those  hear  it  whose  office  it  is  to  sing  in^ 
the  church.  Not  with  the  voice,  but  with  the  heart  must  we 
make  melody  to  the  Lord.  We  are  not  like  comedians,  to 
smooth  the  throat  with  sweet  drinks,  in  order  that  we  may- 
hear  theatrical  songs  and  melodies  in  the  church :  but  the  fear 
of  God,  piety,  and  the  knowledge  of  the  scriptures,  should 
inspire  our  songs ;  so  that  not  the  voice  of  the  singer,  but  the 
divine  matter  expressed,  may  be  the  point  of  attraction ;  so 
that  the  evil  spirit,  which  entered  into  the  heart  of  a  Saul,  may 
be  expelled  from  those  who  are  in  like  manner  possessed  by 
him,  rather  than  invited  by  those  who  would  turn  the  house 
of  God  into  a  heathen  theatre." 

We  now  proceed  to  consider  the  administration  of  the  sacra" 
ments. 

And,  first,  as  it  respects  baptism :  it  may  be  remarked  that 
infant  baptism — as  we  have  observed  that  the  fact  was  already 
towards  the  close  of  the  preceding  period — was  now  generally 
recognized  as  an  apostolical  institution  ;  but  from  the  theory 
on  this  point  we  can  draw  no  inference  with  regard  to  the  prac- 
tice. It  was  still  very  far  from  being  the  case,  especially  in 
the  Greek  church,  that  infant  baptism,  although  acknowledged 
to  be  necessary,  was  generally  introduced  into  practice.  Partly, 
the  same  mistaken  notions  which  arose  from  confoundingf  the 
thing  represented  by  baptism  with  the  outward  rite,  and  which 
afterwards  led  to  the  over- valuation  of  infant  baptism,  and 
partly,  the  frivolous  tone  of  thinking,  the  indifference  to  all 
higher  concerns,  which  characterized  so  many  who  had  only 
exchanged  the  pagan  for  a  Cliristian  outside, — all  this  toge- 

artifieial  charch  music  of  Alexandria,  in  imitation  of  the  heathen  melodies 
(xavflvi;  xa)  r^erd^ia).  "  The  monks,"  says  he,  *'  have  not  retired  into 
the  desert,  to  suig  beautiful  melodies,  and  move  hands  and  feet :"   MiX^- 

iavo'iv    afffjbetret    xet/    pv6fiiZ,ovffn    {(iei>.>.ouff'i  ?)    irohet?.       See     the    ScriptoreS 

ecclesiastic!  de  Musica,  published  by  the  abbot  Gerbert,  T.  I.  1784,  p.  3. 
*  Isidor.   Pelus.    1.   I.   ep.    90.     KarawZ^n   fih    U  rSv  hiaiv  vfhvm  w^ 
vTcfAMVfft,  rn  dl  red  fjbtXovf  ti^vTrjrt    us    i^t^Ufiov  irufffifjMriitv  ^ptu/iifcif  cv}if 
avrttv  tx^'*  <rXjtfv  tmv  l«r)  ^xmvs  ifffJMront  ^.eyi^avreit, 

t  See  his  Commentar.  in  ep.' Ephes.  1.  III.  c.  5,  T.  IV.  f.  387,  ed. 
Martianay. 


BAPTISM.  453 

'teller  contributed  to  bring  it  about  that  among  the  Christians  of 
%he  East,  in&nt  baptism,  though  in  theory  acknowledged  to 
fce  necessary,  yet  entered  so  rarely  and  with  so  much  difficulty, 
Into  the  church  life  during  the  first  half  of  this  period. 

Accustomed  to  confound  r^eneration  and  baptism,  believ- 
ing that  they  were  bound  to  connect  the  grace  of  baptism  with 
the  outward  ordinance,  with  the  performance  of  the  external 
act;  failing  to  perceive  that  it  should  be  something^ going 
along  with,  and  operating  through, .  the  entire  life ;  many 
pious  but  mistaken  parents  dreaded  entrusting  the  baptismal 
grace  to  the  weak,  unstable  age  of  their  children,  which  grace, 
once  lost  by  sin,  could  never  be  r^ained.  They  wished  rather 
to  reserve  it  against  the  more  decided  and  mature  age  of  man- 
hood, as  a  refuge  from  the  temptations  and  storms  of  an  uncer- 
tain life. 

To  a  mother  who  acted  on  this  principle,  says  Gregory  of 
Nazianzen :  <<  Let  sin  gain  no  advantage  in  thy  child ;  let  it 
be  sanctified  from  the  swaddling  clothes,  consecrated  to  the 
Holy  Ghost.  You  fear  for  the  divine  seal,  because  of  the 
weakness  of  nature.  What  a  feeble  and  faint-hearted  mother 
must  you  be  I  Anna  consecrated  her  Samuel  to  God,  even 
before  he  was  born ;  immediately  after  his  birth  she  made  him 
a  priest,  and  she  trained  him  up  in  the  priestly  vesture.  In- 
steeul  of  fearing  the  frailty  of  the  man,  she  trusted  in  God !  "* 
Others,  unlike  this  mother,  were  induced,  not  by  an  error  of  the 
understanding,  but  by  a  delusion  springing  from  an  altogether 
imgodlike  temper,  to  defer  their  baptism  to  a  future  time. 
They  had  formed  their  conception  of  God,  of  whom  they  would 
gladly  have  been  relieved  from  the  necessity  of  thinking,  only 
as  an  almighty  judge,  whose  avenging  arm  appeared  to  their 
unappeased  conscience  ready  to  strike  them ;  and  they  sought 
in  iMLptism  a  means  of  evading  the  stroke,  without  being  will- 
ing, however,  to  renounce  their  sinful  pleasures.  They  were 
disposed  to  enter  into  a  sort  of  compact  or  bargain  with  God 
and  Christ,  t  to  be  permitted  to  enjoy,  as  long  as  possible, 
thdr  sinful  pleasures,  and  yet  in  the  end,  by  the  ordinance  of 
baptism,  which  like  a  charm  was  to  wipe  away  their  sins,  to 
be  purified  from  all  their  stains,  and  attain  to  blessedness  in  a 

•  Orat  40,  f.  648. 

t  They  are  very  justly  styled  by  Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  1.  c.  f.  643  : 


454  THE  SAGRlMfcNTS. 

moment.*  Hence  many  put  off  baptism  until  they  were  re- 
minded by  mortal  sickness,  or  some  other  sudden  danger  of 
approaching  death.  |  Hence  it  was,  that  in  times  of  public 
calamity,  in  earthquakes,  in  the  dangers  of  war,  multitudes 
hurried  to  baptism,  and  the  number  of  the  existing  clergy 
scarcely  sufficed  for  the  wants  of  all.  | 

In  the  case  of  many  who  first  received  baptism  in  the  later 
period  of  life,  this  proceeding  was  no  doubt  attended  with  one 
advantage,  — that  the  true  import  of  the  baptismal  rite  might 
then  be  more  truly  expressed.  It  was  not  until  after  they 
had  been  led,  by  some  dispensation  affecting  the  outward  (X 
the  inner  life,  to  resolve  on  becoming  Christians  with  the 
whole  soul,  that  they  applied  for  baptism,  and  the  ordinance, 
in  this  case,  was  not  a  mere  opus  (^peratum ;  but  really  consti- 
tuted to  them  the  commencement  of  a  new  era  of  life,  truly 
consecrated,  in  the  temper  of  the  heart,  to  God.  Thus  it  was, 
tliat  many  made  it  a  point,  from  the  time  of  thieir  baptism,  to 
enter  upon  the  literal  observance  of  Christ's  precepts ;  they 
would  no  longer  take  an  oath ;  and  not  a  few  outwardly  re- 
nounced the  world  and  became  monks,  which,  at  all  events, 
shows  what  importance  they  attached  to  this  ordinance.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  cause  of  delaying  baptism,  with  num- 
bers, was  their  want  of  any  true  interest  in  religion,  thdr 
being  bred  and  living  along  in  a  medley  of  pagan  and  Christian 
superstitions ;  nor  can  it  be  denied,  that  the  neglect  of  in&nt 
baptism  contributed  to  prolong  this  sad  state  of  things.  By 
means  of  baptism,  children  would  have  been  immediately  in- 
troduced into  a  certain  connection  with  the  church,  and  at 
least  brought  more  directly  under  its  influence;   instead  of 

♦  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  de  baptismo,  T.  II.  f.  221,  aptly  calls  it:  Iumw 

za)  fra(«)fl|«;  i^fri^iA,  tv  Xf  iV«v  xmi  lrMr«f,  oXXm  9rktifi»vs  avo/iimfy  »a^>M* 

t  n^tf  rag  tr^^drof  mfa^ymf  riiv  mW«»  a»c/3«XX^iMi  ^ttm^Uv.  Chry- 
sostom.  b.  18,  in  Job.  s.  1. 

X  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  in  the  sermon  above  dted,  menti(»is  a  case  which 
is  said  to  bave  proved  to  many  a  -warning  example.  A  young  man  of  a 
respectable  family  in  tbe  town  of  Comana  in  Pontes,  was  &tally  wounded 
by  the  Gotbs — who  bad  already  taken  tbe  subarb-~-as  be  was  going  out 
to  reconnoitre.  As  he  fell  dying,  be  begged  with  a  cry  of  despair  for 
baptism,  whicb  at  the  moment  no  one  was  at  band  to  bestow  on  bim.  To 
be  sure,  if  be  bad  been  more  correctly  taugbt  respecting  the  natnre  of 
baptism,  and  of  tbe  forgiveness  of  sin,  be  would  not  Lave  been  reduced 
to  such  a  strait. 


CATECHUMENS.  455 

I 

fofflng  exposed  as  they  now  were,  from  their  birth,  to  pagan 
superstition,  and  often  kept  at  a  distance,  in  their  first  train- 
ing, from  all  contact  with  Christianity.  To  commend  their 
children  to  Grod  and  to  the  Saviour  in  prayer,  was  not  the 
custom  of  parents;  but  rather  to  call  in  old  women,  who  were 
supposed  to  possess  the  power  of  protecting  the  life  of  infants 
by  amulets  and  other  devices  of  heathen  superstition.* 

We  observed,  in  the  preceding  period,  that  the  catechumens 
were  distributed  into  two  classes.  To  these,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  fourth  century,  was  added  a  third.  At  first  a  distinc- 
tion was  made,  generally,  between  those  who  professed  Chris- 
tianity, though,  they  had  not  as  yet  attained  to  a  complete 
knowledge  of  the  Christian  doctrines,  nor  received  baptism — 
the  catechumens,  who  were,  in  the  common  meaning  of  the 
word,  called  also  Christians,')'  though  in  a  vaguer  sense, — and 
the  fully  instructed  baptized  Christians.  J  The  lowest  class 
among  tiiese  constituted  the  iLKpowfjieyoi,  hKpoaTai,  or  auditores, 
audientes,  who  took  his  name  from  the  circumstance  that  they 
were  admitted  to  hear  only  the  reading  of  the  scriptures  and 
the  sermon,  and  then  were  immediately  dismissed.  § 

*  Ghrysostom  contrasts  the  Christian  consecration  which  the  child 
CQgfat  to  receive  from  the  first,  with  the  pagan  superstition  to  which  it 
was  ixmnediately  exposed :  T«  9rt^i*frret  xai  rwt  xJlMfcif  rwt  r?r  x*^*^ 

yifMvrm,  iiw  funit*  trt^v  rS  9rmiii  m^irt^pm  eiXk*  n  rii9  atri  T0v  ^ravfov 
^oXMxiit,    Horn.  12,  in  ep.  1  ad  Corinth,  s.  7. 

t  Hence  the  act  of  toe  Inshop  or  presbyter,  who  received  those  who 
were  not  Christians,  as  candidates  for  the  Christian  church,  into  the  first 
dais  of  catechumens,  by  making  over  them  the  sign  of  the  cross  :  u^iuf 
Xfitrviafcvf,    Concil.  Gscom.  Constantinop.  I.  c.  7.    HHtTv  ;^(itf'ri«Mv. 

X  The  distinction  Christiani  ac  fideles  and  Christiani  et  catechumeni. 
Cod.  Theodos.  de  apostat  1.  II. 

§  Some  have  supposed  that  there  was  a  still  lower  class,  those  who 
were  not  as  yet  permitted  to  attend  the  meetings  of  the  church,  the 
V^tJfUMi,  But  as  this  attendance  was  allowed  even  to  Pagans  and 
Jews,  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  suppose  that  a  class  of  catechumens  were 
pordcQlarly  designated  by  a  name  which  signified  their  present  exclu- 
sion.  Neither  would  the  term  \S^9vfA%itoty  denoting,  as  it  does,  not  the 
flict  that  persons  have  not  yet  been  received,  but  that  those  once  received 
have  been  excluded,  be  suited  to  the  case  in  question.  The  fifth  canon 
of  the  council  of  Neo-csesarea  (in  which  it  was  simply  ordered  that  those 
iut^utrmi  who  had  fidlen  into  any  sin  rendering  Uiem  unworthy  of  the 
Christian  [name,  inasmuch  as  they  could  not  be  transferred  to  a  lower 
class  of  catechumens,  should  be  wholly  excluded  from  the  list)  furnishes 
no  warrant  fbr  the  hypothesis  of  a  particular  class  of  excluded  persons 


466  THE  8ACRAXKNTS. 

The  second  class  consisted  of  those  who  had  already  re- 
ceived more  full  and  accurate  instruction  in  Christianity.  In 
behalf  of  these  a  special  prayer  of  the  church  was  offered,  and 
they  received,  kneeling,  the  blessing  of  the  bishop :  whence 
their  name  vxoircxrovrcc,  yovvirXcvovrccy  Genuflectentes,  Fro- 
strati ;  also  Catechumens  in  the  stricter  'sense  of  the  term. 
This  prayer  of  the  church  was  so  composed  and  arranged,  as 
to  bring  directly  before  the  consciousness  of  these  individuals 
their  need  of  being  enlightened  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  without 
which  the  divine  doctrines  could  not  be  vitally  apprehended, 
and  the  necessary  connection  between  £uth  and  practice ;  as 
well  as  to  assure  them  of  the  sympathy  of  the  whole  conununity 
in  all  their  concerns.* 

On  leaving  this  class,  they  next  took  their  place  among 
those  who  proposed  themselves  for  baptism,  the  baptismal  can- 

among  the  catechumens:  on  the  contrary,  the  canon  here  speaks  of 
such  as  were  no  longer  to  he  considered  as  helonging  to  the  catediumens 
in  any  sense.  | 

*  As  an  example  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Ohiisdan  feeline  ex- 
pressed itself  in  these  prayers,  we  will  insert  here  the  form  of  tlus 
prayer  according  to  the  litursy  of  the  ancient  church  of  Antioch :  **That 
the  all-merciful  God  would  near  their  prayer,  that  he  would  open  the 
ears  of  their  heart,  so  that  they  might  perceive  what  eye  hatib  not  seen 
nor  ear  heard ;  that  he  would  instruct  Uiem  in  the  word  of  truth ;  that 
he  would  plant  the  fear  of  the  Lord  in  their  hearts,  and  confirm  the 
£uth  in  his  truth  in  their  souls;  that  he  would  reveal  to  them, the 
gospel  of  righteousness ;  that  he  would  bestow  on  them  a  godly  tem- 
per of  mind,  a  prudent  understanding,  and  an  upright  and  yirtuoas 
walk,  so  that  they  might  at  all  times  meditate  and  practise  what  is  of 
Grod,  might  dwell  in  Sie  law  of  the  Lord  day  and  night ;  that  he  would 
deliver  Uiem  from  all  evil,  from  all  devilish  sins,  and  from  all  tempta- 
tions of  the  evil  one ;  that  he  would  vouchsafe  to  them,  in  his  own  time, 
the  new  birth,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the  investiture  of  the  new,  im- 

Serishable,  divine  life  (ItiuftM  r^s  ei^itt^^iaf.  See  sect  3,  and  below,  the 
octrine  concerning  baptism) ;  that  he  would  bless  their  coming  in  and 
their  going  out,  their  families,  their  domestics ;  that  he  would  multiply 
their  children,  bless  them,  preserve  them  to  the  ripeness  of  age,  and 
make  them  wise ;  that  he  would  cause  all  things  that  awaited  them  to 
work  together  for  their  good."  The  deacon  then  bade  the  catechumens, 
who  haa  remained  kneeling  during  this  prayer,  to  arise,  and  invited 
them  to  pray  themselves,  '*  for  the  angel  of  peace,  for  peace  upon  all  that 
awaited  them,  peace  on  the  present  £iys,  and  on  all  the  days  of  th^r 
life,  and  for  a  Christian  end."  He  concluded  by  saying,  '*  Commend 
yourselves  to  the  living  God  and  to  his  Christ."  .  They  then  received 
the  blessing  from  the  bishop,  in  which  the  whole  community  joined  by 
saying.  Amen.    See  Chrysostom.  in  epist.  2,  ad  Corinth.  Horn.  2,  s.  5. 


GENTJFLECTENTES.      COMPETENTES.  467 

didates,*  the  Competentes,|  <l>wTiZ6fX€voi.  They  learned  by 
beart  the  confession  of  faith,  since  this  was  to  be  orally  trans- 
mitted, as  written  on  the  living  tablets  of  the  heart,  and  not 
in  a  dead,  outward  letter  (see  vol.  i.  sect.  3,  p.  422) ;  and  this 
confession,  as  containing  the  sum  and  essence  of  Christian  doc- 
trine, was  explained  to  them  by  the  lectures  of  the  bishop  or 
the  presbyter.  To  the  symbolical  usages  connected  with  the 
preparation  for  baptism,  of  which  we  have  spoken  in  the  pre- 
ceding period,  new  ones  were  added,  yet  not  the  same  in  all 
the  churches.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  custom  which  very 
generally  prevailed,  for  the  candidates  until  the  time  they 
were  incorporated,  on  the  octave  of  the  festival  of  Easter,  by 
the  complete  rite  of  baptism  (in  the  Western  church,  see 
above),  with  the  rest  of  the  church,  to  wear  a  veil  on  the 
head  and  over  the  face,  which  perhaps  was  meant  in  the  first 
place  as  it  is  explained  by  Cyrill  of  Jerusalem,  to  serve  as  a 
symbol,  expressing  that  the  attention  should  not  be  diverted 
by  foreign  objects ;  afterwards,  on  the  ground  of  St.  PauFs 
declaration  in  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  the  addi- 
tional meaning  was  given  to  it,  that,  as  the  act  of  veiling  was 
a  sign  of  dependence  and  of  tutelage,  so  the  removing  of  the 
veil  was  a  sign  of  freedom  and  of  maturity  conceded  to  them 
as  regenerated  persons,  j:  To  exorcism  was  now  added  in- 
sufflation, or  breathing  on  the  candidate  {k^vaq,Vj  insufHare), 
to  denote  the  communication  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  the  former 
had  denoted  deliverance  from  unclean  spirits.  The  bishop 
next  touched  the  ear  of  the  candidate,  saying,  in  the  words  of 
Mark  vii.  34,  ^^  Ephphatha,  Be  opened,  and  may  God  send 
thee  an  open  understanding,  that  thou  mayest  be  apt  to  learn 

*  Their  names  were  inscribed  for  this  purpose  in  the  church  books, 
the  diptycha,  the  matricula  ecclesise ;  which  was  nomen  dare  baptismo. 
The  ntfiMroy^et^iob  is  mentioned  in  Cyrill's  prologue  to  his  Catecheses,  s. 
1,  and  to  this  the  mystical  exposition  of  Gregory  of  Nyssa  alludes,  de 
baptismo,  T.  II.  f.  216,  where  he  says,  ^  that,  as  he  inscribed  the  names 
with  ink  in  the  earthly  roll,  so  might  the  finger  of  God  write  them  down 
in  his  imperishable  book:"  A^ri  fAoi  ret  iiofJMrety  Im  tym  fjtiv  ttvra,  reuf 
M^reuf  iyx'f <^i^  fiifi>Ms.  In  the  fifth  act  of  the  council  under  Mennas, 
A.D.  536,  a  deacon  occurs,  'O  rtif  ^fo^fiyo^ietg  rm  iis  ro  ^KTrUft»  Vfo- 

f  Simul  petentes  regnum  coelorum.    Augustin.  p.  216. 

X  CyrilL  Prolog.  C.  5.  *Er»t«rd^rai  ^•Z  to  v^o^aitav,  U»  «%flXflMr»i 
XmV«»  h  imwia.  Augustin.  p.  376,  s.  2.  Hodie  octavse  dicuntur  infim- 
tiom,  revelanda  sunt  capita  eorum,  quod  est  indicium  libertatis. 


458  THE  SACBAMEKTS. 

and  to  answer."  *  In  the  North- African  church,  the  bishop 
gave  to  those  whom  he  received  as  compet^ites,  while  sigmng 
the  cross  over  them  as  a  symbol  of  consecration,  a  portion  of 
salt,  over  which  a  blessing  had  been  pronounced.  This  was 
to  signify  the  divine  word  imparted  to  the  candidates  as  the 
true  salt  for  human  nature.t  When  the  baptism  was  to  be  pe^ 
formed,  the  candidate  was  led  to  the  entrance  of  the  bap- 
tistry, where  he  first  stood  with  his  face  towards  the  West  as  a 
symbol  of  the  darkness  which  he  was  now  to  renounce,  and 
pronounced,  addressing  Satan  as  present,  the  formula  of  re- 
nunciation, the  origin  and  meaning  of  which  were  explained 
under  the  preceding  period  :  *<  I  renounce  thee,  Satan ;  all  thy 
works,  all  thy  pomp,  and  all  thy  service."  ^  Next  he  turned 
to  tlie  E^t,  as  a  symbol  of  the  light  into  which  he  would  now 
enter  from  the  darkness,  and  said :  ^*  To  thee,  O  Christ ! 
I  devote  myself. "  § 

We  noticed  as  existing  already  in  the  preceding  period  the 
custom  of  anointing  at  baptism. [|  In  this  period,  when  there 
was  an  inclination  to  multiply  symbols,  the  custom  arose  of  a 
double  unction  ;  one  as  a  preliminary  rite,  denoting  the  con- 
secration to  be  imparted  to  the  believer  by  his  fellowship  with 
Christ,  whereby  he  was  to  be  delivered  frcnn  the  sins  of  the 
old  man,  the  putting  away  of  whom  had  just  been  symbolized 
by  the  laying  aside  of  the  garments.^  The  second  unction, 
with  the  consecrated  oil  (the  'xp^trfia)^  the  same  symbolical 
act  which  we  found  existing  already  in  the  preceding  period, 
denoted  the  completion  of  baptism  by  a  p^ect  communion 
of  divine  life  with  the  Redeemer,^ — the  communication  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  consecrating  the  individual  to  the  spiritual 
Christian  priesthood.**  At  the  first  anointing,  the  head  only 
was  marked;   at  the  second,  the  forehead,  ears,  nose,  and 

'*'  The  sacramentam  apertionis.  Ambrog.  de  lis  qm  mysteriis  initian- 
tnr,  c.  1.    See  the  work  ascribed  to  him,  de  sacramentis^  1. 1,  c  L 

t  Angastin.  de  catechizandis  mdib.  c.  26.    Confession.  1.  I.  c  11. 

X  * ATeretttofieu  ffot,  ffareivetf  »eti  ird^if  r?  srifMrif  r«v,  ««}  ^u^if  rn  Xar^tif 
cov. 

§   "Svvreiferoftai  roty  X^i^rt.  |j  See  TOl.  I.  sect.  3,  p.  436. 

^  Cyrill.  Mystagog.  II.  c.  3.  KonSteu  \yUw6%  ^s  »«AXitX«Mv  'In^»» 
XgiWtft/.     Constitut.  apostol.  VII.  22. 

**   Tovrou    rev    kyUu    ^olfffiMTOi    xetre^tvi'vtrtg^   xaXtTfh  •Xfiiffrmnh  SaVS 

Cyrill  of  Jerusalem,  Cateches.     Mystagog.   III.  c.   4,  conf.  ConciL 
Laodic.  c.  48. 


CHRISM.      CONFIRMATION.  459 

ttteast, — to  show  how  this  consecration  by  the  divine  life 
^IrouM  pervade  and  ennoble  the  entire  human  nature. 

We  noticed  in  the  preceding  period  how,  in  the  western 
church,  a  distinct  sacrament  had  arisen  out  of  confirmation^ 
or  the  laying  on  the  hands  of  the  bishop  as  a  symbol  of  the 
communication  of  the  Holy  Spirit  (see  above),  which  originally 
made  a  part  of  the  rite  of  baptism.  The  ideas  which  men 
associated  with  the  administration  of  that  chrism,  and  ^nth  the 
imposition  of  hands  by  the  bishop,  were  originally  so  kindred 
that  they  might  easily  be  led  to  comprehend  them  both  under 
one  and  the  same  conception,  and  to  unite  them  in  one  trans- 
action.    Yet  on  this  point  the  usage  was  still  unsettled.* 

The  baptized  now  arrayed  themselves  in  white  robes,  as  a 
sign  of  regeneration  to  a  new  divine  life  of  infantile  purity,  as 
in  fact  the  laying  aside  of  the  old  garments  had  been  a  symbol 
of  the  putting  away  of  the  old  man.  Next  followed  a  custom 
in  the  western  churches,  also  handed  down  from  the  foregoing 
period,  of  giving  them  a  mixture  of  milk  and  honey  as  a 
symbol  of  childUke  innocence  (a  foretype  of  the  communion 
wiiich  was  to  be  received  by  them).t 

*  Jerome  reckons  among  the  things  reserved  to  the  bishop  the  manus 
impositio  and  invocatio  Spiritus  Sancti,  as  constituting  together  only  one 
ftct  Adversvs  Luciferianos,  s.  8.  Moreover,  Augustin,  in  his  work  de 
faaptifmo  contra  Donatistas,  1.  V.  s.  33,  considers  the  manus  impositio  to 
he  the  only  thing  necessary  in  the  case  of  those  who  had  already  re^ 
ceive4  baptism  in  a  heretical  church  (and  so,  too,  Siricius,  ep.  ad  Hi- 
merinm,  s.  2) ;  so  that,  according  to  this,  confirmation  would  consist 
simply  in  the  laying  on  of  the  £uemds  of  the  bishop.  But  the  seventh 
canon  of  the  council  of  Laodicea  ordains,  that  the  Fideles  from  several 
sects  whose  baptism  was  recognized  as  valid,  should  not  be  admitted  to 
the  communion  till  they  had  received  the  chrism.  The  Roman  bishop^ 
Innocent,  finally  decided,  in  his  Decretals  to  the  bishop  Decentius,  ajo. 
416,  s.  6,  that  the  anointing  of  the  forehead  belonged  to  the  act  of  con* 
signatioD  (in  the  middle  age  called  confiraiation),  which  was  especially 
appropriated  to  the  bishop.  Hoc  autem  pontificium  soils  deberi  episcopis, 
at  vel  consignent  vel  paradetum  Spiritum  tradant.  Presbyteris  chris- 
mate  baptizatos  unguere  licet,  sed  quod  ab  episcopo  fuerit  consecratum, 
non  tamen  frontem  ex  eodem  oleo  signare,  quod  soils  debetur  episcopis, 
cum  tradunt  Spiritum  paracletum. 

t  Hieronym.  adv.  Lucif.  s.  8,  Cod.  canon,  eccles.  Afr.  canon.  37.  Mel 
et  lac  et  quod  uno  die  solennissimo, — ^probably  Easter  tSabbath  or  Easter 
Sonday- — (more  probably  the  former,  because  on  Easter  Sunday  they 
already  united  together  in  the  communion) — in  inflantum  mysterio  solet 
oHerri. 


460  SEASONS  OF  BAPTISM. 

To  the  times  of  administering  this  rite,  more  particularly 
observed  in  the  preceding  period,  among  which,  however,  the 
Easter  Sabbath  ever  continued  to  be  the  principal  one,  was 
now  added,  in  the  Greek  church,  the  feast  of  Epiphany, ^2, 
favourite  season  for  the  administration  of  this  ordinance,  on 
account  of  its  reference  to  the  baptism  of  Christ ;  while,  by 
the  same  church,  the  feast  of  Pentecost  was  not  reckoned 
among  the  other  customary  seasons  for  administering  baptism.* 
The  free  evangelical  spirit  of  Chrysostom  declared  strongly 
against  those  who  would  confine  baptism  to  particular  seasons, 
and  who  imagined  that  a  genuine  baptism  could  not  be  ad- 
ministered at  any  other;  he  brings  against  this  opinion  the 
examples  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.|  The  narrow  spirit  of 
the  Roman  church,  on  the  other  hand,  was  here  again  the  first 
to  lay  a  restraint  on  Christian  liberty.  The  Roman  bishop 
Siricius,  in  his  decretal  addressed  to  Himerius,  bbhop  of  Tar- 
raco  in  Spain,  a.d.  385,  styled  it  arrogant  presumption  in  the 
Spanish  priests  that  they  should  baptize  multitudes  of  people 
at  Christmas,  at  the  feast  of  Epiphany,  and  at  the  festivals  of 
the  apostles  and  martyrs,  as  well  as  at  the  other  regular  times ; 
and  decreed,  on  the  other  hand,  that,  except  in  the  case  of 
new-bom  infants,  and  other  cases  of  necessity,  baptisms  should 
only  be  administered  at  the  festivals  of  Easter  and  Pentecost4 

With  reference  to  these  two  constituent  portions  of  the  church 
assemblies,  ih.e  catechumens  %?iXi^  baptized  believers,  the  whole 

*  Chrysost  H.  1,  in  act.  ap«  s.  6r  He  here  intimates  as  the  reasoDi 
that  fiists  belonged,  with  other  things,  to  the  preparation  for  baptism, 
and  that  no  fieists  -were  held  during  Sie  season  of  Pentecost 

t  H.  1,  in  act.  ap.  s.  8.  %  See  the  Decretals,  s.  3. 

§  In  respect  to  what  took  place  between  the  two  portions  of  time,  the 
arrangements  seem  not  to  have  been  everywhere  alike ;  and  this  is  tme 
especially  so  &r  as  it  concerns  the  number  of  the  single  prayers  of  the 
church  appointed  for  the  different  classes  of  Christians.  In  the  nine- 
teenth  canon  of  the  council  of  Laodicea,  the  prayer  for  the  catechumeDS 
is  mentioned  first  after  the  sermon ;  then  after  their  dismission,  the 
prayer  for  the  penitents  (Poenitentes).  In  the  Apostolic  ConstitutioDS, 
there  occurs  also  a  special  prayer  for  the  baptismal  candidates  (Compe- 
tentes) ;  but  the  author  of  these  Ck>nstitutions  seeks  in  every  way  to  mnl- 
tiply  the  liturgical  services,  and  it  may  be  questioned  whether  sach  a 
church-prayer  was  ever  in  actual  use.  We  nud  no  indication  of  it  in 
Chrysostom.  There  certainly  occurs,  however,  in  the  latter  writer  (H. 
3,  de  incomprehensib.  s.  6.  T.  I.  f.  469),  the  notice  of  a  special  church- 
prayer  for  the  Energumens,  while  the  same  is  not  mentioned  in  the 
above-cited  canon  of  the  Laodicean  council.    But  it  may  be  well  sap- 


MISSA  CATEGHUMENORUM  AND  MISSA  FIDEUOM.  461 

service  was  divided  into  two  portions :  one  in  which  the  cate- 
chumens were  allowed  to  join,  embracing  the  reading  of  the 
scriptures  and  the  sermon,  the  prevailing  didactic  portion ;  and 
the  other,  in  which  the  baptized  alone  could  take  part,  embracing 
whatever  was  designed  to  represent  the  fellowship  of  believers, 
— ^the  communion  and  all  the  prayers  of  the  church  which 
preceded  it.  These  were  called  the  missa  catechumenorum 
and  the  missa  fidelium  {XeiTovpyia  twv  Karrf^v^ivwy  and  rUby 
rloTiay);*  which  division  must  of  course  have  fallen  into 
disuse  after  the  general  introduction  of  infant  baptism. 

We  now  leave  the  Missa  Catechumenorum  to  speak  of  the 
Missa  Fidelium ;  and  first  of  the  preparations  for  the  cele- 
bration of  the  communion. 

The  separation  of  the  sacrament  of  the  supper  from  the 
agapee  had,  as  we  have  observed  (see  vol.  i.  sect.  3,  p.  450), 
been  made  long  before  in  the  preceding  period.  The  original 
celebration  of  the  latter  was  a  thing  so  remote  from  the  views 
and  feelings  of  this  present  period,  that  the  homeletic  writers 
find  it  difficult  even  to  form  a  just  conception  of  it.f  The 
agapse  had  lost  their  original  meaning.     They  were  at  pre- 

posed  that  persons  of  this  description  would  be  found  only  in  the  larger 
towns,  and  under  particular  circumstances  of  climate,  in  sufficient  num- 
bers to  constitute  a  class  bv  themselves  in  the  public  worship,  for  whom 
a  particular  prayer  'would  be  offered.  All  these  church-prayers,  how- 
ever, are  known  to  us  only  from  Eastern  sources.  The  question  comes 
up,  whether  these  special  church-prayers  -were  in  use  also  in  the 
Western  church,  in  addition  to  the  universal  prayer  of  the  church  for  the 
different  classes  of  Christians.  Augustin,  Sermo  XLIX,  s.  8,  represents 
the  dismission  of  the  catechumens,  and  next  the  Paternoster,  which  was 
designed  only  for  baptized  believers,  the  tCxfi  rm  friVrwv,  as  following 
immediately  after  the  sermon. 

*  The  term  miisa,  in  the  Lalinity  of  this  period,  is  a  substantive,  and 
synonymous  with  misaio.  The  dismission  of  any  assembly  'was  called 
missa.  Avitus  of  Vienna,  ep.  1.  In  ecclesia  palatioque  missa  fieri  pro- 
nuntiatnr,  cum  populus  ab  observantia  dimittitur.  In  this  sense  Augus- 
tin used  the  word,  p.  49,  s.  8.  Post  sermonem  fit  missa  catechumen- 
orum. As  the  term  then  properly  denoted  the  dismission  of  the  catechu- 
mens, so  it  was  next  applied  metonymically  to  the  different  portions  of 
divine  service  which  preceded  or  followed  this  dismission ;  and  finally, 
in  an  altogether  peculiar  sense,  to  the  communion  which  came  after- 
wards, and  by  synecdoche  to  the  whole  of  a  complete  service.  Thus  the 
word  missa,  mass,  in  its  ordinary  acceptation,  came  gradually  into  use. 

t  As,  for  example,  Chrysostom  in  the  twentynseventh  homily  on  the 
tot  epistle  to  the  Corinthians. 


462  SACRAMENTS. 

sent  banquets  with  which  the  wealthier  members  of  the  com- 
munity sometimes  entertained  the  poorer  Christians,  and  at 
which  the  latter  enjoyed  a  somewhat  better  &re  than  (Nrdinarily 
fell  to  their  lot.*  The  more  gloomy  and  morose  spirit,  whose 
opposition  to  the  agapae  we  have  already  noticed  in  the  pre- 
ceding period,  continued  to  show  the  same  dislike  to  them  in 
this.  The  above-mentioned  comicil  of  Grangra,  which  mani- 
fested some  resbtance  to  this  one-sided  ascetic  tendency,  took 
the  agapae  under  its  protection,  pronouncing  sentence  of  coo- 
demnation  in  its  eleventh  canon  on  those  who  treated  these 
festivals  with  contempt  when  they  were  made  from  Christian 
motives,  and  discourteously  refused  to  attend  them  when  the 
brethren  were  invited  in  honour  of  the  Lord.  Other  councils 
did  not  object  to  the  agapes,  in  themselves  considered^  but  only 
forbad  them  to  be  held  in  the  churches.f 

In  respect  to  the  liturgical  service  connected  with  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  supper  in  this  period,  j:  it  is  to  be  observed  thatit 
was  based  on  the  genuinely  Christian  view  of  the  holy  supper 
as  representing  the  fellowship  of  divine  life  subsisting  between 
believers,  their  Redeemer,  and  one  another.  The  whole  design, 
therefore,  was  to  bring  up  to  lively  exercise  in  the  minds  of 
Christians  the  thought  that  they  were  now  entering  into  com- 
munion with  the  ascended  Christ,  and  should,  in  spirit,  ascend 
up  to  where  he  is  in  heaven ;  that  though  the  whole  was  & 
free  gift  of  divine  grace,  yet  they  should  be  prepared  to  receive 
it  by  the  direction  of  their  affections  to  the  Redeemer  and 
by  &ith  in  him;  that  without  mutual  love  towards  each 
other,  they  could  not  enter  into  communion  with  the  Saviour. 
The  deacon  invited  all  present  to  bestow  the  mutual  kiss  of 
charity,  as  a  sign  of  the  fraternal  communion  of  hearts,  without 
which  no  true  celebration  of  the  sacred  supper  could  be  ob- 
served.§    Next  the  deacon  called  upon  the  assembled  church 

*  Augustin.  c.  Faustum  1.  XX.,  c  20.  Agi^s  nostrse  pauperes  pascant, 
sive  frugibus  sive  camibus.  Pleramque  in  agapibus  etiam  cames  pan- 
peribus  erogautur. 

t  Concil.  Laodicen.  c.  28.  Concil.  Hippon.  393,  or  Cod.  canon, 
eccles.  Afr.  42.    Later  Concil.  Trullan.  II.  c.  74. 

{  As  we  learn  from  the  apostolic  Constitutions,  from  the  V.  among 
the  x«V<f  fjtM9reiyuyU*is  of  Cyrill,  and  from  the  scattered  fragments  in 
the  homilies  of  Chrysostom ;  also  from  single  hints  in  the  sermons  of 
Augtistin  and  of  others. 

§  *\9retffiff6i  aXXi)X«t/;  cv  <ptXvfJi>ei,rt  etyiM,  OT  in  Cyrill,  tlX.knXovf  kittHJif 


THE  lord's  suppeb.  46d 

to  examine  themselves  and  one  another  to  see  that  no  unworthy 
person  was  among  th^n  ;*  meaning  by  this  that  they  should 
see,  not  merely  that  no  catechumens,  unbelievers,  or  heretics 
were  present,  but  also  that  there  was  no  one  who  harboured 
wrong  feelings  against  his  brother,  no  one  playing  the  part  of 
a  hypocrite.!  '^  Let  us  all  stand  up  ;  our  eyes  directed  to  the 
Lord,  with  fear  and  trembling  (in  the  sense  of  our  own  un- 
worthiness  and  weakness,  and  the  exalted  character  of  him 
who  is  willing  to  commune  with  us  '')4  Then,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  it  still  more  distinctly  felt,  that  none  but  the 
heart  whose  aifections  were  bent  on  heavenly  things  could  take 
any  part  in  communion  with  the  Saviour,  the  deacon  once 
more  said — "  lift  up  your  hearts  :"§  to  which  the  church  re- 
sponded, "  Yes,  to  the  Lord  we  have  lifted  them  up."||  Next, 
in  conformity  with  the  original  meaning  and  celebration  of  the 
ordinance,  followed  the  invitation  of  the  bishop,  calling  on 
the  church  to  unite  in  giving  thanks  for  all  the  blessings  of 
creation  and  redemption ;%  and  the  church  replied  to  the 
bishop'*s  invitation  in  the  words — "  Yes,  it  is  meet  and  right 
to  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord."**  Before  the  elements  were 
distributed,  the  bishop,  to  signify  that  only  a  holy  temper  was 
prepared  to  participate  in  a  holy  ordinance,  exclaimed,  "  The 
holy,  to  the  holy."f  |  But  the  church  expressed  the  conscious- 
ness that  no  man  is  holy  out  of  his  own  nature ;  that  only  one 
is  holy,  and  the  sinful  could  be  made  holy  only  through  faith 
in  him,  by  exclaiming,  ^'  One  is  holy,  one  Lord,  Jesus  Christ, 

fitrt  xai  aXXifXtft/f  kff*aiiuft.t$obi  which  last  formula  doubtless  was  to 
fhow,  that  the  clergy  should  consider  this  as  addressed  not  <Mily  to  the 
flock,  but  also  to  themselves. 

*  *E*iytw»vn  aXXiiXmV)  according  to  Chrysostom. 

f  Mn  rts  »ar»  rtv$s,  fi,h  rts  iv  tut^x^Uu. 

X    O^fiet  ft^9f  xv^MV    fttret    (pofiev  xa)    t^oimv  Xfretrtf  ufitp  <r^«0^Mi<v.     In 

the  word  ir^effpi^w  lies,  it  is  true,  the  notion  of  sacrifice ;  yet  in  this  con- 
nection the  term  may  still  have  reference  to  the  notion  of  sacrifice,  taken 
in  the  spiritual,  sjrmbolical  sense.  See  vol.  I.  s.  3,  p.  458 ;  and  it  is 
angular  to  observe,  that  here  the  sacrificial  act  is  set  forth  according  to 
the  original  view,  which  held  the  clergy  to  be  only  the  representatives  of 
the  church  in  the  exerdse  of  the  universal  Cluistian  priesthood,  as  a 
common  transaction  of  the  priest  and  ihe  flock,  not  as  a  special  act  of  the 
priest  alone. 

§  "AMtf  ruf  x»^tatt  or  ILw  rh  vwv,  or  both  together,  Hvm  rag  xti^ytat 
xai  T«f  Mt/y,  sursum  corda. 

U  "Ex^fA*  *g'»f  'riv  xuptovf  ^  See  vol.  I.  8.  3.  p.  456. 

**  "Aluv  JM6I  Vxeutv.  ft  T«  &yi»  roTg  &ymt» 


464  SACRAMENTS.   THE  LORD's  SUPPER 


blessed  for  ever  to  the  glory  of  Grod  the  Father/'*  Daring 
the  celebration  of  the  supper  the  34th  Psalm,  particularly  the 
9th  verse,  was  sung,  as  an  invitation  to  the  communicants. 

In  the  consecration  of  the  elements,  it  was  considered  to  be 
essentially  important  that  the  words  of  the  institution,  ac- 
cording to  the  gospel,  and  according  to  the  apostle  Paul, 
should  be  pronounced  without  alteration;  for  it  was  the 
general  persuasion  that  when  the  priest  uttered  the  words  of 
Christ,  "  This  is  my  body,  my  blood,"  by  virtue  of  the  ma- 
gical power  of  these  words,  the  bread  and  wine  were,  in  some 
miraculous  way,  united  with  the  body  and  blood  of  Christf 
Concerning  the  particular  notions  on  this  point,  see  section  ir. 
These  words  of  institution  were,  however,  introduced  into  a 
prayer,  j:  in  which  Grod  was  invoked  graciously  to  accept  this 
offering.§  When  the  bishop  or  presbyter  was  about  to  finish 
the  consecration,  the  curtain  which  hung  before  the  altar  was 
drawn  up,||  and  the  consecrating  minister  now  showed  to  the 
church  the  outward  elements  of  the  supper,  which  till  now 
had  been  concealed  from  their  eyes,  lifting  them  up,  as  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ-T  That  the  church  then  fell  on 
their  knees,  or  that  they  prostrated  themselves  on  the  ground, 

*  £7;  £yi»ff  u$  xufuSf  tig  *lti^«vs  Xfi^THt  ^S  3«^«»  ^-uS  irmrfH  tvX$ynr^ 
t  See  Chrysostom.  horn.  1,  de  proditione  Jadie,  s.  6,  T.  II.  1 384. 

T»UT»  r«  (VfJba  fittretffvfifu^u  rm  flr^t/^iva*  if  ^ttni  mSm  af«'«^  Xt^,^^*  **/* 
inarrfif  r^Mfri^ffy  Iv  r»7f  uxXnr/aff  •!  uetUw  f*XP*  •^pi^v  tuti  f»*xi^i  riif  «vtm' 
va^ovtias  t^v  Btf^ietv  a.*i^ri9fAUfiv  t^ynt^treu,  De  sacramentis,  lib.  iy>  C 
4.  Ubi  venitur,  at  conficiatur  sacramentam,  jam  non  sais  sermonibos 
sacerdos,  sed  utitar  sermoiubas  Christi ;  ergo  sermo  Chrisd  hoc  confecit 
sacramentum. 

X  Basilius,  de  Sp.  S.  c.  27»  says,  that  besides  the  words  taken  firom  the 
gospels  and  from  Paul,  many  others  were  here  used  firom  tradidon. 

$  Such  a  form  of  prayer  has  been  preserved  to  us  in  the  work  de 
sacramentis,  1.  c. ;  ana  it  is  remarkable,  that  here,  too,  the  primitiTe 
way  of  thinking  and  feeling  still  manifests  its  presence,  since  it  was 
not  Christ,  but  the  bread  and  wine,  the  symbols  of  his  body,  which 
irere  represented  as  the  object  of  the  sacrificial  act.  Hanc  oblanonem— it 
rtms— quod  est  figura  corporis  et  sanguinis  domini  nostri,  offerimas  tibi 
hunc  panem  sanctum. 

II  Chrysostom.  hom.  3,   in  epist  ad  Ephes.  s.  5.     ^AnXnifMut  rk 

T  Basil,  de  Sp.  S.  c.  27  *.  'A.Y«)it^s  tw  ci^r^iTtitu  rw  ^tmpiw,    Dionys. 
Areopagit.  hierarch.  3.    Oi  li]icL<&  c«nsftcx^^%  cj&ss^x  '>xS&  ^kq^\  *t«*  §^^a 


CONSECRATION  OF  THE  ELEMENTS.  465 

cannot  indeed  be  proved  by  the  authority  of  any  ecclesiastical 
writer  of  this  period.  We  know  it  was  not  until  a  much  later 
period  that  this  usage  was  introduced  into  the  Western  church ; 
but  the  custom,  to  say  the  least,  fell  in  with  the  prevailing 
views  and  language  of  the  Greek  church  ;*  and  this  outward 
sign  of  reverence  was,  in  iact,  more  frequently  used  by  the 
latter,  and  in  a  less  rigid  sense,  than  among  the  people  of 
the  West. 

The  confounding  of  the  inward  thing  with  the  outward  sign 
in  the  sacrament  of  the  supper,  gave  rise  to  many  expressions 
of  a  superstitious  reverence  for  the  external  symbols  of  the 
ordinance  ;t  while  this  superstitious  reverence  had  no  tendency 
whatever  to  promote  the  worthy  use  of  it  as  a  means  of  grace. 
On  the  contrary,  the  more  men  were  accustomed  to  look  upon 
the  holy  supper  as  possessing  a  power  to  sanctify  by  some 
magical  operation  from  without,  the  less  they  thought  of  what 
was  requisite  on  the  part  of  the  inner  man,  in  order  to  a  right 
use  of  this  means  of  grace  in  its  religious  and  moral  purport ; 
a  fact  made  sufficiently  evident  by  the  censures  and  admo- 
nitions which  the  Greek  Others  found  it  necessary  so  frequently 
to  introduce  in  their  homilies. 

We  already  noticed,  in  the  preceding  period,  the  origin  of 
the  diversity  of  custom  which  prevailed  in  respect  to  the  less 
frequent  or  the  daily  participation  in  the  communion.  This 
difference  of  practice  continued  to  prevail  also  in  the  present 
period.  In  the  Roman^  the  Spanish^  and  the  Alexandrian 
churches,  j:  daily  communion  was  still  practised,  at  least  in  the 
fourth  century.  In  other  churches  the  custom  was  to  observe 
the  commimion  less  frequently ;  each  individual,  in  fact, 
joining  in  it  according  as  his  own  inward  necessities  required. 
This  diversity  of  practice  also  grew  out  of  the  different  views 
which  prevailed  respecting  the  use  of  this  means  of  grace. 
Some,  who  were  in  &vour  of  the  less  frequent  participation  of 

*  See  Theodoret.  Dial.  II.  in  confus.  respecting  the  outward  elements 

in  the  sapper  :  'n^$g'KUfurat  is  l«iiv«  Svrx  aTtf  xttnutrau, 

f  Thus  Cyrill  of  Jemsalem,  Mystagog.  v.  17,  recommends  that, 
as  long  as  any  moisture  remained  in  the  mouth.  Christians  should 
apply  it  to  the  hand,  and  -with  the  hand  so  moistened  touch  the 
forehead,  the  eyes,  and  the  other  organs  of  sense,  and  thus  sanctify 
tiienu 

X  Bespecting  the  two  first,  see  Hieronymus,  ep.  71,  ad  Lucinium,  s.  6 ; 
— respecting  the  latter,  Basilius  of  CsEarea,  ep.  93. 

VOX.  ni,  %  YL 


466  THE  8AC&AHENT8. 

the  sacrameut,  said,  certain  seasoiiB  ought  to  be  chosen  in 
which  Christians  might  prepare  themselves,  by  a  life  of  severity 
and  abstinence,  by  collecting  the  thoughts,  and  by  self-ex- 
amination, for  a  worthy  participation,  so  as  not  to  join  in  the 
holy  ordinance  to  their  own  condemnation.    Others  maintained 
that  Christians  ought  never  to  keep  away  from  the  ordinance, 
except  when,  on  account  of  some  great  transgression,  they 
were  by  the  sentence  of  the  bishop  suspended  from  the  com- 
munion and  condenmed  to  church  penance ;  on  all  other  oc- 
casions they  ought  to  look  upon  the  Lord's  body  as  a  daily 
means  of  salvation.*     Augustin  and  Jerome  reckoned  these 
differences  also  among  the  ones  where  eacn  individual,  without 
prejudice  to  Christian  fellowship,  was  bound  to  proceed  ac- 
cording to  the  usage  of  his  own  church,  and  acccording  to  his 
own  subjective  point  of  view.     "  Each  of  them,"  says  Angus- 
tin,  ^^  honours  the  Lord's  body  in  his  own  way  ;  just  as  there 
was  no  difference  between  Zaccheus  and  that  eenturion,  when 
one  of  them  received  the  Lord  joyftilly  into  his  house,  Luke 
xix.  6,  and  the  other  said,  '  Lord,  I  am  not  worthy  that  thou 
shouldst  come  under  my  roof,'  (Matt.  viii.  8,) — ^both  honouring 
the  Saviour  in  different,  and,  so  to  speak,  opposite  ways,  both 
felt  themselves  wretched  in  their  sins,  both  obtained  grace." 
Chrysostom  inclines  to  the  opinion  that,  as  the  celebration  of 
the  communion  of  believers  with  the  Lord  and  with  one 
another,  in  the  sacred  supper,  belonged  to  the  essential  bdng 
of  every  church  assembly,  th^fore,  whenever  the  communion 
was  celebrated  in  the  church,  all  should  participate  in  it :  but 
here  assuredly  everything  depends  on  its  being  done  in  the 
right  temper  of  heart,  else  it  must  only  redound  to  the  con- 
demnation of  him  who  unworthily  participates  in  the  ordinance. 
*^  Many,"  says  he,  in  a  discourse  preached  at  Antioch,!  "  par- 
take of  the  sacrament  once  in  the  year,  others  twice.    The 
anachorets  in  the  deserts  oftentimes  can  partake  of  it  only 
once  in  two  years.     Neither  of  these  cases  can  be  approved, 
in  itself  considered.    We  can  give  our  unqualified  approbadon 
only  to  those  who  come  to  the  communion  with  a  pure  heart, 
a  conscience  void  of  offence,  and  a  blameless  life.     Such  nay 
continually  repair  to  the  sacrament  of  the  supper ;  but  those 
who  are  not  so  disposed  eat  and  drink  condemnation  to  them- 

,  *  See  Aa^tin.  cp.  54,  ad  Jannar.  6.  4. 

t  H..  17,  in  ep.  ad  Hebr.  s.  4. 


DAILY  COMMUNIOSr.  463 

selves,  even  though  they  partake  of  it  but  once."  He* was 
obliged  to  complain  that  many  who,  on  ordinary  occasions^ 
felt  th^nselves  unworthy  to  participate  in  the  communion,  still 
bad  no  scruples  to  communicate  once  a  year,  after  the  fasts, 
at  the  festival  of  Easter,  or  of  the  Epiphany ;  just  as  if  they 
did  not  incur  the  same  condemnation,  whether  they  received 
the  holy  supper  at  these  or  at  any  other  times  in  an  unholy 
temper  of  mind.*  He  complains  f  that  of  those  who,  on  other 
days  when  the  church  assembled,  attended  tiie  entire  missa 
fidelium,  very  few  participated  in  the  communion,  to  which 
the  whole  liturgy  had  reference  ;  so  that  the  whole  act  in  this 
case  was  a  mere  formality.  ^'  They  either  belong  to  the  class 
of  the  unworthy,  who  are  notified  (see  above)  to  depart  from 
the  assembly,  or  they  remain  behind  as  belonging  with  the 
worthy,  in  which  case  they  ought  to  partake  of  the  communion. 
What  a  contradiction,  that,  while  they  join  in  all  those  con- 
fessions and  songs,  they  yet  cannot  participate  of  the  Lord's 
body!" 

In  those  cases,  however,  where  the  custom  of  daily  commu- 
nion still  prevailed,  but  divine  service  was  held  and  the  sacra- 
m^tal  supper  consecrated  only  once  or  twice  on  Sunday  and 
Friday,  or  at  most  but  four  times  a  week,  on  Sunday,  Saturday, 
Wednesday,  aiid  Friday,  no  other  course  remained  for  those 
n^ho  were  desirous  of  having  the  body  of  the  Lord  for  their 
daily  nourishment,  except  to  take  home  with  them  a  portion  of 
the  consecrated  bread — for  a  superstitious  dread  prevented 
them  firom  taking  with  them  the  wine,  which  might  be  so  easily 
qpilled— and  to  reserve  it  for  ^ture  use,  so  that  now  they 
might  every  day,  before  engaging  in  any  worldly  employment, 
participate  of  the  sacrament,  and  consecrate  and  strengthen 
themselves  by  communion  with  the  Lord.j:  In  voyages  by 
sea,  also,  Christians  were  in  the  habit  of  taking  with  them  a 

**  'H.  5,  in  ep.  I,  ad  Tixnotfa.  s.  3.    In  ep.  ad  Ephes.  homil.  3,  s.  4. 

{The  last-cited  place,  s.  5. 
This  is  said  by  Jerome,  in  ep.  48,  ad  Pammachium,  s.  16,  concem- 
Ing  Borne:  Roms  hanc  esse  consnetudinem  ut  fideles  semper  Christ! 
oofpns  accipiant ;  and  sabsequently  in  reference  to  those  who,  although 
fliey  were  afiraid  to  come  to  church,  yet  had  no  fear  of  participating  m 
liie  Lord's  body  at  home,  he  says :  An  alios  in  publico,  alius  in  domo, 
T!3mstn8  est?  In  like  manner,  Basil  of  Ceesarea  says  of  Alexandria 
ep.  93,  that  in  that  place  each  one  communicated,  whenever  he  pleas^ 
at  borne. 


468  THE  SACRAMENTS. 

portion  of  the  consecrated  bread,  so  as  to  have  it  in  their 
power  to  partake  of  the  sacrament  by  the  way.* 

This  abuse,  so  contradictory  to  the  original  design  of  the 
holy  supper,  whereby  it  was  converted  into  a  sort  of  amulet,  j 
was  the  occasion,  too,  of  bringing  about  the  first  deviation 
from  the  original  form  of  institution ;  for  Christians  were  now 
satisfied  when  they  partook  of  the  consecrated  bread  without 
the  cup.  In  other  respects,  the  full  participation  of  the  sacra- 
ment in  both  kinds  was  uniformly  held  to  be  necessary.  The 
contrary  practice  was  condemned  as  savouring  of  Manichseism; 
since  the  Manichaeans,  conformably  to  their  ascetic  principles, 
avoid  a  partaking  of  the  wine  in  the  sacrament  of  the  supper.l 

The  preceding  period  shows  us  how,  by  a  change  of  the  idea 
of  the  Christian  priesthood,  another  shape  and  direction  was 
given  also  to  the  original  idea  of  a  sacrificial  act  in  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  supper.  In  the  present  period  we  may  still  trace, 
by  various  marks,  the  separate  existence  of  these  very  differ- 
ent elements,  out  of  which  the  notion  of  a  sacrifice  in  the  Lord's 
Supper  gradually  arose.  On  the  one  hand,  was  the  older  form 
of  intuition  and  the  older  phrctseologyy  according  to  which  the 
name  sacrifice  was  referred  to  the  otUward  elements^  so  far  as , 
these  represented  the  gifts  of  nature,  all  to  be  consecrated  to 
God  in  the  temper  of  grateful,  child-like  love :  on  the  other, 
was  the  later  form  of  intuition,  which  referred  the  sacrifice  to 
the  body  of  Christ  himself.  Again,  considerable  prominence 
was  given,  it  is  true,  on  one  side,  to  the  assertion  that,  if  the 

*  See  Ambros.  oratio  funebris  de  obita  fratris  Satyri.  This  notion  of 
a  magical  virtue  residing  in  the  bread,  is  illustrated  by  an  example 
-which  Ambrose  here  relates  in  the  case  of  his  own  brother.  The  hitter, 
at  some  period  before  he  had  received  baptism,  being  on  board  a  ship 
-which  ran  ashore  and  -was  -wrecked,  obtained  from  some  of  his  fellow  Toy- 
agers  -who  had  been  baptized,  a  portion  of  the  consecrated  bread,  which 
they  carried  with  them.  This  he  bound  round  his  neck,  and  then  con- 
fidently thre-w  himself  into  the  sea.  He  was  the  first  to  get  to  the  land, 
and  of  course  ascribed  his  deliverance  to  the  power  of  this  charm. 

f  Meanwhile  -we  find,  in  the  third  canon  of  the  council  of  Csesaraa- 
gusta,  (Saragossa,)  a.d.  380,  and  in  the  fourteenth  canon  of  the  first  ooon- 
cil  of  Toledo,  a.d.  400,  a  stringent  decree  against  those  -who  did  not 
partake  of  the  sacrament  of  the  supper  at  church ;  but  this  decree  may 
perhaps  have  been  directed,  not  so  much  against  the  abuse  of  treasurmg 
up  the  consecrated  elemeut,  by  itself  considered,  as  against  the  hypo- 
critical Catholicism  of  t\ie  "PnwaWSasa.  . 
J  See  Leo  the  Great,  Sermo  4\, 


DOMJilSTlC  COMMUNION.  469 

sacrament  of  the  supper  must,  in  the  last  reference,  be  called  a 
sacrifice,  yet  by  this  was  to  be  understood  simply  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  memory  of  Christ's  sacrifice  once  for  all ;  but  still 
the  notion  here  crept  in,  of  effects  and  influences  similar  to 
those  of  a  priestly  sacrifice. 

At  this  point  came  in  many  traditional  usages  from  the  pre- 
ceding period,  which,  though  they  sprung  originally  out  of  a 
purely  Christian  feeling,  yet,  on  account  of  their  connection 
with  the  false  notion  of  a  sacrifice,  received  an  unevangelical 
meaning.  With  the  prayer  of  thanks  at  the*  celebration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  were  united  intercessions  for  all  the  different 
classes  of  Christendom,  and  also  intercessions  for  the  repose  of 
the  souls  of  the  dead.  In  the  uniting  together  of  these  objects, 
the  idea  lying  at  bottom  was,  that  all  the  prayers  of  Christians, 
both  thanksgivings  and  intercessions,  derived  their  Christian 
significancy  from  their  reference  to  the  Redeemer  and  to  the 
redemption ;  that  the  spirit  of  love  which  actuated  the  com- 
munity of  believers  longed  to  have  the  blessed  effects  of  the 
redemption  experienced  by  all  the  individual  members  of 
Christ's  body,  and  also  by  those  who  did  not  as  yet  belong  to 
it,  who  must  first  be  incorporated  into  it  by  divine  grace ;  that 
nothing  could  be  alien  from  this  love,  which  concerned  the  in- 
dividusJ  members  of  the  body  of  Christ ;  that  the  fellowship 
between  those  who  had  died  in  the  faith  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
living  members  of  the  same  community  of  the  Lord,  still  en- 
dured, and  could  not  be  interrupted  by  death ;  that  the  cele- 
bration of  the  remembrance  of  Christ's  sufferings  for  the 
redemption  of  mankind  was  especially  suited  to  call  forth  all 
ihese  feelings.  It  is  this  combination  of  ideas,  too,  though 
not  so  distinctly  apprehended,  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  those 
rhetorico-poetical  representations  in  the  Greek  homilists,  con- 
cerning the  connection  of  tliese  church-prayers  for  the  cele- 
bration of  the  Lord's  supper.*  Petitions  were  offered  for  those 
who  had  fallen  asleep  in  Christ,  and  for  those  who  celebrated 
their  memory.f  On  this  occasion,  too,  the  individuals  were 
particularly  mentioned  by  name,  who  had  made  donations  to 

*  E.  g.  Chrysostom.  h.  21,  in  act  apostol.  S.  4.  Ketrayyikktrett  von  vo 
fUftrvvfioif  ra  (p^iKm,  art  v*\^  vns  oixovfjbittis  titixtv  lavrn  i  0f0f,  fiirk  rov 
^mv/MMvos  txtiMU  tifxett^Sis  viTofAtfifn^xu  »Srof  rSiv  fifia^rnxortnv, 

f  'O  %taxows  fio^»  vvt^  tSv  iv  X^i^rf  »c««7/ui}/uiMry  xai  rSv  reif  fittieis 
Suri^  avvSv  iietrtX»»ftiutu 


470  THE  SACRAMENXa. 

the  church ;  a  practice  certainly  calculated  to  inspire  the  more 
wealthy  with  a  fidse  confidence,  by  leadings  them  to  inu^rine 
that  by  such  g^ifb  they  could  purchase  the  remission  of  thdr 
sins,  or  to  flatter  thdr  vanity,  since  they  considered  it  a  special 
honour  to  have  their  names  thus  publicly  psoclaimed.*  Foi' 
rents,  children,  husbands,  and  wives,  celebrated  the  monory 
of  their  departed  friends  by  laying  a  gift  on  the  altar  at  tbsk 
death  and  on  each  retnming  anniversary  of  it,  thus  caoaing 
them  to  be  particularly  remembered  in  the  prayers  of  the 
church.f 

But  now,  when  the  idea  of  a  commenorative  celd»ration  of 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ  for  mankind  passed  insensibly  into  tlie 
idea  of  an  efficacious  sacrificial  act  of  the  priest  standing  as  a 
mediator  between  God  and  men,  it  was  just  from  the  connect 
tion  of  these  intercessions  and  offerings  with  this  sacrificial  aet 
that  a  special  efficacy  was  attributed  to  them.;^  The  expres- 
sions, more  rhetorical  than  dogmatically  precise,  which  woe 
employed  by  the  Greek  homilists,  for  the  purpose  of  represent- 
ing to  the  imagination  the  efficacy  of  these  intercessions,§  like- 

'*'  See  Hieronymiu,  lib.  11.  in  Jeremiam  opp,  ed.  Martiaaay,  T.  IIL  t 
584.  Nunc  pablice  recitantur  offerentium  nomina,  et  redemptio  peoca- 
torum  matatnr  in  landem, — also  the  29th  canon  of  Ae*council  of  KMitt 
nomen  alicnjos  ab  altare  cam  oblatione  reoitare.  The  Roman  bishop 
Innocent  directed  that  all  the  gifts  presented  shonld  first  be  conmiended' 
to  God,  as  consecrated  to  his  service  by  the  love  of  the  Christians ;  and: 
that  then  all  the  individoals  should  be  mentioned  by  name  in  the  prayers 
of  the  church  at  ihe  celebration  of  the  communion.  Prius  oblationes 
sunt  commendandse.  ac  tunc  eorum  nomina»  quorum  sunt,  edicenda,  ut* 
inter  sacra  mysteria  nominentur,  q[>.  25,  ad  Decentium,  8.  5.  Tfae- 
patrons  of  the  church  were  also  specnally  mentioned  on  this  oocaffion: 
for  Chrysostom  represents  it  as  a  special  priyilege  of  the  proprietor  who 
allows  a  church  to  be  built  on  his  land,  ri  it  r«us  &yia$f  &9et^ii^s  iu  r» 
Oftfjuet  nv  \yKi7f4eu,     H.  28,  m  act.  ap.  8.  5. 

t  Chrysost  h.  29,  in  act  ap..  S.  3.  "'EAf  I  ^<m  tx*t  ^•itn  v^.  dntfir 
MiTiy  rUf  fjunrftt  n  rnf  ymaittt  n  tw  ^rauiitu*  Epiphanins  cites  among,' 
otiier  ancient  usages  of  the  diurch,  ezpos«  fid.  oathol.  *£«;).  rm*  rtXtart 
favratt  V^  dvifiMTot  rag  fjuv^ftas  ^ftouvreuy  9r^90ty}^af  rt\9Ufrts  »ai  Xur^wU 
xa)  oiKovofiiaf.  Chrysostom  distinguishes  expressly  the  presentation  of 
the  Lord's  9upper,  in  reference  to  the  departed,  ttom  the  prayer  and  tiie 
alms  connected  therewith.  Ov»  tUn  ^r^if^o^eu  v*\^  rSv  uittXP^vntv  yinfrtu, 
clt  %  ilxn  ixtm^itu,  ovx  tixn  i>Anf**^vm4,    In  acti  ap.  H.  21,^  s.  4. 

X  Thus  the  words  of  Innocent,  in  the  above-dted  passage  fh>m  his 
Decretds,  refer  to  this*  oonneotion :  Ut  ipsis  mysteriis  yiam  fatnii^ 

ribos  aperiamuB. 
See  Chrysostom.  H.  il,  in  «kCl.  «5.  ^.  ^.   ^^  Jiamssk /Cba  ^sS^sSsEASsaDk 


IDBJl  of  SACRinCK.  471 

wise  contributed  to  promote  the  tendency,  already  existing  in- 
the  popular  belief,  to  regard  this  ordinance  in  the  light  of 
a  charm,  just  as  in  other  cases  we  may  often  observe  a> 
^milar  action  and  reaction  between  the  dc^matical  and  the 
liturgical  departments.. 

Still,  however,  the  opposite  purely  evangelical  way  of  re« 
garding  the  relation,  of  the  sacramental  supper  to  Christ's 
sacrifice  is  expressly  adopted  by  Ghrysostom,  when  he  says : 
"  Do  we  not  offer  every  day  ?  We  do  offer,  it  is  true ;  but 
only  in  this  sense,  that  we  celebrate  the  memory  of  Chria^.s^ 
death.*  We  ever  present  the  same  offering;  or  rather  we 
celebrate  the  remembrance  of  that  one  offering."^  This  purely 
Christian  way  of  regarding  the  ordinance  is  presented  also  by 
Augustin,  when  he  says  that  Christians,  by  the  presentation 
and  participation  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  celebrate  the 
memory  of  the  offering  made  once  for  all  ;|  when  he  styles  th8> 
Lord's  Supper  an  offering  in  this  sense,  that  it  is  the  sacrament 
which  celebrates  the  remembrance  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ.  § 
His  mode  of  apprehending  the  idea  of  sacrifice  seems  to  pro- 
ceed from  a  genuinely  Christian  spirit.  The  true  sacrifice 
consists,  according  to  him,  in  this :  that  the  soul,  consumed  by 
the  fire  of  divine  love,  consecrates  itself  wholly  to  God.  All 
actions  which  flow  from  such  a  temper  are,  in  this  sense,  sacri- 
fices. The  whole  redeemed  city  of  God,  the  community  of 
saints,  is  the  universal  offering  presented  to  God  by  the  High 
Priest,  who  has  offered  himself  for  us,  that  we,  following  his 
example,  might  become  the  body  of  so  great  a  head.  This, 
the  celebration  of  Christ's  sacrifice  in  the  sacrament  of  the  holy 
supper  represents ;  in  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  the  church  at  the 

of  an  imperial  viotory,  the  imprisoned  obtain  their  liberty,  bathe  ^who 
lets  this  opportunity  i^ip  obtains  no  ftirther  g^ce,  so  it  is  here/*  And 
Oyrill  of  Jerusalem^  Cateches.  Mystagog.  v.  s.  7.  **  Just  as  when-  the 
onperor  condemns  one  to  banishment,  but  if  his  kinsmen  present  a 
chaplet  in  his  behalf,  the  emperor  is  induced  to  show  him  some  &vour ; 
so  we  present  to  God,  in  behalf  of  those  who  are  asleep,  though  they 
were  smners,  the  Christ  who  was  offered  for  our  sins." 

*  H.  17,  in  ep.  ad  Hebr.  S.  3.     'AA.X'  kvetfian^tv  ^ouufjmot  r»u  Betveirou 


t  Peracti  ejusdem  sacrinch  memoriam  celebrant,  c.  Faust.  L  XX.,  c  18. 
§  L.  c  c  21.    Sacrificiom  Christi  per  sacramentom  memorial  cele- 
brator. 


472  THE  SACRAMENTS. 

same  time  presents  itself  as  a  sacrifice  to  God.  That  is,  the 
living  celebration  of  the  memory  of  Christ's  sacrifice  in  Chris- 
tian communion  necessarily  includes  in  it,  that  they  who  are 
united  together,  by  faith  in  the  Redeemer,  in  one  community 
of  God,  should  in  spirit  follow  the  Saviour,  and,  as  they  have 
been  redeemed,  in  order  wholly  to  belong  to  him  and  to  serve 
him,  give  themselves  unreservedly  to  God.*  But  had  Augus- 
tin  conceived  and  expressed  this  in  a  way  so  entirely  clear,  and 
introduced  into  the  sacramentiun  memorise  nothing  besides,  no 
room  would  have  been  left  for  the  notion  of  a  sacrificial  act 
working  on  for  the  salvation  of  others.  He  did  connect  with 
it,  however,  the  idea  already  implied  in  the  practice  of  the 
church,  of  an  offering  for  the  repose  of  departed  8ouls.f  It 
was  thus,  then,  that  the  germ  of  the  false  idea  of  sacrifice  still 
continued  to  be  propagated ;  and  so  it  passed  over,  by  means 
of  Gregory  the  Great  (with  whom  we  shall  commence  the 
next  period),  in  its  fully  developed  form,  to  the  succeeding 
centuries. 

To  that  which,  in  itself  considered,  had  sprung  out  of  a 
purely  Christian  root,  but  had  received  a  different  turn  by  be- 
coming diverted  and  estranged  from  the  original  Christian 
spirit,  belonged  also  the  celebration  of  the  memory  of  the  great 
teachers  of  the  universal  church,  divinely  enlightened  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  or  of  distinguished  individual  confessors  of  the 
faith.  By  itself  considered,  a  purely  Christian  feeling  and  in- 
terest manifested  themselves  in  this  fact,  that  men  not  only 
looked  for  and  acknowledged  the  working  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  the  great  whole  of  the  church,  but  had  their  attention  par- 
ticularly directed  also  to  the  special  forms  of  this  activi^  in 
the  sanctified  and  enlightened  human  nunds  which  had  spe- 
cially served  as  the  organs  of  that  Spirit ;  that  in  these,  and 
the  labours  of  these,  men  specially  honoured  the  power  and 
grace  of  God,  the  Redeemer  and  Sanctifier,  and  gave  this  par- 
ticular direction  to  the  views  of  their  contemporaries  and  of 
the  following  generations,  which  should  go  on  to  develop  them- 
selves under  the  influence  of  Christian  remembrances.     The 

*  De  civitate  Dei,  1.  X.  c.  6.  Quod  etiam  sacramento  altaris  fidelibus 
ion  frequentat  ecclesia,  ubi  ei  demonstrator^  quod  in  ea  re,  quam  offert, 
|pa  offeratur. 

n  Ep.  32,  ad  Aurelium,  s.  6.    0\i\a>aoxke&  -^x^  ^igvcltlbns  dormientiamy 
[■«  vere  aliquid  adiuvare  cxedfioAwm  «aX. 


HONOUBS  PAID  TO  SAINTS.  473 

commemorative  days  of  holy  men  passed  over  from  the  pre- 
ceding period  into  this ;  many  such  days  were  celebrated  in 
those  particular  portions  of  the  church  where  these  men  were 
bom,  or  where  they  had  laboured ;  and  some  of  them  through- 
out the  whole  church,  with  more  than  usual  pomp  and  circum« 
stance.  The  latter  was  the  case  with  festivals  in  commemo- 
ration of  the  martyrdom  of  Peter  and  Paul,  which  were  among 
the  principal  festivals  at  Borne,  and  with  the  feast  in  honour 
of  St.  Stephen.* 

The  Christian  mode  of  judgment  was  shown  also  in  this, 
that  men  no  longer  shrunk  from  the  contact  of  a  dead  body 
as  if  it  were  unclean  and  defiling,  but  looked  upon  the  body 
as  the  oi^n  of  a  purified  soul,  destined  to  be  transfigured  to  a 
higher  form  of  existence.  Hence  it  was,  that  the  repose  of 
such  bodies  was  watched  with  the  faithi^l  memory  of  reve- 
rence and  love ;  that  they  were  gladly  received  and  deposited 
in  newly  erected  churches,  so  as  to  connect  these  places,  as  it 
were,  by  an  outward  historical  bond  with  the  Christian  deeds 
of  the  church  achieved  in  more  ancient  times.  But  we  ob- 
served already,  in  the  preceding  period,  how  the  multitude 
began  to  incline  towards  a  deification  of  human  instruments. 
The  church-teachers,  who  in  one  respect  resisted  this  popular 
bait,f  yet  in  another  were  hurried  along  themselves  by  the 
same  spirit ;  and  they  certainly  fostered  in  the  germ  that  ten- 

*  The  £ict  that  this  last-mentioned  festival  was  transferred  by  the 
Western  church  to  the  day  after  Christmas  is  not  to  be  ascribed  to  any 
exaggerated  reverence  for  Stephen,  that  ventured  to  compare  him  in 
some  sense  with  Christ ;  but  the  reason  of  it  is  to  be  found  rather  in  the 
rifi^t  apprehension  of  Stephen's  relation  to  his  Saviour  and  Master,  to 
whom  he  bore  witness  by  his  confession  and  death.  In  this  way  it  was 
intended  to  represent  Stephen  as  the  first  witness  of  Christ,  who  was 
bom  on  the  day  before ;  it  was  intended  by  this  to  make  it  manifest, 
that  without  the  Saviour's  birth,  Stephen  could  not  have  suffered  this 
martyrdom ;  that  his  martyrdom  was  a  standing  memorial  of  what 
human  nature  had  attained  by  Christ's  nativity.  The  Western  homi- 
lists,  especially  Augustin,  understood  very  well  how  to  unfold  and  turn 
to  good  account  this  connection  of  ideas. 

t  At  Ae  death  of  a  venerated  monk,  contentions  might  arise  between 
the  people  of  the  city  and  the  country  about  the  possession  of  his  body. 
See  Theodoret,  hist,  religios.  c  21,  T.  III.  p.ll2d9.  But  pious  monks,  as 
has  been  already  seen  in  the  case  of  Anthony,  took  care  beforehand  to 
have  the  place  of  their  burial  concealed,  and  to  prevent  their  bodies  be- 
coming objects  of  worship.  See  hist,  religios.  p.  1148  and  1221,  in  the 
voL  just  cited.  


474  UONOUBS  PAID  TO  SUNTS* 

dency,  the  extravaganceB  and  manifestly  pagan-like  ofl^ioota 
of  which  they  were  contending  against     The  churches  mm. 
erected  over  the  tombs  of  the  martyrs  tended  to  promote  the 
veneration  for  them.     The  feelings  and  remembrances  hero 
awakened  by  the  place  itself,  might  in  many  cases  lead  to 
extraordinary  efiects  on  the  mind.    Thus  it  may  be  explained 
how  the  conscience  of  many  a  guilty  individual  might  here  be 
aroused,  and  impel  him  to  tibe  confession  of  his  crime  ;.*  how 
many  kinds  of  diseases,  where  a  particular  bent  of  thee  imagi- 
nation or  state  of  the  nervous  system  had  special  sway,  mi^t 
here  be  relieved,—- eq>ecially  mental  diseases,  as  indeed  many 
of  the  churches  of  the  martyrs  were  celebrated  for  the  cure  of 
demoniacs.    The  same  effects  were  attributed  to  the  reliqoes 
of  saints  and  martyrs,  the  sight  and  touch  of  which  often  pro- 
duced great  effects,  by  virtue  of  what  they  were  for  the  mind  of 
the  beholder.     The  fact  was  triumphantly  appealed  to,  that  the 
divine  grace,  revealed  itself  in  so  manifold  ways  through  these 
consecrated  organs,  that  the  body  of  each  martyr  was  not  pre* 
served  in  a  single  burial  place,  but  cities  and  villages  shared 
it  between  them ;  and  that  although  the  martyr's  body  was 
thus  distributed  in  fragments,  yet  the  gracious  virtue  of  the 
remains  continued  to  be  undivided,  f     Ikit  in  this  way  it  came 
about,  that  the  people,  on  whom  what  was  immediately  present, 
and  made  a  direct  impression  on  their  own  senses,  exerted  the 
greatest   influence,  instead  of  adhering  steadfastly  to  the  one 
Saviour  and  Mediator  for  sinful  humanity,  forgot  him  in  their 
admiration  of  men  standing  in    equal  need   of   redemption 
with  themselves,  and  made  the  latter  their  mediators ;  and  that 
much  which  was   essentially  heathen  became   incorporated, 
under  a  Christian  form,  with  Christian  modes  of  feeling  and 
thinking.     There  were  to  be  found  in  the  churches  of  the  mar- 
tyrs, as  formerly  in  the  temples  of  pagan  gods,  representa- 

*  Aagostin  tells  the  story  of  a  thie^  who  was  about  to  perjure  him- 
self in  the  church  of  a  martyr,  but  was  so  wrought  upon  as  to  confess 
his  theft,  and  restore  the  stolen  property.  Novimus  Mediolani  apud  me- 
moriam  sanctorum,  ubi  mirabiliter  et  terribiliter  dsemones  confitentur, 
furem  quendam,  qui  ad  eum  locum  venerat,  ut&lsum  jurando  deoiperet^ 
compulsum  fuisse  confiteri  furtum  et  quod  abstulerat  reddere.  Augoi- 
tin.  ep.  78,  s.  3. 

t  Theodoret.     'EkXmix.  St^«ff^r/*«(   iretHfiaT,    Disputat.  8.  p.  902. 


KEUQUES.  475 

tions  in  gold  or  silver,  of  limbs  supposed  to  have  been  healed 
by  help  of  the  martyrs^  and  which  were  suspended  there  as 
consecrated  gifts.*  Transferring  to  these  churches  the  old 
practice  of  incubation  in  the  temple?  of  JBsculapius,  sick 
persons  laid-,  thanselves  down  in  them,  and  sought  for  the 
cure  of  their  complaints  by  such  rfflnedies  as  it  was  supposed 
the  martyrs  would  reveal  in  dreams,  during  the  night;  and 
many  were  the  legends  told  of  their  appearances  on  these  occar 
dons.  If  a  man  was  about  to  start  on  a  journey,  be  besought 
some  martyr  to  accompany  and  protect  hun:;  and  on  his  sa& 
return,  he  r^mired  again  to  the  church  to  return  thanks*  As^ 
under  paganism,  every  province  and  city  had  its  tutelary  ddty, 
so  now  the  martyrs  were  converted  into  these  tutelary  being8.f 
Sometimes  pagan  myths  were  mixed  up  with  Christian  legends^ 
martyrs  converted  into  mythical  personages,  and  others  in*^ 
vented  who  never  lived*  Thus  the  &ble  of  Castor  and  Pollux 
was  transferred  to  Phocas,  a  martyr,  said  to  have  been  a  gar- 
dener at  Sinope,  in  Pontus, — ^whether  any  such  person  ever 
lived,  or  the  whole  was  but  a  mythical  invention, — and  he  was 
converted  into  a  patron  saint  of  sailors,  whose  opportune  ap- 
pearance and  fiiendly  interposition  formed  the  subject  of  many* 
a  l^^id4  "^^^  pagan  celebrations  in  memory  of  the  dead  (the 
parentalia),  offerings  and  sacrificial  banquets  in  honour  of  the 
manes,,  were  transferred  to  martyrs  and  other  deceased  persons, 
at  whose  graves  the  people  prepared  feasts,  which  they  were 
invited  to  attend  as  guests.     Well-meaning  bishops  had  over- 

♦  Theodoret.  1.  c.  T.  IV.  f.  922. 

t  As  Tfaeodoretas  says  himself,  1.  o.  902:  lair^^as   x«e<   ^pux»>v  xmi 

and  Synesins  says  of  the  Thracian  martyrs : — 

Hymn.  III^  y.  458. 

I  Caoneeted  with  this  iras  the  following  beautiftil,  though  not  poreiy 
dtrialian  custom*.  Daring  a  voyage-at  sea,  in  preparing  the  common. 
t^ditt  finr  the  n^iole  crew,  a  dish  was  set  fbr  Phoeas,  who  was  sui^oMd. 
tD'  be^  an  invisible  gnest  The  different  indiyidnals  of  the  crew  pni^ 
ciMsed  tills  d^  in  torn.  The  amount  of  all  the  days  of  the  voyage  was^ 
MckoDed  up,  and,  tiie  vessel  having  prosperonslv  terminated  her  voyage,, 
the  crew  distributed  air  the  money  thus  Qollected  among  the  poor,  as  a. 
testimony  of  gratitude  for  the  successful  journey.    Asterius  in  PhocanL, 


476  HONOUBS  PAID  TO  &klNTS* 

looked  these  things  in  the  untutored  multitude,  hoping  that  by 
the  triumph  of  Ciiristianity  over  sensual  rudeness,  these  abuses 
would  disappear  of  themselves.*  But  it  was  by  means  of  this 
unwise  connivance,  springing  £rom  an  anxiety  to  promote  con- 
version by  masses,  that  encouragement  was  given  to  the  habit  of 
confounding  pagan  and  Christian  customs,  and  the  pervading 
influence  of  the  Christian  spirit  greatly  retarded.  The  abuse, 
which  might  have  been  more  easily  suppressed  at  the  ban- 
ning, was  now  upheld  by  the  authority  of  the  older  bishops, 
and  by  length  of  time  became  so  inveterate,  that  a  North- 
African  council  could  only  decree  that  these  banquets  should 
be  discontinued  as  &r  as  possible,t  aJid  that  it  required  all  the 
firmness  and  pastoral  prudence  of  an  Augustin,  which  few 
possessed  in  the  same  eminent  d^^ee,  to  get  the  better  here 
over  the  rudeness  and  superstition  of  the  multitude.^ 

Pagans  and  Manichaeans  already  frequently  reproached  the 
catholic  church  with  deifying  the  saints.  As  it  regards  the 
pagans,  it  was  indeed  oftentimes  the  very  circumstance  which 
most  completely  accorded  with  the  Christian  feelings,  that 
was  most  repugnant  to  their  own.  The  church  fathers  de- 
fended themselves  against  this  reproach,  by  affirming  that  it 
was  fax  from  being  the  design  of  the  church  to  deify  the  mar- 
tyrs ;  that  they  were  only  honoured  and  loved  as  instruments 
of  the  divine  working.  Thus,  Augustin  says :  §— "  The 
Christian  people  celebrate  the  memory  of  the  martyrs,  as  well 
that  we  may  be  excited  to  emulate  their  virtues  as  that  we 
may  share  in  their  merits  and  be  supported  by  their  prayers. 
Yet  it  is  not  to  the  martyrs,  but  only  to  the  God  of  the 
martyrs,  even  in  churches  consecrated  to  their  memory,  that 

♦  See  vol.  I.  sect  3. 

t  Concil.  Hippon.  a.d.  393,  quantom  fieri  potest. 
X  See  the  report  on  this  matter  in  Angostin,  ep.  29,  ad  Alypium.  This 
pagan  celebration  was  transferred  particularly  to  the  festival  which  was 
held  originally  in  remembrance  of  the  power  to  bind  and  to  loose,  con- 
ferred on  Peter,  the  natalitia  ecclesise  et  episcopatus.    As  this  festival 
fell  on  the  22nd  of  February,  the  usages  connected  with  various  kinds 
of  sin-offerings,  the  parentcuia  februcUioneSf  which  happened  in  the 
month  of  February,  came  to  be  mixed  in  with  it    Perhaps,  too,  the  idea 
of  the  keys  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven  being  given  to  Peter  gave  occaaon 
Mht  the  introduction  of  various  pagan  ideas  and  customs  of  £is  sort.    See 
^beil.  Taron.  II.  a.d.  567,  c.  22,  against  those  qui  in  festivitate  cathe- 
^K^Petri  cibos  mortois  of^eTUBl. 
||C.  Faust.  1.  21.c.a\. 


.\  k 


augustin's  views.  477 

we  erect  altars.  What  bishop  has  ever  stood  at  the  altar  near 
the  grave  of  a  martyr,  and  said,  *  We  offer  to  thee  Peter,  Paul, 
or  Cyprian  I '  Whatever  is  offered,  we  offer  to  the  God  who 
crowned  the  martyrs,  and  we  present  it^on  the  holy  spots  con- 
secrated to  the  memory  of  those  whom  he  has  crowned  ;  so 
that,  by  the  very  recollections  of  the  place,  our  feelings  may 
rise  upward,  and  our  love  be  enkindled  as  well  towards  those 
whose  example  we  would  imitate,  as  towards  Him  by  whose 
help  we  may  be  enabled  to  do  so.  We  honour  the  martyrs, 
then,  with  that  reverence  of  love  and  communion  which  even 
in  this  life  we  pay  to  the  holy  men  of  God,  who,  in  the  tem- 
per of  their  hearts,  appear  to  us  to  be  prepared  to  suffer  such 
things  for  the  gospel  truth..  But  the  former  we  reverence 
with  the  greater  devotion,  as  the  confidence  is  greater  with 
which  it  can  be  done,  after  the  conflict  is  over, — ^as  the  assur- 
ance with  which  we  praise  the  conquerors  is  more  complete 
than  we  can  have  with  regard  to  those  who  are  still  engaged 
in  the  conflict."  So  Theodoret :  "  We  honour  them  as  wit- 
nesses and  well-disposed  servants  of  the  most  High."*  The 
church-teachers,  as  well  as  the  rest,  shared  in  that  wide-spread 
£dth  in  the  operations  of  divine  grace  through  the  remains 
which  had  once  served  as  the  sanctified  bodily  organs  of  these 
men.  They  looked  upon  these  as  an  evidence  of  the  import- 
ance which  a  sanctified  man,  in  whatever  state  or  condition, 
had  in  the  sight  of  God ;  they  spoke  on  this  subject  with  en- 
thusiasm :  but  at  the  same  time  they  constantly  referred  back 
from  these  sanctified  men  to  God  the  author  of  all,  and  repre- 
sented them  as  only  living  monuments  of  the  Redeemer's 
grace.  Teachers  like  Chrysostom  and  Augustin  exhorted 
their  hearers  not  to  place  their  dependence  on  the  intercession 
of  the  martyrs  without  any  holiness  of  their  own  ;  not  to  use 
them  as  a  crutch  for  their  own  inactivity ;  representing  the 
martyrs  and  saints  as  being,  after  all,  but  meuy  in  their  sinful 
nature  the  same  with  all  others ;  and  calling  upon  their 
hearers  to  reverence  them  truly  by  imitating  their  virtues.  In 
a  word,  we  find  here  various  conflicting  elements  of  a  Chris- 
tian estimation  of  true  worth,  and  an  unevangelical  over- 
valuation of  human  instruments. 

So  also  the  liturgy  of  the  Eastern  church,  where  it  makes 

*   L.  C  90S.     *Qs  Smv  yt  fiei^TV^ctf  xtci  tunvf  ^t^ttvrotras. 


478  HOKOUBS  PAID  TO  SAINTS. 

mention  of  the  martyrs,  contains  something  at  variance  with 
the  exaggerated  reverence  bestowed  on  them.  For  as  the 
original  custom  of  oblaiiones  pro  martyribus  arose  £rom  the 
fact  that  they  were  placed  on  the  same  level  with  other 
redeemed  sinful  men,  so  this  view  of  the  case  passed  over  into 
ihe  liturgical  forms,  and  the  martyrs  were  mentioned  in  like 
manner  with  others,  in  the  intercessions.*  We  must  endea- 
vour to  reconcile  this  element,  originating  in  the  primitive 
Christian  way  of  thinking,  with  the  prevaUing  notions  con- 
cerning the  martyrs,  by  some  such  explanation  as  the  follow- 
ing: that  although  the  martyrs  were  mentioned  in  the  same 
rank  and  series^  yet  this  was  done  with  a  different  reference 
and  in  another  sense ;  the  martyrs  being  considered  as  a  stand- 
ing witness  of  the  redeeming  power  of  Christ's  sufferings,  the 
remembrance  of  which  was  celebrated  in  the  sacrament  of  the 
supper,  and  also  of  his  victory  over  death ;  f  just  as  in  the 
celebration  of  a  triumph  of  the  emperor,  all  those  partook  oF 
the  honour  who  had  borne  any  share  in  obtaining  the  victory. 

Much,  however,  as  the  more  distinguished  teachers  of  tfa^ 
church  laboured  to  reconcile  with  the  essence  of  the  pure 
Christian  worship  of  God,  and  so  to  spiritualize,  the  worship 
of  the  saints,  ttill  the  extravagant  encomiums  which  they  be- 
stowed on  them,  in  their  rhetorico-poetical  style  of  writing 
and  speaking,  could  not  fail  to  result  in  promoting  the  popu- 
lar superstition.     And  by  the  same  principle  on  which  they 
here  proceeded  to  spiritualize  the  worship  of  the  saints,  the 
NewrPlatonic  philosophers  could  sublimate  and  spiritualize 
polytheism  itself. 

But  here,  too,  as  in  the  case  of  the  overstrained  ascetic  ten- 
dency, respecting  which  we  have  already  spoken,  an  opposi- 
tion manifested  itself,  which  grew  out  of  the  original  Chris- 
tian spirit  still  remaining  in  the  church.  The  extravagant 
veneration  paid  to  the  martyrs,  which,  among  the  people 
bordering  on  idolatry,  moved  the  presbyter  Yigilantius  of 
Barcelona,  a  native  of  Gaul — whom  we  have  mentioned  in 
another  connection  as  an  opponent  of  the  one-sided  ascetic 
tendency  and  of  Monachism — to  call  the  whole  thing  in  ques- 

♦  In  the  general  vr^o^^c^  for  the  community  of  believers,  it  "was 
said  also  :  K&v  fiu^rv^is  u^t  x^v  vtI^  fAa^rv^uv,  Chrysostom.  h.  21,  in 
act.  ap.  s.  4. 

f  ChrySOStonit  •  Keu  twto  kw  <r\  ^ot.to.Tw«4ai  <r4v  Bciv»r$v  ffmfiuof. 


VIGILANTIUS,  479 

tion.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  man  possessed,  indeed,  of 
too  headstrong  a  temper,  yet  actuated  by  an  honest  and  pious 
zeal  for  preserving  the  purity  of  the  Christian  faith.*  Had 
he  used  greater  moderation  in  attacking  aberrations  of  the 
religious  spirit  which  still  liad  some  foundation  in  the  feel- 
ings, although  misinterpreted,  of  the  Christian  heart,  he  might 
have  accomplished  more.  In  a  tract  written  against  the 
abuses  of  the  church  in  his  time,  he  calls  the  venerators  of 
martyrs  and  reliques  "  ashes-worshippers  and  idolaters."*)"  He 
represents  it  as  supremely  ridiculous  to  manifest  such  ve- 
neration, nay,  adoration,  of  a  miserable  heap  of  ashes  and 
wretched  bones;  to  cover  them  under  costly  drapery,  and 
kiss  them.| 

In  answer  to  this  reproach  of  worshipping  the  martyrs, 
Jerome  replies,  that  Christians  were  &r  from  intending  to  pay 
creatures  the  honour  which  is  due  to  the  Creator  alone ;  they 
fio  honoured  the  reliques  of  the  martyrs  as  to  worship  Him  only 
of  whom  the  martyrs  had  borne  testimony.  The  honour  they 
showed  to  the  servants  had  reference  to  the  Master  himself, 
Who  says,  Matt.  x.  40,  "  He  that  receiveth  you,  receiveth  me." 
JSut  was  the  thought  which  Jerome  here  makes  so  prominent 
aetuaUy  present  to  the  consciousness  of  the  people  in  their 
veneration  of  reliques  and  martyrs'^ 

When  Vigilantius  spoke  of  wretched  bones,  Jerome  could 
vei*y  justly  reply,  that  the  devotion  of  believers  saw  and  felt 
somewhat  more  than  this  in  them ;  that  to  the  eye  of  faith, 
there  was  nothing  here  which  was  dead ;  but  that,  thi^ough 
these,  believers  looked  up  to  the  saints  living  with  God : 
that  God  is,  in  truth,  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the 
living. 

Vigilantius  complained  that  the  heathen  practice  of  placing 
light^  lamps  before  the  images  of  their  gods  had  been  trans- 
ferred to  the  martyrs;  that  wax  tapers  were  burned  during 

*  Hence  may  have  proeeeded  the  somewhat  ignorant  zeal  which  he 
J&anifested  in  the  Origenistic  controversies.    See  below. 

t  Cinerarios  et  idololatras.    Hieronym.  ep.  109,  ad  Ripariom. 

X  Quid  necesse  est,  te  tanto  bonore  non  solum  honorare,  sed  etiam 
Jkdorare  illud  nesc^o  quid,  quod  in  modico  vasculo  transferendo  colis  f 
nbicnnque  pulvisculum  nescio  quod  in  modico  vasculo  pretioso  lintea- 
mine  circumdatum  osculantes  adorant.  Hieronym.  c.  Vigilant,  s.  4. 
'The  nescio  quod  intimates,  perhaps,  that  the  bones  of  some  unknown 
person  were  often  given  out  for  reliques. 


480  H050UBS  PAID  TO  SADTTS. 

the  day-light  in  the  churches  of  the'  maitjn  ;* — how  could 
they  think  of  honouring  those  martyrs  by  the  li^t  of  misenble 
wax  candles,  on  whom  the  Lamb  in  the  midst  of  God's  throne 
reflected  all  the  brightness  of  his  majesty?  To  this  Jenme 
replies : — '^  Even  though  some  of  the  huty  or  pious  women 
might,  in  their  simplicity,  suppose  the  martyrs  were  so 
honoured,  yet  we  are  bound  to  recognise  and  to  reqpect  the 
pious  feelings  evinoed,  though  they  may  err  in  the  mode  of 
their  expression.  Thus  Christ  approved  the  pious  feelings  of 
the  woman  who  anointed  him,  and  reproved  the  disciples  who 
found  fault  with  her."  Such  considerations  ought,  indeed,  to 
teach  indulgence  towards  errors  of  religious  feeling ;  yet  not 
the  less  on  this  account  ought  those  errors  to  be  censored 
which  might  prove  so  dangerous  to  pure  Christianity.  Troe, 
the  charity  which  seeks  out  and  indulgently  embraces  what- 
ever of  truth  may  be  lying  at  the  ground  of  the  error,  ought 
not  to  fail ;  and  it  is  only  in  connection  with  this  charity  tibat 
zeal  for  truth  can  work  rightly ;  but  neither  should  the  eox' 
rective  zeal  for  truth  be  wanting,  if  the  error  must  not  be 
suffered  at  length  wholly  to  supplant  the  fundamental  truth, 
and  Christianity  to  be  completely  subverted  by  the  unchristian 
element.  Zeal  for  truth,  actuated  by  the  spirit  of  love,  must 
operate  constantly  as* a  corrective  and  refining  energy  in  the 
life  of  the  church,  if  its  divine  foundation  is  to  be  preserved 
pure  and  entire. 

Yig^lantius  inveighed  also  against  the  nocturnal  assemblies 
(the  vigils)  held  in  the  churches  of  the  martyrs ;  asserting, 
what  his  antagonist  Jerome  could  not  deny,  that  these  assem- 
blies, in  which  both  the  sexes  participated,  frequently  served 
as  a  pretext  and  as  an  occasion  for  gross  immoralities.  He 
seems  also  to  have  thought  it  unbefitting  that  the  vi^ls— 
which,  according  to  ancient  usage,  were  a  distinctive  feature 
of  the  Easter  festival — should  be  transferred  to  the  festival  of 
the  martyrs.  He  inveighed  next  against  the  reliance  placed 
on  the  intercessions  of  the  martyrs.  "  According  to  the  holy 
scriptures,"  says  he,  "  the  living  only  should  mutually  pray 
for  each  other."  To  this  Jerome  replies,  that,  if  the  apostles 
and  martyrs  in  this  earthly  life,  before  they  had  yet  come 


Tk 


Prope  vitinm  genUIuim  \idem,us  sub  pnetextu  religionis  iatrodao- 
in  ecclesiis,  sole  adhuc  fa\|^<eiiXft  'm<A«&  c«K»t^)3sx«j^«Dtj^\. 


HONOUR  PAD)  TO  SAINTS.  481 

flB^y  out  of  the  conflict,  were  able  to  pray  for  others,  how 
much  more  could  they  do  so  after  they  had  obtained  the 
victory.  But  what  word  of  scripture  bids  the  faithful  call 
upon  such  departed  saints  to  be  their  intercessors,  as  it  in- 
vites the  living  to  mutual  intercession  for  each  other,  in  the 
fellowship  of  love  ? 

As  an  argument  against  such  innovations,  Yigilantius  affirms 
that  the  martyrs  could  not  be  present  wherever  they  were  in- 
voked to  hear  men's  petitions,  and  to  be  ready  to  succour 
them.  Here  he  may  have  conceived  of  the  habitation  of  the 
blessed  spirits  after  a  manner  somewhat  confined  and  local, 
and  possibly  may  have  taken  various  figurative  expressions  of 
the  l^evr  Testament  in  too  material  and  literal  a  sense.*  On 
tiie  other  hand,  Jerome  asserts  of  the  glorified  saints,  that  they 
follow  the  Lamb  whithersoever  he  goes.  Rev.  xiv.  4.  If, 
then,  the  Lamb  is  everywhere  present,  so  must  we  believe 
"that  they  also  who  are  with  the  Lamb  are  everywhere  present ; 
tiius  the  &,ithful  are,  in  spirit,  everywhere  present  with  Christ. 
IBoth  Yigilantius  and  Jerome,  although  in  opposite  ways,  were 
for  knowing  too  much  respecting  those  things  of  a  higher 
^world  which  are  hidden  from  the  eye  of  man,  and  of  which  he 
cannot  judge  by  the  forms  of  his  earthly  perception. 

When  the  miracles  said  to  have  been  wrought  at  the  graves 
of  martyrs,  and  by  their  reliques,  were  alleged  in  defence  of 
the  propriety  and  great  importance  of  honouring  them,  we  do 
not  find  that  Yigilantius  took  much  pains  to  examine  into  the 
credibUity  of  these  reports,  but  he  simply  opposed  to  this  pre- 
vailing passion  for  the  miraculous,  the  Christian  principle  of 
judgment  respecting  miracles.  "  The  Christian  who  is  certain 
of  his  feiith,"  says  he,  "  neither  seeks  nor  asks  for  miracles ; 
nor  does  he  need  them.  Miracles  were  wrought  not  for  the 
believing,  but  for  the  unbelieving."  Perhaps  Yigilantius 
intended  by  so  saying  to  have  it  understood,  on  the  one  hand, 
that  those  who  were  seeking  miracles  from  the  martyrs  showed, 
by  this  very  circumstance,  how  far  removed  they  were  from 
the  genuine  Christian  spirit,  and  on  the  other,  that,  in  the 
main,  these  pretended  miracles  were  nothing  but  a  delusion ; 

*  We  perceive  here  the  advocate  of  the  grossly  literal  interpretation 
of  the  Bible,  the  opponent  of  Origen,  when  he  says :  Vel  in  sinu  Abrahse 
vel  in  loco  refrigerii  vel  snbter  aram  Dei  animas  apostolorom  et  mar- 
tyrum  consedisse. 

VOi^  III.  *1  \ 


482  HosrocR  paid  to  uaxt. 

lor,  as  the  end  for  which  all  miracles  were  performed  no  longer 
existed  in  the  minds  of  believers,  miracles  ought,  among 
Christians,  no  longer  to  be  admitted. 

This  extravagant,  superstitioos  tendency  naanifested  itsdf 
also  particularly  in  the  worthip  of  the  Virgin  Mary.  The 
ascetic  spirit  venerated  in  Mary  the  ideal  of  the  munanied 
life ;  the  name  ^^  mother  of  Grod"  (deorococX  which  it  had 
become  the  custom  to  apply  to  her  ever  since  the  last  times' of 
the  fourth  century,  and  which  afterwards  became  the  occasion 
of  so  many  controversies, — this  name  itself  might,  l^a  natural 
misconstruction  of  the  people,  contribute  some  share  towards 
the  deification  of  Mary.  Among  a  small  sect  of  women,  who 
came  from  Thrace  and  settled  down  in  Arabia,  the  snpo- 
stition  had  already  advanced  to  an  idolatrous  worship  of  the 
virgin  Mary ;  a  practice  universally  condemned,  it  is  true,  bj 
the  church.  They  looked  upon  themselves  as  the  priestesKS 
of  Mary.  On  a  set  day,  consecrated  to  her  as  a  festival,  they 
conveyed  about  in  chariots  (3(^^),  similar  to  those  used  by 
the  pagans  in  religious  processiims,  cakes  or  wafers  codm- 
crated  to  Mary  («coXXvpt^cc,  icoXXi/pco,  hence  their  name 
KoXKvpilidviltQ,  Collyridians),  which  they  presented  as  ofe- 
ings  to  her,  and  then  ate  themselves.  It  would  seem  that 
this  was  a  transfer  of  the  oblations  at  the  Locd's  Supper  to  the 
worship  of  Mary,  the  whole  taking  the  shape  of  a  pagan  eere- 
mony.  The  truth  perhaps  was,*  that  a  conniption  was  here 
introduced  from  the  pagan  worship  of  Geres,  that  the  cos- 
tomary  bread-offerings  at  the  heathen  feast  of  the  harvest 
(Thesmophoria),  in  honour  of  Ceres,  had  been  changed  for 
such  offerings  in  honour  of  Mary.  The  excessive  veneratian 
of  Mary  had,  as  a  further  consequence,  however,  to  call  forth 
still  more  violent  opponents;  and  these  seem  to  have  beffl 
antagonists  at  the  same  time  of  the  one-sided  ascetic  tendency 
which  chose  Mary  as  its  ideal.  This  controversy  grew  more 
particularly  out  of  a  disputed  question  of  history  and  ex^esb. 
Many  teachers  of  the  church  had  in  the  preceding  period 
maintained  that  by  the  brethren  of  Jesus,  mentioned  in  the 
New  Testament,  were  to  be  understood  the  later  bom  sons  of 
Mary.  But  the  ascetic  spirit,  and  the  excessive  veneration  of 
Mary,  were  now  shocked  at  the  renewal  of  this  opinion.  Thus 
it  came  about  that,  at  tVi^  c\os^  Cki  V^i<csvsx\.\i  century,  a  layman 


HONOUB  PAID  TO  MARY.  483 

of  Home,  by  the  name  of  Jffelvidius,  destitute  as  it  would 
seem  of  a  regular  theological  education,  supposed  that  in  the 
New  Testament  he  found  reasons  for  this  opinion,  while  at 
the  same  time  he  appealed  to  the  authority  of  TertuUian  and 
Victorinus  of  Petavio.  He  affirmed,  also,  that  by  this  opinion 
he  nowise  infringed  on  the  honour  of  Mary ;  and  he  was  thus 
kd  to  attack  also  the  exaggerated  opinion  of  the  unmarried 
life.  He  quoted  the  examples  of  the  patriarchs,  who  had 
maintained  a  pious  life  in  wedlock  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
he  referred  to  the  examples  of  such  virgins  as  had  by  no  means 
lired  up  to  their  calling.  These  opinions  of  Helvidius  might 
lead  ns  to  conclude,  that  the  combating  of  a  one-sided  ascetic 
spirit  was  a  matter  of  still  more  weight  with  him  than  the 
d^ence  of  his  views  with  regard  to  Mary.  Perhaps,  also,  he 
may  have  been  led  into  these  views  simply  by  exegetical 
inquiries  and  observatiotts,  and  so  had  been  drawn  into  this 
0f^)08iti(m  to  the  aver-valtuUian  of  celibacy,  merely  for  the 
purpose  of  defending  his  opinion  against  an  objection  on  the 
score  of  propriety. 

But  when  we  consider,  that  at  the  very  time  when  Helvidius 
appeared  at  Home,  the  presbyter  Jerome,  by  his  extravagant 
encomiums  on  the  unmarried  and  his  depreciation  of  the 
married  life  was  creating  there  a  great  sensation,  and  by  his 
extreme  statements,  giving  every  provocation  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  ccmimon  course  of  things,  would  be  likely  to  call 
forth  exposition  from  the  other  side ;  it  seems  more  probable 
that  both  Helvidius  and  Jovinian  were  excited  by  this  very 
counter-action  of  their  own  polemical  efforts,  although,  in  the 
<;b8e  of  the  latter,  the  oj^osition  doubtless  was  based  on  a 
deeper  inward  ground  in  the  whole  connected  system  of  his 
Christian  faith.  Jerome  wrote  against  Helvidius,  to  whom, 
in  scientific  culture  and  erudition,  he  was  confessedly  superior, 
with  all  the  violence  and  heat  which  characterized  him. 

Among  these  opponents  of  the  reigning  opinion  belongs 
also  another  contemporary,  Bonosus,  a  bishop,  probably  of 
Sardica,  in  lUyria,  against  whose  views  several  synods,  as  well 
as  the  bishops  Ambrose  of  Milan,  and  Siricius  of  Bome, 
protested.* 

*  See  tlie  letter  to  Anysius,  bishop  of  Thessalonica,  probably  written 
by  the  Koman  bishop  Siricius.  Both  Siricius  and  Ambrose  held  this 
opinion  to  be  an  esseutiaUj  false  doctrine.    The  lattet  %'K^%\  ^Q^^»x^;sss^ 

1\% 


484  PILOBDfAGES. 

The  idolatrous  veneration  6f  the  virgin  Mary,  in  Arabia,  of 
which  we  have  just  spoken,  was  probably  the  occasion  also  of 
the  same  views  being  advanced  by  many,  whom  the  blind  zea- 
lot Epiphaniiis  denominates  enemies  of  Mary  (jkyridiKOfutpia' 
yirai). 

In  the  preceding  period,  we  already  noticed  the  devotion 
with  which  places  in  Palestine  consecrated  by  religious  re- 
membrances were  regarded  and  sought  out  by  the  Christians. 
The  tendency  towards  the  outward,  in  the  religious  spirit  of 
these  times,  must  have  contributed  to  increase  the  veneration 
for  these  monuments  of  sacred  history.  Especially  since  the 
empress  Helena  and  other  members  of  the  Constantine  family 
had  been  so  eager  to  visit  tiiese  spots,  and  had  decorated  them 
with  magnificent  churches,  the  number  of  pilgrims  began 
greatly  to  multiply.  Chrysostom  says,  that  from  all  quarters 
of  the  earth  men  ilock  to  see  the  places  where  Christ  was  bom, 
where  he  suffered  and  was  buried.*  Emperors  made  pilgri- 
mages to  the  tomb  of  the  apostle  Peter  in  Rome,  and  before 
they  visited  it  laid  aside  all  their  imperial  insignia,  in  memory 
of  this  hero  of  the  faith.  Even  the  memory  of  Job  drew  many 
pilgrims  to  Arabia,  to  see  the  dung-heap  and  to  kiss  the  earth 
on  which  the  man  of  God  had  suffered  with  such  resignation.t 
Very  justly  did  it  appear  a  great  thing  to  Chrysostom,  that, 
while  the  monuments  of  earthly  glory  were  overlooked,  the 
places,  in  themselves  inconsiderable,  consecrated  by  nothing 
but  the  remembrances  of  religion,  should  be  searched  out,  after 
imndreds  and  thousands  of  years,  by  the  common  devotion ; 
and  very  properly  might  he  say,  that  great  profit  could  be  derived 
from  visiting  those  spots,  from  the  recollections  and  thoughts 
which  they  suggested,  while  the  sight  of  imperial  magnificence 
left  but  a  transient  impression.     It  was  in  consonance  with  a 

sacrilegium — and  we  see  it  was  nothing  but  the  ascetic  spirit  which 
attributed  so  much  importance  to  this  dispute — cum  omnes  ad  cultum 
virginitatis  s.  Mariaj  advocentur  exemplo.  De  institutione  virginis,  c. 
V.  s.  35. 

♦  Exposit.  in  Psalm  cix.,  s.  C,  T.  V.  259,  *H  9ix9VfjuUn  vvtr^txti*  ^^ 
Matth.  h.  7*  S.  2.       'A^ri    toUv    ^ssdruv     rti$    yHs    t»;^o9r%tj    iyp»fitt»i  Tfif 

t  Chrysostom.  Homil.  5,  de  statuis,  s.  1,  T.  II.  p.  59.  n«XX«l  >vi 
fJtHKoi)t  rivu  xeii     ^MtovTtav  drro^nu.iav  o'TiXXovrfti  dvo  vSv  vrtfluraif  ctis  7?> 


riLGRlMAOES.  485 

deep-seated  feeling  of  human  nature,  that  these  places  should 
possess  a  peculiar  worth  fpr  the  Christian  heart.     The  only 
mischief  was  when  too  great  stress  was  laid  on  these  sensible 
and  outward  means  of  exciting  devotion,  since  they  usually 
made  a  momentarily,  all-absorbing,  and  transitory,  rather  than 
a  deep  and  lasting  impression ;  although  certainly  some  allow- 
ance should  be  made  here  for  the  different  temperaments  of 
southern  and  northern  races  of  men.    The  effect  was  especially 
disastrous,  when  men  began  to  attribute  to  these  visits  to  holy 
places,  in  themselves  considered,  a  sanctifying  and  justifying 
power.     And  it  must  be  allowed  tliat  this  would  very  soon 
happen,  since  men  so  easily  inclined  to  overlook  the  inward 
grace  in  the  outward  form,  the  end  in  the  means.     Yet  even 
here,  a  remarkable  opposition  of  the  pure  evangelical  spirit 
manifested  itself  against  the  sensual  tendency.     Thus  Jerome 
declared*  that  "  the  places  of  the  crucifixion  and  of  the  resur- 
rection of  Christ  profited  those  only  who  bore  their  own  cross, 
and  rose  each  day  with  Christ;  but  those  who  said,'  'The 
temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord,'  should  hearken 
to  the  apostle,  '  Yc  are  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  the  Holy  Spirit 
dwells  within  you.'     Heaven  stands  open  to  us  in  Britain,  as 
well  as  in  Jerusalem ;  the  kingdom  of  God  should  be  within 
ourselves."     He  relates,  that  the  venerable  monk  Hilarion,  in 
Palestine,  had  visited  the  holy  places  but  once  in  his  life, 
although  he  lived  in  their  vicinity,  so  that  he  might  not  give 
coimtenance  to  the  exaggerated  veneration  of  them.     And 
Gregory  of  Nyssa  said  (ep.  ad  Ambrosium  et  Basilissam)  : 
"  Change  of  place  brings  God  no  nearer.    Wherever  thou  art, 
God  will  visit  thee,  if  the  mansion  of  thy  soul  is  found  to  be 
such  that  he  can  dwell  and  rule  in  thee.     But  if  thou  hast  thy 
inner  man  full  of  wicked  thoughts,  then,  whether  thou  ait  on 
Golgotha,  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  or  at  the  monument  of  the 
crucifixion,  thou  art  still  as  far  from  having  received  Christ 
into  thy  heart,  as  if  thou  hadst  never  confessed  him."     The 
moral  corruption  which  prevailed  in  these  very  regions,  beyond 
what  was  the  case  in  any  other  country,  he  very  justly  cites  as 
a  proof  of  the  little  influence  which  those  impressions  on  the 
senses  could  of  themselves  have  on  the  sanctitication  of  the 
heart. 

Thus,  throughout  this  entire  section,  we  perceive  still  going 

♦  Ep.  49,  ad  Paul  in. 


486  JLEBIUS  AND  H|8  PABTT. 

OD,  the  conflict  between  the  original,  fi^^e,  and  pmely  Chris- 
tian spirit  directed  to  the  worship  of  God  in  spirit  and  in  tnitfaf 
and  the  encroaching,  sensuous,  half-Jewish  and  half-pagan 
spirit,  which  would  rob  the  inner  man  of  the  libert^r  achieved 
for  him  by  Christ,  and  make  him  a  slave  to  outward,  earthly 
things,  and  to  the  maxims  of  this  world. 

In  concluding  this  section,  we  may  bring  forward  another 
witness  of  this  struggle,  who  appeared  as  an  opponent  of  vari- 
ous novel  tendencies  of  the  church  life^  even  of  such  as  had 
their  origin  in  the  preceding  period.  This  was  Aerius,  a  youth- 
ful friend  of  that  Eustathius,  lushop  of  Sebaste,  in  Armenia, 
whom  we  have  already  maitioned.  When  Eustathius  was 
made  bishop,  he  placed  his  friend,  as  presbyter,  over  a  house 
of  paupers.  But  subsequently  to  this,  Aerius  fell  into  a  quar- 
rel with  the  bishop.  He  accused  him  of  not  remaining  true  to 
the  ascetic  life,  which  had  originally  brought  them  together, 
and  of  being  too  much  interested  in  the  acquisition  of  earthly 
property: — Whether  the  &ct  was  that  Eustathius  deserved 
this  reproach,  or  that  Aerius,  owing  to  the  strength  of  his  pre- 
judices, did  him  injustice,  and  would  make  no  allowance  for 
the  change  of  conduct  to  which  he  was  impelled  by  his  office 
and  the  wants  of  the  church  placed  under  his  care.  Probably 
also  he  had  been  drawn  into  disputes  with  his  bishop  respect- 
ing the  proper  administration  of  ecclesiastical  affidrs ;  against 
whom  he  advocated  the  equality  of  bishops  and  presbyters, 
according  to  the  original  system  of  church  polity.  As  evidence 
of  this  he  brought  the  &ct,  that  presbyta^s  as  well  as  bishops 
baptized  and  consecrated  the  elements  of  the  holy  supper. 
Finally,  he  became  the  author  of  a  schism,  and  attacked  vari- 
ous usages  of  the  dominant  church.  He  inveighed  against 
the  practice  of  attaching  value  to  intercessions  and  to  the  cele- 
bration of  the  eucharist  as  an  offering  for  the  dead.  If  such 
an  ordinance  could  help  the  departed  to  bliss,  there  would  be 
no  need  of  moral  efforts  in  the  present  life ;  it  would  only  be 
necessary  for  each  to  make  or  purchase  for  himself  friends, 
who  could  be  induced  to  pray  and  offer  the  oblation  of  the 
supper  in  his  behalf.  (See  above.)  It  is  worthy  of  notice, 
that,  although  an  ascetic,  he  was  opposed  to  the  laws  regulat- 
ing fasts,  and  to  the  confining  of  fasts  to  set  times,  as  Wed- 
Ifisday ,  Friday,  the  Quajdn^esvxna.,  ^.xid  Goiod-Friday.  All  this, 
p  maintained,  ought  to  be  done  ^<:«.ot^v[v^  \ft  VJoa  «^\t\j^.  ^1  "^^ 


iJSBIUS  iJliD  HIS  PARTY.  467 

gospel,  with  freedom,  according  to  the  inclinations  and  neces- 
sities of  each  individual.  He  found  feult  with  the  ordinances 
of  the  church  on  this  point,  bec9,use  they  had  substituted  the 
yoke  of  a  Jewish  bondage  to  the  law,  in  place  of  the  gospel 
liberty.  He  disputed,  moreover,  the  custom  of  celebrating  the 
passover,  which,  handed  down  from  more  ancient  times,  was 
still  observed  in  these  parts  of  Asia.  By  the  sufferings  of 
Christ,  that  which  this  type  foreshadowed  was  fulfilled  once 
for  all.  Such  a  celebration  was,  in  his  opinion,  a  confounding 
of  Jewish  rites  with  Christian.  It  is  easy  to  see,  that  the  spiri- 
tual bent  of  Aerius  required  a  total  separation  of  Christian 
ordinances  and  doctrines  from  Jewish. 

The  hierarchical  sentiment  occasioned  violent  persecutions 
against  Aerius  and  his  party.  Driven  from  all  quarters,  they 
were  often  obliged  to  hold  their  assemblies  in  the  open  fields, 
in  groves  ajod  on  the  mountains.* 

*  The  principal  authority,  hares.  75. 


488  HISTORY  OF  CHBISTIANITY 


SECTION    FOURTH. 

HISTORY    OF    CHRISTIANITY    APPREHENDED   AND  DEVE- 
LOPED  AS  A  SYSTEM  OF  DOCTRINES. 

I.    General  Introductory  Remarks. 

This  period  introduced  important  changes  as  well  in  the 
evolution  of  the  conceptions  of  Christian  doctrine  as  in  other 
branches  of  Christian  development.  The  change  proceeding 
from  outward  relations,  which  formed  the  groundwork  of  this 
new  period,  was  not,  it  is  true,  so  immediately  connected  with 
that  which,  by  its  very  nature,  must  take  its  outward  shape  from 
a  power  residing  within.  But,  in  tracing  the  course  of  develop- 
ment of  human  nature,  no  single  branch  can  be  contemplated 
without  some  reference  to  the  others ;  much  rather  do  all  stand 
in  a  relation  of  mutual  action  and  counteraction.  Changes 
having  their  be^nning  from  without  extend  their  influence 
also  to  the  inner  world ;  and  seldom  does  an  important  re- 
volution take  place  in  outward  relations,  until  the  way  for  its 
transforming  influence  has  been  prepared  in  the  more  inward 
development.  This  was  particularly  true  with  reference  to 
the  influence  on  the  inward  development  of  doctrines,  pro- 
duced by  the  great  change  which  had  taken  place  in  the 
outward  relations  of  the  church  since  the  time  of  Constantine. 
For  the  effects  which  actuedly  resulted  from  this  influence, 
the  way  had  long  since  been  prepared  by  the  course  of  de- 
velopment within  the  church  itself.  It  was  not  all  at  once, 
and  through  the  influehce  of  an  external  force,  that  the 
Christian  doctrine  was  first  delivered  from  the  struggle  with 
Judaism  and  Paganism  ;  but  the  development  of  the  Christian 
doctrine  in  intelligent  consciousness  had  of  itself  so  far  pushed 
on  its  way  triumphantly,  through  the  oppositions  of  Judaism « 
and  Paganism,  that  these  were  forcedjto  retire,  when  now  the 
peculiar  essence  of  Christianity,  as  a  whole,  and  as  it  appeared 
in  its  several  great  doctrines,  had  come  to  be  more  clearly  and 


AS  A  STSTEIC  OF  DOCTRINES.  489 

distinctly  apprehended  by  me^ns  of  the  conflict  with  these 
antagonists. 

The  agreement  in  the  essentials  of  Christianity,  expressed 
in  the  struggle  against  those  heresies  which  sprung  up  out  of 
impure  commixtures  of  Judaism  or  Gentilism,  continued  from 
the  preceding  period  into  the  present.  In  the  mean  time, 
however,  notwithstanding  the  agreement  in  essentials,  various 
germs  of  opposition  in  respect  to  the  mode  of  apprehending 
particular  Christian  doctrines  had  sprung  up ;  as  indeed  we 
observed  to  be  the  case  in  the  preceding  period.  These  might, 
at  first,  subsist  peacefully  side  by  side,  while  fellowship  as  to 
the  essentials  of  Christianity  still  overbalanced  the  individual 
peculiarities  arising  out  of  different  modes  of  apprehension, 
and  the  common  opposition  to  those  tendencies  of  spirit  which 
appeared  in  the  struggle  against  the  peculiar  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  diverted  men's  attention  from  these  subordinate 
differences.  But  it  lay  in  the  very  essence  of  human  nature, 
that  the  germs  of  these  oppositions  should  ever  proceed  to 
imfold  and  shape  themselves  into  a  more  distinct  form  of  sub- 
sistence. But  ihe  common  opposition  to  the  Jewish  and 
Judaizing,  to  the  pagan  and  paganizing  spirit,  having  begun 
to  relax;  the  church,  delivered  from  the  hostile  tendencies 
which  assailed  her  from  without,  being  left  more  entirely  to 
herself;  it  now  happened  that  those  differences  in  the  mode  of 
conceiving  individual  doctrines,  unfolded  to  downright  oppo- 
sition, came  into  conflict  with  each  other.  According  to  the 
r^ular  course  of  the  development  of  human  nature,  it  could 
not  well  happen  otherwise.  The  process  of  development  once 
begun  could  not  stand  still ;  as  human  nature  is  constituted, 
the  harmonious  apprehension  of  Christianity  in  all  its  parts 
could  only  proceed  out  of  these  opposite  views  of  doctrine.  If 
the  entire  substance  of  humanity,  in  thought  as  well  as  in  life, 
was  to  be  thoroughly  pervaded  by  Christianity,  it  must  neces- 
sarily enter  also  into  these  oppositions.  But  the  melancholy 
fact  was,  indeed,  the  same  here  as  often  recurs  in  the  history 
of  the  church;  that,  amid  these  oppositions,  the  unity  of 
Christian  consciousness  which  embraced  and  included  them 
all,  could  be  wholly  forgotten ;  that  each  party  apprehended 
and  judged  the  opposite  views  of  the  other,  only  from  its  own 
particular  position;  and,  contemplating  them  from  without, 
instead  of  entering  into  their  principles,  and  examining  them 


490  HI8T0BT  OF  CHBIBTLUnTY 

accordiiig  to  their  intemal  coherence  and  conneetioii,  chaiged 
them  with  consequences  which  lay  utterly  remote  £rom  than. 
Thus  to  each  of  the  contending  doctrinal  parties,  the  struggle 
for  their  oum  peculiar  modes  of  apprehension  seemed  id^iBcal 
with  the  struggle  for  Christianity  itself.    Had  men  but  clearly 
seized  and  fixed  in  their  own  consciousness  the  exact  rdation 
of  the  speculaHve  system  of  &ith  to  the  life  offcutk^  and  the 
relation  of  the  single  Christian  doctrines  to  tluit  which  con- 
stitutes the  peculiar  and  essentud  foundation  of  the  goi^l,  to 
the  doctrine  concerning  Christ  as  the  Redeemer  of  mankind, 
the  whole  would  have  turned  out  otherwise.    The  oppositions, 
which  ollten  existed  only  in  the  speculative  mode  of  appre- 
hending doctrines,  would  not  have  been  able  to  disturb  and 
break  up  the  fellowship  and  unity  of  the  Christian  conscious* 
ness ;  and  a  peaceful  mutual  understanding  would  have  sooa 
taken  the  place  of  oppositions  rigidly  set  over  against,  and 
mutually  exclnding  each  other. 

But,  as  men  were  not  prepared  to  acknowledge  ^that  dif- 
ferent speculative  modes  of  apprehending  doctrines  might; 
subsist  side  by  side,  provided  only  that  the  unity  in  the  fundik- 
mental  essence  of  Christianity  was  also  held  fast  in  the  specu* 
lative  conception,   it  was   attempted  to  bind  the  unity  off 
Christian  consciousness  to  a  unity  of  speculative  apprehension, 
excluding  all  differences ;  and  heuce  the  effort  after  a  narrow 
and  narrowing  uniformity,  which  would  force  all  the  different 
bents  and  tendencies  of  mind  under  one  yoke,  and  which  must 
necessarily  check  the  free  and  natural  evolution  of  the  Christian 
system  of  faith,  and  thereby  in  the  end  of  the  Christian  life  of 
faith  itsel£ 

Still  more  hurtful  was  the  course  taken  by  these  doctrinal 
controversies  when  disturbed  by  the  interference,  especially  in 
the  East  Roman  empire,  of  a  foreign  power,  namely,  that  of  the 
state,  which  hindered  the  free  development  and  the  free  expres- 
sion of  the  different  opposite  opinions.  Owing  to  this,  the  purely 
dogmatic  interest  of  the  controversies  was  oftentimes  extremely 
vitiated  by  the  intermixture  of  a  foreign  secular  interest  and 
foreign  secular  passions.  Not  unfrequently  did  it  happen 
that  the  opposite  views  of  doctrine,  which,  after  being  de- 
veloped outwardly  from  within,  had  already  proceeded  to  such 
extent,  indeed,  as  to  be  prepared  for  collision  with  each  other, 
were  first  called  fortb  into  atttvxal  collision  by  outward  foreign 


AS  X  8T8TEM  OF  IX>CTRUIE8«  491 

«a»on%  arising  out  of  the  confusion  of  ecclesiastical  with 
ilitical  matters.  And  the  consequence  of  this  was,  that, 
om  the  very  first,  a  foreign  interest  was  superinduced,  which 
creased  the  difficulty  of  arriving  at  a  mutiud  understanding, 
id  disturbed  the  pure  course  of  develc^ment.  In  remarking 
ifli,  however,  many  too  superficial  observers  have  been  led 
Isely  to  suppose  ^t  these  disputes  were  due  solelp  to  their 
itward  ocea^oos,  and  to  the  conflict  of  passions ;  when  the 
nth  is,  that  the  outward  occasions  could  only  call  f<»rth  what 
\d  Icmg  since  been  prepared  in  the  course  of  devek^ment 
Ithin  the  church  itself;  as  in  fact  we  saw,  when  we  traced 
e  incipient  germs  of  these  oppositions  in  the  preceding  period, 
id,  as  will  be  still  more  clearly  shown  in  detail,  when  we 
•ne  to  iiomader  their  progressive  movement  in  the  period 
dEbre  us.  The  interference  of  that  foreign  power  might, 
oreover,  fcnr  certain  transient  periods  of  time,  bring  about 
fine  other  result  of  the  controversies  than  that  which  cor- 
•ponded  to  the  natural  relatiixi  of  the  conflicting  dements  to 
teh  other ;  but  such  results,  fcroed  on  from  without,  could 
)t,  as  the  histcnry  of  their  doctrinal  controvecsies  shows,  be 
lything  permanent.  The  theological  spirit  of  that  portion  of 
le  church  on  which  such  results  were  forced  was  moved  to 
sist  thau,  and  the  foreign  element  was  spumed  away  again, 
lOugh  not  without  a  violent  struggle. 

The  diflerent  dogmatic  tendencies  of  spinty  which  in  the 
■eceding  period  could  imfold  and  express  themselves  with 
»me  degree  of  universality  and  completeness,  now  presented 
lemselves  for  the  most  part  in  a  more  precise  and  definite 
tape,  in  controversies  about  single  doctrines, — and,  as  a 
meral  thing,  did  not  proceed  to  unfold  themselves  in  wider 
impass  and  with  more  logical  consistency.  For  this  reason 
B  controversies  about  single  doctrines  also  furnish  us  with 
le  most  important  help  towards  understanding  the  diflerent 
meral  tend^icies  of  the  dogmatic  spirit.  WhUe,  in  the  pre- 
iding  period,  the  conflict  of  universal  spiritual  tendencies 
Uy  carrried  out,  in  the  oppositions  of  Judaism,  of  Gnosticism, 
'  the  Boman  church  tendency,  of  Montanism,  and  of  the 
lexandrian  tendency,  predominated ;  in  the  present  period, 
I  the  other  hand,  the  oppositions  manifested  themselves  rather 

the  history  of  single  doctrines,  than  in  the  tendencies  of  the 
)gmatic  spirit  generally.     Had  the  universal  ground-ten- 


492  DSTELOFMEHT  OF  DOGTBIHEB. 

dencies  which  lay  at  the  foundation  of  the  controversies  re- 
specting single  doctrines  been  allowed  to  express  themselves 
in  their  entire  compass,"  this  circumstance  would  have  been 
attended  with  very  important  consequences,  affecting  the  entire 
development  of  Christianity. 

Amidst  the  doctrinal  controversies  of  this  period,  the  cha- 
racteristic difference  between  the  tendency  of  the  dogmatic 
spirit  in  the  eastern  and  in  the  western  church  became  ap- 
parent, while,  at  the  same  time,  it  went  on  to  shape  itself  into 
a  more  precise  and  determinate  form.  In  the  eastern  chuicb, 
the  Greek  mobility  of  intellect  and  speculative  direction  of 
thought  predominated.  In  the  western  church  the  more  rigid 
and  calm,  the  less  mobile  but  more  practical  tendency  of  the 
Roman  spirit  prevailed.*  Hence  it  happened  that  while,  in 
the  eastern  church,  the  development  of  doctrines  had  to  pass 
through  the  most  various  forms  of  opposition  before  they  could 
come  to  any  quiet  adjustment,  the  result  to  which  the  eastern 
church  first  arrived,  after  manifold  storms  and  conflicts,  ym, 
in  a  certain  sense,  anticipated  by  the  church  of  the  west ;  and 
she  subsequently  appropriated  to  herself  the  accurate  definitions 
of  doctrine  which  hieui  been  devised  in  the  eastern  church  from 
the  conflict  of  opposite  parties. 

In  the  next  place,  the  doctrinal  controversies  of  the  eastern 


*  Thiii  difference  between  the  two  charches  was  righdy  perceived 
Greek  theologians,  as  early  as  the  twelfth  century,  and  made  use  of  as 
an  argument  in  defending  the  Greek  church  against  the  reproach,  that 
all  the  heresies  had  sprung  out  of  her  bosom.    See  the  remarks  of  Nice- 
tas,  archbishop  of  Nicomedia,   in  Anselm.  Havelbergem.  Dialogg.  1« 
III.  c.  xL    D'Achery  spicileg.  T.  I.  f.  197.    Quoniam  nova  et  pluhbus 
inaudita  fides  subito  publioe  prsedicabatur,  et  in  hac  civitate  studia 
liberalium  artium  vigebant,  et  multi  sapientes  in  logica  et  in  arte  dialec* 
tica  subtiles  in  ratione  disserendi  prsevalebant,  coepemnt  fidem  Chris- 
tianam   disserendo  examinare  et  examinando  et  ratiocinando  deficere. 
Next,  to  the  vana  sapientia,  by  which  the  Greek  fidse  teachers  had  suf- 
fered themselves  to  be  misled,  is  opposed  the  simplicitas  minus  docta  of 
the  Romans,  which  is  derived  vel  ex  nimia  negligentia  investigaods 
fidei,  vel  ex  grassa  tarditate  hebetis  ingenii,  vel  ex  occupatione  ac  mole 
secnlaris  impediment!.    So  far  as  the  intellectual  phenomena  of  dififerent 
times  admit  of  being  compared,  we  might  find  some  analogy  in  the 
relation  existing  between  the  theological  development  among  the  Germant 
and  the  English ;  but  with  this  difference,  so  important  in  its  bearing  on 
the  result,  that  in  Germany  the  more  active  mtellectual  life  has  not 
been  checked  and  hampered  m  xSa^i  ^eH^o^xsw^DX.  <i^  S\&  ^Y^o^i'^^iQ  hy 
anything  which  resembles  Byx«oA3afc  ^weQta«5B>. 


OBEEK  Ain>  LATIN  CHURCHES.  493 

church  sprung  out  of  the  speculative  theology,  although  at  the 
same  time  there  was  also  an  interest  for  practical  Christianity 
at  bottom.     But  the  only  doctrinal  controversy  belonging 
properly  to  the  western  church  took  its  Ix^inning  from  that 
which  constitutes  the  central  point  of  all  practical  Christianity, 
anthropology  in  its  connection  with  the  doctrine  of  redemption. 
All  the  doctrinal  controversies  of  the  eastern  church  stand 
closely  connected,  as  the  following  exhibition  of  them  will 
show,  with  the  controversy  about  the  speculative  mode  of 
apprehending  and  defining  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.     This 
was  fraught  with  very  important  consequences  on  the  peculiar 
direction  of  the  system  of  faith  in  both  churches.     As  it  had 
already  happened,  in  the  preceding  period,  that,  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity,  the  form  of  speculative  apprehension  and  the 
essential,  practically   Christian,  object-matter  had  been  too 
much  confounded ;  as  the  custom  haA  been  to  apprehend  this 
doctrine  in  too  isolated  a  way, — not  enough  in  its  vital  con- 
nection with  the  doctrine  of  redemption,  in  the  right  con- 
nection with  which  it  can  alone  have  its  true  significancy ;  so 
the  com^e  taken  by  the  doctrinal  controversies  in  the  Greek 
church  contributed  still  more  to  establish  and  confirm  this 
method  of  treating  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.     And  hence  it 
came  about  that,  in  the  Greek  church,  the  whole  system  of 
faith  was  built  on  a  foundation  too  entirely  speculative ;  that 
matters  of  philosophy  and  matters  pertaining  to  the  system  of 
faith  were  too  frequently  jumbled  together ;  that  speculative 
definitions  with  regard  to  the  divine  essence  were  held  to  be 
just  the  most  important ;  and  that  so  much  the  less  interest 
was  taken,  therefore,  in  that  which  is  the  most  important  thing 
for  practical  Christianity  in   the  true  sense,   namely,   with 
Christian  anthropology,  in  its  connection  with  the  doctrine  of 
redanption ;  and  the  doctrines  bearing  on  this  subject  were  held 
to  be  of  inferior  hnportance.* 

***  Thus  Gregory  of  Nazianzeo  names,  among  the  subjects  discussed  in 
the  public  teaching  of  those  times,  the  question  whether  there  was  but 
one  world,  or  whether  there  were  many  worlds ;  the  questions,  what  is 
matter,  what  is  soul  and  spirit ;  questions  about  the  dififerent  kinds  of 
higher  spirits  {t^a  iri^i  xo(r/A«it  ti  xo^/mv  ^t^tXavc^nrat,  ^t^^i  vy.nst  ^<S' 
i^i/;^f}f,  iri^)  y«t7  »«)  Mi^wy  <pu9i»i*\  and  having  spoken  next  of  the  appear- 
ance and  sufferings  of  Christ,  he  names  as  the  principal  thing  (ta 
»i^aX«/«y),  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  (see  his  orat.  I,  f.  16),  although 
this  doctrine  surely  derives  its  Christian  importance  oxdy  Ivqtsv  v^  oftrok.- 


494  BBTELOniEST  OF  DOCTBinB. 

Since,  tlioi«  the  systematic  theology  of  the  Greeks  placed  at 
the  centre  of  ita  flyitem  a  certain  itpeculative  form  of  appie- 
hending  Christian  tmthy  a  certain  speculative  definitioD  of  die 
ChrLiitian  idea  of  Grod,  rather  than  that  which  oonstitateB  the 
natural  centre  of  the  whole  Christian  life :  the  oonseqncDoe 
was,  that  doctrines  of  £uth  and  doctrines  of  practiee  could  not 
be  e%'olved  from  a  common  centre,  and  hence  the  vital  ofganie 
comiection  between  the  two  could  not  be  fiurly  preaenteid  to 
the  conscious  apprehension,  and  so  a  system  of  legal  moralitj 
grew  up  by  the  ude  of  an  excessively  metaphysial,  cold,  and 
lifeletiK  system  of  faith.  Thus  the  adoption  of  a  wrong  method 
in  treating  the  doctrines  of  fiuth  must  exert  an  influential 
reaction  al«o  on  Christian  life  itselfl 

It  ^-as  otherwise  in  the  church  of  the  west.  The  only  doe- 
trinal  controversy  which  properly  had  its  origin  in  this  diuicb, 
related  to  Christian  antluropology  in  its  connection  with  the 
doctrine  of  redemption.  Owing  to  this  circumstance,  system- 
atic theology  here  received  at  once  its  peculiar  practical  direc- 
tion, and  the  inner  connection  between  doctrines  of  £uth  and 
of  practice  was  clearly  presented  to  consciousness ;— and  the 
hon()ur  of  bring^g  about  this  result  belongs  preeminently  to 
Augustin,  the  man  who  bore  the  most  distinguished  part  in 
the  controversy  above  mentioned. 

The  most  significant  phenomenon  in  the  general  history  of 
the  system  of  fidth,  and  one  whose  influence  reached  from  the 

nection  with  that  doctrine  which  Gregory  represents  as  a  subordnate 
one ;  although  entire  Christiaiiity  starts  not  from  a  speculative  doctrine 
concerning  me  Divine  Being,  but  from  the  actual  revelation  of  God,  as 
a  fiict  in  history.  In  another  place,  he  speaks,  it  is  true,  as  he  frequflitiy 
does  elsewhere,  against  those  who  made  the  investigation  of  ChristiiD 
truth  to  consist  merely  in  q>eculating  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and 
warns  against  the  tendency  which  seeks  to  determine  too  much  cod* 
cemin^  the  essence  of  the  Godhead — a  subject,  the  fhll  knowledge  of 
which  IS  reserved  for  the  future  life ;  but  dien  he  names  in  connection* 
as  subjects  on  which  men  might  employ  their  thoughts  more  profitably) 
and  in  which  also  there  was  no  danger  of  going  astray  (r^  imfiM^rvv* 

ax/>Bs;y«»\  the  ^iXfTf^uy  wi»i  xatamv  n  tcieamtf  «^4   »A.f|;,  ftt^}  ^vx^t  *^' 
y.sylxtn  ^9r/anr  /SiXriMwv  in  mm  ;i^ii««N»»,  irt»i  itHtrrdnstf,  x^iriiwr,  aMinrr 

ioffitits,  ;^#irrM>  vmfn/utrmf,  Orat.  xzxiii,  f.  536.  An  error  in  respect  to 
the  relation  of  Christ's  sufferings  to  the  work  of  redemption,  seemed  to 
him,  then,  less  dangerous,  than  an  error  in  respect  to  the  relation  to  one 
another  of  the  hypostases  in  \\«  TriQitv.    It  is  worthy  of  notice,  also, 

that  nothing  occurs  here  w^cJb.  "ksa  «k5  \j«Nn£ft%'^\ate^s!t  tsix^^ut^afldji- 

^Dishing  character  of  Chriaton  saDLiibTO^oe . 


INFLUENCSB  OF  0RI€FElf*8  SCHOOL.  495 

jneeediiig  period  over  into  the  present,  was  the  straggle 
'betwixt  the  speculative  spirit  of  Origen's  sehool,  and  the 
opposite  tendency  of  practical  realism.  True,  at  Alexandria 
itself  the  spirit  of  this  school  did  not  maintain  itself  as  one 
▼igoroosly  working  onward  in  its  wide  embracing  compass, 
and  with  its  whole  vital  energy.  The  catechetical  school  at 
Alexandria  was  no  longer  such  as  it  had  been  under  Clement, 
and  Origen.  Didymus,  the  last  and  the  only  distinguished 
teacher  of  this  period,  wanted  the  original  and  profound  in- 
tellect of  Origen,  wonderful  as  was  the  eruditicm  which  this 
person,  blind  from  his  early  youth,  had  found  means  to  store 
up  in  his  mind.  Only  one  thing  peculiar  to  the  spiritual 
tendency  of  Origen  passed  over  to  the  Akxandriim  church  as 
a  whole.  The  contemplative,  mystical,,  and,  in  part,  specula- 
tive element  continued  to  be  cherised  there ;  and  out  of  this 
the  peculiar  dogmatic  character  of  that  church  gradually 
formed  itself;  but  Origen's  free  and  enlarged  spirit  of  inquiry 
vanished  away  from  it.  Origen's  greatest  influence,  on  the 
other  hand,  proceeded  from  his  writings,  which  had  no  small 
share  in  forming  the  minds  of  some  of  the  most  eminent  church 
teachers  of  the  East,  who  were  distinguished  in  the  doctrinal 
controversies  for  their  free  spirit  and  their  theological  modera- 
tion. Such  were  Eusebius  of  Ca^sarea  and  the  great  church- 
teachers  of  Cappadocia,  Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  Basil  of  Cae- 
sarea,  and  his  brother  Gregory  ^  Nyssa,  on  whose  strong  mind 
the  ^)eculative  spirit  of  Origen  had  a  very  great  influence. 

In  general,  though  the  realism  of  the  church  spirit  offiered 
a  counterpoise  to  the  speculative  spirit  of  Origen's  school,  and 
Hiough  nu&ny  of  Origen's  peculiar  ideas  were  universally  re- 
jected ;   partly  such  as  the  development  of  the  theological 
spirit  in  these  times  was  not  ripe  enough  to  receive,  and  partly 
such  as  had  grown  out  of  a  combination  of  Platonism  with 
Christianity,  and  which  were  really  foreign  from  the  essence 
of  the  gospel ;  yet  the  school  of  Origen  had  served,  in  this 
struggle,  to  introduce,  throughout  the  entire  church,  a  more 
spiritual  mode  of  apprehending  the  system  of  faith,  and  to 
purge  it  everywhere  of  a  crude  anthropomorphism  and  an- 
thropopathism,  and  of  the  sensuous  notions  of  Chiliasm.     And 
in  the  treatment  of  the  most  weighty  single  doctrines  we  may 
discern  the  after-working  of  the  influence  of  that  great  churoh- 
teacher  on  the  development  of  antagomsms  which  made  theit 


496  DEVBLOPMENT  OF  D0CTB1NE8. 

appearance  in  the  fourth  century,  as  will  be  more  particularly 
shown  in  the  history  of  those  controversies. 

As  Platonism  had  been  chiefly  employed  bjr  the  Alexandrian 
school  in  giving  shape  to  Christian  theology^  and  as  the/>Aiio- 
sophical  character  of  this  school  had  been  Ibrmed  under  the 
influence  of  Platonism,  so  this  peculiar  form  of  the  scientific 
spirit  continued  to  be  the  prevailing  one  with  all  those  in  the 
Greek  church  who  made  it  their  special  object  to  obtain  a 
scientific  understanding  of  the  system  of  faith.  It  was  only 
the  narrow  dogmatbm  of  the  understanding  which  sprung  from 
Eunomius,  that  sought  wholly  to  suppress  the  element  of 
Platonism.  Had  this  latter  succeeded  in  its  struggle,  a  com- 
plete revolutioa;would  have  been  brought  about  in  the  system 
of  faith.  But  the  three  great  church-teachers  of  Cappadoda, 
who  had  been  formed  in  the  school  of  Origen,  took  strong  and 
decided  ground  against  thb  whole  new  tendency.  We  shall 
treat  more  particularly  of  this  struggle  hereafter,  in  relatmg 
the  history  of  doctrinal  controversies. 

A  new  mixture  of  Platonism  with  Christianity,  independent 
of  Origen,  in  which,  moreover,  the  Platonic  predominated  in 
a  £ir  greater  measure  over  the  Christian  element,  is  seen  in 
the  case  of  Synesius  of  Cyrene,  afterwards  bishop  of  Ptolemais, 
the  metropolitan  town  of  Pentapolis,  in  the  early  times  of  the 
fifth  century.  We  have  here  a  remarkable  exemplification  of 
the  manneZin  which  a  transition  might  be  gradualfy  n»de  from 
fundamental  ideas  of  the  religious  consciousness,  conceived 
under  the  form  of  Platonism,  to  Christianity.  But  we  see, 
also,  how  a  transformation  of  Christian  doctrines  into  mere 
symbols  of  Platonic  ideas  might  be  brought  about  in  the  same 
way.  Precisely  as,  in  earlier  time  (see  vol.  I.  sec.  1,  p.  47), 
this  Platonism  had  attached  itself  to  the  pagan  cultus,  and  to 
the  hierarchical  system  of  paganism,  out  of  which  combination 
arose  a  mystico-theurgical  system  of  religion ;  so  a  similar 
phenomenon,  under  the  Christian  form,  might  arise  out  of  a 
combination  of  Platonism  with  the  dominant  religion  of  the 
church.  The  false  notion  of  the  priesthood,  by  which  it  was 
represented  as  a  mediatory  organ  between  heaven  and  earth, 
between  God  and  man,  as  a  vehicle  for  the  conveyance  of 
heavenly  powers  to  the  earth,  as  man's  representative  before 
God ;  the  false  notion  connected  "with  this  other  of  the  sacra- 
ments^ as  the  bearers  ol  tbosc\ieai.Ne\A^  ^Q>^««^--^j3^^(Xs!&\fiL\'^ 


THE  ANTIOCfllAN  EXEOETICAL  SCHOOL.  497 

easily  be  laid  hold  of  as  a  basis  for  theurgical  mysteries.  A 
theurgieal  system,  or  mystical  symbolism  of  this  sort,  formed 
out  of  a  mixture  of  Christianity  and  Platonism,  we  find  com- 
pletely elaborated  in  the  writings  forged  under  the  name  of 
Dionysius  'the  Areopagite,  which  might  have  been  composed 
some  time  in  the  course  of  the  fifth  century. 

The  influence  of  Origen  had  been  very  great,  also,  in  giving 
form  and  direction  to  a  thorough  exegetical  study  of  the  scrip- 
tures with  all  the  helps  of  learning.  This  method,  in  truth, 
was  first  called  into  existence  by  him,  in  opposition  to  a  crass, 
literal  interpretation  of  the  Bible.  The  exegetical  bent  of  a 
Eusebius  of  Caesarea  and  of  a  Jerome,  the  latter  of  whom  was 
the  first  to  create  an  interest  in  the  more  thorough  method  of 
studying  the  scriptures  in  the  western  church,  had  been  first 
awakened  by  Origen.  But  by  the  introduction  of  his  specu- 
lative principles,  and  by  his  allegorizing  tendency,  which  was 
in  part  owing  to  this  fondness  for  speculation,  the  free  de- 
velopment of  that  exegetical  method,  and  the  unbiassed  appli- 
cation of  it  to  the  exposition  of  the  system  of  faith,  had,  in 
Origen's  own  case,  been  greatly  hindered.  Up  to  this  time 
there  had  existed  only  the  opposite  extremes  of  that  crass 
literal  method  of  biblical  interpretation,  and  this  arbitrary 
allegorizing  tendency.  But  already,  at  the  close  of  the  pre- 
ceding period,  we  observed  how  a  grammatical  and  logical 
method  of  interpreting  the  Bible,  holding  the  medium  between 
these  two  extremes,  had  begun  to  be  formed  under  the  direction 
of  the  Antiochian  church  teachers.  The  beginnings  of  this 
tendency  were  still  further  developed  by  distinguished  men  in 
the  fourth  century  and  in  the  commencement  of  the  fifth ; — 
by  Eustathius,  bishop  of  Antioch ;  Eusebius,  bishop  of  Emisa, 
in  Phoenicia;  Diodorus,  bishop  of  Tarsus,  in  Cilicia;  and, 
above  all,  by  the  sagacious  and  original  Tlieodore,  bishop  of 
Mopsuestia,  in  the  same  country.  Now,  as  the  Alexandrian 
church  had  continued  to  preserve  the  allegorizing  tendency, 
it  could  scarcely  fail  to  happen,  as  a  matter  of  course,  owing 
to  the  great  influence  which  different  hermeneutical  and  exe- 
getical tendencies  naturally  have  on  the  treatment  of  the  sys- 
tem of  £iith,  that  opposite  tendencies  of  doctrine  would  also 
spring  up  between  the  theological  schools  of  the  two  chuftjhes. 
The  allegorizing  tendency  could,  without  much  difficulty, 
accommodate  itself  wholly  to  the  form  of  the  tradition  in  the 

vol-  in,  ^  ¥L 


eaBSmnaaity  tbere- 
and  logical  is- 
die  other  hand,  to 
of  the  yarkws 
thran^  the  church 
hj  no  clear  con- 
iDterpretatioD  of 
theory  of 
between 
things,  but 
from  divine  sug- 
fsAUB^  Hiif  iiftiMPwvn  '*i  iakt  notte  of  inteipietation  looked 
lOUK  <««CT  wM.  tf'  <i9aiM?  acviae :  ihej  sought  mysteries  on 
9iL  «tt» :  *2wv  wwhii  MC  MBSB  that  then  was  any  human 
V  )ir  rutm  aecmmc  <i/;  dier  would  not  construe  this 
acenMiar  tt>  3a»  aumaa  iadiTiduality  of  character 
and  fHiwMi  oneya — wudui  «:!Lpfcun  nodiing  by  leliereDce  to 
hflOHB  Tifcuiw  «£  ifprthtfU'Tiin  aad  de^relopment.  Under  the 
iiic&  ^  ioomwies:  puotrnktr  Rsped  to  the  Bible,  they  unde- 
:BKiKiiI?  vktzacttii  hamt  k»  aaihoiity ;  beeause,  instead  of 
aMfcayramnng  ka  haman  6ina  Urorn  the  histoiy  of  its  human- 
bccumtw.  aaii  of  poreiviw^  the  divine  Spirit  revealing  itself 
thnrio*  thgj  expluacd  the  whole  as  a  single  production  after 
a  sfstem.  Hureiga  indeed  £tom  the  sacred  word,  but  pre-con- 
ccivcd  and  pwi  iwfahliTfawi  as  a  divine  one  1^  themselves,  thus 
fiMddBGT  or  iB|iMn§^  in  the  Bible  what  really  was  not  there. 
Moreover^  according  to  tha  above  mode  of  interpretation,  no. 
in&urmopntahle  diffieolties^  facing  men  to  perceive  that  such 
notions  of  inspiration  were  unteuble,  could  occur ;  for  by 
resort  to  the  mystical  sense  (the  aya-ywyif  elc  to  voittov),  all 
difficulties  could  be  easily  set  aside,  all  striking  discrepancies 
in  the  representation  of  scriptural  &ets  explained  away.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  giammatico-logical  interpretaticm  of  the 
Bible  must  take  notice  of  the  human  as  well  as  of  the  divine. 
element  in  the  sacred  scriptures;  in  this  case  difficulties 
would  necessarily  present  themselves,  not  to  be  reconciled 
with  the  adoption  of  those  extreme  notions  of  inspiration; 
men  must  be  led  to  perceive  the  diversity  of  human  indi- 
vidualities of  character  in  the  style  of  the  inspired  writers, — 
the  discrepancies  between  VAstotieal  accounts  in  particular 
matters ;  and  the  clear  ipetoe^^wi.oi  >}&«»  W.\^  \!£^&\.^ss&&^$^. 


THE  ANTIOCHIAN  EXE6ETICAL  SCHOOL.  499 

a  different  way  of  apprehendiDg  the  idea  of  inspiration.  True^ 
men  generally  proceeded  in  this  period,  as  in  the  preceding, 
upon  the  idea  of  a  divine  inspiration  of  the  holy  scriptures, 
without  accurately  investigating  or  defining  the  idea  itself; 
but  still  these  differences  would  of  themselves,  ever  and  anon, 
distinctly  come  up  to  view,  although  few  or  none  proceeded 
at  once  to  unfold  them  in  their  whole  extent ;  and  although 
sometimes,  even  unconsciously,  conflicting  elements  of  dif* 
ferent  modes  of  apprehending  the  idea  of  inspiration  nught 
practically  be  united  by  the  same  person.  The  fact  is,  ac- 
cordingly, that  we  meet  with  no  instances  of  the  more  free  mode 
of  apprehending  the  idea  of  inspiration  in  this  period,  except 
in  those  persons  who  had  been  led  to  it  by  an  unprejudiced, 
grammatico-logical  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  as  was  the 
ca^,  for  instance,  with  Jerome,  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  and 
Chrysostom.*  The  applying  of  such  a  different  notion  of  in- 
spiration to  the  investigation  of  the  scriptures,  with  a  view  to 
educe  j&om  them  the  system  of  hithy  would  also  of  itself  lead 
to  many  differences  in  matters  of  doctrine.  In  cpnnection 
with  this  different  mode  of  conceiving  the  idea  of  inspiration, 
there  would  come  to  be  fixed  also  a  different  point  of  view, 
£rom  which  to  consider  the  divine  and  the  human  elements  in 
the  life  of  the  apostles,  and  in  the  life  of  Christ  himself; 
since  the  Antiochian  school  was  led,  by  the  exegetical  tea' 
dency  above  described,  to  take  up  the  human  along  with  the 
divine,  while  the  w^exandrian  school,  taking  a  more  partial 
view  of  the  matter,  gave  prominence  to  the  divine  element 
alone.  To  this  we  must  add  the  general  difference  of  intel-« 
lectual  bent  in  the  two  schools ;  which  difference,  again,  lay 
at  the  root  of  the  other  difference  between  their  respective 

*  As,  for  example,  when  Chrysostom  says,  Horn.  1,  in'  Matt,  that  dif^ 
ferences  in  the  gospels  on  matters  not  essential  coustitated  no  objection 
to  Uieir  crecUbility,  but  rather  served  to  place  their  argrement  in  essen- 
tials in  the  light  of  a  stronger  evidence  for  their  truth ;  since  thus  it 
woald  not  be  alleged  that  their  agreement  and  harmony  was  the  effect 
of  design.  So  when  Jerome,  commenting  on  the  passage  in  Gral.  v.  l^, 
finds  no  ^flculty  in  supposing  that  St.  Paul,  in  the  choice  of  an  exr 
pression,.  is  governed  by  the  vehemence  of  an  emotion,  arising,  however, 
out  of  a  pure  temper  of  heart  Nee  minim  esse,  si  apostolus,  ut  homo, 
et  adhuc  vasculo  clausus  infirmo,  vidensque  aliam  legem  in  corpore  su6 
captivantem  se  et  ducentem  in  lege  peccati,  semel  fuerit  hoc  loquutus,  in 
quod  frequenter  sanctos  viros  cadere  perspicimus. 


500  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DOCTRINES. 

tendencies  in  exegesis  and  interpretation.  In  the  Alexandrian 
school,  an  intuitive  mode  of  apprehension,  inclining  to  the 
mystical ;  in  the  Antiochian,  a  logical  reflective  bent  of  the 
understanding  predominated ;  although  that  hearty  and  sincere 
Christianity  which  may  consist  with  every  variety  of  intel- 
lectual bent,  was  not  wanting  to  either.  The  first  of  these 
tendencies  inclined  to  give  prominence  to  the  transcendent, 
the  ineffable,  the  incomprehensible  side  of  the  divine  matter 
revealed  in  Christianity  ;*  to  place  by  itself  the  incompre- 
hensible as  not  to  be  comprehended,  as  an  object  of  faith  and 
of  religions  intuition  :  to  oppose  all  attempts  at  explanation; 
and,  in  order  to  express  this  in  the  strongest  possible  manner, 
it  sought  after  expressions  wherel^y  to  'push  the  matter  to  the 
utmost  extreme,  and  which  were  certainly  liable  to  miscon- 
struction. On  the  other  hand,  the  Antiochian  intelligential 
bent,  while  it  was  for  allowing  fiuth  its  just  due,  and  would 
not  attempt  to  explain  the  incomprehensible,  strove  to  unfold 
the  matter  of  revelation  by  the  understanding,  to  present  it  in 
the  clearest  form  in  which  it  could  be  apprehended,  and  to 
provide  against  all  possible  misapprehensions  (particularly 
such  as  might  arise  from  confounding  together  and  inter- 
changing the  divine  and  the  human  elements)  by  means  of 
precise  conceptions.  Thus  arose  out  of  the  relation  of  these 
two  schools  to  each  other  the  most  important  theological  an- 
tagonism in  the  eastern  church,  the  effects  of  which  were  most 
decidedly  manifested  in  the  doctrinal  controversies.  This  an- 
tagonism would  have  been  attended  with  still  more  important 
consequences  On  the  theological  development,  had  it  been  per- 
mitted to  go  on  and  express  itself  in  its  fullest  extent.  The 
tendency  of  the  Antiochian  school  is  seen  in  its  more  moderate 
form,  and  deeply  pervaded  by  the  Cliristiaiiity  of  the  heart,  in 
the  case  of  two  individuals,  both  of  whom  present  models  of 
biblical  interpretation  for  the  period  in  which  they  lived,  while 
one  of  them  furnishes  the  best  pattern  of  a  fruitful  homiletic 
application  of  the  sacred  scriptures:  these  were  Theodoret 
and  Chrysostom.  The  example  of  the  latter  shows  particularly 
the  great  advantage  of  this  exegetical  tendency,  when  accom- 
panied by  a  deep  and  hearty  Christian  feeling,  and  a  life 
enriched  by  inward  Christian  experience,  to  any  one  who 


AUGU8TIN.  601 

would  cultivate  a  talent  for  homiletic  exposition,  and  indeed 
for  the  whole  office  of  the  preacher. 

The  same  im^jortant  part  which  Origen  had  borne  in  di^ 
recting  the  theological  development  of  tlie  eastern  church,  was 
sustained  by  Augustin  with  referen^je  to  that  of  the  western 
church.  His  influence  was,  in  many  respects,  still  more 
general  and  long-continued  than  the  influence  of  that  great 
father  of  the  church.  To  remarkable  acuteness  and  depth  of 
intellect  he  united  a  heart  fllled  and  thoroughly  penetrated 
with  Christianity,  and  a  life  of  the  most  manifold  Christian 
experience.  In  system  and  method,  he  was  doubtless  superior 
to  Origen ;  but  he  wanted  the  erudite  historical  culture,  for 
which  the  latter  was  distinguished.  If  to  his  great  qualities 
of  mind  and  heart  he  had  united  this  advantage,  he  would 
thereby  have  been  preserved  from  many  a  partially  conceived 
dogma,  from  many  a  stiff"  abstraction  pushed  to  the  utmost 
extreme,  into  which  he  was  hurried  by  his  speculative  turn  of 
mind,  his  rigid  systematic  consistency,  combined  with  the 
peculiar  direction  of  his  religious  feelings. 

We  noticed,  in  the  case  of  the  Alexandrian  Gnosis,  a  two- 
fold element ;  the  Platonic  view  of  the  reciprocal  relation 
between  esoteric,  philosophic  knowledge  of  religion  and  of  the 
symbolical  faith  of  the  people  (of  cTriorr/z/ziy  and  of  5ofa),  and 
on  the  other  side,  the  view  derived  from  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness of  the  relation  of  doctrinal  knowledge  to  faith. 
Augustin  was  the  first  who  clearly  separated,  in  his  own  con- 
sciousness, these  two  forms  of  knowing,  and  placed  the  latter 
above  the  former.  Augustin's  scientific  discipline,  as  well  as 
Origen's,  came  from  Platonism ;  but  with  this  difference, 
however,  that  in  the  case  of  Origen,  the  Platonic  element  was 
sometimes  confounded  with  the  Christian,  and  Christianity 
subordinated  to  Platonism.  In  the  case  of  Augustin,  on  the 
other  hand,  his  theology  disentangled  itself  from  Platonism, 
and  the  forms  of  Christian  intuition  and  thought  were  ex- 
pressed in  an  independent  manner,  and  even  in  opposition  to 
the  Platonism  from  which  the  scientific  discipline  of  Augustin's 
mind  had  taken  its  first  direction.  And  in  connection  with 
this,  while  in  Origen's  case  the  philosophical  and  the  dogmatic 
interest  were  often  confounded,  in  that  of  Augustin,  on  the 
other  hand,  with  whom  the  central  point  of  his  inner  Christian 
life  constituted  also  the  central  point  of  his  system  of  faith. 


502  DEVELOPMENT  OP  DOCTRINES. 

the  dogmatic  element  unfolded  itself  in  the  main  with  mcfre 
purity  and  independence.  But  even  in  his  case,  the  philo- 
sophical interest  and  element  of  his  speculative  intellect  un- 
consciously mixed  in  with  the  Christian  and  theological :  and 
it  was  from  him  that  this  mixture  of  elements  was  transmitted 
to  the  scholastic  theology  of  the  middle  age,  which  stood  in 
immediate  connection  with  his  own.  We  see  in  Augustin  the 
faith  for  which  the  anti-gnostic  party  had  contended,  re- 
conciled with  the  Gnosis  which  came  from  the  Alexandrian 
school.  The  peculiar  training  of  his  life  enables  us  to  unde^ 
stand  how  he  came  to  occupy  this  important  place  in  the 
development  of  the  system  of  faith.  The  transition,  in  Au- 
gustin's  case,  from  the  Platonic  philosophy  of  religion  to  the 
peculiar  gnosis  of  Christianity,  >vas  not  a  mere  speculative 
change,  but  a  process  in  his  own  life.  The  development  of 
doctrinal  ideas  proceeded,  in  his  case,  conformably  to  the 
natural  order  of  things  out  of  his  own  internal  experience. 

Let  us  recur  here,  in  the  first  place,  to  a  fact  stated  in  an 
earlier  part  of  this  history,  that  a  truly  pious  mother  had 
seasonably  scattered  the  seeds  of  Christianity  in  Augustin's 
heart  while  yet  a  child.  The  incipient  germs  of  his  spiritual 
life  were  unfolded  in  tlie  unconscious  piety  of  childhood. 
Whatever  treasures  of  virtue  and  worth,  the  life  of  faith,  even 
of  a  soul  not  trained  by  scientific  culture,  can  bestow,  was  set 
before  him  in  the  example  of  his  pious  mother.  The  period 
of  childlike,  unconscious  piety  was  followed,  in  his  case,  by 
the  period  of  self-disunion,  inward  strife  and  conflict.  For  at 
the  age  of  nineteen,  while  living  at  Carthage,  he  was  turned 
from  the  course  which  a  pious  education  had  given  him,  by 
the  dissipations  and  corruptions  of  that  great  city.  The  fire 
of  his  impetuous  nature  needed  to  be  purified  and  ennobled  by 
the  power  of  religion :  his  great  but  wild  and  ungovemed 
energies,  after  having  involved  him  in  many  a  stormy  conflict, 
must  first  be  tamed  and  regulated  by  a  higher,  heavenly 
might ;  must  be  sanctified  by  a  higher  spirit,  before  he  could 
find  peace.  As  it  often  happens  that  a  human  word,  of  the 
present  or  the  past,  becomes  invested  with  important  meaning 
for  the  life  of  an  individual,  by  its  coincidence  with  slumber- 
ing feelings  or  ideas,  which  are  thus  called  forth  at  once  into 
clear  consciousness,  so  it  was  with  Augustin.  A  passage 
which  he  suddenly  came  acxoss  \yv  \?afe  HaTtftusius  of  Cicero, 


▲UOUSTIN.  'SOS' 

treating  of  the  wortb  and  dignity  of  philosof^,  made  a  strong 
impresfflion  on  his  mind.     The  higher  wants  of  his  spiritual 
and  moral  nature  were  in  this  way  at  onee  brought  clearly 
before  him.    The  true  and  the  good  at  once  filled  his  heart 
with  an  indescribable  longing ;  he  had  presented  to  the  inmost 
centre  of  his  soul  a  supreme  good,  which  appeared  to  him  the 
only  worthy  object  of  human  pursuit;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  whatever  had,  until  now,  occupied  and  pleased  him,  ap- 
peared but  as  vanity.     But  the  ungodly  impulses  were  still 
too  strong  in  his  fiery  nature,  to  allow  him  to  surrender  him- 
self wholly  to  the  longing  which  from  this  moment  took  pos- 
session of  his  heart,  and  to  withstand  the  charm  of  the  vain  ob- 
jects which  he  would  fain  despise  and  shun.     The  conflict  now 
began  in  his  soul,  which  lasted  through  eleven  years  of  his  life. 
As  the  simplicity  of  the  sacred  scriptures  possessed  no 
attractions  for  his  taste — a  taste  formed  by  rhetorical  studies 
and  the  artificial  discipline  of  the  declamatory  schools; — 
especially  since  his  mind  was  now  in  the  same  tone  and  direc- 
tion with  that  of  the  emperor  Julian,  when  the  latter  was 
conducted  to  the  Platonic  theosophy ;  as,  moreover,  he  found 
so  many  things  in  the  doctrines  of  the  church  which,  from 
want  of  inward  experience,  could  not  be  otherwise  than  imin- 
telligible  to  him,  while  he  attempted  to  grasp  by  the  under- 
standing from  without,  what  can  be  understood  only  from  the 
inner  life,  from  the  feeling  of  inward  wants,  and  one's  own 
inward  experiences ; — so,  under  these  circumstances,  the  delu- 
sive pretensions  of  the  Manichean  sect,  which,  instead  of  a 
blind  belief  on  authority,  held  out  the  promise  of  clear  know- 
ledge and  a  satisfactory  solution  of  all  questions  relating  to 
things  human  and  divine,  presented  the  stronger  attractions 
to  his  inexperienced  youtli.     He  became  a  member  of  that 
sect,  and  entered  first  into  the  class  of  auditors.    It  was  the 
sum  of  his  wishes  to  be  received  into  the  class  of  the  elect,  so 
as  to  become  acquainted  with  the  mysteries  of  the  sect, — 
which  were  the  more  alluring  to  his  eager  thirst  for  know- 
ledge, by  reason  of  their  enigmatical  character, — and  thus 
finally  attain  to  the  clear  light  he  was  so  earnestly  in  pursuit 
of.     But  his  interviews  with  Faustus,  one  of  the  most  eminent 
teachers  of  this  sect,  so  entirely  baulked  his  expectations,  that, 
after  having  spent  ten  years  as  a  member  of  the  sect,  he  was 
thrown  into  complete  bewilderment.     At  length  he  was  fully 


I 


504  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DOCTRINES. 

convinced  that  Manicheism  was  a  ddusiou ;  but  from  this  he 
was  in  danger  of  falling  into  absolute  scepticisin,  from  which 
nothing  saved  him  but  that  faith  in  God  and  truth  which  re- 
mained planted  in  the  deepest  recesses  of  his  soul.    During 
this  inward  stru^le,  the  acquaintance  which  he  had  gained, 
by  means  of  Latin  translations,  with  works  relating  to  the 
Platonic  and  New-Platonic  philosophy,  proved  of  great  ser- 
vice to  him.     He  'says  himself,  that  they  enkindled  in  hb 
mind  an  incredible  ardour.*     They  addr^sed  themselves  to 
his  religious  consciousness.    Nothing  but  a  philosophy  which 
addressed  the  heart, — a  philosophy  which  coincided  with  the 
inward  witness  of  a  nature  in  man  akin  to  the  divine, — a  phi- 
losophy which,  at  the  same  time,  in  its  later  form,  contained 
fro  much  that  really  or  seemingly  harmonized  witii  the  Chris- 
tian truths  implanted  in  his  soul  at  an  early  age ; — nothing 
but  such  a  philosophy  could  have  possessed  such  attractions 
for  him  in  the  then  tone  of  his  mind.     Of  great  importance 
to  him  did  the  study  of  this  philosophy  prove,  as  a  transition- 
point  from  scepticism  to  tlie  clearly  developed  consciousness 
of  an  undeniable  objective  truth ; — as  a  transition  point  to  the 
spiritual ization  of  his  thoughts,  which  had  by  means  of  Mani- 
cheism  become  habituated  to  sensible  images ; — as  a  transition- 
point  from  an  imaginative  to  an  intellectual  direction  ; — as  a 
transition-point  from  Dualism  to  a  consistent  Monarchism,  He 
arrived,  in  this  way,  first  to  a  religious  idealism,  that  seized  and 
appropriated  to  itself  Christian  elements ;  and  was  thus  prepared 
to  be  led  over  to  the  simple  faith  of  the  gospel.    At  first,  this 
Platonic  philosophy  was  his  all ;  and  he  souijht  nothing  fur- 
ther.   It  was  nothing  but  the  power  of  that  religion  implanted 
during  the  season  of  childhood  in  the  deepest  recesses  of  liis 
soul,  which,  as  he  himself  avowed,  drew  him  to  the  study  of 
those  writings  which  witnessed  of  it.     He  argued  that,  as 
truth  is  but  one,  this  religion  could  not  be  at  variance  with 
that  highest  wisdom ;  that  a  Paul  could  not  have  led  such  a 
glorious  life  as  he  was  said  to  have  led,  had  he  been  wholly 
wanting  in  that  liighest  wisdom.    Accordingly,  iu  the  outset, 
he  sought  in. Christianity  only  for  those  truths  which  he  had 
already  made  himself  acquainted  with  from  the  Platonic  phi- 
losophy, but  presented  in  a  different  form.     He  conceived  of 

*  L.  II.  c.  academicos,  s.  5.    Etiam  mihi  ipsi  de  me  ipso  incredibile 
inceudium  in  me  concltaruiit. 


AUGUSTIN.  505 

Christ  as  a  prophet,  in  illumination  of  mind  and  holiness  of 
character  exalted,  beyond  all  comparison,  above  all  others ; 
one  who  had  been  sent  by  God  into  the  world  for  the  purpose 
of  transplanting  what,  by  philosophical  investigation,  could 
be  known  only  to  a  few,  into  the  general  consciousness  of 
mankind,  by  means  of  an  authoritative  faitii.  From  this 
point  of  view,  he  contrived  to  explain  all  the  Christian  doc- 
trines on  the  principles  of  his  Platonic  idealism.  He  imagined 
that  he  understood  them,  and  spoke  of  them  as  a  master  who 
was  certain  of  his  matter.  As  he  afterwards  said  himself, 
he  wanted  that  which  can  alone  give  the  right  understanding 
of  Christianity ;  and  without  which,  any  man  will  have  only 
the  shell  of  Christianity  without  its  kernel — the  love  which  is 
rooted  in  humility* 

But  tliis  theory,  as  it  frequently  happens  with  theories,  and 
especially  theories  on  religious  matters  erected  on  some  other 
basis  tlian  living  experience,  was  demolished,  in  his  case,  by 
the  energy  of  life ;  for  the  Platonic  philosophy  presented  be- 
fore him,  it  is  true,  ideals  which  ravished  the  intellectual 
vision,  but  could  give  him  no  power  of  obtaining  victory  over 
the  flesh.  The  ideals  retreated  from  him  whenever  he  at- 
tempted to  grasp  them  :  he  was  continually  borne  down  again 
by  the  ungodly  impulses^ which  he  thought  he  had  already 
subdued.  As  lie  was  conducted,  therefore,  by  his  living  ex- 
perience to  an  acquaintance  with  the  want  which  Christianity 
alone  can  satisfy,  and  without  the  feeling  of  which  it  cannot 
be  vitally  understood,  to  a  knowledge  of  the  want  of  redemp- 
tion from  the  sense  of  inward  schism ;  so  he  found  in  Chris- 
tianity more  than  he  was  seeking  for  in  it,  having  in  fact 
been  led  to  it  chiefly  in  the  way  of  speculation.  The  study 
of  St.  Paul's  epistles  in  particular,  which  he  began  in  this 
epoch  of  his  life,  made  the  more  powerful  impression  on  his 
soul,  because  so  much  in  the  fundamental  idea  of  these  epis- 
tles respecting  that  which  is  law,  spirit,  and  that  which  is 
flesh,  and  respecting  the  conflict  between  both,  connected  itself 
with  his  own  inner  experiences  and  conflicts,  and  became 
clearly  evident  to  him  from  them.     Much  that  had  been  un- 

*  As  he  says  himself,  in  his  confessions,  speaking  of  this  period  of  his 
life  :  Garriebam  plane  qnasi  peritus,  jam  enim  coeperam  velle  videri  sa- 
piens ;  ubi  erat  ilia  caritas,  sedificans  a  fundamento  homilitatis,  quod  est 
Christus  Jesus. 


606  DEVELOPMEBTT  OF  DOCTRINES. 

intelligible  to  him  before  he  had  made  these  experiences,  be 
could  now  understand ;  and,  in  general,  he  became  better  ac- 
quainted with  Christianity,  the  more  he  found  himself  at  home 
in  it  by  means  of  his  own  inner  life,  and  the  more  he  expe- 
rienced the  sanctifying  power  of  the  divine  doctrines  on  his 
own  soul.  Thus,  then,  by  degrees,  the  relation  was  com- 
pletely reversed:  it  was  no  longer  the  Platonic  philosophy 
which  was  most  certain  to  him  ;  and  it  was  no  longer  barely 
the  prejudice  in  favour  of  the  religion  of  his  childhood,  which 
made  what  had  been  imparted  to  him  by  that  philosophy  ap- 
pear to  him  under  a  more  familiar  and  popular  form;  bat 
as  he  had  found  in  Christ  his  Saviour,  so  all  that  Christ  taught 
him  was  infallible  truth,  which  required  no  other  confirmation. 
It  was  the  highest  criterion  of  all  truth.  He  himself  had 
experienced  the  power  of  this  doctrine  in  his  inmost  soul ;  and 
this  was  to  him  a  subjective  testimony  of  its  divinity  and  truth. 
His  religious  and  moral  consciousness  was  now  satisfied ;  his 
desire  of  knowledge  alone  still  sought  satisfaction.  He  longed 
to  see  that  what  was  certain  to  him  by  faith  in  divine  autho- 
rity and  by  inward  experience,  was  also  true  and  necessary 
on  internal  grounds ;  and  the  means  to  this  were  to  be  fur- 
nished him  by  the  Platonic  philosophy.* 

Now  the  fact  was,  that,  at  this  stage  of  his  development, 
the  same  thing  happened  to  him  which  is  so  liable  to  occur  in 
similar  cases.  He  deprived  biblical  ideas  of  their  full,  peculiar 
significance,  by  translating  them  into  the  language  of  the 
Platonic  philosophy.  Thus,  for  example,  he  called  the  wis- 
dom of  this  world  simply  a  wisdom  which  is  still  entangled  in 
the  forms  of  sense,  which  does  not  elevate  itself  to  ideas ;  and 
the  kingdom  of  Christ,  as  not  being  a  kingdom  of  this  world, 
he  styled  one  which  has  its  foundation  in  the  world  of  ideas,  j 

*  Thus  he  said,  on  entering  upon  his  thirty-third  year,  in  this  very 
epoch  of  his  life :  Mihi  autem  cerium  est,  nusquam  prprsus  a  Christi  auo- 
toritate  discedere,  non  enira  reperio  valentiorem.  Quod  autem  snbtilis- 
sima  ratione  persequendum  est— ita  enim  jam  sum  affectus,  ut  quid  sit 
verum,  non  credendo  solum,  sed  etiam  intelligendo  apprehendere,  im- 
patienter  desiderem, — ^apud  Platonicos  me  interim,  quod  sacris  nostris 
non  repugnet— reperturum  esse  confido.     C.  Academicos,  1.  III.  s.  43. 

t  In  his  critical  examination  of  his  own  writings,  his  retractationes,  1. 1, 
c.  iii.  Augustin  himself  passes  censure  on  this  translation  of  the  notions 
of  faith,  into  the  philosophical  language  of  the  Platonic  school,  in  which 
he  had  indulged  VumseV^  iti  \)[^o%^  vjx\<m%%^V\Oa.\ivt\aii^ed  to  the  epoch 


AUGUSTIN.  507 

'as  this  merely  a  change  of  expression,  in  which  nothing 
M5t  to  the  matter ;  but  the  form  of  expression  was  inti- 
r  connected  with  the  ethical  point  of  view  peculiar  to 
ihool.  Augustin  was,  at  this  time,  particularly  inclined 
2ll  in  his  thoughts  exclusively  upon  the  exposition  be- 
the  spiritual  world  and  the  world  of  sense ; — to  oontem- 
the  divine  rather  as  simply  opposed  to  the  thin^  of 
%nd  to  sensuous  appearance,  tlian  as  opposed  to  the  self- 
g  tendency  of  the  spirit ; — to  derive  moral  evil  expressly 
man's  propensity  to  the  things  of  sense  and  sensual 
•ances.  Yet  by  degrees,  in  proportion  as  Christianity 
ated  from  the  inner  life  through  his  whole  mode  of 
ig,  he  came  to  perceive  the  difference  between  Platonic 
bristian  ideas,  and  unshackled  his  system  of  faith  from 
ters  of  Platonism. 

Justin  had  learned  from  his  own  experience,  that,  in  re- 

e  to  the  knowledge  of  divine  things,  the  life  must  pre- 

he  conception ;  that  the  latter  could  only  come  out  of 

rmer ;  for,  in  truth,  the  reason  why  the  simple  doctrines 

gospel  had,  at  the  beginning,  appeared  so  foolish  to 

[id  the  delusive  pretensions  of  that  boastful  mock-wisdom 

Manicheans  had  so  easily  drawn  him  into  its  current, 

hat  those  truths  had  as  yet  found  no  point  of  union 

^er  in  his  inner  life.     It  was  from  the  life  within  that 

learned  to  believe  in  these  truths,  and  to  understand 

By  love  for  the  god-like,  by  the  poww  of  the  religious, 

temper  of  heart,  he  had  conquered  the  scepticism  with 

he  had  for  a  while  been  threatened.     Thus — as  his 

of  faith  was  throughout  the  copy  and  expression  of  the 

pment  of  his  eternal  life,  and  hence  possessed  so  much 

life  just  mentioned,  as  also  in  his  work  de  ordine,  1.  I.  c.  xi. 
/farist  says,  *'  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,"  he  does  not 
Y  this  the  ideal  world  (the  Kotr^i  vonreg^,  as  opposed  to  the 
►f  sense  (the  Ko<r/tos  alvifirei) ;  hut  rather  the  world  in  which 
ould  be  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  when  that  came  to  pass 
WQ  pray  for  in  the  words,  **  Thy  kingdom  come,"  At  the  same 
may  notice  the  freedom  fi*om  prejudice  with  which  he  acknow- 
biat  the  idea  of  a  mundus  intelligibtlis,  in  the  Platonic  sense,  by 
as  contained  in  it,  absolutely  considered,  any  unchristian  view, 
itly  understood,  was  a  truth  altogether  undeniable ;  the  mundus 
bilis  being  nothing  other  than  me  eternal,  invariable  order  of 
d  as  it  lies  grounded  in  the  divine  reaBon. 


508  DEVELOPICENT  OF  DOCTRINES. 

vitality — it  became  with  him  a  fundamental  idea,  that  divine 
things  must  be  incorporated  with  the  life  and  the  affections, 
before  we  can  be  capable  of  an  intellectiial  knowledge  of  them. 
While  a  Manichean,  he  had  entertained  the  opinion,  that  per- 
fection was  to  be  attained  by  speculative  illumination,  by  the 
wisdom  of  the  perfect  man.  At  present,  this  way  to  the 
knowledge  of  divine  things  appeared  to  him  as  one  which, 
since  it  reversed  the  natural  order  of  things,  must  necessarily 
fail  of  its  end  ;*  for  it  was  clear  to  him,  that  the  perfect  know- 
ledge of  divine  things  presupposed  the  perfection  of  the  inner 
man.  At  present  he  was  convinced,  that  man  must  first  hum- 
bly receive,  from  a  divine  authority,  the  truth  which  is  to 
sanctify  him,  ere  he  could  be  sanctified,  and  so  fitted  with  au 
enlightened  reason  for  the  knowledge  of  divine  things.  Al» 
though  that  could  only  be  revealed  to  men  by  divine  autho- 
rity which  in  its  intrinsic  nature  was  truth,  hence  also  cogniz- 
able as  true  on  grounds  of  reason, — yet,  in  the  order  of  time, 
implicit  faith,  the  &ith  of  authority,  must  have  the  prece- 
dence,')' as  a  means  of  preparation  and  culture,  in  order  to  a 
capacity  for  this  knowledge,  the  process  of  which  is  outward 
from  within.  Yet  he  was  still,  in  some  sense,  bound  up  in 
that  view  of  Platonism  respecting  the  relation  of  I6ia  to 
iwiarfifXYf  in  religion ;  and  as  he  perceived,  that,  without  the 
scientific  culture  to  which  but  comparatively  few  Christians 
could  attain,  that  rational  knowledge  was  not  possible,  but  as 
without  it  there  seemed  to  him  to  be  something  still  wanting 
to  Cliristianity ;  so  he  was  of  the  opinion,  therefore,  that  those 
few  only  attained  to  the  real  blessedness  of  this  liffe  by  Chris- 
tianity, who  combined  with  its  scientific  culture.  But  in  pro- 
portion as  his  views  became  more  clearly  unfolded  with  the 
progress  of  his  Christian  life  ;  as  the  life  of  feith  appeared  to 
him  possfessed  of  a  loftier  nature,  from  the  experience  of  his 
own  heart  \\  and  as  he  became  acquainted  with  this  life  among 

*  So  be  says  in  the  work  de  moribus  ecclesise  Catholicse,  1. 1,  s.  47,  in 
opposition  to  the  Manicheans :  Quamobrem  videte,  qoam  sint  pervei^ 
atque  pracposteri,  qui  sese  arbitrantur  Dei  cognitionem  tradere,  ut  per- 
fect! simas,  cum  perfectorum  ipsa  sit  prsemium.  Quid  ergo  ageudum  est, 
quid  quseso,  nisi  ut  eum  ipsum,  quern  cognoscere  volomus,  prius  plena 
caritate  diligamus  ? 

f  Augustin.  de  ordme,  \.  II.  c.  ^.    Tempore  auctoritas,  re  autem  ratio 

prior  est 
J  This  is  an  impoTtant  i^mV,  ^so^Vsv  \\a  \iRKna%^\v^<i  ^^^^^s^g^sss. 


AUGUSTiy,  50 

all  conditions  and  forms  of  culture,  in  the  same  proportion  he 
became  convinced,  that  reason  (ratio)  did  but  unfold  the  essen- 
tial contents  of  what  was  given  by  faith,  into  the  form  of 
rational  knowledge,  but  could  impart  to  it  no  higher  cliarac- 
ter.  He  distinctly  set  forth  this  relation  of  reason  proceeding 
out  of  faith,  and  the  life  of  faith,  to  faith  itself;  especially  in 
his  disputes  with  the  Manicheans,  who  reversed  this  relation.* 
Thus  it  was  first  by  him  that  the  great  principle  out  of 
which  the  subsequent  doctrinal  system  developed  itself  in  its 
independent  self-subsistence — "  fides  praecedit  iutellectum  "— 
was  established  in  a  logically  consistent  manner.  We  find, 
therefore,  in  Augustin,  two  tendencies,  by  which  he  exerted  a 
special  influence  on  the  development  of  Christian  knowledge 
in  this  century,  and  in  the  following  ones ;  a  tendency  to  assert 
the  dignity  and  independence  of  faith,  as  opposed  to  a  proud, ^ 
speculative  spirit,  which  rent  itself  from  all  connection  with 
the  Christian  life ;  and  to  point  out  in  opposition  to  the  advo-  / 
cates  of  a  blind  faith,  the  agreement  of  faith  with  reason,  the  [ 
development  of  faith  from  within  itself  by  means  of  reason. t 

of  Augustin*s  views  respecting  grace  and  predestination  which  we  shall 
lierea&r  examine  more  closely  when  we  approach  the  history  of  these 
doctrines.  In  the  outset,  when  his  faith  was  still  more  purely  the  faith 
of  authority,  the  latter  appeared  to  him  as  the  human  element,  to  which 
alone  the  divine  could  attach  itself.  When  he  had  penetrated  more 
deeply  into  the  essence  of  that  which  is  the  life  of  faith,  faith  itself 
seemed  to  him  already  to  presuppose  the  communication  of  the  divine 
element  to  the  man :  it  seemed  to  him,  that  in  faith  the  ^vine  and 
human  elements  were  already  conjoined. 

*  As  in  the  tract  de  utilitate  credendi. 

f  On  this  point,  the  letter  of  Augustin  to  Consentius,  ep.  120,  is  par- 
ticularly worthy  of  notice.  He  here  proposes  the  problem,  ut  ea,  qusB 
fidei  firmitate  jam  tenes,  etiam  rationis  luce  conspicias.  '<  Even  faith," 
says  he,  *'  has  its  eyes,  with  which,  in  a  certain  sense,  it  sees  that  to 
be  true  which  still  it  does  not  see,  and  with  which  it  sees  with  the  utmost 
confidence  that  it  does  not  yet  see  what  it  believes."  In  faith  lies  also 
the  yearning  after  more  perfect  knowledge,  for  ikith  cannot  exist  with- 
out the  longing  after,  and  without  the  hope  of,  that  which  one  believes. 
Against  an  absolute  antagonism  of  fides  and  ratio  he  says :  **  Far  be  it 
from  us  to  suppose,  that  God  should  hate  in  us  that  by  means  of  which 
he  has  made  us  superior  to  all  other  creatures.  Far  be  it  from  us  to  sup- 
pose, that  we  are  to  believe  in  order  that  we  may  be  under  no  necessity 
of  receiving  or  of  seeking  rational  knowledge,  since  we  could  not  even 
believe,  unless  we  were  possessed  of  rational  souls.  Even  this,  too,  is 
beyond  all  question  in  conformity  with  reason,  that  in  some  things  per- 
taiuing  to  the  doctrines  of  salvation,  which  we  are  as  yet  not  able  to  pene- 


CIO  DETELOPXEST  OT  DOCTRINES. 


But  it  »  neeenuy  loadd  keie,  what  we  have  before  remacked, 
liiAt  AufnoMOo  aMuaed  as  that  on  which  faith  •  must  fix,  and 
from  which  it  oHist  take  its  departure,  every  things  given  in  lh 
irMtMiam  of  ike  ekmrrk  ;  hence  he  was  led  to  admit  into  Ms 
mlitf  nuuiT  fixeuEn  eJemeats,  as  though  thej  were  given  by 
^/iJet :  and  hfe»  wdl-eicirised  speculative  and  dialectic  intellect 
made  it  casr  iat  him  to  find  reasQas  ior  everything, — to  con- 
stnie^  a»  neeeaaanr.  evenrthing  which  had  once  become  fused, 
although  onginalhr  composed  of  heterogeneous  elements,  witk 
his  lifTof  fiutk  ffis  sTstem  of  fidth  wanted  that  historical  and 
criiicai  dii^ctiQa  wheiebr  akme,  returning  back,  at  all  periods 
of  tioie,  to  the  puie  and  oiiginal  fountain  of  Christianity,  it 
i\Mdd  MNiAr  and  pvwerrt  itsdf  firee  from  the  foreign  elements 
^  liich  continmllT  thieaten  to  mix  in  with  the  current  of  impure 
lemponJ  tradition. 

We  now  pass  to  consider  the  history  of  the  principal  doc- 
iriues  of  ChratianitT  singly  considered,  and  of  the  piominent 
antifflMiism  in  the  iiiode»  <^  apprehending  and  treating  tbese 
lioctiines ;  attd«  in  so  doings  we  shall  see  still  more  clearly 
presenteil,  in  thwr  peculiar  features,  the  difierent  and  opposite 
main  tendencies  of  the  theological  ^furit. 


tral«  by  our  Tt«KMU  ftidi  pmedfis  rationl  knowledge,  that  so  the  dispo- 
sidon  msT  be  pariified  by  fthh,  in  order  to  be  in  a  condition,  at  some 
iQtore  penod»  lo  i^ceire  me  light  of  so  great  treth.** 


EXD    OF  VOL.  Ill, 


I.09D0N  :   PRXSTXD  Ii\   N?.  CUStCIBa  XSU  WSS^  ^E&AaKXWaSk