PAULINE FORE MOFFITT LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA GENERAL LIBRARY, BERKELEY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/ancientcatholiccOOrainrich XTbe Ifnteinational XTbeolooical Xibrar^. EDITORS' PREFACE. Theology has made great and rapid advances in recent years. New lines of investigation have been opened up, fresh light has been cast upon many subjects of the deepest interest, and the historical method has been applied with important results. This has prepared the way for a Library of Theological Science, and has created the demand for it. It has also made it at once opportune and practicable now to secure the services of specialists in the different depart- ments of Theology, and to associate them in an enterprise which will furnish a record of Theological inquiry up to date. This Library is designed to cover the whole field of Chris- tian Theology. Each volume is to be complete in itself, while, at the same time, it will form part of a carefully planned whole. One of the Editors is to prepare a volume of Theological Encyclopaedia which will give the history and literature of each department, as well as of Theology as a whole. The Library is intended to form a series of Text-Books for Students of Theology. The Authors, therefore, aim at conciseness and compact- ness of statement. At the same time, they have in view editors' preface. that large and increasing class of students, in other depart- ments of inquiry, who desire to have a systematic and thor- ough exposition of Theological Science. Teclinical matters will therefore be thrown into the form of notes, and the text will be made as readable and attractive as possible. The Library is international and interconfessional. It will be conducted in a catholic spirit, and in the interests of Theology as a science. Its aim will be to give full and impartial statements both of the results of Theological Science and of the questions which are still at issue in the different departments. The Authors will be scholars of recognized reputation in the several branches of study assigned to them. They will be associated with each other and with the Editors in the efifort to provide a series of volumes which may adequately represent the present condition of investigation, and indi- cate the way for further progress. CHARLES A. BRIGGS. STEWART D. F. SALMOND. Theological Encyclopaedia. V>y Charles A. Briggs, D.D., Pro- fessor of Biblical Theology, Union Theological Seminary, New York. An Introduction to the Litera- By S. R. Driver, D.D,, Regius Pro- lure of the Old Testament. fessor of Hebrew, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. {Revised and enlarged edition.) The Study of the Old Testa- By the Right Rev. Herbert Edward ment. Rvle, D.D., Lord Bishop of Ex- eter. Old Testament History. By Henry Preserved Smith, D.D., late Professor of Biblical History, Amherst College, Mass. Contemporary History of the By Francis Brown, D.D., Profes- Old Testament. sor of Hebrew, Union Theological Setninary, New York. Theology of the Old Testa- By A. B. Davidson, D.D., LL.D., ment. Professor of Hebrew, New College, Edinburgh. tk '^nictniXiion^t C^eofogicaf feiBrarg. An Introduction to the Litera- ture of the New Testament. Canon and Text of the New Testament. The Life of Christ. A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age. Contemporary History of the New Testament. Theology of the New Testa- ment. The Ancient Catholic Church. The Later Catholic Church. The Latin Church. History of Christian Doctrine. Christian Institutions. Philosophy of Religion. Apologetics. The Doctrine of God. Christian Ethics. The Christian Pastor and the Working Church. The Christian Preacher. Rabbinical Literature. By S. D. F. Salmonu. D.D.. Prin- cipal of the Free Church College, Aberdeen. By Caspar Rene Gregory, D.D., LI.,D., Professor of New Testa- ment Exegesis in the University of Leipzig. By William Sanday, D.D., LL.D., Lady Margaret Professor of Di- vinity, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. By Arthur C. McGiffert, D.D., Professor of Church Histor\ . Union Theological Seminary, New York. {A^ozv ready.) By Frank C. Porter, Ph.D., Pro- fessor of Biblical Theology, Vale University, New Haven, Conn. By George B. Stevens, D.D., Pro- fessor of Systematic Theology, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. {Now ready.) By Robert Rainy, D.D., LL.D., Principal of the New College, Edinburgh. {Now ready.) By Robert Rainy, D.D., LL.D., Principal of the New College, Edinburgh. By Archibald Robertson, D.D., Principal of King's College, London. By G. P. Fisher, D.D., LL.D.. Pro- fessor of Ecclesiastical History, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. {Revised and enlarged edi- tion.) By A. V. G. Allen, D.D.. Profes- sor of Ecclesiastical History, P. E. Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass. {Now ready.) By Robert Flint, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Divinity in the Uni- versity of Edinburgh. By A. B. Bruce, D.D., late Profes- sor of New Testament Exegesis, Free Church College, Glasgow. {Revised and enlarged edition.) By William N. Clarke, D.D., Pro- fessor of Systematic Theology, Hamilton Theological Seminary. By Newman Smyth, D.D., Pastor of Congregational Church, New Ha- ven. {Revised and enlarged edition.) By Washington Gladden, D.D., Pastor of Congregational Church, Columbus, Ohio. {No7v ready.) By John Watson, D.D., Pastor of Presbyterian Church, Liverpool. By S, Schechter, M.A., Reader in Talmudic in the University of Cambridge, England. Zbc Jnternattonal XTbeoIoatcal Xibrari^^ EDITED BY STEWART D. F. SALMOND, D.D., Principal, and Professor of Systematic Theology and New Testament Exegetis^ United Free Church College, Aberdeen; AND CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D.D., Edward Robinson Professor of Biblical Theology, Union Theological Seminary, New York. THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH. By ROBERT RAINY, D.D. International Theological Library THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHUECH FROM THE ACCESSION OF TRAJAN TO THE FOURTH GENERAL COUNCIL [A.D. 98-4S1] BT ROBERT RAINY, D.D. PBiNCIPAli OF THS KSW COLLEGE, KDIKBUROH NEW YORK CHAELES SCRIBNEK'S SONS 1902 TTu Rights of Translation and of Reproduction are Reserved* GIFT R3^ PREFACE It was the duty of the writer to endeavour to combine in this volume the manifold detail which the student requires, with the points of view and the modes of treatment which make a book readable. How far he has succeeded, others must judge. He has thought it due to the subject and the reader to express frankly the impression on his own mind which the various topics have made. He hopes, notwith- standing, that he has not allowed personal bias to obscure the objective realities of the history. In the Appendix, besides supplementary notes on literature a few details are added which had been acci- dentally omitted in the text. 440 CONTENTS Intsodvotiok VAOB 1-2 FIRST DIVISION: A.D. 98-180 CHAPTER I The Environment Gentile life and religion Popular feeling towards Christians Attitude of the Government . The Jews Extension of Christianity • CHAPTER II Thb^arly Churches Sense of unity — Public worship — ^Lucian's impressions Leadership and organisation .... Note. — Hatch and Hamack on the episcopate Discipline ...... Martyrdom •••••• 5-9 9-11 11-18 18-23 23-26 27-32 32-40 40-42 42-44 44-49 CHAPTER III The Church's Life Apostolic Fathers Apologists Apocrypha • 62-60 60-62 62-65 CHAPTER IV Beliefs and Sacraments Beliefs of the early Church . Early forms of creed — "Apostles'" Creed— Regula Baptism — Agape — Eucharist . Forgiveness of sins • • Easter controversy • , Til 66-78 73-76 76-79 79-81 Sl-83 Vlll CONTENTS CHAPTER V The Apologists God and the world— The Logos— Man The significance of Christ's coming . . , , Relation to the thought of their time Impoverished representation of Christianity . , Harnack's view criticised .... PA0B8 85-87 88 88-89 90-92 92-93 CHAPTER VI The Heresies A. Gnosticism ...... General description of the scheme . Leading Gnostic schools . . . . , B. Marcion ••...., . 94-119 . 94-111 . Ill 119 119-127 CHAPTER VII MONTANISM . 128-189 SECOOT) DIVISION: A.D. 180-313 CHAPTER VIII Relation to the State Action of the Government 141-145 CHAPTER IX The New Philosophy 146-166 CHAPTER X Chbistian Thought and Litekature Leading names — What they hold in common School of Alexandria .... School of Asia Minor . • • . School of Africa • • . . 157-160 161-179 180-184 184-197 CHAPTER XI Christ and God How the question took shape Justin Martyr Irenseus — Tertullian — Origen Monarcbian theories . 198-202 203-205 206-20« 209-211 CONTENTS IX Dynaniical Mouarchianism — Paul of Samosata Modalistic Monarcbiauism — Sabellius Review • • • • • PAOBS 212-215 215-217 218-220 CHAPTER XII Christian Life Teaching of Clement and TertuUian . Marriage — Asceticism— Family life . Charity — Public service — Doctrine of merit . CHAPTER XIII Worship The Lord's day— The Lord's Supper . Public prayer — Baptism Easter— Epiphany — The Christian dead Church buildings • . . . CHAPTER XIV Clergy Growth of the bishop's power . • Chorepiscqpoi . . . . • Election of bishops and presbyters . • Minor Orders — Deaconesses . • • 221-222 223-226 226-228 229-232 232-235 236-239 239-240 241-245 245 245-247 247-248 CHAPTER XV Discipline and Schisms Reception of penitents .... The "lapsed" — Schism of Felicissimus Schism, of Novatian — of Heraclius — of Meletius Heretical baptism • • . . • 249-251 251-253 253-255 265-261 CHAPTER XVI Mamicheism 262-267 THIRD DIVISION: A.D. 313-451 CHAPTER XVII The Church in the Christian Empieb and beyond A. The Emperors ...••,. B. The Church in transition ..••«. b 268-271 271-276 CONTENTS C. Policy of the Cliristian empire in regard to religion D. The Pagan Opposition .... E. Christianity beyond the empire . . • F. Life in the Church . . • • PAGES 276-279 279-285 285-288 288-290 CHAPTER XVIII MONASTICISM Eastern developments — Antony — Pachomins Spreads to the West — Ambrose — Martin — Cassian Jovinian and Vigilantius . . Criticism of the movement • • . Divergences • • • • • 291-295 295-298 298-299 299-304 304-305 CHAPTER XIX The Cleegy Minor Orders — Deacons — Presbyters— Chorepiscqpoi Election of bishops . . . . . Metropolitans — Patriarchates • • • Growing power of Rome . • • • General conditions of clerical life • • • 306-308 308-309 309-312 313 814-322 CHAPTER XX NiCENE Council The belief of the Church — Positions of Arius Constantine calls a council . • Proceedings of the council • • • Review • • • • . 323-328 328-330 330-333 833-338 CHAPTER XXI Arian Controversy — Post-Nicenb State of Parties To the death of Constantine (325-337) To the reunion of the empire under Constantius (337-351) To the death of Constantius (351-361) To the council of Constantinople (361-381) Gothic Arian ism . , , Review . . • • Note. — ^The Nicene Creed • • . . 339-340 . . 340-342 tins (337-351) . 342-345 . . 345-348 • . 348-352 • • , 352-353 • • . 353-355 • • . 355-357 CHAPTER XXII Minor Controversies A. Apollinarius • B» Origenistic controversies 858-364 864-369 CONTENTS XI Note. — Main points of the attack against Origeu C. Professed Reformers , . D. Priscillianists . • • • PAOES 370 370 371-373 - CHAPTER XXIII Discussions regarding the Person of Christ A. Case of Nestorius . B. Case of Eutyches . C. Council of Chalcedon Review • • 376-392 392-396 396-401 401-404 CHAPTER XXIV DONATISM How the schism arose • Character of African Christianity The Donatist positions Augustine's part in the debate CHAPTER XXV Ecclesiastical Personages of Fourth Century 405-407 407-409 409-411 412-421 Eusebius of Caesarea . • • . 422-423 Athauasius . . • • . 423-426 The Three Cappadociaus . 426-430 Hilary of Poictiers . . 430-432 Martin of Tours • 432-433 Ambrose of Milan • • • • 434-436 CHAPTER XXVI Festivals, Church Services, and Sacraments A. Festivals . B. Order of service . C. Doctrine of the eucharist D. Baptism , E. Preaching. F. Objects of worship G. Pictures and angels 437-440 440-444 444-445 445-449 449-451 451-453 453-454 CHAPTER XXVII Discipline . 455-459 CHAPTER XXVIII Augustine • 460-467 xu CONTENTS CHAPTER XXIX Pelagian Controversy Life and teaching of Pelagius Previous church teachers on human ability Teaching of Augustine The Pelagian positions , The positions of Augustine . The judgment of the African Church The origin of Semi-Pelagianism • rAoxs 468-473 473-475 475-476 477-479 479-482 483 483-484 CHAPTER XXX Semi- Pelagian ism The community at Lerins and their views Cassian and Faustus . The Synod of Orange Note. — Semi-Pelagian positions 486-488 488 489-490 490-493 CHAPTER XXXI Ecclesiastical Personages [who survived a.d. 400] Chrysostom . • • • . 494-496 Cyril of Alexandria— Theodoret- - Isido-^o , • • . 496-498 Jerome . . • • . 498-501 Rufinus— Synesius — Cassian . . , • . 501-503 Sulpicius Severus— Salvian , . . 503-505 Leo I.. • • • • • . 505-607 CHAPTER XXXII Processes of Change Canon of the N.T. . Creed and Regula — Stress on doctrine Growth of the bishop's power , Conception of the Church . • The sacraments . . . Formulation of orthodoxy — Councils Multitudinism triumphant — Consequences 609-510 511 512-513 514-516 516-517 518-519 620-621 APPENDIX A. Literature of Church History B. Supplementary Notes to Chapters 623-525 525-631 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH INTEODUCTION An earlier volume of the Series was devoted to the sub- ject of Apostolic Christianity. The present narrative proposes to contemplate the life, growth, and influence of what, as distinguished from mediaeval and later develop- ments, is called the early Catholic Church. The period iu view is nearly that which has been named the Patristic. It has also been denominated, but not perhaps very happily, the period of Christianity under its Antique and Classical form.^ The last survivor of the apostles, John, is said to have died at Ephesus near the end of the first century. Apostolic guidance had by that time become only a memory in most of the churches; but for years after, and deep into the following century, vivid impressions of Apostles and their sayings were preserved and rehearsed in various churches. Near the end, then, of the first century our task opens. The close might be placed as early as the pontificate of Gregory i., a.d. 590-604, or, on other accounts, as late as the reign of Charlemagne, say A.D. 800. The present volume carries the history down to A.D. 451. A subsequent volume will cover the rest, and also the transition period down to Gregory vii. A great landmark in the history of the Early Church » So Kurtz. I 2 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH is furnished in the change by which, in the days of Constantine, the Eoman Empire allied itself with Chris- tianity. The year 313, when Constantine and Licinius published their edict of toleration, may here be most conveniently fixed upon.^ The period a.d, 98-313 finds a natural subdivision at the close of the reign of Marcus Aurelius, A.D. 180, or, which for some purposes is more convenient, at the close of his son's reign in 192. In the period succeeding A.D. 313, the year ad. 451, with which this volume closes, corresponds pretty well with important changes in the affairs both of the Christian Church and of the Eoman world, and may serve as a resting-place. » So Moller. PIEST DIVISION A.D. 98-180 CHAPTER I The Environment Merivale, Romans under the Empire, 7 vols. 12rao, 1868. Friedlander, SittengescMchte Roms^ 3 vols. 8vo, 1881. Mommsen, The Provinces of the Roman Empiret ^^g* Tr., 2 vols. 8vo, 1886. Hardy, Christianity and the Roman GovemmerU, London, 1894. Neumann, Rdmische Staaty Leipz. 1890. Early Christianity was born and grew in the Eoman world. It reached, no doubt, into the regions beyond, but of its fortunes there we know little. The Church grew in a society always conscious of the Eoman strength, gradually awakening to the peculiar genius of the Eoman law, im- pressed with the sentiment of the Eoman destiny. All these carried with them some impression of the religious tone which Eome itself cherished in connection with the State. The mental life was mainly Greek, taking colour in some regions from Italian influences, and in some from Oriental The various social characteristics and influences, once associated with distinctive national types, were mingled now in the lively intercourse of the empire, which assuaged old barbarisms, but weakened old moralities ; yet in the quieter regions the ancient ways of each people lived on, giving way gradually. No old religion was dis- placed; but each was losing something, most had lost much of their ancient significance and credibility. The educated people realised this most distinctly. 4 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. Politically, the history from A.D. 1 to 313 divides itself into three stages. First to ad. 98, from the latter days of Tiberius to the end of Nerva's reign. It was a period during which the ruling persons on the whole evoked little attachment and created little confidence. In A.D. 98 Nerva performed his one great service to the State by calling Trajan to the succession. Trajan was the first of four great emperors whose reigns extended to a.d. 180. During their time the Roman order was well maintained, and the impression of care and justice in the highest quarters inspired confidence and tranquillity among their subjects. The twelve years of Commodus (to a.d, 192) introduced a third stage of prevailing disquiet and decay which lasted for a hundred years. During this long period some able and some public-spirited men rose to the throne; but, on the whole, it was a time of feeble and imcertain government, of civil wars, of incessant change of dynasty, of frequent pestilence and famine, and of severe pressure by the barbarians upon the weakened empire. Population, wealth, letters, all decayed : and though the strong fabric of the Roman administration and the Roman law held out through the evil time, the whole system was strained and shaken. Latterly a series of soldier emperors fought the empire out of its disorganisation and disgrace. Diocletian, a man of the same breed, who came to the throne in ad. 284, completed the task; and he celebrated the last triumph Rome was destined to see. During this time of frequent calamity and distress, outcry against the Christians as the guilty cause stimulated governors to persecute ; and about the middle of the third century some of the emperors, and those not the worst, judged it to be in the interest of the State to authorise new and special measures in order to put down Christianity. Persecutions then became very severe. But from the time of Gallienus, A.D. 260-268, these attempts ceased. When Diocletian set up his system by which the imperial power was dis- tributed, and an emperor (Augustus or Caesar) was posted on every dangerous frontier, the Christians, along with 98-180] GENTILE LIFE 6 other citizens, enjoyed for a time the benefits of peace and order. But once more, in 303 (under the influence of his colleague Galerius), Diocletian authorised the persecution which is associated with his name. In a.d. 311 Galerius suspended these severities. Two years later Constantino and Licinius shared the empire between them, and by an edict, dated at Milan, they very expressly enacted liberty of faith and worship for all their subjects. Gentile Life and Religion During the first century the popular paganism existed side by side with a great deal of disbelief on the part of thinking people. The character of the government and of the times inspired distrust and apprehension, rendered men cynical about truth and goodness, and disposed them to think, so far as they thought methodically, on Epicurean lines. Yet individuals could cherish ideals, and could sometimes live for them, generally clinging, in that case, to a Stoic creed.^ But as we pass into the second century a change is felt. With better order in the State, and nobler examples in high quarters, serious thought took courage, and a reaction set in. It did not prevail univers- ally; the wittiest monument of the cynical and mocking spirit exists in the second century in the writings of Lucian. But men possessed by moral aims could find an audience, and they were stirred by the consciousness of a mission. The effort to find theories by which moral and religious life could justify its aspirations, was resumed again ; and religious systems like the mysteries, which professed to purify and to consecrate life, found sincere votaries. Unfortunately, the difficulties were great. Where could means be found for representing life as a career which has a real goal at the end of it? Besides, it was felt, almost universally, that for one reason or another the popular worships must in some degree be kept in credit. But they were not credible. Hence abundant insincerities ^ Seneca, d. a.d. 65 ; Epictetus, from Nero to Hadrian. 6 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [ad. accompanied really good intentions; and fine sentiments of every degree of spuriousness circulated along with the good coin of moral endeavour and seeking after God. The medium through which these influences chiefly worked was the fashion, widely diffused, of interest in public discourse. Education under Greek methods was largely literary ; and it aimed at forming habits of effective writing and speaking. It could hardly be said that books were dear or scarce; but the prevailing taste preferred lecturing and discussion. Large sections of the com- munity had tastes of this kind, and rhetoricians abounded who sought fame and livelihood by appealing to them. They durst not meddle with politics; they found themes, how- ever, in history, and in the great poetical traditions of Greece; but obviously also the questions of human life, of duty and destiny, which the philosophers had debated, opened a wide field to eloquent persons in search of a sub- ject. The views offered on such questions were not likely to be profound. Still the field lay as naturally open to them as social questions do to the eloquent persons of to-day; and a professional rhetorician almost always was prepared to pose as a philosopher also (Zeller, Phil. d. Griechen, iv. 729). The section of society which cared to hear him had its own habits of sentiment and of talk on these subjects ; and people of condition could even keep a rhetorician (soi-disant philosopher) on their establishment.^ Men could combine these tastes with flippancy, sceptjlcism, and immorality ; but they could be combined also with serious thought upon the deeper questions of life. This nobler side of things gains ground in the second century, and it is represented and guided by notable men. Epictetus carried over from the previous century his Stoic teaching, enriched and deepened by a religious pathos. Plutarch of Macedonia, the cultivated gentleman of literary eminence, embodied in many works his outlook on life, and advocated a tranquil and pious morality, drawing strength from the better side of the popular religion, while dismissing what ^ Hatch, Hibhert Led. p. 35 fol., and Lucian, de Mercede conductis. 98-180] GENTILE LIFE 7 savoured of terror, distrust, and hatred. On a lower moral platform Apuleius may be named ; on a lower intellectual one, Maximus Tyrius and Numenius. But perhaps no one more than Dio Chrysostom illustrates how men were drawn at this time to betake themselves with earnestness to the line of moral appeal. Dio, originally a rhetorician able to be eloquent on any theme, professes to have experienced, during his banishment from Eome, a kind of conversion to moral earnestness ; and henceforth he makes it his aim to deal with topics which will heal and purify men's souls.^ The views on God, virtue, and (sometimes) immortality, cherished by these more serious minds, had a great in- terest for the Christians ; they furnished the line on which the Christian appeal to the Gentile mind proceeded. It is natural to ask, further, how far Christianity itself had a share in producing and guiding this ethical revival. All the probabilities are in favour of its having had some share. Christianity was a contemporary stream of in- tensely powerful moral and religious life; that is an in- fluence which always sets currents agoing, even in regions where it is repudiated. The religious seriousness, the tone of kindliness to men and of trust in Providence, which the wise Gentile of the second century cherished, must owe something, very likely not a little, to impressions received from Christian life and character. Men might decline to own any obligations to the religion of the crucified Jew. And yet the lives of His followers might awaken a great longing after a goodness and a moral strength comparable to that evinced by them.^ At all events the growth of a serious and inquiring spirit opened a way for the Christian message in some quarters ; ^ and the same cause made the gospel interesting to men who did not find it acceptable. Some of these were repelled by the claim of Christianity to * Zeller, Phil. d. Oricchen, iv. 729. * Points of contact with Cliristianity in the writings of Seneca and oJ Marcus Aurelius have been suggested. * Kg. Justin Martyr's account of his own conversion, Dial. ii. 2 ; alsc Clem. Horn. i. 1 f. 8 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D. by the one true religion ; that was claiming too much ; and they pointed to aspects of the Christian story and the Chris- tian teaching which struck them as incoherent or super- stitious.^ Others were evidently impressed by the sincerity and the goodness of the Christians ; they mock them, but they do it with good-humour, and even with a certain contemptuous kindliness.^ Generally it may be assumed that the cultivated Gentile world knew more about Chris- tianity than it chose to say. It long remained a point of honour with most representatives of the old culture to make no references, or as few as possible, to this popular " superstition." It came from the barbarians, and it had no claims on the serious attention of a wise man. One might attack it, in the hope of destroying its power over some of its votaries ; otherwise it was better ignored. But the influence which was not owned was felt. As to the general world of Gentile life, those who wish to acquire impressions of it must consult works on that express subject.^ On the whole, it was superstitious, and at the same time low in tone, coarse, and immoral. Still we must not forget the virtues which, even in a pagan society, the providence of God nurses and disciplines, the affections which soften and cheer life, and the religious longings which spring spontaneously in some hearts, and which anxiety and sorrow awaken at some times in almost all. Christian religion made way in this element by the assuredness of its belief, by the resonance of its strong morality, by the attractiveness of Christian character, and by the unsparing charities of the churches. Everywhere there were individuals, there were families, attracted, im- pressed; ultimately either carried over, or, if left outside, yet looking wistfully across the border. Such cases were incessantly occurring; but yet the sentiment of the masses towards Christianity was hostile. This swelled sometimes into rage, and it long continued to reveal itself energetically. Individuals could continue to be powerfully animated by this * Celsus. * Lucian. * Friedlander, Sittengeschiehte Eoms, 3 vols., Leipzig, 1881. 98-180] fe:eli>;g towards christians d hostile sentiment even when, as the result showed, a complete revolution by conversion was on the point of befalling them. Popular Feeling towards Christians The habits and industries, the courtesies and enjoy- ments, which made up Gentile life were all touched, more or less, with some reference to the gods and their worship ; and earnest Christians had to purge this out, or stand aloof. Then there ran through all a strain of careless secularity, and very often of immorality, against which a Christian must protest. This element culminated in the theatres and in the various forms of spectacle so popular throughout the empire : hence the resolute opposition to these recreations which appeared among the Christians so early, and in which the Church was so much united. It does not follow that heathens could not be persons of high moral quality; but even those who could claim to be so regarded, tolerated, as inevitable, the low moral tone which existed around them : it was for them a spiritual ugliness which they disliked, but they hardly recoiled from it as earnest Christians felt that they must recoil. Beyond the idolatry, the immorality, and the frivolity, rose the question how far many current usages of Gentile life might be accepted by the Christians as simply human, or whether they ought not rather to be rejected as carrying with them temptations which a Christian should avoid. It was a question of degree, on which Christians of different tempers, and under different social conditions, were sure to differ among themselves. But a man could not be a Christian in any sense who did not make a stand somewhere. Out of all this, then, arose in the Gentile world, speak- ing generally, an intense popular aversion to Christianity. For in regard to this whole region of human life the new religion seemed to threaten indefinite disturbance. It inter- fered with the established ways of society — with trade interests, with family life, with popular amusements, with accepted religious observances. There might be compliant 10 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHtJRCH [a.D. Christians, but the representative and influential Christians were not compliant. The Christians might be social among themselves, but for general purposes they were non-social in a degree that suggested odium generis huniani} For, indeed, if a Christian wished to escape friction and bitterness, it was natural for him to stand aside from the general life ; and so he incurred the charge of contemptissima inertia^ as well as of luguhris cultus and malefica superstitio? The very expecta- tion of the Lord's return, while it helped the Christian to bear persecution, might render him indifferent to current social interests. Then his purer morals and his more spiritual but exclusive religion seemed to mark him as one who claimed to be a superior person, and who disapproved of his neighbours. The Cynics had already made themselves unpopular by their censorious ways. They were meddle- some ; they thrust their morality under the noses of people who did not want it ; they were busybodies in other men's matters. But the Cynics were merely a disagreeable set of self-important philosophers. That kept them apart. Christianity, on the contrary, had a strange power of spread- ing, and found its way into the most unlikely quarters. How hateful it must have seemed when this mysterious influence got hold of a member of a family ! He was estranged from his own circle, and entangled in a new society largely composed of slaves and low people; his money, too, if he had any, was drawn into the Christian communism. New questions rose about marriage. Nothing is commoner in the legends of female martyrs than the picture of a maiden of good social standing, who becomes a Christian, and refuses to carry out the marriage arranged for her by her family. Christians had scruples about festi- vals, about illuminating their doors at times of rejoicing, about undertaking public functions, about ordinary amuse- ments, — about things in regard to which it seemed to the Gentile perfectly immaterial how they were disposed of. Then this religion of theirs — what was it ? A very 1 Hardy, Christianity and the Roman Government, p. 45. * Tacitus, Ann. xv. 44 ; Suetonius, Nero, c. 16. 98-180] ATTITUDE OF GOVERNMENT 11 questionable business; — no temples, no shrines, no stately services ; evening or nocturnal meetings in private houses. Stories went abroad of monstrous crimes perpetrated in these Christian meetings.^ It was altogether a detestable infection from which no man's family was safe ; and it was a satisfaction to believe the worst about it, that one might have the better excuse for hating it. This popular feeling had become strong long before the government, although it had decided to treat obstinate Christians as outside the laws, had yet acquired an impression that they were dangerous outlaws, or that the case required any very serious or systematic treatment. Add to all this that the regular worship of the gods was thought to guarantee the State against calamities, and that neglect of it might bring disaster upon the whole community. For, indeed, the public religion was the consecration of the State, and in a manner the basis of it. And the Christian, not con- tented with quietly disbelieving, must openly repudiate it. All this fermented together in the popular mind.^ Attitude of the Government The popular aversion to Christianity was not without influence on the action of the government ; for a Eoman magistrate was ready enough to set himself against any- thing that disturbed the general tranquillity. But the case presented itself to him from points of view which must be separately described.^ Ancient laws existed, which forbade the practice of non-Eoman rites, and these laws had not been repealed ; yet the course of things tended to the discontinuance of * Referred to in almost all the Apologies. * Tert. Apol. 40. • Increased precision has been introduced into statements on this subject as the result of recent investigations. Besides the works of Hardy and Neumann, an article by Mommsen — "Der Religionsfrevel nach romischem Recht," reproduced in Expositor, July 1893 — is considered epoch-making. Discussions by Ramsay (Church in the Roman Empire) and by Harnack {Texle u. Unters. xiii. 4, on an edict ascribed to Antoninus Pius) have also thrown light on the subject — Ramsay especially. 12 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHUkCH [a.d. prosecutions on this ground ; and, practically, people who used non-Eoman rites were not punished under the emperors unless some additional reason existed. These laws might have been revived and made operative against the Christians ; or new laws, directed specifically against the alleged enormities of the Christian worship, might have been enacted. In either case a regular trial with well- known formalities would have been the method employed. Such a trial was called a judicium. But this course was not taken. It would not be easy to produce an instance of it. The laws against sodalitates or clubs were in full observance and application ; but neither were these made the basis of action against the Christians. The method adopted relied on general powers which the emperors claimed as preservers of the Eoman peace, on guard against forces that might tend to disturbance. These may be regarded as police powers ; and they were wielded also by governors of provinces and the prefect of the city as the emperor's representatives. Discretionary chastisement could be inflicted, according to the necessities of the case, when these functionaries found what appeared to them to be movements or tendencies endangering the common well-being; and the penalty, especially for the obstinate and insubordinate, might be death. Still, especi- ally when severe penalties were in question, it was no doubt felt to be important to keep within the line of approved practice. For it was the emperor's discretion that was exercised, and it had to be used in a manner likely to secure his approbation. The process by which a governor satisfied himself that a case had arisen for the exercise of this corrective power was not a judicium, but a cognitio — an investigation, in which, with less formality, the governor could take plain common- sense ways of satisfying his own mind. He might also use more discretion as to acting or not acting than a judge could, who must do right on a cause when once brought before him. It is to be remembered that whatever offence Christianity gave, the conclusive reason which justified a death sentence was the Christian obstinacy 98-180] ATTITUDE OF GOVERNMENT 13 which persisted in the offence against authority and before the tribunal ; and a governor could avoid giving the oppor- tunity for exhibiting that final and fatal insubordination. Also a governor might exercise his discretion in both ways at once; some Christians being spared, while others were made examples. There was responsibility both ways. Very severe courses might appear to the emperor unwise and ex- cessive; or, by great indulgence, a governor might let his province get out of hand, and accustom people to think that they might do as they pleased. The emperors, all of them, were careful not to prohibit infliction of the extreme penalty in fitting cases ; but some of them framed edicts which plainly enough suggested caution and forbearance. The general heads under which this power was exercised in the case of Christians seem to have been chiefly sacri- legium and majestas, and it was easy to bring Christians under one of these categories. The mere fact that Christians, as we have seen, awoke repugnance and irritation in many minds, was in itself enough to dispose a Eoman magistrate to hostile action; the order and tranquillity of society were great public interests, and novelties that were troublesome, and that savoured of wilfulness, were never looked upon as entitled to much toleration. Besides, while Christianity as a body of religious beliefs might not be a matter of much im- portance, yet if a Eoman magistrate began to consider it, first, as a perturbing social influence apt to spread, secondly, as interfering with the religious sanctions on which the system of the empire rested (and even with outward deference for them), and, thirdly, as creating an obstinacy of temper which refused to give way to admoni- tion or to punishment, he was naturally led to think that, obscure and foolish as it might seem to him, it should be treated, when it had to be pubhcly noticed, as beyond the protection and permission of the law. Lastly, Christianity organised its votaries by a system of regulated administration. It formed societies in each place, and bound them all together. 14 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. Nothing could be more contrary to Eoman imperial ideas than such organisation, when it took place without sanction or permission from the imperial authorities. Putting al] this together, we have the case which to the eye of Eoman authority seemed substantial enough to be noted as against the welfare of the empire, and proper to be visited with high penalties when it was obstinately maintained. Still, the Eoman authority was wielded generally by experienced men, who did not too readily arrive at con- clusions. Christianity might be unpopular, and might involve its adherents in collision with the religious basis of the State. Yet these Christians were seen to be in- offensive people; they professed loyalty to the emperor, and prayed for him ; and, as the organising tendencies of the Church came into operation gradually, they were not so noticeable at first. Hence a magistrate might see reasons for being temperate rather than sweeping in his application of the general rule. For the most part, governors aimed at getting Christians to submit, and not unfrequently they made this effort in a fairly humane spirit; but some of them evinced a savage determination to put down the new religion by ruthless severities, applying torture to compel submission. The situation as now explained may render it in- telligible that churches could exist, might continue and hold property for years together under the eyes of the authorities, if only the Christians abstained from forcing upon the authorities the character of their societies. One of the forms of association which even the jealous eye of Eoman government regarded in a tolerant way was benefit societies, such, for instance, as burial clubs ; and there is proof that Christians often held property in that character.^ In the same way we are to understand the access of the Christians to the prisons to comfort and refresh their brethren who had been seized with a view to trial and punishment. No doubt, gaolers were paid by the Chris- 1 It is understood that secret societies among the Chinese of Singapore avail themselves at this day of the same disguise. 98-180] ATTITUDE OF GOVERNMENT 15 tians for their complacency. But it was not inconsistent with a gaoler's duty to admit them, of course with proper precautions. The visitors were friends of the criminal; l3ut the gaoler was not at all bound to know, or even to think, that they were criminals themselves. Certificates could be procured to the effect that the bearer had given proof, by sacrificing, of his freedom from ground of challenge on the score of religion ; in short, that he was a good pagan ; and it must sometimes have been convenient to be provided with one. A specimen of such a certificate turned up lately in Egypt. Christians who had not sacrificed could procure such a certificate by favour or bribery, and so escape trouble. This was reckoned by the Church an act of virtual denial of the faith ; and those guilty of it {lihellatici) were put under discipline. They are not referred to, however, till the third century. It may be convenient to describe here the detailed policy in regard to Christians pursued by successive emperors of the second century. It has been extensively maintained that Trajan first established the principle that the persistent profession of Christianity apart from other crimes was punishable with death. Mommsen has decided against this view,^ which is, indeed, inconsistent with the docu- ments on which it relies. He regards the practice as settled from the time of Nero. That seems to be estab- lished by the unanimous tradition of the Christians and Dhe testimony of Tacitus and Suetonius.^ It seems certain ilso that Christianity, as such, was punishable in the times Df Vespasian and his sons (from a.d. 70). Domitian 3specially was remembered by the Christians in this con- aection. In his time occurred the famous cases of T. Flavins Clemens, condemned to death, and of Flavia Domitilla, relegated to an island. At the same date the ^ See above, p. 11, n. 8. * Tacitus, Ann. xv. 44 ; Suetonius, Nero, 16. Ramsay thinks that some proof of specific crime was required until the time of the emperors of the Flavian dynasty, who fixed the mere confession of the name as suflBcient Church in Roman Empire, p. 252 f. 16 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians^ makes reference to recent experiences, which had led the minds of Eoman Chris- tians to revert to the horrors of Nero's persecution. Trajan, therefore, must be regarded merely as maintaining and regu- lating established principles. The correspondence of Pliny with Trajan on this sub- ject belongs to about the year 112, Pliny's letters being written from Amisos in the eastern part of his province. Pliny, who had not previously filled the post of governor, or of prefect of the city, had no experience of Christian causes, and wished to be guided — apparently with a desire to be allowed some discretion on the side of mercy. Trajan's reply is temperate and brief. Christians should not be sought for, nor should they be cited on the ground of anonymous accusa- tions. If they prove amenable to authority, and will sacri- fice when required, they are to be dismissed ; but persistent obstinacy in the face of warning is to incur punishment, i.e. death. These principles regulate the procedure under Trajan's two successors. Under Trajan are placed the martyr- doms at Jerusalem of Simeon, son of Klopas, a relation of the Lord (perhaps about a.d. 106), and of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who suffered at Kome (a.d. 115 — unless Harnack's indication of a possible date some years later is accepted). Hadrian was a man of intelligence and culture, and of restless curiosity. He noticed Christianity as an element in the religious ferment of the time, but with no par- ticular attention or respect. To him, however, is ascribed a rescript to Minucius Fundanus, the true scope of which seems to be to repress tumultuary popular demands directed against the Christians, and to enforce regular and responsible procedure. It does not really alter the direc- tions given by Trajan, though perhaps the language sug- gests to governors a mild use of their discretion.^ Various 1 1 Clem. Rom. i. 1. ' "Si quis . . . probat adversum leges agere memoratos homines . . , supplicia statues." Justin Martyr is early and good authority for the edict. The Christians construed the rather vague language as relieving them from punishment unless specific moral crimes were proved. 98-180] ATTITUDE OF GOVERNMENT 17 martyrdoms are dated under Hadrian ; among others, that of Telesphorus of Eome. Antoninus Pius also found it necessary to rebuke the riotous demands for Christian victims by edicts of a similar tenor.^ To his reign seems to belong the first surviving plea for just treatment of Christians in the Apology of Aristides. Marcus Aurelius of all the emperors was most anxious to fulfil the ideal of duty, and most willing to sacrifice himself in the process. Yet under him persecution of Christians became more common and more severe. Either he authorised, or he did not restrain these severities. He was not ignorant how the Christians suffered, for he speaks of their patience as something fanatical and debased; and perhaps we must say that, while he would have dealt gently with any wrong to himself, he could be hard and bitter against the representatives of a malefica superstition which he regarded as one of the influences that under- mined the ancient Eoman strength. In his time we meet with two points of practice not authorised by Trajan, — the Christians begin to be sought out by the authorities, and tortures are applied to overcome their fidelity. Still, all this was in the governor's discretion. Justin Martyr at Eome, and Polycarp at Smyrna,^ are the most remark- able single sufferers. They simply suffered death, the one by the sword, the other by fire. But the narrative of the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne in Gaul (Eus. Hist. Eccl. v. 8) opens for us those scenes of incredible cruelty, vanquished by superhuman endurance, which meet us too often during the two succeeding centuries. Evidently a savage temper had been aroused which spread from the people to the * With respect to the rescript, VLpbi rb lS,oLvhv t^s 'Aa/as, see Hamack, Texte u. Unters. xiii. 4. ^ Justin died perhaps A.D. 165. Poly carp's death used to be placed about 166. An interesting discussion of Waddington's set the date back to 155, a result accepted by great authorities (Lipsius, Gebhardt, Lightfoot, Zahn, etc.). Latterly it seems to have turned out that Waddington's argument fails in one of its main steps ; yet the conclusion remains in all probability true that Polycarp suffered on 23rd February 155. See Harnack, Chran. der aZtehristl. LU. L 355. 18 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. magistrates, and which set itself to break the Christians down by all extremities of pain and shame.^ In the reign of Gommodus (180-192), who reproduced many of the characteristics of Nero, the general system continued unchanged. Apollonius, a man of culture, and, according to Jerome, a senator, suffered at Kome ; and the first known African persecution, that of the Scillitan martyrs, fell perhaps in his first year. Yet an impression that the reign of Gommodus was more favourable to the Christians than the preceding one is distinctly indicated in the Christian traditions. A ruler who was open to foreign superstition, and who neglected public interests, might very possibly press less hardly on the Christians than one who cared for those interests on the old Eoman principles. But, besides, we learn from the Refutation of Hippolytus (ix. 12), that Marcia, the well-known mistress of Commodus, was in some sense a Christian (6 Peregr. Froteo. c. 13 f. 98-180] LEADERSHIP AND ORGANISATION 35 exist at first with two classes of recognised office-bearers, one known as presbyters or bishops, and the other as deacons. This is the concession with which Lightfoot sets out in his well-known essay.^ By the time of Ignatius (a.d. 115?) the bishop is in some churches — Antioch and those of Asia — distinguished from the presbyters as holding a superior position, but not yet apparently in Philippi, or Kome, or Corinth. By the end of the second century the bishop seems to be very generally a distinct presiding per- son, although bishops are still often called presbyters, and although important writers still think of church officers as constituting two grades rather than three.^ The advo- cates of an original threefold order argue back from the general and peaceful practice at the end of the century. They maintain that this result could not have come to pass by accident, nor grown without a real root in apostolic precept or example.^ The case might be discussed more amicably if it were kept in view that a church in the second century was practically what we call a congregation.* Now the ex- perience and practice of almost all Christian communities may be held to prove that some strong motive or reason brings it to pass that a congregation is usually provided with one minister, whose whole and sole work it is to look after them, whatever other officers may coexist or may be appointed in addition. Since this prevails in all countries and ages, no one need wonder that things gravitate into this form as the second century advances. It might be much the more wholesome way, and most accordant with the idea of the Christian Church, that a group of the most trusted and respected men should be charged with the official duty of guiding and watching over the society; and probably all churches lose something * Lightfoot, St. PauVs Epistle to (he PhilijppiaTis, pp. 181-269. * Clem. Alex. Strom, vi. 18. * That even at the end of the century, however, the bishop was more than a presbyter with permanent presidency, is not proved. * This ideal is still visible, Ap. Const, ii. 57. 36 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. where this system is not practically maintained. But yet in the early Church, as in all churches since, influences; were at work which tended to complete the arrangement by the employment of one man as the centre of pastoral activities.^ If we suppose that the third order was developed from a state of things in which there had been only two, the following considerations are to be kept in view. In any body of presbyters someone must preside ; and that arrangement becomes still more imperative in worship. The chair may be taken by all in turn ; but age, services, character, and aptitude may lead to someone being preferred, particularly in worship. Teaching demands special apti- tudes, which may require cultivation. The charities of the congregation, too, constituted a very great element of early Church life,^ and even if generally watched over by all the presbyters, might best be systematised by putting one person in special charge, with control of the deacons who worked out the details. The worship of the congregation might require a good deal of arranging, especially if there was as yet no church building, and if the place of meeting was not always the same. A central person to serve the purpose of an inquiry office, and to exercise some care in providing for emergencies and regulating details, would be expedient. And the duty of carrying on communications with those outside, whether other churches or the civil authorities of the place, was a function by itself. Clement seems to have discharged it at Eome.* So far no reason appears why these functions should not be distributed among three or four, and perhaps that was the method in some churches for a time. Each of the group in that case might be in the emphatic sense an episcopos * for his own department. But the persons are ^ Here the case of very small churches is not dwelt on. In those, plainly, one active personality would absorb and satisfy all requirements; and it might not be easy always to find one. * Hatch, Organisation of Early Churches, p. 40 f. * Hermas, Vis. ii. 4. * " Convener" would be the word in some modern churches. 98-180] LEADERSHIP AND ORGANISATION 37 not many who are willing to take on such duties, and are able to command confidence in the discharge of them, especially if large demands on their time are implied. A point would be reached when mere spare time redeemed from business would be found to be not enough to dis- charge duly the various functions required. This would be felt particularly in the department of pastoral care ; for energetic action was needed to keep the church to- gether, and to keep sight of individuals and details. What- ever distribution of duties continued to exist, the whole time of someone must be given to the work, — naturally the most energetic, able, and devout Christian attainable. Such a man must therefore give up secular business, and must be provided for. One such person might be enough at first ; as churches grew the deacons would next require to be cared for in this way: the presbyters not till later. A presbyter placed in the position now indicated would inevitably acquire a character, an influence, and a stamp distinguishing him from others; and he would be felt to be in an emphatic sense " episcopos," the man whose business it was to look after things. He was the man also who must specially appeal to the loyalty of the congregation to stand by him in his special and incessant responsibilities. He became the centre of the system. As character and services increased the influence of such a man, as the feelings associated with pastoral care gathered round him, and as converse with Christians and with Christian interests promoted his spiritual training, he might fall heir to much of the peculiar reverence given to prophets and apostles. It is to be remembered that churches varied extremely in their size and circumstances. In some, one person to guide and lead in worship, with a deacon or two, might be as much as could be attained. It certainly continued for a long time to be the case that some bishops followed ordinary occupations for their support; but those must have been cases in which the church work was comparatively light. There might also be cases where churches grew so 38 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. rapidly that it soon became necessary to relieve several presbyters from secular cares, and in such cases the de- velopment of the monarchical episcopate might be delayed. But that could not be usual. More commonly we can trace a period during which the bishop and deacons are the active persons, continually in contact with the church life, and presbyters though respected are not so much in front ; but later they come into prominence again, probably because the growth of the churches now required and employed their whole time. The writer does not lay great stress on the details thus sketched out. Very early, presbyters who were specially gifted may have been encouraged to charge themselves with exceptional responsibilities under influences too subtle to be satisfactorily represented. The points to be em- phasised are that the episcopate, in the later sense, developed at a time when " a church " was still a congregation, and that an important step must have been made when a man was called upon to lay aside secular business and to devote himself mainly to the service of his brethren in church work. It may be right to add that while presbyters and deacons, and from an uncertain date a presiding bishop, were men holding office, to which they were set apart and in which much respect was paid to them, they were not at this stage a professional class as we now understand the term. They were no more so than town councillors and justices of the peace are now. But their office was part of a divine system, and so it added to their character as Christians something which their brethren were not at all disposed to make light account of. It does not appear that these officers were anywhere elected for a term, after which they should retire unless re-elected. They could be displaced for cause shown ; and it is quite possible that in some cases early churches acted in this line pretty freely, in the way of giving effect to their impressions about merits or demerits. But as far as we know, men were called and ordained to office as something designed to be permanent ; in short, ad vitam aut cuL;pam, 98-180] LEADERSHIP AND ORGANISATION 39 Although the president-bishop during this period be- comes visible enough as a distinct feature in the system, it would be difficult to name any function appropriated to him alone. Where he was present he no doubt presided ; that lay in the nature of the case. As to public teaching, Justin Martyr mentions that after the reading of the Scriptures the " president " made an exhortation ; but we hear also that in the same circumstances the presbyters exhorted in turn ; ^ indeed the competency of a presbyter to preside in public worship was never questioned. So also as to the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.2 Probably much depended, as regards the ultimate settlement of the distinctive attributions of a bishop, on the fact that some administrations were felt to require, in a special manner, the presence of the complete church, and therefore of its official president. This applied to ordinations. Appointment of men to office, otherwise than as the act of the whole church, would tend directly to schism. The same principle applied also to the formal restoration of the fallen after discipline. The church had witnessed their penitence, and the church ought to receive them back in a solemn and complete assembly. The bishop could be and was present on all such occasions, and led the action ; it would follow easily, after some time had passed, that such things were regarded as exclusively his. The same rule might perhaps have applied to the Lord's Supper. But as that was observed every Lord's day, as a bishop must be sometimes unwell or absent, and as separate gatherings for worship could not be avoided when congre- gations extended and affiliated groups had to be provided for, the practice of dispensing the ordinance through a presbyter never could be discontinued. Ignatius recognises, but does not like, celebrations of the eucharist without the bishop. At a later date, ordinations and authoritative ' 2 Clem. Rom. xvii. 3. ' See Tert. cU Coron. 3, and de Bapt. 17. According to the latter pas- sage anyone can baptize in case of need, but usually the administration ought to be respectfully left to the bishop. 40 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. release from discipline were recognised episcopal functions. We have no proof that as yet they were so regarded ; but, in the way indicated, things might be in progress towards that result. The value for a selected pastor as the centre of church administrations must have been greatly enhanced by the experiences connected with Gnosticism, and, in a less degree, with Montanism. All the heresies carried division with them: Gnosticism did so eminently: if it made progress, the churches must be demoralised, be- wildered, and broken. The impulse must have made itself strongly felt in each church, in the case even of many who could not judge the merits of the dispute, to rally round the person who had been chosen as the church's strongest, wisest, and most representative man, and largely to trust his Christian instincts to carry them through. Justin Martyr speaks of the " reader " (avayv(o(7T7)<;)j and the writer of what is called the Second Epistle of Clement seems to reckon that function as his own special work. Probably it was hardly as yet an office — rather a useful aptitude placed at the disposal of the Church. The reader of later times was certainly not expected to preach,^ but there are indications that earlier he was presumed to have some spiritual gift. A certain distinct position in the congregation was probably allotted also to confessors, virgins (of both sexes), widows, and perhaps others as welL Note In regard to the Episcopate, Dr. Hatch, followed by Harnack, suggested a modified view, which has been sup- ported very ably. It may be briefly stated thus — 1. The presbyters were not properly officers or function- aries, but an informal committee of the members — naturally composed of the older men (hence 'jrpsfflSvrspoi) — taking the management of the common affairs. Afterwards, in more numerous churches especially, they might come to be a select 1 See some information on this obscure topic collected by Harnack, Texte u. Unters. ii. 5, Lectoramt. 98-180] KOTE 4i body, chosen, and might thus approximate more to the type of office-bearers. 2. The bishops and deacons were from the first proper office-bearers, i.e. functionaries, servants or employees, of the congregation, and, therefore, of the presbyters. 3. The bishops, even in the earliest period, were not identical with presbyters, though bishops might be also presbyters, or members of the presbytery. The bishops were properly stewards, and two of their functions as such may be named: First, to superintend the revenue with its incoming and outgoing, therefore, specially, the charities of the congregation: here stress is laid on the importance of this in the early churches : second, to superintend arrange- ments for worship (including the Agape), and see that wor- ship went on satisfactorily. Hatch dwelt more on the former function and Harnack on the latter. 4. Tlie deacons were the younger aides-de-camp of the bishops, naturally required in connection with such functions. 5. From their function in reference to worship (Harnack), being at the same time generally energetic and capable men, bishops came to be expected to keep worship going, and to give it interest, freshness, and dignity, especially after prophets and apostles became more scanty or less trust- worthy. Compare the Bidache, " for they, too (bishops and deacons), minister to you the ministry of the Prophets and Teachers. Therefore despise them not, for they are men to be honoured with the Prophets and Teachers" (xv. 1, 2). 6. According to this view, there were at first no men in the Church having any proper authority, except the Apostles, Prophets, and Teachers. The bishops and deacons were servants, though honoured and trusted servants, and the presbyters were only a committee of the members. By the time of the Didache the bishops and deacons are becoming authorities (^rsn/Mrtfiivot fjjira tuv '7rpopr}Tuv xcci didaffxdXuv). And the bishop rose into the chief place because he did most work, while the presbyters somehow became his inferiors — partly perhaps because they had not been emphatically enough distinguished from the congregation to maintain superiority. Still the tradition of their presidency ensured them some place, and they settled into the second. This theory has abundant suggestiveness. I cannot reckon it sufficient, for (1) I think that from the first pastoral care existed, with the amount of authority which that implies. (2) Presbyters, at the earliest mention of 42 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. them, are more expressly chosen and settled in care of churches than this theory will allow. (3) I cannot doubt that the s'moKO'Trr}, whoever was charged with it, was an over- sight of spiritual health and Christian welfare primarily. (4) I see no reason on this theory why at first there should be plurality of bishops (Phil. i. 1), nor any explanation of how, eventually, the plurality was restrained to such emphatic singularity. (6) The implied revolution by which the pres- byters, the original superiors, became subject to the bishop, the eventual superior, ought to have left deeper marks on the history. The theory makes the presbyters have special charge of discipline, as the active representatives of the membership, in whom the power of discipline resides. An accessible sketch of the theory by Harnack himself may be seen in the Ency. Brit, article " Presbyters," vol. xix. Discipline As regards the discipline of the congregation, we know that care of the conduct of believers was a recognised function of the Church, and that in the case of grave sins ordinary privileges were, to say the least, suspended. We must believe also that in proceedings concerned with this aspect of church life, the presbyters and, where he existed, the bishop in the distinctive sense, must have taken a leading part ; for, in addition to all official attributes, they were the select men, more trusted and more representative than any of the rest. On the other hand, it cannot be doubted that in communities like those we are contem- plating, the procedure taken in such cases must have been known to the community, and must have had their assent expressly or virtually. That seems implied in the concep- tion of the Church which goes through the literature. The Christian concerns are the concerns of the whole body. The churches are exhorted to enforce discipline ; the churches write letters of exhortation ; the churches are supposed to be participant in proceedings. This does not exclude some special function of the office-bearers; but it includes some influence of the mind of the members. It 98-180] DISCIPLINE 43 does not appear, however, by what ecclesiastical order of things the function of the people was regulated or guaranteed. For a long time after our present period the common sentiment of the Christian congregations had great and recognised influence, but one sees very little trace of a precise or regulated method of exerting it. It endured longest, as a recognised element, in the election of office-bearers ; this right continues to find some expression, and sometimes very vigorous expression, far down the history of the Church. But it seems to take effect in an ill-regulated, tumultuous way.^ Perhaps it never was pro- tected by very definite forms or rules. In a state of things in which bishop and presbyters were representatives of the congregation, and had the best reasons for maintain- ing a good understanding with them, fixed methods for ascertaining exactly the mind of the members were perhaps not felt to be very important. As affairs multiplied, there- fore, they naturally fell more into the hands of the official persons; but in the common Christian mind a standard existed, which could be applied both to the personal be- haviour of office-bearers and to the principles of their administration. Things could not be carried on unless that standard of opinion was respected. But it is not easy to say what the matters were in which it was thought the congregation must utter a distinct potential voice, excepting always the election of men to office. As regards discipline, it is pretty clear that at the end of our period it was customary for the bishop, who was the official representative of the whole flock as well as their chief pastor, to officiate in restoring penitents to the com- munion of the Church. This was perfectly natural. Yet it had much to do with the growth of the episcopate as a distinct order with exceptional powers ; for this, like the right of ordaining, came to be regarded as a function and a power divinely bestowed upon him. The Montanists objected to the exercise of this function by the bishops ; but they do not seem to have set up against it a claim for * Sidon. ApoUinaris. Epp. iv. 25 ; vii. 9. 44 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. popular control, but rather that prophetic persons speaking in the Spirit should decide such matters. Sharp contentions were arising as to the severity or the tenderness which should prevail in dealing with penitents : and it becomes plain, at a later stage, that bishops had to reckon with very strong opinions on the subject among the members of their flocks.^ But official power, aided no doubt by a wise regard to opinion in the exercise of it, was destined to prevail. Martyrdom Part of the life of early Christianity was liability to persecution. The relation of the Christians to the laws has been described. We are not to suppose that martyrdom was an everyday business. In particular places, and at particular times, considerable periods might pass during which the Christians were little troubled. But the possi- bility was always present ; and once called to an account, the Christian must reckon on high penalties, unless he was willing to save his life by apostasy.^ There were friendly governors who suggested to the Christians expedients by which, without violating their conscience, they might avoid a direct conflict with authority.^ But that was not usual. For the most part just, and even courteous, judges, who showed no delight in cruelty, still felt it their business to execute the law firmly. Others were cruel men; they applied torture to break down Christian constancy, and lent themselves to give judicial expression to the popular passions of scorn and hate. Martyrdom might be solitary, but it was often social — those who had worshipped together dying together. Justin Martyr was accused at Kome along with Charito (a woman), Euelpistus, " a slave of Caesar, but made a freeman by Christ," Hierax, Paeon, Liberianus. They appeared before Rusticus, the prefect of the city, who questioned them * Apost. Const, ii. 14. ^ Justin Mart. Apol. i. 11. ' Kg. Cincius Severn s, Tert. ad Scap. 4. 98-180] MARTYRDOM 45 rather haughtily as to their origin and their Christian profession, which they all acknowledged. From Justin he educed a short statement of his faith ("Are these the doctrines that please you, poor creatures ? "), and in par- ticular of his expectation of a blessed immortality (" You that are a learned man and knowing in doctrines, are you persuaded that if you are scourged and beheaded you will ascend into heaven and be rewarded ? Do you imagine that ? " "I do not imagine it, I know it, I am sure of it "). He also inquired as to where Justin lived and met his disciples, and was told he lived " above the house of Martin at the Timotinian bath." Finally, the prefect came to the point : " Come together and sacrifice to the gods." On receiving a refusal, he again warned them. Justin replied as before, referring to the great tribunal of the Lord and Saviour ; and his humbler companions said, " Do what you please : for we are Christians, we do not sacrifice to idols." Then the prefect passed sentence : " Let these, who have refused to sacrifice to the gods and obey the commands of the emperor, be scourged and led away to suffer capital punishment, according to law." They were beheaded accord- ingly. Some believers secretly removed their bodies and buried them in a fitting place, " with the aid of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." Eager Christians were for meeting the enemy half-way, and censured those who withdrew and hid thgnselves. The narrator of the martyrdom of Polycarp at Smyrna is evidently aware that some had censured the conduct of that venerable man in withdrawing for a time, and he is anxious to vindicate the consistency and the dignity of his behaviour. At the same time he points out that some, who rashly affronted persecution, did not prove steadfast in the end. Polycarp, an old man of 86, was arrested at a friend's house. He asked for time to pray, and poured forth supplications aloud and continuously for two hours. Then they brought him to the city and into the Stadium. The judge, as usual, tried to persuade Polycarp to save himself by compliance ; then, irritated perhaps by the lofty 46 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. tone and bearing of the old man, he threatened him with the wild beasts. It was in vain; the martyr's last word was, " Why do you delay ? Do what you will." For certain reasons the wild beasts were not available, and Polycarp was appointed to die by fire. A multitude of Jews and Gentiles looked on; the process was slow, and the martyr's patience invincible; so the crowd wearied, and called for a finishing stroke, which was inflicted by the proper official ; and a great gush of blood, remarkable for so old a man, ended the tragedy. This closed a persecution in which scourging, death by fire and by wild beasts, had proved the constancy of the Smyrnese church. What seems to be the earliest form of the narrative of the Scillitan martyrs has recently turned up.^ The date is probably about A.D. 180, and the account illustrates very well the grave and brief utterance of a Koman magistrate. Saturninus was the pro-consul, of whom Tertullian has said that he first in Africa actively persecuted the Christians. Three men and three women are named in the Acts, but there seem to have been others. The pro-consul offers them clemency if they will comply ; if, for example, they will swear by the genius of the emperor. He refuses to hear them on the merits of the two religions, but brings them back to his offer four or five times. The Christians protest .their innocence of crime, and would have explained their belief if allowed. On the main point, they steadily abide by their Christianity : Caesar is to be honoured as Caesar, but God is to be feared as God. Saturninus, " Will you take time to think of it ? " Speratus, " In so good a cause there is no room for deliberation.*' Saturninus, "What have you got there in the wallet?" Speratus, " Books (Gospels very likely), and the Epistles of Paul, a righteous man." Saturninus, " Take a delay of thirty days and bethink yourselves." Speratus, " I am a Christian"; and all the rest agreed. Saturninus, the pro-consul, declared the sentence from the written form : " It is * Camhridge Texts and Studies, i. 2. 98-180] MARTYRDOM 47 ordered that Speratus, Nartzalus, Cittinus, Donata, Vestia, Secunda, and the rest, who have confessed to living accord- ing to the Christian rule, inasmuch as they have obstinately- persisted, after opportunity given, to return to the Eoman life, shall be punished with the sword." Speratus said, " Thank God." Nartzalus said, " To-day we are martyrs in heaven ; thank God." Saturninus directed the herald to make proclamation in terms of the sentence. " And so all of them together were crowned with martyrdom, and they reign with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever." The Acts of Justin and those last referred to are most likely based throughout on the official record ; the Acts of Polycarp are a narrative by Christian onlookers, who testify what they saw and what they felt. But the gem of all Acts of martyrdom is the story of Perpetua and her companions.^ She was a young Carthaginian lady, a wife, and mother of a young child, and she wrote the story herself down to the night before she was ex- posed to the beasts; — how she was imprisoned, how she was tried, how she was comforted, what visions or dreams she had, assuring her of victory. The narrative is com- pleted by one who could report the closing scenes. The simplicity and the quietness of the whole give it a quite peculiar power. No one, probably, could read it aloud to the end with a steady voice. It is too long to insert, and would be wronged by summary. Persecutions are mentioned of which we have no details, or only single features.^ But the church of Lyons and Vienne drew up for the information of their friends in Asia and Phrygia an account of the bitter experience through which they passed about the year A.D. 177.^ The proceedings look like a resolute attempt to terrify the church into submission ; and suggest that perhaps Christianity was as yet feebly and scantily repre- * Best in Camb. Texts and Studies, pt. L » Kg. Tert. ad Scap. 4. » Eus. ffist. Eccl. V. 1-4. 48 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. sented in Gaul, and that the destruction of the church of Lyons might seem likely to be its deathblow in that country. The proceedings fell at the time of the great annual gathering Id August. This Christianity had come from the East, and used the Greek language ^ (with Celtic also, as Irenaeus {Ref. Prcef) intimates). The persecution was attended by furious outbursts of popular hatred. The prolonged and repeated tortures of ten or eleven persons are described; but a considerably large number were put to death, including some who had given way at first, but afterwards recovered their faith and confessed it. After the early stage of the persecutioD, in which severe and prolonged tortures were applied to the sufferers, the governor reported to the emperor (Marcus Aurelius). He replied, directing that those who confessed the faith should be put to death, and those who disclaimed it set free. The narrative of the martyrdom remarks that the most outstanding men of the two churches had been arrested — those who were most zealous, and who had done most to sustain the Christian cause in the places where they lived. Naturally, scenes like these produced great excitement. Sometimes spectators, who had never before professed Christianity, became so impressed with what they saw at the scaffold, or with the spirit and bearing of Christian sufferers in prison, that they surrendered themselves to Christ and His religion, and accepted all the consequences. Sometimes Christian onlookers, who had not up to that time been themselves accused, could not resist the impulse of sympathy and indignation; they stood out, denounced the persecutor, and offered themselves to condemnation. Or Christians, carried out of themselves by the " passion " in which they felt it a privilege to share, could even join the sufferers, apparently without waiting to be either accused or condemned. Cases of the last kind could only be rare, and they could not be approved by the Church. But they * It is noted that Sanctus replied to all questions in the Boman tongus, "Christianus sum." 98-180] MARTYRDOM 49 could occur, and are recorded also with sympathy and admiration.^ * "Akten des Karpus," etc., Texte u. Unters. vol. iii. : "Now a certain Agathonike, standing and seeing the glory of the Lord which Carpus said he now beheld, and knowing that the call was heavenly, straightway lifted up her voice, * This meal has been prepared for me : I must partake and eat of this glorious meal.' And the people cried out and said, * Have pity on thy son.' But the blessed Agathonike said, *He has God, who is able to show him pity, for He foresees all things ; but as for me, wherefore am I come here?' and casting off her garment she threw herself triumphantly upon the pile. And those who saw it wept, saying, * A terrible judgment : unrighteous ordinances ! ' And having been set in her place, and reached by the fire, she cried out thrice, * Lord, Lord, Lord help me, for I have fled unto Thee ' ; and so she gave up the ghost and was perfected with the saints." The scene is at Pergamus, and the date assigned is the reign of Marcos Aui-elius. CHAPTER III The Church's Life literature The history of Patristic Literature begins with Hieronymns, De viris illustribus. Among post-Kef ormation works on this subject may be named Dupin, Nouvelle Bibliothhquey Paris, 1688-1714 ; S. W. Cave, Script. Eccl. Hist. Liter. ^ Oxon. 1740 ; R. Ceillier, Hist. Gen^r. des Auteurs, etc., 14 vols., Paris, 1860. For the period covered by this volume, Smith and Wace, Diet, of Christian Biogr.y 4 vols., London, 1877 ; Donaldson, Hist, of Chr. Lit. and Doctr. (unfd.), 3 vols., Lond. 1866. For Latin writers, Schonemann, Bihl. Hist. Lit. Patr. Lat^ 2 vols.. Lips. 1792, 1794, and Bahr, Gesch. d. Rom. Lit., Suppl. I.-IIL, Karlsruhe, 1836-40, are convenient to consult. Harnack, Altchristl. Liter, (unfd.), Leipz. 1893 fol. Of older collections of works of Fathers, Gallandius, 14 vols., Venet. 1765 fol., is of most repute. Much more complete is the collection of Migne, Patrologice Gursus^ etc., Paris, 1844 ff. (very inelegant), which reprints notes and dis- sertations from older editions. Texts only, edited with great care, of Latin authors, the series of Vienna Academy, 1866 ff. ; and of Greek authors, first three centuries, series of Royal Prussian Academy, 1897 ff., both in course of publication. In the second century we have hardly material for a con- tinuous story. Various manifestations of a singularly strong and vivid life, individual and social, call for recognition and disappear. What united them all in one development we can divine, but we can hardly narrate. It remains to piece together the impressions we gather of the communities that at Smyrna, at Ephesus, at Philippi, at Corinth, at Eome, at Carthage, at Lyons, in Palestine, in Egypt, and " in every place," lived or died for Christ. The Uterature claims in this period more particular notice than will be needful at later stages; and we shall begin with it the rather, because some conception of the writings assists the 60 A.D. 98-180] THE church's LIFE 5 1 mind in estimating the worth of condusions drawn from them regarding the life and work of the post-apostoHc Church. It has been usual to print a number of the earliest post-apostolic writings in a collected form, under the name of the Apostolic Fathers. The title implied that the writers, though belonging to the second or third generation, had been in contact with one or more of the apostles. In regard to most of these writings this assumption is mis- leading. But yet it is convenient to have them together, and the established title of the collection need not be disturbed. Speaking generally, the tracts included are of earlier date than the middle of the second century; some may even be ascribed with probability to the first. It is reasonable to include the recently discovered Didache (see below) in this collection ; and Funck, in his edition, has set the example of doing so.^ The Apologists begin about the reign of Antoninus (a.d. 138—161), and constitute a class by themselves. This form of literary activity, however, continued long after the close of our present period. Hardly less important for the student are the fragments of works no longer in existence, which have been preserved to us by Eusebius or other ancient writers.^ Some of these are printed in recent editions of the Apostolic Fathers, and more might be included. Most of the Gnostic literature, and all its earlier portion, has perished; but important fragments are embedded in the works of later authors ^ ; and the student has to realise the existence of this literature, and, as far as he can, to form an impression of its character. Lastly, Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, and Apocalypses were coming into existence for several hundred years ; the origin of some of them may with probability be ascribed to the period now before us, although even these have generally been much altered and interpolated at later dates. ^ Editions — Cotelerius, by Clericus, 2 vols, fol., 1724 ; Gebhardt and Harnack, 1876 ; Funck, Tiib. 1886 ; Lightfoot (unfinished), Lond. 1886, * Collected, Routh, Reliquice Sacrcn, 5 vols., Oxon. 1846. • Hilgenfeld, Ketzergeschichte d. UrchristeTUhwms, 1884. 52 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHDKCH [a.d. 1. Apostolic Fathers (so-called) (a) Two " Epistles " pass under the name of Clemens Eomanus, but examination has shown that they must be treated as distinct in character and authorship. Somewhere about a.d. 96a" crTaai^ " took place in the church of Corinth. The origin of it is not quite clear, but one effect was that the presbyters were no longer permitted to discharge their functions. The influence of the Eoman church to heal the breach had been invited by the church at Corinth, or by some parties in it ; and the letter from " the church that sojourns at Eome to the church that sojourns at Corinth " is the document known to us as the First Epistle of Clement. The writer is not named in the letter, though his name appears in the title as given in the MSS. ; but unbroken tradition from the middle of the second century ascribes it to Clement, a notable presbyter or bishop of the Eoman church. Still the letter is from the church, not from any individual. In it the Eoman church interposes in favour of harmony, order, and respect for constituted authorities, at Corinth. Thus the earliest extra-canonical Christian writing we possess is a letter from the church of Eome addressed to a sister church whose affairs were in confusion, and intended to restore order. The church of Eome, from its position, the character of its membership, and the habits of thought and action naturally acquired in a great centre of government, could interpose in such cases with advice which was likely to be wise, and felt to be entitled to deference. This letter is diffuse, and takes a pretty wide sweep of practical Christian exhortation and Bible citation, some of which strikes the reader as bearing only remotely on the practical questions that had to be decided. The Apostles Paul and Peter are referred to with equal reverence. The sayings of our Lord are frequently cited.^ The Epistle to the Hebrews 1 Very much in the line of our Gospels, yet with enough of variation of phrase to raise questions as to the sources on which the writer of the epistle relied. 98-180] THE church's LIFE 53 has made a strong impression upon the mind of Clement, and its ideas and language have coloured his own in some passages. Also, in addition to echoes of Paul's teaching, his Epistle to the Corinthians is referred to by name. A little more explicitness as to the motives of the "movement" party at Corinth, and as to the arguments they adduced, would have been very welcome to modern students, even at the cost of displacing some of Clement's generalities. But, considering the value of what we have, it is hardly good manners to complain. The epistle is sent in charge of brethren, who from youth to age had walked blamelessly in the Koman church. (&) What the MSS. and editions present as the Second Epistle of Clement cannot be certainly localised, though Eome or Corinth may be plausibly suggested as the place of origin. The recent recovery of the latter part has proved (what had previously been suggested) that this tract is not an epistle but a homily, prepared in order to be addressed to a Christian congregation. The writer's name is unknown, but he officiated as a " reader " among the people whom he addresses (" me who am reading among you," c. 1 9). An early date in the second century seems to be indicated by his use of the Gospel according to the Egyptians (afterwards rejected by orthodox churches), and by modes of expression which suggest that the collision between the general Christian sentiment and Gnosticism had not yet taken place. Probably some circumstance, to us unknown, gave this sermon special interest for the Corinthian church, and they preserved it along with the Eoman epistle. (c) While the birthplace of the treatise last described is uncertain, there is no doubt that the Shepherd of Hermas belongs to Eome. The book contains a series of visions and revelations which came to the author through the ministry first of a venerable lady, who proves to be the Church, and secondly of an angel of repentance who appears as a shepherd: hence the name. Hermas, the recipient of the visions, appears from his own indications to have been a Koman freedman, a married man with a family. He 54 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d evinces a lively interest in the function of Christian prophecy, and dwells on the distinction between true and false prophets. It can hardly be doubted that he con- sidered himself to be prophetically gifted. He also dwells on faults of the office-bearers of the church, which need to be repented. The main subject of the book is the problem of post- baptismal sins, — how Christians are to think and feel about them, and what encouragement they have to seek forgive- ness. Hermas is taught that one opportunity for repentance of (serious ?) failures following on baptism is granted, in view of the near return of Christ to close the dispensation ; and the importance of embracing this grace is pressed on himself, that he may in turn convey the offer to others. The discussion of the great subject of post-baptismal sin begins with Hermas. Incidentally, views on other points of theology, e.g. as to the Son of God and the Holy Spirit, are suggested, which have been differently explained. All the lessons of the book are delivered by the super- natural instructors in connection with symbolical visions, which are afterwards interpreted. The book was certainly received with great respect, and even quoted as Scripture in the second and third centuries. Eusebius reckons it among the Antilegomena. The author of the early catalogue of books (canonical and non-canonical), which goes by the name of the Canon of Muratori, says that the Shepherd was written by a brother of Pius (Pius I.) while the latter occupied the chair of the Eoman church. According to the prevailing chronology, this would indicate for the publication a date prior to A.D. 150, and the actual writing might reasonably enough be carried back twenty or thirty years before that epoch. Hermas himself refers to " Clemens " as the proper party to circulate his revelations to other churches : and if this implies that the writer was really a contemporary of the notable Eoman Clemens, the date of Hermas' work must be fixed still earlier — say, not later than 110. On the ground merely of the contents and style of the book the tendency 98-180] THE church's LIFE 55 among scholars at present is to place it early, — before A.D. 140 at latest. {d) The epistle ascribed to Barnabas is also reckoned by Eusebius among the Antilegomena, and few nowadays will regard it as having been written by the Barnabas of the New Testament. The object of the tract is to impart what is described as valuable Gnosis, namely, the true view of the Old Testament, and specially of the Jewish law. The author writes with a considerable sense of his own import- ance ; and his view is that the literal observance of the law was all along a mistake of the Jews, who ought from the first to have taken it allegorically. Of this allegorical sense various instances, many of them sufficiently grotesque, are explained. The last three chapters break away rather abruptly into a description of the two ways of life and death, i.e, the main articles of Christian morals. These three concluding chapters have an interesting relation to the opening chapters of the Didache (see below). By general consent, this epistle should be dated high in the second century, perhaps in the earlier part of the reign of Hadrian (117-131). Some learned men would place it still earlier. (e) An Epistle to Diognetus has usually been printed with the Apostolic Fathers. The only MS. ascribed it to Justin Martyr; but for various reasons this is discredited, and the author is unknown. It probably belongs to the second century, though some great authorities place it in the third ; it would find its most appropriate place among the Apologies. The Christian author, writing to a friend, pleads for the truth and worth of Christianity with strong feeling, expressed often with striking ease and force. There was a Diognetus among the teachers of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius ; the conjecture that he might be the recipient of the letter has nothing to support it, nor yet anything to render it impossible.^ ^ A curious suggestion as to the possible origin of this epistle may be seen in Donaldson's Christian Literature, i. p. 126, and in Cotterill's Proteus PeregriniLs. 56 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D. (/) Ignatius of Antioch, who suffered, it was said, under Trajan, was understood to have written epistles during his journey through Asia Minor to Eome, where he was to die. A rather intricate literary problem is connected with these letters. Eusebius says that Ignatius was reported to have written seven letters to churches, which he names ; and he makes a quotation from one, that to the Eomans. This epistle, and also those to the Ephesians and to Polycarp, had already been quoted by writers earlier than Eusebius. After the revival of letters, and before the end of the seventeenth century, successive discoveries furnished the learned world with (setting aside obvious forgeries) a body of twelve or thirteen letters, in two recensions — seven of them addressed to the churches named by Eusebius. The recension which first turned up, distinguished as the longer, presented a good many features which critics regarded as difficulties. The other recension presented a shorter text, and one less objectionable, at least in the seven epistles named by Eusebius. It was natural to separate these seven, in their shorter form, and propose them as the genuine epistles of Ignatius ; but even these had peculiarities which disposed a number of learned men to question whether the text even in this shorter form were reliable or pure. The authen- ticity was defended, however, by many Catholic and Anglican scholars.^ Both these recensions existed in Greek, and also in old Latin translations. In 1849 Cureton published a Syriac Ignatius^ containing three epistles (to the Eomans, Ephesians, and Polycarp) in a still shorter text; and he gave his reasons for maintaining that these three — the only epistles cited by any early author down to Eusebius — were the only genuine letters of Ignatius. This theory implied that the process of interpolating and forging letters of Ignatius, which must in any view have begun in the fourth century, had begun before Eusebius wrote, and had gone to 8uch an extent as to lead to his statement that ^ Pearson, Findicics, Camb. 1671. * Corpus Ignatianum, London, 1849. 88-180] THE church's UFB 67 Ignatius (though really responsible only for three) was "reported" to have written seven letters. Scholars are at present disposed to accept the short Greek recension of the seven letters named by Eusebius as genuine. The best statement of the reasons may be found in Lightfoot's Apostolic FatherSy ii. 1, 2.^ A prominent characteristic of the Ignatian epistles, and one that gave motive and energy to much of the contro- versy, is the earnest and reiterated exhortations contained in them to maintain unity in each church by adhering to the bishop and presbyters and deacons. In this connection the distinction between bishop and presbyter appears, as weU as the importance attached to this gradation by the writer. The epistles, however, are remarkable also on other accounts. They embody an energetic expression of Christian religion, both doctrinal and practical, are often expressed in eccentric and startling phraseology, and reveal a strong and ardent character. In truth, the best proof of the genuineness lies in the very singularity of the writings. Interpolations or corruptions there may be ; but the original stamp of the writings as a whole does not agree well with the suggestion of forgery. If Ignatius suffered under Trajan, as tradition reports, the date of the epistles may be placed at a.d. 115. Lipsius and Harnack on different grounds argued that the date might be considerably later — say 130 or 140, — which would remove some historical difficulties. But the argu- ments adduced have not procured general acceptance for this position.^ (g) Poly carp stood at the head of the church at Smyrna; according to the testimony of his scholar Irenseus, he had listened to the teaching of the Apostle John. Irenseus also mentions that he wrote various epistles, including one to the Philippians. This alone has been preserved. It is written in reply to one from the Philippian Christians, and consists ^ See also Zahn. Ignatiiis, 1876. * Harnack, in Altchrisdiche LUeratur, now says probably before A.I>. 117| possibly a few years later. 58 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHUECH [a.d. mainly of practical exhortations. Various passages from gospels and epistles occur, generally without express citation. The genuineness is acknowledged by most ; but as the death and the letters of Ignatius are referred to, those who continue to reject the Ignatian letters are led to reject that of Polycarp also in whole or in part. The date cannot be very long after the death of Ignatius — at a time, therefore, when Polycarp was comparatively a young man. His martyrdom is ascribed to the year 155. The interesting account of his death which is embodied in a letter from the church of Smyrna, must have followed soon after. {h) The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (AiSaxv rcou BcoBeKa ^ Airoa-ToXoDv) became known in 1883, when it was published by Bryennius from a MS. found at Constantin- ople. It proved to be a writing once cited by Origen as "Scripture," ranked by Eusebius among the Antilegomena, and referred to by Athanasius as containing nothing heretical, and as fit to be read to those who are begin- ning to receive Christian instruction. Part of it had been worked up into another old book, generally known as the Apostolic Church Ordinances^ and the whole of it was before the author of the seventh book of the Apostolic Constitutions (fourth cent.), who dealt in the spirit of a later age with the materials it supplied. The Didache, therefore, had a recog- nised position and considerable importance at an early period of the Church's history ; but by the time of Eusebius and Athanasius it had become antiquated and was practically superseded, though treated with traditional respect. The book (equal in size to one of the shorter Pauline Epistles) is a kind of ** Institution of a Christian man " ; only it embraces also simple instruction in church life and worship, such as might conceivably be very useful in smaller societies of Christians, whose ideas were in some respects rudimentary. It begins with plain Christian morals — the doctrine of the Two Ways. This is the same in substance with the closing chapters of the Epistle of Barnabas, only the items are differently, perhaps better, arranged. The influence of the Sermon on the Mount is distinctly visible ; 98-180] THE church's LIFE 59 but plain duties and gross sins are commended on the one hand and prohibited on the other with great particularity. A Jewish basis for this part of the book has been strongly maintained. The transition to the more ecclesiastical part is made by directing that, after the disciple has received the moral instruction of the first part, he is to be baptized. The manner of church services, administration of sacraments, and maintenance of discipline, are all touched, so as to give a vivid glimpse of the early Christian communities. One interesting feature is the recognition of apostles, prophets, and teachers as labourers in the churches. Of them much is said, while bishops and deacons are disposed of in a single sentence. The tract closes with solemn anticipation of the coming of Christ, and of the Judgment. The date cannot well be later than a.d. 140. Some would carry it up to the very beginning of the second century, or even to the end of the first. The way in which the book bears on debated questions has some influence in leading different minds to lean in the one direction or in the other. The title of the book is not meant to claim actual apostolic authorship for it, but only to indicate that the directions it contains represented faithfully the apostolic teaching as received in the churches. In later collections of church rules the apostles are introduced speaking, and are made individually responsible, each for his own con- tribution. A similar origin came at length to be ascribed to the twelve articles of the so-called Apostles' Creed. We proceed to notice works of early writers of which no MSS. have survived, and which are represented by frag- ments, being citations of the lost authors by later writers. We owe most of them to Eusebius. Among the earlier may be specified Papias and Hegesippus.^ The remains of Papias are scanty. He was bishop of HierapoHs in Upper Phrygia; and Irenseus describes him as having heard apostles; which, however, Eusebius with reason doubts. He took a pecuHar interest in collecting * Collected in Eouth's Beliquice Saerx, vol. L, Oxen. 1846. 60 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. traditions of men who had seen and heard the apostles, and published a work in four books (Xoylcov KvpcaKcov i^rj'yqaLs:). The most important fragment is that referring to the origin of the Gospels according to Matthew and Mark, which has given rise to immense discussion in con- nection with the Synoptic problem. The other fragments give no high idea of the author's sense or discrimination. Papias is usually placed about a.d. 145-160. Hegesippus lived till late in the second century; but about the middle of it he made an important journey of inquiry into the state and teaching of various churches. He is described as a man probably of Jewish extraction, at all events familiar with the Gospel according to the Hebrews, with Syriac and Hebrew writings, and with Jewish tradi- tions. Hence Baur assumed, and argued from the assump- tion, that he was an Ebionite Christian ; but this view is now generally rejected. He wrote five books of virofivrj- /juara (after A.D. 160 ?), from which Eusebius extracted historical notices. It is probable that he argued against rising heresies from the information he had gathered as to the history and teaching of various churches. If so, he inaugu- rated a line of argument which was to fill a large place in later discussions. 2. Apologists More homogeneous than these tracts is the branch of early literature which takes the title of the " Apologists." ^ For our period the names included are those of Quadratus, Aristides, Justin Martyr, Tatian, Athenagoras, Minucius Felix (placed later by some authorities), Mehto, and (perhaps) Hermias. The work of Quadratus is lost ; that of Aristides has quite lately been recovered in a form which represents at least its main features.^ Both are said by Eusebius to have addressed themselves to Hadrian; but the work of ^ The characteristics of this Christian Apologetic are discussed in a sub- sequent chapter. The writings are collected by Otto, 6 vols., Jena, 1876. *'» Texts and Studies, i, 1, Cambridge, 1893 ; Texte u, Vhters, ix. 1, 1893. 98-180] THE church's LIFE 61 Aristides, at least, appears to have been really addressed to Antoninus Pius (a.d. 138-161). Of Justin Martyr we have two Apologies and an elaborate treatise {Dial. c. Tryphone) expounding the Chris- tian argument to the Jews. They date about the middle of the century, and are of the highest value as historical documents. Justin was a student of philosophy ; sought satisfaction for his mind and heart in various schools ; according to his own account was impressed and attracted to Christ by a venerable stranger whom he met on the seashore, perhaps in some part of Palestine. After his conversion he con- tinued to profess himself a philosopher, for he believed that he had found the true wisdom. But he was at the same time a warm-hearted and courageous Christian man, and he was honoured eventually to give up his life for his faith. His pupil, Tatian, an Assyrian, has left an Apology, written with glowing scorn of the Greek wisdom, which Christianity, the religion of barbarians, puts to shame. Tatian is re- proached as having lapsed into a heresy (Encratite), pushing asceticism to the extreme of condemning, as intrinsically evil, the created things from which, as an ascetic, he refrained. He imbibed also some Gnostic views. He returned to the East after the death of Justin, and put abroad a Harmony in Greek of the four Gospels, which long continued to be used for public reading in various Eastern churches. The substance of it has lately been recovered.^ Of the history of Athenagoras, "an Athenian and a philosopher," little is known ; but he has left a pleading {irpea^eld) addressed to Marcus Aurelius (prob. a.d. 176), in which the accusations commonly brought against the Christians are discussed and refuted. There is also a tract on the Resurrection, in which the difficulties suggested by that doctrine are carefully discussed. Theophilus was bishop of Antioch ; among other works which are lost, he addressed to Autolycus, a man of education and culture, an ^ Zahn, Forschung. z, N.T. Kanon, i., Erl. 1881 ; Texte u. Unters, I 1883 ; MoUer, art "Tatian," in Beai-ETicyd., 2nd ed. 62 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. argument in favour of Christianity. It is weak in logic and not particulary admirable in tone, comparing unfavour- ably with several of the early Apologies} All these wrote in Greek. The Odavius of Minucius Felix is in Latin. The author was a Eoman lawyer ; and those who wish to see how a Christian of that profession in the second century could occupy his holidays, ought to read at least the charming introduction to the argument. Fragments only remain of the writings of Melito, bishop of Sardis. He, too, was an apologist ; but he was much more, for he took an active part in all the questions of his time, and more than twenty of his writings are referred to by later authors. He recorded the result of inquiries about the canon of the Old Testament, debated against Montanism, advocated the Asiatic practice in regard to Easter, wrote on the incarnation, on baptism, and on various other topics. In him we see how, as the second century advanced, the im- portance of literary discussion becomes more sensible in con- nection with every Christian interest. A public existed who could be reached, and for whom it was worth while to write. Other writers of the period whose works are lost, like Apollonius of Hierapolis (an apologist and controversialist), Miltiades, Dionysius of Corinth, and the like, it is unneces- sary to dwell on. They remind us that Christian pens were active in the latter half of the second century. 3. Apocrypha It is right, however, before leaving the literature to refer to the Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, and Apocalypses, which were already beginning to appear. Here a distinction must be made. Versions of the gospel narrative (re- sembling apparently our canonical Gospels) had come down from the previous century : they were in use in some circles, and are quoted by catholic writers, but were not eventually regarded as authoritative, and have perished. This descrip- * Hermias may or may not belong to this century. His tract is a satirical attack on the Greek philosophy. 98-180] THE church's LIFE 63 tion applies to the Gospel of the Hebrews and the Gospel of the Egyptians, of both of which we have fragments. From them are to be distinguished a quantity of writings, due partly to the desire to satisfy a craving for romantic detail, and partly to the wish to find access, in this form, for new sectarian teaching. The dates of many of these writings are difficult to fix, all the more that many of them existed in several successive forms, the relations of which are not easily disentangled. The subject has a history of its own, which must be followed out in works specially devoted to the subject.^ The Gnostics were active in the production of this class of writings. They were no doubt read with avidity, and they could be made the means of insinuating opinions which were less likely to be acceptable if plainly propounded. To our period belongs the Gospel of the Childhood ascribed to James the less, afterwards worked up into the Gospel of Nicodemus. Eecently a discovery in Egypt has made known to us considerable parts of the Gospel of Peter ^^ and also of the Apocalypse of Peter. The former was known, before the year 200, to Serapion, bishop of Antioch, as a gospel which betrayed docetic tendencies. The fragment recovered contains an account of our Lord's passion, of great interest, both for its agreement with, and its divergence from, the account in the canonical Gospels. The Apocalypse contains a representation supposed to be given by our Lord to Peter (after the resurrection ?) of the experiences both of the blessed and of the lost in the other world. It stands at the head of a great Christian literature, which has dealt with the hopes and fears of men through representations of this kind. A work of considerable interest is the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs^ in which the twelve sons of Jacob are ^Thilo, Cod. Apoc. N.T., Lips. 1832 f. TischendoTf, £v. Apocr.,Lei^z. 1876; Acta Ap. apocr., Leipz. 1851 ; Apocal. apocr., Leipz. 1866. And see, especially, articles by Lipsius on Acts, Apocalypses, Gospels, in Smith's Diet, of Christian Biojraphy. * Swete, Oosjml of Peter, London, 1893. Text of both writings, Texte u. Unters, ix. 2, 1893. 64 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH U.D. introduced uttering, each upon his deathbed, prophetic inti- mations and warnings to his descendants. These lead up to the appearance and death of Christ, the supersession of the Jews, as the people of God, by the Christians, the destruc- tion of Jerusalem, and so forth. The book may be earlier than A.D. 180 — at all events earlier than Origen. It seems likely that the Testament, as we know it, rests upon an earher Jewish work, of which ours is a Christian adaptation. At all events, the very conception of the book, and its execution, indicate a Jewish point of view, and the influence of earlier Jewish models. In this connection it is to be noted that various Jewish works of an apocalyptic kind were received among Christians with great respect, and exerted considerable influence. The chief of these were — {a) The Booh of ETWchy preserved in an ^thiopic trans- lation from a Greek original, which may itself have been preceded by a Hebrew one. Enoch, after some introductory visions, is carried through the whole universe, surveying the mysteries of earth, heaven, and hell, which he recounts to Methuselah ; and visions follow, in which the history of the human race as related to righteousness, sin, and judgment is set forth. Some critics recognise several hands, — the work of one going back perhaps as far as the second century B.O. ; and the book may have been revised in a Christian interest in the first century A.D. Christian authorship of cc. 37—71 has been strongly maintained. In addition to the ^thiopic version of this book, which is familiar to scholars, a Slavonic Enoch has recently been discovered. It traces back to a Greek original distinct from that on which the ^thiopic is based, and it also is ascribed to the first century. (6) The Booh of JuMlees (also Little Genesis), with legendary explanations of the early biblical history. This also dates from the first century. (c) The Fourth Booh of Ezra, a kind of theodicy ; also, perhaps, of the first century. (d) The Assumption of Moses, which has survived in an 98-180] THE church's LIFE 65 old Latin translation. The last editor, Mr. Charles, ascribes it to a date not later than a.d. 120. An important Gnostic literature began to arise in the second century and continued into the third. The frag- ments which survive, especially of the earlier writings, are scanty.^ The accounts of martyrdoms have been referred to in another connection. They were very liable to be revised in the sense of a later time ; hence the date and value of these narratives as we now have them is often very debatable. But the Acts cited on an earlier page are well established. * Hilgenfeld has collected the fr;igments, Ketzergeschichte des Urchristen- ihutns, 1884 ; Fistis Sophia, Berol. 1852. CHAPTEE IV Beliefs and Sacraments Discussions for many years on the birth and growth of the Church have left an almost boundless literature on this subject. Besides all general histories, see F. C. Baur, Vorles. ueber die Christliche Bogmengesch. 1866, 4 vols. ; Harnack, History of Dogma, transl. by Buchanan, vol. i., Lond. 1894 ; Loofs, Dogmengeschichte, Halle, 1893. On rites. Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, London, 1875 (unequal). Varieties of tendency and of attainment appear in any Christian society or set of societies. In the early Church, allowance must also be made for progress and change due to a time of rapid growth. Before the end of our period Gnosticism, and Montanism, and the special tendencies of the apologetic writers, all had time to make their impres- sion. Some churches, too, were more sheltered from such influences, while on some they played incessantly. Hence old fashions could appear alongside of new ones. What is now to be said must be subject to the qualifications which this state of things suggests. Perhaps the most needful preparation for appreciating the beliefs of the early Chm'ch, is to get rid of the assumption or impression that the post-apostolic Church started with the fulness of the apostolic teaching, as that is embodied, for instance, in the New Testament. That is a natural assumption, and it is often made without a thought; but it is entirely opposed to facts. What the apostles and some others of their generation taught is one thing; what the Church proved able to receive is quite another. The tradition of the apostolic ministry was vivid; the writings embodying its message, which we A.D. 98-180] BELIEFS AND SACRAMENTS 67 still possess, were circulating, and they were soon collected and set apart as a special deposit. But the Church, which had a glowing sense of the worth of Christianity, had as yet laid but feeble and partial hold on its treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Elementariness is the signa- ture of all the early literature. It is not for that the less Christian ; and anything else would be non-natural ; but the fact must be emphasised. The Church had waded as yet but a little way into this wide sea. Great elements of apostolic teaching had hardly become at all audible. But, especially, much that did float round Christian minds, and that is rehearsed at times in the writings, has not revealed its significance. Its meaning is caught faintly; the thoughts it awakens are indefinite. The apostles speak with power and certainty of great spiritual facts and forces, whose being and whose laws are clear to them. But to their disciples the meaning is often dim and the impression dubious, so that the range of prin- ciples remains hidden. All this was inevitable; it would have been so with the wisest and the best of us in their place. Ages of study, of meditation, of controversies, of obedience, of devotion, of discipline were to work the meaning of the New Testament teaching into the mind of Christendom. It was enough for the early Church that some bright central certainties held them fast, filled and fixed their souls with full assurance. Under the influence of these, it was easy for them to believe that the great inheritance of truth and grace stretched much farther than their eyes could see. Where doctrines have been crystallised by controversy it is easy to give an account of them. As that had not yet taken place, the state of the Christian mind must be indicated by description. Perhaps nothing strikes one more than the singular moral heat — the enthusiasm about goodness — which we meet in the Christian writings.^ To be good is no longer a doctrine of philosophy or a matter of taste ; it is * Donaldson, Christian Lit. i. p. 84. 68 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. a calling, a career ; a summons, as imperative as it is wonderful, has awakened men to it. There broke into consciousness among the Christians a new relation to the moral standard. The standard itself is often set forth in terms not very different from those of the Stoic moralists, or in terms of the Jewish law idealised on Stoic lines. Often, no doubt, the inwardness of it, and the stress laid on love, forgiveness of wrongs, meekness, gentleness, humility, helpfulness, proclaim the new influences that are at work. Generally, however, it is not so much the definition of the standard that is important, but the new relation to it. It has become for Christians their inherit- ance to be realised, their proper destiny to be achieved, the field on which they are to make good the reality — the glory — of the religion which has taken them captive. Already some approved asceticisms are beginning to be valued and to be accepted as rules of life. With some this expressed simply the wish to be like Christ, who was poor. Again, as all Christian goodness implies self - discipline and self - repression, as steady preference of the higher aim implies repression of the lower impulse, it becomes plausible to infer that increase of self-sacrifice will certainly be gain in goodness. Once more, the desire to make sure of one's own honesty and thoroughness, to make sure that no weakness is cherished and no hardness is declined, disposes some to reckon exceptional asceticism the safer and the worthier course. This does not go much beyond the legitimate liberty of choosing what seems best for a man's own Christian life; but it does go somewhat further.^ Yet a benignant way of looking at natural ties, and a consciousness of God's presence in them all, are still able to avert extremes.^ This moral enthusiasm was supported and deepened by fear. For the difficulties were not disguised, — the strength of temptation, the weakness of the flesh, the sad possibility of falls. Yet, long as the race may be, and ^ It figures as the whole yoke of the Lord, Did. vi. ; 2 Clem. Eom. vii. 3. ^ In many passages — 1 Clem. Rom. i. 1, 2 ; Ad Diogn. 5, 98-180] BELIEFS AND SACRAMENTS 69 hard the btattle, tliere is nothing for it but victory ; nothing less than that will do. And what they seek is a victory of them all, as a company that would fain triumph together. " Let us turn with all our hearts, that no one of us may be lost. For if we have commandments (and keep them) to draw men from idols and to instruct them, how much more is it fit that no soul that has once known God should perish ! So let us support one another, and stir up the weak in goodness, that we may be saved, all of us, converting and exhorting one another." ^ This morality was imperative for its own sake ; but not only for its own sake. It was the only genuine form in which a man could respond to the divine compassion ; it was the one approved career along which to reach the fulness of the life eternal. In the closest connection with this is the vivid Chris- tian consciousness of being face to face with the decisions of eternity. The whole weight of the contrast between good and evil was to embody itself in final weal and woe ; and the day of this judgment was speeding on. It was near, though no man knew how near; at farthest death was not far off, and that sealed men up for judg- ment. The intensity of conviction as to this is one of the most striking things about the Christians. The uncertainty about a world to come in classic religion and philosophy is notorious. The Jews had specula- tions about it, which embodied the thought of retribu- tion, but these lacked finality. According to their Apocalypse there is no last end of anything.^ For the Christians, the hope of complete and unending well-being rose into view, in vivid contrast with the doom prepared for sin and apostasy. Almost no Christian exhortation omits these topics ; and they came instinctively to the lips of the martyrs when tempted to deny their faith. These great alternatives were speeding on. And they were felt reaching into each day's business, and transforming the values of all things here. The power which kept all this alive is to be found, * 2 Clem. Rom. xvii. 1, 2. 2 Harnack, Dogmengesch. i. p. 120. 70 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. beyond a doubt, in the Christian convictions about " the things surely believed among us." God had made Himself known.^ Quite recently He had revealed Himself in the world through Jesus Christ; and this was His complete, His decisive revelation. Men had longed, had yearned, had looked and listened, had hoped and feared. Now God had spoken ; He had emerged upon human souls. One, Spiritual, Supreme, Eternal, the fountain of all being and object of all worship ; yet having a mind and care for each man, accessible to each man, intent on the character of each, calling each man to fellowship with Himself. He came, with perfect truth and effectual pity, recognising the problem of the world's sin and providing the remedy, by coming down into it in His Sou. In this presence man's life assumed a new significance. The hour had struck for applying judgment. Former ages with their relaxed or depraved manners God had in some sense tolerated. Now He commanded all men to repent. Things became clear and sure. In particular, Christ Himself was unique. In Him arrived the great illumination alike of duty and of destiny. By Him, God, and human life, the great choice, and the eternal issues, had been set in an intense blaze of light. Nor did He reveal only (which was easily ex- pounded), He also saved. How He did so was not so well explained ; but it was felt and believed. He washed us from our sins, broke the chain that bound us, brought life within our reach, made it an altogether hopeful thing for us to choose the better part. A great deal of New Testament teaching about this was apprehended not at all, or in the vaguest way; but the thing itself was sure. Also, Christ was coming again to judge quick and dead, and to fulfil all the promises. Along with all this the conviction that Christ was not merely human but divine went hand in hand, and is quite frankly expressed. With some it is more in the foreground of their thought, with others more in the background. We have already met 1 Ad Diogn. 7 ; 2 Clem. Rom. i. 5-8, etc 98-180] BELIEFS AND SACRAMENTS Vl with Christians, generally of Jewish origin, who claimed for Christ only a pure and lofty manhood ; and others, ascribing to Him a supramundane nature, thought of His manhood as something fleeting and unreal. But beyond all reason- able doubt the mass of Christians regarded Him as both divine and human. How many of them, if forced to ex- plain themselves, would have explained in the line of later Councils, is debatable. But the two aspects of Christ were present, dimly or clearly. With the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit took His place in Christian minds ; that was settled by the formula of baptism (Matt, xxviii.).^ As to the salvation of the individual under Chris- tianity, two moods of mind strove with one another ; on the one hand, the sense of divine goodwill and help — which must be all-sufficient ; on the other hand, a sense of dangers which called for the utmost effort. When it comes to particulars, it often seems as if the Christian, after baptism, under the moral influences of Christianity, must get along as well as he can — must in that view save himself ; yet, on the other side, the impression comes out with no less force that Christianity really brings life eternal within our reach, and expresses a benignity so near and real that no hopes can be too high.^ But, at all events, whatever perplexity might beset the question of the individual, something definite and bright rose to view in thinking of the Church. Certainly Christ meant to have a Church, and should not be disappointed ; the Church is destined to victory and life everlasting. That did not imply the final well-being of all her children: as the Church fought her way onwards, many a member might be snatched from her by the powers of evil. But the Church must survive ; through all assaults she is destined to victory ; and meanwhile the loving presence of the Lord, of which the individual could not always assure himself, could be more confidently counted on in the Church. Hence association with the Church, cultivating ^ This subject comes up again in the chapter on Christ and God. * Implied, e.g.^ in prayer, Hermas, Mand. ix. 72 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D. its fellowship and observances, breathing the atmosphere of its common life, promoted present Christian comfort, and became the pledge of Christian hope. As the Christians held together in this line they could most fully feel the Lord's presence in the midst of them, and could be strong to overcome the world. This was so much the more natural, because the power of evil, also, was conceived as a concrete system, a king- dom, with its Satanic head,^ its inspiring and energising demons, and its concrete embodiments and agencies through- out the world. All that was unchristian or antichristian fell under this conception. The machinery of the great system was at work everywhere. How could a Christian feel safe, except as he felt himself participant of the common social life of the counter-kingdom, the despised but invincible kingdom of the Son of God ? Everything in Christianity was divine, — it came from divine revelation, and was animated by divine life. The Church therefore, which is the completest earthly embodi- ment of Christianity, must eminently be divine. It in- cluded much human weakness and inconsistency ; but its institutions and its life were from on high. Hence a very visible tendency prevails to hold every institution and ob- servance, which at any time found acceptance in the Church, as something divine, original, apostolic. Change went on, but the results of change were canonised. This is con- tinuously exemplified all down the history.^ Christians lived in the expectation of the Lord's return in power and great glory, the resurrection of the dead, and the judgment, with the separate issues of the righteous and the wicked. These events, according to the general impression, were not to be long delayed; but no definite term was assigned. It has been said that two distinguish- able styles of eschatology characterised two types of Christian thought — the one taking pleasure in concrete images of rest and delight, after the manner of Jewish Apocalypses, the ^ Bam. c. 4, 6 /liXas. 2 Especially visible in tlie law codes — Apost. Const, etc. d8-18oi BELIEFS AND SACRAMENTS 73 other dwelling more on emancipation from material condi- tions, and contemplation of truth in God. But while the early writers may gravitate towards one or other of these two poles, the important thing to notice is that no Christian writer repudiates either. Those who are most philosophic, and most disposed to aspire after a(f)6apaLa, maintain also the resurrection of the body with all that it implies ; and those who are attracted by the more millenarian expecta- tions are far from meaning that earthly delights can satisfy God's children. The conception of the Jiw^ eirovpavio^ could be approached on both lines.^ So much has been said, because very brief statements of belief hardly represent sufficiently the way in which Chris- tian minds worked on matters of faith. But, of course, any religion existing in a cultured age — especially one that does not stand in ancestral customs pleasing to the Gods, but presents itself as a doctrine of light — must be able to say roundly what it means. When anyone came to be baptized, the question came clearly up, What does the neophyte accept? An understanding on the point would seem to be necessary just then ; and there was every reason for its being ex- pressed with care. Accordingly, some profession of faith in Christ — or of faith in the great name into which a man was baptized. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — must naturally be supposed. So far we may feel sure. If a longer and more fixed creed existed, it must be inferred by reasoning back from later authorities. At a later date various forms of creed existed in different churches — various yet very closely allied. They suggest an early form, in Greek probably, both in East and West, confessing faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and connecting with the third head brief clauses of Christian blessings and hopes. When the wording comes within our reach, we find it varying only slightly in the Western churches, and the Koman church claimed for its formula a direct apostolic origin, on which account it would allow no change upon the wording. In the East the original * See Hennas, Papias, Didache, 2 Clem. Rom. 74 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. form, if we are to assume one, had been varied more freely in different churches to meet successive heresies ; and in the East there existed no tradition for an apostolic origin of any creed. The creed now known as the Apostles' is one form of the Western creed ; it was used in Gaul as far back as the fifth century. But the old Eoman form, which must have been in use a.d. 250, and for two centuries after, was a little shorter. It was in these words : " I believe in God the Father Almighty : and in Jesus Christ His Son, only begotten, our Lord ; who was begotten of the Holy Ghost and Mary the Virgin, crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried; the third day arose from the dead, ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of the Father, from whence he Cometh to judge quick and dead : and in the Holy Ghost, holy Church, forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the flesh." The phenomena of early creeds, in their likenesses and their differences, are conceived to point back to some form like that now quoted, existing in various Western churches in the second century. When a man asserted these articles he took Christian ground. The recognition implied or imposed upon him the state of mind called Faith. These things, being real, claimed his trust and allegiance, and he acknowledged so much in his creed. ^ We find also in the churches, especially in churches where minds were active, a conception of the significance of the creed, or of the common belief, for Christian thinking. It was the common belief relating itself to the mental move- ment of the time, and taking ground in characteristic asser- tions. Christian revelation, so far as yet apprehended, left much unsettled. But it furnished thinkers and teachers with some fixed points in reference to the speculation of the time, which could be roundly expressed, though men did not use one unvarying form in which to embody them. This consent of Christians as to the meaning of their faith, or as to the common teaching received among them, was referred to as * Greek (nJ/AjSoXoy, perhaps "watchword." Writers of the fourth century speak of the creed as never committed to writing, hut handed down orally. 98-180] BELIEFS AND SACRAMENTS 76 the Kavcov, or the rcgula veritatis. It assumes prominence in the beginning of the next period.^ Baptism was administered, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, usually, but not always, by immersion. A practice of baptizing in the name of Christ simply, comes into view from time to time ; but it was always rather questionable. Baptism presupposed some Christian instruction, and was preceded by fasting.^ It signified the forgiveness of past sins, and was the visible point of depart- ure of the new life under Christian influences and with the inspiration of Christian purposes and aims. Hence it was the " seal " {a(ppayl<;) which it concerned a man to keep inviolate. When we come to TertuUian (De Corona, 3), we find various new circumstances attached to the admin- istration. These, or some of them, may have begun in the present period, but there is no contemporary evidence. The Agape or love-feast was a custom of apostolic times, and the celebration of the Lord's Supper had been connected with it. The Agape, in one form or other, con- tinued to be observed for a long time ; but in the second century ^ a change took place which disconnected the sacra- ment from the religious social meal, joined the former to the principal service of the Lord's day, and made it the crowning act of the worship of the congregation, when that was com- pletely performed. Justin Martyr, writing near the middle ^ Neither the regula nor the creed appear in the period now before us, but by the end of it there is much reason to think both were present. Whether the rcgula or the creed comes first historically has been made a question. The rcgula is plainly spoken of in Christian writings long before the creed is referred to in the same way. But that can be accounted for ; and the order given above seems to the writer to be the more likely. Statements of the Regula, Iren. i. x. i. ; Tert. de Proescr. 13, de Virg. vel. 1, adv. Frax. 2 ; Clem. Alex. Strom, vi.; Orig. de Princ. Proam. 4. As to the Creed, among foreign writers, Hahn, Bihliothek der SymhoUy Breslau, 1877 ; Caspari, Quellen z. Geschichte des Tail/symbols, 1869 ; V. Zezschwitz, System d. Kaiechctik, 1875; Harnack {Apost. Symb.) in Herzog, Eealencycl.^ vol. i. Among English writers, Heurtley, Harmonia Symbolica. Swainson, article in Smith's Diet, of Antiquities, and reff. there. Sanday in Journal of Theolog. Studies, vol. i. p. 3. ^ Didache, vii. ; Justin Mart. Apol. i. 61. ■ Later than Ignatius, Ep. ad Smym. 76 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. of the second century, refers only to this form of rite ; but the date must have varied in different churches, and the old connection with the Agape appears here . and there later. We gather also from Ignatius that within one church the love-feast, with its sacramental commemora- tion of the Lord's death, might take place among smaller groups of worshippers, as well as in the set meeting of the Christian congregation as such.^ Ignatius appears to dislike this practice. At all events, he is clear that no meeting of this kind should be held without the bishop's authority, and he presses the view that in one church there should be united observance, with all the constitutive elements of the organised church present. Besides the observance on the Lord's day, the eucharist was celebrated after the baptism of a new convert, and no doubt at other times. The celebrant is referred to by Justin as the " presiding person," and there is nothing as yet to indicate that the validity of the ordinance was held to depend on " orders." At the same time, alike the cele- bration in separate groups, and by persons not specially authorised, could easily lend itself to schisms, and re- striction in both respects was certain to be ultimately agreed upon. In churches whose practice is represented by the Didache, it was deemed desirable to have for the eucharist short fixed forms of prayer. The forms given are remarkable chiefly for the absence of clear reference to the suffering and death of Christ, to forgiveness or reconciliation. The leading thoughts are the unity of the Church, its eventual gathering to Christ, the spiritual food and drink imparted to believers, the light and im- mortality to which Christians are called, and the near coming of the Lord. The Didache recognises the right of the prophet to pray in such terms as he thinks fit, and Justin Martyr says the presiding person prays according to his ability. It is probable that the prayer in the earlier part of the Lord's day service took the form chiefly of supplication, and in the eucharistic part of thanks- * Ignat. Pliilad. 4, E^yh. 20. 98-180] BELIEFS AND SACRAMENTS t^ giving. As early as Ignatius and the Didache the term eifx^apia-TLa occurs in application to the whole ministration of the sacrament, and even to the elements. That in partaking of the consecrated elements the participation of the worshippers in the body and blood of Christ is solemnly affirmed, both on their part and on God's, may be said to be the common teaching ; but what the nature of this participation is, according to Ignatius and Justin, and what the relation of the elements to that which they represent, is a question which will be differently answered, just as the statements on these subjects in the New Testament are differently understood in different schools. This service has to be considered also from another point of view. From the earliest period probably it was customary for the people to bring gifts of various kinds of food, including especially bread and wine. These were needed for the Agape, and any surplus was available for Christians whose wants had to be provided for. From this supply the portions were taken which, after the eucharistic prayers, were employed in the celebration of the sacrament. These contributions in kind were the Bwpa, which the office-bearers presented, as gifts brought for the service of God and of His Church. And it was not unnatural that the technical term for temple offerings (irpoarcpepeLv ^) should be applied to them, the rather that the term etymologically means simply to bring forward or present. This fell in also with the Christian feeling that the worshippers, as God's redeemed, had it for their duty and privilege to offer themselves to God — all they were, and all they had — and to do so then, especially, when admitted to the highest expression of fellow^ship with the Son and with the Father ; so that the gift they brought with them was only a token of the surrender of all. In particular, * 1 Clem. Rom. i. 44, TrpoaepeyKdi'Tas rk 8wpa. But it is not quite certain that these material contributions were as yet spoken of as dwpa, and the phrase may refer to the prayers and thanks of the Christians, of which the presbyters were the mouthjnece. These also were eminently offerings. Heb. xiii. 15. 78 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. this feeling of grateful obligation necessarily animated the eucharistic prayer. Then, any sentiment of thankful offering to God which expressed itself in the Bcopa in general, must especially have followed that portion of them which, in the service, was as it were specially accepted by the Lord, and was honoured to become the expression of what Christ, on His part, gave and gives, in virtue of His sacrifice of Himself. In the portion so employed, what was brought by the Christian people to the Lord seemed to meet that which the Lord brought and com- municated to them. Up to this point nothing hindered the thought of " offering " or presentation as embodying one aspect of the transaction. If that offering in itself was small, it was fashioned to great honour in the use for which the Lord accepted and employed it, and it was the token of the greater offering of loving hearts and lives. Such considerations make it intelligible that as early as Justin we find the whole service spoken of as the 7rpocr(f>opd. It was the Christian offering as contrasted with Gentile sacrifices. But this use of language rather obscured the main meaning of the sacrament ; and it lent itself, eventu- ally, to an impression that the thought of offering might be applicable indiscriminately to the whole religious trans- action, and especially to the elements after consecration ; so that Christ sacrificed for us is somehow the Trpoa-cfiopd which Christian men offer in the eucharist. Nothing in our period suggests that this conception (which sup- poses us to present to our Lord that which He, in fact, is presenting or representing to us) had taken being; but the form of language had already been provided out of which it was to grow. The eucharistic irpoa-cpopd appears as yet in Justin Martyr only.^ In this con- nection it is to be observed that the thought of a special priesthood, alone qualified to make the offering, is also unknown. Justin, in connection with the eucharist, speaks of the whole Christian congregation as the high- 1 Ignatius speaks thrice of the altar — Philad. 4, Eph. 5, Trail. 7. But this is an ideal altar, in allusion to the Levitical type. See Lightfoot. BELIEFS AND SACRAMENTS 79 priestly race {Dial. 116, 117) who offer true and pure sacrifices; and he goes on to identify these sacrifices as the Christian prayers and thanksgivings, and the Christian commemoration " in food dry and moist, in which the suffer- ing of our Lord is remembered." Generally, one sees the working of a set purpose to find a Christian sense for Old Testament sayings, and therefore to find aspects of Christian ordinances to which Levitical language can be applied. Such a tendency must be expected to exert itself, with special force, in connection with symbolical ordinances like the eucharist. A lively sense of a wonderful union to Christ, specially brought home to us in the eucharist, dominates all the language used ; and whatever benefits arise to men through union to Christ, might be suggested in this connection. Specifically, some writers suggest the idea that the sacrament received operates on our bodies as an influence disposing them to resurrection and immortal life.^ But how far this is literally intended, it is hard to say ; for, in any view, resurrection and eternal life are ours in union with Christ, and that living union is represented in the eucharist. Sin and the forgiveness of sins were topics of which much had to be said ; yet the doctrine of them was en- tangled in views and impressions arising from the Church's discipline. Baptism seals to men the forgiveness of sins.^ No doubt actual forgiveness could not be assumed without reference to the state of mind of the candidate for baptism ; for in him faith and repentance are required, and they might not be really present. Still forgiveness of all past sins is a blessing held out to faith in baptism. But how as to sins after baptism ? Pirst, there are some sins which are also scandals. » Ignat. E2ih. 20. * This is equivalent, according to Tertullian, to forgiveness at conversion, if baptism, though intended, does not immediately take place — if, for instance, it is reverentially delayed, "Fides integra secura est de salute" (Tert. de Bapt. 18) ; but baptism is the sacramental donation of forgiveness ; therefore it is the visible epoch of forgiveness for Church purposes, and the sacramental seal of it to the believer himselt 80 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. When these become known they interrupt Christian fellowship, and the Church separates the sinner, until satisfied of his restoration to a better mind. Now the habit of early writers is to speak of the loss of the Church's peace and the loss of God's, also of the (legiti- mate) possession of the Church's peace and the possession of God's, as if the one interpreted the other. Hence, in regard to such sins (especially impurity, idolatry, and murder), the question about " forgiveness " is the question about the Church's right to restore. Many maintained that for these great sins there is no forgiveness after that which is sealed in baptism. Others (whose view prevailed more widely as time went on) allowed one more forgiveness upon penitence, but none after that. Lastly, there were those (but they are hardly visible till the third century, — yet the view may have been acted on before) who allowed more than one restoration. Those who restricted the Church's right to restore meant that, in such cases, the forgiveness of the sinner could not be presumed or assured. But they did not mean to shut out all hope. If the sinner continued penitent till he died, he might, or would, find forgiveness in the next world ; but not in this one. On the other hand, sins less aggravated were conceived to find forgiveness through current religious exercises with almsgiving; they required no more special provision for taking them away. But this was in its own nature an insufficient and unsatisfactory distinction. Which are the really great sins ? Not necessarily those which bulk largest in human eyes. This difficulty was felt. For while some- times the plenitude of grace was regarded as easily cleans- ing the occasional stains of a redeemed people,^ at other times the Christian consciousness of sins became very press- ing.2 The special lessons of Hermas concerning his sins begin with the consciousness of a passing thought of evil ; ^ 1 Clem. Rom. ii. 3: "With godly confidence you stretched forth your hands to God Almighty, beseeching Him to be merciful to you, if ye had been guilty of any involuntary transgression." 2 2 Clem. Rom. xiii. 3, xviii. 2. 98-180] BELIEFS AND SACRAMENTS 81 then his lack of good government in his family, and a habit of lying begin to come home to him. His whole life becomes so defective in his eyes, that the announcement of one more opportunity of repentance before the Lord comes, consoles him greatly. That is, he feels that the lesser sins in his case require as express relief as the greater might. This special grant of one repentance after baptism is not regarded by Hermas as a standing ordinance in the Church. It is allowed for once only, that men may be encouraged to prepare themselves for the Lord's return.^ Amid all that created exultation and called forth effort among Christians, the consciousness of sin, and a serious estimate of its ill-desert, could not but have a large place. On the other hand, the impression of the divine benignity and compassion towards the penitent was never lacking. But clear thoughts of the principles on which the Lord deals with men about sins, especially after baptism, never were attained. Out of this perplexity arose, after a long time, the Romish sacrament of penance. In some churches there had been the practice, at an early period, of confessing openly whatever each member felt to have been a transgression on his part, with the view of clearing his conscience before common prayer and communion.^ This would apply specially to any wrong done to a brother, but the rule may have applied to transgressions generally. No doubt this turned out to be inexpedient. But public penitence continued to be exacted in connection with grave or scandalous sins. We may believe the leading or ruling persons in congregations would be consulted, when a conscience-stricken believer was in doubt as to whether his own particular offence required to be dealt with in that way. The yearly commemoration of the Lord's death and resurrection at Easter reveals itself, about the middle of the second century, by a debate which then arose. From a period which cannot be assigned, the custom had prevailed of distinguishing the Wednesday and Friday of ^ Hermas, Mand. iii. and iv. 3, 4. 2 DidacTte^ iv. 14. 6 82 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D. each week by some religious observances — of course, in addition to the first day of the week, on which the chief weight was laid. Annually, when the feast of the Passover came round, and when the observances connected with it became prominent in every Jewish community, the Christian churches could not but feel that the Christian worship of that week was coloured by the remembrance of the great events associated with our Lord's last Passover. This was the more certain because in the earliest days almost every church included members who were Jews, and strongly imbued with Jewish habits and associations. In the earliest period, indeed, many continued to observe the Jewish feasts. One way in which this situation worked was, that whatever the day of the week might be on which the Passover fell, the Friday (being the week-day of the Lord's death) took on the character of commemorating the crucifixion, and so, naturally, the next Sunday became the commemoration of the resurrection. This form of observance must have been very general ; we find it prevailing in Syria, Egypt, and the West. But in Asia Minor they followed a practice according to which the Passover day in each year, what- ever day of the week it might be, was devoted to commemorate the death, and probably in the evening the period of mourning ended, and the celebration of the eucharist introduced the period of rejoicing. This way was not less natural than the other, and might even claim, from one point of view, to be more exact. But as the Passover day was naturally accepted annually as fixed by the Jews, this had the effect of bringing the Christian celebration into constant coincidence with the Jewish one ; while, on the former arrangement, such coincidence only happened occasionally. Charity might have regarded the Asiatic practice as embodying a constant protest against Judaism; but zeal suggested that it might be a form of Judaising. ^ / At all events, after a time offence began to ^^ taken at the Asiatic peculiarity in this respect. Hence, \when 9&-180] BELIEFS AND SACEAMKNTS 83 Anicetus (a.d. 154-166) was at the head of the church of Eome, Polycarp of Smyrna, then a very old man, made a journey to Eome, the chief object of which was to arrange the difference. The Asiatics were in a minority ; but theirs was at that time a very vigorous ecclesiastical life ; and besides, they traced their practice back to the Apostle John and other great authorities. They therefore did not feel they could give way ; nor did the Eomans on their side. At that time the two parties agreed to bear with one another, and Anicetus, in token of Christian friendship, made Polycarp celebrate the Lord's Supper in his church. Later, as we shall see, in the time of Victor (bishop of Eome, AD. 189-198), the controversy revived with great bitterness. , , ^V> '^ CHAPTER V Apologists J. C. T. Otto, Corpus Apologeta/mm Ch/ristiarwruMf 2nd ed. 6 vols., JensB, 1876, is a useful collection. The Apologists fill, relatively, a large place in the Christian literature of the second century. They are by no means confined to that century ; but it may be best to deal with them now. Aristides, Justin Martyr, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Minucius Felix (probably), come within our period. Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Hermias, Origen, Arnobius, Lactantius, and others fall later.^ Their task was to represent Christianity, and defend it in relation to the alien and adverse forces which have been described. Their main concern, speaking generally, is with the Gentile world ; but Justin Martyr has left an elaborate exposition of the case of Christianity versus Judaism ; and Apologists often refer to Judaism as one of the alternatives naturally present to the minds of men at that time. As regards the Gentile world, the Apologists, speaking generally, have an eye to the action of the government; they plead for toleration. But at the same time they press the claims of Christianity on the classes that are capable of being influenced by writing. The Odavius of Minucius Felix is not on the face of it directed at all to the government or to the tribunals. It is rather a literary treatment of a current question. The same remark applies to the Epistle to Diognetus. The Apologists put Christianity forward as the true and * The date of the ExnstU to Diogrietus is contested. A.D. 98-180] APOLOGISTS 86 the eternal religion. From first to last it has claimed the loyalty of men ; but as announced by Christ, it is set forth, at last, adequately, so that in its purity and its certainty it may do its work among men. They assume the classes whom they address to possess the intellectual training of the age, referred to in a previous chapter, and to be furnished with the conceptions and schemes of thought which that training supplied. God, — Virtue, — a possible or probable survival of spiritual natures after death, — these were themes which the Platonic and the Stoic schools (often, by this time, fusing themselves together) had kept alive in the minds of men. Also the thought of a divine nature which mediates between the Highest God and the concrete world was extensively entertained. What then is the Christianity which the Apologists propound to their contemporaries ? Christianity, accord- ing to the Apologists, sets forth God as the only God, unapproached in nature and dominion, a pure spirit. He is represented much on the lines of those older schools which dwell on His essential remoteness from the material and the concrete. He is eternal and immutable, He is also righteous and good. He is sole Creator of the world, both physical and moral, and is the Lord of Providence. The world therefore is, essentially and in the main, beautiful and good (though graduated as to both qualities, and capable of evil), and it has been planned with a view to man, who unites the two elements of matter and spirit. It is therefore the same God with whom we have to do, alike in the moral region and in the physical; and He is the God who deals with us in salvation. The ancient Church had a very lively sense of the importance of certainty as to all this. They held fast the double thought — on the one hand, that God is the principle and source of the world; on the other hand, that God, as immortal and eternal, stands in vivid contrast to the world as corruptible and transient. In the former it is involved that moral good presides, and in the end wiU be supreme. The same thought lent itself to the conception of creation 86 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. as furnishing parables of redemption. On both grounds, commentaries on Gen. i. came to occupy a large place in Christian literature. The revelation of this God, both in creation and to the creatures, is carried on by the Logos (also the Son) of God, the manifest and manifesting reason. He comes forth from the eternal Father; yet so that the Father loses nothing by the process. Man, in particular, is so related to God that Truth is a common element for God and man. The highest truth, indeed, requires to be revealed, but man is apt for such revelation. There is, first of all, a revelation in the nature of man, a " seed of the Word " more or less present to all men. Hence it is, at least ideally, possible for men, even now and without further revelation, to attain sufficient knowledge of God ; but it is difficult. There are, however, additional ministries of the Logos, which, in various degrees, have tended to the same end. All these are crowned and completed in Christianity. The doctrine of the Logos could be connected, of course, with the vov^ of Plato and the Xoyoi of the Stoics, as well as with the X0709 of Philo, and it was connected on the Christian side with the person of Christ. In addition, the Apologists recognise as distinct the Holy Spirit (sometimes identified with aocjita); but this is an element suggested rather by their Christian faith than by their intellectual scheme. Man has been endowed with reason and free-will ; and he is destined to a life transcending earth and time. This blessed life is to be attained by a course of holy walking in the likeness of God. Virtue is conceived on the principle of surmounting desires and impulses pertaining to the body, and living spiritually. The natural morality is, to surpass nature and so find oneself related to God and man in a pure and lofty manner. By equanimity, indiffer- ence to want, purity, goodness, always under the influence of the Logos, man even here rises above the transient, and finds his way to the other world with its vision of God. 98-180] APOLOGISTS 87 This, rather than the great thought of love, is the watchword of the Apologists : though with a conscious- ness that a gentle, helpful, unselfish temper is an element in it. Along with this spiritual hope the resurrection of the dead was firmly asserted ; also the judgment and two- fold retribution. Life lived under the influence of the Logos leads on to ac^dapaia — a state free from darkness and decay. As the peculiar manner of God's own existence is emphatically marked out by this same word, so the destiny for man which it indicates, suggests for him also a divine manner of existence. This thought is dis- tinctly present as a matter of fact, and it continues to recur far down the Greek Christian literature. Man saved is in a manner deified. This connects again with the Incarnation as the fitting means towards such a result. This view of the true good is so congenital to man, that the response to it was due on the part of men even from the beginning. Christian religion in this view has claimed men all along. But in our present condition the true knowledge and the right impressions have been hindered. Darkness and uncertainty beset men, and they are enslaved in lusts and in misleading beliefs. How has this come about ? If there is in every man a seed of the eternal reason, if also the energy of the Logos has been, from time to time, put forth exceptionally in some men who have been examples and instructors to their fellows, why has truth so far failed to do its work ? The main practical answer which the Apologists have to give is to refer to the influence of daemons, who have in some way come into great power in this lower world, and whom men have allowed to establish a baneful influence among them. Christian religion, then, is the truth concerning all these matters operating duly on men. In the case of an individual here and there, it might conceivably have been attained by the light of nature ; but it has from the beginning been authoritatively revealed by the prophets, and now at last conclusively in the incarnation and life of Christ. Thoughtful men among the Greeks attained to 88 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. a large measure of the truth ; but for the most part their attainment was partial, and largely beset with uncertainty. Now, in the incarnation and in the ministry of the Word Himself, the teaching of the prophets and the sages has been confirmed and completed. Now, with decisive clearness and authority, it claims our obedience. It may be asked "in what way the Apologists make good their claim, that in connection with Christ's coming this religion has now received its conclusive certification. Often they are content merely to state the case, as if the mere statement spoke for itself. Sometimes (so Justin Martyr) they dwell on the thought that by the manifesta- tion of the Logos in Christ a fuller participation of Him has become possible for men. But in general they rather remarkably abstain from maintaining that something new has been revealed by Christ. For their point rather is, that all essentials have been within our reach all along. On other terms they might have had to encounter a strong prejudice ; for the thinkers of the day were not likely to admit that the eternal religion, the religion which is from the beginning true for man, should come to light per saltum, at a later epoch. The Apologists prefer to say that the whole prophetic dispensation was rich in predictions ; and in the coming of Christ, and the results of it, those pre- dictions have been verified. This directly proved divine insight and divine providence. When the Apologists survey the recorded history of Christ, their first thought about it, and their constant comment on it, is that in it prophecy has remarkably been fulfilled. Christ, therefore, appears in a radiance of fulfilled prediction which assures us who He is. The Apologetic conception of the true religion fell in remarkably with the indications of the best Greek schools. The exceptions to this are the doctrine of the incarnation and the definite Christian eschatology, both of which the Apologists faithfully assert. But the unity of God, — His ineffable contrast to the material world, — the supreme worth of virtue, — even the general conception of what 88-180] APOLOGISTS 89 virtue is, — immortality as an assertion or as an aspiration, — and the general doctrine of a Logos, — were all reflected in the common thinking. Besides, many Gentile minds confessed, or did not disclaim, a craving for something like religious assurance, — for hope beyond the grave, — for conscious and personal relations to the immortal and the eternal. The Apologists were well aware of this approxi- mation, and for some purposes they emphasised it. They took up a double attitude towards Greek thought. They accepted the evidence which Greek thought supplied, that the conception of religion presented in the Christian argu- ment is indeed the true, the congenital religion for men ; it can approve itself to man's better reason. The "seed of the Word " in every man (aided sometimes by hints from Jewish prophecy and by special influences) can bring men so far. On the other hand, they feel entitled to treat Gentile philosophy with disdain, because — (1) it deferred to the national idolatries and entered into compromises with them ; (2) it proved to be fluctuating and divided ; (3) it lacked certainty ; it could not inspire confidence or sustain hope. This double attitude in different degrees characterises all the Christian representatives except, per- haps, Arnobius, whose attitude is that of contempt only, Tertullian, too, professes to disdain the schools ; and he lays stress only on the views which common sense suggests to the ordinary unsophisticated man.^ But what he so accepts is materially the same thing which other Apologists com- mend as the reasoned conclusions of the better philosophers. The Apologists, then, hardly ask the Gentile mind to change much in its better thoughts about God and virtue ; but they offer to it the new certainty and the new encouragement which Christianity imparts. For the sake of these, Greece might well accept the articles which embody direct divine interposition in the incarnation and the eschatolop^y. Christianity is a religion in which the life of well-doing becomes an assured career. That which has heretofore been an ideal, no doubt remarkably put in ^ Testimonium Animce naturaliter Christiance, 90 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. practice by some select souls, was now to come home, convincingly and fruitfully, to men in general, to common men and maidens, not less than to the wise. The goal seems to be much the same as before; nay, the force which is to carry men to the goal is substantially the same — the influence of Truth upon the mind. But now, Truth is cleared of doubt ; now it can operate in a victorious manner; and it is reinforced by Hope. It has been felt and said that in taking this ground the Apologists reveal a scanty appreciation of their own religion, and are silent as to some of its greatest promises and prerogatives. They do not dwell on the significance of forgiveness; they do not insist on the need, or the fact, of a new beginning by a new birth. They do not seem to feel (here, however, Justin Martyr and the writer to Diognetus must be excepted) that the incarnation and the experience of our Lord embody a redemptive energy, unless we reckon to this the assumption that those who now believe are enabled by the Holy Spirit to throw off the power of the daemons. Our Lord's appearance (this seems to be their leading thought) became the great fulfil- ment of prophecy, and at the same time it possessed men's minds with a quite new sense of the reality of that Logos influence which was more secretly dispensed before. Harnack, therefore, has remarked that the Apologists made a very bold stroke in asserting identity of contents as between Christianity and the better forms of pre-existing theory, for thus they claimed for their cause the suffrage of the world itself ; but they did so at the cost of neutralising the significance of all the specific features of the religion they defended. In order to do justice to the Apologists, it must be considered that their business was to address the cultured mind of their time. In doing so they were bound to put forward aspects of the case to which they could hope that mind would respond. Their business was, or seemed to be, to insist on the affinities between Christianity and Greek thought, to suggest the help which the Greek mind might 98-180] APOLOGISTS 91 receive from Christian teaching, but not to insist on what might seem alien or opposed. Their personal Christianity, therefore, might be of a richer strain than their Apologies reveal. Another thing must be said. The significance of Christ in connection with the scheme of truth and duty may be conceived barely by these writers. It may be often little more than this, that in His person the immediate imprimatur of the Logos Himself was stamped on the moral contents of His religion. But the feeling of the writing means more. The writers are filled with the sense of a new beginning set for men, and for each man, in Christ's religion. Just as in the final judgment, so resolutely asserted by them all, the justice is signalised which upholds moral distinctions, and gives to the world a moral constitution ; so, in the incar- nation, the grace which cares for men, and knows no limits to its condescension for their sake, the Love which was set on saving, was felt, though hardly at all explained. It was something there which made all new, and rendered it so hopeful, obligatory, and inspiring, to forsake all and follow Christ. And this, too, it is which, as it were unconsciously, baptizes their moral code. They do not themselves know why or how their morality differs from the pagan codes, — at least they most imperfectly tell us ; but when morality comes into a world of love, and takes relation to the grace of Him who took flesh and died for us, it is unawares transformed, inspired, and glorified. Still, the impression gathered from the writings is that the early Apologists disclose, substantially, all that had attained, in their minds, to the condition of a reasoned case. What further impres- sions they had of something rich and strong in Christianity were largely inarticulate. Their minds were on the whole filled and held by the conception, already explained, of Christianity as related to current thought. With various proportionings of things they agree with one another in the main. One must say, therefore, that in these representative men the Christian mind took up a conception of Chris- 92 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D. tianity which impoverished the representation of it. The effect was that the ways of thinking and speaking on the subject, the utterance, in short, of the early Church, was powerfully influenced in the arid direction by these writings. This may be the place to notice an interesting reflec- tion of Harnack's.^ He says, " Here lies the difference between Christian philosophers of the type of Justin, and Christian philosophers of the type of Valentinus (the Gnostic). The latter were seeking for a religion ; the former, without being clearly aware of it, being already in posses- sion of an ethical view of the world, were seeking for a certification of that view. The attitude of both towards the complex Christian tradition — in which, no doubt, many elements could not but attract them — was that of strangers ; but the second class sought to make this complex intelli- gible to themselves, while the first class were content to take it that here was revelation, — that this revelation, whatever else was in it, testified of one spiritual God, of virtue, and of immortality ; and that it had power to lay hold of men and guide them to a virtuous life. These last, then, externally considered, were no doubt the Conserva- tives ; but they were such because almost at no point did they reckon seriously with the content of the Christian tradition : the Gnostics, on the contrary, sought to under- stand what they had read, and to get to the bottom of the message which had reached them. ... In short, the Gnostics tried to ascertain what Christianity is as a religion, and under the conviction that it is the absolute religion, they offered to it as a gift ... all that they reckoned 'lofty and sacred, while they removed from it what appeared to them to be only subordinate. The Apologists devoted their efforts to place religious illuminism, along with morality, on a stable foundation ; to render impregnable a view of the world in which, if it were impregnable, they could feel certain of eternal life. It was this they found in traditional Christianity." ^ This is so far true, that the Gnostics insisted on think- ^ Dogmengesch. i. p. 375. * Compare also p. 171. 98-180] APOLOGISTS 93 ing out a complete theory of the world, including Chris- tianity, in which both the prevalence of evil and the victory of redemption were vividly embodied, and relations to supernatural beings and forces were powerfully asserted. But in doing this the Gnostics transformed Christianity as it had been delivered to the world ; and, indeed, they may be said to have transformed morality too; for both are subjected to a thoroughly fantastic rationalism. The Apolo- gists, as far as their writings inform us, conceived Chris- tianity in a scanty manner ; but at least they respected its great outlines and remained within them; and it was a tribute to the power with which traditional Christianity held these men, that they did not venture to traverse its positive teachings. It was safer, and more accordant with a behever's attitude, to begin the work of knowledge with one aspect of things, although that might be provisional and inadequate, than to try to complete it at one huge and reckless stride. In particular, to insist that Christian religion fulfils itself always on moral lines was true, and the assertion of it by the Apologists was a signal ser- vice to the cause of a sound theology. Finally, the decisive point is that the Gnostics, notwithstanding their vivid sense of the significance of Christ's appearance, reaUy destroyed the faith of the incarnation. The Apologists barely develop the significance of that great event, but at least they remain under the influence of it. Some, as Justin Martyr and the writer to Diognetus, should have much more ascribed to them. This is the dividing line, which proved to be decisive. "Suo igitur sanguine redimente nos Domino, et dante animam suam pro nostra anima, et carnem suam pro nostris carnibus, et effundente Spiritum Patris in adunitionem et communionem Dei et hominis — ad homines quid em deponente Deum per Spiritum, ad Deum autem rursus imponente hominem per suam incar- nationem, et firme et vere in adventu suq donante nobis incorruptelam, per communionem quse est ad eum — perierunt omnes hcBreticorum doctrince " (Iren. v. 1. 1). CHAPTEE VI The Heresies — Gnosticism The chief early writers on heresies, now extant, are Irenseus, Contra omnes hmreticos (Stieren, 2 vols., Lips. 1853, and W. W. Harvey, 2 vols., Ganib. 1857) ; Hippolytus, Refutatio (Diincker u. Schneide- win, Gott. 1856), both in Clark's Anti-Nicene Fathers ; Epiphanius, Panarion (Oehler, 4 vols., Berol. 1857), to which are to be added various works of Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Origen, which discuss the Gnostics or refer to them. In modern discussion the Essays of Massuet, ed. of Irenseus, and of Petavius, ed. of Epi- phanius, are reproduced in the editions mentioned above ; Neander, Entwickelung d. Gnostischen Sijsteme, Berlin, 1818 ; Matter, Histoire Critique, 3 vols., Paris, 1844 ; Baur, Die christliche Gnosis, Tiib. 1835 (also in his Kirchengeschichte, Tiib. 1860, and Dogmengeschichte, Leipz, 1866) ; Moller, Geschichte der Kosmologie, Halle, 1860 ; Mansel, Gnostic Heresies, London, 1875 ; Harnack, Hist, of Dogma, transl. by Buchanan, London, 1894 ; Lipsius, der Gnosticismus sein Wesen, U.8.W., Leipz. 1860, with series of articles by Lipsius in Smith's Diet, of Christian Biography, London, 1877-1887 ; Loofs, Leitfaden, Halle, 1893. These are selections from an immense literature. The churches were liable to disturbance, not merely from the government and the populace, but from questions raised among the Christians themselves ; and some churches, in virtue of their composition and their situation, were more in danger of it than others. When these questions concerned permanent principles of Christian truth and Christian duty, the risk of persistent divisions made itself felt. No doubt a very wide field of matters lay open, on which the churches did not profess ,to have attained a common judgment,^ and ^ One sees from Justin Martyr tliat differences of view about the Person of our Lord were already felt in his time, and were apparently tolerated, at least in some churches. These preluded the Monarchian disputes. It seems 94 A.D. 98-180] THE HERESIES — GNOSTICISM 95 did not try to impose any. Variety of individual thinking could be tolerated in many points. On the other hand, how- ever, the Christianity which lived in the churches was felt by all earnest Christians to have a definite character which must be maintained ; it was a mode of spiritual life, conscious of the difference between food and poison. So when eccentric teachers inculcated views which threatened to transform Christianity, to alter, as it were, its centre of gravity, or to pivot it on some new axis, resistance was instinctive. How to distinguish the various cases, and how to have the requisite agreement about them, was, no doubt, the difficulty. In the earlier years of our period, the disturbing influences felt seem to have been mainly, first, a tendency to Judaise ; and, secondly, a tendency to Docetic notions, i.e. to treat our Lord's human nature as unreal and apparent only.^ Neither tendency seems to have operated widely or given much trouble. The second claimed to give a purer and more spiritual conception of Christ, and was indeed an early stage of the Gnosticism of which we are presently to speak. The first was a belated effort of a dying party ; but it could base itself on the authority of the Old Testament, universally received in the Christian churches as Holy Scripture. From that source it was always possible to press the literalities of Judaism, or some selected forms of it ; and Christians could be bewildered, and needed to be put upon their guard.^ Still the general mind of the Church recoiled from everything distinctively Jewish with decision, and even with antipathy.^ These were not formidable dangers. But from about the year 1 3 * a flood of speculative theories poured out upon the churches, which pretended to give the deeper more convenient to survey these in one connected view, and to reserve them for that purpose to a later chapter (Chap. XI.) under next period. The Elke- saites have been noticed, in connection with Judaising, in Chap. I. * Ignat. Epp. to Trallians, Smyrnceans. * Bam. 2, and see Eus. Hist. Ecd. vi. 12. 1. * Didachey o. viii. : "Do not fast along with the hypocrites (the Jews), for they fast on Monday and Thursday ; but do ye fast on Wednesday and Friday." * Manifestations of the same tendency appear a good deal earlier, but di4 not then operate powerfully or extensively. 96 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. and the truer view of Christianity. Varying in detail they had much in common, and together they embodied a mental tendency of the age. In some of their prominent features they are so fantastic that the modern mind finds it difficult to treat them seriously; but on closer consideration they are found to embody ideas and impressions that cannot be so lightly set aside. Moreover, the representative Gnostics, in point of freshness and force of mind, were probably on a level with any Christians of the second century. Valentinus, Basilides, Heracleon, Ptolemaeus, Marcion, Bardesanes, — a selection from a much longer list — were thinkers ; some of them, in their way, poets. The concep- tions which held such minds could not but appeal with force to a good many Christians, particularly to men of education, conscious of the intellectual ferment of the age. That the various Gnostic teachers agreed so far, bears wit- ness to common impressions and common cravings which they all expressed ; that they differed as they did, indicates the wilfulness of their method. These men were not ex- pounding a revelation ; they were arranging their impressions and their conjectures. Yet all of them had felt the vitalising force of Christianity. The elements out of which the Gnostics build their theories are, in general, these — first, the grand distinction is that between matter and spirit, — the one the element of grossness, darkness, deception, therefore of evil and vice ; the other of light, truth, reality, therefore also of goodness. Second, the world we know, with its hierarchy of beings from man downwards (including human religions, politics, in short the whole scenery of the world), is a mixture in various degrees of the two elements, the rational and the irrational. How is it to be understood ? It is the case of a better nature imprisoned in a worse. A kind of " wisdom " goes through all the world, rising here and there to clearer manifestation ; but it is a captive wisdom, gone astray, entangled in a foreign element. It has become carnal. Thirdly, belief in God, goodness, and salvation, means belief in a higher world, where the better element exists in purity 98-180] THE HERESIES— GNOSTICISM 97 and power; it exists in hierarchies of beings (the seons),^ graduated perhaps, yet all divine, and all manifesting the central source whom we call God. That world is the Pleroma.^ Fourthly, returning to this world, we note that not merely is matter pervaded by a certain " wisdom," — it is amenable so far to order and can palpitate into life, — but the world has something architectonic about it ; its vault of heaven, its plain of earth, its tribes of animals, its kingdoms of men with traditions and laws. Someone^ has been here ordering, disposing ; but if so, it is someone who from his birth has never conceived any higher work, otherwise he would not have busied himself with this. This is the Demiurge, the Maker, the great carnal Worker. Fifthly, as to the religions of the world, they are classed as evil — the pagan ; medium — the Jewish ; good — the Christian, gnostically understood. The Demiurge is the God of the Jews, and of the Old Testament. He is doing what he can to make the world perfect, with no great success ; and the Jews are his special people, with whom he has taken particular pains. He has promised them a Messiah, and an earthly triumph under his guidance. When the supreme God, or the joint wisdom of the Pleroma, interposes at last, in Christianity, the administrations of the Demiurge are taken possession of by this higher power and are made vehicles of higher influences. Sixthly, Christ is a wonderful concentration of the light and virtue of the Pleroma. He comes forth in fitting time to deliver what can be delivered of the captive element. There are men, there have always been, in whom the divine spark comes out more clearly and victoriously, or in whom it can be roused into decisive manifestation. These are souls susceptible of the true salvation. The coming of Christ is the signal for their emancipation. Deliverance comes home to them as they catch sight of the significance of His coming, and ^ The numbering and naming of these aeons is the most fantastic element in Gnosticism. ^ The fulness. • It might be a company — angels, star spirits, etc 7 98 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. become possessed with the true view of things; and this effect is promoted by various rites. About Christ Him- self {e.g. in His relation to the man Jesus), and about the influence He exerts on different classes of men, a variety of views existed. Some systems provided a kind of in- ferior well-being for Christians of the letter who are not capable of Gnostic insight, nor therefore of Gnostic salva- tion. Seventhly, the hope of the Gnostics was to rise clear of all material entanglement into the realm of light, knowledge, incorruption. What this would prove to be remained very vague ; no details could be given. Some particulars of the various systems will appear below. Meanwhile let us observe what the points were on which Gnosticism challenged Christian thought, and so accelerated its development.^ Only let this be emphasised in the first place, that the Gnostics with whom we have to do were Christians. Justin Martyr says that the followers of Simon, of Menander, of Marcus, were all called Christians. Apart from general repute their own teaching proves it. Wild as their speculations were, still for all of them Christianity was not only a true religion ; it was the absolute and final religion. The coming of Christ was the great inter- position, the decisive crisis of the world. On it the destiny of all spiritual natures depended. Neander^ has remarked how striking the testimony is which is thus rendered to the impression produced by Christ and the gospel ; for, indeed, this conviction about Christ became the starting-point of some of the strangest Gnostic theories. They paid this tribute to a sect despised by Celsus, scoffed at by Lucian, everywhere spoken against. In connection with no form of teaching of that century but the Christian, do we find such an eager host of cultivated and speculative men, inspired with the conviction that in the gospel they have found the centre of truth and life ; yet resolute to con- ^ This outline would have to be modified in various details to fit to par- ticular Gnostic systems. This is specially true of the system of Basilides. ^ Neander, History (Clark's trapsl. ), ii. p. 5. 98-180] THE HERESIES — GNOSTICISM 99 strue it into harmony with intellectual prejudices which they feel to be imperative.^ First, then, Christianity is a remedial scheme. The prob- lem it proposes to deal with is sin. Deliverance from other evils will follow sooner or later if this be healed. The Gnostics accepted this Christian thought. They confessed an evil which needed for its cure an interposition from on high ; and they recognised this interposition in the person, history, and teaching of Christ. But they judged that the problem to be solved by redemption reached farther than the ordinary Christian supposed. The Gnostic did not begin with a world which is good, or is neutral, and then conceive sin coming into it, or arising in it, to mar it. For him human sin is only one feature of a larger evil — the pervading evil of the world itself, rooted in its very constitution. That there is a difficulty about the world, and about the course of providence, was not concealed in the Old Testament or the New. Anyone who looks closely into life is apt to have suggested to him some deep disease in the nature and course of things. Yet neither Scripture nor the faith of the Church could be moved from the conviction that the moral problem — the problem created by human wills — is the essential one for man, and is that with which redemption must deal. Still the problem of the world is a perplexing one; and in some moods it presses on the mind with dangerous force. More seems to be wrong than only the sin of erring wills. Pain, death, decay are everywhere ; the world sug- gests a good which it does not impart. The theory that man's fall brought evil after it for other creatures, seems inadequate to explain the mystery. The very constitution of things by which man is partaker of animal life, and is pressed by all kinds of physical necessities, seems of itself to bring in and begin the irreconcilable conflict. In this very constitution are not the sources of evil already present, the influences which lower life and baffle its aspirations ? * See Harnack, Dogmengesch. i. p, 171. 100 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. The Gnostic thought so ; and he asserted his conviction in the most emphatic way. Evil in man's life is only a particular case of evil present everywhere in a world that is essentially base, disappointing, perverse. This system of things has about it just so much of a suggestion of something better, just so much of a nisus towards that, as to stamp it with the character of defeat and disgrace. It is radically mistaken and evil. So evil in man and world alike has a deep root. It is in the nature of things.^ On this system one clearly could not speak of the creature, man, as having fallen, nor yet of the whole creation as fallen. Eather, the creation is itself the fall. That is, the mere constitution of this world, or of any world that has a material fabric, is its disgrace, its fault. If some wisdom, and therefore some goodness, can be traced in the world, it is a fallen wisdom, and it is a goodness fettered and imprisoned under forces too strong for it. Sin in man is but the concreated defect — the same in principle throughout the whole creation. Probably the Gnostic was not so consistent in all this as to leave no room for responsibility — for men being possibly better or worse within certain limits. Still the tendency of the scheme was towards fatalism, which is always strongly charged upon the Gnostics by their opponents. That came out not only in the doctrine of sin, but in the classes of men (pneumatic, psychic, hylic), who are determined to be such by their natures and cannot be other. This brought out the thinkers and teachers of the Church on the subject of responsibility, which they ^ Possibly the Gnostics felt themselves all the more entitled to lean in this direction, because they perceived among their fellow-Christians a mode of thought on the subject which was superficial. Those who put to the front the freedom of the will as the clue to man's condition were apt to think of sins merely as isolated acts of transgression, or at worst, as habits formed by such acts. Thinkers of this class certainly existed at the end of the second century (e.g. Clement), and might well do so at the beginning of it. The Gnostic might feel himself entitled to correct this in the interest of a profounder view. Sin in men is not merely acts of sin ; it is a state which is the fruitful mother of acts. 98-180] THE HERESIES — GNOSTICISM 101 grounded on an extremely resolute, and not very dis- criminating, assertion of the freedom of the will. Gnosti- cism, in this view, may be taken as the earliest advocacy on Christian ground of a kind of necessarianism by natural law. It began a great debate which was to take many turns and to assume many forms. The Gnostic view of the world represents an im- pression of it which exists in all periods. Not many years ago it was vividly expressed by Mr. J. S. Mill, when he declared that if we assume a Maker of the world, he must be regarded as either not able, or not willing, to make it very good. Accordingly the Gnostic doctrine of the world reacted on their doctrine of God. So imperfect a world must have a very inferior author, far below the Supreme Truth and Goodness. Hence, although creation is still regarded as containing an element or an influence which holds remotely from the Supreme God, yet creation ceases, properly speaking, to reveal Him. The purpose and plan and work of creation are no longer His ; and the same has to be said of ordinary providence. At the same time, we lose hold of everything that helps us to think of God as personal. He retires to an unapproachable distance. True, the spiritual element in the world is referred to Him by emanation ; but it is rather material to work with than any determinate presence of God with creatures. The world, therefore, when it comes into existence, has a cer- tain connection with God; there is an element in it which has fallen or has been stolen from Him; but the world is not the creature of His hand, nor the object of His care. As to redemption, on the other hand, some of these systems seem to make it to originate at a point lower than true and and original Godhead, — in which case redemption also would only remotely reveal God. Yet all of them regard redemption as originating in the Pleroma, and as aiming at restoring men, or some of them, to the region of divine light and influence. And some systems trace redemption clearly enough to the purpose and love of the Highest God. This was emphatic- ally the case with Marcion. In such systems the true God 102 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. is at last revealed in Christ, and, more or less explicitly, with a character of loving-kindness. Against these views the Church set the Old Testament doctrine of God as the maker of all things. His creatures, though far below Him, do yet so far manifest His power and glory, and are the objects of His government. Also, He who became incarnate as Eedeemer was the especial agent in creation. Very likely there might be among the members of the churches, even apart from full-blown Gnosticism, many who were disposed to account for the defects of creatures by postulating a ministry of angels as the immediate authors of them. But if so, these thoughts were speedily suppressed in the Catholic affirmation of God the Maker. Ever since those days the question, in what sense the world testifies of God and reveals Him, has been in hand, and it is active yet. Besides the assertion of God the Maker, the Church had two other specific articles to set against Gnosticism at this point. One was the goodness of the creatures. As creatures they are all good, each in its place. Henceforth asceticism, however zealous and exaggerated, had to com- bine its self-denials and its repudiations of creature com- fort with the acknowledgment that the creatures thus renounced after all are good. To have failed at this point was the chief heresy imputed to Tatian. The other article was man's creation in the image of God. Man, therefore, as man, is capable of fellowship with God. Not only is he a creature good in his degree, but it is a very high degree. He ought to aspire to be man, nothing less and nothing else. In those days it often happened that the experience of inward defeat, division, and disgrace bred a sad conviction that human goodness was impossible. The only hope left was that of being trans- ferred into some state of being that denied human condi- tions. The Gnostic theorised that feeling. The Church, confessing human weakness and danger, yet maintained that " in the image of God made He man." The Gnostic, while he took no high view of man as man, 98-180] THE HERESIES — GNOSTICISM 103 yet held that certain men are constituted so as to be cap- able of knowing God, and are destined to the upper world as their proper home. These are men in whom the divine spark asserts itself above and against the seducing and de- pressing flesh ; they have this eminence by nature, as others by nature have it not. Not merely the Gnostic teaching about the world, but the Gnostic mood or attitude of mind upon the subject, received its most picturesque expression in the doctrine of the Demiurge.^ Not only is there a Sophia or an Achamoth who has diffused herself, or has diffused her influence, throughout the masses of matter of which the world is composed, making all in some degree amenable to form and law, but, below her and after her, there has been Somebody at work trying what he can make out of the material so prepared. In this Demiurge was summed up for the Gnostic the utmost and highest that the ordered fabric of the world suggests. He is the king of carnal natures ; the chief instance of a wisdom caught somehow from on high, which has become permanently fettered in a material environment. He is ever looking downward, ever labouring about material things and conditions, or about men considered as beings with conditions and aims like his own. He strives constantly and vainly to perfect what cannot be perfected ; he spends on such work care and pains which the Gnostic counted irrational, and which is doomed finally to disgrace; in short, he is the great busybody — Treptepyo^; — who goes out incessantly into the divided, the external, the manifold. In his dealings with men he strives to order them by laws and penalties, and with very partial success. The Jews are his favourite people, and show the utmost reach of his plans. He has promised them a Messiah to endow them with terrestrial weal. This kingdom of the Demiurge was what the Gnostic, looking round the great world, seemed to see ; and he renounced and defied the kingdom and the king. It suggests strange thoughts of the temper and the experience of * A 7;)[uoi//)76$= creator. 104 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCS [a.d. those days, that such an attitude towards nature should be possible. Perhaps we may add that, in a form lamentable enough certainly, we see here the intensity of the Christian feeling as to good and evil imparting itself to the Gnostic mind. There is a sombre intensity about it, which could hardly proceed from the Greek schools, nor even from the Oriental dualists.^ As regards the Eedeemer's person, the Gnostic view of matter excluded a real incarnation. To be incarnate would imply so far a captivity to evil. Therefore the Saviour from the Pleroma, who is purely spiritual, descends upon the Messiah prepared by the Demiurge, and makes him the organ of the higher plan — the supreme purpose of salvation. On this scheme he who dies on Calvary is the Messiah of the Demiurge, and the Saviour is conceived to have previously departed from him. It is another version of the same general theory when the human nature of Christ is treated as illusive — a mere deceptive show. Heretofore apparently the Church had not encountered much doubt as to our Lord's true manhood. A vague docetic tendency had indeed appeared before the days of formal and express Gnosticism,^ but it does not seem to have been very definite. Manhood was the aspect of our Lord that pressed upon the senses of men during His life on earth ; and the first error was to assert that He was no more than man, or was only a man elevated by divine influence at His baptism to a higher capacity. Against this was set the assertion of our Lord's pre-existence in the higher nature. But in Gnosticism, while pre-existent divinity (in the shadowy sense in which degrees of it are admitted by 1 There is a pervading difference between the mood of the Gnostic and that of his Greek models. With them the sense of evil was weak, though the sense of deformity might be strong. The effect of the material element was therefore more calmly and mildly conceived ; matter was the element of defect ; it can never be brought up to the ideal. In the Gnostic there is a certain bitterness and disdain. His Christianity operated here ; or else some old Oriental conceptions revealed their peculiar way of working. 2 Ignat. ad Trail, and ad Smym. ; Gospel of St. Peter ^ as read by Serapion of Autioch. 98-180] a:HE HERESIES — GNOSTICISM l05 Gnosticism) is ascribed to Christ, the human nature is denied or explained away. Here then the Church had to assert the human nature, the true birth and the true human experience of the Son of God ; and men were led to dwell on the benefit achieved for us in that way.^ In regard to His higher nature also stress was laid on His being the Only-Begotten ; not one of many, holding more or less remotely of the divine nature, but the Father's only and perfect Son — whose incarnation therefore carries to us a quite unique expression of divine care and love. It cannot be said that the Gnostics undervalued the thought of redemption. Eather it may be true that the Gnostics had a livelier sense of a great deliverance than was cherished by a good many of the so-called orthodox among their contemporaries. Christ's coming was for them the epoch of a great extrication. The sparks of divine nature in all susceptible souls were to be gathered to Christ as their true centre, and to the upper world as their true home. In a sense this came to pass by faith, if faith be understood as a form of thinking. The Gnostic Christian became aware of his relation to this Saviour and this destiny, and, becoming conscious of it, he possessed it and reaped its fruits. Some of them might lay stress on the necessity of its being such a consciousness as could animate and inspire the life. At any rate, Christ's appear- ance is the redemption. It would be congruous to this to hold that Christ's interposition operates only as it is illumin- ative, as it vividly illustrates the true relations of the universe, and lays the foundations of a teaching able to come home to those who are to be gathered in. That would seem to be, theoretically, all. Yet it is true, perhaps, that many Gnostics conceived the coming of Chi'ist to have a mystical influence (not capable of further explanation) which somehow emancipates the seonic natures, and breaks the spell which held them captive. With this side of things might be connected observances, ascetic and ritual, on ^ Irensus, iii. 18. 6, 7, and elsewhere often. Ignatius had previously led this way with great decision. Eph. xix. etc. 106 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. which we know that various Gnostic sects laid stress ; but these we are not in circumstances to conceive with clearness. The Church, of course, had no objection to the stress laid on the illuminative function of Christ. But her teachers maintained against the Gnostics the reality and also the importance of His death, though no remarkable success attended their efforts to explain the grounds of it as part of the divine plan. On the other hand, against the Gnostic method of salvation by illumination, operating in souls of a certain susceptible class, the Church laid stress on the surrender of the will, and asserted it to be, by grace, open to all kinds of men everywhere. The Gnostics divided men into classes, two classes according to some, according to the more popular teaching three, pneumatic or spiritual, psychic or carnal, and hylic or material, i.e. gross and low. On this classification a place was provided (among the psychic) for the ordinary Christians — the men of mere pistis as opposed to gnosis — who take Christianity in the letter, and who regulate their conduct by the rules of civil righteousness. These have a relative acceptance, and, eventually, a kind of lower blessedness which suits them. But the true ideal Church consists only of the Gnostics, who, being by their nature akin to the upper world, respond to the revelation of Christ, discern its true significance, and experience its power. Many Gnostics were disposed to veil the effect of this part of their scheme, to keep their connection with the churches, and to assume the character of a select class of Christians, but yet in fellowship with the larger membership. In proportion, however, as the Church realised the true position of the Gnostics on this point, it was felt to be intolerable. The distinction between faith and knowledge was recognised by the defenders of the Catholic belief ; but the sufficiency of faith to procure an interest in the peculiar blessings of Christianity was always maintained ; often, however, it must be confessed, on principles that were unsatisfactory and confused. The distinctions just referred to were, of course, carried 98-180] THE HERESIES — GNOSTICISM 107 out by the Gnostics in reference to the final destiny of in- dividuals. Speaking generally, the men of each class are assigned by their nature to the destiny appropriate to them ; and since, even in the case of the most select men, only the pneumatic element in them could go so high as the Pleroma, some systems were led by considerations of consistency to assert a final disintegration of human beings, one element, for example, of the spiritual man going to one destiny and another to another. In this connection the Gnostic way of thinking dropped the whole eschatological expectation of the Church, and did not even try to replace it by any substitute that might appeal to the imagination. Emancipation from the flesh and from the forces of the lower world were for them everything. The Church asserted, on the other side, the old eschatology — the return of Christ, His glorious kingdom, and the resurrection of the body. In this last article the Church at the end, as at the beginning, maintained the essential goodness of human nature. The attitude of the Gnostics to the Old Testament and to Judaism must be understood in the light of the corre- sponding attitude of the Church. The Church repudiated Judaism, with all that was national and ceremonial in Jewish religion. At the same time it claimed the Old Testament as a Christian book — Christian in its true sense. The Christians, of course, had no difficulty in taking pos- session of that in the Old Testament which was obviously moral and spiritual. For the rest, they thought it proper to maintain that the Jews greatly misconceived the char- acter and end of the law imposed on them, or, at all events, had always missed the main sense, i.e. the evan- gelical sense, the reference to New Testament events and truths; for these must be understood to be all along the main purpose of revelation. The Christians therefore re- sorted extensively to allegorical interpretation, in order to make out a sense in harmony with their assumption. Now the Gnostics, or most of them, could allegorise, and they did. But to allegorise to the extent necessary to 108 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH U-D. adapt the whole Old Testament to their theories would have been absurd. The Old Testament and Judaism spoke too plainly of a God who created the world and cared for it ; who set apart a land for His people, provided for them, punished them, ruled them by laws. That was the char- acter which the Gnostic ascribed to the Demiurge ; he is therefore at once Maker of the world and God of the Jews. The Old Testament, therefore, is mainly the revelation of the Demiurge ; and the view taken of it fluctuated according as Gnostic schools either regarded the Demiurge as mainly hostile to the higher world, or judged his influence more mildly as leading to order and justice, though on a low plane and within narrow limits. On either view, however, the Gnostics could confess that the Old Testament con- tains passages of a higher strain. These are utterances of spiritual men who arose in Judaism from time to time. They appeared in the kingdom of the Demiurge, but really belonged to the higher kingdom. They were generally misunderstood, and could not at that time make head against the system in which they were involved. The Old Testament, therefore, was a very miscellaneous book, and a process of very free thought could be applied to it.^ On the whole, it might be a book not unprofitable to simple Christians on condition of their always translating it into a Christian sense ; but the larger part of it could be accounted for only by ascribing it to an author distinct from the Spirit of Christ. Very likely this did not seem to the Gnostics the most formidable part of their system to main- tain ; yet nothing operated more conclusively against them than just the fact that they ascribed the Old Testament to another and a lower being than the true God. Many of their speculations could have been forgiven to them, but not this. Against the Gnostics the Church maintained the apos- tolic position: it clung to the Old Testament. But in doing so it showed little aptitude to understand or appre- ^ See especially the remarkable letter from PtolemfiBUS (Valeutiuian Gnoatic) to Flora, Epiph. Panar. Hxr. 33. 98-180] THE HERESIES — GNOSTICISM 109 ciate either the Pauline explanations or those advanced in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Men simply laid stress on the right to allegorise, as furnishing the means of bringing out the required evangelical sense. In fact, the view was that large parts of the Old Testament must be taken in a non-natural or not obvious sense, if its position as Christian Scripture was to be maintained. Hence Origen lays it down {de Princ, Prcef.) as universally agreed that the Scriptures have not only the plain sense but a concealed one, and that it is the judgment of the whole Church that the Law is to be spiritualised. Also (iv. 8) he says that it is because the heretics take many Old Testament Scrip- tures in the plain sense, that they do not ascribe them to the highest God.^ In regard to the Canon of the New Testament, it is likely, on every account, that such a challenge as Gnosticism addressed to Christians with respect to what was to be believed, should set men on to settle definitely the sources that could be appealed to as reliable and authoritative in regard to the main tenets of the religion. In the beginning of the second century ideas on this point were probably vague among all parties. The Gnostics, like other Christian schools, claimed the possession of traditions which connected them with the authoritative times of the Chris- tian faith; and we read of gospels, some of which might be Gnostic versions of the Christian tradition, but they seem rather to have been treatises on the Gnostic theory of the imiverse — " Philosophies of the Plan of Salvation." Marcion, of whom something will be said presently, pro- posed a canon of New Testament books, and that step, of course, was a fresh motive to the orthodox Church to set * Hamack has remarked that as long as the strain of the Gnostic contro- versy lasted this principle was not applied to the New Testament by the orthodox : it was the Gnostics who held that the allegorical key might be applied to the events of Christ's life and to His sayings as well as to those of His authorised followers, by the same right by which the Church, from their point of view, applied it to the Old Testament Scripture. Origen's rules of interpretation include the application of allegory to the New Testament ; but this rather shows that the Gnostic crisis had passed. 110 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. forth and lay stress on a canon of her own. But while the Gnostics had a literature, partly apocryphal, as the orthodox also had, it does not appear, except in Marcion's case, that there was any prolonged conflict over the canon. Probably it soon became evident to Gnostics as to Catholics that there was, after all, a limited and tolerably definite set of books which could claim respect as undoubted monuments of the apostolic teaching. In the fragments of Gnostic literature still surviving, what strikes one is the habitual appeal on their part, as well as on that of their opponents, to our well-known books. In fact the Gnostics seem to have produced the first regular commen- taries on writings of the Apostles Paul and John, as well as the first regular discussions of theological themes.^ That is, the writings of Paul and John seemed to men of this type to have significance, in the way of thoughtful setting out of principles, which was little appreciated in the churches ; and what they said of flesh and spirit, of the true God and the God of this world, of the Pleroma, and many other topics, could be shown to imply the principles of an esoteric scheme differing widely from the common Christianity of the churches. Hence, while they criticised the Old Testament, the Gnostics set themselves to discuss the monuments of the Christian tradition, and thus to base them- selves not merely on speculation, but upon authority too. The Church joined issue with the Gnostic teachers as to the real meaning of these books. But this was not judged to be a sufficient defence. Hence the belief of the great apostolic churches was put forward, in the form of the regula^ as the decisive test of the essentials of Chris- tianity. Scripture was to be used on that foundation and within those limits. Some Gnostics also appear to have had a regula, and not so very unlike that of the orthodox Church as one would have expected. The Gnostics based their ethical teaching upon the antagonism between the spiritual and the sensuous element in man. It has often been remarked that any system * Basilides, Valentinus, Heracleon. ^ See Chap. IV. 98-180] THE HERESIES — GNOSTICISM 111 which does this is capable of development in two opposite directions. It was so with the Gnostics. Some of them in all good faith strove to suppress the sensuous element, and with that view inculcated a strict asceticism. Others regarded the sensuous element as indifferent, — it did not affect the real man, the spiritual being ; and on this line of thought they became libertine, or at least secular and careless. In general, the orthodox could not but approve of the asceticism of the strict Gnostics, as far as it went. But the dualistic basis on which they placed it was per- emptorily challenged and condemned.^ The leading Gnostic schools must now be described. Cerinthus has already been mentioned. The main article Df his teaching, so far as known to us, was the assertion that the creation of the world was due to certain inferior angels. Speculations as to the agency of angels in creation had been current among the Jews. But the Gnostic type of the thinking of Cerinthus is fixed by this, that with him these angels are ignorant of the supreme God, and suppose themselves to be the highest existences. Carpocrates and Epiphanes had no great influence. Their interest lies in the circumstance that a more Greek and a less Oriental character attaches to their scheme. It is energetically Antinomian. The " law of ordinances," the narrow and negative rule of the lower powers, was rejected by Christ in the strength of His knowledge of a higher world ; and in rejecting it, he found His own emancipation and became the Saviour of others. In taking this attitude, however, towards the Jewish law, Carpocrates and his son took the same attitude, apparently, towards all restrictions upon human life and freedom. If they tried to restrain their own principle and to reconcile it with some view of regulated life, we do not know how this was attempted. The name Ophites may be taken as designating a con- ^ There was a ceremonial and ritual side of Gnosticism, which is believed by some writers to have powerfully influenced the eventual development of the same element in the great Church. But it is difficult to produce con- clusive proof. See Loofs, Leitfaden^ p. 73. 112 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. siderable body of Gnostics, whose thinking seems never to have found an authoritative expositor; consequently, it varied a good deal. But they so far had a common char- acter and deserved a common name, because they drew into their scheme a widespread fancy of the ancient world, according to which the serpent form embodies or represents both the Agathodaemon and the Kakoda3mon ; with this they combined speculations suggested by the serpent of the temptation (Gen. iii.) and the brazen serpent of Moses. As the opponent of the Old Testament God, the serpent could be regarded as a good principle that bestows wisdom ; yet in some theories a serpent form appears also as em- bodying a lower and evil principle which has to be over- come. Among the Ophites may be reckoned the Naassenes, the Peratics, the Sethians, and the followers of Justus. A Gnostic scheme described by Irenseus {Ref. i. 30. 1 f.) is often ranked as Ophite in its affinities. This scheme affirms the existence of an original Light — the Father of all — also called the First Man ; an Emanation, who is the second man ; a third, the Holy Spirit, conceived as feminine, who is the first woman ; and a fourth, son of the first woman, who is Christ. These four form the true Ecclesia — the Eternal Church. But another child of the first woman descends into the depths, becomes entangled in matter, and sets agoing the history of the lower world. Here a presiding Hebdomad of planetary spirits is developed, with Jaldabaoth,^ the God of the Law, at the head of it, and a counter Hebdomad of lower quality presided over by Naas in snake form. The Demiurge himself, too, is not reconcilable to the supreme God, and he and his kingdom eventually fade away. Types of Gnosticism which appear to be more distinct in themselves, and to bear clearer tokens of originating in single minds of some force, are those of Saturninus, Basilides, and Valentinus. Saturninus holds a pretty early place in the Gnostic chronology — perhaps as early as the age of Trajan. His system is more simple, perhaps we should rather say more »ChUd of Chaos. 98-180] THE HERESIES — GNOSTICISM 113 crude, in some of its aspects, and the Oriental elements are more prominent than in the schemes of Basilides and Valentinus. According to Saturninus,^ the supreme God has created various angels and powers. Seven of these (planetary spirits ?), of whom the God of Judaism is one, have made this lower world. Man is their creature — created after an "image" which gleamed out upon the angels from the supreme God, but which they could not retain. Man as made by them is a failure ; but God pities him as one made in His image, and sends out a spark of life, by means of which man accomplishes his earthly existence ; but he returns to God at death. Satan is opposed to the world- creating angels, and under the influence of the Daemons an evil race of men arise, over against the good who possess the divine spark from on high. Marriage and, according to some, the use of animal food are due to the influence of Daemons. God has sent Christ, who is incorporeal and invisible, to free those who believe in Him (those who possess the divine spark) from the Daemons. Under the name of Basilides * two distinguishable systems are described — one by Irenaeus (i. 23), one by Hippolytus {Ref. vii. 14 f.) supported by Clement of Alexandria. The latter is generally considered to be the more authentic. The former resembles closely the scheme of Saturninus : only, Basilides is said to have postulated a development of five aeons from the supreme God, and to have increased the number of the spirits from the seven of Saturninus to 365. To the last seven of these the creation of the visible world is ascribed. The first of the aeons is sent as Christ, to vanquish the powers of the lower world. His appear- ance is docetic, and Simon of Cyrene is crucified in his room. But the Basilides of Hippolytus and Clement has ascribed to him a more remarkable speculation. It is not a system ^ Or Saturnilus. * Perhaps in the reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117-138). He claimed to have been instructed by Glaueias, a companion of the Apostle Peter. 8 114 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. of development downwards, but after the first stage one of evolution and ascent. He begins with an antithesis which may be denoted as that of the Potential and the Actual. God is the non- existent.^ In some way for which we can find no analogy, He creates a world, in the form of a world-seed (Travo-irep/jLLa), All that is or can be is in it, undefined and mixed. From this point a process of evolution sets in, — each element is attracted upwards, and has an inherent nisus that way ; so the elements sort themselves out, till each thing is found at last in its own distinct and appropriate place. In the world-seed are three Sonships, all of one essence with the non-existent God, and all of which strive upwards towards His transcendent beauty and good- ness. The first Sonship^ is the most subtle element; it severs itself from the world mixture and rises with the speed of thought to the non-existent God. The second Sonship — less subtle — needs the aid of the Holy Spirit, and, each helping each, they reach only to the border of the non-existent God and the first Sonship ; this, therefore, is a state still short of the supreme ineffable blessedness, but near it — a state in which an " odour " of Sonship abides. The Spirit now becomes the limitary spirit be- tween the mundane and the supramundane. The third Sonship remains as yet below, needing purification, receiv- ing benefit and imparting it. Now comes the development of the world. First the great Archon, the world prince, rises to the firmament and forms the visible world. He does not know that there exists one greater than himself. Out of the world -seed he begets himself a son greater and wiser than himself, admires his beauty, and sets him at his right hand. His seat is conceived to be above the seven planetary spheres, — therefore it is the Ogdoad. A second archon then arises, and finds his place in the Hebdomad, the last of the planetary spheres ; and he also ^ The strongest expression of God's remoteness from all we can conceive as existence — beyond even the Ideal. 3 The pure Ideal ? 98-180] THE HERESIES GNOSTICISM 115 begets a son greater than himself. How far Basilides and his followers imagined further developments analogous to these to have taken place in the constitution of the world, is not clear. But supposing the world to have taken shape, the main interest attaches to the redemption of the third Sonship, which still remains in the Travairepfiia or in the lower world. This third Sonship remains there, "in order to do good and to receive good"; — to do good, apparently by exerting influence on creatures of lower element, and to receive good in ways not made very clear, but probably connected with effort and discipline. But it, too, must rise at last to its proper place. This takes place by the gospel — which passes through all the higher spheres, not by a real descent of any Saviour, but as an energy — compared to a flash of fire which even from a distance produces its effect. This travels through the worlds and reaches the great Archon, whose son (here beginning to be spoken of as Christ), sitting by Him, first apprehends its meaning and opens it to the Archon — who is awed and converted. The same process repeats itself in the Hebdomad : and, finally, the influence reaches Jesus the Son of Mary. Through its illumination, the purification and elevation of the third Sonship sets in. Jesus Himself yields up the various elements of His per- sonality to their proper spheres, — some remaining in the corporeal world, some mounting to the Hebdomad and Ogdoad, but the highest — the proper Sonship — rises up above all these. This last Sonship, indeed, proves to be the purest and most powerful, and stimulated by the light from on high rises of itself to the region of supreme good. So He inaugurates the general purification and distribution by which everything comes to its proper place. Finally, the world from which the three Sonships have departed is not abolished, as in other schemes, but remains in peace. Everything has come to its own place; and, to maintain the adjustment, a great ignorance is poured out upon all stages of the Kosmos, so that no element may be tempted to aspire beyond its proper limits. 116 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D. On this system the third Sonship represents the pneu- matic element as it exists in man, or possibly also in higher beings next of kin to man. Valentinus formed the most popular and attractive of Gnostic systems. He was at Eome about 140 — ^and his peculiar teaching cannot be of later date. His system begins with thirty ^ons which successively emanate from the supreme God, in pairs male and female. One of these ^ons, Sophia, falls from the Pleroma — and brings forth Christ, who frees Himself from all taint of mortality and hastens back to the Pleroma. Further, the fallen ^on brings forth the Demiurge, and also a being, the left or sinister one, who presides over the sheer material, as the Demiurge does over the psychic element. These two in- fluence this lower world. Also, one Horos separates the first ^on, Bythos, from the other ^ons, and another separates the Sophia from the Pleroma. In the develop- ment given to Valentinianism by Ptolemaeus, a higher and a lower Sophia find their place, the latter being only a thought or dream of the former; and Christ and Jesus (who are distinguished from one another) are conceived as eminently derived from the strength and glory of the Pleroma. The scheme of Valentinus is brightened by touches of poetry and romance. While it embodies, like the other versions of Gnosticism, a theory of the world and its forces, it seems, more than any of them, to reflect in a measure the sentiment and the pathos of human experience.^ ^ Tatian, disciple of Justin and Apologist, afterwards an Encratite, is said to have cherished Gnostic notions about the material world and about Mona (latter half of second century) ; and Bardesanea of Edessa (a.d. 154-230) believed in Syzygies of ^ons, which were alluded to in his hymns. Both of these continued to hold relation to the life of the Church. There were forms of Gnosticism which made large use of magical formulae, and embodied ideas in connection with them which it is usual to refer to the old religion of Babylon. Elements of that kind invaded the West with great force during the second century. Some Gnostics provided sets of formulae, which, being learned by the disciple during life, would prove available after death to guarantee him against hostile powers, in making his perilous way through different regions of existence up to the Pleroma, See Anz, Texte u. Unters. xv. 4, and Schmidt, Texte u, Unters, viii. 1, 2> 98-180] THE HERESIES — GNOSTICISM 117 We have still to speak of Marcion. But before we leave the theories that have been before us, the question may be put by readers, "Where did the temptation to Gnosticism lie ? How should speculations so conjectural, theories of the universe so fantastic, be seriously meant and seriously entertained ? Why should one theory be preferred to another ; and why lay stress on any of them, whether you call them Gnosis, knowledge, conjecture, or any other name ? " It is difficult, no doubt, to sympathise so far as to understand. But we may remember that for ages salva- tion by knowledge was the only kind of salvation which thoughtful men had been able to plan, or had found it hopeful to attempt. "Know yourself," and know your world: then, under the influence of that knowledge, you may be expected to act wisely, which is as much as to say, act rightly. That way of thinking was carried out in Christianity by many besides the Gnostics. Now Chris- tianity seemed to reveal forces and relations for which none of the systems of Greek wisdom could make room. And to the Gnostics it seemed to carry suggestions which must be reduced to an intelligible scheme of the world, if men were to have an order of conceptions in their minds, under the influence of which a new outlook and a new wisdom should arise. The bare statements of the creed might be enough for merely practical people; but true children of light must live by theory. Gnosticism was, after all, only an extreme case of a general tendency. It was a very general thought that the divine excellency of Christianity must then be ours when we find it rising upon the soul as a deep, pure, comprehensive, wonderful knowledge. Before Gnosticism, around it, after it, we must conceive this mood existing as a general diffused tendency, operating in very many influential minds, and very strong among Christians. The author of the Epistle ascribed to Barnabas, Justin Martyr, Clement, Origen, are all conspicuous instances. For most people the greatest difficulty in taking 118 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. Gnosticism seriously is the introduction of the lists of ^ons, those shadowy personages, higher and lower, inter- posed between the supreme God and the world with which men are acquainted. There is nothing like this mob of metaphysical identities in Greek philosophy: and even admitting that the conception in general of such inter- mediate existences might be entertained, what could possibly set men on to number them and name them, when the very attempt might seem to be a declaration to all the world, that those who did so were indifferent to the distinction between fact and fiction ? One can only say, that in accounting for a mixed world, it might seem an ease to thought to postulate a variety of principles, inferior to God, but above and before the world, to which the various phases of being, and the various grades of good and evil, could be referred. In Plato's time it had been felt sufficient to think of a world of ideas in the divine mind which impress themselves more or less successfully on the Hyle — the matter which is the basis of the world we know. For the Gnostic that was not sufficient; for, first, he had a darker sense than the early Greek thinkers of the energy of evil in the world, as an adverse force to the divine ideals ; and, secondly, Christianity had taught him to conceive the world as embodying a history, a conflict, and a redemptive crisis. That seemed to import ideas which are also forces — are, indeed, persons. At this point what he believed of the interposition of Christ had also much to do with fixing the character of the Gnostic thought. Christ was a person. On the same type the world might be conceived as ener- gised by a background of dim personalities. From among these Christ interposes ; only He is (at least in the more thoughtful Gnostic systems) the most divine, illustrious, and victorious of them all. The second century was a time in which all over the Gentile world, and among its best thinkers, the tendency to explain the world by the assumption of manifold beings, less than God and more than man, was extremely preva- 98-180] THE HERESIES MARCION 119 leut.^ The Gnostics were too Christian to allow the heathen gods — tlie " dcemons " — to occupy this place, and they filled it with ^ons. We need not suppose, however, that they ascribed any rigorous certainty to the detailed naming and numbering of .^ons. In the case of each system those details represented the number and character of distinct principles which the Gnostic's survey of the world had led him to assume; but even in the same school, the disciples did not hesitate to vary such details. Lastly, we must take it that we know Gnosticism mainly through unsympathetic reporters. One or two Gnostic tracts survive, indeed, to show that Gnosticism could be as dreary and as absurd as any page of Irenseus or of Epiphanius represents it. But there were forms of Gnosticism round which the common Christian interests continued to cling, and which had perhaps some inspiration not altogether estranged from Christian faith and love.^ In these more Christian forms the error could be more insidious ; perhaps the wilder forms were more fascinating to weak peopla Makcion Marcion is commonly associated with the Gnostics; he had, in fact, adopted some of their most characteristic posi- tions. He rejected the Old Testament, and he distinguished the God of the Old Testament, who is the Creator of our world, from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But the Gnostic elements of his teaching have no special importance : they are not very original, and are not con- sistently worked out. The moving forces which determined his position came from another quarter. He furnishes, therefore, a distinct illustration of the times, and of the influences then at work in the world. Marcion came from Sinope in Pontus, where his father, * Friedlander, iii. 485. * As expounded, for example, by Ptolemaeus {ante, p. 108, note), Heracleon (Fragments in Clement and Origen), Apelles (the follower of Marcion), and Bardesanes. 120 THE ANCIEKT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. according to some authorities, was a bishop. He is said to have been himself connected in some way with shipping, and appears to have possessed means. It is also said that before he left the East he spent some time in ascetic retire- ment. Later writers say that he departed from Sinope under scandal on account of some immorality ; but neither Irengeus nor Tertullian, though they both dislike the man extremely, allege anything of this kind. Marcion's rule of life was severe, and neither of these writers suggests that his own conduct had been inconsistent with it. It is of Marcion the story is told that meeting Polycarp of Smyrna in Eome, whom perhaps he may have seen previously in the East, he asked Polycarp, " Dost thou know me ? " and received the reply, " I recognise thee for the firstborn of Satan." Probably it was not far from the year 140 that Marcion first appeared in Eome. By 150, about which time Justin Martyr's first Apology was written, many had joined him ; for Justin says, " There is Marcion, a man of Pontus, who is even at this day alive, and teaches his disciples to believe in some god greater than the creator ; and he, by the aid of devils, has caused many of every nation to speak blasphemously, and to deny the God of this universe, and to assert that some other being, greater than He, has done greater works." Again, he says, " As we have said, the daemons put forward Marcion of Pontus, who is even now teaching men to deny that God is maker of all things in Heaven and Earth, and that the Christ predicted by the Prophets, is His Son. And this man many have believed, as if he alone knew the truth. And they laugh at us, though they can produce no proof, but are carried away irrationally, as lambs by a wolf." Marcion's system spread rapidly, not as a mere opinion, but as em- bodied in a regular church, organised over against the Catholic ; and this church proved durable, for Marcionites were still numerous in the fifth and sixth centuries. After the emperors became Christian, these dissidents had to endure Christian persecution, as before they had endured pagan. Nor did Marcion purchase adherents by conces- 98-180] THE HERESIES — MARCION 121 sions ; he enforced a stern discipline, and exacted strenuous self-deniaL It is no wonder that Christian writers speak bitterly of a man who held Marcion's views, and taught them so successfully. And yet there is much reason to believe that Marcion*s impressions were fundamentally Christian. He seems to have been one of those intense natures in whose case one aspect of things takes such vehement possession as to exclude all complementary or compensating considera- tions. Certain aspects of Christianity seemed to reveal themselves to him as evidently divine, worthy to be for ever asserted and enforced ; and the religious value of these impressions regulated everything else. He found it difficult to believe that others could resist the views which came home so forcibly to himself. When he came to Eome, he held conferences with the presbyters : and to the end there are indications that he had not ceased to think it possible the great Church might be reconciled to his view. Marcion believed that he had discovered the secret of Paul: — an open secret, for to him Paul's meaning was plain ; yet a secret, for Paul seemed to be universally mis- understood. This discovery was not merely a discovery of the Pauline way of thinking, but at the same time, as Marcion felt, an unveiling of the divine genius of the gospel. According to Paul, the gospel was first and essentially a revelation of grace — of an amazing divine goodwill — which delights in saving and enriching those who have no claim upon it. This breaks out in the gospel as something hidden from ages and generations, but now made manifest. There- fore, the inspiring principle at the bottom of all is faith, con- ceived as trust in the benignity of grace. In one view this does not make practical Christianity an easier business ; it does not open to us a smooth road. The love that saves inculcates the rejection of much that the flesh desires, and sets us on to seek our portion in regions which the flesh dreads to enter. If this involved hardships, these were nothing in the light of what was believed concerning the divine benefits present and future. The hardships in the case of the Mar- 122 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. cionites were certainly not small. They shared the persecu- tions of the Catholic Christians, often enduring martyrdom with equal fidelity ; they accepted a rule of life which in- volved many privations ; and they experienced, at the same time, enmity and repudiation at the hands of other Chris- tians. Marcion addresses his followers as " companions in distress and in reproach." Marcion regarded Christ as the revealer of this divine grace and goodwill, and perhaps (owning no personal dis- tinction) he identified Christ with the good God Himself. Following the Apostle Paul, he owns a special virtue in the crucifixion, as the ransom by means of which the divine goodwill becomes conclusively effectual; and apparently emphasis continued to be laid on this, as the central thing, among his followers. It is a doctrine not easily reconciled with some other parts of Marcion's teaching. But, as we have said, views which have vividly come home to him are strongly affirmed, without much care to smooth out inconsistencies. So far, one does not see why a collision should arise between Marcion and the Church. The Church received all the Pauline forms of statement upon which Marcion laid so much stress. He might feel, indeed, that while his mind thrilled to the wonderfulness and the newness of all this, the Church in general apprehended it languidly, and failed to give it due effect. Yet, if that were all, it would hardly explain the breach which followed. But Marcion's vivid appreciation of the teaching of Paul expressed itself in a vivid realisation of the contrast it presented to the current Christianity. Christ and Chris- tianity, as described by the apostle, seemed to Marcion to stand in the sharpest opposition to the Old Testament and to Judaism. The one was grace, the other was law. The one wrought by inward attraction and by trust, the other by external authority and constraint. The one aimed at inward freedom and an inward goodness finally made per- fect, the other was shut up in earthly conditions and earthly prospects. Had not Paul himself marked this 98-180] THE HERESIES — MARCION 123 contrast ? Had he not shown what the religion of the law is, and what it comes to, and what a weary yoke it im- poses ? Had he not brought out over against it the spirituality and liberty of the Spirit of Christ ? The Church held that all these things were, after all, consistent. You could take a view that reconciled them as terms in one series: nay, the Old Testament could be interpreted so as to teach what the New taught, and the New could be taken as only a plainer utterance of the Old. But this way of huddling things up seemed to Marcion to amount simply to evacuating the glory of Christianity. At all events, it was incredible that the God of grace, the author of the gospel, should have gone on for hundreds and thousands of years, in the track of Jewish history, commanding, threatening, punishing, inculcating the yoke of ordinances, administering elements of this world, making nothing perfect. To associate this with the gospel was to shut one's eyes to that in the second which was incompatible with the first. And then, as Marcion said to the orthodox, " If your system is the true one, what that is new has Christ brought ? Has he come only to enforce what, according to you, was in the world long before ? " No doubt, as the authoritative documents stood, even as the Pauline epistles stood, it might seem that this harmonis- ing of old and new had been sanctioned and accepted from the beginning. But to Marcion that seemed impossible ; and remarkable passages in the Pauline epistles plainly enough brought out the weakness and earthliness of Judaism, the poverty and fruitlessness of the law. Did not these passages give the clue to the apostle's real and central view ? The reform Christianity needed was to force home on men's minds this great contrast. But Marcion could not conceal from himself that the Church's error, if it was an error, did not date from yesterday. It was rooted in her tradition ; it ran through all that passed for apostolic literature ; it seemed to be as old as the apostles. Yes, but did not some Pauline sayings prove that this was 124 THE ANCIENT CATHOLtC CHURCH [a.d. exactly what Paul himself had found to be the case ? He, too, could not agree with the elder apostles. The explana- tion, after all, was just this, that the apostles themselves had mistaken Christ ; they had succumbed to the influence of those tendencies which are apt to prevail over Jews. Their Lord's teaching was in their minds biassed and mis- represented. This was what made it needful that a new revelation should be made to Saul of Tarsus, in order that the true scope of Christ's mission and work might be made clear. And yet even after Paul had done his work, the inveterate prejudice had prevailed; it had corrupted the record even of his teaching. The Gospels had been polluted with the evil leaven ; and the very epistles of Paul had here and there been tampered with. A real reform must go deep ; it must deal with the Christian teaching from the beginning. Now, if the Old Testament was to be thus resolutely contrasted with the religion of Christ, what view was to be taken of it? Either it was a sheer self-deception from first to last, — a view which for many reasons was not likely to seem either probable or acceptable to Marcion, — or it was the manifestation, the revelation, of a different God. This God is severely strict — just in that sense; of abundant law, regulation, prohibition; always employing force and penalty. That need not hinder many of his rules being good as far as they go. This Being proclaims himself to be the God of creation, and therefore no doubt he is so.^ Here Marcion is seen, like the other Gnostics, giving up this world without reluctance to the "just" God, whom he distinguishes from the good one. It was the common sentiment of meditative men in that time to regard the material world as something mainly to be sur- mounted and got rid of. But in this he differs remarkably from the Gnostics, that, taking the Old Testament account as he found it, he supposed human souls as well as bodies to originate in the creative act of the just God. The Gnostics usually maintained that something in men, a ^ Various things suggest that Marcion took the apostolic references to the Old Testament as establishing the truth of its historical statements. 98-180] THE HERESIES — MARCION 125 distinct and distinguishable something in the more select men, was derived, not from the Demiurge, but from a higher source. Marcion does not appear to have followed in this track. As men we are wholly the creatures of the God of the Old Testament; and under his government we find ourselves subjected to hard conditions which we cannot meet, and are always on the verge of disappointment and of punishment. Marcion, as has been said, recognised the Old Testament as a truthful book. For the same reason he believed its promises; and therefore he expected the coming of the promised Messiah of the Old Testament, who should set up an earthly kingdom, and establish it by force. Having made up his mind to fix the contrast between Christianity and Judaism in this startling form, Marcion carries out the scheme with a certain wilfulness and animosity. The good God, unknown before, resolves at length to interpose and rescue the unhappy subjects of the "just" God from his sway. Suddenly, therefore, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, Christ appears at Capernaum (Luke iv. 31). His preaching is rejected by those who have succeeded in some degree in commending themselves to the just God ; they hope that they have reached his standard of righteousness, or, at anyrate, they are filled with defer- ence for his law. But those who are sinners and trans- gressors lie far more open to the new message, and become partakers of the new kingdom. So also when Christ, after His crucifixion, appears in the place of departed souls to offer them His benefits, those who were counted pious under the Old Testament do not respond. They do not want to throw away their position with the God whose favour they have gained, and they fear that Christ's mission may be a device of his to try, and even to ensnare them. They therefore reject the benefit intended for them ; while the rebels of the Old Testament, such as Cain, embrace the offer, and enter Christ's kingdom. It was not necessary to Marcion's scheme to imagine all this ; and it must pass mainly as a brusque and audacious way 126 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. of underscoring the points in his scheme which were most adapted to affront both Jewish and Catholic piety. In the end, the unbelievers are left to the consequences of unbelief: the goodness of the good God is not construed to the effect of disposing Him to save all. The incon- sistency between His character, as Marcion himself repre- sents it, and the ruin which falls on unbelievers, is got over (apparently as an afterthought) by various versions of the explanation that unbelievers are left^ merely, to the con- sequences which arise to them from the nature of their own God, or from causes not well defined. The creatures on whom the good God has compassion, and whom He delivers, belong, as to their origin, wholly, body and soul alike, to the kingdom of the just God. But Marcion follows the common Gnostic conception, by making the Christian salvation apply to the souls only, not to the bodies. The souls are seats of mind and of deliberate action, and so far worth saving ; the bodies are not. Marcion represented Christ as divine, and His incarna- tion as apparent only, not real. Christ announced a new kingdom, and promised to save His people from the world, and from the God under whose yoke they groaned. All that He did was right contrary to what that God would have done; and at last the friends and servants of the "just" God crucified Him. But in doing so they blindly served Christ's purpose, for the crucifixion is the ransom which freed His people from the dominion of the Old Testament God. As Christ's incarnation is docetic only, on Marcion's showing, the stress laid on the crucifixion is an unexplained inconsistency in the scheme. Marcion faced the whole question of the documents to which Christianity can appeal: and the way in which he dealt with this question is not the least important nor the least fruitful aspect of his activity. As we have seen, he rejected the authority of the Old Testament : that was in no way the revelation of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some of the Gnostics had attempted to analyse the Old Testament, with a view to discriminate in 98-180] THE HERESIES — MARCION 127 it diverse planes of principle and of moral view, due some to a lower and some to a higher source. Marcion took it as one whole : and the chief book he wrote, so far at least as argument goes, was the Antitheses, in which he exerted himself to bring out contradictions and inconsistencies be- tween the Old Testament and the teaching of Christ. As regards Christianity, Marcion had to maintain that, from a date very near the beginning, preverting influences had misled the apostles, and had polluted the documents that might otherwise have passed as authoritative. He undertook, therefore, to criticise the sources, and to bring out a version of them which might serve as a standard for his followers. He produced for this purpose a Gospel and ten Epistles of Paul. The Gospel was a retrenched and altered version of our Luke, beginning with iii. 1^ and then passing on to iv. 31. The selected Epistles of Paul also were purged of passages which struck Marcion as inconsistent with his view. Marcion's rule of life, it has been said, was strict and ascetic. In particular, he required married persons to separate, and unmarried persons to consent to remain so, as a condition of baptism. Those who could not make up their minds to this, had to remain in the stage of cate- chumens ; and as considerable numbers occupied this position and continued in it, the catechumenate seems to have acquired a greater importance, or a higher rank, in Marcion's Church, than in the Catholic. Marcion and his followers were frank and outspoken. Many of the Gnostics adopted an insincere attitude, both towards the Christians and towards the heathens. The Marcionites, on the whole, seem to have been prepared to speak out, and take the consequences.^ * Among the Marcionites this was known probably, not as the Gospel according to Luke, but rather as the "Gospel of the Lord," or the like: and the later Marcionites believed it to have been wi'itten by Christ Himself. ^ This sketch of Marcion is in general agreement with the views of Harnack, Dogmengesch. 1. 197 f. ; and Loofs, Leitfaden, p. 73. The chief early source is TertuUian, Adv. Marcionem ; also Hippolytus, Hef. vii. 17 ; J)ial. Adamantii de orthodoxa fde, among Origen's works. CHAPTER VII MONTANISM In connection with discussions of Tubingen theories, Schweglep directed particular attention to Montanism, Nachapostol. ZeitaUer^ Tub. 1846. On the other side, A. Ritschl, Alikatholische KirchSy 2nd ed., Bonn, 1857. Prophetic utterances in Hilgenfeld, Kdzer- ^. p. 591 ; Bonwetsch, Gesch. d. Mont,, Eri. 1881. Montanism appeared first at the town of Pepuza, in Phrygia, about the year 156. A Christian called Mon- tanus (who is said to have been a heathen priest before his conversion) claimed to be a prophet, and, indeed, to be the representative of a new prophetic gift; for in him appeared the Paraclete whom Jesus had promised to His disciples ; and this was to be the closing revelation pre- paring the Church for the coming of Christ and the last things. Two women, Prisca and Maximilla, were asso- ciated with him as prophetesses ; and utterances were given forth with great enthusiasm about the Lord's expected return, and about the preparation the Church must make with a view to it. For the standard of Christian Kfe was to be strained to a higher pitch; more fasting was re- quired, and more careful separation from the manners and enjoyments of the world; celibacy and martyrdom had great value set upon them, and second marriages were pro- hibited. A stricter discipline was announced, in virtue of which Christians who fell into offences of the graver class must not hope for restoration to communion ; God could forgive them, on their penitence, but did not authorise the Church to do so. It was not denied that this system of Christian administration, taken altogether, involved elements 128 A.D. 9a-180] MONTANISM 129 that went beyond the practice of apostolic times. But the Spirit of God was free to prescribe new rules in new cir- cumstances; and the time had come for calling the Church to assume the responsibilities of riper age. In general, Montanism aimed at regaining what it conceived to be the genuine and original spiiit of Christian life, only in an intenser form and with additional guarantees. In this connection various things which had heretofore been discretionary were now to become imperative and uni- versal. The Montanists did not teach any doctrines opposed to the general views of the Church ^ ; for though they were accused of identifying Montanus with the Holy Spirit, that seems to rest only on their owning him as the Paraclete — whom they understood to be an inspired personage that should arise in the Church under the influence of the Holy Spirit. But the whole movement seemed so dangerous and unsettling that many churches in the East, under the influence of their pastors, broke off communion with the followers of Montanus, and expelled them from their fellow- ship. On the other hand, whole congregations in some places, indeed the whole Christianity of considerable dis- tricts, especially in Phrygia, would seem to have adhered to Montanus. Besides this, a large number of Christian people throughout the Church showed a disposition to think favourably, or at least gently, of Montanism. This suggests that Montanism is not to be accounted for from mere local circumstances. The churches of Lyons and Vienne, not far from the time of the terrible persecutions which they endured under Marcus Aurelius, sent letters both to the East and to Rome (the latter carried by Irenaeus, then a presbyter), deprecating extreme action against the Montanists. According to Tertullian, a bishop of Rome, perhaps Eleutherus, perhaps Victor, was on the point of interposing on their behalf, when he was withheld by the influence of Praxeas, who brought unfavourable * Some Montanists at a later stage are represented as accepting Patri- passian views. 9 130 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. accounts of them. Afterwards the same bishop became their resolute opponent. Montanism established a footing elsewhere than in Asia Minor, especially in the African province, no doubt because some of the tendencies out of which Montanism had sprung were strong there. At first we find it as a form of view and feeling within the Church. The Acts of Perpetua and Felicitas reveal those sufferers as probably Montanists, or tinged with Montanism, although they were within the Church, and have always ranked as Catholic martyrs. Here too, however, perhaps as a consequence of the prevalence of adversaries at Eome, it ceased to be possible, or men could not count it possible, to live together in one church; and the Montanists became a separate community. It is not easy to decide how far claims to inspired utterance existed among these Mon- tanists of the West. At all events, they believed in the revelations given to Montanus and his associates ; and they possessed written records of the utterances of these Phrygian prophets. They regarded these as revelations, supplementary to those of the Old and New Testaments. The African Montanists found a spokesman in one of the most remarkable Christians of the time, TertulHan. In addition to his works, a certain amount of Montanistic literature appeared, which perished early. The method or form in which this movement displayed itself was in some respects new, and yet in others not so. The exercise of prophetic gifts in congregations was not new. In all probability the general sense of the churches at that time was in favour of the existence, or certainly of the possibility, of genuine Christian prophecy, although some began to maintain that, if genuine, it must be calm and conscious, not — like the Montanistic prophesying — ecstatic ; and others still, carried away by the spirit of controversy, appear to have rejected the idea of prophecy altogether, and along with it the writings of the Apostle John, which seemed to them to foster it. Prophecy was not new. But it was new that a man claiming to be a Christian 98-180] MONTANISM 131 prophet should assert for himself such a presence of the Holy Spirit as to constitute him the Paraclete promised by Christ, and should claim to bring in a new dispensa- tion, in advance of the apostolic one. So also the points announced as characteristic of the new dispensation and imperative on those who lived under it, were new only in so far as rules, formerly reckoned discretionary, were now to be peremptory. Chiliastic expectations of Christ's return were no novelty. The importance of great strictness of life and abstinence from various pleasures and indulgences was a familiar thought. The principle that certain sins should not receive the Church's testimony of forgiveness was probably no novelty at all, but had been applied in various churches ; perhaps, however, with no strict consistency. To complete this sketch it is necessary to keep in view what the Montanists felt it needful to oppose. They were in conscious opposition to Gnosticism and everything con- nected with it. They were opposed to the authority which ofi&ce-bearers, especially bishops, were attaining in the churches, or, at least, to the manner in which that author- ity was exercised. They were opposed to the adjustment of Christian life to worldly ease and convenience, which they believed was prevalent in the Church ; and they set themselves against the tendencies to relaxation of disci- pline. Finally, they were, of course, opposed to every mode of view and feeling that was content to postpone indefinitely the prospect of the Lord's return. Such, in general, was Montauism. The phenomenon is best understood as a reaction against a condition of the Church, and of the Christian life, which seemed to the Montanists to be pitched too low, and also to have decayed from an earlier and purer standard. It is likely, in fact, that in the Christian congregations features appeared that suggested a falling off from an earlier and in tenser time. Probably, in spite of the persecutions which Christians had to bear, there were symptoms of worldliness of life, and of accommodation to Gentile notions. There might be coming 132 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. into the modes of worship and into the method of Church management something of a mechanical order of things, con- trasting sensibly enough with the freedom, the vivacity, the spiritual impulse of an earlier day. Probably enough, also, the Montanists were predisposed to exaggerate what might truthfully be set down under these heads. Suggestions have been offered from various points of view as to the state of the churches at this time and as to the Montanist impression of it; and, indeed, various influences might conspire to produce the situation. One may be noticed which, perhaps, has been too much over- looked. The mere natural progress of human affairs tends to bring about a situation such as Montanism presupposes. In any great religious movement a stage is by and by reached at which a natural cause begins to operate as a source of change. And this has repeatedly received con- spicuous illustration in the history of Christian churches. The advent of a new religion, making serious and impressive claims to embody a new revelation from on high, is not a frequent occurrence. But frequently enough great religious awakenings have attended the advent into a country or district of a new sect, which breaks in on a conventional or slumbering Christianity, and claims to republish authentically and effectually the original Christian message. The awakened become partisans of the new sect ; the new sincerity and devotedness of many of them enhance the general impression and give a fresh impetus to the pro- gress of the movement At the same time, such persons are found to lay stress on the ecclesiastical peculiarities, or, still more, on the points of Christian practice, self-denial, and the like, which happen to characterise the movement. Perhaps certain forms of emotion, or of expressing emotion, come to have particular value attached to them. Perhaps, also, stress is laid on the principle that Church fellowship should be pure, that is, that it should be confined to persons who afford individual and substantial evidence of adherence to Christ and of separation from the world. So there arises and grows a new embodiment of Christianity. 98-180] MONTANISM 133 But Time has his office to discharge, testing, moulding adjusting, in many ways which need not be dwelt on here The thing to be especially noted is that a point is reached at which the composition of the body begins to change. Time was when the accessions to it were almost entirely in the form of persons, who, as the result of inward conflict and crisis, broke with their old ways, with the associations and habits of previous life, and gave in that way a suffi- ciently impressive pledge of the earnestness of their pro- fession. But by and by it comes to pass that the bulk of the accessions, or a very large portion of them, are from the children of the members. Of these, some, after con- sciously standing out alike against the Christian influences and the sectarian peculiarities of the body, come distinctly, by a great change, to new views of things, and give them- selves up consciously and freely to the fellowship of the saints as their fathers did. Some — far more — are cases of another kind. They have been nurtured in Christian homes ; they have been sheltered as much as may be from undesir- able influences ; they have manifested on occasion tokens of seriousness and upright purpose; and they are willing, as their friends are willing, that they should take their place as believers. Nor has anyone a right to form an adverse judgment of the reality and sincerity of their profession ; theirs may often be the more consistent and reliable type of religion; and yet certainly very many of them will differ in their development from the old type. Instead of the question being how far they ought to go in the way of defying and renouncing fellowship with a world they have known too well and are now forsaking, the ques- tion will often rather be, why restrictions should be accepted, and whether this or that indulgence, which the society con- ventionally reckons worldly and unbecoming, might not be adopted without any real harm or danger. When this new element begins to form a large propor- tion of the whole, and when the new tendencies begin to operate strongly, a crisis is apt to take place. For there will be many who cling not only to the old faith, but to 134 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. the old ways of embodying it. Those on the other side will be for moderating the ancient rigour, for broadening the platform, and for freer accommodation to what they reckon simply human in the world and its ways.^ Turning back now from modern sects to the undivided Church, one sees that the same thing must have occurred there. In the various countries in which it was settled there came a time, earlier here, later there, when the recruits from among the children of Christians, trained up to be Christians, came to bear a very sensible proportion to the accessions from the outside and to the general mass of the membership. It is impossible to fix an exact date for this ; but probably in the countries where Christianity made its beginnings under the influence of apostles, some time about the middle of the second century may be as near an era as it is possible to assign. Of course the case of the Christian Church planted among the nations must differ, in various ways, from that of any sect forming in connection with religious awakening in a territory of professing Christianity. But the one case illustrates the other. There might well be a perceptible difference of tone and tendency between the time when the churches were chiefly composed of, and were generally led by, men who had themselves passed over from heathenism by a memorable act of personal decision, and the time when Christianity was largely represented by persons who were in the Church because they had been brought up to it, who had always looked forward to life as to be lived in a Christian profession, who had from the first foreseen all life's experiences as necessarily taking shape under that influence.^ Many of these might indeed be intensely, ^ This process has been exemplified a hundred times. There are con- gregations scattered over our country, arising out of the religious awaken- ings of the end of last century and the beginning of the present, in which the process has visibly been accomplished. On a larger scale one may refer to the Mennonites of Holland, to the Society of Friends, in some degree also to the Wesleyan Methodists, and various other bodies. ^ A very good instance is supplied by the Christian expectation of the Lord's return, with the great events it was to bring with it. To many early 98-180] MONTANISM 135 irrationally, loyal to all tlie old traditions. But many also would be of another type. A tendency could not but arise to reconcile with Christian profession a good many modes of life, enjoyments, occupations, social actions and customs, from which the first Christians had recoiled. In their minds these were associated with secularity and idolatry, while their successors might come to regard them as not necessarily evil, but simply neutral and human. And in times and places where there was not much persecution, people could become and continue Christians who neither were nor professed to be very devoted persons. When these tendencies became operative, tension would set in. Many would be vexed. Was this Christ's promise of the Spirit? Was this the power and presence of the Church's head ? With these good people might join many who were not so really under the spiritual power of Chris- tianity, but with whom religion stood very much in the observance of the accepted peculiarities. These, too, would bewail the change, and vote for holding on to the old ways. Presently this feeling would express itself in another direction : it would lay hold of the discipline of the Church. Has not Christ qualified the Church to keep herself pure ? Can she not frame such rules, and so apply them, as to keep out and put out this lazy, self-indulgent, worldly- minded style of Christianity ? Here would set in, by a fatal necessity, a collision between this party and the majority, the great majority of the rulers of the Church. It would prove so, for this reason among others, that those who have permanent responsibilities in connection with discipline acquire an experimental knowledge as to what discipline can do and what it cannot ; in particular, they learn that discipline must proceed not upon wishes and impressions, but upon definite rules and conclusive proofs. Christians, who brought with them from heathenism sad memories, and materials of much inward conflict, and whose conversion broke many ties of friendship and kindred, the conviction that Christ would soon come might be animating and cheering. But young persons, born in the Church, and looking forward to life and its experiences, might regard the prospect in a different way. 136 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH U-B. Further, such persons could not overlook, nor afford to overlook, the elements of conscience and of Christian char- acter among those who took the milder view. Hence would come mutual suspicions : — on the one hand, a tendency to regard church rulers as not alive to the necessities of the Church, as perceived by spiritual men ; and, on the other hand, the tendency on the side of church officers to regard those we speak of as insub- ordinate and disorderly.^ The same tendencies might come into collision in another field, that of the public teaching and the public worship. The earlier practice of the Church had been more or less to employ in worship under the presidency of the pastor or pastors, the gifts of the congregation. This feature was now retiring. Things were falhng into a set order, and public utterance was being restricted to those who were regarded as having special aptitudes to edify the people, and who were called to office on that ground. If so, we may well believe that some would impute to the methods so coming in, the lack of vitality and the failure of power which they were disposed to recognise as prevailing evils. On lines like these one can understand the spread, here and there, in the Christian churches, — especially perhaps among the humbler members, so far as these were earnest and clung to memories of earlier days, — of a feeling of dissatisfaction and distrust. It would aim at having room made and effect given to impulses and convictions which the Spirit of God inspires in Christian hearts, as against secularity and worldly conformity, as against set methods that turn Christianity into a mechanical system going on of itself, as against worldly wisdom and philosophy; finally, as against the hierarchy and the centralised ecclesi- astical authority which seemed to leave no room for the ^ One point of difference was the way of dealing with those who, by common consent, ought to be subjected to discipline. In this point, also, extreme rigour was more apt to commend itself to those who theorised from a distance, than to those who had to deal with the actual sinners. 98-180j MONTANISM 13? free upburst of the Christian heart to assert its desires and make good the result it longed for. There might be a great deal of prejudice and short- sightedness at the bottom of all this ; probably there was also a great deal that was worthy and sincere. Dangers did lie before the Church against which it would have been well to guard. But the dissatisfied section were too apt to assert as the true marks of real Christianity — of the Spirit's presence and power — certain approved forms of self-denial and methods of work righteousness; and they were apt to drive at these by what seemed to them the readiest means; as if when they got these things to be required and to be complied with, they would then have real and satisfactory Christianity. Thus, they too went astray with their own forms of externalism. And they deprived themselves by so doing of all durable influence; for it could with perfect truth and fairness be maintained against them, that no such yoke as they would impose had been laid by the Lord upon His Church. Such feelings existed and operated, most likely, in all parts of the Church, and very many of those who shared them never became Montanists; but the mood of mind described, furnished the materials to which Montanism appealed. In its special form Montanism was a Phry- gian phenomenon, due, no doubt, to tendencies to religious exaltation and excitement, which had characterised the Phrygian people for ages; and it availed itself of the elements of awe and wonder suggested by the expectation of the coming of the Lord. Hence feelings and convictions, which existed in many quarters, there found expression in persons who had been looked on as prophets before, or who appeared in that character now, but who claimed at all events to have received a quite new mission. They spoke in a remarkably ecstatic manner. No doubt the epidemic nervous excitement was present, which has often manifested itself in connection with religious enthusiasm.^ * See Hacker's Epidemics qf the Middle Ages, — Publications of Sydenham Society, 138 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH U-D. The conclusion was drawn at once that a special visitation of spiritual power had been vouchsafed to authorise and to emphasise the new teaching. When this stream of ecstasy and prophecy began to run, to certain minds it seemed conclusive. Here, men said, is a new era and a new power. Now we see the secret of our vexations and our disappointments. The era of the Paraclete had not come, and so things could not be set right. But now he has come. Now at last, not through bishops or synods, but by the Spirit Himself, the Church will become a society worthy of its calling; and Christians, shaking themselves clear of entanglement and compromise, will be raised to the posture that becomes them, as disciples awaiting the coming of the Lord. This seems thoroughly to explain the various pheno- mena of Montanism. It explains how Montanism kept clear of new doctrine, excepting the modification of the idea of the Paraclete ; and how its whole energy was directed to disciplinary preparation for the coming of the Lord. It explains also how ecclesiastical authorities in the neighbourhood of its first appearance, saw in it a dangerously subversive movement that required to be instantly checked; and also how it came to pass that large-minded bishops in regions farther off, seeing in it what it had in common with the feelings of many good Christians everywhere, — feelings which they respected, and perhaps partly shared, — were slow to commit themselves to a collision with it, and were anxious to treat it in a tolerant spirit as long as they could. That plainly implies that they saw mixed up with it Christian aspirations which deserved to be regarded. From the human point of view, it must be regarded as a calamity that the assertion of the Church's depend- ence on the Spirit, in those ministrations of His which are not limited to clerical character or standing arrangements, but belong to all believers, was made in a form so inde- fensible and fanatical. That soon blew over, as all fanati- cisms do ; Montanism as a concrete thing fades away early 98-180] MONTANISM 139 in the third century, although its influence lasted longer. Meanwhile the Church more and more provided for the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, by practically chaining His influence to the hierarchy and the sacraments. The mood of mind above referred to as diffused through the churches, and as existing in places where it refused to accept the form of Montanism, reappears from time to time, especially in the disputes regarding discipline, of which Novatianism and Donatism are conspicuous instances. With respect to the local Phrygian conditions which gave to Montanism its sensational features, it will be useful to read Professor Eamsay's account of Glycerins the deacon.^ The incident falls two hundred years later, and belongs to Cappadocia ; but it is not the less illustrative and suggestive* * Church in Roman Empire^ p. 443. SECOND DIVISION A.D. 180-313 CHAPTER VIII Relation to the State Aubd, Les Chrdiens dans Vempire Romaiuy Par. 1881, and Valise et Vdat^ 1886. Neumann, Romische Staat, Leipz. 1890. Hardy, Christianity and the Roman Governmenty London, 1894. Mason, Persecution of Diocletian^ Cambr. 1876. Kamsay, Church in Roman Empire^ deals professedly with the earlier period, but throws much light also on this. This period was on the whole a dark one for the empire. Famines, pestilences, earthquakes, disastrous inroads of the Northern tribes, and arduous wars upon the frontier tried the State, while weakness from political causes gained ground within. But Christianity grew. It reveals its existence in distant regions, in Arabia, India, and Persia ; and in every province of the empire, where its earlier existence had been questionable or feeble, it becomes con- spicuous during the third century — in Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain, in all the Eomanised provinces on the German frontier and along the Danube. The growth in numbers continued throughout the century, and an uneasy anger on account of it haunted the pagan mind. To Origen the progress in this respect is so remarkable, that he argues an early supersession of other religions by the mere continu- ance of the process which he sees going on.^ ^ Contra Celsum, 8. 140 A.D. 180-313] ACTION OF THE GOVERNMENT 141 Action of the Government During the reign of Commodus (180-193), the Chris- tians (ante^ Chap. I.) suffered continually; but the central government, so far as we know, did not stimulate the local severities, and the influence of Marcia, the imperial con- cubine, could be exerted to release Christian captives.^ Septimius Severus (193-211) was in friendly relations with individual Christians, but he specifically prohibited conver- sion to Christianity and to Judaism. As his reign proceeded, he became more actively hostile, and sharp persecution set in at Alexandria and in the African province about A.D. 202. In this persecution, Leonidas, the father of Origen, was among the sufferers. Caracalla (211-217) and Heliogabalus (217-225) inherited from Julia Domna, the wife of Severus, a tendency to Eastern worships, and a disposition to fuse together the more popular elements of various faiths. The same spirit appeared in a worthier form in Alexander Severus (225—235). It was a mood which detached men from the old Koman maxims, and it disposed them to examine Christianity with interest and respect. The Christians reaped the benefit in the form of comparative tranquillity; but the legal position had not changed.* Maximinus, the first babarian emperor (2 3 5—2 3 8), was unfriendly, and directed the presidents of the churches to be especially aimed at, — perhaps because the significance and the growing power of the hierarchy were now attracting the notice of the government. Pontianus, the bishop of Eome, and Hippolytus were sent to the mines of Sardinia, and in Cappadocia a sharp persecution took place under the proconsul Serenianus. Under the two Gordians (238- 244) and Philip the Arabian (244-249) public troubles occupied the government, and the Christians were let alone. A tradition existed that Philip was or became a Christian ; if 80, this unedifying convert is the first Christian emperor. ^ Hipp. Bef. ix. 12, see p. 18, ante. • Ulpian at this time collected the laws bearing on Christians. His work has not survived. 142 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. Baby las, bishop of Antioch, is said to have refused him en- trance to the Church until he confessed and made satisfaction for his fault.^ Alexander Sever as also was believed by some Christians to have become a convert. He venerated Christ, at least, and valued some elements of His teaching. He left no trace, however, on the laws or on the life of the empire. A new state of things set in with the reign of Decius (249—251), and lasted till the end of the reign of Valerian (253—260). Decius belonged to a class of emperors vigorously represented in the third century. While the empire was losing faith in itself, in its gods, in its old beliefs and maxims, and was bewildered by its troubles, and while imperial families of Eastern origin and Eastern sympathies amused themselves in devising new religions, bold soldiers, who had to confront the barbarians, fought their way up to power. They were apt to think it their business to recall together the old Eoman maxims and the old Eoman triumphs. Such a man was Decius. The growth of Christianity seemed to him ominous ; he saw that persecution as hitherto practised had not greatly hindered it. Under his authority special legislation was undertaken with a view to suppress the objectionable religion. The edict of A.D. 250 decreed that all Christians should be cited to perform the ceremonies of State religion; those who fled were to have their goods confiscated, and to be put to death if they returned. Those arrested were subjected to successive severities intended to break them down; priests were to be promptly put to death; torture and death soon became the portion of all Christians who stood out. Decius died in battle next year, but his laws remained; and a fresh impulse was given to the action of the authorities by Valerian (253-260). He was a good though not a fortunate emperor, and no doubt acted conscientiously. Beginning with a system of pressure, which did not prove sufficiently effective, he went on to decree the execution of clergymen, degradation and con- fiscation of goods for men of rank, followed by death for ^ Aubd, Ohritiens dam V Empire, p. 461. 180-313] ACTION OF THE GOVERNMENT 143 the obstinate, banishment for women, working in chains for members of the imperial service. Fabianus of Eome, Alexander of Jerusalem, Babylas of Antioch, and other bishops are named as martyrs under Decius; Sixtus of Eome, Cyprian of Carthage, and others under Valerian. Direct instructions from Eome to the provincial governors are mentioned in some of these cases.^ This hard onset broke down the fidelity of very many Christians. Some hastened to abjure ; others gave way when pressed; others still signed declarations that they had sacrificed, or procured certificates to that effect. The fallen were so many that all the old discussions as to the Church's duty in relation to such persons were resumed with eagerness, and led to fresh divisions of opinion.^ Some of the letters of Cyprian convey a vivid impression of the situation thus created. But Valerian fell into the hands of his Persian adver- saries, and his son Gallienus(260-268),a less resolute ruler though a more cultivated man, ere long terminated the persecution. It does not appear that he reversed the old presumption of the Eoman law in regard to Christians, but he must have withdrawn the special measures of Decius and Valerian, — and this manifestation of his good- will must have been a warning to governors to use their discretion gently. Aurelian (270-275) is said to have had thoughts of taking measures against Christianity, but his life ended without any steps of that kind. Days of great confusion had overtaken the empire ; and the series of soldier emperors who followed had hardly time, in their short and stormy reigns, to do more than meet the most urgent necessities of government. They fought the empire out of its most serious difficulties ; and Diocletian, a man of the same type (284-305), completed their work and ^ Cyprian, Ep. 18, and see Acta 1. • Name for those who sacrificed, sdcrificati ; those who oflfered incense, thuri- ficati; those who emitted declarations of conformity to paganism, adafacientea {X^ipoypa^rjaavTes when personally signed) ; those who procured certificates to the same effect, libellatid. 144 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. inherited the fruits of it. From the accession of Gallienus, therefore, to the year 303, the Christians for the most part were free from serious trouble. During the whole period, Christianity, as far as the law was concerned, existed on sufferance : but yet the religion and its leaders were very well known to the authorities, and the sect continued not merely to exist but to own property, and to deal with the authorities from time to time about its temporal interests. The Christians availed themselves of laws which sanctioned collegia tenuiorum — societies for charitable and co-operative purposes, which could hold property, acquh-e burial-grounds, and so forth ; and the authorities might not choose to see that under these forms they were dealing with Christians. But even apart from that artifice, it is to be remembered that a Christian was reckoned a bad subject because he refused to sacrifice; and as long as a magistrate chose to assume that the Christians known to him might be good subjects, who would sacrifice if called upon, he might not incur much responsibility by raising no questions. That would not apply to times when laws were in force like those of Decius and Valerian, but in ordinary times it was possible. Christianity, in fact, was steadily becoming more and more conspicuous, and its place in the community was notorious. Hence from time to time it is frankly taken notice of. Alexander Severus adjudged to the Christians a site beyond the Tiber, the title to which was disputed; Gallienus wrote to the Egyptian bishops that their cemeteries and meeting- places should be restored to them, and that they should not be disturbed. Aurelian was actually asked to interpose in the question between the orthodox and Paul of Samosata, and he professed to decide it according to the opinion of the Koman bishop.^ Church buildings certainly existed eo nomine in the time of Diocletian, and probably a good deal earlier. In such circumstances, and after forty years* immunity from serious disturbance, the Christians must have imagined ^ There were obvious political motives for his action. 180-313] ACTION OF THE GOVERNMENT 145 that they had virtually established their "right to be" (" Christianos esse passus est"); but in the year 303 Diocletian, persuaded by his colleague Galerius, began to set in motion the last great persecution. For some years pre- viously steps had been taken which indicated a determination to discourage Christianity. The actual persecution continued for eight years. It did not affect the whole empire with equal severity. Probably Asia Minor, Palestine, and Egypt suffered most, — Italy and the central provinces not quite so continuously, — Spain, Gaul, and Britain under Constantius Chlorus were comparatively spared. This Caesar demolished churches, verum autem templum quod est in hominihus incolume servavit (Lact. de Morte, 15). Constantine succeeded his father in the West in 306. In 311 Galerius, in his last illness, issued an edict owning the failure of his efforts, and announcing the termination of the persecution. After a little it was renewed in the Asiatic provinces by Maximinus. But in 313, Constantine and Licinius divided the whole empire between them ; and in the same year they pub- lished at Milan a joint edict of universal toleration. CHAPTEK IX The New Philosophy Harnack, article " Neo-Platonism," Encycl. Brit.y 9th ed, Plotinus, Opera Omnia, Oxf. 1835, Lips. 1856 {Emi. ii. 9 contains tlie attack on Gnosticism ; on this see Neander in Wissenschaftl. Ahhandlungen^ Berl. 1851). Porphyry, Fabricius, Bibl. Grcsca, v. Zeller, Philosophie der Griechen, Leipz. 1865, 3rd ed. vol. iii. 2. Kelations to Christi- anity, Church Histories of Neander and Baur, and DogrneTigeschichte of latter. Augustine, Conf. B. ii. Tzschirner, Fall des Heiden- thums, 1849. HUber, Philosophie d. Kirchenvclter, 1859. Vogt, Neuplatonismus u. Christenthum^ 1836. Jahn, Basilius Platonizans. Early in the third century a new speculative effort made an epoch in the history of philosophy. Before the Christian era the efforts of the older Greek schools to supply a positive basis for thought and life had begun to give way to a sceptical tendency, represented by various schools of doubt. Yet alongside of this and after it, the desire to believe gained ground again ; and it proved vigorous enough to make head against strong sceptical tendencies. After the time of discouragement, men began again, in the first and second centuries, to postulate a divine derivation both for reason and for religion, on the assumption that the better mind of the race had all along been, in a manner, inspired. Thus reason and religion were to combine their strength, and men hoped to find, not only light, but warmth, which seemed unattainable on other terms. A tendency this way works variously in men like Philo, Plutarch, Apollonius, Numenius, and indeed also in Seneca and Epictetus. It took shape finally and deliberately in the school of the New Platonists, as they were called. Alexandria, where a great school of learning A.D. 180-313] THE NEW PHILOSOPHY 147 had long existed, was the cradle of this latest effort of Greek thought; there, at anyrate, early in the third century, the New Platouism came into evidence. It was, once more, a philosophy ; but it did not profess to be a new philosophic sect. Eather, it claimed to combine the strength of past speculation, emphasising what might be held to be the best wisdom of it all. More than any of the noted older schools, it aimed, also, at religion, — confessed the need of it, and professed to supply it. But here, too, it was not to be a new religion, but was to disclose the true secret, the reasonable significance of all religions. The new school hoped thus to supply a devout enthusiasm, and a reason for it. It was therefore a philosophy striving towards religion. The older forms of Greek thought did, no doubt, recognise God or gods. But the conception of life according to reason, which ruled those systems on their practical side, drew little inspiration from the gods. Things would have been much the same if the -gods had been left out. The new scheme professed to get beyond reason, into a region of religious experience, of fellowship with the unseen and eternal; and yet this was to be grounded on a reasoned conception of existence and of the world. It is possible that some such effort would have been made, even if Christianity had not been a growing force. But it would be foolish to doubt that the pressure of Christianity intensified the craving for religious help and hope, and did something to give shape to the system. The founder of the school was Ammonius Saccas, — said to have been once a Christian. For us he is a name, and little more. The most remarkable personage, and the first of the school to leave writings, was Plotinus (d. 269); Por- phyry (233-305) comes next, and then Jamblichus (d. 330 ?). Proclus (412-485) was perhaps the last conspicuous teacher ; but the school continued to have representatives down to the time of the Emperor Justinian (d. 565) and later. In its effort to combine what was strongest, both in the various philosophies and in the traditional religions. New Platonism met a prevailing tendency, and it might hope in this way to create something like conviction. Nothing tended more 148 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. to engender doubt than the conflicts of the schools and the variety of the religions. But this was a scheme for which its supporters claimed a common consent of men ; they put it forward as the system which combines all the philosophies and explains all the religions; this was the truth which had lived in them all. Perhaps on these terms a sense of rest and of assurance could be gained for men. At the same time, the sufficiency of the old Greek foundations was virtually maintained, and the peremptory claims of Christianity as a positive revelation were rejected. The New Platonists made a last rally for the old world ; they drew into their line of battle all its resources, and strove to marshal them as one consistent whole. Plato's thinking contemplated the world as the realisa- tion of supersensible ideas which exist in, or constitute, an ideal world. The divine Being therefore was the Supreme mind, — the home and fountain of ideas, — those eternal forms of order, goodness, and beauty which in -this world are imperfectly and transiently realised. The New Platonism followed the same track ; but it tried to carry speculative analysis a step farther. Plotinus said,^ " When we come to feel the worth of our own soul, we cannot but ask what is that universal soul which breathes life into ourselves and into all nature ? Next we cannot but ask, what is that mind by which the universal soul receives and preserves its own life-giving power ? Lastly, we ask, what is that first cause, that supreme unity and goodness from which even mind itself has birth ? " This Unity (to ev\ therefore, is something more abstract and inscrutable than mind ; something higher than reason. It is characterised also as the good, — but good in a sense that transcends all types of goodness known to us. From this first energy cannot but arise all that is ; the One flows forth into division and manifoldness ; but for the first two stages, in the reason (1/01)9) and the soul {"^vx^) ^^ ^^® universe, a certain unity and a certain supreme divinity remain. These three therefore {to ei/, b 1/01)9, -q •^v^v) con- ^ See a good article on Neo-Platonism by Mozlej in Did, of Christian Biography. 180-313] THE NEW PHILOSOPHY 149 stitute the Neo-Platonic trinity. From this point multi- plicity comes in, and we have passed from the region of supreme divinity. But we are still in a region of very pure and elevated beings, — spirits next to God, — some invisible, some identified with the stars; after which follow daemons, who are superhuman beings, but participant, in some degree, of sensuous conditions. Places were found in these ranks of intermediate beings for the gods of paganism. Then came men, then animals, finally mere matter. Spirit alone has true existence ; matter is rather /Ltr/ 6V, a kind of nega- tion of existence, which is supposed to arise when the stream of influence has proceeded far enough from its source. So far Neo-Platonism kept hold of ancient modes of thought — it presented what claimed to be a credible theory of existence. At the same time, it provided a basis for the accepted forms of religion. These were all good in their way ; for the daemons who occupied the stage above humanity had been allotted to preside over various departments, and had been worshipped from of old in the manner suited to them. Such worship was a proper tribute ; only, the wise man should remember that not much was to be expected from the worship of these gods, except some temporal ad- vantages, along with a certain exercise of devout feeling ; and he must guard always against excessive superstition. True fellowship with the divine nature was to be sought on another line. Christianity itself could have a place con- ceded to it, in so far as Jesus, according to the New Platonists, was a wise man who had anticipated New Pla- tonism in some of its practical aspects. But Christian religion, as it affirmed the peculiar glory and grace of Christ, and set itself against idolatry, was a corruption of Christ's original doctrine — a vulgar dogmatism of unintelligent dis- ciples. Eeference has been made to goodness, to ar^aOov^ as an equivalent of supreme Godhead. The intensely real exist- ence of this One implies goodness, for what truly exists is truly good- Evil is not a positive or substantial thing ; it is privation, lack of reality. Spirits, however inferior to 150 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. God in their manner of being, still are, — are participants of vov<^ and '^vxVi ^^^ so are good, and can own relation to the One. Matter, as already said, is a kind of negation of existence, and here therefore evil is found ; but this does not directly apply to material substances as we know them, but rather to that ultimate something which gives to all such substances their common nature as material. The material world as we know it arises by the agency of the true existence flowing out on this limiting factor — or, to change the figure, by the light of existence reflecting itself in this region of negation. This conception of evil is not very intense ; and the mate- rial world was not for the New Platonists an object of scorn and hate, as it was for the Gnostics. The world had to be, and it was all right in its place ; it was as good as it could be. Men, pre-existing as spirits, good in their degree, had a legitimate relation to this world, as something beneath them. But they prove liable to be unduly interested, to be too much attracted, and so they become entangled in an earthly existence, and are so far participant of evil. The proper destiny, however, of human spirits is to be .set free from matter, and brought finally into due fellowship with God. The discipline of earthly life, of successive or multiplied lives (hence transmigration), tends this way ; it varies according to men's characters and deservings. Mean- while the truly wise man can attain the desirable end by a shorter road. He may so use this life as to accelerate the result, or even secure at his death an immediate and per- manent elevation above material conditions ; and he may attain during this life to anticipations of the mystic fellowship with God. At this point the system prepared itself to supply a career and a discipline, involving a religious experience, and leading up to final well-being.^ Heretofore in Greek philo- sophy what had been set down for the conduct of life — what was reckoned good for man — was mainly to live rationally ; morals were reduced to that consideration. The insub- ^ Ovlj, however, for select men, not for tlie herd, 180-313] THE NEW PHILOSOPHY 151 ordinate and irrational elements were to be subjugated, and life conformed to an ideal type. Among the later Stoics this moral thinking became sutfused with a faint pathetic glow of trust in a divine presence and providence ; but it was dim and distant. Something implying a more decisive elevation and a securer goal was now felt to be needed. According to all its principles and its reminiscences, New Platonism had to seek what at this point it wanted in the region of contemplation. Contemplation of the divine, which is as much as to say contemplation of the ideal, must be both means and end. But into this contemplation the New Platonists threw a mystic element. It was to be no longer merely the thought of the individual thinker brooding on truth. It was to be a process in which man's consciousness should meet the divine consciousness, — or the divine Some- thing which is above all consciousness, — the one entering into the other. So fellowship with the divine Being is attained and realised. Here was set the type of a kind of religious exercise (proceeding on a religious theory) which was taken up from the New Platonists by successive Christian schools ; and in some ages it has played a great part. Meditation is to be directed along certain lines, while outward impressions and, as much as may be, our own individuality are to be sup- pressed. Thus we may reach a state in which we find the divine energy bearing us on into union with God. The eye of the body must be closed, and the eye of the soul opened. From the presence of the manifold world we must draw inward, fixing the mental eye on forms of supersensible truth and beauty and goodness, to which our minds by their origin are akin. The human soul has fallen into a kind of cap- tivity to mortal and material conditions ; but the forms of truth are, after all, congenital to us ; and they rise in their own purity to the vision that steadily purges itself from the influence of the material world. So far, however, we might still imagine ourselves to be near the regions of the old philosophy. But now three distinctive elements enter into the scheme : — 152 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHUPwCH [a.d. 1. In order that the mental eye may be disposed to fasten on its proper objects, and may be clear of hind- rances which affect it in its present state, a discipline is required. This was, in general, ascetic. It is distinguish- able from the rational life recommended by the older schools. That was simple and sometimes severe, and among other benefits, it was conceived to aid in strengthening and clearing the mind ; but it was conceived to do so mainly in the way in which sincerity, and fidelity to accepted principles, neces- sarily give health to the inward man. The ascetic disci- pline of the New Platonists was meant to fit the mind for a peculiar process, which gives access to an upper world. 2. The ideas or forms of truth and goodness are con- ceived in a mystic manner, as entrancing the soul with a contemplative amorousness, tending to enthusiasm, yearning, ecstasy. As the ideal forms come into view a Presence makes itself felt behind them ; they are heralding an influence, a life beyond themselves. The system is here preparing to take wing from the merely rational or speculative region, and to rise into devout experience and satisfaction. 3. The object that is all along in view determines these efforts. That object is, to rise into the region of divine existence that we may share its pure life, the human con- sciousness merging itself in something higher, and touching at last the Highest. This goal of all, which in this life for the most part is only apprehended and aspired after, very rarely attained, determines the character and direction of the lower steps and stages ; the disciple fits himself to rise into final union with the inscrutable Unity — the eternal and absolute One. He, indeed, is above all thought; so con- templation can never reach Him. But a mystic experience or intuition is possible, in which, from the last heights of contemplation, we rise into the ineffable fellowship, and lose ourselves in the One. This ecstatic state is the crown of all attainment; it anticipates the experience which awaits the wise and good when the bonds of sense shall be broken. Plotinus, it was said, reached this experience four times in the course of his life, and Porphyry once. 180-313] THE NEW PHILOSOPHY 153 The preliminary discipline prescribed for the preparatory stage was, according to the proper theory of the system, purely negative ; it was to remove from the soul what might hinder the positive progress which was desired. But it could easily be stretched so as to include any practical ele- ments likely to contribute to the dignity or the promise of the system. As a matter of fact, the scheme in this depart- ment borrowed largely from Christianity, and appropriated to its own purposes phrases and ideas which it could not have excogitated.^ At the same time, it is perhaps true that moral culture was not the strong point of New Platonism. These teachers certainly desired pure and noble life, and some of them exemplified it. But enthusiasm for morals gave way to enthusiasm for the mystic process, which was to rise alike above the moralities and the intellectualities. The second element of those specified above — contempla- tion of the ideal as a world of entrancing divine beauty — could inspire enthusiasm, rising in devout natures into a kind of worship ; but, in practice, this mood could not easily be sustained in so thin an air. The third element, the mystic self-identification with supreme Godhead in a region above reason, opened the door to nervous trances. Here the weak- ness of the scheme is revealed. While human nature was longing for * some substantial communication from above, New Platonism, like the other philosophies, could only pro- vide for the mind*s exercising itself upon its own ideas. Attempting something more, it sank, and crowned its superb idealism with an ecstasy which depended very often on morbid physical conditions. On this, too, there followed a wider range of misleading superstition. Admit the process of attaining to God to be never so authentic, yet success in it was rare ; and for most natures this inscrutable Unity, possessed of no determinate attribute to distinguish it, or Him, from mere void, could give little satisfaction. There- fore, though He (or it) is highest of all, might not men, even the wisest men, advantageously seek communion with some * See Porphyry's Ep. ad Marcellam (tna wife), ed. H. Mai, 1810, which was taken at first to be a Christian document. 154 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHCJRCH [a.d. of those intermediate daemons, and find them to be in a sense mediators, steps towards what is highest ? And would not this afford more real satisfaction, a sense of warm and real presence, of living ones bending from above, not so far removed from men themselves ? From the first, or nearly from the first, it had been admitted among the New Pla- tonists that certain magic rites — theurgic ceremonies and processes — could lend aid to the disciple ; if they did not positively raise the spirit Godwards, yet they could purge and dispose the material conditions of human nature, and so remove hindrances to the spirit's upward flight. But might not such processes do more ? Might they not avail to bring nigh to us some of those intermediate yet lofty spirits, helping us to discern them and hold communion with them ? The place which New Platonism gave to the popular worships favoured such suggestions. Entering by this door, mere superstition and magic made good their footing. The New Platonism is considered and represented here mainly in relation to the claims and the competition of Christianity.^ It was a great and memorable effort. For it, God transcends all thought inconceivably; He is that intense reality and goodness in which existence culminates. All that really is derives goodness from Him ; and in some wonderful way a consciousness of God is attainable which is victory, emancipation, and blessedness. The progress towards this goal and the attainment of it give life a consecration, and tinge it or bathe it in a religious experience ; and yet all is based professedly on reason, — on a just perception and estimate of spiritual possibilites on the one hand, and of the sensible world on the other. Along with this idealism the sensible world retains, for the New Platonists, all the good- ness a sensible world can have. Its basis, indeed, is an element which is the negation of true existence, and so the negation of good ; yet into this is thrown from the higher 1 Plotinus seems to avoid direct attack on Christianity, though he criti- cises Gnosticism. Porphyry's attack, in fifteen books, was able. icarA "jipw- Tiavuv \6yoi vePTeKaideKa. Opusc, ed. Nauck, 1866. 180-313] THE NEW PHILOSOPHY 155 region as much of light as can be reflected from it. That which is lowest and worst has an aspect towards something higher, towards the highest. The true view of man and man's surroundings calls him to a career than which none could be better or higher. This vision was presented so as to supersede the unwel- come " vulgarities " of positive revelation ; it dismissed the thought of God interposing to save the world at a certain recent date, and by an individual man, and rejected the idea of adhering to the cause of a crucified Jew. Instead of these "foolishnesses," Plotinus retained the ancient grand and calm foundation ; he rested his teaching on the nature of the universe studied and considered by the reason of man. And he represented God's relation to the world and to human souls as for ever equal to itself; yet on this foundation he teaches that God can be found. Meanwhile also the old worships were retained: they were to have a place, though not the highest.^ Even the magic and the marvels of legend could be welcomed ; they were eddies in that wondrous stream of sympathetic influ- ence which binds together all being from the highest to the lowest. It was contrary to the whole genius of the system to admit the idea of an individual Saviour. Yet against the influence exerted by the life of Christ, it was felt needful to present religious individualities like Apollonius of Tyana as carrying an exceptional influence from the unseen world, and attracting and justifying human trust.^ This way of thinking supplied, during several genera- tions, the intellectual basis for those who, rejecting Chris- tianity, clinging to the spirit of the classic literature, and making the best of the world as it was, still wished to have life ennobled and idealised. It was accepted by several of the Eoman emperors of the earlier part of the third century, * Thongh Plotinus teaches a Supr-eme Unity his system is Pantheistic, and his sympathies are with Polytheism. ** To think worthily of God is not to shut Mm up into a unity, but to display divinity as manifold.'"' 2 Apollonius was one of the philosophico-religious adventurers of the time. His life was idealised and put in literary form by Philostratus. 156 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. 180-313 disposing them on the whole to be hospitable to all religions, as, all alike, variations on one fundamental theme. From this it sometimes followed that Christianity should be gently treated; but sometimes also, chiefly with those who saw deeper, that Christianity, as the most dangerous foe of this philosophy, should be rebuked and punished for its obstinate and peremptory claims. For Neo-Platonism, though willing to provide an honourable place for Christ, dreaded and detested the conquering might of Christ's religion. Julian, in the next century, was the complete embodiment in a Eoman ruler of the spirit of the New Platonism. In a word, this system became the storehouse from which cultivated men, who would not be Christians, drew plausible and attract- ive thoughts in the degree in which they felt it helpful to do so, either to vindicate or to dignify their lives. But the power of Neo-Platonism to hold and stir the minds of men, appears most strikingly in the influence it exerted on Christians. Its doctrines could be appropriated on the side on which they approached the Christian posi- tions. It conceived all existence to be related to the supreme existence, and pointed to that relation as in some way the source and pledge of well-being. To many this seemed the true point of departure in efforts to harmonise faith and reason. The conception of evil, as in itself nothing, — rather the negation or privation of true being, — fascinated Christian thinkers who were striving with the question of the whence and the whither of evil. And the method of retreat inwards from the world of sense upon the great ideals, in the faith that in and behind them we shall feel the pulse of the eternal life of Godhead, was embraced by one Christian school after another. In all these points men seemed to meet with something true, so set forth that it seized and held them. The idealism could be appropriated and the methodism could be baptized. Origen, Basil of Csesarea, Synesius, Augustine, are early instances of various forms of this influence. And though Neo-Platonism as a school disappeared, the influence of it as an element in the history of the Church has been recognisable at all periods. CHAPTER X Christian Thought and Literature See works on Patristic Literature, p. 50. On special schools, literature is noted below. Christian apologetic continued to be more or less active on the old lines : that is, we have works that attack the popular idolatry, and defend Christianity against current objections. Hermias, Arnobius, Lactantius may be named. Some place Minucius Felix in this period. The A\r]6r}^ Aoyo^ of Celsus elicited a notable reply from Origen.^ The attack of Porphyry (d. 304) was met by Christian controversialists of the next period (Methodius, Eusebius, Apollinarius, Philostorgius) ; that of Hierocles by Eusebius, and, perhaps, Macarius Magnes. But with the opening of our period a great literature begins, embodying the thoughts of leading Christian minds upon their own religion. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian are the most im- portant names; Gains, Dionysius of Alexandria, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Julius Africa nus, Commodian, Novatian, Vic- torinus, Pamphilus, Methodius, Lucian of Antioch are also remembered. The central impulse was the stimulus which Christianity applied to moral and intellectual life ; but this in turn was powerfully affected by the Gnostic and other theories which had been suggested within the Church, and also by the attitude and movement of the non- Christian minds with which Christians had to reckon. All that is gi'eatest in this literature had been produced before a.d. 230 ; the remaining years of the period are marked by smaller ^ Patrick, The Apology ^ Origen in Reply to Celsw, Edin. and London, 1892. 167 158 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. names, and have left us comparatively little. The wave of effort rose and died away, to be succeeded in the fourth cen- tury by another, which spread wider and endured longer. This literature is conveniently divided into three schools. In examining the special bent which distinguishes each of them, we must not fail to appreciate the remarkable agree- ment which unites them all. They all (against the Gnostics) received the Old Testament, the ancient Scriptures, as sanctioned by the Lord and His apostles. They all agree in a free use of allegorical interpretation of it, though (at least till Origen) they had no determinate principles to guide them in the matter. Allegory did not imply a dis- position to question the truth of the literal history ; but as Christianity has at length revealed the true mind of God, who is unchangeable. His Spirit must have been intent of old on the same things which are now beUeved among us. The inference was that the Old Testament must be pervaded throughout by Christian meanings, and that it is now the privilege of Christians to discern and expound them. The life and teaching of our Lord were, of course, central for His followers. A wealth of information on this subject existed in various forms, not all equally reliable — tradi- tions, narratives, collections of sayings. During the second century the four Gospels had been everywhere received as the authoritative sources, and a divine wisdom was recog- nised in furnishing the Church with these and no more.^ The Epistles also of the apostles had now been sedulously gathered, discriminated, and formed into a collection.* 1 Irenseus, Ref. iii. 12. 8. 2 The limits of the New Testament Canon were not drawn quite in the same way in every Church nor by every writer, but the general position was common to all. It will not be denied that Irenseus holds the Gospels and Epistles as settled Christian authorities. So also Clement clearly recognised the principle of the New Testament Canon {Strom, vii. 16). It may still be questioned whether the authoritative writings of the New Covenant had come to be regarded exactly in the same way as those of the Old were. As to this, it is to be observed that the mere antiquity of the Old Testament, and also the wa}^ in which it was held to speak from that antiquity to a far later age, snggested something peculiarly miraculous. The authority of the New Testa- ment writings was not less, but they impressed the mind differently. They 180-313] CHRISTIAN THOUGHT AND LITERATURE 159 Something shorter and simpler, however, was available to indicate the outline and basis of Christian religion, and this, too, was matter of substantial agreement among the writers before us. The Gnostic speculations claimed to be Christian, and proposed to set forth a profounder in- terpretation of the Christian writings. They claimed, too, the possession of secret traditions by which the deeper teaching of the apostles had been transmitted to the Gnostic leaders of the second century, and they named the persons through whom those traditions came. It was perfectly reasonable to set against these claims the public and notorious tradition of the churches, especially of the greater and older churches. This tradition was a fact of first-rate value in the middle of the second century. If the whole literature of Wesleyanism were suddenly annihilated, the consent of the greater and older Methodist congregations would to-day b^. excellent proof of the fundamental principles of the body. Just so if, in the middle of the second cen- tury, a man came to Kome with a system which, in its essentials, was a novelty among Koman Christians, that system might be never so admirable, but it could not be Christianity. For people knew in Eome what had been taught for Christianity to their fathers and grandfathers. The churches are believed on good grounds to have had forms of baptismal confession, agreeing pretty nearly though with verbal differences. But the early writers of our period appeal especially to what they call the rcgula or standard of belief. As already explained,^ this is a statement of Christian fundamentals, but with no fixed form of words, so that a given writer may sometimes amplify the statement and sometimes condense it. Either way one feels that spoke mostly straightforward religion and morality, while tliose of the Old Testan.eiit spoke also mysteries, symbols, oracles. Let anyone observe, for example, how the Old Testament relates itself to such a mind as Origen's (De PriTuyipiis, iv. 23 al.). Now, on the Old Testament, Origen did not occupy a position substantially different from that of other Christians, only he was more inquisitive, suggestive, and intense. He extended the allegorical prin- ciple to the New Testament also ; but that was not the earlier view. * ArUe, p. 74. 160 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. the writer is not merely conscious of phrases in a creed, but of a way of thinking and feeling regarding those great articles to which he may confidently appeal. Origen calls this rule also Krjpvy^a, the Church's proclamation. Whether shorter or longer, the regula is understood to apply only to fundamentals like those in what is called the Apostles* Creed. On points more specific no uncontradicted common consent was available. They had to be determined from apostolic teaching and from the analogy of the faith.^ Therefore a common attitude towards the faith and a common sentiment about it belong to all the writers now before us. For all of them Christ is pre-existent in the divine nature ; is identified with the Logos, who has given being and laws to the universe ; has become man, being born of the Virgin ; has ascribed to Him at once the divine glory and the human lowliness; also, was and is at once Word and Son. With the Father and Son is associated the Spirit, who dwells in Christ and dwells in the Church as the Spirit of Christ, who w^as concerned specially in the preparation of Christ's human nature, and who is the immediate source of all hallowing influences. The prophets, who prepared the way for the coming of Christ, spoke by the same Spirit. Christ by His incarnation and sacrifice, has brought in the forgiveness of sins, has opened to us a way and a hope of salvation through repentance, has called us to holiness in the fellow- ship and under the influences and ordinances of His Church. The hope which awaits the faithful is that of perfect purity and great blessedness. For evil-doers is appointed a con- demnation which the common teaching, echoing the language of the New Testament, represented as hopeless. Only the esoteric teaching of leading Alexandrians spoke of it as a purifying pain which could not but at last achieve its end. ilrenseus, i. 1, and i. 10. 1 ; Clem. Alex. Strom, vL p. 803 { Tert ^ PrcBscr, 0. 13 ; Origen, de FriTic. L, Ftcb/, 4-9. 180-318] SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA 161 1, School of Alexandria Clemens (Titus Flavius) Alexandrinus, Opera^ Potter, Oxf. 1716 ; Dindorf, Oxf. 1868 ; Migne, Paris, 2 vols. 1857, transl. in Anle-Nicene Fathers, Edin. The chief writings are the Protrepticus, the Pmdagogus, and the Stromata. Origen, Opera, De la Rue, Paris, 4 vols. fol. 1733-59 ; reprinted by Lommatzsch, 25 vols. 12mo^ Berol. 1831-48. Thomasius, Origenes, Niirnberg, 1837. Redo- penning, Origenes, 2 vols., Bonn, 1841-46. We owe also to Redepenning a very useful edition of the Ilepi Ap^w* Lips. 1836. Bigg, Cfvristian Platonists of Alexandriay Oxf. 1886. De Pressens^ Eist&ire du trois premih-es Sibcles de VEglise^ Paris, 1861, 2me serie, vol. ii We begin with the Alexandrians. In their hands the work of the Apologists was followed up in a profoundly sympathetic spirit. In illustrating the place and worth of Christianity, they aim at doing justice to the better thought and life of the pagan world. Pantsenus is reported as the earliest representative of the School ; but he left no writings. For our purpose he is merged in his disciple, Clement. Clement's birth can hardly have fallen earlier than A.D. 150 or later than 160. While still ignorant of Christ, he had devoted himself to philosophy ; and Neander has aptly suggested that the sketch of such a career, put into the mouth of Clemens Eomanus in the Eecognitions,^ might well enough describe the actual career of his Alexandrian namesake. After he came under Christian influences, he continued to be a seeker, wandering to and fro in search of the wisest and most helpful teachers. He commemorates some with special gratitude, — one from Syria whom he met in Greece,^ one from Egypt whom he met in Magna Grsecia.* Others he encountered in the East. Lastly, in Alexandria he comes upon Pantaenus, " the true Sicilian bee, gathering spoil from the flowers of the prophetic and apostolic meadow"; and now he found rest. Pantsenus, who came to Christianity through a Stoio training, held an interesting position. Alexandria was at ^ See anUy Chap. I. p. 21. * Tatian has been suggested. • Perhaps Theodotus. 162 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. once an important provincial capital, a great commercial centre, and the seat of a remarkable school of learning. Many streams flowed together in its population ; and all that was plausible in speculation found disciples and expositors. The need had been felt of setting apart someone who knew how minds were working, and who was qualified to deal with them, in order to train those who at Alexandria were entertaining the question of Christian discipleship. So the catechetical School had special significance there, and Pantffinus was at the head of it. His philosophy apparently did not chill his Christianity; for, by and by, he left the libraries, the society, and the disputations of the city, to go on missionary work among uncultivated people. This may have taken place about A.D. 189. Then probably Clement succeeded him. In a.d. 202 the persecution under Alexander Sever us drove Clement from Alexandria. Perhaps he returned before his death, which is usually dated about A.D. 220. Clement brought to the service of Christianity a full and ready mind. No one of his time has quoted so largely from the store of Greek literature. He loved beauty and goodness, and he found their traces everywhere : accord- ingly, he counted on a response from human hearts, when appealed to in the name of beauty, and goodness, and God. The position in which he was placed, and the work he had to do, called upon him to present Christianity to his hearers as the crown of all worthy human thoughts : it was a creed in harmony with all that men had found to be valid, supplying what men had felt to be lacking. Clement believed all this ; he devoted his resources to make it good ; and in so doing he set the type of the earlier Alexandrian Christian teaching. He took up afresh thoughts we have already met with in Justin Martyr ; but he presented his case with more wealth of suggestion and more warmth of appeal. He had little value for continuous exposition ; on the contrary, his convictions gush up in a kind of fortuitous disorder. His great successor, Origen, was to state the case with 180-S13] SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA 163 more argumentative power, more continuity of thought, more patient working out of detail ; also with astonishing subtlety of speculation. But Clement retains a charm of his own — the charm of the impressionist. And the aim of Clement, not less than of Origen, is to present a clear intellectual conception of Christianity. That was dictated by the situation in which both teachers found themselves. They had to commend Christianity to men sharing the culture of the time, and interested in the questions which it raised. To influence such men, to grasp them permanently, intellectual method must come clearly into play, and ideals must be presented and pressed. Again, Christianity had to be exhibited as tenable against the philosophies which claimed to embody all that was discover- able of the good, the true, the fair. Christianity must either own a certain helplessness as compared with them, or must transcend them and beat them on their own ground. Again, Christianity at that time had to be stated as distin- guished and as vindicated from Gnosticism. Now Gnosticism presented a conception, and so far a solution, of the great problem — the being, the history, the catastrophe of the world. There were various Gnostic schemes, but all worked with the same materials, and on similar lines. The best way of ousting all these was to present the true Gnosis, embody- ing elements which, if once accepted, must explode all the Gnosticisms. It may be added, that the Gnostic theories were recognised already as only one large and rank species imder the general head of heresies. These were forms of thought which claimed the Christian name, had affinities on some sides with Christian faith and feeling, and yet proved irreconcilable with great and permanent convictions on which Christian faith and life rested. These schemes could be encountered in detail. But to the whole class, Christians were beginning to ascribe a common character, for they associated them all with ideas of wanton fancifulness and insubordinate self-will. It was natural to think, then, that, in contrast to all these, the genuine Christianity could be set forth on grand lines of 164 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. thought, — few, sufficient, self-evidencing, — and so might take possession of the minds of men, convincing and steady- ing. Perhaps this remark applies more to Clement : Origen's theorising, which aims at the same object, is not quite so simple ; he is more prone to theoretic detail For Clement, Christianity is first and chiefly the coming of the Logos into the world, in the person of Christ. He had been in the world before ; for as He made all, and is the sustaining reason of the universe, so He has never failed to solicit human minds with truth. The whole history of the race bears token of His presence. Yet this ministra- tion, though it had many eminent fruits, was not sufficient for the highest ends, — it was not sufficient to bring about complete agreement with God, nor to open the gates of the true blessedness. It is the ministration of the Word as actually come among us in His incarnation, revealing and attracting, which proves able to flood the soul with light ; it is this that persuades us to make the decisions in which we become completely His disciples and His friends. But that result does not come to pass with all, even of those whom the message of Jesus reaches. The reason is that men cannot be absolutely swayed by any power, not even by Truth itself in its clearest dispensation. Men can shut the door against it, or can detain it in unrighteousness. For Will is an essential feature in human nature, and the essence of Will is to be free, — it is always free. Being so, it can reject reason and prefer unreason. Still, the human heart feels that Truth has a claim to be heard and welcomed, and even perverse wills must in some measure own this. Hence the importance of that divine ministry of truth and discipline combined, which not only carries on the culture of those who have believed, but also besets the unbelieving with successive lessons and with fresh motives, so that they may yet surrender to that which they have resisted. Hence, then, comes the division between those who have received the light and those who resist it. What the final issue of this division shall be is not so clear in Clement. Probably he, like Origen, looked for a final victory of light 180-313] SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA 165 over all natures capable of light, however long continued the processes of discipline might have to be, by which that victory should be attained. At all events, over against this array of human wills, with their responsibilities and their persistent freedom, stands the divine equity, always aiming at men's welfare, but steadily aiming at it by dealing with men according to their desert. Hence all conditions and all distinctions among men are finally accounted for by this, that their merits have so determined for them. Will is continually confronted by justice with its discipline; it always encounters the lessons which ought to be pre- scribed to it ; yet it retains always its inherent freedom to make its own decisions. This BiKaLoavvij a(i)T'^pi,o. up not merely the present state of the mixed world, but its origin, to a primeval fall from the Pleroma. Origen, too, was not disposed to think of the material world as other than the result of a fall; and yet, as just stated, he was not to condemn it as evil. How was he to wind his way through these various conditions ? God, as Origen considered, did not begin to create, as at an era before which creation was not. He has never been without a world of creatures. And His work has consisted in causing to exist a great, but not an infinite number of intelligences. From the inconceivable " beginning " these spirits have existed. They must be conceived as equal to one another in position and gifts so far as God is concerned, — anything else were inconsistent with divine equity. They are, then, at first blessed, all of them equally, with a full view of truth and full delight in goodness, for they are all in unimpeded fellowship with the Logos. Though they are akin to God, they differ from the Holy Spirit (and, of course, from the Logos and the Father) in this, that He has goodness essen- tially by nature, but they are capable of partaking of it, and also of losing it, by will. Being in possession of goodness they may become saturated with it, may relax in their in ten t- ness, and become subject to some degree of evil. They can cool from the glow of primeval goodness. This, in fact, is what Origen conceives all of these crea- tures to have done, more or less, through the play of their own freedom (all, unless there be one exception); a de- scending process thus sets in which proceeds in various cases to various lengths. The devil is he who has gone farthest, and Origen conceives that it was he who began the process of defection. Here now comes in the actual experimental world. A spirit, TTvevfia, sufficiently refrigerated ^ in the progress of its decline from the glow of primeval goodness, becomes a human soul, yjrv^Tjj and acquires a material vesture adapted to its precise conditions ; also, the material universe takes shape by divine appointment precisely in the form ^ Origen connected ^vxv with \j/\jxp6^. 180-313] ORIGEN 175 adapted to be the scene in which spirits so situated shall pursue the course of further experiences. As compared with the prior and happier conditions of spirits, the world we know is thus a kind of prison and place of correction, while in relation to abodes of yet lower quality it may be a place of relief. This is the explanation of how men are born ; an intelligence, so far fallen, has become incorporate in each little child. Other spirits which have not fallen so far, have their own conditions, more ethereal than ours, but material still. The sun, moon, and stars are all, for Origen, instances of spirits less fallen than we, yet in a disciplmary captivity in those lucent forms of theirs, from which they shall one day be delivered.^ The spirit of each man at death is supposed to ascend or descend, as his previous course deserves. There is not, however, for the present, at the death of each man, an exact adjustment of externals to his internal state ; only an ap- proximation. But when the ^on, or world age, ends, then a full rearrangement takes place. The Logos becomes intensely present to each soul ; each fully realises his own character and his past doings ; and then a full readjustment takes place, a new world arises, and a new start is made. A succession of such world ages is to be supposed, how many and how long enduring none can say. The whole process is meant to reclaim the fallen; and at last, after many successive aeons, the great result will be attained, — the whole universe of intelligences will return to their primeval good state. This is the greater world close, which concludes, not an seen merely, but the " ages of ages." That such a close is relatively near, Origen inferred from Christ's incarnation, for that must be supposed to indicate that all was to be made new. Yet, end when it may, this immense process cannot, apparently, be supposed to occur only once for all. Change will set in again through free will, and the problem will rise and be resolved again, — in * There are passages, however, in which the alternative is suggested, that all spiritual beings (except the Tiinity) possess an extremely refined material vesture. 176 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. general Cfn the same principles, but with interminable variety in detail. This last point lies in the connection of the system, and it is indicated by Origen as at least possible ; but he does not dwell upon it. The Logos, meanwhile, has been ever soliciting the minds of His creatures with truth. Philosophy, Law, Pro- mise are all effects of His activity. But these prove to be not enough ; and so, in one seon, after much evil, the Logos Himself comes, — who does not come in many aeons, — He comes incarnate. Our Lord's appearance is the most strik- ing instance of one principle enunciated by Origen, namely, that while in general all intelligences are placed in stations corresponding to their merits, yet sometimes the good and pure are found in stations far below what would otherwise be their lot. This takes place by way of condescension and sympathy. These benefactors descend to minister to the good of others. Origen attached great weight to the presence of the human soul of Christ in the incarnation. Probably many Christians were confused or unsettled on this point. In his view it was unsuitable for the Logos to unite Himself directly with a material body ; He is in union with a human soul, and with the body through that. But this human soul, this '^frvxv, had to be explained, as far as possible, in conformity with Origen's general doctrine of souls. He taught, therefore, that this spirit, like all others, has pre- existed through indefinite ages. This one, however, unlike all others, has constantly adhered to the Logos in unfailing and inextinguishable love, has grown continually into near- ness and ardour of attachment, has become, as it were, one spirit with Him. So it could appropriately have the distinc- tion, and could accept the trials of the human soul of Christ.^ Thus the principle of remunerative righteousness is carried ^ It Las often been remarked that this explanation leaves out of account one element in Origen's theory of souls in general ; for, according to that, a irvevfia becomes a fvxv, and acquires a material vesture only through a pro- cess of moral refrigeration. But Origen's resources are not easily exhausted, and perhaps he had a reply ready for this diflaculty. 180-313] ORIGEN 177 out even here. The human soul of Christ has earned the place it occupies. And while the actual incarnation takes place only once in the consummation of the ages, the union of the Logos with the spirit, who is the human soul of Christ, became a durable fact quite apart from the incarnation, and apparently in no connection of time with that event. Ap- parently, also, in the final state of things, the material part of Christ will vanish, but the union with this spirit will remain. As to the redeeming energy of Christ, the main thought is that He operates as an enlightening influence. Yet Origen felt a meaning in the death of Christ which this thought did not adequately bring out. Three w^ays of look- ing at this matter have been pointed out in various parts of his writings. First, he gives some weight to the idea, current in his day and long after, that in subjecting Himself to the malice of Satan, our Lord ousted that enemy from the dominion which he had over us as sinners, — a dominion usurped as it relates to God, but having a certain right to be, in so far as our sin brought us under that dark yoke. Secondly, in a sense Christ's death was substitutionary, and as such relieves us from punishment. Punishment, accord- ing to Origen, is not vindicative, it is always and only disci- plinary ; but sacrifice on the part of another may, even in this view, so far fulfil the ends of punishment as to replace it. Lastly, Origen seems to have thought that the death of the holy sufferer has a mystical or magical power to defeat the onset of evil. It breaks the spell, and sets man free. The pathway by which the individual soul reaches the great result through repentance, faith, baptism, and perse- verance, is conceived by Origen as an ascent to God, in a manner that recalls the teaching of the New Platonists, and also of the later mystics. At death the soul, separated from the body, but still retaining a finer material vesture, has special experiences to go through. Even the good, who proceed, in the first place, to paradise (somewhere in the earth), pass to it through a lively apprehension of their own sin, and an inward judg- ment of it, which is their punishment. The same experi- 12 178 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. ence awaits others also ; but these cannot pass through, and they sink to those regions that are suited to their state. From paradise the good ascend, not usually to consummate blessedness, but to some higher region adapted to a character which is not yet perfected. All this was a contribution to the doctrine of purgatory. The punishment of the wicked is perhaps chiefly to be conceived as an intense manifesta- tion of the Logos, which confronts the soul with its sins, and forces in upon it the sense of their intolerable eviL Each man really lights his own fire, rather than sinks into fire prepared for him. " Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flames which ye have kindled." And the fuel is our sin, which Paul (1 Cor. iii. 12) calls wood, hay, stubble. "So the soul, when it has collected into itself a multitude of evil works and an abundance of sins, at a fitting time glows into punishment, and bursts into penal fire.** Very striking representations are made of the way in which past sins may take hold of the sinner. The process, with its unknown progressions — for who can tell what purging pain the great Healer will apply ? — ^is always in the long-run designed to heal and to restore. God is at last to bring all to the result described as subjection to Christ (1 Cor. xv. 28). "What is that subjection ? I believe it is that subjection which we long for, that which apostles and saints experience. It is such subjection as includes the safety of those subjected. For David says, * Shall not my soul be subject to the Lord ; from Him comes my salvation.**'^ Origen's theology is a theme on which much might be written, if this were the place. Let it suffice to say, mean- while, that in a great degree he saw and settled what the questions are which dogmatic theology raises, and in a great degree also, the relation in which they stand to one another. He also raised into prominence the question of the boundary ^ Origen, at the same time, had given the consentient teaching of the Church in these words : "The soul departing out of this world will be dealt with according to its merits, either partaking the inheritance of eternal life and blessedness, if its own works allot this to it, or committed to eternal fire and punishment, if the guilt of its evil deeds binds it over to this" {D« Frinc, Prsef. 5). 180-513] ORIGEN 179 between that which is of faith and that which should be open among Christians. Where should that line be drawn ? And ought it at all times to be the same ? It is a question that has been variously dealt with since, and it is not yet closed. Origen's answer to it is in the earlier chapters of the De Frincipiis} In passing from this system, we may remind ourselves that a man does not always live by the speculations which he thinks. Apparently the older Origen grew the more he lived in the Scriptures, and tlje less he cared for any- thing outside of them. It is not wonderful, however, that umbrage was early taken at the freedom of Origen's specu- lation. At first, this applied mainly to his speculations about the origin and history of souls, including his theory of matter.* As regards his way of speaking on the higher nature in Christ, the charge of heresy on that ground was a later development. For some time all Eastern theology was influenced by Origen, but in various degrees. Dionysius, after presiding in the catechetical school, became bishop of Alexandria, and was distinguished as " the Great." He opposed Chiliasm, and criticised unfavourably the claims to canonicity of the Book of Eevelation. His utterances on Logos doctrine are referred to below (Fragments in Routh). Gregory Thaumaturgus, a scholar of Origen at Csesarea, afterwards a very successful bishop of Neo-Caesarea in Pontus, wrote a Panegyricus on Origen (among Origen's works, Lommatzsch, vol. xxv.). Methodius, bishop of Olympus in Lycia (died a martyr, 311), attacked Origen's Anthropology, and his doctrine of Eternal Creation {Opera, Jahn, Heid. 1865, transl. in Clark's Ante-Nicene Fathers). His conception of salvation as emancipation from sense makes him a glowing advocate of celibacy. Against various attacks Pamphilus (died 309 by martyrdom), aided by Eusebius, wrote an Apology for Origen, of which the first book remains (in Eouth, and among Origen's works, Lomm. vol. xxiv.). Separately must be named a learned layman, Julius Africanus, older than Origen, and one of his correspondents. He wrote five books of Chronography, long influential, and a medical book, Kf oroy ; fragments in Routh, ii. 219, 609. * For the rest, the reader may consult the remarks of Harnack, Histary of Doctrine^ noting especially what he says as to the art with which, in Origen's scheme, each element slides into the next, and sharp contrasts are avoided. See also Thoraasius and Redepenning, ante^ p. 161. ^ Methodius, in his works on the Resurrection and on Things Created, 180 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. 2. School of Asia Minor There existed in Asia Minor during the second century a vigorous church life, and a lively tradition of Christian teaching.^ There Irenaeus was impressed in his youth by the character and reminiscences of " Presbyteri Apostolorum discipuli." Characteristic thoughts of Ignatius, of Polycarp, and of Melito receive emphasis and illustration in Irenseus. This is less conspicuously true of Hippolytus ; yet he is commonly referred to the same school. Irenseus and Hip- polytus both found their field of work in the West; but they continued to think and write in Greek — and their peculiarities are Asian rather than Western.^ Irenseus is important, because he represents the central forces of the Christianity of his time. Alike his training and his character disposed him to avoid eccentricities, and ^ Melito of Sardis, ApoUinarius of Hierapolis, Miltiades, Apollonius. The rise of Montanism, and the conflict with it, imply vivacity and susceptibility. ^ Irenseus, born in the East — perhaps a.d. 130 (Zahn says, 115), not later than 140, in his early days saw and heard Polycarp at Smyrna, said to have spent some time at Rome after 155, became bishop of Lyons on death of Pothinus, 177 — and is known to have been alive in 190. That he was mar- tyred under Septimius Severus (202) has been asserted, but on no sure grounds. Besides his work against Heresies (chiefly the Gnostic), which has survived in a very old Latin translation (considerable fragments also iu Greek), Irenaeus also wrote letters and tracts on current questions, which were quoted by later writers. (Edd. Stieren. 2 v. Lips. 1853 ; Harvey, Cambridge, 1857, contains additional fragments from the Syriac. ) Hippolytus was by far the most learned man in the Roman Church of his day, yet his position there has been matter of great debate. He was influen- tial from about the beginning of the third century, but disapproved of the action of Pope Zephyrinus, came into serious collision with Callistus (217-222), and is believed by Dollinger and others to have been an opposition bishop of a sect in Rome (but see Prof. Salmon in Smith and Wace's Diet, of Biogr.). About 285, in a time of persecution, he was banished to the mines of Sardinia along with Pontianus the Roman bishop, and probably died there. He was afterwards venerated at Rome as a martyr, which suggests that the quarrel had been composed before he died. His most important work, perhaps, was his Eefutation of all Heresies, recovered in 1851. But about forty others are ascribed to him, of which the smaller part has been preserved. The forty titles may not represent in all cases as many distinct works. RematTis, Lagarde, Lips, and Lond. 1858 ; Migne, Patr. Or. x. ; Refutatio, Duncker and Schneide- win, Gott. 1859. 180-313] SCHOOL OF ASIA MINOR 181 to recognise the main interests to which Christian teaching ministers. Some of his contemporaries were trying to interpret Christianity in terms of philosophy ; and the whole mass of Gnostic theories ran out into the wildest speculations. Irenseus distrusted this so-called science, but there is nothing irrational in the position he takes up about it. " If a man cannot find out the reason of everything that is asked after, let him consider that man is infinitely less than God ; man is not yet equal to his Maker. Now, just in so far, in point of knowledge and searching out of reasons is he less than Him who made him. For, man, thou art not uncreated, nor always coexistent with God as His Word is ; but from His goodness thou hast received a beginning of being, and gradually dost thou learn from the Word, the arrangements of God who made thee. It is no wonder that we find ourselves so situated in regard to things heavenly which are matters of revelation, since even of the things that are before our feet, I mean the visible parts of creation, many escape our understanding; and these, too, we must commit to God" (ii. 25. 3; 28. 2). On a former page, reference was made to a scheme of thought which frequently suggests itself as underlying early Chris uian utterances, especially in the case of the x4pologists and their successors {ante, p. 89). It is a rather scanty and starved conception of Christianity. Irenaeus also speaks, not unfrequently, according to the same scheme. But he inherited from his predecessors in Asia Minor an impression of something richer and deeper. His mind is often occupied with thoughts of salvation as standing in wonderful benefits or gifts which Christ has achieved for us, and which are ours in union to Him. The great com- parison between Adam and Christ, suggested by the Apostle Paul (Rom. v.), is his point of departure. We ought to own, he says, a twofold rccapitulatio. Adam was our head, hold- ing on our behalf excellent gifts. What we lost in him we receive again — that and more — in Christ. So He became what we are, that we might become what He is. This 182 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. thought runs into many illustrations. It constantly appears how important it was for Irenaeus (as for Ignatius before him) to maintain the full reality of our Lord's human nature. And we see him brooding on the question how the inter- position of Christ shall be conceived to avail to restore so victoriously the state of man. He is full of suggestions in which picturesque contrasts between Adam and Christ indicate how the latter undoes and repairs the fault of the former. Yet he hardly succeeds in giving connection to his thoughts, or bringing out a tangible theodicy of Eedemp- tion. Generally every circumstance, and every act of the life of Christ, has for him a redeeming force with reference to some aspect of the sin and shortcoming which it counter- works.^ Naturally, the Incarnation and the Cross chiefly hold his mind. His doctrine of the incarnation will occupy us later. Irenaeus felt sympathetically the place which the death of Christ occupies in the New Testament. " He gave His flesh for our flesh, and His soul for our souls." Since Christ is our Head, His death is in some sense our death : and it blotted out our debt. But how ? More than one later theory as to this floats before us in the language of Irenffius. How far any of them can be fairly imputed to him as corresponding to his deliberate judgment, is a ques- tion which cannot be fairly answered without discussion, which is not possible here. One theory, already referred to in connection with Origen, and which will meet us later, proceeded on the ground that men, by complying with Satan's temptation, became subject to his dominion. If from this dominion they had been rescued by sheer force, Satan could have maintained that the deliverance was unjust. The death of Christ then operated as a ransom, especially in so far as Satan, working his will on Christ by his instruments, put himself finally in the wrong, and was ousted from all claims. Baur ascribed this theory to Irenseus.^ And Harnack has followed him ^ E.g. the disobedience of Adam was disobedience in the tree, and the obedience of Christ was obedience on the tree, ' Oesch. d. Versdhnung, p. 31. 180-313] SCHOOL OF ASIA MINOR 18S (relying on the same passages), so far as that Irenseus, accord- ing to him, at least recognises something in this direction which rests his mind. It is certain that Irenaeus believed the human race, as one of the consequences of its trans- gression, to have fallen under Satan's dominion in some sense; and in saving men Christ delivers them from the power of the adversary. Also Christ does this, not pla, by violence, but in a way more worthy of God. All these are ideas suggested in Scripture, and generally received in antiquity. But, according to Irenaeus, the power to pro- duce this effect belongs to the whole incarnate actings of Christ, not merely to His death ; and as far as appears, the redemption from the " apostasy," or from the kingdom of evil, proceeds by Christ's reversing all that is wrong in human history, — embodying for us and imparting to us a perfect status and a new life. So Satan's power falls of itself. Irenaeus speaks of the Lord's Supper as involving an offering on our part; but this offering consists in the elements which we bring, and it is sanctified by the purity of the heart that offers. These elements, being blessed, cease to be common bread or common wine — they become eucha- rist, and the communicant partaking of them receives the body and blood of Christ. He does so in such a sense that his own body and blood are enriched thereby, and are elevated with a view to the resurrection life.^ In regard to the Old Testament, Irenaeus represents the line of treatment which prevailed ever after. Barnabas seemed to hold that the Christian meanings drawn from the Old Testament allegorically, had been all along the one divinely intended sense. Irenaeus distinguishes the Deca- logue, as the natural and essential moral law, from the ceremonial; the latter is to be allegorically interpreted in the way usual in the Church ; but yet the literal sense also was valid and obligatory before Christ came. It * ttxo-pt-dapTd, 7ifi> i\Tl8a TTJi elt aluvas diKurrdaem lxo'^<^> ^^* I^ ^i Bee also 8. 4. 184 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a-B. served a necessary ptnedagogic purpose, placing men in a kind of bondage for a time ; but now under the gospel we are set free. Thus both the unity of the Old Testament with the New, and also the difference, are emphasised. Irenseus held decidedly to the literal fulfilment of the promises. He believed, therefore, in a state of things in which the risen saints should enjoy an earth of peace and gladness. In that state of things the ideal relation of the material world to man's nature should be realised, and so the order of creation should be justified. Beyond this he appears to admit the prospect of something ineffable. Eye hath not seen it. To the same school as Irenseus, Hippolytus is reckoned. He, too, wrote in Greek, though his ministry was in or near Eome itself. Probably the Eoman Church was passing, in his time, from the Greek stage of its existence to the Latin one; but in that case Hippolytus must have served the Greek section. He was probably more extensively learned than Irenseus, but hardly on a level with him in point of Christian sagacity and insight. His book against Heresies, which has acquired the rather misleading name of Philoso- phoumenay is on the whole the most important work we owe to him; and it reveals passages in his own career which have led to much curious discussion. Features of his theology will be referred to in con- nection with the discussions on the divine nature and the person of Christ. He represented in the West the learned inquisitiveness and the literary activity which Origen, his younger contemporary, exhibited in the East ; but Hippolytus possessed neither the imaginative resource nor the systematising genius of Origen. 3. School of Afkica A third type is recognised in the writers who inaugurate the Latin Christian literature. This comes to light first on African soil, and its earliest representative is Tertullian. He was born probably before a.d. 160, became a Christian 180-313] SCHOOL OF AFHICA 185 about A.D. 192, and was attracted to Montanism somewhere about the close of the century. He had become a presbyter, probably at Carthage, and he no doubt led the Montanist party in that city. He had received an excellent education, had studied law, and had read extensively in history, which he valued, and in philosophy, which as a Christian he dis- trusted. As a pagan he had shared in the ordinary life of Carthage ; as a Christian he entered keenly into all Chris- tian interests, resisting and resenting compromise and evasion. He may have died before 240. Some of his surviving writings were composed while he was still a member of the Catholic Church ; others represent his later Montanistic position.^ Tertullian possessed the gift of vivid, pithy, often scornful phrase, and he set the example of a Christian style in the Latin tongue with triumphant energy, but with striking peculiarities.^ No man of his age is so much alive ; and no man so much as he carries the reader into the Christian life of the time; — often combative, often extreme, but always vigorous and suggestive. He combined in himself the Puritan and High Churchman, with even a touch of the Fifth Monarchy man thrown in. He was a married man, and one supposes might not be quite " easy to live with " ; yet he might well be greatly esteemed and greatly loved. Besides those which are lost, more than thirty of his writings have come down to us. He knew Greek, and composed some tracts in that tongue; but to us he is known only through his Latin writing, which doubtless reveals him at his best. Tertullian was acquainted with the work of Irenseus ; and we sometimes find in him the same ideas, as it were advanced a stage. It was an orthodox commonplace to * Operay ed. F. Oehler, 3 vols., Lips. 1854, is the most useful edition : improved text (without notes) by Reifferscheid and Wissowa, in Corpus Scriptor. Eccl. Latin. ^ Vindol. 1890; Kaye, Feci. History, illustrated from the Works of Tertullian, Cambr. 1829 ; Neander, Aniignosticus or Spirit of Tert., transl. by Ryland, Bohn, Lond. 1851. ^ Contrast the style of Minucius Felix, not far from Tertullian's period, and, like him, a lawyer. 186 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. plead, as an argument against the wilder heretics, the consent as to the essential verities of Christianity expressed in the teaching of the greater and older Churches. We have met with this in Irenaeus. But in the hands of TertuUian^ it turns into a method of controversy with heretics by which you could deprive them of all right to be heard on the merits — could, in fact, shut the door in their face, and refuse to be troubled with them. For, as Tertullian virtually points out, it was all well to draw truth from the Scriptures, and especially to seek in the Scriptures, as a man had opportunity, fresh light and fresh impulse. But when a heretic came impugning any of the notorious verities, was a Catholic Christian to go to sea with him, as it were, in a fresh examination of Scripture on the point? Tertullian says. No. The Catholic might have limited acquaintance with Scripture, imperfect access to it, no right conception of methods of interpretation, might be liable to be bewildered with allegories and non-natural interpretations, and might be led into the most lamentable mistakes. His duty was to say, — " We, who live in the well- known faith, which has been continuous in the churches since the apostles' days, are the owners of the Bible; it belongs to us : you who are outsiders have no business with it ; it is sacrilege for you to meddle with it. Therefore, we will simply pay not the least attention to a single word you say." There was much to be said for this attitude with reference to heretics who, like Valentinus, or Basilides, or Marcion, propounded as Christianity things unheard of till they came, unheard of especially in the old and large churches whose teaching was public and notorious. And Tertullian only means his principle to apply to the great articles, whose conspicuous place in Christian creeds was undeniable. In a wider application the grounds on which he argues will not hold ; and, indeed, the debates which were to occupy the third century could not fairly be excluded by any arguments he adduces, as those might be which the Gnostics had raised in the second. But the principle was * De Proescriptione adversus hcBreticog, 180-313] SCHOOL OF AFRICA 187 immensely convenient; it could be made the bulwark of traditions, even when these had become far less clear and authoritative than those were in whose favour it was first pleaded. Every writer who appeals to the test advocated by Tertullian betrays the influence of the temptation to stretch it beyond the point which his own grounds will warrant. This is one of the lines on which the Catholic doctrine of the authority of the Church was destined to develop until it covered the wiiole heavens. Tertullian, like Irenaeus, distrusted philosophy, and, as we see, he urged the authority of tradition. Yet he was quite prepared to argue for Christianity as the religion which is intrinsically related to the reason of man. It is adapted to human nature and demanded by it. Hence the title of one of his treatises, Testimonium Animce Naturaliter Christiance. Tertullian therefore is a thinker. He had been trained in the Stoic philosophy, and his Christian thinking bears strong marks at various points of the bent his mind had received in that school. He refers with predilection to Seneca, — " Seneca, paene noster." Still Tertullian is the last man to idealise away his Christian beliefs. Eather he affirms them roundly, and is ready to materialise the objects of faith that he may con- ceive them energetically, and hold them firmly. Eeality is for him associated with some sort of corporeity ; at least he cannot speak of the real, so as to satisfy himself, without using language which implies as much. Tertullian received and reproduced the ideas already before us (in connection with Irenseus) regarding the "re- capitulation" of men, first in Adam and afterwards in Christ. But the second of these did not, apparently, greatly occupy his mind. The first did: he vigorously developed the conception of an inherited sinfulness — a mtium originis — which taints us alL In this connection he threw im- portant thoughts and pithy suggestive phrases into the theology of the Western Church, and prepared the way for Augustine. His concrete way of conceiving things, and also his traducian views of the origin of human souls, contributed 188 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. to deepen his impressions. It cannot be said that Tertullian put the doctrine of original sin into any very precise or final form. But he had a strong impression of the presence of it as a force operating ever since the Fall, and he contem- plated all ordinary human descent as receiving into itself more or less of this influence, which is therefore a constant fact in human nature. Still a seed of goodness remains in men ; infancy can be spoken of as innocent ; ^ and the freedom of the will continues. On the other hand, as already stated, the influence of Christ's headship of men hardly occupied the mind of Tertullian as it did that of Irenseus. Yet one general result of Christ's coming and of our faith in Him is strongly affirmed. This is grace : a force which Tertullian does not define, but it is stronger than nature. It is emancipating; it gives play to man's free-will, too much put to disadvantage before, and rein- forces it in its efforts towards attaining eternal life. Grace is, for Tertullian, a kind of inspiration ; and he often speaks as if he conceived it under physical or material forms. It has been remarked, and truly, that with Tertullian grace is opposed to nature, but not to merits. Indeed, he conceives life and salvation to be the result of merit with truly mercantile strictness ; grace operates by potentiating the free-will of men, so that it becomes able to merit, if it chooses. Hence, too, the energy with which he inculcates those forms of Christian life and work that tell, as he believes, with greatest force in this line. Just so he re- gards the sins of believers after baptism (those that are remediable) as put away by voluntary endurances and sacrifices. In this connection he develops a doctrine of satisfaction, and is the first to use that word in Christian theology. With him it is a process of paying for our sins by our self-denial and humiliation. Doubtless the controversy with the Gnostics had some effect in disposing Tertullian, as it did Irenaeus, to assert solicitously the freedom of the will, as an actual practical 1 De JBapHsmo, c. 18. But the innocence here intended is not necessarily absolute. 180-313] SCHOOL OF AFRICA 189 fact in all states of men. But the tendency of Christianity itself to deepen the sense of moral responsibility also acted here. Neither of them means to assert grace in any sense that would interfere with this freedom. At the same time, neither of them can be said to have thought deeply on the conditions of freedom, or on the sense in which bondage arises under the influence of sin. Tertullian, as we have seen, could appreciate the con- gruity of Christianity to the essential nature of man ; he could also appreciate the importance of Christlike disposi- tions. But, in general, the habit of his mind disposed him to think of Christianity in statutory forms. " Do thia and live" was the law which came naturally to his lips. A faith and a life are inculcated, and our business (under Christian aids) is obedience, which, if rendered, becomes merit. Perhaps he felt personally safest when he pre- sented to himself this aspect of things, and bowed his rugged self to this yoke. Certainly, though he owned a place for grace, the Pauline wealth and tenderness associated with that theme are strange to his thinking. Yet he cherishes a sense of the greatness of Christianity which goes beyond his schemes of thought ; and he is intent on making earnest work of Christian religion, on realising it as something gi-eat and decisive. Tertullian, finally, is the most human of the Fathers, keen, witty, sarcastic, argumentative, morally intense, intellectually extreme, capable of love and wrath and scorn, and, in the midst of his strong assertions and high moral imperatives, a lowly man, conscious of his own sin and ashamed.^ His must have been a notable mass of Christian manhood ; and the vitality of his writings is extraordinary.^ In the same African province Cyprian ^ arose a genera- * De Patientia, i. ; De Pmitentia, 12 ; etc. * Some expressions are constantly quoted — such as adv. Praxean, 1 : "Prophetiam expulit et lieeresim intulit : paracletum fugavit et patrem crnci- fixit." But a large anthology could be collected, e.g. ** faciunt et vespae favos, faciunt ecclesias et Marcionistit." ' Opera, Is. Fell, Oxon. 1682, with Pearson's Anvalcs, S. Baluzius, Paris, 1726, both fol. ; D. J. H. Goldhora, Lips. 1838-39, 8vo ; best text, Hartel, 190 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. tion later. He, too, came over to Christianity after he had reached manhood. He found inspiration and resource in the writings of Tertullian, but presented in his own person a very distinct type. The rather turbid fervour of Tertullian is replaced in him by dignity, sagacity, and leadership. We are told that before his conversion he had practised oratory and had taught literature. Possibly his aim had been to make way on those lines to promotion in the official hier- archy of the empire. At all events he was a man of cultiva- tion and of independent means, intellectually and morally distinguished, sure of himself and prompt to guide others. He combined marked gentleness of manner with firmness in essentials. Such a man, called to be bishop of the church of Carthage, and fully alive to the obligations and the possi- bilities of his office, could not but be a great churchman. First of all, however, he was a Christian ; and he carried into his Christianity a fine thoroughness and singleness of heart. Before his conversion his mind had been exercised about the lofty standard of purity and well - doing which Christianity proposes; and at that stage he judged the moral change it called for so difficult as to be impossible. But when, persuaded at last,^ he came to baptism, accepting and claiming the life of the new kingdom, then doubts vanished, light broke in, what had been impossible became practical, that in him which had served sin became subject to God ; and he could appeal to those who knew him as to the decisive character of the change. This was God's doing, as he tells us, " it is of God, of God I repeat, all our life, all our strength, the vigour of the present, the hope for the future." Believing that thorough Christianity implied self- denial as to wealth and ease, he resolved to remain im- married; and he sold his property that he might dis- tribute the proceeds among the poor.^ 8 vols., Vindob. 1867. Life by Pontius the deacon in 3rd vol. of Hartel; Archbishop Benson, Life and Times, Lond. 1898. * The presbyter Csecilianus was the chief agent in his conversion. As to what follows, ikd, ad Don. 5. * Considering the period and the literary training of Cyprian, he might 180-313] SCHOOL OF AFRICA 191 He early attracted the notice and confidence of the Carthaginian church, almost immediately became a pres- byter, discharged his duties with fervour and efficiency, and in a.d. 248, while his baptism was still compara- tively recent, was elected bishop. Older presbyters might naturally resent so rapid promotion of a neophyte, but the church would have it so. This personal element had its share in creating some of the troubles he afterwards encountered. The chief debates in which he was involved were those regarding the proper treatment of the lapsed, and the re- baptism of heretics. In the second year of Cyprian's episcopate the Decian persecution began. The Church had enjoyed comparative tranquillity for thirty years, and the suddenness as well as the severity of the blow told heavily. Cyprian speaks of his church as devastated by the rush of defection which set in. It involved even a number of his presbyters. But very many of those who stretched their consciences to comply with pagan rites, in order to avert persecution, had no wish to be finally separated from Christianity. What was to be done about these " lapsed " ? It was not reckoned unfaithful in Christians to avoid persecution by withdrawing from their usual dwelling-places to live where they were less known.^ Eather, such persons, especially if the withdrawal involved serious loss and dis- comfort, were regarded as, in their degree, confessors. The lapsed were those who, in some way, denied their faith, generally by some act of conformity to paganism.* All these — sacrificati, tJiurificati, acta facienteSy lihellatici — were held to have denied their Lord, and by that sin they had have been in danger of cnltivating the far-fetched and tawdry style affected by the later rhetoricians. There is one passage {Ad Don. 1) in which one seems to see a trace of that kind of fine writing. But if so, Christianity, fixing his mind on great interests, came to the rescue. His style, in general, is notably clear, manly, and effective. * An extreme party condemned this oonise, but not Cyprian, nor th^ Church generally. * See amUt p. 143, note 2. 192 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D. fallen from their position as members of His Church. These people were numerous, some of them no doubt were influential, not a few were near relations of persons who still held their position in the church, and they pressed to be restored. The ground taken by the bishop contemplated eventual restoration as the rule ; but not hurriedly, nor as a matter of course, nor in the heat and disorder of the persecution. Cyprian succeeded in procuring the approbation of neigh- bouring bishops for this policy. Moreover, the same ques- tion having arisen at Eome, Cyprian succeeded in securing the adherence of the authorities of that church also for the policy which he approved. Both at Carthage and at Rome the contention on this subject led to schism, a lax party separating at Carthage, an ultra-rigorous one at Eome. Both organised as independent churches ; but the schism at Carthage was shortlived. The Roman separatists, headed by Novatian, became a sect known in the West for the most part as Novatianists, in the East more commonly as Kadapol, puritans, and it continued to exist for centuries. Some details of these disputes will meet us elsewhere. Certain effects of them may be adverted to now. The assertion of the right to separate, and to carry on church life on separate lines, raised questions that were new in some respects. Gnosticism had been got rid of by an appeal to the consent of the churches as to the known fundamentals of their faith. Montanists had been more kindly regarded by many catholic Christians; but their assertion of a new revelation led to consequences so un- manageable, that in the end of the day they were practically treated, by general consent, as having placed themselves outside of the true Church. Now, however, societies were starting in which the common faith was retained, and which based any peculiarities of practice upon traditions that had a plausible claim to authenticity. They claimed that under constraint of conscience they were exercising a right, or performing a duty, pertaining to orthodox Christians; and 130-313] SCHOOL OF AFRICA 193 they carried with them, as they held, the life and powers, the character and the functions, of churches of Christ. If this claim was valid, cases of the kind would multiply, and the influence of the great Church, as representing or em- bodying Christianity, was likely to be impaired. Cyprian was exactly the man to see the danger ; and he met it by asserting that such societies were no part of the Church, and calling on catholic Christians to treat all claims, pro- ceedings, and administrations on the part of separatists as simply null and void. Men who separated were as truly outside of Christianity as the heretic or the apostate. This is the theme of the tract, De CatholicoB Ucdesice Unitate, which was written in 251. It is the next great step in succession to Tertullian's De Frcescriptione in the way of building up the fabric of church power. It is short (about twenty pages), trenchant, and peremptory. God is one, — Christ is one, — He appointed His Church to be one. That unity is first embodied in the apostles, then in the bishops, who are in communion with one another all over the world. To break loose from the authentic bishops (assuming them to be orthodox and recognised), is to cut oneself off from Christianity and from salvation, for it is to cut oneself off from the Church. We lose salvation by schism as well as by heresy. He has not God for his father who has not the Church for his mother. All the topics are here — the ark, the dove, the spouse who is the only one of her mother, " Thou art Peter," the ray, the fountain, the unity of the Trinity, Korah and his company — which have found their place in confirmation sermons century after century. Hence those who claim to be bishops and priests in the separated societies can do " nothing " : their administrations are vain, and their sacrifices are no sacrifices ; their martyrdom when they suffer is no martyrdom. They may be able to pro- phesy and cast out evil spirits, but Christ answers that in Matt. vii. 22. Nothing can be more clear, thorough, and relentless. The unity of God, of Christ, of truth, of love, is to be manifest in the Church. But the Church must chiefly hold together through its bishops, who are, besides, 13 194 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. the most representative men in all the churches. There- fore the unity is the unity of the faithful with the (united) episcopate.^ It so happens that Cyprian was right in the main both in principle and in spirit against the dissidents at Carthage. But whether the unity he postulates is the kind of imity which Christ chiefly desires to see in His Church, and whether variation from it entails necessarily the consequences which Cyprian denounces, is quite another question. The point on which there can be no question is the ecclesiastical efficiency of the principle laid down. Also it is simple, and saves a world of discussion. Possess men's minds with the conviction that separation from the official framework of the Church is equivalent to renunciation of Christ and of His benefits, and you erect the strongest possible defence against schism. Unfortunately, while Cyprian and his followers are eloquent about the lack of love on the part of the separatists, they have not seen that the passions of scorn and hate are the effective forces in the system by which they themselves propose to fortify the unity. The episcopate occupies a decisive place as the criterion of unity on Cyprian's principle. Yet Cyprian does not suppose that the bishop can claim despotic power. In re- gard to discipline, for example, he contemplates the faithful members of the flock, as well as the inferior clergy, joining in examining the cases, and the decisions are to be such as satisfy them. But he evidently contemplates the general principles on which discipline is to proceed as proper to be episcopally fixed. Therefore he strengthened his position by assembling councils of the bishops, as far as they could be got together. When they approved the method which Cyprian proposed, that method could then be insisted on, * The unity of the Church is reflected and guaranteed in the unity of the episcopate ; but Cyprian does not lay stress on orders strictly so called. He does lay stress on a bishop being duly elected and settled in his church with the proper consents of people, clergy, and neighbouring bishops, but he does not test apostolic succession more precisely. And the fact of a schismatio congregation having procured the presence of authentic bishops to ordain ministers for them would not better their case in his eyes. 180-313] SCHOOL OF AFRICA 195 at Carthage or anywhere else, as having the sanction of the Church. This is one of the ways in which the episcopate acquired the exceptional strength needed, if they were to occupy the decisive place ascribed to them by Cyprian's theory. Bishops meet in council and agree about general rules; then the flock may have a considerable voice in the application of them, under the presidency of their own bishop. Very soon another question arose which threatened the episcopal unity on which, according to Cyprian, so much depended. It was that concerning the rebaptizing of heretics. This dispute brought Cyprian into collision with Stephen of Rome ; but it was not pushed to an issue at this time.^ Cyprian shared the feeling that the world was in its decaying age, that the Lord's return to judgment was not far off, and that meanwhile persecutions were the natural indications that Antichrist might soon be revealed. Yet, remarkably enough, for practical purposes he counts upon the existing persecution ending, and the Church having peace to put her affairs again in order. This seems to indicate that Christianity was so rooting itself in the life of society, and had become so visibly a part of the existing world, that persecution was felt to be anomalous and unreasonable ; it was a line of action which would have to be given up by practical statesmen. Meanwhile, under Valerian, persecution continued on an extensive scale. In the Decian persecution Cyprian had withdrawn into concealment, judging it his duty, as far as he could, to prolong his services to his church at a critical time. His opponents in Carthage at that time could represent his conduct in this respect as pusillanimous ; but Cyprian was not misunderstood by the mass of his flock, and he was able from his retirement to give the requisite guidance. Under Valerian he seems to have decided that reasons no longer existed for avoiding arrest, although prob- ably he could have done so with success. It would have been convenient for the procurator of the province, at that » See below, Chap. XV. 196 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. time an invalid, to try him at Utica ; but Cyprian chose to be tried at Carthage, and he brought that to pass. The last letter in the collection of his epistles runs thus, — " Cyprian to the presbyters, deacons, and the whole people, — "Having received information, brethren most beloved, that warrants had been issued for my removal to Utica, I was advised by my friends to retire for a time from my gardens ; ^ and I agreed to do so for a reason which I judged sufficient : — it is fitting, namely, for a bishop to con- fess his Lord in the city in which he presides over the Lord's Church, that so His whole people may be glorified by the bishop's confession in their presence. For a bishop, who is called to confess his faith, speaks in that moment under a divine afflatus, and as the mouthpiece of all. Now then the honour of our church, our glorious church of Carthage, will suffer loss, if at Utica I should make my confession and receive sentence, and thence depart as a martyr to my Lord ; — therefore it is my part, on your behalf and my own, to pray continually, making all possible sup- plications, that among you I may make my confession, suffer and depart. I am waiting therefore in this retired hiding- place for the return of the proconsul to Carthage, and then I shall hear from him what the emperors have ordered with respect to Christian laymen and bishops, and will say what the Lord in that hour will give me to speak. " Ye meanwhile, beloved, according to the rule which at all times I have delivered to you from the Lord's words, and according to what you have often heard me preach, keep peace and quietness ; do not let any of you create dis- turbance for the brethren, nor offer yourselves ultroneously to the Gentiles. For, when a man is apprehended and delivered up, then he ought to speak, inasmuch as God dwelling in us speaks in that hour; and He desires us rather to confess than to profess. What else it is suitable ^ A pleasant residence, inherited apparently. Cyprian had sold it at thq time of his conversion, but friends repurchased it for his use. 180-313] SCHOOL OF AFRICA 197 for us to attend to, before the proconsul passes sentence on me as a confessor of the name of God, we shall arrange in personal conference, with the Lord's guidance. My beloved brethren, may the Lord Jesus deign to preserve you stead- fast in His Church." No opportunity occurred for any such remarkable testi- mony as Cyprian had thought it might be given to him to utter. He was perfectly firm and dignified, answering the judge's questions with Eoman brevity. The proconsul ap- parently thought it his duty to the emperor to speak severely to Cyprian as the ringleader of a wicked sect, whose death might be a warning to the rest. But, on the whole, the martyr seems to have been treated with the consideration due to a remarkable personality. He received sentence with the response, " Thanks be to God," and died by the sword A.D. 261. The proconsul, it was remarked, pronounced sentence with difficulty, and he died a few days after. CHAPTEE XI Christ and God Early Christian thinking included various elements in which Jews and Gentiles could claim their part. But always, whether in the foreground or the background, is the con- viction about Christ, " We know that the Son of God has come, and hath given us an understanding that we might know Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ : this is the true God and everlasting life." This great belief transformed and lifted everything; it gave new significance to every old thought which it happened to appropriate. Hence the subject destined most profoundly to exercise the Christian mind was the question about Christ. What is, essentially and adequately, the Christian way of thinking in regard to Christ ? In regard to the various lines of investigation that might be pursued under this head, a modern student may ask whether the Church adequately pursued them all, or, if one had to be selected, chose wisely that which she preferred. That, however, is a question which must not be hastily answered. In the early Church much that concerned Christ certainly was left to the in- artificial treatment of devout sentiment and homiletical meditation. The line of inquiry on which Christian minds gradually settled was that which concerned the nature of Christ as related to His Father, and also as related to man or to human conditions. For the questions here arising were those on which it was felt needful to be pre- pared with "Yes" or "No," if clear conceptions were to be formed of the meaning of Christ's appearance, the kind 198 A.D. 180-313] CHRIST AND GOD 199 of benefit He brought, and the attitude which the Christian mind should take towards Him. It was not unnatural that in thinking out the world of personalities and facts and forces to which a Christian belongs, a leading question should seem to be where^ in that world, Christ should find His place. It is to be observed, however, that specific influences outside of the Church conspired to detain men's minds upon the same question. Eeference has been made to the activity of non-Christian thought. But that thought laboured much upon the problem of the unity of the world, — in particular, how the world we know, the world of decay and change, should be conceived to derive from an immutable and im- material source ; and how the ideal elements, the goodness and beauty which mind discerns, ally themselves to that which is not mental but material. Theories had been struck out, and phraseology had been elaborated, of which use could be made in explaining Christian thoughts about Christ. This experiment, no doubt, had its dangers. The explanation offered in the light of these materials might expound the faith or might betray it. Yet the effort could not be escaped. Certain ideas were in the minds of men ; and ideas must be compared if men wish to come to an understanding with one another. Meanwhile among the Christians themselves different ideas were found, and it had not yet become clear how far these could coexist permanently in the same Christian fellowship. Many Jews had expected the Messiah in the character of a remarkable or highly favoured man. There were Jewish Christians who had accepted Jesus as such a Messiah ; ^ and from time to time afterwards, as we shall * Justin Martyr, Dial. c. Tryph, 47.. These received the name of Ebionites, the poor — perhaps originally a name of humility, which became a name of contempt. Wliether the Nazarenes or Christians of the circumcision, who maintained a church fellowship apart from that of Gentile Christians, were also Ebionites in the sense of rejecting the divinity of Christ and repudiating the Apostle Paul, is a question which has been much discussed. The result seems to be that while some of the Judaising Christians held higher views of our Lord's person and of the authority of Paul, and others held lower, the 200 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.O. find, teachers appear, not apparently Jewish, who put for- ward a view radically the same, but varied in detail. On the other hand, there were Docetists who regarded human nature, at least in its material elements, as impure, and unfit to be assumed by the Saviour ; they held, therefore, that our Lord's body was apparent only. This was a phase of Gnosticism, or, at least. Gnosticism absorbed it. Docetism soon died out. Various theories owned the reality of the Lord's body, but conceived it to be animated not by a human soul but by some spiritual being from a higher sphere. Besides, those who asserted with great emphasis the divine nature of Christ, sometimes attenuated the sig- nificance of the human nature, while recognising it in terms. These varieties existed, and some of them may have existed more widely than can now be established by proof. Yet, after all, the broad impression, to start with, is that for the general Christian mind Christ was both divine and human. Everything about Him suggested it. On the one hand. He was born of a woman, grew to manhood in a human family, companied with men, suffered and died. On the other hand. He revealed the Father, He achieved re- demption, He was the object of Christian trust and worship. He presided over the destiny of men, He was to be their judge. He stood before the Christian mind, unique, the meeting-place of God and man. In such a personage it was not difficult to own both a human presence and the divine. But when men came to explanations they had to deal with the problems set for them, first, by the great faith of the divine unity, and, second, by the unity of Christ Himself; and the solutions were apt to be biassed by the element which took the lead. One may believe that Christ is divine and also at the same time human, or that He is human and also at the same time divine. The positions proportion of adherents of the two views varied at different times ; and that the application of the term Nazarene to denote peculiarly a more orthodox and, as regards the Gentiles, a more friendly section, distinct from the Ebionites, cannot be proved for the second and third century, though we meet with it in the fourth, Epiph. Hoer. 30. 180-313] CHRIST AND GOD 201 are equivalent, and are both true from the point of view of Church orthodoxy. But different tendencies can attach themselves to the one and to the other. The first suggests that thought should begin with our Lord's pre-existence in the higher or highest nature, and proceed to the assump- tion of the human. The other does not exclude this view ; but to some minds it has rather suggested ideas of human fidelity in goodness, attaining at last a certain deification. The first was decidedly the line of thought which prevailed in the Church, and those who took it believed themselves to be followers of the Apostles Paul and John, and the writer to the Hebrews. The second took shape in theories which contemplated human nature in the man Jesus as respond- ing to happy influences from above, until exceptional attain- ment is rewarded and crowned by divine dignity and dominion. The thread of which the Christian thinking chiefly availed itself for guidance amid competing alternatives was that indicated by X0709, the Word or Eeason. The vov. as one with another. How is this to be accounted for in harmony with the theory ? Either the Gospels use a deceptive way of representing things, depicting earnest dealings between two, when really it is one, in the most absolute personal simplicity, who acts both the parts. Or, there has really emerged, at the incarnation, a new person- ality — another with the Father. If so, how ? Either there has at last emerged in the Divine Nature a duality, a new personal centre, so that in Godhead one is set over against another, — but this is inconsistent with the original motive of the scheme ; or, the new personality must turn on the humanity ; it is the man who is the new or distinct person ; the human nature must bear the weight of that. In this case it cannot but seem simpler to say, with the dynamical Monarchians, that the man is personally distinct from the Father — that is to say, from God ; and that the divine influence which he may have experienced, whatever it was, must not be conceived as an incarnation of the Father's own person. One sees, therefore, that a road existed by- which modalistic Monarchianism might pass over to the dynamical type. The form of modalistic Monarchianism which may be said to have endured in the minds of men, as the most worthy of consideration among such theories, was Sabellian- ism. According to Hippolytus,^ Sabellius appeared at Eome early in the third century, was for a time in close relations and in theological concert with Callistus, but was afterwards excommunicated by that bishop. From other sources ^ we only hear of Sabellius at a later period working in the Ptolemais (Egypt). His doctrine was marked by consider- able originality in several respects. Other Monarchians had occupied themselves chiefly or exclusively with the question of the Father and the Son. Sabellius provided in his scheme a place also for the Holy Spirit. He asserted a trinity, not of personal distinction, but of successive manifestation, — God acts three parts, or reveals Himself in three modes. The same who is the » He/ut, ix. 11. > BasU, £p, 207. 180-313] CHRIST AKD GOD 21? Father, the same is also the Son (in this connection Sabel- lius used the term vloiraTcop^ and the same is also the Holy Ghost. Either Sabellius or some of those who shared his views seem to have had a speculation according to which God is, first of all, a Unity unrevealed, ©eo? aLcoirwv, and then, secondly, reveals Himself, and so becomes 6eo9 XaX&v or X0709 ; so that Logos would not denote the second person, but would comprehend all the three phases — Father, Son, Spirit.^ Sabellius, or some of his followers, spread his doctrine abroad with great success in the Libyan Pentapolis after the middle of the third century, so that Athanasius says it had nearly come to pass that in this church the Son of God should not be proclaimed at all. Hereupon Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, interposed with great energy ; and in assert- ing the personal distinction and place of the Son, he went so far as to declare the Son to be a creature and work of the Father. But on the interposition of the Eoman bishop of the same name, who dwelt upon the unity of nature between the Son and the Father, the eternity of the Son, and the importance of distinguishing generation from creation, the Alexandrian bishop modified his language, and, in particular, recognised the Romo-ousia of the Son. But as he had at first gone so far, the Arians at a later period appealed to his authority to shelter their teaching.* Obscure theories were put forward by Beron, whose name is associated with that of Noetus, and by Beryllus of Bostra. Origen is said to have convinced them of their error. These appear to have been elaborate attempts to get over the difficulties which apply to every form of modalism. Of the two forms of Monarchianism, that which is now * This was proposed by Baur as the true view of Sabellius* own specula- tion ; and his representation was for a time generally accepted. But Zahn, in his Marcelltis, followed by Harnack, declines to ascribe to Sabellius any Logos speculation whatever, or any distinction of the Monas as resting behind the Triaa. Harnack, Dogmenyesch. p. 632. Some such Logos speculation seems to have floated before Callistus. Hipp. Befut. ix. 12. * Athan. de Sent. Dionyeiiy Op. i. p. 477. 218 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. called dynamical might seem more agreeable to common sense, and less beset with obvious internal difficulties. It may also have been earlier present in the Church, and it may have continued longer. But as it failed to assert roundly the divinity of the Lord, it could not make itself extensively acceptable to Christians. The modalistic Mon- archianism spread wider, and gave far more trouble. To many minds, most likely, modalism came as a way of ex- pressing old convictions and modes of feeling, which seemed to be in danger. A simple Christian persuasion obtained, that one God must be owned in room of the many, and yet that Christ was both divine and human, therefore a wonder- ful Saviour. Men knew Him as the Son of God, and rested there ; they wished to say no more. They accepted what the Apostle John said of the Logos, but were not led by that into more specific determinations.^ But during the second century, and as it passed into the third, the Logos doctrine was more extensively canvassed. A distinction of persons, Father and Son, antecedent to the world of creatures, was forcibly presented to the mind. We have seen from the testimony of Origen and Tertullian* that recoil and apprehension were thus created in Christian minds ; and Epiphanius ^ tells us that the Sabellians used to say to plain, pious people : " Well, my good friends, what are we to say? — ^Have we one God or three?" with the effect in many cases of gaining them over. As the sup- porters of the Logos doctrine were thus charged with Ditheism or Tritheism, so they, with a view to bring out a unity of authority and origination between Father and Son, and yet to mark a distinction, were prone, as we have seen, to emphasise the subordination of the second person; and they had not surmounted the view that the emergence of the second person is an event, just preceding the creation of the world. These explanations did not avail to quiet the minds that were troubled on the subject of the divine unity ; and they might well seem unsatisfactory in theh' bearing on the ^ The modalists dealt witli this as somehow figurative or allegoricsaL * Ante, p. 209, note. " Hcer. 62. 180-313] CHRIST AND GOD 219 glory of Christ; since even as to His higher nature, quali- fications and distinctions were multiplying. To some, also, it might appear that modalism was the more evangelical view, on this further account, that it started not so much from the thought of the Creator, but rather from the thought of the Saviour. God was manifest in the flesh, that we might be saved. Now the representatives of the Logos doctrine seem first to settle the rank of the Logos in view of a scheme of creation, or a theory of the origin of being; and then the soteriological part is adjusted to that as an additional chapter, or an appendix merely. It must be added that the same writers, in developing their sub- ordinationism, are tempted to speak of the second person in a way that might grate on pious ears. Dionysius of Alexandria has been alluded to already. Take also Hippoly- tus. He undoubtedly meant to assert the true divinity of the Logos. Christ, he says, is God over all. Yet elsewhere he gets into a strain which allows a remark like this : " God did not mean to make you (i.e. his reader) a God, but a man. If He had wished to make you God, He could have done it, — you have the example of the Logos ; but wishing to make you man, a man He made you. But if you wish also to become God, be obedient to Him who made you," etc. It was not unnatural that some should ask, " But what sort of divine nature is this after all, that can be spoken of so ? " ^ With all these advantages, however, modalistic Mon- archianism could not maintain itself as a system. It revealed its weakness when put in form. If the see of ^ Hipp. Refut. X. The Logos theology at this time was associated with forms of thought, and in some degree with speculations, borrowed from the rising Neo-Platonism. The class of people from which modalistic Monarchians took their rise may best be conceived perhaps as rather repelling philosophy. Yet when they came to elaborate a theory and defend it, they give tokens of affecting specially the ideas and the logic of the Stoics. And it is curious to note that their opponents suspect a Stoic notion of God as at the bottom of their theory, and charge it upon them. They were thought to go no higher than the Logos God of the Stoics, who pervades creation, without rising to the Farther God. The dynamical Monarchians found Aristotelianism suit them best, and drew their weapons from that armoury. See Harnack, Dogviengesch, L 604-5. 220 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. 180-313 Rome temporised, or hesitated on the subject during two or three episcopates, that could only be a temporary hesita- tion, and it caused no serious division ; for ere long we find a resolute assertion of the Trinity in Unity as the doctrine of the West.i As the third century closed and the fourth began, the Church was still conscious of being in presence of a problem which had proved arduous. The Logos doctrine — that is, the doctrine that our Lord pre-existed with the Father, as His Word and Son — held the field; but regarding this, also, different forms of statement were possible. The great influence of Origen recommended the doctrine of the eternal generation, but in other respects favoured a pretty decided subordinationism. The tendencies of thought ex- isting in the Church were to be finally revealed in the Arian controversy. ^ Dionysius of £ome in the case of Dionysios of Alexandria. Bouth, Hel, Sac iu. 373. CHAPTER XII Christian Life The question how to follow Christ in earthly life has always been in hand; to some Christians in every age it has been a matter of supreme interest. The great pro- hibitions of the moral law in regard to outward conduct have always been asserted. But as Christians are called to spiritual obedience and to a life of spiritual aspiration, a " how much more " comes into view ; and the precise mean- ing of it for each Christian is debatable, though for genuine Christians it is always great. It is difficult, therefore, to report truly and usefully on the Christian life of our own age, — much more on that of an age far removed from ours in time and manners, and represented by imperfect records. In the period before us the standard of Christian manners becomes a subject of deliberate discussion. It occupied the thoughts of Clement of Alexandria in the East and of Tertullian in the West, and both have written largely about it, — Clement more systematically. The two men were very different in many respects: moreover, Clement was not influenced by Montanism as Tertullian was, and Tertullian attempts no methodical exposition like that in Clement's Pcedagogus, Yet in their way of approaching the subject, and inculcating its lessons, there is less differ- ence than might be expected. Both of them are influenced by what the New Testa- ment urges in reference to self-denial and in reference to the supremacy of spiritual affections, and both wish to show how these principles are to be carried out. In making the 2S1 222 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. attempt they are guided by the conception they have formed of the contrast which Christian life should offer to that which is worldly. For Clement the Christian is the true Gnostic, — he rises above the material and the sensuous, and that recoil determines his Christian conduct. Tertul- lian*s principles, too, operate largely by recoil ; in his case it is recoil from the concrete life of his time, which was self-indulgent paganism, and his moral thinking has a Stoic turn. Neither of them, in the main, attains to a steady grasp of the positive moral forces which make life Christian, because they make it participant in the life of Christ ; and neither of them attains a clear view of the essential evil or defect of worldly Hfe. Hence a too negative conception of Christian excellence, and too great a disposition to multi- ply prohibitions and rules, and to urge them in a legal way. Yet both of them were honest Christian men, striving to be loyal to a Master whom they loved. What we learn from the catacombs and from other sources make it clear that Christians were by no means so sparing in matter of ornament, for example, as the writers named exhorted them to be ; and art, which in pagan hands was always ready to overstep the limits of morality, took service with the Christians, but learned among them to sit at the feet of goodness as well as of beauty. Christians could not but set themselves against the delight in immoral action and immoral suggestion which was common in paganism, and so they turned from the theatres and spectacles, as well as from whole classes of pictures and statues. Actors, and craftsmen who minis- tered to idolatry had to forsake their callings in order to be received. Generally, Christians refused to sympathise with distinctively pagan art, and with all that savoured of pagan beliefs and worships. Yet here there was a border- land which must have been debata,ble. Phrases, symbols, usages, which carried some touch of pagan meaning, might be repudiated or rejected by some Christians, while for others they passed as mere conventions which had lost all distinctive religious significance. Persons in active business 180-313] CHRISTIAN LIFE 223 relations to the life of the day would admit a large latitude. Again, elements of the current mythology could even be Christianised. In the paintings in the catacombs, while scenes appear from the Old Testament, scenes also suggested by our Lord's parables, and (within this period) perhaps one or two instances of direct representation of scenes from our Lord's life, myths like that of Orpheus are made to yield a sense which Christian artists, or Christians who employed non-Christian artists, had no scruple in appropriating. The practice of self-denial for its own sake was regarded and commended as eminent Christian virtue. As embraced by the Christians it applied to food and raiment; but it had a very special application to marriage. The abuse of the sexual relation had gone so far in the Gentile world — it was such a fertile source of evil, and men's minds were so habituated to accept that evil as inevitable — that the Chris- tians felt it to be their part to recoil from it vehemently. Marriage itself had been debased by the low tone of feeling in regard to it. The Christians, on the whole, maintained the legitimacy of marriage as a divine institution, and an appointed part of the order of the world; but it was habitual for those who led sentiment on the point to think and speak of it as a concession to the weakness of human nature, and as fixing life on a level lower than the highest. Hence, though marriage was always guarded against the imputation of being in itself evil, yet entrance into married life could hardly be dissociated, as it seemed, from a cer- tain sense of inferiority, and abstinence implied a superior virtue. Early in the second century Christians who have renounced marriage and have been faithful to this purpose during their lives, are spoken of and pointed to with satis- faction.^ Second marriages were opposed by some as wholly unlawful for Christians ; and at all events persons who, after being once married, and having lost their partners, embraced henceforth the widowed life, were regarded as worthy of special commendations. So also the dislike grew to bishops or presbyters marrying after ordination. Many of them were I Justiu Martyr, Ap, L 15 ; Athenagoras, Fresb, 6-38. 224 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. married when ordained ; and a disposition appeared to require those who were married to live separate from their wives. But the right of married clergy to live with their wives was on the whole upheld throughout our present period. The ascetics did not withdraw from society : they lived in their own homes, and mingled with other people ; but, of course, it was regarded as fitting that they should avoid temptations which might shake their purpose. In some churches, as already noticed (p. 40), ascetics had a distinct place in the meeting for worship.^ Perhaps before the end of our period there were cases of ascetics binding themselves by an express permanent vow. At anyrate, eventual marriage, in the case of those who had once become ascetics, could only be regarded as a descent from a higher level to a lower ; but the marriage was not regarded as invalid. The strange moods of mind which might arise in connection with ascetic life continued to be illustrated by the scandal of the arvvelaaKToi, or sub- introductae,^ against which Church rulers like Cyprian had sedulously to watch. The prevalent sentiment of the ancient Christians on this subject it is not easy to appreciate with perfect justice. Strong recoil from actual evils was, in the circumstances, healthy and right, and the determination to give effect to the hate of evil at all costs was magnanimous. There might be, as there still are, excellent reasons for many Christians remaining unmarried, if they perceive that in this way they are likely to serve God and man more faith- fully; and the ancient Christians who so decided were within their right, and used their own liberty. There may be times, and there may be classes of persons, in respect to which such practical decisions may become exceptionally important. But the mistake involved in holding that the * Hierakas, near the end of the period, gathers ascetics round him, whom he leads and instructs, — thus verging towards distinctively monastic life. But according to Epiphanius he was a heretic, and his followers a sect. Ho is said to have absolutely condemned marriage. 2 Celibate clergy had in their houses women, often consecrated virgins, their relations with whom, professedly innocent, were open to great suspicion. 180-313] CHRISTIAN LIFE 226 unmarried state is in itself better or purer than the married (which emphatically it is not), became a source of almost boundless evils. It perverted the principles on which Chris- tian conduct is to be appreciated by men, and is measured by God ; it ascribed an unreal merit to ascetic life ; it fixed a note of moral inferiority upon the state of marriage, and so disgraced the sanctities of family life; it became the occasion of leading many persons into a snare which ruined them. But nothing of this was foreseen by almost any. The ascetic life was regarded as an unmixed good, and received not only commendation but adulation. The young Church made here an experiment which young Christians often repeat: the experiment of seeking the victory over evil in rules and in severities of their own devising. Very few, perhaps, could conceive it to be practicable to dissociate the commendation of the " virgin life " from the assertion of its superior merit. Finally, those who have read the exhortations addressed by Church teachers to virgins are aware of one inevitable element in the situation : the minds of those addressed were detained on topics and questions which could only be unhealthy. Marriage with pagans or Jews, also with heretics, was discountenanced, and eventually prohibited by councils.^ But it could not be regarded as invalid; and while such marriages might be avoided by earnest Christians, it is certain that they were not uncommon.^ Besides, there was the large class of persons who, though having some connec- tion with the Church, were not yet baptized; and their conduct in this and other matters could not easily be con- trolled. A well-known passage in TertuUian describes the discomfort and the risks of such marriages.* It was expected that Christians should marry with the approbation of the Church, and with a rite in which the parties received the Church's benediction. But this also was not essential to the validity of the marriage. The exaggerated importance attached to the virgin life ' Illib. Can. 15 ; Arel. Can. 11 ; Laod. Can. 10, 31. 2 Cypr. de Lapsis, 6. » Tert ad Uxor, ii 4 ^5 226 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. tended, as we have seen, to depress the conception of the Christian value of married hfe. On the other hand, how- ever, Christianity pervaded the home with influences and with a Presence which gave new sacredness and sweetness to all its relations.^ Hence, domestic life became a new thing ; all the more because the strong faith of life to come gave worth and dignity to every member of the Christian family. The family became the school in which the Chris- tian order of life was enjoined and practised ; and a habit of moral self-command was formed which, if it existed at all among the pagans, did not reach so far, and in most cases was much more feeble. Even the family life of less careful Christians was reached and influenced by the con- sciousness of what the common sentiment demanded, and by the discipline of the congregation. Brotherly kindness and liberality to the poor were con- spicuous features of Christian life. As far as we know, every Christian church cared for its poorer members ; ^ and in times of persecution, ministration to sufferers was zealously pursued. Captives were ransomed. Kindness to the poor generally (not merely to those who were Christians) was also com- mended and cherished, and came out sometimes remarkably in times of pestilence, such as those which darkened the third century. This virtue also had its theological support in the doctrine of the efficacy of almsgiving to take away sins. Texts in the apocryphal books of the Old Testament supported that doctrine; and in this way those Christians might be persuaded to give who were conscious of a good deal of sin that required to be put away. The difficulty of bestowing charity so as really to benefit the receivers had not been apprehended, and all seemed to be gained if purse- strings could be opened. The result on the whole must have been to promote the sense of brotherhood, and to establish in the general mind the claims of the weak and ^ Tert. ad Uxor. ii. 8. 2 In the middle of tlie third century the church of Rome had 1500 widows and poor persons on its lists, and it contributed liberally to aid churches ip distress. 180-313] CHRISTIAN LIFE 227 helpless classes. In addition, the process of spending money unselfishly reacted beneficially on the rich. Unquestionably the Christian Church brought home to the richer classes the feeling of stewardship, and of accountability for the use of property, in a manner previously unexampled. And the poverty of our Lord, as also His compassion for the poor, were incessantly appealed to as irresistible arguments. The relation of Christianity to a heathen state, whose functionaries were in direct contact with popular licence as well as popular worship, naturally led Christians to avoid public office. This was part of the foundation for charging them with at least passive disloyalty ; and the same charge had also a further ground in the Christian hope that the whole existing order of things would soon be superseded. Christians, however, conscientiously obeyed existing author- ities when they could do so without sin: otherwise, they suffered submissively ; and they prayed regularly for their rulers and for the public peace. They did avoid public em- ployment, especially posts in which they came into official contact with idolatry, or might have to pass sentence of death. But here, as in other matters, no absolute rule could be carried through ; and as the third century advanced, the number of Christians increased who found reason for accept- ing public responsibilities, sometimes to the detriment of their religion. It could not be easy to be a Christian in the army, and the Christian feeling deprecated entering a calling in which a man's business was to fight and kill. Yet it is quite evident that there were Christian soldiers, some of them prepared to suffer for their faith ; ^ and when Diocletian began to take measures against the Christians, the discharge of Christian soldiers from the ranks of the legions was one of the earliest steps. The exercise of good works was supported by the wide- spread doctrine of merit, and the grosser sins were dis- couraged by the Church's system of discipline. As regards the former, asceticism and almsgiving were the popular fonn of virtue to which the doctrine of merit was most ^ Tertullian's treatise, de Corona, itself implies it. 228 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. 180-313 emphatically applied. The virtue to efface sin and to secure heaven was ascribed to good works in a strict legal way, so as to suggest that once a man was baptized, and had cleared old scores, he had to work out the balance of his merits and demerits as best he could. Cyprian perhaps goes furthest in this direction.^ Sins before baptism are purged by Christ's blood; but as the laver of baptism quenches hell fire, so by alms and good works the flame of their faults is abated for justified men. Prayers and fasts cannot purge away sins, but alms can : God is satisfied by righteous works, and by the merit of merciful- ness sins are purged. This is, in fact, the method by which post-baptismal sins, that do not require formal discipline, are remitted. Only it must not be thought that other motives for good works did not exert their influence along with these. ! In the language of Christian oratory, those who live meritoriously in peaceful times will receive from the Lord a white crown, those who suffer for Him will have the higher honour of a purple one.^ Or, using another illus- tration, ordinary Christians who live well are those who bring forth thirtyfold, ascetics answer to those who bring forth sixtyfold, martyrs to those who bring forth a hundred- fold. It will be seen that a somewhat external way of appre- ciating character and weighing merits prevailed. The Christians were aware that the disposition and the motive are the decisive elements in true service of God; yet the external distinctions drew the eye, and were treated as decisive. When this is the case a double morality in- evitably arises. A low and rather negative Christianity, along with church standing, can prove a pathway to heaven. A more heroic and self-forgetting style of service and endur- ance is owned to be, after all, the true ideal ; but it is not imperative. Only, those who select and adopt it will earA an exceptional reward. 1 Cyp. de 0^. et El. 1-5. * Cyp. ibid. 26.^ CHAPTER XIII Worship Very interesting changes and developments took place before the end of the present period. They were certainly not due to previous consultation, and must therefore have suggested themselves locally. Yet while dififerences on some points continued to exist, a very considerable agreement in practice over the Church obtained in the end. With respect to the differences, two moods of mind are visible. Some defended the right of churches to differ on minor points; while some, without precisely denying that, were impatient of differences, and aimed at uniformity. In all such matters the practice of a few of the greater churches must have exerted much influence. In Justin Martyr's account of Christian worship, one recognises reading of the Scriptures, preaching more or less formal, prayer, and the Lord's Supper. This already indi- cates one considerable change. He says nothing of the Agape, nor of the connection of the Lord's Supper with it. The Agape continued to be held as a pious and cheerful Christian meal (Tert. Apol. 39); it assumed various forms, and was often held in churches, but at a later period the use of the churches for the Agape was prohibited. The Lord's Supper, however, had been transferred to form part of the chief service of worship on the Lord's day. There is not a trace of the manner in which the change came to pass, nor of any discussion about it. Wherever and by whomsoever the practice began, it recommended itself and took place throughout the Christian communities. When transferred to the close of the Lord's day services, and made 829 230 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. the culminating point of the whole, the solemnity and im- pressiveness of the Lord's Supper were probably enhanced, and the impression deepened of a wonderful and sacred meaning, bearing on Christians only, which was embodied in the ordinance. Already in the second century Christians like Justin, and stiU more Clem. Alex., show a consciousness of some analogy between the contemporary mysteries and this Christian transaction ; and they may have felt that the impressiveness and awe aimed at in the mysteries by the restriction of admission to the initiated, might advantage- ously be secured for this Christian service ; the rather that in any view the eucharist embodies a confidential meeting between the Christians and their Lord. This feeling grew in intensity and in the range of matters affected by it, so that a fashion of secrecy about the specialities of Christian faith and worship grew up which was not very rational nor very edifying. This is commonly referred to as the dis- ciplina arcani} On the other hand, a total exclusion of catechumens from public worship could not be thought of ; and the un- baptized generally could be shut out only at the cost of losing many likely converts. Accordingly, the service was divided into two parts : the first part included the reading of Scripture and the explanation or exhortation which was based upon it, with various prayers, mostly short, and sing- ing ; all this was open. Then the various classes of persons who constituted the iminitiated or the lapsed part of the audience were dismissed, sometimes with a short prayer for each ; and the special service for the baptized alone began with a long prayer, and the communion elements were brought in, the kiss of peace exchanged by the worshippers preceding or following. The first part of the service eventually came to be known as Missa cafechumenorumy ^ Applied to the eucharist with its forms, baptism, the creed, Lord's Prayer, and the like. All these were to be adverted to with precaution, so as not to reveal details in the presence of the unbaptized, nor in works pub- lished to the world. Eomanists have exaggerated the extent to which it operated. 180-313] WORSHIP 231 the second as the Missa fidelium. At the latter, certainly in many parts of the Church,^ baptized children were present and participated (Const. Jp. viii 13. 4). The confession of sins mentioned in the Didache was dropped, though a warn- ing against enmity and insincerity was retained. The bread was usually leavened, and the cup contained wine and water. Clement of Alexandria and Cyprian mention some who took upon them to celebrate with water only. In the minds of Christians the ordinance retained the significance explained in speaking of the earlier period.^ Christians brought their gifts (Swpa) of created things, as the appointed and acceptable token of their self-devotion. In this connection the prayer enlarged on the power and goodness of God in creation. But the celebrant also re- hearsed the words of institution, and followed these (but not at Eome apparently) with prayer that the Holy Ghost might be sent upon the offering, that He might manifest the bread and wine to be the body and blood of Christ, and that the participants might receive the various benefits of redemption. Those who expound the ordinance sometimes explain the sacrament allegoricaUy, — it is a wonderful figure through which the realities are presented and brought home to Christians ; sometimes dynamically, — a special virtue to carry the blessings is imparted to the elements by the Holy Ghost ; sometimes the thought is that Christ or the Logos appropriates the elements so that they are related to Him as His body is, and carry His presence and virtue in a special manner with them. Reference was made under the former period to the way in which the thought of offering or sacrifice, originally arising in connection with the gifts, was extended in the current use of language to the whole eucharistic service. That is still more plainly the case during this period ; the sacrament is spoken of as the offering or sacrifice ; ^ yet it is not common to find the idea presented that the congrega- tion offer Christ to God. Eather the thought is that they ^ Africa and the East. * ATde, p. 77. * 'jrpoa In most places observances survived — spectacles, popular usages, and festivals — which retained a heathen character; and nominal Christians shared largely in them. Yet this really indicated that in the opinion and feeling of the people heathenism as a serious business was passing away. It is well to note, however, the character of representative men who maintained the dying cause. Among the Eoman nobles the most interesting upholder of paganism was Q. Aurelius Symmachus, who was prefect of the city in a.d. 384. He led the remonstrants on the question of the altar of Victory — which might almost be said to symbolise the right of Eoman senators to worship as their fathers did. In A.D. 382, 384, 392, and perhaps again in 403 or 404, he exerted himself to move the Christian emperors to make this concession, and once incurred banishment for his pertinacity. A member of the college of pontiffs, and strict in the performance of his office, he was also well descended, and a man of great wealth ; but he was especi- ally valued for his high personal qualities. Symmachus was on friendly terms wdth eminent Christians, and Christian writers speak of him with unvarying respect.^ Such was the man, and such his surroundings, who pleaded for tolera- tion of the altar of Victory, and could not prevail.* Another form of eminence which furnished some ad- vantage in withstanding Christianity, was distinction in * All the more because it was believed that on these rites being duly per- formed, health, crops, and other forms of prosperity depended. 2 It is interesting to know that the influence of Symmachus (then prefect at Rome, — previously he had been proconsul of Africa) was successfully exerted in favour of Augustine, when the latter, weary of the ways of Roman students, sought a post at Milan. Augustine was not yet a Christian ; but his transference to Milan, where he was to come under the influence of Ambrose, was a step in that direction. 'Of the religion of his son, who also held high office, we are uncertain. His great-grandson, who was eminent before a.d. 525, was a Catholic Christian. Members (probably) of the same family were friends and corre- spondents of Gregory the Great at the end of the sixth century. See Smith, Diet, of Christmn Biography , art. " Symmachus." 313-451] THE CHURCH IN THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE 281 literary studies. Assiduous study in the ancient writers tended naturally to create spiritual loyalty to the ancient world, to its culture and its literature. Now the whole way of thinking which pervaded that literature was attuned to a conception of the world which Christianity overthrew. To men of this class, therefore, the faith of Christ came as a disturbing influence; they disliked and resented it; if any of them professed Christianity, it was usually Christianity of the lukewarm and dubious type. These men of letters could still maintain the impression that something bar- barian and illiterate clung to the new religion ; and this was a note of inferiority which, in their eyes, discredited its claims.* No better specimen of this class can be named than Libanius the rhetorician. His works have the fatal empti- ness and artificiality inevitable to a man of letters who, living in the past, cuts himself off from the interests and the forces which are vital in his own time. But the man himself appears to have been a person of good sense and good feeling, very capable of friendship, and deserving of respect. He obtained regard or consideration from Chris- tians like Athanasius, Chrysostom, Basil, and the Gregoriea Men of this type might be men of no religion at all, — the old mythology merely clinging to their minds as a world of gracious forms which they would not discard. But most of them accepted the Neoplatonic principles ; they believed, therefore, that something true and good, in its degree, really pervaded the pagan worships, and that the supreme goodness might fitly be approached through the avenues thus furnished. A kind of belief — a certain real religi- osity on pagan lines — must be recognised. But it had a twilight character. Ardour or passion of conviction cannot be ascribed to such men as a class ; and, when they plead their cause, the toleration they ask for seems tolerance for their tastes rather than for anything higher. Here and there, doubtless, the flame burnt more intensely.^ Certainly an intenser mood must be ascribed to the ^ And with a denser smoke of superstition : Jamblichus may be named. 282 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. remarkable Emperor Julian. His recoil from Christianity has, naturally enough, been accounted for from his peculiar history ; it has been traced to the wrongs inflicted on his family by Constantius, the precarious tenure by which for years he held his life, and the self-suppression with which he had to guard his thoughts and feelings from the Christian tutors, who were also spies, in whose charge he was. Con- stantias himself, the author of Julian's adversities, was an ardent Christian in his way ; and so when, as an alternative, a plausible non-Christian conception of life offered itself, it found Julian predisposed to embrace it. All this must certainly count for something. Yet in the case of Julian's brother, Gallus, the same causes failed to produce a similar result. Julian, like other members of the house of Constantine, was religiously disposed. Eeligion interested and attracted him. Had he been a Christian he would have been, most likely, a keen and restless one. Without being a Christian, he was sincere and devout in his regard to the supernatural, and he combined his piety with a high moral standard, and a resolute effort to be true to it. Now for such a man the age offered an alternative. In an earlier chapter ^ we have sketched the way in which Neoplatonism appealed to some minds in the third and fourth centuries. Julian doubtless felt the force of that appeal ; and something in Christianity repelled him. It was too positive, too peremptory, too sure of itself ; it assigned to its disciple a place too lowly, and it had too much to say of sin. Also it scorned all other religion as futile and null ; but that might stir Julian to resolve to confute it on that very point. There was plenty of religiosity in the world, — there were portents, faith heal- ings, apparitions, apprehensions of the supernatural, worships, mysteries ; ^ and these, it seemed, were all to be trampled down or waived aside at the bidding of Christianity. But why ? Why should all that had flowered out from the classic > SuprOj p. 146. ^ How all these held their place in the common mind, see Lucian, **Philopseudes," and also ** Alexander of Abonoteichus." 313-451] THE CHURCH IN THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE 283 mind and heart wither and die ? It needed to be rallied : it needed to be moralised, dignified, made practical and venerable. With a view to that, men must be in earnest with the New Platonism ; paganism must be made to take itself seriously. The popular rites must be filled with the awe of worship, and made to ally themselves with moral purpose and spiritual aspiration. For Julian had certainly learned to appreciate some of the forces of Christianity : its resolute faith, its great ideas inculcated by preaching, its moral in- tensity. Let the old worship, then, be quickened by the doctrines of a congenial and friendly philosophy; let it be as believing as Christianity, as assiduous in preaching, as conscious of the dignity of moral life. Julian was serious in all this. He was himself religious without Christ, and religious in a sense that gave glow and expectancy to his existence ; and he was so little opposed to the supernatural, or distrustful of it, that he was ready to meet it everywhere. If he could live this life, then the world, too, could do so. It was not needful to sacrifice the culture, the thought, and the worships of Greece to a barbarian creed. Philostratus (a.d. 182-245) had made an effort to show that what was admirable and desirable in Christ could be had on pagan terms. He had exhibited Apollonius (living in the end of the first century) as a reformer and renovator of heathen religion, who exhaled goodness, and who carried the supernatural with him wherever he went. That was in a book. But could it not be done in the face of the world ? Could not one inspire and energise the heathen religion to make the best of itself, and to embody in actual life the Neoplatonic dream ? Perhaps only an emperor could attempt it; but when Julian, after anxious vicissi- tudes, attained the empire — was not this providential ? Was not the time come, and the man ? One sees that Julian, with his sincere religious intensities, had no great religious depth, or he would not have under- taken to reproduce in paganism the features that made Christianity remarkable, and the forces which made it successful He did not really know what these were, or 284 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. he knew them only on the surface. But this, after all, makes it easier for us to realise Julian's sincerity. He combined with really great qualities a certain egotistic simplicity and mental gaucherie, which reminds one of James vi. of Scotland ; only James was far less truthful than Julian was. Julian was a brave and essentially sincere man, with much ability, with intellectual and moral aspiration, and with benevolent impulses. But something that was per- verse and even laughable adhered to his best qualities. Besides descending in person into the literary arena (his KaTa Xpiariavcov Xoyot were answered by Cyril of Alexandria),^ Julian annulled the privileges that had been conferred on the Church by his predecessors, and he restored to the temples the property of which they had been de- prived. He probably meditated promoting in the service of the empire only those who were not Christians; and he ordained, in reference to schools, that the ancient literature should be taught only by those who believed in the ancient gods. He showed a certain animosity in dealing with conduct on the part of Christians which he reckoned violent and contumacious : but this is not wonder- ful: and, on the whole, we must ascribe to him a praise- worthy spirit of tolerance and self-controL It is rather surprising that his enterprise against Christianity had not more success. A certain number of unstable Christians went over to him ; but he himself could not reckon them numerous. He stood practically alone. His enthusiasm for pagan rites and magical divinations outran the sympathy even of pagans, while it awakened Christian contempt. Besides, his reign was too short to give play to his projects ; and his early death impressed the world with the feeling that the Fates themselves were adverse. All things resumed their former course as soon as he left the scene. Christianity could be controverted : philosophy could be made plausible to speculative minds: and a materialised system of symbolic worship might be put forward as better ^ Oontra Julianum. From this source Julian's arguments have been re- stored by Neumann, Leipsic, 1880. 313-451] THE CHURCH IN THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE 285 fitted for the mass of men than the worship that is in spirit and in truth. But Christianity was irresistible. Something might be done by philosophising Christianity, and something by paganising it, but no direct attack in front could be successful.^ Yet long after public paganism had ceased, intelligent men existed who continued to cling to some form of the pagan traditions. In the foregoing sketch, those who openly adhered to Christianity and those who made some stand for paganism have been chiefly in view. But in closing, a third class must be kept in view. A mass of people, probably a great mass, who obeyed the emperors, who m^de no resistance to the abolition of paganism, and who made no objection to the elevation of Christianity to be the State religion, still remained neutral. They had no religion, or rather, they retained enough of superstition to supply the place of one. This superstition might gradually receive Christian elements. But probably a considerable time passed before this great section came to regard Christianity as their own religion, and the offices of the Church as their own inheritance. E. CHRISTIANITY BEYOND THE EMPIEB The most important extension of Christianity at this time was among the Goths. In their case it took the form of Arianism ; and in this form it was propagated in turn to other German races. Christian influence seems to have * The New Platonists believed the ancient worship, while it had an element of truth and worth, needed to be purified by being idealised. This reform, which they reckoned practicable, was interfered with by Christianity ; and they regarded Christianity (whatever truth it might contain) as mainly a new superstition of barbarian origin. The acceptance of it they regarded as a great mistake, perplexing the proper movement of the world. The -attitude of Erasmus and some other Humanists to Lutheranisra may be compared. The later New Platonists, including Julian, were led or constrained to throw them- selves, much more than the earlier, on tbe supernatural element in their system, and they did so with conviction. Proclus (412-485) had seen Apollo, who cured him of an illness ; he had various other experic nces of the same kind, and was minute and devout in worship of the ancient gods. On Julian, see Neander, Kaiser Julian, Leipsic, 1812 ; G. H. Kendall, Emperor Jviian, 1879, and a careful article by J. Wordsworth in Diet, Christ. Biogr, 286 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. reached the Goths first through Christian captives from Cappadocia and other Asian provinces. Later, Gothic tribes settled in the countries on the north bank of the Danube and came into contact with the Christianity of the Eastern empire. Constantinopolitan Christianity was then Arian: and it is to be remembered that even the earlier Christian agents, from Cappadocia or elsewhere, cannot be assumed to have taught a doctrine which was definitely Nicene. Far the most influential person in diffusing and organising Christianity among the Goths was Ulfilas, who was under Constantinopolitan influence, and who was consecrated bishop for the Goths in A.D. 348. He appears to have been an Arian of the Eusebian type. To him the Goths owed their translations of the Scriptures. When the overthrow of Arianism took place under Theodosius, Ulfilas made efforts to avert the catastrophe, and he died at Constantinople, which he had visited in that interest. But his people (specially, the Visigoths) adhered to his teaching, and it spread remarkably among kindred tribes, first among the Ostrogoths and the Vandals. Near the end of our period the Suevi in Spain, and the greater part of the Burgundians in Gaul, adopted Arianism, after having for a time professed Catholicism. The invasion of these races carried a fresh Arian influence into the empire, where that doctrine was dying out. But, on the other hand, the race antagonism between Eoman and Goth became religious antagonism between Catholic and Arian. There is little trace of any high culture, any originality, or any great amount of influence among the Gothic clergy. On the whole, the Goths seem to have been fairly tolerant to their Catholic subjects in the territories which they conquered. The Vandals, after their conquest of Africa, form the great exception to this statement. The barbarous persecutions of the African Catholics (under Genseric and Hunerich) fall chiefly later than our period.^ * C. Anderson Scott, B.A., Ulfilas, the Apostle of the Goths, Camb. 1885; K. G. Krafft, Oesch. der Germ. Viilker, i. BerL 1854 ; Gothic transl. of Bible, E. Bernhardt, Halle, 1876. 313-451] THE CHURCH IN THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE 287 The Christians in Persia^ had to endure very severe persecutions, partly because the Persian monarchs regarded Christianity, from the days of Constantino, as a Eoman, i.e. a hostile, faith, but partly also because they became fanatical supporters of the Zend religion. Two notable persecutions took place, one in the latter half of the fourth century, the other in the beginning of the fifth. The Persian Christianity was naturally in close alliance with the Syrian, and when Nestorianism was banished from the empire its disciples found shelter among the Persian Christians. Nestorian Christianity, denounced and persecuted by the Eomans, was so much the less objection- able in Persia ; and from that time the Persian Christianity, in its Nestorian form, maintained its existence with little or no relation to that of the Eoman Empire. The fortunes of Christianity in Armenia * also were affected by the repeated wars, between the Persians and the Armenians, or between non-Christian Armenians sup- ported by Persia, and Christian Armenians supported by Eome. The struggle on the part of the Armenian Christians was very gallant and resolute. The Persian Government, after years of persecution, found it necessary to adopt a policy of toleration. This Church owed its translation of the Scriptures, and, indeed, the foundation of a native literature, to Mesrob (d. 441). Monophysite influences early prevailed in Armenia, and that doctrine is still professed by the official Armenian Church. The Christianity of Britain was destined to be crushed over a great part of the old Eoman province by the invasion of the heathen Saxons, which began about the end of our period (a.d. 449). But meanwhile Patrick ^ (said to have * Rawlinson, Seventh great Oriental Mmmrchy, Loud. 1876 ; Noldeke, Au/saize zur persiscTien Ge^chichte, Leipz. 1887. ^ J. St. Martin, Mdmoires Hist, de VArmenie, 2 vols., Paris, 1819; Elisaeus, Hist, of Vartan, translated by C. F. Neumann, Loud. 1830 ; Neumann, Oesch. der Armen. Liter., Leipz. 1836. • Lifty etc., by J. H. Todd, D.D., Dublin, 1864. Two writings ascribed to Patrick are believed to be genuine, the Confessio and The Epistle to Coroticus. in Grallandius, Biblioth., torn. x. 288 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D. been a native of Kilpatrick on the Clyde, and to have been carried into slavery for a time by sea rovers) became the Apostle of Ireland. His teaching seems to have encountered little serious opposition, and Christianity spread rapidly through the island (from about A.D. 430). A kingdom called Axum ^ existed to the south of Egypt, coinciding generally with what we now know as Abyssinia. Early in the fourth century a ship, freighted by merchant adventurers, was wrecked on the coast. Two youths, Erumentius and Aedesius, escaped drowning, were brought as slaves to the capital, passed into the service of the king, and gained his favour. By and by they were allowed to return northwards, and at Alexandria Frumentius was consecrated by Athanasius to return as missionary bishop to Axum. The work of Christianity was afterwards pushed on by monks from Egypt, and naturally became subject to the Alexandrian Patriarch. When the discussions regard- ing the person of Christ were developed, this church took the Monophysite side. It seems soon to have fallen into an inactive and unprogressive state, and it is characterised by some features of a curiously Jewish kind, which are not easily accounted for. It has preserved a literature of its own, which includes ^thiopic translations of early Apocrypha not preserved in any other form. In connection with it a Christianity existed for a time in Southern Arabia ; but this was eventually overwhelmed by the onset of Mohammedanism. F. LIFE IN THE ChURCH Gradually the populations of the empire assumed a Christian tinge. We have no statistics; but even those who did not form any regular tie to the Church acquired some acquaintance with churches, festivals, popular preachers, —also in some degree even with the objects of Christian 1 H. Ludolph, Hist. jEthiopica, ed. 4, Frankf. 1681, and ComTnentaries^ 1691, App. 1694 ; Dillraann, Anfange des axumitischen JUichs^ Abh. Berl. Ak., 1878. 1880. 313-451] THE CHURCH IN THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE 289 faith: they could sometimes mingle in the discussions of Christian parties, and they could appreciate the popular and picturesque side of Christian worship, so far as that was revealed to unbelieving eyes. It was now possible in some places to have Christian mohs, ready to fight where Christian interests were supposed to be concerned. As to the special life of the Church proper, we may remember, in the first place, that the change which Constantine achieved was attended with a great exhilaration for Christian minds. Since the empire had bowed to Christ, no hopes could be too high. For a time this imparted to the Church, and especially to its earnest ministers, new courage and a certain grand style of thought and action. This was never wholly lost, even when times of perplexity and dis- couragement returned. Then, whatever may be truly said of the progress of a secular and worldly spirit among the Christians and their clergy, it is clear that in the case of individuals and families a powerful religious life, simple, sincere, and resolute, reacted against these influences. The fourth century is an age of great churchmen, and in the case of very many of them they are seen rising out of families in which piety made its home ; that is the influence which, in the end, brings about their decision to serve Christ. The questionable converts, whose presence lowered the average state of the Christian society, were therefore con- fronted by devoted Christians. Still, the canons of councils reveal the difficulties with which Church discipline had to contend. The indulgences, diversions, and frivolities of a society reared in paganism acclimatised themselves in Chris- tianity, and the coarser sins, though they continued to be resisted and condemned, became commoner incidents, and so more familiar. On the other side, no doubt in many sections of the population marriages, funeral usages, superstitions (as to dangers and deliverances) conformed increasingly to a Christian type, and great Christian festivals became gradu- ally observances which pervaded the community.^ * A good many local features, arising from old popular feelings aud habits, attached to the Christian celebrations and observances in many places. The 19 290 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. 313-451 In dealing with all this the representatives of the Church too often took a hne that was essentially weak. It was very convenient to assume that in baptism a foundation had been laid on which it was necessary only to build some items ; and it became a prevalent fashion to insist (as indispensable) on, first, the avoidance of gross sins (the Church's discipline being accepted in case they were in- curred) ; and, second, the cultivation of ecclesiastical virtues, prayer, almsgiving, fasting, which were often recommended expressly on the ground that they take away minor sins. This seemed perhaps the only way to make something of the disciples whom one had in hand, the only formula likely to be intelligible and operative. It tended to give a sanctioned position to a great deal of Christianity that was only a compromise between religious forms and pagan dispositions. But that the Christian message, represented by the great preachers of the fourth and fifth centuries, could at least stir consciences and awaken lively solicitude, we have a strong proof in the phenomenon of the monastic life which now claims our attention. effort of the churchmen of the fourth century was to suppress these, and to produce conformity to the methods of the great churches. Eamsay, Church in Roman Empire, chap. xvii. CHAPTER XVIII MONASTICISM Bingtam, Orig., vol. iii. Helyot, Histoire des Ordres MonastiqueSy Paris, 1714. Mbhler, Geschichte d. Mdnchthwms ; Schrift. u. Aufsdtzeny ii. A. Harnack, Das Mdnchthum^ 1886. Athan., De Vita Antonii, 0pp. i. Sozomen, H. E. i. c. 12-14. Theodoret, Hist. Belig., 0pp. iii. (ed. Hal.) 1886. Jno. Cassian^ Coll. Fatrum in Corpiis SariyUyrvm Latin.t Vindob. 1888. We have seen that forms of self-denial as to food, marriage, etc., had been adopted by some Christians from a very early period.^ They aimed, on this line, at Christian thoroughness, and they were known as ascetics. If it was good to begin this kind of life, it must also, of course, be good to persevere ; hence declension from a declared ascetic purpose was looked upon as, more or less, a fall. The declared purpose therefore became virtually a vow.^ Still, those who, after beginning an ascetic course, chose to discontinue it, though thought to be in peril, were not at first regarded as having made total shipwreck. They were, in a sense, within their right, though they were making a questionable use of it. Such asceticism came to be regarded as the appropriate expression of Christian devotedness, at least for those to whom it was practically open. It was the " whole yoke of the Lord," according to the writer of Clem. Eom. Up. ii. It is the angelic life, according to Methodius (Conviv. vii.). In the case of virgins, especially, it acquired a significance that was romantic as well as sacred ; for in the light of the Song of Solomon, and of other passages spiritually inter- » Ante, pp. 68, 223, 224. • Not expressly, apparently, till far on in the third century. 891 292 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. preted, the consecrated women were contemplated as brides of Christ.^ This view became the source of many in- ferences. The earlier ascetic Kfe did not imply separation from the family, nor from ordinary associations. Now it assumed the intenser form of a retreat to the wilderness, so as to part from all of common life that could be parted from. In the desert, distractions could be avoided, temptations to common forms of indulgence must presumably be absent, time could be devoted completely to devout exercises, and the flesh could be chastised. It is not quite clear when this Christian avax(oprj(7L<: began to be important. There might be stray instances at any time. It has been said that some who fled to the desert to escape the Decian persecution, in the middle of the third century, became enamoured of the lonely and simple life, and continued it after the persecution had passed away.' But the historical indications suggest that the stream of Christian hermits began to flow early in the fourth century during Diocletian's persecution. In taking this course, Christians were only following the example of men of other religions. AU religions which preached either the evil of material existence, or its un- reality and vanity, were apt, when intensely apprehended, to throw Eastern men on ascetic life. This was the way in which to trample on material ease, and to assert, through solitude and meditation, the supreme worth of spiritual existence. This was the way in which to break through the deceitful shows which entangle us, and find entrance into the region of reality. Egypt, by its soil and climate, lent itself to such a life, or rather, suggested it to meditative men. Accordingly in Egypt there had already existed the Thera- peutse of Philo ; and there also the New Platonists, following older schools, had developed their theory of asceticism. In conforming to such examples the Christians found Christian reasons for the course they took, but they could hardly fail * Methodius, Convivium, iv. 6. * This is implied in the life of Paul of Thebes (by Jerome, 0pp. ii.) ; but that authority is not trustworthy. 313-451] MONASTICISM 293 to imbibe also something of the mode of view of their pre- decessors. Hence among the Christians themselves the ascetic life was denominated " the philosophy," i.e. the practical wisdom. The Christian anchoret was carrying out, in the Christian way, suggestions which had visited even Gentile thinkers. At first solitude was a chief condition aimed at by the dva^copr)Ti]<;^ who thus became fiovd^cov or fiova'^6<;. The model of the life was Antony, whose story had been written by Athanasius.^ Antony is said to have been born about A.D. 250. He inherited wealth; but about a.d. 270 the text in the Gospel concerning the rich young man led him to distribute his goods among the poor, and to retreat from the world in order to devote his life to God. He found refuge first in a tomb, then in an old castle, then in a desert place where he could live on dates. Friends brought him some supplies half-yearly; and by and by many sought him for miraculous help or for counsel, and other ascetics gathered round him for guidance. His influence became great after the year 311, when he appeared in Alexandria, during Maximin's persecution, to minister to the martyrs and to denounce the persecutors. Forty years later he once more came to Alexandria, to support the cause of Athanasius during the Arian troubles. He died a.d. 356, it is said at the age of 105. The story of his life contains much that is extrava- gant and even ludicrous ; but an attentive reader will find interesting traits of Christian feeling, and of Christian wisdom also, gleaming through. He seems to have remained a humble man, and he withdrew himself as far as he could from the adulation of his admirers. The tide of Christian devotees began to flow apparently from the time when Antony became famous. Egypt long continued to be the country most noted for hermits ; but early in the century waste places in Palestine and Syria began also to be resorted to. The impulse reached * The authorship has been questioned on account of the extraordinary nature of a good deal of the contents ; but the evidence for it seems to be con> daaive. 294 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. Pontus, Cappadocia, and Armenia somewhat later. Far in the East towards the Euphrates the same condition of things is proved hj the writings of Aphraates before 346. Solitude was the ideal of this life ; but yet it was a natural tendency for the hermits to draw together and form groups, especially around some exceptional personality. Indeed it is wonderful that the theory of a social being, like man, finding his perfection in solitude, should have been entertained at all. It was soon found, as a matter of fact, that the life of solitude exposed the hermits to dangers and mistakes, both from lack of sympathy and lack of control. It was a gain, therefore, when monastic villages or settle- ments (kavpai) were formed, the ascetics living each in his own hut, but all able to assemble for common worship ; and still more when a company of hermits was formed into a society with a regulated common life, the dweUings being arranged with a view to this. The inauguration of this system is ascribed to Pachomius. This ascetic, before a.d. 340, formed a monastery on the island of Tabennse in the Nile (fiovaa-TTjpLoVy kolvco^iov, place of common life ; /jidvBpa, fold). Besides the gain to the credit and profit of the ascetic life which seemed likely to arise from the method of Pachomius, it gave to the multitude of hermits an organisation through which they could be connected in an orderly way with the general system of the Church. This was of great importance in an age in which the Church's sanction and benediction were so much prized. It is true, no doubt, as we shall see, that some who revolted from the Church's authority became ascetics, and asserted Liberty or eccentricity in that guise. But the opposite tendency was stronger. All the great churchmen of the fourth century were friendly to asceticism, and all of them advocated the regulated common life as the safest form of it. At the same time a good deal of spontaneity and variety must at this period be supposed. People planned and carried out their own ways of it, and these approximated in various degrees to the settled type which eventually pre- vailed. A period of probation soon came to be imposed on 313-451] MONASTICISM 295 those who desired to be monks or nims. The features of the life on which they entered ^ were chiefly celibacy, laying down of possessions, obedience to a presiding person (Abbas, ap'x^LfjLavhpiTr}^)^ fixed times for worship (three daily at first, afterwards six, finally seven), for meals, for occupations ; adoption of some simple and homely dress which became common and distinctive, and submission to discipline for offences. A common place of abode — house or cluster of houses — was necessary. Manual labour to provide the necessaries of life was enjoined, at least in the East. In the West, for a time, this does not seem to have been the practice. Food was always simple ; the quantity was not at first prescribed, though comparative abstinence came nearer to the ideal that was in view. Those who ate more were expected to work more. Many leading bishops of the later half of the century had passed through discipline of this kind ; for instance, Epiphanius, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory Nazianzen, Chrysostom ; but in their case the earlier and freer attitude of men who adopt the rule so long and so far as themselves judge it to be helpful, is still perceptible. Apparently it was under Basil's influence, first, that monastic societies — existing before in retired country districts — were introduced into towns. The impressive features of monastic rule, its sudden popularity, and its power to lay hold of individuals, were reported in the West as a rumour, and it was soon to be realised among themselves. Augustine, before his conver- sion (about 385), heard at Milan of the life of Antony, and records the impression which the report made on him.^ Also his friend Pontitianus told him how he had been one of a group of four officers of the Imperial court at Treves who one day walked by two and two in the public gardens there. One ^ None of the "Rules" ascribed to names of the fourth century (they are collected by Holstenius, Codex Regularum, i. par. 1663) are in their original form. They are believed to have been modified under the influence of later experience. Two bear the name of Pachomius and two that of Basil of Caesarea. The shorter of the latter, Spos /car' iiriTOfi-riv, is regarded as nearly representing Basil's own work. Ojjera, Garuier's ed., p. 199. * Con/, viii. 6. 296 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D. pair stumbling on a hut where some religious persons had begun to live a recluse life, found there the life of Antony. And after looking into it, one of them, deeply moved, said to the other, " What is the utmost we are aiming at ? Imperial favour ? and how precarious it is ! and how long shall we be of attaining it? And to think that I could become the friend of God this very moment ! " So after a little agitated meditation he continued, " I have broken with my former purposes, and am determined to serve God. I begin here and now. If you do not choose to imitate me, do not oppose me." Whereupon the other declared himself to be his associate in that warfare and reward. Then Pontitianus, with the fourth of the company, coming in search of the first two, was told of their decision ; and though they were not minded to share it, yet they lamented their own case, and begged the prayers of the others. So two remained in the hut, and two returned to their quarters. The first two were both of them betrothed ; the ladies, when they heard what had happened, dedicated their virginity to God. But, though Augustine did not yet know it, Ambrose had already founded a religious house in Milan ; and the West already had its famous hermit in Martin of Tours, whose sacrifices and conflicts, joined to his resolute and commanding character, were thought to place him on terms of equality with the greatest ascetics of the East. He had passed from a soldier's life to that of a religious recluse, and lived as such in various places before he was called to the bishopric of Tours.^ From this time the monastic life spread rapidly in the West, beginning with Italy, Africa, Northern and Southern Gaul. Ambrose in Italy, Martin in Northern Gaul, and Cassianus in Southern, impelled the movement. The authority of Athanasius had already recommended it in Rome, and there the zeal of Jerome called forth warm support and also bitter opposition. In Africa the system had the support of Augustine and of the more devout ^ Sulp. Severua, VUa. 313-451] MONASTICISM 297 clergy ; but there also a popular sentiment of irritation and contempt was strongly manifested.^ In reference to this sentiment, it is to be remembered that the asceticism which withdrew from ordinary life, renounced possessions, and affected visible privation, was native to the East ; but in the West it was an importation. When the new tendency began to operate extensively, many in the West regarded it with dislike and resentment. Some might be irritated by the disturbance to families and break- ing of social ties ; some might be unwilling to think of their religion as demanding such sacrifices ; some might recoil from the sordid aspects of the business, and from what struck them as its extravagance. But there were those also who discerned the principles involved in the enthusiasm, and disapproved of them. The resistance, therefore, while it included much that was worldly, found also some very respectable representatives. But it was borne down by the general sentiment of religious people. Most of these took it as settled, not only that the monastic life embodied a high efifort of Christian virtue, and that it offered the best method of seeking salvation, but that it was, in fact, the appropriate form of thorough decision, — of forsaking sin, renouncing self, and following Christ. Hence the more ordinary Christianity, that which was contented to be the more ordinary, was relatively imperfect: nevertheless, it might suffice as a Christianity of the lower grade. The inferences which these positions were to yield were not yet all clearly drawn. They were destined to affect profoundly the moral life of Christendom. The best way, probably, of learning what the early monastic mood was, how it felt itself related to both worlds, is to read the life of Martin of Tours by Sulpicius Severus,^ along with the Dialogues in which he compares the glories of Eastern and Western monks. The order of a monastic house may be gathered from any of the rules already re- ferred to (p. 295). The details of dress, of admission and * Salvian, De Ouhem. Dei, viii. 4. ■ In Corpus Scriptorum Latin, i., Vienna, 1866. 298 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. subsequent life, of nightly and daily worship, may be found, with a great deal of curious material, in the first four books of John Cassianus, de Institutis Co&nobiorum?- The remain- ing eight books are occupied with the eight principal vices against which monks have to contend ; which are tendencies to gluttony, impurity, covetousness, anger, sadness (mental depression), ahedia (indifference, often in the form of a restlessness which can settle to nothing), vainglory, and pride. A fuller survey of Christian duty and attainment, according to the views cherished in early monasteries, may be found in another work of Cassianus, Collationes Fatru7n, in which he professes to report discourses addressed to their monks by eminent Egyptian abbots. The controversial defence of the system against opponents is contained in works by Jerome against Jovinian and Vigilantius.^ His positions were reviewed and moderated by Augustine.^ Jovinian (about A.D. 390, d. before 409) did not argue against the celibate life ; he was a celibate himself ; but he denied the superior merit ascribed to it, as well as to fasting and martyrdom, and thus would have cut the roots of the current enthusiasm. He appears first at Eome, afterwards at Milan. Vigilantius of Calagurrae in Aquitania (after 394), worked as a priest in Spain and Gaul. He, too, objected to the honours paid to martyrs and their relics, and, like Jovinian, he challenged the exaggerated estimate of monastic holiness. Also he opposed the tendency to celibacy of the clergy, partly on the ground that the moral effects were often bad. Vigilantius, after his death, was regarded as a heretic. The teaching of Jovinian was condemned at Eome during his lifetime. Jovinian, perhaps, went deeper of the two into theological theory. He was charged with holding that those baptized with the Spirit cannot sin ; that all sins are equal; that in the next world there is but one degree of punishment on the one hand, and of reward on the other, ^ In Corpus Scriptorum Latin., vols. xiii. and xvii., AHndob. 1886-88. 2 Hieron. Adv. Jovinianum and Contra Figilantium, 0pp. iv. 2, p. 214. ^ De bono conjugali and Retract, ii. 22. 313-451] MONASTICISM 299 These charges seem to indicate, on Jovinian's part, specula- tions based on the Pauline writings, and probably misunder- stood by those who reported them. Both the men evinced strong convictions and steadfast character in encountering, as they did, the stream of sentiment which ran in their day ; and it might well be that the strain of so diflHcult a position betrayed them into some exaggerations. They reveal to us religious earnestness opposed to the growing superstitions, which has left little trace otherwise.^ The ascetic life, as placed under rule in the monastery, was accepted and accredited by the Church ; and both as a fact and as a force it became an element of first rate importance in practical Christianity. It agreed with the asceticism of the avayjx^pr^Toi (that of Antony and his followers) in prescribing the sacrifice of all possessions, though, in practice, life in the monastery was less rude and precarious than life in the desert, It added to mere asceticism the advantage of rules, and especially it restored something of the social tie. The ascetic, pure and simple, broke loose from all human ties, as if they were all nets to ensnare him, and as if sheer individualism made a man ready for God. The system of the monastery still sacrificed the same ties, but so far replaced them, in that a company of men or women living together must own relations and obhgations. Still further, a great element in the monastery was the obligation to obey the ruler. At first, probably, this obtained only in the degree necessary for good order in a religious house. But it was early recognised as furnishing the opportunity for mortifying self-will. The habit of com- plete submission to men or women clothed with authority found here a special consecration. It became one of the recognised points of Christian perfection. The significance and the power of the movement lay after all in this, — it embodied an effort to give effect to one * Besides references in last page, Siricii Epist. 7 ; Ambrosii Rescript, ad. Sir. Ejmt. 42 ; Aug. Ep. 35 ; De Hccr. c. 82 ; G. B. Lindner, de Joviniano et Vigil., 8vo, Lips. 1839 ; Haller, Jovinianus in T^cte u. Unters. N. F. ii. 2 Lips. 1897. 300 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D. of the most fundamental truths of Christianity. Genuine Christianity includes the surrender to a new principle, the recognition of a new master, the response to a new motive, and the acceptance of all sacrifices which so great a change implies. Life is to move to a new goal, and concentrate on one great attainment. " Except a man forsake all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple." " Take up the cross, and follow Me." Up and down, the churches we may be sure there were not a few Christians in whom this had begun, in whom it was going on. But the general aspect of things seemed rather to imply a consent of Christians that nothing so serious should be pressed. The old heroisms of the persecutions had ceased. The tide of easy-going converts swelled the churches. A man's Christianity passed un- challenged if, having once been baptized, perhaps in infancy, he maintained a negative goodness, joined with some atten- tion to ordinances. The worst of it was, that the way of conceiving Christian principles which, it may be said, was universal, weakened in an extraordinary degree the power of challenging this nominal Christianity, even on the part of those who felt it to be dangerously defective. The decisive something had taken place at baptism, and after that it seemed the only question that could be raised was the question of a little more or a little less of Christian observ- ance. Meanwhile this " Christianity," which was less and less distinguishable from indifference, lived on easy terms with the manners and the spirit of the decadent empire. Against it the spirit of Christianity itself revolted. Men who were awakened, even if they did not judge others, still refused to be content for themselves with so dubious a religion. And, in the spirit of their time, they de- manded that the genuine Christianity should have a definite outward form, so that one could make sure of it. Asceticism was the answer to that demand. It has a deep meaning that the monastic life came to be spoken of as " religion," and the entrance on it as "conversion," and that Jerome could say that to become a monk was to have, as it were, a second baptisnL The monastery was not to question the 313-451] MONASTICISM 301 validity of the common Christianity which the Church sanctioned ; but the monk was resolved not to be content with it for himself. The external form which was consecrated to hold this place was, after all, a human contrivance. And we may regard it as dangerously misleading. We may agree with Luther that the common callings of human life supply the proper opportunities and the proper discipline for a Chris- tian. We may be persuaded that both by what it claimed for itself, and by what it implied as to the outside Christianity, this system wrought indefinite confusion in men's thoughts regarding Christian duty and attainment. But, whatever we may think to be the dangers or the errors of monasticism, we must not belittle the enthusiasm which flowed into the monasteries. The general state of the Church was depressing, and undoubtedly the monasteries themselves very often shared in the untoward tendencies of the time. But an effort in favour of more thorough and strenuous Christianity was the spring of the movement. When we can follow the steps of individuals — of Basil, of the Gregories, of Chrysostom — we often find that a gracious religious life, pervading a whole family circle, has nursed the thoughts and purposes which led the individual to the ascetic life ; and, in other cases, the purpose was bom in the experience of a great change in which men felt themselves turning from sin to God. Hence Augustine has no difficulty in appeahng to the move- ment as a proof of the divinity of Christian religion. It was seen exerting a power which no other religion could rivaL Certainly from this point of view one must own the energy revealed by th6 Christianity of the fourth century. Environed as the Church is with relaxing and lowering influences, moving away from the old heroisms of the perse- cutions, torn by heresies, swamped with worldliness and with worldlings, we see a great uprising of men who claim to be Christian in another style. A few begin, but they begin enthusiastically and unreservedly, and in all directions 302 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. kindred souls catch fire, and resolve not to be left behind. As to the method from which so much was hoped, its concentration and its reiteration could, no doubt, produce habits of religious thought and feeling which were remark- able. They were not always healthy. However the plan might answer in some cases, yet when presented, as it was, as the true form of sincere Christianity, it was doomed to prove a sad mistake. It was essentially artificial, external, one-sided ; an experiment made by the young Church, as it is often made still, at the same stage, by the young Chris- tian. It must be remembered that this life did not then contemplate systematic service of others ; — everything was concentrated on the man's own perfecting. It was not wonderful that morbid symptoms were frequent. The Tristitia and the Acedia of Cassian's book were only in- stances of a large class of effects due to an unhealthy discipline. Sometimes mere intellectual and moral torpor resulted. The stimulus which was applied to the fancy and to nervous tendencies, is revealed also by the extraordinary harvest of visions, demoniacal assaults, and miracles which followed in its wake. The occurrence of some marvels had been associated all along with Christian history, in times of persecution especially, and in other cases of great trial. But both in type and in number these had hitherto occupied a comparatively modest place ; and the Christian feeling had been that miracles comparable to the gospel miracles had for good reasons passed away. But from Antony onwards the miraculous element increases, and by the end of the fourth century it had overflowed the world. Asceticism was one cause ; another, which operated in the same way, was the mood of mind now prevailing in regard to the relics of the saints. Illustrations of the first may be found abundantly in Sulpicius Severus.^ For the effect of relics, note how Augustine, who, in earlier days, recognised the comparative absence of the miraculous from Christian ^ Especially the Dialogi, 313-451] MONASTICISM 303 experience, in later life qualifies and virtually retracts the statement.^ For in the meantime not only had asceticism begun to bear fruit, but the relics of St. Stephen had come into Africa, and miracles everywhere followed in their train ; and such miracles ! ^ Various motives led men to the monasteries. Even the religious impulse included different elements, which might be mingled in different degrees. First, there was the feeling that a life which aims at friendship with God ought to in- clude an element of self-punishment. The ascetic pain was to operate as expiating sin. Secondly, as already suggested, it was a way of trampling on the material element and on its claims, a way of achieving emancipation from the world of sense and deception. This associated itself with ideas of the essential baseness of matter ; also, with aspiration after the aristocratic intellectualism of the philosophers. Thirdly, Christianity demands and promises a supremacy of spiritual affections, a subjugation of all else to the main aim. The ascetic life offered itself as the way of being true to this faith. And this was the motive most akin to the spirit of the gospel, — however legal and external the method was which it embraced. Fourthly, it was in general a way of testing one's own sincerity ; religion that goes too easy may be suspected ; sacrifice accepted tests devotion. Fifthly, in all these ways and in others it was a methodism, — a ruled-off way of being good, — so plain and distinctive that one might rest in it, dismissing questions and doubts. How dear this is to human hearts a thousand instances have proved ! It is to be remembered, finally, that persons could become monks and nuns without experiencing very deeply the peculiar influences of the system. Almost from the be- ginning there were low types of monastic life, and low motives leading men to embrace it. On the other hand, the monasteries sometimes became simply places of shelter ^ Retract, i. 13. 7. See also a case in De Mir, S. Stephani ad Evodiv/niy ii. 3, in Aug. 0pp. vii. App. * See d« CivUaU, xxii. 8, for specimens. Four are cases of raising the dead. 304 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. for people who could have found shelter nowhere else, and who were glad of a quiet and regulated life. Divergences The monks were laymen, and they must often have felt themselves to be more pious than many of the clergy ; they practised what was held to be a more complete Christianity. It was obvious, therefore, that the anarchical and revolutionary spirit might develop among them. But very powerful and influential men had exerted themselves to secure for the monastic life on the one hand the approbation, on the other hand the control of the official Church. The monasteries took their place as subject to the bishop, and as participant, through a resident presbyter or otherwise, in the regulated worship of the Church. Still, ascetic life was apt to break out into vehement excitement, or into extravagant and demonstrative self-torture. And sometimes these forces carried the monks into excesses which had to be condemned as schismatic or heretical. Some lived a wandering gipsy life sustained by herbs (^oaKol). Some grouped themselves in towns in small companies and earned a common liveli- hood without much rule, and so often with no good repute (Eemoboth, also Sarabaites). Some refused to hold Christian fellowship with any who lived in marriage, or who retained private property (Apostolici). The followers of Audius declared separation from the official Church in Syria, ap- parently on account of its laxity (Audiarii). The Euchites lived in constant prayer, begging for their support, denounc- ing even the earning of wages by labour ; and they under- valued the sacraments. Some of the monasteries in the East, previously in good repute, became infected with this spirit. The Eustachians, whose tendencies were imputed to Eustathius of Sebaste, practically set up a Christianity and a church of their own. They denied the possible salvation of all married people, and of all rich people, would have nothing to do with martyr feasts and Agapse, and rejected the ministrations of married priests. They were condemned 31^-451] MONASTICISM 305 at the synod of Gangra in Paphlagonia (after 360). "Stylites" was the name given to ascetics who, like Symeon (near Antioch), spent years on the top of a pillar. These anomalies gave way, sooner or later, to the powerful influences exerted to bring the monastic institute into harmony with the system of the Church. On the other hand, the morbid symptoms are not less apparent. Almost from the beginning we encounter com- plaints of low types of monastic life, and low motives lead- ing men to embrace it. Thus early did it appear that the acceptance of an external law, however holy it seemed to be, might be very far indeed from fellowship with Christ. •o CHAPTEE XIX The Clergy Bingham, Ckrist. Antiq. i. and ii. Tomassini, Vetus et Nova Disciplina, Paris, 1691. The rapid increase in the number of Christian worshippers naturally required great additions to the clerical staff. Besides the grades already mentioned, attendants on the sick (Parabolani) and gravediggers (/coiridraL — fossores) now appear ; they became very numerous in the great churches, and took the form of guilds under the bishops. The civil law sought to limit their number ; ^ for turbulent bishops could employ them as agents in disturbing the peace ; and those who wished to escape public burdens could get them- selves enrolled for nominal service in these orders. A similar increase, though not so great, took place in all the ordines minores (p. 248). In the Diaconate, however, the increase was not so great ; indeed some churches, at least the church of Kome, held to the number seven. The necessities of the time were met rather by multiplying the sub-deacons. The deacons proper, therefore, rose in importance as the special agents of the bishop, his eyes and hands in worship, finance, charities, and discipline. Signs appear that, conscious of their own importance, the deacons were disposed in some cases to take precedence of the presbyters.^ An official who is found in great churches from the very beginning of this * Five hundred and six hundred Parabolani at different times in Alex- andria, nine hundred and fifty and eleven hundred ^l Constantinople. ^ Cone. Ardai.f Can. 15. A.D. 313-451] THE CLERGY 807 period, is the leading deacon or archdeacon ; he acts as chief of the staff to the bishop. That was the position of Athanasius at Alexandria before he was elevated to the episcopate. The deacon who held this post was a natural candidate . for the bishop's place in case of a vacancy ; and ordination to the higher rank of presbyter might seem to him unwelcome as tending to spoil his prospects (Hier. in Ez. 48). Presbyters necessarily became much more numerous, for ministration of ordinances required more ministers. As the number of Christians increased in each locality, the ex- pedient adopted was to increase the staff of presbyters ; and these at first, speaking generally, were equally related to the whole flock, and ministered to particular sections of it as might from time to time be arranged. The alternative plan of multiplying bishoprics could not but seem likely to lower the dignity and influence of bishops, and it might also seem to infer more frequent and serious rearrangement. New bishoprics were therefore discouraged, except in the case of mission fields, and in the case of towns which rose into new importance sufficient to justify the presence of a bishop (Can. Sardica, 6). Already, however, from an older time had come down the institution of country bishops (;)^ft)/)e7r/(7/co7rot), who ministered to village communities, but sometimes to a cluster of villages each with its own presbyter (Bas. Ep. 142, 188, 290). Such villages, on the system now preferred, would be regarded as sufficiently provided for by a presbyter under the city bishop. The older system therefore began to be discouraged over the larger part of the Church (Ancyra, (314), Can. 13; Antioch (341), Can. 19 ; Neocas. Can. 14, and Nic. Can. 8), the powers of the chorepiscopoi were limited, and they were placed under the superintendence of the city bishop ; but they continued to exist for a considerable time. Of the numerous bishops in Africa some must have been practically chorepiscopoi; but they do not seem to have ranked lower than the city bishops of those provinces. Presbyters put in charge of country places might acquire a durable relation to the portion of the flock 308 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. intrusted to them sooner than city presbyters did ; for the latter might more easily take duties in rotation and circulate from one congregation to another; and distance helped to give greater independence to the country parts of a bishop's "parish." But alike in the town and in the district attached to it, the Christians were regarded as members of one episcopal flock. And in the cities themselves it was ere long found expedient to attach particular presbyters more or less permanently to particular churches. This can be proved for Alexandria in the fourth century, and for Eome and Constantinople in the fifth. It was the germ of the later parochial system. Such a presbyter gradually became to his congregation what the bishop had been to the early Christian community of the whole place ; he was their pastor and they his flock ; only he was not competent to ordain office-bearers, and they could not receive a complete separate organisation. At Eome, a presbyter so situated did not himself consecrate the sacramental elements, but dispensed what the bishop had consecrated previously (Innoc. i. Ep. ad Decentium). The city presbyters took precedence of the country ones. An arch-presbyter, corresponding among the presbyters to the archdeacon among deacons, existed; but the office never attained great importance. The right of the bishop to nominate to vacant positions among the inferior clergy was now well established. Such nominations, especially the more important, were no doubt usually made with the advice of his clergy. In regard to presbyters the view persisted, and was expressed in the ordina- tion service, that they took office by the consent of the con- gregation ; but practically this was tending to become a form. In regard to the bishops themselves, the ancient right of a church to elect its own bishop was more vividly remembered ; for the bishop was that one person with whom every Christian must hold relations, so that his appoint- ment created a definite and a pervading interest in the whole Christian community. But while in theory the clergy and the people must assent to the election, the neighbouring 313-461] THE CLERGY 309 bishops, or more precisely, the bishops of the province, who were to consecrate, and who must receive the new bishop into their fellowship, had also a right to be satisfied, both as to the regularity of the proceedings and as to the com- petency of the man. And their power in the election preponderated. The wishes of the local clergy and the people were not without influence, especially if they were united in their choice ; and they were occasionally exerted with such decision as to be irresistible. But we cannot trace adequate securities for those wishes being definitely ascertained, or regularly made effectual. Moreover, the growing numbers of Catholics in each bishopric would increase the difficulty of collecting and interpreting the popular voice. Very often, therefore, the person preferred by the bishops of the province and approved by the Metro- politan could be appointed. Still the " election " proceeded in face of the clergy and people, and with some forms of inviting their suffrage ; and the theory was never allowed altogether to drop, that the choice of the clergy and assent of the people were required. In most cases, one may believe, friction was avoided by circumspection and good sense on the part of the provincial bishops who presided. The presence of three bishops was necessary to a canonically regular consecration ; and that rite seems to have very often taken place upon the spot, as soon as the election was over. While the ordinary course of things followed these lines, great divergences might take place. A surge of popular feeling might lead to the disregard of ordinary rules, as in the case of Ambrose of Milan and others. On the other hand, imperial favour often determined the appointment to great bishoprics, especially in the East. The grounds of necessity and expediency which had led to the institution of synods, had led further to these synods being provincial, i.e. composed of the bishops of each (pohtical) province of the empire. The same reasons had led to one bishop being fixed on as the convener and president of these meetings, as the depositary of any powers which might be usefully exerted between the meetings, and 310 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. as the authorised organ of communication with other regions of the Church. He had a right of visitation in his province, and to see that rules were not broken. The ordinary bishops required his permission to make distant journeys. This order was well established at the beginning of the period now before us. The president was usually bishop of the city, recognised as the political metropolis of the province (hence "metropolitan"), but not always. In Africa proper, the bishop of Carthage was the metropolitan by right, while in Numidia and Mauretania the leading bishops (Senes) were not occupants of one fixed see. In Pontus the oldest bishop of the province was the presiding person. Generally, however, * the civil precedency of the metropolis determined also the ecclesiastical primacy of its bishop. Hence an increase of metropolitans is said to have taken place when Diocletian increased the number of the provinces by subdivision. But in Italy there had not been quite the same division into provinces which obtained elsewhere in the empire ; and there the metropolitan development was hindered still further by the impressive influence of Eome. Diocletian at length instituted eighteen provinces in Italy ; but that made no great alteration ecclesiastically in regard to the ten provinces of lower Italy. In Northern Italy, Milan, Ravenna, and Aquileia acquired metropolitan rights during the fourth and fifth centuries. The two former were for a time imperial residences. The council of Nicea directed two synods (Can. 5) to be held in each province yearly; but circumstances might, and often did, prevent compliance with the rules. The synods could frame rules which were imperative on Christians within the province ; they were the court of appeal in complaints of lack of justice at the hands of bishops, and, generally, in disputes regarding ecclesiastical rights ; and they superintended all Christian interests within the province which did not properly fall to particular bishops. In these provincial synods the con- ceptions of ecclesiastical order and administration were worked out which were proceeded upon in the oecumenical synods. The members having voice and vote were bishops ; 313-451] THE CLEKCxY 311 these might be attended by some of their presbyters and deacons, who might also occasionally be allowed to address the synod, but could not vote. A bishop necessarily absent might commission a presbyter to represent him, who could vote in his name. It was felt, however, that districts greater than the provinces constituted units of church life and work, within which ecclesiastical authority might and should be brought to bear, and throughout which the common mind of ecclesiastical authorities might be applied to provide for the order and welfare of tlie Church. Under the influence of this feeling the Patriarchates established themselves, and were recognised. Here again the political divisions of the empire — themselves dictated, of course, by natural and social cleavage — suggested a basis. Under Constantine and his successors the empire was divided into four great praefectures, namely, the East,^ Eastern Illyricum, Italy, and the Gauls. These praefectures, again, included fourteen " dioceses " of various sizes, each of which might in turn include many provinces ; as, for example, the diocese of the East included fifteen provinces and that of Eome ten. The idea of forming each diocese into an ecclesiastical province with a great bishop at its head was entertained ; and accordingly, along with Alexandria for Egypt, and Antioch for the East (in the more limited sense), Ephesus was named for Asia, Csesarea for Pontus, and Heraklea for Thrace (Const. Can. 2), all as equal ecclesiastical magni- tudes. But this proved to be a somewhat doctrinaire attempt. In truth, there were three bishoprics which by the splendour and antiquity of the see outshone all others. These were Piome, Alexandria, and Antioch. To these came to be added Constantinople, — the new Eome, — the centre of power * The word Oriens in this period is ambiguous,— it might denote the Prae- fectura Orientis, or it jnight denote only the Dioecesis Oriens, one of the five into which that prsefecture was divided. It is the latter and more limited sense which corresponds most nearly to the ecclesiastical Patriarchate of which Antioch was the mother see. 312 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. and law for the Eastern empire. These sees really held an exceptional place. Eonie had oversight, without question, of the ten suburbicarian provinces of Italy ; besides, she stood first in dignity among all Christian sees ; and she had an influence through all the West, the extent of which was not yet ascertained. Alexandria easily held her place as the presiding see of the diocese of Egypt, and Antioch in the diocese of the East. And the political strength of Constantinople enabled her not only to claim the obedience of Thrace, but also that of Asia, Cappadocia, and Pontus. Sees like Ephesus, Caesarea, and Carthage, though un- doubtedly above the rank of common Metropolitans, and allowed to claim distinctive privileges, still proved unable to contest the superior rank of those great sees. The latter accordingly are known as Patriarchates. At the close of our period, Jerusalem, on the ground of its historical associations, was allowed to dissociate itself from Antioch, and its bishop received Palestine as his Patriarchate. The name Patriarch begins to be restricted to these great bishops in the fifth century. Previously it had been more widely and uncertainly applied. Bishops who, though not Patriarchs, occupied sees which were regarded as confer- ring presidency over dioceses (in the civil sense of that word), or at all events as entitled to the obedience of several metropolitans, were often called exarchs, — a name derived from the civil hierarchy.^ Patriarchal sees held their position in virtue of the age, historic importance, and greatness of those churches. The ecclesiastical force, however, which formed the ultima ratio of their authority in case of need, was the exclusion from their communion of the bishop who seemed to give sufficient cause for that step. If the case was wisely selected, the example was sure to be followed by other churches of the * The name d-pxicTla-Koiros also had at this time no very settled range of attributes. IldTras was the common name at Alexandria for their bishop, and was superseded there by the title of Patriarch in the seventh century. The Greeks called the bishop of Rome Patriarch, but that title was not usually given to him in the West. 313-451] THE CLERGY 313 Patriarchate. This created what was always a difficult and perplexing position for the bishop in question, and was extremely likely to raise trouble for him at home. If, how- ever, the public opinion of the churches generally regarded the step of excluding from communion as unjustifiable, the bishop assailed might find support enough to enable him to hold out. But the situation was at best trying ; and even in the days when the fundamental equality of all bishops was most strongly asserted, a provincial bishop had many motives for avoiding unfriendly relations with the occupant of the "apostolic" see. Eome earliest realised all that could be made of this state of things. In the second century Victor warn on the point of breaking off communion with Eastern bishops who followed the Quartodeciman celebration of Easter, and in the third Stephen took a similar attitude about heretical baptism. These were cases in which Eome was in danger of prematurely straining her power; but they reveal her disposition to assert it. Innocent i., who was Pope at the end of the fourth century, signalised his pontificate by the boldness with which he asserted the powers of his see ; and many of these asser- tions were successfully translated into fact by the great Pope Leo i. a.d. 440—461. By these successive representa- tives, Eome, which was acknowledged to be the primatial see, virtually claimed the whole Church as her Patriarchate. The process by which the unique authority was made good over all the West (and often asserted in the East), is a subject by itself. It is enough here to say, that the alleged episcopate, at Eome, of the Apostle Peter was all along the main ground relied on by the Eoman church. But at first they were content to say that the Church, in honour of Peter, had agreed to accord a special authority to the church and bishop of Eome.^ Later, the assertion came to be that to Peter the Lord had made promises, which secured to the church in which he presided, and to his successors in its chair, perpetual stability in the true faith and authority to rule the whole Church.^ 1 Innoc. I. Ej). 29 ; Zosira. Ep. 2. • Leo I. £p. 10. 314 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. General Conditions of Clerical Life Two ways of arranging service in the Christian ministry- have been distinguished (p. 37); it could be undertaken as an addition, au honourable and responsible addition, to some ordinary calling — a farmer's, a merchant's, and so forth ; or it might become the sole calling of a class of men who must be provided with a professional income for their proper support. The first way of it prevailed in the earliest practice of the churches. Yet from the first it was re- cognised that approved Christian service demanded grateful acknowledgment ; and that when it absorbed much of a man's strength and time, it was incumbent on the Christian brethren to provide for his temporal wants (1 Cor. ix. 14; Didache, 13, 15). This obligation must naturally be more stringent when a laborious ministry was undertaken at the call of the local church. The change from the first method to the second was still proceeding in the present period, but had not been completed. Accordingly regulations appear which contemplate Christian ministers engaged in secular callings, but forbid occupations that were reckoned im- proper or unbecoming, as well as offices properly secular {Can. niib. 19, 20; Can. Ap. 7). The two methods evi- dently coexisted : each prevailing more or less, according to the circumstances of different churches. It is quite plain that, by the time we have now reached, bishops in larger towns had to devote their whole time to their work, and they had also to maintain a representative position and show hospitality ; similar considerations applied in a less degree to most of the presbyters in such churches, and perhaps to all the deacons. At the other end of the series some of the minor orders, now come into existence, would equally require a regular provision. On the other hand, in smaller and more rural churches other conditions could prevail ; the gratitude of the flock, or a modest honorarium added to the gains of a secular calling, might still be counted recompense enough ; it is possible that some of the clergy in the greater churches also were similarly 313-451] THE CLERGY 315 situated. With this state of things we may connect the fact that Christian laymen, especially men of some position, made efforts to be ordained and numbered with the clergy in order to escape public burdens. The Christian ministry, however, was becoming more completely a profession, or distinct calling, in which men could expect to be provided for as to their temporal wants, whatever higher aims might influence them in addition. On this footing, in later times, young persons could begin to prepare fox* the ministry as their chosen career. But as yet, in general, a state of things continued which we may represent to ourselves in this way — that, on the one hand, the congregation and its guides picked out Christian men, likely to be useful, and asked them to take the ministry upon them ; ^ that, on the other hand, an aspiration after work of this kind led individuals sometimes to offer themselves for service. A line of approach to the more important posts had been created by the development of the minor orders. In those orders lads and men could begin official service with less of responsibility on their own part, and less of risk to the Church's weU-being. They became familiar with ecclesiastical duties, were in contact with the older clergy, received influence, formed habits, acquired insight, and meanwhile revealed in some degree their own char- acter and aptitude ; thus they could be promoted step by step. It was, therefore, a system not of formal study or methodical training, but of apprenticeship. Apprenticeship long continued to be the method of preparation in other pro- fessions besides the clerical, and it has its own advantages and disadvantages. Among the latter may be reckoned this, that in churches where the bishop and presbyters did not include men of exceptional religious power and depth, the tendency among the "apprentices" might be to cultivate aptitude for the external duties of the ministry, without much perception of its proper spirit. Men like Basil, Chrysostom, and Augustine exerted themselves to remedy * A strong feeling existed that men so called were bound to respond. 316 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. this evil by inculcating right conceptions of the nature and the responsibilities of the spiritual office. At all events, this line of approach to the pastoral care offered itself so naturally that one sees a tendency to make a rule of it. But it never became universal. The Church could sum- marily call to its service in important, posts any Christian it judged proper. Augustine, happening to make a journey from Tagaste to Hippo, and entering the church in the latter place, was promptly pounced upon by the bishop and his people to fill a vacant post of presbyter ; and he had to submit, at that time much against his own judgment. Ambrose, not yet baptized, nor even a catechumen, was suddenly elected bishop of Milan. Such cases, however, more and more became exceptional. To rise through the established grades was held to be the safer practice. Hence, even when men were to be introduced at once to the work of deacons or presbyters, it came afterwards to be reckoned fitting to pass them rapidly, pro formd, through the minor orders.^ Men could begin their career on these lines with very little of mental cultivation or acquired knowledge, and no system of special education was inculcated or pursued over the Church generally. In particular places there existed facilities for mental training on Christian lines, — at Alex- andria, at the Palestinian Csesarea, at Antioch, and at Constantinople ; and we cannot doubt that use was made of these facilities. But they could be available only to an inconsiderable minority; and it is to be remembered that the system of apprenticeship confined men to their own church and gave little scope for seeking advantages elsewhere. We have every reason to believe that the attainments of many Christian ministers were extremely elementary. Augustine and others sought to meet these wants by persuading their clergy to live together under superintendence, after the model of the monastic life ; and in the regulation of the society so formed, place was * A monk was presumably an earnest Christian ; his life had given him opportunity for meditation ; and his asceticism recommended him. Hence a disposition to seek in the monasteries recruits for the clerical life. 313-451] THE CLERGY 317 found both for mental and for religious discipline. As regards the numerous clergy of the various grades who were not favoured in some of these ways, one can only say further, that reading must in all cases have been regarded as an appropriate occupation for men who served the Church. The Scriptures, and more or less of the Greek Christian literature in the East, of the Latin in the West, must have been usually accessible, opening a way for a certain amount of self-education. But we must equally make room in our minds for a considerable number of men who had profited by the school education of the period. Eelatively good schools existed at all events in most large towns, and were able to bestow a literary training, preparing men of religious minds to pur- sue what further studies they chose. So that we must think of the attainments of the clergy rather as exceedingly uneven than as uniformly low. Who can doubt that in all the great cities where a certain culture was affected by people of condition, the clergy — animated by a strong esprit de corps and stimulated by Christian thought and Christian controversy — would create among themselves a certain standard of knowledge ; and this, in the case of those who reached the higher grades, could not be contemptible. It is to be remembered, finally, that the ranks of the clergy were recruited by some who had been in touch with all the culture both of the schools and of the administrative hierarchy of the empire. From the time of Constantine the Christian ministry began to attract remarkable men, at least on a level with the highest education of the time, and some of them of great force of character. Men felt they could be more free, vigorous, and dignified in the Church's service than in the hierarchy of the State ; but often that impression was itself subordinate to the more personal sense of in- debtedness to Christ and desire to serve Him. They came from a long career in the schools, in which they had ex- hausted all that was reckoned to the heads of literary refinement or speculative thought, — and now the call to be scholars and teachers in a higher school came home to 318 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. them ; or they came from the service of the empire, expert in business and in statesmanship, to administer a more spiritual kingdom; or, after years of ease as wealthy Greek and Eoman gentlemen, they tired of a life aimless and self- indulgent, apt to be frivolous even when it was far from wholly selfish ; and they felt a call to place their means and themselves at the disposal of the cause which compre- hended the best they knew or could conceive. The change might follow on some great conscious crisis in the inner man, or might be marked by a meditative period of retire- ment, after the manner of the monastic life, or might be gradually reached in advancing life, an attraction that had been felt for years becoming at last irresistible. In any case it brought to the service of the Church men who had freely dealt with the culture of the time in its heathen as well as in its Christian form, men who brought whatever the age possessed of reading, or of eloquence, or of passionate and questioning thought, or of poetry, or of refined and gentle life. No doubt it was their pious fashion to utter warnings against many of the paths by which themselves had passed ; for instance, against the study of the heathen classics.^ But such men as Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine, Paulinus of Nola, and many more set a type the influence of which was no doubt widely felt. Eecruits from the service of the State, in particular, continued from generation to generation to pass over to the service of the Church. It was felt necessary to guard the clerical function against the entrance of those whose previous mode of life created offence, as performers in the theatres, and even as soldiers, if the candidate had followed that career after his baptism. Also slaves, and even freedmen were inadmissible, unless completely set free from the obligations to an earthly superior, usually attaching to those two classes. Certain immoralities, also, in the previous life of baptized persons, even if repented, excluded permanently from clerical ofifice, and so did some kinds of previous marriage which were ^ Basil, irpbs roiis viovt. 313-451] THE CLERGY 319 held less reputable. Similar exclusion applied to persons baptized on sick-bed, because they were liable to be regarded as having accepted the ordinance under fear of death rather than by choice. But in this case, and indeed in some of the others, the prudential reasons on which the exclusion was founded could be overcome by prolonged evidence of confirmed Christian character. Neophytes, i.e. persons re- cently baptized, had been from the beginning specified as not eligible for office; but here, too, eminent exceptions occurred, as Ambrose and Synesius. As a rule, a candidate for the deaconship was to be not less than twenty-five, and a presbyter thirty years of age. Bishops, presbyters, and deacons were not forbidden to engage in traffic, handicrafts, and husbandry for their sup- port. But they must not personally travel about to push their business, nor burden themselves with trusteeships and business not their own. Gain by lending money at interest was reckoned usury, and was specially forbidden to the clergy (Cone. Illib. Can. 19, 20 ; Arelat (a.d. 314), Can. 12 ; Nic. Can. 17; Chalc. Can. 3). The clergy had some encouragement to engage in business, from the fact that they were set free from duties charged on certain industries. But this immunity was after- wards very much restricted. Early regulations had warned clerical persons against undertaking any civil functions ; but apparent violations of this rule occur pretty frequently, often, perhaps, in cases where plausible special reasons could be pleaded. More special restrictions on clerical life were implied in the efforts of Eusebius of Vercelli, and of Augustine, to arrange a quasi-conYentual mode of life for their clergy; but these experiments had no extensive or permanent effect. On the other hand, a mode of view and feeling was rising in the Church which favoured clerical celibacy. Asceticism had long been regarded as a proper expression of pronounced religious earnestness, and the development of monasticism had intensified these feelings : that the clergy should exhibit this token of sincerity and devotedness was the inference ; 320 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. and one must suppose that many of the clergy, in point of fact, had accepted the principle for themselves. On the other side was the fact that from the very beginning married men had been chosen to office, and chosen by preference ; and that such unions, existing by divine authority, could not be dissolved. Yet the council of Elvira, in Spain, A.D. 305, laid it down that married bishops, priests, and deacons must live apart from their wives. The council of Nicsea declined to adopt this principle; but the rule seems to have been generally accepted and enforced, that clergy in those orders must not marry a second time on the death of the wife, and that those who were single men when ordained must not marry afterwards. In the West, moreover. Pope Siricius, before the end of the fourth century, is found demanding cessation of conjugal intercourse after the husband's ordina- tion. The Eastern Church, on the contrary, continued to abide by the rule just stated as regards priests ; in some cases working it with a disposition to require all candidates for priesthood to be married before ordination. As re- gards bishops, however, the feeling in favour of celibacy gained ground, and finally prevailed. Various eminent bishops of the fourth century appear to have been married men.^ When Synesius was suddenly called upon to accept the bishopric of Ptolemais (about A.D. 400) he made it a condition that the acceptance should make no change in his conjugal relations. He thought, therefore, that the other course might be expected ; but was assured that the main- tenance of his condition as a married man was within his rights.^ The luminaries of the time — from Athanasius down to Leo — show what Christian ministers of the fourth and fifth centuries might be, — what power, zeal, and fidelity, mixed, no doubt, with other qualities, they could bring 1 The father of Greg. Naz., Gregory of Nyssa, and Hilary of Poic tiers are usually cited. * In judging of the effect of regulations like these, it must be kept in view that a very large proportion of those called to be presbyters or bishops were persons more or less advanced in life, selected from the membership of the congregation. 313-461] THE CLERGY 821 to the discharge of their duties. On the other hand, indications are not wanting that pronounced selfishness and secularity were also very visible, that men sought the ministry and pursued it under the most earthly motives, and did not care to disguise those motives. One acquires the impression that gross immorality could, in par- ticular cases, exist and be winked at, without awakening great concern ; but the proportion of such cases cannot be fixed. Charges of gross sin were far from uncommon ; they constituted a weapon which theological opponents used pretty freely. But a certain discrimination appears in the use of them. Such charges were employed to destroy Eustathius of Antioch. But nothing of the kind was seriously alleged in the case of Athanasius. The new charges brought against the young bishop of Alexandria were such as might seem plausible against a man of high, resolved, imperious character. A similar remark applies (with some modification) to the charges advanced by the enemies of Chrysostom. One of the influences affecting the personal character of the clergy was the conventional deference accorded to them. This was most remarkable, naturally, in the case of bishops, but by no means applied to them exclusively.^ ^ There were substantial powers, partly noticed already : bishops were recognised arbiters in causes brought before them by consent, and in such cases their decisions were accepted by the Courts as valid ; accusations against clergymen were, under considerable limitations, relegated, in the first in- stance, to their ecclesiastical superiors ; and bishops had a vague but effective right of interposing to procure mitigation of severe— especially of capital — sentences in the criminal courts. But the main point is that they were regarded as centres of legitimate influence, the source of which was sacred ; and the motives under which it was exerted were to be presumed to be worthy. Influence of this kind could be made much of by strong men and by men of venerable character, while in other hands it was less potent. The social and ceremonial position receives its chief illustration from the etiquette according to which the emperor bowed his head to a bishop, to receive his blessing, and kissed his hand. Philostorgius has reported an amazing instance of sacerdotal impudence in this department, which was probably unique (Gies. § 91, No. 24) ; yet see Snip. Sev. Martini Vita, 20. The polite conventions of the clergy are exemplified in their correspondence. In the third century Cyprian, addressing a bishop of Rome, was content to say 21 322 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. 313-451 The clergy had become highly important persons in the Christian communities before Constantine ; the Christian emperors accorded to them the full amount of respect which they enjoyed among their flock, — the imperial religion was to be glorified by the dignity of its representatives, — and so a social convention on the subject took place through- out the empire. The clergy benefited by it, and adopted among themselves the extravagant formulae of courtesy characteristic of the Eastern Court. "Cyprianus Cornelio fratri"; but in the fourth Jerome writes to Augustine, "Domino vere sancto et beatissimo papse Augustine"; and in the fifth the bishops of DarJania write to the Pope Gelasius, "Domino sancto Apostolico et beatissimo patri patrum Gelasio papae Urbis Romse humiles Episcopi Dardanise {Upistolce, Arillana Collection No. 80). This, of course, was mainly form ; but it was significant, and also influential. An oflBcial dignity and sanctity were suggested which fitted in too well with the growing disposition to make much of externala. CHAPTER XX NiCENB Council Newman, Arians of Fourth Century^ Lond. 1871. Gwatkin, Arian Con- troversy ^ Lond. 1889 ; Studies of Arianism, Lond. 1882. Stanley, Lectures on the History of the Eastern Churchy Lond. 1862. The shadows of the long Arian controversy were darkening over the Church in the very hour of her emerging into the region of imperial favour and protection. The Monarchian theories had been practically rejected. The existence of the Divine Word or Son, personally dis- tinct from the Father, incarnate m Jesus Christ, maintained itself as the belief which the Church was to assert. It was a belief not free from difficulties. It had been associated with ideas of a certain derivation from the Father, and a certain subordination to the Father, by which, it was conceived, the unity of Godhead was guarded, while yet the distinction between the First and Second in the Godhead was made tangible. From Justin downwards ex- pounders of this doctrine had been led by various motives, intellectual or religious, to ascribe to the Son characteristics that seemed to draw Him somewhat nearer to the creatures, — a limited -sphere, a definite origination, a particular destiny; — but then they balanced these ideas against others which imported essential connection with the Father, and derivation from within the Father's being. How far these explanations could be carried, and how far they could be deemed successful or safe was not yet clear. Dionysius of Alexandria, opposing Sabellius, had found himself on the point of collision with Dionysius of Kome. Goiug back 324 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.U a little further, no writer had exerted more influence than Origen, and he had familiarised many minds with the thought of the Son's generation as eternal. Yet the true construction of the modes of speech on this subject, which he brought together, has been matter of debate ever since. All this holds true of the East especially. In the West, Eome was the place most accessible to waves of influence of this kind ; but in the West, generally, a simpler and steadier mood prevailed, and that counter influence prevailed at Eome on the whole. Arius proposed to clear the way through this region of thought by making thorough work, as he conceived, with the great distinction between uncreated God and created beings. With the Church in general, he owned that He who became incarnate pre-existed as the Logos, personally subsisting, presiding over creation, the source of existence to all beings lower than Himself. But this Logos, though thus exalted, is not, according to Arius, within the sphere of Godhead ; is not, therefore, divine in the proper and primary sense, but is only the first and greatest of creatures. Terms which suggest divinity are indeed applicable to Him, because He is the creature who stands nearest to the Father, and most fully represents Him. How far lofty terms of this kind may be carried in the case of the Logos, was a subject on which Arius probably fluctuated. But the assertion of the Logos as the central and personal element in Christ, and, at the same time, the denial of His proper and essential divinity and the assertion of His essential creaturehood, was Arianism. The Arians maintained this to be the only logical way of escaping Sabellianism. Arianism commended itself to men who wished for a scheme of thought running clear, apparently, from end to end, and not, on the surface, offering difficulty or incoherence. This seeming advantage was secured at the cost of sacrificing all the main interests for the sake of which the Church's mind had laboured. The Church had spoken of Christ as divine and human ; — some, supposing themselves driven to make a choice, had asserted one aspect so as to wrong the 313-451] NICENE COUNCIL 325 other. According to Arius, Christ, who was not divine, was not truly human either. He had the body of a man, but the Logos (a creature of a higher order) suppb'ed the place of the soul. The opinions of Arius have sometimes been considered to be a development of those of Origen. Others have traced them to influences which had their home at Antioch.^ A remarkable presbyter, named Lucian, had lived and worked at Antioch during the latter part of the third century. Like his namesake, the author of the Dialogues^ he was said to have been born at Samosata. He was trained at Edessa, and early in his life he settled at Antioch. It is said that during the episcopates of the three bishops who followed Paul — Domnus, Timseus, and Cyrillus (a.d. 275—305), Lucian was not in the communion of the Catholic Church at Antioch. But all this time he was growing into celebrity as a teacher, especially as an interpreter of Scriptures. He must have been reconciled to the Church eventually: his reputation continued to be high, and many who became distinguished in their generation had formed their theology under him. In 312 he was arrested by the civil authorities and removed to Nicomedia ; he died there as a martyr, enduring suffering with fortitude. As he had so long continued separate from the party at Antioch recognised as orthodox and opposed to Paul, it was a natural suggestion that Lucian shared Paul's errors. Again, as Arius was among his pupils (as were various churchmen who afterwards sympathised with Arius), it is equally natural to infer that Lucian might be the real author of Arianism. Both views have been maintained, though they are not obviously compatible; a dynamical Monarchian (which is Paul's theological label) being very different from an Arian.^ It would certainly ^ Newman, whose theological antipathies were energetic, traces the course of Christian thought at Antioch in lurid colours. Avians, 3rd ed. 1871, pp. 1-25. 2 Harnack has ingeniously tried to show how the combination might be accomplished, and ascribes to Lucian, on the strength of this speculation, an articulately Arian position. Dogmengesch. ii. vii. 1. 326 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. seem, however, that Lucian's teaching, whatever it was, influenced in an Arianising direction the minds of many who had been under him. Arius, writing to Eusebius of Nicomedia, appeals to him as Sylloukianistes — Fellow Lucianist.^ Arius is described to us as a Libyan by birth, who had visited different centres of church life. Latterly he is found as an influential presbyter at Alexandria. A parochial system had developed there, and Arius was in permanent charge of the church called Baucalis. He valued himself much on his reasoning powers. Indeed, Alexander, the bishop, imputed to him and his followers a spirit of boundless arrogance ; they spoke, he said, as if they, and they only, were the enlightened portion of the Church.^ However, Arius was not merely logical, but enthusiastic also ; and he lived an ascetic life, using the scanty dress at that time becoming usual with ascetics. When the dispute attracted the attention of the Church, Arius was already sixty years of age — a tall, thin, eager, excitable man, with something strange in his appearance, and yet with great gentleness of voice and manner in his calmer moods. He had a considerable following among Christian ladies in Alexandria. It is said that the bishop Alexander, expounding in the church the Christian doctrine of God, asserted a unity in the Trinity — iv rptdSi fiovdSa elvac,^ Arius controverted this, and charged the bishop with Sabellianism. In the earliest letters bearing on the controversy,* Arius objects to the co-eternity of the Logos, and asserts in more than one form the precedency of the Father. Therefore, " there was when the Son was not " ; ^ and he already argues that the Son was called into existence " out of nothing." « He was wiUing 1 Theodor. Fed. Hist. i. 4. 2 Theodor. Eccl. Hist. i. 3. * Socrat. ffist. Fed. i. 5. * One of Alexander of Alexandria to his namesake of Constantinople ; one of Arius to Eusebius of Nicomedia ; and one of the Arians to Alexander of Alexandria. Theod. JEcd. Hist. i. 3, 4 ; Athan. de Sy7wdis, 16. •^ '^v Trore Sre oi/K ^v, * i^ ovk 6vtuv, 313-451] NICENE COUNCIL 327 to emphasise the unique position of the Son. Tliough He is neither the unbegotten, nor part of the unbegotten, yet " by the divine counsel and will He took subsistence before the ages";^ and he is willing to confess Him to be " fully God, only begotten and immutable." ^ Afterwards he developed more resolutely, both the distinction from the true God and the participation in creature qualities, — positions which were certainly implied in his radical assertion that the Son is one of the creatures, though the first and most glorious. Thus his later teaching asserted that the Son is by nature capable of going wrong as well as right ; and he argued that the Father must be to the Son also, as well as to others, in- comprehensible and " invisible," known by the Son only, as it were, along the same lines on which some knowledge of Him opens to others.^ These and similar developments appeared in the Thalia, a versification of his principles with a view to popular impression.* * vph XP^VUJV KOl aldivuv. * irXrjpTjs 9e6s, fiovoyevi^s, Arpe-TTTOi Kal dvaWolcoroi. * Arms originally spoke of the Logos as drpevTos ; but that perhaps concealed an ambiguity, for the idea of the Logos, both in the superhuman sphere and in the human, by trial and fidelity turning a position that was precarious into one that was assured, seems to have been an original element in his thought. Take the scheme of Paul of Antioch, and you have Christ as mere man, but, under an impersonal Logos influence, making good His standing by virtue. He might have fallen, but He stood. Make the Logos personal, but created, substitute this Logos for the Soul of Christ, and suppose Him to be peccable, but at all stages, before and after His human birth, to overcome all influence and surmount all risks that might shake a creature, and you have Arianism. In both schemes God foresees the moral victory, and so appoints the oflBce of Saviour to the victor. Lucian of Antioch may have suggested this modifica- tion of Paul's view. If this was the original scheme of Arius, his earlier ascription to the Logos of the attribute drpeirTos must have referred only to the divine foreknowledge. * Athanasiua has preserved for us some of these strange verses {de Syn. U),e.g.— ** God as He is in Himself, exists by none comprehended, He alone has no equal, no like, no sharer of glory; Unbegotten we call Him, comparing Him with the begotten, And praise Him as unbeginniiig in contrast with him who began. Thus He, the begin n in gl ess, gave to the Son beginning of being; He brought Him forth as a child, and Him to be Son He adopted. In His own substance the Son has nought that to Godhead pertaineth, Nor consubstantial is He, nor equal in ought to the Father," etc. etc. 328 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. Still, while the Second Person, in the judgment of Arins, is a creature, called into existence out of nothing by the will of the Father, He has divine perfections so communicated to Him that no creature can surpass Him ; ^ all other creatures are called into existence by His ministry, and He stands completely between the Universe and the Father. There are therefore two Gods, the unbegotten (who corresponds to the abstract and unknowable God of the philosophers) and the only-begotten God — inferior, even infinitely, to the first, yet the object also of faith and worship. Sabellius had explained away the Three as transient phases of One. In the course of efforts made, against Sabellius, to emphasise the reality and the distinction of those blessed personalities, a tendency had appeared to carry subordination of the Second to the First so far as to turn distinction into separation. Arius gave decisive expression to this tendency; he did so with all the more animosity, because men were beginning to guard against it ; while, in his view, it ought rather to be more roundly and logically carried out. He seems to have been possessed, too, by a real enthusiasm for the Divine Unity, which seemed to him to be subverted by the Athanasian doctrine. A local council,^ numerously attended, met at Alex- andria and deposed Arius, with Theonas and Secundus, bishops who favoured him, and several deacons. Arius sought support among his friends, who occupied important positions in various churches. Indeed it soon appeared that the breach could not con- tinue merely local. Churchmen were taking sides upon it in different places. When the debate began Egypt was under the government of the Emperor Licinius. Con- stantine won his victory in 323 ; and Egypt, with the East, passed under his sway. All the more that Constantine * "One that is even as the Son is, God can beget at His pleasure. But one that excels Him, or better, or greater, not even He can." Thalia ; Athan. de Syn. 15. Beget is for Arius equivalent to create. It mainly suggests to him beginning of being. 2 Date uncertain ; A.D. 320 or 321 has been assigned ; see Hefele, Concilien- geschichte, i. p. 235. 3l3-45ll NICENE COUNCIL 329 had committed himself to Christianity, a violent conflict about the Christian faith was unwelcome to him. Already (a.d. 314) he had experienced, in connection with Donatus, the obstinacy of ecclesiastical parties ; and he was anxious to suppress this new strife. The debate seemed to him a needless one which might be dropped, and he interposed his good offices through Hosius, bishop of Corduba, to reconcile the parties. This proved to be impracticable ; and we may reckon it likely that the report of Hosius would dispose the emperor to take the anti-Arian side. The bent of the Christian West had long been to affirm plainly both the Godhead and the manhood of Christ, and to abstain from minute speculation. Hosius no doubt shared this tendency ; and Constantino, so long resident in the West, might be familiar to some extent with the manner of thought and speech which this disposition suggested. If so, the elaborate effort of Arius to break down the divinity of Christ, while he continued to call Him a God, could hardly fail to repel Hosius, and might well seem to Constantine a provoking and need- less sophistication. For the present, however, he does not seem to have indicated any bias. With the advice, doubt- less, of ecclesiastical persons, he resolved to call a council, oecumenical enough to represent the whole Church. Only under a Christian emperor could such a convention have taken place ; and it is very possible that the imagination of Constantine was fired by the idea of occupying a position in which he could seem to elicit, and in some degree to control, oracular decrees in connection with the religion which he had adopted. The importance of the step thus taken ought to be well considered by the student of Church history. Local councils had been in use for a considerable time, and had exerted authority. In dogmatic questions such councils were under- stood to formulate the actual tradition of the Church, their authority in that respect depending mainly on the feeling that their agreement afforded a reasonable guarantee for a correct account of that tradition, and carried with it a share of that general presumption as to divine guidance and care 330 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D. which it was pious to associate with ecclesiastical actings. But the first council that could claim to be oecumenical must have been contemplated as something new and great. It would have the character of the collective Church speak- ing by its authentic voice. And whatever of the sacred and the supernatural, whatever presumption of divine guidance and care was associated with the Church as a whole, might easily be imputed to such an assembly. Hence its decisions might have something more in them than record of tradition ; they might have a more oracular character. The signifi- cance of it might not be realised in anticipation. Yet it must have been felt to be excitingly new. It came to pass afterwards that a council was a recognised ecclesiastical ex- pedient, became so far a part of the machinery of church life, and presented plainly enough to observers the tokens of " human nature " in its procedure. As yet this was some- thing new, — part of the new world into which the Church had come. Nicaea lies east of Constantinople, across the Bosphorus, at a distance of some forty-four miles. The council assembled there in May or June 325. Practically it represented Eastern Christendom, — there were not ten bishops from the West : the distance and the growing disuse of Greek in the West were obstacles. Sylvester, bishop of Eome, being old and feeble, was represented by two presbyters. The number of bishops present has been reckoned variously from 2 1 8 to 3 1 8 ; the latter is the figure which is generally accepted. Hosius of Corduba, Eusebius of Ciesarea, Eustathius of Antioch, Alexander of Alexandria, are the personages most prominent, at the outset at least, and among them the presidents of the meeting must be sought. Athanasius was in attendance on his bishop, and took part, perhaps, as his spokesman in some of the discussions. No continuous and consecutive account of the proceed- ings has been handed down. Arius was present, and about eighteen bishops, headed by Eusebius of Nicomedia, were in general agreement with him. It would appear that at a pretty early stage, expUcit statements of the views of Arius were 313-451] NICENE COUNCIL 331 elicited, including passages of bis Thalia, and these drew forth energetic disapprobation. A creed was put forward drawn up by the eighteen, the terms of which have not been preserved ; but it was rejected, and torn in pieces. Perhaps it was at this point that Eusebius of Csesarea rehearsed the creed of his church, which he conceived might be accepted as a sound and adequate statement of the Church's doc- trine.^ This creed is given by Eusebius himself in his account of the proceedings at Nicsea, contained in a letter to his flock (Theodoret, Eccl Hist. i. 1 2). The last sentence, and perhaps the one before, do not read like clauses in a creed, and may embody rather assurances with which Eusebius accompanied it, when he submitted it to the council. The Arians by this time, we are told, had become aware of the position in which they stood ; they saw that they must, if possible, shelter themselves under the terms of some decision which, without sanctioning their views, might be interpreted as not excluding them. They showed them- selves ready to accept the Caesarean formula, but this suggested to their opponents that they meant to interpret it in an Arian sense. On this the Alexandrian party (who had the powerful support of Eustathius of Antioch, Macarius ^ "I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things both visible and invisible : and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, God of God, Light of Light, Life of Life, the only-begotten Son, the firstborn of every creature, begotten of the Father before all worlds, by whom all things were made ; who for our salvation was incarnate, and lived among men, and suffered, and rose again on the third day, and ascended to the Father, and shall come in glory to judge the quick and dead. And we believe in one Holy Ghost. We believe that each of these Three is and subsists, the Father truly as Father, the Son truly as Son, the Holy Ghost truly as Holy Ghost : as also our Lord, sending forth His own disciples to preach, said, *Go, and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.' Concerning which things we affirm that this is so, that we so think, and that it has long so been held, and that we remain steadfast to death for this faith, anathematising every godless heresy. That we have taught these things from our heart and soul from the time we have known ourselves, and that we now think and say this in truth, we testify in the name of Almighty God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, being able to prove even by demonstration and to persuade you that in past times also thus we believed and preached." 33^ THE ANCIENT CATHOLtC CHURCH [a.b. of Jerusalem, and also Marcellus of Ancyra), without object- ing to anything in the Csesarean formula, set themselves to strengthen and make it more effective in excluding Arianism, by the insertion of appropriate words and clauses. It would be interesting to know in detail the process of discussion by which this took place. But only scattered glimpses are afforded us. The creed ultimately took shape as follows : ^ — " We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible: and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only be- gotten, that is, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were made that are in heaven or in earth ; who for us men, and for our salvation descended and took flesh, and became man; He suffered and rose again the third day, ascended into heaven, and cometh to judge the quick and dead : and in the Holy Spirit. But those that say there was when He was not, and before He was begotten He was not, and that He was made out of nothing or of some other substance or essence, or that say the Son of God was liable to perver- sion or mutation, them the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematises." The word consubstantial — ofioovato^ — henceforth became the banner of the orthodox, although " of the substance " — eV T?}? ovaia<; — was perhaps the phrase which Athanasius valued most. The Arian teaching was effectually shut out by these phrases, and by the condemnatory clauses at the close. ^ IlKXTeiiofJLev els ?va Qebv, Haripa iravTOKpdropa, irdproju bparZv re kol aoparu^v iroiriT'fjv' Kal els ?va K6pLov 'Irjaovp Xpiardv, rbv Tibp rod Qeou, yevvrjO^vra e/f rod Uarpbs fiovoyevT], tovt iarip iK ttjs ovaias rod Jlarpos, Qebv iK Qeov, $uJs ^k ^utos, Qebv dXrjdivbv iK Qeov oKrjdLvov, yevvrjO^pra, ov iroLT]9^PTa, o/moo^aiop t<^ Uarpi' di od rh TrdpTa iyipero, rd re iv t(^ ovpap(^ Kal rd iv ry yrj' rbp 8l •^yccas roiis dv- dpdjTTOvs, Kal did T7)v rjjxeT^pap awTrjpiap KareXddvTa, Kal aapKcodipTa, Kal evapdpu- ir-^aapra, Traddpra Kal dpaardvTa rrj Tpirr] Vfiepa, dpeXdopra els rods ovpavo{dl] ARIAN CONTROVERSY — POST-NICENE 357 The ascription of it to the Constantinopolitan council can only be accounted for conjecturally. Cyril of Jerusalem had been associated with Semi-Arian men and counsels, and at Constantinople he might quite possibly meet with suspicions as to his soundness in the faith. To remove these he might recite the creed of his church, and procure an attestation of it as orthodox. Some tradition of this might exist, and there might be a disposition in some quarters to recur to it on account of the clauses regarding the Holy Ghost, which are fuller than the Nicene. No mention of it occurs at the council of Ephesus (431). At Chalcedon (451) reference seems to have been made to this form of creed as having been authorised at Constantinople, and though the statement seems to have created some surprise, it appears to have been acquiesced in. The fact that Epiphanius appealed to this creed, or some- thing like it, in the Ancoratus is explained by his original connection with the Palestinian church; the creed in use there had special associations for him. See Gwatkin, The Arian Controversy, p. 159 ff., and Hort, Two Dissertations^ Camb. 1876, p. 73 ff. Hefele, Concilien- geschichte^ ii. pp. 9 and 422, 451, maintains the older view, that this creed was sanctioned at Constantinople, CHAPTEE XXII Minor Controversies a. apollinarius ^ Works and fragments are collected by J. Draseke, Apollinanus von Laodicea, Lehen, u.s.w., Leipsic, 1892. Athanasius, De Incarnatione contra Ayollinarium. Basil Caes. E'pp. 265. Greg. Naz. E'p'p. ci., cii., ciii. Greg. Nyss. Antirhet, in Zacagni, Collectanea^ torn, i., Rom. 1698 ; Migne, vol. xlvi. Leontius, Adv.fraudes Apollinarist.y in Mai, Spicileg. Bomanum, xii. Dorner, Person Christiy i. p. 957 fol. During the debates concerning the higher nature of our Lord, questions about His manhood must occur, and some men were already taking positions ^ upon the subject. Arius, for instance, ascribed to our Lord a human body, but not a human soul. But variations on the point, where they existed, had not as yet attracted much attention. Apol- linarius first proposed and urged a doctrine which, by its theoretical coherence, the energy of thought applied in its support, and the range of consequences connected with it, was felt to challenge a decision. Apollinarius is on all accounts an interesting personage. In mental force he, perhaps, equalled any of those who signalised themselves in later controversies on the same field. Yet he did not command the attention of men in general, nor did he succeed in concentrating on his opinions the amount of interest which, in the form of hate or friendship, waited afterwards on Nestorius or on Eutyches. Arianism was ^ By the Latins especially the name is written ApoUinaris ; but the other spelling is better authorised. 2 See survey of i)revious impressions in Dorner, Person Christiy 3** Epoch, 2^ Abth. capp. 1 and 2. 8&8 A.D. 313 451] MINOR CONTROVERSIES 359 still in the field, contending for its life, and the minds of men were preoccupied. Hence, although leading theologians felt the edge of the argument of Apollinarius, and were con- strained to weigh carefully the reasons on which he relied, and though the council of Constantinople rejected his peculiar opinions as heresy, — yet none of the sensations were awakened that attend a great process. Apollinarius was dislodged, and dropped with little noise. Yet he had already realised the significance of questions which were to be hotly agitated in the fifth century. Two persons of the same name — father and son — have to be distinguished, of whom the younger concerns us now ; the father was born probably about the beginning of the fourth century, and the son died about 392. Both were men of literary enthusiasm ; and when the Emperor Julian prohibited the admission of Christians to the schools of classic literature, the two undertook to produce new classics on the basis of the Biblical writings. Among other efforts in this line were a tragedy called " Christus Patiens," and a Homeric version of the Psalms. Whatever the unwisdom might be of making this attempt, there is no doubt as to the Christian zeal which prompted it. Afterwards the son became bishop of Laodicea. He signalised himself by taking part, ably and usefully, in the discussions then going on. He wrote in defence of Christianity against Julian and Porphyry ; he controverted the Manicheans and the Arians ; he appeared against Marcellus. He was on friendly terms with the great defenders of the Nicene orthodoxy, such as Athanasius and Basil of Caesarea. A synod at Alexandria (362) is conceived to have condemned the Apollinarian error without naming the teacher.^ It was about 375, however, that Apollinarius began to separate, or to be separated, from the Church. The council of Constantinople (381) named his followers along with other sects whose tenets were rejected.^ ' See on this Doraer, i. p. 984. It can be argued that Apollinarius, who was not named, was not aimed at. 2 Can. 1. In philosophy, Apollinarius is said to have been a follower of Aristotle mainly. 360 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D. Arius, as already noticed, held that our Lord took flesh only, i.e, a human body, — the created Logos taking the place of the soul.^ He taught also that Christ was mutable, in the sense of liability to fall. However, for Arius that muta- bility applied not only to the incarnate Christ, but to the higher pre-existent nature as well. That, being no more than a creature, might possibly go astray. Apollinarius, on the other hand, attached great importance to our Lord's sinless- ness ; and he valued highly the Nicene assertion of the Son's essential divinity on this account as well as on others, that Christ as the Eternal Son abides immutably in the Father and in the truth. But this might lead him to scrutinise with peculiar keenness the doctrine of the Incarnation, in order to make sure that the interest he cared for was secure on the human side also. It appeared to him that the union of complete God to complete man was an incongruous thought. It could never make a real unity. You may call it a unity ; really it is and can be only a collocation of two. On that footing, then, there are two Sons, the divine and the human : and these may be related to one another, but two they continue to be. The mind of Apollinarius was strongly held by these im- pressions. There is, for example, a confession of faith in the Incarnation, which is printed among the works of Athanasius (Migne, iv. 26), but which is now ascribed to Apollinarius. All through, what he protests against is the idea of two in Christ — two Sons, one who is worshipped and one who is not. This is so strongly emphasised that older editors argued that the tract must be later than Athanasius ; it must be the work of someone who wrote in the fifth century, when Nestorianism was under discussion, and who wished to refute that error. But the protest embodied in the tract is apparently not against Nestorius, but against the conse- quences which Apollinarius believed to be involved in the common doctrine of the Incarnation, and which he was deter- mined to fasten upon it. ^ The Nicene Fathers probably had this in view when they not only used the common phrase of taking flesh, but said also that our Lord became man. 313-451] MINOR CONTROVERSIES §61 On the common representation, then^ — so Apollinarius argued, — there are two in Christ ; and if there are two, God is not incarnate; the man is another than He. Further, each of the two will have his own history. What kind of history will it be? Here we come upon the main motive of Apollinarius, — the danger which he seemed to see, and which he was resolute to avert. If there is here a complete man, with all the elements of human nature, then there must be free will. Now free will in a creature means liability to sin, in such a sense that there almost must be sin sometime. But supposing sin to be avoided, it is avoided by the same free will ; and our redemption turns on the precarious effort of a man. If Christ is to avail for us, what He does must not be ascribed to a human subject; — neither His sinlessness nor His death. It must be a divine act. Eedemption must proceed in a way that is perfect and divine. But if you ascribe it to one who is really possessed of a complete personal life apart from God, then you have only an inspired man, subject to the inevitable human in- firmities. To escape all this Apollinarius reverted to the three- fold division of human nature; body, soul, and spirit. Christ, he said, assumed the human body, adp^, and the soul or principle of animal life, "^v^i^ ; but the Logos is the rational and spiritual centre, the vov<;, the seat of self- consciousness and self-determination. The Logos, there- fore, in this case is, or takes the place of, irpevfia. The usage of language favoured this speculation. It was usual to speak of God as Trvev/Ma. The Logos therefore was so. But we ascribe to man also irvevfjia, as the highest element in him. If in the case of Christ the Logos is present, why suppose a second (human) irvevfia to occupy a place which is filled already ? Holding this, Apollinarius conceived himself able to assert without embarrassment the unity of Christ ; e.g. the material body is His, His very own. Just as in my own case my body is part of me — it belongs to that intellectual nature which is myself, so in the in- 362 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. carnation the body was the body of the Logos, was part of Hhn, and with Him is worshipped. The Logos Himself becomes vov<; in Christ : so He concurs in constituting that supernatural man, and so the Unity is secure. The Logos, then, did not " assume a man," as was sometimes said (very often in the West — assumpsit hominem), but was found in fashion as a man, and in the likeness of sinful flesh. The union is perfect. God in Himself has no passions, but through the flesh which is His, He has them. On the other hand, the flesh is wholly taken into the nature of the Second Person ; — one subject possesses, as inseparably His, all the elements, capacities, and experiences. In this way we have the moral and spiritual immutability really guaranteed. This irvev^a cannot fail. To the advocates of the ordinary scheme, ApoUinarius would have said, According to your theory, you have in Christ two natures, which must be two persons, whether you own it or not. But now, on my showing, there is but one nature, just as, in man, body, soul, and spirit are one human nature. The adp^ and the "^vxi ^^^ ^^^ aspects of the one nature of the Incar- nate Word, fxia ^i)(n The story of the general council of Ephesus (a.d. 431) is interesting in its way, but it must be briefly touched here. The council had been indicted for the 7 th of June. On that day Nestorius had arrived, and Cyril and various parties of bishops presented themselves during the following days; but the representatives of the see of Eome on the one hand, and, on the other, John of Antioch, with a large body of Eastern bishops, had not arrived (though they were understood to be not far off), when on the 22nd the council, at the instance of Cyril and those who agreed with him, resolved to open its proceedings. This step was taken against the remonstrances of Nestorius, of a considerable number of Eastern bishops, and of Candidianus, who repre- sented the emperor. Nestorius, in reply to repeated messages, refused to attend until those who were on the way to the council should have arrived. The council pro- ceeded in his absence ; and on the same day, 2 2nd June, they caused to be read the Nicene Creed, the second letter of Cyril to Nestorius, which was approved, the reply of Nestorius, also the letter of Ccelestinus of Eome, and the third letter of Cyril with the anathematismi? Two bishops who had been sent to summon Nestorius were examined as to what passed at their interview. Passages from the works of twelve older teachers of the Church were read (many to the effect that the Son or Logos was born and suffered in the flesh). Lastly, about twenty passages from the writings of Nestorius were produced, which were alleged to establish the peculiarity of his point and mode of view. Then the decree of the council was formulated as follows : — "As the ungodly Nestorius, in addition to all else, has refused to obey our citation, and to receive the bishops sent ^ It is interesting to know that a very special invitation was sent to Augustine, but he had already died on 22nd August. ^ Apparently approbation of this letter was not asked. 313-451] REGARDING THE PERSON OF CHRIST 387 to him, we have found it necessary to proceed to the exam- ination of his impious utterances. And discovering from his letters and treatises, and also from his utterances in the metropolitan city, which have been borne witness to, that he cherishes and proclaims impious doctrines, we are constrained by the canons, according to the letter of our most holy father and fellow-servant Coelestinus, bishop of the Eoman church, to come with many tears to this sentence: Our dear Jesus Christ, who has been blasphemed by him, has determined through this most holy Synod, that Nestorius is excluded from the episcopal dignity, and from all priestly fellowship." All this was done on the one day, the 22nd of June. Four or five days later John of Antioch with his bishops arrived, expressed his grave displeasure at the course taken, and formed a protesting counter-council. These proceedings were reported to the emperor, who at first decided that Nestorius on the one hand, Cyril and Memnon of Ephesus on the other, should all alike be regarded as deposed. But eventually, under whatever influences, he altered his attitude. The deposition of Nestorius was maintained, and he was sent into exile, but Cyril and Memnon were sent back to their sees. Plainly the decree of Ephesus was inequitable, because Nestorius had no fair trial on the merits, and the merits, as regards his real position, are obscure to this day. Besides, the doctrine condemned was not stated, iior the counter doctrine defined. Whatever view we may take of the position of Nes- torius, his judges no doubt apprehended that in the line of his statements Nestorianism in the technical sense (the Nestorianism of the Church histories) was approaching ; and the council resolved to shut it out. The course they took, however, left it uncertain what they condemned and what they sanctioned, for no theological light is emitted by the decree.^ Perhaps the result may be summed up in this, that the term 0€ot6ko<; was sanctioned. The sense intended in that term has ever since been generally accepted by believers in the Incarnation, inasmuch, namely, * The second epistle of Cyril, however, had previously been approved. 388 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. as He who was born of the Virgin was the Son of God, — just as the same Son bore our sins in His body upon the tree. Most Protestants, however, have disapproved and avoided the phrase itself, as lacking Scripture authority, and as tend- ing to produce mental confusion. The Virgin became the mother of the Lord, which is the safe and satisfying Christian phrase. In addition to this, the word " theotokos " became, as it was likely from the first to become, not so much the means of uttering faith about the Lord, but rather of associating the Virgin with God, and taking an attitude towards her which is idolatrous. John of Antioch and many of his followers, while they did not believe that Nestorius had fallen into any serious error, yet regarded his conduct of the case as unwise, and felt that he had made it difficult to defend him. They regretted his attack on a phrase which had high authority in usage, and which was associated with strong religious feelings. After the council, it becomes pretty plain that the party are more disposed to charge questionable expressions upon Cyril than to accept the odium of vindicating Nestorius. The two parties, however, were not really much removed from one another, and steps were taken to avert schism. Probably John early made up his mind to let Nestorius fall, a course which Theodoret could not persuade himself to adopt. But John was resolved that if he gave satisfac- tion to the Alexandrians in this form, he must receive a quid jpro quo. He demanded that Cyril should accept a statement on the debated points satisfactory to the Antioch- ians. We possess this statement, and it is very nearly the same with one which the Antiochians had drawn up as a manifesto of their position, and had forwarded to the emperor for his information, probably in August 431. Most likely it was originally drawn up by Theodoret. Cyril agreed to accept it. His action in doing this enhances the impression of his power as a theologian and his ability as a leader. A weaker man would have hesitated. John, on his part, agreed to accept the decree of Ephesus and to anathematise the teaching of Nestorius. The formula in 313-451] REGARDING THE PERSON OF CHRIST 389 which he did so gave prominence to the motive of restoring the peace of the Clmrch as leading him to this course. The statement accepted and adopted by Cyril begins with an introduction : — " We wish now, since this has become necessary, briefly to declare, according to the Scriptures and the traditions of the Chui'ch, what we believe and teach concerning the Virgin, theotokos, and concerning the Incarnation; not in order to add anything new, only for the satisfaction of others, but not to adjoin anything to the faith expounded at Nicaea. As we have said, that creed is fully sufficient for the knowledge of religion and for the repelling of heretical error. And we do not give this explanation as if we would grapple with the incomprehensible, but in order that by the confession of our own weakness we may repel those who impute that we expound what is to men incomprehensibla" Then follows the belief : — "We confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is true God, and true man of a reason- able soul and a body consisting, before all time begotten of the Father according to the Godhead, but in the end of the days for us and for our salvation born of the Virgin according to the manhood ; of like essence with the Father in respect of the Godhead, and of like essence with us according to the man- hood ; for of two natures a union has come to pass. There- fore we confess one Christ, one Lord, one Son. On account of this union, which is without mixture or confusion, we confess also that the Holy Virgin is the Theotokos, because the Logos became flesh and man, and even from the beginning united Himself with the temple which He assumed from her." What follows was added on the occasion of the com- promise between Cyril and John : — "As to what concerns the Evangelical and Apostolical utterances concerning Christ, we know that theologians apply some, as bearing on the One Person, to both natures in common, but separate others as relating to the two natures." Cyril's acceptance of this formula was responded to by a letter from John embodying in frank language the conditions 390 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. agreed to upon his part. So a modus vivendi was estab- lished, and it was announced that peace was restored. The settlement thus reached was disapproved and re- sisted by some on both sides. Among the bishops of John's patriarchate, the majority followed their patriarch ; but two distinct parties formed and took action in the opposite direction. The more extreme declared against the views of Cyril as plainly heretical; they regarded John's com- promise as treacherous; and they, of course, refused to concur in the condemnation of Nestorius. A more moderate party, headed by Theodoret, were willing to acknowledge that Cyril's signature of the new formula might be held to be a proof of his orthodoxy (though some of them main- tained that he ought, in addition, to disclaim some of his previous statements); but they regarded the whole trans- action as having too much the aspect, on the Antiochian side, of acknowledging defeat, — especially as four Antiochian bishops besides Nestorius had been deposed, and were not to be restored. They also, like the first party, protested against recognising the justice of the condemnation of Nestorius. Not receiving satisfaction on these points, a considerable number of bishops, on the one set of grounds or on the other, declined to hold communion either with John or with Cyril. But John took resolute action, and the emperor came to his aid. Eventually most of the malcontents gave in, — Theodoret himself returning to fellow- ship on the footing that he should not be required to say anything about Nestorius. Fifteen bishops who held out were driven from their sees. These bishops and their adherents were, in time, driven out of the empire ; they took refuge under the Persian monarchy ; and a Nestorian Christianity was inaugurated which long continued to operate, and to operate beneficially, in the remote East. On the other side some of the followers of Cyril were gravely dissatisfied. They blamed Cyril for accepting the statement proposed to him by John, and they regarded the renewed fellowship with the mass of the Eastern bishops as equivalent to the reception of impenitent 313-451] REGARDING THE PERSON OF CHRIST 391 heretics. Some of the dissatisfied, perhaps, misunderstood the true nature of Cyril's action ; but it cannot be doubted that many of them were already monophysites, and main- tained that doctrine as the true orthodoxy. The tendencies that way were strong in Egypt, as we have seen. The exceptions taken against his action were energetically met by Cyril in various writings, in which he offered elaborate explanations ; and in the course of these he takes up afresh and defends phrases, which afterwards were strongly appealed to by the monophysites, especially a sentence ascribed to Athanasius which spoke of the ^la (f)i>(Ti^ rod \6yov aeaap- KcofiipTj — " the one incarnate nature of the Word." ^ Cyril succeeded in averting ostensible schism among his followers, the rather because in procuring the general acceptance of the decision of Ephesus he had inflicted a substantial defeat on the tendencies of the Antiochian school ; but there remained in Egypt and elsewhere a strong monophysite party, which ere long was to reveal itself clearly. After all this Cyril opened an attack upon the writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia. He did so at the instance of Eabulas of Edessa, who was one of his adherents in the East. Theodore had died (a.d. 428) before the Nestorian controversy broke out. Now that Nestorius and his writings were condemned, men of Nestorian principles, it was said, were circulating writings of Theodorus, and also of Diodorus of Tarsus, and some of these were being trans- lated into the Syrian, Armenian, and Persian languages. The name of Theodorus was venerated in the East, and his writings found ready reception. The bishops of Armenia, apprehending danger, sent to Proclus, now bishop of Constantinople, to ask for guidance in regard to these writings. Proclus drew up a treatise adverse to the teaching of Theodorus, and Cyril published others in the same line. Men now began to speak of anathematising Theodorus ; and Armenian monks, in their * Athan. De Incam., Migne, vol. iv. p. 25. This, therefore, was already ascribed to Athanasius in Cyril's day. See ante, pp. 360, 363. 5 92 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. enthusiasm, went so far as to denounce utterances of his which were plainly orthodox. It was clearly undesirable to push the matter further, and the emperor published an edict exhorting to peace, and deprecating the condemnation of men who had died in the fellowship of the Church. About this time Eabulas died. He was succeeded by Ibas, who belonged to the opposite school, and who venerated the memory of Theodorus. The controversy then dropped for a time. The bias, however, which these proceedings gave to the Armenian church may prepare us for the adhesion to monophysite principles which finally fixed its dogmatic position. Nestorianism had no future within the empire. The school of Edessa, from the days of Ibas onwards, did lean somewhat in that direction, and distrusted the theology of Cyril ; but that school was destroyed by the Emperor Zeno in 489. Under the Persian monarchy, on the other hand, the Nestorian Christianity developed an active life. For a long time their patriarch resided at Ctesiphon or at Bagdad ; and in the thirteenth century twenty-five metropolitans, it was said, owned his authority. The invasion of Tamerlane fell on these Christians with peculiar severity. A very small remnant now survives. The Nestorians never called themselves by that name. They professed to abide by the Nicene Creed; in the interpretation of Scripture they chiefly followed Theodorus. B. CASE OF EUTYCHES The reconciliation between John of Antioch and Cyril took place a.d. 433. During the years which followed, although the dispute had ostensibly ended, suspicion and jealousy continued to exist. In particular, the more ex- treme men of Cyril's school identified the Church's orthodoxy with their own party, and in their opinion a strong pre- sumption of concealed Nestorianism attached to all followers of the Antiochian school. They felt entitled, therefore, to take active steps on any promising opportunity, and they 313-451] REGARDING THE PERSON OF CHRIST 393 relied, not without reason, on the sympathy of the imperial court. Shortly before the middle of the century signs of returning strife multiplied. Ibas (see last page), who had succeeded Eabulas at Edessa, was subjected to severe trouble by accusations of various kinds; his position be- came finally untenable about 448. In the same year Irenseus, a friend of Nestorius, who (about 446) had become metropolitan of Tyre, was driven from his see. Theodoret also was placed under some restrictions. At this time the see of Constantinople, after being filled successively by Maximian and Proclus, was held (from 447) by Flavian. He was certainly opposed to Nestorius, and in particular had showed himself to be in sympathy with the hostile action against Ibas. He was, however, not in favour with Chrysaphius, who guided the counsels of Theo- dosius n. There was at Constantinople an aged archimandrite (head, in fact, of the famous monastery called Studium) whose name was Eutyches. A devoted follower of Cyrirs teaching, he conceived orthodoxy very much as opposition to Nestorius, and felt that safety lay solely in that direction. His contemporaries did not think highly of his abilities, though his character and his position were venerable. As happens to such men, he conceived himself to be an authority on the questions in dispute. Like many of his party, he would not hear of the continued existence of two natures after the Incarnation; and this had shaped itself in his mind to an impression and assertion that Christ's nature is not consubstantial with ours. What he meant is not, perhaps, clear ; it was imputed to him by some that he held our Lord to have brought His human nature from heaven; but this he repudiated. He must have contrived to create in various quarters some uneasiness by the form he gave to his An tines torianism, if it is true that Domnus of Antioch, and others also, had contemplated a formal challenge of his theology. But the assault came from another quarter. In the course of the year 448, Flavian had assembled 394 tHE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.b. a " synodos endemousa " ^ to dispose of some business which required attention. When that was concluded, Eusebius, bishop of Dorylseum, rose to make a formal charge of heterodoxy against Eutyches, and to claim that he should be summoned to answer for himself. This Eusebius had shown some animosity against Nestorius, and, therefore, so far belonged to the same party as Eutyches; but, according to Eutyches, Eusebius was a personal enemy, whose accusations proceeded from malice. However this may be, all we read of Eusebius suggests a personage who loved to be loud and prominent in theological disputes, and who, once embarked in them, was mainly concerned about securing his own reputation by winning the battle. On the other hand, Flavian and the council seem to have treated Eutyches, on the whole, in a considerate manner. Eutyches, astonished probably to find accusations of heresy levelled against himself, was very unwilling to appear at all, and, when he did, he made state- ments that were not very clear. He repudiated the imput- ation of teaching that our Lord brought His human nature with Him from heaven ; on the other hand, he declined to speak of two natures after the Incarnation ; also, to admit that our Lord's humanity is consubstantial with ours. The synod finally came to this conclusion : — " Eutyches, hereto- fore priest and archimandrite, has by his earlier statements and by his present confessions proved himself to be entangled in the perversions of Valentinus and of Apollinarius, and has not been persuaded by our instruction and admonition to receive the pure doctrine. Therefore we, bewailing his complete perversion, do, in the name of Christ whom he has wronged, declare him deposed from office as a priest, excluded from our communion, and deprived of the presi- dency of his convent. All who henceforth hold communi- cation with him are to know that they also receive the pain of excommunication." This sentence was concurred in by Florentius, a lay official of the emperor, reputed to be a skilful theologian, who had been sent by the emperor to ^ I.e. composed of bishops who happened to be at Constantinople. 313-4511 RKGAKDINO THE PERSON OF CHRIST J^95 take part in tlio proceedings, no donbt with a view to protect Eutyches as far as possible. Eutyches had still the powerful friendship of the emperor's favourite, Chrysapius, who was his godson. He was therefore by no means disposed to submit without a struggle, and both sides exerted themselves to procure support. Dioscurus of Alexandria was ready enough to take part in the strife on the side of Eutyches. He had come to the bishopric at the death of Cyril in 444. He appears to have been a resolute monophysite ; and he embraced cordially, and followed out unscrupulously, the Alexandrian policy of improving doctrinal uneasiness with a view to advance the power of that see. Apart from him the most important men to gain were the bishop Leo of Eome and the emperor. Leo took time for consideration until all the papers were before him ; he then decided that Eutyches was justly condemned, and that Flavian had acted rightly. The emperor, on the other hand, was from the first prepossessed in favour of Eutyches, and ere long he resolved to call a council to reconsider the case. Leo saw no need for this, and would have had the emperor act under the guidance of Flavian and himself; but as the emperor proceeded to summon the council, Leo sent representatives to it. He also sent to Flavian a long theological statement upon the matter in dispute, which became very celebrated.^ The council was summoned to meet at Ephesus, 1st August 449. The emperor appointed that Dioscurus should preside. He also forbade Theodoret to be present. About one hundred and thirty bishops assembled ; and, apparently at the very first sitting, after reading the papers in the case, but without reading the letter of the bishop of Eome, or giving any proper hearing to Flavian, or to Eusebius of Dorylseum, Eutyches was restored, and Flavian and Eusebius were deposed. All this took place at the instance of Dioscurus, and seemingly amid much confusion and violence, and amid threats, which acted as compulsion * Leo, Ep. xxviii., " The Dogmatical Epistle of Leo," 396 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. on the bishops who might have stood by Flavian. Only one of the legates from Eome seems to have ventured on an attempt to discharge his duties ; and he was glad to escape and to find his way back to Eome incognito. Flavian died shortly after, owing, it is said, to the rough handling he received. Writers near the date of the council report (though this does not appear in the extant acts) that Domnus of Antioch also was deposed, along with Theodoret and some other bishops. In room of Flavian, Anatolius was appointed to the see of Constantinople, and Maximus to that of Antioch in room of Domnus. Such were some of the features of what Leo stigmatised as the Latrocinium Ephesinum. On receiving information of these proceedings, Leo exerted himself, successfully, to rally the West to the doctrine con- demned in the person of Flavian. He also wrote earnestly and repeatedly to the emperor, and to others in high position in the East. The question as to the see of Constantinople had also to be dealt with. Leo declined to recognise the new bishop, until he received satisfaction regarding his orthodoxy. His efforts to reverse the decision of Ephesus might, however, have fallen short of success, had not Theodosius li. died, 28th July 450. His sister, Pulcheria, came to the throne, assuming Marcian, an able statesman and soldier, as her husband and co-regnant. Pulcheria had already satisfied herself that Flavian and Leo were in the right. In order to restore the Church's peace, another council was summoned, to meet at Chalcedon 451. On this occasion, also, Leo deprecated the project of a council : he had received satisfactory letters from Anatolius, and he thought sound doctrine could be vindicated by dealing firmly with cases in detail. But as the imperial authorities per- sisted, Leo acquiesced, and sent deputies. The meeting- place, Chalcedon, was near Constantinople, on the other side of the Bosphorus. This council was far more numerously attended than any that preceded. The numbers given vary from 520 to 630; but none were from the West except the Pope's legates, and two bishops from Africa — 313-451] REGARDING THE PERSON OF CHRIST 397 waiidcrers, perhaps, whom tlie Vandal persecution had set adrift. C. COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON At the council of Chalcedon it was well understood that the violent proceedings at Ephesus could not be supported, and no great difficulty was found in constraining Dioscurus, the ringleader in those proceedings, to sit apart from the rest of the council, as one whose conduct required to be investigated. But after the preliminaries had been arranged and the necessary documents read, it was a delicate question what step should next be taken. A considerable section of the council had monophysite prepossessions, and large dis- tricts of the empire sympathised with these feelings. On the other hand, the " Orientals" could not be willing to lose the opportunity of retrieving the defeat they had experienced twenty years before; and the West, which, through the bishop of Eome, had taken its ground so explicitly, was not likely to be contented with an ambiguous result. A con- siderable number of those in the East who had heartily opposed Nestorius, were now willing to think that Eutyches had gone astray in the opposite direction, and they resented the maltreatment of Flavian and the arrogant conduct of Dioscurus ; but they were anxious and sensitive as to the theological position which, in connection with Dioscurus' overthrow, they might be called upon to accept. The council, however, began with a question of less difficulty. The conduct of Dioscurus had been indefensible, and he was now deposed. That step had no precise theological significance, but it meant much ; practically, it operated as a warning to all waverers. Those who had been conspicuous as supporters of Dioscurus at once felt themselves in danger ; appeals to the majority of the council to act mercifully began to be heard. The next step was to express adherence to received doctrinal determinations, including certain explanations of Cyril, but including also the dogmatical epistle of Leo. This received general assent; but it appeared that many ')9f^ THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. Egyptian bishops demurred, not, however, ostensibly on the ground of dissenting from the teaching, but on the ground that until they received a new patriarch, under whose guidance they could act, it was utterly unsafe for them to become responsible for the declaration proposed. This could hardly be regarded as other than a pretext, but it was met by an order not to depart from Chalcedon until they should have given satisfaction. Then the council proceeded to deal with the question of Faith, as raised by the teaching of Eutyches, and by the proceedings, in his case, of Flavian's council. There had long been great unwillingness to add anything doctrinal to the creed of Nicsea, — the council of Ephesus of 431 had avoided doing so in the case of Nestorius. But it was becoming evident that no official security against error could be provided by merely deposing particular men without saying what their error was, or what the form of teaching against which they had offended. This became very plain in dealing with the case of the mono- phy sites. In regard to Nestorius, it could plausibly be said that he diverged from the declaration of the Nicene Creed, which taught that the only begotten Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary. Eutyches granted the assumption by our Lord of the human nature : the effect of that assumption was the point he brought into question ; and if any doctrine on that point was to be maintained, it required to be articu- lated. Some time had to be spent on maturing a statement ; and some hesitation over Leo's phrases was manifested, especially on the part of some lUyrian bishops. At length a form was settled. A long introduction set forth the relation of the council to previous discussions regarding the Incarnation of the Lord, and various errors were condemned, last of all the error of those who say that before the union there are two natures, after it only one. And so, — "Following the holy fathers, we teach unanimously the confession of one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, perfect, the same, in the Godhead, and perfect, the same, in the manhood; being. He the same, truly God and truly man, of reasonable soul and body; consubstantial with the 313-451] REGARDING THE PERSON OF CHRIST 399 Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial, He the same, with us according to the manhood ; in all things like unto us, sin excepted ; before the ages begotten of the Father according to the Godhe^Cd, but in the latter days, He the same, for our sake and for our salvation, begotten of Mary the virgin mother of God according to the manhood ; and the same Christ, Son, Lord ; owned in two natures, without confusion, without conversion, without division, without separation ; the difference of the natures not being taken away by the union, but rather each nature being preserved in its propriety, and concurring to one person (irpoacoTTov) and to one hypostasis; not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, only begotten, God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets of old, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, have taught us, and the confession of the fathers has delivered to us." This was followed by denunciation of deposition or excommunication on those who teach otherwise.^ * A curious question exists about a critical clause in this decree concerning the Faith. As given above it reads, " owned in two natures [iv dio (pOaeai), without confusion, etc." In the Greek copies, however, it stands as €k 8vo (pvaeuv, "of two natures" ; the Latin copies support the other reading. Two things may be noticed. One is that the introductory part of the decree condemns those who say that before the union there are two natures, but after it only one. Now, "of two natures " was the phrase affected by this very party. The other is that when the question of the decree was under consideration, the committee charged with forming it brought up a report in the fifth sitting of the council, which was strongly recommended for adoption by Anatolius of Constantinople. It was objected to as not sufficiently decisive, as capable of being interpreted in the sense of Dioscurus. The document has not been preserved, but one criticism upon it has survived. Flavian of Constantinople had been con- demned by Dioscurus and his followers for having said that in Christ there are two natures : the committee's formula said that Christ was of two natures. That was in itself sound enough, but it could be interpreted as meaning "o/, but not 171 ; Christ is of two natures, but in one nature after the union." The imperial commissioners therefore remarked that the doctrine of Leo on this subject must be embodied in the decree. It looks as if at this fifth sitting a disposition had existed to settle the matter in the terms proposed by Anatolius, — perhaps because it was so desirable to end the disputes, — perhaps because the fathers dreaded the division likely to ensue if the matter were pressed further. They might for such reasons be willing to think it enough to mention two natures, but not so as to ensure a collision with the mass of nionophysite sensitiveness. But when it was put to them, " Dioscurus says 400 THE ANCIENT OATHOLIO CHURCH [a.d. The creed as thus adjusted was received with acclama- tions. The sittings of the council were still prolonged in order to dispose of some matters "of ecclesiastical interest. Men like Theodoret and Ibas, who had been deposed by the robber-synod for alleged Nestorianism, claimed to be vindi- cated and restored ; and canons had been planned to which the council's assent was invited. The main charge against Ibas was that he had impugned the orthodoxy of passages in Cyril's anathematismi. He had not, however, resisted the understanding between John and Cyril, and he had no difficulty in condemning Nestorianism. He was therefore restored. Theodoret of Cyrus had not objected to the term Theo- tokos, but he had vigorously controverted Cyril in the early days of the controversy, and had charged him with erroneous teaching. However, after Cyril's acceptance of the formula sent to him by John of Antioch, Theodoret approved of the quarrel being dropped. But Cyril made it a condition that John and his bishops, each for himself, should anathematise Nestorius. Theodoret, who believed that Nestorius had been misrepresented, refused. He agreed with the Church in condemning what now went by the name of Nestorianism, but he declined to anathematise Nestorius himself. Meanwhile, however, it had been accepted as a settled token of orthodoxy that Nestorius should be anathematised. All the procedure against Eutyches, all the efforts to restore the balance between conflicting tendencies, went on the basis of anathematising Nestorius, and then going on to anathematise Eutyches as well. When Theodoret was intro- duced ^ into the council of Chalcedon in order to his being of two natures, Leo says in two natures, which will you follow ? " they could only give one answer, and the formula was recommitted tor amendment. In these circumstances the amended form, which was brought up later in the same day, could hardly fail to read iv 56o ^Ocrecn. Baur and Doiner, however, have judged that the Greek copies ought to be followed ; against them may be named Tillemont, "Walch, Gieseler, Neander, Hahn, Hefele, Harnack, and Loofs. ^ At the eighth sitting. He had appeared at the lirst, but the personal j?^atter had not then been disposed of. 31^-451] REGARDING THE PERSON OF CHRIST 401 restored, he was prepared to give ample proof of his per- sonal orthodoxy by referring to well-known definitions which he ex animo embraced ; and he tried once and again to get the council to accept satisfaction in this form. It was quite in vain. He was met with shouts of " anathematise Nestorius." And now at last Theodoret gave way. " An- athema," he said, " to Nestorius and to every one who does not call the blessed Virgin Theotokos, or who divides the only begotten Son into two Sons. Also I have signed the decree of the council, and the letter of Leo." That gave satisfaction, and Theodoret was vindicated. Probably N"estorius by this time was dead ; and Theo- doret had this excuse, that the condemnation of Nestorius had come to be a theological flag, which had to be hoisted if he was to gain credit for the faith which he really held. Theodoret had long been true to the memory of his old friend. It was with a pang, perhaps, that he consented to sacrifice it at last.^ Monophysite teaching was condemned at Chalcedon, but it was destined to appear and work energetically for genera- tions after. It may be fitting to say something here of a tendency which proved to be so strong and so durable. It has been pointed out already that early writers who desired to hold fast the truth of the Incarnation, and to impress men with the wonder of it, were led to dwell on the Unity of Christ — one Christ, God and Man. In doing so they certainly followed in the line of memorable New Testa- ment declarations. They had therefore to think of Christ as that identical subject of predication, to whom there might be ascribed what belongs to the Godhead and what belongs to the manhood, both at once, both with equal truth. He was begotten from eternity and begotten in time, impassible yet crucified, the Lord of life yet dead and buried. ^ The canons of Chalcedon were twenty-eight or thirty in numher. The only one which created much discussion was the twenty-eighth, asserting that the civic dignity of Constantinople, as New Rome, carried with it correspond- ing ecclesiastical rank and privilege, so that Constantinople must take the second place in precedency — and, apparently, a not inferior place to the first in substantial authority. This canon was indignantly rejected by Leo. 26 402 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. Now those who, in their zeal against Nestorianism, took up monophysite ground, thought that these views and impressions could be secured only by monophysite forms of speech. They loved to think of our Lord's person as a sublime effect of divine wisdom and goodness, a mystery too glorious to be fathomed. They therefore resented ex- planations that proposed to bring things in this department to the level of human experience. They clung to the thought of the oneness between the divine nature and the human, realised in the person of Christ, the Son of God Incarnate. This was the bond between God and men in which Christians rejoiced. To intro'duce at this point any- thing like division was to mar the very centre of Chris- tianity : it was to break the keystone of the arch. The wonder of all the wonders was that the divine and the human attributes and experiences are ascribed not to two, but to one, simply and singularly one. And when they met with distinctions of the two natures in Christ, their impulse was to say, "We will have here no two natures. It is the nature of Christ to have all these things true of Him at once. This is the nature of the incarnate Word." With these views was often associated a certain type of mystic devoutness which in its extreme forms passed into Pantheism. There might be much in this tendency to which sym- pathy could be yielded, and the language of its representatives may deserve to be benevolently interpreted. Their assertion of the one (f>vaL<; has been apologised for on the ground that the sense of terms was still very unsettled, and that to many minds j>v(Tt^ might carry the sense of person, rather than that of nature. There is something in this, but hardly enough. It is reasonable, perhaps, to go further and admit that when the monophy sites brought out the unity of Christ — the complete harmony of all that belongs to Him — by asserting the one nature, that, by itself, might be capable of being explained. In that case it would have to be understood as a way of expressing the %«/3t9 €va)aeo)<;, the grace of the union ; and, in particular, as meant to bring 313-451] REGARDING THE PERSON OF CHRIST 403 out the permanent and perfect character of that union, — that we may rest in it as a permanent reality, just as we do rest when we liave fixed or assigned to anything its per- manent nature. So taken, the assertion would not exclude the continuance of the divine nature and of the human nature in the union of them both, each retaining the essential features or attributes appropriate to each. And this I take to be the real position of Cyril, who acceded to the form of teaching indicated by John of Antioch, and yet continued occasionally to use the phrase of the fjbia