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 (</)iXo^eo?), and exerted her influence
effectively, in one instance at least, to relieve and set free
Christian sufferers.^
The main point favourable to the Christians in the
action of Trajan and his two successors is, that they re-
quired the appearance of specific accusers. Influences
which might deter men from appearing in this character
are specified by Kamsay {Church in Roman Empire, p.
325). Still, it seems likely that the attempt to extract
money from the Christians by threats of accusation would,
in the circumstances, become a common form of extortion.
We do not hear much of it in these three reigns, but it
became common in the time of Marcus Aurelius, when
informers against the Christians were encouraged.
The Jews
The reconquest of Palestine and destruction of Jeru-
salem by the Eoman armies (a.d. 70) had been accompanied
^ Serious and prolonged calamities of war and pestilence are supposed to
account for special exasperation of the popular antipathy to the Christians.
2 Marcia's relations to Commodus might be contemplated by the Chris-
98-180] THE JEWS 19
by frightful losses and humiliations to the conquered people ;
masses of them were slaughtered or sold into slavery ; their
whole territory was confiscated ; and their religious prejudices
(heretofore humoured by the Eomans) were, in Palestine at
least, trampled upon and outraged. Still, this did not
generally or seriously affect the Jews of the Dispersion;
and even those who remained in Palestine began, after a
time, to experience more tolerant treatment.
But the spirit of the race was not yet broken. In
the days of Trajan (a.d. 115) Jewish insurrections, almost
incredibly destructive, took place in Egypt, Cyrenaica, and
Cyprus. And when Hadrian, after some indications of
favour, took steps which threatened to paganise yet more
thoroughly Jerusalem and the holy places, one more great
uprising under Bar Cochba (132—135), as Messiah, sub-
verted the Eoman authority in Palestine, and was sup-
pressed only slowly and by great efforts. The suppression,
however, was complete. Palestine was laid waste; Jeru-
salem, under the name of ^lia Capitolina, became a
Gentile city, equipped with all the pomp of pagan worship.
Circumcision, Sabbath keeping, and instruction in the law
were prohibited everywhere ; and no Jew might enter Jeru-
salem. This last rule contiuued long in force. The other
prohibitions were soon withdrawn, or fell into desuetude.
A centre for the dispersed nationality arose in the
Sanhedrim of Eabbis and teachers of the law which formed
itself at Jamnia, and was afterwards transferred to Tiberias.
Here at the end of the second century the traditional
teaching began to fix itself in the Hebrew tongue as the
Mishnah (^'repetition"). Further discussions, distinctions, and
inferences embodied themselves in the Palestinian Gemara
{"completion"), about the middle of the fourth century, and
the Babylonian about the middle of the sixth, both in
Aramaic.
From the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by
tians as on her side the nearest approach to marriage of which the Roman
ideas and laws admitted. While questionable, it might not appear to hav^
the character of plain immorality. Lagarde, Bel. Jur. pp. 121-124.
20 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
Titus it must have been difficult for Jewish Christians,
even for those who clung most to the law, to maintain
friendly relations with official or devout Judaism; and
after the war of Bar Cochba it became, as a rule, im-
possible. No Christian could support the movement of
that warlike Messiah. Christians were henceforth de-
nounced by Jews as apostates ; and a formal curse directed
against them became a tradition of Jewish worship. Authori-
tative Judaism, of the schools and of the synagogues, finally
shut its doors against all kinds of Christians.
But a calmer Judaism existed which took various forms.
The earlier history has shown how Jews in Egypt and the
west were influenced by the Greek learning and specula-
tion, and how those who lived eastward of the Jordan
were attracted by Oriental forms of belief. Even when
Judaism was strong and hopeful, it was not reckoned
heretical for Jewish minds to be hospitable to a certain
extent to such influences. But now the process was
likely to go further. In the case of many, at least, con-
fidence in Judaism, as it had been, was profoundly shaken,
and a craving for new combinations was felt.
As regards the Christian Church, the effect of these
events was to fuse the believers from the circumcision
and those from among the Gentiles still more completely
into one community. Almost everywhere this process had
gone rapidly on. Already the second generation and the
third had grown up under the general system of the Church
and under the influence of its enthusiasm. Now, anything
like aggressive Judaising could have little meaning and no
future; and Judaism more emphatically than ever meant
hatred and scorn towards every kind of Christianity.
Here and there, however, but chiefly in the neighbour-
hood of Palestine, communities of Christians still existed,
of Hebrew descent, or formed under specially Hebrew
influences, which could not yet resign themselves to be
Christians merely. Two classes of them, not always very
clearly distinguished, are indicated: one, which claimed
for its members the right to keep the law, but did not
98-180] THE JEWS 21
seek to impose that yoke on Gentile Christians ; another,
which insisted that the law was binding on all believers.
The former could be owned as brethren ; the latter cut
themselves off from fellowship, and became alienated from
the Church in doctrine {e.g. as to our Lord's higher nature)
as well as in practice. Both became separated from other
Christians, ceased to exert influence, and sank into narrow
and obscure sectarianism. But they lingered on till the
fourth century at least, and eventually the name of Nazar-
enes was applied to the first class, and that of Ebionites (" the
poor ") to the second. It is not proved that these names
were so distinguished during our first period. Both words
no doubt had been applied to the early disciples of Jesus.^
Besides these, we must allow for churches in which
the sentiment of the old Palestinian Christianity, its ways,
predilections, and sympathies were partially maintained, and
presented a type of Christianity which without intrenching
itself in permanent points of conscience, lingered on, and
only gradually merged itself in the common Christianity
of the Church. Churches where the kinsmen of Jesus
according to the flesh were held in honour, and traditions
concerning James were cherished, would certainly have
many interesting features which cannot be recovered now.
Distinct from these is a form of opinion the adherents
of which were called Elkesaites, and they probably existed
as a sect. Some suppose them to derive especially from
the Essenian type of Judaism. They recognised Jesus as
the Messias, rejected sacrifices, retained circumcision and the
Sabbath, and made much of purifying washings. Jesus,
according to them, is an incarnation of Adam, or of the
ideal man ; and so Christianity is a republication of the
original religion, which has again and again been corrupted
and again and again restored. Modern historians recognise
the features of this teaching in the Clementine writings.^
* The Fathers derived the name Ebionite from a supposed leader called
Ebion. Hilgenfeld has supported this view, KetzergescMchte, p. 424.
^ Homilies (Lagarde, 1865), Recognitions (Gcisdorf, 1838), Epitome
(Dressel, 1859). The Homilies appeared first in the Patres Apostolici of
22 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
In these a romance of the wanderings of a Eoman, Clement,
in search of lost friends, is made the framework of the
doctrine. Peter appears in conflict with Simon Magus,
and maintains against him that the religion of Adam and
Moses, which had been corrupted, comes to light again in
Christ, who is an incarnation of the same spirit. It is a
Jewish or Ebionitic Gnosticism, set up against the Gentile
Gnosticism which is imputed to Simon : at the same time,
Simon is represented with traits which are intended to
identify him with the Apostle Paul.
It continued to be felt needful to guard Christians
against being perplexed by the arguments of Jews.^ And
efforts to propagate a Judaising Christianity occurred
here and there in the early part of the second century.
But the mass of the Church remained unaffected by any
Judaising propaganda ; and the mass of those whose fathers,
belonging to the circumcision, had become Christians under
apostolic teaching, remained in the fellowship of the
general Christian Church, and shared in the common
Christianity. Christianity, with whatever local variations,
is seen everywhere receiving and prizing the Old Testa-
ment, yet everywhere marking itself off from Judaism;
everywhere shaping its thought in ways that are not very
congenial to the teaching of Paul, yet everywhere honour-
ing and quoting him. A great influence from the Old
Testament preparation is visible in the early Christianity,
but it extends to the whole Gentile Christianity (excepting
the Gnostics and Marcion), and not merely to a Jewish
party in it. The view that a distinctively Jewish party
carried on into the second century the flag of Judaism as
against a Pauline or Gentile version of the faith, and
powerfully affected the subsequent development, can be
maintained only by signalising as distinctively Jewish,
Cotelerius, 1672. Attention was drawn to them by Neander, and Baup
afterwards laid stress on the Clementines as supporting his conception of
early Christianity. The Homilus preserve most distinctly the heretical
element ; see article (Clementine Literature) Ly Professor Salmon of Dublin
in Dictionary of Christian Biography.
^ So, first, Barnabas, c. 2 f.
98-180] EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY 23
features^ which were common to the Christianity of the
whole Church. The question certainly remains, however,
whether the whole Church may not by degrees have Juda-
ised in the way in which it construed its own religion;
whether, beginning in the Spirit, it did not seek perfection
in the flesh.
Extension of Christianity
Christian writers of the second century and the be-
ginning of the third speak in glowing terms of the rapid
multiplication of Christians among all races of the empire,
and also beyond it.^ There is no reason to doubt the
sincerity of their statements; but these are necessarily
vague ; and the most truthful men are apt to overrate
and overstate the amount of adherence to their own
cause, especially when they see in the progress of it some-
thing wonderful and divine. Historians therefore have
felt it needful to check general statements by a close
scrutiny of details, so far as these are accessible to our
knowledge.
In Palestine and its neighbourhood Christians no doubt
continued to be numerous. Here the conspicuous churches
were in Csesarea (Stratonis Turris), the capital of the province,
and at Jerusalem or ^lia Capitolina, where the Church
had now assumed essentially the type of Gentile Christianity.
Palestine is flanked on either side by Egypt and by Syria.
In both regions the influence of the new religion on many
ardent minds is illustrated by the wealth of Gnostic specula-
tion which flows out from both quarters during the second
century. In Egypt, Alexandria, with its manifold popula-
tion, Jewish and Gentile, its commerce and its schools of
learning, became also a great centre of Christian thought
^ Eeference is here made to the Tubingen hypothesis. Evolved by a
man of Baur's extraordinary powers, that hypothesis no doubt freshened the
whole field of investigation. On its relation to the facts Ritsehl's AUkatho-
lische Kirche, 2nd ed. 1857, is still well worth reading.
* Ad Diogn. 7; Just. Mart. Try ph. c. 117; Tert. Apol. 37, ad Scap.
15.
24 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
and action. Tradition reckons the evangelist Mark as
the father of its Church life. The beginning, no doubt,
was among Jews and Greeks. But for the native Coptic
population, also, it became necessary to prepare a transla-
tion of the New Testament, at least as early as the third
century. Westwards of Egypt in Cyrenaica, eastwards
in Arabia, Christianity must have existed in the second
century. Tradition ascribes the origin of Arabian Chris-
tianity to apostolic labourers — Matthew and Bartholomew.
Before the end of the second century Pantsenus, the first
conspicuous teacher in the Alexandrian catechetical school,
is said to have gone as a missionary to India; but the
word as then used might signify Yemen, or parts adjacent
to Yemen, either in Asia or in Africa.
On the other side, in Syria, the wealthy and luxurious
city of Antioch was also the seat of the leading Christian
church. From hence the gospel spread far east and south,
and before the end of the second century Christian martyrs
are heard of on the Parthian borders. In this Syrian
region Tatian laboured in the latter half of the second
century, and left his mark durably on the literature of
many Syrian churches. A romantic Christian interest
attaches to Edessa, the capital of a kingdom created under
Macedonian influences. Here a Christian king (Abgar
Bar Manu) reigned from a.d. 176. The story ran that
an earlier king, Abgarus, who was our Lord's contemporary,
had written to our Lord, and had received a reply ; and
that, in accordance with a promise contained in it, Thaddeus
was afterwards sent by the Apostle Thomas to carry on
the work at Edessa.
In Asia Minor, Christianity had made very consider-
able progress even in the interior (notably in Phrygia),
but was probably strongest in the western sections, where
Ephesus and Smyrna were important churches. The most
remarkable testimony on many accounts is that given in
reference to Bithynia in Pliny's letter to Trajan (98-117).
Christianity had spread over the province and among all
conditions of people, so that the worship of the temples
98-180] EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY 25
was greatly neglected. It may be true that of the state
of things thus described Christians constituted the earnest
side, while Gentile scepticism and indifference constituted
the other. But the Christian element was strong and
conspicuous. One thing should be noted. We are apt to
assume that Christian societies formed themselves at this
time only in larger and smaller towns, and hardly reached
the country districts. But according to Pliny, in Bithynia
country and town alike had become full of Christians.
In Macedonia and Greece, as might be expected, the
Christianity planted by Paul had spread and formed new
churches. For the West generally, the church of Kome
was already beyond comparison the most eminent and
influential. It numbered among its members representa-
tives of distinguished Eoman families, including the Flavian
house itself. The Greek language as yet prevailed in the use
of the Eoman Christians ; and in this way facilities existed
for easy exchange of thought and feeling with Eastern
Christianity, which became more limited at a later date.
On the other hand, the same fact rather indicates a less
successful propaganda, as yet, among the native Italian
people.
The African province in all probability received its
Christianity from Eome, and the African church from the
first thought and spoke in Latin. Punic speech lived on
among the common people, and use was made of it for
Christian purposes, but little durable trace of this is left in
history. The earliest African Christianity, probably, was
among the Italian settlers, who were also the influential
class. Very early in the third century African bishoprics
had become numerous. It is likely on various accounts
that Christian communities existed in Spain in the second
century or even in the first, but there is a want of historical
proof of it. In Gaul, on the other hand, we know that in
the latter half of the second century Christian communities
existed in Lyons and Vienne. This Christianity traced its
origin not so much to Eome as to Asia Minor.
In regard to Britain and other outlying regions of the
26 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. 98-180
empire, statements have come down which are either
rhetorical and vague, or too late to be relied upon. In
regard to those regions, therefore, nothing can be affirmed.
Yet the probability is strong that a force so expansive
as early Christianity proved itself to be, may have reached
those regions in the second century.
In reference to the progress of Christianity, it is to be
noted that our information is far from complete. Vigorous
church life breaks on our view in the African province at
the end of the second century: of its previous history we
know little. Similar remarks apply to other regions — to
Gaul, to Spain, even in a measure to Alexandria. Speci-
ally sensible is the lack of statistics. How many Chris-
tians were there in the empire at the end of the second
century, how many in the middle of the third, how many
in the beginning of the fourth? We have to content
ourselves with guesses. Gibbon estimated the Christians
of Kome in the middle of the third century at 50,000,
perhaps a twentieth of the whole population of the city.
Over the empire he conjectured that, say in 310, Christians
might be five per cent, of the population. Strong reasons
can be pleaded for reckoning this estimate too low.^ Cer-
tainly the proportion might be, must have been, consider-
ably higher in particular cities and regions. However
this may be, in most places the Christians proper are to
be thought of as surrounded by a large number of persons
who were attracted, impressed, in some degree influenced,
but not yet won. Outside of these stood the great mass
of the indifferent and the hostile, capable of being stirred,
at times, into wrath and hatred.
1 Orr's Neglected Factors in the Study of the Early Progress of ChristianUy,
Edinburgli, 1899.
CHAPTEE II
Thb Early Churches
Liter ATDKE.— See Appendix.
If we would represent to ourselves the physiognomy of the
Christian Church in the second century, we must think of
a number of societies, existing in towns and villages (but
by no means as yet in every town) over a great part of the
Eoman Empire, and in some places beyond that limit.
These communities varied much in size, sometimes perhaps
not exceeding a dozen or two of people.^ Wherever they
existed they joined in common faith and worship, and they
conceived themselves to be decisively set apart by a divine
calling to a new life. They referred their own existence
as churches to the interposition of Christ, and to the call
proceeding from Him, administered by the apostles and by
those who heard them. Amid the inevitable varieties of
circumstance and attainment, all these communities have
common features of organisation, of worship, and of
Christian faith and practice. They exist independently ,2 —
so far, therefore, little republics, — each regulating its own
affairs. As yet no other plan would have been natural or
practicable. Everywhere, indeed, ties were owned which
bound all churches (as all Christians) together, as well as
duties which each owed to each. Still, for most of the
period no authoritative system existed by which those ties
^ A provision for electing a bishop in places where twelve male voters
could not be found, probably comes down from times comparatively early.
(Aiarayal 16 in Lagarde, Bel. Jur. p. 77.)
' This mnst be the general statement, even if we allow for little groups
of worshippers who clung to the nearest large church, and identified them-
■elves with it.
27
28 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
and duties should be expressed and regulated. Local
councils of groups of churches do not appear till the
period is closing.^ It would be a mistake, however, to
suppose that influences were not at work tending to
intercourse, and to the maintenance of agreement. At
this time the facilities for travel throughout the empire
were great, and they were very freely used.^ Christians,
in virtue of the impulse given to their energies by the
new faith, were likely to take a large share in the general
stir. In particular, some Christians felt impelled to travel
much through the churches, and must have promoted a
constant circulation of ideas and of sentiments.^
Even apart from these influences, the recognition of
the unity which comprehended all the churches was amply
secured. All the churches felt that they had been called
into existence by the same will and grace of God, — all
were subject to the ordinances of Christ, — all claimed a
position which was really supernatural, and was the same
for all, — and all the churches owned the presence of the
same Spirit of Christ. Hence not only the words of the
Master, but all accredited teachings of the Spirit were to
be everywhere received. So the thought of the one Church
pervades all the churches. Sometimes this Church seems
to be the empirical whole of Christians then in the world,
of which each church claimed to be a part ; sometimes it
is the future company of the saved, by and by to emerge
in its proper lustre, clear of mixture and defilement;
sometimes it is an eternal divine ideal, realising itself so
far in all true churches. The two latter thoughts unite in
passages like 2 Clem. 14: " So, my brethren, doing the
will of God our Father we shall be of the Church that is
First, that is spiritual, that was created before the Sun and
Moon. . . . Let us choose then to be of the Church of
Life, that we may be saved." This ideal Church is some-
times conceived vividly as a spiritual personality or form,
^ In connection with the Montanist movement.
2 Zahn, Skizzen, c. v., Erl. and Leipz. 1894.
• See below on Prophets, Apostles, and Teachers.
98-180] THE EARLY CHURCHES 29
existing somehow independently, but imparting its own
identity to each separate church and to each Christian in
it. There was therefore really no risk of the churches
losing hold of the idea of the unity ; but there were possi-
bilities of practical divergence and misunderstanding, and
specific safeguards with respect to these had hardly yet
been devised. The dividing forces will be referred to in
another place. It is enough to say, for the present, that
by the end of the second century an onlooker could
recognise various sects of Christians, who distinguished
themselves from one another : " They divide and split, and
everyone would have his own following " ; and yet he could
note that, in contrast to those sects, which were mostly
small and local, a community of churches rose into view
which was fairly distinguishable as the " great Church." ^
The social aspect of a Christian church must have been
in many cases very like that of a small dissenting con-
gregation in an English town where dissent is feeble.
Where the believing community was very small it ceased
in a manner to be visible at all. Where, on the contrary,
it was large, as in Antioch or Eome, the necessities of the
time might lead to the congregation meeting, for many
purposes, or for considerable periods, in dispersed groups.^
Facilities for disunion might hence arise, if strong individual
views and tendencies came to play upon the situation.
Our conception erf the Christian meetings must be based
chiefly on Pliny, the Didache, and Justin Martyr. Pliny
gathered, as he tells the emperor, that the Christians had
been in use to meet on a fixed day before sunrise, when
they sang a hymn to Christ as to a God, and bound them-
selves by an oath (sacramento) to commit no wickedness.
They met again at a later hour and took food together;
but the later meeting had latterly been abandoned by
some of his witnesses in deference to the imperial prohibi-
tion of clubs. Some of the persons examined by Pliny had
renounced Christianity ; but all alike testified to the moral
^ Celsus in Orig. contr, Cels. iii. 9, 10; v. 59. Celsus wrote about
A.D. 176-180. * Justin Martyr, Acts of Martyrdom, 8.
30 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
purity of Christian manners. Cross-examination and torture
brought out nothing inconsistent with this — somewhat,
apparently, to Pliny's surprise.
From the Didache we learn that in the churches whose
practice it represents, in the Lord's day meeting they broke
bread and gave thanks, but first they were enjoined to
confess their transgressions, that their offering might be
pure; and those at enmity were to seek reconciliation.
Also those who were plainly doing wrong were to be denied
fellowship until they repented. In the direction for the
eucharist, brief forms of prayer are suggested, first with
the cup, and then with the bread, and a longer prayer of
thanksgiving follows; but a prophet may give thanks in
what terms he pleases. It seems to be implied that the
administration was connected with the social meal which
had acquired the name of an Agape. Life, knowledge, the
hope of immortality, the gift of spiritual food and drink,
and life eternal through God's Son, are the blessings com-
memorated ; and the deliverance of the Church, her perfect-
ing, and her gathering from the four winds into God's
kingdom, are earnestly sought. " Let grace come, and let
this world pass away."^ Fasting was to be observed on
Wednesday and Friday, and the Lord's Prayer to be used
three times daily.
Justin Martyr ^ says that on " Sunday " Christians hold
meetings, and the memoirs of the apostles and writings of
prophets are read, as time allows. " When the reader
ceases, he who presides exhorts to follow what is so excellent.
Then we rise together and offer up prayers. . . . And
when prayer is ended bread is presented, and wine with
water; and the president offers prayers and also thanks-
givings, according to his ability; and the people assent,
saying, *Amen.' Then distribution and reception of that
^ It must not be inferred that no other exercises of worship and teaching
were contemplated as proper in the Lord's day service. Tlie writer of the
Didache felt it important to regulate the eucharistic part ; most likely he
conceived that what else was in use might be left to the discretion of the
congregation and its guides.
« Justin Martyr, Apol, i. 61, 62, 65-67.
98-180] THE EARLY CHURCHES 31
over which thanks were said take place, and it is sent to the
absent by the deacons. Those who are well off and willing
give as each sees fit, and what is collected is deposited
with the president ; and he aids children and widows, and
those who are in want by reason of sickness or adversity,
those who are in prison, or strangers who need hospitahty ;
in short, he cares for all who are in want." In another
place Justin mentions the mutual kiss after prayer and
before the eucharist. In regard to baptism, he says that
the candidates, previously admonished to prayer, fasting,
and penitence, are taken to a place where water is, and
baptized in name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
It was a common experience in these churches that
the nucleus of more earnest and thorough Christians was
surrounded by a fringe of adherents of a less decided sort.
This feature took shape in the post-apostolic age under
some pecuhar influences. It was not unusual for men
who were interested in religious questions or experiences
to get themselves initiated into one or other of the
mysteries, and to practise its discipline assiduously for a
time. It was an experiment. When they seemed to
themselves to have got to the bottom of the secret dis-
cipline, and reaped the main advantages it offered, they
then relaxed, and were ready for a new experiment. To
such men Christianity might seem to be one more system,
perhaps more pure and lofty, but which, without culpable
irreverence, might be dealt with very much in the same
way. Then among the poor who were drawn to the
Christian community by the practical benevolence of the
Christians, some, of course, might become earnest believers,
but others might be no more than grateful dependants,
professing the faith which brought alms and kindly
ministries in its train. Add to these children of Christian
parents, who adhered to their parents' religion with some
reverence perhaps, but without profound conviction, and
you have the unreliable element in the Christian societies,
easily swayed by the temptations which, in different forms,
assailed the Church.
32 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
In two of his essays Lucian sketches in his lively way
some aspects of the Christian societies. His account of
Alexander of Abonoteichus represents the Christians, along
with the Epicureans, as the special foes of that ingenious
impostor, and as the principal objects of his hate.
Doubtless the Epicureans had too little, either of religion
or superstition, to give in to a religious pretender ; and the
Christian faith was too deep-rooted and decided to dream
of any communion with him. In Lucian's account of
Peregrinus Proteus he tells us how that cynic passed
himself off, somewhere in Syria, as a Christian, and
imposed on the local church for a time. As a Christian
who made himself conspicuous he was imprisoned, and
would probably have been put to death, but the governor
of Syria saw how his vanity was gratified by being
the centre of a great sensation, and sent him about
his business. Lucian's main point is the respect and
deference the Christians paid to Peregrinus during his
imprisonment, crowding to see him and listen to him, and
ministering to all his wants. For Lucian they are sincere,
silly, kind-hearted people, who are successfully gulled by
a rogue. But it is quite possible that Peregrinus was one
of those dramatic individuals who impose in some degree
on themselves, as well as on others, in the various parts
which they play.
Leadership and Okganisation ^
From the Didache^ we learn that apostles, prophets,
and teachers appeared in the churches or in some of
them, and were regarded with great respect. All three
^ The immense mass of discussion on the earliest church order has been
augmented and freshened of late years in consequence of the discovery of the
Didache. Besides Lightfoot's Dissertation {St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians),
which must always be kept in view, there may be named — Hatch, Organisa-
tion of Early Christian Churches, 1882 (2nd ed.) ; also articles by him on
Priest, Orders, Ordination, in Dictionary of Christian Antiquities ; Heron,
Church of Sub- Apostolic Age, 1888 ; Gore, Ministry of Christian Churchy 1893.
« 0. xi. f.
98-180] LEADERSHIP AND ORGANISATION 33
seem to be persons recognised as men of spiritual power
and gifts, in whom the presence of the Spirit in an excep-
tional manner, fitting them for public service, could be
discerned; and it does not appear that they were elected
or ordained by any standing authority.^ Of teachers as
distinct from prophets no very clear idea is attainable.
Perhaps their function aimed more at instruction, while
that of the prophets added impression. But prophets and
apostles seem to be adapted respectively to what might
now be called the fields of Home and Foreign Mission.
The prophet is not tied to any congregation, but may, if
he sees fit, take up his abode in one, reside there con-
tinuously, and exercise his gifts ; he takes a leading place
in worship, and ought to be generously treated as to
the supply of his wants. The apostle has been led to
devote himself to a different kind of life. When an
apostle appears in any settled church he is to be
received as the Lord; but he is not expected to stay
above a day or two; and it is a bad sign of him if he
asks for money. His work is to push on — to preach the
word and gather churches in places beyond. Apparently
pretenders had been found who were willing to trade upon
the feelings cherished by Christians towards such persons,
and rules are laid down by which true men may be
distinguished. Apostles and prophets alike must speak
according to the received conception of Christianity, and
their conduct must agree with it, especially in the point of
being disinterested.
Prophets and men of prophetic gift come before us in
several ways during the second century ; Hermas of Kome
probably considered himself to be a prophet, and he was con-
siderably exercised about the state of the prophetic function
in Kome in his own day, the claims made on its behalf,
and the questions rising out of it.^ As to apostles, the
* But this does not exclude acts of recognition, on the part of the churches,
both at the beginning of such a career and afterwards. Cf. Acts xiii. 1, 2.
' The true prophet, according to him, is "gentle, quiet, humble, abstain-
ing from all wickedness and from the vain desire of the world, making
3
34 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
New Testament applies the name to others besides the
Twelve ; but apart from the Didache we hear little of them
afterwards. Yet a reminiscence of these early apostles,
conceived perhaps in the manner of a later and a changed
time, seems to be preserved by Eusebius {Hist. Eccl. iii. 3 ;
also V. 10. 2). He describes a class of men content to be
without possessions, and always pushing on in mission
work ; they were not standing officers of churches, nor, ap-
parently, appointed either by the Twelve on the one hand,
or by the churches on the other. They were greatly
respected, they ordained office-bearers in the churches
gathered by them, and "delivered to them the Scriptures
of the divine Gospels." But Eusebius cannot name any of
them except Pantsenus, who is rather a late representative
of the class.
Persons recognised in these characters must have filled
a very important place in the life and worship of the
churches which they visited or in which they abode. The
fact, too, that such persons circulated from church to
church would help to maintain a common consciousness,
and common ways of thinking and acting; it would con-
tribute also to make known everywhere the books re-
cognised as canonical. On the other hand, the exploits of
Peregrinus Proteus,^ as reported by Lucian, receive ^ome
illustration, when we realise the existence and activity of
apostles and prophets, and conceive how false prophets
might work the situation.
The churches, however, also required and had standing
office - bearers, through whom they were organised and re-
presented, and who were charged with the functions that
required to be constantly attended to. What they were
has been the subject of a great deal of discussion, the
rather because questions about the nature and transmission
of Church power have been mixed up with it. The primd
facie impression which the materials suggest is that churches
himself the poorest of all men." The false prophet "exalts himself, is
hasty and shameless, talkative, and takes hire for his prophecy " {Mand. xi.).
1 Z>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<s of God,
taking relation to the avroe^ovaia of man, is the abiding
key to the moral history of the w^orld and of all individual
souls.
If it be asked how those are justly dealt with who died
before the Saviour came, or who have never heard of Him, —
some of whom searched for truth so earnestly, — the answer
is that for the purposes of salvation the truth they attained
was insufficient; but nothing hinders the divine equity to
prolong their training after death, and to vouchsafe to them
revelations, and guide them to decisions, in which they
may reach the level of believing and baptized Christians.
It is admitted, however, that Truth and Goodness not
only have existed before Christ came, but they have swelled
into great proportions. They have done so chiefly on two
lines, the Jewish and the Greek. These were the historical
preparations for the great advent. Greek thought, as well
as the Jewish law, was a schoolmaster to bring us to
Christ.
On this scheme the view to be taken of the material
world is not the Gnostic view, — that it originates in a fall, —
but mainly this, that it is subservient to the trial and the
discipline of spiritual beings. For this purpose it is fitting
and good. The natural result of this explanation would be
to regard everything material as transient. Clement does
not say so ; but perhaps he betrays the pressure of a tend-
166 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
ency in this direction. He held the incarnation and the
resurrection; but touches of docetic tendency occur here
and there in his references to Christ's human nature ; and
one does not see that the resurrection holds any important
place in his thinking.
Clement's teaching placed Christianity in a setting
which had various advantages. It presented a tenable way
of thinking about the world, as framed on a plan into
which Christianity enters as the proper complement. It
recognised the attainments of the Gentile mind, without
sacrificing the necessity and supremacy of Christianity. It
emphasised the benignity of the Logos in pre-Christian as
well as in Christian dispensations, and asserted the interest
and the claims of Christ in connection with every aspect and
every stage of human progress. While it sympathised with
the emphasis with which most ancient thinkers exalted
the spiritual as contrasted with the material, it still was
able to claim importance for the material world as the
intended and the fitting scene for discipline and trial ; and
so it could retain the Hebrew and the Christian doctrine
of God the Creator, and of the intrinsic goodness of the
creatures. It took possession of all the hereditary enthusiasm
of the schools for truth and knowledge, because it conceived
Christianity as the complete Truth, which did its work as
a light, victoriously correcting and persuading. At the
same time it shut out the fatalistic tendencies of Gnosticism
and Pantheism by the energetic assertion of creature in-
dependence as involved in the freedom of the will ; while
yet the element of irregularity and disorder, that seemed
necessarily to break in at this point, was held in check by
the conception of a divine righteousness, strong, watchful,
and benevolent, which perpetually relates itself to every
movement of every will, and administers incessantly the
discipline which the action of each calls for. So the
history of the world and the processes of Christian salva-
tion evolve themselves on lines which are simple, attractive,
intelligible, which may charm away speculative doubt, and
secure room for the moral and spuitual teaching to do its
180-313] SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA 167
work unimpeded. This doctrine, propounding a philosophy
and a theology hand in hand, appealed strongly to the age.
And it was really much more than merely a doctrine of
the second or third century. A way of thinking in sub-
stance the same has revived again and again down to our
own time ; it has been represented by very beautiful and
attractive minds. It embodies one of the ways of con-
ceiving Christianity, — one of the great alternatives for
thinkers who strive to combine Christian convictions with
a free outlook into the experience and the thinking of
men.
The defects of it have at all times been obvious. Claim-
ing to exhibit the relation between God and men, it has no
feasible account to give of the moral and spiritual condition
in which the race finds itself. Its exponents have often been
distinguished by moral enthusiasm and sincerity ; but their
theory* in its own nature tends to attenuate sin, and reduce
it to mere error. The need and the fact of the Atonement
and the Christian doctrine of grace are foreign to the
scheme, and therefore must be somewhat slightly dealt with ;
and redemption turns wholly on the soul being flooded with
light, combined with the lessons of experience. Yet while
these defects must be pointed out, it is right to acknowledge
that what is not adequately presented by thinkers of this
class is not necessarily or always denied. Christianity is
full of compensations for human defects in the appropria-
tion of it. Those who think mainly on Alexandrian lines
have often approximated in various ways to the positions
which they felt unable to assert.
The scheme recalls features of Gnosticism in the stress
which it lays on enlightenment, and in its conception of the
function of the Logos as the great appeal of mind to mind.
Clement loves to think of the ripe Christian as the true
Gnostic; and he did share in some respects the point of
view of the earlier Gnostics, and their intellectual tendencies.
But the contrast between him and them is marked. He
had no sympathy with the fantastic romance of Gnostic
speculation ; he abhorred its fatalism, its way of conceiving
168 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
the relations of God and creatures, its conception of fiinda-
mentally diverse classes of human beings. He threw himself
on the Christian doctrine of creation, and of the respon-
eibilities of the creature, and (in his own way doubtless)
he carried these through. One effect of the intellectualism
may be noted. On his scheme a consistent divine benev-
olence is asserted, which is also one with justice. This
benevolence aims at highest well-being, and therefore may
be said to be equivalent to love. Yet the thought is not
so much of love, but rather of light, with its essentially
beneficent influences.
The chief features ascribed to Clement apply also to the
teaching of Origen. But Origen was far more conscious of
the obligation to think out his theories. He left a remark-
able illustration both of Alexandrian tendencies and also
of Christianity itself, as including peculiarities which he
recognises, and for which he endeavours to provide.
OEIGEN
Origen was born at Alexandria about A.D. 185. His
father, Leonidas, was a Christian of some position and
means. Origen received a liberal education, and was
trained also in the Scriptures, learning many portions by
heart. His strange, deep questions led the father to augur
a remarkable career for his child. In a.d. 202 the per-
secution of Alexander Severus broke out, and Leonidas was
apprehended. Origen burned to share his fate ; and when
prevented by his mother and other friends from giving
himself up, he sent a message to his father imploring him
to be staunch to the end. Leonidas was put to death, and
Origen found himself at seventeen years of age without
means. He resolved to make his way by teaching. Soon
the mental energy and the unflinching Christian devotedness
of the youth led the bishop to intrust to him the care of
the catechetical School ; for Clement had found it expedient
to leave Alexandria when the persecution began. Origen's
courage and devotedness, joined to his remarkable gifts,
180-313] ORIGEN 169
ensured for him the affection and admiration of his scholars.
Some time during this period of his life, desiring to make
any sacrifice that might conduce to the purity and success
of his work, he was led to the rash act of self-mutilation,
which he afterwards condemned.^ Till past middle life
Origen continued at Alexandria. But during occasional
visits which he paid to Palestine he preached in the church
at Caesarea, in presence of the bishop and, later, received
ordination as a presbyter. These steps, taken without the
leave of the Alexandrian bishop, were fitted to give umbrage ;
most likely also parts of his teaching were disapproved.
Proceedings were taken, and he left Alexandria, in so far
as the Alexandrian church was concerned, a deposed and
excommunicated man. But the churches in Palestine and
in some other regions refused to recognise the sentence,
and Origen found refuge at Caesarea (in Palestine), where
the bishop, Alexander, was an old friend. His life was
diversified by various journeys, — in one of them he came to
Eome ; but Caesarea continued to be his headquarters, until
in A.D. 251, escaping to Tyre to avoid the Decian persecu-
tion, he was taken prisoner. He survived the persecution ;
but, broken -by suffering, he died in a.d. 254.
His labours as a scholar and writer were enormous ;
hence probably the name Adamantius often given to him.
The greater part of his work was expended directly on the
Scriptures. Of the rest the most important are his sketch
of a system in four books (ire pi dp'^^cov, De Principiis)^ and
his reply to Celsus,^ who had written against Christianity
in the previous century. The Hexapla was a gigantic effort
to establish a good text of the Septuagint version of the Old
Testament, accompanied by the Hebrew, and by other Greek
versions besides the LXX.^ These materials were exhibited,
at least in a large part of the work, in six columns. Nothing
* His later judgment on it will be found in Comm. on Matth. xix. 12 ;
Lomm. iii. 327, 331.
* Patrick, The Apology of Origen in Rjyly to Celstts, Edin. and London,
1892.
* Hexapl. quce Supersuntj F. Field, Oxon. 1867-74, 2 vols. 4to.
170 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d,
SO elaborate was attempted with respect to the New Testa-
ment; but it appears that a corrected copy, which Origen
used, became a source of subsequent copies. For the rest,
he commented on books of the Old and New Testaments in
three different forms (Scholia, Homilies, and Commentaries,
TOfioi), and these expositions form the bulk of his surviving
work ; but much has perished.
It should be mentioned that in more than one case
Origen was sent or was invited to churches where alleged
heresies had been broached, and composed the differences by
leading the innovators to withdraw what had given offence.^
As an interpreter Origen is famous for having theorised
the principle of allegorical interpretation, already generally
applied to the Old Testament. That, as Origen himself
points out, was one of the commonplaces of orthodoxy in
his day, only it required to be systematised. But the
method, as he maintained, was applicable also to the New
Testament, i.e. to all inspired Scripture. There are three
senses — the literal, the moral, the spiritual, which he com-
pares to body, soul, and spirit; but not all passages have
all the three senses. Origen's own interpretations are no
doubt often fantastic; yet he has the merit of inculcating
strict grammatical exegesis as the foundation of all else;
and he did a great deal of useful scholarly commentating
by which all his successors have benefited.^ Sometimes his
literal interpretation is too literal ; it overlooks the essential
figurativeness which gives life to all language. It is usually
said that Clement and Origen hold a more liberal theory of
inspiration than other early writers do ; but it would be
difficult to prove it. It is true that the allegorical method
gives a comfortable latitude in dealing with difficult passages ;
but Origen himself enforces the importance of every syllable
in the text from which your allegory starts. It is true also
that Origen asserts that, e,g., in historical books, you may
meet with statements impossible in the letter, which are
* Oases of Beron and Beryllus of Bostra, — obscure speculations on the God-
head. Domer, Lehre v. d. Person Christie i. 536-61,
2 Lightfoot, Oomm. on OaZatianSf p. 227,
180-313] ORIGEN 171
meant to force you to look out for a deeper sense. But
that, in his view, is the triumph of inspiration, not the
defect of it.
It remains to say something of Origen's scheme of
theological thought. It might be more lightly passed over
if its importance were estimated by the number of its
adherents ; for few probably, even in his own day, adopted
it throughout. But its interest lies in the revelation of the
way in which the most remarkable Christian of the third
century could think. Moreover, it is the first Christian
system, the first scheme of ordered Christian thought which
aims at method and completeness. In sketching it, it will
be most convenient to begin at the beginning — with God
and creation; only the reader will do well to remember
that, in such schemes, what were really the decisive and
organising thoughts for the system-maker are found in the
middle of the system, rather than at the beginning.
Origen opens with an enumeration of the points which
ought to be regarded as settled and agreed upon among
Christians. It is a statement of the regula, as he con-
ceived it, and it coincides in substance with statements of
the same kind by other writers (see a7ite, p. 159); only
Origen goes into more detail, and betrays more distinctly
the common tendency to claim the benefit of the regula
for inferences whose value was becoming apparent, as well
as for positions which had been longer recognised. Beyond
this common gi'ound he recognises a region open to reverent
discussion, on the grounds of Scripture and of reason. Here
he finds topics and questions of which the Church has nothing
final to say ; but to search for treasures in this field is the
duty and the privilege of Christians who are competent for
doing so. Origen, looking out from the central certainties
into these regions beyond, forms his own conception of the
Unity of Truth, and the eternal order of the ways of God.
God is pure spirit or intelligence, immaterial, exalted
far above all creatures. His attributes are, properly speak-
ing, unnameable. Yet Origen was to maintain that He is
essentially self -revealing. Accordingly, he ascribes to Him
172 The ancient catholic church [a.d.
proper personality and immutable truth and goodness.. He
is absolutely without beginning and without end. Otherwise
He is not absolutely without measure. If He were, He
could not comprehend Himself. On this Origen speaks
with some emphasis.
Here comes in the doctrine of the Logos. At this time
men's thoughts vacillated between the ascription to the
Logos of full divinity, but so as, at the same time, to merge
Him indistinguishably in the Father, and the ascription to
Him of distinct or distinguishable being, but in expressions
which seem to imply a later and lower nature. Origen
leant to the latter alternative, because he was anxious to
assert strongly the distinct personality. The Logos was
an eternal existence like the Father, eternally begotten.
Origen, like others, conceives the Logos as one in whom
the divine nature becomes the divine manifestation, — seed
and ground of all creatures. But He is distinguished from
Philo's Logos, and from Plato's world of ideas, by this, that
He is unambiguously personal — ^possessing life, thought, and
power. The Christian doctrine of the Incarnation dictated
this difference.
Through the Logos, who is thus the eternal radiation or
reflection of the Father, the Holy Ghost takes being, receives
wisdom, and becomes the channel of both to the creatures.
Origen has spoken of the kingdom of the Father as includ-
ing all things, of that of the Son as including the rational
and the hallowed, and of the Spirit as including the hallowed.
This disparity, however, is ultimately adjusted ; for, as we
shall see, on the scheme of Origen all that is irrational
vanishes at last, and all that is rational becomes ultimately
holy.
This scheme turned really on the doctrine of the Second
Person ; and two interests were to be provided for. First,
the conception of the universe as related to God, having its
reason and ground in Him; second, the conception of the
Saviour as realised in Jesus Christ. The latter determined
the conception of the full personality of the Logos. Look-
ing at Christ, Origen felt that though He is in the Father,
180-313] ORIGEN 173
and with the Father, and from the Father, and though He
lives by the Father, yet He is not the Father. The distinct
personality is therefore emphasised, and that in a form of
subordinationism. But another interest, the first noted
above, acted on the other side. If the Christian view of
creation was to be maintained, the universe must be traced
up to God, as an expression and revelation of Him. There-
fore the Logos, who is specially the Creator, must be con-
ceived so as to sustain that view. In the Logos there must
be no arbitrary wilfulness of a creature, polluting and con-
fusing the work. The Logos must be a pure echo, if we
may phrase it so, of the Father. Origen meant to give
effect to this thought.
The picturesque peculiarities of Origen's thinking become
more apparent when we go on to the doctrine of Creation.
Existing tendencies have to be remembered at this point.
It was common to assume that mind alone has any value,
and to set down what is material in the universe as the
element of disadvantage or deformity. Evil of all kinds
was accounted for as arising from material conditions. The
scheme was then completed by assuming that all minds are
portions of God, or emanations from God (so the Gnostics,
— the Neo-Platonic doctrine tries to refine on this); and
that matter is the lowering and darkening element which
seduces us from our proper good, as it hides from us our true
nature. It was congruous to this mode of view to think
that the emancipation of men and their final well-being de-
pended mainly on an intellectual triumph over the delusions
of sense. Origen shared the common tendency so far, that
he, too, could not think any form of being worthy to be
called into existence by God, save mind — intelligence. But,
as a Christian, he could not regard matter as not God's
creature, nor as necessarily evil ; nor could he regard created
spirits as parts or modes of God's own being. Also, he had
learned as a Christian to give a more decisive place, both
for good and evil, to the decisions of the will, than to the
exercises or the accomplishments of the understanding. It
may be added further, that the Gnostics; as we saw, traced
174 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIO CHURCH [a.i>.
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-<Trla iK 860 irpayfiiTUv <rwe(rrT;Ki/ta, iiriyetov re koX oipaviov, oih-us
KoX rii ffdjfmra ijfiQv fieraXafi^dyovTa r^s eixo-p^rrlas, fXTiK^ri etvai <f>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<i
and the Ideas of Plato, and still more the X070? or Xoyoi
of the Stoics, had fixed attention on a divine element, a
presence in the world, which makes the creation rational,
and which makes man, at least, a reasoning creature. More
lately, Philo had concentrated attention on this thought,
because he made the Logos the centre of the explanations
and combinations by means of which he philosophised the
Hebrew Scriptures. The fact itself (the unity, persistency,
and energy of the rational principle which pervades the
world) was certain, whatever name men called it by ; but
the name, and the thinking which had gathered about it,
had concentrated attention on the thing. On the one hand,
this is true of God, that He yields a rational energy which
gives being and meaning to the world ; on the other hand,
it is true of the world, that amid all its variety and its
instability, it is pervaded by this constant element or in-
fluence, purer and higher than itself. The world embodies
the ideal. It was felt then by Christians to be a vivid and
helpful thing to say to the educated thought of the time,
:202 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
" Christ is the Logos, manifesting His personality, and
coming among us in the flesh, that He may effectually heal
and save us." But the expression was not only vivid, it
was authorised ; it had been sanctioned in this sense by
the Apostle John in the prologue of his Gospel.^
But while the discussions of the higher nature of our
Lord were destined to follow by preference the trains of
thought which this word suggests, it must not be imagined
that the main articles of the Church's faith concerning
Christ hang solely on this phrase. The divinity of Christ,
and His special concern in originating and sustaining
creation, are involved in utterances of His own, and are
taught by Paul and the writer to the Hebrews, as well as
by John. And so the writers who precede Justin, such as
Clement and Ignatius, perhaps also Hermas (whose teaching,
however, is peculiar), have no difiBculty in expressing their
faith without the use of the Logos line of speech. The
round assertions of Ignatius in particular are very striking.^
The train of ideas which the Logos suggested had an
obvious interest and value for the Apologists. It enabled
^ No doubt it is possible to suggest a different account of the matter. It
can be said that a Christian school early in the second century, thinking out
the problems about Christ, found courage to make this bold advance on
Philo, and to assert Christ to have been the Logos personal and incarnate.
Then we may suppose Justin Martyr to have taken up the theory either
under the influence or apart from the influence of the Johaniiine Gospel.
That Gospel itself, originating, on this view of things, about the same time,
may be thought to grow, as far as this element is concerned, out of the same
sources. But apart from detailed critical arguments, all this is improbable.
It is incongruous to suppose that Justin Martyr could affirm the Logos doc-
trine so unhesitatingly as he does, unless he felt that he had behind him
conclusive Christian authority. And the only authority, but then an adequate
one, was the wonderfully impressive assertion of the same thing in the Gospel
which bore the name of the beloved disciple. Justin and the rest speculate
with courage about the Logos, because Logos is for them an authentic and
accredited truth of Christianity, which demands to be explained and
understood.
^ Ejph. 7. " One only physician of flesh and of spirit, generate and re-
generate, God in man, true life in death, Son of Mary and Son of God, first
passible and then impassible." On the last clause, see note in Lightfoot.
Fol. 3. "Await Him who is above every reason, the Eternal, the In-
visible, who became visible for our sake, the impalpable, the impassible, who
suffered for our sake, who endured in all ways for our sake."
180-313] CHRIST AND GOD 203
them at once to define the Christian conception of Christ
in relation to an immense mass of pre-Christian thought,
just because the word Logos belonged to that region of
thought, and had been borrowed from it. And as Christian
faith must understand itself not only by brooding on itself,
but by comparison and contrast with the thinking of the
world in which Christianity lives, this aspect of it may
well be of permanent value. Yet for the domestic interests
of the faith, the use of this word is not indispensable.
The Church has framed all her great creeds without em-
ploying it.^
The Logos doctrine brings out the point in which Christ
exceeds all philosophies, and all philosophies stop short of
Christ. Philosophy aims at the immanent timeless Ideal,
ever equal to itself. But Christianity asserts an essential
historical crisis, making all new — the Word was made
flesh.
Difficulties which beset this line of thought become
plain enough in the case of its earliest representative,
Justin Martyr, as well as in most of his successors. In
the most important respects Justin affirms what the pre-
vailing faith of the Church has affirmed ever since. The
Logos belongs to the sphere of the creating nature, not of
the created. He is identified with the divine reason or
wisdom, and that in such a sense that to Him is ascribed
not merely a seed of it, or a likeness of it, but the whole,
the fulness of it. Yet this is not to be taken so that the
Logos is merely a power or attribute of the Father ; He is,
on the contrary, "something numerically distinct" ;2 in
some sense or other there is plurality. The physical image
which Justin prefers to use in order to illustrate the rela-
tion .of this second to the first, is that of a flame which
lights up another flame ; the second is of the first, it has
the nature of the first inscrutably communicated to it, but
it subsists as something distinct.
* It is introduced in the Creed of Chalcedon, 451, but even there holds
no important or decisive place.
• 'Aptdfjuf irepov Tt.
^04 i^HE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHQRCH [a.T).
Now, as Justin contemplates the Logos as the divine
wisdom, so far as that can he recognised in creation or pro-
vidence or revelation, he accepts ideas which may be roughly
represented by saying that God in His prime perfection is
above all thought and all contact with the creatures, best
conceived by contrasting Him with all that we see or know
in nature and history ; and this is the Father ; while the
Logos is God as He condescends to plan and care for a
world of creatures, and at last appears on earth for their
salvation. In this way the contrast between the Father
and the Logos becomes emphatic. While the Father re-
cedes into regions which transcend thought, the Logos seems
to be the first step down towards creatures, and exists, as
it were, for the sake of creatures and with a view to them.
And this impression is deepened by another element in
Justin's scheme. He identifies the Word with the un-
beginning wisdom of the Father. But he appears to teach
that the Word was not with the Father always, as dpidfiw
erepov tl. Primarily existing only as the wisdom of the
Father, that is, as an attribute. He was evoked into per-
sonal subsistence with a view to the creation of the world, —
and in this sense He had a beginning, though the divine
wisdom as such had none ; and He owes His beginning to
the hvvajjii^ and ^ovXrj, might and counsel, of the Father.
These were modes of view offering points of attachment
with which, as thought developed, lower views of the Logos
might connect themselves. But it is to be remembered
always that Justin himself unequivocally affirmed the com-
plete divinity of the higher nature of Christ, and in par-
ticular that the Father begat Him ef eavrov, out of Himself,
not, as the creatures, out of nothing, e'f ovk ovtcov. He
adjusts his scheme by accepting the incongruous thought
that a personality in Godhead emerges ; it is an event
which takes place with a view to the other event of
creation. But this incongruity (which lay near at hand,
since the Word is " of God ") must not lead us to suppose
that Justin hesitated in his main thought. For him the
Logos belongs to the sphere of the Creator, not to that of
180-313] CHRIST AND GOD 206
the creature.^ So much has been said of Justin, because
the scheme which he exhibits is upon the whole that of a
school of early writers. Something distinctive can be
ascribeci to each of them, — to Athenagoras, Theophilus of
Antioch, Clement of Alexandria, even Hippolytus. But
these are shades of thought and language which belong to
the special history. These writers all are busy with the
problem which occupied Justin. They all, like him, avail
themselves of creation as the function by which the Logos
is identified ; this aspect of things controls their thinking ;
and hence the eternity which they ascribe to the divine
wisdom does not for them attach to the Logos as a divine
personaKty. Some of them attenuate the personality of the
Logos. Some emphasise His subordination to the Father;
but the general outlook is the same. They all tend more
or less to seclude the Father as such from contact with
creation or creatures, and they sometimes go far to identify
the Logos with the Koaiio^ vo7]t6<; of Greek philosophy.
The extreme to which language can go, in this direction,
is already indicated by Justin when he speaks of Christ, as
once or twice he does, as a second God.^
^ The scheme of Philo is modified in Justin's thought by two forces. One
is the personality of Christ ; therefore, the Logos must be personal, and as
person distinct from the Father ; the other is the Old Testament view of
creation as begin nirig; therefore the Logos finds His function beginning, and
as a person then Himself begins.
^ The eS"ort of Bishop Bull to eflface the variations from Nicene orthodoxy
on the part of those earlier Fathers fails, because he interprets their language
by distinctions which cannot be shown to have been present to their minds.
To conceive a Divine Person originating as an event with a view to some-
thing else ; and, again, to assert His Divinity and yet regard Him as a pre-
paratory approach to creation ; were ideas which might hover in the Church's
mind for a time, but which were sure eventually to create a crisis for a num])er
of persons. When that crisis came men might emerge from it in one of two
ways. On one side they might say, '* We cannot accept such internal changes
in Godhead, — yet we abide by the faith that Christ is God, — only, not as a
distinct person. He embodies not a distinct person, but a distinct mode of
the Divine activity ac? ea;^ra." And we can imagine such a person to say to
Justin Martyr: "You yourself identify Him who appeared as Jesus Christ
with the eternal reason and wisdom of the Father. But the eternal reason is
not SLiiother jyerson with the Father ; it is the Father Himself contemplated in
one aspect. And why speak of this reason or wisdom being evolved at some
206 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH U.D.
Irenseus on this, as on other subjects, keeps free from
extremes, and represents the main current of the Church's
thinking. He freely employs the conception of the Logos
(rendered both as verhum and mens) in explaining the
Christian view of Christ. He therefore recognises the
relation of Christ to creation. But he intimates that this
does not exhaust the significance of the Logos ; ^ also, the
question as to the beginning of the personal Logos is averted
.by declining to ascribe a beginning to the process of His
forthcoming.^ In these points Irenaeus anticipates the
positions permanently occupied by the orthodox Church, a
remark which holds also of his way of conceiving the
incarnation. Naturally he has much in common with other
crisis into personality? Is it not enough to say that both in the creation cf
the world, and also in the person of the Redeemer, God in a certain mode of
divine manifestation is set before us to contemplate ? So we hold the one God
and the Divine Incarnation." This was the view represented in various forms
by Patripassians, Sabellians, and, perhaps, by some forms of dynamical Mon-
archianism. On the other side men might say : "We also can admit no such
intrinsic changes in God ; but we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that Christ
is not the Father ; He is one who is of and from the Father. The only reason-
able course, therefore, is to admit that He is not truly within the sphere of
Godhead. However great, since He is of the Father and sent by the Father,
He is not the Father, and therefore He is not that one God. He can only be
a wonderful effect of God's power." And such a person might say to Justin:
** Do not you yourself speak of Him as begotten with a view to creation ?
Surely that assigns to Him a beginning, and a position limited to time and to
created things. Surely He was not before He was begotten. You say He pre-
existed as the Father's eternal wisdom. But surely the wisdom was not a
distinct person ; for then there had been no need of begetting : but if there
was a begetting, He was not before He was begotten ; and when He was, He
could not be of the Father's essence, but i^ ovk dvrcov. You cannot reasonably
mean more than this, — that with a view to creation thsre was summoned into
existence one so stamped with the likeness and filled with the wisdom of God,
that He is eminently His Son, and in relation to all the works committed to
Him He is the manifested Wisdom of God." This was Arianism. The one
way of it sacrificed the personality, the other the Divinity. Each might
attach itself to one side of Justin's thinking. He meanwhile was neither a
Sabellian nor an Arian, but was trying to hold the divine personality of the
"Word considered as of and from the Father.
1 iv. 14. 1. Before Adam, before the creation, He glorified the Father, and
was by the Father glorified.
2 He has no beginning of being brought forth. Cited by Dorner, i. 474 ;
see also Iren. ii. 13. 8.
180-313] CHRIST AND GOD 207
writers of his age ; but his distinction is that in discoursing
on these arduous topics he never really sacrifices either the
personality on the one hand, or the essential Deity of the
Son on the other.
Tertullian, a richer but a less tranquil thinker, does not
follow Irenseus here. He takes his place in the line of
thinkers who followed Justin, but with peculiarities of his
own. It should be remarked, however, that at the time that
his writings appeared in the West, and those of Origen in the
East, a powerful reaction against the prevailing teaching had
begun to show itself, and the vigorous logic of Tertullian is
animated by the sense of conflict. This reaction will be
described presently, but it is more convenient to postpone
notice of it till the teaching of Tertullian and of Origen has
been reported.
Tertullian, like others, explains the relation of the Word
to the Father by postulating an emergence — a coming forth
into subsistence — of a divine Personality. This takes place
with a view to the creation of the world, and also with a view
to its redemption. But according to Tertullian three stages
are to be distinguished in the development of the Logos.
There is, first, an eternal quality or capacity in God, which
is, as it were, the preparation for a second Person. Second,
there is a forthcoming to create, to constitute the universe.
This is the generation of the Son ; but the personality is not
yet so distinct or full as it might be. Thirdly, there is the
incarnation. In this the full personal manifestation takes
being : the hypostasis, if we may say so, is completely extri-
cated. In this connection Tertullian could, to use Bull's
phrase, " Dare to say that there was a time when the Son of
God was not." For he applies the word "son" to denote
the Logos, as completely distinguished and hypostatised.
This took place when Godhead came forth into manifestation.
Then was the generation of the Son; but before then the
Word or Wisdom was ; which in a sense is identical with
the Son, but was not yet the Son, because not yet subsisting
as a personality. For Tertullian, therefore, the Logos is no
creature ; He is truly and wholly divine : and the eventual
208 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
distinctness of His personality is carefully secured, which for
Tertullian was an important matter.^
Tertullian unquestionably maintained the true divinity
of the Logos. Yet as He takes subsistence by a change in
Grodhead, and as His personality at least is essentially
implicated in creation, the question was sure to be pressed
whether some Monarchian theory were not more reasonable.
Tertullian 's theories are crude, drawn in strong lines,
and modelled on material analogies. Origen draws out the
Logos doctrine into a speculation in which the transitions
are gentle, provisional, and fleeting, and every element slides
into the next without a jar. The scope of Origen's
theological system is sketched, so far, in an earlier chapter,^
and we shall avoid repetition. But his theory of the Logos
occupies a specially important place in the history on several
accounts. In reference to its orthodoxy as compared with
the Nicene standard, it has been bitterly attacked and keenly
defended. And it certainly exerted great influence for a
time. It disposed men to affirm the distinct personality of
the Logos, in connection with a certain subordination ; but
what that subordination really meant or really implied might
be doubted. In some ways faith in the divine and uncreated
nature of the Son of God was strengthened ; for the Word
of God, who was also the Son of God, appeared in Origen's
teaching as eternally begotten of the Father, as the co-
eternal progeny of that eternal mind. This conviction was
retained by many who dropped as an eccentricity Origen's
1 The theological grounds on which Tertullian argued are not for this
place ; but it is worth observing that his three stages represent a natural
order of impressions. It was accepted teaching that in thinking of the Logos
we begin with the eternal divine wisdom ; but antecedent to the existence
of creatures there may seem to be nothing to suggest that this wisdom is
personal. It is a phase of the divine existence. When an ordered universe
cornea in sight with its tokens of pervading mind, something seems to have
separated itself for our contemplation, but it seems hardly yet to have con-
centrated itself into personality: it is not quite a person, — rather a presence
and a potency. Still, as it originates creature existence and sustains it, it
must be personal so far. But when Jesus Christ comes before us, in whom all
treasures of wisdom are hid, now personality is rounded and complete,
* Ante, Chap. X.
.180-313] CHRIST AND GOD 209
speculation as to creation also having no beginning. On
the other hand, the Logos, while sometimes spoken of as
possessing the fulness of Godhead, so that all divine attributes
are His, seems at other times to be contrasted with the
Father, in Origen's thinking, in ways that suggest a lower
nature with lower qualities and significant limitations. For
us, indeed, looking upwards, Origen seems to say, Christ
comes no way short of the Father's glory; but in His
own knowledge and in the Father's that is far from being
simply so. At the same time, one remembers that for
Origen, limitation, in this direction or that, is not incon-
sistent with true Deity; indeed, the Father Himself, in
Origen's view, has His limitations. On the whole, Origen
was felt to affirm the divine peculiarity of the Logos ; and
yet not without some qualification. For in some minds
the idea of the Logos fluctuated between distinct personality
and impersonal influence or agency; in others it fluctuated
between true divinity and a sublime form of creaturehood ;
and Origen, with his skill in suggesting connections, might
seem now to reach out a hand in the one direction and now
in the other. But on the whole he was understood to assert
the true divinity, if you make room for the possibility of
forms of divine existence that exist with limitations. One
line drawn by Origen is, perhaps, decisive as to his intention
at least. He holds the divine nature to be immutably good,
while the creatures are essentially mutable. Now this
immutable goodness which, though free, is inaccessible to
any taint of evil, is ascribed by Origen to the Son and to
the Spirit, as well as to the Father,
Tertullian and Origen, writing each in the third
century, both refer to uneasiness existing in Christian
minds with reference to the line of explanation which in
various forms has been before us ; and this uneasiness
showed itself in persons whom they did not regard as
heretically disposed.^ This mood must have existed, more
* Origen tells us of some who "when they heard the divinity of Christ
dwelt upon were troubled, though they desired to be religious, fearing that it
was the introduction of two gods." And Tertullian reports, "Those who are
14
210 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
or less, much earlier than these writers. The remark of
Justin Martyr as to some in his time who held lower
views of Christ has been quoted.^ Already in the second
century distinct forms of Monarchian opinion had begun to
be put forward; and this line of discussion constituted the
main theological interest of the third century.
Two classes of Monarchian theories have been dis-
tinguished. Some represented our Lord as primarily and
properly a human person, but elevated to exceptional place
and power, even to an attributive Godhead, by divine
influences which descended on him. It was natural to fix
on our Lord's baptism as the epoch at which the decisive
elevation took place. Inasmuch as these Monarchians
regarded Christ as a man potentiated by divine influence,
modern writers often style them dynamical Monarchians.
Others regarded Christ as truly divine, but in order to avert
personal distinctions in the Divine Nature, they identified
Christ with the Father. In Christ they recognised a mode
of the Father's subsistence graciously assumed, and in this
special nfwde of subsistence, uniting Himself to our flesh,
He is the Son. These, therefore, are called modalistic
Monarchians. Perhaps it may be said that the latter
opinion represented the impression naturally enough
formed in Christian minds, not concerned in speculations
about creation, but mainly occupied with the two thoughts
of (1) the one God, and (2) the Divine Saviour. Down to
the incarnation they thought of the one God of the Old
Testament. At the incarnation something new certainly
appears upon the scene; but this something new is the
manhood which makes a quasi-personal impression on our
minds, yet is not truly a distinct person.
In the case of both forms of Monarchianism the
desire to safeguard the doctrine of the Divine Unity, and
simple, not to say those who are thoughtless and unenlightened, who are
always the greater portion of believers, knowing that the very confession of
their faith implies that they have passed from the many gods of the Gentiles
to the only and true God, tremble at the oUovo/da (manifestations of divine
persons). We hold, say they, the Monarchy."
1 Ante, p. 199.
180-313] CHRIST AND GOD 211
to avert difficulties in regard to it, acted as a disposing
force.
Another motive is also to be kept in view, connected
with the manner of thought of dynamical Monarchianism
especially. There have always been in the Church
tendencies to make much of the superhuman, the divine in
Christ, even at the risk of sacrificing or suppressing the
human aspect. But there have been always also tendencies
to make much of the human, at the cost of losing sight
of the divine, or of denying it. A tendency this way has
its own rights. It is connected with the sentiment of
attraction to Christ as our model, our example, our leader,
the man in sympathy with men, the Captain of salvation.
It can also own Christ as our representative. It is occupied
with the ethical aspects of salvation; with the thought
of the aim, the effort, and the achievements of moral life ;
and it dwells on Christ as the centre of all this. This
side of things was too genuinely Christian to be absorbed
by a sect. But as the Church theology, in its anxiety
to understand and guard the higher nature in Christ,
undoubtedly leant in the opposite direction, i.e. to over-
shadowing and limiting the human, the tendency we speak
of threw its force into various forms of protest, often
extreme. It proved apt to be not only Monarchian, but
Nestorian, Pelagian, Adoptianist, — and probably its influence
is recognised in Paulicians, Bogomiles, Cathari among the
mediaeval sects, not to speak of more modern exemplifica-
tions. Some considerations seem to point to the Syrian
church as the region in which Christian theology was most
liable to be swayed in this direction.
While we might on these accounts be prepared to meet,
without surprise, considerable symptoms of the influence of the
lower or dynamistic Monarchianism, it must be owned that the
actual symptoms are scanty. Three persons are named ; and
nothing indicates much influence as exerted by any of them.
Certain Alogi appeared in Asia Minor as opponents of
Montanism, and are said to have rejected the writings
ftscribed to the Apostle John, — perhaps also the whole
212 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
Logos doctrine. But we do not know their opinions
exactly. Dynamical Monarchianism appears as intelligible
theory in connection with the two Theodoti (cr/cureu?,
apyvpofiot^6<;) and Artemon. According to them, Jesus is,
physically, a man only. But his birth was supernatural
(apparently this was acknowledged), and he became the
bearer or vehicle of divine power in an extraordinary
degree. He lived a life of steadfast righteousness, and
was enabled to reflect the divine likeness, and convey the
divine message, with consummate fidelity and completeness.
Thus Jesus attained to a divine Sonship ; and our adoption
takes place on the model of his. Accepting the received
New Testament Canon, they had to explain what is said of
the Logos by the Apostle John. Apparently they denied
any Logos eVuTroo-raTo?, i.e. as a true personality. The
Logos is the revelation of the Father, i.e. He is the Father
in the aspects in which He sees fit at any time to reveal
Himself. Christ, then, more eminently than any other of
the elect, but substantially in the same way, bears the
image of the Father. The Logos may be said to have
become man from age to age, less perfectly in the prophets,
more perfectly in Christ ; in both cases by representation,
not by personal incarnation. Harnack has proposed to call
this tendency Adoptianism, because its characteristic is to
assume an individual man, Jesus, who is taken into Sonship,
and is in a manner deified.^ The details of this teaching may
have varied in different circles ; but probably most of them
made much of our Lord's baptism. The descent of the
Holy Spirit upon him was, for them, the decisive event, the
era of that connection with divine power which rendered
the man Christ unique. In this way the Spirit's presence
with Christ would be considered as an impersonal divine
influence. But there were some whose theory appears to
have differed from this in an interesting way. They regarded
the Holy Spirit as having a personal character, and as being
* See below as to Paul of Samosata. Adoptianism has long been the
accepted designation of a theory which emerged in Spain in the time of
Charlemagne,
180-313] CHRIST AND GOD 213
the Son of the Father in the true and highest sense. Then,
at the baptism, this Person descends in a special manner on
the man Jesus. The precise nature and effects ascribed to
this union are obscure. But Jesus became qualified, in
consequence of it, to be our Master, and his manhood
experienced at the same time a kind of divine elevation
or deification. It was a question among some of them
whether Jesus as yet had become God at his baptism, or
not till after the resurrection ; and they are thus led to
contrast the Holy Spirit as true Son of God, with the man
Jesus as adopted Son.^ With these views were connected
some strange speculations about Melchisedek.
To this type of Monarchianism also belongs the more
elaborate scheme of Paul of Samosata, who was bishop of
Antioch after the middle of the third century. We know a
little more of his theory than of those just referred to, and
can see the way and the degree in which, beginning with
the manhood, he tried to fill out the conception of Christ as
in some sense a divine Saviour. Paul became bishop of
Antioch about 260 or earlier. At that time Antioch was
part of the shortlived kingdom of Palmyra, under Zenobia,
and by her favour Paul maintained his position until 272.
But before this three successive synods had assembled in
reference to his opinions. Two were baffled by his explana-
tions and arguments; the third, perhaps in 268, excom-
municated him. His style of life and government are
imfavourably characterised by orthodox writers, possibly
under the influence of prejudice. He had evidently shaped
his doctrine so as to avail himself in defending it of all the
sources of strength which contemporary opinion seemed to
offer to him. He held it resolutely, and it bears the stamp
of a clear and strong mind.
Paul thought it necessary to bring a Logos doctrine into
* Some such view is often ascribed to Hernias, especially in Sim. 5, and
it is natural enough so to interpret that passage. Yet allegory, with which
one has here to do, lends itself readily to mistake ; and the counter argun)ent
from the general drift of Hermas, as presented by Bull and Dorner, should not
be lightly set aside. See also Zalm, Hirt des Hermas, p. 245 f.
214 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
his form of statement. At the same time he was a Mon-
archian, — he owned no personal distinctions in the Godhead.
On the one hand, then, he owned a Logos not only abiding in
God as His Eeason or Wisdom, but in a certain sense set
forth, begotten, so that the term Son of God may be applied
to it. But this Logos or Sophia, though in a certain sense
an existence, a persistent influence or power, is, after all, no
more than a power. It is an impersonal Logos, awno-
o-raro':. It never does nor can come into individual mani-
festation, but is known only as a power influencing one or
other of God's creatures. This Logos worked in the pro-
phets, but more eminently in Christ, who was supernaturally
conceived of the Virgin. Jesus then is from below {ivrevOev
or Kcircodev)] the divine Logos works in him from above
(aucoOev). It is an inspiration which Christ receives. The
Logos does not take substantial or personal being in Christ,
— it is with him, not personally, but as a potency (ovk
ovcri,(oB(o<; dWa Kara TroLorijTa). The position of Christ is
thus remarkable in various ways, but the decisive element
is found in his moral attitude and career. The only unity
that can exist between two distinct beings is unity of dis-
position and will, and such unity comes to pass through
love. This is more valuable than any unity that might be
constituted by nature. Jesus, by the strength of his love
and the invariableness of his consent to God, has become
one with Him. As Jesus maintained this unity through all
trial and conflict, he was endowed with power, and has
become the Saviour. At the same time this union to God
becomes indissoluble, so that he is now one with Him in
will and operation. Therefore he has a name that is above
every name, has received divine honour, and power to judge.
" He is God from the Virgin." He pre-existed in the deter-
mination of God — not otherwise.^
* In Christ, therefore, manhood grows to Godhead. The following are
some of the expressions used to describe this doctrine: i^ avdpiloirov yeyov^vat
rbu Xpiarbv Qebv — Karwdev diroTedeibaOai rbv Ktjpiov — ijarepov avrbv e/c TrpoKOirijs
redeoTToiTjadai. The affinities to Origen's scheme and the differences aro
interesting.
180-313] CHRIST AND GOD 216
In connection with this case of Paul, the Synod of
Antioch condemned the word ofioovaio^;, which was afterwards
the watchword of orthodoxy. It is still a question on what
ground they rejected it. Had Paul taunted his opponents with
using it in a Sabellian sense ? or did Paul himself use it in
application to his non-personal Logos, and was it regarded
by the bishops as virtually denpng the distinct personality ?
We have still to refer to the modalistic Monarchians.
They held that the Father Himself had taken flesh and
become incarnate. Such was Noetus of Smyrna, before the
end of the second century. He taught that Christ is Him-
self the almighty God and Father, and that the Father Him-
self, therefore, has been born and died in the flesh. Such
also was Praxeas, who appeared in Eome in the time of the
bishop Victor. He came from the East, where he had been
in collision with Montanism.^ Victor of Eome is said to
have leant for a time to the opinions of Praxeas about the
person of Christ, as he undoubtedly was influenced by him
against Montanism; and, if Hippolytus may be believed,^
the bishops Zephyrinus and Callistus, who succeeded, aiiso
betrayed Monarchian leanings. But it must be remembered
that the Logos doctrine was held by Hippolytus in a form
which might dispose him to be a somewhat prejudiced judge
of their phraseology.
On this scheme the pre-existence of the Son of God is
denied, because its advocates confined the term Son to God
as incarnate, as appearing in the flesh. As incarnate He is
or becomes the Son ; in His primeval glory and Godhead
He could not suffer, but He suffered in or with the Son ;
hence the name Patripassian. This theory proposed to start
from a high view of the simplicity and peculiarity of the
Divine Nature. But it lay open to an obvious difficulty.
There is no denying that, according to the Gospels, Christ
deals with and speaks to His Father, as person with person,
* Hence Tertullian, to whom his Antimontanism and his Monarchianiam
were alike distasteful, said of him that he drove away the Paraclete and cruci-
fied the Father.
* £e/ut, ix.
216 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH lA.i>.
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<popb,y dvala.
232 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHtTRCH [a.d.
are allowed to make an offering, in which, as it proceeds,
Christ makes Himself present, so that the access and the
privilege of the worshipper become singularly great. But
already one meets with language which literally means more,
as when Cyprian says that the passion of the Lord is the
sacrifice which we offer (Up. Ixiii. 17).
In connection with these conceptions, the idea of the
priesthood of the higher clergy took root. In Justin the
whole body of believers are the high-priestly race who are
able to offer acceptable sacrifices. But when the Lord's
Supper became the great and mysterious sacrifice which
crowned the service, then, as none but the bishop and
presbyters were thought entitled to transact it, nothing was
more natural than to go back to the Levitical dispensation,
and find in the bishop and presbyters the high priest and
priests of a better dispensation. (The bishop has the com-
plete priesthood, especially for Cyprian ; the presbyters have
it in a more subordinate and dependent way.) The bishops
having apostolic authority on the one hand, and (with their
presbyters) exclusive sacerdotal aptitude on the other, the
whole dispensation is in their hands, and a mysterious
sacredness and ritual power is supposed to be lodged in
them. The ascription of the name of priest to the Christian
minister begins with Tertullian (about A.D. 200), though he
himself maintains vigorously the priestly character of all
Christians as such. The language of Cyprian is strongly
sacerdotal.
No one can wish to minimise the degree in which the
grace of Christ came home to these early believers, as in
other ways so in the Lord's Supper. It must be said, how-
ever, that, in the rite which crowned Christian worship, the
impression of an inexplicable wonder tended to occupy the
mind to the injury of the spiritual impressions at which
the ordinance aims. This made it easier to cherish notions
of an efficacy, mechanical and meritorious, by which the
participants benefited.
The specimens we have of common prayers, suggest a
style of prayer formed originally by the practice of free
180-313] WORSHIP 233
supplications ; but a tendency to fix the forms used, especi-
ally in the administration of the eucharist, was natural.
Administrations regarded as having mysterious sacredness
and virtue, might seem to require specially consecrated and
adapted words to secure their authenticity ; and forms be-
lieved to embody the petitions used by venerated prede*
cessors in the more solemn parts of the rite, would acquire
authority and sacredness. But though many phrases, which
afterwards became liturgical, had doubtless already fixed
themselves in the usage of public prayer, and forms had
established themselves more or less, yet historical evidence
for liturgies falls later.
The case of baptism reveals the disposition to make
much of Christian ordinances by enriching them with
imaginative allegorical ceremonies. It was usually per-
formed by immersion, or by pouring water on the head while
the candidate stood in what served for a font, or by both
together.^ But before the end of the third century a group
of ritual circumstances preceded and followed. The cate-
chumen experienced a preparatory imposition of hands, and
in some parts of the Church a preparatory anointing. When
his Christian instruction was closing, the form of the creed
and of the Lord's Prayer was delivered to him. A form
of exorcism, or of renunciation, one or both, was gone
through ; for to the early Christian mind the world was in
captivity to the wicked one ; his emissaries pervaded it ;
adjuration and prayer in the name of Christ could drive
them away ; and the man who passed from that kingdom at
his baptism, ought himself to renounce it. In the renuncia-
tion the candidate faced the west, and with a thrusting motion
of his arms he renounced Satan thrice ; turning to the east,
witli outstretched hands, he invoked and acknowledged Christ
or the Trinity.
After baptism there was the kiss by the bishop and
representatives of the faithful, the baptized tasted milk and
honey, they were anointed, and received imposition of hands,
^ Sprinkling came to be considered appropriate only in baptism of sick
persons.
234 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D.
with prayer for the Holy Spirit. Other ceremonies and
usages appear immediately after the close of this period, and
may have obtained before it closed.^
The rule was that baptism should be administered by
the bishop and his clergy, as a great function which in-
terested the whole church. At the same time, in case of
need, presbyters and clergy of the lower ranks might bap-
tize, and in special circumstances laymen also ; this latitude
was hardly, and very grudgingly, extended to women. The
anointing and laying on of hands was considered to be
especially appropriate to the bishop. Hence, in baptism
administered by clergy of lower rank, the reservation of
these parts of the ceremony to a time when the bishop
could perform it. But this separation obtained chiefly in
the West. Ascribing to each part of the ceremony a dis-
tinctive meaning, baptism was considered to be connected
with washing away sins, and the unction with imposition of
hands intimated the gift of the Holy Spirit. The solemn
and ceremonial baptisms were usually carried through on
the eve of Easter or of Pentecost, — especially the former.
The catechetical preparation had occupied the previous season,
and the neophytes communicated for the first time at the
great Easter celebration. Later, the right to have these
solemn ceremonial baptisms was a privilege of the bishop's
church. But this restriction had to yield eventually to
necessities arising from the number of the candidates, and
the growing custom of infant baptism.
All through the present period, and for a good while
after, the conspicuous and prevailing type of baptism is
baptism of adults. That was so, of course, at the outset,
when the Church was busy gathering in her converts ; and
it still continues to be so. Nevertheless, infant baptism was
recognised already in the second century, though it is not
certain that the statement applies equally to all parts of the
Church. The passage of Irenaeus, quoted on this subject,
seems conclusive in the light of his customary use of
1 The lively ceremonial of the renunciation, as given above, is from
authorities in the fourth century.
180-313] WORSHIP 235
language.^ Tertullian recognises the practice, though he
disapproves of it ; and he would almost certainly have
stigmatised it as a novelty if he had known it to be recent.
Apparently, therefore, two practices existed side by side,
both of which had considerable authority. There seems to
be no trace of infant baptism in Clement of Alexandria ;
passages which imply it occur in Origen, in works written
after he left Alexandria ; and it has been inferred that infant
baptism was not yet practised in the Egyptian church at the
beginning of the third century, though it was then received
as an apostolic tradition in Palestine. Some recent historians
have suggested that there may have been a time when children
of Christian parents were not supposed to require baptism at
all; but that seems most unlikely, and there is no valid
support for the notion. Tertullian argues that the benefit of
baptism will be greater when it is received by the adult, who
desires remission of sins committed in his wayward youth.
And parents probably experienced a collision of opposite
interests in the matter, — sometimes yielding to the reasons
alleged by Tertullian, sometimes, on the other hand, to the
dread that delay might lead to their children dying unbaptized.^
In connection with infant baptism, sponsors, who vowed on
behalf of the children, appear as early as Tertullian (susceptores
— fideij'ussores). Against some who advocated baptism on the
eighth day after birth, according to the rule of circumcision,
Cyprian recommends baptism on the second or third day.
The practice of standing at prayer on the Lord's day
instead of kneeling as at other times, is one instance out
of many how a distinction, which must have originated in
some locality, commended itself generally to Christian hearts
and imaginations, and became a rule. On the Lord's day
they stood, because it was associated with the joy and vic-
tory of the resurrection. A similar prevalence of a practice,
of whose origin there is no trace, is the practice of turning
to the east in public prayer.^ No doubt the motive was a
reference to the rising of the Sun of Eighteousness. Another
* ii. 22. 4. *de Bapt. 18.
» Tert Apol. 16, ad Nat. i. 13.
Hi
236 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D.
ease is the observance of Wednesday and Friday for week-
day meetings. There were cases, however, in which this
unanimity was not attained ; for example, in regard to the
celebration of Easter.
The earlier history of this matter has been referred to
in Chap. IV. Some observed the 14th Nisan on whatever
day of the week it fell, while the greater part of the Church
observed Friday and Sunday in a week fixed so that Easter
Sunday followed 14th Nisan.^
Those who observed on 14th Nisan were called Quarto-
decimans {TeaaapeaKatBeKaTLTat) : they were themselves
not quite at one, apparently, as to the meaning of their own
observance. Those again who, with the majority of churches,
kept Good Friday and Easter Sunday, had their own diffi-
culty in attaining the harmony they desired. For the basis
of all Easter calculations, at least from the third century,
was the day of the spring equinox : now that was not
reckoned alike in all places ; and so in different churches
Easter might fall in different weeks, and in some even
before the true equinox.^
/ The diversity of practice, as already mentioned,^ came
into discussion about A.D. 155, when Poly carp of Smyrna
visited Anicetus of Eome. Each maintained the right of
his own church, but they parted in peace. In or after
A.D. 192 Victor of Eome took steps to elicit the mass of
opinion favourable to the practice of his church, and to
concuss the Asiatics into conformity. He proposed to cut
them ofif from communion in case of contumacy. Poly crates
of Ephesus defended the Asiatic tradition, and as Irenseus /
with other influential bishops deprecated the violenw
^ All accounts of the origin of this difference are conjectural ; but even
the exact nature of it has created lively dispute. The historical questions
have been biassed by considerations connected with the controversies about
the Fourth Gospel. See article by Steiz, Realencycl. xi. 140, and revised by
"Wagemaun, Realencycl.^ xi. 270.
2 The Jews at this time neglected the equinox, and carried on their com-
putation on principles which gave very irregular results. Till the third
century the Christians followed them : and even later a party stood out for
this observance.
» Ante, p. 83.
__J80-313] WORSHIP 237
i
measures of Victor, his plans failed, though communion
between Rome and Ephesus probably was suspended. .
The irda'xa was originally conceived as the commemora-
tion of our Lord's suffering and death, which had its centre
in the Friday. The fast might begin earlier (one day, two
days, four days, — the extension to forty days came later),
but it ended on the Sunday morning, on which the eucharist
was celebrated and the gladness of the resurrection com-
menced, which extended to Pentecost. It became usual
for the assembled congregation to watch during the night
preceding Easter Sunday, and baptism was then administered
to the candidates who had been in preparation. On the
fortieth day after Easter the Ascension was commemorated,
on the fiftieth the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pente-
cost. During the whole time of Pentecost no fasting took
place, the eucharist was celebrated daily, and the congrega-
tion prayed standing, not kneeling.
The only other festival, unknown as yet in the West,
but observed in the East, was Epiphany, on 6th January.
It commemorated the manifestation of Christ — especially in
His baptism. There seems to have been a Gnostic celebra-
tion of Christ's baptism on this day, and that, no doubt, was
grounded in the idea that at his baptism the man Jesus
received a higher potency and became the Eedeemer. In
the orthodox celebration some reference to the birth of
Christ, as the preliminary to all the rest, was natural ; but
it was subordinate ; and the day was not supposed to be the
true anniversary of that event.^
The way of feeling and acting about the Christian dead ^
* The extended reference of this feast to Christ's manifestation to the wise
men (as representing the world) and in His miracles (at Cana), seems to be
connected with the adoption of the feast during the fourth century in the
West : where also the idea suggested itself that these events, as well as the
baptism, all took place on 6th January.
^ Baptized persons dying in the fellowship of the Church were so regarded.
Martyrdom, or death for the confession of the Kame, was equivalent to
baptism in the case of persons not yet baptized, and to restoration in the case
of the fallen not yet restored. The idea that the purpose to be baptized may
stand for baptism in the case of persons unexpectedly overtaken by death, is
also expressed, but not so authoritatively (Tert. de Bapt, 18).
238 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.©.
was significant. They "slept in Jesus": therefore the
burial-ground became the cemetery or sleeping-place ; and
Christian burials, whatever natural sadness attended them,
were characterised by thankfulness and hope. Of the two
ways of burial practised in the empire, cremation and in-
humation, the latter was adopted by the Christians because
it fell in better with the hope of resurrection, and with
reverence for the body which had been consecrated to the
obedience of Christ. Otherwise minor national customs,
which were not idolatrous, could be continued. No im-
purity was conceived to attach to the remains ; and they
were accompanied to their resting-place with singing.
Christians showed the common feeling of reverence for
graves, and of anxiety that they should be preserved in-
violate. Objects of ornament or use which had an interest
for the departed while they lived, were often deposited in
the tombs. It was also felt to be natural that the Chris-
tian dead should be associated together; hence Christians
early provided common burial-places ; or Christians of
position, who had family cemeteries, admitted the interment
in them of Christian brethren of all degrees. But the
bodies of unbelievers were not admitted, though it was
reckoned a seemly thing for Christians, in case of need, to
render the last offices to the heathen also; and in times of
pestilence the courage and kindness of Christians in this
department became conspicuous.^ In the neighbourhood of
large cities excavations in beds of soft rock were resorted
to ; hence the catacombs at Eome, Naples, and other places.^
It does not appear that the Christian catacombs could have
served as places of worship in times of persecution ; but no
doubt they were resorted to by members of families under
the impulse of pious affection, and later they became places
of pilgrimage. They have preserved to us the early efforts
of Christian art.
The Christian dead were in fellowship with Christ and
1 Cyprian, Vita, 9, 10.
2 De Eossi, Roma Sotterranea Christiana, 3 vols. 1864-77 ; Northcote and
Brownlow, Bom. Sott. 1879.
180-313] WORSHIP 239
with the one Church in earth and heaven, and the desire
to express this conviction found expression in various ways.
The most impressive related to martyrs. All instances of
martyrdom were hailed with triumph, and the martyrs them-
selves were regarded as specially honoured of God. It was
felt to be a privilege to continue to associate them with the
Church's service ; they came therefore to be named in the
eucharistic prayers, and those who were joined in the prayer
were conceived to experience some benefit by it. This usage
was extended to the Christian dead generally. Besides, it was
usual to visit the graves of the departed on the anniversary
of death, and to engage in exercises which came to include
offerings and supplications for their repose. TertulHan is
the earliest authority: he adduces the practice as one of
those which has no warrant in Scripture, but rests on
custom only {de Cor. 3). All this appears to have been
grounded on the Christian feeling, that for Christians death
does not break the fellowship of life in Christ. It led,
however, into the practice of prayer for the dead, which is
without New Testament example ; and that led in turn to a
craving for definite conceptions as to the benefit which might
accrue to the dead in this line, and as to the elements in
their state which made them capable of such benefits.
Hence came by and by the doctrines of purgatory, of the
twofold punishment of sin, and of the distinct conditions
under which each is remitted. In the next period prayers
for those departed in the faith are found in almost every
form of eucharistic rite.
Not much is known directly of the form and arrange-
ment of the places in which Christians met for worship.
As the number of Christians grew, these arrangements must
have varied. Before the end of the period buildings set
apart for Christian worship ^ existed in various places. At
an earlier period Christians met where they could, — in large
rooms, in halls erected for public purposes but hired by the
Christians, or in private houses. The central court of a
large Koman mansion might often serve for this purpose.
240 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. 180-313
The description of Christian worship in the second book of
the Apostolic Constitutions is supposed to date from the third
century. It recommends for the building an oblong form
looking to the east, entering presumably from the west. It
contained the table for Communion ^ (called also altar from
the time of Tertullian and Cyprian), and an elevated place
for the reader and probably for preaching. At the east end
was to be the chair ^ for the bishop, with a bench on each side
for the presbyters. The Christian people were in the middle
or nave, the sexes separate. Farther down were the
catechumens, the penitents, the energumens, and unbelievers :
these classes were called upon to withdraw before the ad-
ministration of the eucharist. At a later period the classes,
just referred to were expected to stand in a vestibule
divided off at the west end (narthex) ; and the eastern end
of the church, containing the holy table and the clergy, was
also more decidedly separated from the rest. The churches
which had been erected towards the end of the third
century, and which were destroyed or confiscated in Dio-
cletian's persecution, may generally have approached this
type. But there was another plan, circular or hexagonal,
which probably existed then, as it did later. The former
type had its precedent in the Basilica — the hall of justice
or of business in imperial cities. The latter may have been
suggested by the mortuary chapels, if one may call them
so, in which families met to commemorate departed friends.
These had been in use among Christians as well as among
the heathen. And in times of persecution they were pro-
tected by the laws regarding burial, and by the Eoman
sentiment on that subject.^
^ Mensa, rpdire^a ; Ara, 6v(rta<xri^piop,
* Kadi 8 pa.
* Baldwin Brown, From Schola to Cathedraif 1 886,
CHAPTER XIV
Clergy
From the beginning of this period we find in churches a
presiding person, distinguished as the bishop. At the outset,
indeed, tokens of the earlier relations still survive : Irenseus
often speaks of bishops as presbyters ; and while the three
grades are present to the mind of Clement of Alexandria, as
a matter of fact which he knows and accepts, yet in
principle and for ideal purposes he sees only two functions,
those of elders and of deacons.^ But these symptoms soon
disappear, and the episcopate gains continually in influence
and distinction.
It is true that episcopal authority was not despotic ; and
if modern writers call it " monarchical," it was at first a very
constitutional monarchy. The presbyters, as the standing
council of the church, had to be consulted and carried along;
in important matters Cyprian frankly takes for granted that
the church as well as the presbyters must have its voice.
Even in matters that were left in the bishop's hands, the
conscience of the church demanded that he should act by
rule, and carry out principles : and all good bishops desired
to fortify that conviction. Moreover, as the church existed
by the consent, the support, the love and prayers of its
members, no sane bishop could propose to himself to defy
their disapprobation or to disregard their opinions. During
this whole period the evidence is ample that the membership
of the church felt keenly interested in the church affairs,
and had no hesitation in forming and expressing opinion.
The bishop therefore lived in an atmosphere which he could
1 Clem. Alex. Strom, vL 13 j vii. 1,
i6
242 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
not disregard. He might feel it his duty to resist popular
tendencies: Cyprian would not yield to the cry for lax
discipline ; but in order to hold his ground he had to rally
opinion, and to consider well where he should make his
stand. But episcopal influence and authority kept increas-
ing. In every church the bishop was the most representative
man. Also while other office-bearers might have departments
allotted to them, the bishop had general oversight. In every
function of the assembled church he presided : in those rites,
the administration of which came to be reserved to him, —
nay, even in those which fell to him usually, though not
always, — the sacredness of the rite accrued to the dignity of
the man. The public teaching of the Church fell largely
into his hands ; but where other office-bearers taught, they
were conceived to do so under his sanction.^ Eound him the
general sacredness and supernaturalness of the Church tended
to concentrate itself, because he stood alone : what was
supernatural in the Church was most adequately represented
by the bishop. This was the tendency of the system, realised
more fully in the case of remarkable and energetic bishops.
It did not prevent bishops being roughly handled when
human infirmities on either side gave occasion ; but it was a
force in reserve which came into play eventually, and
generally prevailed.
The tendency thus existing developed itself in theoretical
forms which made it more effective. Everything that existed
rightfully in the Church, being regarded as part of a divine
plan, must express a divine intention. The bishop existed
rightfully, therefore this principle eminently applied to him.
The distinctive divine intentions in regard to the episcopate
were conceived inferentially. The tradition of the churches
had been appealed to, quite reasonably, as fixing the main
articles of Christianity against the Gnostics. But the
obvious way of making that argument tell, was to name
the men ^ who were believed to have stood successively at
* "With the same sanction instructed laymen also taught the congregation.
Const. Ap. viii. 32, and Cone. Carth. iv. 98.
* Polycarpus a Joanne, Clemens a Petro ordinatur, etc. Tert. de Prcescr. 82»
180-313] CLERGY 243
the head of those churches, each reproducing and guarding
in his own day what he had previously imbibed as Christian
teaching. This, therefore, was one thing divinely intended in
the case of bishops, namely, to afford a special guarantee
for doctrinal continuity and purity. It was to be presumed
that somehow divine care enabled them to be sufficient for
this function. Hence Irenseus speaks of their charisma
veritatiSy though this is not much dwelt on, and is nowhere
defined.^
Again, Montanism had striven to assert the prophetic
element in the churches, so as to embody a dispensation
of the Spirit among the members that should outweigh the
office-bearers. Montanism had failed : the Church in the
continuity and order of its organisation had repelled Montan-
ism. The Church, however, continued to have the Holy
Spirit : the functions by which His operations were expressed
were administered by the office-bearers, and the chief of these
functions usually or exclusively by the bishops. Ritually,
the office-bearers, but eminently the bishop, gave the Holy
Spirit. Therefore, according to the logic then current, he had
the Holy Spirit in such a sense that he could give Him.
It was only by degrees that such impressions produced
their effect on the general Christian mind. The full realisa-
tion of them depended on the improvement of opportunities
by eminent bishops. But it is easy to see how such impres-
sions as they grew strengthened the bishop's position, especially
as regards the effect of his negative voice. Relations in a
society may be confidential, friendly, and frank. But if there
is one man in it whose " non-possumus" is likely to stop
everything, he must be treated with exceptional deference.
Cyprian never says that a bishop is infallible, or that his
power is absolute, or that he is entitled to govern his flock
at his own sole will But he does convey the impression
that his dignity and authority are unique, that his decisions
are to be treated with great deference, and that opposition to
him involves exceptional responsibility. And he does tell a
contumacious deacon in another church that, as the Lord
1 Conir. ffoer. iv. 26. 2.
244 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
appointed bishops, whereas deacons were instituted merely
by apostolic authority, a deacon should as little take liberties
with his bishop as a bishop should take liberties with God.^
Synods met to discuss important questions, and in the
third century they met regularly in various provinces once
or twice a year. Though presbyters also attended, the
episcopal vote soon became the decisive one. The bishops
were the men who were best entitled to speak in their
own name, and best entitled to speak in the name also of
their churches which had elected them. Provincial Synods,
as a rule, were summoned by the bishop of the metropolis
of the province, met in his city, and under his presidency.
Hence such bishops acquired a recognised authority and
precedence {Mn^TpoTrokiTaC), perhaps carried out with greater
regularity in the East. In the two African provinces,
Mauretania and Numidia, the bishop who happened to be
oldest presided ; in proconsular Africa, always the bishop of
Carthage. Early in next period other distinctions were
developed : but already the bishops of Eome, Antioch, and
Alexandria were exceptionally important, and influenced
many neighbouring churches. In the West, Eome had the
further distinction of being the only apostolic see.
Much was decided when the relation of bishops to the
multiplying flocks in each city or each neighbourhood was
fixed. Originally {ante, p. 35 fol.) the bishop was chief min-
ister of one flock.2 As Christians multiplied in great cities,
to assemble the whole church became more difficult. It
could only be attempted on very special occasions. Local
sectional gatherings acquired more and more importance.
Gradually they assumed the character of distinct com-
munities — quasi churches. At each stage, in a gradual
process, adaptation sets in. The one bishop remained,
the staff of lower clergy was increased. This arrange-
ment naturally extended itself to the suburbs and nearer
country districts. Hence, where Christianity was growing,
the same bishop became president of different companies
1 Ep. iii. 3.
* TMs is still the ideal in the sketch of a church in Const. Apost. iL 57.
180-313] CLERGY 245
of Christians, and these were regarded as members of one
church, which formed his TrapotKia. This is the decisive
step towards the hierarchy. One does not see, from the
point of view of early episcopacy, any objection in principle
to the constitution of each distinct congregation (to use our
modern phrase) into a bishopric. But feeling, and also, in
some respects, the natural development of affairs, were against
it. These influences decided the course of affairs in the
populous centres where Christianity grew most quickly ; and
so the type was set for the organisation elsewhere. The
bishop was thus released from his strict connection with one
flock, emancipated in some measure from the influences which
surrounded him there, and put in the way of becoming a
more conspicuous and influential person. In each of the
separate Christian communities which begin to multiply under
him, he is by and by replaced by a permanent parish presbyter,
who for most purposes performs the acts whicli the bishop
performed in the earlier single congregation. In Eome
about the middle of the third century there were forty-six
presbyters ; about the end of the century there were forty
churches. Probably the principle of connecting a presbyter
permanently with each special flock and building had been
accepted.
Yet villages in the country had in many cases been
provided with bishops who came to be called country-bishops
('X^copeTriaKOTroi). They were really bishops who had but the
one local flock to attend to. Probably, too, they often had
few or even no presbyters. They continued for a considerable
time, but came more and more to be regarded as anomalous
in the general system of the Church. They were ultimately
superseded, and their flocks grouped under bishops on what,
in later phrase, we may call the diocesan plan.
Bishops were appointed by public election conducted in
the face of the congregation, the voice of the clergy, at
least the presbyters, and that of the people being required.
It is not till a good deal later that we have any detailed
accounts of procedure in actual cases ; but the impression
one forms is that, while certain principles were kept in
246 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
view, the methods were loose, and therefore worked
uncertainly. Filling of civil offices by election continued
to exist in the Koman Empire, and probably the methods of
the Church* were conformed to those of civil society. In
both cases presiding persons had considerable authority in
regulating the proceedings. The election was not complete
until the presiding officer formally pronounced the result
(in respect of which he was often said to appoint or
"create"); he was entitled to be satisfied as to the legal
qualifications of the candidate, as well as with respect to
the sufficiency of the vote ; and in certain circumstances he
could take the initiative by himself proposing a candidate.^
All these features are found in one case or another of
ecclesiastical elections. In the third century, the consent
of the church members as well as that of the clergy
was certainly held necessary to an election. But how cases
were worked out when a serious division existed or
threatened, we do not clearly see.
It is likely that for some time, at least in some
churches, the elevation of one person to preside as bishop
was accomplished within the church concerned, without aid
from the outside. Apparently such an arrangement
survived at Alexandria long enough to attract attention.^
But in the course of the third century the rule is found
operating, that the neighbouring bishops, not less than three,
at the very least two,^ ought to be present, and, of course,
preside at the formal election and instalment of a bishop.
Many reasons recommended some such arrangement. But
the feeling or doctrine that bishops only could make a
bishop became accepted as the conclusive and all-sufficing
reason, it is difficult to say when. The same difficulty
applies to the conception of a distinct ecclesiastical
character attaching to the bishop as distinguished from the
1 See Hatch, article on Ordination, DicHonary of Christian Antiquities, ii.
p. 1503.
2 Hier. Ep. ad Evang.
' The presence of one only was regarded as indicating something unfair or
factious, unless special circumstances established a necessity, and abseiit
bishops gave written consent See Hefele, ConcUiengescTiichte, i. p. 373.
180-813] CLERGY 247
presbyter. The formula in the eighth book of the
Apostolic Cotistitutions (generally referred to the early part
of the fourth century) directs the deacons to hold the
gospel over the head of the new bishop during the prayer :
imposition of hands is not suggested. As the relative might
of the bishop grew, his distinct order or grade would be
assumed as self-evident.
The priesthood ascribed to bishops and presbyters has
been referred to in connection with the eucharist (p. 232).
Probably election by the church had been the original
way of appointing all office-bearers, subject perhaps, as
before indicated, to considerable initiative and control on
the part of the presiding person or persons. Under the
episcopal constitution we now find the bishop practically
nominating to the presbyterate and other offices ; but in
the case of the presbyterate, at least, in the presence of the
congregation, and inviting their consent. That consent was
seldom likely to be withheld from proposed additions to a
large existing staff, the names proposed being in most cases
previously concerted with the existing clergy. Naturally,
therefore, such nominations assumed eventually the character
of authoritative appointments.
New offices were added during our period to meet wants
which before had been supplied by spontaneous zeal of
members, or which were arising out of the growth of
churches. The work of the deacons was supplemented by
Bubdeacons, the rather that there was an indisposition to
extend the number of the deacons in a church beyond the
seven of Acts vL Acolytes (attendants) took up other
ministerial duties. Exorcists dealt with persons afflicted
by evil spirits. Headers (ledores, ava^yvoiarai) read the
appointed portions of Scripture. Doorkeepers (osfiarii,
irvXwpoi) took charge of the place of meeting. These are
the recognised orders in the West. In the East the exorcist
was not regarded as holding an office, but as the subject of a
gift ; and that was so also in the West as late as Tertullian.
On the other hand, singers (cantores, '^^okTaC) seem to have
a clerical character in the East but not in the West, and
248 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. 180-313
fossores (graved iggers) come into view as functionaries, but
not as clergy. Subdeacons, acolytes, exorcists, readers, door-
keepers came to be accepted as the Western arrangement,
and these are commonly referred to as minor orders.^ The
appointment to minor orders was settled generally in the
bishop's hands. Cyprian's practice was to consult his clergy
and people as to all clerical elections. When, during his
absence in time of persecution, he appoints readers and a
presbyter, he specifies his reasons (^p. 38 and foL).
The place given to women as regards Church service is
not quite clear. There were deaconesses or female servants
of the Church in the apostolic age, and apparently also in
the age of Trajan (Pliny's Epistle). But widows also are
referred to in the Pastoral Epistles, and we hear only of
widows, as a recognised class in the Church, during greater
part of our period. As widows were supported by the
Church, those of them who were qualified were employed,
e.g., in instructing female catechumens, and probably in
charitable care of the sick ; and they appear to have had some
charge of the female members. This arrangement continued
in the West for a time. But in the East, towards the end of
this period, the deaconesses appear as an order (Apost.
Const iii. and viii.), and receive regular ordination. The
first General Council recognises the function, but seems
to forbid ordination; which, however, was recognised at
Chalcedon2 (a.d. 451).
^ According to the later and the modem Church of Rome, subdeacons are
reckoned to the sacred orders, and only the other four to the non-sacred.
" Clerus minor" occurs first in De Rebaptismo, c. 10 (among Cyprian's works —
before a.d. 260), but not so as to make its meaning quite definite. In the
civic arrangements of the empire, the name "ordo"was commonly applied
to the body of persons holding recognised rank in a community ; but some-
times it signifies * * rank " simply, lower as well as higher. The same holds in
substance of the Greek word /cX^os. These words were applied in Christian
speech, sometimes to express any rank or class, but more usually to denote
those who had place in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and were distinguished
in that way from the Christian plebs. (Compare "classes and masses.")
All such belonged to the ordo (or ordines), Gr. n'Kijpos, as distinguished from
the plebs or Xa6s.
* C(mc, Nic. Can. 19 ; Cone. Chalc. Can. 15.
CHAPTER XV
Discipline and Schisms
In the early Christian writings of the West, disciplina
denotes the conception of ordered life which the Church
strove to impress on her members. In modern use, the
word suggests the principles and processes in conformity
with which Church power was exerted to uphold order and
to repress transgression. This is the sense in which we use
the word here.
Some reference has already been made to it in speaking
of the early churches (p. 42). The Church had from the
first asserted the right to guard its character by excluding
scandalous and unruly persons (1 Cor. v.). Sins and
imperfections attached to Christians, which were to be
borne with, as common infirmities ; and they could be the
more easily borne with because, at least virtually and in
general, they were confessed and regretted from week to
week. But there were scandalous sins which implied a
deliberate revolt from Christ's rules, or a conspicuous fall,
under prevailing temptation, from the standard which
Christians were bound to maintain. In such cases, both for
the sake of the sinner himself, and also for the sake of
maintaining in the society the cherished conception of their
common calling, it was needful that the sinner should be
taught, and that he should own, how he had separated him-
self from his Master and his brethren ; and it was needful
that the Church should have some ground to believe in the
seriousness and sincerity of repentance before proceeding to
restoration.
Early in the second century a strong disposition existed
249
250 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
to refuse restoration in the case of scandalous sins com-
mitted by Christians. Murder, sins of impurity, and
apostasy, or lapse into idolatry, were chiefly in view. The
practice thus advocated was based upon the theory that
" one repentance " was expressly sanctioned with a view to
forgiveness and Christian standing — that, namely, which is
sealed in baptism ; no second repentance is provided for,
nor is the Church authorised to accept it. It was admitted
(usually or always) that persons so situated, if they continued
penitent to their life's end, should be encouraged to hope for
eventual forgiveness at the hand of God ; but they had lost
their standing in the earthly fellowship. A high moral
enthusiasm and a resolute purpose to defend the purity
of the Church inspired this practice. At the same time,
many cases must have occurred, leading men to question the
fitness of so stern a rule ; and most likely the practice of
different churches always varied in some degree, but with a
leaning on the whole to severity. Hermas (Vis. ii. 2)
announces a second repentance — i.e. one after the baptismal
one — as open; but he connects it apparently with the
special circumstances, — the dispensation was about to close,
and this exceptional door was opened by the Lord on that
account. In this, as in other matters, the Montanists
appeared on behalf of the stricter view of the Church's
traditions and practice. But at the end of the second
century the advocacy of that view was certainly not
confined to them. On the other hand, Dionysius of Corinth
(Eouth, Bel. Sac. i.), writing to the Amastrian church,
exhorts them to receive penitents returning from falls of
any kind.
The reception of such penitents, however, even where
it was in use, was regarded as something remarkable and
difficult. It had to be sought by confession before the
church, enforced by humiliation and supplication, which
continued for some time, and was regarded as a satis-
faction to the congregation and also to God. The restora-
tion was, or came to be, by stages, which towards the
end of the period appear as four : the penitents take their
180-313] DISCIPLINE AND SCHISMS 251
place, first, as TrpoaKkalovje^y JlcnteSy or y^eifid^ovTef;, in
the court before the door of the church, beseeching those
who enter to pity them and support their application;
second, as aKpocofievoi, audientes, allowed to be present in a
remote part of the church at the earlier part of the service
to hear Scripture and sermon ; third, as uTroTrtTTToi/Te?, sub-
strati, who took part in the whole service to which cate-
chumens were admitted, kneeling at the prayers; fourth,
as avi'LardfjievoL, consistentes, who witnessed, standing, the
administration of the eucharist, though not themselves par-
ticipating. After this came formal restoration by imposition
of the bishop's hands, the kiss of peace, and participation of
the eucharist with the brethren. From various notices (e.g.
canons of Ancyra, A.D. 314, and Nice, a.d. 325) it appears
that several years, as a rule, might be spent in the three
latter stages. But some discretion was left to the bishops.
And while these prolonged exercises of penitence might be
held up as the ideal, one acquires the impression that in
various special circumstances the process was very greatly
abridged. In particular, the intercession of confessors
(Christians undergoing suffering for their faith) was allowed
to operate on the side of leniency.
Early in the third century Callistus of Eome (a.d. 218—
223) sanctioned principles which many reckoned lax, both
in regard to some moral questions and also in regard to
receiving to penitence persons guilty of sins of impurity.
Hippolytus opposed him (Be/, ix. 12)^ on this as well as
on doctrinal points, and a schism appears to have arisen in
the Eoman church. That passed away, however, and the
milder practice remained in force at Eome.
Some years after this the Decian persecution gave occa-
sion to lively discussion of the Church's duty to the fallen.
The circumstances have been referred to in the notice of
Cyprian (p. 191). The immense number of the lapsed
rendered the question very important : it also created a great
pressure in favour of laxity, since not only the fallen, but
* Origen also apparently {de Orat. viiL 10). TertuUian, as a Montanist,
energetically denounced the laxity.
252 THE ANCIENT CATHOLtC CHURCH [a.D.
doubtless also many of their friends, desired easy terms of
restoration. But there was another complication. Cyprian's
elevation to the bishopric of Carthage (a.d. 248) had been
opposed by five presbyters, who thereafter ordained a deacon
by their own authority, and set themselves to embarrass the
action of the bishop : this led to their being excluded by
Cyprian from church fellowship. Elements of controversy
were therefore already present : and when the persecution
was running its course, fresh matter of dispute was furnished
by the confessors, who were moved to issue lihelli pacis, certi-
ficates of restoration, sometimes in very wholesale terms ; ^
and Cyprian speaks of thousands of such certificates issuing
daily (Ep. 20). The African Christianity was very respons-
ive to influences of this kind. According to Cyprian, there
was something like a popular uprising throughout the pro-
vince to constrain the guides of the churches to give way
(Ep. 27. 3). Cyprian seems to have leant originally to the
severer principle in cases of this kind. But first of all he
insisted on delay until the churches with their bishops and
clergy could deliberately examine the cases and make the
requisite discriminations ; ^ later, he conceded that in case of
apparent approach of death, the confessions of persons recom-
mended by confessors might be received by presbyters or
deacons, who should administer the eucharist to the penitents.
Next, penitent libellatici (see p. 143, n. 2), as the less flagrant
offenders, were readmitted. And, finally, the general restora-
tion of the fallen, who were penitent, was authorised by a
Synod (a.d. 252, Cyp. Up. 57), partly on the ground that
fresh persecution seemed impending, and it was desirable
to give every encouragement to those who by fidelity in a
new trial might still be enabled to retrieve their former fall.
Cyprian's principle on the whole, therefore, was eventual
restoration, but not without serious discipline, and pro-
longed evidence of penitence. In all these steps Cyprian
was able to carry with him the bishops of the African
^ Oommunicet ille cum suis, Cyprian, U}). 14. A universal form, ^p. 23.
2 This he contemplates as taking place at a meeting of the church, ex-
pressly including the laity.
180-313] DISCIPLINE AND SCHISMS 253
province, and also the clergy and confessors of the church
of Eonie,^
Out of this controversy a shortlived schism arose at
Carthage under a counter-bishop, the dissidents being on the
side of more lenient treatment of the fallen.^ A more dur-
able division took place at Eome in the opposite interest.
After the martyrdom of Fabian, bishop of Eome, A.D.
249, the chair had remained vacant for a year and a half,
and the presbyters had dealt with the necessary business of
the church. Among these presbyters, a distinguished place
was held by Novatian, a man in high repute, some of whose
writings are still extant. Official letters from Eome to
Cyprian had been penned by him, and he was a party
to the approbation accorded by Eome to Cyprian's measures.
Novatian was put in nomination for the bishopric, but his
party proved to be in a minority, and in A.D. 251 Cornelius
was elected. Novatian's supporters were of the more rigid
party, and they brought accusations of laxity against Cor-
nelius : he had held fellowship, they said, with fallen bishops,
and had received the unworthy to communion from inter-
^ ested motives. This party had influential confessors on
their side, and they set up Novatian as counter-bishop
agaiQst Cornelius. Cornelius excommunicated them, and
laid down the principle that all sorts of fallen persons
should be received to penitence, of course with proper
precautions. Novatian and his followers, on their side, fell
back on the principle that none of those who after baptism
fell into the great acts of sin, regarded as deadly, ought to
be restored to communion ; to do so was to usurp God's pre-
rogative and imperil the glory of the Church. Such persons
are to be commended to the divine mercy, which they may
still receive, but the Church is not authorised to readmit
them. Among those who joined Novatian was Novatus,
a leading person among the presbyters who had opposed
Cyprian at Carthage. In joining Novatian, he went from
^ The see of Rome was vacant for part of the time, but the presbyters
siguified their approbation of Cyprian's line of action.
* The leader was Felicissimus, a deacon, and Forttmatus was the bishop.
264 THE AKCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a..d.
one extreme to the other. But Novatian soon lost the
support of the more influential Eoman confessors. Cyprian
also promptly acknowledged Cornelius, and supported him
energetically. Some bishops countenanced Novatian ; Fabius
of Antioch and Marcion of Aries were the most important ;
and Novatian congregations sprang up in many parts of
the Church. They had the reputation during subsequent
discussions of being generally on the side of orthodoxy, and
they continued to exist for some centuries.^
The same principles, or principles nearly as severe, con-
tinued to be cherished by many who did not feel it necessary
to join the Novatians, and in some branches of the Church
sins were specified which were too grievous to admit of
restoration even on deathbed. In the church of Kome
itself fresh troubles broke out during the bishoprics of
Marcellus and Eusebius (a.d. 307 foL), the leader of opposi-
tion being one Heraclius ; but this time the Eoman authori-
ties seem to have been opposed by a party which desired to
reduce discipline to a nullity.^ During the Diocletian
persecution, Peter, the bishop of Alexandria, laid down rules
which contemplated restoration of the fallen under careful
conditions as to due manifestation of penitence.^
In more than one of these debates personal antagonism,
or jealousy, was the motive of division. But sensitiveness
on the question of discipline, involving the purity of the
Church on the one hand and compassion to penitents on
the other, furnished the pretext on which popular parties
were formed. On this subject men really felt strongly, and
BO could be induced to take decided action.
It is also to be observed that while the party which
condemned the admission of post-baptismal repentance seems
at first sight stern and pitiless, they are the party which
* In the East called Kadapoi, which was the name they preferred.
* This is the usual interpretation of the inscription in the catacombs ; but
a quite opposite interpretation is possible.
' The schism of Meletius, bishop of Lycopolis, who took upon him to
usurp the power of the Alexandrian bishop (a.d. 306), seems to have found a
pretext in these matters of discipline ; but no dear contrast of principles was
evolved.
180-313] HERETICAL BAPTISM 255
more fully recognises the distinction between the Church's
function and the Lord's. According to them the Churcli
either had no power to restore, or was restrained by the
Spirit of God from exerting it, in the cases which were in
question ; but the hope of salvation to the penitent, even in
this painful exclusion, was proclaimed. On the other side,
the admission of the penitent to Church privileges was
associated with the belief that in this way they were brought
again into the position, and under the influences (not, indeed,
which would secure salvation), but without which salvation
is not ordinarily possible.
The schism of Donatus in Africa will be noticed under
next period.
Heretical Baptism
Cyprian, de Umtate and Epp. 70-75 ; on the other side, de Rehaptismoy
among the works of Cyprian. Benson, Life of Cyprian^ Lond. 1898,
and article in Bid. of Christian Biography y voL L
Closely connected with the discussions just referred to
is that which arose regarding the baptism of heretics, and
therefore it may be referred to here.
It has been matter of general agreement, that baptism
is an ordinance which ought to be administered only once
in the history of a disciple. Cases, indeed, may be suggested
in which it can be plausibly urged that a second or supple-
mentary baptism might be reasonable. But these plausi-
bilities have not been allowed to disturb the rule that the
impressive uniqueness of baptism, as standing, once for all,
at the outset of proposed discipleship, must be maintained.
The one baptism, however, must be real baptism. And so
the question what should be taken for real baptism has to
be dealt with.
With the deepening impression of the unity of the
Church, and of her function as alone possessing the
ministrations and alone constituting the fellowship through
which we have life, it was easy to infer that no Christian
ordinance could be authentic or valid unless it wa8
256 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
administered by her authority, and reached the individual
through her ministers. The tendency, in fact, was all this
way; yet in regard to baptism the application of this prin-
ciple became debatable.
When sects, heretical and schismatical, formed them-
selves, as they did in the second century, all or most of
them administered baptism, though some varied the form
of the rite. Sooner or later some persons so baptized
joined the greater Church, doing so, no doubt, as Chris-
tians who saw reason to exchange what they now regarded
as a less satisfactory form of Christianity for one more
perfect or more authentic. Some of these sects differed
less from catholic Christianity and some more ; and it
does not seem likely that any one rule could have at
once obtained as to the recognition which (Christianity
so initiated was to receive. It seems most likely that
persons who came over in such circumstances were wel-
comed as Christians who needed to be taught the way of
the Lord more perfectly, and that no question was raised
about their baptism, unless some known peculiarity in the
ceremony, or in the words used, rendered it specifically
questionable. But a stronger view of the nullity of heretical
baptism had developed itself by the end of the second century,
and had formed the practice in some churches, while
others opposed it.
In these circumstances Cyprian's whole influence was
directed to secure uniformity, at least in Africa. He had
developed energetically the doctrine of the unity of the
Church. He maintained that as the Church, which is cath-
olic, distinguished from all dissidents, is alone the authentic
fellowship of salvation, and in it alone Christian benefits
are enjoyed ; therefore any Christianity professed outside of
it is spurious and null, and any Christian rites professedly
administered outside of it are also null. This was applied
even to orthodox sects like the Novatians. • The administra-
tions of such separatists are an offensive mimicry. Baptism
in their case is no baptism, the eucharist is no eucharist,
martyrdom is no martyrdom. It followed that persons
180-313] HERETICAL BAPTISM 257
coming from such sects ^ to the Catholic Church were really
for all Christian purposes unbaptized, and must now be
baptized again. The question of baptism was the important
one. There was no need to discuss the value of the
eucharist, as received in a heretical or schismatic sect, be-
cause henceforth the convert would receive it in the catholic
way. But if baptism was not readministered, the Church
would acknowledge the convert to be baptized already, i.e.
would concede that the heretical baptism was baptism.
Cyprian of Carthage and Stephen of Eome took sides
against one another on this point.
Cyprian appealed to the tradition of his church, for it
was important to maintain that the practice had been so
from the beginning. He refers to a council held by
Agrippinus,2 a predecessor at Carthage, which sanctioned
his view, — although this seems to imply diversity of prac-
tice as even then existing.^ Apparently Callistus of Eome
(218-223) had sanctioned rebaptism; but contrary to the
tradition of his church, as Hippolytus maintains (Bef. ix.
12). It seems certain, however, that rebaptizing obtained
in Cappadocia and neighbouring regions, and it was sanc-
tioned as ancient practice by synods at Synnada and
Iconium (perhaps before A.D. 236). Meanwhile an opposite
practice was in use, certainly at Eome, and, no doubt, in
many other churches. Cypriaij himself seems conscious
that his argument from tradition and history is not con-
clusive ; his main strength is in his church theory.
Those who took the other side regarded baptism,
though administered by heretical hands, as substantially
valid, requiring only to be completed by accession to the
authentic Church. Such accession took place by the con-
^ I.e. baptized in them. Perverts baptized in the Catholic Church, carried
away by heresy, and afterwards returning, had been truly baptized, and so
needed only to be received as penitents.
2 Date uncertain, a.d. 180 ? 215 ?
* Augustine suggests that Agrippinus and his council introduced the
practice of rebaptizing those who had been baptized in heresy. But that
view is probably an inference from what Augustine believed, rather than a
£&ct resting on evidence,
I?
258 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
fession and submission of the convert, and the imposition
of the bishop's hands.^ Cyprian did not believe that the
difference afforded a ground for breaking off communion
between bishops. But it seemed to him so important in
connection with church principles, that he felt justified
in doing his utmost to maintain it.
Cyprian's case is summed up in the treatise de Unitate,
composed before this dispute broke out (c. 11): "They
suppose that they baptize, although there can be no baptism
but the one ; when they have forsaken the fountain of life,
they offer the grace of the living and saving water. In their
hands men are not cleansed but rather defiled ; their sins are
not purged, but rather heaped up. That kind of nativity
generates children not to God but to the devil. Those
who are brought forth from unbelief lose the grace of faith ;
those cannot come to the rewards of peace who have broken
the peace of God by the fury of discord." Besides arguing
in general from the doctrine of the unity, he maintained
(Ep. 72. 1, 73. 7) that baptism, as it includes forgiveness
of sins, was granted by our Lord to Peter on behalf of the
episcopate and those in union with them, was therefore
valid only as administered with their sanction. Eeasoning
ad hominem, he pointed to the admission of his opponents,
that in the cases debated, the imposition of the bishop's
hands was needful ; but that meant the communication of
the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit had been lacking from
the heretical baptism, how could it be baptism at all ? It
might be a kind of external judaical ceremony ; but that
was all. It was argued on the other side, that the faith pro-
fessed at such baptisms might be that of the Church. But
this was not sufficient ; besides, as a matter of fact, it was
doubtful. In cases where the baptism was merely in the
name of Jesus Christ, who could be sure what the faith
was ? Finally, the argument from history or usage, and
from the consistencies of church practice in dealing with
' This was a rite applied in many ways ; in all its applications it signified
the Church's recognition of the candidate's purpose, ^nd her benediction in
coiinection with it*
180-313] HERETICAL BAPTISM 259
the array of conceivable cases, was handled by Cyprian with
great energy, strength, and effect.
Stephen, who succeeded Cornelius at Eome, upheld the
practice of his church, and strove to impose it on others.
He sent letters to the East threatening to break communion
with those who should persist in rebaptizing, and he neces-
sarily came into collision with Cyprian on the subject.
Possibly Stephen was willing to find a pretext for doing
80. The influence of Cyprian was becoming extraordinarily
great, and in his letters to Eome his tone of friendly inde-
pendence and of plain-spoken counsel, verging on injunction,
could hardly be welcome. Cornelius had owed too much
to Cyprian for vigorous support against Novatian, to be
willing to break with him ; but Stephen may have thought
the time was come to make a stand, and to reduce the
African bishop to his proper place. Stephen maintained
that he had on his side ancient custom — especially the
tradition of Peter's see, which ought certainly to prevail.
He referred also to Paul's rejoicing in the preaching of the
gospel, even if preached through envy. The main position
was that the efficacy of the one baptism depends not on
the administrators, but on the institution of Christ. Those
who are baptized in the name of Christ, even by heretics,
have been validly baptized, and ought not to be baptized
again.
On the principles then received it can hardly be doubted
that Cyprian had the better argument. For both sides
admitted the theory of church unity which Cyprian ex-
pounded. And if the principle is to be admitted in regard
to church institutions that the institution is Christ's whoever
may administer it, then it cannot be confined to baptism ; it
must be extended to all those institutions, those sacraments
as Eome reckons tliem, — confirmation and orders, as well as
eucharist, — to which Eomanism declines to apply it.^ Arch-
bishop Benson points out that, according to Cyprian, the visible
^ The arguments by which a distinction between baptism and other sacra-
ments is supported may be seen, inter alia, in Hefele, Condliengeschichie,
i, 105.
260 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d
Church includes the worst moral sinner, in expectation of his
penitency, but excludes the most virtuous and orthodox
baptized Christian who had not been baptized by a catholic
minister.^ This is not quite accurate. But apart from that,
Cyprian had a right to ask, Was the virtuous person baptized ?
just as the archbishop claimed the right to ask in regard
to the most virtuous dissenting minister, Was he ordained ?
But it was a happy inconsistency which the Koman
tradition in this case carried down into the principles and
practice of the later Church ; and it proved to be possible to
theorise it, without sacrificing the exclusive attitude towards
heretics and schismatics on which both sides laid so much
stress.
The dispute was hot while it lasted. Stephen denounced
Cyprian as a false Christ, a false apostle, and a deceitful
worker ; while Cyprian referred to his opponents as aiding
Antichrists ; and Firmihan of Caesarea, making common cause
with Cyprian, told Stephen that in trying to cut off others
from the Church's unity, he had cut off himself. Dionysius
of Alexandria meanwhile exerted himself to bring about
mutual toleration (Euseb. Hist. Ecd. vii. 5).
At this stage the opposing theories were boldly and
roundly asserted; Cyprian was for rebaptizing the disciple
even of the most orthodox schismatic sect; and Stephen,
apparently, was against rebaptizing the disciple even of the
most heterodox, and was prepared to accept baptism in the
name of Christ, without reference to the Trinity. After
the death of Stephen the conflict died out, each church
maintaining its own custom. But probably the weight of
authoritative practice was already against rebaptizing.
Moreover, cases differed, and in many cases the maintenance
of the principle that the man proposing to come over to
orthodoxy was still unbaptized, offended against common
sense. The Eoman view gained the day, but with slight
modifications. The synod of Aries (a.d. 314) decided that
baptism in heresy should be recognised, if it appeared that
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were owned in the administra-
^ Smith, Did. of Christian Biography ^ L 752,
180-313] HERETICAL BAPTISM 261
tion. The great council of Nicea, however,^ seemed to
sanction a construction of this decision which questioned
the validity of baptism in the case of sects regarded as
unsound with respect to the Trinity, even though the formula
prescribed in Matt, xxviii. had been used in the administra-
tion. With this qualification, the exact amount of which is
debatable, the practice advocated by Stephen was ultimately
acquiesced in by the Church.
^ Canon 19.
CHAPTER XVI
Manicheism
I. de Beausobre, Hist. crit. de ManicMe et du ManicMisme^ Amst. 1734.
Flugel, ilfam, Leipz. 1862.
While the Christian religion was settling itself on fixed
lines, the problem of the world and of human life was sug-
gesting new efforts of religion-building. Manicheism took
origin in the third century. This form of dualism did not
seriously affect the Christianity of the empire until the
fourth century ; from that time it appears and reappears,
though carefully suppressed by Church and State whenever
it became visible. Properly speaking, it was not a Chris-
tian heresy, but an extra- Christian religion. Yet some
appropriation of the name and the institutions of Jesus
entered into the scheme of Mani himself ; and this element
may have been expanded in the hands of his disciples, as
Manicheism moved westwards, and made its appeal to the
Christians of the Eoman world.
Mani (or Manes) was a Persian, born about A.D. 216.
He found Parsism in power, as the popular and the State
religion. Mani appears also to have inherited from his
father some ideas which traced up to materialistic and
magical elements of Babylonian idolatry; and elements of
Buddhism have been recognised in his system, connected,
doubtless, with the journeys in far eastern regions which
he is said to have undertaken. He felt in himself the
impulse to take ground as a religious innovator. Like
Mahomed afterwards, he claimed to be the last and greatest
prophet, and he sent forth emissaries to preach in his name.
A.D. 180-313] MANICHEISM 263
Eventually he returned to Persia and aimed at great things
there ; but religious antipathies and political suspicions
became too strong for him, and sometime after 272 he was
cruelly put to death. His disciples also were bitterly per-
secuted. But the man had impressed his followers, and
his ways of thinking could appeal with force to many
minds. Manicheism was nowhere adopted as a national
faith, or as the characteristic religion of a race. But as a
sect, it maintained a prolonged existence in the East, having
its centre at Babylon and afterwards at Samarcand, and
stretching out to India and China.
Manicheism appeared in the Eoman Empire before the
close of the third century, and created active discussion
during the fourth. It made itself known as an ascetic
religion resting on divine revelation, claiming to embody
the true view of the universe, and the true securities for
human welfare in a future life. Further, it professed to
embody a corrected Christianity, which it naturally claimed
to complete as well as to purify. Hence it appealed to
passages in the Gospels and Epistles; but it regarded all
these as more or less corrupted. The canonical books of
the sect were certain writings of Mani. The recognised
officials were (1) teachers (twelve, apparently, to corre-
spond with the apostles — one of whom might specially
represent Mani); (2) bishops (seventy -two according to
Augustine); and (3) presbyters. The adherents of the
sect fell into two classes, electi and auditores. The elect
abstained from animal food and wine, from material occupa-
tions and labours, and from marriage ; they might not injure
even plant life, and therefore their vegetable food must not
be gathered by their own hands, but be supplied to them
by the auditores, and they were bound to frequent and
rigorous fasting. The auditores, who were imperfect mem-
bers, might engage in the ordinary relations and occupations
of society ; but in addition to the observance of moral rules,
were expected to put no animal to death, to prefer a
simple and retired life, and to provide for the wants of the
elect, and pay them great respect. The intercession of the
264 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D.
elect was supposed to avail vicariously for the welfare of
the comparatively imperfect auditores. Augustine was led
to suspect that a good deal of hypocrisy and make-believe
existed among the Manichean elect, and he mentions cir-
cumstances which had produced that impression. But in-
consistency might exist in some degree, and still more it
might be imputed by opponents, without supplying any good
ground for doubting the sincerity and earnestness of the
sect in general.
There could be no great show of external evidence for
Mani*s claims to be a medium of revelation. The sect
must have made way, therefore, on the strength either of
its theory of the universe, which might be reckoned credible
and impressive, or of its system of life and worship, which
might be accepted as worthy and helpful.
The force with which the conception of the world, as the
scene of conflict between two originally opposed and irrecon-
cilable principles, is able at some times to lay hold of the
minds of men, has here one more illustration. The life
enjoined on his followers by Mani was based on a system of
dualism, fanciful in its details, but possessing some important
distinctive features. It differed from the system of Zoroaster
in a more intense conception of the entanglement in evil in
which human spirits are involved, and also in the stress it
laid upon a redemptive process, and a life conformed to that
process. From Christianity it differed, not merely in its
dualism, but especially in the demand it made, that the
elements of evil in the world should be fixed as concrete
material things, and should be precisely named and num-
bered. Then the true life must shape itself in opposition to
these things, and by deliverance from them. Anything less
concrete and less material than this would have seemed to
Mani unreal, missing the substantial and going astray among
shadows. Yet along with this he enjoined the usual moral-
ities, mostly in the negative form.
Good and evil, in this system, are identified with light
and darkness, also with purer and more impure substance.
The kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, each
180-313] MANICHEISM 265
with its personal king, stand over against one another. A
time arrives when the kingdom of darkness makes its effort
against the kingdom of light. The first man, who is God's
firstborn, leads the five pure elements into war against the
powers of evil ; he is overthrown, but eventually delivered ;
yet a part of his light has been carried off captive by the
darkness. With a view to extricate this captive nature, the
God of light causes the universe we know to be organised.
The object of its living processes, at least of its plant life, is to
afford channels by which the captive element may physically
make its escape from the elements of darkness which detain
it. Along the zodiac the particles of light, as they escape,
reach the sun and moon, where they are purified and passed
on to their proper home. The sun is the dwelHng of the
first man (Jesus impatihilis) ; the moon, of the mother of life,
through whom he came into existence. And those two
luminaries are ships which, moving in the sky, carry on the
processes of redemption. Against all this the Prince of
darkness creates man, in whom the captive element of light,
so far as available, is concentrated, but fatally entangled
with sensuality, covetousness, and sin; so that every man
may be regarded as having a soul that is akin to goodness,
but also an evil one. Generation expresses the line along
which the Prince of darkness would have evil triumph in
human history. But the powers of light join battle on this
arena of human history and character, so that here the
moral element comes in. In addition to mere physical
processes by which light is either held captive or is emanci-
pated, human thought and choice now come into play ; the
unconscious world-process has added to it the element of
conscious effort ; but largely in the way of calling men to
recognise the proper physical distinctions, and to give effect
to them. Prophets also have appeared in the world, to do
the work of the kingdom of light ; but not Moses and the
Jewish prophets ; for Judaism, like heathenism, is on the
side of darkness, and Manes rejected the Old Testament, no
doubt because it frankly owns the good of material life.
Jesus appeared, docetically, in the form of a human body;
266 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D.
but his teaching has been corrupted and misrepresented by
his followers. Still, in all these ways men have been
invited and attracted to a way of life in which their
better soul may escape from the power of darkness and of
matter. Finally, Mani, the last and greatest prophet, ap-
pears as the Paraclete of Jesus and the true guide of men.
Men are to experience this redemption under the guid-
ance of Mani, by due separation from the sensual and the
material, and by appropriating — eating, in fact — the crea-
tures which yield elements of light. Full members of the
Manichean church (eledi) accepted a threefold seal, — signa-
culum oris, which implied renunciation of animal food and
wine, as well as of impure speech ; signaculum manus, which
implied all possible abstinence from activity about the
material things and interests of the world ; and signaculum
sinuSy which implied complete chastity. Severe fastings and
regulated prayers, with sacred washings, were also enjoined ;
the prayers were addressed, so far as is known, to God, to
the kingdom of light, to angels, and to Mani himself. The
auditores, or catechumens, as already stated, were much less
stringently treated ; and many adherents of the sect were
content to remain in this stage, and were allowed to believe
that they might in this way attain Manichean salvation.
The worship in which the auditores joined seems to have been
unimpressive and bare. In March a festival was held
(replacing the Easter of the Christians), in which an empty
pulpit or desk (Bema), representing the authority of Mani as
teacher, was devoutly venerated. For the elect a baptism
with oil, and an observance modelled on the Lord's Supper,
are said to have been in use.
This system may have been welcome to some, because
it reduced the mysteries of good and evil to concrete and
tangible forms ; also because, in its own way, it turned the
world into a parable of the great struggle, and a source of
endless allegories to set it forth. Besides this, it could be
so propounded as to awaken expectation of a progressive
enlightenment, in the course of which the neophyte's diffi-
culties would gradually melt away, and a deeper secret
180-313] MANICHEISM 267
meaning would appear. This was one, perhaps the main,
motive which drew Augustine to listen to the teaching. In
due time he saw it to be pretentious and baseless.
An edict of Diocletian, dated at Alexandria (perhaps of
the year 287), authorises the suppression of Manicheism.
During the following century it grew in various provinces of
the empire, particularly in Africa. From the time of Valen-
tinian i. edicts were issued against it by Christian emperors,
and it was sedulously suppressed. The tendency to distort
Christianity in the Manichean direction continued, however,
to exist, and showed itself in new forms in various later
sects.
In the intention of its founder, and according to the
main drift of its teaching, Manicheism was not a version of
Christianity ; it was a new religion, claiming to be universal,
which had appropriated some Christian elements, and espe-
cially had found a place for Jesus in its account of the
divine plan. But the name of Jesus comes with power
wherever it does come; and in the case of many of its
adherents, especially in the West, Manicheism may have
been practically a Christian heresy. It embodied from the
first the aspiration, so remarkable and so pathetic, after a
life above the sensual. In that form its founder proposed
to find and to embrace a better part. And as glimpses of a
redeeming care and power in connection with Jesus crossed
its teaching, it is possible that Christ found His own some-
times even among the Manicheans.
THIRD DIVISION
A.D. 313-451
CHAPTER XVII
The Church in the Christian Empire and beyond
Broglie, VEglise et V Empire Romain au IVme Siecle, Paris, 1866. W.
Bright, History of the Church 313-4S1, London, 1869. Sohms,
Kirchengeschichte in Ah'iss, 1888. Gibbon, Decline and Fall.
Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs^ folio, Venice, 1732, vols, iv.-vi.
A. THE EMPERORS
In A.D. 313 Constantine and Licinius divided the empire
between them. Both of them at that time announced a
policy of toleration, though Licinius some years later
became a declared enemy to the Church. In 323 Licinius
was overthrown, and from that time Constantine reigned
alone. His victory decided also the religious question.
The ruler of the world became the patron of the Christian
Church.
During the rest of the period three families successively
supplied rulers for the empire, viz. that of Constantine,
that of Valentinian, and that of Theodosius.
Constantine I. died in A.D. 337. He was succeeded by
his three sons, Constantine, Constantius, and Constans ; but
at the death of Constantine (a.d. 340), Constans assumed the
government of his provinces also; and when, in A.D. 361,
Constans fell in battle, Constantius became sole ruler. In
A.D. 361 he was on the verge of war against his cousin
A.t). 313-451] THE CHURCH IN THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE 269
Julian ; for the legions of Gaul, where Julian commanded,
had saluted him as Augustus, and Constantius would neither
share the empire nor resign it. At the critical moment,
however, Constantius died, and Julian succeeded without a
struggle. He declared himself a worshipper of the old gods,
and made his famous effort to rehabilitate paganism. In
less than two years he died in battle against the Persians,
and his projects fell with him.
After the short reign of Jovian (a.d. 363-364), Valen-
tinian inaugurated a second dynasty. He was a good
soldier, was orthodox according to the standard of those
days, and at the same time was fairly tolerant in religious
matters. Leaving the East to his brother Valens, he ruled
the West till his death, a.d. 375. His sons — Gratian by
his first wife, and Valentinian by his second ; the first a
youth, the second a child — became joint emperors of the
West. In connection with the insurrection of Maximus in
A.D. 383, Gratian was put to death; but Maximus accepted
Valentinian II. as his colleague, and ruled for five years.
At the end of that time he was overthrown and put to
death by Theodosius. Valentinian ii., supported by Theo-
dosius, continued to be nominal sovereign of the West until
another insurrection in a.d. 392 led to his death also.
Meanwhile, in the East, Valens reigned from a.d. 364
to 378. In church affairs he was an active Arian; in
those of the State the weakness of his government was re-
vealed when the pressure of the Goths upon the frontier
had to be dealt with. Valens fell in the great battle of
Adrianople ; and he left the Eastern empire in extreme
danger. Gratian, who was still a youth, and whose hands
were full with Western troubles, could do little to retrieve
the disasters in the East. Happily for the State he called
in Theodosius, who became emperor in the East, a.d.
379.
Theodosius i. founded a third dynasty. He belonged
to a notable Spanish family ; and perhaps his occasional
bursts of furious passion, his resolute orthodoxy, and his dis-
position to repress heresy by persecution, were all connected
270 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a-D.
with his Spanish blood. However that may be, his courage
and success earned for him the title of the Great. He
brought the Gothic wars to an end, restored the order of the
State, and vigorously discouraged Arianism. In A.D. 388
he went to the aid of Valentinian ii., who was then assailed
by Maximus. In A.D. 394 he once more invaded the West
to overthrow Eugenius, who had usurped the throne on the
death of Valentinian. After achieving a complete victory
Theodosius died in the West, a.d. 395.
The empire, East and West, had been for a moment
reunited in his person ; at his death it was again divided.
Arcadius (a.d. 395-408), Theodosius ii. (ad. 408-450),
and Pulcheria (to AD. 453) represented the line of Theo-
dosius I. in the East; in the West, Honorius (ad. 395-423)
and Valentinian iii. (a.d. 425-455).
So far therefore the form of the Eoman Empire had
been maintained, and up to the death of Theodosius i. its
dignity and strength might seem to have not yet failed.
But decay was going on ; feeble rulers paralysed the State
more than strong rulers could invigorate it ; and the impulses
which propelled the barbarians into the empire never ceased
to operate. In the West, especially, revolts and invasions
followed one another. In Africa the revolt of Firmus
(AD. 372-374) and that of Gildo (ad. 386-398) pre-
luded the conquests of the Vandals (from ad. 428). Italy
was invaded by Alaric, by Eadagaisus, by Attila.^ Gaul
and Spain, after being overrun by various tribes, were restored
to nominal connection with the empire, at least in part, by the
Visigoths, who had left Italy, and who posed in Gaul as the
allies of Eome. But in these provinces civilisation had been
shaken to its base, and their inhabitants had learned that
Eome could no longer protect loyalty or reward it. Britain,
which had sent various usurpers to the Continent, finally
resolved to provide for its own safety ; and so did Armorica.
Honorius sanctioned the arrangement : but as regards Britain,
the Saxons were soon to come and take possession. The sack
1 The last in A.D. 451 or 452. But lie had vexed the Eastern empire for
years before, and had invaded Gaul in a.d. 449.
313-451] THE CHURCH IN THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE 271
of Eome by Alaric in a.d. 410/ and the devastating con-
quests of Attila (453), resounded through the world as
the knell of Koman glory. Not only the whole West, but
the European provinces of the Eastern empire were re-
peatedly wasted by these calamitous invasions. For the
present the Asiatic and the Egyptian provinces were more
fortunate.
The period ends, therefore, in political confusion and
social misery. But at the beginning it promised well. To
Christians, in particular, the accession of Constantino must
have seemed most propitious. God had raised up for them
a great deliverer ; the ruler of the world was now a servant
of Christ ; his arm had proved strong to conquer peace and
to maintain it. In those days it seemed as if, under
Christian auspices, the empire might essay a new career,
more benignant and not less prosperous than of old. A
hundred years later Christian pens were busy in explain-
ing that the Eoman State was too bad to be saved, too
thoroughly pervaded by principles of earth and sin to escape
from overthrow.^
B. THE CHURCH IN TRANSITION
Christians must have multiplied rapidly during the
third century, particularly after the accession of Gallienus ; ^
doubtless at the end of the century they were still very
much in the minority;* but they were a very compact,
resolute, and growing minority ; they alone, indeed, were
sure of their ground, and confident of their future. Their
progress, whatever the rate of it may have been, was un-
doubtedly impressing the minds of many who were not
Christians. It roused the advisers of Diocletian to try
* That by Genseric the Vandal followed, a.d. 455.
* Orosius, Augustine, Salvian.
* Gregory Thaumaturgus was said to have found seventeen Christians only
at Neo-Csesarea, when he became bishop there, and to have left only seven-
teen of the inhabitants still heathen at the date of his death (perhaps a.d.
238-270). This, like much else told of him, is at least exceptional,
* Gibbon's estimate, however, is too low.
272 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a..d.
one more persecution ; but it must have impressed others
in a quite different way. It forced men to recognise that
the forms of traditional religion were played out, and
that, whether Christianity were divine or not, the future
lay with it. As each generation passed, this impression
spread wider. Enthusiastic Neoplatonists might persuade
themselves that the old worship could be rationalised ;
Eoman sentiment might cling to old Eoman rites, especially
among the noble families of Eome itself ; and the popu-
lation of rural districts, where Christianity made less
progress, could resist the influences that made for change.
But the educated people, and indeed all who felt the stir of
the world, must have had an uneasy sense of the feebleness
of their own religion, and also of the energy with which
Christianity pressed forward to supplant it. In fact every
Christian congregation was a focus of thought. It lived by
energetic convictions which set people a thinking. Paganism,
on the other hand, was little more than a set of customs,
having only the faintest connection with intelligence, and
its priests were mere performers of rites. Of those who
wrote against Christianity not one was a priest of the old
religion. In reference to the movement and questioning of
the age, that religion was deaf and dumb.
In the current confidential talk of the town populations
and of educated people, during several generations, the
moral of all this must have been drawn. They might not
care about Christianity ; they might not even regret the
persecution of Diocletian, though probably they regarded it
as foolish, perhaps as annoying. But when that ended in
confessed failure, it must have been silently owned by
masses of men that this faith, which had once more outworn
the strength of the empire, was like to grow into a great
mountain and fill the earth. The extent to which these im-
pressions existed is proved by the action of Constantino.
When he decided that it was safe and wise to stand forth
as the protector, and afterwards as the patron, of the
Christian faith, he must have known very well that the
Christians were a minority. But it might well be that a
313 451] THE CHURCH I^ THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE 273
majority agreed with him in thinking the acceptance of
Christianity as the coming religion to be no bad policy.
Nothing vital existed that could be set against it. And
from that day onwards no real popular rally for the old
faiths was possible. Those, and they were very many indeed,
who did not love Christianity, yet felt no call to interpose
on behalf of paganism. When it became evident, then,
that Christianity was to be the favoured, and the only
favoured religion, many became wilHng to adopt it, and
many more to let their children adopt it. It was the faith
which had a future ; and now the adoption of it was no
longer to hinder a man's worldly prospects, but rather to
help them.
Of course this indifference was not universal. Not a
few continued to cherish regard for the old deities and the
old rites. The preference might be aristocratic at Eome,
philosophic at Athens, a popular passion in some towns
and in many rural districts. For this paganism, here
and there, a man might be found willing even to die.
There is always some tragic fidelity to lost causes. The
great sea of paganism did not empty itself into the Christian
Church at once ; bu^ a great stream of converts flowed in
incessantly and for a long time. Gradually it came to be
taken for granted, all but universally, that those who cared
to have some rehgion should have this one.
Long before Diocletian it was plain enough that the
churches numbered many members whose sincerity was very
doubtful. Influences were already at work that attracted a
good many to Christianity without subjecting them to
Christ.^ But after Constantino's adhesion, the world began,
inevitably, to pour into the ChurcL Thus a new stage of
her history sets in ; for forces, which had indeed more or
less been operating all along, began to operate with new
energy and greatly increased effect.
The Church's relation to the State is one department of
* So common an experience hardly needs proof. But see tlie character of
many converts of Gregory Thaumaturgus, Ejjist. Canonical and the canons
of councils in the beginning of the fourth century, as Elvira. Hefele, i. 122.
l8
274 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D.
this subject ; but it is better to think first of the Church's
relation to the world.
Various causes now rendered it creditable, expedient,
customary for men to become Christians. The advantages of
doing so were increased, certainly, by a variety of influences,
governmental and other. But the radical fact was that the
ruler of the empire had adopted Christianity, did not con-
ceal his preference for it,^ and (at best) left paganism to
reveal all its weakness, without countenance or succour.
After that, there could be no lack of reasons to induce care-
less, worldly, or unprincipled people to associate themselves
with the winning side. Eolations between Church and
State (whether right or wrong) might be superinduced on
this situation, but this remains fundamental.
When the Christian Church finds herself in such circum-
stances, there must, no doubt, be duties which, then specially,
it falls to her to discharge, with a view to maintain her
character as the witness to truth and righteousness, and
her fitness for the functions committed to her. How far
such duties were rightly conceived, or rightly discharged, by
the Church in the fourth century, this is not the place to
discuss. The point to attend to is that, at all events, the
Church was subjected to new experiences, and that the strain
was applied to her whole system in a new direction.
Fidelity to Christ might still bring its penalties ; but as far as
the Christian name and association with the Church were
concerned, discouragement had passed away and the appro-
bation of society had begun.
With such a flood of questionable disciples the standard
of Christian feeling and of Christian life could not but tend
downwards, and new difficulties were prepared for those
who tried to raise it. Secularising influence asserted itself
everywhere.^
1 Whatever may be thought of Constantine's personal Christianity, it soon
became clear that the emperor took a keen interest in the religion he pro-
fessed, and the same was true of most of his successors.
2 No better proof need be offered than some of Augustine's statements in
the Donatist controversy, all the more because Augustine's sympathies with
spiritual life are so pronounced, e.g. Contr. Ejp. Farm, iii. 18, 14, 15.
313-451] THE CHURCH IN THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE 275
On the other hand, Christian teaching could now com-
mand the ear of the Eoman world. The message of salva-
tion could be made common news, and men in general could
be confronted with the Christian ideas. These were the
compensations. How the loss and the gain balanced one
another in that great revolution will be differently judged by
different minds. Even those who take dark views of the
proximate effects, will not forget how strong Christianity
proves to be, even at its weakest, and what power of recovery
and reform it can command. For the present, at any rate,
it became matter of course to profess Christianity, both on
the part of those who cared much for it, and on the part of
many who cared little or nothing. A great mass of unfixed
opinion, of worldly and loose life, made itself at home in the
Church. And the maintenance of a conflict at the risk of
all things, for the name and faith of Christ, such as had so
often recurred during the first three centuries, had ended.
For the enemy was disarmed; outwardly in the empire
Christianity was to be oppressed no more. In that sense
there were to be no more confessors or martyrs.
These forms of influence, it has been pointed out, must
have revealed themselves forcibly, even if the conversion of
the emperor had not been accompanied by the formation of
ties between the Christian Church and the State. But no
one thought of that as natural or possible. Immunities,
privileges, revenues, were conferred on the Church. The
clergy became important public functionaries; ere long it
was thought appropriate to apply discouragement, in various
degrees, to the enemies or opponents of the true faith.
Then, moreover, the State had to form a judgment as to the
Christianity it should and the Christianity it should not
favour. It could apply influences to the clergy whose
influence it owned, and it had to decide which types of error
called for discouragement, and what degree of discourage-
ment they deserved. In all these departments the mind of
the Christian community, asserting itself through all the
successive confusions, did, no doubt, powerfully control the
eventual decisions of the State. But, on the other hand, the
276 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
State and its representatives, mingling as a domestic force in
the Church's affairs, exerted a continuous influence, both para-
lysing and secularising, on her agents and her action. The
secular life of a corrupt time infused so much the more
easily its method and its spirit into the great organisation
known as the Catholic Church. This cannot be overlooked
by any student. The reaction of the genuinely Christian
spirit against the perplexities and temptations hence arising
is not less deserving of attention.
a POLICY OF THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE IN REGARD TO
RELIGION
Constantine's public favour for Christianity had opened
with a strong disclaimer of intolerance, and recognition of
the principle that each man should regulate his own religious
affairs. Nor did he afterwards violate flagrantly the prin-
ciples then announced. He set forth laws against divina-
tion and magic, but these followed precedents already set by
heathen emperors ; and in forbidding rites connected with
immorality or fraud, he might be looked on as protecting
public order. Towards the end of his reign he despoiled
or closed various temples, either to weaken idolatry, or to
adorn his new capital, or to turn the buildings and revenues
to Christian uses. But in many places these temples had
begun to be forsaken by their worshippers, and that might
afford a pretext for finding a new use for them. There
seems to be doubt as to an alleged law against sacrifices,
issued late in his reign.^ In any case, the measure does not
seem to have been carried out in practice.
The sons of Constantino acted more decidedly. Con-
stantius ordered the temples to be closed, and forbade
sacrifices on pain of death. The law was certainly not
universally enforced. However, from this time, under
Christian emperors, the public worship of paganism was
liable to challenge. After Julian, however, a short period
* Nocturnal sacrifices had often been objects of special proMbition, and th«
alleged law might apply to them.
313-451] THE CHURCH IN THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE 277
of partial toleration obtained (bloody sacrifices were for-
bidden, but not incense). Theodosius himself did not go
much beyond this till about 391, when he forbade the
frequenting of the temples altogether. The temples them-
selves were to be maintained as public monuments ; but
the zeal of Christian mobs outran the laws, and in various
places temples were pulled down. Paganism, in fact, was
growing weaker, and emperors and people alike felt free to
treat it with less ceremony. In 392 Theodosius forbade
all kinds of idolatry. Under his successors in the East the
actual suppression of pagan worship was carried out — often
by swarms of ascetics, who attacked the temples and put
down the idolatrous practices by force. In the West
paganism was more vigorous ; and amid the confusions in
that part of the world, the struggle between the two re-
ligions had various fortunes in different districts, so that
people suffered both for Christianity and for paganism.
The suppression of the altar of Victory in the Eoman
senate, decreed by Gratian and followed up by Theodosius,
was one landmark in the process. In the remoter districts
zealous bishops led on their flocks to demolish temples,^
but reactionary pagans were sometimes equally violent. In
the end many local ceremonies, associated with paganism,
were carried over, with the necessary changes, to the Chris-
tian worship. The whole situation in the West was power-
fully modified by the fact that the Goths, though heretics,
were by profession Christians : other invading German races,
that had not accepted Christianity, took little interest in
the religious question within the empire.
Since the policy of the emperors, in adhering to Chris-
tianity and recommending it, was bringing to the Church
many new adherents, buildings and ministers were wanted to
meet the situation thus created ; and the resources of the
Church could hardly be equal to the strain. This might be
a special reason for the State contributing to her necessities.
But probably Constantino did not think any argument to
be required in order to justify his showing favour, out of
* Sulp. Sev. VUa Martini^ c, 13
278 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D.
the public revenue, to the religion which he preferred. He
contributed in various forms to the supply of churches and
the support of ministers ; but many of these arrangements
were local and temporary. The nearest approach to a per-
manent establishment was an edict appointing an alimentary
allowance of corn to be made for the support of the clergy
{aiTrjpeaioVf avvra^i,^ rou (tltov) from the treasuries of the
various towns. It is not clear whether this extended to the
whole empire. The provision was withdrawn by Julian ;
and, after his death, it was restored only to the extent of
one- third, because the local revenues could not bear a
larger contribution. The clergy, however, still depended
mainly on the offerings of the people ; and the growth of
the ecclesiastical wealth came much more from gifts and
legacies (which the Church was now legally authorised to
receive) than from the State. Chrysostom, indeed, expresses
a doubt whether the Church was not the poorer for such
help as the State did give, inasmuch as the public aid had
chilled the private generosity of the Christian people.^
Constantine exempted the clergy from public offices, such
offices being of the nature of burdens imposed on persons
possessed of property; but he soon found it necessary to
modify this regulation, because rich men joined the ranks
of the clergy in order to escape their public responsibilities.
Constantine sanctioned the observance of the Lord's Day —
Venerahilis dies solis — by the intermission of many kinds of
employment. Constantius relieved the clergy from the poll
tax, and from some other occasional exactions. In addition,
the custom of resorting to the bishop for arbitration was
recognised in cases where both parties consented ; and his
award was made valid in law. Intercessions of bishops
in behalf of those who were in danger of severe punish-
ments were allowed considerable influence ; and a right of
sanctuary in churches for accused persons came to be
legally recognised, at least in certain cases and for a limited
time.
In the legal system of the empire improvements had
* ff<m. Matth. xxvi. 67,
813-451] THE CHURCH IN THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE 279
been in progress from a period much anterior to Constantine.
A livelier sense of the equality of races, of the common
rights and interests of human beings, of the claims of
equity and piety, had gained ground in the empire during
the second and following centuries. These reforms were
guided by great lawyers. Amid the caprices of despotic
government, and the vicissitudes of stormy times, they still
cherished high legal ideals, and gave effect to them when
they could ; and their thoughts were widened by the variety
of legal traditions which the empire included. Im-
provements therefore were not solely due to Christian
influence, — but that influence, too, was telling. A sterner
tone was taken towards immorality ; gladiatorial contests
were by degrees suppressed.^ The interests of oppressed
classes — of slaves, children, women, especially widows and
orphans — were better guarded. On subjects like marriage,
legislation began to conform to Christian ideas, e.g. as to
forbidden degrees, and even to Christian prejudices like
that which disapproved of second marriages ; and the laws
against celibacy were repealed. But this approximation
could only be gradual ; for example, large liberty of divorce
continued ; and it is remarked that punishments became
more severe and savage.
D. THE PAGAN OPPOSITION
Neander, JuliaUy 1813. Merivale, Boyle Lectures^ 1864-5.
Those who still worshipped the old gods persisted for
the most part silently ; but sometimes they defended them-
selves by force against Christian assailants, and sometimes
they revenged themselves on individual Christians for the
wrongs they suffered. The Christians whom the Alexandrian
bishop Theophilus urged on to assail the temple of Serapis (a.d.
391) were resolutely met, and only prevailed after a bloody
struggle. Collisions of this kind were, however, most apt
* They lingered longest at Eome, where they were abolished in the time
of Honorius. See story of the monk Telemachus, whose self-saciifice brought
the butchery to an end, in Theod. Hid. Ecd. v. 26.
280 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
to happen in remote places, where a population, predominantly
heathen, clung to its old rites> 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{<s,
ipX^fiepov KpTpai ^Coptos Kal veKpo6s' Kal els rb "Ay lop UpeO/xa. rods 8k Xiyopras,
fiv TTore Sre ovk ^p, Kal irplp yepprjdyjpai oiK Tjp, /cat 6tl i^ ovk Svtwp iyiveTo, ■^ i^
ir^pas iir oardcr eojs ij oialas (f>d<rK0PTas ehai, rj KTiarbp i) rpeirrbp ■^ dWoiwTbv rbv
Tibv Tov Qeov, to6tovs dvadefiarl^ei i] dyia KaOoXiK^ Kal diroaToXiK^ iKKXijaloL,
313-451] NICENE COUNCIL 333
The question was whether the formula thus built up
could secure acceptance in a measure sufficient to con-
stitute it an utterance of the Church. The emperor's
influence was freely employed to promote this object, and
in the end almost everyone signified acquiescence. A
letter of Eusebius of C^sarea^ to his church exists, in
which he explains his signature of the creed, — evidently
conscious that he might be charged with having acted
against his convictions. Most of the eighteen bishops who
had supported Arius signed; but Eusebius of Nicomedia
with Theognis of Nicaea, demurring to the condemnatory
clauses, . were deprived of their sees and banished. It is
alleged, however, that before the end of the council or soon
after it, they were induced to submit and were restored.^
Arius also was banished, and some of his more obscure
followers also shared this fate.
The Nicene Council might not at once disclose all its
significance to its contemporaries and to those who took
part in it. That is common in the case of great events ;
the actors are occupied with the details and the temporary
forces. But the first general council crystallised and em-
bodied in a new form the idea of the Church : it ex-
hibited the form in which, as regards faith and duty, the
Church could appear, and speak, and act in time and space.
A presence heretofore believed, shall we say worshipped,
found means of gathering itself into a tangible shape, in a
Bithynian town, during some weeks of the autumn of 325.
Heretofore the Church spoke as from the past. Men and
companies of men professed to receive and reproduce her
genuine tradition, cherished by the constant faith of her
members. To the great subject of the nature of our Lord
men had striven to do justice by selecting and combining
Biblical phrases. In doing this the inevitable expository
function, in the exercise of which we declare our under-
standing of that which has come to us, was not idle.
» Theod. Ecd. Hist. i. 11.
* It is more likely that their return to position and influence fell somewhat
later.
334 THE AKCIeNT catholic church [a.d.
But men had striven always to keep the attitude of
reproducing what was undeniably ancient. The Nicene
Council felt itself competent to go further, and to give
a more independent expression to its utterance of the
distinctive faith. The decisive words ovala^ o/jboovato^
(vTToa-TaaL^), had been employed, or had been allowed
to pass, by some eminent teachers.^ But they had not been
regarded with uniform satisfaction, and they were under-
stood to be welcomed by Sabellius and his followers. No
very authoritative tradition applied to them. But the
council chose them to define what it judged to be the
true sense of the received faith concerning Christ. .
This liberty, which is indispensable to the theologian,
is also surely not forbidden to councils. And councils may
be — it is to be hoped are — ^inwardly persuaded that their
exposition is absolutely just. But much depends on whether,
once made, it is held to be final, irreformable, infallible.
Consciously or unconsciously the Nicene decision really
meant that ways of thinking and speaking which hitherto had
been open must cease. Esteemed teachers had admitted
speculation which either leant in the direction of merging
the Son in the Father — in that case with risk of construing
the distinct personality of Christ as human merely — or, for
the sake of escaping that danger, they emphasised the distinct
personality before the human birth, and tried to make that
conceivable by ascribing to this personality a later origin and
a restricted class of attributes, as of one hovering between
God and the creatures. But in the presence of Arianism,
with its created God and its creature God, this had to end.
The contrast between the Creator and the creature must be
emphasised, — and the personal distinction between the Son
and the Father must be associated with the resolute assertion
of Christ's true and essential Godhead.
Theologically, the writer believes that the turn of think-
ing on this high subject sanctioned at Niciea, was the just
outcome of the whole discussion. Whether the terms em-
^ Origen sometimes, Hippolytus {Eef. x. 33), Dion. Alex, in Atlian. de
Sententia, xviii.
313-451] NICENE COUNCIL 335
ployed to express it are the best or the only ones, has been
questioned. Those who do so, object to metaphysical and
non-Biblical terms ; and they point to the history of varying
meanings attachable to ova la, ofioovato^;, vTroaraatf;. But it
is not needful to track all these windings in order to under-
stand the Nicene Creed. The subject in hand determines
the range of meaning. Ova la is etymologically = Being or
Essence; and it suggests that whatever that manner of
existence is which differences God from all creatures, that is
to be ascribed to the Son as well as to the Father.
It can be maintained, indeed, that this term ovala and
others do not apply to God with certainty or clearness.
These terms are derived from our thoughts of existences
nearer to ourselves. Amid the changing appearances and
relations to which they are subject we ascribe to each
object something abiding, its ovala, which makes it what it
is, and is the source and secret of its properties. It may be
said we do not know that ovala in any of the shades of
sense of which it is capable is at all applicable to God.
But the answer seems to be that if we think of God at all
we do, in our thoughts, ascribe to Him Being, and a manner
of Being, which is peculiarly His. We cannot most likely
clear these words of implications which originate in our
dealing with objects presented to our senses. But terms
which have been found indispensable must be presumed to
have a right. It is a saying which carries its sense clearly,
that if and when we ascribe to God ovala^ as we shall
inevitably do, we are to ascribe the same also to the Son
of God because He is divine.
This conviction had substantially prevailed in the Church
before, but not so consistently and clearly, nor expressed so
inevitably, as now it was to be.
But while this may be maintained theologically, ecclesi-
astically it is a question whether the Church was prepared
for the Nicene decision. Was the council itself so united
on it as it seemed to be ? Face to face with Arianism,
from which they recoiled, impelled by the clearness and
consistency of those who led on the Alexandrian side,
336 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
influenced eventually by the emperor's concurrence with
the proposers of the creed, those members who might have
preferred something short of it found no standing ground.
They were embarrassed perhaps by the circumstance that
the course of procedure which their views suggested had
been early put forward by the bishop of Caesarea, and had
been discredited as fitted to shelter the Arians. But it is
very possible that many of them, in adopting the phrases
of the creed, went further than their own convictions war-
ranted, and would have preferred to rest in expressions
of earlier creeds less peremptory and precise. When they
departed to their churches, and found themselves again in
contact with brethren who had not experienced the influences
of the council, a change came for many in the direction of
relaxation or recoil. In no other way can we explain the
course of subsequent events.
Of those who, refusing to accede to Arianism, yet proved
to be dissatisfied with the Nicene Creed, there might be
various shades; but on the whole they may be referred
to two classes. One was composed of men who simply
wished to abide by the language already familiar to them,
and felt uneasy as to the amount of change and also of
exclusion which the Nicene phrases might turn out to carry
with them. The other class were Semi-Arians proper. They
had adopted subtle theories about the Logos, which really
were attempts to find a middle category between the creat-
ing nature and the created. They did not sympathise with
the resolute clearness of Arius in ranking the Logos among
the creatures, called into existence " out of nothing " ; but
neither did they sympathise with the corresponding clearness
of the Nicene Creed on the other side. They believed in a
middle ground. These two classes shaded into one anothec,
and it was the interest of both to find common phrases and
to act together.
Such persons could unite in objecting to the phrase of
the creed, as leaning to Sabellianism. For some of them
this might be merely a good popular cry ; but in the case
of others it was a genuine apprehension. The assertion
313-451] NICENE COUNCIL 337
of the ofinvaia, as they felt, so identified the Father with
the Son that the distinction between them could not after-
wards be maintained. The word itselt* also had had a
questionable history. In using it the council were con-
secrating a suspected phrase.
Some justification for such suspicions was furnished by
the case of Marcellus of Ancyra. He had been prominent
at the council as an opponent of Arius, and afterwards
continued to support the Nicene Creed. But he held a
peculiar doctrine, which was eventually disclosed in a book
written by Marcellus, against Asterius an advocate of
Arianism. Marcellus, as we shall see, did not own a real
distinction between the Father and the Logos. He was
felt to deny both the pre-existence of Christ and His
continued existence after the consummation of the Church.
He had no motive therefore, and hardly a feasible ground,
for any doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
The energy and success with which the Athanasian
view was carried through at the council against every
hostile or temporising tendency, seems to be reflected in
the attitude of Constantine. There is reason to suppose
that before the council began he had been made acquainted
with the creed of Csesarea (proposed by Eusebius), and had
thought it might suffice. If this be so, his change of
attitude, and his resolute advocacy, at last, of the creed
eventually adopted, indicates that the way in which the
Homoousian doctrine was pressed and carried had impressed
him deeply, and led him to think it his true policy to rally
the Church on that line, and break down opposition or
hesitation. This memorable decision of Church and State
— uttered by a new organ, in the very dawn of the new
day, must have fallen with weight on the minds of men.
Yet the elements of reaction existed, as we have seen, in
many minds, and the Arians, as well as the more advanced
and dogmatic Semi-Arians, resolved to take advantage of this
to shake the authority of the Nicene formula. Constantine
was by and by won to their views.
What proved to be at first the policy of the party
22
338 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. 313-451
was not to repudiate Nicene doctrine, but to administer the
Church with liberal toleration for Arianising views ; to
smother the Nicene Creed in numerous formulas less precise ;
and to contrive pretexts for discrediting and destroying lead-
ing advocates of the Nicene decision.
CHAPTER XXI
Arian Controversy — Post-Nicenb
Gwatkin, Studies of Arianism, Lond. 1882. " Arianism," in Real-Encyd.
The chief sections into which the Church divided during
subsequent discussions may be distinguished thus : —
1. Those who defended Nicene theology in Nicene terms,
led, of course, by Athanasius. Their distinctive words were
6/jioovaLO<;, iic t?)? ovala^.
2. The Arians. For them the Son was a unique and
wonderful creature, called into existence before the ages
to be the Father's representative to all other creatures.
For many years the most of them were willing to be
confounded with the next party (No. 3); for their great
object was to defeat Nicene theology. Eventually o/jlolo^
became their watchword; but a more resolved party took
up separate ground (see 4).
3. Between 1 and 2 the ground was occupied by a
large party, very strong in the East, whom the orthodox
designated Semi- Arians ; but it included (a) a section that
repudiated all sympathy with Arianism, and proposed to
maintain the divinity of the Son in language more safe
and more approved than that of Nicsea ; for they thought
the latter to be capable of a Sabellian sense, and in any
case to be too new. These were led, for some years, by
Basil of Ancyra, and were accustomed to appeal to certain
creeds of Antioch. Eventually their distinctive word came
to be o/xoLovacof;. (b) A body of men who either verged
towards Arianism, but did not like to go the whole length
and tried to find a middle ground between Creator and
340 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
creature, or who did not know their own minds and were
at the mercy of circumstances. This party could often use
the phrases of dogmatic Semi-Arianism ; but they were more
attracted by the convenient vagueness of the Arian 6/jLoco<f.
4. An extreme left wing of Arianism became apparent
in the later stages. The natural utterance of Arius was
to say that the Logos was like the Father. Yet in respect
of the contrast between Creator and creature, He must be
also unlike; and Arius had virtually said this too. A
section of his followers conceived it to be proper to lay
the emphasis on the unlikeness, and they did so in coarse
and offensive terms. They said plainly av6fioLo<;.
The debate went on for fifty -six years.
We fix four stages, and give account of them in succes-
sion. The first extends from the Mcene Council to the death
of Constantino (325-337); the second, to the reunion of the
empire (previously shared among the brothers) under Con-
stantius (351) ; the third, to the death of Constantius (361) ;
and the fourth, to the Council of Constantinople (381),
which was preceded by the accession of Theodosius (379).
I. Constantino had approved the Nicene formula, and
promoted the adoption of it in the Council. That was in
A.D. 325. But a change in his policy appears by 328.
Various influences have been suggested as explaining this,
among others that of his sister, the widow of Licinius, who
was herself influenced by Eusebius of Nicomedia. Some-
thing was due, perhaps, to mere change of residence.
Constantine had come from the West, where the divine
and the human aspects of Christ were roundly stated, and
where there was no propensity to speculation ; in particular,
no anxiety to relate the definition of church theology to
philosophical theories. It is likely enough that Constantine
by degrees became more aware of the intellectual world
in which the Greek mind worked, and of the various lines
of thought and argument by which it was held ; and he
might begin to think it wiser and more conducive to
eventual peace to pursue a policy of comprehension. This,
at all events, was the nature of the change which took
313-451] ARIAN CONTROVERSY — POST-NICENE 341
place. Constantine resolved to administer things so as to
comprehend men of different shades, instead of exacting full
and precise acceptance of the Nicene definitions. There
was, however, no repudiation of the Nicene Creed. That for
a man like Constantine would have been a questionable step ;
it would have amounted to the admission of a mistake. But
there might be different ways of regarding the creed, and of
administering affairs under it.
The men who chiefly influenced Constantine in this
direction, or who naturally became his chief advisers when
once his face was set this way, were Eusebius of Nicomedia
and Eusebius of Cciesarea. Both men must have agreed
in desiring a less stringent enforcement of Nicene doctrine;
but the former was an Arian or something very near it,
while the bishop of Csesarea belonged to one of the shades
of what would have been called Semi-Arianism at a later
period. Eusebius of Nicomedia was nearer to the ear of
the emperor, and he was the more astute manager of men.
He had been banished at the close of the Nicene Council,
but reappears in his see about a.d. 328 or 329. Arius
also was recalled, or was allowed to return from banish-
ment. Meanwhile Alexander of Alexandria had died, and
Athanasius, in spite of bitter opposition, was elected to the
vacant see, A.D. 328.
It must always be kept in view that Arianism proper,
in its own name and for its own sake, could have done
little to disturb the Nicene decision. The Arians for the
present maintained their position by supporting the great
middle party, which in a general way goes under the name
of Semi-Arianism in the pages of Church history.
The Eusebians began the attack ; the Nicene leaders
were assailed, but not on the ground of their Nicene faith.
Eustathius of Antioch was deposed about 330 on charges,
mainly, of immorality. Several more were got rid of in the
following year ; and charges of false doctrine were directed
against Marcellus of Ancyra,^ while against Athanasius
* Marcellus really held a peculiar doctrine, though his friends were
unwilling to see this, and he himself seems for a time to have poncealed \t*
342 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH Ta.p
various impossible charges were brought, not theological,
but personal and political.
Athanasius was made to appear at a great council
at Tyre (335), which deposed him; and the emperor soon
after banished him to Treves in the West, but did not
at this time allow his see to be filled up. In 336 Arius,
who had made a confession satisfactory to the authorities
now in power, was ordered to be received into the fellow-
ship of the Church at Constantinople ; but on the evening
before the day fixed for that purpose he died suddenly. In
A.D. 337 Constantine himself died, having been baptized on
his deathbed by Eusebius of Nicomedia. All this time the
Nicene form of creed had not been openly rejected, scarcely
€ven controverted. Athanasius, Marcellus, Eustathius of
Antioch, Macarius of Jerusalem, were prominent at this
stage on the Nicene side. Hosius had retired to his
remote bishopric in Spain. Eusebius of Nicomedia led the
anti-Nicene party, which had not yet disclosed its internal
differences.
II. In the next period (extending to a.d. 350) we start
with three emperors, of whom Constantius ruled the
East (including Egypt), Constans had Italy and Illyricum,
and Constantine li. Spain, Gaul, and Britain. Constantine's
He had energetically opposed the Arians at Nicsea, and lent useful help in
connection with the creed. But in a book which he put forth he was under-
stood to maintain that the Logos, which is the essential Reason of the divine
nature, is not, as such, personally distinct. In the Incarnation, however, it
assumes a distinct character and becomes the Son ; but this is not durable ;
for when, at last, the Son, having accomplished all the ends of His work, gives
up the kingdom to the Father, He is again merged indistinguishably in the
Father's essence. This was Sabellian, because the personal distinction in the
Godhead was explained away ; it was also denounced as savouring of the error
of Paul of Samosata.
Marcellus, like some others, returned to his see after Constantine's death,
but had soon to leave it again. He was in Rome as a refugee during the
pontificate of Julius, and met the accusation against him by reciting the
Roman creed. Tliis sufficed for the time, but eventually his friends had to
acknowledge his defection from sound doctrine. The phrase '*of whose
kingdom there shall be no end," in the later form which passes under the
name of Nicene, was levelled against Marcellus. 2ahn, Marcell. v. Ancyra^
1867.
313-451] ARIAN CONTROVERSY — POST-NICENE 343
life soon ended, and his inheritance was taken over by
Constans.
The new emperors allowed the deposed bishops,
Athanasius, Marcellus, and the rest, to return to their
sees. Constantine ii. and Constans were at least not
unfavourable to Athanasius, and Constantius probably-
deferred to their wishes. But next year (338) Athan-
asius was again expelled from his see and fled to Eome ;
80 did various other ecclesiastics, including Marcellus.
Julius, bishop of Rome, proposed to hold a council on
these troubles, and invited the attendance of the Eastern
bishops ; but they procrastinated and finally declined.
In 340 Julius held his council About fifty Western
bishops met at Eome, acquitted Athanasius, as well as
Marcellus, and reported their decision to the Eastern
bishops. The irregularity of a Western council disregard-
ing the decision of an Eastern one in the case of Eastern
bishops, and their shielding the errors of Marcellus, were
henceforth added to the doctrinal causes of division and
distrust. The case of Marcellus was regarded in the Ease
as an illustration of the Sabellian teaching of Nicene
men.
In 341, on the occasion of the dedication of a great
church, a council was held at Antioch^ which illustrates
very well the situation in the East. This council put forth
successively four creeds, all differing in terms from the
Nicene, and it confirmed the sentence on Athanasius. It
was regarded in later times as an Arian or Eusebian
assembly; resolute criticism has been applied to its utterances,
and the key to its proceedings has been found in insincerity
and heresy combined. But that was hardly so. The council
was a meeting of Eastern bishops, exhibiting the usual
varieties which at that stage might be expected at such
gatherings. Some were Eusebians ; but none of these pro-
fessed to hold the Arianism condemned at Nicaea. Others
no doubt represented, in different shades and degrees, the
^ Antioch was not only the seat of a Patriarchate, but at this time it was
the oourt residence of the Emperor Constantiiis.
344 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
sentiment which distrusted the Nicene way of asserting our
Lord's divinity; Dianius of Cyesarea (in Cappadocia), for
instance, certainly believed in our Lord's true divinity, but
held the question still to be open how it might best be
expressed. In these circumstances the aim of the Eusebians
was to bias the proceedings in a manner favourable to their
own policy, but they could only do so by adopting a very
cautious line of action. There is nothing heretical in the
four creeds : three of them condemn Arianism, and all are
efforts to come near to the Nicene faith, while abstaining
from Nicene expressions, especially from the oixoovaio^. They
level condemnation also at Marcellus, who was still supported
by the Nicene champions ; but this condemnation was just.
Finally, they confirmed the deposition of Athanasius on
charges of oppression, etc., a step which must have given
satisfaction to the Eusebians. But they did so as uphold-
ing the sentence of the synod of Tyre, against the contrary
judgment of a Eoman synod, which they no doubt con-
sidered to be intrusive and irregular.
Meanwhile Coustans in the West was pressing for a
general council of the whole Church, and the poKtical cir-
cumstances were such that Constantius did not think it
prudent obstinately to resist the proposal. The place fixed
was Sardica, within the frontier of the Western empire.
This council was held a.d. 343. The Eastern bishops refused
to enter the council unless the deposition of Athanasius and
Marcellus, as confirmed at Antioch, was held to be valid.
The Western bishops refused, proceeded with the examina-
tion of the cases of both the accused, and acquitted them.
They declared adherence to the Nicene Creed, and framed
some canons to regulate existing disorders. The Eastern
bishops meanwhile had adjourned to Philippopolis. There
they denounced the bishops at Sardica as patrons of the
errors of Marcellus, and set forth a creed nearly in the
same terms as the fourth creed of Antioch. Another
council at Antioch (343) once more affirmed the same creed
with long explanations (hence called fiaKpuaTc^o^). Also
they afresh condemned Marcellus, and now also his disciple
813-451] ARIAN CONTROVERSY POST-NIOENE 345
Photinus of Sirmium.^ But, on the other hand, they con-
demned certain Arian phrases, and strongly affirmed the
unity of the Son with the Father. All these utterances, in
fact, embody the same effort — to come as near as possible to
the West in doctrine, while they still try to win a victory on
the personal questions. Arianising Semi-Arians, and also some
who were Arians simply, might choose to take shelter under
these formulae; but the plain sense of the creeds adopted
was unfavourable to both these forms of doctrine. Hence a
certain measure of forbearance appeared. The West still
continued to uphold Marcellus, but they gave up the defence
of Photinus. Meanwhile the Arian occupant of the see of
Alexandria died, and Constantius, pressed by Constans,
ordered Athanasius to return to Alexandria (346). During
these years the influence of Julius of Eome was powerfully
exerted in favour of Athanasius. Eusebius of Nicomedia
died in 342. He had practised throughout the policy of
holding together, as far as possible, all who were on any
ground dissatisfied with Nicene phraseology.
III. Constans died in A.D. 350, and Constantius became
sole ruler ; but troubles in his empire hampered him until
353. Then it turned out that while some progress had
been made towards mutual understanding as between the
mass of the East and the mass of the West, Constantius
and his chosen clerical advisers were bent on coui'ses which
perplexed everything, and which won for Arianism a tem-
porary triumph throughout the empire. In these ecclesi-
astical matters Constantius was resolute to rule. But his
conception of the form of doctrine which he should cause
to prevail was not always the same.
In the East Marcellus and Photinus were again deposed
as early as 351, a step which could not reasonably be com-
plained of. But in 353 the emperor began to act with
vigour. He succeeded in inducing the members of a
* Photinus advanced a doctrine very nearly the same as that of Panl of
Samosata. The divine Logos did not become personal in Jesus, as Marcellus
seemed to teach • but the unique humanity of Jesus was a subject of special
divine influence.
346 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
Western council at Aries, with one exception, to condemn
Athanasius for the crimes alleged against him. In 355
the same sentence was affirmed again at Milan. Hilary of
Poictiers here comes into view ; he was sent into exile for
standing out against the emperor's will. Only in this
indirect way as yet was the Nicene faith attacked in the
West. Soon after, Athanasius was again driven from his
church by an armed force (356).
Still, therefore, affairs continued to present the same
general aspect as they had done ever since the reign of
Constantine. That is to say, Arianism, so far as it existed,
was content to shelter itself behind Semi- Arianism or con-
servatism. Some of the phrases in which the Nicene faith
was expressed were questioned, and it was maintained that
all legitimate interests connected with the doctrine of our
Lord's higher nature could be sufficiently provided for by
other definitions, and these were put forth in various creeds.
Further, Marcelius and Photinus were attacked, but for false
teaching peculiar to themselves, and Athanasius, but for
alleged personal crimes.
At the same time the prolonged discussions had done
something to produce dispositions in East and West tending
towards peace. But at this point influences were thrown
into the situation which produced a scene of great confusion.
In the first place a set of Arians began to make them-
selves heard, who were much more unmanageable than the
politic men about the court ; in fact, were more extreme than
Arius himself. They were hard, shallow, and conceited
men, but they had the courage of their opinions. They saw
no mystery in God's being, or in any kind of being ; and
they proclaimed broadly and coarsely that the Son, being
merely a creature, is simply not like the Father, avo^oio^)
whence they were called Anomoeans (also Exoukontians,
Heterousiastians, and the like). Such men were Aetius,
Eunomius, Eudoxius.^ Probably by plain, strong state-
* Against them the famous Orations of Gregory Nazianzen are chiefly
directed, at least in the portions which have regard to the divinity of the Son,
Eudoxius was sometimes separated from the Anomoeans as an Arian simply.
313-451] ARIAN CONTROVERSY — POST-NICENE 347
ments they made an impression on that class of persons
which is indisposed to recognise mystery. But those Semi-
Arians^ who had mostly at heart the maintenance of
our Lord's divinity, were now driven by recoil to realise
more fully the amount of their agreement with the Nicene
theology.
About this time, however, certain court bishops who
were practically Arians, though less coarse and more
politic in the expression of their Arianism, gained the con-
fidence of Constantius ; and they began to devise plans for
giving to the utterances which were to define the Church's
faith a more Arian character. Conspicuous among these
men were Valens, bishop of Mursa (in Pannonia), and
Ursacius of Singidunum (Belgrade). With them Acacius
of Constantinople acted for a time. The emperor exerted
his authority in this direction, but sometimes for a more
Arian and sometimes for a less Arian formula.
Under these influences certain creeds of Sirmium came
into play ,2 — the second, third, and fourth, — associated with
successive meetings in that city. The second (357) asserts
the primeval generation of the Son, disclaims all theories about
the ovaCa, and emphasises the superior majesty of the Father.
It was recognised as framed in the interest of Arianism,
but Hosius was induced to sign it, and so purchased his
release from exile. The third (358) verged towards the
conservative Semi-Arians ; for the emperor had, for a little,
come under their influence : it went on the lines of one of
the creeds of Antioch (341). Liberius of Eome signed this,
and obtained leave to go home. The fourth was planned at
a small meeting (359). Like the second, it repudiates all
terms that suggest oucr/a, but confesses the Son to be like
the Father in all things {Kara iravTo), as the Scriptures
declare. This repelled the Semi-Arians, for they were aware
* Semi-Arians began now to be more habitually distinguished by this
name.
' Sirmium was frequently the residence of the Court. The first creed of
Sirmium was adopted at a council which met there 349 or 360. This creed
was identical with the fourth of Antioch (841-2).
348 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
by this time that the term " like " as used by Ariaiis applied
merely to imitative attributes in a creature ; hence they
claimed that the likeness must apply to the nature under-
lying the attributes, and this they henceforth expressed
by ofioLova-ta. In the summer and autumn of the same
year (359) the great double Council of Ariminum (for the
West) and Seleucia (for the East) was held. More than
five hundred and sixty bishops attended at the one place
or the other. It is said that the majority at Ariminum
was Nicene, at Seleucia conservative Semi-Arian ; but the
fourth creed of Sirmium, or rather a modification of it
in a rather more Arian direction, was pressed upon
both ; ^ and by force and persuasion a general signature by
both parties was at last attained. Of all the bishops who
attended, only Hilary of Poictiers seems to have finally
refused to sign.
The emperor had thus secured a general submission of
East and West alike, and had committed the Church to
a formula planned and welcomed by Arians. The Nicene
Creed seemed to be supplanted, and therefore virtually
cancelled. Opinions, however, had not really changed ; and
one effect of the proceeding was to draw together con-
scientious men from the two parties of the Homoiousians
and Homoousians. But yet for some years the Church,
bewildered and baffled, seemed content to remain under
the general formula of Homoiism, — the doctrine of indefinite
likeness. The term was vague enough to cover different
alternatives; and there seemed to be no end of trouble if
anything more precise were aimed at. Hilary of Poictiers
is conspicuous during this period on the Nicene side. The
more orthodox Semi- Arians were led by Basil of Ancyra.
The Arianising Semi-Arians were represented by Acacius of
Csesarea, and the Anomoeans by Eunomius and Eudoxius
along with Aetius, a " sophist," evidently of very considerable
ability, but constitutionally irreverent and self-confident.
IV. In 361 Constantius died, and Julian his cousin
succeeded to the throne. Julian professed toleration ; and
^ It omitted icard rdiro.
313-451] ARIAN CONTROVERSY— ^POST-NICElSE 349
he allowed all banished bishops to return to their sees, not
without the hope that Christian dissensions might in this
way be intensified. On the whole he was disappointed.
The more grave and thoughtful Christianity was not Arian,
and it gained ground in most places by its moral weight.
About this time or before it, fresh movements came to
light. Those of the Semi-Arians who were now known as
Homoiousians, began to discuss in a fresh and careful way
some of the terms employed in the controversy, such as <j)vcri<^,
ovaui, viroaraai^, irpoaayTTov. These discussions tended in
the direction of an understanding with Athanasius and his
friends. Stress was still laid on the reasons which led them
to judge ofioLovauo^ the more fitting word. They grant
that the Father and the Son are ramov in so far that they
are both irvevjia ; but in so far as they are distinct hypo-
stases, they can also be said to be like.
Athanasius had already come some way to meet these
views in his treatise De Synodis, which dates from 359. It
was an important effort at conciliation. He granted that
he who says that the Son is of like nature with the Father
— and also says that the Son's ovaia is " of the Father's"
— is not far from saying 6/xoovaio^. For this is equivalent
to saying ofioLovcno^ ck t^? ovala^;. He still exerts himself
to show that ofioovaco^ is, however, the right word. Further,
in a synod held at Alexandria in 362 he procured a
declaration that men who were willing to accept the Nicene
Creed should be owned as in communion, without regard to
past misunderstandings. It was of even more importance
that he recognised the ambiguity of the word hypostasis,
and granted that one might say, in one sense (like the
Nicene Creed) one hypostasis, but in another sense three
hypostases.
Julian fell in battle in 363. Jovian, his successor, died
in 364. Valentinian came to the throne, and allotted to
himself the government of the West. He ruled on the
whole in a wise and tolerant spirit. In these circumstances
the native bent of the West asserted itself, in the election
of bishops and otherwise, against Homoiism and in favour
350 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d
of the higher teaching. In 369 a synod at Eome again
declared for the Nicene faith.
The government of the East had been left by Valen-
tinian to his brother Valens. Here were to be found
Anomoeans on the one hand, Nicene Christians on the
other ; between them both stood Homoiians who represented
the creed dominant in the later days of Constantius, and also
those conservative Semi-Arians who stiffly maintained their
own formulas (those of Antioch) against the other three
parties : they were now generally affirming the homoiousia.
Valens supported the Homoiians. They were still probably
the strongest party, and therefore even on grounds of policy
might seem best deserving of the support of the emperor.
Disturbances in the Eastern empire, which for a time
absorbed the attention of Valens, encouraged the Homoi-
ousian party (as distinguished from the Homoiians) to assert
themselves. They re-enacted some of their old creeds, and
deposed, or affected to depose, Homoiian bishops. When
the political troubles passed away, Valens showed bis resent-
ment, and vigorously supported Homoiism throughout the
East. His action caused some trouble to Nicene men ; but
apparently it bore still more hardly on the Homoiousians.-
As the result, this party, already realising the possibility of
friendly relations with the Nicene theologians, began to
move still more decidedly in that direction. This was the
main importance of the reign of Valens.
Athanasius was now becoming old; he died in 373.
The three " Cappadocians," Basil and the two Gregories,
became the leading Nicene theologians. They had started
(Basil certainly) from the thought of " likeness," or from the
Homoiousia.^ But from the beginning their face was set
towards the Nicene theology, and now they were labouring
to bring about a full understanding. They exerted import-
ant influence in reuniting those who were accessible to the
lessons of the time. Reunion was delayed by natural
difficulties regarding terms, by the influence of old alliances,
by suspicions, by the movements of reactionary sections.
» Basil, -^. 36L
313-451] ARIAN CONTROVERSY — POST-NICENE 351
Still, from 370 to 380, the intermediate parties tended to
break up ; and the new currents set, not towards the Arians,
but towards the Nicenians.
It was important that the policy of Valens should have
driven the conservative Semi-Arians to seek this alliance,
leaving the Homoiians in the enjoyment of imperial favour.
The Homoiian formula had really no definite meaning : that
was its recommendation : and when outward influences
ceased to hold its adherents together, they proved to have,
as a party, no strong ties, no pervading enthusiasms. Those,
on the other hand, who adhered to the creed of Antioch
evinced a certain constancy in keeping their ground against
Arianism. Indignation and resentment at the treatment
they experienced reinforced other influences which were draw-
ing them towards the Nicene party ; and by the end of the
reign of Valens they were in a large measure ready to make
common cause with them. If, on the contrary, this party
had been favoured by Valens and had been in possession of
a strong position at the end of his reign, they might have
proved more stubborn and more difficult to deal with than
the Homoiians proved to be in the same circumstances.
An illustration of the tenacity of conservative Semi-
Arianism occurred in connection with the doctrine of the
Holy Ghost. Bishops who could have given up their con-
troversy with Nicene modes of statement regarding the
deity of Christ, continued to make difficulty about the
corresponding doctrine in reference to the Third Person.
And when the question, which had been left open for a
time, was pressed to a decision, they maintained their ground
and suffered for it. These received the name of Mace-
donians — from Macedonius, then bishop of Constantinople.
All over the East there was great confusion of parties,
of creeds, one may fear also of Christian manners. But in
378 Valens fell at Adrianople in the great battle with the
Goths. Presently Theodosius was summoned from Spain to
assume the empire of the East, and to avert the ruin of the
Roman State. As soon as he had restored the framework
pf the empire, and secured a respite from its most pressing
352 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D
dangers, he called a council at Constantinople, which met
in 381. The council was a meeting of Eastern bishops, and
mustered about one himdred and fifty members. The new
emperor was resolute for the Nicene faith. Those who could
not be conciliated were the Anomoeans, who were deprived of
their churches without ceremony, and that portion of the
Semi-Arians who stood out on the doctrine of the Holy
Spirit. Their case was contemplated with some regret,
and efforts were made to bring them in. But they too
withdrew from the council and gave up their churches.
The council reaffirmed the Nicene faith, and condemned
certain heresies, among which was that of the Uvev/jLa-
TOfidxoc, opponents of the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
The contest was at an end. Within the empire the
Church was to be Nicene. There must have been many
surviving Arians, and Arian congregations here and there
still struggled with the difficulties of a lost cause : especi-
ally among the cultivated classes individuals might take
leave to doubt what was so confidently asserted as the
faith. It continued to be the part of orthodox teachers
to state and argue the case against Arianism. But for the
Church of the Grseco-Roman world the question was closed.
Arianism continued, however, to be the national religion
of the Groths. Sporadic Christianity had existed among
the Goths for more than a century, but energetic and
organised missions among them dated from a time when
opposition to the Nicene formula was very prevalent in
the East. The Christian leaven thrown into the Gothic
nationality through this channel retained its Anti-Nicene
character. One cannot doubt that this Arianism was re-
presented by some devoted ministers, and it diffused a
powerful Christian influence among a vigorous barbarian
stock. But in addition to all the disadvantage implied
in Arian teaching, it was a great loss alike to clergy and
to laity among the Goths, that they were in this way cut off,
in the East and the West, from religious fellowship with
the thought, the worship, and the life of the great Church.
This Gothic Arianism failed to make any deep mark on
313-451] ARIAN CONTROVERSY POST-NICENE 353
history as a religious force. No doubt the imperfect civilisa-
tion of the Goths was reflected in their church life. As the
result of conquest, or by the policy of Gothic rulers who,
sooner or later, concluded that the time had come to give up
their peculiarity, the races which had received an Arian
Christianity eventually passed over into the Catholic fold.
Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Burgundians, Vandals, Lombards —
all are alike in that respect. One would like to know more
of the type and working of this Christianity ; but if there
was ever much to tell, the tale has fallen silent. One
may guess that it assumed the character of a distinctive
race religion, and surrendered itself too willingly to the
influence and impulses of the Gothic nationality. The only
personality that stands out impressively is the venerable
form of Ulfilas, whose memory was cherished as the great
evangelist of the Goths, and who gave them the Scriptures
in their own tongue. He died in 381. The Gothic
version of the Scriptures is still accessible in the beautiful
MS. which is preserved at Upsala.^
In the long struggle, the course of which has been
surveyed, two parties held positions that were clear, — Arians
on the one side, supporters of Nicsea on the other. Between
them were various forms of expression, upon which men of
dififerent shades of view could take their stand; and of
these men often availed themselves, who desired rather
plausibly to conceal their views than plainly to express
them. The Arians and some of those who passed for
Semi-Arians often acted disingenuously, and their history
affords little evidence of religious depth or of moral tone.
On the other hand, of the Nicene bishops too many were
apt to give way under pressure ; but the party was nobly
led, and it certainly comprised far more worth and con-
science than the Arian. But another party, who were
charged with Semi-Arianism, while they themselves claimed
* Waitz, Ueber das Leben u. die Lehre des UlfiJa, 1840 ; Bessell, Das Lehen
d. Ulfilas u. die Bekehrung der Gothen, 1860 ; KrafFt, De Fmitihus Ulfilai
Arianismi, 1860 ; Gwatkin, Studies of Arianism, 1882 ; C. Anderson Scott,
UlfiZas, etc., Cambridge, 1885.
23
354 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
to be the heirs of the ancient teaching, must be looked upon
as serious and self-respecting men. They conceived that they
expressed the divine nature of Christ in safe and approved
terms ; but they were apt to argue themselves into question-
able positions, and to slide into alHances not favourable to
their best qualities. Still they were genuinely opposed to
Arianism, and many of them were not far, in their views,
from their Nicene brethren.
The Nicene Creed proved to be the line of statement
on which, at the stage of human thought then reached, the
doctrine of the Godhead and the manhood of Christ could
be upheld as a church doctrine against Arianism. But
for the interposition of the civil power the result would
have been earlier reached: even with that interposition,
and in spite of all efforts to avert the consummation, Nicene
Christianity wore its opponents out by intellectual and
moral strength and constancy. This fact ought to impress
us. Even those who may think that terms like e'/c tt}? ovaia^;,
vTToaTacrt^, and so on, cannot claim permanent dominion
over our thoughts, — who may wish to dismiss them for
more Biblical expressions, — may still reasonably feel, that
having (at the critical stage which we have traversed) been
found practically indispensable, these terms have won a
permanent significance. They have become associated with
meanings and references with which the Church cannot
part, and for the sake of which the terms themselves must
have permanent importance.
A question has been raised, whether the Nicene faith,
as explained and defended by Basil and the two Gregories, is
quite the same with that faith as explained by Athanasius.^
It can be maintained, for instance, that some new phraseology
and some new illustrations are put in play by the Cappa-
docians. In particular, the distinction between ovata and
viroa-Taa-L^ is permanently fixed in the Church (see, however,
ante, p. 349, as to Athanasius' decision on this point), so that
now, while one ousia continues to be owned, three hypo-
stases are emphasised. It can be said, therefore, that the
^ Harnack, Dogmengesch. II. chap. vii. 3.
813-451] ART AN CONTROVERSY — POST-NICENE 355
distinction of the Persons is now more marked, and the
unity not so much ; or again, that Athanasius held the Unity
with the Trinity as the mystery, while the Cappadocians
held the Trinity with the Unity as the mystery. It is
pointed out also that in the Cappadocians we find a tendency
to resume speculation, after the example of Origen, on the
significance of the relations in the Trinity, to dwell on the
relations of the X070? to the K6afio<;, and, in general, to
make extensive use of Platonic doctrines. All this, if it be
so, seems to amount to no more than the shade of difference
necessarily arising when new minds are embarking in a
great discussion.^
The real result was that the true and full divinity of
Christ came to recognition throughout the Church, through
an agreement between Egypt and the West on the one
hand, and the party which now formed the mass of the
East upon the other.
Note. — The Mcene Creed,
The authentic decree of Constantinople (381) is contained
in the first canon. It is in these terms : —
" The creed of the three hundred and eighteen fathers who
met at Nicsea in Bithynia shall not be annulled, but shall
remain in force ; and all heresy shall be anathematised, and,
in particular, that of the Eunomians or Anomoeans, and that
of the Arians or Eudoxians, and that of the Semi-Arians or
Pneumatomachoi, and that of the Sabellians, the Marcellians,
and that of the Photinians and the Apollinarists."
An opinion, or impression, early gained currency that the
Constantinopolitan fathers had sanctioned a new version of the
Nicene Creed, or had issued the Nicene Creed with certain
changes of phrase, and additional clauses. The later form,
therefore, came to be regarded by many as the finally
^ I should admit that Athanasius is best understood as holding the identity
of the oiffia in the strict sense, sometimes spoken of as "numerical identity,"
which is also the habitual mode of Augustine's thinking ; while Basil has no
difficulty in saying that bfioo^ffios denotes only specific identity, — sameness of
nature, — as when we say that two men are the same in nature or essence. I
am not able to answer for Athanasius, but I should be surprised to find him
saying so,
356 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d
sanctioned form of the creed, and in that character it appears
(with a further change, — the clause of twofold Procession) in
the service of the Church of England, and in the Roman
Missal. But there is no real evidence that the Constantin-
opolitan fathers changed the terms of the Nicene Creed, or
authorised the later form in its room.
The well-known words of the creed in its later form are : —
"We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of
Heaven and Earth, of all things visible and invisible: and
one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten
of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, true God of true
God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father:
who for the sake of us men, and for our salvation came
down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Ghost,
and of Mary the Virgin, and became man : He was crucified
for our sake under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was
buried, and rose on the third day according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of
the Father, and cometh with glory to judge quick and dead ;
of whose kingdom there shall be no end: and in the Holy
Ghost, the Lord the Life Giver, who proceedeth from the
Father,^ who with the Father and the Son is together
worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets: and
in one Holy Catholic Apostolic Church. We confess one
baptism for the remission of sins ; we look for the resurrec-
tion of the dead, and the life of the world to come."
There is no reliable, no contemporary report that the
council of Constantinople revised the Mcene Creed, or set it
forth revised. It is very unlikely that they should have
done so. Up to that time all the Nicene men had refused
to alter the Nicene Creed in any particular. Moreover, the
alterations are unaccountable, particularly the omission of
the clause Ix rijg oWiag rou varpog — on which Athanasius set
so much value. Still further, the creed is older than the
council. Its characteristic features appear in the Ancoratus
of Epiphanius, a work which appeared in 374 It has been
suggested, therefore, that this was not a revision of the Nicene
Creed, but a revised form of an older creed of Jerusalem (a
creed used in baptism in that church) which may have been
readjusted and enriched with some Nicene phrases by Cyril
of Jerusalem when he returned to his church (after deposi-
tion) in 362. This is the view which best accounts for its
special features.
* " And from the Son," in later Western form.
313-4r>l] 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<i rov ©eov \6yov a-eo-apKcofiivy, ovBcfJuia
!)La[p6aL<; tov Xoyov koX tt}? aapKo<; avTov iv ral^; Oelai^
TTpocpiperac <ypa(paL<;, ak\' earl fiia (j^vac^!, jxla viroaTaat^,
fjLLa ivepyeta.
ApoUinarius connected all this with a remarkable and
interesting speculation. There is a sense, according to him,
in which, before the Incarnation, the divine nature of the
X0709 is eminently and ideally human. Man was made
in the image of God. But if the Word of God is God's
true essential image, then He is not foreign to the spirit
of man, is rather man's perfect archetype. When He fills
this place in the Incarnation, in some eminent sense it
is His own place. The Logos even before the Incarnation
is the heavenly man (the second, spiritual Adam, the Lord
from heaven); Godhead in Him was destined to Incar-
nation. It is in some ways His nature to come among
us as He has done. We are weak and unfinished without
313-451] MINOR CONTROVERSIES 863
Him : we are not, indeed, true men until we are joined to
this truest man. The striking thing about Apollinarius is,
at how many points he anticipates later developments and
speculations.
Those who opposed Apollinarius were not prepared to
meet all his instances with conclusive answers. The point
about free will was not very satisfactorily dealt with ; and
the question, how it should be thought, assuming the
presence of perfect and complete human nature, that the
personality is one only and not two, was not very distinctly
answered. What men mainly held by was the conviction
that the Incarnation meant the assumption of all that
pertains to manhood, in order to the redemption of it all.
Apollinarius embodied fully in his thought a tendency of
the time to think of Christ as one in whom the divine
presence practically supersedes human experiences. That
tendency, indeed, was to prevail for ages. But even the
men who in some degree exemplified it still felt, when
it was thus put into theoretical shape, that it contradicted
the genuine teaching of the Gospels. They appealed to
the recorded life and thoughts and words to bear them
out in asserting the true manhood as well as the true
Godhead. It was felt, therefore, that according to the
manhood Christ is 6/jLoovcrto<; with us. And that was
eventually declared at Chalcedon.
Apollinarius did not leave a very large number of
followers, but they were attached, confident, and some of
them not very scrupulous. Knowing that their master's
teaching was not to be received under his own name,
they were dexterous and diligent in fathering works of
his on approved orthodox names, in order that his thoughts,
at least, might find approbation. This was observed and
complained of in antiquity ; but for a long time one could
not be sure how far the complaint was well grounded.
Recent writers, however, have established a number of
instances ; for example, the Kara fiepo^; TriVrt?,^ among the
works of Gregory Thaumaturgus, the €K6eai<; irlaTew^ among
* See Draseke, op. eit.
364 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D.
those of Justin Martyr, and others among the works of
Felix and Julius of Eome. One among those of Athanasius
has been quoted above. Hence some of his expressions
acquired for a time the credit of having been authorised
by Athanasius.^
B. ORIGENISTIC CONTROVEESIES
The questions raised by Apollinarius did not, at that
time, awaken much attention. Fully forty years (from
A.D. 381) were to pass ere the subject became pressing.
Meanwhile discussions regarding the teaching of Origen
created some disturbance.
In that great teacher's own time, and in the generation
which followed, some of his tenets had been questioned.^
The discussion turned up again at the close of the fourth
century, and it was destined to revive at a still later date.
Origen's teaching, as it lay in his own writings, included
very free speculation, but it was pervaded by Christian
enthusiasm; and the wish, at least, to render the great
articles of the faith credible and acceptable could be
seen even in his eccentricities. Besides, his writings were
a storehouse of learning and suggestion, and his character
had left an ineffaceable impression. Gratitude and admira-
tion were the sentiments cherished towards him by the
leading minds of the century following his death. The
champions of orthodoxy during the Arian controversy
treated his name with great respect. Athanasius cites
him against the Arians, maintaining that his main express
teaching, positive and negative, was good, and that stress
should not be laid on what he had said hypothetically,
or had hazarded in controversy. The three Cappadocians,
also Didymus of Alexandria, Hilary of Poictiers, and Ambrose
take the same tone.
But at the end of the fourth century prolonged dogmatic
^ Even as early as Cyril of Alexandria.
*Orig. Up. ad Amicos, Lomm. xvii. p. 6; Eomil. in Lu, xxv., Lomm
V. p. 182 ; Pamph. Apol.y Lomm. xxv. ; see ante, p. 179.
313-45ll MINOR CONTROVERSIES 365
controversy had produced its usual results ; the feeling that
error was the truly fatal evil was growing, and the craving
was strong for a coherent order of Christian statement,
in which security and rest might be found. Not every
one could fairly estimate Origen as a whole. And men
whose attention was arrested mainly by his brilliant
singularities, could be startled and repelled.
It is true that Origen sincerely professed to hold all
the great articles recognised as binding in his day. But,
wishing to make them comprehensible in their relation
to the world of experience, he had projected an imaginative
history of Creation and Eedemption. It was a kind of
evangelical Gnosticism. He undertook to find a place for
all the articles of the creed in this new setting; but it
could hardly be doubted that some of those articles were
severely pressed, and even intrinsically modified, by their
new environment. And the men of a.d. 390 did not
know how different the conditions for a Christian thinker
had been in a.d. 220. They judged him by the light of
their own day.
Epiphanius (born in Palestine perhaps cire. 315) spent
some years of his early life in Egypt among the religious
recluses. Already he found there two distinct tendencies,
exhibited in a friendly or in a hostile attitude to the
works of Origen; and he was himself associated with the
latter party. He devoted himself to ascetic life, and
returning to Palestine built a monastery at his native
place. In 367 he became bishop of Salamis; about the
year 374 he wrote his Ancoratus, and before 377 his
Panarion. The latter is a review and confutation of
heresies so far as known to Epiphanius, and exhibits him
as a man of sincere and narrow orthodoxy, of extensive
reading, of little judgment or discrimination, and of great
zeal. In both works he takes ground earnestly against
Origen, although his conception of the faults in Origen's
teaching is confused and superficial.^ These literary per-
* Panarion, lib. ii. t. i. 18. This article extends to nearly a hundred and
fifty pages in Oehler's edition.
366 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
formances had procured consideration for Epiphanius ; and
a reputation for saintship, which gave him much influence,
had been earned by his zealous and self-denying life. By
and by alarming reports reached him of the respect for
Origen cherished among the recluses in Palestine.
In Palestine, devout persons from various quarters had
formed communities for the purposes of retired religious life.
Some of them were men of scholarly instincts and habits ;
many were disposed to seek edification in mastering the full
range of Christian knowledge. The two impulses wrought
together in promoting the study of Christian literature.
Far the most distinguished man among them was Jerome
(Hieronymus), who had settled at Bethlehem about A.D. 386.
Kufinus (commonly called of Aquileia) had settled at the
Mount of Olives in 378. They were old friends, and for a
number of years continued to cherish great regard for one
another. Jerome had felt the attraction of the genius, the
learning, and the Christian enthusiasm of Origen : though
he had not imbibed his peculiar doctrines, he had already
translated some of his writings, and during his stay at
Eome had written with great scorn against those who
decried Origen. In the year 386 Cyril of Jerusalem was
succeeded in that bishopric by John. He, too, was a man of
scholarly sympathies, and resented the tendency to sacrifice
the reputation of Origen to what he regarded as ignorance
and bigotry. This was the situation the report of which
awoke the anxieties of the bishop of Salamis.
In 394 Epiphanius found or made pretexts for visiting
the scene in person. In Jerusalem he spoke and preached
against the tenets of Origen, came into sharp collision with
John the bishop, and exerted all possible pressure upon
Eufinus and Jerome. Eufinus, with John, disregarded his
remonstrances, and treated him as a well-meaning but an
unreasonable person. Jerome, on the other hand, gave way :
he resolved to repudiate his early enthusiasm for Origen as
inconsiderate, and he became henceforth an opponent. It
is not easy to believe that his motives were worthy. Appre-
hension regarding his own reputation for orthodoxy and his
313-451] MINOR CONTilOVERSIES 367
influence in the Church may naturally be supposed to have
swayed him. Yet allowance should perhaps be made for a
growing difficulty in the situation. It was becoming more
difficult to disguise the extent of Origen's divergences from
ordinary teaching, and more difficult, also, to offer a success-
ful defence or palliation of it to the minds of ordinary
people. This irruption of Epiphanius into the bishopric of
John had the effect both of creating serious trouble for that
prelate, and of alienating Eufinus from Jerome. They were
reconciled to one another afterwards (in a.d. 397), partly
through the good offices of Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria ;
but the misunderstanding broke out again more fatally than
before. For Eufinus, returning to Italy with his friend and
patroness Melania, continued to translate and recommend
Origen, and in doing so, appealed to the good opinion of
him which Jerome had in earlier days expressed. This at
once produced a strained situation, and bitter controversy
followed.^
The scene now changes to Egypt. The bishop of
Alexandria was Theophilus (since A.D. 385). This prelate
was disposed, at first, to protect the reputation of Alex-
andria's greatest Christian scholar; his most intimate
friends were among the Nitrian monks who studied Origen
with predilection ; and when the trouble arose in Jerusalem
he sympathised with John, and exerted himself to restore
good feeling between Jerome and his bishop, and also
between Jerome and Eufinus. Moreover, he dealt sharply
* Rufinus translated the Apology for Origen by Pamphilus, and issued a
tract on the corruption of Origen's writings by heretics ; this being the plea
by means of which he accounted for many of Origen's more startling expres-
sions. Origen himself had made the same complaint. Then Rufinus trans-
lated the lUpl 'Xpx^v with a preface, in which he referred to Jerome's trans-
lations, and to the praise which Jerome had bestowed on Origen in earlier
days. This led Jerome to remonstrate, and also to prepare a new translation
of two books of the Ilepi 'ApxCov, in order to reveal the heterodoxies which the
translation of Rufinus had concealed. An " apology " by Rufinus and a sharp
letter (now lost) to Jerome began the acrid stage of the dispute. Jerome's
Apology y especially in the third book, written after becoming fully aware of what
Rufinus had published, gives vent to the tone of contempt and anger which
Jerome maintained towards his former friend to the end of his life. All this,
of course, fastened attention on the less orthodox side of Origen's thinking.
368 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
with monks of the less cultured party who ascribed to God
a material form, and he seemed resolute to suppress that
foolishness. Yet he gradually became aware that too
ardent an advocacy of Origen might involve him in trouble.
Ere long something like a monastic insurrection against
Theophilus was evoked by the question about God's nature,
and vehement monks could easily stir up the suspicion and
wrath of the Christian populace of Alexandria. Theophilus
evaded his difficulty by a sudden zeal against the errors of
Origen.^ He condemned these, and he insisted that the
Nitrian monks, including his old friends and agents, should
concur. It was in vain they pleaded that they did not
adopt Origen's questionable tenets, but were entitled, under
Origen's banner, to oppose anthropomorphism. Theophilus
proceeded in person to the Nitrian mountain and carried
his purpose out amid great tumult and violence. The
vehemence, arrogance, and self-will of the man, and his
unscrupulousness when thoroughly roused, were first clearly
revealed in these proceedings. Yet he was a person of
ability, not without theological attainments, and not without
insight into the Christian ethic, which he violated so con-
spicuously in some passages of his life. It seems likely
that resentment on account of opposition to some of his
arbitrary proceedings was mingled with other motives in the
mind of Theophilus.
Many of the Nitrian monks refused to comply with the
commands of Theophilus ; they were driven into exile, and
appeared as fugitives in Palestine and beyond. Four of
them, known in Church history as the four " long brethren,"
had occupied a leading place in the society. They had
been known and trusted by Theophilus, and one of them
(Isidore) had been his confidential agent. After some stay in
Palestine these monks took refuge at Constantinople, hoping
to find countenance there. The Constantinopolitan Patriarch
was John Chrysostom, and he gave them shelter provisionally,
* More than once, in the course of Christian history, Origen, or his
posthumous reputation, is turned out like a bagged fox, to be hunted, when
it becomes expedient to divert the chase from some other object.
313-451] MINOR CONTROVERSIES 869
writing meanwhile to Theophilus in their behalf. As
Theophilus had excommunicated them, John did not mean-
while receive them to communion. Soon after, however, the
imperial government was induced (but not by Chrysostom)
to summon Theophilus to Constantinople to explain his
conduct. The indignant bishop of Alexandria obeyed the
summons; but he did so with a resolution to destroy
Chrysostom, and he succeeded in that effort. Chrysostom
was deposed and banished, though not on charges connected
with Origen's tenets. At the same time, the question
between Theophilus and the Egyptian monks seems to have
been compromised.
It appeared, therefore, that the most important tangible
result of the whole controversy was the downfall of
Chrysostom, who really had nothing to do with it. But
undoubtedly a deeper note of disapprobation had been
fastened on the writings and on the name of Origen.
Progress had been made in bringing it to pass that men
must be ready to denounce Origen if they were to have
credit for orthodoxy. This marks the development of that
peculiar but well-known mood of mind, which in the
interest of orthodoxy demands that questions shall be
settled by a cry. He who will not join in the cry is an
unsound man.
In this case, however, it must be owned that the censure
of Origen was not wholly undeserved, though on all accounts
it should have been more justly and more gently measured.
Origen's defenders were accustomed to speak much of
misrepresentation, and of heretical interpolation, as account-
ing for the charges against their hero. But the main
articles of charge permanently pressed against him are
really sustained by his authentic writings. The facts are
not doubtful. Only, if Origen's time and circumstances,
especially if his manner of thinking and his undoubted
services had been duly weighed, the facts might have been
found largely pardonable. To make reasonable allowances
on such grounds was becoming a difficult business at the
end of the fourth century.
24
370 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
Note
The main points dwelt upon by those who attacked
Origen were : first, his tendency to spiritualise the material
and the concrete ; second, his ideas about creation, about the
constitution of human nature, about the eventual restora-
tion of all spiritual existences, and about the resurrection.
These are the points chiefly called in question by Methodius
in the third century. Besides, the results of his scheme as
regards the person of Christ were questioned, especially as to
the human soul of our Lord and its peculiar history, and as to
the duration of His mediatorial kingdom. Lastly, there was
the kind of inequality between the Father and the Son which
some passages of his works certainly seemed to assert. But
on this point more than others, some, at least, of his early
assailants seem to be conscious that another side of his think-
ing qualifies this one. They do not know very well what to
make of it, and pass from it with brief notice. And certainly
modest men might feel that it was not incumbent on them
to frame a charge against Origen on this article, when
Athanasius had refrained from doing so.
a PROFESSED REFORMERS
Jovinian and Vigilantius have already been referred to in
the chapter on Monasticism. Aerius ^ is said to have been a
friend of Eustathius of Sebasteia (in Pontus), and was still
alive about A.D. 375. After Eustathius was promoted to the
bishopric, Aerius is said to have founded a sect which re-
nounced worldly possessions. They were severely treated, and
excluded from social as well as ecclesiastical fellowship. The
doctrines ascribed to him are — (1) assertion of equality of
presbyters and bishops ; (2) rejection of festival of Easter as
Jewish ; (3) prayers for the dead were useless and injurious ;
(4) fasting should be regulated by the soul's inward condition,
not by set times. As the attitude of Eustathius in the Arian
controversy was extremely variable, it is very possible that
his early friend might share the uncertainty on that great
controversy which characterised many portions of the Eastern
Clburch.
1 Epiphanius, Panarium Hcer. 75, is the only authority.
313-451] MINOR CONTROVERSIES 371
D. PRISCILLIANISTS
Sjn. Caesar- August., Hefele, Goncilien, ii. Sulp. Severus, Chronkon^ ii.
46-51 ; Dial. iii. 11. Prise. Quos supersunt, Schepps, Vindob. 1889
(with Orosii Commonitorium de errore, etc.). Schepps, Priscillianus,
Wurzburg, 1886. Loofs, T. L. Z., 1886.
Priscillian was an earnest Spanish layman, whose real
views it is not easy to make out, and the recent discovery of
a lost treatise of his does not illuminate the situation very
much. It is obvious that he found the church around him
to be in a relaxed condition, and some of the bishops corrupt
men. On the other side, his own piety, which was uncom-
promising, seems to have connected itseK with fanciful
speculations* He ascribed a measure of inspiration to
various writings outside of the Canon which attracted or
impressed him. And as his earnestness applied itself
especially to the ascetic side of Christianity, so it found
support, apparently, in gnostic or semi-gnostic conceptions
of the origin of souls, and of the evil powers with which
they have to contend : the souls of men originate with
God, and have strange conflicts to go through before they
reach the earth.
Priscillian was a man of good family and of culture, and
evidently could powerfully impress others. He drew people
about him as a religious leader, and the circle included some
bishops. The trouble began with the imputation of sectarian
courses, the members of the party withdrawing more or less
from ordinary church meetings, setting up conventicles, and
practising asceticism to unusual degrees. The synod of
Saragossa (a.d. 380) emitted canons believed to have been
directed against Priscillian (though he is not named), and
the features just mentioned are those against which the
canons are levelled. It is also said that this synod excom-
municated Priscillian and his friends without giving them a
hearing.
We know from orthodox sources that some of the
bishops opposed to Priscillian were believed to be very bad
men. It was natural, therefore, that those who believed his
372 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
influence to be good should rally to him. He continued to
find support, and is said to have been himself consecrated to
the bishopric of Avila.
He was now accused of magic and Manicheism, and an
edict, decreeing his banishment from Spain along with his
chief supporters, was procured from the civil authorities.
Priscillian, with some adherents, made a journey into Italy
to plead his own cause at headquarters. Ecclesiastical men
like Damasus of Kome and Ambrose of Milan declined to
show him favour, but the Emperor Gratian reversed the
decree of banishment. Priscillian could now return to
Spain, and his chief enemy, Ithacius, bishop of Emerita, was
obliged to leave, convicted of unworthy conduct. Just at
this time, however, the usurper Maximus established him-
self in Gaul, and Ithacius was able to persuade him and his
advisers to bring Priscillian and his friends to trial at
Bordeaux. Priscillian, after torture, was put to death.
This hitherto unheard-of procedure was at once and strongly
denounced. Siricius of Eome, Ambrose of Milan, Martin of
Tours, all took the same view. The two latter refused to
hold communion with the bishops concerned in it, — Martin
at last making some concessions in order to obtain, in return,
a cessation of persecution for the Spanish Priscillianists.
The two bishops chiefly responsible for the enormity had
to leave their sees.
Priscillian professed adherence to the common creed
(Apostles') ; but his ardent celebration of " the one God,
Christ," is capable of a modalistic interpretation. And, as
has been said, a gnostic tinge characterised his thinking.
He is to be regarded as in sympathy with the piety of his
time, and earnest in it, but disposed to speculations which
were felt to be questionable.
The whole case reveals to us the existence (not universal
but general) of a worldly-minded clergy in his part of Spain,
and also ascetic earnestness asserting itself against this. It
reminds us also that as the Manicheans held their ground
mainly by the fame of their self-denial, any asceticism that
seemed exclusive or eccentric could be brought under
313-451] MINOR CONTROVERSIES 373
suspicion of Manicheism. Finally, it reveals the Christian
recoil from death-punishments on alleged heretics, which
still happily prevailed in the Church.
The Priscillianists lingered on in Spain as a sect for a
couple of centuries.
CHAPTEK XXIIl
Discussions kegakding the Person of Christ
The theology of the Church was now to proceed on the fixed
assumption that our Lord, in His higher nature, is consub-
stantial with the Father.^ This was the common ground.
Yet in working out this assumption through the processes
of thought, speech, and worship, divergences could arise.
Here, in Christ, are two — God and Man ; and these two in
Him are One ; but how two, and how One ? The differences
at this point slowly came to light ; and so the Christological
controversies set in, which were to absorb theologians during
many generations.
The tendency which at first preponderated, proceeded
naturally from the great victory over Arianism. Christ
being owned as first, and from eternity, true God, then,
whatever He became as man, the vitality of Godhead is
thought of as penetrating everything. This tendency
culminated in the Monophysite heresy. Along with this,
however, enough came over from the theological past, and
enough was present in the Gospels, to maintain a conscious-
ness of the reality of the human nature of the Lord. And
a school arose which was to claim special attention for the
distinctive life of the humanity of Christ. In doing so it
was to incur the charge of ascribing to the humanity a
separate self, and was denounced as Nestorianism. This
tendency found its home at Antioch ; the opposition to it
* The Arianism of the Gothic and Teutonic races continued : it enveloped
the empire and penetrated it ; but it ceased to operate on the Church of th9
empire as a domestic influence.
874
A.D. 313-451] REGARDING THE PERSON OF CHRIST 375
centred at Alexandria; and the ecclesiastical rivalry of the
great sees mingled with the theological interests which were
felt to be at stake.
Antioch, the capital of Syria, had long been a seat of
intellectual life. Its Christian history was associated,
through Paul {ante, p. 213), and also through Lucian {ante,
p. 325), with debates, which at least implied active thought,
and also stimulated it. Here, as elsewhere, the Nicene
teaching had finally triumphed ; and no ground exists for
impeaching the sincerity with which the school of Antioch
adhered to it. During the later stages of the Arian debate
Diodorus stood at the head of the school; and Theodorus
of Mopsuestia, Chrysostom of Constantinople, Theodoret of
Cyrus, were among its distinguished representatives.
Theodorus was the most famous theologian of the East ;
and he preserved to the end of his life the respect and
admiration of his brethren. After his death his memory
was assailed, and he was denounced as the true father of
Nestorianism. At all events he, chiefly, developed ideas
with which Nestorianism has a natural affinity.
If Theodorus is truly represented, his teaching ran on
these lines : Man has been appointed to be the centre of
the created universe and the turning-point of its destinies.
When man fell, the creation fell with him : but in Christ,
the second Adam, it is restored. Throughout this history,
the part which man plays must be the result of his own
free decision. By such a decision man fell : by a decision
as truly free, human, independent, the restoration must be
effected. In Jesus this takes place: and it must come to
pass (apparently) in a way more independent and more
simply human than it could be, if Jesus were from the first
identically and simply the Eternal Son of God. That would
supersede the human choice. Eather we should think that
the great decision comes to pass by Jesus, as man, affirming
his own adherence, and his union, to the Son of God.
Through such a decision he passes into that complete union
in which a final and indestructible harmony is attained.
Here ideas and connections of thought were presented which
376 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d
remind one, in different ways, of Origen and of Paul of
Samosati. It would seem that Theodorus conceived himself
able to assert a certain union of the two natures from the
first ; but not, from the first, the consummate and final union.
It does not appear that this way of construing the person
of Christ is to be imputed to any other member of the
school of Antioch : but it could hardly have been developed
without contradiction, except in a school to which it was
congenial to emphasise the significance of our Lord's human
nature, and the worth for our redemption of his human
conflict and victory.^
Besides what has now been said of the school of Antioch,
we may add that it was ethical rather than mystical. Also
it was capable of developing a rigorously rationalistic tend-
ency ; but as regards the representative men, this possi-
bility was powerfully restrained by their sincere participation
in the faith of the great articles of the creed.
It will be seen, then, that special interest was felt by
the theologians of Antioch in our Lord's human nature,
and in the conflict and victory achieved in it. Here they
found thoughts of our Lord as our Example, our Leader,
our Eepresentative, the Captain of our Salvation, the Second
Adam, which they valued as authentic and instructive. In
the interest of this mode of contemplation they were natur-
ally disposed to claim as much room as possible for the
human development, the human exercise, and the human
decision of the Lord Jesus. This was a perfectly valid
tendency, and necessary to the completeness of Christian
theology. Effect could be given to it in an extreme and
one-sided way. The counter tendency, characteristic of
Alexandria, will be described later.
A. CASE OF NESTORIUS
It had not yet appeared that these tendencies, Anti-
ochian and Alexandrian, existed in a form that would
* There is a careful article on Theodorus by Dr. Swete in the Didionary
of Christian Biography, and one in Beal-Encycl. by W. Mbller.
313-451] REGARDING THE PERSON OF CHRIST 377
endanger the peace of the Church, when, in 428, the see
of Constantinople became vacant by the death of Sisinius.
At his election, two years before, factions had harassed
that church : at his death these were immediately renewed ;
and as no local candidate could be elected harmoniously,
the emperor decided to summon Nestorius from Antioch.
He had lived an ascetic life, had become a presbyter, and
had established a great reputation as an eloquent preacher.
He was, if possible, a little too conscious of the sincerity
of his motives; and his whole procedure shows that he
had not dreamed of his orthodoxy being questioned. He
came to Constantinople to set people right in doctrine and
practice, so far as that might prove to be required. He
therefore immediately attacked various heresies — Arian,
Novatian, Macedonian, Quartodeciman — with great vehe-
mence. His ambition was to " purge the earth of heretics."
At Constantinople the phrase deoTOKo^i, mother of God,
as applied to the Virgin, attracted the attention of Nestorius.
At Antioch probably it had not been so current ; or if it
had, Nestorius had noted it with disapprobation and made
up his mind to discourage it. For him it was an erroneous
phrase, suggesting that the divine nature could have a human
mother. A presbyter, Anastasius, who came with Nestorius
from Antioch, preached against the use of the word, ascrib-
ing to it, seemingly, an Apollinarian sense; and when
this created sensation and debate, Nestorius himself preached
to the same effect. There was, no doubt, enough of factious
and disappointed party spirit at Constantinople to lay eager
hold of the occasion thus afforded for assailing the bishop.
But in any case he could hardly have escaped a storm;
for the phrase which he attacked had become one of
the forms of speech in which men held fast the wonder
of the Incarnation; — He who was from everlasting God of
God, became in time the Son of a human mother.^ The
* The famUiar use of the phrase as a designation of the Virgin must have
been recent. It is certainly rare in Athanasius, and one cannot, I think, be
very confident of the text in all the cases in which it does occur. But all
Nicene men held, of course, that He who was born of the Virgin was the
378 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
term has no Biblical authority, and is one of those expres-
sions of which the startling effect depends on imputing
to the Person, denominated only from His divine nature,
things that are true of Him in respect of His human
nature, while yet all mention of the latter nature is sup-
pressed. It is fitted, therefore, to suggest more than any
serious supporter of the phrase intends it to mean. And
when used, not in connection with explanations of the
Incarnation, but as the brief denomination of the blessed
Virgin, it lends itself to ideas about her to which the
New Testament gives no countenance. It stood connected,
however, with the enthusiastic assertion of the wonder of
the Incarnation, and it embodied in itself the tendency,
already setting in, to magnify and extol the Virgin. On
these grounds it required to be handled with far more
care and discrimination than appeared in the action of
Nestorius.
Anastasius and Nestorius had attacked the phrase mainly
as expressing the objectionable idea, that the divine Nature
could be brought forth by a woman. They did not appre-
hend danger in standing strongly on this ground, because
they felt that the only accurate statement of the Virgin's
position was to say that she was honoured, in the order
of providence, to contribute as a mother the human element
by which the Incarnation came to pass. Still He who
through the human nature became her son, was the Son
of God. The " deoroKo^ " was valued as bringing out
vividly that thought. Nestorius and his friend could be
accused of trying to explain away the thought, and so,
in that interest, trying to suppress the word.
We do not possess the sermons in which Nestorius
embodied his position, but great debate arose at Constan-
tinople, and news of the debate were forwarded to other
ecclesiastical centres, especially to Alexandria. Here a
Eternal Word and Son. I have not found the word in Basil. It occurs once
or twice in Gregory Nazianzus, — and not so as to suggest that the usage is
novel. It had been occasionally used bj theologians of various schools, during
a considerable time.
313-451] REGARDING THE PERSON OF CHRIST 379
lively senscation was awakened, and Cyril, the archbishop,
thought it his duty to preach a course of sermons, addressed
chiefly to the clergy and monks, in which he vigorously
defended the use of the phrase OeoroKo^i and the mode
of view it was intended to express. In order further to
strengthen his position, Cyril communicated with the great
Patriarch of the West, Ccelestinus of Eome, forwarding
also copies of his sermons. Ccelestinus played a waiting
game : he kept silence for months, pleading that the
documents must be translated into Latin before a satis-
factory judgment on them could be given.
Alexandria had already earned the character of an
aspiring and enterprising see. Distinguished men had
occupied it, — recently Athanasius. Something in the con-
stitution and circumstances of the Egyptian church seems
to have easily suggested strong measures to the great
prince-bishop at its head. Perhaps more than any other
Patriarch, the Alexandrian bishop had behind him a great
mass of religious life at high pressure ; and that was force,
or could be converted into force. At all events Alexandria
was older and as yet more famous than Constantinople,
and saw with jealous eyes the precedency which almost
inevitably accrued to the bishop of the imperial city.
Theophilus, the predecessor and uncle of Cyril, had gained
a memorable victory for Alexandria over Constantinople
when he drove Chrysostom into exile. To humiliate and
trample on Nestorius might seem a not undesirable sequel.
At the same time the part which Alexandria and its
bishop took in the contest cannot be ascribed merely to
ecclesiastical motives : the Alexandrian school of religious
thought differed really from that of Antioch. Here we
must find the reason and motive of Cyril's antagonism
to Nestorius, which the Church approved as orthodox;
and also of the whole monophysite development, which,
a little later, the Church condemned.
This tendency could appeal to the usage of speech
with orthodox writers before the controversies of the fifth
century began. Those writers, affirming the true Godhead
380 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
and the true manhood of Christ, loved to present Him as
a marvellous unity: of Him might be predicated what
belongs to Godhead and what belongs to manhood; both
being referred to the same identical subject, however incom-
patible they might seem — e.g., that He was begotten from
Eternity and begotten in time, that He was invisible, yet
seen and handled, that He was the Lord of Life, yet dead
and buried. Their wish was to express forcibly the perfect
and abiding union in Christ of all that makes Him capable
of being thus spoken of. So it should be felt that He,
He himself, really became man. The strength of feeling
on this subject led the monophysites, who represent the
extreme of the Alexandrian tendency, to assert, finally, that
after the Incarnation we are to own only one nature, the
fjbia (j)u<TL<i of the Incarnate One.
With these habitual modes of view a mystic devoutness
was associated. It might partake largely of the nature
of Christian piety : largely, also, it might be due to the
way in which the imagination was stimulated by para-
doxical combinations of ideas in regard to the Person of
Christ.
These tendencies prevailed in the Alexandrian Christi-
anity at the beginning of the fifth century. They found
their extreme development, as we have said, in the utterance
and action of the declared monophysites. Effect was given
to them meanwhile, in a more considerate way, by the
great bishop Cyril. He had already occupied the see for
sixteen years. He was a man of exceptional force of
character, and prone to resolute, even passionate, self-asser-
tion. At the same time he was a theological thinker of
great power, and undoubtedly he felt the religious value
as well as the intellectual or systematic importance of the
doctrines which he maintained.
It has been mentioned that Cyril preached at Alexandria
upon the questions raised at Constantinople, and that he
spoke plainly on the theology which seemed to him to
underlie the withholding from the Virgin of the title 0€ot6ko^.
Letters passed between him and Nestorius, and Cyril wrote
313-451] REGARDING TflE PERSON OF CHRIST 381
besides to the bishop of Eome, desiring his support in the
debate which was arising, but professing to leave very much
in his hands the question of further steps. The Pope ap-
proved of Cyril's view, and entrusted him with letters in
that sense directed to various parties in the East. One of
these was addressed, in very harsh terms, to Nestorius him-
seK. It required him, on pain of exclusion from church-
fellowship, to recant within ten days of receiving the letter.
These letters of Coelestinus are very discreditable to him on
this account, that they contain no statement of the grounds
on which he proceeds. Nestorius is denounced as a heretic ;
Cyril is commended as orthodox ; Nestorius is called upon
to recant; but all is couched in vague generalities which
leave undefined the doctrine (as yet defined by no coimcil)
which the Eoman bishop professes to be so anxious to
support.
About the same time John, bishop of Antioch, comes
upon the scene. His promotion at Antioch had been nearly
contemporary with that of Nestorius at Constantinople.
Letters which he received from the bishop of Eome con-
vinced him that a serious storm was gathering, and he could
have little doubt that Egypt, Macedonia, and large districts
in Asia would repudiate the position Nestorius had taken
up. He wrote, therefore, a very friendly remonstrance to
Nestorius, advising him to give up the question about the
word OeoTOKo^;, since it was capable of reasonable explana-
tion, and was endeared to men by usage. In this way the
cause of offence would be removed. John shared the point
of view common to the Antiochian school, and therefore
might hope to have the more influence with Nestorius. But
the latter declined to comply; he owned that OeoroKo^ was
not quite incapable of being taken in an inoffensive sense,
but he reckoned it dangerous and misleading. He was in-
clined, as a compromise, to offer the word Xpl<ttot6ko<;.
In the meantime Cyril, who could act not only for
himself, but was now also empowered to represent the bishop
of Eome, and to transmit to Nestorius the epistle of the
latter, thought fit to prepare the way by convoking a synod
382 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
of his own clergy at Alexandria. This synod sanctioned a
severe letter to Nestorius, in which they call upon him to
concur in the doctrine they set forth. In this statement
they reject various phrases used by Nestorius or imputed -to
him, partly as insufficient to express the unity of the person
of Christ, partly as tending actually to suggest the idea of
two persons, a human and a divine one, closely conjoined
but still remaining separate. To this synodical letter were
attached twelve anathematismi — so many propositions, each
branded with anathema. Cyril had prepared these, and they
became famous. Nestorius was called upon himself to
anathematise the same propositions. These anathematismi
were met by Nestorius with twelve counter anathematismi,
in which he strove to turn the imputation of heresy against
Cyril. The Alexandrian declarations were sent also to John
of Antioch. He evidently regarded them as involving some
positions that were erroneous, and as embodying an attack
not only upon Nestorius, but upon the theology of the school
of Antioch ; accordingly, he engaged Theodoret to furnish a
reply.^ In Cyril's anathematismi some statements occur
which his admirers have had to explain away.^ Hence,
though the defenders of the Church's doctrine have always
been exceedingly chary of taking exception in any case to
Cyril's teaching, this (third) letter to Nestorius, with the
appended anathematismi, has never been clothed with the
same authority, as a standard of orthodoxy, as has been
^ Cyril had accompanied each anathematismus with an exposition (iirlXva-is).
Theodoret responded to each in an dvarpoiri^, and Cyril finally replied in an
dwoXoyia. The three manifestoes — the anathematismi, the criticism of Theo-
doret, and the apology of Cyril — are printed together in vol. v. of the Halle
edition of Theodoret's works, and they present a good view of the controversy
as then stated, — the interests which each side wished to guard, and the lia-
bilities to suspicion and misunderstanding which operated. Andreas of
Saraosata also wrote a book against Cyril, to which the latter replied in an
Apologeticus adversus Orientales.
Besides Mansi, iv. and v., Fuchs, Bihliothek d. Kirchenversammlungen, iii.
p. 477 fol., see good statement in Hefele, Conciliengesehichte, ii. p. 127 fol. ;
Bright in Did, Christ, Biogr,, art. ** Cyril," p. 766; Tillemont, M&moires,
xiv. pp. 358, 360.
- Partioidarly in the third, where he asserts a tvuffii <pv<riic^.
313-451] REGARDING THE PERSON OF CHRIST 383
ascribed to some of his other writings. Theodoret, on the
other hand, in his criticism of Cyril, has been accused of
leaning unduly in the Nestorian direction, especially in his
treatment of the fourth anathematismus. But he obliged
Cyril, in reply, to explain himself more carefully on some
points. More particularly, Cyril explained that he used
certain language only against the pronounced Nestorianism
which he alleged to be his opponent's real doctrine.
As to the real position of Nestorius, it is obvious that
if he was to vary from what has proved to be the Church's
teaching about the person of Christ, he was in danger of
doing so rather in the way of dividing the Person, than of
confusing the natures. But how far he did vary is obscure.
It is plain that Nestorius ^ maintained the doctrine of two
natures and the integrity of each ; that he sincerely rejected
Arianism and ApoUtnarianism ; that he refused to admit that
Deity in itself could be born or could suffer ; that the phrase
OeoTOKo^ was rejected by him on this, as the main expressed
ground, that according to its proper meaning it implied
Deity in itself to have been born of Mary and to have
taken origin from her (which would be not so much heretical
as monstrous) ; also he admitted that in a certain sense, and
with explanations, he could allow the term deoroKo^ itself.
All these were orthodox positions. On the other side, it is
true that he shrank from the language which, on the ground
of the unity of the Person, who is both God and man, applies
to the person identified by the one nature descriptions which
are literally and immediately true only by reason of the
other nature.* He shrank from this, because he thought it
a practice which led to misapprehension; probably also,
though on this he was less explicit, because he thought it
tended to attenuate the significance, and the peculiar dis-
cipline, of the human nature in Christ. And yet it is not
obvious that he would have shrunk so much from the
language if applied only to the Saviour Himself (e.g. Before
^ See Hefele, Conciliengesch. ii. p. 140, who is here followed.
2 This usage is called the communicatio idiomatum by Catholics, and by
the Reformed : the Lutheran c <. is differently explained.
384 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
Abraham was Jesus is) ; but he felt it to be going beyond
bounds when a mere human being, the Virgin Mary, began
to be characterised habitually as related to God (without
further discrimination) as, in virtue of His humanity, she
was related to Jesus Christ.
In comparing the early statements of Cyril on the one
hand and of Nestorius and Theodoret^ on the other, one
sees that on the latter side there is more anxiety to preserve
the manhood distinctly before the mind, and to hold apart,
in thought and speech, what belonged to the manhood and
what belonged to the Godhead. The Virgin, e.g., was directly
and immediately related to the manhood, she was the mother
of the manhood or of the man ; only then, because the man
is one with the Son of God, one owns that this comes to
mean that she is the mother of the Lord. Cyril, on the
other hand, owns that it is through the manhood the Son
of God holds special relation to the Virgin; and he says
that if there were the smallest danger of anyone supposing
that the divine nature derived origin or being from the
Virgin, it might be right rather to say avOpwiroroKo^. But
Cyril's mind is held, not by the nature which takes relation
to the Virgin, but by the Person who in that nature does
so. Cyril brings out the unity of Christ by the assertion
of one <^ucri9, and Theodoret brings out the twofoldness of
the Godhead and the manhood by the assertion of two
i/TToo-Tacret?. Both phrases are objectionable from the point
of view of the phraseology ultimately settled ; both are
pardonable at the stage then reached ; and they indicate,
when compared, a divergent tendency ; — but not necessarily
so divergent, on a fair construction, as to exclude the
doctrine, ultimately accepted, that the divine Person
assumed the human nature, — the Person continuing to be
one, in the two natures.
This is the orthodox phrase, and it is easy to waive
difficulties by means of it ; but anyone who thinks, becomes
aware that personality is an idea full of mystery, and there-
^ But Theodoret differed from Nestorius in admitting from the first the
disputed phrase deor^Kos.
3ia^5l] REGARDING THE PERSON OF CHRIST 385
fore of difficulty.^ And perhaps we may best represent to
ourselves the relation of minds at that time by saying that
Nestorius and Theodoret thought of each nature, the human
for instance, as continuing to have attached to it, if it is to
continue to exist in its integrity, a certain shadow of
personality, a spiritual identity of its own ; but Cyril shrank
from the thought, because to his mind it threatened to
bring in two persons, and so to annul the wonder and the
grace of the Incarnation. There is no evidence, however,
that Nestorius held a doctrine of two persons after the
Incarnation ; though in dealing with the difficulties of the
subject he is more anxious than Cyril to emphasise the
sphere of relation proper to each nature. The question of
his precise view is by no means so important as in the case
of Cyril, for Nestorius, as a theologian, is not nearly of equal
rank. Nestorius is best understood as guarding against
Apollinarianism ; for that doctrine abridged the human
nature in order more completely to make out the union of
it with the divine. His misfortune was to have incurred
boundless suspicion and dislike, by attacking a phrase
which had acquired so many theological and devotional
associations.^
Nestorius himself had suggested to the emperor that
a general council might assuage the trouble which had
arisen ; and in replying to John of Antioch's remon-
strance he had expressed his expectation that if a council
met, the difficulties would disappear. Similar sugges-
tions had reached the emperor from some of Nestorius'
opponents. Accordingly, on 19th November 430, Theo-
dosius II., in his own name and in that of his Western
colleague Valentinian, issued a summons for a council,
^ "Person" explains itself to us by the personal pronouns ; but it is not
capable of dialectical limitation so as to afford means for defining the real
manner of existence of that which the term denotes.
^ The counter anathemas of Nestorius may be seen in Hefele, vol. ii.,
Fuchs, vol. iii. All that Hefele has to say of them is that they tilt at wind-
mills, in so far as Nestorius imputes to Cyril opinions which were not his, and
that the heretical views of Nestorius himself here and there "durchschim-
meru."
25
386 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
to meet at Epbesus on Pentecost of the following
year>
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 <j)vai(; aea-apKcofiivrj,
But the monophysites asserted the one nature, so as to
declare resolutely against the acknowledgment, in any sense,
of two natures. Christ is of two natures, but not in two
natures. So they involved themselves in inferences which
led them far. For what was this " nature " which was
neither divine nature simply nor human nature simply ?
Practically the effect, in general, was to lead them to
explain away the true human nature of our Lord. He
is not now consubstantial with us. If they had been
content to assert simply that in some sense we may speak
of one nature in Christ, that might involve an inaccurate
and confusing use of a word, but might be allowed to pass ;
but when the phrase was expounded into the formal denial
of the continuance, without confusion, of essential human
nature with the divine nature, it was impossible then to
avoid the tendency to merge the manhood in the Godhead,
and to explain away that which is human in the Lord Jesus.
In doing so they took from Him what is needful that He
may be our head, representative, and surety ; and in the
same proportion they drifted towards a style of religious
feeling to which these views of Christ are not essential or
even important. These tendencies among the Monophysites
were illustrated in a lively sectarianism, the movements of
which will claim attention in a subsequent volume.
To sum up. In the unity a twofoldness was acknow-
ledged. Christ is SiTrXou?, as the three great Cappadocians
often say. Presupposing the Nicene assertion of our Lord's
true divinity, Nestorius emphasised this SiirXov^ ; his oppon-
404 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. 313-451
ents wished to give it the gentlest interpretation. It may
well be believed that many on both sides received all that
Scripture clearly teaches, though with diverging emphasis
on different elements. This may be conceded in favour of
some even of the sects which took formal monophysite
ground; there were others which proceeded to feats of
fanciful inference not only erroneous but grotesque and mis-
chievous. The Church pointed out hazards on both sides,
and tried to settle limits of phrase by means of which those
who agreed in owning both aspects might understand one
another, and might avoid inferences leading into contra-
diction. Nor does it seem possible to do more, since the
very words which we must use — as Person and Nature —
prove to be at best approximate, and refuse to be restrained
by invariable definitions when we carry them from man to
God, and from God to man.
It is difficult to read the story without being struck
with the way in which, under the influence of Scripture
and Providence, compensations take place in connection
with such debates as these. For though on either side
unwise assertions or negations were put forward, the fears
of neither side were justified by the event. The one school
never lost hold of the faith that He who was found in
fashion as a man was the same who was in the form of
God. The other school never clearly denied that Jesus was,
and continued to be, true man. Individuals, and consider-
able parties, may have committed themselves to phrases
that conflicted with these faiths; but when sections
of Christianity became separated under one or other
of the contending influences, and so had the opportunity to
reveal their meaning fully, the fundamental principles from
which they both proceeded, along with the compensating
influences of the gospel history, kept them from going
further off from one another. After all, and on the whole,
the thoughts concerning Jesus Christ were not very differ-
ent among monophysite Armenians on the one hand, and
among Nestorian Syrians on the other.
CHAPTER XXIV
DONATISM
Optatus Milevitauus, Be schismate Donatistarum. Eibbeck, Donatus
u. Augustinus^ Elberf. 1858.
It was convenient to follow out to the decision of Chalcedon
the discussions regarding the Person of the Lord. Donatism
takes us a good way back, for the sect originated about
A.D. 311. It takes us also to the West. The forces which
gave animation and character to the Trinitarian and the
Christological controversies had their home mainly in the
East. The importance of those issues was recognised in
the West ; but there questions about the method of salva-
tion, and about the Church in relation to it, came home
with special force to Christian minds.
In the year 311 the see of Carthage became vacant by the
death of Mensurius, and a disputed election followed. A good
deal of intrigue is alleged to have gone forward; but the
parties in whose behalf the strings were pulled neither suc-
ceeded in carrying the election, nor played any prominent part
afterwards. Eather unexpectedly, Csecilianus the deacon was
elected ; and he was presently consecrated by Felix, bishop of
Aptunga. But Cuecilianus was obnoxious to many in Carthage ;
and certain Numidian bishops, who conceived that no steps
ought to have been taken in their absence, protested against
the whole proceedings. Was Caecilianus validly consecrated ?
His opponents denied it ; and they formed a special ground
of nullity in the allegation that Felix of Aptunga, who con-
secrated him, had been a traditor'^ in the recent time of
^ Name given to those who saved themselves in Diocletian's persecution by
delivering np the sacred books to be burnt.
40»
406 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a..d.
persecution. He had therefore incurred deposition ; all his
acts were invalid ; Csecilianus, after consecration, was still
no more than a deacon. This argument was supplemented
by the assertion that Csecilianus himself too had been a
traditor — nay, that Mensurius, his predecessor, had been so
also. These allegations may have had little or no found-
ation: certainly, repeated investigations are said, by the
Catholics, to have ended always in total absence of proof.
But the accusations were believed ; and the inference derived
from them was regarded as valid by many eager Carthaginian
Christians. The opponents of Csecilianus elected a certain
Majorianus, and had him consecrated, as to a see still vacant.
So the schism began. Which of the two was to be
treated as bishop of Carthage, was the question that divided
the church throughout the province. Those who held
communion with Caecilianus were regarded by the other
side as sharers in his sin, as outcast until they should
repent, as disabled meanwhile from validly administering
any Christian ordinance. But all the churches beyond
the sea recognised Caecilianus. The Emperor Constantine,
to whom in this year, A.D. 312, Italy and Africa fell, was
applied to by the Donatists themselves, and he referred
the matter to two committees of bishops successively, both
of which decided in favour of C?ecilianus. Also Constantine
himself, on a final appeal to him to examine the cause
in person, affirmed the sentence that had been given before.
It remained for the Donatists to sustain their cause on the
strength of their own judgment. All external countenance,
civil or ecclesiastical, was denied them.
It is not necessary to recite minutely the details of
the history. The Donatists were resolute and fierce, and
neither argument nor persuasion availed to change them.
They claimed to be the true Church, and those who held
communion with the impure had simply unchurched them-
selves. The arm of the State was called in by the Catho-
lics, and a long series of inconsistent and ill-judged measures
were successively resorted to, — indefensible acts of perse-
cution and repression being varied occasionally by weak
313-451] DONATISM 407
connivance at Donatist turbulence and excess. At no time
during the fourth century was the spirit of the sect, on
the whole, broken, or their confidence subdued. As Don-
atism had the character of a popular faith and was frowned
upon by the State, popular impulses were apt to connect
themselves with it. Troops of fanatical persons known as
Circumcelliones traversed the country districts, professed
to protect the Donatists, and often assailed the Catholics.
It was one of the questions discussed, how far the Donatist
church, as such, was responsible for the existence and the
operations of these disturbers of the peace.^
The series of events now rehearsed may be said to
exhibit the origin of Donatism. So contemplated, it does
not appear worthy of much respect. But very often such
movements represent grave differences of opinion, or of
tendency, which have gradually accumulated and become
intense. Then some accident determines the explosion.
No doubt it was so here. The Donatists represented strong
convictions widely entertained in the African church ; and
their theory and practice alike were congenial to the African
temperament. They found an energetic and fearless leader
in Donatus,^ who succeeded Majorianus as Donatist bishop
of Carthage in a.d. 315.
The African church, throughout its history, was strongly
characterised by a type of view and feeling which may be
called in a general way puritanic. There was a strong
demand that religion should declare itself by energetic
strictnesses and self-denials. Tertullian was in some respects
a representative African, and he may best be described
as a puritanical high churchman ; the puritanism — approach-
ing even to the fifth monarchy type — being quite as vigorous
as the high churchism. This type of character, we may
believe, was powerfully represented among the devout people
* The Circumcelliones represented a vehement Africanism, with religious
and socialistic inspirations, and organised with a view to terrorise opponents.
The Donatists, in their own way, were the popular African church, and the
Circumcelliones were in sympathy with them as such.
* This was Donatus the Great. There was another Donatus, of Casae
Nigrae.
408 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
of the province ; and among those who were not particularly
devout there were probably many who, at least, judged the
devoutness of other people by a standard which embodied
the same point of view. With this was probably connected,
further, the disposition which existed among African Christ-
ians to cling to powerful religious individualities. They
were readily swayed by men who had gained their confidence,
as embodying in an impressive manner the type of character
they were disposed to venerate. There is reason to think,
also, that lively interest in ecclesiastical affairs, — readiness
to take part in them, and to take sides about them, — was
exceptionally prevalent among the Christian plebs in Africa.^
In particular, the great thought of the holiness of
Christ's Church had laid strong hold on the African mind.
This holiness must be not merely ceremonial or conven-
tional, but real and vital. The Church of Christ is the
habitation of the Spirit of grace, — the Spirit of God and
of Christ. Thence comes its own blessedness, thence also
its fitness or ability to perform the function by which
it is to confer blessings on the world, and is to edify its
own members. Therefore the sense of the Church's peculiar
and characteristic holiness, and its privilege, thence arising,
of communicating sanctifying influence, was to be solicitously
cherished. Therefore, also, the actual holiness of the Church
was to be carefully watched over and maintained. The
institute, glorious as it was, had been reared in a perilous
world, and there was need for constant vigilance that the
canker of sin might not corrupt and ruin it. Many African
Christians, accordingly, had embraced with earnestness, at
an earlier period, the disciplinary severities of Montanism.
Donatism reveals the same tendencies in another form.
And obviously, if the pressure of the time (ante, p. 289)
was threatening to flood the Church with questionable
members, it might well seem that the vigilance ought
now to be redoubled.
* Illustrations of these tendencies abound in tlie events whicli marked
Cyprian's episcopate. Whatever the Seniores Plebis of the African churches
exaotly were, their existence points in the direction indicated above.
313-451] DONATISM 409
To discuss the proper place and worth of this great
thought would lead us too far. But it may be remarked
that it proves arduous to maintain positive and worthy
conceptions of what holiness in the Church and in its
members is, and to be loyal to the claims it really makes.
Here, as elsewhere, it is easier to live in negative than
in positive conceptions, — to fix upon certain things which
are, and are to be reckoned, unholy , and to make holiness
consist in opposing these. This is the easier working
method for any mass of men ; and too plainly it became
the regulative method of the African Donatists.
The energy of the feeling that a holy vitality, main-
tained by the Spirit in the Church, and pervading it, is
essential to the discharge of its functions, appears very
clearly in the position sustained so resolutely in Africa, and
championed, as we have seen, by Cyprian, that those who
have been baptized in heresy must be baptized again, because
the former baptism was null, through the defect of the
minister. The sacrament in the hands of the living Church
confers the blessing; — otherwise nothing is done. When
the Church administers the sacrament, the living Spu'it that
is in the Church, and in the Church's minister, passes by
that channel and communicates Himself to the receiver.
But what can a society do by any manipulations if it be
a society in which the Spirit of Christ is not ? ^
The Donatists said. The Church of Christ is a living
and pure society in which the Holy Spirit dwells ; and thus
it is fitted for its function of bringing forth children to God.
This continues to be so although the members and ministers
of the Church are not free from faihngs. But there are
certain sins which are recognised as rightfully separating
the sinner from the communion of the Church. When a
member of the Church falls into such scandalous sin, he
* Successus said, ** Heretics can either do everything or they can do nothing.
If they can baptize, they can also give the Holy Spirit. But if they cannot
give the Holy Spirit, because they do not possess the Holy Spirit, then they
cannot spiritually baptize. We give our judgment, therefore, that heretics
should be rebaptized." Cypr. 0pp. Sentt. Epise. 16.
410 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
dies. He ceases to be capable of acting as a cbannel for
conveying what the Church has to give. He falls from the
living Church ; and the living Church withdraws from him.
A church that cleaves to such a sinner simply reveals its
own fall. Any ordinances administered by such a man are
to be rejected. As a Christian, the man is null, and his
ministration is null. A bishop who is a traditor, impenitent
and unreconciled, is no bishop. He is no longer a Christian.
When the Church of Christ lays hold of men, and draws
them into the fellowship of His life, she puts forth a living
hand, not a dead one. That is the decisive principle applic-
able to Csecilianus and men like him.
It was not maintained by the Donatists that all the
Catholic clergy were sinners of this type, nor that all
Catholics had been baptized by men thus tainted. But the
whole society fell, in adhering to the fallen. It upheld
the cause of the corrupt and dead, and cherished their
fellowship, as against the society which renounced such
persons and disclaimed them. Of two societies that claim
to be Christ's Church, which is genuine, — the one that
cherishes the followers of Judas ? or that which rejects them ?
Following out these principles, the Donatists rebaptized
those who came over to them from the Catholic Church,
holding their Catholic baptism to have been null. The
Catholics acted differently. Following the view of the
Church of Eome as to heretical baptism {ante, p. 259), they
received a Donatist who wished to join them, recognising the
Donatist baptism as valid. On this the Donatists built
an argument. They said. You own by- your practice that
we have the true baptism, that we have the remission of
sins, that we have the Holy Spirit. But there are not two
conflicting societies in which remission is found, in which the
Holy Spirit dwells. If these privileges, as you virtually own,
are ours, they cannot also be yours. " Come, therefore, to the
Church, ye people, and flee the company of the traditors." ^
^ It was natural for the Donatists to clinch their indictments against their
opponents by maintaining that in the Catholic Church discipline had practi-
cally failed. The Catholics had been led to their position by a defective sense
313-451] DONATISM 411
Finally, the Donatists found proof of the spurious nature
of Catholic Christianity in the pressure and persecution on
the part of the State, directed against Donatists, which
Catholics approved and stimulated. So they fulfilled the
Lord's prophecy of a generation of vipers who should slay
and crucify His messengers. The Donatists got rid of a
counter argument against themselves, based on the wild
treatment of Catholics by the Circumcelliones, by dis-
claiming responsibility for anything wrong which these
disturbers might have done.
It should be recognised that a genuine concern about
the purity of the Church, and a desire to do right to that
interest, was an element in the state of mind out of which
this movement originated. The appeal to this sentiment
was the strength of Donatism. But it is plain that the
way of conceiving the matter — the standard of judgment
about it which they set up — was of a very external kind.
And the exigencies of controversy, in defending a party
position inconsiderately taken up, drove them more and more
into disreputable sophistries. Tor they themselves could
not live out their own theories. They could not make
out the nullity of Catholic Christianity, except by arguments
which could be retorted with fatal effect on their own.^
of the evil of sin, and the same proclivity was manifest in their whole admin-
istration of church affairs. This, of course, was a matter of impression, or of
allegation, and the Donatists were not likely to be impartial judges in regard
to it. But from Augustine's way of meeting the allegation one acquires the
impression that in the Catholic Church comparative laxity did prevail, and
had to be justified or apologised for.
^ The Donatist movement required for its defence this postulate, that the
forgiveness of sins and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit are present
and prevalent throughout the Church, throughout its ministry, and through-
out its membership, wherever they are not banished by those positive and
gross transgressions for which the Church inflicts discipline ; on the other
hand, when those transgressions occur, this spiritual vitality departs from the
transgressors and, as the Donatists added, from all who symbolise with them.
Some such external way of conceiving the boundary-line between the living
and the dead was probably very common throughout the Church, among
Catholics as among Donatists. The Donatists made this conception the basis
of their church fellowship. But could they be sure that hidden sin was not
vitiating it also ? If they were to defend their own fellowship, then thev
could not help weakening their own principle by silently assuming that, some-
412 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
During the revolt of Gildo, who maintained himself as
ruler of the African province (a.d. 392—398), the Donatists
were sheltered from the pressure of the imperial laws.^ But
after the restoration of Eoman authority the situation grew
worse : the Circumcelliones on the one side, and the mea-
sures against Donatism on the other, became more active,
and eventually, from about A.D. 412, the sect may be re-
garded as legally suppressed, — that is, they could no longer
sustain a public existence, — but Donatism survived in a dis-
organised condition to a much later date.^
Far the most important feature of the Donatist dispute
is the part which Augustine took in it. In his earlier days,
so far as appears, it did not at all interest him, although
Tagaste, his birthplace, had been a Donatist town, and
became Catholic only a few years before Augustine's birth.
But when he became an African ecclesiastic, he found
Donatism a force to be carefully encountered. When he
came to Hippo, the clear majority of the Christians there
were Donatists ; and at that time, he tells us, no Donatist
would have baked a loaf of bread for a Catholic. He began
to take a prominent part in the debate three or four years
after his ordination as presbyter (which was in a.d. 392),
and he prosecuted the discussion in various forms until the
predominance of the Catholic Church in Africa rendered
further effort unnecessary.
Augustine's was a mind perfectly disposed to engage
how or other, the fatal transgressions may be committed by ministers of the
Church and yet do not hinder the communication of her life, unless they
become in some measure manifest. But this modification of their theory
would have weakened the attack on the Catholic fellowship. Therefore it had
to be withdrawn or veiled.
^ During this time there may have been some oppression of individual
Catholics, and insufficient protection against the Circumcelliones, but from
the answer of Augustine to the first book of Petilianus it does not appear that
the Catholics had to complain of much persecution. Near the end of Gildo's
usurpation one sees, from Augustine's conference with Fortunus of Tubursica
(397), that apprehension of persecution from the Catholic side existed among
the Donatists. And a few years after, about 403, symptoms of intense strain
as between the parties are visible.
^ Tillemont, M&n., vol. vi., last chapter.
313-4r.l] DONATISM 413
with predilection in such a controversy, and the position he
was to take up had long been clear to him. His theory of
the Church, and his advocacy of Catholic practice in con-
nection with it, are of course the main points. In addition,
he made large and successful use of the reductio ad
absurdum. For tlie Donatists had laid hold of good strong
principles, sufi&cient, if admitted, to make havoc of the
Catholic positions; but these Augustine retorted upon
themselves with fatal effect.^
Of more permanent interest are the principles whicli
formed his theory of the Church.
The necessity of baptism to salvation was generally held,
and Augustine held it. That necessity was qualified by
some exceptions, but was imperative in general. That men,
not yet baptized, who suffered death as martyrs, were in
effect christened in their own blood was everywhere believed,
and Augustine believed it. He went further, and admitted
that lack of baptism would not be imputed to those who
seriously designed to be baptized, but who, through no fault
^ See the books eontr. LiU. Petiliani, or almost any of the Donatist
writings: — e.g. "There have been traditors among yourselves, — how is the
world to be sure that you have expelled all of them, any more than that we
have expelled all ours ? " ** There are some among you, as among us, who have
received baptism, being secretly impenitent and living in sin, — why do you not
rebaptize them when the case is discovered ? " ** There are some of you who,
after being baptized, have gone from your communion into other sects which
you reckon impure. You say that by that step those persons lost all that
their baptism bestowed upon them, — why do you not baptize them over again
when they come back to you?" "Some time ago a party of your people
separated from you under Maximinianus ; you said they were schismatics ;
you said they were separated from Christ and from the Spirit ; in that state
they baptized many catechumens ; by and by they came back to you in a
body, — why did you not rebaptize those converts of theirs, whom, when they
baptized them, to use your own language, * their own impure consciences
disabled them from really purifying ' ?" "There are among you, as among
us, for neither party can help it, bishops and presbyters whose lives are fair
enough to man's view, but who in God's sight are ungodly men. What
becomes of those who in your communion are baptized by such men? Are
they after all unbaptized 1 " Points like these are pressed with unwearied
pertinacity, and in every shape rhetorical skill could suggest. On the whole,
Augustine treats his Donatist opponents with a fair measure of courtesy ; but
now and then his contempt for their dialectical weakness breaks through in a
sentence or two of satirical banter, e.g. c. LiU. Petiliani, i. c. v.
414 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
of their own, died before the administration.^ But he would
not have admitted an exception, e.g. in the case of a member
of the Society of Friends, persuaded that baptism with water
ought not now to be administered.
Baptism, then, is necessary ; yet, on the other hand, it is
not inseparably joined to the blessings which it holds forth,
i.e. to remission and regeneration. " Baptism is one thing,
conversion of the heart is another : man's salvation is made
complete through the two together." ^ A man may be
baptized, and yet may be destitute of the spiritual blessing.
Since this is so, Augustine finally owns it to be difficult to
say what the intrinsic effect of the outward administration is.^
It must be something very important, but what ? Out of this
" what " was developed the doctrine of sacramental character.
However, whatever it does, and whatever the manner of
its working, the efficacy of baptism in no degree depends on
the administrator. If in substance it is administered accord-
ing to Christ's institution, then it is Christ's ordinance, and
whatever is done by it, He does it. The administrator may
be a secretly bad man, or a man known to be bad, he may
be a schismatic or a heretic. The validity of the sacrament
is not affected. It is wrong to seek Christian ordinances
from heretics, but even in their hands baptism is Christ's
baptism. Much more, the believer within the Catholic
Church is not called upon to burden his conscience with
questions about the spiritual condition of the baptizer.
" Let the man's whole hope be in Christ ; for it is written.
Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man. It is always
Christ that justifies the ungodly ; it is always from Christ
that faith is given ; Christ always is the origin of the
regenerate man, and the head of the Church." *
^ This position is avowed in the writings against Donatism. It is not
obviously consistent with the position about unbaptized infants maintained
in the Pelagian controversy, but it is possible to hold both.
2 De Ba;'t. iv. c. xxv. ^ Ibid. iv. c. xxiii.
* O. Pet. i. e. vi. As baptism thus administered, even if in heresy, is still
Christ's, so Augustine boldly asserts it is still the Church's. This meets
Cyprian's argument that only the Church can be the true mother of Christians.
See de Bapt. i. c. xv.
313-451] DONATISM 416
Baptism administered in the heretical sects is effectually
and really baptism. But as outward baptism, administered
in the best of circumstances, is not always accompanied by
the spiritual blessings, so in these circumstances it never is.
Baptism, for instance, is for remission of sins ; but in the
case of a man baptized in a heretical sect, either that
remission never rea^ches him, or if it comes, it immediately
departs again. For Augustine held the unity of the external
Church : there is one authentic society, to be in communion
with which is necessary to salvation. Outside of it spiritual
life either does not exist or, if it comes, it presently dies again.
The Donatists held the same doctrine, but they
grounded it and they applied it differently. They argued
on the necessity of being in external organic union with
that which they held to be the living society. Hence the
interposition, in ministration of baptism, of a scandalous
ecclesiastic breaks the conductor by which the electric
influence should pass, and the man remains unbaptized and
dead. Augustine's thinking was on other lines : the out-
ward condition, baptism, may be fulfilled whenever and
however administered. Also the inward conditions may be
brought to pass under the influence of the Spirit, whatever
agency brings the gospel to bear upon the soul, e.g. in a
heretical meeting. Yet there is one external society, to be
in communion with which is essential to life and salvation.
And Augustine sought to find a reason for this necessity,
which should be moral and not mechanical. It had already
been advanced by Cyprian ; ^ and the later writer worked it
skilfully into his own system. He who forsakes the Church,
or who fails to reunite himself with the Church, breaks
charity. He denies the very central grace. He takes up a
position of pride, ceusoriousness, ill-will. He refuses to
bear the burden, and to be patient with the offences which,
in the Church, Christ and His people endure together. A
man may be truly converted outside of the Church ; but the
effect of that conversion will be to bring him penitently
back to the Church. If he withstand that tendency, he
* De Unitate, c. 9. 15.
416 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
withstands the grace that saves, and chooses to abide in
death. " When it is said that the Holy Spirit is given only
in the Catholic Church, I suppose our ancestors {i.e. Cyprian
and his fellow bishops) meant that we should understand
thereby what the Apostle says, — ' because the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given
to us/ This very love is that which is wanting in all who
are cut off from the communion of the Catholic Church ; and
for want of it, though they * speak with the tongues of men
and angels ... it profiteth them nothing.' This is the
charity which covereth the multitude of sins. And it is the
especial gift of the Catholic unity and peace." ^ Obviously
the assumption here made is both presumptuous and pre-
carious. It is that outward separation necessarily and
always implies an inward revolt from the love of God, and
an uncharitable renunciation of what is due to the brethren.
That is a fatally wide assumption, and in trying to make it
good Cyprian and Augustine, and all who follow them, have
been obliged themselves to sin against charity and justice.
But the principle which Augustine wields with the
greatest energy of all in this department, is that of the
distinction between the living and the dead, between the
godly and the ungodly, in the Catholic Church itself. No
Christian, perhaps, had ever denied that distinction ; and no
party claiming the position and privileges of the Church
could pretend that there were no ungodly persons among
themselves, however much they might be disposed to de-
nounce the impurity of other communions. But Augustine
far more intensely apprehended the significance of that
great unseen perpetual cleft in the Church of Christ as she
is embodied in the earth. And he connected his recognition
of it with a far more vivid conception of the essential
contrast — of what, to the Lord's eye, makes the differ-
ence — between the godly man and the ungodly. We
have seen him contending that whatever is conferred by
mere authentic administration of sacraments, may be con-
ferred and may be received by those who are strangers to
* De Bapi, iii. c xri.
313-461] DONATISM 417
tlie spiritual blessings for the sake of which sacraraenta
were instituted.^ But he carries out this argument by
maintaining that persons so situated are all of them foreign
to Christ's Church, aliens and strangers, as truly as are the
heretics and the schismatics themselves. They may be in
unchallenged communion with the Catholic Church, they
may be presbyters or bishops, they may be in high repute
for piety with men; but in truth they are not of the
Church of Christ, and that shall be made plain in due time.
No part of Augustine's argument is enforced with such
energy as this. Cyprian, maintaining the nullity of heretical
baptism, had argued that heretics are enemies and anti-
christs. Therefore their pretended ordinances are null,
and their disciples, when they return to the Catholic unity,
should be baptized with the one baptism, that they may be
made friends and Christians. " The very same," rejoins
Augustine, "may be said of all unrighteous men who are
in the communion of the Catholic Church. They only
really come to the Church who pass to Christ from the
party of the devil, who build on the rock, who are incor-
porated with the dove, who are placed in safety in the
garden enclosed and fountain sealed; but none are found
there who live contrary to the precepts of Christ, whatever
they may seem to be." ^ " Heretics and schismatics are only
more openly, not more really, outside of the Church which
is glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing." ^
Cyprian had said that heretics might baptize, if they could
be shown to be " devoted to the Church, and appointed in
the Church." "But neither," says Augustine, "are they
devoted to the Church who seem to be within, yet live
contrary to Christ, acting against His commandments : they
do not in any way belong to that Church which He so
purifies by the washing of water as to present it to Himself
a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle. Now, if so, they
are not in the Church of which it is said. My dove is but
one, she is the only one of her mother." *
^ See also c. Pet. ii. cap. 104 fin. * De Bapt. vii. c. xli.
• Ihid. iii. c. xviii * Ibid. iv. c. iii.
27
418 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
It is one thing to admit this, every sect meanwhile
trying to minimise its own concern in it; it is another
thing to give effect to it in the vigorous manner of Augus-
tine. It tended to dispel the fatal confusion between the
inward and the outward in Christianity ; all the more be-
cause Augustine pointed out so vigorously the vital peculi-
arities of Christian life as distinguished from all mere
methodism of Christian living. A tendency was widely
prevalent to cherish large and vague assumptions as to the
Christian benefit that might be conceived to arise in virtue
of being in the authentic Church, even to careless people, if
they were not chargeable with gross offences. And Augus-
tine, of course, held that to be even outwardly in the fellow-
ship of the Catholic Church was a privilege as well as a
duty. " The tares that are within may be converted into
wheat more easily than the tares that are without." Nay,
there are sentences ^ in which he seems to admit the idea
of salvation, in the Church, for a class of persons who are
not quite in inward fellowship with the Lord, but who have
their faces turned that way. In general, however, the
vigorous wielding of the great distinction now in view
unquestionably was fitted to press home the conviction
that nothing will avail us, unless there be present that
regeneration which he describes as " being renovated from
the corruption of the old man." ^
One way in which Augustine identified that one Catholic
communion which in his view contains, embodies, and repre-
sents the true Church, though it is not identical with it, is
to point to the extent of the Catholic Church as spreading
over the whole world. This is a great point against the
Donatists. He pleads, in connection with it, all the promises
which declare that the world shall be Christ's, that the
kingdom shall be visible, as a city set on a hill, and the like.
Petilian, speaking of Catholic persecution, says, "You cry
Peace, Peace, but where is your peace ? " Augustine replies,
" If you ask where peace is to be found, open your eyes to
see the city which cannot be hidden, because it is built on a
1 De Bapt. i. 15, iii. 18. ^ ^^ j^ q^ ^i.
313-451] DONATISM 419
hill, and the mountain which grows out of a small stone and
fills the whole earth. But when the same question is asked of
you, what will you say ? Will you show the party of Donatus,
unknown to the countless nations to whom Christ is known ?
That, surely, is not the city which cannot be hid ; and whence
is this but because it is not founded on the mountain ? " ^
The treatment of the Donatists varied with the im-
pulses and the difficulties of the Government. On the other
side, the Donatists, while they complained bitterly of per-
secution, seem to have been ready enough to welcome the
aid of State force when the possibility of such a thing
seemed to open ; and if the CathoHcs may be believed, they
showed no disposition to restrain the violence of the Cir-
cumcelliones, although the more quiet and settled Donatists
disclaimed responsibility for those proceedings. Augustine,
indeed, declares that the Catholics would not have found it
possible to live in the country districts if the Donatists in
the towns had not been treated as hostages for their security.
At length, about A.D. 410, edicts were issued by Hono-
rius, authorising the suppression of the sect by force, and
from that time measures for the purpose were systematically
followed out. Augustine had originally been against this
course. He had maintained that pains and penalties ought
not to be applied in order to bring dissidents to the Church.
He had claimed only that insult and outrage, inflicted on
Catholics by Donatists, should be put down ; and this he
supposed could be effected by fining prominent Donatists
whenever injury was done to Catholics. But the Govern-
ment, as we have seen, under other advice, adopted the more
stringent course. And Augustine, observing that these
* C. Pet. ii. xiii. This was cogent reasoning when, by the conditions of
argument, accepted on both sides, one or other, Donatists or Catholics, must
be, and be exclusively, Christ's only Church on earth, — not to speak of the
precarious grounds on which the Donatists unchurched the Christians of the
whole world. But one does not feel sure that Augustine himself would have
used the argument so confidently had the case been that of a part of Christen-
dom, which, without unchurching the rest, saw fit to take a diverging view of
some point of doctrine or practice, even if the effect were that commuuion was
suspended on both sides.
420 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
measiu'es seemed to be successful, — for he tells us that great
numbers of Donatists came over, and that they often con-
fessed they were glad to be rid of their old connection,
though they would hardly have quitted it of their own
accord, — became the advocate of persecution.^ In support
of it he quoted the Scriptures bearing on the ministry due
from kings to the cause of God, and he elevated into a
mournful historical significance the text, " Compel them to
come in." He thus became, by precept and example, the
supporter of a principle that is really diabolical ; and he gave
it an authority for the after age which the Keformation
itself did not bring into question. It was the more easy for
him to be misled, because in certain circumstances persecu-
tion works with great success of a certain kind; and the
case of the Donatists is an illustration. When men have
driven their own principle to extravagance, — when they have
wearied themselves with the monotony of their unreasonable-
ness, and when they have begun to feel the pressure of
counter principles more profoundly conceived and more skil-
fully applied, — then sharp and resolute persecution some-
times precipitates a crisis, and people prove not unwilling to
be driven into the new fold, though they would be slow to
move spontaneously. It appeared to be so here, and yet it
is questionable how far it really was so. Enough of pathetic
indignation and despair appeared among the Donatists to
have suggested a doubt concerning the measures which led
to these results. They did not suggest such doubt to
Augustine, who was capable of a certain hardness when his
religious logic had sanctioned a line for him to walk in. But
the storm which burst on Africa as his life was closing was
not improbably a result in some degree, and so a punishment,
of that mistaken policy. There is reason to believe that the
progress of the Vandals was facilitated by a spirit of sedition
against Eoman rule which was abroad in Africa. And into
this there entered doubtless, as an element, the hatred and
revenge of the trampled and humiliated Donatists.^
^ De Oorrectione Donatistarum.
' Far too much has been made of the conduct of the Circumcelliones at
313-451] DONATISM 421
It must be remembered, however, that at all events
Augustiue was not slack in employing more legitimate means
of persuasion. Preaching, writing, private conference, public
debate — he was eager for them all, and into all he threw
his heart and his genius as well as his debating power. He
had long been using these means ere he came to the con-
clusion that the co-operation of persecution was a desirable
agency in addition.
This legitimate zeal, besides exhausting itself in various
forms of prose, overflowed into verse. Augustine as a rhe-
torician had practised classic versification and set many a
theme for such verse to pupils; but that style would not
have suited the Africans. Something more fitted to the
genius of the people and of the Latin language seemed to
be required, and the cadence and swing of the verses
written by Augustine on this subject were no doubt suggested
by what he believed to be the demands of the popular ear.
They may be regarded, therefore, as illustrating the conditions
under which, as the lower empire was merged in barbarian
kingdoms, the classic metres gave way, for religious purposes,
to styles of verse governed by quite different laws.^
affording &n explanation of, and so an apology for, the course taken by
Augustine. This will not do. Certainly the conduct of the Circumcelliones
called for counter measures ; and, no doubt, Augustine, in arguing with the
Donatists and dealing with their complaints of pesecution, casts up to them
the violence of the Circumcelliones as a quid pro quo. But Augustine dis-
tinguished perfectly between merely suppressing the Circumcelliones and
oppressing the Donatists generally. He knew very well, also, that multitudes
of Donatists were in no sense Circumcelliones. He advisedly argues the case
on grounds which would equally apply if no Catholic had ever been assailed.
He arrived at this view, approved of it in practice, and defended it in debate.
Undoubtedly the complex case did present, on the Donatist side, so much of
violence and unreasonableness as to afford a palliation. But supposing the
case to have been otlierwise, I doubt whether Augustine, arriving at his
conclusion by the line of argument he describes, would have flinched merely
because the heretics were inolTensive.
^ 0pp. vol. ix. , Psalmus contra partem Donati. None of the later Christian
hymns were modelled on these rough verses of Augustine ; but the latter
resemble the former in so far as feet dependent on quantity are superseded by
accented measures. In fact the swing of Augustine's verse reminds one of
some of our own Saxon rhymes.
CHAPTER XXV
Ecclesiastical Personages of Fourth Century
1. EusEBius was bishop of Csesarea from a.d. 313 to 340.
He may have been a native of that city, and was born
probably about A.D. 260. He became celebrated as the
most learned Christian of his time, and as the most pro-
ductive writer. He is the father of Church history, and has
preserved notices of facts, books, and personages which, but
for his labours, must have remained in darkness. But he
laboured in many fields. Bishop Lightfoot (in the Diet
Christ. Biog. ii. p. 319) has furnished a minute discussion of
his work under the heads. Historical, Apologetic, Critical and
Exegetical, Doctrinal, Orations, Letters : numbering forty-one
distinct articles. Csesarea had become the seat of a notable
library; so had Jerusalem, which was not far off; and both
furnished Eusebius with copious opportunity for study.
Csesarea had also been the home of Origen in his later
years ; and Eusebius was associated with Pamphilus, the
scholar and champion of Origen, in defending the reputation
of that great master.
Eusebius signed the Nicene Creed as finally adjusted,
but not without some difficulty. He certainly was in friendly
relations with leading Arians, and would have spared them
the pressure of the Nicene clauses. As to his own belief,
he stood nearest to those semi-Arians who deprecated the
Nicene phraseology, but could not be convicted of Arianism.
He inherited the subordinationism of Origen, and regarded
a leaning in this direction as the necessary safeguard against
Sabellianism. The phrases in the creed which created diffi-
culty for him were ofioovaio^ and e/c t^9 ovaias tov irarpo^i.
A.D. 313-451] ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONAGES 423
Lightfoot properly points to the personal respect with which
he seems to have been regarded by his contemporaries. His
most important works were, perhaps, his Ecclesiastical His-
tory in ten books ; his life of Constantine in five ; his Chronica
(Chronology of General History) ; his Martyrs of Palestine
(in two recensions, both from his own hand) ; his Prceparatio
and Bemonstratio Evangelica\ his works against Marcellus
of Ancyra ; and his Topica, or names of Places in Scripture.
Probably half of what he is known to have written has
perished.
Eusebius was one of the most cultivated men of his
time, and we have reason to believe that he was personally
attractive and benignant. He was greatly valued by the
Emperor Constantine, whom he in turn all but worshipped.
But while he occupies a place among the foremost in
ecclesiastical literature, he does not rank so high in mental
power or force. It has been remarked that while his con-
ception of what his greater works ought to be is sometimes
grand and striking, the execution falls short. Moreover, his
Greek style has something harsh and artificial about it. His
fidelity as an ecclesiastical historian has been successfully
defended. As to the conception of the Church on which
he proceeded, see the History of Ecclesiastical History y by
F. C. Baur.^ He was writing with unfailing vigour down
to the end of his life.
Among bishops of the same name (and they were many)
Eusebius of Caesarea is chiefly to be distinguished from
Eusebius of Nicodemia, the ecclesiastical leader of the
Arians during the first half of the controversy (died bishop
of Constantinople, A.D. 342). Bishops of the same name at
the Cappadocian Caesarea, at Samosata, and at Sebaste occur
a little later.
2. Athanasius was born probably in the closing years
of the third century. He was already a deacon at the time
of the council of Nica^a (a.d. 325), the trusted attendant and
the adviser of his bishop (Alexander). In three years after
(A.D. 328), in spite of the antipathy of the Arians, which
A Mpoch&n, Tiib. 1852.
424 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH U-B.
he had already earned, he was elevated to the episcopal
chair of Alexandria. This, in the extent of its immediate
or direct jurisdiction, was then perhaps the most arduous
see in Christendom. For the whole period during which
he occupied it, Athanasius had to bear the strain of the
Arian controversy. He died in A.D. 373; and of the
forty-five years of his episcopate, twenty were spent in
exile; five times he was driven from his flock, always
returning again amid enthusiastic welcomes.
A legend of his boyhood (it represented him as having
been baptized in play by his companions, and that the
bishop held it valid); two or three stories of his atti-
tude in the various trying conjunctures of his long life, —
all significant of courage and resource; a note of his ap-
pearance — he was small of stature, but his countenance
was dignified and impressive; — these are nearly all the
minor personal details that have been preserved. The rest
must be gathered from the survey of his work. It is
obvious that he came early under the influences connected
with church life, and that he developed promptly the
aptitudes which it requires. His capacity for theological
thought found its earliest exercise on the place and
function to be ascribed to Christ the Saviour in relation to
God and man ; ^ that was the source of his teaching on the
question which occupied his life. In defending his position
he gave abundant evidence of intellectual resource and
skill. But the grasp with which he held it through all
turns of debate, and the mastery with which resistance and
concession alike were brought into play in sustaining it,
reveal character and will even more than intellect. Athan-
asius possessed the eye for men and for affairs, and the
purpose to make all his resources tell for the cause he
served, which are the main elements of statesmanship ; — in
his case statesmanship sustained by faith, and therefore
never owning or accepting defeat.
He was not understood to possess, like Origen, the
learning due to enormous reading ; the circumstances of his
* De Ineamatione (wiitten before the Arian controversy).
3i3-45ll ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONAGES 425
life forbade it. Nor was he a religious genius like Augus-
tine. His knowledge and his range of religious insight and
sympathy were, no doubt, adequate to the representation of
a great cause, and have commanded the respect of theolo-
gians down to our time. But Athanasius was most of all
a commanding personality: one who impressed, controlled,
and mastered men ; one whom his followers enthusiastically
trusted, and whom his enemies feared and hated.
Something may be learned from the accusations with
which his opponents assailed him. What they chiefly
imputed to him was ambition, self-assertion amounting
to treason, violent treatment of his enemies or of those
whom he chose to regard as offenders. The impression
we receive is of a character decisive, severe, resolute, —
which would not trifle with church power or church re-
sponsibilities. In that age of many inconsistencies he very
likely stretched his power in order to suppress current abuses ;
and he was not gentle to schismatics like the Meletians,
who perplexed the situation and added to its difficulties.^
He did not quite live to see the result which was to
reward his efforts and sacrifices ; but he saw the begin-
ning of that memorable close. And he left behind him an
impression of consistent greatness hardly paralleled in the
annals of the Church.
The supernaturalness of Christianity, as it was repre-
sented in Christian faith, so also claimed to be embodied
in forms of Christian devotion and attainment. Athanasius
was in the fullest sympathy with this feeling, and with the
practices which it dictated. He was himself an ascetic ; he
enthusiastically sustained the claims of the monastic life,
and his influence did much to recommend it in the West.
The monks of Egypt were his friends and allies. Among
them he found refuge when cities were no longer safe for
him, and he could count securely on their support. His
writings commemorate this alliance.^ But the most re-
^ Compare his outburst against the Emperor Constantius in the Historia
Avian, ad Monachos.
^ Hist. Arianorum ad Moruichos*
426 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.G.
markable monument of Athanasius' sympathy for asceticism
is his life of St. Anthony. The authorship has been
questioned, naturally enough ; for the world of diablerie
and wonder to which it introduces the reader seems in-
compatible with the greatness and the wisdom of the Father
of Orthodoxy. But the evidence is not to be got over.
And this must be said further : if the reader can assume
for the moment that the strange stories were realities for
Athanasius and for Anthony, then he will be touched by
the gleams of good sense, of right feeling, of Christian
humanity and kindness which come out, sometimes in the
strangest associations.
The most important works of Athanasius are his tracts
de Incarnatione, Epistola de Niccenis Decretis, Historia
Arianorum ad Monachos, Orationes adversus Arianos, and
Epistola de Synodis. The life of Anthony has been men-
tioned already.
3. Three notable persons group themselves for the
purposes of Church history as the three Cappadocians.
Basil (A.D. 329-379) and Gregory of Nyssa (a.d. 336-395)
were brothers; Gregory of Nazianzus (a.d. 326 ?-390) was
the comrade of Basil during a prolonged student-life, and
was his faithful friend in after years. All were distinguished
defenders of the Church's faith by tongue and pen ; while
Basil attained additional eminence as an ecclesiastic, and
Gregory Nazianzen as an orator and poet.
The grandmother of Basil was Macrina, a devout lady
of Neo-Csesarea. With her husband she suffered during the
later persecutions, living for years in poverty and conceal-
ment. But the family possessed extensive landed property,
which they resumed when the persecution passed away.
Their son Basil, who studied law, married Emmelia (whose
father had suffered in the persecution), and had ten children,
of whom Macrina, Basil of Csesarea, Naucratius, Gregory of
Nyssa, and Peter (who became bishop of Sebaste) are known
to us by name. The elder sister, Macrina, seems to have
been the good genius of the family. She was led eventually
to gather around her, at the family residence of Annesi, a
813-451] ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONAGES 427
company of devout women who lived a regulated religious
life; and here she died in A.D. 380. Her brother Gregory
of Nyssa was present, and has recorded the experience of
her dymg hours.
Basil, who stood next to Macrina in the family, aimed
at intellectual and literary eminence, probably proposing to
follow his father, who had combined high Christian char-
acter with eminence as an advocate and rhetorician. Leav-
ing Caesarea about the same time as his older friend,
Gregory Nazianzen, Basil set out for Constantinople, while
Gregory proceeded by Palestine to Alexandria. They met
again at Athens, where Julian (afterwards the Apostate)
was also pursuing his education. After long studies under
various masters, Basil returned to Cappadocia at the end
of A.D. 355. He came back elated with his own superiority
as a man of exceptional cultivation ; his reputation in foreign
schools reached his native land before him, and he was
provided with abundant opportunities, which he willingly
embraced, for exhibiting his oratorical and other attain-
ments. It was Macrina who confronted him with the
question as to what was to be, what deserved to be, his
aim in life ; and the whole atmosphere of the family to
which he had returned drove the question home. The
result was a strong recoil from the worldly wisdom he had
rated so high, and a resolution to live a life devoted to God.
Probably about this time Basil was baptized. He spent
about a year in visiting societies of recluses in Palestine,
Egypt, etc., and finally chose a retreat near his sister
at Annesi, but on the opposite bank of the river Iris.
Gregory of Nazianzus was induced to join him there, but
he soon returned to his own parents. Basil continued in
retirement for five years, lived a strenuously ascetic life,
devoted his property to ascetic purposes, promoted the forma-
tion of coenobitic societies (as distinguished from the hermit
life) throughout Pontus and Cappadocia, and planned the rule
for such life, with its industries, its devotions, and its self-
denial, which has continued to be fundamental in the East.^
See arite^ p. 295.
428 The aNciEnt cA1?H0Ltd church [a.d.
Dianius, bishop of Csesarea, having died in 362, Eusebius,
a man of position and of piety, but as yet an unbaptized
layman, was constrained to accept consecration, and filled
the see for eight years. Basil was ordained priest. At the
death of Eusebius he was chosen bishop, after a hard
contest. Valens was by this time on the throne, and the
later collisions of the Arian controversy were in progress.
Basil had been early associated with some of those who
were classed under the vague name of Semi-Arians. His own
reflections led him to apprehend the truth and worth of
Nicene doctrine, and his influence tended to detach from
their party the more orthodox Semi-Arians, and to defeat the
policy of those who were less so. This implied for him an
active and troubled life. He became bishop in 370, and
died in 379. He manifested extraordinary gifts as a man
of affairs. In this connection he expected his friends to
make every sacrifice for the cause to which he gave his own
life, and some of them, Gregory of Nazianzus, for example,
judged that he carried that principle too masterfully through.
It must be admitted, also, that a certain hardness and im-
patience of temper appears, which may have served a useful
purpose in connection with his commanding qualities, but
which must also have added to his difficulties. The
works of Basil which are most esteemed are the books
against Eunomius and the treatise on the Holy Spirit ;
fortunately, also, three hundred and sixty-five of his letters
have been preserved. Among others, he is to be distin-
guished from Basil of Ancyra, an older contemporary, the
leader of the more orthodox Semi-Arians.
Gregory of Nyssa (335—395) was considerably younger.
He shared in the gifts and also in the culture of the family,
though he had not, like Basil, sought education in foreign
seats of learning. Though he early became a " reader," he
was for a time disposed to abandon the ecclesiastical career
for that of a rhetorician, and earnest remonstrances, among
others from Gregory of Nazianzus, were needed to recall him
to the ecclesiastical life. Perhaps it was at this time he
married; his wife's name was Theosebeia. His elevation to
313-451) ECCLESIASTICAL t>EllSONAGES 429
the episcopate was due to the energetic will of Basil, who,
as metropolitan, felt the need of support from orthodox
bishops, and induced Gregory to accept the obscure charge
of Nyssa, ten miles from Csesarea (a.d. 372), as unattractive
apparently as it was obscure. Gregory was a loyal soldier
in the war against Arianism, but he proved himself far from
being a good tactician. Yet his fine personal character,
and his ability in theological discussions, secured him a
large share of consideration. He witnessed the death of
Macrinain 380, was present at the council of Constantinople
in 381, and seems to have lived until 395. His most
important works are that against Eunomius, the Arian, and
the Sermo Catecheticns Magnics, which reveals to us how he
prepared catechumens for baptism. He has also left on
record his impression of the dangers and disorders which
attended the pilgrimages to the holy sites in Palestine.
The father of Gregory of Nazianzus (also named Gregory)
was bishop of Nazianzus in South-West Cappadocia. He
had been a Hypsistarian, but was brought back to the
Church chiefly through the influence of his wife Nonna. A
daughter, Gregoria, and a son, Csesarius, completed the
family. Gregory may have been born 325 or 326. He
was educated at Csesarea (where his friendship with Basil
probably originated), afterwards at Csesarea in Palestine, at
Alexandria, and at Athens, where he again met Basil, and
the friendship between them became more warm than ever.
Gregory remained at Athens after Basil had departed home-
wards: he himself returned to Nazianzus, perhaps in 356.
Then he came to the decision to consecrate his life to God's
service, but without committing himself to withdraw wholly
from the w^orld. He spent some time, however, with Basil
at Pontus; but returned to Nazianzus in or after 360.
Here occurred an illustration (one of several) of Gregory's
shrinking from permanent official responsibility. His father
was anxious to secure his help, and availed himself, in the
spirit of those days, of some opportunity of practically con-
straining him to submit to ordination as a priest. Presently
he fled, but soon felt it his duty to return.
430 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
From the time when Basil left Pontus and undertook
responsible ecclesiastical activities in Csesarea, Gregory
appears as the friend whose counsel and practical aid are
ever at Basil's service. Sometimes he felt that Basil's
energetic will required of his friend sacrifices which were
inconsiderate and excessive, — as in his committing Gregory
to the squalid episcopate of Sasima, which he soon repudi-
ated. But their friendship, though clouded a little, con-
tinued. His father died in 374, and Gregory inherited his
father's estate at Arianzus (which he devoted mainly to
pious purposes), and for a couple of years took charge of the
vacant see. For three years more he lived in retirement in
Isauria; then (after the death of Basil, 379) he felt con-
strained to respond to an appeal to take charge of the little
flock of Nicene Christians at Constantinople. He nobly
fulfilled this office, in the discharge of which he encountered
various undeserved troubles. His five orations on Arianism
{Orat xxvii.— xxxi.) are a permanent monument of his power
and eloquence in debate.
4. In the West we notice specially Hilary of Poictiers,
Martin of Tours, and Ambrose of Milan.
Hilary of Poictiers (not to be confounded with Hilary of
Aries, who belongs to the next century) is remarkable as the
first in the West who wrote on the Arian question with
freedom and power, and with a personal and independent
grasp of it. At the same time, the events of his life placed
him in circumstances to know at first hand the state of
parties in the East, and the influences which moulded
opinion there. Besides, while he firmly believed that the
maintenance of faith in Christ was bound up with the
prevalence of the Nicene Creed, he saw (like Athanasius)
that men substantially orthodox might have difficulty about
the terms of it ; and therefore he was qualified to exercise
a benignant and conciliatory influence. It is an interest-
ing thing that we have from himself this statement : " I
was a baptized man, and for some time a bishop, yet I
never had heard the Nicene Creed till a little before I
was exiled. It was the evangelists and the apostles who
313-451] ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONAGES 431
enabled me to understand homo-omia and homceousia " {Be
Syn. 88).
He was born probably at Poictiers, early in the fourth
century, was well educated, and perhaps well descended.
He had married and was approaching middle life when he
passed from a refined and thoughtful paganism to Christian-
ity. The process was gradual, and was accompanied and
completed by the study of the Scriptures, latterly more
especially of the Gospel according to John. He was baptized,
perhaps about 350, and set himself to live as an earnest
Christian layman.
A vacancy occurred in the see of Poictiers in 353 ;
Hilary was chosen to succeed by the popular voice, and so
became bishop per saltum. He soon became involved in the
Arian controversy as urged on in Gaul by Ursacius and
Valens, and by Saturninus of Aries. Eventually he was
banished by Constantius to Phrygia. He found much to
displease him in the state of matters in the Eastern Church ;
but he was able to be of use in removing prejudices which
embittered Eastern and Western men against one another.
He became convinced that with many who w^ere ranked
with Semi-Arians an understanding was possible, and this
conviction regulated his attitude thenceforward : that is, his
object was, trusting such men as friends, to lead them to
accept the Nicene Creed. Constantius allowed him to
return to the West, and he reached Poictiers again in 362.
While still in the East he composed his chief works, de
Synodis and de Trinitate.
In the work of rallying and consolidating the Nicene
party he made a long visit to Italy and Illyricum. In the
former country he came into sharp collision with Auxentius
of Milan, whom he disliked and distrusted. He finally died
in Poictiers in 368
Hilary's statements on some points connected with the
Incarnation have not been regarded as in harmony with the
decisions of the third and fourth councils ; but the ability
and the effectiveness with which he discussed the questions
that were under debate in his own day won for him great
432 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
respect in the Western Church. Afterwards, the splendour
of Augustine threw Hilary comparatively into the shade.
Besides the works mentioned above, and various smaller
tracts, Hilary was the first in the West who regularly
commented on a gospel (Matthew) from beginning to end.
A certain number of hymns, in classic metre, are also
ascribed to him. He touches also the history of monachism,
as Martin of Tours, after he retired from military life,
placed himself under Hilary's eye. Hilary's banishment,
and Martin's expedition to Pannonia, to press Christianity
on his father and mother, separated them. But both
returned to Poictiers, and Martin founded a monastic society
a few miles from that city. It was after the death of
Hilary that Martin was elected to the bishopric of Tours.
Martin of Tours, born 316, was a native of Pannonia, of
heathen parentage, his father being a soldier who attained
the rank of military tribune. From his boyhood Christianity
attracted him, and he became a catechumen ; but he was
obliged to enter the army, in which he served five years.
During this time the incident of his giving half his cloak to a
beggar occurred, and his baptism immediately followed. For
some time he placed himself under the influence of Hilary
of Poictiers; but with Hilary's approbation he set out for
Pannonia to endeavour to convert his parents, while Hilary
himself had to depart to the East, banished by the Arian
emperor. Martin succeeded in winning his mother, but not
his father ; he suffered some persecution from Arians ; and
eventually came back to Poictiers, where he found Hilary,
now returned to his see. Martin now set up a house for
religious life in the neighbourhood of Poictiers, which is
reckoned the beginning of such houses in Gaul. In 371
Martin's reputation led to his being elected, not without
some opposition, to the vacant see of Tours, which he con-
tinued to occupy until A.D, 397; and he did important work
in depressing and suppressing paganism in the district
around Tours. In doing so he had the imperial laws to
support him. But he operated mainly as a great religious
character who impressed and overawed the general mind.
313-451] ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONAGES 433
He came mucli into contact with Maximus, the usurping
emperor of Gaul and Britain, who seems to have cherished
a certain respect for religion, or at least appreciated the
importance of winning support from religious persons. But
Martin failed to obtain, as he desired, the preservation of
the life of Priscillian, whose heresy he disapproved, but
whose condemnation to death on that account he reckoned
thoroughly unchristian. Probably the emperor judged it
politic to gratify the assailants of Priscillian. Martin's con-
duct in the various stages of this situation leaves on the
mind a strong impression of his right feeling and his courage.
The date of his death has been disputed (397 or 400).
To Martin of Tours this interest attaches, that we see
in him the embodiment of a lifelong religious enthusiasm,
inspired and directed by the supernatural world of Christian
realities as that was understood in his time. To realise it
fully, to assert its incomparable claims, to anticipate in his
own person, as much as might be, the eventual triumph
over the secular and the transitory — this was his passion.
The consequence, natural at that time, was that he selected
the ascetic life as his pathway, and that he moves before us
in a halo of fanciful supernaturalism, which he certainly
largely believed in himself, and which the enthusiasm of his
friends multiplied and enhanced. And yet, amid the de-
ceptions which this implies, and along with some of the
weaknesses which it fostered,^ Martin must be credited with
a Christian good feeling which breaks through all the rest
and lends a charm of its own to his visions, his conflicts, and
his other marvels.*
"^ E.g. a touch of arrogance, incidental to a man so favoured and admired.
^ Martin's life is from the hand of a friend, Sulpicius Severus. The life
was published in Martin's lifetime, and the Dialogi, which furnish a supple-
ment, soon after his death. The humorous element which seldom wholly
fails in legend, does not fail here. For example, Martin seeks an audience, at
Treves, with Valentinian i., who is prejudiced and refuses to receive him.
Martin makes his way, unauthorised, into the audience-chamber. Valen-
tinian, offended, will not rise from his chair (as Christian emperors usually
did in receiving bishops), "donee regiam sellam ignis operiret, ipsumque
legem, ea parte corporis qua sedebat, adflaiet incendium. Ita solio suo super-
bus excutitur, et Martino invitus adsurgit. "
28
434 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
Ambrose of Milan inherited social distinction; he also
had become a great officer of the empire ; his capacity for
affairs is approved by the whole history of his life. He is
suddenly called to become the guide of the church at Milan.
Once induced to accept the post, he instantly becomes a
great churchman. The distinction of the Eoman gentleman,
the experience and the aptitudes of a governor, the dexterity
and the courage of a man who has been throughout true to
himself, lend themselves at once to the claims of the new
position ; and he is invested with a new greatness corre-
sponding to the higher kingdom.
He was born about A.D. 340. His father had been
Prsefectus Prsetorio of the Gauls, one of the highest adminis-
trative offices in the empire. He himself had become Praetor
of Liguria and -^^milia, i.e. practically of Upper Italy. He
belonged to a devout family ; for though we do not know
much of his father and mother, the character of his brother
Satyrus, and of his sister Marcellina, who devoted herself to
a religious life when Ambrose was still a youth, indicate the
influences that had access to the household. Yet Ambrose
had not been baptized when the time came for the church
of Milan to call him to her service. He was known, how-
ever, to the people as a just and good governor, and as a
man whose way of life made him trusted and respected.
Auxentius, the bishop of Milan, was an Arian.^ In 374
he died. The election of a successor occasioned great ex-
citement, for ortho4ox and Arian strove for victory. The
story is well known how a cry got up " Ambrose for bishop,"
how all parties responded to it, and how Ambrose, after
effijrts to resist or evade the call, gave way. His baptism
and his consecration were speedily arranged for and carried
through.
The mark which Ambrose left on the Church was not
due chiefly to his learning or to his speculative power. As
^ Of what precise type we do not very accurately know. During some part
of his episcopate, according to Hilary, he proposed to accept the Nicene
Creed, but not sincerely. Auxentius was a friend of Ulfilas. One would
like to know more of him.
313-451] ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONAGES 436
to learning, he had the advantage of the education usual
among the upper classes, which included facility in Greek.
That enabled him to draw freely from the works of the
Greek writers who were then recent (Basil of Caesarea,
perhaps, as much as any ; also Athanasius). From this
source his preaching and writing drew freshness, and it
added a useful element to the theology of the West. As
to the speculative side, he possessed a vigorous understand-
ing, well trained in affairs. That might not qualify him to
shine in the dialectics of the Arian controversy, but it gave
him confidence in choosing his ground and deciding on the
means by which it could best be maintained. His chief
power was that of a great churchman, whose personal
sincerity was never doubted, whose sagacity in affairs,
secular and ecclesiastical, was conspicuous, whose courage
never failed, and whose previous eminence, both of birth and
of service, gave him a personal distinction which he knew
very well how to make available. All this he brought to
the service of Nicene Christianity. To name one depart-
ment more, his ideas of ethics Appear chiefly in his Be
officiis ministrorum. It leans much on Cicero, de Officiis, and
so presents a Stoic scheme, harmonised with Christian
ascetic. Here the characteristic dependence of the
Christians on the philosophers for the scheme of their
ethical thinking is plain enough.^
Ambrose occupied the chair of the church of Milan for
three and twenty years. The power he exercised comes out
in various striking incidents. During part of his episco-
pate he had to deal with Justina, widow of Valentinian I.,
and regent for his sons, tvho were still minors. Justina was
an Arian, and, supported by the Arian convictions of her
Gothic soldiers, she strove to advance the Arian cause.
The view of duty which Ambrose took led him to concede
to the Arian s nothing that was the Church's. He had no
physical force at his disposal; but he never flinched, and
he thoroughly realised how a great community, pervaded
by an intense enthusiasm, can daunt and paralyse an ad-
1 Compare the dependence of Nilus (a younger contemporary) on Epictetus,
436 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. 313-451
ministrative authority destitute of the elements of moral
force. From Augustine we have a lively picture of the
sensations, of the churches garrisoned by congregations at
a high pitch of feeling, of the influence of hymns sung by
responsive choirs, and, finally, of the enthusiasm connected
with the discovery of the relics of Protasius and Gervasius,
and by the miracles they wrought. This last, it must be
owned, was the most questionable part of the whole business.^
Ambrose could not be overborne ; he maintained his ground.
To the young Emperor Gratian he was a wise and disin-
terested guide, and in the unsettled and miserable period
which followed Gratian's death he continued to do his
utmost for the empire. When Theodosius the Great asserted
himself in the West, a new prospect opened, for the emperor
and the bishop had the highest regard for one another.
Yet this was the time at which the bishop, on the news
of the terrible massacre at Thessalonica, refused to admit
the emperor to the communion, except as a penitent who
made his penitence evident to all.
- Ambrose introduced into the church at Milan musical
methods (Antiphonal chanting is especially mentioned) which
were previously unknown in the worship of Italy (Aug.
Conf, ix. 7). Ambrose also signalised himself by Latin
hymns, which could be sung, and which are still prized in
the Church. They were composed in one form of the
classic metres.
Personages whose lives extended into the fifth century
will be referred to in another chapter.
^ Gonfesdom, ix.; De Civ. Dei, xxii.; Ambrose, I!pp. xx.-xxii. The
analysis of this business in Isaac Taylor's Ancient Ohristicmity is still worth
reading.
CHAPTER XXVI
Festivals, Church Services, and Sacraments
Bingham, Chr. Antiq. Smith and Cheetham, Diet, of Chr. Antiq.
A. FESTIVALS
At the opening of this period three annual festivals were
generally observed in the Church — Easter, Pentecost, and
Epiphany. By the end of it Christmas also had come into
general observance.
In the West, Easter was observed on the date fixed as
proper by the bishop of Eome, and notified by him to the
Western churches. In the East, Alexandria was recognised
as the church best qualified to solve aright the difficulties
of the reckoning, and accordingly the synod of Nicaea
authorised the practice of that church to be followed.^
Easter Sunday was generally the day from which everything
else was reckoned, and it was itself fixed to be after the
first full moon following the spring equinox. But which
day of March should be reckoned the vernal equinox ? In
the West the 1 8th of March held this place, in the East the
2 1 st. Moreover, the true day of the full moon — and in that
connection the true day of the new moon (which had of
course to be reckoned beforehand) — were calculated accord-
* Rome itself recognised the special resources of Alexandria in reckonings
of this kind. Nevertheless, diverging customs and different cycles continued
to create frequent misunderstandings, and in one famous case (a.d. 387) Rome
celebrated live weeks before Alexandria. The custom at Alexandria was for
the bishop to send out "Festal Letters" to announce the proper day for
Easter. In the case of Athanasius some of these are preserved and possess
historical importance.
437
438 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
ing to " cycles " of years, during which the varying relation
of the moon to the sun's arrival at the equinox was sup-
posed to fulfil its stages, returning at the end to what it
was at the beginning. But none of these cycles was
perfectly accurate, and different cycles (approximating to
the facts with different degrees of accuracy) were in use.
The previous fast was now generally fixed at forty days.
Six weeks corresponded with sufficient nearness, though as
Sundays were not days of fasting, only thirty-six days of
actual fasting were thus imposed.^
In the church of Jerusalem the custom had been intro-
duced of allotting eight weeks to the fast. As both Sunday
and Saturday (except Saturday before Easter) were non-
fasting days in the East, eight weeks gave forty days of
fasting. The period of the fast was recognised by the State,
by suspension of criminal prosecutions. Also the Church held
no feasts of martyrs during this time, and marriages and
birthday feasts were not celebrated (Can. Laod. 52). The
peculiar gaieties of Carnival are thought to have originated
in Italy, and to have been connected with the Lupercalia.
In Passion week, " the great week," business was sus-
pended, courts of justice and theatres were closed. Morning
and evening service was held daily, works of mercy were
specially appropriate, slaves were manumitted, and Govern-
ment granted pardon to prisoners; also penitents received
the Church's reconciliation. The week began with Palm
Sunday, in remembrance of the entry of our Lord into
Jerusalem. The Thursday (also known later as Coena
Domini) was the day on which our Lord instituted the
Supper. The communion was celebrated morning and
evening of this day, and it was the usual day for catechu-
mens about to be baptized to repeat the creed publicly.
Good Friday {dies crucis, dominicce passionis) was a strict
fast, and the communion was not celebrated.^ The Saturday
^ Long afterwards the beginning of Lent was carried back from Sunday
to the previous Wednesday, which acquired the name of Dies Cinerum.
2 Except in Syria, and in the evening; mostly in cemeteries, etc., iu
remembrance of the descensus ad inferos.
313-451] FESTIVALS, CHURCH SERVICES, ETC. 439
("great Sabbath") was signalised by the baptism of those
whose catechumenate had been completed. Sometimes at
this point, sometimes earlier in the week, a ceremony of
feet-washing was introduced in connection with baptism, in
which the bishop and clergy officiated (Ambr. de Incar.
sdcr. 3. 1 ; forbidden Gotic. Illib. can. 48 ; and disapproved
by Augustine).
During the night the Lenten fast closed and the joyful
vigil of Easter set in, till cockcrow, when the Easter Com-
munion was celebrated, — the newly baptized partaking.
This time of religious excitement was not always free from
scandals (Hieron. adv. Vigil. 9).
The week after Easter was marked by a succession of
festal observances. The suspension of business, public and
private, continued, and Jews and Heathens were obliged to
submit to restrictions. The newly baptized wore their white
garments for the last time on the Sunday following Easter
(Dominica in Albis).
The fifty days after Easter were reckoned days of
religious gladness and closed with Pentecost, commemorat-
ing the outpouring of the Spirit. The fortieth day com-
memorated the Ascension of our Lord, and in some places,
for a time, this fortieth day was reckoned the closing day
of the festival {Cone. Illib. can. 43). Both Pentecost and
Ascension were reckoned great festivals.
Epiphany (on 6 th January), which by degrees gathered
around it various associations, had, as we have already seen,
been associated with the baptism of our Lord. But as the
manifestation through the Incarnation (associated with the
star of the Magi) was the earlier and more fundamental
manifestation of our Lord, this was now included in the
significance of the festival, and became prominent. There is
reason for thinking that the celebration of our Lord's birth
at Epiphany continued in the West till A.D. 352. But in
A.D. 354 the festival of our Lord's birth is carried back to
25th December,^ which was already known, apart from
Christianity, as dies invidi Solis, This date was received
^ See refl in W. Holler's Lehrhuchf i. 544.
440 THE ANCIEKT catholic church [a.d
at Constantinople A.D. 379. In A.D. 388 we find Chry-
sostom saying, " ten years have not yet passed since this day
became plainly known to us." ^ The Armenian Church con-
tinued to celebrate the birth of Christ on Epiphany.
B. OKDER OF SERVICE
The type of the worship of the Church is furnished by
the chief service of the Lord's day. On great festivals, as
at Easter, features were added to give greater fulness and
emphasis ; on minor occasions the service was simplified.
The term Liturgy denotes the performance of divine
worship, alike as to matter and manner. It might therefore
be written or unwritten, carried on with fixed forms of
speech or with spontaneous prayers, or partly with both.
In usage the word came to denote the form of service as
written down, and different types of liturgy arose from the
varying custom of different great churches.
The practice of free prayer certainly had place in the
earliest churches, along with a conception of some order of
service. But as always happens, the influence of revered
teachers, and the recollection of sentences that seemed
specially apt and edifying, would set a type. The more that
forms multiplied and stages of the worship were dis-
tinguished, the more need would be felt of helps to assist
the mind in conducting the service. And the more that
divine service assumed the character of a rite of mystic
power, the more important it would seem to secure that
approved and authentic formulae were uttered in connection
with it. Perhaps the earliest collection of written prayers to
which we can ascribe a date is that of Serapion of Thmuis.^
This is not a prayer-book arranged in order of service, but a
collection of prayers adapted to different situations in public
worship, which could be referred to as need might require.
When our period begins, i.e. before the time of Constan-
tino, many characteristic features had become fixed : — the
impression of secrecy as proper in regard to Christian
1 Horn. L ' Jmrnial of Theol. Studies^ vol. i., Camb. 1899.
313-461] FESTIVALS, CHURCH SERVICES, ETC. 441
mysteries, the separation of the catechumen's service from
the rest, the idea of offering in the Lord's Supper. The
tendency to make the service more full and imposing was
steadily at work, hence the local varieties of practice were
discouraged, and the methods elaborated in the great
churches imposed themselves as authoritative. These ways
of ordering the worship passed into writing at dates which
are uncertain, and great names were attached to them;
liturgies of St Mark, St. James, St. Chrysostom, preserve,
with later modifications, the usage of Alexandria, of Pales-
tine, and of Constantinople. In the Latin world various
types of services existed, — North African, Gallic, Gothic,
Mozarabic, Milanese, etc. But the practice of the Koman
church eventually prevailed ; only later, and less completely
in some places than in others. What concerns us at
present is the practice of the fourth and part of the fifth
century.
Worship began with the catechumen's service,^ which
included readings from the Scriptures,^ with the sermon or
exhortation. Singing was introduced at fitting points, and
also prayer, — the most important and characteristic suppli-
cations coming at the close of this part of the service.
Prayers, first in silence, then at the bidding of the deacon,
and finally led by the bishop, were said for catechumens,
for those possessed, and for penitents, — each class being
separately dismissed after the prayer appropriate to it had
been offered.
The second part of the service, from which all but
baptized believers were excluded, began with a general
supplication of considerable length. At a later period
^ The division of the service into two parts was destined to pass away,
chiefly because catechumens ceased to exist after infant baptism became
universal, and when an adult population reared in heathenism no longer
existed. Yet the ancient custom left its mark permanently on the Church's
order of service.
" During the fourth century the practice prevailed of reading straight
on through one book after another {lectio continua), but this was gradually
interfered with and practically superseded by the reading of selected passages.
But in this, and also in the number of lections read at each service, consider-
able variety existed.
442 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
some of the materials of this prayer were transferred to
other parts of the service. Then followed the irpoacpopd,
oUatio, offering, i.e. the gifts brought by the people (gradu-
ally confined to bread, wine, grapes, and wheat). These
were collected by the deacons, and prayer was made that
they might be accepted, and that blessing in return might
be vouchsafed- Here followed in the East the kiss of
peace : it was postponed to a later stage in the West.
A portion of bread and wine being selected out of the
gifts for use in the sacrament,^ there was offered the prayer
of thanksgiving, in which, with all creatures, the congre-
gation thanked God for all His benefits, especially for the
Incarnation and Eedemption; and after recitation of the
words of institution, the Holy Ghost was invoked to make
the elements to be the body and blood of Christ.^ The
prayers went on to make supplication for the Church, the
world, and also for all departed believers, including Patri-
archs, Prophets,^ etc. The Lord's Prayer followed.
All this prepared for the actual dispensation which
began with the celebrant's announcement, Sanda Sanctis
(Holy things for the Holy), with a response from the
people, the Doxology, and the Hosanna. Then the con-
gregation received in due order, — clergy, ascetics, deacon-
esses, virgins, and afterwards the general body of the
believing people. Each received the bread from the bishop
or presbyter with the words, "the body of Christ," and
the cup from the officiating deacon with the words, "the
blood of Christ, the cup of life." Singing (of Ps. 34)
was used during the Communion. The deacon afterwards
exhorted to thanks, and to prayer for a blessing on the
participation; the bishop gave his benediction, and the
deacon added " go in peace."
Leavened bread, i.e. common bread, was still everywhere
* This custom continued as late as Gregory i,
^ This invocation was conceived to be the decisive act of consecration.
The Western view, that the recitation of the words of institution occupies
that place, seems to be later.
^ The creed was read here, or in close connection with the dispensation of
the elements ; but not till late in fifth century : first at Antioch, a.d. 471.
313-451] FESTIVALS, CHURCH SERVICES, ETC. 443
in use except in Syria. There was no elevation of the
elements in order to adoration, nor any idea of communion
in one kind, which indeed would have incurred the charge
of Manicheism. The communion of children, even of infants,
i.e., of course, of such as had been baptized, was recognised
and practised; and they, like others, were expected to
communicate fasting.
No uniform practice existed as to celebration of the
Eucharist on other days besides Sunday. Daily celebration
is mentioned ; — also in each week Sunday, Wednesday,
Friday, Saturday. Daily service, including the Eucharist
with sermon, was customary in Lent, and also in the
period from Easter to Pentecost. But some churches were
content with Sunday alone, or Sunday and Saturday. It
need hardly be said that no general attendance of the
people (except in unusual circumstances) could be expected
on any day but Sunday. Even on Sunday a great tendency
on the part of baptized members to go away before the
communion is complained of by Chrysostom and others.
But there is no trace of celebration of the Eucharist by
the celebrant alone, without the presence of other com-
municants.
Matins and Vespers afforded a daily opportunity of
worship. Matins being held commonly before daybreak,
so as to become a vigil. The 68th Psalm was considered
appropriate to the morning, and the 141st to the evening
service ; there were prayers for the different classes of
persons under the care of the Church, and often the
Lord's Prayer. With a view to great feasts and martyrs'
days, the vigils became very attractive and attended with
much devotional feeling. There was much singing at
these services. The ancient Greek hymn <^a)9 tkapov
ayla^ B6^7)<; was a vesper hymn. The congregation joined
in singing, sometimes by chanting at the end of the psalm,
as sung by the psaltist or the choir, an acrostichion (or
akroteleution) — a verse which served as a sacred chorus ;
or they were trained to sing in unison, or by two divisions
responding to one another. Development of hymns for
•i44 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
use in public worship became notable at this time both in
the East and in the West.^
C. DOCTRINE OF THE EUCHARIST
F. C. Baur, Vorlesungen iiber die C%ristliche Dogmengeschichte, Leipzig,
1846, vol. i. 2^^ Absclinitt, p. 410.
The views and the modes of speech already prevalent ^
continue in the present period ; but all are emphasised and
more largely developed. It is difficult to give a perfectly
fair view of the doctrine really held. For the Sacrament
expresses donation by the Lord and acceptance by us;
it also connects in some way the sign with the thing
signified, which last is eternal life in Christ, in some
aspect of it. Now, as yet, the aim of writers for the
most part is not to define, but to combine, these great
ideas in every way that seemed fitted to awaken wonder
and gratitude. In the ardour of worship one view runs
easily into another.
In general, the view held is that in the Sacrament
we have bread and wine and something more; and that
something more, being the main thing, is often spoken of
as if its presence elevated and transformed the bread and
wine, — as if these lost their nature and ceased to be what
they had been, merged, as it were, in that which is higher.
Hence terms like fiera^oXt], fieraTrotetadaty fierarlOeadai,
converterej transfigurare, are used of the elements,^ and they
are used with increasing frequency ; and very strong ex-
pressions regarding the real participation of the body of
Christ, and its descent into our bodies, occur, for instance,
in Chrysostom {in Jo. Horn. 45 ; in Matth. Horn. 83),
Ambrose {de init. Myst. c. 8. 9), and Cyril of Alexandria.
Yet when all the statements of these and other writers
are compared, transubstantiation cannot be taken as their
meaning. For the symbolical interpretation always occurs
^ See well-known passage of Aug. Conf. ix. 6. See introduction to Trench's
Sacked Latin Poetry, and that to Neale's Hymns of the Eastern Church.
3 Ante, pp. 231, 232. » Cyrill. Jar. Cat, xxii. 6.
313-451] FESTIVALS, CHURCH SERVICES, ETC. 445
again ; also reasoning which implies that bread and wine
retain their own nature, and that explanations must be
based on that assumption.
Three phases may be distinguished. 1. That the body
of Christ, which He took from the Virgin, is to be believed
to be present and to be received. Not unfrequently this
is referred to a special agency of the Holy Spirit. 2. The
elements by consecration receive the same relation to the
Logos which the body of our Lord holds (Greg. Nyss. Orat.
Catechet. c. 37). 3. The symbolic view: the bread and wine
are authentic signs of the body and blood of Christ. In the
believing reception of them we are afresh incorporated or
implanted in Christ's true body, the fellowship of the head
and members (Aug. c. Adim. c. 12 ; Tr. in Ev. Jo. 26).
But the conception not only of a sacrament but of a
sacrifice was now well established, not merely in reference
to the gifts of the congregation, but in reference to the
elements as consecrated. This offering was, in the first
place, a pious commemoration of the one offering on the
cross (Aug. De Civ. x. 5 ; Chrys. in Hebr. Horn. 1 7).
But it was regarded also as having, by way of offering, value
and efficiency of its own (Chrys. often). In this form the
congregation was conceived to make its most effectual ap-
proach to God on behalf of the dead. As the Eucharist
gave lively expression to the fellowship of believers, so in
the offering they remembered the blessed dead ; and having
in an earlier age prayed for their repose, now the wor-
shippers rather sought in this way benefit for themselves by
the prayers of those saintly persons. But prayers for the
dead in general, as well as for the various interests of human
society, were offered specially in connection with this sacrifice.
Also we find it administered when death was near as a
viaticum (Aug. Serm. 172).
D. BAPTISM
The ritual of baptism as it existed towards the close of
the preceding period has already been sketched (p. 233).
446 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.t).
From the time of Constantine more neophytes presented
themselves, and baptisteries were enlarged. Yet the tend-
ency to delay baptism also continued to operate ; this was
partly due to indifference, partly to a dread of undertaking
the purity and strictness of Christian life, partly to the risk
of falling into serious sin after the one forgiveness of baptism
had been, as it were, expended. Constantine himself was
not baptized until his last illness. In not a few cases of
persons who must have looked forward for years to being
baptized some time, the resolution to delay the administra-
tion no longer concurred with inward awakening : it be-
tokened a decision to surrender themselves at once to the
divine call.
Before actual baptism a period of preparation in the
catechumenate was ordinarily required. To seek enrolment
among the catechumens was an expression of the purpose to
be baptized, and the acceptance of a neophyte in this char-
acter by the Church was equivalent to recognising him as a
quasi Christian {Ghristianum facere). It was accompanied
by ceremonies of signing with the cross, imposition of hands,
a preliminary exorcism, and, in the West, imparting salt.
The candidate was expected to be certified as to character,
etc., by Christians of good repute, — clergymen often under-
took this responsibility, — and candidates who had followed
callings which the Church held to be questionable had to give
them up. Slaves were expected to bring testimonials from
their masters. The period to be spent in the catechumenate
was not very definitely fixed. Some canons require it to be
not less than two or three years {Nic, can. 2 ; Illiber. 42).
But the practice varied very much according to circumstances.
Persons who had been happily situated as to family connec-
tion and opportunities of instruction required less prepara-
tion. On the other hand, a long time might be spent in
the catechumenate by those who shrank from the responsi-
bilities, or, as they might view it, the risks of actual baptism.
Catechumens who were taken in hand for special and final
preparation, in order to be baptized at a definite and near
day, were known as " competentes." For example, those who
313-451] FESTIVALS, CHURCH SERVICES, ETC. 447
were to be baptized at Easter might pass into this class at
the beginning of the forty days' fast. They had now to be
fully furnished with all the knowledge, theoretical and prac-
tical, that a Christian ought to have, and special exercises
were enjoined with a view to chasten and discipline the
soul, so that this stage of the catechumenate required
patience.^ The instructions were crowned by the communi-
cation of the actual words of the creed,^ withheld hitherto
because the tendency to treat Christian mysteries with
careful secrecy was at this time in full force, and influenced
the treatment of catechumens. In many churches the creed
was recited by the catechumens in presence of the congre-
gation at some stage shortly before baptism, but the precise
stage varied. In large towns special clergymen might be
set apart for this work of instruction or preparation.
Baptism in case of need could be administered at any
time, but the regular administration of it took place at
Easter and at Pentecost. Exceptions were naturally made
for sick persons and for children, but as late as Leo i., and
even as late as Gregory the Great, a disposition is evinced
to confine the ordinary administration to the two seasons
named. But in both East and West Epiphany became an
additional baptismal season. And, in the West, Christmas,
the festival of John the Baptist, and those of Apostles and
Martyrs were also signalised in this way. It appears that,
for a time, baptisms of children were made to conform to
those appointed periods of administration. After the cate-
chumenate had passed away, and infant baptism had become
universal, special seasons for baptism ceased to be observed.
Children even of Christian parents were not always or
necessarily brought to baptism at this time. The cases of
Basil (probably), Gregory Naz., Chrysostom, Jerome, and
Augustine are only specimens. But the severe Augus-
* Greg. Naz. Orai. xL
* With the formal traditio symholi it was usual to connect special sermons
suitable to the occasion (specimens in Aug. and elsewhere). The final recita-
tion by the candidates was the reddilio symholi. Delivery and recitation of
the Lord's Prayer also had a place.
448 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
tinian view of the state of unbaptized infants disposed parents
to seek baptism for them, and the tendency to look on
ordinances as beneficent charms worked in the same direc-
tion. Probably also the place conceded to Christianity as
the public religion of the whole community operated in the
same way. Infant baptism seems to have become already
more general in the West than in the East. The presence
of sponsors was connected with infant baptism, but they
appear also in connection with adult baptism. Augustine
reports it as usual for the parents, or, in the case of orphans,
the grandparents, to present the children. But the sub-
stitution of sponsors prevailed. And as the relation between
sponsors and those who in baptism entered on the new life
took hold of men's minds, there gradually arose the imagina-
tion of the cognatio spiritualis. This entered eventually as
an important element into the determination of forbidden
degrees in marriage.
Considerable variations took place in the wording of the
baptismal confession. The earliest, perhaps (see p. 73), was
that short form which preceded the later and fuller Apostolic
Creed ; it is best known to us as the old Eoman, but probably
existed widely with little variation. Additional clauses were
introduced in the practice of various churches (Aquileia,
Spain, and Gaul) which did not materially alter its character.
But in the East dogmatic discussions led to dogmatic ampli-
fications, as in the creed of Caesarea, and that of Jerusalem.
These local Eastern creeds were gradually supplanted by the
Nicene, though this in its genuine form could hardly have
been quite appropriate for baptismal uses. Later than our
present period the Nicene was supplanted by what was be-
lieved to be the Constantinopolitan form (that which is
received as Nicene in Anglican and other prayer-books) ; and
this form was for a time received for baptismal purposes in
Eome and in Spain.
In connection with the act of baptism, the old renuncia-
tion of Satan, and the affirmation, in reply to questions, of
faith and obedience, continued. In the baptistery the candi-
date undressed, was anointed with oil, again asked as to his
313-451] FESTIVALS, CHURCH SERVICES, ETC. 449
faith, and baptized with threefold immersion, except in
Spain, where one only was used. The account given of this
Spanish peculiarity was that the one immersion expressed
the essential unity of the Trinity, as against Arianism. The
form of words which has persisted in the Greek Church is
to this effect : " The servant of God (so and so) is baptized
in the name of the Father, Amen, and of the Son, Amen,
and of the Holy Ghost, Amen, now and ever more and to all
eternity. Amen." In the Latin Church the threefold question
of faith was mixed up with the threefold immersion. After-
wards milk and honey were given, as to a new-born child,
salt also in the West ; and anointing with chrism followed,
betokening anointing with the Holy Spirit. In the East
the imposition of hands continued to be part of the cere-
monial of baptism ; but in the West it was reserved to the
bishop, and eventually developed into the rite of confir-
mation.
As regards the rites which should be reckoned to be
sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper are mentioned
by Chrysostom (in Joh. Eom. 84) and Augustine {Serm. 218)
as the sacraments essential to the Church. But the term
was used vaguely and with various applications. For in-
stance, anointing the forehead of the baptized, ordination,
marriage, are occasionally so termed. Augustine already
suggests the later doctrine of " character " in connection with
orders and with baptism. " Character " means something
distinct from grace, imparted even when no grace is im-
parted, not lost when grace is lost. The communication of
this " something " is ascribed to the two rites named, and
in Eomish theology to confirmation also.
E. PREACHING
Preaching afforded a distinct line of influence by which
the people could be moved; and the period before us is
distinguished for its powerful and impressive preachers.
From an early date, probably from the very beginning,
exhortation by the presbyters in turn had followed the
29
450 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
reading of the appointed passages of Scripture. This might
to some extent continue. But addresses by individual
presbyters, or by the bishops, now generally had their place
at the catechumen portion of the service, i.e. before those
who were not yet baptized were dismissed. Preachers could
be heard, therefore, by those who had as yet no connection
with the Church. Sometimes another discourse, adapted to
believers, followed after others had withdrawn. In this
period no layman could preach, however learned he might
be. Presbyters were qualified for the function, but in some
places they did not preach if the bishop were present. In
other places the bishop, if present, followed up the presbyter's
address with some words of his own. Bishops, in particular,
were expected to instruct their flocks by preaching, and
some of the more distinguished might preach twice on a
Sunday, or, as in Lent, might preach daily. Matins and
Vespers, as well as the chief Sunday service, afforded oppor-
tunities.
Instead of the homily in which the speaker commented
on a passage of Scripture, suggesting the deeper sense and
making edifying applications, discourses in regular form, com-
posed according to rules of Greek rhetoric, came into use,
and great reputation was acquired in this line by eminent
preachers.
All manner of topics might be treated in this way, from
praise of Christian celebrities to doctrinal and ethical in-
struction or polemical discussion. As the service otherwise
proceeded chiefly in set forms, the sermon gave the oppor-
tunity to the minister to throw himself on the people, with
direct appeal suited to their circumstances or to those of
the Church. Great preachers were zealously attended, and
produced deep impression. In Constantinople and elsewhere
the habit of applauding striking passages had established
itself.
It is pretty plain that while presbyters might preach,
many of them did not feel able to discharge the duty ; in
many country places preaching might be rare, occurring
only when the bishop or some qualified clergyman visited
313-451] FESTIVALS, CHURCH SERVICES, ETC. 451
the place. Even in towns where the bishop's church was
supplied with preaching, it would not follow that the same
held of the other churches. Sozomen (vii. 19) makes the
remarkable statement that in Eome neither the bishop nor
anyone else taught in the church. Probably we must
assume some exaggeration or misunderstanding.
In the East the brilliant age of preaching hardly sur-
vived the fourth century. Basil and the two Gregories
were all of them remarkable in this department, the most
distinguished being, perhaps, Gregory of Nazianzus. Chry-
sostom was greatest of all. His fine Greek culture and his
natural gift of oratory were inspired by Christian devoted-
ness and sincerity ; and some of his sermons were unsur-
passed as regards the immediate effect on the hearers. In
the West Augustine introduced into preaching an experi-
mental depth and a practical earnestness which gave a new
character to preaching in that part of the Church. Leo i.
of Eome and Csesarius of Aries may be named as following
him, though not with equal steps.
F. OBJECTS OF WORSHIP
Middleton (Conyers), Letter from Rome, 1755 ; J. Dallseus, adversus
Latinorum . . . traditionemy Genev. 1664.
The worship of saints originated chiefly from the regard
paid to martyrs. As Christians commemorated the death
of friends by family meetings at their tombs, it was natural
that the graves of martyrs should be visited on the annual
day by the Christians who had sympathised with their
trial and victory.^ The prevailing sentiment of the religious
celebration on such occasions was the continued Christian
fellowship between the departed and the survivors ; hence
oblations on their behalf were offered ; in the prayer before
communion the departed were remembered along with the
living. For them repose was asked, and indeed participa-
tion in all Christian blessedness. By and by chapels and
churches were erected over their graves. The impression
^ Polyc. Mart. , about A.D. 156 ; in any edition of Apostolic Fathen,
452 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
that such worthies did not stand in need of these supplica-
tions does not seem to have prevailed down to the end of
the third century or later. Feeling on this subject became
intensified when it began to be recognised that the martyr
age had passed away. Christians were conscious that the
heroes venerated by pagan countries and cities were for
them replaced by the martyrs ^ who had overcome in the
name of Christ. Their relics, therefore, were more than
ever valued ; for the saint's relics brought the saint himself
near. And prayer for their repose began to seem less
appropriate ; rather prayer that, by their intercession, we
might become like them, was the fitting attitude to take.^
Direct appeals to the dead saints to intercede for us are
sanctioned by the Cappadocians and by Ambrose. The
tendency could not but be strengthened by the miraculous
powers claimed for relics of such holy persons.^ The
appropriate place for relics in any church was under the
altar. This whole development became very popular, and
drew the people in large numbers to the festivals connected
with it.
It was natural to ascribe like spiritual rank to others
besides martyrs, — to eminent servants of God recorded in
the New Testament and in the Old, and also to venerated
names from the roll of worthies commemorated in the
diptychs of each church. In this way a large choice of
patrons was opened to worshippers; and a class of dead
persons was set up about whom, as individuals, it was held
that the Church on earth was entitled to assert their
salvation to be certain. But no oblations, least of all
the eucharist, were offered to saints. Augustine insists on
this distinction in vindicating the growing veneration of
the saints from the taunts of heathen controversialists.*
For a considerable time the Virgin Mary was not
' Eus., Prasp. Evang. xiii.
* Aug., de cura gerevda, c. 13.
* Origen had made important suggestions in the direction of imputing to
martyrdom a special virtue to save others. Exhort, ad. mart. 50.
^ C6U, c Maximo,
313-451] FESTIVALS, CHURCH SERVICES, ETC. 453
specially prominent in this connection. Her perpetual
virginity was asserted with emphasis against those — such
as Helvidius and Bonosus — who interpreted New Testa-
ment statements as implying that she was the mother of
our Lord's " brethren." ^ Also, a foolish and distasteful
speculation as to the birth of our Lord Himself was sup-
posed to add something to her eminence, and received
general approbation. Already in the second century her
place in the order of grace was contrasted with that of Eve
in the order of nature and in the history of the fall. Still,
down to the fourth century church teachers continued to
speak of her as not free from faults (Basil, Ep. 260 ; Chrys.,
Horn. 45). But in the fifth century Augustine declines to
discuss that topic ; and when the Nestorian controversy had
fastened attention on her unique relation to our Lord, and
suggested that above all other saints she had contributed to
human salvation, the veneration of the Virgin began to
receive an immense expansion. It is not certain that any
church was dedicated to her name before that at Ephesus,
where the council met in 431, and which was then newly
built.
It was not unnatural that worship of angels as well
as saints should be suggested, but as yet authorities are
divided. Ambrose sanctions supplications to the guardian
Angel, while Augustine rather perceives danger in it.^
But the practice was destined to gain ground.
G. PICTURES AND ANGELS
The early Church was jealous of associating with
worship any representations of sacred persons or things.
There were no such representations in churches till the
fourth century ; and when they began to appear, they met
with discouragement.^ Hence in the catacombs, where
> Jerome, Comira Helv. a.d. 303. Siricius (on Bonosus), a.d. 392, Ep. 9.
'Ambrose, De Viduis, 9 ; Aug., Conf. x. 43. See also Greg, the Great,
m canticum^ 8 ; Syn. Laod., can. 35.
' C(mc. Illib., c. 36 ; Eus., Hist. vii. 18 ; Epiph., 0pp. ii. 317.
454 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHUKCH [a.d. 313-451
Christian art makes its earliest appearance, the embodiments
of Christ are at first symbolical and allusive ; and the same
applies to the reliefs of Biblical scenes on early Christian
sarcophagi.^ Late in the fourth century and in the begin-
ning of the fifth, pictures in churches begin to be described,
which present the trial and death of martyrs with whom
the church is associated; also Biblical scenes. These were
not intended to be worshipped, but to instruct and impress.
And just because our Lord is the object of worship, there is
hesitation in representing Him. The cross occupies the
principal place ; or Christ is represented as the Lamb. The
first presentation of Christ pictorially in a church as claim-
ing the veneration of His people, is near the end of our period
in the church of St. Paul beyond the walls, at Eome.
Kneeling to sacred pictures falls later. But already we
begin to hear of pictures which claim to be authentic
portraits (by Luke, for instance), or to which miraculous
powers are ascribed. The nimbus begins to encircle the
head, first of Christ, then of saints. The usage was taken
from representations of heathen gods, and also of the
emperors.
The Nestorians were led by their theology to withstand
the veneration of such pictures. They imputed to their
adversary Cyril of Alexandria the blame of the new
enthusiasm for having and venerating sacred pictures, and
perhaps the date of Cyril may be regarded as an epoch
in this matter. The great debate about it fell much later.
The subjects of this and of the preceding section reveal
the tendency to popularise Christianity, by adopting objects
and modes of worship hitherto regarded as characteristic of
paganism. Tendencies this way had appeared much earlier
but had, on the whole, been resisted. They were now
becoming irresistible : and they were soon to be regarded as
original and apostolic.
* Best seen in the Vatican Museum at Eome,
CHAPTER XXVII
Discipline
Greg. Nyss., Ep. ad Letoium, 0pp. ii. 214. Basil Caesar., Epp. 53, 54,
55, 160, 0pp. iii. Chrys., de Poen. Horn. ix. Augustin., Serm.
351, 352. Leo i., Ep. ad episc. Camp. 168. Socr., Hist. eccl. v. 19.
Sozom., vii. 16. Bingham, Chr. Antiq., Book xvi.. Works, vol. vi.,
1855, Oxf. Morinus, de discipl. in adm. s. poenitentice, Par. 1651.
G. F. Steitz, d. Rom. Buss-sacr., Frankf. 1854. Loening, Geschichte
des deutschen KirchenrechtSy i. 1878.
The discipline of the Church has already been adverted to
(p. 249). Known transgressions of a flagrant character
incurred separation from Christian fellowship. The penitent
was restored after open confession and a period of public
humiliation, which tested the sincerity of the repentance,
but which carried with it also, more or less, a sense of
penalty inflicted for the sin. This restoration expressed the
Church's charitable confidence that the penitence was real,
and that the sin was forgiven by God and ought to be
forgiven by her. Hence it came to be the symbol, or the
outward seal, of Divine forgiveness as regards those sins ;
and as a tendency to lean on the outward and the sensible
operated strongly in this age, the one was apt to be identified
with the other. All the more therefore those Christians
who were betrayed into flagrant transgressions which
happened to remain concealed, if they afterwards came
to serious thought, might infer that if the way of public
confession and humiliation was God's way of forgiving
great sins, they also must adopt it, in order to be sure of
their own sincerity and of Divine pardon. It is true that
public penitence in such cases must bring scandals to light
455
456 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
that might have continued buried; and the matter is not
prominent in the earlier period, although exhortations to
confess are not wanting. On the other hand, it was not
doubted that cases of great sin on the part of Christians did
remain concealed, unsuspected, and unconfessed.^
As the Church extended after Constantino's accession,
and the fourth century verged towards the fifth, difficulties
in regard to discipline increased. The principles remained
the same, but the churches had become more mixed. They
included a much larger number of persons not amenable
to principles which appealed only to conscience. Many
sinners did not confess their sins, even when these were
not absolutely secret ; there was less scrutiny of Christian
behaviour; serious Christians who became aware of flagrant
sins of others did not inform the Church or the church
authorities, partly, perhaps, because of the difficulty of
producing conclusive proof, still more, probably, because the
duty was felt to be invidious.
At the same time discipline came to be regarded less
as a process for satisfying the Church — doing right to her
sensitiveness as to her own character and calling — and more
as a means of chastising, and so improving, the sinner.
Both of these views had been combined before, now the
second took the lead. The duty of confessing, with a view
to forgiveness, cases of greater sins which had remained
concealed, and of accepting in that connection the Church's
penitential discipline, was still pressed. And besides, a
larger range of sins came to be contemplated, especially
from this point of view of benefit to the individual For
guilt might be incurred, and some special penitence might
be called for in cases which did not amount to murder, or
idolatry, or flagrant acts of impurity ; and, on the one hand,
church authorities might think it edifying to use discipline
to restrain such lesser sins; on the other hand, penitent
offenders might seek it for the peace of their conscience.
This led to casuistical determinations : a given sin might
perhaps be treated unreasonably if the full weight of the
* Tertullian's tract, De Poenitentia, deserves to be read.
313-451] DISCIPLINE 467
older discipline were imposed ; but how much, then, should
be reckoned appropriate ? This gave new prominence to
the distinction between simple a(j)opi>a-fi6^, which did not
contemplate so serious a separation, and might only entail
the later stages of the old discipline, — not the earlier and
more trying ones, — and the more serious separation, uttokott^
or iravTeXrjf; d<l>opcaiJL6<;, which might either be appropriate
to a penitent who had very scandalous sins to confess, or
might be denounced on impenitent men whose sins were
public, to terrify and restrain them. The bishop decided
these questions, sometimes deputing a cleric to examine and
report.
The effect of this tendency of affairs was mixed. Some
people complied with these admonitions, others disregarded
them, others still accepted separation from communion with-
out much concern.^ For example, second marriages (which,
of course, were public) were legitimate by the civil law ; but,
though their validity was not disputed, they were liable to a
certain degree of disciplinary visitation by the Church's
laws : people, then, who had contracted such marriages
might accept exclusion from the communion and take none
of the steps proper to bring it to an end. The same
tendency appeared in other cases.
In this connection the old doctrine of " one repentance
only after baptism" gave way. Ambrose and Augustine
still cling to it, but in the East it probably passed into
desuetude in the fourth century, and Sozomen frankly
recognises the fact in the fifth.* In the West also the same
change took place. The reason is plain ; the sinner should
be encouraged to repent more than once, of course with
such precautions as may impress him with a due sense of
his position.
According to the old discipline the Church knew what
the sin was which had created scandal, and iu connection
with which the penitent was seen supplicating for restoration.
Now the fear of scandal, through multiplying cases of con-
^ Greg. Nyss., I}p. ad Letoium, 0pp. ii. 114.
* Sozom., vii. 16.
458 tHE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
fession, under the conditions just noticed, began to press
more heavily on men's minds. Public penitence for sins,
which otherwise would have remained unknown, tended to
create scandal rather than to remove it. By degrees there-
fore steps were taken to secure that in cases of hidden sins,
spontaneously confessed, the penitent in passing through the
stages of penitence should be known indeed to have some-
thing on his conscience, but without disclosure (except to
the bishop and his advisers) of what it was. The next
step, better fitted to meet the difficulty, was to appoint the
penitence itself to be transacted privately. It had still to
be transacted to the satisfaction of the bishop, who closed
the case finally by solemn prayer for forgiveness, and
imposition of hands. But this naturally suggested the
expediency of going a step further, and withdrawing the
performance of penitence from observation in all cases.
In the West the sanction of private discipline and
reconciliation appears first in the African Church from
A.D. 360.^ Augustine teaches that there are cases, of the
graver kind, in which no man should be content with
private reconciliation — those, namely, which separate from
the body of Christ. Yet he owns that these sins were so
numerous that the Church did not venture to excommunicate
the laity for them, nor to degrade the clergy. He accepts
the principle Corri;piantur secretins quce peccantur secreiius
{Sermo 82. 11, see also 351. 352).
In Constantinople, at the close of the fourth century,
a presbyter was set apart to look after this department
(TTpeo-^vTepo^ iirl fieTavoia^). His business was to confer
with those who had committed sins for which church
canons prescribed discipline, and who desired to make
satisfaction. A scandal happened to become public in
connection with the administration of this office, and
Nectarius (who succeeded Chrysostom in the see) was
advised to abolish it.^ The effect appears to have been,
1 Council of ni;ppo, Can. 30 ; Carthag., iv. (397); but see Hefele on those
councils, vol. ii.
* Sozom., y. 19.
313-4511 DISCIPLINE 459
that while discipline still proceeded in the case of known
transgressions, people were left to their own discretion as
to confessing or not confessing sins which had not become
otherwise known to the Church. The sufficiency of personal
and private repentance in such cases was tacitly recognised.
Close to the end of our period certain bishops in
Southern Italy, in the view, probably, of maintaining the
old discipline, and of infusing into it some salutary pain,
required penitents in their churches to read publicly a list
of their sins. Leo i. reprehends this practice, and ordains
a more prudent proceeding in such cases. The penitents,
apparently, were still to appear publicly, but their sins were
not to be published.^
In all these instances the range of offence contemplated
is by no means that which is comprehended under the head
of " mortal sins " according to the later theology of Kome.
But in regard to such sins as were dealt with, the tendency
to dispose of them more privately is gaining ground.
* E]p, 168 : Ad Eyisco^os Camijani(B,
CHAPTER XXVIir
Augustine
O'pera^ Benedictine ed., Paris, 1679, reprinted by Gaume, Paris, in
11 vols., 1838. The first vol. contains Augustine's Confessions and
the two books of Retradationes^ and the eleventh contains the old life
by Possidius, bishop of Calama (d. after 437), and the very thorough
biography by the Benedictine editors. (The new text of Aug.
0pp. in the Vienna Corpus Scriptorum, with various readings and
indices but without other apparatus, is not yet complete. Migne's
reprint of the Benedictine edition is contained in torn. 32-47 of
the Latin series.)
Tillemont, M^moires, vol. xiii., 2nd ed., Paris, 1710 ; and all the Church
Histories and works on Patristic. Bohringer, Kirchengeschichte
. in BiographieUj 2nd ed., ll*'^'^ Theil, Zurich, 1878. Poujoulat,
Eistoire de S. Augustin^ 2 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1843-1852. Bindemann,
Der heil. Augustinus, 2 vols., Berlin, 1844-1855. K. Braune,
Monnica u. Aug., 12mo, Grimma, 1846. P. Schaff, Life and
Labours of S. Aug., London, 1851. J. Baillie, S. Augne., London,
1859. Gangauf, Metaph. Psychologie des Aug., Augsb. 1852. Flottes,
Etudes, Paris, 1861. Nourrisson, Philosophic de S. Av^ustin, 2 vols.,
2nd ed., Paris, 1866. A. Dorner, Augustinus, Berlin, 1873.
A very important study of Augustine is contained in Harnack's
Dogmengeschichte, dritter Bd., pp. 1-244. See also specially Keuter,
Augustinische Studien, Gotha, 1887.
Augustine requires a chapter to himself. From the time
of his appearance on the scene, he dominates the history of
the Western Church, — not that everyone agrees with his
teaching or submits to his influence, but the whole situation
takes colour and character from him. For that very reason
it is impossible adequately to represent the man or his
relation to his age ; but something may be indicated.
He was born at Tagaste in Numidia on the Ides of Novem-
ber, 354. The father, Patricius, coarse, secular, impulsive,
460
A.D. 313-451] AUGUSTINE 461
and no longer young, became a catechumen shortly before his
death.^ The mother, Monica, a young matron of twenty-two
when Augustine was born, was an earnest Christian woman ;
her sincere devoutness was associated with limited knowledge,
and she shared the popular superstitions ; but one can gather
that, along with her piety, a certain native right-mindedness
and good sense sustained her influence over her son.^ The
family was not well off, but friends supplied the means neces-
"sary to enable Augustine to prosecute literary and philoso-
phical studies at Carthage. He hoped in this line to open his
way to what might be called, in modern language, University
or Civil Service appointments. Carthage was a very wicked
place, and Augustine tells us how it affected him. Eeligious
impressions from his mother's influence had repeatedly
touched him in his boyhood; but now as a young man a
long course of wandering from the right way was before
him.^ Manicheism, with its doctrine of two principles, was
vigorously pushed in Africa at that time, and Augustine
became an "auditor" among the Manicheans. Their teach-
ing included a sharp criticism of the Christian Scriptures,
especially the Old Testament; it appealed to reason and
experience, in the old Gnostic manner, for its conception of a
radical strife between two principles in the world and in
men individually. Its detail of doctrine and duty was
certainly fantastic; but it was possible to regard this as
only the form of a secret wisdom, which the disciple was
* He must have died before Augustine left Africa.
* Aug., de BecUa Vita, vi. 10. 16 ; De Ordine, 1. 31, ii. 45, etc., both in
vol. i.
* Augustine does not spare himself. It is right to say, however, that he
himself speaks of his recoil from the coarse revelry of his fellow- students
{Conf. iii. 3). The main fact is that Augustine eventually formed a con-
nection with a young woman (by whom he had a son, Adeodatus) — a connection
which lasted for a number of years during which each was faithful to the other,
80 far as we know. Augustine had not accepted Christian obligations ; and
such a connection on the part of a non-Christian was not reckoned indecent or
profligate. But Augustine had felt the claims of the Christian standard of
life, which his mother exemplified ; he had felt also the appeal of the
philosophers to rise above sense ; he was conscious of deliberately living below
Ms ideals and transgressing his duty, in this instance especially.
462 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH U-D.
eventually to reach, and in which the mind could rest.
Under the influence of this hope it was that Augustine
joined the sect. The step implied (1) his acceptance of
their criticism of the Scriptures as unanswerable; (2) his
sense of the need of a positive religion — if it was not to be
Christian in the Catholic sense, it must still be a positive
religion ; (3) his apprehension of a conflict between evil and
good which required to be strongly affirmed ; and (4) he
found a solace for his conscience and his self-esteem in the
doctrine, that when he sinned it was not he who did so, but
a certain alien nature in him, for which he was not respon-
sible. He continued for a number of years to have some
kind of connection with Manicheism ; but as his mind
ripened and as his expectations of successful insight con-
tinued to be disappointed, the connection became loose.
Before the time of his departure for Eome (a.d. 383) it
had become mainly nominal. He continued still to be a
Manichean only until he should find something better.
But other influences operated. A perusal of a treatise
of Cicero (the Hortensius — now lost — fragments in Orelli's
edition) stirred his mind with the conception of a career not
only of successful speculation, but of life according to wisdom,
aiming at the highest and achieving it. This thought took
possession of him with memorable force. It did not reform
his life, but he cherished it as a glorious inspiration. The
goal it propounded to him was not repudiated — only post-
poned.
After his arrival at Eome, where he occupied a post as
teacher for a short time, and after his transference to Milan
(A.D. 384), he read more largely in the philosophers, found
no help in Aristotle, but was greatly impressed and attracted
by the New Platonists. Their conception of the world
seemed to bring him into a purer air, and some of their
principles became a permanent element in Augustine's
thinking. But ere long the claims of Christianity as em-
bodied in the life and influence of the great Church began
to press on him with fresh power. The magnitude and the
fruitfulness of this unique phenomenon became more and
313-451] AUGUSTINE 463
more apparent to him : his mother had followed him to
"Milan ; the preaching of Ambrose attracted him, and
gradually dissipated the difficulties about the Scriptures
which the Manicheans had taught him to cherish. He
began to read systematically the Epistles of the Apostle
Paul ; he listened to what Christians told him of Christian
conflict and decision. Meanwhile the personal question
about his own will, and the goal to which his life should be
directed, came home to him irresistibly ; he felt that he
had been all his life miserably and inexcusably wrong, and
that he was still enslaved in the same snare. All this led
to the memorable day (described in the Gonf. viii. 8. 12) on
which the struggle ended, and he passed into a new life.
He was baptized by Ambrose at Easter 387 : his mother
died at Ostia near the end of the same year. In 388
Augustine finally left Eome and returned to Africa. He
planned for himself a retired and meditative existence on his
little inheritance at Tagaste. Ere long he was constrained
to become presbyter and afterwards bishop at Hippo Eegius
(395). He died there in August 430.
Augustine's nature compelled him to think through his
beliefs and his experiences ; and no one in the early Church
was more intent than he ^ on reducing to the unity of a
coherent and consistent system the various elements of the
worlds of nature and of revelation as these presented them-
selves to the believing and Repentant man. He believed in
the function of reason and in the unity of truth. But
Christianity as it now possessed him was great and deep.
Also in connection with it there came to him, on various
lines, a wealth of suggestion and impression that placed him
in relation to many forms of thought. He accepted with
pious docility whatever seemed to be the teaching of the
Church, not only as expressed in formal creed, but as
embodied in the prevailing attitude of Christian minds, and
in the prevailing sentiment of Christian life and worship.
He appropriated from Scripture great thoughts to which he
strove to do justice. He took something from all the
* A remark of Harnack's.
464 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
Christian schools of the West, from Irenseus, from Tertul-
lian, from Cyprian, from Hilary, from Victorinus, re-shaping
all he took. He had drunk deep of the Neoplatonic
teaching; and while he guarded against its mystic pan-
theism, he had thoughts of God and of goodness, of the
metaphysic of evil, and of the possible attainment of
believing souls, for v^hich he availed himself of Neoplatonic
forms. Not even Augustine could really reconcile and unify
these various elements ; and he was fain to resort to
dialectical plausibilities when true and inward harmony
failed. This is one of the features which connect him with
the schoolmen. But the strong grasp of the thinker com-
pressed all at least into types that could live together in his
mind; all was moulded into Augustinian forms which
challenged the attention, which caught the ear and the heart
of many generations. The central force of the whole lies in
his consciousness of the difference between life without God
in pride, self-sufficiency, and worship of the creature, and
life with God in faith and love and hope. Of this last the
decisive principle is Love — for Augustinian grace is the
Love of God (i.e. towards God) shed abroad in the heart and
making all new. Augustine's greatness has many elements ;
but chiefly it stands in the vividness, profoundness, and
decisiveness of his conception of religion, or of the life of
God in the soul of man.
Augustine's circumstances led him (after some essays
meant to bring him to an understanding with himself as to
valid method of thought) to write on the Eeason of Christian
Faith. At the same time he developed the argument against
the Manicheans, and he found it expedient to resume this
theme from time to time. His experience at Milan before
and after his conversion had interested him in Arianism,
and in the doctrine of the Trinity. His work on the
Trinity is the chief monument in this department. Its
characteristic is the strong assertion of the fundamental
equality of the Divine Three, in virtue of their common
possession of the unique Divine Nature and of all its attri-
butes. On this subject, bating some refinements, the ten-
313-451] AUGUSTINE 465
deucy at least of his thinking has been generally followed in
the West.
His maturer thoughts on his own life and his conversion
came out in the Confessions, in which he utters before God
what he remembered and felt in regard to it — passing on in
the later chapters to less personal meditations. His doctrine
of the Church was elaborated in his controversy with the
Donatists.^ His conception of the world's history as a scene of
divine permission and purpose — suggested by the difficulties
of those who were losing faith in God amid the calamities of
the time — is embodied in the great work de Cimtate Dei,
which occupied him occasionally during many years in the
later period of his life. The questions suggested by countless
phases of Christian discussion, and a great series of Biblical
topics, are taken up in his letters, and in many tracts as
well as in his sermons. The Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian
controversies elicited during the last twenty years of his life
the mass of writing which fills the famous tenth volume of the
Benedictine edition and many letters and sermons besides.
All the practical questions connected with conduct, those
which arose in connection with asceticism, with Christian
morals, with discipline, must be added to these. For in one
shape or other all the Christian interests appealed to Augus-
tine, or were pressed upon him. We have seen how the
Christian ethic had suffered in depth and thoroughness from
the all but universal acceptance by Christian teachers of
the form, and much of the substance, of the philosophic
thinking upon virtue. It cannot be said that Augustine
emancipated himself from all the effects of this state of
things. And yet he left his stamp on every item of the
discussion; for with him it was instinctive to seek the
religious roots of ethical questions. In doctrine and in duty
aHke men were conscious that Augustine's way of thinking
wrought a new depth and strength into Christian argument.
Hence also his phrases fastened themselves on his readers ;
and many sayings that bear the mark of his mint have
passed current among men ever since.
» See aiiU, Chap. XXIV.
30
466 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
What might be said of his attitude on the Pelagian
question will come more appropriately in next chapter.
Here we may notice the impression that a Manichean taint
continued to keep possession of him after he had renounced
Manicheism and had become a Catholic Christian. This
has been often said, but it is ungrounded. The dehberate
doctrine of Augustine, from the time he renounced Mani-
cheism, laid a strong emphasis on the goodness of every
created existence as it proceeds from the hand of God ; and
his theory of evil (the negative theory) was meant to har-
monise with that position and to guard it.
The only plausible way of supporting the assertion is to
say that Augustine's view of the solidarity of the race, and
of the effects of the fall, introduces into human existence a
fate operating adversely, as much as does the Manichean
doctrine of an originally evil nature, the qualities of which
can never alter, forming part of the constitution of man.
But if reasoning of this kind is admitted, Manicheism may
be charged on John Cassian himself. For he too admitted
that without Christian revelation and ordinances men could
not recover themselves from the effects of the fall, nor from
the penal consequences of sin. Man in these circumstances
can be described as subject to an adverse fate. But the
fact of sin as it attaches to the race and the individual,
and the effects of it, is a great subject of discussion which
cannot be avoided in Christian theology ; and the imputation
of Manicheism gives no help towards a real understanding
of the problem.
How far Augustine transcended the teaching of his pre-
decessors — how far and in what respects he gave a new
significance to Christian dogmas and struck a deeper and
truer note of Christian experience — how far again he limited
or perplexed his thinking, either by following too un-
reservedly single lines of thought, or (much more obviously)
by the effort to harmonise the incompatible, and by the
resolute purpose to make no breach with the authority of
the Church, — these are topics involving a bewildering array
of questions, and they cannot be entered into here. It is
313-451] AUGUSTINE 467
certain that Angnstine is epoch-making, and that the the-
ology and the religion of the Western Churches have never
ceased to embody great results of his life and work. The
central force lies in his realisation of Sin and Grace, — Sin
as rebellion against God and separation from Him ; Grace
as love to God, a disposition in which the heart opens to
all that is truly good — a disposition the beginning and con-
tinuation of which is itseK the manifestation of the Love of
God drawing near to heal and to hold communion with
the undeserving and the undone. How from this centre
Augustine surveys the elements of the worlds, natural and
spiritual, in which he found himself, and with what success
or failure he did so, is one of the historical studies which
must not be entered on in a paragraph.^
The two books of Retractationes are a survey by Aug-
ustine of his own works, correcting or completing state-
ments which, on reconsideration, he judged to be inaccurate
or defective. They were written near the end of his life
(a.d. 427). One or two more treatises, however, were issued
later, and therefore do not appear in this review.
Augustine died of a fever while the Vandals were besieg-
ing Hippo. During the closing days he preferred to be
much alone. The penitential psalms, written in large letters,
were hung where he could see them. He died 28th August
430. (See note in Appendix.)
* The questions which may be raised regarding this central element in
Augustine are very frankly suggested by Harnack {DogmengescMcTUe, ii.
Theil, 2 Buch, cap. iii., Weltgeschichtliche Stellung Augustin's als Refor-
mator der Christlichen Frommigkeit), and are well deserving of attention,
apart from the success, more or less, to be ascribed to Hamack in dealing
mth those questions. The whole study of which this chapter forms a part is
interesting, especially from the writer's recognition of the difficulty of master-
ing the complex problem presented by the thought and the influence of
Augustine.
CHAPTER XXIX
Pelagian Conteoversy
The materials bearing on this subject are collected in the tenth volume
of the Benedictine edition of Augustine's works (reprint by Gaume,
Paris, 8vo, 1838). To these must be added the Letter of Pelagius to
Demetrias, which is to be found in the Appendix to vol. ii. (p. 1380
of Gaume). The mind of Pelagius himself is best gathered from
this letter. His Lihellus fidei (in Ai^^. to vol. x. ; p. 2343 of Gaume)
is cautious and defensive. A commentary on the Epp. of Paul, no
doubt by Pelagius,^ is reprinted among the works of Jerome,
vol. V. Ben. ed. It has been purged of passages too conspicuously
Pelagian, but is still worth consulting. To the works of Augustine
contained in vol. x. are to be added various letters, sermons, etc.,
of which a list with references is given vol. x. p. 2173. The
Commonitorium of Marius Mercator is substantially reproduced in
App. to vol. X., also the documents connected with the various
ecclesiastical proceedings. The series extends over the Semi-Pelagian
controversy to the Synod of Orange, a.d. 529. The works of Prosper
are added in a third Appendix. G. F. Wiggers, Pragmatische Ba/r-
stellung des Augustinismus u. Pelagianismus, Hamb. 1833. Julius
Miiller, Pelagianismus, Berli n, 1 854. Fr. Worter, Der PelagianismuSt
u.s.w.f Freiburg, 1886. W. Cunningham, Hist, Theol.y Edinburgh,
1863, voL i
The Pelagian controversy begins about A.D. 410, and its
echoes were still audible more than twenty years after.
Morals as against religion, free will as against grace, one
may add, in a certain sense, reason as against revelation,
1 Considerable retrenchments of the text must have taken place, but the
commentary represents the mind of Pelagius, and is interesting in various
ways. It shows, for example, how much of apostolic Christianity Pelagias
could appropriate, under his own interpretation, and could adjust to his lead-
ing principles. It shows also curious results of the Pelagian position. Texts
which Augustine interpreted as describing the inward grace which reforms the
inward man, Pelagius habitually refers to the forgiveness of sins — ^because lie
468
A.D. 315-451] PELAGIAN CONTROVERSY 469
may be taken as a short account of the interests in collision.
Yet not only were both sides in earnest, but on the Pelagian
side there was, at tlie outset, no consciousness of disloyalty
to the Church or to Christianity. The Pelagians accepted
the creed and the ritual; and they believed they could
strengthen a weak side of the Christianity of their time.
Pelagius (who is reported as a native of Britain) was a
monk, unattached apparently to any convent. The staUlitas
loci was not yet enforced upon monks. He took up his abode
at Rome before the fourth century ended, or at latest very
early in the fifth, and he continued to live there till he fled,
with others, from Alaric's invasion in A.D. 410. He was a
devout and blameless man, chiefly anxious to see a more
consistent standard of practical conduct among Christians.
The virtues of the monastic life were the true Christianity ;
and these, or some distinct approach to them, should be
visible in all Christians. Instead of this he found great
laxity and worldliness, and for him the question was how to
get the better of these tendencies. The reputation of Pelagius
as a religious man, who had powerfully impressed people in
Eome, reached Africa a considerable time before he appeared
in that province himself.^
Pelagius, as we have said, accepted current Christianity :
now, in his view, Christianity itself was intended to teach,
to stimulate, and to reward morality, that, namely, which
was recognised in the more earnest circles of church life.
In order to this, one must enforce the maxim, " You ought,
therefore you can." "When I treat of morals," he said,
"and the principles of holy life, I make it my first business
to establish the capacities of human nature, and to show
what it can achieve : for the mind is apt to be remiss and
had a place in his system for that, while he looked with jealous eyes on
Augustine's ** grace." Hence in some places the commentary assumes the
character of a superficial Lutheranism — though scarcely any two systems could
be more opposed.
' It was known also that his thinking on some points differed from Augus-
tine's. A bishop had quoted to him, from Augustine's Confessions, the well-
known saying, "Da quod jubes, et jube quod vis." Pelagius repudiated the
sentiment almost passionately.
470 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
slow to virtue, in proportion as it reckons itself unable, if it
is left ignorant of its inherent power, or believes itself to
have none."^ The assertion of ability was to him the
obvious way to sweep aside the pretexts on which men
excuse themselves, and to force them to face their obliga-
tions. Nothing in Christianity must be taken in a sense
that interferes with this fundamental view. Man is intrin-
sically able to do all that is required of him, if he pleases.
But Christianity gives him additional encouragement and
advantage, because it supplies an initial forgiveness in
baptism, to those who require it, and because it promises,
as the reward of virtue, not merely a happy immortality,
but something more eminent which Pelagius distinguished
as " the kingdom of heaven." We are not therefore " fallen
in Adam " : Adam's fall concerned himself. Undoubtedly
men can throw away their possibilities, and they often do.
But Christianity has come to illuminate and exhort us so
that we may no more have any excuse for doing so. It
agreed with these positions to hold, as Pelagius did, that
without Christianity men may avoid sin and earn immortal
blessedness, and that they often have done so. Christ
therefore came not to quicken the dead, nor even to heal the
(morally) sick, but to enhance the good of nature by clearer
light and fairer prospects. These tenets indicate some in-
fluence from Eastern modes of thought deriving from the
Apologists. And more than one circumstance in the history
of Pelagius suggests that a connection with the East may
have existed before his residence in Eome.
Various church historians have remarked that the con-
fident assumption by Pelagius of complete power on the part
of men to be what God would have them to be, indicates a
mode of view which could obtain only in a mind free from
the conflict of strong passions, in sympathy with moral
order, and which had found that steady self-control could
establish habits of conduct not easily overthrown. By such
minds the effort to win their own respect and that of others
by superior morality is often undertaken with sincerity, and
' Ep. to Demetrius, Aug. 0pp. x. App.
313-451] PELAGIAN CONTROVERSY 471
the aim is felt to have a strong and growing attraction.
But the consciousness of success, on Pelagian terms, requires
for its existence a narrow and external view of duty. Tlie
breadth and depth of the commandment must be concealed,
if satisfaction as to the fulfilment of it is to be maintained.
4mong the adherents whom Pelagius attached to him-
self at Rome was Ccelestius, also a layman, apparently a
man who led a studious life. He was more impulsive and
disputatious than his leader. Somewhat later (about A.D.
418) Juhanus, the young bishop of Eclanum, embarked in
the same cause, and eventually parted with his See that he
might maintain his principles. He, too, demanded well-
regulated life, but conceived it less from the monastic and
more from the philosophic point of view. He matched
himself against Augustine in detailed discussion of the
questions raised, and proved to be an able and resolute
disputant.^
Pelagius and Ccelestius came into Africa about a.d. 410.
Pelagius, after exchanging letters with Augustine, soon passed
on to the East, but Ccelestius remained. He propagated his
opinions with zeal, and also asked to be made a presbyter.
Paulinus of Milan interposed with a challenge of the doc-
trinal opinions of Ccelestius : a council was called at Carthage,
the explanations of Ccelestius were not reckoned satisfactory,
and he was separated from the Church.^ He departed to
the East, and succeeded in procuring presbyter's orders at
Ephesus. The discussion awakened interest in Africa, and
Augustine began to preach and write on the subject — at
first refraining from mentioning any names.
* The family of Julianus were among the private friends of Augustine, —
and there were ties also with Paulinus of Nola. Paulinus was a poet, and we
have an Epithalamium from his pen in connection with the marriage of
Julianus, then only a lector, to a lady named la. The father of Julianus was
also a bishop, named Memor.
* Errors charged — 1. Adam was created mortal, and would have died apart
from sin. 2. His fall injured himself alone. 3. Children are bom in the
same state in which Adam was before he fell. 4. The law as well as the
gospel leads to the Kingdom of Heaven. .5. Even before Christ there were
sinless men. These are the chief points, Mansi, iv. 289. Augustine was not
present at this council.
472 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
Pelagius had found his way to Palestine. In 415 he
was accused before a synod presided over by John of
Jerusalem, and also before a synod at Diospolis presided
over by Eugenius of Csesarea. The real accuser was Orosius,
a young Spaniard, who had letters from Augustine. The
explanations of Pelagius were accepted by the council ; the
accusation therefore failed. At this point Jerome comes
upon the scene. He did not hold, and probably did not
understand, the scheme of Augustine, but he recoiled from
the Pelagian extremes ; he had a strong desire to cultivate
the friendship of Augustine, and he seems also to have had
some ground of personal irritation against Pelagius. He
now came out with an attack on Pelagianism, which has not
been reckoned of much importance.^
The African Church was not disposed to allow its sen-
tence to be virtually reversed by these proceedings, which,
besides, seemed to them to be due to misapprehension. In
416 two synods, at Carthage and Mileve, renewed the
former judgment, and also communicated their proceedings
to Innocent i. of Eome — who confirmed the sentence of the
African synods. Innocent died in 4 1 7. A lilellus fidei which
Pelagius had sent him did not reach Eome in time. It
came into the hands of Zosimus his successor, and Coelestius
also appeared in Eome, putting forth explanations which
satisfied Zosimus. The latter thereupon issued a letter to
the African bishops vindicating the accused, whose condem-
nation he ascribed to misunderstanding and overhaste.
On this, two African synods met in 417 and 418 and
afresh defined their doctrine against Pelagius. A rescript
from the emperor was also procured in the same sense, and
subjecting the offenders to civil censure. Zosimus on this
changed his attitude and issued an encyclical to all bishops,
anathematising Pelagius and Coelestius, and sanctioning the
African teaching. This encyclical was to be subscribed by
bishops, and those who refused were to be deposed and
banished. Eighteen Italian bishops incurred these penalties,
but not all of them persisted in their opposition. The most
^ In a letter to Ctesiphon [Ep. 133) and in a Dialogus c. Pelagium.
313-451] PELAGIAN CONTROVERSY 473
distinguished was Julian, already mentioned ; the most ela-
borate controversial efforts of Augustine's remaining years ^
were called forth by works of Julian, who maintained his
ground with great acuteness.
The Pelagian leaders sought refuge again in the East,
where they could find a large measure of indifference on
the questions in dispute, and some positive sympathy. They
are found in Constantinople in 429 when Nestorius was
Patriarch. He endeavoured to befriend them — but the
Emperor Theodosius li. saw no cause to interfere with a
definitive sentence of the Koman see, and ordered the accused
to leave the city. At the oecumenical council of Ephesus
in A.D. 431, Pelagianism was condemned along with other
heresies.^
Assuming that human salvation either involves a state
of conformity to the Divine will, or that it is conditioned on
this as a previous attainment, the question in hand throughout
this debate has regard to the power of man to attain to this
state, or the kind and degree of aid he needs with a view to
it. If Christian religion is designed to promote the attain-
ment, the question comes to be, What kind and degree of aid
does that religion propose to impart ?
The writings of previous church teachers presented a
good deal of variety in the statement of these topics ; for, in
general, men had been content to oscillate between two
poles, as the immediate practical object might suggest,
without committing themselves to anything very conclusive.
* Contra Julianum and the Opus imperfectum^ which was still in hand when
he died.
2 There is no reason to suppose that the council examined the subject ; and
it is generally said that the disposition to show the Pelagians some favour,
evinced by Nestorius in 429, led to their being condemned along with him.
The school of Antioch, however, really leant, at least, to the Pelagian side,
and the leaders of the council may have perceived this. See ^AiroKpUris irpbs
Toin dp9o56^ovs in works of Justin Martyr, with Harnack's argument to affiliate
it to the school of Antioch, and in particular to Diodorus of Tarsus. Texte u.
Untermchungen, N. F.y vi. 4, Leipz. 1901. It is known that in a.d. 419
Theodorus of Mopsuestia wrote against Jerome's anti-Pelagian tracts, Ilpis toj>s
X^-yoyraj 0i/<ret koX oh yvdfiij rraUiv Tods dvOpthirovs. Fragments in Marius
Mercator.
474 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHUECH [a.d.
Both in the East and in the "West the assertion of free will
as a great Christian postulate, and as the correlative of duty,
tended to sustain the thought of human competency. And
in the East the Apologists and those who followed them
had gone very far in this direction. And yet in the East
as well as in the West, not only did the universal prevalence
of sin come home to the Christian mind, especially to some
minds, but Christianity as a redemption implied a fallen
state, a relation to sin and death, which was dated from
Adam's transgression. That, therefore, had influenced all
that followed. But some made as little as possible of this
bias in human nature, others dwelt on it more freely. In
general a certain feebleness, darkness, and liability to the
insidious attacks of evil spirits were the categories dwelt
upon. It may be said that, as a rule, in making their
statements men were chiefly on their guard against saying
anything that might involve the assumption of an evil
nature. Corruption or depravity of the race was therefore
not willingly contemplated. Yet a taint of this kind is
recognised by some writers ; and a consciousness of it tinges
the language even of those by whom a formal doctrine of
depravity would not have been willingly recognised.^
In the West, however, as we have seen, a more pro-
nounced doctrine of the joeccatum originis had shaped itself.
A bias to evil in human nature operating since the fall was
recognised, and against this the grace of Christ was set as a
counteracting force. This is prominent in the teaching of
Tertullian, and it is distinctly recognised by others. This
carried with it a deeper sense of the tragedy of human sin,
and of the conflict of opposing forces in human hearts.
Yet those who taught so did not conceive themselves to have
parted with the great commonplace of free will. That con-
tinued through all earthly conditions, carrying with it always
its possibilities of good and of evil. But in the West these
^ In connection with this, note how Augustine himself sums up the obstacles
to goodness in ignorantia and difficulias. De Lib. Arb., quoted De Naiura et
Gratia, 81, and often elsewhere. Sometimes for the second member we have
infirmitas.
313-451] PELAGIAN CONTROVERSY 475
wrought a deeper sense of the potency of evil in men, as
needing succour, and more definite impressions of Divine
grace as a positive restoring and upholding force at work
within the soul. A little before the period of Augustine's
activity, Ambrose had given fresh and emphatic expression
to this conviction.
Pelagius considered this whole department of thought to
be perfectly open,^ as far as church authority was concerned ;
and he judged himself to be serving the interests of religion
in striving to sway the Christian mind to one side — that
which magnified human power and minimised the need of
grace. Augustine regarded this as a denial of the very
genius of Christian religion. Man's sin was separation
from God into idolatry of self and of the creature : degrees
of more consistent morality availed nothing to alter that :
from God alone could come the reconciliation — the consent
to God and the love to God which are decisive, which set a
new goal and make a new life ; and nothing less than this
is the benefit which Christ brought to light. In the early
stages of the debate much of Augustine's pleading is to this
effect. Surely Christianity is a religion of men that pcay :
surely as Christians we find ourselves asking for that which
we cannot achieve for ourselves, which we cannot earn and
do not deserve.
Augustine had written in defence of free will against the
Manicheans,^ and he continued to maintain it as essential to
moral responsibility. The whole scheme of Augustine pre-
supposes and requires a real free will' as the point of
departure. But it appeared to him that the great fact of
the fall must and does create new conditions for the sinning
will : and free will so conditioned can never do the work of
grace. Asserting the dependence of man and the supremacy
of grace, Augustine accepted the full responsibilities of his
* Libellusfidei (in App. to vol. x. of Aug.).
' De Libera Arhitrio, 0pp. i. One of the three boolcs was Nvritten in 388,
the second and third not till 395. The distinction between the un fallen will
and the fallen is most obviously present to his mind in the last. See Retract.
i. 9. The same subject was touched in an interesting way in de Ordiiie^
written before his baptism.
476 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
assertion. The whole history of nature and grace required
to be accounted for ; and Augustine reckoned himself bound
to present a concatenated explanation ranging over the
immense array of questions. Each side, in fact, undertook
to present a connected theory. That hitherto untried ex-
periment, it seemed, could not be declined.
Not many Christians have followed Pelagius. But at
three points in the remarkable system of Augustine vehe-
ment contest has arisen among men, on both sides earnestly
Christian : 1 st, as to the explanation and the effects of original
sin ; 2nd, as to the certain operation of grace ; 3rd, as to
the Divine election : and many experiments of theory have
been tried to solve, or to assuage, or to veil, the difficulties.
There seems no likelihood that this division will pass away ;
for though minor eccentricities, both of Augustinians and of
anti-Augustinians, have ceased to be interesting, yet the
tendency either way remains. This perhaps may be said,
that those who feel bound to divide the work of grace
between the two agents, God and man, must lean to the
anti-Augustinian side, while those who recognise it as wholly
God's, and at the same time wholly man's, sympathise with
Augustinianism. As for Augustine, without undertaking to
comment on his great system, it may be added here that in
arguing it out he came at last to a point — the grounds of
God's election — at which he recognised sheer mystery;^
he continued, notwithstanding, to believe in perfect wisdom
and goodness, but he could do nothing to expound them.
Perhaps mystery should have been recognised and allowed
to replace assertion and argument at earlier points of his
scheme. For, indeed, the very first step — free will in a
creature — is a certain fact, no doubt, but an inexplicable
mystery. Yet a wise student will be thankful to the great
masters who have overreached themselves in the effort to
theorise the relations of the moral and spiritual world. At
this point and at that, principles and analogies may have
been strained in the effort to present a scheme. But thus
only could they make evident to us what the reason of man
* There was another — the origin of human souls.
313-451] PELAGIAN CONTROVERSY 477
can do, and what it cannot do, in its efforts to serve the
truth.
Pelagius and his followers developed their scheme as
follows : —
I. As regards the religions history of the race — {a) No
blame connected with the sin of the first man affects his
children. His sin is imputed to himself alone, (b) No
tendency to sin or moral taint is propagated from Adam to
his descendants, as corruption, (c) Men, therefore, are now
born in the same moral condition in which Adam was
created : only temptations are stronger, influences tending
to self-indulgence that appeal to the will have multiplied
and become prevalent in the history of the race.
In connection with this part of the debate, an argument
was derived from the practice of Infant Baptism, recognised
throughout the churches and not contested by Pelagius.
" Baptism is 'for forgiveness of sins ' — why then are children
baptized if they have no sins ? " On this Pelagius main-
tained — (a) No sin, inherent or inherited, is remitted to
infants in baptism, for infants have none, (b) Baptism does
not confer on them " solus " or blessed immortality ; for that
is their destiny as sinless beings, apart from Christian
benefit, (c) Baptism qualifies them for a superior and
peculiarly Christian blessedness, distinguished as "the
Kingdom of Heaven." {d) Also, it adds to the good of
nature — lonum naturale — a special goodness, the honum
sanctificationis. (e) Pelagius eventually deferred to prevail-
ing modes of speech by owning that baptism, even in the
case of infants, is for remission of sins ; but in this sense,
that it introduces them into the order of things in which
they shall find remission of sins to be a blessing made ready
for them when they come to need it.
II. Holding all this, Pelagius laid it down as his central
thesis, that as duty implies power, and men continue to be
subjects of duty, free will, or the power of acting either
way, in particular the power of doing right, exists after the
fall just as it did before. Augustine's doctrine, he main-
tained, subverted free will, and so swept away the capacity
478 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHUECH [a.d.
of man for moral action. Pelagius distinguished — (1) the
power of choice ; (2) the actual choice, e.g., of good ; (3) the
carrying out of that decision into practical concrete action.
The first he said was God's gift ; the other two depend on
the first, but they are to be ascribed to ourselves. It is of
ourselves that we use our power so. In opposition to
Augustine he held that man can be without sin in this
world. He can, though Pelagius did not deny that it might
be difficult.
III. It had been not unusual to contrast our present
state with that of man unfallen, and to paint the latter in
glowing colours. Pelagius saw that the consistency of his
system required him to resist this tendency. He maintained
that our present state is not so very different from that in
which Adam was created. It was to be believed that disease
and death, natural incidents of corporeal existence, were
incidental to that state as they are to ours ; though possibly,
if man had been faithful to his calling, immortality might
have been conferred on him as a reward. Also as to his
spiritual condition, though Adam was originally sinless
Pelagius declined to regard him as other than equipoised
between good and evil, so that free will might have play.
Pelagius therefore taught practically no doctrine of original
righteousness ; man's great endowment was free will — which
Adam possessed and which we possess, after the entrance of
sin as before it. One point which came into the argument
related to concupiscence, or the instinctive tendency to
fleshly gratifications of various kinds. Pelagius maintained
that this is simply natural, and that it existed in Paradise
very much as it does now among men.
IV. Pelagius acknowledged grace, because the Scriptures
speak of it; but the question was what he meant by it.
And he seems to have filled up that category by setting
down to it all benefits proceeding from Divine goodness,
which he was still willing to recognise. In particular —
(a) The capacity for moral action, or the freedom of the will
itself, is the primary instance of grace. This appears some-
times to be the fundamental thought of Pelagius. (5) The
313-451] PELAGIAN CONTROVERSY 479
law, or, in general, Divine revelation, including the teaching
and example of Christ, (c) Forgiveness of sins : this meets
a plain necessity, and, as it leads up to renewed hope of
blessedness, it tends to establish men in goodness.
As to any such thing as an operation of the Spirit of
God upon the souls of men, Pelagius did not say much, but
he appears to have admitted the possibility of it, chiefly in
connection with the understanding, guiding to correct know-
ledge. Such influence was not necessary in order to choose
and do tnie good ; and it was bestowed usually as a reward
of previous effort in the use of natural power. These aids
were not given, therefore, as indispensable to every good act,
— ad singulos acttcs, — as Augustine maintained.
In connection with his doctrine of human nature
Pelagius urged the virtuous attainments of various heathens,
who were destitute of grace and yet manifested power to do
what is truly good, or even to live without sin. Heathens
upright in this life according to their light might have
entrance into eternal life, like unbaptized infants, though
not into the kingdom of heaven. He also maintained that
many persons had attained to a life wholly free from sin.
In regard to the positions of Augustine : —
I. On the relation of Adam's sin to his descendants,
Augustine taught — (a) The sin of Adam or his corrupted
condition as a sinner is propagated to all his natural
descendants, (h) This condition, and the subjection to the
evil one which accompanies it, was to Adam and his de-
scendants the punishment of the first sin : it is both peccatnm
and pcena peccati. (c) This state of things is accompanied
by many other penal evils — disease, death, etc. (d) Man,
therefore, as he now comes into the world is unfit and
imable to do what is truly good, (e) This original sin is not
anything substantial, or belongmg to the substance of
human nature : it is not to be conceived as a positive
element in man, but rather as a negative one, a want.
II. In his early days Augustine had written largely in
defence of the freedom of the will against the Manicheans,
and he still maintained it. But he also taught that man, in
480 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
abusing his freedom, lost his true or highest freedom, and
his state now involves what may be called a certainty of
sinning. Sin rules, and grace only sets men free. This is
a consequence of responsible human action, in the person of
our progenitor.
At the same time, a certain freedom remains ; without a
certain freedom we could not be the servants of sin. And
a real freedom is exercised in the common actions of life.
But freedom in the highest form, as power to keep God's
Law in its true sense, we have not, until grace restores it.^
III. As regards the original state of man unfallen,
Augustine had thought out a doctrine remarkable in various
ways, {a) Man unfallen had a reasonable nature made in
God's image. Hence Augustine ascribed to him a glorious
eminence of knowledge and wisdom. (&) Man was free, so
that he could sin indeed, but could also forbear to sin. This
free will was a positive " hona voluntas^* directed to what
was good : and what man had to do was to persevere in the
station in which he was set. (c) In order to man's main-
taining his station an adjutorium gratice was required, and it
was granted. For by reason of the frailty of the creature,
man, even if purposing to persevere, is not able to persevere
permanently by mere creature power. If this adjutorium
had not been granted to him he would not have been
responsible for falling. But he had it as long as he willed :
it did not fail the willing mind.^
{d) In the original state the reasonable soul had full
^ In the course of these discussions Augustine elaborated the thought,
often reproduced since, that the freedom of moral action, the freedom which
makes it moral, does not necessarily imply a capacity of actually turning from
good to evil or from evil to good : nay, that the highest and truest freedom
excludes for ever such a contingency. For God is most free, yet cannot sin : —
and the saints confirmed in glory have secure and consummate freedom,
in which they are for ever safe from falling.
2 The aid of grace by which sinners are saved (the salutaris gratia Ghristi)
is not suspended on the sinner's will : it is to be distinguished as the adju-
torium quo ; it actually produces the effeot. The aid of the original state was
only an adjutoriuTn sine quo non : man lost this when he fell. — Students
should attend to the full significance of the point indicated in the second last
sentence of the text, supra.
313-451] PELAGIAN CONTROVERSY 481
dominion over the body and its desires : there was no conflict
between appetite and reason. There was not therefore
concupiscence in the evil sense of hankering after that which
the deliberate judgment did not approve. Now, when man
has rebelled against God, the appetites rebel against the
reason, (e) Man, able not to sin, was placed under a
constitution in virtue of which, by obedience, he could attain
to the reward of a better state in which he should be con-
firmed against all possibility of sinning. The posse non
peccare would have become a non posse peccare. (/) Although
the constitution of men's bodies did not exclude the possi-
bility of disease or death, yet so long as he continued
obedient, in the right use of his freedom, man was secure
acjainst these evils : this was the immortalitas minor. It was
a posse non mori corresponding to the posse non peccare : and
if he had attained to the higher state of non posse peccare,
that would have carried with it a final non posse mori, or
immortalitas major, {g) Paradise was a place corresponding
to this moral and corporeal well-being in its beauty and its
order.
lY. As to grace : {a) Faith, which is the spring of all
good works, is, in its beginning, middle, and end, the fruit of
prevenient grace.^ (6) Grace operates both on the under-
standing and on the will, enlightening the one, rectifying
the other. The immediate influence of this grace enables
us to choose aright, to desire and purpose the truly good
action. So far, grace is gratia prceveniens. Grace prevents
us that we may have a good will, (c) Grace also is
necessary to enable us to carry out and perform any good
action ; so it may be called gratia cooperans — grace working
with the good will when we have it. (d) This grace is not
given according to our deservings. (e) Whatever influence
of a less decisive kind, tending to good, may exist, this
grace certainly eftects what it is given to effect : it overcomes
* Augustine had held for a time a different doctrine on this subject (a form
of Semi-Pelagianism) — "quod credimus nostrum est, sed quod bonunj oper-
amur illius qui credentibus in se dat Spirituni Sanctum," but he had renounced
it a number of years before the Pelagian controversy began.
31
482 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
the obstacles. (/) Even those who have this grace are not
without sin in this life.^
These discussions naturally led on to the subject of
election : it was only, however, in Augustine's latter days
that active discussion on this point was forced on ; though
Augustine had long before reached his main position in
regard to it. His developed doctrine was as follows : — (a)
Human nature fallen must be considered as a massa perdi-
tionis ; — it has no claim on Divine goodness, and might justly
have been left to perish. Any mercy shown must by the
nature of the case be absolutely soA^ereign and free. (&) God,
whose purposes are everlasting, chose, without respect to
human merits, whom He would deliver from condemnation
and guide to blessedness : and this election is certain and
unchangeable, (c) God uses the means of grace to effect His
purpose, (d) Perseverance is a peculiar privilege of the
elect, and of them only, (e) Men who are not of the elect
may become pious, but not receiving the gift of perseverance
they fall away. Why, of two men who seem pious, one
should persevere and one should be allowed to fall, is a mys-
tery known to God only. No reason can be assigned by us ;
but we are sure that His reasons are wise, just, and good.
Hence Augustine held that the death of Christ, as
regards its full and designed efficacy, was for the elect,
though some benefit by it accrues to others in various
degrees.
At first it did not appear how much the controversy
was to involve : at first the main point was that a penitent
Christian man must surely live by the strength of another,
not by his own. As time went on, however, the whole line
of positions on either side came under debate.
While Pelagius on the one side and Augustine on the
* For a time Augustine had not cared to dispute the Pelagian assertion
that some had lived without sin, if only Pelagians had been willing to own
that in any such case grace was the cause to which this must be ascribed.
But on further consideration he came to the belief that according to the
Scriptures no mere man is wholly without sin in this life. At the same time
he explained that in speaking of sin he would be understood to say nothing of
the Blessed Virgin.
313-451] PELAGIAN CONTROVERSY 483
other, with their respective followers, contended for the
positions which systematic consistency seemed to require, it
is important to note the landmarks laid down by the
representatives of the Church as those which Christians
were called upon to recognise. Without at present antici-
pating later decisions we may refer for this purpose to the
judgment of the African Church which was embodied in
acts of a council in 411, substantially repeated in the
greater council of 418.^ They lay down: —
1. That Adam was not subject to mortality by necessity
of nature, but death came to him as the penalty of sin.
2. Newborn infants are baptized for remission of sins,
because the sin of Adam has passed on all his descendants,
and this needs to be purged in the laver of regeneration.
3. The grace of God which justifies us, not only confers
forgiveness of past sins, but gives strength against sin in
time to come.
4. It does so not only by furnishing to us clearer light,
but it gives power to accomplish what we see to be right.
5. It is erroneous to say that grace only renders it
easier to do what could be done, though with more difficulty,
by natural power.
6. The acknowledgments by holy men in Scripture of
the consciousness of sin and need of forgiveness are to be
taken as they sound, and are not to be explained away.
After No. 2 a canon is found in some copies which
does not appear in others, condemning the assertion that
there is a place of blessedness for infants who die unbaptized,
although they are not admitted to the Kingdom of Heaven.
These, therefore, are the points on which it was reckoned
important to make a stand.
Augustine's system of nature and grace made a profound
impression on many minds. At the same time difficulties
soon arose. About the year 427 his counsel was asked, in
consequence of trouble which had arisen in a monastery at
Adrumetum as the result of the perusal of one of Augus-
tine's treatises, Some, asserting free will, were inclined to
» Hefele, iL 102.
484 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d. 313-451
hold that God's grace is given according to our deserving.
Others were disposed to reject free will altogether, and also
to maintain that if salvation is by grace, then, in the case of
those who are thus saved, no place remains for judgment
according to works. Some also construed the doctrine of
grace as leaving no room for remonstrance or rebuke being
addressed to those who live in sin, or those who are falling
back from a good life ; for if they had grace they would not
be as they are, and without grace they cannot be otherwise.
With a view to all this Augustine wrote two tracts, Be
Gratia et libero arhitrio, and De correptione et Gratia}
In the latter he brought out very distinctly his views on
Predestination and the Perseverance of the saints. These
had long pertained to the consistency of his system, as it lay
in his own mind, but had not as yet been so plainly argued
out. This had the effect of bringing into the field a new
set of opponents, who repudiated Pelagianism, and yet
questioned keenly the connected system of Augustine.
They were already restive under his teaching on the nature
and effect of original sin ; but the other doctrines, just
referred to, seemed to them to require and justify a more
emphatic protest. Those from whom it proceeded came to
be known as the Semi-Pelagians.
1 These are the latest of his works referred to in the Betractati(me$ (0pp.
ypL i), which was itself writte^ in 427.
CHAPTER XXX
Semi-Pelagianism
Prosper Aquitanus, Epistola ad Aug. (Aug. Ep. 225). Hilarius, ad Aug.
(Aug, Ep. 226, 0pp. vol. ii.). Joannes Cassianus, Collationes Patrum
(espec. xiii.), 0pp., Vindob., 1886-88. Vincentius Lerinensis, Com-
monitorium, Migne, 50-53. Faustus, De Gratia Dei et humance mentis
liber arbitrio, 2 lil^b., and Professio Fidei (in Migne, 58). Augustine,
De correptione et Gratia, De Prcedestinatione sanctorum^ De dono Per-
severantice. Prosper, De Gratia et libera arbitrio {contra Gollatorem).
Acts of Synodus Arausicana, Mansi, vol. viii. ; Hefele, ii., and
Aug. 0pp. vol. X. App. Jac. Sirmond, Historia Prcedestinationis,
Paris, 1648. Wiggers, Versuch einer pragm. Darstellung d. Semi-
pelagianismusy Hamb. 1833. C. E. Luthardt, Die Lehre vom freien
Willen, Leipz. 1863.
Augustine, against Julian, had copiously appealed to earlier
writers to evince a Catholic consent in support of his teach-
ing. Those quotations, however, applied mainly to the
topics of the fallen condition of man, and the evil of con-
cupiscence. If Augustine and his followers admitted a
consciousness that sin and grace were handled in his works
with an emphasis not reached by his predecessors, they held,
at least, that the previous thought of the Church had
furnished the outlines into which the deeper shading was
thrown. Thus Augustinianism may be said to have offered
itself as a revelation of the momentous significance of sin
and grace, implied in what the Church had believed and
taught, though hitherto hardly realised. But a number of
persons in the churches of Southern Gaul felt it needful to
protest against this. In that country, the seat of an ancient
Eoman civilisation, with lively aspirations after culture,
there existed also a vigorous Christianity which laid a strong
485
486 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
hand on the educated upper class as well as upon the people,
was in sympathy with the church movements of the time,
and felt able to take its own ground in theology. An
ancient intercourse with the East had been continued
or revived, which gave them access to Eastern ways of
thinking.
Here an anti-Augustinian movement arose. Prosper in
his letter on the subject to Augustine introduces the oppo-
nents as " servants of Christ at Marseilles." Near Marseilles
there existed on the island of Lerins (Lerinum) a convent
which had become influential. It was able to draw to
itself a number of thinking men, serious in their Christian
life, and devoted to sacred studies. This seems to have
become the centre of the thinking and teaching which at
a later time was called Semi-Pelagian. Besides, in Marseilles
itself John Cassian had founded a monastery over which
he presided.
These persons must have been dissatisfied with the
strength of Augustine's teaching as to the incompetency of
fallen man to the good which accompanies salvation ; and
we find them maintaining that the Epistle to the Eomans
had not been understood by church teachers, in relation to
the constant and necessary precedency of grace, as it was
understood by Augustine. But they no doubt shared in
the sentiments of respect for Augustine's character and
services, and in particular they had no wish to support the
cause of Pelagius. Accordingly they seem to have refrained
from audible criticism until the publication of the tracts
issued by Augustine with reference to the difficulties at
Adrumetum. Augustine's tenets on Predestination and
Perseverance they were prepared to oppose as novelties,
inconsistent with Catholic teaching. " They confirm their
positions by the allegation of antiquity," Prosper reports ;
also, "they allege the doctrine to be unedifying and danger-
ous, unfit to be promulgated even if it were true " (Prosp.,
Ep. ad Aug. 3). In writing, however, they usually avoided
referring to Augustine by name.
Prosper speaks also of the influence which these men
313-461] SEMI-PELAGIANIsM 487
derived from their character and position. " They far excel
us (the adherents of Augustine at Marseilles) in the piety of
their lives, and some of them have great authority, having
lately attained to the episcopate. Hardly any, except a few
courageous champions of the perfect grace, venture to appear
against them."
While these devout men at Marseilles were confident
that Augustine's developed doctrine varied from the tradition
of the Church, they were, at the same time, really opposed
to Pelagius. They would not let human sinfulness be
explained away as Pelagius and Coelestius proposed. They
affirmed that as the result of Adam's sin all men sin, and
that no one is saved by his own works ; all need the grace of
God in regeneration (Prosper, Ep. ad Aug. 3). They recog-
nised therefore in Christianity a real remedial force. They
did not trouble themselves, like Pelagius, about the virtues
of the heathen, nor, it must be added, about the condition of
unbaptized infants. They explained the case of the latter by
assuming that God foresaw they would not embrace the bene-
fits of Christ's salvation if they lived : at all events both
classes, being outside of Christianity, must remain unsaved.
But Christian grace, which is needed by all and is offered to
all, can also be welcomed and accepted by men by an act
of their own will. God, it is true, can begin the work by
powerfully and directly influencing an individual who is
rebelling against Him. The instance of the Apostle Paul
seems to have chiefly constrained them to make this con-
cession. But ordinarily we must first individually and
spontaneously respond to the general call, if we are to
benefit by Christianity.
Throughout the scheme of these Semi-Pelagians one is
struck by their adherence to the impressions suggested em-
pirically by the practice of the Church and by the surface
movements of Christian minds. A man unbaptized is as
yet without grace. But such a man may seriously wish to
be baptized, and may welcome the prospect of it. Such a
man, therefore, is not whole as Pelagius said, nor yet dead
as Augustine seemed to say : he is a man who is sick with
488 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D.
an illness which he cannot himself cure, who can, however,
welcome and appropriate the remedy. So, after baptism,
grace is identified with the helpful influences a man feels,
and it is conceived to come and go as the conscious moods
vary. One cannot read Cassian without seeing that this
superficial impression determines the method of his thinking
on the whole subject.
The two most conspicuous and vigorous advocates of this
theology were Joannes Cassianus, and at a later period
Faustus, bishop of Eeii.-^
Schemes which avoid Pelagianism on the one hand, and
Augustinianism on the other, may arrange their compromises
in different ways; but Cassian and Faustus do not differ
much. Faustus owns a doctrine of original sin more articu-
lately and frankly than Cassian ; but both defend the com-
petency of " free will " ; for though free will has been
weakened by the fall, it can initiate the return to God, and
can perform what is good. On the other hand, while
Cassian teaches a real grace which enables the returning and
labouring will to carry out its purpose, Faustus, while using
expressions which seem to imply that grace must both
precede and follow the decision of the will, has left it
doubtful whether he holds real internal grace at all. Under
the name of " grace," he seems to be thinking only of
the moral influence of Christian truth and Christian
institutions.
Cassian died two years after Augustine, A.D. 432. Faustus
died not earlier than A.D. 492.
For a time, in spite of the efforts of Prosper, Semi-
Pelagianism seems to have had very considerable vogue in
Gaul. Under the influence of Faustus, in 472 and 475
^ Besides these two and Vincentius of Lerins, are named Gennadius of
Marseilles, Arnobius the younger, and the author of the tract Prcedestinatiis
(which attacks as Augustinian the doctrine that sin is due to God's predestina-
tion). But it is probable that the whole cluster of devout men connected with
Lerins, Hilarius, Eucherius, Honoratus, Salonius, Salvian, etc., sympathised
with Cassian. The writings of some of them at least strike the reader by the
absence of any echoes of Augustine's style. That was difficult to avoid on the
part of men who read Augustine sympathetically.
313-451] SEMI-PELAGIANISM 489
provincial synods (at Aries and Lyons) rejected the doctrine
of predestination, though they did not mention Augustine's
name. The authority of Augustine, however, remained
supreme among the CathoHcs of Africa, and it received the
support of Kome also, in so far as the writings of Augustine
(and Prosper) were mentioned with approbation, and by and
by those of Cassian and Faustus were disapproved. On the
other hand, a certain caution marked the Eoman procedure.
Augustine and his writings are highly commended, and
opposition to them is censured, but without specifying the
particular doctrines in which his teaching is to be followed ;
and sfecific censure of contrary teaching is avoided. In the
beginning of the sixth century Caesarius of Aries and
Avitus of Vienne exerted a powerful mfluence in favour of
Augustinianism, and were supported by Fulgentius of Euspe
in Africa, who represented a large number of African bishops
banished from their sees by the Arian Vandals. At length,
in the year 529, a provincial synod held at Orange (Synodus
Arausicana II.) under Csesarius, pronounced against Semi-
Pelagianism. Caesarius had been in communication with
Eome, and had received papal approbation of a series of
propositions drawn from the works of Augustine, or express-
ing his mind. These, twenty-five in number, were sanctioned
by the synod. The propositions were opposed to Semi-
Pelagianism, mainly as they asserted strongly the previous
necessity of grace in order to the very beginning of the
good will, that all good thoughts and works are God's gift,
and that even the regenerate and the saints continually need
Divine aid. The synod also summed up its teaching in a
creed, the chief points in which are : —
1. That through the fall free will has been so weakened
(inclinatum et attenuatum)^ that without prevenient grace no
one can love God, believe in Him, or do good for God's sake
as he ought.
2. Eeceiving grace through baptism, all baptized persons,
with the aid and co-operation of Christ, can and ought to
fulfil those things which belong to the salvation of the soul,
if they are willing faithfully to exert themselves.
490 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.!).
3. In every good work it is not we who begin, and.
afterwards experience Divine aid ; but God Himself, no merits
of ours preceding, inspires in us faith and love, so that we
seek baptism, and after baptism are able with His aid to do
those things which please Him.
They declared also their detestation of the doctrine that
some by Divine power are predestined to sin.
In connection with these positions, they repudiated the
Semi-Pelagian construction of Biblical instances which had
been alleged as cases of faith and repentance beginning by
natural power previous to grace.
It will be seen that the synod did not commit itself to
the Augustinian doctrines of Predestination and Perseverance,
nor did they say anything clearly about the certain efficacy
of grace, or whether it could be frustrated by free will.-^
Their teaching is thus inconsistent with Pelagianism and
Semi-Pelagianism, for example with low Arminianism (that
of Limborch), but not with evangelical Arminianism or that
of Arminius himself.
As far as church authority is concerned, the Semi-
Pelagian controversy may be said to have rested here.
Note
It may be convenient to state in more detail the system
of the Semi-Pelagians, as we have already stated that of
Pelagius and that of Augustine.
1. In regard to the state of man unfallen, neither Cassian
nor Faustus differed seriously from Augustine, though they
did not set that state quite so high. But according to Cassian
it was not subject to death, nor to toil and weariness, nor the
other tokens of decay which mar our condition now. It com-
prehended a great fulness of knowledge, especially insight
into God's nature and works. Also man was free, able to
determine his own course; and he was in a state of moral
perfection, which knew no rebellion of the flesh or strife
between flesh and spirit. Thus he was in the image of God.
Faustus did not differ as to this. He distinguished (with
^ The same remark applies to the Augustinian theory of the propagation
and imputation of Adam's sin.
313- 451] SEMI-PELAGTANISM 491
various previous teachers) the Imago Dei hom. the Similitiido,
The image, certainly in some of its features, is essential to
man, the similitudo only the good possess. Faustus agreed
verbally with Augustine in holding that, besides freedom of
the will, man unfallen needed grace in order to be sufficiently
prepared to persevere in goodness. But see below as to what
Faustus meant by grace.
2. The fall. Both Cassian and Faustus agreed with
Augustine that Adam's sin was essentially a sin of pride.
And we, his children, are concerned in it in so far as it has
entailed evil consequences upon us all. Faustus speaks of it
as peccatum originate, originale delictum, generate peccatum.
As to consequences : —
{a) This sin has brought to us death, toil, the various
sorrows of life. Faustus speaks of these as not merely the
consequence but the punishment of the fall.
(&) Cassian taught that mankind has suffered intellectually.
The knowledge of God and of the Divine law was weakened,
so that it became necessary for man's guidance that he
should have a written law. Faustus does not go much
into this.
(c) Most important are the moral consequences. Cassian
traces to the fall a sickness or weakness of our moral powers,
and a want of harmony, a contest, between the flesh (the
appetites which seek created good) and the spirit. The will
of man is now prone to be betrayed into vice rather than to
adhere to virtue. This state of things is not in itself sin ;
it is only an inherited evil, or ill condition which involves
danger. Man therefore is seriously weakened, but not so that
he should be described as capable only of evil. Yet he cannot
be without sin in this world.
Faustus seems to go further. He acknowledges original
sin as a contagion that is positively evil, descending to us
from Adam. Therefore also the remission of the guilt of
it is an element in the blessing held forth in baptism. He
agrees with Cassian in asserting that, notwithstanding this,
a knowledge of God and a power to do what is truly good
remained.
They agreed, therefore, in their teaching as to the power
and freedom of the will. Fallen man has a power to will
what is good, though not to carry it through without grace.
He can deal with the thoughts that offer themselves, so as to
entertain or reject them. He can make use of the oppor-
tunities which God offers. God must so far begin as to
492 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH U.D.
afford us an opportunity; free will has power to accept or
reject it. So also it can withstand the evil one.
3. As to grace. Cassia n holds that the external call
affords us the opportunity of seeking salvation. Receiving
that call, we can, and ordinarily we must, in the use of our own
strength and freedom embrace it, will what is good, desire
grace and labour for it. Then there comes an inward grace,
without which we could not finally succeed. This grace
influences both understanding and will, and enables us to carry
out our purpose. Cassian spoke of it under four heads
— Protection, Inspiration, Castigation, Exhortation. Though
we do not, strictly speaking, deserve this grace, it never fails
the consenting will.
Cassian was prepared also to admit the Augustinian
doctrine, that with a view to being good we need this grace
singulis momentis (= ad singulos actus). Only, he said, when
God for any wise reason ... for our discipline, withdraws
grace, the will can hold on for some time, waiting and praying
for its return.
This is the ordinary rule. But Cassian says that it is
still open to God, if He pleases, to bestow influences of grace
(unexpectedly as it were) on men who are not yet desiring
grace nor purposing what is good. The conversion of the
Apostle Paul is his example.
Faustus sometimes seems to express a higher doctrine
than Cassian ; for he says that grace must loth precede and
follow the action of the will. But then this grace appears to
mean only the outwardly given truth and ordinance — what
Cassian speaks of as the divinely-furnished opportunity. It
has been doubted whether Faustus contemplates grace at all
as a real internal influence of the Holy Spirit — as anything
more than the moral influence of Christian teaching and
institutions. If that be so, Faustus on this point stands
nearer to Pelagius than Cassian does.
4. Predestination. In so far as this word designates the
Divine purpose regarding the ultimate destiny of individuals,
Cassian and Faustus alike held it to be conditioned on the
moral decisions of men themselves. God's purpose is to save
all, if all will consent to be saved. The views of Cassian on
these points are to be made out chiefly by inferences and
occasional allusions : in Faustus they are prominently incul-
cated and presented with the utmost decision.
Cassian does not meddle with the case of unbaptized
Christian children, which was so prominent in Augustine's
313-451] SteMT-PELAGlANISM 4&3
argument. As to the heathen and their virtues, he does not
take a favourahle view of them. What the school is concerned
about is merely freedom of will to choose and to attain
salvation under the light of Christian revelation and with the
helps it offers. Beyond that, they do not seem interested in
the question as to what man unaided can attain either of
virtue or reward. The image in which Faustus rests as the
key to the whole case is that of the sick man who cannot rise,
but who on invitation stretches out his hand to lay hold of
the helping hand which can raise him up.
Against the Semi-Pelagians the most pronounced contro-
versialists were Prosper in the fifth century and Fulgentius
in the sixth. Both may be said to have maintained the full
doctrine of Augustine, though neither perhaps reveals a full
mastery of Augustinian thought. The great point urged by
them against the Semi-Pelagians was that all true good comes
from grace, and therefore grace causes the very beginning of
the good will. On tl^is point the general sentiment of the
Church could be more securely counted upon in support of
their argument. At the same time the whole range of
Augustinian positions, including those relating to Predestina-
tion and Perseverance, were maintained by Prosper and
Fulgentius.^
* The works of Fulgentius, De Incamatione et Gratia and de Veritate
Prcedestinaficmis et GraticBf in Migne, 65. The work of Caesarius, De gratia,
etc, is lost*
CHAPTER XXXI
Ecclesiastical Personages
[who survived a.d. 400]
Joannes, commonly called Chrysostomus, was born at Antioch
perhaps in A.D. 347. His father died early, and he grew
up under the care of his mother, Anthusa, one of the notable
Christian women of Church History. He was educated for
the profession of an advocate, which he practised for a short
time, and Libanius was one of the teachers under whom he
studied. An early friend, of the name of Basil, to whom he
was enthusiastically attached, was led to devote himself to
monastic Ufe, and this induced Chrysostom to adopt the
same resolution. Under these influences he applied for
baptism, and was ordained to the office of reader (a.d, 370).
His mother's distress at the prospect of losing him led him
to abandon for a time his purpose of leaving his home.
But otherwise he practised the ascetic life. He now came
under the instruction of Diodorus of Tarsus {ante, p. 375).
Theodorus, afterwards of Mopsuestia, was a fellow-student.
About A.D. 374 he went into seclusion among the mountains
near Antioch, and continued to live a life of great privation
until 380. His health was seriously affected; and he
returned to Antioch, when he was ordained deacon in A.D.
381, and presbyter in 386. He immediately signalised
himself as a preacher, and continued to sustain his great
reputation in that respect during ten years. In the spring
of 387 occurred the riot during which the statues of the
Emperor Theodosius were destroyed. The outbreak was
immediately followed by panic as to the consequences, and
the bishop Flavian departed to the Court to implore for the
A.D. 313-451] ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONAGES 495
people the emperor's forgiveness. In the interval of anxiety
(three weeks) the celebrated Homilies on the Statues were
delivered.
In 398 Chrysostom was consecrated to the see of
Constantinople. There had been previously a large amount
of splendour in the surroundings of the bishop, and much
laxity among the clergy. Chrysostom revolutionised the
appointments of the residence, and lived with great privacy
and simplicity; a course which perhaps deprived him of
friendships that it might have been useful to cultivate. He
applied himself also to reform the manners of his clergy, and
in doing so he raised up bitter enemies. Along with his great
qualities a certain irritability attached to Chrysostom, and a
disposition to break out with angry utterance on things and
persons he disapproved, not only in private but in the
pulpit. On the other hand, his devotedness to the duties of
his office was conspicuous.
Eutropius was the man at the head of affairs who had
brought Chrysostom to Constantinople: he turned against
him when he found the bishop resolute to take his own
course. Eutropius fell, however. Gainas, an Arian Goth,
who succeeded him, quarrelled with Chrysostom over the
question whether churches might not be ceded to the
Arians. He also fell from power. But Chrysostom's
enemies were multiplying. And Chrysostom was sometimes
rash and vehement in his dealings with them. Eudoxia the
empress, after some efforts to commend herself to Chry-
sostom, had joined their ranks : and the bishop was certainly
less than prudent in the attitude he took with respect to
her.
Reference has already been made to the dispute con-
cerning Origen, and the manner in which Chrysostom was
drawn into some connection with it (pp. 368, 369). When
Theophilus of Alexandria appeared to lead a party against
Chrysostom, his enemies felt that their opportunity was
come. A string of charges, preposterous and frivolous, was
got up against him, and a " council " of thirty-six bishops,
chiefly Egyptian, deposed him. The emperor condemned
496 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
him to banishment; but an earthquake during the night
succeeding his departure impressed the general mind, so
that he was recalled, and another council reversed the
ecclesiastical decision. But the enmity of the empress
revived, and Chrysostom was ousted and exiled in 404.
Innocent of Eome denounced these proceedings, but was not
listened to.
Chrysostom's first place of exile was Cucusus, in one of
the ranges of Mount Taurus. It had an inclement climate,
and was exposed to the raids of Isaurian marauders. He
suffered severely on the journey from Constantinople, and
partly also during his stay in Cucusus, from the effect of
hardships on an elderly man whose health was broken ; but
his residence there was cheered by much friendship, as well
as by his correspondence with devoted adherents in Con-
stantinople. This did not please his enemies at Court ; and
after three years orders were issued to remove him to Pityus,
on the north-eastern shores of the Euxine. This immense
journey over a most rugged and inclement country was well
fitted to kill Chrysostom, and everything was planned to
increase the hardships. Three months of journeying found
him and his guards near Comana. There the end came.
One morning after starting they were obliged to carry him
back and lay him in a chapel in which he had slept the
night before. There he died, A.D. 407.
Chrysostom's correspondence during his banishment
(especially with Olympias, a lady at Constantinople) throws
an interesting light on his character, from the Christian
humility and submission which pervade it. His last words
were %apfc9 to5 ©cm irdvTrov evexa. His most noted works
are Homilies, Commentaries, and Letters ; also his treatise,
De Sacerdotio, and various tracts on the monastic life. Best
edition is the Benedictine by Montfaucon, l3 vols., Paris,
1718. Venetian reprints, 1734, 1755, and, at Paris, 1734,
and by Migne, 1863. Biographies by Neander, 2 vols.,
Berlin, 1844; Stephens, Lond. 1872 ; also Bohringer, vol. ix.
Cyril of Alexandria has already been sufficiently
313-451] ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONAGES 497
characterised (Chap. XXIIL). It is only necessary to add
a few details.
After some years spent among the monks of Nitria,
Cyril was ordained presbyter at Alexandria by his uncle, the
bishop Theophilus. The latter died a.d. 412, and after a
bitter contest Cyril became his successor. The early years
of his episcopate were marked by extraordinary manifesta-
tions of his vehement and determined character in his
conflict with Orestes, the representative of the emperor, and
in the assault he made at the head of the Christian population
upon the Jews. Shortly after, the lamentable event of the
murder of Hypatia by a Christian mob and in a Christian
church took place — an event which shed a sad light on the
character of the passions which Cyril had awakened, or had
failed to repress. In spite of this, however, Cyril possessed
great qualities, and won for himself as a theological thinker
and debater, and also as an ecclesiastical leader, genuine
confidence and admiration. The Nestorian controversy
occupied the latter part of his episcopate (see Chap. XXIIL).
His management of the council of Ephesus was successful
but not creditable ; on the other hand, his writings in this
cause have maintained their place as important theological
documents. A few incidents of his latter days are hardly
worth recording here. He died A.D. 444. Besides his
Anti-Nestorian writings and his Commentaries, his answer
to the attack of the Emperor Julian upon Christianity
obtained celebrity. The Paris edition of his works, by
Aubert, 1658, is considered the best. There is a life by
Kopallik, Mainz, 1881.
Theodoretus was a native of Antioch, born perhaps in
390, of a pious mother. He was educated at the convent of
St. Euprepius, and was a friend, probably a fellow-student, of
Nestorius. He became bishop of Cyrus (Cyros or Cyrrhos),
in Syria, after 420. The main facts as to his relation to the
debates of his time have been referred to in Chap. XXIIL
Here it is only necessary to add that his personal character
was attractive for kindliness, benevolence, and diligence id
32
498 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
the work of a rather obscure and poor bishopric. He was a
man of very considerable ability, was well-read, and knew his
ground as a defender of Antiochian theology, and he leaves
on the mind the impression of much sincerity and worth.
Besides polemical writings in the Nestorian Controversy and
his History in five books (covering A.D. 325-429), he wrote
Commentaries on books of the Old and New Testaments (that
on the Pauline Epistles is perhaps the most successful), a work
against heretics, one against the paganism of the day {De
curandis Grcecorum affedibus), and a Historia religiosa, which
commemorates the virtues and the marvels of contemporary
and recent ascetics. His works by Schulze (including the
most important dissertations of Garnier), Halle, 5 vols.
1768-74, are reprinted by Migne, Gr. 80-84. Specht,
Theodor v. Mopseustia u. Theodoret, MUnchen, 1871.
Isidore of Pelusium(in Egypt), who died about a.d. 435,
is remarkable partly for the extraordinary number of his Epp.
which have been preserved (about two thousand — edited
by Schott), but also for the Christian purity of his character.
He wrote five books on interpretation of Scripture, Migne,
Gr. series, 78. Article by Niemeyer in Herzog u. Plitt,
Beal-Uncycl. vii
Jerome^ (Eusebius Hieronymus) was, after Eusebius,
the literary authority and celebrity of the early Church,
especially of the Latin branch of it. He was born at
Stridon, near Aquileia, perhaps about A.D. 346. His educa-
tion was liberally cared for, and was completed at Eome.
He studied under Donatus, and became conversant with the
best Latin literature and a considerable range of Greek
authors also. After a period of careless life a more serious
temper gained ascendency, and he was baptized before 366.
^ Earliest edition of collected works by Erasmus, 1516 fol. That by
Vallarsi, Verona, 1734-42, is reckoned the best, reprinted by Migne, 23-33.
Amedee Thierry, Saint Jerome, etc., Paris, 1867. 0. Zockler, Hicrouymus^
U.S.W., Gotha, 1865. All Dictionaries of Biography, Ecclesiastical Encyclo-
paedias, works on Patristic and Church Histories are full on Jerome.
313-451] ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONAGES 499
With his friend Bonosus he departed into Gaul, carrying
with him a considerable number of books. On the way (at
Aquileia ?) he made the acquaintance of Eufinus, and prob-
ably at this time the bent towards the study of ecclesiastical
literature declared itself. He spent some years in Gaul,
chiefly at Treves, but returned to Italy in 370. Here for
some time he was associated with an interesting company of
studious and devout men at Aquileia, much under the in-
fluence of Evagrius, afterwards bishop of Antioch. In 373
this company was scattered, and Jerome with Evagrius and
some others departed for the East, journeying through Asia
Minor to Antioch. Here (a.d. 374) he fell into a serious
illness, during which he felt himself placed before the
judgment-seat and condemned, as being a Ciceronian rather
than a Christian. Under the impression of this dream or
vision he vowed that he would study classical literature no
more. The vow was not literally carried out ; but he seems
to have regarded this as a decisive crisis in his religious life ;
and in the autumn of the same year he went into the desert
of Chalcis as a recluse. The life he lived here for five years
is vividly described by himself {Ep. 22) as squalid, mournful,
and agitated by mental conflicts ; but it is certain that he
was also busily engaged in study (including the acquisition
of Hebrew). Towards the end of the period he found him-
self involved In theological disputes with other hermits, and
he returned to Antioch in A.D. 379, spent 380 and 381 in
Constantinople, and from 382 to 385 was at Kome. There,
under the auspices of Pope Damasus, he began his important
labours on the Latin texts of the Scriptures — revising the
translation of the Psalms and of the New Testament, and
commencing his systematic study of the Old Testament.
To this period belong also various exegetical tracts, original
and translated.
Jerome also became known at this time as an influential
and vehement advocate of asceticism. He made the acquaint-
ance of Paula, and became the centre of a circle of devout
and studious ladies. In 385 strong feelings of antagonism
to Jerome became manifest in Kome, especially after Blesilla,
500 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.D.
the widowed daughter of Paula, died, as it was said, from the
effect of extravagant privations. Damasus too, who had
been his patron, died, and was succeeded by Siricius, who
showed Jerome no favour. In all such passages of Jerome's
history the extraordinary violence and scurrility of his
language, when he was opposed, occasioned a great part of
the difficulties which he met with. He left for Palestine,
accompanied by Paula and her daughter Eustochium. They
arrived at Jerusalem in 386; and after a short visit to
Egypt they settled at Bethlehem, where monastic insti-
tutions, hospices, and a church were built by Paula. Here
Jerome continued for the remaining thirty-four years of his
life.
He was occupied incessantly. The text of the LXX,
Hebrew studies, the revised Latin translation (Vulgate),
numerous commentaries, ascetic writings, guidance of his
monastic associates, and an enormous correspondence filled
up his time. There were also his controversies with Jovinian
{ante, p. 298), with Eufinus {ante, p. 367) connected with
the greater question of Origen, with Vigilantius. He ac-
quired the friendship of Augustine, and took part in the
Pelagian controversy. During this time invasions and
troubles in the empire caused repeated and serious dis-
turbance to the community at Bethlehem. Paula died in
403, Eustochium in 418; but a younger generation of his
Eoman friends supplied helpers to take their place (the
younger Paula and a younger Melania). His literary activity
continued almost to the end. He died in A.D. 420 on the
20 th September. His Christianity, though devout, leant to
the shallow, the legal, and the external type.
Jerome was an effective translator, a diligent but not an
original or sagacious commentator. He had a most extensive
acquaintance with books, and so with history ; but his critical
faculty was feeble, and modern scholars often complain
bitterly of his untrustworthiness in detail, and his willing-
ness to be thought to know when he is ignorant. Yet he
possessed the genuine enthusiasms of a scholar, sustained by
a most lively intelligence; and a certain real insight intp
313-451] ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONAGES 501
the conditions on which the understanding of written docu-
ments depends, cand a creditable fidelity in following out his
own instincts in that respect, must be ascribed to Jerome,
who is thus distinguished from all his contemporaries, unless
we except Theodore of Mopsuestia. Jerome's sense of the
importance of Hebrew had no support from the prejudices
of his age. His admirable Latin style, his immense reading,
his diligence, his real interest in ecclesiastical story, and the
extensive service he rendered to literature and learning will
always attract scholars, however his other qualities may
repel them. He has no claim to theological power. His
proneness to reckless violence in speech is an odious feature ;
and his self-consciousness was pronounced. In spite of this
he had warm friends who never failed him. His letters
and the prefaces to his commentaries are full of interesting
matter. Erasmus delighted in him, and Luther strongly
disliked him.
EuFiNUS (Tyrannius Eufinus), b. 345, d. 410. In addi-
tion to what has been already said {ante, p. 366), it is only
necessary to add that he was a native of Northern Italy, was
baptized A.D. 371, and after some years spent in Egypt came
to Palestine, where he was ordained about 390. After 397
he returned to Aquileia, but finally died in Sicily. His im-
portance in ecclesiastical literature is chiefly due to his
translations of Greek writers (from Origen downwards) into
Latin, which served the useful purpose of familiarising
Western men with the literature of the Eastern Church.
He continued the history of Eusebius, and has left also an
exposition of the creed, lives of ascetics, and several contro-
versial works. His Christian friendship with the Eoman
widow lady, Melania, both in Palestine and in Italy, was a
characteristic feature in his life, and was analogous to that
between Jerome and Paula.
Synesius, a native of Gyrene, and afterwards bishop of
Ptolemais in the Libyan Pentapolis, was born sometime near
365-370. Possessed of an ample fortune, he pursued hia
502 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
studies at Alexandria (where he came under the influence
of Hypatia) and Athens. He was a man of real ability,
courageous and sympathetic, cheerful, active and romantic,
happy in his married life, and devotedly attached to his
children. He loved country occupations and field sports ;
and as a country gentleman of good estate he had every
prospect of being able to gratify his desires. The main
difficulty arose from his best qualities — patriotism, and
sympathy with his poorer neighbours. Three years he had
to waste at Constantinople pleading the cause of his native
city. After his return to the Pentapolis he was kept in hot
water, on the one hand, in opposing the stupidities and
cruelties of local governors, on the other hand in striving to
protect his neighbours from the devastating raids of desert
tribes. A small organised force, well handled, would have
sufficed to keep down these marauders ; but the central
government was too inefficient to provide for the defence of
the province, and too jealous of local initiative to allow the
provincials to defend themselves.
Synesius had left the schools a Neoplatonist, glowing
with the devout enthusiasms of a system which could unfold
itself, as the votary chose, on the religious or on the specu-
lative side. Gradually, as the development of Christian
influences and institutions went on around him, he seems to
have drawn nearer to Christianity ; and he had learned to
respect and trust Theophilus, the bishop of Alexandria.
But he still was undecided on some of the articles of
Christian belief, when the bishopric of Pentapolis became
vacant, and the people in the most urgent way sought
Synesius for their shepherd, — a man whose character stood
so high, and whose position and influence, reinforcing epis-
copal prestige, might do so much for them. Synesius was
very unwilling: — besides his theological difficulties, he re-
fused to separate from his wife ; he foresaw the sacrifice of
many innocent tastes and recreations, and the incessant
pressure of many cares. Finally he left it to Theophilus to
decide, who at once conjured him to undertake the task.
Synesius accordingly became bishop, a.d. 409, and did his
313-451] ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONAGES 503
best for his people. He had already rather frankly declared
for the method of an exoteric doctrine for the people and
esoteric for himself ; but he made this known to Theophilus
and left liim to judge. He was baptized and consecrated at
Alexandria. Probably he did not survive the year 414.
He left behind him a tract on dreams (written before his
baptism), poems and hymns, a couple of homilies, speeches
and letters. Synesius is a singularly interesting, because a
singularly frank, sincere, and vivacious embodiment of the
diverging influences of the time. It should be mentioned
that his last letter is to Hypatia, full of afiectionate and
confiding regard ; and his last poem is a prayer to Christ.
(Clausen, i)e Synesio Fhilosoph., Hsiin. 1831. Aug. Neander,
DenkwUrdigJceiten, vol. i. 2nd ed. KoUe, d. Bischoff Synesius,
Berlin, 1850. Dryon, Etudes sur la vie, etc., de Synesius,
Paris, 1859. R. Volkmann, Synesius von Cyrene, Berlin,
1869. A full article in Smith's Biographical Dictionary.)
Cassianus, Johannes, has been referred to in Chaps.
XVIII. and XXX. He belonged originally to the West,
perhaps to Gaul, but early in his life resorted to Bethlehem,
and participated in the monastic life there. Afterwards with
a friend, Germanus, he spent ten years in Egypt, associating
with monks and ascetics in the places he visited. Return-
ing to Constantinople he was ordained deacon by Chrysostom,
and afterwards passed to Rome. After 410 we find him in
Southern Gaul. He founded a monastery at Marseilles, and
also a convent of nuns ; and there he spent the rest of his
life. His two works, De Cosnohiorum Institutis and Colla-
times Patrum, have been described (pp. 297,298). He wrote
De Incarnatione Domini contra Nestorium in seven books,
attacking also Pelagianism as akin to Nestorianism. He
died A.D. 432. His works deserve the attention of students
who wish to be acquainted with the religious atmosphere of
that time. Latest edition, 2 vols., M. Petschenig, 1886-
1888, in the Vienna series.
SuLPicius Severus, a native of Aquitaine, belonged to a
504 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
family of rank and fortune, and married a lady who was an
heiress. After his wife's death, and while still only approach-
ing middle age, he resolved to withdraw from the world,
incurring in doing so his father's displeasure. He does not
seem to have joined any monastic society, though he may
have taken the monastic vow. His chief friends were
Paulinus of Nola and Martin of Tours. Severus evinces a
low opinion of contemporary bishops and clergy in Gaul,
and sets against them the virtues and achievements of
Martin. His Vita Martini was his earliest work {ante, p.
297). Next, about 403, he wrote his Historia Sacra or
Chronica, which gives a rapid sketch of history from the
Creation to the consulship of Stilicho, A.D. 400. There is
reason to think that an interesting passage from a lost book
of Tacitus can be recovered from ii. 30. The only con-
temporary, and so far reliable, account of Priscillianism is
found in ii. 46—51, see also Dial. iii. 11-13. The Dialogues
(about A.D. 405) are intended to supplement the account of
St. Martin, who had now died ; but one of the collocutors
(i. 1—20) gives interesting reminiscences of his experiences
in the East, including various monastic stories. Severus is
quite worth consulting, and his Latin style, wliich is excel-
lent, makes pleasant reading. Latest edition, Halm, Sulp.
Sev. Libri qui supersunt, Vindob., 1866.
Salvianus, distinguished as a presbyter of Marseilles,
probably belonged to Treves, and had relatives at Cologne.
His family appear to have been people of condition. He
married Palladia, by whom he had a daughter ; afterwards
they agreed to adopt the ascetic life, to the great irritation
of Palladia's father, who had recently passed from paganism
to Christianity, but could not sympathise with asceticism ;
he broke off relations with Salvian and his family. After
seven years Salvian wrote to him an elaborate supplication
for a renewal of friendship {Ep. iv.), with what effect we do
not know. Salvian seems to have been in high repute as a
religious and learned man ; he acted as tutor to the son of
Eucherius, bishop of Lyons (Eucherius having been a married
313-451] ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONAGES &05
man before he withdrew to monastic life at Lerins), and
apparently could write with great freedom to him and to
other men of ecclesiastical rank. His writings convey the
impression of a sincere and intense mind, deficient in judg-
ment. His views of the effect on human salvation of alms-
giving, and in general of foregoing the use of property, are
thoroughly one-sided and extravagant, and he shows no re-
ceptivity for the gracious aspects of Christianity. But his
works are important as illustrating the social condition of
Gaul, and partly also of other parts of the Western empire,
e.g. the African province. His style is excessively cramped
and artificial, and there are passages in his letters in which
the sense seems to lose itself altogether in the effort after
fine language. It is surprising how completely, alike in
thought and phrase, he has escaped the influence of Augus-
tine. Two treatises constitute his remaining works. One
is de Ghibernatione Dei, in which he undertakes to deal with
the question as to the providence of God in allowing
calamities to fall on the empire after it had accepted
Christianity. It is suggestive not only with respect to the
condition of the common people, the morals of the Gaulish
gentry, and the action of the barbarians, but also as regards
the imperial administration. The treatise called Timotheus,
also ad JEcclesiamj also Adversus Avaritiam, begins oddly
with an argument about pseudonymous writing — for he
calls himself Timotheus, and gives his reasons. The sub-
stance of the book is an exaggerated estimate of voluntary
poverty. There are also nine letters. Latest edition of
works, F. Pauly, Vindob., 1883.
Leo I. was bishop of Eome from 440 to 461, and must
have been born not far from 390. He is believed to have
been a Eoman by birth. His writings indicate no familiarity
with the classics, and he was unacquainted with the Greek
language. The teaching and the spirit of the Western
Church possessed him. Various indications attest the im-
portance of the influence he was already exerting as deacon
and archdeacon. When Sixtus died Leo was in Gaul with
506 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
a mission to reconcile Aetius and Albinus, Eoman generals
who were on the brink of civil war. The Eoman church
elected Leo to the episcopal chair in his absence, and quietly
awaited his return. Before this time Cassian had dedicated
to him his work against Nestorius (written at Leo's request)
in terms of high respect and admiration. As pope, Leo
brought into play principles which were matter of passionate
conviction in his own mind. The place of Christian Eome
as the centre of authority and unity, which, through the
bishop, must be asserted and made effective throughout
Christendom, was the thought that inspired him. A pre-
cedency granted by the Church to that see in honour of
Peter came far short of his conception : the voice of the
Lord Himself had granted the authority to Peter and to his
successors. The firmness and consistency with which Leo
upheld this principle entitle him to be regarded as the
creator of the mediaeval Papacy.
Leo bore himself in a manner not unworthy of these
high pretensions. His interposition on behalf of his flock
with Attila in 452, and with Genseric in 455, furnished
two of the memorable passages of Church History ; and it is
not wonderful that legend stepped in to magnify what was
in any view so imposing and so memorable. His firmness
as a church ruler was illustrated in the case of Eastern
niyricum, which he claimed as subject to the ordinary
jurisdiction of his see ; and in the case of Hilary of Aries,
whose alleged variations from canonical rule he claimed the
right to correct in a manner which must be called not only
dictatorial but extremely harsh. In this case an edict of
the Emperor Valentinian ill. came to his aid, which enforced
in the most ample terms, throughout the West at least, all
the authority which Leo claimed. In like manner he
asserted his authority in Africa. It must not be thought,
however, that Leo was willing in the interest of his own
see to dislocate or to neglect the existing constitution of the
Church. Eather, he claimed to be entitled to guard as well
as to control it.
In the department of theology Leo became especially
313-451] ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONAGES 507
notable by his attitude on the Eutychian controversy,
described in Chap. XXIII. His letter to Flavian {Ei^. 28)
became especially famous, having acquired a kind of symboli-
cal authority. As regards Western questions his influence
was exerted against Priscillianism and Mauicheism, and also
against Pelagianism. As to Semi-Pelagianism, it is pretty
plain that its characteristic features had no attraction for
Leo : Augustine had exercised a very considerable influence
upon his thinking. At the same time his is a cautious and
qualified Augustinianism, so far as the question of grace is
concerned.
Much more might be said of Leo; but it is a subject
which rather belongs to the volume on Latin Christianity,
It may be added tliat Leo evinced a devout and, no
doubt, a sincere faith in the Divine sanction of the claims
he made, as well as the Divine aid on which he ought to
reckon in the difficulties which he encountered. Some
works have been ascribed to him on grounds which are
quite uncertain. Those which are unquestionably authentic
consist of ninety-six sermons and one hundred and seventy-
three letters. They contain much which is illustrative of
the age. Leo's style is forcible and dignified, but rather
elaborate. The edition of Ballerini is still the best, repro-
duced by Migne (54-56). See also, among much other
literature, Bohringer, Die Kirche Christi u. ihre Zeugcn^ i. 4 ;
Milman's Latin Christianity, i. c. 4 ; Herzog's Real-Encyclo-
pcedie, vol. viii. (article by K. Mtiller) ; and a careful article
by Canon Gore in Smith's Biographical Dictionary,
CHAPTER XXXIl
Processes of Change
During the period which we have surveyed, the Church
experienced rapid growth and various fortunes; and from
these and from deeper causes change was always going on.
We propose to enumerate some of the points to which this
remark applies.
The Church's own consciousness as regards this matter
of change cannot be understood, unless we have regard to an
influence constantly operating. At each stage, whatever
existed as approved or authoritative was apt to be regarded
as having been so from the beginning; and even when men
were aware that things at first had not been exactly so, they
readily assumed substantial identity between past and
present, and rated differences as inconsiderable. This is
common in human history ; for, indeed, every development
comes out of something that existed before ; there is therefore
always some continuity ; and that continuity can be repre-
sented to oneself as identity, virtual if not literal. But
besides, in this case Christian piety contemplated the Church
as something supernatural and divine ; now that which has
been all along divine must have been all along constant and
steadfast; so that what men found it to be to-day, they
presumed it to have been from the first. The Church
undoubtedly showed a vital capacity for change ; but each
development, as it was accepted and approved, was con-
secrated ; and each, as it became sacred, became also to the
mind's eye a feature of an apostolic whole. Each, therefore,
had a plausible claim to have been apostolic itself.^
^ Compare the "Apostolic" Constitutions and Canons and tlie various early
collections of laws ; the traditions regarding the Apostles' Creed ; the lists of
608
A.D. 313-451] PROCESSES OF CHANGE 509
All inevitable change on the Church itself must be
borne in mind. It begins with men and women who have
been personally impressed by the Christian message and the
Christian life: though at no time unmixed, it had at the
outset the freshness and vitality to be expected in a society
so constituted. In the following generations it continued to
be recruited under the same influences. But its membership
included also, in a growing proportion, those who had been
born within the fold, children of Christian families. These
had the benefit of Christian home influences, and many of
them received the spirit of Christianity into their hearts ;
but of course it was not so with all : many of them were
held to the Church in a traditionary way, and their
Christianity was worn mainly as a habit of outward life.
Besides this it is plain that, in spite of the unpopularity of
Christianity and the persecutions that befell it, inducements
existed which could persuade " false brethren " to seek and
to retain a connection with the congregations.^
The writings of the New Testament grew into a settled
form, and acquired more definite authority. From the be-
ginning^ the authority of the apostles was owned as of men
commissioned and qualified to announce Christ's gospel and
to build up His Church. Accordingly their writings were
read publicly in the churches ; and that seems to have been
so from the earliest possible period. At first, however, the
impression of the place and use of the Gospels and Epistles
bishops. So, after the ascetic and monastic life had made good its place, it
began to be maintained that such had been the life of the earliest Church.
Hieron., Catal. c. 11 ; Cassian, Cullat. xviii. 5 ; CceTwb. ii. 5 ; Epiph., ITasr*
IxL 4. This mode of view never prevailed absolutely, but it was predominant.
Tertullian, and afterwards Jerome, were aware of particular changes ; but
that did not disturb their habitual mood, which carried back all but every-
thing to the first days.
* These mixtures were iuevitable. Speaking generally, however, it is
reasonable to think that the lead lay with the more devoted and earnest men.
' The Old Testament writings had been taken over from the first, and
their authority as the oracles of God was never questioned in the orthodox
Church. Their divine character was all the more impressive on this account,
that while primarily adapted to the Old Testament economy, they were held
to be pregnant with New Testament meanings.
510 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
might be vague, and the need was not yet acutely felt of
separating them conclusively from the wealth of traditions
and of prophesyings still current on the one hand, and from
the writings on the other, which issued occasionally from
Christian pens, presumably not without some influence from
the Spirit. But experience soon showed the importance of
distinguishing the reliable monuments of apostolic testimony
and of guarding them as the authentic monument of the
Christian revelation.
The boundaries of the New Testament Canon were not
finally settled ; but a rapid agreement took place as to the
greater and more important part of it. This amount of
agreement had been reached at all events in the second
century.^ As regards the Old Testament, the allegorical
principle of interpretation received a great development
during our whole period. The whole Scripture was the
record of Divine revelation; but the growing reliance on
church authority, both as tradition and as legislation,
divided the regard of the Christians and assumed a practical
supremacy. As to New Testament teaching, the modes of
thought of Paul, of 1 Peter, and of Hebrews are for the
most part scantily apprehended and faintly felt. In the
teaching of John the Logos doctrine was appreciated from
the first, apparently, the other elements not till later.
The Apostle Paul sums up his gospel in such passages
as 1 Cor. XV. 3—5, and the baptismal formula in Matt, xxviii.
^ At what date in it is disputed. Cf. Zahn, Geschichte des ¥. T. Kanons,
8vo, 1888-1889, with A. Harnack's Priifung, 1890. Zahn is apt perhaps to
overargue his case ; but surely a prevailing practical understanding as to N. T,
Canon is seen operating at the middle of the century, at any rate. Six or seven
books of our present Canon continued to be questioned or rejected in some
churches, and some writings not now received continued for a time to be cited
as "Scripture," especially at Alexandria. All along, however, the leading
idea on the subject is that expressed by Clem. Al , Strom, vii. 16 : "Exo/Aex'
ykp T7]v dpxw '■^5 didaaKoXias toO KvpLov, did re tQiv irpo<pr)TQv, 8id re rod
eiaYY^^l-ov, Kal did tCov jxaKapioov diroarbXiav iroXvTpdircas Kal iroXv/iiepQs i^
dpxv^ ets riXos rjyovfj^vuv ttjs yvdiaeia^. And again, of the heretics : Alpovv-
Tou 8^ t6 86^av avTois virdpx^i.v ivapyiarepov ri rb irpos tov Kvpiov Sid twp
irpoip'rjTClJv elprjfi^vov, Kal iirb tov eiiayyeXiov, irpbs h-f. 5k koX tCov aTroarbXtap
av/ifiapTvpotjfxevdv re Kal ^epaioij/ieyoy.
313-451] PROCESSES OF CHANGE 511
expresses heads of faith. Yet the existence of a formed
creed in the first century cannot be established ; it would
be easier to show ground for asserting the existence of short
codes of Christian morality. Yet some well-considered way
of expressing the mutual understanding of the Church and
the neophyte at Baptism ^ was plainly desirable, and there is
good ground for believing that a form of creed, suggested by
the baptismal formula, but amplified, was in existence in the
second century in many churches, and it may have existed
earlier. This form varied in its terms a little more in the
East than in the West, but not very much anywhere. It
was a shorter form of what is now called the Apostles'
Creed. What ancient writers call the Eegula {Kavoiv Trj9
akriOeia^, ecclesiastica prcedicatio) may be described as a
somewhat more free conception of the way in which the
Church regarded its faith, and of the way in which she
was prepared to expound and apply it. The importance of
definite and well-weighed utterance of faith was strongly
impressed upon the Church's mind by the Gnostic contro-
versy.
Gnosticism awakened many minds to the dangers which
might assail the life of Christianity in connection with false
doctrine. A watchful scrutiny of doctrine set in; and at
the same time the maintenance of true doctrine became
associated with the conception of the Church, as qualified
and commissioned to give forth the proper watchword and
to guarantee it. This seemed the shortest way to settle
questions and to end disputes. Still further, in proportion
as this gained ground, faith became a legal obligation ; the
creed was prescribed by authority, and it demanded obedi-
ence. It would be far from true to say that Christian
doctrine ceased to be considered as the exhibition of objects
which appeal to the heart, or as an intellectual whole
which possesses the intellectual congruity of truth. But the
legal and ecclesiastical view took precedence ; and the atti-
tude of mind expressed in the quotation from Clem. Al.
(see last page), though never repudiated, became modified by
* Of. Acta viiL 37, where the eiinuch's confession is tin interpolation.
512 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
reliance on the authority of the existing Church, as guaran-
teeing the fundamentals.
Meanwhile the Church, whose prerogatives were thus
conceived, was itself changing its character. For a long
time, indeed, the right of the membership to have their mind
expressed and regarded in important matters was not denied.
But the relative weight of the clergy steadily grew.
The distinction which came to be fixed in the terms
presbyter and bishop, as names of distinct offices, was not
at first of great importance, but its importance grew. The
bishop, as the one person always prominent, became the centre
of church life, attracted more regard, and was presently
fixed on as the type or expression of the unity of his own
church, as well as the natural guardian of the wider unity.
He was the chosen leader ; to rally round him was a point
of loyalty. Important functions became fixed as proper to
him only ; and as perpetual chairman he could make his
consent essential in nominations to office, and in many points
of congregational or clerical action. When councils began
,to be held, the bishop, as the most representative as well as
the most authoritative man of his church, was present in its
behalf. In this way the rules which were adopted for the
churches of a province came to be settled by the will of its
bishops.
It may be believed that in many cases the bishop, as the
chosen pastor of the church, was really its best representa-
tive — the man best able to express with insight and judg-
ment the wants and the convictions of the flock. All that is
suggested is that on various lines power accrued to bishops.
That power assumed more and more the character of an
official attribute ; and as the power grew, a Divine origin for
it was claimed and was conceded.
In connection with the importance attached to the
witness of the churches, in ascertaining the original Christian
teaching, the succession (real or supposed) of the bishops in
great churches was cited, as we have seen. Hence it was
suggested to be eminently their office to guard the true
tradition; and, in fact, we need not doubt that Gnostio
313^61] PROCESSES OF CHANGE 513
assaults had in various cases been repelled by the churches
rallying round their bishops. This function was supposed
to be accompanied with some grace tending to guarantee
the right discharge of it ; if not in the case of each single
bishop, yet in the case of the episcopate.
The bishops, having such functions, appeared to the
Christian mind to be carrying on the function of the Apos-
tolate, and they themselves claimed that character ; for the
Apostles had been, after Christ, the authorities and teachers
of the Church. Here the growth is very clear. Ignatius
associates the Apostles rather with the presbyters ; and he
does not speak of succession, but of a kind of representation :
the bishops suggest Christ, the presbyters the Apostles {ad
Magn. vi., ad Trail, ii, iii., ad Smyrn. viii). Irenseus, for the
most part at least, includes the presbyters among the official
witnesses of the faith. But soon the style of thought and
speech which regards the bishops as the successors of the
Apostles becomes fixed. Tertullian takes it in his larger
and freer way; Hippolytus assumes it once; but Cyprian
is technical, literal, and peremptory.
Again, the change took place by which the bishop, from
being chief pastor of a congregation, came to have as his
irapoLKia a city with a district around it, including various
groups of Christians ; various centres of worship came to be
required and were provided ; and the clergy were organised
with a view to all this. The change raised the bishop still
more decidedly above the level of the flock, and accentuated
the difference of rank between him and the presbyters.
Once more, the bishop of the chief city of a province
became official chairman of the provincial episcopate, and the
depositary of some special powers, as metropolitan. Also,
the bishops of some ancient and great churches, especially
Eome, Alexandria, and Antioch, had a dignity and authority
which, though vague, was more than metropolitan. Men in
those great positions were really princes of the Church. So
far the development had gone when our period ended.
But the inferior clergy also shared, in their degree, in the
enlarging ideas of official power. It cannot be doubted that
33
514 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
from the earliest period the office-bearers were an extremely
influential class in the churches. They were so, because,
as a rule, they were the most earnest, able, and energetic
Christians. But things moved towards the final arrange-
ment by which congregations were to be formed within most
bishoprics, each with its presiding presbyter and clerical
staff. The time of the clergy was fully occupied with
clerical duties, and they became, as a rule, dependent on
church funds for their support. Moreover, in connection
with the functions usually fulfilled by each class, an idea
was formed of the official power imparted at ordination. The
presbyter, for example, in connection with the sacrificial view
of the eucharist, shared so far with the bishop in what was
fixed as the sacerdotal character. But what this as yet
meant is vague : the time, too, when the indelible character
of orders became the accepted view (so that even a deposed
and excommunicated priest should not become a layman), it
seems impossible to fix.
The Church, clothed with these features and associations,
continued to be the object of the old faith. The Church
is the assembly of Christians joined in the name and under
the authority of Christ, reproducing itself everywhere. As
often as they came together in this character the Christians
(not then only, but then eminently) met their Lord, and
expected His edifying grace. No conviction was stronger in
the early Christian mind than that of the presence of the
Lord to fulfil His promises. But with the perils and an-
tagonisms of the Gnostic crisis it became a more anxious
question How and Where shall we be sure of His saving
presence ? No doubt, in the fellowship of His Church.
But were there not false churches, so false that in them
men could not be sure — much the reverse ? The discrimina-
tion of the true Church from the false ones became vital,
because so many minds demanded to be at rest as to
authentic contact with the saving forces of Christianity. In
the circumstances created by Gnosticism it was a good
practical answer to the question to say that the true Church
was the company of churches throughout the world in
313-461] PROCESSES OF CHANGE 515
fellowship through their pastors with the great historical
churches. And the effective way to hold that ground was
to affirm with growing vehemence that as the grace of
Christ was certainly on the one side of the line, so it was
wholly absent on the other. This view was rapidly ex-
tended even to churches which agreed with the great Church
in doctrine, and had become separated merely on points of
practice.^
Here especially, however, it is to be observed that
various meanings combined under the one term Church.
Augustine, for whom the subject had a special attraction,
speaks of the Church, as others did, as the organised Society
which lives in the administration and fellowship of the
authentic sacraments ; but yet again, and very emphatically,
the true Church is the corpus Christi, the society of those
who are vitally united to Him in faith and love, while the
mass of unspiritual Christians (laymen and clergy) are not
the Church, though in a sense they are in it; again, the
Church is the numerus electorum — which does not quite
agree with either of the former conceptions, for there are
elect persons who are not yet in the outward fellowship —
and there are persons at present holy who may fall away ;
again, the Church is celestial (an old thought which found
in earlier days an almost Gnostic expression), only in the
heavens does she reveal her true character, here she cannot.
All these various lines of thought had held Christian minds.
But whatever faith and whatever veneration attended any
of these lines of thought, the concrete organisation which
men saw — represented chiefly by the clergy — fell heir to all.
That alone more and more stood for the Church in most
men's minds. As the Church's state discredited the thought
of an inwardly holy society, men clung the more to the
belief in a society whose peculiarity and whose efficiency
were outwardly guaranteed. So the Church — concrete and
visible, acting and speaking through the clergy — fell heir to
much of trust, veneration, and submission, which were in-
discriminate and blind.
^ Cypr., de Unitate, passim.
516 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
The eventual rejection of all Christianity which could
not bow to the " Great " Church was no doubt due, in a
large measure, to the sectarianism which has so often in-
spired those who claim to be Catholic Christians. But it
was due also to the desire to grasp as strongly as possible
the elements of security and rest that seemed to be afforded
by the historical position of the " Catholic " society. " This
is the Church that is right ; it is so right that everything
else is completely wrong." To take ground in this way, to
emphasise the latter clause as well as the former, was felt to
be both a comfort and a strength.
The consent, then, of the older and greater churches was
a practical standard by which the true teaching should be
ascertained. This was, in point of fact, a real guarantee at
the end of the second century. But if so, it embodied (so
men inferred) the permanent divine method, it was the
proper authority in such cases.^ As yet this principle was
applied only to fundamentals, to the broad outline of the
Christian faith ; but by degrees it lent itself to much more
detailed application. All these principles became more
vigorous and insistent when it began to be possible to
assemble general councils to speak for the whole Church.
In regard to the sacraments, it is not easy to make a
reliable report; for definition implies discrimination, and
sacramental language was always suggestive rather than
discriminative.
The tendency here, as in other church relations, was to
realise the spiritual through the outward and material, so as
to find in the latter a definite and secure guarantee for the
former. Therefore sacramental modes of speech were used
with a growing tendency to assume that the outward rite
carried inevitably the spiritual benefit.^ Yet no thought-
^ One great church, though entitled to influence and to respectful treat-
ment, could not claim authority outside its own territory. Note the attitude
of Cyprian and Firmilian towards Rome.
^ With an interesting diff'erence in the two cases of baptism and the
eucharist. In baptism regeneration was the point of view — a change in the
recipient ; in the eucharist, the presence in some supernatural way of the
Lord's body — a change in the elements.
313-451] PROCESSES OF CHANGE 617
ful Christian could forget that grace is a Divine presence
and working, it is spirit dealing with spirit. For example,
in adult baptism the spiritual blessing must relate itself to
faith and repentance, which are inward and spiritual ; hence
the common language, which assumed or seemed to assume
actual regeneration in all such cases, had to be taken, if
men reflected, in a provisional sense. It was a judgment
of charity. But as the proportion of infant to adult baptism
increased, and that form of administration became the
prevailing type, the tendency to literalism bad less to
control it. There could be no resistance or unbelief in an
infant.
In the eucharist, also, the literal thought of a mysteri-
ous local presence of our Lord's body, and the more spiritual
thought that the sacrament is an ordained sign and pledge
of the gift to us of Christ, in the grace of His Incarnation
and His death, to be ours, — could, either of them, be em-
bodied in the sacramental language ; and the second is the
unambiguous sense of great teachers (Origen, Augustine);
but the first gained ground, especially with those who
welcomed every suggestion of sacred wonders embodied in
the outward ministrations of the Church.
In regard to this sacrament, however, the development
of the sacrificial view is the change which is more im-
portant.
As regards both ordinances, the tendency to enrich and
multiply the ritual with a view to impressiveness, operated
powerfully. It is to be kept in view that the application
of a distinctive name (sacramentum, fivaTTjptop) to certain
ordinances exclusively, had not yet become definite. The
terms were used loosely, and could be applied to anything
that was held sacred, especially if also it could be regarded
as symbolic.
In rejecting Gnosticism and Montanism it was not neces-
sary to formulate orthodoxy. Gnosticism was rejected, with
all its fruits, as a perverse intellectual method, and Montanism
as a claim to originate a new dispensation. Orthodox think-
ing was stimulated by these discussions as well as by the
618 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
collision with paganism, and the Church felt so much the
richer ; but these treasures could remain in men's minds and
writings, without being weighed and stamped. It was the
third-century discussions concerning the higher nature of
Christ that led to dogmatic precision in regard to propositions
renounced on the one hand or affirmed on the other. Teach-
ing definite enough, and in general harmony with the decisions
of the third century, had no doubt been put forth earlier,
e.g. by Justin and Irenaeus ; but we may admit that, previous
to the discussions and decisions of the third century, the
general mind of the churches had not reached so definite an
understanding on the points involved. Yet students who
follow the course of the Monarchian discussions will probably
be convinced that the churches already had a mind which
found utterance in rejecting the teaching of Sabellius and of
Paul of Antioch. That is to say, that if, before these
decisions, a definite doctrinal position capable of precise
expression, had not yet been attained by the Church as a
whole, yet an attitude of mind and heart existed, a way of
thinking and feeling about Christ, which predisposed most
Christians to reject alike the higher and the lower
Monarchianism. Still it is to be observed that these
decisions, as acquiesced in and supported by the churches,
took two things for granted : first, that the Church possessed
materials adequate to enable her conclusively to decide the
questions raised ; and second, that the points decided could
be and should be treated as essential, so that conscientious
dissidents on those points should no longer obtain a hearing
in the Catholic Church. These positions were assumed as
involved in the main question ; but they were assumed
silently, without being made matter of sepai^ate considera-
tion. The writer is not disposed to question either of them ;
but the student may do well to attend to them in connection
with the topics of the nature of church power, and the
limits within which it should be exercised. The positions in
question constituted, on the part of the Church, steps in the
formation of a habit of action which was subsequently to
receive great developments. At what point did that habit
313-451] PROCESSES OP CHANGE 619
carry the Church beyond the bounds of legitimate and whole-
some authority ?
Down to the Council of Nicsea no creed but the bap-
tismal one existed either for layman or clergyman : only,
some Eastern churches seem to have introduced into that
creed clauses or phrases which had a certain relation to
current theological controversies. The best known case is
the creed of Csesarea, recited at Nicsea by Eusebius.
From the earliest period there must have been consulta-
tion with a view to mutual aid and mutual understanding
between churches and between districts, and the organisa-
tion of councils to regulate this department was an obvious
expedient. The religious revolution associated with the
name of Constautine rendered it possible to assemble at
Niciea a council which could claim to represent the Christian
Church at large. In the chapter occupied with that subject
attention has been directed to the tendency of such a council
to concentrate and crystaUise a mass of sentiment about the
Church, and to give a decisive direction to men's thoughts
about the Church's competency in the field of Christian
truth. What has been said need not be repeated here.
It might be thought likely that the craft and passion,
the intrigue and the violence which ere long were con-
spicuous in the management of councils, would undermine
their authority. But the set which men's minds had taken,
and the craving for such an authority in order to complete
the structure in which men's souls desired to live, — these
forces were too strong to be affected by scandals. So the
notorious personal influences, and the personal manoeuvres
which characterise the Vatican, seem to produce no appreci-
able failure of faith in Papal infallibility on the part of
those who- are disposed that way.
It is remarkable, however, that the Pelagian and Semi-
Pelagian controversies (while they set in motion theological
tendencies, Augustinian and anti-Augustinian, of a very
strong and durable kind, and while at least great features
of Augustinian thought and feeling became dominant in the
West) produced no such clear - cut and detailed dogmatic
520 ME ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH [a.d.
formulae, accepted and enforced by church authority, as were
called forth by the questions about the Trinity and the
Person of Christ.
It is to be noticed, finally, that the fourth century saw
the tendencies in action which were destined to render
multitudinism triumphant in the Church, i.e. to bring it to
pass that the whole population of the empire, and of the
kingdoms which succeeded it, became members of the Church
and partakers of Christian ordinances at her hands. That
was a great change from the earlier day, not so much be-
cause the number of Christians was so greatly increased, but
because Christianity for the masses existed as something
passively accepted, and not as the expression of individual
decision. If it lay in the line of the Church's calling to
resist this tendency, or effectually to control it, the ideas
which prevailed as to the relation of the inward to the
outward in religion rendered the task very difficult. The
Church was involved in the thousand compromises arising
out of this situation. Her protest against these, or rather
her protest that something more individual and more de-
cisive could be contemplated, was embodied mainly in
Monasticism. Efforts to raise the standard of the common
Christianity were made from time to time ; very often it
was an effort to carry over lessons and influences from the
monasteries to the general Christian society.
One particular but important phase of the process just
alluded to was the change which took place in the method
of the Church's discipline and in the very conception of it.
On the one hand, discipline was discouraged by the refractory
and irreformable material with which it had to deal. On
the other hand, the impression that the process constituted
the one method of obtaining assured forgiveness,- suggested
the extension of discipline to sins which had not become
scandals — and to sins not contemplated by the earlier
discipline. In accommodating the procedure of the Church
and of penitents to these impressions a step was made
towards the eventual creation of the Eoman Sacrament of
Penance.
313-451] PROCESSES OF CHANGE bH
But a more serious result was this : with tlie flood of
new proselytes the Church acquired a constituency which
could only be dealt with on legal principles : and such
principles could be applied only in the way of enjoining
certain observances. TImt alone could be practically intel-
ligible to the mass. The assumption followed, that when
these observances were passively accepted, at least without
disbelief or contradiction, they would do their work, would
confer and accomplish the Christian salvation. On any
other view, what must become of the mass of recognised
Christians ? The theory which this implied settled on
men's minds like a fate. Christ has furnished us with a
system of church ordinances which, if reverently complied
with, do mysteriously effect salvation.
Once more, the character of the Church's new constitu-
ency accelerated the tendencies to a paganised worship.
Worship of saints and martyrs, of sacred pictures and relics,
of the eucharist, of the crucifix, worship which multiplied
alike the objects of reverence and the splendour of ritual,
became most popular, because it was far more congenial to
the really pagan people who flowed into the Christian Church
in the fourth and following centuries. On the other hand,
this population accepted the Church's authority.
How many of these changes — and we have enumerated
only some — deserve to be regarded as legitimate develop-
ments, or admissible adaptations — how many as mistakes
and corruptions, and what effect should be ascribed to them
on either view — also how far the essential genius of the
Christian religion with its healing and renewing virtue
operated through all, — these are questions not here to be
further discussed. In contemplating them the student will
carry with him the remembrance that our Lord's promise is
for ever taking fulfilment — " Lo, I am with you alway, even
to the end of the world."
APPENDIX
A. LITEEATUEE OF CHUECH HISTOEY
In the immense literature of Church History, some outstand-
ing works ought to be known to students at least by name
and character, though they may not be in circumstances to
make much use of them. Others should be referred to by
those who wish to study the subject fully. Here we name
only such works as include or bear upofi the period covered
by this volume.
Ancient Church Writers or Fathers, — generally taken
as applying to writers, especially Catholic writers, of first six
centuries. See literature to Chap. III. p. 50 ; and for earliest,
or so-called Apostolic Fathers, n. 1, 2, p. 51.
Church Councils. — Various collections, especially Mansi,
31 vols, folio (1 and 2 cover period of this vol.), Flor., and
Ven., 1759 ; also Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, Freiburg in
Breisgau, 1855 ff.
Geography. — The chief requisite is a good historical
atlas. Spruner's, 3rd ed., by A. von Menke, 1871 ff., may
be named.
Chronology. — The great works are J. Scaliger, De emen-
datione temporum, Jena, 1629. D. Petavius, De doctrina
temportim, Antv., 1703. L'art de verifier les dates (by a
Benedictine), 4th ed., by St. Alais, Paris, 1818. L. Ideler,
Lehrhuch der Chronologie, Berlin, 1831. A handy companion
on this subject will be found in Book of Almanacs, by A. de
Morgan, Lond., 1851.
LiTUKGic AND WORSHIP have a large special literature, but
they are included in the general subject of Antiquities, which
comprehends also the constitution, offices, administration,
laws, and usages of the Ancient Christian Church, and the dis-
tinctive features of its social life. The classical English work is
523
524 APPENDIX
J. Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Church, 8 vols., Oxon.,
various editions. Originally published nearly two hundred
years ago, this work retains its value in a remarkable degree.
Smith and Cheetham, Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Antiquities,
Lond., 1875. In Germany, J. W. Angus ti, Denhwiirdigkeiten,
12 vols., Leipz., 1816 ff. ; Guericke, 1859 (both Lutheran), and
Binterim, 17 vols. (Catholic), are usually named.
Church Histories : Ancient. — Eusebius, ten books (among
many edd., Heinichen, Lips., 1868-70; Burton, Oxon., 1838),
comes down to A.D. 314, Socrates (a.d. 306-439), Sozomen (a.d.
323-423), Theodoret (a.d. 325-429), Evagrius (a.d. 431-594).
Modern {i.e. since Eeformation). Protestant. — Ecclesiastica
Historia, etc., Magdeburg, 1559 fif., 13 vols, folio, often called
" Centuriae Magdeburgenses," a review of the history down to
A.D. 1300, in the interest of Protestantism, and against Eome.
Passing over many large works, J. L. Mosheim, Institutiones
Hist. Eccl., Helmst., 1755, inaugurates less controversial and
more philosophical treatment : J. S. Semler, Hist. Eccl. Selecta
Capita, Halse, 1773 ff., begins treatment on basis of rational-
ism. J. M. Schrock, Christlich. Kirchengeschichte, continued
by H. G. Tzschirner, 45 vols., Leipz., 1768 ff., storehouse of
results up to end of eighteenth century. Later Prot. writers
named below.
Koman Catholic. — Cses. Baronii, Annates, Kom., 1588 jff.,
12 vols, folio, devoted to twelve centuries. Continuation by
Eaynaldus, Laderchius, and others ; best ed. by G. & J.
Mansi, 1738 ff. This work was the reply to the Magdeburg
centuries. The author and continuators were priests of the
oratory of S. PhiHp Neri. Natalis Alexander (French name
Noel), Hist. Eccl. Veteris et Novi Testamenti, Paris, 1699 :
author a Dominican, not ultramontane: able statement of
RC. view in controverted questions. S. le Nain de Tillemont,
M4moires pour servir a VH. E. des six premiers sihles, Paris,
1693 ff., 16 vols. 4to, still worth consulting: takes up the
history in connection with successive biographies, diligent and
candid : author a Jansenist. J. J. I. von Dollinger, Geschichte
d. Christl. K., Landshut, 1835 : modern RC. position as de-
fended by a very learned man: author repudiated by the
Church after the Vatican Council.
Among modern Church Histories the following deserve the
attention of students. J. C. L. Gieseler, Eccl. History, trans-
lated (T. & T. Clark), Edin., 1846. J. A. W. Neander, General
Hist, of Chr. Ch., translated (T. & T. Clark), Edm., 1847.
F. C. Baur, Lectures (partly posth.), Tiib., 1861-63. Milman,
APPENDIX 525
Latin Christianity, 7 vols., Lond., 1854. Sohm, Kirchen-
geschichte im Grundriss, 1885. W. Moller, Lehrhuch der
K, G., Freiburg, 1889 ff. J. C. Robertson, Hist, of Ch, to
Reformation, 1874.
History of Doctrine. — D. Petavius, Dogmata Theological
Paris, 1644 ff. ; various later edd. : author a Jesuit :^ French
name Denis Petau. Ilagenbach's Handhooh of History of
Doctrine (transl., T. & T. Clark, Edin.) is still a convenient
index to this subject. F.C. Baur, Vorlesungen iL D. G. (posth.),
3 Bde. 1865 : Hegelian, and pervaded by thought of develop-
ment. Harnack, Lehrhuch der D. G., 3 vols., 3rd ed. 1896 ff.
Loofs, Leitfaden z. Studium d. D. G., Halle, 1893.
Biography, besides Tillemont, Smith and Wace's Diction-
ary of Ecclesiastical Biography, Lond., 4 vols. See also arti-
cles in Herzog and Plitt, Real-EncycL, which is useful also for
Antiquities, Liturgic, etc. Corresponding R.C. work is Wetzer
and Welte, Kir chen- Lexicon, 1847 ff. These works contain
information also on writings and editions of Fathers. Special
works on Patristic are E. Dupin, Nouv. Bihliotheque, Paris,
1686 ; and R. Ceillier, Histoire generate des Auteurs, etc.,
last ed. Par. 1860. For Latin writeis the supplementary
volumes (Christian Section, 1-3) of J. C. F. Bahr, Gesch. d.
Romisch. Lit,, Karlsruhe, 1836 ff., will be found convenient.
B. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES TO CHAPTERS
Chapter I. Add Gibbon, Decline and Fall of Roman
Empire, notes by J. B. Bury, 7 vols., Lond., 1897. Aube,
Histoire des persecutions d^Eglise^ etc., Paris, 1875. Keim,
Romu. Christenthu?n, ISSl. JJhWiorn, Der Itampfd. Chris-
tenthums mit d. Heidenthum, 1886. See also A. Ilarnack in
Real-Encycl, viii. 772. Hardy, Christianity and the Roman
Government, Lond., 1894. Neumann, Der Romische Staat u.
d. allgemeine Kirche, Leipz., 1890. Merivale, History of
Rom. Emperors, 8 vols., Lond., 1865. E. Renan, Hist, des
Origines du Christianisme, Paris, 1867 ff.
On the Jews. — Milman, History of the Jews, 3 vols.,
Lond., 1829. Gfrorer, Jahrhundert des Heils, 2 Bde. 1838.
E. Schiirer, Geschichte des Judischen Volks, 2nd ed., Leipz.,
1886 fe. (very full reff. to literature).
Chapter II. The Early Churches. — Works on the con-
stitution of the early churches are cited p. 32, n. 1. Among
526 APPENDIX
older works which deserve still to be kept in view are E.
Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity, ed. by Keble, Oxf., 1836. D.
Petavius, De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia, lib. v. H. Hammond,
Dissertationes, iv., Lond., 1651. D. Blondel, Apologia pro
sententia Hieronym., Amst., 1646. Add to later works E.
Eothe, Anfdnge d. Christl. Kirche, Witt., 1837. Bishop Kaye,
External Disc, and Govt, of Church of Christ, Lond., 1856.
Hatch, Organisation of early Christ. Churches, Lond., 1881 ;
and Groivth of Christ. Institutions, Lond., 1887.
As to the methods of early church life, besides details
gathered from incidental notices in the Fathers, we have the
various early collections of Church Laws — the history of
which is a complicated subject. (See A. Harnack in T. u. U.
ii., parts 1, 2, 5, 1886.) The collection best known is the
Apostolical Constitutions (in Cotelerius, Patres Apostolici, see
n. 1, p. 51: handy modern editions by Ueltzen, Eost.,1853, and
Lagarde, Lips., 1862). Of the eight books, the composition
of the first six is referred to the end of the third century or
beginning of fourth ; but the text as it stands contains later
interpolations as well as material from earlier collections:
books 7 and 8 are ascribed to different periods in the fourth
century. The Apostolic Canons (85) belong to the fifth and
sixth centuries: they are usually printed at the end of the
Ap. Const. On Apostles' Creed, see H. B. Swete, 2nd ed.,
Camb., 1894
Discipline. — Details on this subject are best studied with
the aid of works on Christian Antiquities, supra.
Maktyrdom. — See works cited above in connection with
Chap. L
Chapter TIT. The Church's Life. Good specimens of
literature in H. M. Gwatkin, Selections from early Writers^
Lond., 1893.
Chapter IV. Beliefs and Sacraments.
P. 68. On earliest asceticism, see A. Harnack in notes
to his edition of Teaching of Apostles, Berlin, 1886. Older,
S. Deyling, Ohservationes Sacrce, iii., De ascetis Veterum.
Pp. 70, 71. Eeferences on the doctrine concerning Christ
will be found under Chap. XL
Chapter V. Apologists. — Students are specially referred
to A. Harnack, Dogmengeschichte (trans. Lond., 1875), 2nd
book, 4th chapter. Loofs, Leitfaden z. D. G. § 18, and especi-
APPENDIX 527
ally to de Pressensc?, Histoire dcs trois premiers sikles, etc.,
Par, 1858-64.
Chapter VI. Gnosticism.
P. 104, note 2. See Swete, Gospel of S. Peter, Lond., 1893.
Chapter VIII. Action of Government. — See also litera-
ture cited under Chap. I. supra.
Chapter XL Christ and God. — On this great subject
of discussion, see G. Bull, De/ensio Fidei Niccence, Oxon.,
1685 : works by Nelson, vol. v. ff. F. C. Baur, Die Christlicke
Lehre v. d. Dreieinigkeit, etc.. Tub., 1841-43. G. A. Meier, Die
Lehre v. d. Trinitdt, Hamb., 1844. Dorner, Entwickelungs-
geschichte der Lehre v. d. Person Christi, Stuttgart, 1845 (transL,
T. & T. Clark, Edin.), and all the general histories of doctrine.
Chapter XII. Christian Life. — See reff. on earlier asceti-
cism under Chap. IV. Also J. A. W. Neander, Denhumrdigkeiten,
U.S.W., vol. i. 3rd ed., Berlin, 1845. N. Mosler, Zur Geschichte
des Coslihats, Held., 1878. A. Harnack, Das Monchthum, u.s.w.,
3rd ed. 1886. How the ascetic idea commended itself to
Christians is best seen in Clem. Alex. Pcedagogus, and some
tracts of Tertullian ; also, later, in canons of councils.
Chapter XI 1 1. Worship. — See Bingham, Antiquities, and
Smith and Cheetham, Dictionary of Christian Antiquities. See
also second book of Apostolic Constitutions.
P. 232. The recourse to O.T. to supply precedents and
authorities for ecclesiastical arrangement and ritual embellish-
ment is illustrated in first six books of Apostolical Constitu-
tions, and frequently in the works of Origen.
Chapter XIV. Clergy. — See reff. under Chap. II. supra.
P. 245. Clergy in Eome, Eus. H. E. vi. 43. Optat.
Milev. De Schismate, etc., ii. 4.
Chapter XVI. Manicheism. — Add F. C. Baur, Das Mani-
chdische Eeligionssystem, Tlib., 1831. Art. sub tit. in Peal-
Encycl. vol. ix. The sources are Acta disputationis Archelai et
Manetis (referred to 4th cent.) in Routh, Reliquice Sacrce, and in
Migne, Patr. Gr. x. Tit. Bostren, 'irphg Uavi-xaiovg, Lagarde, 1859.
Alexander of Nicopolis, Aoyog 'jrphg ruz Ma)^/^aluv do^ag, in
Gallandi, iv. Fresh light has been derived from Arabic
528 APPENDIX
sources (see in Fliigel and art. in B. E.). Notices in Syriac
works of Ephraem S. (4th cent.) and in Armenian of Esnik
(5th cent.).
Chapter XV IL Church in Christian Empire. — Tzschirner,
Fall des Heidenthums, Leipz., 1829. A. Beugnot, Histoire de
la destructiov- du Faganisme en Occident, Paris, 1835. S. T.
Eiidiger, De statu paganorum suh. imp. Christ., Vratisl., 1825.
J. V. A. de Broglie, L'Eglise et V Empire Romain an IV^
Siecle, 3rd ed., Paris, 1869. V. Schulze, Geschichte des Unter-
gangs des griech. rom. Heidenthums, Jena, 1887. For course
of legislation, see Codex Theodos., by Haeneck, 6 vols., Bonn,
1842. Codex Justinian, by Krliger, BeroL, 1877.
P. 274. On unworthy motives of many converts, Euseb.
Vita Constantin. iv. 54.
P. 279 ff. On Julian, add to the reff. given, G. H.
Kendall, The Emperor Julian, Lond., 1879, and H. A. Naville,
Jidien VApostat, Neuch., 1877.
Literary representatives of the non-Christian thinkers and
scholars were Jamblichus (d. 333), Libanius (d. 395), Himerius
(d. 390), Themistius (d. 390), Hypatia (d. 416), Proclus (d.
485). The historian Ammianus Marcellinus ranks on the
same side, and the poet Claudius Claudianus.
Chapter XVIII. Monasticism. — The earliest work com-
monly cited is R Hospinian, De monachis h. e. de origine et
progressu monachatus, 2nd ed., Tiguri, 1609. Add also, Hols-
tenius, Cod. Begularum, ed. Martene, 1690. J. Mabillon, De
monachis in occidente ante Benedictum (in Acta Sanct.y Ord.
Bened. vol. i.). H. Weingarten, Ursprung des Monchthums,
Gotha, 1877.
Among early sources add Eufinus, Ristoria Monachorum,
Ant v., 1615. Palladius, Historia Lausiaca (Migne, Gr. 34).
Hilarii Arelat., Vita Honorati, Caesarii Arelat., Ad Monachos,
Migne, 67.
Chapter XIX. Clergy.
P. 311. Metropolitans and Patriarchs. See R Loening,
Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenrechts, i. 424 ff.
Chapter XX. Council of Nicsea. See J. A. Mohler,
AthanasiuSy Mainz, 1827-28. Harnack, Dogmengesch.^ part ii.
chap. 7.
Sources: Eus. Vita Const. Magni, Socrates, Hist. Eccl.
APPENDIX 529
Sozomen, H. E. Theodoret, H. Eccl. Philostorgius, fragments
in Photius, cod. 40.
Chapter XXI. Arian Controversy, post-Nicene. Sources :
Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Philostorgius, Epiphanius, Hcer.
69 ; and controvl. works of Athanasius, Hilary, 13asil and the
two Gregories, with their Epistles. Councils in Mansi, ii.,
iii. ; Fuchs, Bihliothek der Kirchenversammlungen, Leipz., 1780,
vols, i., iii. ; Hahn, Bihlioth. d. Syrribolik ; C. J. Hefele, Concilien-
geschichte, Freiburg, 1855 ff., vol. i.
Chapter XXII. Minor Controversies.
P. 363. Apollinarian pseudonymous writings: — the con-
fession ascribed to Athanasius was part of a letter by Apolli-
narius to the Emperor Jovian. A number of the followers of
Apollinarius returned to the great Church and strengthened
the Monophysite section.
P. 370. Origen's errors. Modern discussion of these
points may be found in Origeniana by Huet (b. of Avranches)
in vol. iv. of De la Kue's edition of Origen's works ; in Rede-
penning's Life of Origen ; in Life, by Thomasius ; and in Wetzer
and Welte, Kirchenlexicon (R. C), vol. vii. The works of
Rufiuus and Jerome on the subject are Eufinus, Frcef. ad
Oingen. 'n-spi dp^uiv and Apologia in Hieron. ; Hieronymus,
Apologia adv. Rufinum, libri iii, with Epp. 51-84, 87—100 ;
also Epiphan. Hcer. 64.
P. 371. Priscillian. P. ascribed some kind of inspiration
to non-canonical writings, now lost, apparently Gnostic or
semi-Gnostic. This in itself would create distrust in the
minds of men like Ambrose and Damasus.
Chapter XXIII. Person of Christ.
On this subject.it may be well to read the relative sections
in Cunningham's Historical Theology and in Dorner's History
of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ. The latter shares in a
common Lutheran tendency to criticise and depreciate the
decision of Chalcedon; also Petavius, Dogmata Theologica.
Important as early sources are the histories of Socrates,
Sozomen, and Theodoret, the latter especially, see n. 1, p. 382,
— along with Cyril's Tracts and the dogmatic Epistle of Leo.
The latter should not be accepted by the student at its
traditional value without reconsideration.
Chapter XXIV. Donatism.
34
530 APPENDIX
The importance of Donatism lies in the development of
the doctrine of the Church of which it became the occasion.
This topic comes up in all studies of Augustine, e.g. Harnack,
D. G. iii. pp. 70 and 127. Eeuter, Augustinische Studien,
pp. 4 ff. and 231 ff. A. Dorner, Augustinus, p. 232.
In addition to the works cited at the head of the chapter
may be named Augustin. 0pp. vol. ix. M. Leydecker, Historia
Ecclesice Africanm, Ultraj., 1690. H. Noris, Historia Dona-
tistarum, edited by the Ballerini, Verona, 1729-32. Binde-
mann, Der heil. Augustinus, ii., Leipz., 1829.
Chapter XXV.
P. 422. Eusebius. Stein, EuseUus, Wiirzb., 1859. See
also in Lightfoot's reply to Supernatural Religion, and art. in
Did. of Eccl. Biography. A German translation of the Syriac
version has appeared in the Berlin edition of Greek Fathers.
P. 423. Athanasius. See Bohringer, Kirche Christi, 2nd
ed., vol. vi. 1874. Mohler, Athanas. d. Grosse, 1827. J.
Fialon, S. Athanase, 1877. Opera, Montfaucon, 1693. Migne,
Gr. 25-28. Festal Letters, preserved in Syriac, Cureton, Lond.,
1848.
P. 426. Basil, born in or near a.d. 330. Opera, Garnier,
Paris, 1721 ; Migne, 29-32 ; see Vita prefixed, and article in
Beal-Encycl. ii.
P. 428. Gregory of Nyssa. Of the three Cappadocians
he adhered most to Origen ; but yet, like the others, fully
adopted the Athanasian position. Besides the works men-
tioned in the text, his De hominis opificio and Apolog. de
hexaem. may be specially noted. Opera, Fronto le Due,
Paris, 1615, and Migne, 44-48. A new edition is very desir-
able. Article by W. Moller in Beal-Encycl. vol. v.
P. 430. Hilary of Poictiers. He wrote also three books
against the Emperor Constantius, and a work against Auxen-
tius of Milan. He is regarded as the father of Latin Hymnody,
— stirred up, it is said, by previous efforts of the Arians, — and
he communicated the impulse to Ambrose. 0pp. (Bened. ed.),
1693; Migne, L. 9, 10. Life, Eeinkens, Schaffh., 1864. On
his Theology, see Dorner, Entiuichelungsgesch. d, Lehre v. d.
P. Christi, i. 1037.
P. 434. Ambrose, 0pp. (Bened.), Paris, 1686, and Venet.,
1781 ; new edition, MedioL, 1875 ; Migne, L. 14-17 ; Life by
Benedictine Edd. ; also Bohringer, vol. x.
Chapter XXVI. Festivals, etc. See Bingham, books xiil
APPENDIX 531
and xiv., and Diet, of Christian Antiquities ; C. E. Hammond,
Ancient Liturgy of Antioch, Oxf., 1879 ; L. A. Muratori,
Liturgia Eomana Vetus, Neap., 1776. Also S. Silvise Aqui-
tanae, Peregrinatio ad loca sanxita, Gamurrine, 2nd ed., Eom.,
1888.
P. 444. Eucharistic doctrine; see in Jahrh. d. deutschen
Theologie, 1864-68, articles by Steitz, Die Abendmahlslehre d.
griechischen Kirche, u.s.w.
Chapter XXVIII. Augustine.
P. 467. Augustine's relations to Manicheism (cf. Chap.
XVL), to Donatism (Chap. XXIV.), to Pelagianism (Chap.
XXIX.), and to Semi-Pelagianism (Chap. XXX.), are referred
to in those chapters. His theory of the Catholic Church
receives important exposition in works besides those against
Donatism ; see especially the De Civitate Dei. Other theologi-
cal topics, which claim attention in connection with Augustine,
are his theory of sacramental grace, his conception of the signi-
ficance of Christ in redemption (alleged, e.g., by Harnack and
Loofs to be one-sided, and so defective), his free revision of
earlier argument in connection with the Trinity, and his non-
appreciation of the Pauline teaching on justification, while he
lays so much stress on the same apostle's doctrine of grace.
Hints and conjectures of this Father, which prepared the
way for later developments, will be referred to when these
are taken up.
INDEX
AoACius of Csesarea, 348.
Acacius of Constantinople, 347.
Acta facientes, 143.
Aedesius, 288.
Aerius, 370.
Aetius, 346, 348.
Africa, school of, 184 f.; Tertullian,
184-9 ; Cyprian, 189-97.
Agape, 30, 75-6, 229.
Agrippinus, 257.
Alaric, 270, 271.
Alexander of Alexandria, 326, 330, 341.
Alexander of Jerusalem, 143.
Alexandria, school of, 2nd P., 161 f. ;
Pantanus and Clement, 161-8;
Origen, 168-79; 3rd P., 374-5,
379-80.
Allegorical Interpretation of O.T., 107,
109, 158, 510 ; extended to N.T. by
Origen, 158, n. 2, 170.
Alogi, 211-2.
Ambrose, and Monasticism, 296 ; and
Priscillian, 372 ; and prayer to the
saints, 452 ; and inability, 475 ; life
and works, 434-6, 530.
Ammonius Saccas, 147.
Anastasius, presb. of Antioch, 377,
378.
Anatolius of Constantinople, 396,
399, iL
Andreas of Samosata, 382, n. 1.
Anicetus, 83, 236.
Anomoeans, 340, 346, 350, 352.
Antioch, s. of (Paul of S.), 214-5.
Antioch, c. at (341 a.d.), 343-4 ; (343
A.D.), 844-6.
Antioch, school of, 374-6, 473, n. 2.
Antoninus Pius, 17.
Antony, 293.
Apelles, 119, n. 2.
Apollinarins, 157, 358 f.
Apollinarius of Hierapolis, ISO, n. 1.
Apollonius of Hierapolis, 62, 180, n. 1.
Apollonius of Tyana, 146, 155, 283.
"Apostles' " Creed, 59, 74.
Apostles in the early Church, 32-4.
Apostolici, 304.
Apuleiua, 7.
Arcadius, 270.
Arianism, 205, n. 2, 324, 327, n. 3.
Arianism, Gothic, 352-3.
Ariniinum, c. at (359 A.D.), 348.
Aristides, 17, 60-1, 84.
Arius, his opinions, 324-5, 326-8, 860 ;
at Nicsea, 330-1 ; banished, 333 ;
returns, 341 ; dies, 342 ; life and
character, 325, 326.
Aries, s. of, and heretical baptism,
260.
Amobius, 84, 89, 157.
Arnobius the younger, 488, n.
Art, Christian, 2nd P., 222-3 ; 3rd P.,
454.
Artemon, 212.
Asceticism, 1st P., 68 ; 2nd P., 223-5 ;
3rd P., 291 f.
Asia Minor, school of, 180 f. ; Irenaeus,
180-4; Hippolytus, 180, 184.
Athanasius, archdeacon at Alexandria,
307 ; at Nicaea, 330 ; bishop, 341 ;
in the post-Nicene debate, 341-2,
343, 344, 345, 346, 349, 350, 354-5 ;
nature of the charges against him,
821 ; attitude to Origen, 364 ; life
and works, 423-6, 530.
Athenagoras, 61, 84, 205.
Attila, 270, 271, 506.
Audiarii, 304.
Audius, 304.
Augustine, and heretical baptism, 257,
n. 3 ; and Manicheism, 264, 267,
461-2, 466; and Monasticism, 295-6,
298, 301 ; and relics, 302-3, 436 ;
and training of the clergy, 816,
319 ; and the Donatists, 412 f. ; and
yeneratioQ of the saints, 452 ; and
i88
634
INDEX
discipline, 458 ; andNeo-Plalonism,
462, 464 ; and Pelagianism, 471,
475-6, 479-82 ; and Semi-Pelagian-
ism, 483-4. His church theory,
415-9. As preacher, 451. Charac-
ter of his thinking, 463-4, 466-7.
Life, 280, n. 2, 316, 460-3. Works,
271, n. 2, 464-5, 467, 473, n. 1,
475, n. 2, 484, 531.
Aurelian, 143, 144.
Aurelius, Marcus, 7, n. 2, 17, 48.
Auxentius of Milan, 434.
Avitus of Vienne, 489.
Axum, kingdom of, 288.
Babylas of Antioch, 142, 143.
Baptism, 1st P., 31, 75 ; 2nd P., 233-5,
237, n. 2 ; 3rd P., 290, 300, 446-9.
Review, 516-7.
Baptism, heretical, 255 f. ; Augustine
on, 415.
Baptismal confession, 73, 159, 448,
511.
Bar Cochba, 19.
Bardesanes of Edessa, 116, n., 119,
n. 2.
Barnabas^ Epistle of, 22, n., 55.
Basil of Ancyra, 339, 348.
Basil of Caesarea, Neo-Platonic influ-
ence in, 156; post-Mcene debate,
350, 354 ; as preacher, 451 ; life and
works, 295, 301, 426-8, 530.
Basilides, 113-6.
Beron, 170, n. 1, 217.
Beryllus of Bostra, 170, n. 1, 217.
Bishops, 1st P., 35-40 ; Hatch and
Harnack on, 40-2 ; and discipline,
43. 2nd P., 241-5 ; election of, 245-
7. 3rd P., 314, 319 ; election of,
308-9 ; celibacy of, 320. Growth of
their power, 512-3.
Bishops, country, 245, 307.
Bonosus, 453.
C^CILIANUS, 405-6.
Csesarius of Aries, 451, 489.
Callistus of Kome, 215, 216, 217, n. 1,
251 257.
Canon of N.T., 109-10, 158, 509-10.
Caracalla, 141.
Carpocrates, 111.
Cassian, 296, 298, 486, 488 ; his
Semi - Pelagian views, 488, 490-3,
503.
Celibacy of the clergy, 2nd P.. 223-4 :
3rd P., 319-20.
Celsus, 8, n. 1, 157.
Cerinthus, 111.
Chalcedon, c. at, 396-401.
Character, doct. of, 414, 449.
Chorepiscopoi, 245, 307.
Chrysaphius, 393, 395.
Chrysostom, on State aid, 278 ; on
Lord's Supper, 444-5 ; as preacher,
451 ; life, 295, 301, 321, 368-9, 375,
494-6 ; writings, 496.
Church, form of, in 2nd P., 239-40.
Church, idea of the, 1st P., 27-9, 71-2 ;
2nd P., 242-3, 255-6 ; Cyprian,
193-4, 256-8. 3rd P., 409 ; Augus-
tine, 415-9. Review, 514-5.
Circumcelliones, 407, 411, 412, 420,
n. 2.
Clemens, T. Flavins, 15.
Clement of Alexandria, and N.T.
canon, 158, n. 2 ; Logos doct., 164,
166, 167, 205 ; on the Christian life,
221-2 ; life and teaching, 100, n.,
161-8.
Clement of Rome, 52.
Clement, \st Ep. of, 16, 52-3, 202.
Clement, 2nd Ep. of, 40, 53.
Clementine writings, 21-2.
Clergy, celibacy of, 2nd P., 223-4 ; 3rd
P., 319-20.
Clejgy, priesthood of, growth of idea,
232.
Clergy, and secular callings, 314, 319.
Clergy, training of, 3rd P., 316-8.
Ccelestinus of Rome, 379, 381.
Coelestius, 471, 472.
Collegia tenuiorum, 144.
Commodian, 157.
Commodus, 4, 18, 141.
Communicatio idiomatum, 383, n. 2.
Communion. See Lord's Supper.
Constans, emp., 268; and post-Nicene
debate, 342-3, 344-5.
Constantine, emp., 268 ; edict of
Milan, 5, 145 ; religious policy, 276,
277-8 ; and the Donatists, 406 ;
and Nicsea, 329, 337 ; and post-
Nicene debate, 340-2.
Constantine ii., 268, 342-3.
Constantinople, c. at (381 a.d.), 352,
355-7, 359.
Constantius, emp., 268, 269 ; religious
policy, 276, 278 ; and Julian, 282 ;
and post-Nicene debate, 343-8 ;
and Hilary, 431.
Constantius Chlorus, 145.
Cornelius of Rome, 253-4, 259.
Creed, early forms of, 73-4, 511 ;
"Apostles'," 59, 74; Nicene, 322,
later form, 356 ; Chalcedon, 398-9.
Cyprian, and tlie ** lapsed," 191-2,
INDEX
635
251-2 ; and Tieretic.il haptisin, 256-
61, 417 ; on the unity of the Church,
192-4, 258 ; and Novatian, 254 ;
life, 189-91 ; martyrdom, 195-7.
Cyi'il of Alexandria, Ids contra Juli-
anujti, 284 ; and Nestorian contro-
versy, 379, 380-91, 400, 403; life
and writings, 496-7.
Cyril of Ephesus, 387.
Cyril of Jerusalem, 356-7, 366.
Cyrillus of Antioch, 325.
DAMASFSof Rome, 372, 499, 500.
Deaconesses, 248.
Deacons, 1st P., 31, 35, 38 ; Hatch
and Harnack on, 40-2 ; 2nd P.,
241, 247 ; 3rd P., 306-7, 311, 314,
319
Dead, Christian (2nd P.\ 238.
Dead, prayers for, 239, 445.
Death, Christian view of (2nd P.),
238-9.
Decius, 142.
Dianius of Caesarea in Cappadocia,
344, 428.
Didache, 58-9. On worship in the
early Church, 30, 76 ; on apostles,
Erophets, and teachers, 33 ; on
ishops and deacons, 41.
Didyraus of Alexandria, 364.
Dio Chrysostom, 7.
Diocletian, 4-5, 143, 145, 267.
Diodorus, 375.
DiognetiLS, Epistle to, 55, 84, 90, 93.
Dionysius of Alexandria, 179, 217,
260.
Dionysius of Coiinth, 62, 250.
Dionysius of Rome, 217, 220, n.
Dioscurus of Alexandria, 395, 397.
Disciplina arcani, 230.
Discipline, 42-4, 249 f., 455 f., 520.
Docetism, 95, 200.
Domitian, 15.
Domitilla, Flavia, 15-6.
Domnus of Antioch, 393, 396.
Donatism, 405 f., 530.
Donatus, 407.
Easter, celebration of, 2nd P., 237 ;
3rd P., 437-9.
Easter, controversy as to date, 81-3,
236.
Ebionites, 21, 199, n.
Edessa, school of, 392.
Elkesaites, 21.
Ephesus, c. at (431 a.d.), 386-7, 473 ;
(449 A.D.) 395-6.
Epictetus, 5, n., 6, 146.
E[)iphanea, 111.
Epiphaiiius, 295, 356-7, 365-7.
Epiphany, 2nd P., 237 ; 3rd P., 439-
40.
Episcopate. See Bishops.
Eucharist. See Lord's Supper.
Eucharistic prayers. See Lord's Supper.
Euchites, 304.
Eudoxia, 495, 496.
Eudoxius, 346, 348.
Eugenius, 270.
Eugenins of Csesarea, 472.
Eunomius, 346, 348.
Eusebius of Caesarea, on apostles in the
early Church, 34 ; and Nicaea, 330,
331, 333 ; post-Nicene debate, 341 ;
life and works, 157, 179, 422-3, 530.
Eusebius of Dorjlseum, 394, 395.
Eusebius of Nicomedia, and Nicaa,
326, 330, 333 ; post-Nicene debate,
340, 341, 342 ; death, 345, 423.
Eusebius of Rome, 254.
Eusebius of Vercelli, 319.
Eustachians, 304.
Eustathius of Antioch, 321, 330, 331,
341, 342.
Eustathius of Sebaste, 304, 370.
Eutyches, 393-5.
Evagrius of Antioch, 499.
Exarchs, 312.
Exoukontians, 346.
Fabian of Rome, 143, 253.
Fabius of Antioch, 254.
Faustus of Reii, 488, 490-3.
Felicissimus, schism of, 253, n. 2.
Felicitas {and Ferpetua), Acts of, 130.
Felix of Aptunga, 405.
Firmilian of Caesarea, 260.
Firmus, 270.
Flavia Domitilla, 15-6.
Flavian of Antioch, 494.
Flavian of Constantinople, 393-6.
Flavins Clemens, T., 15.
Florentius, 394.
Fortunatus, 253, n. 2.
Frumentius, 288.
Fulgentius of Ruspe, 489.
Gaius, 157.
Galerius, 5, 145.
Gallienus, 4, 143, 144.
Gallus, 282.
Gennadius of Marseilles, 488, n.
Genseric, 271, n. 1, 286, 506.
Gildo, 270, 412.
Gnosticism, 95 f. Elements of the
scheme, 96-8 ; view of the world,
536
INDEX
99-102 ; the Demiurge, 103-4 ; the
Person of Christ, 104-5; Redemption,
105-6 ; the three classes of men and
their destiny, 106-7 ; Judaism and
the O.T., 107-9 ; the N.T. canon,
109-10; Ethics, 110-1. How the
scheme came to be, 117-9.
Gnostic schools, Cerinthus, Carpocrates,
and Epiphanes, 111 ; Ophites, 111-
2 ; Satuminus, 112-3 ; Basilides,
113-6 ; Valentinus, 116.
Gordians, the two, 141.
Goths, 285-6, 352-3.
Gratian, 269, 277, 372, 436.
Gregory of Nazianzus, and post-Mcene
debate, 350, 354-5 ; as preacher,
451 ; life and works, 295, 301, 346,
n., 429-30.
Gregory of Nyssa, and post-Nicene
debate, 350, 354-5 ; as preacher,
451 ; life and works, 301, 428-9, 530.
Gregory Thaumaturgus, 179, 271, n. 3.
Hadrian, 16, 19.
Hegesippus, 60.
Heliogabalus, 141.
Helvidius, 453.
Heracleon, 119, n. 2.
Heraclius, schism of, 254.
Heretical Baptism. See Baptism.
HermaSy Shepherd of, 53-4. On pro-
phets, 33; on forgiveness of sin, 80-1 ;
Logos doct., 202, 213, n. ; on second
repentance, 250.
Hermias, 60, 62, n., 84, 157.
Heterousiastians, 346.
Hierakas, 224, n. 1.
Hierocles, 157.
Hilary of Aries, 506.
Hilary of Poictiers, and post-Nicene
debate, 346, 348 ; life and works,
430-2, 530.
Hippolytus, Logos doct., 205, 215,
219 ; and penitents, 251 ; and
heretical baptism, 257 ; life and
works, 141, 180, 184.
Homoiians, 339-40, 350, 351.
Homoiousians, 339, 348-50.
Homoousians, 348.
Honorius, 270, 419.
Hosius, 329, 330, 342, 347.
Hunerich, 286.
Hypatia, 497, 502, 603.
Ibas, 892, 393, 400.
Ignatius, on the Person of Christ, 202 ;
on the eucharist, 76, 77, 78, n., 79,
n. 1 ; martyrdom. 16.
Ignatius, Epistles of, 56-7.
Innocent i., 313, 472, 496.
Irenseus, and N.T. canon, 158, n. 2;
on the eucharist, 183 ; on the O.T.,
183-4; Logos doct., 206-7; and
Easter controversy, 236 ; life and
teaching, 129, 180-4.
Irenaeus, m. of Tyre, 393.
Isidore of Pelusium, 498.
Ithacius of Emerita, 372.
Jamblichus, 147, 281, n.
Jerome, 296, 298, 366-7, 472 ; life and
writings, 498-501.
John of Antioch, 381, 382, 386-90,
400.
.John of Jerusalem, 866, 472.
Jovian, 269, 349.
Jovinian, 298-9.
Julia Domna, 141.
Julian, emperor, 269 ; religious policy,
276-7, 278, 284, 348-9, 859; life
and aims, 282-4, 285, n.
Julian of Eclanum, 471, 473.
Julius Africanus, 179.
Julius of Rome, 343, 345.
Justin Martyr, on worship in the early
Church, 30-1, 75-6, 229 ; on the
eucharist, 78-9 ; on Marcion, 120 ;
Logos doct, 202, n. 1, 203-5 ; as
apologist, 84, 88, 90, 93; life, 7,
n. 3, 61 ; martyrdom, 17, 44-5.
Justina, 435.
Justus, followers of, 112.
Lactantius, 84, 157, 442-3, 444-5.
"Lapsed," 191-2, 251-2.
Leo I., 313, 395, 396, 451, 459 ; life
and writings, 505-7.
Lerins, convent of, and Semi- Pelagian -
ism, 486-8. See Contents.
Libanius, 281.
Libellatid, 15, 143, n. 2.
Liberius of Rome, 347.
Licinius, 5, 145, 268.
Liturgy, 233, 440.
Logos doctrine, the Apologists, 86-8 ;
Justin Martyr, 202, n. 1, 203-5 ;
Irenaeus, 206-7 ; Tertullian, 207-8 ;
Clement, 164, 166, 167, 205 ; Origen,
172-3, 176, 208-9 ; the two Theo-
doti and Artemon, 212-3 ; Paul of
Samosata, 214 ; Noetusand Praxeas,
215 ; Sabellius, 216-7 ; Alius, 324-5;
Apollinarius, 361-2.
Lord's Supper, 1st P., 30, 75-9 ; 2nd
P., 229-32 ; 3rd P., 442-5. Review
516-7.
INDEX
537
Lord's Supper, forms of prayer in con-
nection with, Ist P., 30, 76 ; 2ii(l
P., 230-1, 233, 239; 8rd P.,
441-2.
Lucian, 6, 8, n. 2, 32, 34.
Lucian of Antioch, 325-6, 327, n. 3.
Lyons (and Vienne), churches of, 17,
25, 47-8, 129.
Macarius of Jerusalem, 331, 342.
Macarius Magnes, 157.
Macedonians, 351.
Macedonius of Constantinople, 861.
Majorianus, 406, 407.
Mani, 262, 266.
Manicheism, 262 f.
Marcellus of Ancyra, at Nicsea, 832 ;
his views, 337, 341, n. ; and post-
Nicene debate, 341, 342, 843, 344,
845, 346.
Marcellus of Rome, 254.
Marcia, 18, 141.
Marcian, 396.
Marcion, and the Canon, 109-10 ; life
and system, 119 f.
Marcion of Aries, 254.
Marcionites, 120, 122, 127.
Marcus Aurelius, 7, n. 2, 17, 48.
Marriage, Christian view of (2nd P.),
223-6.
Marriage of the clergy, 2nd P., 223-4 ;
3rd P., 319-20.
Martin of Tours, 296, 297, 372 ; life
and works, 432-3.
Martyrs, how regarded, 2nd P., 239 ;
3rd P., 451-2.
Maximinus, 141.
Maximus, 269, 270, 872, 433.
Maximus of Antioch, 396.
Maximus Tyrius, 7.
Meletius of Lycopolis, schism of^ 254,
n. 3.
Melito, 62, 180, n. 1.
Memnon of Ephesus, 387.
Mensnrius, 405, 406.
Merit, doct of, 227-8.
Mesrob, 287.
Methodius, 157, 179.
Metropolitans, rise of, 310.
Milan, edict of, 6, 145,
Miltiades, 62, 180, n. 1.
Minor Orders, 2ud P., 247-8 ; 3rd P.,
306, 314, 315.
Minucius Felix, 62, 84, 157.
Missa ecUechumenorum, 230.
Missa fidelium, 231.
Monarchianism, Dynamical, 205, n. 2,
210-6. 218-9.
Monarchianism, Modalistic, 210,216-9
Monasticism, 291 f.
Monica, 461, 463.
Monophysite teaching, 401-8.
Montanism, 128 £, 248.
Montanos, 128.
Naassenes, 112.
Nazarenes, 21, 199, n.
Neo-Platonism, 146 f., 285, n.
Nero, 15, 16.
Nerva, 4.
Nestorianism, 287, 890, 892, 454.
Nestorius, 377-8, 881-7, 478.
New Testament, Canon o^ 109-10,
158.
Nicene Council, 323 f. See Contents.
Nicene Creed, 332, 864; later form,
855-7.
Nitrian monks, 867-9.
Noetus, 215.
Novatian, 157, 192, 268-4.
Novatianists, 192, 264.
Novatus, 253.
Numenius, 7, 146.
Old Testament, Christian attitude
to, 1st P., 79, 107, 108-9 ; 2nd P.,
158, Irenaeus, 183-4 ; 8rd P., 510.
Ophites, 111-2.
Orange, s. at (529 a.d.), 489-90.
Orders, Minor, 2nd P., 247-8 ; 3rd P.,
306, 314, 315.
Origen, Logos doct, 172-8, 176, 208-9;
Neo-Platonic influence in, 156 ; and
allegorical interpretation, 109, 158
and n. 2, 170 ; life and system, 168-
79 ; as judged by a later age, 364-5,
369-70.
Origenistic controversies, 864 f., 529.
Orosius, 271, n. 2, 472.
Pachomius, 294.
Pamphilus, 179.
Pantsenus, 24, 34, 161-2.
Papias, 59-60.
Patriarchates, rise of, 311-2.
Patrick, apostle of Ireland, 287-8.
Patripassianism, 205, n. 2, 215.
Paul of Samosata, 213-5, 325, 327,
n. 8.
Paulinus of Milan, 471.
Paulinus of Nola, 318, 471, n. 1.
Pelagian controversy, 468 f.
Pelagius, 469 f. His positions, 477-9.
Penitence, public, 1st P., 30, 43, 81 ;
2nd P., 250-1 ; 8rd P., 441, 455 1
Peratica, 112.
538
INDEX
Perpetua and Felicitas, Acts of, 47,
130.
Persecution, 141 ; under Decius and
Valerian, 142-3, 191, 195-6 ; under
Diocletian, 145.
Peter of Alexandria, 254.
Philip the Arabian, 141.
Philo, 146, 201.
Philostorgius, 157.
Philostratus, 155, n. 2, 283.
Photinus of Sirmium, 345, 346.
Pliny, letter to Trajan, 16, 24-5, 29-
30.
Plotinus, 147, 148, 152, 154, n., 155
and n. 1.
Plutarch, 6, 146.
Polycarp, and Easter controversy, 83,
236 ; and Marcion, 120 ; martyr-
dom, 17, 45-6.
Polycarpf Epistle of, 57-8.
Polycrates, 236.
Pontianus of Rome, 141, 180, n. 2.
Pontitianua, 295-6.
Porphyry, 147, 152, 163, n., 154, n.,
157.
Post-Baptismal Sin, 1st P., 79-80 ; 2nd
P., 227-8; 3rd P., 446.
Pothinus of Lyons, 180, n. 2.
Praxeas, 129-30, 215.
Prayer, Public, 1st P., 30, 76 ; 2nd P.,
230-1, 232-3, 239; 3rd P., 440,
441-2 ; posture at, 235.
Presbyters, 1st P., 35-8 ; Hatch and
Harnack on, 40-2 ; 2nd P., 241, 244,
245, 247 ; 3rd P., 307-8, 311, 314,
319, 514.
Priesthood of the clergy, 232.
Priscillian, 371-2, 529.
Priscillianists, 371-3.
Proclus, 147, 285, n.
Proclus of Constantinople, 391.
Prophets in the early Church, 32-3.
Prosper, 486-7.
Ptolemaeus, 108, n., 116, 119, n. 2.
Pulcheria, 270, 396.
Qttadratus, 60.
Quartodecimans, 236.
Rabttlas of Edessa, 391, 392.
Radagaisus, 270.
Reader, office of, 40, 247.
Regula, 74-5, 110, 159-60, 611 ; Ori-
gen's use of, 171.
Remoboth, 304.
Repentance, second, 250, 457.
Robber Synod, 396.
Rnfiznisof Aquileia, 366-7, 601.
Sabellianism, 205, n. 2, 216-7.
Sabellins, 216-7.
Sacrament, use of the term (3rd P.),
449.
Sacrijicati, 143, n. 2.
Saints, growing veneration of, 451-2.
Salvian, 271, n. 2, 504-5.
Sarabaites, 304.
Sardica, c. at (343 a.d.), 344-5.
Satan, dominion of, and the death of
Christ, view of Origen, 177 ; of
Irenaeus, 182-3.
Saturninus, 112-3.
Scillitan Martyrs, 18, 46-7.
Seleucia, c. at (359 a.d.), 348.
Semi-Arians, 336, 339, 347-52.
Semi-Pelagians, 485 f. ; their scheme,
487-8, 490-3.
Seneca, 6, n., 7, n. 2, 146.
Sethians, 112.
Severus, Alexander, 141, 142, 144.
Severus, Septimius, 141.
Severus, Sulpicius, 297, 302, 503-4.
Shepherd, the. See Hermas.
Sin, post-baptismal, 79-80, 228, 250 f.,
290. In Rermas, 54, 80-1, 260.
Siricius of Rome, 372, 500.
Sirmium, creeds of, 347.
Sixtus of Rome, 143.
Stephen of Rome, 257, 259-60.
Stylites, 305.
Subintroductce, 224.
Sylvester of Rome, 330.
Symeon the Stylite, 305.
Symraachus, Q. Aurelius, 280.
Synesius, 156, 319, 320, 501-3.
Synods, provincial, rise of, 309-11.
Tatian, 24, 61, 84, 116, n., 161,
n. 2.
Teachers in the early Church, 32-3.
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. See
Didache.
Telemachus, 279, n.
Tertullian, and the Montanists, 130 ;
Logos doct., 207-8 ; on the Christian
life, 221-2 ; on baptism, 235, 237,
n. 2 ; and reception of penitents,
251, n. 1 ; and original sin, 474 ;
life and teaching, 84, 89, 184-9.
Theodoret of Cyrus, school of Antioch,
375; case of Nestorius, 382, 383,
384, 385, 388, 390 ; case of Eutyehes,
393, 395, 396 ; at Chalcedon, 400-1 ;
life and writings, 497-8.
Theodoras of Mopsuestia, 375-6, 391,
473, n. 2.
Theodosius i., emperor, 269-70 ; re-
INDEX
539
ligioHS policy, 277 ; post-Nicene de-
bate, 351-2 ; and Ambrose, 436.
Theodosiua ii., emperor, 270; case of
Nestorius, 385-92 ; caseof Eutyches,
394-5 ; and the Pelagian leaders,
473 ; death, 396.
Theodoti, the two, 212.
Theodotus, 161, n. 3.
Theognis of Nicsea, 333.
Theophilus of Alexandria, 279, 367-9.
Theophilus of Antioch, 61-2, 84,
205.
Thurijicati, 143, n. 2.
Tiberius, 4.
Timaeus of Antioch, 325.
Trajan, 4, 16.
Ulfilas, 286, 353.
Ulpian, 141, n.
Ursacius, 347.
Yal£KS| 269, 350, 351.
Valens of Mursa, 347.
Valentinian i., 267, 269, 349-50, 385.
Valentinian ii., 269, 270.
Valentinian ill., 270.
Valentinus, 116.
Valerian, 142-3.
Vespasian, 15.
Victor of Rome, 83, 215, 236, 313.
Victorinus, 157.
Vienne (and Lyons), churches of, 17,
25, 47-8, 129.
Vigilantius, 298-9.
Vincentius of Lerins, 488, n.
Widows, 248.
Worship, public, 1st P., 29-30; 2nd
P., 229-31 ; 3rd P., 440-3.
Zeno (Emperor), 392.
Zenobia, 213.
Zephyrinus, 215.
Zosimus, 472.
ZU 3nfernaftonaf ^^eofogtcaf fetBrarg.
AN INTRODUCTION TO
The Literature of the Old Testament
By Prof. S. R. DRIVER, D.D.
Canon of Christ Church, Oxford
NeTi/ Edition Revised
Crown 8vo, 558 pages, $2.50 net
**It is the most scholarly and critical work in the English lan-
guage on the literature of the Old Testament, and fully up to the
present state of research in Germany." — Prof, Philip Schaff, D.D.
'* Canon Driver has arranged his material excellently, is succinct
without being hurried or unclear, and treats the various critical prob-
lems involved with admirable fairness and good judgment."
—Prof. C. H. Toy.
"His judgment is singularly fair, calm, unbiassed, and inde-
pendent. It is also thoroughly reverential. . . . The service,
which his book will render in the present confusion of mind on this
great subject, can scarcely be overestimated." — The London Times.
"As a whole, there is probably no book in the English language
equal to this ' Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament'
for the student who desires to understand what the modern criticism
thinks about the Bible." — Dr. Lyman Abbott, in the Outlook.
"The book is one worthy of its subject, thorough in its treat-
ment, reverent in its tone, sympathetic in its estimate, frank in its
recognition of difficulties, conservative (in the best sense of the
word) in its statement of results,."
— Prof. Henry P. Smith, in the Magazine of Christian Literature.
* ' In working out his method our author takes up each book in
order and goes through it with marvelous and microscopic care.
Every verse, every clause, word by word, is sifted and weighed, and
its place in the literary organism decided upon."
— The Presbyterian Quarterly.
" It contains just that presentation of the results of Old Testa-
ment criticism for which English readers in this department have
been waiting. . . . The whole book is excellent; it will be found
helpful, characterized as it is all through by that scholarly poise of
mind, which, when it does not know, is not ashamed to present de-
grees of probability," — New World.
* . . . Canon Driver's book is characterized throughout by
thorough Christian scholarship, faithful research, caution in the
expression of mere opinions, candor in the statement of facts and of
the necessary inferences frorfl them, and the devout recognition of
the divine inworking in the religious life of the Hebrews, and of the
tokens of divine inspiration in the literature which records and em-
bodies it," — Dr. A. P. Peabody, in the Cambridge Tribune.
THEOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENI
By GEORGE B. STEVENS, D.D.
Professor of Systematic Theology, Yale University,
Crown 8vo, 480 pages, $2.50 net.
•'In style it is rarely clear, simple, and strong, adapted alike to the gen-
eral reader and the theological student. The former class will find it read-
able and interesting to an unusual degree, while the student will value its
thorough scholarship and completeness of treatment. His work has a sim-
plicity, beauty, and freshness that add greatly to its scholarly excellence and
worth." — Christian Advocate.
" Professor Stevens is a profound student and interpreter of the Bible, as
far as possible divested of any prepossessions concerning its message. In
his study of it his object has been not to find texts that might seem to bol-
ster up some system of theological speculation, but to find out what the
writers of the various books meant to say and teach." — A^. V. Tribune,
"It is a fine example of painstaking, discriminating, impartial research
and statement." — The Congregationalist.
" Professor Stevens has given us a very good book. A liberal conser-
vative, he takes cautious and moderate positions in the field of New Testa-
ment criticism, yet is admirably fair-minded. His method is patient and
thorough. He states the opinions of those who differ from him with care
and clearness. The proportion of quotation and reference is well adjusted
and the reader is kept well informed concerning the course of opinion with-
out being drawn away from the text of the author's own thought. His
judgments on difficult questions are always put with self-restraint and
sobriety." — The Churchman.
**It will certainly take its place, after careful reading, as a valuable
synopsis, neither bare nor over-elaborate, to which recourse will be had by
the student or teacher who requires within moderate compass the gist of
modern research." — The Literary World.
THE CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND THE
WORKING CHURCH
By WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D.D., LL.D.
Author of *• Applied Christianity," "Who Wrote the Bible ?" " Ruling
Ideas of the Present Age," etc.
Crown 8vo, 485 pages, $2.5o net.
** Dr. Gladden may be regarded as an expert and an authority on practi-
cal theology. . . . Upon the whole we judge that it will be of great
service to the ministry of all the Protestant churches." — T^e Interior.
** Packed with wisdom and instruction and a profound piety. . . .
It is pithy, pertinent, and judicious from cover to cover. . . . An ex-
ceedingly comprehensive, sagacious, and suggestive study and application
of its theme." — The Congregationalist.
" We have here, for the pastor, the most modern practical treatise yet
published — sagacious, balanced, devout, inspiring." — The Dial.
" His long experience, his eminent success, his rare literary ability, and
his diligence as a student combine to make of this a model book for its pur-
pose. . . . We know not where the subjects are more wisely discussed
than here." — The Bibliotheca Sacra.
"This book should be the vade mectim of every working pastor. It
abounds in wise counsels and suggestions, the result of large experience
and observation. No sphere of church life or church work is left untreated."
— The (Canadian) Methodist Magazine and Review.
" A happier combination of author and subject, it will be acknowledged,
can hardly be found. ... It is comprehensive, practical, deeply
spiritual, and fertile in wise and suggestive thought upon ways and means
of bringing the Gospel to bear on the lives of men." — The Christian Ad-
vocate.
" Dr. Gladden writes with pith and point, but with wise moderation, a
genial tone and great good sense. . . . The book is written in an excel-
lent, business-like and vital English style, which carries the author's point
and purpose and has an attractive vitality of its own." — The Independent.
*' A comprehensive, inspiring, and helpful guide to a busy pastor. One
f.nds in it a multitude of practical suggestions for the development of the
spiritual and working life of the Church, and the answer to many problems
that are a constant perplexity to the faithful minister."
The Christian Intelligencer,
t^t Jnternctfionaf t^eofogicaf feifirarg.
A HISTORY OF
CHRISTIANITY IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE
BY
ARTHUR CUSHMAN McQIFFERT, Ph.D., D.D.
Washburn Professor of Church History in the Union Theological Seminary, New York.
Crown 8vo, 681 Pages, $2.50 Net.
" The author's work is ably done. . . . This volume is worthy of
its place in the series." — The Congregationalist.
' * Invaluable as a resume of the latest critical work upon the great forma-
tive period of the Christian Church." — The Christian World (London).
"There can be no doubt that this is a remarkable work, both on account
of the thoroughness of its criticism and the boldness of its views."
— The Scotsman.
"The ability and learning of Professor McGiffert's work on the Apos-
tolic Age, and, whatever dissent there may be from its critical opinion, its
manifest sincerity, candid scholars will not fail to appreciate."
— Dr. George P. Fisher, of Yale University.
" Pre-eminently a clergyman's book; but there are many reasons why it
should be in the library of every thoughtful Christian person. The style
is vivid and at times picturesque. The results rather than the processes of
learning are exhibited. It is full of local color, of striking narrative, and of
keen, often brilliant, character analysis. It is an admirable book for the
Sunday-school teacher." — Boston Advertiser.
" For a work of such wide learning and critical accuracy, and which deals
with so many difficult and abstruse problems of Christian history, this is re-
markably readable." — The Independent.
"It is certain that Professor McGiflfert's work has set the mark for
future effort in the obscure fields of research into Christian origin."
— New York Tribune.
" Dr. McGiflFert has produced an able, scholarly, suggestive, and con-
structive work. He is in thorough and easy possession of his sources and
materials, so that his positive construction is seldom interrupted by citations,
the demolition of opposing views, or the irrelevant discussion of subordinate
questions." — The Methodist Review.
"The clearness, self-consistency, and force of the whole impression of
Apostolic Christianity with which we leave this book, goes far to guarantee
its permanent value and success." — The Exi)Ositor.
tk 3nferfj*ttondf t^eoto^c&t £t6ram
History of Christian Doctrine.
BY
GEORGE P. FISHER, D.D.,
Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Yale University*
Crown 8vo, 583 pages, $2.50 net.
•* He gives ample proof of rare scholarship. Many of the old doc-
trines are restated with a freshness, lucidity and elegance of style
which make it a very readable book," — TAe New York Observer.
"Intrinsically this volume is worthy of a foremost place m our
modern literature . . . We have no work on the subject in English
equal to it, for variety and range, clearness of statement, judicious
guidance, and catholicity of tone." — London Nonconformist and Inde-
pendento
" It is only just to say that Dr. Fisher has produced the best His-
tory of Doctrine that we have in English." — The New York Evangelist.
••It is to me quite a marvel how a book of this kind (Fisher's
•History of Christian Doctrine') can be written so accurately to
scale. It could only be done by one who had a very complete com-
mand of all the periods."— Prof. William Sanday, Oxford.
••It presents so many new and fresh points and is so thoroughly
treated, and brings into view contemporaneous thought, especially
the American, that it is a pleasure to read it, and will be an equal
pleasure to go back to it again and again." — Bishop John F. Hurst.
'• Throughout there is manifest wide reading, careful prepara-
tion, spirit and good judgment," — Philadelphia Presbyterian.
•• The language and style are alike delightfully fresh and easy
. . . A book which will be found both stimulating and instructive
to the student of theology." — The Churchman.
" Professor Fisher has trained the public to expect the excellen-
cies of scholarship, candor, judicial equipoise and admirable lucidity
and elegance of style in whatever comes from his pen. But in the
present work he has surpassed himself." — Prof. J. H. Thayer, of
Harvard Divinity School.
" It meets the severest standard; there is fullness of knowledge,
thorough research, keenly analytic thought, and rarest enrichment
for a positive, profound and learned critic. There is interpretative
and revealing sympathy. It is of the class of works that mark epochs
in their several departments." — The Outlook,
•' As a first study of the History of Doctrine, Professor Fisher's
volume has the merit of being full, accurate and interesting."
— Prof. Marcus Dods
"... He gathers up, reorganizes and presents the results of
ijavestigation in a style rarely full of literary charm."
— The Interior,
Christian Ethics,
By NEWMAN SMYTH, D.D., New Haven.
Crown 8vo, 508 pages, $2.50 net.
•' As this book is the latest, so it is the fullest and most attractive
treatment of the subject that we are familiar with. Patient and ex-
haustive in its method of inquiry, and stimulating and suggestive in
the topic it handles, we are confident that it will be a help to the
task of the moral understanding and interpretation of human life."
— TAg Living Church.
•* This book of Dr. Newman Smyth is of extraordinary interest and
value. It is an honor to American scholarship and American Chris-
tian thinking. It is a work which has been wrought out with re-
markable grasp of conception, and power of just analysis, fullness of
information, richness of thought, and affluence of apt and luminous
illustration. Its style is singularly clear, simple, facile, and strong.
Too much gratification can hardly be expressed atthe way the author
lifts the whole subject of ethics up out of the slough of mere natural-
ism into its own place, where it is seen to be illumined by the Chris-
tian revelation and vision." — The Advance.
" The subjects treated cover the whole field of moral and spiritual re-
lations, theoretical and practical, natural and revealed, individual and social,
civil and ecclesiastical. To enthrone the personal Christ as the true content
of the ethical ideal, to show how this ideal is realized in Christian conscious-
ness and how applied in the varied departments of practical life — these are
the main objects of the book and no objects could be loftier."
— The Congregaiionalist.
** The author has written with competent knowledge, with great spiritual
insight, and in a tone of devoutness and reverence worthy of his theme. "
— The London Independent.
"It is methodical, comprehensive, and readable ; few subdivisions,
direct or indirect, are omitted in the treatment of the broad theme, and
though it aims to be an exhaustive treatise, and not a popular handbook, it
may be perused at random with a good deal of suggestiveness and profit,"
— The Sunday School Times.
" It reflects great credit on the author, presenting an exemplary temper
and manner throughout, being a model of clearness in thought and term,
and containing passages of exquisite finish." — Hartford Seminary Record,
" We commend this book to all reading, intelligent men, and especially
to ministers, who will find in it many fresh suggestions."
—Professor A. B. Bruce^
CHRISTIAN INSTITUTIONS.
By ALEXANDER V. G. ALLEN, D.D.
Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Episcopal Theological School
in Cambridge.
Crown 8vo, 577 pages, $2.50 net.
" Professor Allen's Christian Institutions may be regarded as the most
important permanent contribution which the Protestant Episcopal Church
of the United States has yet made to general theological thought. In a few
particulars it will not command the universal, or even the general assent of
discriminating readers ; but it will receive, as it deserves, the respect and
appreciation of those who rightly estimate the varied, learned, and independ-
ent spirit of the author." — 7Vie Americatt Journal of Theology.
" As to his method there can be no two opinions, nor as to the broad,
critical, and appreciative character of his study. It is an immensely sug-
gestive, stimulating, and encouraging piece of work. It shows that modern
scholarship is not all at sea as to results, and it presents a worthy view of a
great and noble subject, the greatest and noblest of all subjects." — The In-
dependent.
"This will at once take its place among the most valuable volumes in the
• International Theological Library,' constituting in itself a very complete
epitome both of general church history and of the history of doctrines.
. . . A single quotation well illustrates the brilliant style and the pro-
found thought of the book." — The Bibliotheca Sacra.
"The wealth of learning, the historical spirit, the philosophic grasp, the
loyalty to the continuity of life, which everywhere characterize this thorough
study of the organization, creeds, and cultus constituting Christian Institu-
tion. . . . However the reader may differ with the conclusions of the
author, few will question his painstaking scholarship, judicial temperament,
and catholicity of Christian spirit." — The Advance.
"It is an honor to American scholarship, and will be read by all who
wish to be abreast of the age." — The Lutheran Church Review.
" With all its defects and limitations, this is a most illuminating and sug-
gestive book on a subject of abiding interest." — The Christian Intelli-
gencer.^^
" It is a treasury of expert knowledge, arranged i« an orderly and lucid
manner, and more than ordinarily readable. . . . It is controlled by the
candid and critical spirit of the careful historian who, of course, has his
convictions and preferences, but who makes no claims in their behalf which
the facts do not seem to warrant." — The Congregationalist.
" He writes in a charming style, and has collected a vast amount of im-
portant material pertaining to his subject which can be found in no other
work in so compact a form." — The New York Observer.
Apologetics ;
Or, Christianity Defensively Stated.
By ALEXANDER BALMAIN BRUCE, D.D.,
Professor of Apologetics and New Testament Exegesis, Free Church College*
Glasgow; Author of " The Training of the Twelve," "The Humilia-
tion of Christ," •' The Kingdom of Qod," etc.
Crown 8vo, 528 pages, $2.50 net.
Professor Bruce's work is not an abstract treatise on apologetics,
but an apologetic presentation of the Christian faith, with reference
to whatever in our intellectual environment makes faith difficult at
the present time.
It addresses itself to men whose sympathies are with Christianity,
and discusses the topics of pressing concern — the burning questions
of the hour. It is offered as an aid to faith rather than a buttress of
received belief and an armory of weapons for the orthodox believer.
' * The book throughout exhibits the methods and the results of
conscientious, independent, expert and devout Biblical scholarship,
and it is of permanent value." — T/ie Congregationalist.
' ' The practical value of this book entitles it to a place in the
first rank." — The Independent.
** A patient and scholarly presentation of Christianity under
aspects best fitted to commend it to 'ingenuous and truth-loving
minds.' " — The Nation.
"The book is well-nigh indispensable to those who propose to
keep abreast of the times." — Western Christian Advocate.
♦'Professor Bruce does not consciously evade any difficulty,
and he constantly aims to be completely fair-minded. For this
reason he wins from the start the strong confidence of the reader." —
Advance.
♦• Its admirable spirit, no less than the strength of its arguments,
will go far to remove many of the prejudices or doubts of those who
are outside of Christianity, but who are, nevertheless, not infidels." —
New York Tribune.
" In a word, he tells precisely what all intelligent persons wish to
know, and tells it in a clear, fresh and convincing manner. Scarcely
anyone has so successfully rendered the service of showing what
the result of the higher criticism is for the proper understanding of
the history and religion of Israel." — Andover Review.
" We have not for a long time taken a book in hand that is more
stimulating to faith. . . . Without commenting further, we repeat
that this volume is the ablest, most scholarly, most advanced, and
sharpest defence of Christianity that has ever been written. Np
theological library should be without it." — Zions Herald.
^t Inttrnafional Cnfiral Commtntat|
on tt)e golg Scriptar^s of i\)t (Dlb anb
IXtw Scfitamcnta.
EDITORS' PREFACE.
There are now before the public many Commentaries,
written by British and American divines, of a popular or
homiletical character. T/ie Cambridge Bible for Schools^
the Handbooks for Bible Classes and Private Students^ The
Speaker's Commentary^ The Popular Commentary (Schaff),
The Expositor's Bible^ and other similar series, have their
special place and importance. But they do not enter into
the field of Critical Biblical scholarship occupied by such
series of Commentaries as the Kurzgefasstes exegetisches
Handbuch zum A. T; De Wette's Kurzgefasstes exegetisches
Handbuch zum N. T; Meyer's Kritisch-exegetischer Kom-
mentar; Keil and Delitzsch's Biblischer Commentar iiher das
A. T.; Lange's Theologisch-homiletisches Bibelwerk ; Nowack's
Haiidkommentar zum A. T ; Holtzmann's Handkommentar
zum N. T. Several of these have been translated, edited,
and in some cases enlarged and adapted, for the English-
speaking public ; others are in process of translation. But
no corresponding series by British or American divines
has hitherto been produced. The way has been prepared
by special Commentaries by Cheyne, Ellicott, Kalisch,
Lightfoot, Perowne, Westcott, and others ; and the time has
come, in the judgment of the projectors of this enterprise,
when it is practicable to combine British and American
sgboUrs in the production of a critical, comprehensive
EDITORS PREFACE
Commentary that will be abreast of modern biblical scholar-
ship, and in a measure lead its van.
Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons of New York, and Messrs.
T. & T. Clark of Edinburgh, propose to publish such a
series of Commentaries on the Old and New Testaments,
under the editorship of Prof. C. A. Briggs, D.D., In America,
and of Prof. S. R. Driver, D.D., for the Old Testament, and
the Rev. Alfred Plummer, D.D., for the New Testament,
in Great Britain.
The Commentaries will be international and inter-con-
fessional, and will be free from polemical and ecclesiastical
bias. They will be based upon a thorough critical study of
the original texts of the Bible, and upon critical methods of
interpretation. They are designed chiefly for students and
clergymen, and will be written in a compact style. Each
book will be preceded by an Introduction, stating the results
of criticism upon it, and discussing impartially the questions
still remaining open. The details of criticism will appear
in their proper place in the body of the Commentary. Each
section of the Text will be introduced with a paraphrase,
or summary of contents. Technical details of textual and
philological criticism will, as a rule, be kept distinct from
matter of a more general cha' acter ; and in the Old Testa-
ment the exegetical notes will be arranged, as far as
possible, so as to be serviceable to students not acquainted
with Hebrew. The History of Interpretation of the Books
will be dealt with, when necessary, in the Introductions,
with critical notices of the most important literature of
the subject. Historical and Archaeological questions, as
well as questions of Biblical Theology, are included in the
plan of the Commentaries, but not Practical or Homiletica)
Exegesis. The Volumes will constitute a uniform series
THE INTERNATIONAL CRITICAL COMMENTARY,
The following eminent Scholars are engaged upon the
Volumes named below : —
THE OLD TESTAMENT.
3«nesis. The Rev. T. K. Cheynb, D.D., Oriel Professor of the
Interpretation of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford
Exodus. The Rev. A. R. S. Kennedy, D.D., Professor of Hebrew,
University of Edinburgh.
Leviticus. J. F. Stenning, M.A., Fellow of Wadham College,
Oxford, and the late Rev. H. A. White, M.A., Fel-
low of New College, Oxford.
Numbers. G. IJuciianan Gray, M.A., Lecturer in Hebrew,
Mansfield College, Oxford.
Deuteronotny. The Rev. S. R. Driver, D.D., Regius Professor of
Hebrew, Oxford. [A^Tf; Ready.
Joshua The Rev. George Adam Smith, D.D., Professor of
Hebrew, Free Church College, Glasgow.
Judges. The Rev. George Moore, D.D., Professor of Hebrew,
Andover Theological Seminary, Andover, Mass.
{^Ncnu Ready.
Samuel The Rev. H. P. Smith, D.D., late Professor of Bibli-
cal Histor\', Amherst College, Mass. \^N^ozv Ready,
Kings. The Rev. Francis Brown, D.D., Professor of Hebrew
and Cognate Languages, Union Theological Seminary,
New York City.
Chronicles. The Rev. Edward L. Curtis, D.D., Professor of He-
brew, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
Ezra and The Rev. L. W. Batten, Ph.D., Professor of Hebrew,
Nehemiah. P. E. Divinity School, Philadelphia.
Psalms. The Rev. Charles A. Briggs, D.D., Edward Rob-
inson Professor of Biblical Theology, Union
Theological Seminary, New York.
Proverbs. The Rev. C. H. Toy, D.D., Professor of Hebrew,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
\A^ow Ready.
Job The Rev. S. R. Driver, D.D., Regius Professor of
Hebrew, Oxford.
Isaiah. The Rev. A. B. Davidson, D.D , LL.D., Professor
of Hebrew, Free Church College, Edinburgh.
Jeremiah. The Rev. A. F. Kirkpatrick. D.D., Regius Pro-
fessor of Hebrew, Cambridge. England.
Daniel. The Rev. John P. Peters, Ph.D., late Professor of
Hebrew, P. E. Divinity School, Philadelphia,
now Rector of St. Michael'^ Church, New York
City.
Minor Prophets. W. R. Harper, Ph.D., LLD., President of the
University of Chicago, Illinois.
lUE INTERHATIONAL CRITICAL COMHENTART-Contiiiaed.
St. Matthew.
St. Mark.
St. Luke.
Harmony of
the Gospels.
Acts.
Romans.
Corinthians.
Galatians.
Bphesians
and Colossians.
Philippians
and Philemon.
The Pastoral
Epistles.
Hebrews.
St. James.
Peter and Jude.
The Epistles
of John.
Revelation.
THE NEW TESTAMENT.
The Rev. Willoughby C. Allen, M.A., Fellow of
Exeter College, Oxford
The Rev. E. P. Gould, D.D., Professor of New Testa-
merit Literature, P. E. Divinity School, Philadelphia,
[Now Ready.
The Rev. Alfred Plummer,
versity College, Durham.
D.D.
Master of Uni-
\_Now Ready.
The Rev. William Sanday, D.D., Lady Margaret Pro-
fessor of Divinity, Oxford, and the Rev. Willoughby
C. Allen, M.A., Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.
The Rev. Frederick H. Chase, D.D., Fellow of
Christ's College, Cambridge.
The Rev. William Sanday, D.D., Lady Margaret
Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church,
Oxford, and the Rev. A. C. Headlam, M.A., Fel-
low of All Souls' College, Oxford. [Ncnu Ready.
The Rev, Arch. Robertson, D.D., Principal of King's
College, London.
The Rev. Ernest D. Burton, D.D., Professor of New
Testament Literature, University of Chicago.
The Rev. T. K. Abbott, B.D., D.Lit., formerly Pro-
fessor of Biblical Greek, Trinity College, Dublin.
[Now Ready.
The Rev. Marvin R. Vincent, D.D., Professor of
Biblical Literature, Union Theological Seminary,
New York City. [Now Ready.
The Rev. Walter Lock, D.D., Warden of Keble
College, and Dean Ireland, Professor of Exegesis,
Oxford.
The Rev. A. Naisme, M.A., Professor of Hebrew in
King's College, London.
The Rev. James H, Ropes, A.B., Instructor of New
Testament Criticism in Harvard University.
The Rev. Charles Bigg, D.D. , Regius Professor of
Ecclesiastical History and Canon of Christ Church,
Oxford. [Now Ready.
The Rev. S. D. F. Salmond, D.D., Principal and
Professor of Systematic Theology, Free Church Col-
lege Aberdeen.
The Rev. Robert H. Charles, D.D., Professor of
Biblical Greek in the University of Dublin.
Other engagements will be announced shortly.
5&je |utcvnatl0ual ffiritlral ®0mmetttat:g*
" A decided advance on all other commentaries^ — The Outlook.
DEUTERONOMY.
By the Rev. S. R. DRIVER, D.D.,
Regius Professor of Hebrew, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford.
Crown 8vo. Net, $3.00.
**No one could be better qualified than Professor Driver to write a critical
and exegetical commentary on Deuteronomy. His previous works are author-
ities in all the departments involved; the grammar and lexicon of the Hebrew
language, the lower and higher criticism, as well as exegesis and Biblical the-
ology; . . . the interpretation in this commentary is careful and sober in the
main. A wealth of historical, geographical, and philological information illus-
trates and elucidates both the narrative and the discourses. Valuable, though
concise, excursuses are often given." — The Congregationalist.
" It is a pleasure to see at last a really critical Old Testament commentary
in English upon a portion of the Pentateuch, and especially one of such merit.
This I find superior to any other Commentary in any language upon Deuter-
onomy." — Professor E, L. Curtis, of Yale University.
" This volume of Professor Driver's is marked by his well-known care and
accuracy, and it will be a great boon to every one who wishes to acquire a
thorough knowledge, either of the Hebrew language, or of the contents of the
Book of Deuteronomy, and their significance for the development of Old Tes-
tament thought. The author finds scope for displaying his well-known wide
and accurate knowledge, and delicate appreciation of the genius of the
Hebrew language, and his readers are supplied with many carefully con-
structed lists of words and expressions. He is at his best in the detailed
examination of the text." — London Athentsum.
" It must be said that this work is bound to take rank among the best com-
mentaries in any language on the important book with which it deals. On
every page there is abundant evidence of a scholarly knowledge of the litera-
ture, and of the most painstaking care to make the book useful to thorough
students." — The Lutheran Churchman.
** The deep and difficult questions raised by Deuteronomy are, in every in-
stance, considered with care, insight, and critical acumen. The student who
wishes for solid information, or a knowledge of method and temper of the
new criticism, will find advantage in consulting the pages of Dr. Driver." —
Zien's Herald.
gUt %nUxnKtxonKl ©trttical (£iommmUxi^.
" Wi believe this series to be of epoch-making importanceV
— The N. Y. Evangelist.
*
JUDGES.
By Dr. GEORGE FOOT MOORE,
Professor of Hebrew in Andover Theological Seminary.
Crown 8vo. Net, $3.00.
" The typographical execution of this handsome volume is worthy of the
scholarly character of the contents, and higher praise could not be given it."
— Professor C. H. Toy, of Harvard University.
*' This work represents the latest results of ' Scientific Biblical Scholarship,'
and as such has the greatest value for the purely critical student, especially on
the side of textual and literary criticism." — Tke Church Standard.
" Professor Moore has more than sustained his scholarly reputation in this
work, which gives us for the first time in English a commentary on Judges not
excelled, if indeed equalled, in any language of the world." — Professor
L. W. Batten, of P. E. Divinity School, Philadelphia.
" Although a critical commentary, this work has i.s practical uses, and by
its divisions, headlines, etc., it is admirably adapted to the wants of all
thoughtful students of the Scriptures. Indeed, with the other books of the
series, it is sure to find its way into the hands of pastors and scholarly lay-
men." — Portland Zion's Herald.
" Like its predecessors, this volume will be warmly welcomed — whilst to
those whose means of securing up-to-date information on the subject of which
it treats are limited, it is simply invaluable." — Edinburgh Scotsman.
" The work is done in an atmosphere of scholarly interest and indifference
to dogmatism and controversy, which is at least refreshing. ... It is a noble
introduction to the moral forces, ideas, and influences that controlled the
period of the Judges, and a model of what a historical commentary, wifch a
practical end in view should be." — The Independent.
" The work is marked by a clear and forcible style, by scholarly research, by
critical acumen, by extensive reading, and by evident familiarity with the
Hebrew. Many of the comments and suggestions are valuable, while the
index at the close is serviceable and satisfactory." — Philadelphia Presbyterian.
" This volume sustains the reputation of the series for accurate and wide
scholarship given in clear and strong English, . . . the scholarly reader will
find delight in the perusal of this admirable commentary." — Zion's Herald.
ZU 3nfernationaf Criticaf Commentary.
** Richly helpful to scholars and ministers." — The Presbyterian Banner.
The Books of Samuel
BY
REV. HENRY PRESERVED SMITH.
Professor of Biblical History and Interpretation in A mherst CcHege,
Crown 8vo, Net $3.00.
"Professor Smith's Commentary will for some time be the standard
work on Samuel, and we heartily congratulate him on scholarly work s^
faithfully accomplished." — The Athenceum.
** It is both critical and exegetical, and deals with original Hebrew and
Greek. It shows painstaking diligence and considerable research." — The
Presbyterian.
" The style is clear and forcible and sustains the well- won reputation of
the distinguished author for scholarship and candor. All thoughtful stu-
dents of the Scriptures will find the work helpful, not only on account of its
specific treatment of the Books of Samuel, on which it is based, but because
of the light it throws on and the aid it gives in the general interpretation of
the Scriptures as modified by present-day criticism." — The Philadelphia
Press.
*' The literary quality of the book deserves mention. We do not usually
go to commentaries for models of English style. But this book has a dis-
tinct, though unobtrusive, literary flavor. It is delightful reading. The
translation is always felicitous, and often renders further comment need-
less." — The Evangelist.
"The treatment is critical, and at the same time expository. Conserva-
tive students may find much in this volume with which they cannot agree,
but no one wishing to know the most recent conclusions concerning this
part of sacred history can afford to be without it." — Philadelphia Presby-
terian Journal.
"The author exhibits precisely that scholarly attitude which will com-
mend his work to the widest audience." — The Churchman.
"The commentary is the most complete and minute hitherto published
by an English-speaking scholar." — Literature.
"The volumes of Driver and Moore set a high standard for the Old
Testament writers ; but I think Professor Smith's work has reached the
same high level. It is scholarly and critical, and yet it is written in a spirit
of reverent devotion, a worthy treatment of the sacred text." — Prof. L. W.
Batten, of P. E. Divinity School, Philadelphia.
" JVg deem it as needful for the studious pastor to possess himself
of these volumes as to obtain the best dictionary and encyclopedia''
— The Congregationaust.
ST. MARK.
By the Rev. E. P. GOULD, D.D.,
Professor of New Testament Exegesis, P. E. Divinity School, Philadelphia.
Crown 8vo. Net, $2.50.
** In point of scholarship, of accuracy, of originality, this last addition to the
series is worthy of its predecessors, while for terseness and keenness of exegesis,
we should put it first of them all." — The Congregatiojialist.
"The whole make-up is that of a thoroughly helpful, instructive critical
study of the Word, surpassing anything of the kind ever attempted in the
English language, and to students and clergymen knowing the proper use of
a commentary it will prove an invaluable aid." — The Lutheran Quarterly.
" Professor Gould has done his work well and thoroughly. . . . The com-
mentary is an admirable example of the critical method at its best. . . . The
Word study . . . shows not only familiarity with all the literature of the sub-
ject, but patient, faithful, and independent investigation. ... It will rank
among the best, as it is the latest commentary on this basal Gospel." — The
Christian Intelligencer.
" It will give the student the vigorously expressed thought of a very thought-
ful scholar." — The Church Standard.
" Dr. Gould's commentary on Mark is a large success, . . . and a credit to
American scholarship. . . . He has undoubtedly given us a commentary on
Mark which surpasses all others, a thing we have reason to expect will be true
in the case of every volume of the series to which it belongs." — The Biblical
World.
"The volume is characterized by extensive learning, patient attention to
details and a fair degree of caution." — Bibliotheca Sacra.
" The exegetical portion of the book is simple in arrangement, admirable
in form and condensed in statement. . . . Dr. Gould does not slavishly follow
any authority, but expresses his own opinions in language both concise and
clear." — The Chicago Standard.
" In clear, forcible and elegant language the author furnishes the results of
the best investigations on the second Gospel, both early and late. He treats
these various subjects with the hand of a master." — Boston Zion's Herald.
"The author gives abundant evidence of thorough acquaintance with the
facts and history in the case. . . . His treatment of them is always fresh and
scboVarly, and oftentimes helpful." — The New York Observer.
" // ts hardly necessary to say that this series will stand first
among all English serial commentaries on the Bible T
— The Biblical World.
ST. LUKE.
By the Rev. ALFRED PLUnHER, D.D.,
Master of University College, Durham. Formerly Fellow and Senior Tutor of
Trinity College, Oxford.
Crown 8vo. Net, $3.00.
In the author's Critical Introduction to the Commentary is contained a full
treatment of a large number of important topics connected with the study of
the Gospel, among which are the following : The Author of the Book — The
Sources of the Gospel — Object and Plan of the Gospel — Characteristics,
Style and Language — The Integrity of the Gospel — The Text — Literary
History.
FROM THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
If this Commentary has any special features, they will perhaps be found in
the illustrations from Jewish writings, in the abundance of references to the
Septuagint, and to the Acts and other books of the New Testament, in the
frequent quotations of renderings in the Latin versions, and in the attention
which has been paid, both in the Introduction and throughout the Notes, to
the marks of St. Luke's style.
" It is distinguished throughout by learning, sobriety of judgment, and
sound exegesis. It is a weighty contribution to the interpretation of the
Third Gospel, and will take an honorable place in the series of which it forms
a part." — Prof. D. D. Salmond, in the Critical Review.
" We are pleased with the thoroughness and scientific accuracy of the inter-
pretations. ... It seems to us that the prevailing characteristic of the book
is common sense, fortified by learning and piety." — The Herald and Presbyter.
"An important work, which no student of the Word of God can safely
neglect."— The Church Standard.
"The author has both the scholar's knowledge and the scholar's spirit
necessary for the preparation of such a commentary. . . . We know of
nothing on the Third Gospel which more thoroughly meets the wants of the
Biblical scholar." — The Outlook.
" The author is not only a profound scholar, but a chastened and reverent
Christian, who undertakes to interpret a Gospel of Christ, so as to show
Christ in his grandeur and loveliness of character." — The Southern Church-
man.
" It is a valuable and welcome addition to our somewhat scanty stock of
first-class commentaries on the Third Gospel. By its scholarly thoroughness
it well sustains the reputation which the International Series Has already
won." — Prof. J. H. Thayer, of Harvard University.
This volume having been so recently published, further notices are not yet
available.
^feje %nUnxntwnnl ffiritiral ®0mmeutar}j.
^^ For the student this new commentary promises to be indispen-
sable'' — The Methodist Recorder.
ROMANS.
By the Rev. WILLIAM SANDAY, D.D.,
Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford,
Rev. A. C. HEADLAH, M.A.,
Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford.
Crown 8vo. Net, $3.00.
" From my knowledge of Dr. Sanday, and from a brief examination of the
book, I am led to believe that it is our best critical handbook to the Epistle.
It combines great learning with practical and suggestive interpretation." —
Professor George B. Stevens, of Yale University.
" Professor Sanday is excellent in scholarship, and of unsurpassed candor.
The introduction and detached notes are highly interesting and instructive.
This commentary cannot fail to render the most valuable assistance to all
earnest students. The volume augurs well for the series of which it is a mem-
ber." — Professor George P. Fisher, of Yale University.
"The scholarship and spirit of Dr. Sanday give assurance of an interpreta-
tion of the Epistle to the Romans which will be both scholarly and spiritual."
— Dr. Lyman Abbott.
" The work of the authors has been carefully done, and will prove an
acceptable addition to the literature of the great Epistle. The exegesis is
acute and learned . . . The authors show much familiarity with the work
of their predecessors, and write with calmness and lucidity." — New York
Observer.
" We are confident that this commentary will find a place in every thought-
ful minister's library. One may not be able to agree with the authors at some
points, — and this is true of all commentaries, — but they have given us a work
which cannot but prove valuable to the critical study of Paul's masterly epis-
tle." — Zion^s Advocate.
" We do not hesitate to commend this as the best commentary on Romans
yet written in English. It will do much to popularize this admirable and
much needed series, by showing that it is possible to be critical and scholarly
and at the same time devout and spiritual, and intelligible to plain Bible
readers." — The Church Standard.
"A commentary with a very distinct character and purpose of its own,
which brings to students and ministers an aid which they cannot obtain else-
where. . . . There is probably no other commentary in which criticism has
been employed so successfully and impartially to bring out the author's
thought." — N. Y. Independent.
"We have nothing but heartiest praise for the weightier matters of the
commentary. It is not only critical, but exegetical, expository, doctrinal,
practical, and eminently spiritual. The positive conclusions of the books are
very numerous and are stoutly, gloriously evangelical. . . . The commentary
does not fail to speak with the utmost revereace of the whole word of God."
The Congrttgationalist
Tite iutctmational &xxticnl ©ommentara.
''This admirable series:' — The London Academy.
EPHESIANS AND COLOSSIANS.
By the Rev. T. K. ABBOTT, B.D., D. Litt.
Formerly Professor of Biblical Greek, now of Hebrew, Trinity College,
Dublin.
Crown 8vo. Net, $2.50.
** The latest volume of this admirable series is informed with the very
best spirit in which such work can be carried out — a spirit of absolute
fidelity to the demonstrable truths of critical science. . , . This summary
of the results of modern criticism applied to these two Pauline letters is,
for the use of scholarly students, not likely to be superseded." — The Lon-
don A cade 7)1 y.
" An able and independent piece of exegesis, and one that none of us can
afford to be without. It is the work of a man who has made himself mas-
ter of his theme. His linguistic ability is manifest. His style is usually
clear. His exegetical perceptions are keen, and we are especially grateful
for his strong defence of the integrity and apostolicity of these two great
monuments of Pauline teaching." — The Expositor.
"It displays every mark of conscientious judgment, wide reading, and
grammatical insight. " — Litcraticre.
" In discrimination, learning, and candor, it is the peer of the other vol-
umes of the series. The elaborate introductions are of special value." —
Professor George B. Stevens, of Yale University.
" It is rich in philological material, clearly arranged, and judiciously
handled. The studies of words are uncommonly good. ... In the
balancing of opinions, in the distinguishing between fine shades of mean-
ing, it is both acute and sound." — The Church.
" The exegesis based so solidly on the rock foundation of philology is
argumentatively and convincingly strong. A spiritual and evangelical tenor
pervades the interpretation from first to last. . . . These elements, to-
gether with the author's full-orbed vision of the truth, with his discrimina-
tive judgment and his felicity of expression, make this the peer of any com-
mentary on these important letters." — The Standard.
" An exceedingly careful and painstaking piece of work. The introduc-
tory discussions of questions bearing on the authenticity and integrity (of
the epistles) are clear and candid, and the exposition of the text displays a
fine scholarship and insight." — Northwestern Christian Advocate.
"The book is from first to last exegetical and critical. Every phrase in
the two ?2pistles is searched as with lighted candles. The authorities for
variant readings are canvassed but weighed, rather than counted. The mul-
tiform ancient and modern interpretations are investigated with the ex-
haustiveness of a German lecture-room, and the judicial spirit of an English
court-room. Special discussions are numerous and thorough." — The Con-
gregationalist.
2^e 3nterMttondf Cxiiicat Commentary.
"/ have already expressed my conviction that the Inter-
national Critical Commentary is the best critical commentary.
on the whole Bible, in existence." — Dr. Lyman Abbott.,
Philippians and Philemon
BY
REV. MARVIN R. VINCENT, D.D.
Professor of Biblicat Literature in Union Theological Seminary, New York,
Crown 8vo, Net $2.00.
*'It is, in short, in every way worthy of the series." — The Scotsman.
" Professor Vincent's Commentary on Philippians and Philemon appears
to me not less admirable for its literary merit than for its scholarship and its
clear and discriminating discussions of the contents of these Epistles." — Dr.
George P. Fisher.
"The book contains many examples of independent and judicial weigh-
ing of evidence. We have been delighted with the portion devoted to Phile-
mon. Unlike most commentaries, this may wisely be read as a whole." —
The Congregationalist
"Of the merits of the work it is enough to say that it is worthy of its
place in the noble undertaking to which it belongs. It is ful.' of just such
information as the Bible student, lay or clerical, needs ; and while giving an
abundance of the truths of erudition to aid the critical student of the text, it
abounds also in that more popular information which enables the attentive
reader almost to put himself in St. Paul's place, to see with the eyes and feel
with the heart of the Apostle to the Gentiles." — Boston Advertiser.
"If it is possible in these days to produce a commentary which will be
free from polemical and ecclesiastical bias, the feat will be accomplished in
the International Critical Commentary. . . . It is evident that the writer
has given an immense amount of scholarly research and original thought to
the subject. . . . The author's introduction to the Epistle to Philemon
is an admirable piece of literature, calculated to arouse in the student's mind
an intense interest in the circumstances which produced this short letter from
the inspired Apostle." — Commercial Advertiser.
" His discussion of Philemon is marked by sympathy and appreciation,
and his full discussion of the relations of Pauline Christianity to slavery are
interesting, both historically and sociologically." — The Dial.
" Throughout the work scholarly research is evident. It commends itself
by its clear elucidation, its keen exegesis which marks the word study on
every page, its compactness of statement and its simplicity of arrRngement. "
— Lutheran World.
" The scholarship of the author seems to be fully equal to his i dertaking,
and he has given to us a fine piece of work. One cannot but se that if the
entire series shall be executed upon a par with this portion, thei lan be lit-
tle left to be desired." — Philadelphia Presbyterian Journal.
Z^c 3nfernafionaf Crificaf Commenfarg.
" A decided advance on all other commentaries." — T/ie Outlook.
PROVERBS
By the Rev. CRAWFORD H. TOY, D.D
Professor of Hebrew in Harvard University.
Crown 8vo. Net, $3.00.
"This volume has the same characteristics of thoroughness and
painstaking scholarship as the preceding issues of the series. In the
critical treatment of the text, in noting the various readings and the
force of the words in the original Hebrew, it leaves nothing to be de-
sired." — The Christian Intelligencer.
" In careful scholarship this volume leaves nothing to be desired. Its
interpretation is free from theological prejudice. It will be indispen-
sable to the careful student, whether lay or clerical." — The Outlook.
ST. PETER AND ST. JUDE
By the Rev. CHARLES BIGG, D.D.
Rector of Fenny Camp ton. Canon of Christ Church, and Regius Professor
of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Oxford.
Crown 8vo. Net, 2.50. (Postage, i8c.)
This is the latest volume of " The International Critical Commen-
tary " which has been published. The treatment is not only critical, but
expository, exegetical and practical. The introductions and notes are
highly instructive, and thoughtful students of the Scriptures will find
this work helpful and suggestive.
" His commentary is very satisfactory indeed. His notes are par-
ticularly valuable. We know of no work on these Epistles which is so
full and satisfactory." — The Living Church.
" It shows an immense amount of research and acquaintanceship
with the views of the critical school." — Herald and Presbyter.
" This volume well sustains the reputation achieved by its predeces-
sors. The notes to the text, as well as the introductions, are marked
by erudition at once affluent and discriminating." — The Outlook,
n ^ / /
14 DAY USE
RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED
LOAN DEPT.
This book is due on the last date stamped below, or
on the date to which renewed.
Renewed books are subject to immediate recall.
230ct'57MS
imz
^ 1968 4o
pt^C-O ^P
-m^
495a
IIW21-66 28 RGB
1^
T^
-prs^
TTO"
^m
2Mar'64W|
^^5^
APR 2 0^8 -KM
m?
O i.^
LOAN PeP-^.
^'64-
m^
PEC X 11365 5 a
.Mcv-; u/ i_u
819bl
LD 21-100m-6,'56
(B9311sl0)476
General Library
University of California
Berkeley
U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES
CD^^^^^3^=^