/i^T/f.J 
 
 /. ! 
 
 ^^^k 
 
 % 
 
 Shelf. 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 
 
 BV 741 .L36 1896 
 
 Leavitt, John McDowell, 182 
 
 The Christian democracy 
 
THE 
 
 Christian Democracy 
 
 A HISTORY 
 
 ITS SUPPRESSION AND REVIVAL 
 
 7 
 
 JOHN Mcdowell leavitt, d.d., ll.d. 
 
 Formerly Editor of the "American Quakterly Church Review," and 
 President of Lehigh University 
 
 NEW YORK : EATON & MAINS 
 CINCINNATI: CURTS & JENNINGS 
 
Copyright by 
 
 EATON & MAINS, 
 
 1896. 
 
 Eaton & Mains Press, 
 150 Fifth Avenue, New York. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 I. Sovereignty 7 
 
 II. Preparations 24 
 
 III. Obstacles 39 
 
 IV. Persecutions 51 
 
 V. Constantine 67 
 
 VI. Liberty 87 
 
 VII. Heresies 103 
 
 VIII. Clementines 121 
 
 IX, Creeds 131 
 
 X. Fathers 143 
 
 XI. Liturgies 160 
 
 XII. Councils 169 
 
 XIII. Pelagianism 190 
 
 XIV. Sacerdotalism 201 
 
 XV. Saint- Worship 216 
 
 XVI. Morals 247 
 
 XVII. Witnesses 255 
 
 XVIII. The Reformation 277 
 
 XIX. Trent 299 
 
 XX. Jesuitism 309 
 
 XX-I. Popes 325 
 
 XXII. Anglicanism 352 
 
 XXIII. Protestantism 364 
 
 XXIV. Millennial Democracy 382 
 
THE 
 
 Christian Democracy. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Sovereignty. 
 
 IN all governments arises a fundamental ques- 
 tion. Where does sovereignty reside? Is it in 
 the king? Is it in the nobility? Is it in the 
 people? As these questions are answered, govern- 
 ment is a monarchy, an oligarchy, or a democracy. 
 
 All the old Oriental empires were autocracies. 
 The king was supreme. He is proved a despot by 
 the cuneiform tablets of Nineveh and Babylon and 
 the hieroglyphic inscriptions of Egypt. Those an- 
 cient marvelous civilizations knew no law but a 
 monarch's will. Roman emperors attained the 
 same summit of supreme power. Julius, indeed, de- 
 clined the crown, and Augustus the imperial name, 
 but succeeding Caesars, the Neros, the Domitians, 
 the Caligulas, were both autocrats and divinities. 
 
 During the Middle Ages, over Europe, kings were 
 sovereign by Heaven's authority. The people ex- 
 isted for the monarch. Law was his will. On the 
 Continent growth of free cities was the first prac- 
 tical check to arbitrary royal pretension. By char- 
 
8 ttt£ CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACV. 
 
 ters and constitutions citizens limited oppressive 
 kingly prerogative. The modern era of freedom 
 began its grandest battle in Holland. Animated 
 by the spirit of liberty, this little commercial repub- 
 lic not only burst its fetters, but shattered the vast 
 Spanish empire. Always in England, from the era 
 of the Conqueror, was a struggle by the people 
 against the exactions of pope and king. After cen- 
 turies of strife Henry VHI seemed to have concen- 
 trated in himself both the supreme political and 
 pontifical power. He was at once civil and ecclesi- 
 astical tyrant. Yet beneath the surface the popular 
 elements perpetually worked and advanced. How- 
 ever imperious Elizabeth in claim and manner, she 
 never dared long to oppose her English democracy. 
 Her successor, James, in his autocratic aspirations 
 was an antic blunderer and a stupid failure. To 
 support inherited tyranny his son, Charles, took the 
 sword, and perished by the sword. In the reign of 
 the last James was the final battle. He fled, and 
 threw into the Thames his royal insignia. Democ- 
 racy rose fresh and free and invincible from those 
 baptismal waters. England was born anew. Her 
 Parliament, in Lords and Commons, representing 
 the people, repudiated the house of Stuart and en- 
 throned the house of Orange. This act of 1688 was 
 indeed revolution. It ended the struggle of cen- 
 turies. It established that the crown was no more 
 transmissible by divine right as an inheritance. It 
 assumed in the English people the power to make 
 and unmake kings, and in a democracy for all time 
 vested the sovereignty of the Anglican empire. 
 But in our own America was the crowning work 
 
SbVER£lGNTY. § 
 
 of the long British struggle. England cannot eman- 
 cipate herself from her past. Theoretically a 
 democracy, she is socially and ecclesiastically an 
 aristocracy. The United States emerged from the 
 Revolution in all respects free. Every European 
 fetter was shattered. Our Constitution is not only 
 an instrument of government ; it was intended by 
 its framers to be a universal political creed confess- 
 ing before the world that, rightfully, sovereignty is 
 from the people, by the people, and for the people. 
 When we turn from State to Church we find three 
 theories of supreme power, corresponding to mon- 
 archy, aristocracy, and democracy. Where is ec- 
 clesiastical sovereignty? Is it an autocracy in the 
 pope? Is it an oligarchy in bishops? Is it a de- 
 mocracy of all believers, including clergy and laity, 
 and whom we will call the people ? Before answer- 
 ing these questions the three theories of ecclesias- 
 tical sovereignty should be more fully stated. 
 
 I. The Papal Claim. — Early as A. D. 496 Ge- 
 lasius asserted for himself all political and pontifical 
 power. His successors proclaimed their right to 
 rule the world. Centuries before Hildebrand and 
 Innocent III and Boniface VIII this was the uni- 
 form view of Roman pontiffs as implied or expressed 
 in the Vatican Decree of Pio Nono. The papal 
 system is an autocracy. It vests all sovereignty in 
 its pontiff. He is source of power and grace. These, 
 through him alone, flow to bishops, and from bish- 
 ops to priests, and from priests to people. 
 
 II. The Episcopal Claim.— In this is the very 
 genius of Anglicanism. Transferred to America, 
 we can study it in the standards of the Episcopal 
 
10 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Church. According to these no man can be a lawful 
 minister but by a bishop's hands. And but by a 
 bishop's hands no man has lawful access to the 
 communion. Hence, by a bishop's hands is the sole 
 lawful way to salvation. Anglican episcopacy is an 
 ecclesiastical aristocracy. 
 
 III. The Democratic CLAiM.—According to 
 its view the communion of believers, lay and cleric 
 together, constitute the Christian Commonwealth. 
 As opposed to the autocracy of papacy and the 
 oligarchy of episcopacy, the sovereignty of the 
 Church is in the whole body of the disciples who 
 compose the Church. All power, therefore, flows, 
 not from ministers to people, but from people to 
 ministers. 
 
 Barbarians are amused by noise and dazzled by 
 splendor. As nations advance in civilization they 
 are less attracted by ceremonial display. In the 
 highest forms of social and political life the title to 
 office is not birth, but worth. Such a supreme at- 
 tainment in government implies sovereignty in the 
 people. This is the ideal of our humanity. The 
 law of progress seems advancing our race to a uni- 
 versal democracy. Is this, then, the consummation 
 in the State? Political government will be a broth- 
 erhood of power founded on merit. But, if the 
 State be a democracy, can the Church remain an 
 autocracy or an oligarchy? Such civil and ecclesi- 
 astical antagonism would produce perpetual dis- 
 cord. Universal democracy in the State can only 
 be harmonized with universal democracy in the 
 Church. All that can be urged for the one can be 
 urged for the other. We therefore might infer 
 
SOVEREIGNTY. II 
 
 that the ideal of humanity, both in Church and 
 State, is the universal sovereignty of the people. 
 
 Let it be understood, however, that we are not to 
 inquire as to the mere form of government. We 
 would pass beneath the surface to the heart of the 
 question. Where ir, the power that creates the form ? 
 Democracy may choose an hereditary autocracy. 
 Democracy may prefer a titled oligarchy. Democ- 
 racy may support an elective monarchy. But if 
 democracy makes it can unmake ; if it enthrones it 
 can dethrone ; if it establishes it can disestablish. 
 The will of the people is the sovereignty of democ- 
 racy. 
 
 We cannot settle by mere human reasoning a 
 universal form of government for the Church. Nor 
 for a principle will any authority be decisive except 
 the word of Scripture. Now, in the Jewish Com- 
 monwealth Jehovah was King. Our inquiry does 
 not pertain to the divine Monarch. What were His 
 human instruments? We begin with Moses. Given 
 in the light and by a voice from the burning bush, 
 his rod was symbol of a supreme authority. He re- 
 ceived his communications from the cloud of the 
 divine Presence at the tabernacle. Face to face 
 with Jehovah, by His command spake and ruled the 
 great lawgiver of Israel. Moses was the autocrat of 
 Heaven. Not in name, but in fact, he was king. 
 And Joshua was invested with the power of Moses. 
 Until Israel passed into Canaan, Jehovah, the in- 
 visible Sovereign, expressed His will from a visible 
 glory through men who were virtual monarchs. But 
 this was continued only during the miraculous and 
 abnormal period of the Commonwealth. It was 
 
1^ tHlE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACV. 
 
 necessary for the deliverance from Egypt and the 
 passage through the sea and the journey in a wil- 
 derness, where a nation was educated by the lessons, 
 and fed by the bread, and guided by the pillar, of 
 Heaven. 
 
 After the transference to Canaan a revolution was 
 made in the sovereignty of Israel. From Joshua 
 to Saul the rulers were judges. These shoftim were 
 itinerating presidents. For merit they were elected 
 by the people. Heroism or wisdom guided in 
 their choice. For five centuries Israel was a de- 
 mocracy. Sovereignty was in the people. At 
 a time in earth's history when all other nations 
 were ruled by despots ; beneath the shadows of em- 
 pires established and extended by Oriental tyrant- 
 conquerors ; sole witness for the rightful dominancy 
 of the popular will ; anticipating and prophesying 
 the divine ideal of human government — the Jewish 
 Commonwealth, under the shield of Jehovah, stood 
 for ages, in the whole turbulent and inimical world, 
 a solitary democracy. 
 
 But the plan of God was marred by the folly of 
 man. Our modern archaeology enables us to pic- 
 ture vividly the temptations of Israel to seek alliance 
 with the powerful surrounding Gentile nations. 
 How hard against appearances, threatened with 
 peril, menaced by annihilation, to trust the invisible 
 Jehovah ! Enemies were seen, and God was un- 
 seen. Between mighty warring empires little Pales- 
 tine was highway and battlefield. The Jew feared 
 that he would be pulverized under the heels of 
 imperial armies. Hence, wanting faith, he was 
 terrified into seeking protection from Egyptian, 
 
SOVEREIGNTY. 1 3 
 
 Assyrian, and Chaldean conquerors. They were to 
 him the symbols of power. They meant for him se- 
 curity. They represented for him unity. Imita- 
 ting the conquering Gentiles, for himself the Jew 
 wanted a king. 
 
 Moses foresaw and foretold the change. He pre- 
 dicted that, in possession of the land, Israel would 
 desire a monarch. We have the very words to be 
 uttered : '* I will set a king over me." In the lan- 
 guage of the prophet we perceive the sovereignty of 
 the people. The king of the nation was to be the 
 choice of the nation. After five centuries the revo- 
 lution came. Samuel was last of the shoftim. In 
 him judgeship expired. He clung to the popular 
 past. He resisted change in the rulership. He 
 even rebelled against the permission of Jehovah and 
 predicted evil as its result. What vivid colors im- 
 patience gave his picture of monarchic oppressions ! 
 *' This shall be the manner of king that shall reign 
 over you : He will take your sons, and appoint 
 them unto himself, for his chariots and horse- 
 men. He will take your daughters to be confec- 
 tionaries, cooks, and bakers. He will take your 
 fields, and your vineyards, and oliveyards. Ye shall 
 cry out in that day because of the king which ye 
 shall have chosen you." 
 
 Saul, the first monarch of Israel, although indi- 
 cated by Samuel, was yet received and approved by 
 the popular acclamation. When he fell by suicide 
 David succeeded to the throne decreed him by Je- 
 hovah and for which he had been. long anointed. 
 But the son of Jesse held his scepter from the de- 
 mocracy. *' And the men of Judah came." They 
 
14 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 this second time poured the oil on his head that 
 made '* David king over their house." Afterward 
 he was enthroned over the united Jewish Common- 
 wealth. Who constituted him monarch ? Was he 
 a conqueror, holding by his sword ? Did he have 
 his scepter from his own volition ? No. " All the 
 elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron, and 
 King David made a league with them before the 
 Lord." The crown of Israel was conferred by com- 
 pact with Israel. It was placed on the head of the 
 monarch by the agreement of his people. In this 
 arrangement between ruler and subject is the es- 
 sence of democracy. David made a " league." A 
 league ? Where in Nineveh or in Babylon or in 
 Egypt do we hear of a league between king and 
 subject? A Sennacherib, a Rameses, a Nebuchad- 
 nezzar recognized in man no right but the submis- 
 sion of slaves. As opposed to these hoary tyran- 
 nies the monarchy of Israel was a sovereignty of 
 the people. 
 
 We might argue that, if the Jewish Common- 
 wealth was a democracy, much more is the Chris- 
 tian Church. But a question so fundamental can be 
 settled only by sure proof from Scripture ; and in 
 seeking its determination we will turn to the Gos- 
 pels and the Acts. These evangelical histories have 
 a controlling authority. They contain those records 
 of the Messiah which fulfill the prophecies of the 
 Old Testament and furnish fact and argument and 
 illustration for the Epistles of the New Testament. 
 Hence, in eminence they transcend all the books of 
 the Bible. On them converges light from its past, 
 and from them diffuses light over the future. In 
 
SOVEREIGNTY. 1 5 
 
 these evangelical histories, so supreme in impor- 
 tance and authority, we may surely expect guid- 
 ance in searching for those principles which are in 
 the foundation of the constitution of the universal 
 Church. 
 
 Priest, Prophet, King ! The offices indicated by 
 these words are linked with the whole history of 
 the Jewish Commonwealth. They reappear in the 
 Christian Church. We will, therefore, consider its 
 organization under three aspects : 
 
 I. Priesthood.— In the fixed and hereditary 
 character of the Aaronical sacerdotalism we too 
 often overlook a great fact. What did Jehovah say 
 to the ** children of Israel ? " To the entire nation 
 His words were, " Ye shall be unto me a kingdom 
 of priests." In the tent of the congregation of the 
 people stood their altar, where sin was forgiven. 
 There the guilty Jew slew the sacrificial animal 
 through whose blood he received remission, and in 
 many instances he partook the flesh. In Israel 
 thus all were priests. Aaron and his sons were 
 priests among priests. Of a kingdom of priests 
 they were the official representatives, appointed and 
 delegated by Jehovah. 
 
 The grand work of the Aaronical priesthood was 
 atonement. Its end was forgiveness of sin — remis- 
 sion through the blood of sacrifice. In this we have 
 ^:he genius and object of the Mosaic dispensation. 
 But notice. Priests never pronounced absolution. 
 In the fourth and fifth and sixth of Leviticus we 
 find sacrificial provision for many offenses. The 
 animal is brought to the door of the tabernacle. It 
 is slain by the offerer himself. A priest sprinkles 
 
l6 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 its blood on the altar, which stands in the tent of 
 the people. Fire consumes the flesh. Then it is 
 said, "■ His sin, which he hath sinned, shall be for- 
 given him." By whom ? Not by the priest, but by 
 Jehovah. The priest says not a word. Not once 
 under the law was personal remission declared by 
 the lips of a priest. And under the Gospel it was 
 pronounced but by the Messiah. His apostles had 
 not this power. Jesus alone gave absolution. It 
 was proof of His sovereignty as Jehovah. Remis- 
 sion of sin presumes infallibility. Hence, Godhead 
 claims it as its prerogative. Human infirmity may 
 mistake. It may remit where Heaven retains, and 
 retain where Heaven remits. Eternal life cannot 
 be left to mortal contingencies. If my salvation de- 
 pends on the word of man I am a slave to the will 
 of man. I know that man may refuse absolution 
 from whim or sell absolution for money. Hence, I 
 will trust alone in the promise of the Scripture. 
 And here Godhead assures me personal remission, 
 through faith, for my personal transgression. 
 
 But did not Christ say to Peter, *' Whatsoever 
 thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, 
 and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be 
 loosed in heaven ? " We must interpret this gift to 
 Peter by the example of Peter. Never once did 
 Peter declare personal forgiveness. To the Jews at 
 Pentecost and to the Gentiles with Cornelius he as- 
 sumed only to proclaim, through Christ, the uni- 
 versal terms of salvation. Nor after in his preach- 
 ing did he more. And no apostle transcended his 
 example. Always in the evangelical histories the 
 ministers of the Gospel in general terms proclaimed 
 
SOVEREIGNTY. 1 7 
 
 that those who believe in Christ are saved and that 
 those who reject Christ are condemned. 
 
 Was not, however, Peter the rock on whom all 
 disciples must build? Peter a rock! His Aramaic 
 name Cephas is interpreted by the infallible John. 
 What in its first chapter says the fourth Gospel? 
 There the Aramaic Cephas is interpreted into the 
 Greek Petros. But always, in both classic and scrip- 
 ture Greek, the word nerpog means sfojte. Peter was 
 stone, and not rock. Had Christ intended to found 
 His Church on Peter the man He would have used 
 the name of Peter the man. Only his name ex- 
 presses the man. Rejecting his name, Christ rejected 
 the man. For UsTpo), the man Peter, our Saviour 
 substituted -nerpa, rock. Widely as their final letters, 
 omega and alpha, do the words differ. The length 
 of the Greek alphabet indicates immense diver- 
 gence. A stone is part of a rock. Indeed, it is but 
 a fragment, a broken portion, and usually worn and 
 unfit for solid foundation. The Hebrew "ilV and V^D 
 of the Old Testament are in the Septuagint trans- 
 lated TTSTpa, rock — never frerpog, stone. Paul says 
 that Trerpa, not Trerpog, was Christ. Hence, Peter, 
 lierpog, was stone, fit only to be built on the founda- 
 tion, while Jesus, Jehovah, in the New Testament 
 as in the Old, is Himself the divine and everlasting 
 Foundation — the Rock. 
 
 Even in the power to bind and loose we see, not 
 an autocratic or oligarchic exclusiveness, but a priv- 
 ilege of the universal democracy. The authority in 
 the sixteenth of Matthew conferred on Peter is, in 
 the eighteenth, conferred on all disciples. Of this 
 the meaning in the original of the word {iad7]TaL, 
 
1 8 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 translated " disciples," is proof. Sometimes the 
 context limits it to apostles. Not restricted, it has 
 wide and varied applications. We will indicate a 
 few. In John vi, 1-3, the disciples are the baptized ; 
 in John viii, 31, steadfast believers ; in Acts i, 15, all 
 Christ's followers, men and women ; in Acts xi, 26, 
 Christians. Now, in the eighteenth of Matthew the 
 disciples come to Jesus. He discourses to them of 
 universal duties. Nothing is said by Him of clerical 
 vocation or work or privilege. The disciples He ad- 
 dressed were His company of followers. Yet to 
 these all, as before to Peter, the Master said, "What- 
 soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in 
 heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall 
 be loosed in heaven." After breathing on His 
 HadrjTat, disciples, He exclaimed, ** Receive ye the 
 Holy Ghost : whosesoever sins ye remit they shall 
 be remitted, and whosesoever sins ye retain they 
 shall be retained." But from apostolic example we 
 have seen that this power to bind and loose, to re- 
 tain and remit, was exercised only in declaring, 
 through our Saviour, the terms of salvation. Each 
 disciple was authorized to proclaim the Gospel of 
 eternal life. All who received Christ in the heart 
 and glorified Christ in the life could recommend 
 Christ by the lip. Here we have the duty and the 
 privilege of the Christian Democracy. 
 
 And to this view on the cross Jesus gave awful sig- 
 nificance. While He rent rocks, while He promised 
 paradise, while He opened graves, while He shook 
 His earth and darkened His sun, He also parted 
 His temple's veil to show that the way into the 
 holiest, no longer the privilege of one high priest, 
 
SOVEREIGNTY. I9 
 
 was to be the heritage of the universal brotherhood 
 of behevers. 
 
 II. Prophecy. — The Hebrew signifying prophet 
 is from a root which means to zvell forth. Sponta- 
 neity characterizes the bibUcal conception. Prophecy 
 gushes like a fountain or flows like a stream. Nor 
 is the Hebrew idea expressed in either the Greek 
 or the Latin or the English. Spontaneity in the 
 prophet was opposed to rigidity in the priest. An- 
 tagonisms corrected each other. The original con- 
 ception of freedom in the Hebrew harmonized with 
 the liberty of Christianity, in which the office of 
 the prophet was rather to preach than to predict. 
 In the last of Matthew the grand function of teach- 
 ing seems committed only to the apostles. The 
 Master plainly addressed to the eleven His final 
 command. If this were the whole Scripture on the 
 subject the exclusive claim of apostolic succession 
 would have a foundation. 
 
 Now, turn from the last of Matthew to the last 
 of Luke. Jesus had risen. He joins two disciples 
 near Emmaus. He enters the house. He breaks 
 bread and vanishes. With hearts in a flame of love 
 the two disciples return to Jerusalem. Whom do 
 they meet? "The eleven gathered together, and 
 them that were with them.'' Jesus appears in the 
 midst. But not here as on the mountain. In 
 Galilee He was seen by the eleven only ; but now 
 in Jerusalem by the eleven and others. On the 
 eleven and others He sends the promise of the 
 Father. The eleven a7td others He appoints His 
 witnesses. And He commands the eleven and others 
 to tarry in Jerusalem for the endowment of power. 
 
20 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 In this supreme gift of the Holy Ghost the promise 
 and command of Christ with apostles included dis- 
 ciples. In obedience to His word who assembled at 
 Pentecost? Apostles only ? No. The ''disciples." 
 We have their number. One hundred and twenty — 
 men and women. On all descended the tongues of 
 flame. On all fell the Holy Ghost. On all rested 
 the power to preach. And Peter affirms that in 
 this is fulfilled the word of Joel : '' I will pour out 
 my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daugh- 
 ters shall prophesy ; on my servants and my hand- 
 maidens will I pour out my spirit." As all were 
 authorized to proclaim through Christ the forgive- 
 ness of sins, so all are now endowed with power to 
 make the message effectual. The sovereignty of 
 teaching, as well as the sovereignty of priesthood, 
 is thus proved to be in the whole body of believers 
 who compose the universal Church. 
 
 III. Kingship. — By this we mean the authority 
 to govern. We inquire where in the Church is the 
 sovereignty of legislation. Who made the law in 
 the times of the apostles? Peter, as first pope? 
 The eleven, representing bishops ? Or the body of 
 believers, whom we style the people? Let us turn 
 to the first recorded act of ecclesiastical legislation. 
 It was to elect an apostle. Nothing could be more 
 important than to choose one of the companions 
 of our Lord to be His official witness, whose testi- 
 mony in time was to be in the foundation of the 
 Church, and whose name in eternity would be cele- 
 brated in the songs of heaven. Such a function 
 was transcendent in dignity and consequence. As 
 first pope, does Peter appoint to the office vacant 
 
SOVEREIGNTY. 21 
 
 by the suicide of Judas? Or shall the eleven as 
 bishops elect a twelfth ? Or shall all the believers 
 act together in a choice which implies the loftiest 
 exercise of sovereignty ? Here we will certainly 
 have proof whether in legislation the Church is an 
 autocracy, an oligarchy, or a democracy. We read, 
 " Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples." 
 These were addressed by that primate. These num- 
 bered one hundred and twenty. Yet these ap- 
 pointed Joseph and Matthew and assigned by lot 
 to the latter the grand office. The first supreme 
 act of ecclesiastical kingship was by the sovereign 
 people. 
 
 We have considered the election of a man. Now 
 let us trace the establishment of a principle. 
 
 Paul and Barnabas had told at Antioch how God 
 had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. All 
 were exulting together in the new liberty of the 
 Gospel. On the minds of these disciples burst the 
 bright vision of a world converted to Christ. But 
 this joyful freedom and glowing hope excited sus- 
 picion and antagonism. Messengers appear with a 
 Mosaic fetter. They insist that Gentile believers 
 shall be circumcised. The Gospel they would load 
 with the burden of the law. Flesh must prevail 
 over spirit, and letter abridge liberty. In all lands, 
 amid all conditions, down through all centuries. 
 Christians, like Jews, must be circumcised. Bap- 
 tism by water as a sign and seal of the Holy Ghost 
 is not enough. Here, then, is forced on the young 
 Church a question of supreme and eternal impor- 
 tance. Had Peter been pope his decree would have 
 settled it. Wliy not refer it to James, first Bishop 
 
22 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 of Jerusalem, or let the apostles together decide? 
 Not so determined the Holy Ghost. The '' breth- 
 ren " at Antioch originate the process. From that 
 city, on their embassy, depart Barnabas and others 
 with Paul. At Jerusalem they are to seek direc- 
 tion from '* apostles and elders," by whom they are 
 received, and also by the Church. Peter states the 
 question to the Council, and James declares his judg- 
 ment. But by whose authority goes forth the de- 
 cree ? In the name of ** apostles and elders and the 
 whole Church " at Jerusalem. It is conveyed by 
 Paul, Barnabas, Barsabas, and Silas, with '* chief 
 men among the brethren." And it is sent to the 
 " brethren which are of the Gentiles at Antioch." 
 
 Here is a complete scriptural record of a legisla- 
 tive procedure of fundamental, universal, and ever- 
 lasting consequence. Yet the inquiry originated 
 with the whole Church at Antioch, was answered 
 by the whole Church at Jerusalem, and the decree 
 addressed to the whole Church at Antioch. From 
 first to last apostles share authority with elders and 
 brethren. All act together in discussion, decree, 
 and declaration ; however, with a wise, delicate, and 
 reverential precedence of apostles, due the official 
 witnesses of our Lord, on whose testimony He 
 founded His Church. Paul was messenger; Peter 
 was proposer ; James was president. Yet in the 
 entire transaction was guarded and expressed the 
 sovereignty of the Christian people as an example 
 of democracy for the universal Church. It is thus 
 that our religion secures liberty against authority, 
 and authority against liberty. Equally it restrains 
 anarchist and tyrant. Under its influence authority 
 
SOVEREIGNTY. 23 
 
 can never be oppression, and liberty can never be 
 license. Christ alone harmonizes for humanity con- 
 servatism and progress. 
 
 But, it is urged, if sovereignty is in all believers 
 each may teach, each may preach, each may admin- 
 ister. Such priesthood, prophecy, and kingship 
 would prove chaos. Ignorance and fanaticism would 
 rush into confusion and destruction. But against 
 such democratic anarchy is a complete security. 
 Above the universal Church is the sovereign Scrip- 
 ture. The Old Testament and the New have al- 
 ways set apart certain men for special functions. 
 Many offices are exclusive. Ministers are elected 
 whose sole vocation it is to preach the Gospel and 
 administer the sacraments. According to the Scrip- 
 ture, these are to be both appointed and supported. 
 The people cannot interfere with duties they have 
 delegated. When our citizens elect legislators and 
 judges and governors they vest their own powers in 
 these their chosen representatives, and cannot re- 
 sume them at pleasure. An office exclusive in 
 Scripture must be exclusive in Church. In all 
 doubtful questions of organization and worship lib- 
 erty is reserved. Humanity, made free by faith, is 
 yet bound by law. But in Scripture we have found 
 the supreme authority in collective believers. Power 
 flows, not from ministers to people, but from people 
 to ministers. Sovereignty is in the people. The 
 Church universal is a Christian Democracy. 
 
24 tHE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Preparations. 
 
 THE Christian Democracy began its life amid 
 formidable enemies and obstacles. Its Messiah 
 had been a carpenter. His chief agents were 
 fishermen. His disciples were a mixed multitude. 
 His witnesses after His resurrection were a few hum- 
 ble men and women. These assembled, not in 
 palace or temple, but in a plain upper room. Pomp 
 of worship was neither desired nor possible. Could 
 art help their faith, promote their prayers, and call 
 down the promised Spirit? All the magnificence of 
 their temple, with its smoking altars, its clouds of 
 incense, its chanting priests, its imposing ceremonial, 
 was vain glitter in the eyes of men who sought 
 power from heaven to convert a world. Baptized 
 by the Spirit, these children of faith, made free in 
 Christ, went forth over the earth to establish the 
 universal dominion of their crucified and ascended 
 Lord. Let us inquire whether the past of humanity 
 gave encouragement to the aspiring expectation of 
 the lowly disciples. And this leads us to consider : 
 
 L The Jewish Preparation for the Chris- 
 tian Democracy. 
 
 The old dispensation was to be terminated, yet 
 perpetuated. It was to die and live. In the acci- 
 dental and transitory it would perish, while surviv- 
 ing in the universal and the everlasting. Each type. 
 
iPREPARATiONS. 2 5 
 
 each promise, each prediction, each lesson of the 
 Mosaic covenant became ampHfied, transfigured, 
 and glorified in a divine Messiah exceeding all 
 human and all angelic expectation. But how little 
 such a consummation seems possible as we behold 
 that Pentecostal company opposed by powers of 
 men and demons ! After ages of prophecy and sym- 
 bol ; after the miracles of Moses and the songs of 
 David typifying and celebrating the Messiah ; after 
 the splendor of the temple and the ministry of the 
 Baptist ; after the life and death and resurrection of 
 Christ, the incarnate God ; after centuries of divine 
 education and covenant — as the result of all that 
 Jehovah in His eternal plan of salvation had done 
 for His redeemed humanity, one hundred and twenty 
 poor men and women waiting for the Holy Ghost ! 
 
 But behind this spectacle of seeming failure his- 
 tory unfolds a wider scene. How insignificant an 
 acorn ! Yet it has an ancestry of majestic oaks 
 reaching back to Eden, and will have a magnificent 
 posterity, with sturdy trunks and overshadowing 
 branches, extending until the close of time. We 
 only realize the miracle of the acorn when we view 
 the prolific glory in its past and its future. So in 
 that Pentecostal room we perceive but the seed of 
 Christianity. The soil of the world had long been 
 preparing for it, and it will grow into a tree whose 
 beneficent shadow will cover the nations. 
 
 The genius of Judaism was conservative. A peo- 
 ple was chosen and isolated by circumcision that 
 they might save from extinction faith in a personal 
 God as Creator of the universe and perpetuate the 
 promise and expectation of a Messiah. For ages 
 
26 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Israel was always tempted and often seduced by the 
 idolatries of the Gentiles. War, famine, pestilence, 
 captivity, all the judgments of Heaven, seemed pow- 
 erless to preserve from the worship of demons and 
 the adoration of images. It required the vigilance 
 of Jehovah Himself to retain in His elect people loy- 
 alty to His commands. The old dispensation was 
 absorbed in one supreme purpose of conserving in 
 man the idea of God. Hence it had slight provision 
 for spreading truth among surrounding idolaters. 
 Yet at the appointed time came a change. The 
 secondary and the incidental were made the primary 
 and the effectual. Judaism, constituted to be ex- 
 clusive, was now diffusive. Without any organic 
 revolution, it yet became the universal leaven of 
 humanity. Among all nations it prepared the way 
 for Christianity. 
 
 The germs of this Judaistic adaptation existed 
 even before circumcision. Abraham, father of the 
 chosen, was connected with the two most cultured 
 nations of the earth. He was born in Chaldea and 
 sojourned in Egypt. Joseph and Jacob led the way 
 to the land of the Pharaohs, where Israel dwelled 
 nearly four centuries and where Moses was educated 
 in the palace of Rameses. Kings cf Nineveh, Baby- 
 lon, and Egypt were continually marching their 
 armies through Palestine. Shalmaneser deported 
 ten tribes into Assyria. Sargon and Sennacherib 
 and Assur-bani-pal were in frequent contact with 
 the Jews. Never until recently, by the Tel-el- 
 Amarna tablets, was it known how constantly and 
 intimately the elect people, by conquest and com- 
 merce, were connected with the ancient Oriental 
 
PREPARATIONS. 2/ 
 
 empires. Nebuchadnezzar took their city, burned 
 their temple, and carried the flower of the Jews his 
 captives to Babylon. In this most magnificent cap- 
 ital of the world Daniel and his friends ennobled 
 and elevated their countrymen. Cyrus gave com- 
 mand to restore Jerusalem. But commerce, more 
 than captivity, widely scattered the Jews. They 
 swarmed in Alexandria. They were numerous, 
 rich, and influential in Rome. They were successful 
 traders and bankers among the powerful Gentile 
 nations. All through the countries of the earth 
 were prosperous Jews, as now in these our modern 
 times. Thus a people most exclusive in their po- 
 litical and ecclesiastical constitution were forced out 
 from their narrow land and, despite their inclina- 
 tions and usages, changed from confined provincials 
 into citizens of the world. 
 
 For these dispersed Jews the temple, while it 
 stood, was a center. On its roll was the name of 
 each Israelite, however distant from Jerusalem. 
 Annually, too, the loyal son of Abraham sent his 
 tax to the capital of his nation. Once in his life he 
 was expected to visit his temple and kindle by 
 his eye filial love in his heart. Thus this sacred 
 edifice rose amid its mountains before all the na- 
 tions a visible symbol of Jewish unity. Wholly 
 different from the temple was the synagogue. It 
 became cosmopolitan in its influence and an emblem 
 of a dispersed Israel. In ancient as in modern 
 times, the Jew often forgot his language and spoke 
 the tongue of the people among whom he lived. 
 But into whatever country he might wander he 
 elected his rabbi and built his synagogue to be a 
 
28 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 seat of worship and instruction, and always he sought 
 to make proselytes to his faith ; so changed was he 
 by migration from his ancient isolation and indif- 
 ference ! With fervid zeal he would convert and cir- 
 cumcise the Gentiles. 
 
 Now, among the nations there were two classes 
 who embraced Judaism : 
 
 1. Proselytes of Justice. These were Gentiles 
 who not only renounced their gods, but accepted 
 the whole Mosaic law. Submitting to circumci- 
 sion, separated from their countrymen, often perse- 
 cuted as apostates, they became identified in faith 
 and feeling with the hereditary Jews. Usually they 
 surpassed their masters, were narrow and furious 
 bigots, and violent and venemous enemies to every 
 other form of religion. But again we have, 
 
 2. Proselytes of the Gate. Amid all nations these 
 furnished the most available point of contact with 
 Christianity. They had abandoned idolatry. If 
 they still frequented the temples they yet renounced 
 their priests and mythologies. Receiving the funda- 
 mental truths of Judaism, they remained uncircum- 
 cised. They had turned from the gods of the Gen- 
 tiles, and yet were not identified with the Hebrews 
 by their characteristic rite. While mingling with 
 idolaters, they believed in Jehovah. Between Jew 
 and Gentile over the world they formed a universal 
 bond. Their name signified their position. At the 
 gate of the ancient city men waited for the news. 
 Their place indicated expectancy. So these *' pros- 
 elytes of the gate," not yet walled away from the 
 Gentiles, believed in the God of the Hebrews and 
 were animated by the hope of their Messiah. Thus 
 
PREPARATIONS. 29 
 
 in every nation men were made ready by Judaism 
 itself to receive the Gospel. 
 
 Let us transport ourselves to Jerusalem. Here 
 now center the preparations of the centuries. All 
 promise and symbol and prophecy, like sun-rays 
 focused by a lens, converge themselves into the 
 Pentecostal feast following the death and ascension 
 of Jesus. The world has been made ready for 
 Christ, and now Christ is ready for the world. A 
 festival of Jews is the grand occasion of the conver- 
 sion of Gentiles. In the redeeming scheme Jews 
 and Gentiles are inseparable. From every nation 
 Israelites fill the streets of Jerusalem. Tents of 
 overflowing strangers whiten the encircling moun- 
 tains. The temple glitters in its splendor with all 
 the gladness and glory of Pentecost. Contrasted 
 with the noise of the multitude and the magnifi- 
 cence of the feast, one hundred and twenty Galilean 
 men and women, unnoticed and insignificant believ- 
 ers in the crucified and risen Jesus, are praying for 
 the Holy Ghost promised by their ascended Lord. 
 After long waiting they hear a roar like a tempest. 
 The room of assembly shakes with some strange 
 violence. Tongues of flame are visible on the 
 heads of these Galileans. All are filled with the 
 Holy Ghost. All experience a new power of faith 
 and light of love. All speak the languages of various 
 and distant nations. Here is the beginning of that 
 cosmopolitan democracy which distinguishes Chris- 
 tianity from Judaism and symbolizes the conver- 
 sion of the world. We have no sectisms at Pente- 
 cost. 
 
 Foreign Jews have lost their ancestral Hebrew, 
 
30 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 In the city of their God, in the home of their 
 fathers, in the seat of their temple, Hke their own 
 Gentile converts, they are strangers. Unacquainted 
 with the speech of the metropolis, not understand- 
 ing the songs and prayers of the temple service, all 
 feel together in their beloved capital the loneliness 
 of the exile. Now, these Jewish and Gentile 
 strangers from afar hear the baptized Galilean men 
 and women, on whose heads were tongues of fire, 
 speak the language in which they were born. They 
 are arrested and amazed. How our native speech 
 thrills us in a foreign land ! But here these Gali- 
 leans are witnesses for the Messiah. They testify 
 of His death. His resurrection. His ascension. They 
 speak with the power of the Holy Ghost. Elected 
 and endowed for this supreme hour in the history 
 of the world, Peter preaches Christ. Three thou- 
 sand Jews and proselytes, men and women, citizens 
 and strangers, are pierced in their consciences. They 
 repent, they believe, they are baptized, they join 
 the Galileans in their testimony. Here are the mes- 
 sengers of salvation who are to scatter over the 
 world and establish the kingdom of Christ among 
 all nations. What free and fearless and exulting 
 witnesses — heroes of faith by the baptism of Heaven, 
 apostles of love by the fire of the Holy Ghost! 
 Surely in such a divine flame sectisms should perish 
 forever. And when the Pentecostal preachers return 
 to their own country they proclaim Christ in the 
 speech of their own country. The faith and light 
 and love which they obtained at Jerusalem they 
 diffuse over the world. Under the new covenant 
 the Church universal is the child of Pentecost. 
 
PREPARATIONS. 3 1 
 
 II. The Gentile Preparation for the Chris- 
 tian Democracy. 
 
 I. Linguistic. — The Hebrew of our Bibles exhibits 
 two extremes. We find in it a primitive and ab- 
 rupt simplicity, and also a structure that seems the 
 elaboration of our advanced civilization. But al- 
 ways it has a sonorous majesty. Scripture chanted 
 in the modern synagogue often elevates to the sub- 
 lime. What, then, its effect poured forth from the 
 lips of temple-priests, assisted by instruments, sur- 
 rounded by imposing architecture, impressive with 
 a thousand thrilling, historic memories ? This grand 
 Hebrew harmonized with the genius of the Old 
 Testament. It was suitable for recording the crea- 
 tion of a universe, the lives of venerable patriarchs, 
 the declaration of the law amid the terrors of Sinai, 
 the miracles of the sea and of the wilderness, the 
 denunciations of prophets, and those manifestations 
 of Jehovah awful in their severe justice. Between 
 the Mosaic dispensation and the Hebrew language 
 was a significant congruity. But the old tongue 
 was not adapted to the new covenant. For it the 
 divine wisdom during ages was preparing a suitable 
 language. 
 
 The genius of the Greek is opposite to the genius 
 of the Hebrew. They differ as the flow of the river 
 from the rush of the cataract. Grace and pliancy 
 are substituted for sublimity and majesty. Where 
 the swift torrent keeps within its deep and narrow 
 channel of rocks, the wide stream spreads into the 
 land its diffusive and fertilizing waters. Also, the 
 language of Judea corresponded to its exclusive 
 nationalism, while that of Attica had a cosmopoHtan 
 
32 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 adaptation. Greek became the universal speech of 
 the Roman empire. It united various and distant 
 nations in one vast linguistic commonwealth. Down 
 to our own age it maintains itself on its native soil. 
 It meets now the needs and peculiarities of our 
 modern civilization, differing as much from the an- 
 cient as a locomotive from the Parthenon. It fur- 
 nishes terms for arts and sciences as unknown to 
 Pericles as the fountains of the Nile. It is not a 
 dead, but a living, tongue, speaking daily in all 
 parts of our progressive world. In grace, in fluency, 
 in versatility it was designed and preserved to ex- 
 press for man the universal salvation. As the He- 
 brew for the old covenant, so the Greek for the new. 
 The one was adapted to the law, and the other to 
 the Gospel. The one resembles Sinai, and the 
 other Calvary. The one conserved truth in a na- 
 tion, and the other diffuses truth over a world. If 
 we compare the Hebrew to the sublime displays 
 about the apocalyptic throne, we may say that the 
 Greek is like the emerald bow of grace by which its 
 majesty is encircled. 
 
 Attica was the home of this language of the fu- 
 ture, and Athens its brilliant center. In this inim- 
 itable city we find the versatile and diffusive energy 
 of democracy. At Athens, as afterward in Holland, 
 literature and art were founded on manufacture and 
 commerce. And the free, fearless, republican en- 
 terprise expanded itself by conquest and coloniza- 
 tion. The empire of Tyre over the Mediterranean, 
 before it passed to Carthage, had been seized by 
 Athens. Her ships planted her colonies in Asia, in 
 Egypt, in Italy, in the Adriatic islands. Greek thus 
 
PREPARATIONS. 33 
 
 was Spoken in Tarsus, Antioch, Ephesus, Naucratis, 
 Cyrene, Neapolis, Syracuse, and everywhere over 
 and around the Mediterranean. This process of 
 colonial extension was promoted by the sword of 
 Alexander. His victories reached from Athens to 
 Babylon and from the banks of the Nile to the 
 shores of the Indus. Over the whole Oriental world 
 the Macedonian conqueror carried the language of 
 Homer, his oracle, and Aristotle, his preceptor. 
 Alexander thus prepared Greek for the Roman em- 
 pire. Nor was it used only in commerce and in lit- 
 erature. For two centuries after Christ, in the im- 
 perial capital, it was employed in the worship of 
 the Church. Thus had the eternal Wisdom made 
 way for Greek over the world as the language of the 
 New Testament and for the diffusion of Christianity. 
 2. Political. — In the year B. C. 753 Romulus built 
 his wall around the Palatine Hill. Its circuit was 
 about a mile. So small was infant Rome ! Yet 
 from this feeble center grew the power which sub- 
 dued the world. To conquer Italy required centu- 
 ries of fierce wars, and during all her early career 
 of victory civil strifes between plebeian and patri- 
 cian were ever tearing the young Commonwealth. 
 When ready, Rome began with Carthage her first 
 great struggle for foreign conquest. The fight was 
 for Sicily. Battle was to be on the Mediterranean, 
 where the African metropolis was supreme. Her 
 element was the sea. Along its shores and on its 
 islands she had planted her colonies and guarded 
 them with her triumphant navy. Yet in the first 
 fight on her own domain the rude ships and sailors 
 of Rome conquered the Carthaginian veterans. 
 
34 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Her dominion was predestined. Three wars ended 
 the struggle. Italian valor triumphed ; Carthage 
 was destroyed ; Rome ruled the Mediterranean. 
 Other victories followed. Syria, Egypt, Greece, 
 Macedonia, Gaul, Spain, Germany, Britain were in- 
 corporated with the Roman empire. Earth was a 
 political unit. Latin sway, Latin law, Latin lan- 
 guage, by a new and unexampled tie, bound to- 
 gether all civilized nations. From her golden mile- 
 post in her Forum as a center of earth's dominion, 
 Rome ran out roads along which she sent her le- 
 gions to conquer and her consuls to govern. The 
 sea, more than the land, unified her empire. All 
 the great nations of antiquity aspired to dominion 
 along the Mediterranean. This was the conqueror's 
 highway. This was as necessary for war as for com- 
 merce. Without this, imperial Rome could never 
 have subdued or governed the world. Having her 
 roads for her armies and the sea for her navies, she 
 grasped with a resistless arm her universal scepter. 
 Nor were these facilities for transportation less ad- 
 vantageous to Christianity than to herself. High- 
 ways by land and sea were as convenient for minis- 
 ters as for soldiers. Also, the widespread Latin 
 language assisted equally in conversion and govern- 
 ment. In every region of the empire Roman citi- 
 zenship was a shield under which Paul preached 
 Christ, where he chose, in Roman speech. The 
 political, universal Roman dominion was thus a 
 prophetic symbol of the promised universal domin- 
 ion of the Christian Democracy. 
 
 3. Religious. — Babylon, Nineveh, Egypt! Why 
 did they perish? They were prodigals, wasted by 
 
PREPARATIONS. 35 
 
 Spiritual hunger. The soul of man must be fed. 
 Idols cannot satisfy immortal needs. Empire after 
 empire had tried their gods. But the human crav- 
 ing was not appeased. Every experiment had 
 failed. With the decay of States idolatries lost their 
 vigor. Faith in their national deities animated the 
 ancient Assyrian and Egyptian conquerors. To 
 their gods they ascribed their victories and erected 
 their monuments. When their armies were over- 
 thrown and their provinces dissevered they aban- 
 doned their conquered gods. But when they lost 
 faith in their gods their hearts failed, their arms 
 grew weak, and their triumphs ceased. Ever athe- 
 ism succeeded superstition, and, with its vain re- 
 ligion, perished empire. Humanity for ages had 
 revolved in the same circle along which the Oriental 
 nations were whirled to their inevitable ruin. 
 
 Now Greece and Rome were rushing to the catas- 
 trophe which had overtaken Babylon and Nineveh 
 and Egypt. Strifes of war and commercial inter- 
 course increased intelligence. Philosophy grew 
 keen to detect impostures, but, no more than super- 
 stition, could attain satisfying truth. Nations saw 
 at last how false their gods, how deceptive their 
 priests, how fallacious their systems. Sophists de- 
 claimed, and satirists ridiculed, but, while they per- 
 ceived the disease, they furnished no remedy. Tor- 
 mented with doubt, Rome multiplied deities and 
 filled her Pantheon with images of foreign gods ; in- 
 creased superstition, but intensified unbelief. Ple- 
 beian and patrician lost faith together. The emperor, 
 himself a divinity, laughed at the duped multitude. 
 However soaring and fascinating, Platonism despised 
 
36 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 the masses and gave no relief to philosophers. Stoi- 
 cism, with its rugged virtues, and Epicureanism, 
 with its alluring pleasures, came to the same dis- 
 appointing end. Judaism had become a husk; 
 Gentilism proved itself a skeleton. In neither was 
 the immortal life. Humanity exhausted its re- 
 sources in this final experiment of Greece and 
 Rome. 
 
 Repeated failures urge to despair. Men sought 
 to silence their miseries by their lusts. The world 
 became a carnival of sin. Monstrous now the lives 
 of Roman emperors. The vices and crimes of these 
 deities infect the race. Horrified by imperial ex- 
 ample, the Senate yet imitates the corruptions of 
 its Caesars, and the populace is made loathsome in 
 its wickedness. War is remorseless; slavery is 
 cruel ; even amusements are stained with blood. 
 Public sports furnish no diversion without wholesale 
 slaughter. Guilt is gigantic, and Rome a pande- 
 monium. Yet in her very despair was hope. Mul- 
 titudes, weary of the old, were ready for the new. 
 Into this universal ferment of corruption was intro- 
 duced the leaven of Christianity. Shall Scripture 
 accomplish what ancient philosophies and mytholo- 
 gies have failed to achieve ? Is Jesus the eternal 
 and incarnate Life and Truth, or only a superior 
 Bel or Budh or Jupiter, to be discarded like his pre- 
 decessors when proved a failure ? Will his religion 
 meet the everlasting need of humanity? With the 
 advent of Christ our world began this last experi- 
 ment. Multitudes passed from the despair of 
 paganism to a triumphant faith, which glorified life 
 with hope and love and conquered death amid the 
 
t>REPARATIONS. 37 
 
 execrations of enemies and the flames of martyr- 
 dom. 
 
 Testimonies of numerous heathen authors enable 
 us to understand the moral and religious condition 
 of mankind at the era of Pentecost. Literature 
 has never painted her pictures with such a glare of 
 color. 
 
 " The multitude of women," Strabo says, " and 
 the entire mass of the common people cannot be 
 led to piety by the doctrine of philosophy. For 
 this purpose superstition also is necessary, which 
 must call in the aid of myths and tales of wonder. 
 Such things the founders of states employed as bug- 
 bears to awe children." 
 
 Seneca wrote : " The whole vulgar crowd of gods 
 which for ages past a Protean superstition has been 
 accumulating we shall worship in this sense, namely, 
 that we ever remember that the worship we pay 
 them is due rather to good manners than to their 
 own worth. All such rites the sage will observe be- 
 cause they are commanded by the laws, not because 
 they are pleasing to the gods." 
 
 Such was the skepticism of cold and calculating 
 philosophers and statesmen. But the multitude 
 could not regard their deities with this cynical in- 
 difference. Ignorant men and women were tor- 
 mented with irrepressible doubts and pitiable fears. 
 These Plutarch describes with a master pen : 
 
 " Every little evil is magnified to the superstitious 
 man by the scaring specters of anxiety. He sits 
 out of doors wrapped in sackcloth and filthy rags. 
 Temples and altars are places of refuge for the per- 
 secuted ; but where all others find deliverance from 
 
38 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 their fears the superstitious man fears and trembles 
 most. His reason always slumbers; his fears al- 
 ways awake. Nowhere can he find escape from his 
 imaginary terrors. These men fear the gods, and 
 fly to them for succor. They flatter them, and in- 
 sult them. They pray to them, and complain of 
 them. The infidel has no belief in the gods ; the 
 superstitious man would fain disbelieve, but believes 
 against his will, for he fears to do otherwise." 
 
 The *' Clementines" describe graphically the con- 
 flicts of cultured minds. A noble Roman depicts 
 his struggles in the apostolic age : *' I was from my 
 youth exercised with doubts, which entered my 
 soul, I hardly know how. I was pale and emaciated. 
 I resorted to the schools of the philosophers hoping 
 to find some foundation on which I could repose, 
 but I saw nothing but building up and tearing down 
 of theories. I was dizzier than ever, and from the 
 bottom of my heart sighed for deliverance. What 
 shall I do ? I shall proceed to Egypt and shall 
 cultivate the acquaintance of the hierophants and 
 prophets who preside at the shrines. Then I shall 
 win over a magician by money and entreat him by 
 what they call necromancy to bring a soul from the 
 infernal regions, as if I were desirous to consult it 
 about some business. But this shall be my consulta- 
 tion — whether the soul be immortal." 
 
OBSTACLES. 39 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Obstacles. 
 
 A DEMOCRACY in its human aspects, Chris- 
 tianity is, in its divine relations, a kingdom. 
 Our Saviour — Creator and Redeemer — is its 
 omnipotent Autocrat. How simple the formulas 
 our incarnate God left us ! Yet are they impressed 
 with the majesty of the King of the universe. 
 Sublime in its brevity His all-comprehensive prayer 
 to His Father! Compare His few pointed and sug- 
 gestive words in baptism and eucharist with the elab- 
 orate and enslaving liturgies of popes, bishops, and 
 doctors ! How valuable in contrast the forms be- 
 queathed by the divine wisdom of the Redeemer ! 
 In its pure beginning Christianity was without tem- 
 ples and churches. Pomp was as foreign as the 
 classic eloquence of orators, or the splendor of po- 
 tentates, or the pageantry of ecclesiastics. Plebeian 
 homes were the centers of worship and influence. 
 In Christ all disciples were brothers, yet members 
 of a royal priesthood and citizens of heaven. The 
 outer Christian Democracy was to establish an inner 
 spiritual kingdom by the power of the Holy Ghost, 
 promised to restore in man the peace and joy of 
 righteousness. True to itself, all external obsta- 
 cles would be cast out of its path, like mountains 
 into the sea. But, resembling Israel, soon Chris- 
 tianity clouded the brilliance of the divine ideal. Its 
 
40 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 free spiritual democracy became legalized by Juda- 
 ism and corrupted by paganism. Saints were sub- 
 stituted for gods, and demons chosen for patrons 
 and mediators. Democracy was revolutionized into 
 oligarchy and autocracy. Christianity, no longer in- 
 tent on the salvation of the people, allied itself to 
 kings and emperors. Centuries of bondage fol- 
 lowed. The history of the Church grows dark with 
 apocalyptic gloom. Corruption after corruption! 
 Slavery after slavery ! Woes after woes ! Tem- 
 pests, lightnings, and earthquakes ! Vials of wrath 
 and trumpets of judgment ! But in the end victory 
 — the drama of time concluding with a sunburst of 
 millennial glory. 
 
 Having considered the preparations for the Chris- 
 tian Democracy, we will now review the difficulties 
 by which it was confronted. 
 
 I. Universal Obstacles. 
 
 How hard to believe that an inscrutable personal 
 Power created this universe ! Matter from Spirit ! It 
 seems incredible. Philosophic natures shrink from 
 the conclusion. Here is the root of intellectual 
 skepticism. The multitude believe more easily in a 
 visible image than in an invisible God. Hence their 
 superstitions ! Preaching is to propagate Christian- 
 ity. But what difficulties embarrass the pulpit ! 
 Man lives in the present. His senses bind him to 
 physical nature. His needs are in matter. His life 
 in the body seems almost contrived to shut out the 
 light from his soul. God, hades, hell, heaven — 
 these men cannot see. They are impalpable. But 
 how real, how pressing, how absorbing, our present 
 
OBSTACLES. 41 
 
 physical wants ! The preacher, indeed, appeals to 
 conscience, to fear, to love, to judgment, to deity, 
 to everlasting interests and consequences compared 
 with which time is a vanishing moment and earth a 
 dissolving cloud. Yet human eloquence neveraroused 
 man to salvation, and the most difficult of all for the 
 preacher is to use his natural powers, while relying 
 only on the Holy Ghost. To save one, how hard ! 
 What, then, between Pentecost and Judgment to 
 establish in billions of souls the spiritual, the invis- 
 ible, the everlasting kingdom of God ! 
 
 A world summoned to repentance — how repulsive 
 to human nature ! Men recoil from examining even 
 the laws of their souls. What, then, to confess and 
 forsake their sins ! No antagonisms like those ar- 
 rayed against the preacher ! It is easy to dazzle 
 with oratory. But the rarest and loftiest gift in the 
 universe is that which brings men to salvation. Hu- 
 manity seeks every conceivable escape from the very 
 truths ordained by Heaven for its eternal deliver- 
 ance. In the history of the Church, therefore, a 
 humiliating and disappointing record of shifts and 
 defeats, of compromises and retrogressions ! Om- 
 nipotence in the slow progress of the ages alone con- 
 ducts to the universal sway of the everlasting truth. 
 
 We must now hasten to 
 
 II. Particular Obstacles. 
 These were both Jewish and Gentile. 
 
 I. JEWISH OBSTACLES TO THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 (i.) Pharisees. — Their sect originated in a move- 
 ment to preserve pure in Israel its national life. 
 Antiochus Epiphanes attempted to mingle Greek 
 
42 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 customs with Jewish observances. Conservatism 
 protested against these innovations, and Pharisaism 
 was the result. Its name is derived from a Hebrew 
 word which means to separate. The genius and 
 history of the sect are indicated in its title. Exclu- 
 siveness was its characteristic. Tradition became 
 its life and power. By additions to the Mosaic 
 law the Pharisees perverted the oracles of God to 
 their own avarice and ambition. Having built a wall 
 around the fountain of eternal life, they locked its 
 gate and kept its key. Without pay none entered. 
 Every path to the kingdom of God ended in a money- 
 chest. Ostentatious in dress, in alms, in fasts, in 
 prayers, in innumerable paltry observances, the 
 Pharisees gained the applause of the multitude, 
 while neglecting mercy and justice and all that en- 
 nobles manhood. Blind by greed for praise and 
 gold, they misled the nation and brought upon 
 it the blood of the Messiah. More than sinners, 
 more than publicans, more than Sadducees Jesus 
 denounced Pharisees — "hypocrites," "painted sep- 
 ulchers," " serpents," a " generation of vipers," *' chil- 
 dren of hell ! " What words of condemnation, burn- 
 ing and blasting from the lips of infinite Love ! 
 Hence enmity, satisfied only with death ! The ha- 
 tred was carried by the Pharisee into all lands. 
 Antagonism blazed wide as the world. Proselytes 
 were foes fiercer than their Jewish masters. Often 
 among the Gentiles Pharisaism kindled the fires 
 of Christian martyrs. Nor is its hate peculiar to 
 our age. The picture in Scripture is for all earth 
 and all time. Pharisees were types of men repre- 
 senting a development in our universal human 
 
OBSTACLES. 43 
 
 nature, and hence reproduced in every period of 
 history. Their lips are for God and their lives for 
 themselves ; they hate the truth they profess to 
 love ; they gain great fame by small formalities, and 
 for time sell eternity. 
 
 (2.) Saddticees. — Zadok was their founder, and 
 after the captivity. They were skeptics. In neither 
 angels nor immortality had they faith. Sadducees 
 were religionists without religion. Even the Penta- 
 teuch, which they professed to believe, they ex- 
 plained away. Having lost faith in existence be- 
 yond the grave, they made the most of the only 
 life they expected to enjoy. They acquired wealth ; 
 they attained office ; they indulged in luxury and 
 lived in splendor. To them, in the dazzle of this 
 world, God became dim and eternity obscure. But 
 their earthly vision grew more keen. They repre- 
 sented the aristocracy of the Jews, made lordly and 
 exacting by their consciousness of wealth and honor. 
 By bribes and flatteries the Sadducees secured from 
 their Roman tyrants the loftiest dignities of priest- 
 hood, with the control of the revenues of the 
 temple. Thus the skeptics of the nation became 
 the religious rulers of the nation. A cold and cal- 
 culating aristocratic indifference arrayed itself in a 
 garb of piety, made an affectation of purity, and re- 
 ceived a veneration it did not deserve. Nor was its 
 opposition restricted to Jerusalem. In every part 
 of the earth it confronted the kingdom of Christ. 
 Devoted to time and reckless of eternity, Saddu- 
 ceeism typifies that universal skepticism in the 
 dominant classes of all nations and ages which is 
 the eternal foe to salvation. 
 
44 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 (3.) Priests. — On its lofty terrace hundreds of 
 feet above the valleys beneath towered the stately 
 and magnificent temple. It was no longer the rude 
 structure over which the returned captives wept 
 when contrasting it with the glory of the building 
 of Solomon. Herod, a hated Edomite, had lavished 
 on the temple his royal wealth. The alien king 
 beautified it with the choicest art of his age. Jo- 
 sephus represents it as a pile of silver glittering in 
 the dazzle of the morning sun. Its cloisters were 
 triumphs of architectural skill, and its gates and 
 pillars were admired by Greeks and Romans accus- 
 tomed to the Parthenon and the Capitol. And the 
 gorgeous worship of the temple corresponded to the 
 grace and beauty of its art. However the Jew 
 might disregard his moral law, he did not fail to 
 appreciate the splendor of his ceremonial display. 
 Over the world the temple was the love and ven- 
 eration of the nation. But in it the priests had a 
 peculiar Interest. Part of each year it was their 
 home. They slept in its cloisters, they ministered 
 at its altars, they led in its songs, and lived on its 
 revenues. From birth to death they were identi- 
 fied with its wealth and its magnificence. It brought 
 them occupation, support, and glory. Hence they 
 formed an army of interested defenders. Yet this 
 despised Nazarene, this uneducated provincial, this 
 revolutionary innovator was against their temple ! 
 His priesthood would end their own, stop their 
 pomps, desolate their altars, scatter their revenues 
 and their worshipers. No marvel that the hierarchy 
 resisted the Gospel ! It fought for all that binds 
 man to this present life. From Jerusalem to the 
 
OBSTACLES. 45 
 
 extremities of earth the Jewish priesthood battled 
 Christianity. 
 
 II. GENTILE OBSTACLES TO THE CHRISTIAN DEMOC- 
 RACY. 
 
 (i.) Aristocracies. — 'Tis hard in our modern age to 
 picture the ancient social conditions. Classes in 
 Judea were separated by a caste system almost as 
 remorseless as that of India. In Greece and Rome 
 manual labor was the task of slaves. Mechanic toil 
 was stigma. Earth's despised millions were beasts, 
 created to bear the life burdens of the rich and pow- 
 erful. War knew no mercy. Captured cities were 
 pillaged and burned, while their inhabitants were 
 flayed and killed, or, worse than torture and death, 
 manacled for the conqueror. Humanity could little 
 soften hom.es where the father was a despot, with 
 legal power to divorce his wife, slay his children, 
 and murder his servants. All the social and polit- 
 ical laws and customs of the ancient life created in 
 man a hardness which was a chief obstacle to the 
 Gospel. 
 
 Neither democracy nor philosophy had mitigated 
 human severity. Aristocratic pride was as stern 
 and relentless in free and cultured Greece as in im- 
 perial Babylon. Socrates lived in the streets of 
 Athens and mingled with its people. He was a 
 plebeian by birth and instinct ; and yet he introduced 
 no popular sympathies into the system of which he 
 was the ideal. The Platonic philosophy loved truth 
 and beauty. It inculcated immortality and extolled 
 virtue. It soared to sublime heights of speculation. 
 Plato himself was refined and mild and just and 
 imaginative. Yet he had no sympathy for the 
 
46 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 vulgar. He believed that the rude multitude, 
 chained by fate to matter, could never attain any 
 lofty conceptions. To the masses of mankind, in 
 his view, the ideas of eternal truth were naturally 
 and inevitably unintelligible. Hence human prog- 
 ress was impossible. For man no golden future il- 
 luminated by hope and victory ! The genius of the 
 Platonic philosophy was that of aristocratic Gnos- 
 ticism. Stoicism was even more severe and repel- 
 lent. It taught its disciples with a haughty and 
 frigid indifference to endure life's ills, and when these 
 became insupportable to take a dignified refuge in 
 suicide. To the imperious Roman it gave increased 
 arrogance. He loathed the vulgar. Horace, son of 
 a freedman, felt and expressed the patrician disgust. 
 A system of disdain and despair, Stoicism hardened 
 against Christianity. Between Jesus and Zeno were 
 no points of contact. Nor was Epicureanism more 
 accessible to the salvation of the Gospel. Its creed 
 was pleasure. In the world's capital it encouraged 
 gross sensuality and refined voluptuousness. Law, 
 duty, eternal life — what cared the Epicurean butter- 
 flies, glittering in short sunshine from flower to 
 flower, for such solemnities? A philosophy of in- 
 dulgence, making this world its all, has no care for 
 the judgment call of repentance and feels no need 
 of remission through the blood of the cross. 
 
 Nor was it only philosophies that erected barriers 
 between man and his Saviour. Society and gov- 
 ernment were essentially aristocratic. Rulers re- 
 sented equality in sinfulness and salvation. They 
 wanted no heaven with slaves and plebeians. They 
 would acknowledge no accountability to a common 
 
OBSTACLES. 47 
 
 tribunal of judgment. Human brotherhood in guilt 
 and in redemption were alike detestable. Pride had 
 its symbol in the Roman Senate. Imperial haugh- 
 tiness, surpassing patrician assumption and earthly 
 conditions, claimed equality with the Olympian 
 divinities. The whole ancient world was an aris- 
 tocracy inimical to the Christian Democracy. 
 
 (2.) Priesthoods. — We are often more impressively 
 taught by a fact than by a dissertation. Our mod- 
 ern archaeology now furnishes visible proof of the 
 wealth, power, and magnificence of the pagan hier- 
 archy. The opposition it was able to offer Chris- 
 tianity, better than by any general statement, will 
 be understood by the discoveries of an English ar- 
 chitect who has exposed the whole life about the 
 temple of Diana at Ephesus, and thus enables us to 
 illustrate the vast resources of the heathen priest- 
 hood, fighting for its existence against the ministers 
 of salvation. 
 
 Our explorer spent six years in determining the 
 site of the buried structure. His long toil was re- 
 warded by some inscriptions in the great theater 
 which gave a clew to the place of the temple. These 
 also proved that it had been amply endowed by 
 the will of a rich Ephesian. He bequeathed the 
 rents of lands, provided for the support of an army 
 of dependents, gave directions for pompous proces- 
 sions and gorgeous ceremonials, and presented the 
 goddess images of silver and of gold. The temple 
 of Diana was not only a seat of worship, but the 
 bank of Asia. Kings deposited their treasures 
 within its sacred inclosures, guarded more securely 
 by superstition than by soldiery. Approach to the 
 
48 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 temple was through a splendid cemetery filled with 
 costly monuments, on which were discovered most 
 touching and affectionate inscriptions to the de- 
 parted. Reverence for the priest was increased by 
 veneration for the dead, and the magnificence of the 
 structure gave glory to the hierarchy. It was built 
 of white marble and supported by one hundred 
 graceful pillars. The brilliant front caught the fresh 
 splendors of each rising sun. Around the temple 
 stood double rows of columns. An image of its 
 goddess near the center was adored as a gift from 
 heaven. Its friezes were in the noblest style of 
 art, and its altar had felt the touch of a Phidias and 
 a Praxiteles. 
 
 The temple of Diana at Ephesus, the temple of 
 Minerva at Athens, the temple of Zeus at Delphi, 
 the temple of Jove on the Roman Capitoline — what 
 centers of influence for heathen priesthood ! Over 
 the universal hierarchy they shed the luster of their 
 charms. But in all lands were edifices devoted to 
 their gods, less famous than the temples we have 
 named, yet depositories of riches and dazzling with 
 splendors and illimitable in the affection and rever- 
 ence excited for paganism. 
 
 Beside these imposing structures stood the mes- 
 sengers of Christianity. Without the aids of archi- 
 tecture, without the culture of music, without the 
 pageantry of ceremonial, without any impressive 
 visible symbol, without the charms of human elo- 
 quence, plain in appearance, simple in speech, direct 
 in purpose, they speak of law and sin and repent- 
 ance ; they call to faith in a crucified Christ ; they 
 discourse of life's vanities, the awards of judgment, 
 
OBSTACLES. 49 
 
 and the solemnities of eternity. If their Gospel be 
 true the gods of the people are myths. Their altars 
 are to be hurled down, and their idols demolished. 
 Gay festivals will be succeeded by the solemnities 
 of Christian worship. The temples themselves, 
 without priest or sacrifice or suppliant, will stand 
 deserted monuments of a lying mythology. Every- 
 where over the earth the pagan hierarchy arose to 
 avert such a catastrophe. It battled for life. It in- 
 voked its gods. It called to its aid states and ar- 
 mies. It met the ministers of truth with chains 
 and flames and death. Heathen priesthood ex- 
 hausted earth and heaven for victory over the Chris- 
 tian Democracy. 
 
 But behind all and above all oppositions were 
 (3.) Emperors. — Imperial Caesars ruled the world. 
 They were its autocrats and its divinities. To resist 
 their authority was, in one act, treason and atheism. 
 It was the guilt of crimes expiable only with death. 
 Emperors, indeed, filled their Pantheon with foreign 
 gods, but it was implied that the imperial deity was 
 supreme on earth, as Jove in heaven. How hateful 
 to these terrestrial divinities the very spirit of the 
 Christian Democracy ! Contest without compromise 
 was inevitable. Jesus, as one god among many gods, 
 Caesars would allow. But not Jesus God alone, Jesus 
 Creator of all, Jesus on the cross entitled to the 
 throne of the universe ! Between Jesus and Caesar 
 conflict was irrepressible. A grain of incense burned 
 to Jupiter or emperor avoided the issue. One kiss 
 from the lips, one bend of the knee, one motion of 
 the hand was enough. Imperialism was often easily 
 
 satisfied and dreaded the contest. Nor did thougrht- 
 4 
 
50 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 ful Christians tempt martyrdom. Only fanatics 
 courted flames, from which they shrank when they 
 saw the blaze. But battle came. Roman imperial 
 power impersonated the whole antagonism of earth 
 and hell to the Redeemer. Impurpled Caesars on 
 the throne of the earth, and with all its energies and 
 engineries of destruction at their command, were 
 visible representatives of that Satan who, before the 
 universe, led its dark spiritual forces for the over- 
 throw of the Christian Democracy. 
 
PERSECUTIONS. 5 1 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Persecutions. 
 
 BY simple truth how shall Christianity win the 
 multitude? To make man believe in the un- 
 seen and submit himself to an invisible Cre- 
 ator and Redeemer is a superhuman work. And 
 this against all his recoil from repentance, condemna- 
 tion, and penalty! For our salvation the power of 
 the Holy Ghost is indispensable. But there is a 
 human agency which makes personal and visible the 
 inscrutable Spirit. Testimony is the living energy 
 of the Gospel palpable to eye and ear. Each dis- 
 ciple is a witness. Woe to him if he betray his 
 trust ! Bribes from earth and hell beset his path. 
 How Satan tempts us to turn stones into bread, to 
 seek applause on lofty pinnacles, and from high 
 mountains to covet earthly kingdoms ! Yet what 
 victorious power when a true faith and a right life 
 are expressed by honest lips! Without such con- 
 fession pew and pulpit are alike the scorn of men 
 and demons. Each disciple is under vow to testify 
 for Christ. His breath, his brain, his heart, his mo- 
 ments as they fly mark him as a witness for One to 
 whom he belongs. But what security for his sin- 
 cerity? He may be deceived or he may dissimulate. 
 How shall he know himself and assure others? 
 Death is a test which all admit. And to this Chris- 
 tianity was brought by the persecutions. Flames 
 
52 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 tried its witnesses. I may suspect the sleek and pros- 
 perous professor. When I see him steadfast in the 
 fire I no longer doubt his integrity. As a system of 
 belief in the invisible the Gospel would never have 
 been successful by learning, eloquence, or argument. 
 Even the divine agency was to be confirmed by the 
 human testimony. 
 
 By love of enemies the primitive disciples wit- 
 nessed most powerfully. To hate a foe was a hea- 
 then virtue. The ancients taught, " Kill to secure 
 your safety or gratify your revenge." According to 
 the pagan code of duty and honor, a man was to 
 reward his friend and injure his enemy. As en- 
 forced by Christ, to Greeks and Romans the law of 
 love seemed unreasonable and impracticable. But 
 they saw it illustrated in the lives of His disciples. 
 Words are breath ; deeds are proof. The old world 
 was weary of the cold and turgid discourses of philos- 
 ophies which, when sound in theory, were forgotten 
 in practice. Now they saw love demonstrated in 
 the certainty of fact. Abstract command was shown 
 possible by the actions of witnesses. Deeds im- 
 pressed words. Testimony convinced skeptics. In 
 the gloom of dungeons, weighed down by chains, 
 exhausted by hunger, scourged by rods, torn by pin- 
 cers, mangled by beasts, and scorched by molten 
 metals, wearied, lacerated, bleeding, burning Chris- 
 tians prayed for their enemies. The last breath of 
 life was intercession for those inflicting death. From 
 cross and fire arose to heaven forgiving words of 
 love. Such spectacles were overwhelming. Often 
 the dying testimony was followed by instantaneous 
 conversions. Heathen executioners became believ- 
 
l^ERSECUtlONS. §^ 
 
 ers by their remorseless office. The headsman was 
 seen to throw down his ax, confess himself a Chris- 
 tian, and suffer the death he was about to inflict. 
 
 No eloquence of Greek or Roman has surpassed 
 the power of Tertullian where he pictures in words 
 the spirit of the witnesses for his Master. Address- 
 ing the emperor, he cries : 
 
 " Thither we lift up our eyes ; without ceasing, 
 for our enemies we offer prayer — not the few grains 
 of incense a farthing buys, not the blood of some 
 worthless ox whose death is a relief. With our 
 hands stretched out and up to God, rend us with 
 your iron claws, hang us up on crosses, wrap us in 
 flames, take our heads from us with the sword, let 
 loose the wild beasts upon us, wring from us the 
 soul beseeching God on the emperor's behalf! " 
 
 The joy of the martyr was another effectual tes- 
 timony for Christianity. Courage paganism could 
 show. Stoics courted death. To slaves the grave 
 was a welcome refuge from oppression. Roman 
 soldiers imperiled life with fearless heroism. On 
 the arena gladiators fought, reckless whether they 
 fell by the fang of the lion or slew him with the 
 sword. How many brave men had dared death for 
 freedom and shed immortal luster over the pages of 
 Greek and Roman history ! Disregard for life was, 
 indeed, a characteristic of the age of persecuting 
 Caesars. But, weary of the ills of existence or in 
 despair under his sufferings, the heathen submitted 
 to his fate as inevitable, and often with hate in his 
 heart and curses on his lip. Disciples of Jesus were 
 radiant amid flames. They were victorious over 
 racks and crosses. Hope of immortal life beamed 
 
54 'THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 from their eyes and faces. A last breath was a song 
 of triumph. The halo with which art crowned each 
 martyr head was a symbol of a true conqueror. More 
 brilliant than a crown of laurel this wreath of beams. 
 Joy in death, attested by innumerable witnesses, 
 won multitudes to Christ. 
 
 Persecution also advertised the religion of the 
 cross. It made it known to all classes of society, 
 and converted its patient and retiring submission 
 into public spectacles of conquering faith and love. 
 The recent explorations of Lanciani in Rome show 
 that not only slaves and mechanics, but also many 
 members of senatorial and imperial families, were 
 baptized disciples of the Saviour and faithful unto 
 death. It was persecution that brought Christianity 
 beyond the sphere of plebeians to the notice of patri- 
 cians and emperors. Accusations were tried before 
 consuls, with appeal to the imperial tribunal. Gov- 
 ernment was forced to know the obscure sect it pun- 
 ished. And, while Christianity had to be recog- 
 nized at the judgment seat by rulers and priests, 
 their victims attracted the multitude by spectacles 
 of flames. The means employed to destroy the 
 faith was the most effectual agency of its extension. 
 Its leaven of life was thus diffused from humble 
 homes into temples and palaces. Prisons of martyrs 
 were centers of influence wider than pulpits. Flames 
 preached eloquently and convincingly. The trium- 
 phant words of Christian victors made more con- 
 versions, even in the superior classes, than sonorous 
 orators. 
 
 For thirty years after the death of Christ Judaism 
 and Christianity were confounded by paganism. 
 
PERSECUTIONS. 55 
 
 Under the toleration Rome granted the former the 
 latter grew unnoticed. The law itself was a shield 
 to the new faith until it became established in the 
 world and could stand in defiance of enemies. 
 
 The first great persecution began under Nero. 
 On the night of July i8, A. D. 64, a fire originated 
 in the stalls of the Circus Maximus. It consumed 
 seats and stagings, and then spread with terrifying 
 rapidity. To check it firemen and soldiers worked 
 in vain. Houses were torn down to arrest the 
 flames. For six days and nights the fire raged, 
 spread into the gardens of Maecenas, and after being 
 subdued burst out again and continued three more 
 days its work of destruction. Of fourteen regions 
 of Rome but four escaped unharmed. Nero was 
 accused as the incendiary. We have no historic 
 proof of his guilt. But, suspected of the crime and 
 endangered by the populace, the reckless emperor 
 accused the Christians. Possibly instigated by the 
 Jews, he began a work of murder to divert atten- 
 tion. A carnival of blood ensued. Horrible and 
 unexampled torments were employed. Martyrs were 
 crucified, torn by dogs, killed in the tragic specta- 
 cles. In Nero's gardens, where now stand St. Pe- 
 ter's and the Vatican, the populace assembled to 
 behold a brilliant but ghastly display which seems 
 like a red midnight glare, ominous of the centuries 
 of fiery torments before Christianity, under the old 
 Rome and under the new. Huge torches blazed 
 through the darkness. Like some infernal demon, 
 Nero turned pain into sport, and of death itself made 
 laughter. He smeared martyrs with pitch and set 
 them on fire that their agonies, visible in the blaze. 
 
56 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 might amuse the giddy and cruel Roman multi- 
 tude. 
 
 This first persecution was a mere outburst of 
 popular hate, stimulated by brutal imperial caprice. 
 For fifty years there was no law by which Christians 
 were killed. Their lives depended on the whim 
 of rulers and the passions of the populace. An ex- 
 plosion might occur at any moment. The first le- 
 gal enactment was caused by one of the most just 
 of the consular governors and made by one of the 
 most excellent of the emperors. In the view of its 
 framers it was necessary, merciful, and equitable. 
 We must remember that by Roman law Christian- 
 ity was not only impiety, but treason, and, there- 
 fore, an offense both against religion and empire. 
 
 About the year A. D. ii2 Pliny the Younger was 
 proconsul in Bithynia. In this region the altars 
 were abandoned and the temples deserted. Pagan- 
 ism seemed like one of its own decaying and deso- 
 late seats of worship. Its priests feared that their 
 gods would be dethroned and their occupation gone. 
 Accusations multiplied and crowds of Christians 
 were forced before Pliny. The just and forbearing 
 Roman magistrate was perplexed. He shrank from 
 decreeing to ax and flame, and dispatched a letter 
 asking instruction from the emperor. Trajan re- 
 flected and replied. His answer was the first impe- 
 rial edict which regulated by law the trial and pun- 
 ishment of Christians. It provided (i) that they 
 were not to be sought ; (2) that when accused and 
 convicted they were to be punished ; (3) that if they 
 sacrificed they were to be pardoned ; and (4) that 
 no anonymous accusations were to be received. 
 
t'ERSECUTlONS. ^f 
 
 Por more than a century this memorable edict of 
 Trajan regulated the treatment of Christians. But 
 it left them at the mercy of mobs and consuls. Life 
 was a suspense. A storm might burst at any mo- 
 ment and thousands perish. A sword waved over 
 the head of each disciple, ever ready to stop and 
 strike. And it was under the philosophic Marcus 
 Aurelius the most cruel blow fell. He changed the 
 law into relentless severity. How mild and beau- 
 tiful the words of this emperor ! *' Men exist for 
 each other," he writes ; ** teach them or bear with 
 them ! " Have we not here the spirit of the Gos- 
 pel ? In theory the pagan is more merciful than 
 the inquisitor. Our imperial philosopher is exalted 
 as a moral model. We must judge him, not by his 
 journals, which cost only time, ink, and parchment, 
 but by his laws, which murdered and plundered the 
 innocent. Barbarians were thundering on the con- 
 fines of his empire. Gloom settled over Marcus 
 Aurelius. His philosophy evaporated into mist, 
 that grew red in a cloud of blood. After all his 
 fair dreams he was not only an imperial failure, but 
 an inciter to plunder and death. It is not certain 
 that in his despair he did not turn from philosophy 
 to heathenism and seek to propitiate his old gods 
 by the blood of martyrs. Our lauded and specula- 
 tive emperor invited persecution by an appeal to 
 that avarice which, under the pretext of religion, 
 has usually set in motion the machinery of death 
 by which kings and priests have ground out gain 
 to satisfy greed. Marcus Aurelius issued an edict 
 ordering that the accusers of Christians should come 
 into possession of their property ! 
 
58 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Decius let loose the next tempest. He was the 
 first to decree a general persecution. Like Trajan, 
 he proposed to restore the old Roman glory. An- 
 cient institutions were to be revived, the Senate was 
 to regain its patrician honors, the censorship to 
 be renewed, and Rome fortified and adorned so as 
 to attract with its former splendors. With these 
 political aspirations came the necessity of restor- 
 ing the old paganism. Olympian gods will resume 
 their thrones, their temples, and their dominion. But 
 Christianity stands in the way of such a revival. 
 Decius will obliterate it in blood. In A. D. 250 his 
 imperial edict ordained that all Christians, without 
 exception, should be required to perform the rites of 
 the religion of the Roman State. The punishment 
 of refusal was torture. Local magistrates were 
 directed to fix a time within which Christians were 
 to appear and sacrifice. Many fled, and their prop- 
 erty was confiscated. Those remaining were terri- 
 fied by threats. But soon the earthquake heaved 
 beneath the Church. Pagan rage burst forth in 
 different regions of the empire. The Bishop of 
 Rome, Fabianus, suffered martyrdom. Cornelius 
 was successor in office and in death. Next Lucius 
 accepted the episcopate, but soon exchanged his 
 miter for a martyr's crown. Rome's three faithful 
 bishops sleep together in the Catacombs. Multi- 
 tudes in the imperial capital perished by torture. 
 Their numbers were nearly equaled in Alexandria. 
 Here Quinta was dragged through the streets by 
 her feet until she expired. Crucified side by side, a 
 husband and wife for three days exhorted each 
 other as they suffered. At Caesarea perished Bishop 
 
PERSECUTIONS. 59 
 
 Alexander of Jerusalem, and in Antioch Bishop 
 Babylas. The illustrious Cyprian was beheaded at 
 Carthage. For ten years this Decian persecution 
 continued, and ended when the emperor fell in a 
 war with the Goths. 
 
 In A. D. 302-303 began the last fire-test of Chris- 
 tianity under imperial Rome. Diocletian had di- 
 vided the empire between four rulers. Of these two 
 were Augusti and two were Caesars. But over all 
 Diocletian retained the sovereign authority. Like 
 Trajan and Decius, he, too, would restore the old 
 Roman glory — not, however, by martyrdom of 
 Christians. Diocletian was a wise and pacific em- 
 peror and, although of plebeian birth, had shown 
 himself worthy of the imperial purple. It was Ga- 
 lerius, his associate, who, on a visit to the capital, 
 urged him to kindle fatal fires. Diocletian hesi- 
 tated, but consented to take counsel of the gods. 
 Having yielded thus far, he was pushed onward 
 until he brought over himself and his empire a 
 cloud dark as death. The oracle of the Milesian 
 Apollo gave the response the priests desired and, 
 perhaps, dictated. Paganism triumphed for the 
 hour, to perish by its own violence. Taught by ex- 
 perience, it sought to burn the Scriptures, destroy 
 the churches, extirpate the ministers, and thus at 
 its fountains exhaust Christianity. Angered by 
 false reports, although averse to blood, Diocletian 
 began in his own court and capital by ordering to 
 torture. All who would not sacrifice were strangled. 
 
 1. An imperial decree directed the sacred books 
 to be burned and the sacred edifices destroyed.; 
 
 2. The clergy were commanded to be imprisoned ; 
 
6o THE CHRISTIAN DfeMOCRAcV. 
 
 3 and 4. The decrees were then extended to all 
 Christians, who must sacrifice or die. 
 
 Now the Diocletian persecution surpassed all that 
 preceded in extent and cruelty. Murders were 
 wholesale. A Phrygian town was surrounded and 
 burned. A whole Church was in one instance extir- 
 pated. Slaughter attained the rate of a hundred a 
 day. Galerius ordered death by slow fire. A small 
 flame was kindled under the feet of a victim. Wa- 
 ter was dashed on him to prevent his too speedy 
 death. He was calcined until his flesh fell from his 
 bones. Hanging by their feet, the ears and noses 
 of the martyrs were cut ofl", their eyes and tongues 
 torn out, and when their bodies were consumed 
 their ashes were cast into the sea to prevent venera- 
 tion for their relics. About the sixth year this in- 
 fernal violence expended itself. By endurance mar- 
 tyrs conquered priests and emperors. The Christian 
 anvil wore out the pagan hammer. Imperial Rome 
 was defeated. Diocletian, so long prosperous, died 
 in awful gloom. Diseased by debauchery and tor- 
 tured by fear, Galerius was a spectacle of suffering. 
 Vermin swarmed over his loathsome flesh, while he 
 raged like a demon. At last the expiring tyrant 
 himself ended the persecution. On his deathbed 
 Galerius confessed his failure, stopped the cruelties, 
 decreed universal toleration, and supplicated the 
 prayers of Christians. 
 
 But history must notice that dark, spectral colors 
 crossed the brilliant glories of martyrdom. Even 
 in prisons and flames spiritual pride was intensified 
 into intolerant fanaticism. And this connected it- 
 self with the strifes for the episcopate mentioned 
 
PERSECUTIONS. 6t 
 
 first by Clemens Romanus and of which we have 
 glimpses through the mists of patristic ages. While 
 the fires of the Decian persecution were raging at 
 Carthage, bishops and presbyters were in a fierce 
 contest which ended in the universal subversion of 
 the Christian Democracy. 
 
 About two hundred years after Christ was born 
 Cyprian, called Thascius. He was a rhetorician, 
 wealthy and highly educated. Baptized A. D. 247, 
 in the next year he was advanced to the episcopate. 
 The new bishop gave all his property to the poor. 
 But neither his charity, his piety, nor his brilliant 
 genius prevented envy at his sudden exaltation. 
 Religion had declined at Carthage. Luxury under- 
 mined faith and morals. Dross had mingled with 
 the gold. In the Church were worldly men who 
 sought gain and glory, even from martyrdom. Pre- 
 suming on their superior piety, from their prison 
 cells fanatical professors issued certificates recom- 
 mending, almost commanding, unworthy persons to 
 be restored to the communion. Some of these 
 lapsed disciples had denied the faith by sacrifice to 
 the emperor, and some had bought immunity by 
 surrendering their Bibles to their persecutors. A 
 wild, infectious, and pernicious enthusiasm was ex- 
 cited in the Church of Carthage. Popular clamor 
 almost forced the bishop to respect the indiscrimi- 
 nate commendations of deceived and ambitious 
 fanatics. Cyprian hesitated. He wisely maintained 
 that the lapsed should not be restored until the 
 storm had passed and each case could be examined 
 and decided by the ecclesiastical authority. He 
 yielded so far as to give the dying the sacrament. 
 
62 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 But this concession, inconsistent with his position, 
 instead of allaying, added fury to the tempest. 
 
 On a hill near Carthage lived Novatus, the pres- 
 byter. He was a man of fiery spirit who spurned 
 the episcopal yoke. In him culminated the antag- 
 onism of the ecclesiastical strifes of two centuries. 
 Novatus watched his bishop struggling in the storm 
 and was not above taking advantage of his difficul- 
 ties. In the heat of the persecution the rebel pres- 
 byter ordained the deacon Felicissimus. This was 
 open and defiant revolt against the episcopal order. 
 Carthage burst into strifes among Christians furious 
 as the martyr flames kindled by a pagan emperor. 
 Now the lapsed who were rejected by the bishop 
 were received by the presbyter. Novatus was a 
 leader of rebellion, and his Church a fiery center. 
 
 To meet the assaults of his presbyterial enemies 
 Cyprian did not defend himself by urging the in- 
 herent wisdom of his policy toward the lapsed. In 
 this he would have been strong and his vindication 
 complete. But the bishop prevailed over the man. 
 Cyprian stood, not on his argument, but his order. 
 His episcopal authority was inviolable because es- 
 tablished by God. Office, rather than reason, made 
 him right. To support his prerogative he enforced 
 his commands by his visions. A divine voice told 
 him that the immaculate priesthood would be 
 avenged. He now asserted as a universal law that, 
 as the bishop is in the Church, so the Church is in 
 the bishop. He said that whoever separated him- 
 self from the bishop separated himself from the 
 Church. In the bishop, therefore, was the unity of 
 the Church. Amid the Decian flames, a little more 
 
PERSECUTIONS. 63 
 
 than two centuries after the power and liberty of 
 the Pentecostal baptism, was developed by Cyprian 
 that view of episcopal prerogative which subverted 
 the Christian Democracy and, after the Apostolical 
 Constitutions, became the universal ecclesiastical 
 law. 
 
 A schism arose at Rome in principle similar to 
 that at Carthage, although in origin widely diverse. 
 It was the Italian death-throe of the sovereignty 
 of believers as established by the evangelical his- 
 tories. Novatianus was a learned, pious, and influ- 
 ential presbyter. He attained peace after what 
 was believed to be a fierce struggle with indwelling 
 demons from which he had been exorcised. Fa- 
 bianus, Bishop of Rome, ordained him presbyter. 
 Now in the capital of the world started forth into 
 a blaze of fury the question which had inflamed 
 Carthage. Shall the lapsed be admitted to the com- 
 munion ? Novatianus took the rigid view, while 
 Cornelius, bishop by the martyrdom of Fabianus, 
 took the mild view. In Italy, as in Africa, bishop 
 against presbyter and presbyter against bishop on 
 the question of episcopal authority ; while in regard 
 to the policy toward the lapsed the positions of 
 bishop and presbyter are completely reversed ! In 
 defiance of Fabianus was Novatianus ordained 
 bishop. But the rebellion was not successful. As 
 at Carthage, so at Rome and in all regions of the 
 world, by the law and custom of both the Oriental 
 and Occidental communions, episcopacy triumphed 
 over the liberties of the Christian Democracy. 
 
 Out of the Diocletian persecution at the close of 
 the third century sprang the Donatist gchisrn. It, 
 
64 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 too, originated in questions concerning the lapsed. 
 As in the Decian persecution, arose a mild and a 
 rigid party. A woman led the severe sectists. 
 Lucilla, wealthy and powerful, possessed precious 
 martyr relics, which she saluted affectionately and 
 adoringly with public and private kisses. Her fem- 
 inine zeal was infectious in its fanaticism. The rich 
 lady had an enemy. It was Csecilian, ordained 
 Bishop of Carthage by Felix. At the house of 
 Lucilla was held a meeting of her friends. In fact, 
 the rich lady was in conspiracy against episcopal 
 order, perhaps without intending rebellion. She 
 called to her aid Numidian bishops. These conse- 
 crated her favorite reader, Marjorinus, charging that 
 as Felix was an apostate traditor his ordination of 
 Caecilian was void. In this contest between Lucilla 
 and her bishop we have the seeds of the Donatist 
 schism. 
 
 The emperor Constantine interfered in this Car- 
 thaginian battle and directed an inquiry. He ap- 
 pointed Miltiades, Bishop of Rome, to preside over 
 an episcopal commission. In the year A. D. 313 
 the case was tried. Five GaUic bishops, under Mil- 
 tiades, constituted the ecclesiastical court. Ten 
 bishops accused and ten defended. In attendance 
 were fifteen Italian bishops. Against the accused 
 Donatus was leader. Felix was tried on the charge 
 of having betrayed the faith by delivering the sacred 
 books to his persecutors. He was acquitted. Hence 
 his ordination of Caecilian was valid. The case was 
 then appealed to the Council of Aries. Here, too, 
 Caecilian was vindicated. Marjorinus, his rival, soon 
 after died ; but the schism he represented had rooted 
 
PERSECUTIONS. 65 
 
 itself in North Africa. Donatus became its leader. 
 He was a bishop without regular ordination, but 
 energetic and eloquent, however errant in spirit and 
 doctrine. In him we have an expiring protest, pas- 
 sionate, yet powerful, against the ecclesiastical sup- 
 pression of primitive liberty. Donatism would have 
 hurled away the fetter of apostolical succession. 
 Often it flamed into fanaticism and rushed into wild- 
 est excesses. Mad violence invited against it re- 
 pressive measures. Some of its frenzied enthusiasts 
 sought for themselves the fame of martyrdom. They 
 hurled themselves into flames and over precipices. 
 With other eminent bishops of his sect, Donatus 
 was exiled. Under Julian their churches and priv- 
 ileges were restored. But succeeding emperors re- 
 newed the persecutions. To heal the schism Augus- 
 tine devoted his time, his strength, and his elo- 
 quence. In A. D. 41 1 a great convention assembled 
 at Carthage. Two hundred and eighty-six Catholic 
 bishops met two hundred and seventy-nine Donatist 
 bishops. North Africa swarmed with bishops, Cath- 
 olic and Donatist, differing but by seven in their 
 numbers ! So powerful was sectarian opposition 
 to apostolical succession ! 
 
 Now Augustine introduced a startling compro- 
 mise. It conceded the whole claim of episcopacy 
 as a divine, exclusive, and invariable order. Yet it 
 does not seem to have been resisted at Rome or 
 Carthage or Constantinople or in any part of the 
 universal Church. Expediency is usually stronger 
 than principle. Augustine proposed that if the 
 Donatists would become Catholics, then the bishops 
 of both parties should stand on the same level in 
 
66 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 episcopal functions. A Donatist and Catholic bishop 
 were to occupy their sees together, but which- 
 ever survived should be in the Catholic episcopate. 
 Thus Augustine hoped to make all North Africa 
 Catholic. However, the sectists refused his gener- 
 ous concession. As shown by the letters of Gregory 
 the Great, Donatism survived down to the sixth cen- 
 tury, a fanatical and mutilated, but protesting, wit- 
 ness for the evangelical Christian Democracy. 
 
CONSTANTINE. 6y 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Constantine. 
 
 THE death of Galcrius removed from the earth 
 an imperial monster. He was a demon mad 
 for blood, and baffled only by physical and 
 mental torments in his fiendish love of destruction. 
 Now loathsome in his grave, the empire was relieved 
 of an intolerable load. This persecuting tyrant was 
 succeeded by his nephew, Caius Galerius Valerius 
 Maximinus. In the year 311 he had made himself 
 master of the Asiatic provinces, and ruled also over 
 Egypt. He was a man of low origin, nor were his 
 mean birth and rude dispositions concealed by his 
 imperial purple. Maximinus was ignorant, violent, 
 a devotee of gods, and a tool of priests. 
 
 Under the edict issued amid the death-agonies of 
 Galerius, Christians came from mines and prisons 
 and exile in distant lands to experience briefly the 
 joy of liberty. The churches were full, and the 
 temples deserted. Fresh vigor inspired the new 
 faith, made unconquerable by suffering. But this 
 victorious joy of the Christians excited fanatical 
 rage in their heathen enemies. Priests, conjurers, 
 and magistrates in united opposition begged the 
 emperor that no foes of his ancestral gods should 
 dwell or worship within the walls of cities. At 
 Antioch their petition was enforced by a voice from 
 the statue of Jupiter. The king of Olympus spoke 
 
68 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 against Christ. Maximinus was not displeased with 
 this intonation of the will of Jove. He caused at 
 Tyre a writing to be made which expressed the 
 whole spirit of the ancient paganism. In this the 
 emperor directs the veneration of the people to the 
 monarch of the gods whose chosen earthly seat was 
 the Roman capital. He says: ''That highest and 
 greatest Jupiter, who presides over your famous city, 
 who saved the divinities of your fathers, your wives, 
 children, hearths, and homes from every pestilent 
 infection, he it was who inspired your souls with this 
 healthful purpose, revealing to you how noble and 
 salutary it is to approach the worship of the immor- 
 tal gods with becoming reverence." All the calam- 
 ities of his empire Maximinus referred to the reck- 
 less and pernicious errors of Christians. '* If they 
 persist," he said, " in their accursed folly let them 
 be banished." Another effort now to restore the 
 splendor of paganism ! Shall the torch be again 
 kindled ? Shall chain and prison and exile and con- 
 fiscation be once more employed against the faith ? 
 Shall the horrors inflicted by Galerius be repeated 
 under his nephew ? Blood began to flow and flames 
 to burn. Ominous the portents of terrible perse- 
 cution ! But by events in another region of the 
 empfre the tragic spectacles of martyrdom were 
 arrested. 
 
 Constantine the Great was richly endowed with the 
 most brilliant gifts of manhood. In person he was 
 large and commanding, majestic in countenance, 
 with a versatile and comprehensive intellect directed 
 by an imperial will created for dominion. The times 
 were ready for this masterful genius. He was to be 
 
CONSTANTINE. 69 
 
 the agent of a revolution which was to shape the future 
 of humanity to the close of its development. Con- 
 stantinewasthe son ofConstantius Chlorus, one of the 
 AugustiofDiocletian,who resided in Britain. Helena, 
 the mother of the greatest of emperors, was reputed 
 to be the daughter of an innkeeper. Her illustri- 
 ous son thus inherited the robustness of plebeians 
 with a patrician dignity and refinement. His vast 
 gifts had been educated at the court of Diocletian, 
 where he seems to have been held as a species of 
 hostage for the good conduct of his father, Chlorus. 
 In the Nicomedian capital he must have witnessed 
 scenes in the most terrible of all the persecutions, 
 and been impressed with their cruel injustice. Fear- 
 ing for his life, he resolved to escape from his splen- 
 did captivity. In an unguarded moment Diocletian 
 gave his consent that the imperial youth should de- 
 part. Expecting a recall, Constantine prepared relays 
 of swift horses, and was soon flying with his face to- 
 ward the West. Nor was he too quick to leave 
 or too fast in flight. Soon Diocletian dispatched 
 messengers to bring back the fugitive. It was too 
 late. Constantine was far in advance. He could 
 not be overtaken. In that successful flight was the 
 future of Christendom. The stumble of a horse, 
 the delay of a groom, the treachery of a rider would 
 have changed the course of the history of humanity. 
 In A. D. 306 Constantine was proclaimed the suc- 
 cessor of his father. Against Maximian the young 
 emperor turned first his arms. His eagles tri- 
 umphed. Maximian was defeated and driven to 
 suicide. The exulting victor presented a magnif- 
 icent offering expressive of his gratitude to Apollo 
 
*Jd THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 in his temple at Augustodunum. By this brilliant 
 gift Constantine ascribed his success to a Roman 
 god. Was the imperial youth at this beginning of 
 his military career a pagan ? Or did he wish to se- 
 cure by hypocrisy heathen support ? Or was he yet 
 vacillating between the old and the new? He had, 
 most probably, been trained by his parents in the 
 faith of the Christians. 
 
 In his path to the dominion of the world Con- 
 stantine next encountered a more formidable rival. 
 His implacable foe was Maxentius. This Csesar was 
 despicable, infamous, and detested. Consumed by 
 lust and vanity, he deflowered the wives and daugh- 
 ters of illustrious senators until he became abhorred 
 as a tyrant monster. But he possessed Rome. 
 Hated and feeble in himself, he was yet powerful in 
 the renown and wealth and army of the splendid 
 capital of the empire. He represented the ancient 
 paganism. He hoped in the national gods whom 
 he honored. He was, therefore, accepted as the 
 defender of the old Roman idolatry and common- 
 wealth. Around him were priests, populace, and 
 patricians. Strong in this support, he challenged 
 war. Over Italy Maxentius commanded the statues 
 of Constantine to be hurled from their pedestals to 
 the earth. This was an inexpiable insult to impe- 
 rial majesty. 
 
 Constantine resolved to strike the first blow. 
 With forty thousand men he marched into Italy. 
 Maxentius had one hundred and twenty thousand 
 soldiers, and his other advantages were overwhelm- 
 ing. On his side were all the omens of victory. 
 Constantine was awed by his peril. His soldiers 
 
CONSTANTINE. /I 
 
 were mostly pagans in arms against their gods. Can 
 they be trusted to fight against their priests and 
 altars? Are they not led against Rome, their ven- 
 erated imperial capital ? Will they encounter the 
 peril of vastly superior numbers? And their gen- 
 eral is a youth without laurels or experience, who 
 has just drawn his sword first in battle. In this 
 desperate situation where shall Constantine seek 
 help ? We will see. The new hero marches boldly 
 from the Alps into Italy toward Rome. On the 
 Flaminian way at the Milvian Bridge he is a 
 few miles from the capital. A crisis has come 
 when he must have divine aid or perish. He can- 
 not supplicate the deities of his enemies. He will 
 turn, then, to the God of the Christians. Desire for 
 victory, rather than faith, inspired his prayer. In 
 this torturing suspense, just after the hour of noon, 
 Constantine relates that he saw over the sun a glit- 
 tering cross, and above it on the heavens the words, 
 TovTG) vUa — '^ By this conquer!" The emperor 
 pondered over the celestial sign. Night came, and 
 he dreamed. Now, he solemnly affirms that Christ 
 revealed Himself and commanded him to make a 
 banner resplendent like that in the sky. In obedi- 
 ence to the vision a glittering ensign was prepared. 
 This was the labarum. It lifted on its flaming folds 
 the cross in sight of the army. On the helmet of 
 the emperor shone a cross. On the shield of each 
 soldier was a cross. Wherever battle raged floated 
 and flashed a cross. The cross became the symbol 
 for Constantine of faith and victory. 
 
 But beyond the Tiber was Maxentius. He was 
 the defender of heathen gods, priests, altars, tem-" 
 
72 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 pies, traditions, and his empire's capital. Face to 
 face stand paganism and Christianity. The battle 
 is for the dominion of the world. Terrible the 
 shock! The army of Maxentius is shattered and 
 defeated, and he is hurled into the Tiber from a 
 bridge near where now stands the modern Ponte 
 Molle. On the hill of the Capitol Constantine plants 
 the cross. Here in his own temple Christ displaces 
 Jupiter. The victorious emperor on the Esquiline 
 built the Lateran Cathedral and erected the vast 
 monumental baths whose ruins yet give honor to 
 his conquering name. It was on the twenty-seventh 
 of October, A. D. 312, that the conflict of the Mil- 
 vian Bridge occurred, and ever after this triumph of 
 his arms the cross was Constantine's battle symbol. 
 He erected in the Roman Forum his statue. Grasped 
 by his right hand was his standard of victory, with 
 the inscription, *' By this salutary sign, the true sym- 
 bol of valor, I freed your city from the yoke of the 
 tyrant." The conqueror converts the emblem of our 
 salvation into an inspiration for war. Years after, 
 in his capital on the Bosporus, he gave his standard 
 a more spiritual significance. At the entrance of 
 his imperial palace was an immense picture of the 
 emperor. His labariim was in the hand of Con- 
 stantine. Beneath his feet, pierced by arrows, 
 writhed the dragon Heathenism. 
 
 Galerius had died on his bed in agonies of dis- 
 ease. Maximian after defeat perished by suicide. 
 Maxentius was drowned at the Ponte Molle in Tiber. 
 Maximinus while arming for new conflicts died at 
 Tarsus. Of the six rivals claiming empire after 
 Diocletian's death four had been removed from the 
 
CONSTANTINE. ^3 
 
 path of Constantine to the throne of the world. His 
 brother-in-law Licinius alone remained. Early in 
 the year A. D. 313 the two emperors met in friendly 
 consultation at Milan. They agreed to issue a re- 
 markable decree — the first edict of universal tolera- 
 tion ever proclaimed in the history of the human 
 race. It is a magnificent testimony to the states- 
 manship of Constantine. How wonderful that the 
 man who was to complete the extinction of the 
 Christian Democracy and fetter the Church to the 
 empire, and whose sons would be tyrants over 
 bishops, should make the first movement toward 
 liberty of faith far in advance of the progress of 
 the world ! The edict of Milan was published on 
 June 13, 313, in Nicomedia, the capital of the 
 Oriental division of the empire. Its chief provisions 
 were : (i) Each subject of the empire was at liberty 
 to choose his own religion ; (2) all property of 
 Christians confiscated during the persecutions was 
 to be restored ; (3) compensation to innocent pur- 
 chasers was to be made from the imperial treasury ; 
 (4) all officials were enjoined faithfully to execute 
 the edict. 
 
 The peace between Licinius and Constantine 
 could not continue. A trembling world felt war to 
 be inevitable. Between paganism and Christianity 
 drew near the final struggle. One emperor was a 
 patron of the old gods, and the other their declared 
 foe. Each impersonated his religion. In the same 
 army the cross glittering over the Christian soldier 
 was the abomination of the pagan. Towns, cities, 
 provinces, kingdoms were divided. Even in his 
 own court each sovereign feared treachery. The 
 
74 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 empire must henceforth be either pagan or Chris- 
 tian. Licinius, perhaps, precipitated the catas- 
 trophe. He forbade assemblies of bishops ; he hin- 
 dered Christian education ; he sent worshipers to 
 the fields ; he appointed pagan officers ; he per- 
 mitted persecution, as in the case of the Forty Mar- 
 tyrs at Sebaste. But Constantine, on his side, was 
 equally ready for the irrepressible conflict. 
 
 Priests and augurs excited Licinius to defend 
 their gods and destroy their enemies. Before pro- 
 ceeding to war he conducted the officers of his 
 court and army to a sacred grove. Candles burn 
 before the divine images. The place is awful with 
 all the imposing rites of pagan ceremonial. Above 
 the altar rises the smoke of sacrifice. In the name 
 of his deities Licinius makes this solemn appeal : 
 *' Here stand the images of the gods whose worship 
 we have received from our fathers. But our enemy, 
 who has impiously abandoned the sanctuaries of his 
 country, worships a foreign God, who has come from 
 I know not where, and dishonors his army with the 
 disgraceful sign of his God. If the foreign thing 
 which we now deride come off victorious we, too, 
 shall be obliged to acknowledge and worship it and 
 we must dismiss the gods to whom we vainly kindle 
 these lights. But if our gods conquer, as we doubt 
 not they will, we will turn ourselves after this vic- 
 tory to the war against our enemies." 
 
 The significance of the struggle was as fully 
 realized by Constantine. His life, his faith, his em- 
 pire were involved. To a guard of fifty soldiers he 
 committed the labarum. It moved the symbol of 
 victory. The army saw in it a sign of the presence 
 
CONSTANTINE. 7$ 
 
 of Divinity. Imagination surrounded it with a halo 
 of awe, and it inspired men in strifes of deadly bat- 
 tle. One bearer, terrified, giving the labartim to a 
 comrade, fled. The coward fell transfixed by ar- 
 rows, while the new ensign with his flaming standard 
 was unharmed amid peril and slaughter. Often 
 struck, the staff was uninjured. Thus the cross of 
 our salvation, beautiful emblem of eternal peace, 
 urged grim warriors to carnage for victory ! 
 
 On the third of July, A. D. 323, Licinius was de- 
 feated at Adrianople. The siege of Byzantium 
 followed. Crispus, eldest son of Constantine, com- 
 manded the fleet and, entering the Hellespont, con- 
 quered Amandus, the pagan admiral. At Chry- 
 sopolis was the final battle. Here, too, Licinius was 
 vanquished. He fled to Nicomedia. At the inter- 
 cession of his wife Constantia, his life was spared ; 
 but in A. D. 324 he was ordered to death. All 
 enemies were subdued. Constantine was master of 
 the world. 
 
 Imperial policy soon violated the edict of Milan. 
 Humanity was not ready for religious toleration. 
 Constantine himself led in a departure from the wise 
 provisions of his own decree. His sons followed his 
 example. It was ordered : " The heathen supersti- 
 tion must cease ; the temples everywhere must be 
 closed ; he who offers sacrifice shall be struck down 
 with the avenging sword ; his property shall fall to 
 the State treasury." We see in these statutes that 
 gain is the end of all persecutors, whether pagans or 
 inquisitors. 
 
 Before his battle with Maxentius, Constantine af- 
 firms he saw over the sun, and then in vision, a 
 
76 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 cross which became his sign and inspiration of vic- 
 tory. Was it illusion, or imposture? At the close 
 of his life, with slight motive for deception, the em- 
 peror related to his friend Eusebius as facts the 
 spectacleswhich appeared to his eye and in his dream. 
 We need not explain them into miracle. They be- 
 long to a not infrequent species of psychological phe- 
 nomena. Powerful mental impressions control the 
 senses, not only of individuals, but of multitudes. 
 Proof shows that the eye sees what is intensely 
 conceived. In abnormal conditions soul dominates 
 vision. A cross blazed vividly before the mind of 
 the agitated emperor. His mental image he trans- 
 ferred to the sun. Excited by the glowing picture, 
 he magnetized his army into his faith. We can ad- 
 duce psychological facts as wonderful as those in- 
 volved in the vision of Constantine. 
 
 Was the great emperor a Christian ? After his 
 victory over Maxentius his imperial influence was 
 for the new faith. He associated with clergymen, 
 studied doctrinal questions, convened the Nicene 
 Council, and seemed devoted to the Church. But 
 not until thirty years of profession was he baptized. 
 Eusebius paints a brilliant picture of the ceremony. 
 Constantine suffers from a disease pronounced in- 
 curable. Imperial purple cannot hide the ghastly 
 traces of his fatal malady. On his brow falls the 
 shadow of eternity. Vanity earth's empire com- 
 pared with the immortality of heaven ! Awed by 
 the everlasting future, Constantine stands at the font 
 in the glittering robes of baptism whose white sym- 
 bolizes holiness. He is immersed in the consecrated 
 water in the name of the Trinity. He is signed with 
 
CONSTANTINE. 77 
 
 the cross. He feels on his brow the anointing chrism, 
 and he professed to experience in himself the in- 
 effable joy of forgiveness, the purity of regenera- 
 tion, the hope of immortal life. If we are to believe 
 his testimony, he glowed with the love and light of 
 a Christian's faith. And the magnificence of his 
 imperial funeral, which followed soon, gave solemn 
 interest to a baptism preparative for death. Eusebius 
 wrote the account of his emperor. The eloquence 
 of the bishop encircles Constantine with the halo of 
 the sage, the hero, and the saint. 
 
 We have viewed the bright colors of the picture ; 
 mingled amid these are shades dark with death. 
 Toward his life's close Constantine was filled with 
 gloom. Black specters of suspicion pursued the 
 miserable man. Blood was on his life. He had 
 forced Maximian to suicide. He had put to death 
 his own son, Crispus. He had slain his nephew. 
 He had killed his brother-in-law Licinius, once his 
 imperial associate. After sacrificing his son on the 
 testimony of his second wife, Fausta, he gave Fausta 
 also to the executioner. We do not know all the 
 facts. The members of his family slain by the em- 
 peror may have conspired against his life or throne. 
 But we should restrain eulogy. A cloud is over 
 Constantine. He is before that infallible Judge 
 who weighs slave and king in the same balance of 
 everlasting justice. 
 
 As a ruler no man in history is more illustrious 
 than the son of Chlorus. Renouncing paganism, 
 he wisely recognized it as a fact to be tolerated in 
 his government. His conciliation was the only 
 policy possible. It brought magnificent success. 
 
78 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Under the leadership of Constantine Christianity 
 became the triumphant reh'gion of his empire. From 
 flames and dungeons and impoverishment it arose 
 to mold the administration of him who won and 
 wore the diadem of the world. By convening the 
 Council of Nice Constantine stamped himself on that 
 creed which was to become the universal symbol of 
 the faith of Christendom. He built, too, the city of 
 beauty and glory in whose dazzle of splendor even 
 Rome was for a time obscured, which retains his 
 victorious name, which is a center of the Greek 
 Church and the Mohammedan dominion, and about 
 whose possession as a capital of empire revolve some 
 of the most stupendous questions connected with 
 the future of humanity. 
 
 We must explain in detail the influence of Con- 
 stantine on the organism of the Church. He com- 
 pleted in its polity the ecclesiastical revolution which 
 began in the first century, was successful in the time 
 of Cyprian, and became law by the provision for 
 ordination in the Apostolical Constitutions. By 
 him all previous tendencies from democracy to oli- 
 garchy and autocracy were extended and perpet- 
 uated. He secularized the Church. Hereafter it 
 exhibits the pomp and pretension of the empire. 
 This we see in the lordly assumptions of episcopal 
 titles, so different from the scriptural and apostolical 
 simplicity. Eusebius and Chrysostom call bishops 
 princes and governors. Siimmi sacerdotes^ pontifi- 
 ces maximi, principes sacerdottun — '* highest priests," 
 '* greatest pontiffs," ''chief of priests" — become 
 usual designations. Bishops Avere also styled papcB^ 
 patres patrmn^ and episcopi episcoporum—-^^ fathers/' 
 
CONSTANTINE. 79 
 
 " fathers of fathers,'* and " bishops of bishops." 
 Their increased prerogatives corresponded to their 
 pompous episcopal titles : 
 
 I. In regard to presbyters, bishops had absolute 
 and independent authority. 2. Bishops tried presby- 
 ters, while presbyters never tried bishops. 3. Bish- 
 ops only had power to grant presbyters license to 
 preach, and, strictly, permission was necessary in 
 each particular instance where the function was ex- 
 ercised. 4. Baptisms could be regularly performed 
 only in the church of the bishop, where ample 
 provision was made for the sacrament. 5. Con- 
 firmations admitting to the eucharist were by 
 bishops. 6. The worship of each church in his 
 jurisdiction was under the sole control of the bish- 
 op, who could compose liturgies and change the 
 form, but not the doctrine, of creeds. 7. Bishops 
 had the absolute right to receive and disburse all 
 ecclesiastical revenues, so that deacons and presby- 
 ters and subordinate functionaries and all charities 
 were paid from the episcopal treasury. 8. Bishops 
 had their power confirmed by civil laws, were ap- 
 pointed judges to try causes, and thus dispensed 
 justice under imperial authority as officers of the 
 empire. 
 
 In an ascending scale, similar to that in the State, 
 ecclesiastical rulers arranged their titles, jurisdic- 
 tions, and prerogatives. The Church was made an 
 ally and an agent of the empire. Metropolitans 
 were established in the chief cities, from which they 
 took name and rank. Each over his district had 
 independent authority, ordained his own bishops, 
 convoked synods over which he presided, supplied 
 
80 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 vacant sees, and had superintendence of the gen- 
 eral interests of his province. 
 
 Highest in this splendid hierarchical system were 
 patriarchs. They, too, imitated the custom of the 
 empire and, as archpriests, styled their districts 
 dioceses. Of these there were thirteen, with their 
 capitals at Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, An- 
 tioch, Ephesus, Caesarea, Thessalonica, Sirmium, 
 Milan, Carthage, Lyons, Toledo, and York. Two 
 of these overshadowed all others and were highest 
 above the ecclesiastical world. After contesting 
 the struggling claims of Alexandria, Ephesus, and 
 Antioch, by the decree of Chalcedon Rome and 
 Constantinople were declared supreme and equal. 
 One was exalted as the ancient, and the other as 
 the actual, capital of the empire, and between them 
 began a conflict for superiority. 
 
 Patriarchs in their dioceses (i) ordained metropol- 
 itans ; (2) called synods and presided ; (3) censured 
 metropolitans ; (4) absolved great criminals ; (5) re- 
 ceived appeals from synods and metropolitans, with 
 power to reverse their inferior decrees ; and (6) as 
 officers of the empire published the imperial laws. 
 Hence the civil title '* exarch " was sometimes ap- 
 plied to metropolitans. The sixth Novel of Jus- 
 tinian shows how ecclesiastics were required to per- 
 form political functions in the intimate alhance of 
 Church and State. It provides, " The patriarchs of 
 every diocese shall publish these our laws and notify 
 them to the metropolitans." 
 
 Amid these revolutionary changes from scriptural 
 democracy to episcopal oligarchy the Bishop of 
 Rome watched the world and ever pressed his claim 
 
CONSTANTINE. 8 1 
 
 to ecclesiastical autocracy. The pope asserted sov- 
 ereignty over East and West. Greek as well as 
 Latin owed him allegiance. He must be acknowl- 
 edged head of the universal Church, and throne and 
 crown kings and emperors. 
 
 As early as A. D. 347 a council at Sardica or- 
 dained that, on appeal to the Bishop of Rome, he 
 could reconsider the case and appoint judges for a 
 second hearing or, taking the initiative, himself in- 
 stitute the ecclesiastical inquiry. In the Council of 
 Ephesus, A. D. 431, the legate of Pope Celestine 
 asserted the sovereignty of his pontifical master. He 
 said : " It is a thing undoubted that the apostle 
 Peter received the keys and power of binding and 
 loosing which in Peter still lives, and exercises judg- 
 ment in his successors now and always." At the 
 Council of Chalcedon Pope Leo's legate styled 
 his lord " head of all Churches," affirming that 
 *' Peter spoke in him." The pontiff himself ex- 
 claims : '* As being see of the blessed Peter, thou, 
 Rome, art made head of all the world, so as to have 
 wider rule by religion than by the power of earthly 
 domination." Hilary, Leo's successor, calls him- 
 self '* vicar of Peter, unto whom forthwith after the 
 resurrection the keys of the kingdom belonged for 
 the illumination of all." Pope Gelasius, A. D. 496, 
 in a letter to Faustus, wrote in the lofty, autocratic 
 strain assumed centuries afterward by Hildebrand, 
 Boniface, and Innocent III : " Things divine are to 
 be learned by secular potentates from bishops, above 
 all from the vicar of the blessed Peter." And in a 
 letter to the emperor Gelasius says : " There are 
 
 two authorities by which the world is governed, the 
 6 
 
82 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 pontifical and the royal, the sacerdotal order being 
 that which has charge of the sacraments of life and 
 from which thou must seek the causal of thy salva- 
 tion. Hence in divine things it becomes kings to 
 bow the head to priests, especially to the head of 
 priests whom Christ's own voice has set over the 
 universal Church." Also in A. D. 501 Symmachus, 
 from his pontifical throne at Rome, asserts his uni- 
 versal sovereignty: "The pope is judge as God's 
 vicar, and can himself be judged by no one ! " 
 
 Nor must we deny that the imperial authority 
 often accentuated the papal claim. The emperors 
 Gratian and Valentinian, A. D. 378, gave ecclesias- 
 tics liberty of appeal to Rome. If the charge was 
 against a metropolitan the pope had original juris- 
 diction. In A. D. 380 the great Theodosius wrote: 
 *' All nations governed by us should steadfastly ad- 
 here to the religion taught by St. Peter to the 
 Romans." He and Theodosius II rebuked resist- 
 ance to the Roman bishop. Without his approbation 
 other bishops were to do nothing. The universal 
 clergy must obey him as supreme ecclesiastical 
 ruler. Justinian's Code in A. D. 529 confirmed Gra- 
 tian's decree. Phocas, the Greek emperor, A. D. 
 606 or 607, acknowledged the see of Rome to be 
 above the see of Constantinople. He gave the pope 
 the Pantheon, over which the Greeks before had 
 jurisdiction. Finally, in A. D. 800 Charlemagne 
 confirmed the universal papal supremacy. The 
 pallium became the gift of popes to metropolitans. 
 It was the official sign of Rome's ecclesiastical sov- 
 ereignty over all nations. 
 
 Yet it must be observed that these grants from 
 
CONSTANTINE. 83 
 
 emperors to popes implied the superiority of the 
 imperial power. This, above all, was the sovereign 
 jurisdiction over Church and State. Emperors con- 
 vened and controlled the great Ecumenical Coun- 
 cils. At Nice, A. D. 325, its Council was summoned 
 by Constantine ; at Constantinople, A. D. 381, its 
 first Council by Theodosius the Great ; at Ephesus, 
 A. D. 431, its Council by Theodosius II; at Chal- 
 cedon, A. D. 451, its Council by Marcian. The 
 second Council of Constantinople, A. D. 553, was 
 convened by Justinian, and the third, A. D. 680, by 
 Constantine Progonatus. 
 
 Nor was the ecclesiastical supremacy of emperors 
 mere theory. In their ordinary government they 
 exercised jurisdiction over patriarchs, popes, metro- 
 politans, bishops, and other clerical functionaries. 
 At will they appointed, degraded, exiled, and even 
 executed. Witness the deposition and banishment 
 of Athanasius, Nestorius, and Chrysostom ! How 
 savage was the imperial tyranny toward illustrious 
 ecclesiastics ! Let one fact stand for many instances ! 
 Eighty clergymen complained of ill usage to the 
 emperor Valens. He placed them in a vessel which 
 the crew fired and abandoned. All perished to- 
 gether in the flames. 
 
 By the Justinian Code bishops were legalized in 
 their oligarchic power. As a coordinate governing 
 authority the college of presbyters vanished, and 
 with them every trace of the original Christian De- 
 mocracy. Laics had no more influence in the Church 
 than sheep, created to be shorn. History recalls 
 the deeds of few persons below the episcopal ranks. 
 Usually about a miter shone the halo of the saint. 
 
84 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Bishops not only usurped title to holiness, but to 
 ecclesiastical jurisdiction, alone attending Councils, 
 executing decrees, controlling revenues, directing 
 worship, and by their mandates impressing the epis- 
 copal will on every act of religion. Yet the eccle- 
 siastics themselves were servile agents of imperial 
 power. Justinian was sovereign. He claimed the 
 world for his empire. Like his edict for the State, 
 his creed for the Church was universal law. His 
 imperial anathema had pontifical authority. Legis- 
 lating for Rome and Constantinople, he ruled East 
 and West as his dominion. Magistrates and eccle- 
 siastics were alike servants of his caprice. Under 
 Justinian Church and State constituted a united 
 empire. 
 
 Charlemagne was as autocratic as Constantine or 
 Justinian. He was crowned, indeed, in A. D. 800 
 by Leo HI, the Roman pontiff. Yet, receiving his 
 diadem from the pope, he exercised imperial sover- 
 eignty over all ecclesiastical persons, questions, and 
 interests. In return for his magnificent dotation 
 to Leo he assumed the power of legislating as 
 despotically for the clergy as the laity. His insti- 
 tutes command the Church. His invasions were to 
 conquer heathenism by the sword. His sign of sub- 
 jugation was baptism. Unbelief with him, as with 
 Mohammed, was extermination. Ecclesiastics, like 
 soldiers, were employed as instruments of worldly 
 dominion. By the victories of his armies Charle- 
 magne became legislator for Church as well as em- 
 pire. He placed himself above the pope and con- 
 demned the image worship which the pope ap- 
 proved. The emperor, a more than pope, presided 
 
CONSTANTINE. 8$ 
 
 at a Council of Frankfort which rejected a decree of 
 a Council of Nicaea. He claimed sway over the 
 whole extent of the old Roman imperial dominion, 
 including the Oriental and the Occidental Church. 
 Charlemagne was the autocrat of Christendom. 
 
 During the mediaeval ages the pope and the em- 
 peror were in perpetual war. Ecclesiastical sover- 
 eignty was disputed, not only in cabinets, but on 
 battlefields. For a time pontiffs triumphed. At 
 the close of the tenth century France, England, and 
 Germany held their crowns from Innocent III, who 
 was the ecclesiastical autocrat of the great European 
 nations. But, whether popes or emperors were in 
 the ascendant, there was not visible a fragment of 
 the original democratic constitution of the Church. 
 Always bishops maintained their power. In many 
 countries the State was ruled, not by an armored, 
 but a tonsured, aristocracy. Cabinets were com- 
 posed of ecclesiastics. Diets supplanted legisla- 
 tures. Bishops governed as princes and fought as 
 warriors. Under clerical rule Europe was a virtual 
 hierarchy. Above prelates, above kings, above em- 
 perors, on the throne of the world sat the Roman 
 Pontiff. 
 
 While Innocent III realized fully the dream of 
 the sovereignty of the world, it was reserved for 
 Boniface VIII most openly and defiantly to arrogate 
 to himself both the pontifical and the imperial do- 
 minion. Rome at his jubilee is crowded with pil- 
 grims. All the power and wealth and magnificence 
 of Europe are about Boniface. In his robe and 
 crown, blazing in gold and purple and glittering 
 with jewels, he ascends the throne of Constantine, 
 
86 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 The dominion of the world is symbolized by his 
 sword, scepter, and diadem. Boniface shouts, " I 
 am Caesar! I am emperor! " By the Vatican De- 
 cree of Pio Nono Boniface is infallible. It was 
 reserved for our own century to consummate the 
 papal autocratic system and pronounce in the 
 Roman Church the extinction of the Christian 
 Democracy. 
 
LIBERTY. 87 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Liberty. 
 
 WE have traced through centuries the sup- 
 pression of the Christian Democracy. But 
 a decay in the outer organism presumes 
 corruption in the inner life. It is the soul which 
 animates and governs the human body. Destroy 
 the spiritual force and you stop the external move- 
 ment. Henceforth we are to consider those living 
 truths which can alone preserve the freedom of the 
 ecclesiastical organism. 
 
 In man liberty is the unconquerable spirit. You 
 cannot chain this with the fetters which bind his 
 flesh. It gains vigor in dungeons and soars above 
 flames. Only the force in heroic souls ever made 
 invincible the brave men who have fought and won 
 the battles of civil liberty. But the power of the 
 Church is not a human inspiration. It is the breath 
 of the Holy Ghost. He characterizes our dispensa- 
 tion. He was promised by the glorified Master. 
 He dwells with men to give freedom and victory. 
 " Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 
 Creeds, confessions, liturgies, organizations are not 
 enough. These belong to the ecclesiastical body ; 
 the life is the Holy Ghost. From Him comes the 
 freedom of the Church. But His presence is always 
 associated with certain truths. We cannot separate 
 the Spirit of God from the doctrine of God. Lib- 
 
88 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 erty of soul springs from knowledge of Scripture. 
 Thus we are impelled to consider those truths which 
 are in the very life of the Christian Democracy. 
 Where can we find them in their perfection? 
 Surely in the form inspired by the Holy Ghost ! 
 Beginning with Scripture as the divine ideal, we find 
 its doctrines in the Church — not a development to- 
 ward perfection, but first a corruption toward extinc- 
 tion, and then a deliverance at the Reformation 
 from the decays of death into a liberty which, we 
 trust, will brighten into universal millennial glory. 
 
 Beneath all in human nature is its sense of guilt. 
 Each man at the root of his being feels something 
 wrong. To this universal consciousness Christianity 
 makes its prime appeal. But my condemnation of 
 myself is graduated by my moral standard. I meas- 
 ure myself by myself, by my neighbor, by my social 
 code, by the light of nature. With certain doubts 
 I acquit myself. Yet, unless I petrify my conscience, 
 I am not satisfied. Again I measure myself; but 
 now by the law of God, by the Christ of God, by 
 the Spirit of God. I find in myself guilt and bond- 
 age. It required the search-light of eternal truth 
 to show me as I am. Here the Gospel meets me 
 with the promise, through faith, to remit my sin 
 and bring me from bondage into liberty. Forgiven, 
 I receive the Holy Ghost. With that gift I am 
 equipped for eternity. Remission of sin is the prime 
 grace which assures all else needful for my salvation, 
 and is essential to that spiritual freedom without 
 which the Christian Democracy cannot exist. 
 
 Let us turn again to the fourth, fifth, and sixth of 
 Leviticus ! We find there that the sin of ignorance 
 
LIBERTY. 89 
 
 brought guilt. A touch of the unclean brought 
 guilt. A vow to do evil brought guilt. A fraud 
 on a neighbor brought guilt. For remission Je- 
 hovah provided altar and priest. Blood, He said, 
 was *Mife." Blood, He said, was ''atonement." 
 Blood, He said, must be shed before the tabernacle, 
 accepted by the priest, sprinkled on the altar. Then 
 of the honest and believing offerer it is affirmed, 
 " His sin that he hath committed shall be forgiven 
 him." 
 
 Nor was the consequence slight of remission un- 
 der the Mosaic law. David exclaims, '* Blessed are 
 they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins 
 are covered ! " Delivered from guilt through faith 
 in the blood of sacrifice, what joy in the king ! Je- 
 hovah is his rock, Jehovah is his salvation, Jehovah 
 is his sun, his shield, his glory. He glows with the 
 hope of immortality, and would kindle earth and 
 heaven into his rapture. 
 
 Under the New Testament "without shedding of 
 blood is no remission." Our Saviour made His cup 
 symbolic of His blood shed for remission. Remis- 
 sion was the grand promise of His covenant, assured 
 by the Holy Ghost. Remission is implied in His 
 very name, Jesus. Remission was preached by the 
 apostles. Through remission we call God Father. 
 In heaven the everlasting song of the redeemed 
 takes its melody of love from remembrance of the 
 remission of sins in the blood of the Lamb. 
 
 Always the law illustrates the Gospel. Atone- 
 ment was not the pain of the sacrificial animal. Tor- 
 ture the lamb, and is his blood more efficacious? 
 Without a pang let the lamb expire, and the virtue 
 
90 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 of his blood remains. Not then in pain is the power 
 of sacrifice. Moses and Paul and Christ say that 
 remission is through blood. Life for life is law and 
 Gospel — under the old covenant symbolic life, but 
 under the new, life made infinite by Godhead ! 
 
 Turn to the first verses of John's Gospel ! Christ 
 is Word, Creator, God ; Christ is made flesh ; then, 
 Christ is Lamb bearing sin. 
 
 Now look to Colossians ! It, too, speaks of Christ. 
 Through His blood remission ! Who is He ? By 
 Him " all things were created, in the heavens and 
 on the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be 
 thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers," 
 and " by Him all things consist." 
 
 We examine Hebrews. Atonement is the theme 
 of the Epistle. It opens with Godhead and creator- 
 ship. Christ made the worlds. Christ is worshiped 
 by angels. Christ is called God. Christ founded 
 earth and spread out heaven. And Christ, too, is 
 my " Brother," my " flesh," my *' bone," in whose 
 blood I have remission. 
 
 In the first great song of the Apocalypse Christ 
 is Creator. But in the universal anthem Christ is 
 Redeemer. Heaven and earth hymn together re- 
 mission through the blood of Christ, as Lamb in the 
 midst of the throne of His creation. This is the 
 everlasting note, softest and loudest and sublimest 
 in the song of our salvation. 
 
 In Scripture one uniform sequence — Godhead, 
 creatorship, incarnation, atonement. For time and 
 eternity these are bound together. What God has 
 joined let not man put asunder ! Read the earthly 
 life of Jesus ! About the feebleness of His humanity 
 
LIBERTY. 91 
 
 are the miracles of His divinity. His cross is no 
 exception. His pain is the pain of a man. His 
 cry is the cry of a man. His death-blood is the 
 death-blood of a man. But Jesus is not less God. 
 On His cross He shakes the earth He called out 
 of chaos. He rends the rocks He laid in His 
 world's foundations. He parts the veil of the 
 temple He filled with His glory as Jehovah. He 
 darkens the sun He hung in the heavens. He 
 opens graves and promises paradise, that we may 
 know Him as God of life and death and eternity. 
 
 Remission through faith in the blood of this 
 Christ begins my liberty. But my bondage to my 
 evil self must be broken. This is the work of the 
 Holy Ghost. How stupendous His revolution within 
 me ! My visible, earthly existence dates from my 
 birth. Out of it flows my eternal future. What a 
 translation from my darkness to the light of an 
 illimitable universe ! How affecting my first faint 
 cry announcing that another immortal unit has 
 been added to the sum of human existence ! All 
 creation serves the infant. Billions of stars watch 
 over him. The sun floods him with the light of 
 life. A globe's atmosphere brings air to his lungs, 
 sounds to his ears, from land and sea breezes for his 
 comfort. Earth and ocean nourish his flesh. A 
 universe waits, on the babe. His existence involves, 
 not only the pains and joys of time, but the possibil- 
 ities of eternity. 
 
 To illustrate the stupendous change of birth our 
 Saviour employs the sublime image of the atmos- 
 phere. It infolds a world. In its vast circumfer- 
 ence how mighty its invisible movements! Home 
 
92 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 of the lightning, seat of cloud and tempest, this 
 free, quick, powerful, irresistible, universal air is 
 the symbol of the Holy Ghost brooding over hu- 
 manity in that regenerating energy of God which 
 completes the liberty of man. 
 
 Christ calls Himself Son of the Father. The Holy 
 Ghost is sent by the Father. In baptism and bene- 
 diction the names of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost 
 are used together. Also the Father is styled God, 
 the Son is styled God, the Holy Ghost is styled 
 God. To each are ascribed the acts of God and the 
 worship of God. Each, then, is God. Yet God is 
 one. This leads to the doctrine of the Trinity, 
 which reconciles all difficulties. In nature God is 
 one, and in Persons three. A mystery? Not more 
 than myself. I am matter and spirit. United in 
 me are the visible and the invisible, tangible and in- 
 tangible, audible and inaudible, ponderable and im- 
 ponderable, mortal and immortal. How? I can- 
 not tell. Yet I know that my spirit inhabits my 
 body, seeing through my eye, hearing through my 
 ear, tasting through my tongue, touching through 
 my finger, smelling through my nostril, thinking 
 through my brain, thrilling along every nerve, 
 moving every muscle, trembling with emotion, soar- 
 ing in imagination, treasuring in memory, investi- 
 gating with reason, deciding through the conscience, 
 choosing with the will, and, while dwelling in flesh, 
 aspiring to God. 
 
 Cause and effect in point of time coincide. If one 
 be eternal the other is eternal. See the fountain ! 
 for it to exist is to flow. See the sun ! for him to 
 exist is to shine. See the universe ! for it to exist 
 
LIBERTY. 93 
 
 is to gravitate. Had the fountain existed forever 
 it would have flowed forever. Had the sun existed 
 forever he would have shone forever. Had the uni- 
 verse existed forever it would have gravitated for- 
 ever. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost have existed 
 forever. Each, then, is essentially and eternally in 
 nature one, while three Persons are in the same 
 Godhead from everlasting. 
 
 Before the glow of Pentecost had passed Chris- 
 tianity was confronted with questions touching the 
 Trinity. Judaism, paganism, and philosophy sought 
 to entangle and overwhelm her preachers. Tempted 
 from the simplicity of faith and forgetting the 
 promise of the Spirit, they wandered into mazes of 
 vain speculations. Truth was obscured and liberty 
 lost. It required centuries to recover and express 
 the true doctrine of the Godhead, and the relations 
 of its Persons to humanity. Our work henceforth 
 will be to trace the struggles through mists and 
 clouds back to the light of truth and liberty. 
 
 Other questions were inevitable. Perils beset the 
 way to their solution. What is man's relation to 
 Scripture? God reveals Himself in His own words. 
 His language, it would seem, ought to be the best 
 possible. The first disciples had no creeds, no 
 liturgies, no treatises, no systems, no definitions. 
 Sermons were not elaborate discourses, but plain 
 biblical expositions. Yet faith was invincible and 
 life pure and joyful. Even when the flesh was fet- 
 tered the spirit was free. Liberty suffered when the 
 human was made necessary to explain the divine. 
 Tradition binds and blinds souls. Is the fallible es- 
 sential to know the will of the Infallible? Then is 
 
94 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 the fallible exalted to the level of the Infallible and 
 the Infallible degraded to the level of the fallible. 
 Inspired and uninspired are equal. I have turned 
 from God to man. If mortal aid be indispensable, 
 then mortal error is inevitable. While taught by 
 the Holy Ghost the liberty of the Christian Democ- 
 racy rested, not on the sands of human opinions, 
 but on the everlasting rock of Holy Scripture. 
 
 As a sky full of stars, the Bible shines with prom- 
 ises. I find them suited to every condition of my 
 life. Between them and me is interposed no bar- 
 rier. I am invited to believe. I am threatened if I 
 distrust. I am asked and warned in Jehovah's 
 words. All is set forth as personal between my 
 God and myself. He, the Infinite, condescends to 
 me the finite. His oath attests His covenant. 
 Solicited by the Almighty, I hear, I believe, my sin 
 is remitted, my nature is regenerated, I receive the 
 Holy Ghost. The promises of my Bible are condi- 
 tioned but on my faith, without regard to time or 
 place or person or environment. Free they are as 
 light and air. Nor do they resemble the flash of 
 the cloud and the roar of the thunder. The wild 
 and dazzling displays of the electric fluid in the 
 heavens are not so striking as the spectacle pre- 
 sented by science when she stores the mystic ele- 
 ment, carries with her the magazine for use, and at 
 will propels a machine or illuminates a city. And 
 silent as the light, yet powerful as the lightning, the 
 promises of the Bible brighten and energize souls 
 amid life's practical duties. On the land and on the 
 sea, amid loss, gain, pain, and joy, in the face of 
 peril and death, where no eye sees and no ear hears, 
 
LIBERTY. 95 
 
 I feel the power of liberty by faith and am lifted to 
 the communion of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
 Then I will turn from man to God, and from Him 
 will be separated neither by time, nor space, nor 
 place, nor priest, nor pope, nor patriarch, nor rite, 
 nor creed, nor canon, nor custom, nor ordinance, nor 
 sacrament, nor demon, nor angel, nor by anything 
 in this universe of the Omnipotent. 
 
 This view of faith seems inculcated in Old Testa- 
 ment and New. But Paul most fully unfolds those 
 truths of his divine Master which have in them 
 eternal life. As a starting point of history we will 
 therefore try to exhibit the doctrine of the great 
 apostle of the Gentiles. Remission, he teaches, fol- 
 lows faith in the blood of Christ. With this come 
 regeneration, adoption, and assurance by the Holy 
 Ghost. Witnessed forgiveness and spiritual birth, 
 identical in time, differ in nature. Justification is 
 remission by God, and regeneration renewal in man. 
 Justification releases from guilt, while regeneration 
 restores to holiness. Justification is through the 
 blood of Christ, and regeneration by the Spirit of 
 Christ. Taught thus by Paul, all my relations to 
 the Church are determined. Always and every- 
 where believing, I experience the full power of the 
 Gospel. I no longer depend on time or place or 
 man. I am free. Ministries of the Church I re- 
 ceive as helps to my faith, but not as fetters to 
 my liberty. My last appeal is to Holy Scripture, 
 with the best human aids I can command, under 
 the guidance of the Holy Ghost. The doctrine 
 of Paul is the sole barrier against sacerdotalism 
 and ecclesiasticism. Departing from his immortal 
 
96 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 truths, the Christian Democracy endured the slav- 
 ery of ages. 
 
 Authority is from Christ our Head. He is first 
 in all. He is Author of the Word. He is Founder 
 of the Church. If we know what Christ speaks we 
 know what His Word speaks and what His Church 
 speaks. After His ascension Christ speaks in two 
 ways. For a few years He spoke by the lips of His 
 apostles ; afterward He spoke by the pens of His 
 apostles. But lips and pens testified the same 
 truths. Lips and pens were under the same guid- 
 ance. Lips were never against pens, and pens never 
 against lips. Oral or recorded, it was the same 
 Gospel. Truth written was to preserve truth oral. 
 Spoken only, the word was left to all the infirmities 
 of human memory and to all the corruptions of 
 human pride, folly, greed, ambition, and knavery — 
 that is, was at the mercy of tradition. Therefore 
 the pen was made to supplement the lip. The per- 
 manent letters of the volume were deemed more 
 trustworthy than the passing utterances of the 
 orator. Ink lasts longer than breath. As all could 
 not be recorded, we are to presume that the Holy 
 Ghost knew what was best to be recorded and how 
 it should be best recorded, and are to be content 
 with what He omitted and with what He retained, 
 and to let no man and no communion interfere with 
 our personal liberty to believe and obey and be 
 saved. 
 
 Of Christ or Church what essentials do fathers 
 know except from the Scriptures ? What do litur- 
 gists know, what do ecclesiastics know, what do 
 popes and patriarchs know, what do councils know ? 
 
LIBERTY. 97 
 
 We, as they, have the Bible. This is the sun, and 
 they but the planets and asteroids about the cen- 
 tral light, to catch in their little urns a few rays 
 which reach us from them, often in the feeble glim- 
 mer of the ages, but which show us how necessary 
 it is for us to seek our illumination directly from the 
 beams of the word everlasting. When truth was 
 hidden from synods and doctors, yet in lowly hearts 
 and homes, in obscure cells, amid the valleys of the 
 Alps, on the banks of the Rhine and the Rhone, 
 were believers in Jesus who drew their faith from 
 the Bible. Each century before Luther had its 
 Waldo or Wyclif or Huss whose light was the divine 
 word. In no age was the world without witnesses. 
 The German reformer who began a new era of faith 
 and liberty gathered into his lamp, not only beams 
 from the Scripture, but also many a ray transmitted 
 through saints and martyrs, to be at last lifted high 
 to guide the human race to its millennial freedom 
 and development. 
 
 The word of God is the sun of faith. We have 
 no other sure light. Each man is accountable for 
 its use. He must have a care. While I read my 
 Bible I must not neglect myself. I must ask the oil 
 of grace for my lamp or it will go out. I must trim 
 it or it will burn doubtfully. I must carry it cau- 
 tiously or I may dash it to fragments. I must hold 
 it properly or it will blind my own eyes. I must 
 follow its rays lest I stumble into the outer dark- 
 ness and perish with the silly virgins. History is 
 about to teach us her solemn lesson. If a few may 
 err, then many may err. We will see that pious and 
 
 eloquent teachers lost the way, misled their disciples, 
 
 7 
 
98 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 and at last involved the Church Catholic in mediaeval 
 midnight. Christ had forewarned His doctors. He 
 told them that only the little child could enter His 
 kingdom. Humility is the condition He imposed. 
 That wanting, the door is shut. Not place, but 
 grace, admits to our King. The rich ruler was re- 
 fused, and the humbled Peter received. Publicans 
 and fishermen came within, while priests and scribes 
 stayed without. By a law of the realm, the poor 
 and obscure more usually find entrance than princes 
 and kings. A crown may hide the light everlasting. 
 So may the cowl of a fasting, flagellant monk. With 
 a proud heart the keys of the pope give no admis- 
 sion. History shows that tiara and scarlet have 
 been the badges oftener of error than of truth. The 
 lawn of the bishop has not saved him from idola- 
 tries and persecutions. Doctors and divines, blind 
 themselves by pride of office, have become guides 
 to the everlasting darkness. Puffed by pontifical 
 pride, history points to popes who have made them- 
 selves too large for the door of the kingdom. Prot- 
 estant pulpits, like Roman altars, may become way- 
 marks to error and perdition. What strifes and 
 bitterness among the sects that sprang out of the 
 Reformation ! One law is universal — until we for- 
 sake all for Christ a mist is over the Bible. The 
 pope may drop from his Catholic chair a wandering 
 star forever. Face to face with his Judge, he may 
 find when too late that he should have cut off the 
 hand that held the keys and the foot that received 
 the kisses. Rank and sect make no difference with 
 our Master. Betrayed by greed and bigotry into 
 revenge and persecution, the Protestant is no nearer 
 
LIBERTY. 99 
 
 the kingdom than the Catholic he brands as papist 
 and idolater. 
 
 In the apostasy of the Christian Democracy his- 
 tory will repeat to us the language of Christ, 
 ** Search the Scriptures ! " Omit no help ! Scholar- 
 ship has its place. Our Master employed the genius 
 of a learned Paul, as well as the energy of an un- 
 tutored Peter. The faith of Luther might have 
 illuminated his cell, but never would have shone 
 over a world without the knowledge that enabled 
 him to translate and expound the Scripture. From 
 the Hebrew and Greek originals Zwingle and Calvin 
 drew immortal truth. The brightest light of the 
 English Reformation came from the universities. 
 Our Bible connects itself with all learning, and in 
 all ages scholars have been its best defenders and 
 noblest martyrs. 
 
 History will give us another warning. What men 
 seek in the Scripture they find. Intention controls 
 search. Let us turn to the Bible ! If gifted minds 
 seek in it reputation they will find reputation ; if 
 learning, learning; if profit, profit ; if intellectual 
 stimulant, also the keenest and loftiest intellectual 
 stimulant. It has been invoked to justify war and 
 consecrate slaughter. As the landscape takes color 
 from the light, the Bible may take hue from our- 
 selves. We may project ourselves into Scripture 
 and bring ourselves out of Scripture. We will be- 
 hold thus in history blind mortals deluding them- 
 selves by drawing from the well of everlasting truths 
 only the pitiable pitchers they let down. The 
 teacher must follow where the Master leads, if it be 
 to pain and death. Then only will he know. Let 
 
lOO THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 his cry be, " Show me eternal Hfe !" Seeking salva- 
 tion, he will find salvation. 
 
 Behold the flower in the morning sun ! A flood 
 of beams is around it. To vitalize brilliance and 
 turn light into verdure one species turns its face to 
 the orb of life. A stubborn stem would deprive 
 it of its wealth of glory. And so a resisting will 
 keeps the soul from the light of the divine word. 
 Although free from vice, although upright in duties, 
 although faithful in ecclesiastical observances, al- 
 though liberal and magnanimous, although orthodox 
 in creed and eloquent in exposition, still, stiff in the 
 pride of a mere human wisdom, a man may shut 
 from himself those beams of truth which alone 
 nourish the life everlasting. We see the principle 
 in nature. In plant and animal food perpetuates 
 identity. The same light, the same air, the same 
 dews and rains and soils here make an oak, and there 
 make a thistle. Laurel and pine grow out of the 
 clefts of the same rock into the same atmosphere 
 and the same sunshine. The food nourishing a man 
 might have been converted into a wasp, a gorilla, or 
 an anaconda. Such is the mysterious assimilating 
 power in animals and vegetables, so that in our 
 world each living thing transforms into its own 
 identity. 
 
 As with trees and birds and beasts, so with souls. 
 The human spirit often appears to change even 
 truth into its own texture. I may receive it for love 
 or for hate, for good or for evil, for eternal weal or 
 eternal woe. Whether to me the Bible is life or death 
 depends on the motive of my search. Intention is 
 the spiritual assimilating force. The same truth 
 
LIBERTY. 101 
 
 may shape an everlasting saint or an everlasting 
 sinner. 
 
 For all knowledge a similar law prevails. Moral 
 and intellectual are inseparable. Pride spoils the 
 poet, and greed the artist. Science turns her face 
 from selfishness. Truth and beauty love the em- 
 brace of innocence. From divided souls are hidden 
 both nature and revelation. On them cannot stream 
 the everlasting light. Humility, then, is the begin- 
 ning of salvation ; and it is in harmony with our 
 mortal constitution. I am dwarfed equally before 
 creation and redemption. What am I in the uni- 
 verse? An atom ! But before Him who made the 
 universe, what ? Nothing ! In the presence of the 
 divine Majesty I assume my proper proportion. To 
 receive wisdom I must seek in the lowest place be- 
 fore the cross and the throne of the Everlasting. 
 
 We have considered subjectively the spirit with 
 which we must search truth. But, objectively. Scrip- 
 ture gives us a key to history. No other will unlock 
 its secrets. I must study God and man in the light 
 of redemption. Atonement is the Bible's clew and 
 center. Through the blood of His Son the Father 
 pours over the page the light of His Spirit. Only 
 the Lamb of God explains the oracle of God. Pro- 
 pitiation began with Abel, was continued by Noah, 
 was perpetuated by Abraham, was established by 
 Moses, was used by David, was brought from the 
 law into the Gospel by Jesus, and exalted in the 
 Apocalypse as the theme of the song of the ever- 
 lasting glory. The slain Lamb is the celestial sym- 
 bol of redemption. The Lamb takes the book. The 
 Lamb looses the seals. The Lamb has the eyes of 
 
102 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 light and the horns of power. The Lamb receives 
 the homage of the elders, with their harps and vials 
 representing earth, and of the life-creatures quick 
 with motion and intelligence who, also redeemed, 
 symbolize the spirits in paradise. The Lamb is the 
 Light and Temple of the New Jerusalem, and on 
 its throne the beatitude of His universe. The Lamb 
 is the center of Scripture and history and heaven. 
 After Calvary He rose to the kingship of creation. 
 I have the remission of my sins through His blood 
 whose is the ineffable and everlasting glory of God- 
 head. 
 
 Here, then, is the test we propose to apply to all 
 inquiries touching the organic and the doctrinal his- 
 tory of the Christian Democracy. It is the test of 
 the liberty of the man. It is the test of the liberty 
 of a communion. It is the test of the liberty of the 
 universal Church. As a lens to a point of light 
 converges the rays of the illimitable sun, so the 
 beams of Christianity seek their focus in the doc- 
 trine of personal remission through faith in the 
 blood of the divine Son, attested by the Holy Ghost, 
 and reconciling to the Almighty Father. 
 
HERESIES. 103 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Heresies. 
 
 THE genius of Judaism was antagonistic to the 
 liberty of the Christian Democracy. Down 
 through the ages opposition was to continue. 
 It was form against freedom, letter against spirit, 
 and ceremonial instead of holiness. The object of 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews was to win Judaism 
 from a bigoted nationalism to the sublime significance 
 of Christianity. Our Saviour was shown to have 
 fulfilled in Himself all Mosaic types in a way sur- 
 passing human or angelic comprehension. Earth 
 is the altar of the sacrifice which takes virtue from 
 Godhead. Now the temple is the universe. The 
 divine Priest, having offered Himself once and for- 
 ever, has exchanged a cross for His throne, to be 
 man's Intercessor and creation's King. His new 
 covenant, written, not on stones, but hearts, is sealed 
 by a new gift of the Holy Ghost brooding over a 
 redeemed humanity, to secure remission of sin and 
 the life everlasting. 
 
 Their timely and grand epistle did not prevent the 
 Hebrews from heresy. Its warnings, instructions, 
 and expostulations, saving many, exasperated more. 
 Two classes of Judaizers arose in the Church. One 
 of these insisted that all Christians should be cir- 
 cumcised and observe the ceremonial law. The other 
 excepted Gentile believers from the yoke imposed 
 
104 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 on Jewish converts. Pella became the center of 
 these insidious errors so inimical to the faith and 
 freedom of the Christian Democracy. It was in 
 this the disciples of our Lord found refuge when 
 they escaped from Jerusalem just before the siege 
 of Titus. 
 
 Error produces error. Whatever the original be- 
 lief of these Judaizers, they passed down into deeper 
 darkness until obscured from their view was the God- 
 head of their Messiah. He became to them a mere 
 man. They seemed to hold that He would fulfill 
 only the ordinary Jewish expectation of a Christ, to 
 establish the throne of David once more in Jerusa- 
 lem and extend His scepter over all nations. Either 
 from poverty of doctrine or property they were 
 called Ebionites — a name derived probably from 
 the Hebrew 1V3X, signifying poor. Denying the 
 Godhead of the Messiah, His incarnation excited 
 in them, not the joy that stirred announcing angels, 
 but the displeasure of unbelievers. Hence Ebion- 
 ites rejected the narrations of the glorious manifesta- 
 tions in earth and sky about the birth of Jesus. He 
 was, in their view, but a holy man who, on account 
 of his superior virtue, tested by trial and ending in 
 victory, was appointed to be the Messiah. Accord- 
 ing to them, through Elias, at the baptism by John, 
 came on Jesus His Christ-power. By fables they 
 magnified the importance of the scene at Jordan. 
 Not satisfied with the descent of the Holy Ghost in 
 an emblem of visible beauty as a dove and with the 
 sublime voice of the majestic Father, Ebionites in- 
 vented their own miracles. Depreciating the birth, 
 they exaggerated the baptism, at which, they af- 
 
HERESIES. 105 
 
 firmed, the Jordan flamed with fire, while a halo of 
 Hght shone about Jesus. Having no consciousness 
 of sin, Ebionitism could have no conception of re- 
 demption. It sought to perfect Judaism by a few 
 formal precepts added to Christianity. As a vain 
 and wild dream of ignorance and unbelief, it had 
 no vitality as a system, and, like other empty errors, 
 is only studied in dim and scattered fragments of 
 history. 
 
 From the Gentile philosophies arose the most 
 subtle attacks on the inner Christian liberty. 
 
 Gnosticism has its origin in our human nature. 
 Man will question the universe. Spirit from mat- 
 ter is the puzzle of humanity. From the inert and 
 the ponderous the invisible and the intellectual ! 
 The pure, the ineffable, the everlasting Being reveal- 
 ing Himself in a substance always gross and often 
 polluting and loathsome ! Sin, pain, wrong — these 
 seem irreconcilable with eternal love, wisdom, and 
 justice. Human reason cannot conceive how the 
 Infinite and the Absolute can submit Himself to 
 limitations of time and space and circumstance. 
 More incomprehensible the manifestations of a di- 
 vine perfection in a resisting and successful human 
 personality. How can the sinful will of man be 
 upheld in the holy will of God ? Yet on all these 
 questions of philosophy the Bible is silent as the 
 universe. It asserts facts without explanations. It 
 offers reason invincible proofs which warrant faith, 
 but for mysteries affords no solutions. It refers 
 many insuperable difficulties to the divine Sover- 
 eignty or reserves answer to the world beyond the 
 grave. Now, on this border land of impenetrable 
 
lo6 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 shadows avoided by revelation Gnosticism presump- 
 tuously entered, to indulge its wild speculations and 
 build its elaborate systems. It was a nightmare of 
 philosophy, whose gigantic phantoms vanished, not 
 before the spell of patristic arguments, but in the 
 light of the progress of our race. 
 
 Gnosticisms have family resemblances. Having 
 a common origin they exhibit similar traits. Let 
 me point out wherein they agree ! 
 
 Similitudes. 
 
 1. Each Gnosticism held a natural, inevitable, and 
 eternal antagonism between God and matter. 
 
 2. Each Gnosticism sought to bridge the chasm 
 between God and matter. 
 
 3. Each Gnosticism rejected the Old Testament 
 manifestations in judgments as unwise, unjust, and 
 unloving, and hence as unworthy of God. 
 
 4. Each Gnosticism denied the incarnation be- 
 cause it believed that God would be defiled and de- 
 graded by intimate and permanent contact with 
 matter. 
 
 5. Each Gnosticism, by Inevitable sequence, ended 
 in Docetism, which made Christ, not a man, but a 
 phantom. 
 
 6. Each Gnosticism was wanting in just appreci- 
 ation of moral law, guilt, and agency. 
 
 7. Each Gnosticism was, therefore, deficient in 
 its conception of human accountability, and could 
 have no hold on the great central truths of redemp- 
 tion through satisfaction by the blood of the Mes- 
 siah. 
 
 8. Each Gnosticism, while basing Itself on Chris- 
 
Heresies. 107 
 
 tianity, yet, denying the Godhead of Christ, could 
 never attain permanent place in Christianity. 
 
 9. Each Gnosticism was essentially aristocratic, 
 asserting that among men pneumatical natures were 
 eternally above psychical natures. 
 
 10. Each Gnosticism placed yvibaLg, knowledgey 
 above niorig, /ait/i, and was a system proposing, not 
 moral excellence, but intellectual eminence. 
 
 Yet with general similitudes there were also strik- 
 ing disagreements. These grew from the regions 
 where the systems originated. Some Gnosticisms 
 had a Greek source. Traceable to the Platonic 
 philosophy, they borrowed its vA?/— gross matter in 
 eternal antagonism to pure spirit. Grecian systems 
 are less wild in their speculations and fanciful in 
 their pictures than those of Oriental origin. When 
 tinged with Indian Buddhism and Persian Zoroas- 
 trianism, Gnosticisms exhibit the human mind dis- 
 porting itself in monstrosities of delusion which 
 suggest that only a madhouse or a pandemonium 
 could have furnished men capable of conceiving 
 and coloring such absurdities, and, by way of emi- 
 nence, styling them knowledge. The very names of 
 these grotesque systems excite pity and laughter. 
 We have transmitted to us by the Greek and Latin 
 fathers Heracleonites, Ptolemaeites, Ophites, Cain- 
 ites, Carpocratians, Epiphanites, Prodicians, Anti- 
 tactae, Nicolaitans, Simonians, Saturninians, Tatian- 
 ists, Encratites. 
 
 To make our subject plain I have selected only 
 the great typical Gnosticisms for exposition, and 
 these I will proceed to explain, each under the head 
 of its most eminent representative. 
 
i08 the christian democracy. 
 
 Cerinthus. 
 
 He was a contemporary of the apostle John, who 
 fled, it is said, from a bath when he heard that the 
 Gnostic was in the building. The sublime assertion 
 of the Godhead and creatorship of the " Word made 
 flesh " which opens the fourth Gospel might well 
 have been intended to rebuke the vague and mon- 
 strous inventions of a pretentious philosophy. 
 
 Between God and the world Cerinthus placed 
 an immeasurable abyss. Contact with material 
 nature was infinitely below the majesty of the Su- 
 preme. Hence Cerinthus taught that the Mosaic 
 law was a ministry of angels. Of these, above all 
 others, stood one as the representative of God. 
 This eminent angel was the visible King of the 
 Jews. They deemed Him God, as children mistake 
 in a stream the image of the sun for the sun him- 
 self. Beyond Him the gross multitude could not 
 rise. To the groveling psychical natures He seemed 
 the God-logos, while the pneumatical elect as- 
 cended above Him to the true vision of the Al- 
 mighty. 
 
 In each Gnosticism its view of Jesus corresponded 
 to its view of Jehovah. Cerinthus denied the divine 
 conception of Christ. Like the Ebionites, he de- 
 preciated the birth at Bethlehem and exalted the 
 baptism at Jordan. The Holy Ghost was the true 
 Messiah. The Holy Ghost at the baptism revealed 
 first to Jesus a knowledge of the true God. The 
 Holy Ghost bestowed on Christ His miraculous 
 powers. Rather, Jesus the man was the visible ter- 
 restrial Christ, while the Holy Ghost was the true 
 celestial Christ. Godhead incarnate Cerinthus could 
 
HERESIES. 109 
 
 not conceive. Humiliation in the flesh was repug- 
 nant to the Gnostic, and suffering intolerable. A 
 Messiah on the cross was his scorn. When doomed 
 to death the celestial deserted the terrestrial Christ. 
 Redemption and Godhead were alike rejected. 
 
 Basilides. 
 
 This Gnostic lived in the first half of the second 
 century. He conceived the first manifestations of 
 the Supreme to be threefold: (i) in intellectual 
 powers; (2) in executive powers; (3) in moral 
 powers. 
 
 According to Basilides, light was opposed to dark- 
 ness, life to death, good to evil, spirit to matter. 
 Our world is a process of purification, and is to be 
 cleansed, as iron from rust, to give brightness. Yet 
 each life is related to the universe. Basilides taught 
 that from a preexistent state are derived the natures 
 of men, who should rise from their earthly limita- 
 tions to a loftier condition of spiritual being. Life 
 he saw everywhere struggling in the fetters of mat- 
 ter up toward freedom. Where Cerinthus in his 
 system placed an angel Basilides had an archon, who 
 was not an independent power, but an unconscious 
 instrument of the Supreme. Blind in their gross 
 materialism, the Jews regarded this archon as God. 
 Only the elect would soar to the Supreme Being. 
 This system to every soul assigned a guardian 
 angel, who was to guide it in its earthly purification, 
 after death accompany it to its place, and perhaps 
 be its eternal companion. 
 
 Basilides did not believe Jesus to be God. He 
 was but the loftiest aeon in the universe. At His 
 
no THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 baptism came to Christ a new light. Now He 
 Himself attains first a knowledge of the true God. 
 At His passion His aeon leaves Jesus. With Basi- 
 lides suffering could have no part in redemption. 
 He denied Paul's doctrine of justification. As re- 
 lease from guilt, remission of sin was impossible in 
 his system. Hence, also, the liberty of faith was 
 unattainable and spiritual bondage inevitable. 
 
 Valentine. 
 
 His was the most elaborate of the Gnosticisms. 
 Valentine lived in the same period as Basilidcs. 
 Born in Egypt, he was yet probably of Jewish de- 
 scent. He was educated in Alexandria and spent 
 many years in Rome. 
 
 At the summit of existence Valentine placed his 
 Bythos {(3v^6g). By this negative, meaning abyss, 
 he inconsistently expressed life's infinite fullness. 
 Out of Bythos flow aeons, male and female, which 
 constitute the pleroma, and are manifestations of 
 the ineffable, incomprehensible, infinite, impersonal, 
 primal essence. Horos is styled redeemer and sa- 
 viour. His work is to preserve harmony by keeping 
 the aeons in their spheres. Disturbances in the ple- 
 roma cause the discords of the universe. When 
 these occur the divine life sinks down into matter. 
 The world's soul is an immaterial birth. 
 
 Valentine recognized three orders of existence : 
 (i) pneumatical natures, superior to matter; (2) 
 psychical natures, composed of matter and spirit ; 
 (3) atheistic natures, godless, destructive, swayed by 
 appetite and passion, eternal, irreclaimable slaves to 
 matter. 
 
HERESIES. Ill 
 
 Bythos, Valentine taught, can never unite with 
 that antagonistic to its essence. Between Bythos 
 and v?i7] contact is impossible. Hence vXr], wild and 
 gross matter, must communicate with Bythos by a 
 Demiurge, while Satan is the impersonation of the 
 ungodlike kingdom, the essence of discord, and the 
 enemy of harmony, resembled by all his subjects. 
 Psychical natures sink in death or rise to immor- 
 tality, according to the determinations of the will. 
 Those yielding, eventually, with Satan, return to 
 nothingness. When this happens the harmony of 
 the pleroma communicates itself to all grades of 
 existence. 
 
 Valentine s Soter is Former and Redeemer of the 
 world. He inspires the mundane soul, and the 
 mundane soul inspires the Demiurge. Soter and 
 Sophia, as artists, picture the divine glory. But in 
 this strange work the seed of a divine life is spilled 
 over into man. This new creature needs subjection. 
 To effect the subjugation of man the Demiurge in- 
 terposes with his angels and promises a Messiah 
 to release his people from vXrj. He sends the 
 Christ, his own image, from heaven, with a body 
 composed of the most ethereal elements. Descended 
 from the celestial, Jesus had not the flesh of a true 
 man. He could eat, drink, sleep, and accommodate 
 Himself to human conditions, but in a way wholly 
 His own. Again we meet a Gnostic phantom. At 
 the baptism, descending as a dove, the invisible 
 Soter united Himself to the Messiah. The psy- 
 chical Messiah is crucified, and then a pneumatical 
 Messiah ascends to the Soter. In the loftiest sig- 
 nificance of His true nature this Messiah is known 
 
112 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 only to the elect. These are the salt of the earth 
 and the light of the world, and by these the earthly 
 will be finally transfigured into the heavenly, the 
 corruptible be conquered, and a kingdom be created 
 imperishable and everlasting. 
 
 Marcion. 
 
 He was born near the beginning of the second 
 century at Sinope, in Pontus. In this place his 
 father was not unlikely bishop. Marcion seems to 
 have come to a true faith. He had felt the glow of 
 love to Christ. Possibly he was converted by study 
 of the Scripture, and this may explain his hostility 
 to tradition. Hence, too, may have arisen his sym- 
 pathy with Paul. Burning with zeal for Christ, he 
 sold his property and gave it to the Church. He 
 then began a severe ascetic life. But in the Old 
 Testament Marcion saw no God of love such as 
 beamed in the New. In the one was inexorable sever- 
 ity, and in the other ineffable benevolence. Marcion 
 was perplexed. At last he arrayed the Old against 
 the New. He taught that the glory of Christ burst 
 on the world without any previous introduction or 
 preparation. The sun of truth had no dawn. Mar- 
 cion went to Rome. Here he was rejected by the 
 Church. Removed from all ecclesiastic restraints, 
 his system developed into an elaborate Gnosticism. 
 "TA?/, blind, evil matter, resists God. Satan imper- 
 sonates this opposition. Man is created in his own 
 image by the Demiurge. The human body is mat- 
 ter, and hence evil ; the human soul, from the essence 
 of its Maker, has spiritual affinities and aptitudes. 
 But the Demiurge cannot endue man with an in- 
 
HERESIES. 113 
 
 conquerable principle of virtue. His creature yields 
 to lust. Humanity sinks, and from its gross, help- 
 less, and hopeless mass the Jews are selected. To 
 these the Demiurge gives an external ceremonial 
 and a law without sanctifying power. A Messiah is 
 promised who will end the conflict with v/ir]. Jesus, 
 however, is not this prophetic Christ. He called 
 Himself such to win the Jews, and deceived even 
 the Demiurge, who, finding Himself mistaken, pre- 
 pared the cross, shook the earth, and veiled the sun. 
 Marcion taught, however, that this misleading 
 Christ would yet appear again to fulfill the Old Tes- 
 tament promises, raise the dead, and enjoy a reign 
 of supreme felicity in an imperishable and eternal 
 kingdom. As a bird out of its egg, the souls of 
 Christians would escape from their earthly bodies 
 and environments into everlasting life and liberty. 
 
 Mani. 
 
 The system of this Oriental teacher is not classed 
 with the Gnosticisms. Yet it possesses all their 
 characteristic elements. Mani was a Persian and 
 born in the first half of the third century. The 
 ancient region of Zoroaster had experienced a re- 
 ligious revival. Prophets arose claiming inspiration 
 to settle controversies. In a contest with Chris- 
 tianity Mani sought a compromise. He declared 
 himself the Paraclete promised by our Saviour, and 
 called himself an apostle of Jesus Christ through the 
 election of God the Father. About the year A. D. 
 270 he first appeared publicly as a teacher of his 
 system. King Shapur I was on the throne of 
 Persia. As mathematician, painter, and astronomer 
 
114 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Mani had become distinguished. Opposed by the 
 Magi, he lost influence with the monarch, and was 
 driven by peril to India. When he returned Hor- 
 muz was on the Persian throne, and his symbolic 
 pictures gained him influence with this king. But 
 again Mani fell under the royal frown, and in A. D. 
 277 he was flayed alive. It is related that his skin 
 was stuffed and hung before the gate of Damascus. 
 
 We have seen that Mani was born in Persia and 
 lived in India. This explains why he mingled Chris- 
 tianity with Parseeism and Buddhism. He believed 
 in the Ormuzd and Ahriman of Zoroaster. Light 
 and darkness, representing good and evil, are in 
 everlasting conflict. Hence, in the universe irrecon- 
 cilable war. Over the kingdom of light rules the 
 Father, in whose essence are wisdom and glory. 
 To His incomprehensible majesty He united aeons, 
 His exalted and blissful companions, whose splendid 
 dominion can never be shaken. But to their light- 
 kingdom in mad battle approach the powers of dark- 
 ness. A glimmer from its brightness penetrates 
 their gloom and stirs them to war for supremacy. 
 To guard the bounds of His empire the Father 
 makes emanate from Himself a life-mother, who 
 becomes the world-soul. Fire, air, light, earth, 
 water, the five elements are summoned to battle 
 with Ahriman. Man is imperiled and asks aid of 
 the monarch of the kingdom of light. 
 
 Mani supposed a pure soul throned in the sun, 
 and a corrupt soul diffused through nature. Cor- 
 responding to these were an exultant and a crucified 
 son of man. And here the Persian borrowed from 
 Buddh. Each seed, pushing from earth's bosom 
 
HERESIES. 115 
 
 into plant with leaf, and blossom, and fruit, was a 
 triumph of the principle of light, and was, indeed, 
 a soul imprisoned in matter by the prince of dark- 
 ness, but struggling up into the bright freedom of 
 air and sun. 
 
 The sun-spirit endangers the night-powers, 
 which would Hberate and evaporate the world-soul. 
 Man is made a microcosm. He is a copy of the 
 two opposing realms of light and darkness — a mirror 
 reflecting earth and heaven. From Adam as a 
 fountain all souls are derived. But these matter 
 contaminates and inflames with lusts. Man wills 
 good and does evil. In his struggle toward freedom 
 his turpitude is made visible by the law. Flesh and 
 spirit battle each other. He who conquers lust 
 rises, and he who yields sinks. The night-powers, 
 fearing the triumph of the light-nature in man, 
 would draw him down to them.selves. To counter- 
 act these schemes and procure human freedom the 
 Sun-spirit allies Himself to human nature. But He 
 cannot enter a material body, as light unites not 
 with darkness. Hence, He clothes Himself in 
 phantom form, visible only to the sensuous. Not 
 until His transfiguration was Christ seen in His 
 light-glory. He is described by Mani as a Messiah 
 accommodated to the material conceptions of the 
 Jews. Crucified only in appearance, His death was 
 symbolic of souls, which, sunk in matter, are raised 
 by the Sun-spirit. During the scenes about the 
 cross Mani makes Christ say to John that the whole 
 transaction is for the populace. The person of the 
 Messiah, vanishing, is replaced by a cross of light, 
 and from its brilliance a voice says, '' This is for 
 
Il6 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 your sakes called sometimes the Word, sometimes 
 Christ, sometimes the Door, sometimes the Way, 
 sometimes the Bread, sometimes the Sun, sometimes 
 the Resurrection, sometimes Jesus, sometimes the 
 Father, sometimes the Spirit, sometimes the Life, 
 sometimes the Truth, sometimes Faith, sometimes 
 Grace." All souls finally enslaved to lust, Mani ex- 
 cluded from immortality. Changed into matter, 
 they must watch over matter. Eternally they 
 will cleave to what they loved. But souls trium- 
 phant over lust dwell in the everlasting kingdom 
 of light. 
 
 Manichaeans were divided into auditors and elect. 
 To the former truth was partially unfolded, while 
 the latter were fully initiated. Those having the 
 loftier vocation owned no property, abstained from 
 marriage, indulged in neither wine nor flesh. Mani's 
 system was inevitable bondage. It considered 
 matter intrinsically evil. It viewed the body as 
 defilement. It thus insisted on a slavery from which 
 it provided no emancipation ; and from its doctrines, 
 therefore, a gloom spread over life, and the joy and 
 liberty of faith could not animate and preserve a 
 Christian Democracy. 
 
 The great Augustine was ensnared by the subtle 
 and soaring errors of Manichaeism and was only de- 
 livered by grace of a true conversion. If it deluded 
 an intellect so acute and exacting, how powerful 
 must have been its sway over inferior minds ! Its 
 poison long lingered in the Church. As late as the 
 close of the twelfth century it burst out in France. 
 At the beginning of the reign of Innocent III it 
 revived with vigor in Languedoc. That pope made 
 
HERESIES. 117 
 
 war on Manichaeism and sought to exterminate it 
 with fire and sword. Nor has it yet expired. Its 
 principle works in each form of Oriental and Occi- 
 dental monkery. This enslaving Gnosticism lives 
 now beneath every cowl and hair shirt, and smites 
 in every ascetic's scourge, and fills with gloom every 
 cell in Christendom. 
 
 MONTANUS. 
 
 From baptism to ascension the Messiah was at- 
 tested by innumerable miracles which could be 
 wrought only by omnipotent power. Yet He prom- 
 ised His disciples that their works should exceed 
 His own. His words were verified in the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost. Christ was to depart into heaven, but 
 His Spirit was to abide on earth. Is the body 
 inferior to the soul? Then are the miracles of 
 Jesus inferior to the miracles of the Holy Ghost. 
 He does not operate on fleshly organisms, but opens 
 the spiritual eye, unstops the spiritual ear, looses 
 the spiritual tongue, raises the spiritual corpse to 
 everlasting life. And He, a perpetual presence 
 amid His people, is sent by our Father in heaven 
 more willingly than parents bestow gifts on their 
 children. 
 I Under the New Testament the temporary, attest- 
 ing physical miracles were succeeded by an abiding 
 regenerating power. Belief in the ascended, invisible 
 Christ was a loftier attainment than His recognition 
 by miracles addressed to the senses as material signs. 
 A spiritual conversion producing a holy life is the 
 noblest result and proof of a divine power. Faith 
 is sublimer than sight. To expect the conquest of 
 
Il8 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 our world by a physical Christ lowers our dispensa- 
 tion and degrades the office of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 But, as ecclesiasticism and sacerdotalism con- 
 sumed the life of Christian liberty, and inclined to 
 cold dogma and chilling ceremonial, and allied them- 
 selves to the power of kings, earnest men sighed for 
 the purity and freedom of apostolic times. They 
 associated, however, spiritual gifts with physical 
 manifestations. Many yearned, not only for the 
 Pentecostal conversions, but also with these for the 
 visible tongue of flame and the audible roar as of a 
 tempest. Out of this failure to discriminate between 
 the real and the accidental, the permanent and the 
 temporary, grew the heresy we are now to consider. 
 It was an honest, but fanatical, assertion of the apos- 
 tolic prophetical liberty against the freezing worldly 
 formalism of ecclesiastical and sacerdotal bondage. 
 
 Montanus was born in Phrygia about the middle 
 of the second century. We know little of his early 
 life. How he came to Christ is not recorded in his 
 history. But he was liable to ecstasies and began 
 to prophesy. Persecutions were foretold. Christians 
 exhorted to austerities, and the martyr's crown 
 placed before them as an object of aspiration. 
 Christ's near millennial reign was also announced 
 by Montanus. He was a Chiliast. Rising in his 
 views of his mission, he claimed a vocation to re- 
 form the Church. He appealed to Christ's promise. 
 He announced himself the Paraclete. He was au- 
 thorized as such to expound the faith, to defend 
 doctrines, to settle disputes. But the divine will 
 was declared by him through his two prophetesses, 
 Priscilla and Maximilla. These women had visions. 
 
HERESIES. 119 
 
 By ecstatic revelations was the Church to keep ad- 
 vancing until the coming of her Lord. As a result 
 of such fanaticism the Montanists were swept by 
 tempests of emotion. Female visions were to have 
 the authority of apostolic testimonies. Wild dreams 
 became oracles of faith. Scripture, interpreted by 
 Montanus as Paraclete, was to be the foundation of 
 the completed structure of Christianity. 
 
 Yet this system, professing superior liberty, 
 tended back to severer bondage and was incompati- 
 ble with the existence of the Christian Democracy. 
 Fasts, before voluntary, were made obligatory by 
 this new return to freedom. During three weeks 
 Montanus, like a pope, prescribed diet by law. He 
 exalted celibacy. He made martyrdom an object 
 of fanatical desire. He constituted himself an 
 ecclesiastical legislator above Moses, and even Christ. 
 Finally, the Montanists withdrew from the Church, 
 but continued to exert a subtle and extraordinary 
 influence over many pious and superior minds. 
 
 We cannot conclude our notice of this interesting 
 heresy without mentioning the sad lapse of the 
 venerable TertuUian. This Latin father was not 
 inferior in genius to Augustine himself. He was, 
 indeed, a narrow and gloomy ascetic, degrading mar- 
 riage and glorifying virginity. Habitually violent 
 and caustic, he exhibited little of the joy and gentle- 
 ness of Christ. Yet how keen his wit, how piercing 
 his acumen, how burning his satire ! His sentences 
 sparkle, and his eloquence often soars into the sub- 
 lime. How inconceivable that this acute and lofty 
 intellect could have abandoned itself to the visions 
 of a Priscilla and a Maximilla and passed under 
 
I20 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 the spell of a Montanus ! Such a descent makes 
 less strange the vagaries of any human personality. 
 Let us adduce a single instance to show the 
 credulity of TertuUian ! He wishes to prove the 
 soul corporeal. Does he resort to argument? No. 
 He abandons his reason at the suggestion of 
 dreamers. The sacred services of the Church have 
 concluded. One of the two Montanist women is 
 detained. She falls before the people into a trance. 
 While in this estatic condition she sees a soul in 
 bodily state ; more — with her hand of flesh she 
 grasps the hand of a spirit. She describes even the 
 color of this visible soul. While soft and trans- 
 parent, it was ethereal in hue, and it had also 
 shape. Its form resembled that of a human being. 
 The prophetess supplied vision, and the father 
 philosophy. TertuUian informs us how the effect 
 was produced. God's breath passed from man's 
 face into the interior structure ; then, having spread 
 itself through all the spaces of the body, it im- 
 pressed itself on each internal feature. By this 
 densifying process the soul's corporeity was fixed 
 and its figure molded. 
 
 Did TertuUian derive also from Priscilla and 
 Maximilla his views of baptism ? They are wild 
 enough to have originated in the visions of Mon- 
 tanistic prophetesses. And we will find hereafter 
 that orthodox fathers had just as little scientific or 
 theological support for opinions which were fetters 
 of freedom. TertuUian teaches that an angel by 
 his presence tempers the waters of baptism. He, 
 descending into the sanctifying fount, makes the 
 paths straight for the Holy Ghost. 
 
CLEMENTINES. 121 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Clementines. 
 
 THE peculiarities of an age are often reflected 
 in its fiction. Aiming to please, a writer 
 accommodates himself to his times, and thus 
 secures favor for himself and circulation for his 
 works. Modern novels sell when they express 
 vividly the feelings and opinions of the reading 
 public. By ephemeral fiction we can judge the 
 passing hour, while the higher works of creative 
 imagination may be permanent mirrors to image an 
 historical period in literature. It is in this view 
 that the Clementines are an inestimable treasure. 
 They give us life pictures of Christian sentiment for 
 more than two centuries. 
 
 Strangely, these inexplicable fictions seem to 
 combine antagonistic tendencies. They exhibit 
 proclivities at once Ebionitic and Gnostic. Yet, as 
 we shall see, the work secured universal acceptance. 
 Expressing views so antagonistic, often violently 
 hostile to the orthodox faith, having, notwith- 
 standing, wide circulation and popularity through 
 the Church, the Clementines, like the Ignatian 
 epistles, have been the puzzles of criticism during 
 all the centuries since their appearance. 
 
 The remarkable work we are considering exists in 
 two forms. We have the " Homilies " and the 
 " Recognitions." These seem editions of the same 
 
122 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 book. But what are their relations to each other? 
 Which was first ? Are both expansions of a previous, 
 perished work? On these points opinions are di- 
 verse and endless. Nor are critics more agreed as 
 to the author. Some think that the Clementi7ies are 
 genuine productions of the writer whose name they 
 bear. This we know, that in his commentary on 
 Genesis Origen, in A. D. 231, quotes from the 
 *' Recognitions.*' Mention is made in them of an 
 event occurring in the reign of Caracalla. There- 
 fore a date early as A. D. 211 may be fixed for 
 their appearance. The recent discovery of a Greek 
 manuscript may settle these disputes of centu- 
 ries. 
 
 In these fictions the author calls himself Clement. 
 He represents himself as a rich Roman in the reign 
 of Tiberius tormented with doubts about his im- 
 mortality. Philosophy fails to satisfy him. Reports 
 reach him of an Oriental Messiah. He sails from 
 Pontus for Palestine, but storms drive his ship into 
 Alexandria, in Egypt. Here he encounters Barna- 
 bas, who soon leaves for the Holy Land. Clement 
 follows him, finds him, and is introduced by him at 
 Caesarea Stratonis to the apostle Peter. Now we 
 come to the heart of the book. Clement joins Peter, 
 and the two proceed together to Tyre, to Tripolis, 
 to Antioch, to Laodicea. Everywhere they encoun- 
 ter Simon Magus, the servant of Satan and imper- 
 sonation of error. He is a Samaritan of Gitta. 
 Peter's disputes with Magus and conversations with 
 disciples make the substance of '* Homilies " and 
 '' Recognitions." In our modern phrase, Clement 
 is reporter to the chief of the apostles and is sup- 
 
CLEMENTINES. 1 23 
 
 posed to record his master's most intimate opinions. 
 We have thus all the elements Avhich shall picture 
 the ancient life of the Church. Rome, Egypt, Pales- 
 tine pass in vivid view before our eyes. The opin- 
 ions, the feelings, the customs of the Occidental and 
 the Oriental Church become our possession. After 
 various wanderings and disputes between Peter and 
 Magus the end is dramatic. Imposture is revealed. 
 Rebuked by Faustus, Magus, gnashing his teeth in 
 rage, departs. But the Samaritan revenges himself. 
 To conceal his flight Magus changes Faustus into 
 his own form, and in this he is used by Peter, who 
 promises him restoration to his true shape. Such 
 is the substance of a volume which delighted Chris- 
 tians during an heroic age of martyrs ! 
 
 Without venturing critical theories I maybe per- 
 mitted a few observations on the Clementines. It 
 has been remarked that opposite Ebionitic and 
 Gnostic tendencies appear in these writings. A 
 Christianized Jew seems to write in the letter of 
 Peter to James. Rome addresses Jerusalem. What 
 does the first pope in the capital of the world style 
 the first bishop in the metropolis of Judea? Peter 
 calls James '' lord bishop of the holy Church." 
 Pope Peter elevates Bishop James above himself, 
 and thus loftier than Rome exalts Jerusalem. And 
 what occurs in the letter of Clement? He styles 
 James *' lord " and ''bishop of bishops, who rules 
 Jerusalem, the holy Church of the Hebrews, and 
 the Churches everywhere." In the view of this 
 writer sovereignty is not at Rome. Jerusalem is 
 queen mother of the Christian world. And this ap- 
 pears in epistles of both Pope Peter and Pope Clem- 
 
124 "THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 ent, each a Pope of Rome, which claimed afterward 
 supremacy over the universal Church ! 
 
 More marvelous yet the hostility of Clement to 
 Paul, the apostle of faith and liberty. We find in 
 these writings the law against the Gospel. Peter 
 impersonates the Jew in opposition to Paul, who 
 impersonates the Christian. And the enmity is 
 venomous. The great expounder of justification by 
 faith is scorned and vilified, apparently for that doc- 
 trine of liberty which is the key to all his epistles. 
 The Simon Magus of the Clementines seems to be 
 Paul himself. By such a representation the writer 
 would make infamous the grand apostle of the Gen- 
 tiles. Especially is contempt poured on the glory 
 attending the conversion of Paul, his vision of Christ 
 in the temple, and his exaltation to behold paradise 
 and the heaven of heavens. How could such words 
 of scorn, hurled at a writer whose epistles were en- 
 rolled in the canon of Scripture, obtain currency in 
 the Church during centuries when Christians were 
 purest in life and bravest in martyrdom ? We have 
 in our own age no such contrarieties. But we must 
 hear the Clementines in their contempt of Paul. 
 
 *' He who trusts in apparition or vision is inse- 
 cure. He who has appeared may say what he will, 
 gleaming forth like a wicked one. But it is mani- 
 fest that the impious see true visions. The declara- 
 tion of anything by means of apparitions and dreams 
 from without is a proof, not that it comes from 
 revelation, but from wrath. If, then, our Jesus ap- 
 peared to you in a vision and made himself known 
 to you and spoke to you it is as one who is enraged 
 with his adversary." 
 
CLEMENTINES. 12$ 
 
 Our modern rationalists do not equal Clement in 
 their derision of the temptation and the fall as facts 
 on which is based the whole scheme of our redemp- 
 tion. His language is startling. Evidently it ex- 
 presses his own view. Clement believed the story 
 of paradise a myth. Referring to Adam, it is asked, 
 '* How, then, had he still need to partake of a tree 
 that he might know what is good and what is evil, 
 if he was commanded not to eat of it ? But this 
 senseless men believe, that a reasonless beast was 
 more powerful than the God who made all things." 
 
 In other speculations Clement soars into clouds 
 black and blinding. In fiction it is difficult to fix 
 the opinions of an author. He can always repudiate 
 as his own the words of his characters. But surely 
 Peter is an oracle, and it is he, an apostle, who 
 affirms that Adam had communicated to him the 
 great primal law. But this primitive revelation be- 
 came obscured. It was restored by Moses. Again 
 it lapsed into darkness and corruption. Who now 
 interposes? Adam, as Messiah and restorer of the 
 original law. '' Thus did our Father ; thus did our 
 Prophet. This is reasonable, that he should be 
 King over his children." 
 
 Clement had as little regard for John the Baptist 
 as for Paul the apostle. On the forerunner of 
 Christ are hurled words of withering contempt. 
 They are from the lips of Aquileia. He describes 
 John as master of Simon Magus, and then, to con- 
 centrate all scorn in a single epithet, styles him a 
 *' day baptist." 
 
 But in his attitude to the whole of the Old Tes- 
 tament we best understand the genius and object 
 
126 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 of Clement. The Judaizer vanishes and the Gnos- 
 tic appears. A theory is advanced that the true 
 prophet must be always self-contained and digni- 
 fied. Enthusiasm is incompatible with truth. The 
 organ of the Spirit will ever exhibit the calm majesty 
 of Christ. His divine manner and method are cru- 
 cial tests of heaven's communications. Hence, be- 
 cause of their vehement eloquence, Clement repu- 
 diates the old Hebrew prophets. He depreciates 
 Moses more than he discredits Paul. He clouds 
 and clamors against the Pentateuch. He ascribes 
 error to the great lawgiver of Israel, and ridicules in 
 his writings all that the Jew esteemed most impress- 
 ive and sublime. No modern advocate of biblical 
 errancies approaches Clement in the flame of his 
 burning contempt and the keenness of his subtle 
 insinuations. 
 
 " For the Scriptures," he says, " have had joined 
 to them many falsehoods on this account. Beware 
 of thinking otherwise of God than that He is the 
 only God and Lord and Father of the righteous. If 
 He hardens hearts, who makes wise ? If He makes 
 blind and deaf, who gives sight and hearing? If He 
 commits pilfering, who administers justice? If He 
 dwells in a tabernacle, who is without bounds? If 
 He is fond of fat and sacrifices, who is holy? If He 
 dwells in shadow and darkness and storm and smoke, 
 who is the light that brightens the universe ? If He 
 is pleased with candles and candlesticks, who, then, 
 placed the luminaries in heaven ? If He comes with 
 trumpets and shoutings and darts and arrows, who 
 is the looked-for tranquillity of all? If He loves 
 war, who wishes peace ^ " And it is Peter, chief 
 
CLEMENTINES. 12/ 
 
 of apostles, who exclaims, " Be ye good money- 
 changers, inasmuch as in the Scriptures are some 
 true sayings and some spurious! " 
 
 After a circulation of two centuries the Church 
 had time to determine its opinion of the Clementines, 
 containing in dialogue the utterance we have quoted. 
 They may have appeared, we have seen, early as 
 A. D. 211 ; and in A. D,4io Rufinus gave his trans- 
 lation to the world. He was a presbyter of Aqui- 
 leia. He seems confident that his work would be 
 accepted. He, indeed, feels that he deserves the 
 gratitude of his country and will be crowned with 
 his reward. Nor was he probably mistaken in his 
 glowing anticipation. Changed from their Greek 
 into a Latin dress, the Clementines were welcomed 
 and approved by the Western Church. The letter 
 of Rufinus to Bishop Gaudentius breathes the spirit 
 of a triumphant assurance : 
 
 " We contribute to the use and profit of our 
 people no small spoil, as I think, taken from the 
 libraries of the Greeks. For foreign things usually 
 seem more pleasant, and sometimes also more 
 profitable. Judea sends us tears of balsam ; Crete, 
 hair of dictamnus ; Arabia, her flowers of spices ; 
 India reaps her crop of spikenard. Receive, there- 
 fore, my friend, Clement returning to you — receive 
 him in a Roman dress! And I know not with how 
 grateful countenances my countrymen welcome me, 
 bringing to them this rich spoil of Greece and un- 
 locking hidden treasures of wisdom with the key of 
 our language." 
 
 Here is a phenomenon to explain I Rufinus in his 
 letter reflected his age. After two centuries of 
 
128 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 circulation in Greek he introduced the Clementines 
 to a Latin popularity. Yet they ridicule Moses, 
 stigmatize the Baptist, repudiate Paul, deny the in- 
 spiration of Hebrew prophets, and reject as spu- 
 rious what the Old Testament records as fact. 
 Like a wild Gnosticism, they seem to know noth- 
 ing of law or sin or guilt or redemption through the 
 blood and Spirit of Christ. To the evangelical 
 faith of Paul they oppose the most contemptuous 
 hostility. Yet they rose into favor in times when 
 believers were tested by sword and chain and flame. 
 The Clementines attained their widest circulation 
 and greatest popularity during the Aurelian, Decian, 
 and Diocletian persecutions down to the period of 
 Augustine himself, embracing centuries where the 
 Church was most holy in life and vigorous in 
 growth, while marching forward to the ecclesiastical 
 dominion of the Roman empire. 
 
 The highest form of Christianity is that in which 
 each doctrine and each experience is attested and 
 expressed in words of Holy Scripture inspired by 
 the Holy Ghost. The language of God best in- 
 terprets the heart of man. A faith drawn wholly 
 from the Bible as unfolded by the Spirit is above 
 creeds, above liturgies, above systems. This is the 
 ideal of Christianity. To this glory, we hope, 
 humanity is tending. What a joy of universal 
 triumph! But such sublime attainments in faith 
 and life presume what aptitudes and what oppor- 
 tunities ! Well for man that the truths essential to 
 his salvation are few ! All may be summed in a 
 brief symbol. But while simple, how transcendent ! 
 Incarnation, Trinity, atonement, remission by 
 
CLEMENTINES. 1 29 
 
 faith, regeneration, resurrection, judgment, paradise, 
 heaven — compared with these how small all else ! 
 Yet, let a man receive these truths in his heart and 
 witness them in his life, he is a Christian, whatever 
 his mistaken views of inspiration, whatever his errors 
 of intellect, whatever his ignorance from incapacity 
 or circumstance. The spots on the sun are not 
 visible on his face of glory. In an age of martyrs 
 few disciples possessed the Scriptures. Salvation was 
 expounded by their teachers and memorized in their 
 creeds. They could not define and defend, but they 
 could testify and burn. Nor with the multitude of 
 believers is it different now. How many modern 
 Christians can prove Bible by argument or doctrine 
 by Bible ? Yet a mighty host, happy and victorious 
 in the truths of the Gospel, are satisfied. Their joy 
 and triumph are to them invincible proofs. Nor, 
 whatever their diligence in the study of Scripture, 
 can they advance farther. Food relieves hunger, 
 air causes hearing, and light seeing, while the soul 
 is flooded with knowledge from a universe, although 
 we cannot analyze an element, explain an organ, or 
 comprehend a process. Ever must strifes of creeds 
 and systems be left to volume and lecture-room. 
 The pulpit itself has power only as it expounds to 
 the intellect and applies to the conscience the sub- 
 lime truths of Christianity, in forms practical and 
 popular. 
 
 The phenomenon of the Clementine fictions ap- 
 pears in our age. Its most satisfactory explanation 
 is in the imagery of our Saviour. To Him each 
 believer is united, as branch to vine. Examine 
 where the twig joins the stock! You find a swelling 
 
130 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 hardness intended to withstand the force of the 
 storm and the wrench of the intruder. Pluck a 
 branch from the stem ! Separated, no skill of man 
 can produce a grape. Let the philosopher theorize 
 about it ! Let the chemist galvanize it ! Let the 
 lecturer talk over it. Does it leaf? Does it bud? 
 Does it blossom ? Does it cluster? No, it dies. But 
 before it expires take it back and join it to its vine ! 
 It lives, it grows, it bears. Over a vineyard you see 
 luscious grapes loading the bending branches, blush- 
 ing to the sun, bursting with their liquid sweetness, 
 and inviting to partake of their exquisite nectar. 
 And thus joined to Christ fruit is inevitable. Apart 
 from Him, useless all forms, doctrines, rites, sacra- 
 ments, duties, ceremonies, observances. With a 
 perfect intellectual orthodoxy or amid the most im- 
 posing magnificence of ritual the man may starve. 
 With bands of gold fasten your branch to your vine ! 
 Let diamonds flash about it ! Hancr there the 
 wealth of India. Fruitless ! So neither orthodoxy 
 nor ceremony creates life. Only union brings fruit. 
 Amid a gross mass of doctrinal and ritualistic error 
 there may be true faith in the Redeemer, as with 
 the branch, if a single unnoticed fiber, slender as a 
 thread, but touch the juices as they ascend and 
 descend in their mysterious annual courses, an in- 
 stantaneous life may be communicated and develop 
 into all the beauty of broad leaves and the glory of 
 ripe clusters. 
 
CREEDS. 131 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Creeds. 
 
 THE authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 has long been a subject of dispute. Was its 
 writer Paul? It bears many marks of the 
 great apostle. We notice his logical power, his 
 vehemence, his compounded words, his Hebrais- 
 tic omissions, his antitheses ; here his argument in 
 a sentence, and there in a parenthesis ; but every- 
 where his genius and his affection. The brain and 
 heart of Paul seem in this Epistle. All the peculi- 
 arities of the style may be explained by the sub- 
 limity of the theme. In Romans faith is subject- 
 ively treated. It is a simple action of the soul 
 hidden in ourselves, invisible, like the root of a tree. 
 Hence Romans is supplemented by Hebrews, where 
 we have faith, not as a subjective condition, but in 
 its objective realization. Before it is placed our 
 great High Priest in His Godhead and manhood, 
 who, having made reconciliation through His blood, 
 passed into the heavens to be adored as Creator and 
 Redeemer forever. 
 
 However masterly Paul in argument, he descends 
 from his intellectual eminence to move the heart 
 and fructify the life. His writings have none of the 
 dryness of systems and confessions. They sparkle 
 with the vivacity of the epistle. They glow with 
 sympathy. They melt us with their tears. They 
 
132 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 touch all the springs of our Christian activities. If 
 Paul exalts into the heavens, he never leaves us in 
 the clouds. However sublime his celestial vision, 
 he remembers us in our earthly relations and homely 
 duties. All he argues, explains, urges, has one 
 radiating center. His own witness of remitted sin 
 is the spring of the new life of Paul. From this 
 follows the gift of the Holy Ghost. Forgiven through 
 the blood of Christ, the apostle burns with the 
 flame of grateful, unspeakable affection for the per- 
 son of Christ. And this love of the Redeemer is 
 the most powerful emotion in the universe. This 
 stirs the true democratic sympathy for humanity. 
 This must animate all Christian aspirations and 
 agencies before a world can be converted. This 
 will wake in heaven songs outvoicing cherubim. 
 
 In their influence over the emotions and activities 
 we perceive how inferior the ecclesiastical creeds to 
 the Pauline Epistles. They seem deficient in the 
 element of the personal faith that moves strongly 
 the heart and the life. After the Reformation they 
 were dropped from use by those Protestant sects 
 most powerfully animated by the revived doctrine 
 and freedom of the Christian Democracy. And 
 now, when the Spirit is poured out upon men in 
 liberty and power they prefer to confess Christ in 
 language suggested by their own personality. It is 
 affirmed, therefore, that creeds resemble the moun- 
 tains, glittering in snow and sunlight, whose cold 
 pinnacles furnish streams to fertilize the warm and 
 fruitful valleys. But we must remember how gen- 
 erous the liberty allowed by Christianity to all our 
 human individualities. The great creeds have in- 
 
CREEDS. 133 
 
 estimable advantages that can never be overlooked 
 in the development of the Church. They are in- 
 valuable as waymarks in her history. In a few 
 words they comprise the essentials of salvation. 
 How easily are they memorized, and how readily 
 pronounced ! And at once they guard and help 
 faith. Moreover, they can be recited impressively 
 and sympathetically by the lips of an humble con- 
 gregation, or sounded forth majestically in the cathe- 
 dral with the sublime accompaniments of choir and 
 organ. Whatever the outer form, the true faith of 
 Christ in its love embraces His universe. And at 
 the mention of Jesus, His human name, the head, 
 bowed in confession of His Godhead, may express a 
 loyal and sublime adoration. 
 
 With these remarks we will present some of those 
 creeds which shed most light over the history of the 
 Christian Democracy during its first five centuries. 
 The Nicene symbol is reserved for a future expla- 
 nation and analysis. 
 
 The Creed of Iren^us. 
 
 This is the earliest authenticated attempt to sum- 
 marize the great truths of Christianity. It is taken 
 from the works of the venerable Bishop of Lyons : 
 
 *' The Church, though dispersed through all the 
 world, hath received from the apostles and their 
 disciples this faith in one God the Father Almighty, 
 Maker of heaven and earth ; and in one Jesus Christ 
 the Son of God, who became incarnate for our sal- 
 vation ; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed 
 through prophets the dispensation of God ; and the 
 birth from a virgin ; and the resurrection from the 
 
134 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 dead ; and in the ascension into heaven in the flesh 
 of the beloved Jesus, our Lord ; and His future 
 manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father, 
 to gather all things into one and to raise up anew 
 all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to 
 Christ Jesus, our Lord and God and Saviour and 
 King, according to the will of the invisible Father, 
 every knee should bow, of things in heaven and 
 things in earth and things under the earth, and that 
 every tongue should confess to Him, and that He 
 should execute judgment toward all." 
 
 The Creed of Melito. 
 
 He was Bishop of Sardis and contemporary with 
 Irenaeus. No symbol excites such a glow of per- 
 sonal affection to Christ, nor does any so amply and 
 beautifully express the glory of His Old Testament 
 manifestations : 
 
 '' We have made collections from the law and 
 the prophets relative to those things which have 
 been declared respecting our Lord Jesus Christ, that 
 we may prove to your love that He is perfect Rea- 
 son — the Word of God, who was begotten before 
 the light ; who was the Fashioner of man ; who was 
 all in all; who among the patriarchs was Patriarch ; 
 who in the law was the Law ; among the priests, 
 chief Priest; among kings, Governor ; among proph- 
 ets, tJie Prophet; among angels, the Archangel; 
 in the voice, the Word ; among spirits, Spirit ; in 
 the Father, the Son ; in God, God ; the King for- 
 ever and ever." For this Avas He who was Pilot to 
 Noah; who conducted Abraham; who was bound 
 with Isaac ; who was exiled with Jacob ; who was 
 
CREEDS. 135 
 
 sold with Joseph ; who was Captain with Moses ; 
 who was the Director of the inheritance with Joshua 
 the son of Nun ; who in David and the prophets 
 foretold His own sufferings ; who was incarnate in 
 the Virgin ; who was born at Bethlehem ; who was 
 wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger; \vho was 
 seen of shepherds ; who was glorified of angels ; who 
 was pointed out by John ; who assembled the apos- 
 tles ; who preached the kingdom ; who healed the 
 maimed ; who gave sight to the blind ; who raised 
 the dead ; who appeared in the temple ; who was 
 believed on by the people ; who was betrayed by 
 Judas; who was laid hold on by the priests; who 
 was condemned by Pilate ; who was pierced in the 
 flesh ; who was hanged on the tree ; who was bur- 
 ied in the earth ; who rose from the dead ; who 
 appeared unto the apostles ; who ascended into 
 heaven ; who sitteth on the right hand of the Fa- 
 ther ; who is the rest of those who are departed — 
 God who is of God; the Son who is of the Father; 
 Jesus Christ, the Son forever and ever. Amen ! " 
 
 Apostles' Creed. 
 
 Both the age and authorship of this most widely 
 used symbol are uncertain. Ambrose and Rufinus 
 inform us that from 250 A. D. the creed we here 
 insert was used in Rome : 
 
 '' I believe in God, Father Almighty ; and in Je- 
 sus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord, who 
 was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary, 
 crucified and buried under Pontius Pilate, who rose 
 on the third day from the dead, and ascended into 
 heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father, 
 
136 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 from whence He shallcome to judge thequick and the 
 dead ; and in the Holy Ghost ; the holy Church ; the 
 forgiveness of sins ; and the resurrection of the flesh." 
 Tradition affirmed that before scattering from 
 Jerusalem each of the apostles contributed a sen- 
 tence to this creed. But after the first Nicene Coun- 
 cil it was displaced by the Nicene symbol, which 
 passed out of use in Rome owing to the antagonisms 
 of the Eastern and Western Churches. Our Apos- 
 tles* Creed then took its present shape, largely 
 modified by a Gallic use, and was adopted in the 
 imperial city. The old tradition of apostolic origin 
 clung to this new Roman symbol. 
 
 Creed of Gregory Thaumaturgus. 
 
 He was a contemporary of Origen, and born in 
 Neo Csesarea, in Pontus. By a pagan father he was 
 trained in idolatry. But his mother gave him a 
 Christian education. Gregory studied in Alexan- 
 dria. Here he was advised by Origen, his teacher 
 and friend, to pray for the illumination of the Holy 
 Ghost. On his return to his home he abandoned 
 himself to retirement and devotion. He became a 
 most successful preacher and was made bishop in his 
 native city. But his creed has made him more illus- 
 trious than his episcopate or his eloquence. Gregory 
 Nyssen attached to it a superstition that proves how 
 early and strong was the tendency to saint worship. 
 He ascribes the creed of Thaumaturgus to a revela- 
 tion from the Virgin Mary and the evangelist John. 
 We may well affirm that only the light of the Holy 
 Ghost and the study of the Holy Scripture could 
 have led to so full and satisfying a declaration 
 
CREEDS. 137 
 
 of the everlasting truth. Gregory uses the word 
 "Trinity," and in some peculiarities of expression 
 anticipated, perhaps suggested, the impressive and 
 majestic style of the Athanasian symbol. 
 
 " There is one God, the Father of the living Word, 
 of the subsisting Wisdom and Power, and of Him 
 who is His eternal express Image, the perfect Father 
 of Him that is perfect, the Father of the only be- 
 gotten Son. There is one Lord, the only Son of the 
 only Father, God of God, the character and image 
 of the Godhead, the energetic Word, the compre- 
 hensive Wisdom by which all things were made, 
 and the Power that gave being to all creation, the 
 true Son of the true Father, the Invisible of the 
 Invisible, the Incorruptible of the Incorruptible, the 
 Immortal of the Immortal, the Eternal of the Eter- 
 nal. There is one Holy Ghost, having the subsist- 
 ence of God, who was manifested through the Son 
 to men, the perfect Image of the perfect Son, the 
 Life and the source of life, the holy Fountain, 
 Sanctity and the Author of sanctification, by whom 
 is made manifest God the Father who is above all 
 and in all, and God the Son who is through all — 
 a perfect Trinity, which neither in glory, eternity, 
 nor dominion is separated or divided." 
 
 The Creed of Origen. 
 
 " There is one God, who created and made all 
 things and caused the whole universe to exist out 
 of nothing ; the God of all the just that ever were 
 from the first creation and foundation of all ; the 
 God of Adam, Seth, Enos, Enoch, Noah, Shem, 
 Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs, Moses, 
 
138 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 the prophets ; who in the last days, as He had prom- 
 ised before by His prophets, sent our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, first to call Israel, and then the Gentiles, 
 after the infidelity of His people Israel ; the just and 
 good God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, be- 
 ing the God of the apostles and the Old and New 
 Testaments — Jesus Christ who came into the world, 
 was begotten of the Father before every creature, 
 who, ministering to His Father in all things, in the 
 last times made Himself of no reputation and be- 
 came man. He who was God was made flesh, and 
 when He was made man continued the same God 
 He was before. He assumed a body in all things 
 like our own, save that it was born of a Virgin by 
 the Holy Ghost. And because this Jesus Christ 
 was born and suffered death common to all, in truth, 
 and not only in appearance. He was truly dead, for 
 He truly rose again from the dead, and after His 
 resurrection conversed with His disciples and was 
 taken up into heaven. They also delivered unto us 
 that the Holy Ghost was joined in the same honor 
 and dignity as the Father and the Son." 
 
 Creed of Tertullian. 
 
 " There is one rule of faith only, that admits no 
 change or alteration — that which teaches us to be- 
 lieve in one God Almighty, the Maker of the world, 
 and in Jesus Christ, his Son, who was born of the 
 Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, the 
 third day rose again from the dead, was received 
 into heaven, and sitteth now on the right hand of 
 God, who shall come again to judge both the quick 
 and the dead by the resurrection of the flesh." 
 
CREEDS. 139 
 
 Creed of Cyprian. 
 We have this inferentially, and not in any elabo- 
 rate statement. The great Bishop of Carthage says, 
 " Both the CathoHcs and the Novatians agreed in 
 the same form of interrogations to catechumens in 
 baptism — whether they believed in God the Father, 
 and Christ His Son, and in the Holy Ghost." Among 
 the schismatics, he affirms, was no true Church to 
 grant remission of sins. Cyprian restricted absolu- 
 tion to Catholic priests in the apostolical succession. 
 
 Creed of Lucian the Martyr. 
 
 He suffered in the fiery persecutions of Diocle- 
 tian, a martyr to the faith he confessed. 
 
 *' We believe," he says, " according to the tra- 
 ditions of the Gospels and apostles, in one God, the 
 Father Almighty, Creator and Maker and Governor 
 of all things ; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, His only 
 begotten Son, who is God, by whom are all things, 
 who was begotten of the Father, God of God, Whole 
 of Whole, One of One, Perfect of Perfect, King of 
 King, Lord of Lord, the Word, the Wisdom, the 
 Way, the Life, the true Light, the true Way, the 
 Resurrection, the Shepherd, the Gate, the Incom- 
 municable and Unchangeable, Image of the divine 
 essence, power, and glory, the firstborn of every 
 creature, wha was always God the Word, according 
 to what is said in the Gospel, ' And the Word was 
 God, by whom all things were made and in whom 
 all things consist,' who in the last days descended 
 from on high, and was born of a Virgin, according 
 to the Scriptures, and, being the Lamb of God, was 
 made Mediator between God and men, being fore- 
 
i40 TilE CHRiStlAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 ordained to be the Author of our faith and Hfe — for 
 He said, ' I am not come from heaven to do my 
 own will, but the will of Him who sent me' — and 
 rose again for us on the third day, and ascended 
 into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the 
 Father; and He shall come again with glory to 
 judge the quick and the dead. And we believe in 
 the Holy Ghost, which is given to believers for their 
 consolation and sanctification and consummation, 
 according to what our Lord Jesus Christ appoints 
 His disciples, saying, ' Go, teach all nations, baptiz- 
 ing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost ; ' whence the properties of 
 the Father are manifest, denoting Him to be truly 
 Father, and the properties of a Son, denoting Him 
 to be truly a Son, and the properties of the Holy 
 Ghost, denoting Him to be truly a Holy Ghost, these 
 names not being simply put and to no purpose, but 
 to express the particular subsistence and hypostatic 
 substance, as the Greeks term it, of each Person 
 named, so as to denote them to be three in hypos- 
 tasis and one by consonance." 
 
 Creed of the Apostolical Constitutions. 
 
 " I believe and am baptized into one, unbegotten, 
 the only true God Almighty, the Father of Christ, 
 the Creator and Maker of all things, of whom are 
 all things; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, His only 
 begotten Son, firstborn of every creature, who be- 
 fore all ages was begotten, not made, by the good 
 will of the Father, by whom all things were in 
 heaven and earth, visible and invisible, who in the 
 last time came down from heaven, and, taking flesh 
 
CREEDS. 141 
 
 Upon Him, was born of the Virgin Mary, and lived 
 a holy life, according to the laws of God His Father, 
 and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and died for 
 us, and the third day after He suffered, rose again 
 from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sit- 
 teth on the right hand of the Father, and shall come 
 again in glory in the end of the world to judge both 
 the quick and the dead, of whose kingdom shall be 
 no end. And I am baptized into the Holy Ghost, 
 that is to say, the Comforter, which wrought effec- 
 tually in all the saints from the beginning of the 
 world, and was afterward sent to the apostles by the 
 Father, according to the promise of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and after the apostles on all others who in 
 the Holy Catholic Church believe the resurrection 
 of the flesh, the remission of sins, the kingdom of 
 heaven, and the life everlasting." 
 
 Creed of Jerusalem. 
 
 '' I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, 
 Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible 
 and invisible ; and in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only 
 begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father be- 
 fore all ages, the true God, by whom all things were 
 made, who was incarnate and was made man, who 
 was crucified and buried, and the third day He rose 
 again from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and 
 sitteth on the right hand of the Father, and shall come 
 again to judge thequick and the dead, whose kingdom 
 shall have no end ; and in the Holy Ghost, the Com- 
 forter, who spake by the prophets ; in one baptism for 
 the remission of sins; in one Catholic Church; in 
 the resurrection of the flesh ; and life everlasting." 
 
142 the christian democracy. 
 
 Creed of Antioch. 
 
 " I believe in the only true God, the Father Al- 
 mighty of all creatures, visible and invisible ; and in 
 Jesus Christ our Lord, His only begotton Son, the 
 firstborn of every creature, born of Him before all 
 ages and not made, very God of very God, consub- 
 stantial with the Father, by whom the world was 
 framed and all things made, who for our sakes came 
 and was born of the Virgin Mary, and was crucified 
 under Pontius Pilate, and was buried, and the third 
 day rose again, according to the Scriptures, and 
 ascended into heaven, and shall come again to judge 
 the world." 
 
FATHERS. 143 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Fathers. 
 
 IN settling the canon of Scripture the aid of the 
 Greek and Latin fathers is invaluable. To Euse- 
 bius, Sozomen, Socrates, and Theodoret, ecclesi- 
 astical history is immeasurably indebted. Often cred- 
 ulous and puerile, yet without their pages the early 
 centuries of the Church would present almost a blank. 
 From patristic quotations the Bible, in its essentials, 
 could be rewritten. Besides, among the fathers 
 what piety, what genius, what learning, what elo- 
 quence ! They number writers whose gifts are not 
 dimmed in the brilliance of classic literature. The 
 oratory of Chrysostom and Basil and the Gregories 
 recalls the fire of Demosthenes and the splendor of 
 Cicero. 
 
 But are the fathers authoritative guides in the 
 interpretation of Scripture? It is plausibly argued 
 that just as they are nearer to the time of Christ so 
 will they be more familiar with the mind of Christ. 
 The ray is brightest when closest to the sun. As 
 light is distorted and discolored by mists and clouds 
 in the distance of earth, so, it is urged, as we leave 
 the period of the fathers, truth is darkened and re- 
 fracted in the later ages of history. Hence to know 
 what the Scriptures mean we must know what the 
 fathers say. This view places fathers between every 
 man ancj his Bible. Such is the doctrine of Rome, 
 
144 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 The Council of Trent ordained that we were to fol- 
 low the example of the '* orthodox fathers " in our 
 interpretation of Scripture. Many Anglicans exalt 
 their authority to this Roman level. How important 
 then to judge the fathers by the fathers ! Let them 
 speak for themselves ! If the papal Church ex- 
 aggerates fathers it menaces liberty. Nor should 
 we accept without question the lighter Anglican 
 fetter. We wish, therefore, to examine whether we 
 should bind the Christian Democracy in these gilded 
 chains of the patristic literature. This, we think, 
 can be briefly settled by an appeal to the writings 
 of these venerable Greek and Latin fathers. 
 
 Clement. 
 
 We are not unwilling to admit that Peter was in 
 Rome. Scripture, indeed, is silent on the subject. 
 But the voice of tradition is strong. Early as A. D. 
 107, in his Epistle to the Romans, Ignatius says, 
 " I do not, as Peter and Paul, issue commandments 
 unto you." This may, indeed, be an interpolation 
 in that most corrupted writer. But by Peter and 
 Paul Irenaeus also says that the Roman Church was 
 founded. Cyprian affirms that Peter was the chief 
 source of sacerdotal unity, and hence in his struggle 
 with Novatus appealed to Rome. Tertullian says 
 that Clement was ordained by Peter, while Euse- 
 bius mentions Papias as authority that Peter from 
 Rome wrote his first Epistle. This, if not convinc- 
 ing proof, is powerful presumption. All lists of 
 popes place Clement as Bishop of Rome after Peter. 
 So let him be ! In this view he is pope and father. 
 He speaks by a pontifical and a patristic authority. 
 
FATHERS. 145 
 
 According to Rome, his is a double infallibility. 
 And he is the writer next after the canonical Scrip- 
 ture. Clement is that ray nearest the sun. His, 
 in three aspects, is the loftiest human authority pos- 
 sible. By him, therefore, stands or falls the whole 
 Roman position. 
 
 Let us turn to his pages ! Do they correspond to 
 this exalted place ? We will test him by his argu- 
 ment on one fact which is at the center of Christian 
 proof, Christian faith, and Christian hope. Here, if 
 anywhere, he should be strong. How does he treat 
 the resurrection of the Redeemer? Paul presents 
 its evidence with a master hand. From him we pass 
 to Clement ; that is, we turn from the last apostle 
 to the first father, who was also pope. Like Paul, 
 does Clement confirm the resurrection by argument? 
 What are his proofs ? Does he place Christianity 
 on the sure foundation of testimony ? Are his wit- 
 nesses men who saw and heard and touched the 
 risen Saviour? No. Clement's illustration is fable. 
 Our pope and father presses into his service, not 
 Holy Scripture, but Egyptian legend. He sum- 
 mons as v/itnesses pagan priests. He does not 
 reason, but dawdles. He gives, instead of argument, 
 the myth of the phcenix. Such pitiable childish- 
 ness we encounter at our first passage from apostles 
 to popes and fathers! What but inspiration pre- 
 served unlettered fishermen from similar folly? 
 Have we not here powerful presumption that human 
 fallibility was not left to itself in the composition of 
 Gospels and Epistles? Nor is the authorship ques- 
 tioned of Clement's first letter to the Corinthians. 
 It was discovered in the manuscript of the Codex 
 10 
 
146 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Alexandrmus presented to Charles I, of England, in 
 1628 by Cyrillus Lucaris, Patriarch of Constanti- 
 nople, and is now preserved in the British Museum. 
 Between A. D. 68 and A. D. 97 was its probable 
 date. After such comment we will quote the whole 
 extract to which we have alluded, especially as it 
 tests the Roman theory regarding fathers as biblical 
 interpreters : 
 
 '* Let us consider that wonderful sign of the resur- 
 rection which takes place in eastern lands, that is, 
 in Arabia. There is a certain bird which is called 
 a phoenix. When the time of its dissolution draws 
 near that it must die it builds a nest of frankincense 
 and myrrh and other spices, into which when the 
 time is fulfilled it enters and dies. But as the flesh 
 decays a certain kind of worm is produced which, 
 being nourished by the juices of the dead bird, 
 brings forth feathers. Then when it acquires 
 strength it takes up the nest in which are the bones 
 of its parent, and, bearing these, it passes from the 
 land of Arabia into Egypt, to the city called Heli- 
 opolis, and in open day, flying in sight of all men, it 
 places them on the altar of the sun, and, having 
 done the same, hastens back to its former abode. 
 The priest then inspects the register of the dates 
 and finds that it has returned exactly as the five 
 hundredth year was completed." 
 
 Ignatius. 
 
 During all the centuries since his martyrdom the 
 Bishop of Antioch has baffled his critics. Fifteen 
 epistles bear his name. Of these eight are univer- 
 sally considered spurious. As regards four others 
 
FATHERS. 147 
 
 opinions vary. The illustrious Lightfoot, recent 
 Bishop of Durham, devoted years to the elucidation 
 of Ignatius. Even his critical genius cannot cer- 
 tainly separate the original gold of the epistles from 
 the dross of shameful corruptions. These were ex- 
 aggerated in Milton's eloquent diatribes against 
 prelacy, yet they prove in the early Church a painful 
 and unscrupulous mendacity. Fraud was used to 
 exalt episcopal prerogative. That the end justifies 
 the means was a pious plea long before Jesuitism. 
 The result shows that truth cannot be helped by 
 falsehood. The authority of Ignatius is impaired 
 by the means employed to increase it. Although 
 his epistles to Polycarp, the Ephesians, and the 
 Romans are accepted by all, yet even these are 
 darkened by the shadows of a corrupting age. In 
 the reign of Trajan, A. D. 107, Ignatius was cast to 
 the wild beasts. On his way from Antioch to meet 
 death in the Roman amphitheater he writes words 
 which burn with faith and love. "Suffer me," he 
 exclaims, '' to imitate the passion of my God. An 
 archive to me is Christ ; my incorruptible biblio- 
 theca is Christ's cross. He is the Door to the 
 Father through which Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and 
 the prophets and the apostles and the Church enter. 
 This one Revealer is the Son of God, His eternal 
 Word, tireless, viewless, for us visible, for us suffer- 
 ing, and yet impalpable and impassable." 
 
 Barnabas. 
 
 Who was he? Paul's associate? But how can 
 we ascribe to the companion of the great apostle, a 
 man full of the Holy Ghost, strong in faith, and 
 
148 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 vigorous in exhortation, pitiable puerilities? Many- 
 facts conspire to prove that the Barnabas of our 
 epistle lived about the middle of the second cen- 
 tury. In order of time he is third of the venerable 
 fathers. If we accept the Roman view he stands on 
 a lofty pedestal of authority. His interpretations 
 of Scripture should exert commanding influence. 
 Now we have in his epistle an exposition of a state- 
 ment in Genesis. It is recorded that Abraham cir- 
 cumcised three hundred and eighteen persons in his 
 household. Hear the comment of Barnabas! How 
 keen and profound his insight ! He divides three 
 hundred and eighteen into three parts. These are 
 ten, eight, and three hundred. The ten are indi- 
 cated by the Greek letter l, and the eight by ?/, 
 which are the first two letters in the Greek name of 
 Jesus, while the Greek letter r, tau, expressing three 
 hundred, resembles the cross. Therefore by the 
 three hundred of the three hundred and eighteen 
 the cross was represented and predicted. The ten 
 and the eight, indicated by the l and the ?/, were 
 prophetic of Jesus. It follows that we have in the 
 circumcision of three hundred and eighteen persons 
 by Abraham evidences of the Messiah and His 
 atonement. A single number comprises the plan of 
 salvation ! And the father congratulates himself 
 on his wonderful discovery ! He is vain of his 
 spiritual discernment ! The oracle not only sounds 
 forth this deep wisdom, but its own pr^iises ! Bar- 
 nabas exclaims, " No one has been admitted to a 
 more excellent piece of knowledge than this." Yet 
 this man is a father. He is third in the succession. 
 He deserves therefore the highest credit. He is to 
 
FATHERS. 149 
 
 be placed between me and Scripture. Despite his 
 childish babble, I must accept him as my guide. 
 Well for the world, on its way to the everlasting 
 truth it has small need of so small a Barnabas. So 
 soon a decree of Trent lands me in a mist of non- 
 sense ! How speedily in the history of the Church 
 we learn to turn from man to God ! 
 
 POLYCARP. 
 
 Here is a true man and a true witness. Yet the 
 glory of his death is clouded by puerile legends. 
 Flames were not enough to sanctify and dignify 
 his testimony. The majesty of martyrdom is en- 
 feebled by silly invention. We can, indeed, distin- 
 guish the true coin from the base alloy. But such 
 fables as have been gathered about the death of 
 the venerable Polycarp not only mar its spiritual 
 effect and pain us with their silliness and degrade 
 an apostolic witness into the rank of a legendary 
 martyr, but excite a prejudice against Christianity 
 and suspicion against all ecclesiastical tradition and 
 history. Falsifying meddlers unsettle the very foun- 
 dations they seek to establish. 
 
 The Bishop of Smyrna had been a disciple of 
 the apostle John. He had seen those who had 
 seen the Christ. He was a link between the apos- 
 tolic age and all the succeeding centuries. He thus 
 moved in a halo of traditional glory. The vener- 
 able Christian was ninety years of age when he 
 heard mad cries demanding his death. Friends per- 
 suaded him to retire to a villa. From here he re- 
 treated to another. He spent a day and a night in 
 prayer. Baptized by heaven, he was ready for 
 
150 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACV. 
 
 flame and crown. The time, he saw, had come for 
 testimony in the fire. Betrayed in his refuge, he 
 gave himself up to his persecutors. On his knees 
 in their presence he prayed long. Even the pagans 
 were touched by the spectacle of his gray head 
 bowed before the Majesty of the universe. He was 
 taken into a chariot by the side of a Roman mag- 
 nate, who urged him to apostatize. At the tribunal 
 the proconsul said, " Curse Christ ! '* Polycarp an- 
 swered, " I am a Christian." Before the fire was 
 lighted he thanked Almighty God for the privilege 
 of martyrdom, and then his soul passed from flame 
 to paradise. He left behind him a single epistle, 
 addressed to the Philippians. Polycarp invokes 
 *' mercy and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 whose death is our hope, the surety of our justifica- 
 tion, and which awakes love to Him and a desire to 
 glorify Him while we tread in the footsteps of His 
 sufferings. To Him all things in heaven and earth 
 are subject; Him every spirit serves; He comes to 
 judge the living and the dead. The faith delivered 
 unto us is the mother of us all ; her eldest daughter 
 is love, her second hope. If we walk worthy of 
 Him we shall reign with Him. Ye believe in Him, 
 though ye see Him not, and, believing, ye rejoice 
 with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 
 
 Iren^us. 
 
 He was born in Asia and made Bishop of Lyons 
 in France, where, in A. D. 1 80, he died a martyr. 
 Few fathers exceed him in purity of piety, vigor of 
 intellect, and extent of learning. Irenseus recalled the 
 form, the face, the words of the noble Polycarp, who 
 
FATHERS. 151 
 
 had received wisdom from apostolic lips. How the 
 light of Smyrna was thus flashed into the darkness 
 of France ! Orient illuminated Occident. A Rcf- 
 titatio7i of the Gnostic System was the principal work 
 of Irenaeus. Others of his writings we know only 
 by their names. But all that survives from his pen 
 proves his excellent judgment, except his eccentric 
 theory as to the age of our Saviour. In this we 
 have another evidence of his human frailty, the lax- 
 ity of his age in biblical interpretation, and the peril 
 of trusting to the guidance and authority of any 
 father. Few writers who will not twist fact to sup- 
 port individual opinion and sectarian prejudice ! 
 Irenaeus believed that, as the representative of our 
 humanity, our Lord should be identified with our 
 humanity in each earthly manifestation of infancy, 
 childhood, manhood, and age. As this was neces- 
 sary for our Redeemer, Jesus was, therefore, an old 
 man when He was crucified. Having adopted this 
 view, Irenaeus states as fact what was a whim of 
 speculation, and this without even pretense of proof. 
 Nor except the Bishop of Lyons does a solitary an- 
 cient writer venture a similar assertion. In all the 
 fathers we find the same want of critical judgment 
 and historical accuracy. Acquaintance with their 
 pages dissolves all illusions as to their authority. 
 Not only were they often credulous and puerile, but, 
 as we shall see from the works of the most illustrious, 
 leaders of the people into the grossest superstition. 
 Yet we must not obscure the beautiful side of the 
 picture. With what admirable grace and wisdom 
 Irenaeus expresses himself when he says : " God 
 cannot be known without God. Without life we 
 
152 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 cannot live. Who would see the Hght must be in 
 the sphere of the Hght. The Unapprehended, the 
 Invisible, hath made Himself visible, comprehen- 
 sible, apprehensible." With Irenaeus " Christ was 
 the fountain of the Holy Ghost for all who believe. 
 On our humanity the Holy Ghost is the rain from 
 heaven. In and through all things is one God, 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He unites man to 
 God. If God had not granted man salvation we 
 should not have been put in firm possession of it ; 
 and if man had not been united to God he could 
 not have been a partaker of immortality. It be- 
 hooved the Mediator of God and man, by His af- 
 finity with both, to bring both into agreement 
 with each other." 
 
 Justin Martyr. 
 
 This father was born in Flavia Neapolis, the old 
 Samaritan Sichem. It had become a Roman col- 
 ony where the Greek language and culture prevailed. 
 Justin loved the philosophy of Plato. But he was 
 not satisfied with its flights into sublime clouds. " I, 
 also," he says, *' once was an admirer of the doc- 
 trines of Plato, and I heard the Christians abused. 
 But when I saw them meet death and all that is 
 terrible among men without dismay, I knew it im- 
 possible that they could live in sin and lust. I 
 despised the opinion of the multitude, and I glory 
 in being a Christian. 
 
 The celebrated Apology of Justin was written in 
 the reign of Marcus Aurelius, in which also he suf- 
 fered martyrdom. He argued that, as Christ had 
 power to deify man, Christ was, therefore, Himseli 
 
Fathers. 153 
 
 divine. " Under the Old Testament the Jews had 
 understood in its manifestations a Power of God 
 which they called glory in the cloud ; when in hu- 
 man form, man, angel ; when messages were brought, 
 Word, as a discourse from the Father." As beams 
 were inseparable from the sun, this Power was in- 
 separable from the Father. This Power, Justin 
 affirms, was Christ, the King and the Jehovah of 
 the Old Testament. Dying as a witness for these 
 everlasting truths, this father deserved the epi- 
 thet '' Martyr." 
 
 Clemens Alexandrinus. 
 
 No ancient ecclesiastical writer exhibits more 
 uniformly solid sense or indulges less in flights of 
 speculation. He was long the most shining orna- 
 ment of the great theological school of Alexandria. 
 If less brilliant than Origen, he was a more stead- 
 fast luminary. From Egypt over the world went 
 forth the beams of his pure and beautiful and un- 
 sullied wisdom. With Clement the Son is Truth 
 in person; Logos of the Father; Unity of the Al- 
 mighty; creative Word and Reason; Pedagogue, 
 like God His Father; the unbegun Beginning; 
 Countenance of the Father and Revealer of His 
 essence ; almighty Wisdom in and with God. 
 The Son never abandons His watch-tower ; is 
 not divided ; is not severed ; travels not from 
 place to place; is ever over all; never included; 
 wholly Intelligence and Light of the Father; 
 divine Power shining over earth and filling it with 
 seeds of salvation ; issuing from the Father swifter 
 than the sun ; becoming flesh that He might 
 
154 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 be seen. He arose a universal Light upon the 
 world ; the Word incarnate ; forgiving our sins, as 
 He is God, He would transform us into the beauty 
 of the Logos, and make our mortality immortality. 
 
 Origen. 
 
 He was also a light in the Alexandrian school. In 
 original genius and breadth of learning he excelled 
 all the fathers. And his piety, although ascetic, 
 was deep and fervent. He, if any man, should be 
 an infallible human teacher. All gifts seemed to 
 unite in Origen. Alas for mortal frailty, he disap- 
 points all expectations ! Not a father was more 
 misleading ! He began by a misinterpretation of 
 the Master's words, made himself a eunuch, and 
 clouded his whole life. Mutilated in person, he be- 
 came erratic in mind. His light is brilliant, but 
 false and wavering. Once in Palestine his writings 
 were publicly condemned, and they have never lost 
 the flavor of heterodoxy. Origen seems to teach 
 the final salvation of all men. However this view 
 accords with our benevolent prepossessions, it is 
 hard to prove from Scripture. By his wild alle- 
 gorical interpretations our famed Alexandrian de- 
 spoiled himself of influence. He soared into the 
 clouds and was lost. He converted biblical facts 
 into whimsical myths. He disturbed the very 
 foundations of Christianity, and, unchecked, would 
 have brought down the structure he loved and 
 sought to strengthen and adorn. Of all the fathers 
 Origen most illustrates the peril of following human 
 guides as authorities in the study of the Bible. We 
 will give a single pregnant proof. Concubinage with 
 
Fathers. 155 
 
 Orlgen was a monstrous indulgence. He could not 
 reconcile it with piety in man or holiness in God. 
 The wives of Abraham, and David, and Solomon 
 troubled the dreaming, ascetic father. How could 
 such men be examples of faith and subjects of in- 
 spiration? Origen could make no allowance for in- 
 firmities under the law which were not tolerable 
 under the Gospel. He will replace the facts of 
 Scripture with theories of his own. " No end," he 
 says, ** of wisdom. The death of Sarah is the perfec- 
 tion of virtue. The marriage of Keturah indicates 
 that Abraham still devoted himself to learning, 
 called by the divine word ' wife.' So a man like 
 the patriarchs and Solomon may have many wives 
 — as patience, hospitality, and benevolence." 
 
 Tertullian. 
 
 This splendid writer, although married, was a 
 monk in heart. A cynical and gloomy ascetic, he 
 had Httle of the joy of Christianity. He rose to 
 the sublimest heights of eloquence and descended to 
 speculations puerile and ridiculous. Montanism 
 tempted him into belief of its wild and absurd 
 ecstasies of revelation. We have seen that he ac- 
 cepted as true the visions of Priscilla and Maxi- 
 milla and proved by them the soul to be material. 
 He taught that an angel prepared for the Holy 
 Ghost in the waters of baptism. Having lost the 
 way himself, he led others from truth. Yet how 
 brilliant his intellect, how keen his satire, how vast 
 his erudition, how magnificent his genius of expres- 
 sion ! Tertullian fell. His shining gifts did not 
 guide him in the way, and in the glare of his errors 
 
156 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 his works are the visible monuments of mortal falli- 
 bility. Left to themselves, individuals and com- 
 munions are lost stars in blackness of darkness. 
 
 We will give a beautiful and eloquent extract from 
 Tertullian. Amid its luxuriance of illustration lurk 
 germs of error. ^' Consider thyself a copy of God, 
 a rational being animated by a divine substance. 
 Dost thou not see, then, when thou quietly through 
 thy reason communest with thyself, the same thing 
 takes place in thee ? Thy reason takes up a position 
 over against thee by means of words, at every mo- 
 ment of thought, every pulsation of intelligence. 
 Whatever thou thinkest or perceivest becomes a 
 word in thee, and in thy word is thy reason itself. 
 In thy soul thou must speak, thou canst not avoid 
 it ; and when thou speakest the word in thee be- 
 comes another than thyself, as it were one who 
 speaks with thee, in the which, notwithstanding, 
 there dwells the same reason which enables thee to 
 speak when thou speakest. Thus there is, as it 
 were, another than thyself, a second — the word in 
 thee, through which thou speakest when thinking, 
 and through which thou thinkest when speaking. 
 After the same manner God, in virtue of his reason, 
 quietly thinking and ordering, made the reason 
 Word, which in speaking He set in motion. He 
 when He keeps silence has reason in Himself, and 
 in reason the Word. So far, therefore, it is true 
 that before the creation of the universe God was not 
 alone, seeing in Himself He had reason, and reason 
 the Word, which by an inner act He constituted an 
 inner second self." 
 
 Incarnation tests fathers. God in our flesh ! He, 
 
FATHERS. 157 
 
 Source of all, Force of all, Thought of all, Bond of 
 all, He who made suns and systems and cherubim, 
 He, King of His universe, He, supreme in power, 
 glory, and majesty. He, the Infinite, the Absolute, 
 the Incommunicable, the Ineffable, He, God, to man 
 joined forever! Incarnation is the root of Chris- 
 tianity. Incarnation is the virtue in atonement. 
 Incarnation is the joy of man, the song of angels, 
 the secret of the universe, the marvel of eternity. 
 Incarnation is the spring of the liberty of faith and 
 the life of the Christian Democracy. It was held 
 in the consciousness of the early Church. In the 
 Godhead of Christ Greek and Latin fathers surely 
 believed. Did the first in their line, Clemens Ro- 
 manus, teach as fact the myth of the phoenix ? Yet 
 he also implies Christ as divine when he writes : 
 " By Him we look up to the heights of heaven. By 
 Him we behold as in a glass His immaculate and 
 most excellent visage. By Him are the eyes of our 
 hearts opened. By Him our foolish and darkened 
 understanding blossoms up anew into His marvelous 
 light. By Him the Lord wills that we should taste 
 immortal knowledge." Even the feeble Barnabas 
 bore similar testimony. "All our salvation," he 
 writes, '' all our salvation we owe to Christ. He 
 gives eternal life through His cross — the Son of God, 
 the Lord and future Judge of living and dead. From 
 Him had the prophets gifts. He is Son of God and 
 Son of David, having all things under His feet." 
 Polycarp, beyond cavil, adored his Saviour as God. 
 Justin Martyr says, " He existed before all, being 
 God." Irenaeus trusted in Christ as God. Clemens 
 Alexandrinus affirms expressly, *' He is God." Be- 
 
158 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 fore his M on tan ism, in his treatise against Praxeas, 
 Tertullian speaks of *' Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 yet one God." In his creed, Gregory Thaumatur- 
 gus confesses the same faith. Nor amid all his 
 aberrations did Origen in this belief differ from his 
 pupil. Yet in all the fathers, Greek and Latin, were 
 expressions containing seeds of error. Justin says 
 that Christ was the " Only-begotten of the Father 
 as Reason and Power " — an attribute then, and not 
 a personality ! Even the Alexandrian Clement de- 
 scribes Him as *' God's manifest Wisdom, Goodness, 
 and Power" — hence only a divine property! Ter- 
 tullian says that *' God made the Reason Word." 
 Christ, then, as the Arians held, had a beginning in 
 time. With Origen the Father was 6 Oeo^, the God, 
 and the Son ^eo^, God, and God " by the will of the 
 Father.^' 
 
 Early mists inclosed the doctrine of the Godhead 
 of Christ. Hidden in the consciousness of fathers, 
 it became obscure in their explanations. Their 
 definitions betrayed uncertainty and produced con- 
 fusion. Before the Arian controversy the Nicene 
 Creed was beyond their wisdom. With them the 
 Son was rather an impersonated attribute than the 
 everlasting, coequal, and consubstantial God. Hence 
 the benefit of discussion. Heresy itself assisted to 
 truth. Great men rose to the occasion. Contro- 
 versy, like lightning, purified the atmosphere. If 
 sometimes the thunderbolt was fatal, yet the death 
 of one was the salvation of many. Roar and con- 
 fusion were succeeded by the serenity of peace. By 
 their errors, as well as their truths, Greek and Latin 
 fathers were useful. Infallible interpreters of Scrip- 
 
FATHERS. 1 59 
 
 ture? Alas, with all their piety, genius, and learning, 
 they were often children creeping toward a light 
 afterward revealed. All the centuries to the Ni- 
 cene Council were required to clear patristic mists 
 from the Bible — sole sun of everlasting truth. 
 
l6o THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Liturgies. 
 
 IN forms of worship Christianity leaves large 
 liberty. The same life of faith and love ex- 
 presses itself according to the infinite varieties 
 produced by race, nation, and environment. A re- 
 ligion designed for a world must in its adaptations 
 be wide as a world. Where God reveals no law 
 man must impose no yoke. Especially in worship 
 should humanity be left free. Yet to all liberty 
 there is a limit, both in Bible and reason. And in 
 examining venerable liturgies it is difficult to see 
 how the free spirit of Christian Democracy could 
 elect such innumerable petty and chilling forms. 
 What minute directions, what puerile observances, 
 what pompous and elaborate ceremonies ! How 
 different from the simple worship of the New Testa- 
 ment ! Unless changed within, how could Christian- 
 ity be so revolutionized in its external manifesta- 
 tion ? Surely we have passed from the early liberty 
 of faith and love into a slavery of ceremonial osten- 
 tation. Only a winter atmosphere creates the chill 
 and glittering iceberg. 
 
 As the altar at the door of the tabernacle, so re- 
 mission of sin is at the beginning of each Chris- 
 tian life. Nor is conscious forgiveness through faith 
 in the blood of the divine Christ possible without 
 the glow of grateful love. The doctrine and the 
 
LITURGIES. l6l 
 
 emotion should, therefore, Inspire every formulary of 
 worship consecrcited to the Redeemer. By our 
 Saviour and His apostles remission of sin was con- 
 nected with baptism and eucharist, and was the end 
 of individual faith and the theme of public preach- 
 ing. Yet how little this great fundamental truth of 
 our salvation finds expression even in the most 
 ancient liturgies ! And how it became mingled with 
 pagan superstition we will soon see by painful 
 proof. That personal forgiveness which vivified the 
 heart, and head, and pen of Paul is obscured from 
 priest and people. Amid genuflections and chants 
 and processions, clouds of incense over altars offered 
 in atonement for sin, hide from men and angels the 
 infinite blood of incarnate Godhead ! Nothing in 
 ecclesiastical history more fully shows how soon the 
 Christian Democracy became fettered in the gilded 
 chains of a sacerdotal oligarchy. 
 
 In proof of what has been said let me examine 
 the three oldest liturgies, which were probably the 
 parents of the more recent and elaborate formularies 
 of Chrysostom, Basil, and Gregory. 
 
 St. James. 
 
 The liturgy bearing the name of this apostle was 
 
 used at Jerusalem. To him eminent writers ascribe 
 
 the whole work. Abler and sterner critics affirm 
 
 that it belongs to a later age. Yet others hold that 
 
 the substance was from James, and that with this 
 
 have been mingled many interpolations. Whatever 
 
 the origin and history of the liturgy, it demonstrates 
 
 how soon legalism and superstition had infected the 
 
 Church. Already we perceive in it the mists that 
 11 
 
162 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 ended in mediaeval darkness. Amid songs of choirs 
 and the clash of instruments we seem to hear the 
 sacerdotal hammer clinking on the Christian fetter. 
 It is hard to believe that liberty of faith and spon- 
 taneity of prayer are consistent with fatiguing 
 length of devotions, constant genuflections, minute 
 rubrics, mere cesthetical impressiveness, the worship 
 of altar, the glory of priest, and the exaltation of 
 sacrament into mystery. But, fearing to restrict 
 legitimate Christian freedom, we will give some ex- 
 tracts from the Liturgy of St. James, and enable 
 those who read to form their own judgments and 
 estimate the force of our comments: 
 
 "■ God, who didst accept the gifts of Abel, the 
 sacrifice of Noah and of Abraham, the incense of 
 Aaron and Zacharias, accept this incense for the 
 odor of a sweet smell, and the remission of sins." 
 
 Pope and patriarch have not gone further. Would 
 our modern ritualism dare follow the authority of 
 this ancient example? We see here where antiquity 
 without Scripture leads. Incense for sins, forgive- 
 ness bought by odors, smoke moving the Almighty, 
 remission for smell — what a puerile view of the 
 Majesty of the universe ! And the symbolic blood 
 of the Old Testament and the divine blood of 
 the New set aside as atonement ! And this in 
 the earliest of liturgies ! In the same style we 
 have : 
 
 "Send forth upon us, O God, Thy good grace, 
 and turn our thoughts to piety, that with a pure 
 conscience we may bring to Thee gifts, offerings for 
 the remission of our sins, and for the propitiation 
 of all Thy people." 
 
LITURGIES. 163 
 
 So soon had the one completed and infinite sacri- 
 fice of Jesus, our incarnate God, become veiled in 
 the gilded mists of human fancies ! The Greek 
 and Roman transubstantiation appears as again we 
 read : 
 
 " We entreat and beseech Thy goodness that it 
 may not be for condemnation of Thy people that 
 this mystery of salvation has been administered to 
 us for remission of sins." 
 
 Purgatorial fire gleamed early in the Christian 
 worship. By our offerings we must relieve the de- 
 parted. Such is the doctrine we encounter when 
 we pass from our Bibles to the first liturgy sanctified 
 by an apostolic name. St. James himself is repre- 
 sented as praying : 
 
 *' That w^e may become worthy of offering to Thee 
 gifts and sacrifices for our transgressions and for 
 those of Thy people. And grant to us, O Lord, 
 with all fear and good conscience to offer to Thee 
 this spiritual and bloodless sacrifice for our trans- 
 gressions and the errors of Thy people, and for the 
 rest of the souls that have fallen asleep aforetime." 
 
 St. Mark. 
 
 His was the Liturgy of the Church of Alexandria ; 
 and from it have descended the formularies of Basil, 
 Cyril, and Gregory. And it is parent, too, of the 
 Ethiopic canon of all the apostles. By some it is 
 ascribed to St. Mark himself. Probably it was per- 
 fected by Cyril. We have only one manuscript, 
 which is attributed to the twelfth century. The 
 first edition appeared A. D. 1583, in Paris. It re- 
 peats the peculiarities to which we have called 
 
164 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 attention in the Liturgy of St. James, and therefore 
 requires no further comment. We read: 
 
 " Purify our Hves and cleanse our hearts from all 
 pollution and from all wickedness, that with a pure 
 heart and conscience we may offer to Thee the in- 
 cense of a sweet-smelling savor and for the remis- 
 sion of our sins. The incense is offered in Thy 
 name. Let it ascend, we implore Thee, from the 
 hands of Thy poor and sinful servants to the heav- 
 enly altar for the propitiation of Thy people. O 
 Lord our God, give peace to the souls of our fa- 
 thers and brethren. Especially remember those 
 whose memory we this day celebrate, and our holy 
 father Mark." 
 
 Of the Blessed Apostles. 
 
 This liturgy was composed by St. Addaeus 
 and St. Maris for the Oriental Church. It is sup- 
 posed to be one of the first formularies of the 
 Christian sacrifice. A Latin translation is given 
 in Renaudot's Collectio, and reprinted in Daniel's 
 Codex Liturgiais. Saint intercession appears in 
 this early form of worship. The Greek and Latin 
 Churches have no authority in the Bible for sup- 
 plicating the Virgin, but they find example in 
 ancient liturgies. If these were standards Mary 
 might be lawfully adored. The Christian Democ- 
 racy of the New Testament knew no such petition 
 as that we quote and which is ascribed to the 
 blessed apostles : 
 
 " O mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, beseech for 
 me the only begotten Son, who was born of thee, 
 to forgive me my offenses and my sins, and to ac- 
 
LITURGIES. 165 
 
 cept from my feeble and sinful hands this sacrifice 
 which my weakness offers upon this altar, through 
 thy intercession for me. O holy mother!" 
 
 DiDACHE. 
 
 In A. D. 1873, Philotheos Bryennios was master 
 of a Greek school in Constantinople. He discovered 
 in that year a collection of manuscripts in the Mon- 
 astery of the Most Holy Sepulcher. They bear 
 date A. D. 1056. Among these was the TeacJiing 
 of the Twelve Apostles. Afterward, when Metropol- 
 itan of Nicomedia, Bryennios published a text of 
 this primitive treatise. It is widely received as 
 authentic and referred to an early part of the second 
 century. The simplicity of its aim and style prove 
 it to be no forgery ; and we may, therefore, esteem 
 it an invaluable testimony to the doctrine and wor- 
 ship of the ancient Christianity. It is indeed an 
 unadorned picture of its times. First, it shows the 
 way of life to be the love of God. Various sins are 
 forbidden. Precepts of conduct follow, and then 
 directions for the sacred rites. Baptism must be 
 administered by pouring on the head in the name 
 of the Trinity. Bishops and deacons only are men- 
 tioned as ministers. Rules for the eucharist are 
 few and simple. In neither sacrament is mention 
 made of remission of sins. Yet was not this the 
 great Gospel blessing? Did not our God make His 
 cup its symbol? Was it not proclaimed by apostles 
 and sealed by baptism ? How strange that in such 
 a discourse there should be no allusion to the aton- 
 ing death of the Redeemer! Legalism without the 
 blood of sacrifice! From first to last scarce one 
 
l66 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 evangelical trace ! The teaching of the apostles, 
 and destitute of that truth which animated their 
 hearts and lives and sermons ! Invaluable as a 
 fragment of history and an index of its age, the 
 Didache resembles a water color picture void of na- 
 ture's glow. So soon the doctrine of the remission 
 of sins, which gave liberty to Paul and life to his 
 labor, seems to have faded from the consciousness of 
 priest and prelate and people ! What the great 
 apostle seized with a giant's grasp already held with 
 an infant's hand ! 
 
 Pastor of Hermas. 
 
 The most successful romance is usually a photo- 
 graph of its times. By sparkling dialogue and dra- 
 matic incident it expresses some belief or aspira- 
 tion which had been long struggling toward light in 
 the human consciousness. Men see the mirror of 
 themselves and are interested in its image. Ex- 
 haustive argument is for the few, and picturing ro- 
 mance for the many. What makes Bunyan popular ? 
 He voices Protestantism for the multitude. The 
 Pilgrim s Progress personifies the work of Luther. 
 It makes the Reformation vivid in allegory. And 
 it accomplishes its end by text and illustration and 
 imagery from the Bible — that book given by God, 
 not for a class or a sect or a race or an age, but for 
 all time and the whole human family. Bunyan pic- 
 tures the consciousness of evangelical millions. The 
 po\ver-center of his immortal book is the burden of 
 Christian falling from his back before the cross. His 
 Pilgrim represents humanity delivered by faith from 
 its intolerable load of guilt. And in this liberty 
 
LITURGIES. 167 
 
 we see vivified the doctrine taught by Paul and re- 
 covered by Luther. But there is another lesson in 
 the life of the Pilgrim. He loses his roll. How- 
 dark his soul and way ! With his recovered treasure 
 he resumes his journey, triumphing in love and 
 hope and joy. Early Protestantism enjoined on 
 her children the assuring witness of the Holy Ghost 
 in the remission of sin, and with its proclamation of 
 faith and liberty reanimated the dead Christian De- 
 mocracy. 
 
 What the Pilgrim s Progress is to our age the 
 Pastor of Hermas was to its age. We have in it 
 Christianity pictured for centuries. It was written 
 in Greek. Although its author is uncertain, it was 
 most probably composed in the reign of Hadrian 
 or that of Antoninus Pius. Irenaeus, the learned 
 martyr, Bishop of Lyons, toward the close of the 
 second century recognized as Scripture the Pastor 
 of Hermas. His judgment reflected the opinion 
 of the Church in regard to the edification derived 
 from this strange fiction. It contains three books. 
 The first describes four visions, the second twelve 
 commandments, and the third ten similitudes. In 
 its view of remission we have the doctrine of John 
 the Baptist, preaching, in hair cloak and leathern 
 girdle, the kingdom of heaven yet to come : '' For 
 after you have made known to them these words 
 which my Lord has commanded me to reveal to 
 you, then shall they be forgiven all the sins which 
 in former times they committed, and forgiveness 
 will be granted to all the saints who have sinned, 
 even to the present day, if they repent with all their 
 heart and drive all doubt from their minds." 
 
l68 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Nothing of remission through faith in the blood 
 of Christ, nothing of regeneration and adoption and 
 assurance by His Spirit, nothing of the joy and 
 power and liberty in believing, nothing of those 
 evangelical truths which inflamed Paul and burned 
 in Luther, which vivify the Pilgrims Progress and 
 the great Protestant confessions, and are the mov- 
 ing forces of modern effort in converting our world 
 into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ ! 
 
COUNCILS. 169 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Councils. 
 
 AT the close of the third century appeared An us 
 on the troubled scene of the world. He had 
 been educated at Antioch and a pupil of the 
 celebrated Lucian. Afterward he was a presbyter in 
 the Church of Alexandria, a city famous for its the- 
 ological school, its commercial activity and wealth, 
 its literary culture and political influence. Arius was 
 a rigid ascetic, narrow in intellect, feeble in his grasp, 
 and practical in his aim. In the works of Origen 
 he found support for his doctrine. Indeed, the 
 germs of his system had for centuries been in the 
 fathers. He could vindicate himself by multiplied 
 extracts from Greek and Latin writers accepted for 
 orthodoxy and admired for learning. It was taught 
 by Arius that either we must believe in two original 
 and eternal essences, or else the Logos had a begin- 
 ning of existence. A time was when Christ was 
 not. If He be God, said Arius, and the Father be 
 God, there are then two Gods. Our Alexandrian 
 presbyter could not, or would not, comprehend 
 unity in essence and diversity in persons. Accord- 
 ing to him the Son was begotten in time. He had 
 not been forever. Eternity was not in His essence. 
 After God, Arius gave Him the next dignity. Be- 
 tween God and His works the distance is immeasur- 
 able. Infinitely above the finite must by necessity 
 
170 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 be the Infinite. Did the Gnostics seek to bridge 
 the abyss with angel, archon, and demiurge? Arius 
 interposed Logos. He is not God, yet by Him God 
 created all. He is not called by Arius God — not 
 God, but all save God. 
 
 To Christ the presbyter ascribed a mutable will. 
 Our Saviour had directed His volitions for good, 
 yet He could have exercised them for evil. By the 
 right use of His powers He attained His preem- 
 inence. Foreseeing His holy life, as its reward His 
 Father predestined that He should make and rule 
 the universe. Nor did Arius seem aware that he was 
 departing from the doctrine of the Oriental Church. 
 To Scripture and fathers he appealed. Yet he 
 shocked the universal Christian creed and conscious- 
 ness. Controversy was inevitable. The doctrine 
 of Christ's Godhead was forced before the tribunal 
 of the Church. Clamoring for definition was that 
 truth which imparts all efficacy to atonement, and, 
 therefore, involves in itself, for time and eternity, 
 the liberty of the Christian Democracy. With it, 
 in external slavery we may be free ; without it, in 
 external freedom we are slaves. 
 
 Arius tried to gain adherents in his parish. His 
 new bishop, Alexander, at first took no part in the 
 controversy. Finally he assembled a synod of 
 Egyptian and Libyan bishops, who, A. D. 321, de- 
 posed Arius and excluded him from the Church. 
 Alexander sent circular letters to eminent ecclesias- 
 tics. He represented as unchristian the doctrine of 
 his presbyter. To defend himself Arius turned to 
 distinguished Oriental bishops. Of these a majority 
 favored his view. So deeply Origen's leaven per- 
 
COUNCILS. 171 
 
 vaded the East ! Here was formed a middle party 
 of compromises. Illustrious men sought to settle 
 the strife. They wished Alexander to restore Arius. 
 Especially Eusebius, Bishop of Csesarea, interposed 
 his vast influence to stop a controversy threatening 
 Church and empire. No mortal power could hold 
 back a tempest whose lightnings were needed to 
 purify the ecclesiastical atmosphere. Constantine 
 and his Council must cooperate in the expression 
 of a doctrine which is the life of the liberty of the 
 Christian Democracy. 
 
 The imperial ruler of the world was moved by no 
 strong religious interest. He had conquered by the 
 sword. A celestial vision winged his eagles to 
 slaughter and victory. The cross of the Lamb of 
 God led his armies to battle and became the symbol 
 of his triumphant military career. What a perver- 
 sion to worldly ends of that religion whose Spirit as 
 a dove from heaven hovered over the head of the 
 Christ ! When Constantine convened the Council 
 of Nice he had not yet been baptized. After an 
 imperial reign of years he could not with his own 
 slaves kneel to partake the eucharist. His subse- 
 quent actions show how slight his faith, and blood 
 spots stain him with suspicion. 
 
 We may, then, affirm that in convoking the Ni- 
 cene Councilthe motive of Constantine was political. 
 In his empire pagans outnumbered Christians. But 
 the former represented an exhausted and despairing 
 past, while the latter were animated with the zeal 
 and hope and courage of youth. So nearly were 
 the parties balanced that the scale could easily be 
 turned. Divisions among Christians might wreck 
 
172 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 the empire. With such a catastrophe was Constan- 
 tine menaced. While the Arian strife rent the 
 Church, it imperiled dominion. To compose the 
 rising storm was an impulse of preservation and of 
 statesmanship. In A. D. 325, at Nice in Bithynia, 
 Constantine assembled the first Ecumenical Coun- 
 cil. In the political sovereignty of the emperor was 
 its very origin. His imperial decree gave it life. 
 In obedience to his will three hundred and eighteen 
 bishops convened at the time and place specified in 
 his summons. A lay element was in the Council; 
 but it was there with the sword of the emperor to 
 impose his sovereignty of authority. The Christian 
 Democracy of the New Testament had been wholly 
 suppressed. In its place were episcopal oligarchy 
 and imperial autocracy. Rome Vv^as represented by 
 two presbyters. Papal majesty would not conde- 
 scend to speak through delegates of a superior order. 
 Most of the bishops were Orientals from Asiatic and 
 Egyptian sees. The venerable Hosius of Cordova 
 was chosen to preside. 
 
 In the Council were three parties : 
 
 I. The party of Eusebius. He sought compro- 
 mise. Many mysteries, he urged, we cannot ex- 
 plain. How was the soul formed? How united to 
 the body? How does it move the body? How 
 does it leave the body ? How does it exist apart 
 from the body? We cannot tell. Ignorant of our- 
 selves, we must not try to explain Godhead. Let 
 us, then, said Eusebius, express our creed by Scrip- 
 ture ! The word of God is better than the language 
 of man. But Eusebius would have settled nothing. 
 Each party would have placed its own interpreta- 
 
COUNCILS. 173 
 
 tion on the terms of the Bible used in the creed, and 
 thus have been divided as before. Strife would have 
 been renewed and the work repeated. Compromise 
 was impossible. The time had arrived in the history 
 of the Church when the Christian consciousness 
 desired and demanded such exact definition as rea- 
 sonable men could not mistake. 
 
 2. The party of Arius. We have already seen 
 what he taught. He believed that the Son was 
 created by the Father. He believed thrit the Son 
 in time had existence from the Father. He believed 
 that the Son made all things by and for the Father, 
 was above all in the universe of the Father, while 
 not of the substance of the Father. 
 
 3. The party of Athanasius. The youthful pres- 
 byter of Alexandria was only twenty-eight. He 
 was not a member of the Council, but his soul in- 
 spired it. By the force of genius a presbyter led 
 bishops. It was Athanasius the man who exerted 
 this sublime controlling power. A test word was 
 wanted. It came from the Greek. Arius would say 
 d^oiovawg, of /tl^e substance with the Father ; he 
 would never say dfioovocog, of the sa//:e substance, nor 
 ever after would his followers. Here, then, was a 
 crucial word. Always, like a chemical test, it 
 brought out into view the discoloring elements of 
 error. Between the Arian and the Athanasian 
 terms how slight the difference! It is an I'o^a — one 
 letter! What an opportunity for cynical critics! 
 Little men, they say, fight over little things as little 
 as themselves. But behind this zVVi? is Christ's God- 
 head. It stands for Godhead. It expresses that 
 Godhead v/ithout which the cross would be mere 
 
174 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 wood and the gate of the everlasting glory unopened 
 for our humanity. Athanasius did not contend for 
 a cipher. He insisted on a Greek letter only as it 
 represented an infinite and eternal verity. My eyelid 
 can shut out the sun, and a small arbitrary sign sym- 
 bolizing error may hide forever the face of Jehovah. 
 At the beginning of the Council Arius appeared 
 to be under the smile of Constantine. All was in 
 his favor. But suddenly the scene changed. The 
 emperor passed under the influence of the venerable 
 Bishop of Cordova, president of the assembly. 
 Hosius turned the scale. Under his spell the weight 
 of the imperial authority was brought over to the doc- 
 trine of Athanasius and the decree of the Council 
 determined. Eusebius himself yielded either to the 
 force of argument or to the will of Constantine. Per- 
 haps with some mental reservation, the Bishop of 
 Ca^sarea subscribed the orthodox creed. Seventeen 
 prelates declined to vote with the majority. Epis- 
 copacy, however, soon began to bow before imperial 
 autocracy. Fourteen bishops succumbed. It here 
 was first shown that prelates might prefer terrestrial 
 bread to the celestial manna. Emperors discovered 
 how to shape creeds. We see them offering miters, 
 thrones, and palaces. These failing, their next ar- 
 guments were depositions, exiles, and imprison- 
 ments. When these did not convince, then execu- 
 tioners ! Besides Arius, only Theonas, of Marmarica, 
 and Secundus, of Ptolemais, persisted in refusing to 
 subscribe the Nicene Creed. All three were ex- 
 communicated, deposed, and banished. The crucial 
 words, " being of one substance with the Father," 
 fixed the creed and crowned the controversy. 
 
COUNCILS. 175 
 
 Nor were the differences in regard to the Son 
 greater than those in regard to the Spirit. For three 
 centuries opinions had been divided and conflicting. 
 Fathers were against fathers. Some held that the 
 Holy Ghost was only a mode of the divine agency ; 
 some that He was a creature ; and others that He 
 was God. One theologian affirmed that the Scrip- 
 tures were clear in their definitions of the Son, while 
 obscure in their doctrine of the Spirit. Eunomius 
 taught that the Spirit was the first creature from the 
 Father through the Son. The belief of the Church 
 seems to have been best stated in the creed of 
 Gregory Thaumaturgus. Athanasius certainly had 
 a firm grasp of the sublime doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 The Oriental Church magnified the Father as the 
 supreme efficient Cause, but held also that from 
 Him the Son was generated and the Spirit pro- 
 ceeded. Yet there were always prevailing loose views 
 verging toward heterodoxy. From the earliest ec- 
 clesiastical writers arose these mists over the whole 
 doctrine of the Holy Ghost. All these errors of the 
 past culminated in Sabellius. He was from Ptol- 
 emais in Africa. With him Son and Spirit were 
 only different manifestations of the Father. A 
 monad, the Father evolved Himself into a triad, 
 and then the triad involved itself back into the 
 monad. As in the sun are globe, light, rays, so 
 God is the effulgence from which proceed the Logos 
 to illuminate and the Spirit to fructify. The primal 
 essence had been an everlasting solitary. In time 
 forth from Him came the Son, and afterward the 
 Spirit. Each, then, Son and Spirit, had a beginning. 
 The Father begat the Logos. By the Logos all 
 
1/6 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 was created. First in Christ the Logos had per- 
 sonality. But, as a ray taken back into the sun, 
 the Logos will be drawn into the Father. So, too, 
 the Holy Ghost. Son and Spirit are, then, tempo- 
 rary manifestations of the Father. Each was an ex- 
 pedient and an appearance ; each began ; each would 
 end. SabeUius taught that neither Son nor Spirit 
 had an everlasting, coequal, consubstantial place in 
 Godhead, which in the la\y revealed itself as Father, 
 and in the Gospel, first as Son and afterward as 
 Spirit. Such a view antagonized the deepest and 
 most sacred Christian consciousness. Sabellianism 
 was in its essence pantheism. Its Saviour was not 
 an eternal Personality. Jesus is ; once He was not ; 
 hereafter He will cease to be. In heaven His 
 throne will become vacant. While gazing at His 
 glory the redeemed will see their King vanish into 
 nothing. With Him, the sun, extinct, what a mid- 
 night over the universe! And if Christ, the Head, 
 expire, His members must perish, and creation be a 
 wreck. Pantheistic Sabellianism evolved all from 
 the primal essence, and then back into the primal 
 essence absorbed all. 
 
 A second Ecumenical Council was necessary to 
 settle the controversies of the divided and distracted 
 Church. It was assembled by Theodosius the Great, 
 A. D. 381, at Constantinople. To the declaration 
 in the Nicene Creed of the Godhead of the Father 
 it added a declaration of the Godhead of the Holy 
 Ghost. The creed of Constantinople was a com- 
 plement of the creed of Nice. The one involved 
 the other. We might say that the one compelled 
 the other. Together they express the faith. At 
 
COUNCILS. 177 
 
 Constantinople it was declared that the " Holy 
 Ghost is the Lord and Giver of life." He *' pro- 
 ceedeth from the Father." '' With the Father and 
 the Son He is together worshiped and glorified." 
 He is adored as the Father is adored ; He is adored 
 as the Son is adored ; thus adored, He is God as 
 the Father is God and as the Son is God. From 
 this it follows that God is in nature one, and in per- 
 sons three. After nearly four centuries the Church 
 has declared the doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 As completed by the Council of Constantinople 
 the Nicene Creed expressed that the " Holy Ghost 
 proceedeth from the Father." It does not say from 
 the Son. Yet the Scripture affirms that the Holy 
 Ghost was '* sent " by the Son. The Latin Church 
 was not satisfied with the creed produced by two 
 Ecumenical Councils. It set itself above both. It 
 overthrew in practice its whole theory as to author- 
 ity. It divided Christendom for all time by such 
 an assumption of supreme jurisdiction. So little 
 have creeds settled faith ! In A. D. 589 a Council 
 at Toledo in Spain made an addition to the Nicene 
 Creed which has been accepted by the whole Latin 
 Church and rejected by the whole Greek Church. 
 Toledo inserted ** Filioque," to indicate that the 
 Holy Ghost proceeded from Son as well as Father. 
 Here was another torch hurled into Christendom, 
 A provincial synod changes a symbol authorized by 
 an Ecumenical Council. And the Latins sanction 
 the revolutionary innovation. Greeks protest ; war 
 is perpetual. On either side of this mountain-bar- 
 rier Orientals and Occidentals, down through cen- 
 turies to this moment, battling over creeds ! Angli- 
 12 
 
178 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 cans have joined the strifes of Greeks and Latins. 
 Yet all hold together the absolute and supreme au- 
 thority of Ecumenical Councils to fix and declare 
 and impose creeds. Well may the Christian De- 
 mocracy escape from this universal entanglement 
 by asserting the liberty of each believer to interpret 
 and apply the Scripture according to his personal 
 gifts, needs, opportunities, and responsibilities ! 
 
 A third dispute arose more furious than the eccle- 
 siastical battles we have been describing. It related 
 to the divine and human in Christ. Had He two 
 wills, one as man and one as God? Or was His will 
 as man lost in His will as God? These questions 
 made the Monothelite war inevitable. And yet 
 others equally inflammable arose. Was the human 
 soul absorbed in the divine Personality? What 
 were their relations ? Monophysite strifes were 
 added to Monothelite. War is in human nature. 
 Neither in Church nor State can it be avoided. We 
 will better understand our present subject by pass- 
 ing the third Ecumenical Council, summoned, A. D. 
 431, at Ephesus by Theodosius the Second, which 
 rejected Nestorianism, and confining ourselves to 
 the fourth Ecumenical Council, assembled, A. D. 
 451, by the emperor Marcian at Chalcedon. 
 
 Apollinaris was a native of Laodicea in Syria. Of 
 that city he became bishop. A perfect human 
 nature united indissolubly to the Logos was the 
 doctrine of Origen. This Apollinaris disapproved. 
 He urged that if man joined to the Logos retained 
 his will there was no personal union, and that if he 
 did not retain his will man was an organ of the 
 Logos, just as the prophets and apostles and all 
 
COUNCILS. 179 
 
 angelic messengers. Out of a complete union of a 
 human and a divine nature, he affirmed, one Person 
 could never proceed. Hence ApoUinaris fell back 
 on the distinction of nvevim, tpvxrj, and awjita, into 
 which the Greek philosophy divided man. With 
 him nvevfia included the intellectual powers capable 
 of God; ipvxrj the passions, the affections, the desires, 
 the appetites averse to God ; and the aioiia their 
 fleshly abode. Opposed to the animal ipvxrjj the 
 Logos was eternal nvevfia. This, His nvevfia had in 
 it an essential inclination to humanity. In the 
 birth of Christ from Mary this Logos-pneuma com- 
 pleted its own everlasting ideal. His potency of 
 incarnation became in Jesus a visible reality. The 
 Logos-pneuma possessed both His ipvxf] and His 
 oo)fia, which He controlled. Humanity and divinity 
 thus combined, because each from eternity inclined 
 to the other. As to His nvevna only was Christ God, 
 while as to His ipvxTJ and aCofia He was man. He 
 was, therefore, neither truly man nor truly God. It 
 began to be said that God was born, God suffered, 
 God died. 
 
 The doctrine of ApoUinaris was carried to its ex- 
 treme by Eutyches. He was a fanatical monk, and 
 a furious devotee of Mary. Eutyches affirmed that 
 after the incarnation Christ existed in but one 
 nature. He had no human soul. In Him the 
 Logos did not /^assess rrvevfia and ^vxrj, but zaas 
 TTvevfjia and i^^xV- The body of the Redeemer was a 
 mere temple of Godhead. 
 
 Eutyches became suspected of extreme and dan- 
 gerous views. Since the third Ecumenical Council 
 at Ephesus the ecclesiastical pendulum had oscil- 
 
l80 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 lated. The once popular monk was under a cloud. 
 Fanatical Eutyches, A. D. 448, was summoned be- 
 fore a synod of Constantinople. He refused to 
 obey. The Byzantine capital was convulsed, but 
 after furious struggles the monk was condemned. 
 At the Robber's Synod, A. D. 449, Eusebius was 
 cursed and threatened with fire. Leo the Great 
 was now on the papal throne. He sent to the 
 Council as his representatives Julius, Bishop of 
 Puteoli ; Rcnatus, presbyter, with Hilarius, deacon, 
 and the notary Dulcitius, who had acquiesced in the 
 judgment against Eutyches. But the Rom.m pontiff 
 was not satisfied. He urged a new Council, to be 
 held in Italy. Changes at Constantinople favored 
 his view. Theodosius had died, and the empress Pul- 
 cheria, having married Marcian, elevated him to the 
 throne. Imperial letters were issued for a Council 
 A. D. 451 at Nice in Bithynia. But the monks 
 proved so mad and murderous that this assembly 
 was transferred to Chalcedon. The military power 
 of the empire was required to protect ecclesiastics 
 from the fury of ecclesiastics. It sometimes seemed 
 that Church and State were stirred into tempests of 
 hate and revenge by mocking demons. 
 
 A wise letter from Leo saved the Council from 
 Nestorianism. It did more. The epistle of this 
 great pope guided the assembly between the rock 
 and whirlpool of ApoUinarianism and Eutychianism, 
 Conforming itself to the opinions so admirably ex- 
 pressed in Leo's letter, the fourth Ecumenical 
 Council issued from Chalcedon a decree which de- 
 clared for all ages the orthodox faith of Christen- 
 dom : 
 
COUNCILS. I8l 
 
 " Following the example of the holy fathers, we 
 teach and confess the same Son, our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, of the same substance as the Father touch- 
 ing His Godhead; of the same substance with us 
 touching His humanity ; in all things like to us 
 without sin; begotten of His Father, as touching 
 His Godhead before aeons; begotten in the latter 
 days for our redemption of the Virgin Mary, as 
 touching His humanity ; one and the same Christ, 
 Son, Lord, Only-begotten, in two natures, acknowl- 
 edged unmixed, unconverted, undivided, so that 
 the distinction of natures was never abolished, but 
 rather the peculiarity of each preserved and com- 
 bined into one Person and one hypostasis; not one 
 severed and divided into two Persons, but one and 
 the same, Son and Only-begotten, Him who is God, 
 Logos, and the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 The Councils of Nice, Constantinople, and Chal- 
 cedon declared doctrines vital to the faith, the free- 
 dom, the existence of Christianity. Nor have the 
 discussions of the subsequent ages improved their 
 lucid and satisfying statements. After the perusal 
 of innumerable volumes we return and rest in their 
 admirable decrees. But does my faith in the creed 
 depend on my confidence in the Council? Is it the 
 authority of assembled ecclesiastics that has fixed 
 my belief ? Or do I go beyond bishops to Scripture ? 
 I accept the Nicene Creed, I admire it, I love it, I 
 thank the Master for it. In exact and noble words 
 it declares the faith on which I build for eternal 
 ages and which I can confess with my lips in the 
 fellowship of the saints on earth and in heaven. But 
 before I receive it I must prove it. I would reject 
 
i82 tHE CHRISTIAN bEMOCRACV. 
 
 it if not sustained by Scripture. I bring creed and 
 Council to the test of Scripture. Ultimately, then, 
 my faith is in the Scripture. To preserve my Chris- 
 tian liberty I must exercise it and take my creed 
 from God. 
 
 But I go behind all the questions asked. On 
 what authority do I receive Scripture? Do I be- 
 lieve because ecclesiastics affirm ? Never ! I have 
 faith in my Bible because in itself I have proof for 
 my Bible. My belief is not from prelates, popes, 
 or Councils. By historical research, as in the case 
 of any other book, I can, indeed, establish the au- 
 thenticity of my Bible, but not its credibility. Its 
 style, clear, simple, or sublime as its theme demands; 
 innumerable correspondences between the Old Tes- 
 tament and the New; the completion of the law in 
 the Gospel ; the fulfillment by the Redeemer of the 
 Messianic types, promises, and prophecies ; His res- 
 urrection, proved by witnesses whose testimony my 
 reason examines and accepts ; the visible good effects 
 of the book on men and nations and ages — these 
 and other evidences produce in me, by argument, 
 an overwhelming conviction. Behind this Bible is 
 the character of Christ. He is the transcendent 
 Witness. To man's invention He is as impossible 
 as man's creation of a universe. The ideal of moral 
 perfection is Christ. He is an example for men. He 
 is a model for angels. He is a Gospel for heaven. 
 He is the image of the essence of goodness for 
 a universe and an eternity. Imposture flash forth 
 His immortal glory! Imposture counterfeit His 
 love! Imposture conceive His holiness! Impos- 
 ture place before a universe its sublimest moral ex- 
 
COUNCILS. 1S3 
 
 cellence ! Imposture invent by lies a human life 
 which can be lifted, without a human spot, into the 
 blaze of the everlasting glory of Godhead I Impos- 
 sible ! Then my reason accepts Christ. Then Christ 
 rose from the dead, for He predicted His resurrec- 
 tion. Then Christ, as He claimed, is the Messiah. 
 Then Christ, since He affirmed it, is God. Then 
 Christ could not lie when He approved the Old 
 Testament and promised guidance to the writers 
 of the New. Old and New have the certification 
 of Christ, my infallible, incarnate God. Hence my 
 reason believes my Bible. 
 
 Can Councils show such proofs of authority as to 
 demand my faith ? If the arguments of our first 
 lecture be true the Church is, by Scripture, a Chris- 
 tian Democracy. Legislation was vested in the 
 whole body of believers. Laity and clergy made 
 decrees together. Apostles and brethren composed 
 the first Council at Jerusalem, which enacted the 
 canon regulating circumcision. But the sovereignty 
 of the people was displaced by the sovereignty of 
 bishops. Laics were expelled by ecclesiastics. Oli- 
 garchy supplanted democracy. Above all were the 
 claim of pontiff and the power of emperor. How 
 could an unscriptural Council impose scriptural 
 faith ? 
 
 Nor was the conduct of ecclesiastics in their ecu- 
 menical assemblies such as to secure confidence and 
 respect. We judge men by their actions. Charac- 
 ter is proved, not by creeds, but deeds. Beyond 
 his office we weigh the man. Scripture gives tests 
 of human lives. It requires love, fidelity, patience, 
 wisdom, which, alone and always, command confi- 
 
184 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 dence. And all morals are personified in Christ. 
 Judged by the standard of the Scripture, the con- 
 duct of ecclesiastics in the Councils shocks Chris- 
 tianity itself and forces it to condemn its own pre- 
 latical representatives. What envies, what jealousies, 
 what hatreds, what factions, what strifes, disgrace- 
 ful, not only to ecclesiastics, but to humanity! 
 Measured by Scripture, no assemblies were ever 
 convened for great and noble ends less entitled to 
 demand faith by authority from future ages. To 
 support our affirmation we appeal to history. 
 
 We must ever remember that the Ecumenical 
 Council of Nice was an imperial creation. At its 
 beginning appearances favored heresy. Constan- 
 tine w^as under the influence of Eusebius and not 
 averse to Arius. But the emperor was won by 
 Hosius, and the Council passed under the control of 
 Athanasius. Five months after its adjournment 
 Alexander of Alexandria died. In the splendid 
 capital of Egypt Athanasius succeeded him as 
 bishop. But after the death of Helena, his mother, 
 Constantia, his sister, persuaded the emperor back 
 to Arius, whom he ordered from Alexandria to 
 Constantinople. Now the man styled blasphemous, 
 the man condemned as a heretic, the man ranked 
 with the infidel Porphyry, the man branded by 
 court and council. State and Church, returns 
 triumphant under the smile of the sovereign by 
 whom he had been prosecuted, deposed, and ex- 
 iled. Patronized by his emperor, at the head of his 
 party, flushed with victory, Arius held aloft the 
 banner of his faith, which seemed about to triumph 
 over the Church. He rode forth through Constan- 
 
COUNCILS. 185 
 
 tinople attended by guards and followed by crowds. 
 Is the Nicene Creed to be trampled under the hoofs 
 of his imperial horse ? His march is arrested, and, 
 with it, the changed policy of the variable sovereign. 
 As he rides a faintness comes over Arius. He re- 
 tires from the street to the rear of the forum. He 
 is seized with agony. He pours forth his life in a 
 stream of blood. But he dies under the favor of 
 Constantine. So fickle was the faith of the emperor, 
 who, by his Ecumenical Council, declared for all 
 time the creed of Christendom ! 
 
 Athanasius, as we have seen, had been elected 
 Bishop of Alexandria. What was his reward for 
 guiding the Church to its creed? His enemies, 
 Eusebius and Theognis, retracted and were rein- 
 stated. All the seventeen Arian bishops had thus 
 submitted. They had neither forgotten nor for- 
 given. To destroy Athanasius they formed an infa- 
 mous plot. He was charged by these members of 
 the Nicene Council with conspiracy against Constan- 
 tine. The pious and illustrious standard-bearer of 
 orthodoxy had used, they asserted, for his magical 
 purposes, the hand of Arsenius, a Melitian bishop. 
 And they offered in open synod to produce the 
 hand. But these murderous ecclesiastics were de- 
 feated and disgraced. Athanasius traced and dis- 
 covered Arsenius. He brought the lying prelate, 
 disguised, into the assembly. He waited until his 
 enemies had publicly committed themselves to their 
 false and malignant accusation. He then presented 
 Arsenius before the synod, drew aside his cloak, and 
 showed him with both his hands. Athanasius is 
 pronounced innocent, and his slanderers flee. Then 
 
lB6 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 an old charge of sacrilege is revived against him, 
 and he is deposed. His deadly foe, the exposed 
 wretch Arsenius, is received into communion. After- 
 ward the persecuted Bishop of Alexandria was ac- 
 cused of prohibiting corn from Constantinople. The 
 emperor condemned him and banished him to Gaul. 
 A synod at Antioch designated, in his place, Greg- 
 ory to be the Bishop of Alexandria, and also elimi- 
 nated from the Nicenc Creed its declaration of the 
 consubstantiality of the Son. Now the Church has 
 tv/o doctrinal standards. It is Arian and Athana- 
 sian. So slight was the power of an Ecumenical 
 Council to establish unity ! Strife burned more 
 furiously after Nice than before. Gregory was 
 brought to the episcopal throne of the flying Atha- 
 nasius under military escort, and kept there by the 
 imperial sword waving over him for his defense. 
 
 Constantine the younger comes on the scene. 
 The Council of Sardica is convoked. Three hun- 
 dred Western and seventy Eastern bishops appear. 
 But the minority will not meet the majority unless 
 Athanasius be excluded. This refused, all the 
 Oriental prelates withdraw, and then the synod re- 
 bukes Arianism. Athanasius is restored. The 
 Nicene Creed is confirmed. Orthodoxy triumphs. 
 But episcopal strifes make more dangerous com 
 plications. The Oriental emperor will not receive 
 Athanasius, and the Occidental emperor threatens 
 war. A world convulsed over a creed ! The faith 
 unsettled as ever ! Controversy between ecclesi- 
 astics to be stopped by the sword ! But Constan- 
 tius fears his brother Constans and shrinks from 
 the blood of battle. lie recalls Athanasius by 
 
COUNCILS. 187 
 
 letter and restores him to Alexandria. Brief his 
 triumph ! At the death of his imperial friend he is 
 again imperiled. Soldiers surround his Church. The 
 din of war drowns the voice of prayer. Virgins are 
 cast into prison, bishops are led in chains, homes of 
 widows and orphans are plundered, murder holds 
 carnival. Refusing to acknowledge the Arian Creed, 
 women are stripped, burned, beaten. Forty men 
 are flogged to laceration. Some die in agony, and 
 their corpses are denied burial. Athanasius has fled 
 from these scenes of fire, and pillage, and slaughter, 
 and found refuge among Egyptian monks. He dies 
 in exile, a victim of the men who had, with him, 
 subscribed the Nicene Creed. 
 
 Instigated by the Eastern prelates, an imperial 
 edict convened a synod at Milan. Its object was 
 the unanimous condemnation of the doctrine of 
 Athanasius. But before it passed a decree it dis- 
 solved. Three bishops were exiled. The emperor 
 directed the Milan prelates to meet at Ariminum, 
 in Italy. A new creed in Greek and Latin was pro- 
 posed. Dissentients protested, and between the 
 Creed of Ariminum and the Creed of Nice the 
 Church was divided. Valens, Ursacius, Germinus, 
 Gaius, and Demophilus were deposed for refusing 
 to anathematize Athanasius. He was exiled while 
 living and cursed when dead. The emperor Con- 
 stantius was exasperated, and the world once more 
 in flame. Ejectment and banishment were inflicted 
 on bishops by imperial edicts. Pope Liberius was 
 expelled from Rome, and on his pontifical throne 
 was placed Felix, an Arian deacon. Macedonius 
 obtained the bishopric of Constantinople. Emperor 
 
1 88 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 and patriarch triumplied together over the sub- 
 version of the Nicene symboL Men and women 
 were forced to baptism and tortured to communion. 
 Resistance was punished with stripes, bonds, and 
 imprisonments. Maccdonius involved Constanti- 
 nople in a battle over the very remains of its im- 
 perial founder. Hostile parties fought in fury. The 
 churchyard was covered with gore. A well over- 
 flowed with blood whose red currents ran through 
 the streets. Even the Arlan emperor became dis- 
 gusted with the murderous violence and deposed 
 and disgraced the patriarch Macedonius. 
 
 Nor were the strifes stirred by Nestorius less pain- 
 ful. He was celebrated for his austerity and his 
 eloquence. In A. D. 428, while presbyter at An- 
 tioch, he was made Bishop of Constantinople. A 
 storm burst over his head. He attacked in his ca- 
 thedral pulpit the growing devotion to Mary and 
 denied that she should be called mother of God. A 
 Mcesian bishop increased the tempest by pronounc- 
 ing all accursed who applied to the Virgin this pop- 
 ular title. With power and prudence Nestorius de- 
 fended his position. But at a Christmas festival 
 Proclus, an aspirant to the episcopal throne, glorified 
 Mary. He was applauded by the clappings of his 
 audience. The monks of the capital kindled into 
 their ascetic fury and branded Nestorius as a heretic. 
 Cyril, Patriarch of Jerusalem, joined the battle. 
 Ecclesiastical war involved the world. As the result 
 of the universal clamor and commotion Theodosius 
 H summoned the metropolitan bishops of his im- 
 perial dominion to meet about Pentecost at Ephesus. 
 Nestorius came to the Council, but so great was his 
 
COUNCILS. 189 
 
 peril that he had to be protected by a military 
 guard. Soldiers stood around in arms to prevent 
 prelates from tearing each other. How could the 
 Holy Ghost preside amid cries of hate and scenes of 
 blood? How can we receive as guides to truth 
 men stimulated by murderous rage? How can we 
 be blamed for questioning their authority and bring- 
 ing their decrees to the infallible test of Scripture? 
 In A. D.431 Nestorius was pronounced a blasphemer 
 of Christ. He was degraded from his priestly office. 
 He was despoiled of his episcopal dignity. He was 
 remanded by imperial epistle to his cloister, and, 
 torn from its sacred precincts, he was dragged from 
 place to place by brutal soldiers until he died amid 
 his solitary sufferings. 
 
 A sovereign edict in A. D. 449 convened a Coun- 
 cil at Ephesus. Nothing was wanting to constitute 
 it a lawful ecumenical assembly. But it perished by 
 its own violence. Demons seemed hovering over 
 its bishops. It resembled hell rather than heaven. 
 A dark stain rests on the prelates who composed 
 the '' Robber's Synod," as it is called by history. 
 Monks filled that Council with their murderous 
 cries. We hear their words down through dark 
 centuries, as, led by Barsumas, they shout, ** Burn 
 Eusebius ! As he cut Christ asunder, so let him 
 be cut asunder! '' It is from the pages of contem- 
 porary historians that we have the sure proofs of 
 the horrors of Ecumenical Councils. The Church 
 had not gained by substituting oligarchy and autoc- 
 racy for the scriptural Christian Democracy. 
 
90 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Pelagianism. 
 
 AUGUSTINE was born in or near Carthage 
 about the year A. D. 355. In the long and 
 violent contest with Pelagius he was the master 
 spirit. His greatest work grew out of that struggle, 
 which left its impress on all subsequent ages. 
 Patricius, the father of Augustine, was a pagan, and 
 Monica, his mother, a Christian. At home he was 
 thus exposed to two antagonistic influences. Partly 
 educated in the religion and literature of Rome, he 
 was better able to grapple with the errors they in- 
 culcated. Before his death Patricius, won by the 
 tears and love and prayers of Monica, renounced 
 his gods, confessed Christ, and expired a witness to 
 his new faith. Now the mother became wholly 
 devoted to her son. All the energies of a noble 
 maternal soul were needed to guide the African 
 boy. On him was the stamp of genius. His subtle 
 intellect and native eloquence were splendid gifts, 
 but attended and impelled by those passions, those 
 affections, those aspirations which signalize heroic 
 and commanding natures. Cicero affirmed that 
 only the poetic fire fell from heaven. A De- 
 mosthenes was an earthly manufacture. But North 
 Africa furnished an exception to the theory of 
 Cicero. Augustine was born an orator. Early in his 
 life we find him a teacher of elocution in Milan, 
 
PELAGIANISM. I9I 
 
 where was the episcopal throne of the eloquent 
 Ambrose. The fervid Carthaginian youth had 
 come under the spell of the wild and fanciful and de- 
 luding errors of Manichaeism. He was bound, also, 
 in the chains of his own gross passions. 
 
 Anxious for her son, Monica for his rescue crossed 
 the sea from Carthage to Italy. Augustine was 
 brought to repentance for the sins of a licentious 
 life by a sentence flashed into his conscience from 
 Cicero. He had a fearful struggle with himself 
 Heresy had molded his opinions. Lust stained his 
 life. A midnight cloud enveloped his noble intel- 
 lect. Like Paul before and Luther after, he at- 
 tained peace through storms that shook him to his 
 center. Within Augustine were the volcanic erup- 
 tions of a spiritual earthquake. His confessions re- 
 semble Etna heaving with internal fires. Law and 
 Gospel contended for dominion. Monica was in 
 Milan watching like an angel. Li a garden a text 
 of Paul brought peace to Augustine. He saw the 
 way of salvation by faith in Christ. He found re- 
 mission and peace. He specifies the time, the place, 
 the circumstances of his conversion. Always he 
 could point back to a fixed light-spot as the begin- 
 ning of his new life, which was to illuminate the 
 future of the Church. Ecclesiastical tradition 
 affirms that the illustrious Bishop of Milan com- 
 posed the immortal " Te Deum " to be sung at the 
 baptism of Augustine, his brilliant convert. If this 
 be true his cathedral witnessed a spectacle sublime 
 in itself and of profound consequence to humanity. 
 Soon after the conversion of her son Monica left 
 Milan for Carthage. She never saw her home agross 
 
192 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 the sea. The work of her heart and life was 
 finished. A fiery fever seized her at Ostia. Augus- 
 tine was with his mother. Just before leaving her 
 son for paradise Monica said : " One thing only, 
 your conversion, was an object for which I wished 
 to live. Place this body anywhere. Nothing is far 
 from God. I do not fear that He should not know 
 where to find me at the resurrection." 
 
 After the death of his mother Augustine returned 
 to Carthage and retired to his estate, but was forced 
 from his cherished obscurity and made a presbyter. 
 Eventually he was consecrated Bishop of Hippo, 
 near the African capital, and entered the most shin- 
 ing career as a Christian writer which has made 
 illustrious a Fplendid line of Latin fathers. Between 
 Paul and Luther no man has exerted a more power- 
 ful doctrinal and spiritual influence over the uni- 
 versal Church. 
 
 Opposite in all things to Augustine was Pelagius. 
 He was a British monk who drew his theology from 
 the East. In his temperament and mental constitu- 
 tion he was mild and meditative. Of the storm and 
 fire in Augustine he could know nothing. Pelagius 
 was learned, but neither speculative nor profound. 
 Like his nature, his theology was superficial. His 
 opinions were reflections of himself. To the depths 
 of things he could never penetrate. Although a 
 monk, Pelagius was not an extreme ascetic. Not 
 vehement enough for fierce struggle, his spirit ex- 
 perienced no such battles as Augustine fought in 
 his garden and Luther in his cell. With Pelagius 
 Christianity was a morality rather than a faith. 
 From him were hidden the great deeps of the 
 
PELAGIANISM. I93 
 
 Spiritual life. He denied the corruption of man 
 through the fall of Adam. Evil was from the 
 seduction of the will. Freedom of choice was com- 
 plete. Each man, at each moment, could decide for 
 himself in each moral struggle. Grace was an 
 assistant, and not a necessity. The will for good or 
 evil could determine itself. Humanity was not 
 tainted by transmission, but corrupted by example. 
 Obedience must be added to faith, and does not 
 flow from faith. Pelagius said that Adam would 
 have died if Adam had not sinned, and in the state 
 in which Adam was created infants are born. Men 
 might be saved by the Law, as well as the Gospel. 
 To Pelagius the doctrine of salvation by grace 
 through faith seemed encouragement to moral in- 
 dolence and relaxation of moral uprightness. He 
 thus undermined the foundations of the evangel- 
 ical system, and raised questions which underlie the 
 spiritual liberty of each believer and the whole 
 structure of Christian Democracy. To the views of 
 Pelagius Augustine offered all the resistance of his 
 genius, his learning, his logic, his eloquence, his 
 vast influence, and his overmastering nature. His 
 soul fused itself into volcanic fire. It poured forth 
 in flame such streams of argument as have never 
 been seen in the history of mankind. Pelagius 
 made for Augustine his predestined work. The 
 life of the Bishop of Hippo prepared him for a 
 battle which he fought for all future ages. We are 
 reminded of the wars of Paul against legalism and 
 of Luther against popery. In all are involved the 
 same great questions of grace, ability, agency, 
 liberty, salvation. We see how error perverted 
 13 
 
194 'fHE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 into conflict law and Gospel, brought into an- 
 tagonism works and faith, and would have en- 
 tangled into bondage the free spirit of Christian 
 Democracy. 
 
 Pelagius, we have seen, taught that man was not 
 naturally evil. In the choice of his will was a pos- 
 sibility of evil. Of himself he could escape the evil. 
 Man needs no sovereign transforming principle of 
 life. Human nature is born with all the power 
 essential to its loftiest spiritual destination. Its 
 supreme moral elevation is from itself. While 
 only its native endowments are necessary, yet 
 to its natural capacities divine grace is added 
 that man more easily may reach a higher moral 
 attainment. 
 
 Instead of freedom, Augustine saw slavery in the 
 will. It is bondage to self, to lust, to appetite, to 
 passion. Grace does not find it free, but makes it 
 free. Sin is slavery ; holiness is liberty. Born in 
 sin, man is in slavery, and not in Hberty. In his 
 passage by conversion from the slavery of sin to the 
 liberty of faith nothing avails him but the om- 
 nipotence of God, by whose sovereignty each be- 
 liever experiences a new creation into the lost divine 
 image. Angels are free, and men are bound. 
 Moral slavery is the moral consequence and the 
 inevitable punishment of moral evil. The deeper 
 we sink into sin the heavier our chain. Eternal 
 transgression will be eternal bondage. Only faith 
 in the blood of Christ makes free through the power 
 of the Holy Ghost. Such is the substance of the 
 Augustinian theology. 
 
 Ccelestius was a convert and friend of Pelagius. 
 
PELAGIANISM. I95 
 
 The disciple was more extreme than the master. 
 While the first was in the glow of youth the last 
 was in the chill of age. Both appeared, A. D. 411, 
 at Carthage. Opposition to their views at once 
 began. Paulinus of Milan accused them before a 
 synod. The chief charge against them was that 
 they held the sin of Adam to have injured himself 
 only, and not his posterity. Pelagius was excom- 
 municated and went to Palestine. There he excited 
 the intense opposition of Jerome, who was residing 
 in his cell at Bethlehem. War began between the 
 monks. But the Oriental Church had slight sym- 
 pathy with the Augustinian views. Pelagius was 
 uncondemned, and the controversy referred to 
 Rome. Innocent I was in the papal chair. It 
 was affirmed that Pelagius taught '' that man if 
 he pleases can be perfectly free from sin." The 
 passionate antipathy of Jerome extended from 
 Palestine to Rome and excited sympathy for 
 Pelagius. He was restored to the communion of the 
 Church, and could now plead for his orthodoxy the 
 verdicts of two Councils. But against him power- 
 ful letters came from North Africa burning with the 
 energy and argument of Augustine. Pelagius de- 
 fended himself, but without success. The pope 
 acquiesced in his condemnation. 
 
 When the Greek Zosimus succeeded to the pa- 
 pal chair the aspect of the controversy was again 
 changed. He was persuaded of the orthodoxy of 
 Pelagius. Indeed, the pope appears to have been 
 deeply impressed in his favor when he wrote to the 
 African bishops : " Would that some of you had 
 been present when the letter of Pelagius was 
 
196 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 read ! How rejoiced and surprised were all pious 
 men who heard it ! Was there a single passage 
 where grace or the divine assistance was not men- 
 tioned?" But the infallible pontiff had not grasped 
 the fundamental truth involved in the controversy. 
 Its depths his Greek intellect, perhaps, could not 
 penetrate. The African bishops understood their 
 man and were undazzled before the splendors of 
 papal supremacy. Assembling a Council at Car- 
 thage, they protested against the decision at Rome. 
 Zosimus wavered. He promised to suspend his 
 final decree. The Africans would not wait for the 
 leisurely determinations of a vacillating pope. They 
 pressed the question, assumed the responsibility, 
 and decided for themselves at a second assembly, 
 convened A. D. 418 in Carthage. Here they pro- 
 nounced accursed those affirming that ''the grace of 
 God by which we are justified through Christ refers 
 merely to the forgiveness of past sins, and not to 
 assistance to secure us against falling into sin in the 
 future." This African reprobation included all who 
 say " that this grace helps to keep us from sinning 
 only so far as it opens our minds to a knowledge of 
 the divine commands, but that it does not bestow 
 on us a disposition to love and a faculty to prac- 
 tice such commands." Another canon condemned 
 the view that grace makes the fulfillment of the law 
 more easy, while yet, without grace, fulfillment is 
 attainable. 
 
 The African bishops proceeded beyond papal de- 
 cision and ecclesiastical decree. Passing above the 
 pontiff, they appealed to the sovereign civil power. 
 Imperial edicts were issued against Pelagius and 
 
l^ELAGIANISM. igf 
 
 Coelestius. Carthage proved too strong for Rome. 
 The genius of Augustine was more potent than 
 the pontifical Zosimus. Africa, not Italy, turned 
 the scale for orthodoxy. Zosimus was converted 
 from his error, and summoned Coelestius, the pupil, 
 to answer for the heresy of his master Pelagius. 
 But the disciple fled. A papal circular was sent to 
 the Western bishops and their subscriptions required 
 to the Augustinian doctrine. All who declined 
 were deprived and banished. The Occidental pope 
 thus followed the example of the Occidental em- 
 peror. Faith was enforced by exile. Both in Italy 
 and Africa the pontifical decree was sternly exe- 
 cuted against Pelagian bishops, who were numerous 
 and powerful. Eighteen Italian prelates who were 
 deposed complained that subscriptions had been 
 extorted. But many degraded bishops were brought 
 to repentance and restored to their thrones, titles, 
 and revenues. Notwithstanding persecutions from 
 the imperial and ecclesiastical power, Pelagianism 
 lingered into the middle of the fifth century. Leo the 
 Great admitted into the Church none who would 
 not subscribe the ecclesiastical decision by which 
 it was condemned. But vain papal fulminations to 
 expel error which is in the very nature of man ! 
 This is reserved for the sovereignty of Omnipotence. 
 In all times and places, under varied forms and 
 names, Pelagianism infuses its subtle poison and 
 paralyzes into legal slavery. 
 
 In his battle against the archenemy of grace and 
 liberty Augustine exerted his noblest gifts and ac- 
 complished his most brilliant victories. Borne on- 
 ward by the stream of his fiery argument, he pressed 
 
198 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 some of his views into extreme statements which 
 yet entangle Christendom. But, however we may- 
 modify his remorseless conclusions, we must admit 
 that the divine Sovereignty is the source and center 
 of biblical theology. From God came all. Into His 
 mandatory or permissive will, then, all must be re- 
 solved. All in His universe is the expression of 
 Himself. Nor could it be otherwise without reduc- 
 ing creation to chaos. Sovereignty in God is an 
 everlasting necessity — but not the supremacy of an 
 infinite caprice, not the ordination of omnipotent 
 tyranny, not the predestination of a Satanical un- 
 righteousness. The sovereignty of God expresses 
 the whole nature of God. It, therefore, manifests 
 itself in an essential love, justice, and wisdom, which 
 always, however invisible to us, constitute the eter- 
 nal harmony of His universe. 
 
 The precise relations of human volition to divine 
 Sovereignty are covered by a cloud of mystery. 
 Certain facts and laws I inductively know. Each 
 act of my will is preceded by motive and desire. 
 My reason decides what is best ; what is best I de- 
 sire ; and what I desire I will. Nor do I will against 
 desire. I, indeed, loathe the medicine I take. I do 
 not desire it. Yet I take it. Why? My desire for 
 health is stronger than my desire against the medi- 
 cine. The more powerful desire prevails and passes 
 into volition, and volition into action. I swallow 
 the nauseous dose. So far we can analyse the oper- 
 ations of the will and ascertain its laws. But can 
 we explain these subtle relations of reason, desire, 
 and volition ? They are hidden from our keenest 
 scrutiny, and beyond the questions suggested are 
 
PELAGIANISM. 1 99 
 
 those yet more obscure. How can God give me the 
 power to will and sustain my will in its action, and 
 not be responsible for my will? He upholds me 
 while I sin. In murder itself the slayer uses the 
 power of God in the commission of crime. How 
 can human individuality be separated from the 
 divine Omnipotence? The personality of man 
 seems not divisible from the personality of his 
 Creator. I am in an abyss too deep for my human 
 plummet. Are these phenomena inexplicable ? In- 
 finitely more subtle and delicate my relations to the 
 Almighty in the work of my regeneration. If He 
 be sovereign, how can I be free ? Or if I be born 
 in moral slavery, how can He bring me into moral 
 liberty? Is not such a transition impossible? In 
 my ordinary actions I am free. As I will I walk, I 
 talk, I work, I rest, I do a myriad things. In all I 
 have conscious liberty. Now confront me with 
 duty ! Place before me the moral law ! Measure 
 me by the immaculate Christ ! All is changed ! I 
 cannot do what I see to be right. I am a slave to 
 myself. I cannot keep the law of my being. How 
 vividly Paul and Augustine describe this moral bond- 
 age ! Yet we are delivered from it by faith in 
 Christ and the sovereignty of His Spirit. But by 
 what processes ? Every being perfectly good is per- 
 fectly free ; every being perfectly bad is perfectly 
 bound ; while between these extremes moral liberty 
 is not a uniform element, but has infinite differences 
 according to moral condition. Amid such moral 
 relations, with movements in volitions infinitesimal 
 and innumerable, and more subtle than the play of 
 colors between light and darkness, how impossible 
 
200 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACV. 
 
 to penetrate the mysteries of regeneration I Yet in 
 creeds and confessions and systems man expresses 
 himself in definitions unyielding as iron, and chains 
 with them the liberty of Christian Democracy, 
 while God in His word compares His invisible oper- 
 ations in freeing human souls to His motions in the 
 facile and ever-changing atmosphere. 
 
SACERDOTALISM. ^61 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Sacerdotalism. 
 
 OVER the larger part of Christendom salvation 
 is supposed to depend on the will and word 
 of a priest. You must be regenerated in bap- 
 tism by a priest. You must be absolved from your 
 sins by a priest. You must be admitted to the 
 communion, esteemed essential to eternal life, only 
 by a priest. You must receive at the door of death 
 extreme unction through a priest. From the first 
 to the last gasp of life are made necessary the min- 
 istrations of a priest. Between each soul and Christ 
 always stands a priest. Heaven and hell are com- 
 manded for earth by a priest, who holds the keys of 
 eternity. Directly and indirectly, a priest has this 
 power over three hundred millions of Christendom. 
 Is this sacerdotal authority a human assumption ? 
 Is it by a divine institution ? Is it an intolerable 
 tyranny over the liberty of faith, or is it a restraint 
 on the license of the Christian Democracy? These 
 are questions of everlasting import. It is usually 
 believed that in their lofty sacerdotal claims the 
 Greek and Latin Churches follow the old dispensa- 
 tion. We style them Judaistic in their constitution. 
 Both these communions do resemble the Mosaic 
 law in that they are founded on priesthood. But 
 in the essential sacerdotal function they wholly 
 differ. On absolution depends the life of the Greek 
 
202 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 and Latin communions. Yet never once did the 
 Aaronical priest pronounce the absolution of the 
 offerer. Under the old dispensation there was no 
 personal absolution. No man had power to remit 
 sin. Forgiveness was reserved for Jehovah, the 
 Sovereign of the universe. 
 
 How under the Gospel? Only Christ, incarnate 
 God and Creator, absolved from sin. Did Peter 
 receive the keys of the kingdom with power to bind 
 and loose ? Yet he never once pronounced personal 
 remission. Witnesses with him of the transfiguration 
 and the agony, James and John never pronounced 
 personal remission. Nor did Paul or any other 
 apostle ever pronounce personal remission. In the 
 New Testament, from Matthew to Apocalypse, no 
 minister ever pronounced personal remission. To 
 Jew and Gentile, together representing humanity, 
 all preachers of the Gospel declared salvation to the 
 world on the sole condition of faith in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, to be sealed and confessed in baptism. 
 The whole claim and practice of absolution by the 
 Greek and Latin Churches is without Scripture, and 
 a sacerdotal usurpation incompatible with the spirit- 
 ual freedom of the Christian Democracy, and, in- 
 deed, with its existence. 
 
 It is remarkable that, while the word " priest " 
 is so widely used over Christendom, our Saviour 
 never applied it to His ministers. Peter is not called 
 a priest ; John is not called a priest ; Paul is not 
 called a priest ; not one of the apostles is called a 
 priest ; no bishop, no presbyter, no deacon, no 
 teacher, no evangelist. Each believer is styled a 
 priest. In the New Testament ** priest " is the 
 
SACERDOTALISM. 203 
 
 designation, not of a minister, but of a Christian. 
 Every disciple is of a ** royal priesthood." All in 
 the celestial city with immortal lips sing, " Thou for 
 us wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy 
 blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and peo- 
 ple, and nation, and hast made us unto our God 
 kings and priests." 
 
 The Oriental and Occidental comrnunions, ruled 
 by patriarch and pope and representing the vast 
 majority of Christendom, have, then, for their sacer- 
 dotal claims no support in Scripture. But they ven- 
 erate and magnify fathers. The Council of Trent 
 exalts fathers into authoritative interpreters of the 
 divine oracles. Let us turn, then, to fathers ! And 
 those nearest Christ are most influential ! Yet it is in 
 precisely these, the earliest and the most respected, 
 that the proofs of sacerdotalism are wanting. Clem- 
 ens Romanus, first father and, if we believe Rome, 
 second pope, uses " presbyter " and refuses " priest." 
 Ignatius, next father, bishop-martyr and supreme 
 authority for episcopal prerogative, uses " presby- 
 ter " and refuses ** priest." The best writers, in the 
 view of sacerdotalism itself, use ''presbyter" and 
 refuse " priest." It is clear from the apostolic fathers 
 that the sacerdotal usurpation over the Christian 
 Democracy was unknown to the primitive Church. 
 
 Now, in all official titles the name is significant. 
 "Emperor," ''king," "prince," "duke," "president," 
 "secretary," "judge," "chancellor," "senator," 
 " representative " mark position and function. The 
 Church, more than the State, should be precise. 
 Name expresses thing; name stamps the mind; name 
 molds the function. In no book is name so exact 
 
204 l^HE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 in derivation and accuracy as in the Bible. What 
 tremendous power in the word " priest ! " How it 
 has influenced nations, races, generations! And 
 how it has extended its sway, not only over earth 
 and time, but eternity ! That the word '' priest " 
 exerts such power is evinced by the tenacity with 
 which the Greek and the Latin Churches have clung 
 to it from the centuries when departure began from 
 Scripture and fathers. How important, then, to 
 consider the rise of that sacerdotalism which, before 
 the Reformation, was universal over Christendom ! 
 
 High-sounding titles in baptism evince downward 
 tendencies from primitive simplicity and liberty into 
 the glittering bondage of icy ceremonial. The 
 sacrament was styled Xovrpov TraXiyyeveaiag, a wash- 
 ing of regeneration, in the sense of a sacrament es- 
 sential to the new birth ; o(l)paytg, seal ; _;^a/3a«T^p 
 Kvpfov, the Lord's mark ; (pcdriafiog, illumination ; 
 (pvXaKrrjpiov, the phylactery, or preservation ; acpdapoiag 
 evdvfia, the vestitiire of incorruption, the salvation. 
 Cyril employs lofty poetical imagery to exaggerate 
 the spiritual efficiency of the sacrament. He styles 
 it, ** the ransom of captives," '' the remission of of- 
 fenses," "the death of sin," '* the regeneration of 
 the soul," ''the garment of light," ''the holy seal 
 indissoluble," " the chariot of heaven," " the luxury 
 of paradise," " the procuring of the kingdom," " the 
 gift of adoption." The judicious Clemens Alexan- 
 drinus uses terms equally exalted when he says, 
 " Baptism, called grace, illumination, washing — 
 grace, because through it is remitted the punish- 
 ment due to our sins; illumination, because that 
 holy, saving light is beheld by which we behold 
 
SACERDOTALISM. 205 
 
 God ; perfection, because in it there is nothing 
 wanting." At a Council of Carthage, Cyprian 
 called baptism " indulgentia divina^' pardon of sin 
 by the sacrament ; while Cyril styled chrism " the 
 preservation of the body and the safeguard of the 
 soul." And the remission of sin was regarded as 
 possible only in the Church and by the priest. Sal- 
 vation was confined to time, and place, and person, 
 and the Holy Ghost, who gives liberty, fettered in 
 His liberty. In a Council of Carthage, held under 
 Cyprian, one Nemesianus said, ^' It was not sufficient 
 for men to be regenerated only by imposition of 
 hands, but to be born again by both sacraments in 
 the Holy Church " — that is, by immersion and 
 chrism. In his De Peiiitentia TertuUian writes, " It 
 is necessary to change our dress and food ; we must 
 put on sackcloth and ashes ; we must renounce com- 
 fort and adorning of the body, and, falling down 
 before the priest, implore the intercession of our 
 brethren." Pacianus, Bishop of Barcelona, said, 
 " The seed of Christ, that is, the Spirit of God, 
 brings forth a new man by the hands of the priest, 
 out of the womb of the Church." And Haino, On 
 Hebrews, affirmed, '' The gift of the Holy Spirit is 
 given in baptism by the imposition of the bishop's 
 hands." 
 
 As early as A. D. 250 it had been taught by the 
 most illustrious Greek and Latin fathers that for- 
 giveness and regeneration were restricted to baptism, 
 were imparted by the priest, and bestowed only in 
 the Church. Salvation was not by faith, but sacra- 
 ment. Man's interposition was essential to eternal 
 life. The gift of the Holy Ghost, no longer sym- 
 
206 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 bolized by the free, universal air, was localized in its 
 operations. Already the inner spiritual liberty was 
 threatened, and the way prepared for the cold and 
 withering sway of an ecclesiastical hierarchy. 
 
 External observances soon corresponded to the 
 doctrinal exaltation of the sacrament. Pomps and 
 ceremonies multiplied. Eye and ear were delighted 
 with color and sound, and worship passed from soul 
 to sense. Processions were formed, with songs and 
 palms of victory, and the bones and shrines of 
 martyrs became conspicuous objects of adoration. 
 Each candidate was robed in white as an emblem 
 of immortality. He was then crowned and led to 
 the altar for the beatific vision of eternal life. After- 
 ward, in pious and pompous phrase, he was styled 
 elect, holy, faithful. Easter and Whitsunday were 
 the chosen times for baptism, and both were made 
 festivals, gay and splendid, with all the chant and 
 glitter of elaborate ceremonial. 
 
 We can only by their enumeration conceive the 
 minute and multiplied forms which gathered around 
 the sacrament of regeneration and imposed their in- 
 tolerable load on spiritual liberty : 
 
 I. The anointing oil of the chrism must be con- 
 secrated by a bishop. 2. In the baptistery of the 
 church the water was to be applied and regenera- 
 tion effected. 3. Only believers and candidates 
 could be admitted to the spectacle, which was a 
 mystery too sacred for profane eyes. 4. Regularly, 
 baptism must be in the bishop's church, or else- 
 where by the bishop's permission ; salvation was 
 thus farther restricted to the episcopal cathedral. 
 5. Turning to the west, the candidate spat three 
 
SACERDOTALISM. 20/ 
 
 times toward Satan's seat, and then he faced the 
 east as the abode of Christ, the Light. 6. The 
 baptized were naked, and hence for men and women 
 there were separate baptisteries. 7. The water was 
 blessed, and hence believed to be endued by the 
 Spirit with sanctifying power. 8. There were three 
 immersions, each at a name of the Trinity, and some- 
 times at each a confession. 9. After the baptism 
 came chrism. Its subject was anointed by oil, which 
 could be consecrated only by the bishop ; he was 
 signed on the forehead with the cross by the bishop ; 
 the Holy Ghost was conferred on him by the hands 
 of the bishop ; so that from first to last the bishop 
 inspired a sacrament deemed essential to salvation. 
 10. After the baptism the eucharist was invariably 
 administered. 11. Except as to their sponsors, in- 
 fants were baptized like adults, and like adults re- 
 ceived the eucharist. 12. Clinic, or lay, baptism 
 was allowed in cases of extremity ; and baptism by 
 heretics, if in the name of the Trinity, was received 
 as lawful in some parts of Christendom. 13. Bap- 
 tism bestowed forgiveness, and chrism the Spirit. 
 14. Without baptism, all, including infants, were 
 damned eternally. 
 
 The eucharist, also, was described in terms of 
 splendid exaggeration. All the richest eloquence 
 of Greek and Latin fathers expended itself in mag- 
 nifying the virtues of Holy Communion, and its 
 observances were even more numerous and elabo- 
 rate than those relating to baptism. To the two 
 sacraments was referred eternal life. The grace 
 of salvation begun in baptism was perpetuated in 
 eucharist. All these exalted views of their prede. 
 
20d> THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 cessors were expressed by Augustine and Chrysos- 
 tom in their glowing and sublime oratory. They 
 taught the doctrine of the Greek and Latin Churches. 
 By their authority the Anglican Ritualist can defend 
 his claims and practices ; only by extracts from their 
 works can we understand how completely ecclesiasti- 
 cism and sacerdotalism triumphed over the Christian 
 Democracy, as we have seen it constituted in the 
 New Testament. 
 
 Augustine. 
 
 1. Baptism. In his work against Pelagius the 
 Bishop of Hippo says : " And who amongst us de- 
 nies that in baptism all sins are remitted and that 
 all believers come up spotless and pure from the 
 laver of regeneration ? To this blessed consumma- 
 tion advances are even now made by us through the 
 grace of the holy laver. There is a whole and per- 
 fect cleansing in the selfsame baptismal laver. All 
 these products of concupiscence, and the old guilt 
 of concupiscence itself, are put away by the washing 
 of baptism, in which is accomplished the forgiveness 
 of all our sins. The salvation of man is effected by 
 baptism." 
 
 2. Eucharist. Howstrongly Augustine expressed 
 himself on the subject of the Holy Communion can 
 only be understood from his own words : *' So, 
 then, He both gave us His body and blood, a health- 
 ful refreshment, and briefly solved so great a ques- 
 tion as to His own entireness. Let them who eat 
 eat on, and them that drink drink life. Thou shalt 
 have life, and the life entire. The body and blood 
 of Christ shall be each man's life. They drank of 
 that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that 
 
SACERDOTALISM. 209 
 
 Rock was Christ. While the faith remained, the 
 signs varied. There the Rock was Christ ; to us 
 that is Christ which is placed on the altar of God. 
 He that doth not take hath no life, and he that doth 
 take hath life, and that eternal life. The sacrifice of 
 this thing, namely, the unity of the body and blood 
 of Christ, is prepared on the Lord's table in some 
 places daily." 
 
 Chrysostom. 
 
 I. Baptism. In his book on the priesthood the 
 golden-mouthed orator writes of priests : " These 
 are they who are intrusted with the pangs of spirit- 
 ual travail and the birth which comes through bap- 
 tism. By their means we put on Christ, and are 
 buried with the Son of God, and become members 
 of the blessed Head. Wherefore they might not 
 only be more justly feared by us than kings and 
 rulers, but also be more honored than parents, since 
 they begat us of blood and the will of the flesh ; 
 but the others are the authors of our birth from 
 God, even that blessed regeneration which is the 
 true freedom and sonship according to grace. 
 Priests have received authority to deal, not only 
 with bodily leprosy, but with spiritual uncleanness — 
 not to pronounce it removed after examination, but 
 actually and absolutely to take it away. God has 
 bestowed a power on priests greater than that of 
 our natural parents; our natural parents generate 
 into this life only, but the others into that which is 
 to come. If any man be effeminate, or a fornicator, 
 or an idolater, or a doer of whatever ill you please, 
 or if he be full of all the wickedness there be among 
 
 men, should he fall into this pool of waters he 
 U 
 
2IO THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 comes up again from the divine fountain purer than 
 the sun's rays. A spark falling into the wide sea 
 would be straightway quenched, being overwhelmed 
 by the multitude of waters; so also all human 
 wickedness, when it falls into the pool of the divine 
 fountain, is more swiftly and easily overwhelmed 
 and made invisible than that spark. As, therefore, 
 one takes and recasts a golden statue that has been 
 tarnished by time, smoke, dust, rust, restores it to 
 us thoroughly cleansed and glistening, so, too, this 
 nature of ours, rusted with the rust of sin and having 
 gathered much smoke from our faults and having 
 lost its beauty, which He had from the beginning 
 bestowed on it from Himself, God has taken and 
 cast anew, and, throwing it into the water as into a 
 mold, and, instead of fire, sending forth the grace of 
 His Spirit, then brings us forth with much bright- 
 ness, renewed and made fresh to rival the beams 
 of the sun, having crushed the old man and hav- 
 ing fashioned a new man more brilliant than the 
 former." 
 
 2. Eucharist. Also in his work on the priesthood 
 Chrysostom says : '' For the priestly office is, in- 
 deed, discharged on earth ; but it ranks among the 
 heavenly ordinances ; neither man nor angel nor 
 archangel nor any other created power, but the 
 Paraclete Himself, instituted the vocation. For 
 when thou seest the Lord sacrificed on the altar, 
 and the priest standing and praying over the vic- 
 tim, and all the worshipers employed with that 
 precious blood, canst thou think then that thou art 
 still among men and standing upon the earth ? art 
 thou not straightway, on the contrary, translated 
 
SACERDOTALISM. 2 1 1 
 
 into heaven, and, casting out every carnal thought 
 from the soul, dost thou not with disembodied spirit 
 and pure reason contemplate the things which are 
 in heaven ? O what a marvel ! what love of God to 
 man ! He who sitteth on high with the Father is 
 at that hour in the hands of all and gives Himself 
 to those who are willing to embrace and grasp 
 Him. They who inhabit the earth and make their 
 abode there are intrusted with the administration 
 of the things of heaven, and have received an au- 
 thority which has not been given to angels or arch- 
 angels: 'Whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be 
 bound in heaven.' They who rule the earth have, 
 indeed, authority to bind, but only the body ; 
 whereas this binding lays hold upon the soul, and 
 penetrates the heavens, and what priests do here 
 below God ratifies above, and the Master confirms 
 the sentence of the servants." 
 
 It is impossible to express in language loftier 
 conceptions of sacraments than we find in the elo- 
 quent words of Augustine and Chrysostom. Bap- 
 tism is the travail of the Church in the pangs of 
 regeneration. Baptism is the new birth of the soul 
 into the kingdom of Christ. Baptism remits sin 
 and imparts holiness. And what pope or patriarch, 
 what Roman doctor or Greek orator, ever described 
 in such glowing language and sensuous imagery the 
 power of the eucharist? The body of the Lord is 
 on the altar. He lies there a victim in sacrifice. 
 Daily is He offered and grasped and eaten. In both 
 sacraments the transcendent miracle is by the hands 
 of a priest. The grace of eternal life is confined in 
 time, is restricted in space, is bound to matter, is 
 
212 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 visible and tangible in the Lord's body, which- 
 is localized, masticated, and assimilated. Out 
 of Augustine and Chrysostom, the two most illus- 
 trious of the fathers, the Roman Catholic can 
 construct his whole system of priesthood and 
 sacrament. Receiving these eloquent writers as 
 the authorized interpreters of Scripture, we are- 
 compelled to the creeds of the Synod of Bethlehem 
 and the Council of Trent. We need trace sacer- 
 dotalism no farther in its historical development. 
 Less than five centuries brought into full bloom 
 the doctrines of priesthood and sacrament now 
 held by the Greek and Latin communions. And 
 in their sacerdotalism is the death of Christian 
 Democracy ! 
 
 Let us turn to Scripture ! It is the glory of the 
 priest, Greek and Roman, by perpetual miracle to 
 make visible and tangible and edible the body of the 
 Lord offered often in sacrifice. But in Hebrews we 
 are told that repetition was not the excellence, but 
 the imperfection, of Mosaic offerings. They were 
 multiplied because they could not relieve. Daily 
 sacrifices brought to conscience no satisfying peace. 
 Hence the necessityof a better covenant sealed by the 
 blood of our incarnate God, " offered once for all," and 
 accompanied by the Holy Ghost, who would cause 
 men to walk in the liberty of adoption, and make 
 love the law of life, and dwell in the sons and daugh- 
 ters of the Almighty Father. But, until this day 
 of light and power and freedom, in proportion to the 
 inefficiency was the frequency of sacrifice. For cen- 
 turies Scripture was buried by priests over Christen- 
 dom. In the Church of the Gospel was reestablished 
 
SACERDOTALISM. 21 3 
 
 the altar of the law. Bondage succeeded liberty. 
 Abolished daily sacrifice was introduced. Repeti- 
 tions, which had declared the feebleness of Mosaic 
 offerings, were made the boast of the Christian 
 dispensation. For the simple language of Scrip- 
 ture was substituted a splendid, but exaggerated 
 and sometimes nauseating, eloquence, colored with 
 all the magnificent extravagance of the Oriental 
 imagination. And this in the blaze of those 
 sublime words, '* By the which will we are sancti- 
 fied, through the offering of the body of Jesus 
 Christ once for all;" ''But this man, after He 
 had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down 
 on the right hand of God." ** For by one offer- 
 ing He hath perfected forever them that are 
 sanctified." 
 
 Christ in the Gospels conditions my salvation on 
 my faith. Apostles repeat His terms of pardon. 
 Paul expounds, argues, elaborates, enforces remis- 
 sion by faith in His blood who was ordained a divine 
 Mercy-seat by the Father. Old and New Testa- 
 ments abound in illustrations and invitations which 
 invest with beauty and glory the freedom of this 
 everlasting Gospel of human salvation. Believing 
 my Bible at all times, in all places, in all circum- 
 stances of life and death, open to my faith is the 
 remission of my sins, with the gift of the Holy 
 Ghost, in my regeneration, my adoption, my assur- 
 ance, my sanctification, my comfort, and all the 
 fullness of peace, love, hope, joy, victory. As a 
 telescope reveals to my eye the splendors of in- 
 numerable worlds, so in the promises are made 
 known, freely and fully, all that satisfies my immor- 
 
214 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 tal needs. While I meditate in my walk or on my 
 bed I need to wait for no priest before I can believe. 
 On land or sea, in joy or sorrow, faith brings me 
 victory before I can approach sacrament. In the 
 gasp of death, without a sacerdotal hand the divine 
 promise opens to me the gate of the everlasting 
 glory in which resides Jesus, my Brother, King, and 
 God. Under the Gospel, between me and eternal 
 life there is no barrier but my unbelief. Faith re- 
 moves my mountains, reveals my sun, floods me 
 with the everlasting light, translates me into the 
 everlasting liberty, and gives me all I can have in 
 sacrament. Like the Jews at Pentecost under the 
 preaching of Peter, I may receive baptism, and in it 
 receive the Holy Ghost ; or, like the Gentiles with 
 Cornelius, under the preaching also of Peter, I may 
 receive baptism because I have received the Holy 
 Ghost. Free as air and sunlight, the Holy Ghost 
 is not tied to baptism. Yet baptism is by command. 
 Baptism translates my individualism into fellowship. 
 Baptism incorporates me into the Church, and I ex- 
 change the feebleness and solitude of isolation for 
 the glow and strength of brotherhood. Baptism is 
 a visible sign of my invisible faith, and my confes- 
 sion before the universe that I am forgiven and re- 
 newed, and will walk until death, by the power of 
 the Holy Spirit, in obedience to my Bible and my 
 Redeemer. 
 
 And beautifully the water of baptism symbolizes 
 a soul cleansed from the guilt and delivered from the 
 power of sin ! Nor are bread and wine less exquisite 
 emblems of my salvation. Taking the cup of the 
 new covenant, as I touch it with my lips I confess 
 
SACERDOTALISM. 21$ 
 
 that I have received through faith the remission of 
 my sins ; and the witnessing Church, by its minister, 
 testifies its beHef in this sublime fact. And in tiie 
 bread I find my Lord's sign, assuring me before 
 earth and heaven that I may feed on my divine 
 Redeemer, the incarnate God who died and rose for 
 me, in memory of Him, until I behold His face in 
 His everlasting kingdom. 
 
2l6 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Saint- Worship. 
 
 IN the Mesopotamian plain the old Assyrian city 
 Warka has been exposed by modern research to 
 the sun. Possibly it was the burial place of the 
 central region of the empire. Around it is a circle 
 of tombs sixty feet deep, corpse piled above corpse, 
 the solitary dead of cities and of generations. A 
 more ghastly spectacle of mortality has never been 
 unearthed. The coffins are cylinders of baked clay. 
 In many are the remains of food deposited by friends 
 for the relief of the departed. Here, then, we have 
 proof that the ancient Assyrians believed that the 
 spirits of the dead subsisted about the living, re- 
 tained their individuality, and were even liable while 
 bodiless to their old animal hunger. 
 
 The Egyptians embalmed their corpses. Each 
 mummy in the home was perpetual evidence of 
 faith in the existence of the soul which had left its 
 mortal clay but still hovered near. And this na- 
 tional belief molded the customs of the entire peo- 
 ple, and especially expressed itself in their art, their 
 literature, and in elaborate services for the dead. 
 
 Grecian demigods were deified human heroes. 
 Zeus and Heracles and Athene represented mythic 
 male and female warriors elevated by battle exploits 
 into divinities. Olympus was a celestial empire 
 peopled with gods who had been earthly ideals. 
 
SAlNT-WORSHIP. 2l7 
 
 Demons were the spirits of the departed still linger- 
 ing around their former terrestrial abodes. 
 
 The Roman lemures and larvce seem to have 
 been the souls of persons unburied, which wandered 
 homeless, restless, and revengeful until relieved by- 
 interment of the body which had been their habita- 
 tion, and made happy by the affectionate offerings 
 of the family. Wholly different from these, the 
 Lares were the spirits of the dead whose mortal re- 
 mains had been piously reduced to ashes for the 
 urn or decently covered in the grave. Romans re- 
 garded the Penates as more especially the domestic 
 guardians of hearth and larder. All these good and 
 happy souls were the gods of the home and of the 
 heart and life. They hovered about as loving spec- 
 tators. They became objects of affectionate wor- 
 ship. They were honored by the rich with expen- 
 sive and splendid mausoleums, in which their sur- 
 viving friends assembled to express reverence and 
 to experience communion. The whole life of each 
 Roman was thus connected with his dead. 
 
 Out of such veneration for the departed grew the 
 idolatry of the ancient world. It sprang from the 
 most tender and sacred dispositions of the human 
 heart. Because men loved their ancestors they made 
 them objects of worship. Having lost faith in the in- 
 visible Creator, they shaped visible images, and adored 
 the once visible dead, still living in affectionate re- 
 membrance. But, while human love was thus the 
 source of this universal idolatry, it degenerated every- 
 where into the slavery of a most abject, corrupting, 
 pitiable, and often loathsome superstition. Earth 
 passed into bondage to gods of her own manufacture. 
 
2l8 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Against the idolatry born in man and prevailing 
 over the world the Bible is a perpetual protest. In 
 the Old Testament it caused the interminable con- 
 troversies between Jehovah and Israel. False gods 
 displaced the true God. A divided service was 
 recognized as impossible. Inner bondage to de- 
 mons and images resulted in slavery to lust and 
 priest and ceremonial. Under the Gospel, as under 
 the law, arose the same tendencies in human nature, 
 which are ineradicable except by the divine grace. 
 The flaming wrath of the Apocalypse blazes against 
 idolaters. And Arab and Turk have poured their 
 vials of desolating vengeance over those regions of 
 the Church most devoted to saint worship and image 
 adoration. Christian martyrs were substituted for 
 pagan gods, and bones and shrines became objects 
 of passionate reverence. Sacerdotalism and ec- 
 clesiasticism erected no barriers against this dark 
 deluge of superstition. Innumerable intercessors 
 obscured Christ, our sole divine Mediator. The 
 chains of this bondage are countless as the saints 
 on the calendars of the Greek and Latin Churches. 
 Where this slavery endures the Christian Democ- 
 racy is impossible ; and vain all attempts toward 
 ecclesiastical unity until idolatry is destroyed. 
 Let us, then, trace its beginnings in the Church, 
 and see how it obscured salvation by faith, shut 
 out the Holy Ghost, left men to grope in their 
 own blindness, brought evil on nations, and 
 became the poisonous flower whose deadly per- 
 fume intoxicated and desolated the world for cen- 
 turies. 
 
 As we shall show, the most illustrious Greek and 
 
SAINT-WORSHIP. SIQ 
 
 Latin fathers led forward to superstition. Yet often 
 in their writings they rebuked the idolatries en- 
 couraged in their pulpits. Justin Martyr says in 
 his Apology, " Christians should worship none but 
 God alone." Theophilus of Autioch writes, "God's 
 laws forbid, not only the worship of idols, but of all 
 other creatures — sun, moon, and stars, heaven and 
 earth and sea — and command the worship of the 
 true God alone, who is the Creator of all things." 
 Speaking of prayers for the emperor, Tertullian 
 says, '' They asked these things of the living and 
 true God, because He alone was able to give them." 
 Of angels Origen affirms: ''They are ministering 
 spirits that bring the gifts of God to us ; but there is 
 no command in Scripture to worship or adore them. 
 When the body is moved the shadow follows its 
 motion ; so, in like manner, when we have God, 
 who is over all, favorable to us it follows that we 
 shall have all his friends, both angels and souls and 
 spirits, favorable to us." We infer from Eusebius 
 that the use of images and pictures came from imi- 
 tation of the pagans. Describing a statue of our 
 Saviour at Caesarea Philippi, he adds, '' We ourselves 
 saw it when we were staying in the city. Nor is it 
 strange that those of the Gentiles who were bene- 
 fited by our Saviour should have done such things. 
 We have learned that the likenesses of Paul and 
 Peter and of Christ Himself are preserved in paint- 
 ings, the ancients being accustomed, as is likely ac- 
 cording to a habit of the Gentiles, to pay this kind 
 of honor indiscriminately to those regarded by them 
 as deliverers." Whatever the practice of Augus- 
 tine, his precept was, " Let not our religion consist 
 
220 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 in the worship of dead men. They are to be hon- 
 ored for imitation, not worshiped for reh'gion." 
 And against his own example Chrysostom affirms, 
 '* No creature is to be worshiped of man, neither 
 things above, nor things below, whether man, or de- 
 mons, or angels, or archangels, or any other super- 
 nal powers, but only God, the Lord of all." The 
 Council of Laodicea declared : " Christians ought 
 not to forsake the Church of God and go aside and 
 hold conventicles to invocate or call upon the names 
 of angels, which things are forbidden. If anyone, 
 therefore, be found to exercise himself in this 
 private idolatry let him be accused, because he 
 hath forsaken the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of 
 God, and gone over to idolatry." 
 
 Yet, despite these warnings of fathers and the 
 commands of Scripture and the decrees of Councils, 
 the worship of demons and images became universal 
 over Christendom. Its beginnings we trace in 
 
 Epiphanius. 
 
 This writer gives us proof of the existence of the 
 superstition he opposed. It began in the worship 
 of the Virgin. She seems to have been first adored 
 by Arabian Christians. Following the old idolatries, 
 they offered her cakes under the name of the queen 
 of heaven. Epiphanius denounced their oblations 
 to Mary as a heresy, impious and abominable. 
 He declared their worship a fulfillment of Paul's 
 prophecy and a mark of apostasy. So soon began 
 that adoration of a woman which has ensnared races 
 and generations and widely displaced the mediator- 
 ship of Jesus Christ ! 
 
SAINT-WORSHIP. 221 
 
 EUSEBIUS. 
 This greatest of the ancient ecclesiastical his- 
 torians shows us where the Christian idolatries 
 originated. Their first place was amid the tombs. 
 Imitating their heathen ancestors, the disciples of 
 our Lord assembled to commune with the departed 
 while surrounded by their graves and monuments. 
 The impulse to the custom seemed to be a com- 
 mendable affection and veneration. But the in- 
 veterate pagan tendencies were recalled, vivified, 
 and exaggerated with idolatrous excesses which 
 had the approval of Augustine himself. Eusebius 
 commends a practice whose results he did not fore- 
 see, saying : '' These things are befitting upon the 
 decease of the favorites of God, whom you may 
 properly call champions of the true religion, whence 
 it is our custom to assemble at the sepulchers to 
 make our prayers beside them and honor their 
 blessed souls." 
 
 Theodoret. 
 
 He, with Eusebius, Socrates, and Sozomen, shines 
 in the record of the original historians of the ancient 
 Church. And from him we learn that with deliber- 
 ate purpose the ecclesiastical teachers of the second 
 and third centuries sought to popularize Christianity 
 by mingling with it heathen usages, and to draw the 
 multitude from temples to churches. Pagans were to 
 seethe new religion in their own old forms, and their 
 familiar deities were to be supplanted by Christian 
 martyrs. How subtle the temptation and how cor- 
 rupting its fruits ! Theodoret exhibits the policy of 
 illustrious fathers, who, compromising with idolatry, 
 overwhelmed the Church with superstition. He 
 
222 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 says : '' They who are well pray for the continuance 
 of health, and they who have been long sick pray 
 for recovery; the barren pray for children, and 
 they who make long journeys desire them to be 
 their companions and guides by the way, not going 
 to them as gods, but applying to them as divine 
 men, and beseeching them to become intercessors 
 for them with God. The martyrs have evidently 
 blotted out from the minds of men the memory of 
 those who were called gods. Instead of the feasts 
 of Jupiter and Bacchus, we now celebrate those of 
 Peter, Paul, Thomas, and the other martyrs.** 
 
 Apostolical Constitutions. 
 
 These ecclesiastical fabrications became univer- 
 sally accepted ; and we see in them how soon 
 prayers for the dead were introduced into the old 
 liturgies and speedily changed into prayers to the 
 dead. "■ We offer unto Thee for all Thy saints that 
 have lived well-pleasing in Thy sight from the founda- 
 tion of the world ; for patriarchs, prophets, holy men, 
 apostles, martyrs, confessors, bishops, presbyters, 
 deacons, subdeacons, readers, singers, virgins,widows, 
 laymen, and all whose names Thou knowest." 
 
 Tertullian. 
 
 This powerful, but eccentric, writer shows how 
 the custom of supplications and offerings for the 
 departed prevailed over the Church. He says, 
 '' Every woman prayed for the soul of her deceased 
 husband ; the husband prayed for the soul of his 
 wife and offered oblations for her." Arnobius said 
 that Christians prayed for the living and the dead. 
 
saint-worship. 223 
 
 Cyril of Jerusalem. 
 
 " We offer Thee this sacrifice in memory of all 
 those who are fallen asleep before us, first patriarchs, 
 prophets, apostles, and martyrs, that God by their 
 prayers and supplications may receive our supplica- 
 tions." And in the same way the ancient liturgies 
 under the names of Basil, Chrysostom, and Gregory 
 Nazianzen had prayers for the saints, including the 
 Virgin Mary. 
 
 Ambrose. 
 
 The Bishop of Milan had been a man of the 
 world. While yet an unbaptized laic a popular 
 whim elevated him to the episcopacy. He soon 
 showed himself a ruler, a writer, and an orator. On 
 the list of Latin fathers is but one name more bril- 
 liant than Ambrose of Milan. He was vigorous in 
 genius, dignified in character, successful in adminis- 
 tration. The learned Ussher found two manuscripts 
 ascribing the " Te Deum " to Nicetus, Bishop of 
 Treves, A. D. 535 ; but Ambrose is usually esteemed 
 the author of that majestic hymn to the Trinity. 
 Whatever the truth of the tradition, in proportion 
 to his splendid gifts is the Bishop of Milan responsi- 
 ble for urging the Church down the precipice of 
 superstition into a midnight of idolatry. His cathe- 
 dral was to be dedicated in his episcopal city. But 
 Milan could boast no martyrs. Blood and bones 
 and shrines were needed to attract the populace, 
 and rival more favored churches. Demand created 
 supply. The night before the consecration arrives. 
 A few hours until the service, and no martyrs ! 
 Before the dawn Ambrose has an opportune vision. 
 
224 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Two saints appear in his dreams. They tell him 
 where to find their buried bodies. Ambrose goes 
 to the place the martyrs have revealed. He causes 
 the earth to be opened. Lo ! What appear ? Two 
 gigantic headless skeletons, in blood fresh after fifty 
 years! The cathedral will have a crowd this morn- 
 ing, and Milan be illustrious and enriched by its 
 martyrs ! Innumerable miracles follow. A rush to 
 the new shrines ! St. Gervasius and St. Protasius 
 from that morning have been famous, and are found 
 even on the Anglican calendar. Augustine informs 
 us that a blind butcher was restored to sight by the 
 relics of these saints and taken to reside within the 
 sacred precincts of his cathedral, less exposed than 
 in his shop to the cynical Arians and skeptical 
 pagans. Did he furnish the blood for the graves ? 
 Was he conveniently retired and pensioned for his 
 fraud ? And was the Bishop of Milan the contriver 
 of such an imposture? The facts, taken together, 
 leave an indelible impression against Ambrose. 
 In that age pagan dishonesty had followed pagan 
 superstition into the Church, and for pious ends 
 ecclesiastics corrupted manuscripts, fabricated testi- 
 monies, and prepared for the grosser impositions of 
 mediaeval monks. 
 
 In a letter to his sister Ambrose magnifies the 
 glory of his discovery by quoting from his Milan 
 address on the grand occasion : 
 
 *' The martyrs have risen. You yourselves have 
 seen many freed from demons and relieved of the in- 
 firmities under which they labored by applying their 
 hands to the pall of the saints, many healed by the 
 mere shadow of saints' bodies. Coverlets of the 
 
SAINT-WORSHIP. 22$ 
 
 inviolable relics are sought for as having become by 
 mere contact capable of curing disease. Let all 
 understand what sort of champions we desire ! Let 
 them come now and see my bodyguards ! With 
 such an army I do not deny that I am surrounded." 
 
 Augustine. 
 
 We have before given a sketch of this noble and 
 gifted man, great in learning, keen in argument, sur- 
 passing in theological discernment, copious and 
 lofty and fascinating in his eloquence, and yet a vic- 
 tim of a superstitious and fraudulent age. How 
 could so sublime an intellect enslave itself to degrad- 
 ing popular puerilities ? Did he, too, descend to 
 pious imposture ? To draw from heathen shrines 
 and heretical assemblies, was he willing to extol the 
 orthodox dead and magnify the healing virtues of 
 bones? For the time he succeeded. Applauding 
 crowds, to behold miracles, filled the churches. 
 Revenues were increased and fame manufactured. 
 But from the seed sown by Augustine what a har- 
 vest of monkish imposture ! In his Confessions how 
 nobly he records his testimony against the very 
 superstitions he encouraged in his pulpit ! He 
 asks : "■ Whom shall I look to as a mediator ? Shall 
 I go to angels? Many have done this, and deserve 
 to be the sport of illusions which they loved." A 
 great part of the City of God is ridicule and denun- 
 ciation of classic divinities. It seems impossible 
 that the most illustrious defender of the faith should 
 at the same time be an abettor of imposture. Was 
 he dupe or deceiver ? We have an ecclesiastical 
 enigma. Augustine at the same time illuminated 
 
226 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 the Church from the Bible and brought over it the 
 midnight shadow of superstition. The City of God 
 is his most brilliant work. How wonderfully it 
 contrasts the passing splendor of imperial dominion 
 with the everlasting glory of the Christian Com- 
 monwealth ! Yet it is in this mature and magnifi- 
 cent treatise that we have the most painful evidence 
 of a debasing credulity. A mother, Augustine says, 
 brought to St. Stephen's shrine her dead child. It 
 came to life. It was baptized. It expired and went 
 to the bosom of the martyr. Pages in the immortal 
 work humiliate us with narrations of cures by 
 bones of saints and shrines not exceeded in puerile 
 credulity by mediaeval legend or our modern Alban 
 Butler. One narration we will give which illustrates 
 a chapter in the City of God. Augustine informs us 
 that an old tailor in Hippo had lost his cloak. In 
 his distress he did not ask God to supply his need. 
 He supplicated dead saints, just as his pagan ances- 
 tors petitioned deified heroes. Our tailor with loud 
 voice cries to the Twenty Martyrs. His prayers are 
 answered. Soon after, Augustine informs us, a fish 
 was tossed by the waves gasping on the shore. It 
 was sent by the Twenty Martyrs to the tailor. He was 
 alert to seize his prize, sold it, and with the money he 
 received bought wool from which his wife spun him 
 a cloak. What a prodigy with which to adorn the 
 sublime pages of the City of God! 
 
 Basil. 
 
 At Sebaste in winter forty Christians had been 
 exposed on the ice. In the distance the pagans had 
 kindled a bright fire and spread a tempting feast. 
 
SAINT-WORSHIP. 22/ 
 
 Here, freezing and starvation ; there, warmth and 
 luxury ! But to approach the blaze and partake of 
 the dainties was to turn from Christ and acknowledge 
 heathen gods. One shivering wretch was overcome. 
 Maddened with cold and hunger, he left his fellows; 
 he crawled over the ice ; he reached the cheerful 
 fire and loaded table. But just as he was about to 
 eat he expired. Notwithstanding the defection of 
 one the faithful company were styled in legend the 
 " Forty Martyrs." They became famous interces- 
 sors between God and His Church, and thus gave 
 increasing darkness to the cloud with which Chris- 
 tian idolatry was obscuring Jesus Christ, our sole 
 Mediator. And Basil, educated from his youth in 
 the learning of his times ; Basil, ten years student 
 in classic Athens ; Basil, shining in piety and learn- 
 ing and eloquence ; Basil, wisest of Greek fathers — 
 Basil, by his eulogy, led the people to saint-worship ! 
 Hear his glowing words — how inflaming to the 
 populace ! Addressing the Forty Martyrs, Basil 
 exclaims : 
 
 ** O holy choir! O sacred band! O unconquer- 
 able phalanx ! O common guardians of the hu- 
 man family! kind participants of our cares! most 
 potent advocates ! stars of the world ! flowers 
 of the Churches ! army of the triumphant ! choir 
 of those praising God ! — here are these forty 
 emitting one voice of supplication ! Whoever is 
 pressed by some extremity, to these let him fly! 
 Whoever again rejoices, to these let him run ! This 
 one, that he may be liberated from evils ; and that 
 one, that he may endure in adversities. A woman 
 is heard for her children, for her husband abroad. 
 
228 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 that he may return ; or sick, that he may be re- 
 stored. With these, to the martyrs we pour our 
 prayers." 
 
 Gregory Nazianzen. 
 
 Brother-star of Basil ! With him a brilliant of 
 the first magnitude in the Oriental galaxy — alas, 
 dimmed, too, with mists from the rising Christian 
 idolatries! In his sermon on Athanasius it is thus 
 Nazianzen addresses the departed Bishop of Alex- 
 andria : " O dear and sacred head ! O that thou, 
 benignant and placid, wouldst look from above and 
 govern this people ! Me hold in life and feed with 
 the flock ! " 
 
 Before his conversion Ambrose of Milan had pas- 
 sionately loved a lady. She repelled his advances 
 by praying the Virgin to deform her beauty and 
 thus save her from her importunate admirer. This 
 petition to Mary Nazianzen applauds in his oration 
 on Cyprian, to whom he thus appeals: **And thou 
 from thy seat look down on us propitiously, aid- 
 ing us in the government of the flock ! I am per- 
 suaded that our father's intercessions avail us more 
 than his teaching did when present in the body. 
 Now that he has got near to God, has shaken off 
 the fetters of the body, and, free from the mind of 
 earth, approaches, naked, the naked and most per- 
 fect mind." 
 
 Gregory Nyssen. 
 
 In him we have a third star in the splendid East- 
 ern heavens. His light, too, shines on the down- 
 ward path into the long night of universal idolatry. 
 In his oration on '' Ephraim Cyrus" Nyssen illus- 
 trates the potency of prayer by the successful invo- 
 
SAINT-WORSHIP. 229 
 
 cation of this departed saint. A man had been lost. 
 He was proceeding on his doubtful way. A sudden 
 inspiration seizes the hesitating traveler. In his 
 perplexity he forgets God, and cries, " Holy Ephra- 
 im, help me ! " Nyssen says of this petitioner of 
 saints, '' Defended by this guardianship, beyond 
 hope, he was restored to his country." Hear now 
 our orator invoking the shade of the megalomartyr 
 Theodorus! " Whether thou dost dwell in sublime 
 ether, or dost traverse some celestial circle, or stand 
 chosen by God in a choir of angels, come to us who 
 honor thee, an invisible friend ! Intercede and pray 
 for our country with the common King and God ! 
 Compel the choir of thy brother martyrs, and with 
 all intercede together! The prayers of the multitude 
 of the just will wash away the sins of the people. 
 Admonish Peter, excite Paul, also John the theolo- 
 gian and beloved disciple ! " 
 
 Chrysostom. 
 
 Basil and the Gregories were Oriental stars ; but 
 Chrysostom was the sun among the orators of the 
 Eastern Church. Spots dim his brilliance. His 
 pulpit in Constantinople was a seat of power. By 
 him in the Church was revived and rivaled the 
 ancient eloquence of Greece. Emperor, court, and 
 populace came under the spell of his genius. He 
 dazzled and delighted enthusiastic assemblies, and 
 his cathedral often rang with applause. A pure life 
 energized his magnificent oratory. His language 
 glows, his imagery is copious and splendid, and his 
 persuasiveness like the musical flow of a wide and 
 gentle river, while he could dash himself, also, into 
 
230 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 a torrent of overwhelming invective. Sometimes 
 Chrysostom resembles an evening cloud gorgeous 
 in the sun, and again the thundering heavens flash- 
 ing with lightning. How sad that this peerless 
 genius should have given impetus to the spreading 
 idolatry ! 
 
 Bent on suicide, two young women plunged into 
 a river. To save these, her daughters, by baptism, 
 the mother dashed after, knowing that her own 
 death was inevitable. She succeeded in casting on 
 the sinking suicides the water supposed to be eternal 
 life, and all three perished together in the waves. 
 In the gasps of death, not by inner conversion, but 
 an outer sprinkling, these desperate girls were be- 
 lieved to be married to Christ. Charity in silence 
 might throw over them a modest mantle. But no ! 
 This baptism of suicides is glorified in the Church. 
 The mother and her daughter are translated to 
 paradise, worshiped as martyrs enrolled on the 
 Oriental calendar, and made famous over earth for 
 all generations. Their shrines became popular re- 
 sorts, whence flowed to the people innumerable 
 benefits. Did Chrysostom rebuke the superstition ? 
 He helped it with all the vigor of his episcopal in- 
 fluence and efflorescent oratory. It is largely to 
 his eloquence that the saints Bernice and Prosdoce 
 were rescued from oblivion in their baptismal waters, 
 and their names made pure and immortal for the 
 adoration of ages. You will not doubt this inference 
 when you read his glowing eulogium. 
 
 " You are inflamed," Chrysostom exclaims, '' with 
 a passionate affection toward these saints. Let us, 
 then, with the very fire of love fall down before 
 
SAINT-WORSHIP. 2 3 1 
 
 their relics ! Let us embrace their shrines ! Let us 
 beseech them ! Let us invoke them that they would 
 deign to become our patrons ! They bear the mar- 
 tyr marks of Christ and, while showing these martyr 
 marks, are able to persuade the King to anything. 
 Since, then, their power is such, and such their favor 
 with God, when we have with a continual assiduity 
 and a perpetual frequenting of their society made 
 ourselves, as it were, their familiar friends, we shall 
 obtain for ourselves the loving kingdom of God." 
 
 For the mediatorship of his divine Saviour our 
 orator of the mouth of gold substitutes the inter- 
 cessions of a pair of baptized suicides ! Such the 
 result when Grecian eloquence displaces Holy 
 Scripture ! God's word must be the pulpit's argu- 
 ment. 
 
 In praise of the holy megalomartyr Drosis, Chrys- 
 ostom bursts forth : *' Myriads of the dead strew 
 the surface of the earth, and upon these demons 
 hold their seat ; but when any bones of martyrs are 
 dug up how do these take their flight as from fire 
 or some intolerable torments ! O wonderful Pyre ! 
 What a treasure does it contain — that dust, those 
 ashes more precious than any gold, more fragrant 
 than any perfumes, more estimable than any jewels ! 
 For that which no treasure or gold is able to effect 
 do the relics of the martyrs effect ! " 
 
 Before a splendid assemblage in his cathedral our 
 orator exclaims : '^ The bodies of saints, better 
 than any munitions of adamant, better than im- 
 perishable ramparts, wall about our city, nor do 
 they merely repel the assaults of visible enemies, 
 but also the machinations of invisible demons, and 
 
232 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 subvert and dissipate all the frauds of the devil. If 
 at any time the Lord of all, by the abounding of 
 iniquity, be incensed against us we may be able, by 
 thrusting these bodies before us, immediately to 
 render Him propitious to our city." 
 
 Imagine Chrysostom in his cathedral pulpit ! He 
 is announced to preach on the day of one of the 
 martyrs whose eulogies we have selected. Con- 
 stantinople is stirred with the expectation of his 
 eloquence. After a riot of wild and bloody amuse- 
 ment the circus empties its cruel crowd into the 
 church. In glittering robes and a blaze of gems 
 and colors, amid clouds of incense and melodies of 
 music, priests and bishops enter the edifice and be- 
 neath crosses and banners march down the aisle to 
 their seats and thrones. When the ecclesiastical 
 spectacle has ceased to dazzle, the emperor appears 
 in the yet more magnificent display of his imperial 
 majesty. Around are the shrines and pictures and 
 statues of martyrs. Heaven and earth unite in this 
 Oriental pomp. Human genius has exhausted it- 
 self to delight eye and ear and imagination. Now 
 Chrysostom arises in his pulpit. As he stands and 
 surveys the imposing scene the orator commands 
 the assembly into silence. He then bursts forth to 
 extol the dead and invoke their intercession. Em- 
 peror, court, ecclesiastics, people fill the cathedral 
 with their wild applause. The influence of the scene 
 and sermon passed beyond the brilliant hour. It 
 stamped all succeeding ages. It molded the worship 
 of both Greek and Latin Churches. It is visible still 
 on the Anglican calendar, and is seductive to men 
 who are under a solemn vow to Protestant Articles. 
 
SAINT-WORSHIP. 233 
 
 The Celestial Hierarchy. 
 With this title a book appeared in Constantinople 
 during the first half of the sixth century. It bore 
 the name of Paul's proselyte, Dionysius the Areopa- 
 gite. Such an authorship, however doubtful, was 
 venerable. Afterward the Byzantine emperor pre- 
 sented a copy of the work to Louis the Pious, then 
 on the throne of France. A translation was made 
 by the famous Erigena. Thus the book became 
 the possession of Christendom. Its influence on the 
 Church can scarcely be exaggerated. The Celestial 
 Hierarchy exalts the Trinity to an eminence of un- 
 approachable glory. Far below its sublime height,' 
 rank after rank, are arranged the inferior orders of 
 creation. In their circle of being bishops, priests, 
 and deacons correspond to the three persons in the 
 Godhead. Mary, queen of heaven, sits enthroned 
 high over innumerable saints and angels. Her 
 adoration this book intensified into a passion. On 
 the banner of the emperor floated the image of 
 Mary. She was protectress of the imperial capital. 
 Each knight became her sworn servant. Shield and 
 standard flamed with her image. To her the warrior 
 looked for success in battle and to her ascribed his 
 victory. The worship of Mary now became univer- 
 sal. Nor was it a solitary homage. Saint after saint 
 crowded about the Virgin into Oriental and Occi- 
 dental calendars. East rivaled West in the fertility 
 of invented and worshiped patrons and intercessors. 
 Town vied with town, order with order, kingdom 
 with kingdom, the Greek Church with the Latin 
 Church. Classic gods were dethroned by Christian 
 saints. Ecclesiastics were the leaders of the world 
 
234 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 into this idolatry. But the populace was permitted 
 a wide freedom of canonization, and commemora- 
 tions of saints became their grand occasions of cere- 
 monial pomp and splendor. Then the pope inter- 
 fered to restrict this liberty, to demand money for 
 the privilege of worshiping the dead, and to create 
 a new method of replenishing his pontifical coffers. 
 
 Alexander III. 
 
 This pope first made canonization exclusive in the 
 holy see. But it was Urban VIII who decreed the 
 present mode of procedure. The process originates 
 with the bishop. He inquires into the virtues and 
 miracles of the proposed, and sends his sealed sen- 
 tence to the Congregation of Rites at Rome. There 
 an examination is first referred to the whole con- 
 clave, and then to a particular cardinal. Ortho- 
 doxy, piety, and at least two miracles are the essen- 
 tial conditions of saintship. If these are established 
 the pope concludes the process. The pope beatifies 
 and canonizes. The pope gives assurance to the 
 requisite miracles. The pope authorizes the world 
 to worship. After his brief follows a magnificent 
 ceremony. Nothing must be wanting in display 
 when infallible pontiffs invite humanity to adore its 
 dead. A solemn procession moves onward ; images 
 of the declared saint are uplifted on banners ; when 
 the church is reached the pontiff sits on his throne 
 and receives homage ; solicitor and advocate fall at 
 his feet and ask the canonization. A second and a 
 third petition are presented. Litanies are chanted ; 
 the Veni Creator is sung, and also the Te Detim, High 
 massconcludes and solemnizes the impressiveservice. 
 
SAINT-WORSHIP. 235 
 
 But the processes of beatification and canonization 
 will be best illustrated by a few individual instances. 
 
 Alphonso Liguori. 
 
 In A. D. 1696 he was born at Naples. Pius VII 
 in A. D. 1816 issued the decree for his beatification, 
 and in 1836 Gregory XVI proceeded to his canoni- 
 zation. Alphonso, in his Glories of Mary^ quotes 
 St. Bernardin of Siena, canonized by Nicholas V, 
 A. D. 1450, at the cost of five thousand ducats into 
 the Roman treasury, and who does not fear to say 
 that " all, even God Himself, are subject to the em- 
 pire of Mary," and that God '' hears Mary's prayers 
 as if they were commands." But Alphonso also 
 approves Anselm where he exclaims, '' The Lord, O 
 Mary, has so exalted thee that His favor has ren- 
 dered thee omnipotent." He adds: "In order to 
 increase our confidence in Mary, St. Anselm assures 
 us that our prayers will often be more speedily 
 heard in invoking her name than in calling on the 
 name of Jesus ; and the reason he assigns is that 
 Jesus being no less our Judge than our Saviour He 
 must avenge the wrongs done Him by our sins, 
 while the holy Virgin, being solely our advocate, is 
 obliged to entertain sentiments of pity toward us." 
 And Alphonso illustrates his doctrine by a vision. 
 Two ladders reach from earth to heaven. At the 
 top of one ladder is Mary, and at the top of the 
 other Jesus. All who climb the ladder of Mary 
 enter, and all who climb the ladder of Jesus fail. 
 Bernardin, Alphonso, and Anselm were all canon- 
 ized by popes, who are responsible, therefore, for 
 the orthodoxy of these three saints. The doctrine 
 
236 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 of the saints is the doctrine of the popes who have 
 stamped on it their infallibility. And what popes 
 teach the Church must receive. It is, then, the faith 
 and practice of the Roman communion that it is bet- 
 ter to pray to Mary than to pray to Jesus. With such 
 pontifical authority it is not wonderful that the 
 papal Church glows with passionate devotion to the 
 Virgin. The human mother has widely displaced 
 the divine Son. 
 
 BONAVENTURA. 
 He was canonized by Sixtus IV, A. D. 1482. 
 Afterward he was enshrined under the altar of St. 
 Magdalen's Church. Miracles were wrought by his 
 bones. An edition of his Psalter appeared at Rome 
 in A. D. 1844, when the city was wholly under papal 
 rule. This could only have occurred with the sanc- 
 tion of the holy father. Bonaventura's Psalter has, we 
 infer, therefore, the infallible authority of the pontiff 
 who canonized its writer and of the pontiff who per- 
 mitted its publication. Behind these two pontiffs 
 is the universal esteem of the Roman Church for its 
 seraphic doctor. We believe that the Psalter of Bon- 
 aventura expresses the faith of the papal communion. 
 But in this work whatever is spoken of God is ap- 
 plied to the Virgin ; Mary is substituted for Jeho- 
 vah ; a creature is addressed as the Creator — blas- 
 phemy almost inconceivable, which places a woman 
 on the throne of the Sovereign of the universe. In 
 Bonaventura's Psalter we read : '' Mary is my light ! 
 Mary is my shepherd ! Mary is my rock ! Mary is 
 my sun, my shield, my salvation ! Praise ye Mary ! 
 Thank ye Mary! Worship ye Mary!" Also in 
 the Te Deum our seraphic doctor substitutes Mary 
 
SAINT-WORSHIP. 237 
 
 for God ! Nor does this suffice ! The Lord's 
 Prayer is perverted into idolatry: " Our lady who 
 art in heaven, hallowed be thy name ! " Human 
 blindness can proceed no farther. 
 
 Roman Breviary. 
 
 This shows that saint adoration pervades the 
 Roman worship. It is forced on all. The pope 
 cannot escape it. Nor would he dare liberate from 
 its obligation. We have in the Confiteor, '* I con- 
 fess to Almighty God, to the blessed Mary, ever 
 Virgin, to the blessed Michael the Archangel, to the 
 blessed John the Baptist, the holy apostles Peter 
 and Paul, all the saints, and you, father." The 
 Litany begins, ** St. Lawrence, pray for us," and 
 ends, ** All ye saints of God, make intercession for 
 us ; " while between these petitions about thirty 
 saints are supplicated, besides all holy bishops, con- 
 fessors, doctors, priests, monks, and nuns. On the 
 title-page of the Breviary are the names of three 
 infallible pontiffs, who affirm what it expresses. 
 Some addresses to the Virgin come next after 
 Bonaventura : " If the winds of temptation arise, 
 if thou run on the rocks of tribulation, look to 
 the star, call upon Mary ! If thou art tossed on 
 the waves of pride, ambition, detraction, envy, look 
 to the star, call upon Mary ! If anger or avarice or 
 the temptation of the flesh toss the bark of thy 
 mind, look to Mary! If, disturbed by the great- 
 ness of thy sins, troubled at the defilement of thy 
 conscience, affrighted at the horrors of judgment, 
 thou beginnest to be swallowed up in the gulf of 
 sadness, the abysses of despair, think upon Mary! 
 
238 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Invoke Mary ! Let her not depart from thy mouth! 
 Let her not depart from thy heart ! " 
 
 Council of Trent. 
 
 In its decrees we have, formulated, the doctrine 
 of the Roman Cathoh'c Church, which binds popes, 
 cardinals, bishops, priests, and all of the two 
 hundred millions of the world's population claimed 
 to be under the sway or influence of the holy 
 father. Tridentine declaration is irrepealable and 
 universal law. At its twenty-fifth session the 
 Council enjoined ecclesiastics '' to instruct the faith- 
 ful concerning the invocation and intercession due 
 the saints, the honor due to relics, and the careful 
 use of images, teaching them that the saints, who 
 reign together with Christ, offer their prayers to God 
 for men ; that it is a good and useful thing sup- 
 pliantly to invoke them and to flee to their prayers, 
 help, and assistance, because of the benefits be- 
 stowed by God through His Son Jesus Christ our 
 Lord, who is our only Redeemer and Saviour ; and 
 that those men are of impious sentiments who deny 
 that the saints who enjoy eternal happiness are to 
 be invoked." And this worship of the dead is en- 
 joined on mankind under anathema ! 
 
 The Greek Church. 
 
 In its Menceay which resembles the Roman Bre- 
 viary, we read : '* Virgin, blessed of God as a be- 
 nevolent advocate, thou that art proclaimed by the 
 faithful, mother of God, presenting our prayers to 
 the Creator, procure propitiation for thy servants, 
 as the all-sufficient propitiation and salvation of our 
 
SAINT-WORSHIP. 239 
 
 souls! At thy intercession, O spotless Virgin, to 
 the Word that was born of thee, loose me from 
 the bands of my sins and save me, lady, by thy 
 prayers ! " 
 
 At the annual solemnities of Orthodox Sunday, 
 against all who refuse the use of images we have 
 thunders of eternal damnation loud and terrible, as 
 those which for more than three centuries have 
 been reverberating from the Alpine rocks about 
 Trent. Like the Latin, the Greek Church bids 
 worship her pictured gods or be cursed forever: 
 '' To them that will not introduce by means of icons 
 the grace manifested by that prophet, to them that 
 will not endure to see in icons these works done for 
 the salvation of the whole world, and honor them 
 not, nor adore them, anathema! anathema! ! anath- 
 ema!!!'' 
 
 Alban Butler. 
 
 No man who has not examined his work can 
 know the life of the Roman Catholic Church. It 
 exists in one edition as two ponderous pictured 
 volumes, which might be mistaken each for a 
 Protestant Bible. These contain the lives of two 
 thousand saints, many of whom were canonized by 
 popes and thus recommended to the worship of 
 priest and people. Alban Butler may almost be 
 considered the Roman Bible, and our American 
 edition is indorsed by all the Irish prelates and the 
 Archbishop of New York. We have here the 
 source of the saint legends which circulate in nun- 
 neries, in convents, in monasteries, in families, and 
 which mold the minds of children and the lives of 
 millions. The pulpit, too, uses them to enforce and 
 
240 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 illustrate its instructions. Thus, instead of Scrip- 
 ture, Alban Butler has infused himself into the very 
 blood of the Roman Church in all lands for genera- 
 tions. Out of innumerable prodigies I will select 
 one from his pages, that we may see on what 
 legends millions of Christians in our world feed 
 themselves in time as a preparation for eternity. 
 
 Raymond is a typical Roman saint, who, Butler 
 informs us, spread his cloak on the sea, tied one 
 corner to a staff for a sail, made the sign of the 
 cross, stepped on his floating garment, and in six 
 hours was wafted over the waves sixty leagues from 
 Majorca to Barcelona. We are informed that a 
 chapel and a tower built on the spot where the 
 saint landed have transmitted to posterity the 
 memory of the miracle. This relation is taken by 
 Butler from the bull which declares the canonization 
 of the saint. It was Clement VIII who investigated 
 the life of Raymond, was convinced of his miracles, 
 and recommended him as a patron and intercessor 
 for all devout Catholics. 
 
 From Alban Butler, from breviaries, and other 
 sources we gather the peculiar offices and functions 
 of the dead men and women who are constantly 
 invoked by papists in all lands and ages and who 
 give deepest impress to the worship of millions. 
 Supplicated every day, every hour, every moment 
 are St. Crispin, the patron of shoemakers ; St. Clem- 
 ent, of tanners ; St. Nicholas, of sailors ; St. Jerome, 
 of printers; St. Joseph, of carpenters ; St. Anthony, 
 of grocers ; St. Blaise, of wool combers ; St. Cath- 
 arine, of spinners; St. Eloy, of blacksmiths; St. 
 Francis, of butchers ; St. Gutman, of tailors ; St. 
 
SAINT-WORSHIP. 24I 
 
 Gore, of potters; St. Hilary, of coopers; St. 
 John, of booksellers ; St. Leodaga, of drapers ; 
 St. Leonard, of locksmiths ; St. Peter, of fishmon- 
 gers ; St. Sebastian, of pin makers ; St. Stephen, of 
 weavers; St. Hubert, of bakers; St. William, of 
 hatters ; and St. Gertrude, of rat catchers. 
 
 Pio NONO. 
 
 Giovanni Mastai Ferretti was born in Sinigaglia, 
 eastern Italy, May 13, 1792. Count Girolamo, 
 his father, was mayor of the city. His mother 
 was a gifted and noble woman. The view of sea 
 and plain and mountain about his native place in- 
 spired the youth, and the scene of varied and glow- 
 ing beauty must have remained vivid even amid the 
 chill of age. His parents were devoted to the ed- 
 ucation of Giovanni. At the College of Volterra, 
 perched high in its mountain solitude, he studied 
 six years. Noble in birth, person, and disposition, 
 he gave himself to the Church. But at sixteen he 
 was threatened with epilepsy. A cloud hung over 
 his life. Out of its darkness came an event which 
 shaped his character and career. Pius VH advised 
 for the relief of the youth a pilgrimage to Loretto. 
 A pope sent him for cure to the shrine of the Virgin 
 in the holy house where pontiff and epileptic be- 
 lieved her Son was born, and also that the building 
 had been transported by miracle from Palestine to 
 Italy. Giovanni went as a pilgrim with his mother 
 and claimed healing. Was it this deliverance that 
 kindled in his heart a passionate devotion to Mary 
 which was to inflame the Roman world ? 
 
 Loretto most probably left its impress on the 
 
242 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 whole pontificate of Pio Nono, and marked him as 
 the man to complete a system of worship that had 
 been growing for centuries. On the doctrine of the 
 Immaculate Conception the Roman Church had 
 been divided. Long was it a burning question be- 
 tween Franciscans and Dominicans. Before Pio 
 Nono no pope had dared to elevate it into an article 
 of faith. He resolved to end the strife, and crown 
 with his pontifical infallibility that adoration of 
 Mary which Epiphanius rebuked in Arabian Chris- 
 tians when they gave her homage as the queen of 
 heaven. In November, A. D. 1854, Pio Nono as- 
 sembled his bishops at Rome. They met daily to 
 discuss a dogmatic bull. Cardinals held private 
 sessions under the direction of the pope. All the 
 wisdom of the Latin Church was gathered and con- 
 sulted. On the 1st of December the sacred college 
 cast their votes. There was no dissent. On the 
 8th St. Peter's was decorated with an unexampled 
 splendor. Two hundred bishops represented the 
 Roman Catholic world. From every land the laity 
 crowded to the spectacle. A procession started 
 from the Sistine Chapel and passed through the 
 aisles of St. Peter's to a place behind the high altar. 
 Impressive, indeed, the ecclesiastic magnificence ! 
 Bishops, archbishops, cardinals sat around the pon- 
 tifical throne on which Pio Nono stood. Beneath 
 the sublime dome the pontiff declared to the vast 
 assembly as the infallible belief of the Roman 
 Church that '^ the doctrine which says that the 
 blessed Virgin Mary was preserved exempted from 
 the stain of original sin from the first instant of her 
 conception, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, 
 
SAINT-WORSHIP. 243 
 
 the Saviour of mankind, is a doctrine revealed of 
 God, and which for this reason all Christians are 
 bound to believe firmly and with confidence." 
 
 After this declaration the cannon of St. Angelo 
 thundered over the eternal city. The bells of Rome 
 pealed with joy. On the word, not of Scripture, 
 but of pope, stands the doctrine of the Immaculate 
 Conception. And this is shown by pictures in the 
 Vatican painted to commemorate the source and 
 scene of the declaration. Here Pio Nono is repre- 
 sented as receiving in vision his doctrine from the 
 Virgin, and there as proclaiming Mary's glory to 
 the world. 
 
 The same bold pontiff who made his pilgrimage 
 to Loretto and decreed the Immaculate Conception 
 gave also his sanction to Lourdes. Both shrines to 
 Mary were thus under his infallible patronage. 
 Hence by his papal encouragement, in the blaze of 
 this our brilliant nineteenth century, the worship of 
 the Madonna has been intensified in the Roman 
 Church. 
 
 On the banks of Lake Albano, lovely amid its 
 green as a star in the blue of heaven, stands, amid 
 old ilex groves, Castle Gandolfo, once a pontif- 
 ical summer residence; and near is a picturesque 
 church. In this classic spot, where Numitor wor- 
 shiped Juno, I see a crowd adoring Mary. Across 
 the valley, I pass to Tivoli, where the Anio thunders 
 over his precipices into vineyards and olive yards, 
 and beholds the Virgin supplicated as Vesta once 
 in her beautiful circular, columned temple. Near 
 the villa of Varus, who led to ruin the army of Augus- 
 tus, Mary's picture was found in the Church of 
 
244 '^'HE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Santa Maria di Quintigliolo. It was taken to Tivoli. 
 But in the night it walked back to its place, and 
 the event is celebrated annually, amid peals of 
 cannon and processions with banners, by glad, be- 
 lieving, and adoring crowds. I travel along the 
 wild banks of the Anio to Subiaco, near which was 
 the Sabine farm of Horace. Loud cries fill the air. 
 Men and women kneel before the form of Mary in 
 an agony of devotion. Boys wave their caps and 
 scream, " Grazia! grazia! " Now a procession is 
 formed. Pictures and images are carried by priests 
 and acolytes in full costume followed by the pop- 
 ulace of the town, bent and barefoot, and with 
 covered heads, beseeching the Madonna for rain. 
 I return to the pontifical city. A crowd presses 
 into Ara Coeli. Men hold children above their heads. 
 Boys climb statues and pillars. It is the evening of 
 Presepio^ and in a grotto the Virgin holds in her lap 
 an image of her infant Son, called Bambino, resplen- 
 dent with rubies, emeralds, and diamonds, and which, 
 carried forth by the bishop, is adored by the pros- 
 trate multitude. 
 
 Everywhere in Rome I find Mary. Her worship 
 is mingled with the whole life of the papal city. 
 Over the stable door, above the garden gate, in 
 hovel, store, and osteria, in the palaces, of pope, 
 prince, and cardinal, I behold her picture. How 
 familiar her shrine and light ! When peril threatens 
 Mary is invoked. If life is saved to Mary hangs 
 the votive gift. To Mary the dying turns his eye. 
 Heathen statues are converted into images of Mary, 
 and in the Pantheon she has supplanted Juno, 
 Diana, and Minerva. Greek and Latin Churches 
 
SAINT-WORSHIP. 245 
 
 have alike given themselves over to Mary, not only 
 in decrees and confessions, but in their liturgies and 
 in the perpetual adoration of three hundred millions 
 of our earth's population. And all who do not with 
 them worship their saints and images are under 
 their anathema. Pope and patriarch curse unto 
 eternal death those who will not bow and suppli- 
 cate. 
 
 Here is the mountain, with its lightnings and 
 thunders of wrath, that divides Christendom ! A 
 mild pontiff's smile will not dissolve such a barrier. 
 The questions involved in saint worship cannot be 
 answered by gracious looks and invitations. No ! 
 they are deep as hell and high as heaven. They 
 connect themselves with our most profound beliefs. 
 They penetrate the lives of millions. They come 
 down to us from centuries of protest red with 
 martyr fires. We believe in but one Way, one Name, 
 one Intercessor. Between God and man we ac- 
 knowledge Jesus, our divine Redeemer, as sole Medi- 
 ator. Through Him alone we receive grace and ex- 
 pect glory. Compromise is impossible! Saints sup- 
 plant and dishonor Christ and, we believe, involve the 
 world in superstition. Alphonso Liguori gives us 
 the philosophy of their worship. Jesus, he says, is 
 Judge, as well as Redeemer. Hence, men fear Him 
 and fly from Him and hide from Him in the motherly 
 love of Mary. The Madonna saves them in their 
 sins, and Christ would save them from their sins. 
 On these terms the Italian robber accepts the Virgin, 
 prays for her blessing on murder, and decks her 
 shrine with plunder. For five months the writer 
 was an observer in and near the city of the popes. 
 
246 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 How alluring the look and language of the holy 
 father ! But courtesy is not reform. Will the pon- 
 tiff purify his Breviary? Will he expurgate his 
 liturgies? Will he remove from his calendar his 
 worshiped dead? Will he hush the anathemas 
 thundering down from Trent ? Will he revolution- 
 ize the faith and life of his Church ? Let him loose 
 the intolerable chains that bind the Christian De- 
 mocracy and restore the Latin communion to the 
 liberty of the Holy Ghost ! 
 
MORALS. 247 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Morals. 
 
 HISTORY has one stern test of men and sys- 
 tems. In the words of her divine Master, 
 she asks, What are their fruits ? For time 
 and eternity by these they are judged. We have 
 seen the Christian Democracy subverted. As ex- 
 horted by Paul, the Church has not stood fast in 
 the liberty of Christ. She has relaxed her grasp on 
 that faith which brings remission and the Holy 
 Ghost. She has lost her freedom in wild disputes 
 and glittering formalities. She has been misled by 
 her teachers from the mediatorshipof her one divine 
 Christ to the intercessions of innumerable saints. 
 She is in bondage. Her loss of inner liberty pre- 
 pares for the sacrifice of outer liberty. Under Con- 
 stantine every trace of the original sovereignty of 
 believers has vanished. Instead of scriptural de- 
 mocracy, we have episcopal oligarchy. In diocese 
 and Council bishops rule and legislate. Above all 
 are the theoretical claim of the pope and the actual 
 autocracy of the emperor as both political and 
 ecclesiastical sovereign. East and West, governed 
 by him, give the Church unity. Sacerdotalism has 
 attained its age of gold, and ecclesiasticism realized 
 its dream of glory. With a glow of triumph Angli- 
 can Ritualism points to the times of the great Greek 
 and Latin fathers and would restore their age as the 
 
248 THE CHRISTIAN Dt:MOCRACV. 
 
 world's millennium. We have seen the fierce dis- 
 cords between presbyter and bishop at Rome and 
 Carthage bursting over Cornelius and Cyprian from 
 the cells and fires of martyrs. The cruel strifes of 
 Ecumenical Councils we need not recall. Ecclesi- 
 astical factions menaced the empire with dissolution. 
 But, alas ! also with the war of creeds and decay of 
 faith and increase of form came a descent in morals. 
 Democracy suppressed, oligarchy and autocracy 
 triumphant ; for the only time in the world's history 
 the unity of the Church complete ; yet, as we shall 
 see, superstition darkening and morals declining ! 
 
 In no age could our statements be better tested 
 than in that of Augustine. We have already ex- 
 pressed our glowing admiration of his genius. He 
 was a man of piety without spot. In the brilliance 
 of his pen he had no equal. As Bishop of Hippo 
 he was a peerless preacher and successful adminis- 
 trator. Augustine, too, priest and monk, was an 
 enthusiastic advocate of apostolical succession and 
 catholic unity. He believed in regeneration by 
 baptismal water, in the sacrifice of the altar, in 
 prayers to and for the dead, ascribed healing virtues 
 to bones, and reverenced shrines and relics. Indeed, 
 he was what a moderate Catholic is and an extreme 
 Anglican would be. North Africa swarmed with 
 Christians, ruled by hundreds of bishops. As 
 a metropolitan city Carthage rivaled Rome, and in 
 learning outshone the pontifical capital. Here, if 
 anywhere, ecclesiasticism and sacerdotalism may be 
 judged by their fruits. 
 
 We have in the writings of Augustine himself the 
 incontestable proof of the moral condition of his 
 
Morals. ^4$ 
 
 Church at Hippo. It is a sad and startling revela- 
 tion which prepares us for faith in the still darker 
 pictures of Salvianus. The piety, experience, and 
 eloquence of their episcopal shepherd gave his flock 
 unequaled spiritual advantages. We should expect 
 in the rich pastures of Hippo only the true sheep 
 of Christ. A letter of Augustine in A. D. 392 to 
 Aurelius, Bishop of Carthage, dispels our illusions. 
 It shows us an agony of despair. Without its evi- 
 dence we would deem the conduct it describes in- 
 credible and brand it in another as the slander of an 
 enemy. Augustine writes : 
 
 '' Rioting and drunkenness are so tolerated and 
 allowed by public opinion that even in services de- 
 signed to honor the memory of the blessed martyrs, 
 and this not only on the annual festivals, but every 
 day, they are openly practiced. Were this corrupt 
 practice objectionable only because of its being dis- 
 graceful, and not on the ground of impiety, we 
 might consider it as a scandal to be tolerated with 
 such amount of forbearance as within our power. 
 But at least let this outrageous insult be kept away 
 from the tombs of the sainted dead, from the scenes 
 of sacramental privilege, and from the house of 
 prayer. * * 
 
 These horrible immoralities inflicted on the heart 
 of Augustine the keenest anguish. He urges his 
 metropolitan, Aurelius, to begin a reform, and adds : 
 
 " Since, however, these drunken revels and luxu- 
 rious feasts in the cemeteries are wont to be regarded 
 by the ignorant and carnal multitude as not only an 
 honor to the martyrs, but a solace to the dead, it 
 appears to me that they might be more easily dis- 
 
2 50 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 suaded from such scandalous and unworthy prac- 
 tices in these places if, besides showing that they 
 are forbidden in Scripture, we take care in regard 
 to the offerings for the spirits of those who sleep — 
 which, indeed, we are bound to believe are of some 
 use — that they be not sumptuous beyond what is 
 becoming respect for the memory of the departed, 
 and that they be distributed without ostentation 
 and cheerfully to all who ask a share in them ; also, 
 that they be not sold, but that if anyone desires to 
 offer money as a religious act it be given on the 
 spot to the poor. This may suffice, meanwhile, in 
 regard to rioting and drunkenness." 
 
 Chrysostom agreed with Augustine in his ecclesi- 
 astical views. One was the light of the East, and 
 the other of the West. Both were priests: both 
 were monastics ; both were bishops ; both invoked 
 saints and glorified relics ; both magnified baptism 
 and communion ; both were typical sacerdotalists 
 and sacramentarians ; both were believers in catholic 
 unity and apostolical succession and representatives 
 of that episcopal oligarchy which had succeeded the 
 original Christian Democracy. The metropolitan 
 pulpit in the new imperial capital of the world was 
 made illustrious by the eloquence of Chrysostom. 
 In his own rebukes to court and populace we see 
 how faction and violence and bloodshed prevailed 
 in Constantinople. Christians rushed from circus 
 and amphitheater to disturb the Church with their 
 unseemly applause, their clamorous dissatisfaction, 
 or their disgraceful strifes. A victim of imperial 
 displeasure, Chrysostom himself went forth from his 
 episcopal metropolis to exile and to death. No 
 
MORALS. 2$1 
 
 sadder picture in history of reckless demoralization 
 and remorseless cruelty ! 
 
 The supreme orator had painted monkery in the 
 most vivid colors of his eloquence. He exalted vir- 
 ginity above matrimony. Monastic life was an 
 anticipation of heaven. Not the home, but the 
 convent, was the patristic ideal. The virgin was a 
 terrestrial seraph crowned, even on earth, with a 
 celestial halo. In describing her supernal state all 
 the fathers, Greek and Latin, after Constantino, 
 kindled into their picturesque eloquence. To re- 
 alize his sublime ideal Chrysostom would multiply 
 convents and monasteries. Glowingly our enthu- 
 siastic orator bursts forth : 
 
 " The virgin when she goes abroad should present 
 herself as a bright specimen of all philosophy, as if 
 now an angel had descended from heaven, or just as if 
 one of the cherubim had descended upon the earth." 
 
 According to Scripture, every disciple must be 
 wholly consecrated to God. Marriage is not de- 
 graded beneath virginity, but sanctified, and the 
 family made the basis of Church and State. Priests 
 under the old dispensation, and apostles under the 
 new, had wives. Christianity did not aim to make 
 celibate angels, but fathers and mothers and chil- 
 dren who would fill homes with the light and fra- 
 grance of love. The disciples of Jesus, while on 
 earth, are not seraphs and cherubs, but holy men 
 and women, with warm human hearts, glowing with 
 human joys, and relieving human sorrows. Each 
 life is a surrender to Christ. Created by omnipotent 
 love and redeemed by infinite blood, every pulse 
 and breath and moment belongs to our Saviour. 
 
^5 2 I'HE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Laymen and clergymen differ in sphere, not in ob- 
 ligation. Both are equally and forever the Master's. 
 In elevating the convent above the home, the monk 
 above the husband, the nun above the wife, with all 
 his efflorescence of Oriental imagery Chrysostom 
 was glorifying sacerdotalism and gilding another 
 chain for the Christian Democracy. With what re- 
 sult ? We can see from his own discourses. A side 
 light is sometimes better than a dazzle of beams. I 
 will give a picture from Chrysostom, at once sad, 
 suggestive, whimsical, and ludicrous when con- 
 trasted with his former delineations of terrestrial 
 seraphs and angels : 
 
 '' What a sight," he says, " to enter the cell of a 
 solitary monk and see the apartments hung around 
 with female headgear, shoes, girdles, reticules, caps, 
 bonnets, spindles, combs, and the like too many 
 to mention ! What a jest to visit the abode of a 
 rich monk ! You find the solitary surrounded by a 
 company of lasses. Christ has not clad us in the 
 spiritual armor that we should take upon ourselves 
 the offlce of waiting like menials on worthless girls, 
 or spend the livelong day by their side while at 
 work, imbuing our minds with effeminate trifles." 
 
 These words of Chrysostom reveal the beginnings 
 of those moral evils with which monkery enslaved 
 the Church and amazed the world. We will adduce 
 one more proof of the degeneracy of an age often 
 depicted as the golden reign of sacerdotalism and 
 ecclesiasticism. 
 
 Salvianus was a presbyter of Marseilles. He was 
 a native of Cologne, but resided at Treves, where 
 he married and had a daughter. Perhaps as a hus- 
 
MORALS. 253 
 
 band and father he may have described in too strong 
 colors monkery and the evils of his time. Yet his 
 integrity is universally conceded. His Government 
 of God appeared A. D. 440, not many years after 
 Augustine's immortal City of God. Salvianus casts 
 a red glare over the life of the Church. His pic- 
 tures seem almost beyond belief, and yet they are 
 stamped with the indelible truth. In his pages we 
 see the state of the Church in the early part of the 
 fifth century and not long after the extinction of 
 the two most brilliant lights of the Oriental and 
 Occidental world. After reading his dark record of 
 facts we can no longer wonder at the judgments 
 brought upon Christians, in the East and in the West, 
 by Goth and Hun and Vandal and Arab and Ottoman. 
 " The very Church of God," writes Salvianus, 
 " which ought to be in all things the pacificatrix of 
 God, what is she, in fact, but the provoker of God ? 
 And, a very few excepted, who flee from evil, what 
 else is almost every assembly of Christians but a 
 sink of vices? For you will find in the Church 
 scarcely one who is not either a drunkard, or a glut- 
 ton, or an adulterer, or a fornicator, or a ravisher, 
 or a frequenter of brothels, or a robber, or a man- 
 slayer. More are living in the perpetration of the 
 greater as w^ll as the lighter vices than of the 
 lighter alone. The Churches are outraged by inde- 
 cencies and by the irreverence of those who rush 
 thence, after the formal confession of past sins, to 
 the perpetration of more. Many shudder at crimes, 
 yet very few avoid them. At the vices of others 
 they are shocked ; they themselves practice the 
 same. They execrate openly what they perpetrate 
 
254 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 secretly. Murder, which is rare in slaves, restrained 
 by fear of punishment, is frequent among the rich, 
 who confide in impunity. But perhaps I am wrong 
 in speaking of murder as a sin, inasmuch as when 
 they slaughter their slaves they reckon it as the ex- 
 ercise of a right, not a crime ; and a like privilege 
 they claim in regard to their impurities." 
 
 ** Who sin at this rate ? Surely not many monks ? 
 Ay ! Under color of religion, sold to worldly views, 
 these men, after a course of shameless profligacy and 
 crime,inscribingthemselveswithtitleofsanctity,have 
 changed their name,but not their life. Youwould sup- 
 pose them not so much to have repented of their for- 
 mer crimes as to have repented of their repentance." 
 
 *' Italy has been drenched in blood ; but have the 
 vices of Italy been forsaken? Rome herself has 
 been besieged and taken ; but have the Roman 
 people ceased to be blasphemous and outrageous ? 
 Barbarian hordes have inundated the provinces of 
 Gaul ; but, as to their abandoned manners, are not 
 the people of Gaul as guilty as ever ? The Vandals 
 have passed over into Spain, and the condition of 
 Spain has, indeed, changed, not her pravity of 
 morals. Sardinia and Sicily, our storehouses, have 
 fallen ; Africa, too, the soul of the State. Have 
 these countries reformed ? What has happened at 
 Carthage ? Even while the noise of war was raging 
 round the walls the Church maddened in the circus 
 and luxuriated in the theater. Some were slaugh- 
 tered without, and some practicing lewdness within ; 
 a part in bondage to the enemy, a part in bondage 
 to their vices ; without the walls a clash of arms, and 
 within a confused din of conflicts and shows ! " 
 
WITNLSSES. 255 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Witnesses. 
 
 AS a wind drives the clouds from the face of the 
 sun, so at Pentecost the breath of the divine 
 Spirit dispelled their human mists from the 
 hearts and minds of believers in the crucified and 
 risen Christ. Faith saw the splendor of the King 
 of glory. Brilliant the illumination of that morning 
 hour of the Church ! It seemed brightening at once 
 into a universal noon. Tongues of flame and hearts 
 of love were agents and symbols of the triumph of 
 the kingdom. Alas ! it was to prove a struggle of 
 ages between light and darkness. Redeemed earth 
 had to be brought by battles and martyrdoms to its 
 millennial victory. Mortal infirmities soon clouded 
 the Sun of righteousness. When the light was pur- 
 est it was darkened by a lie. Even alms excited 
 dissensions. Personal rivalries stirred venomous 
 strifes. Judaism and Gentilism invaded the Church 
 together. Idolatry substituted saints for gods, built 
 her shrines, and erected her altars. Fanaticisms 
 burst forth even from the cells of martyrs. Under 
 Constantine the universal political triumph of Chris- 
 tianity increased the spiritual slavery and the ec- 
 clesiastical usurpation. Monkery, aspiring after 
 angelic piety, withdrew men and women from the 
 home to the convent and deprived the world of that 
 salt which must be diffused through the mass it 
 
256 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 would preserve. The Master wishes the lamp on 
 the stand, the city on the hill, the sun in the heavens. 
 Disregarding His word and will, earth plunged back 
 from Pentecost to midnight. Yet behind her clouds 
 Christ still shone. However darkened and discolored 
 by mortal mists, His truth never ceased to illuminate. 
 Beginning near the apostolic times, we will record 
 in their own words the testimony of His witnesses 
 down through the centuries to the Reformation. 
 
 Clemens Romanus. 
 
 He taught that doctrine, revealed to Paul and 
 revived by Luther, which is the source and center 
 of all individual and all organic liberty. In his 
 Epistle to the Corinthians he writes: "We, too, 
 being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not 
 justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom or 
 understanding or godliness or works which we have 
 wrought in holiness of heart, but by that faith 
 through which from the beginning Almighty God 
 hath justified all men." 
 
 Clemens Alexandrinus. 
 
 He bears the same testimony as Clemens Ro- 
 manus: "Faith is the one universal salvation of 
 humanity. The law became our schoolmaster to 
 bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by 
 faith." 
 
 Origen. 
 
 Equally clear is the most learned and original of 
 the fathers in expressing that truth which is the 
 root of our liberty in Christ : " The justification of 
 faith only is sufficient, so that if any person only 
 
WITNESSES. 257 
 
 believe, he may be justified, although no good work 
 has been fulfilled in him, as in the case of the peni- 
 tent thief, who was justified by faith without the 
 works of the law. Jesus, who was going to paradise, 
 took him as a companion, and carried him thither." 
 And Origen also testifies to a universal freedom in 
 the language of worship. He says : " The Grecians 
 use the Greek language in their prayers, and the 
 Romans the Roman ; and so everyone in their own 
 dialect prays to God and gives thanks as he is able, 
 and the God of every language hears them pray in 
 all dialects." 
 
 ViGILANTIUS. 
 
 It is through the writings of Jerome that we are 
 acquainted with the testimony of this earhest 
 Protestant. How earnestly and eloquently he re- 
 bukes the introduction of pagan services and super- 
 stitions into the worship of Christianity ! Had his 
 voice been heeded what ages of darkness and bond- 
 age might the Church have escaped ! Vigilantius 
 was assailed by the monk of Bethlehem. But the 
 attack of Jerome preserved and immortalized his 
 name. Rome condemned him as heretic, and thus 
 placed him in the shining rank of martyrs and con- 
 fessors. He saw that the exaltation of form into 
 substance foreshadowed spiritual slavery and subjec- 
 tion. "What need is there," asked Vigilantius, 
 " for you with so much respect, not only to honor, 
 but even to adore, and in your adoration kiss, the 
 dust folded up in a linen cloth ? Under pretext of 
 religion we see a custom introduced into the Church 
 which approximates the rites of the Gentiles — the 
 
 lighting of a multitude of tapers even when the sun 
 17 
 
258 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 is shining. Men of this stamp give great honor to 
 the most blessed martyrs, thinking with a few in- 
 significant wax tapers to glorify those whom the 
 Lamb in the midst of the throne enhghtens with all 
 the brightness of his glory. The souls of apostles 
 and martyrs have settled themselves either in Abra- 
 ham's bosom or in a place of refreshment or under 
 the altar of God, and they cannot escape from their 
 tombs and present themselves where they please. 
 Do the souls of martyrs love their ashes and hover 
 around them ? After we are dead the prayers of 
 none for another can be heard." 
 
 Augustine. 
 
 If this illustrious father encouraged monkery and 
 saint-worship, if he promoted sacerdotalism and sac- 
 ramentarianism, if he was an extreme ecclesiastic, 
 he yet held and taught, however inconsistently, the 
 great doctrine so powerfully unfolded and enforced 
 by Paul. Indeed, the Hfe of the Bishop of Hippo 
 was saturated by the Epistle to the Romans. 
 Bound to pagan superstitions, ascetic practices, and 
 a narrow ecclesiasticism, Augustine in his spirit was 
 nobly free by faith in Christ and the power of the 
 Holy Spirit. He writes : *' For, though natural 
 gifts may be called grace, yet that grace by which 
 we are predestinated, called, justified, glorified is 
 quite another thing. It is of this the apostle 
 speaks when he says, * If by grace, it is no more 
 by works,' and to him that worketh not, but be- 
 lieveth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith 
 is counted for righteousness." 
 
 The Bible is the law of liberty. Walking in its 
 
WITNESSES. 259 
 
 light, men and communions are free. How beauti- 
 fully Augustine recommends it as a companion and 
 guide ! Nor has any writer ever given man a wiser 
 rule in regard to the use of the book of heaven. 
 Well may our own age ponder his words of gold : 
 " Accessible to all," says Augustine, *' although 
 fully understood by few, Holy Scripture, like a 
 familiar friend, speaks at once to the heart of the 
 learned and the unlearned. To the canonical 
 Scriptures I have learned to give this honor, that I 
 believe in writing them no author erred. If I 
 should be offended in anything as contrary to the 
 truth, I do not doubt that the manuscript was de- 
 fective or the interpreter did not follow what was 
 written or that I have not understood it." 
 
 Chrysostom. 
 
 We have seen this brilliant orator kindled into 
 praise of virginity, extolling nuns as seraphs and 
 saints as intercessors, efflorescing in his views of 
 baptism and the eucharistic sacrifice, and expressing 
 himself in a way that charms modest Catholics. 
 Yet in his opinions of the Bible he differs from the 
 pope. Far from Chrysostom the law of the pontif- 
 ical Index ! Instead of burning men for reading 
 the Bible, he commends its universal use. If the 
 Greek and Latin communions followed his precepts 
 the Church Catholic would be walking in liberty. 
 
 "The Scriptures," says Chrysostom, "are as a 
 paradise of delight, and this paradise is better than 
 Eden. It cannot be that anyone should be saved 
 who does not addict himself to this spiritual read- 
 ing. A great safeguard against sin is the reading of 
 
26o THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Scripture. The ignorance of Scripture is a preci- 
 pice and a deep pit. Perdition is it to be unin- 
 formed in the divine law. This ignorance is it that 
 leads to heresies and a corrupt life. The humble 
 man may seek any truth boldly in the Scripture 
 without danger of error. As aromatics yield their 
 perfume so much the more when they are bruised, 
 so do the Scriptures give up their hidden treasures 
 of meaning in proportion as they are constantly 
 handled." 
 
 Gregory the Great. 
 
 In the beginning of the seventh century this 
 noblest of popes wrote in regard to the Scriptures 
 in the same style as Jerome and Origen and Cyprian 
 and Augustine and Chrysostom. He had no pre- 
 science of the Index or of the fires kindled by suc- 
 ceeding pontiffs for plain men and women who 
 sought truth in the Bible. Between Gregory the 
 Great and Cardinal Caraffa, Paul IV, who founded 
 the papal Inquisition, is a red sea of martyr flames. 
 
 lONA. 
 
 Ireland's great Saint Patrick was a Scotchman. 
 Transported as a slave at sixteen to the land he 
 was to make famous, he relates, " The Lord opened 
 the blind eyes of my unbelief so that I thought, 
 though at a late hour, of my sins and turned with 
 my whole heart to the Lord my God. And He 
 looked down on my low estate, my ignorance, and 
 my youth. He cared for me before I knew Him 
 and ere I could distinguish good from evil. He 
 protected and comforted me, as a father his son." 
 We see in these simple words a more shining miracle 
 
WITNESSES. 261 
 
 than in all the prodigies which have illuminated the 
 name of Patrick. His great glory was his conversion 
 by the power of the Holy Spirit and its fruits in a 
 consecrated life. The love of Christ pervaded the 
 man. By his preaching multitudes in Ireland 
 were brought to the Master. Beneath all the silli- 
 ness of the marvels with which legend has obscured 
 his work, we recognize in Patrick a true witness for 
 Jesus Christ. And it is probable that his light was 
 reflected back from Ireland to his native Scotland. 
 Less than a century after Patrick, Columba appears 
 on the scene of the Church. He was a descendant 
 of kings. As a boy he was enrolled for Christ. The 
 Scripture seems to have been the rule of his life. 
 He preached the Gospel along the shores of western 
 Scotland and on the solitary islands near her coast. 
 On the question of Easter he differed from Rome 
 and antagonized popes. But the great work of 
 Columba was to establish a school of Christianity at 
 lona. Hence went forth Aidan to proclaim the 
 Gospel in England. And its monks seem to have 
 been witnesses for presbyterial order as against 
 episcopal exclusiveness. Out over the West from 
 lona shone the light of a pure testimony for the 
 faith and liberty of Christ. 
 
 Claudius of Turin. 
 
 In him we have a bishop who reminds us of 
 Vigilantius. Boldly he declaims against image 
 worship and shrine adoration. ** If those," wrote 
 Claudius, ** who have forsaken idolatry worship the 
 images of the saints they have not, then, forsaken 
 idols, but changed their names. Whether thou 
 
262 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 paintest thy walls with figures of St. Peter and St. 
 Paul, or of Jupiter and Saturn, neither the latter 
 are gods nor the former apostles. If men must be 
 worshiped it were better to pay that worship to the 
 living than the dead. Whosoever seeks from any 
 creature in heaven or on earth the salvation which 
 he should seek from God is an idolater." 
 
 Nor is Claudius a mere protestant against error. 
 He testifies in golden words to the universal power 
 and presence of his Lord. With him God is the 
 perfection of truth, *' who changes not with time, is 
 obscured by no night, nor dimmed by passing 
 shadows. Every hour He is near everyone on the 
 whole earth who turns lovingly toward Him. Con- 
 fined to no place, He is absent from none. In the 
 market place He dwells; in the heart His voice is 
 uttered ; whoever beholds Him is transformed by 
 Him. The cycles of time vanish before me in the 
 Eternal One. In Him, the eternal same, is neither 
 past nor present ; the eternal alone is. Therefore, 
 would that yonder eternal Perfection would reveal 
 Himself to man's mind, crying, * I am that I am.' " 
 
 The Four Caroline Books. 
 
 We cannot defend the character and career of 
 Charlemagne. He was a wise statesman, but a re- 
 morseless conqueror and a royal adulterer. The 
 imperial warrior who imposed baptism by the sword, 
 was also a friend of the learned and gifted and pious 
 Alcuin of York, and received his excellent instruc- 
 tion. Perhaps under the influence of this ecclesias- 
 tic the great emperor became a foe to image wor- 
 ship. At the Council of Frankfort he set aside a 
 
WITNESSES. 263 
 
 decree of the second Council of Nice, and withstood 
 a pope in witness of the truth. The Caroline Books 
 were probably prepared by Alcuin and transmitted 
 to Charlemagne in the form of letters. However, 
 they appeared A. D. 790, bearing the imperial name. 
 They are most remarkable testimonies. Holy Scrip- 
 ture is exalted as a treasure stored with good and 
 accessible to all seeking truth. The writer exclaims : 
 ** Unhappy memory which, in order to think of 
 Christ, who never should be absent from the good 
 man's heart, needs the presence of an image and 
 which can enjoy Christ only by seeing His image 
 painted on a wall ! We Christians, who with 
 open face behold the glory of God, are changed 
 into the same image from glory to glory, are no 
 longer bound to seek the truth in images and pic- 
 tures. We, through faith, hope, and charity, have 
 attained by His own help the truth which is in 
 Christ. We, who look not at the things that are 
 seen, but fix our eyes upon those which are unseen, 
 rejoice to have received from the Lord mysteries 
 greater, not only than images, but also greater and 
 more sublime than the cherubim and the tables of 
 the law." 
 
 Peter Waldus. 
 
 Toward the close of the twelfth century this 
 witness for the faith and freedom in Christ was a 
 rich merchant in Lyons, France. In a public as- 
 sembly a citizen suddenly expired. Waldus was 
 profoundly impressed with this spectacle of death. 
 He sold his property and gave to the poor. He felt 
 burning within him a passion to spread the Gospel. 
 He hired two ecclesiastics and had the whole Bible 
 
264 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 translated into the Romance language. The word of 
 God became the fountain of his life, from which 
 flowed living streams to others. Waldus formed a 
 society within the Church. But now a mountain 
 rose in his path. The Archbishop of Lyons for- 
 bade him to preach and to expound the Scripture. 
 In this prelatical prohibition was the beginning of 
 that war between Christian liberty and ecclesiastical 
 authority which had its sublime outbursts at the 
 Reformation. The Romance Bible of Waldus was 
 sent to Rome for examination. It was a spark pre- 
 destined to kindle the world into flame. Pope Alex- 
 ander III in A. D. 1170 submitted the question of 
 the archbishop to the Lateran Council. Thus for 
 the first time in the history of the Church was pre- 
 sented the formal issue on the use of the Scripture 
 by the laity in their own tongue into which every 
 question between Rome and Reformation may be 
 resolved. The true battle with the pope is over a 
 free Bible. Hence in this appeal of archbishop to 
 pontifl* we have the origin of a war which has 
 changed the face of the world. No formal decree 
 was passed by the Lateran Council ; but the pope 
 took the responsibility, and confirmed the action of 
 the archbishop. The holy father never announced 
 a more pregnant decision. It shaped Rome's policy 
 in regard to the Bible. 
 
 Little did the pontiff* foresee what blood and flame 
 were in his decree ! Persecution began against the 
 Waldenses. They clung to the Scripture, asserted 
 their liberty, and were driven from France. Italy 
 received the fugitives. Among the pious and prim- 
 itive Vaudois in the Alpine valleys of Piedmont 
 
WITNESSES. ^65 
 
 they found a home and planted the banner of the 
 cross, which was a symbol of liberty flashing light 
 into the darkness of that mediaeval ecclesiastical 
 slavery. The Waldenses swarmed, too, along the 
 Rhone and over Germany. Schools were founded. 
 Germanic versions of the Bible were disseminated. 
 All the seeds of the Reformation were scattered by 
 the winds of persecution over Europe, and the soil 
 prepared for a universal harvest. When Innocent 
 III ascended the papal throne he was enraged at the 
 success of these witnesses for a free Bible. He 
 threatened interdict if the civil power did not inter- 
 fere. The people resisted the pope. At last the 
 pontifical thunder burst over Provence, and the land 
 was made a waste by desolating armies. 
 
 Paulicians. 
 
 Their founder, Constantine, came in A. D. 654 
 from Mananalis, near Samosata. From an Armenian 
 archbishop he received the four Gospels and Paul's 
 Epistles. On these he based his scheme of doctrine. 
 This fact indicates that he was an Oriental Protes- 
 tant witness, corresponding to the Occidental Italian 
 Vaudois and the French Waldenses. East and 
 West were never without some testimony for liberty. 
 And for Christian freedom Paul is the apostle. His 
 Epistles, studied as expositions of the Gospels, pre- 
 pare the way in all ages for the spiritual emancipa- 
 tion of men and nations. From him the Paulicians 
 took their name and faith. Their first leader, Con- 
 stantine, was a martyr by imperial decree. Simon, 
 his successor, with his followers, was burned on a 
 vast funeral pyre. So perish, East and West, the 
 
266 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 witnesses for liberty ! The history of the Pauli- 
 cians has been written by their enemies. Deficient 
 in learning to defend faith, they lapsed into Man- 
 ichaeism, and perhaps were corrupted by other 
 heresies. 
 
 Tauler. 
 
 He was born A. D. 1290 at Strasburg of a sena- 
 torial family, in his youth became a Dominican, 
 studied in Paris, returned to his native city, and was 
 known as the "illumined teacher." This mystic 
 monk defied a pope. John XXIII, most infamous 
 of pontiffs and deposed from his throne, laid an in- 
 terdict on Strasburg. Tauler continued to preach 
 and labor. He was not moved by the papal anathema, 
 and was honored and sustained by the people. 
 Priests were reformed by this '* friend of God." 
 The quiet mystic monk was a noble witness for 
 freedom. *' Since Christ died for all," unterrified 
 by Roman thunder, Tauler asserted, ''the pope 
 could not close heaven to any who died innocent, 
 though excommunicated." 
 
 Wyclif. 
 
 In an English village bearing his name, A. D. 
 1324, was born this heroic scholar. He studied at 
 Oxford, where he was distinguished in both philoso- 
 phy and theology and received his academical de- 
 gree. A defense of realism was his first work. 
 John Wyclif was by constitution a polemic. He 
 had the originality, the courage, the genius of a re- 
 former. Boldly he soared from the mists of philos- 
 ophy into the sublimities of theology. His mind 
 was speculative and practical. In his pulpit he was 
 
WITNESSES. 267 
 
 effective before the people, and, in his chair, before 
 the university. Previous to him never had Roman 
 errors and immorahties been so courageously and 
 powerfully assailed. To expose lazy and dissolute 
 monks he used all the resources of his wit, and 
 hurled fiery invectives against popes. Pontifical 
 feuds and the vices and crimes at Avignon gave 
 force to the arguments of Wyclif. All he urged 
 was proved by the disgraceful lives of popes and 
 antipopes, excommunicating each other during the 
 Babylonish captivity. Like Luther, Wyclif would 
 give the Bible to the people. He translated it from 
 the Vulgate and made it the basis for our own version. 
 The strong hand of the Duke of Lancaster long 
 shielded him from the flames. His life was thus 
 preserved for his work from the assaults of the 
 hierarchy. In A. D. 1372 he was made doctor of 
 theology, and in A. D. 1382 retired from Oxford to 
 his parish at Lutterworth, where his labors were 
 almost incredible. Seized with a paralysis, he worked 
 and warred and witnessed until his last breath. He 
 died in peace, A. D. 1384, at Lutterworth. But his 
 dust was not permitted repose. Hatred pursued to 
 the grave this mediaeval apostle of liberty. His 
 books, A. D. 1410, were burned, and, eighteen years 
 after, his body taken from its grave. When his 
 spirit was in paradise martyr fires consumed his 
 flesh. Nor did this satisfy hierarchic hate. That 
 the ashes of Wyclif might not testify they were cast 
 into the river and borne toAvard that sea which is a 
 sublime emblem of the universality of truth. Hear 
 the words of this Baptist of the Reformation : 
 " But I say unto thee for certain that, though thou 
 
268 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 have priests and friars to sing for thee, and though 
 thou each day hear masses and found chantries and 
 colleges and go on pilgrimages all thy life, all this 
 shall not bring thy soul to heaven ; while if the com- 
 mandments of God are revered, though neither 
 penny nor half-penny be possessed, there shall be 
 everlasting pardon and the bliss of heaven. They 
 are blasphemers of God who confidently advise 
 things of a doubtful character which are in Holy 
 Scripture neither expressed, commanded, nor for- 
 bidden. For Holy Scripture is the faith of the 
 Church. Sanctity of life promotes this illumination 
 so necessary for understanding the word of God, to 
 continue which in the Church is the duty of theo- 
 logians, not to invent things foreign to Scripture. 
 The merit of Christ is of itself sufficient to redeem 
 every man from hell. Faith in our Lord Jesus 
 Christ is sufficient for salvation." 
 
 Huss. 
 
 Transported by students to the University of 
 Prague, in Bohemia, the works of Wyclif became 
 the seeds of a rich harvest. In the soul of John 
 Huss they found a congenial soil. He was born 
 in A. D. 1369 in the Bohemian village Hussinetz. 
 His parents were poor and accustomed to labor and 
 privation. At Prague he studied philosophy and 
 theology. Stanislaus, his teacher, was liberal in his 
 views. In A. D. 1396 Huss received his master's 
 degree and began to lecture. He was a man of 
 God. The loose morals of monks and clergy shocked 
 him into a violent antagonism. Attracted by his 
 ability and uprightness, a rich merchant founded at 
 
WITNESSES. 269 
 
 Prague a chapel for his preaching. It was called 
 Bethlehem, and he was appointed rector. Here 
 began his career. Huss made his pulpit a place of 
 power. Bethlehem Chapel was the center of a move- 
 ment which has never been expended. The light 
 over it was the morning dawn of the Reformation. 
 Wyclif prepared for Huss, and Huss for Luther. 
 Bethlehem's pulpit first thundered against the cor- 
 ruptions of the laity. Clergymen applauded. But 
 against these smiling ecclesiastics Huss soon hurled 
 his lightnings. Then began the war which ended 
 in his death. Wyclif possessed for Huss a powerful 
 attraction. The English and Bohemian reformers 
 were alike in doctrine and in purpose. Their writ- 
 ings excited an intense ecclesiastical antagonism 
 to that free spirit of the Gospel which animated 
 their burning protests against tyranny and corrup- 
 tion. The archbishop cast into the flames the works 
 of Wyclif and kindled at Prague an inextinguishable 
 fire. Although protected by King Wenceslaus, all 
 the rage of the hierarchy burst over Huss. Black 
 clouds covered his sky, vivid with portentous light- 
 nings. In all his contests he appealed to Scripture. 
 Here was his offense ; here his peril. We can com- 
 prehend the opposition of ecclesiastics when we hear 
 Huss exclaim : 
 
 " My lord, understand me well. I said, I am ready 
 with all my heart to fulfill the apostolical mandates ; 
 but I call the apostolical mandates the doctrines of 
 the apostles of Christ. And so far as the papal 
 mandates agree with these I will obey them most 
 willingly. But if I see anything in them at variance 
 with these I shall not obey, even though the stake 
 
270 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 were staring me in the face." We have again in 
 Huss these strong words: '' Ignorance of Holy 
 Scripture, being a guilty ignorance, renders the 
 priests more condemnable, as it is the mother of all 
 other sins and vices among the people." 
 
 The crime of Huss was this exaltation of the 
 Bible over the pope. With him, above the word 
 of man was the word of God. Earth is lower than 
 heaven. A death struggle with the Roman hier- 
 archy was inevitable. After many trials in Prague 
 Huss consented to proceed to the Council of Con- 
 stance, with the assurance of the protection of the 
 emperor. It was a vain trust. Ecclesiastics soiled 
 the imperial honor and defeated the imperial pledge. 
 Huss began his journey under the dark shadows of 
 many doubts. But, while his life was insecure, his 
 faith was unwavering. Reaching Constance No- 
 vember 3, A. D. 1414, he soon found that in the 
 Council the hierarchy would prevail over the em- 
 peror. Huss had no shield but Heaven. He was 
 consigned to a frightful prison and subjected to 
 every indignity. Amid inexpressible sufferings he 
 triumphed. Brought before the Council, he ap- 
 pealed to his Bible. He faced hierarchy and empire. 
 What were the brilliance of papal scarlet and the 
 splendor of imperial purple in the presence of this 
 plain monk pointing sublimely to the word of God ! 
 Outdazzling earthly magnificence his faith saw the 
 glory of Christ, the King of the universe. This 
 vision gave strength to his soul and power to his 
 eloquence. He denounced priests who neglected 
 Scripture. He styled them messengers of darkness 
 clothed like angels of light. He told them that they 
 
WITNESSES. 271 
 
 were servants of antichrist. Reasserted that their 
 unfaithfulness to Scripture was the source of all 
 corruptions. Asked by the Council to condemn the 
 writings of Wyclif, he demanded proofs against him 
 from the word of God. Papal anathemas did not 
 satisfy Huss. The Bible was his rule. Exhausted 
 by his efforts, he was led from the Council to his 
 prison. He was condemned to be burned. Fire 
 was an answer that silenced heretics. Having de- 
 graded him from his priesthood, his enemies placed 
 on the head of Huss a cap painted with devils. It 
 mocked, but did not pierce like his Master's crown 
 of thorns. When the fire was kindled Huss sang 
 with a loud voice. After he ceased to be heard his 
 lips were seen moving amid the flames in praise or 
 prayer. That his ashes might not pollute the earth 
 they were cast into the Rhine. Invisible in the 
 depths of the waters, they await that trumpet which 
 will sound the resurrection to the true and everlast- 
 ing liberty. 
 
 Jerome of Prague. 
 
 He defended himself with great power before the 
 Council of Constance. A man of brilliant but er- 
 ratic genius, he was persuaded to recant. His cour- 
 age revived. Brought again before the Council, he 
 spoke with dazzling eloquence. Jerome retracted 
 all that he had said against Wyclif. Eminent mem- 
 bers of the Council asked him to recant again. He 
 was unshaken. Sentence was pronounced, and he 
 was delivered to the State for execution. This 
 martyr insisted that the flame should be lighted, 
 not behind his back, but before his eyes, that he 
 might defy the fire from which in his weakness he 
 
2/2 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 shrank. Fastened by a chain to the stake, he sang 
 a victor in the flames. The fires of Constance which 
 consumed Huss and Jerome flashed into the next 
 century to light the way for Luther. 
 
 Dante. 
 
 Sublimely in his '' Purgatory " the great Italian 
 sang: ''It is true faith that renders us citizens of 
 heaven. According to the Gospel faith is the prin- 
 ciple of life. Faith is the spark that, spreading 
 more and more, becomes a living flame and shines 
 in us, like a star of heaven. Without faith there is 
 no good work or upright life that may avail us. 
 However great the sin, the arms of the divine Mercy 
 are wider still and embrace all who turn to God. 
 The soul is not lost through the anathemas of the 
 pontiff. Eternal Love can still reach it so long as 
 hope retains its verdant blossom. From God, from 
 God alone, comes our righteousness by faith." 
 
 John of Goch. 
 
 This witness for truth was born in a town bearing 
 his name in the beginning of the fifteenth century. 
 He founded the Canonry of the Prioress of St. Au- 
 gustine, called Tabor, in A. D. 145 1, and held the 
 office of rector for twenty-four years, until his death. 
 Always his appeal was to Scripture. Heresy he 
 defined to be " an obstinate adherence to an opinion 
 contrary to canonical truth." Cornelius Grapheus, 
 the expounder of Goch, says : 
 
 '* Has not God promised by the prophet Joel, ' I 
 will pour out my Spirit on all flesh ? ' Where are 
 laymen here excluded? Much do I wish that 
 
WITNESSES. 273 
 
 Christ's philosophy, being common to all, were like- 
 wise translated by learned and good expositors into 
 the vulgate tongue, so that every professor of the 
 Christian religion, at least ever3^one who knows how 
 to read, might purchase a copy for himself and by 
 preparation of the Spirit be introduced to an ac- 
 quaintance with evangelical truth. I also wish that, 
 in order to the suppression of human opinion, 
 learned priests were appointed overall the Churches 
 who, upon the festivals, when the Christian people 
 were assembled, with the Bible in their hands should 
 twice a day, instead of preaching a sermon, instruct 
 them in the doctrine of the evangelists and apostles 
 in strict accordance with the word. Come all ye to 
 whom Christian liberty is dear, contend for Christ 
 and be of good courage ! We will with honest 
 minds draw from the wells of Holy Scripture, and 
 not from the marshy puddles of Thomas and Aris- 
 totle." 
 
 John of W ess alia. 
 
 He was born at Oberwesel on the Rhine A. D. 
 1420, and became a doctor of divinity at Erfurth. 
 With him the Scripture was the sole rule of faith. 
 John asks : " By what audacity do the successors of 
 the apostles enjoin, not what Christ has prescribed 
 in his holy books, but what they themselves have 
 devised, carried away as they are by thirst of gold 
 and desire of ruling? I despise the pope, the 
 Church, and the Councils, and I give Christ the 
 glory." 
 
 John feared the wrong interpretations of doctors. 
 
 He preferred to have the Bible explain itself. " No 
 
 authority," he says, " of the wisest and most learned 
 18 
 
274 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Christians can here avail. He whom God condemns 
 will be condemned, though pope and priest were 
 unanimously to count him saved. Though there 
 never had been a pope, all who are really saved 
 would have been saved as well. Christ did not ap- 
 point fasts. As little did he ordain the celebration 
 of stated festivals. He prescribed not set prayers, 
 except the Pater Noster, and still less did he enjoin 
 the priests to sing or read the canonical Psalms. 
 All over Christendom the mass has been made a 
 most burdensome service. Pilgrims to Rome are 
 fools, for they might easily find and keep at home 
 what they seek in a foreign land. I extol Christ. 
 Let His word dwell in us richly ! ** 
 
 John Wessel. 
 
 This teacher was called *' the light of the world." 
 He was born about A. D. 1420 at Groningen, in a 
 house still standing. Wessel was a doctor of 
 divinity in the Universities of Paris, Cologne, Lou- 
 vain, Heidelberg, and his native city. John held 
 that the just must live by faith, working charity. 
 He affirms that *' Christians must obey the precepts 
 of doctors and prelates only according to the meas- 
 ure laid down by Paul." And he says: *' We are 
 God's servants, not the pope's. The Holy Spirit has 
 reserved to Himself the work of renewing, vivifying, 
 preserving, and increasing the unity of the Church, 
 and has not abandoned it to the Roman pontiff. 
 Her sex does not prevent a woman, if she be faithful 
 and prudent, and if she have charity shed abroad 
 in her heart, from being able to feel, judge, approve, 
 and decide by a judgment that God will ratify." 
 
WITNESSES. 275 
 
 How clear and powerful is Wessel when he writes 
 in regard to the authority of the Bible! He teaches 
 the grand truths which make the spirit free even 
 amid the spiritual fetters of ecclesiastical slavery. 
 Never in mediaeval bondage were wanting these 
 noble witnesses for Christian liberty. John Wessel 
 says : *' So long as it appears to me that the pope or 
 the school or any other society maintains any opinion 
 contrary to the truth of Holy Scripture my first duty 
 is to adhere with the utmost care to the Scripture. 
 We ought to obey the doctrine laid down by prel- 
 ates and doctors in the way recommended by Paul, 
 that is, so long as their authors sit in the seat of 
 Moses and teach consonantly to him. When, how- 
 ever, they propound what is contrary to his doctrine 
 it is not obligatory upon believers to receive it or 
 anything at variance with the law of perfect freedom. 
 For we are servants of God, not of the pope. Only 
 when the clergy and doctors agree with the true and 
 sole Teacher ought we to listen to them ; for he 
 must be blind and foolish who follows a blind and 
 foolish guide." 
 
 Savonarola. 
 
 In A. D. 1475 he entered the Dominican order, 
 preached in Florence from 1489 to 1497, was con- 
 demned by Alexander VI, the infamous Roderigo 
 Borgia, and burned. This orator and martyr said to 
 the monks: ** God remits the sins of men and jus- 
 tifies them by His mercy. There are as many com- 
 passions in heaven as justified men on earth. None 
 are saved by their own works. No man can boast 
 of himself. O God, do I seek Thy mercy? I bring 
 not unto Thee mine own righteousness ; but when 
 
2/6 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 by Thy grace Thou j ustifiest me, then Thy Righteous- 
 ness belongs unto me. O God, save me by Thy 
 Righteousness, that is to say, in Thy Son ! '* 
 
 Erasmus. 
 
 He was a scholar, not a hero. Infirm in will and 
 refined in nerve, he shrank from battles which de- 
 manded martyrs. But Erasmus had keen penetra- 
 tion, brilliant wit, and extensive learning. The 
 sensitive scholar had little sympathy with the 
 courageous Luther, who was a spiritual warrior and 
 the true standard bearer of the Reformation. Yet 
 before Erasmus withdrew from the perils of conflict 
 he penned some testimonies which involved free- 
 dom and the fundamental truths for which Luther 
 contended. He said : 
 
 '* I am firmly resolved to die in the study of the 
 Holy Scriptures. In them are all my joy and peace. 
 The sum of all Christian philosophy amounts to 
 this — to place all our hopes in God alone, who by 
 His grace, without any merit of our own, gives us 
 everything through Christ Jesus; to know that we 
 are redeemed through the death of His Son ; to be 
 dead to worldly lusts, and to walk in conformity to 
 His doctrine and example, not only injuring no man, 
 but doing good to all ; to support our trials patiently 
 in the hope of a future reward ; and, finally, not to 
 claim merit for ourselves on account of our virtue, 
 but to give thanks to God for all our strength and 
 all our works." 
 
THE REFORMATION. I'^J 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 The Reformation. 
 
 JERUSALEM was the mother of Christendom. 
 Within and near her walls Christ taught, Christ 
 died, Christ rose, Christ ascended. Here fell 
 the fire of the Holy Ghost on the disciples, who 
 scattered over earth to kindle the inextinguishable 
 light of an everlasting kingdom. Yet in this me- 
 tropolis of Christianity in less than two centuries 
 pagan darkness obscured with its cloud the Sun of 
 righteousness. A shrine of Venus, in derision of 
 Jesus, was erected by a heathen emperor on the 
 lofty terrace where had stood for ages the temple of 
 Jehovah. The very name of Jerusalem vanished 
 from the face of the world. God's city, where David 
 reigned and the Messiah died, was called ^lia, after 
 an imperial pagan. How small are earth's tempo- 
 rary localities compared with eternal realities ! 
 
 Constantine the Great sought to restore the title 
 and glory of Jerusalem. He lavished his imperial 
 resources to realize his dream. Yet the city of God 
 was taken, first by the Arab, then by the Turk, and 
 for centuries has been oppressed, and is now insulted 
 by the spectacle of a crescent glittering over the 
 spot where was planted the cross of our salvation. 
 Before the conquering Mohammedans, soldiers of a 
 false prophet, Christianity was swept away from 
 Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and every 
 
2-]% THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 other region of western Asia. The light of the 
 great school of Antioch was extinguished, and the 
 homes, the cities, the provinces of the most illustri- 
 ous teachers and bishops desolated and enslaved by 
 Arabian and Ottoman armies. 
 
 Nor was the overthrow of Christianity less sad 
 in Africa. Alexandria had been a seat of learn- 
 ing more famous even than Antioch. Libya had 
 swarmed with disciples. Carthage shone like a sun 
 amid the darkness of North Africa. In her region 
 one synod had been attended by six hundred bish- 
 ops. Here lived and taught and died Tertullian, 
 Cyprian, and Augustine, most splendid of Latin 
 fathers. First, the Vandals carried fire and sword 
 through the land. Then, a locust-cloud, came the 
 Arabs, and afterward the Turk, breathing vengeance 
 and flaming destruction. Constantinople, the bril- 
 liant capital of Oriental Christianity, long withstood 
 her Ottoman enemies. But in A. D. 1453 her walls 
 fell before the thunder of Mohammedan cannon. 
 On her metropolitan Church, converted into a 
 mosque, for more than four centuries the world has 
 seen a triumphant crescent. The whole Eastern 
 empire and communion are enslaved to the infidel. 
 It is almost impossible to resist the conclusion that 
 Arab and Ottoman have been the agents of Heav- 
 en's vengeance to punish a Christianity enfeebled 
 by luxury and corrupted by idolatry. 
 
 Scarcely less dark and discouraging is the history 
 of the Western Church. We have seen from the 
 pages of Augustine and Salvianus how frightful the 
 morals of African and European Christendom. As 
 the scourges of God in their own esteem, Goths and 
 
THE REFORMATION. 279 
 
 Vandals and Huns punished the effeminate and 
 idolatrous Churches. Rome fell and was abandoned 
 to pillage. Greece, lUyria, Germany, Italy, Gaul, 
 Spain passed under the dominion of barbarian con- 
 querors. Arians and pagans held the scepter of 
 the Occident. And yet the West differed from the 
 East. Her life was not wholly dead, nor her light 
 extinguished. Despite her feebleness, she converted 
 her heathen tyrants. Goth and Vandal and Hun 
 were baptized into the Church. But it was not the 
 pure religion of the Gospels they embraced. They 
 received a Christianity corrupted from its primitive 
 simplicity, beauty, and power. Original democracy 
 had been obliterated. The laity was unknown in an 
 oligarchic government of bishops. Over the West 
 the Roman pontiff asserted sovereignty. Saint- 
 worship was a universal idolatry. Sacerdotalism 
 ruled supreme. And the corruptions in the lives 
 of ecclesiastics and people are such as we could not 
 credit except on proofs the most incontestable. 
 
 Under the patronage of Gregory the Great, at the 
 beginning of the sixth century, Augustine intro- 
 duced papal Christianity into England. Except 
 among the Vaudois of Piedmont and in western Scot- 
 land, there was no trace in Europe of an ecclesias- 
 itical democracy. Amid bleak and solitary Atlantic 
 coasts and isles, lona was a center of light. Hence 
 went forth Patrick to convert Ireland, and, later, 
 Aidan to illuminate England. Presbyters and bish- 
 ops were of the same order. And they rose to resist 
 together the Roman episcopate of Augustine. The 
 papal monk first tried persuasion. When argument 
 failed the sword followed. Britons refused to obey 
 
280 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 the pontifical mandate and, especially, asserted lib- 
 erty in regard to the observance of Easter. Augus- 
 tine predicted war. His prophecy was fulfilled. King 
 ^thelfrith killed more than a thousand Christians 
 in the posture of prayer. He razed Bangor to the 
 ground. England submitted to the pontiff of Rome. 
 Aidan and Colman were Scotch bishops, with pres- 
 byterian ordination, who had been sent as mission- 
 aries to England. They, too, resisted Roman su- 
 premacy. In vain ! Even lona, the last fortress of 
 the Christian Democracy, succumbed. Its preach- 
 ers and teachers received the tonsure as a mark of 
 submission to the pope. 
 
 Charlemagne was the most successful Roman 
 missionary. His argument was the sword. He 
 warred to extinguish heathenism on the battlefield. 
 He gave his enemies choice between baptism and 
 extermination. He made the sacrament of the 
 peaceful Christ a sign of fealty and subjugation. 
 To understand the subsequent state of Europe we 
 must know that tribes and nations had often been 
 converted by conquering armies. In leveling the 
 way for Christian truth and liberty the Reformation 
 had to upheave mountains imbedded in the very 
 heart of the world. 
 
 But Rome also had papal heralds of a nobler class. 
 Even the slaves of tyranny and superstition may be 
 inwardly free and heroes of the faith. Columban 
 was born in Leinster in Ireland. He, with St. Gall, 
 about A. D. 606 carried the Gospel into the heart 
 of the mountains of Switzerland, and left behind 
 them permanent monuments of their love and labor. 
 The light amid the Alps was from torches kindled 
 
THE REFORMATION. 28 1 
 
 at the altar of Rome. From England, too, went 
 forth men of power. Bright on the roll of Christian 
 warriors are the names of Willibrod, apostle of 
 Friesland, Adalbert, Bishop of Utrecht, Leofwin, 
 martyred by the Saxons. The Frisian Ludger 
 studied under Alcuin of York. But more illustrious 
 than all is Boniface. He was born A. D. 680 in 
 Kirton, Devonshire. Conceiving a passion for the life 
 of a monk, he was educated at two convents. In 
 A. D. 718 he visited Rome and took from Gregory II 
 his authority to preach to the Germanic nations. 
 He labored in Friesland and Thuringia. A second 
 time he went to the pontifical capital and bound 
 himself by oath forever to the papacy. The success 
 of his labors was immense. Boniface was the apostle 
 of Germany, as Augustine had been the apostle of 
 Britain. 
 
 Anschar in A. D. 801 was born in Corbie, France, 
 and was educated in the monastery of his native 
 place. He had a vision of immeasurable light. 
 Anschar saw a circle of the celestial hosts. While 
 sun and moon were invisible, an illimitable brilliance 
 filled the universe. A voice from the glory cried, 
 ** Go and return to me again crowned with martyr- 
 dom ! " The monk obeyed. He was selected by 
 the emperor Louis for a mission to Denmark. After 
 making numerous converts in that country he pro- 
 ceeded to Sweden. At Hamburg he founded an 
 episcopal metropolis and was consecrated arch- 
 bishop. Anschar bound nations to the papacy. 
 Bold preachers brought even Iceland under the 
 jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff. Thus to the 
 pope heroic saints and martyrs gained the Teutonic 
 
282 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 and Slavonic nations which were to be the lights of 
 the Reformation. We cannot, therefore, marvel at 
 the pain felt by the Roman Church when she saw 
 torn from her Britain, Scotland, Switzerland, Swe- 
 den, Norway, Denmark, Holland, England, which 
 she had herself won to the Roman faith. And 
 Protestants should ever remember that, however 
 imperfect their form of Christianity measured by the 
 Scripture standard, yet under the rule of popes the 
 greatest regions and races of Europe professed con- 
 version. 
 
 We have seen that both in the Eastern and 
 Western Churches had always arisen men and sects 
 who were witnesses for faith and its liberty against 
 the prevailing bondage and corruption. But they 
 had been suppressed. Alexander III first declared 
 war against the Bible of Peter Waldus, and Inno- 
 cent III blasted the land of the heretic with his 
 papal armies. Dominic, like an avenging spirit, 
 hovered in the cloud of war ; and when death had 
 silenced martyrs in France his order presided over 
 the Inquisition in Spain and gave thousands to 
 dungeon, rack, and fire. Wyclif escaped flames, but 
 his bones and books were burned. Huss and Jerome 
 perished in the blaze kindled by the Council of 
 Constance. The papal hierarchy triumphed in the 
 assurance of universal victory. Just before the 
 dawn of the Reformation all liberty of faith and 
 thought and speech seemed to have perished from 
 the earth, and over man was a sky of clouds with no 
 star or rainbow. 
 
 Giovanni de Medici, second son of Lorenzo the 
 Magnificent, was elected to the papacy as a splendid 
 
THE REFORMATION. 283 
 
 representative of its successful sovereignty. Al- 
 though the founder of his house was a merchant in 
 Florence, yet the noblest blood of that proud city 
 flowed in the veins of the young pontiff. He was 
 born December ii, 1475, and crowned with the 
 tiara March ii, 1 513, before he was thirty-eight. 
 From a conclave window it was announced by a 
 cardinal, '' I will tell you tidings of great joy. A 
 new pope, Leo X, is elected." A more splendid 
 career never dawned on any man. The Roman 
 Church had outwardly triumphed over her enemies. 
 Yet, while her victory seemed assured, she was 
 confronted with difficulties which required signal 
 ability. To the new pontiff she looked to secure 
 her success and confirm her supremacy. And in 
 his birth, his education, his gifts of mind and person 
 was all that could justify human expectation. The 
 festivities of his coronation at St. Peter's were in 
 accordance with the brilliant hope of the Church. 
 But the grandest ceremonial attended his possession 
 of St. John Lateran, his cathedral. Rome was 
 crowded. Italian princes, foreign ambassadors, gen- 
 tlemen, noblemen, envoys, bishops, archbishops, 
 patriarchs, cardinals added glitter to the concourse 
 which assembled early in St. Peter's Square. 
 Jeweled miters and splendid vestments adorned 
 the ecclesiastics. The costumes of the officers of 
 State were correspondingly gorgeous. Banners 
 streamed in all the joy of jubilee. Leo came forth 
 riding on a white horse, attended by his military 
 guard, and under a canopy supported by exalted 
 Roman dignitaries. A mantle of richest embroidery 
 was about the pontiff. On his finger glittered the 
 
2§4 THE CHRiSTiAN DEMOCRACV. 
 
 diamond ring that wedded him to the Cathoh"c 
 Cluirch. Before him tlie streets were strewn with 
 flowers and spread with tapestries. Arrived at the 
 Lateran, the pope on his throne flamed in scarlet 
 and gold and, crowned with his tiara, felt himself 
 indeed the lord of the world. Around him in daz- 
 zling splendor sat all earth's loftiest representatives 
 of civil and ecclesiastical power, shedding their 
 glory over the pontifical majesty. 
 
 Nor was the cathedral unworthy the occasion. 
 The spacious nave, the sublime arches, the polished 
 marble pavement, the gilded Corinthian pilasters, 
 the venerable forms of prophets and apostles, the 
 exquisite chapleries exhibited whatever genius 
 could accomplish in painting, sculpture, and archi- 
 tecture, while above the magnificence swelled the 
 mingled music of voice and organ. ** It seemed to 
 me," says the narrator of the pageant, *' that it was 
 the Redeemer of mankind on the Palm Sunday 
 going to Jerusalem, there being substituted for 
 hosannas to the Son of David, ' Life to the pope, 
 the lion ! ' " 
 
 A picture of this Lateran assembly shows the 
 pontiff throned above bishops and cardinals, and, 
 conspicuous, the words, *' Thou shalt put an end 
 to the Council, and be called a reformer of the 
 Church." One orator styled the pope, " our shep- 
 herd, our physician, our god upon the earth." To 
 him also was applied a grand Messianic prophecy, 
 " Thou shalt rule from sea to sea." Nor was the 
 splendor of his dominion described only in inspired 
 words. Painting was again invoked to aid by form 
 and color. We have Leo depicted with one foot 
 
THE REFORMATION. 285 
 
 on the land and the other on the sea, and grasping 
 the keys of hades and heaven, which symbolized his 
 dominion over the universe. 
 
 Alas ! in the near future was a wreck mocking 
 this splendor of pontifical expectation. Such a 
 pageant, indicating its universal triumph, was never 
 to occur again in the history of the papacy. Leo's 
 reign was to be memorable, not by a united and 
 triumphant, but by a divided and humiliated, 
 Church. Bright prophecies of victory were followed 
 by shadows of defeat. Causes were in operation 
 which would rend the papacy and liberate humanity 
 from ecclesiastical tyranny. Those keys symbolic 
 of universal rule were about to fall from the hands 
 of baffled pontiffs. Let us turn to the agent of a 
 coming revolution that changed the face of Chris- 
 tendom ! 
 
 Martin Luther was born at Eisleben, in that very 
 Thuringia in which, four centuries before, the apos- 
 tle Boniface had planted the papal Church. On the 
 lOth of November, A. D. 1483, the child who was 
 to become the reformer of the world saw the light. 
 Between Leo and Luther what a contrast ! The 
 pope was a Medici, of princely blood, born in afflu- 
 ence, nurtured in luxury, a child of gay, proud, 
 beautiful Florence, in all his instincts an Italian, 
 effeminate in his tastes, skeptical in his religion, an 
 epicurean noble, graceful in person and manners, a 
 devotee of art and literature, fascinated with this 
 world and reckless of the next. With Leo his 
 pontificate was not a path to paradise, but a way 
 flowering and brilliant with the delights and dignities 
 of this earthly life. But Luther was son of a peas- 
 
286 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 ant, with all the rough honesty of the Germanic 
 race. His father was first a slate cutter and then a 
 miner. From infancy poverty was his companion. 
 The boyhood of Luther had little joy. He pursued 
 his studies pinched with hunger, sang for a crust of 
 bread, and often knew not whether he would be re- 
 warded with food or repulsed with cruelty. Born 
 amid rude scenes and men, he never attained the 
 grace and courtesy which give charm to society. 
 While Leo resembled a polished pillar in his Italian 
 cathedral, Luther was like a rough column in his 
 father's mine. But in him was a strength which could 
 endure. By nature and education he had an affec- 
 tionate heart, a sensitive conscience, a sturdy man- 
 hood. And he was born a leader of men. On his 
 broad, open, powerful Teutonic face is the glow of 
 genius. A great soul shines through those peasant 
 features. Margaret Lindemann, wife of John Luther, 
 was the worthy mother of the man born to create a 
 new era for humanity. Not from mansion or palace, 
 but a miner's home, went forth the power to regen- 
 erate nations, change the course of history and the 
 face of the world. The forge of the father suggests 
 the blows of the son on the iron of the papacy. 
 Martin was first sent to a Franciscan school at 
 Magdeburg, whence he was removed to Eisenach. 
 It was here, while singing in the streets amid a 
 crowd of poor scholars, that the splendid voice of 
 the future orator won the ear and heart of Ursula 
 Cotta. She became a mother to Martin. At eight- 
 een Luther went to Erfurth, where he was deeply 
 moved by the preaching of Weissmann. He re- 
 ceived in A. D. 1502 his bachelor's degree, and in 
 
THE REFORMATION. 287 
 
 1505 his master's degree. In 1507 he was ordained 
 priest. The next year by the favor of the elector 
 he was made professor at the University of Witten- 
 berg. His doctor's degree came in 15 12 and opened 
 his true career to Luther. Henceforth he moves 
 forward in his work before the eye of the world, and 
 his history belongs to humanity. He is a man of 
 power. He attracts multitudes of youth to his 
 university. He has filled Europe with the fame of 
 his doctrine and his eloquence. In him is imperson- 
 ated the Reformation. 
 
 The first noticeable peculiarity in the change pro- 
 duced in Martin Luther is the independence of the 
 solitary monk. A friend at his side is killed by 
 lightning. Awe from death falls like a shadow over 
 the brilliant student. He invites his friends, has a 
 gay parting feast, retires to a convent to seek his 
 salvation. And he begins in the old monkish way. 
 Fasts, vigils, penance, mortification of flesh and 
 spirit — these are to bring him peace. They fail. He 
 exhausts himself with hunger and falls fainting in 
 his cell. On the verge of death he is in despair. 
 When Luther arose from the cold stones he wan- 
 dered about a living corpse. We have his own vivid 
 words : 
 
 " I was a pious monk, and observed the discipline 
 of my order more strictly than I can tell. If ever 
 there was one who, before the Gospel dawned, held 
 in high esteem the precepts of the fathers and of 
 the pope and was most sincerely zealous concern- 
 ing them, I was especially so with all my heart. 
 With fastings, vigils, prayers, and other exercises 
 I have tormented and wearied my body more than 
 
288 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 all those who are my most bitter enemies and 
 persecutors." 
 
 A life of such self-inflicted tortures would have 
 placed Luther with Francis and Becket and Loyola, 
 high on the brightest roll of Roman saints. At 
 this hour he might have been beatified and canon- 
 ized by popes, had his name in their calendar, and, 
 instead of being regarded as an excommunicated 
 monster, he would have been adored as a patron 
 and supplicated as an intercessor. But vain all his 
 monkish asperities ! By his increased mortifica- 
 tions he plunged himself into deeper darkness. He 
 found himself bound by an invincible power in fet- 
 ters he could not break. He was measuring him- 
 self, not by rules of monks, but by the law of God. 
 He saw himself, not in the light of the precepts of 
 fathers, but in the blaze of the hoHness of Jehovah. 
 He weighed his heart and life, not in the scales of 
 papal decretals, but in the balances of the eternal 
 justice of the Judge of the universe. This lonely 
 monk by his anguish was driven beyond the help 
 of priest or pontiff or angel. Absolution by man 
 could not satisfy his immortal need. Luther must 
 have remission from the Sovereign of the universe. 
 His struggle for life brought death, and no deliver- 
 ance by man. Salvation is direct from God. Remis- 
 sion of sin is by faith in the blood of Jesus, the in- 
 carnate Creator. Regeneration is by the power of 
 the Holy Ghost exerted on the individual soul. 
 Assurance of forgiveness comes not from the abso- 
 lution of man, but is a testimony from the Spirit 
 of God. And the rule of life is the word of Scripture. 
 
 Looking beyond fathers, beyond priests, beyond 
 
THE REFORMATION. 289 
 
 monks, beyond popes, beyond himself, beyond mor- 
 tal or angel, Luther obtains remission and regenera- 
 tion by faith in the blood of Jesus, his God and 
 Saviour. He has peace and joy and liberty. Nor 
 were the solitary sufferings of his cell for the young 
 monk alone. His race was involved in his birth- 
 pangs. In him humanity was struggling for its re- 
 generation. The reformation of the world took 
 shape in Luther. One typical soul had to be taught 
 by agony the vanity of all absolution and sanctifi- 
 cation not direct from God. Deliverance came, not 
 by priestly act or papal authority, but by personal 
 faith. In this seed-truth was the whole Reforma- 
 tion. With the music of voice and organ pealing 
 through the church, how often had Luther chanted 
 in the creed, ** I believe in the forgiveness of sins ! " 
 Yet to him the words were dead. They had no 
 meaning to his mind, no power over his life. Now 
 they flash into him immortal light. Luther believes 
 and has peace. A new glory flames through his 
 cell. The joyful monk walks forth in the liberty of 
 the Gospel to free nations and generations. Scrip- 
 tural Democracy is born again on the earth. Glory 
 to God and love to man inspire its everlasting song. 
 Exulting in Christ, the renewed monk never 
 dreamed that his experience antagonized the 
 Church. Luther had hurled away the ecclesiastical 
 fetters of ages, and yet was unconscious of his own 
 liberty. Like an innocent child, he did not look 
 beyond his young joy. He compared himself to a 
 bird singing on a limb and letting God take care 
 of him. With trust in his Redeemer came faith in 
 
 his Creator. The almiejhty Maker of the universe 
 19 
 
290 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 was with Luther a perpetual presence. In harmony 
 with nature, he wished the world to share his hap- 
 piness. He preached with power. Under his word 
 convents and cities and kingdoms were born again. 
 Europe by his writings woke to a new life. Univer- 
 sities were illuminated. A new literature of salva- 
 tion sprang into existence. Sovereigns were con- 
 verted and nations edified. Since the time of Paul 
 the world had never known such a spiritual harvest. 
 At this period of his triumphant life prayer and 
 praise were the breath of Luther. Jehovah was his 
 sun and shield. The word of God was his bread of 
 life. His cell was bright with the light of his divine 
 Christ. In his soul was that faith in the Lamb 
 which looses the seals hiding the secrets of the uni- 
 verse. But the liberated and exulting monk can 
 best describe this happiest and most fruitful expe- 
 rience of his life : 
 
 *^ There is nothing else in heaven or in earth 
 wherein the soul is pious and free except the holy 
 Gospel, the word of God concerning Christ. In the 
 word it has enough — food, joy, peace, light, skill, 
 righteousness, freedom, everything good. As the 
 word is, so will the soul be through faith. And as 
 iron glows with fire, so the word shines through the 
 soul. The soul is freed by faith from sin. It is not 
 possible for her sins to condemn her. They are 
 laid upon Christ. The inner man is one with God, 
 joyful and happy on account of Christ. His whole 
 desire is that he in turn may serve God freely in free 
 love. A Christian does not live in himself, but in 
 Christ and his neighbor. Through faith he passes 
 above himself into God ; out of God he passes 
 
THE REFORMATION. 29 1 
 
 again beneath himself through love ; yet abides al- 
 ways in God, and God in him." 
 
 In these words of Martin Luther we have the 
 power of the Reformation. Its success is not in a 
 mere ecclesiastical orthodoxy. A right creed may 
 be a dead form. The skeleton of belief must be 
 clothed and filled by the Holy Ghost with living 
 force. To the confession of the faith of the heart 
 by the word of the lip must be added the testimony 
 of a true life. Wherever the Reformation has 
 spread it has carried with it the same everlasting 
 truths, vital only as energized by the Spirit of God, 
 and successful only as exemplified in the testi- 
 monies of faithful and pure and loving men. In 
 Germany, in France, in Switzerland, in England, in 
 Holland, in Scandinavia, in America, it bears the 
 same mark on its forehead. By these it can be 
 recognized, whether in the Confessions of Augs- 
 burg or Heidelberg or Dort or Westminster. Its 
 universal signs are (i) remission of sins through 
 faith in the blood of the divine Christ ; (2) regen- 
 eration, assurance, and guidance from the Holy 
 Ghost ; (3) good works as an effect of our regenera- 
 tion, and not as a cause of our remission ; (4) Scrip- 
 ture, independently of Church or tradition, as the 
 supreme rule of faith and life ; (5) the individual 
 responsibility of each man to God for his belief and 
 his works ; (6) acknowledgment of the sovereignty 
 of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as three Persons in 
 one Godhead. 
 
 A slight circumstance brought Luther before the 
 world and history. It grew out of the doctrine and 
 practice of the Church in regard to papal indul- 
 
292 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 gences and supremacy. On these subjects the 
 greatest writers had declared themselves. 
 
 Alexander of Hales, the irrefragable doctor, A. D. 
 1245, in his Treasure of the Church, said : *' Christ, 
 the God-man, by His infinitely meritorious suffer- 
 ings and death, has acquired a superabundance of 
 merit, which is conjoined to that of martyrs and 
 saints ; of these the sum is a vast treasure. This is 
 intended for the Church, to be administered by the 
 pope through his representatives the bishops." A 
 bull of Clement VH declared this doctrine of Hales 
 an article of faith. 
 
 Thomas Aquinas, A. D. 1274, said : "With him, 
 also, the merits of Christ and His saints formed an 
 inexhaustible treasure. Its exhaustless plenitude 
 was in the universal Church, to be distributed by 
 the pope to its members." Aquinas also insisted 
 that this power of the pope extended into purga- 
 tory. " For," he writes, " there is no reason why 
 the Church should be able to transfer, for the com- 
 mon good, of her merits, which is the basis of indul- 
 gences, to the living, and not also to the dead." 
 
 Albert the Great, A. D. 1280, taught that six con- 
 ditions must meet in indulgences : (i) repentance in 
 the receiver ; (2) faith in the keys ; (3) competent 
 authority to distribute ; (4) a pious cause ; (5) super- 
 abundance of the treasure of merits ; (6) a proper 
 appreciation of the deliverance wrought by the in- 
 dulgences. 
 
 And behind these opinions of the doctors was the 
 authority of pontiffs. Against Luther was the 
 whole papal Church. He stood alone before the 
 hierarchy. At the beginning of the Reformation, 
 
THE REFORMATION. 293 
 
 A. D. 1520, Prierio expressed the true faith of his 
 communion : " He is a heretic whosoever does not 
 rest in the doctrine of the Roman Church and the 
 Roman pontiff as the infallible rule of faith, from 
 which Holy Scripture itself derives its force and 
 authority." So afterward Bellarmine : *' We shall 
 endeavor to demonstrate that the Scriptures with- 
 out the traditions are neither sufficient nor simply 
 necessary." And Baronius affirms that *' tradition 
 is the foundation of Scripture." Erichiridion informs 
 us that '' the excellence of the nonwritten word far 
 surpasses Scripture. Tradition comprises in itself 
 all truth ; we ought not to appeal from it to any 
 other judge ; " while Lindanus says, " Scripture is a 
 nose of wax, a dead letter that kills, a very husk 
 without a kernel, a leaden rule, a school for heretics, 
 a forest that serves as a refuge for robbers." 
 
 These doctrines had slumbered in bulls and trea- 
 tises. Suddenly they start from their sleep and 
 awake the world. The confession of a parishioner 
 to his priest set in motion forces which have revo- 
 lutionized society and divided the Church. On the 
 breath of one lip hung the Reformation. When the 
 avalanche is ready a slight force wakes its thunder. 
 A man told Luther his sin and refused penance. 
 When urged, he pleaded a papal indulgence and 
 claimed exemption. Luther was confounded. He 
 was exulting in his new liberty in Christ. He was a 
 bird singing in the morning sunlight. He was a 
 young hero girded for battle, and yet seeing no 
 signs of a death struggle. A cloud comes over his 
 sky. Before Luther is a man who sets the pope 
 above Jesus Christ. On his side is ecclesiastical 
 
294 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 law. He is supported by the most illustrious doc- 
 tors of the Church. With him are priests and 
 bishops. Above all is the pope, defended by the 
 sword of the empire. 
 
 Luther did not hesitate. The priest refused to 
 recognize the claim of his parishioner. He would 
 not concede in the pope a power to sell a privilege 
 to sin. Leo had authorized this infamous traffic in 
 souls to support his pontifical luxuries and finish his 
 magnificent church. The price of salvation by 
 papal authority was money. A scale was published 
 for Germany. We have the ecclesiastical cost of 
 crime : six ducats, polygamy ; nine ducats, perjury ; 
 eight ducats, murder! And this monstrous traffic 
 was advertised by methods which make puerile all 
 our modern schemes to attract the public. Tetzel 
 had a genius for notoriety. When he approached a 
 town he halted outside the walls. The church bells 
 were rung. A procession was formed. It passed 
 through the gates and along the streets, marching to 
 the sound of music with glittering banners and up- 
 lifted crosses. The whole population swarmed after 
 Tetzel, arrayed in all the splendor of his priestly 
 robes. Arrived at the church, the spectators were 
 awed by the most imposing and impressive cere- 
 monies of religion. When the solemn service was 
 over, with the cross planted in view of the assembly, 
 Tetzel mounted the pulpit and in a voice of thun- 
 der began to advertise his spiritual wares and in the 
 name of the pope auction to the highest bidders the 
 authority to sin. 
 
 Luther was not daunted by Leo's lightnings. In 
 one hundred and six propositions he attacked the 
 
THE REFORMATION. 295 
 
 whole infamy. His theses Tetzel burned. Their 
 
 flames kindled Europe. A mere theological discus- 
 
 Ision the masses could not have understood. But to 
 
 'sell the right to commit crime, to open paradise for 
 
 ! money, to exchange ducats for souls — such trade the 
 
 dullest condemned. Leo's greed and Tetzel's rage 
 
 brought the papal prerogative before the bar of 
 
 Europe. It was now to be judged by the common 
 
 sense and conscience of mankind. The verdict was 
 
 not doubtful. Power was with the pontiff, and his 
 
 authority was with Tetzel ; but truth and right were 
 
 with Martin Luther. And in his position, supported 
 
 by Scripture against pope, was the force of the 
 
 Reformation. 
 
 On the 15th of June, 1520, Leo published the bull 
 which shattered his hierarchy. Forty-one propo- 
 sitions from the works of Luther were condemned. 
 He was excommunicated, and his books decreed 
 to the flames. Fire the monk answered by fire. 
 He defied the pontiff. Just without Wittenberg he 
 erected an immense pile. Professors, students, 
 people stand about the blaze. Luther appears. 
 His arms are loaded with volumes. The multitude 
 gazes expectant. Canons, decretals, Leo's bull are 
 hurled by the monk into the flames. This is the 
 gage of battle. War is declared by fire. A struggle 
 of ages is before the world. By his bold act Luther 
 is free. Liberty came also to millions, never more 
 to wear the yoke of Rome. 
 
 Charles V, in 1 5 19, received the imperial crown. 
 He was only twenty, and glowing with youth, hope, 
 and enterprise. In 1521 he convoked the Diet of 
 Worms. Luther was granted a safe conduct. De- 
 
296 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACV. 
 
 spite the opposition of friends, he resolved to appear, 
 and his journey to Worms was a popular ovation. 
 Cities opened their hearts and gates to express their 
 approval and sympathy. And at the Diet Frederick, 
 Elector of Saxony, and other noble German princes 
 gave him support. But his path was full of peril. 
 Potentates could not save him from flames. Even 
 the imperial letterwas a doubtful protection. Luther 
 had no shield but God. The first charge against 
 him was that above pope and Council he exalted 
 Scripture. On the word of God, his rock, the monk 
 stood unmoved before hierarchy and empire. How 
 magnificent the scarlet and gold and purple of that 
 assembly — princes and ecclesiastics in their splendor ; 
 on his throne the youthful Charles, descendant of 
 kings and lord of half the world, dignified with the 
 traditions of the old Roman empire, and rivaling 
 Caesars in imperial majesty ; over all, visible in his 
 legate, the power of the pope, whose tiara outdazzled 
 the diadems of an Aurelius or a Constantine ! And 
 in the presence of such a Council Martin Luther with 
 his Bible! The august assembly is awed by the 
 solitary monk. He speaks before the world, its im- 
 personation of truth and liberty. Li that man is the 
 genius of a new and last and best era of Christianity. 
 One eloquent sentence of Luther expresses the 
 Reformation : 
 
 '* I entreat, therefore, your majesty and the mem- 
 bers of this illustrious assembly to produce evidence 
 against me ; and, however high or low be the rank of 
 the person who shall be able from sacred Scriptures 
 to convict me of error, I will instantly retract and 
 be the first to throw the book into the fire." 
 
THE REFORMATION. 297 
 
 The Diet of Worms witnessed the sublimest act 
 of the life of Luther. As a moral spectacle it was 
 the culmination of the glory of his career. Had he 
 perished before the throne of Charles his work 
 would have ended without stain or discord. No 
 martyr would have worn a more brilliant crown. 
 His translation of the Bible within the grim walls 
 of old Wartburg Castle, his wise and heroic leader- 
 ship when he subdued the fanaticisms of his uni- 
 versity and the tumults of the riotous people, his 
 courage in refusing appeal to the sword and in de- 
 nouncing war as opposed to the faith and love of 
 the Gospelj show in Luther the same trust in God 
 which was his shield at Worms, and they give addi- 
 tional brightness to the halo on his brow. But, 
 alas ! after the Diet, spots mingled with the glory. 
 Human infirmities threw their shadows over 
 Luther. He appears to have lost the joy and 
 liberty which gave power to his early religious testi- 
 mony. In the pulpit he did not seem to have that 
 eloquence of the Spirit which had converted cities 
 and kingdoms. What a contrast between his ex- 
 quisite pictures of Christian love and his boorish 
 insults to Henry, who, however feeble in argument, 
 yet represented that majesty of government which 
 Paul respected even in a Nero ! At the Castle of 
 Marburg Luther played pope with Zwingle, divided 
 the Reformation, and created antagonisms which 
 centuries have not buried. Petulantly he hurled 
 James out of the canon, and jocosely pronounced 
 Paul napping in Galatians, thus unsettling the 
 authority of Scripture, disturbing the very founda- 
 tions on which his whole lifework was erected, and 
 
298 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 originating disputes which are now disquieting 
 Christendom. 
 
 Yet, however painful and mortifying, these are 
 small defects in Luther when compared with the 
 magnitude of his achievements for humanity. He 
 revived that doctrine of remission by faith, taught 
 by Christ and expounded by Paul, which can alone 
 give true liberty to men and nations. He so power- 
 fully enforced Scripture against tradition and papacy 
 that its supremacy will never be dislodged from 
 the human mind. He restored the laity to the 
 councils of the Church. He opened a new era of 
 religious and political liberty, which gave impulse 
 to literature, to art, to science, to government, and 
 which is emancipating every department of society 
 and every region of the world. Just as the Refor- 
 mation prevails in any country the sovereignty of 
 the people is recognized by Church and State. 
 The work of Martin Luther will be most fully 
 acknowledged when over earth has become universal 
 the primitive Christian Democracy. 
 
TRENT. 299 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 Trent. 
 
 THE Council of Trent marked an era in the 
 Roman Church. Before its determinations 
 doctrines had been unsettled. They had 
 for centuries been afloat in the decretals of popes, 
 the enactments of Councils, the canons of synods, 
 and the writings of doctors ; and elasticity of creed 
 had its advantages in policies of government. Be- 
 liefs were accommodated to exigencies. But, urged 
 forward by the example of the Protestant Confes- 
 sions, formal statements of doctrine were now re- 
 quired by the papal communion. The Council of 
 Trent met the demand of its age. It revolution- 
 ized the Church of Rome. Now we find her creed, 
 not in the statements of bishops or doctors or 
 assemblies, or even of pontiffs. Friends and foes 
 have a standard to which they may appeal. The 
 laws of Rome are the decrees of Trent. To these 
 all countries and centuries refer. Opposed forever 
 to the Protestant Confessions are the Tridentine 
 Canons. In this fact is the true basis of all con- 
 troversy. 
 
 Father Paul of Venice has left the world a pic- 
 ture of the assembly in a small Alpine city which 
 makes so deep an impress on history. With a 
 master hand he exposed its intrigues and strifes. 
 If less violence than in the ancient Councils, there 
 
300 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 is more artifice. The cunning of Italian popes has 
 never been equaled. Learning, perspicuity, and 
 profundity characterized the book of Father Paul ; 
 nor, fifty years later, with all its acute apologies and 
 subtle explanations, did the Jesuit Pallavicini under- 
 mine the immortal work of the Venetian. A Span- 
 ish doctor, Vargas, attended the imperial ambassa- 
 dors to Trent. His letters explain the methods by 
 which the papal delegates sought to mold the 
 Council to the will of their pontifical master. Guided 
 by these Roman authorities, we perceive such am- 
 bition, such artifice, such ignorance, such corruption 
 working together in Trent that it is impossible to 
 believe that the Holy Ghost hovered over the 
 fathers, invisibly directed their opinions, and shaped 
 their decrees in accordance with the will of God ; 
 while we can scarcely doubt that they expressed the 
 will of the pope. Our knowledge of Trent impels 
 us to reject as infallible both pontiff and Council, 
 and to accept Holy Scripture as the universal stand- 
 ard for the universal Church. 
 
 Paul HI in 1545 convoked his ecclesiastics to 
 Trent. After him were the brief pontificates of 
 Julius HI and the second Marcellus. Then followed 
 Paul IV, with his grim and ghastly career. It re- 
 mained for Pius IV in 1563, after nearly eighteen 
 years of painful labor, to bring to a successful ter- 
 mination this most important Council of the Roman 
 Church. 
 
 Alessandro Farnese gave a boy a wreath to pre- 
 sent to the next pope. The lad took it to Gio- 
 vanni Angelo Medici. Nor was the youthful prophet 
 mistaken. Giovanni became Pius IV. His origin 
 
TRENT. 301 
 
 was humble. Bernardi, his father, was a Milanese 
 contractor, and his brother a robber-soldier. Gio- 
 vanni Angelo studied law, went to Rome, became a 
 cardinal, and was detested by Paul IV, a Neapolitan 
 aristocrat. Yet the Milanese plebeian succeeded 
 his haughty enemy. Unlike his imperious prede- 
 cessor, the gloomy organizer of the papal Inquisi- 
 tion, Pius IV was genial, cheerful, and accessible. 
 Yet he sentenced to death Paul's atrocious nephews. 
 
 Pius IV was the first pontiff who caught the 
 catholic spirit of his age. His predecessors had 
 sought to subjugate the world to the papacy. Pius 
 saw that the ambitious policy of a Hildebrand, an 
 Innocent III, and a Boniface VIII was a splendid 
 vision. The nations, he realized, could no longer 
 be dazzled by pontifical dreams. Europe had out- 
 grown its ecclesiastical masters. Rome had lost 
 England, Holland, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, 
 Denmark, and her noblest kingdoms in Germany. 
 This dominion was irrecoverable. Pius IV accepted 
 the fact. He will take the world as it is. He will 
 recover what he can, and not expect too much. 
 He will have peace even at a large price. Protes- 
 tantism cannot be overthrown, and Romanism must 
 legislate according to the inevitable. Pius will leave 
 the clouds and make sure the earth. Hence his 
 practical success. He achieved what was unattain- 
 able by the old pontifical visionaries. 
 
 Charles V had forced both German Catholics and 
 Protestants to sign his *' Interim," which professed 
 to be a scheme of reconciliation. All parties were 
 dissatisfied. Paul III hated the compromise. Be- 
 sides, Charles also wished Protestant representatives 
 
302 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 at the Council. This, too, excited the wrath of 
 Paul. He adjourned the assembly to Bologna 
 against the imperial protest. After violent contests 
 between pope and emperor it was finally brought 
 back to Trent. From 1545 to 1563 there had been 
 a perpetual scene of artifices, wranglings, and dis- 
 contents. So great were the divisions among 
 Roman ecclesiastics that some of the members in- 
 clined to Protestant doctrine. In Curia and in 
 Council reform had been suggested. Supported by 
 French and German prelates. Cardinal Lorraine de- 
 manded the cup for the laity and the sacraments in 
 the language of the people. Opinions were discor- 
 dant, obstacles insurmountable, elements irreconcil- 
 able. Rome was rent in her own Council. Carpi, 
 an old cardinal, oppressed by the prospect, wished 
 to die that he might not witness the burial of the 
 Church. Over the pontificate of Pius IV hung a 
 cloud. If he cannot reconcile the Council his life 
 is a failure. His patience, his tact, his courage, his 
 energy dispelled the darkness. Pius IV brought 
 back the sun, but to be forever in a Protestant 
 eclipse. By him the Council of Trent was guided 
 to its conclusions, and to him we owe that formu- 
 lated scheme of doctrine which is the irrepealable 
 law of the Roman Church. 
 
 As opposed to the statements of the Protestant 
 Confessions of Augsburg, Heidelberg, and the An- 
 glican Homilies and Articles, we have the Roman 
 doctrine of justification. In Session VI, caput 7, it 
 is affirmed : ** The formal cause of justification is 
 righteousness or charity, which God imparts appro- 
 priately to each according to the measure of his dis- 
 
TRENT. 303 
 
 position, and which inheres in the hearts of the jus- 
 tified." Here Trent places the ground of our re- 
 mission in ourselves. We are to look for it within. 
 Why am I justified ? Because I find in myself the 
 infused righteousness of love. My justification, 
 then, is subjective and varies with my spiritual 
 states. Changing with my changing conditions, it is 
 like my own changing moods. It builds on myself, 
 and is no more stable than myself, and hence must 
 be confirmed by the absolution of a priest who is 
 himself a man. Only on human infirmity is my 
 foundation. Assurance is impossible. The soul 
 groping in uncertain twilight is open to every seduc- 
 tion. Not trusting wholly in Christ, it turns to 
 priests and saints. Looking to man, it must pay to 
 man a price for man's salvation. Under such a 
 scheme, sooner or later eternal life must be bought 
 by money. The Scripture points to Christ. Faith 
 in the blood of my divine Saviour brings me remis- 
 sion and the Holy Ghost. Forgiveness is for noth- 
 ing in myself, nor is it by man ; it is an act of God. 
 It is founded on the death of the everlasting 
 Christ, our incarnate Jehovah — Jesus. It is wit- 
 nessed by His Spirit in the assurance of sonship. 
 Trent confounds justification and sanctification. 
 After deserting Scripture, this is Rome's next 
 plunge into mazes of inextricable darkness. 
 
 The canonical books of our Anglican Version are 
 adopted by all Protestant Confessions. These 
 only are for us Scripture. But to these Rome 
 adds apocrypha and tradition, and now, behind all, 
 by the Vatican Decree of Pio Nono, papal infalli- 
 bility ! But let Trent speak for itself! We will 
 
304 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 give in full the Decree of April i8, 1546, which 
 says: 
 
 " This sacred, holy ecumenical and general Coun- 
 cil of Trent, lawfully assembled in the Holy Spirit, 
 the three legates of the apostolical see presiding 
 therein, having constantly in view the removal of 
 error and the preservation of the purity of the Gos- 
 pel in the Church, which Gospel, promised before 
 by the prophets in the sacred Scriptures, was first 
 orally published by our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
 afterward commanded it to be preached by His 
 apostles to every creature as the source of all saving 
 truth and discipline ; and perceiving that this truth 
 and discipline are contained both in written books 
 and in unwritten traditions which have come down 
 to us, either received by the apostles from the lip of 
 Christ Himself or transmitted by the hands of the 
 same apostles under the dictation of the Holy 
 Spirit ; following the example of the orthodox 
 fathers, doth receive and reverence with equal piety 
 and veneration all the books, as well of the Old as 
 of the New Testament, the same God being Author 
 of both, and also the aforesaid tradition pertaining 
 to faith and manners, whether received from Christ 
 Himself or dictated by the Holy Spirit and pre- 
 served in the Catholic Church by continual succes- 
 sion. Whosoever shall not receive as sacred and 
 canonical all these books, and every part of them, 
 as they are commonly read in the Catholic Church 
 and are contained in the Vulgate Latin edition, or 
 shall knowingly and deliberately despise the afore- 
 said traditions, let him be accursed ! " 
 
 A Catechism of Trent was published in 1866 by 
 
TRENT. 305 
 
 Pius V, which chiefly explains the sacraments. But 
 it is the Creed of Pius IV, A. D. 1564, in which 
 we have an authoritative papal exposition of the 
 doctrines of the Council. It is of universal accept- 
 ance and obligation. As the Nicene Creed is Cath- 
 olic, so the Creed of Pius is Roman. Each of its 
 decrees is with anathema. If I reject all or any I 
 am a heretic accursed. This Roman creed, under 
 anathema ^QOVv^QVC\v\s every human being outside the 
 Roman Church to everlasting woe. Volumes have 
 been written in its explanation. But its words are 
 so clear and plain that it is its own best interpreter. 
 And it expresses in papal language and by papal in- 
 fallibility the whole doctrine of the Council of Trent. 
 It is well, therefore, to give the Creed of Pius IV 
 entire: 
 
 I. Having recited the Nicene symbol, it pro- 
 ceeds: 
 
 *' 2. I most firmly admit and embrace apostolical 
 and ecclesiastical traditions and all other constitu- 
 tions and observances of the same Church. 
 
 " 3. I also admit the sacred Scriptures according 
 to the sense the holy mother Church has held and 
 does hold, to whom it belongs to judge the true 
 sense and interpretation of Holy Scriptures ; nor 
 will I ever take or interpret them otherwise than 
 according to the unanimous consent of the fathers. 
 
 "4. I confess that there are truly and properly 
 
 seven sacraments of the new law, instituted by 
 
 Jesus Christ and for the salvation of mankind, 
 
 though all are not necessary for everyone, namely, 
 
 baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, extreme 
 
 unction, orders, and matrimony, and they confer 
 20 
 
306 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 grace ; and of these baptism, confirmation, and 
 orders cannot be reiterated without sacrilege. 
 
 *' 5. I also receive and admit the ceremonies of 
 the Catholic Church received and approved in the 
 solemn administration of the above sacraments. 
 
 " 6. I receive and approve all and every one of 
 the things which have been defined and declared 
 by the holy Council of Trent concerning original 
 sin and justification. 
 
 " 7. I profess and believe that in the mass offered 
 to God is a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice 
 for the living and the dead, and that in the most 
 holy sacrifice of the eucharist there is truly, really, 
 and substantially the body and blood, together with 
 the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 that there is made a conversion of the whole sub- 
 stance of the bread into the body and of the whole 
 substance of the wine into the blood, which con- 
 version the Catholic Church calls transubstantiation. 
 
 " 8. I confess that under one kind Christ is re- 
 ceived whole and entire, and a true sacrament. 
 
 " 9. I constantly hold that there is a purgatory, 
 and that the souls there are helped by the suffrages 
 of the faithful. 
 
 " 10. I believe that the saints reigning together 
 with Christ are to be honored and invoked ; that 
 they offer prayers to God for us ; and that their rel- 
 ics are to be venerated. 
 
 '*ii. I most firmly assert that the images of 
 Christ and of the mother of God, and also of the 
 other saints, are to be had and retained, and that 
 due honor and veneration are to be given them. 
 
 *' 12. I also affirm that the power of indulgences 
 
TRENT. 307 
 
 was left by Christ in the Church, and that the use 
 of them is most wholesome to Christian people. 
 
 *' 13. I acknowledge the holy Catholic and Roman 
 Church to be the mother and mistress of all 
 Churches, and I promise and swear true obedience 
 to the Roman bishop, the successor of St. Peter 
 and the prince of the apostles and the vicar of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 " 14. I profess and undoubtedly receive all other 
 things delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred 
 canons and general Councils, and particularly by 
 the holy Council of Trent ; and I condemn, reject, 
 and anathematize all things contrary thereto, and 
 all heresies whatever condemned and anathematized 
 by the Church. 
 
 " 15. This is the Catholic faith, out of which none 
 can be saved, which I now freely profess and truly 
 hold. I promise, vow, swear, and profess the same, 
 whole and entire ; and to procure as far as in me 
 lies that the same shall be held and taught and 
 preached by all under me or intrusted to me by 
 virtue of my office, so help me God and the holy 
 Gospels of God ! " 
 
 In the decrees of Trent we have the most for- 
 midable barrier to Christian liberty and unity. The 
 world has outgrown Jesuitism and Inquisition. 
 These have no more power to harm than the screws 
 and racks exhibited to children in the Tower of 
 London. Like the crumbled Coliseum, their day 
 of blood is over. But the work of Trent remains. 
 It is a fetter of iron bound into the flesh of the 
 Roman Church. The pope and all his bishops are 
 under a vow to their creed which chains their lives. 
 
308 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 How pleasing the smile and warm the welcome of 
 the holy father in his Vatican palace ! How hos- 
 pitably he extends his right hand to Greeks, and his 
 left to Protestants ! And in addresses and on plat- 
 forms how the hearts of his American bishops glow 
 with the patriotism of American citizens ! Nor are 
 they insincere. The man is better than the ecclesi- 
 astic. But, while the heart is American, the creed 
 is Roman. Tridentine vows mock, like ghosts from 
 the past. Rejecting Trent, Greeks and Protestants 
 are alike under its anathema. One hand of the holy 
 father grasps in welcome, and the other hurls an 
 anathema. I reject tradition ; I am under his anath- 
 ema. I deny the mass ; I am under his anathema. 
 I refuse saint-worship ; I am under his anathema. 
 I disbelieve purgatory ; I am under his anathema. 
 I repudiate his supremacy and infallibility ; I am 
 under his anathema. Let the holy father reverse 
 the decrees of Trent, recall the declaration of the 
 Vatican, and annul his anathemas ! Then he may 
 begin an effort to unite Christendom. 
 
JESUITISM. 309 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 Jesuitism. 
 
 THIRTY years after the Diet of Spires the area 
 of Protestantism was vastly wider than now. 
 Let us turn to our map of Europe ! Norway 
 and Denmark, part of Switzerland, Holland, Eng- 
 land, Scotland, and Germany are the countries 
 where the Reformation has perpetuated itself. 
 Austria is almost wholly papal; but in 1563, which 
 marked the close of the Council of Trent, not one 
 thirtieth of her population had remained Catholic. 
 Hungary and Bohemia were both largely alienated 
 from Rome. Protestantism then pervaded even 
 South Germany. Bavaria inclined to the Reforma- 
 tion, and in Belgium it numbered many adherents. 
 How were these countries won back from Protes- 
 tantism to the papacy? By argument ? By spiritual 
 conversion ? By what agency was the ecclesiastical 
 map of Europe shaped into its present divisions? 
 We answer, By Jesuitism, with the aid of the Inqui- 
 sition. 
 
 From the early centuries the monkish orders con- 
 stituted the armies of the Roman pontiff. They 
 were trained and devoted soldiers, always under his 
 command. Without them his victories would have 
 been impossible. From the secular, or parish, 
 clergy we must widely distinguish the regular, or 
 monastic, clergy. Eminently the latter were the 
 
3IO THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 pope's servants. Over the world, with tongue and 
 pen, and sometimes sword, they fought his battles. 
 Only by centuries of education could the ancient 
 orders have prepared the Church for that crowning 
 and once-triumphant organization we style Jesuit- 
 ism. Before we proceed to its history it will be 
 necessary to survey the rise and work of its prede- 
 cessors and pioneers. 
 
 AUGUSTINES. 
 
 About A. D. 390 the great Bishop of Hippo re- 
 tired to a monastery. While he presided over 
 monks his sister superintended nuns. It does not 
 appear that Augustine was under any life vow. He 
 was a bishop ruling an association of his celibate 
 clergy. But out of this organization most probably 
 grew the famous Roman order bearing his name, 
 which centuries after placed on its roll Martin 
 Luther. 
 
 Benedictines. 
 
 Their founder was born A. D. 480 in Nursia, Italy. 
 While yet a youth Benedict fled from the vices of 
 Rome and took refuge near Subiaco. Here was 
 his first miracle. For three years he lived in an 
 inaccessible cavern. Romanus, his friend, let down 
 his food by a rope. The tinkle of a bell amid the 
 rocks indicated that his meager morsel was descend- 
 ing. Beneath his crag roared the Anio. But the 
 secluded mountain cave was discovered. At once 
 the youthful hermit became famous. He was made 
 an abbot. So rigid was his discipline that the 
 monks tried to release themselves by poison. But 
 Benedict escaped murder by miracle. The cup 
 
JESUITISM. 311 
 
 burst in his hands. His fame increased and his 
 followers multiplied. Ascetics swarmed into his 
 solitude. On peaks, in clefts, amid oaks and chest- 
 nuts about Subiaco, he established twelve monas- 
 teries. New edifices rose on Monte Casino, from 
 which the Benedictines spread over the world. 
 Silence, humility, and obedience were the three vir- 
 tues of their order. Their occupations were wor- 
 ship, reading, and labor. Benedict had a brilliant 
 vision of the universal diffusion of his order. His 
 bright dream was accomplished. Scattering over 
 Europe, his innumerable monks were the conse- 
 crated and successful soldiers of the papal army. 
 
 Dominicans. 
 
 At Calahorra, in Spain, lived the noble house of 
 Guzman. Here in A. D. 1170 Dominic was born. 
 At fifteen he went to the university. Devoted to 
 charity, he once sold his clothes to feed the poor. 
 To redeem a captive he offered himself to be a slave. 
 When twenty-five he became a canon in Osma and 
 remained there many years. On his way across 
 the Pyrenees to Denmark he encountered the Albi- 
 gensian heresy. The pope's legates had been baffled 
 in all their efforts to extirpate the pestilent sectists. 
 Dominic suggested an heroic remedy. He bade the 
 legates renounce their pomp and luxury. He told 
 them to meet fanaticism w^ith zeal, and falsehood 
 with truth. He set the example which he recom- 
 mended. In the pulpit his eloquence became re- 
 sistless. Because he delivered such multitudes to 
 the secular power for prison and flames he was styled 
 the persecutor of heretics. Zeal for blood gave 
 
3li THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACV. 
 
 title to his name. With this ghastly reputation 
 Dominic visited Rome. In the papal capital he 
 was unrivaled as a preacher. Crowding from all 
 lands, pilgrims came under the spell of his fiery- 
 eloquence, and the flame of his zeal kindled Europe. 
 From Rome as a center the order of Dominic spread 
 over the world. Everywhere among the nations 
 was heard the voice of his preachers. His converts 
 were found in Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Ger- 
 many. To nuns and friars he added a lay order. 
 Dominic died in I22i,and was canonized and adored. 
 His monks were to be found even in Palestine and 
 Abyssinia. In the great universities of Italy, Eng- 
 land, and Germany some rose to be masters. Bright- 
 est among the Dominican luminaries shone Albert 
 the Great and Thomas Aquinas. 
 
 Franciscans. 
 
 A merchant of Assisi was the father of the most 
 illustrious of monks. The year 1182 witnessed the 
 birth of Francis in that secluded mountain village. 
 His mother was devoted to her son. The parish 
 clergy were his teachers. But his father took the 
 boy early into business. Francis gave small promise 
 of the future ascetic. He delighted in splendid 
 dress and gay banquets. Mirthful songs burst from 
 his lips. Assisi rang with his revels. But after a 
 severe illness he arose disgusted with his riotous life. 
 In a second sickness visions haunted his fevered 
 brain, and he was kindled into ecstasies. Mysteri- 
 ously he talked to a bride. She was poverty. Pro- 
 ceeding to Rome, he flung his all on St. Peter's altar. 
 His mother admired, and his father opposed. In 
 
JESUITISM. 3^3 
 
 his zeal, with a strange perversity of conscience, he 
 committed a crime. Francis sold without authority 
 his father's property and gave the proceeds to the 
 Church. Then he became a mendicant, and after- 
 ward a hermit. We see him washing the feet of 
 lepers and dressing their loathsome sores. Reputa- 
 tion for miracles followed these pious exercises. 
 Disciples were attracted to Rivo Torto, where 
 Francis founded an order. For authority the saint 
 went to Rome. From a terrace on the Lateran In- 
 nocent saw a mendicant approaching. At first the 
 pontiff repelled his suppliant, but finally gave the 
 solicited approval. Poverty was the foundation of 
 the order of the Franciscans. No monk was to re- 
 ceive property. Money was forbidden, and resist- 
 ance to violence prohibited. Three years after the 
 beginning at Rivo Torto masters were sent to Spain, 
 France, and Germany. In 12 19 a second chapter 
 embraced three thousand monks. Friar minors 
 preached among all the great nations of Europe. 
 A vision of Francis became famous among monastic 
 legends and receives universal assent in the Roman 
 Church. It places his name on the loftiest roll of 
 papal saints. Francis was praying. A seraph with 
 six wings appeared. The celestial apparition van- 
 ished, but left on the hands, the feet, the side of the 
 monk the marks of the crucifixion. His wounds 
 ran blood, and his stigmata made him illustrious. 
 To him are ascribed innumerable miracles. Pope 
 Alexander VI declared that he saw the stigmata 
 on the body of the saint. Belief in this miracle is 
 almost a Roman creed. 
 
 We have seen that Benedictines, Dominicans, 
 
314 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Franciscans, and numerous other orders were the 
 peculiar servants of the pope. But zeal waned, dis- 
 cipline relaxed, property accumulated, and morals 
 became corrupt. Convents and monasteries, per- 
 verted from their religious ends, were degraded into 
 seats of vice and crime. In exposing and denoun- 
 cing their infamies the Reformation had an irresisti- 
 ble advantage. Its arguments were unanswerable 
 facts. To heal the papal wounds was not possible 
 to the ancient orders. Their day and work were 
 over. A new era had come, demanding a new or- 
 ganization. The Roman Church had provided for 
 it a society which restored its sway over a large part 
 of Europe. Nor could any association have been 
 better adapted to its object. 
 
 Jesuitism. 
 
 Ignatius Loyola was its founder. His family 
 name was Don Inigo Lopez de Recalde, and he 
 was of a noble race. The castle Loyola in Spain 
 was the place of his birth. Love and arms were the 
 passions of his youth. His dream was knighthood. 
 Loyola began his career, not with the cowl and 
 tonsure of the monk, but the helm and plume of 
 the warrior. In 1521, at the defense of Pampeluna, 
 he received disfiguring wounds which ended his 
 career as lover and soldier. 
 
 Disappointment and suffering revived his native 
 religious enthusiasm. Ignatius no longer dreamed 
 of victories on the battlefield. Excluded from 
 military rank, the maimed knight began to emulate 
 the conquests of St. Francis and St. Dominic. He 
 became inflamed with aspirations for saintly re- 
 
JESUITISM. 315 
 
 nown. Ecstasies and visions now came to Loyola. 
 Christ and Satan he saw in connbat. The conflicts 
 of the soldier were exchanged for the struggles of 
 the monk. Ignatius became a knight sworn to the 
 Church. Before an image of the Virgin he brings 
 his armor and, with his pilgrim staff, keeps vigil. 
 The mail of the warrior he exchanges for the garb 
 of the hermit. Daily he spends seven hours on his 
 knees. He rises for prayer at midnight. Thrice 
 each day he scourges his flesh. His life now seems 
 to him one continuous sin. 
 
 The struggles of Loyola and Luther — how sim- 
 ilar ! Each sought peace by ascetic practices. Each 
 mortified his flesh. Each was plunged into despair. 
 Here the resemblance ended. Luther was de- 
 livered by faith in the blood of the crucified Son 
 of God. Luther was made free by the Holy Ghost. 
 Luther sought truth in Scripture. Joy and liberty 
 and victory came into his life. But Ignatius seems 
 never to have thought of the word of God. He 
 lived in phantasies. He turned for truth to visions. 
 He followed monkish legends. Reduced by fasting 
 and vigil and scourging, suffering in body, dis- 
 ordered in mind, he fancied he saw the Saviour and 
 the Virgin. The doctrine of the Trinity he did 
 not learn from his Bible. It was revealed to his 
 eye. Creation was made visible, not by inductive 
 science, but mystic symbol. Mysteries of faith be- 
 came palpable to excited sense and frenzied soul. 
 Ignatius believed in himself, was guided by visions, 
 and had no need of Scripture. Between Loyola 
 and Luther is all the difference between Romanism 
 and Reformation. 
 
3l6 TME CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 The ignorance and crudity of the founder of 
 Jesuitism became evident to himseh'. He went to 
 Paris. Here he formed intimacies with Peter Faber 
 and Francis Xavier. Both were superior to him in 
 abihty and learning, but both came under the spell 
 of his dominating personality and submitted to his 
 exacting discipline. Ignatius also gained Lainez 
 and Bobadilla. With his friends he proceeded one 
 day to a church on Montmartre. Faber read the 
 mass. Then all vowed themselves to poverty and 
 the conversion of the Saracens. Having taken an 
 oath, they received the host and enjoyed a repast 
 at the fountain of St. Denis. That hill overlooking 
 gay Paris was the birthplace of Jesuitism, the most 
 subtle and powerful agency ever devised to stifle 
 spiritual liberty, and prevent the return of the 
 Church to its original Christian Democracy. 
 
 From Paris Ignatius and his friends went to 
 Venice, and thence to Rome. In the papal capital 
 he found his lifework. Jesuitism was organized to 
 suppress the rising freedom of humanity. It was 
 the declared foe of that liberty of faith which was 
 the trumpet note of the Reformation. The mem- 
 bers of the Society of Jesus were to devote them- 
 selves (i) to preaching, (2) to confession, (3) to edu- 
 cation. The power of the president was absolute. 
 His will ruled the volitions of his subordinates. 
 These, by long and stern discipline, submitted to 
 him as the corpses of the dead are moved by the 
 hands of the living. In its very essence Jesuitism 
 was the extinction of free thought, free speech, free 
 action. Rather, it was the grave of human person- 
 ality. Behind president and members was the 
 
JESUITISM. 317 
 
 pope. His pontifical will was the world's true 
 master. 
 
 To their chief the subordinates of all lands made 
 their reports. The eye of the president was over 
 earth, and his hands touched all the springs of so- 
 cial, political, commercial, and ecclesiastical influ- 
 ence. In the great European cities pulpits passed 
 under his power. He directed in all countries 
 academies, colleges, and universities. Over the 
 conscience he obtained mastery, gained the secrets 
 of courts, molded monarchs, and directed policies. 
 Jesuitism won nations from the Reformation back 
 to the pope. Philip by the sword of Alva could 
 never have retained Belgium, nor could war alone 
 have reclaimed Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and 
 Bavaria. But Jesuitism came to the rescue of pa- 
 pacy. It allied itself to kings and nobles. It 
 sought the aid of bishops to establish schools in 
 chief cities. It brought over the youth to the pope, 
 and when necessary it fomented wars and employed 
 the Inquisition. Jesuitism thus counteracted the 
 Reformation and established the Roman dominion 
 in countries where it had almost perished. 
 
 After two centuries of vigor and victory the So- 
 ciety of Jesus began to decline. From its own au- 
 thors Paschal proved that their rules vitiated con- 
 science, licensed vice, and authorized crime. His 
 blows from Paris rang over Europe. Jesuitism 
 staggered long, but fell shattered and disgraced. 
 Commercial corruptions completed its overthrow. 
 On the 2ist of July, 1773, Clement XIV pronounced 
 the suppression of that order which had been 
 founded for the overthrow of Protestantism and 
 
3l8 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 to extinguish religious liberty. It was organized to 
 glorify the pope, yet a pope dug its grave. Clem- 
 ent said : 
 
 " Inspired, as we trust, by the divine Spirit, im- 
 pelled by the duty of restoring concord to the 
 Church, convinced that the Society of Jesus can 
 never effect those purposes for which it was founded, 
 and moved by other reasons of prudence and State 
 policy which we retain within our breast, we do ex- 
 tirpate and abolish the Society of Jesus, its offices, 
 houses, and institutions." 
 
 On Sunday, August 7, 18 14, Pius VII read mass 
 in the Church of the Jesuits and, before the altar 
 of Ignatius Loyola, promulgated a bull which em- 
 powered the Jesuits to regulate their lives according 
 to the rule of their founder, receive moneys, estab- 
 lish houses and colleges, and devote themselves to 
 the service of the Church by preaching, confession, 
 and instruction. Pio Nono gave sympathy and en- 
 couragement to the order, and Leo XIII has not 
 yet pronounced its subversion. But Jesuitism is 
 practically dead. No pope can galvanize its corpse 
 into life. Thus may perish all the foes to that 
 Christian Democracy destined yet to peaceful tri- 
 umph over all ! 
 
 Jesuitism assisted the birth of the papal Inquisi- 
 tion. The Dominican institution was monastic and 
 partial. But in Spain it had been a powerful agency 
 in the destruction of liberty. It arrested a man on 
 suspicion and tortured him on confession. In the 
 gloom of his dungeon it starved its victim into im- 
 becility or despair. When crazed or exhausted a 
 disguised priest entered his cell. Soft tones, simu- 
 
JESUITISM. 319 
 
 lated sympathy, artful promises tempted to con- 
 fession. Then the testimony of this tonsured mur- 
 derer was followed by trial and conviction. Or to 
 extract admission victims were tortured in the mid- 
 night glare of flames. Screws and pulleys strained 
 and tore, until the mangled sufferer with feeble lip 
 admitted guilt. His execution was a festival. Peo- 
 ple, nobles, kings, ecclesiastics crowded to witness 
 the agonies of martyrs. Church and State, having 
 united in the murder, combined in the pageant. 
 In grotesque costume, with painted devils above his 
 head, the victim was marched into the palace 
 square. If steadfast he was burned ; if he recanted 
 he might be strangled. Over his head was a red 
 flag emblazoned with the image of the pope. Such 
 in Spain was the Dominican Inquisition ! 
 
 It was not enough. Cardinal Caraffa, afterward 
 Paul IV, thought he could improve St. Dominic ; 
 and he did ! He wished his institution in the pon- 
 tifical capital near the pope. ''As St. Peter," he 
 said, '' subdued the first heresiarchs in Rome, so 
 must the successors of St. Peter destroy all the here- 
 sies of the world in Rome." Ignatius Loyola was 
 an adviser of Cardinal Caraffa. The apostolic see 
 appointed six inquisitors general. These chose 
 assistants and determined appeals. No station, no 
 dignity, was exempt. The suspected were to be 
 imprisoned, the guilty put to death, and their prop- 
 erty confiscated. On July 21, 1542, the bull was 
 published. All authority came from the pope. As 
 sovereign he reserved to himself the right to par- 
 don. Caraffa was one of the six inquisitors. He 
 furnished his house in Rome with prisons, chains. 
 
320 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 blocks, and all the grim necessities of his ghastly- 
 office. What he began as cardinal he delighted to 
 execute as pope. Paul IV gloried in his papal In- 
 quisition. 
 
 It was soon discovered that the power of the 
 Reformation was in the Bible. Hence was revived 
 the war begun by Alexander III in his struggle with 
 Waldus. The Index became a necessity to the In- 
 quisition. This was a list of books specified by the 
 cardinals and prohibited by the pope. To read the 
 Scripture was the chief crime forbidden and pun- 
 ished. But the Index best explains itself: 
 
 " Inasmuch as it is manifested from experience 
 that, if the Holy Bible, translated into the vulgar 
 tongue, be indiscriminately allowed to be read by 
 everyone, the temerity of men will cause more evil 
 than good to arise from it, it is in this point referred 
 to the judgment of the bishops and inquisitors, who 
 may by the advice of the priest or confessor permit 
 the reading of the Bible, translated into the vulgar 
 tongue by Catholic authors, to those persons whose 
 faith and piety they apprehend will be augmented, 
 and not injured, by it, and this permission shall be 
 in writing. But if any shall have the presumption 
 to read or possess it without any such permission he 
 shall not receive absolution until he shall have de- 
 livered up such Bible to the ordinary. Booksellers 
 who, however, shall sell or otherwise dispose of such 
 Bibles in the vulgar tongue to any person not hav- 
 ing such permission shall forfeit the value of the 
 books, to be applied by the bishop to some pious 
 use, and be subjected by the bishop to such other 
 penalties as the bishop shall judge proper to the 
 
JESUITISM. 321 
 
 quality of the offender. But regulars shall neither 
 read nor purchase such Bibles without a special 
 license from their superiors." 
 
 Here, then, was the law of Rome ! To own and 
 read the Bible the Reformers believed to be every 
 man's inalienable right and inviolable duty. Just 
 given to the nations in their languages, it had 
 awakened a new world of light and love and joy. 
 It was now a guide and a friend. It not only 
 pointed the way to the life eternal, but had become 
 a family treasure sacred with records of marriage 
 and birth and baptism and death. The Bible thus 
 gathered into itself all that was dearest in time and 
 most precious in eternity. Shall this book be held 
 at the will of an ecclesiastic ? Shall priest and 
 bishop say who shall sell and buy and read it ? 
 Shall a pope have power to burn, bury, behead men 
 and women v/ho, without written episcopal permis- 
 sion, have in their homes a Bible? These questions 
 touched both civil and religious liberty and involved 
 all man's interests on earth and in heaven. The 
 Index planted the Roman communion in the way of 
 human freedom and progress. It rose, like a 
 mountain of fire, before the reviving Democracy of 
 the Church and of the Commonwealth. 
 
 To enforce the Index the pope invoked the 
 sword. The Inquisition will try the culprit, but the 
 State must put him to death. Priests will con- 
 demn, and monarchs execute. Pontiff and emperor 
 combine in blood to extinguish liberty. This is 
 seen in an edict of Charles V, issued in 1550, re- 
 vived by his son Philip II, sanctioned by popes, 
 
 and forced by priest and armies on the Nether- 
 21 
 
322 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 lands. The imperial decree began a war of eighty 
 years, in which a million perished. The peculiar 
 pontifical favor is seen in a gift to Alva of a jeweled 
 hat and sword, expressing approval of a work of 
 blood in which the Spanish general was himself in- 
 strumental in killing eighteen thousand martyrs, in 
 addition to innumerable victims in sieges and battles. 
 When Philip, who revived the diabolical decree, 
 was ill the same pontiff prayed that God would 
 take years from his own life and add them to the 
 existence of the sick tyrant. At Yuste, on his 
 deathbed, almost with his last breath, Charles en- 
 forced on his son the execution of the edict, which 
 for more than half a century involved Holland, and 
 then Europe, in a blaze of war. 
 
 '' No one shall print, write, copy, keep, conceal, 
 buy, or give, in churches, streets, or other places, 
 any book or writing made by Martin Luther, John 
 CEcolampadius, Ulrich Zwingle, John Calvin, or 
 other heretic reprobated by the holy Church ; nor 
 in his house hold conventicles or illegal gatherings, 
 or be present at any such in which the adherents of 
 the above-mentioned heretics teach, baptize, and 
 form conspiracies against the Church. Moreover, 
 we forbid all lay persons to converse or dispute 
 concerning the Holy Scripture, openly or secretly, 
 especially on any doubtful or controverted matters, 
 or to read, teach, or expound the Scriptures, unless 
 they have duly studied theology and been approved 
 by some renowned university, or to preach, secretly 
 or openly, or to entertain any of the opinions of 
 the above-mentioned heretics." The penalty was 
 that ** such perturbators of the general quiet be 
 
JESUITISM. 323 
 
 executed, the men with the sword, and the women to 
 be buried alive, and all their property in both cases 
 to be confiscated to the crown. We forbid anyone 
 of whatsoever condition to ask of us or of anyone 
 having authority to grant pardon, or to present any 
 petition in favor of such heretics, exiles, or fugitives, 
 on penalty of being forever held incapable of hold- 
 ing any civil or military office and of being arbi- 
 trarily punished besides." 
 
 This edict raised a sublime issue. It was the 
 right of the Christian people to the Bible. Aided 
 by Jesuitism and Inquisition, the papacy and the 
 empire united to stifle the liberty of man to make, 
 to sell, to buy, to own, to read the word of God. 
 Philip II was monarch of the most wealthy, exten- 
 sive, and magnificent empire our earth had yet 
 seen. He ruled the noblest part of the Old World 
 and commanded the glittering treasures of the New. 
 His were the resources of Europe and the gold of 
 America. By sea and land his navies and armies 
 were supreme, and behind Philip were the power, 
 the glory, the majesty of the Roman pontiff. How 
 small Holland and England in the presence of this 
 stupendous political and ecclesiastical combination ! 
 Yet Philip's empire was wrecked in the contest. 
 From the smoke of the battles of centuries Protes- 
 tantism emerged the sun of a modern world. It has 
 proved a light in science, in art, in literature, in 
 government, and brightened the whole path of 
 human liberty. From the fires of Church and 
 State rose the Bible, and, winged by the flames 
 kindled for its destruction, it flies over earth, bear- 
 ing in it the seeds of the life eternal. By it you 
 
324 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 can measure the nations. With it is light, and 
 without it blight. Compare Prussia with Italy ! 
 Compare Scotland with Ireland ! Compare Spain 
 with England ! Compare Peru and Brazil and Mex- 
 ico with the United States! Possessing the Bible, 
 Teutonic races rise, while, deprived of the Bible, 
 Latin races sink. Protestantism with the Bible has 
 taken our world from the grasp of Rome. The 
 light and liberty of the Christian Democracy will be 
 restored to humanity by the freed sons of the 
 Reformation. 
 
POPES. 325 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 Popes. 
 
 ROMAN genius for war and rule created the 
 Roman empire. To conquer Italy required 
 centuries. The defeat of Carthage secured the 
 control of the Mediterranean. When this center of 
 the civilized world was hers Rome sent forth her vic- 
 torious eagles to its circumference. What her sword 
 won her policy preserved. Her success in war and 
 her wisdom in council made inevitable her universal 
 dominion. And as the Italian gift for conquest and 
 government created the empire, so, too, it established 
 the papacy. One was formed by generals and states- 
 men, and the other by priests and pontiffs. 
 
 A seat in the Roman capital was the unrivaled 
 advantage of the Roman bishops. It was, indeed, 
 an indispensable condition. An illustrious metrop- 
 olis sheds glory over a monarch. For ages before 
 popes Rome had been a center of conquest, domin- 
 ion, language, philosophy, art, literature, religion. 
 Earth venerated her impurpled queen. All nations 
 saw in her Pantheon images of their divinities. On 
 her Palatine stood the imperial residence of her mon- 
 arch, adored as a god. Unrivaled in magnificence, 
 her Forum was the famous seat of legislation and 
 eloquence. Above all rose her Capitol. Here the 
 spoils of the world were brought in brilliant triumphs. 
 Even when war and fire and time had desolated 
 
326 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Rome the memories and monuments of her imperial 
 glory were ineffaceable. In such a city the throne 
 of her pontiffs was transfigured in the light of this 
 historic splendor and exalted by the majesty of the 
 ancient empire. 
 
 Legends of Peter also made Rome venerable. On 
 the subject of his visit to the capital of the world 
 Scripture is silent. But tradition speaks. All lists 
 of the Bishops of Rome begin with Peter. How- 
 ever else they differ, in this they agree. And their 
 authors could have had no interest in augmenting 
 authority in popes ; but the reverse. Ignatius men- 
 tions an epistle which Peter wrote from Rome. 
 Tertullian says that Clement was ordained bishop 
 by Peter in Rome. As Peter's Cyprian styles the 
 Church of Rome. Eusebius begins his list with Peter 
 as Bishop of Rome. True or false, on this tradition 
 of fathers was built the papacy. 
 
 But the persistent claim of pontiffs to universal 
 appellate jurisdiction was the means by which they 
 confirmed and extended their supremacy. As early 
 as A. D. 109 a controversy arose about Easter. It 
 went raging on until A. D. 162, when the venerable 
 Polycarp visited Bishop Anicetus, to reconcile in 
 Rome ecclesiastical differences between East and 
 West. A century later the controversy broke out 
 again. Pope Victor asserted his universal sover- 
 eignty by excommunicating all the Churches of 
 Asia Minor. So early was this stupendous claim of 
 pontiffs in the ancient capital of the empire ! 
 
 In the schism of FeHcissimus the illustrious Cyp- 
 rian turned for help from Carthage to Rome. An 
 imperial commissioner, Marcellinus, in the time of 
 
t>OPES. 327 
 
 Augustine presided over an African Council. And 
 in the Pelagian controversy the great Bishopof Hippo 
 himself sought support from the Pope of Rome. 
 Also to her pontiff Chrysostom appealed in his ex- 
 tremity. In each Ecumenical Council the popes 
 had representatives of their supremacy. Innumer- 
 able ecclesiastical disputes arose in Syria, in Egypt, 
 in Byzantium, in Greece, in Carthage, in Gaul, in 
 Spain, in Illyria. Each party in these controversies 
 tried to gain the favor of the Roman bishop. And 
 emperors by their rescripts confirmed the pontifical 
 claim to universal ecclesiastical sovereignty. 
 
 The first popes had slight title to eminence. 
 Clement was a pious man and a respectable writer, 
 but with little originality of thought or power or of 
 expression. Of his immediate successors we know 
 nothing but their names in imperfect lists and 
 records of uncertain date and origin. Not one of 
 the great Latin fathers was a Roman pope. Indeed, 
 Ambrose only was an Italian. Tertullian, Cyprian, 
 and Augustine were from North Africa ; and from 
 these the Western Church derived its most brilliant 
 luster. Through the mists of the Montanist and 
 Patropassian contests dimly rise into view, like 
 shadows, the names of Eleutherus, Victor, Zephy- 
 rinus, and Calixtus. Fabianus was a victim in the 
 Decian persecutions ; and Lucius and Cornelius 
 succeeded to episcopal miter and martyr crown. 
 All three were buried together in the catacombs. 
 During the Diocletian sufferings a cloud obscures 
 the Roman pontiffs. Liberius commenced his epis- 
 copate with hostility to Athanasius and excluded 
 him from the Western communion. Then this pope 
 
3^B THE CHRiStiAN DEMOCkACV. 
 
 oscillated to orthodoxy and anathematized the 
 Arians. He is exiled to inhospitable Thrace. To 
 escape banishment and secure restoration he be- 
 comes a second time heretic and now again condemns 
 Athanasius. An ovation meets him on his return. 
 But he was opposed, and before he regained his 
 episcopal throne Rome ran blood. Her churches 
 were defiled with murder. In this red glare Liberius 
 vanishes from history. 
 
 The Vulgate Bible, translated by Jerome, makes 
 famous the pontificate of Damasus. But even 
 around this pope history shows us lurid and lower- 
 ing clouds. He reached his throne through fright- 
 ful massacres. Siricius signalized his episcopate by 
 the first transmitted papal decree. It was issued 
 to promote clerical celibacy, excited contests for a 
 thousand years, stained the world with blood, and 
 gave it monkery. Not one pope so far has possessed 
 gifts which could secure sovereignty over the na- 
 tions. Now we come to a pontiff who laid the first 
 firm stones in the foundations of the papacy. 
 
 Innocent I. 
 
 Albano was the seat of Numitor, grandfather 
 of Romulus. It is situated on the bank of the ex- 
 quisite lake that bears its name, near the line of 
 the Appian way, across the Campagna, in view of 
 the imperial city. Here Innocent was born. On 
 his mind burst the magnificent conception of the 
 universal dominion of the Latin Church. As the 
 empire sinks the papacy shall rise. Innocent de- 
 clared his jurisdiction, not only over Italy, but over 
 Spain, Gaul, and Africa. The land of Cyprian and 
 
POPES. 329 
 
 Augustine was addressed by the Roman pope in the 
 language of the imperious master. It was he who 
 pronounced sentence in the Pelagian dispute and 
 encouraged Chrysostom when driven from his throne 
 in Constantinople. Even the plunder of Rome by 
 Alaric increased the influence of the papacy. Dur- 
 ing the first siege Innocent was in the city. An 
 enormous ransom was accepted by the barbarian 
 conqueror. To meet his insatiable demand temples 
 were despoiled of their gold and statues of gods 
 melted into money. Afterward the Arian victor 
 took the capital. But his wrath fell on its pagans. 
 He pillaged their palaces and transported them as 
 slaves. When this storm of destruction by Alaric 
 had expended its violence the clear sky looked down 
 on another Rome. The heathen city had vanished. 
 Out of its ruins rose a Christian metropolis, from 
 which pontiffs were to extend their title to the sov- 
 ereignty of the world. 
 
 Leo the Great. 
 
 Like Innocent, this pope glowed with a splendid 
 vision of the future of the Latin Church. He would 
 exalt Christian Rome into a glory brighter than the 
 glare of pagan Rome. The world should be a pon- 
 tifical empire. Leo was born in the imperial city. 
 When yet young he began to perform ecclesiastical 
 service. As an acolyte he bore letters to Africa 
 concerning Pelagius. Even while deacon he re- 
 ceived peculiar honors. After the death of Sixtus, in 
 the year 440, Rome exalted Leo to the vacant epis- 
 copal throne. Enthusiasm was boundless, and he 
 accepted the pontifical scarlet with the assurance 
 
330 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 and dignity of an emperor born to the imperial 
 purple. In him was the native majesty of an ancient 
 Roman. He was full of faith in the destiny of his 
 city as the seat of a universal Christian dominion. 
 The spirit of his conquering and dominating ances- 
 tors stirred in the heart of Leo. Yet his vision was 
 mellowed and magnified by his religion. 
 
 Leo was a preacher of renown. He is the first 
 pontiff whose sermons have been transmitted. Hith- 
 erto pulpit eloquence had distinguished Carthage, 
 Antioch, Milan, and Constantinople. Now it is to 
 adorn Rome, but without the efflorescence of the 
 Orient. Leo will not even revive the splendor of 
 the Latin Cicero. But what is better, the discourses 
 of Leo display a severe Roman majesty suited to 
 the everlasting verities of Christianity. 
 
 Hilarius aspired to a Gallic pontificate. He had 
 deposed Celidonius as the husband of a widow. 
 The degraded ecclesiastic went to Rome. To meet 
 his complaints Hilarius followed on foot across the 
 Alps. Both accuser and accused before Leo ac- 
 knowledged the jurisdiction of Rome over Gaul. 
 The pope condemned Hilarius, and in his decision 
 was supported by an imperial edict of Valentinian. 
 And in a contest with Priscillianism Spain, too,* 
 turned to the pontifical capital. Over Illyricum Leo 
 extended his dominion on the very ground of the 
 universal supremacy inherent in the successors of 
 Peter. 
 
 But from the East, rather than the West, this 
 pontiff received the most illustrious accession to his 
 authority. His title to renown is deserved and 
 brilliant. It was the letter of Leo that shaped the 
 
POPES. 331 
 
 decree of Chalcedon and gave true expression to 
 the doctrine of the Person of Christ. 
 
 In the later years of the pontificate of Leo 
 Attila with his Huns thundered at the gates of 
 Rome. An embassy came before the conqueror. 
 At its head was the venerable pope. The victor 
 was awed by the pontiff, imposing with the majesty 
 of age and office. He consented to retire from 
 Italy. At this hour of supreme peril Leo delivered 
 Church and State. He thus confirmed his episcopal 
 throne and surrounded his head with a halo in 
 history. Before the close of the fifth century Inno- 
 cent and Leo had laid the foundation of the univer- 
 sal supremacy of the papal Church. They had also 
 prepared for the work of a yet more illustrious pon- 
 tiff. 
 
 Gregory the Great. 
 
 Not far from A. D. 540 was his birth year. He 
 sprang from a noble family ; indeed, he was said to 
 have had a papal ancestor. Wealth gave grace to 
 his senatorial name and his aristocratic position. 
 But he bestowed on the Church his ancestral patri- 
 mony. In Sicily Gregory founded six monasteries, 
 and in Rome a seventh, to which he retired. He 
 devoted himself to prayer, study, and composition. 
 Charity and abstinence spread his fame. Miracles 
 were soon ascribed to Gregory. His monastery be- 
 came a scene of supernatural wonders. When made 
 abbot he forced on his monks his own austerities. 
 One brother, Justus, dying, confessed that he had 
 three pieces of gold. Gregory treated the expiring 
 monk as a Simon Magus, forbade approach to his 
 bed, denied him burial, and only after the sacrifice 
 
33^ THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 of the mass for sixty days was the miserable Justus 
 released from his intolerable purgatorial fire. 
 
 This prince of pontiffs in A. D. 590 was elected 
 to his throne. Italy was a ruin. Western Europe 
 groaned under barbaric conquerors. The Lombards 
 stood ready to pour down from the Alps. Anarchy 
 and despair oppressed the world. A great pontiff 
 was needed. Gregory was the man for the crisis. 
 Yet he sought to escape the responsibility and fled 
 in disguise to a forest. Tradition affirms that he 
 was discovered by a pillar of fire which, hovering 
 over his head, was the guide of Heaven to the pon- 
 tifical throne. 
 
 It was Gregory who gave Christianity the magnif- 
 icent chant which bears his name and yet resounds 
 in Roman and Anglican cathedrals. He was an 
 illustrious preacher, a wise administrator, an impar- 
 tial judge, an eloquent orator, and a successful pon- 
 tiff. Throne and pulpit gave power and dignity to 
 his sovereignty. Amid the splendors of his ritual 
 his papal figure was an ideal of venerable pontifical 
 majesty. 
 
 Gregory was also a great temporal ruler. He 
 could summon to arms when Rome was imperiled 
 by the barbarian. A Lombard king he won from 
 the Arian heresy to the orthodox faith. But the 
 most illustrious achievement of his pontificate was 
 the conversion of Britain through the agency of 
 Augustine. His success was a stupendous fact in 
 the history of Europe, which has affected the future 
 civilization of the world. 
 
 This greatest of the Roman popes rebuked John, 
 Patriarch of Constantinople, when he assumed the 
 
POPES. 333 
 
 title of universal bishop, and pronounced his arro- 
 gant assumption blasphemous. 
 
 On March 12, A. D. 604, Gregory died. Alas, 
 how fickle popular favor and pontifical fame! F^am- 
 ine followed the death of the pope, and the Romans 
 avenged their misery by burning his library. They 
 resolved to disinter him and insult his corpse. A 
 pious fraud saved his dust from outrage. Ascend- 
 ing a pulpit, an archdeacon swore that the Holy 
 Ghost in the shape of a dove was often visible over 
 the head of Gregory. In the pictures of the Latin 
 Church this miracle has been made immortal. 
 
 Stephen II. 
 
 On March 26, A. D. 752, he was elected pope. 
 The Lombards again threatened Rome. Its peril 
 was the means of linking papacy and empire. In 
 his despair Stephen crossed the Alps to seek aid in 
 France. As the pontiff approached the king fell 
 prostrate. In this reverence of the Prankish mon- 
 arch was the beginning of a political and ecclesi- 
 astical alliance which gave triumph to the Roman 
 Church. Pepin sent an army into Italy and forced 
 the Lombard Astolph to buy an abject and ignoble 
 peace. But the royal barbarian soon forgot his 
 covenant, marched on Rome, and demanded the 
 person of the pontiff and the possession of his terri- 
 tory. By sea and land Stephen sent messengers to 
 Pepin. His appeals were neglected. A forged let- 
 ter, as from paradise, saved the pope. St. Peter 
 wrote the epistle in his own name. History has pre- 
 served it. Hear words from the hand that holds 
 the keys : 
 
334 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 " I, Peter the apostle, protest, admonish, and ad- 
 jure you, save the beloved city of Rome ! Obey, 
 and, by my suffrage, our Lord Jesus Christ will give 
 you in this life length of days, security, and vic- 
 tory; in the life to come will multiply His blessings 
 upon you among His saints and angels." 
 
 Peter prevailed. His letter from paradise prom- 
 ising present felicity and angelic fellowship drew 
 King Pepin with his army from France, over Alps, 
 to Italy. Astolph was forced to abandon his con- 
 quests and bestow the contested territory on the 
 pope. This magnificent gift was the foundation of 
 the temporal dominion. It conferred on the papacy 
 the most fruitful and beautiful regions of Italy. 
 Henceforth Rome, Lombardy, and Ravenna were 
 represented in the pontifical tiara. Stephen showed 
 Pepin a deed of Constantine the Great ceding to 
 the papacy this splendid dominion. Like Peter's 
 letter, this dotation was a forgery. It is betrayed 
 by its bad Latin, which could not have been writ- 
 ten in the period of Constantine. All scholars, 
 Catholic and Protestant, repudiate the dotation as 
 a fraud. Yet on this admitted fabrication rests the 
 title to that dominion symbolized by the triple 
 crown of pontiffs ! 
 
 Leo hi. 
 
 Charlemagne succeeded his father Pepin ; and 
 after Hadrian's death, on the day following Christ- 
 mas, 795, Leo HI was chosen pope. The gift to 
 Stephen was confirmed by Charlemagne, and the 
 new pontiff sent the monarch the keys of the city 
 and of Peter's sepulcher, with Rome's standard and 
 the title of patrician, in recognition of his imperial 
 
POPES. 335 
 
 sovereignty. But a cloud gathered over the bril- 
 liant prospect of the pope. Riding in his pontifical 
 pomp, armed men sprang from ambush, threw him 
 from his horse, tried to mutilate his person, to cut 
 out his tongue, put out his eyes, and leave him a 
 wreck unfit for his throne. He was beaten and 
 found lying in his blood. But Leo recovered. His 
 escape was esteemed a miracle, and he became ven- 
 erable under the halo of a deliverance from heaven. 
 
 Letters from the pope urged the emperor to 
 Rome. But as Charlemagne would not go to Leo 
 it was best that Leo should go to Charlemagne. 
 He went. He cemented the alliance begun by 
 Pepin and Stephen and continued by Hadrian. He 
 united for ages the pontifical and the imperial 
 power. Leo returned in triumph. Italy gave him 
 an ovation. Soldiers, scholars, ecclesiastics, people 
 poured forth to welcome their successful pontiff. 
 Charlemagne afterward held a synod in Rome, in- 
 vestigated charges against Leo, and accepted his 
 oath to his innocence made before the majesty of 
 the universe. 
 
 On the last Christmas of the eighth century the 
 emperor was present at the service of the Nativity. 
 He came with a magnificence suited to his imperial 
 majesty. Rome rushed to the spectacle. Leo 
 himself chanted the solemn liturgy. When the 
 service ended the pope approached the emperor, 
 placed on his brow a diadem, and saluted him as 
 Caesar Augustus. The assembly burst into tumults 
 of acclaim. Papacy and empire in the circle of that 
 crown were bound together for centuries. All the 
 vast territories swayed by the scepter of the con- 
 
336 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 queror, Charlemagne, were brought more power- 
 fully under the influence of the Roman Church, 
 while the emperor, splendid with a papal diadem, 
 was invested with an awe greater than attached to 
 Roman Caesars. The coronation is made immortal 
 by a fresco of Raphael. 
 
 Yet the thankless Romans did not appreciate this 
 stupendous achievement of their pope. A con- 
 spiracy was formed for his murder. Leo detected 
 the plot, seized his enemies, and executed their 
 leaders. Fire and sword now devastated Rome, 
 once more given to pillage. In the midst of a pop- 
 ular tempest the soul of Leo passed into eternity, 
 where foe could not follow. But his Romans went 
 forth from their gates to plunder his neighboring 
 estates, and the flames of incendiaries lighted to 
 his tomb the pope who had married Church and 
 
 Empire. 
 
 Nicholas L 
 
 In the sixth century the papal decretals, begin- 
 ning with Siricius, were collected by Dionysius 
 Exiguus. His work circulated over Europe in 
 Spanish and Gallic recensions. One of these was 
 by Isidore, of Seville. But under his venerated 
 name was perpetrated a stupendous fraud. A 
 series of the decrees of pontiffs, beginning with 
 Clement, a pope nearly three hundred years before 
 Siricius, appeared in the ninth century. In this 
 work bishops not long after the Augustan age 
 wrote in barbarous mediaeval Latin. Prankish 
 customs were represented as prevalent in imperial 
 Rome. Popes before Jerome quoted the Vulgate 
 of Jerome. Victor, a pontiff in A. D. 192, appears 
 
POPES. 337 
 
 addressing Theophilus, an Alexandrian archbishop 
 in A. D. 385. Decrees were invented, altered, and 
 interpolated. Scripture is absurdly and stupidly 
 perverted. The forgery exalted sacerdotalism and 
 papacy. It depicted episcopacy in a supremacy of 
 authority. On the apex of a hierarchy ascending 
 rank above rank sits the Roman pontiff, his chair 
 the throne, his crook the scepter, his miter the dia- 
 dem of Christendom ! 
 
 Nicholas I was made pope in A. D. 858. During 
 his pontificate the spurious Isidorian decretals ap- 
 peared in Rome. Before this time they were un- 
 known. Yet they professed to have been always 
 from apostolic times the supreme law of the Latin 
 Church. It is beyond belief that Nicholas did not 
 know these decretals to be forgeries. Yet he ac- 
 cepted the fraud to exalt his prerogative. On the 
 fabrications of Isidore inventions were piled by the 
 great Anselm. In the middle of the twelfth century 
 was published Gratian's Decretum. Upon Isidore 
 and Anselm this built the falsehoods which com- 
 plete the papal system. As the territorial dominion 
 of the Roman pontiffs was erected on the forgeries 
 of Constantine's dotation, so the ecclesiastical do- 
 minion of Roman pontiffs is erected on the Isido- 
 rian decretals. On fraud, from foundation to sum- 
 mit, rests the imposing and marvelous structure. 
 
 HiLDEBRAND. 
 
 He was elected in A. D. 1073, and took Gregory 
 VII as his pontifical title. His ambition was a 
 papal autocracy over earth. To realize this world- 
 dream he resolved to make celibacy universal. And 
 22 
 
338 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 in this he showed his Italian instincts of rulership. 
 Only an unmarried clergy can execute the absolute 
 pontifical will. A system against nature, to suc- 
 ceed, must first violate nature. Ten centuries had 
 not established celibacy over Europe. In some 
 countries married priests lived with their wives and 
 children. But in other lands concubinage pre- 
 vailed, and its license to the clergy made a large 
 part of the episcopal revenues. Hildebrand deter- 
 mined to enforce clerical celibacy over Europe. In 
 1074 he issued his papal command declaring that 
 priests who did not leave their wives should cease 
 their sacred functions. Homes were blasted, hearts 
 were lacerated, husbands were degraded, wives were 
 branded prostitutes, and children bastards. In- 
 tolerable misery multiplied suicides. Whole regions 
 of Europe were darkened by the madness of despair. 
 But the heart of the pontiff-monk was as hard as 
 the wall of his cell. 
 
 Charlemagne had endowed the Church and pro- 
 tected Leo ; but Leo crowned Charlemagne and 
 declared him emperor. Did Leo hold of Charle- 
 magne, or did Charlemagne hold of Leo? These 
 questions caused innumerable wars between the 
 papal Guelfs and the imperial Ghibellines. Germany 
 was perpetually agitated, Italy desolated, Europe 
 disturbed by the battles of the pontiffs against the 
 emperors. With Henry IV Hildebrand made an 
 issue upon the old burning question. He excom- 
 municated the monarch and released his subjects 
 from allegiance. Like a thundering Jupiter, he 
 hurled over the world his anathemas. Henry first 
 resisted and then yielded. Terrified with despair, 
 
POPES. 339 
 
 the German emperor in winter climbed the snow of 
 the Alps to beg absolution. In the white robe of a 
 penitent he stood three days shivering before the 
 Castle of Canossa. Hildebrand consented to receive 
 the humiliated royal rebel. What a contrast ! This 
 descendant of kings, in his splendid manhood, claim- 
 ing imperial authority from Roman Caesars, kneels 
 to the plebeian pope, small in stature, but august 
 above emperors in his awful claim to open and close 
 the portals of eternity. Henry is absolved ; but he 
 acknowledges that he wears the diadem of Caesar 
 and Charlemagne from the hand and at the will of 
 pontiffs. Yet he had his revenge. Ten years after 
 he marches on Rome. He takes the city and gives 
 it for pillage to merciless Normans. A prisoner in 
 his own castle, St. Angelo, the pope sees his pon- 
 tifical rival place the imperial crown on the head of 
 the monarch he had degraded at Canossa. Hilde- 
 brand fled from Rome in flames and died in exile 
 
 at Salerno. 
 
 Innocent III. 
 
 The father of this pope claimed descent from 
 Lombard dukes, and his mother from Roman sena- 
 tors. Young Lothario began his education in 
 Rome, continued it in Paris, and graduated from 
 Bologna. He was early made a canon of St. Peter's, 
 and at twenty-eight a cardinal. In 1198 he was ex- 
 alted to the popedom. We have expressed in his 
 inaugural sermon his lofty pontifical aspiration. In 
 him alone was the sublime ideal of the papacy 
 realized. 
 
 Just as the twelfth century was closing Innocent 
 assumed to decide between the titles of three claim- 
 
340 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 ants to the imperial crown of Germany. Otho, Philip, 
 and Frederick were rivals for the lofty dignity. To 
 the first Innocent awarded the diadem. Ten years 
 of war in Germany followed his decision. Havoc 
 and murder wasted and stained the land. Philip 
 was assassinated, and after years of fierce battles 
 the victorious Frederick was crowned emperor. 
 
 Philip Augustus of France had renounced his 
 Danish wife and married his beautiful Agnes, for 
 whom he had a passion of love. Innocent interposed 
 his papal authority. He commanded the king to 
 repudiate Agnes and restore Ingeborg. Philip re- 
 fused. France was placed under interdict. A car- 
 dinal legate declared the ban. Churches were 
 closed, crosses veiled, relics entombed, sacraments 
 ceased ; the dead were cast out like dogs, or buried 
 in unconsecrated ground. Festivals, ceremonies, 
 processions were prohibited over the kingdom. A 
 pall like death spread over France. The papal de- 
 cree closed man's intercourse with God, and barred 
 earth from heaven. Anathemas terrified Philip, and 
 he yielded to Innocent. France virtually held her 
 crown from Rome. 
 
 Nor was England less subservient to an Italian 
 pontiff. Innocent commanded Stephen Langton to 
 be chosen Archbishop of Canterbury. King John 
 was furious, and swore the prelate should not enter 
 England. Royal blasphemies answered papal 
 thunders. Innocent declared an interdict. A cloud 
 hung over England black with papal wrath and 
 charged with papal lightnings. Like Henry of Ger- 
 many and Philip of P>ance, John of Britain sub- 
 mitted. He acknowledged himself a vassal of Rome. 
 
POPES. 341 
 
 He delivered his crown and, as a subject, received 
 it back from Innocent. He paid to an Italian pon- 
 tiff an annual tribute of a thousand marks to show 
 that sovereignty was no longer in England. Papacy 
 ruled Europe. But brief its ideal of dominion. 
 From the death of Innocent III its political power 
 declined, until now it is a cipher in the world. 
 
 While in the plenitude of his supreme and univer- 
 sal pontifical sovereignty Innocent annulled Magna 
 Charta and excommunicated every Englishman 
 who signed that paper, the immortal safeguard of 
 Democracy. 
 
 Celestin V. 
 
 He was Peter Morone, a solitary in Abruzzi. In 
 his infancy he said he saw the Virgin descend from 
 a picture to chant the Psalter. When in manhood, 
 starved and filthy, he lived in a hole. Here he be- 
 lieved he heard a bell from heaven calling him to 
 prayer. Angels showered roses on his head. On 
 Cardinal Malebranco's nomination this half-crazed 
 and repulsive monk, by unanimous acclaim, was 
 elected pope. He was found, like a wild beast, in 
 his hermit cave. Before him the cardinals fell on 
 their knees. Peter was amazed. He would not be- 
 lieve the announcement and tried to escape. At 
 last the King of Naples persuaded him to accept 
 the pontifical dignity. But under his papal robes 
 he would wear his monk's haircloth. Kings held his 
 bridle, and cardinals kissed his foot. Orsini gave 
 his scarlet mantle and a miter flaming with gold and 
 jewels. Peter was crowned and anointed pope. 
 Infallibility did not correct his Latin or preserve 
 him from scoundrels. Celestin V lavished his treas- 
 
342 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACV. 
 
 ures and dignities on knaves and became their dupe. 
 In his palace he pined for his cell. The monk, per- 
 plexed into despair at last, resigned his pontificate 
 on the ground of his ignorance. Infallibility urged 
 its faUibility as a reason for its abdication. His car- 
 dinals received his demission of his pontificate. 
 Celestin relieved himself of robe and miter and 
 crown, resumed his monk's habit, and returned 
 happy to his mountain cave. But, dreading his 
 popularity, his successor imprisoned him in the 
 Castle of Fumone, where a fever released him from 
 his miseries. 
 
 Boniface VIII. 
 
 This pontiff in his Unam Sanctam affirmed that 
 "if the temporal power errs it is judged by the 
 spiritual. We therefore insist and define that it is 
 necessary to salvation to believe that every human 
 being is subject to the Pontiff of Rome." This bull 
 of Boniface, supported by the Vatican Decree of Pio 
 Nono, makes it the irrepealable creed of the Latin 
 Church that without submission to an Italian pontiff 
 no man can believe in Jesus Christ and attain heaven. 
 
 By his papal thunders Boniface tried to terrify 
 and subdue Europe. But vain the flash of his light- 
 nings. The world had outgrown the fulminations 
 of Innocent, and mocked the miathemas of Boniface. 
 Betrayed, deserted, insulted, he was driven from his 
 palace. This lord of earth and dispenser of heaven 
 sat weeping amid the ruins he had made. He 
 begged a morsel of bread and a drop of water. 
 Boniface was conducted to prison with his face to- 
 ward the tail of his horse, and died a captive in sol- 
 itary agony. 
 
POPES. 343 
 
 Clement V. 
 Bernard de Goth, Archbishop of Bordeaux, met 
 the King of France in a forest. The monarch daz- 
 zled the prelate with a vision of the papal crown. 
 He could wear the tiara if he made certain pledges. 
 Bernard sold himself, and Philip had him elected 
 pope. The meaning of the bargain soon appeared. 
 Bernard called himself Clement V, was crowned at 
 Lyons, and moved the pontifical residence from 
 Rome to Avignon. The French capital became 
 more corrupt than the Italian. It was a moral 
 plague spot on Europe. On the 20th of April, 
 1 3 14, Clement expired. His treasure was stolen; 
 his body was neglected ; only a sheet was left him 
 for his shroud. The house in which he lay took 
 fire. His corpse was partially burned, and, as if in 
 mockery, his ashes were interred with solemn pomp. 
 Clement stamped on Avignon his shameful charac- 
 ter. After a life of luxury he left enormous wealth, 
 disgracefully accumulated, and a memory forever 
 blackening to the papacy. 
 
 Benedict XIII and Gregory XII. 
 By the exile of Avignon, Rome, in the plenitude 
 of its pontifical power, received a shattering shock, 
 from which it has never recovered. The Church 
 was rent with strifes. Ecclesiastical' contests made 
 infidels and affected the whole constitution of society. 
 Nation warred with nation, and pope with pope. 
 Senile infallibilities hurled their excommunications 
 at each other. Europe was bewildered when pontiff 
 damned pontiff. For seventy years this schism shook 
 the world. At its close Benedict XIII and Gregory 
 
344 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCfeACV. 
 
 XII appeared, each consigning the other to ever- 
 lasting flames. The Council of Pisa was convoked 
 to terminate this disgrace. Both popes were con- 
 demned as infamous by a decree read by the Patri- 
 arch of Alexandria, which affirms that their ** crimes 
 and excesses adduced before the Council were true 
 and of public fame, and that by their enormous in- 
 iquities they are unworthy of all honors and digni- 
 ties ; and, though by the canons they are actually 
 rejected by God, nevertheless the Church, by this 
 definite sentence, deposes, rejects, and cuts them 
 off, both and each, from any longer assuming the 
 sovereign pontificate." 
 
 John XXIII. 
 
 A conclave of sixteen cardinals at Bologna elected 
 Balthasar Cossa pope. He chose John XXIII for 
 his pontifical name. The regularity of his election 
 was incontestable, and he was crowned, enthroned, 
 accepted by the Church, and acknowledged over 
 Europe. No pontifical title was ever more legiti- 
 mate. He was soon proved to have been a pirate, 
 an adulterer, and a tyrant. John was a monster of 
 iniquity, black as Nero. Two of his secretaries are 
 witnesses to his crimes. On the 5th of November, 
 1414, he opened the Council of Constance. Seldom 
 has the world seen a more magnificent assembly than 
 that in the Alpine town encircled by its mountains 
 and imaged in its lake. In their gorgeous ecclesias- 
 tical state sat in that Council twenty-five provosts, 
 fifty doctors, one hundred and thirty-four abbots, 
 one hundred and fifty bishops, thirty-three arch- 
 bishops, twenty-nine cardinals, and four patriarchs. 
 
The splendor of the empire was represented in the 
 person of the imperial Sigismund. Over his impos- 
 ing assembly John presided with all the insignia of 
 his pontifical authority. 
 
 After Huss and Jerome had been burned, an 
 attack was made on the pope who directed the pro- 
 ceedings against the martyrs. Heretic and pontiff 
 were tried by the same tribunal. Self-condemned, 
 guilty, and terrified, John fled. But in his absence 
 he was deposed, and the pontifical chair pronounced 
 vacant. A decree also declared that the sovereignty 
 of the Church was not in the pope, but in an Ecu- 
 menical Council. The charges on which John was 
 condemned were schism, heresy, maladministration, 
 scandals, and notorious crimes. 
 
 Alexander VI. 
 
 The noble liberality of Leo XIII has opened to 
 the world the Vatican library. Already his gener- 
 osity has borne fruit. Dr. Ludwig Pastor has 
 written from Vatican records a life of Alexander 
 Borgia. Thus by Catholic testimony on the papal 
 father, his monster son, and his lascivious daughter 
 are fixed stains of crimes red as pontifical scarlet. 
 Borgia bribed Cardinal Sforza with four mule- 
 loads of silver for his vote and influence in the con- 
 clave. Having lived illicitly with a Roman lady, 
 Alexander had children by her daughter, Rosa 
 Vanozza. At the marriage of Lucretia Borgia in 
 the Vatican the pope's mistress Julia was present. 
 Licentious plays and songs disgraced the nuptial 
 festivities. Infessura testifies that Rome's clergy 
 and converts were as infamous as the pontifl". Caesar 
 
34^ THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Borgia, Alexander's son, was a monster. He mur- 
 dered his brother and threw his body into the Tiber. 
 By his orders his sister's husband was stabbed on 
 his palace steps. The pope sent out a guard to pro- 
 tect his son-in-law. Csesar laughed at his father's 
 precautions, burst into the wounded man's chamber, 
 drove out his wife, and summoned the executioner 
 to strangle his victim. He slew Perolto, Alexander's 
 friend, while covered by the pope's mantle. Blood 
 from the son's dagger flew into the father's face. 
 Papal Rome surpasses imperial Rome in crime. 
 
 SiXTUS V. 
 
 After the Council of Trent the Church wanted an 
 authentic edition of the Latin Bible. This Sixtus 
 promised to provide. His bull declared his edition, 
 corrected by himself, alone authentic and the 
 universal standard. All rejecting it were excom- 
 municated. To change a word exposed to anathema. 
 Sixtus opened hell's gates to each man who censured 
 a book published on his infallible authority. But 
 his edition was found full of blunders. Of these two 
 thousand were traced to Sixtus. A second edition 
 ascribed the errors of the first to compositors and 
 assistants. A papal lie shielded the papal infalli- 
 bility. Cardinal Bellarmine was directed to circu- 
 late the falsehoods. He himself tells the story and 
 congratulates himself on the execution of his task. 
 
 Urban VHI. 
 
 This pope started the procedure against Galileo. 
 The philosopher's faith in Copernicus excited an 
 ecclesiastical tempest. Priestly rage was universal. 
 
POPES. M7 
 
 Galileo completes his telescope and turns it to the 
 heavens. What a spectacle of glory ! Venus is not 
 seen with her splendors as a star. She shines a 
 crescent on the blue of heaven. This is a proof to 
 the eye of the Copernican system. But with this 
 vision of truth and glory papal thunders burst over 
 Galileo. He is accused as a heretic, he is perse- 
 cuted to his solitary grave, he is denied both a mon- 
 ument and an epitaph. 
 
 Vatican records recently made public show that 
 Urban charged the Florentine Inquisition to cite 
 the philosopher to appear at Rome before the 
 holy office. The examiners met in the Church 
 of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. After investiga- 
 tion they declared the Copernican system "wrong 
 and contrary to the Scripture." Under fear of 
 torture, on his knees, touching the Gospels, Galileo 
 was forced to swear false the opinion that " the 
 sun is the center of the system and immov- 
 able," and to say, ** I abjure, curse, and detest the 
 error." 
 
 When blind, ruptured, a pitiable fragment of a 
 man wrecked by priests. Urban would not permit 
 Galileo to leave Florence or to speak of his con- 
 demned opinions. After his death the pope forbade 
 a monument to commemorate the philosopher. 
 Not until 1734 was it allowed in Santa Croce by the 
 holy office. Only in 1757 did Benedict XIV re- 
 move Galileo's writings from the papal Index. As 
 late as 1822 the Congregation gave its first per- 
 mission to publish works on the motion of the 
 earth and the stability of the sun as taught by 
 Copernicus. 
 
34B titE CHklStlAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Gregory XIII. 
 Of this pope Salviati was nuncio at the French 
 court. He kept a journal, which has been recently 
 published. From Salviati we have authentic testi- 
 mony in regard to the massacre of St. Bartholomew. 
 From his Catholic pages we learn that on the day 
 of the murders Charles IX wrote to Rome. Within 
 two days Beauville, the ambassador's nephew, set 
 off for the papal city. The news of the massacre 
 was already there. A secret messenger had been 
 dispatched by Mandelot, Governor of Lyons, to in- 
 form Gregory that the Huguenots had been slain. 
 His holiness ordered the bearer of the ghastly news 
 to be rewarded with a hundred crowns and Rome to 
 be illuminated. Salviati wrote that ** he desired to 
 fling himself at the pope's feet for joy. It was a 
 fair sight to see the Catholics in the streets wearing 
 crosses and cutting down the heretics." When the 
 letter was received at the Vatican Palace the car- 
 dinals attended the pontiff to a " Te Deum " in the 
 nearest church. For three days and nights Rome was 
 illuminated. Gregory said that the news was worth to 
 him more than fifty victories of Lepanto, where the 
 naval power of the Turk was overthrown. Protes- 
 tants were more hateful than Mohammedans. With 
 thirty-three cardinals the pope attended a thanksgiv- 
 ing mass in the Church of St. Louis, and proclaimed 
 a jubilee. He issued a bull which says : *' Forasmuch 
 as God armed the King of France to inflict vengeance 
 onthehereticsfortheinjurydonetoreligionandtopun- 
 ish the leaders of the rebellion, Catholics should pray 
 that he may have grace to pursue his auspicious enter- 
 prise and so complete what he has begun so well." 
 
POPES. 349 
 
 To commemorate the massacre Gregory ordered 
 medals to be struck. He also summoned Vasari 
 from Florence to prepare a picture for the Hall of 
 Kings. We have seen that grim painting. For 
 three centuries it has hung in the Vatican. Each 
 pope may pass it on his way to mass in his Sistine 
 Chapel. What a scene of horrors ! What a proof of 
 priestly cruelty ! What a satire on pontifical infalli- 
 bility ! Demons, daggers, blood, death, massacre it 
 would seem could please only demons ! 
 
 PlO NONO. 
 
 A roar of artillery from St. Angelo announced 
 the day of the opening of his Vatican Council. 
 Each church in Rome peals its bell. The streets 
 of the papal city are thronged, and the wide piazza 
 and noble colonnades of its grand cathedral become 
 filled. Schemata have been prepared, committees 
 selected, and St. Peter's welcomes prelates from 
 every region of the earth. Pio Nono thinks that 
 he has begun a new ecclesiastical era which will 
 regenerate humanity. On the dogma of papal in- 
 fallibility he expects to build a structure of ecclesi- 
 astical beauty and glory. Hence this his assem- 
 blage in all the splendor of the gold and scarlet of 
 Rome! 
 
 Bursts of music come from the partitioned tran- 
 sept of St. Peter's where the Council is about to sit, 
 and out through the door and above the vast crowd, 
 and rise into that sublime dome which seems like 
 the visible crown of the papal system. Cardinal 
 Patrizi celebrates mass. Bishop Fessler places the 
 Gospels on a throne above the altar. Head of the 
 
350 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 magnificent pageant, the holy father appears in 
 the utmost gorgeousness of his pontifical splendor. 
 
 But opposition develops. To carry his decree 
 Pio Nono requires all his resources of caress and 
 patronage and rebuke. Both his smiles and his 
 frowns become necessary. Winter lingers into 
 spring, and summer changes Rome into a furnace, 
 and during this weary period of stormy discussions 
 two adverse prelates made themselves famous by 
 the point of their argument and the power of their 
 eloquence. But, despite these unanswerable pro- 
 tests, Pio Nono's decree passed his Vatican Coun- 
 cil. On the i8th of July, 1870, from the pulpit of 
 the august assembly, the Bishop of Fabriano an- 
 nounced its decision : 
 
 *' If, then, any shall say that the Roman pontiff 
 has the office merely of inspection or direction, and 
 not full and supreme power of jurisdiction, over 
 the whole Church, ... let him be anathema / . . . 
 We teach and define that it is a dogma divinely re- 
 vealed that the Roman pontiff, when he speaks ex 
 cathedra — that is, when in the office of pastor and 
 doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme 
 apostolic authority, he defines a dogma regarding 
 faith and morals to be held by the universal Church 
 — by the divine assistance promised the blessed 
 Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which 
 the divine Redeemer willed His Church to be 
 crowned. ... If anyone, which God forbid, pre- 
 sume to contradict this definition, let him be 
 anathema ! ** 
 
 This proclamation of Pio Nono, seemingly the 
 result of his own personal influence, was yet the 
 
POPES. 351 
 
 outgrowth of the Roman Catholic history and is 
 the crown of the Roman Catholic system. Nature 
 herself marshaled her elements to make the oc- 
 casion memorable. Ecclesiastics as they voted 
 were saluted by thunder peals from heaven. St. 
 Peter's shook and reverberated with celestial artil- 
 lery. Without, assembled thousands waited in a 
 glare of lightnings. And how marvelous the effect 
 on Pio Nono ! His humiliation in three months 
 was deep as that of Hildebrand or Boniface. On 
 his knees, like a vulgar pilgrim, he climbed Pilate's 
 staircase, bade farewell to his Lateran cathedral, 
 and retired for life, self-imprisoned within his Vati- 
 can boundaries. After his pontifical abasement 
 what a rush of events ! We are bewildered at the 
 vastness and rapidity of the revolution : Sedan ; 
 Metz ; in Paris conquering Germans ; the Emperor 
 of France a captive ; Napoleonic imperialism, that 
 life guard of papacy, shivered into fragments ; on 
 the steps of the palace of Louis the Grand the Prus- 
 sian William proclaimed German emperor ; Victor 
 Emmanuel in the pontifical palace of the Quirinal ; 
 the papal territory, procured by forgery, vanished 
 hke a cloud ; a French republic ; a united Italy ; 
 a Protestant German empire ; political Romanism 
 shattered forever ; a way opened for the triumph 
 of the future universal Christian Democracy ! 
 
35^ THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 Anglicanism. 
 
 ANGLICANISM, in its Articles and Homilies, 
 repudiates Rome. Its standards flame with 
 burning invectives against papal idolatry and 
 usurpation. They style the pontiff antichrist, and 
 his capital Babylon. Indeed, Anglicanism, as a 
 secession, can only justify its existence by its con- 
 demnation of Romanism. Nor is it by its principles 
 less completely separated from the Greek commun- 
 ion. While its Articles, with unequaled clearness 
 and beauty, state the doctrines of the Reformation, 
 yet by the exclusive claims of its apostolical suc- 
 cession it has erected an impassable barrier between 
 itself and Protestantism. We perceive, therefore, 
 that it stands alone in the world. By the necessities 
 of its Hfe Anglicanism is forced to present itself as 
 the sole legitimate representative of Christianity. 
 It is the stone which will rise into a mountain and 
 fill the earth. Let us examine its title ! 
 
 The genius of Anglicanism is conservatism ; and 
 its key is compromise. Henry VIII gave it the 
 impress of his own policy. He renounced papal 
 supremacy, and retained papal doctrine. Catholics 
 he burned for allegiance to Rome, and Protestants 
 for refusing the creed of Rome. The English king 
 was for the Reformation and against the Reforma- 
 tion. Cranmer both shaped and reflected the policy 
 
ANGLICANISM. 353 
 
 of Henry. Conservatism in the monarch and rad- 
 icalism in the archbishop gave an uncertain charac- 
 ter to the whole Protestant movement in England. 
 Even in his death Cranmer exhibited the vacilla- 
 tions of his character. He was no assured martyr. 
 He had no joy ; he won no crown. A false hand 
 signed a recantation, and when made a true hand 
 burned in the fire. Cranmer amid flames was a con- 
 tradiction. 
 
 When Mary came to the throne Latimer and Rid- 
 ley, of all the bishops, alone had the grace of mar- 
 tyrdom. There was an episcopal stampede to Rome. 
 King Philip gave England conservative advice. It 
 was accepted. If the nobility returned to the pope 
 they were permitted to retain the plunder of the 
 monasteries. When Elizabeth grasped the scepter 
 we find the same facility of faith and service. Yet 
 amid this servility and selfishness there were noble 
 men who returned from Continental exile to vindi- 
 cate in immortal works the doctrines of the Ref- 
 ormation. They came from Switzerland glowing 
 with the faith of Calvin, and were elevated by the 
 queen to the highest offices in her gift. Left to 
 themselves, they would have made the Anglican 
 Church a pure Protestant communion. But Eliza- 
 beth resisted with the power of her personal influ- 
 ence and royal prerogative. As a sovereign of two 
 great religious parties she wished creed and cere- 
 mony wide enough to embrace Catholics and Prot- 
 estants. Reform was arrested, and two antagonistic 
 elements left in the Articles and Ofiices of the Eng- 
 lish Church. Compromise became hereafter its in- 
 delible characteristic. 
 23 
 
354 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Down far into the next century we have remark- 
 able proof of the tendency we have described. Eng- 
 land is associated with the cause of freedom and 
 progress in every period of her history and in every 
 region of the earth. What heroic patriots have 
 been nurtured in her national Church ! Liberty 
 owes her triumphs over the world largely to the 
 British empire. Yet at this moment Charles I is 
 on the calendar of the English Church. A man 
 who used his prerogative like a tyrant, who plunged 
 into war to support usurpation, who gave no oath 
 he did not break, and felt his royal honor bound by 
 neither pledge nor covenant, has his name on the roll 
 of Anglican saints. And until within a few years 
 his son Charles II was with him on the sacred list. 
 For more than a century this royal adulterer, who 
 polluted his court, polluted the stage, polluted lit- 
 erature, his realm, his times, history itself, was on 
 the English calendar with apostles and martyrs and 
 angels and archangels. 
 
 Three things give character to Anglicanism — apos- 
 tolical succession, clerical priesthood, and baptismal 
 regeneration. Let us pause for a brief examination : 
 
 I. Apostolical Succession. 
 
 Archbishop Cranmer claimed no exclusive right 
 for the episcopate. For years he permitted the 
 Presbyterian Knox to minister in English parishes. 
 Jewel, most brilliant of Anglican Reformers, was ap- 
 pointed by Elizabeth to the see of Salisbury. A 
 queen's smile, a superb palace, a noble cathedral, 
 with the state and revenues of a lord, did not make 
 him forget the Continental Calvinistic divines who 
 
ANGLICANISM. 355 
 
 gave shelter from Mary when she reddened England 
 with martyr fires. The Zurich Letters are side lights 
 on the heart, the life, the doctrine of the man. But 
 we are not left to incidental proofs. Jewel has be- 
 queathed his testimony in those memorable words 
 which express his own Anglican position : '* Law- 
 ful succession standeth, not only in succession of 
 place, but also, and much rather, in succession in 
 doctrine and diligence. Faith cometh, not by suc- 
 cession, but by hearing ; and hearing cometh, not of 
 legacy and succession from bishop to bishop, but of 
 the word of God. It is not sufficient to claim suc- 
 cession of place ; it behooveth us rather to have suc- 
 cession of doctrine. " 
 
 Archbishop Whitgift says : " It is certain that 
 any one certain kind or form of external government, 
 perpetually to be observed, is nowhere in the Scrip- 
 ture prescribed to the Church. One Church is not 
 bound of necessity in all things to follow another. 
 You may not bind us to follow any particular Church, 
 neither ought you consent to any such servitude." 
 
 Dr. Andrew Willet, Prebend of Ely, wrote that 
 " every Church is not tied to the same manner of 
 ordination of ministers, so that it be agreeable to 
 the word of God. But, according to this rule, every 
 Church may make choice of that form and order 
 which is most agreeable to their state, so that, when 
 the calling of bishops is received, by them ministers 
 must enter ; where there are none, the caUing of 
 the Church must be followed." 
 
 Nor did the learned Archbishop Ussher differ 
 from Jewel, Whitgift, and Willet. With approval 
 he quotes these words of Dr. Rainolds : " Pres- 
 
356 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 byters were constituted bishops by the Holy Ghost 
 that they might superintend and feed the flock ; 
 and that this might be more effectually accomplished 
 by their united council and consent they were ac- 
 customed to meet together in one company, and to 
 elect one as president of the assembly whom Christ 
 in the Revelation denominates the angel of the 
 Church, and to whom He writes those things He 
 meant him to signify to others. And this is the per- 
 son whom the fathers in the primitive Church denom- 
 inated bishop. The intrinsic power of ordaining pro- 
 ceedeth, not from jurisdiction, but only from order; 
 but a presbyter hath the same power in kind with a 
 bishop ; therefore, a presbyter hath equal power to 
 give orders." 
 
 And the great Bishop Stillingfleet asserts : " In 
 the first primitive Church the presbyters all acted 
 in common for the welfare of the Church, and either 
 did, or might, ordain others to the same authority 
 with themselves, because the intrinsical power of 
 order is equally in them and in those who were after- 
 ward appointed governors over presbyters." 
 
 Dr. Lightfoot, late Bishop of Durham, is the 
 brightest Anglican luminary of our century. He 
 gave his whole strength to the subject of orders. 
 Years were spent by him in the elucidation of 
 Ignatius. His industry and ability have made him 
 a master and an oracle. We have the conclusions of 
 his life labor in his Apostolic Age. "• The episco- 
 pate," Lightfoot says, " was formed, not out of 
 apostolic order by local action, but out of the pres- 
 byterial, by election ; and the title, which was orig- 
 inally common to all, came at length to be appro- 
 
ANGLICANISM. 357 
 
 priated by the chief among them. If this account 
 be true we might expect to find in the mother Church 
 at Jerusalem, which as the first founded would ripen 
 first to maturity, the first traces of this developed 
 form of ministry. Nor is this expectation disap- 
 pointed. James, the Lord's brother, alone, within 
 the period compassed by the apostolic writings, can 
 claim to be regarded as a bishop. And this position 
 is the more remarkable if, as seems to have been the 
 case, he was not of the twelve. As we turn to Rome 
 it has often been assumed that, as the metropolis of 
 the world, a monarchic form of government would 
 be more developed than in other parts of Christen- 
 dom. But such a presumption vanishes before the 
 slightest evidence of facts. And the most note- 
 worthy evidence we possess does not countenance 
 the idea. The earliest document mentions only two 
 orders and is silent about the episcopal office. 
 Again, not many years after the date of Clement, 
 St. Ignatius writes to the Romans ; and although 
 the remaining six of the Ignatian letters all contain 
 injunctions of obedience to bishops, in this epistle 
 alone there is no mention of the episcopal office." 
 We see, then, that since the Reformation the 
 greatest Anglican writers have taught that the 
 bishop is a presbyter, superior, not in order, but in 
 office. Yet against this view is the law of the 
 English Church. The Anglican communion exalts 
 itself as the sole normal and legitimate represent- 
 ative of Christianity. Its orders are repudiated by 
 both Greeks and Latins, while it repudiates all 
 Protestant orders. Hence the Anglican Church 
 stands isolated in Christendom. It resembles a 
 
358 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 solitary island in mid ocean. Only within its rock- 
 bound limits do we find Christianity. 
 
 Nor is eucharist less guarded than ordination. 
 The only lawful approach to the table of the Lord 
 is episcopal confirmation. Through a bishop the 
 minister comes to his office, and through a bishop 
 the member comes to the Communion. Between 
 the soul and Christ is a bishop. Yet the best An- 
 glican authors oppose this high Anglican position. 
 Here, then, we have the inevitable Anglican incer- 
 titude. Compromise and conservatism, with a re- 
 sulting vacillation and antagonism, are in the gen- 
 ius of Anglicanism. 
 
 II. Clerical Priesthood. 
 
 The title of an office stamps its functionary. Its 
 impress is visible on the whole man. Yet we have 
 seen that the name *' priest " in the New Testa- 
 ment is never applied to ministers, and is always 
 applied to Christians. Against scriptural usage, 
 the Greek and Latin communions have priests. 
 While not biblical, they are consistent. Offering is 
 essential to a priest. And he has an offering if the 
 bread and wine are converted by him into the body 
 and blood of Christ — indeed, a stupendous offering. 
 Accept the theory of the mass, and its sacrifice is 
 sublime. Angels and mortals might well adore in 
 awe. But the English Articles and Homilies style 
 transubstantiation a superstition, against the nature 
 of a sacrament, without Holy Scripture. Such a 
 declaration destroys the very function of a priest. 
 It leaves him only bread and wine to offer. What 
 a pitiable service ! Instead of being sublime, it is 
 
ANGLICANISM. 359 
 
 puerile. Anglicanism denies transubstantiation, 
 and retains " priest " — incertitude at its very altar. 
 
 Nor is its absolution less equivocal. Greek and 
 Latin priests remit the sins of individuals after 
 confession. The penitent is forgiven as a person. 
 Each man leaves his priest absolved. How in 
 Anglicanism ? Its office is not for the individual, 
 but the congregation. Examine it ! You find that 
 it is only a prayer for all who repent and believe. 
 Even its condition is not a personal faith in the 
 blood of Christ, but a general belief in the 
 Gospel. All is left in a shadow of uncertainty. 
 No relief is given to the individual conscience, 
 Anglicanism has thus a priest without a sacrifice, 
 and absolution without remission. It abolishes 
 that confession which is the sole support of abso- 
 lution, and yet retains absolution — destroys the 
 foundation, and would preserve the edifice. Such 
 are the enfeebling inconsistencies when the Church 
 uses the State to conciliate religious parties for 
 political government ! 
 
 Moreover, in the very titles of the clergyman 
 appears an ecclesiastical battledore. How we love 
 our Episcopal Prayer Book ! How pure and beauti- 
 ful and spiritual its offices ! How often it exalts us 
 to the loftiest communion with the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost ! Inimitable its collects, 
 its Litany, its " Te Deum," its ** Benedicite ! " But 
 even on God's sun are spots, and we who are Angli- 
 cans must not claim perfection for our matchless 
 offices. The compilers of our American Prayer 
 Book were noble men who breathed the life of 
 the Reformation. Only the more strange their 
 
360 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 inconsistency. Our clergyman begins his service. 
 In the rubric he is styled " minister " — his Protest- 
 ant title. Now he is about to read absolution. 
 An instant change! He is called "priest" — his 
 Roman title. In the Communion office he com- 
 mences " minister," but before he places the 
 bread and wine on the table he turns " priest." 
 We have traveled the whole distance from Geneva 
 to Rome, and back from Rome to Geneva. 
 
 III. Baptismal Regeneration. 
 
 The new birth is the beginning of eternal life. 
 Without it we can never love and serve Christ our 
 King. On earth it creates in man that character 
 which is to shine and beautify forever in the celes- 
 tial glory. What a stupendous fact in a mortal 
 history ! Our Saviour affirms that unless born from 
 above we cannot see the kingdom of God. Him we 
 behold only by spiritual illumination. He is re- 
 vealed to us by the Holy Ghost. But He tells us 
 that we enter His kingdom by water. Our invisible 
 King we know by His Spirit, and by baptism we 
 come within His visible kingdom. So taught the 
 Master ! All this is predicated of adults. 
 
 In the Scripture we can find nothing clearly re- 
 vealed in regard to the new birth of infants. We 
 cannot tell whether their regeneration is even a 
 possibility. Can we rest such a doctrine on the 
 tradition of fathers ? Uncertain foundation ! Re- 
 generation, eternal life, character that fits for 
 heaven — truths and results transcendent and ever- 
 lasting! Yet, in the theory of Anglicanism, its 
 whole spiritual life grows from infant baptism. 
 
ANGLICANISM. 361 
 
 Without Scripture I can know nothing on the sub- 
 ject, and Scripture says nothing on the subject. 
 Unsustained by Scripture is an office on which is 
 founded spiritually the Anglican Church. Priest 
 and bishop pronounce the infant regenerate ; yet 
 priest and bishop have no authority from the word 
 of God. Not on the sands of human tradition, but 
 only on the rock of the divine revelation, should 
 priest and bishop rest a doctrine involving in itself 
 the everlasting life. Over baptism, also, is a cloud 
 of the Anglican incertitude. 
 
 From first to last conservatism ; everywhere com- 
 promise ; the result uncertainty. Yet Anglicanism 
 has no title to its present claim except as a Cath- 
 olic Church. As against the corrupted Greek and 
 Latin communions and the unauthorized Protestant 
 communions, it alone would represent Christianity, 
 whose very genius is, not compromise, but aggres- 
 sion. Only by daring and enterprise can the world 
 be conquered to its divine King. Anglicanism in its 
 deepest naturewants the gift essential touniversality. 
 
 And this conclusion is sustained by facts. Let 
 us turn to Great Britain. Is Anglicanism extend- 
 ing her catholicity over the Greek and Latin 
 Churches ? The reverse. Alas, the Roman magnet 
 is stronger than the English. Secessions are from 
 Anglicanism to the pope, and not from the pope to 
 Anglicanism. The positive pole outdraws the nega- 
 tive. Witness Newman and Manning and, with 
 them, a lay and clerical multitude! But how with 
 dissent ? After the Reformation it was opposed, 
 not, indeed, by flames, but prisons. Puritans, Bap- 
 tists, Quakers, Independents, although not burned, 
 
362 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 were scourged, branded, pilloried, mutilated, con- 
 fined in dungeons, and exiled to America. With 
 Anglicanism were the priests, the bishops, the uni- 
 versities, the aristocracy, the monarch, palaces and 
 cathedrals and revenues, the machinery of govern- 
 ment, the power of the Church, and, enforcing all, 
 the Court of High Commission. Out of banish- 
 ments and imprisonments and impoverishments 
 dissent has grown like a tree made strong by tem- 
 pests, whose branches throw their shadows over the 
 world. Dissent in the Isle of Man outnumbers the 
 establishment. Dissent in Wales is about to sub- 
 vert the establishment. Dissent in the rest of Eng- 
 land looks forward to triumph over the establish- 
 ment. The free spirit of the Protestant Christian 
 Democracy, by the energy of its enterprise, is more 
 potent than an oligarchic, episcopal conservatism, 
 and dissent proves itself more catholic than estab- 
 lishment. 
 
 But the crucial test is America. Before the Revo- 
 lution our relations of population were reversed. 
 The South outnumbered the North. Virginia was 
 queen of colonies, as she afterward became mother 
 of States and Presidents. In this rich and exten- 
 sive and powerful Commonwealth, from the begin- 
 ning, Anglicanism had the privilege of patronage 
 from the Church and protection from the State ; 
 and in Maryland its advantages were early and 
 great. Let us admit that the English communion 
 and Protestant denominations were balanced in op- 
 portunity. Yet in a century how surpassing the 
 growth of those sects, impelled and animated by 
 a vigorous Christian Democracy ! 
 
ANGLICANISM. 363 
 
 Methodists report, in round number«s, 5,ooo,(X)0; 
 Baptists, 4,000,000; Presbyterians, 1,500,000; Lu- 
 therans, 1,300,000; Episcopalians, 600,000; Con- 
 gregationaHsts, 580,000 ; other Protestant sects, 
 2,500,000. 
 
 Episcopalianism, an American growth from An- 
 gHcanism, thus numbers in our country less than a 
 twenty-fifth of the aggregate of the Protestant de- 
 nominations. And, judging from the past, time 
 will increase the disparity. We have a right, then, 
 to infer that Anglicanism will never realize its 
 claim and its aspiration to constitute the universal 
 Church. With its noble history, its grand liturgy, 
 its wealth and learning and culture, like all the sects 
 that sprang from the Reformation, defects mar its 
 catholicity, and it must esteem itself but a branch 
 of the glorious and overshadowing tree of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
364 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIIL 
 Protestantism. 
 
 IN its infancy the Reformation was protected by 
 the political conditions of Europe. The armies 
 of the Turk, marching from Constantinople 
 under the banners of Solyman the Magnificent, 
 thundered at the gates of Vienna. Directed by the 
 Sultan, desperate corsairs from Tunis, Algiers, and 
 Tripoli swarmed out over the Mediterranean, cap- 
 tured merchant ships, and slew or enslaved crews 
 and passengers. Southern Spain had within it all 
 the suppressed fires of a volcanic Mohammedan 
 revolt. Between Charles V and Francis I raged per- 
 petual wars, involving popes and exciting Europe. 
 Like the holy father, England oscillated between 
 France and Spain. Amid these conflicting inter- 
 ests of warring nations both pontiff and emperor 
 were compelled to neglect the youthful Reforma- 
 tion. Thus ever, at the opportune moment, the 
 rising tempest was diverted from the tender tree 
 until its roots struck deep into the soil and its 
 branches lifted themselves high into the light. But 
 the Reformation was confronted with a yet more 
 dangerous peril. It was tempted to defend itself 
 by political and military combinations. Luther re- 
 sisted. Martyrdom threatened, princes persuaded, 
 warriors armed ; but he answered in his Master's 
 words, *' They who take the sword shall perish by 
 
PROTESTANTISM. 365 
 
 the sword." Amid these struggles with friends and 
 enemies the first Diet of Spires, in 1526, obtained 
 toleration, because the pope and the emperor were 
 busy with the complications of Europe. But in 
 1529, at the second Diet of Spires, the conceded 
 privileges were withdrawn ; and in a paper com- 
 plaining of the injustice originated the name ''Prot- 
 estant." 
 
 Charles V had now made himself irresistible by 
 his brilliant achievements. France and England 
 dreaded and envied the power of his empire. He 
 took and plundered Rome and forced the pontiff to 
 submission. The imperial warrior, successful in 
 battle and diplomacy, seemed about to grasp the 
 scepter of the world. Now he will extirpate heresy 
 and in the fires of martyrs burn away the stains 
 contracted by the pope's capture and Rome's pil- 
 lage. War menaces the Reformation. Luther is 
 dead. With him are buried his counsels. A mili- 
 tary league is formed. Catholic and Protestant 
 meet in furious battles. Blood stirs revenge and 
 perpetuates strife. Maurice betrays the emperor, 
 who flies from Innsbruck to escape capture. From 
 his height of glory Charles is plunged into the 
 deepest humiliation. The sword saves the Refor- 
 mation, and the Peace of Passau establishes it on a 
 legal basis in Germany — a brilliant and unexpected 
 achievement, but by a mere worldly policy. When 
 Christian princes drew the sword they unloosed 
 the powers of death and hell. Germany was a scene 
 of fire and blood and plunder. Multitudes perished 
 in battle, fields were ravaged, homes burned, cities 
 destroyed. Amid this massacre and misery the 
 
366 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 peaceful kingdom of Christ could not advance over 
 the world. 
 
 In Spain the Reformation was crushed out by 
 the Inquisition. Before the young giant could be- 
 come strong he was murdered. All the powers of 
 pope and king directed a diabolical machinery of 
 death. Flames lighted every city with the ghastly 
 glare of human holocausts. Philip II kindled fires 
 in which thousands were reduced to ashes. Priests, 
 bishops, cardinals, amid all their magnificence of 
 office, sat above the vulgar crowd, about the throne 
 of the king, with him to behold and approve spec- 
 tacles of torture. So effectual was the work of these 
 human demons that the Reformation never took 
 root in Spain. 
 
 The Huguenots of France resorted to the sword. 
 Bloody battles and murderous executions startled 
 Europe. Christians were martyrs and warriors. In- 
 stead of converting, they slaughtered their enemies. 
 After two centuries of strife they failed. The Ref- 
 ormation was strangled by the blood of the mas- 
 sacre of St. Bartholomew and buried by the revo- 
 cation of the Edict of Nantes. When the witnesses 
 of Christ had been destroyed France was prepared 
 for the fiends of the Revolution, Had the Hugue- 
 nots, like the early Christians, died as peaceful wit- 
 nesses for the faith we should now have a great 
 Protestant republic ennobling Europe and evangel- 
 izing the world. 
 
 Zwingle, in Switzerland, blew the blast of war. 
 The minister of salvation went forth in warrior's 
 arms to kill. He filled his Alpine valleys with his 
 soldiers. Instead of feeding, he starved his enemies. 
 
PROTESTANTISM. 367 
 
 Grim mountains heard the tramp of armies, the roar 
 of cannon, the groans of slaughter. Instigated by 
 a preacher of the Gospel of peace, canton rose 
 against canton, and Protestant fought Catholic. 
 Christians slew each other like pagans. With what 
 result? Zwingle perished in battle. By death and 
 misery he taught the Reformers of his country that 
 the weapons of their warfare were not carnal, but 
 spiritual. Had the wisdom of Christ been followed 
 we believe that to-day we should behold, not a 
 divided, but a united, Protestant Switzerland. 
 
 Sweden, Norway, and Denmark escaped serious 
 religious wars within their borders. But they were 
 drawn into the political maelstroms of Europe. 
 With popes and kings and emperors they were 
 precipitated into strifes that desolated other States. 
 Gustavus Adolphus, hero of Protestantism, fell, 
 fighting in Germany, victor in a plundered land 
 and over slaughtered enemies. 
 
 Eighty years of war in Holland cost a million of 
 lives. Liberty of faith was the issue. Philip II 
 resolved to strangle the newborn Christian De- 
 mocracy. All who read the Bible he would burn, 
 bury, or behead. Imperial and pontifical power 
 combined against Holland. In the Old World and 
 in the New the dominion of Philip was unexampled 
 in extent and wealth. His conquering veterans 
 were commanded by the most brilliant masters of 
 war. Land and sea were at his disposal. Against 
 his vast empire, supported by the papacy, William 
 and his son Maurice had little more than two mil- 
 lions of Hollanders. Yet they shattered Philip's 
 dominion. Spain came exhausted from the con- 
 
368 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 test, and ever since has been declining into impo- 
 tency ; while Holland during the strife increased in 
 power and wealth, extended her discoveries toward 
 the north pole, pushed east and west her colonies, 
 founded universities, fostered literature, created art, 
 made education universal, and carried her flag in 
 triumph round the world. Her heroic enterprise, 
 her indomitable courage, her wise statesmanship, 
 her wide and varied success eclipse history. Greece, 
 Rome, Switzerland, America can show no splendor 
 of achievement bright as that of the Dutch Repub- 
 lic. But religion suffered. Carnal, not spiritual, 
 was Holland's policy. Military glory she acquired, 
 traffic she extended, wealth she accumulated, learn- 
 ing she promoted, liberty she established. But 
 worldly enterprise and success enfeebled piety. 
 Faith and hope and love were not increased by her 
 victories on land and sea. She bore her banner over 
 the earth ; but how little she has accomplished for 
 the evangelization of nations ! 
 
 We turn to England ! Nowhere had the Spirit of 
 God been more powerful than in her Reformers. 
 The youth of her universities became her preachers, 
 confessors, and martyrs. The flower of her learning 
 went up in papal flames. And two of her bishops 
 witnessed in fire. Testimonies unto death were given 
 for Christ by clergy and people. Her Articles and 
 her Homilies are among the noblest monuments of 
 the immortal truths of Protestantism. A nation 
 seemed born again. A new era began for humanity. 
 England was the world's predestined center of liberty 
 and salvation. Yet what an apostasy under Mary ! 
 Elizabeth in her struggle for life and throne was a 
 
PROTESTANTISM. 369 
 
 sovereign, rather than a Christian. In the chilling 
 atmosphere of her court the Church was petrified. 
 Her reign began that strife of sects which has since 
 torn the Anglican communion ; and under her succes- 
 sors Presbyterianism and Episcopalianism fought for 
 ascendency, while both were subjected by the sword 
 of Independency. Victorious in battle, Puritanism 
 triumphed over throne and altar. The sect that 
 prayed most killed most. Lamb and dove were no 
 longer the symbols of Protestant England, but, over 
 her slaughtering Christians, from her banners glared 
 her lion. King, aristocracy, Church went down un- 
 der the sword and foot of Cromwell. But piety 
 promoting carnage does not honor Christ. He never 
 commanded to enforce creed by cannon. Hence 
 the wars of Cromwell were followed by the licen- 
 tiousness of Charles, the folly of James, and the 
 Revolution of William. An illustrious warrior and 
 an unequaled statesman, the Prince of Orange had 
 not been famous for piety. He was in constant 
 struggle, too, with Louis XIV of France in field and 
 cabinet, and he left behind him an unfinished con- 
 test to be ended by the bloody battles and the bril- 
 liant victories of Marlborough. 
 
 Protestantism had gained, and Catholicism had 
 lost. By the sword, by diplomacy, by literary enter- 
 prise, by scientific achievement, by commercial suc- 
 cess, rather than by love and faith, the nations born 
 from the Reformation went forward to supremacy 
 over the Roman pontiff. Victories were more prized 
 than conversions. Europe became a scene of dead 
 formalisms, narrow bigotries, embittered sectisms. 
 Protestantism had lost the power of the Spirit of 
 24 
 
370 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 God. Her Articles and Confessions were as ortho- 
 dox as Paul, but no longer animated with the zeal 
 and power of Paul. England was deluged with 
 skepticism and immorality. Her Church became 
 dead in faith, in charity, in enterprise. Her clergy, 
 men too often used her revenues for their pleasures. 
 Her universities, founded for religion, were perverted 
 to worldly learning. Her capital was notorious for 
 drunkenness, violence, and licentiousness. Her rural 
 population was brutal in taste and habit. If Roman- 
 ism had proved a failure in guiding and teaching Eu- 
 rope, now Protestantism appeared powerless to con- 
 vert men into the spiritual kingdom of Jesus Christ. 
 At the hour of deepest darkness arose light. The 
 Reformation had not been confined to one country. 
 Its manifestations were simultaneous in many lands. 
 Its morning star was Le Fevre, in the University of 
 Paris. He was herald of Luther, its sun. Zwingle, 
 Farel, Calvin spread salvation's light amid the moun- 
 tains of Switzerland. Witnesses for Christ illumi- 
 nated Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Scotland, Bohe- 
 mia, Holland, Hungary, as well as France and Ger- 
 many, while England shed the glory of truth over 
 the nations. And now, in the third century of the 
 Reformation, at the same time in the Old World 
 and in the New, the beams of the Gospel burst forth 
 from the cloud that covered humanity. The Amer- 
 ican Edwards and the Anglican Whitefield with an 
 amazing energy of converting eloquence proclaimed 
 salvation in two continents. Other evangelists 
 preached with the power of the Spirit of God. By 
 these an impulse was given to the kingdom of Christ 
 which, we trust, will enlarge until our world bows to 
 
PROTESTANTISM. 37 1 
 
 its Redeemer. But from a number of successful 
 preachers we will select one whom we believe most 
 typical of the movement which will end in the uni- 
 versal triumph of Christian Democracy. 
 
 John Wesley was born June 17, 1703, at Epworth. 
 In childhood he was trained intellectually by his 
 father, the learned and pious, but eccentric, rector 
 of the parish, while he had the spiritual nurture of 
 his mother, one of the noblest and loveliest of the 
 Christian women of England. Both the paternal 
 and maternal influences left deep impress on the 
 mature man. From infancy to manhood Wesley 
 breathed in Epworth Parish the atmosphere of 
 Anglicanism. He had in his veins the best blood of 
 old England, and was born with many of the highest 
 gifts of his race. In lineage and culture he possessed 
 every advantage for his future work. He entered 
 in 1720 the college of Christ Church, Oxford, in 
 which the strongest Anglicanism has found a 
 citadel. In 1725 he was ordained a deacon. After- 
 ward he was made a fellow of Lincoln, where, from 
 1729 to 1735, he was tutor. From his cradle until 
 this time Anglicanism had stamped itself on Wesley. 
 He was an extreme High Churchman. He repudi- 
 ated the orders of dissenters. He would not ac- 
 knowledge their baptisms. He mingled water with 
 the wine of the sacrament. He observed saints' 
 days. He even inclined to hear confessions. At 
 Oxford, a century before Pusey, he was a Puseyite. 
 Wesley and Newman began with the same opinions 
 and under the same influences and at the same An- 
 glican center. The one became a Roman cardinal, 
 and the other the typical Protestant evangelist. 
 
372 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 We have seen how the doctrine of remission by 
 faith had, in the ancient Church, been buried be- 
 neath the cold and ghttering mountains of sacer- 
 dotalism and ecclesiasticism. And now amid the 
 wars of Europe it was once more hidden from view. 
 The assurance of the forgiveness of sins had been 
 the power of the Reformation. Beneath our 
 humanity is a sense of guilt. Paul taught the way 
 of its removal. Paul in words of light showed that 
 it is remitted by faith in the blood of our divine 
 Redeemer. Paul with this stupendous truth had 
 converted multitudes in Asia and in Europe. Paul 
 had carried with him the light of this salvation to 
 Rome, the capital of the empire. And, when for 
 centuries it had been obscured, it was again 
 kindled by the Reformation. Yet it became 
 dimmed in the very land of Luther, and no longer 
 illuminated even the German universities. But it 
 had its witnesses in an obscure sect of Moravia. 
 Here, amid fanaticism and ignorance, a simple 
 people, taught by the Bible, testified that their sins 
 were forgiven through faith in the blood of Christ. 
 They claimed assurance from the Spirit of God. 
 They were filled with joy, and were victors over life 
 and death. They proved their faith in the atone- 
 ment of the Master by their obedience to the 
 commands of the Master. In Moravia was that 
 religion of joy which alone can convert the nations. 
 But the land is remote and the people unlearned. 
 England is to have the empire of the earth, and 
 America its Pentecost. 
 
 Governor Oglethorpe invited Wesley to go as a 
 clergyman to Georgia. The High Anglican ac- 
 
PROTESTANTISM. 373 
 
 cepted. On his voyage he met the Moravians. 
 His ship, in mid ocean, witnessed an association 
 that was to restore to the world the power of the 
 Reformation. For a simple sect was predestined a 
 learned interpreter. From Anglicanism, an ice 
 mountain, warmed by the beams of the sun, sal- 
 vation was to flow out in fresh streams over the 
 world. The Moravians, Wesley says, taught him 
 from the Bible that way of faith he expounds in his 
 lucid and admirable sermons. On his voyage from 
 Georgia to London, however, he describes himself 
 as still under the law. 
 
 In this state he was thrown with Peter Bohler, 
 an educated Moravian, who had studied at Jena 
 and had been ordained by Count Zinzendorf. On 
 the morning of May 24, 1738, Wesley tells us that 
 he attended St. Paul's. Nor do we believe he ever 
 lost his love for the grand cathedral service of the 
 Church of England. His heart was ahvays in her 
 liturgy. But now he was in gloom. Wesley was 
 cheered by the morning anthem, but, w hile glad- 
 dened, he was not relieved. He was oppressed by 
 a sense of guilt, and guilt needs more than song. 
 Fasts, vigils, saints' days, sacraments, observances 
 had proved vain. High Anglicanism brought no 
 peace. Like Paul and Luther, Wesley was near 
 despair. He was slain by the law. He was a 
 slave, w ith no power to rend his fetters. He as yet 
 saw no way of deliverance. Salvation did not come 
 to him in the cathedral. When night arrived he 
 went to a meeting at Aldersgate Street, London. 
 Obscure the place, and informal the service ! The 
 Preface to the Epistle to the Romans by the great 
 
374 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 German Reformer was read. As salvation had 
 shone over Germany, it was now kindled in 
 England. The light of faith burst on the soul of 
 Wesley. What had occurred two centuries before 
 at Erfurth was repeated at London. Reformation 
 and revival had beginning in the same truth. As 
 Wesley hears, he believes in the blood of Christ 
 for the remission of his sins. He experiences the 
 witness of his forgiveness. He knows that his load 
 of guilt is gone. Reconciled through the cross, he 
 calls God P'ather and receives the Holy Ghost. 
 Here was new life for himself and millions. Out of 
 that moment sprang our regenerated Christianity. 
 To this conversion of Wesley we trace a new birth 
 of Protestantism to liberty, diffusiveness,and victory. 
 
 His instantaneous transformation we will relate in 
 his own words, which have nothing of fanaticism or 
 exaggeration. Wesley was not a man of moods 
 and fancies. He had the self-restraint of culture 
 and common sense. This gives power to his testi- 
 mony when he says : 
 
 " I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did 
 trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation ; and an 
 assurance was given me that He had taken away 
 my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of 
 sin and death. ... I then testified openly to all 
 there what I now first felt in my heart." 
 
 John Wesley soon began to preach with an en- 
 ergy like that of Paul. He had in himself the same 
 spring of living power. In his long ministry of 
 more than fifty years he converted multitudes. The 
 denomination organized by him embraces millions. 
 In America it outnumbers each other Protestant 
 
PROTESTANTISM, 375 
 
 sect. And it carries salvation into every region of 
 the earth. Nor is the indirect influence of Wesley 
 less than the direct. He originated methods of re- 
 vival employed by all who love the Reformation. 
 It is becoming, therefore, that we study the sources 
 of his power. We will consider the three great 
 characteristics of his doctrine and ministry : 
 
 I. Humanity's Redemption by Christ's Death. — 
 Early in his ministerial studies Wesley corresponded 
 with his mother about his religious views. He re- 
 coiled from the doctrine of reprobation. When his 
 theology matured we have his final conclusion in 
 his lucid sermons. He taught that our race was re- 
 deemed by its divine Head, Jesus Christ. With 
 convincing argument from the Bible he proved his 
 doctrine and made it the foundation of his theology. 
 As a first principle, Wesley held that Christ " tasted 
 death for every man ; " that Christ is the " Lamb 
 of God, that taketh away the sin of the world ; " 
 that Christ is ** a propitiation for the sins of the 
 whole world ; " that through Christ ''the salutary 
 grace of God hath appeared unto all men ; " that 
 Christ is the '' Light that lighteth every man that 
 Cometh into the world ; " that, through Christ, " in 
 every nation he who feareth God and worketh 
 righteousrtess i^ accepted ; " so that in Christ human 
 life itself is embraced and justified. Godhead, as- 
 suming, not a part of our nature, but the whole, re- 
 deemed the whole. Godhead, giving its infinitude 
 to atonement, does not divide itself and includes 
 our race. Godhead in Christ takes its guilt from 
 humanity. Birth brings every man within a uni- 
 versal covenant of salvation, from which he may be 
 
3/6 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 cut off by sin and restored by grace. Eternal life is 
 procured for all, offered to all, and may be rejected 
 by all unto eternal death. By nature man has no 
 power to turn himself to God, but he has a gracious 
 ability in the use of which is his sole responsibility. 
 The heathen are left to the mercy and justice of the 
 Redeemer at His judgment seat. There He will ad- 
 just the equities of His universe. For infants death 
 is the gate to paradise. Escaping life's pangs and 
 perils, they will people heaven, thrilled with the 
 everlasting joy, and twinkling like stars amid the 
 larger celestial luminaries. Such a view of humanity 
 relieves it from its ghastly gloom and surrounds it 
 with the brilliance of love and hope. It accounts 
 for much of the genial joy that beamed out over 
 life from Wesley and his faithful followers in every 
 part of the world. 
 
 H. The Witness of the Holy Ghost to the Re- 
 mission of Sin. — As a High Anglican, Wesley never 
 conceived that he could have the assurance of his 
 forgiveness. The merit of works mingled in all his 
 early views. Free salvation by faith was hidden in 
 a cloud. Hence Wesley lived under a shadow of 
 doubt, in a twilight of comfort, ever learning, and 
 never coming to, the knowledge of the truth. His 
 religion was a gloom, relieved by occasional sun 
 rays, in which he was creeping forward to an assured 
 salvation. When the Moravians opened to him his 
 great privilege he was skeptical. He examined his 
 Bible. He went to Germany. He questioned the 
 witnesses. He acted, not from fanatical impulse, 
 but with grave deliberation. After pause, after in- 
 vestigation, after hesitation, he was convinced. Be- 
 
PROTESTANTISM. 3^^? 
 
 fore him stood the word of God in opposition to 
 the doubt of man : " He that believeth on the Son 
 of God hath the witness in himself;" ** The Spirit 
 itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are 
 the children of God ; " '' Because ye are sons, God 
 hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your 
 hearts, crying, Abba, Father;" "Ye have not re- 
 ceived the spirit of bondage again to fear ; but ye 
 have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we 
 cry, Abba, Father." 
 
 Wesley is persuaded. He believes his Bible. In 
 himself he receives the testimony of the Holy 
 Ghost that his sins are remitted and that he is 
 born from above. Now his regeneration is not a 
 creed, but a fact. His absolution is not from a priest 
 and hence unsatisfying through human infirmity 
 and incertitude. Believing God's word, he receives 
 God's Spirit, and is thus strong in God's testimony. 
 At last he knows his sin forgiven, his guilt remit- 
 ted, his soul renewed. He calls God Father. His 
 nature is revolutionized and his work begun. New 
 light is in his mind, new joy in his affections, new 
 power in his words, new victory in his life. Twi- 
 light is over, and he has the morning sun. His min- 
 istry centers in the doctrine of the assurance of 
 forgiven sin. Witnessed remission by faith in the 
 blood of Christ energizes all his sermons, which 
 convert multitudes. On this truth alone can the 
 lever of the Gospel move the world. 
 
 Wesley had found the secret of pulpit power. 
 When Protestantism recovers it millennium will be 
 near. How can we have access to our Father un- 
 less assured of His forgiveness? Doubt obscures 
 
378 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 His promises and hides His face. Doubt loads con- 
 science with a burden of fear. Doubt makes filial 
 confidence impossible. We have receded from the 
 Reformation into the mists of doubt. Men should 
 have no peace until they have found a witnessed 
 forgiveness and been made conscious partakers of 
 the Holy Ghost. Certitude of faith makes spiritual 
 muscle. It gives manly strength, generous cour- 
 age, loving enterprise. This enabled Luther to 
 face the emperor, defy the pope, dare flames, and 
 convert cities. States, and kingdoms. This to the 
 soul of Calvin imparted strength, fire to his words, 
 power to his life. In the great Protestant revival 
 Wesley only returned to the truths of the Protestant 
 Reformation. And these brought, not only success 
 to his ministry, but brightness to his life. He was 
 a genial and triumphant Christian. No asceticism 
 tinged his life with gloom. A cell could not hide 
 his light. Wesley, the scholar and gentleman, min- 
 gled with publicans and sinners that he might bring 
 them to Christ, the sun. His conversion began 
 with social joy. As soon as he attained the assur- 
 ance of his forgiveness a troop of friends took him 
 to his brother Charles, who also had found Christ. 
 Together they sang a glad hymn. Amid the gasps 
 of death Wesley exulted. ** I'll praise, I'll praise ! " 
 he exclaimed. "The clouds drop fatness! Pray 
 and praise ! The best of all is, God is with us ! " 
 With the glow of victory on his venerable face the 
 patriarch passed from earth to paradise. 
 
 HI. Wesley also Developed the Power of Testi- 
 mony with Life and Lip for Christ. — Our Lord is 
 confessed when we recite the creed. It is a refined 
 
PROTESTANTISM. 3;'9 
 
 and dignified method of publicly avowing our faith, 
 and is suited to many individualities. Nor should 
 more be exacted as a law of the Christian. In the 
 form of the confession must be liberty. Yet the 
 creeds, adapted to many, leave no play for the 
 personality. The man is lost in the multitude ; 
 hence a tendency to a chilling formalism. When 
 we confess Christ in the venerable creeds, so ortho- 
 dox in doctrine, so simple and sublime in language, 
 we lose the glow of sympathetic love. We express 
 our faith in an intellectual truth, rather than our 
 trust in a personal Saviour. 
 
 He who witnesses for Christ in his own words, 
 however imperfect, impresses with the force of his 
 own individuality. In him are greater liberty and 
 power, and he often moves others with a responsive 
 sympathy disproportionate to the agency. The 
 Spirit of God seals the true testimonies of humble 
 believers, which are more edifying than elaborate 
 Ciceronian oratories. Wesley's uneducated preach- 
 ers were forced to fill their sermons with their own 
 experiences. Living fire burned in their ungrace- 
 ful, and sometimes ungrammatical, appeals. But 
 the flame was kindled from a coal on the altar of 
 Jehovah, and the illuminating power was often a 
 search light into conscience or a ray guiding to the 
 cross of our incarnate God, where alone we obtain 
 remission for our human guilt. 
 
 The disciples of Wesley followed their teachers, 
 and the master was quick to perceive the use of 
 personal testimonies in Christianity. Witnessing 
 for our divine Redeemer was made part of his sys- 
 tem. It gave glow and energy to the whole move- 
 
38o TttE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACV. 
 
 ment. It created a new fellowship of faith and 
 love and life. It waked an impulsive power which 
 will continue through the ages and inspire Chris- 
 tianity until it hears the trumpet which proclaims 
 its Judge. Outside of Anglicanism all Protestantism, 
 not by system, but on occasion, adopts the methods 
 of Wesley. Testimony by the lip for the Master 
 now kindles the flame of salvation in every part of 
 our world. Ignorance and fanaticism sometimes 
 convert liberty into egotistical display. Human 
 infirmity mingles with all human service. Yet 
 wherever the Spirit of God is poured out on men 
 He moves to confession with the lips, and this now 
 seems a vast accepted agency in the conversion of 
 our world. 
 
 The grand work of Protestantism is, by all her 
 varied instrumentalities, to reestablish that liberty 
 of faith w^hich can alone restore the primitive Chris- 
 tian Democracy. Free in spirit, the Church will be 
 free in organization. Whatever the form of govern- 
 ment or worship, the sovereignty of the people will 
 be acknowledged. Constantinople and Rome and 
 Canterbury will experience the old Catholic fel- 
 lowship. But in such a work the energy is not a 
 mere creed. Articles and Confessions, like the 
 ancient geological rocks, may fossilize life. Behind 
 the truth must be the Holy Ghost. He, a univer- 
 sal gift, will create universal unity. The impulsive 
 force of the world's conversion is the mightiest in 
 the universe. It moves heaven as well as earth. 
 Science tells us that she has photographed sixty 
 million suns. About these revolve their satellites. 
 And beyond are systems, numerous as sands and 
 
PROTESTANTISM. 38 1 
 
 leaves and ocean drops. Earth, inhabited by man, 
 proves that other spheres are glorious with the in- 
 telligence of angels and cherubim. Around one cen- 
 tral world circles the magnificence of such a peopled 
 universe. Christ made all ; Christ planned ; Christ 
 impels ; Christ irradiates creation ; and Christ, my 
 God and Brother, died for me ! With the Holy 
 Ghost He inspires our dead and dark and loathsome 
 souls and leads us back to His Father and our Fa- 
 ther. The love excited by such a salvation is the 
 conquering power of Christianity. 
 
382 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 Millennial Democracy. 
 
 FOR centuries history, political and religious, 
 revolved about Constantinople. Indeed, its 
 situation made it the natural metropolis of 
 the Roman empire. Constantine created a new 
 world-center in his capital. Its harbor, the Golden 
 Horn, is picturesque in beauty and admirable in 
 convenience. As the old Byzantium, it was classic 
 in its connections with some of the most touching 
 and graceful legends of the Greek mythology. Con- 
 stantinople commands the Black Sea and the Med- 
 iterranean, and thus the Atlantic Ocean way to the 
 western world. It is a coveted capital for Asiatic 
 and European Russia, and could be used as a rail- 
 way center for the Orient, bringing conveniently 
 near Persia, India, China, and Japan. From it the 
 scepter of empire could touch Egypt and the Suez 
 Canal, and, indeed, all Africa. We may say that 
 Constantinople is the key to the Eastern Continent. 
 Freed from the incubus of the Turk and with the 
 aids of modern progress, it is not unlikely to be the 
 most powerful and magnificent capital in the future 
 of history. 
 
 To adorn his metropolis Constantine erected the 
 Church of St. Sophia. It was destroyed by fire. 
 On its ruins Justinian built a marvel of architecture, 
 in which grace of form, beauty of color, and splen- 
 
MILLENNlxVL DEMOCRACY. 383 
 
 dor of ritual attained their ideal. In A. D. 1453 
 the Turk took Constantinople and converted St. 
 Sophia into a mosque of his prophet. He tore 
 down the cross, and placed his crescent glittering 
 over an edifice which for a thousand years had 
 been an object of Christian love and veneration. 
 Can we wonder at the aspiration of Russia to re- 
 store the symbol of our salvation ? For nearly ten 
 centuries a prophecy has told her that this is to be 
 her immortal achievement. It is the dream of the 
 Slav. Possessing Constantinople, the Russian em- 
 pire becomes the first power in the world, and, com- 
 pact in territory, will maintain its scepter when the 
 remote and scattered colonies of England may be 
 independent republics. 
 
 A few years since the czar fought his way to San 
 Stefano, and the brilliant prize seemed within his 
 grasp. At the opportune moment he hesitated. 
 His delay was fatal. The Treaty of Berlin inter- 
 posed a barrier behind which stand the great 
 powers of Europe. But England was the agent 
 that created this formidable and irritating obstacle. 
 Her auxiliary is the triple alliance between Italy, 
 Austria, and Germany. To quiet the Mohammedan 
 in India she keeps the sultan on his throne. Eng- 
 land has Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Egypt, and now 
 wants Tangier to secure control of the Mediter- 
 ranean and keep her way open to her Asiatic em- 
 pire. Should France and Russia combine, her 
 naval ascendency would be menaced, and, that de- 
 stroyed, ends her territorial dominion. Alsace and 
 Lorraine create but localquestions; the pope's strug- 
 gle for his temporal dominion is a senile aspiration ; 
 
384 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 and contests about the holy places of Jerusalem are 
 puerile ecclesiastical disputes. But the Armaged- 
 don battle of the near future will be for Constan- 
 tinople. From that center either Russia or Eng- 
 land will dominate Europe, Asia, and Africa. 
 
 The war between Japan and China has changed 
 the face of the Orient. It is impossible now to 
 predict the relations those empires will have to 
 each other and the nations of the Eastern and 
 Western Continents. Commerce, manufactures, war, 
 art, literature, government will be surely revolu- 
 tionized. Progress has touched the dead Oriental 
 world into another life. And old Africa is parceled 
 out by Europe and will soon exchange barbarism 
 for modern civilization. The mightiest physical 
 forces of the universe, directed by the tip of man's 
 finger, are producing changes in the condition of 
 humanity more dazzling than dreams of poets and 
 visions of prophets. And all intellectual develop- 
 ments, social transformations, and political revolu- 
 tions connect themselves with Christianity. It may 
 be remarked that the various progressive move- 
 ments of modern life in every part of the earth are 
 tending to the sovereignty of the people and the es- 
 tablishment of a universal Democracy. 
 
 Let us now pass from the civil to the ecclesiastical! 
 
 By the sultan's permission the Greek patriarch 
 has his cathedral in Constantinople. He is legal 
 head of the Oriental orthodox communion. Of the 
 Greek Church the Russian is a branch, over which 
 the czar is supreme. In this great ecclesiastical di- 
 vision of our world the Scriptures are not, as by the 
 popes, prohibited to the laity, nor is celibacy indis- 
 
MILLENNIAL DEMOCRACY. 385 
 
 pensable to the clerical office. All the white, or 
 parish, clergy have wives. Only the black, or 
 higher, clergy must by law be unmarried. The 
 Greek Church repudiates the " filioque " in our 
 Nicene Creed which the Latin Church adopts. Be- 
 tween the two communions thus are wide differ- 
 ences in doctrine and practice. But there is a yet 
 deeper separating chasm. The Greek Church re- 
 jects the orders of the Latin Church, will not admit 
 the ministrations of her priests, and stains her with 
 the sin of schism. For more than a thousand years 
 these Eastern and Western communions have been 
 divided. Attempts to unite them have not only 
 been failures, but have colored some of the most 
 ludicrous and grotesque pictures in history. And 
 now, in our century, the Vatican Decree declaring 
 papal infallibility hurls against the Greek Church a 
 papal curse. Rome anathematizes Constantinople, 
 and Constantinople anathematizes Rome. Each 
 communion dooms the other to everlasting fire. 
 Little marvel that efforts toward compromise and 
 intercourse have failed ! 
 
 The Anglican Church is acknowledged by neither 
 the Greek Church nor the Latin Church. By both 
 its orders are spurned. Yet its Homilies, authen- 
 ticated by its Articles, denounce the pope as anti- 
 christ, saint-worship as idolatry, transubstantiation 
 as a fable, pontifical supremacy as a usurpation. 
 Nor will it have communion with any of the sects 
 who deny the exclusive validity of episcopal ordina- 
 tion. Anglicanism thus alienates itself from Prot- 
 estantism and the whole ecclesiastical world. All 
 schemes and negotiations to effect external unity 
 25 
 
386 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 have only developed the impossibility of the enter- 
 prise. Christendom resembles a group of islands in 
 an ocean whose angry, separating waves cannot be 
 bridged. 
 
 Is our earth promised to Christ? Shall the full- 
 ness of the Gentiles come in and even Israel be 
 saved ? Exalted above earth, to Jehovah's house 
 shall all nations flow ? As the ocean its bed, shall 
 the knowledge of the Lord cover the world ? A 
 thousand years shall Satan wear his chain? Have 
 we a true prophetic symbol in the stone towering 
 into a mountain and filling the world? Are all the 
 signs of historical development in the Church de- 
 luding, and, instead of completion, is the divine 
 structure to be forever unfinished and unfurnished, 
 and its Author mocked as one who began to 
 build, but failed in His work ? And are inspiring 
 prophetic visions, brilliant with the glory of rainbow 
 promise, to pass away in clouds and mock the hopes 
 they have excited ? Such a miserable failure seems 
 inconsistent with the lessons of history, the teach- 
 ings of Scripture, and the character of God. 
 
 If the leaves of the tree of Christendom are dis- 
 eased we should examine its root. Does the fruit 
 wither? The blight is from within. Not in tlie 
 bark, but in the sap, is the lingering death. Is 
 Christianity an original, scriptural Democracy, 
 which, first losing its interior liberty of faith, passed 
 into the bondage of oligarchy and autocracy ? Then 
 its cure must be from within, and not from without, 
 Paul was its typical preacher and expounder. When 
 he converted Asian and European Gentiles what 
 did he proclaim ? Ever, in sermon and epistle, 
 
MILLENNIAL DEMOCRACY. 387 
 
 above all, beneath all, permeating all with the light 
 of love, now with the voice of the thunder, and now 
 with the gentleness of the rainbow, Paul preached 
 remission of sins through faith in the blood of our 
 incarnate God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, followed 
 by the gift of the Holy Ghost in regeneration, in 
 adoption, in assurance, in comfort, in sanctification, 
 in enlightenment, in power. Paul aimed to bring 
 Christ into the man, and cast out that pride which 
 seeks oligarchy and autocracy. Paul sought to es- 
 tablish in the heart the love and purity and liberty 
 which can alone maintain in the world the beauty 
 and the victory and the brotherhood of a Christian 
 Democracy. Nations were born again. The seeds 
 of life were planted for an immortal harvest. Lu- 
 ther in the Reformation and Wesley in the revival 
 of Christianity followed Paul. By the same ever- 
 lasting truths America has been made a center of 
 evangelical power for the world. This Gospel is 
 salvation. From within it works outwardly. By 
 converting individuals it would regenerate human- 
 ity. Only by spiritual revolution can you restore 
 and extend Christian Democracy. 
 
 Never was earth's gloom deeper than when Luther 
 appeared. The work of his forerunners, Wyclif and 
 Huss, seemed to have perished in the flames. From 
 his Lateran cathedral Leo trumpeted forth his vic- 
 tory and the universal supremacy of his Church. 
 Crowned with his tiara, exalted on his throne, 
 heresy and schism were now beneath his pontifical 
 feet. Yet the doctrine of remission by faith shat- 
 tered his kingdom and made his diadem tremble. 
 For years, in the height of his converting power, 
 
388 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Luther preached without adapting his ceremonial 
 to his doctrine. While proclaiming justification like 
 a Protestant, he was celebrating mass like a Cath- 
 olic. Hurling words of fire against the pope, he was 
 worshiping as the pope. He was conforming to the 
 Church at his altar, and revolutionizing the Church 
 from his pulpit. In the infinitude of the work of 
 salvation questions of observance were invisible as 
 if lost in the dazzle of a sun. 
 
 Suddenly the incongruity burst on the Reformer. 
 He began a change. The people were prepared, 
 and the revolution achieved itself. Without a blow 
 the idolatries, the corruptions, the usurpations of 
 Rome fell by their own weight. Cast out of the 
 heart, the pope had no more power over the life 
 and the worship. It was so over Europe. When 
 fanatics dashed down images and defaced churches 
 and defiled and plundered monasteries, when war- 
 riors grasped the weapons of military strife, when 
 contending hosts fought in battle, when any mere 
 outward political or ecclesiastical changes were at- 
 tempted, the Reformation was arrested. Conver- 
 sions ceased. The Holy Ghost was withdrawn. 
 Clouds covered the sky. But always the power 
 of God attended the proclamation of a free salva- 
 tion in Christ. Liberty and holiness followed faith. 
 A brotherhood of heart made a democracy of life, 
 and gave new impulses to civil and ecclesiastical 
 freedom for all time. And who did the work? 
 Converted priests shook Rome and emancipated 
 the world. 
 
 We want Luthers in the Greek and Latin Churches 
 When monks like the German Reformer appear ir 
 
MILLENNIAL DEMOCRACY. 389 
 
 those communions, then her spiritual fetters will 
 fall from Europe. And such men must be martyrs. 
 They must dare the czar as Luther defied the pope. 
 There is a time in the history of all nations when 
 the Gospel must be witnessed in flames. In burn- 
 ing truth persecutors burn themselves. The ham- 
 mer flies back from the anvil into the face of the 
 wielder. Russia wants blood, not of monarchs, but 
 of martyrs. Instead of the fiendish glare of an- 
 archistic hate in her Siberian dungeons, let the light 
 of Christian love be seen on the faces of men pray- 
 ing for their enemies, and the czar will be conquered 
 as were pontiffs and emperors. The Gospel will 
 succeed where socialism fails. Only by its power, 
 working in the heart through the Holy Ghost, can 
 idolatries be overthrown, superstitions scattered, and 
 usurpations destroyed. Brought by faith into the 
 liberty of Christ, humanity will be prepared for a 
 universal Christian Democracy. 
 
 But we must remember that ecclesiastical sover- 
 eignty in the people does not necessitate uniformity 
 in organization and worship. As in the State, so in 
 the Church, it may choose either a monarchic or a 
 republican form. It only insists that the power of 
 election be in itself. In apostolic times government 
 in one region was by bishops, and in another by 
 presbyters. And liturgies took color from local- 
 ities. The primitive Catholic unity developed into 
 a natural and generous variety. Indeed, the greater 
 the inner liberty the greater may be the outer dif- 
 ference. This condition is in the very life of free- 
 dom, and thus becomes its law. 
 
 Let the Greek Church cast out its idols, withdraw 
 
390 THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 its worship from its saints, cease its altar adoration, 
 and take Christ as its only Mediator! Rejecting its 
 icons, must it abolish its patriarch? With transub- 
 stantiation, must it also repudiate hierarchy? Must 
 its splendid ceremonial be abandoned when its 
 priestly absolution ceases? 
 
 Let the pope purge himself from superstition, re- 
 cede from his claim to supremacy and infallibility, 
 and walk, not in his own human light, but only by 
 the illumination of the oracles of his God ! If his 
 sovereign people elect, he may still sit on his pon- 
 tifical throne and retain the magnificence of St. 
 Peter's. 
 
 Who would withhold from the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury his liberty of worship in the pure and 
 beautiful service of London's venerable cathedral? 
 He has the same right to his choir that the Quaker 
 has to his quiet. One man prefers the dignified 
 Greek and Latin and Anglican ceremonial solem. 
 nity, and another the spontaneity and sympathy 
 of denominational worship. Each has a right to 
 his choice. What we claim for ourselves we must 
 concede to others. The liberty left in Scripture is 
 in accordance with the peculiarities of race and 
 nation. What suits China does not suit England. 
 Always taste in Africa will differ from taste in Amer- 
 ica. Eskimos and Frenchmen will never worship 
 alike. Christianity is neither arctic, nor antarctic, 
 nor tropical. It is for poles and equator. A cath- 
 olic religion must have an adaptation wide as our 
 humanity. Millennial unity in faitli and love may 
 exhibit itself in innumerable forms, as the same life 
 in the universe animates insect and archangel, and 
 
MILLENNIAL DEMOCRACY. 39 1 
 
 the same light shines over creation in colors of 
 beauty and glory more delicate and more dazzling 
 because broken into an infinitude of hues and 
 splendors. 
 
 In the brightest future of our earth external dif- 
 ferences may be multiplied, while all Christians are 
 one in the saving truths of our religion. Let Greek 
 patriarch and Roman pope and Anglican archbishop 
 and Protestant minister have the same remission by 
 faith in the blood of our incarnate God, and the 
 same renewal by the Holy Ghost, and the same ac- 
 cess to the Father, and the same brotherhood of 
 universal love, and the same rule in the Scripture ! 
 In all else their differences may be multitudi- 
 nous. Chanty then becomes unity. Fellowship in 
 Christ makes liberty among disciples. Only a mil- 
 lennial Democracy can create a true Ecumenical 
 Council. The light of future love will yet shine 
 down from heaven on a spectacle which will thrill 
 mortals and angels and wake the songs of a uni- 
 verse — from east and west, from north and south, 
 Greeks, Latins, Anglicans, Protestants, led by pope 
 and patriarch and archbishop and minister, partak- 
 ing together the emblems of our common salvation ! 
 When such an assembly convenes we may leave the 
 small discords of earth to be hushed in the ever- 
 lasting harmonies of heaven. Christian Democracy, 
 an expedient of time, is to be exchanged for a celes- 
 tial and immortal Kingdom. 
 
 THE END. 
 
i 
 Date Due 
 
 ■ : 1 ^4^ 
 
 
 
 
 ,D ^\fiL 
 
 
 
 
 ■ v\;T 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^