.V42 lyoa Vedder Henry c. 1853-1935 Christian eDoch-m=i,^^_ "^^ epoch-makers CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS The Story of the Great Missionary Eras in the History of Christianity "By X^ Henry C. Vedder Professor of Church History in Cro{er Theological Seminary PHILADELPHIA AMERICAN Baptist Publication Society Boston Chicago Atlanta New YORK St. Louis Dallas Copyright 1908 by the American Baptist Publication Society Published June, 1908 jfrom tbc Socfet^'s own prces TO Milliam Hdbmore WHO FOR FIFTY GOLDEN YEARS BY PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE HAS TAUGHT CHINA THE GOSPEL, AND AMERICA THE WORTH OF FOREIGN MISSIONS PREFACE " There is a law of the imagination, forcing it to de- mand a concrete and personal center, around which (as a flint gathers around some organic substance in the chalk) its floating historical conceptions shall dispose them- selves." ' These words, though they in no way suggested the writing of this book, not inaptly describe its organ- izing idea. The chapters following are the outgrowth of the author's experience in teaching the history of Chris- tian missions to his classes for more than a dozen years. No method is so practically effective in arousing the student's interest and in helping him see the facts in their true perspective as the biographical. Many books already exist that tell the story of Christian missions, but none pursue this method. And yet the subject is one peculiarly fitted for biographical treatment — indeed, it cannot be treated in any other way without most inadequate pres- entation of the facts. It will occur to some readers, possibly, that other chapters ought to have been added on modern mission- aries, the absence of whose names they will mark and deplore. But a little further consideration will make it plain that this would have been incompatible with the plan of the book. If one were attempting to give a com- plete history of missions, or even a fairly complete col- lection of missionary biographies, the omission of such names as Brainerd, Morrison, Paton, Neesima, would in- deed be inexcusable. What has been attempted is, to * Curteis, " Dissent in its relation to the Church of England." The Bampton Lectures for 1871, p. 344. vii VIU PREFACE study in turn each of the great missionary epochs or move- ments of the Christian ages, grouping the saHent facts of each about the personaHty of the missionary who was the leader of the movement. It is beheved that an adequate idea may thus be conveyed to the reader of the signifi- cance and value of each missionary era, and of its relation to the entire course of Christian missions. If a sound foundation can thus be laid, study of the details of mis- sionary history can be pursued, to the limit of opportunity and material, with the certainty that the result will not be absolute mental bewilderment, but precise knowledge and correct apprehension. The study of missions under the auspices of the various missionary organizations is now being prosecuted by a multitude of people, young and old, with a great deal of hearty good-will and an energy most praiseworthy, but with very little system. It is certain that the result of such study will be the accumulation of a quantity of miscellaneous information about missions, but very little knowledge. The reading of some good general outline of missionary history is indispensable, if our young people would avoid a serious case of mental dyspepsia. It is not pretended that this is the only book available, but it is believed to have certain features that will make it both welcome and effective. At all events, the author cherishes the hope that whoever carefully studies " Chris- tian Epoch-Makers " will find that, if he has learned less than he might have wished, he has nothing to unlearn. Crozer Theological Seminary, May i, 1908. CONTENTS PAGE I The Philosophy of Christian Missions i II Paul: Missions of the Apostolic Age 19 III Ulfilas: The Conversion of the Barbarians 41 IV Patrick: The Apostle to Ireland 61 V Augustine: Christianity in Angle- land 81 VI Boniface: Germany Evangelized loi VII Ansgar: The Gospel in Scandinavia 123 VIII Vladimir: The Conversion of the Slavs 141 IX Raimund Lull: The Dark Age of Missions 161 X Francis of Assisi: The Missions of the Gray Friars . 179 XI Xavier: The Missions of the Jesuits. 201 ix X CONTENTS Pagb XII Ziegenbalg: The First Protestant Missionary .... 223 XIII Schwartz: The Educational Idea in Missions .... 245 XIV Zinzendorf: The Moravian Pioneers in Modern Missions 265 ' XV Carey: The Missionary Revival in England 283 XVi Martyn: The First Modern Missionary to the Moham- medans 303 XVII Judson: The Beginning of Missions in America . . . 323 XVIII Livingstone: Light-bearer to the Dark Continent . 343 THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY The classic on this subject is Carey's Enquiry Into the Obliga- tions of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. A facsimile reprint of the edition of 1792 was pub- lished in London in 1891. Anderson, Foreign Missions: Their Relations and Claims (Boston, 1870), is excellent, and so is Harris, The Great Commission: or the Christian Church Consti- tuted and Charged to Carry the Gospel to the World (latest ed., London, 1852). More recent books are: Pierson, The Divine Enterprise of Missions (New York, 1891) ; Gordon, The Holy Spirit in Missions (New York, 1893) ; Mott, The Evangelization of the World in this Generation (New York, 1900) ; and, best as well as latest of all, Clarke, A Study of Christian Missions (New York, 1900). Besides these monographs on the subject, there is incidental discussion of it often very suggestive, in many books on the history of missions, such as: Thompson, Foreign Missions, Lectures II and HI (New York, 1889) ; War- neck, History of Protestant Missions, "Introduction" (New York, 1902) ; proceedings of the Ecumenical Missionary Confer- ence, 1900, Vol. I, pp. 67-103 (New York, 1900). There are pertinent chapters also in the following discussions of funda- mental principles and practical problems of missions : Ellinwood, Questions and Phases of Modern Missions (New York, 1899) ; Barton, The Missionary and his Critics (New York, 1907) ; Brown, The Foreign Missionary (New York, 1907). The fol- lowing also contain material germane to the subject: Seelye, Christian Missions (New York, 1875) ; Centenary Missionary Addresses (Philadelphia, 1893) ; Speer, Missionary Principles and Practice (New York, 1892) ; Mabie, Meaning and Message of the Cross. Last but not least are two once celebrated sermons, now undeservedly forgotten : " The Moral Dignity of Missions," by Francis Wayland, and " Missions the Chief End of the Church," by Alexander Duff, both of which may be found in Fish's Pulpit Eloquence of the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1857). THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS THE history of Christianity is a history of missions. That such is the fact is indisputable, and that such is the fact is no accident. In its essence Christianity is a missionary rehgion. It was proclaimed such before- hand. The promise to Abraham was that in him should all the nations of the earth be blessed/ and prophets fore- told the day when all nations should come and worship before God." To the Messiah the nations were to be given as an inheritance ; ' of the increase of his govern- ment there should be no end ; dominion should be given him, and glory, and kingdoms, that all people, nations, and tongues should serve him — a kingdom that should never pass away.* Christianity was thus decreed in the eternal counsels of God to be a world religion. The kingdom of heaven is to progress among men by con- tinuous conquest, until the whole earth is subject to the King. These martial figures describe the peaceful victories of Christian missions, but they describe a religion totally different in spirit and purpose from the Judaism whence it sprang. For Judaism — the actual Judaism of history, as distinguished from the divine ideal of Judaism em- bodied in the Old Testament Scriptures — was essentially an ethnic religion ; that is, it expressed in the most perfect form the peculiar religious ideas, aspirations, and hopes of a single race. The very features of an ethnic religion that give it its vogue among tribes and peoples descended *Gen. i8 : i8. ^ pg. 86 : 9. ' Isa. 9 : 7. « Dan. 7 ■ M- 3 4 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS from the same stock, limit its spread beyond that race. Judaism differed from the other ethnic rehgions, it is true, in that it contained a larger divine element mingled with the human. The prophets who from time to time brought to Israel messages from God have no counterparts in the other ethnic religions. But the teaching of the prophets did not and could not change the fundamental charac- ter of Judaism, They did not transform the religion of the Hebrews into something other than an ethnic re- ligion; they merely elevated it to the first place among the ethnic religions. But precisely because it still re- mained essentially ethnic, it could not become universal. Judaism, therefore, as it existed when Jesus proclaimed himself to be its Messiah, had become essentially ex- clusive and non-missionary. Its root idea was separation. God had chosen the Hebrew race from all the nations, as every Jew delighted to recall, and exalted it to the privi- lege of being his peculiar people.^ The idea that these privileges should ever be extended to other peoples was gall and wormwood to the Jew. The universal dominion of Messiah, as he conceived it, was to result, not in in- corporating the Gentiles into the chosen race, but in mak- ing the Jew the dominant force of the future, as the Roman was of the (then) present. And therefore, though there was some proselyting among the Gentiles, especially among the rich and the official class, the num- ber of proselytes was always relatively insignificant. There was never any general and active propaganda. Proselytism was a matter of individual activity always ; of anything like a concerted attempt to convert the world to Judaism there is not only no trace in Jewish history, but there is no reason to believe that such an idea was ever entertained as possible, or even as desirable. Such a purpose would have been inconceivable by a Jew, for ^ Deut. 14 : 2; 30 : 3; Jer. 29 : 14. THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 5 the bare idea was at variance with his most deeply cher- ished prejudices and hopes. Those who treat Judaism as one of the world's missionary religions must have re- gard altogether to its ideal, as set forth in its sacred writings, not to the religion in its historic development and actual form. It was, indeed, one of the early and bitter complaints of the Jews that Jesus set at naught their traditions of exclusiveness, " Your Master receiveth publicans and sinners and eateth with them," they said to the disciples — at once reproach and protest. With the prophetic in- sight of hatred they saw the downfall of their exclusive national privileges should the teaching and practice of Jesus prevail. In vain did he declare that he came not to destroy, but to fulfil the law ; for what he meant by fulfilment was what they understood to be destruction, and from their narrow ethnic point of view they were right. But Jesus could not be restrained within the nar- row limitations of Judaism : '* The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost," summarized his mission — not the lost of any one nation, but all the lost. And this universality of his mission Jesus summed up into a guiding principle for all time in his parting words to his disciples : " Go ye therefore, and make dis- ciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I com- manded you : and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age." It is true that some of the wise critics now tell us that these words in the Gospel of Matthew are not part of the primitive tradition, but the integrity of the text of the Acts of the Apostles is not questioned, and according to Luke, the same injunction was given : " And ye shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and 6 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." It will be necessary to do much more than expunge the Great Commission to rid Christianity of this fundamental missionary idea. The entire New Testament, Gospels and Epistles alike, must be rewritten — nay, all memory of the life and character of Jesus Christ must be eradi- cated from the minds of men — before Christianity can cease to be a missionary religion. For the raison d'etre of Christian missions is not found in any single command — not even in words that for ages have been so precious and so sacred to the whole Chris- tian world as those of the Great Commission — but in the totality of what Jesus Christ did and taught and was. The significance of his earthly life and teaching appears only in the light of his personality. It is the life, it is the teaching of one who, though he once existed in the form of God, yet counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men ; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death — yea, death of the cross. And whoso is Christ's must have in him this same mind, and in his own measure must accomplish this sac- rifice — he must renounce self as the first condition of discipleship, and take up his cross and follow Christ. He must become the imitator of him who came into this world not to be ministered unto, but to minister. To be a Christian is to give one's life for others. Such a char- acter and life as Christ's necessarily issued in a mission- ary commandment. The Great Commission not a part of the primitive tradition! There is no other primitive tradition — the whole content of the gospel is condensed into these words. And since the missionary idea is thus of the essence of Christ's character and teaching, missions are the very THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 7 breath of life to the Christian church. That church was called into being for no other purpose, it exists for no other end, than to proclaim in all the earth the gospel of Christ. The church does not engage in missions as one of many activities; missions are the primal law of its being. A church that is not missionary, whatever else it may be, is not Christian. And there can be no distinc- tion between near and far, between men at home and men abroad, in this matter. '' The field is the world." No Christian is permitted to say, or even to feel, that he is under obligation to give the gospel to his neighbor, but not to the man in China, for our Master has taught that every man is my neighbor who needs me and whom I can help. The church may be, and often has been, missionary, but too narrowly missionary, confining its ministrations to its own community, country, race. Foreign missions, therefore, may fairly be taken to be the best gage of a church's spiritual life, because they show most clearly how far the followers of Christ have imbibed the spirit of Christ. He gave himself most to those who most needed him. The greatness of the need of the heathen is the measure of their claim upon the Christian world. The command of Christ covers their case; they are at least part of the " all the nations," but the example of Christ outruns his command — love should be a more powerful motive than duty. The need of a nation per- ishing without the gospel is enough, and will be enough so long as Christian compassion remains in the earth, to move the followers of Christ to the work of foreign missions. That the significance of foreign missions has not been exaggerated is evident from the fact that the entire New Testament is concerned with foreign missions. The Epistles, with the possible exception of Hebrews and 8 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS James, are addressed to Christian churches planted out- side of Judea by the labors of apostles — foreign missions. The Gospels, with the possible exception of Matthew, were written for the instruction of the churches thus gathered. The Acts is the record of foreign missions, with an account of the beginning of a Christian church at Jerusalem as a necessary introduction or background to the story. And to one who reads these documents, in which the beginnings of Christian history are recorded, it becomes evident that this activity of the apostles was not due to the command of Christ merely. Respect for that com- mand might have led them to traverse the whole Roman empire, and endure hardship, opposition, and persecution for his sake, but it does not account for the burning zeal that the apostles everywhere displayed. There is a vast difference between obedience and enthusiasm. It is evi- dent that the apostles were conscious of a message to be delivered, as well as of a command to be obeyed, and that the message was their inspiration and spur. They knew themselves to be possessed of truth that the heathen did not have, truth for lack of which the heathen were suffering, dying, and to declare this truth was their great purpose. This truth they called the gospel, the glad ti- dings of salvation, and they proclaimed it with an insist- ence that only the highest possible conviction of its value to the world can either explain or excuse. And it is only as the church of to-day has this same confidence in the supreme value of its message, this conviction that the world still needs the gospel, that missionary labors are likely to be fruitful. They are certain to be half-hearted and inefficient, else. There are those among us who think they see signs of the weakening of this conviction, and find one of its chief causes in the new science of comparative religion. THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 9 The tendency of this comparative study of the religions of the world, we are gravely assured, will inevitably be — ■ nay, already is — to depose Christianity from its place as the religion of the world, to rank henceforth as merely one of the world's religions — a little better than others, perhaps, but having no supreme and exclusive claims upon man's acceptance. Every new science has had to endure criticism of this sort, and comparative religion being one of the latest comers, must look for fault- finding and misunderstanding until its results are better known and more accurately appreciated. And as with other sciences, it has fared badly at the hands of certain professed friends, sciolists who have hoped to make up for their lack of precise knowledge by the loudness of their assertions. A great deal of nonsense has been talked and written in the name of comparative religion, but this has no claim to consideration as a part of science. And we pay our religion a very poor compliment by con- fessing to any fears of the result of a candid comparison of it with all the religions of the world. A comparison, in any case, is inevitable; it is futile to object to it, and unless Christianity can justify its claims to superiority in the judgment of honest men and by rational consid- erations, it cannot expect to maintain its claims to suprem- acy. But the science of comparative religion has already confirmed, and will ultimately triumphantly vindicate, the claims of Christianity to be the religion that on its intel- lectual side approximates most closely to ultimate truth ; the religion possessing a moral code at once most lofty and most practical; and, by reason of its flexibility and adaptiveness to new conditions, the only religion that is not of a race or an age, but for every race and for all time. And nineteen centuries have irrefutably proved it to be the only religion that has the power of regeneration, for a man or for a nation. lO CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS If there is a weakening of missionary conviction, the explanation is not to be found in the scientific study of rehgion, probably not in any form of intellectual activity, but in moral causes. And if that is a true diagnosis, the effectual remedy is to be found only in a return to the teachings of Christ, to a better apprehension of the gospel as it was originally declared. What was the content of that gospel, the glad tidings of salvation for all men, that Jesus first declared and that his apostles proclaimed with so great power and so marvelous results through the length and breadth of the great Roman empire ? First of all, the gospel brought to men a truer idea of God. The more enlightened minds among the heathen had already attained the conception of the unity of the divine Being. The philosophical necessity of conceiving the Power behind the phenomena of the universe as one, not many, was as plain to .Socrates and Plato, to Cicero and Seneca, as it has ever been to any Christian thinker. There is said to have been an esoteric monotheism behind the popular polytheism of Egypt. The unity of God is an idea to which the unaided human intellect might be trusted to arrive in time, and once the conception was evolved, it would necessarily soon become a conviction. Christianity had no additional message to bring to the world regarding the oneness of God. It could only lay new stress upon a truth already familiar to many, latent in the minds of a still larger class. It could, at most, only declare with absolute conviction that which was till then a philosophical speculation. This, to be sure, would be a gain not to be despised, but this does not adequately measure the contribution of Christianity to the world's religious ideas. To the idea of the oneness of God, Judaism contributed the notion of moral personality. It was by no means clear to Plato and other heathen philosophers whether the one THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS II divine Power or Being that they clearly perceived to be manifested in the universe was a person, a God inter- ested in the affairs of men and directing the course of events, or a mere '* stream of tendency." If they may be said to have believed in one God, they were skeptical about a divine providence. That is where Judaism rose above the inevitable limitations of a mere ethnic religion. The prophets had distinctly revealed to the Hebrews a*, God who was profoundly interested in them as a people, and who presided over their national destinies. They had also arrived at another notion concerning the divine character, unknown to man until the Hebrews developed it — the holiness of God. Holiness, as the Jewish prophet conceived it, was not a mere abstract sinlessness, but a moral perfection that separated God from all other be- ings. This attribute of God was actively displayed in the reward of righteousness and the hatred and punish- ment of sin in all its forms. Judaism thus gained a dif- ferent ethical basis from that of other ethnic religions. To the Jew righteousness was not social utility, nor a means to personal happiness, nor patriotism ; it was right relation to a God who was infinitely perfect in character, and therefore required of his servants conformity to a perfect standard of character and conduct. Christianity found nothinsf to criticize or alter in these Jewish conceptions of God. Jesus of Nazareth, born a Jew and bred in the knowledge of these ideas, approved their excellence by making them the foundation of his teaching. But he added to this idea of God one element of the very last importance, and this has constituted the essential contribution of Christianity to the fundamental religious ideas of the world. He taught the love of God, he taught men to say " Our Father, who art in heaven." In this conception of God as a being whose inmost na- ture is love, the self -imparting principle, whose relation 12 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS to men is best represented in human language under the figure of parenthood, Christianity surpasses not alone all heathen or ethnic religions, not Judaism only, but its most powerful modern rival, Islam. The God of Mohammed is the God of the Jew, plus such ideas of divine provi- dence as cannot easily be distinguished from fatalism. The Moslem worships a God, not of love, but of in- exorable will, whose decrees are fate ; and the essence of religion is not to love God, but to believe in him and practise Islam, submission to his will. But Christianity proclaims and worships a God whose will is but the ex- pression of the holy love that constitutes his nature — a will, therefore, exercised for the blessing of his creatures and the bringing of them to a like character of holy love. And to the person, the character, and life of Jesus, Chris- tianity points as the most perfect embodiment of this idea of God, the revelation of the Father's love, the one effective means of reconciling the world to God. This new idea of God proclaimed to the world was the vitalizing spirit of apostolic missions, and modern missions will possess vitality and effectiveness precisely in proportion to the vividness of this idea in the con- sciousness of Christ's followers, and the vigor and per- suasivene with which it is preached. We may be as confident to-day as ever men have been in the past, that we have a message needed by the world, a message for which the nations hunger and thirst, a message that the perishing will receive with joy when once they under- stand it. But the gospel also brought to men a new idea of human society. Jesus proclaimed it as his mission to establish upon earth the kingdom of God — a community of believers in which the royal rule of God should prevail. The greater part of his public and private discourses are devoted to the setting forth of the nature and laws of this THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS I3 kingdom — a fact that sufficiently indicates the importance that the subject assumed in his mind. The fundamental law of that kingdom he declared to be righteousness, not a righteousness of ceremonies and obedience to a moral code, but a righteousness consisting in a right relation to God and man. Hence the summons to men was /jLezapoUrs, not " repent," in the sense of " be sorry for your sins," but *' change your mind," turn to the right about, get into right relations with God and man. And this change of mind, this right relationship, is nothing less than to be brought into moral fellowship with a God whose nature is holy love, and whose attitude toward his creatures is benevolence. Hence it is that Jesus sums up the whole law in the twin enactment : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," and " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The proclamation of this truth was believed to be the " glad tidings," the power of God unto salvation, the only power by which men could be saved. In this convic- tion Jesus and his apostles were one. But what did they mean by salvation? The answer made throughout the Christian ages has too often been this : deliverance of the individual from sin, first from its condemnation and then from its power. But even as regards the individual, sal- vation has a deeper meaning than that. For each of us it means not merely a deliverance, but to be brought into harmony with the character and purposes of God, into vital union with Christ and so into moral fellowship with God. Holiness, the goal of salvation, is something more than mere absence of sin ; it is willing righteousness with all the moral energy of one's being. We are to be holy as God is holy, and salvation is not accomplished — it is only in process of accomplishment — until this character is established in us. Until we will what God wills, be- cause his will is the activity of a holy love and a like love 14 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS fills our hearts, our salvation is not completed. And this is the idea of salvation that the apostles everywhere pro- claimed and taught in their letters to the churches — not stopping with a forensic justification that merely declared men righteous, but including also a sanctification that makes men really righteous. So much for the meaning of salvation, as it applies to the individual only. But this is not all. Salvation means more than the restoration of the individual to moral like- ness to God. Since he has been brought into harmony with God, and since God so yearns for the salvation of men that he gave his only Son to secure it, the saved man must in his turn and in his degree become a savior. The holy love that has entered into the Christian's heart prompts him to such sacrifice for others as Christ made on his behalf. To conceive of salvation as ending when our own eternal welfare has been made secure, is to repeat the error of monachism — it is to convict ourselves of not understanding what salvation means. He whose love does not irresistibly urge him to save others has grave reason to ask himself whether he knows what the love of God really is. By another route we have come again to the conclusion that not to be a missionary is not to be a Christian. Man is not merely an individual ; he is a unit in a social organism, the first group of which is the family, with its natural progression Into the larger groups of the clan and the tribe, or the town and the State. Hence, while every man has individual rights that are sacred and inviolable, he has social duties just as sacred and invio- lable. Both of these are included in the scope of salva- tion, and full provision is made for both in the law of love. But the emphasis makes all the difiference. We are in no danger of forgetting or undervaluing our indi- vidual rights; civil governments exist mainly for the THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS I5 protection and enforcement of these. What needs emphasis is our social duties, and it is here that the gospel lays its special stress. Salvation consists not only in the establishment of individual righteousness, but in the perfecting of social righteousness — the triumph of the kingdom of God. In the light of this great truth we are able to compre- hend the real significance of those social teachings of Jesus that have been so generally misinterpreted — by one school being regarded as Oriental exaggeration, mere counsels of perfection, not to be taken too seriously in the practical conduct of life; and by another school in- sisted upon as rules to be applied with a slavish literal- ness under all circumstances, no room being left for the exercise of discrimination and common sense. Such injunctions, that is to say, as : '' Swear not at all," " Resist not him that is evil," " Give to him that asketh thee," " Judge not," " Call no man Rabbi." These and other like commands have to do with our relations with one another, that is, they are concerned with social right- eousness. But every one of them is to be interpreted in the light of the fundamental principle, the law of love. ** Resist not him that is evil?" Certainly not, if I alone am injured. But the law of love requires me to defend myself against attacks that will injure others also — my life, my good name, are of value to my family, to my friends, possibly of some little value to the world at large. And the law of love requires me to protect my family or my neighbor from the wanton or malicious violence of the evil man. " Give to him that asketh thee? " Cer- tainly ; but if the giving will do harm, not good, the law of love requires withholding instead of giving. And so on. In fact, these injunctions seem to have been Intended by Jesus not as rules of conduct, but simply as practical illustrations of the manifold ways in which the principle l6 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS of social righteousness, the law of love, is applicable to human life. The early history of Christianity abounds with proofs that this principle was well understood and consistently applied. It was a beautiful instance of its power when the disciples at Jerusalem, in the peculiar circumstances in which they found themselves after the day of Pente- cost and the addition to their number of three thousand, *' had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods and divided them to all, according as any man had need . . . and not one of them said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own." And generations later, it was a common saying among the heathen, " See how these Christians love one another." This social message of Christianity, long forgotten, is coming to be newly appreciated ; and this fact should do much to inspire Christian missions with fresh vitality and give them new persuasiveness. It was because these truths were a burning conviction In the souls of the apos- tles, it was because these truths were a vital force in the early Christian churches, that Christianity so rapidly conquered the heathenism of the Roman empire. And in proportion as these truths are vividly conceived, vig- orously proclaimed, and faithfully practised, the Chris- tianity of our day will make like missionary conquests. And then, the gospel brought to men a new idea of the future life. The best of the heathen looked forward to death with calmness, indeed, but hardly with hope. Socrates concludes his "Apology " with the words : " But now it is time for us to go away, I to die, you to live. Which of us is going to the better fate is unknown to all save God." Brave words, manly words, but how far short they come of Paul's confident assurance in imme- diate expectation of death : " For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come. I have THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS I7 fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day." And even that finest passage in all classical literature, towards the close of his treatise on *' Old Age," where Cicero declares his belief in immortality, and says : '* From this life I depart as from a temporary lodging, not as from a home. For nature, has assigned it to us as an inn for a brief sojourn, not a place of habitation. Oh, glorious day! when I shall depart to that divine company and assemblage of spirits and quit this troubled and polluted scene " — even this is but a philosophical speculation, a personal hope, and as he confesses, may be but a delusion, though a pleasing one. Feeble indeed such a hope seems, in spite of the eloquent words in which it is expressed, when compared with this : ** For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens." Or with this : " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrec- tion of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled and unfading." And in these last words we have the keynote of the apostolic message — the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, of which fact they were eye-witnesses, the pledge of salvation and immortality. It was because God had raised Jesus from the dead that they had hope for the future and courage for the present. And Paul there- fore states not a dogmatic principle, but a simple historic fact, when he says that it was our " Saviour Christ Jesus who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." Even the agnostic, the atheist even, must admit this to be true. For if his contention B l8 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS that Jesus never rose from the dead be granted, or if it be conceded that behef in the resurrection had its origin in conscious imposture or honest delusion, it is still a historic fact that until men somehow or other came so to believe in the fact of Christ's resurrection as to be willing to give their lives in attestation of the sincerity of their testimony, the assured hope of immortality never existed anywhere on this earth. Nor does it now exist apart from belief in Christ's resurrection. Those who have lost that belief no longer hope for any immortality, save the pale shadow of an eternal life found in joining the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence. The hope of the world is still bound up with the fact of the resurrection of Jesus, and it is as true now as when the words were first written, "If Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain." If we can proclaim the gospel as it was proclaimed by the immediate followers of our Lord ; if God means as much to us as he meant to them ; if we have their concep- tion of salvation and what it will accomplish, both for the individual and for society; if our assurance of a glorious future with Christ is as unwavering as theirs — then we may look with confidence for like results. The gospel is still the power of God unto salvation, only it must be a full, unmutilated gospel, and it must be proclaimed with intense conviction that in it is the world's only hope. Here is at once the divine philosophy of missions and the prophecy of their ultimate success. The same who said, '* Go, proclaim," has said, " Lo, I am with you alway, unto the end of the age." II PAUL : MISSIONS OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE BIBLIOGRAPHY By all means the most learned and exhaustive discussion of this theme is Harnack's Die Mission und Ausbreitwig des Chris- tenthums in der Ersten drei Jahrhunderten (Leipzig, 1902), since republished in an English translation, under the title The Expansion of Christianity (two vols., London, 1904-5). Little inferior to this as to the apostolic age proper, is Weizsacker's The Apostolic Age (Eng. tr., two vols., London, 1894). There is much valuable material also in Hausrath's Times of the Apostles, esp. Vol. Ill, p. 129 seq. (four vols., London, 1895). Hort's Judaic Christianity, chap. IV, V, is a helpful contribution, and most treatises on the apostolic age are worthy of examination by a student of apostolic missions. The well-known biographies of the Apostle Paul, by Conybeare and Howson, Farrar, and Sabatier are of great value. Martin's Apostolic and Modern Mis- sions (New York, 1898) contains a striking and instructive parallel. II PAUL: MISSIONS OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE ABOUT fourteen years after the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost occurred the crisis in the history of Christianity. A year or two before this Peter, in obedience to a heavenly vision, had gone to the house of CorneHus, a centurion of the ItaHan cohort, then stationed at Caesarea — a thing unlawful according to the traditions of his race. Though a devout man, Cornelius was still a Gentile and a heathen, with whom no scrupulous Jew would hold even ordinary social inter- course. Peter preached the gospel to Cornelius and his friends ; they believed ; and while the apostle was yet speaking, the power of the Spirit came upon these new believers, so that they spoke with tongues and glorified God. What was Peter that he should withstand the grace of God ? Without hesitation he baptized Cornelius and his believing friends. On his return to Jerusalem, Peter was called to account for his conduct, and in his own defense he simply re- lated the facts. They proved unanswerable. The church at Jerusalem glorified God, saying, '* Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." But in spite of these brave words, it soon appeared that the saints at Jerusalem were slow of heart to learn the lesson of God's providence, and to admit that any other than Jews could be saved through the gospel. The followers of Christ up to this time, it is plain, had still regarded themselves as Jews. They frequented the temple and the synagogues, though from the beginning they had also 21 22 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS their own assemblies on the first day of the week. They regarded themselves, and for some time were also re- garded by others as rather a party in the Jewish nation than a separate sect or the adherents of a new religion. They were still busily engaged in putting the new wine into the old bottles, trying to patch the old, worn-out garment of Judaism with the new cloth of Christianity. The gospel was a gospel to Jews ; salvation was for Jews. Now for the first time there began to dawn a recognition that the gospel was to be preached to Gentile as well as to Jew, that Christ had made atonement for the sins of the world, and that the religion of the Christ is therefore essentially a missionary religion. Not only was recognition of this truth a gradual proc- ess, it was slower at Jerusalem than elsewhere. And it is always one thing to see a truth and quite another to act upon it. The church at Jerusalem would never again, perhaps, have forbidden the preaching of the gospel to Gentiles. The case of Cornelius had at any rate accom- plished so much as this : the rightfulness of such preach- ing could no longer be called in question, since God him- self had set the seal of approval upon it. But the saints at Jerusalem were not prepared to undertake an active and vigorous campaign among the Gentiles. That honor was left to another church — that of Antioch. The city of Antioch was the capital of the Roman province of Syria, and was a town of such wealth and magnificence as to be frequently called the Rome of the Orient. At what time the gospel was first preached here we are not told; but about the year A. d. 43 or 44, certain disciples, driven from Jerusalem by the persecu- tion following the stoning of Stephen, found their way to this place and preached the gospel not only to Jews, but to Gentiles, a great number of whom believed. Re- port of this having reached the church at Jerusalem, they PAUL 23 sent Barnabas to see what was done, and to supervise the work. Barnabas, " son of consolation," was not only eloquent of speech, as is implied in his surname, but " he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." He had been one of the first to sell his estate, in order to relieve the sufferings of the saints at Jerusa- lem, and he put his hand to this new work with the same promptness and self-sacrifice, so that " a great multitude was added to the Lord." After a time, however, Barnabas felt the need of a helper, and his heart turned to one who seemed to him peculiarly fitted to be of service among the Gentile popu- lation of Antioch. About five years ago he had been the means of introducing to the apostles as a brother in Christ one whom they mistrusted, and not without rea- son. This was Saul, a native of Tarsus, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee of the straitest sect, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel and learned in the law, a mem- ber of the .Sanhedrin who had been renowned as a bitter persecutor of the disciples of Jesus. This man had come to Jerusalem after an absence of some years, with a wonderful story of having been stricken down by the hand of the Lord at midday, of a blindness miraculously healed, and of a conversion to the faith of the Christ hardly less a miracle. No wonder the saints at Jerusalem were incredulous and deemed this some snare of their enemies, until Barnabas with superior insight recognized the genuineness of Saul's conversion and persuaded the rest to receive him into the brotherhood. Saul had from the first shown qualities that especially fitted him for a work like this. He was now preaching in his native city of Tarsus, and there Barnabas sought and found him, and besought his aid. " And it came to pass that even for a whole year they came together in the church, and taught a great multitude." 24 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS This was a memorable year in the history of Chris- tianity. Humanly speaking, it decided the future of the religion of Christ, insured its perpetuity, and im- pressed upon it a character that it was never to lose. Great as was the influence of the church at Jerusalem in molding Christianity, the influence of the church at Antioch became even greater. This year settled the ques- tion whether the followers of Christ should remain an obscure Jewish sect or party, like the Essenes, or Chris- tianity should become a new religion, altogether differ- ent from Judaism. At this place, and apparently at this time, in perhaps unconscious recognition of this new de- parture, the disciples were first called Christians — a name possibly given by their heathen opponents as a term of reproach, but speedily adopted by them as a badge of honor, the ** worthy name " by which they were glad to be called, though it were blasphemed by the rich and powerful. This year, therefore, marks the freeing of Christianity from its shackles of provincialism and sec- tarianism, and its awakening to self -consciousness as the great world religion. This year brought Paul from his obscurity, and placed him in the very forefront of the apostles of Christ — an event certainly second to none in the history of the churches during the New Testament period. It is no exaggeration then, but sober statement of historic fact, to call this year the crisis in the history of Christianity. One thing remains that, beyond all yet mentioned, marks this as a crisis, namely, this year at Antioch was the providential preparation for a great forward missionary movement, which had resulted before the close of the century in the preaching of the gospel through- out the Roman world. The hour had struck for such an advance. The church at Antioch had become strong in numbers and in faith; it doubtless had considerable PAUL 25 financial resources. The preaching of the gospel by the apostles brought home to the consciences of preachers and hearers alike the duty of obedience to the command of their Lord. Not merely Jerusalem and Judea, not merely Antioch and Syria, but all the nations were to be evangelized, and to be taught obedience to Christ. Upon the church and the apostles simultaneously comes the im- perious conviction that there was a work to be under- taken in the regions beyond. In this way the Spirit said to the church, " Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul to the work to which I have called them. Then, having fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away." It is worthy of note in passing that this first recorded ordination in the churches of Christ was the ordination of evangelists, missionaries — not of pastors. It is also noteworthy that Paul received this ordination as well as Barnabas. Some have seen in this account a fatal con- tradiction of the apostle's own account of his credentials. In the Epistle to the Galatians he indignantly disclaims owing his apostleship to man, asserting that not human approval, but a divine call had set him apart to this work, and that his authority as a preacher was from Christ direct. But there is no contradiction. It was true of Paul, as it has been of every genuine preacher of the gospel from his day to ours, that his call was from Christ direct, and that he owed no part of his authority as a Christian teacher to men. But it was also true that the church at Antioch formally set the seal of their ap- proval to his call, recognized in this public way his apos- tleship, and sent him forth as their accredited representa- tive. And nothing indicates that Paul disdained or un- dervalued this formal sanction of his character and work ; he was too much of a gentleman, as well as too true a Christian, to submit with an ill grace to a ceremony so 26 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS obviously fitting, as he was about to set forth in the char- acter of an official representative of the church at Anti- och to preach the gospel. Neither did he overvalue this formal sanction and confuse the human commission with the divine call. No such ambitious project was at first entertained as the evangelizing of the empire ; the horizon of the apostles grew with their work. The much more modest attempt was made in this first missionary tour to preach the gospel in the adjacent parts of Asia Minor, including the near- lying island of Cyprus. In this circuit of the towns of the Roman province of Galatia, probably not less than two years were consumed, and three cities are especially named as the scene of labor : Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium., and Lystra. In all of these the apostles experienced great opposition, passing into violent persecution, and in the last Paul was stoned and left for dead by the Jew- ish mob, but afterward revived. A vivid recollection of these hardships remained with him during the rest of his life. He makes mention of them more than once in his letters to the churches, and in the last words that he wrote before his death he calls to mind " what things came upon me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of all the Lord delivered me." But there was a more joyful recollection connected with this tour. It was at Derbe or Lystra, probably the latter, that the apostle became acquainted with a young Jew named Timothy, who had been carefully trained by his mother and grandmother in the knowledge of the Scriptures, and who now received the gospel joyfully. In later years he developed into one of the most trusted coadjutors of the apostle, and in a sense his successor. Having retraced their steps and seen to it that the newly planted churches were supplied with elders to have oversight of the flocks, the apostles returned to Anti- PAUL 27 och, " whence they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had accompUshed. And when they had arrived and assembled the church they reported how great things God had wrought with them, and that he had opened to the Gentiles a door of faith. And they spent no little time with the disciples." A period of perhaps two years more may be allowed for this stay at Antioch. By this missionary enterprise the center of gravity had been once for all transferred from Jerusalem to Anti- och. While the church at Jerusalem still retained a kind of primacy, the real leader of the Christian hosts was henceforth the church at Antioch. Moreover, during this time Paul had been compelled by the inveterate hos- tility of the Jews to turn to the Gentiles, and from this time onward he was known as the apostle of the uncircumcision, as Peter was par excellence the apostle of the circumcision. The race prejudices of those Christians who had been bred in the Jewish faith were enkindled. They were now willing, since the church at Jerusalem had sanctioned so much, that the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles, but they insisted that when the Gentiles became Christians they became debtors to the whole law of Moses, and must live as Jews. None saw more clearly than Paul that this was to substitute salva- tion by works for salvation by faith, as he preached; and that such substitution would be a gross perversion of the Christian religion. It was plain to him that the Jewish system, with its types and symbols fulfilled in Christ, was moribund, and that to bind Gentile converts with the obligations of the Mosaic law would be to nullify the preaching of the gospel among them. Accordingly, when a party of Judaizers came to the church at Antioch and began the active teaching of their views, Paul and Barnabas withstood them. The council of Jerusalem 28 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS which Speedily followed was the Gettysburg of the Juda- izing party. James and Peter and John gave the hands of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas, as the apostles to the Gentiles, and the way was now open for the larger advance in missionary effort. Again Paul set forth on a missionary tour, but this time Silas, not Barnabas, was his companion. People in our day have sometimes audibly wondered how dissen- sions and quarrels can possibly arise among missionaries. Men and women who have devoted their lives to the preaching of the gospel among the heathen, it is to be presumed, have reached a state of holiness and consecra- tion above all such littlenesses. President Lincoln once re- marked that there is a great deal of human nature lying around loose in the world, and missionaries, even apostles, have their fair share of it, with all its infirmities. The old Adam breaks out in the most unexpected places. When we sigh for the good old times, when we idealize the apostolic period as the golden age of Christianity, let us not forget that one of the Twelve was a thief and a traitor, and that another denied his Lord, that in the first Christian church were Ananias and Sapphira, that John Mark forsook his companions in their hour of need and Paul and Barnabas quarreled over him, that in the wake of Paul followed false teachers who taught lies faster than he could teach the truth. Call such a time an age of brass, if you please, but never an age of gold. We shall no longer wonder at the imperfections of mod- ern Christians if we read the New Testament with open eyes. When Paul began this second journey there is no evi- dence that he had in mind any larger plan than before — Asia Minor still apparently measured his missionary pur- poses and hopes. But the Spirit would not suffer him to carry out his narrow plans, and while he was at Troas PAUL 49 it was made known to him in a vision that he must extend his labors to Europe and preach the gospel there. From this time we are to trace the widening of horizon that appears in all his subsequent labors ; he now began to propose nothing less than preaching the gospel in all parts of the Roman empire, so far as one man could do this work. To this he devoted the remaining years of his life. In Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, in Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus, in Galatia and Phrygia, he labored incessantly for the next seven years, planting churches, strengthening those already planted, and making himself present everywhere at once by his epistles. The details of these labors are better known to us than any other part of the apostolic history. We may reject with little ceremony the few conjectures that afterward become embodied in church tradition, such as that Mark founded the church at Alexandria, that Andrew evan- gelized Scythia, Bartholomew preached in India, and Thomas in Parthia. This parceling out of the Roman empire between the apostles reminds one of the later story, that each of the Twelve contributed a clause to the Apostles' Creed, and the two accounts probably had a similar origin. It is true that some of these traditions are not improbable in themselves, and may possibly be fact, while on the other hand some bear evident marks of invention; but none of them, nor all together, can be regarded as any important addition to our knowledge of the apostolic period. We may be certain that the other apostles were not idle; the New Testament is not silent concerning their labors because there was nothing to tell. There were reasons for the special prominence given in the second half of the Acts to the labors of Paul, some of which we may easily infer. In any case, however, the widespread influence of Christianity in the Roman empire at the close of the first century demands far more 30 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS for its explanation than the labors of one apostle, even though that one be Paul. Nothing can adequately ac- count for the state of things that we find existing in the earliest post-apostolic literature, from about a. d. 120 onward, save the general prevalence of a burning mis- sionary zeal among the apostles and throughout the apostolic churches. We are therefore fairly entitled to assume that what we find to be true of Paul and of the churches with which he was associated was characteristic of the apos- tolic period. And though his labors constitute our chief, almost our sole, material for the study of apostolic mis- sionary methods, they may, without doing violence to sound principles of New Testament interpretation, be taken as the norm of missionary methods in that age, and so far as their fundamental principles are concerned, the norm of missionary methods in every age. They deserve our most careful and intelligent study. The first and most significant thing is that Paul and Barnabas did not go forth in the first instance on their own responsibility, and in all probability they did not go at their ow^n charges. They were sent forth by the Holy Spirit, indeed, but also by the church of Antioch. They returned to Antioch at the close of their missionary tour and made a report of their labors, thus acknowledging their responsibility to the body that had commissioned them. Paul returned similarly at the close of his second tour, and he would doubtless have returned to Antioch at the close of his third tour had he not been interrupted by his mischance at Jerusalem, with his consequent arrest and long imprisonment. The Antioch church sustained to these apostles essentially the relation of a missionary society to its missionaries. And to one who studies the incidents of the first tour especially, it becomes evident that the church that sent them forth also sustained them. PAUL 31 There is no hint that at this time either of the two apostles supported himself by his own labors, and the account of what they accomplished seems to preclude any such employment. Travel was costly in those days as now ; proportionally it probably cost more then than now. Neither of the apostles had at this time any independent means so far as we know. It is the fairest of inferences that the church in sending them out became responsible for the expenses of their journey. It is true that during the other tours Paul supported himself, at least in part, by working with his own hands. That he did this in Corinth and Ephesus we have his own testimony, but we have also from him the reason for his course : it was that he might convince the heathen of these cities of his personal disinterestedness in preaching the gospel — he deemed this the best way, if not the only way, to convince them that he sought not theirs but them. He did not commend his conduct as an example to others. He distinctly lays down the principle that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel, and he indicates no exception in the case of missionaries. It would be curi- ous, indeed, if the New Testament should be found to ordain that men who enjoy the comparative comfort and security of a pastorate and a settled home are entitled to support, while those who undertake the rough and often dangerous work of evangelizing the new regions should go at their own risk and charges. There is evidence not only that the church at Antioch, but some of the churches that he founded, sustained Paul in his labors by ministering to his needs from their abun- dance. We know something of the methods of the Roman law in dealing with accused persons. Paul at Caesarea, and afterward at Rome, was what we should call a pris- oner on bail ; only, the Roman method of bail was not to take security in a sum of money, but to fetter the accused 3^ CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS to a soldier. It is needless to add that a Roman prisoner never " skipped his bail." Pending his trial, such a pris- oner was allowed a good deal of liberty. His friends could visit him freely and supply him with food and cloth- ing ; sometimes, as in the case of Paul at Rome, he could dwell by himself, free in every respect but for that chain and soldier. It was doubtless because he saw Paul thus ministered to by his friends and receiving gifts from them, that Felix was led to hope for a bribe for the release of his prisoner. During the two years that Paul dwelt at Rome in his own hired house, the churches evi- dently bore his expenses, for we find him thanking the Philippian Christians on one occasion for their liberality toward him, and calling to mind their gifts before his imprisonment. And these were by no means the least useful years of his missionary life, for by his agency the gospel won acceptance even in Caesar's household, and the church of Rome was greatly increased and strengthened for the fiery trials that were soon to come upon it. We have, therefore, in the apostolic age already in operation the essential features of our modern missionary societies. True, the formal organization is not there, but none of our modern organizations are formally present in the New Testament churches. Some bodies of Chris- tians who object to missionary societies as unwarranted innovations do not object to other associations of Chris- tians for religious work which are equally without formal precedent in the New Testament. This is the old familiar scrupulosity that strains out the gnat and swallows the camel — that would cast out a mote from a brother's eye, unmindful of the beam in its own. And there are certain other well-meaning persons who urge as more apostolic the go-as-you-please missionary method — that men and women should go forth without a guaranteed salary ; that no society should undertake the supervision and care of PAUL 33 them, nor even any church, but the Lord should be trusted for all things. To such may be commended not only a closer study of the New Testament, but the practical wisdom of the Confederate officer's valet who, when the bullets began to fly betook himself to the rear with more speed than dignity, and when afterward reproved by his master with, " I thought you trusted in the Lord, Sam," replied, " Oh, yes. Mars' Gawge, I trus' in de Lawd, but I doan' fool wid 'im." And it is difficult to speak with due patience of the proposal of certain others, that we abandon our mis- sionary societies and return to the exact apostolic method, each church following the example of the church at Antioch, commissioning its own missionaries and being responsible for them. This proposition rests upon an altogether wrong notion of the use to be made of apos- tolic precedent. These things are written for our instruc- tion, not for our slavish imitation. Often we can best show our respect for the fathers, not by an ape-like doing of precisely what they did, but by intelligently doing what they would do if they were here. The apostles did their best under the conditions of the first century, and we honor them most truly when we do our best under the conditions of the twentieth century. To return to the first century methods in all things would be not to honor the apostles or the New Testament or our Master, but to dishonor all three, and to discredit our own common sense as well. Why not propose also that our mission- aries go afoot across continents and traverse the ocean in sailing vessels, because the Empire State express and the " ocean greyhound " were unknown to Paul ? Who doubts that, were he living now, he would find fastest train and swiftest steamer none too rapid to convey the gospel to all lands? And is it not equally beyond doubt that if Paul were a preacher of Christ's gospel to-day, he c 34 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS would Utilize to the full the facilities that the great mis- sionary societies of our age furnish for sending that gospel to the uttermost parts? Paul was willing to be counted a fool for Christ's sake and the gospel's, but he nowhere teaches that it is necessary to be a fool in order to be a missionary of true apostolic spirit and method. New Testament precedents are addressed to men and women who have brains as well as hearts, and both endowments find their sphere of activit}^ in Chris- tian missions. Another thing characteristic of apostolic missionary methods is that the gospel was first preached in the cities, the centers of population and activity, the great ganglia of the Roman empire, the strategic points from which heathenism might be most effectively attacked. Doubtless a reason for this was that in these cities was always found a Jewish colony, to which in the first in- stance the apostles seem to have appealed. But the phi- losophy of the procedure lies deeper than this. If you wish to influence men, you must go where men are, not to sparsely inhabited districts, but to the cities. If you wish to move men, you must go to the centers of activity and relate yourself and your project to the power that pro- ceeds from the centers. In all the ages it is the cities that have determined the destiny of nations, and a half- dozen cities are making the history of the world to-day. If we are wise in our generation, as the apostles were in theirs, we shall more and more concentrate our mis- sionary efforts on the great cities. There is even more reason why we should do this than there was for Paul to preach in Antioch, in Corinth, in Ephesus, for one of the most striking features of the past century has been the increasing tendency of men to gather in cities. Som.e social philosophers are alarmed by the fact that the urban population of our own country PAUL 35 has increased within fifty years from twelve to twenty- nine per cent, of the whole population, while the number of towns of eight thousand inhabitants and over has grown during the same time from fewer than one hun- dred to more than three hundred. It is true that this ten- dency has been somewhat modified during the past decade by the introduction of the trolley car and the telephone. The tendency now is for the rich and well-to-do to estab- lish their real homes in the suburbs of the great cities rather than in the cities themselves, but the ultimate effect of this will only be to enlarge the area and popula- tion of the cities by the gradual absorption of these suburbs. And this increase of urban population is not peculiar to our own country. It is a tendency that appears likely to be accelerated rather than diminished throughout the civilized world in coming years. A principle common to human nature underlies this movement of population. A poor Irishwoman preferred starvation and cold and nakedness in a New York tenement to the plenty of a comfortable country home because, as she said, *' Paples is more coompany than sthumps " ; and there is a whole chapter of the philosophy of history wrapped up in her saying. The gregarious instinct is strong in man, even stronger in man civilized than in man barbarous ; and the missionary enterprise must take account of a fact so fun- damental in human nature and adjust its methods accord- ingly. Do not misunderstand me. I by no means say that missionary effort should be exclusively directed to the urban population — do not think that I would have the non-urban population neglected — but it is plain that in the coming years a larger and larger proportion of evangelistic labors must be put into the places where more and more of the people can be found. A third characteristic of the apostolic missionary 36 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS methods is the exclusive reHance upon the preaching of the gospel disclosed by them. This did not mean, as some Christians would have us believe, the mere " heralding " of salvation through Christ. The apostles did not hurry- skurry through the Roman empire, proclaiming Christ in a breathless fashion, in hope that when they had thus preached to all men the age would end with the second coming of Christ. On the contrary, Paul abode at Antioch a whole year, at Corinth a year and a half, at Ephesus two years and three months, besides other visits to these same cities, some by no means brief. There can be no reasonable doubt that tradition is at least correct in representing the other apostles as doing the like thing. What preaching the gospel meant in the apostolic age has been fully set forth in the preceding chapter. Suffice it that it included not merely everything that pertains to bringing men to Christ, but everything necessary for the edification of the saints. Witness especially the Epistles of Paul, notably those to the churches at Corinth, Ephesus, and Philippi. Let us, however, note particularly that there was no attempt in the apostolic age to supplement the work of evangelization by the work of education — that was the work of a later age, and it produced the system known as the catechumenate. In modern times there have been strenuous discussions of the true relation between educa- tion and evangelization, with missionaries not a few to maintain that the teacher is a better agency for the con- version of the heathen world than the preacher. But all such have been compelled to appeal for confirmation else- where than to the teachings of the New Testament and the example of the apostles. Another thing abundantly clear regarding these earliest missionary methods is that the apostles exercised a kind of episcopal authority over the churches they established. PAUL 37 The apostles were not bishops, and are not called by that title in the New Testament, in which episkopos is reserved for the presiding officer or officers of a local church. Oversight of all the churches founded by them, not of any single church, was their function — which corresponds closely to the later use of the word '' episcopal." Mis- sionaries among the heathen in our own day have been compelled by the nature of their environment to assume a precisely similar attitude toward the native churches and pastors. But there is no hint in the New Testament, or in the writings immediately following the times of the apostles, that episcopal functions were transmitted by the apostles to others. It was the whole aim of this apostolic supervision to bring the churches, at the earliest possible moment, to the point where they would be capable of standing alone, and the policy seems to have been meas- urably successful. Not the least instructive thing connected with mis- sionary labors during the apostolic age is the conception of the work that prevailed. We gather this from a multi- tude of circumstances, from many scattered phrases, rather than from formal and positive statements. Mis- sions were regarded as a work to which the followers of Christ were divinely called; obedience to the command of their risen Lord was the great inspiring motive. So it must ever be. No merely human sentiment can ever take its place. The actual heathen, as described by those who know them best, are not lovely or lovable, whatever the heathen of our romantic imagination may be, and senti- ment would soon fade away among the sordid surround- ings of an Asiatic city or an African jungle were it not strongly reenforced by a sense of duty. The robustness of missionary conviction, the warmth of missionary zeal, in any person or church or denomination, may be measured usually by the energy of faith in and exactness of obedi- 38 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS ence to the command, " Go ye, and make disciples of all the nations." Obedience to Him whom God has made both Lord and Christ has been, is, and ever must be, the great inspiring and controlling motive in missions. The unity of the work was clearly conceived in the apostolic age. " The field is the world." There were no artificial distinctions between preaching the gospel in An- tioch and preaching in Jerusalem, between evangelizing Judea and evangelizing Macedonia. Lines of separation between city and home and foreign missions were un- known. There were no agents beseeching the churches for collections, each jealous to see that his society got its full share. Have we not departed not only from the simplicity but from the effectiveness of the apostolic mis- sions by dividing and subdividing the field and multiplying societies? And, forgetting to look on nothing less than the whole world as our field, have not too many of us so contracted our sympathies and efforts as to lose depth of missionary conviction and keenness of missionary interest, such as appropriately find expression in generous giving? It may be that the campaign of education in systematic giving will be compelled to begin back of the question of giving, and attempt fundamental instruction in regard to the principles and methods of missions. Not only was the work conceived as one, field-wise, but as a common work. It was not merely the apostles, not the church at Jerusalem or that at Antioch alone, that were committed to this work, but every follower of Jesus and every church gathered in his name. The whole moral and spiritual force of Christianity, all the resources of all the churches, were subject to the Master's call. In our day it has apparently come to be thought that the Great Commission pertains only to foreign missionaries, or at any rate to ministers, few ever imagining that it lays any burden on all Christians. If we cannot (or will not) PAUL 39 literally obey the first word, " Go," we seem to think ourselves absolved from obligation to the rest of the com- mand. But God did not call the whole church at Antioch literally to ''go " ; he said, " Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul " ; the rest were called, indeed, but called to send, not to go. And those who remained at Antioch, equally with the two apostles who went forth, were obe- dient to Christ and became a part of the great evangelizing campaign then begun. This is the way in which the majority of Christians will ever bear their part in the evangelizing of the world. Some will always be called to direct personal missionary service, but the great multitude will be called to serve by proxy. But will those thus called feel that they are called ? Will you who hear and you who read about mis- sions have any adequate sense that the Great Commission lays a burden of duty upon you? Will continents un- evangelized appeal in vain to your loyalty to the Lord Christ? Do your hearts never thrill in response to that oft-quoted saying of Carey, " We are willing to go down into the mine, but you must hold the ropes ! " The future of the missionary cause among all Chris- tians depends largely upon the men who from year to year go out from our seminaries. If they are to be men of deep and genuine missionary conviction; if Christ's last words have special significance for them; if they realize fully the unity of the work, the universality of the missionary obligation; if they are men whose wills are steadfastly set to obey God — then the great work of evangelizing the world, as yet only promisingly begun, shall be carried to a glorious completion. Ill ULFILAS : THE CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS BIBLIOGRAPHY The only real "source" for the life of Ulfilas is a MS. frag- ment by his pupil, Bishop Auxentius, first printed by Waitz, " Ueber das Leben und die Lehre des Ulfilas" (Hannover, 1840), and more critically edited and restored by Bessell, Ueber das Le- ben des Ulfilas und die Bekehrung der Gothen sum Christenthum (Gottingen, i860). The Christian historians nearest in time to Ulfilas add some few particulars, not always to be trusted : Philo- storgius, Socrates, Sozomen, etc. These sparse materials are re- printed in the only English biography, Scott's Ulfilas, Apostle of the Goths (Cambridge, 1885). For the theological views of Ulfilas, Gwatkin's Studies in Arianism, pp. 180-182 (London, 1882), is valuable. On the Gothic people, consult: Wietershcim, Geschichte der V olkerwanderung (two vols., Leipzig, 1880), Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. XXXVII, second half; Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, Vols. I-III (second ed., Oxford, 1892-9), and his volume on Theodoric in the " Heroes of the Nations " series ; Gueldenpenning, Theo- dosius der Grosse (Halle, 1878). On the version of Ulfilas, see Migne, Latin Patrology, Vol. XVIII, 450, seq., or better still, the critical edition of Gabelentz and Loebe (three vols., Leipzig, 1843-76) ; Douse, Introduction to the Gothic of Ulfilas (London, 1886) ; and Massman, Ulfilas, Die Heiligen Schriften in Goth- scher Sprache (Stuttgart, 1857). Brief accounts of the life and work of Ulfilas may also be found in the Encyclopedia Britan- nica; Smith and Wade, Dictionary of Christian Biography; Neander, History of the Christian Church, Vol. II, pp. 150-159; Milman, History of Latin Christianity, Vol. I, pp. 372-376. Ill ULFILAS : THE CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS FROM the fourth century to the sixth was a period of storm and stress in the history of Rome. These centuries witnessed the downfall of the empire of the West and the circumscribing within narrow limits of the power of the Eastern emperor. The agency that pro- duced these changes, and ultimately the political system of modern Europe, was the great migration of the Teu- tonic tribes which, from the earliest period of authentic history, occupied the northern and central parts of the continent. We should not, however, think of this overthrow of the Western empire as a social cataclysm, a political earthquake. It was a peaceful event — a peaceful process, rather. The ones who had long made and unmade the emperors of the West, at length assumed in form the sovereignty that had long been really theirs, sent to Con- stantinople the useless imperial insignia, and informed the emperor of the East that there was no more a West- ern empire. A Gothic king reigned in the stead of the Caesars at Rome. For this change events had been slowly preparing through several centuries. From its early history, the Roman empire was in con- stant danger of being submerged by the hordes of north- ern barbarians. In the early period of the republic, the city narrowly escaped destruction at the hands of Brennus and his Gauls. Roman historians poorly disguised, under the story of a great victory by Camillus, the fact that Rome escaped total destruction only by the payment of a 43 44 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS ransom that left the city impoverished. So soon as Rome made herself mistress of Italy, she was compelled to con- quer Gaul in self-defense. She attempted the same policy toward Germany, but the defeat of Varus and the annihi- lation of his legions compelled the emperors to give up all thoughts of a conquest of the Germans. For, though Germ.anicus in part avenged the defeat of Varus, the empire was compelled to content itself with making the Rhine its frontier. The Danube became the frontier on the east, and Augustus left a solemn injunction to his successors to abandon the policy of conquest, and con- tent themselves with a better organization and govern- ment of the lands already won. From this time onward the empire practically ceased to be a conqueror and stood on the defensive. It is a maxim of war that defensive campaigns are in general disastrous, and such this proved to be. Under all the emperors down to Constantine, there was a constant struggle to keep back the ever-advancing hosts of bar- barians. When the pressure became too strong at some point and the military power of the empire became too weak for successful resistance, the emperors occasionally adopted the desperate expedient of receiving bands of these Teutonic tribes into the empire.' They were pro- vided with lands on which they settled, and the fighting men among them were incorporated into the imperial legions. In this way the evil day was postponed, but in spite of all such expedients it came at last. The weakness of the empire was as apparent to the barbarians as it was to the emperors. The free population of Italy and the older provinces became depleted by war, pestilence, and other ^ Thus, in 386, after Theodosius had temporarily checked the advance of the Goths, he distributed large numbers of them through Thrace, Mcesia, and Asia Minor, and enlisted forty thousand of them in the imperial service. ULFILAS 45 causes. The yeomen who had once formed the strength of Roman armies ceased to exist, and the virile energy of the population was sapped by luxury and vice. The empire came to rely for its defense on recruits from the once-despised barbarians ; and it was the natural thing that those who thus possessed the power should grasp authority and honor. The force that finally made the incursion of the bar- baiians fatal to the Roman empire was the tremendous and overwhelming pressure upon them of the Huns, a people yet more numerous and fierce than themselves. Toward the close of the fourth century these Huns, who origi- nated in the vast steppes lying to the north of the Cas- pian Sea, began to migrate westward. Their hosts seemed innumerable and their fierce valor made them irresistible. Even the Goths were forced to retire before these in- vaders, and they could retire only by invading the empire. Like a tidal wave they inundated Italy, Spain, and south- ern Gaul, overthrowing the Roman troops and govern- ments, and establishing a kingdom that endured for nearly two centuries. This Gothic conquest had various effects in the different provinces of the empire. In Italy itself the Goths were never more than an encamped host of armed Invaders, and after a severe conflict they were at length driven out, leaving comparatively few traces of their conquest. In Spain their settlement was more permanent ; they became assimilated to the population, and their political power endured to the Moorish conquest, in the eighth century. A similar result followed in southern Gaul, and in con- sequence that region is to this day almost as much Spanish as French. Another branch of the Teutons, the Vandals, after in- vading Spain and leaving in the name of one of its chief provinces, Andalusia, a permanent memorial of their pres- 46 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS ence, established themselves in north Africa, and re- mained there for two centuries. During this time they invaded Italy and took and sacked Rome. The later his- torians tell us that these people are by no means so black as they have been painted by the Roman writers, and that in reality they committed few of those excesses that we have come to think at once described and condemned by the word " vandalism." It is not only the external history of what is called the " fall " of Rome that is generally misapprehended ; we are probably accustomed to think of it as a great calamity. The incursion of the barbarians seems to us a relapse of Roman society into barbarism, a retrogression of the Western world in civilization. Such, no doubt, it was to some extent, and such it would have been completely but for one fact : these '' barbarians " were no longer bar- barous. They were well-nigh as civilized as the Romans who affected to despise them. Their kings were not the rough, uncouth, unlearned men that we have pictured to ourselves under the influence of the narrow-minded Roman writers. They were men of light and leading, patrons of the arts and of learning, quite the equals of Constantine and Charlemagne, for example, whom no- body would class among barbarians. In particular this is true of Theodoric, who for thirty- .three years was king of Italy. This was a time of peace -.and happiness for that desolated country, such as it had not known for centuries. With a strong hand Theodoric held in check the turbulent Gothic nobles, and with equal sternness he reformed the administration and punished the venality of Roman officials. He was not insensible to the worth of Roman civilization, and he did all in his power to foster art and learning. Freeman does not put the case too strongly when he thus describes the results of the Gothic conquest of Italy : ULFILAS 47 The Teuton rent away the provinces of the empire; but in rending them away he accepted the faith, the tongue, and to a great extent, the laws of the empire. This was, of a truth, the greatest conquest Rome ever made; if Greece led captive her Roman conqueror, far more thoroughly did Rome lead captive her Teutonic conqueror. It is true that Theodoric would be called an uneducated man in our day because he could not write; but neither could Charlemagne, and Constantine could write but little. Theodoric was, however, not ignorant of either literature or art, but singularly well versed in both for a great ruler, and during his reign both art and literature flourished. His ideals were high. The learned Roman, Cassiodorus, has preserved this saying of his : " Let other kings seek to procure booty, or the downfall of conquered cities ; our purpose is, with God's help, so to conquer that our subjects shall lament that they have too late come under our rule." Christians of various beliefs enjoyed under him a toleration that was not only unusual in that time, but that had no parallel in after times until the last century. The excellence of his rule is witnessed by the number of eulogistic legends that have gathered about his name, and the monuments that remain at Ravenna testify to his taste in the fine arts. The peace and pros- perity of Italy for half a century were due to him and his wise labors. He has been happily called " the barbarian champion of civilization." Such were the Goths and their kings, and they were such because before they conquered Rome, Christianity had conquered them. The same was true, to a more lim- ited extent, of the Vandals and other Teutonic invaders of the empire. The West and its civilization were saved from being overwhelmed by a deluge of barbarism, because those who became its conquerors had been in great part redeemed from barbarism by the gospel of 48 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Christ. And this result was mainly due to the life and labors of a single man. That man was Ulfilas. We know singularly little about his life in comparison with that which we know he accom- plished. Legend has surrounded the names of Patrick and Columba, of Boniface and Ansgar, with much that is fantastic and incredible, but we have not even legends about Ulfilas. Both the date and place of his birth are^ in doubt, and even his nationality is not certainly known. He was born somewhere about the year 311, and the his- torian Philostorgius tells us that he belonged to a Cappa- docian family made captives by the Goths while he was yet a child. From his captors he received the name Wul- fila, or little wolf. It is evident that he received some education, including a knowledge of the Greek language ; and this fact agrees with the statement that while still a youth, perhaps about the year 332, he was sent with others of his countrymen on an embassy to the imperial court at Constantinople. It is conjectured that he was detained some years as a hostage in that city, and that his education and conversion then occurred. At any rate, it is known that he became a lector, or lay reader. The time and circumstances of his conversion can only be conjec- tured, but beyond conjecture is now the fact that from the first he belonged to the Arian party; hence it is rea- sonable to suppose that his conversion and education were due to members of that party. His creed, preserved by his pupil, Auxentius, begins with the words, " I, Ulfilas, bishop and confessor, have always thus believed." This decisively negatives the story of Sozomen, to the effect that Ulfilas was a convert to the Orthodox faith before going to Constantinople, and was there perverted by the Arian bishops. In 341, at the age of thirty, Ulfilas is said to have been consecrated (by Eusebius and other Arian bishops assem- ULFILAS 49 bled at Antioch) missionary bishop to the Goths. This is thought by some to be evidence of previous missionary labors among that people, it being argued that an untried young man would scarcely be made a bishop, even for missionary service. Since he was thus consecrated by Arian bishops, as well as on the strength of his own con- fession, from this time onward he must be reckoned as belonging to that party, whatever his previous affiliations may have been. Little is known concerning the details of the work upon which he now entered ; the one thing cer- tain is that it was abundantly successful. No better evi- dence of this is needed than the bitter and unrelenting persecution instituted against him and his friends (about 350) by the king of the Visigoths, Athanaric. In conse- quence of this persecution, Ulfilas sought and obtained permission from Emperor Constantius to bring his con- verts across the Danube. They settled in Moesia, near Nicopolis ; and from this leadership of his people he was named " the Moses of the Goths." This removal of the converts made up to that time was by no means the end of missionary activity; Christianity continued to make its way among the Goths, and before his death in 381 Ulfilas saw Athanaric a convert to Christ, and practically the whole Gothic nation following in the footsteps of their king. It is seldom that any missionary has had the privilege of seeing so great results from his preaching; in most cases a generation or two passes before the harvest is reached from the first seed-sowing. And the brightness of this triumph is not dimmed by the employment of violent or unworthy means in the conver- sion of the Goths. Whole nations have sometimes been converted and baptized at the point of the sword, or by the compulsion of their monarch — Mohammed's principle, "the Koran or death," has had too many precedents in the history of Christianity — but there was nothing of this 50 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS in the conversion of the Goths. It was accompHshed by persuasion alone, by the inherent power of the gospel, and by the apostolic fervor and devotedness of Ulfilas, in the face of bitter and determined opposition. One great agency in accomplishing this result was the translation of the Scriptures into the Gothic tongue. How complete this version was must remain a matter of doubt. Only fragments of it have survived, and conflicting ac- counts make it impossible to decide whether the whole Bible was translated into Gothic, either by Ulfilas or others. Philostorgius indeed tells us that Ulfilas (whom he calls Ourphilas) translated all the books of both the Old and New Testaments, with the exception of Samuel and Kings, which he omitted because of the wars related in them, judging that his people, who were passionately fond of war, were more in need of bit than spur. But complete credence cannot be given to this, or to any other unsupported statement of Philostorgius.' Prior to the making of this version, the Goths had no literature, no written language even, and before he could begin his work of translation Ulfilas was compelled to provide an alphabet of twenty-four letters. Twenty he borrowed from the Grseco-Roman alphabet, and four he invented, to express sounds common to all the Teutonic tongues, but not found in Greek or Latin. Ulfilas is said by some to have done more than translate the Scrip- tures — to have introduced the Goths to some of the treas- ures of classic literature, and to have composed some ^ Of the Greek church historians in general one may remark that if a fact is otherwise well authenticated we must believe it, in spite of their having recorded it. Not that they meant to lie, always, but they were utterly careless of the distinction between truth and falsehood, if indeed they were capable of perceiving such distinction. If an alleged fact made for their view of the case, or fitted handily into their narrative, or embellished their story, or made a good weapon against an adversary, that was enough. That method of writing church history has unfortunately not been confined exclusively to Greeks nor to the early centuries of the Christian era. ULFILAS 51 religious treatises. However this may be, by giving his people a written language, he opened to them the treas- ures of the world's learning, as they were prepared to profit by them, and made way for the refining influences of a civilization higher than their own. We are not likely to exaggerate the part that this trans- lation played in the conversion of the Goths. It was cir- culated in manuscript among the tribes, and preserved as a priceless treasure. " Goths and Vandals alike carried it with them on their wanderings through Europe. Whether as a religious observance, or in the superstitious hope of reading the future on the chance-appointed page, it was consulted on the battlefields of Gaul be- fore the fight began. The Vandals took it into Spain and Africa, and with their leader Genseric it came round to Rome." ^ And yet, for centuries this version was lost sight of and supposed to be no longer in existence. About 1500, portions of the four Gospels were found in a monastery of Westphalia, near Diisseldorf, and the precious copy, after many mutations of fortune, is now preserved in the library of the University of Upsala, Sweden. The MS. is known as the Codex Argenteus, from the circumstance that it is written in letters of silver on purple vellum, a few words at the beginning of each section being emblaz- oned in gold. A palimpsest of the fifth century in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, at Milan, contains the Pauline Epistles and other parts of the version of Ulfilas, together with a fragment of a Gothic calendar. The surviving remnants of the version — for a few other fragments have been recovered — have an almost equal religious and philo- logic interest. They are at once the oldest literature in a * Gibbon, while always inclined to sneer at the conversion of the bar- barians, felt compelled to recognize the immediate historical significance of the event. 52 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Teutonic tongue, a literary monument of the highest value, and a monument of one of the greatest missionary triumphs in the history of Christianity. It would, of course, be the height of absurdity to sup- pose that the conversion of the Goths was brought about by the labors of Ulfilas alone. No man single-handed converts '*' a nation in a day." Without doubt he had a multitude of zealous and faithful co-laborers and follow- . ers; and though no record of their names or labors re- mains on earth, they are recorded in the book of God's remembrance, and they shall be his in that day when he makes up his jewels. It is probable that he had been preceded by involuntary missionaries, those who like him- self had been made captives, and while detained among the Goths, in a state of virtual or actual slavery, had been faithful to their religion and preached Christ to these heathen. Some such preparation of the soil seems neces- sary to account for the rapidity with which the seed sown by Ulfilas ripened to the harvest. Without depreciation of the power of the divine Spirit, human agency on a larger scale than history hints at must be supposed to have preceded and accompanied the labors of Ulfilas. To suppose otherwise would be equivalent to saying that in this case the usual laws of Christ's kingdom were sus- pended and something very like a miracle was wrought in the conversion of the Goths. We should doubtless fall into serious error if we as- sumed that this " conversion " was complete. That there was genuine change of character in the case of individ- uals, possibly thousands, we need not indeed question, but that in the vast majority of cases the transition from heathenism to Christianity was purely formal is hardly doubtful. Gibbon has, naturally, not missed his oppor- tunity for a sneer at what even he is constrained to call a glorious and decisive victory of Christianity: ULFILAS 53 The different motives which influenced the reason or the pas- sions of the barbaric converts cannot be easily ascertained. They were often capricious and accidental— a dream, an omen, the re- port of a miracle, the example of some priest or hero, the charms of a believing wife, and above all, the fortunate event of a prayer or vow which, in a moment of danger, they had addressed to the God of the Christians. It is true that most, if not all, the incidents mentioned by the historian are illustrated in the history of missions ; in such an account of the progress of Christianity facts are not misstated, but the great and significant facts are ignored. The possibility that the heathen might have been really persuaded of the truth of the Christian relig- ion, and led to exercise a genuine faith in Christ, either does not occur to such a writer, or if it occurs is smi- lingly rejected as a hypothesis quite too ridiculous for the consideration of a serious person. There was lack- ing from Gibbon's summary of reasons only the sugges- tion of. self-interest as a motive for the profession of conversion, and the learned historian was equal to the occasion : The advantage of temporal prosperity had deserted the pagan cause and passed over to the service of Christianity. The Ro- mans themselves, the most powerful and enlightened nation of the globe, had renounced their ancient superstition; and if the ruin of their empire seemed to accuse the efficacy of the new faith, the disgrace was already retrieved by the conversion of the Goths. The valiant and fortunate barbarians who subdued the provinces of the West successively received and reflected the same edifying example. Before the age of Charlemagne, the Christian nations of Europe might exult in the exclusive pos- session of the temperate climates of the fertile lands which pro- duced corn, wine, and oil; while the savage idolaters and their helpless idols were confined to the extremities of the earth, the dark and frozen regions of the North. This is such a gem as might be expected from a histo- rian who can see good in all religions except Christianity, 54 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS and is quite prepared to believe that all men may be inspired, save those who wrote the Bible. We have seen that Ulfilas was an Arian, and professed to have held that form of Christianity from the first. He should, to be quite accurate, be classed with the Semi- Arians rather than with the Arians proper — those who would not say, with Arius, that Christ was a creature, but also would not say, with the Orthodox, that the Son was equal to or consubstantial with the Father. The difference is, however, of little moment historically, what- ever may be conceded to be its dogmatic significance, since all deviation from the Creed of Nicsea was finally con- demned as heretical. The essential fact, therefore, is that Ulfilas was not an orthodox Christian, according to the Nicene standard. And the converts that he made natu- rally professed the faith that he held; hence the Goths and Vandals were Arians. This was an additional reason for the hatred of their conquerors that the Romans always displayed; these invincible warriors were not only " barbarians," but heretics. The church early arrived at that conception of Chris- tian liberty which Lowell, half jestingly, half bitterly, has stated in his " Fable for Critics " : the right Of privately judging means simply that light Has been granted to me, for deciding on you; And in happier times, before atheism grew, The deed contained clauses for cooking you too. Accordingly, the Arians and the Orthodox hated each other like Christian brothers, and persecuted one another to the death for the glory of God. The Goths, though inflexibly devoted to the Arian theology, not seldom dis- played a moderation and tolerance that should have shamed their Orthodox opponents; but the Vandals of north Africa, precisely because they were less Christian, ULFILAS 55 were more frantically devoted to their faith. As a rule, one finds it true everywhere and in every age, that no man is such a stickler for orthodoxy — that is to say, his *' doxy " — as the man who hasn't enough religion in his heart to be discovered, in Mr. Weller's classic phrase, by a " pair o' patent double million magnifyin' gas microscopes of hextra power." Therefore it is quite in keeping with what we know of human nature in general, that the crudest persecution of early Christian times, surpassing any set on foot by pagan emperor, was that of the Arian Vandals in north Africa against the Orthodox Christians of their day. There were three other Teutonic tribes whose conver- sion belongs to this period. First of these in time were the Suevi, who came into Spain in advance of the Goths and were driven by the latter into the extreme north- western portion of the peninsula. How or when they became Christians is not known ; the fact of their conver- sion, however, is so recorded as not to be doubtful. We may perhaps conjecture that the version of Ulfilas, which became the common heritage of the Teutonic peoples of the fifth century, had much to do with it. Though these tribes were often at war with each other, they had a com- mon language (with tribal variations), recognized their community of blood, and in the intervals of their war- fare had some friendly intercourse. That Christianity should spread from tribe to tribe under such conditions is no more than we might reasonably expect. Early in the fifth century the Burgundians settled in southeastern Gaul, and at the end of that century had firmly established themselves there. The Rhone became a Burgundian river, and Lyons and Vienne were the prin- cipal cities of their province. This tribe was also Chris- tianized, but again conjecture must supply the place of records as to detail. The Burgundians made their settle- 56 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS ment in Gaul with the consent of the Romans, and main- tained friendly relations with them; hence it is very likely that they received the gospel from that source. That would account for the fact that the Burgundians, if not orthodox from the first, speedily embraced the Roman and orthodox faith. The third and most important of these tribes was the Franks. The king of the Franks, Clovis, had married a niece of the king of Burgundy, Clotilde, who was a Christian. Before a battle that he fought with the Ale- manni, he is said to have made a vow to worship the God of the Christians if the victory was his. He conquered, and was as good as his word: he was baptized by Re- migius, archbishop of Rheims, together with three thou- sand of his nobles, who knew their duty to their royal master too well to refuse compliance with his will in a little thing like that. This '' conversion " was strikingly like that of Constantine, not only in the manner of its occurrence, but in its extent. That is to say, Clovis, though now bearing the Christian name, was the same in character as before. The most marked display of his Christian faith that is recorded occurred one day in church, when he heard for the first time a moving sermon on the crucifixion ; he started up in the midst of the dis- course and declared that if he and his brave Franks had been there summary vengeance would have been taken on those Jews. But this one flash of religious zeal, itself far more heathen than Christian, stands alone; for the rest he was still the same cruel, vindictive, barbarian warrior that he had been. His people, however, gradually (very gradually, it must be confessed) became more Christianized and civilized. This conversion of the Franks had great results on the subsequent fortunes of Christianity. They were the rising people among the Teutons, while the Goths were ULFILAS 57 already beginning to decline. They had been converted to the orthodox faith by the clergy of the Catholic Church. The other Teutons were mostly Arians. From this time onward, therefore, all the power of the Catholic Church in the West, all the influence of the bishop of Rome — a power and influence by no means small, even in the fifth century — were exerted in behalf of the Franks. The other Teutonic kingdoms vanished, the tribes being exter- minated or incorporated among the Franks, while the Frankish kingdom continued to increase, until under Charlemagne two centuries later, it rivaled in extent and power the old empire of the West. The triumph of the Franks was the triumph of the Catholic faith, as was made evident to all men, when, on Christmas day, 800, Pope Leo III placed a crown on the head of Charlemagne and proclaimed him first emperor of a new Holy Roman empire. At the close of the fifth century the political map of Europe may be outlined as follows : The Eastern empire was restricted to Thrace and Greece (together with its Asiatic provinces and Egypt) ; the Ostrogoths held Italy and that part of modern Turkey adjacent to the Adriatic, while the Visigoths possessed Spain and the contiguous third of France ; the Suevi had substantially the territory of modern Portugal ; the Burgundians occupied south- eastern France, and the Franks the northern portion, together with a slice of western Germany. Each of these nations had, nominally at least, embraced Christianity. The only portion of Europe that remained strictly heathen was the greater part of Germany, the Scandinavian coun- tries, and Russia. All this had been accomplished in a century and a half. Surely it is no exaggeration to say that, next to the conquest of the Roman empire, the most glorious chapter in the history of Christianity is its conquest of the barbarians of the fifth century. 58 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS The first and most striking result of this conquest was a great increase in the power of the CathoHc Church and of its chief representative in the West, the bishop of Rome. The beginning of the papacy is contemporaneous with the decHne of the Western empire. For several centuries after the emperors ceased to rule, there was no settled political system in Italy not only, but in western Europe. The Church was the one institution that did not undergo successive and violent revolutions. No political or social organization was able to preserve continuity of life in the struggles that followed the Teutonic migra- tions. But the Church was unshaken; it was the one institution on earth that seemed to be without change, and in fact the only change it underwent was to become more solid, more stable, more powerful. Kingdom after kingdom arose, flourished, and disintegrated, but the Church remained. No wonder this fact took a strong hold of the imagina- tions of men. No wonder the visible representative of the Catholic unity, the pope, gained increase of honor and influence with every generation. Even an Attila was not insensible to the dignity that hedged about a Leo, and spared Rome the threatened destruction at the interces- sion of the venerable pontiff. And on the whole, the Church used its power with moderation and wisdom, with beneficent results. " The barbarians," says Fisher, " were awed by the kingdom of righteousness, which, without exerting force, opposed to force and passion an undaunted front. There was often a conflict between their love of power and passionate impatience of control and their reverence for the priest and for the gospel. They could not avoid feeling in some measure the softening and restraining influence of Christian teaching and learning the lessons of the cross. Socially, the Church as such was always on the side of peace, on the side of industry, ULFILAS 59 on the side of purity^ on the side of liberty for the slave, and protection for the oppressed." Let one imagine, if he can, what the Dark Ages that followed would have been without the Church, in spite of all its corruptions, and he will have a more adequate measure of the value of its work. It was for centuries the sole barrier between western Europe and an Asiatic and pagan barbarism. It is true that a second result of the imperfect conver- sion of the barbarians was an appalling state of ignorance, superstition, and immorality throughout what we call the Dark Ages, down to the time of the Reformation, whose consequences are felt even to our own day. What else could have been expected ? It was little short of a miracle that anything of true religion, of learning, of the refine- ments of civilization, survived the barbarian invasion of the West. Our wonder should be, not that the case of Europe was thereafter so bad, but that it was not vastly worse. And after all, recent researches have shown that the Dark Ages were not a time of such Egyptian darkness as was once supposed. It was twilight, not midnight, and at worst here and there were regions where the lamp of learning was kept shining, where civilization was never quite vanquished. It cannot be too often repeated, that of all the con- quests recorded in history, the one that has had the most far-reaching, the most permanent, the most beneficent effects on the subsequent progress of humanity, was the conquest of the Teutonic invaders of the Western em- pire. That conquest was the peaceful victory of Chris- tian missionaries, whose only weapon was the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. IV PATRICK : THE APOSTLE TO IRELAND BIBLIOGRAPHY The writings of Patrick may be found in Migne's Latin Pa- trology, Vol. LIII, col. 790, seq. An English translation by Wright, with notes, was published in London, 1889. The docu- ments of the Book of Armagh are reprinted in the Analecta Bollandiana, Vol. I, p. 548, Vol. II, p. 35 (Paris, 1882), and by Hogan (Brussels, 1884). These documents may also be found in Haddan and Stubbs' Councils and Documents Relating to GreaJ Britain, Vol. II, pt. II (Oxford, 1873). The Tripartite Life has been reprinted, with valuable critical notes by Stokes, in the Rolls series (two vols., London, 1887). The best biog- raphy was until lately Todd's St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland (DubHn, 1864) ; it also contains a bibliography, very full to the date of publication. This and all other biographies have been superseded by Professor Bury's Life of St. Patrick and His Place in History (London, 1905). A characteristic Roman Catholic biography is by Miss Cusack (the " Nun of Kenmare," who afterwards became a Protestant), but it should perhaps be called a religious romance, rather than a biography. It contains a translation of the " Tripartite Life " and Patrick's writings (London, 1870). Nicholson, St. Patrick, disproves the alleged con- nection of the missionary with Rome, and gives the writings in an appendix (Dublin, 1868). Cathcart, Ancient British and Irish Churches, also gives the genuine writings in an English version and argues that Patrick was a Baptist (Philadelphia, 1894). See also: Stokes, Ireland and the Celtic Church, Lectures I-III (London, 1892) ; Killen, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, (two vols., London, 1875) ; Killen, Old Catholic Church, pp. 303- 437 (Edinburgh, 1871). On Columba, see Colgan, "Acta Sanctorum Veteris Scotice seu Hibernice" (two vols., Louvain, 1645-7); Reeve, "Vita S. Columbce Auctore Adamano " (Dublin, 1857) ; an English ver- sion of the latter appeared in the Translations and Reprints of the University of Pennsylvania, Vol. II, No. 7. On Columbanus, see his writings in Migne Latin Patrology, Vol. XII ; and his biography in Montalembert, Monks of the West, Vol. II, p. 447, se-q., Butler, Lives of the Saints, Vol. XI, p. 435, seq. IV PATRICK: THE APOSTLE TO IRELAND WHEN Christianity was first introduced into Britain is a matter of much uncertainty. There is a medieval legend that the gospel was brought to the Brit- ish people by Joseph of Arimathea, who founded the church at Glastonbury, and deposited on its altar the Holy Grail that he had brought with him/ There are not even any definite traditions regarding the introduction of Chris- tianity into Britain, but if we may trust Tertullian it was known to exist there about the year 200. That Father says that in his day Christ was worshiped among the Moors, the Spaniards, and the different nations of the Gauls, and even parts of Britain inaccessible to the Roman legions were subject to Christ. A little later, say about the year 239, Origen in one of his homilies refers to Christianity in Britain as a well-known thing. The Greek historian, Sozomen, who wrote about the year 300, speaks of churches in Britain, and from this time on we find frequent references of this sort in Christian literature. Nevertheless, we have no satisfactory documentary or archeological proof of this early existence of British Christianity. The Venerable Bede tells us of a proto- martyr, Alban, who perished in the Diocletian persecu- tion, but this cannot be reckoned a convincing proof. Our first documentary knowledge is not earlier than the synod of Aries, in 314. Among the names of the bishops who signed the decrees of that body are Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelfius of Caerleon-on-Usk. 1 Baring Gould, " Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," Second Series, p. 339, seg. 63 64 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS The presence of these prelates at that synod of course implies a somewhat developed state of the Christian churches of Britain, for which at least a half -century would be required. The entrance of Christianity in Britain can hardly have been later than 250. But though we are thus left mainly to conjecture with regard to the first preaching of the gospel in Britain, we need find no difficulty in believing that it considerably antedated the conservative date above given; that it even antedated any of the references to it that we find in Christian literature. The Roman army was one of the evangelizing agents, and not the least effective, of the first and second centuries. Under the imperial system, the legions of Rome were permanently located in the sev- eral countries, but were recruited elsewhere, so that the soldiers never served among their own people. The same system is said to prevail to-day in the Turkish empire. It is, indeed, almost essential to the maintenance of a mili- tary despotism that its soldiers should never be exposed to the risk of being ordered to slaughter their own coun- trymen. The legions in Gaul and Britain were recruited from the East, and it was therefore in the nature of things that some Christians should be among the recruits, and that they should lose no opportunity to propagate their faith. It is probable that the first preaching of the gospel in Britain was due to Roman soldiers rather than to ostensible Christian missionaries. That this is no hazardous conjecture, let a well-estab- lished incident of later Christian history testify. Soon after the beginning of the Wesleyan reformation, English soldiers of the regular army were converted. These British soldiers, with their Methodist principles, were sent to garrison some of our American towns before the Revo- lution. Captain Thomas Webb, one of these converts, on his arrival at New York, joined himself to a few PATRICK 65 Methodists in that city, aided in founding the first Metho- dist society in America, and by his evangeUstic zeal made it the parent of that religious body now numerically the greatest among the religious denominations of this coun- try and the inferior of none in the fervor, enterprise, and fidelity of its members." It is not difficult to imagine as having taken place in the first century that which we know occurred in the eighteenth, nor is it likely that the imme- diate disciples of the apostles had less religious zeal than the disciples of John Wesley. But besides this, Roman commerce always followed in the wake of the Roman armies. Britain was then as now famed for its mineral wealth, and a brisk trade in metals sprang up immediately after the Roman occupation of the country. This would almost inevitably carry Chris- tianity in its train, as it has so invariably done in the his- tory of the world. And therefore, though conjecture is practically our sole resource, we are at no loss to comprehend the certainly early preaching of the gospel in Britain. Christianity was slower in making its way into Ireland — Scotia or Hibernia, the Romans called it. The inhab- itants of Britain and Ireland at that time were members of the same Keltic race, and it would be scarcely possible that the Christian religion should gain a firm foothold in Britain without making some adherents in Ireland. In the fourth century we begin to find evidence that at least a few of the Irish had become Christians. Coelestius, the disciple and friend of Pelagius, was by all accounts of Irish birth, as according to Jerome Pelagius himself was ; and in their controversies with Jerome and Augustine these renowned heretics showed many of the character- istic traits of their race. The fable that St. Patrick first * Stevens, " History of Methodist Church in America," i : 5, seq. (four vols., New York, 1884). E 66 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS preached the gospel in Ireland must, therefore, be classed with numerous others that have clustered about his name, as not merely without historic support, but contrary to known historic fact. For the earlier records contradict in more than one instance the later Patrick myths, and particularly in this. Caspar of Aquitaine, a chronicler of the fifth century, says that Pope Coelestine consecrated one Palladius, a priest of Gallic extraction, and sent him on a mission to Ireland in the year 431. The story is no doubt true, par- ticularly as Caspar goes on frankly to relate the failure of the missionary enterprise. Palladius, it seems, was ill received by the Irish, was compelled to flee from the island, and died soon after. But though not the first preacher of the gospel in Ireland, Patrick may be confi- dently pronounced the greatest. The so-called biographies of this remarkable man are somewhat worse than useless. The oldest was composed nearly or quite two hundred years after his death, and its author candidly admits that the facts were then diffi- cult to ascertain. Considerable of the miraculous and mythical is found even in this biography, and from that time the legends increase in number and details of in- credibk marvels. There is but one resource — to sweep all these " biographies " into the dust-pile together, as so much worthless rubbish. In a few cases, perhaps, the traditions that they embody are worthy of provisional acceptation, but even these are of little importance. There are, however, still extant and probably genuine, two documents that purport to have been written by Pat- rick himself. Probably genuine, one says, because they cannot be traced farther back than the year 800, the date generally assigned to the oldest manuscript containing them, the famous Book of Armagh, one of the chief lit- erary treasures of the University of Dublin. The external PATRICK 67 evidence of the authenticity of these writings is therefore far from conclusive, and on that ground some scholars have declared them to be spurious, and maintain that we have absolutely no materials for a life of Patrick. It has even been denied that there ever was such a person, while others assert that there were three or four of him. The majority of critics hold, however, that the internal evi- dence is very strongly in favor of the authenticity of the documents. The first of these writings is the so-called " Confes- sion," an autobiographic fragment," in which Patrick tells briefly the story of his life and labors. There is no rea- son, save the already admitted lack of full external evi- dence, to question that the document is precisely what it purports to be. One who reads it without prepossessions would hardly think of questioning its genuineness. Hon- esty, simplicity, truthfulness, stand out in every line. It is impossible to think of any adequate motive for for- gery. The *' Confession " contains none of those ridicu- lous stories of miracles and wonders that disfigure the later writings about Patrick. The Latin is by no means Ciceronian, and the rude style agrees with what the author says of his lack of learning. The quotations from Scripture are made from the old Latin version, prior to Jerome's recension — a strong point in favor of genuine- ness, indeed, almost decisive. There are no anachronisms or inconsistencies in the narrative. In short, the " Con- fession " is precisely such a document as it ought to be, to be accepted as the production of a not very literate, yet by no means illiterate. Christian missionary of the fifth century. The other document is known as the " Epistle to Coro- ticus," a Welsh prince, who had repelled an Irish inva- *The English translation in Doctor Cathcart's book fills about sixteen closely printed octavo pages, and contains some eight thousand words. 68 CHRIS..:.:: lpoch-makers sion, pursued the invaders across sea and committed re- prisals.^ Though a professing Christian, Coroticus had made no distinction between the pagan Irish and the con- verts of Patrick, and the latter writes to remonstrate with the prince for his unchristian conduct. From these two writings we must reconstruct, as best we may, the history of Patrick's labors. The materials are sparse, yet they supply most of the facts we need to know ; and the rest may be conjectured, with occasional help from later tradition, with a reasonable degree of certitude. As we might naturally expect, considering the character of our sources, exact information is lacking regarding both the place and the time of Patrick's birth. The gen- eral opinion of critics inclines toward a village near the present town of Dumbarton, Scotland, as the place. All that we are entitled to say positively is that it was some- where in the Roman colony of Britain. Still less clue do his writings give us as to the time. It was not the fashion of that age to be exact in such matters, and the finding of exact dates in these documents would cast serious dis- credit on their genuineness. One may take his choice of any year between 336 and 395 as the date of Patrick's birth, and find himself in accord with some biographer and with all known facts ; at least, nobody can prove him to be wrong.^ Of Patrick's family we know rather more. He be- longed to the nobility, or at least the gentry, of his coun- try. His father was Calpurnius, a decurion, or member of the town council, which it was the Roman custom to establish for assistance in the work of administration. ^ This may also be found in Cathcart, and is some two thousand five hundred words in length. 2 It is worth noting that Patrick does not speak of himself as having been baptized in infancy, nor make any allusion to the baptism of infants in his writings. Tradition gives him several names, the original one of Keltic origin, Succat. The name Patricius may have been taken at the time of his ordination. PATRICK 69 These local assemblies were the center of social and municipal life in the colonial towns. They instituted and regulated the games, managed the water supply, cared for the public buildings, levied the local taxes, supervised the schools. They were not elected by the people, but selected by the Roman governor or his deputy from the principal men of the place. To have held such an office marks out the father of Patrick as a man of substance, of excep- tional ability, of recognized social position, as well as one who had gained the favor of the Roman officials. Calpurnius had also, probably somewhat later in life, taken deacon's orders in the church. His father had been a presbyter. Patrick, therefore, as son of a deacon and grandson of a priest, is an unimpeachable witness to the fact that celibacy was not obligatory on the British clergy of the fourth century. Calpurnius was also a farmer, pos- sessing an estate outside of the town. This combination of public offices — one sacred, one secular — with a private pursuit, is another significant fact: it testifies that the British clergy of this period were not yet regarded as a sacerdotal caste, separate from the laity, and as such de- barred from secular occupations, as the laity were on their part debarred from sacred offices. Though the inhabitants of Ireland and Scotland were (and are) branches of the same Keltic race, they were then as now on no very good terms with each other. The dislike that now finds expression in political antagonism, or an occasional private " shindy," then broke out fre- quently into a species of predatory warfare to which in these days we should give an ugly name. But we must remember that what we call piracy, the people of the fourth century considered a laudable method of settling old scores, with some incidental enrichment in the way of captives and plunder. In one of these incursions of the Irish into Scotland the estate of Calpurnius was attacked. yO CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS He was wounded, and Patrick was carried off a captive. At this time he was sixteen years of age. Tradition suppHes some details just here that are inter- esting and not improbably true. He was taken to Antrim, and his captor and master was Milchu, chief of Dalaradia, in the northeastern part of Ireland. There is a place in that region still known as Ballyligpatrick," which is sup- posed to be the site of his residence in captivity. What we know is that, like the prodigal in the parable, he was sent into the fields to feed swine, and in this employment spent seven years. Up to this misfortune, though the son of Christian parents and presumably having a Christian nurture, Pat- rick does not appear to have been particularly religious, by his own account; rather the reverse. He speaks with bitter regret of his early sinfulness, and looks upon his captivity as a judgment of God, at once severe and mer- ciful. We may perhaps take with some grains of salt his self-accusations of immorality. John Bunyan speaks of himself in like manner, yet when we come to sift his state- ments his most heinous sins, apart from profanity, seem to have consisted in dancing about May-poles, bell-chim- ing, and playing tip-cat on the village green of a Sunday — some of which things seem to us by no means repre- hensible, and others not what would be called gross wickedness. Deep conviction of sin does not necessarily imply the commission of vile deeds. His solitary hours in the fields gave the youth oppor- tunity for much meditation. He was led to repent of his former unbelief, to seek the mercy of God, and to give himself to prayer ; so that, to give his own words : I should be converted with my whole heart to the Lord my God; who had regard for my humiliation, and compassioned my youth and ignorance, and protected me before I knew him, and * Bally, town; lig, valley. PATRICK 71 before I had discretion, or could distinguish between good and evil, and shielded me and soothed me as a father does a son. Therefore I am not able to keep silence, nor would it indeed be proper, about so great benefits and so great grace as the Lord was pleased to grant me in the land of captivity. The increasing love of God in his heart led him to give himself more and more to prayer. " In one day," he says, " I made as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same number." The result followed that w^e might expect from such religious fervor — he began to dream dreams and see visions. In one of these his deliv- erance from captivity was foretold, and the vision was soon realized. He escaped to the seacoast, found there a ship about to sail for his native land, as his visions had warned him ; and though at first repulsed by the crew, he was finally taken on board and returned to his parents, who must have received him as one that had come back to them from the dead.' When he had thus returned home, his parents besought him earnestly that after his many hardships he would never depart from them. Doubtless he would have been minded to comply with their request had not visions called him to missionary labors among the people of whom he had been the slave. One of these visions, which deeply impressed him, he relates thus : And there I saw, indeed, in the bosom of the night, a man coming, as it were, from Ireland, whose name was Victoricus, with countless letters, one of which he gave to me; and I read the beginning of the letter, containing " The Voice of the Irish," and whilst I read aloud the beginning of the letter, I myself * The Confession also informs us, obscurely, that after many years Pat- rick was again taken captive, but on the first night that he was with his captors, he had a vision in which it was said to liim, " During two months thou shalt be with them"; and he adds that it happened accordingly. No further particulars are given of this second captivity and escape, and we do not know whether it occurred before he began his ministry in Ireland or afterward. 72 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS thought indeed in my mind that I heard the voice of those who .were near the wood of Fochlut, which is adjacent to the West- ern sea.^ And they cried out as with one voice, "We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and henceforth walk among us." And I was deeply moved in heart and was unable to read further; and so I awoke. Thanks be to God that after very many years the Lord granted to them according to their cry. And on another night, whether within me or near me I know not, God knows, with most skilful words which I heard but could not un- derstand, except at the conclusion of the speech, he thus spoke, " He who gave his life for thee, he himself it is who speaks in thee"; and so I awoke rejoicing. What reason or obstacles withheld Patrick for so many years from the work to which he felt himself called he does not explicitly inform us. At one obstacle he indeed hints — the opposition of his seniors, who doubted the genuineness of his call and objected to his character. They urged against him, so he tells us, some sin that he had committed in his youth, before he had become a deacon. This seems to us a trivial objection; the real reason may have been Patrick's lack of clerical education and experience. But the divine call was plain to him, and doubtless others became convinced of it in time, though even up to the writing of the " Confession " there were those who doubted. The traditions embodied in the earlier lives attempt to fill up in part this gap in our knowledge. The least un- trustworthy of these is to the effect that Patrick attempted to remedy his defects by crossing over to Gaul and study- ing there. Here, it is said, he spent a long time, thirty years or more, and was at length consecrated missionary bishop by Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, who had been his preceptor. This story is not improbable.^ It accounts »This familiarity with western Ireland indicates that part of his captivity had been spent in Connaught. ' But, in spite of this tradition, Neander inclines toward Britain as the more probable place of Patrick's consecration. " Church History," Vol. II, p. 148, note. PATRICK 73 for the long interval between Patrick's call and his engag- ing in his missionary labors ; and also for that predilection in favor of the monastic life that we observe in his writ- ings, which he could not have gained in Britain in his time, but might have acquired by a long residence in Gaul, where monachism was already well established. Not even in the early traditions, however, still less in the genuine writings of Patrick, do we find the story of later times, ^ that he was commissioned missionary to Ire- land by Pope Coelestine in 432. The documents and well- established facts are totally irreconcilable with this pal- pable invention. The *' Confession " is an apology ; the writer is justifying himself for becoming a missionary to Ireland, in spite of what others esteemed his disqualifica- tions, some of which he frankly admits. What would have been easier or more conclusive than for him to have rejoined to his critics that he had a commission from the pope? Could he possibly have neglected such an argu- ment, had it been available? As matter of fact he justi- fies himself on two grounds: first, that he had a divine call to labor ; and second, that the divine blessing had been bestowed on his labors. But not one word of approval by pope or other ecclesiastical authority does he utter. There is, of course, another and possibly more conclu- sive objection to this fable of a papal commission than Patrick's silence about it; it is a complete anachronism. It reads too much subsequent history into the fifth cen- tury. Bishops of Rome at this time neither claimed nor attempted to exercise such authority as the story implies. For " Pope " Coelestine to commission Palladius, who was known to him and in much closer proximity, was one thing; for Patrick to seek Coelestine's approval is quite another. No such idea of Rome's supremacy obtained in ^ This story of a papal commission of Patrick cannot be traced back further than the latter half of the ninth century. 74 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Britain then or later, until long after the mission of Augustine. Columba and Columban neither sought nor had papal authority for their missions. The genuine documents supply few details regarding Patrick's missionary labors, when he had entered on his great work. All that we can certainly gather is that they were abundantly blessed, and that the number of converts must have been large, since he speaks of baptizing thou- sands. His statements are vague and general, like the following : " Whence is it then that in Ireland they who have never had any knowledge of God, and until now have always worshiped only idols and unclean things — how is it that they have lately become the people of the Lord and are called the sons of God ? Sons of the Scots ' and daughters of chieftains are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ." Elsewhere he speaks of one " blessed Irish lady, of noble birth, very beautiful, an adult," whom he baptized, coming to him after a few days and saying that she had a divine call to be a virgin of Christ. Tradi- tion has given to this lady the name of Saint Bridget, but Patrick does not name her, and this is the only personal incident of his work that he mentions. The traditions give no end of details about these mis- sionary labors, most of them evidently mythical. There may be a modicum of truth in the general facts — that Patrick began his work at the town of Wicklow, near the present city of Dublin, and that after a time he proceeded to Tara, the ancient residence of the Irish kings, and there preached with great success. The story of his illus- trating the doctrine of the Trinity at Tara by the use of the shamrock is a comparatively late myth, not being found in any writer before the seventeenth century and quite unknown to the medieval biographers. The tradi- ^ Until the eleventh century, Scotia and Scoti mean Ireland and Irish in all documents written in the medieval Latin. PATRICK 75 tion about his preaching at Tara has this rational basis : that Patrick, being well acquainted with the peculiar tribal organization of the Irish, would seek to win their chiefs, knowing that the conversion of the people would follow almost as a matter of course. We can, however, only be sure of the one great fact (but that is quite sufficient) : that Patrick preached Christ, amid privations and dan- gers, to the Irish people, and that many of them received^ his message as glad tidings. How long his ministry lasted the " Confession " natu- rally gives slight hints, if any. He was well on in years before his work began, but while there is nothing incredi- ble in the tradition that he died at the age of one hundred and twenty it is too evidently an attempt to make his case parallel with that of JMoses to be worthy of any credit. His death must have occurred before the year 500, not improbably by 475. According to an ancient tradition, going back to the year 700, his remains were deposited on the site of the present cathedral of Downpatrick. All but the main facts regarding this evangelizing of Ireland, therefore, must necessarily remain nebulous and uncertain. But when we turn from such questions as, When and where and how long did Patrick preach? to the query. What sort of a gospel did he preach ? we find our materials comparatively abundant. In the beginning of his " Confession " he gives us his creed, identical in substance with that of Nice, with some variations that are in the direction of greater scripturalness, as in attrib- uting the creation of all things, visible and invisible, to the Son, not to the Father. It also indicates, in connection with his account of his own religious experience, that he believed in the necessity of a radical change of heart, through the operation of the Spirit of God, as a result of faith in Christ. We are, accordingly, not surprised to discover from the ^6 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS documents that Patrick baptized believers only. In one case, as we have seen, he describes a noble lady whom he had baptized as an '* adult." Again he writes : '' So that even after my death I may leave as legacies to my breth- ren, and to my sons whom I have baptized in the Lord, so many thousand men." Not only is there no mention of " infants " or " children," but uniformly the missionary speaks of " men," " handmaidens of Christ," " women," *' baptized believers," and the like. It is most improbable that he should not have mentioned children had any been baptized by him, for though his language is not boastful, he is speaking of the greatness of God's bless- ing upon his work, and that would have been an item by no means likely to be omitted from the enumeration. The argument from silence, never conclusive in itself, is sometimes most convincing in connection with other proofs. Accounts of Patrick's labors, written several centuries after his death, represent him as baptizing his converts in fountains, wells, and streams. This is in accordance with all that we know of the act of baptism in the fourth and fifth centuries, immersion being the universal form prac- tised. It is probable, though by no means certain, that trine immersion was practised in Britain, as elsewhere during this period. This is, however, conjecture, as Patrick's writings throw no light on this matter. In some particulars it is clear the Church of Britain in his day had departed less widely from apostolic prac- tice than the Church in Gaul, and compared with the Church of Rome, it was still pure. Three orders in the ministry are clearly recognized in the " Confession," so that the beginnings of a hierarchy were certainly there. But the British bishops are still congregational, not dioc- esan. Even as late as St. Bernard's time there remained what he thought a scandalous laxity in Irish ecclesiastical PATRICK 'J'J affairs, where, he complained, " almost every church has its separate bishop." Vv^e also see becoming established in his day, and largely through his influence, that tendency to monachism which had in later centuries consequences so momentous and so deplorable. Monks and nuns were numerous and already they were highly esteemed as persons of special piety. In many cases, if not in all, they were justly esteemed; the system could never have made progress had it been handi- capped at the beginning with knaves and hypocrites. Not yet had it developed into orders, with their abbeys and monasteries ; all thus far accomplished was that men and women voluntarily entered on the celibate life, and gave themselves to much fasting and prayer, though not wholly withdrawing themselves from the world, in the firm belief that this was the life most acceptable to God and most conducive to piety. Patrick was himself a celibate, and he praises the celibates as examples of rare piety. It was not much after his day, however, that monastic institutions and orders became firmly established in both Britain and Ireland. The British Church never became Romanized, and the Romanizing of the Irish Church proceeded but slowly. Perhaps it is not altogether fanciful to find a reason for this fact in the honor paid to the study of the Scriptures, in accordance with the example of Patrick. Brief as his writings are, there are no fewer than one hundred and thirteen passages of Scripture quoted or clearly referred to. Nowhere does the writer appeal to the authority of tradition, of church, of council, still less of pope, but always to the written word. This is to his mind the end of all controversy. Not until centuries after do we find in Ireland acceptance of the doctrines of purgatory, invo- cation of saints, worship of the Virgin, and submission to the pope's authority. 78 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Not only was heathen Ireland thus evangelized, but that evangelized Ireland soon became an evangelizer. In 521, probably not more than fifty years after Patrick's death, Columba was born in Donegal. He belonged to the royal family of Ireland, and by this date the practice of infant baptism was established in that country, for he was chris- tened in the church of Temple Douglas. He was educated in the monastic school of Clonard, celebrated in that day, and became a member of the monastery. His life in Ire- land was not especially saintly, and we find him bearing an active part in the conflicts of the tribesmen. He nar- rowly escaped excommunication for his complicity in a massacre of the times, and some authorities assert that he was actually excommunicated by an Irish synod as a man of blood. This seems, at any rate, to have been a turning-point in his life. He devoted himself more strictly to his relig- ious duties, and about the year 563 he sailed with some companions to the island of lona, where he built a mon- astery and attempted the conversion of the pagans of- northern Scotland, the Picts. The monastic life of that time did not consist exclusively, or even chiefly, of medi- tation and penitential exercises; the monastery was a Christian community, planted in the midst of a heathen people, showing them what Christianity was in practice, and being a center for evangelistic and missionary effort. The companions of Columba, said to have numbered some two hundred, gave themselves with all the enthusiasm of the Keltic character to this work of evangelism, and with great success. King Brude was converted in 565, and most of his tribesmen followed his example, and made at least a formal profession of belief in Christ. Columban, another Irish missionary, was bom some twenty years later, in the year 543. While Columba gave his life to the conversion of the Picts, Columban preached PATRICK 79 the gospel among the pagans of central Europe, especially in Burgundy. He was educated in a monastery on one of the islands of Lough Erne, and about the year 585 felt himself called to become a missionary, being doubtless strongly influenced by the example and the successful labors of Columba. Together with twelve companions he crossed to Britain and thence to Gaul, which was even then in a state but one remove from barbarism. Political chaos prevailed, since the invasion of the Roman colony by the pagan Franks and other Teutonic tribes, and the bonds that ordinarily hold society together were dissolved. A form of Christianity prevailed among the Burgundians, but it was corrupt to the last degree. Columban estab- lished monasteries in different parts of France, and later in Switzerland and northern Italy ; and wherever he went his influence was strong towards the purification of morals among those already professing the Christian faith, while many hitherto pagan were converted under his labors. It is not necessary or expedient to go further into de- tails concerning the work of these and other similar mis- sionaries. Enough has been said to make clear this fact : in the sixth century Ireland was the chief center of mis- sionary effort in Europe. And the existence in that remote island of this strong missionary sentiment, this strange activity in evangelization, is wholly due to the previous labors of Patrick. The character of Patrick shines out unmistakably through the mists of fable with which the centuries have beclouded it. In his writings we discover that perfer- vidum ingeniiim Scotorum, that fiery Irish temperament, which still distinguishes his race. His Is an ardent soul that no danger can daunt, no hardship dishearten ; a soul aflame with love to the Lord, who had so wonderfully called him to be the preacher of liberty through the gospel 80 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS to his former captors. The Church of Rome has per- petrated many audacious thefts, from The statue of Jupiter, now made to pass For that of Jew Peter by good Romish brass, to the theft of Peter himself, easily the most audacious of all. But not even this supreme dishonesty is quite so bare-faced, and certainly no other larceny has so openly set at defiance every known fact, or so completely falsi- fied the testimony of a life, as when Rome placed Patrick in her calendar of saints and claimed him as the obedient servant of the pope ! In truth, hardly any character in Christian history has suffered so greatly from legend-makers and legend- mongers as the apostle to Ireland. His name and labors have been surrounded with such a mass of conscious and unconscious inventions, so much has been imputed to him that is not merely unfounded but demonstrably false, that it is no small labor to clear away this rubbish and find beneath it all a figure and character that are genuine. When, however, the labor has been performed, we may well spare the halo of saintship in gratitude for the dis- covery of a man ! V AUGUSTINE: CHRISTIANITY IN ANGLE-LAND BIBLIOGRAPHY The one primary source of knowledge concerning Augustine's work is the letters of Gregory the Great, in Migne's Latin Pa- trology, Vol. LXXVII, pp. 441-1460. A good secondary source is Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England, Book I, chaps. XXIII-XXXII, most accessible in its English version in the Bohn series, but to be found also in Migne, Vol. XCV. Th€se documents are reprinted, with translation and critical notes, in. Mason's Mission of St. Augustine to England According to the Original Documents (Cambridge, 1897). Another excellent mon- ograph is Bassenge, Sendiing Augustins sur Bekehrung der Anglosachsen (Leipzig, 1890). A more popular treatise is Mac- lear on " The English " in The Conversion of the West series, published by the S. P. C. K. Interesting accounts of the con- version of England may be found in Bright, Chapters of Early English Church History, chap. II-IV (Oxford, 1897) ; Stanley, Memorials of Canterbury, chap. I (tenth ed., London, 1883) ; Montalembert, Monks of the West, Vol. Ill, pp. 317-458 (Edin- burgh, 1867) ; Milman, History of Latin Christianity, Vol. II, pp. 175-200 (Riverside ed.) ; Neander, History of Christianity, Vol. Ill, pp. 11-18. Perhaps the fullest biographical sketch is in Hook's Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, Vol. I (London, i860). A briefer, but excellent account, is in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography. AUGUSTINE: CHRISTIANITY IN ANGLE-LAND THE overrunning of the Roman empire of the West was only one episode, and hardly the most impor- tant, in the great movement of the Teutonic tribes into Europe. There were other conquests of which historians generally say less that were quite as far-reaching in their effects. Indeed, probably the most important feature of the great westward movement of the Teutons was not the conquest of the empire, but their permanent occupation of that region of northern Europe which lies between the Rhine and the Danube and extends to the Arctic zone. And while those tribes that settled within the limits of the empire were soon, to a considerable degree, both Chris- tianized and civilized, those that occupied this northern region remained heathen and barbarian. From this general Teutonic conquest, Britain was for several centuries exempt. It owed its exemption rather to its isolation and to the ignorance of the Teutons than to the ability of its Keltic people to maintain themselves against their foes. When the Western empire was tot- tering to its fall, at the beginning of the fifth century, the Roman legions were necessarily withdrawn from Britain, and those Romans that remained became thor- oughly incorporated with the people. Roman occupation had produced in those islands the effect that might have been expected, by paralyzing whatever capacity for self- government and self-defense the ancient British people had possessed. With the departure of the legions they became an easy prey. 83 84 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS At almost the precise time of their losing Roman pro- tection, their formidable Teutonic foes began an attack. The tribes that then inhabited Scandinavia and the sea- coast of what we now call Holland or north Germany, soon became the most daring mariners of their age. Rem- nants of their ships have been recently discovered. One of these is seventy-seven feet long, has nearly seventeen feet beam, and a depth of about six feet. Drawing but four feet of water, and impelled by thirty-two oars each twenty feet long, this was a strong and swift vessel, stanch enough to weather even the severe storms of the North seas. In such ships, well filled with men and stocked with provisions, these Teutonic voyagers spent months at a time in their explorations, going as far South as the Mediterranean, penetrating northward to Iceland and Greenland, and even sailing westward to our own New England coast. They were not only sailors, discov- erers, adventurers, but colonizers, and in nearly every country that they visited they planted a colony. The tribes then inhabiting the Low countries were pos- sibly less fierce and enterprising than the Northmen, but they seem to have been earlier in the field. As their popu- lation increased they made piratical excursions in many directions, and they were not long in discovering the fer- tility and richness of Britain. Beginning with occasional incursions upon this land, they gradually advanced to the project of making permanent settlements in it, and about the middle of the fifth century this process began. Three tribes of continental Teutons were chiefly prom- inent in this new conquest of Britain: the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. The Jutes were the first to make a permanent lodgment in what is now Kent, and also the region about the Isle of Wight. The Saxons followed, taking possession of the southern counties of England, while the Angles subsequently occupied the northern and AUGUSTINE 85 eastern counties. These tribes belonged to the Low Dutch branch of the great Teutonic family. Their language is not to be regarded as a dialect or corruption of the High Dutch, or German, but points them out as an independent and coequal branch of the Teutons. This separation of language probably antedated the Teutonic occupation of Europe, and some scholars hold that the Low Dutch are the more ancient of the two peoples. However this may be, our closest linguistic and race affinities, as an English- speaking nation, are still with the inhabitants of Holland. It is not part of our present purpose to follow the details of this Teutonic settlement in England, but two features of it are of importance to our study. In the first place, the Teutonic conquest of Britain differed from the other Teutonic conquests in that it was a gradual process extending over a century and a half or two centuries — from zi49 to 597, if we adopt the traditional dates as suffi- ciently accurate for our purpose. This conquest was not accomplished by a concerted action of the tribes, but was the result of a series of predatory incursions that resolved themselves into permanent occupations. A leader among the continental tribes would organize an expedition, as- semble fifty or a hundred men, sail for the coast of Brit- ain, land where chance or caprice led, and there they would establish themselves. By a succession of such incursions, these Teutons gradually occupied nearly all of that part of Britain afterward known as England. In consequence of this method, the conquest came to differ materially from the Teutonic occupation of other parts of Europe. The irruption of the Goths and other tribes into the Western empire was comparatively sud- den and overwhelming, but its permanent results were less serious. The Goths and Vandals did not displace the population of the empire; they settled in the con- quered provinces and became gradually assimilated to 86 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS the population — producing in turn, of course, a consider- able modification of that population. The conquerors gradually adopted in large part the language, laws, and customs of the Romans. The ultimate result of their conquest was an amalgam, in which Roman civilization was the chief visible component, while nearly everything distinctly Teutonic had disappeared from view. The people of Britain, on the other hand, retired before the invaders and the Teutonic tribes therefore simply replaced them in the occupation of the soil. The British race, the British language, the British religion disap- peared, and southern Britain became Angle-land, or England. The surviving remnants of the British race were crowded into Wales and Scotland, where they pre- served their language and institutions practically un- changed. England thus wholly ceased to be Keltic and became purely Teutonic. There is hardly another instance in the history of European conquests where the conquer- ors have so completely replaced the conquered and have remained in their new home precisely what they were before their conquest.' When we say that Britain became Teutonic, of course we include religion, for no part of a country's institu- tions is more vitally a part of it than religion. And this brings us to the second important feature of this con- quest. The Britons were Christians. The ancient Keltic heathenism had quite disappeared as a cult; and, though doubtless many of its customs had been incorporated with the Christian religion as there professed and practised, the old idolatry and its rites had outwardly perished. * The Norman Conquest of England was entirely different from the Saxon occupation. It was sudden, not gradual, it did not displace the population, and in spite of it England continued to be substantially Saxon, though undergoing considerable modification. The nearest analogue to the Saxon occupation of England with which we are familiar is the settlement of America by the European nations, and the driving of the red men Westward. AUGUSTINE 87 Britain was as truly Christian at the beginning of the fifth century as any part of the empire. Moreover, through the Roman influence the islands had become quite highly civilized. The arts of peace were cultivated with more success than the arts of war, and the refinement of the people had become more marked than their vigor. Ad- vance in civilization that is an evolution, a natural process of upward development in a people, does not imply any necessary degeneration of stock or the loss of manly vir- tues. Civilization that is borrowed from other nations, especially borrowed by a conquered people from their conquerors, is almost invariably accompanied by a weak- ening of physical vigor and moral fiber. The Teutonic invaders of Britain were of surpassing vigor of body and mind. If they were barbarians, they were at least unspoiled by the vices of civilization. Above all, let us remember, they were heathen. They worshiped with ardor those divinities whose exploits are embalmed in the sagas of the Northmen, whose names are still com- memorated in our common names for the days of the week." It would have been too much to expect of human nature that the British survivors of this conquest in Wales and Scotland should have attempted to send mission- aries among their conquerors, or that the latter would have listened to them had they done so. Mutual con- tempt and hatred long prevailed between the two races; and, while Christianity never wholly perished in Wales and Scotland, it completely vanished from Angle-land. When we say that the Christian religion disappeared, it is no figure of speech. The Christian priests were ruth- lessly slain, the churches were either destroyed or fell into decay, and for a time at least, the invasion partook * For example, Tuesday — ^Tiw's day; Tiw was the equivalent of the Greek Zeus. Wednesday is Woden's day; Thursday, Thor's day; Friday, Frigga's day, and Frigga is the Teutonic Venus. 88 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS of the character of a destroying scourge. There was as Httle trace of British Christianity as there was of British law and language. The England of the Angles and Saxons, while it had gained a marked reinforcement of vigor, of capacity for self-government and progress, had relapsed into a state but one remove from savagery. Such was the condition of England toward the close of the sixth century, when the Teutonic conquests had become measurably complete, and the scattered " king- doms " were about ready to unite under one head. It was at this time that the project of preaching the gospel anew to the inhabitants of the island was first considered. There seems to be no question that the man to whom this idea first occurred was a simple monk of St. Andrew, who a few years later became bishop of Rome, and is generally known as Pope Gregory the Great. The Ven- erable Bede tells, in a well-known story, how Gregory came to cherish this plan : It is reported that some merchants, having just arrived at Rome on a certain day, exposed many things for sale in the market-place, and abundance of people resorted thither to buy. Gregory himself went with the rest; and among other things, some boys were set to sale, their bodies white, their countenances beautiful, and their hair very fine. Having viewed them, he asked, as is said, from what country or nation they were brought, and was told, from the island of Britain, whose inhabitants were of such personal appearance. He again inquired whether these islanders were Christians, or still involved in the errors of pa- ganism, and was informed that they were pagans. Then fetch- ing a deep sigh from the bottom of his heart, " Alas ! what pity," said he, "that the author of darkness is possessed of men of such fair countenances ; and that being remarkable for such grace- ful aspects, their minds should be void of inward grace." He therefore again asked, what was the name of that nation? and was answered that they were called Angles. "Right," said he, " for they have an angelic face, and it becomes such to be co- heirs with the angels in heaven. What is the name," proceeded AUGUSTINE 89 he, "of the province from which they are brought?" It was replied that the natives of that province were called Deiri. " Truly are they De ira," said he, " withdrawn from wrath and called to the mercy of Christ. How is the king of that province called?" They told him his name was Aella; and he alluding to the name, said, " Allelujah, the praise of God the Creator must be sung in those parts." Then repairing to the bishop of the Roman apostolical see (for he was not himself then made pope), he entreated him to send some ministers of the word into Britain, to the nation of the English, by whom it might be converted to Christ; declaring himself ready to undertake that work, by the assistance of God, if the apostolic pope should think fit to have it so done. Which not being then able to perform, because though the pope was willing to grant his request, yet the citizens of Rome could not be brought to consent that so noble, so renowned, and so learned a man should depart the city; as soon as he was himself made pope, he perfected the long-desired work, sending other preach- ers, but himself by his prayers and exhortations assisting the preaching, that it might be successful. There is no good reason to question the substantial truth of this anecdote. Some such incident, we may believe, prompted the interest in the evangelization of Britain that Gregory certainly shov^ed as pope, and had probably had in his heart before he was advanced to the highest dignity in the Church of Rome. He had no sooner become pope than he began to devise practical means for carrying out his project, and in the fourth year of his pontificate the work was actually undertaken. The man chosen as leader of this enterprise was one of his own pupils in the Benedictine monastery of St. Andrew. This was Augustine, by no means to be con- founded with the earlier and more celebrated Augustine of Hippo. Toward the close of the sixth century, Augus- tine and a company of monks (who by some are said to have numbered forty) were sent by Gregory to England by way of Gaul. The Gallic bishops were expected to 90 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS give them aid and forward them on their journey, which they did. Landing on the coast of Kent in the year 597, they were favorably received by Ethelbert, the king of that region, and the most pofwerful of the Anglo-Saxon *' kings " of his day. Contrary to the usual custom of his people, he had married a wife from the Franks, named Bertha, who was a Christian ; and it was probably due to her influence that Augustine and his companions were so favorably received. The king came to meet the missionaries in the open air, thinking them to be wizards, and supposing that their spells would be less potent out of doors. Augustine preached the gospel to him and his people, and the king was so far impressed as to say: Your words and promises sound very good to me; but they are new and strange, and I cannot believe them all at once, nor can I leave all that I and my fathers and the whole English folk have believed so long. But I see that ye have come from a far country to tell us what ye yourselves hold for truth; so ye may stay in the land, and I will give you a house to dwell in and food to eat; and ye may preach to my folk, and if any man of them will believe as ye believe, I hinder him not. The heralds of the new religion were given a residence in the royal city of Canterbury, and allowed full liberty to preach to the people. Before long many were con- verted and baptized, including King Ethelbert himself; and it is said that before the first year had closed more than ten thousand had been added to the church. After the king's baptism, permission was given to rebuild and repair the ancient British churches, which had been more or less completely destroyed by the conquerors, and soon the new believers were provided with places of worship. Up to this time Augustine had been a simple priest. He now recrossed to France and was consecrated bishop at the city of Aries. Returning, he rebuilt with the king's AUGUSTINE 91 assistance the church at Canterbury, and with Gregory's approval was consecrated first archbishop of England. Not many years after (604) he died at Canterbury, and already considerable advance had been made in the con- version of England. The kingdom of Kent was prac- tically Christian, and some progress had been made in the neighboring kingdoms of Essex, Wessex, and Sussex. The work did not go on, however, without many difficul- ties, discouragements, and temporary defeats. The suc- cessor of Ethelbert restored the old idolatry as the official religion of Kent, and in Essex the missionaries of the Christian faith had a similar experience. But the prog- ress of the gospel was sure, and in a single generation southern England was nominally made Christian. About 625 the gospel found entrance among the Angles, in the northern part of England. The preacher was Paul- linus, and the manner of the conversion of the Angles is thus told : Then Edwin said, " I am going forth to battle against Cwichelm, king of the West Saxons, who hath sought to slay me by craft. If I return in peace, then will I believe in thy God and wor- ship him." . . . Now king Edwin's wound was healed, and he went forth to battle against the West Saxons, and smote them with a great slaughter, and slew five of their kings. So Edwin came back in peace to his own land. And he no more served Woden and Thunder and the other gods of his fathers. . . Then King Edwin sent forth and gathered together his alder- men and his thanes and all his wise men, and they took counsel together. And men said to one another, "What is this new law whereof men speak? Shall we leave the gods of our fathers and serve the God of Paullinus, or shall we forbear?" And one spake on this manner and another spake on that manner. Then arose Coifi, the high priest of Woden, and said : " Tell us, O king, what this new law is; for this one thing I know, that these gods whom we have so long worshiped profit a man not at all. For a truth, there is no man in thy land who hath served all our gods more truly than I have, yet there be many men who are richer and greater than I, and to whom thou, O king, showest 92 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS more favor. Wherefore I trow that our gods have no might nor power, for if they had they would have made me greater and richer than all other men. Therefore let us hearken to what these men say, and learn what their law is ; and if we find it to be better than our own, let us serve their God and worship him." Then another of the king's thanes arose and said, " Truly the life of man in this world, compared with that life whereof we wot not, is on this wise. It is as when thou, O king, art sitting at supper with thine aldermen and thy thanes in the time of winter, when the hearth is lighted in the midst and the hall is warm, but without the rains and the snow are falling and the winds are howling. Then cometh a sparrow and flieth through the house; she cometh in by one door and goeth out by another. Whiles she is in the house she feeleth not the storm of winter, but yet when a little moment of rest is passed, she flieth again into the storm and passeth away from our eyes. So it is with the life of man; it is but for a moment; what goeth afore it and what cometh after it, wot we not at all. Wherefore, if these strangers can tell us aught, that we may know whence man cometh and whither he goeth, let us hearken to them and follow their law." So he spake, and the more part of the king's thanes and wise men said that he had well spoken. Then arose Coifi, the priest, the second time and spake, saying : ** Let us even now hear Paul- linus, and let him tell us what his new doctrine is." Then King Edwin commanded that so it should be; and Paullinus preached the gospel unto them. Then spake Coifi again : " Truly I have long known that those things which we were wont to worship were naught; for the more I sought for truth in worshiping them, the less I found it. But now say I openly that in that which this man preacheth I see plainly the truth which can give us the gift of health and happiness everlasting. Therefore, O king, my counsel is that we do at once root up and burn down these temples and altars that we have hallowed, and yet have got no good thereby." Then King Edwin spake and said that he would henceforth worship the God of Paullinus, and none other. And he said: "Who will be the first to throw down the altar and the temple of our false gods, and the hedge that is round about them?" Then said Coifi : " I will. For who rather than I shall throw down that before which I have worshiped in my folly, now that God hath given me wisdom thereunto? Wherefore, O king, AUGUSTINE 93 give me a horse and weapons withal, that I may ride to the temple of the false gods and throw down the same." Now it was the law of the Angles that a priest might not wear weapons, nor might he ride except on a mare. So Coili girded him with a sword, and took a spear in his hand; and he rode on the king's own horse to the place where was the temple of idols. Now it was at a place that is called Godmundingham, which lieth to the east of the royal city of Eoforwic (which men for shortness now call York), beyond the river of Derwent. And when men saw Coifi, the priest, wearing weapons and rid- ing on the king's horse, they said, " Of a truth Coifi, the priest, is mad." But when he drew near to the temple he hurled his spear at it, and bade his fellows break down the temple and burn it with the hedge that was round about it. Thus King Ed- win believed, with all his thanes and wise men and the more part of all the folk of Northumberland. It is to be regretted that we know so little of Augus- tine, that no anecdotes like that just related have been preserved concerning him and his labors. His personality remains rather hazy and uncertain, after we have ex- hausted all available means of information. If we knew more of him and his work, there would perhaps be fewer judgments pronounced like that of Doctor Schaff, who says : " His talents and character did not rise above medi- ocrity, and he bears no comparison whatever with his great namesake, the theologian and bishop of Hippo ; but he was, upon the whole, well fitted for his missionary work, and his permanent success lends to his name the halo of a borrowed greatness." Even on the basis of our present knowledge this is a judgment more severe than just. Augustine of Canterbury left no writings, and probably was incapable of becoming a great man of letters or a great theologian. Those who are gifted for speculation and literary accomplishment are too prone to look down upon men who have not the same gifts, but may possess endowments even rarer and of quite as much value to the 94 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS world. To be a man of affairs, to have the gift of lead- ership, is a quality quite as much to be coveted by a preacher of Christ's gospel as any other. It would be easy to find ten good preachers, and ten more who could w;rite a good book, for every one who can deal success- fully with all sorts and conditions of men, and manage well the complex affairs of a large parish. Twenty men fail in the ministry to-day for lack of talent for affairs where one fails because he cannot preach. A very mod- erate amount of pulpit power, joined to skill in affairs, will make a very successful pastorate; while eminent preaching ability is little valued by most communities if accompanied by absolute unfitness for affairs, as it often is. If we test Augustine of Canterbury by Napoleon's maxim, " What has he done ? " he will not compare so unfavorably with Augustine of Hippo. To convert a nation is no smaller work than to write " The City of God." Within a century after the landing of Augustine, all England had become nominally Christian. Of course he did not accomplish this feat single-handed, but as the leader and director of the enterprise he deserves to the full the credit for its success. Unquestionably, as in many other cases of the rapid conversion of heathen tribes, the change in England was more nominal than real, and the resulting religion was a curious mixture of Teutonic paganism and Christian practice. This need not blind us to the substantial worth of what was accomplished. The worship of the heathen divinities ceased. Christian morals were taught, and to some degree were practised. A great change came over England in the sixth and sev- enth centuries as a result of this preaching of Chris- tianity. When we reflect that our ancestors were once barbarian and heathen, when we look at Christian Eng- land and Christian America to-day, both of which are AUGUSTINE 95 what they are because of the missionary enterprise of Gregory and Augustine, let us never belittle the worth of foreign missions or despair of the future of any race that accepts the gospel of Christ. The reconversion of England has an important bear- ing on English Christianity of our own day. The theory of an Anglican Church that has had an uninterrupted his- tory from the days of the apostles until our own, is very dear to some English and American churchmen. Accord- ing to that view, the pope was never anything else than a usurper in England, and the Reformation was simply a return to the liberty that the English Church had always enjoyed until, somewhere about the twelfth century, the bishop of Rome succeeded in asserting over that nation an authority he had never before possessed and to which he had no right. This Anglican theory is very pretty, very comforting to those who can believe it, but it is utterly without foun- dation in historic fact. It is worse than that: it defies historic fact. An eminent theological teacher once re- marked that he would like to fill the chair of church his- tory, if only he might teach history as it ought to have been. One sympathizes with this feeling, yet it is one's duty to teach history as it was. Doubtless history ought to have been in accordance with these theories of High- church Anglicans, but doubtless it has not been in accordance with them. No country in Europe has a church whose connection with Rome is so close and continuous from the fifth cen- tury to the sixteenth as is the Church of England'?. Eng- land was reclaimed from heathenism by the mission of Augustine, who was sent out by the express act and authority of the bishop of Rome. Through all his life he deferred to Gregory as his superior. He was conse- crated first archbishop of England by Gregory's authority, 96 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS and received from the Roman bishop the pallium that was the symbol of his primacy in England. Every successor of Augustine until the time of Cranmer, and including that shifty divine, sought and obtained from Gregory's successors in the Roman See the same symbol of spiritual authority. If the primate of England thus always ac- knowledged the superior authority of the pope, what becomes of the figment of an independent national church ? The Church of England is the descendant of the Saxon, not of the British Church. It is true that the remnants of the ancient British Church were finally absorbed into the Church of England, but this was a long process, and affected only the surviving fragments of British Chris- tianity in England and Wales. The churches of Scotland and Ireland always preserved their independence. Augus- tine had been given rights of primacy by Gregory, which extended in theory over all Great Britain, but he was unable to enforce his nominal authority. Several unsuc- cessful attempts were made by him to secure the alle- giance of the British bishops, and these were renewed in later years by his successors. A conference at Whitby, in 664, was partially successful in assimilating the usages of the British churches to those of Roman origin, but it was not until the time of Theodore (archbishop of Can- terbury from 669-690) that uniformity was established throughout England, and the authority of the primate became a recognized fact. This reconversion of England was, of course, an epoch- making event in the history of that nation. Not only did the English people cease to be heathen, they also ceased to be barbarians and were brought into touch again with the civilized world. England, which had been isolated from Europe by the Teutonic conquest, was readmitted to the family of nations. But it was also a turning-point AUGUSTINE 97 in the history of European Christianity. The mission of Augustine marks the beginning of that advance north- ward by the Christian church, which is the most striking fact in the history of mankind from the sixth century to the tenth, and is perhaps the most extensive missionary enterprise in the history of Christianity. Augustine's mission may, indeed, be described as the first exclusively foreign mission. The conversion of the Goths and related tribes was more nearly a work of domestic missions, for they were a part of the empire's population. And the importance of the English mission consists largely in the fact that Christian England became the base of further missionary operations, which resulted in the conversion of Germany and Scandinavia, as an almost necessary result. This great missionary epoch, and the conquest of northern Europe by the Christian church, was due in the main to the genius of one man. We have already noted the prominence of Gregory in the mission to Eng- land ; there is reason to believe that this was only part of a great plan for the evangelizing of all Europe, and the conception and partial execution of this plan distinguish Gregory as one of the greatest men in the history of the church. The scion of an ancient patrician house of Rome, bred for the profession of the law, when a young man he entered the church and became a monk. In an age when scholarship had not yet become a mere tradi- tion, he was famous for his learning ; in a church already, notorious for its corruption he was eminent for his piety and the purity of his life. Decision of character, vigor of administration, marked his pontificate, the chief sig- nificance of which is the great part that he played in the building up of the papacy. The pontificate of Gregory occurred at a time when the popes were coming to be independent of the emperors G 98 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS in Constantinople. But the sphere of their authority was limited, and there was no prospect of extending it east- ward. A great field for advancement of power existed in the North, and on this opportunity Gregory seized with the insight of a man of genius and the skill of a man of affairs. We need not question the genuineness of his interest in the spiritual welfare of these heathen people, if we also discover in his policy a shrewd understanding that the conversion of these heathen to Christianity meant a great extension of the power and prestige of the Roman Church, as well as the greater glory of God. Gregory so impressed his policy upon the church that his suc- cessors for three centuries continued it. Under them, indeed, continuance became all the more necessary be- cause of the rapid advances of Mohammedanism, by whose conquests Africa was lost to the church, it would seem forever, and Spain for several centuries. So successful was this policy, that by the tenth century all Europe had ceased to be pagan, if it had not become really Christian. This great conquest had momentous consequences upon the history of Europe, and the prog- ress of Christian civilization. It was the preserver of the church by thus building up the Christian nations of the North to become the bulwark against the advance of Mohammedanism. The defeat (732) at Tours by Charles Martel of the Moorish host advancing under Abderrahman for the conquest of France, as they had already conquered Spain, checked the first wave of Mohammedan advance and gave Europe breathing-space. But by the eleventh century another Mohammedan ad- vance had begun, and the fall of the Eastern empire and the overturning of the West was seriously threatened. The capture of Constantinople at that time would have meant the inundation of Europe by the Saracens and the complete substitution of Islam for Christianity. This AUGUSTINE 99 would have been an irreparable disaster, not only for Europe, but for the entire world. The permanence of Christianity, the hope of civilization, were bound up with this enterprise of Gregory and Augustine. Civilization and Christianity were saved, because the result of this missionary policy was the growth of Chris- tian nations that were able to repel the Mohammedan in- vaders. The Crusades were supported by the valor and wealth of those peoples who had been made Christian through Gregory's successful policy of evangelization. And though the Crusades failed in their ostensible aim of recovering the Holy Sepulcher and the expulsion of the Saracens from the Holy Land, they accomplished something of far greater importance: they checked the advance of Mohammedanism, and prolonged the life of the Roman empire several centuries. And when at last Constantinople fell, Europe had become strong enough to say to the Turk, '' Thus far, but no further." All this and much more was the result of the mission of Augustine. When we thus trace the significance of events, when we catch in some degree the vast sweep of God's plans, how wonderful does his providence become! He makes even the wrath of man praise him. Surely his judgments are unspeakable, and his ways past finding out ! But his goodness and mercy to the children of men do not shine out more clearly from the pages of his written word, than from that revelation which he has inscribed for us to read, if we will, in the progress of mankind. What study more fascinating, more instructive, more inspiring, than the study of history ? And in the study of history, what surpasses in fruit fulness the study of Christian missions? VI BONIFACE: GERMANY EVANGELIZED BIBLIOGRAPHY The sources for the life of Boniface are his letters, edited by Diimmler in Pertz, Monumenta Germanics Hist., Epistolco, Vol. Ill pp. 215-433; his sermons, in Martene and Diirand, Amplissima Collectio, Vol. IX; and the biography by his con- temporary and friend, Willibald, also in Pertz, Scriptores, Vol. II, pp. S3, seq. This last may also be had in a critical edition, in Nurnberger's Vita S. Bonifacii (Breslau, 1895). All these materials, and some others of doubtful authenticity, are reprinted in Migne, Vol. LXXXIX, p. 597, seq. The best modern biography is Werner's Bonifacius, der Apostel der Deutschen (Leipzig, 1875). Less satisfactory are biographies by Cox (London, 1853) and Hope (London, 1872). All histories of the Christian church and of Christian missions devote more or less space to the work of Boniface. Always scholarly is Neander, Vol. Ill, p. 46, seq.; more modern and thorough is Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, who gives nearly one hundred and fifty pages of his first volume to a study of Boniface and his contemporaries (Leipzig, 1898). More popular works are: Baring-Gould, The Church in Germany, chap. V; "The Work of S. Boniface" (New York, 1891) ; Barnes, Two Thousand Years of Missions Before Carey, pp. 302-307 (Chicago, 1900) ; Merivale, Conversion of the West — the Continental Teutons, chap. VII (London, S. P. C. K.) ; Maclear, History of Christian Missions During the Middle Ages, chap. IX (London, 1863) ; Trench, Medieval Church History, Lecture V (New York, 1878). VI BONIFACE : GERMANY EVANGELIZED FROM the seventh century to the ninth, Ireland was the center of evangehc and missionary enterprises, but the church founded by Augustine in England was not far behind. The same restless spirit of adventure that had led the Angles and Saxons to leave their con- tinental homes and settle in Britain, influenced the relig- ion of the English; and perhaps it was this spirit, quite as much as zeal for the cause of Christ, that made them chief among the enterprising missionaries of this period. Though England had now been in a measure Chris- tianized, it did not for some centuries rise to the same level of learning and piety that obtained in other parts of Europe, and especially in Ireland. The monasteries of that country had a high repute in the seventh cen- tury, not only for sanctity but for learning. Many young Englishmen who desired a better training than they could obtain at home, went to the Irish monasteries to get it. Not a few such men imbibed also the missionary spirit that sent Columba afar among the Picts, and Col- umban as far to the Burgundians, as missionaries of the gospel. Among these were a monk named Wigbert and a presbyter called Willibrord. These men, while studying in Ireland, resolved to devote themselves to the service of God in some foreign land, and they naturally chose as the object of their missionary efforts men closely related to them in blood and language. Accordingly, they became preachers of the truth in Friesland. Willibrord did not enter on this work until, in 692, he 103 104 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS had paid a visit to Rome and obtained the approval of the pope. His labors were begun in Prankish Friesland, with the approval of King Pippin, and in later years he established himself in the neighborhood of what is now the city of Utrecht, where for more than thirty years he was bishop. There is no question that through his influence many of the heathen were baptized, but we lack means of judging accurately the extent and permanence of the impression that he made upon this heathen popu- lation. The accounts of his labors that survive can hardly be regarded as authentic, yet one anecdote con- tained in them seems sufficiently characteristic to be true. Willibrord had preached the gospel on one occasion before King Radbod, and the heathen monarch professed himself ready to be baptized. Just as the ceremony was about to be performed it unluckily occurred to him to ask an awkward question : '' What had become of his forefathers who had never heard the gospel?" Willi- brord did not flinch, but replied as the doctrine of the church required, that the king's forefathers, having died without Christian baptism, had assuredly gone to hell. Whereupon the sturdy Radbod declared that he preferred going to hell with his own people to going to heaven without them, and refused to be baptized. Whether the story is genuine or apocryphal, it is certain that Radbod continued to the end of his life to be the chief obstacle to the progress of Christianity among his people. A considerable number of individual missionaries had preached the gospel in various parts of Germany prior to 721. They had acted, however, without concert, and for the most part without ecclesiastical authority or support. As Neander has pointed out, two policies were at this time open to the Christian church in the evangelization of Germany. The first, if it may be called a policy, was to continue the work already in operation, and permit BONIFACE 105 missionaries to enter the field voluntarily, in ever-in- creasing numbers, each working singly; the church rely- ing only upon the power of the divine word to effect a lodgment in the hearts of men and to transform them into the image of Christ. By this method, Christianity might, like leaven, gradually and by working outward from within, penetrate through the whole mass of the people. Or again, it was possible for some one, endowed with great energy and gifts for organization, with the whole power and influence of the church behind him, to conduct the missionary enterprise upon one plan, and in consequence form a German Church closely knit to the great body of the Catholic Church. The former method is more in accordance with the genius and early history of Christianity. The heathen of the North might have been evangelized as successfully, and possibly as speedily, as the Roman empire was evangelized in the age of the apostles. The other plan is more in accordance with the spirit of ecclesiasticism. There was here an issue, if one might coin a word, between Christianity and cliurch- ianity, between pure religion and religion defiled by worldliness. As so uniformly happened in the history of the church, the less Christian method was adopted. Satan showed to the popes all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and s?id, "All these things I will give, if you will fall down and worship me." The popes fell down and worshiped, and they had their reward: for a time the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them seemed to be theirs. That the ecclesiastical method of evangelizing Ger- many was adopted rather than the apostolic, was due largely to the fact that a man precisely fitted to do the work of church and pope was born toward the close of the seventh century. Winfrith (one that wins peace) was a native of Devonshire, and belonged to a family of I06 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS some importance. His parents were Christians, and they destined their son for a secular profession. Early in life, however, the youth proved especially susceptible to relig- ious impressions. It was customary for the English clergy to visit the homes of the people and give discourses on religion to the family, including the children and serv- ants. In this way Winfrith received instruction from infancy, and showed an inclination toward the religious life that alarmed his ambitious father. Only after long opposition and the humbling of his pride — some say by a severe illness, some by the loss of property — did this father consent to Winfrith's entering a monastery at Exeter. Taking the name henceforth of Bonifacius, the boy pursued his education in several English convents and at the age of thirty was ordained priest. His training consisted largely in the study of the Scriptures, with which his extant writings show a wide acquaintance. His estimate of the value of such study continued to be high even to the close of his life. Many evidences might be cited of this, but one or two will suf- fice. He thus exhorts in one of his letters a young man in his native land : Throw aside everything that hinders you, and direct your whole study to the holy Scripture, and there seek that divine wisdom which is more precious than gold . . . for what is more seemly in youth to strive after, or what can age possess more valuable than the knowledge of the holy Scripture, which will guide our souls, without danger of being shipwrecked in the storm, to the shores of the heavenly paradise, to the eternal heavenly joys of the angels?^ To an abbess, who had sent him a Bible, he wrote in return : By your sending gifts of the sacred books, the German exile has been consoled with spiritual light ; for whoever is obliged to ' Ep. iv. BONIFACE 107 visit the dark corners of the German people falls into the jaws of death, unless he has the word of God as a lamp to his feet and a light to his path/ He requested his old friend, Daniel, bishop of Winches- ter, to send him a manuscript of the " Prophets," left behind by his deceased abbot and teacher, Wimbert, which was written in very plain and distinct characters. I If God incline you to grant this request (he wrote) you ca.ni render no greater comfort to my old age ; for in this country I cannot obtain such a manuscript of the " Prophets " as I wish for, and with my already weak eyesight I cannot distinguish small and closely written characters.' From the beginning of his studies, as he himself con- fesses, a passion for foreign travel as well as the love of Christ impelled him to be a Christian missionary. This is neither to his discredit nor especially remarkable ; it has been true of others, notably of Carey and Living- stone, whom the world rightly honors for their great achievements as missionaries. He had every prospect of distinction if he remained at home. He had been em- ployed on a confidential mission that showed the trust of his superiors ; he might hope in no long time to be abbot, and thence to rise to higher position In the church. But the missionary call proved superior to any such pros- pects. At home was peace, plenty, honor; abroad was privation, danger, suffering, possible death; but he did not hesitate. With the consent of his superiors he began his work in 715, and a less ardent spirit than his would have been dis- couraged, for his first mission was a complete failure. War had broken out between King Radbod and the Franks; a fierce persecution of the Christians in Fries- land had already begun, with general destruction of the Christian churches and rebuilding of the heathen tem- * Ep. xviii. ' Ep. xix. I08 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS pies ; for the time, further missionary work was evidently quite out of the question. Boniface was, however, far from being cast down. Returning for a brief sojourn in his native land, the brothers of his convent would have made him abbot, but the missionary call that had come to him made impossible any other work. In 718 he left England, which he was destined never to see again, and made a pilgrimage to Rome. Presenting the commend- atory letters of his bishop to Pope Gregory II, he was not only kindly received, but specially commissioned to preach the gospel to the pagans of Germany. This com- mission was of great value to him, inasmuch as it ex- horted all who had authority to forward his mission. In his letters Boniface tells how much he afterward owed to this commendation : " Without the protection of the king of Franks, I could neither rule the people nor de- fend the priests, the monks, and the handmaids .of God, nor prevent pagan and idolatrous rites in Germany." Going back to his chosen field of labor, he proceeded first to Thuringia, which had already been in part evan- gelized by the disciples of Columban. Some of the Christians there appear to have been Arian; none ac- knowledged allegiance to the pope. Boniface attempted to bring them into submission to the orthodox faith and to Rome, but made little progress. Hearing that Radbod was dead, he again repaired to Friesland, where he preached three years with much success. Bishop Willi- brord was becoming aged, and desired one to be a present coadjutor and a future successor. Boniface seemed to be the fitting man, but again he refused church prefer- ment that he might be faithful to his missionary call. Real missionary work among the heathen was first begun by him in ^22, when he went to Hessia and preached the gospel of Christ where it had never before been proclaimed. Here in no long time he succeeded in BONIFACE 109 baptizing converts by the thousand, including two princes of the region. He destroyed the heathen temples, built in their stead Christian churches, and founded the mon- astery of Fulda. He had many dangers and hardships to undergo, but found in the progress of his work ample compensation for all. The pope was so much pleased by the result of these labors that in 723 Boniface was recalled to Rome, that he might be consecrated bishop of this region. It is said there had been some doubts concerning his orthodoxy, which were only removed by his submission to the pope of a written confession of faith. He was thereafter con- secrated bishop at large of the new church in Germany, since his labors were not to be confined to any one place, and he could hardly be said at that time to have a definite diocese. It was usual in his age for those Italian bishops who were consecrated by the pope in person to take an oath of obedience to him. A similar pledge was required from Boniface, the form of which is said to have been as follows : I, Boniface, bishop by the grace of God, promise thee blessed Peter, chief of the apostles, and thy vicar, Pope Gregory and his successors, that with God's help I will proclaim the unity and purity of the holy Catholic faith, and will abide in the unity of that faith ; that I will in no manner agree with anything con- trary to the unity of the common and universal church, but will in every way maintain my faith pure and my co-operation con- stantly for thee, and for the benefit of thy church, on which was bestowed by God the power to bind and loose, and for thy vicar aforesaid and his successors. And whenever I find that the conduct of the presiding officers of churches contradicts the ancient decrees and ordinances of the fathers, I will have no fel- lowship or connection with them, but on the contrary, if I can hinder them I will hinder them; and if not, I will at once faith- fully report them to my apostolic lord. But if (which God for- bid) I should attempt to take any other course whatever con- trary to this promise of mine, in thought or act, may I be found no CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS guilty at the eternal judgment and meet the doom of Ananias and Sapphira. This abbreviated oath I have written with my own hand, and above the most sacred body of blessed Peter, as prescribed, God being my witness and judge, I have taken this oath, which I also promise to keep.^ And keep it he certainly did. Indeed, the taking of this oath must be pronounced one of the most momentous events in the history of the Western church. Being what he was- — a man of no great learning, perhaps, but a man of unbounded energy, of great firmness, of marked capacity for leadership, and of integrity beyond ques- tion — this oath of allegiance to the Roman pontiff meant that, so far as Germany was evangelized under the lead- ership of Boniface, it would be a conquest of the Roman Church. There had been no Httle prospect up to this time that the evangelization of this region would be accom- plished by men not thus subservient to Rome. Had the British missionaries sent out from Ireland continued their operations and planted churches throughout Ger- many, Ireland and not Rome would have swayed the des- tinies of central Europe and the history of the world might have been completely changed. The Roman Church, in that event, would have been circumscribed within the southern part of Europe, and its authority might never have been extended farther northward and jwestward. "" This danger was well understood at Rome, and Boni- face was not more desirous to have the approval of the pope than the pope was to attach to himself a missionary so energetic and capable. As Gregory looked at the matter the real end in view was not merely to convert the pagans, but to subdue those already converted to the Church of Rome. To build up the power of the Roman Church in Germany was quite as desirable, if not more 1 Migne, " Latin Patrology," LXXXIX, 803. BONIFACE III desired, than merely to Christianize the heathen tribes. Nay, until this was done (so it was held at Rome) the heathen were not, properly speaking, Christianized. How Boniface came so completely to adopt and make his own this Roman view of the missionary enterprise is an inter- esting question, to which a satisfactory answer is per- haps hardly possible. Probably Augustine and his suc- cessors had so carefully inculcated obedience and respect toward the bishop of Rome that English Christians of the eighth century had very different sentiments on this subject from those that prevailed in Ireland. The youth Winfrith had doubtless been carefully bred in the Roman theocratic beliefs ; it was easy, therefore, for the man Boniface to look to Rome as the source of authority ; and when he entered on his missionary career it was most natural that he should seek approval from Rome. Re- ceiving his episcopal office and authority directly from the pope, it was to be expected that he should profess loyal obedience to him. The missionaries already in Germany, whom Boniface was expected to reduce into obedience to the Roman See, were quite his equals in learning, in piety, in expe- rience. Indeed, it seems certain that some should be counted his superiors in learning and experience at least. They were, however, less closely allied in blood to the Germanic tribes than Boniface, less able therefore to 'understand those among whom they labored, and conse- quently less successful in adapting their preaching and administration to the peculiarities of the people. Above all, they were his inferiors in shrewdness, in personal magnetism, in strength of will. Boniface had in an ex- traordinary degree the rare and inexplicable gift of influ- encing men in masses ; and whenever such a man is found he is predestined king of men. By virtue of this endow- ment he was able to overshadow all other contempora- 112 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS ries, to become the chief of the missionaries to Germany and influence for all time the development of Christianity in central Europe. But we must not think of this as the chief labor of Boniface, or the thing that most commends him to our remembrance. He was a genuine missionary, and the greater part of his activity was directed to the conversion of the heathen, in which he was greatly successful. Con-^ version meant more to him than to many Roman mission- aries; he had enough genuine religion in his own heart to prevent him from making converts by standing heathen up in a row, sprinkling water over them with a brush, and then calling them Christians. He required at least abandonment of idol-worship, profession of faith in the true God, and willingness to submit to the further in- struction of the church, before he reckoned men converts or would baptize them. The same gifts that gave him the preeminence among his fellow-missionaries secured him the respect of the heathen — a feeling that soon deepened into admiration and made obedience easy. Anecdotes of his fearlessness are not wanting; he came of a race to whom bravery is as natural as breathing, and bold defiance of heathen superstitions, that might have endangered the life of another, was no small part of his power. At Geismar, in Upper Hessia, stood an oak tree, of gigantic size and great age, sacred to Thor and for generations regarded by the people with the deepest veneration. Boniface had long been preaching against the vanity of idolatry, the helplessness of the idols for either good or bad, but with- out perceptible effect. He determined upon a grand stroke, an impressive object-lesson, that should carry conviction to all. He repaired with his associates to the spot where the oak stood — a place where gatherings of the people for idolatrous worship were wont to be made. BONIFACE 113 With a large axe he attacked the tree, the people standing by in mute rage and horror, momentarily expecting the god of thunder to strike dead this sacrilegious invader of his shrine. But nothing happened save the downfall of the tree, which was broken into four pieces, while the faith of the people in Thor was even worse shattered. Out of the timbers of this tree Boniface had a church built, which he dedicated to St. Peter, and the people are said from that day to have given up their idols and wor- shiped the God of Boniface — when they did not instead worship the saints and the Virgin. There was less gain than could have been wished in substituting the calendar of Romish saints for the gods of the Aryan mythology; to a very considerable extent this " conversion " of the Germans was only the transference of the old idolatry to new objects; but such gain as could result from such a change was made. It but just to Boniface himself to add that he did not teach saint-worship and Mariolatry to his German converts as they were taught in subsequent centuries. His religion was more evangelical than that coming to be practised at Rome, and far indeed from that revolting perversion of the religion of Christ that was fully developed in the Middle Ages. Not only the popes, but the English people, took a great interest in the missionary work of Boniface. From time to time he received reinforcements — missionaries and books, perhaps money also — from his ancestral church. In 732 he was raised to the rank of archbishop by Greg- ory III, and the added dignity of papal legate was con- ferred upon him, that he might be better able to control all ecclesiastical affairs in Germany in the interests of the Roman See. In 738 he made a third and last visit to Rome, where what he had done received full approval, and he was given authority to call a synod in Germany. During the next ten years he was largely engaged in the H 114 CHRISTIAN ErOCH-MAKERS work of administration. Having full authority to erect bishoprics, he established many of what were later the richest and most important Sees, among them Mainz, Salzburg, Freising, Passau, Ratisbon, and Erfurt. The churches of Cologne, Worms, Speyer, and Augsburg are also said either to have been founded by him or to have been recalled from heresy and made obedient to the Roman Church by his agency. In 744, in a council held at Soissons, the bishops who had remained refractory were condemned, and thence- forth there was little opposition to the authority of Boni- face in Germany. If he ruled with a high hand, it was as a father, not as a tyrant; he was mild rather than stern, but firm in his mildness, as a strong man knows how to be. The man of brag and bluster may seem a strong man to those unskilled in reading human nature; but it is the man who knows how to hide the steel hand in the glove of velvet that really controls men and guides the destinies of nations. Though he was so eminently qualified for the work of administration, and so successful in his conduct of the affairs of the church, Boniface seems to have had no love for this work; his heart was with the heathen people of Germany, and he longed for the active work of a mis- sionary. In the year 753 he chose Lull as his successor in the archbishopric at Mainz, and laying aside his digni- ties and power, he returned with about fifty devoted fol- lowers to missionary work in Friesland, where a reaction toward heathenism had set in. Rare indeed is it for one who has gained power and tasted its sweets to resign it voluntarily. Perhaps even more rare is it for one who has already spent the allotted life of man in continuous and exhausting labors, instead of passing his last years in what most men would consider well-gained repose, to begin at threescore and ten years a missionary enterprise BONIFACE 115 from which many a young man would shrink. But the work of unifying the German Church was done, only too well done, and Boniface felt himself at liberty to do the work to which his heart impelled him. He took leave of his successor in these words : I cannot do otherwise; I must go whither the impulse of my heart leads me, for the time of my departure is at hand; soon I shall be freed from this body and obtain a crown of eternal glory. But you, my dearest son, carry on to perfection the founding of the churches, which I began in Thuringia ; earnestly recall the people from erroneous doctrines ; complete the building of the church in Fulda [the favorite establishment of Boniface], and may that be the resting-place of my body, bowed down with years.^ These last years were his best years as a missionary. They were but two, or possibly some months less, but in that time he traveled through Friesland with all his youth- ful vigor, preaching the gospel and baptizing those who professed themselves converts. He did not do this with- out rousing great opposition among the leaders of the heathen reaction; and these men determined to end the labors and the life of the great missionary. The day approached, in the month of June, 755, when Boniface had appointed a meeting on the banks of the Burda, near Dockingen. A large number of newly baptized converts was expected to gather, that they might receive from him the rite of confirmation. But in their stead came an armed host of pagans against him and his small band of followers. His young men would have defended him to the last, but he forbade them, saying: Cease fighting, for the holy Scriptures teach us not to return evil with evil, but evil with good. I have for a long time ear- nestly desired this day, and the time of my departure is now come. Be strong in the Lord and bear with thankful resignation » " Life," by Willibald, chap. XXI. Il6 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS whatever his grace sends. Hope in him and he will save your souls.^ To his clergy, whom he knew to be doomed to the same slaughter, he said: Brothers, be of good courage, and be not afraid of them that can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul that is destined for eternal life. Rejoice in the Lord, and cast the anchor of your hope on him who will give you immediately the reward of eter- nal happiness. Endure steadfastly the brief moment of death, that you may remain forever with Christ.^ Thus, with calmness and resignation, Boniface met the death of a Christian martyr, the death of all others that he would have chosen to die, and nothing in all his life became him so well as this closing hour. His body was taken to his favorite monastery of Fulda for burial, where his ashes yet remain; and the Catholics of Ger- many still invoke St. Boniface as their especial patron and intercessor. Boniface was the greatest of the medieval missionaries. In abilities and character he was well fitted to be a suc- cessor, a worthy successor, of Gregory the Great on the papal throne. He was a man of pure and elevated nature, who deserved his canonization better than most of the so-called saints; yet he was by no means perfect. It is charged against him that personal ambition influenced him more than zeal for the spread of Christ's kingdom or even the aggrandizement of the church. His latest mission, in which he lost his life, is represented by some as only an attempt on his part to extend his own power in Friesland against the opposition of the bishop of Co- logne, but this seems rather the argument of an advocatus diaboli than the sober judgment of the historian. The most unlovely thing in the life of Boniface is his conduct toward the Irish missionaries who had preceded »Willibald, "Life of Boniface," chap. XXlI. ^ Ibid. BONIFACE 117 him into Germany. We can understand, and easily for- give, his zeal for what seemed to him a reformation of the church. That a man should have the courage of his convictions and execute them with zeal and determina- tion is a quality that always commands the world's re- spect, even when men are constrained to believe the con- victions more or less wrong-headed. What cannot be so easily condoned is the uncharitable and even violent temper that Boniface sometimes manifested. Two of his chief opponents were Adelbert and Clem- ent, the former a Frank, the latter an Irishman, and both disciples of Columban. Boniface accused these bishops of various heresies and aberrations in discipline, into which it were profitless, and possibly unavaiHng, to in- quire. Probably their chief heresy was denial of the authority of the pope, and their grossest error in disci- pline was failure to submit to the will of Boniface in all things. Having at length secured their condemnation by synod, and the support of the Prankish king in execu- ting this decree, Boniface proposed that, to render them harmless for the future, the two bishops should be con- fined for life. Pope Zacharias more mercifully decided that condemnation as heretics and deposition from their Sees was sufficient punishment. Nevertheless, in spite of this papal decision, Adelbert would have been kept in prison indefinitely, possibly for life, had he not succeeded in making his escape, soon after which he miserably per- ished. We have no certain information of Clement's end, but very likely it was no better. This transaction will always remain an indelible blot on the career of Boni- face, the blacker in that he exhibited an injustice and harshness in excess of his lawful powers and in defiance of the will of his ecclesiastical superior, to whom he pro- fessed and ordinarily gave complete obedience. In this case it was manifestly pure bigotry that made Boniface Il8 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS disobedient to the pope. To him Christianity and the Roman Church were identical terms ; and the papal power and the papal discipline were to be upheld even against the pope himself. He is not the first nor the last ecclesiastic who was more Roman than Rome. Yet this spirit of devotion to the Roman See by no means always triumphed over certain human weaknesses of the great missionary to Germany. One of these was a high sense of his own dignity, and on more than one occasion he withstood the pope, when the latter seemed to him to be encroaching on his due prerogatives. Thus when Pope Stephen visited France, he undertook of his own motion to ordain a bishop of Mainz. Boniface stoutly resisted this action, and only the interposition of King Pippin healed the breach. In certain of his letters to the popes, Boniface did not hesitate to lecture his supe- rior, and to protest against some heathen usages that were tolerated at Rome. He asked plain questions about the current rumors of simony, and said roundly that the pope and his immediate associates owed it to Christendom to be to all an example of purity of life and honesty of administration. That this freedom was relished at Rome is not probable, but Boniface was too useful a servant for the pope to quarrel with him over trifles. His Holi- ness doubtless made a wry face and let the matter pass. But on the whole, we must regard the work of Boni- face as equally honorable to him and beneficent in its results. From one point of view it might doubtless be said that it would have been better for the world if he had never lived. For his labors made possible men like Hildebrand and Innocent III, with their pretensions of universal domain and authority as the vicegerents of God, the vicars of Christ, to whom all power had been committed, both in heaven and on earth. But even so, may it not be said that some strong central power, that BONIFACE 119 would be universally respected and obeyed, was necessary in those centuries of confusion and unrest that we call the Dark Ages? No civil power of such amplitude was then existent or possible. The church was the one insti- tution capable of development into the common center of unity and authority. Papal power was better than universal anarchy. A chief result of the labors of Boniface was undoubt-^ edly to give a great impulse to the development of mona- chism. In view of the enormous evil wrought by this system in the later medieval period, many would be in- clined to set this down on the debit side of his account. But in his time, in countries that were a weltering waste of ignorance and superstition, the monasteries were as oases in the desert. Against all the ill of monachism we must set at least this good : that for ages the monks were custodians of the world's literature, and they must be awarded the praise of having well fulfilled their trust. Every text of the New Testament, and practically every manuscript of Greek or Latin classic known to modern scholars, had its birthplace and only home in some mon- astery. With loving care the monks preserved and mul- tiplied through innumerable copies the treasures of Christian and pagan antiquity; and that every trace of ancient learning did not vanish from the earth during the Dark Ages is almost solely due to them. Not only were the monasteries the seats of learning, the libraries and universities of this troublous period; they were the chief civilizing centers. A monastery of the Middle Ages was a great industrial and agricultural community, which cleared the forests, redeemed the wastes, encouraged handicrafts and arts, setting to the rest of the world a shining example of industry, thrift, and improvement. The vast aggregation of landed prop- erty, which in the end became such a menace to society, I20 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS was at first an almost unmixed blessing. Religious insti- tutions alone might hope to escape, in those ages of per- petual warfare, the spoliation of the defeated. Those who held lands of king or baron, held on a tenure most uncertain; they could hope to retain their possessions only so long as their overlord might maintain himself against enemies pressing him from every side. Those who held of the church were absolutely safe, certain of her powerful protection, come what would. Add to this the philanthropic function of the monas- teries: they were the inns where travelers were freely entertained — often the only safe and respectable place of harborage to be found. They were hospitals where the sick were given such medical and surgical aid as the knowledge of the times afforded; asylums where the orphan, the widowed, the oppressed found refuge and help, and not infrequently redress of their wrongs. The one institution that was stable, the one force that was respected by the fiercest of robber barons, they did much to alleviate the sufferings and to lift the burdens of the people in an age when might made right. Modern civil- ization owes a great debt to monachism when a just bal- ance is struck, and to Boniface as one of its chief promoters. The supreme test of greatness is that a man leave behind him those who are able to carry on his work. There have been many men who must be pronounced great when measured by the test of their own achieve- ments, whose influence has been evanescent because they left no successor. They insisted on doing > everything themselves, in keeping all the strings of power in their own hands; they crushed rather than fostered talent, repressed the power of initiative in others. So when they passed away, the great edifice they had reared crumbled — there was nobody capable of taking their place and BONIFACE 121 pushing forward what they had begun. On a plane above such must be placed the few who have been great enough not only to achieve, but to raise up successors — men who have acquired power and used it well, and have also been great enough to part with power that others might learn to use it. Such men are rare, but such a man was Boniface. He left a number of devoted disciples, only inferior to him- self as zealous missionaries and successful administra- tors, men who were quite capable of conserving what he had won and adding thereto accomplishment of their own. Such were the Abbot Gregory, who completed the evangelizing of Friesland; and Sturm, who carried the gospel among the Saxons, and made the monastery of Fulda the center of culture and enlightenment for Ger- many, a northern Monte Casino. Such were Liudiger and Willehad, and more that need not be named, who fill a high place in the annals of early German Christianity. These men of the younger generation took up the burden Boniface laid down, consolidated and advanced the church founded by him, and made the power of Rome extend to the farthest limits of the German race in Europe. If Gregory's was the mind that planned the great scheme of missionary conquest by the Roman Church in northern Europe, Boniface was as clearly the right arm for its execution. VII ANSGAR : THE GOSPEL IN SCANDINAVIA BIBLIOGRAPHY The chief source for the life of Ansgar is the Vita Ansgaris of his follower, Rimbert, in Pertz, Monumenta Germ. Hist., Vol. II, pp. 689-725. It may be found also in Mabillon's Acta Sancto- rum, Saec. IV, Pt. II, pp. 78-114. A secondary source is Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hamburgensis Ecclesics PontiUcum, in Pertz, Vol. VII, pp. 283-389. There is no biography of Ansgar in English, but an excellent one in German: Tappenhorn, Lehen des Heiligen Ansgar, Apostels von D'dnemark und Schweden (Miinster, 1863). Good sketches of Ansgar's missionary labors are to be found in the standard church histories, especially Neander, Vol. Ill, pp. 271-306; Milman, Vol. Ill, pp. 129-142; Schaff, Vol. IV, pp. 106-123. See also the monograph by Maclear on " The Northmen " in the Conversion of the West series of the S. P. C. K. VII ansgar: the gospel in scandinavia ONE of the biographers of Charlemagne, the monk of St. Gall, relates that in the year following his coro- nation as emperor of the West, he made a progress through Neustria, in the course of which he visited a sea- side town. While he was at table, vessels of Norman pi- rates appeared within view of the port. Some of the cour- tiers took them for Jewish merchants, others for Africans or Britons. But Charles himself was better informed : by the peculiar model and the swiftness of the vessels he knew that they were designed not for commerce, but for war. " These ships," he cried, " are full, not of mer- chandise, but of bitter enemies." All who were present hastened to the attack of these enemies, but in vain, for the Normans having learned that the great Charles was there, withdrew in haste. Soon after the emperor rose from table, leaned against a window, and remained there a long time plunged in deep thought. His courtiers observed the tears coursing down his cheeks, but none dared to question him regarding the cause of his emotion. At length he addressed them, " Do you know, my liege men, why I weep ? I do not fear that these men can hurt us, but it afflicts me that while I live they have dared to insult my coasts, and I foresee with grief what evil they will do my descendants and their subjects." This is the first mention of the Normans in authentic history. The prescience of Charles was justified. These hardy seamen, these bold warriors, did indeed do the de- scendants of Charles great harm. For good or evil, they 125 126 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS changed the history of the world. They harried the coast of Europe as far south as Italy, making good their settlements at many points; and as their crowning achievement, they won a large and fertile province of the domain of Charles, thence named Normandy. Later still, their descendants, by successful invasion of England, left an impress upon our own language and race whose results are felt to this day, and will be manifest until the English-speaking peoples perish from the earth. We have, therefore, more than a passing interest in the story of this people and of their evangelization. The Normans were one of three principal families or tribes of the people known by the general title of Scandi- navians. They are a branch of the Teutonic race, and in prehistoric ages were one people with the Germans, the Angles, and the Dutch. Long before they thus appear in the time of Charlemagne as a historic people, these Scandinavians were settled in the countries where we now find them — in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, that is to say — where they possessed institutions similar to those of other Germanic tribes. Most of the people were free, though some were held in a mild slavery. Every freeman was a member of the Great Thing, or tribal assembly, and without the sanction of this body no law was valid and no judgment good. There were various local Things, or assemblies, whose functions were chiefly judicial. Above the freemen were the jarls, correspond- ing to the earls of England, and there was also a king, whose real authority was much inferior to the nominal. The royal family were supposed to be descended from one of the gods, but the monarchy, as in all other Ger- manic peoples, was rather elective than hereditary — that prince of the royal house being chosen who seemed on the whole best fitted for the throne. The religion of these Scandinavians was a form of that ANSGAR 127 nature worship that seems common to all Aryan peoples. Odin was the chief of the gods, the all-father, and of him and Frigg, Thor and Balder were sons. Most of the Homeric deities have their counterparts in the mythology of the North, which has its Olympus (Asgard), and as the gods of Homer regaled and renewed themselves by J means of nectar, so these gods of the frozen zone, not immortal in themselves, renewed their vigor by eating the apples of Iduna. In practice this religion was coarser, more provocative of violence and cruelty, than the relig- ion of the Greeks; but as an offset, there was far less of deliberate sensuality, the wallowing in vices unnam- able, among these northern tribes. To gluttony and drunkenness they were more prone than to any other sins of the flesh. The Northmen were a hardy and vigorous race. In their climate life was one fierce struggle for existence, in which all but the strong, the vigorous, the brave, speed- ily succumbed. The law of the survival of the fittest had here a fine illustration, and the men were tall, strong- limbed, active, and the women were fair. Both charac- teristics are so uniformly mentioned by all who beheld these people for the first time as to leave no doubt that physically they were a most remarkable race. And they had virtues corresponding. Bravery was a matter of course; even the women possessed that quality, and for a man to lack it was unknown. But the men were also truthful, not only speaking the truth but keeping their engagements faithfully. The women were modest and chaste, good homekeepers, and more nearly the social equals of the men than we find them in other uncivilized tribes. These people first became known to the rest of Europe through their predatory warfare along the coasts. The pressure of population on the means of subsistence about 128 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS the eighth century had come to be so great that the Northmen in large numbers became what we call pirates. But let us remember that what the civilized world calls piracy was legitimate warfare in the Dark Ages. Then every tribe was at war with every other tribe; and to descend on a peaceful coast, kill the men, burn the houses, and carry ofT as many young women, domestic animals, and other plunder as the ship would hold, was as praise- worthy an act as a successful cavalry raid into the ene- mies' country in time of war is to-day. We may shudder at the loss of life and regret that the exigencies of a cam- paign require such destruction of property, but we never think to condemn the raid as a crime. It is justified, we say, by the hard laws of war. Precisely so thought the Norman pirate of his raids. The world has moved and the moral standard has risen in the course of a thousand years. It may be that in another millennium, if the world stands so long, the wars of the nineteenth century will be regarded with as much moral reprobation as we visit on the raids of the Northmen. It was natural that the attempt to Christianize this people should be postponed until the rest of Europe had been evangelized. For one thing, they were compara- tively inaccessible and unknown. The little that was known was not of a kind to tempt many men to venture their lives among a people so rude and so fierce. Never- theless, early in the ninth century the time had evidently come for such a missionary enterprise. Harold, king of the Danes, had entered into friendly relations with Charle- magne; and on a visit to the emperor (Louis the Pious) in 826, was persuaded to profess himself a convert to Christianity, and he and his wife and a numerous train of followers were then baptized with great pomp. When Harold prepared to return home, he requested — or pos- sibly the emperor suggested — that a zealous priest should ANSGAR 129 accompany him to confirm him in his new faith and to preach the gospel to the Danes. The emergency brought forth the man, a young monk named Ansgar. He who was to be the Apostle of the North was born in France, in the diocese of Amiens, in the year 801. He had a pious mother, and though he lost her before he was five years old, she had managed to instil into his mind the fundamentals of Christianity. From the dawn of intel- ligence, Ansgar seems to have been inclined to the serv- ice of God. He was by nature fitted for the contem- plative life, and in childhood was accustomed to withdraw from his companions for religious meditation. In these solitary communings he believed that he saw visions of the heavenly world. He saw his mother on one occa- sion, who said to him, " My son, wilt thou come to thy mother ? " And when he answered her eagerly that he was anxious to do so, she replied, " If thou wishest to come to our company thou must guard against all vain waywardness, and diligently pursue a serious course of conduct." On another occasion he believed that he was uplifted into the very presence of Him whom even the angels desire to behold. " There was neither sun nor moon to give light there," he says, " nor any appearance of heaven or earth. But the brightness of the trans- parent ether was such that instead of being the least op- pressive, it refreshed the eye, satisfying the souls of all with inexpressible bliss. And from the midst of that immeasurable light, a heavenly voice addressed me, say- ing, * Go, and return to me again crowned with martyr- dom.* " At another time, being much concerned about his sins, he confessed them to Christ, and received as- surance that he was forgiven. Then inquiring, " Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do ? " he was told, " Go, preach the word of God to the tribes of the heathen." The devout monks who have repeated these and other 130 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS marvels find in them abundant proofs of the miraculous. We, even if we accept them as coming to us from Ansgar himself, are not compelled to see in them more than the workings of a sincerely pious and exceptionally ingenuous soul. Ansgar had no doubt heard of the mis- sionary labors of Columban, of Augustine, of Boniface, especially of the last. Nothing was more natural than that he should feel himself called to a similar work. Probably there were hundreds of young men of his time who felt within them the stirrings of a like holy ambi- tion, and many of them, as we know, did become mission- aries. Ansgar differed from the rest only in being more highly endowed, and in being therefore intended by divine providence for a larger work. But this was still years in the future. A time of prep- aration, of discipline, was necessary; and, according to the ideas of his time, this could be had only in a monas- tery. Ansgar was indeed called to the celibate life, if any man of his generation was; had all monks been such as he, the institution of monachism would have had a very different history for later times to record. The convent of Corbie, near the place where he was born, was one of high repute in France in his day, and he entered it as a novice at an early age, and in due time was ad- mitted to the brotherhood. He was an exemplary mem- ber of the order, and when several years later it was deemed advisable to send out part of the monks to found a new monastery, he was one of those selected. And here T must once more remark that a monastic community of this period was a co-operative society or- ganized for agricultural and industrial enterprises as well as for religious service. The monk was expected to spend one-third of his day in toil. Monastic communities like this went forth into the wilderness and became the pio- neers of civilization. They felled the forests, drained the ANSGAR 131 swamps and fens, brought the land under cultivation, made clothing and household articles, not only sufficient for their own use, but with the surplus supplied the com- munity about them. They were an object-lesson of the value of thrift and industry, in an age when manual labor was despised and considered fit only for serfs and peasants. In the arduous labors of making the new home of his order, Ansgar obtained an experience of the hardships likely to be encountered by a pioneer missionary, his patience and endurance being both put to severe tests. He so completely satisfied his superiors of his fitness for greater tasks, that when his abbot heard of the demand for a missionary priest to accompany King Harold to his Denmark home, he at once informed the emperor that he knew a man who desired nothing so much as to preach the gospel of Christ to the heathen. And yet it was in no spirit of vain self-confidence that Ansgar prepared himself for this mission when he knew it was likely to be assigned to him. He spent his days and nights in retirement in a vineyard, where he read the Scriptures diligently and prayed much that God would fit him for his great calling. With fear and trembling as regarded himself, with strong faith in God and unfal- tering dependence upon him, he went forth. Many tried in vain to intimidate and dishearten him by representing the dangers and hardships he must encounter; but one other monk, Authbert, was willing to accompany him, and the abbot very properly declined to require any, by virtue of their vow of obedience, to undertake a service so exceptionally difficult and even dangerous. The emperor generously provided them with whatever was necessary for their mission, and dismissed them with many pious exhortations. Their reception in Denmark was cold, but not hostile. The first two years were spent 132 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS in faithful preaching. Later accounts represent that many were converted, but Ansgar himself made no such claim, and from subsequent events it would clearly ap- pear that the results of this preaching were meager in- deed. The one thing certain in the way of fruits is that the missionaries established a school for the education of heathen children, believing that by thus training teach- ers for their countrymen they could in the end most rap- idly advance the cause of Christianity. This is the first time we meet in the history of Christian missions a ten- dency to put education in place of evangelization, but we shall meet it many times hereafter. The king of the Danes had made himself unpopular among his subjects by embracing Christianity and show- ing favors to the missionaries, and about two years after Ansgar arrived in the country this unpopularity had so increased that the king was driven into France. Ansgar was no longer safe; his companion had been taken sick and compelled to return to France. While the lone preacher did not fear martyrdom, even hoped for it as the end of his career, he did not feel at liberty to seek it. And just at this juncture, certain envoys from Sweden to the Emperor Louis, represented to him that that coun- try was ripe for the gospel and would welcome preachers of it. The information was not altogether correct. The seeds of Christianity had indeed already been planted in Sweden, but there was no general readiness to receive the truth. When the emperor proposed to Ansgar that he should undertake this mission, however, the latter de- clared his willingness to undertake that or anything else for the glory of Christ. On the voyage thither, he and his comrades were attacked by pirates and thought them- selves happy to escape with their bare lives. He landed in Sweden, was permitted by the king to preach and bap- tize, and in a little time made some influential converts. ANSGAR 133 Had he remained here continuously, it is possible that the church in Sweden would have made rapid and continuous progress. Ansgar, however, could not altogether forget the Danes, among whom his mission began and who seem to the last to have been first in his affections. After a stay in Sweden of about a year and a half, he returned to France, and by his persuasions the emperor founded a metropolis at Hamburg to serve as a center of future missionary operations. Thus far, though we have no reason to doubt that Ansgar was an obedient son of the church, we do not find him in any special connection with Rome. Some time in the year 829 he visited Rome for the first and only occa- sion in his life, to obtain the sanction of the pope for his missionary enterprises. Gregory IV was prompt to see the advantage of complying with this request. There were great possibilities of extension of the territory and influence of the church in this mission. H Ansgar him- self succeeded in accomplishing but little, his successors might accomplish much, and by taking control of the work at the outset the Roman Church acquired all the advantage of de facto possession of the field. Accordingly the pope raised Ansgar to the dignity of archbishop by conferring on him the pallium, and gave him full au- thority, in connection with Archbishop Ebbo, to preach the gospel to the nations of the North. This was but pushing to its logical completion the work that was begun by Augustine and Boniface. Ansgar is entitled to less credit of originality than either of his forerunners, but he was efficient in his own sphere. The mention of these names, especially that of Boni- face, suggests a comparison of the men. Boniface was a man of the Petrine type, bold, rugged, prompt of speech, a man of power certainly, but likely to commit the faults to which those of impetuous spirit are prone. 134 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Ansgar was as clearly of the Johannine type, a character sometimes mistakenly supposed to be weak because its strength is veiled in meekness. Quiet where Boniface was impetuous, deliberate when the other was sudden to act, less urgent of speech but on that account more weighty, a man given to contemplation, conquering by love rather than by force, such was Ansgar as he shows himself in his deeds and words. His power was well shown in Denmark after his return from Rome. Horik (Erich), who had succeeded Harold as king, was a violent opponent of the Christians, espe- cially of missionaries. Nevertheless by prayer and love and tact, Ansgar at length obtained a complete dominance over this rude opponent and made him his willing ally. It does not appear that Horik ever became a professed Christian, but that he in time came to aid Ansgar in this work is beyond question. Indeed, so fully did he confide in the missionary, that at length he made Ansgar sole envoy between himself and the emperor in their frequent negotiations. In this way the Apostle of the North labored for many years, with varying degrees of success, but on the whole with steady progress of the gospel among the Danes. Now and then he seemed on the point of losing all that he had gained, as when a fire destroyed buildings in which he had put the collections of years ; and there were occa- sional times of persecution, as well as difficulties innu- merable to be overcome with unfailing patience. In the meantime the Swedish mission had languished, and at one time seemed almost destroyed. At times other work- ers had been sent, with only moderate success, and finally Ansgar himself was called to make a second visit to that country in the year 853. He gained the good-will of King Olaf at the very beginning, and it was agreed that the question of giving the missionaries freedom to labor ANSGAR 135 in the country should be submitted to his council. First the gods were invoked by lot, and the lot was favorable. Then the council were asked to decide the matter. There was a heated discussion, but at length an aged warrior stepped forward and said: Hear me, king and people ; many of us, no doubt, have already been informed that this god can be of great help to those who hope in him; for many of us here have had experience of this in dangers at sea, and in manifold straits. Why then should we spurn what is necessary and useful to us? Once several of us traveled, for the sake of this religion, to Dorstede, and there embraced it uninvited. At present the seas have become dan- gerous by piracy. Why then should we not embrace what we once felt constrained to seek in distant parts, now that it is offered at our doors? The assembly was won by this presentation of the case, and voted to allow the missionaries freedom of action. This assembly represented but a part of the people, but not long after another assembly, representing the other part of Sweden, was equally favorable. Having obtained this important concession, which was never revoked, and having set the affairs of the church in order and left fitting persons in charge, Ansgar returned to Denmark. Here he spent the rest of his life in humble labors in the cause so dear to his heart. Thirty-four years in all he gave to the preaching of the gospel to the heathen. His repute for sanctity was high, and in consequence of superstitions already becoming common in the church, the sick from far and near resorted to him for his pray- ers that they might be healed. His biographers attribute many miracles of healing to him, but he himself never gave countenance to such notions. To one who in his presence once intimated that he possessed miraculous powers, he replied with as much sternness as seemed pos- sible to him, " Could I deem myself worthy of such a 136 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS favor of the Lord, I would pray him to vouchsafe me but this one miracle, that out of me by his grace he would make a good man." In his sixty-fifth year he was smitten by a fatal disease. As he lingered for some months, his only regret seems to have been that realization of his early vision had been denied him ; he was not to have the crown of martyrdom in behalf of his Lord. And yet what witness to the truth, even though borne at the stake or on the scaffold, is more convincing, more worthy to be crowned with the honor of mankind, than the testimony of thirty-four years of daily dying for the Lord Jesus? Of himself, beyond this, he thought nothing; his last thoughts were for his missions, for the salvation of the heathen to whom he had given his life. Repeating as long as he could speak, " Lord, be merciful to me a sinner ; into thy hands I commit my spirit," he fell on sleep on the third day of February, 865. Ansgar was a man, and therefore sinful, but if there was in his life any act that calls for special apology, ex- planation, defense, or charitable silence, he has been for- tunate in that nobody has recorded it. There are few more saintly characters in history, and we can give him our almost unqualified admiration. His connection with the Roman Church was a necessity of the case, and he kept himself from its worst errors, nor were those errors in his day as gross as they afterward became. He was himself a genuine follower of Christ — of that his life makes it impossible for us to cherish a doubt. His errors in belief and practice seem to us venial when we place against them his Christlike spirit, his devotion to the gos- pel, his disinterestedness, his sweet and charitable spirit, his diligence in all good works. By his fruits we judge him to have been one in whom the Spirit of God dwelt richly. ANSGAR 137 1 have called Ansgar a pioneer missionary. That exactly describes his work and measures his influence. He was not permitted to live to see the fruition of his labors. His work was the laying of foundations; other men built on his foundation the superstructure of Cath- olic Christianity. Denmark and Sweden were slowly evangelized, and in the course of two centuries at least nominally converted to Christianity. The work in Nor- way was begun about a century after the death of Ansgar, the chief agent being not a priest, but Prince Hakon, who had received a Christian education in England. Thus all Scandinavia acknowledged the law of Christ, though the formal acknowledgment was followed by comparatively slight obedience. To the religion thus planted in these countries, such as it was, must be given one praise: it was a missionary religion. These people when evangelized were not un- mindful of their duty to give the gospel to the regions beyond. As the enterprising Northmen sailed the seas and colonized lands, they carried their religion with them and taught it. In this way Iceland and Greenland re- ceived the gospel in the tenth century. Nay, there is evi- dence, though we cannot now consider it in detail, that colonies were planted along the coast of North America as far south as Long Island, and that the object of these colonies was as much religious as worldly gain. Accounts yet survive in the sagas of these voyages and colonies, and these are confirmed by some remaining monuments. A recent historian says of this subject : The fact of medieval exploration, colonization, and even evan- gelization in North America, seems now to have emerged from the region of fanciful conjecture into that of history. That for four centuries, ending with the fifteenth, the Church of Iceland maintained its bishops and other missionaries and built its churches and monasteries on the frozen coast of Greenland is 138 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS abundantly proved by documents and monuments. Dim but seemingly unmistakable traces are now discovered of enterprises, not only of exploration and trade, but also of evangelization, reaching along the mainland southward to the shore of New England. There are vague indications that these beginnings of Christian civilization were extinguished, as in so many later in- stances, by savage massacre. With impressive coincidence the latest vestige of this primeval Christianity fades out in the very year of the discovery of America by Columbus. The Old World was thus in contact with the New ages before it became conscious of the existence of a New World. In the providence of God this secret was con- cealed from Rome until Protestantism was ready to take the leading part in the colonization and civilizing of this continent. If Rome had understood her opportunity, if she had comprehended that here was a continent on which Gregory's policy might be still further extended, the history of the world would have been different. By a narrow margin only the New World was saved from being as completely Romanized as the Old. For this is the significance of Ansgar's career, that he marks the completion in Europe of the far-reaching policy of the great Gregory. Rome had seen her oppor- tunity in the Old World, and without haste, without rest, she had pressed forward to the full utilization of it. On the south her development was cut off by the Great Desert and by the Mohammedan power that had over- whelmed Africa in the seventh century, and to this day has not been dislodged. On the east the Greek Church still held possession of what Christian domains had been saved from the advancing hosts of Mohammed's follow- ers. There had been one possibility of development: northern and western Europe were a possible conquest of Rome, and she had conquered this vast domain. It re- mained now only to consolidate her conquests, to reap the fruits of victory, to extend the dominion of the popes ANSGAR 139 over all this region, and realize the dream of one church that should at least be European if not world-wide in extent and power. Augustine, Boniface, and Ansgar had made possible, even inevitable, Hildebrand, Innocent III, and Boniface VIII. The Roman missions had their logical sequel in the Roman papacy. VIII VLADIMIR: THE CONVERSION OF THE SLAVS BIBLIOGRAPHY The chief source for the early history of the Russian Church is Nestor, the monk of Kiew. Part of his work has been trans- lated into German by Schlozer (five vols., Gottingen, 1802-9). The Byzantine sources have been edited by Stritter, Memories Populorum Olim ad Danubium, etc., Incolentium (four vols., Petropoli, 1771). There are several modern histories of the Russian Church that tell the story of Vladimir's conversion : Mouravieff, History of the Church of Russia, to the founding of the Holy Synod, in 1721 (Oxford, 1862) ; Strahl, Geschichte der Kussichen Kirche (Halle, 1830) ; Stanley, Lectures on the His- tory of the Eastern Church, Lect. IX (New York, 1884) J Hore, Eighteen Centuries of the Orthodox Greek Church, pp. 400-407 (London, 1884). Some attention is also given to the subject by the standard church histories: Neander, Vol. Ill, pp. 327-330; Schaff, Vol. IV, pp. 138-142. On the whole, however, the litera- ture available, especially in English, is rather scanty and not altogether satisfactory. VIII VLADIMIR: THE CONVERSION OF THE SLAVS IN the discussion thus far, we have traced the history of Christian missions, beginning with the age of the apostles to the complete conquest of northern and western Europe by the Church of Rome. Inasmuch as this was one continuous movement, inspired by a single idea, and in great measure isolated from the history of Christianity in the East, it has seemed best to treat the subject con- tinuously, with disregard of exact chronological relations. Less mental confusion will result from this method of study than by pursuing the once popular method of study by centuries, carefully placing all events in their exact order of occurrence. But it is time now to consider another set of facts, to study another great missionary movement, altogether dif- ferent in origin, in spirit, in methods, in results, yet from any point of view hardly less interesting or important than the evangelizing of western Europe; while if we look at results in the present, or forecast what is likely to occur in the future, the missionary movement that we are 'about to study has not a few claims to be considered the greatest in the history of Christianity. It is the evangeli- zation of central and eastern Europe by the Greek Church that now demands our examination. The field of this evangelization was the great Slav race. The origin and ethnological affinities of this race are still subjects of dispute among the learned, but the theory that finds most acceptance is that it is a branch of the Aryan family whose original home was on the 143 144 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS northern bank of the Oxus. Over the plains of Scythia the Slavs came as the last w^ave of that great tide of immigration into Europe before the earliest historic records, driving before them the Germans and Scandi- navians, as these had previously driven the Kelts. From the earliest times their race characteristics have been such as we find them to-day. They are an agricultural people, with simple virtues and vices, not intellectual — some would call them stupid and dull, because of the compara- tive slowness of their mental operations. They are a notably docile people, easily taught within certain limits, and naturally submissive to authority, which they blindly follow for good or ill. They are a people strongly in- clined to piety, very devoted to religion as they have been taught its doctrines and duties. But no people is more tenacious of ancient customs, and sheer unreasoning, dogged conservatism has its stronghold among the Slavs. While they are mild and peace-loving and crimes against person or property are rare among them, they are almost universally given to certain vices, chief among which are drunkenness and gambling. A glass of vodka (brandy) and a game of chance are two things that few Russians can resist. The Slav race was early divided into many nationali- ties, and at the period at which the evangelization of these peoples began there were recognized as distinct nations or kingdoms, Bulgarians, Moravians, Bohemians, Wends, Poles, and Russians. Possibly curious study might dis- cover other subdivisions, but the recognition of these is sufficient for our purpose. It is impossible to make even an estimate of the numbers of these various nations dur- ing the Middle Ages ; with modem facilities only an ap- proximate census of the race can be made. There is no reason to suppose that the Slavs were inferior in numbers or in prowess to their neighbors, the Germans. VLADIMIR 145 Less attention has been given to the evangeHzation of the Slavs than the importance of the subject warrants or even demands. There are several patent reasons for this. During the medieval period the West and the East were mutually ignorant of each other, and well content to be so. Western Europe knew only Latin, as the language of books, and knew only the Roman form of Christianity. That its literature should be nearly silent about mis- sionary achievements in which Rome bore small part, the original records of which were to be found in Greek or in tongues regarded as barbarous, is only what is to be expected. Even to this day few scholars are fitted by their linguistic acquirements to pursue original researches into the history of Eastern Christianity. For the most part, the scholars of western Europe and of America are compelled to take their knowledge at second hand, know- ing that it must be imperfect — or, worse still, in many cases positively misleading — yet unable to verify much of it by study of the sources at first hand. We can be certain only of the accuracy of the chief facts, of the general trend of the movement. We are still as one who gazes at a landscape through a haze that permits him to see its main features, the outlines of hill and valley and winding river, but forbids him to penetrate to the details. Another thing that makes our present study different from those in which we have previously engaged is the absence of plan, of design, in this evangelization. It was natural indeed that the Greek Church should make some attempts to Christianize these heathen. The Slavs were at their very doors, almost a menace to the continuance of the empire and the church. Both prudence and Chris- tian impulse prompted the sending of the gospel to the nearest of them at least. But there was no Gregory in Constantinople to perceive the greatness of the oppor- tunity that had opened to the church of the East for the 146 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS extension of its influence, as well as the gospel. Among the patriarchs of Constantinople there were no powerful and enterprising prelates like Gregory's successors to con- tinue with energy and persistence a great missionary policy, had there been a Gregory to originate it. The feeble echoes of the emperors, the patriarchs were con- tent to spend their lives in squabbles with their own bishops, varied with an occasional battle with the Roman bishop, who arrogantly claimed the title of pope, which the patriarch of the East as arrogantly refused to recog- nize. There is nothing here to relieve the pettiness of clericalism, as in the West, by an occasional glimpse of breadth of view, largeness of soul, capacity for reforma- tion, a spirit of progress. And accordingly, so far as regards the church of the East, what came about in the evangelization of the Slavs was largely accidental, in the sense that it was undesigned and unforeseen. It was according to God's plan that this work should be accom- plished, but as for the heads of the Eastern Church they had no plan, were incapable of forming one, and were too nerveless to have executed any that they did form. The first of the missionary labors among the Slavs was performed among the Bulgarians. The Bulgarians proper were not Slavonic, but had conquered a Slavonic people, given their name to the region, and gradually become incorporated with the conquered race, as Normans were amalgamated with Saxons in England. Early in the ninth century a sister of the Bulgarian prince, Bogoris, fell into the hands of the emperor and was for a time a captive at Constantinople, where she was instructed in the truths of Christianity, made profession of faith, and was bap- tized. Prince Bogoris not long after captured a monk, who endeavored to make a Christian of his captor, but failed. The two captives were afterward exchanged, and the sister of Bogoris accomplished what the monk VLADIMIR 147 had failed to do; her brother consented to give up his heathen gods and become a Christian. Photius, the patriarch of Constantinople, baptized him. From this time the progress of the gospel was steady, but there seemed at one time a prospect that Rome rather than Constantinople would secure the allegiance of the Bulgarians. There were frequent difficulties between the Bulgarian prince and the emperor, and during one of these an appeal was made for religious counsel to the bishop of Rome. Nicholas I was then pope, and this astute prelate did not neglect the opportunity. He gave good counsel indeed, but artfully contrived to insinuate the claims of Rome to the affection and obedience of Bul- garian Christians. He was nearly successful in his proj- ect, and it was only by strenuous effort that the indignant patriarch of Constantinople finally succeeded in persua- ding the Bulgarians to unite themselves with the Byzan- tine Church and receive from Constantinople an arch- bishop for their nation. The next advance of Christianity among the Slavs was in Moravia, and its consequences proved ultimately to be second to no missionary enterprise of the Middle Ages, not even the work of Boniface in Germany surpassing it in far-reacliing consequences, though as to immediate results the apostle to the Germans was more fortunate. The kingdom of Moravia, though it acknowledged the suzerainty of Charlemagne and his successors, was still independent in the ninth century, and comprised a terri- tory extending from Bavaria to the river Drina, and from the Danube to the confines of Poland. Efforts had already been made from the West to introduce Chris- tianity, but with little success. The people were not in- clined to receive their religion from the nations whose superiority in arms they were compelled reluctantly to acknowledge, nor were foreign priests, ignorant of the 148 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Slavonic language and conducting their services in Latin, of which the Slavs were wholly ignorant, the most acceptable of missionaries. The increasing weakness of the Western emperors en- couraged the princes of Moravia to hope for the regain- ing of their independence, and about 863 Prince Rotislav made a vigorous attempt to break away from his nominal suzerain. He formed an alliance with the emperor of the East, and at the same time, perhaps to ingratiate him- self with his ally, requested that Christian missionaries might be sent from Constantinople to preach the gospel to his people. The request, whether made seriously or not, was treated with all seriousness, and the emperor sent two brothers, Methodius and Constantine, or Cyril. They began an active mission, and their first proceeding was to translate the Scriptures into the vernacular. Up to this time the Slavs had no literature, not even an alphabet. These missionaries invented an alphabet, using for the purpose the Greek letters, supplementing them with Armenian and Hebrew characters and newly devis- ing others in addition, to the total number of forty. By this means the language was reduced to writing, and the Bible was translated into Slavonic and read to the people in their own tongue at all religious services. In addition to this, the liturgy according to the Greek use was trans- lated, and all rites of the church were celebrated in the vernacular. The missionaries were interrupted in the midst of their labors by a summons to Rome, to give an account of themselves to the pope. There had been as yet no formal separation between the churches of the East and West, and even in the East it was acknowledged that a certain primacy of honor attached to the See of Rome. Accord- ingly, Cyril and Methodius obeyed the summons, and gave an account of their work and the methods adopted VLADIMIR 149 by them. It was the jealousy of the German bishops that had provoked this interference. These prelates were naturally chagrined at seeing missionaries from the East successful where they had failed; and moreover, were scandalized by the violation of the rule that prevailed throughout the West of regarding Latin as the sacred language, in which all the rites of the church were to be celebrated. But there was no canon law requiring the liturgy to be in Latin; it was merely an ancient custom of the church that might be changed at any time for good reasons, and the East had always had a different rule. The pope could not condemn these missionaries without condemning with them the whole Eastern Church. Nor had the Roman Church and its pontiff at this time de- clared an inexorable opposition to the circulation of the Scriptures in the vernacular. It was not until the twelfth century, after the Waldensian movement had taught Rome the dangers of vernacular translations of the Gos- pels and Epistles that these were prohibited, first to lay- men, and finally even to priests, the latter being however free to read the Vulgate. And even this was not an article of faith, but a rule of discipline, that might be relaxed at any time. Still, with all these concessions, it is plain that during the Middle Ages the power of the Roman Church, by the force of example, was silently exerted against the use of vernacular liturgies and trans- lations of the Scriptures. There was never any faltering in her purpose to confine religious teaching, except in the sermon, to the Latin tongue. John VIII, who then filled the papal chair, was not a pope of great mark, but his conduct on this occasion en- titles him to respect. Methodius seems to have been the spokesman in the hearing, and much may have been due to his persuasiveness. He satisfied the pope of his ortho- doxy, and even obtained sanction for the use of the creed 150 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS in the Eastern form, without the iilioque. Still further, he obtained emphatic commendation for his use of the Sla- vonic language, with one slight qualification to which he probably did not object. The pope wrote to the Mora- vian prince : The alphabet invented by a certain philosopher, Constantine (Cyril), to the end that God's praise may duly sound forth in it, we rightly commend; and we order that in this language the messages and works of our Lord Christ be declared, for we are exhorted by holy Scripture to praise the Lord, not in three lan- guages alone, but in all tongues and nations. And the apostles, full of the Holy Ghost, proclaimed in all languages the great works of God. And the Apostle Paul exhorts us that speaking in tongues we should edify the church. It stands not at all in contradiction with the faith to celebrate the mass in this lan- guage, to read the gospel or lessons from the Scriptures prop- erly translated into it, or to rehearse any of the church hymns in the same ; for the God who is the author of the three principal languages created the others also for his own glory. Only it is necessary, in order to greater solemnity, that in all the Moravian churches the gospel should in the first place be publicly read in Latin, and then repeated in the Slavonian language, so as to be understood by the people. Not only so, but Methodius was by the See of Rome appointed archbishop of Moravia, and suffragan bishops were duly consecrated to act with him. Doubtless there was in all this a politic idea at Rome that it was well to make these concessions gracefully and so extend its power over the Moravian Church, rather than by taking the view of the German ecclesiastics, drive the Moravian Chris- tians into rebellion against Rome, and make their union with the East inevitable. It was good ecclesiastical poli- tics, and eventually it had its reward, for in process of time the Moravian Church was brought into union with the West. But though the gain of the Eastern Church in Moravia was thus only temporary, the labors of Cyril and Metho- VLADIMIR 151 dius had a great effect in promoting the advancement of the Eastern type of Christianity among the Slavs. This was due to their work as translators. What the Roman Church yielded in this single case — almost the only one, perhaps the only one, that can be named in all its history — the Greek Church pursued uniformly, and as a matter of principle as well as policy. Without any question its missionaries always adopted the rule of giving the Scrip- tures in their native language to every nation that they evangelized. In a previous chapter we have seen how in- fluential in the Christianizing of the barbarian invaders of the Western empire was the Maeso-Gothic version of Ul- filas. The Slavonic version of Cyril and Methodius played a similar part in the conversion of the Slavs. All the various tribes and principalities of this race differed from each other as to language only as speaking dialects of one parent stock. The translation made for the Moravians was intelligible among all Slavs, not more difficult for them to understand than the English of Chaucer is for us of to-day. And the making of this version, so to speak, stereotyped the Slavonic language, constituting what has since remained even to this day the sacred or ecclesias- tical language, as distinguished from the language actu- ally spoken by the people. Nobody can estimate fairly the influence of this version, not merely in making the evangelization of all Slavic peoples easier, but in pro- moting the feeling of unity among these branches of the one race. Great political as well as great religious results have flowed from the universal use of this version among Slavonic peoples, consequences whose effects are still felt in European politics, and may yet manifest themselves in a striking transformation of eastern Europe. It was through conquest by the Magyars and subsequent incorporation with the neighboring kingdom of Bohemia, that Moravia and its church became finally incorporated 152 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS with the West and Rome. The Czeck race is a branch of the great Slav family also, and the Czecks first received the gospel from priests sent by the Moravian Church. It was not until the close of the tenth century that Chris- tianity triumphed in Bohemia, but with its triumph came an ever-increasing dominance of Roman influence. The use of the Slavonian language and liturgy grew less and less common, until at length the Church of Bohemia was assimilated to the Roman '' use " as it prevailed in Ger- many. In 1060 Bohemia was so far Romanized that a synod declared Methodius a heretic and the Slavonian alphabet a diabolical invention. Yet nothing can alter the fact that to this heretic and this diabolical invention Bohemia owed its first knowledge of Christ's gospel. During the whole Middle Ages there was another Slav nation, dwelling between the Elbe, Oder, and Saale, to the north and east of Germany, known as the kingdom of the Wends. Repeated efforts were made to introduce Christianity among them by missionaries from both East and West. These efforts were prolonged over several centuries, and more than once appeared to be crowned with success; but after every apparent triumph of the gospel among this people a pagan reaction followed, ac- companied by the slaughter of all Christians, missionaries and natives. This is the only instance among the Slavs of violent opposition to the gospel, at least for any length of time and to any considerable extent. It was not until the political independence of the Wends was lost and they were absorbed into the German empire that Chris- tianity finally became established among them. They still exist in Prussia, Saxony, and other German States, a practically separate people to this day, though their as- similation to the surrounding German population seems now likely to be accomplished in the course of a genera- tion or two more. It was from the Greek Church that VLADIMIR 153 they received their first impressions of the Christian reUgion, but it was the Roman Church that finally ob- tained dominion over them. With the conservatism char- acteristic of their race, they held to the Roman Church when all northern Germany became Protestant and they are Romanists still. Poland, the farthest north of the Slav nations of this period, received the gospel from Bohemia in the tenth century, in the form in which the Eastern Church had taught it. The king of Poland had married a Bohemian princess, who was a Christian, and was by her persuaded to accept baptism in 966. He was a zealous convert, and proceeded to suppress the old pagan worship by force. Christian customs were imposed in the same manner, and the people submitted without a murmur to these high- handed methods, opposing only the passive resistance characteristic of their race. But the energy of princes triumphed at length over the lethargy of the people, and the kingdom became at least nominally Christian and ceased to be openly pagan. From the year 970 a bishop- ric was established at Posen; and it is significant that though the Poles received their faith from the East, they took their ecclesiastical rule from the West, for the Posen bishop was from the first subordinated to the jurisdic- tion of the archbishop of Mainz. We may sum up the results of the evangelization of the Slavs, so far as we have yet proceeded, by saying that Constantinople sowed the seed and Rome reaped the fruits. With the single exception of the Bulgarians, all the Slav peoples of central and northern Europe evan- gelized through preachers from the Greek Church, even- tually became subject to the Western pope. The process was rapid in some cases, slow in others, but the end was at most only postponed. It is quite otherwise with the last and most important 154 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS branch of the Slav race that was converted through the influence of the Eastern Church. The history of the Rus- sians may be said to begin with the founding of the king- dom of Novgorod in 862 by Rurik, a Norman. His son Igur added Kiew to his dominions. There was a Chris- tian church in this city at the time of the conquest, and from knowledge of this Princess Olga (who afterward became the wife of Igur) may have derived her wish to go to Constantinople and learn more about this religion. At any rate she went, was instructed in the doctrines of Christianity, made her profession of faith and was bap- tized, taking thenceforth the name of Helena. She was unable to gain her son to her religion, and during the suc- ceeding reign paganism still prevailed in Russia. Her grandson, Vladimir, also began his career as a pagan, and in his early years gained the reputation of an exception- ally bloodthirsty and immoral ruler, " a monster of cruelty and debauchery," he is called. He was visited, we are told, by the representatives of various religions in turn, Jews, Mohammedans, Christians from the West, and finally by " a philosopher from the East," who discoursed most persuasively about the gospel. There is evidently more or less of legendary matter mixed up with this ac- count, which we have from a Russian priest named Nes- tor, who wrote about a century after the events that he recorded, but evidently believed all that he tells us. The main outlines are doubtless true, though there must be great allowance for the imagination — not necessarily of the writer, but of the people who handed down these details until Nestor put them in writing. It is doubtless true, as Nestor next proceeds to relate, that Vladimir, still in doubt as to the religion he and his people had better adopt, resolved to send an embassy to Tsarogorod, the city of the Csesars, which of course can only denote Constantinople. The embassy was received VLADIMIR 155 with high honors. " Let them see the glory of our God," said the emperor, and accordingly they were placed where they could best see the most splendid ecclesiastical func- tion of that age, a high festival of a saint honored in the Eastern Church. The service was in what was then the most splendid edifice in Christendom, gorgeous with gold and mosaics, the church of Santa Sophia. Rome had not its equal to show then, for St. Peter's and the Cologne cathedral were not yet even an idea, much less a reality. Nor was the Western service of that day so impressive in its stately ceremonial as was that of the East. " The Russians were struck," says a Byzantine annalist, " by the multitude of lights and the chanting of the hymns ; but what most filled them with astonishment was the appear- ance of the deacons and sub-deacons issuing from the sanctuary, with torches in their hands. . . 'All that we have seen,' said they, * is awful and majestic, but this is supernatural. We have seen young men with wings in dazzling robes who, without touching the ground, chanted in the air, " Holy ! holy ! holy ! " and this is what has most surprised us.' The guides replied, * What ! do you not know that angels come down from heaven to mingle in our services ? ' ' You are right,' said the simple- minded Russians, * we want no other proof ; send us home again.' " When they reached home the ambassadors gave a glow- ing account of the wonders they had seen : " When we stood in the temple, we did not know where we were, for there is nothing else like it upon earth; there in truth God has his dwelling with men ; and we can never forget the beauty we saw there. No one who has once tasted sweets will afterward take that which is bitter; nor can we any longer abide in heathenism." Then said some of his boyars or nobles to Vladimir, " If the religion of the Greeks had not been good, your grandmother Olga would 156 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS not have embraced it." This seems to have been the turning-point with Vladimir, and he then and there determined to be baptized. Nevertheless, he was a shrewd ruler, and saw the pos- sibilities of political capital in this change of religion. He besieged and took the city of Cherson, on the borders of the empire, as then circumscribed in its domains, and then sent to Constantinople, demanding the hand of Anne, the sister of the emperor, as the double price of his con- version and peace. With some difficulty Anne was per- suaded that it was her duty to become his bride, and Vladimir was accordingly baptized at Cherson. With the zeal that frequently has characterized royal converts, he determined that all his people should follow his example. Many of them hesitated, and he adopted two expedients to persuade them. The first was an ocular demonstration of the impotence of their heathen divini- ties. The huge wooden idol Peroun, hitherto the most sacred object in the nation, was dragged over the hills at a horse's tail, and scourged as it went by twelve mounted horsemen, finally being thrown into the Dnieper. The people were at first smitten with horror, and many of them followed the idol as it floated down the stream, but when they saw it helplessly carried along and finally swallowed up in the rapids, they returned fully convinced that this great god was a cheat. Then Vladimir pro- claimed his will: "Whoever on the morrow shall not repair to the river, whether rich or poor, I shall hold him for my enemy." Accordingly the whole people of Kiew, not only men but their wives and children also, flocked to the river. " Some stood in the water up to their necks, others up to their breasts, holding their young children in their arms; the priests read the prayers from the shore, naming at once whole companies by the same name. It was a sight wonderfully curious and beautiful to see, and VLADIMIR 157 when the whole people were baptized each one returned to his own house." Vladimir, says Nestor, from whom we have this entire account, was transported at the sight and cried out, " O great God, who hast made heaven and earth, look down upon these thy new people. Grant them, O Lord, to know thee, the true God, as thou hast been known to Christian lands, and confirm in them a true and unfailing faith; and assist me, O Lord, against my enemy that opposes me that, trusting in thee and thy power, I may overcome all his wiles." Kiew became the Canterbury of this new Christian kingdom. On the very spot where the temple of Peroun had stood Vladimir erected the church of St. Basil, and Michael, the first metropolitan, had his See here. But Vladimir himself is rightly held by the Russian people to have been the chief instrument in their conversion, and he is to this day their national hero and saint. He de- serves even the latter title better than most who have worn it. He was a genuine Christian according to his lights, greatly improved in personal character, and most anxious that his people should be fully instructed in t^e religion they had thus adopted. In the founding of churches, the support of missionaries to every part of his realm, the establishment of schools, he was indefatigible. From his day we may reckon Russia a Christian nation. The suddenness of this conversion, almost literally " a nation in a day," has puzzled many writers. Some have endeavored to escape the difficulty by skepticism regard- ing the facts as Nestor relates them. This is, however, too simple a solution to be really satisfactory. Nestor is not a critical historian, to be sure; he possibly Invents details, and at any rate adopts without question whatever is pleasing and edifying; and yet there is good reason to accept as substantially correct his account of the con- version of Vladimir and his people. Many obviously un- 158 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS designed details in the narrative support the main events. It is evident that the way had been prepared for such a wholesale and speedy conversion of the people by several things. There was a weakening of confidence in the gods that had been previously worshiped. The very fact of the sending of embassies to learn about the different relig- ions indicates a wavering of conviction, as well as an anx- iety to know the truth in a better form than it had before been taught them. The effect of a gorgeous ceremonial in turning the scale is another undesigned corroborative touch in the narra- tive. From the beginning to this day, the Russians have been especially attached to ceremony, and the detail of the Russian liturgy is said to be beyond that even of the Roman in pomp and splendor, in rich and highly colored vestments, in the use of incense and other sensuous acces- sories. And, as we have already noted, the fact that the Greek missionaries who came at Vladimir's invitation had already at hand the offices of the church in a liturgy that the Russians could understand and a version of the Scriptures that they could read, was a circumstance of inestimable weight in promoting the speedy evangeliza- tion of this people. With this conversion of Vladimir and the establishment of the Greek Church in Russia, the last great medieval missionary movement comes to its close. It is too soon yet to estimate accurately its importance. We only know that the Slav race seems now to have a great future open- ing. Slavs are no unimportant element in the German and Austrian empires, but they are the dominant race of Russia, and they hold the peace of Europe in their hands in Bulgaria and Roumania. In all there are at least one hundred million of them, as against seventy million Ger- mans and eighty million of the Latin races. As individ- uals and as a race they are slow of development, but of VLADIMIR 159 great force, and indomitable in their dogged persistence. Lacking the brilHant quahties of the Latin races, espe- cially of the French, less given to intellectual pursuits than the Germans, wanting in that restless enterprise that the English have inherited from their piratical ancestors which has made them the colonizing nation of the world pbove all others, the Russians have certain solid qualities with which the world must reckon. With unresting perseverance they have pushed out into every unoccu- pied part of Asia, and till lately have taken the first place there in diplomacy and in the arts of peace. In spite of her recent disasters, it may well be that the greatness of Russia is only beginning, or if there should come a revolu- tion that should split the present vast, unwieldy Russian empire into a number of smaller States, the Russian race has in that case perhaps an even greater future before it than we can now reasonably forecast. And the progress of the Russian race means first of all the extension of that form of Christianity that was professed by Vladi- mir, into which the throngs at Kiew were baptized on that memorable day. IX RAIMUND LULL: THE DARK AGE OF MISSIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY Our chief source is the writings of Lull, of which one biog- rapher says there are over four thousand, but only about three hundred of these are now known to exist. They are in three languages: Latin, Catalonian, and Arabic. A collection of the more important has been edited by Salzinger, nominally in ten volumes, but two of these were never published (Mainz, 1721- 42). The Ars Magna was first printed in 1647, and has several times been republished. Valuable original documents are also contained in the Acta Sanctorum, Vol. XXVII, pp. 581-676. A number of biographies were written between 15 19 and 1788, but as they are practically inaccessible, they need not be mentioned here. Two lives of Lull in English have lately appeared and are very useful: one by Zwemer (New York, 1902), the other by Barber (London, 1905). In addition, see Encyclopedia Britan- nica, art. "Lully"; Neander, Vol. IV, pp. 61-71, 190-192, 307- 311, 435-440, 481-485; Maclear, History of Christian Missions in the Middle Ages, pp. 354-368; Delecluze, in Revue des Deux Mondes, 1840. IX RAIMUND lull: THE DARK AGE OF MISSIONS BRILLIANTLY successful the policy of the Great Gregory had proved to be. Through the labors of Augustine, Boniface, and Ansgar, and a myriad of other missionaries of like spirit and aims, the Church of Rome had extended her power throughout Europe. This work was practically accomplished by the close of the ninth century, and thenceforth the Roman bishops thought no more of missionary conquests, but gave themselves up to dreams of worldly dominion. An opportunity was furnished them in the same century that saw their mis- sionary enterprise completed. At the close of the pre- ceding century the gift of Pippin, confirmed by his son, Charlemagne, had bestowed on the pope the more than doubtful blessing of temporal power and placed him among the princes of Europe. Henceforth, popes were no longer content with spiritual rule; they desired to extend their temporal possessions as ardently as any secular prince and, under the pretext of exercising spir- itual authority, to rule the kings of the earth as the em- perors had ruled their subject princes. The breaking up of the vast empire founded by Charlemagne, as his sceptre slipped from the weak hands of his successors, opened the way for the gratification of this ambition. With this division of the new empire of the West begins the modern system of Europe, but the beginnings were feeble and the confusion was great and prolonged. Here was the opportunity for papal aggrandizement, and the most was made of it. It is true there were weak 163 164 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS popes, as well as weak princes, but the papacy enjoyed this great advantage in such a contest : it had an unchang- ing policy and great conservative, as well as marvelous recuperative powers. What a strong pope had managed to grasp even a weak pope was usually able to retain, and if there was at any time an apparent loss of privi- lege or possession, before the victor had time to congratu- late himself the loss was more than made good. Nothing is more instructive than the steady advance of the papacy against all opposition, in spite of frequent defeats that would have been fatal to any other human institution. It illustrates the power of any body of men who are devoted to a principle, who are compactly organized, who know just what they are determined to have and are not too scrupulous about the means of getting it. For this great and rapid advance of the papal power, the forged decretals of the pseudo Isidore furnished the dogmatic and historical background. Here were weapons fitted to hand for popes to defend the wildest claims to supremacy that they might think it prudent to put forth. And it proved that there was a succession of occupants of the papal chair who were willing to use these weapons without inquiring too curiously whence they came. Nicholas I, when he affirmed categorically that the orig- inal documents of these decretals were in the Vatican collections, may have been deceived by some librarian or secretary, relying on the assurance of his assistant with- out taking the trouble to verify it. But even in that case, the most charitable hypothesis possible, it is indubitable that he was very willing to be deceived, and that if no secretary lied to him he was quite capable of telling the lie on his own account. From his day onward the lie was solemnly repeated and unquestionably received, until not Holy Scripture itself was appealed to more frequently or with greater confidence than these decretals. RAIMUND LULL 165 This position established, the time was ripe for Hilde- brand, with his theory of a universal spiritual dominion; and as the spirit takes precedence over the body, so the church has an authority above that of any or all earthly potentates. The pope is absolute sovereign and suzerain, the vicegerent of God. From him, as God's representa- tive, all kings receive their crowns and authority, and by him this authority may be taken from them if they resist the vicar of God. Though Hildebrand died in exile and apparent failure, his theory of the papacy did not die, but was professed and practised by his successors, until Innocent III succeeded in making an all but perfect ap- plication of it to his age. He made and, unmade em- perors and kings; until England was chagrined and the rest of the world greatly edified by seeing the monarch of the third power of Europe humbly lay his crown at the feet of the pope and do homage to him as his supe- rior, to receive his crown back as the pope's vassal, an an- nual tribute being stipulated as proof that his vassalage was not merely nominal. After this triumph, the inso- lence of Innocent knew no bounds. He blasphemously applied to himself the words of our Lord, *'A11 power is given unto me in heaven and on earth," and not only claimed but exercised supreme power in Europe. The world has long enough exclaimed at the egotism of the king who declared, " I am the State " ; here was a pope who declared, " I am the world," and believed it. One power only seemed to threaten the permanence of the empire that the popes had thus built up. Nearly six centuries before the time of Innocent, a religious enthu- siast in Arabia had begun to preach a new way of salva- tion. He was despised and persecuted by his towns- people, who refused to see in this camel-driver a prophet of God. Even his own family and kinsmen did not be- lieve in his mission, and finally he was driven to seek l66 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS safety in flight, narrowly escaping with his hfe. In the neighboring city of Medina he set up a theocratic govern- ment, of which he was prophet, lawgiver, judge, and general. His power gradually extended over Arabia, his native city surrendered to him, and Mecca became the religious capital of the new religion of Mohammed. He died having accomplished for his faith what the apostles had done for Christianity, plus Constantine. Who would have believed, even after Mohammed was fairly established at Medina, that he was founding one of the great world religions and one of the great world empires? Yet such proved to be the case. His suc- cessors, with the Koran in one hand and the sword in the other, swept like a prairie fire over Syria and Asia Minor, over Egypt and Africa, in little more than a cen- tury conquering as large a part of the earth's surface as Rome became mistress of in five hundred years. At first Europe was rather enraged than alarmed by these conquests. Even when the Saracens wrested from the Eastern empire all its Asiatic possessions and con- fined to the limits of a petty principality those who proudly called themselves emperors and claimed succes- sion from the Caesars — even then Europe was not really frightened. What could this horde of barbarians effect against them? But angry, filled with what was supposed to be religious zeal, Europe certainly was. These infidels had taken the Holy Land, they held possession of the Holy City, they were the custodians of the Holy Sepul- cher. Such defilement was not to be suffered; these holy places must be retaken and put under Christian guardianship. And inspired by this idea, Europe began a holy war that endured nearly two centuries. The preaching of a mad hermit had less to do with this enter- prise known as the Crusades than has been commonly supposed. Far-sighted and astute popes, partly influ- RAIMUND LULL 167 enced by religious feeling, but not unmindful of inciden- tal advantages resulting to the papacy, aroused and carefully fostered the crusading spirit. And at first the enterprise seemed likely to succeed. Jerusalem was taken and a Christian kingdom was set up there. If the Christian leaders could have been united in counsel possibly the Crusades might have been per- manently successful, and the history of Europe might have been changed. As it was, the struggle continued with varying fortunes for six generations, and it resulted in the complete regaining of their conquests by the Sara- cens. It had become apparent by the close of the thir- teenth century, not only, that the Mohammedans could not be driven out of the Holy Land, but that it would be fortunate if they were kept out of Europe. For while the Saracens might never have become a serious menace, the Ottoman Turks were just founding their empire and beginning those conquests that placed their sultan on the throne of the Csesars, where their degenerate successor still reigns in the city of Constantine. Nevertheless, though the Crusades did not succeed, they were not a failure. This is not mere paradox. They achieved something of far more worth to Europe than the object that they proposed to themselves. They kept back for several centuries the advancing wave of Moham- medan conquest, and gave Europe a breathing spell in which to gather strength to repel the next grand advance, and thus they saved Christian civilization, though they lost the Holy Sepulcher. They hastened the breaking up of the feudal system, which had outlived its usefulness and become a barrier to human progress. If they seemed for a time to strengthen the papacy, they really prepared the way for its downfall. By bringing the men of Europe into contact with the East, by enlarging their horizon, in- troducing them to a new civilization, accustoming them t68 christian epoch-makers to new comforts and luxuries, stimulating commerce, promoting the study of new sciences and giving addi- tional zest to the old learning, the Crusades set in motion an intellectual movement that, as it gathered strength and momentum, came to be called the Renaissance, the new birth of Europe out of the ignorance and stagnation of the Dark Ages. And men's minds having been thus aroused, inquiry having once begun, it was found impos- sible for the church to set bounds to free thought, and in due course the Reformation followed. The thirteenth century was a transition period between the old and the new, and just before the middle of it a boy was growing up in southern Europe who, as a man, was to win fame as one of the great scholastics, who deserves even greater fame as the originator of another crusade, with different weapons, to achieve what the first had failed to accomplish — the staying of the Mo- hammedan power. It was at Palma, the capital of the isle of Marjorca, that Raimund Lull was born in 1236. His biographers claim for him noble extraction; certain it is that he was of a family connected with the court, and he himself became a court official. It was a wonderful age upon which his unfolding mind looRed out, and wonderful things his eyes were to see ere death closed them. His life began in the pon- tificate of Gregory IX, perhaps the ablest and strongest of the successors of Innocent III. There was as yet no apparent diminution in the papal power ; on the contrary, it seemed to increase rather than diminish. The Hohen- staufen had nearly succumbed in the long struggle with the popes ; a few years more would see the power of the German emperors broken and the center of political in- fluence transferred to France. The barons of England had not long before risen against King John and wrested Magna Charta from him. Hungary had compelled the RAIMUND LULL 1 69 unwilling emperor to concede her a charter that made her an independent monarchy in fact, though still a nominal part of the empire. The free cities were rising into wealth, populousness, military strength, and even political power all over Europe. It was the age of the great universities : the schools of Paris, Oxford, Cam- bridge, Padua and half a dozen less celebrated, were established in the first half of this century. Thomas Aquinas was this boy's senior by nine years; Dante was his junior and survived him seven years. The closing year of this century witnessed the great jubilee of Pope Boniface VIII, when a plenary indulgence was promised to every pilgrim to the Holy City. Thousands came to Rome with their gifts, and then, it is said, the priests might be seen after service gathering the gold and silver and jewels from the altars with rakes. Yet this boy lived to see this same pope driven from Rome, taken captive by the king of France and released only to die of shame and grief, while his successors became the mere puppets of France. So great a fall from how great a height! Little heed, however, did the boy give to these political and social changes, even when he had grown to man- hood. Other thoughts filled his mind and absorbed his life. For the first thirty years he was little different from other men of his time. He loved pleasure, and being handsome, a favorite at court, and having a suffi- cient fortune, he found it not difficult to gratify his taste. He married and children were born to him, but this made little difference in his character. He was still a seeker of pleasure, even of that which is forbidden. In that day any man of spirit was compelled by social opinion to maintain a reputation for gallantry, and the breach of the seventh commandment was more honored than its ob- servance. Lull was not behind other men of his time and society, and what they were we may gather suffi- 170 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS ciently from the tales of Boccaccio, who wrote less than a century later. In intrigues then considered highly hon- orable, but which would now cover any man with dis- grace, in writing erotic verses, and in the pursuits of a courtier Lull passed his days until nearly half his three- score and ten years were spent. His conversion occurred quite suddenly. He was writing one of his amatory poems when a vision of Christ on the cross flashed before his mind, and he could think of nothing else. He laid the verses aside, and when later he took them up and attempted to write the same thing happened again. This time the vision was an abiding one ; it haunted him day and night, and he found no peace until he resolved to devote himself wholly to Christ's service. His chief cause of hesitation was his recollec- tion of his previous life; how could one so impure as he enter on so holy a calling? At length he said to himself, " Christ is so gentle, so patient, so compassionate ; he invites all sinners to himself; therefore he will not reject me, notwithstanding all my sins." Henceforth there was no hesitation. The surrender was absolute, the con- secration complete. He made a covenant with God : " To thee, O Lord God, I offer myself, my wife, my children, and all that I possess. May it please thee, who didst so humble thyself to the death of the cross, to condescend to accept all that I give and offer to thee, that I, my wife, and my children may be thy lowly servants." Throughout the rest of his long life Lull never wavered from this determination. Though he was born and bred and lived in the Roman Catholic Church, was faithful to his religious duties as the Church prescribed them, and never dreamed of questioning her dogmas, his spirit was not that of a Romanist. His religion was not one of works, but of faith; not a life of ritual, but of fellow- ship through the spirit with his Lord. As to this, we RAIMUND LULL 171 have not only unanimous testimony from his biogra- phers, but his own remarkable work " On the Contempla- tion of God," by far the most spiritual book of the age, and one that deserves to be placed beside the " Confes- sions " of Augustine and the " Imitation of Christ." There was no practice of medieval times more in vogue among the people and more favored by the church than the making of pilgrimages. This is what Lull says of: them: Why are multitudes so ignorant as to travel away into distant lands to seek thee, carrying evil spirits with them, if they de- part laden with sin? The pilgrims are so deceived by false men, whom they meet in taverns and churches, that many of them, when they return home, show themselves to be far worse than they were when they set out on their pilgrimage. He would find thee, O Lord; let him go forth to seek thee in love, loyalty, devotion, faith, hope, justice, mercy, truth; for in every place where these are, there art thou. Blessed then are all they who seek thee in such things. The things that a man would find he should seek earnestly, and he must seek in the place where they may be found. If then the pilgrims would find thee, they must carefully seek thee; and they must not seek thee in the images and paintings of churches, but in the hearts of holy men, in which thou dwellest day and night. The mode and the way to find thee stands within the power of man, for to remember thee, to love thee, to honor, to serve thee; to think of thine exalted dignity and of our own great wants — this is the occasion and the way to find thee if we seek thee. Often have I sought thee on the cross, and my bodily eyes have not been able to find thee, although they have found thine image there and a representation of thy death. And when I could not find thee with my bodily eyes, I have sought thee with the eye of my soul, and thinking on thee, my soul found thee; and when it found thee, my heart began immediately to warm with the glow of love, my eyes to weep, my mouth to praise thee. How little profits it the pilgrims to roam the world in quest of thee, if when they have come back from their pilgrimage, they return again to sin and folly. It was impossible that a man who so fully understood the religion of Christ should content himself with any- 172 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS thing less than preaching that reHgion to others. Almost simultaneously with his conversion the missionary call came to Lull, and he conceived the project of becoming a preacher of the truth. But where? He was a man of his age, and his age was the age of Crusades. The hope was not yet abandoned, though it was becoming faint, of recovering the Holy Sepulcher from the infidels, and even of completely shattering the Mohammedan power. Lull recognized the danger of a Mohammedan advance into Europe better perhaps than most of his contempora- ries; he was as alive as any of them to the shame of having the holy places of the Christian faith in the pos- session of those who rejected Jesus Christ as the Son of God. He too began to preach a crusade, but one in- spired by love rather than hate, one to be carried on with weapons of the Spirit rather than sword and lance. He says: I see many knights going to the Holy Land, in the expectation of conquering it by force of arms, but instead of accomplishing their object, they are in the end all swept off themselves. There- fore it is my belief that the conquest of the Holy Land should be attempted in no other way than as thou and thine apostles undertook to accomplish it — by love, by prayer, by tears, and the offering up of our own lives. As it seems that the possession of the Holy Sepulcher and the Holy Land can be better secured by the force of preaching than by the force of arms, therefore let the monks march forth, as holy knights, glittering with the sign of the cross, replenished with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and proclaim to the infidels the truth of thy passion; let them from love to thee exhaust the whole fountain of their eyes, and pour out all the blood of their bodies, as thou hast done from love to them ! Many are the knights and noble princes that have gone to the promised land with a view to conquer it; but if this mode had been pleasing to thee, O Lord, they would assuredly have wrested it from the Saracens who possess it against thy will. . . But since that ardor of devotion which glowed in apostles and holy men of old no longer inspires us, love and devotion through almost the whole world have grown cold. RAIMUND LULL 1 73 Therefore do Christians expend their efforts far more in the outward than in the spiritual conflict. Lull was conscious of his lack of preparation for the work to which he felt himself called. His education had been as slight as that of most men of the world in his age ; it included little beyond reading and writing, which, of course, means the reading and writing of Latin. No- body was yet bold enough to write books in the vernacu- lar, though Dante was soon to do so. Purchasing a Sara- cen slave, Lull began to learn Arabic, and at the same time to meditate on the great problems of philosophy and theology. His mind was the most original, bold, and subtle of his century. Less gifted in the merely organiz- ing faculty than Thomas Aquinas, he far excelled that famous theologian in the daring with which he grappled with great questions and the confidence with which he proposed solutions of them. He was not fitted to become a systematic theologian perhaps, but he might have founded a school of research by the modern inductive method, in which he nearly became the anticipator of Bacon. The chief fruits of his studies were his ''Ars Major/' or " Generalis," which professed to be the outlines of a uni- versal formal science, and a treatise " On the Discovery of Truth." Other works indeed he wrote, but his sys- tem is fully contained in these two. The second in chronology takes logical precedence, since it has for its object the vindication of thought, the establishment of the reality of knowledge. The accepted opinion of his age was that there is a necessary (or, at any rate, a real) opposition between faith and knowledge; that many of the truths of revealed religion are contrary to reason and must be accepted by an act of faith. This seems to have been at bottom the opinion even of Thomas Aquinas, who insisted that we must receive the dogmas of the 174 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS church by an act of faith independent of the reason, and that the office of reason is to explain and interpret that which the church assures us to be the truth. God was to Lull not more an object of faith than of knowledge; and knowledge and faith harmonize, not because one is subject to the other, but because both are acts of one mind. Therefore the higher the mind rises in knowledge, the richer the soul becomes in faith. It is this conviction that underlies the " Ars Major." His fundamental postulate is the reasonable and demon- strable character of the Christian religion, and to make this clear is the object of the treatise. Though it was reckoned one of the great philosophical treatises of the age, and gained for its author a high place among the scholastic philosophers, it was in aim what we should now call a work of apologetics. What he undertook in his great art was to establish a method of investigation, and his method, in spite of much that is merely formal and scholastic, and even fantastic, was in its essence an anticipation of the modern scientific method of inductive investigation. With great elaboration he worked out a system of tabulating and integrating all the different propositions that may be made about an object of thought — precisely the same idea applied to thought that Bacon taught us to apply to things. And after he had com- pleted his works he devoted himself for many years to their exposition at the universities of Paris, Montpellier, and elsewhere, establishing his fame as one of the great philosophers of the thirteenth century. But Lull's object, let us remember, was not to gain fame as a philosopher, but to spread the missionary spirit. He was teaching a way to demonstrate the truth of the Christian religion, that others might be moved to join him in the attempt to convert the Saracens by proving their religion false and Christianity necessarily true. He also RAIMUND LULL I75 sought to induce popes and princes to found chairs of Oriental languages, in connection with the universities, for the education of future missionaries. In this he was to some extent successful, and to his influence was due the beginning of an interest in Oriental studies that was never again wholly lost in Europe. Another plan of his was to found a new order of knights for the conquest of the Holy Sepulcher, knights of the cross indeed, who should go forth with no weapon but the sword of the Spirit, no armor but the truth, and make a peaceful con- quest where a conquest by mailed warriors had proved to be impossible. This seemed a mad scheme to his age, and he could inspire nobody with his faith and zeal. To the end Lull continued to be only the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Even the example of his fear- less devotion failed to move an age that was wrapped up in things alien to the preaching of the gospel to infidels. After one temporary sinking of heart and recoiling from the dangers of his course. Lull embarked in 1292 for Tunis and began a mission among the Mohammedans. He gave out that he was willing to discuss with the learned men the tenets of their religion and to embrace their religion if he found the grounds of its doctrines stronger than those for Christianity. Zealous Moham- medan teachers accepted the invitation, and he held high debate with them for some time. They set forth their teachings in the strongest light, and he on his part en- deavored to prove to them that these were inferior to Christian doctrines. This was his line of argument: A wise man will acknowledge that to be the true religion which attributes the greatest perfection to God, gives the most befitting conception of each single divine attribute, and most fully demonstrates the equality and harmony subsisting among them all. Without the doctrine of the Trinity we cannot understand the perfection of God and 176 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS the harmony between his attributes. For if there be no distinctions of persons in the Godhead, the divine per- fections must be made to depend on a creation, which had a beginning in time. The goodness and inteUigence of God cannot be conceived of as inactive; but if there is no Trinity, then these attributes must have been inac- tive until creation — consequently God was not perfect until he made the world. Again, to the essence of good-j ness belongs self -communication; but this, as a perfect exercise of goodness, can be conceived of only as an eternal act; and this requires the distinction of persons in the Godhead. Christianity is the only religion that is fully conformable to reason. What success he might have had in his mission it is impossible to say, for it was cut short in a summary fashion. The king was informed of what was going on, and the ferment that was caused in the city by these de- bates, and Lull was thrown into prison. Only a belief that he must be of unsound mind — who else but a lunatic would have attempted such a thing? was doubtless the reasoning — saved his life. He was sent back to Genoa with a warning that death would be the penalty of return. A second mission to Bugia, then the capital of the Mo- hammedan empire in north Africa, in 1307, had an almost precisely parallel history. A third visit in 131 5 resulted in his death. He was fallen upon by a Saracen mob, dragged outside the city and stoned, being left for dead under the heap of stones hurled at him. Some Christian merchants obtained permission to take his body for burial, and to their surprise they found signs of life in it. Lull revived for a few days, but died on shipboard before he could reach his native land. Raimund Lull is known to the world at large as a master of those ingenious subtleties that have brought a not undeserved reproach on the name scholastic. To a RAIMUND LULL I77 few curious students he is known as the inventor of the mariner's compass, and the student of chemistry — or, as it was called in his days, alchemy. To a few only does his name suggest the Christian missionary, remarkable above all other men in the history of missions for the largeness of his plans and the originality of his methods, the inferior of none in saintly character and unquenchable zeal. It is easy to decry his method — to pronounce it, as certain smart critics have said, a means of enabling us to talk without judgment of things we do not know. It is easy to declare his mission a failure, impracticable in its aim, unwise in its prosecution. If he had been sus- tained by the Christians of his day, as later missionaries were sustained; if his appeal for a gospel crusade had met the response that was given to Urban's preaching of a crusade with the sword, who can say what the result would have been on the history of Christianity and of the world? Only those who believe that the gospel of Christ is not the power of God unto the salvation of all men, are entitled to question either the wisdom or the sufficiency of the missionary methods that Raimund Lull advocated, for the assertion of which he was ready to give his life. And only those who deny that God rules the world and that his truth is ultimately to prevail in it, may say that such a life was needlessly sacrificed or reck- lessly thrown away. While there remains among men faith in the teachings of Christ, this apostle of heavenly love in an age of violence and faithlessness will be held in honor. While deeds of heroism have power to thrill men's hearts, they will read with moist eyes the story of this life and death, and be inspired to like devotion. For we have the assurance of One whose word never fails, that he who thus loses his life shall find it. M X FRANCIS OF ASSISI: THE MISSIONS OF THE GRAY FRIARS BIBLIOGRAPHY The best biography of Francis is that of Sabatier (Paris, 1894; English translation by Mrs. Houghton, New York, same year). The appendix contains a critical study of the sources, of which only a few are easily accessible : Salter, The Legend of St. Francis, by the Three Companions (London, 1904) ; the Life by Thomas of Celano, ed. H. G. Rosedale (London, 1904) ; and that by Bonaventura, translated by Lockhart (London, 1868), to which should be added Evans, The Mirror of Perfection (London, 1901), and the Fiorette or Little Flowers of St. Francis, trans- lated by T. W. Arnold (Temple Classics). A volume of miscel- laneous early documents, ed. H. Boehmer, has been published under the title, Analekta zur Geschichte des Franciscus von Assisi (Tiibingen, 1904). Very interesting, though hardly a " source," is the allegory. The Lady Poverty, lately translated by Montgomery Carmichael (New York, 1903). Other available biographies are: Le Monnier, A Franciscan Tertiary (English translation, London, 1894), excellent from the Roman Catholic point of view and critical ; Knox-Little, an English High Churchman (New York, 1897) ; Mrs. Oliphant (London, 1877), the latter readable, but not critical. Francis and Dominic are made the subjects of a comparative study by Herkless in a vol- ume of the "World's Epoch-Makers" (New York, 1901). An excellent history of the Franciscans is that of Hiittebrauker, Der Minoritcnordcn sur Zeit des grossen Schisma (Berlin, 1893), but the great authority is Wadding, Annales Minorum Sive Trium Ordinum a S. Francesco Institutorum, with continua- tion by I. de Luce (twenty- four vols., Naples, 1731-1869), though there is a fair popular work in English by a Roman Catholic, Mogliano, Francis and the Franciscans (New York, 1867). An excellent essay on Francis may be found in Stephens' Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography, pp. 58-99 (London, 1891), and Trench is well worth reading, Lectures on Medieval Church History, Lect. No. 8. On the Franciscan Mission in England, see Jessopp, The Coming of the Friars (New York, 1889). FRANCIS OF ASSISi: THE MISSIONS OF THE GRAY FRIARS W 'ITH the beginning of the thirteenth century a great change took place in the condition and fortunes of the Roman Church in Europe. The pontificate of Innocent III was marked by many brilHant achievements, and measured by what he actually accomplished he may well be pronounced the greatest in the long line of great popes. One other man shares with him the honor of this rehabilitation of the church, Francis of Assisi. The story of Francis has often been told, and little now remains to be added to our knowledge of the facts ; nevertheless, the story has never, in all respects, been fit- tingly told. The most scholarly of his biographers does not show the insight to be desired into some phases of the career of Francis. He was of Italian parentage, with probably a dash of Provengal blood in his veins, and he was early taught the French language, for which he always retained a great liking. This blending of nationali- ties in his blood and breeding accounts for much in his personality. Gaiety is a characteristic of both races from which he drew his life, but in the Italian gaiety is mixed with somberness. From his Provengal strain came to Francis that knightly, chivalrous spirit which was his great characteristic, and also his love of romance, of poetry, of flowers and anim.als, that his contemporaries often beheld in him, and frequently to their amazement. We need not linger over the details of the wild and wasted youth, the critical illness, the conversion, self- abnegation, choice of poverty, troubles with his family i8i l82 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS before his vocation could be acknowledged. These facts are given with more than necessary fulness in every biography ; all that the well-meaning writers have missed is their significance. This is because they have viewed these facts in the light of subsequent events, or have read into them a meaning that is at once impossible and absurd. The conversion of Francis was a moral change of the purely evangelical type, strange as such an experience seems in the Roman Church of the Middle Ages. He saw himself a sinner; he turned to Christ for pardon and cleansing, and the Holy Spirit wrought in him that miracle of grace, regeneration. No priest, no sacrament, no saint, came between him and his Saviour. Thence- forward the one absorbing purpose of his life, to his latest breath, was to follow, to obey, to imitate the Christ. His devotion often passed the bounds of ordi- nary sane reason and became enthusiasm, but it was simple enthusiasm, without theological vagary. It was a life of the spirit upon which Francis entered after his conversion, not a religion of forms. It was the immediate grace of Christ that he had experienced, nor did he ever feel the need of any other intermediary between himself and God. No saint was permitted to usurp in his heart the throne sacred to the Son of God. " Jesus," not *' Mary," was the name ever on his lips in prayer. He knew whom he had believed. Nothing is more striking than his unlikeness in all this to the Roman Catholic faith and practice of his time. But it is quite as characteristic of him that he was perfectly unconscious of this unlikeness. He was at no time given to introspec- tion, or to comparison of himself with others. In the recesses of his soul he was the arch-heretic of his age, and he suspected it as little as did his contemporaries. For there could have been and there can be no more FRANCIS OF ASSISI 183 absolute heresy in the Roman Church than these simple ideas of Francis. To reject the whole practice of saintly intercession, to dethrone the Mother of God, to look for grace to Christ himself and not to expect it through sacra- ments dispensed by the priest — this is to strike the deadliest of all blows against the whole Roman system. Francis was no theologian. He never put his beliefs into words, and that was what saved him from all sus- picion of heresy. Forms sat easily upon him, and he did without question or misgiving what he saw others do. He accepted the doctrine of transubstantiation because the church taught it. He believed that he believed everything taught by the church, when in fact it is plain that he believed little of it. His character was of the simplest, and he had as little wish to deceive others as suspicion that he had deceived himself. His poetic, romantic nature made him a creature of imagination all compact, and all his beliefs, as well as his spiritual experiences, were to him so vivid as to have the potency, the convincing force of most men's intuitions. It is this quality in him that explains his choice of poverty. He accepted the teaching of the great doctors of the church that Jesus had commanded his followers to go forth without two coats, with neither purse nor scrip— not some followers for a limited time, but all fol- lowers for all time. Others regarded this as a counsel of perfection, that all Christians should admire and none obey; not so he. If this was a command of Christ, and his trusted teachers said it was, nothing was left him but obedience — and he obeyed without question, not reluc- tantly, but with joy. Poverty was to him no bond, but liberty; he renounced that he might more truly possess. In this he had learned the secret of Christ. Francis did not choose poverty merely or chiefly as a social expedient, as certain of his biographers have main- 184 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS tained. He may have discerned the fact that he would thus break down a barrier between himself and the people, but he entered on the life of poverty as a duty. Nor was he moved by any love of squalor and dirt, for these are never inseparable from poverty, and he at least separated them, for he saw no connection between filth and godli- ness. Poverty meant to him merely refusal to accumu- late property. A Christian should be satisfied with the daily supply of his daily wants; this he had a right to expect, but to wish more was to distrust the providence of a good God. Nor was it as a cloak for idleness that he adopted poverty for himself and enjoined it on others. On the contrary, it was both his theory and his practice to gain his daily bread and needed clothing by labor. In return for the products of labor one might accept food and clothing, but never money; and any surplus beyond the actual wants of the day must be distributed at once among the needy. P>ancis himself learned the trade of wood-carver, and practised it with diligence and success. Mendicancy was permitted, but not as a calling. When for any reason he or his followers failed to satisfy their simple needs by the product of their labor — or if, as often happened, they had given away their all to those still more needy — it was permitted to ask alms of other Christians. The sturdy beggars who in after years be- came to Europe as a plague of locusts, and made the gray friar's robe a thing hated by rich and poor alike, were as unworthy of the name of Francis as of that greater Name that they profaned. With such fundamental ideas as these Francis began his work, his sole purpose being to live the Christian life. He had no plan to gather a company, and when the fas- cination of his character and the devotion of his life drew to him a few kindred souls, he still had no thought of founding an order. As conditions of companionship, he FRANCIS OF ASSISI 185 required only that these friends should take the same vow of poverty that he had taken — before God, not to any priest or prelate, its only sanction the sacredness of conscience. This vow was irrevocable only in case a dis- ciple and companion had the same inflexible determina- tion that he himself possessed, to serve God in this way to the end. One who had mistaken his vocation was, after due trial, not only permitted but encouraged by Francis to return to his former life. And if there was no idea of an order in these early years, still less trace can we find of the monastic life. Francis was, in truth, fundamentally and hopelessly at variance with the spirit of monachism. The monastic ideal is personal holiness, its aim the salvation of one's own soul, its method with- drawal from the world ; the ideal of Francis was the sal- vation of others — his own soul he could trust to his Sa- viour — and his method was to seek and save the lost. The monastic spirit is essentially antichristian, because essen- tially selfish; the spirit of Francis was the spirit of his Master — missionary. The first labors of Francis appear to have been exclu- sively what are called works of charity, ministration to the bodily wants of others. The beautiful stories of his childlike forgetfulness of self in the desire to serve others, of his simple and unconscious devotion, are very touching and doubtless in the main true. They illustrate his character perfectly. They explain the otherwise in- explicable hold that he never failed to obtain and retain on any who came to know him intimately. It was not very long before he began to teach as well as to minister, not so much through any plan of his own as in obedience to an imperative necessity. One so full of the love of Christ could not but speak ; one who had so deep an experience of God's grace, to whom spiritual things were so vivid realities, could not have kept silence about them if he had l86 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS tried. He did not preach formal sermons, but he spoke to men as they would listen, and always of the love of God, of Christ as a Saviour, of his own redemption through grace. He spoke of what he knew, because he had experienced it. Such teaching carries conviction, and he made converts, some of whom desired to become his companions and coworkers. Gradually a little community grew up around him. The chief obstacle to this work of Francis was the church. The clergy were jealous of this layman's suc- cess. Almost in the beginning the bishop of Assisi is said to have remonstrated with Francis : " I find your life very hard; is it not going a little too far thus to re- nounce all possessions ? " But Francis would not yield a jot. He said : " If we had possessions, we should want arms to defend them; for this world's goods are always occasions of disputes and lawsuits, and they lead to vio- lence and war. They are the ruin of all love to God and to our neighbor, and that is why we will not have posses- sions in this world." The feudal society about them was a sufficient Commentary on these words. Besides, the bishop was not quite prepared to take the ground that obedience to a command of Christ was really dangerous. Still, Francis was made to feel that he was under sus- picion, that he was opposed by the church, in constant danger of being prohibited from continuing his work. It would speedily be necessary for him either to abandon his vocation, or to become a schismatic, unless he should secure protection from the head of the church. Of abandoning his work he never dreamed; from schism he shrank as from deadly sin ; there was nothing to do but appeal to the pope. The papacy had learned from the case of Waldo the necessity of treating enthusiasts with tact and discretion. Because Waldo, under almost precisely similar circum- FRANCIS OF ASSISI 187 Stances, had been refused a like request, the church had been forced to deal with the most dangerous heretical sect it had ever known. While an enthusiast is always dangerous to a great religious organization, he is less dangerous inside than outside. Inside his energy may be directed into safe channels, he may be encysted; outside he is capable of incalculable harm. Innocent III was too wise a pontiff to reject the plea of Francis, who refused to enter any of the established orders, and continued to prefer his request with that mixture of humility and inflexible purpose that is always invincible. *' Go," the pope is reported at last to have said ; " go with God's blessing, and preach penitence to all, in the way that he is pleased to inspire you. And when the Almighty has made you grow in grace and in numbers, return joyfully and tell me of it; you will find that I trust you, and I will accord you still greater favors." This verbal approval was all that could then be gained ; formal approval of the new order was plainly conditioned on its success. But this was enough to secure Francis from further opposition, not to say persecution. As the price of this approval, the pope exacted a fatal condition : the voluntary society was to become an order. The members must all receive the tonsure, and elect one of their number general and vow to him their obedience. Francis was of course chosen general, and all were form- ally admitted to the clerical order, in which Francis himself never rose above the rank of deacon. By this means all danger of schism was averted, and a movement that contained great possibilities of mischief was suc- cessfully diverted into regular church channels. Noth- ing moves one to greater admiration of the far-sighted policy of the Roman court, nothing better proves the greatness of Innocent III among the Roman pontiffs, than this manipulation of Francis and his order. For while l88 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS he returned to Assisi thinking that he had won a great victory, the real truth was that the one purpose of his life had suffered defeat in this transformation of his lay brotherhood into a clerical order. Francis learned too late that he had purchased the protection of the highest power in the church at a ruin- ous price — a price that meant something worse than the destruction of his brotherhood. At first, however, noth- ing of this appeared. For some years the new order prospered wonderfully, to all outward seeming. From the time of the visit to Rome all obstacles to progress crumbled away in a manner truly wonderful. In the year following, he sent out his disciples two by two through Europe, and their success was almost equal to his own. And his success can be called nothing else than marvelous. Wherever he went, crowds flocked to hear his preaching, by scores and hundreds men desired to enroll themselves in his order, whole populations were moved by a new and strange religious fervor. This would have been enough to turn the head of almost any man, but Francis remained unmoved. He considered popularity a misfortune; he tried to restrain rather than increase the number of his followers. From the beginning he recognized the fact that his vow of poverty was one that should be taken only by those choice souls who were convinced that in this way they could best serve Christ — that it was a requirement beyond the needs of the many, beyond the possibilities of most, but the necessity of a few. Yet, in spite of his utmost care, the growth of the order was such that at its general assembly in 1219 — seven years after the beginning of its formal existence — five thousand members came together near Assisi, where they lodged in booths of woven rushes, whence this is still known as the Chapter of the Mats. This meeting was made the occasion of perfecting the FRANCIS OF ASSISI 189 organization and arranging for a great advance. Car- dinal Ugolino, who at the request of Francis presided, was responsible for a great change in the order. Hitherto Francis alone, as its head, had the power to bestow the habit, /. e., to admit members ; now this power was given also to the chiefs of the various missions, on the plea that they would be too distant from Assisi for constant con- sultation with their leader. The plea was doubtless valid, if the most desirable thing was to maintain and even increase the growth of the order; but its practical result was greatly to weaken the hold of Francis upon his followers. This was not indeed immediately disastrous, for the fascination of Francis had not yet begun to lose its force. It would be too much to suppose that unworthy men had not already found their way into the order ; and, as after- ward appeared, some of the earliest and most intimate disciples of Francis had no real sympathy with his fun- damental aims, and did not at heart accept his rule of poverty. But the order as a whole was pure, devoted, united; its spirit had the freshness of youth and the in- vincible power of holy enthusiasm; there was a passion- ate longing for service in the fraternity that could not fail to accomplish great results, but precisely what results it was not given men to foresee. This new and intense missionary zeal was now to carry the order forward through every country of Europe, in one of the most fruitful missionary movements of the centuries. Francis himself, as was befitting, gave his followers an example which was none the less inspiring and bril- liant because it was unsuccessful. For a long time he had wished to go on a mission to the Saracens, and cir- cumstances had now conspired to make possible the ful- filment of the desire of his heart. The afifairs of his order were so disposed that his absence would be possible 190 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS without great disaster. A new crusading campaign had been begun by the Christian forces in Egypt, and Francis made his way thither. He was received warmly by the crusaders and everything possible to forward his mission was done. Little was possible, however, since he had set his heart on the mad project of preaching the gospel to the sultan himself. It was the very madness of the idea that preserved Francis from instant death. When he and his companion came within the Moslem lines they were at once set upon and narrowly escaped slaughter on the spot. But by shouting continually the one word of Arabic that he knew, " Soldan ! Soldan ! " Francis man- aged to convey to his assailants the idea that he wished to be brought into the presence of their prince, and thither he was finally taken. With the prince he had two prolonged interviews, but to no result, save the demon- stration of his utter fearlessness when in the path of what he believed to be his duty. He won the respect of the prince, but not his faith, and was at length returned to the Christian camp in safety. Strange to say, his failure in no wise diminished the prestige of Francis, but rather increased the reverence in which he was held. The Moslems had treated him with that consideration that they always show to the in- sane, and Christians looked upon him as his compan- ions must have looked upon Daniel when he had come un- harmed out of the den of lions, holding him to be the special favorite of God, reserved for some greater thing than the glory of immediate martyrdom. H he had not already been esteemed a saint by most, this exploit of his would have established the repute of sainthood in an age like the thirteenth century. In the spring of 1220 he returned to Europe and began once more to concern himself about the fortunes of his order. He was now to witness its rapid perversion and FRANCIS OF ASSISI IQI steady deterioration. He was to discover how com- pletely he had failed to realize his lofty ideal, and that discovery was to break his heart. Pope Honorius III was now head of the church, and as alive as his prede- cessor to the possible value of the Franciscans if they were properly controlled and directed. The only proper ; control, of course, was papal. In a brief dated Sep- tember 22^ 1220, Honorius established entirely new terms of membership. Hitherto men who felt (or professed to feel) a divine call to this life had entered on it, and if their inconstancy or unsuitableness proved their vocation to be not genuine, they had been free to leave the order. This was now changed : In almost all religious families it has been wisely established that those who desire to practise regular observances should make a trial of these observances during a determined space of time, and that they themselves should be on trial also. The intention of this is to prevent future regrets by giving no opportunity for inconsiderate acts. Wherefore we command you by these pres- ents henceforth to admit no brother to your order before he shall have made a year's probation; and for the same reason we will that when once this profession has been made no brother shall be able to leave the order; and if any one does leave it, we forbid every one to keep with him. In 1223 Honorius III first gave a formal charter to the order, and confirmed a rule which had in the meantime been drawn up ostensibly by Francis, but (one suspects) really imposed on him by Cardinal Ugolino. Francis was now a second time chosen general of the order, but held the office only a single year, when he insisted on resigning his duties to one of the first of his disciples. Francis was singularly fitted to be the founder of such a body, and as singularly unfitted to be its ruler and guide. The spirit that giveth life he could supply, none better; the letter that killeth he had neither desire nor ability to administer. He retired to the church of the 192 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Portiuncula, which he had rebuilt as his earliest work, and there his life closed after two years of patient waiting for the end. How his heart ached to see his ideal misunderstood, distorted, contemned; how he shrank from the thought that his life might have been spent in vain; how he de- spairingly made one last effort to rescue his order and keep it faithful to its original purpose, we may learn from his will. No more pathetic document exists ; it is the last cry of a breaking heart : When the Lord gave me brothers, no one showed me what I ought to do, but the Most High himself revealed unto me that I ought to live according to the model of the holy gospel. I caused a short and simple rule to be written, and the lord pope confirmed it for me. Those who came to observe this life dis- tributed all that they had to the poor, and contented themselves with one tunic patched within and without, a girdle of cord and breeches, and we wished nothing more. . . I worked with my hands, and will continue to work, and I will also that all other friars work at some honorable trade. Let those who have none learn, not for recompense, but for their good example and to repel idleness. And when they do not give us the price of our labor, let us resort to the table of the Lord, begging our bread from door to door. . . Let the brothers take great care never to receive churches, houses, buildings made for them, except so far as such are in conformity with the holy poverty we have vowed in the rule; and let them dwell in such places as pilgrims and strangers. I strictly forbid all the brothers, in whatever place they may be found, whether directly or indirectly, to demand any bull from the court of Rome, under pretext of church or convent, or under any pretext of preachings, not even for their personal protection. If they are not received anywhere, let them go elsewhere, thus doing penance with the blessing of God. . . Let not the brothers say, "This is a new rule"; for this is a memorial, a warning, an exhortation; it is my will that I little brother Francis make for you, my blessed brothers, that we may keep in a more catholic manner the rule that we promised our Lord to keep. FRANCIS OF ASSISI I93 The minister-general and all the other ministers and guardians are bound by obedience to add nothing and to take nothing from these words. Let them always keep this writing with them, to- gether with the rule; and in all the chapters that shall be held, when they read the rule, let them read these words also. I forbid absolutely, by obedience, all the brothers, clerics, or laymen to put glosses on the rule and on this writing, saying, " Thus it ought to be understood." But since the Lord has given me grace to speak and write the rule and these words in a clear and simple way, let them be understood thus, simply and without gloss, and let them be practised until the end. With the death of Francis the last restraint upon the downward course of his order was removed. Successive popes did all in their power to undo his labors and nullify his fundamental rule of poverty. Four years to a day from the making of the will, Pope Gregory IX declared that the brothers of the order were not bound to obey these injunctions of the founder. He was but the gen- eral of the order, and as head he had no power to bind his successors, since these were his equals in authority. But Francis was not merely the general of the order; he was its creator; his successors were not his equals in moral authority. He had put the stamp of his own per- sonality upon his society; he had fixed its principles; in a sense it was his personal possession; and no moral au- thority resided in anybody else, not even in the sover- eign pontiff, to modify an essential idea of the society. Gregory might properly have established a new order, conformable in every respect to his own ideas, but thus to pervert that of Francis, while still retaining his name, was as great an outrage as even the papacy has ever committed. The worthy successor of Gregory, Nicholas HI, com- pleted the vile work by the publication of his bull E.riit in 1279, in which he subtly held that while the Franciscans were not permitted by their rule to have 194 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS the ownership of property, they might enjoy its use. The real owner of all the property they acquired was the pope, as head of the church ; the order having the use of this property by his special permission and grace. Such casuistry would not deceive a child, unless he wished to be deceived. It did not deceive the Franciscans, but it furnished the degenerate part of the order with the thing they desired — a pretext or justification for abrogating the rule of poverty. Heiice forth the Franciscans retained little of their founder but his name. Nevertheless their growth continued to be phenomenal, and their influence was still salutary in the main. The growth is to be explained in part by the great privileges conferred on them by successive popes. The first of these, the indulgence of the Portiuncula, is said in the later legends of the order to have been obtained by the founder himself through special petition to the pope. No record confirms this tradition, and it is quite irreconcilable with what we know of Francis. It is in violent conflict with that clause of his will which forbids the brothers to ask any special privileges, even to escape persecution. It is incredible that he should have forbidden in his fol- lowers that which he did himself. We must therefore treat this story as an afterthought, probably a deliberate invention, and a very clumsy one, obviously intended to break the force of this prohibition in the last message of Francis to his order. This indulgence of the Portiun- cula was an assurance of absolution from all their sins to such as should visit the church and say certain prayers on the second day of August — the anniversary of the dedication of this church. By successive bulls — most of them, it is to be feared, sought in flagrant disobedience to the command of Fran- cis — members of the order were given the right to cele- brate mass, with closed doors, even in places under the FRANCIS OF ASSISI I95 papal ban ; to preach wherever they pleased, without first obtaining the permission of the bishop of the diocese ; to hear confession and give absolution anywhere in the same manner. These were unexampled privileges in the church, the like never having been conferred before this upon the members of any order. Their effect was to make the Franciscans completely independent of all ec- clesiastical supervision and authority, save that of their general and the pope. The way was thus opened for extensive missionary operations. The order was still young and comparatively uncorrupted. Though it had already departed widely from the ideas of Francis, there was still within it a great enthusiasm and its spiritual povv^er was not yet seriously affected. The secular clergy of Europe were ignorant, immoral, self-seeking. The gray friar, professing poverty and humility, clad in coarsest cloth, almost in rags, preaching the gospel with a fiery enthusiasm unparalleled in that age, and never surpassed in any age, easily ob- tained and held the ear of the people. No wonder the secular clergy complained that their flocks forsook them to run after these wandering friars. In every country where the friars went — and they went everywhere — there followed a widespread revival of religion, whose effects were manifest in the life of the people for a cen- tury or more. Nowhere is this a more conspicuous fact than in England. There the friars were received with joy, hailed as reformers, as restorers of religion pure and undefiled. The people gave them their unbounded confi- dence and affection, and heaped wealth upon them to the impoverishment of the secular clergy, and even of them- selves and their families. And then followed the result that might have been anticipated: the friars became in their turn more cor- rupt, indolent, and incompetent than even the secular 196 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS clergy. Their laziness, their greed, their lust, passed into proverbs; stories of their ill deeds taint all the literature of the fourteenth century and make it unfit for reading. The student of Chaucer does not need to be told the popu- lar estimate of the morals of the friars in his day. The age of Wiclif is a time in which the friars are hated, feared, despised, ridiculed. And when any institution provokes the laughter of the social order, its fall is near. Many things of interest in the work of Francis must be passed by, because they are not germane to our present inquiry. For light on them the curious must resort to the biographies of the saint and the histories of the period. Among these interesting things to be passed by is the establishment of the second order of the Clarissines, and the relations between Francis and Clara. But we cannot overlook the establishment and growth of the third order, which was a missionary agency of even greater impor- tance than the original order, and realized to a far greater extent the fundamental aims of Francis. Francis was a child of the people, and from the moment of his conversion he showed a passionate at- tachment to the poor and sick, the neglected and op- pressed. And Italy during the thirteenth century was certainly the forlornest of European countries. For nearly a thousand years it had been the seat of incessant conflict; times without number armies had devastated its fertile plains and sacked its rich cities. The feudal sys- tem promised and for a time gave protection to life and property; and under the smile of peace agriculture and industry revived and the development of a new civiliza- tion began. But this development was checked by the later conditions of feudalism. Italy was split up into a multitude of petty principalities. Scores of nobles, dwell- ing in impregnable castles, made war on one another and FRANCIS OF ASSISI 197 levied contributions on all whom they could reach. Be- neath these exactions the land was groaning. Every able-bodied man was compelled to render military serv- ice at the demand of his lord, and could cultivate his fields only in the irregular intervals allowed by this pred- atory warfare. Most of the work of agriculture had to be carried on by women and children and the men too old or too crippled to fight. Besides this, the tenant was subject to numerous taxes and exactions that took from him most of what he was able to produce. What was needed was something that would strike at the very root of these evils, and the third order of Fran- cis did precisely that. This was no sudden freak on his part, but the fulfilment of a settled and long-meditated purpose to help the people. A method occurred to him that could not fail of success, if it were approved by the church. This was to admit to his brotherhood all ear- nest souls who desired to live the higher life of the spirit, but could not withdraw from the world — laymen, mar- ried people, any and all who would take upon themselves very simple vows. They were to wear a habit of pre- scribed form and color, to live according to the command- ments of God, to practise fasting and prayer, and to con- fess and communicate three times in the year. A simple rule was drawn up for this third order, with the advice and assistance of Cardinal Ugolino, in which three specific requirements were added to the general precepts : Chap. VII. The brothers must carry no offensive weapons, except in defense of the church and the faith of Jesus Christ, or in defense of their country, or with the permission of their superiors. Chap. XII. The brothers must abstain from solemn oaths, unless they are constrained by necessity, and keep within the limits of cases excepted by the Holy See. Chap. XIII. Each brother will give a farthing of current money to the treasurer, who will collect this money and distrib- 198 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS ute it suitably according to the advice of the ministers to the brothers and sisters who are destitute. The effect of these simple rules would hardly be cred- ited by one who had not studied the matter. They seem most innocent, but they were the most severe blov^ ever dealt to the feudal system. Men and women in swarms joined themselves to this third order until, as contem- porary observers tell us, it seemed as if the whole popu- lation of Italy had suddenly become religious. But though there was no doubt some religious zeal in this movement, something other than religious fervor was at the bottom of it. The people had discerned in these rules of the third order a means of escape from their bondage. When the princes next called on their followers to take the field, those who had hitherto responded with out- ward alacrity now refused obedience. They pleaded benefit of clergy, and asserted that they were members of a recognized religious order of the church. They de- clined to bear arms in an ordinary secular quarrel and utterly refused the usual oaths of feudal allegiance. On being pressed they applied to the church for protection. And they received it. Cardinal Ugolino had now be- come pope, as Gregory IX, and though cases are not un- known in which a churchman has condemned as pope what he had himself done as cardinal, Gregory was not in this case ashamed of the handiwork of Ugolino. In a bull addressed to all the bishops of Italy he strongly condemned the great feudatories, comparing them to the pharaohs and their exactions from the children of Israel. The members of the third order are truly religious, he decided, and the church must protect them. He enjoins the bishops to employ all necessary censures of the church to insure their privileges to members of the order. They are liable neither to military service nor to oaths, but a money compensation they might be fairly FRANCIS OF ASSISI 199 called upon to pay. Here the third of the rules above quoted became operative: those who were unable to re- deem themselves were helped in the payment of fines from the common fund thus created. The princes did not give up the contest without a bitter struggle, but they were beaten at every point. The whole power of the church was exerted for the protection of the third order ; again and again papal decrees were pro- nounced in their favor, and finally the princes gave way. The people were in great part emancipated, and the decay of the feudal system was thenceforth rapid and remedi- less. And what thus occurred in Italy happened to a greater or less extent in other parts of Europe. Among those who have sought to secure the social regeneration of men through application of Christian principles to oppressive conditions, Francis holds a high place. Out of his third order sprang the democratic movement in modern Europe. Once more the Scripture was fulfilled : In the morning sow thy seed, And in the evening hold not thy hand; For thou knowest not which shall prosper, this or that, Or whether they both shall be alike good. Among men born of woman few approach more nearly than Francis to Jesus of Nazareth. He alone among men has fully believed the teaching of Jesus, that the very Christ dwells in the poor and the suffering, and that service rendered to them is also given to him who is Lord of all. He alone saw this to be true, because he alone lived the life that such insight, such faith, at once implies and compels. Fie never practised self-denial for his own sake ; he never sought holiness by the false path of asceticism; he was never morbidly anxious about his own salvation ; he never sat created being, not the Virgin Mother herself, on the throne that belongs to the Son of 200 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS God. With humility and patience he took up his cross and bore it after his Master, and with him he was cruci- fied to the world. Through this death he became also partaker in the power of Christ's resurrection, being made in him a new creation. According to all the stand- ards of this world he lost his life, threw it away like a worthless bauble, for Christ's sake and the gospel's. But how gloriously did he save it ! The name of Francis stands, and shall stand till latest time, as the most impres- sive commentary on those words of our Lord, that are so dark a saying to the natural man, " Whoever would be- come great among you shall be your minister; and who- ever would be first among you, shall be servant of all." XI XAVIER: THE MISSIONS OF THE JESUITS BIBLIOGRAPHY The principal sources are S. Francesci Xavierii e Soc. J. Indiarum Apostoli Epistolarum Omnium Libri iv (Bologna, 1795), of which there is a translation in German by Joseph Burg (three vols., Coblenz, 1845) ; The Testament of Ignatius Loyola, includ- ing fragments of autobiography, taken down from his own lips, by Luis Gonzales (St. Louis, 1900). There is no satisfactory biography. Vos (two vols., Regensburg, 1877) is voluminous and dry; Coleridge (two vols., London, 1890) is uncritical, the author being himself a Jesuit; Venn (London, 1862) is hostile and bitter; but all three make much use of the letters, and much may therefore be learned from them. McClean (two vols., Lon- don, 1895) gixes Xavier's story as much as possible in his own words. For the growth of the legends regarding Xavier's mir- acles, see an interesting passage in White, Warfare of Science ivith Religion, Vol. II, pp. 5-22. On the history of the order there is abundant material. Daurignac, History of the Society of Jesus (Paris, 1863) is a moderate Roman Catholic work (trans- lated, Cincinnati, 1865). The following are hostile in increasing ratio; Steinmetz, History of the Jesuits (two vols., Philadelphia, 1848) ; Niccolini, ib. (Bohn library, London, 1854) > Griesinger, ib. (two vols., New York, 1883). Taylor, Loyola and Jesuitism (New York, 1883), and Rose, Ignatius Loyola and the Early Jesuits (London, 1891), may be consulted with profit. On the Jesuits in North America, the sources are to be found in the great collection of The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (seventy-three vols., Cleveland, 1901). The essence of these is compressed into Parkman's three books : Pioneers of France in the New World (Boston, 1865) ; The Jesuits in North America (1867), The Discovery of the Great West (1870). There are also two good Roman Catholic monographs : Shea, History of Catholic Missions Among the Indians (New York, 1856) ; Donohoe, The Iroquois and the Jesuits (Buffalo, 1895). Much light is thrown on the origin of Christianity in Japan as well as some of its later developments by Griffis, Religions of Japan, ch. xi (New York, 1895) ; Clement, Christianity in Modern Japan, ch. vii (Philadelphia, 1905) ; Murdoch and Ramagata, History of Japan during the Century of Early European Intercourse. XI XAVIER : THE MISSIONS OF THE JESUITS NEVER has the Church of Rome ceased to be the| friend and active promoter of missionary opera- tions. Whatever we may think of her motives, the fact remains unquestionable. Hostile critics may maintain that she has reversed the apostolic rule, and that her motto should be, " I seek not you, but yours " ; that the increase of the wealth, the power, the prestige of the church, not obedience to Christ or the salvation of the heathen, has ever been her motive; but the continuity and greatness of her missionary operations must be admitted. We are now to consider one of the most remarkable of all these movements, undertaken at the very nadir of the church's fortunes, when she was struggling for mere existence. Already the Reformation had torn from the church what she had ever esteemed her fairest posses- sion, the Holy Roman empire, the greater part of which was permanently Protestant and the remainder fast tend- ing in the same direction. The Scandinavian countries were taking the first steps toward reform, and evidently were to take none backward. In France a strong Prot- estant party was formed, and the horrors of civil war had begun, with the issue in grave doubt. The Nether- lands, Spain, and Italy itself, were honeycombed with heresy, and whether they could be saved to the church yet remained to be proved. Bohemia and Hungary were seething with religious and political discontent of long standing, but of new violence. In short, the Roman Church was in desperate straits, and the most hopeful 203 204 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS and courageous prelates began to look with gloomy appre- hension toward the future. Could a less favorable time be conceived for the begin- ning of the most extensive missionary enterprise in the history of the church? Could there be a more convin- cing demonstration of the vitality and recuperative force of the Roman Church than the fact that such a mission- ary enterprise was undertaken in the darkest hour of its history? Undertaken, not in any accidental and hap- hazard way, but of deliberate purpose, and resolutely prosecuted until it attained complete success. If there are many things in the history of the Roman Church that call forth our strongest protest and condemnation, there are others that rouse our highest admiration and respect. The pioneer in this great missionary work was Francis Xavier, one of the most extraordinary men of his age. He was born April 7, 1506, in Navarre, of a noble but by no means wealthy family, and through his mother claimed kinship with the kings of Navarre and the house of Bourbon. He became a student at the University of Paris and distinguished himself in philosophical studies, receiving the Master's degree (some say Doctor's) from the Sorbonne, in 1530. He became an instructor at the College of Beauvais, delivering lectures on Aristotle. Some of the teachers at Paris during his student days were men of distinctly evangelical spirit, and Xavier had for a time tendencies toward Protestantism. His piety was never of the pure Roman type, his mind having a natural bias toward the mystical and spiritual side of religion. He was also during these earlier years some- what inclined toward a life of gaiety and pleasure, and developed extravagant tastes, so that he was often in financial difficulties. Fortunately or unfortunately for himself, one can hardly say which, he was brought into contact with a man XAVIER 205 of far stronger nature, though of less learning and in- tellectual power, who became the decisive force in his life, Ignatius Loyola, who had come to Paris to pursue studies that would fit him for the accomplishment of a deeply cherished purpose. That was the formation of a spir- itual knighthood, whose object should be the salvation of the heathen, especially of the Turks. To the scholarly and pleasure-loving Xavier this project seemed quixotic and absurd, and he covered it with ridicule when it was first broached to him. But Loyola did not flinch ; he had made up his mind to win this brilliant young scholar, and he kept patiently at it until success crowned his efforts. He placed his purse at Xavier's command and thus won his heart. He discovered that there was a boundless am- bition concealed beneath the gay exterior of his younger comrade, and he played upon this until Xavier became finally a complete convert to the project, as full of en- thusiasm as he had previously been of ridicule. Before this, Loyola had won the assent of another stu- dent, already in priest's orders, Pierre Lefevre, a native of Savoy, a man of sagacious intellect and fervid imagina- tion. He now set about making other converts, choosing them with the greatest care and deliberation, and after a time he discovered four others suited to his purpose: Jacob Laynez, a Castilian, shrewd and well educated, who became second only to Loyola himself in the coun- sels of the order, and was its second general; Alphonso Salmeron, the youngest of all, but very promising; Nich- olas Alphons (surnamed Bobadilla, from his birthplace), a lecturer on philosophy, like Xavier, and Simon Rod- riguez, a Portuguese, a gloomy fanatic after Loyola's own heart. Such was the nucleus of the Society of Jesus. At first Loyola contented himself with making known his project in general terms, and securing the personal pledges of these friends to join him. On the feast of As- 206 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS sumption (August 15) in 1534 he led them to a chapel at Montmartre, where Lefevre read a mass and administered the holy communion to the rest, and then they took mutual vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and to fight as true spiritual knights for the protection of the Holy Roman Church and its supreme head, the pope, and for the extension of the true faith among unbelievers, ad majoram Dei gloriam! This was the origin of the Society of Jesus, though as yet it had neither name nor constitution, nor the recognition of the church. Some of the members had not yet completed their studies, and others had unsettled private affairs; to the latter Loyola devoted himself with characteristic energy and a meeting of the company was appointed for Venice, early in 1537, that they might throw themselves at the feet of the pope and be sent to Jerusalem, or wherever he might appoint. Papal favor was at first extended to the new society, and Loyola took advantage of this to have himself and his companions ordained to the priesthood. But when the pope, Paul III, came to the point of definitely authorizing the society in a bull, he hesitated and appointed a com- mission to consider the matter. Obstacles of various kinds arose. At one time Loyola himself was seriously sus- pected of heresy. There was a strong sentiment in the church against the establishment of new orders. The statutes proposed were criticised and amended and criti- cised again. But the obstacles gradually became fewer and less formidable, and the pope finally took matters into his own hands and, contrary to the advice of many wise counselors, he confirmed the order in the bull Regemini militantis ecclesiae, Sept. 2y, 1540. Before this had been done, but with the certainty that it would be done, Loyola had been elected general of his 1 " To the greater glory of God." This became and has remained the motto of the Society of Jesus. XAVIER 207 order, and had begun to assign the members to their work. The old idea of a mission to Jerusalem had to be aban- doned, because of a new war declared by the Turks against the Christian powers of Eastern Europe. But the mis- sionary idea was not abandoned; on the contrary, it be- came the fundamental idea of the Society of Jesus. At home or abroad, among heretics or heathen, the mem- bers of the order always esteemed it their first duty to make converts for church and pope. Xavier was chosen to be the pioneer missionary, and was despatched to India, via Lisbon, March 16, 1540. Portugal was chosen as the base of operations, because the Portuguese had a flourishing colony in India at that time, and the new mission would have its best chance of success under such patronage as the king of Portugal could give. Xavier carried letters of commendation from the pope, and at once won the favor of John III of Portugal, who did everything in his power to make the mission a success. Certainly no enterprise of this kind was ever launched with more splendid advantages. Xavier was sent out as a special envoy, not only having a personal commission from the pope, but another from the king of Portugal, sailing with the new viceroy as an intimate friend. All the influence of the church, all the patron- age of a powerful State were behind him. We may well contrast these great advantages with the conditions under which William Carey began his labors in India two hun- dred and fifty years later, with no powerful and wealthy patrons ; on the contrary, with all the powers of the East India Company against him. And it is not uninstructive too, to compare the permanent results accomplished by these two famous missionaries. Xavier landed at Goa, May 6, 1542, and began his mis- sionary labors at once and with great ardor. There can be no more favorable account of the labors of the first 2o8 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS year than the one he himself wrote and transmitted to his society at Rome. Immediately on his arrival, he had the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ave Maria, and the Deca- logue translated into the vernacular. These he made shift to learn how to pronounce and committed them to memory. This remained, through the seven years of his life and work in India, his sole acquisitions in the native languages. For the rest, he was dependent on the serv-, ices of an interpreter. His missionary methods he thus describes : I have begun to go through all the villages of this coast with bell in hand, collecting together a large concourse both of boys and men. Bringing them twice a day into a convenient place, I gave them Christian instruction. The boys, in the space of a month, have committed all to memory beautifully. Then I told them to teach what they had learned to their parents, household, and neighbors. On Sundays I called together the men and women, boys and girls, into a sacred edifice. They came together with great alacrity, and with an ardent desire to hear. Then I began with the Confession of the Holy Trinity, the Lord's Prayer, the Angelic Salutation, the Apostles' Creed, pronouncing them in their own language with a clear voice. All followed me in the repetition, in which they take an uncommon pleasure. Then I went through the Creed alone, pausing upon each article, asking whether they believed without any doubt. All in an equally confident tone, with their hands in the form of a cross upon their breasts, affirmed that they truly believed it. I direct them to repeat the Creed oftener than the other prayers, and teach them, at the same time, that those who believe the things contained in the Creed are called Christians. I inculcate the Decalogue in the same manner, that I may show that the Chris- tian law is contained in those ten precepts, and that whoever keeps all these as he should do is a good Christian, and attains to eternal salvation. On the other hand, that whoever neglects one of these is a bad Christian, and will be thrust into hell unless he truly repents of his sin. At these things both the neophytes and the heathen are astonished as soon as they perceive how holy is the Christian law, how consistent, how agreeable to reason. After this I am accustomed to pronounce the Lords' Prayer and Ave Maria, they following me. Then in the same XAVIER 209 way we say over again the articles of the Creed, that we may, after each article, recite a Pater and an Ave together, with a certain versicle : namely, when they have chanted the first article of the behef, I say before them this versicle in their native tongue: "Jesus, Son of the living God, grant us that we may fully believe this first article of the Christian faith, to obtain which from thee we offer to thee this prayer which thou hast appointed." Then to the other we add this versicle : " Holy Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, obtain for us from your most precious Son that we may believe, without any doubt, this' article of the Christian faith." We pursue the same method in the other eleven articles of the Creed. We then inculcate the precepts of the Decalogue, chiefly in this method; when we have chanted the first commandment upon the love of God, we pray together, " O Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, grant that we may love thee above all." Then we say the Lord's Prayer. Afterwards we all chant together, " Holy Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, obtain from thy Son that we may diligently keep his first commandment." Then we add the Angelic Salutation. The same method is followed in the other nine commandments, the versicles being varied according to the matter. These are the things which I accustom them to ask of God in their prayers; and I assure them that if they shall have obtained these things, other blessings will follow in greater abundance than they can ask. I then command all, as well as those to be baptized, to recite the form of general confession; and as they repeat the Creed, I ask them at each article whether they believe without doubting. Upon their assent I add an exhor- tation, composed in their own tongue, in which the sum of the Christian religion and of the discipline necessary to salvation is briefly explaiued. Afterwards I baptize those who have been instructed. The close of the ceremony is a Salve Regina, by which we implore the help and assistance of the Blessed Virgin." How great is the multitude of those who are gathered into the fold of Christ you may learn from this, that it often happens to me that my hands fail through the fatigue of baptizing, for I have baptized a whole village in a single day; and often, by re- peating so frequently the Creed and other things, my voice and strength have failed me. I have given this long letter, without abbreviation, be- cause it so admirably illustrates several things. It shows o 2IO CHRISTIAN ErOCH-MAKERS how indefatigable Xavier was, fairly wearing out his not too robust body, in his missionary labors. The constant addressing of large crowds is a tremendous physical strain, as anybody accustomed to public speech knows, and as men unaccustomed to such speech often discover in a political campaign or some similar labor. Few men can endure the strain for more than a few weeks, unless they are so happy as to learn how to use their voices with least expenditure of power, but having once learned that, they can continue almost indefinitely. For years John Wesley, a man of slight physique and of weak voice at the outset, preached twice and often thrice a day, mostly in the open air and to large crowds, almost without know- ing what illness or even great fatigue meant. It is doubt- ful if Xavier ever learned this secret, but not even Wesley surpassed him in the energy and persistence with which he labored. And in this he was but the forerunner and type of all the Jesuit missionaries. With exceptions, to be sure, they have as a body been men of marvelous energy, intrepidity, persistence, and resource. But the narrative quoted also illustrates the methods of the Roman missionary in all ages and among all peoples. Xavier was fully convinced that the heathen could be saved, first by instructing them in the tenets of the Christian faith — by catechizing them in short — and then administering to them the sacrament of baptism, by which they were cleansed from their sins and made heirs of God and the kingdom of heaven. So believing, he conducted himself accordingly. And all other Roman missionaries have had the same belief, and have practised similarly. What a caricature of true missionary work that letter pre- sents, I need not pause to point out ; every phrase as it is read must deeply impress this upon every one. In all Roman literature I doubt if a passage would be producible that should set forth the Roman theory and practice of XAVIER 211 missions in more glaring contrast to the teaching of the Scriptures and the practice of Protestant missionaries. One other thing should be added to illustrate Roman methods. It was the constant practice of Xavier to bap- tize all infants brought to him, and all others whose parents he could persuade to permit the ceremony, and so it is little wonder that he boasts in another letter, '' I have made ten thousand Christians in a single month." Undoubtedly he had made them — it is quite evident that God had nothing to do with the matter. But later Jesuit missionaries do not seem to have been quite so reckless in their procedure as Xavier. The Jesuits among the Indian tribes only baptized babes about to die, in order that they might be certain of heaven ; others they permitted to grow up heathen and take their chance — a proceeding more sensible, but possibly less Catholic, than Xavier's. Lest it should seem incredible that any missionary should attempt to carry on a work so extensive and so prolonged without a serious effort to learn the native lan- guage, and should submit for seven long years to helpless dependence upon an interpreter, let me quote again from Xavier's own words, and so clear myself from suspicion of having misrepresented or even misunderstood him : Here I am, almost alone from the time that Anthony remained sick at Manapar ; and I find it a most inconvenient position to be in the midst of a people of an unknown tongue, without the as- sistance of an interpreter. Roderick, indeed, who is now here acts as an interpreter in the place of Anthony; but you know well how much they know of Portuguese. Conceive then what kind of life I live in this place, what kind of sermons I am able to address to the assemblies, when they who should repeat my address to the people do not understand me nor I them. I ought to be an adept in dumb show. Yet I am not without work, for I want no interpreter to baptize infants just born, or those which their parents bring; nor to relieve the famished and the naked who come in my way. So I devote myself to these two kinds of good works, and do not regard my time as lost. 212 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS This letter bears date August 21, 1544, and other letters prove that he continued this method to the end of his stay in India. Our chief source of information regarding the labors of Xavier is his own voluminous letters to his general, which were many years ago edited and published and have been translated into many languages. In these docu- ments we may see his likeness, as in a mirror. His was. a nature of excessive sensibility, prone to all extremes of both joy and sorrow, at one time sanguine beyond all that sound judgment could approve, and again plunged into the depths of an irrational pessimism. Hence there are many perplexing discrepancies and contradictions in his correspondence, some of which are so glaring as to lead readers to question his veracity. This is, however, a hasty and uncharitable judgment. He was true to the mood of the moment as he wrote, but his temperament exposed him to rapid transitions of feeling. Certainly he was free from what has been described as the vice of small minds, consistency. If to say a thing to-day and contradict it point blank to-morrow be a proof of large-mindedness, Francis Xavier had one of the most capacious intellects in the history of mankind. The miracles attributed to him by later writers find no support in these letters. The one case in which he comes nearest to making such a claim for himself was that of a native woman who had been in labor three days until her life was despaired of. Xavier conversed with her, drew from her a formal confession of faith, and baptized her, whereupon she was safely delivered of her child. The babe and husband were also baptized, and " imme- diately the report of the divine miracle performed in that house spread throughout the whole village." But it was the efficacy of the baptism, not any power of his own, to which Xavier plainly attributed the healing — in which, XAVIER 213 truly, only a superstition equal to that of the heathen themselves could see anything miraculous. The seven years of labor in India ended with a con- fession of failure. Xavier, in his great disappointment, endeavored to persuade the king of Portugal to bring great pressure to bear on his viceroys and governors, so that these officers should use their power to bring the natives into the church. In case few neophytes were added to the church in his domains, a governor should be punished on his return to Portugal by close imprisonment for many years, and all his goods and possessions should be sold and devoted to charity. No excuses for failure should be accepted; it should be clearly understood that the only way to avoid punishment should be to make as many Christians as possible in the country over which the envoy presided. This is a truly original scheme of mis- sionary work to set before a king! What a sweetly be- nevolent ruler a man like Xavier would make, if a despot's power were put into his hands. Utterly disheartened by the obstacles he had met, and realizing the unsatisfactory character of the numerous Christians he had " made," Xavier abandoned India and sought other fields of labor. " Abandoned " is perhaps a strong word; he still retained his place of authority as director of the mission, which was now thoroughly or- ganized and strongly manned, but his own personal labors were henceforth turned into other channels. It is cer- tainly to be noted that he showed not the slightest idea of abandoning his missionary calling, because his labors had been less fruitful than he had hoped in India. To this service he believed himself called of God, as well as ap- pointed by his superior. In no letter does he breathe a desire to return home; his nearest approach to it is in response to a wish of Ignatius to see him, and his reply is that, though this seems impossible, he will not abandon 214 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS the hope of once more embracing his friend. But this is the voice of affection, not of purpose. Xavier had de- voted himself to missions in Asia for Hfe and for death, and to return to Europe was to him an impossibiHty. One cannot but admire this inflexibihty of will, this energy of soul, in spite of the defects of character and the mistakes of policy by which it was accompanied. Early in 1549 Xavier received information about Japan that convinced him of the readiness of that country to re- ceive the gospel. He became eager to go thither, and in the summer of the same year the way was opened for him. Experience had made him less sanguine perhaps, certainly more prudent, and in his new field he did not attempt the wholesale and immediate conversion of the people. " In the space of a year, more than one hundred were brought into the fold of Christ," was his first report of results. He was heard with respect, the highest dignitaries per- mitting him '' to expound the divine law " in their pres- ence. As the result of one such hearing he writes : " We remained in that city many days, speaking to the people in the streets and market-places. Many earnestly listened to the great facts of Christianity, and they could not retain their tears when we described the most bitter death of Christ. Notwithstanding, very few were brought to accept baptism." A great difference, surely, between these moderate statements and the boast of converts by the thousand during the first years of his work in India. There were some notable conversions among the educated and influential classes and the Japanese mission was ap- parently established on a firm foundation when, at the end of two years, Xavier left the country. The Japanese were in truth, as he had been informed, ready for the acceptance of Christianity, and there was every prospect of a great work among them. For about forty years the mission continued with marked success: and then the XAVIER 215 propensity of the Jesuits for political intrigue, in every country they entered, brought about a bloody catastrophe. In 1637 the emperor of Japan discovered, or believed that he discovered, a plot for his overthrow in which the missionaries had participated, and gave orders for a gen- eral massacre of the Christians, who accordingly perished to the number, it is said, of thirty-seven thousand. While definite proof of their guilt is lacking, it must be said that there is nothing in the conduct of the missionaries or in the history of their order, to make the charge incredible, but that exactly the reverse is true. It was no part of Xavier's purpose, apparently, to re- main permanently in Japan, and he made no effort to acquire the language during his stay there. And yet his later Roman biographers did not hesitate, in spite of evidence to the contrary in his own letters, to attribute to him the miraculous gift of tongues, nor to record, as a signal proof of the divine blessing upon his work, his eloquent sermons to the natives in their vernacular, in consequence of which multitudes were converted. Such are what are called, in the Roman Church, " pious narra- tives." There may be much piety in the invention of such tales, but there is great dearth of intelligence. The purpose of Xavier was to continue in his function of director of missions, to enter new fields and organize missions there, so long as his life should continue. For this work he undoubtedly had special gifts. China was the field that next engaged his attention, but he was fated never to enter that country. Though he was now only forty-five, his labors had told upon him more than he was aware. While in Japan, he writes to his superior: " Though my hair is white, yet I am as strong and vigor- ous as ever," but such was by no means the case. So impaired had his constitution become that the onset of any serious disease was likely to be fatal. Some inkling that 2l6 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS the end was near is discernible in the prophetic words of a later letter: " I shall succeed in opening it [China] for others, for I can do nothing myself." In his efforts to get to the land he had chosen he was continually thwarted. He planned to be sent on an embassy, and under color of a political mission to find an opportunity for beginning his religious work ; but this plan was frus- trated by the governor of Malacca, whose excommunica- tion he indignantly demanded in consequence. Finally he succeeded, alone and unattended, in reaching the island of San Chan, whence he hoped to reach Canton in some way. Here he was attacked by a fever, and lingered for two weeks, not having even a servant to minister to him in his last hours, dependent on the kindness of some Portuguese merchants. On Friday, December 2, about two o'clock in the afternoon, he fixed his eyes upon the crucifix, his face lighted up with joy, and murmuring the closing words of the Te Deum — In te Domine speravi, non con- fundar in aetermim — his spirit departed. Roman Catholic writers have so overrated both the character and achievements of Xavier that a Protestant is under strong temptation to underrate them. What is a candid and temperate summary of the results achieved by him ? First, we may say, the consolidation of the Por- tuguese missions in India, their organization, and an im- petus given to their prosecution that they did not soon lose. The caste of fishermen at Goa among whom he preached are said to be Christians to this day. Secondly, the opening of Japan and China to Christian missions. For though his mission in Japan ended in disaster, though he never set foot on Chinese soil, it was in consequence of what he attempted, as much as of what he accomplished, that the Christian world never after quite lost the convic- tion of duty to send the gospel to these two great nations of the East. Every missionary in Japan or China to-day XAVIER 217 is, in some sort, a successor of Francis Xavier. But his greatest achievement was the incentive and encourage- ment that his Hfe has given to the missionary cause for almost four centuries. On the long roll of missionary worthies may be found the names of some who equaled Xavier in the intensity of their conviction, in the com- pleteness of their devotion, in their heroic constancy, but none that surpass him. We must not forget, however, that we are to study not merely a man, but a movement. Francis Xavier is merely the first and the most famous of the vast numbers of his order who gave themselves with equal devotion and zeal to the work of missions. There was almost literally no quarter of the globe to which they did not penetrate within the next two centuries. Their shrewdness and tact, their disinterestedness and self-abnegation, their courage and fortitude, their charity and kindness, their spiritual gifts and skill in affairs, constituted them perhaps the most marvelous class of missionaries in the whole history of Christianity. Especially noteworthy were their achievements on this continent. The order was founded just as the coloniza- tion of the New World by the Catholic powers of Europe was fairly beginning, and along with the explorers who set out to find this Eldorado, the adventurers who went in quest of this new Atlantis, went the Jesuit missionary. He was with Ponce de Leon and Coronado and De Soto in their mad search for illimitable wealth or the fountain of youth, not that he might share in their gold, but that he might win the natives to the true faith. He was with Cortez in Mexico and with Pizarro in Peru, with the same holy purpose. And when Champlain sailed into the waters of St. Lawrence and founded Quebec, he was speedily there too. Time would fail me to tell even a small part of the 2l8 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS story of these missions — what the Jesuit did to win these heathen peoples to the rehgion of Christ as he under- stood it, and what he made of them after he had won them. The reHgious and moral condition of the Spanish- American peoples to-day is the best commentary on the real value of his work, supplemented, as it has been, by two or three centuries of Christian education — such as it was — carried on without let or hindrance by the Roman priesthood — such as it was. As a type of all these missions let us briefly consider one, the history of which has been fully told from the original documents by our greatest historian, Francis Parkman, in his " Jesuits of North America." To those who know the perfect lucidity of that incomparable writer in the marshaling of his facts, his intellectual acuteness in their interpretation, the perfect naturalness of his nar- rative, the brilliance of his style, I shall seem guilty of no mock modesty in saying that I attempt with great reluc- tance to summarize in a few paragraphs his wonderful book. To those who do not know him, I can only com- mend the careful study of his works as the most perfect examples in our language, both in substance and in manner, of how history should be written. The Jesuit missionaries had moderate success among all the Indian tribes along the Great Lakes westward to the Mississippi, but it was among the Hurons that their great triumph was won. The home of this tribe or nation was in Canada, along the lake to which they have given their name, and they may have numbered twenty thou- sand. They were akin to the Five Nations or Iroquois, who held most of the region now forming the State of New York, but the relationship was of the kind that ag- gravates enmity rather than cements friendship. For some reason not easy to explain, the first Jesuits met with a favorable reception from this people, and a flourishing XAVIER 219 mission was soon planted among them. Converts were made rapidly, some of the arts of civilization were taught them, a convent and a hospital were established, and that the whole nation would have been Christianized in no long time is morally certain. How the enmity first began between Hurons and Iro- quois is unknown, but it was nearing its height when the mission was begun, and the Iroquois had fallen into '* one of those transports of pride, self-confidence, and rage for ascendancy which, in a savage people, marks an era of conquest." They outnumbered the Hurons very little, if any, but their moral superiority was great. To annihilate their rivals had become their ruling passion, and they showed in the execution of their project all the subtlety and cunning that tradition attributes to the American In- dian, together with a patient persistence not so generally supposed to be characteristic of savages. Though the Hurons knew their danger, they could not be persuaded to take adequate measures for defense or even ordinary pre- cautions. The blow fell with the suddenness and fierce- ness usual in savage warfare. The Huron nation was practically annihilated in a day, and the brightest beacon lighted in the wilderness by the Jesuit missionaries was extinguished in blood. The missionaries themselves suffered a terrible fate. Some were fortunate enough to be killed in the first onset, but the others were reserved for the usual fate of cap- tives, death by torture. Mr. Parkman's account of the death of Jean de Brebeuf, the founder of the Huron mis- sion, a man of noble race and of noble heart, of enor- mous stature and strength, and of mental and spiritual gifts that would have made him a leader anywhere, is in these words: On the afternoon of the sixteenth— the day when the two priests were captured — Brebeuf was led apart and bound to a 220 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS stake. He seemed more concerned for his captive converts than for himself, and addressed them in a loud voice, exhorting them to suffer patiently, and promising heaven as a reward. The Iro- quois, incensed, scorched him from head to foot to silence him; whereupon, in the tone of a master, he threatened them with everlasting flames for persecuting the worshipers of God. As he continued to speak, with voice and countenance unchanged, they cut away his lower lip and thrust a red-hot iron down his throat. He still held his tall form erect and defiant, with no sign or sound of pain; and they tried another means to overcome him. They led out Lalemont (another missionary) that Brebeuf might see him tortured. They had tied strips of bark, smeared with pitch, about his naked body. When he saw the condition of his superior he could not hide his agitation, and called out to him with a broken voice, in the words of St. Paul : " We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men." Then he threw himself at Brebeuf 's feet; upon which the Iroquois seized him, made him fast to a stake, and set fire to the bark that enveloped him. As the flame rose, he threw his arms upward with a shriek of supplication to heaven. Next they hung round Brebeuf 's neck a collar of hatchets heated red hot; but the indomitable priest stood like a rock. A Huron in the crowd, who had been a convert of the mission but was now an Iroquois by adoption, called out, with the malice of a renegade, to pour hot water on their heads, since they had poured so much cold water on those of others. The kettle was accordingly slung, and the water boiled and slowly poured on the heads of the two missionaries, "We baptize you," they cried, "that you may be happy in heaven, for nobody can be saved without a good bap- tism." Brebeuf would not flinch; and in a rage they cut strips of flesh from his limbs and devoured them before his eyes. Other renegade Hurons called out to him, "You told us that the more one suffers on earth, the happier he is in heaven. We wish to make you happy; we torment you because we love you, and you ought to thank us for it." After a succession of other revolting tortures they scalped him; when, seeing him nearly dead, they laid open his breast and came in a crowd to drink the blood of so valiant an enemy, thinking to imbibe with it some portion of his courage. A chief then tore out his heart and devoured it. And there were many Jesuit missionaries like Brebeuf, XAVIER 221 many like Xavier, who attempted great things only to fail greatly. Failed? Say not so! 'Tis not the grapes of Canaan that repay, But the high faith that failed not by the way. We must deplore their superstitions, their defects of character, their mistakes of policy, but can we admire too highly the fiery zeal of these men, their splendid courage, their matchless fortitude? We vaunt ourselves as greatly their superiors in spiritual insight, in knowledge of the pure word of God, in evangelical enlightenment. God make all of us as loyal to our truth as they were to their error. XII ZIEGENBALG: THE FIRST PROTESTANT MISSIONARY BIBLIOGRAPHY An excellent account of the attitude of Protestants toward missions prior to Ziegenbalg may be found in Warneck, pp. 8-52. The literature of Pietism is extensive ; see Hauck-Herzog, Real- encyclop'ddie, and similar works. The writings of Spener and Francke are, of course, the chief sources. Spener's minor works, ed. Steinmetz (Magdeburg, 1746) ; Kramer, Beitrdge zur Ge- schichte Franckes (Halle, 1861), contains valuable correspond- ence with Spener; supplementary volumes published in 1863, 1875, 1876. The best histories of the movement are by Ritschl (three vols., Bonn, 1880), Heppe (Leyden, 1879), and Schmidt (Nordlingen, 1863). Standard biographies are: Stahelin, Spener als Reformator nach Reformation (Basel, 1870) ; Hossbach, Le- ben Speners (two vols., Berlin, 1861) ; Griinberg (1896) ; Wal- rond, Philip Jacob Spener (London, 1893). A biography by Wildenhahn (three vols., Leipzig, 1855) has been translated into English by Wenzel (Philadelphia, 1881). There are two good German biographies of Francke, by Guericke (Halle, 1827), and Kramer (Halle, 1880). Our chief source for the life and labors of Ziegenbalg is the Hallesche Berichten aiis Ost-Indien (ed. A. G. Francke), especially Vols. I and II. Also the following in English : Ziegenbalg, Thirty-four Conferences Between the Dan- ish Missionaries and the Malabaria7i Brahmans (London, 1719) ; Ziegenbalg and Griindler, Propagation of the Gospel in the East (London, 1718) ; this last contains fifty-eight letters of Ziegen- balg. The best biography is Germann, Leben Ziegenbalg (two vols., Erlangen, 1867-8) ; compare the same author's Ziegenbalg und Pliitschau (Erlangen, 1868). Other literature that will be found helpful, both in German and English: Walch, Streitig- keiten Innerhalb der Luth. Kirche, Vols. I-IV (8 Th. Jena, 1733-9) I Plitt, Kurze Geschichte der lutheranische Mission, pp. 51-153 (Erlangen, 1861); Dorner, History of Protestant Theol- ogy, Vol. II, p. 204, seq.; Hurst, History of Rationalism, chap, i- iii; Thompson, Protestant Missions, pp. 148-174; The Lutheran Cyclopedia, arts. " Pietism," " Ziegenbalg," " India, Missions in " ; Sherring, Plistory of Protestant Missions in India (London, 1884) ) Fenger, Geschichte der trankebar. Mission (Grimma, 1845) ; Holcomb, Men of Might in India Missions, pp. 13-38 (New York, 1901). An excellent article by W. Fleming Steven- son, on " The Last Days of Ziegenbalg," appeared in Good Words for December, 1872. XII ziegenbalg: the first protestant missionary AMONG the problems that perplex the student of Christian history, not the least puzzling is the utter indifference to foreign missions shown for nearly three centuries by all the churches established through the great Protestant revolution. If this indifference had been mani- fested by any one of the principal theological parties, by any one of the great national churches — if it were confined to the established churches, on the one hand, or to the her- etical and dissenting bodies, on the other — the phenom- enon would still seem surprising, but perhaps not inex- plicable. That foreign missions should not have been begun during the initial stages of the Reformation is, in- deed, not astonishing. Down to the peace of Westphalia, Protestantism was at death-grips with its numerous foes, and could not be reasonably expected to do more than fight strenuously for its very right to live. But after, let us say, the middle of the seventeenth century, there was no reason for further delay in beginning this work save entire indifference to it. That the ability to give the gospel to the heathen was from that time onward pos- sessed by the Protestant churches must be conceded by their most ardent apologists; it was the will only that lacked. A partial explanation of the attitude of these churches toward the work of foreign missions is doubtless afforded by a study of the teachings of the leading reformers. Luther taught that the Great Commission had already been fulfilled, and the gospel had been preached through- p 225 226 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS out the whole world, in the sense intended by the Scrip- tures. The kingdom of God had been established upon this preaching and had reached to all places under heaven. The only missions that he recognized, therefore, were mis- sions having for their object the better instruction in the truth of those who already had the gospel. Thus, in com- menting on the parable of the Good Shepherd, and the " other sheep," he maintains that these have already been brought into the fold. " Many say that this has not yet been brought to pass. I say, nay, the saying has long ago been fulfilled. . . What the Lord says of ' other sheep ' that he must also bring, so that there shall be one fold and one shepherd, began to be immediately after Pente- cost, when the gospel was preached by the apostles through all the world, and will continue so to be until the end of the world. It is not true that all men shall turn and accept the gospel. That will never be. The devil will never let that come to pass. Therefore there will ever be in the world many different faiths and religions." One secret of Luther's indifference to missions may no doubt be found in his belief, so frequently set forth in his writ- ings, that the end of the age was at hand, and that his generation would not pass away before the coming of our Lord. The entire Lutheran school agreed with him, and some went beyond their founder. Calvin was less precise in maintaining that the Great Commission is already fulfilled, and that no duty there- fore devolved upon Christians of his age to disseminate the gospel, but he fails to utter any positive teaching in favor of missions. It is a fair inference from what he does say, that Christian magistrates alone are charged with the duty of introducing the true religion into any land over which they may acquire authority — a principle that would, at most, lead to colonial missions only. Cal- vin's successor, Theodore Beza, was not content with any ZIEGENBALG 227 such neutral position as this. When Adrian Savaria — a Dutch preacher, professor at the University of Leyden, who emigrated to England and became Dean of Westmin- ster — published a treatise (1590) in which he advocated the perpetual obligation of the church to preach the gos- pel to all nations, Beza published a reply, denying that Christ's commission extended to churches of post-apos- tolic times. A Lutheran theologian also, John Gerhard, was disturbed by Savaria's teaching, and maintained anew the Lutheran position. So far as the authority of their acknowledged leaders and theologians extended, there- fore, both Lutherans and Reformed were committed to the view that the Great Commission had already been ful- filled, and that Christians no longer have any obligation toward the heathen. And though occasional voices of protest were feebly raised against so unchristian a doc- trine, this remained the belief of Protestants everywhere for more than a hundred years longer. The beginning of Protestant missions is inseparably connected with the religious movement in Germany known as pietism, essentially a protest and reaction against the formalism and dead orthodoxy into which Lutheranism had degenerated after the Thirty Years' War. Religion had come to mean little more than an assent to creeds and attendance at church, and even the latter was often dispensed with. A revival of spiritual religion and practical piety was greatly needed. The man who was appointed by divine Providence for this work was Jacob Spener, who became pastor at Frankfurt in 1666. An eloquent preacher, a man of great spiritual fer- vor, a wise and tactful leader and adviser, he made a deep impression in that city and gathered about him a group of men and women of kindred spirit. One of the new methods of spiritual culture that he introduced was the holding of meetings in his house for the study of the 228 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Scriptures — Bible classes, as we should now call them. It is hard for us to look upon such gatherings as a novelty in any Christian community, or to comprehend the storm of criticism, ridicule, and opposition that they provoked. Other gatherings of this kind were soon formed in other cities, and they were called collegia pietatis. In this way the names pietism and pietists became fixed upon the movement, at first given in derision by opponents, but afterward accepted as a convenient designation, and one sufficiently descriptive of the movement, which had as its chief aim the promotion of practical piety. In 1675 a formal exposition of the principles advocated by those concerned in this movement was given in Spener's book entitled "' Pia Desideria." This avowal of the platform of pietism is so moderate, it would appear so trite and commonplace in our day, that one can with great difficulty understand why it should make so great a sensation on its appearance. The six principles of th^ movement could hardly have been more simple, and one would think could hardly provoke dissent from any Christian. They were: 1. The promotion of the study of the Scriptures in Bible classes, a study to be practical and devotional rather than merely exegetical. 2. The participation of the laity in Christian work — a new idea in Germany then, and sure to be opposed as such, but now a commonplace everywhere. 3. Practical good works to be encouraged, since they are the fruit of the inner spiritual life, and the only proof that such life really exists. 4. The substitution of missionary effort for polemics in the propagation of the truth. 5. The reorganization of theological study in accord- ance with these principles, to secure spiritual as well as mental training for ministers. ZIEGENBALG 229 6. The requirement of practical piety as well as learn- ing among the clergy, and the encouragement of a more practical and edifying kind of preaching. The necessity of the new birth was clearly implied in these principles, if not formally stated; and it followed that special effort should be directed to securing the con- version of those who were Christians only in the sense that they had been baptized and confirmed according to the practice of the Lutheran Church. It is not within the scope of our subject to pursue the general history of pietism, interesting though such an inquiry would be, but merely to point out its effect upon the revival of missionary effort. This result came about directly through the founding of the University of Halle, and the labors of Dr. August Hermann Francke. The pietists, finding themselves under suspicion and excluded from the existing universities, established a new univer- sity at Halle in 1691, and the following year Francke was called to a professorship, and spent the remaining years of his life there. Of his influence as a teacher, of his practical activities as founder of the great Halle orphan- age, the first institution of the kind and the parent of countless others, I have no time to speak. As Warneck well says, in his " History of Protestant Missions " : It was in the age of pietism that missions struck their first deep roots, and it is the spirit of pietism which, after rational- ism had laid its hoar frost on its first blossoming, again revived them, and has brought them to their present bloom. . . The visions of the religions condition of the world beyond Europe, to which the growing commerce of the world was ever giving truer adjustment, made the assumption of a universally diffused or previously diffused knowledge of Christianity ever more un- tenable, and so corrected the old expositions of Scripture and the old interpretation of history. But that which brought about the radical change lay in the nature of pietism itself, which over against the dominant ecclesiastical doctrine exhibited the worth 230 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS and power of a living, personal, and practical Christianity. The energetic seeking of conversion, as well as a general zeal for fruitfulness in good works, begat an activity which, as soon as it was directed against the non-Christian world, could not but assume the tendency to seek the conquest of the world for Christ. It is true, indeed, that much narrow-mindedness clung to pietism, and that this in many ways impaired the freshness and the popularity of its Christianity; but notwithstanding that narrowness, so soon as it allowed itself to be impregnated by missionary ideas there came to it a width of horizon by which it excelled all its adversaries. While derided as " conventicle Chris- tianity," it embraced the whole world with its loving thoughts, and these loving thoughts it translated into works of love, which sought to render help alike to the misery of the heathen and to that within Christendom. In spite of its " fleeing from the world," it became a world-conquering power. It is the parent, as of missions to the heathen, so also of all those saving agencies which have arisen within Christendom for the healing of relig- ious, moral, and social evils, and which we are wont to call home missions — a combination that was already typically exemplified in August Hermann Francke. * It was Francke who projected a seminarium iiniversale, or the founding of a training school for workers in all parts of the world, and who realized his project, to a con- siderable extent, through his orphanage and the univer- sity at Halle. He was one of those men that have the invaluable gift of arousing a spirit of absolute devotion to God's service in the young men with whom they come in contact, which makes them willing to go wherever God's providence calls them. This is the first requisite for all missionary enterprises. He did not succeed in indu- cing the Lutheran churches to take official oversight of missions, because of the suspicion in which Halle and pietism were held, but from his time onward the work of missions became more and more a recognized duty of all genuine Christians. It is doubtful, however, whether anything would have been done for a generation or two 1 p. 53. ZIEGENBALG 231 more for the actual giving of the gospel to the heathen, but for the colonial interests of Denmark and the benevolent impulses of a Christian king. India became, during the sixteenth century, the object of desire and the goal of conquest to every European nation. Denmark, though one of the smallest European States, was by no means the least enterprising. Being less powerful than other countries, she was less tempted to unscrupulous conquest, and obtained her Indian pos- sessions by means both peaceful and honorable. In 1621 a colony on the Coromandel coast was acquired by pur- chase, and a fort and trading station were established at Tranquebar by the Danish East India Company. Tran- quebar is distant some one hundred and forty miles south- west from Madras, and the entire Danish colony had an area of only fifteen square miles. Besides the city of Tranquebar itself, it included some twenty smaller towns. When Frederick IV came to the throne of Denmark, in 1699, he made it his business to foster the interests of this colony, and it was not long before he began to con- sider the condition of his heathen subjects there. The project of a mission among them seems to have originated with the court chaplain, Doctor Liitken, who had come to Copenhagen a short time before from Berlin. Doctor Liit- ken had a wide acquaintance with the theologians of Ger- many, including Francke and others among the pietists, to whom he was more favorable than most of the ortho- dox Lutherans of his day, though I cannot find that he was ever directly connected with the pietists. The king lent a willing ear to his project of a mission, and prom- ised it his personal countenance and support. By cor- respondence with his friends in Germany, Doctor Liitken learned of two young men, former students at Halle, who seemed suitable for the proposed work. These men were Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Pliitschau. 22)2 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Ziegenbalg was born at Pulsnitz, near Dresden, June 4, 1683. He was the son of pious parents, and though early left an orphan the influence of his mother was never forgotten. Around her dying bed were gathered the weeping children. '' My dear children," said she, " I am leaving you a great treasure, a very great treasure." The eldest daughter said in surprise, ''A treasure, dear mother ! Where is that treasure?" " Seek it in the Bible," said the dying woman ; *' I have watered every page with my tears." After his mother's death, he was cared for by an elder sister, and in time was sent to the gymnasium at Gorlitz. It was through a passionate love of music that he was led into a knowledge of the higher verities of religion. An older student than himself, who shared his musical tastes, spoke to him of the " harmonies of spiritual life, and of the harmony between God and man that had been broken by the fall and restored by Christ. Only those who under- stand this know what music really is." The Bible now became to him the spiritual treasure of which his dying mother had spoken. Through study of the Scriptures and prayer he was led into a new life. His naturally serious disposition became yet more serious and resolved, and after much consideration he determined to give his life to the preaching of the gospel. Having reached this conclusion, he sought the advice of Professor Francke, and by his advice went to the Berlin gymnasium, then under the direction of Joachim Lange, a man of piety and goodness, as well as a thorough scholar. The death of his sister and his own ill health interrupted his studies, but after some delay he entered the University of Halle, in 1703, where he spent one ses- sion. The influence of Doctor Francke upon his char- acter was profound and salutary. Here also he came into fellowship with some kindred spirits, and with one ZIEGENBALG 233 of these students he entered into the following covenant : *' We will seek nothing else in the world but the glory of God's name, the spread of God's kingdom, the propaga- tion of divine truth, the salvation of our neighbor, the constant sanctification of our own souls, wherever we may be and whatever of cross-bearing and suffering it may occasion us." His attention was directed by Doctor Francke to India as a field of labor, but no practical means of carrying out such a project suggested itself. Again his studies were interrupted by ill health, and he never fulfilled his intention of returning to Halle and taking his degree. Instead, he became a tutor for a time at Merseburg, and later at Erfurt. Again disabled by illness, on his recovery he was asked to take temporary charge of a parish at Werder, about twenty miles from Berlin. He had never been diverted from his idea of mis- sionary service, and it is said that he had been in confer- ence with Doctor Francke regarding this matter only a little time before the invitation from Copenhagen. His piety, his studious habits, the diligence and zeal with which he had undertaken and prosecuted his work at Werder, and above all his consciousness of a missionary call, marked him out as preeminently fitted to undertake this new enterprise. Of Henry Plutschau, his colleague in this work, far less is known prior to his appointment as a missionary. He was born in 1678 in Mecklenberg-Strelitz, and was educated at Halle, where he had acquired the great esteem of Doctor Francke. He was a man of meek and quiet spirit, faithful and persistent, an invaluable helper, but as events proved, lacking in the self-reliance and initiative necessary in a leader. The two young men speedily made their way to Copen- hagen, and were there ordained to the ministry by Bishop Borneman, and sailed for India November 24, 1705, in 234 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS the " Heclwig Sophia." Nobody but the king, not even the bishop who ordained them, took any particular interest in their mission; on the contrary, they were pronounced enthusiasts and fools, and accused of presumption. On taking leave, they said : " We will go in the name of the Lord, and if God will give us but one soul out of heathen- dom, our journey will not be in vain." They arrived at Tranquebar July 9, 1706, and began their labors among a population of thirty thousand. From the first the missionaries were looked upon with suspicion by the natives, with indifference by the Euro- pean residents (mostly Portuguese), and with hostility by the officials. The Danish East India Company, in fact, took precisely the same view of the matter that was taken toward the close of the century by the English East India Company, when Carey began his labors in Bengal. They did not venture openly to antagonize the king at first, in what they understood to be a pet project of his, but secret instructions were forwarded from Copenhagen to the governor at Tranquebar to put all possible obstacles in the way of the missionaries, and on no account to aid their enterprise. It was the fortune of the company to have as the head of the colony a narrow-minded, obsti- nate man, with a high sense of his own dignity — just the sort of person to execute its orders with great zeal and very little discretion. In spite of their royal credentials, therefore, the missionaries were received with great-rude- ness, and left to shift for themselves as best they might. Nothing was done to help them land, and when landed they were left for hours in the burning sun, until some Europeans who had not the fear of the governor before them took pity on the sufferers and gave them temporary lodging. Open opposition, real persecution, was not deemed prudent at this time, or they might have expe- rienced much worse usage. ZIEGENBALG 235 Ziegenbalg and Pliitschau soon found a domicile, and began the mastery of the Tamil language, in which work they found great difficulties, as neither books nor a teacher were at first obtainable. The books they were obliged to make for themselves as they learned more of the language, but the lack of a teacher was at length over- come by persuading a native school to transfer itself to their house. There, sitting cross-legged on the floor, among the native children, these two missionaries acquired the rudiments of tlie language, and learned to write with a stick in the sand. The climate is enervating for Euro- peans, but in spite of this they labored hard at their studies and made rapid progress. In a few months Zieg- enbalg was able to converse with the people, and even to attempt preaching. He accumulated a Tamil library, and in time became a fine scholar in that language, though his linguistic acquirements were never comparable to those of Carey. " In the three years I have been in India," Ziegenbalg writes home in 1709, " I have scarcely read a German or a Latin book, but have given up all my time to reading Malabar books; have talked diligently with the heathen, and executed all my business in their tongue, so that now it is as easy to me as my mother tongue, and in the last two years I have been enabled to write several books in Tamil." But their labors were not all literary. The building of a church was begun toward the end of their first year's service, and the first gathering for Christian worship in it was held on August 14, 1707. This was the first Prot- estant chapel built in India. Some time before this dedi- cation spiritual fruits of the mission had begun to appear, five converts having been baptized on May 12. Nor was the work of the missionaries confined to Tran- quebar. Missionary tours were undertaken through the surrounding regions, outside of the Danish possessions, 236 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS the Brahmins being invited to attend rehgious conferences, ' which often resulted in Hvely debates, at which large au- diences assembled. The immediate results of these tours w^ere not great, but there can be little doubt that they opened the way for subsequent efforts that were successful in winning many converts. Their love for the work grew. " We cannot express," they wrote home, " what a tender love we bear toward our new-planted congregations. Nay, our love is arrived to that degree, and our forward- ness to serve this nation is come to that pitch, that we are resolved to live and die with them." After about two years' study, Ziegenbalg felt that he had sufficiently mastered the language to begin what he had from the first counted as his most important task, the translation of the Scriptures into Tamil. By 1711 he had completed the New Testament and made good progress on the Old. An appeal for help brought him a printing- press, and in 1 714 he was able to publish the New Testa- ment in Tamil, which he followed with a liturgy, hymns, a dictionary that he had compiled, and various other works. The Old Testament translation was not completed and published until several years after his death. While engaged on this work, in 1708, the missionaries experienced their first real persecution. The ill-concealed hostility of the officials now ventured to manifest itself in overt acts. Pliitschau was the first victim, being arrested and publicly dragged through the streets on the charge of rebellion against authority — he of all men! Ziegenbalg was soon after arrested and kept in prison for three months, the first month without communication with his friends or the use of writing materials. No formal charge was ever preferred against him, nor was he ever given a hearing. The governor finally released him, on learning that public opinion in the colony, so far from sustaining him as he had expected, generally condemned his despotic ZIEGENBALG 237 cruelty. The result of such treatment was to make friends for the missionaries among all classes. " Our imprisonment," wrote Ziegenbalg, " has been as a bell ringing far and wide throughout Europe to awaken many- thousand souls to compassionate us and our young and growing community." Nevertheless, though the final results were by no means unfortunate for the mission, a severe temporary check was experienced. On his release Ziegenbalg found his converts scattered, and much of the work to do over. This he was patiently doing, amid great difficulties and embarrassments, of which not the least was lack of money, when, in the summer of 1709, the mission received gener- ous financial aid and reenforcements from Copenhagen. Both were joyfully welcomed. The three new mission- aries were John Griindler, Polycarp Jordan, and John Boving. Grundler and Jordan were Halle students, and Griindler especially became an invaluable coadjutor to Ziegenbalg, relieving him after a time of preaching and administration, that he might give himself more fully to the work of providing the people with a Christian lit- erature in the vernacular. It was at this time that the printing-press already mentioned, and a German printer, reached the missionaries, after being captured on the way by pirates. This was the first Christian press to be set up in India. A second press was sent out a year or two later, under circumstances that may be called roman- tic. A young German of great mechanical genius pro- duced a font of Tamil type ; and in the process of making it he became so much interested in the use to which it was to be put that he and a younger brother volunteered to go to India as missionary printers. Of course their services were gladly accepted, and proved to be quite invaluable to the mission. It was Ziegenbalg who first advocated and practised a 238 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS method since tried by many missionaries with conspicu- ous success in our later Chinese stations of dressing Hke the natives and Hving as nearly like them as is possible for a European. In this way he was able to make quite extensive excursions into distant regions, and though these were devoid of any immediate fruits, they proved the possibility of mission work outside of the ports held by European powers. Like all men who have the gift of leadership, Ziegenbalg was active, energetic, enterprising, and had the faults of his qualities — that is to say, he was sometimes impulsive and even rash. On one occasion he demolished an idol in the presence of heathen worshipers — an act that cannot be called judicious from any point of view, and that might among a heathen population have serious, not to say fatal, consequences. In these labors Ziegenbalg met with great opposition from the Roman Catholics of this region, where missions have been main- tained by that church since the days of Xavier — opposi- tion that some writers have not hesitated to call " malig- nant," and that drew from Ziegenbalg himself words not less violent : '' May the Lord of hosts, whose work we design to promote, perfect us and gather us unto himself at last a church and peculiar people from among this wild multitude of heathen! And then let the devil and his infernal herd rage against it to the utmost; we know .there is an overruling Power confining him to such boundaries as he will not be able to pass." Little has been said of the work of Henry Pliitschau, but while details are not easy to procure, it is known that he was a faithful and laborious assistant during these early years of hard work and great discouragement. He was especially useful in the schools established in connec- tion with the mission, and gave valuable assistance in the work of translation also, as his knowledge of Tamil was wide and accurate. Both he and Ziegenbalg were sent ZIEGENBALG 239 out in the first instance for a period of five years. The time of his engagement having expired, and the climate having made serious inroads upon his health, Pliitschau returned home in 171 1. For some reason not definitely recorded, he never returned to India, but not long after his arrival in Europe became pastor at Beidenfleth, in Holstein, where he lived and labored for over thirty years, dying in 1747. Besides the difficulties that the mission had to encoun- ter on the field — numerous enough and great enough to daunt many a man — there had been a continuous fire in the rear. Those who at first looked coldly on the project and suspected the missionaries of presumption and enthu- siasm, soon became hostile critics or active opponents. Though the mission was nominally the plan of the king and never lacked royal countenance and support, it soon became evident that the real direction of the enterprise was from Halle, whence indeed had plainly come its in- spiration. This caused the work to be suspected as the child of pietism, and the orthodox Lutherans who were opposing pietism as contra-confessional, heretical, and practically mischievous, naturally included the mission in their denunciations. Ziegenbalg was described in a theo- logical pamphlet of the time as " an impious idiot," and even the faculty of the University of Wittenberg stigma- tized the m.issionaries as " false prophets." * It became necessary, therefore, or at least highly desir- able, that the real facts about the mission should be made more widely known, and the circle of its supporters and well-wishers as much enlarged as possible. The health of Ziegenbalg was failing also, in consequence of the severity of the climate and the intensity of his labors, and accordingly he decided, in 171 5, to return to Europe. He was graciously received by the king, and informed that his commission as superintendent of the mission had been 240 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS forwarded to India. By the personal intervention of the king, the difficulties with the East India Company were removed. The churches of Germany were visited during the next year, and Ziegenbalg was received in most places with great honor, his eloquence winning a favorable hear- ing from many who had thus far been indifferent or op- posed to his work. He also visited England, where George I gave him an audience and had him preach in^ the royal chapel. Here he made many friends, and re- ceived considerable contributions for his work. The highest dignitary in England, who takes precedence of everybody in the realm after the royal family, the Arch- bishop of Canterbury, wrote to Ziegenbalg : '' I consider your lot is far higher than all church dignities. Let others be prelates, patriarchs and popes; let them be adorned with purple and scarlet ; let them desire bowings and genuflections — you have won a greater honor than all these." This tour marks a permanent increase of zeal for for- eign missions among Protestants, though the number of those awakened to their duty was yet small, and there was little concerted action among the few. The news of Ziegenbalg's work spread as far as the American colo- nies, and he came into correspondence with Cotton Mather, the great Puritan divine of the Massachusetts colony, who wrote to the missionary in these glowing words: ''A work how illustrious! how celestial! how sublime! O thrice and four times happy they who are ministers of God in such a work! Happy though never so much harassed with labors and watchings and per- petual troubles ! Happy beyond all expression, did they but know their own happiness ! " Nor did Mather and his fellows confine themselves to words of praise; a con- tribution was sent to this Indian mission, and prayers were offered in many colonial churches for its success. ZIEGENBALG 24I Another happy incident of this tour was Ziegenbalg's marriage. It will be remembered that after his studies at Halle he was for a time a private tutor at Merseburg. Among his pupils was a girl named Dorothea Saltzmann. She had now grown to womanhood, and was distin- guished by ardent piety, strength of character, and culti- vated intelligence. She proved in every respect a fitting helper of Ziegenbalg in his labors. In 17 17 Ziegenbalg returned to his work in India, with health much improved, with a greatly enlarged circle of supporters, and hoping for many years more of labor, which his ever-enlarging knowledge and experience would render increasingly fruitful. He was a tireless worker, and during his absence from the country he had been laboring on a Tamil grammar, which long remained the accepted text-book for those learning the language. Be- sides he had continued his work of translation, and com- pleted his version of the book of Joshua. This continued to be a large part of his labors after his return. But his zeal and the enervating climate were too much for his frail body. He began to fail almost immediately, though for a time his joy at the progress of the work seemed enough to sustain him. The governor who had opposed and per- secuted him at the beginning of his work had been re- called, and the new appointee was a friend of the mission. Many other obstacles had disappeared, and everything now favored the progress of the gospel. Thirty mem- bers were added by baptism to the little community the first year after his return, and fifty the second. More- over, a much larger and finer church had been built and dedicated, the corner-stone being laid by the governor himself. This is still the mission church at Tranquebar, but the first chapel long ago disappeared. These last two years were, however, made sorrowful by misunderstandings between the missionary and his Q 242 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS supporters at home. A sort of Mission Board had been organized, the precursor of the Danish Mission Society, which was founded after Ziegenbalg's death (1721), and the secretary of this board proved himself to be a man incapable of understanding the missionaries, as well as totally ignorant of the field and its requirements. Like all narrow-minded men, he was opinionated and obstinate, and the correspondence between the missionaries and the Board was a succession of complaints and censures by the secretary, and of apologetic replies by the workers. Of these letters written by Ziegenbalg and Griindler, two are most elaborate discussions of missionary policy, and are reckoned among the most valuable contributions of their kind in missionary literature. During the last months of his life, Ziegenbalg was able to accomplish little, and on the twenty-third of February, 1719, he ceased from his labors. Just before his death he asked to have sung that hymn which has comforted the hearts of generations of Christians, "" Jcsu, meine Zuver- sichtr Jesus, my Redeemer, lives, Christ, my trust, is dead no more! In the strength this knowledge gives, Shall not all my fears be o'er; Calm, though death's long night be fraught Still with many an anxious thought. Ziegenbalg was but thirty-six years old at his death, but he had accomplished more than most who live out their threescore-and-ten years. He is described in his later years as a man of commanding presence, of great dignity, with a flashing eye, resolute and calm in demeanor, hav- ing a bronzed face seamed with deep lines of care. He was admirably fitted by nature and by grace, by the fash- ioning of divine Providence and by his own choice, for his work as a pioneer missionary. That no English biog- ZIEGENBALG 243 raphy of him exists is an inexplicable defect in our mis- sionary literature that ought to be speedily remedied. For a recent Lutheran writer does not seem to exaggerate when he sums up Ziegenbalg's life and work in a single sentence : " It was the zeal and activity of this one man that paved the way for the great work of Protestant mis- sions to the heathen." A word should be added concerning the mission that Ziegenbalg founded at Tranquebar. Griindler, to whom he resigned his office as superintendent, survived his friend and leader but a few months, but the timely ar- rival of three new missionaries saved the work from dis- aster, and it has been continued, with varying fortunes, until the present time. The Tranquebar colony was ceded to England in 1846, but some years before the cession the nearly extinct mission was revived by the Evangelical Lutheran Society of Dresden, and it has since remained in a comparatively flourishing state. Certain Swedish societies co-operate with several in Germany in this Indian mission, which at last accounts reported over ten thou- sand native Christians and a working force of over a hundred missionaries. It has been the too common practice of Baptist writers to date all modern missions, and especially those in India, from the labors of William Carey. To such may be com- mended this summary by an impartial historian of mis- sions ^ of what had been accomplished by the Tranquebar mission before the arrival of Carey: Altogether not less than fifty thousand natives of India had abandoned heathenism and embraced Christianity within this period (before 1789). Most of them had died; but what propor- tion were still living at the end of the century is difficult to as- certain. That many of the converts were sincere and genuine cannot be doubted. Yet it is certain that the permission to retain ^ Sherring, p, 50. 244 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS the caste customs and prejudices throws considerable suspicion on the spiritual work accomplished among them. Later missionaries of all religious bodies have avoided this error of the Tranquebar workers at the outset of their mission, believing that the spirit of caste and the spirit of Christ are utterly incompatible — though it is not for the Christians of Europe and America to throw any stones at Indian converts, until they have freed them- selves from social distinctions and political policies that rest on nothing but dislike of men of race, color, and training differing from their own. Is it not true that we demand of our missionaries that they impose on their heathen converts a moral standard to which our own churches would refuse to conform? And if this is true, is it not to us that our Lord says, " Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye " ? XIII SCHWARTZ: THE EDUCATIONAL IDEA IN MISSIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY The chief source for a life of Schwartz is his Remains, with a sketch of his career (London, 1826). The authoritative biog- raphy is by Germann, Missionary C. F. Schwartz (Erlangen, 1870). In EngHsh there are two helpful books: Pearson, Memoirs of Life and Correspondence of Schwartz (London, 1834), and a biography by the same writer (London, 1855). See also Plitt, Kurze Geschichte der Luth. Mission, pp. 47-207. The greatest recent exemplar of the educational idea in missions is Alexander Duff; see his India and Indian Missions (London, 1839), and his biography by George Smith (New York, 1881). Neale, Christian Education in India (London, 1846), should be consulted, and Sherring, pp. 19-48. Hough, History of Christianity in India (4 vols. London, 1839), contains much that will be of service in the study of all early missions in India. Briefer, but excellent, is Thompson, Protestant Missions, esp. lectures vii-ix (New York, 1894). No recent monographs have appeared on the relation of education to missions, but there is a mass of material scattered through the various missionary magazines, and the reports of the frequent missionary conferences, especially the Toronto Con- vention of Student Volunteers (1902) and the London Mission- ary Conference. Dennis, Christian Missions and Social Progress, gives detailed accounts and statistics of educational institutions In all mission lands. . XIII SCHWARTZ : THE EDUCATIONAL IDEA IN MISSIONS THROUGH the labors of Bartholomew Zlegenbalg, the Protestant churches of Europe had been some- what awakened to their duty to give the gospel to the heathen. Their complacent conviction that the Great Commission had been fulfilled by the apostles, and that it imposes no duty on these later ages, had received a severe shock. There was, during the eighteenth century, a vast indifference to foreign missions to be overcome, but no dogmatic denial, based on an exegesis of Scripture, that missions are an integral part of Christian progress. Danish missionary activity was not long confined to Tranquebar. Hans Egede, a Norwegian by birth (1686), educated for the ministry at Copenhagen, and a pastor in his native country at the beginning of Ziegenbalg's work, became greatly interested in the condition of his countrymen in Greenland, who he feared might have relapsed into heathenism. Egede entered into correspond- ence with influential men of his church, two bishops espe- cially, and received sympathy and encouragement. His family, however, did their best to divert him from his purpose, and for a time were successful. When at last the missionary call became too strong to be longer re- sisted, there were other obstacles to be overcome, and ten years were consumed before he was able to realize his project. On May 12, 1721, with the aid of King Fred- erick IV of Denmark, he led a colony of about forty to Greenland, but found there no descendants of the North- men, as he had expected. A trading station was estab- 247 248 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS lished and a mission to the Eskimos. The fact that the enterprise was of this double character Hmited its useful- ness. In fact, Egede returned to die in his native land, after fifteen years of labor, with the conviction that he had accomplished little or nothing. He had, however, at least given to the world one more example of heroic en- deavor, and opened the way for other missionaries whose labors were to be more fruitful, as well as furnished a valuable object-lesson on missionary methods. The mis- sionary, least of all men, is able to serve God and Mam- mon. He cannot save souls and make money at one time. H he preaches the gospel faithfully, he has no time or strength or power of brain to make him a successful trader. No subsequent mission has been wrecked on the rock that proved the undoing of Hans Egede. The missionary enterprise at the beginning we have seen to occupy this anomalous position: there were mis- sionaries, but no missionary societies. Missionaries were at first supported by the gifts of whoever happened to be interested in the work, and for a time royal bounty was the chief reliance. And when a missionary society was at length formed, it was little more than a local body. It was long before there was anything worthy to be called a missionary policy, and the first missionaries were to a great extent independent of those who sent them forth, and of each other. It was a species of guerilla warfare against heathenism that was maintained by the Christian missionaries in Southern India, and when a man appeared who was competent to lead, those who should have been his followers were undisciplined and mutinous, and little progress was made toward the establishment of order and system. That anything at all was accomplished was due to the genius of the man who must be pronounced the greatest of Christian missionaries before Carey, Christian Friederich Schwartz. SCHWARTZ 249 He was born at Sonnenberg, fifty miles from Berlin, October 26, 1726. His pious mother died during his infancy, but she had dedicated her son to God, and ob- tained from her husband the promise that he should be educated accordingly. He entered the gymnasium at Kiistrin in 1740, and while here the reading of one of Doctor Francke's books made a lasting impression upon him, and by the grace of God became the turning-point in his life. At the age of twenty he entered the university at Halle, where he spent three years in study. Before going to Halle, he seems to have determined upon the ministry as his calling, and the influence of Francke turned his attention to foreign missions. He asked his father's permission to offer himself as a missionary, hardly expecting his consent, but the promise made to the dying mother was remembered and respected, and his father bade him go. During his studies at Halle, he took lessons in Tamil from a returned missionary, and as- sisted in reading the proofs of a new edition of the Tamil Scriptures, so that he was able to begin his work with a partial equipment for it. Within a few days of his de- parture he received an offer of a good position in the ministry in his native land, but this had no power to deter him; he does not seem to have even felt it as a tempta- tion to remain, so firm was his decision to do the work of an evangelist among the heathen. In company with two others, he went to Copenhagen and was there ordained, September 6, 1749, and in the fol- lowing March sailed for India. They went by way of England, where a few months were spent in gaining some acquaintance with the English language. The Society for the Prom.otion of Christian Knowledge showed them great kindness, and from this time forward took special interest in their work. They arrived at Tranquebar in July of the following year, in the midst of the protracted 250 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS struggle for the possession of India between the French and the EngHsh, which was decided by the genius of Qive and the battle of Plassey, June, 1757. The Tranquebar mission was not seriously affected by this conflict, the main arena of which was to the north of their field, and its work was carried steadily on. In the interval between the death of Ziegenbalg and the arrival of Schwartz considerable progress had been made. Missions had been established as far north as Madras, and toward the interior of the kingdom of Tan j ore. There were altogether some ten European missionaries now employed, and about thirty native helpers ; and per- haps five thousand converts were now connected with the mission — nine thousand, it is said, had been baptized up to this time, but many were dead or had fallen away. A good deal of doubt exists as to the real Christian char- acter of these converts. The recognition of caste by the missionaries, referred to in the previous chapter, is one ground of suspicion. Another is the fact that the mis- sionaries adopted the policy of giving financial assistance to converts, who became contemptuously known as " shil- ling Christians," and that the epithet was not altogether unjust was shown by the fact that conversions were ob- served to cease and many converts to fall away whenever assistance was withheld. Other missionaries have had similar experience with " rice Christians," whose name designates their character. Such there have been in all ages and among all peoples, since the day when Christ said to the multitudes that followed him : " Ye seek me not because ye saw signs, but because ye ate of the loaves and were filled." But not all the converts were of this class: some brought forth the fruits of the Spirit and endured hardship and persecution for Christ's sake. Many have been called " rice Christians " and " shilling Christians " in whom the grace of God dwelt richly. SCHWARTZ 251 Indeed, it was not then found, nor is it now true, that the character of the heathen, converted or unconverted, is the worst obstacle that the missionary has to encounter. Often his chief difficulty grows out of the presence and character of Europeans, residents or visitors, whose shameful conduct not infrequently falls below even heathen standards of morality. Schwartz one day said to a Hindu dancing-master and his pupil that heaven is barred against all unholy persons. *' Alas ! sir," was the quick and unanswerable retort of the girl, " in that case how few Europeans will be found there." Schwartz's facility in acquiring languages was great, for in four months after his arrival he preached his first sermon in Tamil — an astonishing feat, even when his les- sons at Halle are taken into account. He afterward learned to speak Indo-Portuguese, Persian, and Mah- ratta, as well as the indispensable Hindustani, the common medium of communication, the French of Southern India. His mastery not only of the languages of the people, but their religions, habits, and social condition, was singularly complete, as his subsequent career showed, but he stands alone among the great missionaries in the small literary use that he made of his learning. This is the more re- markable in a German, a race of men who write books as naturally as other men breathe and sleep. That a normal German will be studious if he has the opportunity, that as a result he will become learned, is almost as certain as the axioms of mathematics. And that having become learned, he will share his knowledge with others through periodicals and books is also nearly certain. Schwartz was studious, he became learned, but the natural impulse of his kind to write and publish was in him overborne by the conviction of his paramount duty to be a mis- sionary. Others who preceded him had done the indis- pensable literary work and produced a Christian litera- 252 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS ture, and though much useful labor of the kind still re- mained to be done, its necessity was not so pressing that Schwartz felt called to do it. He was first of all preacher and teacher. During the first ten years of missionary work he does not emerge into a prominence above his fellows. He was of a less ardent and impetuous nature than Ziegenbalg, and developed slowly into the great missionary that he became. It was perhaps his change of relations that pro- moted his work most rapidly, by furnishing him a field proportioned to his remarkable abilities. In the little Danish-Halle mission he would necessarily have been cir- cumscribed in opportunities, but Providence made him a laborer under other auspices. In 1767, in the course of one of his missionary tours, he visited Trichinopoli, a town of from twenty to thirty thousand inhabitants, forty miles from Tanjore, the capital of Southern India. He found there a mission that the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge had founded not long before. It was his intention to make but a brief visit, but he was persuaded to transfer his services to the English society, and he continued to be its missionary through the remain- ing years of a long life. The advantage of Schwartz was that this change brought him into the theater of one of the great contests about to be waged for the dominion of India, and at the same time insured him friendly relations with the power destined to prevail. He was already widely known and respected, alike among the English and the natives. About forty years old, he was in the prime of his powers. An accomplished English scholar and gentleman, who first saw him at this time, thus writes : " I had expected to find this famous missionary a very austere and strict person, whereas the first sight of the man made a com- plete revolution on this point. His garb, indeed, which SCHWARTZ 253 was pretty well worn, seemed foreign and old-fashioned, but in every other respect his appearance was the reverse of all that could be called forbidding or morose. Figure to yourself a stout, well-made man, somewhat above the middle size, erect in his carriage and address, with a com- plexion rather dark, though healthy, black curled hair, and a manly, engaging countenance, expressive of unaf- fected candor, ingenuousness, and benevolence, and you will have an idea of what Mr. Schwartz appeared to be at first sight." His salary from home at this time was forty-eight pounds, which amply sufficed for his wants, and an addi- tional one hundred pounds given him by the Madras gov- ernment he spent wholly on his mission. In 1776 he founded a mission at Tan j ore, and established schools in both cities, in which great attention was paid to the cate- chising of children, whose parents, though heathen, gave them permission to attend these schools for their educa- tion. Eight of the most promising converts were em- ployed by him in 1772 to assist in the work, one of whom afterward became the first ordained native preacher. In twelve years he had baptized one thousand two hundred and thirty-eight in Trichinopoli, and was equally success- ful at Tanjore, where he founded two churches. At the request of the English governor of Madras, Schwartz undertook a diplomatic mission to Hyder Ali, the nawab of Mysore, whose court was then held at Ser- ingapatam. The nawab refused to have anything to do with ordinary negotiators. " Send me the Christian," he said, meaning Schwartz, " he will not deceive me." The missionary was received with every honor, but did not altogether succeed in his errand, as he could not convince this Oriental despot of the honest Intentions of the Eng- lish authorities. When the great war in the Carnatic finally broke out, Schwartz was able to be of great serv- 254 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS ice. The nawab issued orders to all his officers, " Let the venerable padre go about everywhere without hin- drance, since he is a holy man and will not injure me." By the intercession of Schwartz, Cuddalore was saved from destruction, and through his influence with the na- tives Tanjore was saved from starvation. The people would not trust native officials of any rank, but as soon as it was understood that Schwartz would be responsible for their pay, a thousand bullocks were hauling grain into the famine-stricken city within two days. In 1786, the rajah of Tanjore sent for Schwartz and proposed that as guardian he take entire charge of the heir to the throne, Serfogee. No higher proof of the complete confidence reposed in his character could pos- sibly have been given. Schwartz declined the complete charge of the young prince as too great a responsibility, but consented to be his guardian in a limited sense and to supervise his education. The prince became much attached to his guardian and teacher, and when he came to the throne did not forget the obligations that he 'had acknowl- edged as prince. A simple missionary does not often be- come the guardian of princes or the intermediary between two great powers; indeed, it is probable that Schwartz's position was unique in missionary annals. The secret of his exceptional position was that he happened to be the ,one man in Southern India at that time in whose integrity everybody had perfect confidence. It is not surprising, perhaps, that the English government should have been willing to trust him, but we may well be surprised at the estimate of his character shown by Hyder Ali and the native people of all grades. It was his complete and proved disinterestedness, in large part, that explains this hold of Schwartz upon the natives, high and low. We mourn the corruption of our public life, and we do well to mourn ; it is a crying dis- SCHWARTZ ^55 grace to a commonwealth like Pennsylvania; but as com- pared with Oriental countries we do not know what cor- ruption means. The great majority of our voters would scorn to take money for their votes ; the decisions of our courts cannot be bought with money, directly; there are many in places of trust who do not believe that public /Office is a private snap and whose god is not " graft " ; and Diogenes with his lantern might find an honest police- man on Chestnut Street.^ But in the India of Schwartz's day there was not an honest man— native or European, all were tarred by the same foul brush of corruption. Every magistrate or public officer would take bribes and practise every known means of extortion. For the first Europeans —from the highest, like Clive and Hastings, to the lowest clerk or private in the ranks— were adventurers, who had come to India to get the last penny that could be squeezed out of it; and on their return to their own country with their ill-gotten wealth, so far from ever blushing for what they had done, they were simply astonished at their own moderation. Things have improved since then among the Europeans, and possibly among the natives also. But Schwartz was known to be an honest man. He was not " on the make." He had few wants and his slender salary more than supplied them. A strip of native cloth for clothing, a room that would just contain his bed and himself, a handful of rice— he asked no more; and this not because he was in the least an ascetic, but because he really wanted nothing further. To such a man what was money? From the first he would accept no compensation for his services. What he could do to promote the interests of his fellow-men, white or black, princes or peasants, that he would freely do. His actual 1 These illustrations were " calculated for the latitude of Philadelphia," as the almanacs say. But change the proper names and the statements will be equally true for any part of the United States. 256 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS traveling expenses he permitted his employers to pay, but not a rupee further could he be persuaded to accept. In the one or two cases when presents were literally forced upon him, and he could not return them without giving mortal offense, he used them for his mission buildings. Is it any wonder that all men came to believe in him and to trust in him, as they trusted no other living man? After peace was restored to Southern India, there was little of the eventful in Schwartz's life. He remained unmarried, and he never revisited Europe. He was a most laborious missionary, so busy with his various serv- ices that he found little time for study, save at night. Notwithstanding the reputation of this part of India for a climate peculiarly deadly to Europeans, he was able to continue his missionary labors forty-eight years, practi- cally unbroken by sickness. Nor is this longevity unex- ampled. Many missionaries have labored in that region over forty years, and have lived to be above seventy. It is probable that, given a fairly good constitution to begin with, more depends on an intelligent observance of the laws of health than on any climate. There are theological students and ministers who do not know how to take care of themselves and cannot be taught, and who do not even learn anything from experience; they are always ailing, frequently compelled to give up their studies or resign their pastorates because of ill health. They always berate the climate, and though they change locations every year and try every State in the Union, and though their admiring and pitying congregations send them to Europe frequently, they will never find a climate suitable for them this side of heaven, for the fault is in them — though you could not make one of them believe that, if you repeated it until doomsday. Such men, when they become mis- sionaries, die young, and then their friends in America groan and say, " Oh, the dreadful climate! " SCHWARTZ 257 It was the privilege of Schwartz to continue at his post and work almost to the last. Only the few closing weeks of a life of seventy-two years were without fruit; and even of these that should not be said, for the patience and fortitude and calm trust with which he met the great enemy were a better sermon than any he ever preached. The end came February 13, 1798. Serf ogee, the rajah, whose guardian and instructor he had been, visited him during his last hours, and over his grave erected a monu- ment to the memory of Father Schwartz, designed by Flaxman, and representing the rajah as grasping the mis- sionary's hand and receiving his benediction. On a marble slab is the following inscription : To the memory of the Rev. Christian Friederich Schwartz Born Sonnenberg, of Neumark, in the kingdom of Prussia, The 28th October, 1726, And died at Tanjore the 13th February, 1798, In the 72nd year of his age, Devoted in his early manhood to the office of Missionary in the East, The similarity of his situation to that of The first preachers of the gospel, Produced in him a peculiar resemblance to The simple sanctity of the Apostolic character. His natural vivacity Mron the affection As his unspotted probity and purity of life Alike commanded the reverence of the Christian, Mohammedan and Hindu: For sovereign princes, Hindu and Mohammedan, Selected this humble pastor As the medium of political negotiation with The British Government: And the very marble that here records his virtues Was raised by The liberal affection and esteem of the Rajah of Tanjore, Mahah Rajah Serf ogee. R 258 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Several other monuments reared to his memory testify to the regard in which this missionary was held. One, erected by the English East India Company, has an elab- orate inscription, of which the following is a part : On a spot of ground granted to him by the Rajah of Tanjore, two miles east of Tanjore, he built a house for his residence, and made it an orphan asylum. Here the last twenty years of his life were spent in the education and religious instruction of chil- dren, particularly those of indigent parents, whom he gratu- itously maintained and instructed; and here, on the thirteenth of February, 1798, surrounded by his infant flock, and in the pres- ence of several of his disconsolate brethren, he closed his truly Christian career, in the seventy-second year of his age. Schwartz was a genuine missionary; he spent the greater part of his life and strength in doing the work of a Christian evangelist among the heathen. The preaching of the gospel was the one great thing to which he was called, and he was faithful to his calling. That cannot be too emphatically said, and all that follows must be judged in the light of this fact. But he was also the founder of the first Christian schools for the training of heathen children, and thus introduced a new missionary method which — in the hands of others, not in his — became a substitute for preaching, often to the exclusion of the latter altogether, or nearly so. He was not the absolute originator of the educational idea as applied to missions ; Ziegenbalg was before him in its advocacy, and but for absorption in the work of translation and the early poverty of the mission, he and not Schwartz would very likely have founded the first schools. And it is not strange that the missionaries should have their minds turned in this direction. The teaching instinct was in their blood. Germany is a nation of schoolmas- ters ; in every department of knowledge, her sons are the world's teachers, and in every land under the sun those SCHWARTZ 259 who would learn must sit at their feet. There was every- thing in their environment to call forth this instinct in the missionaries. Progress among the adult heathen of India has never, with a few exceptions, been rapid, and in the beginning of the Danish mission it was very slow. The workers felt, as those who work among the foreign populations in our land feel, that the best prospect of suc- cess, not to say tlie only real prospect of success, is among the children. Accordingly, the first missionaries actually bought heathen children from their parents, to educate them like Christians, with the hope that they would not only be converted, but would become preachers to their own people. It was in pursuance of this policy that Schwartz founded his schools, in which children were provided with homes and a living gratis, and given the elements of a secular education, at the same time being catechised after the Lutheran method. The plan seemed good, laudable even, and it was pursued with German diligence, persist- ence, and thoroughness. All that such schools could rea- sonably be expected to accomplish was done at Tranquebar and the other Danish stations. And what was the result? Disproportionate attention to the schools, in the first place, and a disproportionate outlay on their maintenance, until preaching of the gospel was thrust into the background. Secondly, as the spirit of fervent piety among the missionaries declined, as it rapidly did after the death of Schwartz, the work took on a formal character ; less and less evidence of regeneration was demanded or sought in the children so educated, and they were at length received into the church much as they were graduated from the schools, as if that were the natural and inevitable end of their course of instruc- tion. The quality of the native Christians proportionally declined. Thirdly, in the schools themselves the secular 26o CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS instruction was continually increased and the religious training diminished, until the latter lost most of any effect- iveness it once possessed, while the former still failed to equal in excellence the schools at length established by the government. Finally the government felt moved to sug- gest that the schools either be abandoned by the mission- aries, or be put under State control and become purely secular — which latter course was adopted in not a few cases, and the missionaries became mere secular teachers. From every point of view, therefore, the experiment was a failure. Especially disastrous was the failure to make the schools a substitute for the preaching of the gospel. The theoretical advantages urged in favor of the religious instruction of children, as the most effective means of evangelization, though plausible in the extreme, did not in practice produce the hoped-for results, or anything like them. But this failure did not prevent the trial of the same method on nearly every new mission field, from the time of Schwartz until now. The missionaries of every de- nomination have taken their turn at applying the school idea to the evangelization of the heathen. The method does not lack strong advocates and numerous practical enforcements at present. There will be possibly two schools of thought among Christian missionaries to the end of time. Just as every man is by temperament a radical or a conservative, an optimist or a pessimist, so every missionary is predestined by nature and training to be a teacher or a preacher. He may be both, but one or the other will in his heart of hearts be his favorite method, to which he will resort whenever possible. And it should be frankly conceded that there is a place for both in all missionary eft'ort — for the teacher as well as the preacher is called and commissioned for this work. One thing upon which there is no disagreement is, that SCHWARTZ 261 next to the immediate work of preaching the gospel, the missionary should look to the raising up of a native min- istry. But that implies Christian education, and the founding of a school at the first possible moment. But such schools are to be strictly for those already Chris- tians, to fit them for work among their own people, as pastors, colporters, Bible women, and the like. This is altogether apart from the other question of schools de- signed to be an evangelizing agency, the pupils in which are to be heathen children, and in which the instruction is to be mainly or largely secular. The former may be properly founded and supported by a foreign missionary society as an integral part of its work. Again, it may be conceded, insisted rather, that as the progress of a mission results in the establishment of a Christian community, need will arise for the establishment of schools for the instruction of children of Christian con- verts. These schools will be mainly, perhaps purely, secular as to their instruction. They will not, in most cases, be conducted by missionaries, though they may be under missionary inspection and control, but by educated natives, and they should be founded and supported by the communities for which they exist. Missionary socie- ties should not be called upon to provide such schools. If they receive aid at all from the country whence the missionaries came, it should be private beneficence. It is monstrous to suppose that because we undertake to give the gospel to the heathen, we assume the burden of pro- viding for all the wants of the converts for all time to come. Yet many missionary appeals and much missionary practice seem based on some such theory as that. But schools for evangelization must have as pupils heathen children mainly, or no advance is made through this agency. And the practical difficulty that has always emerged in any system of this kind is that it is impossible 262 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS to unite the two ideals of secular education and evan- gelization without a loss of efficiency in one or the other, perhaps in both. The schools will generally prove un- equal for secular training to schools established by gov- ernments. In the interval between the beginning of mis- sionary effort and the establishment of government schools — an interval shorter or longer in various cases — the mission schools would not, of course, be liable to this objection. The interval proved very short in India and Japan, and another decade or two will see a State educa- tional system in China that will put mission schools under a great competitive disadvantage. But in Africa, for example, it is probable that a long period will elapse before there will be such social or political organization as in these countries of an older civilization and greater sus- ceptibility to European influence. Yet this also must be added : where all the conditions have been most favorable for such schools, they have signally failed to accomplish the one end for which they are supposed to exist, the conversion of the heathen children to Christianity. This is especially the case in those missions where con- version means what it means in America, not a mere willingness to be baptized and bear the name of Chris- tians, but a real, personal, living faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour, shown to be such by a changed character and a godly life. Those schools have been most fruitful as evangelizing agencies that are maintained by missionaries who believe regeneration to be accomplished by baptism and that training in a catechism, the Ten Commandments, and similar Christian formularies carries forward those regenerated in baptism to the reception of the Eucharist and the completion of their salvation. In other words, the educational idea is an admirable complement of the sac- ramental idea, and the school system will often prove wonderfully efficient in making converts of the kind de- SCHWARTZ 263 manded by the sacramental system. But a method of which this is true is sure to be worthless to those who require credible evidence of regeneration in their professed converts before baptizing them. Thus experience has been gradually making clear to missionaries and the societies that send them forth the limits within which the educational idea is applicable to each mission field, and the relative expenditure of time, effort, and money that is advisable. What may be called a science of missionary economics has gradually been worked out as the result of two centuries of experience, and though some problems yet remain to be solved, and tlie final word may not have been said as yet about some others, there is a good working basis for the present con- duct of missions. We are past the stage of haphazard experimentation, if we have not yet reached that of com- plete certitude. And to this result few missionaries have contributed more than Christian Friederich Schwartz. XIV ZINZENDORF: THE MORAVIAN PIONEERS IN MODERN MISSIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY The voluminous writings of Zinzendorf are mostly out of print and out of date. An edition of his sermons, in ten volumes, was published a few years after his death, and there have been numerous editions of his Geistliche Gedichte, the book by which he will be longest remembered. Biographies in German are numerous, the best being by Spangenberg (Barby, 1772-5; English translation, much abridged, by Jackson, London, 1838), Verbeek (Gnaden, 1845), and Pilgrim (excellent, though by a Roman Catholic, Leipzig, 1857). A French biography by Bovet (Paris, i860) has been translated into English, with the title of The Banished Count (London, 1865). The latest is Miiller, Zinzen- dorf als Erneuerer der Alien Briiderkirche (Leipzig, 1900). Other books containing material of interest and value are: Plitt, Zin- zendorf s Theologie (three vols., Gotha, 1869-74) > Burkhardt, Zinzendorf und die Brudergemeine Seiner Zeit (Gotha, 1886) ; Schroder, Zinzendorf und Herrnhut (Nordhausen, 1857). The best history of the old Moravian Church is that of Bishop de Schweinitz (Bethlehem, 1885), while the story of the revived church has been well told by Professor Hamilton (Bethlehem, 1900). Two books throwing great light on the early missionary work in America are: de Schweinitz, Life and Times of David Zeisberger (Philadelphia, 1870), and the Diary of David Zeis- berger (two vols., Cincinnati, 1885). Risler's biography of Spang- enberg (Barby, 1794) is also very valuable. The best available book on the general missionary operations of the church is Thompson, Moravian Missions (New York, 1882). XIV zinzendorf: the Moravian pioneers in modern missions NO great cause ever began in a smaller way, or pro- gressed more slowly, than modern Protestant mis- sions. How small a part of the great Lutheran churches of Europe were interested in the Indian mission, we have already seen, and it was several generations before the next forward movement was taken by them. In the meantime a much more impressive lesson of devotion to this work was afforded by another body of Christians, who, in proportion to numbers and wealth, occupied and still hold the foremost place in the world's evangelizing agencies. " Moravians " is a name that accident has given to a people whose own title is Unitas Fratrum, the Unity of the Brethren. They are in no way to be confounded with the United Brethren, a denomination of quite recent origin in our own country. The teachings of John Hus, Peter Chelcicky, and other Bohemian reformers resulted in the gradual gathering of a group of people who desired a more radical reform than the Utraquist party promised. These people were permitted to settle at Kunwald, a vil- lage near Lititz. Here in 1457 a church was organized, and twenty-eight elders were chosen to be their spiritual guides. The name chosen by these people and ever since retained in all their official documents was Unitas Fra- trum, sometimes abbreviated to '' The Unity." It was soon found necessary to separate from the Utraquist Church, and establish a church and ministry of their own. 267 268 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS In order that they might not be exposed to needless criti- cism and persecution on the ground of invaUd orders, they chose three of their number by lot and sent them to a colony of Waldensians then living in Moravia, whose bishop, Stephen by name, had been consecrated in 1434 by prelates of the Council of Basel. From Bishop Stephen these men received consecration as bishops, and the line of episcopal succession has remained unbroken to this day. When the Reformation began, the Bohemian Breth- ren, as they were then called, maintained friendly rela- tions with all the reformers, though effecting no organic union with any of the new Protestant churches. Luther is on record as saying of them : " Since the time of the apostles no church has as nearly resembled the apostolic churches as the Bohemian Brethren." They extended their congregations into Moravia and Poland, and in 1 610 became a legally recognized church in Bohemia. The beginning of the Thirty Years' War and the Counter- Reformation in Bohemia and Moravia was the signal for a persecution of these people, which increased in relent- less bitterness until all outward signs of their existence vanished. It was believed by the Roman Catholic perse- cutors that the Unitas Fratrum had wholly ceased to exist. Nevertheless, they remained as a hidden seed, which even the keen eyes of Jesuit missionaries were unable to discover. During this period they sometimes resorted to expedients that cannot be defended on moral grounds, to avoid complete destruction. They practised more or less outward conformity to the Roman Church, and were able to blind their Jesuit inquisitors by exhibiting certificates of auricular confession bought from their Catholic neigh- bors. The line of bishops, by secret consecrations, was preserved intact. At length, one Christian David, who ZINZENDORF 269 li ad learned the trade of carpenter and labored in various parts of Germany, was besought by some of the brethren remaining in Moravia to discover a retreat in some Prot- estant State, to which they might remove and live in peace. After a search of some three years, in May, 1722, David brought them word that a pious young nobleman. Count Nicholas Lewis von Zinzendorf, was willing to give them a refuge on his estate of Berthelsdorf, in Saxony.^ A few nights later, ten persons in all, including four chil- dren, abandoning all their possessions that could not be easily carried, set out on foot for this land of promise. Arriving at their new home, they founded a town that they named Herrnhut (Watch of the Lord), and in the next seven years some three hundred of the brethren came to them from various quarters of Moravia and Bohemia. From the circumstance that the first settlers, and probably most of the later comers, were from Mora- via, the name Moravian Brethren, or Moravians, be- came their popular designation. By their industry, thrift, and piety they became a flourishing and respected relig- ious community; but there was among them no man of the intellectual gifts and training requisite for leadership. It was when bringing his bride home to his estate at Berthelsdorf that Count Zinzendorf first became ac- quainted with the little band of exiles to whom he had given a refuge. He recognized their simple and genuine piety, gave them a cordial welcome, and showed them many practical tokens of his favor, but nothing would have seemed less likely than that he should become a member of that community, and for many years its head and director. All his surroundings, pursuits, and pros- pects seemed to be impassable barriers against such a course. And yet one who had known something of the history of his inner life might have predicted with confi- dence that which finally came to pass. 270 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Six weeks after his birth at Dresden, May 26, 1700, his father died, and his mother afterward remarried, so that his education and training were committed to his grandmother and aunt. These two women were distin- guished pietists, personal friends as well as disciples of Spener. It was the Roman Catholic Archbishop Hughes who once declared, " Give me the training of a child for his first ten years, and I care not who has him after- wards." In his first ten years these two pious women made indelible impressions upon the plastic mind and heart of young Zinzendorf. They in fact determined the whole course of his life, and all the temptations and allure- ments that this world can bring to bear upon a man young, titled, rich, and talented, could not turn him aside for long. He was distinguished for a precocious piety, but it did not give place, as too often happens, to outra- geous wickedness in later years, or even degenerate into the hypocrisy and priggishness that also is sadly frequent. At the age of ten he entered the grammar school estab- lished by Francke at Halle, and in his sixteenth year was admitted to the university. He had determined to devote his life to his Lord, and had a strong desire to be a preacher of the gospel. His whole family of titled rela- tives, including his excellent and truly pious grandmother, were shocked at the idea of a count becoming a mere min- :ister. The pressure thus brought to bear upon him was "'too strong to be resisted by a lad of his years, and finally his guardian gave him express commands to study law and qualify himself to care for his estates and pursue his father's career as councilor and minister of State. He completed his studies in 17 19, and supplemented them with a course of foreign travels. In the course of these he visited a picture gallery at Diisseldorf, in which was an Ecce Homo, with the inscription Hoc feci pro te, quid facts pro me? This made a deep impression upon him. ZINZENDORF 27 1 renewing in his soul those convictions that had been so combated by his elders. On returning home he received an offer from Francke to become the successor of Baron Canstein in the Bible House at Halle, a work altogether congenial to his tastes and desires, but completely distasteful to his family again. Once more he yielded to his relations, declined the offer, and accepted the office of judicial councilor under the king of Saxony. His marriage followed shortly after, and now his family probably breathed more easily. His wife was young, handsome, presumably fond of pleasure, and might be expected to keep him straight, if he dis- played any further erratic tendencies. At any rate, his family had done all they could to start him on the right path in life and might complacently wash their hands of further responsibility for him. But it turned out other- wise. The countess had also a pietistic training, sympa- thized with her husband's desires for a life of piety and religious service, and was his chief counselor and helper during their joint lives. Gradually Zinzendorf began to withdraw from the world of politics and pleasure, and devote himself to the work of preaching and teaching the gospel. His first idea was not to separate from the Lutheran Church, but to found a kind of Christian association or league, in v/hich all pious souls might join. He soon became con- vinced that this was impracticable, and at the same time he found himself more and more interested in the colony at Herrnhut, of whose history he began to learn some- thing. He determined to do all in his power to resusci- tate the Unitas Fratrum, and in 1727 he resigned his office at Dresden, took up his abode at Berthelsdorf, and joined the Moravians. On August 13, at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, there was a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the congregation, and this day has 272 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS ever since been regarded as the spiritual birthday of the renewed church. His further services in estabHshing and extending the church, must be summarized with brevity. He became their leader, shaped their develop- ment, settled their discipline, secured for them the episco- pal succession of the Bohemian Brethren, induced various governments to recognize the church, spent his property lavishly in their service, himself became one of their ^ bishops — in a word, gave them his life, his all. That there is a Moravian Church in the world to-day, is due to the providence of God and to Count Zinzendorf. But he did more than this: he established the church on a foundation from which it has never been moved; he settled its character for all time. And in this too, how plainly it appears that he was only the instrument of divine Providence! In April, 1731, Count Zinzen- dorf went to Copenhagen to attend the coronation of King Christian VI. Here he heard of the spiritual con- dition of the people of Greenland, and of the mission of Hans Egede. His relation of these facts to the congre- gation, on his return to Herrnhut, made a deep impres- sion upon them, but led to no immediate action on their part. They deemed themselves too weak for the begin- ning of any general missionary enterprise, and possibly Zinzendorf himself felt that it would be unwise to press the matter just then. Only ten years had passed since the first fugitives settled at Herrnhut ; they numbered but six hundred in all, and were only just emerged from a condition of dire poverty. Some of the count's attendants, while at Copenhagen, met a Negro who informed them concerning the religious destitution of his race in the West Indies. This same Negro afterward visited Herrnhut, and in this way the facts became widely known in the community. Without consultation with each other or with any other person, a 21N2END0RF 273 simultaneous desire was enkindled in the hearts of two young men to preach the gospel to these poor slaves. Leonhard Dober was a potter, and David Nitzschmann a carpenter; neither had much education, or any experi- ence in preaching, and their united wealth, besides the clothes they wore, was about three dollars each. The congregation sympathized but slightly with their desires and offered them no assistance, but Zinzendorf gave them his God-speed. At Copenhagen, after much discourage- ment and delay, they secured helpers, embarked from Holland, October 8, 1732, and in due time reached St. Thomas. Here they began their work of preaching to the Negroes at once, and with marked success. Nobody had pre- viously shown any interest in the spiritual welfare of these poor people, and so far as they knew anything about the Christian religion, they had supposed it to be for the whites alone. After a time, the planters opposed the missionaries, forbade this work, and had them impris- oned. The arrival of Count Zinzendorf with reenforce- ments secured their release, but opposition and persecu- tion still continued. The missionaries worked by day for their support, and by night they taught the Negroes. From St. Thomas the work spread to St. Croix and St. John, and later to Jamaica, St. Christopher's, Antigua, Barbadoes, and others of the smaller islands. The mor- tality among the missionaries was very great, but there was never any lack of new laborers to take the places of those who fell. There have been missions that could make a greater showing of statistics, and those who esti- mate the value of everything in figures would doubtless find this a small affair; but there are few brighter pages in the history of Christian missions than this work of the Moravians in the West Indies, if one take into ac- count the difficulties to be overcome, the patience and s 274 CHRISTIAN ErOCH-MAKERS fidelity of the missionaries, the completeness of their consecration, and the depths from which their converts were raised. The next missionary advance of the Moravians was in 1738, when they began work among the savages of Guiana, afterward extended to the Mosquito coast of Central America. These Indians are a far more bar- barous and degraded people than the Indians of North America. Christian writers of high standing, even within the last generation, have written books to show that mis- sions in some places involve such a sacrifice of human life that they should not be undertaken; and further- more, that some peoples are practically incapable of sal- vation. This the Moravians have ever refused to believe. They have braved all dangers, and have believed no man to be hopeless for whom Christ died. Whether it was justifiable to send men and women to almost certain death may be a debatable question, but certainly the Christian world is the richer for these exam- ples of heroic self-sacrifice. We honor a Hobson who calmly risks his life in his country's quarrel; shall we see only a rash fool in the missionary who incurs an equal risk for his Lord and his truth? If the soldier who leads a forlorn hope is a hero, not less heroic is the missionary ; and som.e of them there have been who in losing their lives have most truly saved them. We are fortunate perhaps, in our day, that one great danger has been forever re- moved, or at least greatly lessened; that the knowledge lately gained concerning the means by which malaria and yellow fever are communicated, has made possible a few simple precautions by which life in regions hitherto sup- posed to be deadly to white men may be made as safe as in the most salubrious climate. In fact, it is now defi- nitely known that these two deadly diseases, the twin scourges of the tropics, are not a matter of climate at all. ZINZENDORF 275 except very remotely. It is impossible to exaggerate the effect that this medical discovery may have during the present century on missionary labors in regions where up to now no white man has been able to live, or even to visit without great danger. Time would fail to speak in detail of all the missionary enterprises of the Moravians, their labors in Greenland, Labrador, and Alaska among the Eskimos, of their mis- sions in Africa, Australia, and elsewhere, of their work among the lepers, of their missionary failures as well as successes. But there is one part of their history of which a brief account is indispensable, for it has a peculiar interest for all Americans. In 1736 Count Zinzendorf was banished from Saxony. It had not been his aim to separate from the Lutheran Church, but to adopt the method of Spener and organize the Brethren as ecclesiolae in ecclesia, little societies within the church. To avoid every appearance of separa- tism, he had himself sought and obtained regular ordina- tion as a Lutheran minister. But his purpose was impos- sible of fulfilment, as John Wesley was to demonstrate on a still larger scale, and his propaganda created consider- able disturbance in Lutheran circles. The government was easily persuaded by the clergy that if the leader were out of the way, the Herrnhut people could be easily as- similated by the State Church— though in this the clergy proved to be far too sanguine. Some of the years of his banishment (he was recalled in 1749) Zinzendorf spent in America, principally in the new colony of Pennsylvania, which had been largely set- tled by Germans. He made a deep and permanent im- pression on the spiritual life of the colony, though he failed in his project of uniting the various denominations in a single evangelical brotherhood. He led In the found- ing of Moravian churches, and from this time on certain 276 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS towns became largely, if not exclusively, their posses- sion — such as Bethlehem, Nazareth, Lancaster, and York, in Pennsylvania, and New Dorp, Staten Island. The ad- vance of the Moravians was however, on the whole, retarded rather than promoted by these first settlements, in most of which a too exclusively communistic Hfe was adopted and rigidly maintained until a comparatively recent time. Even more influential in extending the Moravian influ- ence in America were two of the younger men of Zinzen- dorf's contemporaries, August Gottlieb Spangenberg and David Zeisberger. Spangenberg was a native of Prussia, and had no connection with the Moravians until his thir- tieth year, though he had met Zinzendorf and been much impressed by him several years before. In 1744 he was made a bishop, and until 1762 he was practically the head of the American Church, directing its affairs with a wis- dom and prudence that caused him to be surnamed " Joseph." After 1762 he returned to Hermhut and be- came the successor of Zinzendorf in the leadership of the whole Church, in which he showed a zeal only less and a discretion far surpassing his great predecessor's. David Zeisberger was the descendant of a family among the original Bohemian Brethren, whose parents emigrated to America, whither he followed on the completion of his studies at Herrnhut. He helped to build the towns of Nazareth and Bethlehem, and after some vicissitudes began the main work of his life, as missionary to the Indians, in 1745. He preached the gospel among a great number of the tribes, became master of their languages and customs, and gained their fullest confidence and love, so that he was at length adopted into one of the tribes and was reckoned by the Indians thenceforth as one of themselves. He established thirteen Christian villages among the Indians, and his converts were counted by hun- ZINZENDORF 2"]^ dreds. There is much contemporary testimony to the thoroughness and value of his work, as well as the con- vincing and circumstantial account that he has himself given us in his journal. His influence among the red men was unparalleled, and so completely was he able to guide their counsels that unaided he persuaded the Dela- ware nation not to join the Iroquois and the British in an attack on the colonies, at a critical period of the American Revolution — a service to his country that made possible the defeat and capture of Burgoyne, and hastened the end of the war, if it did not actually secure the independence of the colonies. It was Zeisberger's misfortune to spend his life in labors among a race doomed to decay and extinction, and the fruits of his missions were for this reason less permanent than he had every right to expect, but the progress of the gospel among the American Indians during his lifetime is a glorious chapter in the history of Christian missions notwithstanding this unfortunate sequel. The history of Moravian missions offers many valu- able suggestions to thoughtful students of missions. There are peculiar features in their work, all of great interest, some capable of affording much instruction, a few offering not less useful warning to other Christian bodies. The most weighty lesson taught by their history is the place that missionary effort ought to occupy in the thought and life of every church and denomination. That place is the supreme place. When the consciences of the people of Herrnhut were once aroused, when their minds were once enlightened on this matter, the fulfilment of the Great Commission became to them the chief end of their lives. And such it has remained to this day among all Moravians. This is the characteristic feature of their Church; it is in the world, not to defend a theology, not 278 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS to practise a rite or a system of rites, not to maintain a polity, but to proclaim the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. Of all the Christian people I have ever met, the Moravians seem to have preserved most of the spirit of apostolic Christianity. They put to shame other Prot- estant and evangelical Christian bodies in this : that they have no missionary societies, with their jealous and rival agencies to distract the interest and contract the benevo- lence of their members, but the whole Church, in all its organization, is a missionary society. It exists in the world for no other purpose than the proclamation of the gospel and the gathering of God's elect from among the nations. This is no theory, of the sort that look pretty on paper and sound well in religious addresses, but are totally disregarded in practice. It is the actual working of the Church for almost two centuries. In missionary method, as well as in missionary spirit, the Moravians are fitted to give lessons to all the Protestant world — if it would only consent to go to school to them, which it is too proud and obstinate ever to do. Next to this lesson may be placed the determination of the Moravians to abide by the Pauline principle of build- ing on no other man*s foundations. But this has meant more to them than the mere refusal to enter a field al- ready occupied. A principle of " missionary comity " has led to a general understanding among evangelical de- nominations, that so long as there are unevangelized peoples remaining, new missions should be established by any denomination only among those who have not yet heard the gospel. But long before this " missionary comity " existed, Moravians had instinctively accepted this course, and joined to this rule another not less admirable : they would especially seek out and devote themselves to peoples whom others had neglected, tribes and nations from whom others turned in disgust, even pronounced ZINZENDORF 279 to be unworthy of attention or positively incapable of salvation. So, when the Church of England ministers said that missions to the American Indians were useless ; when the Dutch Reformed people said that an Indian had no soul and could not be saved ; when the popular opinion already was fixed that the only good Indian is a dead Indian, the Moravians began their missions and continued them until whole tribes were hopefully converted. The Moravians were the first to preach the gospel to the enslaved Negro. They first told the story of the cross to the Eskimos. They first made the gospel known to the Indian tribes of Central and South America. They es- tablished the first Protestant hospital among the lepers. And in most such cases they were not only the first — for a long time they were the only workers in these fields, and in some of them they still have no helpers — for I will not say rivals. Numerically they have ever been a feeble folk, and their wealth has not surpassed their numbers, but in missions they have won successes proportionate to their ardent faith and splendid devotion. Considerable interest attaches to the missionary methods of the Moravians, and here too, other denominations might learn from them if they would. They have from the first sent out laymen as well as ministers, and of the two the laymen have often proved the more effective. When laymen have not been especially efficient as teach- ers or soul-winners, as has sometimes happened, their sturdy common sense and practical knowledge have even more often been invaluable. Wherever they have gone, Moravians have been successful in establishing little Christian communities, self-supporting and independent. There have been no " rice-Christians " among their con- verts, for the very good reason that there has been no " rice." Converts have been taught and helped to sup- port themselves, but have never been supported. Hence, 28o CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS whatever progress the missions have made has been soHd and permanent ; it has been gained on sound economic, as well as on sound religious, principles. Not only have the Moravian converts always been self- supporting, but the missionaries themselves have been largely so. This is one reason why so small a church and so poor has been able to accomplish a missionary work so large. Some whole missions have been conducted by men and women who fully supported themselves. The Moravian missions, in fact, are and always have been an object-lesson of the minimum of expense and the maxi- mum of efficiency. It is objected, when study of these methods and their intelligent imitation are urged upon the directors of other missionary operations, that this is bad economy; that it is as much a mistake to permit a mis- sionary to expend a large part of his time and energies in earning his living, as it would be to permit a preacher to labor at a secular calling during the week and preach evenings and Sundays. But is it certain that there would be so great a loss of power in our preachers if they once more reverted to the older method ? A great loss to the churches of the pastoral work now done by ministers would necessarily ensue — yet that might be made good by increased activity of the deacons and other lay members. But as to pulpit effectiveness, the case is not so clear. Sermons made by men en- gaged in practical affairs might lack in metaphysical pro- fundity and rhetorical finish, as compared with those now preached, but what might they not gain in point, in pun- gency, in real adaptation to the needs of the people who hear? And above all, we should escape from that which so weakens the minister's influence to-day, the taint of professionalism. How many sermons are preached every Sunday that have no better apology for existence than this : the clock had struck eleven, and the minister must ZINZENDORF 281 get on his legs and say something — anything — for the next thirty minutes ! And this perfunctory preaching (which the congregation understands just as well as the minister does — make no mistake about that) is perhaps the least evil of professionalism. There is the feeling, wide-spread in the community, and only too well founded, that a great many men are in the ministry, not because God ever called them to preach, but because it is a digni- fied, eminently respectable, and not too difficult way of making a living. If the ministry could be wholly freed of that suspicion, if like Paul at Corinth it could make men believe that it seeks them, not theirs, is it too much to say that its moral power might be doubled ? One other word on the missionary methods of the Moravians : they have given considerable prominence to the educational idea in missions, and have been among the most faithful disciples of Schwartz. Here, perhaps, they have made their most serious error, and especially when, from motives of financial gain, they have accepted government aid for their schools^ — at the price, neces- sarily, of more or less government supervision. In some cases, therefore, we need not be surprised to find that their missionaries became little more than school teachers, and the preaching of the gospel took quite a secondary place. The only other error that can be called serious in their missionary methods is a certain tendency, not so marked of late years as earlier, to overdo the community principle, so as to become narrow, selfish, clannish, ex- clusive. This has been, in some cases, a great hin- drance of progress, and by nobody has this fact been more clearly recognized or more honestly deplored thaa by tue more enlightened among their own number. There is no chapter in the history of Christianity in which the finger of divine Providence can be more plainly seen than in the history of the Moravians. And of all the 282 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS noble men bred under the pietistic movement, there is none who surpasses Zinzendorf. To Germany and its religious life he was what John Wesley was to England. So long as Christian song continues in the world, so long will the name of Zinzendorf be gratefully cherished. So long as there are Christian missions, so long will the Unitas Fratrum be honored. XV CAREY: THE MISSIONARY REVIVAL IN ENGLAND BIBLIOGRAPHY Carey's tract, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, was reprinted in London in 1891. The earliest biography, by his nephew, Eustace Carey (Boston, 1836), was a very poor performance, and Marshman's Life and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward (two vols., London, 1859; "popular edition," New York, 1867), though containing much valuable material, is primarily a life of Marshman. The most satisfactory biography is that by George Smith (London, 1887), but the briefer sketch by Culross is also well worth reading (London, 1881). Most histories of mis- sions give adequate treatment of Carey's work; for example, Warneck, pp. 74-144; History of the Church Mission Society, I : 57, seq. (three vols., London, 1899). In connection with the life and work of Carey the career of Andrew Fuller should by all means be studied — biographies by his friend, John Ryland (London, 1816) and his grandson (London, 1863) ; also by his son, in the complete American edition of Fuller's works (Phila- delphia, 1833). The Centenary Volume of the Baptist Mission Society (London, 1893) contains a large amount of material on the results of Carey's work. For this and succeeding chapters valuable material may be found in Charlotte M. Yonge's Pioneers and Founders of the Missionary Enterprise (London, 1874), and Creegan, Great Missionaries of the Church (New York, 1895). The latest account of Carey's life and labors is the volume by Myers in Revell's "Missionary Series." XV CAREY : THE MISSIONARY REVIVAL IN ENGLAND ON the seventeenth of August, 1761, was born in the little village of Paulerspury, eleven miles south of Northampton, on the old Roman road from London to Chester, one who was destined to be the leader in one of the greatest revolutions of modern times. It was a famous part of England in which he first saw the light ; that mid- land district which was the birthplace of the myriad- minded Shakespeare; that had sent forth Wiclif, the Morning Star of the Reformation, the judicious Hooker, most eloquent theologian of the Church of England, John Bunyan, the immortal dreamer, George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, and a score of other men of only less note in England's spiritual history. It was in a humble cottage that William Carey was born, yet his family were no common folk. An elder branch of the Careys gave to the kings of England statesmen and soldiers, scholars and bishops, during a period of more than two centuries. There had been three peerages in the family, and though the father of William Carey was only a village weaver, he was a kinsman to some of Eng- land's proudest nobles. In addition to his work at the loom, the elder Carey was village schoolmaster and parish clerk, a man therefore held in much respect in the little village. The country about Paulerspury is said to be one of the most beautiful spots in all England. '' Its ooHtic hills, gently swelling to about seven hundred feet, and the valleys of the many rivers which flow from this central 285 286 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS water-shed west and east, are covered with fat vegeta- tion almost equally divided between grass and corn, with green crops. The many large estates are rich in gardens and orchards, the farmers chiefly on small holdings are famous for their short-horn and Leicester sheep." In the beauty of its native flora, in skilful horticulture, in the perfection of its agriculture, Northamptonshire was and is the finest county in England, and its beauty left an indelible impress upon the responsive mind of young Carey. As he grew up, the boy manifested no special aptitude for learning, though he was always fond of reading. He was not one of those abnormal youths who amaze every- body by their early precocity and their later dulness, but developed slowly. From an early age he showed a great interest in nature, and he fortunately had an uncle, a gardener in the same village, who was both able and will- ing to give him lessons in botany and horticulture. He was soon given as a task the keeping of his father's garden, and it speedily gained the repute of being the best in the neighborhood. His fondness for flowers and plants he never lost, and this early training had much to do, not only with his recreations in later years, but with one of his most useful lines of labor. It would probably have been his lot to become a gardener, like his uncle, except that he was afflicted in youth with some skin disease that made his face and hands abnormally sensitive to ex- posure to the sun. Attempts to work in the field during summer were invariably followed by great distress at night; and finally, at the age of sixteen, it was obvious that some indoor occupation must be found for him, and his father apprenticed him to a shoemaker in the hamlet of Hackleton, nine miles distant from his home. Since it has been said that his father was parish clerk, it will be correctly inferred that Carey was brought up CAREY 287 in the Church of England. He had probably heard of Dissenters before, but not until he left home did he come into close contact with any. The senior apprentice of his Hackleton master was a Dissenter, and naturally dis- putes arose in the shop upon religious subjects. Of these discussions, Carey said in after years : I had always looked upon Dissenters with contempt. I had, moreover, a share of pride sufficient for a thousand times my knowledge. I therefore always scorned to have the worst of an argument, and the last word was assuredly mine. I also made up in positive assertion what was wanting in argument, and gen- erally came off with triumph. But I was often convinced after- wards that, although I had the last word, my antagonists had the better of the argument, and on that account felt a growing uneasiness, and stings of conscience gradually increasing. George Fox was only nineteen when, after eight years of service with a shoemaker in Drayton, not far from where Carey worked, he heard the voice from heaven that sent him forth to preach until the Friends became a power in England. The shoemaker's bench at Hackleton was educating an even greater man for a still larger work. Young Carey was at this time, as he frankly con- fessed in later years, much given to lying, swearing, and other sins. He was nevertheless very self-righteous. But about the time he was eighteen years of age he came to a conciousness of his true condition; his sins were dis- closed to him in all their hideousness, and to his spiritual vision, purged of self, there appeared the Crucified One — to his spiritual intelligence was revealed the Word of God. The epiphany of Christ changed Paul, the self-righteous Pharisee, into the apostle to the Gentiles; it changed Carey, a later Pharisee not less self-righteous, into the apostle to the Hindus. But not all at once. Carey had found the peace that passeth understanding, but his mind was not at rest as 288 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS regards the doctrines of the Bible. He was troubled, inquisitive, anxious, unsatisfied. He had no teacher or guide and was compelled painfully to piece together the teachings of Scripture, as he was able to understand them, into something like the coherence and order of a theological system. While thus studying, somewhat sud- denly, it would seem, he embraced Baptist views, not as the result of any human teaching, but through his study of the Bible. He records that he cannot recollect having read anything on the subject but the Scriptures, at the time that he applied to John Ryland, senior, for baptism. He was turned over to the junior Ryland, who duly exam- ined him and became satisfied of his conversion and sound views ; and accordingly he was baptized on pro- fession of his faith in the river Nen, at Northampton, October 5, 1783. " This day baptized a poor journey- man shoemaker," is the matter-of-fact entry in the min- ister's diary. Doctor Ryland little imagined that in future years that day would stand out as the greatest day of his life. How little any of us know until long afterward when the really great moments of our lives come to us. Before nine years had elapsed this poor journeyman shoe- maker was to be made by the providence of God leader in the greatest missionary movement of the ages. The sermon preached that morning in the Baptist church of Northampton had as its text, " Many first shall be last, and the last first " ; and if Doctor Ryland could have fore- seen what was to come to pass, and had searched the Scriptures diligently, he could have found no words more appropriate, more subtly prophetic. It was not long before some of his friends wished the young convert to exercise his gifts by speaking to a few people in a house licensed for religious purposes at Pury. His speaking was most acceptable, and from this time on he preached frequently. At the same time he was a CAREY 289 diligent student, having formed the habit of close study from the time he began his apprenticeship. At the age of twenty he set up a stall for himself at Moulton, and soon after married. As he labored at his bench he always kept a book at his side, and studied as he wrought. He had a great native facility in the acquisition of lan- guage, which by cultivation he increased until it became a really marvelous gift. In seven years of such study at his bench he learned enough of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and Dutch to read books easily in all these lan- guages, and that with scarcely any instruction. Men who have enjoyed the advantages of college and university training in the languages sometimes permit themselves to sneer at the scholarship of men self-taught like Carey, but they are singularly blind not to perceive that it is rather the Careys who, but for their forbear- ance, might sneer at them. For the college method of teaching languages is radically wrong, while the self- taught man almost always hits upon the right method. He learns to read and write a foreign tongue as if it were his own, never troubling himself with the niceties of phil- ology and the refinements of grammar; while the col- lege graduate, knowing ten times as much about the science of language, after five to seven years' constant study of Greek and Latin cannot read a page of the sim- plest prose without painful toil with the dictionary, and as for composing a letter or essay in these languages, he could as easily fly. Not one college graduate in a hun-. dred ever learns enough of the tongues in which Homer and Horace wrote to read the classics with pleasure and to feel their literary charm. But this is precisely what the Careys do learn — they study a language for no other purpose than to be able to read its literature. They, and not those who suppose themselves to be scholars because they know grammar and philology, are the true human- T 290 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS ists of to-day. When will the teacher arise who will lead the way in a greatly needed educational reform, and where is the college or university that will listen to him and give him a fair field when he comes ? It was not always a book in a foreign tongue that Carey kept thus at his side. One of the works that he read with avidity in this way was Captain Cook's account of his voyage around the world. This first seems to have sug- gested the religious destitution of the heathen, and the duty of Christians to give them the gospel. Once the idea became lodged in a mind like this, it could not fail to germinate and wax great, until it should become the controling principle of his life. After a time a small Baptist church at Moulton invited Carey to preach to them. They could offer him only ten pounds a year, supplemented by five pounds from a Lon- don fund. This miserable salary he eked out by keeping a school, or by laboring at his trade, but his total income was said never to have exceeded thirty-six pounds a year while he lived at Moulton. Many pastors and mis- sionaries to-day are disgracefully underpaid, but few are compelled to live upon such a pittance as this. While teaching geography to the children in his school, Carey's idea of the need of the heathen and the missionary call- ing of English Christians was deepened and strengthened. At length the Moulton Baptists formally called him to become their pastor, and he was ordained to the min- istry August ID, 1786, Andrew Fuller preaching the sermon on that occasion. From this time on, Carey began to communicate to others his thoughts regarding the missionary enterprise, but he met with little encouragement. English Baptists were poor, and such an undertaking did not appear pos- sible to them. It is narrated that, on one occasion, when Carey propounded his ideas, asking whether the com- CAREY 291 mand given to the apostles to teach all nations was not obligatory on all succeeding ministers to the end of the world, seeing that the accompanying promise was of equal extent, the chairman of the meeting shouted out the rebuke : " You are a miserable enthusiast for asking such a question. Certainly nothing can be done before another Pentecost, when an effusion of miraculous gifts, including the gift of tongues, will give effect to the com- mission of Christ as at first." A similar story is told, and is apparently authentic, that when Carey attempted to enlist the Northampton Association in his beloved mis- sionary plan, Doctor Ryland said to him sternly : " Sit down, young man ; when the Lord gets ready to convert the heathen, he will do it without your help or mine." Such was the paralyzing effect of the hyper-Calvinism that prevailed among the English Baptists at this time. But Carey did not consider the possibilities. He looked only at the question of duty. The Duke of Wellington once replied to a young clergyman who asked if it were not useless to preach the gospel to the Hindus : " With that you have nothing to do. Look to your marching orders, ' Go, preach the gospel to every creature.' " The soldier was right, and the preacher stood justly rebuked. Finally, at the meeting of the Association at Notting- ham, May 30, 1792, Carey obtained a hearing. He had already published his tract, called "An Inquiry Into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conver- sion of the Heathens," but it had no very large circulation, and had not produced much effect. He was the preacher of the occasion, and chose as his text Isa. 54 : 2, 3 — the vision of the widowed Israel's tent stretching forth until her children inhabited the nations and peopled the deso- late cities — and announced as the heads of his discourse, " Expect great things from God ; attempt great things for God." It was one of those days on which the fate of 2^J2 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS great religious bodies turns. The discourse roused some who Hstened to a new idea of their responsibility for the fufilment of the Great Commission, but even Fuller was afraid that the time had not yet come to attempt anything practical, and the ministers were about leaving the meet- ing, when Carey seized Fuller's arm and exclaimed, "And are you after all going again to do nothing?" In response to his importunity, this minute was finally ^ passed : " That a plan be prepared against the next min- ister's meeting at Kettering, for forming a Baptist society for propagating the gospel among the heathen." During the next four months the fire burned in a few hearts, and when the ministers met at Kettering, October 7, they formed " The Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Heathen." Its con- stituent members were twelve, and out of their poverty they contributed to the treasury some thirteen pounds two shillings and six pence. What a sum with which to begin the evangelization of the world! The history of the society is an instructive commentary on the Scripture, " For who hath despised the day of small things ? " The London churches, the richer churches everywhere, and the richer men among the Baptists, stood aloof from the work during its early years of struggle. It was the poorer churches and ministers that finally raised money enough to send out, in June, 1793, the first missionaries to India — William Carey and John Thomas. The latter was a surgeon who had already had some experience in India as a medical missionary. And just here a caution to Baptists: Do not be guilty of making the claim that the Baptists were the pioneers among modern Christians in the work of foreign mis- sions. Let me briefly recapitulate facts fully brought out in previous chapters. More than fifty years before Carey was born, Ziegenbalg, the Dane, went to India and began CAREY 293 a mission among the Tamils, founding Christian schools, gathering converts, and translating the Scriptures into the vernacular. Forty years before Carey sailed for India, Schwartz, the Prussian, became Ziegenbalg's suc- cessor and carried forward the work. Thirty years before Carey's birth, Moravian missionaries set out to preach the gospel among the Negroes of St. Thomas, the Indians of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Eskimos of Greenland. And while the Lutheran mis- sions were the result of the devotion of a few individuals, sporadic cases of interest in Christianizing the heathen, those of the Moravians were the act of their church as a whole — a church that was marvelously preserved by the providence of God that it might thus be an example to the rest of Christendom of devotion to the Great Commis- sion; a church that regards its mission in the world as nothing else and nothing less than fulfilment of the com- mand, " Go ye and disciple all the nations " ; a church in which one member in every sixty actually becomes a mis- sionary, as against one in thirty-five hundred among the other evangelical churches. Why then, if these things are so, should we or any others especially honor William Carey? Why should his services to the missionary cause be exalted above those of any other devoted missionary? Because, though he was not absolutely the first in modern times to engage in this work, he became, in the good providence of God, the means of arousing new interest in the missionary cause and of greatly extending it. His predecessors had been comparatively unknown to the greater part of Europe; they had made relatively little impression on the Christian sentiment of the world. What we call secular history presents a parallel case. Long before Columbus, hardy Norsemen had made voyages on our Atlantic coast, and their discoveries had been embalmed in the sagas of their 294 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS people. But to the rest of the world this fact was un- known; even they did not appreciate the significance of what they had found. Columbus was the real discoverer of the new world, though not its first discoverer, and it is from his voyages that the settlement of this continent by Europeans is properly dated. So, from the work of Carey, though he was not the first of modern missionaries, from the organization of the Baptist Missionary Society, though it was not the first missionary organization of modern times, dates a conception of the duty of Chris- tians so greatly enlarged, an increase of missionary activ- ity so vast, that as we properly call Columbus the dis- coverer of America, we may with equal propriety call Carey the Father of Modern Missions. It is difficult now to comprehend the bitterness of the opposition offered by the British East India Company and its officials to the work of Carey and his associates. Carey himself could only reside in British India by pro- curing a license as an indigo planter, and Doctor Thomas was tolerated only as a physician, not as a missionary. Even while he supported himself as a planter, Carey was so greatly harassed in his missionary work that he finally decided to leave the English flag and begin a new mission in Serampore, under the protection of the Danish govern- ment. Here he continued for some years his work of translating and printing the Scriptures. When Lord Wellesley founded Fort William College, at Calcutta, in 1801, Carey proved to be the only European discoverable who was fitted to hold the chair of Bengali, and so he was offered the position, which he held thenceforth until r*^ 1830. This was a quasi approval of his missionary work by the government, and from this time on his associates also met with less opposition. The English Baptists were stimulated by the reports that reached them from India to send out other laborers, CAREY 295 and the mission became a fruitful one. Nor was this stimulating influence by any means confined to his own brethren. The Church of England was shamed into doing something by the activity of these Dissenters. The Religious Tract Society (1797) and the British and For- eign Bible Society (1804) were formed to circulate the Bible and Christian literature in all lands and tongues. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (1701), which had done something for the English people in the colonies — what we should now call distinctively home mission work — greatly extended its operations; and the London Missionary Society and the Church Missionary Society were founded, and began operations in the Fiji Islands and in Africa. Missionary societies in the Neth- erlands and in Germany followed quickly, while the two oldest American societies may also be directly traced to the effect of Carey's labors. In short, to trace out the lines of his influence would be to write the history of Christian missions during the nineteenth century — the greatest missionary epoch since the age of the apostles. For other biographical details, for fuller historical chronicles of Carey and the Indian mission, I must there- fore refer to books easy of access, and especially to the most excellent " Life of Carey," by Dr. George Smith. What I should like to do, in the remaining space, is to summarize the chief facts about Carey's services in such a way that we may all gain a better idea of the total sum of his influence, and rightly estimate the significance of his life and work, not only for Christian missions, but for India. In the first place, then, I direct attention to his work of giving the Scriptures to the people of India. The facts would' be simply incredible, if they were not amply at- tested. I quote first of all the words of Robert Southey, in the '' Quarterly Review," in reply to the sneers and 296 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS jibes (attributed to the Rev. Sydney Smith) ^ at the " con- secrated cobblers " and their efforts to convert the learned Brahmins : Nothing can be more unfair than the manner in which the scoffers and alarmists have represented the missionaries. We who have thus vindicated them are neither blind to what is er- roneous in their doctrine or ludicrous in their phraseology; but the anti-missionaries cull out from their journals and letters all that is ridiculous, sectarian, and trifling ; call them fools, madmen, tinkers, Calvinists, and schismatics; and keep out of sight their love of man and their zeal for God, their self-devotement, their indefatigable industry, and their unequaled learning. These low- born and low-bred mechanics have translated the whole Bible into Bengali, and have by this time printed it. They are printing the New Testament in Sanskrit, the Orissa, Mahratta, Hindu- stan, and Guzarat, and translating it into Persic, Telinga, Kar- nata, Chinese, the sacred languages of the Sikhs, and of the Burmans, and in four of these languages they are going on with the Bible. Extraordinary as this is, it will appear more so when it is remembered that of these men one was originally a shoe- maker, another a printer of Hull, and a third a master of a charity school at Bristol. Only fourteen years have elapsed since Thomas and Carey set foot in India, and in that time have these missionaries acquired this gift of tongues ; in fourteen years these low-born, low-bred mechanics have done more towards spreading the knowledge of the Scriptures among the heathen than has been accomplished, or even attempted, by all the princes and potentates of the world, and all the universities and estab- lishments into the bargain. Do not think to supersede the Baptist missionaries till you can provide from your own church such men as these, and, it may be added, such women as their wives. But even this eloquent and spirited vindication of Carey and his fellows fails to do them justice, partly 1 Smith's article is in the " Edinburgh Review," Vol. 12, p. 151, and may also be found in his collected essays. Southey's article, virtually a reply, and a vindication of the Baptist missionaries, appeared in the first number of the " Quarterly Review," for April, 1809. Smith's hostile attitude toward the missionaries was probably due to the fact that his brother, " Bobus " Smith, was Advocate-general of India at the time of the Carey mission and, with other officials, was bitterly opposed to the whole enterprise. CAREY 297 because Southey did not know all the facts, partly be- cause he wrote before their work had been completed. Between 1801 and 1822, thirty-six translations of the Scriptures, in whole or in part, were made and edited by Carey at Serampore, who also saw them all through the press. Only one who has himself had experience, as editor or author, can understand the amount of labor in- volved in merely carrying these books through the press, to say nothing of the work of translation. Of these thirty-six versions, six were complete translations of the Bible, twenty-three more were translations of the entire New Testament, and to six of these some Old Testament books were added later. In four cases, only the Gospels were translated in whole or in part. In the making of every one of these versions, Carey had some share; several of them he made throughout; in other cases he did only part of the work, but revised the whole. Eight other versions were edited and printed by him during this period, though he contributed nothing to the translation. In all he was directly concerned in the printing of forty-two distinct translations. Four at least of these — the Bengali, Hindu, Marathi, and Sanskrit — were his exclusive work, from title-page to colophon. Would you form some estimate of the labor involved? Then take your Hebrew Bible or Greek Testament some day and translate a chapter from the book least familiar to you, without any help from an English version, mul- tiply this labor by eleven hundred and eighty-nine, and you will have gained some faint idea of the labor involved in making only one of these versions. It will be a very faint idea indeed, for you can have the aid of the best lexicons and grammars and commentaries, and you will be making the translation in your mother tongue. Sup- pose yourself without these helps, or with very inferior works such as Carey had at his command a century ago, 298 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS since when the sciences of biblical lexicography and bibli- cal exegesis have been almost created, certainly have been recreated; and also suppose yourself making the trans- lation into a foreign tongue, recently and imperfectly acquired by you, with no grammars or dictionaries of that language save what you have yourself made — and then you will have a better idea of the work Carey had to per- form. The mythical labors of Hercules are a feather- weight compared to Carey's actual labors. Well does he deserve the title that has been bestowed on him, the Wic- lif of India. Before he died, through his agency, the Scriptures had been given in their own language to three hundred and thirty million people, one-third of the entire population of the globe; and two hundred and twelve thousand copies of these versions had been issued from the Serampore presses. Surely, it has been seldom given to any man to do a greater work than this, one more far- reaching in its consequences, more lasting in its results. But this is only a part of Carey's services to India and to the world. He was one of the great philanthropists. His name should forever rank with that of Howard, who preached humanity to those in prison ; with those of Wil- berforce and Garrison, who conducted the peaceful cru- sade against slavery until both England and America struck off the shackles from the Negro ; with that of Flor- ence Nightingale, who led the way in that effort to lessen the horrors of war, which has culminated in the interna- tional organization of the Red Cross. The glory of his other achievements has obscured this work of Carey's, and few know anything of it. When he went to India he found Hinduism at its worst, and the people most help- less in its degrading bondage. It was he that did more than any one man to set the people free. To his constant writing and agitation was due the gradual formation of a public sentiment, both in India and in England, which CAREY 299 compelled the government at length to make unlawful infanticide, voluntary drowning and Sati, or the burning of widows with the bodies of their husbands. Yet Brit- ish authorities slowly and most reluctantly suppressed these crimes against humanity, moving only as they were compelled to act by an irresistible force of enlightened Christian sentiment. The creation of that sentiment was Carey's work. Not that he, single-handed and alone won| the victory, but he was the first prophet of the new Chris- tian India, he was the pioneer in all early reforms, he fought the battle through and led the way to victory. The people of India owe the relative amelioration of their lot, as compared with a century ago, to William Carey. If any man deserves the utmost gratitude and reverence short of idolatry that they can give to a mortal like them- selves, it is he, their liberator from a bondage worse than death. But Carey did more than this for humanity, and for India. He was a great educator. He laid the founda- tions of the educational system that has done so much already, and will do yet more toward the elevation of the native races in India. I have no space to enlarge upon this as it deserves. He was the greatest Orientalist of his time, and did more to promote sound scholarship in that department of learning, and to make possible the great progress of European scholars In the study of the sacred books of the East, and of comparative religion, than any other one man. But one other name is worthy of mention in the same class, that of Sir William Jones, and Carey was the greater scholar of the two. No suc- cessor has equaled him in learning, none has surpassed him in breadth. The poor village cobbler, schoolmaster, preacher, became a man wdiom all the learned societies of Europe delighted to honor, a scholar held in lasting and grateful remembrance by them. 300 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS In still another department of science Carey did useful pioneer work. His early taste for gardening and flowers has been noted. In later years this led him to become not only an erudite, but an expert botanist. From the first he turned his studies to practical account. He sent to England for seeds and tools, by practical example and instruction introduced improved methods of culture, naturalized all kinds of fruits and vegetables that would grow in the soil and climate of India ; as well as imported from other tropical climates trees and plants not found in Hindustan. An experimental garden of five acres at Serampore was his special delight, and almost equally a source of pleasure to his friends and visitors. In this little paradise he had specimens from all parts of the world, of everything that could be coaxed to live there; and many practical results followed his experiments in horticulture. He had few deeper sorrows in all his life than the almost total destruction of his beloved garden, during a flood of 1823. Through his influence a horticul- tural society was established in India, and many valuable reforms in agricultural methods were introduced through this agency — reforms that greatly increased the quality and quantity of the crops grown, of such staples as indigo, wheat, and sugar-cane. The possibility of better- ing the climate of India by the cultivation of timber was first suggested by him, and scientific forestry was finally established largely through his efforts. Of late years the government of India has taken up this work in many parts of the country, with great vigor and considerable success, thus furnishing the strongest possible testimonial to the value of Carey's pioneer labors. A recent historian of missions thus sums up the results of this missionary and philanthropic pioneering of Carey and his fellows, in the first third of the nineteenth century : CAREY 301 The first complete or partial translation of the Bible printed in forty languages or dialects of India, China, Central Asia, and other neighboring lands, at a cost of eighty thousand one hun- dred and forty-three pounds ; the first prose work and vernacular newspaper in Bengali, the language of seventy million human beings; the first printing-press on an organized scale, paper-mill, and steam engine seen in India ; the first Christian primary school in North India; the first efforts to educate native girls and women ; the first college to train native ministers and Christianize native Hindus ; the first Hindu Protestant convert ; the first medi-* cal mission, of which that convert was, to some extent, the fruit ; the establishment and maintenance of at least thirty separate large mission stations; the first botanic garden and society for the improvement of agriculture and horticuhure in India; the first translation into English of the great Sanskrit epics. Fifty years after Carey's death the Protestant native churches of India numbered half a million souls, and they are increasing at the rate of eighty-six per cent, every decade. And all this was, under God, due to the conse- crated zeal of a single man. Are we not justified in ranking him among the greatest in the history of Christianity ? The more one studies the Indian career of Carey, the more he will be impressed with the many-sidedness of the man, and the higher will he be likely to rate one capable of doing so m.any things, and doing them all so super- latively well. He was modest and unassuming always, and his real greatness was not half comprehended by the men of his own or the succeeding generation. They saw in him only the missionary, or possibly also the translator of the Scriptures ; a few scholars saw in him the learned pundit, the great Orientalist; but that he was, of all the men England ever sent to her Indian domains, the great- est benefactor of the Hindu race, we are just beginning dimly to appreciate. We have long enough bowed down to brute force, honored great titles, and shouted acclaim to the soldier with his cannons. 302 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Great captains, with their guns and drums, Disturb our judgment for the hour, But at last silence comes. Let us remove Clive and Havelock and Campbell from their ill-deserved pedestals, as the makers and saviors of India, and place there her real hero, the " consecrated cobbler " of Northamptonshire, William Carey. XVI HENRY MARTYN: THE FIRST MODERN MISSIONARY TO THE MOHAMMEDANS BIBLIOGRAPHY The chief sources for Martyn's life are his Journals and Let- ters, edited by Samuel Wilberforce (New York, 1851) ; Jeffery, Two Sets of the Unpublished Letters of the Rev. Henry Martyn (two vols., London, 1883), and Extracts from the Religious Diary of Miss L. Grenfell (London, 1890) ; Twenty Sermons by the late Rev. Henry Martyn (4th ed., London, 1822) ; Five Sermons by the late Rev. Henry Martyn (London, 1862). The best biog- raphy is that of George Smith (London, n. d.), but Sargent's Memoir should not be neglected (London, 1819), and Bell's is worth consulting (New York, 1881). Consult also Kaye, Chris- tianity in India, pp. 181-214 (London, 1859) ; Yonge, Pioneers and Founders, pp. 71-95 (London, 1871) ; Sherring, History of Protes- tant Missions in India, pp. 71-74. There is an important article on Martyn in the Church Quarterly for October, 1881. On India, with special reference to its physical and ethnographical features, see Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel — Asia, by A. H. Keane, F. R. G. S., Vol. II, chap, ii, and the recently published volume on India in " Appleton's World Series " ; also Hunter, Brief History of the Indian Peoples (Oxford, 1892), and Wilkins, Modern Hinduism (London, 1887). Several books of much value for the study of missions to the Mohammedans have appeared while this book was passing through the press : Mrs. Zwemer, Our Moslem Sisters, the only monograph on this form of mission work; Wherry, Islam and Christianity in India and the Far East; and the most heartening book on the subject ever published. The Mohammedan World of To-day, papers read at the first missionary conference in behalf of the Mohammedan world, held at Cairo, April 4-9, 1906 (the last three books pub- lished by Revell, New York). Latest of all, Zwemer, Islam: a Challenge to Faith (Student Volunteer Movement). XVI HENRY MARTYN : THE FIRST MODERN MISSIONARY TO THE MOHAMMEDANS INDIA, as Metternich once scornfully said of Italy,- is a geographical expression. Indeed, the epigram would be more truly spoken of the India of to-day than of the Italy of yesterday. For, when Metternich spoke, though to all appearance hopelessly divided politically, so that instead of a united Italy, strong, respected, and self- respecting, that fair land was rent into a multitude of principalities and duchies, mutually jealous, suspicious, hostile, ready to fly at one another's throats had they not been restrained by the stronger hand of Austria, neverthe- less, even this Italy was inhabited by a people essentially homogeneous, speaking one language, inheriting com- mon traditions of a glorious past, and cherishing a death- less hope of a glorious future. But when we to-day say India, we name an immense territory, having fourteen times the area of Italy and a population equal to that of all Europe aside from Russia ; a country that has political unity, in the sense that everywhere over it floats the banner of England ; but which nevertheless is not so much a nation as a more or less fortuitous concourse of a score ^ of nations. At least four different races, as absolutely and as widely variant as Greek and Hebrew, are found within this territory ; and each of these is subdivided into numerous others, many of which differ as markedly as Italians, Germans, and Irish. Nature has also done nearly her best to make impos- sible a united India. Though Hindustan enjoys one great advantage of natural position, comparative isola- u 305 306 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS tion — cut off from the rest of Asia as it is by the vast range of mountains on the north, and protected on the other sides of its triangular area by the Arabian Sea and the bay of Bengal — it is yet sharply divided into four separate Indias. The valleys of the Indus and Ganges traverse the entire northern portion, and contain the once powerful nations of Bengal, Oudh, and the Punjab. To the north is the higher region of Kashmir, while below is another high tableland, of which the western and larger part is the Rajputana, and the eastern the ancient province of Orissa. Again intervenes a series of valleys, drained by the Tapti and Narbada on the west, and the Godavari, Kistna, and the smaller streams on the east. In the midst of these lowlands, called the Bombay States and the Central Provinces, is the region known as the Deccan, of which the highest lands are the provinces of Haidarabad and Mysore. The nature of these divisions may be made clearly comprehensible by a single illustra- tion : suppose a subsidence of all India of about five hun- dred or six hundred feet below its present level; all that would be left would be the island of Deccan, separated by a broad strait from Rajputana and Orissa, which would be two other islands, while a second broad strait would extend nearly to the base of the Hindu Kush mountains on the northwest, and quite to the Himalayas on the north and northeast. The geography, no less than the ethnography of India forbids unity — or, at least offers numerous and grave obstacles to the attainment of a united India. History also speaks to the same purpose. Long before written records begin, the Dravidians (a race whose af- finities have yet to be satisfactorily determined) invaded India and drove before them the Kolarians (also un- classified), who, if not the aborigines, are the earliest in- habitants of whom any traces remain. Ages later an HENRY MARTYN 307 Aryan race, the ancestors of the present Hindus, fol- lowed and drove the Dravidians before them into the Deccan, themselves occupying the northern and central portions of the peninsula. Besides these fundamental elements of the population, there are in the northeast several tribes of Mongoloid Thibeto-Burmans, whose •affinities are distinctly with the Chinese. But in spite of these great differences of stock, the peoples of India became in time partly fused, through the influence of religion. The ethnic and social customs of the various races were assimilated to those of their Aryan conquerors, whose superior intelligence and higher civili- zation enabled them thus to impose their institutions upon the conquered people. Usually it happens after a con- quest that the conquering race, being numerically inferior, is gradually incorporated by marriage into the conquered people, and the institutions of the latter survive with little change; or else, an amalgam of the two systems, as well as of the two races, is the result. The former fate seems to have been feared by the conquerors in India, probably with good reason, and there is evidence that the process of amalgamation had made considerable progress, when the system of caste was devised, primarily as an expedient to uphold the political and social supremacy of the Hindu over the older races. The Aryan race could probably have been saved from absorption and ultimate extinction by no other expedient, and accordingly, to give to the caste system all possible strength, it was in- vested with the highest sanctions of religion. The work- ing of the same causes in a similar direction may be seen in our own country at the present time. To preserve the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon, or at any rate of the European white race, determined attempts are making to foster a spirit of caste that will put the yellow and black races into a position of social inferiority and politi- 308 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS cal inequality, from which it should be impossible for them ever to rise. If the Hindu really understood what free America is to-day, and what American Christians are to-day attempting to do, and defending in the name of Christ — that Christ who died for the black man and for the yellow, as truly as for the white, that he might make them all his brethren, and therefore brethren of one another; oh, the shame of such teaching! oh, the hor-. rible blasphemy of calling it by Christ's name ! — if, I say, the Hindu could understand the real meaning of these things, would he not be justified in saying to the Chris- tian missionary who now comes to him and exhorts him to renounce the wickedness and inhumanity of his caste, " Physician, heal thyself " ? This system became firmly established long before the Christian era, and only twice was its supremacy seri- ously threatened. The first occasion was the rise of Buddhism, a movement in India that has often been likened to the Reformation in Europe; and the rapid spread of the new religion at one time threatened the extinction of Hinduism, caste and all. But a reaction followed ; the old religion and the old social system re- asserted their authority, Buddhism was virtually excluded from the country that gave it birth, and by the sixth cen- tury of our era Hinduism had become triumphantly re- established in its supremacy. The second occasion when the very life of the religion of India was threatened was the period of the Mohammedan invasions, beginning in the eleventh century, and continuing until the whole of Hindustan was reduced under the nominal authority of the Mogul dynasty. But the victories of Mohammedan- ism, though very great, were more apparent than real in most of the provinces. A few, like Kashmir, Oudh, and Haidarabad, were made permanently Mohammedan by the usual persuasive, the sword, but at no time were HENRY MARTYN 3O9 the real adherents of the new reUgion more than one- quarter of the people of India. Even at that figure, say fifty million, they surpass the population of any single European country, save Russia. These Mohammedans of India offer the most favorable conditions for Christian evangelization that are found among the peoples of that faith. Fully one- fourth of the total Mohammedan population of the world is still to be found in India, and there are no external obstacles worth mentioning to the Christianizing of these people. And I have now to tell you the story of the first at- tempt of modern Christians to reach these people with the gospel. It is a strange fact that since the failure of Christian Europe to crush Mohammedanism by the Cru- sades, its people had never shown a particle of interest in the spiritual welfare of Mohammedans. During the period of the Crusades, Raimund Lull and Francis of Assisi had vainly attempted to inspire and lead a move- ment for the peaceful conquest of those whom all Europe had for two generations tried in vain to conquer by the sword. Ignatius Loyola and his companions had at first cherished the idea of a mission to the Saracens. With these exceptions, the Christian nations seem always to have been utterly indifferent to this matter. The case is not much better to-day: interest among Christians in Mohammedan missions is still languid and fitful. That 'there is any interest whatever in the subject is due chiefly to the life and labors of Henry Martyn. The IMartyns were a Cornish family, who had won a modest competence in mining operations. Henry Martyn was born February i8, 1781, and at an early age was sent to school at Truro, where he displayed abilities that led his father to hope great things for him. He entered Cambridge in his seventeenth year, with the reputation already of being a good scholar in classics, but little short 3IO CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS of a dunce in mathematics. This, he afterward con- fessed, was not due to a want of aptitude for mathe- matical study, so much as to disincHnation on his part for any severe mental exertion. Idleness has always caused more scholastic failures than stupidity. His university career seemed to confirm this diagnosis of his case, for he soon began to distinguish himself in mathematics, and finally came out Senior Wrangler and first prizeman at the age of twenty-one. The following year he won a fellowship at St. John, and a university prize for a Latin essay. This was one of the most brilliant careers in the history of Cambridge. In the meantime, two things had happened that were to determine his future course in life — his conversion and the death of his father. There is nothing very striking in the circumstances of his conversion; it was of the ordi- nary evangelical type. But there is something very strik- ing in the piety that followed the conversion ; it too was of the evangelical type of that day, but in its most extreme and unwholesome form. The " Journal " of Henry Martyn is a painful study in spiritual pathology. His biographers have with one voice called the world to admire its saintly character, and many have obeyed and pronounced ecstatic eulogies upon its rare spiritual quality. Rare that quality certainly is, and may a mer- ciful heaven ever keep it so. To any healthy soul there will appear to be nothing admirable in these egotistic outpourings, which one could so easily despise if he were not moved by a too profound pity. These unmanly wails make one blush that one of his own sex could ever have penned them, even in the deepest privacy ; or that, having penned them, in some hour of suffering, in a saner moment he did not commit them to the flames. The *' Journal " is the record of a deeply religious, profoundly earnest, wholly morbid soul, and therefore so far from HENRY MARTYN 3II being attractive is sickly and repulsive. One would as quickly call upon the world to admire the beauty of a body wasted by disease and in the last stages of dissolu- tion, or covered with the loathsome ulcers of leprosy, as bid men admire a soul like Martyn's. The basis of his piety was the notion of the ascetic — that all the natural impulses and desires of man are in- trinsically vile, and any yielding to them is sin; and that God can therefore be well pleased with us only as we constantly fight against, deny, and crucify every such desire. And another postulate of his piety was that the chief duty of a Christian is to keep his finger continually on the pulse of his spiritual life, and give himself daily and hourly to self-examination — a course of introspection that can lead to nothing else than spiritual ill-health, just as the man who is constantly fussing about his pulse and his temperature and his clothing and his diet will cer- tainly become a chronic invalid. Any physician will tell you, if you have not wit enough to discover it for your- self, that a little judicious neglect of the body is essential to the preservation of good health. And the experience of generations of Christians has proved that too much solicitude about one's soul is the surest of all roads to spiritual declension and weakness. And for this reason : the example of Christ, the teaching of Christ, the teaching and example of his immediate apostles, is to think not of self but of others. He who reverses this process is, so far, not a Christian, but a heathen. It is not to the maudlin outpourings of Martyn's " Journal," therefore, that we are to look for proofs of his saintly character, but to what he was and to what he did. A passion to devote himself and his life to the serv- ice of his Lord and the welfare of his fellows took pos- session of his heart soon a^ter his conversion and ruled him to the end. This it is that entitles him to the epithet 312 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS of "saintly;" this it is that has made of him a lasting spiritual force, the inspirer of a great host of devoted Christian missionaries that have come after him. The loss of his father was soon followed by the loss of his patrimony, and in several ways this misfortune altered the probable course of his life. He had already been attracted to India as a missionary field, by the pub- lication of facts concerning Carey's work, and had even gone so far as to offer himself to the Church Missionary Society as a volunteer missionary, to go out under its auspices but at his own charges. It was now necessary for him to adopt a new course, as the society could not guarantee his support, and he no longer had sufficient resources to provide for himself and a younger sister, also penniless. Some kind of a salaried position was indispensable. Accordingly, influential friends procured for him a chaplaincy in the Bengal department of the East India Company. Nominally his duty would be to preach to the soldiers in the company's employ, wherever it might please the officials to station him; really he could be as much a missionary as his inclination prompted and strength permitted. He sailed for India in August, 1815, and after a tedious voyage, in the course of which he touched at Brazil and South Africa, he landed at Calcutta in the following May. His leaving home was accompanied by one painful epi- sode, which cannot be passed over in any just account of his life. He had formed a very deep and lasting at- tachment for Lydia Grenfell, a young woman a few years older than himself, apparently in every way fitted to become both his wife and his fellow-laborer. His affection was returned, and there were no serious obsta- cles to the marriage, save such as the interested parties themselves created. Miss Grenfell was of an even more introspective and morbid turn of mind than Martyn, and HENRY MARTYN 3I3 she chose to entertain scruples of conscience about marry- ing, because forsooth she had been previously engaged to a man who had proved utterly unworthy of her and de- serted her for another, to whom, however, he was not yet married. It seemed to this painfully pious soul that she must cherish toward this unfaithful lover the feelings of a widow and the responsibility of a wife, and her con- science reproached her for the very idea of forming another tie until his marriage should have irrevocably severed the old one. On his part, Martyn was not less capable of scruples: he tried his best to tear this human love out of his heart, and vow himself to celibacy, as the state in which he could best serve God in India. His sensible friends as- sured him that he was acting like a madman in going out to India unmarried; that he especially needed such love and care as only a wife can give ; while the heathen needed the object-lesson of a Christian home as much as the gospel itself. But these two pious, conscientious, and unspeakably silly young people finally parted with the understanding that if, after Martyn had tried the field, he felt that it was expedient for him to marry, he should send for her. After a year on the field Martyn was convinced, not merely that his personal welfare and happiness would be promoted by marriage, but his usefulness as a missionary. Accordingly he wrote to the lady, asking her to come out to be married to him, and she proceeded forthwith to hatch a fresh brood of scruples. It would be so unmaidenly and indelicate for her to come to him, instead of his coming to her, and worst of all, her mother would not consent. As the young woman was now past thirty, and her mother had several other children near, and was by no means de- pendent upon her, it would seem that she had every right to decide this question for herself, and her mother no 314 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS right whatever to interpose objection. But she could not bring herself to disobey, nor would Martyn urge her to do so. And so the matter ended. No doubt, as his friends predicted, his life was shortened for lack of her womanly ministrations; and her life was bereft of woman's crowning blessing. It is one of those tragedies of which the most pathetic and heart-wringing part is that they are utterly needless, utterly useless. From the day of his arrival in India, Alartyn threw himself with the greatest ardor into his missionary labors. Even before leaving England, he had begun to prepare himself for the work by studies in Hindustani, and ap- parently in Arabic and Persian also. He had been able to make considerable progress in mastering the grammar of these languages, and he made the more rapid advance in Arabic from the fact that he was a good Hebrew scholar, according to the standards of his day. His progress in Hindustani, after his arrival in India, was such that in about ten months he was able to begin services among the natives. From the first he regarded the Mohammedans of India as his special charge. This was in large part because nothing was attempted by other missionaries in their behalf, and his soul yearned to do something for these neglected people. Such experience as he had among the Hindus, moreover, convinced him that less success was to be hoped for in that quarter than among the Mohammedans. '' Truly," he says in his " Journal," '' if ever I see a Hindu a real believer in Jesus, I shall see something more nearly approaching the resurrection of a dead body than anything I have yet seen." With great ardor, therefore, he gave himself to the acquisition of the three languages that would most effectually put him into communication with the Moham- medan masses, and especially enable him to give them at least the Gospels in their own tongues. HENRY MARTYN 315 At the same time he continued faithfully his duty as chaplain, which involved frequent preaching to the Eng- lish residents in his various stations. From these he not only experienced little sympathy, but much opposition and hostile criticism. The contempt of the English for the natives — a universal feeling among those in either civil or military service at that time — was quickly trans- ferred to one who attempted to do anything for these de- spised people. But they had a better reason than this for their feeling; Martyn did not hesitate to preach to them as their godlessness and immorality required. He told them plainly that they were traveling the broad road to hell, that their self-righteousness and conceit of knowl- edge would be their eternal ruin, unless they turned from their sins and obeyed the call of the gospel. This was new and by no means welcome preaching in India. Other chaplains had been practically Arian in theology, and had delivered moral essays which produced no effect what- ever, Martyn's preaching at least made his hearers think, and if it excited their wrath, this was merely because he told them unpalatable truths, which, in their hearts, they felt to be truths. Six years only Martyn was able to pursue his labors. From the first his health was frail. He inherited a ten- dency to pulmonary disease — his sisters died before him, and all of them of consumption. The climate of India, at least the part where he was stationed, was not unfavor- able. In the dry air of Cawnpore, where he remained longest, many consumptives have made a good recovery. But Martyn had no prudence, he lacked that watchful care which might have prolonged his days, his morbid conscience was forever stirring him to attempt more than he was capable of doing, and so he was making continual drafts on the future; and after a time, as always hap- pens, nature refused to honor these drafts — the capital 3l6 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS was exhausted, he was physically bankrupt. " Now let me burn out for God," he said on his arrival in India. He suspected that his time might be short, and so he made it still shorter by burning his candle at both ends. A more brilliant light he made for a brief time, indeed, but was this the way to make the most of himself in the service of God? Who shall answer the question? It is possible, even probable, in view of all that we now know, that this brief, intense, zealous, brilliant career of Henry Martyn has been a greater force in the history of missions than five times his number of years' service could have been, had he lived a quiet, prudent, patiently laborious life. Never- theless, though this may be true, for the ordinary mis- sionary that course of life is most likely to be useful which promises length of years and the service that can come only of ripe experience. While danger is not to be shunned, while life and health are to be cheerfully risked, when necessary, ordinary prudence and care are as need- ful on the foreign field as at home; and in neither is suicide, though performed in the name of Christ, to be commended. For the details of the missionary labors of Martyn, the story of his life and death, I refer to the thorough and sympathetic biography of Dr. George Smith. No great success attended these labors, as we are coming to rate success abroad as well as at hom.e, namely, by the count- ing of converts. Martyn laments on one occasion, in his " Journal," the poor showing in this respect made by his work, but it was a needless sorrow. For his work was, in the main, of necessity a pioneer work. He might have said with a greater apostle, " God sent me not to bap- tize, but to preach the gospel " ; and to him, preaching the gospel meant giving that gospel in their own vernaculars to one hundred million Mohammedans. In other words, HENRY MARTYN 3I7 the work of translation was that to which he was especially called, by providence and by fitness. For he was exceptionally fitted to do this work. He had the native gift of tongues, and his earliest evidences of scholarship were his boyish attainments in the classics. He was for a time withdrawn from this pursuit in part by his mathematical studies, but these were a tour de force; the study of languages was his first love and his last. Though he had much difficulty in procuring com- petent instructors in India, and was sometimes deceived as to the knowledge possessed by those whom he did finally employ, he made great strides in those languages to which he mainly confined his studies. Nothing but his early death prevented his becoming a great Orientalist, a worthy third to William Carey and Sir William Jones. Short as his life was, he had completed before his death a remarkable amount of translation. Nothing even in Carey's unrivaled career as a translator exceeds the value of Martyn's achievement, considering the brief time and the adverse conditions under which it was per- formed. The acquirement of three languages, so utterly diverse as Hindustani, Arabic, and Persian, and the com- pletion in each of these of a version of the entire New Testament, all in the space of six years, and this done by a man in feeble health — this is certainly an astonishing intellectual feat, and is probably unexcelled in the history of missionary translations. Besides these, he also trans- lated into Hindustani most of the Book of Common Prayer, and prepared in the same language a commen- tary on the Parables. The first of these versions was the Hindustani. Many dialects of this language are spoken in India, but speak- ers of any dialect who can read are able to use this ver- sion. A delay in the publication, caused by a fire in the press at Serampore, deprived Martyn of seeing this in 3l8 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS print; in fact, it did not finally appear until two years after his death. Within the next generation, however, sixteen editions were printed and circulated in India. Two years later the version in modern Arabic was printed in Calcutta. Three editions of this were printed and circulated, but it has now been superseded by a version made by two American mi-ssionaries at Beirut, who spent thirty years at their task, and produced an Arabic Bible acknowledged to be one of the most perfect missionary versions ever made. The four Gospels in Persian was the only part of his work that Martyn ever saw in print. This first draft was very unsatisfactory to him, and to perfect it he made the visit to Persia in the course of which he died. He lived, however, to complete the New Testament in that language. The first edition was published by the Russian Bible Society, at St. Petersburg, in 1815, and a second appeared the following year at Calcutta. Three other editions have since been issued, and a translation of the Old Testament was added (Martyn himself having done the Psalter), and the whole Bible was printed in 1848. The Old Testament part was in no way equal to the work of Martyn, and another translation of that has been substituted, but his New Testament version still remains unaltered and is recognized as his greatest work. Persian scholars unite in praising its accuracy, elegance, and idiomatic purity. The Hindustani and Persian ver- sions of the New Testament are Henry Martyn's monu- ment, and a greater no missionary need desire. Beyond its power to inspire other young men and direct them in the way of missionary endeavor, what fruit has the life of Henry Martyn borne? What has been done by those who have come after him to give the gospel to the people for whom he lived and labored and died? Very little, it must be confessed. Many have imitated HENRY MARTYN 3I9 him in becoming missionaries, but none (or almost none) in becoming missionaries to the Mohammedans. There is no society in existence for the specific purpose of evangeHzing the Mohammedans, though there are several societies for preaching the gospel to the Jews, a people quite as hard to reach, and numerically but a small frac- ,tion of the Mohammedan peoples of the earth. I do not argue that less should be done for the Jews, but that the Moliammedans ought not to be so completely neglected. The opinion of Martyn himself was not favorable to the immediate success, at least, of direct missionary effort among the adherents of this religion. He won very few converts, and v/as not fully satisfied of the genuine Chris- tian character of those few. He held many disputations with Mohammedan teachers, especially while in Persia, and seems to have been a subtle and dangerous con- troversialist, but no practical results followed these dis- cussions, and he expected none. He disputed because he was challenged by the Mohammedan teachers and theo- logians, and he could not decline without producing the impression that Christianity was a weak religion, inca- pable of rational defence. Unwilling to let such a belief get abroad, he engaged in argument with the foremost representatives of Mohammedanism in Persia and con- quered their respect, but he had little hope of winning their allegiance to Christ. To him it seemed that the circulation of the Scriptures, and especially of the New Testament, was the best mis- sionary agency among this people, and this explains the ardor with which he gave himself almost exclusively to the work of translating. And in great part this opinion has been justified by the facts. Against the Christian missionary there is much prejudice in any Mohammedan country; against the Bible comparatively little. Much in the Old Testament is similar to what is found in the 320 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Koran, Mohammed having wrought into his book such Jewish history and doctrine as he had orally learned. Mohammed always spoke of Jesus as a prophet, a great religious teacher, and to read the words of Jesus in the Gospels is in no way repugnant to Mohammedan ideas of religious duty. The circulation of the Bible, there- fore, has never been prohibited in any Mohammedan country, and such circulation is the chief work thus far undertaken. But while the reading of the Bible must produce some effect in these countries, not much is visible. It is an unthinking Christian sentiment that has for so many centuries given over all Mohammedans as a hope- less case, whom nothing could win to the acceptance of the gospel. Where the gospel has really been faithfully preached to them, they have not proved inaccessible. In only one place can such preaching be said to have been tried, in modern times at any rate, and that is in the Dutch East Indies. In Java and Sumatra many thou- sands of Mohammedans have been converted and bap- tized in the last quarter-century, through the labors of faithful German missionaries. There is no good reason to doubt that like faithful efforts would bring forth like results in British India, or among any Mohammedan population where the political authorities are not adverse. In the Turkish empire, where death is still the penalty of a Musselman's apostasy, converts are not to be looked for, nor is it advisable for missionaries to risk their lives in laboring where the Turk still rules. But everywhere else, unless it may be in some parts of Africa where the Mahdi's influence is still felt, there is no danger to either missionaries or converts, and no open opposition to be apprehended. Mohammedan missions ought, at any rate, not to be pronounced hopeless until the experiment has had a fair trial, and can any Christian honestly say that a fair trial HENRY MARTYN 32 1 has ever been made? Raimund Lull in the fourteenth century and Henry Martyn in the nineteenth are the only two men in the history of Christianity who have fully taken upon their hearts the burden of this work, and have given their lives for it. Is that a fair measure of what Christendom owes to the followers of Mohammed under the Great Commission of Jesus Christ? And shall it be written in the book of God's remembrance, to the shame of Christendom at large, that such men as these spent their heroic lives and died in vain? Far be it. Mohammedanism threatens to divide with Christianity the empire of the world. As once on the plains of Tours, the hosts of France under Charles Martel and the invad- ing hordes of Abderrahman met to do battle for lordship of the Western world, so now the forces of Christianity and Mohammedanism are joining battle for the posses- sion of Asia and Africa. Always Mohammedanism has been a missionary religion, and its past conquests have been something marvelous. True, it has gained a large part of them by the sword, but that objection comes with an ill grace from any Christian who has made study of the history of his own religion. Of late years the religion of Mohammed has shown symptoms of revived energy, of new missionary zeal. It has been sending forth its preachers, and for the most part now relies as exclusively on peaceful means as does Christianity. Nor are indica- tions lacking that this zeal meets with its due reward. In Africa there is little doubt that the religion of the cres- cent is making more rapid progress than the religion of the cross. In Asia some progress is making and, encour- aged by this fact, the believers in the Koran are about to undertake new enterprises. Everything points to a re- newal of the old struggle, and in the near future Chris- tianity is certain to find Mohammedanism its most determined and powerful organized enemy. 322 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS We who are believers in the gospel of Christ as adapted to all men, as the power of God to salvation, we who still recognize the name of Jesus as the only name given in heaven or among men whereby men can be saved — we, I say, can have no doubt as to the ultimate result of this conflict. But it does behoove the followers of Christ to be up and doing, to cast away this supine notion that any nation is impervious to the gospel, to cease believing that all other men, even the Jew, may possibly be converted, but not the Alohammedan. If this is not an article of faith among us, no less firmly held because held silently, then so much the more disgraceful is our conduct. If we have not even the poor excuse of believing the conversion of Mohammedans to be impossible, and all labor bestowed on them a patent waste, then what shall we plead as a reason for neglecting them these twelve centuries? Let us bring forth fruits meet for repentance, and do what lies in us to give the gospel truth to the followers of Mo- hammed as well as to all other perishing men on the earth. Where is the new Raimund Lull, where is the second Henry Martyn, who will offer himself for this work and awaken the long dormant conscience of the church of Christ? XVII ADONIRAM JUDSON : THE BEGINNING OF MISSIONS IN AMERICA BIBLIOGRAPHY The original sources for the Hfe of Judson were destroyed by fire a few years ago, but fortunately not until they had been twice made available for thorough biographical study. The first Memoir, by Dr. Francis Wayland (two vols., New York, 1853), still has great value, notwithstanding the more recent publication of an ideal biography by Doctor Judson's son, Edward Judson (New York, 1883). Hardly less valuable are the Memoirs of his three wives: Ann Haseltine, by Knowles (Boston, 1829); Sarah Boardman, by "Fanny Forrester" (New York, 1848); and Emily Chubbuck, by A. C. Kendrick (New York, 1861). A store of material bearing on the early American missions may be found in Anderson's History of the Missions of the American Board (five vols., Boston, 1870-4) and Memorial Volume of the First Fifty Years of the American Board (Boston, 1861) ; while for the Baptist missions, the direct continuation of Judson's work, one should consult the Missionary Jubilee volume of the Ameri- can Baptist Missionary Union (New York, 1869); Smith, Mis- sionary Sketches (two series, Boston, 1879, 1883) ; Titterington, A Century of Baptist Missions (Philadelphia, 1891) ; Merriam, History of American Baptist Missions (Philadelphia, 1900). XVII ADONIRAM JUDSON I THE BEGINNING OF FOREIGN MISSIONS IN AMERICA ONE afternoon in the spring of 1806 five young men, students in Williams College, were taking their daily " constitutional " together in the fields near Wil- liamstown. They were students for the ministry, and for some time their minds had been exercised regarding the spiritual destitution of so large a part of the world, and the question of their own duty in obedience to the Great Commission. A thunder-shower came on and they took refuge under the lee of a haystack and continued their conversation. These five young men were Samuel J. Mills, James Richards, Francis L. Robbins, Harvey Loomis, and Byram Green. Mills was the leading spirit among them, the man of action, and on this occasion he proposed that they devote themselves to sending the gos- pel to the heathen. To the objections of his comrades that this was too great an enterprise for them to under- take, he replied, ** We can do it if we will." His urgency persuaded his friends, and they knelt in prayer by the haystack and solemnly dedicated themselves to the work of foreign missions. Then and there the great missionary enterprises of American Christians were born, and the spot is now fittingly commemorated by a beautiful marble monument. These students and others formed a missionary society, and met frequently to study the necessities of the great field. Two years later several of them signed a pledge binding themselves to the foreign \york, if it should be 325 326 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS possible for them to go. Among these were Gordon Hall and Luther Rice. The prospect for the successful prose- cution of such a plan was not encouraging. There was not a missionary society in America ; there was no inter- est in the subject of foreign missions among the churches ; there was scant means of reaching the people through newspapers and the mails to arouse their interest. These young men — and God — were all who seemed to care in the least whether the heathen had the gospel or not. But they were not dismayed by these obstacles ; how the way was to be opened they knew not; but they believed this to be God's work, and that he would open the way accord- ing to his good pleasure. Their faith was justified by the event, as such faith always is justified. In 1810 these young men — Mills, Richards, Hall, and Rice — became students at the Andover Theological Semi- nary, where they met others of like spirit, Samuel Nott, Samuel Newell, and Adoniram Judson.' All three of these men had been considering their duty for some time before, and as early as February, 1810, Judson had made his irrevocable decision to become a missionary to the heathen. It was not a decision lightly formed. His in- 1 Nott was a nephew of Dr. Eliphalet Nott, the famous president of Union College, and was a graduate of that institution, while Newell, a nr.tive of Maine, was a gradute of Harvard. Judson was from Brown University. In a letter written years later, Judson said: "I have ever thought that the providence of God v/as conspicuously manifested in bring- ing us all together from different and distant parts. Some of us had been considering the subject of missions a long time, and some but recently. Some, and indeed the greater part, had thought chiefly of domestic mis- sions, and efforts among the neighboring tribes of Indians, without contem- plating the abandonment of country and devotement for life. The reading and reflection of others had led them in a different way; and when we all met at the same seminary and came to a mutual understanding on the ground of foreign missions and missions for life, the subject assumed in our minds such an overwhelming importance and awful solemnity as bound us to one another and to our purpose more firmly than ever. How evident it is that the Spirit of God had been operating in different places and upon different individuals, preparing the way for those movements which have since pervaded the American churches." (Taylor, " Life of Luther Rice," p. 88.) ADONIRAM JUDSON 32/ terest in the subject was awakened by a sermon that fell into his hands, by a former chaplain of the British East India Company, on " The Star in the East." It was not what we commonly call a missionary sermon — preached, that is to say, with the direct purpose of arousing interest in the work of missions.. Its leading thought was the evidences of divine power of the Christian religion in the East, as shown in the labors of Schwartz in particular. For a year this thought burned in Judson's heart before he made the final choice. Nor was the choice an easy one. This was no decision to go abroad on the part of one who had no prospect of success at home. It is sometimes said that, in days gone by, when there was one in a family of boys who was dreamy and unpractical and seemed good for nothing else, they would send him to college and make a minister of him. And as one learns how many weak, inefficient, misfit men there have been and are in the ministry, one finds it not so difficult to believe the tale. Likewise the notion has to some extent prevailed in certain quarters that if there were in a seminary class a man who showed no prospect of becoming an acceptable preacher, a wise pastor, and a good organizer — a man, in short, whom few churches would be likely to call, and who would be pretty certain not to stay long wherever he were called — that such a man should become a missionary. Anything is good enough for the heathen; they must take what they can get and be thankful for it. I need not waste breath to combat this notion; I need not argue that the keenest intellect, the choicest culture, the finest gift of eloquence, the largest capacity of leadership, are de- manded in the work of missions and will find there full scope for their exercise. Not our poorest men, but our best, should oflfer themselves for this work and be gladly spared by our churches. ^ 328 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS It has been thus, to a large extent, in the history of American missions. Judson and his companions had every prospect of brilHant careers in their own land and among their own people. Judson's prospects were espe- cially brilliant. After his graduation 'from Brown Uni- versity, where he was valedictorian of his class at nine- teen, he was offered a tutorship, with the certainty of a professorship to follow, if he chose to making teaching his profession ; and he had both the ability and the oppor- tunity to write his name among the first of American educators. Or if he chose, as he did, to enter the min- istry, his gifts were such as to promise eminence in that calling. He had no need to seek a career elsewhere be- cause none here was open to him; on every side doors flew back to give him entrance, and he had but to elect through which he would walk. America lost a great educator, scholar, man of letters, preacher, leader, when she gave Adoniram Judson to India and to foreign mis- sions, but who is ready to say that America lost by the gift? Francis of Assisi had twelve disciples and followers when he founded the order that was to revolutionize the Roman Church of the thirteenth century. Ignatius Loyola, with six others of like spirit, became the greatest force in the Roman Church of the seventeenth century. These six young students at Andover were destined, not to found an order, but to begin a new Christian enterprise, in its effects as far-reaching and introducing spiritual changes as profound as anything discoverable in the his- tory of Franciscans or Jesuits. Yet nothing could have been further from their purpose or expectation than this. They so little planned the founding of a missionary society in America that the project never occurred to them. They rather hoped to be sent to the work they had chosen by one of the foreign societies, and with this i^'- ADONIRAM JUDSON 329 thought in mind they entered into preliminary corre- spondence with the London Missionary Society. ^'-'^^CP^ They were fortunate, however, in having a wise ad- viser. ^^Moses Stuart was then professor of sacred htera- ture in the Andover Seminary. He is gratefully remem- bered as the pioneer among those men whose attainments in biblical literature first won the world's respect for American scholarship. He deserves still higher honor from us for the timely encouragement and wise counsel that he gave these young men at the critical moment, so that he, almost equally with them, became the originator of the American missionary enterprise. He could so easily have thrown cold water on their youthful enthu- siasm, and quenched the whole affair — as so often has been done in like cases by men esteemed wise and pru- dent. He could so easily have encouraged them to rash action that would have led to speedy and ignominious failure. He could have taken the eminently safe course of advising them to do that which they had already begun — in which case an English society would very likely have sent them out, and their own immediate end would have been gained, but the Christians of America would have remained unaffected. But he did none of these things. He did the one wise and sensible thing in the premises: advised them to lay their case before their fellow-Christians of Massachu- setts; to tell to their own brethren their missionary call and purpose, and trust the Christian love of their brethren to respond promptly, and practical Yankee sense to realize their ideal. This advice of Professor Stuart ap- proved itself to other members of the Andover faculty, and some neighboring ministers who were also called into consultation, and with the full approbation of all the case was submitted to the General Association of the Congre- gational churches of Massachusetts, which met at Brad- 330 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS ford, June 26, 1810/ Three days later a plan was adopted by the Association for the organization of a mis- sionary society, and on September 5 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was formally constituted. Even yet the men composing this Board did not have faith enough in God and their brethren to attempt inde- pendent operations, and months were wasted in futile negotiations with the London Missionary Society for some form of joint missionary enterprise — a plan which the English body very sensibly rejected as impracticable. There was this excuse for the hesitation of the Board: the time was shortly before the war of 18 12, when it was apparent that a conflict with England could not long be postponed. There was great financial stringency, espe- cially in New England, in consequence of the Embargo Act. In view of these facts, a degree of caution that we are likely in our haste to condemn as cowardly appeared then to be merely prudent. But finally, a year after its formation (Sept. 11, 1811), the Board plucked up spirit enough to appoint Messrs. Judson, Nott, and Hall as missionaries, and another young man who had joined the group of candidates, Samuel Newell. vStill, there were no funds adequate for their support and the churches had made only a feeble response to the appeals of the Board. After long deliberation the Board decided that they would send these young men out, as it seemed ^ A memorial setting forth the missionary purpose of these young men, and asking the advice of *' their fathers in the church," was signed by Adoniram Judson, Samuel Nott, Samuel J. Mills, and Samuel Newell. (" Life of Adoniram Judson," by Edward Judson, p. 24.) The names of James Richards and Luther Rice had also been appended, but were re- moved, " from a fear that the appearance of so many under such impres- sions of mind, when nothing had been previously known of this matter, not even by the professors, whose pupils thus suddenly burst forth in an atti- tude so peculiar, should create something of the nature of an alarm, as if some kind of fanaticism had seized the minds all at once of the young ministers." (Taylor, " Luther Rice," p. 90.) ADONIRAM JUDSON 331 clearly the will of God that they should go; and they would trust God for the provision of the necessary funds. Their faith was honored by divine providence ; the churches began to make contributions to the treasury, and these measurably kept pace with the needs of the work. From that day to this, there has never been a serious financial difficulty in the missionary work of American Christians. It was decided to send these first- ' / missionaries to India. On February 6, 1812, a memorable '^^^''^^y' service was held in Salem, Mass., five candidates being ordained to the ministry; on the nineteenth Judson and Newell sailed from Salem for Calcutta, and on the twenty-second Hall, Rice, and Nott sailed from Philadel- phia for the same port. The honor of beginning the work of foreign missions in America thus belongs to the Congregational churches of New England, and especially of Massachusetts. Other denominations were not slow in following the example thus given. At the annual meeting of the Board in 181 1 a suggestion was made to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church that it organize a similar body, with which the Massachusetts society might co-operate. The Assembly did not feel ready to take such action, but warmly expressed its sympathy with the work, and ac- cordingly, at the second meeting of 1812, eight Presby- terian Commissioners were added to the Board. Close, though unofficial relations were thus established with the Presbyterian churches, many of which became liberal contributors to the cause from the first. In 1814 a mem- ber from the Associate Reformed Church was added, and in 1816 another was appointed from the Reformed (Dutch) Church. Thus for some years the American Board performed the functions of a general missionary society for most of the American churches that could be induced at that time to take an interest in the work. It 332 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS was in the nature of the case, however, that sooner or later denominational societies would be formed. The Baptist churches were the first to take separate denominational action. They indeed narrowly missed the honor of being pioneers in this work. As early as the year 1800 the First Baptist church of Philadelphia be- came exercised about this matter, and presented to the Philadelphia Association a query as to the propriety of forming a plan for the establishment of a missionary society. This was two years before the formation of the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society, and is the ear- liest movement of the kind among our churches of which a record now remains. The Association adopted a minute inviting the general committee of Virginia and the dif- ferent Associations to unite in laying a plan for forming a missionary society, and such an invitation was sent out during the year. To the minutes of the Association for 1 801 is appended a circular letter, in which the duty of Baptists to give the gospel to the heathen is strongly urged. In 1802 it is recorded that a general conference seemed unlikely, from which we may fairly infer that few or no favorable responses had been received to the general invitation sent out ; and the Association therefore appointed a committee to form a plan for a local society, which was duly approved at the next meeting, and the society was soon after formally constituted. Subsequent references to the society in the minutes show that only [domestic missions were attempted, preachers being sent out into the western counties of Pennsylvania, and into Ohio. But it is clear that only the lukewarmness and inertia of the Baptist churches of that day prevented the formation of the first foreign mission society in America by this denomination. But though the attempt to interest the churches in a general movement failed for the time being, the forma- ADONIRAM JUDSON 333 tion of local societies went on. The news of the sailing of these young men made its way among the churches and everywhere aroused great interest. The first Baptist society for foreign missions distinctively seems to have been formed in Salem, Mass., about the time that Judson and his companions sailed, and others soon followed in Boston, Providence, and Haverhill. Luther Rice is our .- . - authority for saying that at least seventeen such societies^ ^l_K^ of Boston and vicinity became responsible for the main- ' k' tenance of the Judsons, but it was plain that divine Provi- dence pointed to something larger than this. Mr. Rice was advised to visit the principal cities and tell his story to all who would hear, that the entire denomination, and not Boston only, might be led to take up this work. He needed no urging. It was a service that he was glad to perform, and of all men he was most fitted to do this work. ;^^j-v In his first tour he visited New York, Philadelphia, ^ ^J^ Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond, and thence ha- pJir^^ stened to attend the annual meeting of the Charleston ^ Association. In all these cities he was favorably received and the Charleston Association passed hearty resolu- tions in favor of a national society for foreign missions. The tour was finally extended as far south as Savannah, included all the prominent towns of Georgia and South Carolina, and occupied six months. Societies were formed in Philadelphia and other places, and on the invi- tation of this Philadelphia society, extended to all inter- ested in the project, a convention met in that city on May i8, 1814, and after several days of careful consideration of the whole question, its members unanimously voted to organize the '* General Convention of the Baptist denomi- nation in the United States for Foreign Missions." Luther Rice never returned to India, but spent his re- maining years in organizing and promoting various mis- sionary and educational enterprises. Among other things, he was the founder and long the chief support of the Col- umbian University, at Washington. But he regarded his life as " religiously devoted to the missionary cause," and all his labors were intended by him to be closely related to that cause. If he became much absorbed for some years in an educational project, it was because in his mind and purpose one of the chief ends of such an institution ADONIRAM JUDSON 335 was to be the training of men for missionary service. ^.^ And it may well be that he did a more important and ?if'^^ jjj. permanent service to the missionary cause by remaining -M in this country and organizing the domestic side of the work than he could possibly have rendered in India. Some men must hold the ropes, if others are to go down into the mine, and both are laborers in a common cause. The Judsons were not permitted by the British East India Company to fulfil their purpose of missionary labors in the land of their first choice, and they were compelled to seek another field. Their choice fell on Burma, and they began a mission in that country in July, 1813. There were serious difficulties to be overcome. The first con- vert was not baptized until six years had passed ; and the missionaries were compelled to undergo frightful priva- tions, persecutions, and sufferings. There is no more heroic chapter in all missionary annals than the story of the early years of the Burman mission. But perhaps Doctor Judson's greatest work was not that of preacher, but as translator. He lived long enough to give the entire Bible to the Burmese in their own language. His ver- sion is highly praised by those competent to speak, alike for its faithfulness and for its elegance; and its value is attested by the fact that it still holds its place, with little change, as the one Bible for all Burmese Christians. Doctor Judson's missionary labors continued for thirty- seven years, and are memorable in the history of Chris- tian missions. The visible results upon his field, meas- ured by the number of heathen converted and of con- verts baptized and gathered into churches, while by no means small,' have often been surpassed, but this is no measure of a missionary's accomplishment. He was a man of great intellectual power, and of still greater spir- 1 At his death there were sixty-three churches under the oversight of '/\ one hundred and sixty-three missionaries and native helpers. 336 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS itual force, and the profound impression that such a man makes upon the missionary cause at home as well as abroad, not only during his own lifetime but for genera- tions to come, cannot be easily estimated. His life was a significant object-lesson in the meaning and methods of Christian missions, that will always have value for the whole Christian church, and his example has been the inspiration of countless missionaries since his day. Thej power of such lives is never spent. The graves of the sainted dead forbid retreat from the ram- parts of heathenism. It is said that the heart of the Scottish hero Bruce was embalmed after his death and preserved in a silver casket. When his descendants were making a last des- perate charge upon the serried columns of the Saracens, their leader threw this sacred heart far out into the ranks of the enemy. The Scots charged with irresistible fury in order to regain the relic. Christianity will never retreat from the graves of its dead on heathen shores. England is pressing into Africa with redoubled energy since she saw placed on the pavement of her own Westminster Abbey the marble tablet in memory of him who was "brought by faithful hands, over land and sea, David Livingstone, missionary, traveler, philanthropist." Until that day shall come when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess the name of Jesus, Christian hearts will not cease to draw inspiration from the memory of those who found their last resting-place under the hopia tree at Amherst, on the rocky shore of St. Helena, and beneath the waves of the Indian Ocean.^ Other denominations were not slow in following the example of the Congregationalists and Baptists. The Methodist Episcopal Church established a society for for- eign missions in 1819, and the Protestant Episcopal Church made an attempt to engage in foreign missions in 1820. The society founded was, however, hardly more than a formal organization until 1835, when the real mis- sionary enterprises of this church were begun. The * " Life of Adoniram Judson," by his son, Edward Judson (closing paragraph). ADONIRAM JUDSON 337 ** thirties " were prolific in the formation of missionary societies : the Reformed Presbyterian and the Reformed German Churches organizing in 1836; the Presbyterian Church estabhshing its separate Board for Foreign Mis- :,v sions in 1837; the Lutherans following in 1839. The cause had now gained such momentum that the multiplica- tion of societies became rapid, until every evangelical ...-^^^^ denomination was provided with its own missionary. 'aAjtr^j^ machinery. The foreign missionary enterprise was thus the first to * engage the interest and effort of American churches, and A-^^^-"-^ the first to be supported by organized methods of more f ' , than local scope. Without doubt, in process of time the I, /^^>^ needs of the home field would have developed societies ^/sP^o^trv for the prosecution of domestic missions, had no zeal for ^^.^^^c-t^^^ work among the heathen been aroused ; but there can be ^ ^Xun^ no question that a powerful impulse toward all other >6i^<£, Sa forms of missionary labor was given by the increasing ^^^^22i'/ vigor with which foreign missions were pressed. Small beginnings in domestic missions there had been from 1800 onward, or perhaps even earlier, among Bap- tists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. Often these mis- sionary beginnings were due to the apostolic zeal and courage of single men who, without formal commission and with no pledge of support, went into the new commu- nities then establishing themselves to the westward of the Alleghanies, carrying their library, wardrobe, and entire earthly possessions in their saddle-bags. The Associa- tions of Baptist churches not infrequently commissioned a man and sent him out with a small salary. The Metho- dist Conferences and the Presbyterian General Assem- blies did the same. Into Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, into Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Mississippi, these missionary preachers pressed, and were abundantly suc- cessful in establishing churches and Sunday-schools. As w 338 CHRISTIAN ErOCH-MAKERS State organizations of the various denominations began to multiply, these also took up the work of sending out missionaries into the new States. The final step was inevitable, and could not be long delayed. In the second decade of the last century began the formation of home mission societies, national in scope and soon to become national in membership. The Presbyterian Church seems to have taken the lead in this enterprise, by formally constituting in 1816 a per- manent Board of Missions, instead of the committee that had been appointed from year to year to supervise its domestic missions. The Methodist Missionary Society was formed in 1819 to give greater efficiency to the work that had been done by the several conferences. The Baptist Triennial Convention soon after its organization undertook the work of home as well as foreign missions, but in 1832 the work was divided; the American Baptist Home Mission Society was formed in New York, and assumed not only the work done by the convention, but also enterprises that had been conducted by many State and local bodies. Besides these and similar denominational societies, others were formed of an interdenominational character, chief among which was the American Home Mission Society, constituted in 1826 by representatives of Congre- gational, Presbyterian, and Reformed churches. It grad- ually lost its interdenominational character, not by any change in its methods and principles, but by the natural withdrawal of its Presbyterian and Reformed supporters, who preferred to co-operate with their own denomina- tional Boards, and in 1893 the fact was legally recognized that it had become a strictly Congregational body. In later years this work has spread so widely among the churches of all Christian faiths, that to give even a brief account of all the societies that have developed from these ADONIRAM JUDSON 339 beginnings would require a volume of no small propor- tions. There are other interesting results of the foreign missionary movement of which a word might be profit- ably said. The founding of local Bible societies preceded - the missionary organizations, and doubtless one or more national societies for this work would sooner or later have come into being, if there had been no sentiment for for- eign missions. But in several ways the work of missions stimulated the work of Bible distribution, and still more the work of Bible translation. It was reports made by Samuel J. Mills, of the haystack prayer meeting, con- cerning the Bible destitution he had found in the course of some domestic missionary labors that had much to do with the formation of the American Bible Society in 1816. And of the more than eighty versions, in various lan- guages and dialects, now printed and circulated by that society, who believes that a dozen would ever have been made, but for the labors of foreign missionaries? An inseparable part of preaching the gospel to all the world has been the giving of the Scriptures to all the world in the great variety of spoken tongues. The annual circula- tion of nearly two million copies of the Scriptures (in- cluding portions) and of seventy-five million copies since the formation of the society, is a work to be reckoned for the most part a by-product of the great foreign missionary enterprise. And who will furnish scales or yardstick that can adequately measure the thousand other ways in which the reflex influence of foreign missions has stimulated and inspired our American churches ? It was the very breath ^ of life to churches of the congregational polity. Bap- tists and Congregationalists owe, if not their existence, at least their coherence and unity and progress, largely to this missionary effort which first gave them a bond of 340 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS union and which has always continued to be the chief bond that holds them together. But to other churches it was only less helpful. The nineteenth century witnessed the most marvelous development of religious life and religious institutions here in the United States that the world has ever seen. Nothing in the eighteen centuries preceding furnishes even an approximate parallel. The century began with one Christian to every fourteen of the , population ; it closed with a Christian to every three of the population. And this counts as Christians only those who are actual enrolled members of the churches. Of course, a very considerable part of this increase, especially in the case of the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches, has been due to immigration, but making all allowance for this, the progress among the native populations has been immense. And it cannot be doubted that, if American •Christians had selfishly shut up their hearts and ears against the cry of the perishing heathen, there would be a very different history to relate. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth — mightily. ^^^■' This development has been most notable since 1850, and j^X,j^the last half -century has also been precisely the period ^ ^ of greatest expansion in foreign missions. In 1850 all the 'i^ American societies had four hundred and thirty-eight missionaries in the foreign field, while in 1890 the num- ber was two thousand six hundred and ninety-five. The number of communicants in churches gathered from among the heathen was forty-seven thousand two hundred and sixty-six in 1850, and had risen to three hundred and ninety-eight thousand and ninety-seven in 1900. The average yearly receipts in the decade from 1850- 1860 were $842,728 for all the missionary societies then exist- ing in the United States, while in 1900 the sum of $14,- 500,000 was reported as given for foreign missions by our churches. These figures apply to Protestant missions ADONIRAM JUDSON 34I only. Surely this is a development of this work for which we may well thank God and take courage. The most hopeful feature of recent missionary history is the Student Volunteer movement. It originated in a conference of Christian college students at Mount Her- mon, Mass., in 1886. Twenty-one of the two hundred and fifty delegates present were men who expected to become foreign missionaries, but before the conference closed one hundred men had indicated their purpose to become foreign missionaries if God should open the way. Mr. Robert P. Wilder was deputed to visit the colleges and theological seminaries to arouse missionary senti- ment among the students, and in the following year visited one hundred and seventy-six institutions, meeting with instant general response to his appeals. At the present time, nearly a thousand institutions have been reached by the movement, in more than half of which classes for the systematic study of foreign missions are now found in successful operation. Nearly two thousand volun- teers, directly influenced to offer themselves through this movement, have already gone to the foreign field, and there are at least five times as many students in our col- leges and seminaries preparing themselves for missionary service as were found in the same institutions before the beginning of the movement. Not only so, but the men who have gone into the home field during the last two decades have been more fully informed about missions, and as pastors have done more to sustain the work of our representatives abroad. A considerable literature has been produced to meet the needs of these students, and a great increase of intelligent study of missions has resulted in all the churches. Not only has there been marked advance in the number and character of missionary candidates, as a result of these methods, but the missionary sentiment of all the churches 342 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS has been quickened and made much more healthful. This has been especially true of the young people, and it cer- tainly must be held to augur well for the future of mis- sions that the great young people's movement, beginning in 1 88 1, has been so closely allied from the outset to the work of missions at home and abroad. The leaders of this movement have uniformly exerted themselves to secure the inculcation of accurate knowledge of the his- tory and methods of missions as a regular feature of all young people's organizations, and with a success wholly gratifying. The monthly missionary meeting is a feature of thousands of prayer meetings of young Christians to- day. In no chapter of the history of Christian missions has the leading of divine Providence been more clearly mani- fest than in these beginnings of the work in America and the things whereunto they have grown. Who that studies this history can doubt that this is God's doing, and that we have in this great advance an earnest of the final triumph of our King? His name shall endure forever ; His name shall be continued as long as the sun; And men shall be blessed in him; All nations shall call him happy. XVIII LIVINGSTONE: LIGHT-BEARER TO THE DARK CONTINENT BIBLIOGRAPHY The sources for the life of Livingstone are his Missionary Travels and Researches (London, 1857) ; Narrative of an Expe- dition to the Zambesi (London, 1865) ; and Last Journals of David Livingstone (New York, 1874). Next to these, Stanley's How I Found Livingstone (New York, 1891) is most valuable. Blaikie's Personal Life of David Livingstone is, on the whole, the best biography (London, 1888). Others of varying interest and value are by Adams (New York, n. d.), Chambliss (Phila- delphia, 1875), Hughes (London, 1891), Maclachlen (New York, 1901). On the value of his work as an explorer, see Johnston's Livingstone and the Exploration of Central Africa (London, 1891). The best general work on African missions is Noble's Redemption of Africa (two vols.. New York, 1899) J brief but excellent sketches are : Stewart's Dawn in the Dark Continent (New York, 1904), Naylor's Daybreak in the Dark Continent (Chicago, 1905), and Parsons' Christus Liberator (New York, 1905). Stock's Story of Uganda should by all means be read (New York, 1892). Of biographies of missionaries no one should fail to read at least those of Robert and Mary Moffat, by their son (New York, 1885), Mackay of Uganda, by his sis- ter (New York, 1890), and Dawson's Bishop Hannington (New York, 1887), as these are invaluable. Two books lately published may be added, as compact, cheap, and useful : Montefiore's David Livingstone in the " World's Benefactors " series, and Deane's Robert Moffat in the " Missionary Series," both pubHshed by Revell, New York. XVIII LIVINGSTONE : LIGHT-BEARER TO THE DARK CONTINENT NOT without reason has Africa been called the Dark Continent — not without many good reasons. There was our ignorance of it, first of all. Strange indeed it is that the greatest of the continents, save Asia, with an area of eleven million five hundred thousand square miles — more than one-fifth of the habitable globe — should have remained an unknown land up to a time within our memories. Except the Mediterranean littoral and a fringe of land bordering on the ocean, this country was still as much terra incognita to our fathers as it was to Greeks and Romans. Even on the school-atlas of my boyhood, the greater part of the continent was a wide yellow blank, with the words " Unexplored Interior " printed in large capitals across it. How different the case to-day ! Little remains to be added to our geographical knowledge of Africa, some few relatively unimportant details. It was a Dark Continent also because of the barbarism and degradation of its inhabitants. The abundance of food in Africa and the ease with which it is obtained kept that land in a prolonged period of barbarism. Civiliza- tion has advanced only where man has had to struggle for existence, and where the struggle has been most in- tense the advance has been most rapid. There was no struggle in Africa, and it has therefore remained in the stone age, while the rest of the world has climbed the hard upward road to enlightenment. Among its various people have been found no domesticated animals, save a few miserable curs which it would be base flattery to call 345 346 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS dogs; nor have they possessed any cultivated plants or trees. Where fruits, nuts, and grains grew wild in greater abundance than men needed, where game was so plen- tiful that it almost asked to be caught, where the climate made clothing a superfluous luxury, indeed, a burden — why should people labor to grow and fashion things? The greater part of Africa is accordingly still in the lowest conceivable state of savagery. It was a Dark Continent because what little religion it possessed was almost worse than none. Since the Mo- hammedan invasion of a. d. 640 the Mediterranean lit- toral and a considerable part of the interior have been given over to the religion of the Koran. And one may, with little or no exaggeration, apply to the missions of the Mohammedans among the natives of Africa, the sting- ing words addressed by our Lord to the Pharisees of his day, '' Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he has become so, ye make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves." Islam grafted upon African fetichism brings forth fruit neither to the praise of God nor to the good of man. Wherever it goes in its train follow slavery, polygamy, and kindred evils, per- manently entrenched under the protection of religion. The worst enemy that the Christian missionary has to meet is one who holds this hybrid faith. Christian missions have often been the advance-guard of commerce and civilization, and Christian missionaries have many times been the first to set foot in regions of darkness and barbarism that later were opened to the in- fluences of culture and refinement. Dennis ' has given us many instructive and inspiring instances of this, but there has been no more striking and impressive instance of the widely beneficent influence of Christian missions than the * Dennis, " Christian Missions and Social Progress," two vols., New York, 1899. LIVINGSTONE 347 evangelization of Africa affords. It is true that these material benefits are purely incidental to the missionary enterprise — its by-products only — but men of business are now telling us that the by-products of a great concern have become a chief source of profit. Christian men have ever seen in Africa a most attractive missionary field, in spite of its darkness, perhaps rather because of its dark- ness. While the world has beheld in Africa a bonanza — a rich country whose value was unknown to its inhabit- ants, a mine of wealth to be exploited by the shrewder peoples of America and Europe, Christians have seen in this land a bonanza also, the country offering largest op- portunities for missionary effort in the world at the present time, and perhaps also promising the largest and quickest returns for the labor and money expended. Christian missions in Africa are no new thing; they began long ago, and it is the shame of Christendom that they came to so little until lately. So far back as 1752 Moravian missionaries entered Egypt, and even earlier they had a representative in South Africa, but it cannot be said that they made much progress in either region, and their eft'orts became diverted to other countries. Christian missions seem really to have begun with the going to South Africa of Robert and Mary Moffat, in 18 1 6. Though of Scotch parentage it was through the Moravians that he was led to become a missionary, and he was sent out by the London Missionary Society. He was very successful among the Bechuanas and Mahta- beles, and his translation of the Bible into Bechuana, printed in 1857, was the first version of the Scriptures made in modern times for natives of Africa. He found these people degraded and murderous savages; when he left them in 1870, enfeebled by age and broken by labors amid great hardships, they had a written language and the beginnings of a native literature, thousands had become 348 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS Christians and whole tribes were beginning to live a civilized life. Moffat's labors and their results were, however, too little appreciated at the time, outside of Great Britain at any rate. The man who was to fix the eyes of the world on Africa and become the creator of a new missionary epoch, was nearly twenty years Moffat's junior, and first reached South Africa when the older missionary's labors were more than half spent. This was David Livingstone, born at Blantyre, near Glasgow, March 19, 1813. The poverty of his family drove him to seek employment in a cotton mill at the age of ten. His work began at six A. M. and lasted until eight p. m., but out of his first week's wages he bought an elementary Latin grammar, and at once began his study of that language. Such things are said to be not uncommon among the Scotch peas- antry, but among what other peasantry of the world could one look for a like incident? By the time he was sixteen, David could read his Vergil and Horace easily, and had made some progress in science as well, especially in botany and geology. Much of his early reading was carried on, he tells us, *' by placing the book on a portion of the spin- ning-jenney, so that I could catch sentence after sentence as I paused at my work. I thus kept a pretty constant study, undisturbed by the roar of machinery. To this," he adds, " I owe the power of completely abstracting my mind, so as to read and write with perfect comfort amidst the play of children or the dancing and song of savages." At the same time he was no unnatural bookworm, but a thorough boy, an active lad fond of all sports and pro- ficient in most. But such grit and perseverance as this were sure to bring their reward, not only in learning, but in the building up of a sturdy, self-reliant character. Livingstone was no prodigy of early piety. He received a careful Christian training, but to the great distress of LIVINGSTONE 349 his parents he preferred scientific to reHgious reading. The last time his father whipped him was for his obsti- nate refusal to read a pious but dull book, Wilberforce's " Practical Christianity." The parent was more in fault than the child. Always reticent about himself and his personal experiences, Livingstone has left little account of his youthful religious exercises, and the exact time of his conversion is unknown. While still only a lad, however, he had come to know the history of the early Moravian missions, and the life of Henry Martyn, and had determined to give all his surplus earnings to mis- sions. But the reading of an appeal to the churches of England and America by Charles Butzlafif, a medical mis- sionary to China, decided him to devote, not his money merely, but his life to the work of missions. The Scotch churches had not yet become awakened to their duty to the cause of missions, and had no missionary society. At the age of twenty Livingstone offered himself to the London Missionary Society, and was accepted on probation. With their aid he pursued studies in theology and medicine, and in November, 1840, was admitted a licentiate of the faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of Glasgow. In the same month he was ordained in London, and on December 8 sailed for Algoa Bay. He had at first been bent on going to China, but an interview with Doctor Moffat, then in England on fur- lough, decided him to go to Africa, " where," said the veteran, " on a clear morning I have seen the smoke of a thousand villages and no missionary has ever been." It is characteristic of him that on the voyage he learned the use of sextant and quadrant, and the method of *' taking observations " and working out the latitude and longi- tude — knowledge that was of the utmost value to him in the labors of his later years. When he arrived in South Africa he found no definite 350 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS instructions as to his field of labor, and for a time he remained at some of the stations already established, spending no small part of his time in the practice of medicine. He acquired the native language easily, and learned something of even greater value, the art of deal- ing with savages. This art, in his case, consisted largely in the consistent practice of the Christian virtues of kind- ness, truthfulness, and honesty. His medical skill was considerable, and proved the most direct road to the hearts of the people. After a few months he writes home : " I have an immense practice ; patients walk one hundred and thirty miles for my advice. This is the country for a medical man, but he must leave fees out of the question." After some months of this preliminary work, he re- ceived the desired permission from home to undertake new missionary work farther north, where no one had yet preached the gospel. He established his first station at Mabatsa, among the Bakatlas, about two hundred miles from Kuruman, hitherto the most advanced mission station. It was while here that he was attacked by a lion that he had fatally wounded, and had a narrow escape from instant death, but escaped with a torn shoulder and shattered left arm. The arm healed in such a way as to produce a false joint. After his recovery he had the good fortune to win as his wife Mary, the eldest daughter of Doctor Moffat. Not long after, to avoid controversy with a brother missionary, they removed to a new station about forty miles farther north, where they began a new work, the first step being the building of a new home, a church, etc. A pioneer missionary's work is not all preaching the gospel, as the letters of this period prove. This is one of his vivid descriptions of their varied occupations : Building, gardening, cobbling, doctoring, tinkering, carpenter- ing, gun-mending, farriering, wagon-mending, preaching, school- LIVINGSTONE 351 ing, lecturing on physics according to my means, besides a chair in divinity to a class of three to fill up my time. . . My wife made candles, soap, and clothes, and thus we had nearly attained to the indispensable accomplishments of a missionary family in Central Africa — the husband a jack-of -all-trades without doors, and the wife a maid-of-all-work within. , It does not appear ever to have occurred to Livingstone to think the jack-of-all-trades was less a servant of God than the preacher. There was a fair amount of preach- ing withal, but less of practising medicine than at first, he finding it necessary to undertake serious cases only, if he would not have the missionary completely disappear in the doctor. The first convert at the new station was the chief of the tribe, Sechele, who remained the fast friend of Living- stone to the end. Among the people he made progress more slowly than this promising beginning indicated, and at length all progress was stopped by a drouth that lasted four years. The people suffered greatly and, as was per- haps natural for superstitious savages, came to the con- clusion that the missionary had bewitched their chief and country. Sechele, after his conversion, had stopped the incantations of the rain-makers, and continued inflexible when his people besought him to permit their conjurers to " make a few showers." Still, the natives treated the missionary and his family with kindness throughout the long trial. They migrated to another place, Kolobeng, on a river of that name, but finally this too became dry. There was nothing for the tribe to do but migrate again, and as for Livingstone himself he resolved to push yet further northward, where he had heard from certain natives that a great lake was supposed to exist. Accompanied by an Englishman named Oswell, who had come on a hunting expedition to this new country, and escorted by a number of the Bakwains, the party 352 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS set out. They encountered great dangers and privations in their journey across the desert, but they finally reached Lake Ngami, the first white men to gaze upon its waters. His belief that in this region there were many tribes, offering an inviting field for missionary labors, was con- firmed, but it was some time before he was able to pene- trate farther north. In the meantime the Royal Geo- graphical Society awarded him a prize of twenty-five guineas for this, the first of his great discoveries. This immediate recognition of the value of his work may have been the unconscious turning-point in his life. He did not consciously and deliberately undertake the career of explorer, however, but was gradually led into it by a succession of providential circumstances. After nearly two years, when he had succeeded in penetrating into the region north of Lake Ngami, he found the people friendly, and the chief welcomed him warmly. These people, the Makololo, he always afterward considered the best of the African peoples he had known, and he was continually comparing others to them, usually much to the discredit of the others. But the region, to his great disappointment, proved unhealthful, and his family were unable to remain there. He resolved to send them to Eng- land, while he would attempt to find a more healthful sta- tion in the interior, with a path either to the east or the west coast. With him to resolve was to do; Mrs. Liv- ingstone and the children accordingly sailed for England in April, 1852, and he plunged into the unknown interior. The second stage in' Livingstone's career now began. He is still a missionary — the purpose of opening Africa to the gospel never ceased to dominate him — but divine Providence is leading him into a larger work than falls to the ordinary missionary. One of the great hindrances, if not the chief obstacle, to missionary labors in Africa was the ignorance of the Christian world up to this time LIVINGSTONE 353 regarding this great country. God was now making Liv- ingstone his agent for enlightening his church concerning this great unevangeHzed continent, and so opening the way for the greatest of modern enterprises. While making preparations for his first great journey, Living- stone pursued further his astronomical studies with Sir Thomas Maclear, the Astronomer Royal at the Cape, and acquired such skill in the making of observations that he was able thenceforth to map accurately all his journeys and discoveries. Sir Thomas himself afterward said : '' You could go to any point across the entire continent along Livingstone's track and feel certain of your posi- tion. His are the finest specimens of sound geographical observation I have ever met with." His other scientific notes of his travels were equally precise and valuable. The problem he had set for himself was to find a way both practicable and safe from the interior above Lake Ngami to the west coast. The start was made November II, 1853, and he arrived at Loanda May 31, 1854. That brief statement covers six months' endurance of dangers, privations, and sickness that brought him to the very brink of the grave, and would have been fatal to a weaker man. His Scotch constitution and his Scotch grit upheld him and brought him safely through all. The party (he was accompanied by twenty-seven Makololo, who were brave and faithful) voyaged in canoes up the Chobe to its junc- tion with the Zambesi, traced the Zambesi to its source, and also its affluent, the Leeba, to its source in Lake Dilolo; whence they marched across the watershed and down the valley of the Quango to Loanda. Here a British man-of-war offered him a passage to St. Helena ; and all the white men there urged him to go home and seek recuperation of his health; but he had pledged his word to restore his Makololo to their home and tribe, and lie would not be moved to break his pledge 354 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS by any personal considerations. Sending home his jour- nals, maps, and observations, he started back in Feb- ruary I, 1885, and reached the station whence he first set out September 11. Much less opposition and danger was experienced from the native tribes on this return journey, as Livingstone had conciliated the chiefs on the way down. He determined now to make a journey of exploration to the east coast also, so that a path into the interior might be opened up in both directions. He set out November 13, and arrived at Quilimane May 20, 1856. The great event of this march was the discovery of Victoria Falls, on the Zambesi, wTiere a stream eighteen hundred yards broad leaps down three hundred and twenty feet and then suddenly becomes compressed into a space of fifteen or twenty yards. This divides with Niagara the honor of being the greatest fall of water in the world, and is called by the natives '' Mosi-oa-tunya," or " smoke that sounds." Next to this discovery is the exploration of the great watershed that separates the valley of the Zambesi from that of the Congo. In these two journeys Livingstone had traversed the southern part of Africa from ocean to ocean ; he had traveled over eleven thousand miles on foot and in canoes ; beyond all the discoverers of twenty cen- turies he had enlarged the world's knowledge of Africa; he had opened this great region to commerce and civiliza- tion. In a word, more than any man that ever lived, he had hastened the day when the Dark Continent should be dark no longer. Having arrived at the coast he made temporary pro- vision for his Makololo, assuring them that nothing but death would prevent his returning and taking them back to their homes, and then set sail for England. He arrived to find himself rich if he would, and famous whether he would or no. Honors were showered upon him: the LIVINGSTONE 355 Royal Geographical Society presented him the patron's gold medal, the London Missionary Society welcomed him in a special meeting, Lord Shaftesbury in the chair; the British Association made him their guest of honor ; Lon- don, Glasgow, and other towns presented him the freedom of the city in a gold box; Oxford and Cambridge con- ferred doctor's degrees; and Lord Palmerston, in behalf of the government, offered him the appointment of Brit- ish Consul for the East Coast of Africa. Lord Claren- don, for the Admiralty, said, " Just come here and tell me what you want and I will give it you." The publication of a book, in which he gave an account of his travels and discoveries, placed him and his family at once beyond danger of want, and almost made him a rich man. But he remained the same plain, simple David Livingstone. In deference to the advice of friends, as well as in obedience to a strong inward call, he reluctantly decided to sever his connection with the London Missionary Society and devote the remainder of his life to African explora- tion. He believed that he could do more for the ultimate advancement of the missionary cause by enlarging men's knowledge of Africa, and opening up its inaccessible parts to commerce and Christian civilization, than he could ac- complish by ordinary missionary labors. He was un- doubtedly right. The opportunity was an extraordinary one, and he was an extraordinary man; and though ex- tremely modest, he was by no means ignorant of his quali- fications for this work, which he well knew that he could do more efficiently than any living man. He did not cease to regard himself as essentially a missionary, though henceforth the preaching of the gospel might be only an incident in his labors, instead of th-eir chief feature. His great aim was the extension of the kingdom of Christ, the evangelizing of Africa, and this seemed to him to be the way in which he could most effectively promote the 356 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS progress of the gospel. The Christian world, with no dis- senting voice, has approved his decision and confirmed his judgment, and to-day honors him as one of her greatest missionaries, as the world of science honors in him the most intrepid and successful explorer of modern times. His new journeys, in 1859, up the Shire River, resulted in the discovery of Lake Shirwa and Lake Nyassa. He then fulfilled his pledge to his Makololo companions of the former expedition by returning them to their home. A great sorrow came to him now ; his wife, who had re- joined him only three months before, died at a station on the Zambesi April 2y, 1862. Henceforth without any white companion, he plodded his toilsome way to the end. A great disappointment also came: these explorations of his had roused suspicion and objections from the Portu- guese government, which feared that these travels of a British consul might result in eventual British occupation of territory claimed by them. A change of government had occurred in England, and Lord John Russell was in the foreign office. Instead of standing by Livingstone, and using all the resources of diplomacy to placate the Portuguese government, he thought it simpler, and it was no doubt easier, to throw over the missionary and his expedition. He therefore without warning recalled the expedition and revoked Livingstone's authority. Compelled thus to abandon his work, Livingstone re- turned to England. The Royal Geographical Society at once commissioned him to explore Central Africa, and especially to settle the question of the ultimate sources of the Nile, and the relations of the great central lakes. He was also to have the honor of being entitled British consul of Central Africa, but without pay. Interest in his dis- coveries had somewhat subsided by now, and he was no longer a nine days' wonder ; there is no disguising the fact that on the whole he was rather shabbily treated, but he LIVINGSTONE 357 made no complaint, took what was offered, and set out, in January, 1866, on the expedition from which he was never to return. His remaining seven years were spent in the attempt to solve the geographical problems that had been set him, in which he was only partially successful. For a long time nothing was heard of him, and reports of his death began to be circulated — at first disbelieved, but growing in posi- tiveness until fears were entertained for his safety. An expedition was sent to his relief by James Gordon Bennett the elder, of the '' New York Herald," led by Henry M. Stanley, till then only a fairly successful newspaper cor- respondent, with no experience in the work of exploration and no special interest in missions or missionaries. Mr. Stanley succeeded in finding Livingstone, who had been compelled to turn back and was nearly at the end of his resources. The strongest urging was not sufficient to in- duce him to return, or to give up his task, which he pro- posed to finish if life remained. Stanley gave him fresh supplies, and what was better sent from the coast fifty men, of whom Livingstone afterward spoke his highest praise, " These men have behaved as well as Makololo." The old man, broken in health, and daily growing more feeble in body, but with spirit undaunted, nov/ started (August, 1872) to complete his explorations and solve his remaining unsolved problems. A man of sixty, he set out with all the courage and energy of youth, and for a time it seemed that he might succeed. But his years of hardship and the insidious African fever had done their work. His last task proved beyond his rapidly failing powers ; he grew weaker and weaker, until on April 2y, 1873, he made his last entry in his journal, and on the morning of May i, when his servants came to the door of his tent, they found him kneeling by the bed, his face buried in his hands on the pillow, his spirit gone to the 358 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS God who gave it. These faithful black men now showed of what stuff they were made. They embalmed the body in a rude but effective native fashion, gathered together his belongings, and with great peril and difficulty bore all down to the coast and delivered them safely to the Brit- ish consul at Zanzibar, on February 15, 1874. The re- mains were brought to England, identified beyond possi- bility of doubt by the injured joint in the arm broken by the lion, and given burial in Westminster Abbey. The problems that Livingstone failed to solve were taken up by Henry M. Stanley, who was led to under- take them mainly by the deep impression that the great missionary explorer had made on him in the few weeks they had spent together in the heart of Africa. He under- took the work quite in the spirit of Livingstone. Never a missionary by formal appointment, not even a Christian by formal profession, he resolved to complete the opening of Central Africa to commerce and Christian civilization, with the hope that Christian missions would be the ear- liest and the chief civilizing agency. His explorations of 1875-1878 of the Victoria Nyanza and Albert Nyanza lakes practically completed our knowledge of Central Africa, and his return trip down the Congo opened up a practicable route to the western coast. The immediate results were the establishment of the Congo Free State and of several missions to this region, including the Congo Baptist Mission. Though hardly more than a promising beginning has yet been made of the great enterprise of evangelizing Africa, the principal missionary societies of the world now have their representatives in that country, and there are few regions to which some of them have not pene- trated. One of the first of the new fields opened by Liv- ingstone owed its evangelization directly to him. On his first visit to England, he made an address to the students LIVINGSTONE 359 at Oxford and Cambridge universities, in which he urged directly on them the doing of missionary work in Africa, and as a result the Universities' Mission was organized at once, and two years later they had men in the field. The first station was not happily chosen, as the climate proved extremely deadly, and after a brief and sad experience the survivors were recalled to Zanzibar, where an educational work was begun. The graduates of the schools thus established have in these last years begun a new work in the Lake Nyassa region, which has so grown since 1885 as now to require two bishops for its supervision. Perhaps nothing did more to fix the thought of the Christian world on African missions than the career of Hannington. A graduate of Oxford, a born leader of men, he had in 1874 a new and deeper religious experi- ence that led him to offer his services to the Church Missionary Society as a missionary to Africa. His career was brief and brilliant. In 1882 he began his work; in 1883 he was consecrated missionary bishop of equatorial Africa. He had set his heart on establishing a mission at Uganda, in response to Stanley's challenge to the Chris- tian people of England : " Nowhere is there in all the pagan world a more promising field for a mission! Here, gentlemen, is your opportunity; embrace it! The people on the shores of the Nyanza call upon you." With much difficulty Hannington made his way to Uganda where, at the instigation of Arab slave-traders, he was killed by the chief of this region, October 29, 1885. His last words were, " I have purchased the road to Uganda with my life." So it proved to be. In ten years there were three hundred churches in this region, and fifty thousand converts. A mere summary of the results of African missions in a popular handbook fills nearly three hundred duodecimo pages. It is obviously impossible to attempt anything of 360 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS the sort here, and unnecessary as well, since the litera- ture of the subject is abundant and easily accessible. Let us rather complete our survey of African missions by considering some of the chief obstacles to Christian evan- gelization, and the prospect of success during the present generation. • One of the greatest obstacles has always been, and still is, the slave-trade. It was the hope of Livingstone that the progress of European civilization in the heart of the continent would cause the speedy disappearance of this ancient scourge of Africa. This hope cannot be said to have been realized, hardly to be in process of realiza- tion. The case of Africa is thought by many to have actually become worse, rather than better, by reason of European interference. Even the Congo Free State, which was expected to do wonders for the regeneration of Africa, itself needs regeneration, since it is charged by the missionaries on the field with crimes and outrages truly diabolical. Can nothing be done to rouse Christen- dom to a sense of this shame, or to induce Christian gov- ernments to intervene to some purpose? O Christian civilization, how many crimes are committed in thy name ! Another obstacle of almost equal proportions is the liquor traffic. This is a sin that rests almost wholly on the " Christian " nations. Responsibility for the slave traffic we may shift, with some show of reason, to the shoulders of the Mohammedan peoples, but the nefarious trade in liquor is the sin and shame of the so-called Chris- tian nations. Nearly all of them are concerned in it, in- cluding our own, for even in once pious New England (so it is said on good authority) rum is distilled expressly for exportation to Africa. The good old days when pil- lars in the church had money most profitably invested in vessels engaged in the slave-trade are gone, but the devil still had an effective lure, it seems, for those whose greed LIVINGSTONE 36I of money exceeds every other passion. The Christian peoples of Europe and America are, almost literally, standing at the doors of Africa with a Bible in one hand and a bottle of rum in the other — what wonder that the savage so often chooses the rum! This evil also calls aloud for effective international concert and intervention. The menace of the climate, once reckoned an obstacle second to none, grows less with every decade. Recent medical discoveries have made precautions possible that will keep at bay diseases hitherto extremely deadly. No doubt other discoveries will be made ere long that will teach the prevention, if not the cure, of other fatal diseases peculiar to Africa. The day is not distant, in- deed it is almost here, when missionaries to Africa will no longer be looked upon as devoted to an early death, but will live out their days there as often as upon any other mission field. Another obstacle that is every year becoming less for- midable is the vast number of languages and dialects spoken by the one hundred and seventy-five million peo- ple of Africa — one-eighth of the population of the globe. These must be patiently learned by the missionaries, re- duced to writing, and then a Christian literature must be produced, at cost of great labor, and much time and expense. Progress is necessarily slow, but each decade sees fewer unknown tongues in Africa, and great addi- tions to its vernacular Scriptures. This obstacle will gradually melt and disappear, and in the meantime it only retards — it does not actually prevent — the progress of missions. The brutal and degraded character of many tribes, their relative inaccessibility to religious ideas, their heathen cus- toms — all of which many have thought a chief obstacle to the progress of the gospel, we may regard as certain to disappear before the progress of enlightenment. That the 362 CHRISTIAN EPOCH-MAKERS light of Christian civilization will yet shine in every part of the Dark Continent is no longer a mere hope, but must be reckoned a certainty. So many circumstances point in this direction that our Christian courage and faith should be much strengthened. The outlook for immediate and steady improvement in the condition of Africa is most hopeful, but the chief ground for such confidence is that the church of Christ is with every year becoming more and more awakened to the greatness of this missionary field, and to the pressing necessity of occupying it strongly at once. And this is well, for we have yet to consider what is really the great obstacle to the progress of Christian mis- sions in Africa. That is the activity of the Mohammedan missions. At this m.oment it is unquestionably true that Mohammedanism is making more rapid strides in Africa than Christianity. The missionaries of the Koran are numerous, zealous, and very successful, for they require no change of heart in their converts, no spiritual life after conversion, but only a formal profession of faith, easily made, and the performance of a few simple rites. It is the common experience and testimony of all missionaries that heathen once converted to Mohammedanism are much more difficult to be Christianized than when in their original state of heathenism. Whether Africa shall be predominantly Christian or Mohammedan may be said to-day to be a still open question. Great progress of the Mohammedan faith is said to be now making in the Soudan and Central Africa. But the question will re- main open no longer than it will take the Christian world to comprehend the situation, to realize the gravity of the crisis. Once it is awakened, can we doubt that the churches will pour their men and money into darkest Africa, with the determination once for all to take and hold that land for their Lord? LIVINGSTONE 363 Those who have patiently read these chapters, in which the successive missionary movements of the Christian ages have been traced, cannot fail to have attained to a new conception both of the moral dignity of missions and of the marvelous results that God has wrought in the world through a few faithful servants. May the reading of this story not only add something to each reader's knowledge of missionary history, but quicken every conscience to re- spond with greater loyalty and devotion to our Lord's Great Commission. May it also contribute something to that growing conviction that the evangelization of the world in this present generation is practicable, and if prac- ticable, then an urgent duty. The Christian world has been playing at missions. It has done little more than pretend to disciple all the nations. Grateful as we should be for what has been accomplished, how small are the re- sults of the century of modern missions, when we think what the Christian church was well able to do. God speed the day when those who profess to respect the commands of their Lord shall be in deadly earnest in doing his will ; when the consecrated host of God's elect, animated by a single purpose, fired by a universal zeal, shall move for- ward in all their might to the conquest of the world for Christ, " fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners ! " INDEX Adalbert, opponent of Boniface, 117. Africa: condition of, 345; Moham- medanism in, 34^; missions in, 347; effect of Stanley's discov- eries in, 358; slave-trade of, 360; prospects of missions in, 361, 362. Alphons, Nicholas (Bobadilla), 205. A. B. C. F. M., formed, 330. Angles, conversion of, 91-93. Anglican theory of the church, 95. Ansgar: early life of, 129; com- missioned by pope, 133; mission to Sweden, 132; contrasted with Boniface, 134; disclaims miracles, 135; death and character, 136; completes Gregory's plan, 138. Antioch, church in: origin of, 22; begins foreign missions, 24; leader of Christian hosts, 27; relations to apostles, 30; Juda- izers disturb, 27. Apostles: traditions concerning, 29; their episcopal functions, 36. Aries, council of, 63. Arians: and Ulfilas, 48; and Goths, 54- Augustine, missionarjr to England: begins work, 86; his success, 90; founds church at Canterbury, 91 ; primate of England, 96; results of his work, 98, 99. Augustine of Hippo, 93, 94. Barbarians: irruption of, 43 scq.; name a misnomer, 46; influence of Christianity on, 58. Barnabas: at Antioch, 23; mission- ary tour of, 25. Baptists: English and missions, 292 seq.', American and missions, 332 seq.; General Convention, 334; Home Mission Society, 338. Bede, the Venerable, 63, 68. Berthelsdorf, 269. Beza, hostility to missions, 227. Bible societies, 339. Bishop, in New Testament, 37. Bogoris, Prince of Bulgaria, 146. Bohemia: gospel first preached in, 152; reform in, 203; Counter- Ref- ormation in, 268. Bohemian Brethren. (See, Unitas Fratrum.) Boniface: early life of, 106; be- gins mission, 107; commissioned by pope, 108; preaches in Hessia, ibid; his oath to the pope, 109; character of, iii, 112, 116; made archbishop, 113; death of, 116; his tyranny, 117; greatness of, 121; contrasted with Ansgar, 133. Boniface VIII, 139, 169. Boving, John, 237. Brebeuf, Jesuit missionary, 219, 220. Britain: early church of, 77 ; Anglo- Saxon invasion of, 84 seq.; ef- fects of, 86-88. Buddhism in India, 308. Bulgaria, conversion of, 146. Bunyan, John: his self-accusations, 70; his country, 285. Burgundians, conversion of, 53. Butzlaff, Charles, 349. Calpurnius, father of Patrick. 68. Calvin, indifference of, to missions, 226. Canterbury, Augustine builds church at, 91. Carey, William: his interest in for- eign people, 107; opposed by East India Co., 234; not first mission- ary in India, 243; birth and family, 285; early life, 286; con- tempt for Dissenters, 287; his baptism, 288; pastor at Moulton, 289; gifts as linguist, 289, 297; sermon at Nottingham, 291; so- ciety formed for missions, 292; Southey on his work, 296; his translations, 297; a great Oriental scholar, 299; experiments in hor- ticulture, 300; results of labors, 301; place in history, 302. Carnatic, war in, 253. Caste: tolerated by Danish mis- sionaries, 243; how viewed by others, 244; causes of, 307. Coelestine (Pope) : traditional con- nection with Patrick, 66, 73. ,_ Central America, Moravian missions in, 274. Charlemagne: and the Northmen, 125; and the temporal power, 163. Charles Martel, 98. Chelcicky, Peter, Bohemian reform- er, 267. Church, of Jerusalem, 21, 22. Church, of Antioch, 22. Church, of Britain, 77. Church, of Ireland, 77. Church of England: connection with Rome, 95 ; its missionary work, 295- Church of Rome: and the vernac- ular Scriptures, 149; absorbs Greek missions, 153; its mission- ary operations, 203; recuperative INDEX 36s power cf, 204; its missionary methods, 207-210. Cicero, on immortality, 17. Cities, importance of in work of missions, 34, 35. Clara and the Clarissines, 196. Clement, opponent of Boniface, 117. Clovis, conversion and baptism of. Codex Argenteus, 51. Columba: without papal authority, 74; life and labors of, 78. Columban: not commissioned by pope, 74; life and labors of, 79. Columbus and the new world, 294. Comparative religion and missions, 9. Congo Free State, 358, 360. Corbie^ convent of, 130. Councils: Aries, 63; Basel, 268; Jerusalem, 28; Soissons, 114. Cranmer, receives pallium from Rome, 96. Crusades: occasion of, 99, 166; what they accomplished, 167; age of, 172. Cyril. (See Methodius.) Czechs, conversion of, 152. Dante, writes in vernacular, 173. David, Christian, finds home for Moravians, 269. Dark Ages: character of, 59, 119. Denmark, conversion of, 131 seg. Dober, Leonard, 273. Diisseldorf, gallery at, 210. East India Company: (Danish) op- poses missions, 234; (English) op- poses missions, 234; makes Mar- tyn chaplain, 311; honors Carey, 294- Egede, Hans: missionary to Green- land, 247; influence on Zinzen- dorf, 272. England: mission to, 89 seq; be- comes Christian, 94; its church a branch of the Roman, 95; effects of its conversion, 95, 97, iii. Eskimos, Moravian missions to, 275, 293- Ethelbert, king of Kent, 90, 91. Europe, at close of fifth century, 57. Feudalism in Italy, 197. Filioqiie in the creed, 150. Fisher, on barbarian conquests, 58. Fox, Cieorge, 285, 287. France, Protestantism in, 203. Francis of Assisi: early life of, 181; conversion, 182; choice of poverty, 183; his idea of mendi- cancy, 184; not a monk, 185; his difficulties, 186; gains approval of Eope, 187; mission in Egypt, 190; is will, 192; his third order, 197- 199; character of, 199, 200, 309. Franciscans: founded, 188, 328; perversion of, 193; privileges of, 194; their missions, 195 seq. Francke, August Hermann: his orphanage and school, 229, 230, 270; encourages Ziegenbalg, 2Z2; influence on Schwartz, 249. Franks: conversion of, 56; are Catholics, 57. Frederick IV, of Denmark: favors missions, 231; aids mission to Greenland, 247. Freeman, on conquest of Rome, 47. Fulda, monastery of, 116, 121. Fuller, Andrew, 290. Future life and the gospel, 16. Galatia, scene of Paul's labors, 26. Gaul, conquest of, 44. Geismar, the oak of, 112. Gerhard, John, opposes missions, 227. Germany, conversion of, 104 seq. Gibbon, on conversion of Goths, 53. God: heathen idea of, 10; his holi- ness, 1 1 ; Christian teaching con- cerning, 1 1 ; Mohammedan idea of, 12. Goths: found kingdom in Italy, 43; conquest of empire, 45 seq.; Gib- bon on conversion of, 53. Gospel, content of, 10 seq. Great Commission: relation of to missions, 6, 325; Luther's teach- ing on, 225; Calvin's, 226; Beza's, 227. Greek Church, missions of, 143 seq. Green, Byram, 325. Greenland, mission to, 247. Gregory the Great: anecdote of, 88; begins English mission, 89; great missionary scheme of, 97, 121, 146, 163; completion of his policy by Ansgar, 138. Gregory II, commissions Boniface, 108. Gregory IV, commissions Ansgar, 133- Gregory IX, 168, 193, 198. Grenfell, Lydia, relations to Henry Martyn, 312 seq. Griindler, John, 231. Hannington, bishop, mission and death, 359. Hall, Gordon, 326, 330, 331. Halle, University of, 229, 230, 238, 249, 251. Harold, king of Danes, 128, 131, 132. Haystack prayer meeting, 325. Herrnhut: founded, 269; Zinzen- dorf's interest in, 271. Hessia, labors of Boniface in, 108 seq. Hildebrand, 118, 139; his theory of the church, 165. Honorius III, establishes Francis- cans, 191. Home missions in America, 337 seq. Hungary: becomes independent, 169; reform in, 203. Huns, invasion of, 45. Hurons: Jesuit mission to, 218; massacre of, 219. 366 INDEX Hus, John, result of his teachings, 267. Ilyder Ali, friend of Schwartz, 253, 254- India: Danish settlement in, 231; universal corruption of, 255; char- acteristics of, 305; history, 306; Buddhism in, 308; Mohammedan conquest of, ibid; mission of Xavier in, 207 seq.; of Carey, 243 seq.; of Martyn, 312 seq.; of Judson, 331 seq. Innocent III: referred to, 118, 139, 181; realizes theory of Hilde- brand, 165; approves order of Francis, 187. Ireland: conversion of, 74; a mis- sionary center, 78; its learning, 103; church of, 77. Iroquois, their massacre of Hurons and missionaries, 218-220. Isidore, false decretals of, 164. Italy: in the thirteenth century, 196 seq.; Gothic conquest of, 46; Met- ternich's epigram on, 305. Japan: Xavier's mission to, 214; massacre of Christians in, 215. Jerusalem, council of, 28. Jesuits. (See Society of Jesus.) Jesus: his mission universal, 5; his social teachings, 15; resurrection of, 17. John, king of England, and Magna Charta, 168. John III, of Portugal, 207. John VIII (Pope) his diplomacy, 149. Jones, Sir William, 299. Jordan, Polycarp, 237. Joseph of Arimathea, legend of, 63. Jubilee, of Boniface VIII, 169. Judaism, non-missionary, 3. Judson, Adoniram: his missionary call, 327; sails for India, 33i> becomes Baptist, 333; goes to Bur- ma, 335- Jutes, invade England, 84. Kelts, mentioned, 65, 69, 83. .Kent: Jutes settle in, 84; gospel ! preached in, 90. ■»Kiew, baptisms at, 157. Laynez, Jacob, 205. Lefevre, Pierre, 205, 206. Livingstone, David: interest of, in foreign peoples, 107, 348; sails for Africa, 349; his marriage, 350; first labors of, 351; discovers Lake Ngami, 352; journeys to west coast, 353; to east coast, 354; his visit to England and honors, 355; his later discoveries, 356 seq.; relieved by Stanley, 357; death of, 358. Loomis, Harvey, 325. Lowell, on private judf^ment, 54. Loyola, Ignatius: becomes friend of Xavier, 205; suspected of heresy, 206; projects mission to Turks, 309; founds order, 206, 328. Lull, successor of Boniface, 114. Lull, Raimund: early life of, 168; conversion of, 170; on pilgrim- ages, 171; on crusades, 172; phi- losophy of, 173, 174, 176; first mission of at Tunis, 175; second mission and death, 176; char- acter and influence, 177, 309. Liitken, court chaplain, 231. Luther, and missions, 225, 226. Magna Charta, 168. Martyn, Henry: early life of, 309; his conversion, 310; his ascetic piety, 311; sails for India, 312; unfortunate attachment to Lydia Grenfell, 313; gifts as linguist, 314; his preaching, 315; versions of Scriptures, 317; their excel- lence, 318; his idea of missions to Mohammedans, 319. Methodius, missionary to Moravia: translates Scriptures, 148, 151; made archbishop, 150. Methodists, and missions, 336, 338. Metternich, epigram on Italy, 305. Mills, Samuel J., 325, 326. Missions: essential to Christianity, 3; gage of spiritual life, 7; in the New Testament, 8 ; and Com- parative Religion, 9; begun at Antioch, 24; labors of apostles in, 29; chief motive of, 37; univer- sal obligation of, 39; among Goths, 49 seq.; among Franks, 56 seq.; to British, 64 seq.; to English, 89 seq.; to Germany, 104 seq.; to Scandinavians, 131 seq.; to Slavs, 146 seq.; to Mohammedans, 175 ^^Q-, 315 s^Q->' oi the Franciscans, 189 seq.; of the Jesuits, 207 seq.; Protestant indifference to, 228; advocated by Savaria, 227; fa- vored by Frederick IV, 231; of Lutherans, 235 seq., 251 'seq.; of Moravians, 272 seq.; of English Baptists, 292 seq.; of Americans, 325; reflex influence of, 339; in Africa, 347 seq.; prospect of, 361, 362. Missionary methods: apostolic, 30 seq.; discussed, 207-210, 248, 250, 258-263, 274, 277-282. Moffat, Robert and Mary, 347. Mohammedans: advance in Roman empire, 98; conquests of, 138, 166; Lull's mission to, 175 seq.; in India, 309; Martyn's mission to, 314 seq.; future of missions to, 319, 320; hostility to Chris- tianity, 362. Monachism: in Ireland, 77 '< .Pre- served learning, 119; philan- thropic function of 120; industrial character of, 130, 131. Moravia, conversion of, 147. Moravians. (See Unitas Fratrum.) INDEX 367 Neander, on rival missionary poli- cies, 104. Newell, Samuel, 326, 330, 331. Nicholas I: and the Bulgarians, 147; and the false decretals, 164. Nicholas III, 193. Nitzschmann, David, 273. Northmen: their ships, 84; their first appearance in history, 125; character and institutions of, 126- 128; Ansgar's missions to, 132 seq.; in America, 137. Norway, conversion of, 137. Nott, Samuel, 326, 330, 331. Olga, Princess, becomes a Chris- tian, 154. Origen, on Christianity in Britain, 63. Palladius, first missionary to Ireland, 66. Papacy: beginning of, 58; steady growth of, 164. (See also " Popes.") Patrick: myths about, 66; writings of, 67; family, 68, 69; captive in Ireland, 70; missionary call, 72; no papal commission, 73; his labors, 74; death, 75; baptized believers only, 76; his character, 79, 80. Paul: at Antioch, 23; first mis- sionary tour, 25; second tour, 28; vision at Troas, 29; imprison- ment, 31. Paul III, and the Jesuits, 206. Paullinus, missionary to Angles, 91. Paulerspury, birthplace of Carey, 285. Pennsylvania, Zinzendorf's visit to, 275- Peter: and Cornelius, 21; the apostle of the circumcision, 27. Philadelphia Association, and mis- sions, 332. Philostorgius, Greek historian, 48, 50. Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, 147. Pietism: rise of, 227; six principles of, 228; Warneck on, 229. Pilgrimages, Lull on, 171. , Pippin, king of France: aids mis- ■ sionaries, 104; acts as peace- maker, 118; gift to pope, 163. Plassey, battle of, 250. Pliitschau, Henry: colleague of Zieg- enbalg, 233; labors in India, 235; arrested, 2:^6; returns home, 239. Poland, receives the gospel, 153. Popes: Boniface VIII, 139, 169; Coelestine, 66, 7^; Gregory I (the Great), 88, 89, 121, 138, 146, 163; (jregory II, 108; Gregory IV, 133; Gregory VII (Hildebrand), 118, 139, 165; Honorius III, 191; Innocent III, 118, 139, 165, 181, 187; Nicholas I, 147, 164; Nicho- las III, 193; Paul III, 206; Stephen, 118. Presbyterians: and American Board, 331; their home missions, 338. Protestant Episcopal Church, and missions, 336. Radbod, king of Friesland, 104, 107, 1 08. Reformation: cause of, 168; extent of, 203. Remigius, baptizes Clovis, 56. Renaissance, origin of, 168. Rice, Luther: at Williams College, 326; sails for India, 331; lands in Boston, 333; tour of churches, 334. Richards, James, 325, 326. Robbins, Francis L, 325. Rodriguez, Simon, 205. Russia: gospel in, 154 seq.; con- version of, 156. Ryland, John, 288, 291. Salmeron, Alphonso, 205. Salvation, gospel idea of, 14. Sati, abolition of, 299. Saul, conversion of, 23. Savaria, Adrian, advocates missions, 227. Saxons, invade England, 84. Schaff, on Augustine, 93. Schools, in missions, 260 seq. Schwartz, Christian Friedrich: early life of, 249; gift as linguist, 251; description of, 252; ambassador to Hyder AH, 253; guardian of Prince Serfogee, 254; his disin- terestedness, 255; secret of his long life, 256; his epitaph, 257; his educational idea, 258 seq,, 293- Scriptures: translation of by Ulfi- las, 50; Boniface on study of, 106; Rome on versions of, 149; Me- thodius translates the, 148; Carey's versions of, 297; Martyn's, 317 seq.; Ziegenbalg's, 236; Judson's, ^ 335- . . Serampore, mission and press at, 298. Serfogee, Prince: educated by Schwartz, 254; erects monument, 257- Slavs: character of, 144; conver- sion of, 145 seq.; religious future of, 158, 159. Social element of the gospel, 13. S. P. C. K., 252. Society of Jesus: organized, 206; Xavier its first missionary, 207 seq.; its missions in America, 217; Parkman's account of, 218 seq.; significance of its missions, 221; deceived by Moravians, 268. Soissons, council of, 114. Southey, Robert, on Carey and his work, 296. Spangenberg, August Gottlieb, 276. Spener, Jacob, founder of Pietism, 227. Stanley, Henry M: finds Living- 368 INDEX stone, 357; his later discoveries, 358. Stephen (Pope), 118. Stephen, Wafdensian bishop, 268. Stuart, Moses, 329. Student Volunteers, 341. Sturm, successor of Boniface, 121. Suevi, conversion of, 55. Sweden, Ansgar's mission to, 132, 134, 135- Tamil, Ziegenbalg's translations into, 235. Tara, Patrick at, 74. Tertullian, on Christianity in Brit- ain, 63. Teutonic conquests: of Rome, 47 seq.; in Britain, 83. Theodoric, king of Italy, 46. Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, 96. Thomas Aquinas, and Lull, 173. Thomas, John, Carey's associate, 292, 294. Thirty Years' War, 227, 268. Timothy, conversion of, 26. Tours, battle of, 98. Tranquebar, 234, 243, 247, 2^.9, 250. Trichinopoli, 252, 253. Tunis, Lull's mission to, 175. Turks, Loyola plans mission to, 20';, 309. UgoHno, Cardinal, 189, 191, 197. (See Gregory IX.) Ulfilas: early history of, 48; mis- sionary labors of, 49; version of, so, 151; extent of labors, 52. Unitas Fratrum: rise of, 267; Luther on, 268; established at Herrnhut, 269; revival among, 271; missions of, 272 seq.; settlements of in America, 276; their missionary methods, 277-22,2. Universities, the age of, 169. Vandals: in Spain, 45; in Africa, 46; their Arianism, 54; their in- tolerance, 55. Varus, defeat of, 44. Vladimir: career of, as pagan, 154; sends embassy to Constantinople, 155; conversion of, 156; his char- acter and influence, 157. Waldensians : and Scripture, 149; connection with Moravians, 268. Warneck, on pietism, 229. Webb, Captain, and American Methodism, 64. Wesley, John, 64, 65, 210. Western empire, fall of, 43. West Indies, Moravian missions in, 273 seq., 293. Westphalia, peace of, 225. Whitby, conference at, 96. Wiclif, 285. : Winfrith. (See Boniface.) i Wilder, Robert P., 341. Williams College, missionary so- ciety at, 325. Willibrord, missionary in Germany, 103, 104, 108. Xavier, Francis: early life of, 204; friend of Loyola, 205; missionary to India, 207; first year's work, 208, 209; baptizes all infants, 211; ignorance of the language, 211, 212; miracles attributed to, 212; his failure, 213; goes to Ja- pan, 215; starts for China, death, 2X6. Zacharias, Pope, 117. Zeisberger, David: missionary to American Indians, 276; prevents Indian war, 277. Ziegenbalg, Bartholomew: first Protestant missionary, 231; early life of, 232; education and ordi- nation, 233; begins labors in India, 235; translates Bible, 236; receives reenforcements, 237; oc- casional rashness, 238; warm re- ception in Europe, 240; his mar- riage, 241; final labors of, 242; contrasted with Schwartz, 252, 292. Zinzendorf, Count: offers refuge to Moravians, 269; early life of, 270; his marriage, 271; becomes Mo- ravian leader, 272', banishment of, 275; in America, ibid; character, 282. Princeton Theological Seminarv Libraries 1 1012 01236 8553 Date Due %7 ' ff? ' :1i( J "^ - QG29