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OUTLINES OF CHURCH HISTORY 
 
 FOR THE USE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS 
 IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN PRINCETON. 
 
 JAMES C MOFFAT, 
 
 HELENA PUOFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY. 
 
 I^oni the birth of Christ to A. I), 1648. 
 
 PRINCETON : 
 
 CHARLES S. ROBINSON, PRINTER. 
 
 1877. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by 
 
 James C. Moffat, 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 * 
 
OUTLINES OF CHURCH HISTORY. 
 
 RELIGIOUS STATE OF THE WORLD AT THE APPEARANCE OF 
 
 CHRIST. 
 
 Jesus, who is called the Christ, was born in Judea, 
 shortly before the death of Herod I., which took place 
 between March 13th and April 4th, in the year 750 U. C. 
 The birth of Jesiis could not have been later than two 
 or three months before that event ; it may have been 
 earlier by one, or even two years. Our common era 
 assumes it to have occurred in 754 U. C, at least four 
 years too late. The da}^ of his birth is not determined. 
 
 At that epoch, the state of religion in the west of 
 Asia and Europe was one of great depression. Rational- 
 ism had separated between faith and intelligence; east 
 of the Indus it had constructed two great philosophical 
 religions ; west of the Tigris it had set up philosophy as a 
 substitute for religion, and carried the convictions of the 
 o-reater number of the educated. Confucianism and 
 Buddhism, as religions, were accepted by vast multi- 
 tudes; Greek philosophy did not profess to be religion, 
 and scorned the ignorant populace. Between the Indus 
 and the Tigris ruled the semi-barbarous Parthian, main- 
 taining a degenerate Magism. Avestan monotheism was 
 almost buried out of sight under that domination. Tlie 
 pure faith of the Hebrews was contined to few. 
 
 Everywhere the religious condition of the multitudes, 
 to whom philosophy or philosophical religion was inac- 
 cessible, was exceedingly degraded. 
 
 All the countries lying around the Mediterranean 
 were under one ruler. Rome had within the preceding 
 half century united the ruder west of Europe to the 
 decaying civilizations on the eastern coasts. Parthian 
 barbarism lay as a barrier between that new empire and 
 the culture of the further east. 
 
Civilization in China and India was bound up in- their 
 great philosophical religions ; in the west it reposed upon 
 philosophy; while good order and security were main- 
 tained by Roman legislation and arms. 
 
 Great facilities for the spread of knowledge were 
 furnished by Roman dominion; by the protection it 
 furnished, the freedom of inter-communication which it 
 promoted, by one common language of business, and one 
 of polite literature. The wisdom and culture of the 
 east were easily, through the common heart of Rome, 
 extended to the strong but rugged nations of the west. 
 And the government of that vast dominion was, at the 
 time of the Saviour's birth, in the hands of one man, 
 whose policy was peace. 
 
 But there was little hope or enterprise among the 
 nations. Their spirit had been crushed. Among the 
 wisest heathen a deep despondency prevailed, a sense of 
 want, which no earthly possessions could fill. 
 
 Practical morals were at that time among the heathen 
 exceedingly base, and basest in the highest places of 
 society; not because men did not know the difterence 
 between right and wrong, but because they were with- 
 out sufficientpersuasives to righteousness. The example 
 of their gods could be adduced- to justify or palliate 
 any vice or crime. Their great want was the want of a 
 Saviour. 
 
 The Jews were still in possession of their own land, 
 but subjects of the Roman Empire, to which they had 
 recently been annexed. Jews of pure descent occupied 
 dhielly the southern part of the country ; Samaritans the 
 middle, and Galileans the north, both being of mixed 
 descent; and the eastern side of Jordan, divided into 
 Iturea, Trachonites, and Perea was also held by a hetero- 
 geneous population. 
 
 Pure Jews were of three religious sects ; Pharisees, 
 who were ritualists ; Sadducees, rationalists ; and Essenes, 
 who were Ascetics. Moreover, Jews were then resident 
 in almost every nation : and in their synagogues the 
 scriptures of promise were read. Among both Jews and 
 gentiles there prevailed an expectancy of some great per- 
 sonage about to appear with blessing to mankind. 
 
CHRIST, 
 
 The Saviour was of pure Hebrew genealogy, but made 
 his residence chiefly among the half gentiles of Galilee. 
 His public ministry commenced with his baptism, when 
 he was about thirty 3'ears of age, and extended to about 
 three years and three months. 
 
 The social condition in wliieh he w^as born was lowly, 
 and yet, as both his mother and foster father were de- 
 scended of the ancient Kings of Judea, he w^as a son of 
 David according to the flesh. 
 
 Historically, Christ appeared as a teacher, in the 
 crowning period of ancient learning and culture. Some 
 things in his teaching were peculiar to himself. 
 
 1. He did not present what he taught as conclusions 
 which he had arrived at ; neither as things discovered, 
 nor as certified by thinking in reference to them, but 
 purely as revelation. 
 
 2. He did not reveal as having learned from some 
 higher intelligence, but as speaking of his own original 
 knowledge. 
 
 3. His method was of great breadth, calling in the 
 exercise of all faculties of the human mind, and never 
 seeking to simplify by sinking one faculty in another. 
 
 4. His instructions have eminently the mark of holi- 
 ness. 
 
 II. As to their substance, his lessons contained intel- 
 ligence from the councils of God; touching the nature 
 of God's existence, his designs for man, and some of his 
 dealings with higher beings. 
 
 2. The}' laid open the whole plan of redemption ; 
 and the love of God to man. 
 
 3. They taught the purest, most summary and most 
 eflectual principles of morals ; and the way whereby man 
 is to be accepted as holy with God : and of Jesus him- 
 self that he was the sacrifice for sin, the mediator of a 
 new covenant and the eternal Son of God. 
 
 III. Jesus addressed the understanding of men, but 
 demanded of his followers first of all an act of the heart; 
 namely, that they should trust in him and love hira and 
 one another. And his teacliing has been accompanied 
 
6 
 
 with a power to go directly to the heart and change the 
 state of its affections. Thereby, notwithstanding its 
 depth and height, it is adapted to all grades of capacity. 
 
 IV. The operation and effect of his teaching are 
 found in practice to be what he said they would be. 
 
 V. His miracles, his death and resurrection were 
 essential to his instructions, as well as parts of what he 
 came to do, and all, taken together, make a consistent 
 whole, which is the Gospel. 
 
 His last commission to his discijdes was to teach all 
 nations. The progress of that teaching among men is 
 the history of the church. 
 
 VI. Christ presented himself as the subject of his 
 Gospel, and the teaclier of its doctrines ; but assigned to 
 his disciples, under the Holy Spirit, the task of organiz- 
 ing their own society— which is the church. Of that 
 the beginning was the descent of the Holy Spirit on the 
 day of the first Pentecost after the ascension. 
 
 CHURCH HISTORY. 
 
 The History of the Christian Church since that date 
 is divided, in view of its own progress, into four great 
 periods. The first is that of Apostolic history, in the 
 end of which the church ceased to enjoy the preseiice 
 and counsels of inspired men who had seen the Lord. 
 Second is that which ended in conferring upon Christians 
 external supremacy in the Roman empire, extending 
 from about the beginning of the second century until 
 the year 324 A, D. The tliird is that of union with the 
 state, and bondage to the rule of legalism within the 
 pale of the church, and extends until the first successful 
 efforts for liberation, in and about 1517 A. D. 
 
 This long period contains others of great importance, 
 as that which was marked by the Nestorian schism in 
 431 A. D.; that which determined the separation of the 
 great group of Monophysite churches, in 553 A. D.; the 
 terrible loss to the churches of the east and south in the 
 first Mohammedan invasions, which began in 632 A. D., 
 and the separation of the church into the eastern and 
 western in the year 1054. 
 
The fourth great period is tliat of the generalconflict 
 for and against the free publication of the Gospel, and 
 its sole authority in the church ; which is still going on. 
 
 Upon more minute inspection, we shall lind it neces- 
 sary to divide each of our periods into several subordi- 
 nate sections, on the same principle, but drawn more 
 closely from operations of the inner life of Christians. 
 
 FIRST PERIOD. 
 FROM PENTECOST, A. D. 29 TO A. D. 100. 
 
 Apostolic History consists of live sections, marked 
 by their respective steps of progress in the publication 
 of the Gospel; namely, organization of the church in 
 Jerusalem; preaching the Gospel to the Samaritans 
 and elsewhere in Palestine ; first mission to the gentiles ; 
 the overthrow of Jewish nationality, and the completing 
 of the sacred canon, and death of the last inspired 
 teacher. 
 
 The first began with the day of Pentecost and closed 
 with the death of Stephen. In it were witnessed the 
 descent of the Holy Spirit, and tlie transforming effect 
 upon the character of the Apostles, the sermon of Peter, 
 with the addition of three thousand to the number of 
 the b-lievers in that one day. All the Christians resid- 
 ing at that time in Jerusalem formed one society, 
 and had all things in common. At first their temporal 
 and religious affairs were conducted by the apostles ; by 
 the appointment of deacons the apostolic form of the 
 church was completed. The Christians of that time 
 were Jews, or Jewish proselytes, and thought that the 
 Gospel belonged only to the children of Abraham. The 
 aposles were endowed with supernatural gifts for the 
 planting of the church in its worship, government and 
 instruction. 
 
 For a meeting of the whole, they used the court of 
 the temple, but they also met in separate bodies, as 
 occasion required, in synagogues and in private houses ; 
 and the synagogue, not the temple, furnished the basis 
 
of their worship and government. In the sense of a 
 common organization, tiiey were one church; in the 
 sense of congregations, they were sometimes several. 
 Provision for the poor among them was accepted as a 
 duty, and those who had prcjperty contributed freely to 
 the wants of the rest. 
 
 Enemies arrayed themselves against the church from 
 the first ; Sadducees because they preached the resur- 
 rection, and Pharisees on the ground of disorder. 
 The caution and tolerance recommended by Gamaliel 
 prevailed for a time in the council. But persecution 
 broke out again with great severity upon the death of 
 Stephen, and the members of the church were scattered 
 abroad. 
 
 2. 
 
 The dispersion was at first through the regions of 
 Judea and Samaria, but very sooti it extended also to 
 the Gentiles. The apostles lingered longer in Jerusalem, 
 making that city the centre of operations. Philip, the 
 evangelist, was the first to cai'ry the Gospel to Samari- 
 tans. From Jerusalem two apostles Peter and John, 
 were sent to inquire into that work, and being satisfied 
 with the reality of the conversions, rejoiced together with 
 their follow apostles, in such a way as shows that the 
 fact was more than they had expected. Peter's experi- 
 ence in the case of Cornelius prepared them for preach- 
 ing the Gospel to the Gentiles. The Roman Centurion 
 was received into the church by profession of faith and 
 biiptism. Acts X. 44-48 ; xv. 6-11. A new apostle was 
 next called for the express purpose of preasliing to the 
 Gentiles. Paul's conversion occurred in or about the 
 year 37. After having preached in Damascus, he spent 
 S(ime time in Arabia, visited Jerusalem, and returned to 
 his native city Tarsus. 
 
 Meanwhile some of the dispersed came to Antioch 
 and preached to the Greeks, and a great number believed. 
 Hearing of that, the apostles at Jerusalem sent Barna- 
 bas to visit Antioch, who when he had come and had 
 seen the grace of God was greatly rejoiced ; and going 
 to Tarsus he found Paul, and brought him to Antioch, 
 
9 
 
 where they both labored for a whole year. In that orpeat 
 city, where strict Jews with their Hellenistic brethren, 
 and Heathen, with proselytes to Judaism, lived in close 
 neigjhborhood, the views of the disciples were further 
 enlightened touching the liberality of the Gospel. Con- 
 sequently Antioch was the place where the disciples were 
 first regarded as other than a Hebrew sect, and first 
 received the name Christian. 
 
 The church which in the first of these two brief 
 periods was but one community, was in the second dis- 
 persed and formed into many. Jewish exclusiveness in 
 the minds of the disciples was overcome so far as to 
 admit of preaching the Gospel to Samaritans and Gen- 
 tiles. But all were etill expected to submit to Jewish 
 rites. 
 
 The rapid increase of the number of believers was a 
 fact which most deeply impressed the writer of their 
 early history. He recurs to it in different connections. 
 
 The creed of the church was contained in the simple 
 apostolic injunction. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
 and thou shalt be saved. 
 
 It was in the latter years of the Emperor Tiberius 
 that the church was formed in Jerusalem. The begin- 
 ning of its dispersion took place perhaps in the 22nd 
 year of that reign. The second period lasted through 
 the reign of Caligula and to the fourth year of Claudius. 
 In 41 Herod Agrippa was elevated by Claudius to be 
 king of all Palestine. He died in 44 A. D. The country 
 was again treated as a province, and governed from 
 Rome. 
 
 In the history of the apostolic church the third sec- 
 tion extends from the first regularly appointed mission 
 to the Gentiles, about the year 45, until the arrival of 
 Paul at Rome, in A. D. 61."^ 
 
 After the Jews, the first opponents whom Christianity 
 met in argument were the Greeks, keen and logical, and 
 it became of importance for its preachers to be versed in 
 that learning from which those opponents drew their 
 arguments. Jews alone were yet systematically arrayed 
 
10 
 
 ao;aiiist the gospel. Antioch fiiniislied a refuge for the 
 disciples where the\- were safe from that persecution, and 
 a favorable center of operations among the heathen. A 
 short time subsequent to the year 44, most likelv in 45 
 A. D. a number of |)ious men, prophets and teachers 
 residing at Antioch, as they ministered to the Lord and 
 fasted, were directed. by the Holy Spirit to set apart Bar- 
 nabas and Saul to the work of missions among the Gen- 
 tiles. So when they had fasted and prayed and laid their 
 hands upon the missionaries, they sent them away. The 
 gospel was preached in every direction from Jerusalem; 
 but this, the most important of apostolic missions was 
 addressed to the heart of the liighest civilization. 
 
 The missionaries were well qualified for their task. 
 Both of pure Hebrew blood, they w^ere both natives of 
 Greek countries, and had enjoyed both Greek and Hebrew 
 culture. From Antioch they proceeded to Seleucia, took 
 ship to Cyprus, visited the cities Salamis and Paphos, 
 in the latter of which the Roman Proconsul, Sergius 
 Paulus was converted, and tlie name of the apostle ceases- 
 to be Saul, and becomes Paul. Thence they sailed to the 
 coast of Asia Minor. Here John Mark who had attended 
 them from Antioch forsook them and returned. Land- 
 ing at Perga they proceeded through Pamphylia to 
 Antioch in Pisidia. Thence eastward to Iconium, tlien 
 to Lystra and to Derbe. At Lystra they with difficulty 
 restrained the people from offering them worship, until 
 the Jews stirred up opposition to them. Froin Derbe 
 ihey retraced their steps to Lystia, Iconium, Antioch, 
 Perga, and Atalia, and thence to Antioch in Syria. 
 There they reported to the church what God had wrought 
 by them ; and abode a long time with the disciples. 
 
 Then arose a controversy about what was to be done 
 with heathen converts, whether it was, or was not neces- 
 sary for them to be circumcised and keep the huv of 
 Moses. As some persons from Judtea disturbed the 
 church in Antioch by arguing the affirmative of that 
 question, it was resolved that Paul and Barnabas and 
 certain others should go to Jerusalem and consult the 
 apostles and elders. In Jerusalem the controversy was 
 also warm. Certain Pharisees who had become chris- 
 
 y 
 
11 
 
 tian were very earnest for retaining the law. In the 
 meeting which took place there was difference of opinion ; 
 but afrer Paul and Barnabas and Peter had spoken, re- 
 counting what God liad done for Gentiles through them, 
 James proposed a resolution which was agreed to, tjjat 
 Gentile converts should abstain from meats offered to 
 idols, from blood, from things strangled and from forni- 
 cation, and that beyond this no other burden should be 
 imposed upon them. Silas and Judas Barsabas were 
 appointed to accompany Paul and Barnabas to Antioch, 
 and communicate the message which tliey also carried in 
 writing. 
 
 Still this was not complete emancipation from Legal- 
 ism. The whole ministry of Paul was needed to effect 
 that, by demonstrating that salvation is by faith in Christ 
 alone, and that the believer is no longer under the law, 
 but under grace. The meeting, or council at Jerusalem 
 occurred in the year 50 or 51 A. I)., most probably the 
 former. 
 
 Soon afterward Paul and Barnabas undertook another 
 missionary tour, but did not go together. Barnabas took 
 Mark as his companion and went to Cyprus; Paul took 
 Silas, and went through Xorthern Syria, round the gulf 
 of Issus into Cilicia, confirming the churches. Thence 
 to Derbe, Lystra and Iconium, stations on his former 
 tour; then through Phrygia and Galatia to Mysia. At 
 Troas he had a vision of a man of Macedonia, saying 
 " come over into Macedonia, and help us." Accordingly 
 he and his companions sailed over to i^eapoli8,and thence 
 proceeded to Philippi. In that city after being imprisoned, 
 miraculously delivered, the conversion of the jailor, and 
 vindication of their own character as Roman citizens, 
 the missionaries planted a church, and proceeding south- 
 ward visited Thessalonica and Bersea. There meeting 
 with opposition from Jews, Paul went to Athens, then 
 to Corinth, where his companions, left at Ber^a, came to 
 him. After laboring about eighteen months at Corinth 
 he sailed to Ephesus, then to Csesarea in Palestine, then to 
 Jerusalem to observe the Pentecost, and returned to 
 Antiocii in course of the Summer. 
 
 Paul's third missionary- tour was entered on in 
 Autumn of same year in which he returned from the 
 
12 
 
 second. It pursued nearly the same course, but more 
 time was spent in Phrygia and Galatia, and its direction 
 was through Proconsuhir Asia to Ephesus. In that city 
 Paul remained nearly three years, so that all the inhabi- 
 tants of the province heard tlie word of the Lord Jesus. 
 In the year 57 he proceeded by way of Troas, to Mace- 
 donia and in the Winter visited Corinth, spent three 
 months there and in the vicinit}-. Next Spring he set 
 forth on his return by way of Macedonia : thence across 
 the ^Egean sea to Troas ; then from point to point down 
 the Asiatic coast to Miletus where he had his last inter- 
 viaw with the elders of Ephesus ; then, by way of Rhodes 
 and Patara, to Tyre, to Ptolemais and Caesarea, and 
 linally to Jerusalem. 
 
 At Jerusalem a violent Jewish party charged him witii 
 teacliing even Jews abroad to disregard the laws of Moses, 
 and stirred up a mob, from which Paul Avaa rescued by 
 the Roman officer in command of the garrison in the 
 city. This led to his trial before Felix, Festus and 
 Agrippa and his appeal to Csesar. At Caesarea he was 
 kept a prisoner during the whole of the year 59, and the 
 greater part of the next. Late in the Autumn of A. D. 
 60. he was sent to Rome, but was delayed until the Win- 
 ter set in. In crossing the Ionian sea he suffered sliip- 
 wreck, was constrained to spend three months on the 
 island of Malta, and did not reach Rome until the Spring 
 of A. D. 61. 
 
 The officer who had charge of Paul and the other 
 prisoners, treated him with great courtesy and indul- 
 gence. At Rome, he was received with similar consid- 
 eration, and was suffered to dwell two years in a house 
 hired by himself, freely preaching the gospel to all who 
 visited him. 
 
 Paul's efforts had been addressed chieiiy to the great 
 eeats of government and moral influence. Antioch was 
 his starting point, and the scenes of his most prolonged 
 labors, besides that city, were Philippi, Ephesus, Corinth 
 and Rome. 
 
 The companions of Paul in his missionary labor were 
 in his first journey, Barnabas all the way, and Mark as 
 far as Perga; on his second, Silas, and from Lystra, 
 
13 
 
 Timoth}', and at least part of the way, Luke; on liis 
 third, Luke, Titus and Timothy. Aqnila and Priseilhi, 
 Apollos and others were also associated with him briefly 
 at different times and phices. 
 
 His epistles were written chieliy between A. D. 52 
 and 63, at Corinth, at Ephesns, in Macedonia and at 
 Rome. 
 
 A tradition represents Paul as liberated after his first 
 trial, as making extensive missionary tours, revisiting 
 Ephesus, Macedonia and Miletus, and extending his 
 labors to Nicopolis, to Crete and to Spain. In the year 
 preceding the death of Nero, it is said he was again in 
 Rome, having been arrested a second time, and suffered 
 death by beheading in that year. Those who believe in 
 a second imprisonment of Paul rtfer to it and to the pre- 
 ceding interval of freedom, the writing of the pastoral 
 epistles. 
 
 The next section of Apostolic history extends 
 from tlie beginning of Paul's imprisonment in Rome to 
 the destruction of Jerusalem : — from A. 1). 61 to 70. 
 
 After the meeting at Jerusalem, the history of the 
 other apostles is involved in obscurity. After that occa- 
 sion we read of Peter at Antioch, and in his own epistle 
 at Babylon. Although the door was opened to the gen- 
 tiles through the agency of Peter, liis vocation was not 
 to them, but to the Jews. The testimonies adduced to 
 sustain the assertion that he was Bishop of Rome, are 
 feeble and contradictory in themselves, and utterly incon- 
 sistent with all the scripture that touches the subject. 
 
 Of the other apostles our knowledge is still more 
 scanty, and chiefly apocryphal. They are said to have 
 preached the gospel in Arabia, in Ethiopia, in Egypt, in 
 Parthia, in Persia, in India and in Scythia, The great 
 fact, which there is no reason to question, is that churches 
 were planted in all the leading countries adjoining on the 
 Mediterranean sea, and in the direction in which their 
 civilization was advancing. 
 
 The church accepted its generic form within the time 
 of Paul. To that end the chief actors were Peter, Paul 
 
14 
 
 juid James. The apostles had their place exterior to the 
 working system of the church, and were not included 
 under it. They were appointed by Christ and miracu- 
 lously qualified for the special and temporary service 
 which they performed. 
 
 The early christian church grew up from elements 
 contained in the Jewisli synagogue, botli as respects gov- 
 ernment and worsiiip. The elders, who were the rulers, 
 the reader and speaker and minister or attendant were 
 the office bearers of the synagogue. And the exercises 
 consisted of prayer, reading of the Word, exposition and 
 exhortation, with chanting of Psalms, and concluded with 
 the pronunciation of a blessing. All the churches were 
 constituted on the same tnodel and were of co-ordinate 
 authority. None assumed supremacy over the rest, 
 though Jerusalem first, and then Antioch, was the most 
 influential. Before the death of Paul, the Christian 
 Church consisted of a great number of such communities 
 all professing the same faith and loving the same Re- 
 deemer and one another. 
 
 The publication of the gos[)el was first made by oral 
 address. A literature however was ordained also and 
 grew up by degrees. The canonical books except those 
 of John, were probably all written before the close of 
 this section of time. 
 
 When Paul finished his labors, the freedom of the 
 gospel had been fully vindicated ; bnt there was a party 
 in the church which still advocated compliance with some 
 parts of the ceremonial law. The great controversy of 
 the apostolic period was over this question. Paul was on 
 one side, and Peter was claimed by the moderate advo- 
 cates of the other. On either side the extremes ran out 
 into heresy. 
 
 The animosity of unconverted Jews and of the Jewish 
 authorities towards christians of all parties was unrelent- 
 ing. But their power was- drawing near its end. A 
 heathen enemy had already begun his career. 
 
 The events now mentioned took place under the 
 emperors Claudius, and Nero. The last came to the 
 throne in A. J). 54. In the tenth year of his reign, a 
 large part of Rome w^as burned, by design or accident is 
 
15 
 
 not certain. But the blame was laid on tlie emperor; 
 and he to avert the obloquy from himself, charged it on 
 the christians. We have no reason to believe that he 
 concerned himself about their faith; but they were a 
 class of peoj)le against whom he could direct popular 
 rage with impunity. 
 
 In the latter years of Nero's reign, an insurrection in 
 Judea led to the removal thither of a large body of Roman 
 troops. An obstinate resistance changed the movement 
 into a war. On the part of the Romans it was conducted 
 by Vespasian and his son Titus. In the midst of the war 
 Nero, last of the Osesars, came to his miserable and 
 merited end, (June 11, A. D. 68.) 
 
 The imperial throne was now an object of ambition 
 open to all the heads of the military force. The Pre- 
 torian Guards at Rome, the army of the west in Spain, 
 that of the northwest, in Gaul and on the Rhine, claimed, 
 each for themselves, the right of putting their respective 
 generals into the place of honor. And Galba, Otho and 
 Vitellius were successively elevated to the throne and 
 dragged from it, in the space of a year and a half. Soon 
 afteVthe last of the three was elevated to the now dan- 
 gerous office, Vespasian also put in his claim. The 
 army in Judea he left under command of Titus; that of 
 lUyricum was sufficient for his own purpose. It was 
 already near the scene of strife, took up his cause, and 
 won his victories before his arrival. The em}tire was 
 waiting for his acceptance. And thus the Flavian family 
 (Dec. 20th, 69,) became the successor of ihe Julian. 
 
 With Vespasian a new style of government opened. 
 For the good of the state his days were filled with busi- 
 ness. His industry and economy were even more than 
 the Romans of that age could rightly estimate. During 
 that reign from 70 to 79 A. D., Christians, like all other 
 orderly subjects, enjoyed the protection of a government 
 which interfered not with their religious opinions. 
 
 Meanwhile Titus, in command of the army in Judea, 
 after overcoming a resistance of unsurpassed obstinacy, 
 took Jerusalem by storm (Sept. 2, 70 A. D.) Its walls 
 and houses, and, much to the regret of Titus, its beauti- 
 ful temple, were levelled with the ground. The Jews 
 
16 
 
 as 
 
 tern 
 
 lo 
 
 b 
 
 earth 
 
 a nation were completely reduced. A portion of them 
 emained in the land between sixty and seventy years 
 5n^er, after whicli in another rebellioj", they were finally 
 roken and their fragments scattered to the ends of the 
 - vth 
 
 Their national centre was now lost, and their power 
 
 injure the christians greatly reduced, but dispersed as 
 
 i\' ixr<ii'ii ill till- sifinn I'll f (-> 'ifir'i Af i fiii tliAir 1 1 1 i^ti 1 1 f"\T iiovfr 
 
 4L, _iXll\* 1^1^ uiicvi. i.Aijiv^ vii^y ijt4,v^ ctvy^ V4 11* V4 itvij^ v-i. xvyi ».ia>^xi 
 
 posterity an inheritance of vengeance, which is not all 
 exhausted to the present day. 
 
 The Mosaic economy virtually abolished by the death 
 of Christ, was now practically terminated, and the sac- 
 rifice and oblation ceased. 
 
 5. 
 
 From the destruction of Jerusalem in A. I). 70, to 
 the death of the Apostle John, the church passed through 
 another stage of progress, apostolic chietly,and towards 
 the last, solely by tlie presence of the beloved disciple. 
 
 A new generation was now growing up in the church, 
 and ere tlie end of this i>eriod the mass of believers (con- 
 sisted of those who had been born within christian 
 families. 
 
 The clemency of Vespasian's reign was continued in 
 that of Titus, and the churches enjoyed freedom, in as 
 far as the government was concerned. But when in A. 
 D. 81, Domitian, ayouuger son of Vespasian came to the 
 .throne, the work of persecution received imperial sanc- 
 tion. Among others Flavins Clemens and his wife 
 Domitilla, kindred of the emperor, suft'ered. Through 
 Jewish misrepresentation Domitian was made to believe 
 that the aim of the christians was to put the successors 
 of Jesus on the throne. He relaxed his severity upon 
 discovering that the surviving kinsmen of Jesus w^ere 
 poor peasants without political ambition or desires. 
 Persecution of christians however continued on the 
 ground of Atheism, that is rejection of all the gods of 
 heathen worship. Nerva, ascending the throne in A. D. 
 96, repealed the persecuting edicts of Domitian ; but took 
 
17 
 
 no steps to legalize Christianity, and give it a right to 
 governmental protection. At the end of two 3'ears he 
 was succceeded by Trajan, a wise ruler, but severe, by 
 whom although persecution was limited, it was within 
 those limits sanctioned. 
 
 After the Jewish wars began, the apostle John removed 
 to Proconsular Asia, took up his residence at Ephesus, 
 and preached in several cities in that province. He 
 addresses its seven churches with the authority of a 
 special commission. Under Domitian, he was banished 
 for a time to the isle of Patmos, where he wrote the 
 book of Revelation. His gospel was written after the 
 other three, and while he resided at Ephesus. His 
 epistles have the color of the same period, adapted rather 
 to fan the love of those brought up as christians than to 
 instruct converts from heathenism or Judaism ; and the 
 faults he reproves are not of a nature incident to new 
 churches. 
 
 Disturbers of the peace of the church, and of the 
 faith of believers had already formed themselves into 
 sects of greater or smaller numbers. Some taught that 
 the end of the world was near, and looked for an earl}- 
 appearance of the Lord. The Docetae held that Christ 
 had no real body, others that he was only a man ; at 
 Ephesus under the very- presence of the apostle, Cerin- 
 thus the Gnostic taught his wild opinions ; and the Nico- 
 laitans had such footing at Pergamus that the Holy Spirit, 
 through John, administered a reproof for that cause. 
 
 John lived to an advanced age, and died in the reign 
 of Trajan, about the close of the first century, and at 
 Ephesus, to which he had returned after the death of 
 Domitian. His teaching did not turn upon legal con- 
 formity or the doctrine of faith, but upon christian love, 
 and spiritual union with Christ. It was needful that the 
 gospel should be presented in all three views, as obe- 
 dience, faith and love. Balanced, as they are in Scrip- 
 ture, they properly sustain one another. But the last 
 comprehends the other two. Exposition of the more 
 comprehensive principle was the final work of revelation. 
 
 Christianity was first planted in cities. And as all 
 the converts of one city made only one church, the 
 
18 
 
 laro^est churches were those of the large cities. Most 
 eminent at the end of the tirst century were those assem- 
 bled in Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth and Rome. That 
 eminence was greatly due to the importance of the cities. 
 But in no case was authority over the other churches 
 recognized as residing in them. 
 
 The episcopal succession in Antioch begins with 
 Evodius, and the second bishop was Ignatius; in Rome, 
 it is uncertain, but the common list begins with Linus, 
 followed successively by Anacletus, and Clement. Most 
 of the churches of those days claimed to have been 
 planted b}' an apostle, but for none of them do we find 
 it said in earliest tradition that an apostle was the bishop. 
 
 Notwithstanding the rise of heresies, the faith of the 
 Church in general was still of a uniform standard, and 
 means were in use for the propagation and maintenance 
 of christian knowledge. The canonical books of the 
 New Testament received by the Church without question 
 were the four gospels, the acts of the apostles by. Luke, 
 the epistles bearing the name of Paul, to the number of 
 thirteen, with the first epistle of Peter and first of John. 
 But, for a time, there were some churches which doubted 
 concerning the epistle of James, the second of Peter, 
 the second and third of John and that of Jude. The 
 Apocalypse was accepted from its- first appearance. Sub- 
 sequently its authenticity was questioned by some parties 
 in the chiliast controversy. Respecting the epistle to 
 the Hebrews, there was question only of its authorship. 
 These apostolic writings were publicly read in the meet- 
 i'iigs of Christians, and placed together with Old Testa- 
 ment Scripture. 
 
 The scrupulousness of the early christians which gave 
 rise to those doubts, was due to the existence of certain 
 other books, in some respects good and well meaning, 
 but of no apostolic authority. 
 
 The day on which the Lord arose was a solemn and 
 memorable day to the disciples. On that day week they 
 were again assembled, when the Lord appeared among 
 them. SubsequentK' mention is made of the first day of 
 the week, as that on which the disciples " met together 
 to break bread," (Acts xx. 7,) and by the Apostle John 
 
19 
 
 mention is made of the Lord's day, Rev. i. 10. Jewisli 
 Christians observed aiso the annual festival of Pentecost. 
 And in some places exercises of public as well as private 
 worship were observed daily. 
 
 Worship consisted of prayei-, reading of Scripture, 
 preaching, and singing of Psalms and Hymns and spirit- 
 ual songs. The music was entirely vocal. 
 
 It does not appear that the apostles and elders wore 
 any peculiar vestments when conducting divine service. 
 
 The places used for social worship were, in the first 
 instance, synagogues, but also, and perhaps most com- 
 monly, private houses. 
 
 Of Sacraments the early christians had only two, 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
 
 The ordinary ministers in sacred office were elders, in 
 the tirst instance ordained by the apostles, or evangelists, 
 (Acts xiv. 23. Titus ii, li,) with the concurrence of the 
 church over whicli they were set (Clement, 1 Epistle to 
 Cor. 44), and evidence that they were called by the Holy 
 Spirit, (Acts 20 : 28.) The form was laying on of hands 
 by the Apostles or by the Presbytery, (1 Tim. 4 : 14.) 
 
 From the corrupt morals of the age, to which the 
 first christian converts ha<l been more or less accustomed, 
 the exercise of church discipline was necessaril}^ strict, 
 yet it was ordered by the apostles to be laid on with the 
 tenderness of brethren, (2 Thes. 3 : 14, 15. Titus 3 : 10. 
 2 Cor. 2 : 7.) The christian was to be holy, as becoming 
 him in whom dwells the Spirit of God. 1 Cor. 3 : 16, 17. 
 
 SECOND PERIOD. 
 
 From 100 to 325. 
 
 1. — Apostolic Fathers. 
 
 At the death of the Apostle John, about the 3'ear 100, 
 we come to the dividing line between revelation and the 
 work of preserving what has been revealed. So far the 
 church has been instructed b}' inspired teachers, now 
 she is to rely upon ordinary means. Still, for a few 
 years, the personal influence of the apostles lingered in 
 
20 
 
 the lives of persons who had enjoyed their society. The 
 next most interesting group in the history of the church 
 is that of the Apostolic Fathers, eminently gifted men 
 who had been disciples of some of the apostles, among 
 whom the most important were Clement of Rome, Bar- 
 nabas, Hernias, Ignatius, Papias and Polycarp. Of their 
 writings we have a general epistle by Barnabas, an epistle 
 to the Corinthians by Clement, a book by Hernias, which 
 he calls the Shepherd, several epistles ascribed to Igna- 
 tius, and an epistle of Polycarp to the church at Philippi. 
 Other writings are ascribed to some of them, but deemed 
 spurious. Quite a number of books also are extant, as 
 if from the first and second centuries, which are grouped 
 under the general name Apocryphal. To none of these, 
 the genuine works of the Apostolic Fathers, any more 
 than the apo».'ryphal, did the early church, or any part of 
 it, attach a value equal to the writings of the apostles. 
 
 According to tradition, Clement died in A. D. 102, 
 Ignatius suffered martyrdom in the amphitheatre at 
 Rome in 115. Papias survived until 163, and Polycaiii 
 died the death of a martyr in 167 or 169. 
 
 The doctrines upon which those teachers insisted 
 most, were the deity of Jesus, his equality with the 
 Father, his vicarious suffering, the remission of sins 
 through his blood, the depravity of man, justification by 
 faith in Christ and obedience to his instructions. Some 
 in their doctrine, as Clement, Hernias and Barnabas fol- 
 low the example of Paul, and others, as Ignatius and 
 Polycarp that of John. 
 
 » The great theological question was the person of 
 Christ. On that the extreme doctrines were those of the 
 Docetae, on one hand, and of the Ebionites, on the other, 
 while Gnostics wove it according to their fancies, into 
 the speculations of their philosophy. 
 
 Extraordinary offices in the church had now ceased. 
 It became necessary to rely upon those of Presbyter and 
 Deacon ; which already began to be subdivided in some 
 churches. There was no higher rank in the church than 
 the Presbyter. And each church, with its session of 
 Presbyters, administered its own government without 
 subordination to any ecclesiastical superior. A Presbyter 
 
21 
 
 was so called from the custom of the synagogue, the 
 name being only the Greek word for elder; but by the 
 Greeks he'was also called an overseer, iTTcaxoTio^, from 
 which Bishop is an English derivative, the former beiug 
 a title of rank, and the latter a designation of office. 
 
 Deacons, originally apppointed to distribute alms and 
 relieve the apostles of secular duties, took care of the 
 poor and sick, and discharged other offices standing 
 between the church and the world. 
 
 These were the only ordinary officers of the primitive 
 church. Knowledge of this fact was retained among 
 christians long after its simplicity had been practically 
 abandoned. It was defended as historical by Hilary of 
 Rome in the 4th century, by Jerome in the .')th, by Isidore 
 of Seville, in the 7th, by Anselni in the 11th, by Peter 
 Lombard in the 12th, and others, until after the revival 
 of learning in the 14th, it became again more commonly 
 recognized. 
 
 At first all the presbyters of a church were bishops; 
 but on any occasion of public worship, one of them 
 necessarily presided. For each to have taken his turn 
 would have best preserved their equality. But from that 
 method they early departed, for one reason or another, 
 yielding the duty of presiding to one of their number, 
 who thereby became more specially the overseer, or bishop 
 of the congregation. In course of time it was thought 
 expedient to determine the rule that there should be only 
 one bishop in one church. This change took place, of 
 course, gradually, and in some churches sooner than in 
 others. It manifests itself in the course of the second 
 century. 
 
 Church extension proceeded in apostolic times by the 
 method of planting each new congregation as a separate 
 church, competentto its own government, after the model 
 constituted everywhere by the apostles. But when the 
 churches of the great cities began to expand, and new 
 congregations to proceed from them, another method, 
 that'of^'branch churches, was gradually generated. 
 
 In the beginning of this period the emperor Trajan 
 was on the throne, and reigned until 117. He was suc- 
 ceeded by Hadrian, from 117 to 138. Neither of those 
 
22 
 
 emperors exhibited any animosity against christians, and 
 yet within tlieir time christians suffered much at the 
 hands of local rulers and the people of certain provinces. 
 Priests and other ministers of heathenism were exceed- 
 ingly bitter against them, and stirred up the people to 
 maltreat them, or prosecuted them before the magistrates, 
 on various false charges. Information touching these 
 matters did not always reach the Emperor. 
 
 An important contemporaneous testimony from the 
 heathen side is tlie letter of the younger Pliny from 
 Bithynia to Trajan. Pliny was governor of Bithynia, 
 where Christianity had made great progress, while neither 
 legally allowed nor forbidden, and found himself called 
 upon, in regard to those charged with professing its faith, 
 to act where he had no law. He had recourse to the 
 Emperor, stating distinctly the case and what he had been 
 able to learn about the christians. In the rescript of 
 Trajan, written probably in 104, we have tlio iirst Roman 
 law intelligently addressed to the subject. It instructed 
 Pliny not to disturb the christians, not to take actiou in 
 regard to them, unless brought before him on a definite 
 charge ; but if so accused and convicted they were to be 
 punished unless they denied Christ, and were willing to 
 adore the Roman gods. (Pliny's Letters, Book X. let- 
 ters 97, 98.) Designed, as that rescript was, to put a 
 check upon unjust prosecutions, there is no doubt that 
 in the provinces many christians suffered under its sanc- 
 tion. 
 
 From the letter of Pliny it appears that christian wor- 
 ship, at the beginning of the second century was still 
 extremelj' simple, conducted in Bithynia with a degree 
 of secrecy. Their meetings were held very early in the 
 morning. Christ was the object of their adoration. 
 They observed the Lord's Supper, or the Love Feasts 
 frequently: and held themselves under oath to do no 
 wrong. They were disposed to submit to the govern- 
 ment in all things, not inconsistent with their duty to 
 God. But could not be induced by even torture and the 
 terrors of death to deny Christ. And their intluence 
 was vastly greater than their numbers. Throughout 
 Bithynia the observances of heathen worship had almost 
 
23 
 
 ceased; the temples were nearly deserted, and victims 
 for sacrifice conld scarcely find a purchaser. 
 
 In the reign of Hadrian the heathen populace pro- 
 ceeded to euch a degree ot' animosity as to clamor for the 
 execution of christians in the arena, as part of the enter- 
 tainment at the public festivals. Hadrian issued a rescript 
 interdicting such inhumaii proceedings. 
 
 Within this period the Jews provoked their final 
 reduction. In Cyrene, (A. D. 115) they excited an insur- 
 rection, which extended to Egypt and Cyprus. Another 
 was raised by them in Mesopotamia. Another in 132, 
 under their leader Bar Cochab, attempted to expel the 
 Romans from Palestine. In the war whereby that insur- 
 rection was put down, Palestine was, in 135, reduced 
 almost to a desert. Jews were forbidden to visit the 
 ruins of Jerusalem on pain of death. Only once a year, 
 on the anniversary of its destruction, were tliey permitted 
 to view the place from a distance. A new town subse- 
 quently arose there, and in it a church of gentiles. 
 
 2. — Primitive Apologists. 
 
 The next division of this period maybe most charac- 
 teristically designated as that of the Primitive Apolo- 
 gists, in whom, during the middle and latter part of the 
 second century, the church had her ablest defenders. 
 The productions called apologies were defences of christ- 
 ians, written for the purpose of being jjresented to the 
 Emperor, or the Roman Senate. When Hadrian upon 
 his imperial tour visited Athens in 126, the learned christ- 
 ian Quadratus took occasion to present to him a defence 
 of his fellow christians. Another was presented about 
 the same time by Aristides. A third was written by 
 Agrippa Castor, about 135, against the heresies of Basi- 
 lides. All three are lost. The earliest extant work of 
 the kind is that of Justin Martyr, addressed to the 
 Emperor Antoninus Pius, about 139. Another was pre- 
 pared by the same author between 161 and 166, to be 
 presented to Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, col- 
 leagues on the throne. He also wrote a work called a 
 Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, in which he encounters 
 the objections from the side of Judaism. 
 
24 
 
 Justin was a native of Samai'ia, born of Gentile par- 
 ents. He suffered niartj-rdoni at Rome in or about the 
 year 166. 
 
 Tatian, a friend and disei[)le of Justin, wrote an 
 address to the heathen among the Greeks, urging the 
 folly and grossness of heathenism, and tlie purity and 
 wisdom of scripture. 
 
 The apology of Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, was 
 inscribed to a friend, one Autolycus, who was a heathen, 
 but a h)ver of truth, and presents evidences for christian 
 truth, drawn from both Scripture and history. 
 
 Athenagoras of Athens also prepared for the emperor 
 Marcus Aurelius an argument in defence of the christ- 
 ians. 
 
 Irenaeus about 170 wrote his treatise against heresies, 
 chiefly the heresies of the Gnostics. Such writings 
 increased in number towards the end of the century, but 
 most of them are no longer extant. Of those which 
 remain most valuable is the longer apology of Justi.n. Its 
 topics may be classified under the following heads. 
 
 1. " Appeals to the justice of the ruling powers, and 
 expostulations with them on the unfairness of the pro- 
 ceedings against christians." 
 
 2. " Refutations of the charges of Atheism, immo- 
 rality and of disaffection towards the Emperor." 
 
 3. " Direct arguments in proof of the truth of Christ- 
 ianity drawn from miracles and prophecy." 
 
 4. Exposure of the baseness and absurdity of poly- 
 theism and idolatry, and on the other hand the beneficial 
 e-fFects of christian doctrine upon the life of men. 
 
 5. Description of the christian rites, customs and man- 
 ner of life. 
 
 Among the literary opponents, whom the apologists 
 had to encounter, were Celsus the Epicurean, Crescens 
 the Cynic, and the rhetorician M. C. Fronto, who all 
 flourished about the middle of the century. Bitterest 
 w^as Celsus. In a work called the True Account he col- 
 lected all the arguments against Christianity, which he 
 could urge with any degree of probability. It is now 
 known only in the refutation of it by Origen. 
 
25 
 
 The arguments against Christianity were chiefly, 
 
 1. That Jesus was of low birth, and brouglit up 
 among the ignorant, the vulgar and vicious, and tliat he 
 .suffered an ignominious deatli. 
 
 2. That Christianity was a novelty ; that it had not the 
 sanction of any national government ; that it had com- 
 menced among barbarians, that its facts were incredit>le, 
 and its doctrines absurd, especially those of regeneration 
 and the resurrection ; that different portions of Scripture 
 contradicted each other, and that it demanded a blind 
 and unreasonable faith. 
 
 3. Christians were cliarged with Atheism, with the 
 worship of a crucified malefactor, with being poor and 
 uncultivated, with the crime of creating division in 
 religion and society, and of being disloyal to their coun- 
 try and to the emperor, with a superstitious spirit, fanati- 
 cal and dismal. 
 
 4. Sometimes also iiiysteriously awful crimes were 
 imputed to them, as that of indiscriminate licentious- 
 ness, of eating human flesh and blood, of devonrino; 
 children in their religious feasts, and other things equally 
 wild, the fictions of alarmed ignorance and heated imagi- 
 nations. 
 
 Holding such belief the heathen populace certainly 
 thought that they had abundant cause for their deadly 
 hatred to tlie followers of Christ. 
 
 In debate with Jews, the early defenders of the gospel 
 found common ground in the Old Testament Scriptures; 
 and their aim was to show that the prophecies and types 
 of the Messiah, therein contained, were all fulfilled in 
 Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 With heathen the controversy was partly religious 
 and moral, and partly political and social, and had to be 
 debated on the ground of admitted moral principle, good 
 sense, demonstrable truth and the common rights, of 
 Roman subjects. It was the external morality of those 
 early witnesses for the gospel which weighed most in 
 their favor, and the change which passed upon wicked 
 men when they became christian. 
 
 It was when the stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius 
 came to the throne, in 161, that persecution received 
 
26 
 
 imperial direction, and proceeded upon principle and bj 
 law. 
 
 Commodus, though a worse man than his father, 
 proved a more lenient ruler towards the christians. At 
 the end of the second centurj' their number had vastly 
 increased within the empire, though under much oppres- 
 sion, and in some places constrained to observe their 
 ordinances in secret. 
 
 Concerning the doctrine and worship of christians in 
 the second century we learn most from the apologists. 
 For the works of their theologian Arabianus, and of 
 their historian Hegesippus, have perished. 
 
 1. They worshipped Christ as God proceeding from 
 the Father, not as a holy man, but as the Word made 
 flesh, the Divine nature incarnate. 
 
 2. They believed that the Holy Spirit was one of the 
 persons in Godhead, and in conjunction with the Father 
 and Son an object of worship. 
 
 3. Of man, they believed that he was created capable 
 of choosing right ; but capable also of transgression, and 
 that by sinning he fell in Adam. 
 
 4. Justification they assigned entirely to the merits 
 of Christ as its ground or cause, and faith they held to 
 be the means of acceptance. 
 
 5. They believed in such a degree of human freedom 
 that men were accountable for their actions. 
 
 6. They believed in the resurrection of the body, in 
 case' of both righteous and wicked, the eternal blessed- 
 ness of the former, and eternal punishment of the latter. 
 
 • But the principal point, discussed with all the philo- 
 sophical acumen of the time, was the person of Christ, 
 and his place in various theories of good and evil. 
 
 Of the forms of their worship and sacraments we 
 learn also some interesting particulars from the same 
 sources, especially from Justin. 
 
 1. Of Baptism he writes that it had taken the place 
 of circumcision, and accordingly it was applied to infants. 
 
 2. It was administered by afiusion, by immersion, or 
 by sprinkling, in the name of God the Father, the Son 
 and the Holy Spirit. Only water was used. ]^o other 
 ceremony is mentioned as connected with it. 
 
27 
 
 3. The (lay which is called Sunday Justin says was 
 kept by them, because on that clay of the week the Lord 
 Jesus Christ rose from the dead. On that day the people 
 in town and country met in their respective places of 
 worship. 
 
 (a.) In those meetings the memoirs of the apostles, 
 or writings of the propliets were read to such length as 
 time permitted. 
 
 (b.) Then the brother who presided delivered a dis- 
 course, in which he instructed the people, and exhorted 
 them to the imitation of those excellent examples. 
 
 (c.) After that, they all rose together, and ofl'ered up 
 their prayers. 
 
 (d.) After prayer, bread was brought, and wine and 
 water. And again the brother who presided otfei'ed ui» 
 prayer and thanksgiving according to his ability, and the 
 [)eople expressed their assent l)y sa3nng " Amen." 
 
 Justin makes no mention of singing. But elsewhere 
 that element of worshij) appears with sufficient clearness. 
 It was one of the most striking features of christian meet- 
 ings as they were described to Pliny. Where Justin 
 worshipped, it seems that the}' celebrated the Lord's Sup- 
 per every Lord's day. He describes the administration 
 of that ordinance, more particularly. 
 
 1. After the pi-ayer which closed the ordinary ser- 
 vices, the people saluted one another with a kiss. 
 
 2. Then to that one of the brethren who presided 
 there was brought bi-ead, and a cup of wine mixed with 
 water. 
 
 3. And he taking them offered up thanks and praise 
 to the Father of all, through the name of the Son and of 
 the Holy Ghost, 
 
 4. When he had finished the praj^er, and offering of 
 thanks, all the people present assented by saying 
 "Amen." 
 
 5. Then the Deacons gave to each of those w^ho were 
 present to partake of the bread, and of the wine and 
 water, and to carry away some foi" those who were absent. 
 
 6. In that ordinance only those were allowed to par- 
 take, who professed their belief in those things which 
 were taught in the church, w^ere baptized, and endeavored 
 to live as Christ commanded. 
 
28 
 
 7. The bread Justin speaks of as what Christ had 
 cotnnianded to be offered in remembrance of his beins: 
 made flesh, and the cup as that wliich lie commanded to 
 be offered in remembrance of his blood. 
 
 8. He does not mention the posture of the communi- 
 cants; but from that fact it may be inferred, as well as 
 from the statement that the Deacons distributed the ele- 
 ments, that it was the same which they occupied when 
 listening to the preceding sermon and reading. For their 
 change of posture in prayer he does mention. 
 
 9. After the service, a collection was taken up for the 
 poor. 
 
 Besides the Lord's Day, many christians still kept the 
 Jewish Sabbath, and the Jewish Christian practice of 
 observing certain annual festivals was gradually gaining 
 ground among the Gentile churches. It was also com- 
 mon to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. The annual 
 commemoration of the Lord's suffering, death and resur- 
 rection was also general in the churches both east and 
 west. But they differed in the way of observing it. By 
 tlie end of the century a serious controversy nrose be- 
 tween them on that subject. 
 
 That Period which opened with tlie accession of Nerva 
 A. D. 96, and closed in the death of Marcus Aurelius 
 (180,/W'as the most prosperous and tranquil in the history 
 of imperial Rome. The facilities for publication of tlie 
 gospel, notwithstanding local and occasional persecutions, 
 were unprecedented. The empire had reached its utmost 
 extent, was most of the time in .peace, the fear or rever- 
 ence of it was upon all the world, delegates from Anto- 
 ninus went even as far as China, and the wants, natural 
 and artificial, of so many great cities made demands, 
 which the most distant barbarous nations found their 
 profit in supplying. 
 
 When from relying upon the counsel of an inspired 
 apostle the church came to employ tlie judgment of unin- 
 spired teachers, many difficulties beset her way. One of 
 these was philosophical speculation of that style which 
 bore the general name of Gnosis. It was not new, but 
 reached its maturity in the second centur^^ within the 
 time of the Primitive Apologists. 
 
29 
 
 Christian Gnosticism was a theory of orood and evil, 
 how thev arose, and how they co-exist, and how the per- 
 sons of Christ and of the Holy Spirit stand in relation 
 to them. Tts fundamental elements were 
 
 1. A great and hol_y spirit, eternal, unchangeable and 
 infinite, the source, of all life and good; but inactive,— 
 the tranquil reservoir of holiness and power. 
 
 2. The world of matter, existing also from all eternity, 
 but inactive, and containing in itself the principles of 
 evil. 
 
 3. The union of spirit and matter, which was tem- 
 porary, and productive of the natural or imperfect. 
 
 4. The ruler of the natural world was the Demiurgus, 
 or master spirit, who created it by combining the contra- 
 dictory elements of spirit and mati"er. 
 
 5. Souls of men were rays of light which had come 
 from the eternal spirit. In their earthly condition they 
 are continually striving to obtain deliverance from fetters 
 of the Demiurgus and of matter, and thereby to return 
 into the region of the pure and spiritual. 
 
 6. Christ was one of the highest spirits of light, who 
 connected himself with the l)ody of Jesus, to assist men 
 in effecting that end. 
 
 The various schools of Gnosticism differed from each 
 other chiefly in their way of representing the imperfect. 
 That of Alexandria effected it by emanations. But 
 theories of emanations differed among themselves. 
 
 1. Basilides taught that seven secondary powers ema- 
 nated from God. From these emanated other seven, and 
 from these again a third class, and so on, until there were 
 three hundred and sixty-five kingdoms of spirits, each of 
 which possessed a feebler degree of power in goodness 
 than the preceding, and the seven angels of the lowest 
 heaven came into contact with matter, and their chief 
 became the Creator of the world, the Demiurgus. 
 
 Men, at so great a distance as they were from God, 
 bound up with matter in creation, were inextricably 
 involved in darkness and evil. To deliver their souls 
 from that bondage, the ISTous, the first spirit of the high- 
 est order, entered the man Jesus, at his baptism, and 
 remained connected with him until just before his death. 
 
30 
 
 2. Valentinus, also an Egj^ptian, removed about 140 
 to Rome. His pleroma wa? simpler than that of Basilides. 
 It consisted of fifteen male and as many female aeons 
 who all emanated from Bythos, the de[)tlis of Deity, 
 From the last of these proceeded a being called Acha- 
 moth, which had no longer power enough to retain its 
 place within the Pleroma, and so came into contact with 
 matter, and communicating the germ of life thereto, 
 formed the Demirugus or creator of the world. 
 
 Christ and the Holy Spirit were two new aeons, who 
 came to restore the disturbed harmony of th« Pleroma. 
 
 3. A third branch of Alexandrian Gnosticism vA'as 
 that of the Ophites. In their doctrine, the first man, the 
 second man, i. e. the son of man, and the Holy Spirit 
 emanate separately from Bythos. From the last, through 
 means of the former two, proceed the perfect masculine 
 light-nature, Sophia, or wisdom. Sopljia sought to defeat 
 the oppressive designs of the world creator through the 
 serpent of the first temptation. The office assigned to 
 Christ was the same as in the theory of Valentinus, 
 
 II. Among the Gnostics of Syria a simple dualism 
 prevailed. Their principal representative, Saturninus of 
 Antioch, (between 125 and 150) taught that there was an 
 original evil Being, the everlasting antagonist of God, 
 and that in accordance with these two powers, both 
 active, there are two classes of men, one instigated by 
 the evil Being, and the other by the good. 
 
 III. The Gnosticism of Asia Minor is represented 
 chiefly by Marcion, a native of Sinope, who came to 
 
 'Rome, and studied with the Gnostic Cerdo, between 140 
 and 150. In Marcion's system there are three original 
 principles, the holy, the righteous, and the wicked, 
 enabodied in God, the Demiurgus, and the Devil. As in 
 other Gnostic systems, matter is essentially evil. Men 
 were under the merely righteous Demiurgus; and from 
 him could expect only justice. To free them from his 
 severity, Christ took the appearance of a body among 
 them, and revealed to them the holy God, and the way 
 of obtaining his favor. 
 
 Such fanciful theories admitted of endless diversity 
 of treatment. The sect called Ophites lasted longest, 
 
31 
 
 and were still in existence as late as 530. Gnosticism 
 embraced elements of both Ebionism and Docetism, but 
 held nearest affinity to the latter. 
 
 About 170, a sect arose in Phrygia, under the teach- 
 ing of Montanus of Ardaban, afterwards of Pepuza, 
 which held that inspiration of the Holy Spirit consists in 
 extraordinary excitement, that Scripture was not com- 
 pleted by the apostles, but admitted of further revela- 
 tion ; that Montanus and his associates, Maximilla and 
 Priscilla, were divinely inspired, and possessed the gift 
 of prophesying. They also practised numerous austeri- 
 ties, attached great value to celibacy and martyrdom; 
 and proclaimed the end of the world, and the millennial 
 reign of Christ to be near at hand. The prophecies of 
 Montanus and his female associates were in most cases, 
 if not all, committed to writing, and esteemed by their 
 followers as belonging to Holy Scripture, and completing 
 the Christian Revelation. 
 
 Montanists, driven from Asia Minor by persecution, 
 found refuge in Northern Africa, where, in the begin- 
 ning of the third century, they had an able advocate in 
 Tertullian. 
 
 In resisting Montanism another party rushed to an 
 opposite extreme, and not only denied the continuance 
 of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, but also the doctrine 
 of the divine Logos, and rejected the gospel according 
 to John, in which it is principally taught, and the book 
 of Revelation, because of the Chiliasm, which was then 
 defended by it. The Alogi, as that party was sometimes 
 called, seem to have accepted Christ as a mere man or as 
 deified by the indwelling of God the Father. 
 
 Among the philosophic sects of the heathen the most 
 friendly to Christianity was the Platonic ; and the firmest 
 opposition was exhibited by the Stoics. Some doctrines 
 which Platonism argued, Christianity revealed ; but the 
 pretensions of the Stoics to a faultless morality it rejected. 
 But that was the strong point of Stoicism. There was 
 abundant reason in the natural heart for Stoic hostility 
 to Christians. Accordingly, when Marcus Aurelius, an 
 illustrious member of that sect, came to the throne, (A. 
 D. 161) persecution was ordered against them with an 
 
32 
 
 intelligent animosity, which had not previously been 
 evinced by an emperor. It was then that Justin suffered 
 death at Rome (166), the aged Polycarp at SmjM-na, and 
 the recently formed churches in Lyons and Vienne in 
 Gaul had their faith severely tried (177). Spies and 
 informers were encouraged to bring christians to ti'ial, 
 and the agency of persecution was in the local tribunals 
 sustained by tlie imperial authority. 
 
 From contemporaneous statements it appears that, 
 
 1. It was distinctly for their doctrine that christians 
 were then persecuted. 
 
 2. The purpose of the Emperor, though springing 
 from a different cause, coincided with the feelings of the 
 heathen public, to whose bitterness and savage nature 
 the style of the executions was due. 
 
 3. Local magistrates were sometimes forced beyond 
 all legal forms b}' the demands of the mob. 
 
 4. Jews retained their old malignity, though no 
 longer in condition to execute it of themselves. . 
 
 5. The endurance of the martyrs at that time was due 
 to christian faith, not to mere ph3'8ical enerL*"}' or impas- 
 sive nerves, nor to the fanaticism of martyrdom. 
 
 6. It was the superior claims of the Christian's God, 
 and the doctrine of the resurrection and the life in Christ 
 which chiefly exasperated the rage of the heathen. 
 
 Among the sources of christian history for the second 
 century, there ai-e fifteen epistles under the name of 
 Ignatius. They were all published for genuine as late 
 as during the 16th century. But three of them, written 
 ♦in Latin were soon discovered to be spurious ; subsequent 
 criticism, in a few years clearly exposed the false pre- 
 tensions of five more. Bishop Pearson, an English di- 
 vine of the 17th century, in a learned treatise, defended 
 the genuineness of the remaining seven. These exist in 
 two forms, a longer and a shorter. It was the shorter 
 which from about the beginning of the 18th century 
 came to be generally accepted as genuine. 
 
 But in 1843 certain ancient manuscripts of three 
 Ignatian epistles in the Syriac language were brought 
 from a monastery in Eg_ypt, and deposited in the British 
 Museum, which have re-opentd the controversy. So far 
 
33 
 
 as a conclusion lias been reached, it is to thi'(nv doubt 
 on the wbole seven. Some critics consider the three in 
 Syriac as tiie only genuine epistles of Ignatius ; others 
 can see no sufficient reason for excepting the tliree from 
 the sweeping condemnation of forgery passed upon the 
 rest. 
 
 Although it seems most probable that some genuine 
 letters of Ignatius constituted tlie foundation of the 
 structure, it has been utterly ruined for direct use in his- 
 tory. Only indirectly can its evidence be of an^^ value. 
 
 The spirit of the seven epistles is that of inordinate 
 hierarchical pretension, such as that the " Deacons are to 
 be reverenced as Jesus Christ, the Bishop, as God the 
 Father, and the Presbyters as the Sanhedrim of God, 
 and college of the apostles." 
 
 2. The second century from the end of its tirst quarter 
 onward, was a period fertile in heresies. Without a 
 systematic theology to sustain and restrain them, and 
 with a terminology general and undefined, men ran wild 
 in speculation. Early christians uninspired had no more 
 certaint}' of being always in the right than christians of 
 later days ; and from lack of experience were more likelj' 
 to make mistakes. 
 
 Knowledge of the heresies of that time, especially of 
 Gnosticism, is best obtained from Irenaeus who came 
 from Smyrna into Gaul as a missionary, and after the 
 death of Pothinus in 177, became bisliop of the church 
 in Lyons, where he continued to labor until his death. 
 The best exponent of Montanism is Tertullian. 
 
 During this period the principal efforts of christian 
 wi'iters were addressed to evidences of the truth of their 
 religion, and of its benign effects upon private life and the 
 order of society, and to counteract the progress of heresy. 
 The oldest, and still the best of the creeds, called the 
 Apostles' is now mentioned. It occurs in various forms 
 in Irenaeus, Tertullian and Origen. And from the fact 
 that it does appear under such a variety of forms, there 
 is no reason to believe that it is apostolic in any other 
 sense than that of presenting a summary of the Apostles' 
 teaching. 
 
 3. Though christians had their honored traditions, 
 Scripture was the standard of their faith. It is continually 
 
34 
 
 quoted in their writin2:.s. Their f'tuniliarity with it was 
 very remarkable. Enscbins speaks of persons who con hi 
 repeat at will any required passage from either the Old 
 or Xew Testament. 
 
 The Greek originals of the New Testament were gen- 
 erally in use, both in the East and West, and the Septu- 
 agint, or Old Greek version of the Old Testament. But 
 translations, for instruction of tlie unlearned, were at an 
 early date made into Latin. One of the oldest, perhaps, 
 of those versions was the Itala, which in course of time 
 came to be very highly esteemed and commonly used. 
 Another Latin version it is thought existed in Gaul ; and 
 a third must have been made within the same period for 
 the use of the churches in Africa. 
 
 4. External uniformity was not enforced over the 
 churches by any central authority, nor by any all-compre- 
 hending general government. Coordinate churches held 
 more or less intercourse by letter, and by transfer of mem- 
 bers from one to another, and in cases of common danger, 
 churches of the same province, or even of more exten- 
 sive tracts of country, held councils or conferences 
 together. And all the churches treated each other as 
 members of one great commonwealth, and all adhered to 
 fundamentally the same system of polity, discipline and 
 worship. And all claimed the right of interfering with 
 remonstrance and reproof where any one had departed 
 from the common* standard. 
 
 3. — Christian Schools. 
 
 Another section of this period of church history is 
 marked by the rise to distinction of the great christian 
 schools, whereb}- the character of learning, or erudition 
 is for the first time attached to Christian literature. That 
 may be considered as the principal feature of church pro- 
 gress until the rise of the controversy on episcopal rights 
 and prerogatives. The section begins with the persecu- 
 tion under Septimius Severus in 202, and closes witli the 
 legalizing of Christianity by Gallienus in 261. 
 
 The men whose lives and labors express the special 
 purpose of the period are its great scholars and theolog- 
 ians; in Greek, Pantaenus, Julius Africanus, Ilippolytus, 
 
35 
 
 and others; and in tlie Latin, Tertullian, jMiuntins Felix 
 and Cvprian. The qnarters in which christian learning 
 appeared wilh greatest distinction were Egy[>t, Syria, 
 Asia Minor and Xorth Africa : and chief of all, the 
 great emporium of Alexandria in Egypt. 
 
 From earliest date in the history of the church it was 
 customary to provide instruction for children and con- 
 verts from heathenism. The method employed was chiefly 
 oral, although no douht books were also used. The term 
 y.azrj'/^ecv, or xu-r^-^c^io, was employed in relation to it. The 
 name given to the work was xar;j';fiy(TfC, iind the persons so 
 instructed were '/.azr^youiievot, &c. 
 
 Besides these schools, a more advanced education was 
 provided for those who were to be ministers of the gospel. 
 
 Of all the churcli schools both for catechumens and 
 for ministers the most eminent were those of Antioch and 
 of Alexandria, and although not so much is said about 
 the schools in Carthage, that city was distinguished by 
 its gifted and learned men. 
 
 Athenagorns, one of the primitive apologists, is men- 
 tioned as a teacher in Alexandria in the second century. 
 But it was when Pantaenus and his pupil Clement were 
 united in the management of its instructions, in the first 
 years of tlie third century, that it began to take its place 
 at the head of christian scliools. 
 
 It was distinguished from the Mouseion, that is, the 
 polytheistic university of the Ptolemies, by the name 
 Didascateion. There christian theology was first subjected 
 to scientific treatment, in the exigencies of catechetical 
 instruction and of apologetics, in defence against Jews, 
 heretics, and heathen. Alexandria was at once the chief 
 seat of Polytheistic and of Jewish learning, and from it 
 i3sued the most elaborate and ingeniously constructed 
 Gnosticism. The reputation of the christian school, built 
 up by Pantaenus and Clement, was sustained by the 
 uncommon intellectual endowments of Origen, by far 
 the most laborious man of his day. 
 
 After the withdrawal of Origen in 231, the Dldasca- 
 leion was conducted by his pupil Heraclas until 233, and 
 until 248, by Dionysius, whose reputation in ancient times 
 w^as equal to that of Clement and Origen. In those men 
 
36 
 
 did the chrisrian scliool of Alexandria see the highest 
 point ot" her erudition. Mo-^t of their writings ha\e 
 perished, except of the two last named. Clement is most 
 valnal)le in the field of paedagogic and antiquities, 
 Origen, in that of Biblical seholai-ship and tlieology. 
 His views of doctrine guided the thinking of a large num- 
 ber of the ministry for many generations, and some of 
 the most bitterly del)ated heresies had their root in his 
 teaching. 
 
 iNIeanwhile the Syrian sciiool, which had its seat at 
 Antioch, was rising towards that eminence, which it 
 matured a hundred 3'ears later. In the early part of the 
 third century its greatest ornament was Julius Africanus, 
 who was not however a native of Antioch, but of Emrnaus 
 in Palestine, where most of his life was spent. His 
 principal work was Annals of the world from tlie crea- 
 tion, of which only parts are' extant. He died in 232. 
 
 2. After the death of Commodus,in 192, we enter upon 
 a new period of imperial liistory. From the death of 
 Julius Cfesar, regard for him had conferred the accumu- 
 lated honors upon his legal heir, and as long as adoption 
 continued the succession the empire was hererlitary in his 
 family. With the death of Nero tliat canse to an end; and 
 the power of appointment to the highest office was grasped 
 by the army. Corrected early by the accession of the 
 Flavian family, that evil was successfully repelled for a 
 much longer time by the wise method of Nerva, which 
 secured a steady rule until the death of Commodus. 
 Then, all check u}:)on election by the army being removed, 
 the decline of Imperial authority began. Pertinax was 
 raised to the throne, but retained it only three months. 
 Didius Julian us purchased it by a large bounty to the 
 Pretorian guard ; but lost it together with his life in 
 about two months. More reliable military support sus- 
 tained other candidates, among whom Septimius Severiis 
 with the army of Illyricum proved successful. The Pre- 
 torian guards were disbanded, and Severus organized in 
 their stead a new force, more numerous, and for himself 
 more reliable. He proved a stern, but successful ruler, 
 both in peace and war. After a campaign of great 
 exposure in Britain, he died at York, in 211, having 
 reisrned from 198. 
 
37 
 
 III the first years of Sevcrns, Christians suffered only 
 from the animosity of the heathen populace and some of 
 the provincial o;overnors. But in 202 an imperial edict 
 was issued forbidding any who were heatlien to become 
 christian. Of course it bore heaviest upon those who 
 conducted christian worshipandthe schools of the church. 
 It was thus that Clement and Pantaenns, were driven 
 from their work in Alexandria, that Leonidas, the father 
 of Origen, was brought to the block, and that Potamiaena, 
 Perpetna, and Felicitas,'and many others sealed their 
 testimon}- with their blood. 
 
 In the reign of CaracaHa. the son and successor of 
 Severus, the Roman empire began to experience the 
 effects of waning power. The empei-or impoverished his 
 subjects to pamper the army, and purchased the privilege 
 of peace from his enemies. Having made himself odious 
 at Rome, he extended Roman citizenship to all the sub- 
 jects of the empire, and withdrew from the city. He was 
 put to death by Macrinus. Prefect of the Pretorian 
 guard, (in 217.) The assassin took his place, but was 
 slain next year b}^ the soldiers, who set up Heliogabahis, 
 a boy of fourteen years of age. At the end of four 
 years the boy-emperor, precocious in profligacy, met the 
 fate he had ordered for many othei-s. In 222 Alexander 
 Severus succeeded to the throne. One of his first acts 
 was to revoke all edicts against cliristians. His mother 
 Julia Mammaea was so friendly to tliem that many 
 believed her one of their number. The liberality of 
 Alexander was extended to the great and good of every 
 name. His domestic chapel contained busts standing for 
 Abraham, for Christ, Orpheus, and Apollonius of Tyana; 
 and the golden rnle of Christ he had inscribed upon the 
 walls of his palace. 
 
 In the fourth year of his reign, Persian nationality 
 was revived under Ardishir Babegan, who overthrew the 
 Parthians, renewed the t.laims of the successors of Cyrus, 
 and prepared to drive the Romans from Asia. The Aves- 
 tan religion was restored, and Christians were driven back 
 into the empire, or subjected to severe oppression — the 
 beginning of long continued persecution in that quarter. 
 Sassanide princes recognized no such aflinity between 
 
38 
 
 their degenerate Avestanisrn and the gospel of Christ, 
 as their hero Cyrus had recognized between the Avestan 
 faitli of his day and the religion of the Jews. 
 
 The first Persian invasion Alexander successfully 
 resisted ; and had turned his victorious arms against 
 enemies in tlie north, wlien he was murdered. He had 
 reigned thirteen years. Maximin, a Thracian, was ele- 
 vated by the arn)y. He exhibited his hatred to the 
 christians by indulging the heathen populace in their 
 cruelties to them, and directing his own attacks upon 
 their clergy. At the end of about three years (238) he 
 was slain by his own soldiers. 
 
 In this instance the senate at Rome disputed the right 
 of the army in the north to appoint a master for the 
 empire, and favored the election ot Gordian, ])i'oconsul 
 of Africa ; and when he wiis slain, transff^rred their 
 preference to a younger member of his faiuily, a boy of 
 twelve years. At the end of six years the younger Gor- 
 dian was murdered by order of Philij) the Arabian, who 
 assumed the purple in his stead. 
 
 Under the jurisdiction of Gordian the churches were 
 not molested; and Philip was even friendly. In 249 he 
 was defeated in battle with Decius, and slain. Decius 
 marked his reign by issuing, in 249, an order to all gov- 
 ernors of provinces to return to tlie ancient state religion, 
 and to enforce it by the severest penalties, thereby insti- 
 tuting one r)f the most sanguinary persecutions that the 
 churcli has ever been called to endure. It extended to 
 the whole empire. It was also occasion of much subse- 
 q'uent controversy touching the discipline of those who 
 had succumbed to suft'ering, or fear. 
 
 Decius, slain in battle with the Goths, in 251, was 
 succeeded by Gall us, who renewed the persecution after 
 a brief relaxation. But, in 253, Gallus was slain by his 
 soldiers. His successor, Emilianus, met the same fate 
 in three months. Valerian was raised to the throne, and 
 held it until 260, when he was defeated and taken prisoner 
 by the Persians. 
 
 Persecution, restrained in tlie first years of Valerian, 
 was revived in 257. By Gallienus, the son and successor 
 of Valerian, it was brought to an end, in 261, and 
 
39 
 
 Christianity recoijnized as a lawful religion, received for 
 the first time a title to governmental toleration. Thence 
 forward, until the time of Diocletian, the Christians suf- 
 fered little molestation. 
 
 3. Christians were still the minority of the population 
 upon the whole; but in some provinces they were 
 'more numerous than the heathen, and tlieir continual 
 increase was a matter of frequent remark. They could 
 no longer be treated with contempt. Tliey were fast 
 becoming a great party in the empire, threatening to 
 overpower the lieathen, and extinguish the religion and 
 observances of their fathers, all that they had been accus- 
 tomed to honor and revere. 
 
 'No longer could the charges of disloyalty, or of 
 immoral conduct be advanced against christians ; but 
 that of atheism, as the heathen meant it, was fully estab- 
 lished. Their cause was distinctly apprehended to be 
 death to the worship of the gods, and to the very belief 
 in their existence. 
 
 Christian influence had been operating so long that it 
 had wrought an important change upon the moral char- 
 acter of society in general. Vices once so common as to 
 be little blamed, were now branded with disgrace; and 
 certain abominations once practised in Heathen temples, 
 and esteemed essential parts of worship, had ceased; and 
 were now regarded as corruptions, from which Polythe- 
 ism had purified itself in returning to its own standards. 
 That Christianity had some good in it was not now denied; 
 but it was urged that Polytheism had more, and that it 
 maintained a reverence for the gods, and a ritual worship 
 indispensable to the completeness of the service men 
 owed them. It was argued that the virtues of Christians 
 were disfigured by a low and tasteless manner of life, a 
 barbarous form of worship and rude fanatical spirit, and 
 that by their Atheism they were bringing down the 
 wrath of the gods upon the empire. The attitude of the 
 most intelligent heathen towards Christianity and their 
 own religion was not unlike that of the Bramo Somaj in 
 India, at the present time : and the Neo-Platonic philoso- 
 phj' was accepted as their guide. 
 
 Aramonius Saccas, the founder of that philosophy 
 died in 248, at the age of more than eighty years. His 
 
40 
 
 system was one in wliicli some elements of Christianity 
 and of oriental s[>ecuhition were engrafted upon the stock 
 of Plaronistn. 
 
 The heathen liad also their wonder-working sage, in 
 the Pythagorean philosopher, Apollonius of Tyana, whom 
 some of them set up as a rival to Christ. Apollonius 
 was a real person, who lived about the time of Christ, 
 and obtained some distinction in letters. A work pro- 
 fessing to give an account of his life was written about 
 the year 220, by Philostratus, at the instance of Julia 
 Domna, the wife of Septimius Severus, which is full of 
 extravagant fictions, attributing to him miracles like those 
 of Christ, but also most heathenish falsehood and decep- 
 tion. 
 
 4. Itwas still around the question of the wonderful per- 
 son of Christ that the theological discussions of christians 
 arrayed themselves. But the principal point w-as no 
 longer whether his body was real or not; it was now of 
 his" Deity. And the bearing of the controversy was 
 determined by the opinions of those who taught tlie 
 singleness of person in Godhead, called by the general 
 name Monarchianism. 
 
 That style of doctrine presented itself in several 
 forms, one of which was but a variation upon Ebionism, 
 teaching that Christ was only a man conceived by miracu- 
 lous means, and endowed with the divine wisdom froni 
 his birth. The power of Cod was conferred upon him in 
 greater degree than upon the prophets, or any other 
 human being. The distinction of the party holding this 
 doctrine was due to Theodotus, a Byzantine, who came 
 to Rome in tiie latter part of the second century. 
 
 Similar was the teaching of Artemon about the same 
 time in Rome. Although rejected by christians generally 
 and by some eminent writers, it continued to be defended 
 by a party through the first half of the third century. 
 It was preached by Beryllua bishop of Bostra as late as 
 244. But at a synod in Bostra that year, he listened to 
 his own refutation by Origen, and recanted. 
 
 A second variety of Monarchianism was that which 
 claimed all deity for Christ. The Father and the Son 
 were only different modes of designating the same sub- 
 
41 
 
 ject. The one God, who in other respects is the Father, 
 becomes in his appearance in human nature, tlie Son. 
 Jesus was divine by the indwelling of the only person in 
 Godhead. 
 
 This doctrine was first preached in Rome by Praxeas 
 who came from Asia Minor about the end of the reign 
 of Commodus (192.) By opposition to Montanus he drew 
 upon himself the censure of TertuUian, who charged his 
 doctrine with seeking to commend itself as teaching the 
 monarchy of God. The expression has given a general 
 name for that class of heresies. 
 
 For holding doctrines similar to those of Praxeas, 
 Noetus was excommunicated in Smyrna, in 230. Some- 
 times this class of monarchians were called Patripassian, 
 according to a saying of TertuUian about Praxeas, that 
 " two works of the Devil he wrought in Rome, he drove 
 out prophecy and brought in heresy, put the Holy Spirit 
 to flight and crucified the Father." 
 
 Another doctrine of kindred nature was that of 
 Sabellius, a presbyter in Ptolemais, between 250 and 260, 
 who taught that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were 
 ijot, in the common acceptation, different persons, but 
 different manifestations of the same person. Christ was 
 divine, not as an emanation from God, not by indwelling 
 of the Father ; but as that particular manifestation called 
 the Son. We conceive of God in his self-existant, crea- 
 tive and all-sui)porting power, as tlie Father; in the illu- 
 minating power of the Logos, as the Son, and in his 
 enlivening power in the hearts of believers, as the Holy 
 Spirit; and thu« have three divine energies in one person. 
 
 Moreover Sabellius believed that the man Jesus was 
 not a common man, but specially adapted for that union 
 with Deity. 
 
 By the churches in general the doctrine of a trinity 
 in unity of the Godhead was held as firmly as at any 
 other time ; but discussion of the subject was working 
 towards a logical expression, notyet satisfactoril}' attained. 
 
 Controversy also arose out of the method of scriptural 
 interpretation adopted by the Alexandrian School, and 
 especially by Origen. That method recognized a three- 
 
42 
 
 fold meaiiinsr in Scripture, namely the litei-al, or histori- 
 cal, the moral, and the mystical. By urging the mystical 
 meaning of certain texts Origen was charged with some- 
 times denying the historical; and the method, if it had 
 some advocates, also encountered strong opposition. 
 
 5. Origen in his tlieology also gave occasion to much 
 controversy. His views were expressed m commentaries 
 on Scripture, and in separate treatises, as well as in a sys- 
 tematic work on theology, called De Privcipiis. That 
 work was assailed from various quarters as containing 
 heresy, it was also defended by some of the ablest writ- 
 ers of that and the succeeding century. It was both 
 accused and defended on the chai-ge of Platonism. 
 Although obviously designed to controvert Gnostic specu- 
 lations, it was colored to some extent liy them. The 
 principal points o^ his system were: 
 
 {a) That God is everhistingly active, creating fi'om and 
 to all eternity. 
 
 [h) That all intellectual beings are originally equal, 
 and clothed in bodies, God being the only disembodied 
 spirit. The dift'erences among men are due to their 
 remaining holy or sinking in sin. But all are free to 
 return to righteousness, even the Devil is capable of 
 atnelioration and pardon. 
 
 (c) The Logos, tlie Mediator of all divine agency, and 
 inferior to the supreme God, did not proceed from the 
 essence of the Father, as an emanation, but as a constant 
 ray of the divine glory, was generated by the will of God 
 from eternity. 
 
 ♦ {(i) The Holy Spirit, and all other beings were created 
 b}' the Logos. 
 
 {e) In Jesus the Logos united himself to a real body 
 and a human soul, both specially prepared for him. 
 
 (/) To attain the highest virtue, a man must be free 
 from all restraints of sensuality, and of self-interest, hav- 
 ing for his aim to be like God. 
 
 [g) Alexandrian theologians held that the resurrection 
 body will not be of earthly material, but spiritual and 
 incorruptible. 
 
 (A) They accordingly rejected the expectations of sen- 
 sual chiliasm. 
 
43 
 
 Origeii held that Christ is of " a nature niiclwa}' 
 between tlie uncreated and that of all creatures." All 
 creatures dei-ive their being from the Father through the 
 Son. Tlie Son proceeds from the will of the Father, 
 
 Dionysius, the pupil and successor of Origen in the 
 christian school, in his attempt to develop the idea of his 
 master more precisely, was led to designate the Divine 
 Logos as created of the Father from all eternity, a step 
 from which he afterwards withdrew. 
 
 6. It was commonly believed that after tlieresurrection 
 there would be an eai'thly kingdom of Christ, in which 
 the saints should, for a thousand years, enjoy much hap- 
 piness. That was to be the great Sabbath of the world's 
 history, and was to occur, as some thought, after the 
 lapse of six tliousand years from tlie creation. A small 
 part}', deriving its origin from Cerinthus, expected that 
 milleuninm as a period for enjoyment of sensual plea- 
 sures. A literal acceptance of tlie millennium described 
 in the book of Revelation was insisted on by ISTepos and 
 Coracion, Egyptian bishops. But their teaching on that 
 point was opposed by Dionysius of Alexandria so effectu- 
 ally that before a synod held at Arsinoe in 255, Coracion 
 professed himself convinced of his error and renounced 
 it. Subsequently through the efforts of Dionysius and 
 others that style of chiliasm was abandoned in the 
 eastern churches. 
 
 7. During this period we find more frequent mention of 
 edifices exclusively used for christian worship. In 202 
 it appears that there was a church building in Edessa. 
 Alexander Severus gave a piece of land in Rome for a 
 christian place of worship, and in the edict of Gallienus 
 their places of worship are directed to be restored to 
 christians. Such an edifice was called a place of prayer 
 (TTpoaeuxzrjptop), or the Lord's house [orxo^ xufjio.y.d^, or oi/.ca 
 xoiJcaxTj, or later ro xofjiaxov)^ or the house of the meeting 
 (oFzoc ixxXr^acaj; or simpl^y ixxlr^oto). From early in the 
 third century, the idea of constructing such houses more 
 or less after the model of the temple at Jerusalem, took 
 possession of the minds of christians in some quarters. 
 And where that was carried out, worship began to be 
 
44 
 
 celebrated in a more formal maimer, and a greater dis- 
 tinction to be made between the ministry and the con- 
 gregation. Terms also belonging to the temple and the 
 temple service gradually cre|;)t in. 
 
 Holy days, from the middle of the second century, 
 were gradually multiplied. The churches in some places 
 began to hold meetings on Wednesdays and Fridays, the 
 days of the Lord's betrayal and crucifixion. And the 
 observation of the Lord's Passion and of Pentecost was 
 fully established, in the west, as well as in the east, before 
 the close of the second century. The manner of that 
 observation gave rise to a controversy of some warmth. 
 The churches of Asia Minor observed the feast on the 
 14th of the first Jewish month, Nisan, and on the third 
 day after that, the memorial of the resurrection, follow- 
 ing closely the historical order, although the day of the 
 month did not, of course, in most years correspond to 
 the day of the week, on which the Lord suffered. The 
 church of Rome, on the other hand, with those of Alexan- 
 dria, Jerusalem, Tyre and Cjfisarea of Palestine adhered 
 strictly to the days of the week though they might not 
 correspond always to the same days of the month. 
 Touching this difference, Polycarp, on a visit to Rome 
 in 162, had conference with the bishop of Rome, but 
 neither of them persuaded the other, nor thought it of 
 such importance as to impair their fraternal affection. 
 But about 196, Victor bishop of Rome, assuming such 
 pre-eminence as the imperial city exercised in civil mat- 
 ters, and claiming superior place in the church as succes- 
 #;or of St. Peter, undertook to compel the churtdies of 
 Asia Minor into compliance with the western practice, 
 by the terrors of excommunication. He was quickly 
 admonished of his error by several bishops, in both east 
 and west, among the rest, by Polycrates of Ephesus, and 
 Irenaeus of Lyons. The case ended in leaving each 
 church to decide for itself, until the council of Nice, 129 
 years later, acting for all the churches, declared in favor 
 of the western custom. The Easter observance assumed 
 greater proportions in the course of the third century. 
 The chief points being the crucifixion, the resurrection. 
 
45 
 
 and the desc^uit of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pente- 
 cost, the first was commemorated by fiisting, the second' 
 and the third by festivals, and the interval between them 
 as the Sabbath of the christian year. 
 
 Long continued, or at least, frequently recurring per- 
 secution had constrained the christians, in many quar- 
 ters, to keep their times and places of worship secret. 
 Secrecy began to be regarded as an essential element of 
 some parts of their service, which were spoken of as 
 mysteries. During the celebration of the Lord's Supper 
 it was thought proper that all heathen, and unbaptized 
 spectators should be excluded. At Rome, ISTaples, S3^ra- 
 cuse, and some other places, christians found refuge in 
 caverns beneath the ground, where they both conducted 
 their worship and buried their dead. Some of those 
 catacumbae (catacombs) have been opened within recent 
 time. 
 
 Inordinate importance was now attached to martyr- 
 dom by the churches generally ; Origen went the length 
 of attributing to it a dignity and efficacy similar to the 
 death of Christ. In his estimation, persecution was a 
 real good, and its cessation contemplated as an evil. The 
 intercession of martyrs was thought to be of avail on 
 high. 
 
 Exorcism of those to be baptized is now men- 
 tioned, that is certain ceremonies and prayers were used 
 for the purpose of casting out the evil spirits who were 
 supposed to hold all unbaptized persons under their 
 power. 
 
 The practice of asceticism was increasing, but was 
 yet entirely a matter of individual choice. 
 
 4. — Beginning of Christian Literature in the 
 Latin Language. 
 
 In the last years of the second century we first meet 
 with christian writings in Latin. They belong to the 
 church of Northern Africa, and are the earlier works of 
 Tertullian. The history of the North African church 
 begins with that eminent Latin father. Already it con- 
 sisted of a great number of prosperous christian com- 
 munities. 
 
46 
 
 Tertullian api)eai's first as an apologist about 190. lie 
 was a native of Cartlia<re, son of a procotisnlar centurion, 
 became a presbyter in tli- cliiircli of his native city, and 
 wrote a great number of works in the christian cause, 
 chiefly in the reigns of Severus and Caracalhi, between 
 193 and 217. 'After lie had passed middle life he 
 embraced the ojiinions of Montanus, with whicli his later 
 writings are imbued. Ahout the same time Minutius 
 Felix, a Roman lawyer, wrote an apologetic work in 
 defence of Christianity in f(»rm of a dialogue, which 
 he called Octavius: and Caius, a presbyter at Rome, 
 wrote a treatise against Montanism, while Novatian, also 
 a presbj'ter in the same church, defended that faction, and 
 introduced it into the west of Enr<^pe. 
 
 After the death of Tertullian, tlie most eminent leader 
 of ecclesisistical o])inion was Cyprian, also a native of 
 Afi'ica, and boi-n about tlie l)eginning of the third 
 century. Until middle life lie was a heathen. His 
 education had been careful. In his profession .of rhet- 
 oric he was successful and amassed considerable, for- 
 tune. Upon his conversion about 246, he sold all, and dis- 
 tributed the price to the poor. ISText year lie was ordained 
 presbyter in Carthage, and in 248, elected bishop. In 
 the persecution under Decius he was marked out for a 
 victim, but succeeded in eluding arrest. Eight years 
 later, in the persecution under Valerian, he was singled 
 out with such purpose that escape, if practicable, was not 
 within what lie deemed the bounds of duty to his people. 
 He suffered deatli foi- the profession of his faith in the 
 ♦year 258. Much of Cyprian's attention was constrained 
 to the suliject of church government and disci[iline, and 
 to them do the most important of his wi'itings pertain. 
 
 2. In the terrible persecution under Decius, and con- 
 tinued by Gallus, many cliristians fell away, and denied 
 •their faith in order to save their lives. The}' sacrificed 
 to heathen gods, oftered incense, or procured certificates 
 from the magistrates that they were not christians, and 
 were designated accordingly as sacr/Jicad, ilmrifcali, or 
 libellatici. When the persecution had passed over, many 
 who liad thus escaped made application to be taken back 
 
^ 47 
 
 into the church. Ir became a matter of no little fliffi- 
 cnltv to settle the terms upon wiiich they were to be re-ad- 
 mitted or rejected. 
 
 In the church of northern Africa, a difference in the 
 presbytery upon the election of Cyprian to the bishopric 
 of Carthage, led to the separation of a minority. Five 
 presbyters, at whose head was Novatus, refused to 
 approve of the election, and as Cyprian soon afterwards 
 was driven from his place by persecution, they proceeded 
 to conduct their affairs without him. They ordained as 
 a deacon Felicissimus, who subsequently became chief of 
 the party. The question of the lapsed widened the 
 schism. Cyprian was in favor of imposing a severe pro- 
 bation upon those who wished to return to their place in 
 the church ; Felicissimus and his party would re-admit 
 them upon the simple presentation of their petition. A 
 synod of the African church, which met in 251, resolved 
 to re-admit the lapsed upon condition of their repent- 
 ance, and submission to such probationary exercises as 
 the church might think proper in each particuhir case. 
 
 In the cliurc'h of Rome, about the same time, a similar 
 schism took place. On the election of Cornelius as 
 Bishop, in 251, a minority of the Presbytery dissented 
 on account of his leniency towards the hipsed, and chose 
 Novatianus as their bishop. The course adopted by them 
 touching the lapsed was that of refusing to admit them 
 on any terms, holding as a general principle that great 
 sins committed after "baptism should exclude from the 
 privileges of the church. A considerable number of both 
 clergy'and laity joined them, and formed that party, 
 which either took or accepted the name of Cathari, or 
 Puritans. 
 
 A synod at Rome, jn 251 took action against that 
 party, and in favor of such a moderate course towards 
 the lapsed as that adopted by the synod of Carthage in 
 the same year. 
 
 In the case of both the African and Roman schisms 
 the dissenters defended their organization on Presbyte- 
 rian ground in opposition to the high prelatical assump- 
 tions'of the bishops of Rome and Carthage. But it was 
 
48 
 
 then too late to ori|^aiiize a snccessfnl resistance to prelacj" 
 on that gTound, directly or indirectly. The question of 
 ministerial equalit}' had alread}' to be debated on a ditter- 
 ent level. Two Spanish bishops, Basilides of Leon and 
 Martial of Merida, were deposed by u Spanish Synod, as 
 heingUbellatich They applied to Stephen, bishop of Rome 
 for his influence in their favor. Stephen assumed to 
 restore tiiera, and received them into communion with 
 his church. The Spanish church consulted that of Africa, 
 which at a Synod in Carthage censured the bishop of 
 Rome for participation in the disordeily conduct of the 
 deposed bishops. 
 
 3. Again, the validity of baptism by heretics liad been 
 denied by the African churches, at a council held at 
 Carthage, about the beginning of the centurj', and by 
 those of Asia Minor, in a council at Iconium in 235. 
 
 In Rome, and some other jilaces in the west, the 
 opposite view was taken, and acted on. Persons liaving 
 received heretical baptism were admitted into the com- 
 munion of the church by laying on of the hands of the 
 bishop. When Stephen became bishop in Rome, he 
 undertook to constrain all churches to conform to the 
 custom of his own, and threatened to excommunicate the 
 churches in Asia Minor, if they adhered to their disci- 
 pline in that respect. Fii-milian of Cpesarea in Cappa- 
 docia responded by retorting the charge of schism upon 
 Stephen, and sharply reproving him for his assumption. 
 Stephen was also censured for that act by Dionysius of 
 Alexandria. In Africa the same view of his conduct was 
 taken by the synod which niet in Carthage in 254, and 
 again b}' that of 255. That decision was communicated 
 to the bishop of Rome in a letter drawn up by Cyprian, 
 who also defended the equality of all bishops, Stephen's 
 answer to the African bishops wa< overbearing; and his 
 threat was repeated that the Roman church would sepa- 
 rate from their communion. In 256 another synod at 
 Carthage affirmed the action of its predecessors ; and 
 Cyprian took occasion more fully to state the views 
 which he and the other members of the synod held touch- 
 ing the equality of bishops. 
 
49 
 
 From those statements it appears that a new epocli 
 has been reached in the history of the ministry. The 
 distinction between presbyter and bishop is not only 
 clearly made, but the bisliops of some great cities, 
 especially of Rome, are beginning to assume superiority 
 over other bishops. The opposition is mainly upon an 
 episcopal basis. Rome is now spokea of as the chair of 
 St, Peter, not in the sense that Peter was ever bishop 
 there; but that during a visit he had directed the affairs 
 of the church, as an apostle. The pretension of the 
 Roman bishop is not admitted by the bishops of the east, 
 of Alexandria, of North Africa or oi Spain. But in 
 opposing it on the equality of bishops, episcopacy as a 
 separate rank in the ministry is more fully defined than 
 ever before. By Cyprian the essentials of the church are 
 held to consist in a particular oi-ganization, and a con- 
 nection with bishops in the line of apostolic apj»ointment. 
 On this head he coincided with many others in his day ; 
 and in defending it constructed the foundation for the 
 very evil he was conti-overting. 
 
 Still, a great number of the bishops, whose equality 
 was defended by Cyprian, were only pastors of single 
 congregations. But in the churches of great cities, the 
 method of extension developed a new feature of episco- 
 pa«y. The principle that all tin.' christians of one city 
 should form but one cliurch, after the establishment of the 
 rule of but one bishop in one church, inevitably produced 
 prelacy. For when the church increased in numbers and 
 had to diviilc into several C()ngregations the one bishop 
 was constrained to employ presl)yter assistants to con- 
 duct worship at the ditfei-ent places of meeting. And 
 these presbyters necessarily became the pastors of the 
 respective cliarges over which they were set. The bisliop 
 of such a city church became the chief over a number of 
 pastors, who in rank were only presbyters; while the 
 bishops in small towns and country places, where there 
 had been no such increase of numbers remained bishops 
 over only their single respective congregations. It vi^as 
 natural that the bishop who presided over the pastors of 
 several congregations should assume superiority over 
 him who had pastoral charge of only one. Such is the 
 juncture at the middle of the third century, when even 
 
50 
 
 the bishop of Eome, who chiims a ph\ce of superiority 
 among bishops, lias 3'et no episcopal jurisdiction over 
 bishops, nor superior rank among them. It was a state 
 of things which could not continue. ]^o argument, how- 
 ever sti'ong, for the equality of bishops, in circumstances 
 so different, could withstand the tendency to further dis- 
 crimination of ranks. 
 
 It is also within this period that regular provincial 
 councils come distinctly to notice. In the second century 
 mention is often made of councils in ditferent provinces, 
 as those in relation to Montanisin, held at Hierapolis in 
 Phrygia, and at Anchialus in Thrace ; in relation to the 
 Colarbasians, held at Pergamus in 152, on the Easter 
 observance, lield at Ephesus 196, and one at Rome in 
 197, also at Jerusalem, at Osesarea, in Pontus, at Lyons, 
 in Osrhoene, and in Corinth. Tertullian speaks of coun- 
 cils as habitually held in Greece, and Firmilian of Asia 
 Minor mentions thera as being of regular recurrence ; 
 but of very few in the second century have the dates been 
 recorded. In the third century- their history is n^i^re 
 definite. There were councils in Carthage in 218 or 222, 
 on baptism of heretics; 251, in relation to Felicissimus; 
 252, on early baptism; 253, on bnptisni by heretics; 
 254, in relation to the Spanish bishops, one in 255, aiid 
 two in 1^:56, relating to the controversy with Rome. 
 
 In the same period there were councils at Rome in 
 231, 251, 256 and 260. In Alexandria two are mentioned 
 in 231 and soon after, touching the disputes of Demetrius 
 with Origen. Others ars mentioned elsewhere, as one in 
 Bostra in Arabia, in 244, one at Zambesa in Africa in or 
 about 240, at Iconium in 230 or 258, at Ephesus in 245, 
 in Achaia, in or about 2o0, in jSTarbonne Gaul in 255, or 
 260, and somewhere in Arabia in 247. 
 
 In the first instance Synods held in check the increas- 
 ing pretensions of the bishops of great cities; but latterly, 
 by defending ministerial e.quality on tlie basis of episco- 
 pacy, not of presbytery, they actually made the most 
 efiective support of that ecclesiastical aristocracy which 
 was now assuming its position in the churches. For 
 consistently with the municipal element of the ancient 
 church, and which was fundamental in the ancient idea 
 of government, the presidency of a council resided in 
 
51 
 
 tlie bishop of the chief city of the province in which it 
 was held. 
 
 From heathen mysteries some cliristians borrowed 
 the idea of esoteric and exoteric doctrines. The written 
 Word contained the exoteric, or public instruction, 
 although it also beneath its obvious sense concealed a 
 higher'mystical meaning, wliich only those enlightened 
 bj'esoteric instruction could descern. Certain things 
 were also taught in secret to the more advanced in 
 christian attainment, which were said to have been com- 
 municated by Christ to his disciples, but never commit- 
 mitted to writing. When we equire after these <trcana, 
 there is nothing to be found but fanciful speculation, 
 allegorical treatment of Scripture, or iiretended facts of 
 little account. 
 
 The sacrament of Baptism was now burdened with 
 ceremonies giving it much of the character of initiation 
 to mysteries. And in some churches none were permit- 
 ted towitne33 its administration who hadnotbeen them- 
 selves baptized. In some churches, if not generally, the 
 candidate for baptism was first exorcised, to drive away 
 evil spirits from him. Then, after application of the 
 water, the kiss of peace was given him, and a mixture of 
 milk and honey was administered. He was tlien anointed 
 and marked on the forehead with tlie sign of the cross. 
 After which the minister laid his hands upon him, and 
 bestowed tlie benediction. 
 
 The baptism (jf children vvas the common order of the 
 church, although not univei'sal. For some, as the Mon- 
 tanists and Cathari, holding that lieiuous sin after bap- 
 tism could not be pardoned, opposed infant baptism, and 
 even in the case of adults, encouraged the deferring of 
 it until late in life, or the threatened approacli of death. 
 
 Sponsors were also introduced in some churches in 
 the tiuic of Tertullian, who opposed the practice, as 
 another objectionable consequence of infant baptism. 
 
 In the Lord's supper we read from Justin Martyr, 
 that wine mingled with water was used, it was the com- 
 mon way of using wine at table ; but in the third cen- 
 tury, superstition recognized a mystery in that mixture. 
 The water represented the people, the wine, the blood of 
 
52 
 
 Christ, and tlieir mingling, tlie union of Clirist with the 
 multitude (»t" tlie faithful. 
 
 The notion of sacrificial efficacy in the elements had 
 begun to prevail, as early as the time of Tertullian. And 
 in some places the sacrament was observed daily, under 
 the belief thai the elements were the spiritual food of 
 the soul, to which the second petition of the Lord's 
 Prayer referred, and which imparted to the material frame 
 of the believer the germ of immortality. 
 
 In earlier times the preparation of catechuniens was 
 merely tlieir instruction and that fraternal treatment 
 which elicited evidences of their piety; but by and by, 
 it began to assume the color of austerities, after the man- 
 ner of initiation to heathen mysteries. Then the re-ad- 
 mission of those excommunicated for great sins was 
 thouglit to require a discipline still more severe. The 
 numerous cases of the lapsed, about tlie middle of the 3d 
 century seemed to render that course necessary to the 
 purity of the church. Thus was the practice of penance 
 fully inaugurated before the death of Cyprian ; and even 
 those who dissented from it contributed to define it. 
 The Cathari would readmit none who had been guilty of 
 great sin after baptism ; they had therefore to distinguish 
 between sins deadly and venial. 
 
 In the large churches it was thought expedient to 
 appoint a presbyter to examine penitents and hear from 
 them what they were willing to confess before the con- 
 gregation, and to announce to each the penance demanded 
 of him by the existing regulations. Such an officer was 
 called the Presbyter poenitentiarias. 
 
 It is plain that there was during the first half of the 
 third century a great influx of error and of mistaken 
 practice;- and yet never did the history of martyrdom 
 present a nobler roll of witnesses to the truth. And in 
 the glimpse which we obtain into the private character 
 of christians, both men and women, we behold the most 
 beautiful fruits of the life in Christ, The leading minds 
 in the christian literature of the time were the great 
 teachers in the school at Alexandria, Pantaenus, Clement, 
 Origen, Ileraclas, and Dionysius, secondly, the African 
 fathers, Tertullian and Cyprian ; thirdly, those of the 
 Syrian School, of whom Julius Africanus was the most 
 
53 
 
 illustrious, nor ought Beryllns of Bostra to be overlooked 
 ill the history of doctrinal development, fourthly those 
 of Asia Minor, represented by Firmilian and Gregory 
 Thaumaturgus, and some of the earliest Monarehians, 
 fifthly, those of Rome among whom Minutius Felix, Cor- 
 nelius, and Steplien were the most eminent; Hippolytus 
 was an illustrious Christian author in connection with 
 that Church, but he wrote in the Greek language; and 
 sixthly, some bishops of Spain and of Gaul appear as 
 leaders of opinion, of whose writings little or nothing 
 remains. By far the most valuable writings of the time 
 are those left by the great christian scholars of Alexan- 
 dria and Carthage. 
 
 IV.— 261 TO 325 A.D. 
 
 Groavth of the Hierarchy. 
 
 From the legalizing of Christianity in 261 a new stage 
 of christian history began, and continued until 325, when 
 Constantine, carried to the throne of the empire by 
 Christian arms, commenced the reconstruction of the 
 whole, not as a dominion of annexed provinces, but as 
 one organic whole, into which Christianity was interwoven 
 as the state religion, and called the first general council 
 of the church. 
 
 1. It was the last period of persecution inflicted by 
 authority of the Roman government. 
 
 2. Secondly, its issue was the triumph of Christianity 
 as the stronger power in the etnpire. 
 
 3. It was the period of diocesan aristocracy, during 
 which bishops, claiming equality among themselves, held 
 in common superiority over the other clergy, while some 
 were gradually establishing their superiority among 
 bishops. 
 
 4. Fourthly, it was the period of controversy with the 
 ablest leaders of the Neo-Platonic philosopy. 
 
 The time when the imperial office was entirely in the 
 gift of the army, and which began with the death of 
 Commodus, lasted until the accession of Diocletian in 
 284. Its latter years exhibited the empire almost in a 
 state of anarchy. Division was as active in the state, as 
 organization in the church. Gallienus reigned from 260 
 
54 
 
 until 268; but so many were his rivals that they have in 
 a general way received the name of the thirty in refer- 
 ence to the Thirty tyrants in Athens. Gallienus was 
 himself murdered by one of them, who was defeated in 
 his expectation of the throne by the fact that Gallienus 
 had alread}- desio;nated Claudius as his successor, and by 
 the superiority of Claudius on the battle field. Claudius 
 died in 270. Ilis successor retained the honor only 17 
 days. Aurelian conquered the rebel Kingdcnn of Pal- 
 myra, and all his military rivals, re-established the sub- 
 ordination of the empire, and repelled its foreign foes; 
 but at the end of five years of extraordinary activity he 
 also fell by assassination, 275. The senate elected M. C^. 
 Tacitus, a good man and able prince, but of advanced 
 age, who sank beneath the toils of office in about seven 
 months. Florian, and Probus were set up, the former 
 by the Senate, the latter by the army in Syria. Florian 
 vvas early put to death by his soldiers; Probus, reaping 
 the fruits of Aurelian's victories, carried his arms suc- 
 cessfully against invasion from the north. But he. also 
 fell by the hand of violence. Cams was immediately, in 
 282, set up by the soldiers. His reign, though eminently 
 successful, ended in about a 3'ear. His successor Nume- 
 rianus was murdered in a few months. And in 28-1:, 
 Diocletian was proclaimed by the army. 
 
 The accession of Diocletian constitutes- an era in the 
 history of both church and state. In the former it long 
 continued to be used as sucii, under the name of Diocle- 
 tian, or of the martyrs. That illustrious ruler devised a 
 • plan to regulate and control the imperial succession, and 
 to secure efficient government in every part of the empire. 
 
 1. First, in 286, he chose Maximian one of his generals 
 as a colleague, and assigned to him the government of 
 the west, the seat of which was at Rome. They were to 
 be equal in power, both to have the title Augustus, and 
 10 co-operate in all affairs of the whole empire. 
 
 2. Soon afterwards, they both chose assistants, who 
 were to be emperors of a second rank under the name 
 of Caesar. Diocletian chose Maximin Galerius, to whom 
 was assigned Thrace and Illyricum ; all the rest of the 
 East being under his own immediate rule. Maximian 
 chose Constantius Chlorus, and gave him authority over 
 
55 
 
 Spain, Gaul and Britain, retaining the other parts of the 
 West for himself. 
 
 3. The Cffisars were to be as it were lieutenants of the 
 Aiigosti, anci when an Angnstns died or resigned, his 
 Ctesar was to take his place, and select another Csesar. 
 Thus it was hoped the empire would always have rulers 
 present in all its four great quarters, always have men, 
 in its two highest places, in the ripeness of experience, 
 wise heads to guide or at least to counsel with the 
 younger emperors while acquiring their experience, and 
 there would be a regular lawful and reliable order of 
 succession. 
 
 4. It seems to have been a part of the plan that, 
 unless death should work the change sooner, the Augusti 
 after the lapse of a certain time, or the attainment of a 
 certain age, should abdicate and leave the supreme 
 authority to their CiBsars. 
 
 It was a beautiful scheme, but presumed npon dis- 
 interested virtue in ambitious men, — a fatal presump- 
 tion ; and yet it secured twenty years of orderly govern- 
 ment, and perhaps suggested to him who overthrew it 
 the conception of one which proved more durable. 
 
 It was no whim, nor mere weakness which at the end 
 of twenty-one years, led Dioletian, in 305, to abdicate 
 and go into retirement. His colleague Augustus, Max- 
 imian, also complied with the rule. Their Csesars, 
 accordingly became Augusti, and new Csesars were 
 appointed. 
 
 Galerius was now Augustus of the East, and Con- 
 stantius of the West, while the Caesar of the East was 
 Maximin Daza, and in the West, Severus. 
 
 Constantius died at York in 306. Thereupon the 
 soldiers arrogated to themselves the power so long kept 
 out of their hands. The army of Britain insisted upon 
 making Constantine, the son of Constantius, Augustus. 
 And the young prince accepted their nomination with- 
 out regard to Diocletian's scheme. Other pretenders 
 arose elsewhere. Galerius maintained the scheme in the 
 East, and Maximian returned to defend it in the West. 
 But the case was decided by the sword. Severus was 
 defeated and slain, and Constantine marched in victory 
 from Britain to Rome, In the neighborhood of the city 
 
56 
 
 he fought the decisive battle of Saxa Rubra in 312. It 
 was in that campaign that he saw, as he thought, the 
 luminous cross in the heavens. 
 
 Galerius died in 311, and Maximin Daza succeeded 
 to the jdace of Augustus of the east, with Licinius as 
 Csesar, Constantine being sole emperor of the west. 
 
 From the time of Gallienus, Christians had been free 
 from persecution by governmental order, until the nine- 
 teenth year of the reign of Diocletian, when persuaded, 
 it is said by the urgency of his Csesar, the senior emperor 
 gave his sanction to a new attempt to suppress their wor- 
 ship. He soon after abdicated, but the persecution was 
 continued by his successor, who as Caesar had instigated 
 it. Just before his death in 311, Galerius revoked tlie 
 edict of persecution. After Ids death it was again put 
 in force; but could now take effect otdy in the east. In 
 the west, from its beginning under Maximian, it was 
 light, and lasted not quite two years. 
 
 No sooner had Constantine secured himself in com- 
 mand of the west than he issued, in conjunction with 
 Licinius, the Csesar of the east, whose jurisdiction 
 covered the European east, an edict proclaiming freedom 
 to all cliristians within their dominions. It was published 
 at Milan in 313. 
 
 During the absence of Constantine in war with the 
 Franks, Maximin, Augustus of the east, from hatred to 
 Christianity made war upon Licinius. The issue of that 
 conflict was his own defeat, followed by his death in the 
 same year, 313. 
 
 ' Licinius now as master of all the eastern empire 
 assumed the attitude of competitor with Constantino for 
 the dominion of the whole. He was worsteil in the war 
 waged in that cause, in 314, and constrained to cede the 
 European east to Constantine. 
 
 Eight yeai-s later, Licinius, having deserted the cause 
 of the Christians, concluded to try the fortune of war at 
 the head of the heathen interest. The war which ensued 
 was clearly a trial of military strength between the 
 Heathen and Christian parties in the empire. The two 
 armies met near Adrianople, 324. Constantine displayed 
 the banner of the cross, Licinius raised the old idolatrous 
 standards of Rome. The issue of that hard fought bat- 
 
57 
 
 tie, one of the most inomentoiis in the world's history, 
 was the overthrow of Licinius, and of the cause which 
 he had adopted. iVnother, but a feeble attempt com- 
 pleted his ruin. To Heathenism the defeat was final. 
 The empire came under the rule of the Christian leader. 
 An edict of genera! toleration was issued. The next 
 step was to recognize the churches as in their organiza- 
 tion holding relations to the new constitution of the civil 
 government. 
 
 Ecclesiastical tradition, reckoning from the first under 
 jS'ero, counts ten heathen persecutions, namely under 
 Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Miircus Aurelius, Septirnius 
 Severus, Maxiniin, Decius, Valerian, Aurelian, and Dio- 
 cletian. But that number is arbitrary. With equal jus- 
 tice they may be said to be more or fewer, according as 
 attention is confined to general persecutions, or extended 
 to comprehend the local ; to those which were ordered 
 by an emperor, or including those which he failed to 
 repress. Imperial general persecutions were few; local 
 persecutions were of frequent occurrence in one quarter 
 or another. 
 
 Episcopal equality, defended by Cyprian in the mid- 
 die of the third century, was suft'ering infringement even 
 then ; in the succeeding generation a new and higher 
 rank among bishops, boldly claimed and received gene- 
 ral recognition. Under the method of church extension 
 then pursued, it was not easy to withhold an unequal 
 weight of influence from the bishops of the large cities. 
 At first the most impoytant cities were Jerusalem, Anti- 
 och, Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome. In course of time 
 Jerusalem was overthrown, Corinth and Ephesus became 
 relatively of less importance, wdiile Alexandria and Car- 
 thage rose each to a proper distinction of its own. Dur- 
 ing the third century the largest and most influential 
 churches were those of Antioch, Alexandria, Rome and 
 Carthage. Several causes co-operated to confer a predomi- 
 nant influence upon the churches in those chief cities; 
 the number of their congregations, the extent of their 
 suburban missions, the talent developed by the great 
 demands upon their bishops, and their place in relation 
 to the imperial government, and commerce of the empire. 
 
58 
 
 A great nnniber of cities not so important as these, were 
 yet large enongii to work similar eflects in the history of 
 the (;hnrch. 
 
 From the municipal principle of one church for one 
 city and only one bishop for one church proceeded seve- 
 ral effects at variance with ministerial parity. First, one 
 bishop as the presiding officer (n^er several pastors of city 
 congregations, who could be only i)resbyters. Secondly, 
 a mission from a great city church to a neighboring town 
 was at first a niere branch of the city church ; but when 
 it increased to more than one congregation, its pastor 
 became to its congregations what the bishop of the city 
 was to th(> cit)' congregations; but that he should be still 
 esteemed a dependant and inferior of the latter could not 
 be avoided ; and recognized as bishop, he was a bishop 
 of humbler raids:. Thirdl}-, there was strength and sup- 
 })ort expected by the churches in the smaller towns from 
 such connection with the larger: and in course of time 
 many small country churches and bishops, at first inde- 
 pendent, applied for, and were accei)ted into such filial 
 relations to some great city church. 
 
 Thus, before the end of the third century, the juris- 
 diction of some of the great city bishops extended verj- 
 fai-. That of Rome included not oidy her proper mis- 
 sions, but the greater part of central, and all the south 
 of Italy, and perhaps the adjoining islands Sicily, Sardi- 
 nia, and Corsica. Carthage had also become head of the 
 churches in ISTorth Africa; Alexandria of most of those 
 in Egypt, and Antioch, now the oldest of the large 
 , churches held a similar position in Syria and the further 
 east. 
 
 Consequently, a new rank was established among 
 n)inisters, in those bishops over bishops in the jurisdic- 
 tion of the metropolitan cities. Still it was a system not 
 formally and legally established during the third century. 
 The superior bishops we.re styled simply bishops of 
 the first seat, Priniae sedis episcopi, or Primi, or Primates. 
 Such a one was considered as having the right to con- 
 voke a council of the bishops of his province, and to 
 preside in it ; and, in the interval, the right of judicature 
 in matters affecting any bishop of the province. 
 
59 
 
 Obviously, in those days, provincial councils tended 
 to consolidate the metropolitan system in all its parts. 
 
 A marked distinction was now made between the 
 clergy {clerus) and the laity, {laid), the former being 
 viewed as a sort of spiritual aristocracy. They were 
 sometimes spoken of in terms of the Mosaic economy, as 
 Priests and Levites. Ministers of the gospel were, at the 
 great centres of })opnlation, about the beginning of the 
 fourth century, losing sight of their simple evangelical 
 vocation, and taking upon them the features of a sacer- 
 dotal order. A prolession of sanctity was demanded of 
 them above otlier men ; and many things which wei'e 
 not sinful in other men were held to be sinful in them. 
 
 Among the opponents, wliom Christianity had to 
 encounter in argument, the ablest were still the l^eo- 
 Platonist philosophers, of whom by far the most learned 
 and gifted were Plotinus and Porphyry, especially the 
 former, to whom the so-called ]^eo-Platonist philosophy 
 was indebted for its utmost completeness. His own 
 work was done chiefly- in the former period; but his 
 inlluenceagainstchristianity was stronger after his death, 
 through some of his pupils, Plotinusl ectured in various 
 places, from Persia to Rome, and wrote many books, 
 which were highly esteemed, and some of which still 
 survive. He died in or about the year 270. The Neo- 
 Platonic sect had already spread over most of the civil- 
 ized world; and its style of thinking as molded by 'Plo- 
 tinus was that which opposed itself with most eifect to 
 the christian apologist, through the rest of the period. 
 
 Porphyry of Tyre, a pupil of Plotinus, flourished 
 between 260 and 305. His argument against Christianity 
 was a large work, extending to fifteen books. It is no 
 longer extant as a whole; but portions of it remain as 
 quoted in the writings of christians who encountered 
 its attacks. 
 
 Of Hierocles, an eclectic philosopher, we learn chiefly 
 from the notice taken of his book against Christianity by 
 Lactantius, and the reply to it by Eusebius. It was com- 
 posed during the final persecution, and called " Words 
 of a truth-lover to the christians." Hierocles not only 
 wrote against Christianity, but also bears the blame of 
 
60 
 
 having instigated that persecntion which has branded 
 the name of Diocletian. He was governor of Bithvnia 
 under thai emperor. 
 
 lamhliehus of Chaleis, in Coelo Syria, wrote a work 
 on the life <\ud philosophy of Pythagoras, in which he 
 introduced arguments designed to resist the progress of 
 Christianity. lamhliehus enjoyed the highest philosophi- 
 cal rei)utation in his time, which was the first thirty years 
 of the fourth century. 
 
 In the field of theological discussion the Alexandrian 
 school still exerted the widest influence. Theological 
 writers were divided for and against the doctrines of 
 Origen, and later in the period, witfi more intensity, 
 res[)ecting those of Arius. Latin writers were inferior, 
 as compared with the Greek, in analytical power, and 
 subtlety of discrimination. Their theology was more 
 practical, but ruder in its structure. Lack of specula- 
 tion gave greater stability to their doctrines and style, 
 and their thoughts turned more upon points of discipline 
 and government. It was from Greece that Roman phi- 
 losophy was derived, and from Greeks came also the first 
 part of systematic theolog3^ 
 
 The principal christian authors in Latin were Com- 
 modianus and Arnobius, both of North Africa, and Lac- 
 tantius who studied with Arnobius. Commodianus, the 
 earliest christian poet in Latin, was author of a poem on 
 the evidences of ci)ristianity, written about 270. Arno- 
 bius, about 305 published an apologetic work called a 
 "Disputation against the Gentiles." The wnntings of 
 Lactantius are of much more importance, and in more 
 elegant Latin than any of his predecessors had been able 
 to command. They are chiefly controversial, in defence 
 of christian doctrine, against heathenism and heathen 
 philosophy. Lactantius died between 325 and 350. 
 
 Among errorists Paul of Samosato, bishop of Antioch, 
 was charged with preaching, a variety of monarchianism, 
 similar to that of Sabellius. and with conduct otherwise 
 unbecoming a minister of the gospel. In a council at 
 Antioch 268 he was tried and deposed, but protected by 
 Zenobia Queen of Palmyra, he continued in office. 
 When Aurelian had defeated Zenobia 272, he constrained 
 
61 
 
 Paul to give place to the bishop appointed by the council. 
 
 In Egypt, a schism took phuje during the Diocletian 
 persecution. Meletius, bishop of Lycopolis in the The- 
 baic!, for some cause which i? not satisfactorily explained, 
 broke off his connection with the bishop of Alexandria. 
 Several other Egyptian bishops joined him*, and resisted 
 all attempts to bring them back to allegiance to Alexan- 
 dria. It was one of several cases of resistance on the 
 part of parochial bishops to the aggressions of the metro- 
 politans. 
 
 In the Diocletian persecution, it v/as exacted of christ- 
 ians to surrender their copies of the Scriptures to be 
 destroyed. Those wdio submitted were counted among 
 the lapsed, as Traditores. 
 
 The most remarkable heresy of the last half of the 
 third century came from the side of Persia, and consisted 
 in a combination of some elements of Christianity with 
 some of later Avestanism and of Buddhism. Its author 
 was Mani, Manes, or Manichaeus, a Persian, who 
 appeared as a religious teacher aliout 270. 
 
 1. Mani taught the doctrine of two spiritual king- 
 doms of good a!id of evil, and also of one supreme power 
 comprehending both. Good was identified with light, 
 evil with darkness. 
 
 2. The kingdom of light was internally harmonious; 
 that of darkness, in perpetual disorder, and internal 
 war. 
 
 3. The evil spirits assaulted the kingdom of light. 
 The One Supreme God brought man into existence and 
 bound him in matter that he might resist the forces of 
 evil. 
 
 4. Man was originally joined to the five pure ele- 
 ments of nature, — fire, light, air, earth and water. But 
 in the war with the demons and the impure elements, he 
 was worsted, and held in fetters of matter. 
 
 5. The Almighty sent the living spirit, an emanation 
 from himself, who raised man once more to the kingdom 
 of light. 
 
 6. Meanwhile the powers of evil had succeeded in 
 retaining a part of man's light-essence involved in mat- 
 
62 
 
 ter, an element whicli has to go through a process of 
 purification and development towards liberation. 
 
 7. To that end,tlie spirits of light still bound up with 
 matter are through the process of generation into human 
 nature, rendered conscious and intelligent, and by the 
 means of religious purification, eliminated from matter 
 in man, and restored to the realm of pure spirit, in tlje 
 kingdom of light. 
 
 8. This process is now going on. Meanwhile, the 
 liberated souls are placed in the sun and moon, from 
 which they exert an influence to draw upwards to them- 
 selves the spirits still connected with matter, bj' the pro- 
 cess of evolution in \egetable and animal life. 
 
 9. Matter, after being exsiccated of all the elements of, 
 light and pure life, was to be reduced by fire to an inert 
 mass. And souls who still submitted themselves to sin 
 were to be banished forever to its inhospitable desolation. 
 
 10. Mani was regarded by his followers as the incar- 
 nation of the Paraclete. All his writings were, in their 
 estimation, holy scripture. Only such parts of the New 
 Testament as suited their views were accepted by him 
 and his followers. They had also their exoteric and 
 esoteric instructions, for two difterent classes of their peo- 
 ple, their Auditors and their Saints, or Ulect. 
 
 The Elect constituted their sacerdotal class, in the 
 highest stage of purification. The Auditors were their 
 common members, who were taught that their imperfect 
 righteousness could be raised to completeness by obtain- 
 ing an interest in the superabundant righteousness of 
 the Elect. 
 
 From the Elect were chosen the presi:ling officers of 
 the Manichsean church, the orders of which were first, 
 Mani, (the embodied Paraclete)/after his death represented 
 by a sacerdotal chief ; second, twelve 7nagistri ; and third, 
 the seventy-two bishops of the Manichasan churches. 
 
 After their founder's ileath, this sect found many 
 adherents, especially in the East and in North Africa, 
 although they suffered much persecution from both Per- 
 sian and Roman authorities. Mani was himself put to 
 death by order of King Baharam I., of Persia, some 
 time between 272 and 2"77. 
 
63 
 
 The principal theological question of the time still 
 related to the Person of Christ; but now chiefly as a 
 person in the Godhead, thereby involving discussion of 
 the whole subject of the divine Trinity ; and that now 
 more closely determined by the bearings of the Alexan- 
 drian theology. 
 
 By the beginning of the fourth century a large 
 amount of property had come into the hands of christ- 
 ians; and in some places their church edifices were of 
 great elegance. No pictures or religious symbols were 
 allowed in them, although such were used on tombs, and 
 on household utensils. In the catacombs are found the 
 monogram of the nam'.' of Christ, the dove, the fish, the 
 cross, and other christian symbols. And in christian 
 * worship and observances certain symbolical numbers 
 were of frequent occurrence. 
 
 THIRD PERIOD— 325 TO 1517 A. D. 
 
 With the accession of Constantine to the undivided 
 throne begins the third of the grand periods into which 
 the historj' of the christian church divides itself. It 
 covers the time in which the church, first united with the 
 Roman empire as the state religion, in course of pro- 
 gress, took to itself the features of Roman government, 
 and when the "Western empire fell, assumed its place of 
 superiority among the nations; and when the Gospel 
 was bound in fetters of human law. 
 
 Within that long period, extending to the early part 
 of the sixteenth century, various changes took place, 
 marking several subordinate steps of progress or decline. 
 
 I. 325—395. 
 
 First Union op Church and State. 
 
 First of those sections is that of the rapid decline of 
 Heathenism, in the end of which its principal rites were 
 suppressed by law. When Christianity became the rul- 
 ing religion Heathenism had no fortitude to withstand 
 
64 
 
 the disfavor of government ; and when its ceremonies 
 were made unlawful it riii)iilly dwindled away, Tlie 
 emperors henceforth become the extei'iial defenders of 
 the church. 
 
 With Constantine's victory at Adrianople, the last 
 vestige of Diocletian's plan of government disappeared; 
 a wiser, and a more effective one was constructed by the 
 new emperor. While the sovereign was to be one, the 
 division of territory was retained, under tlie names of 
 the Prefectures of Gaul, of Italy, of Illyricum, and of 
 the East, over which were appointed officers called Pre- 
 fects. The Prefectures were divided into Dioceses, which 
 were governed bj' Vicars, and the Dioceses, into 
 Provinces, under the administration of Rectors, or Pre- 
 sides ; and each Province was divided into smaller dis- 
 tricts with a corresponding distribution of civil officers. 
 A similar disposal was made of the army, under its ov>?-n 
 proper commanders. And honors and titles of honor 
 were graduated in like manner, from the Emperor down 
 to the humblest who had any claim to distinction. The 
 reins of these ramitied authorities were to be gathered 
 together in the hands of one monarch whose office was 
 to be hereditary. 
 
 In this system Christianity took its place, and adapted 
 its government to the arrangements for the state. Dur- 
 ing the preceding fifty or sixty years, the order of the 
 church had been growing into such a shape that no act 
 of violence was needed to effect conformity. Yet it took 
 some time to complete the correspondence, on the part of 
 ♦ the church, and as respects the distribution of her higher 
 jurisdictions, it was never precisely fitted, though every 
 where approximate to the civil. A general council at 
 Constantinople, in 381, established the superiority of the 
 bishops of a diocese over the bishops of the Provinces 
 within the Diocese, and of the Diocesan synods over the 
 Provincial synods ; and both were regularly appointed 
 church courts, and met at the call of their respective 
 superior bishops. 
 
 The head of that church system of government was 
 the emperor, who alone convoked general councils, and 
 presided in them, personally, or by his commissioner, 
 
65 
 
 and iiave the force of law to tlieir acts. The tirst eccle- 
 siastical council called by an emperor was the synod of 
 Aries in 314. And the lirst general council of the churcli 
 met at Nice in Bithynia, in 325, at the command, and 
 under the presidency of Constantine. 
 
 The order of ranks, in the ministry recognized under 
 the new constitution were those of Exarchs, otherwise, 
 Archbishops, ruling each a Diocese of the empire ; 
 second, Metro})olitans, also sometimes called Archbish- 
 ops, ruling each over a province; thirdly, Bisliops ruling 
 over smaller sees consisting of various congregations, 
 ministered to by Presbyters ; and fourth the Presbyter 
 pastors of congregations ; and within the congregation 
 its Deacons and other Parochial officers. 
 
 Presbyters and the lower clergy, according to this 
 system, were no longer to be chosen by the people of their 
 respective churches, but appointed by the bishop. The 
 election of a bishop depended mostly on the other bishops 
 of the province. Still the consent of the people was 
 required ; and especially in the West, was often decisive, 
 if not imperative. 
 
 Constantine died in 337, having received christian 
 baptism only a few days before. He was baptized between 
 Easter and Pentecost, and died on the latter. His sons 
 Constantine, Constantius, and Constans, divided the 
 empire among them ; but in the course of successive civil 
 wars, it came in 350 into the hands of Constantius alone. 
 In 361 Julian, a nephew of Constantine L, came to the 
 throne. An admirer of heathen literature and philoso- 
 phy Julian attempted to re-establish polytheism, and the 
 old heathen worship. But his reign was too brief to 
 effect his designs. He fell in battle with the Persians in 
 263. Jovian who succeeded him was a zealous christian ; 
 in his brief reign of seven months, he repealed all the 
 laws of Julian adverse to christianit}-. After his death, 
 the empire was again divided into Eastern and Western, 
 with much irregularity for about fifteen years. In 379, 
 Theodosius became emperor of the East. In the West 
 disorder continued thirteen years longer, until 392, when 
 Theodosius united the whole empire under his own 
 hand, and held it until his death in 395. By his legisla- 
 tion all kinds of idolatry were forbidden under severe 
 
66 
 
 pnnisliments. The emperor Constuntius had prohibited 
 sacritice; but this law couhl not be carried into effect at 
 the centres of concourse, Home and Alexandria. After 
 Theodosius interdicted the payment of their expenses 
 from the public treasury sacrifices were no longer 
 observed. 
 
 It is in the beginning of the fourth century that we 
 first come in sight of monasticism, as a recognized style 
 of religious life within the christian cliurch. I*s"ot that 
 the church ever originated a monastic order, but that the 
 body of christian people esteemed that way of life as one 
 of eminent sanctity. Its institutions organized by other 
 means came to the cliurch for sanction, and generally 
 received it; allhough, from the first tliey were more in 
 the spirit of Buddhism than of cliristianity. Monasticism 
 is an essential institution of Buddhism, but not of the 
 Gospel of Christ. At the beginning of the fourth cen- 
 tury, Buddhism was in its prime, and pouring its influen- 
 ces in upon the population of the eastern empire in 
 various ways. 
 
 Asceticism had been practiced, to some extent, as 
 early as the second century ; but then, and during the 
 first half of the third, ascetics had lived among other 
 christians, without external distinction. During the 
 Decian persecution, some christians of Egypt fled to the 
 desert, and there gave themselves up to austerities. 
 They were called ifr/^fuza:, Eremites, or tj.ova-)[ol, monks. 
 Public attention was turned to the subject "in 311, by the 
 appearance of the hermit Antony in a procession in 
 Alexandria. He had begun to preach his doctrines as 
 early as 305, and found many to admire and imitate him. 
 After a number of hermits had been brought together, 
 a place of habitation was founded for them by Pacho- 
 mius, where they could dwell together, on the island 
 Tabenna in the Nile. Soon afterwards similar societies 
 were formed in the deserts of Sketis and of Nitria in 
 Egypt, in the desert near Gaza, and elsewhere in Pales- 
 tine and Syria. Thence the example extended to Arme- 
 nia and Asia Minoi', chiefly in desert plae.es; but ere the 
 end of the fourth century, sometimes also in the neigh- 
 borhood of cities. Some ascetics lived solitary ; others 
 in associations according to some common rule. Such 
 
67 
 
 an association was called xocuoj^mu^ov fj.di^df>a,\n Greek, and 
 Claustrum in Latin; a member oi \i wd^, -/.otvofiiTr^:;, uv 
 I'uuodczr^^, and the president, 'J^y9'2c, or 'Af)')(:fjiavdpky^^. 
 Monacliism, as a system, came into the t-liurch, did not 
 grow out of it. Laymen, not ministers, were the first 
 monks. It was introduced by individuals, not b}" church 
 order. But to christians of the fourth century the prac- 
 tice seemed eminently holy, and monks held in such 
 esteem, that ere tlie end of the century clergy of the 
 highest rank belonged to their number. 
 
 Questions relating to church order and doctrine were 
 chiefly the schism of the Donatists and the heresy of 
 Arius. 
 
 The fanaticism of seeking persecution was reproved 
 and resisted by Ca?cilianus who was elected bishop of 
 Carthage in 311. A strong party opposed him, and set 
 up Majorinus and afterwards Donatus as their bishops. 
 The controversy continued long. Li 313 the case was 
 submitted to the Emperor Constantine, who appointed 
 three Gallic bishops with the bishop of Rome to investi- 
 gate the matter. The decision was unfavorable to the 
 Donatists, who expressed their dissatisfaction. The 
 emperor then in 314, called a council to meet at Aries, 
 whose decision was also adverse to them, jNotwithitand- 
 ing, the party maintained its existence in Africa until 
 that province was overrun by the Vandals. 
 
 The Meletian schism also continued in Egypt, and 
 several persons in different quarters protested against the 
 growing prelatical aristocracy. Such were Aerius, 
 Jovinian, and Vigilantius. But the great body of the 
 church was well pleased with the new relations to the 
 state, and with the hierarchical order, by which it seemed 
 80 well balanced with the civil authorities. 
 
 The most momentous doctrinal controversy was that 
 concerning Arius. Origen had taught tliat the Divine 
 Logos },)roceeds from the will of God the Father con- 
 tinually and from all eternity, that he is inferior to God 
 and different as to substance. Dionysins at one time 
 taught that the relation between Christ and God was that 
 of eternal creation. He afterwards saw his error and 
 withdrew from it. But Arius, a pupil of the Syrian 
 school, and a Presbyter in Alexandria, boldly accepted 
 
f)8 
 
 the (loctriiie of creation, but not us eteri)al; teaching also 
 that the Divine Logos was t]ie only created of the Father, 
 that all other things were created by him, that he is per- 
 fect, and as like God as a created being can be. 
 
 This view was condemned by Alexander, bishop of 
 Alexandria, in 818; but many bishops in Syria and Asia 
 Minor declared themselves in favor of it. The contro- 
 versy soon extended to the whole East. Attempts w^ere 
 made by the emperor to bring it to an end, through means 
 of friendly correspondence with leading men, but with- 
 out effect. Finally he called a council of the whole 
 church to meet at Nice in Bithynia in 3:^5 for the purpose 
 of settling the dispute. The cause of the bishop of 
 Alexandria was pled by Athanasius, then a deacon of 
 that church, and by otliers. Arius was defended by a 
 strong party, but was condemned as guilty of heresy. 
 And the faith of the church was defined to be that the 
 Divine Logos is uncreated. The council also drew up a 
 brief confession of orthodox faith. Li that symbol called 
 the Nicene Creed were summed up the results of theo- 
 logical discussion so far as then settled. 
 
 The council also undertook to terminate the schism 
 of Meletius, and the difference between the practice of 
 the Eastern and Western Churclies in the observation of 
 Easter, by giving judgment in the former case against 
 Meletius and deciding the latter in favor of the West. 
 
 Touching the number of bishops assembled at Xice 
 statements differ. It is commonly given as 318. Most 
 of the Arian members subriiitted to the doctrinal decis- 
 » ions, though with reluctance, oti some points, especially 
 on the consubstantiality of the Father and Son in Deity. 
 A minority preferred to say that the Son was of nature 
 similar to the Father. Instead of biioo'jmo^ rw Tzarpi they 
 defended the doctrine of bfioeooatoc tw Ttarfn, and on that 
 Semi-Arian ground took their stand in opposition to the 
 council, and obtained many adherents, chiefly in the 
 East. In the course of ten years they were strong enough 
 to depose Athanasius from the bishopric; of Alexandria, 
 to which he had been elevated, after the council. He 
 found refuge in the West. 
 
 On this question a council was called in 347 to meet 
 at Sardica; but it divided into two councils, and accom- 
 
69 
 
 plished nothino;. After lotii^; continued controversy, the 
 enipei'or Theodosins culled a o:eneral council to meet at 
 Constantinople in 381. One hundred and tifty bishops 
 assembled. There the Nicene creed was revised ; its 
 doctrine of the Trinity C(>nfirnied, and articles added 
 touching heresies which had arisen since it was framed. 
 In this latter form the creed became the universally 
 recogMiized syml)ol of orthodoxy. Pure Arianism sub- 
 sequently declined within the empire, but maintained 
 itself among the Germanic nations. Semi- Arianism pre- 
 vailed among the Eastern churches; while the Nicene 
 doctrines wei-e accepted in the Western empire. Antioch, 
 as the head of the Syrian school, became deeply leavened 
 with Semi-Arianism, Alexandria continued long to be the 
 chief school of orthodoxy. Theologians took their stand 
 with one or the other. 
 
 Theodosius w^as the last who held the reins of the 
 united empire. Upon his death in 395, it was divided 
 between his two sons, Arcadius taking tlie East, and 
 Honorius the West. In the same year tlie Huns upon 
 the North broke into trie provinces of Panonia and 
 Moesia, and the Goths took up arms for invasion of 
 Tlirace, Macedonia and Greece, which the}' effected next 
 year. Ere that time the chui'ch government, under the 
 constitution devised by Constantine, had become solidified 
 into an organic self-sustaining structure imbued with the 
 spirit of a new and vigorous life, to which the civil gov- 
 ernment had nothing to correspond. The latter began 
 to break apart into irreparable decay; the former to 
 increase towards completeness of organization. 
 
 11. 395—451. 
 Doctrinal Definition. 
 
 Another period of chur(;h history, which ought to be 
 studied by itself, is that which extends from the death of 
 Theodosius to the general council of Chalcedon. It was 
 within this period that the doctrines of the church, defined 
 by the ancient classic fathers, were digested into a philo- 
 sophic system. It was also that during which tlie Arian 
 Goths, Suevi and Vandals made themselves masters of 
 the sea coast countries of the western empire, and the 
 
70 
 
 heatl)en Franks and Saxons took possession of ISTortliern 
 Gaul and South Britain. 
 
 Britain was abandoned by liotnan arms about 428, 
 and Ani(lo-Saxons commenced tlieir settlements there 
 in, or before 449. Ere that date the Franks had established 
 for themselves an inde})endent cjovernment in Gaul. 
 Spain from the beginning of the lifth century had been 
 overrun by Suevi and Vandals, and was now completely 
 given up by the emperor of the West. In 427 the Vandals, 
 worstedby the Suevi in Spain, passed over to Africa, and 
 conquered the whole of tliat province before 439. They 
 also reduced Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily and the Balearic 
 islands. The Alemanni and Bui-gundians had taken pos- 
 session of Helvetia, and districts adjoining, and the 
 Goths, of Southern France. At the middle of the fifth 
 century little remained to the Western empire beyond 
 the confines of Italy. Panonia, Dalmatia and Noricum 
 had been taken by the Eastern empire. The Eastern em- 
 pire itself had, in 528, divided Armenia with the Persians; 
 in 441, it had been ravaged by the Huns under Aftila 
 from the Danube to Constantinople ; and in 446 had sub- 
 mitted to |)a3' a yearl}' tribute for the privilege of peace. 
 The period was covered entirely bv the two successive 
 reigns of Arcadius (395—408) and Theodosius II., (408 
 — 450), emperors of the East, parallel with those of 
 Honorius (395—423) and of Valentinian III. (423—455), 
 emperors of the West, 
 
 Although the Western empire was, by the middle of 
 the fifth century, broken to pieces, and only a fragment 
 * of it remaining under the old dominion, the church stood 
 firm, and had received a large addition to her subjects. 
 The old inhabitants of the provinces were not removed, 
 or extinguished; Lhey were only subdued and gcn-erned 
 by German invaders instead of by Romans; while the 
 invaders, for the most part, professed Christianity and 
 acknowledged the jui'isdietion of the church. The oUl 
 population was mostly orthodox ; the Germanic incom- 
 ers mostly Arian. Among the Goths that doctrine was 
 taught by Ulphilas in the fourth century. A Gothic 
 bishop was present at the council of Nice. The Bur- 
 gundians, in 413, came into the church with profession 
 of orthodox}' ; but about 450 adopted Arianism. 
 
71 
 
 As a general thino;, those Arian masters did not inter- 
 fere with the religion of their orthodox sohjects ; but 
 the Visigoths in the Sonth of France, and the Vandals 
 in Africa were exceptions to the rnle. 
 
 Christianity received an additional load of corrnp- 
 tion from those imperfectly converted nations. During 
 this time, the British isles were cut off from the juris- 
 diction of Rome, by the withdrawal of Roman arms, by 
 the interposition of heathen Franks m the North of Gaul, 
 and also in the succeeding period by the establishment 
 of heathen Saxons in the East and South of Britain. 
 Meanwhile the old British churches maintained their 
 ground in the Southwest of Scotland ; from which Patri- 
 cius, about 430, carried the gospel into Ireland, It 
 spread with great rapidity over the island. 
 
 On the extreme East, christians were subjected to 
 much oppression under rule of the Persian kings. From 
 343 a persecution was commenced in that quarter which 
 lasted thirty-five years, in which thousands of christian 
 people with their ministers were put to death. It was 
 relaxed about 398; but revived in 418 and continued 
 until nearly the date of the council of Chalcedon. 
 
 Subsequently having adopted the doctrines of Nes- 
 torius, Persian christians, finding themselves under cen- 
 sure of the churches in the West, and separating from 
 them and their relations to the Roman empire, received 
 protection from Persia, as loyal subjects. It was not 
 however until 498 that the whole Persian churcli declared, 
 by formal action, in favor of Nestorianism. 
 
 In that part of Armenia, which in 428 came under 
 Persian rule, attempts were persisted in, for more than 
 forty years, to establish the doctrines of the A vesta instead 
 of those of the gospel. In 485 that effort was abandoned 
 as hopeless. In that same century Mesrop formed the 
 Armenian alphabet and translated the Bible into the 
 popular tongue. 
 
 Theodosius 11. , emperor of the East issued, in 423, 
 an edict in which he expressed his belief that no heathen 
 were to be found within his dominions. 
 
 In the process of framing such an expression of christ- 
 ian belief as should be satisfactory to the church, it was 
 impossible to avoid controversy. It was by controversy 
 
72 
 
 tliat the work had to be done. The Ariaii and Seini- 
 Arian controversy led to tlie clearest statement of ortho- 
 doxy on the subject of the Trinity. 
 
 In the Nicene Creed, as revised aud extended at Con- 
 stantinople, were summed up the best results of previous 
 theolotjical discussion. Tiiat was the work chiefly of 
 Greek theologians. Latin writers make comparatively 
 little figure in it. Law, civil and moral, was the field of 
 thought in which those who spoke the Latin tongue had 
 proved themselves superior to all rivals. And now a 
 work remained to be done for the church which they 
 were better than any others qualified to do. That was 
 twofold; first, definition of the Scriptural doctrine of 
 man's relations to God; and second, the complete syste- 
 matic and practical statement and exposition of the whole 
 body of truth as then defined or accepted. And that 
 was also effected through controversy. 
 
 When Alaric the Goth was threatening Rome in the 
 year 410, Pelagius, a native, it is thought, of Britain, and 
 who had been residing in Rome, wls among the refugees 
 to Sicily. He thence proceeded to Africa accompanied 
 by his friend Coelestius and others. From Africa he 
 soon afterwards went to Palestine leaving Coelestius at 
 Carthage. Coelestius applying to be ordained Presbyter, 
 was charged with errors tending to exalt unscripturally 
 human free will. He was excluded from the church at 
 Carthage, and went to Ephesus. His doctrines were 
 understood to be the same as those taught by Pelagius. 
 Accordingly, Pelagius was himself accused before the 
 ,bishop of Jerusalem, within whose jurisdiction he was 
 then residing, aud afterwards in 415 before the synod of 
 Diospolis, as Lydda in Palestine was then called, but 
 without being condemned. Other councils, in various 
 quarters, rejected his doctrines. Zosimus bishop of 
 Rome first approved, and afterwards condemned them. 
 But they also found acceptance and defence, especially 
 in the East. In the West their principal advocate was 
 Julian of Eclanum in Italy. 
 
 Those theologians held that man's moral nature 
 received no injury in the fall of Adam ; that man is now 
 born, as fully as Adam was made, able to do the will of 
 God; that all sin consists in the intelligent choice of 
 
73 
 
 evi! ; and that in order to turn from sin unto riij^liteons- 
 ness notliinc: is needed but a cliange of purpose on the 
 part of the sinner. A hio;lier degree of blessedness and 
 greater facility in attaining it are accessible through 
 christian sacraments and instruction. As the law was 
 formerly given to facilitate the attainment of goodness, 
 so latterly, the gospel and example of Christ, and par- 
 ticular opeiations of grace. The Divine purpose for 
 man's salvation is founded on the Divine foreknowledge 
 of human action ; and makes no demand which man has 
 not full ability to com[)ly with. 
 
 Among the opponents of Pelagins were Jerome and 
 Augustine, The latter, especially, in this controversy, 
 wrought out those statements of the doctrines of grace 
 whicli lie at the foundation of orthodox theologj'. The 
 views of Augustine were ecclesiastically confirmed by 
 the African synods, and the Western church generally. 
 Pelagianism under the name of Coelestius, was condemned 
 at the general council of Ephesus in 431, although the 
 Augustinian doctrines of grace and predestination were 
 not adopted by the eastern christians. 
 
 Pelagianism is the root of a number of heresies within 
 the iield of Anthropology, like Monarchianism in that of 
 theology. Under the head of theology error lies on the 
 one hand to Monarchianism, on the other to Polytheism; 
 under that of Anthropology, in the direction of Pelagian- 
 ism, or fatalism. Ancient orthodoxy lay between tlie 
 extremes, although not orthodox for that reason, but for 
 accordance with Scripture and christian experience. It 
 was expressed in the creed for Theology, and by Augus- 
 tine for Antliropology, 
 
 After the action of the council, complete Pelagianism 
 ceased to be professed to any great extent, while an inter- 
 mediate ground between that doctrine and Augustinian- 
 ism, which may be called Semi-Pelagian, was taken by 
 many of the churches in the east. It was also accepted 
 in some places in the West, as introduced by John Cas- 
 siau, a pupil of Chrysostom. 
 
 Augustine was a native of Africa, born at Tagaste in 
 Numidia, about 354, studied and practiced the profession 
 of rhetoric, was not converted until over thirty-three 
 years of age, became bishop of Hippo in 395, and died 
 
74 
 
 in 429. His wi-itings were itunierous, but his o^reat work, 
 stating and defending the essential doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity is his " De Qmiate Bei^ 
 
 The controversy touching the sonship of Christ in 
 Godhead was folh)wed by one concerning the relation of 
 the Divine Logos to the human nature of Jesus, 
 
 Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea, from 362 to about 
 392, holding that natural man consists of three constit- 
 uents, body, spirit and soul, taught that Jesus had no 
 human soul, and that the Divine Logos took its place. 
 Some theologians were the more disposed to accept that 
 view, that they believed the soul of man to be a part of 
 God. In that case, if it was proper to spefk of an 
 ordinary man's mother as the mother of his soul, it might 
 be equally proper to speak of the Virgin Mary as the 
 mother of God, ^soroxoc- And that fell in with, and sus- 
 tained a practice already common in many congregations. 
 
 ApoUinarianism was rejected by the general council 
 at Constantinople in 38L It had contributed however to 
 that element of definition, wliich recognized the perfect 
 humanity of the Savior. 
 
 In making clear distinction between the human and 
 divine in Christ, some felt constrained to condemn the 
 growing practice of paying reverence to the Virgin 
 Mary, as the mother of God. Such was the ground taken 
 by Nestorius, who was made bisjiop of Constantinople, 
 in 428. Dorotheus, one of his clergy when preaching 
 one day, denied that it was proper to call Mary deozoxo^. 
 The congregation raised an outcry of disapprobation 
 and left the house. ISTestorius defended the presbyter. 
 Others of his clergy deserted him; and some of them 
 he deposed. The question soon became one of general 
 concern. 
 
 The doctrine defended by Nestorius was that of the 
 separate existence of the divine and human natures in 
 Christ. And according -to his view, to speak of Mary 
 as mother of the divine nature was blasphemy. 
 
 ISTestorianism was condemned by the general council 
 at Ephesus in 431, and Nestorius was deposed. The 
 minority was so strong, and both parties so violent that 
 appeal was made to the emperor. In the end, Nestorius 
 was banished to an oasis of upper Egypt, about 435. 
 
75 
 
 lie died in exile. But a large part of tlie Eastern church, 
 chiefly that lying to the east of the Euphrates, sustained 
 his doctrines. In 498, the}- were accepted as the pro- 
 fessed creed of the churches in Persia and the further 
 east, which thereb}" separated tor ever from the Catholic 
 connection. 
 
 In the controversy with Xestorius, some disputants, 
 at wliose head was Cyril bishop of Alexandria, defended 
 the opposite doctrine to an extreme. The successor of 
 Cyril in the see of Alexandria, Dioscorus, from 444 till 
 451, was still more violent in the same cause. Eutyches, 
 an abbot in Constantinople, was in 448, condemned by a 
 local synod in that city for teaching that the human in 
 Christ was so merged in the divine as to make only one 
 nature. A letter from Leo I. ot Rome to Flavian of 
 Constantinople approved of that action and defined what 
 he thought the true doctrine of the two natures in Christ. 
 
 The censure of Eutyches bore hard upon Dioscorus 
 also. A general council was summoned to meet at 
 Ephesus next year (449). Dioscorus, as president, pro- 
 cured a resolution in favor of Eut^'ches, and the Alexan- 
 drian doctrine, and an act of deposition against Flavian. 
 From its violence that council was branded as the Rob- 
 ber Synod; but it was sustained b}' the emperor, Theo- 
 dosius 11. Xext year Theodosius died. The new 
 emperor, Marcian, took the other side, and strongly dis- 
 approved of the conduct and doctrines of Dioscorus. A 
 new general council was called, to meet at Chalcedon in 
 451. It is counted the fourth. 
 
 Dioscorus was deposed, Eutyches was condemned, 
 Nestorianism was also rejected, Leo's letter to Flavian 
 was approved, while the council gave their own state- 
 ment of the doctrine of" One Christ in two natures, the 
 two natures united, without confusion, without conver- 
 sion, inseparably and perpetually." 
 
 The council also recognized tlie existing Metropolitan 
 and Patriarchal ranks of bishops, and sanctioned the 
 latter as a higlier rank, and as endued with higher pow- 
 ers of jurisdiction. At that date the Patriarchs were 
 five; those of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, 
 Antioch and Jerusalem. Reference is also made, in the 
 canons of the council, to the Patriarchs of the two 
 
76 
 
 imperial capitals as entitled to higher honor than the 
 rest. The great church of Carthage was now humbled 
 to the earth by the conquest of the Vandals. 
 
 Both forms of the creed, namely, those of Nice and 
 of Constantinople, were confirmed ; as that of the 318 
 fathers of Nice, and of the 150 fathers of Constantinople, 
 and Nestorian and other variant doctrines, which had 
 arisen in the interval, were condemned by re-statement 
 of doctrines professed, or implied in those symbols. 
 
 That council also contirmed certain canons of five 
 provincial councils, namely of Ancj-ra 315, of Neo- 
 Cgesarea in Pontus, 315 or 316, of Gangra, between 325 
 and 311, of Antioch in Syria, 311, and of Laodicea, 
 somewliere about 365. 
 
 RECAPITULATION OF CONTROVERSIES. 
 
 The Person of Christ is the first and cardinal point 
 of christian doctrine. The principal controversies con- 
 cerning it are 
 
 1. With Judaism, establishing the sufiiciency of Christ 
 in himself as the savior, and his true Godhead. 
 
 2. With Docetae, in defence of his true humanity. 
 
 3. Of his divine nature as related to God the Father, 
 and the Holy Spirit, as well as to the whole system of 
 the universe; discussed in the theories of Gnosticism 
 and the debates concerning Montanus; and the subse- 
 quent system of the Manichees. 
 
 4. With theories of Monarchianism — Humanitarian, 
 Patripassian, Sabellian. 
 
 5. With those which sprang out of the theology of 
 Origen, especially that of Arius. 
 
 6. With the Semi-Arians. 
 
 7. With the Apollinarian doctrine on one side and 
 the Nestorian on the other, touching the relations of the 
 divine to the human in Christ. 
 
 8. And with that of Eutyches and Dioscorus, 
 
 9. Questions of anthropological doctrine were brought 
 out chiefly as related to the prime question of Clirist, but 
 also in treating points of discipline, controversies on the 
 subject of the lapsed, on the schisms of Novatian, Felicis- 
 simus, Donatus, until the rise of Pelagianism. 
 
77 
 
 10. The rejection of Pelagianisni left behind the inoro 
 widespread and enduring heresy of Semi-pehigianism. 
 
 So far, christian controversies were marked b}' fea- 
 tures of ancient classical thinking, even when dealing 
 with oriental speculation ; from the council of j^ice to 
 that of Chalcedon is the golden age of Patristic litera- 
 ture. Those which followed, for several hundred years, 
 were in the spirit of the mediaeval. 
 
 Christian sacraments and originally simple customs 
 were now surrounded with a parade of ceremonial forms, 
 pictures were introduced into the churches, not as objects 
 of worship, but as helps to piety, and some things were 
 retained from tlie old state religion, and as converted to 
 Christia!) meaning, under tiie plea that people accustomed 
 to see them, would thereby be attracted to come to 
 church. Preaching, in the tifth century, had also assimi- 
 lated in some respects to the character of secular ha- 
 rangues, and in some of the city churches, at least, it was 
 not unusual for the congregations to give noisy demon- 
 stration of their disapproval or applause. The memory 
 of martyrs had come to receive such a degree of venera- 
 tion that preachers would appeal to them in their ser- 
 mons, and invoke their intercession with God. Their 
 relics were collected and deposited in churches. The 
 Virgin Mary received peculiar reverence; and the cross, 
 all along honored as a symbol, had now become an object 
 of idolaU-ous veneration. That feeling was intensitied 
 after Helena, the mother of Constantine, had discovered, 
 as she thought, the true cross, on which the Savior died. 
 In the tifth century the crucifix, that is, the cross with a 
 figure representing the Saviour suspended upon it, began 
 to be used. 
 
 It was also during this period that the clergy began 
 to wear a peculiar costume, while engaged in divine ser- 
 vice; and after heathen fashion in some of tlie churches 
 artificial lights were used in the day time. Burning of 
 incense was also introduced. 
 
 Singing in responses was first practiced at A.ntioch, 
 spread to other places in the east, and was transferred to 
 the west by Ambrose. 
 
 Festival days increased in number, and some formerly 
 of only local observance, became general, or were 
 
78 
 
 appointed to be held with more regularity. In the west, 
 the 2oth of December was appointed l)y Julins, bishop of 
 Rome between 337 and 352, to be observed as the birth- 
 day of the Lord. From Rome the practice extended to 
 different provinces, to Antioch about 376 and to Alex- 
 andria about 430. Heathen literature and science had 
 still their devotees. At Athens and Alexandria the poly- 
 theistic schools of pliilosophy were still in existence. 
 
 Ry the middle of the fifth century the schools of the 
 church had begun to decline, with the interest in educa- 
 tion which maintained them. JNIonks had already 
 increased enormously, and their extravagances and bar- 
 barism had become the disgrace of the christian name. 
 The emperor Valens attempted to restrain tiieir increase 
 by authority, but without etiect. Some of them were 
 men of learning, but as a general thing they were ignor- 
 ant, despised learning, and wielded a powerful influence 
 against it. To them, more than to Goth and Vandal, 
 was the degeneracy of- public intelligence due. The 
 stoppage of education bears its fruit not immediatelv, 
 but needs for it only one generation. 
 
 As early as the second century tales had been fabri- 
 cated of the Savior and of his apostles, and heathen 
 prophecies of Him and his work, either fabricated or 
 interpolated, as in the case of the apocryphal books of 
 the New Testament, and the Sibylline oracles. The most 
 remarkable of such productions were the books called 
 the Clementines. They consisted of two epistles ad- 
 dressed to the apostle James at Jerusalem, and twenty 
 .homilies professing to be the doctrinal and polemical 
 discourses of the apostle Peter. Clement bishop of Rome 
 appeals as the author. They are thought to have been 
 composed at Rome about the end of the second century. 
 Of these homilies tliere is an epitome also in Greek. 
 There are other writings of the same kind ascribed to 
 Clement, especially the Recognitions, which we have in 
 a Latin translation, made by Rutin us who died in 410, 
 as a connected narrative in ten books. Among the 
 manuscripts found in the desert of Nitria, which are now 
 in the British Museum, there is an unprinted Syrian 
 translation of the Clementines, wliich is said to differ 
 greatly from both the Greek and Latin. The subject 
 
79 
 
 seems to have been a theme of religious romauce upon 
 which successive writers felt free to compose variations. 
 
 To the same period with the translation of the 
 Recognitions are the Apostolic Coiistitutions probably to 
 be referred. That collection of ecclesiastical rules is put 
 forth as the work of the apostles, collectively, wdio also 
 speak in their own names separately of what they were 
 taught by the Lord. It is found in use at the end of the 
 tifth century, and no mention of it occurs earlier than 
 the end of the fourth. By gross anachronisms much of 
 it is convicted of forgery. The Apostolic canons, a 
 smaller collection of similar kind, came also into use 
 towards the end of the fifth century, and is obnoxious to 
 the same charge. 
 
 Many of the evils of the time were due to the haste 
 wnth which multitudes of half converted heathen were 
 received into christian communion upon simple profes- 
 sion, made in many cases only because their kings had 
 been converted. After the full establishment of Chris- 
 tianity as the state religion, and the profession of heathen- 
 ism was made unlawful, it came to be the practice of the 
 church to comprehend all the population of the empire 
 as in some shape or other its proper charge. The strict 
 rules of the early christians touching admission to their 
 communion were thus done away or rendered inopera- 
 tive. It was a stupendous effort, for which the early 
 church was called upon, — the regeneration of a world 
 lying in iniquity, such deep and almost hopeless iniquity. 
 It is not strange that the human agency was sometimes 
 at fault, that mistakes were made, and that some of the 
 overflowing corruption invaded her own bounds. The 
 subject of wonder is that the good was not entirely 
 swamped in the billows of evil raging on every side. 
 Among the christian writings of that time copious evi- 
 dence i8 found of warm scriptural piety, and most of the 
 acts of councils testify to the same purport, as well as 
 the lives of many devoted men and women. 
 
 III. 451—607. 
 
 Christianity in Pride of Dominion. 
 
 Another section of Church History is very distinctly 
 marked by important changes between the council of 
 
80 
 
 Chalcedon and the death of Boniface III. bisliop of 
 Rome, that is from 451 to 607. It is tlie period of rivalry 
 for dominion in the cliurcli between tlie Patri;irchs of 
 Constantinople and of iiome. At tlie council of Chalce- 
 don they had been recognized as entitled to liigher honor 
 than the rest. From that date it became an object of 
 ambition witli botli to secure each for his own see the 
 honor of sole superiority. The Roman Patriarch had 
 the advantage in that his capital was possessed of the 
 older prestige and associations. On the other hand, dur- 
 ing most of tlie period Constantinople Avas the sole capital 
 of all the dominion that remained to the empire. But 
 the east was divided among four Patriarchs; in the west 
 there was only one. The Roman Patriarch had no 
 Patriarchs in the west to look to him as superior. The 
 Patriarch at Constantinople was recognized as higlier in 
 honor than the three other Patriarchates of the east; it 
 was not unnatural that he should wish to add the Patri- 
 arch at Rome to the list. One sovereign, or universal 
 bishop, with four Patriarchates was needed to compl-ete 
 the system of clinrch government after the model of the 
 state. The eastern domain of chiistianity was by far 
 the most extensive, and populous. But the Roman Patri- 
 arch had already learned to add some of the duties of a 
 civil ruler to his ecclesiastical functions. Rome was still 
 the imperial city in the eyes of western nations, and the 
 claim of apostolic descent had more weight in that quar- 
 ter than in the east, where all the principal churches held 
 to it. Notwithstanding the difficulties in his way it was 
 ^ the Patriarch at Constantinople who succeeded in having 
 his rank of universal bishop lirst recognized by imperial 
 authority. Rome then condennn^d the iniquity of episco- 
 pal ambition. 
 
 The cruelty of the usur[)ing emperor Phocas alien- 
 ated from hini all good men in Constantinople. He 
 received approval from Gregory I., bishop of Rome, and 
 from Boniface who was afterwards raised to that dignity. 
 Bonitace solicited and oljtained from Phocas tlie transfer 
 of the title of universal to the see of Rome. Boniface 
 III. became Pope in 607, and died before the end of that 
 year. Eastern prelates did not admit the validity of that 
 act of a usurper; and the alienation between the two 
 ijreat Patriarchs became wider than before. 
 
81 
 
 In the state, the period thus defined was no less 
 momentous. After tlieii* defeat at Chalons in 451, the 
 Huns fell back upon Italy, and the last rem.nant of the 
 western empire was spared for a few years only by the 
 death of Attila. In 455, the Vandals crossed over from 
 Africa to Italy, took Rome and plundered it. Until 472 
 the holders of nominal empire in that quarter were set 
 up by German leaders. Finally in 476, Odoacer, king 
 of the Ilerulians, and leader of the German troops in 
 Roman pay, assumed the sovereignty himself under the 
 title of King of Italy. In 492, Odoacer was overthrown, 
 and the Gothic kingdom of Italy set up by Theodoric. 
 That Kingdom was extinguished by the forces of the 
 eastern empire under command of Belisarius in 539, and 
 afterwards of Narses. Italy thereby became a Byzantine 
 province, until the invasion of the Lombards in 568, 
 when it was divided between them and the eastern 
 empire; the capital of the former being Pavia, and the 
 seat of the Greek exarch, Ravenna. Rome had ceased 
 to be of any general political importance. 
 
 In Gaul the Franks secured supreme dominion. The 
 Visigoths, whom they drove out of the South of that 
 country in 507 had before that date subdued the Suevi, 
 and set up the Gothic kingdom of Spain. The Saxons 
 in Britain had established their dominion over all the 
 best of England, and driven the Romanized Britons to 
 the north and extreme west. 
 
 On the other hand, the Vandals in Africa and Sicily- 
 were reduced by the arms of Belisarius and those 
 countries annexed to the eastern empire. 
 
 In Constantinople, the imperial authority after 454 
 passed through a succession of feeble hands, until Justin- 
 ian, who, from 527 to 565, by the wisdom of his legal 
 uigests, and the success of his arms, went far towards 
 a restoration of the imperial dignity. His successors 
 until 602 were good men, but did not maintain the same 
 course of prosperity. Mauritius, in 602, was murdered 
 with his family, by the centurion Phocas, who in a 
 mutinj' of the soldiers had usurped the throne. 
 
 From Apostolic times the church needed, and pos- 
 sessed certain rules whereby those who joined her com- 
 munion were to regulate their conduct. The wisdom of 
 
82 
 
 the early fathers increased the number. To these were 
 added the decisions of councils. Collections were sub- 
 sequently made of such. In the fifth century we find 
 mention of the Apostolical Constitutions, and the Apos- 
 tolical canons. In the sixth century, appeared tlie col- 
 lection of Dionysius Exiguus, in the west, and of Johan- 
 nes Scholasticus, in the east, laying the foundations upon 
 which afterwards arose the structure of the canon law. 
 
 In the history of theology the principal feature of the 
 time was the prolonged Monophysite controversy. The 
 council of Chalcedon, after deposing Dioscorus from the 
 Patriarchate of Alexandria, appointed Proterius in his 
 room. But a large party in Egypt refused to acknowl- 
 edge the new bishop, or the doctrine of the council. 
 They denied the existence of two natures in Christ, or 
 rather, held that the two natures, human and divine, are 
 so united as to constitute but one nature, yet without 
 conversion of one into the other and without confusion 
 of both. Various names were given them, but the most 
 common was that expressive of their doctrine of oneness 
 of nature in the Savior, Muvoiffjmra:, while they called 
 their opponents /luoi/'oalra:, or J:(/'U(j7tm. The headquar- 
 ters of the controvers}' were Antioch and A lexandria, the 
 two great theological schools of the east. Both parties 
 carried violence to an extreme, disgraceful to their chris- 
 tian profession. Emperors several times stepped in to 
 allay the ferment, but with little success. Zeno Isauri- 
 cus, in 452, issued a creed called the Henoticon, which 
 he thought both parties raiglit agree upon. Instead of 
 , effecting union, it raised a new^ subject of dispute. The 
 bishop of Rome, and the western churches in general 
 took part in opposition to the Monophy sites. Justinian 
 defended the council of Chalcedon, but endeavored to 
 restore unit}' and peace. The empress, Theodora, favored 
 the Monophysites, and also professed to labor for con- 
 ciliation. Neither of them had much success. After 
 several fruitless attempts, the emperor called a general 
 council to meet at Constantinople in 553. The council 
 condemned Monophysite doctrine as heresy. In that 
 action Pelagiusl. of Rome coincided, but thereby created 
 a tedious schism in the west. In the east the result was 
 a final secession of a great number of churches covering 
 
83 
 
 a belt of country from the northern borders of iVrmenia, 
 tbrongh Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, south- 
 ward ""to the southern extremities of Etliiopia. It did 
 much to reduce the importance of both Alexandria and 
 Antioch, as schools of theology, a loss which they never 
 retrieved. 
 
 The disgraceful scenes, which occurred in the course 
 of this confroversy, were chiefly due to the part taken in 
 it by monks, who now swarmed in all oriental Christen- 
 dom in such numbers as seriously to diminish the ranks 
 of industry. If merely to be in earnest were true godli- 
 ness, the highest merit could not be denied to most of 
 them; but so to judge would be to transform Christianity 
 into fanaticism. Some of their extravagancies would be 
 incredible, were they not testfied to by eye witnesses. 
 Such were the stylite saints, one of whom called Simeon 
 died in 459, after having lived 37 years on the top of a 
 pillar. In the west such wild extremes of asceticism 
 never met with mucli favor. For that, sometliing was 
 due to Benedict of Xursia, who in the year 529, founded 
 a. monastery on Mount Casinus in Italy, with a greatly 
 improved system of rules. That system distributed the 
 time of the'monks, in a strict and sensible way, between 
 devotion, study and manual labor : and for several gene- 
 rations its working was enforced with more than military 
 severity. The rule of Benedict was the true foundation 
 of western monasticism, as distinguished from the eastern. 
 
 And yet we must not include all the ascetics of the 
 east under one indiscriminate censure. Among them 
 are to be found cases, like that of Isidore of Pelusium, 
 marked by true scriptural faith and warm love to the 
 Savior, a real hungering and thirsting after righteous- 
 ness. 
 
 It was in 534 and 535 that the arms of Belisarius 
 overthrew the Arian Vandals in Africa and Sicily, and 
 gave freedom to the Ortliodox. A similar service was 
 done for Italy in the final defeat of the Gothic Kingdom 
 there, in 553. 
 
 Id 496 Clovis King of the Franks, induced by the 
 entreaties of his queen, a Burgundian princess, and cer- 
 tain circumstances of his life, assumed the profession of 
 Christianity. A great number of his people followed his 
 
84 
 
 example immediately. His sister and three thousand of 
 his army were baptized on the same occasion, and came 
 into the church professino^ the orthodox faith. In 596, 
 a mission from Rome, sent out by Gregory I., to the 
 Anglo-saxons in England, planted itself in Kent, where 
 it met with favor from kingEthelbert, through the influ- 
 ence of his wife, who was a Frank. 
 
 In receiving the title universal, the bishop of Rome 
 enjoyed the imperial gift of the highest honor as a min- 
 ister of religion. It was an empty honor. Because the 
 Byzantine Patriarch never withdrew his pretension, and 
 the eastern church never admitted that of Rome ; but it 
 was a ground whereon every ettbrt to reach a real eccle- 
 siastical monarchy could be justified. To that rank the 
 Roman hierarch had risen by several successive steps. 
 First, that in which he was pastor of one congregation ; 
 second, that in which he was the presiding officer of sev- 
 eral congregations ministered to by presbyters ; third, in 
 the process of church extension, and annexation of mission 
 and other congregations in neighljoring towns, whose 
 ministers were bishops, he became the chief bishop over 
 some other bishops, their Primus ; fourth, under the con- 
 stitution of Constantine, he received the importance 
 assigned to bishops in the chief cities of Prefectures, be- 
 coming thereby one of the four great metropolitans ; fifth, 
 when their rank, with that of the bishop of Jerusalem, 
 was recognized under the title of patriarch, as superior 
 to that of the exarchs of dioceses, at the Council of Chal- 
 cedon, the patriarchs of Rome and of Constantinople 
 .were assigned a higher honor than the other patriarchs; 
 and sixth, when both these dignitaries aimed at being 
 soverei'gn, the title of that rank first conferred by impe- 
 rial favor upon the Bj'zantine Patriarch, was subsequently 
 by the same authority transferred to the Roman. That 
 the jurisdiction of the latter subsequently increased, and 
 that of the former diminished, was du(! to other than 
 ecclesiastical causes. That growth was a natural devel- 
 opment. No stage of it, except the last, was a precon- 
 certed imposition upon the church, although unjustifiable 
 means were sometimes used to sustain them all when once 
 reached. The}- successively grew naturally out of original 
 mistakes, in adopting certain principles from the muni- 
 
85 
 
 cipal idea in the heart of the civil government ; especially 
 tlie method of church extension, and in admitting of only- 
 one bishop in one city. 
 
 During the frequent invasions of Ital}- in the tifth and 
 sixth centuries and the separation of Rome from other 
 dominions of the empire, tlie bishop of that city had often 
 to take upon himself the execution of civil duties, not 
 from ambition, but from the necessities of the case. His 
 office thereby became, in course of time, associated with 
 civil authority, although only incidentally. The preten- 
 sion that it has always been from the days of the apostles 
 what it is now, or rather what it was in the thirteenth 
 century, is clearly and positively contradicted by history. 
 
 In the course of the fifth century we enter upon the 
 period of time commonly called the middle ages. Its 
 true limits are on one side, the extinction of the western 
 empire, in 476, and on the other, the taking of Constan- 
 tinople by the Turks, in 1453. That is, politically con- 
 sidered, the middle ages are those which intervened be- 
 tween the termination of the western empire and that of 
 the eastern. During all that time there is an emperor in 
 the east; but during most of it, none in the west; and 
 only for brief periods, one whose authority extended over 
 Rome. The bishops accordingly, who would otherwise 
 have been second, became first in government from that 
 city : while at Constantinople, the bishop continued to be 
 a subject of the emperor. Still, the superiority of the 
 popes over the civil rulers in the west was never admitted 
 by the latter, when strong enough to resist it. 
 
 In taking a general view of the middle ages, we shall 
 find first a process of dissolution, extending to all the 
 structure of civilization ; secondly, a process of settlement 
 of new peoples, and by new methods; and tliirdly, a pro- 
 cess of growth, in a new style of culture. 
 
 The middle ages are not all equally dark ages. 
 Gloomiest, I think, are the latter years of the fifth century, 
 the sixth, the seventh, most of the eighth, the whole of 
 the tenth and first half of the eleventh. 
 
 At the beginning of the seventh century, the popu- 
 larity of christian profession was at its highest. Heathen- 
 ism had long ago become utterly unfashionable, within 
 the bounds of what had once been the empire; and was 
 
86 
 
 fast nieltino; away before tlie outward progress of at least 
 nominal Cliristianity, in all directions. We may con- 
 template the church, at that date, as consisting of three 
 grand divisions ; first, the Latin Cliurch, comprehending 
 all the soutliwest of Europe, and north of Africa; second, 
 the Greek Churcli; and third, the Oriental Churches, con- 
 sisting of the two great divisions of Monophysite, and 
 Nestorian, extending over all north eastern Africa, and 
 western Asia, and as far east as India and China. Never 
 perhaps did the pride of power, of pervasive and all- 
 absorbing popularity so fill the mind of the church. That 
 success had not been attained without earnestness and 
 truth of faith; but unhappily also with the introduction 
 of many an error through the haste to be great, and to 
 have nations born in a day. 
 
 IV. 607—752. 
 
 Humiliation of the Eastern Churches. Increasing 
 Power of the Western Patriarchate. 
 
 The period intervening between the death of Boni- 
 face III., and the accession of Stephen II., that is; from 
 607 until 752, includes another stage in tlie development 
 of Papalism. The former date is that of the death of 
 the first bishop of Rome, who enjoyed the title of uni- 
 versal, the latter is that of the accession of the first who 
 took his place as a temporal prince. Moreover it was a 
 time of great adversity to the church. Both of the chief 
 patriarchs suftered diminution of jurisdiction, but the 
 ♦ eastern most. 
 
 Khosru king of Persia, who had been restored to his 
 throne by the aid of the emperor Mauritius, now prepared 
 to take vengeance upon Phocas for the death of his ben- 
 efactor. But ere his army could reach Constantinople, 
 Heraclius exarch of Africa, in 610, had seized the gov- 
 ernment and put Phocas -to death. Khosru continued 
 his march until he reached the Bosphorus, and retained 
 for twelve years his hold upon Asia Minor. Heraclius 
 finally, by an invasion of Persia, compelled him to return. 
 By so long a war both Persia and the empire were 
 weakened. 
 
 Meanwhile, about 611, Mohammed began to teach 
 his doctrines in Mecca. His object was to overthrow 
 
87 
 
 idolatry, and restore the^worsliip of the one unseen God 
 of his father Abraham. The different portions of his 
 system were announced from time to time, as occasion 
 called them forth, and combined in one book after his 
 death. 
 
 Mohammed did not receive Christ as the eternal son 
 of God ; but as a divine teacher, and the greatest of the 
 prophets, and as miraculously born of the Virgin Mary. 
 He also believed in Christ's divinely appointed death, 
 resurrection and ascension, and taught that all should 
 believe in him as the apostle of God ; but not to accept 
 him as a sufficient Savior. 
 
 It was the deplorable corruption of tlie eastern church, 
 not so much in doctrine, as in life and worship, and es- 
 pecially its practical idolatry, which lent the single, but 
 sublime truth of Mohammedanism its early power. 
 
 Little progress, however, was made by Mohammed in 
 obtaining converts until he was constrained by persecu- 
 tion in Mecca, to flee to Medina. This event which 
 occurred on the 15th of July, 622, is the starting point of 
 the Mohammedan era. From that date his notoriety 
 increased, and converts multiplied, and attached them- 
 selves to his cause with great enthusiasm. At first he 
 used only persuasion ; latterly he received authority to 
 compel assent to his doctrines by force of arms. Pie died 
 in 632, asserting that God had given the world to be 
 conquered for Islam. That very year the arms of his 
 followers were carried beyond the bounds of Arabia. 
 
 The successors of Mohammed in office were called 
 Kalifs. The first was Abubeker. In his reign of two 
 ^•ears he reduced all the countries between the Euphrates 
 and the Mediterranean sea. In 636, the last of the impe- 
 rial troops were driven out of Syria. Next year Jerusa- 
 lem was taken. Egypt was reduced in 640, the 
 greater part of northern Africa in 647, and Persia in 651. 
 By that date Mohammedan conquest had extended to the 
 opposite extremes of Armenia and Nubia. It took in 
 also Cyprus and Rhodes, and advanced against Constan- 
 tinople, which was saved by the use of the Greek fire. 
 From Mauritania it passed into Spain, overran almost all 
 the Peninsula, crossed the Pyrenees into the heart of 
 France, and met its first check in the valley of the Loire, 
 
88 
 
 in 732, from the army of the pranks under command 
 of Charles Martel. 
 
 Thus, within one hundred yeaiv-^, the christian church 
 was overrun, and trampled down in Arabia, Persia, S^yria, 
 Esrypt, Northern Africa, part of Asia Minor, and the 
 greater part of tlie Spanish peninsula. The Patriarchate 
 of Constantinople was shorn of a large part of its juris- 
 diction ; that of Rome, if we count in her claims to north 
 Africa, was diminished by nearly one half, those of 
 Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria, were entirely re- 
 duced to dependencies of the Saracen, and the Nestorian 
 churches of tlie further east were overwhelmed, and for 
 centuries, many of them forever, disappeared from his- 
 tory. 
 
 Of what remained under christian dominion, in Italy, 
 the Greek exai-chate gradually broke down before the 
 increasing strength of the Lombards, until in 752, it came 
 entire!}' into their possession. During the period of its 
 existence the capital had been Kavenna. Rome was only 
 the head of an inferior province of the Greek empire, 
 of which the bishop was the chief authority, a serious dimi- 
 nution of jurisdiction, but combined with circumstances, 
 which ultimately went to enhirge it. Christian Spain 
 was not crushed; but laid under domination of an anti- 
 christian power. In- France, the military chiefs had as- 
 sumed to a great degree the control of the church. In 
 Northern Africa Christianity was not extinguished, but, it 
 was prostrated under the k^aracenic rule, without hope 
 of relief. 
 
 The churches of the west in view of such danger and 
 loss, turned their eyes with the more interest to their 
 religious chief at the old capital. Rome, now feeble, still 
 possessed a great inheritance of prestige, the superiority 
 of a thousand years, the source of empire in the west, of 
 religious observances, many of which had come down to 
 christian, from heathen times. The title, and rank of 
 sovereign pontiff, which had been Avorn b_y the heathen 
 emperors as chiefs of the old state religion, and also by 
 the first christian emperors, was now assumed by the 
 bishop of Rome. Still the churches in Spain, Gaul and 
 Britain had little connection with that patriarchal capital, 
 being governed by their owm episcopal authorities in 
 relation to the civil powers under which they lived. 
 
89 
 
 The pope was still a subject of the eastern emperor, 
 and had to be confirmed in oflice by him, and to pay him 
 taxes. And sometimes the imperial hand fell heavily 
 upon a refractory pope. Such an act was always treas- 
 ured up in memory and handed down to succeeding 
 Popes for payment. And ever}' advantage secured was 
 thence forward claimed as a right. Thus, Pope Sergius 
 rejected the canons of the secc^nd council in Trullo, 692. 
 Tlie emperor, Justinian II., sent an officer to arrest him ; 
 but the pope escaped through an insurrection in Ravenna. 
 The emperor was deposed in 695, for reasons uncon- 
 nected with the church, but the victory remained with 
 the Papacy. Justinian XL, after his restoration in 705, 
 received Pope Constantine in his capital, overloaded him 
 with extravagant honors, and set the example, of kissing 
 his foot. 
 
 As the weight of tlie empire continued to diminish in 
 Italy, the popes began to turn their eyes towards an alli- 
 ance with tlie Frank leaders. Gregory III., applied to 
 Charles Martel, the hero of Poitiers, for that protection 
 against the Lombards, which liis own monarch was una- 
 ble to furnish. Gregory III. was followed by Zacharias 
 in 741, in whose pontificate the polic_y of Gregory became 
 a necessity. From the utter failure of the secular arm 
 to defend Rome, the Pope was constrained to take upon 
 himself entirely that state business, which his predeces- 
 sors had long been more or less sustaining. Pepin, the 
 son of Charles Martel in 751 usurped the throne of 
 France, and applied to the Pope for his sanction. It was 
 given. Pepin was anointed King, and the last Merovin- 
 gian went into a cloister. Zacharias died earl}' next year. 
 His successor was Stephen 11. The Lombards were 
 making war upon the exarchate of Ravenna. Before the 
 end of the year they had reduced it. They next turned 
 their arms against Rome. Stephen applied to the new 
 King of France for aid. In the name of the empire, and 
 as defender of its territory, Pepin led his forces into Ital}', 
 defeated the Lombards and saved Rome. Taking from 
 the Lombards what they had recently conquered from 
 the emperor, he gave it to the pope. The districts con- 
 tained in that gift constituted the skeleton of what was 
 afterwards embraced under the name of the States of the 
 
90 
 
 church. Thus the Pope took his place as a secular 
 prince. He liad also allied himself with a new and power- 
 ful dynasty in the west, whose influence was exerted to 
 bring the Galilean church into closer relations to Rome. 
 A point of authority was also establislied, in that the first 
 king of the new dynasty had solicited papal sanction, 
 and accepted anointment at the hands of the Pope. The 
 Papacy was put into possession of great wealth. Alle- 
 giance to the emperor was still recognized, but it had 
 ceased to be more than nominal. 
 
 During this period the principal theological question 
 was that concerning the singleness or duality of will in 
 Christ. 
 
 When the emperor Heracliuswas in Syria, from 622, 
 he became acquainted more intimately with the condi- 
 tion of the Monophysites, and was persuaded that the 
 principal obstacle to their returning into the Catholic 
 church might be removed, by a statement of doctrine 
 representing the nature of Christ as two-fold, but the will 
 as one. Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople was con- 
 sulted on the subject, and expressed his opinion that such 
 a view was not inconsistent with the creed of the church. 
 Several theologians of the east coincided with him. 
 Cyrus patriarch of Alexandria accepted the doctrine, and 
 made some progress in reconciling the two |)artie8 within 
 his diocese. Action to that effect was taken by a council 
 in Alexandria, in 633. But Sophronius, a clearer think- 
 ing Palestinian monk, happened to be there at the time, 
 and declared his opposition. He became patriarch of 
 Jerusalem next year, and used his increased influence 
 to promote the rising excitement of controvers3^ Sergius 
 of Constantinople succeeded in enlisting Honorius, bishop 
 of Rome, on his side. Thus the Patriarchs of Constan- 
 tinople, of Rome and of Alexandria were arrayed on the 
 Monothelite side, against the Patriarch of Jerusalem. 
 Sophronius however had the advantage of his opponents 
 in point of logic, and his "reasoning soon convinced the 
 greater number of theologians. But he was silenced by 
 the Mohammedans, into whose hands he and his patri- 
 archate fell in 637. He died soon after. Next year, the 
 emperor finding that instead of harmony, only greater 
 division of opinion was produced by his doctrine, issued 
 
91 
 
 what he called the Ecthesis^ prepared by Sergius, with 
 the hope of allaying the exciteraeiit. In that proclama- 
 tion he stated the doctrine of one Christ in two natures, 
 and that the one Christ works both what is divine and 
 what is human ; but urged that the phrases expressive of 
 one energy or of two energies, which had been used in 
 controversy, should be avoided. Both parties- were dis- 
 satisfied. Succeeding bishops of Rome rejected the 
 JEdhesis, and in the east orthodoxy was abl}" defended by 
 the monk Maximus, while Theodore bishop of Pharan 
 in Arabia upheld tlie cause of the Monothelites. In 648 
 the emperor Constans II. issued an edict called the Tj'pus, 
 {tuttui;) by which the Ectliesis was revoked, and without 
 taking the part of either side, an attempt was made to 
 restrain violent disputes, and effect peace in the church. 
 Of course it did not succeed. Pope Martin I. called a 
 council in Rome, the first Lateran, the next year, at 
 which twenty canons were drawn up condemning Mono- 
 thelitism, thereby putting himself in opposition to the 
 imperial policy. For that he wa^, .in 653, arrested, 
 deposed, and taken to Constantinople, on charge of high 
 treason. He was banished, 654, to Chersonesus in the 
 Crimea, where he soon afterwards died. 
 
 Maximus met with a similar, but severer fate. His 
 trial effecting no disposition in him to comply with the 
 imperial edict, he was imprisoned several j^ears, then 
 publicly scourged, his tongue cut out, and his right hand 
 cut ott"; after which he was banished to the country of 
 the Lazians, where he died, in 662. 
 
 As another means of reconcilino- the lono; standing 
 dispute, the emperor Constantine IV. called a general 
 council to meet at Constantinople, in 680. It assembled 
 in a hall of the palace called Trullus. The emperor pre- 
 sided. The doctrine of two wills was accepted as script- 
 ural; that is, that in Christ there are two natures in one 
 person; each nature possessing a will of its own ; and 
 the Monothelite doctrine of two natures in one person, 
 with only one will, was condemned. 
 
 Under the emperor Philippicus Bardanes, 711 — 713 
 the controversy was revived, in the east, but for only a 
 short time. Monothelites diminished in number, and 
 ultimately became limited to a small dissenting party 
 
92 
 
 who residins^ chiefly in the reijion of Lebanon, chose a 
 patriarch of Antioch for themselves. Their remnant 
 still survives under the name of Maronites. 
 
 It was probabl}' during the seventh century that the 
 Symbolum Quicnmque, erroneously called the Athana- 
 sian Creed was framed, taking its origin in Spain. It is 
 the third of the old Catholic Symbols, the Apostles' 
 Creed and the Xiceno-Constantinopolitan being the first 
 and second. 
 
 In outward progress of the church the most impor- 
 tant steps were those of mission work in the British isles. 
 
 Augustine with Laurentius and other Benedictine 
 monks, sent by Gregory I. to the Anglo-Saxons, landed 
 on the coast of Kent in 597. Their success proved to be 
 great beyond expectation. The king of Kent soon pro- 
 fessed himself a christian, and was followed by his peo- 
 ple, ten thousand of whom were baptized in one day. 
 Canterbury was constituted an archbishopric, and Augus- 
 tine its first incumbent, in 604. At the end of five years, 
 he was succeeded by his companion Laurentius ; and the 
 work went on prosperously. 
 
 The latter years of the sixth century and the seventh 
 were marked by great missionary zeal on the part of 
 British christians of the older connection. The church 
 in the south of Scotland was early cut otf from Rome, 
 by the withdrawal of Roman troops further south, long 
 before they w^ere entirely removed from the island. Sub- 
 sequent interposition of heathen Saxons increased that 
 isolation. About the year 430, the gospel was carried 
 from the south of Scotland into the north of Ireland by 
 Patricius. Others had preceded him, yet so far superior 
 was the success which attended the preaching of Patri- 
 cius, that Ireland refers the planting of her church entireh' 
 to him. It was in the counties Down and Armagh that he 
 commenced his labors, which soon extended to all the 
 north, and thence, by the hands of others the gospel was 
 carried to the rest of the island. Armagh was subse- 
 quently constituted the seat of primacy for Ireland. 
 
 From about the middle of the sixth century, the Irish 
 clergy were distinguished for learning superior to the age 
 in other quarters, and for missionary zeal. Their princi- 
 pal school and centre of operations w^as Bangor, in the 
 
93 
 
 county Down. About 563, Cokimba left Ireland to carry 
 the gospel into the northwest of Scotland, where it had 
 not then been preached. With his companions he was 
 favorably received by a chief of the Hebrides, who gave 
 him the island of lona. There he erected a church, and 
 a house for himself and his missionaries, who from that 
 centre extended their excursions to various parts of the 
 mainland and neighboring islands. In 635, Oswald king 
 of IS^orthumbria, obtained a missionary from lona to 
 preach within his dominions, and gave him for residence 
 the island of Lindisfarne. The success of that mission 
 was rapid, and churches were soon planted as f.xr south 
 as Yorkshire and even in the centre of England. At 
 the same time tlie I^omish missions from the south were 
 rapidly advancing northward. In the conflict of authori- 
 ties which ensued, the power of lona could not withstand 
 that from Rome. The churches of the northern mission 
 were, before the end of the seventh century, compre- 
 hended within the jurisdiction of the southern. Lindis- 
 farne became a Romish monastery, and its episcopal 
 authority was transferred to Durham. York was the 
 seat of an archbishopric ; but Canterbury was lionored 
 with the primacy of all England. Articles enforcing 
 obedience of the churches in the north of England to the 
 Romish practices were proposed by Theodore of Canter- 
 bury in a provincial council for the north, in 674. 
 
 It was also in the early part of the seventh century 
 that Columbanus and Gallus left Ireland at the head of 
 another little group of missionaries to preach in Bur- 
 gundy, France and Switzerland. Columbanus died in 
 615 and Gallus in 627. 
 
 V. 752—880. 
 
 Resettlement. Early Papal Success. Organization 
 OF THE National Churches of the West. 
 
 Leagued with the great Carolingian kings of France, 
 the Papacy now entered upon the first period of its real 
 supremacy in the west. That period extends from the 
 pontificate of Stephen II., until 880, the date of the dif- 
 ference, which was never reconciled, between the Pope 
 and the Patriarch, and the beginning of the medieval de- 
 
94 
 
 cline of tlie Papacy. Another feature of the time was 
 the settlement of the new nations, the chief work of 
 Charlemagne, who also forced npon his heathen suhjccts 
 the profession of Christianity, by having them baptized. 
 
 It was witliin the same period that the Iconoclast con- 
 troversy ran the most exciting part of its course. By 
 the beginning of the seventh century the worship of im- 
 ages had become common throughout the church both 
 east and west. Opposition to it was the strong point of 
 Mohammedanism, A few intelligent christians also per- 
 ceived its unchristian character; but the greater number 
 were devotedly attached to their images. In 726, the 
 emperor, Leo Isauricus issued an edict forbidding the 
 practice; and in 730 he ordered the images or pictures 
 to be destroyed. The opposition of German us, patriarch 
 of Constantino})le, was overcome by deposing him, and 
 setting up Anastasius. Rome defended the worship of 
 images. And Catholic christians under Mohammedan 
 rule adhered to the practice as a distinctive badge of their 
 religion. 
 
 The course of the Emperor Leo was also pursued by 
 his successor Constantine, in whose reign the council of 
 754, at Constantinople, condemned the worship of im- 
 ages, but not to the satisfaction of the Cathofic public, 
 nor of the bishop of Rome, who did not recognize the 
 council. A new stage of the controversy opened, the im- 
 perial authorit}- being generally arraj-ed against images, 
 and the popes in favor of them, until in the minority of 
 the Emperor Constantine VI., his mother Irene became, 
 in 780, empress regent, and sustained the cause of the 
 image-worshipers. Irene called a general council to 
 meet at Nice, in 787, which, witli her support, declared 
 image-worship to be orthodox, and defined and prescribed 
 the practice. That council is accepted by both east and 
 west Catholic churches, and remains their authority on 
 the subject. 
 
 The controversy was opened a third time by the Em- 
 peror Leo V. who, in 813, called a council at Constanti- 
 nople, in which image-worship was condemned. But 
 finally, when another empress came into power, namely 
 Theodora, a fourth council, convoked at Constantinople, 
 in 842, sustained the image-worshipers, confirming tlie 
 
95 
 
 second council ofNice. And the controversy' closed with 
 a grand festival in honor of that decision, which was 
 called the festival of orthodoxy. 
 
 In the west, during part of the eighth century, sonne 
 controversy was created by the opinions of two Spanish 
 bishops, Elipand of Toledo, and Felix of Urgel, that 
 Christ in his divine nature was the true Son of God, but 
 as a man, only the adopted son. The opinion was re- 
 jected as heretical by the council at Frankfort in 794. 
 
 Transubstantiation of the elements in the Eucharist 
 was first formally taught and defended by Paschasius 
 Radbert, abbot of Corbey, from 844 to 851. Though 
 practically held by ver}- many in the church, from earlier 
 time, it encountered strong opposition, when first pro- 
 posed as a dogma, and was not accepted authoritatively, 
 nor was the term transubstantiation introduced, until 
 long afterwards. Rabanus Maurus, John Scot Erigena 
 and Ratramnus, the ablest theologians of the ninth cen- 
 tury, all wrote against it. 
 
 Controversy was revived on the subject of predesti- 
 nation b}' the writings of Gottschalk, a monk of Fulda, 
 who from about 840 taught that there is a two-fold pre- 
 destination of the elect to blessedness, and of the rest of 
 mankind to punishment. He was opposed by Rabanus 
 Maurus, Archbishop of Mentz, and Hincmar, Archbishop 
 of Rheims. After year.« of controversy, Gottschalk was 
 condemned to imprisonment, in which he died, in 868. 
 
 A controversy concerning the procession of the Holy 
 Spirit had more immediate etfect upon the history of the 
 church. The cre6d of the general councils states that the 
 Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. A conviction, 
 which appeared first in Spain, in the acts of a council at 
 Toledo, in 589, and again in other Spanish councils of the 
 seventh century, that He proceeds from both the Father 
 and the Son, was, sometime in the early part of the ninth 
 century, introduced into the Latin version of the Creed. 
 The proposal to insert it in the original Greek was re- 
 jected by the council of Constantinople in 879. On the 
 subject of Jilioque, the eastern and western Catholic church 
 established a permanent difference of opinion. 
 
 In Armenia, Parsism became blended with Christian- 
 ity, giving rise to that sect called by other Christians 
 
96 
 
 " The children of the sun." " On the other liaiid a class 
 of reformers arose in the east, about the middle of the 
 seventh century, who sought to conform closely to the 
 teachings of the apostles, especially of John and Paul. 
 From the frequent use among them of the name and 
 writings of the last mentioned, it is thought, they re- 
 ceived the name Paulicians, by which they are known. 
 Their leaders, in many cases, assumed the names of per- 
 sons connected with Paul in his labors. They suffered 
 ranch persecution. Constantine, who took the name 
 Silvanus, an eminent teacher among them, in the neighbor- 
 hood of Samosata, between 657 and 684, was stoned to 
 death by order of the em})eror Constantine IV. But tlie 
 officer who executed the order became a convert to the 
 cause, and a preacher of it under the name of Titus, and 
 died at the stake under Justinian II. The Paulicians 
 were opposed to image-worsliip, and for that reason were 
 protected by the emperor Leo Isauricus. Through the 
 latter part of tlie eight century and until 811, they in- 
 creased in number, and spread their churches over Asia 
 Minor, From 811, persecution was revived and con- 
 tinued many years, especially under the rule of the zeal- 
 ous image-worshiper Theodora, from 841 to 8'')5, wMio 
 with a fanatical fury resolved to extirpate them. ]^ot 
 less than a hundred thousand of them are said to have 
 been slain in Armenia by her officers. Many of them fled 
 for refuge to the Saracens, and tirfding protection added 
 their force to the enemies of the empire. But notwith- 
 standing persecution, their converts also increased to the 
 westward, and Paulician churches were founded in Thrace 
 and Bulgaria, and thence, at a later date, their doctrines 
 spread uiider various names, into the west of Europe. 
 
 The last years of the eighth century, and earlier part 
 of the ninth, were marked by a highly laudable effort at 
 reform and restoration of learning, made by both Chris- 
 tian and Mohammedan princes. 
 
 Among the Saracens, it was the time of the great 
 Abbasside Kalifs of Bagdad, a dynasty elevated in 750, 
 at Damascus, by the cruel success of Abul Abbas, called 
 Al Safiab, Their seat of government was subsequently- 
 removed to Hashemiah, and in 762 to Bagdad, Al Man- 
 sur and Al Mahadi successively reigned after Abul 
 
97 
 
 Abbas until 785, when it readied its highest excellence 
 under Harun A) Raschid. Upon his death in 808, his 
 sons Al Amin and Al Mamun reigned successively until 
 833. From that date Bagdad began to decline, and suc- 
 ceeding barbaric invasions rendered decline irretrieva- 
 ble. 
 
 In Spain the Moors within this period began their 
 career of civilization, which they continued until the rise 
 of modern learning. 
 
 In the Greek empire, the state of culture was little 
 improved ; but one or two authors flourished there greatly 
 superior to any of the foregoing period. 
 
 In the west of Christian Europe, the effort towards 
 restoration of learning and of ecclesiastical order was 
 earnestly made, by those at the head of the civil govern- 
 ment, Pepin, Charlemagne, and Louis, from 751 to 840. 
 For the time then being, their success was not equal to 
 that of tlie Mohammedan princes; but the seeds they 
 planted bore more abundant fruit, in a far distant future. 
 The sons of Louis divided their father's dominion, and 
 enfeebled their resources ; but they also patronized let- 
 ters in some degree. With the deatli of Charles the bald 
 in 877, such patronage ceased in that quarter. But almost 
 at the same time commenced the reign of Alfred the 
 Great in England, extending from 871 until 900. 
 
 With all the encouragement of Charlemagne, the 
 improvement in learning was' very slender. Few cared 
 to study, and the course of instruction even in the im- 
 proved schools was scanty. The topics of the Trkium. 
 and Quadrwium were briefly and superficially treated. 
 The Scholars who illustrate the time were Alcuinus, 
 Eginhard, Rabanus Maurus, Ilincmar, Ratramims, John 
 Scot Erigena, and Claudius of Turin. Among the 
 Greeks the principal name is that of Photius. 
 
 For tliirty years Charlemage made war on various, 
 nations of Saxons, the Bohemians and Huns, whom he 
 subdued, and constrained to profess Christianitv, He 
 also invaded the Mohammedans of Spain, and"' drove 
 tliem from that part of the peninsula north of the Ebro. 
 In 772 he went into Italy to protect the Pope from the 
 Lombards, and before the end of two years, put an end 
 to the Lombard kingdom. And in 786, the duke of 
 
98 
 
 Benevento submitted to hold his duchy as a fief of 
 Cliarleniagne. The kingdom thus built up, before the 
 end of the eiglith century, extended from the Ebro and 
 aoutli of Italy to the Elbe and Eider in the north, and 
 from the Atlantic to Panonia, a great part of which it 
 included, and the valley of the Theis in Hungar}-. 
 
 Pope Leo III, seeing all this, determined to break off 
 the last show of allegiance to Constantinople, and con- 
 nect his office, on different terms, with the new monarcli}' 
 of the west, by reviving the western empire. On the 
 25th of December, 800, Charlemagne was at Rome in 
 the church of St. Peter. When kneeling at the altar, 
 he was approached solemnly by the Pope, who placed on 
 his head a golden crown, and pronounced him emperor 
 of Rome : and from the vast congregation burst forth 
 the exclamation, " Life and victory to Charles, crowned 
 by God emperor of Rome." 
 
 There wa^ now again an emperor of the west, and 
 Rome and the Papacy were finally scDarated from the 
 emperors of the east, and from the Byzantine system. 
 This is the point at which the popes became legally inde- 
 pendent. For ecclesiastical supremacy was never recog- 
 nized as belonging to the new imperial line of the west. 
 The idea of being free from civil allegiance, however, 
 did not at first occur to the successors of Leo III. But 
 not quite half a century had elapsed ere that also was 
 claimed. Eugenius II., in 824 took an oath of alle- 
 giance; but Sergius IL, in 844 ventured to neglect it, 
 advantage being taken of the divided state of the secular 
 power. And in 847 Leo IV. was not only ordained witli- 
 ont imperial sanction, but also assumed precedence of 
 princes in putting his name to documents. An attempt 
 was made by Nicholas I. in 858 to impose papal superior- 
 ity upon Constantinople. The emperor Michael III. 
 having removed the patriarch Ignatius, and appointed 
 Photius in his stead, Ignatius applied to the pope, who 
 having first in vain demanded the restoration of the eccle 
 siastical jurisdiction of Illyricum, Macedonia, Epirus, 
 Thessaly, Achaia, and Sicilj', with the addition of Bul- 
 garia, took revenge by excommunicating Photius. Pho- 
 tius retaliated by excommunicatijig Nicholas. Ignatius 
 was restored by the succeeding emperor Basilius, 867, 
 
99 
 
 but neither of them complied witli the pope's demand. 
 A general council at Constantinople in 869, condemned 
 Photius. After the death of Ignatius in 878, Photius 
 was restored. And another council at Constantinople 
 in 879, labored to reconcile the two hierarchs, but without 
 effect. Because among other things it could not recognize 
 Rome as the last court of appeal, nor assent to the western 
 doctrine of the procession of tiie Holy Spirit, nor to the 
 claim of ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Bulgaria and 
 other provinces above named. Consequently the council 
 of 879 was anathematized by pope John VIII., in 880. 
 The bishops of tlie east and west never again met in a 
 general council of both churches. For the eastern 
 Catholic church recognizes no council as general since 
 that of 879. 
 
 With the reign of Cliarlemagne begins the true set- 
 tlement of tlie nations of western Europe, and the period 
 of dissolution comes to an end. 
 
 In the constitution of his empire, Charlemagne had 
 special regard to tlie interests of the churcli. And that 
 of Rome was tlie model which he endeavored to follow; 
 but without recognizing its supremacy. The highest 
 authority in aflairs of government was retained for the 
 monarch, who summoned ecclesiastical fs well as civil 
 as.-emblies, and whose sanction was needed to confirm 
 their decrees. And in the administration of law, bishops 
 and counts were associated, and instructed to support 
 each other. Neither Pepin nor Charlemagne, though 
 paying great honor to popes, ever allowed them any other 
 influence in affairs of state than that of advice or remon- 
 strance. Thus, the Gallican churcli obtained, in its 
 reconstruction under those great princes, a degree of free- 
 dom from papal domination, which no other western 
 church could claim. 
 
 In the reign of Louis, papal influence was suffered to 
 increase, and every advantage was taken, by the popes, 
 of the division and enfeebling ef the empire by his sons. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon church of Britain was most faith- 
 fully attached to Rome. It had no antiquity of greater 
 purity to regret. In Spain, christians living under Moor- 
 ish rule were allowed the privileges of worship, and of 
 internal church government and discipline, but suftered 
 
100 
 
 in mail}' ways from tlie Mobamniedan populace. Gothic 
 Spaniards were independent, and almost continually at 
 war witli the Moors. 
 
 Mission work was confined chiefly to the north of 
 Europe, That of Anschar, commenced in 826, carried 
 Christianity into Denmark and Sweden, and laid the 
 foundation for the archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen, 
 which was constituted in 831. And what Anschar and 
 his companions were to the northwest of Europ<i, Cyril 
 and Methodius were to the northeast. Through their 
 efforts, the Moravians were added to the eastern church, 
 about the year 862, the Bulgarians about 864; and in 
 subsequent years tlie same labors were extended to the 
 Chazars, a people living to the north of tlie Black sea. 
 From Moravia the cause was carried, in 871, into Bo- 
 hemia. 
 
 The discipline of the church had undergone achange. 
 Private confession was now completely established ; and 
 the priest was empowered to grant absolution under con- 
 dition of a penance to be performed. Excommunication 
 was not often inflicted, but from tlie civil forfeitures, and 
 the social exclusion connected with it, had become greatly 
 intensified in its terrors. 
 
 Superstitious rites and observances were greatly mul- 
 tiplied. Saints and their relics inci^eased on all hands, 
 and legends of their virtues and miracles, manufactured 
 chiefly in the east and at Rome, were greedily accepted 
 by an ignorant public everywhere. The festival of All 
 , Saints gradually grew into use in the seventh and eighth 
 centuries, and in the ninth, was regularlj^ appointed by 
 Gregory IV., for the first of November. A festival was 
 introduced in honor of the birth of the Virgin Mary on 
 the 8th of September, and for her ascension, on the 15th 
 of August. For it had now been decided that Mary was 
 taken up bodily to heaven. Certain writings were pre- 
 sented by the eastern emperor Michael II. to the western 
 emperor Louis the pious, as the works of Dionysius the 
 Areopagite. The French scholars and people, taking the 
 pretended author to be the founder of their church, 
 accepted Dionysius as their patron saint. Within the 
 same period the christian Spaniards discovered among 
 them the wonderfully preserved body of the apostle 
 
101 
 
 James the brother of our Lord, which forthwith became 
 their Palladium in war with the Moors. But every 
 conntr}', almost every fam.ily, had its patron saint, embel- 
 ished with his, or her, miracles. 
 
 In the growth of the papacy in the ninth century 
 above all that it had previously been, attempts were made 
 to fortify the ground taken, and construct the weapons 
 for conquering more by the fabrication of certain authori- 
 ties. Certain canons of councils unheard of before, and 
 forged epistles of early popes were inserted into the col- 
 lection of ecclesiastical laws, which went under the name 
 of Isidore of Seville. The}- were of a nature, if enforced, 
 to make the clergy independent of the state, with the 
 Roman see the centre of their system. They were used 
 as law from the time of Pope Nicholas I. or about 860, 
 until their exposure in the eighteenth century. Another 
 similar forgery, which came into operation within the 
 same period, was the pretended donation of Constan- 
 tine, whereby the Papacy endeavored to sustain its 
 assumption of a rank above all civil potentates and pow- 
 ers. This also continued to be adduced as legal authority 
 until exposed hx moderm criticism. 
 
 Amidst accumulating errors and corruptions there 
 were still numerous examples of pastoral iidelity and of 
 true christian life among both clergy and \ix\ty. Ago- 
 bard, bishop of Lyons, in the reign of Louis the pious, 
 finding the worship of his church debased by the super- 
 stition and ignorance of his predecessors, upon his own 
 judgment, removed from it everything inconsistent with 
 scriptural doctrine, and confined himself as much as por- 
 sible to scriptural forms of expression. A still bolder 
 reformer, in the spirit of Christ, was Claudius bishop 
 of Turin, who contended earnestly for the simplicity of 
 Christian faith, in opposition to the sensuous and idola- 
 trous practices of the age. He exerted an influence upon 
 the church of Turin which honorably distinguished it 
 long afterwards. 
 
 VI. 880—1054. 
 
 Papal Degeneracy. 
 
 In the pontificate of John VIII. the Papacy had 
 reached the prime of its early success, having succeeded 
 
, 102 
 
 in gathering together in itself all the elements of Roman- 
 ism. By the same time a long succession of emperors 
 and patriarchs in Constantinople had matured the system 
 of Byzantinism. It was impossible that they could live 
 together in harmony, diametrically opposite as they were 
 to each other. Some of the points* on which the Pope 
 and Patriarch differed in 879 and 880, were such as could 
 not be compromised. Still, they continued for one hun- 
 dred and seventy-four years, to hold relations to each 
 other as ministers in the same Catholic church, althougii 
 in a state of bitter rivalry, until in the year 1054, they 
 separated entirely, rending the Catholic church in two. 
 The intervening period is the lowest in the history of 
 civilized Europe. It is marked by papal degeneracy; 
 by the decline of the western empire, and its revival as 
 German, and by the darkest shades of popular ignorance. 
 
 1. Louis the pious having divided the empire among 
 his three sons, died in 840. His sons immediately rushed 
 into war witli each other, and made a new division, by 
 the treaty of Verdun in 843, whereby the general out- 
 lines of France and Germany were assigned. But be- 
 tween these two countries there was left a belt of terri- 
 tory, which united to the Netherlands on the north, and 
 Italy on the south was given to Lothaire with the title of 
 emperor. Germany was assigned to Louis the German, 
 and France, to Charles the bald. In 875, the whole, with 
 the imperial title, came into the hands of Charles the 
 bald. From his death in 877, the Carolingian dynasty 
 , broke downi. The German branch of it became extinct 
 in 912. Conrad of Franconia was elected emperor, but 
 died in 918. The next was Henry the Fowler of Saxony. 
 From his accession in 919, the western empire, as a 
 German power, entered a new career of prosperity, in 
 which it was carried forward chiefly by Otho I., the suc- 
 cessor of Henry, from 936 to 973. In 1024, it passed 
 again into the house of Franconia, beginning with Con- 
 rad II., followed successively by Henry III., and Henry 
 IV. The last commenced his eventful reign, as a child 
 of six years old, under the guardianship of his mother, 
 in 1056. 
 
 The Saracens from Africa, after having conquered 
 Sicily and Naples, were, in 877, threatening Rome, when 
 
103 
 
 the death of Charles the Bald deprived the Pope of his 
 strongest protector. None of the other princes were in 
 condition to help him. He bought the safety of his 
 capital bj promise of tribute : and then found himself in 
 the hands of refractory Italian princes. He took refuge 
 in France in 878. John YHI— died in 882, and was fol- 
 lowed, for nearly a hundred and seventy years, by a series 
 of popes, of whom, with only one or two exceptions: it 
 is fair to say that whatever their abilities might be, they 
 were less conspicuous than their vices. Thepapal office 
 became an object of political ambition, to which the elec- 
 tions were managed by parties among the Italian nobles. 
 From about 898,"if not earlier, the principal i)ower was 
 wielded by certain infamous women of high rank, and by 
 their descendants and kindred for a hundred years. A 
 brief interval occurred in the pontificate of Gerbert (Sil- 
 vester II.,) a good man, and the only good scholar the 
 age could boa^t, and whom it could not understand. But 
 his term of office, from 999 to 1003, was too brief to 
 apply any important check to the downward career of 
 papal his^tory. In the early part of the eleventh century 
 Rome both "ecclesiastical and civil, was under the domi- 
 nation of the noble house of Tusculum, a branch of the 
 flagitious stock to whom it had been subject in the tenth 
 century. So low had the papacy descended, that men 
 were put into it without the pretence of being clergy- 
 men. John XIX, a layman and a brother of the 
 count of Tusculum, was carried to the Papal chair, 
 in 1024, if not by purchase, at least by the political man- 
 agement of his family. He was succeeded in 1033, by 
 his nephew, Benedict IX., also a layman, for whom the 
 papal office had been purchased when he was but a boy 
 of ten years. The dissolute life of Benedict matched 
 the scandalous manner of his election. Rome endured 
 him ten years, and then in 1044, drove him from the city, 
 and set up Sylvester III. In the course of the strife 
 which ensued, Tusculum prevailed and restored Bene- 
 dict. Sylvester under excommunication betook himself 
 to flight. But the violence of parties did not cease. 
 Benedict concluded to sell his office. It was purchased 
 in 1046 by John Gratian, a priest, who took the papal 
 name of Gregory VI. Subsequently Benedict changed 
 
104 
 
 his mind, his party again rallied round him, and en- 
 throned him once more in tlie Lateran pahice. One of 
 his rivals, Gregory, held his place in the Cathedral of St, 
 Maria Maggiore, while the other, Sj'lvester, retained St. 
 Peter's and the Vatican, The streets of Rome were ijar- 
 assed by the deadly strife of their partisans. 
 
 News moved slowly in those days, and the stolidity 
 of ignorant superstition took long time to acccept the 
 conviction of an^^thing wrong in the papal court. But 
 it was now impossible that the christian public could be 
 ignorant of such a scandalous schism. It would not have 
 been well ior the church, or the world to have seen the 
 papacy submerged in sucli a way and at such a juncture. 
 The emperor Henry IIL, came from Germany to restore 
 order, and advanced to iSutri, where he called a council. 
 All three popes were cited to appear, Benedict abdi- 
 cated, the other two were deposed ; and a new pope was 
 elected from the German clergy, who took the name of 
 Clement II, Henry tlien marched to Rome and inducted 
 his pope into the papal throne, with the apparent consent 
 of the Roman clergy, and received, for liimself and his 
 queen, imperial coronation at his liands. 
 
 But it was not the emperor who Was to be the 
 reformer of the papacy. Clement's attempt to reduce the 
 irregularities of bishops and other clergy utterly failed ; 
 his council called at Rome could accomplish notliing, 
 from the gigantic extent of the evils. His pontilicate 
 was brief. He died within a ye;ir. Benedict IX took 
 occasion of the absence of any higher authority to renew 
 Tiis usurpation once more, and maintained it nine months, 
 A new party in favor of imperial interference, united in 
 an application to the emperor to nominate a pope accord- 
 ing to his own judgment. He sent them Poppo, bishop 
 of Brescia, who reigned as Damasus II,, only twenty- 
 three days. Again the vacant chair awaited the em- 
 peror's nomination. He appointed his kinsman Bruno, 
 bishop of Toul, a man of learning and humble piety. At 
 a great assembly at Worms, in presence of the delegates 
 from Rome, the emperor had Ijim invested with the 
 badges of Pontifical office. Thus the Papacy, through 
 necessities imposed by its own corruptions, was coming 
 distinct!}' under control of the secular power ; and so 
 
105 
 
 loosely had the elections been latterly conducted that the 
 secular power was needed to give them some regularity. 
 
 It was at that juncture that one of the most extraor- 
 dinary characters of the middle ages appeared. The 
 newly elected Pope was encountered at Besancon, on his 
 way to Italy, by a young monk from Cluny, who was 
 destined to wield a'^more than imperial influence over 
 him. Hildebrand was a native of Tuscany, born about 
 1020, educated in Rome, and afterwards in Cluny, where 
 the monks regarded him as a prodigy of gifts, application 
 and sanctity. His education was entirely monastic, and 
 his ideas of papal reform were drawn from the monastery. 
 About the age of twenty-four he returned to Rome, at 
 the juncture'when the strife between rival popes was the 
 fiercest, and attached himself to Gregory VI. When all 
 three popes were deposed, Hildebrand followed Gregory 
 into retirement, and after his death, returned for a short 
 time to Cluny, He had kept himself well informed of 
 the course of events in Rome; and now greatly dissatis- 
 fied with the act of investiture at Worms, he presented 
 himself, in company with Hugh Abbot of Cluny, to the 
 Pope elect at Besancon, and persuaded him to consider 
 his investiture by imperial authority null. Bruno dis- 
 missed his papal equipage, and in company with Hilde- 
 brand, pursued the rest of his journey in the manner of 
 a pilgrim. At Rome he submitted to election by the 
 clergy, and assumed the papal oflice, as Leo IX., upon 
 purely ecclesiastical investiture. 
 
 2. Bishops very generally disapproved of papal inter- 
 meddling with the domestic affairs of their dioceses. 
 From the latter part of the ninth century, the False 
 Decretals operated to bring them under that control. 
 Another means was perhaps not less effective. The 
 Popes had long been in the habit of conferring archiepis- 
 copal ofifice by giving the Pallium, or otficial robe ; and 
 from the time of Nicholas I., (858—867) that had been 
 given onl}^ on condition of the receiver taking an oath of 
 obedience to the Romish see. According to the False 
 Decretals, the Pope was universal bishop. It was by the 
 common people that, in those days, papal claims were 
 supported. They, with a superstitious reverence, con- 
 ceived that the Pope exercised the powers of divine law, 
 
106 
 
 and were ready to submit to hira, rather than to any au- 
 thority, which they deemed merely human. 
 
 The metropolitans, or archbishops of the west, gradu- 
 ally brought under papal dominion, were also connected 
 in other relations with the civil government. In the 
 temporalities of their sees, they were involved in the 
 generally prevailing feudal system, their tenants being 
 feudally dependant on them, and they feudally related to 
 the monarch. They had to take the oath of allegiance 
 to him, and to receive from him investiture in their 
 estates and civil honors. Thus were planted the seeds 
 of quarrel between the royal and papal authorities. 
 
 It inevitably followed that numbers of ambitious per- 
 sons obtained liigh places in the church through royal 
 favor or political mancEuvring or by money. Inferior 
 places of course went the same way ; and simony became 
 a prevailing vice of the clergy. 
 
 3. The ministrations of the church conducted b^' such 
 men had ceased to contain instruction. Preaching in 
 most places was obsolete. The service was|in Latin ; and 
 that was no longer spoken or understood by the people. 
 Religion itself became a dead language to the greater 
 number,— a mere system of observances and repetition 
 of chanted or mumbled sounds. 
 
 4. The monasteries, in which piety and intelligence 
 did find some refuge, were always difficult to regulate. 
 Houses on the system of Benedict, after many fluctua- 
 tions, before the beginning of the tenth century, had all 
 degenerated. Monks had become irregular, idle and dis- 
 'solute. As a measure of reform — the only reform belong- 
 ing to the tenth century, — the convent of Cluny was 
 founded in 910 by William of Aquitaine. The rules of 
 Benedict were there revived and some were added, espe- 
 cially by the second abbot Odo, who by the strictness of 
 his discipline secured for his convent a reputation of emi- 
 nent sanctity. After its example, other monasteries were 
 founded or reformed, and its abbots were sometimes 
 invited elsewhere for that purpose. The association of 
 monasteries, looking to Cluny as their exemplar, was 
 spoken of as the Oongregatio Cltouacensis, and its abbots 
 sometimes, as archabbots. Many persons who were not 
 monks so connected themselves with them as to be 
 
107 
 
 allowed, according to the then prevailing ideas, a "share 
 in the spiritual blessing of the brotherhood," and were 
 called Fratres Oonscripti, or Confratres. Oluny was 
 assigned to the immediate care of the pope. In that 
 respect also many other monasteries followed its example. 
 
 5. The reign of ignorance and superstition continued. 
 God was concealed from the view of worshipers b}^ a 
 multitude of saints held up for adoration in his stead. 
 Every place of worship was supplied with their relics, 
 which were bought and sold for their miraculous virtues. 
 And popular instruction, consisted almost solely of 
 legends designed to set off such wares. The Virgin 
 Mary was honored most of all. Saturday was set apart 
 to her, and a daily office introduced in her worship. 
 
 The Lord Jesus Christ was not entirely left out of 
 view, but together with other persons of the Godhead 
 was put at a" great distance otf, when he was not repre- 
 sented as a child or a corpse. Access to him as God was 
 held to be through his mother. 
 
 In doctrine, the church still professed the creed of the 
 general councils ; practically, reliance for salvation rested 
 upon good works, penance and the intercession of the 
 Virgin Mary and the saints. By good works were under- 
 stood works of mercy, but also, to a great extent, acts of 
 asceticism, or of attendance on formal observances, or 
 donations to the church. Penances were now reduced 
 to a system, regulated by written rules. It was an act of 
 great merit to exceed those rules, by voluntary infliction. 
 It was now practically admitted that pardon of sin could 
 be granted by the priest, upon confession to him, and 
 compliance with the penance imposed. Excommunica- 
 tion, as a means of coercion, now reached its extremest 
 severity ; and was carried to its widest application, in the 
 form of the interdict. 
 
 A signal confession of judicial incapacity was implied 
 in trial by ordeal, a heathen custom introduced from Ger- 
 many, and now superintended by the clergy; of similar 
 nature was that of trial by battle, the most degenerate 
 effects of which have lasted longest. 
 
 One institution of the time for which the clergy 
 deserve credit was the Truce of God, au attempt to put 
 
108 
 
 some check, though only partial and brief, upon the pre- 
 valence of private wars. 
 
 Popularly it was believed tliat all things were sinking 
 towards dissolution, and that the world would come to an 
 end in the year 1000 after Christ. 
 
 The very missionary enterprises of the time partook 
 of its wild half heathenish charactei". In Norway Chris- 
 tianity was established by force of arms. By the same 
 means it obtained the mastery in Bohemia and was forced 
 upon the Wends by the German Empire, upon the Hun- 
 garians by their Kings, and upon the Russians by their 
 Grand Duke. That the gospel of Christ survived such 
 extravagant misrepresentation is almost miraculous, and 
 due chiefly to the preservation of the written Word, and 
 the fact that there was always somewhere a remnant true 
 to the spirit of its instructions. 
 
 6. In order to a just apprehension of the church in 
 the Middle Ages, it is important to distinguish between 
 the church and the hierarchy, and in the hierarchy itself, 
 between the episcojial authorities and the papal. 
 
 The church of God was oppressed, crushed beneath 
 the weight of powers which had assumed to govern it, 
 and were making their gain thereby; but it was never 
 extinguished. Prevented from demonstrating itself out- 
 wardly in any proper organic form, it existed in the 
 hearts of individuals and in their spiritual sympathy and 
 understanding with one another, in as far as they had any 
 knowledge of each other's faith. In that state of things 
 ;a pious clergyman or prince was of great service in giv- 
 ing centralization to some extent to the scattered piety 
 of the christian Avorld. The most conspicuous example 
 of that kind, within the period of which we are now 
 speaking, was that of Alfred, King of England, with his 
 immediate successors, Edward and Athelstane. Alfred 
 was king from 871 to 900, and his son and grandson suc- 
 cessively maintained his improvements until 940. Sub- 
 sequently England was harassed by Danish invasion, 
 under which state and church alike suffered a new and 
 deeper depression, until all England, came under the rule 
 of the Danish king Canute. A brief attempt at better 
 government by that wise monarch was followed by new 
 
109 
 
 disorders, until the kingdom was overwhelmed by the 
 Norman conquest, in 1066. 
 
 7. In the same year in which Leo IX. died, 1054, all 
 intercourse between the eastern and western catholic 
 churches came to an end. A letter from the patriarch of 
 Constantinople to a friend, commenting on the errors and 
 abuses of the west, was responded to with great bitter- 
 ness. Papal delegates were sent to Constantinople who 
 attempted to treat the Patriarch as a subject of the Pope. 
 Their pretensions were not allowed. They laid an act 
 of excommunication upon the great altar of St. Sophia, 
 to which the patriarch responded with an anathema, 
 And thus, on the 16th of July, 1054, the two great hie- 
 rarchs parted forever. 
 
 8. It was at the same juncture, when the Popes 
 entirely separated from the eastern church, that they 
 began to adopt those measures of policy which eventuated 
 in maturing the Papal system, and in carrying it to a 
 real domination over the west. The next period is that 
 of the highest papal prosperity. 
 
 VII. 1054—1305. 
 
 The Revived Papacy Reaches the Summit of its 
 
 Prosperity. 
 
 In the year 1054, upon the death of Leo IX., Hilde- 
 brand first undertook to manage the papal elections. 
 The policy of his adoption continued, in the main, suc- 
 cessful until the quarrel with the King of France, which 
 issued in removal of the papal residence to Avignon, in 
 1305. The interval is a true historical period possessing 
 features of its own, to be found no where else. It pre- 
 sents the maturity of the Papacy, within which that sys- 
 tem exercised the highest and widest authority it was 
 ever permitted to wield. Secondly, it was the time of 
 controversy between the German Emperors and the 
 Popes. A third feature was the scholastic theology; a 
 fourth, the Crusades; and a fifth, the progressive quick- 
 ening of intellect, as manifested in the increase of dis- 
 senting religious sects, incipiencj' of popular song, and 
 rise and progress of schools and universities. 
 
 1. During the pontificate of Leo IX., Hildebrand, 
 
110 
 
 now a cardinal subcleacon, improved everv opportunity 
 to increase his influence; and succeeded in putting him- 
 self at the head of a party seeking to correct abuses in 
 the church, which had long been found incorrigible. 
 Three objects he had in view; first the removal of Simon}^ 
 and lay interference in church matters ; second, to repress 
 the immorality of the clergy, and third to bind all the 
 elements of the papacy into such a system as to realize 
 the supremacy to which it aspired. A grand conception 
 tliat of a dominion constructed, by means of a perfectly 
 organized hierarchy, upon the basis of religion and 
 morals, and subordinating to itself all the other powers 
 and dignities of earth, but it had only a mechanical rela- 
 tion to the kingdom of Clirist. It was not entirely new. 
 It had certainly been entertained by some of the gifted 
 popes of the ninth century. But Hildebrand recognized 
 and retrieved its elements from the degradation to which 
 they had been reduced in a long career of papal profli- 
 gacy, and reconstructed them, under the most favorable 
 circumstances, with the greatest effect. 
 
 Execution of the design began with enforcing the 
 celibacy of the clergy; and much to that end was done 
 by Leo IX.; but the pivot of the whole was in the papal 
 elections, which Hildebrand never suffered to escape 
 from his control. By application to the emperor he 
 obtained the appointment of the candidate of his choice 
 as successor to Leo. Gebhardt bishop of Eichstadt, an 
 influential counsellor of the emperor, and centre of an 
 antipapal party in the north, was a manifold gain to the 
 cause of papal reform. He assumed the name of 
 Victor 11. , and continued in office until his death in 
 1057. Meanwhile in 1056 the Emperor Henry III. died, 
 leaving his oldest son, a child of six years, under the 
 regency of the Empress. In those circumstances, the 
 reforming party had no difficult}- in electing their own 
 candidate, who took the name Stephen IX. During 
 Hildebrand's absence from Rome, Stephen died ; and the 
 opposite party elected Benedict X. Hildebrand, on his 
 return succeeded in reversing that action, and in setting 
 up Nicholas 11. Under Nicholas a law was enacted to 
 regulate papal elections, ordaining that the pope should 
 be elected from the cardinals, and by the college of car- 
 
Ill 
 
 dinals. At this juncture the reforming party secured 
 the support of the Normans, who had recently taken 
 possession of Naples and Sicily. 
 
 When Nicholas II. died, in 1061, the pope elected by 
 the opposing party with the sanction of the empress was 
 constrained to give place to Alexander II. elected by the 
 cardinals alone. In 1073, after the death of Alexander, 
 the choice of the cardinals fell upon Hildebrand who took 
 the name Gregory VII. The young emperor Henry IV. 
 was now on the throne. Pope Alexander had excom- 
 municated some of the imperial counsellors, and de- 
 manded their removal from court. But they had been 
 retained in favor. Hildebrand took up the cause, and 
 called upon the emperor to comply with the papal 
 demand. Henry, at the first admonition, was engaged 
 in war, and replied b\^ a submissive letter. And so the 
 matter rested for that time. 
 
 But the authority assumed by the new pope was such 
 as upon being more fully unfolded, the emperor perceived 
 he could not allow. The policy of Gregory YII., not 
 declared all at once, but evinced in the course of his 
 pontificate, and abundantly stated in his epistles, and suc- 
 cinctly epitomized in the Diciatus Gregorii, aimed at 
 establishing the Papacy as an absolute despotism over 
 all the powers and potentates of earth, ecclesiastical and 
 civil, and arrogated for it, even from monarchs, the pro- 
 fession of homage by acts the most abject and degrading. 
 But the office, during the twenty years of his preceding 
 counsels, had gained immensely by the removal of moral 
 corruption, by the systematizing of its business, by the 
 dignified regularity of elections, and frequent and con- 
 sistent assertion of its sovereignty before a public well 
 prepared to admit them. The subjection of the clergy, 
 on the footing of celibacy, and isolation from the com- 
 mon interests of society, had been, in the main, effected. 
 And the Reformer was now prepared to enter upon the 
 third part of his project, namely the removal of simony, 
 and of lay interference in the church. To achieve that 
 he must begin with the source from which that widely 
 ramified evil proceeded, at the court of the emperor, and 
 with the case of episcopal investiture. The occasion 
 which led to actual hostilities was the excommunication 
 
112 
 
 of certain imperial counsellors for simony, and the 
 emperor's failure to remove them from his service. 
 
 That case stood in suspense for over two j-ears. 
 Meanwhile at a Synod in Rome (1075,) it was decreed 
 that if any person should accept a bishopric, or an abbacy 
 from the hands of a layman, he should not be regarded 
 as a bishop or an abbot, nor allowed to enter a church, 
 until he had given up the illegal claim : and all laymen, 
 of whatever rank, who should bestow such investiture, 
 were to be excluded from church communion. !Next 
 year, Gregory summoned the emperor to appear before 
 him in Rome, on pain of anathema, if he failed to obey. 
 He did not obey ; but on the contrary, called a council of 
 German bishops at Worms, and had a sentence of deposi- 
 tion passed against the pope. Gregory forthwith issued 
 his excommunication of the emperor, declaringhim incom- 
 petent to reign any longer, and forbade his subjects to 
 obey him. He also excommunicated the assembly at 
 Worms. The subjects of the emperor were divided. 
 The princes met at Tribur, and resolved that he should 
 not reign until he had obtained removal of the excom- 
 munication ; and appointed a council to meet at Augs- 
 burg to try him, in which trial the pope was to preside. 
 Henry hurried into Italy, and met the pope at Canossa ; 
 but obtained admittance to his presence only after a most 
 humiliating penance of three days before the door of the 
 castle. He obtained remission of his punishment, and 
 then, once more emperor, thought of revenge for his 
 humiliation. The pope was now in danger. His party in 
 Germany elected a new emperor, Rudolph of Suabia. 
 War ensued, which lasted several years. The pope 
 renewed the excommunication. The emperor renewed 
 his act of deposing the pope, and added to that the elec- 
 tion of another pope, Clement HI., whom he took to 
 Rome, and enthroned by force of arms. Meanwhile 
 Rudolph died. The full weight of the imperial arm now 
 fell upon the pope, who found refuge among the l^ov- 
 mans of Naples, and died at Salerno, May 25, 1085. 
 Thus the first attempt at coercing the emperor failed. 
 
 Rope Clement III., reigned in Rome. But the Gre- 
 gorian party elected their own pope, Victor III., and 
 when he died, in 1087, continued the succession by elect- 
 
113 
 
 ing Urban. II. For more than ten years the emperor 
 retained his advantage, and the Gregorian party remained 
 under depression, until the enthusiasm of the first Cru- 
 sade swept away everything before it. Of that move- 
 ment Urban was the organizing power. On its tide he 
 was carried to Rome in triumph. Military resources 
 were withdrawn from the emperor by the irresistible 
 attraction of the Crusade. Pope Clement unsustained 
 ceased to be of any importance. He survived his rival a 
 few months, but in such reduced circumstances of his 
 party that upon his death no successor could take his 
 place. The first Crusade was the real triumph of Hilde- 
 brand. From that juncture the fortunes of Henry IV. 
 declined. Urban II., died July 29, 1099, just fourteen 
 days after the Crusaders had entered Jerusalem. But 
 his successor, Pascal II., pursued the same policy. The 
 emperor, reduced in resources, was persecuted with ana- 
 themas, his son encouraged to rebel against him, and his 
 subjects to revolt, until broken down in health and spirit, 
 he retired to private life, and died in povert}', 1106. 
 
 The same year, the controversy' about investitures in 
 England was settled b}' the pope giving his sanction to 
 the practice of churchmen, holding benefices, taking the 
 oath of fealty to the king. The king of France also fell 
 under papal excommunication, to which he submitted, 
 and was absolved. 
 
 In the history of the papacy, the next two hundred 
 years were occupied with a struggle to maintain that 
 elevation of supremacy secured in the end of the 
 eleventh. In some quarters it was held with great difii- 
 oulty; in others it was increased ; sometimes the pope 
 seemed on the verge of failure ; for his supremacy over 
 the state was, even in its best days, of precarious tenure; 
 but some favorable event always turned up to restore him 
 to his vantage ground; and in the last emergency, his 
 refuge was in popular superstition and commotion, especi- 
 ally a crusade, in which he was always looked to by 
 western Europe as the head of Christendom. The ques- 
 tion of investitures was settled with the empire, 1122, by 
 a compromise, in which the monarch invested with the 
 temporalities, and the pope with the spiritual office, and 
 symbols were chosen accordingly. 
 
114 
 
 With the death of Henry V., in 1155, the imperial 
 dynasty of Franconia came to an end, Lothaire of Sax- 
 ony was elected in the papal interest. During his reign 
 the papacy enjoyed the full support of the civil power, 
 but was divided by a schism within itself most of the 
 time. Lothaire III. died in 1137, and the new and more 
 potent dynasty of the Hohenstaufen, the ducal line of 
 Suabia, came to the throne in the person of Conrad III. 
 In the interest of that imperial house, a party was formed, 
 which received the name Waibelingen, or Ghibelline, 
 opposed to the Guelphs, or Saxon party, which sustained 
 the pope. For ages these two factions distracted Italy 
 and the empire. 
 
 Arnold of Brescia, a young priest, had come from 
 study of Scripture to the conviction that the clergy 
 should hold no estate; but live upon the free will otfer- 
 ings of the church; and that priests of corrupt morals 
 were by that fact no longer priests at alL Some of his 
 views accorded with the eltbrts at that time made b}' 
 some Italian cities to secure their independence, and 
 were accepted very extensively. Arnold was condemned 
 by the Lateran council of 1139. But his opinions pre- 
 vailed with a great majority of the people even in Rome. 
 A revolution was contemplated, in which the temporal 
 sovereignty of the pope was to be abolished, and the 
 ancient republican government restored. The insurgents 
 occupied the Capitol. Pope Lucius II was killed in the 
 attempt to reduce thein by force. His successor Eugen- 
 ius III. fled to France, and awaited some favorable turn 
 'of atfairs. He had not long to wait. The Kingdom of 
 Jerusalem, hard pressed by the Saracens, who had taken 
 the city of Edessa, was calling aloud to Europe for relief. 
 B}^ the preaching of Bernard of Clairvaux, and others, 
 the crusading frenzy was aroused once more. A vast 
 army v;as raised and marched oft" to Palestine in 1147, 
 under command of the Eniperor Conrad III., and King 
 Louis YII. of France. Inferior interests lost their hold 
 upon the public mind. Zeal for the crusade absorbed 
 all. Once more the Pope was the highest dignitary in 
 Europe. Eugenius was restored to Rome and protected 
 by the arms of Roger of Sicily. The second crusade 
 failed in the east; but it buoyed up the papal cause at 
 
115 
 
 home. B}' the address of Adrian IV., who came to the 
 papal chair in 1154, the Romans were induced to hanish 
 Arnold. The Emperor Frederic Barbarossa marched an 
 army into the north of Italy and reduced the Lombard 
 towns. Arnold was surrendered into his hands, and by 
 him transferred to the pope. The pope hanged him, 
 burned his body, and cast the ashes into the Tiber. 
 Arnold was the victim, over whose immolation the Em- 
 peror and the Pope held a common rejoicing and for the 
 time reconciled their differences. 
 
 It was Pope Adrian IV., who in 1155 granted to Henry 
 II. of England to conquer Ireland, on the condition of 
 annexing it to the Roman See. A few years later, a 
 papal attempt to make the clergy of England indepen- 
 dent of the crown to connect them more intimately with 
 Rome, gave occasion to the meeting at Clarendon, in 
 1164, which drew up the celebrated Clarendon Constitu- 
 tions, one of the oldest documents lying at the basis of 
 English freedom. The articles were sixteen, designed to 
 limit Papal ao;gressions, and make the clergy amenable, 
 in some degree, like other men, to laws of the land. 
 Becket the archbishop of Canterbury, and the whole 
 body of the English clergy, took oath to observe them. 
 But the articles being condemned by the Pope, Becket 
 changed his mind and broke his oath, upon obtaining 
 papal absolution. His subsequent conduct was that of 
 rebellion against the king, and directed to sustain papal- 
 ism in England. It led to a dispute between him and 
 the king in which he fled to the continent. A reconcili- 
 ation took place. But after restoration, Becket returned 
 to his former practices. Four English knights, hearing 
 the king express himself angrily about the matter, went 
 to Canterbury and slew Becket while at service in church. 
 (1170). The king was blamed, and four years later was 
 constrained to do penance at Becket's tomb. 
 
 Pope Alexander III. (1159-1181) assumed, in recog- 
 nizing ttie independence of Portugal, to grant to the 
 kings of that country the right to as much land as they 
 could conquer from the Mohammedans. 
 
 In 1183, the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa made 
 peace with the Lombards, secured the favor of the Ger- 
 man clergy, and by the marriage of his son to the heiress 
 
116 
 
 of Sicily, attached that wealthy island to his dynasty. 
 The strength of the papal support was thereby divided, 
 while insurrection raged within the papal e>tates. Lucius 
 III. and Urban III., were successively expelled from 
 Rome. 
 
 But again the papacy was saved by a crusade. Sala- 
 din had taken Jerusalem, (1187), and all Europe was 
 roused to a new effort for recovery of the holy places. 
 The Emperor put himself at the head of it, May, 1189, 
 marching by land. He lost his life in Asia Minor, and 
 his army perished at the seige of Acre. Two other por- 
 tions of the great army were led by Philip Augustus of 
 France, and Richafd I. of England. With all the armies 
 led out, and prodigies of valor, on the part of the crusa- 
 ders, little was eflected. Pliilip Augustus, soon after the 
 seige of Acre, returned home; and Richard, after taking 
 Joppa and Askelon, learning that the King of France 
 was projecting an invasion of Englaiul, concluded a 
 peace of three years with Saladin, and left Palestine, 
 Sept. 1192. Meanwhile the pope had brought Rome to 
 submission, and re-established his authority, and the 
 early death of the new emperor, Henry VI., removed the 
 danger threatening from his possession of Sicily in right 
 of his wife. The heir of the imperial house was a child 
 only three years of age, when the most successful of all 
 popes began his pontificate. Henry VI. died Sept. 28, 
 1197, and Innocent III. ascended the chair of the papacy, 
 on the 8th of January following. 
 
 Circumstances favored the new pope in a remarkable 
 manner. Rome had been pacified. The death of the 
 emperor gave place to a long contested succession, the 
 empress Constantia, heiress of Sicily, to secure that 
 dominion for her son, accepted investiture from the Pope, 
 and on the eve of her death which took place before the 
 end of 1198, constituted him guardian of the infant 
 prince, while both France and England were enfeebled 
 by the crusade, and by mutually threatened war. No 
 other pontiff" ever realized to the same extent the Gre- 
 gorgian idea of the papacy. King John of England who 
 attempted to disregard his mandate, was brought to sub- 
 mission by an interdict, laid upon his kingdom, and was 
 restored only upon accepting his crown as a gift of the 
 
117 
 
 pope, and recognizing Englanu as a province of the 
 Roman See. This led to the meeting of the barons at 
 Runnymede, 1215, and the drawing up of the Magna 
 Charta, which they compelled their unworthy king to 
 sign, as some security then and afterwards against such 
 alienation of themselves and their countr3\ 
 
 Innocent III. also organized a crusade. It never 
 reached Palestine, but instead of that, beseiged and took 
 Constantinople, in 1204, and set up there a Latin King. 
 Whereupon the pope reasserted his jurisdiction in the 
 eastern empire ; but without obtaining acknowledgment 
 by the Greek church. The most successful crusade of 
 Innocent III. was that against the Albigenses ; a numer- 
 ous dissenting sect, in the south of France. Romish 
 arguments failing to convince them, armies were marched 
 into their country, v^hich in successive years, from 1209, 
 covered it with slaughter and desolation. 
 
 In 1215, Innocent called a council in Rome, the 
 fourth Lateran, or, according to Romish reckoning, the 
 twelfth ecumenical, at which various important questions 
 pertaining to Romish doctrine and practice were authori- 
 tatively settled. At that point Papalism reached the 
 apex of its prosperity. Innocent died next year, but 
 where he left it the elevation of success remained station- 
 ary through all the reign of his successor, Honorius III., 
 that is until 1227. The imperious ill temper of Gregory 
 IX., renewed the vexatious quarrel with the empire, and 
 led the way in a course of policy which ultimately reduced 
 it, but also dragged into humiliation his own office. 
 
 Frederic II. was constrained to undertake a crusade. 
 Because he delayed in carr3'ing it out Gregory excom- 
 municated him : and after he set out followed him with 
 excommunication. J^'rederic was successful, recaptured 
 Jerusalem, and secured a treaty of peace for the chris- 
 tians of Palestine for ten years ; but found, on returning 
 home, that he had to wage war with the Pope. From 
 this time, it was the papal purpose to break down the 
 Suabian dynasty, and secure the election of more com- 
 pliant occupants of the imperial throne. Unrelentingly 
 was that policy pursued until, after the early death of 
 Frederic's successor, Conrad, in 1254, another minority 
 and regency occurred. Advantage was taken of that 
 
118 
 
 juncture to invite Charles of Anjou to assirne posse-^sioii 
 of Sicily. The attempt of the 3'Ouiig Conradiu to defeml 
 his father's dominion failed. And the last heir of the 
 Hohenstaufen taken prisoner perished on the scaffold, 
 (1268), and Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX, of 
 France, became king of Sicily in the papal interest. 
 Five years later, the equally papal house of Hapsbnrg 
 was elevated to the throne of the greatly reduced empire , 
 in the person of Rudolph. 
 
 But already the long train of papal losses had begun. 
 In 1261, the Greeks, under Michael Palpeologus, recovered 
 possession of Constantinople and expelled the Latin 
 government. A subsequent attempt, at the council of 
 Lyons, 1274, to establish papal jurisdiction in the east, 
 was agreed to by the eastern emperor, but defeated by 
 the refusal of the Greek Church to comply. The 
 attempt gave rise to other fabrications in support of the 
 Papacy. 
 
 French rule in Sicil}^ proved intense!}' unpopular. ^ It 
 was expelled by the insurrection, called the Sicilian Ves- 
 pers, March 30, 1282, and the government put into the 
 hands of the King of Aragon. 
 
 The seventh and last crusade to Palestine was led by 
 Louis IX. of France and Prince Edward of England, in 
 1270. Louis died at Tunis. Edward reached Palestine, 
 but could only delay the fate of Acre, by extorting a truce 
 of three years. In 1291 Acre fell into the hands of the 
 Mohammedans, and the whole was over. 
 
 The crusades were the wars of the Papac}" for its own 
 causfi, when that cause was identified with the interests 
 of Christianity in the west. Their termination was not 
 only the loss of an eifective weapon, but also a symptom 
 of declining influence over the christian public. 
 
 But a more serious calamity befel the Papacy in the 
 dispute which arose between Boniface VIII. and Philip 
 the fair, King of France, in which the King, on princi- 
 ples of law, resisted a Papal mandate, and when the Pope 
 attempted to enforce it, sent a commission into Italy, 
 which arrested him. The indignity so affected Boniface 
 as to throw him into a fever, of which he died Oct. 11, 
 1303. The next Pontiff, Benedict XL, did not press the 
 offensive demands; and after his death, King Philip sue- 
 
119 
 
 ceeded in getting his own candidate elected who was 
 pledged to remain in France. Clement V. took up his 
 residence at Avignon, in 1305. And the proudest days 
 of the papacy were over. 
 
 In the Papal history of this period there was more 
 concerned than superstition and submission, on the one 
 hand, and ambition on the other. There was extraordi- 
 nary intellectual power, and an unscrupulous use of both 
 force and fraud, and tliat continued with little abatement, 
 or exception, for two hundred and fifty years. The series 
 of events may be comprehended under the following 
 heads. 
 
 1. Reform and reorganization of the Papac}', 1054 — 
 1085. 
 
 2. Its first success, in war with the Empire, by means 
 of the first crusade, 1099. 
 
 3. Its success in the controversy about investitures, 
 1122. 
 
 4. A long period of power balanced between the ris- 
 ing free spirit of Northern Italy, the Normans of the 
 South, and the German empire, sustained at great junct- 
 ures by the second and third crusades, until 1198. 
 
 5. The summit of success under Innocent III. and 
 Honorius III., 1198-1227. 
 
 6. The strife for supreme temporal power with the 
 imperial dynasty of Suabia, until the overthrow of the 
 latter, and elevation of the obedient house of Hapsbura:, 
 1227-1273. 
 
 7. Papal losses — loss of Constantinople, 1261. 
 Failure of the plan of union devised at the council of 
 
 Lyons, 1274-1282. 
 Loss ensuing from the Sicilian Vespers, 1282. 
 Final failure of the Crusades, 1291. 
 The disastrous controversy with Philip the Fair, ending 
 
 in the removal from Rome, 1305. 
 2. With the schools founded and patronized by 
 Charlemagne, there were always connected some men of 
 letters. During the tenth century, and first half of the 
 eleventh, the series was very slender. Through Erigena, 
 Gottschalk, Paschasius Radbert, and a few others, in the 
 middle of the ninth century, Hincmar and Ratramnus, 
 in th(^ latter part of it, the line is barely continued by a 
 
120 
 
 few such men as Luitprand of Cremona, and Ratherius 
 of Verona, to Gerbert, (Pope Sylvester II.) who died in 
 the beginning of the eleventh century, and Fulbert of 
 Chartres, who flourished in its first quarter. Towards 
 the middle of the century, a little more literary effort be- 
 gan to appear. Then we read of Humbert, Peter Dami- 
 ani, Lanfranc, Berengarins, and Hildebrand, (Pope Gre- 
 ory VIL), in the course of whose lives, we come to that 
 class of writers called Schoolmen, or Scholastics, and 
 who were, at the same time, the philosophers and theo- 
 logians of the Middle ages. 
 
 True scholasticism was the application of logic, with 
 a peculiar subtlety to the dogmas of the Romish church. 
 Earlier christian writers had drawn their philosophy 
 chiefly from Plato ; now the Platonic elements were com- 
 prehended in and subjected to Aristotelian methods, as 
 far as the latter were known through the partial transla- 
 tion of Boethius: for Aristotelian induction seems to 
 liave been unknown. 
 
 Augustinian theology was their recognized orthodoxy. 
 But the practical teaching of the church, which, on some 
 points had departed from that standard, controlled the 
 arguments of most of them. Some advanced doctrines 
 which were censured as heretical, but in the main, 
 scholastics were the advocates of the church as it then 
 stood. 
 
 The history of that class of writers begins properly 
 in the course of controversy on the Eucharist, in the 
 latter half of the eleventh century. At that date, a 
 'zealous opponent of transubstantiation was Berengarius 
 bishop of Tours. The subject was still an open question, 
 in as far as any adequate authority was concerned. It 
 had been decided only by popular consent. Berenga- 
 rius, from about 1045, publicly taught thatthe bread and 
 wine in the Eucharist are only external symbols of 
 Christ's body and blood. His argument was immediately 
 controverted by several writers, who advocated the popu- 
 lar belief that in consecration by the priest, the sacramen- 
 tal elements became the real body and blood of the 
 Lord. Berengarius was condemned in 1050, by no less 
 than three councils, at Rome, Vercelli, and Paris. He 
 was deprived of his revenues and degraded. Subse- 
 
121 
 
 quently, Pope Victor 11. was incliiced to send legates to 
 Tours to investigate the matter. On one of those occa- 
 sions, the legate was Hildebrand, who seems to have been 
 disposed to treat the subject leniently. But the clergy 
 as a whole were not satistied. Berengarius was after- 
 wards brought to trial before a council at Rome, where 
 a definite statement of doctrine was prescribed for him 
 to sign. He submitted ; but afterwards repented of the 
 submission, and held to his former doctrine. He died 
 in 1088. 
 
 It was in this controversy that Lanfranc, prior of Bee, 
 and subsequently archbishop of Canterbury, taking up 
 the defence of transubstantiation, employed that subtlety 
 of dialectics, which was carried to greater length by a long 
 array of writers who came after him. In the hands of 
 Anselm, his immediate successor in Canterbury, 1093 — 
 1109, it reached its early maturity and perhaps its best. 
 
 The history of scholasticism divides itself into three 
 periods : from 1045 to 1164, from 1164 to 1308, and from 
 1308 until the eve of the reformation. The first, from 
 the beginning of the controversy with Berengarius, until 
 the Be^ith ofPeter Lombard, 1164, labored in lectures 
 and controversial tracts. A new period opened in the 
 very general adoption of Peter Lombard's Book of Sen- 
 tences as a guide for lecturers on theology, whereby 
 scholasticism was turned to the systematic treatment of 
 the whole body of theology. In that direction its highest 
 results were reached in the works of Thomas Aquinas, 
 and Duns Scotus. AVith the death of the latter, 1308, 
 begins the period of scholastic decline, during which it 
 was also gradually overmastered by the reviving classic, 
 and the broader growth of modern literature. 
 
 An inner controversy, on Philosophic ground, early 
 divided scholastics into two parties as Realists andiSTom- 
 inalists. Nominalism soon fell under censure of the 
 church, and gave place to a modification, which is better 
 named conceptualism. Realism was favored by the 
 church. 
 
 Another division, on the ground of faith, separated 
 among them, the Rationalist from the Mystic, as, for ex- 
 ample, Abelard from Bernard, and from both, a media- 
 ting party, as the Theologians of St Victor. In their 
 
122 
 
 later history, they were divided also between Franciscan 
 and Dominican monks. 
 
 The progress of Scholasticism carried with it the 
 improvement of the schools, which from the poor con- 
 ventnal instruction of the eleventh century was expanded 
 until it blossomed into the Universities of the twelfth 
 and thirteenth. 
 
 Scholastic freedom of speculation lay in treatment of 
 points concerning which Scripture gives only indistinct 
 hints, and the church had yet pronounced no positive 
 dogma, but they also analyzed with apparent freedom 
 everj^ doctrine of the creed. And some ventured into a 
 bolder freedom, which exposed them to heresy. David 
 of Dinant, for example, and Amalric of Bena were by 
 their method of thinking led into Pantheism, and other 
 philosophical erroi"s. 
 
 On some points their conclusions prepared the way 
 for the authoritative adoption, as dogmas, of what had 
 previously been only optional beliefs ; as in the- case of 
 works of supererogation ; the number of the sacraments, 
 definition of the doctrine of penance, and of priestly abso- 
 lution, and transnbstantiation. 
 
 The more eminent Scholastics carried forward phil- 
 osophy in a real progress, beyond all that had ever been 
 done before, in its relations to theology; profoundly 
 weighing the philosophical import of doctrines : and 
 although much trifling may be quoted from their later 
 writers, yet to the labors of Abelard, of Peter Lombard, 
 of Bonaventura, of Thomas Aquinas, and others, of the 
 'twelfth and thirteenth centuries, we owe the first kind- 
 ling of modern Europe to intellectual pursuits, the first 
 scattering of light into the depths of mediaeval darkness, 
 the first philosophy which western Europe could call her 
 own, and the first classification in scientific form of chris- 
 tian theology. 
 
 Some of the Scholastics also opened the way to mod- 
 ern scientific investigation. Such were Albertus Magnus 
 and Roger Bacon. 
 
 3. During the same period the principal part of the 
 work was done for the Canon Law which conferred upon 
 it the completeness of its form. About the middle of the 
 12th century, the Decretum of Gratian issued from the 
 
123 
 
 celebrated law University of Bologna. Subsequently 
 large collections from tbe"" decretals of later popes were 
 added to it, under the names of Decretals and Extrava- 
 gantes. And thus grew up the Corpus Juris Canonici. 
 
 4. Various councils successively gave their sanction 
 to elements of doctrine, discipline and worship, which 
 had previously grown up among the people, and in eccle- 
 siastical practice. Of those the most important was the 
 Fourth Lateran, which confirmed the policy of Innocent 
 III., established the practice of indulgence, and the doc- 
 trine of works of supererogation, of confession to a priest 
 as indispensible to obtaining pardon of sin, and of tran- 
 substantiation as belonging to the creed of the church, 
 and the duty of exterminating heretics. 
 
 5. Attempts were made, from time to time, to restore 
 union between the Greek and Roman catholic churches, 
 but without effect. The most strenuous_ effort to that 
 end was made at the council of Lyons, in 1274. The 
 Pope and the Greek Emperor with some bishops were 
 agreed. But nothing could bend the Greek church into 
 compliance. After 'trying for a few years by ^severe 
 measures, to constrain 'his people, the Emperor acknowl- 
 edged his discomfiture ; and Rome ignored the compact 
 which could not be carried into effect. As soon as the 
 emperor died, 1282, the Greek church formally repudi- 
 ated the whole plan of reunion, and severely censured all 
 who had in any way been concerned in it. 
 
 6. During the period of the schoolmen, the literature 
 of the Greek church continued in a depressed condition. 
 The scholastics were the fruit of reviving intellectual 
 activity in the west ; were themselves the beginning of a 
 process of improvement. But no such process had yet 
 begun in the east. Literary culture had not descended so 
 low in that quarter : but it exhibited no such signs of a 
 new vitality. The Eastern Empire was still protracting 
 its long decline, struggling for existence with the Moham- 
 medans. And the energ'ies of the Greeks were crushed 
 under the discouragements of their adverse fortunes. 
 Several literary nani^es of distinction appear among them ; 
 but none as connected with any original line of thought. 
 Most worthy of mention were Theophylact archbishop of 
 Bulgaria, d. 1112, commentator on several books of 
 
124 
 
 Scripture ; John Zonaras, one of the best Bj^zaiitine his- 
 torians, and Knstathius, archbishop of Thessah)nica, 
 (d. 1198) who, besides sermons, wrote a copious and valu- 
 able commentary on Homer. 
 
 7. Among tlie churches of the further east there were 
 also some writers of distinction. Such were Ebed-Jesu 
 (d. 1318) metropolitan of Nisibis, among the Nestorians: 
 Nerses (d. 1173) among the Armenians, and Dionj^sius 
 Bar Silibi, bishop of Amida, (d. 1171,) among the Jacob- 
 ites ; in which connection appears also the more illustri- 
 ous name of Abulfarage (Bar Hebraeus) (d. 1286), and that 
 of George Elmacin, historian of the Saracens. 
 
 8. Witli the Jew^s this was a period of great scholar- 
 ship, when Solomon larchi (d. 1105) of Troyes, Aben 
 Ezra of Toledo (d. 1167), David Kimclji of Xarbonne 
 (d. about 1230), and Moses Ben Maimon, or Maimonides, 
 (d. 1205) of Cordova, labored in the interpretation of the 
 Old Testament. 
 
 9. It was also the flourishing period of that Arabic 
 philosophy, which had no little to do with the revival of 
 philosophical studies in the christian west, Avicenna 
 died 1036; Al Gazali in 1127, and Averoes in 1217. 
 Upon ths whole there was an extensive quickening of 
 intellect in the direction of philosophy. 
 
 10. Among the monasteries irregularities again pre- 
 vailed. Before the twelfth centur}' had far advanced, 
 even Cluny itself had begun to degenerate. Great 
 efibrts were made to restore discipline, and to set up new 
 
 ^monasteries with severer rules. Some of the orders were 
 suppressed on account of their scandalous immoralit3\ 
 Still, the conviction prevailed that the proper way to cor- 
 rect these evils was to establish new orders on a better 
 plan. Pope Innocent III., thought proper to interfere, 
 and forbade the creation of any more orders ; and the 
 Lateral! council of 1215 took action to same eifect. Not- 
 withstanding, two other orders were sanctioned under 
 his rule, and established soon afterwards, which proved 
 of more influence in the church and in the world than all 
 the preceding had been. 
 
 The active apostolic piety and missionary labor of the 
 poor Waldensian ministers, and the progress of dissent- 
 ing opinions in the south of France, and adjoining dis- 
 
125 
 
 tricts, arrested the attention, and alarmed the fears of the 
 Komish ecclesiastics. Dominic of Osma in Spain, and 
 Francis of Assisi, in Italy, about the same time conceived 
 of similar plans for the conversion of those so called here- 
 tics. Francis be.u::an in 1207 to assemble about him a 
 bod^' of men, whom he solemnh' laid under obligations 
 to forego all earthly possessions, enjoyments and knowl- 
 edge, and devote themselves solely to travelling, and 
 preaching the doctrines of Rome. They were to be called 
 the Ordo Frairum Minorum. As such they received the 
 oral sanction of Innocent III., 1209, and were fully estab- 
 lished by Honorius III., in 1223. After their example, 
 an order of nuns was instituted, that of Sta. Clara, with 
 a regida drawn up by Francis. He also organized an Ordo 
 tertius de Pmiitentia, for pious laymen, who living in their 
 own houses, and enjoying their own property, with their 
 families, maintained a sort of spiritual union under a 
 superior. 
 
 Dominic, who had been em[)loyed from 1205 in trying 
 to convert the Albigenses, by preaching, conceived a 
 similar idea. It was that of an order, which, unincum- 
 bered by property, should travel through that country 
 preaching the doctrines of the catholic church. In 1215 
 the plan was proposed to Innocent III. who would grant 
 it nothing more than his oral permission. But it was 
 fully sanctioned next year by Honorius III., -under the 
 name of the Ordo Predicatorum. Monks of that order are 
 more commonly called, by the name of their founder, 
 Dominican, or from their garb. Black Friars ; as the or- 
 der of Francis is generall}^ called Franciscan, or Minor- 
 ites, or Gvey Friars. The Dominicans also constituted 
 Tertiaries. 
 
 These were the principal mendicant orders, by whom 
 preaching, long neglected in the catholic church, was 
 revived. Indirectly they conspired with the lecturers in 
 the schools to promote the awakening spirit of inquiry, 
 relatively doing for the populace a work similar to what 
 the lecturers were accomplishing in the schools. Ulti- 
 mately, they became also the lecturers, and occupied the 
 most prominent places as scholastic writers. Departing 
 in course of time from their original design, they de- 
 parted also from the rule of poverty. On that subject 
 
126 
 
 the Franciscans divided. The stricter party adhering to 
 the rule, formed themselves into a separate order, which 
 received the name of Frailcelli. 
 
 11. About the end of the twelfth century there sprang 
 up, in some towns in the Netherlands, societies of women, 
 who without monastic vows, lived together under rules 
 of their. own adoption, and maintained themselves from 
 their own property. They were called Beguinae. Dur- 
 ing the thirteenth century, thejMucreased in France and 
 Germany, as well as in the Netherlands, to a great 
 number. 
 
 iSimilar societies were also formed of men, and those 
 who belonged to them were called Beguini, orBeghards. 
 Latterly they connected themselves with the tertiary 
 orders of the Franciscans and Dominicans. 
 
 Through the mendicant preaching orders and their 
 tertiaries, the cloister opened its doors to the world. 
 
 12. The clergy claimed exemption from trial by civil 
 tribunals, and the popes labored zealously to withdraw 
 them altogether from secular jurisdiction. Oiily ecclesi- 
 astical courts were held competent to try them. And 
 from all tribunals they claimed the right of appeal to the 
 pope. In few countries were those claims fully realized. 
 
 13. From various causes, great weitlth came into the 
 hands of ecclesiastics, leading to much conflict between 
 the spiritual and temporal authorities. 
 
 14. In the course of the twelfth centur}', the Latin 
 church, in administering the Eucharist, gradually, in one 
 
 ^ place after another, adopted the practice of withholding 
 the cup from the laity. Pope Pascal 11. opposed innova- 
 tion, and ordered that the bread and wine should be both 
 administered. After his time, the opposite opinion gained 
 ground. By the Greek church the sacramental elements 
 were mingled. 
 
 15. Signs of intellectual activity began to appear 
 among the people, as well as in the church schools. They 
 consisted chiefly in the rise of religious dissent, and of 
 an incipieiit popular literature. 
 
 The varieties of religious dissent may be classed 
 under the heads of Paulicians, Cathari, Waldenses, and 
 independent orders. 
 
 16. The Paulicians, in their long persecution in the 
 
127 
 
 ninth century, were scattered to both east and west, be- 
 yond the bounds of the Greek empire. At the end of 
 those sufferings, a considerable number of them, were 
 found resident among the Slavic population on the lower 
 Danube. Whence it is probable they spread their doc- 
 trines further west, and in more tolerant times found 
 their way back into the empire. In the reign of Alexius 
 Comnenus (1081-1118; the city of Philippopolis in Thrace 
 was entirely under their influence. Thatemperor under- 
 took to convert them ; and removed his residence, for a 
 time, to Philippopolis, with that view. By force of 
 authority, by persuasion, and rewards to those who pro- 
 fessed themselves convinced by his arguments, he suc- 
 ceeded in reducing the heresy in that region. But 
 instead of it another arose. For a long time before, a 
 party had existed among them, called Euchites, or Mes- 
 salians, who had exercised some infl.uence upon the de- 
 velopment of Paulician doctrine. From that connection 
 arose theBogomili, who made their first appearance in 
 the latter years of the same Emperor. In 1116 Alexius 
 obtained the confidence of their leader Basilins, by a 
 treacherotis artifice, and put him to death. But the sect 
 maintained its ground within the empire, especially 
 about Philippopolis. 
 
 17. In their peculiar doctrines and customs, theBogo- 
 mili agreed closely witli those of the Cathari of the west 
 of Europe. That relationship is also sustained histori- 
 cally. It is admitted that the Cathari proceeded from the 
 Sclavonians of Bulgaria, at least as early as the middle 
 of the eleventh century : and had extended their societies 
 to almost every country of Europe, before they were dis- 
 covered. From Bulgaria tliey spread into Thrace, and 
 became a large sect even in Constantinople. Also into 
 Dalmatia and Albania, where they were called Albanen- 
 ses. Westward they gained converts in large numbers, 
 as far as the Netherlands, England, France, Spain, and 
 Italy. In France, they were frequently called the Ordo 
 BulgaricE, or Bidgari, Gallicised into various abbreviations. 
 In some places they were called Poplicani, Paiarini, or 
 Passacjleri. They divided the popular faith in Provence 
 with the Waldenses. In Lombardy and Florence, in the 
 States of the Church, in Calabria and Sicily, Catharian 
 
128 
 
 corio-reo^ations existed for a lonuj time. But it was in 
 Lombardy and the South of France where they were 
 strongest. The Albigenses were both Waldensian and 
 Catharian. As early as 1022, persons of Catharian views 
 were burned to death at Orleans. 
 
 18. Touching the origin of the Waldenses, there is 
 difference of opinion. But we know that they are men- 
 tioned as existing among the Alps in the twelfth century, 
 and not as a new sect at that time. Their name is not 
 derived from that of a man, but from their place of resi- 
 dence in certain valleys of the Cottian Alps, on the Italian 
 side. Their eastern border is about thirty miles in a 
 southwest direction from Turin. Their records have been 
 sought out to be destroyed, with persevering malignity 
 hy their enemies. 
 
 By Catljolic writers their doctrine^ were greatly mis- 
 represented. But more favored than most sects of that 
 time, they survive to speak for themselves. They hold 
 substantially the same views of Scripture truth as are 
 held by Evangelical Protestants. 
 
 In Northern Italy, Catharian doctrine together with 
 the opinions of Arnold of Brescia, coincided with the 
 eiibrts of the Lombards to wrest their freedom from the 
 Pope and Emperor. 
 
 19. Among dissenting orders we must include the 
 stricter branch of the Franciscans, the Fraticelli, who 
 opposed as firmly as any others, the worldliness and 
 luxury prevailing in the church, and incurred as much 
 persecution, with the Beguinpe and Beghards, and Apos- 
 
 'tolicals, besides certain fanatical orders, which were early 
 suppressed. 
 
 20. In order to complete the work of exterminating 
 heretics, begun with such fearful scenes of bloodshed in 
 the crusade against the Albigenses, and to organize a 
 system whereby the church should always eradicate the 
 first appearance of heresy," it was made the business of 
 the Diocesan Synods to search out and punish every be- 
 ginning of divergence from the faith of Rome. Every 
 archbishop and bishop was directed to visit, either per- 
 sonally or through some suitable agent, the parish of his 
 diocese, in which any heretics were reported to be, and 
 to put under oath any of the inhabitants whom he chose, 
 
129 
 
 to point out the siispectecl. Refusal to take tbeoatbjas- 
 tified the suspicion of heresy. This first form of the 
 Inquisition was the plan of Innocent III., and enacted 
 as law by the fourth Lateran council, 1215. An import- 
 ant change was made under Gre<iory IX., by the Council 
 of Toulouse, in 1229, whereby the task was taken out of 
 the hands of the bishops, by the appo}j)tment of Domini- 
 can monks to be permanent inquisitors. 
 
 21. The Holy Scriptures were now forbidden to the 
 laity. In the ancient church their use was free to all, and 
 to part with them was held by Christians as almost equiv- 
 alent to denying their Savior. But in the lapse of ages, 
 Catholic practice had departed so fur from gospel pre- 
 cept, that it was deemed expedient to withhold from the 
 people the means of comparing them. That step was 
 first til ken by the Greek catholic church in controversy 
 with tlie Paulicians, in the ninth century. In the west, 
 it was ordered by Innocent III., in 1199, and b}' the 
 council of Toulouse in 1229. 
 
 22. It was in that belt of country consisting of north- 
 ern Italy, southern France, and the north of Spain that 
 the modern languages of continental Europe were first 
 trained to the service of literature. That early literature 
 consisted chiefiy of songs; called lays, and sung to the 
 accompaniment of the harp ; and those who composed 
 them were Troubadours. The south of France was its 
 centre, and its headquarters were the courts of the counts 
 of Provence and of Toulouse. The dialects throughout 
 that belt of country were intimately related. From as 
 early as the beginning of the eleventh century the Trou- 
 badour literature had been unfolded towards its proper 
 maturity. The twelfth century was its meridiari ; and it 
 was apparently about to issue in something greater, when 
 it was abruptly terminated by the crusade against the 
 Albigenses. A modification of it was patronized, until a 
 later date, at the court of Arragon, and by some of the 
 kings of Castile, and some of the princes in northern 
 Italy. 
 
 23. The forms of that style of popular song w^ere trans- 
 ferred to the Latin, and used in the service of religion. 
 Specimens of rhymed Latin verse can be adduced from 
 earlier time ; but the true history of rhymed Latin hymns 
 
130 
 
 begins with the eleventh century, and the best of such 
 productions belong to the twelfth and thirteenth. 
 
 The latest lays of the Troubadours fell upon the 
 youthful ear of Dante, who deepl}^ imbued with their 
 lyrical spirit, and versed in the Latin hyranology and phi- 
 losophy of the schoolmen, concentrated the best literary 
 fruits of all in his great poem the Divina Commedia, and 
 therein the history of modern literature began. Dante 
 was in his prime when the papal court was removed to 
 Avignon. 
 
 YIII. 1305—1418. 
 
 Papal Decline — Superiority of Councils — Revival 
 OF Learning. 
 
 From the middle of the eleventh century to the begin- 
 ning of the fourteenth was the period of mediaeval growth, 
 purely and characteristically mediaeval. The fourteenth 
 begins to present some features of the modern world. 
 From the removal of the seat of the papacy to Avignon, 
 a new era in the history of the church extends until the 
 close of the council of Constance, that is, until 1418. 
 The period thus bounded has also some peculiar features 
 of its own. Of these some of the more remarkable are, 
 the declining and latterly divided state of the papacy ; 
 secondly, the increase of dissent; thirdly, the decline of 
 dialectic scholasticism, and increase of mysticism ; 
 fourthly, the increasing power of national hierarchy over 
 the papal ; the revival of classical learning and taste, and 
 'sixthly, the rise of modern literature in the Italian, Span- 
 ish and English languages. 
 
 1. By means of reducing the German empire, the 
 popes had done m.uch to liberate the cities of northern 
 Italy, and to build up the growing monarchy of France. 
 At the beginning of the 14th century, France had no 
 well matched rival, amonglhe monarchies of the conti- 
 nent, whom the popes could array against it. At Avig- 
 non they were in no condition to assert their supremacy 
 over it. In some of the measures of King Philip, as in 
 the suppression of the Knights Templars, Clement V. 
 was constrained reluctantly to concur. Seven Popes 
 reigned successively in Avignon, before the schism, that 
 
131 
 
 is, between 1305 and 1378, Clement V., John XXIL, 
 Benedict XII , Clement VI., Innocent VL, Urban V., 
 and Gre2;ory XI. 
 
 In those circumstances, the conflict which arose 
 between the Popes and the Emperpr Louis of Bavaria 
 was really more to the interest of the French monarchy 
 than to that of the papacy. The people of Germany now 
 sustained their emperor, and Charles IV., elected through 
 papal means, was constrained to take refuge in Fi-ance. 
 The interdict was laid upon Germany, but took little 
 effect. When Louis died in 1347, Charles had to regard 
 his former election invalid, and submit to be elected a 
 second time. 
 
 In 1347 another of those risings took place in Rome 
 which have at several times aimed at restoring the glories 
 of the ancient republic. Nicholas de Rienzi, by liis elo- 
 quence and enthusiasm, made himself tribune of the 
 people, and actually governed the city for a few years. 
 He was assassinated in 1354, and the whole fabric he had 
 erected dissolved. Cardinal ^Egidins Albornoz recon- 
 quered the states of the cliurch, and brought them back 
 to papal obedience. But the existence of an antipapal 
 party in the papal dominions was thereby declared with 
 even more boldness than in the davs of Arnold of Brescia. 
 
 Urban V.,in 1367, attemjited to remove his residence 
 back to Rome. Various causes were now making that 
 step desirable. England liad recovered strens^th under 
 the vigorous rule of Edward III., and declined payment 
 of the required submission to the Pope, and of the tribute 
 imposed by Innocent III. And the Pope's position in 
 relation to France went to justify with the English pub- 
 lic the acts of the party which questioned his right to 
 interfere in their national attiiirs. And that party con- 
 tained another advocating also an ecclesiastical reform. 
 After thirty-three years, in wdiich the tribute had not 
 been paid, Urban V., in 1365, made a demand upon the 
 King for it with all the arrears. Edward referred the 
 question to liis parliament, which denied the validity of 
 the papal claim. It had been imposed without the con- 
 sent of Parliament ; and was therefore unlawful. That 
 action was defended by a learned ecclesiastic John of 
 Wyclitf. The victories of Edward III., and of his son 
 
132 
 
 the Prince of Wales, had reduced the Fi-ench monarchy 
 and strijiped it of nearly half its dominions, and of more 
 than half its power. For a time England was the strong- 
 est power in westerti Europe. The Pope had purchased 
 Avignon ; but the condition of his estates in Italy seemed 
 to demand his presence there. Urban V. removed thither 
 in 1367, but soon returned to Avignon, and remained 
 there until his death. During his pontificate another 
 effort was made, in compact with the eastern emperor, 
 John Palseologus, to connect the Greek with the Latin 
 church, which was rejected by the Greeks. 
 
 Urban V. died in 1370, and was succeeded on the 
 papal throne by Gregory XI. Disorder in the states of 
 the church continued to increase. Gregory became full}^ 
 convinced that at all hazards he ought to return to 
 Rome; which he did in 1377, but had to submit to open 
 negotiations with his enemies. Peace was scarcely 
 effected at his death, whicli occurred in 1378. 
 
 The cardinals were divided in opinion on the subject 
 of returning from France. Urban VI. was elected Pope 
 on the 9th of April, 1378 by 16 cardinals, and took up 
 his residence at Home. But his intolerable temper and 
 bearing soon alienated those who had been his friends. 
 When they resisted him, he created 26 new cardinals to 
 outvote them. Whereupon all but one of those who 
 elected him throwing themselves into the interest of the 
 French party, and withdrawing to Fondi, in the King- 
 dom of Naples, elected Robert of Geneva, on the 21st of 
 September that same year. The new Pope, as Clement 
 V II,, resided at Avignon, and was recognized by France, 
 Spain, Scotland, Sicily and Cyinnis. To Urban VI. 
 adhered Italy, England, Bohemia and Hungary. In this 
 case not only the papacy was divided, but also the Latin 
 church. Each of the two Popes held his ground in the 
 hope of suppressing the other. The schism gave occa- 
 sion to great increase of corruption,, and disgraceful exhi- 
 bition of animosity between tlie parties ; and both main- 
 tained their respective papal lines by subsequent elec- 
 tions. At Avignon Clement VII, was, in 1394, followed 
 by Benedict XIII.; and at Rome, in 1389, Boniface IX. 
 succeeded Urban VI, and reigned until 1404. The inter- 
 val to 1406 was filled by Innocent VII. Gregory XIL 
 
133 
 
 was then elected and continued in office until deposed by 
 the council of Constance, 1415. 
 
 These papal disputes, in which the parties were alwaj-s 
 under anathema of each other, were felt, in inan}^ quar- 
 ters, to be a scandal, and demands for the adoption of 
 some measures of reform became numerous and impor- 
 tunate. In that movement the univ^ersity of Paris took 
 the lead. But in England and Bohemia there were par- 
 ties more radical still, who talked of rejecting the papal 
 yoke altogether. Both Benedict XIII. and Gregory 
 XII., on their election, promised to take the steps neces- 
 sary to bring the schism to an end ; but both declined to 
 abide by the engagement. In 1408, their respective 
 councils of (!ardinals abandoned both Popes and appeal- 
 ing to Christ, a general council and a future pope, assem- 
 bled at Leghorn. Thence, with .advice of the Univer- 
 sities, they issued a call for a general council to meet at 
 Pisa in 1409. In that council there were 24 cardinals of 
 both papal connections, 200 bishops, 300 abbots, the Uni- 
 versities were represented by 120 Masters in Theology, 
 and 300 graduates of civil and canon law, and the state, 
 on both papal interests, by the envoys of France and 
 England. The council took the ground defended by 
 Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris, that by its 
 constitution under Christ, the church was independent 
 of the Pope, and acting thereupon, after a regular fortn 
 of trial, deposed both the rival Popes for violation of 
 their solemn obligation, and elected a new candidate, 
 Alexander Y., to Ibe sole Pope, But ofter the adjourn- 
 ment''of the council, Gregory and Benedict both denying 
 its validity adhered to their claims, and Alexander could 
 not withdraw from his, without betraying the cause of 
 the council. And so, from June 26, 1409, there were 
 three Popes, all regularly elected, according to one or 
 other of the methods which had at different periods been 
 accepted as valid in the catholic church, 
 
 Alexander V, died May 3, 1410, and John XXIII. 
 was elected in his stead by 26 cardinals at Bologna, within 
 the same month. Thus the Pope of Avignon, though 
 then residing in Spain, the Pope of Rome, and the Pope 
 of Bologna, maintained their courts, in the bitterest hos- 
 tility to each other, for seven years. 
 
134 
 
 Constrained by the Emperor Sigisniond, the Pope of 
 Boloijna, John XXIII., consented to convoke a council 
 on the nortli side of the Alps for the purpose of settling 
 this difficulty and of meeting generally the urgent demand 
 for ecclesiastical reform, which came from all parts of 
 Latin Christendom. That council met at Constance on 
 the 5th of November, 1414, Not much was effected for 
 reform, but the papal schism was brought to an end. 
 All three Popes were deposed, and another was elected, 
 who took the name of Martin V. The election took 
 place on the 11th of November, 1417, Gregory's resigna- 
 tion had been secured as early as 1415, John, who insisted 
 upon retaining the portion of papal dominion which 
 adhered to Inm, w^^s brought to trial for positive crimes, 
 thrown into prison and deposed. Benedict, in exile, was 
 inaccessible, and although dei)Osed by act of the council, 
 held his ground tenaciously; and when he died in 1424, 
 two Cardinals set up a successor to him, as Clement VIII. 
 The new antipope resigned in 1429, and thereby the great 
 papal schism was brought to an end. 
 
 During that period of division, the papal list follows 
 the RomaD line, until 1409. It then passes to the Pope 
 set up by the council of Pisa and his successor, until the 
 deposition of John XXIII. May 29, 1415. From that 
 date there is no Pope recognized as true until the elec- 
 tion of Martin V. November 11, 1417. 
 
 The council of Constance, like tiiat of Pisa, was con- 
 stituted on the principle that a council of bishops, repre- 
 , senting the churcli in general, is independent of the 
 Pope, and a superior authority. The members adopted 
 the rule, in the beginning, that they should vote by 
 nations, whereby a check was applied to the numerical 
 majority of the Italian prelates. The nations thus repre- 
 sented were the German, the Italian, the French, the 
 English, and the Spanish ; the cardinals constituted a 
 section by themselves. 
 
 Inasmuch as John XXIII. was deposed by that coun- 
 cil, and Martin V. set up by it, and accepted as a true 
 Pope by all the Latin church, it cannot be denied that 
 practically the council was admitted to be lawfully com- 
 petent to do what it had done, and therefore was a higher 
 power than the Pope ; a court before which Popes could 
 
135 
 
 be legally tried. And if that is true of the council of 
 Constance, it must be true of any council so constituted. 
 All later popes are in the line of succession from Martin 
 V. 
 
 2. Great corruption invaded the papal court at Avig- 
 non. The guilt of simony was common. Everything 
 was venal. And the schism instead of contracting the 
 extravagance, doubled it. Popes turned the revenues of 
 the chuVch to the account of their own ambition. Fees 
 were exacted of prelates upon their consecration; from 
 many benefices the income of a year, call Annates, was 
 exacted by the Pope before a new incumbent could 
 receive investiture ; and taxes were levied upon the pub- 
 lic generally, under various pretenses. Money was also 
 rais'ed by "sale of indulgences. Papal infiUlibility had 
 already been advocated by a numerous party, but was 
 strongly opposed by the better informed, and by the 
 church in general. 
 
 3. Episcopal authority was fortified by the division of 
 the papal. I)iflerent countries chose their own papal 
 allegiance. Councils became of greater importance, and 
 freedom of opinion obtained a certain latitude. Criticism 
 of at least one Pope was always safe. Men of reading 
 could not fail to compare the records of earlier Christi- 
 anity, with what was taking place around them. The 
 universities were almost unanimous in their demand for 
 reform, and the public generally looked for it. But the 
 heads of the hierarchy, to whom the application was 
 made, regarded it with aversion. 
 
 4. Meanwhile dissenting sects continued to increase. 
 And a greater number without dissenting from the doc- 
 trines of the church were dissatisfied with the conduct 
 of her clergy. Iso one fact appears more frequently in 
 the literature of the 14th century than this. It is em- 
 bodied in the most terrific passages of Dante, it is expose^ 
 in the letters of Petrarch, and the tales of Boccacio, it is 
 declared in various forms in Chaucer, and in the poem 
 called the visions of Piers Plowman. But who were to 
 be the reformers? The strength of the medifeval Puri- 
 tans, the Cathari, was broken ; the Albigenses were 
 almost extinguished. ISToris it certain that they, if suc- 
 cessful, would have made the reformation which was 
 
136 
 
 mceded. The seat of dissent was removed further north, 
 to the jSTetherlands, to Bohemia, and especially to Eng- 
 land, where it found a leader in John Wyeliff, professor 
 of theology in the university of Oxford. 
 
 It was in 13l30, when he was a fellow of Merton Col- 
 lege, Oxford, that W^'clift" tirst came forward as the 
 champion of the university in dispute with the mendicant 
 monks. In 1366 he defended the King and Parliament 
 in rejecting the papal demand of tribute. He was made 
 professor of theology in 1372, and rector of Lutterworth 
 in 1375. He was accused of heresy in 1376. Gregory 
 XI. instituted an inquiry against him. He was protected 
 by a strong party among the nobility, and by the Duke 
 of Lancaster, one of the sons of Edward III. The suc- 
 ceeding papal schism furnished an occasion of which he 
 availed himself to publish scripture truth among his 
 countrymen. His pu[>iis, whom he sent on that work, 
 he furnished with the true evangelical armor in his trans- 
 lation of the Scriptures. In 1381 he was constrained to 
 leave Oxford. He retired to his parish of Lutterworth 
 and continued his work of translating the Bible, and 
 otherwise carrying forward the reformation of the church, 
 until his death in"l384. 
 
 The followers of Wyeliff, generally called Lollards, 
 were protected, or were not harrassed during the reign 
 of Richard II. But in 1399 Richard was constrained to 
 resign by Henry of Lancaster, who to secure the throne 
 he had usurped, threw himself into the interest of the 
 Papalists. Parliament in 1401 passed a law that persons 
 'convicted of heresy should be burned to death; and 
 executions forthwith began. Still within the reign of 
 Henry IV., the papacy was in a divided and compara- 
 tively feeble condition. It recovered in the time of 
 Henry V. who came to the throne in 1413. Then was 
 the cause of reformation persecuted with more persistent 
 cruelty. Wyclifl"'s doctrines were condemned at Con- 
 stance, and ten years later, 1428, his bones were taken 
 out of the grave and burned, and their ashes cast into a 
 neighboring brook. But the doctrines of W^'cliff were 
 never extinguished in England. They also crossed the 
 sea and met with acceptance in Bohemia. The wife of 
 Richard II., who was a sister of Wenceslaus, king of 
 
137 
 
 Bohemia, partook of the spirit of the reformer. Her 
 life as Queen of England was such as to sanction the 
 most important of Wyclitf's labors. The communica- 
 tion thus established between England and Boliemia 
 greatly promoted the interests of reformation in both 
 countrie^\ 
 
 Among the earliest reformers in Bohemia were Con- 
 rad of Waldhausen, pastor in Prague, and Milicz of 
 Kremsier. Further advance was made by Matthias of 
 of Janow, preacher in the cathedral church of Prague 
 (d. 1394.) John Hus, teacher of theology at Prague fol- 
 lowed their example by taking his own lessons of divine 
 truth from the Bible. He soon, together with his friend 
 Jeiome of Prague, stood at the head of an almost national 
 movement of reform, whiclj was too strong to allow per- 
 secution to seriously injure them at Prague. When the 
 council met at Constance, they were summoned to appear 
 before it. Hus went under a letter of safe conduct from 
 the Emperor Sigismond. Notwithstanding, he was con- 
 demned by the council and burned at the stake, July 6, 
 1415. Jerome suffered the same fate on the 30th of May 
 following. 
 
 5. During tlie 14th century a change was introduced 
 into the philosophy of scholasticism by William Occam, 
 professor of theology at Paris (d, 1347). That change 
 consisted in a new style of nominalism, according to 
 which the common understanding does not apprehend 
 truth, but only phenomena, that is, not general princi- 
 ples but particularthings, including formsof expression in 
 language. The trutljs of doctrine could not be demon- 
 strated pliilosophicall}'. They were based on the words 
 of Kevelation, which the Holy Spirit continues to make 
 to the church. The human mind knows only the par- 
 ticular; to general ideas there is no corresponding objec- 
 tive reality; and divine truth was just the truths of 
 different revelations. But consistently with the growing 
 system of Romish dogma, Occam taught that revelations 
 had been made to the great doctors of the church as well 
 as to the apostles. His views, after a bitter controversy, 
 prevailed in Paris ; but were rejected at the university 
 of Prague. In the violent debates, carried on through 
 the 14th century between Realists and Occamists, the 
 
138 
 
 greater part of the warfare was waged within the doraaiii 
 of philosophical notions preliminary to theology. 
 
 Other eminent scholastics of the same period where 
 Dnrand, Bishop of Meaux, (d. 1333) Thomas Bradwar- 
 dine, (d. 1346) Arch-bishop of Canterbury ; Peter A'Aiily 
 (1425), John Charlier de Gcrson of the university of 
 Paris, (1375-1425), Nicholas de Clemangis, (1440). The 
 writings of Gerson and some of his contemporaries give 
 evidence that scholasticism had lost its power to satisfy 
 the demands of the human mind. 
 
 Biblical learning among Christian scholars of the 
 west, had for centuries been almost confined to the Latin 
 version used in the church. A professorship of Oi'iental 
 languages was established by Clement V.,1311, but only 
 for the instruction of missionaries. Nicholas de Lyra, 
 prof, of theology in Paris, Cd. 1340) was the only man of 
 his time distinguished by a knowledge of Hebrevr. 
 Greek scholarship was not quite so rare. 
 
 6. It was in the 14th century that the Mystics carried 
 their doctrines to the greatest extreme, and to a positive 
 antagonism to the teaching of the later Scholastics. A 
 certain class of them, who were called the Friends of 
 God, became of great weight among the reforming 
 agencies of the church, especially in southwestern Ger- 
 many. God they believed to be the only reality ; all 
 finite things were only seeming. This view, if developed 
 philosophically, might have amounted to nothing more 
 than a commonplace pantheism ; but they thought only 
 of nearness to a real and everywhere present God, The 
 ^oul of man must separate itself from the finite, as Christ 
 did, that it may become, like him, a son of God. , This 
 is to be done by contemplation upon God, and renuncia- 
 tion of the world. They also lamented the corruptions 
 of the church, and advocated a reform, and especially 
 longed for a spiritual revival, which they also did no 
 little to promote. Henry Eckart of Strasburg, who lived 
 in the first quarter of the 14th cent., was the earliest to 
 advocate this doctrine. It was zealously accepted by 
 Nicholas of Basil, from 1330, who believed that by 
 ascetic exercises he had, through visions and revelations, 
 attained to a complete renunciation of the world and of 
 his own will, and to an intimate communion with God. 
 
139 
 
 Several others adopted more or less of the same views, 
 among whom John Tauler, a Dominican Monk, became 
 eminently distinguished, (d. 1361.) To the same reli- 
 gious connection belonged Henry Snso of Ulm, Ruys- 
 broek of Brussels (d. 1381,), thought by some to be the 
 author of the Theologia Germania. The succession con- 
 tinued through the fifteenth century, including also such 
 men as Dr. Gerson, Thomas a Kempis, and several who 
 proceeded from the school of Gerard at Deventer, and 
 whose preaching and writings were eagerly sought after, 
 greatly to the increase of practical piety, until as a 
 religious revival, their work merged in the greater one 
 of the Reformation. 
 
 The mystics were not limited to a particular order of 
 clergy, or class of society ; thej- were of all classes. 
 They did not escape the persecution which was levelled 
 at heretics. Xot a few suffered death. Nicolas of Basil 
 was burned in 1382. 
 
 The theological school of Gerard Groot, at Deventer 
 was designed to promote true spiritual attainments in 
 uniting sound knowledge to genuine piety. He died in 
 1384. Two years afterwards, one of his disciples founded 
 near Zwoll, a chapter of regular canons with a similar 
 purpose. 
 
 The rationalizing scholastics, as distinguished from 
 the mystics were subtle dialecticians, in some cases elo- 
 quent preachers, and in more they were laborious writers, 
 but dealt most generally with the superficies and forms 
 of thought, mapping, and dividing and subdividing the 
 surface of that concrete, which consisted of philosophy 
 and theology and practical morals and religion as one 
 science. The mystics penetrated deeper into the human 
 heart, its feelings, its hopes, the basis of its faith, and its 
 relations with the unseen world. In some cases the style 
 of their thinking may be characterized as visionary ; but 
 with all their defects, the most profoundly exercised 
 Christian will enjoy their writings most, finding in them 
 much, which though dialectics could never expound, he 
 knows to be true. The writings of Tauler were much 
 esteemed by Luther, and the Theologia Germaniea^ and 
 the De imitatione Chrisd, though burdened with heavy 
 faults, have been cherished by the pious among the edu- 
 cated, ever since the days of their publication. 
 
140 
 
 7. Another feature whicli distinguishes this from all 
 other periods of history, is tiie revival of ancient classi- 
 cal literature and taste. In the history of the church, 
 literary art is a matter of very great moment. For it is 
 the medium of addressing instruction to the common 
 mind. Scholasticism laid no claim to attractive composi- 
 tion. It spoke the hinguage of students, and addressed 
 students alone. It knew nothing of a reading populace, 
 but only theologians. Immediately it did little or noth- 
 ing for iraiiroving the people. Another style of literary 
 men was needed to execute that work. And such a class 
 had arisen, men who employed the popular dialects in 
 their productions, and who for enlistiutr of public atten- 
 tion and interest relied upon those principles which long 
 ages of classical experience had proved the best. Their 
 models, and guides to those principles were the best 
 authors of classical antiquity. In that movement the 
 literature of modern Europe began. Dante ^vas the 
 transition ; his Divina Commedki is the fruit of the Mid- 
 dle ages as to its substance and form; but his poetic 
 exemplar was Virgil. But the true reviver of classical 
 taste in literature was Petrarch. (1304-1374.) In that 
 pursuit he was early joined by his friend and pupil Boc- 
 cacio. Zealously did they both labor in searching out 
 works of ancient classical authors and in having them 
 copied and republished, as well as in recommending the 
 study of them to others. 
 
 Study of classical Latin naturally led also to the 
 -Greek. And Greek literary men fleeing before the 
 advance of Turkish conquest, and finding refuge in Italy, 
 furnished those progressive scholars with Greek teach- 
 ers. The work thus begun was taken up by many others, 
 their number increasing as the interest and richness of 
 the rediscovered mine became better known. 
 
 Under the force of classical example, some of the 
 modern languages, first of all the Italian, and then the 
 English, beijan to assume the disunity of letters. And 
 popular treatment of interesting topics took a wider 
 range. The author of Piers Plowman, Mandeville, 
 Chaucer, Wycliflt', Gower and Barbour, in Great Britain, 
 were the contemporaries of Petrarch and Boccacio, in 
 Italy. And Wyclifl:*, Chaucer, and the author of Piers 
 
141 
 
 Plowman were all advocates of ecclesiastical reform. 
 English literature opened in the most important and suc- 
 cessful effort for reformation made in the 14th century. 
 
 In Germany, the Minnesingers of the 13th century 
 had given way to a class of poets called Master-singers, 
 who organized themselves into societies for the purpose 
 of promoting their art. But their rules were unpro- 
 ductive of any great work capable of standing the test 
 of time. 
 
 Neither did French literature advance as might have 
 been expected. In the south, the Troubadours suffered 
 with the Albigenses. In the north the Trouvere litera- 
 ture existed chiefly among the Normans. And those 
 who produced it, after the pacification of England, made 
 that country their principal residence. The best works 
 of the Trouveres, though in the language of northern 
 France, were written in England. Civil war and foreign 
 invasion also stood in the way of any literary culture, 
 which may have been incipient among the people. 
 
 Italy and England were, in respect to vernacular liter- 
 ature, greatl}^ in advance of all other nations. The 
 English took the bent of religious reform ; the Italian 
 that of art. 
 
 8. The eastern empire was now contracted to a small 
 space, and that continually threatened by the new power 
 of the Ottoman Turks. Many earnest attempts were 
 made by the Greek Emperors to re-unite the eastern and 
 western churches, with the view of securing aid from the 
 nations of the west. But every such plan was defeated 
 by the unbending tenacity with which both parties held 
 to their doctrines and practices, and rejected those of the 
 other. Such was that of Andronicus III. Pal?eologus, 
 in 1333 ; and of John V. Palreologus, who in 1356, went 
 the length of swearing allegiance to the Pope ; but with- 
 out inducing his Greek subjects to follow his example. 
 Controversy, and consequent alienation between the two 
 churches, was rather increased by agitating the question 
 of union. 
 
 In 1367 Armenia was conquered by the Mamelukes. 
 Such fate also befell the Coptic Christians in Egypt. 
 And the churches in both countries were subjected to a 
 cruel oppression. 
 
142 
 
 On the other hand, in the north, there was, gradually 
 emancipating itself from foreign domination, a power 
 destined in the course of ages to become the successful 
 champion of the Greek church to the ends of the earth. 
 But at that time, Russia was still struggling for existence 
 in war with the Mongul. 
 
 IX. 1418—1517. 
 
 Progress OF the Revival of Learning — Revival of 
 Religion — of the Study of Scripture — of Preaching. 
 
 The various reform movements which took their rise, 
 or emerged into notice in the 14th century, continued to 
 make progress in the period which opened in the last 
 weeks of the council of Constance, and closed with the 
 publication of Luther's Theses, in 1517. Of that section 
 of history in Europe one of the most important features 
 is in the progress of the spirit of reform among the com- 
 mon people and the lower clergy, and the increase of 
 Scriptural knowledge and general intelligence with which 
 it was conducted. A second was the restored unity of 
 the Papacy, and accelerated moral degeneracy of the 
 Popes. A third was the question of the authority of 
 councils over the Papacy and the church. A fourth, the 
 continued decliue, and final submersion of scholasticism, 
 and the rapid growth of classical learning and popular 
 literature. A fifth, the invention of printing. A sixth 
 the maturity of Italian art. And a seventh must be 
 , added consisting of several remarkable events, which 
 combined to change in an important degree the habits of 
 industry and the channels of enterprise. 
 
 1. On the 11th of JS'ovember 1417, the council of Con- 
 stance elected Otto Colonna Pope, under the name of 
 Martin V. He was acknowledged by all the nations, the 
 first sole Pope in forty years. The council immediately 
 lost its importance; and after having appointed a suc- 
 cession of general councils to keep supervision over tlie 
 the interests of the church, it terminated its own ses- 
 sions, on the 22nd of April 1418. 
 
 The first in that succession of councils was appointed 
 to meet at Pavia, in 1423. By the Pope it was diverted 
 to Sienna, and then dissolved, before it had transacted 
 
143 
 
 any business. The next, appointed to meet seven years 
 later, assembled at Basil, Dec. 14, 1431. 
 
 Martin V. died in February of that year, and was 
 succeeded by Eugenius IV., elected by the Cardinals. 
 
 The council of Basil entered earnestly into the 
 attempt to reform the church. In its first years the Pope 
 was constrained to yield on all points. Some serious 
 abuses were condemned and abolished, Papal preroga- 
 tives and revenue were seriously threatened. Eugenius, 
 in order to exercise the more control over its proceed- 
 ings, issued a bull, ordering the council to remove to 
 Ferrara. Some bishops complied, but the greater num- 
 ber remained at Basil. Unfortunately, they passed sen- 
 tence of deposition upon Eugenius, and elected Amadeus 
 VIII. of Savoy in his stead, as Felix V. This introduc- 
 tion of a new schism, so soon after the church had, with 
 much trouble, composed the disorders belonging to the 
 former, prejudiced the cause of the council. Some of 
 the members, in dissatisfaction, returned home, and after 
 the month of May 1443, the council gradually fell apart. 
 In 1148 it removed to Lausanne, and dissolved next year. 
 Felix V. had nlread}^ resigned. 
 
 During the early days of that council, while it was 
 yet a real power, occasion was taken to revive the ancient 
 liberties of the Gallican Church, and to extend and define 
 them. France was then in one of her lowest periods of 
 adversity, and the English were still in possession of Paris, 
 when Charles VII., on the 7th of July 1437 executed the 
 Pragmatic sanction of Bourges, by which he accpted the 
 decisions of the council of Basil. They continued to be 
 law in France until December. 1513, when Francis I. 
 sacrificed them to his concordat with the Pope. 
 
 Eugenius lA-^. persistently labored to undo the reform- 
 ing acts of the council, and had some reason to be grati- 
 fied with the degree of his success. Where he could 
 not prevent their acceptance, he succeeded in embarrass- 
 ing their operation, and on his death bed received, 
 through her ambassadors the returning allegiance of Ger- 
 many. 
 
 Meanwhile, at the Pope's council in Ferrara, and later 
 in Florence, the principal event was another show of 
 union with the Greek church ; of all such the most 
 
144 
 
 deceitful and humiliating to those concerned. The 
 emperor John VII., Pahneologus, reduced to the last 
 extremity by aggression of the Turks, and the Pope striv- 
 ing to counteract the council of Basil, agreed in earnestly 
 desiring the union ; the former, in hope that western 
 arms might thereby be brought to the aid of his own in 
 repelling the Mohammedan ; and the latter, believing 
 that the weight of such a vast addition to his jurisdic- 
 tion would enable him to overmatch his opponents, if 
 not to overwhelm them by the torrent of a crusade. In 
 Papal ships, and partly with Papal money, the impov- 
 erished emperor left Constantinople accompanied by the 
 Patriarch and a number of Greek prelates. They were 
 received with pomp and adulation at Venice, and after- 
 wards at Ferrara. But the meetings of the council were 
 thinly attended and business was delayed. After about 
 two years, and after the removal to Florence, the act of 
 union was passed. It was one. in which the necessities 
 of the Greeks constrained them to yield enough to ren- 
 der the whole unavailing. They returned home to 
 encounter a storm of disapproval. Their action was 
 utterly rejected. A respectable minority of them, 
 with Mark i>ishop of Ephesus at their head, had dissented 
 from everything at variance with Greek orthodoxy. 
 They were now the national heroes. Many of the major- 
 ity regretted the part they had taken in the affair, and 
 expressed their repentance in terms of profound contri- 
 tion. The emperor, in attempting to save his country, 
 had lost its confidence and support, and was denounced 
 as a traitor to its most sacred cause. The pompously 
 constructed union proved a nullity. As a constrained 
 attempt at compromise, its statements of doctrine are of 
 little value, as touching the real faith of the Greek 
 church. 
 
 Upon the death of Eugenius IV., Feb. 7, 1447, Nico- 
 las V. succeeded, without any reference to the antipope. 
 Nicolas pursued the policy of his predecessors, in respect 
 to the authority of his office, but was a man of superior 
 liberality in other respects, and an eminent patron of 
 literature and learning. Upon the fall of Constantino- 
 ple, he issued a summons for a Crusade. But the time 
 for such enterprises had passed. None responded to the 
 
145 
 
 call. But the Papal troasiiry gained by collections of 
 money for the purpose. 
 
 Calixtus III., who succeeded Nicolas, (1455-1468) 
 adopted the same device for raising money, but created 
 thereby much dissatisfaction, especially in Germany, and 
 indirectly strengthened the hands of the reforming party. 
 
 ^nea3 Sylvius, a former adherent of the council of 
 Basil, was elected Pope, under the name of Pius II., and 
 turned out as high toned a defender of Papal prerogative 
 as any of his predecessors. He also tried to organize a 
 crusade ; but no popular interest could be aroused in the 
 cause. His successor, Paul II. in a pontificate of seven 
 years, succeeded in making himself generally hated 
 without accomplishing anything of inportance. 
 
 The succeeding popes of this period were men of 
 such character that it is amazing how they ever obtained 
 election to any ecclesiastical office whatever, iSixtus IV., 
 (1471-1484), although a man of public spirit, who 
 enlarged the Pajjal library, and executed several improve- 
 ments in the city of Rome, spent most of his time in 
 measures to enrich himself and his kindred, and in petty 
 Italian wars. Those who praise him boast that " no 
 Prince ever ofi'ered him an injury, or indignity which 
 he did not return with due revenge." Of Innocent 
 VIII. , (1484-1492) the principal facts recorded are his 
 quarrels with l^'erdinand of Aragon and Naples, and his 
 rapacity in providing for his own illegitimate children, 
 
 Alexander VI. (1492-1503) may be said to have 
 sounded the lowest depths of profligacy. He and his 
 children have rendered their family name, Borgia, noto- 
 rious in the annals of crime. He died from taking by 
 mistake the poison, which he or his son C?esar had pre- 
 pared for others. Pius III. reigned only a few days. 
 Julius II. (1503-1513) was more of a soldier than a 
 minister of religion. As a man, profane and blasphem- 
 ous, as a prince, taking dehght in war, he sacrificed 
 thousands to his ambition, " and by his other enormities 
 rendered his name odious to posterity." Within his 
 pontificate, a general council was summoned at Pisa, by 
 the Emperor and the King of France, It met in Septem- 
 ber, 1511, for the pui-pose of once more attempting some 
 reform of the generally admitted abuses in the church. 
 
146 
 
 Julius, to counteract it, convoked a Lateran council to 
 meet in April of the next year. The council of Pisa 
 effected nothing towards the end for which it was called, 
 and the emperor Maximilian gave in his adherence to 
 Julius and the Lateran council, which was not intended to 
 reform anything. Julius died amid plans for a league to 
 carry a ruinous war into France. In 1513, Leo X. of 
 the illustrious de Medici of Florence, succeeded Julius, 
 and restored at least a decent decorum to the papal court. 
 Leo X., had little claim to the character of a christian, 
 but he was refined in his tastes, elegant in his pleasures, 
 and an eminent patron of the fine arts. His first few 
 3'ear8 restored, to all appearance, the full harmony of the 
 Papacy with the secular powers. Accordingly he could 
 go on to gratify his taste for the grand and beautiful in 
 art. The new cathedral of St. Peter's was his favorite 
 enterprise; and money was to be collected for its com- 
 pletion by all available devices. 
 
 2. During the whole of this period, the opposing cur- 
 rents of events continued to advance with increasing 
 rapirlity : on one side, the practice of old abuses, and 
 reckless development of their consequences; on the 
 other, the efltbrt to obtain some correction of them, though 
 often defeated, \vas becoming better sustained by force 
 and intelligence. 
 
 Restoration of papal unity brought with it the idea 
 of restoring every thing to the standard of the thirteenth 
 century. Practices and dogmas to which the one party 
 .objected, were set forth by the other in a bolder, and 
 sometimes most reprehensible manner. Transubstantia- 
 tion was urged in its grossest extreme ; adoration of the 
 Virgin Mary received additions, belief in her immaculate 
 conception continued to gain ground; the rosary system- 
 atized the vain repetition of prayer addressed to her, 
 and her house removed from Nazareth to Italy became 
 the holy shrine of Loretto. Indulgences had been a 
 saleable commodity for ages, but the traffic in them was 
 now pushed to an unprecedented extent, especially by 
 Dominican monks. 
 
 The principle upon which indulgences were justified 
 was invented by the schoolmen out of pre-existing Rom- 
 ish practices, the granting of absolution by priests, belief 
 
147 
 
 in purgatory, and the necessity of good works in order 
 to salvation, the merits of saints, and the Papal powei- 
 of the keys. The doctrines rationally accounting for 
 these, and for practices springing out of them, were 
 elaborated chiefly by Albertus Magnus, and Alexander 
 Hales, and most of all, by Thomas Aquinas, whose doc- 
 trine was retained unaltered by the council of Trent. 
 
 The merits of Christ atone for original sin, and secure 
 ultimately eternal happiness for all true Catholics. But 
 the individual believer must account for his own actual 
 sins bj" good works, or penances. If deficient in these 
 latter, at the time of his death, he must suffer the ade 
 quate amount in Purgatory. When by that proportion 
 of suffering his soul has been purified, it ascends, in 
 regular order, to Paradise. But it may take thousands 
 of years to reach that consummation. Most men come 
 greatly short of the necessary amount of merit, and have 
 to suffer long. The saints happily have accumulated 
 more than enough for their own use. The surplus is laid 
 up in store; and from it can be drawn what is needed 
 for the lack of imperfect souls. And the Pope, by his 
 power as vicar of Chi'ist, can, for sufficient reasons, grant 
 to the faithful, whether in this life or in Purgatory, 
 indulgences out of that superabundance of the merits of 
 Christ and of the saints. Where the Pope is not him- 
 self present, that favor can be extended through his 
 properlj' commissioned agents, and by means of a written 
 paper properly signed and sealed. " Those wdio have 
 obtained such indulgences are released from so much of 
 the temporal punishment due for their actual sins to the 
 divine justice, as is equivalent to the indulgence granted 
 and obtained." Temporal punishment means punish- 
 ment in this life, or in Purgatory. 
 
 Such w^ere the documents now multiplied enormoiislj^ 
 and offered for sale, carried into various countries and 
 recommended to purchasers, in some places quietly, in 
 others loudly and publiclj', as peddlers vend their wares. 
 And the plea for such activity in the traffic was, in some 
 quarters put forth openly, to raise money to complete 
 the church of St. Peter's. Such was the style in which 
 things were conducted by the leaders of one party, which 
 might be called the conservatist of that time. 
 
148 
 
 With such facilities for obtaining pardon of sin, or 
 indulgence in it, with such example as that produced 
 among the clergy by celibacy enforced and concubinage 
 freely connived at, what was to be expected of practical 
 morals among the laity ? No period in the history of 
 Christendom bears a deeper brand of moral license than 
 the fifteenth century, and the early part of the sixteenth. 
 
 Circulation of the scriptures among the people in a 
 language they could understand was prohibited, and 
 actually prevented as far as the hierarchy could carry 
 their purpose into effect. Church service was in Latin, 
 of which the people did not now understand one sen- 
 tence. Singing in Church had long ago been taken out 
 of the mouths of the congregations and committed to 
 choirs of priests; and what thej' sang, or chanted was 
 also in a dead language. 
 
 Preaching as revived by the mendicant monks had 
 not proved of the effect intended. It had not converted 
 the dissenting sects, nor done much for general edifica- 
 tion. The sermons of the monks were in the vernacular 
 tongues; but most commonly consisted of legends of 
 saints, commendations of indulgences, or of some super- 
 stitious practice. 
 
 To engage and occupy the increasing activity of intel- 
 lect, various devices were emploj-ed, some of them the 
 fruit of that activity itself. Such were the dramatic 
 entertainments, called Mj'steries, Miracle Plays, and 
 Moralities, exhibited in the churches, which commenced 
 ^t a much earlier time, increased in number and impor- 
 tance in the 14th and 15th centuries. 
 
 In the latter part of this period scholasticism proper 
 reached its termination. The m.ost complete and copious 
 treatise on Theology produced in the 15th century was 
 the Summa Theologica of Antoninus, printed at ISTurem- 
 burg in 1479, twenty 3'ears after the author's death. 
 And the last of the scholastics whom History may be 
 concerned to record, was Gabriel Biel of Tubingen, who 
 died in 1495. Still, the peculiar style of their disquisi- 
 tions lingered long in some branches of study in the 
 universities ; and only gradually gave way before the 
 advance of a more discrete philosophy. 
 
 3. On the other hand, the movement in the direction 
 
149 
 
 of reform was proceeding; by various channels. The 
 restoration of classical learnino; continued to advance. 
 Upon the fall of Constantinople, many learned Greeks 
 took refuge in the West, where they maintained them- 
 selves by teaching their native tongue. With the pro- 
 gress of Greek scholarship, the philosophy of Plato was 
 revived. The illustrious Cosmo de Medici founded a 
 Platonic school at Florence. Help was thereby brought 
 to the study of art, and a rival set up to scholasticism. 
 B37 the end of the 15th century, Latin was once more 
 written in classical purity, and the best Greek authors 
 were familiar to the scholars of the west. It was inevi- 
 table that the original Greek text of the Scriptures should 
 receive a large share of attention. In the beginning of 
 the 16th century the Greek New Testament was one of 
 the most saleable books. 
 
 The arts of painting, sculpture and architecture had 
 grown up with reviving literature. Gothic architecture, 
 like the poetry of Dante, was a fruit of the Middle 
 Ages, and reached its prime in the 14th century, but the 
 revival of learning rekindled a taste for the Roman. In 
 the 15th century, Italy saw a great many buildings of 
 that style erected. And greatest of all, the new St. 
 Peter's was slowly rising from its foundations. It had 
 been commenced by Nicolas V., in 1450. But although 
 carried forward by architects of the highest talent, and 
 with great expenditure of money, was, in the time of 
 Leo X. far from complete. It was not finished until one 
 hundred years later (1614). At the opening of the 16th 
 century the excellence and renown of her arts absorbed 
 the pride, and the best energies of Italy. In this respect, 
 her example was followed in the Netherlands and some 
 places in Germany. France and England were inter- 
 rupted in their better progress by the wars with each 
 other, and by the civil broils which long distracted them 
 both. 
 
 Within the same period the christian Spaniards suc- 
 ceeded in finally expelling the Moors from Granada 
 (1492). The Portuguese had driven them from their part 
 of the Peninsula, at an earlier date, and extended their 
 conquests to Africa. The mariner's compass had been 
 introduced some time before. It was now employed by 
 
150 
 
 daring Portuguese sailors, in explorations of the Atlantic 
 ocean, off the African coast, until by successive attempts 
 they ultimately rounded the Cajjc of Good Hope, and 
 sailed to India, (1498) ; while Columbus, in the service 
 of Spain, with a still bolder daring, launched directly 
 across the ocean and reached America in 1492. A new 
 route was thus opened to India, and a productive trade 
 reopened, which for centuries had been obstructed by the 
 conquests of the Turks ; and a new continent discovered. 
 The commerce of the world was turned to the paths of 
 the ocean. The countries on the Atlantic coast rose in 
 importance, while those on the Mediterrranean declined : 
 a change of the utmost importance in the great ecclesi- 
 astical controversy about to ensue. 
 
 The difference of exposure between the mailclad 
 knight and his peasantry on the battle field was almost 
 annihilated by the discovery of gunpowder, and its appli- 
 cation to Vv^ar ; a change the moral effects of which are 
 not easily computed. It became impossible to hold as 
 serfs men in whose hands were the military fortunes of 
 their nation, when increasing intelligence hiid sufficiently 
 informed them of their importance. And when they 
 also became enlightened by the gospel, their conscious- 
 ness of power blended with Christian heroism. 
 
 The new, or revived arts were, in the first instance, 
 exercised in the service of the Romish church. The 
 only exception was that of pi-inting, which from the first, 
 was an agent of progress, on whatever side of the con- 
 ^troversy it wrought. Its earliest productions were exe- 
 cuted before the middle of the 15th century. And in 
 the next sixty or seventy years the book upon which its 
 labors were chiefly employed was the Bible. It was the 
 first book of any importance printed with moveable metal 
 types, by Faust and Gutteuberg, at Mayence between 
 1450 and 1455. Several editions of the Vulgate followed 
 each other at no great intervals. And many translations 
 made from the Latin into the modern languages were 
 printed before the end of that century. Hebrew scholar- 
 ship had also commenced its career among christians of 
 the west, and two editions of the whole Hebrew Bible 
 were printed within the same time, one at Soncino in 
 in 1488, and the other at Brescia in 1494. And by the 
 
151 
 
 year 1517 the Complutensian Polyglot was finished, and 
 printed at Alcala in Spain. 
 
 4, After all, the main stream of improvement, which 
 carried all these agencies along with it, and made its own 
 benign uses of them, was the increasing interest in evan- 
 gelical religion. The influences set in activity by the 
 mystic preachers, not so much from their theory of faith, 
 as in that they preached Christ, operated in that direc- 
 tion within the bosom of the Catholic Church. Such, 
 likewise, was the moderate mystic, or more properly, 
 spiritual piety, tinged with monasticism, which perpetu- 
 ated itself from the scliool of Gerard, through the 
 Brethren of the common life, and the canons of Mount 
 St. Agnes at Zwoll. But head and front of all was the 
 great dissenting movement which, commenced in Eng- 
 land, was now most conspicuous in Bohemia and Mora- 
 via, where in the face of persecution, the leformers organ- 
 ized themselves for defence, and under their brave and 
 gifted leader, Ziska, held their ground against the 
 Emperor, in successful war, for many years. Finally 
 their enemies succeeded in dividing them by oflfering a 
 compromise, which only a part of their number could 
 accept. Those who submitted, called Caliztines, because 
 the restoration of the cup in the Eucharist was one of 
 the conditions of the compromise, finding that the con- 
 ditions were not complied with, on the part of the Catho- 
 lics, returned in considerable numbers and reunited with 
 the uncompromising party, wlio were called Taborites, 
 and formed with them the covenant of the Unitas Fra- 
 trum. About 1470 thej- published a translation of the 
 Bible in the Bohemian language ; and sent commission- 
 ers into various countries to inquire into the state of 
 religion. About the beginning of the 16th century, they 
 had still some two hundred congregations, b}^ whom 
 fraternal relations had been established with the Wal- 
 denses. 
 
 In Spain and Italy also voices were raised in advocacy 
 of reformation ; but Papal authority was too near in any 
 part of the latter country, and the inquisition most unre- 
 lenting in the otlier. 
 
 At the beginning of the 16th century monarchy was 
 in the ascendant. England, France, Spain were at last 
 
152 
 
 completely consolidated — each one around its own regal 
 centre; and the German empire was stronger than it 
 had been since the downfall of the Hohenstanfen. 
 
 The civil rulers no longer admitted that they were 
 subordinate to the Pope in temporal things. But Leo 
 X. did not press that claim. And the collision into 
 which he was brought with sonie of them was not for 
 supremacy, but for the safety of Italy. His see was 
 restored to strength, not quite of the same kind it had 
 wielded in the 13th century, but of a kind apparently 
 more stable and peaceful. Maintaining, as he did, 
 manageable relations with the great monarchs, and enjoy- 
 ing a perfect agreement with them on the subject of 
 religion, why should the murmurs of powerless dissent- 
 ers be a cause of anxiety? They in fact occasioned 
 none to the gay and accomplished Pope. From the Vati- 
 can point of view, the prospect was a flattering one, in 
 the early years of Leo X. But the expenses of the Papal 
 court were great, and patronage of the arts, liberal, and 
 the work upon St. Peter's involved an enornious addi- 
 tional outlay. To meet these demands recourse was had, 
 among other devices, to an increased activity' in the sale 
 of indulgences. The method of farming them out and 
 peddling them over the countrj^ was pushed to a degree 
 of recklessness, which was the more offensive as in the 
 face of a greatly advanced popular intelligence. 
 
 In the prosecution of that traffic, " Germany was 
 divided among three commissioners. The Elector Albert 
 ^ of Mayence, who was also archbishop of Magdeburg, 
 assumed the chief management of commission for his 
 own provinces. Among the venders of indulgences 
 whom he appointed," John Tetzel, a Dominican monk, 
 made himself imprudently conspicuous. The condition 
 of repentence for the sins pardoned he ventured to 
 omit. Such was the virtue of his indulgences, that they 
 of themselves efl'ected pardon of the sins for which they 
 were purchased. It is surprising to read of the suc- 
 cess which followed him. But there were multitudes 
 all over Germany, who were shocked by the scandalous 
 practice. 
 
 Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, and professor 
 and preacher at Wittenberg in Electoral Saxony, who 
 
153 
 
 had already opposed himself to certain doctrinal errors 
 of the Romish church, was moved to condemn the whole 
 system of indulgences, as having no authority from the 
 Word of God. An arduous spiritual experience, an d 
 careful study of Scripture had already given him victory 
 over many of the superstitions of his time. His dut}' 
 was plain. He preached against indulgences, and warned 
 his people about them, as an imposition upon their faith. 
 Tetzel heard of it, and was furious against the heretic. 
 Luther was not a man to be intimidated, or deterred from 
 taking the most effective stand for the truth v»-hich he 
 believed. On the evening of the 31st of October, the 
 eve of the feast of All Saints, in the year 1517, a day on 
 which all who should attend church and confess, should 
 receive plenary indulgence, Luther went and affixed to 
 the door of the great church of Wittenberg a list of 
 ninety-five theses against indulgences, Vk'hich he announ- 
 ced himself prepared to defend next day in the univer- 
 sity against all opposers. That act was solely his own. 
 He committed no person to responsibility for it but him- 
 self. Going forward in reliance upon divine truth, and 
 fearless of danger in so doing, he took a step which how- 
 ever simple in itself, became, from the existing state of 
 the church, and of the world, an era in general history, 
 one of those great events by which we mark the pro- 
 srress of mankind. 
 
154 
 
 FOURTH PERIOD. 1517 TO 1870. 
 
 When from A, D. 1517, we look into the future, it is 
 not merely a new stage in the old controversy which 
 appears ; but a new question has arisen, a new party has 
 taken the field, and a new aim is held up before the 
 Christian world. That new aim is to emancipate the 
 Bible from the restraints of ecclesinsticism, to maintain 
 its freedom, and its right to be regarded as the only rule 
 of faith and practice. On that subject professing Chris- 
 tians continue to differ. Men of the world, to some 
 extent, take part with one side or the other, according to 
 circumstances. And the whole of western Christendom 
 is divided. 
 
 The Reformation was not the work of a man, not 
 the fruit of a single act of daring. It was one of the 
 steps of progress in the work of God, which had been 
 going on in the heart of the people for three hundred 
 years, slowly strengthening and unfolding itself, in the 
 midst of persistent opposition from both ecclesiastical 
 and civil authorities, since the first appearance of the 
 Cathari or Albigenses, on the plains of Southern France. 
 It assumed its place as a separate interest in history , 
 when it could no longer be suppressed. Luther was one 
 'of the men whom God raises up to lead in such a crisis; 
 but so far from the Reformation being created by him, 
 it had long ago been proclaimed in England, and though 
 there suppressed, was silently biding a more favorable 
 time ; it had already run a course of more than a hundred 
 years in Bohemia, and opened simultaneously its career 
 in Switzerland and France." 
 
 The bearing of this new period is the progress of the 
 Gospel towards perfect freedom. Tlie end at which it 
 aims is that state of things, in which a freely published 
 and preached Gospel shall address every man in liis own 
 language. Far from being completed, the warfare is 
 still going on. But the Reformation crisis was that in 
 
155 
 
 which the Gospel burst the fetters of Mediseval bondage, 
 and stood forth in its own character before the world, 
 with a power which proved successful in maintaining 
 itself. Henceforward the history of western Christianit}' 
 is divided into different channels : and yet there are cer- 
 tain common epochs, which like broad bars, run across 
 tliem all. 
 
 The first of those epochs occurs in the year 1530, 
 when tlie Theology of the Reformation first received a 
 systematic shape, and the construction and conflict of 
 confessions began. 
 
 The next occurs in and about 1648, when the period 
 of confessions came to an end; and Protestant nations 
 on the European Continent secured the recognition of 
 their independence. 
 
 A third is marked by the outbreak of the French 
 Revolution, a movement which had as much to do with 
 religion as with politics. 
 
 And a fourth may perhaps be found in the Vatican 
 Council of 1870, the effects of which I believe are 
 destined to be greater than have yet appeared. 
 
 I. 1517—1530. 
 
 The Reformation Crisis. Reactionary Papacy. 
 
 Of tlie Reformation the fundamental doctrine was 
 justiiication by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that 
 from which it revolted was justification by any other 
 way : and the ground on which the Reformers took their 
 stand was that the Scriptures are the only sufficient rule 
 of faith and practice. By the greatly enlarged publica- 
 tion of the Scriptures many persons were prepared intel- 
 ligentl}' to take that step, as soon as a trusty leader 
 appeared. 
 
 The period, brief as it is, consists of different stages. 
 
 1. Luther's attack upon indulgences, and controversy 
 on that topic, as a faithful subject of the Pope, conducted 
 by public addresses, epistles and oral debates. 
 
 2. Denial of the absolute power of the Pope, leading, 
 in course of controversy, to discussion of the whole 
 structure of the Papacy, issuing in Luther's rejection of 
 Papal allegiance, and appeal to a general council : and 
 his defense at the Diet of Worms. 
 
156 
 
 3. A third stage was marked by attempts to repress 
 the Reformation by action of civil and ecclesiastical 
 courts ; and on the side of the Reformers, to defend it 
 bj clear statements of faith, as sustained by Scripture, 
 and by careful instruction of the public in the nature of 
 the case, issuing in the great Diet at Augsburg, and the 
 confession presented there ; and at the same time, the 
 publication of the confessions drawn up by Zvvingle and 
 Oecolampadius for Switzerland; the earliest generally 
 accepted confessions of the Protestant churches. 
 
 1. In 1516, while Luther was making his incipient 
 attacks upon the doctrine of justification by goods works, 
 Ulrich Zwingle, at Einsiedehi in Switzerland was preach- 
 ing against the worship of the Virgin Mary. And in 1518 
 he dealt with Samson the vender of indulgences, in that 
 country, as Luther with Tetzel, in Germany. In France, 
 Brigonnet, bishop of Meaux, had already organized a 
 reformed cono;reo;ation of 300 members. But Luther 
 was peculiarly constituted and prepared to be the prin- 
 cipal leader in that juncture. Certain external circum- 
 stances fiivored him. Staupitz, vicar general of the 
 Augustinian order for Germany, was a man of kindred 
 faith, and longer Christian experience, and was to Luther 
 an invaluable adviser. Another staunch friend was the 
 Elector Frederic of Saxony, whose subject he was. 
 Thus encouraged and protected, reformation work had 
 been going on in the University of Wittenberg, under 
 Luther's iijstructions, before the attack upon indulgen- 
 ces made him known to the general public. 
 
 Copies of the Theses against indulgences were put in 
 circulation, and rapidly and far dispersed. Luther him- 
 self sent one to the Pope. It was reasonable to think 
 that Leo, would not justify such abuse of his own 
 divinely conferred prerogative. Multitudes were fully 
 prepared to welcome that declaration. What it expressed, 
 they had already been thinking, and with its encourage- 
 ment, now felt free to say. 
 
 Luther went on with his work. In the month of 
 ISTovember, he defended the doctrine of the Theses in a 
 Latin disputation for the learned, as well as in a vernac- 
 ular discourse, for the general public. Tetzel responded. 
 And Prierias, a high official of the Papal court, sus- 
 
157 
 
 tainecl the cause of indulgences, on the ground of the 
 infallible authority and absolute power of the pope. 
 Luther, in reply, recognized no authority as infallible, 
 save that of the Holy Scriptures. A new step was thus 
 taken in the controversy. 
 
 2. The Dominican monks concerned in the indul- 
 gence business were the principal parties in the first step. 
 The Papal court might have disowned and reproved their 
 conduct. But now the whole structure of the Papacy 
 was assailed. 
 
 Luther was summoned to appear in Rome August 7, 
 1518. By intercession of the Elector Frederic, an 
 examination at Augsburg was substituted, which took 
 place in October of the same year. Luther appeared 
 there. Cajetan, the Papal Legate, demanded of him a 
 full recantation, without any discussion. To that he 
 refused to submit, and appealed to the Pope, when the 
 Pope should be i>etter informed of the case. But on the 
 9th of Nov., a Papal Bull was issued which assumed for the 
 Pope the whole responsibility for indulgences, Luther 
 condemned by the Pope, appealed to a general council. 
 
 Some of the church authorities now became alarmed, 
 and attempted to stay the controversy. Luther, when 
 appealed to, promised to observe silence on the subject, 
 if his adversaries would do likewise. He also wrote to 
 the Pope expressing his ecclesiastical submission, and 
 exalting the Romish see above all except Christ. But 
 the controversy could not stop. Dr. Eck of Ingoldstadt 
 continued to pursue it, in his writings, on the Papal 
 side. Between him and Carlstadt, one of Luther's fel- 
 low professors, a disputation took place which lasted 
 several days, before a large assembly. By action of his 
 opponents, the Reformer was constrained to self-defence. 
 
 It was now that Philip Melancthon entered the field 
 with his treatise, Defensio contra Eckium. 
 
 A Papal Bull was issued. June 15, 1520, condemning 
 41 propositions of Luther's, and commanding him to 
 confess his faults within sixty days. In case he failed to 
 do so, excommunication was threated, and any magis- 
 trate, who could lay hold upon him was charged to arrest 
 and send him to Rome. He replied with a treatise on 
 christian freedom. In July he published his appeal to 
 
158 
 
 the German nobles to enlist them in the cause of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 Seeing that now, with the light he had attained, and 
 the attitude he had been constrained to assume, he 
 could no longer acknowledge allegiance to Rome, he 
 determined upon a public declaration to that effect. 
 Accordingly, on the 10th of December, 1520, after notice 
 given, he publicl}' burned the Papal Bull issued against 
 him, and with it the Canon Law, and certain Decretals 
 of the Popes. This was Luther's Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, which he also abundantly maintained with his 
 pen. 
 
 From Dec. 10, 1520 the Reformation stands by itself 
 a separate interest in the church. 
 
 3. The truths proclaimed hy the Reformers of Saxony 
 and Switzerland were I'eadily recognized where the good 
 seed had been sown by W^-clift' and his followers ; and 
 by the longsuffering church of the United Brethren in 
 Moravia and Bohemia, who hailed the reformation with 
 rejoicing, and sent a delegation to Luthei-, to express 
 their fraternal sympathy and approval. They had sub- 
 sequently frequent interviews with hini. At first, they 
 were not entirely in ac(^ord, because of the stricter Bohe- 
 mian discipline, on one hand, and Luther's severer 
 definition of doctrine, on the other. In a few years that 
 difficulty was removed, and in 1542, Luther gave their 
 delegates his hand as a pledge of perpetual friendship. 
 In England, the monarch was still the firm defender of 
 ^the Romish faith ; but the executions under his reign, 
 for conscience sake, were enough to prove that among 
 his people there was a sympathy with the evangelical 
 cause. 
 
 An important element in the course of events is the 
 attitude towards the Reformation assumed by the secular 
 powers, and the condition in which they then were to 
 favor or resist it. The emperor Maximilian died in Jan- 
 uary 1519, and in July of the same year, his grandson 
 Charles I. of Spain was elected to succeed him, and 
 thereby became Charles V. of the Empire. 
 
 Accordingly, in the year 1520, when Luther threw 
 ofif the Papal yoke, the government of Europe was chiefly 
 in the hands of three men, Henry VIII. of England, 
 
159 
 
 Francis I. of France, and Charles V., who now held a 
 larger dominion than had ever, in Europe, been ruled 
 by one man, Spain, Naples and other parts in Italy, 
 Sicily and other important islands in the Mediterranean, 
 the Netherlands, the German Empire with which were 
 now connected the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, 
 and the hereditary estates of the house of Hapsburg, and 
 all the lands discovered by Spanish navigators and 
 explorers on both continents of America and the West 
 Indies. The eastern portion of his European estates he 
 conceded to his brother Ferdinand. 
 
 All three of these great monarchs were staunch sup- 
 porters of the Romish Church, and within their respect- 
 ive dominions prohibited the reformation and per- 
 secuted its adherents, Henry VIII., renewing the severi- 
 ties against the people called Lollards of England, and 
 writing against Luther, Francis I., by his concordat with 
 the Pope, and burning of Hugenots, and Charles V., as 
 inhei'iting the Spanish championship of Papal Catholic- 
 ism, patronage of the worst type of the inquisition, and 
 the command of armies which were the propagandists of 
 Romanism over the world. 
 
 Outside of these monarchies to the east, the Ottoman 
 Turks had reached the summit of their success under the 
 reign of Suleyman, called the magnificeut, who was then 
 on the throne. Their empire bordered on that of Charles 
 v., and their armies more than once penetrated far into 
 the countries over which his brother ruled. Although 
 they knew it not, those followers of the false Prophet 
 exerted no little influence in helping forward the Christian 
 Reformation. It was a time of great monarchs, every 
 one of whom was an enemy of evangelical religion, and 
 on several occasions the three of christian name banded 
 themselves together with the Pope to destroy it. In no 
 period of history are the Providential causes which 
 defeated an overwhelmingly powerful party, and pro- 
 tected from step to step, and ultimately gave victory to 
 the feebler, more wonderful and instructive. The com- 
 pact of the King of England and the Emperor, the treat- 
 ies of the Emperor, the King of France and the Pope, 
 the ostentatious convention on the Field of the Cloth 
 of Gold, proved to be only bubbles compared with the 
 
160 
 
 simple pen-work of two or three ministers of the gospel. 
 
 The first assembly of the German States, after the 
 accession of Charles V., ' vvas summoned to meet at 
 Worms, Jan. 6th, 1521. It actually met three months 
 later, attended by an unusual number of princes and 
 nobles, lay and ecclesiastic, all desirous of presenting 
 themselves before the young Emperor in a style as impres- 
 sive as they could command. The Diet was one of great 
 interest, as touching the policy of the new government 
 in general, but the question of most importance was that 
 of the Reformation. 
 
 Aleander, the Papal legate, called upon the secular 
 arm to execute the recent Bull of excommunication 
 against Luther. The Diet, at the instance of Frederick 
 of Saxony, refused to proceed against him, without giv- 
 ing him a hearing. On receiving a pledge of protection 
 from the Emperor, Luther went to Worms : and on the 
 17th and 18th of April, stood before the Diet. His 
 defence on that occasion, conducted with great learning 
 and prudence, had a most favorable effect upon his cause. 
 Yet the majority decided against him : and the result of 
 the deliberations, as far as he was concerned, was an 
 edict, condemning his doctrines, and ordering the civil 
 authorities to arrest him, as soon as the time of his safe 
 conduct had expired, and bring him to punishment. It 
 also enjoined the princes of Germany to suppress his 
 adherents, and confiscate their property. His works 
 were to be destroyed. And any one acting contrary to 
 ,the spirit of that decree was to be laid under ban of the 
 empire. 
 
 4. The edict of Worms was issued on the 26th of 
 May. But Luther, whom it ordered to be arrested as 
 soon as he arrived at Wittenberg, did not succeed in 
 reaching home, on that occasion. As he was proceeding 
 on his journey through a lonely place, a band of horse- 
 men armed set upon him, overpowered his few attend- 
 ants, seized him, threw over his monkish costume the 
 cloak of a knight, constrained him to mount a led horse, 
 and dashed off with him into the depths of the Thurin- 
 gian forest. For ten months Luther was lost to the eye 
 of the public. And those who wished his death learned 
 what a commotion would have been produced had the 
 
161 
 
 sentence passed upon him been actual]}^ executed. He 
 was concealed by friends in the castle of the Wartburo;, 
 and spent his time in study and writing. There the 
 greater part, if not the whole of his translation of the 
 New TestaiTient was made. 
 
 Meanwhile the edict against him and his fellow- 
 reformers was not put in execution anywhere in Ger- 
 man3% except under the rule of the Elector of Branden- 
 burg, the Duke of Bavaria and the Duke of Saxon}-, 
 and some of the ecclesiastical princes, who by their 
 exceptional severity intensified the interest in the Refor- 
 mation cause. The Emperor was prevented from taking 
 any part in it, by the war, in which he was immediately 
 involved with France ; and his brother Ferdinand was 
 entirelv occupied with the cares of defence against the 
 Turk. " . " 
 
 At Wittenberg under the leadership of Melancthon, 
 the structure of the new church order was carried for- 
 ward. The first systematic exposition of Lutheran doc- 
 trine was made in Melancthon's " Loci communes Reram 
 Theolocjicarum^'" [tublished during Luther's residence in 
 the Wartburg. 
 
 But a party arose at Wittenberg, headed by Profes- 
 sor Bodenstein, called of Carlstadt, which carried the 
 new liberty to a [jcrnicious extreme. Disorders were 
 created, which the mild Melancthon was unable to reduce. 
 Unexpected by all, Lutlier again appeared among them 
 (March 1522). By his prompt regulative power, his 
 preaching and personal presence, people were won back 
 to a peaceable prosecution of church work in the orderly 
 unfolding and practical effect of the Holy Scriptures. 
 His translation of the Xew Testament was published 
 the same year. Two years afterwards the whole Bible 
 was presented to the public in the German language, by 
 rendering directly from the Greek and Hebrew. 
 
 Disorders, provoked by long continued oppression, 
 and conducted by injudicious men, broke out about that 
 time, especially an insurrection in Southern Germany, 
 called the Peasant's war. At the battle of Frankenhausen, 
 in 1525, its strength was broken by an overwhelming 
 Catholic force. 
 
 From 1521 to 1530, the Reformation in Germany 
 
162 
 
 having assumed a separate ground, but without a com- 
 plete statement of its principles, was invoh'ed in contro- 
 versies on every side. It still looke:! for reconciliation 
 witli tlie Catholic Church, through action of a council. 
 And, with a view to that, various were the conventions 
 held for statement of doctrine and of grievances. The 
 Emperor Maximilian had drawn up a list often grounds 
 of complaint in Germany against Rome. These, after- 
 wards increased to one hundred, were presented to the 
 Diet of Worms, and under the name of the Oentum 
 Gravamina, went to justity the cause of the Reformation 
 with many, who otherwise would have taken no interest 
 in it. 
 
 Leo X. died on the 1st of December, 1521, and was 
 succeeded Ijy Hadrian VI., a pious man, who recognized 
 the existence of evils in the church, and promised to 
 remove them, while he demanded the execution of the 
 Edict against the heresy of Luther. He died Sept. 14, 
 1523. Clement YII. also made promise of satisfying the 
 complaints of (iermany, provided the Edict were put in 
 execution. A Diet was held at Nuremberg in 1522-3 and 
 another in 1524. At the first, the legate of Hadrian 
 made that demand, at the secimd the legate of Clement. 
 But the Emperor, in the exi3ting condition of his affairs 
 could not undertake it, and most of the German states 
 were opposed to it. 
 
 Ij'rederick the wise died May 5, 1525. His Brother 
 John, a sincere christian and friend of Luther, came into 
 ^his place, and consistently sustained the cause. Several 
 important additions were made to the adherents of the 
 Reformation about that date, of whom the most import- 
 ant were the Landgrave of Hesse, and Albert of Bran- 
 denburg, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, who in 
 1525, took his place as Duke of Prussia, and with his 
 people and their bishops joined the Reformatic^n. 
 
 Another Diet in reference to the subject was held at 
 Dessau in July 1525, where the purpose of the Roman- 
 ists appeared so threatening that the Reforming princes 
 and states entered into a league for their common defence. 
 It was formed at Torgau in May following. The war 
 between France and Spain had ended in the defeat of the 
 former, and capture of Francis I. at the battle of Pavia, 
 
163 
 
 1525. In the treaty, whereby he was liberated, hostility 
 to the Reformation was one of the conditions. That 
 treaty was made January, 1526. The league of Torgau 
 was only a prudent precaution. Yet ere it had occasion 
 to operate, Providence interposed in a more effective 
 manner. A new war arose, in which Francis I. and the 
 Italian nobles, with the Pope at their head, arrayed 
 themselves against the Emperor in the Holy League of 
 Cognac, formed May 22, 1526. An invasion of the 
 Turks alarmed the Empire and Hungary on the east, 
 where the disastrous battle of Mohacs was fought, and 
 Louis, king of Hungary and Bohemia was slain, August 
 29, 1526. In May of next year, an imperial army took 
 Rome by storm, and for several months the Pope was a 
 prisoner, in the hands of Charles V. 
 
 Protection was thus, for about three years, afforded 
 to the reformers, without any extraordinary effort on 
 their part. They availed themselves of the favorable 
 opportunity to put into fitting order the ecclesiastical 
 institutions of their respective countries. Leaders in 
 that work were Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, and the 
 Elector John of Saxony. The schools were put in a 
 state of efficiency, and the University of Wittenberg was 
 at the height of its prosperity. That of Marburg, in 
 Hesse, w^as founded in L527. 
 
 By 1529 the Reformation was already established in 
 several states of Germany. A Diet, which met in Spires 
 in that year, ordered that the Edict of Worms should be 
 enforced, wherever the Reformation was not sanctioned 
 by law. Against that act six Princes and fourteen cities 
 presented a" protest, April 19th, 1529. Hence the name 
 Protestant came to be applied to all who agreed in car- 
 rying forward the reformation then in hand. 
 
 The Emperor, again successful in war, concluded a 
 treaty with the Pope at Barcelona, June 29, 1529, and 
 with France, the Peace of Cambray, August 5, of the 
 same year ; and in February following was crowned 
 Emperor, and King of Lombardy. He had summoned 
 a Diet to meet at Augsburg, in which the religious dis- 
 sensions of Gerinany were to be finally disposed of. 
 Protestants felt that they must be prepared with a com- 
 plete, precise and summary statement of their doctrines. 
 
164 
 
 In compliance with that exigency, the articles of Torgau 
 were drawn up by Luther, Melancthon,. Jonas and Bugen- 
 hagen. Attempts were made to unite the Lutheran with 
 the Reformed of Switzerland in confession of doctrine,, 
 which proved ineft'ectuaj, chiefly from diflerencc of belief 
 touching the Lord's Supper. 
 
 The Elector of Saxony took with hirn to Augsburg 
 Melancthon and three other eminent theologians. Luther 
 could not safely leave the protection of Saxony. While 
 waiting at Augsburg for the arrival of the Emperor, 
 Melanctlion made good use of the time, in con)posing a 
 more complete confession, which was the one read before 
 the Diet, on the 25th of June, L530. A confutation was 
 prepared by Dr. Eck, and read on the 3rd of August. 
 An apology for the confession in reply to Eck was also 
 written by Melancthon, and subsequently published. A 
 committee was also appointed to negotiate a reconcilia- 
 tion between the parties. But nothing came of it. 
 
 Four free cities, Constance, Strasburg, Memmingen 
 and Lindau, presented a separate confession, which was 
 called the Tetrapolitan. The Reformed of Switzerland 
 had also a confession prepared for that occasion, but as 
 they did not belong to the Empire, it was not called for. 
 
 The final decree of the Diet granted to Protestants 
 until April 15, 1531, for consideration, and threatened 
 violence, if they did not submit cy that time. 
 
 5. In Switzerland the progress of Reformation was 
 more rapid than in Germany, but completeness of doc- 
 trinal statement was not attained so soon. In Basil 
 the sentiment produced b}^ the general council seems to 
 have retained its hold upon some leading minds, through 
 the rest of the 15th century. In the first years of the 
 16th we find some of the professors and students in the 
 University earnestly enlisted in the cause of ecclesiasti- 
 cal reform ; among whom Thomas Wyttenbach was 
 distinguished as early as 1505. Capito, Hedio, Erasmus, 
 and others of like spirit, were students, teachers or resi- 
 dents there prior to 1517. Their attitude, in those days, 
 was the prelin'iinary one, in which men expected the 
 church to reform itself by means of its own authorities; 
 and was comparatively safe. Some of them never went 
 further. 
 
165 
 
 From Wyttenbach, Ulrich Zvvingle received his first 
 theological directioM. Ten years of a quiet pastorate in 
 the heart of the Alps, at Glarns, during which time he 
 made himself well acquainted with the Greek New Tes- 
 tament, wrought full conviction in his heart that the 
 Scriptures are the sole and sufiicient standard of religion. 
 In 1516, he was induced to reside as priest and preacher 
 at Einsiedeln, where he began to encounter some of the 
 prevailing errors. Einsiedeln was the seat of a favorite 
 shrine of the Virgin Marj. Multitudes of pilgrims 
 flocked there to pay their devotions. Zwingle was 
 moved with compassion for them, and preached against 
 the popular delusion. Christ, he told them, alone can 
 save from sin ; and his atonement satisfies for all believ- 
 ers in all places alike. In 1518 he opposed the sale of 
 indulgences in Switzerland, and had the satisfaction of 
 seeing that abuse withdrawn. The same year he was 
 elected preacher in the great church of Zurich where in 
 order to promote the knowledge of Scripture among 
 the people, he adopted the method of explaining certain 
 books of the New Testament in regular course. The 
 method proved attractive, and large congregations 
 attended his preaching. The excitement about Luther 
 at that date, caused Zwingle to be also suspected of 
 heresy. He did not, however, enter the polemical arena 
 of the Reformation until 1522, when his treatise on the 
 obligation of fasting appeared. By that time, several 
 other Swiss preachers were pursuing a similar course. 
 In May of that year, the Bishop of Constance issued a 
 pastoral letter to warn all against innovation ; and the 
 Diet of Lucerne forbade preaching likely to produce dis- 
 quiet. A brisk controversy ensued, but lasted only a 
 few years before Zurich and several other cantons took 
 their stand clearl}' and fully for the Reformation, as 
 taught by their own preachers. A conference between 
 the reformers and the Romish theologians was invited 
 by the council of Zurich, and took place in January 
 1523. On that occasion, the couiicil was so well pleased 
 with Zwingle's defence of the doctrines he preached, that 
 they charged him to persevere in his course, and recom- 
 mended their other preachers to follow his example. All 
 excesses were wisely held in check, and the work pro- 
 
166 
 
 gressed quietly, but steadily. One after another, all 
 objects and usages of superstition disappeared ; " the 
 monasteries were suppressed, and ciianged into schools 
 and almshouse." The change in public worship was 
 completed by the celebration of the Lord's Supper in its 
 original simplicity, on the 13th of April, 1525, in the 
 great minster of Zurich. 
 
 Meanwhile several other cantons were pursuing a 
 similar course, at one stage and another, and some were 
 hesitating. A disputation held at Berne in January 
 1528, decided the government of that canton to accept 
 the Reformation ; and other cantons, which had been 
 wavering, followed that example. 
 
 The confederation was fortliwith divided, the northern 
 and western cantons being chiefly Protestant, and those 
 on the eastern and southern side remaining attached to 
 the Catholic religion. Each group sought their respect- 
 ive alliances, the latter witli Austria, and the former with 
 Strasburg and Ilesse, carrying the Reformed alliance 
 down the Rliine. At that juncture occurred the Diet of 
 Augsburg. Zwingle was not present at that assembly, 
 but prepared about that time his Ratio Fidei, for the 
 Emperor, and his Expositio Fldei Ohristia7iae,i'or' the King 
 of France. And G]colampadius, who was present, drew 
 up that confession, which although not read before the 
 Diet, was afterwards the basis of the first Basil Confes- 
 sion. 
 
 The great point of diiierence between the Saxon and 
 ♦Helvetic Reformers was in the doctrine of the Lord's 
 Supper. Luther taught that the real body of Christ is 
 present with the Sacramental bread, but does not take 
 its place. Zwingle denied that to be the meaning of 
 Scripture, and interpreted the Lord's words as institut- 
 ing a memorial oi'dinance, in which his people, in par- 
 taking of bread and wine, should apprehend his body 
 and his blood, which those signified, as actually broken 
 and shed for them, and thereby receive through faith, 
 the real blessing of the Lord's Sacrifice. 
 
 The Tretrapolitan Reformers stood on a difl'erent 
 ground from both, and mediate between the two; but 
 nearer to the Lutheran side, to which they, not long 
 afterwards, passed over, by the Wittenberg Concord of 
 
167 
 
 1536. Of that connection the leadina: theologian was 
 Martin Bucer. 
 
 In the year succeeding the Diet of Augsburg the 
 Catholic cantons of Switzerland made war on Zurich, 
 and a battle was fought at Cappel, Oct. 11, 1531, in 
 which the forces of Zurich were defeated, and Zwingle, 
 who had gone out to attend to the wounded and dying, 
 was slain. The death of CEcoIanipadius followed soon 
 after, Nov. 23, of the same year. 
 
 Among the men of that time the most singly and 
 directlj^ (Scriptural, and the most fully emancipated 
 thereby from long prevailing superstition, was Ulrich 
 Zwingle. 
 
 n. 1530—1648. 
 Confessions and Religious Wars. 
 
 From the date of the Confession of Augsburg, until 
 the Peace of Westphalia, the history of the church in 
 Germany consists of three periods : one, in which the 
 parties labored in attempts to convince each other, or so 
 to frame a creed that they might agree upon it ; the 
 second was a period of compromise, commencing with 
 the Religious Peace of Augsburg, in 1555, and extend- 
 ing to 1618; and the third, beginning with the latter 
 date, was one of open war, which did not come to an 
 end, until after the lapse of thirty years. 
 
 In view of the final decree of Augsburg, the Protest- 
 ants of Germany, having no intention to submit, began 
 to prepare for the encounter of force. The league of 
 Smalcald was formed March 29, 1531, and soon after- 
 wards strengthened by alliance with Bavaria, and with 
 the king of France, both of whom entered into that 
 relation for political reasons. More cordial was the alli- 
 ance with Denmark. The threat of Augsburg came to 
 nothing. Next year, (July 23, 1532) the Religious 
 Peace of Nuremberg provided that religious matters 
 should remain as they were until settled by a council or 
 a new diet. 
 
 The Augsburg confession proclaimed the doctrines 
 of the Lutheran church, and prepared the way for large 
 addition to the number of its adherents. It became a 
 
168 
 
 standard of Lutheran doctrine, and gave union and har- 
 mony to the vvliole Lutheran Heforniation ; but it also 
 determined the ditterence between tliat communion and 
 the lieformed ; the latter name being applied to all who, 
 in various countries, coincided with the views of the 
 Swiss Reformers. 
 
 From the two centres, thus constituted in Electoral 
 Saxony and Western Switzerland, the influences of 
 Reformation spread rapidly in all directions. Tlie Saxon 
 form of doctrine was soon accepted in central and north- 
 ern Germany, in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, har- 
 monized with the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, and 
 gained considerable numbers in Hungary. Several of 
 the Gernum States down the Rhine from Basil and fol- 
 lowing that line northward between the centre of Ger- 
 many and the Netherlands, as fa)- as the German sea, 
 accepted Reformed doctrine. Such also became the 
 creed of Protestants in the Netherlands, in France, in 
 England, in Scotland, and of the Magyar population in 
 Hungary. 
 
 Though differing to some extent in doctrine, these 
 two grand divisions of the Protestant connection sup- 
 ported each other in their common defence against 
 violence. 
 
 The severity which Charles V., never felt himself in 
 condition to exercise upon the Protestants of Germany, 
 he exemplified in his hereditary estates in the Nether- 
 lands. There had risen the school of Gerard, and there 
 ,had flourished the evangelical agencies which proceeded 
 from it. John Wessel of Groningen anticipated almost 
 every doctrine afterwards defended by Luther. That he 
 died in peace, 1489, was due to the protection of the 
 pious bishop of Utrecht, who also ought himself to be 
 named amongthe forerunners of the Reformation. At first 
 Lutheranism was accepted, but soon exchanged for the 
 Reformed doctrine, which has retained its ground. In 
 the Netherlands was the first blood shed for the cause, 
 in the martyrdom of Henry Voes and John Lsch at Brus- 
 sels, July 1, 1523. From that date persecution con- 
 tinued in those provinces through all the reign of 
 Charles V., and with more terrible infatuation under his 
 successor Philip 11. 
 
169 
 
 Between 1532 and 1538, the Protestant cause was 
 greati}' strenfcthened by the accession of Wiirtemberjy, of 
 Pomerania, of the Count Palatine, the Princes of Anhalt, 
 William of Nassau, and many free cities, as well as the 
 kingdoms of Denmark (1536) and Norway, (1537). 
 Meanwhile urgent and repeated application had been 
 made by the Emperor to the Pope to call the council, to 
 whicli Protestants had appealed, and which was expected 
 by man\' to bring about a satisfiictory settlement of all 
 differences. The Popes had deferred that action, until 
 the work, which it might have done in the beginning, 
 was no longer practicable; and until the Protestants no 
 longer took much interest in it. A Bull was issued con- 
 voking the council at Mantua. With a view to it, 
 Luther drew up a statement of his views, which was 
 accepted by the Protestant League at Smalcald, in Feb- 
 ruar\% 1537. It is known as the Smalcald articles. 
 The council did not meet. 
 
 July 10, 1538, the Holy League was formed at 
 Nuremberg for the purpose of sustaining the Imperial 
 autliorities in carrying the Edict of Augsburg into exe- 
 cution. War between the two parties seemed to be 
 inevitable. But at that juncture the Turk again threat- 
 ened the eastern borders of the empire. Peace must be 
 kept with the Protestants some time longer. Imperial 
 negotiations with them, at Frankfort on the Main, 1539, 
 resulted in suspending all proceedings against them for 
 eighteen months. 
 
 After the termination of the Frankfort suspension, 
 various other diets and conferences were held to settle 
 the differences of opinion ; but without effect. The 
 urgently demanded council at last assembled at Trent, 
 Dec. 13, 1545. At that juncture, Luther died at Eisle- 
 ben, the place of his birth, February 16, 1546. Very 
 soon it became plain that the council would not answer 
 the end for which it was called, that its purpose was not 
 to conciliate but to condemn the Protestants. The 
 Emperor opened a conference at Ratisbon, Jan. 27, 1546. 
 That also failed. And feeling now in condition to apply 
 force, he undertook to make a reformation on his own 
 terms, which Protestants were to be constrained to accept. 
 They resisted ; but their confederation, called the Smal- 
 
170 
 
 cald League, conducted the war feebly, and was constrain- 
 ed to submit. At a Diet opened by the Emperor at Augs- 
 burg Sept. 1547, a compromise between the Catholic and 
 Protestant religions was agreed upon, as an Interim, or 
 temporary measure, until the action of a proper council 
 could be obtained. Though accepted by some of the 
 Protestant princes, by the states and populations gener- 
 ally it was condemned. But military force imposed it. 
 In a few months, pure Protestantism was suppressed in 
 Germany, The city of Magdeburg alone maintained it. 
 That success of the Imperial arms was brought to a 
 sudden termination. Maurice of Saxony who a few 
 years before had deserted the Protestant league, to join 
 the Emperor, and was trusted with command of a large 
 force, becoming disgusted with the service in which he 
 was employed, and indignant at the Imperial despotism, 
 suddenly turned from Magdeburg, which he had been 
 sent to reduce, and directed his arms against his master. 
 Charles lay sick at Inspruck, and learned of his danger 
 only in time to escape capture by a rapid flight. He was 
 constrained (Aug. 2d, 1552) to sign a treaty granting 
 freedom of religion to the Protestant States, until a new 
 council could be convened. Maurice also secured the 
 co-operation of the King of France, who prosecuted the 
 war by invading the Emperor's possessions in the 
 Netherlands. It was at some sacrifice that Charles 
 secured a not dishonorable peace with his enemies on 
 all sides. The act of settlement for Germany was con- 
 cluded at the Diet of Augsburg Sept. 25, 1555, in grant- 
 ing to the Protestant religion, without limitation of time, 
 a recognized place, and to the German states freedom of 
 choice between the two religions. One month later, 
 Charles V. abdicated the throne of the Netherlands, and 
 a few weeks afterwards that of Spain with all its depen- 
 dencies, in favor of his son Philip. The crown of the 
 empire he retained six months longer. But when he 
 had transferred all his claims of allegiance from Ger- 
 many to his brother Ferdinand, the greatest monarch of 
 his age withdrew from public life, and sunk himself in 
 a monastery. Although courtesy, as long as he lived, 
 still made use of his august name, he never again appeared 
 in the world. 
 
171 
 
 2. Freedom of religious profession was allowed, by 
 the Peace of Augsburg, only to governments. The 
 people were expected to follow the religion selected for 
 them by their rulers, although they were free to remove 
 to a state where that of their choice was established. It 
 was further fettered by a stipulation that every prince 
 prelate, passing over to the cause of Protestantism, should 
 lose, with his ecclesiastical prerogatives, also his tem- 
 poral power and dominion. But for this ecclesiastical 
 reservation, it is thought that almost all GermanjMvould 
 have become Protestant. The Emperors Ferdinand I. 
 and Maximilian II. respected the peace, and made hon- 
 orable efforts to hold the balance fairly between the two 
 parties. And several additions were made to the num- 
 ber of Protestant states. 
 
 After the death of Luther, the divisions of opinion, 
 which had existed before, among the theologians of his 
 connection greatl}^ increased. Melancthon had modified 
 their theology on some points, such as the agency of 
 man in conversion, and the Lord's Supper. In the for- 
 mer, though he denied all merit to man, yet he held to 
 a certain co-operation of human free will ; and respect- 
 ing the latter he took a middle ground between the Cal- 
 vinistic and Lutheran. The University of Wittenberg 
 adopted his views. Subsequent!}' that of Jena was 
 founded in the interest of strict Lutheranism. Various 
 other differences arose, which distracted theological 
 opinion, for several years. At last a convention met at 
 Bergen, near Magdeburg, 1577, and agreed upon a form 
 of Concord, which seemed to give general satisfaction. 
 The Formula Concordioe constitutes the final symbol of 
 the Lutheran church. 
 
 It was in the beginning of this period that a new enemy 
 of the Protestant cause began to make itself felt in the 
 controversy. The Jesuit order received Papal sanction 
 in 1540, and in 1556 Ignatius Loyola died, after having 
 completed his system, and seen it fully established in 
 practice. Loyola was a Spanish soldier, who being dis- 
 abled for military service by wounds, turned his atten- 
 tion to the construction of a new monastic order for the 
 specific purpose of defending the Papal cause. His 
 plans were gradually matured by the thinking of many 
 
172 
 
 3'ears and assistance of colleagues, among whom the first 
 were Peter Faber and Francis Xavier. 
 
 The methods by which the order, which called itself 
 the society of Jesus, sought to obtain power, was by 
 popular preaching, by obtaining the place of confessors 
 to Princes and persons of high rank and standing in 
 royal courts, by controlling the education of the young, 
 and establishing missions to operate upon the rulers of 
 heathen countries. The vows of a professed Jesuit are 
 those of chastity, poverty, obedience, and of implicit com- 
 pliance with a command of the Pope, to go to any place 
 in the world where he may send them. They are not 
 under obligation of seclusion from the world, to practice 
 the ordinary penances and macerations of the body. 
 Not for asceticism, but for work is the order constituted. 
 The selection of their men is careful, their education 
 strict, and their probation searching. The first stage is 
 that of novices on trial, second that of scholastics pursu- 
 ing the education appointed them ; third, that of coadju- 
 tors temporal and spiritual, of whom the former are not 
 yet priests, but useful to the cause in secular occupations, 
 and the other constitute the class from whom are chosen 
 the highest, or fourth grade, who are also of two classes, 
 the professed of three vows and the professed of four. 
 Their government recognizes successive ranks of sub- 
 ordination, and superiors, with mutual espionage, and 
 the supreme authority is vested in a general, elected by 
 the professed members, and who serves for life. 
 
 In proportion as that new order increased in Ger- 
 many, so did Catholic violations of the Religious Peace. 
 First they succeded in suppressing Protestantism in 
 Bavaria, and then in winning other states back to the Cath- 
 olic connection. The Emperor Rudolph II. (1576-1612) 
 sustained the re-action with all the \veight of his authority, 
 and in some cases with force. As the power of choosing 
 the state religion belonged only to the rulers, little 
 regard was paid to the wishes of the people. Success 
 emboldened aggression. Threats of entire suppression 
 of the Protestant cause began to be heard, and in some 
 quarters steps were actually taken to that end. 
 
 A change had also taken place in the tone of the 
 Catholic church, as well as of the Papacy, respecting the 
 
173 
 
 reformation needed within their bounds. Clement VII, 
 died in 1534. His successor, Paul III., deluded the 
 reforming party for many years with the promise of call- 
 ing a council, which should regulate the affairs of the 
 church by proper authority. After many evasions, he 
 finally called the council, which met at Trent, Dec. 13, 
 1545. In 1547, he removed it to Bologna, and soon after 
 caused it to be adjoarned. From the first, the Protest- 
 ants perceived that it was to be a mere Papal agency, and 
 declined taking any part in it. In Nov. 1549, Paul III. 
 died. Julius III., at the instance of Charles V., reopened 
 the council. May 1st, 1551, but closed it in April 1552. 
 After liis death in 1555, Marcellus reigned only 23 days; 
 and was followed b\- Paul IV., who, having been long at 
 the head of the inqusition in Rome, entered upon his 
 pontificate in the spirit of stern hostility to all measures 
 of reform, and with a determination to carry to the 
 utmost possible extreme the temporal and spiritual 
 supremacy of the Papal office. During all his reign 
 (1555-1559) the council was not called. By the next 
 Pope Pius IV., it was re-asserabled January 18, 1562, and 
 was more numerously attended than before, but its acts 
 were of less importance: and neither then nor before 
 did it effect anything to meet the demand which had first 
 brought it together. It however clearly defined the 
 position of Romanism as over against that of the Prot- 
 estants ; and made manifest the fact that reconciliation 
 was impracticable. It was finally dissolved on the 4th 
 of December, 1563. In all, its sessions had covered 
 about four years and seven months. Indulgences, and 
 all the doctrines out of which they spring, and by which 
 they are justified, were fully sustained by the council, 
 and the practice of dispensing them defended, while the 
 recklessness which had brought the sale of them into 
 disrepute was censured. They were to be dispensed, not 
 for gain, but for piety. The works of the council of 
 Trent appear in the form of canons, and a catechism for 
 the instruction of priests. And after its final adjourn- 
 ment, Pius IV. issued a profession of faith, in which he 
 summed up the results of what it had done, and added 
 to the Nicene creed a series of articles, which he pro- 
 nounced part of the true and Catholic faith, out of 
 which no one can be saved. 
 
174 
 
 From the close of the council of Trent, the demand 
 for reform in the Romish church fell into disrepute, and 
 the reaction against it continued to gain strength, until 
 the very name of reformation was held equivalent to 
 heresy. For that change the Catholic church is indebted 
 chiefly to the Council of Trent, and the Jesuit Order, 
 which at the death of its founder in 1556, consisted of 
 one thousand active agents, and one hundred religious 
 houses, divided into twelve provinces, reaching to the 
 East Indies, on one side, and to Brazil on the other. It 
 soon became a mighty engine, no less powerful among 
 the politics of princes, than in the propaganda of Roman- 
 ism. 
 
 Within the same period, the different churches of 
 the Reformed connection on the continent had also 
 matured their doctrinal symbols. 
 
 In 1535 and 1536, Geneva, sustained by the canton of 
 Berne succeeded in wresting her independence from her 
 Bishop and the Duke of Savoy, and in uniting with the 
 Protestant confederation of Switzerland. Her reform- 
 ers, Farel and Viret, were in 1536, joined by Calvin, who 
 had already published the first edition of his Institutes 
 of Theology. For the strictness of their discipline they 
 were all banished from the city. Farel subsequently 
 labored in Neuchatel, and Viret in Lausanne. Calvin 
 was recalled in 1541 by the urgent entreaty of the peo- 
 ple of Geneva, with the promise that they would accept 
 the religious government which he proposed. Under 
 the regulations thus established, Geneva became the 
 head of the Helvetic Reformation, and the Seminary of 
 Reformed doctrine. After the death of Calvin, May 
 27, 1564, that reputation and standing was maintained 
 by Beza and other eminent scholars and divines. 
 
 In France the Reformed, under severe repression and 
 sometimes the most cruel, persecution, continued to 
 increase in uumber; and in 1559 drew up their confes- 
 sion consistent with the doctrines taught in Geneva. 
 Their cause was sustained by the Prince of Conde, the 
 Admiral Coligny, and the Queen of Navarre, and later, 
 by her daughter, and then by her gandson, Henry, King 
 of Navarre^ At the head of the Catholic party stood 
 the ducal house of Loraine, and the royal family of 
 
175 
 
 France, led by the policy of Catherine de Medici, wife of 
 Henry II., and mother of the three next successive Kings. 
 After repeated wars, a marriage of the young King of 
 Navarre and the sister of King Charles IX., was nego- 
 tiated as a means of securing peace. Great numbers of 
 Protestants assembled in Paris to honor the nuptials of 
 their leader. According to arrangements previously con- 
 certed, chiefly by the Queen Mother, they were attacked 
 on the night of the 24 th of Aug. 1572, and murdered to the 
 number of many thousands. The orders were extended 
 to the provinces, where they were also obeyed. But so 
 far from being exterminated, the Reformed of France 
 rallied around the King of IS'avarre, and carried him in 
 victory to the walls of Paris, when he succeeded to the 
 throne of France, 1589, and in the hope of uniting both 
 parties, deserted his friends by professing the creed of 
 his enemies. He granted, however, to Protestants, equal 
 rights with Catholics, by the edict of Nantes, 1598. His 
 own famil}' were subjected to Romish education, and the 
 real liberties of Protestants did not long survive his 
 death, which occurred by assassination in 1610. 
 
 Among the Reformed of the Netherlands persecution, 
 begun in the execution of the first martj'rs of Brussels 
 in 1523, was continued with varying severity through 
 all the reign of Charles V., and under his successor 
 Philip II., intensified to a degree which was equally 
 inhuman and insane, resulting in the reduction to pov- 
 erty of a once wealthy dependency, and the complete 
 alienation of its allegiance from the throne of Spain. In 
 1579, the southern provinces submitted. But the north- 
 ern declared their independence. In 1561 the Belgic 
 confession was composed, presenting the same type of 
 doctrine as that of Geneva. On that Platform the 
 Republicans of the United Netherlands defended them- 
 selves against the forces of Spain, and after a long war, 
 wrested from their enemy the peace of 1609. Then rose 
 the controversy with Arminianism, leading to the Synod 
 of Dort in 1618. Again the Provinces were involved in 
 a war with Spain, beginning from 1621, in the course of 
 which they were brought into relations with the Protest- 
 ants of Germany. 
 
 Among German Protestants several princes and 
 
176 
 
 states passed over from Lutberanisiii to the Reformed 
 communion, such as the Duchy of Lippe, Hesse Cassel, 
 and the Hanse city of Bremen. But of all German 
 Reformed States most eminent was the Palatinate, which 
 made the change under the Elector Frederick III. in 
 1560. Three years afterwards, under the same Prince, 
 the Heidelberg catechism was published, whicli soon 
 became the common standard of doctrine for the churches 
 of that connection. 
 
 A sense of the danger to which they were exposed 
 by the machinations of Jesuits, and the spirit of perse- 
 cution which was exhibiting itself more and more exten- 
 sively, led the Protestant states of Germany to enter 
 into another league for their mutual defence. Thus was 
 formed the Evangelical Union, at Ahausen, in May, 1608. 
 An opposing Catholic league was constituted in July of 
 the next year, at Munich. At the head of the former 
 was the Elector Frederick V. of the Palatinate, and of 
 the latter, Maximilian of Bavaria. 
 
 In Bohemia, the Reformers were the most numerous 
 part of the population. But the religious Peace was of 
 little benefit to them, because they were subjects of a 
 Catholic German Prince, and dependent upon his strict- 
 ness or liberality. Upon the death of the Emperor 
 Matthias, who had been their King, the Bohemians 
 resisted his successor on the Imperial throne, Ferdinand 
 IL, as being an intolerant Catholic, and offered their 
 crown to Frederick V., electoral Prince of the Palatin- 
 ate, and son-in-law of James I. of England. Ferdinand 
 pursued his claim by war, and was supported by Spain 
 and the Catholic league. Bohemia and the Palatinate, 
 driven to self-defence, looked for support from the Evan- 
 gelical Union, and from England. Thus opened in 1618 
 a war which, though sometimes interrupted for a brief 
 space, was not brought to a close until after the lapse of 
 thirty years, and in the prosecution of which some of 
 the finest portions of Germany were trodden into deso- 
 lation. 
 
 3. The aid expected by the Elector from England 
 proved so feeble as to be deceitful. The cause of Fer- 
 dinand was victorious (1620). Protestant worship was 
 abolished in Bohemia. The same fate befell Austria. 
 
177 
 
 The lands of the Palatinate were seized by Spain and 
 Maximilian of Bavaria. The Evangelical Union was 
 dissolved, and the first act of the war terminated in the 
 re-establishment of the Catholic religion everjwhei-e by 
 force. 
 
 In 1625, an attempt was made by the Protestants of 
 lower Saxony, under command of Christian IV., King 
 of Denmark, to resist that oppression. It also issued in 
 defeat, before the imperial forces under Tilly and Wallen- 
 stein. A treaty was concluded at Lubeck, May 12, 
 
 1629. The long suspended Edict was put in execution, 
 and nothing less was contemplated than extermination 
 of the protestant cause. 
 
 But the completeness of imperial success brought 
 about its overthrow. Such a preponderance of the 
 Austrian Spanish power kindled the jealousy, if not the 
 reasonable fears of France. The Italian princes, includ- 
 ing the Pope, from various motives of local politics, sym- 
 pathized with France. An alliance was accordingly 
 formed by those powers together with Sweden for the 
 purpose of pursuing the war more vigorously, to put a 
 check upon the dangerously overbalancing weight of the 
 Hapsburg dynasty. The new^ campaign opened June 24, 
 
 1630, in the arrival of Gustavus Adolphns, King of 
 Sweden, as commander of the allied armies in Germany. 
 By his prudence and energy he inspired the minds of 
 Protestants with new hopes, which were fully sustained 
 by his military success. On the 7th of September 1631, 
 he fought a great battle, in which he defeated Count 
 Tilly, at Leipsic, and cleared his way into the heart of 
 Germany. Early next year, he again defeated the impe- 
 rial forces, at the passage of the Lech, where Count Tilly 
 was slain. Continuing his victorious march southward 
 he penetrated into Bavaria, breaking, as he advanced, 
 the fetters, which the Emperor had been so industriously 
 riveting upon his Protestant subjects. In another great 
 battle at Liitzen, Nov. 6, 1632, he defeated the forces of 
 Wallenstein. By these victories he removed the oppres- 
 sion which rested upon most of the German states, 
 thereby enlarging his own resources, as he weakened 
 those of his enemy. And, although he fell in the midst 
 of victory, at Liitzen, the change he had efiected upon 
 
178 
 
 the relative state of the belligerents gave an advantage 
 to the cause he defended which was retained to the end. 
 His policy was pursued by the Swedish minister Oxen- 
 stiern, and the Swedish generals Banier and Torstensen, 
 and the Prince of Saxe-Weinier wrested repeated victory 
 from the imperialist forces ; while Spain, already reduced 
 by her losses in the Netherlands, was humiliated by the 
 victories of the French generals, Conde, Turenne and 
 others. It was a long conflict, in which the reverses 
 were not all on one side, but which issued in such decided 
 advantage to the Protestant cause as to constrain the 
 Austrian-Spanish enemy to come to reasonable terras. 
 The Thirty years war closed in the Peace of Westphalia, 
 October 1648. 
 
 By that Treaty, Sweden and some other Protestant 
 states made a gain of territory, and only in Bavaria 
 were the Catholics allowed to retain all the advantages 
 they had conquered in the early part of the war ; and the 
 terrible oppression of Bohemia could not be undone.; 
 but the principal gain was in the establishment of equal- 
 ity between Catholic and Protestant states, in all aitairs 
 of the empire. As Holland had been one of the mem- 
 bers of the alliance, the conditions of the treaty extended 
 to both branches of the Protestant connection. 
 
 Among the Confessions called forth during this long 
 period of conflict the most important are, for the Lutheran 
 church, Luther's two Catechisms, Longer, and Shorter, 
 the Augsburg Confession, the Apology for the Confes- 
 sioli, the Smalcald Articles and the Form of Concord ; 
 for the Reformed, the second Basil Confession, or first 
 Helvetic, Calvin's Listitutes, though not a confession, 
 yet having much to do with all the Reformed confessions 
 which succeeded, Consensus Tigurinus, by which Ger- 
 man Switzerland accepted Calvin's doctrine of the Lord's 
 Supper, the second Helvetic Confession, the Heidelberg 
 Catechism, the Gallic Confession, the Belgic Confession, 
 and the Confession and canons of Dort. And by the 
 same date, the English Church Articles had received their 
 final form, and the work of the Westminster Assembly 
 was complete.