eic.i.L ScV.v^ ^^60 .K4 1901 Kerlin, Robert Thomas, 1866 Thfchurch of the fathers THE I* DEC 11 1911 Church of the Fathers. A History of Christianity from Clement to Gregory. (A.D. ioo-A,D. too.) By ROBERT THOMAS KERLIN. The darkness overcame it notP — Gospel of Jonrr. Nashville, Tenn.; Dallas, Tex.: Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South. Barbee & Smith, Agents. Copyrighted, 1901, By Barbee & Smith, Agents. (") DEDICATION. Having some years ago inscribed a little volume of song — the best that was then mine of poetic thought and feeling to the memory of my first and ever- CHERISHED Mother, I dedicate this more serious effort, WITH FILIAL regard, TO MY SECOND MoTHER, THE EVER- NOURISHING MOTHER OF SCIENCES AND ARTS, CENTRAL COL- LEGE, Fayette, Mo. The Author. (iii) '(hrep koTiv ev adtfiarc i^xv, tovt'' elolv tv KSafxif) Xpiariavoi, — Epis- tle TO DiOGNETUS. "ySterna Safientiay sese hi omnibus rebus^ maxime in huniana mente^ omnium 7naxime iji Christu Jesu tnanifestavity — Spinoza. (iv) PREFACE. A TWOFOLD aim has governed the writer of this book. He has desired, first, to awaken interest in the early post-apostohc history of the Church, to open this rich field to new searchers after knowl- edge, and to be a guide to them to the mines of purest wealth. In the second place, he has sought to bring some shining nuggets from this far-off and dim region, with the hope that here and there a soul, athirst for true riches, may be induced to journey thither to behold those mountains whence he gathered the only precious things he has to dis- play. In plain language, he has culled sayings full of perpetual wisdom from the writings of immortal but unknown men; from heroic, good, and wise men, whose names have become dim in the news- paper age of the world ; but men wholly worthy to be called saints, philosophers, fathers. Avoiding as much as possible all abstruse discussions of doc- trine, and writing as a layman for the laity, he has told the story of the Church in the lives of illustri- ous men, and brought them, not seldom, to speak for themselves in passages of such moral beauty and such intrinsic eloquence as the literature of the world may rival, possibly, but not surpass. Professing himself to have been for many years a diligent student of this determinative and mar- (V) vi Preface, velously fruitful age of the Church, interested in every phenomenon of its life as no insignificant thing in its time and import, yet he has not been, he trusts, so fond an historian of ideas and usages as to cause every burial ground of the past to yield up its entire host of forgotten and impertinent dead. The life that has been transmitted; the breathing and embodied doctrines wherein was and is life and power ; the heroic and undying souls wherein the Word that is eternal spoke ; the growing institution ; the Christian conquest of the world — these are the things that have mainly engaged the thoughts of the writer of this book. Let him add to the mottoes already presented to the reader this one from St. Paul, as of supreme usefulness in all study and practice: " Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." R. T. K. Marshall, Mo., /«?/<% 1901. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Introduction, PAGE History the enlightener — The interest attaching to begin- nings — Review of the Period — Principle of estimating men and things; their serviceableness to their own age — Sources of knowledge: writings of the Fathers; the fourth and fifth century historians, Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret — Aim and spirit of this present undertaking; knowledge of Christian history — Culture in Christian truths i CHAPTER II. The Apostolic Fathers. Their importance: historical; ethical— The men and their works: Clement of Rome; Ignatius of Antioch; Poly- carp of Smyrna; Hermas, the Didache; the Epistle to Diognetus ; miscellaneous writings — Character and value of these early documents 13 CHAPTER III. The Apologists. Greek philosophers converted to Christianity — Employed Hellenic culture in defense of the gospel — Their achieve- ment; the founding of Christian theology, or a philoso- phy of Christianity — Quadratus, Aristides, Melito, Apol- linaris, Miltiades, Athenagoras, Justin Martyr, Tatian, Theophilus, Felix Maximus, Tertullian, Origen; Exposi- tion of Justin Martyr as representative — Summary 35 CHAPTER IV. The School of Alexandria. The City: cosmopolitan in culture; free in religious thought — Philonism — Neoplatonism — The Catechetical School — Clement ; Origen 53 (vii) viii Contents. CHAPTER V. Early Herksies and the Formation of a Canon. ^,^^^^ How the question of a canon of Scriptures arose; diver- gencies in doctrine gave rise to need of a rule of faith (/cavojv) — Ebionism — Gnosticism — Monarchianism — The formation of a canon, or body of authoritative documents, a gradual process 8i CHAPTER VI. Ecclesiastical Organization. Growth: stages traceable ; causes — Priestly orders and their functions: bishops, presbyters, deacons, etc. — Roman empire the pattern of the Church — The rise of Rome to supremacy: favoring conditions; causes and stages — Opposition to growing priestcraft — Montanism ; Monas- ticism 103 CHAPTER Vn. The Church and the Empire. Persecutions — Attitude of the empire toward religions; to- ward Christianity — Why the Christians were persecuted — The Church's condition from Nero, A.D . 54, to Diocle- tian, A.D. 311 — The catacombs: the underground age of Christianity — Constantine the Great: Christianity on the imperial throne 117 CHAPTER Vni. The Arian Controversy. Freedom from danger without; foes within — Streams of thought — Monarchianism; two wings — Arianism — Rise — Attempts at settlement — ^The First Ecumenical Coun- cil: character; work; results — Varying party fortunes — Arius and Athanasius 145 CHAPTER IX. Great Men of the East. The epoch one of eminent men — The three Cappadocians, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzum, Gregory of Nyssa; Chrys- ostom 1 73 Contents. ix CHAPTER X. Great Men of the West. p^^^. Ambrose — Jerome — Augustine 20i CHAPTER XI. Worship, Ritual, and Observances. Houses of worship — Symbolism — Overthrow of paganism — Reaction — ^Julian the Apostate — Pagan survivals in Christianity; numerous; reasonable — Hymnologj; ear- liest Christian usage — Chief hjmn-writers of the period — Liturgies and festivals — Saints, relics, and miracles; the gradual corruption of the pure religion 227 CHAPTER XII. Monasticism. Origin, spirit, and aim — A feature of various other reli- gions — Early Christian hermits in Egypt — Spread — Ra- tionale, and conditions producing Monasticism — The barbarian invasion — Visigoths, Huns, Vandals — Service of Monasticism — Benedict of Nursia and his order — Planting of Christianity in Germany, Gaul, and Britain.. 251 CHAPTER XIII. The Pelagian Controversy. Origin — Outbreak — Pelagius, Synods — Teachings of Pela- gius — Estimate of the opposing doctrines 275 CHAPTER XIV. Councils and Creeds. Remarks upon the period — Spirit of fairness in judging of the Church's work — The first five Ecumenical Councils: of Nica^a, of Constantinople, of Ephesus, of Chalcedon, of Constantinople (second)— The various controversies which occasioned them — Creeds: attempted exclusions of heresies by strict definitions of the faith ; the Nicene, the Apostles', the Athanasian 303 X Contents. CHAPTER XV. Gregory the Great — Conclusion. ^.^^^ Significance of great men — Preparation of Gregory for eminence — Kinds of service he rendered the Church — Consolidation and enforcement of conformity — One pe- riod of Church nistory closed — Conclusion 325 Appendix I.: Chief Authors and Their Chief Works 339 Appendix II. : Table of Emperors 345 Select Bibliography xi SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY. History of the Christian Church. Dr. Philip Schaff. Scribners. Encyclopedic, filled with pregnant comment, characterized by breadth of spirit and largeness of aim. History of Latin Christianity . H. H. Milman. "Standard Edi- tion " in four volumes. Armstrong and Son, New York. Al- most epical, full of learning and of eloquence, written in the finest spirit of ripe scholarship and broad sympathies. Christian History. J. H. Allen. Three volumes. Roberts Brothers, Boston. An interesting narration from a human- istic point of view, and dealing with salient forces and chief men. History of Christian Doctrine. G. P. Fisher. In the "Interna- tional Theological Library." An excellent comprehensive volume. Christian Institutions. A. V. G. Allen. Another volume of the " International Theological Library." Admirably written. Mammal of Pair ology. W.N. Stearns, Ph.D. Scribners. An invaluable handbook that gives a "concise account of the chief persons, sects, orders, etc., in Christian history from the first century to the Reformation." Library of the Fathers. Edited by Dr. Schaff. Thirty-six vol- umes. This library contains the most important writings of the Fathers of the first six centuries. It is the storehouse of knowledge for all historians. The Fathers for English Readers, edited by G. A. Jackson, is an excellent series of brief monographs, including the follow- ing: "The Apostolic Fathers," "The Defenders of the Faith," "Clement of Alexandria," "Saint Athanasius," "Saint Ambrose," "Saint Gregory," "Saint Basil," "Saint Jerome," "Saint Augustine," "Leo the Great," "Saint Pat- rick," " Gregory the Great." Price each, 80 cents. (xi) THE CHURCH OF THE- FATHERS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. " For neither is there life without knowledge nor sound knowledge without true life." — Efistle to Diognetus. The present cannot be understood, nor the fu- ture conjectured, without a knowledge of the past. The simplest institutions among us are a heritage from an antiquity hoary as that of the pyramids. Being the embodiment of ideas and purposes cre- ated by the growing mind of man, they have de- veloped in accordance with the laws of his nature and in response to his varying needs, taking, slow- ly but surely, the charac'*eristic features of the aims and ideals of each succeeding age, all the while, through all transformations, subject to an underlying principle which preserves their identi- ty. To build wisely we must know the architec- tural plan, the original conception; and this can be discovered only by a careful study of the foun- dations and a survey of the rising structure. This knowledge as regards the edifice called society, or civilization- — this cathedral which is always build- ing, never finished — is derived from a study of history. The laws of development to v/hich fu- ture efforts must conform are to be discovered in the records of events and made the common pos- session of all ; for all have, in various degrees, a de- termining influence upon progress. Knowledge (I) 2 The Church of the Fathers. of histor}^ makes this influence an enlightened, conservative, forwarding one. The long look ahead can be obtained only by getting the bear- ings and line of general direction from the past course of advance. The past is all prophetic; the future lies in the womb of the present. All origins are interesting. The account of all development is philosophy in the concrete. The history of institutions, of their rise and growth, their functions and purposes, is one of the most instructive, broadening, and liberalizing studies that can occupy the mind. Preeminent among human institutions are those which spring out of man's religious nature. The central fact of his being is his religion ; worship is his most univer- sal trait and most fundamental instinct. Wherever he has built him a house in which to dwell, he has reared him a temple in which to pray and adore. All the facts and phenomena of man's life, social and individual, order themselves about religion as a determining principle. The nature of man is per- manently and prevailingly religious. Therefore no institutions are more interesting to study in their rise, development, functions, and influences — all that make up history — than those most immediately embodying the religious idea. Chief among these for us is the Christian Church. This history we purpose to outline, and its signifi- cance to indicate, in a few brief chapters, only de- signing to win our readers to a recognition of the supreme importance of the subject and to direct Introduction . 3 them in the way of a systematic and thorough study in the books of the great historians. Where shall we begin? The true starting place is indeed not this side of Abraham, the father of the faithful and the founder of the congregation of Israel. But our purpose hardly requires an ac- count ab ovo ; though no student of Church history should fail to inform himself as regards the teach- ings and manner of service in vogue successively in the tabernacle, the temple, and the synagogue. The Church stands, in line of development, the successor of these. Conforming to the prevalent usage, and vvithout any open hostility to the estab- lished order, Jesus taught and the apostles preached in the synagogues of their nation. It was inevita- ble that much in the way of ritual, polity, and doc- trine should be carried into the new society, how- ever radical seems the change to a simpler wor- ship and more ethical teaching. Can there be anything in common, it may be asked, between a Wesleyan chapel and a cathedral of the Church of England? Yes, more than a casual observer at first discerns. Whatever of ritual is found in the lowly chapel — and there must be some, and often is much — is derived from the stately cathedral. The Jewish synagogue is no less the mother of the Christian Church. The New Testament is not more truly the logical development of the Old, and Christianity not more the legitimate outcome of Judaism, than is the Church as an organization the offspring of the synagogue. The congrega- 4 The Church of the Fathers. tion of the old dispensation becomes the ekklesia of the new. But for a full account of this matter the reader must go to Schiirer's '^Jewish People in the Time of Christ" and Toy's **Judaism and Christianity." We pass over not only this impor- tant transition period, but also the New Testament times as well, and begin with the Church of the Apostolic Fathers. What may the reader expect in this history, and what are the inducements to its study? We have limited ourselves to the first six centuries following New Testament times — a period including what is commonly, but ignorantly, denominated the Dark Ages. Never in the history of human life was the human mind more actively engaged on problems of thought which required solution and on the framing of institutions which were necessary; never was there an a^^e more aboundinjx in moral enthusiasm and spiritual aspiration. Keen meta- physicians, bold speculators, prolific writers, elo- quent preachers, great ecclesiasts — Origen, Atha- nasius, and Chrysostom ; Ambrose, Jerom.e, and Augustine; Leo and Gregory — belong to this pe- riod. It gave birth and direction to monasticism, one of the supreme religious movements of histo- ry. It was an era of Christian conquest of pagan- ism and barbarism, of assimilation, organization, and establishment. Creeds had to be formulated; doctrines had to be digested and developed into system; liturgies, ceremonies, and rituals, festi- vals and observances — for there is no Church with- Introduction, g Out these — had to be ordered and brought into serv- ice. It was an age of genius and achievements— not, it is true, in poetry or in any form of fine art, but in the treatment of theological problems and in the creation of fitting ecclesiastical institutions. The usefulness now, or absence of usefulness, of what the men of that time did, must not be taken as a measure of its usefulness then. In view of the conditions of those times and of the work that lay before the Church, the verdict of necessity must rest upon the general character and results of their activity. Within our survey shall come the literary con- flict with paganism; the persecutions which the Christians suffered at the hands of the Empire; their heroic deaths and wonderful triumphs over pain, and the winning of imperial power and final triumph over paganism; the missionary labors which resulted in the Christianization of Europe, the triumph over barbarism; the growth of eccle- siasticism and the origin of the papacy; the work of councils in the settlement of disputes, the pro- mulgation of canons and creeds, and the eradica- tion of heresies. The customs and manner of life, the great words and virtuous works, of believers will engage much of our attention. Examples of heroic fidelity to Christ, legends of beautiful lives, illustrations of the simplicity and sweetness of the disciples' trust in Christ, shall ennoble our pages. It will be a history of beginnings, which should al- 6 The Church of the JFathers, ways be interesting; a history of great intellectual and moralconflicts and of illustrious men ; the his- tory of an institution still living and growing, an in- stitution without parallel in origin, in power, and in perpetuity; a history of the Church of Christ. The author, in writing this history, has first of all sought his information first-hand from the liter- ature of the times of which he treats. He passes judgment on no book which he has not read, nor on any personage whose life and work he has not studied. The Fathers, as he wrote, were about him in his library. While modern authorities have not been neglected, the early historians of the Church — Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, and The- odoret — have been constantly by his side, his chief teachers. Of this group of historians it is befitting, since we shall have occasion hereafter frequently to refer to them, to give here some account. Eusebius, after St. Luke, was the first historian of the Church, and is chief of the early group in importance. He was bishop of Cassarea from about A.D. 313 until his death, about 337. His learning is accounted to be very great, and he was fortunate in having access, when he came to write his history of the Church, to the vast library which Origen had gotten together in Caesarea. He was an honored friend of Constantine, the first Chris- tian emperor; he was a distinguished member of the first Ecumenical Council, at Nicsea, in A.D. 325; he was the father of Church history. The conception he had of his task is nobly expressed Introductii on. in his own worcLs: '* Other writers of history," he says, "record the victories of war and trophies won from enemies, the skill of generals, and the manly bravery of soldiers, defiled with blood and with innumerable slaughters, for the sake of chil- dren and country and other possessions. But our narrative of the government of God will record in ineffaceable letters the most peaceful wars waged in behalf of the peace of the soul, and will tell of men doing brave deeds for truth rather than coun- try, and for piety rather than dearest friends. It will hand down to imperishable remembrance the discipline and the much-tried fortitude of the ath- letes of religion, the trophies won from demons, the victories over invisible enemies, and the crowns placed upon all their heads." His history, together with his "Life of Con- stantine,'^ covers the whole period of the Church from the beginning to the death of that emperor, A.D. 337. Socrates comes next in order of time. Born at Constantinople about A.D. 380, he wrote a full century after Eusebius, and, treating more fully of certain things, especially of the Arian controver- sy, than that author, he continued the history of the Church to the year 439. He was conscien- tious and careful in gathering information and im- partial in his treatment of the controversies. He had a wide acquaintance with Greek literature and was broad and liberal-minded. None the less did he have a high respect for the Church 8 The Church of the Fathers. and her institutions, although he was no slave to formalism. Sozomen was born the same year with Socrates. He covered but a period of one hundred years (from 323 to 423) with his histor}^ Being an ar- dent monk, he wrote to a great extent in the inter- ests of monasticism. He is uncritical and not very learned. His pages throng with accounts of visions, portents, and miracles. Yet he is a valu- able historian, especially as giving us an inside view of the mind of the age and of the great in- stitution of ascetics. Theodoret was born about A.D. 393 at Antioch, and lived all his life in the midst of the most heat- ed controversies. He was a scholar, familiar with the Syriac, Greek, and Hebrew languages. The greatest Antiochian theologians, a distinctly criti- cal school, were his teachers. In his history he is clear, concise, and veracious. He begins his nar- rative where Eusebius leaves off, and continues it over the space of one hundred and five years, i. e., to A.D. 429. His lofty words in setting forth the design of his history the present writer may humbly choose as his own: *' When artists paint on panels and on walls the events of ancienthistory, they alike delight the eye and keep bright for many a year the memory of the past. Historians substitute books for panels, bright description for pigments, and thus render the memory of past events both stronger and more permanent, for the painter's art is ruined by time. For this reason I too shall Introduction. 9 attempt to record in writing events in ecclesiasti- cal history hitherto omitted, deeming it indeed not right to look on without an effort while obliv- ion robs noble deeds and useful stories of their due fame. For this cause, too, I have been fre- quently urged by friends to undertake this work. But when I compare my own powers with the magnitude of the undertaking, I shrink from at- tempting it. Trusting, however, in the bounty of the Giver of all good, I enter upon a task beyond my own strength." THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. " The Apostolic Fathers are here understood as filling up the second century of our era. . . . We thus find ourselves conducted, by this goodly fellowship of witnesses, from the times of the apostles to those of Tertullian, from the martyrs of the second persecution to those of the sixth. Those were the times of heroism, not of words; an age, not of writers, but of soldiers; not of talkers, but of sufferers. Curiosity is baffled, but faith and love are fed by those scanty relics of primitive antiquity. Yet may we well be grateful for what we have. These writings come down to us as the earliest re- sponse of converted nations to the testimony of Jesus. They are primary evidences of the canon and the credibility of the New Testament. Disappointment may be the first emotion of the student who comes down from the mount where he has dwelt in the tabernacles of evangelists and apostles. . . . Yet the thoughtful and loving spirit soon learns their exceed- ing value. For who does not close the records of St. Luke with longings to get at least a glimpse of the further history of the progress of the gospel? What of the Church when its founders were fallen asleep .-' Was the Good Snepherd 'al- ways' with his little flock, according to his promise,? Was the blessed Comforter felt in his presence amid the fires of perse- cution? Was the Spirit of Truth really able to guide the faithful unto all truth, and to keep them in the truth?" — A. Clevelajid Coxe, Introduction to Vol. /. of ^'■Aiite-Nicene Fathers^ (12) CHAPTER II. THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. (second century.) "Viva vox usque hodie personalis." — Papias. "The same [doctrines] commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also." (2 Tim. ii. 2.) '" In them [the Apostolic Fathers] v^^e may discern the tenden- cies operating from the beginning wMiich are to color the liis- tory of the Church in all coming time." — A. V. G. Allen. Whoever would trace the growth of Christian usages and doctrines, and in any measure under- stand the history of the Church, must begin with the Apostolic Fathers. On other grounds, espe- cially because of their pure and high ethical ut- terances, they are well worthy of study. For the culture of the Christian life they stand close, not only in time but in power, to the writings of the very apostles themselves, their spiritual fathers. No theory of inspiration should cause us to be indifferent to this extra-biblical but thoroughly Christian literature, or to restrict our knowledge of Christian origins to the small volume of canonical writings, which scarcely bring us out of the first century. For historical information, if not for the higher spiritual uses, our interest in the Church of Christ and of the apostles should lead us to a study of the words and works, the lives and labors, of those who transmitted to us the influences and institutions of the founders. (^3) 14 The Church of the Fathers Furthermore, the New Testament itself, giving evidence as it does of a supreme renaissance of the spirit, should lead us to expect some further contribution from the succeeding age to the reli- gious treasures of our race. Surety, one might say, this great movement: — using the language of secular history — this unparalleled effort after mor- al reform and spiritual freedom, has not so quickly spent its force and ceased to bring forth illumi- nated men, and, through them, luminous records of the inspired life ? The Light of the World that enlightened the minds of those firstborn of the new era, can it have become suddenly extinct and left the infant Church, Crying in the night, An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry? Rather should we expect that the promised Spirit of Truth would be preser^t, abiding with the be- lievers, and leading into a fuller comprehension of spiritual realities and a deeper experience of the faith, and causing them to produce a literature, if not worthy to be held sacred, yet '• profitable for doctrine, for correction, for reproof, for instruc- tion in righteousness "; or, as Jerome says of the Old Testament apocrypha, *'for example of life and instruction of manners." We indeed find such a literature — as, truly, the known laws of the human spirit would teach us to expect; a literature so noble in tone, so lofty in ethical teaching, so breathing the spirit of the The Apostolic Fathers. 15 Master, so animated by large thoughts and fer- vent emotions, that much of it was read for some generations in the churches equally with the writ- ings of the apostles themselves. Inspiration was claimed for it by the Fathers. The authors of this earliest literature imme- diately succeeding the New Testament are known as Apostolic Fathers. They were not apostles, but the apostles' spiritual children of the first genera- tion; that is, their immediate successors. They are to be distinguished from the "Church Fathers" as being included among the latter, as a species within a genus; for " Church. Fathers " is a desig- nation applied to all the accepted Christian teach- ers of the first six or more centuries. The advantage of the Apostolic Fathers was very great. They received the sayings of our Lord first-hand from those who had heard his very voice and in their hearts had treasured up his pre- cious v/ords. They had been quickened into new- ness of life by the holy zeal of those who had been for months and even years companions, night and day, of the Christ. They had been touched by the holy fire direct from the altar of God; they had drunk of the fountain of Life near its source. Should the power of this influence fail to manifest itself in their lives, their words, and their labors ? Could the stream of the river of God, *' which is always full," bursting, as it were, from the cleft rock of Judaism, sink so soon in the des- ert sands of heathendom or paganism? The pre- 1 6 The Church of the Fathers. supposition to the contrary is confirmed by the witness of their writings. Whoever will conceive a sufficient interest in the development of Chris- tianity to lead him to look into the writings of the Apostolic Fathers will find that they possess in large measure, if not undiminished, the moral fervor, the ethical aspiration, the spiritual illumination, even of the first great teachers. Some of their productions, as we shall see, were regarded for three or four centuries wdth as high esteem as the writings finally adopted into the sacred canon. The period of these Fathers coincides, generally speaking, with the first half of the second cen- tury; to speak more accurately, it may be said to lap over the third half-century of the Christian era about ten years at each end. A single volume of five hundred and seventy pages, a product of the ripe scholarship of Bishop Lightfoot, includes all their writings, both the original Greek and the editor's translation, accompanied b}' brief intro- ductory notes. Of this literature I will give a brief account, and seek by the imperfect means of quotations to show what it is worth. I. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. This was written at Rome about A.D. 95, by St. Clement, to the church at Corinth, in order to heal a division there and to settle the question of authority in the church. There were two bitterly opposing parties, and the contention was about The Afostolic Fathers, 17 the power of the elders. There had been a revo- lution in the church, and the presb3^ters had been deposed. It seems to have been a rebellion of the early spirit of freedom in respect to preaching, prophesying, worshiping, and living, against a growing orderliness and ecclesiasticism. Clem- ent, after the true Roman fashion, decides against the free spirit in favor of subordination, decorum, and order. The apostles, he writes, appointed bishops and deacons in every city w^here the}^ preached, and to these gave authority ; they should be obe37ed as God himself, inasmuch as their power comes to them through Christ and the apostles from him. This is a truly Roman con- ception, and the letter is important as showing- how even in the first century the church at Rome was assuming an extensive oversight and author- ity. The natural order and government of the world serves to exemplify and teach how it should be in the Church. Pleadings as well as argu- ments are used by this great-hearted and wise head of the Roman Church.^ The past, by way of exhortation to unity and long-suffering, is brought before them in these words: *'And ye were all lowly in mind and free from arrogance, yielding rather than claiming sub- mission, more glad to give than to receive, and iln the half-shadow in which he remained, enveloped and, as it were, lost in the luminous dust of a fine historic distance, Clement is one of the great figures of a nascent Christianity. — Renan. 2 1 8 The Chtt7'ch of the Fathers. • content with the provisions which God supplieth. And giving heed unto his words, ye laid them up dihgently in your hearts, arid his sufferings were before your eyes. Thus a profound and rich peace was given to all, and an insatiable desire of doing good." The lessons of history, of God's mercies, and of Christ's sufferings are adduced in powerful arguments and appeals. The teachings of providence in nature, too, are invoked to the writer's aid in reclaiming the disrupted Church: '*The heavens are moved by his direction, and obey him in peace. Day and night accomplish the course assigned to them, without hindrance one to another. The sun and the moon and the dan- cing stars, according to his appointment, circle in harmony within the bounds assigned to them, with- out any swerving aside." The depths of the abyss- es; theseasons which "give way in succession one to another in peace" ; the winds, which " fulfill their ministry without disturbance " ; ** the ever-flowing fountains, created for enjoyment and health"; all these things the Creator and Master of the universe ordered to be in peace and concord, '* doing good unto all things, but, far beyond the rest, unto us who have taken refuge in his com- passionate mercies." The contemplation of divine goodness, no less than of divine majesty, awakens exclamations of praise. "How blessed," he cries out, ''how blessed and marvelous are the gifts of God, dear- ly beloved ! Life in immortality, splendor in The Afostolic leathers, 19 righteousness, truth in boldness, faith in confi- dence, temperance in sanctification ! " With max- ims of virtue and wise observations on the nature of things are mingled the noblest exhortations to worthy and harmonious living. The chief con- cern of teachers in the Church is still the conduct of life: " Let the wise," writes Clement, *' display his wisdom not in words, but in good works." 2. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians. This also bears the name of Clement, but is not now attributed to him; nor is it an epistle, but a homily, the oldest extant homily of the Church. It was written between A.D. 120 and 140 by some author unknown. Noble throughout in moral teaching and exhortations to a lofty plane of liv- ing, the last paragraph is well worthy of being quoted entire: *' Neither suffer ye this again to trouble your mind, that we see the unrighteous possessing wealth, and the servants of God strait- ened. Let us then have faith, brothers and sis- ters. We are contending in the lists of a livincr God; and we are trained by the present life, that we may be crowned with the future. No righteous man hath reaped fruit quickly, but waiteth for it. For if God had paid the recompense of the right- eous speedily, then straightway we should have been training ourselves in merchandise, and not in godliness; for we should seem to be righteous, though we were pursuing not that which is godly, but that which is gainful. And for this cause di- 20 The Chu7'ch of the leathers. vine judgment overtaketh a spirit that is not just, and loadeth it with chains." 3. The Epistles of Ignatius. These are seven letters written by St. Ignatius while on his way from Antioch, of which city he was bishop, to Rome, to suffer martyrdom in the arena for his faith, having already been condemned to death. The letters, with one exception, are ad- dressed to churches along the way — namely, the churches of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Philadel- phia, Sm3'rna, and Rome. The remaining one is addressed to Polycarp. Their date is about the year no or 115. The information they afiord re- garding the institutions and organizations of the Church at this time, and the heresies which were beginning to make invasions, renders tliem inval- uable to the historian. As offering an example of life and encouragement to moral heroism, they are a part of our Christian treasures of honor. Pas- sages conceived in the most exalted spirit of mar- tyrdom abound. His bonds he calls his " spiritual pearls." Speaking as a witness of the faith, he says, with startling boldness, ** I am a word of God ! " Carried to a lofty height of spiritual vision, he exclaims, *' Nothing visible is good ! " As show- ing how fervent the spirit of martyrdom had be- come and what idea animated it, a passage of some length may be justifiable: " The farthest bounds of the universe," he writes to the Romans, '' shall profit me nothing, neither the kingdoms of this The Afostolic Fathers. 11 world. It is good for me to die for Jesus Christ rather than to reign over the farthest bounds of the earth. Him I seek, who died on our behalf; him I desire, who rose again for our sake. The pangs of a new birth are upon me. Bear with me, breth- ren. Do not hinder me from living; do not de- sire my death. [Spiritual death and life he speaks of; martyrdom was entrance upon true life.] Be- stow not on the world one who desireth to be God's, neither allure him with material thing's. Suffer me to receive the pure light. When I come thither, then shall I be a man. Permit me to be an imita- tor of the passion of my God." Grand men lived in those times which tried men's souls. Ignatius speaks to the Trallians of their bishop, " whose very demeanor is a great lesson, while his gentleness is power — a man to whom even the godless, I think, pay reverence." Such a bishop was Ignatius himself. ** Stand thou firm, as an anvil when it is smitten," are his words to Poly carp, bishop of Smyrna, who was destined to follow him to martyrdom. ** A Christian hath no au- thority over himself, but giveth his time to God." 4. The Martyrdom of Polycarp. This is a letter from the church of Smyrna to the church of Philomelium, and thence to the Church at large, giving an account of the bishop's death for the faith. The description of his hero- ism must be given in the words of this earlv epis- tle. ''As Polycarp entered the stadium,'' \t re- 22 The Chu7'-ch of the Fathers. lates, "a voice came to him from heaven: 'Be strong, Polycarp, and play the man.' And no one saw the speaker, but those of our people who were present heard the voice. And at length, when he was brought up, there was a great tumult, for they heard that Polycarp had been apprehended. When then he was brought before him, the proconsul in- quired whether he were the man. And on his con- fessing that he was, he tried to persuade him to a denial, saying, ' Have respect to thine age,' and other things in accordance therewith, as it is their wont to say: ' Swear by the genius of Cassar; re- pent, and say. Away with the atheists.' Then Polycarp with solemn countenance looked upon the whole multitude of lawless heathen that were in the stadium, and waved his hand to them; and groaning and looking up to heaven, he said, 'Away with the atheists.' But when the magistrate pressed him hard and said, ' Swear the oath, and I will re- lease thee ; revile the Christ,' Polycarp said : ' Four- score and six years have I been his servant, and he hath done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who saved me ? ' Whereupon the procon- sul said: ' I have wild beasts here, and I will throw thee to them, except thou repent.' But he said: ' Call for them ; for the repentance from better to worse is a change not permitted to us; but it is a noble thing to change from untowardness to right- eousness.' Then he said to him again: 'I will cause thee to be consumed by fire, if thou despis- est the wild beasts, unless thou repent.' But Poly- The Apostolic Father^, 23 carp said : * Thou threatenest that fire which burn- eth for a season, and after a little while is quenched ; for thou art ignorant of the fire of the future judg- ment and eternal punishment, which is reserved for the ungodly. But why delayest thou ? Come do what thou wilt.' " Then, pursued by the outcries of the pagan popu- lace, who shouted, '' This is the teacher of Asia, the father of the Christians, the puller down of our gods, who teacheth numbers not to sacrifice nor worship," he v/as brought and bound to the stake, " like a noble ram out of a great flock for an offer- ing." This martyrdom occurred abouttheyear 155, and this is the approximate date of the epistle. 5. The Teaching of the Apostles. This document, commonly called by its Greek title — "Didache," Teaching — is fitly described as the oldest church manual, or discipline. Its date is variously given by scholars from A.D. 70 to A.D. 160. It is based upon an older work, a moral treatise known as *' The Two Ways," and its growth, after the fashion of church manuals, may have extended through a century. Though it exists in an eleventh century manuscript, it was not brought to light until some twenty years ago. Its importance in showing that the emphasis was still placed upon the manner of life, not upon speculations, and in throwing light upon the gov- ernment and ceremonies of the growing Church, is very great. Memorable sayings occur. Wit> 24 The Church of the leathers, such a one it begins: *' There are two wa3's, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between the two." Regarding ahns- receiving and almsgiving, it says: '* Woe to him that receiveth; ... he that hath no need shall give satisfaction why and wherefore he received." Judgment in giving is thus enjoined: **Let thine alms sweat into thine hands until thou shalt have learned to whom to give." One petition contains the yearning of the age: *' May grace come, and may this world pass away." Reasonableness characterizes its virtuous requirements. *' If thou art able,' it says, *' to bear the whole yoke of the Lord, thou shalt be perfect; but if thou art not able, do that which thou canst." 6. The Epistle to Diognetus. The authorship of this epistle, one of the noblest monuments of early Christian literature, is un- known, and the date very uncertain. It was prob- ably written about the year 150, and addressed to the illustrious pagan emperor and moralist, Marcus Aurelius, under the appellation of *' Heaven-born." It may be regarded as an apology, or defense, of Christianity. It is therefore of an argumentative and philosophical character. Written probably from Alexandria, it is strongly tinged by Hellenic conceptions, and glows with the lofty eloquence which characterized the Alexandrians above all others. The author is indeed a forerunner of those master spirits of the Hellenic Egyptian capi- T]ie Apostolic Feathers. 25 tal — Clement and Origen — as he is a successor of Philo and Apollos. The treatise is brief, containing but twelve short chapters. Of this noble appeal to a noble emperor, one of these chapters seems all too little to trans- fer to our pages ; but that may induce the reader to desire a first-hand knowledge of the whole. Employing the strongest argument of all for the Christian religion — the lives of its professors — the lofty passage runs as follows : *' For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind either in locality or in speech or in customs. For they dwell not somewhere in cities of their own, neither do they use some different language, nor practice any extraordinary kind of life. Nor again do they possess any invention discovered by any intelli- gence or study of ingenious men, nor are they masters of any human dogma as some are. But while they dwell in cities of Greeks and barba- rians as the lot of each is cast, and follow the native customs in dress and food and the other ar- rangements in life, yet the constitution of their own citizenship, vv^hich they set forth, is marvelous, and confessedly contradicts expectation. They dw^ell in their own countries, but only as sojourners; they bear their share in all things as citizens, and they endure all hardships as strangers. Every foreign country is a fatherland to them, and every father- land is foreign. They marry like all other men, and they beget children ; but they do not cast away their offspring. They have their meals in com- 26 The Chzi7'ch of the Fathers, mon, but not their wives. They find themselves in the flesh, and yet they live not after the flesh. Their existence is on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, and they surpass the laws in their own lives. They love all men, and they are persecuted by all. They are ignored, and yet they are condemned. They are put to death, and yet they are indued with life. They are in beggary, and yet they make many rich. They are in want of all things, and yet they abound in all things. They are dishonored, and yet they are glorified in their dishonor. They are evil spoken of, and yet they are vindicated. They are reviled, and they bless; they are insulted, and they respect. Doing good, they are punished as evildoers; being punished, they rejoice, as if they were thereby quickened by life. War is waged against them as aliens by the Jews, and persecu- tion is carried on against them by the Greeks, and yet those that hate them cannot tell the reason of their hostility." It can be seen from these manifestoes of the proud, the soaring and rejoicing spirit of humble men made heroes by a sublime faith and a new reading of the universe , why Christianity conquered the world. 7. The Shepherd of Hermas. The longest of all the writings of the Apostolic Fathers is this beautiful allegory of Christian life. '*The Shepherd of Hermas" is the «* Pilgrim's The Apostolic leathers. 27 Progress " of the early Church. Indeed, its honor was still higher. It was read in the churches, and revered as an inspired book for several centuries. Origen calls it *' a very useful scripture, and in my opinion divinely inspired." It was written about A.D. 140-150, though parts may be considerably older. Hermas is the name of the narrator in the allegory, not of the author, who is unknown ; and the "Shepherd" is Christ, It consists of three parts: ''Visions," ''Mandates," and "Parables." Literary skill, beauty of imagery, and imagination render it interesting, while its teachings and ex- hortations render it profitable, even to a modern reader. A few passages in illustration may be given: "As I was journeying to Cumag, and glori- fying God's creatures for their greatness and splendor and power, as I walked I fell asleep. And a spirit took me, and bore me away through a pathless tract, through which no man could pass: for the place was precipitous, and broken into clefts by reason of the waters. When then I had crossed the river, I came into the level country, and knelt down and began to pray to the Lord and to confess my sins." And as he prayed his first vision appeared to him. This opening of the al- legory of Hermas might be interestingly compared with the opening of Bunyan's: "As I walked through the wilderness of this world," etc. The requirements set forth in the Mandates by the Shepherd seem too high for Hermas's keep- ing: "I say to him, 'Sir, these commandments 28 The Church of the leathers. are great and beautiful and glorious, and are able to gladden the heart of the man who is able to ob- serve them. But I know not whether these com- mandments can be kept by a man, for they are very hard.' He answered and said unto me: 'If thou set it before th3^self that the}' can be kept, thou wilt easily keep them, and they will not be hard; but if it once enter into thy heart that they cannot be kept by a man, thou v/jlt not keep them.'" The contrast between earthly possessions and treasures in heaven, which are Christian works, is impressively set forth: *' Therefore, instead of fields buy ye souls that are in trouble, as each is able, and visit widows and orphans, and neglect them not; and spend your riches and all your dis- plays, which ye receive from God, on fields and houses of this kind. For to this end the Master enriched you, that ye might perform these minis- trations for him. It is much better to purchase fields and houses of this kind, which thou wilt find in thine own cit}^, when thou visitest it. This lav- ish expenditure is beautiful and joyous, not bring- ing sadness or fear, but bringing joy." This is the interpretation of his first parable. The exhortation of another, in which the Church is represented under the type of a tower which is being builded of materials of many kinds and by many workmen, concludes: "Amend yourselves, there- fore, while the tower is still in course of building. The Lord dwelleth in men that love peace, for to The Apostolic leathers. 29 him peace is dear; but from the contentious and them that are given up to wickedness he keepeth afar off. Restore, therefore, to him your spirit whole as ye received it." Truths precious always to be remembered, and precepts we need always to ponder, are sown in these pages, fully accounting for the high esteem in which the early Church held the beautiful alle- gory. *' Blessed are all they that work righteous- ness." " Do no wickedness in thy life, and serve the Lord with a pure heart." *' The righteous man entertaineth righteous purposes." ** Put away sor- row from thyself, for she is the sister of double- mindedness and of angry temper." *' Clothe thy- self in cheerfulness." 8. Miscellaneous Writings. Besides some fragments of Papias, who was born about A.D. 60-70, and a few pages of quotations from the Elders by Irenseus, there remain to us fur- ther of this second generation of disciples two epis- tles: the Epistle of Polycarp, written to the Phi- lippians shortly after the martyrdom of Ignatius — that is, about A.D. 115 ; and the Epistle of Barna- bas, which was written in opposition to Judaizing influences that were prevalent. " I know that the Lord journeyed with me on the way of righteous- ness," he says; and now to his spiritual sons and daughters he writes: " I was eager to send you a trifle, that along with your faith ye might have your knowledge also perfect." 30 The Chu7'ch of the Fathers. It remains, in the briefest space, to express an estimate of these Apostolic Fathers. A saying of Papias (^lohannis auditor ^ as Jerome calls him) re- veals how they prized their nearness to the Lord Christ and their immediacy to the apostles. Above written records they placed, as he says, "the liv- ing voice clearly sounding up to the present day." But even above the living voice which was from without was the living voice which spoke within. Clement, exhorting the Corinthians to gentleness and unity, but speaks *'the words spoken by him [Christ] through us." And Ignatius to the Ro- mans: "I write not unto you after the flesh, but after the mind of God." The doctrine, well founded in Scripture, of the indwelling of Christ, **the mind of the Father" (Ignatius) in the hearts of believers, was the sup- port of this claim. Besides, their experiences of the life of God in their lives made them conscious of the inspiration which gave them the utterance of truths hidden from the foundation of the world. A newness of life and a working of divine power in them constituted a firm basis for speaking with authority and with full assurance of rightness. It is not strange that they should affirm, not obtrusive- ly but as a matter of course and as no unique thing, their inspiration for the service they were called to render he Church. Their manner of speaking otherwise retains the character of the earlier writers. In bold, figura- tive, and variable language — not in the cold, hard The Apostolic leathers. 31 forms of science — they spoke of God and of Christ and of the redemption that had been wrought. Their utterance was free and large ; for their lives were the books which taught them, and their lives had been suddenly and gloriously expanded. Their thoughts were fixed upon supreme realities, not many, but vast — truths of no narrow bounds and incapable yet of creedal confinement. The power of the gospel, its living witness in a new creation, was in them; they were united with God and in conscious harmony with the divine order; this ex- perience was all-satisfying. No speculative sys- tem did they labor to produce, though many far- reaching and lofty ideas escaped them, their imag- inative thought taking momentary flight to highest regions. No rigid creed is elaborated; the need of it existed not yet; the simple confessions of the earlier day still sufficed. Nevertheless the mind of the age was moving. Expanding life forces expanded thought. New and larger statements of old truths, which are ever becoming new and richer, must be made. We can discern the operation of this law in the records be- fore us. While moral instruction plainly appears as the chief intention of these writers, yet a development of theoretic doctrine concerning the providence of God, the mission of Christ, the nature of ceremo- nies and offices, and the government of the Church is evinced. Later chapters of our story must be depended upon to reveal the extent and character 32 The Church of the Fathers. of this development. Suffice it here to say that we have in these writings invaluable monuments of an obscure period of Christian history. What was the earliest teaching, after the apostles, concerning Christ, his life and death and redemptive work? Concerning the Holy Spirit and inspiration ? Con- cerning repentance, salvation, and grace? Con- cerning sacraments — the Lord's Supper and bap- tism — presbyters and deacons? To find answers to these and like questions, we have but the *'Apos- toHc Fathers." Likewise they reveal the state of the Church, its divergent tendencies and its dangers, its inward strifes and outward foes, its animating hope, its lofty aim, and its proud consciousness of a unique and glorious mission. There is a ring of triumph even in the lamentations and pleadings which are wrung from the suffering sect. The persecutions of Nero and of Domitian, those first baptisms of fire and blood, had been safely passed through, and its faith was confirmed by the trials, its cour- age was heightened, its life was made to be more abounding, its boasting more exultant. The young Church, now composed of the second and third generations of believers, was conscious not only of its own invincibility, but of its future mastery of the world. BIBLIOGRAPHY. "The Apostolic Fathers." Revised Texts, with Short In- troductions and English Translations. J. B. Lightfoot. Mac- niillan and Company, New York. One vol., 8vo; pp. 569. THE APOLOGISTS. "We do not find felicity in the veins of the eartn, where we seek for gold, nor in the bottom of the sea, where we fish for pearl; but in a pure and untainted mind, which, if it were not holy, were not fit to entertain the deity. "A great, a good, and a right mind is a kind of divinity lodged in flesh; it came from heaven, and to heaven it must return; and it is a kind of heavenly felicity which a pure and virtuous mind enjoys, in some degree, even upon earth; where- as temples of honor are but empty names, which probably owe their beginning either to ambition or to violence. I am strangely transported with the thoughts of eternity. . . . " Our hands need not to be lifted up to heaven, nor the sac- ristan entreated to put us on speaking terms with the image that we may be the better heard. God is nigh unto thee, he is with thee, he is within thee. Thus I tell thee, Lucilius; a sa- cred spirit is resident in us, an observer and guardian both of v/hat is good and what is evil in us, and in like manner as we use him so he useth us. There is no good man but hath a God within him." — Seneca. " He, then, who has observed with intelligence the admin- istration of the world has learned that the greatest and su- preme and the most comprehensive community is that which is composed of men and God, and that from God have descend- ed the seeds not only to my father and grandfather, but to all beings which are generated on the earth and are produced, and particularly to rational beings — for those only are \iy their nature formed to have communion with God, being by means of reason conjoined with him — why should not such a man call himself a citizen of the Avorld, why not a son of God, and why should he be afraid of anything which happens among men? Is kinship with Caesar or with any other of the power- ful in Rome sufficient to enable us to live in safety, and above contempt, and without any fear at all.'' And to have God for our maker and father and guardian, shall not this release us from sorrows and fears?" — Efictetiis, (34) CHAPTER III. THE APOLOGISTS. SECOND AND THIRD CENTURIES. "The Eternal Wisdom has manifested itself in all things, especially in the human mind, and most of all in Jesus Christ." — Spinoza. " These Christian philosophers formulated the content of the gospel in a manner which appealed to the common sense of all the serious thinkers and intelligent men of the age." — Har- nack. "It is our task, therefore, to furnish all an exposition of our life and doctrines." — Justin Martyr. Those gladiators of the faith who by their pens defended Christianity against the arguments, and more frequently the slanders, of Jews and pagans, and the false doctrines of heretics, are known as the apologists. Their endeavor was to support their faith by representing it as a philosophy. To them Christianity was the one consummate philosophy sanctioned and approved by Heaven — a religious enlightenment proceeding from God. The contemporaneous development of Greek phi- losophy in the schools of Athens and Alexandria made possible and gave impetus to a transforma- tion of the simple religion of the Nazarene into a theory of the universe — a philosophy. For the most part the apologists were learned Greeks who, in search of a satisfying scheme of providence and an explanation of the moral phenomena of the (35) ^6 The Church of the Fathei's. world, were turned by the ancient prophets of Is- rael to Christ and the gospel. They belonged in general to the second century, although the great- est of all (Origen) belongs to the third. Their de- fenses against pagan misrepresentations were ad- dressed commonly to the Roman emperors, but some were addressed to private individuals and some generally to nations. The aim of the apologists was to inform the em- perors concerning the life and doctrines of the Christians and to show how unjustly they were persecuted. Addressing cultured men who them- selves made pretensions to philosophy, they wrote in the character of philosophers and as friends of the truth wherever found. The supreme claim they have to make for Christianity is not its nov- elty, for it is as old as the foundation of the world; not its uniqueness, for it is implanted in the uni- versal nature of man ; not its supernatural charac- ter, for it is rational and, in fragments, exists in the minds of all men ; their supreme claim is that a divine and unmistakable sanction to its doctrines, the truths implanted in man and grounded in the constitution of tlie universe, has been given in Je- sus Christ, the Word become flesh. The content of their philosophy was not new; the form was, and above all things was convincing. The guar- antee of truth, the confirmation of men's belief in God and of immortality, was found in the gospel. The apologists, therefore, endeavor to present a doctrine of the Logos which shall explain how the The Apologists, 37 Greeks were able to utter such great truths as to be found in such agreement on essential matters with the prophets of Israel and the Christians. One principle of enlightenment, the Logos, or Reason, of God, had worked in all. This wis- dom, says Minucius Felix, "is begotten with the very formation of the mind"; for Christ, accord- ing to their conception, is the rational principle of the universe. From the same apologist another memorable saying gives the general attitude of all these learned defenders of the faith: "I have set forth the opinions," he says, ''of almost all the philosophers whose more illustrious glory it is to have pointed out that there is one God, although with many names; so that any one might think either that Christians are now phi- losophers or that philosophers were then already Christians." As we pass the apologists in review it must oc- cur to the reader that Christianity was now en- gaging either for or against itself the educated world. The apologists figure as philosophers and learned men. Quadratus, bishop of Athens, "a man of under- standing and of apostolic faith," as Eusebius calls him, has the honor of being the first Christian apologist. His appeal was addressed to Emperor Hadrian, about A.D. 126. Only a quotation by Eusebius remains. Aristides, a converted philosopher of Athens, addressed an apology to the same emperor about 38 The Church of the Fathers. the same time. His work remains, a noble monu- ment of the subhmity of early Christian thought. Its opening is well worth quoting here: ''I, O king, in the providence of God came into the world and when I had considered the heaven and the earth, the sun and the moon and the rest, I mar- veled at their orderly arrangement." Thus does he introduce to the mind of the emperor the thought of a ruling God and of an informing, creative Logos, or Reason. Mehto, bishop of Sardis; Apollinaris, bishop of Hieropolis; Miltiades, ''Advocate of the Church- es"; Athenagoras, Athenian philosopher; and Justin Martyr, most illustrious of all, wrote apolo- gies which they addressed to Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. These all used the Greek language and Greek ideas. Their arguments center about the Greek conception of a divine Logos. Athenagoras, whose "Plea for the Christians" and "The Res- urrection of the Dead" are typical apologies, brings forth all the resources of Greek poetry and Greek philosophy to establish the Christian inter- pretation of the world. That true wisdom is only by revelation, is his fundamental tenet. The prophets wrote as they were "guided by the' Spir- it of God, who moved their mouths like musical instruments." The one God is acknowledged by the wisest Greeks, likew^ise the unity and orderli- ness of the universe. The Logos of God, which is his Son, manifested in Christ, alone explains the The Apologists. 39 cosmos — the rational and beautiful order. *'God, who is the eternal mind, had the Logos in himself, being from eternity instinct with Logos. The Son of God is the Logos of the Father in idea and in operation." The historical personage, Jesus, is little thought about: the whole endeavor is to fix ideas. ''The intellectual culture of mankind now ap- pears reconciled with religion." (Harnack.) The development of philosophical ideas among the Greeks and the development of religious ideas among the Hebrews met like confluent streams never again to be separated. Other apologists of distinction were Tatian, a disciple of Justin, whose defense is entitled "An Address to the Greeks" ; and Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, whose defense is addressed to Auto- lychus. All of these apologies, except that of Quadra- tus and of Melito — of which only fragments re- main — and of Miltiades, have been transmitted to us and are accessible to the English readers in ''The Ante-Nicene Fathers." Later, Minucius Felix and Tertullian, both ju- risconsults of North Africa, used the Latin lan- guage in the defense of Christianity in the West. Of Tertullian, as also of Origen, a fuller treatment is reserved for another chapter. They in their re- spective later generations stand out preeminently great, as another, whom we shall here dwell upon for awhile does in this. 40 The Church of the Fathers . I. Justin Martyr. Some one usually gathers up in himself the ideas and forces of his age, and gives them, both in his life and his works, their consummate ex- pression. He thereby becomes in the truest sense a representative man. Such, in the age when Christianity was fighting for the recognition of the cultured and the governing classes, was Justin — surnamed, because of his fidelity even unto death, "the Martyr." Taking this defender of the faitli against both pagans and Jews as the exponent of his class — as he truly is — and as perhaps the greatest of them, we may with profit dwell upon his writings and his career. Born about A.D. no, of Greek or of Roman parents, it is uncertain which, in Samaria, near Ja- cob's Well, he received doubtless the usual liberal education which well-to-do and cultured families gave their sons. This seems to have been supple- mented, as was also customary, by travel. His thirst for the true philosophy — that which should give a knowledge of God and of duty — was eager and not to be easily satisfied. In this, too, he rep- resented the nobler pagan mind of the age. A potent spirit was universally at work among men which caused them to seek the word of God. Justin relates his experience so interestingly that I can do no better than give it in his own words, somewhat condensed. He surrendered himself first, he says, to a certain Stoic: and hav- ing spent a considerable time with him cnly to find The Apologists. 41 he was gaining no further knowledge of God, he left him and betook himself to a peripatetic — a shrewd man, as he fancied. ''And this man," he says, "after having entertained me for the first few^ days, requested me to settle the fee, in order that our intercourse might be profitable." He abandoned this peripatetic as no philosopher at all. His eager desire for the peculiar and choice phi- losophy, which must exist, he thought, somew^here, brought him to a celebrated Pythagorean — '' a man thought much of in wisdom." But this sage re- quired too much of him in the way of knowledge of music, astronomy, and geometry, in order that his pupil might be able to contemplate what is honorable and good in its essence, and finally, by being weaned from sensible objects, arrive at a happy fife. The master dismissed him as unpre- pared. Next he sought the Platonists, ''for their fame was great." Under their instruction he pro- gressed and made the greatest improvement daily. "The perception of immaterial things quite over- powered me, and the contemplation of ideas fur- nished my mind with wings, so that in a little while I supposed that I had become wise; and such was my stupidity, I expected forthwith to look upon God, for this is the end of Plato's phi- losophy. Such was the search, ardent, sincere, and per- sistent, for satisfying truth. It was the common experience of the loftiest minds of that age. The majority of apologists knew the teachings of the 42 The Church of the Fathers. pagan schools by experience; they knew them, and found them either false or insufficient. Their thirst for the living truth, a fountain of life, drove them, as the furies in the myth drove Orestes, from city to city and from land to land. This is a high tribute which Justin pays to Plato, whose ideas could "furnish his mind with wings." There were not a few whom the Platonic philosophy prepared in this century, as later it prepared Au- gustine, for the acceptance of Christian teach- ing. We will let Justin himself relate how his conversion was brought about: "And while I was thus disposed," he continues, "when I wished at one period to be hlled with great quietness, and to shun the path of men, I used to go in a certain field not far from the sea. And when I was near that spot one day, w^hich having reached I pur- posed to be by myself, a certain old man, by no means contemptible in appearance, exhibiting meek and venerable manners, followed me at a little distance. And when I turned round to him, having halted, I fixed my eyes rather keenly on him." They engage in conversation on the great matters which are in the minds of both: the serv- ice of philosophy, the knowledge of God, the na- ture of the soul, the way of access to divine life. In the end, after a discussion of the Greek philos- ophers, the old man speaks as follows: "There existed, long before this time, certain men more ancient than all those who are esteemed philoso- phers, both righteous and beloved by God, who The Apologists. 43 spoke by the Divine Spirit, and foretold events which would take place, and which are now tak- ing place. They are called prophets. These alone both saw and announced the truth to men, neither reverencing nor fearing any man, not in- fluenced by a desire for glory, but speaking those things alone which they saw and which they heard, being filled with the Holy Spirit." Having spoken in particular of the prophecies concerning Christ, the promised Saviour, the Son of God, he went away, bidding the truth-seeker think on his w^ords. ''Straightway," writes Jus- tin, *'a flame was kindled in my soul; and a love of the prophets, and of those men who are friends of Christ, possessed me ; and whilst revolv- ing his words in my mind, I found this philosophy alone to be safe and profitable. Thus, and for this reason, I am a philosopher." Justin can now call himself with truth, he thinks, a philosopher, since he has attained a saving knowledge, "a clear perception of truth." In to- ken of his claim he wore throughout life the phi- losopher's gown : none with better reason or great- er honor — for he knevv^ himself to be teaching, and not only teaching, but also living, as man can, the true, the saving philosophy. This account of his conversion is given b}^ Justin in his ** Dialogue with Trypho the Jew\" The aim of the writing, it will be seen, was to convince the Jews that Jesus Christ was the Messiah of their prophets. In his apologies, addressed to the em- 44 The Church of the leathers. peror, Justin seeks to identify the Christ of the gospel with the Logos of Greek philosophy. The difference between the two productions strikes our attention and is very significant. The method, the ideas and arguments, and the conclusions, are de- termined differently in each case, according to the different aim. The endeavor to render the gospel intelligible and acceptable to Greek minds, and to explain the relation of Christ to the cosmos — the general system of things — gave rise to what may be called the Logos Christology of this era. Speculation took the Platonic conception of a di- vine Reason (Aoyo?) in all things, and the Word (Aoyo;) of the Fourth Gospel, and, by the syncre- tism of philosophy and faith, elaborated this Chris- tology, or theory of Christ. It w^as a task imposed upon the Christians by the intellectual conditions of the age. Justin Martyr is the greatest exponent in his time of the influence of Greek ideas, and he made most use of them in his defense of the gospel. He is liberal — he feels he can afford to be — in giv- ing credit to pagan literature for much true doc- trine. This is one of his lines of argument. An extended passage will illustrate : " If, therefore," he writes, *'on some points we teach the same things as the poets and philosophers whom you honor, and on other points are fuller and more divine in our teaching, and if we alone afford proof of what we assert, why are we unjustly hated more than all others ? For while we say that The Apologists. 45 all things have been produced and arranged into a world by God, we shall seem to utter the doc- trine of Plato ; and while we say that there will be a burning up of all, we shall seem to utter the doc- trine of the Stoics; and while we affirm that the souls of the wicked, being endowed with sensa- tion even after death, are punished, and that those of the good, being delivered from punishment, spend a blessed existence, we shall seem to say the same things as the poets and philosophers ; and while we maintain that men ought not to wor- ship the works of their hands, we say the very same things which have been said by the comic poet Me- nander, and other similar writers, for they have declared that the workman is greater than the work." Wiser, it seems to me, is this early defender of the faith, who so loves truth that he admits and honors it even when he finds it among his enemies, than many overzealous defenders at the present day, who, for truth's sake, dare to be untrue, and, proclaiming themselves light-bearers, are willfully blind. Justin and Athenagoras could teach them a better way. The existence among all nations of the true knowledge in some measure is explained by Justin in these words: "We have been taught that Christ is the firstborn of God, and we have declared above that he is the Word of whom every race of men were partakers; and those who lived with reason are Christians, even though they have been thought atheists; as, among the 46 The Church of the Fathers. Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus, and men like them." Thus is affirmed the unity of the human race, the universality of God's fatherhood as a real thing, and the effective operation of Christ in all men as a light that enlightens. Similar to the argument deduced from a com parison of the writings of pagans and Christians is his argument from a comparison of Socrates and Christ. Socrates, he writes, exhorted the Greeks to become acquainted with God **by the investigation of Reason (Logos), saying "that it is neither easy to find the Father and Maker of all, nor, having found him, is it safe to declare him to all. But these things Christ did through his own power. For no one trusted in Socrates so as to die for his doctrine; but in Christ, w^ho was par- tially known even by Socrates (for he was and is the Word who is in every man, and who foretold the things that were to come to pass both through the prophets and his own person when he was made of like passions, and taught these things), not only philosophers and scholars believed, but also artisans and people entirely uneducated, de- spising both glory and fear and death ; since he is a power of the ineffable Father, and not the mere instrument of Reason." Another passage of like import with those al- ready given is both so noble in spirit and so lofty in conception that it would be an honor to any writer or any age. It will conclude our account of the chief of second century apologists: "And The Apologists. 47 I confess," he writes to the emperor, "that I both boast and with all my strength strive to be found a Christian, not because the teachings of Plato are different from those of Christ, but because they are not in all respects similar, as neither are those of the others. Stoics and poets and historians. For each man spoke well in proportion to the share he had of the spermatic Word, seeing what was related to it. But they who contradict them- selves on the more important points appear not to have possessed the heavenly wisdom and the knowl- edge which cannot be spoken against. Whatever things zuere rightly said among all ?nen are the -projyerty of us Christians. For, next to God, we worship and love the Word who is from the un- begotten and ineffable God, since he also be- came man for our sakes, that, becoming a par- taker of our sufferings, he might also bring us heal- ing. For all the writers were able to see realities darkly through the sowing of the implanted word that was in them." In thus setting forth at some length the doctrine of Justin we are justified by the consideration that he represents the general educated Christian mind of his age. Aristides, *'' a philosopher of the Athe- nians," as he calls himself; Athenagoras, '*the philosopher of Athens"; Tertullian and Minu- cius Felix, the Roman lawyers, had the same views of the order and beauty of the world, the nobility of human nature, the freedom and ability of man, the redemptive goodness of God, all made 48 The Church of the Fathei s. both possible and actual by the operation of the eternal Word. Some further details of Justin's teaching cannot be without interest. What, it may be asked, ac- cording to his conception, is Christ to men more than Socrates? Do not Justin and the apologists generally take away the uniqueness and distinct- ive character of the God-man? By no means, they would answer. For Christ is not simply a channel or an instrument of the Logos, not a per- son through whom, as through Socrates, the Log- os spoke, but he is the very Logos itself. The Fourth Gospel has familiarized us with such ex- pressions as ''The Word became flesh,'' and ''I am the Truth,"' and "the true Light which light- eth every man that cometh into the world." We have here the two boldest theories of the apolo- gists, namely, that the Logos was bodily incar- nate in Christ, and that it has sown light in the minds of all men — nay, that he constituted them rational beings. Herein consists, therefore, an indestructible uniqueness, that Christ is the Word, not its agent merely. By virtue of this he has a power, or is a power ("Christ, the power of God and the wis- dom of God," says St. Paul) to lift up unto himself all men — sailors and husbandmen and artisans as well as kings and sages — and to quicken into con- scious activity in them the seed of the implanted Word. For Christ, says Justin, men will die; but who will die for the doctrines of Socrates? The Apologists. 49 The religion, therefore, which Justin and his fel- low-apologists have to commend to the emperors and the ''nations" is no new thing, but is as an- cient as mankind. It is, under another form, the philosophy which the emperors themselves had received from the Porch and the Grove of Ath- ens. But nevertheless Tertullian can boldly chal- lenge them to make a comparison: ^uid shnile -pkilosophus et Christianiisf Grcecice discifulus et coelif " How are a Christian and a philosopher alike? A disciple of Greece and of heaven?" A new race — and this was the most cogent argu- ment of the apologists — has been begotten by the power of the incarnate Logos; a new race with a new motive to moral excellence and a new power of life, with new incentives and a pattern of what was to be attained; a new race with "an admix- ture of the divine in it," and with all its highest guesses at truth and its highest hopes confirmed by truth itself. The contribution of the apologists to Christian thought was in broadening and enriching ideas and liberal influences. Impulse and direction were given to speculative thought. The founda- tions were laid for a philosophy of the Christian religion and for metaphysical disputations which had better not have been, as we judge. But "in the wanderings of many ways" the ever-restless human mind may grow weary, but it never stops. And these men seemed to have their work to do, and did it courageously. 4 50 The Church of the Fathers. The attraction of Justin, "the philosopher and martyr," for the modern man is his largeness of heart and mind, the general inclusiveness of his sympathies, his great thirst of truth that bears with it assurance of its character. His spirit was the liberal, sane, and sweet spirit of the few lofty souls who have been the glory of humanity in the dark ages of the world; its stars, shining forever and ever. He was a saint as well as a philosopher, a confessor and martyr, a whole-hearted, liberal- minded Christian humanist, an heroic and winsome personality. After many years of itinerant preach- ing and teaching, and fearless championship of the truth, he boi^e witness by his death, about the year 165, and won the surname of Martyr. THE SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA. "We are not to be anxious about living, but about living well." " Let us pursue this course, since this way the Deity leads us." "Philosophy is the highest music, and I was devoted to it." " True virtue subsists with wisdom." " * For there are,' say those who preside at the mysteries, « many wand-bearers, but few inspired.' These last, in my opin- ion, are no other than those who have pursued philosophy rightly; that I might be of their number, I have, to the utmost of my ability, left no means untried, but have endeavored to the utmost of my power." — Sayings attributed to Socrates by Plato. "It is the Divine Principle within us which in some way sets everything in motion. Reason has its origin in Something bet- ter than itself. What is there, then, which you could call bet- ter than rational cognition except God ? " — Aristotle. (5^) CHAPTER IV. THE SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA. "We shall not err in alleging that all things necessary and profitable for life came to us from God, and that philosophy more especially was given to the Greeks as a covenant pecul- iar to them, being, as it is, a stepping-stone to the philosophy which is according to Christ." — Clement of Alexandria. I. Philonism. The preparation for a rational Christianity, which should meet the demands and solve the problems of the pagan world, is nowhere better illustrated than at Alexandria. Here the develop- ment of Platonism had proceeded to such an ex- tent that the gospel of the Son of God, the Eter- nal Word, or Logos, seemed exactly suited to sup- ply what was lacking, and so complete it. Starting from Platonic ideas, Philo had given new and ex- acter expression to the theory of the dualism of God and the world, of spirit and matter. God, he taught, acted on the world through angels and di- vinities, called in the philosophy of the time logoi, or archetypal ideas, or powers. Now these were all comprehended in the one Logos, the operative reason of God. The term was so used as to in- clude both idea and power, both thought and the product of thought. On the one side, then, the Logos partook of the nature of God — was God; on the other, it shared in the nature of the world — it was the rationality of created things, therefore (53;/ 54 TJie Church of the Fathers. the Logos was a Mediator between God and the world; and as man is a microcosm — summing up in himself both the spiritual and the material ele- ments of the universe — this mediation is accom- plished by the Logos in man ; the Word in him is made flesh. So far had Philonism advanced at Alexandria in the first century of our era. To this great Jewish philosopher belongs, therefore, the credit of hav- ing developed out of Greek thought a system which not only opened the way for a divine revelation, but for its completion demanded such a revelation. A Logos philosophy of creation and redemption was worked out by a Greek-cultured Jew before the gospel had entered the Hellenic world. But the Hebrew Scriptures, in the Alexandrian Greek translation known as the Septuagint, had been in circulation there for two hundred years, and had exerted an influence, especiafly by the words con- cerning wisdom in Proverbs and some of the Apocrypha, on philosophy, and in turn had re- ceived a new and allegorical interpretation from the Hellenists, or those trained in Greek ways of thinking. The meeting and mingling of these di- vers streams of thought can hardly be overesti- mated in the results that were thereby produced. It was a characteristic feature of the age, and Philo offers one of the completest illustrations. Into his system entered ideas and influences from Stoicism, Neopythagoreanism, Platonism, and the Old Testament wisdom literature. The intellect- The School of Alexandria, 55 ual ferment and eager search of the age for the true philosophy that should reveal God and the way of redemption brought elements from many quarters of the earth, and, fusing them together in the great alembic of a cosmopolitan culture, pro- duced such creations of the moral and spiritual nature of man as no other age has equaled. Philo taught three doctrines of supreme importance to Christianity: (i) The divine original Essence is supra-rational, and must therefore be revealed; (2) only by ecstasy does the soul attain to a vision of God; (3) the Logos is the Son of God. The effecting of a union between Greek thought, Hebrew revelation, and gospel history could not be accomplished by Philo or by his century ; the times were not yet full. Yet Philo's philosophy of re- ligion and his allegorical mode of interpreting Scripture prevailed to such an extent that he gave its permanent character in the second and third centuries to Alexandrian Christianity. This nota- ble work — one of the most remarkable in the his- tory of the Church — belonged to that famous school of theologians which numbered among its leaders tv\o of the greatest scholars and thinkers of any age: Clement and Origen. Before speaking of these, however, another school of philosophy must come in for a brief review. 2. Neoplatonism. Alexandria has been *'the Mother and Mistress of Churches.*' In the second and third centuries 56 The Chtirch of the JFatheri. she was the center of the intellectual activities of the religious aspirations and spiritual fermentation of the Hellenic world. Here all races and all cults and all philosophies met, and here were produced new and extraordinary developments by the char- acteristic eclectic and syncretic methods produced. Neoplatonism was the highest and the noblest of such productions. It was idealism in philosophy brought to perfect flower and become religious; it was religion exalted to the highest summits of idealistic philosophy. Aspiration was set down by the gnostics to be the best thing in the world, as giving wings to bear up the soul; in Neoplaton- ism, the aspiration of the soul after highest things — the being with God and blessedness through union with him — finds its supreme historical mani- festation. It failed as a religion, it is true; it failed because it revealed not the Way — a living, personal Example ; it failed because it offered no Redeemer; it failed because it was too idealistic, too high in its aim, for common flesh-and-blood creatures, unless it had opened up new resources of immortal strength, unless it had supplied divine power. But though it failed, its influence was not only for the time dominant with a large class ; it entered into a higher philosophy, that of the Word, and became a permanent factor in the world's re- ligious life. Being itself the consummate result of the religious culture and philosophic doctrines of the world up to that time, it yielded to Christian- ity as a higher assimilating power, a more reigning Th e School of A lexan dria . 5 7 force among men. *'The ethical temper," says an eminent writer, " which Neoplatonism sought to beget and confirm was the highest and purest which the culture of the ancient world produces." Upon this inheritance Christianity, *' the heir of all ages," entered with justifying wisdom. In the third century it numbered among its ad- herents Ammonius Saccas, who is regarded as its founder; Plotinus, its highest exponent in both doctrine and life; Porphyry and Jamblichus, for- midable defenders of its claims against Christian- ity itself. Their effort to create out of philosophic ideas a universal religion, and to erect moral aspi- ration into a redemptive principle, may be ac- counted a failure ; but the doctrines which they taught, inefficient as they were for the reforma- tion of the world so long as set up in rivalry to Christian teaching, when received into the Church and filled with a new spirit and principle of life — the Word — became potent for uplifting and enlight- ening mankind. 3. Pant^nus. The sharp conflict betvv^een Christianity and pa- ganism in the great Hellenic city of Egypt occa- sioned the founding of the first theological sem- inary — the famous catechetical school of Alexan- dria. It appears in history near the close of the second century, with Pantsenus, '*a man highly distinguished for his learning," says Eusebius, at its head. The same historian further writes of this "school of the faithful" in Alexandria: "A 58 The Church of the Fathers. school of sacred learning, which continues to our day [about A.D. 335], was established there in ancient times, and, as we have been informed, was managed b}^ men of great ability and zeal for di- vine things. Among these it is reported that Pan- tsenus was at that time especially conspicuous, as he had been educated in the philosophical system of those called Stoics. . . . He expounded the treasures of divine doctrine both orally and in writing." Into this school, founded for the defense of Christianity, the whole of Greek science was brought and made to serve the purpose of Chris- tian apologetics. The educated classes were ap- pealed to by a rational system of doctrine and an allegorical interpretation of Scripture. The tra- ditions of the Church were treated with freedom, yet with reverence, and were explained in a mys- tical and spiritual sense. Exegesis w^as learned and ingenious; able commentaries on all parts of the Bible were written. An account of the lives and works of the two greatest teachers of the school will not only furnish the reader biographies of great men w^hom all the world should know and honor, but wnll in the best way be an exposition of the age and of Christianity engaged in the great work of conquering it. 4. Clement. Titus Flavins Clemens, commonl}^ designated '* Clement of Alexandria " to distinguish him The School of Alexandria. 59 from the earlier " Clement of Rome," was born about the middle of the second century, whether at Athens or at Alexandria is not certain. That by training he was an Athenian, and that in cos- mopolitanism he was an Alexandrian, are assured facts. Like Justin Martyr and many others of that time, he devoted his life to the finding out of a true teacher of wisdom. Traveling over the civilized world, he drank eagerly at every foun- tain, but his soul yet thirsted. He mentions six illustrious teachers at whose feet he sat without finding satisfaction. At last he came to Alexan- dria, where he was led to the school of Pantsenus. His own beautiful words must now relate his new experience: '' When I came upon the last [he was the first in power], having tracked him out con- cealed in Egypt, I found rest. He, the true, the Sicilian bee, gathering the spoil of the flowers of the prophetic and apostolic meadow, engendered in the souls of his hearers a deathless element of knowledge." "The deathless element of knowl- edge " thus engendered in his soul was ever after- wards the power in him of a new life, and the chief principle of his exalted teaching. In time, about A.D. 190, he succeeded his beloved master as the head of the " School of the Faithful," as Eusebius calls it. The next twelve years were years of great litera- ry productivity in Clement's life. Not only did he teach orally, and indoctrinate those who were to continue his labors and influence, but with his pen 6o The Church of the Fathers, he was busy laying the foundations of the future dogma of the Church. Three works of his have been transmitted to us, which are easily the mas- terpieces of second century literature. They are: **An Exhortation to the Heathens," ''The In- structor," and " The Stromata." Besides these, he wrote many others ; but only one other treatise, entitled ''Who is the Rich Man that Shall be Saved?" is extant. The three larger and nobler works constitute a trilogy, each having its own special aim, but all designed together to one end. "The Exhortation" presents paganism as " a creed outworn," an effete religion, and persuades the cultured Greek to choose the true philosophy. The beginning of this "Exhortation " is a beauti- ful illustration of Clement's learning and style: "Amphion of Thebes and Arion of Methymna were both minstrels, and both were renowned in story. They are celebrated in song to this day in the chorus of the Greeks, the one for having al- lured the fishes, the other for having surrounded Thebes with walls by the power of music. An- other, a Thracian, a cunning master of his art (he also is the subject of a Hellenic legend), tamed the wild beasts by the mere might of song, and transplanted trees — oaks — by music. I might tell you also the story of another, a brother to these — the subject of a myth, and a minstrel — Eunomos the Locrian and the Pythic grasshopper. A solemn Hellenic assembly had met at Pytho to celebrate the death of the Pythic serpent, when Eunomos The School of Alexandria, 6i sang the reptile's epitaph. Whether his ode was a hymn in praise of the serpent, or a dirge, I am not able to say. But there was a contest, and Eunomos was playing the lyre in the summer time. It was when the grasshoppers, warmed by the sun, were chirping beneath the leaves along the hills; but they were singing — not to that dead dragon, but to God All- wise — a lay unfettered by rule, better than the numbers of Eunomos. The Locrian breaks a string. The grasshopper sprang on the neck of the instrument, and sang on it as on a branch; and the minstrel, adapting his strain to the grass- hopper's song, made up for the want of the miss- ing string. The grasshopper then was attracted by the song of Eunomos, as the fable represents, according to which also a brazen statue of Euno- mos with his lyre, and the Locrian's ally in the contest, was erected at Pytho. But of its own accord it flew to the lyre, and of its own accord sang, and was regarded by the Greeks as a mu- sical performer. *' How, let me ask, have you believed vain fa- bles, and supposed animals to be charmed by music, while Truth's shining face alone, as would seem, appears to you as disguised, and is looked on with incredulous eyes? And so Cithaeron, and Helicon, and the mountains of the Odrysi, and the initiatory rites of the Thracians, mysteries of deceit, are hallowed and celebrated in hymns." In place of these '* deceitful mysteries," he has to offer them truth and wisdom in all their bright- 62 The Church of the Fathers. ness out of heaven and the sacred prophetic choir. " What my Eunomos sings," he continues, ** is not the measure of Terpander, nor that of Capito, nor the Phrygian, nor Lydian, nor Do- rian, but the immortal measure of the new har- mony which bears God's name — the new, the Levitical song." Thus beginning his hfe work with a hortatory and argumentative address to the Hellenic peoples, Clement continued the task of the apologists, and in doctrine as in method is their true successor. He brought the widest and most varied learning, together with a liberal tliough intense spirit, to the service of *' Truth from heaven." His achieve- ment was the completing of the bond between Hellenism and Christianity. With Justin Martyr, of the earlier apologists, Clement is spiritually closest of kin. His doctrine of the Logos spermaticos, or seminal Word, is the same: **For," he says, "into all men whatever, especially those who are occupied with intellec- tual pursuits, a certain divine effluence has been instilled ; wherefore, though reluctantly, they con- fess that God is one, indestructible, unbegotten, and that somewhere above in the tracts of heaven, in his own peculiar appropriate eminence, whence he surveys all things, he has an existence true and eter- nal." And he quotes Euripides, among many others, as bearing witness to high conceptions of God * Tell me what I am to conceive God to be, Who sees all things, and is himself unseen. The School of A lexandria. 63 Further on he exclaims, *' Whence, O Plato, is that hint of the truth which thou givest ! Whence this rich copiousness of diction which proclaims piety with oracular utterance?" Cleanthes, too, he affirms, taught " a true theology." These all had ^'received scintillations of the divine word," for '' the force of truth is not hidden." The explanation of all is brought to light in the gospel of the Son of God: *'The Word, who in the beginning bestowed on us life as Creator when he formed us, taught us to live well when he ap- peared as our teacher ; that as God he might after- wards conduct us to the life which never ends." The divine mission of philosophy among the Greeks, as of the law among the Hebrews, to bring them to Christ, is expressed with convic- tion. For philosophy, he says, is '' the clear im- age of truth, a divine gift to the Greeks." And further: '* Perchance, too, philosophy was given to the Greeks directly and primarily, till the Lord should call the Greeks. For this was '' a schoolmaster to bring the Hellenic mind, as the law the Hebrews, to Christ." Philosophy, there- fore, was a preparation, paving the way for him who is perfected in Christ." But he chides the Greeks for neglecting the faith, ''which of itself, and from its own resources, chooses at once what is best": ''You ought, O men, when reflecting on the good, to have brought forward a witness inborn and competent." "The Instructor" is designed to teach those 64 The Church of the Fathers. who have been won from heathenism to the way of life. It is a treatise on Christian ethics — a re- markably thorough and still useful treatise. In scope and manner, in definition of aim and terms, in conception of the purpose of life and of the factors in it, a better book has scarcely been writ- ten. His fundamental principle is that "virtue is rational, sin is irrational." "Everything that is contrary to right reason is sin." Virtue is defined as **a state of the soul rendered harmonious by reason in respect to the whole of life . ' ' The whole scope of Christian ethics is indicated in these words : "And Christian conduct is the operation of the ra- tional soul in accordance with a correct judgment and aspiration after the truth, which attains its des- tined end through the body, the soul's consort and ally. Virtue is a will in conformity to God and Christ in life, rightly adjusted to life everlasting. For the life of Christians, in which we are now trained, is a system of reasonable actions — that is, of those things taught by the Word — an unfailing energy, which we have called faith." All rash attempts at changing human nature, or of recreating man, are held in check by this wise caution : " Whatever things are natural to men we must not eradicate from them, but rather impose on them limits and suitable times." The finest Greek thought, moved, however, by a diviner wisdom, speaks in this nobly conceived passage concerning truth and beauty: "In the soul alone are beauty and deformity. [All out- Th e School of A I ex an dria . 65 ward ornaments are but ' ' girls' gewgaws " to be ut- terly cast off.] Only the virtuous man is really beautiful and good. And it is laid down as a dog- ma, that only the beautiful is good. And excel- lence alone appears through the beautiful body, and blossoms out in the flesh, exhibiting the amia- ble comeliness of self-control, whenever the char- acter like a beam of light gleams in the form. For the beauty of each plant and animal consists in its individual excellence. And the excellence of man is righteousness, and temperance, and manliness, and godliness. The beautiful man is then he who is just, temperate, and, in a word, good; not he who is rich." On knowledge is set a value coequal with that of faith. For '* neither is knowledge without faith, nor faith without knowledge." Man is fashioned to have intercourse with God and to know him. *' The Word of God became man," he writes, with startling boldness, "that thou mayest learn from man how man may become God . ' ' Again, in praise of the dignity of man, he bursts forth: *'A noble hymn of God is an immortal man, established in righteousness, in whom the oracles of truth are en- g-raved. For where but in a soul that is wise can you write truth? where love? where reverence? where meekness ? ' ' From these principles he deduces the following doctrine: *'It is, then, as appears, the greatest of all lessons to know oneself. For if one knows himself, he will know God ; and knowing God he 5 ^() The Church of the Fathers, will be made like God, not by wearing gold or long robes, but by welldoing, and by requiring as few things as possible." ''The Stromata" is Clement's crowning literary achievement. Its design is to bring the Christian to perfection of knowledge and love. The order and stages of Christian growth he had outlined in ' ' The Instructor ' ' as follows : ' ' Being baptized, we are illuminated; illuminated, we become sons; be- ing made sons, we are made perfect; being made perfect, we are made immortal." He who has been perfected is called a gnostic, thatis,one who>^;2^2£/5 — '* the man of understanding and perspicacity." Being illuminated, he makes the service of God, bestowed in ceaseless love, his continual study and occupation. He alone is truly pious. He alone worships the true God in a man- ner worthy of him: ''And that worship meet for God is followed by loving and being loved by God." He may be calumniated, as Socrates was, for an atheist; but he dwells in God, and alone knows him. He moves '*amid things sure and wholly immutable," possessing a sure grasp of di- vine science. " His whole life is prayer and con- verse with God." To such a height of Christian teaching — no high- er, it is true, than the Bible, yet wonderful outside of that — to such an ideal of life, does this Christian philosopher of the second century bring us. Clem- ent was never a bishop in the Church, but only a presbyter. The end of his career is involved in The School of A lexandria . 67 obscurity. He was obliged to leave Alexandria A.D. 202 because of the persecution of Severus. Some years later he was at Jerusalem, whose bish- op, Alexander, he visited in prison. It is in the letters of Alexander, A.D. 212, that we have our last notice of him. An anthology of beautiful thoughts might be gathered from his writings, as a suitable appendix to this account of his teachings. Only a few strik- ing utterances can be presented: ' ' Error seems old, but truth seems a new thing. ' ' *' Suspicion is no insignificant seed, and becomes the germ of true wisdom." *'The extremes of ignorance are atheism and superstition." '* Practice husbandry, we say, if you are a hus- bandman ; but while you till your fields, know God." *'The end of piety is eternal rest in God." '*The soul is not sent down from heaven to what is worse. For God works all things up to what is better. But the soul which has chosen the best life — the life that is from God and righteousness — ■ exchanges earth for heaven." "This is the true athlete — he who in the great stadium, the lair world, is crowned for the true victory over all the passions." ** Holding festival, then, in our whole life, persuaded that God is altogether on every side present, we cultivate our fields, praising; we sail the sea, hymning; in all the rest of our 68 The Church of the Fathers. conversation we conduct ourselves according to rule." '* Before the advent of the Lord, philosophy was necessary to the Greeks for righteousness. And now it becomes conducive to piety ; being a kind of preparatory training to those who attain to faith through demonstration — a schoolmaster to bring the Hellenic mind, as the law the Hebrews, to Christ." 5. Origen. Clement was the father of Greek theology. Origen, his disciple, developed it into system and gave it currency. When the master was driven out of Alexandria^ his illustrious pupil, though not yet eighteen years of age, became its able head. Born about the year 185, in Alexandria, of Greek pa,rents, he had the best educational opportunities from the first. His father, Leonidas, appears to have been a teacher of grammar and rhetoric — a very high function — in the cultured city. Not only in the Greek learning of the time, however, did he educate his son, but also, and more especially, in sacred Scriptures, requiring him, as Eusebius re- lates, daily to commit and repeat portions of them. The boy learned rapidly, indeed was precocious almost beyond example. '*Hewas not satisfied," says Eusebius, **with learning what was plain and obvious in the sacred words, but sought for some- thing more, and even at that age busied himself with deeper speculations." Though the father was ofttimes puzzled by the lad's deep inquiries, The School of Alexandria, 6g and told him he should seek only the manifest meaning, yet he inwardly rejoiced and thanked God that he had deemed him worthy to be the fa- ther of such a child. "And they say," continued the historian, "that often, standing by the boy when asleep, he uncovered his breast as if the Di- vine Spirit were enshrined within it, and kissed it reverently." The noble father ended his life in martyrdom, his property v/as confiscated, and Ori- gen was left before he was seventeen years old in poverty with his mother and six younger brothers: "But he was deemed worthy of divine care." Under these circumstances Origen bore witness to his zeal for the orthodox faith. Having found welcome and rest with a wealthy lady who had an adopted son by the name of Paul, a distin- guished heretic who drew multitudes to hear him, Origen could not be induced to join with him in prayer: "for he held, although a boy, the rule of the Church, and abominated, as he somewhere ex- presses it, heretical teachings." Thus he surren- dered the kind woman's favor and was driven to his own resources for a livelihood. He began teaching in Alexandria, and "the heathen came to him to hear the word of God." In his eight- eenth year he took charge of the catechetical school. Kindness and good will to those who suffered for the faith revealed the nobility of his character. "For not only was he with them while in bonds and until their final condemnation, but when the 70 The Church of the leathers, holy martyrs were led to death he was very bold and went with them into danger." The persecu- tors arose therefore in fury against him, but he escaped marvelously through the helping hand of God. He also practiced a severe asceticism. Giv- - ing up his secular teaching and parting with his valuable classics, he lived on four obolz, or about fourteen cents, a day. He fasted often, and lim- ited himself in sleep, devoting the night hours to study of the Scriptures. Interpreting literally the gospel where the Master exhorts not to have j two coats, he lived in cold and nakedness. For years he wore no shoes and slept upon the ground. The effect of such a manner of life upon others was very great, and many were inspired to mar- tyrdom in the prevailing persecution. The histo- rian who furnishes us this account of the illustri- ous teacher sums all up in one beautiful sentence: " They say that his manner of life was as his doc- trine, and his doctrine as his life." Of his doctrine now, since by common consent \ he is easily the chief in learning and in influence i among the Fathers before Augustine, we must give an account. We find them set forth with system in his " De Principiis," and with polemic force in his *' Reply to Celsus." Origen was the most prolific writer known to us of antiquity. Epipha- nius relates that he was the author of six thousand volumes. This certainly includes every treatise, however brief, and his sermons — regarded each as a ** book." Jerome, too, wondered at his pro- The School of Alexandria. 71 ductivity, saying he wrote more than anybody else could read. In his ''De Principiis" Origen discusses in or- der each tenet of the Church's creed, presenting a philosophy of Christianity. God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, rational natures, the fall, the final restora- tion, the nature of souls, the incarnation, and, withal, the proper mode of interpreting Scripture, are the subjects of his treatment. His doctrine of God was transcendental: he is one, immaterial, absolute, self-conscious. He is eternally revealing himself by a necessary self-unfolding. This oc- curs by means of the Logos, which is his conscious / spiritual activity. It is the ' ' compendium of world- creative ideas,'' a *' second God," eternally be- gotten, ''as the brilliancy which is produced from the sun." The Logos, or Divine Reason, havingunited itself with an unfallen spirit, which chooses to become a soul and dwell upon the earth in order to redeem mankind, is made known as Christ. In order to understand Origen's idea it must be explained that he held the theory of a threefold nature of man, as consisting of body, soul, and spirit — the last two being commonly distinguished as the " animal soul" and the '' reasonable soul" (anima and mens); and that the spirit, or reasonable soul, had preexistence, and, before time, fell into sin, and was cast down to earth for punishment. Christ's soul was an unfall- en spirit which "elected to love righteousness and hate iniquity." The Divine Reason unites with the 72 The Church of the Fathers. soul, which is hke all other reasonable souls, only sinless, and becomes man — the '" God-man." The Logos thus united with the soul glorifies and deifies it, as the soul also glorifies and deifies the body ; so that the whole man Jesus becomes divine. *'The explanation of that mystery," he says, "may per- haps be beyond the grasp of tiie entire creation of celestial powers," and not merely beyond that of the holy apostles. The thought of Christ's glorious and mysterious nature inspired him to an utterance that is justly famous: "Since, then," he writes, "we see in him some things so human that they appear to differ in no respect from the common frailty of mortals, and some things so divine that they can appropriatel}^ belong to nothing else than to the primal and ineffable nature of Deity, the narrowness of human understanding can find no outlet; but, overcome with the amazement of a mighty admiration, knows not whither to with- draw, or what to take hold of, or whither to turn. It it think of a God, it sees a mortal. If it think of a man, it beholds Him returning from the grave, after overthrowing the empire of death, laden with its spoils." Christ is redeemer of the race by virtue of four things which he did or was : First, he achieved vic- tory over the power of evil in his life and on the cross ; second, by vicarious suffering he atoned for and expiated the sins of the world; third, he paid a ransom to the devil for mankind — the devil's cap- tives in sin : f ourtii, by virtue of being the God-man, The School of Alexandria. 73 he is the high priest of the human family and the mediator between man and God. The true nature, the essence, of Christianity, as a redemptive power, consisted in *' knowledge," that higher and more perfect knowledge of divine things of which St. Paul speaks in Corinthians, and which Origen sought everywhere in the Scrip- tures. For not only is there first the plain his- torical meaning, secondly the moral teaching, but thirdly the mystic spiritual sense. The gnos- tic, or enlightened Christian, described by Clem- ent, seeks this last and attains to ultimate ideas and clear vision. He is saved by the mere revelation of the Logos, or Divine Reason, in the threefold work of God: nature, the law, and the gospel. The lower grades of men, which are two— the so- matic or carnal, and the psychic or moral—are saved by believing in the historical and moral meanings of Scripture. Origen taught the final restoration of all fallen beings, both men and angels. His fundamental conception of the *' indestructible unity of God and all spiritual essence" compelled him to this doc- trine. Everlasting rebellion against God by his own handiwork, eternal discord in his kingdom, would not be in accord, says Origen, with "the final unity and fitness of things." Furthermore, the indestructible freedom of the will, a doctrine held firmly by all the Greek theologians, renders everlasting perdition unnecessary and the turning to righteousness possible at any time. "Those 74 The Church of the Fathers. who have been removed from their primal state of blessedness have not been removed irrecoverably." ''We think, indeed, that the goodness of God, through his Christ, may recall all his creatures to one end, even his enemies being conquered and subdued." Tennyson, in the conclusion of his *' In Memoriam," it is interesting to note, gives ut- terance to the same sublime idea: That God, which ever lives and loves, One God, one law, one element, And one far-off divine event, Tovk^ard which the whole creation moves. And Robert Burns expresses a humorous wish in his ''Address to the Deil " that even he some time may mend his ways and be restored: But fare je weel, auld Nickie-Ben! O wad je tak a thought an' men' ! Ye aiblins [perhaps] might — I dinna ken — Still hae a stake — I'm wae to think upo' yon den Ev'n for your sake! While thus, in lines marked out by Clement, , Origen was developing into system Greek theolo- gy and creating the dogmatic Christianity which was destined to prevail even to this day, yet he - taught many doctrines which were subsequently declared to be heretical — he who "abominated heretical teachings." The career of Origen was active and troubled. In the year 216 the Emperor Caracalla came to Alexandria and began a bloody persecution against The School of Alexandria. 75 the Christians, especialty the more eminent. Ori- gen was compelled to seek safety in another land. He went first to Jerusalem, then to Caesarea, being received by the bishop of each city with distin- guished honors. By invitation of these bishops he delivered some lectures in their presence. The bishop of Alexandria, Demetrius, hearing of this, sent a remonstrance against "such an unheard-of act" to the bishops who were guilty of listening to a layman ! Origen was summoned to return to Alexandria, which he compliantly did. He there resumed his interrupted labors, now with greater advantages than he had ever enjoyed be- fore ; for a wealthy admirer, Ambrosius by name, furnished him, so Eusebius relates, "with more than seven amanuenses, who relieved one another at stated times, and with an equal number of tran- scribers, along with young girls who were skilled in calligraphy. Thus did the labor of producing the six thousand volumes proceed. In A.D. 228 he was summoned on some ecclesiastical business, probably the adjustment of some doctrinal dispute, to Greece. Passing.through Palestine on his way, he received ordination as presbyter at the hands of the two bishops through whom he had formerly come into trouble. This brought him into still greater trouble; for, being a eunuch (Eusebius re- lates that in his excessive youthful zeal he was so made by his own hand), he was ineligible to such an office. Again Demetrius summoned him back to Alexandria. Returning, he was there ex- 76 The Chii7'ch of the Fathers, communicated from the Church A.D. 231, and through Demetrius's influence was degraded, by a second council, from the office of presbyter. Jeal- ousy and vindictiveness never had a more shining mark. While admiring great men and rulers were desiring but to see the illustrious teacher, this petty- minded bishop was harassing him as a fly may vex and madden an ox. That he might live and la- bor on, Origen betook himself again to Csesarea, where, for a quarter of a century, he toiled as few men ever have. Disciples gathered about him, and the theological school there became a chief center of influence. Under Emperor Maximin persecution again drove him to flee his country. He found refuge at Caesarea in Cappadocia, a city and country aft- erwards made famous for its great teachers, who owned Origen as their master. Having returned, after two years, to Palestine, he was cast into pris- on at Tyre, and was subject to cruelties from the effects of which he died, A.D. 254, in the seventi- eth year of his age. He who, while but a lad in his teens, eagerly sought to share his father's fate, and, being prevented by his mother, wrote to him in prison, saying, "Take heed not to change your mind on our account" ; and who, in mature years, wrote an "Exhortation to Martyrdom," won at last the meed of highest honor — the fadeless wreath of Christian martyrdom. But in the the- ology of the Church he yet lives, the greatest of the Fathers. The School of A Icxandria , 7 7 BIBLIOGRAPHY. Dr. Edwin Hatch's Hibbert Lectures (1888), on "The Influ- ence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church," is a book the student cannot afford to neglect. It is a masterly presentation of notable facts by a ripe, broad-minded, Christian scholar. Professor Allen's "Continuity of Christian Thought" con tains an excellent chapter on "The Greek Theology," in which he gives a succinct but admirable account of the Epistle to Diog netus, Justin Martyr, Clement, Origen, and Athanasius, through whom a continuity of development was kept up from the first century far into the fourth. EARLY HERESIES AND THE FORMATION OF A CANON. "Liberty, which is the nurse of all great wits; this is that which hath rarify'd and enlighten'd our spirits like the influ enceof heav'n; thisis that which hath enfranchis'd,enlarg'd,and lifted up our apprehensions degrees above themselves Ye can not make us now lesse capable, lesse knowing, lesse eagerly pur- suing of the truth, unlesse ye first make your selves, that made us so, lesse the lovers, lesse the founders of our true liberty. . . . Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. . , „ And though all the windes of doctrin were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licencing and pro hibiting to miscount her strength. Let her and Falshood grap- ple; who ever knew Truth put to the wors in a free and open encounter ? " — Milton, (80) CHAPTER V. EARLY HERESIES AND THE FORMATION OF A CANON. The question of a canon of the New Testament Scriptures arose late in the second century. The Christian writings were not called ''Scriptures," nor was the term "New Testament'* applied to any body of documents, until nearly two hundred years after the birth of Christ. His traditional words were the only canon; that is, "rule of faith," as the Greek word Kavwv means. But as generation after generation passed away, tradition grew more and more uncertain, and the need of accepted and authoritative documents became more and more imperative. From the feeling of a sim- ilar need, the written Gospels had been produced in an earlier day. When the immediate disciples began to be few upon the earth, the need of per- manent memorials of what they had seen, heard, and felt from him pressed itself upon the Church; hence those priceless records. But in the time of the Apostolic Fathers there was still a " living voice " ; that is, the tradition of the apostles themselves; and this was for that era the highest authority. To this was appeal made rather than to the written Gospels in the contro- versies with the heretics. Papias, who was bishop of Hierapolls (A.D. 163), expressed the general 6 ' (81) 82 The Chm-ch of the Fathers. feeling of the age when he wrote : " For books do not profit me so much as the living voice clearly sounding up to the present day." To us this may seem strange, but it is true, nev- ertheless — and good reason was there for it. The ** living voice " could not, as they thought, be sub- jected to the perversion, the fanciful, allegorical, and arbitrary interpretation, which was put upon the written word; for along with the oral utter- ance came the traditional understanding of it also. Memory, too, as must be borne in mind, was a more faithful servant in those times of few books and no dailies than it is now. The writers of the Gospels did not commit to parchment what they had seen and heard until many years — perhaps from thirty to sixty — after the events themselves; and then they did so only for those who either could not hear the apostles preach or for the gen- erations following. And, it is worth remarking, their writings — our Gospels — were first called "Memoirs," or " Memorabiha," which is a very suggestive and appropriate name for them. But about the middle of the second century the need of a canonical body of Christian writings be- gan to be felt. Unrestrained diversity of doctrine, with no fixed criterion ( /. e.^ canon), was the cause of this. Heresies were rife and of every descrip- tion. About the year 220, Hippolytus wrote a book entitled " The Refutation of All Heresies," in which he assailed thirty-two. What if we re- garded them as ancient "denominations"? In- Early Heresies and Formation of a Canon. 83 deed, we are yet disposed to think of all beliefs but our own as heresies. But are we not using this word "heresy" un- advisedly? When there is no generally accepted interpretation of Scripture, and no lawfully deter- mined creed, nor any digest of right doctrine, how can there be any contemporaneous verdict of "heresy"? For *' heresy" means something "taken up" in divergence from what already is accepted. There must be an orthodoxy before there can be a heterodoxy. Naturally, therefore, every heterodox view, or heresy, originates with one individual, or a small number, in opposition to the many. By the spread of the doctrine a "sect" arises. Now if the few become many, as sometimes happens; if they grow to embrace the majority, as not seldom has been the case, what do they become but the orthodox party? and what their heresy but the faith? Thereupon dissent from their ruling is pronounced heretical. Ortho- doxy, in short, is the belief of the majority; heresy is the belief of the minority. Quer}^: Has right and truth, either in politics or in theology, always been wholly upon one side? Some would answer, perhaps: "Yes, always on the side of the major- ity; for vox -pofiili est vox Dei^ Others would answer likewise: "Yes, always on the side of the minority ; for only a few ever lead the march of humanity into the realm of higher truth, while the masses are ever subject to delusion, superstition, and error." 84 The Church of the Fathers. This much is certain: the heresy of one genera- tion has not seldom become the orthodoxy of the next; and every idea has been grasped first by a single mind, which, right, stood then against all the world, wrong. And till this doctrine makes its way like the little leaven in the lump, and per- meates the dull mass of the people, this one proph- et is a '* heretic," liable to be burned, and his fol- lowers are a "sect," liable to be stamped out of existence. In this period, therefore, before the teachings of Jesus and his disciples have been digested and re- duced to system, and all legitimate inferences made from them, there is inevitably much freedom of interpretation and speculation. There can be, in the nature of the case, no restraint. What is or- thodox and what is not has never been deter- mined; much free inquiry and free debate, and many sharp conflicts, must first take place before this matter can be finally settled — if it ever can be %^\.\\^d^ finally . All the possible diverse views must meet in the arena of dialectics and contend for life and supremacy. Indeed, the decisive conflict has not unfrequently been upon the bloody field where such watchwords as '' homoousias," "the- otokos," and *'filioque" were the battle shouts. Where there is life there will be strife, and this was an intellectually active age. There is no soil that does not bring forth tares among the wheat, and the more fertile it is the larger the harvest of both. The chief heresies of Barly Heresies and Formation of a Cation. 85 the second and third centuries were Ebionism, Gnosticism, and Monarchianism. Let us note the main features of each in order. I. Ebionism. From the first there was a Christian sect of Ju- daizers; that is, converted Jews, who sought to bring over into the new society the ceremonial laws of Moses. Ccelmn non anim-mn mutant. The controversy manifests itself in the New Tes- tament, and gives rise to the first general council of the Church, at Jerusalem. The writings of the Apostolic Fathers likewise abound in condemna- tions of *' the superstition of the Jews." The en- tire Epistle of Barnabas is an elaborate argumenta- tive discourse against Judaism and the materialis- tic interpretation of Moses. The most prominent party of Judaizers went under the name of Ebion- ites (the ''poor"). According to Origen, it was a sect of two divisions, one of which accepted and the other of which denied the supernatural concep- tion of Jesus. In the view of the latter, Jesus was distinguished from other men onty by an extraordi- nary endowment of the Holy Spirit received at his baptism. Cerinthus, contemporary of St. John in Asia Minor, is the most notable representative of this phase of Ebionism, although his teachings in- cluded elements of the following heresy also. Ebionism may be defined as that type of early Christianity which sought to retain the greatest measure of the Jewish faith and worship The 86 The Church of the Fathers. Essenian branch of it was ascetic and rigid in mo- rality and speculative in doctrine. Its adherents abstained from flesh and wine, and practiced fre- quent lustrations. To their way of thinking, Chris- tianity was but restored and pure Mosaism, and Christ was only a perfect man. 2. Gnosticism. This system of doctrine sustained the same rela- tion to paganism that the foregoing did to Judaism. The converts ''change their sky, not their mind." Indications of Gnostic doctrines also abound in the New Testament, especially in the writings of Paul and John. The Fourth Gospel is said to have been directed against this heresy. In Colossians the allusions to it are especially prominent. Gnos- ticism is a kind of premature philosophy of evolu- tion: speculative, not scientific; also inverted. From the Absolute Being, as from an infinite abyss, all things have proceeded by an unfold- ment in eons, or orders, of celestial beings, grad- ed downward, each successive order emanating from the last foregoing. These divine beings are emanations of the attributes of God, and they form an unbroken series between him and the ma- terial world. The Logos, or Messiah, is one of these beings, who, in the person of Jesus Christ, assumed the form of man — not in permanent union, as a real identification of the human and the divine in one person, but only for the period of his earth- ly life. Early Heresies mid Formation of a Cation, 87 The importance of this teaching for two centu- ries in the Church renders necessary a somewhat full account of it. Not only were the Gnostics numerous, they possessed great culture and in- fluence. Their speculations appealed forcibl}^ to a speculative age. No teacher more thoroughly combined the various religions and philosophical elements of that age of eclecticism and syncretism. Gnosticism v/as a characteristic product of the time in which it flourished, combining, as it did, into an impressive and universal system the manifold phi- losophies, cults, and cosmologies of many peoples and ages. With the facts of the gospel as a basis, an elaborate theory of the universe in accordance with Hellenic modes of thought, and with sugges- tions from the Semitic cosmology of the time, it was constructed with marvelous speculative ener- gy. The end of it all, too, was practical; it was no other than redemption through Christ — that is, it ceased not to be Christian, in spite of Semitic mysticism and Hellenic speculation. But the sal- vation which it sought was to be attained by en- lightenment (yi/wo-ts). This gives its distinctive character to Gnosticism. The term itself is from the Greek word Gnosis (knowledge) — a w^ord used frequently by St. Paul, in First and Second Co- rinthians particularly, to designate a special and distinct divine grace, a higher and more perfect knowledge of Christian things. *' The belief that Christianity guarantees the perfect knowledge," says Edwin Hatch, '* and leads from one degrer 88 The Church of the Fathers, of clearness to another, was in operation from the very beginning. " We have seen that the apologists regarded Christianity as a philosophy ; a revealed philosophy, it is true, but yet as an enlightening sys- tem of truth. The Gnostics carried speculation further until the revelation of the gospel was trans- ferred from the realm of feeling and action to the world of abstract ideas. In accordance with the claim which Gnosticism set up to a special endowment of knowledge, or illumination, it gave its own arbitrary, allegorical interpretation to the whole body of Scriptures and to the gospel. " The history of the Old Testa- ment," says Ilarnack, '* was here sublimated to a history of the emancipation of reason from pas- sion." The gospel at the same time was con- verted into a philosophy of religion, a doctrine of the higher enlightenment of the soul, and an initia- tion into mysteries, whereby emancipation from evil might be won. For enlightenment must be followed by consecration, and that by abstinence; then would come the perfect gnosis and freedom — that is, salvation. The problems with which the Gnostic Christians dealt were the great problems of all time, but prob- lems peculiarly pressing for solution, it seems, in that time. The more or less fantastic details of their tabular schemes of evolution, their spiritual genealogies, should not blind us to the high pur- pose and the extraordinary comprehensiveness of <-heir undertaking. For no less a task did they set Early J/c7'esies and Kor7naiion of a Canon. ^(^ themselves, with the new hght Christianity gave them, than to explain, first, the origin of evil, and second, the multiplicity of finite existence, starting in thought with an Absolute Being, who is all good. The lines of their attempted solution of these ever- present problems can be but barely indicated in this place : God, being Absolute, was unknowable, and had no immediate relations with the created universe ; matter is eternal and essentially evil, the ground of all evil: from the Absolute Being, by an unfolding process, all the spiritual orders, or eons, which were very numerous, have come into existence; one of this order, a god, but not the Supreme Being, created the world; hence its im- perfection; Christ is an eon, or spiritual emana- tion of the highest God, and reveals his character and gives that true knowledge which brings re- demption. This may not commend itself to the modern mind; it may seem even absurd; but these specu- lations were not the production of frivolous or fantastic minds; they were the serious and pro- found answers of serious and great men to ques- tions with which the sphinx of their age confronted them. To quote the distinguished German histo- rian again: ''The Gnostics devoted their main strength to the working out of those religious, moral, philosophical, and historical problems which must engage the thoughtful of all times. '* An historical sketch is necessary to make our discussion complete. Gnosticism had its birth on 90 The Church of the F^athej'S. Samaritan soil, from syncretism of Semitic, Hel- lenic, and Christian ideas. Simon Magus, accord- ing to tradition, was the author of almost all here- sies. Proclaiming himself to be " the great power of God," he seems in truth to have originated a scheme of universal religion which had Gnostic elements. Redemption meant, in his teaching, emancipation from the world-powers — that is, de- mons — through enlightenment. Cerinthus, who flourished near the close of the first century in Asia Minor, seems to have derived his peculiar ideas from Alexandria, a seat of Hellenic speculation. The world-creator, he taught, was not the highest God, but an inferior angelic being, one ignorant of the true God. We find something similar to this in the book of Proverbs (chapter viii.), where Wisdom, personified, is represented as the creator of the world. The Jews, according to Cerinthus, had no revelation of the Supreme, but only of the lower creative God. Basilides, who lived at Alexandria in the reign of Hadrian, was one of the most notable of the Gnostics, tje was a disciple of Menander, who was a disciple of Simon Magus. Valentinus, how- ever, who lived first at Alexandria and then at Rome, about the middle of the second century, is the completest exponent of Gnostic doc- trines. His system of the evolution of eons, or spiritual orders, from the primitive and Absolute Being is described as artistic and profound. ** Valentinus was the most important Christian Early Heresies and Formation of a Canon. 91 theologian before Origen." Indeed, the great Alexandrians, both Clement and Origen, were his pupils. At the same time with Valentinus flourished Marcion, the most formidable of heretics. He numbered distinguished followers, as one of the old historians relates, in *' every country." While a Gnostic, he advocated some views which make Marcionism, in a measure, a separate heresy. He was irreproachable in manner of life and strict in Church discipline. One of his transmitted say- ings would lead us to have a very high opinion of his religious principles: *' They who believe in Christ and lead a holy life out of love to God shall attain to bliss in the heavenly kingdom." Christ came to reveal the hitherto unrevealed good God — not the just God of the Old Testa- ment, who said "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," but Him who gave the new com- mandment, " If any smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." This distinc- tion of the God of the Jews — Jehovah — the Crea- tor of the world, from the Absolute Being, the highest God, declared only by Jesus Christ, is common to Gnosticism in all its branches. Mar- cion was distinguished by the force and moral earnestness of his opposition to the worship of Je- hovah, who is represented by Isaiah as saying, " I create evil." Christ undid the law of this "just" God, and put in its stead the law of the good God, his Father. Jehovah was hard, passionate, 02 The Church of the Fathers. and no more than just; the God whom Jesus re- veals is loving and gracious. This halting at the acceptance of the Jewish Scriptures and the God they reveal, a reluctance on the part of some of the most serious-minded and spiritual of that age, bears witness to a real difficulty which only the correcter way of inter- preting Scripture and God's methods of teaching the race could surmount. The Gnostics made important contributions to Christian literature. Bardesanes, of Edessa, was the father of church song. Tatian, of Syria, was the author of the first harmony of the gospels, the famous " Diatessaron." The first commentaries, the first theological treatises, the first doctrinal sys- tems, the first collection of New Testament writ- ings, w^ere made by Gnostics. Moral ardor and mental energy were combined in them in an un- usually high degree for any age. Their permanent and great contribution to the Christian Church is expressed by Prof essor A. V. G. Allen as " the rec- ognition of Christ as having a world-wide relation- ship, and the need of Greek culture and philoso- phy as aids in the formation of a consistent the- ology." 3. Monarch I ANisM. In opposition to Gnosticism and in defense of the unity of the Godhead, there arose toward the end of the second century within the Church the form of doctrine which Tertullian, its great op- ponent, called Monarchianism, which our mod- Early Hej'csies and Eorjnation of a Canon. 93 ern word monarchy fully explains. Its authors were zealous for the single supreme authority of God; but their zeal led them, in two parties, to opposite errors — that is, into what the Church condemned as heresy. The task lay upon the thinkers of that age to explain Christ, and in do- ing this it not unfrequently happened that the op- ponents of one class of heretics heard the cry of heresy raised against themselves. The Monarchians, agreeing in their doctrine of the supremacy of God, the Father, differed in their explanation of this supremacy; and both parties became heretical regarding the nature of Christ. The one sect, whose descent was traced from Theodotus, who was excommunicated about A.D. 195, and from Artemon, who was excom- municated a generation later, represented in fact an early Judaistic tradition of Christ as a mere man who received favor of God by obedience and a special endowment of the Holy Spirit at his baptism, whereby he became the Son of God. Hence these Monarchians were known as **adop- tionists" and "hurrsanitarians." Paul of Samo- sata, who was deposed about A.D. 268 from the bishopric of Antioch, represents the highest out- come of this teaching, and the sect is often spo- ken of, therefore, as *' Samosatians." His doc- trines may be summed up in four propositions: i. The Logos and the Holy Spirit are not persons but powers, or qualities, like reason and love. 2. The Logos dwelt not in RMl:»stance but in quality 94 Th e Ch it rch of tJi e jFath ers . in Christ in an extraordinary degree. 3. Jesus was elevated by merit gradually to divine dignity and sonship. 4. He became a Saviour by thus elevating himself, by not sinning, but by triumph- ing over evil. Two synods discussed the doctrine without effecting a settlement; a third deposed and excommunicated the head of the sect. The other sect of Monarchians destro3^ed the human part of Christ's nature. God was in him "the central factor of his being." He was not "very man," but only a theophan}^ a shadowy presence of God — no real incarnation, no genuine union of God and man in one person, the God- man. The several designations — Father, Son, Holy Spirit — " denote the same divine nature un- der successive forms of manifestation." Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in other words, are but three successive stages in the divine economy, three several modes of the manifestation of Deity. This class of Monarchians are, on this account, often called Modalists. But since they abolished the human nature of Christ, and taught that God himself became man and suffered, they are also called Patripassians. Tertullian says of Praxeas, an early representative of this school, that at Rome "he drove out the Paraclete and cru- cified the Father. ' ' Noetus, another distinguished Monarchian, declared that the "Father himself was born, suffered, and died," and that " Christ was the one God over all." Notwithstanding the fact that several popes of Rome in this century Early Heresies and Formation of a Canon. 95 were adherents to this doctrine, it was finally reject- ed by the Church. Neither the humanity nor the divinity of Christ must be impaired. The loss of either element from his nature destroyed his unique- ness and his character as Saviour of mankind. Sabellius, who flourished at Rome about the year 200, gives the completest expression to Mo- dalistic or Patripassian Monarchianism. The sect is sometimes called after him ** Sabellians." The unity of the divine essence, a plurality of manifes- tations, constitutes a summary of this doctrine. It opened up the way for the trinitarian creed of the first Ecumenical Council. One result of the rise of so many doctrinal con- tentions in the Church was the recognition of the necessity of a norma Jidei^ a criterion of doctrines, an authoritative source of teaching. 4. The Formation of the Canon. The young Church set itself, therefore, to the determination of what should constitute its au- thoritative body of sacred Scripture. While prior to the year 150 it yet possessed the ** living voice," only the Old Testament writings were called *' Scripture." The first step from this position was to quote the sayings of our Lord from the "memoirs" of the apostles, emplojdng the form- ula, " as it is written," used formerly only of ''the Jewish canon." But as time enhanced in author- \\y and sanctity the words of the writers, they too came to be introduced by the same formula. 96 The Church of the Fathers. Thus the four gospels came earliest to be au- thoritative Christian Scriptures : this about the middle of the second century. As yet no canon- ical principle had been developed, except the un- certain one that the document should contain true sayings of our Lord. The question of authorship seems not to have entered into consideration. It became a custom, first mentioned by Justin Martyr, to read from these "memoirs," or gos- pels, in the Sunday assemblies of the Christians. But long before this, indeed before any gospel had been written, it was in vogue for prominent church- es, or heads of churches, to address letters of com- fort, instruction, and exhortation to other churches or individuals. Thus arose the epistolary litera- ture, of which there are many eminent represent- atives, St. Paul the most eminent. The circula- tion of these letters was not always originally con- templated; and only when addressed to a church, rather than an individual, was it meant for public reading. Hence the reading of the early epistles was not a regular thing. But antiquity tends to bestow sanctity, and in time these first expositions of Christian life and doctrine assumed a higher sa- credness. It was only gradually, in course of many years, that a collection of either gospels or epistles was made. The grouping of the gospels together as an ecclesiastical canon took place not earlier than the last quarter of the second century; and this preceded the similar grouping of the epistles. Early Heresies and Formation of a. Canon. 97 Tatian (died A.D. 172) combined the gospels into his" Diatessaron," and his free abridgment of them in this process indicates that as yet they did not possess that sacredness to which they afterwards attained. There was no protest against this free handhng of the records. In the formation of the canon the greatest di- versity of opinion existed regarding the epistolary and the apocalyptic writings. There were many for several centuries who rejected James, Second Peter, Second and Third John, Hebrews, and the Apocalypse of John ; while many during the same period accepted Clement, Diognetus, the Shep- herd of Hermas, and the Apocalypse of Peter. The very highest authorities are found maintain- ing each of these positions. The Muratorian Fragment (the fragment of an early canon), sup- posed to date from A.D. 170-200, excludes nearly all those in the first list, and includes the Apoca- lypse of Peter. It was about this time the title " Novum Testamentum" came into use; but as for a closed canon, that is a thing of the future. But the original cause of the agitation of the matter — namely, heresy — continues as a hastening influence. The part played by heretics in the process itself is worthy of remark. The Gnostic Marcion was the first to attempt a canon. The first exegetical and commentary work was put forth by heretics. They were also the first to appeal to the evangeli- cal writings in their controversies. The process of forming a canon went on independ- 7 pS The Church of the Fathers, ently, but not without reciprocal influence, in the East and the West. In the East, by the middle of the fourth century, substantial agreement had been reached, although many of the documents in the two lists presented above were still in dispute. In many canons the Shepherd of Hermas and the two Epistles of Clement are included, while the Apoca- lypse of Peter stands in higher favor than the Apoca- lypse of John. In the West, that the canon was not closed at the beginning of the fifth century is evi- denced by the fact that Rufinus and Jerome regard the Shepherd of Hermas as part of the New Testa- ment. But the great influence of Athanasius and of Augustine determined the canon of the W^est to be pretty much as we now have it, though the pa- pal chair issued no bull to that effect till A.D. 1441. *'This was the first decision of universal validity in the matter of a canon." Luther's freedom in criticising the traditional canon will be brought to mind. He found partic- ular objection to James, Hebrews, the Apocalypse, and Estlier; and of the book of Jonah, he said it was *'more lying and more absurd than any fable of the poets." But Luther was no more infallible than the popes and councils, of which he said he trusted neither. BIBLIOGRAPHY. I. On Gnosticism, Harnack, "History of Dogma" — a great work — has two very instructive chapters (Vol. I., Chapters IV. and v.), the titles of which indicate his point of view. They read as follows: "Chapter IV. The attempts of the Gnostics to create an apostolic dogma, and a Christian theology; or the Early Heresies and Formation of a Canon. 99 acute secularization of Christianity. Chapter V. Marcion's at- tempt to set aside the Old Testament foundation of Christian- ity, to purify tradition, and to reform Christendom on the basis of the Pauline gospel." 2. Dr. Bernhard Weiss's "Manual of Introduction to the New Testament" (two volumes, Funk and Wagnalls Compa- ny) contains a good brief account of the formation of the canon. ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION. "The Roman Church displays from the beginning the essen- tial characteristics which distinguished it throughout its long and marvelous history. The legitimate daughter of Jerusalem, the Roman Chuichwili always have a certain ascetic and sacer- dotal character, opposed to the Protestant tendency of Paul. Peter will be her real head; afterwards, as the political and hierarchical spirit of old Rome penetrates her, she will truly become the New Jerusalem — the city of the pontificate, of a hieratic and solemn religion, of material sacraments alone sufficient for justification. She will be the Church of au- thority. . . . " In the reign of Antoninus the germ of the papacy already exists in a very definite form. The Church of Rome shows itself increasingly indifferent to those visionary speculations which were the delightof minds full of the intellectual activity of the Greeks, but at the same time corrupted by the dreams of the East. The organization of Christian society was the chief work pursued at Rome. That wonderful city brought to this task the exclusively' practical genius and the powerful moral energy which she has applied in so many different ways. Al- most careless of speculation, decisively hostile to novelties of doctrine, she presided, as a mistress already practiced in the art, over all the changes which took place in the discipline and the hierarchy of the Church.'' — Renan. (I02) CHAPTER VI. ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION. " Wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."— Ignatius. " He that has not the Church for his mother cannot have God for his Father." — Cyprian. " Rome has spoken, the matter is settled." — Augustine. 1. These three memorable sayings — the first from early in the second centur}^, the second from the middle of the third, and the last from the begin- ning of the fifth — indicate a growth in the theory and organization of the Church which it will be the aim of this chapter to sketch. In very early times, as revealed in the pastoral epistles addressed to Timothy and Titus, there were bishops, presby- ters, and deacons, who administered the govern- ment of the Church and taught its doctrines. ( The date of these epistles, however, is still in dispute.) Besides these, there were ** apostles," "evangel- ists," ''prophets," and *' pastors and teachers" (Eph. iv. II), who had, each several order, their distinct and special functions. When we enter the times of the Apostolic Fathers, we find that a stricter ecclesiastical organization has caused the disappearance of some of these latter classes; yet in the " Didache " evidence exists that *' apostles," "prophets," and ** teachers" still continue as a sort of itinerant ministry. In the same document (103) 104 ^^^^ Church of the Fathers. we find that there is a plural episcopacy — that is, two or more bishops over one church — and that deacons perform with them about the same func- tions. The presbyters, or elders, both rule and teach, and are shepherds of the flock. A close analogy, it will be observed, exists here between the functionaries of the church and those of the synagogue. The Jewish institution, which was the mother of the Christian society, had not only its high priest, priests, and Levites — officers large- ly dispensed with in the new order by the ministry of the one true High Priest, who '* offered one sac- rifice for sin forever" — but also its elders, or pres- byters; its ruler, or presiding officer, correspond- ing to the bishop; its almoners, or deacons; its min- ister, or servant, also a deacon; and, analogous to the Christian apostles, teachers, and evangelists, its volunteer preachers, readers, and prayers. The influence, furthermore, of the pagan reli- gious societies, which were at that time very nu- merous and active, was also undoubtedly consid- erable. These fraternities, each with its own tute- lary divinity, had their regular meeting, or '' sacred synod," their common meal, their common fund of alms, and an administrative officer, whom they called episkopos^ or bishop. Heathen temples, moreover, had their deacons and deaconesses, and many rites and ceremonies closely resembling those of the Church. As to Him * ' through whom are all things," so to his Church are all things. In the earliest '* Apostolic Canons" — a sort of Ecclesiastical Organization. 105 constitution of the Church — which began to be created about the middle of the second century, the functions and qualifications of five classes are set forth : I . Of bishops these canons say they shall be elect- ed by the congregation, or if that does not contain twelve men, then the election shall be by three invited select men from a neighboring see. The bishop must have "a good report among the hea- then" and be "a friend of the poor." Marriage is not forbidden him, there is no age qualification, and learning is said not to be necessary. 2. The presbyters must be elderly and unmarried. They are to have oversight and control of the bishop in the distribution of the gifts at the altar, which seems to have been the bishop's chief function. They are also a directing, disciplining, and jurid- ical council to the congregation. 3. One desig- nated as * ' reader ' ' seems to have succeeded to the divers functions of apostle, prophet, and teacher of an earlier day. He was to have a good moral character, a good delivery, and ability to expound Scripture. In other words, he was the preacher. 4. There should be three deacons, who were to be *'maintainers, ministers, and comforters of the congregation in their daily life." 5. Three wid- ows also were to be selected in each society, if it contained so many, whose duties were to pray and to nurse — two of the three being assigned to the former and one to the latter task. Circumstances in time brought about the eleva- io6 The ChtD'ch of the fathers. tion o1; the administrative office of the bishop, and established him in supremacy as the head of the congregation. The eleemosynary and discipHna- ry functions, which were of chief importance in the early Church, came into his hands exclusively and, by the service performed, heightened his dig- nity. Furthermore, he came to be thought of as the successor of an apostle — in the original limited sense, not the later and extended sense, of that word. Therefore, in a time when there began to be need, he was regarded as the custodian and transmitter of apostolic teaching and faith. As there was an unbroken succession of rabbis even from Moses's time, so there was in the Church a complete series of teachers from the apostles. Moreover, to preserve the unity of doctrine and of discipline throughout the whole Church, suc- cessors of the apostles, as heads of the several churches, were required. By tradition these were the bishops. Again, the rise of heresies and the absence of a standard of doctrine, or rule of faith, worked to the same end — the calling into promi- nence of one single authoritative head for each congregation. To sum up results. Regarding the episcopacy of the early Church, we note a few interesting facts: I. It was originall}^ local, not diocesan. 2. It was administrative, not priestly, or clerical. 3. It was sometimes plural. In the second century, as attested near its close by Irenseus, who was bishop of Lyons in Gaul, there gradually took place a Ecclesiastical Organization. 107 change. First, a sharp distinction arose between the clergy and laity — which distinction hardly ex- isted in the Apostolic Church. Secondly, there came to be a permanent, settled ministry — a bish- op for each congregation. Thirdly, to these, as successors of the apostles and the transmitters from them of the true faith and doctrine, a spe- cial grace, an illumination by the Holy Spirit, be- longed. Fourthly, they have a general relation to the Church universal. As the Church grew, and its organization de- veloped, it assumed more and more the pattern of the Roman empire. By this time — the year 200 — it had become as extended as that empire, and was rapidly gaining upon it in power. Its teach- ers had followed the soldiers — the Word of peace pursuing the arms of conquest. All the larger cities and many of the smaller towns had their churches and their bishops, presbyters, and dea- cons. The perfecting of the organization pro- ceeded on the models offered by the empire. First, the territorial divisions were made to co- incide. The bishop then was elevated from his position as pastor of a single flock to the over- sight of a district, or diocese. Presbyters became priests, each in charge of a separate congregation within or around the cit}^. This brought about two results — a diminishing of the number of bish- ops, and an elevation of them in dignity. In the larger eastern cities — Jerusalem, Constantinople, Antioch, etc. — the bishop received the title of Pa- lOo The Church of the JFaihers. triarch or Archbishop ; in the chief western cities^ the latter title or the designation of Metropolitan was bestowed upon him. About the beginning of the third century there emerged to view two conceptions that were des- tined to be of supreme moment in Christian history. The first was the idea of the Catholic — that is, uni- versal — Church; the second was the theory of the supremacy of Rome. Neither was of sudden birth or fortuitous origin, but they were alike the slow products of time and favoring conditions. The conception of a Church universal, it seems, should always have existed; but from the manner of the planting of the gospel in various lands — Greece, Egypt, Arabia, Italy, Gaul — by independent mis- sionaries, it was not so. The term when first used by Ignatius means only general as opposed to par- ticular; and when next used, in the Muratorian Fragment, about A.D. 175, it refers to doctrinal unity. Not until we come to Irenaius do we find it used in the now accepted sense of the one or- ganized, orthodox Church. The Roman idea of imperial unity and universal dominion had inspired this idea and ambition into the Church. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage (248 to 258;, thoroughly domi- nated by Roman ideas of government, did more than anybody else to impress the doctrine of eccle- siastical unity and of Catholicism. '*The Church is one," ''the episcopate is one," he asserted with great force. It was a useful and sublime concep- tion. Only the abuse of it ever wrought harm. Ecclesiastical Organization, 109 II. There were many circumstances that favored the supremacy of Rome as the reHgious capital of the West. To begin with, the idea of the eternity of the city was firmly implanted in the minds of all who had come under her marvelous sway. The name of Rome stood for all that was imposing, mighty, and enduring in earthly power. Under the magic of this enthralling spell of a name the bar- barians themselves came when they poured into the plains of Italy out of the frozen North. This tem- poral authority and power of ancient association af- forded a basis for a spiritual dominion as extensive and more pervasive — which the succession of illus- trious, imperially-minded potentates, whom we are now to study, were not slow to create. But such a spiritual dominion would never have been erected had there been no cause beyond this. A cathedral is not built because there happens to be a good foun- dation prepared for it amid the ruins of a heathen temple. If there is a cause for a Christian edifice, the heathen foundation is a favoring provision. Christendom in the then state of society seemed to require an ecclesiastical head — a supreme au- thority upon earth. This was not provided for by the ecumenical councils, for they were irregular in occurrence; there was no general government of the Church. But of such government there was a deeply felt and general need. The prelates of different sees were in continual rivalry, ofttimes in open strife. One invisible Head they all recog- no The Church of the Fathers, nized — theoretically at least — but a visible Church on earth requires a visible head on earth. There was much besides what has been indi- cated to favor the bishop of Rome. The primacy of St. Peter among the apostles, and the belief that the see of Rome was of his founding, early pos- sessed the mind of the Church. Hence the suc- cessor of St. Peter easily came to be, according to the theory of apostolic succession through the bishops, the inheritor of his authority; and soon from the rank of primacy he rose, by sure devel- opment of influence, to supremacy. The occupants of the episcopal chair at Rome, it is notable, were for the most part men of ex- traordinary administrative ability. This was their racial inheritance. The Roman see, in conse- quence, possessed a dignity, founded upon its high antiquity, its regularity of succession, and the em- inence of its bishop, which did not belong to any other possible candidate in the West. Again, the rivalry of the great eastern bishoprics — Antioch, Constantinople, Alexandria — advanced the honor of Rome. For not unfrequently in their zealous controversies they appealed to her for a decision, and continually therefore courted her favor. Likewise the provinces — Spain, Gaul, Af- rica, and others — had each their quarrels to arbi- trate, and circumstances favored Rome, since even then all roads led there, as umpire. The seven- hilled city therefore succeeded herself as the mis- tress of the world . As her temporal power sank into Ecclesiastical Organizaiioji. iii the decrepitude of age, her spiritual power rose in the vigor of a youth renewed like the eagle's. A few historical facts will indicate the rise of Roman pretensions. Pope Victor (189-199) threat- ened the entire Eastern Church with excommuni- cation. Pope Callistus ( 217-222) was called "Pon- tifex Maximus " hy Tertullian, by which was indi- cated the idea that the bishop of Rome was high priest of the empire. Pope Stephen (254-257), on the basis of the primacy of St. Peter, "the first bishop of Rome," set up claims to universal control over the whole Church — but premature- ly, for they were successfully resisted. To Pope Julius the Council of Sardica in 344 (or 347) con- ferred by canons the authority of settling appeals in case of the retrial of a bishop. The Roman see was thereby recognized as the court of final appeal in the Church. Innocent the Great (401-417) was the first to assert and maintain a universal authori- ty. Born at Albano, in Roman territory, he was a Roman in character, bold, imperious, and conquer- ing. Not less also was he saintl}^ in life. He was exactly such a man as the conjunction of events and conditions required to advance the episcopal chair to the dignity of an imperial throne. He assumed authority over all the provinces. In the management of the affairs of the Church he com- bined the tact of the politician with the wisdom of the statesman . A superior faculty for organization , the Roman genius for law and government, con- duced to the elevation of Rome to supremacy. 112 The Church of the Fathers. Disaster itself favored the advancement of Rome. When the Goths, under Alaric, captured and sacked the city, it was pagan Rome only that was destroyed. She rose from her ashes a Chris- tian Rome. And her bishop had gained in power. Potent as was the character and influence of In- nocent, a successor, after an interval, in the papal chair, was even more eminent and powerful. The pontificate of Leo the Great (440-461) constitutes an epoch in the history of the Church. Like In- nocent, a Roman of the antique type, ambitious and imperious, asserting that, as seemed true, Rome's temporal dominion was but the type and preparation of her greater spiritual dominion, he used every opportunity with far-seeing wisdom to exalt her power. The edict of Valentinian, A.D. 347, declared that the decree of the bishop of Rome should be law ; and upon this legal basis Leo asserted his suprem- acy over the Roman provinces. A favoring circum- stance was the fact of a dearth of able men during his time: there was no one to contest his claims. He was the man required to fulfill the tendency of history. Basing his claim to authority upon the theory of the perpetual continuance of St. Peter as chief of the apostles, he carried his authority either in person or by delegation into every Roman province and ruled like an emperor. *' The care of the universal Church should converge toward St. Peter's one seat, and nothing anywhere should be separated from its head,'' So he writes in one Ecclesiastical Organization. ' 113 of his letters. The various heresies which his in- fluence was needed to put down or check gave him his opportunities. With the abihties of a statesman he availed himself of every advantage thus offered to elevate the power of Rome . ' ' There is no part of the policy of the future papacy," says Professor Emerton, " which we do not see clearly outlined in the work of Leo." It must not be supposed that this growth of ec- clesiasticism took place without opposition . There were two stupendous protests, organized and gen- eral: they were, first, Montanism, and then Mo- nasticism. At a time when the original spirit of Christian- ity, its zeal for daily newness of life and for com- munion with the living God, and for the perpetual power of the Holy Ghost, seemed waning, and the spirit of Churchianity and of elaborate formal- ism and of sacerdotalism was entering in, then oc- curred the inevitable — a reaction. Montanus, a resident of Asia Minor, in the latter part of the second century, led it and gave the movement his name. The Montanists were an extremely ascetic and puritanical sect, and inclined to fanaticism. Their distinguishing doctrinal attitude may be summed up in the one word szipematuralism. They believed the Paraclete inspired them with new and fuller revelations of truth. By their ex- pectation of the speedy coming of Christ they originated a commotion which disturbed the whole Church — in Africa, where such eminent men as 8 114 ^^^^ Church of the Feathers. Tertullian and Cyprian took up with it, and at Rome, where it found numerous adherents. The earliest synods of the Church were called in order to put down the madness, as it was deemed. The success of these synods increased the dig- nity and power of the bishops and strengthened ecclesiasticism. Montanism taught the doctrine of a universal priesthood of believers; the Catho- lic Church opposed to this a strict theory of a lim- ited priesthood, and so strengthened sacerdotal- ism. By this movement, which in its origin had justification and, if it had been sanely restrained and guided, might have done much good, cer- tain permanent effects resulted: first, thereafter prophecy and special revelations were distrust- ed; secondly, greater emphasis was laid upon the historical Christ and a closed canon of Scripture: thirdly, the importance of a compacter Church or- ganization was emphasized. To the second protest, Monasticism, an entire chapter will later on be devoted. Montanism was a premonition; the spirit and potency of the later institution, the protest and the aspiration, were in it, foreboding final victory. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 1. Renan's Hibbert Lectures (1880), on "The Influence of the Institutions, Thought, and Culture of Rome on Christian- ity and the Development of the Catholic Church," is in that writer's well-known able manner. The style is that of a poet, the reasoning is that of a philosopher. 2. Hatch's' Bampton Lectures (1880), on "The Organization of the Early Christian Church," is probably the best single vol- ume on the subject. THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE, "No; they have not labored in vain, those great founders, those reformers, those prophets of every age, who have pro- tested against the delusive evidence of a fatality which closes us round, who have dashed themselves against the wall of a gross materialism, who have given their life for the accom- plishment of a mission which the spirit of their age laid upon them. . . . "Something assures me that he who, hardly knowing why, has, out of simple nobleness of nature, chosen for himself in this world the essentially unproductive function of doing good is the truly wise man, and has discerned, with more sagacity than the egotist, the legitimate employment of life." — Rdnan. (n6) CHAPTER VII. THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE. "Imperium in imperio." "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." I. Persecutions, Early in the thought of the Christians the em- peror of Rome came to be identified with the fourth beast in Daniel — the ten-horned beast, "whose teeth were of iron and his nails of brass," and who should *' wear out the saints of the Most High." He was the Antichrist, the embodiment and representative of all that opposed the king- dom of God in the world — "the man of sin, . . . he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God." So he was described by St. Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians. And a generation or more later, John in his Apocalypse depicted him as a monster coming up out of the bottomless pit, and with terrible force pronounced his doom from heaven. Good reasons existed for this burning hatred of the empire during the first two and a half centuries of Christian history. There are commonly enumerated ten great perse- cutions, as follows; ( I )Under Nero, 54-68; (2) Do- mitian, 81-96; (3) Trajan, 98-117; (4) Marcus Ii8 The Church of the Fathers. Aurelius, 161-180; (5) Septimius Severus, 193- 211; (6) Maximinus, 235-238; (7) Decius, 249- 253; (8) Valerian, 253-260; (9) Aurelian, 270- 275; (10) Diocletian, 303-311. These persecutions were not all equally severe or extended. Those of Nero, Domitian, Decius, and Diocletian were the greatest. The history of this period of suffering and of struggle for life and mastery will now engage our attention. First, some remarks on the Roman government's gen- eral attitude toward alien cults must be premised. The Roman religion, it must be understood, was a national affair. In its final and consummate significance it meant the worship of Rome and of the emperor. To tliese incense was burned and sacrifices were offered. To these and for these prayers were made. The emperor was '^ domtmts et deus noster'" to all loyal Romans; before his death he was apotheosized and called ** divine." Now, this fact of the national and political na- ture of the Roman religion determined the attitude of the government toward foreign faiths. If any society, club, or collegium of any sort aroused suspicions of fostering conspiracy or dangerous and revolutionary principles, it was suppressed. The restriction went eve^ further. If public mor- als and the social order seemed to be menaced, that v/as sufficient ground for suppression. That, therefore, religious tolerance was unlimited in Rome was a mistaken idea. In those days of threatening anarchy, every strange cult was eyed The Church and the Emfire, I19 by the government with keen suspicion. For moral reasons, the Bacchic societies were sup- pressed B.C. 188. The Jews were expelled from Rome B.C. 139, because of their exclusive, stern, and aggressive monotheistic worship. The cult of the Egyptian Isis was put down B.C. 58 and 50, for reasons of public order and safety. There were many stringent laws against the innumer- able collegia, or fraternities, of the time, designed to prevent their assuming poHtical aspects. Therefore when the Christians appeared in Rome, restricting laws were already in existence, and needed only to be enforced if any danger seemed to lurk in their practices or doctrines. And such danger was not long in evincing itself. The Christians seemed to be nihilistic, inasmuch as they received slave converts, practiced com- m.unism, refused to take the military oath, stood aloof from trade, business, and public office, and, most heinous and crowning offense, declined to burn incense to the emperor's statue. In one word, they were "atheists." The hating Jews fed Roman suspicion. They charged the Chris- tians with the foulest and most execrable crimes. Two of these are much spoken of in the literature of the time, and a most pathetic interest attaches to them. In the euphemistic language of the period, these crimes were called " Thyestean feasts" and " CEdipodean marriages." To understand what was meant, it is enough to be reminded that to Thy- estes his own son was served up in a feast prepared 120 The Church of the Fathers. for him by his brother Atreus; and that CEdipus, in the myth, unknowingly wedded his own mother. To understand what gave suggestions for such hid- eous charges, it is only necessary, for the first, to reflect on the language used in the Lord's Supper concerning the flesh and blood of the Son of God ; and for the second, to remember that those who dafly called themselves ''brothers" and "sisters" in Christ joined in wedlock. Strange as it may seem to us, the apologists had to defend the inno- cent Christians against the charge of these unnat- ural crimes. In the remarkable romance of Sienkiewicz, "Quo Vadis," the first great persecution of the Chris- tians by the inhuman Nero is graphically and al- most too terribly detailed, but probably within the bounds of truth. They were known to the gov- ernment up to this time only as a small, fanatical, and most peculiar sect, of anti-social tendencies and atheistic doctrines. The consequential fact was that the vidgus^ who loved the bloody spectacle of the arena, hated the Christians. Nero, the incar- nation of the brutalized mind of the age, burned the city for a spectacle, and then permitted the charge to fall upon the Christians because it saved himself and gratified the Jews and the Roman rab- ble. They were convicted, not on proofs, but on the general charge of odium generis huniani: " ha- tred of the human race ! " Thenceforth these " haters of the human race" were outlaws and brigands, subject to continual po- The Church and the Emfire. 121 lice surveillance and under condemnation for the Name. From the year 64, then, it may be said that persecution, like a forest fire, burned for two hun- dred and fifty years against the Christians; now with raging and almost all-consuming conflagration, now with smoldering duUheat that was concealed only to gather new destructive force ; now in one part of the empire, now in another; always some- where the dun smoke or the lurid flames rose to heaven, until the *'time and times and a half time" of Daniel were fulfilled. Paul and Peter, it is supposed, suffered martyr- dom in the first Neronian persecution. The sec- ond persecution was begun about A.D. 95, and it is of this that the Apocalypse probably speaks. It was instigated for political reasons. Less blood- thirsty than Nero, Domitian chose to banish rather than kill. John's banishment to Patmos probably occurred at this time. The condition in the reign of Trajan is disclosed by the correspondence which took place between this emperor and Pliny the Younger, who was gov- ernor of Bithynia. These famous letters, which passed about A.D. iii, are as follows. Pliny writes : ''It is my custom, my lord, to refer to thee all questions concerning which I am in doubt; for who can better direct my hesitation or instruct my ig- norance? I have never been present at judicial examinations of the Christians; therefore I am ignorant how and to what extent it is customary 12^ The Chiirch of tJic leathers. to punish or to search for them. And I have hesi- tated greatly as to whether any distinction should be made on the ground of age, or whether the weak should be treated in the same way as the strong; whether pardon should be granted to the penitent, or he who has ever been a Christian gain nothing by renouncing it ; whether the mere name, if unaccompanied with crimes, or crimes associated with the name, should be punished. Meanwhile, with those who have been brought before me as Christians I have pursued the following course. I have asked them if they were Christians, and if they have confessed, I have asked them a second and third time, threatening them with punishment ; if they have persisted, I have commanded them to be led away to punishment. For I did not doubt that whatever that might be which they confessed, at any rate pertinacious and inflexible obstinacy ought to be punished. There have been others afflicted with like insanity, who as Roman citizens I have decided should be sent to Rome. In the course of the proceedings, as commonly hap- pens, the crime was extended, and many varieties of cases appeared. An anonymous document was published containing the names of many persons. Those who denied that they were or had been Chris- tians I thought ought to be released, when they had followed my example in invoking the gods and offer- ing incense and wine to thine image — which I had for that purpose ordered brought with the images of the gods — and when they had besides cursed The Church and the Empire. 123 Christ; things which they say that those who are truly Christians cannot be compelled to do. Others, accused by an informer, first said that they were Christians and afterwards denied it, saying that they had indeed been Christians, but had ceased to be — some three years, some several years, and one even twenty years before. All adored thine im- age and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ. Moreover, they affirmed that this was the sum of their guilt and error; that they had been accus- tomed to come together on a fixed day before da}^- light, and to sing responsively a song unto Christ as God; and to bind themselves with an oath, not with a view to the commission of some crime, but, on the contrary, that they would not commit theft, nor robbery, nor adultery; that they would not break faith, nor refuse to restore a deposit when asked for it. When they had done these things, their custom was to separate and to assemble again to partake of a meal, common, yet harmless (which is not of the characteristic of a nefarious superstition) ; but this they had ceased to do after my edict, in which, according to thy demands, I had prohibited fraternities. I therefore consid- ered it the more necessary to examine, even with the use of torture, two female slaves who were called deaconesses {ministrcE)^ in order to ascer- tain the truth. But I found nothing except a su- perstition depraved and immoderate ; and there- fore, postponing further inquiry, I have turned to thee for advice. For the matter seems to me worth 124 ^'^^^ Church of the Fathers. consulting about, especially on account of the num- ber of persons involved. For many of every age and of every rank and of both sexes have been already and will be brought to trial. For the contagion of this superstition has permeated not only the cities, but also the villages and even the country districts. Yet it can apparently be arrested and corrected. At any rate, it is cer- tainly a fact that the temples, which were almost deserted, are now beginning to be frequented, and the sacred rites, which were for a long- time interrupted, to be resumed, and fodder for the victims to be sold, for which previously hard- ly a purchaser was to be found. From which it is easy to gather how great a multitude of men may be reformed if there is given a chance for repentance." The reply of Trajan — commonly called "Tra- jan's Rescript " — reads as follows: '* Thou hast followed the right course, my Secun- dus, in treating the cases of those who have been brought before thee as Christians. For no fixed rule can be laid down which shall be applicable to all cases. They are not to be searched for; if they are accused and convicted, they are to be punished ; nevertheless, with the proviso that he who denies that he is a Christian, and proves it by his act — /'. ^., by making supplication to our gods — al- though suspected in regard to the past, may by re- pentance obtain pardon. Anonymous accusations ought not to be admitted in any proceedings; for The Church and the Emfire. 125 they are of most evil precedent, and are not in ac- cord with our age." The emperor's rescript, it must be conceded, is characterized, for those times, by leniency and wisdom. Pliny's letter is a most valuable histor- ical document, as revealing the customs of the Christian worshipers in that period. Under An- toninus Pius ( 1 38-161), to whom apologies were addressed, as we have seen, Polycarp suffered martyrdom at Smyrna. Under Marcus Aurelius, his adopted son and successor, persecution was severe in Gaul at Lyons and Vienne. Of this great trial the Gallic churches sent out an account to the churches in Asia, relating how great and ter- rible was their tribulation, and how nobly the many sufferers bore witness to Christ. Two illustrious examples must be presented as this letter, which Eusebius gives us, describes them. The first is of the heroism of a young woman, " through whom Christ showed that things which appear mean and obscure and despicable to men are with God of great glory. . . . For," the narrative continues, "while we all trembled, and her earthly mistress, who was herself also one of the witnesses, feared that on account of the weakness of her body she would be unable to make bold confession, Blan- dina [this was the heroine's name] was filled with such power as to be delivered and raised above those who were torturing her by turns from morn- ing till evening in every manner, so that they ac- knovv^ledged that they were conquered, and could 126 The Chu7'ch of the JFathers. do nothing more to her. And they were astonished at her endurance, as her entire body was mangled and broken ; and they testified that one of these forms of torture was sufficient to destro}?- life, not to speak of so many and great sufferings. But the blessed woman, like a noble athlete, renewed her strength in her confession; and her comfort and her recreation and relief from the pain of her suf- ferings were in exclaiming, ' I am a Christian, and there is nothing vile done by us.' " The second example of heroism is of the aged bishop of Lyons, *' the blessed Pothinus." ** He was more than ninety years of age," runs the ac- count, *'and very infirm, scarcely indeed able to breathe because of physical weakness; but he was strengthened by spiritual zeal through his earnest desire for martyrdom. Though his body was worn out by old age and disease, his life was preserved that Christ might triumph in it. When he was brought by the soldiers to the tribunal, accom- panied by the civil magistrates and a multitude who shouted against him in every manner as if he were Christ himself, he bore noble witness. Be- ing asked by the governor, * Who is the God of the Christians?' he replied, * If thou art worthy, thou shalt know.' Then he was dragged away harshly, and received blows of every kind. Those near him struck him with their hands and feet, re- gardless of his age ; and those at a distance hurled at him whatever they could seize ; all of them think- ing that they would be guilty of great wickedness The Church and the Emj>ire. 127 anc} impiety if any possible abuse were omitted. For thus they thought to avenge their own deities. Scarcely able to breathe, he was cast into prison, and died after two days." Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius were Stoic philosophers, moralists of the noblest ancient type, men of high and commanding ideals, and rulers of eminent justness and wisdom. Verily, they must have thought they were doing God service in permitting their governors — for by their subal- terns it was done — thus to persecute their truest subjects. On no other ground can it be accounted for. Under Septimius Severus the persecution was especially severe in Egypt and Africa. It was then Pantasnus was driven out of Alexandria, and Leonidas, the father of Origen, was first impris- oned, then killed. Conversion to Judaism and to Christianity was forbidden. The Church was per- mitted legal existence only as a burial society. Alexander Severus was tolerant. His house- hold contained several Christians. In his palace he had busts of Abraham and of Christ alono-side of Hercules and Orpheus. Julia Mamma?a, his mother, was attracted by the renown of Origen, and had him visit her at Antioch . She may secret- ly have been a Christian. The most general persecution, up to that time, was under Decius. The Church, although its re- ligion was illicit^ had for some years enjoyed peace, had grown with wonderful rapidity, and 1 28 The Church of the Fathers. had become a consolidated and powerful organi- zation, ** an empire within the empire," a new regime threatening with destruction the ancient government. The weakness of the aged empire was growing more and more manifest. From the outside, moreover, it was menaced by hordes of northern barbarians. The forces of the empire must be united. To effect this, Christianit}^, the one opposing power within, must be uprooted. Decius set himself thoroughly to the task. Com- mittees of examination were appointed, and in- formers became diligent. Bishops were the first to suffer. The church at Rome was for sixteen months without a bishop. Many Christians of every grade suffered martyrdom — many fell away. They were required to renounce Christ, and burn incense to the emperor. Having done this, they were given a certificate of the fact. Those who fell away through fear and weakness were called the lafsi or "lapsed " ; and those who bought a certificate (libellus)^ as many did, instead of burn- ing incense, were called the libellatici. They were classed as *' lapsed " just as though they had performed the heathen act. Likewise there were two classes of the faithful as of the unfaithful. They were confessors and martyrs. The con- fessors were those who bore witness by sufferings — by any trial short of death — to the steadfastness of their faith; the martyrs were witnesses — for such is the meaning of the Greek word — by their death. The three most conspicuous figures in the Tlic Church and the JEinpire. 129 Church at this time were Novatian at Rome, Cyp- rian at Carthage, and Origen at Cassarea. One of the most serious troubles that ever dis- tressed the early Church concerned the readmis- sion of the ^* lapsed." Two parties, one advocat- ing a strict, the other a mild, course, arose. Op- posing bishops were chosen at Rome, and the Church was rent by a division that seemed ir- reconcilable. The milder policy prevailed in time, and the stricter sect, who were called No- vatians from their leader — a sort of puritan com- pany in the ancient Church — ceased to be of con- sequence. The practice of penance, however, received from the terms of readmission a note- worthy impulse. A four-years' course of disci- pline, divided into as many stages, was imposed upon the unfaithful who sought restoration. The first year they were entreaters, and were admitted no further than to the outer court of the church, where they besought the prayers of those who en- tered in. The second year they were auditors^ or hearers only of the preaching and the reading, after which they were required to leave. The third year they were permitted to remain during the prayer following the sermon ; and the fourth year they might remain standing at the administration of the eucharist. The penitential system of the Church had its beginning thus early, and from these conditions. Valerian vv^as at first tolerant, but became hos- tile. The weakening of the empire was the cause 9 130 The Church of the Fathers, of his change of attitude; he desired to unite all forces against foreign enemies. By statutory law Christianity became a crime. Cyprian and Origen experienced martyrdom. A period of peace nearly fifty years in duration ensued, and the Church flourished as never before. Eusebius confesses it to be beyond his ability to describe with what glory and freedom the word of God was honored among all men, both Greeks and barbarians. But as a divine judgment, in his estimation, when the Christians "fell into laxity and sloth, and envied and reviled each other, . . . rulers assailing rulers with words as spears, and people forming parties against people," then per- secution, more dire and determined than ever be- fore, put forth its last, its mightiest effort. For eighteen 3^ears Diocletian had let the Church pur- sue its course in peace — what peace its own inter- nal dissensions permitted to it. In the year 303 he raised the most terrible persecution in all parts of the empire. Eusebius describes it all — for it occurred in his own time — province by province. Thousands of men, women, and children in every land endured torments beyond belief, and won victory at last in flames or upon the cross, "despis- ing the present life for the sake of the teachings of our Saviour." 2. The Catacombs. At Rome a peculiar and interesting record of these trying years and centuries yet remains writ- ten in the everlasting hills. The Church and the Empire. 131 Accustomed to meet at the graves of their mar- tyrs to commemorate their victorious death, or, as they viewed it, their entrance upon life, the Christian worshipers in the time of these persecu- tions found no refuge at once so secure and so congenial to them as the catacombs. And these during a period of nearly three centuries became to them, therefore, not only their city of the dead, but as much their city of the living. They dwelt and worshiped, they prayed and sang and kept their festivals, and at last were laid to rest, in this place of tombs; so that the catacombs have been expressively called **the Pompeii of early Christianity." What are the catacombs like, and what is their history? — a question to whose an- swer pages should be given where I can give but sentences. In the porous strata of volcanic rock, rising into low hills outside the walls of Rome along the Ap- pian Way, was discovered, scarcely a century and a half ago, a network of subterranean galleries, es- timated to have a combined length of three hun- dred or four hundred miles. Along these galler- ies there have been found over seventy thousand tombs, while the whole number is estimated as high as three millions. Blocked up in time by Roman soldiers, and covered by the drifting sands of the Campagna for fourteen centuries, the very existence of this Pompeii was unknown. Now it is made to illuminate the darkest chapters cf Christian history. As every visitor to Rome 132 The Church of ihe Pathers, goes to the catacombs, let us with an interpreter enter one of the underground galleries and see some of the earliest tombs of the Christian believ- ers. We shall find chapels and love-feast rooms and chambers where bishops of the hunted flock passed their lives ; we shall also find vaults where Jews and pagans were laid to rest, and such an inscription as this will plainly declare the fact: ^' Once I was not; now I am not; Iknownothing about it, and it is no concern of mine." This is the agnosticism and apathy and utter despair which possessed that part of the pagan world that rejected the higher truth which had ap- peared. On the Christian tombs we shall find in- scriptions quite different in tone. A few exam- ples will suffice to show their general character. Of most frequent occurrence are such as these: *' He rests in peace " ; ** He has gone to God " ; *■'' Reposing in the peace of God " ; " Gone before us in peace." Simplicity of faith could hardly surpass its manifestation here. No addition could strengthen or adorn the assurance these brief epi- taphs express. A like faith and equal simplicity characterize the pictures which are rudely drawn upon the walls. The scenes, as might be expected, are usually taken from the Bible, but not exclusively so; for along with scenes representing Adam and Kve, Noah and the ark, Abraham and Isaac, Jo- .lah and the whale, etc., are also characters and scenes from pagan mythology, such as Orpheus T^he Church and the ^mfire. 133 playing on his lyre, with the savage beasts around tamed by his strains to docility — a symbolical rep- resentation of Christ and the power of his harmo- nious word ; also of Psyche and Bacchus and Her- cules, each symbolizing some characteristic of the gospel or of Christ. But most frequent in occur- rence and of greatest significance is the figure of the Good Shepherd. Theirs was "the religion," says Dean Stanley, " of the Good Shepherd. The kindness, the courage, the grace, the love, the beauty of the Good Shepherd were to them, if we may say so, prayer book, articles, creed, and can- ons, all in one. They looked on that figure, and it conveyed to them all they wanted." It must be confessed that from the simplicity and sweetness of this all-sufl!icient faith to the Thirty-nine Articles, or even to the Athanasian creed, there is a long call. This Good Shepherd is commonly represented as bearing a lamb upon his shoulders, symbolical of his bringing the one lost to earth into his heavenly fold. In some in- stances, however, instead of a lamb, or sheep, upon his shoulders, it is a kid or a goat he bears — a fact which Matthew Arnold shows us the sig- nificance of in a forcible sonnet: He saves the sheep, the goats he doth not save. So spoke the fierce Tertullian. But she sigh'd — The infant Church! of love she felt the tide Stream on her from her Lord's yet recent grave, And then she smiled; and in the catacombs, With eye suffused but heart inspired, true, t34 The Church of the Pathers, She her Good Shepherd's hasty image drew, And on his shoulders, not a lamb, a kid. Another symbol of common occurrence is that with which the Christian Ligeia in **Quo Vadis" puzzled her pagan lover, namely, the fish — the let- ters of which, in Greek, are the initials of "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour." (Ichthus.) This, too, is a complete confession of faith for the early Church. Of more frequent occurrence, however, and of even greater expressiveness, is the vine which, with rich clusters of its fruit, sometimes spreads over the entire ^omb. What symbol could be more power- fully and broadly suggestive? Based probably upon the parable in the Gospel of John, it is not only an expression of faith in the Vine, of which all believers are branches, but of the luxuriance, joyousness, and fruitfulness of the Christian life, and also of its unity, consistent with endless va- riety. To the catacombs we may go to learn what was the essential faith and what were the fundamental doctrines of life of the early Church. And much more than this: we discover here the beginnings of Christian art, and gather much therefrom re- garding the attitude and habit of mind of those whose religion was that of the Good Shepherd, and whose symbol of life was the wide-spreading and fruit-laden vine. In these gloomy vaults all that is written or pictured is cheerful and joyous. The Church and the E^n^ife. 135 Not skeletons and death-heads, not torments and cypresses, but wreaths of roses, pastoral scenes, children playing, and good angels; no cross or crucifix, but the Good Shepherd with a staff in one hand while the other holds secure the sheep he is taking to the fold. Sometimes with the harp in his hand, sometimes surrounded by the three Graces, he is always beautiful as "the youthful Apollo playing on his pipes to the flocks of Ad- metus." Much that is here, it is true, is pagan under a Christian disguise ; but classic paganism was uni- formly cheerful, and its myths are rich in the sug- gestion of universal truths and always beautiful. Mercury and the ram in Greek worship may have suggested the use of the Good Shepherd and his sheep as a Christian symbol; Dionysus and the vine, so joyously celebrated in the natural religion of the pagans, perhaps suggested the use of the same as a Christian symbol. All this reveals, furthermore, how the heathen worshipers were made to accept and feel at home in the new religion. Of the catacombs and their sig- nificance in general let Dr. Martineau speak in his beautiful way: " There the evergreen leaf protests in sculptured silence that the winter of the grave cannot touch the saintly soul; the blossoming branch speaks of vernal suns beyond the snows of this chill world ; the Good Shepherd shows from his benign looks that the mortal v^^ay, so terrible to nature, had become to those Christians as the 136 The Clmrch of the Feathers. meadow-path between the grassy slopes and be- side the still w^aters." 3. Imperial Power. During all these years the growth of Christian- ity was no less than marvelous. It is impossible now to estimate either tlie number of churches or the number of members. But as we know that her martyrs are counted by thousands, the Church's members must have been counted by hundreds of thousands. This rapidity of growth is account- ed for by man}^ causes and conditions. The age in which Christianity appeared w^as prepared for it and needed it, notwithstanding that the fight made against its progress seems to oppose this fact. '* Through ignorance " tliey did it, as the Jews be- fore slew the Prince of Life. There was evidenced by many facts a general revival of religious feeling among pagans. The syncretism of cults w'as tending toward monothe- ism. Worship was being spiritualized, and moral elevation was coming to be its end. Union with God, an inner and vital relation of harmonious in- tercourse, w^as becoming more and more the aspi- ration of the soul. A revelation of his will was therefore sought after; a present deity, above all, was demanded — a deity who should heal the afflic- tions of humanity and redeem men from their sin. The worship of Mithras and the cult of ^scula- pius, who was a healing deity, express the mani- fest longings of the age. The ethical character, The Church and the Empire. 137 which was rising to chief importance in rehgion, was exemplitied most completely in the Eleusinian mysteries of Greece. The ceremonial of these began with the proclamation: "Let no one enter here whose hands are not clean and whose tongue is not prudent." Then confession and repentance of sin were required. Baptism followed — a bap- tism that was regarded as a cleansing and a regen- eration. Then a sacrifice for salvation was of- fered, and a common meal was eaten. Of the re- ligious societies of the time Dr. Hatch writes: **The majority of them had the same aims as Christianity itself — the aim of worshiping a true God, the aim of living a pure life, and the aim of cultivating the spirit of brotherhood. They were part of a great religious revival which distinguished the age." So much alike, indeed, were not only their ritual practices, but also the doctrines of Christianity and of the Greek worship of Deme- ter and Dionysus, that the adherents of each free- ly accused the other side of having borrowed or stolen. Judaism also had prepared the soil in every coun- try for the Christian missionary. The proselytes won from the Gentile races w^ere especially easy converts to the more perfect Judaism — Christianity. These were favoring conditions. The causes are those factors of ethical doctrine and practice, of assured truth, and of spiritual nourishment, which Christianity was able to supply to an age in need of such. Some five or six causes may be particular- 138 The Church of the Fathers, ized: First, the fervent zeal of Christians, leading to extreme self-denial, the most arduous labors, and to martyrdom; second, the doctrine of im- mortality, and the firm assertion that " life and im- mortality" had been brought to light in the person of Jesus Christ; third, the attestation of changed lives, and of miraculous occurrences throucfh Chris- tian agency; fourth, the ethical teachings and the pure morality of the lives of Christians; fifth, the unity of spirit which they preserved in the bond of peace; sixth, the chief fact of all v^^as that Chris- tians were able to lead men to a personal Saviour, the embodiment of all they taught, the pledge of all they hoped. The rise of the Church to supremacy over pa- ganism in the empire was not a sudden leap, but the slow work of three centuries of bitter and ter- rible struggle. At last, when the cross proved it- self invincible, it was chosen by the conquered en- emy as his battle standard, and the wearer of the imperial purple acknowledged the Galilean Peasant to be his King. The disrupted state of the empire and the inev- itable conflict on occasion of the death of the reign- ing emperor favored the Christians as a num^erous and, because thoroughly united, a powerful party; so that concessions were likely to be made in con- sideration of the vast weight of their influence. Constantius died in the year 306, at York in Brit- ain, and left the throne to be fought for by several contestants. Among these Constantine, his eldest The Chttrch and ike Empire. 139 son, was the choice of the army, with which, after a few years, he marched upon Rome to meet Max- entius, who was in the field with another army, to make good his claim to authority. Just before their meeting, while Constantine was praying for victory, as Eusebius relates, there appeared to him at midday a vision of the cross in the sky, bearing the inscription. Conquer by This. Then, when he had gone to rest at night, his thoughts full of the strange portent, Christ appeared to him in his sleep with the same sign, and commanded him to make a standard in its likeness and use it as a safeguard in all engagements with his enemies. In the morn- ing he called together his craftsmen and had such a standard fashioned and adorned with precious stones and overlaid with gold. The meeting of the armies occurred October 27th, 312, at Milvian Bridge, on the Tiber. In Christian history it is a famous battle, for Constan- tine was victorious. In the sign of the cross he had conquered. The head of the Ro7nan empt7'e was now a Christian ! Constantine's father before him had been friend- ly to the Christians, and had done much to im- prove conditions for them. He himself was at once willing and able to do far more. Even be- fore his conversion he issued an edict favoring the Church. Now in the year 312 he issued the fa- mous Edict of Milan, the most important act of tol- eration in the history of Christianity; for it grant- ed and required universal religious liberty — liberty 140' The Church of the Pathej's. not to Christians only, but "to all men freedom to follow the religion which they choose ; that what- ever heavenly divinity exists," continues the famous order, " may be propitious to us and to all who live under our government." Constantine was the man for the times : discern- ing, politic, superstitious; imperious, yet tolerant; vain, but far from weak; a man of ideas and of action; a statesman and a soldier; a champion of the cross, yet half heathen till his death; a build- er of Christian churches, yet a worshiper still in the pagan Pantheon ; an impartial supporter of or- thodoxy, but baptized by an Arian heretic. Such was the character of the man who, we say, was born for the times, and whom, because of the ex- traordinary impress he made upon history for good, we rightly call "Great." With the sure insight of a statesman, he dis- cerned that Christianity was the winning faith against an effete paganism, and was therefore to be made the ally of the State, and the supporter of his dream of Rome's eternal and universal domin- ion. Many Christians were in his army when he marched against Maxentius, and no doubt the cross did contribute to his victory. The well- known friendliness of both his father and himself to the hitherto persecuted sect caused many of them, as he approached Rome, to flock to the sacred standard which he raised. As to his su- perstitious nature, that was in the family. His mother, Helen, reputed finder of the cross of The Church and the Empire. 141 Christ at Jerusalem, was given to making devout pilgrimages; Constantius and Constantia, son and daughter, were fanatical Arianists; while Julian the Apostate, his nephew, was devoted to pagan- ism with the greatest fanaticism of all. Constan- tine was to the last half a heathen : he did not re- ceive baptism till upon his deathbed. When he gave civil sanction to the Christian's holy day, it was as dies Solis — Apollo's day, the Sun's da}' — not dies Domini .> the Lord's day. The emperor who called and presided over the First Ecumenical Council had as high a reverence for Apollo as for Christ — for the sun as for the cross, their re- spective symbols. Happily for the world, how- ever, he saw that, as the dying apostate is said to have exclaimed, "the Galilean has conquered." Constantine's service to Christianity and to man- kind was doubtless all the greater because of his mixture — not so incongruous then — of heathenism and Christianit}^ He was thereby the better qual- ified to assist in effecting an easy transition of the populace from the dying to the conquering faith. While not outlawing and attempting to abolish paganism outright — which extreme policy would have aroused extreme opposition — he every way advanced Christianity by means of the imperial power. His edicts conferring advantages were numerous and important. The clergy were ex- empt from military and municipal duties; obnox- ious customs and ordinances were abolished ; the emancipation of slaves was facilitated : Christian 142 The Church of the Fathers. bequests to churches were legalized; the Chris- tian day of rest and worship was sanctioned; last- ly, the emperor gave his son a Christian education. It should be mentioned that his removal of the seat of civil authority from Rome to Byzantium, where he founded the city named after him, Con- stantinople^ tended to increase the spiritual and ecclesiastical power of the still imperial city by the Tiber. Her dominion was not lost, it was not diminished; it was universalized, being separated and dissociated from its particular hereditary seat. When the barbarians came and devastated the city, Rome — the power that ruled the world — still sur- vived and still ruled. Constantine died in the year 337: ''Not to be imitated or admired," concludes Dean Stanley, '*but much to be remembered, and deeply to be studied." As the first Christian emperor, even without such eminent abilities as he undoubtedly possessed, he is secure of a high place in univer- sal history. Under his banner, the cross of the Nazarene Peasant, Christianity rose to be the su- preme power in the government of the world. BIBLIOGRAPHY. "Christianity and the Roman Government," by E. G. Har- dy, is a small but very thorough book on the subject of Rome's attitude toward Christianity. THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. " In vain did restless pride, as that of Arius, seek to pagan- ize Christianity and make it the ally of imperial despotism; to prefer a belief resting on authority and unsupported by an in- ward witness, over the clear revelation of which the millions might see and feel and know the divine glory; to substitute the conception, framed after the pattern of heathenism, of an agent, superhuman yet finite, for faith in the ever-continuing presence of God with man; to wrong the greatness and sanc- tity of the Spirit of God by representing it as a birth of time. Against these attempts to subordinate the enfranchising virtue of truth to false worship and to arbitrary power, reason asserted its supremacy, and the party of superstition was driven from the fold. . . . Amid the deep sorrows of humanity during the sad conflict which was protracted through centuries for the overthrow of the past and the reconstruction of society, the con- sciousness of an incarnate God carried peace into the bosom of mankind. That faith emancipated the slave, broke the bond- age of woman, redeemed the captive, elevated the'low, lifted up the oppressed, consoled the wretched, inspired alike the he- roes of thought and the countless masses. The downtrodden nations clung to it as to the certainty of their future emancipa- tion; and it so filled the heart of the greatest poet of the Mid- dle Ages — perhaps the greatest poet of all time — [Dante] that he had no prayer so earnest as to behold in the profound and clear substance of the eternal light that circling of reflected glory which showed the image of man." — Bancroft. (H4) CHAPTER VIII. THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. I, Origin. Having risen to power in the State, and having incorporated in itself, in a large measure, both Greek philosophy and Roman government, the Church, even in its day of victory, stood in dan- ger of disruption and downfall. Triumphant even over the empire, it remained to prove whether it could govern itself; triumphant over paganism, it had yet to determine what should be its own rule of faith and doctrinal teachings. The great con- troversy now to be given an account of had its origin with the very beginning of Christianity, and grew as it grew. Its seeds lurked alike in the earliest Judaistic and Hellenistic heresies: in Ebionism and in Gnosticism ; also in the philo- sophic systems which most influenced Christian thinkers: Philonism and Neoplatonism. The hu- manitarian doctrine of Christ, wherein he was given forth as only a man — divine, it is true, pre- existent, as all excellent things (the ark, the law, the temple) were, in Jewish thought, and sent from heaven, yet still only a superior Godlike man — was current in the early Church and prevailed with many eminent teachers. The apologists themselves held views of this 19 (H5) 146 The Church of the Father. tendency. The saying of Tertullian, the greatest of the theologians of his generation, that "time was when the Son was not with the Father," in- dicates their common thought. And this was a primary idea in Arianism. Origen's doctrine of an eternal Logos above the apparent Christ — a speculation as old at least as Justin Martyr, who taught an impersonal Logos in God from the be- ginning that became personal only prior to and for the purpose of creation — and of Christ's genera- tion by the will of God, is also Arianistic. From the first of these Christian philosophers, on through the series, authority can be found, indeed, for say- ings that came under the condemnation of the Church a little later. Their general want of con- sistency, both severally in themselves and with one another, prevents us from saying their influence was wholly in this direction ; but, in general, their philosophy of Christ as the Logos of God tended to Arian conclusions. Their thought of God, as the Cause and Creator, and as one and absolute, made necessary the conception of another Divine Being as subordinate, inferior, and begotten for a purpose — which purpose with the apologists was, in general, the inspiration of rationality into the created uni- verse . Tertullian , with his legal fiction of ' * person ' ' and delegation of duty, based upon the Roman theo- ry of office, gives ample room for the doctrine of the subordination of the second "person " of the Trin- ity. The character of finiteness, furthermore, be- longed to the Christ, or Logos, of the apologists. The Aria?i Controversy. 147 He was able to enter into relation with the finite only because he himself was of finite origin. He is called a "second," "another," and a '* visible" God. To sum up the results of this stage of Christo- logical thought, it may be said that there were two general conceptions of the person of Jesus Christ almost Irom the beginning, namely : First, that he was one whom God chose and sent into the world upon a special mission, whom he tested, and, hav- ing found him faithful, adopted as his Son and invested with dominion. This view is variously called H^umanitarian, Dynamic, and Adoptian. It finds its authority in the synoptic gospels and in the Shepherd of Hermas. It was the common view, apparently, at Rome, and was widespread in early times. The Artemenites claimed that "all the early teachers and the apostles received and taught" this doctrine. Secondly, there was the so-called Pneumatic view, according to which Je- sus w^as a heavenly being (the Gnostic concep- tion), one of many spiritual natures, but next in rank to God; that he assumed flesh of the Virgin, and, having accomplished his redemptive work, returned to his former place with God. The au- thority for this conception is found in the Pauline and Johannine writings and in the first epistle of Clement. Either of these views might have fur- nished elements to Arianism. The historical con- nection of Arianism with the former view is a cer- tainty, although Arianism did not, in the early 148 The Church of the Fathers. stages of its development, advance so far in its ra- tionalistic unitarian tendencies as to embrace the pure Adoptian or Philanthropic doctrine. Its ten- ets were qualified by the Pneumatic Christology. Our discussion of Monarchianism brought out the fact that there were two branches of the here- sy, in sharp, well-defined contrast the one to the other; and their opposing doctrines constituted the Scylla and Charybdis of the Christian thinker of the third century. There seemed to be no es- cape from one or the other peril. Setting out with the idea of the unity and sole monarchy of God in common, the one class, represented in the com- plete development of the school by Paul of Samo- sata, held to the Adoptian or Humanitarian view of Christ; while the other class, represented by Sa- bellius, held to Christ's absolute Godhead and com- plete identity with the Father. It is safe to say that every Christian who indulged himself in speculation at all during this period found himself, if he thought logically, in danger either of Samosatianism or of Sabellianism. Not infrequently did some zealous or able Catholic un- dertake the defense of the true faith against one or the other party of Monarchians, only to find him- self accused as a heretic and included in the ranks of the other party. The case of Dionysius of Al- exandria is notable. A pupil of Origen, he, like his master, suggests most forcibly the modern spirit and way of thinking. He was, altogether, one of the ablest and sanest thinkers of the early Church. The Arian Controversy, 149 Undertaking to correct the Sabellianism of certain bishops in upper Libya, he gave such expression to the opposing doctrines, which he held from Ori- gen, and beheved to be CathoHc, as caused him to be forthwith accused of Samosatianism. The con- troversy that ensued is a foreshadowing of that which took the name, a half century and more later, of one who was born in this same region about this very time — Arius. What, then, were the charges brought against Dionysius? He was accused of maintaining, first, that the Son was created ; sec- ondly, that he was not eternal ; thirdly, that he was not coessential with the Father. In general, there- fore, he was guilty of his master's error, namely, the separation and subordination of the Son; for Ori- gen spoke of the unity of the Father and the Son as only a moral, not an essential, unity, and ranked the Son as intermediary between God and the uni- verse — a '* second God," subordinate to the *'very God," and indeed to the true ''eternal Logos." The treatment of the difficulty by Dionysius of Rome, to whom his defense was made, is the most noteworthy fact of the situation. He protests against the division of the Sacred Monad into three powers, or subsistences, whereby three Gods are preached, and insists upon preserving their eter- nal union. "For it must needs be," he says, "that with the God of the universe the Divine Word is united, and the Holy Ghost must repose and habitate in God." Each error is taken up and dealt with, not as a philosopher dealy with IJo The Church of the Fathers. abstruse problems, but rather as a Roman states- man says what "must" be and be done. Without having given a logical exposition of the mystery, he concludes by saying: ''We must believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ his Son, and in the Holy Ghost, and hold that to the God of the universe the Word is united." There is here manifestly no solution of the problem at all: the fact of a most serious problem demand- ing solution is only made more apparent. In this controversy between the Dionysii every point of the later controversy between Arius and Athanasius was anticipated. The very phrases which later became the test-words and badges of the parties to the strife now came into use: " ho- moousios," " There w^as a time when he was not," " He was not before he was begotten," etc. — these were the most important throughout this period. The part played by one other personage yet re- mains for consideration before the controversy proper comes distinctly to view. Soon after the council of Antioch that condemned Paul (about A.D. 268), Lucian appears upon the stage and be- gins an important part, as the champion of Paul's doctrines. He is one of the most learned men, and altogether the most learned teacher, of the time. Two of his traits are especially noteworth3^ Coming from Edessa, the home of Bardesanes, where a free and original spirit prevailed, first, he had, it is said, a dislike of "the theology of the ancients," by which it seems was meant he was The Arian Controversy. 151 reluctant to be bound by the authority of tradi- tion ; secondly, his study of the Bible was critical and his method of interpretation was literal as op- posed to the allegorical method. Antioch afford- ed a congenial atmosphere. In that region, Juda- istic — that is, humanitarian — tendencies of thought seem to have been prevalent from early times. Paul's "grossly humanitarian" views were ac- knowledged to be of Jewish origin. Through Lu- cian, therefore, the connection of Arianism with the earliest (Judaistic) heresies above referred to is plainly made out, and our justification for at- tempting to trace the humanitarian and rational- istic element in Christological thought through each succeeding phase of the history must be clear. Lucian, as the head of the exegetical and theo- logical school of Antioch — a school that rivaled in importance the famous catechetical school of Al- exandria, while it stood in marked opposition both in method and doctrine thereto — exercised an overmastering influence upon his numerous dis- ciples. He did no less, indeed, than to create a doctrinal party whose chief, later on, was Arius, himself a pupil of Lucian. ''This school," says Harnack, "is the nursery of the Arian doctrine, and Lucian, its head, is the Arius before Arius." From the few extant fragments of Lucian's writ- ings the following doctrines have been derived as being taught by him: That God is one, without equal and alone uncreated; that he created the 152 The Church of the Fathers. Logos ; that the Son advanced to moral perfec- tion and became '*Lord." He appears, there- fore, to have effected a union of the doctrines of Paul and of Origen. These he bequeathed, togeth- er with the critical and dialectical method of Aris- totle, to that body of disciples who were proud to call themselves "fellow-Lucianists," and who formed the party of Arius. The historical genesis of the heresy can be accurately given in the words of Alexander of Alexandria: ''Ye are not ignorant concerning Arianism," he writes to the other churches, "that this rebellious doctrine belongs to Ebion and Ar- temas, and is in imitation of Paulus of Samosata. . Paulus was succeeded by Lucian. . . . Our present heretics have drunk up the dregs of their impiety, and are their secret offspring." 2. The Open Conflict. Of the outbreak of the Arian controversy sev- eral accounts, not entirely consistent with one another, are given. Constantine, in an epistle written to the chief disputants with a view to their reconciliation, gives the following, which may be regarded as the earliest: "I understand, then," writes the Christian emperor, "that the origin of the present controversy is this: When you, Alex- ander, demanded of the presbyters what opinion they severally maintained respecting a certain passage in the divine law — or rather, I should say, that you asked them something connected with an The Arian Controversy. 153 unprofitable question — then, you, Arius, inconsid- erately insisted on what ought never to have been conceived at all, or, if conceived, should have been buried in profound silence. Hence it was that a dissension arose between you, fellowship was withdrawn, and the holy people, rent with di- verse parties, no longer preserved the unity of the one body." Socrates relates the matter some- what differently. *' When Alexander was attempt- ing one day," so he writes, **in the presence of the presbytery and the rest of his clergy, to ex- plain, with perhaps too philosophical minuteness, that great theological mystery, the unity of the holy Trinity^ a certain one of the presbyters under his jurisdiction, whose name was Arius, possessed of no inconsiderable logical acumen, imagining that the bishop was subtly teaching the same view of this subject as Sabellius, the Libyan, from love of controversy took the opposite opinion to that of the Libyan, and, as he thought, vigorously responded to what was said by the bishop. ** If," said he, ^*the Father begat the Son, he that was begotten had a beginning of existence ; and from this it is evident that there was a time when the Son was not. It therefore necessarily follows that he had his subsistence from nothing." At the time of the beginning of the dissension Arius was a presbyter of Alexandria, in charge of the church of Beukalis. He was of attractive per- sonal address, popular in his parish, and blame- less in his character and ascetic in his habits of 154 ^/^^ Chu7'ch of the Fathers, life. Socrates, as we have seen, attributes to him ** no inconsiderable logical acumen, ' ' and Sozomen says he was *'a zealous thinker about doctrine" and *'an expert logician." Born in Libya about the year 256, perhaps of Greek parentage, he was an old man when he entered the arena for theo- logical combat, about A.D. 318. He was no doubt led thereto by a genuine zeal for the doc- trine of the unity of the Godhead and his demand for logical clearness and consistency. A synod of nearly one hundred Egyptian and Lib3^an bish- ops, called by Alexander about A.D. 320-321, condemned his doctrines and deposed him along with others as atheists. From exile Arius wrote to his *'fellow-Lucianist and true Eusebius: "He [Alexander] has driven us out of the city as athe- ists, because we do not concur in what he public- ly preaches, namely, ' God always, the Son always ; as the Father, so the Son; the Son coexists un- begotten with God; he is everlasting; neither by thought nor by any interval does God pre- cede.' These are impieties to which we cannot listen, even though the heretics threaten us with a thousand deaths." There is Arius's own pres- entation of the case. Proceeding to his friend and *'fellow'Lucianist," Eusebius, at Nicomedia, he engages actively with his followers in the dis- semination of his opinions and in organizing op- position to Alexander. On the other hand, *'when Alexander perceived," writes Sozomen, *'that many who were revered by the appearance of The Arian Controversy. 155 good conduct and weighty by the persuasiveness of eloquence held with the party of Arius, he wrote to the bishops of every church, desiring them not to hold communion with them." The dissension grew apace, spreading rapidly till it involved the whole Eastern Church. Synod followed synod, but "the evil only became worse." The letters of Alexander constitute the best evi- dence of the alarm with which the situation was viewed. "Many heresies," he writes in an ency- clical, " have arisen before these, which, exceed- ing all bounds in daring, have lapsed into complete infatuation; but these persons, by attempting in all their discourses to subvert the divinity of the Word, as having made a nearer approach to Anti- christ, have comparatively lessened the odium of former ones." Arius at Nicomedia continued ac- tive, disseminating his views by epistles among the bishops, by songs among the common people. "He composed several songs," writes Philostor- gius, "to be sung by sailors, and by millers, and by travelers along the high road. ' ' At this time he composed the "Thalia," the character of which we know, in a measure, by the description and the extracts given by Athanasius. Some sayings of the Thaha run as follows: "Equal or like himself he alone [God] has none." "The Un- begun made the Son a beginning of things, origi- nated and advanced him as a Son to himself by adoption." "He is not equal, no, nor one in es- sence, with him." To the Son the Father is in- 15^ "The Church of the Fathers. visible and ineffable. Still the Son is called *' God only begotten " and "a strong God." ** At God's will the Son is what and whatsoever he is.' " 3. The First Ecumenical Council. By this time " confusion everywhere prevailed." The people took up the controversy and became divided. "Disputes and contentions arose in ev- ery city and in every village concerning theolog- ical dogmas." In consequence, " Christianity be- came a subject of popular ridicule, even in the very theaters." So write Theodoret and Soc- rates. This confusion was worse confounded by the mingling of the Meletians with the Arians, and their making common cause against the party in power. This sect was strong in the Thebaid — the very region where Arianism, so denominated, had its orgin. It is not to be wondered at, in view of this state of general strife, that Constantine, the mighty Christian emperor, appeared to be the only one on earth capable of being God's minister for the healing of the differences. The frequent synods — one, at least, of which, that of Bithynia, had de- cided in favor of Arius — and numerous conciliatory letters on the part of the Arians had accomplished nothing. Neither had the mediatory epistle of the emperor, above referred to, brought about peace. Therefore, to the imperial mind, as counseled by the eminent bishop of Cordova (Hosius), there The Arian Controversy, 157 seemed to be but one way left to heal the dissen- sion, and that was to call a general council. Besides, other disputes were pressing for settle- ment. Diversity of opinion and practice concern- ing the celebration of the passover prevailed — some of the churches, particularly in the East, keeping the festival according to the Jewish cus- tom, while the Western churches (except the Kel- tic) observed it according to the time fixed by Easter. A division of the Church into an East- ern and Western branch seemed imminent. The Meletian schism also called for healing. The Christian emperor, solicitous above all things for the unity of his empire, proceeded (about A.D. 324) to summon a general council. Addressing the more prominent bishops individ- ually, he summoned them by letter from every quarter of the empire to meet him at Niceea, in Bithynia, at an appointed time. To facilitate their coming, he allowed to some the means of public conveyance and to others he furnished an ample supply of beasts of burden. The bishops hastened to the appointed place of assemblage, attended by their presbyters, deacons, and serv- ants. Their number is variously given by our au- thorities, no two agreeing, but three hundred and eighteen is the accepted number. Eusebius adds that, with the presbyters and deacons, ''the crowd of acolytes and other attendants was altogether beyond computation." The representation came mostly from the Eastern and African churches, 158 The Church of the Pathers. there being but seven, all told, from the Latin churches. It is estimated that those present were about one-sixth of the whole number of bishops in the empire. The see of Rome was represent- ed by two presbyters. The personnel of **the great and holy council" is thus described by Eu- sebius: "Of these ministers of God, some were distinguished by wisdom and eloquence, others by the gravity of their lives and by patient fortitude of character, while others again united in them- selves all these graces." Theodoret speaks of the assemblage wnth equal admiration. From "the frantic rage of Licinius," "many bore in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ." One "had been deprived of the use of both hands by the application of a red-hot iron." "Some had the right eye dug out, others had lost the right arm." At the appointed time, in the great hall of the palace, specially prepared for the assembly, the First Ecumenical Council was opened. First, one of the bishops, addressing the emperor, delivered a concise speech — so Eusebius relates, and subse- quent writers have inferred that this bishop was Eusebius himself. But Theodoret says that it was "the great Eustathius, bishop of Antioch," who "crowned the emperor's head with the flowers of panegyric." The emperor responded, exhorting the bishops to unanimity and concord. After the opening of the assembly, many personal causes were presented to the emperor for a hearing. With wise and fatherly words he referred them one and all The Avian Controversy. 159 to the Supreme Judge for redress, and ordered their petitions to be burned. The way was cleared for the main issue. The Arians took the initiative. Having drawn up a formulary of their faith, they presented it to the council. It was immediately torn into frag- ments. This was decisive. *'So great was the uproar raised against them," says Theodoret, *' and so many were the reproaches cast upon them for having betrayed religion, that they all, with the exception of Secundus and Theonas, stood up and took the lead in publicly renouncing Arius." The Arians had come to Nic^a confident of vic- tory. Their oganization as a party was more per- fect, their doctrines were more clearly and logic- ally formulated. Besides pronounced partisans, they counted many eminent bishops who were favorable to their cause. They hoped, by the means they were able to employ, to win over to their side the great mass of those whose minds were not as yet made up. They suffered defeat before the battle was fairly begun. What, as appears from the several accounts, were the doctrines held in dispute? These have already come to our notice in the earlier stages of the controversy, but we may subject them to a more careful consideration. Eusebius, the histo- rian, presented, in the interests of harmony, a creed on which he believed all could unite. It was the creed which was in use in the church at Caesarea — a symbol of faith of unquestioned i6o The Church of the Fathers. soundness and of venerable authority. **No room," he afterwards wrote, " appeared for con- tradiction." The emperor approved, and advised all to assent. Only one addition seemed to be re- quired, namely, that of the once rejected word, *'homoousios" — consubstantial — which was to be conceived *'in a divine and ineffable manner." Under pretense, however, of making this single insertion, the Athanasian party subjected the re- vered creed of Eusebius to such a revision as ut- terly changed its character, and made a defense to his church seem necessary. As revised, the creed read as follows: *' We believe in one God, the Father Al- mighty, Maker of all things both visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only be- gotten, that is to say, of the substance of the JFathcr, God of God, Light of Light, vcj-y God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one sub- stance with the Father, by whom all things were made, both things in heaven and things in earth, -who, for us men and for our salvation, came down and was made flesh, and was 9Jiade man, suffered and rose again on the third day; went up into the heavens, and is to come again to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost. ''''But those who say ' there was when he was not,^ and that ^ he came into existence from what was not,'' or who profess that the Son of God is of a different ^essence'' or ^ substance^' or that he is created, or The A^'ian Controversy, i6i changeable^ or variable^ are anathematized by the Catholic Ch urch . ' ' The additions, consisting of the itaUcized phra- ses, adequately indicate the differences between the two extreme parties, and were designed to ex- clude the Arians. The teaching of Arius may be summarized as follows: God alone is eternal and unbegotten; he alone is very God. The Son is created out of nothing by the will of God before all ages ; there was a time when he was not ; he was cre- ated that, as the power of God, he might bring the rest of creation into existence ; he is independ- ent of and different from the Father; he is a spe- cial, perfect creation, and, furthermore, by grace and adoption, occupies a special relation to the Father; he may be called God, but not **very" God. His appeal for authority was to Scripture. These passages in particular were quoted: '*The Lord our God is one Lord"; ** There is no God with me"; ** The Lord created me in the beginning of his way"; *' I by the Spirit of God cast out devils " ; *' God hath made him both Lord and Christ"; ''Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" ; ''Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation"; "The Father is greater than I," etc. All those passages were utilized which assert or imply limi- tation, deficiency, subordination, subjection, prog- ress, independence, temptation, and the like. But victory was not for the disciples of Lucian. 1 1 i62 The Church of the Fathers, The orthodox party, though it came to Nicsea in the minority, were triumphant at every point and pushed their advantage to the extreme limit. The coeternity and the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father — nay, the very deity of Jesus — was estabHshed in the creed of the Church from that day to this. 4. Varying Party Fortunes. The rapid changes of party fortunes, the fre- quent synods and their numerous creeds, the local strifes in almost all the Eastern churches, the im- perial persecutions, first of one party then of the other — all which things follow during the next forty years after Nicasa — make the statement seem historically accurate, that the controversy was not ended there, but only just begun. **The highways were covered with galloping bishops," says a pagan writer. They were hastening to and from synods and from one scene of conflict, fraud, and violence to another. All the heretics but Arius himself and two adher- ents, by making mental reservations and compro- mises with the conscience, submitted to sign the creed which condemned their doctrines and anath- ematized themselves. Herein they were culpable. Their future course, as events developed, shows they could not have been sincere. Arius, Theo- nas, and Secundus had the courage and honor to go into banishment for their convictions — the first in Christian history to suffer a civil penalty for The Arian Conh'oversy, 163 this cause. In the subsequent vicissitudes of the controversy, others, who insincerely subscribed, experienced a similar fate — but not with courage and honor. Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theog- nis of Nicsea were the first of these. It seems that the emperor had become severe against the Arians after the council, and threatened with civil punishment all who continued in the heresy. Having decreed that the books of Arius should be burned, under penalty of death for conceal- ment, he now menaced with imperial repression any who should dare to praise those whom he had condemned. The union of the Church and the State was bearing fruit abundantly. About this time (A.D. 328), on the death of Al- exander of Alexandria, there was advanced to the episcopal chair of that see one who must engage the greater part of our attention throughout the remaining history of this controversy. The com- pleteness of the orthodox victory at Nic£ea was due to no one else so much as to a certain young deacon whom Alexander brought along with him from the Egyptian metropolis. His extraordinary abihty had already been marked, and doubtless his bishop foresaw eminent service from him in the debates that were sure to arise. This personage was Athanasius, destined to be called " the Great." In force of character, in noble ardor for a cause he deemed paramount to all others, in that single- ness and persistency and loftiness of purpose which are ever necessary to great achievements, 164 The Church of the Fathe7's. and, finally, in a personality that made its impress permanently upon the institutions of the time, he was amply deserving of the title. The Nicene Creed, which has remained to this day *'the most universal symbol of Christian faith" (Schaff), *'a true monument and token of victory against every heresy" (Athanasius), was preeminently, all but entirely, the result of his masterful influence. After the council his activity continues, and the interest of the controversy centers about his person. It was natural that the defeated party should hate him. So where the conflict rages most there is he found in the midst. Not once nor twice does it seem true that it is ''Athanasius against the world and the world against Athanasius." The history of this eventful period is largely an account of his varying fortunes. Five times in exile, he keeps up an unyielding warfare against the enemies of the Church, the "atheists," "the Ariomaniacs." The emperor, by an unexplained change of at- titude, recalled the exiled heretics, and, on their presentation of an acceptable statement of faith, ordered their restoration to their respective sees. He may have discovered in Arianism a counter- part and support of the theory of his own abso- lute headship and authority in the Christian state. The result was an occurrence of no great rarity, but of momentous consequences in the history of Christendom, namely, the alliance of a political and an ecclesiastical or theological party. Men's notions, divine policies, and systems agree by a The A^'ian Controversy, 165 natural necessity with their theories of human governments. Arius, returning to Alexandria, was refused fel- lowship by Athanasius, who said '* that it was im- possible for those who had once rejected the faith and had been anathematized to be again received into communion on their return." The bishop of Constantinople, however, by the emperor's order, submitted to receive the still uncompromising foe of **homoousia," but the event never happened. On the eve of his restoration, Arius, while on his way to the city, was suddenly taken ill, and amid convulsions immediately died. His enemies saw in this, of course, the hand of Providence. Oth- ers more than suspected it was poison. At Antioch the Arians, by the most shameless fraudulence (according to our orthodox histo- rians), expelled the good bishop Eustathius and installed a succession of heretics. Their machina- tions everywhere against Athanasius are of the darkest hue. The charge which, after many others had failed, proved effective with the emper- or was that he had threatened to prevent the ex- portation of corn from Alexandria to Constantino- ple. This was an interference with the public welfare which Constantine could not tolerate. He therefore banished Athanasius to Treves, in Gaul, as a disturber of the peace of the empire (A.D. 336). After an exile of two years and six months, he was restored by Constantine H. By Constantius, in 340, he was forced into exile the J 66 The Chtirch of the leathers. second time. A council at Antioch in 341 con- firmed the emperor's action. On a third occasion an appeal was made by both sides to Rome. This see, it may be remarked, was faithful throughout to the position of Athana- sius, but without much avail at this or any time. Among the many councils of the period, that of Sardica, A.D. 343 (or 344), was one of the most important. Some two hundred and forty bishops were in attendance. The Arians, probably fore- seeing defeat, took flight (as the historians relate) soon after the opening of the council. We know the method of all the early councils: the first act was for the stronger party to eject the weaker, and then to assert that their decrees were unanimously agreed to under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In 346 Athanasius is again restored, but only to go again into exile almost immediately. The man- ner of his escape from the church where he was holding a vigil service by night is dramatically re- lated by himself. The church having been sur- rounded by more than five thousand armed sol- diers, Athanasius went out with the monks, while, it seems, the deacon and the people chanted a psalm responsively. The ascendency gained by the Arians under Constantius seems to have been well-nigh com- plete. He was no doubt a weak and vacillating ruler, with a leaning toward the heretical party. A bipartite council, meeting at Ariminum and at Seleucia (A.D. 359), each division rent by inter- The At ian Controversy, 167 nal discord and neither arriving at unanimity, was a characteristic event of the time. Another, ruled by Arians, met at Nica in Thrace, and put forth a creed in which ' ' those who refused to give in their adhesion were banished to the most remote regions of the world." Julian, known in history by the opprobrious epi- thet of Apostate, came to the throne in the year 360. Hoping that the Christian sects, in their re- lentless strife, would exterminate one another, he recalled the exiled bishops. But Athanasius he condemned to death ; for, as Theodoret remarks, the pagans said "if Athanasius remained, not a heathen would remain." So great was the influ- ence of " that victorious athlete of the truth ! " It was during this flight of Athanasius from death (A.D. 362) that the famous incident of his ready wit occurred on the Nile. On his way up the riv- er, being informed that his pursuers with the em- peror's death warrant were close upon him, he boldly turned about, headed down the stream and met his foes. To their query, *' How far off is Athanasius?" he answered, *'Not far"; where- upon they quickened their speed, and he returned to Alexandria. Jovian ( 363-364 A.D. ) and Valentinian ( 364-375 A.D. ) were both favorable to those who held to the Nicene symbol, and restored to them their bishop- rics. Valens (364-378), however, was an Arian — a fact of great consequence in all the subsequent history of Europe. For, during his reign, the i68 The Church of the Fathers. Goths were brought under Roman sway and forced to accept the dominant faith. It was not until the orthodox Merovingians in alHance with the papal chair of Rome gained the ascendency that the Goths were again compelled by the sword to change their faith and become Catholics. Athanasius died A.D. 373. This event comes near to marking the close of the Arian controver- sy. Under Gratian, " an adherent of the true re- ligion." the exiled shepherds return and are re- stored to their flocks. The Arians, rent by internal factions, never regain the ascendency. Arianism, according to philosophical historians, was fore- doomed to failure. It was illogical, an impossi- ble compromise — neither one thing nor the other. Christ, according to the Samosatians, was "very man " — only man ; according to the Sabellians he was "very God" — only God; according to the Catholic standard he was "very God and very man" — the "God-man." Arianism said that he was neither God nor man, but a heavenly being second to God, and sharing the nature of man — "a nondescript, illogical compromise." The Catholic faith, on the other hand, was defi- nite, dogmatic, imperative. It matters not how unintelligible it was, its appeal was to faith, and it accorded with the mode of the rehgious mind, which sometimes "believes because it is impossi- ble." The temper of the Roman character, which is disposed to hold by authority, and is averse to change after a thing has once been authoritatively The Arian Controversy. 169 settled ; the exigencies of statecraft, a large varie- ty of events and circumstances apparently fortui- tous but governed, no doubt, by their own laws — all these were cooperating influences in determining what should be the creed of the Catholic Church. BIBLIOGRAPHY. "The Arian Controversy," by H. M. Gwatkin, in "Epochs of Church History," is a good account of events and doctrines. GREAT MEN OF THE EAST. "As I take it, universal history, the history of what man lias accomplished in this world, is at bottom the history of the great men who have worked here. They are the leaders of men, these great ones; the modelers, patterns, and in a wide sense creators, of whatsoever the general mass of men con- trived to do or to attain ; all things that we see standing accom- plished in the world are properly the outer material result, the practical realization and embodiment of thoughts that dwelt ia the great men sent into the world ; the soul of the whole world's history, it may be considered, were the history of these. . . . •* It is well said, in every sense, that a man's religion is the chief fact in regard to him — a man's, or a nation of men's. By religion I do not mean the Church creed which he professes, the articles of faith which he will sign, and, in words or other- wise, assert ; not this wholly, in many cases not this at all. We see men of all kinds of professed creeds attain to almost all de- greesof worthor worthlessness undereachorany of them. This is not what I call religion, this profession and assertion; which is often only a profession and assertion from the outworks of the man, from the mere argumentative region of him, if even so deep as that. But the thing a man does practically believe (and this is often enough without asserting it even to himself, much less to others); the thing a man does practically lay to heart and know for certain, concerning his vital relations to this myterious universe, and his duty and destiny there, that is in all cases the primary thing for him, and creatively determines all the rest:'— Carlv/e. (172) CHAPTER IX. GREAT MEN OF THE EAST, We are now in the epoch of great men in the Church. There were in the East such pulpit ora- tors as Gregory of Nazianzum and Chrysostom; such theologians as Gregory of Nyssa and Theo- dore of Mopsuestia, and such organizers of forces as Ephraim the Syrian and Basil the Great. In the West there was an Ambrose, a Jerome, and an Augustine. While metaphysical problems relating to the nature of the Trinity were making this an age of keen and often bitter controversy, the force of moral ideas contained in the gospel was at the same time making it an age of uncompromising conflict between the powers of evil in high places and the powers of good in the churches. It was an age of great splendor, great vice, great dissolu- tion, and great reconstruction, and of great spiritual energy and moral movement. In a measure there was reformation: Monasti- cism was its powerful expression. Out of the con- trast between the corruption of the luxury-loving world, the self-indulgence of the degenerate peo- ples of Alexander's and Cassar's dying empire, and the passionate austerity and the quenchless thirst for righteousness of the Christians, arose this vast movement, one of the mightiest and most enduring the world has known. This austerity which knew (173) 174 ^^^^ Church of the Fathers, no bounds, this aspiration after purity which con- sumed body and soul, this longing for heaven which made earth a hell in all but sin, characterized ev- ery one of the great preachers and leaders of that time. Of the chief men of influence in this period in the East three are often referred to as '' the Cap- padocians." They were born in the same re- gion of Cappadocia and at about the same time ; they were friends from youth — two of them were brothers. They were liberally educated in the same schools, they acknowledged the same theo- logical master (Origen), and belonged to the same school of doctrine. They have come down to us in Church history as " the three great Cappado- cians'' — Basil, Gregory of Nazianzum, and Greg- ory of Nyssa. Their labors were eminent, their lives were high-pitched to lofty aims. I. Basil the Great. The eldest of the three, at least by from one to three years, was Basil, surnamed the Great. He was born at Caesarea, A.D. 329, of parents not only wealth}^, but distinguished for piety. Both his mother, Emmelia, and his grandmother, Macri- na, are saints in the calendar: they were his earli- est teachers, and honored by him as the best. He was the eldest of five sons, four of whom, includ- ing himself, became bishops — one of them being Gregor3^ of Nyssa. An elder sister is commemo- rated by him as ** Saint Macrina.'' One of the Great Men of the East. 175 most notable families in Christian history. Ba- sil attended school first at Ccesarea, where he formed the acquaintance of Gregory Nazianzen, between whom and himself, afterwards to be as- sociates in greatness, a warm attachment grew up. Next, when sixteen years of age, he went to Con- stantinople, while Gregory went to Alexandria. At Athens, however, after a separation of some four or five years, thej^ were reunited, and pursued their studies together. Basil in later years de- scribed their manner of life in the great city of culture and heathen vice as follows: ''We knew only two streets of the city: the first, and the more excellent one, to the churches and to the ministers of the altar; the other, which, however, we did not so highly esteem, to the public schools and to the teachers of the sciences. The streets to the theaters, games, and places of unholy amusements we left to others. Our holiness was our great con- cern; our sole aim was to be called, and to be. Christians. In this we placed our whole glory." This sounds like the Wesle3^s at Oxford. Here they gained that mastery of rhetoric, elo- quence, and philosophy from the great pagan teach- ers of the time which made Basil the most delight- ful letter-writer and Gregory the most powerful or- ator — the *' Golden-mouth" only excepted — in the early Church. Beginning in the home nursery, like Timothy, with a saintly grandmother and an equally pious mother as his teachers, then spend- ing many years in the great university centers, one;. 176 The Church of the leathers, after another, he received the best education his age could afford. His ideal of life during this time \Yas taking shape, and it was on Stoic models — Stoic models purified and elevated by Christian ideas and Chris- tian motives. After he had returned home and renounced wealth and worldly honor — one of which was already his, and the other within easy grasp — he wrote pleasantly from his hermit abode in the wilderness, where he had chosen to reside, to a friend who had sent him some gift : * ' What do you mean, my dear sir, by evicting from our re- treat my dear friend and nurse of philosophy, Poverty? Were she but gifted with speech, I take it you would have to appear as defendant in an action for unlawful ejectment. She might plead: *I chose to live with this man Basil, an admirer of Zeno, who, when he had lost everything in a ship- wreck, cried with great fortitude, *'Well done. Fortune ! you are reducing me to the old cloak " ; a great admirer of Cleanthes, who, by drawing water from the well, got enough to live on and pay his tutors' fees as well; an immense admirer of Diogenes, who prided himself on requiring no more than was absolutely necessary, and flung away his bowl after he had learned from some lad to stoop down and drink from the hollow of his hand.'" In theory and doctrine, in spirit and aim — tranquillity by exclusion of tlie world and by self-conquest, and the realization of a living Great Jllai of the East, 177 union with the 7iuniens prcBsens, an indwelling God — Stoicism and Monasticism were strikingly similar. Feeling the spirit of the age moving him, Basil set out to travel and study the monastic life in the va- rious regions whence the fame of great ascetics had gone forth. In Syria, in Arabia, in Mesopo- tamia, and in Egypt, he dwelt among the hermits and imbibed their enthusiasm for the life of self- mortification. From this further schooling in a far different institute from any w^hich Constanti- nople or Athens boasted, he returned to his home and went into solitude. A letter to his friend Gregory declares his purpose. "I have aban- doned my life in town, as one sure to lead to countless ills; but I have not yet been able to get quit of myself. I am like travelers at sea, who have never gone a voyage before, and are dis- tressed and seasick; who quarrel with the ship be- cause it is so big and makes such a tossing, and w^hen they get out of it into the pinnace or dingey are everywhere and always seasick and distressed. Wherever they go their nausea and misery go wdth them." *' What exile from himself e'er fled?" asks Byron. We must work our work, live our lives, struggle, suffer, and act in the world, and advance by victory and by defeat. Basil's aim was noble, his spirit true — his way w^as not the wisest. '* We must strive after a quiet mind," he contmues, ** that the heart may readily receive every impress of di- vine doctrine. Preparation of heart is the un- 12 178 The Church of the Fathers, learning the prejudices of evil converse. If is the smoothing the waxen tablet before attempting tc write on it." His abode seems a paradise to him, and his state approaches that of the angels them^ selves. *' What can be more blessed," he exclaims, *' than to imitate on earth the choruses of ano;els ? \q begin the day with prayer, and honor our Makei with hymns and songs ? as the day brightens, to be- take ourselves, with prayer attending on it through- out, to our labors, and to season our work with hymns, as if with salt?" In another letter to the same friend he describes his retreat with poetic fervor: '* I departed into Pontus in quest of a place to live in. There God has opened on me a spot exactly answering to mj^ taste, so that I actually see before my eyes what I have often pictured to my mind in idle fancy. There is a lofty mountain covered with thick woods, watered toward the north with cool and transparent streams. A plain lies beneath, en- riched by the waters which are ever draining off from it, and skirted by a spontaneous profusion of trees almost thick enough to be a fence, so as even to surpass Calypso's island, which Homer seems to have considered the most beautiful spot on the earth. . . . What need to tell of the ex- halations from the earth, or the breezes from the river? Another might admire the multitude of flowers and singing birds, but leisure have I none for such thoughts. However, the chief praise of the place is that, being happily disposed for prod- Great Men of the East. 179 uce of every kind, it nurtures what to me is the sweetest of all, quietness." Here many like-minded with himself gather about him, and the wilderness became a city. Then Basil displayed his genius, his ability as an organizer, and made his impress upon history. Elsewhere, up to this time, the hermits, or "dwellers in the desert" (epe/xos), had lived as monks {mo?ios= alone); there was no organization, no communi- ty; it was radical individualism. Basil now or- ganized the "monks" into a cosnobium, a com- munity; he established a monastery. With glowing ardor now he depicts the glories of the monastic life. His sister, Macrina, had joined him in the forest, and was presiding over a convent. To a widow whose son had been gained to the coenobium of Basil he wrote: "The art of snaring of pigeons is as follows. When the men who devote themselves to this craft have caught one, they tame it and make it feed with them. Then they smear its wings with sweet oil, and let it go and join the rest outside. Then the scent of that sweet oil makes the free flock the possession of the owner of the tame bird, for all the rest are attracted by the fragrance, and settle in the house. But why do I begin my letter thus? Because I have taken your son Dionysius, once Diomedes, and anointed the wings of his soul with the sweet oil of God, and sent him to you that you might take flight with him, and make for the nest which he has built under my roof. If I live to see this. i8o The Church of the Fathers. and you, my honored friend, translated to our lofty life, I shall require many persons worthy of God to pay him all the honor that is his due." In 364 Basil was made a presbyter, much against his will, and six years later was elevated to the archepiscopal see of his native city. He distin- guished himself in these years not only in theo- logical defenses of the Nicene Creed against the Arian Eunomius, and in his exposition of the na- ture and office of the Holy Spirit against Macedo- nius, but as a Church ruler and a powerful preach- er. He died in 379, saying, *'Into thy hands I commend my spirit." Worthily canonized as a saint, he is called by councils and fathers *'the glory of the Church," a *' minister of grace," ''a layer of the foundations of orthodoxy," and **the Great." By one saying of his he might be well remembered: *'That prayer is good which imprints a clear idea of God in the soul; and the having God established in self by means of mem- ory is God's indwelling." 2. Gregory Nazianzen. Fellow-countryman with Basil, and friend from boyhood and coworker in the high places of the Church with him, Gregory's biography cannot be separately given. Yet, equally eminent in differ- ent abilities and in different labors with the great Church ruler, this man of eloquence and theology has much that is distinctive to be said of him. Gregory was born A.D. 330, at Nazianzum Great Afen of the East. i8i (hence called *' Nazianzen "), in Cappadocia, of a family high in rank, influence, and wealth. Like Basil, he had a mother whose name is like a star in these ancient heavens of perished lights. Her portraiture shall be in the words of her worthy son. *'She was," he writes, *'a wife according to the mind of Solomon: in all things subject to her husband according to the laws of marriage, not ashamed to be his teacher and his leader in true religion. She solved the difficult problem of uniting a higher culture, CvSpecially in knowledge of divine things and strict exercise of devotion, with the practical care of her household. If she was active in her house, she seemed to know noth- ing of the exercises of religion; if she occupied herself with God and his worship, she seemed to be a stranger to every earthly occupation ; she was whole in everything. Experiences had instilled into her unbounded confidence in the effects of believing prayer; therefore she was most diligent in supplications, and by prayer overcame even the deepest feelings of grief over her own and others' sufferings. She had by this means attained such control over her spirit that in every sorrow she en- countered she never uttered a plaintive tone before she had thanked God." Gregory's education with Basil has already been described. Like his friend, after he had prepared himself for the highest honors the world had for learning, talent, and family influence to aid, he turned his back upon all and joined his olr' com- 1 82 The Church of the Father's. rade in the wooded hills of Pontus. He spent a happy period here, which afterwards, in the height of power and amid storm}^ scenes of controversy, he sighed for with a romantic and tender regret. "Who will transport m.e," he cries, "back to those former days in which I reveled with thee in privations ? For voluntary poverty is, after all, far more honorable than enforced enjoyment. Who will give m.e back those songs and vigils? who those risings to God in prayer, that unearthly, in- corporeal life, that fellowship and that spiritual harmony of brothers raised by thee to a godlike life? who the ardent searching of the Holy Scrip- tures, and the light which, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we found therein?" Extremely against his mind he was ordained presbyter by his aged and infirm father, and, by the desire of the people, was appointed over his father's congregation at Nazianzum. This was about Christmas, 361 ; he did not preach his first sermon, however, until Easter the following year, for he fled from the responsibility and the care. In 370? Basil, who had just been made metropoli- tan bishop of all Cappadocia, appointed Greg- ory to Sosima, an insignificant and dreary out- of-the-way village. Gregory resented such treat- ment with indignation. It was a severe trial to their lifelong and well-cemented friendship. Basil was certainly culpable. He made the appointment solely in his own interests. The eminent abilities of Gregory, if not fidelity in friendship, should Great Men of i he East. 183 have won for him a more suitable field of labor. The unkindness was never forgotten by Gregory, and the wound to his heart was never healed. Honor, however, and a great career could not be denied him, for he was worthy. In 379, the year of Basil's death, he was called to take charge of the faithful in Constantinople, the capital of the empire. The city at this time was almost entirely in the hands of various kindred heretical parties, called, after their leaders, Eunomians, Macedo- nians, Apollinarians, and Novatians. Arianism, the mother of most of the heresies of this century, was strongly intrenched in all the larger church- es. Gregory began in a little chapel, a room in a friend's private house, which he fitted up and christened "Anastasia," for its name should com- memorate the "rising again" of the Catholic faith. It was in this little "Church of the Resur- rection " he preached the famous sermons which gave him the enduring title of the "Theologian," and placed him in the highest rank for oratory. Attracted by his fame, Jerome, on his way from the Syrian monks to the West, stopped at Con- stantinople to hear him preach and to place him- self under his instruction. Trouble, however, could not let alone so great a preacher of the gospel. First, the fashionable and folly-loving classes of the capital could not endure his rebukes, although they enjoyed, and yet feared, the charm and power of his eloquence. Secondly, an impostor won his confidence, and, 184 The Church of the Feathers. during an illness of Gregory, got himself secretly installed by night in his church — a strange inci- dent revealing the times. The indignant people, on discovering what had happened, drove the in- terloper and his friends out of the city. When the Emperor Theodosius, an adherent of the Catholic faith, came to Constantinople in 380 he expelled the Arians and gave the cathedral of St. Sophia into the hands of Gregory. Now the legality of Gregory's transference out of Cap- padocia to another see was raised in question. When the matter was brought before the Ecumen- ical Council that assembled in Constantinople the following year, Gregory, to escape trouble, re- signed and retired to his old home in Cappadocia. "His life," says Dr. Schaff, *'with its alterna- tions of high station, monastic seclusion, love of severe studies, enthusiasm for poetr\% nature, and friendship, possesses a romantic charm." His passion for the austerities of the monastic life was equal to that of his friends, Basil and Gregory of Nyssa. "His food was bread and salt, his drink water, his bed the bare ground, his garment of coarse, rough cloth. Labor filled the day; praying, singing, and holy contempla- tion a greater part of the night. . . . Silence and quiet meditation were law and pleasure to him." The estimate which one so eminent in the min- istry, "the art of arts," as he characterized it, set upon its work is well worth pondering. In his Great Men of the East. 185 famous *' Defense of his Flight to Pontus" he writes: ''The scope of our art is to provide the soul with wings, to rescue it from the world and give it to God, and to watch over that which is in his image, if it abides; to take it by the hand, if it is in danger; to restore it, if ruined; to make Christ dwell m the heart by the Spirit; and, in short, to deify and bestow heavenly bliss upon one who belongs to the heavenly host." 3. Gregory of Nyssa. The third of the *' great Cappadocians" was not third in point of abilities, character, or service, but only of time, being some five and six years the junior respectively of his brother Basil and his friend Gregory. His education was wholly conducted by his older brother. In the monas- tery with him they studied together above all else the works of Origen, from whose writings they made a collection of beautiful passages which they called ''Philocaha." The influence of Origen up- on all the three Cappadocians was very marked; upon Gregory of Nyssa, the greatest of the three in speculative thought, it was most marked. Through them, possessing as they did the ancient Greek genius and learning, the Alexandrian Greek theology perpetuated and extended itself. The distinction of this theologian consists in his having been "the first who sought to estab- lish by rational considerations the whole complex of orthodox doctrines." In aim, therefore, as in 1 86 The CJmrcJi of the Fathers. particular views, he followed the great Alexan- drian, with abilities that specially fitted him for the task. Some features of his theology deserve particular attention. His doctrine of evil was Ori- gen's, namely, that it is a defect or privation. It is not an existence, a reality, but an absence ot reality; for all true being is virtuous and beau- tiful. The beauty of the Supreme Being pene- trates all things, and the human mind is its chief expression — its mirror. God is not the author of evil, for evil, being a nonentity, has no author: it is a divinely permitted condition, for he "gave scope to evil for a nobler end." The freedom of the will, he taught with Origen and the Greeks generally, is indestructible; therefore, also, that a universal restoration is always possible. And in this even the fallen angels are included. His idea of salvation is strikingly expressed. "The soul," he says, "is a cord drawm out of mud; God draws to himself what is his own." The human spirit is "an influx of the divine inbreathing." Origen's theory of Christ's death as a ransom paid to the devil for lost humanity — a ransom which justice to the evil one demanded — is also taught by Gregory. It should not be inferred from this borrowing of ideas, or receiving of sug- gestions, from a great thinker going before, that he was not original; for original and profound he was in the use he made of the views he accepted. Every doctrine in his mind assumed new meaning and fresh and lasting beauty. He is great b}^ virtue Great Men of the East. 187 of a single thought, /. e., that of bringing philos- ophy into union with religion, and thereby creat- ing a theology. With Clement of Alexandria this thought was a mere instinct; Origen gave it con- sciousness; Gregory gave it existence in reality. Of a kindlier and finer spirit than his brother Basil, Gregory everywhere bears the reader into the presence of the archetypal beauty — the divine meaning of the soul and of the universe. He is charmed by the loveliness of natural scenes, and writes of them with tender and sweet sadness and with longing for the deeper things of the Eternal Spirit. '*When," he says, *'I see every rocky ridge, every valley, every plain, covered with new- grown grass; and then the variegated beauty of the trees, and at my feet the lilies doubly enriched by nature with sweet odors and gorgeous colors; when I view in the distance the sea, to which the changing cloud leads out, my soul is seized with sadness which is not without delight. And when in autumn fruits disappear, leaves fall, boughs stiff- en, stripped of their beauteous dress, we sink with the perpetual and regular vicissitude into the harmony of wonder-working nature. He who looks through this with the thoughtful eye of the soul feels the littleness of man in the greatness of the universe." And again on Easter morning he sings a hymn of praise to the Everlasting Maker: *' Everything praises God and glorifies him with unutterable tones; for everything shall thanks be offered also 1 88 The Chiu'ch of ihc Judhei's. to God by me, and thus shall the song of those creatures, whose song of praise I here utter, be also ours. . . . Indeed, it is now the spring- time of the world, the springtime of the spirit, springtime for souls, springtime for bodies, a visi- ble spring, an invisible spring, in which we also shall there have part, if we here be rightly trans- formed, and enter as new men upon a new life.'" The aim and dominant idea of his life are ex- pressed in words true yet and always for those who have learned Christ and seek the riches of his grace and the beauty of his excellence. On adopting the monastic life he wrote: "Blood, wealth, and splendor we should leave to the friends of the world; the Christian's lineage is his affinity with the Divine, his fatherland is virtue, his free- dom is the sonship of God." Shortly after Basil's promotion to the office of archbishop, in order to strengthen his own posi- tion, he appointed his friend Gregory of Nazian- zum, as we have seen, to the obscure and wretched town of Sosima. About the same time, for simi- lar reasons, he consecrated his brother Gregory bishop of Nyssa, also a small and unimportant vil- lage. When surprise was expressed at this, he replied that the place should receive distinction from the man, not the man from the place; an answer w^hich may have satisfied himself, but not his brother. His honor in Church history consists in the strength of his defense of the Nicene theology. Great Men of the East, 189 He was acknowledged in the Second Ecumenical Council as *'a pillar of the Church," and died, in the year 395, the most regretted hero of the faith. 4. John Chrysostom. So famed for his eloquence was the great preach- er and expositor who was christened John that pos- terity has known him almost entirely as Chrysos- tom, the *' Golden-mouth," or as *'John Chrysos- tom." The Greek Church reverences him not only as its chief pulpit orator, but as one of the small number sufficiently eminent in the several qualities of holiness, orthodoxy, and learning to be called "Doctor." The whole Church honors him as its Demosthenes ; and more, as its St. John, who, like St. John the Divine, died in banishment true to the faith. His career exemplifies what was likely to befall an illustrious, ardent, and heroic preacher in an evil age. But against adversity, like an eagle beating up against the storm, he rose to greater heights. He was born in 347 at Antioch, where the dis- ciples were first called '' Christians." His father was a man of wealth and rank, being a distin- guished officer in the army. His mother, An- thusa, belongs to that immortal class of high-souled Christian women who are no less a distinction and an honor to the Church than her famous scholars and preachers. Left at the age of twenty a wid- ow with a daughter (her firstborn) and a son, she vowed herself to perpetual widowhood, which she 190 The Church of the leathers. believed was right, in contrast to the heathen cus- tom of repeated marriages. Her nobleness of character evoked from the celebrated pagan teacher Libanius that memorable exclamation: "Bless me! what wonderful women there are among the Christians! " John received instruction from the best teach- ers in that city of culture. Libanius, the teacher of Basil and Gregory Nazianzen, was at the head of the most famous school, which the young Gold- en-mouth attended. When, on his deathbed, the master was asked whom he would have as his suc- cessor, he answered: "John — if only the Christians had not stolen him." He desired to follow the law, but his mother saved him for the gospel. Her influence, which was the power of tender love, is exemplified in an- other crisis of his life. Straightway after accept- ing Christianity he wished to follow the example of the most pious and ardent of his age, and find a retreat for ascetic living in the desert. His mother with tears and the tenderest words dis- suaded him. Taking him by the hand and lead- ing him to the chamber where she had given him birth, and making him to sit down beside her upon the bed, she poured out the grief and heartbreak which his purpose was causing her. She told of her sorrows of widowhood and of her cares in managing the estate, and of her love and pride and hope, all centering in her only son. "Think not," she continued, "I would reproach you with these Great Men of the East, 191 things. I have but one favor to entreat — make me not a second time a widow ; awaken not again my slumbering sorrows. Wait, at least, for my death ; perhaps I shall depart erelong. When you have laid me into the earth, and reunited my bones to those of your father, then travel wherever thou wilt, even beyond the sea; but, as long as I live, endure to dwell in my house, and offend not God by afflicting your mother, who is at least blameless toward thee." Thus a wise and true mother's eloquence, ten- derness, and nobility were breathed into the soul of her son, the future Golden-mouth. Not until her death, which came early, did he leave his home to follow the monastic impulse which was so mighty in him and in all the devout spirits of that age. He evaded being made bishop by put- ting forward his friend Basil, and thereupon went into solitude in the mountains near Antioch. Here for six years he spent his time in study and writing and in such austere fasting and vigils as undermined his health and endangered his life. For the next sixteen years he labored, both preach- ing and writing, at Antioch. His fame spread, and in 397 he was made patriarch of Constantinople. It was here he rose by his eloquence to the height of his power and reputation as the master of as- semblies. His eventful career exemplifies the life of the monk-preacher. Its vicissitudes indicate the warring conditions of the time. Chrysostom's moral requirements were too se- 192 The Church of the Fathei'S. vere to be endured by the luxury-loving court 01 Constantinople, and his impetuous eloquence may have carried him beyond the mark of prudence. He was driven into banishment across the Bos- phorus, whence he wrote: *'When I was driven from the city, I felt no anxiety, but said to my- self. If the empress wishes to banish me, let her do so; *the earth is the Lord's.' If she wants to have me sawn asunder, I have Isaiah for an ex- ample. If she wants me to be drowned in the ocean, I think of Jonah. If I am to be thrown into the fire, the three men in the furnace suffered the same. If cast before wild beasts, I remember Daniel in the lions' den. If she wants me to be stoned, I have before me Stephen, the first martyr. If she demands my head, let her do so; John the Baptist shines before me. Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall leave this world. Paul reminds me, 'If I still pleased men, I would not be the servant of Christ.' " He was soon recalled, for an earthquake oc- curred the following day, and this was interpreted as a sure sign of God's displeasure. Hence the superstitious court and people clamored for the great preacher of righteousness to return. Again the thunders of his eloquent denuncia- tians of Queen Eudoxia's court luxury, intrigue, and corruption bring him into trouble. The im- perial soldiers enter the church of St. Sophia where he is preaching: the clergy are dragged forth to prison; many worshipers are wounded, Great Men of the East. 193 women flee in dismay, the holy sacraments are scattered and stained with blood, the church is plundered, and again Chrysostom is driven into exile. But in banishment his influence upon the mind of Christendom was scarcely diminished: "The Eastern Church was almost governed from the solitary cell of Chrysostom. He corresponded in all quarters ; women of rank and opulence sought his solitude in disguise. The bishops of many dis- tant sees sent him assistance, and coveted his ad- vice." This was the first conflict between the temporal and the spiritual forces of Christianit}^: it was a struggle for supremacy in which the victory re- mained with the State, which was at least nominal- ly Christian, as against the Church. It is perhaps impossible for us at this time to con- ceive the extravagance of luxury and the enormity of sin practiced even by those who counted them- selves Christians in the Constantinople of that time. We are told what it was by the burning elo- quence of Gregory and Chrysostom, but one knows not how much in their depicture was due to love of rhetorical splendor and to an exaggeration of the virtue of ascetic living. Sublime men were they both in thinking and in living; and evil was the world in which they labored for righteousness. Their opposition to the iniquitous world of that age could not but be burning even to fierceness. Selections from the numerous w^ritings of Chrys- ostom fill six of the large volumes in the " Nicene 13 194 The Church of the leathers, and Post-Nicene Fathers." How, with so much to gather from, can an idea of his eloquence — so far as it remains on the written page — be given? To hmit ourselves to a brief typical discourse will perhaps be best. Such a discourse is offered in the two letters constituting his ''Exhortation to Theodore after his Fall." Theodore, his youthful friend, was the distinguished bishop of Mopsuestia and one of the greatest theologians in that age and one of the noblest men. But he had abandoned the monastic life, and, like Luther in a later age, had dared to marry. In the eyes of the great apostle of ascetic life, this was a fall like Adam's, whereby Eden was lost. ** It is not," he writes, " the overthrow of a city which I mourn, nor the captivity of wicked men, but the desolation of a sacred soul, the destruction and effacement of a Christ-bearing temple. For would not any one, who knew in the days of its glory that well-ordered mind of thine which the devil has now set on fire, groan — imitating the lamentations of the prophet — when he hears that barbarian hands have defiled the holy of holies, and have set fire to all things and burned them up, the cherubim, the ark, the mercy seat, the tables of stone, the golden pot? For this calamity is bitterer, yea bitterer than that, in proportion as the pledges deposited in thy soul were far more precious than those. This temple is holier than that; for it glistened not with gold and silver, but with the grace of the Spirit, and in place of the ark and the cherubim, it had Christ Great Men of the East. 195 and his Father and the Paraclete seated within. But now all is changed, and the temple is desolate and bare of its former beauty and comeliness, un- adorned with its divine and unspeakable adorn- ments, destitute of all security and protection; it has neither door nor bolt, and laid open to all man- ner of soul-destroying and shameful thoughts; and if the thought of arrogance or fornication or avarice, or any more accursed than these, wish to enter in, there is no one to hinder them; whereas formerly, even as the heaven is inaccessible to all these, so also was the purity of the soul." Substitute for this offense a real sin, as great to our thought as this was to Chrysostom's, and these words, so glowing wdth the ardor of regret and love, make an appeal always appropriate to a fall- en soul. Then his exhortation to rise again and renew his former vows: "To have fallen is not a grievous thing, but to remain prostrate after fall- ing, and not to get up again; and, playing the coward and the sluggard, to conceal feebleness of moral purpose under the reasoning of despair." Again, with a wealth of illustration which must have been one of the secrets of his power in the pulpit, as it is a perpetual beauty in his pages, he renews the exhortation to begin the struggle once more: "There is nothing strange, beloved Theo- dore, in a wrestler falling, but in his remaining in a fallen condition; neither is it a grievous thing for a warrior to be wounded, but to despair after the blow has been struck, and to neglect the 196 The Church of the Fathers. wound. No merchant, having once suffered shipwreck and lost his freight, desists from sail- ing, but again crosses the sea and the billows and broad ocean, and recovers his former wealth. We see athletes also who after many falls have gained the wreath of victory; and often, before now, a soldier who has once run away has turned out a champion and prevailed over the enemy. Many also of those who have denied Christ, owing to the pressure of torture, have fought again, and departed at last with the crown of martyrdom upon their brows." Passages depicting the luxurious manner of life then common, and decrying it all as vanity, abound. Two will illustrate his eloquence and throw light upon the age: "Have you not seen those who have died in the midst of luxury and drunkenness and sport, and all the other folly of this life? Where are they now who used to strut through the market place with much pomp and a crowd of attendants? who were clothed in silk and redolent with perfume, and kept a table for their parasites, and were in constant attendance at the theater? What has now become of all that parade of theirs? It is all gone — the costly splen- dor of their banquets, the throng of musicians, the attention of flatterers, the loud laughter, the relaxation of spirit, the enervation of mind, the voluptuous, abandoned, extravagant manner of life; it has all come to an end. Where now have all these things taken their flight? What has be- Great Men of the East. 19^ come of the body which enjoyed so much atten- tion and cleanhness? Go thy way to the coffin, behold the dust, the ashes, the worms; behold the loathsomeness of the place, and groan bitterly. And would that the penalty were limited to the ashes ! But now transfer thy thought from the coffin and these worms to that undying worm, to the fire unquenchable, to the gnashing of teeth, to the outer darkness, to affliction and straitness; to the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, who, although the owner of so much wealth and clothed in purple, could not become the owner of even a drop of water — and this when he was placed in a condition of such great necessity. The things of this world are in their nature nowise better than dreams. For just as those who work in the mines, or suffer some other kind of punishment more se- vere than this, when they have fallen asleep owing to their m.any weary toils and the extreme bitter- ness of their life, and in their dreams see them- selves living in luxury and prosperity, are in no wise grateful to their dreams after they have awaked, even so that rich man, having become rich in this present life, as it were in a dream, after his departure hence was punished with that bitter punishment." Again: ** Which of all things in the world seems to you most desirable and enviable? No doubt you will say government, and wealth, and public reputation. And yet what is more wretched than these things when they are compared with the liberty of Christians? For the ruler is subjected 193 The Church of the Fathers. to the wrath of the populace and to the irrational impulses of the multitude, and to the fear of higher rulers, and to anxieties on behalf of those who are ruled, and the ruler of yesterday becomes a pri- vate citizen of to-day; for this present life in no wise differs from a stage, but just as there one man fills the position of a king, a second of a gen- eral, and a third of a soldier, but when evening has come on the king is no king, the ruler no ru- ler, and the general no general, even so also in that day each man will receive his due reward, not according to the outward part which he has pla3^ed, but according to his works." Chrysostom's death occurred A.D. 407, in ex- ile. His own Socratic words, spoken to console another, consoled his own spirit: *'No one is re- ally injured save by himself." GREAT MEN OF THE WEST. "The world is upheld by the veracity of good men; they make the earth wholesome. They who lived with them found life glad and nutritious. Life is sweet and tolerable only in our belief in such society; and actually, or ideally, we manage to live with superiors. . . . The search after the great is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of man- hood. We travel into foreign parts to find his works — if possi- ble, to get a glimpse of him; but we are put off with fortune instead. You say the English are practical; the Germans are hospitable; in Valencia the climate is delicious; and in the hills of Sacramento there is gold for the gathering. Yes; but I do not travel to find comfortable, rich, or hospitable people, or clear sky, or ingots that cost too much. But if there were any magnet that would point to the countries and houses where are the persons who are intrinsically rich and powerful, I would sell all and buy it, and put myself on the road to-day. . . . Men are helpful through the intellect and the affec- tions. Other help I find a false appearance. If you affect to give me bread and fire, I perceive that I pay for it the full price, and at last it leaves me as it found me, neither better nor worse; but all mental and moral force is a positive good. It goes out from you, whether you will or not, and profits me whom you never thought of. I cannot even hear of personal vigor of any kind, great power of performance, without fresh resolution. We are emulous of all man can do." — Emerson. (200) CHAPTER X. GREAT MEN OF THE WEST. "The emperor has his palaces, ]et him leave the churches to the bishop." — Ambrose^s '■^Reply to Justina.''^ I. Ambrose. Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine are the men of light and leading in the West at this time. They belong to this same half-century, with the great men of the East just spoken of, but the contrast in which they stand to their great Eastern contempo- raries could hardly be stronger. Rendered alike in spirit by the same faith and moral purpose, they were made diverse by race and civilization. When Chrysostom and Ambrose, for example, are viewed together, we discern how great is the contrast: Chrysostom is the Demosthenes of the early Church; Ambrose is the Cagsar. Son of the pre- torian prefect of Gaul, trained at Rome for gov- erning, appointed to departments in Spain, Am- brose was a Roman of the antique consular or senatorial type. He was a Roman statesman. On his leaving the city to assume the duties of his of- fice, he was counseled by a shrewd friend, pro- phetically it would seem, **Rule your province not as judge, but as bishop." And so it came to pass that he did, and, by so coming to pass, the sacerdotal power of the Church was permanently (201) :202 The Church of the Fathers. elevated and confirmed. Ambrose, the Roman statesman, ruling his province as bishop of Milan, left the impress of his imperial character upon the Church, and raised and strengthened her author- ity in the government of the empire. ''Ambrose was the spiritual ancestor of the Hil- debrands and the Innocents." To trace his career will be to discover the conditions of the times, the trend of events, and especially the growth of sacer- dotal power. On occasion of a vacancy in the see of Milan, the two parties, Arian and Athanasian, came into violent conflict in the election of a bishop. Am- brose, in his character as civil administrator, ap- peared upon the scene to allay the tumult, and spoke in such a Christian spirit and with such wis- dom that all the people cried out, "Ambrose, be bishop! Ambrose, be bishop!" The emperor approved, and the ardor of the people almost compelled his acceptance of the ecclesiastical post. This was A.D. 374, when Ambrose was about thirty-four years of age. At once he cast off his robes of splendor, and became not only an eloquent advocate but a rigid pacticer of the severest austerity of life. He be- stowed his large property upon the Church, and lived in poverty. Already liberally educated, for he was a master of Greek and had pursued legal studies at Rome, he now devoted himself assidu- ously to the study of the Bible and of the Greek Fathers. Basil, above all others, was his chosen Great Men of the West. 203. master, though Origen exerted an influence scarce- ly less powerful. He was an effective preacher. Mothers, it is related, shut up their daughters to prevent their being induced by his persuasive elo- quence to assume the vows of virginity. In the assertion of the moral and spiritual power of the Church consists the chief distinction of this Roman, who was born to rule, whether as prefect or priest. From the first on the side of justice and humanity and orthodoxy, he set himself face to face against the emperors of his time. Maximus, who had murdered his sovereign and assumed the purple, he refused to admit to com- munion, and prevented from invading Italy. To Valentinian II., when it was proposed by the pa- gan prefect of Rome to restore the Altar of Victo- ry to its former place in the senate house, he ad- dressed two epistles which defeated that heathen- ish plan. The Empress Justina, who was an Arian, demanded a church in Milan for those of that faith, and against the obstinate bishop sent an armed force to compel his submission. *'A bishop can- not alienate that which is dedicated to God," was his firm answer. While he is at service in his church the soldiers invade the sacred precincts; but, rude and armed as they are, and acting under imperial orders, they fall upon their knees and as- sure the good bishop that they came to pray, not to fight. This is a picture of the times. But Ambrose encountered a stronger opponent than the Valentinians, Maximus, or Justina. The 204 ^^^^ Church of the Fathers, great Theodosius was now emperor, and an early struggle between the spiritual and the temporal powers, the Church and the State, w^as fought out between these two masterspirits of Christendom. Ambrose and the power he represented tri- umphed, and gave a lasting example to the eccle- siastics of succeeding ages. The contest was brought on by the following circumstance. A syn- agogue of the Jews at Callinicum had been burned by the Christians, at the instigation of their bish- op. Theodosius, just and magnanimous ruler that he was, commanded the Christians to restore the synagogue. At this juncture Ambrose, bishop of a see remote from the difficulty, interposes, de- fends and justifies the incendiarism of the Chris- tians, and remonstrates with the emperor against requiring such an act of apostasy as the rebuilding of a synagogue would be. This is another picture of the times, and a reve- lation of the character of the most eminent church- men. Theodosius does not at first yield. Am- brose, acting as the champion of all Christendom, and embodying in himself the entire sacerdotal power of the Church, publicly renews his remon- strance, and at last triumphs. This was his asser- tion of the fundamental maxim of his Christianity, that "the altar is superior to the throne." The imperial power was to be held subordinate to the ecclesiastical power. One sentence of Ambrose expresses his whole theor}': "The emperor is of the Church, but not above the Church." Great Men of the West. 205 Another contest arose, with a far more humili- ating defeat of the imperial power. It is sad to relate the circumstances which led to this struggle — it is so foul a blot upon the illustrious character of Theodosius, else worthily called the Great. The only vindication we can find is such as we accord to other eminent and generally wise and gracious rulers of former times, namely, they were not wholly free from the instincts and pas- sions of barbarism. Theodosius, because of the slaying of some of his officers in a sedition at Thes- salonica, and because his own representative was treated with indignity, had the inhabitants of that city, when assembled in the circus as if to witness the games, surrounded by the troops and indis- criminately put to the sword — young and old, men and women, guilty and innocent. This is another picture of the fourth century. The sands of the arena were wet with the blood of seven thousand souls in one terrible carnage. The bishop of Milan wrote to the emperor of his horror at such an atrocious deed, exhorted him to penitence, pronounced his excommunication, and promised to pray in his behalf. When the emper- or next came to church he found the doors closed against him. The bishop had dared to execute his purpose; he excluded even the emperor — and such an emperor — from the sacred service ! The- odosius, after eight months, entreated to be admit- ted to the precincts allotted to slaves and beggars. Even this was refused by the uncompromising, un- 2o6 The Church of the Feathers, relenting bishop. At last he was admitted to au- dience, and was granted absolution on two condi- tions; the first of which evinced the humane in- stinct of Ambrose, namely, that capital punish- ment should not be executed for thirty days after sentence; and the second of which proved his de- termination to show the spiritual power supreme, namely , that the emperor should do public penance. " Stripped of his imperial ornaments, prostrate on the pavement, beating his breast, tearing his hair, watering the ground with his tears, the master of the Roman empire, the conqueror in so many vic- tories, the legislator of the world, at length received the hard-wrung absolution." This is yet another picture of the times. So great was the new moral power risen on the ruins of that power which ruled the world. Ambrose, in this contest, was on the side of out- raged humanity. Indeed, only his zeal for ortho- doxy and the common spirit of intolerance of the times against every form of heresy ever led him to be otherwise than humane. One of his utterances, besides showing the true character of the man as great and good, is so noble as to be worthy of re- membrance for all time. He is speaking of the splendid offerings of piety — the ornaments, treas- ures, and costly consecrated vessels of the Church — with which he was ransoming captives taken in the wars of the times. There were objections of- fered. '* The Church possesses gold," he replied, " not to treasure up, but to distribute for the wel- Great AT en of the West. 207 fare and happiness of men. We are ransoming the souls of men from eternal perdition. It is not merely the lives of men and the honor of women which are endangered in captivity, but the faith of their children. The blood of redemption which has gleamed in those golden cups has sanctified them not for the service [sacrament] alone, but for the redemption of men." Ambrose is the author of numerous dogmatic and ethical works, some of which are important as marking the progress of doctrinal thought in the West. His treatise on ''The Duties of the Clergy" is his chief work in the ethical field, while the one on "The Holy Spirit" is the most important of his doctrinal works. He died A.D. 397, and was laid to rest in the basilica called after his own name, in Milan, on Easter morning. This city still reverences his memory, sings his hymns, and uses his liturgy. When he lay dying, the no- bles came and besought him to pray for longer life. His reply was : "I have not so lived amongst you as to be ashamed of living, and I do not fear to die, for we have a good Lord." 2. Jerome. "You walk laden with gold; jou must keep out of the rob- ber's way. To us men this life is a race course: we contend here, we are crowned elsewhere. No man can lay aside fear while serpents and scorpions beset his path."— y6'ro?«e'5 ^'•Letter to Eustochiinnr While Ambrose was preaching at Milan and lay- ing the law down to emperors, there was another 2o8 The Church of the Fathers, equally powerful genius rising to influence in an- other part of the empire — one who was destined to be accounted with Ambrose one of the three great- est Latin Fathers. This was Jerome. Born of wealthy Christian parents in the same year with Ambrose (A.D. 340), Jerome, at the age of thirty, was converted from a licentious life in Rome, and with all his classic scholarship be- came the most ardent ascetic Christian of the Western Church. After his conversion he sought the regions where Christianity was practiced with the greatest austerities, namely, the provinces of the East. For eight years he did penance, with groans and tears, relieved by occasional spiritual ecstasies, as a monk in Syria. He sur- passed, if possible, the most famous examples of monkhood prior to his time. Like the other Eastern monks, he did not, however, cease his studies. In the poets, orators, and philosophers of Greece and Rome, as well as in the Holy Scrip- ture, was his delight. But this fondness for the classics was destined to a rebuke and suppression. In a vision he heard a voice saying, *'Who art thou?" His answer was, *'I am a Christian." The voice replied, "Thou art not a Christian, but a Ciceronian." He felt the sting of the accusa- tion, and relinquished his beloved authors, and counseled others against the reading of them. Driven out of Syria by the disputes of the polem- ical monks, to whom he said he preferred wild beasts, Jerome returned to the West and brought Great Men of the West. 209 Monasticism with him. Athanasius had already by his writings introduced the ascetic doctrines from Egypt, and Ambrose was monastically austere at Milan, but Jerome maybe regarded as the found- er of Monasticism as an institution in the West. His influence in persuading both men and women to renounce the world, to forego every earthly pleasure, every human sentiment, we might say — ■ the love of children, of parents, of husband or w^ife — is one of the remarkable signs of the spirit of that time. Marriage in any case was approved by him only because it produced virgins for the cloister. Ladies of the highest Roman famiHes enthusiastically took up his ascetic doctrines and vowed themselves to self-denial, poverty, and chastity. They learned Hebrew of him that they might chant the Psalms in the original tongue. They formed a sort of society and had their regu- lar meetings at the house of the Marcella, to whom many of Jerome's most beautiful letters are ad- dressed. One of these letters, written in 385, contains a passage of such charm that, as an illus- tration of his epistolary style in his large corre- spondence with these noble ladies, I will present it without apology for its length : ** Wherefore seeing that we have journeyed for much of our life through a troubled sea, and that our vessel has been in turn shaken by raging blasts and shattered upon treacherous reefs, let us, as soon as may be, make for the haven of rural quiet- ude. There such country dainties as milk and H 2IO The Chiwch of the Fathers. household bread, and greens watered by our own hands, will supply us with coarse but harmless fare. So living, sleep will not call us away from prayer, nor satiety from reading. In summer the shade of a tree will afford us privacy. In autumn the quality of the air and the leaves strewn under foot will invite us to stop and rest. In springtime the fields will be bright with flowers, and our psalms will sound the sweeter for the twittering of the birds. When winter comes with its frost and snow, I shall not have to buy fuel, and, whether I sleep or keep vigil, shall be warmer than in town. Let Rome keep to itself its noise and bustle, let the cruel shows of the arena go on, let the crowd rave at the circus, let the play-goers revel in the theaters, and — for I must not altogether pass over our Christian friends — let the ' House of Ladies' hold its daily sittings. It is good for us to cleave to the Lord, and to put our hope in the Lord God, so that when we have exchanged our present pov- erty for the kingdom of heaven, we may be able to exclaim, ' Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.' Surely if we can find such blessedness in heaven we may well grieve to have sought after pleasures poor and passing here upon earth." Too stringent, however, for the populace his rule of life came to appear, and on occasion of the death of Blesilla, one of his female disciples, whose end was believed to have been hastened by the rigid self-denial he had led her to practice, their Great Men of the West, 21 1 fury was stirred against him, and they raised the cry, "To the Tiber with the monks ! " In the midst of this tribulation, as he was quitting Rome for Jerusalem, he wrote to another of his lady adher- ents in the following strain: *'I write this in haste, dear Lady Asella, as I go on board, overwhelmed with grief and tears; yet I thank my God that I am counted worthy of the world's hatred. Pray for me that, after Babylon, I may see Jerusalem once more; that Joshua, the son of Josedech, may have dominion over me, and not Nebuchadnezzar; that Ezra, whose name means helper, may come and re- store me to my own country. I was a fool in wishing to sing the Lord's song in a strange land, and in leaving Mount Sinai, to seek the help of Egypt. I forgot that the gospel warns us that he who goes down from Jerusalem immediately falls among robbers, is spoiled, is wounded, is left for dead. But, although priest and Levite may disregard me, there is still the good Samaritan who, when men said to him, ' Thou art a Samari- tan and hast a devil,' disclaimed having a devil, but did not disclaim being a Samaritan, this being the Hebrew equivalent for our word ' guardian.' Men call me a mischief-maker, and I take the title as a recognition of my faith. For I am but a serv- ant, and the Jews still call my master a magician. The apostle, likewise, is spoken of as a deceiver. There hath no temptation taken me but such as is common to man. How few distresses have I 212 The Church of the Fathers, endured, I who am yet a soldier of the cross! Men have laid to my charge a crime of which 1 am not guilty; but I know that I must enter the kingdom of heaven through evil report as well as through good." Jerome's influence was great also in the encour- agement of pilgrimages to the Holy Land, in which he set the example. For after having visited many lands, and studied in many famous libraries and under the wisest teachers, this, one of the most learned of all the Fathers, settled as a hermit in Bethlehem, to spend the remainder of his years in fasting and prayer, and in study, teaching, and writing, Jerome was a master not only of Latin and Greek but also of Hebrew — standing thus alone among the other Fathers of his time, who had but little if any knowledge of the original language of the Old Testament. And he used the knowledge he had acquired by his early study of the classics, by his later study of Hebrew and of Chaldee, and by his extensive travels and long residence in the East, in memorable service to Christendom; for he translated the entire Bible into the language of the West. This monumental work is known as the Vulgate. Never was scholarship used to better advantage. Never w^as a man's words ( about the classics) so effectually refuted by his abilities and achievements. It was only his knowledge of Cicero, Virgil, and Horace, of Homer, ^schylus, and Pindar, and of all the facts of geography, races, and customs gained by observation, that en- Great Men of the West . 213 abled this monk to render so great a service to mankind. Many important and learned works in the vari- ous departments of theological literature this great scholar's busy pen produced — exegetical works, commentaries, biographies, and histories, polem- ical and ethical treatises, and epistles — but his translation of the Bible into Latin outweighs them all a hundred times. Made from the original lan- guages, this work represented twenty years of toil. He himself characterized it as '-'- labor -pius^ sed -peri culosa -prcBSUTnf tie'''' — a pious labor, but a dangerous undertaking — for he was assailed as a disturber of the peace and a falsifier of the Scrip- tures, because, forsooth, he strove to supplant with a correct translation the old liala that was full of inaccuracies. By this work Jerome became, as Dr. Schaff says, ''the chief former of the Latin Church language, for which his Vulgate did a de- cisive service similar to that of Luther's transla- tion for German literature and that of the authorized English Protestant version for English." The same historian further says: *'The Vulgate takes the first place among the Bible versions of the an- cient Church. It exerted the same influence upon Latin Christendom, as the LXX. upon Greek, and is directly or indirectly the mother of the most of the earlier versions in the European vernaculars." A monastic city grew up about the saintly schol- ar's cell in the birthplace of our Saviour Pil- 214 The Church of the Fathers. grims to the Holy Land sought him out, and many chose the ascetic life to be near and like him. Be- sides the monastery of which he was head, there was erected a church, a hospice for pilgrims, and a convent for women. During a period of thirty- four years he lived here with the greatest austeri- ty, and labored with almost incredible success. While his achievements provoke only our admi- ration, the famous painting of Domenichino, rep- resenting the emaciated form supported for the **Last Communion," only fills us with a sense of the profoundest pity. Such learning, such mis- judgment ! Jerome was the bitterest controversialist the Church has had, perhaps, in any age. There was hardly an eminent contemporary with whom he had not some acrimonious dispute ; and his words w^ere either daggers or bludgeons. For the saint- ly Ambrose he had the base charge of plagiarism. Against the heroic John Chrysostom, the Golden- mouth, he spread a venomous diatribe. With John, the good bishop of Jerusalem, he had a personal contention which only the eminence of the parties kept from being petty and puerile. With his early friend and fellow-monk, Rufinus, he engaged in a quarrel which w^as disgraceful to the whole Church, and bore him hatred beyond the grave. Vigilantius, one of the soberest-minded and best men of that time, he treated with acrid contempt in public attacks. Against Jovinian, who advocated a temperate rule of living as opposed to Great Men of the West. 215 severe asceticism, arguing that the married state, if kept in faith and piety, was not less honorable than virginity, he wrote: *' These are the hissings of the old serpent; by these the dragon expelled man from paradise." Even the great Augustine came in for his trenchant rebuke when he had the pre- sumption so much as to question the fitness of cer- tain of his biblical renderings. Against Origen, also, more than fifty years gone to his great re- ward, he turned bitterly in later life, although in earlier and unspoiled years he was only an un- qualified eulogist of **the true man of adamant and heart of brass." To the very end, though en- feebled in body by age and fastings, he was still vigilant of the true faith and fierce in its defense. The truths of Christianity were to him the golden apples of the garden of Hesperus, and he was the great dragon set therein to guard them. In paint- ing and sculpture he is represented always attended by a lion. His own words to Rufinus may help us to understand his spirit: *'When you realize the effort of the fighter, then you will be able to praise the victory." He died in 420, and was buried near the Grot- to of the Nativity in Bethlehem. A hon is his symbol. In the old pictures and in many a cathedral window the king of beasts and the terror of man stands beside this fierce defender of the truth, while the Book of Truth lies open in his hand. 2i6 The Church of the Pathers, 3. Augustine. " Ubi amor^ ibi trinitas?'' '• Naught conquers but truth; the victory of truth is love." "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee." "My Father, supremely good. Beauty of all things beauti- ful." "The reward of God is God himself." "A happy life is joy in the truth." — Sayings of St, Augustine. Ambrose vindicated the spiritual supremacy of the Church even over emperors; Jerome by his translations of the Bible permanently fixed the language of the Church; Augustine accomplished a more eminent task — the determining for a thou- sand years the prevalent theology of the Church. A special distinction belongs to St. Augustine as the solitary author in this period who wrote any- thing that is still popularly read. His *' Confes- sions " is a book which has equal fame with Marcus Aurelius's "Meditations" and Thomas a Kempis's *' Imitation." In this book his whole heart is laid bare before God, and, incidentally, as it were, we are permitted to look in upon the most intimate secrets of an extraordinary life. His whole discourse is praj^er to God, the good Om- nipotent, who careth for every one as if he cared for him only. His "Confessions " are one symphony of praise to God, the Light of his heart. "Thou movest us to delight in praising thee," he begins, "for thou hast made us for thyself, and we are restless till we rest in thee." Gi'cat Men of ih e West . 217 This famous saying is the complete commentar}^ on his life. Gifted with unusual energy of mind and thirst after philosophic truth, his life Up to his thirty-fourth year was one strange mixture of ar- dent spiritual aspiration and of gross carnal indul- gence. The heights and depths were equal. Born in North Africa, like Tertullian, his temper par- took, as did Tertullian's, of the nature of that fiery clime. His father, Patricius, was a heathen, but a cultured one, and of a passionate sensibility, which he bequeathed to his son. His mother's name — all the world knows it — was Monica, one of the brightest names in all the records of ador- able motherhood. She was a Christian woman, whose tears mingled with her broken prayers for the salvation of her wayward boy. ** Go thy way, and God bless thee," once said a certain bishop to whom she had gone for help and consolation; ** for it is not possible that the son of these tears should perish." He was given the best education- al advantages from the first, and, though not uni- formly diligent, he progressed rapidly. In young manhood he went to Rome, first to study, then to teach rhetoric, a study which then embraced what later was known as the " humanities," or the belles-letU'es. Meanwhile he both led a profligate life and searched for a satisfying philosophy. Cic- ero's '* Hortensius," he relates, turned his prayers to the Lord and made him have other hopes and fears. "How ardent was I then, my God, how ardent to fly from earthl}^ things to thee I " , 2i8 The Church of the Fathers. Manichaeism — the doctrine of two opposed prin- ciples, evil and good, united respectively with mat- ter and spirit — first commended itself to his mind. This heresy consisted of a Persian theory com- bined with a distorted Paulinism, such as, for ex- ample, is to be found in the seventh chapter of Romans, where the apostle so powerfully depicts the eternal conflict. He came to a knowledge of the error of Manichgeism by discovering the nature of evil as " naught but a privation of good, until in the end it ceases altogether to be." He was at that time nineteen years old. Neoplatonism was the next system of doctrine which he tried. We have already considered the claims of this philosophy to meet the world's needs of a universal redemptive religion. Its lofty ideal- ism and high spiritual as well as ethical aims ap- pealed mightily to the eager soul of Augustine. In this teaching he found much to inspire, much to be followed, but nothing to renew the mind. In later years he wrote, *' No philosophers come nearer to us than the Platonists " ; but he found not in them the power of God unto newness of life. At the age of thirty, in pursuit of his profession, in which he was now distinguished, he went to Milan and listened to Ambrose preach. His moth- er, made strong by her piety, had followed him over lands and sea, in all perils feeling secure in God. *' For in the dangers of the sea," he con- tinues to relate, "she comforted the very sailors, assuring them of a safe arrival, because she had Great Men of the Weit. 219 been so assured by thee in a vision." By the ser- mons of Ambrose he was brought first to a state of agitation, and his mother 'Moved that man as an angel of God" for this w^ork, and continued to pray. He sought to change his manner of Hfe and work his own reformation. Problems of thought, however, would not let him have rest. He passed through great struggles, seeking knowledge of the Scriptures from Ambrose and pondering much his frequent saying, " The letter killeth, but the Spir- it giveth life." Yet the disorder and darkened eyesight of his mind, he says, " by the sharp anointings of healthful sorrows, was from day to day made whole." His conversion — an event of so great importance as to be commemorated in the Roman calendar — was consummated while he was walking one day with his friend Alypius in the garden of the house where they were lodging near Milan. With a per- turbed and groaning spirit he was pouring out his soul, apart from his friend, in anguishful prayer for truth and peace. Thereupon he heard a voice saying, '' Tolle, lege ! Tolle, lege ! " Thinking at first it was a child exclaiming this in some game, on reflection he found the words so suited to him- self that he concluded it was a heavenly voice ut- tering them, bidding him, ''Take, read." The further account is best given in his own words: " So, restraining the torrent of my tears, I rose up, interpreting it no other way than as a command to me from heaven to open the book, and read the 220 The Church of the Fathers. first chapter I should light upon. For I had heard of Anthony that, accidentally coming in whilst the gospel was being read, he received the admonition as if what was read were addressed to him, ' Go sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and fol- low me.' And by such oracle was he forthwith converted unto Thee. So quickly I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I put down the volume of the apostles, when I rose thence. I grasped, opened, and in silence read that paragraph on which my eyes first fell: 'Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chamber- ing and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.' No further would I read, nor did I need; for in- stantly, as the sentence ended — by the light, as it were, of security infused into my heart — all the gloom of doubt vanished away." Never was there a more ardent longing after the living God since the time of David ; and never was there a more glorious finding of him. And at last he discovered that he for whom he was search- ing had ever been near him — the bread of the in- ner mouth of his soul, he says, and the power that wedded his mind with his innermost thoughts. The seeking and the finding, the regret and the joy, are all expressed in a passage remarkable for its beauty and almost a psalm in adoring ecstasy: "I have loved thee late, thou Beauty, so old and Great M 671 of the West. 221 so new ; I have loved thee late ! And lo ! thou wast within, but I was without, and was seeking thee there. And into thy fair creation I plunged myself in my ugliness; for thou wast with me, and I was not with thee I Those things kept me away from thee, which had not been except they had been in thee ! Thou didst call, and didst cry aloud, and break through my deafness. Thou didst glimmer, thou didst shine, and didst drive away my blindness. Thou didst breathe, and I drew breath, and breathed in thee. I tasted thee, and I hunger and thirst. Thou didst touch me, and I burn for thy peace. If I, with all that is within me, may once live in thee, then shall pain and trouble forsake me ; entirely filled with thee, all shall be life to me." The conception of God as an indwelling pres- ence, the very breath of our being, is one of the sublimest in this book of sublime thoughts. "Thou wert more inward to me than my in- most inward part, and higher than my highest." '*Thou art wholly everywhere, whilst nothing alto- gether contains thee." ''Where do I call thee to, since thou art in me?" His concept of life, its end and way, was correspondingly high. The following quotations are to the point: "Life eter- nal is the supreme good, and death eternal the supreme evil, and to obtain the one and to escape the other we must live rightly." In this world and in the next "all virtue will be to love what one sees, and the highest felicity to have what one loves." 222 The Church of the Feathers. His doctrine of evil leads to a view as optimis- tic as that which Origen expressed of the final restoration of all things. He thus solves the im- memorial problem of why evil in the universe of a good God should be permitted to exist: "As the opposition of contraries lend beauty to lan- guage, so the beauty of the course of this world is achieved by the opposition of contraries, ar- ranged, as it were, by eloquence not of words, but of things." The course of the ages is *'an ex- quisite poem set off with antitheses." Again, using an illustration from another field of art, he says: *'For as the beauty of a picture is in- creased by well-managed shadows, so to the eye that has skill to discern it the universe is beauti- fied even by sinners, though, considered by them- selves, their deformity is a sad blemish." The viper, which God has created good, fits inferior parts of his creation; so likewise does the sinner. *'To thee is there nothing at all evil, and not only to thee, but to thy whole creation; because there is nothing without which can break in and mar that order which thou hast appointed." The forty-three years of his life after his con- version were devoted by Augustine to arduous and heroic labors for the Church. Havinfj been baptized by Ambrose, he returned to Africa where first for three years he lived in ascetic retirement, founding the monastic order called either after himself the **Augustinian," or, since they wore the black dress adopted from the East, the " Black Great Men of the West. 223 Friars." In 395 he was made bishop of Hippo, an office which he occupied the remainder of his life of thirty-five years, and a title which he yet bears. His activity was prodigious. In continual requi- sition wherever he went to preach — commonly de- livering a sermon each day, and sometimes several — he found time to write that series of eight large im- perial octavo volumes which are now published in the *'Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," and these are only a part of his writings. Further- more, he lived and labored through tvvo of the stormiest controversies of the Church, in each of which he was the victorious protagonist of ortho- dox Catholicism; and through the successive dis- astrous invasions of Goths, Huns, and Vandals, who repeatedly laid waste the country of his la- bors. As the history of the Pelagian controversy is to be given at length later, his part in that strife w^ill there be set forth. It is largely a history of his doctrines and activities. During this devastation of the empire by the barbarians, Augustine wrote his monumental work entitled ''The City of God." It is a philosophy of history, endeavoring to show that it was foreor- dained in the providence of God that Rome should fall in order that the true eternal city, the ttrhs ceter7ia et sacra of the Christian Church, might rise and rule the world. This great book, second in value to the modern reader only to the "Confe3- 224 ^^^ Church of the Fathers, sions," was deeply studied, it is a noLeworthy fact, by Charles the Great. Augustine was a man of genius and of intense force of character. There were more learned men among the Fathers — although he is worthy to be accounted one of the four '^Doctors" of the Lat- in Church — but not one whose influence exceeded his. He illustrates how much an ardent temper- ament, a soul kindled by a lofty emotion, counts for in life. A line in the old Latin hymn entitled **The Glory and Joys of Paradise," ascribed, though erroneously, to him, yet expresses the dominant desire of his being: "' Ad ferennisvitce fontem mens sitivit arida/' From the experience of his fruitless search for a system of truth that should commend itself as such to the reason, and at the same time satisfy *'the parched soul's longing for the perennial fountain of life," he arrived at a perception which became a watchword in his great controversy with Pelagius, and is valuable for all time, namely, *' Faith precedes understanding." From this time on, the questions of dispute in the Church concerned not those things which en- gaged the great early councils, but original sin, grace, election and reprobation, the freedom of the will, and the sovereignty of God. WORSHIP, RITUAL, AND OBSERVANCES. •5 "We may look back once more and try to conceive, if we will, what was its (the Church's) appeal to the imagination while still unchallenged. We may guess it, if we can, by what still remains of it at the command of Rome to-day — incomparably more brilliant, imposing, and august than an} military or state show with which it might possibly be com- pared. . . . "All we have seen or learned of the glory of the outer tem- ple is but playing upon the surface of a tide of power, whose real depth is far within. The symbolism sculptured uppn walls, or built into corbel and capital, or blazoned in the arch- es of stately windows, is repeated in innumerable ways — in creed, song, litany; in priestly robes and swinging censer and lighted candle; in the tone of silver bell, or the deep, mellow peal that steals down from the church tower like an infolding mist, or the chime that rings out on the air at change of hours; in the chant sung by one powerful voice or answered by the harmonies of the cathedral clioir; in the melody of hymns, whose tenderness we feel in the Stnbat Mate>\ as we feel their terror and their awe in the Dies Free; in the uplifted Host, which multitudes adore as a literally present and visible deity; in the diversities of sound and pomp of color that belong to the pro- cession on some festal day. All these are only the various language in which that Church is continually preaching to eye and ear her awful mysteries, tlie symbol and accompaniment of the Real Presence, which she claims to hold only in her keeping. Whatever the human mind has yet conceived of terror and pain, of awe and majesty, of gladness, reverence, and hope, is shadowed forth in that language of picture and music, with a power scarce diminished to this day." — -J. H. Allen, (226) CHAPTER XI. WORSHIP, RITUAL, AND OBSERVANCES. I. Church-building. The Christians began by worshiping in the Jew- ish synagogues. In them Jesus taught and Paul preached. By the increasing hostihty of the Jews, however, they were in time excluded from their holy places, and the apostles taught and preached thereafter in private houses, in public assembly places, and wherever opportunity offered. Ceme- teries where martyrs were buried were favorite spots. The lodge rooms, or collegia halls, and the lecture halls of pagans came later on to be used. But the basilica, or town **Hall of Justice," of all others, offered the most suitable place for Chris- tian assemblage and worship. In order to under- stand its interior arrangement it is necessary only to go into an English or Roman Catholic cathe- dral — a chapel will do — for the basilica provided a model for church architecture. Being designed for a court of justice, it was oblong in form and divided lengthwise by two rows of columns, form- ing three avenues, or aisles; these were crossed by a third avenue somewhat elevated, upon which, in the center, sat the advocates, notaries, and other men of law. At the end of the building, where it (227) 228 The Church of the Fathers, swelled into a semicircular recess, with rounded ceiling, sat the judge and his assistants. Now when this came to be used as a place of Christian worship, the two outer colonnaded av- enues continued to be used, the one by men, the other by women, for the assembly; the middle av- enue came to be designated " nave," because of its fancied resemblance to St. Peter's ship (^7/^2^/5^; the transverse aisle completed, with the nave, a cross; the bishop took the chief magistrate's throne, and the presbyters sat upon either hand in the place of the assistants. Symbolism was developed much further when churches, on this model, began to be built. The fourth century "Apostolic Constitutions" give us the prescribed plan and the significance of each part, and regulate also the order of the various classes composing the congregation. Pagan temples, never being designed for the general assemblage of worshipers, were not com- monly suitable to the use of Christians. In some instances, however, they were taken possession of when power was gained, and used without any or considerable change; in other instances, they were torn down and reconstructed. The first mention of church-building is made in the reign of Severus (A.D. 222-235). It is esti- mated that by the 3^ear 300 there were forty Chris- tian churches and chapels in Rome. There were at the same time one hundred and fifty pagan tem- ples and one hundred and eighty pagan chapels Vl^orship, Ritual^ and Observances. 229 and shrines. The persecution of Diocletian be- gan (A.D. 303) with the wholesale destruction of Christian shrines. Constantine is much eulogized by Eusebius as a restorer and builder of them. When his mother, Helen, had made her famous pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to find the cross on which the Saviour suffered, and, as was believed, did find it, together with those of the two thieves, the first Christian emperor had a magnificent and richly adorned church erected over the spot, and called it the "Church of the Resurrection," it coming later to be known as the *' Church of the Holy Sepulcher." The upper ceiling of this was over- laid with gold, the nave was lined with marbles; twelve pillars, representing the twelve apostles, upbore the dome, and their capitals were vases of silver. Many other sacred places were honored by the emperor in a like munificent manner. 2. The Overthrow of Paganism. With the activity displayed in building churches, after the revenues of the empire came into the hands of the Christians, proceeded — inasmuch as they had not only the will but the power — the de- struction of temples and the extermination, root and branch, of paganism. By the famous Edict of Milan, issued by Constantine in 312, entire and absolute religious liberty was guaranteed to every subject to believe and worship according to that faith wherein he was reared or w^hich he had cho- sen. It was a memorable act and very illustrious. 230 The Church of the Fathers, Not many years passed, however, before the tide of persecution that for two hundred and fifty years had been deluging the Christians in their own blood was turned with religious madness upon the now dethroned heathen worshipers. Constantius, the son of Constantine, but less wise and great every way than his father, prohibited pagan sacri- fices by edict, and, as an instance of his zeal, re- moved the pagan Altar of Victory from the Roman senate chamber. Julian, known as the Apostate, was his succes- sor (361-363). Properly speaking, he was not an "apostate," but always an adherent — though, until he came to the throne, not openly — of pagan worship and philosophy. While a student togeth- er with him at Athens, Gregory Nazianzen had prophesied bad of him, it is said, in these words; '*What an evil the Roman state is here nourish- ing!" Julian was outrageously tyrannized over by his narrow-minded and jealous relative, the emperor. He was put unwillingly to a monaste- rial school in Nicomedia ; for seven months he was imprisoned through base suspicion. Envied by the emperor because he was brillant and popular, he was treated with ignominy and inhuman cruel- ty. As Csesar, and so heir to the imperial throne, he was feared and perpetually suspected; the fate of his father threatened him — death at the hands of Constantius. Julian always had a preference for paganism. The Christianity he knew was stained with the Worship, RituaU ci^td Observances, 231 blood of murder; was cruel, corrupt, and devoid of that beauty and ancient humanity which he loved. As soon as, without danger to his life, he had opportunity, he openly showed his preference. He did not persecute the Christians; on the con- trary, he recalled the exiled bishops, saying they would destroy one another in their strifes. It is a bitter reflection, with too much reason for it. Ju- lian went no further than to withdraw from the Church the privileges before granted, and to favor pagan worship. But there was a general revival of paganism in the empire, and in divers parts vio- lent outbreaks occurred against the Church. Gratian (375-383) confiscated temples and pa- gan property to Christian uses, and rponks in va- rious regions set about the violent and general de- struction of the beautiful edifices of the ancient worship. It was in these times that Libanius, the illustrious pagan teacher before spoken of, ad- dressed to the emperor an eloquent plea in behalf of their preservation. The most celebrated and magnificent of all the temples destroyed was that of Serapis, known as the Serapion, in Alexandria, A.D. 391. The bishop, Theophilus, is accred- ited with having incited the monks to this deed. With it perished not only an incalculable amount of fine statuary, but the great library which ages had contributed to build up. Here and there, within the Church, a voice of deprecation and remonstrance was raised, but to no avail. Chrysostom pleaded: ''Christians are 232 The Church of the leathers. not to destroy error by force and violence, but should work the salvation of men by persuasion, instruction, and love." Augustine spoke at one time to the same effect, but generally inculcated the strict literal fulfillment of the Saviour's com- mandment: "Compel them to come in." He strangely believed physical compulsion was there- by meant and enjoined, and so a narrow, hard the- ology made a great-hearted man cruel and false. Theodosius the Great (392-395) made the visit- ing of heathen temples for religious purposes a crime with heavy penalties. The performance of any pagan rites or ceremonies was prohibited. In 408, Honorius denied to pagans the right of hold- ing office, either civil or military. In 415 a terri- ble outbreak, directed by Archbishop Cyril, oc- curred in Alexandria, in which Hypatia, honored for virtue and beauty of life, as well as for learn- ing, was cruelly cut to pieces by shells in the hands of a frantic mob of Nitrian monks, and then burned. Under Theodosius II. the temples were ordered to be everywhere destroyed orturned into churches. Justinian, in 539, closed the famous school of phi- losophy at Athens, which had been in existence for nine centuries, and drove its sever teachers — who kept up the tradition of the ancient Seven Wise Men of Greece — into exile, which they chose rather than a forced change of faith. This same emperor made adherence to paganism a crime to be punished with death. WorsJiif^ RituaU and Observances, 233 Thus varied for some generations the tide of power, and with it the tide of persecution. 3. Pagan Survivals in Christianity. "All things are jours." "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good." — St. Paul. " For good, wherever found, is a property of truth." — Socrates {Scholasticus). Violent transitions are opposed to the nature and laws of the mind, alike of civilized and unciviHzed. The worshipers of heathen gods had to be led grad- ually and by devious routes to new altars. They perhaps could not have been induced at all to make the change had they not perceived in the new cult features familiar to them in the old, and doctrines similar, but better, and rites of kindred nature, only more significant, and all richer in the power of a new and diviner life, more satisfying to mind and soul. In the catacombs Christ is represented now as Apollo surrounded, as he strikes the lyre, by the Grecian muses; now as the shepherd Apollo, piping among the sheep of Admetus ; and again as Orpheus, leading captive and tamed the wild beasts, which are charmed by the harmony of his doctrines. Scriptural and mythological scenes are freely mixed in the sepulchral carvings. The but- terfly, the classic representation of Psyche (the soul), and the three Graces, either painted or carved, adorn these tombs. The myths of Bac- chus, the god of the vintage, and of Mercury, the 234 '^^^^ Church of the Feathers. messenger of the Olympian theocracy, are depict- ed amidst the scenes of patriarch and prophet. All this is significant of a general process, name- ly, the incorporation of pagan symbols, rites, and usages into Christianity. The extent to which it was carried would doubtless surprise the reader before unacquainted with the facts. As a further illustration, chosen out of many available, the wor- ship of the Virgin Mary, which arose in Syria, came natural to that people who were accustomed to worship Astarte, whose counterpart was Venus Urania in the West, and the Queen of Heaven in Africa, The worship of saints as heavenly patrons and guardians came easy to peoples accustomed to honor patron gods and goddesses. It was the Christian custom, furthermore, to sub- stitute their own festivals for the heathen ones, and thus to meet the demands of human nature in her usages. There were scarcely fewer, it is said, than one hundred festival days in the pagan calen- dar. Who, in view of this social fact, can wonder at the multitude which the Church found it expe- dient to adopt or devise? Christmas, to instance one, probably was originated at Rome to take the place, with its beautiful and eternal significance, of the corrupt Saturnalia, or festivities in honor of Saturn. ** Heathen writers constantly taunt the Christians with the substitution of a new idolatry for the old.'* In the mouth of their dead they placed a coin, as the heathen did for boat pay to Charon. At the tombs they had festive gather- Worships Ritual^ and Observances.. 235 ings, and ate, drank, and danced, often to excess, and to the reproach of the Name; this in imita- tion of the pagan custom of propitiation of the manes, or the shades, of ancestors. When Constantine laid the foundation of nis new seat of empire on the Bosphorus, he used the elaborate ancient pagan ritual dedicated mimemo- rially to this service. And even when he built Christian churches, he gave them classic names: one was called St. Sophia (wisdom), and another St. Eirene (peace). A custom which aided the bringing in of hea- then rites was that of building a Christian shrine, or church, on the spot where one of the older cult had been destroyed. St. Martin, in Gaul, and St. Augustine, in England, followedthis systematically. Where the cathedral of CanterlrM-y now stands, to commemorate the landing of St. r^.: -jstine and his meeting with King Ethelbert, formerly stood a heathen shrine, which the planter of the new faith removed. He even permitted the heathen con- verts to continue their animal sacrifices in the church. Heathen, like children, are educated but slowly; and the Church is for the education of the human race. 4. Hymnology. The Psalms were the first hymns of the Chris- tian people; for '*the Psalter ... springs from the deep fountains of the human heart in its se- cret communion with God, and gives classic ex- 236 The Church of the Fathers. pression to the religious experience of all men in every age and tongue." But it was not long be- fore they had a sacred and beautiful hymnology of their own. The Magnificat of Mary in the first chapter of Luke, the Gloria in Excelsis of the heavenly host, and the Nunc Dimittis of Simeon in the sec- ond chapter, become common hymns in regular use in the Church. St, Paul's epistles, as well as the Apocalypse, contain fragments of early hymns : a beautiful example occurs in Ephesians v. 14: Awake, thou that sleepest, And arise from the dead, And Christ shall shine upon thee. The Te Dewii, now known only in its late Lat- in form and ascribed to St. Ambrose, was of sec- ond or third century Greek origin. St. Ignatius, according to tradition, composed antiphonies, or responsive songs, probably on the model of the antiphonal psalms. In the second century the gnostic Bardesanes and his son Harmonius wrote as many as one hundred and fifty hymns for fes- tivals. Eusebius quotes a writer of the close ot the second century who, in the defense the divin- ity of Christ, wrote against the Artemonites: *'How many psalms and odes of the Christians are there not, which have been written from the beginning by believers, and which, in their theol- ogy, praise Christ as the Logos of God?" Clem- ent of Alexandria wrote a notable poem with this intention. A translation of it begins as follows: Worship, Ritual^ and Observances. 237 Bridle of colts untamed, Over our wills presiding; Wing of unwandering birds, Our flight securely guiding; Rudder of youth unbending, Firm against adverse shock; Shepherd, with wisdom tending Lambs of the royal flock; Thy simple children bring In one, that they may sing In solemn lays Their hymns of praise With guileless lips to Christ their King. Ephraim the Syrian, adopting the tunes and me- ters of the gnostics, composed other words free from heretical teachings, and his hymns came into popular use. Gregory Nazianzen was a pro- hfic poet, but wrote no hymns that entered into general favor. St. Anatolius, patriarch of Con- stantinople, did the most to make Greek hymnolo- gy poetic and beautiful for common use. A stan- za in translation of a hymn on Christ's birth is as follows : While thus they sing your Monarch, Those bright angelic bands, Rejoice, ye vales and mountains! Ye oceans, clap your hands! With the name of Ambrose some of the most excellent early hymns in Latin are associated; but of the Ambrosian collection only about ten or twelve are now assigned to him with certain- ty. The Latin titles of some of these — and it is well to know them by their classic designation — are Veni, jRedemptor Gentium^ Detts Creator 238 The Church of the Fathers. Omnium, and j^terne Rerum Conditor. They are stately in diction and movement. The Te Deum Laudamus, the Church's most celebrated doxology, is one of the Ambrosian group, though, as above noted, it has a much earlier form in Greek. To St. Augustine also some beautiful songs are attributed, chief of which are Cum Rex GloricB Christus — a resurrection hymn — and Ad Perennis Vitce Fontem Mens Sitivit Arida, His acknowledgment of the power of church music over him is one of the most beau- tiful passages in his "Confessions": "Nor was I satiated in those da3^s with the wondrous sweet- ness of considering the depth of thy counsels concerning the salvation of the human race. How greatly did I weep in thy h3^mns and canticles, deeply moved by the voices of thy sweet-speak- ing Church ! The voices flowed into mine ears, and the truth was poured forth in my heart, whence the agitation of my piety overflowed, and my tears ran over, and blessed was I therein." Other noteworthy hymn-writers were Hilary of Poitiers (died 368), Prudentius, most gifted and fruitful of early Christian poets (died 405), Fortunatus (died about 600), and Gregory the Great (died 604). The beautiful titles of the chief hymns, unmentioned before, of this time run as follows: Urbs Bcata Jerusalem, Ave Marts Stella, Salveic, Flores Martyrufn, Pange Lin- gua, Prima Dierum Onnnium. One of the glo- ries of the Church is her golden treasury of song. Worship, Ritualy and Observances. 239 5. Liturgies and Festivals. In early Church history the word **Hturgy" (Greek leiiourgia^ public service, worship) de- notes the form of service used in the Lord's Sup- per. There are some four or five liturgical "fam- ilies," named after the churches which originated and used them, as follows: Xkio. Palestinian^ the A lexandrian , the Roman , the Gallican , and the Per^ Stan. These began to be formed very early, and gradually assumed the elaborate length which they now possess. Some of the particular liturgies, in- cluded in one or other of the groups named, may be as old as the second century. The oldest bear the names of St. Luke, St. James, St. Mark, and St. Clement. Any one of them occupied, perhaps, between two and three hours in its perform- ance. The different parts of the service given here (from the ''Ante-Nicene Fathers") will indicate to the reader the elaborateness of early worship. There are two main divisions of the liturgy, or service — that before the lifting up of the elements and that after; and these are further subdivided. The whole scheme stands z.b, here given; I. Liturgy (or Mis sa=Mass) o f , THE Catechu MENS. 1. The Preparatory Prayers. 2. The Initial Hymn, or Introit. 3. The Little Entrance. 4. The Trisagion. 5. The Lections. 6. The Prayers after the Gospel, and Expulsion of the Catechumens. 240 The Church of the Fathers. 1. The Prayers of the Faithful. 2. The Great Entrance. 3. The Offertory. 4. The Kiss of Peace. 5. The Creed. 1. The Preface. 2. The Prayer of the Triumphal Hy:r\n. 3. The Triumphal Hymn. 4. Commemoration of Our Lord': Life. 5. Commemoration of Institutic ^i. 6. Words of Institution of the I-read. 7. Words of Institution of the Wine. 8 Oblation of the Body and iJlood. 9. Introductory Prayer for the Descent of the Holy Ghost. 10. Prayer for the Sanctificat'.Tn of Ele- ments. 11. General Intercession for (.)uick. and Dead. 12. Prayer before the Lord's r.ayer. 13. The Lord's Prayer. 14. The Embolismus. 15. The Prayerof Inclination. 16. The Holy Things for Holy Persons. 17. The Fraction 18. The Confession. 19. The Communion. 20. The Antidoron ; and Prayers of Thanksgiving. The origin of the Roman Cathohc mass (missa) — for each of the main divisions of the service is called missa, mass — and indeed of all liturgies, is now known to the reader. Doubtless, however, to understand the Christian institution in its gene- sis he must go even back to the Mosaic system of celebrating the sacrifice of the Passover, as given in the Pentateuch. It was, in reality, a divine dra- LiTURGY (or Mis- i SA M ass) OF -{ THE Faithful, i II. The Great Eu- charistic Prayer. The Consecra- tion. The Great Ln- TER cess or y Prayer. The Communion. Worship, Ritual, and Observances. 241 ma, and in essential features bore a striking re- semblance to the Greek Dionysian festivals. The different vestments of the several priestly orders also originate in this early time. They are fully described in the *'ApostoHc Constitutions "of the fourth century. The alba, or tunic, of the dea- con was an inner white garment, and originally but a workingman's shirt. It developed into the sur- plice. The pallium was the Roman toga, or over- cloak. It is now the pall of the archbishop. The miter, now worn by the highest Church dignita- ries, was originally the common headdress of no- bles, and later of peasants. The stole, by which name, originally, the entire dress was designated, and later but the handkerchief, is now but a nar- row band of silk ribbon worn on the shoulder or breast of different grades of clergy. Both Jewish and heathen customs influenced the practice of the Church in the matter of vestments. Various^rtjy5 came early to be kept. The first day of the week was observed earliest, as the '* Lord's day," in commemoration of his resurrection. It was a day of rejoicing, and did not for some gen- erations supplant the Jewish sabbath as a sacred day of rest, but was observed alongside of that. Wednesday and Friday — the one in memory of the condemnation of Christ, and the other in memory of his passion — were kept by fasting, and were known as "Station days." The manner of keeping Ash Wednesday, Passion Week, Good Friday, and Easter — which was the first day of the new year, as 16 242 The Church of the Fathers. the Lord's day was the first of the week — is care- fully described in the "Apostolic Constitutions." Epiphany, Pentecost, Whitsunday, Palm Sunday, Ascension, and Christmas, were annual days that came early to be kept with rejoicings. Christmas is traceable as far back as the fourth century. The definite day has no historical basis. ' ' Martyr days" were also kept with festivities at the tombs of those who died for the faith ; with festivities, for the day of the martyrdom of a saint was regarded as his birthday to true life. The early Church was very strict in the observance both of fasts and fes- tivals, both of which were exceedingly numerous. They were educative and disciplinary and memo- rializing. 6. Saints, Relics, and Miracles. The worship of saints and angels in the early Church has in its origin a twofold connection: on the one hand, it arose, in the case of saint worship, out of a natural but excessive desire to honor the martyrs ; and on the other hand, it entered into the place formerly occupied by the worship of **the gods many and lords man}/- " of the Gentiles. In- deed, the Trinity itself , in popular conception, be- came little better than a triad of gods; that is, it was polytheism reduced totritheism. Let us be reasonable, not to say charitable, in judging the early adherents of the Christian faith. The Church of to-day may have its cherished su- perstitions as essential to its life, its fancies, as Worships RiUtaJ^ and Observances. 243 Micah's gods were of old to his welfare. "Ye have taken away my gods which I have made," he cries, '* and what have I more? " In that time Gideon, we read — Gideon, the mighty man of valor — broke down his father's altar and built a new one, " inthe orderly manner.'' It was, truly, a bold deed and unfilial enough. There was every- thing in it to shock those who speak more about loyalty to custom than to truth, and more about faithfulness to the '* Fathers " than to the Father. In the temple the boy Jesus declared a higher loyalty than earth is entitled to claim when he sig- nificantly said, *' Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? " In the interest of a pure and true religion, let error and superstition be ex- posed, and let the idols be removed out of the tem- ple of the God *' who ever lives and loves." The Christian patron saint, with whom every trade and fraternity, city, sacred place, and per- son, was provided, reminds one only too forcibly of the pagan deity and genius loci. Those heav- enly patrons are manifestly only the lares and ■penates of pagan Rome under a thin Christian dis- guise. Prayers to the saints, sometimes very noble in character, were offered by the best and wisest of the Church Fathers. Gregory Nazianzen offers the following to Athanasius: *'Look graciously down upon us, and dispose this people to be per- fect worshipers of the perfect Trinit}^; and when the times are quiet, preserve us; when they are troubled, remove us and take us to thee in fellow- 244 '^^^^ Church of the Fathers, ship." It is difficult to see how Christ himself would be invoked differently. For the saints were regarded as intercessors with God, and, by show- ing their stigmata, or marks of martyrdom, could, as Chrysostom says, ** persuade the King to an}^- thing." And sa3'S St. Augustine: "They who have washed away their sins by their own blood may pray for sins." Some truth, therefore, was in the charge of Faustus: ** Ye have changed the idols into martyrs, whom 3'e worship with the like prayers, and ye appease the shades of the dead with wine and flesh." Indeed, a Christian mythology speedily grew up — or, rather, the old pagan mythology was in part adopted and infused with Christian ideas. For example, the martyr Phocas became, instead of Castor and Pollux, the patron of Christian sailors, who set aside a share of their meal for him as a thank offering. Furthermore, the feasts to the gods were replaced by saints' days and Christian festivals. The deification of men was common among the Greeks and Romans, and therefore it is hardly strange that the ecumenical councilors should apply the epithet '' divine " to Constantine and other emperors who championed the faith. It may be presumed, and in fact is well es- tablished, that, along with so man}^ customs of greater or less significance, some ideas were also brought over from heathenism into Christianity. How could this fail to happen at a time when most of the converts to the new faith were born and Worshif, RiUial^ and Observances. 245 bred in pagan cults? However, there was advan- tage in some aspects of this process of assimila- tion; for instance, the pagan custom of apotheo- sizing men and the conception of guardian deities made belief in a living, divine Christ and his com- panionship and guidance an easy matter. Providence has a wider scope than is possible for human vision to compass. Pious fraud, super- stitious imagination, and quick credulity assisted in bringing the heathen world to Christ, although we cannot justify these things by any manner of means, nor practice them with impunity. To the custom of keeping saints' days was due the wonderful growth of legends, which, notwith- standing their multitude of incredible miracles, constitute one of the most priceless heritages of the Church. And from honoring the memory of the saints, together with the doctrine of the resur- rection of the body, arose the habit of esteeming, and soon of worshiping, their relics. In the Smyr- naeans' account of the martyrdom of Polycarp, they write: "And so we afterwards took up his bones, which are morevaluable than precious stones and finer than refined gold, and laid them in a suitable place; where the Lord will permit us to gather ourselves together, as we are able, in glad- ness and joy, and to celebrate the birthday of his martyrdom for the commemoration of those that have already fought in the contest, and for the training and preparation of those that shaF do so hereafter." 246 The Church of the Fathers. Here is the whole matter as early as A.D. 155. The trade in relics early became general and prof- itable, and not a little deception was practiced. In the year 386 Theodosius prohibited it in vain: the Church Fathers too generally encouraged it. Chaucer's description of the fourteenth centur}^ monk with his "' pigges bones" is true, doubtless, for the priest of the fourth century. The use of these rehcs as ornaments and amulets was very common, and the attribution of healing virtue to them was well-nigh universal. Augustine asserts that seventy well-attested cures were effected in Hippo. Jerome and others of like eminence testify to many other miracles thus wrought, as curing the blind and raising the dead. The careful student of those times must come to the conclusion that the Church Fathers were lacking in some respects in a sense of truth, and that the age was character- ized by ** pious fraud" and almost incredible cre- dulity. The all-justifying motto seemed to he, Ad Tnajoram Dei gloriam . The Scriptures, it cannot be denied, afford am- ple ground for belief in miracles wrought through the agency of relics. EHsha's bones impart life to the dead man cast in his tomb upon them. The touch of Jesus' garment heals the issue of blood. Even Peter's shadow is said to have had a healing efficacy ; and handkerchiefs and aprons that Paul has used cure many sick. Chapels are therefore built at the tombs of mar- tyrs, and the sick of all manner of diseases are Worship, RiUiaU cind Observances. 247 brought thither as formerly they were brought to the temple of ^sculapius. *' Superstition! " we may exclaim, but this faith in that age afforded the only balm for earth-worn bodies as also for earth- wounded spirits. Besides, the Church is a univer- sally educative institution. It takes into its train- ing the barbarian and the Greek as well as the Jew, the foolish and simple as well as the wise and learned, the young as well as the old ; it must train all. It takes not the perfect, but the imperfect, to discipline, educate, and develop to higher modes of thought and life. As long as it advances it will outgrow the uses of certain methods, doctrines, and institutions, which once served an excellent purpose. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 1. "Christian Institutions," by Dean Stanley, is a readable and instructive book that treats of many topics of the foregoing chapter. 2. A. V. G. Allen's "Christian Institutions," in the "Inter- national Theological Library,'' is a fascinating book. The two books go well together. MONASTICISM. "MoNASTiciSM had stood for the idea that human salvation was not a mechanical process by which the collective mass of humanity, within the communion of the Church, was to be lifted by no effort of its own in the kingdom of heaven. It was a protest in behalf of the truth, which in the Middle Ages most needed to be emphasized, that salvation demands the activity of all the faculties of one's being. In this aspect Monasticism was the assertion of the truth of individual responsibility. It de- clined as an institution because of the fearful perversion of which it had been guilty — the abuse which it had heaped on things most divine, the neglect with which it had treated a large range of human duties and relationships, whose right discharge is essential to the fullest salvation of man. But it did not de- cline till the truth which it had conserved — the principle of in- dividualism — had been acknowledged as the basis of the com- ing reform." — A. V. G. Allen. (250) CHAPTER XII. MONASTICISM. " In the world, but not worldly." " In hopes to merit heaven by making earth a hell." "They were strangers to the world, but friends to God." — Thomas h Kemfis. "And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness overcame it not." — St. John. I. Origin, Spirit, and Aim. The institution of Monasticism has been fre- quently spoken of in the foregoing pages. It is now time to narrate more fully its history, and to describe at length its nature and significance. Al- though not a Christian institution in its origin, yet so thoroughly was it taken up by the disciples of Him who tauc^ht self-renunciation as the first law of life, that it became from the third to the fif- teenth century the most conspicuous and signifi- cant fact of Christendom. Both as regards the inner and outer life of the Church — its moral and educational functions, its civilizing agencies, and its material prosperity — its influences and its achievements of every kind, Monasticism was the efficient spirit and agency. And the fruits were both good and evil, with the main emphasis upon **good." To the student of history it is a familiar fact in various religions of the ancient world, notably in (250 252 Th e Ch u rch of th e jFa th ers . the faith of the Brahmans of India, as described in the old *' Vedas" — the psalms of that people; and later, in the same country, in the worship of Gau- tama Buddha, the ** Light of Asia"; and also in Egypt in the later developments of their extraor- dinary cults. In the time of Christ, the most nota- ble exhibition of monastic life and the most signifi- cant for Christianity, was with the Essenes, one of the three sects of the Jews. Josephus writes an interesting chapter concern- ing this very interesting sect. The noteworthy features of their practice are these: Communism, all property, even food and clothing, being held in common; extreme simplicity of life, their com- mon occupation being husbandry ; a strict tem- perance in all things, which, though not asceticism, yet tended thereto ; contempt for the body as a prison house of the spirit, and doomed to perish forever. Their repudiation of oaths and of mar- riage, of trade and slavery, of all animal sacrifices, and of any priesthood whatsoever, was a remark- able anticipation of the ethical and ascetic princi- ples which became the rule of life for millions of Christians. What was their aim? ''It was the higher illumination, the reception of revelations especially by dream visions, which they sought in this way to attain." Influences from Parseeism, from Buddhism, and from Pythagoreanism — all of which contain strik- ingly similar elements — are supposed by different historians to have entered into Pharisaism, and, Afonasitcism . 253 working together with tendencies already in opera- tion, to have produced Essenism ; a higher out- come both ethically and spiritually. These di- verse influences are certainly known to have been potent in Palestine from at least the beginning of the second century B.C., and it was about the middle of this century that the Essenes arose. It was toward the close of the first century A.D. that Josephus wrote. Their influence upon Chris- tian life and customs is a disputed matter. The unity of spirit — indicating a general tendency of ardently religious natures — is the only fact desired here to be established by these examples of asceti- cism. It was in Egypt, the mother of religions, as well of arts and sciences, that Christian Monasticism had its rise: it was there, it should be noted, that the Therapeutas dwelt — the most ascetic branch of the Essenes. Of some of the first Christian her- mits of note we have interesting early biographies: the lives of Sts. Paul, Hilarion, and Malchus, by Jerome; of St. Anthony, by Athanasius; of St. Martin of Tours, by Gregory; indeed, of a larger number there are memorials dating from an early time. The historians Socrates and Sozomen give us accounts of the origin and progress, the customs and aims, of monk life. A zealot by the name of Paul, in the third cen- tury, in Egypt, was the first to seek the solitude of the desert to dwell as a hermit. " He was heir," says Jerome, "to a rich inheritance, highly skilled 254 '^^^^ Church of the Fathers. in both Greek and Egyptian learning, gifted with a gentle disposition and a deep love for God. Amid the thunders of persecution, he retired to a house at a considerable distance and in a more secluded spot. Anthony came soon after. Of him the same biographer writes: ''The blessed Paul had al- ready lived on earth the life of heaven for a hun- dred and thirteen years, and Anthony at the age of ninety was dwelling in another place of solitude (as he himself was wont to declare), when the thought occurred to the latter that no monk more perfect than himself had settled in the desert. However, in the stillness of the night it was re- vealed to him that there was, further in the desert, a much better man than he, and that he ought to go and visit him. So then at break of day the venerable old man, supporting and guiding his weak limbs with a staff, started to go; but what direction to choose he knew not. Scorching noon- tide came, with a broihng sun overhead, but still he did not suffer himself to be turned from the journey he had begun. Said he, 'I believe in my God: some time or other he will show me the fel- low-servant whom he promised me.' He said no more. All at once he beholds a creature of min- gled shape — half horse, half man — called by the poets Hippo-centaur." The reader must be prepared, in perusing these early "lives," for the most marvelous marvels im- aginable. Anthony, near the end of his journey. Monastic is7n , 255 had already the privilege of seeing the blessed Paul "in robes of snowy white ascending on high among the bands of angels and the choirs of prophets and apostles. ' ' Two lions helped him dig the grave and bury the body, coming to him at the end of their task and fawning for a blessing. The conclusion of this narrative is interesting: "I beseech you, reader, whoever you may be, to remember Jerome, the sinner. Fie, if God would give him his choice, would much sooner take Paul's tunic with his merits than the purple of kings with their punishment." Anthony, as Athanasius relates, dwelt first in a tomb in the desert, where he was harassed by devils and annoyed by gathering multitudes emu- lous to follow his example. He removed further from the habitations of men and took up his abode in an old abandoned fort, where "he employed a long time in training himself, and received loaves let down from above twice in the year." The spirit and motives of this life will be amply set forth by an extract from a discourse of An- thony's when ,his acquaintances sought him out in the old fort: "Why, then, should we not give them up for virtue's sake, that we may inherit even a kingdom? Therefore let the desire of possession take hold of no one, for what gain is it to acquire these things which we cannot take with us? Why not rather get those things which we can take away with us, to wit, prudence, jus- tice, temperance, courage, understanding, love. 256 The Church of the Fathers. kindness to the poor, faith in Christ, freedom from wrath, hospitahty? If we possess these, we shall find them of themselves preparing for us a welcome there in the land of the meek-hearted. . For the Lord aforetime hath said, ' The kingdom of heaven is within you.' Wherefore virtue hath need at our hands of willingness alone, since it is in us and is formed from us. For when the soul hath its spiritual faculty in a natural state, virtue is formed. And it is in a natural state when it remains as it came into existence. And when it came into existence it was fair and exceeding honest." It was "spiritual knowledge" and the *' philos- ophy of deeds," as Socrates expresses it, that the hermits sought. Their lives, according to his conception, were truly apostolic; and undoubted- ly those doctrines just quoted are very wise. They are worthy of the best mind of the Reformation. Attention has been called in a foregoing chap- ter to the fact that Monasticism, like Montanism of an earlier day, was m a measure a reaction against a growing spirit of ecclesiasticism, ritual- ism, and sacerdotalism. The monks sought im- mediate intercourse with God without the aid of church, altar, priest, or sacrament. Formalism 9.nd ritualism were rejected ; the spirit, the pow- er, and the life were sought in an independent way. They reverted to apostolic simplicity. And so did the reformers ten centuries later. Tran- quillity was the state desired — peace that should Monasticism . 257 allow the virtues of temperance, patience, and love opportunity to grow. " One of the brethren," says Socrates, *'who possessed nothing but a copy of the gospels, sold it and distributed the price in food to the hungry, uttering this memorable say- ing: *I have sold the book which says. Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor.' " **My book," once said Anthony to a wondering philosopher who had visited him, ''my book is the nature of things that are made, and it is present whenever I wish to read the words of God." That these hermits, at least the best or them, were not seeking heaven in a selfish way, enough has been given to prove. ''That pillar of truth, Basil of Cappadocia," remarked Socrates, "used to say that ' the knowledge which men teach is perfected by constant study and exercise ; but that which proceeds from the grace of God, by the practice of justice, patience, and mercy.' " The monks v^ere first organized into a commu- nity to be trained by Pachomius, in the island of Tabenna in the Thebaid. An angel, so Sozomen relates, appeared to this hermit- saint and gave him the command to this end and a tablet, "which is still carefully preserved," whereon were writ- ten the rules that should govern the order. The monks were to wear sleeveless tunics, cowls, and girdles, each of which garments had its special significance; in these they were to sleep in re- clining chairs, expressive of their readiness for immediate service when called. They were to eat 17 258 The Church of the Fathers. in a common refectory, silent and veiled. They partook of the communion on the first and last days of the week; they prayed twelve times in the day, and an equal number of times in the night. From Egypt Monasticism spread into Palestine. It was there that Hilarion, inflamed by the desire to emulate St. Anthony, went into the dangers of solitude, '' despising death that he might escape death," says Jerome. Soon he too had many zealous imitators, and the wilderness became a populous city. In Syria the movement is shortly after led by Ephraim, "the prophet of the Syrians." He gave not only the first impulse to the movement there, but he determined the language of Monas- ticism in all countries. He was a copious writer both in verse and prose, and a sort of poetic mys- ticism, akin to that of the gnostics, was allied in him with the most rigid orthodoxy. He was just of the nature to give the institution of Monasti- cism, already implanted in his country and find- ing there a congenial soil, an impetus and charac- ter which should be perpetual. ''With this imag- inative turn," says Dean Milman, ''were mingled a depth and intensity of feeling which gave him his peculiar influence over the kindred minds of his countrymen. Tears were as natural to him as perspiration ; day and night, in his devout seclu- sion, he wept for the sins of mankind and for his own. His very writings, it was said, weep; there Monastic isiii. 259 is a deep and latent sorrow even in his panegyrics, or festival homilies." Out of such a nature rose Monasticism. The poetic bent and tender melan- choly of his nature are not to be overlooked. As a song-v^riter he is called "the guitar of the Holy Ghost"; as a preacher he possessed a fervid and effective eloquence. By Jerome, as we have seen, the doctrines and practice of Monasticism were brought to the cap- ital of the West; and by John Cassian, who was educated in Syria, and by Sts. Martin and Hilary it was planted in Gaul, in the latter part of the fourth century. What were the conditions v/hich caused Monasticism to spread so rapidly and flour- ish so vigorously? 2. The Barbarian Invasions. The story of the barbarian invasions must be told, albeit but hurriedly, that we may appreciate the history of the Church in this period. For all its tasks were imposed, all its policies and institu- tions were determined, by the new conditions which resulted from or attended the breaking up of the ancient foundations and the removal of the ancient landmarks of the Roman empire, and the forma- tion of new states out of the warlike and roving tribes of the North. In the days of the republic, while the thought of Rome's decline was as remote from the mind of her citizens as that of the end of the world, the Celtic barbarians — the Kymri and the Belg^ — had 26o The Church of the Fathers. not only stood upon the Alps in picturesque and savage grandeur, looking down upon tlie fair fields of Italy with plunderous intent, but not less pictur- esquely and with terror to the Romans had turned their ox-hide shields into toboggans, and coasted with savage merriment dow^n the snow-clad Alpine slopes — fair-haired, giant w^arriors, untutored, un- degenerate children of the forest — children in all but brawn and bone. But Caesar's cohorts in Gaul and along the Rhine had made the name of Rome terrible to these children of the forest, and Rome v/ith her garrisons upon the frontiers had rested for centuries in safety from their invasions. But her decline and her hoarded w^ealth — the spoils of so many conquests — could not forever re- main unknown to the restless tribes of the popu- lous North; for there were many barbarians in the imperial armies, some holding high official rank. In the year 375 occurred the first notable inva- sion in the era of Christianity. It was the Visi- goths, a numerous and powerful tribe of Teutons, from beyond the Danube ; whence southward they were driven, by fierce and still more numerous Tartar hordes from the steppes of Asia. This Gothic nation, w^ith all their belongings, their wives and children, and live stock, coming to the Danube, entreated the Romans for shelter and for lands on which to dwell under Roman protection. Valens, " low-born, cruel, and covetous," was em- peror. On condition of their changing their type cf Monasttcism. 261 Christianity, which was Arian, they were permitted to find settlement in Roman territory. Those who were set to count them as they crossed the river gave up the impossible task. Tall, stalwart, and well formed, with neck and arms encircled by gold and silver rings, with shirts of chain mail, and enormous helmets surmounted by plumes, bison horns, towers, and images of dragons and wild boars, this proud and powerful host was soon not to be the suppliant of Rome but the conqueror. For it was not long ere their haughty masters be- gan to subject them to ill treatment, and it was then their proud, free spirit rose in rebellion. They swept the country, laid waste the fields, and plun- dered the towns. Then they met the Romans on the field of battle, and with their heavy swords and long lances put to rout and destro3^ed tw^o-thirds of the imperial army, slew generals without number, and burned the emperor. Now followed out of the North wave after wave of the mighty deluge which was to continue near- ly two hundred years pouring southward. First, in the year 395, in midwinter, comes another horde of Visigoths under Alaric, an indomitable chief, without opposition. They cross the Danube on the ice, pour first down through Greece, pass- ing Thermopylae unchecked, capturing Athens, Corinth, and Sparta, and in the year 410, in their career of easy conquest, take the city of Rome. For five days and nights the city is given up to pil- lage, and its inhabitants to slaughter. Only the 262 The Church of the Fathers. Christians and their temples — a fact made much use of by St. Augustine in his "City of God" — were respected and spared. Again out of the North, " the land of night and wonder and the terrible unknown," the Goths are followed by the Huns under Attila, **the scourge of God." This was in the year 451. We have a description of his Mongol and mongrel horde of six hundred thousand followers. Of Asiatic origin and Mongolian type, they were pig-eyed, cake- faced, wore rat-skin caps, and clung like cats to their horses, which were impressively adorned with human scalps. On horseback they ate, slept, marketed, plundered, and lived: a host "innumer- able as locusts," wild as red Indians, only painted blue, and dressed not in the skins of savage beasts but of human beings. Armed with bows and ar- rows, lassos and scythes, they struck terror to every heart. They devastated the Roman empire to the gates of the city itself; why that was spared is a mystery never yet explained. History has only this to say : Pope Leo , a great and good man, ' * met the wild heathen : a sacred horror fell upon Attila, and he turned and went his way to die a year or two after, no man knows how." The Huns are followed in 455 by the Vandals. They have given our language a word which tells their story: vandalism. Under Genseric, almost before the grass had begun to grow again where Attila's horse had trod, Italy is again swept as by a blasting simoon, and the eternal city is again Moiiasticisni. 263 plundered — for fourteen days. The pillage this time is complete. Gold, jewels, and art treasures, the heaped-up wealth of ages, are carried off; among all, the golden table and the seven-branched candlestick which Titus had brought from Jerusa- lem when he destroyed that city, A.D. 70, are shipped away into Africa, to be heard of no more. Sixty thousand prisoners are carried away to Car- thage. War, famine, and pestilence wholly de- populated Rome. It is indeed said that the city was left without a single inhabitant. And thus horde after horde of barbarians, crowded on by one another, press down out of the frozen North, Teutons and Tartars, Goths and Alans, Franks and Burgunds, Huns and Vandals, and for a longer time than our country has had ex- istence, plunder and devastate the fair fields and populous cities of the South, leaving behind, says Jerome, after the first invasion, ''no living thing but brambles and thick forests." The Church lived through this deluge of barbari- anism ; lived through it to subdue the savage races, and build on the ruins of the ancient cities the ''City of God." How did it meet the situation? The an- swer is. By the institution of Monasticism. 3. The Service of Monasticism. From this picture of the times, though altogether too meager, we are able to give some idea of the cause of the rise and rapid spread of this institution. To understand its raison d'et7'e, the cause of its 264 The CJmrch of the Pathers. existence and influence, its wonderful popularity and unparalleled power as an institution, it is abso- lutely necessary for us to be acquainted with the general conditions of the times. Monasticism was called into existence, not only by a certain mode of thinking — namely, that earth must be made a hell, that heaven may be won — but by a deeper wisdom which worked at the heart of the Church, teaching her the secret of influence over a corrupt, pampered , and decadent race on the one hand, and a new, un- tamed, and bloodthirsty people on the other hand. There was the Roman world given over to luxu- rious and sensual living, to gormandizing, lasciv- lousness, and general debauchery. There was also the barbarian world as much wanting in self- restraint as regarded other appetites, and all too quickly a prey to the destructive vices of the cul- tured but corrupt nations of the South. Drunken- ness was always their besetting sin, and it is said that the wine-cellars of Italy were their greatest foes. The lesson of self-restraint was therefore of supreme necessity to the world in that age. And it could be taught then only as at any other time — that is, by such examples as would be strangely im- pressive. Hence, the extreme abstemiousness of the devout Christians. Another fact of the inward condition of the Church itself is to be borne in mind. In conse- quence of the union between Church and State, and so of the multitudinous and promiscuous in- gathering of heathens into the former, often by Monastics sm, 265 force of arms, the Church became filled with an unregenerate horde, a mass almost totally unpre« pared for obedience to ordinances and teachings. When it was no uncommon occurrence for an en- tire army to be converted by defeat and to receive baptism by thousands, what else could be expected than the invasion of heathen practices and gross immoralities into the institution which requires a changed mind and a pure heart ? So great had be- come the luxury of the clergy even that a Roman senator, Prsetextus, said to Pope Damasus (fourth century), *'Make me a bishopof Rome, and I will be a Christian to-morrow." The Church was sec- ularized and corrupted: a powerful reform move- ment was needed, enthusiasm for purity and god- liness, impressive lives of self-restraint and of spir- itual aspiration. Extravagant, irrational, and positively repulsive examples of self-mortification no doubt occur. By these the institution is too liable to be remembered and judged. Let us look deeper, penetrating to the spirit; let us weigh the service rendered; let us be mindful of the conditions of the time. It is in the desert land of Egypt, under the burn- ing tropics, that Monasticism presents itself under the most forbidding and reprehensible aspects. Their self-denial was carried to the extent of filthi- ness and worse than beastliness. A few illustra- tions may be instanced. St. Anthony, most hon- ored of all, eschewed the use of clean water. St. Macarius, having killed a gnat which was stinging 266 . The Church of the Feathers. him, punished himself by sleeping naked in a marsh where he was covered with venomous flies. St. Bessarion slept forty days and nights in the midst of thorn-bushes. St. Abraham refused during fif- ty years to wash either face or feet. St. Arsenius changed the water he used in weaving his baskets of rushes but once a year. Some ate only rotten corn, others walled themselves up so they could neither sit nor lie down. Yet others dwelt sum- mer and winter on the top of high pillars, hence were called " pillar saints " (cf. Tennyson's *' St. Simeon Stylites"). The vast number of monks is another consider- ation not to be overlooked. The hermits increased with such rapidity that seclusion in the desert be- came impossible; from being hermits, or" monks," — that is, solitaires in the desert — they became in- habitants of populous communities. Hence, Mo- nasticism became an organized institution, number- ing immense multitudes. One community in Egypt counted as many as twenty thousand monks and ten thousand nuns. Their wildness and fanati- cism often became ungovernable and destructive. Because of their boasted ignorance and frenzied enthusiasm, at times they were converted into dan- gerous mobs, being as ferocious as any savages that ever came out of the desert or jungle. Charles Kingsley in his " Hypatia" gives a faithful picture of the times. In their madness for orthodoxy they deposed and set up bishops, and by clamor decided what was true doctrine and what was false. This Monasticism . 267 was the turning of the pure water of life of Chris- tianity into the all-absorbing sands of the desert. One act of heroism, however, goes far toward redeeming this entire waste of life, so enormous and insane as it appears to us. The possibilities of this self-enjoined discipline, had not the civili- zation of Africa been destroyed first by the Van- dals and then by the Mohammedans, are splen- didly shown by the moral and physical courage of the monk Telemachus. The story runs that while the gladiatorial shows at Rome were in progress this monk came from Africa, and, appearing in the arena, threw himself between the combatants, and so sacrificed his life to prevent the deadly combat. His protest against the inhumanity of this heathen custom, which has been continued under Christian emperors, was so impressive that it resulted in for- ever putting a stop to gladiatorial combats in Rome. This deed of Telemachus helps to reconcile us to the irrational austerity and fanatical self-slaughter. Monasticism in Europe, as an organized com- munal institution, begins with St. Benedict of Nursia, in the mountains of Italy. The son of a noble family, while yet a boy he sought out a cave in the Apennines and devoted himself to penance, fasting, and prayers. His saintliness was evinced to the world by miracles — the usual way. It was impossible for his retreat to remain hidden or his solitude unbroken. His example drew a multitude into the mountains, zealous to emulate his piety. After living the hermit life for thirty-six years, he 268 The Church of the Fathers, came forth from his retreat and founded the mon- astery of Monte Casino ( A.D. 529), and there cre- ated the order of Benedictines. Out of the regime of his own Hfe he drew the rules of his order, which, as they are typical, we may pause to note. Altogether they occupy seventy-three chapters, and they have continued unaltered for thirteen centuries. They fall under three heads, and per- tain respectively to the keeping of the threefold vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The vow of poverty required the relinquishment of all private possessions; all things, as in the early ex- periment of the ApostoHc Church, were held in common. The vow of chastity required the re- linquishment of all family connections whatsoever; while the vow of obedience required the most abso- lute self-surrender to the commands of the order. Steady, genuine, useful work was the noble aim of the Benedictine monastery, and its rules were all founded to this end. Its motto, indeed, was, '■'Lahorare est or are.'' Their day was divided as follows : the equal time of seven hours was devoted to prayer, to manual labor, and to sleep; of the three remaining hours, two were devoted to study and one to meditation; they ate but two meals a day. They slept in dormitories, ten or twelve monks in each ; at two in the morning they arose for vigils, and at sunrise for matins. Monte Cas- sino became a thriving little town of gardens, houses, and shops. Unfortunately, the most of our information regarding the monasteries belongs Monasticism. 269 to their later history after they had become wealthy and corrupt. In their earlier days they were no doubt the homes of piety, useful industry, and charity. These were advance and venturesome colonies of civilization. Each one had its school, where both young and old were educated; its li- brar}^, where the Holy Scriptures, the lives of the saints, and various kinds of moral, homiletic, and doctrinal treatises were copied with that care and that beautiful art which we of to-day wonder at; each had its well-tilled fields, which became mod- els for the barbarians; each had its solidly built houses, which were lessons in stone to the roving warrior tribes; each was the home of plenty, of peace, and of piety, in a land distressed often by death, and distracted perpetually by war. The power of self-denial v/hich flesh and blood are capable of, and the influence of such self-denial upon peoples a stranger to it, constitute the two supreme lessons of Monachism. When its vast beneficent results are considered, our revulsion at its incidental repugnant features greatly declines. This severe rigor of self-discipline, moreover, was a training for the arduous labors, the extreme hard- ships and dangers of the missionary work that was to be done in unbroken forests and almost impene- trable mountains. It must be also granted that a fanatical idea of how heaven was to be merited worked together with nobler motives. The same spirit was the in- spiration alike of martyrdom and of Monasticism. 270 The C liter ch of the Fathers. When the opportunity for mart3^rdom at the hands of pagans ceased, the zeal for bearing witness by suffering continued. One incentive moved to both, namely, to win heaven by forfeiting earth. '*A conviction of moral unworthiness, morbidly in- tense," may be said to have been a chief source of all this mortification of the flesh. '* In me — that is, in my flesh," cries St. Paul, *'dwelleth no good thing." Therefore, the monks sought literally to crucify the body. Notwithstanding the forbidding features, then, of their lives, in many instances, we are now pre- pared to appreciate the great services rendered by the monks of the early and middle ages, as mis- sionaries, as colonizers, and as civilizers; services which, so far as we are able to discern, could have been performed in no other way and by no other class. Forests and mountains were penetrated, and monasteries were planted in the heart of the wilderness, from w^hich the influences of a hicrher civilization radiated in every direction, to the per- manent advantage of mankind. Europe was tamed and civilized by the missionary monks. To trace this history to its completion would carry us far beyond our limits, even through the middle ages. Yet a part of it comes within our period, and that the part which most nearly con- cerns us as an English people, and is the most in- teresting every way. I refer, first, to the mission- ary work of the early Celtic monks; and, second- ly, to the replanting of Christianity in England. Monasticisni . 271 Christianity was planted in the British Isles in the second century; tradition places its introduc- tion even in the first. As early as A.D. 208, Ter- tullian declared that "places in Britain not yet visited by the Romans were subject to Christ." Three British bishops, in A.D. 314, were at the Council of Aries, in southern Gaul; these two are the earliest historical notices we have. Probably for a century after the latter date Christianity flour- ished among the Celts, but it was doomed almost to extirpation ; for in the year 410 British rule in the islands came to an end ; and in 449 the Angles and Saxons, a yet heathen people, invaded the country and destroyed almost the last vestiges of Roman civilization and of Christianity. Only in Ireland and northwestern Scotland and in Wales did this early British Christianity maintain an ex- istence. It flourished most vigorously in Ireland, and from this country in the sixth century many bands of missionaries went out, not only into Scot- land and England, but into the continent. They went in companies of thirteen — one being the lead- er — representing Christ and his twelve disciples. St. Columba and his twelve companions, in 563, were the first band to go out thus ; but during the next three hundred years many similar companies went on missions to other lands. Christianity was replanted in Britain from Rome, in 597* The story is famous. It is well known how the monk Gregory saw the fair-haired Angli- can slaves in the Roman market place, and, on 272 The Church of the Fathers. hearing their nationahty, exclaimed, ''■JVon Angli sed AngeUr^ and vowed that some time he would take the gospel to these youths, snatched from the wrath of God ; how he started on this mission him- self, but was recalled to be made pope ; how then he sent Augustine, with forty companions ; how in the year 597 they arrived upon the shores of Kent, and were met and welcomed by King Ethelbert, who said, "Your words are fair, but they are new and of doubtful meaning," and promised to hear them again ; how they founded the monastery of Canterbury, and within a year, mainly through the influence of his queen, Bertha, who was al- ready a Christian from Gaul, they had won the king to Christianity — all this beautiful story, told so naively in the *' Ecclesiastical History" of Bede, is well known. From Kent Christianity was car- ried into Northumbria, and in the seventh century we find there the monastery of Fulda, and such a scholar as the " Venerable Bede," and such a poet as Ca^dmon — the one the father of English prose, the other of EngHsh poetry. From the British Isles missionaries, either singly or in groups, go into the heart of Germany and the frigid regions of the North. And thus by mission- ary monks was civilization carried to all the tribes from w^hose loins were to come the nations of mod- ern Europe. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Charles Kingsley's "The Roman and the Teuton " is as in- teresting as a novel and as lofty as an epic. It is a vivid, imag- inative presentation of the matter Avith which it deals. THE PELAGIAN CONTROVERSY. 18 "All great divergences of religion, where men are really re- ligious, arise from the undue dominance of some principle or element in our religious nature. This controversy was in truth the strife between two such innate principles, which philoso- phy despairs of reconciling, on which the New Testament has not pronounced with clearness or precision. The religious sentiment, which ever assumes to itself the excclusive name and authority of religion, is not content without feeling, or at least supposing itself to feel, the direct, immediate agency of God upon the soul of man. This seems inseparable from the divine sovereignty, even from providential government, which it looks like impiety to limit, and of which it is hard to conceive the self-limitation. Must not God's grace, of its nature, be ir- resistible.'* What can bound or fetter Omnipotence? This seems the first principle admitted in prayer, in all intercourse between the soul of man and the Infinite; it is the life-spring of religious enthusiasm, the vital energy, not of fanaticism only, but of zeal. On the other hand, there is an equally intuitive consciousness (and out of consciousness grows all our knowl- edge of these things)of the freedom, or self-determining power, of the human will. On this depends all morality and the sense of human responsibility ; all conception, except that which is unreasoning and instinctive, of the divine justice and mercy. This is the problem of philosophy; the degree of subservience in the human will to influences external to itself, and in noway self-originated or self-controlled, and to its inward self-deter- mining power." — Mibtian, (274) CHAPTER XIII. THE PELAGIAN CONTROVERSY. I. Origin of Pelagianism. Augustine was uncertain about the origin of the great heresy against which he contended. At first he speaks of Pelagius and Ccelestius as ''the authors, or at least as the most bitter and noted advocates, of the heresy." Jerome, writing about A.D. 413, derives the heresy from a multitude of sources: the Stoics and Pythagoreans, Origen, Rufinus, Evagrius, Jovian, Priscillian, Manichasus, and others. Je- rome's object was doubtless to arouse odium against the Pelagian doctrine, and chose the way that had in other cases proved effective. His un- derstanding of the actual teachings of Pelagius was very imperfect. Much disagreement, indeed, both as to the ori- gin and essential nature of its doctrines, continues to exist to the present time. Arianism, Druidism, and Monasticism have each been put forward by modern authors as the parent of the heresy. The symbola Jidei oi Pelagians give no hint of any di- vergence, however, from the Trinitarianism of Ni- casa. Christological questions do not enter into the discussion in any way. As for the supposed origin in Druidism, this can be characterized as (275) 276 The Church of the Fathers, fanciful. It would never have been thought of if Pelagius had not been a British monk. This is about the only basis for the view. For it must be admitted that, owing to the secret way of teaching of the Druids, we have no accurate knowledge of what their doctrines were. The continued preva- lence of Pelagianism in the British Isles, after its partial suppression elsewhere in the empire, may be explained on other grounds than that of having had its origin there. The connection with Monasticism consists in the supposed self-righteousness characteristic of both. But self-righteousness is abundantly proved to have been remote from the thought of the typ- ical monks — c. g..^ St. Anthony, St. Macarius, and St. Ephraim. The view of Marius Mercator, the earliest his- torian of the controversy, writing in the fifth cen- tury, also claims attention: *'This matter against the Catholic faith," he writes, **was agitated among certain Syrians, and especially in Cilicia, by Theodore, sometime bishop of Mopsuestia." The substance of the heresy, according to this writer, was in two doctrines — namely, that *'the progenitors of the human race, Adam and Eve, were created mortal by God, and that they did not injure their posterity by their sin of transgres- sion." Both these tenets, which Mercator re- gards as containing the essence of the heresy, are found in Theodore. Rufinus, the early friend of Jerome, is said to The Pelagian Cont7'oversy. 277 have been the first to bring the heresy to Rome, where he ''deceived" and won over Pelagius. Mercator says he was a Syrian. The Rufinus against whom Jerome made the accusation of hav- ing brought "a ship load of the blasphemies to the city" is called by him an "Aquileian." This was under Anastasius, and is placed in the year 399. Theodore had taught his doctrines as early as 390. 2. The Conflict. The formal outbreak of Pelagianism was the re- sult of a moral and humanitarian interest. An apo- thegmatic prayer in Augustine's " Confessions," "Give what thou commandest, and command what thou wilt," was intolerable to Pelagius, as disparaging the independence and power of man. His objection to the sentiment brought him into conflict with a bishop of Rome, as Augustine relates, in the midst of a service. His assertion of the freedom of man was against a lingering be- lief in fatalism — Gnostic and Manichasan. Justice has perhaps never been done the Pelagians in re- spect to the protest they made against the tenden- cies of their times that derogated from the dignity, the free agency, the Christian Hberty, and God- likeness of man. The notion that man stood un- der a law whereby he sinned of necessity was very general. The result of such a view is to weaken, if not destroy, the sense of responsibihty, and thus to remove the chief support to morality. Against this, the lessening of personal responsibilitv, was 278 The CJm7'ch of the Fathers. the very thing that Pelagius set himself vehement- ly. He affirmed the ability in man to keep the commandments laid upon him; to suppose the con- trary was irrational and blasphemous. The literary activity of Pelagius began at Rome as early as the year 405 with an epistle to St. Paulinus. "In the three hundred Hues of which it is composed," he wrote later in his own defense, *' there is nothing else asserted but the grace and aid of God, and our own powerlessness to do any good whatsoever without God." At about the same time he composed his commentaries on the epistles of Paul, in which he opposed the doctrine of original sin as commonly taught. Cassiodorus subjected these commentaries to such an expurga- tion as to destroy their value as Pelagian docu- ments, while the extracts in Mercator are too scant to indicate much more than has been noted, namely, his denial (in commenting on Rom. v. 12) of original and inherited sin. Pelagius came to Rome from Britain before the year 384. His origin has been much discussed, but there is no good reason for rejecting this view. He is called the ** British dragon" by Prosperus, and by Jerome *'the dog of Albion, beastly fat- tened on Scottish pulse." His original name was Morgan (/. ^., Marigena, *' seaman"), and for the sake of euphony was translated into the Greek, "Pelagius." As to physical appearance, he is characterized, by opponents, as obese and un- couth. Duplicity and cunning, according also to The Pelagian Controversy. 279 them, were his mental characteristics. Augus- tine, however, is more just than the rest to his opponent's character. He had by nature, he says, a most keen, strong, and acute intellect. *' These adversaries," he further writes, ''are not such as you may despise; but they live con- tinently, and are praiseworthy in good works." The only charge he has, at this time, to bring against them is that ''they are ignorant of the justice of God and wish to establish their own." Wesley, with the broad-mindedness character- istic of him, writes: "I would not affirm that the arch-heretic of the fifth century, Pelagius, as plentifully as he has been bespattered for many ages, was not one of the holiest men of that age." Some years before this time (about A.D. 400), Coelestius had attached himself to Pelagius. Fleeing together from Rome before the invad- ing Goths, they betook themselves to Sicily, where they continued active in the dissemination of their doctfines. Their stay at Syracuse was some two or three years in duration. Here Pe- lagius probably wrote his book on "Nature," to which Augustine's on "Nature and Grace" is an answer. In the year 411 they proceeded to Hippo to visit Augustine; but he was absent, and they went to Carthage without seeing him. After a brief stay here, Pelagius went to Pales- tine, while Coelestius remained at Carthage. This was in 412. 28o The Chuj'ch of the Fathers. 3. Synods. Coelestius was brought before the annual synod of Carthage that year for trial. There were six charges preferred. He was accused of teaching that: 1. Adam was created mortal, and would have died whether he had sinned or not. 2. Adam's sin injured only himself, and not the human race. 3. Newborn infants are in the same state Adam was before his transgression. 4. Neither by Adam's death or transgression does all mankind die, nor by Christ's resurrection does all mankind rise. 5. The law as well as the gospel conducts to the kingdom of heaven. 6. There were even before the advent of our Lord sinless men. Unable to refute these charges, he was con- demned. It is said that he put forth these views in a work against original sin as early as 401 or 402. His " Definitions of Sinlessness" was writ- ten about 408, to which Augustine's "Perfection of Justice " was a repty. The importance of the first-named work will justify a translation here of several articles of it. " First of all," he writes, " he who denies that man can be without sin must ask, 'What is the nature of sin? Is it something that can be avoided, or something that cannot be avoided?' If it cannot be avoided, it is not sin; if it can The Pelagian Controvej'sy. 281 be avoided, then man can be without sin, because it can be avoided. For neither reason nor justice indeed suffers that to be called sin which can by no means be avoided. "Again, it is to be asked, * Whereby does a man come to have sin: by the necessity of nature or by freedom of will?' If by the necessity of nature, there is no blame; if by freedom of will, it is to be asked from whom he received this free- dom of will. Unquestionably, from God. But what God has given cannot certainly be denied to be good. But how can it be proved to be good if it is more prone to evil than to good? And it is more prone to evil than to good if by it a man can sin but cannot keep from sinning. "Again, it is to be asked, ' In how many ways can sin be committed?' In two, if I am not mis- taken — namely, either by doing what is prohibited, or by not doing what is commanded. Now, sure- ly all those things which are prohibited can be avoided, and those which have been commanded can be performed. "Again, it is to be asked, * If the nature of man is good — a fact that no one except Marcion and Manichaeus dare deny — how is it good if it cannot possibly be without evil? ' For who can doubt that every sin is evil? " We perceive that here is much quibbling, al- 282 The Chu7'ch of the J-^aihers. though a neglected side of truth has been laid hold upon. We shall adjudge Pelagius not to be whol- ly destitute of merit. One of Jerome's assaults upon Coelestius about this time runs as follows: " One of his (Pelagius's) disciples, already forsooth a teacher, and leader of the whole army, and a vessel of perdition against the apostle, running his devious way through thick- ets of solecisms, and not, as his adherents boast, of syllogisms, thus philosophizes and argues : ' If I can do nothing without God's aid, and if in ever}^ work all that I shall do is his, then it is not I who labor, but it is God's aid that shall be crowned in me; and in vain has he given me freedom of will which I cannot exercise unless he himself shall al- ways aid me ; for the power of willing is destroyed when it requires the help of another. But God has given a free will, which is not otherwise free than that I shall do what I shall will to do. In a word, then, either I use the power which has been given me, so that free will is preserved, or, if I re- quire the assistance of another, liberty of choice in me is destroyed.' " Having been w^on over to the cause, Coelestius had early become a more vigorous and conspicu- ous champion of it than his master. Mercator gives us what first-hand knowledge w^e have of him. *' He was of noble birth," he writes, *'and an advocate by profession. Taught by Pelagius, he imbibed that most impious doctrine in a more unadulterated form, and by an incredible loquaci- The Pelagian Controversy. 283 ty won many adherents and confreres to this his madness." Pelagius was brought to trial before a synod at Jerusalem, A.D. 413. Bishop John presided ; Oro- sius, a presbyter of Spain, who was acquainted with the acts of the Carthaginian synod, prosecuted. Two false doctrines were produced as laid by Augustine to Pelagius's charge: "i. That a man can be without sin, if he wishes. 2. That he can easily keep God's commandments." Judg- ment was suspended, and the case was referred to Rome. Only silence, pending the decision of Pope Innocent, was enjoined upon Pelagius. The obnoxious doctrines were to be found in Pela- gius's book on " Nature," written in Sicily before 411. The extracts given by Augustine in his re- ply are copious. There Pelagius had said: "I can say a man can be without sin. What sayest thou? *A man cannot be without sin.' Neither do I say any man is without sin, nor dost thou say any man is not without sin : concerning the ability, not the fact, do we contend." But God's help is asserted as necessary, and it is by the reaffirma- tion of this at the synod of Jerusalem that he es- capes condemnation. 4. Pelagius's Epistle to Demetrias. In this year (413) falls the most important Pe- lagian document, namely, the ** Epistle to Deme- trias," written by Pelagius to a wealthy virgin who had assumed the veil. To this epistle, preserved 284 The Church of the Fath ers. in its entirety, the student must go who would un- derstand Pelagianism. It is Pelagianism in prac- tice — the spirit, method, philosophy, ethics, are all here. Quotations, however extended, must fail to do justice to the work. But Pelagius's general ideas may be presented. His ruling prin- ciple is given at the outset. *'As often as I take in hand," he writes, *'to speak of moral instruc- tion and the conduct of the holy life, I am accus- tomed first of all to set forth the quality and force of human nature and to demonstrate what it can accomplish." His intention is thereby to incite to virtue, to encourage those whom he addresses as a general does his soldiers. **For we are not able even so much as to enter upon a course of \ virtue unless hope be our companion and guide." It is necessary to show what the power of our na- ture is, since one might as well not have a thing as to be ignorant he has it. Chief emphasis is placed upon the fact that God made man good and gave him dominion over all other creatures. For, *'whom he made defense- less externally he armed the better within ; that is, by prudence and reason, so that by the vigor of his intellect and soul he might be at the head of the animal creation and alone know the Crea- tor of all, and that he might serve God by those powers by which he rules other things ; whom the Lord, moreover, wished to be the voluntary doer of righteousness, not the forced. And so he left him in the hands of his own counsel, and set be- ^ The Pelagian Controversy, 285 fore him life and death, good and evil." An ob- jection to the doctrine of man's goodness by nature is answered: *'And so you think man not created truly good because he can do evil, and is not by the force of nature bound to the necessity of immutable goodness. But, instead of derogating from human nature, if rightly un- derstood, **in this liberty in each direction is placed the honor of the rational soul." Only by having such double liberty could praise and reward be merited. "There would be no virtue at all in the one who perseveres in goodness if we could not turn to evil. . . . The good Creator wished us to be capable of either, but to do one, namely, the good, which he also commanded; and he gave us the possibility of evil to this end alone, that we might reject it of our own choice. Since this is so, this also is good, that we are capable of doing evil. ... It is allowed us to choose, to reject, to approve, to condemn. . . . Some very unworthy men, neglecting to make the most of themselves, wish that they had been made different, so that they seem to wish to emend nature instead of their own lives. The goodness of nature is so universally implant- ed in all men that it manifests itself even in hea- thens who are without any worship of God." Phi- losophers afford illustrious examples of all kinds of virtue: "of how much more, then, are Chris- tians capable, whose nature and life have been built up and taught in a better way by Christ, 286 The Church of the Fathers, and who are helped also by the aid of divine favor?" Again he says : *' There is in our souls, as I might say, a certain natural piety. The good conscience itself bears witness to this goodness of nature. The law written in the hearts of men was the guide of all those who lived from Adam to Moses, of whom there were many righteous." Of Job he exclaims: *' Evangelist before the evangel, and apostle before the apostolic teaching! who, open- ing up the hidden riches of nature and producing them to view, shows what we of ourselves are all capable of." The function and efficacy of the law and the force of habit are set forth. The argument here regarding the ability of nature is cumulative: " It is no slight argument for proving the goodness of human nature that those first men were with- out any admonition of the law during so many generations: not that there was ever a time when God had no care for his creature, but because he knew he had made the nature of man such that it was adequate in place of the law for the exer- cise of righteousness. Furthermore, while as yet youthful vigor belonged to nature, and long-con- tinued habit of sinning had not drawn, as it were, a veil over the human reason, nature was released from law. But when it became buried in excess- ive vices and was consumed by the rust, so to speak, of ignorance, the Lord gave the file of the law, so that, by the frequent rasping of this, na- The Pelagian Controversy. 287 ture was cleansed and embellished and restored to its brightness. There is' not, indeed, any other cause that makes it difficult for us to do well than the long custom of vices which has grown on us from infancy, and through many years has grad- ually corrupted us, and so holds us addicted and bound to itself that it seems to have in a measure the force of nature." This recognition of the part performed by habit in sinning is noteworthy. The opponents of Pela- gianism did not consider this recognition in their at- tacks upon the system. The difficulty of alteration was also clearly admitted, for old custom opposed the new desire. The cumulative argument contin- ues: '* If even before the law, as we have said, and long before the coming of our Lord and Saviour, men are said to have lived righteously and holily, how much more after this glorious advent is it to be believed that we who have been edified by the grace of Christ, and have been born again to a better manhood; who having our sins atoned for and cleansed by his blood, and being incited by his example to perfect righteousness, ought to be better than those who were before the law ; bettei also than were those under the law." The emphasis placed upon knowledge in Pela- gianism is indeed great, but not sufficiently exag- gerated to constitute heresy, ** The first care of the virgin," says Pelagius, in the light of the forego- ing argument, *' and her first endeavor, should be to know the will of her Lord, and diligently to in- 288 The Church of the Feathers. quire what is pleasing, what is displeasing, to him, that according to the apostle he may render to God a 'reasonable service.' " As fear, in the ancient proverb, is made the be- ginning of wisdom, so knowledge is in this teach- ing made the beginning — only the beginning — of virtue. *'To investigate what is taught is the first step of obedience, and it is a part of service to learn what you should do." This knowledge is primary and essential, in view of the nature of the divine precepts — i. e., their diversity. ** Know therefore that in the divine Scriptures, where alone you are able to discover the entire will of God, cer- tain things are prohibited, others are allowed, some are recommended. Evil deeds are prohibited, good are commanded, the indifferent are permitted, the perfect are recommended. In the two classes which stand first, all sin is included; for in each is there contained a commandment of God. . . . But the two which follow . . . are put in our control, so that, with less honor, we may use what is conceded, or, for the sake of greater reward, we may reject even those things which are permitted us." We discover in this an idea that is analogous — this is perhaps all that can be said — to the theory of Monasticism, namely, that something over and above the absolute requirement of the Christian commandment is capable of being done. The re- sponsibility of the individual is correspondingly enhanced. The appeal, after certain stages, rests upon a different footing; virtue has other incentives. TJic Pelagian Controversy. 289 The training of the will, by whose effort all is ac- complished, is more wisely provided for. The possibility of success is denied no one. " Every one, moreover," concludes Pelagius, " who seeks shall find; and whoever finds, let him not fear to be robbed; for those things alone are good which we never either find or lose except by choice." There is no inheritance of spiritual riches. *' No one but thyself is able to confer spiritual riches upon thee." Otherwise where would the praise be? Yet the force of example and of parental character is acknowledged. To say we are not able to keep the commandments is to ascribe ini- quity and cruelty to God. Remembering our frames that they are dust, he has imposed no im- possible requirements. '* God is made by some to seem rather to desire our condemnation than our salvation. He who is just has wished to com- mand nothing impossible. No; will he who is merciful condemn man on account of that which cannot be avoided?" This is the main conten- tion, the chief stay, of Pelagianism. The means of advancement recommended are reading, prayer, and loving works. The first two must bear fruit in the last: this is the end of all pious exercise. " It profits not at all to learn what should be done, and not to do it." The gracious interchange of reading, prayer, and holy work is the divine mode of bringing the soul to perfection. The temptation of the devil is to be taken into ac- count; but he does us no harm without the coop- 19 290 The Church of the Feathers. eration of our will. *' * With our own sword,' as the saying is, * he cuts our throats.' " As regards moral progress, it is accomplished by effort, slowly and gradually. The mark of perfection is never to be thought of as attained: "By daily fresh increments of virtue the mind is to be built up ; this journey of our life is to be measured not by the distance we have traveled, but by the distance yet remaining. As long as we are in this body, never let us think we have ar- rived at perfection; for thus something better is attained. ... Not to advance is immediately to fallback." Such is the character of this most beautiful and most instructive of the Pelagian writings. Even Jerome is forced to praise its grace and finish. 5. Doctrines. The test question perhaps is. How does Pelagi- us think of the grace of God, seeing he admits it? This review will acquaint us with Augustinianism. By Augustine in his "Epistle to Paulinus" (A.D. 405) he is quoted as saying he "sought not to be thought to defend free will without the grace of God, since the possibility of willing and doing, without which we can will and do nothing good, is implanted in us by the Creator." This is a lim- itation upon the grace of God intolerable to the Augustinian party, which required its action in every single move. The operation of grace ac- cording to Pelagius was like the working of gen- The Pelagian Controversy. 291 eral law. It was a question in Augustine's mind as late as the year 417 just how far the working of grace in tlie conception of Pelagius extended. *' Whether he makes grace to consist in the remis- sion of sins, or also in the doctrine and example of Christ, or beHeves there is some aid to well- doing added to nature and doctrine by the inspira- tion of a burning and shining love, not at all ap- pears." Indisputably we have repeated assertions by Pelagius of the need of divine help and grace throughout life. In his injunctions he emphasizes the value of prayer. If there is an apparent want of importance attached thereto, it is only in mak- ing works the end and in exalting the active life of service. Again, in his treatise on *' Nature," Pelagius had written: *'A man cannot indeed get rid of the sins he has already committed. But they are to be expiated, and the Lord is to be prayed to on their account. I willingly concede that what is done the power of nature and the will of man are not able to undo." The nature of sin is another question of prime importance. In the treatise on "Nature" he wrote: *'We have first of all to discuss whether, as it is said, nature is weakened and changed by sin." It is manifest that the discussion of this ques- tion is preliminary to any assertion of the present capacity of nature as deduced from its original en- dowment. If our nature has been so weakened and changed, then all any one might say about the 292 The Church of the Fathers. primitive goodness of nature would go for naught. Pelagius argues against such a general charge. And he arrives at such conclusion first by an in- quiry into the nature of sin. " Before all things, I think we are to ask, What is sin? Is it a sub- stance, or a mere name wanting substance, whereby is expressed not a thing or existence, but the doing of an evil deed? I believe it is so; and if it is so, how can it weaken or change human nature, want- ing, as it does, substance?" Without this concep- tion of sin he could not hold the view of freedom which he does. The clearness, consistency, and steadfastness of the Pelagian view of sin afforded a conspicuous contrast to the fluctuating view of Augustine. The entire Pelagian system may be said to rest upon this definition. It renders the inheritance of sin impossible: sin is not a thing, it cannot therefore be inherited. That is, " original sin " is a figment. And, as sin cannot be transmitted, it does not be- long to newborn children. The arguments of the Pelagians against original sin may be summarized as follows: Original sin is impossible, (i) because God the Creator of men is a good God — liis good- ness is a guarantee against the creation of man an evil being, which original sin means; (2) because it contradicts the idea of sin ; (3) because it is op- posed to the Ploly Scripture. The baptism of infants was a matter that came to the fore in many of the councils. In the first council of all, that of Carthage, Coelestius was The Pelagian Controi)ersy, 293 charged with heresy on this point. Of course the Pelagians, denying hereditary sin, could not hold the Catholic view of infant baptism. While not giving up the practice, they put a new and strange interpretation upon it. It might well be asked, by the opponents of Pelagianism, why children were /baptized at all. Nay, they go further, and de- mand a reason for any baptism whatever. In Pelagius's ** Confession of Faith" he says: ** We hold one baptism, which we administer to in- fants in the same sacramental words as to adults." Coelestius, whose *' Confession of Faith" is almost throughout identical with that of Pelagius, here makes a considerable addition. *' Infants," he says, *' are to be baptized for the remission of sins, according to the rule of the universal Church, . . . because the Lord has decreed that the kingdom of heaven can be bestowed only upon the baptized." Julian, one of the ablest of the Pelagians, said: "Infants by baptism are made better from a state of goodness, not good from a state of evil." And again, in his *' Confession of Faith " : ''According to the example of the Church and the commandment of God, we affirm one baptism, which is truly neces- sary to persons of all ages ; . . . and we say no- body can find pardon of sins and obtain the king- dom of heaven unless he has been baptized." That *' infants are baptized not for the remission of sins, but for the kingdom of heaven," amount- ed to a watchword among the rest of the Pela- gians. "If they die unbaptized," said Pelagius, 204 The Church of the Fathers, '*I know where they do not go, but I know not where they do go." Augustine, on the contrary, unflinchingly asserted that they went into eternal torment. He denied any middle place: the doc- trine of the Ihnbiis infantium had not yet found its way into the Church. Julian represents, on the other hand, the extreme opposition. With him there was no distinction between the '* king- dom of heaven" and *' eternal life," such as Pe- lagius made. The Pelagians were the rationalists of their age. Their doctrine of grace, of prayer, of baptism, their anthropology, their scriptural exegesis, their ethics, were rationalistic. Deism and naturalism are not far removed from rationalism, and there are not wanting those to interpret Pelagianism as being such a system. But Pelagianism was far from simple deism; yet naturalistic it surely was. Its influence in this regard has not yet been traced, but it seems probable that in semi-Pelagianism an attitude of mind and a way of thinking were trans- mitted from Pelagius to modern times. *' Natural supernaturalism " was his primary conception. In Julian, perhaps, Pelagianism finds its most developed expression. Born in Apuleia, of par- ents celebrated for piety and good works — his fa- ther was a bishop, his mother an *' excellent wom- an," as Mercator says, who adds that ''before he took up with the Pelagian impiety he w^as famous among the doctors of the Church." Keen in in- tellect, he gave in youth the most diligent heed to The Pelagian Cofiiroversy. 295 secular, then to sacred, letters. By nature he was gifted with great eloquence. When elevated to the bishopric of Eclanum, in 416, he was still con- stant in the profession of the Catholic faith. Yet prior to this he had translated the " Confession of Faith" of Rufinus from the original Greek into Latin — an indication of the Pelagian trend of his thought. His epistle to Pope Zosimus, in 417, con- tains almost all the heretical doctrines which had been condemned in Coelestius. His own " Confes- sion ■' dates in this year. It was sent in the name of eighteen bishops to Pope Zosimus. Pelagian- ism assumes the aggressive attitude in this pronun- ciamento more than elsewhere. Parts one and two contain the usual Pelagian formulae about the un- naturalness of sin, the goodness and integrity of human nature, the ability of man on account of the righteousness of God to fulfill the commandments of the divine law " by the grace of Christ and by the free will of man " ; this grace being a compan- ion and aid in all good acts, and the free will itself a gift of God. But other doctrines are more dis- tinctly taught than in the earlier "Confessions," namely: that every man is the special creation of God; marriage was ordained by God, and is good; and therefore that, because of the good- ness of nature and this blessing upon marriage and the honor of the relation, there is no original sin. Julian charged Augustine with sharing in the error of Jovinian because he had written, ''A man 296 The Church of the Fathers. cannot wish anything good unless he is aided by Him who can wish nothing evil." But the charge of Manichgeism was the one most commonly made by the Pelagians against their opponents. The de- fenders of original sin — /. ^., the Augustinians — are accused of teaching, ( i ) that marriage is of the devil ; ( 2 ) that the children thereof are fruits of a diabolical tree; (3) that all men, up to the time of the passion of Christ, belong to the devil because they were conceived in sin; (4) that the Son of God began to benefit the human race only from the time of his passion ; ( 5 ) that sins are not entirely destroyed by baptism; (6) that the saints of the Old Testament departed this life with sin; ( 7 ) that a man falls of necessity into sin ; ( 8 ) that the Saviour, by necessity of the flesh, deceived; ( 9 ) that, on account of the impediment of the flesh, he was not able to do all he wished. This is what Pelagianism felt itself called upon to oppose. Julian proceeds to make clearer its posi- tion by condemning the doctrines which were com- monly attributed to his sect: "We condemn those who say sins cannot be avoided by the grace of God. But also whoever sa3's men can avoid sins without the grace or help of God, we severely de- test; whoever denies that infants require baptism, or holds that it should be administered to them in other sacramental words than to adults; whoever also says that the offspring of two baptized per- sons, or of a baptized mother, does not need the grace of baptism ; or whoever asserts that all man- The Pelagian Controversy. 297 kind neither dies in Adam nor rises in Christ, we condemn." Juhan's ethical principle is put in one clear sen- tence, often repeated : *' By the decision of the free will we can do the good we wish to do, yet by the aid of divine grace we can do it more easily." What from this review are we enabled to con- clude regarding Pelagianism ? It is a system of doc- trine; this is the first thing to be noted. Any one of several doctrines might easily be the starting point, and the other doctrines would follow in con- sistent development. Logically, the goodness of God seems to be the first, though chronologically the goodness of his work — that is, the goodness of human nature — may have been first in the mind. Pelagius's repugnance to the favorite dictum of Au- gustine, ''Give what thou commandest, and com- mand what thou wilt," reveals that the core of the controversy was the relation between God and man, Pelagius thinking this view to be derogatory to God and dishonoring to man — as taking away the lofty, impartial character of the one and the inde- pendence of the other. The freedom and ability to choose and act in a good or evil way was an essential element of human nature created good. Nothing, neither the sin of Adam nor of the indi- vidual, had ever destroyed this property. Man was created good, he was still essentially good, and free, and able to keep all God's command- ments. God is the author of both, and made them commensurate each with each. The wisdom and 298 The Church of the Fathers. goodness of God require this to be so. Let no man, therefore — ran its argument — despair of pleasing God and reaping a reward, even eternal life, offered to all. Pelagianism doubtless arose and developed in op- position to gnostic and pagan notions of fatalism, and the kindred Manichasan principle of dualism. It revolted against such a conception of the uni- verse. Such a conception was not Christian, but pagan; furthermore, it was discouraging and pes- simistic, being a reversion to ante-Christian de- spondency and darkness. All the Augustinians had to say regarding tlie destiny of men was that its decision lay in the hands of God as an inscru- table mystery. Doubtless Pelagianism underesti- mated the force of heredity, and failed to compre- hend the human race as a unity. This, however, was certainly owing to the exigencies of the con- troversy. The Augustinians, in their over-empha- sis of these ideas, failed to render due credit to the force and independent activity of the individual. The question of the nature of sin is closely re- lated to this. Augustine, in the controversv, de- parted from his early conception of sin, and defines it as an entit}', a real, positive substance. It was of such a nature that it could be transmitted, and could act as a force inherent in a thing. Matter was inherently evil; that is, human nature, as con- sisting of flesh, or matter, in part, had evil inerad- icably inherent within it. To the Pelagians this was Manichasan blasphemy-. Sin was the doing The Pelagian Controversy. ^99 of a wrongful deed, according to Pelagius. With the deed it ended, except that the deed, repeated, contributed to the formation of a habit, and the force of habit was not overlooked. Following the Aristotelian dialectic, Pelagian- ism appears confident, self-reliant, and, to its oppo- nents, arrogant; j^etit doubtless supplied in its con- fident, encouragingtone the support needed by that despairing age. For it was an age of great and inexplicable disasters. Such doctrine of the abil- ity of human nature to rise, to perform God's will, to triumph, would act as a tonic to an age sick in all it members, overwhelmed by calamities, and losing sight of the good cheer, the same confident, inspiring message of early Christianity. The adherents of Pelagianism multiplied rapid- ly. In several countries they soon became all but predominant. In Sicily, in Italy, in Palestine, in Britain, the Pelagians were alarmingly numerous. Garnier enumerates no fewer than twenty-two syn- ods that were held before the death of Augustine to deal with the heresy. In Africa Augustine had sufficient force to hold it in check there. The absorbing and almost sole aim of Pelagian- ism was practical and ethical. In its ''Confessions of Faith" no heresy on speculative matters uncon- nected with sin and grace — that is, in regard to the Christological and Trinitarian questions — can be found. It may be safely said that a century ear- lier Pelagianism would have been unchallenged. It came when it was needed. It resisted tenden- 300 The Church of the Fathers, cies too strong to be overcome, yet it half con- quered in every defeat. Augustinianism, in the form in which it then made its fight, as regards its definition of sin, its doctrine of predestination, its principle of dualism and the inherent evil of matter, is as foreign as Gnosticism to the mind of this generation. The greater piety and the more commanding faith were on the side of Augustine. The quality of reasonableness, of sanity, of hu- mane Christlikeness was on the side of Pelagian- ism ; and as it was subsequently developed, and was modified by Arminius,it has largely triumphed in the thought of the present day. '* The false- hood of extremes" belonged to both parties; the body of truth, which is whole, symmetrical, and beautiful to the mind, was torn asunder, and each party with a distorted fragment claimed the perfect body. The modern mind is neither Augustinian nor Pelagian : it is Christian. COUNCILS AND CREEDS. "Well knows he who uses to consider, that our faith and knowledge thrive by exercise as well as our limbs and com- plexion. Truth is compared in Scripture to a streaming fount- ain; if her waters flow not in a perpetual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition. A man may be a heretic in the truth ; and if he believe things only be- cause his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, with- out knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holdb becomes his heresy. There is not any bur- den that some would gladlier post off to another than the charge and care of their religion " I fear yet this iron yoke of outward conformity hath left a slavish print upon our necks; the ghost of a linen decency yet haunts us. We stumble and are impatient at the least dividing of one visible congregation from another, though it be not in fundamentals; and through our forwardness to suppress, and our backwardness to recover, any enthralled piece of truth out of the grip of custom, we care not to keep truth separated from truth, which is the fiercest rent and disunion of all. We do not see that while we still affect by all means a rigid external formality, we may as soon fall again into a gross conforming stupidity, a stark and dead congealment of 'wood and hay and stubble' forced and frozen together, which is more to the sud- den degenerating of a Church than many subdichotomies of petty schisms. . , . . " If it come to prohibitmg, there is not aught more likely to be prohibited than truth itself; whose first appearance to our eyes, bleared and dimmed with prejudice and custom, is more un- sightly and unplausibie than many errors, even as the person is of many a great man slight and contemptible." — Milto?u (302) CHAPTER XIV. COUNCILS AND CREEDS. " Ut id teneamus quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est." — Vinccntius (c. 4J4). "The Catholic faith— that which the Lord gave, the apostles preached, and the Fathers preserved."— y J ///««« -f/«5. " Nothing great can be done without passion."— i/^^e/. "Religion flourishes best in the atmosphere of freedom, anci need not fear error as long as truth is left free to combat it."— Dr. Schaff. He is no true historian who chooses for a motto, Nihil nisi bonum. The faithful historian must present all the aspects of his subject; he must de- scribe events as they occurred ; he must represent persons in their true character, whether to their glory or their shame; he must set down facts as they are, for credit or for discredit; in a word, he must put all things fully before the reader in a true hght. His business is the relation, not the revision, of what has been said and done in the world. As the Methodist Disciphne requires the novice to say he will keep the rules, not mend them, so Clio exacts the vow of her devotee that he will write history, not make it. The Church is a corporation of men and women, not all saints; and if they were saints, yet saints are not angels. The imperfections that belong to human creatures may therefore be expected to be- long to it. There will be found in its sacred pre- (303) 304 The Church of the Fathers. cincts not only aspirations after heaven, but aspi- rations after other "high places" as well; and Satan and his host will often, in the blindness of zeal not according to knowledge, be identified, mutually, with the contending ecclesiastical par- ties. The reciprocation of compliments will not always be in court fashion. In considering all this, the purpose of the Church must not be lost sight of. The Church was not in- stituted on earth because any class was perfect: heaven is the home of the perfect, not earth. The Church arose out of human needs of divine and human help. It is for the assistance of imperfect earthly beings. Its work is the strengthening of the weak, the encouraging of the despondent, the comforting of the sorrowful, the educating of all in divine things, the edifying of all in holiness of character, till all shall be brought unto the fullness of the measure of the stature of the perfect man in Christ. The history of the Church, like the history of every other institution, has its lights and shades, its graces and disgraces. If a pretended historian appear in the role of a colorist, and paints wholly with sky-blue and the roseate hues of dawn, there will not be wanting on tlie other side colorists also wlio will make the canvas lurid, in true Rembrandt style, with mingled hues of smoke and flame, as if from the brimstone pit itself. Least of all should the Christian historian try to cover up any ugly blemish. Honesty requires him Councils and Creeds. 305 to say, like Cromwell, *'wart or nothing." At- tempts at concealing, disguising, explaining away, will make him to appear in the role of a partisan; and against him, forthwith, will rise up advocates with briefs for the other side, who feel it their bounden duty to make out the strongest case of impeachment possible. Confidence in his cause when fairly presented, with all detractions required by certain facts; con- fidence in the eternal foundation of the Church upon the rock of righteousness; confidence in truth, for which the Church stands, as alone able to make free and to bring forth all good, while error only is harmful, and always so; confidence in God, ought to compel the historian to copy the story as God first wrote it in the lives of men. We are now about to enter upon the sketching of the darkest pictures the history of the Church presents: its deeds of intolerance. Zeal for what they, rightly or wrongly, deemed essential behefs, and the ineradicable passions of the human heart, must stand for explanation. I. Ecumenical Councils. Together with the settlement of a canon of Scrip- ture proceeded the difficult task of determining the rule of faith. Naturally, the agreement upon a canon is only provisional to the formation of a creed. The question of the former would never have arisen if the question of the latter had not first arisen. It was evident that to be valid a doc- 20 3o6 The Church of the Fathers. trine, tenet, or article of belief must be held, if held at all, upon a basis generally accepted. This was provided for in the collection of books agreed upon as sacred and as finally authoritative. The first centuries, even as these later times, were crowded with controversies. Heresies and sects sprang up like tares in wheat, and the zeal- ous stewards of the faith wished to pluck them out, root and branch. Councils were frequent, dis- putes were bitter; there was much at stake — the salvation of the world, and the positions and lives of the disputants. This chapter will be devoted to a brief account of the main controversies, the Ecumenical Coun- cils, and the outcome of all in the shape of creeds. In the book of Acts we have an account of the first Church council. It grew out of a lively and extremely important controversy between two Christian parties, and was held at the mother Church in Jerusalem, about A.D. 50. It was the mother of Church councils. But only because of its primacy of time is it here spoken of; it has no place in the list of Ecumenical Councils. Of coun- cils in general it should be remarked that there were several grades, with reference to the extent of their jurisdiction. The parochial, or diocesan, was lowest in rank. It was presided over by a bishop, and was composed of the clergy of his di- ocese. The provincial was the next higher in rank. It was presided over by the metropolitan, or archbishop, and was composed of the bishops Councils and Creeds. 307 of his province. The patriarchal was similar to the provincial, being presided over by the patri- arch, or archbishop, of one of the Eastern capi- tals. Other kinds are defined by different writers ; but the truth is that there was no system or regu- lar gradation. As important as were oftentimes the acts of these lower councils, or synods, we shall confine our at- tention solely to the class known as Ecumenical — that is, general, or universal, beginning in the fourth century. The first five of these, and the most important, fall within our period, and are as follows : ( I ) the first Council of Nic^a, A.D. 325 ; (2) the first Council of Constantinople, A.D. 381; (3) the Council of Ephesus, A.D. 431; (4) the Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451; (5) the second Council of Constantinople, A.D. 553. As will be seen from the dates and designa- tions, there was no regularity of meeting, either in respect to time or place. They were summoned only when required for the settlement of some general controversy. There was also no pre- scribed rule of representation. The reigning em- peror, by the advice of chosen bishops, who hap- pened at the time to enjoy his favor, sent forth in- vitations to whomsoever he would have attend the proposed council. A further political character was given the councils by the fact that the emper- or, as head at once of State and Church, presided, either in person or by proxy, over them. Still more, he ratified their proceedings, and so gave 3o8 The Church of the Fathers. them a civil character and the authority of impe- rial decrees. An exclusively hierarchical character was given the councils by the fact that no grade of clergy lower than bishops was admitted to membership. While deacons and presbyters might attend with their bishops, they had no part in the proceedings, except by special privilege. As regards the num- ber and territorial distribution of members there was also no regulation. In the First Ecumenical Council there v/ere three hundred and eighteen bishops ; all but seven of them were from the East, although at the time there were, it is estimated, only one thousand bishops in the Eastern Church, while there w^cre eight thousand in the Western. In the Second Council there were only one hundred and fifty bishops, and all were from the East. In the Third Council there were one hundred and sixty, or, as some give it, one hundred and ninety, bish- ops, all from the East; and in the Fourth Coun- cil there were, out of five hundred and twenty del- egates, only three from Rome and two, by chance, from Africa. The fact that the proceedings of these so-called Ecumenical Councils were subse- quently accepted by tlie Catholic Church alone renders the title justifiable. Not one was in any true sense ecumenical. The authority of these councils covered two do- mains: Discipline and Faith. Their rulings con- cerning matters of discipline required the votes of a majority, and were called canons. A rul- Councils and Creeds. 309 ing on a matter of faith required unanimity, and was called a doctrinal decree, or dogma. Their function, in other words, was twofold — legisla- tive and judicial ; in both they were supreme and final. From the first the attribute of infallibility was ascribed to their acts, and their commands were spoken of by themselves as "divine." The formula, " It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us,"' v^as used to introduce the minutes of their proceedings. The separate occasion, work, and significance of each Ecumenical Council must now be dis- cussed. This chapter may not be the most pleas- ing, it is yet not the least important, in all the his- tory of the Church. I. As the Council of Nicsea (A.D. 325) was fully described under the account of the Arian dis- pute, which it was summoned to decide, it can here be passed over. It is called, by preeminence, * ' the great and holy council. ' ' Athanasius said of it: " What God has spoken by the Council of Ni- caea abides forever." His words seem true. Arianism, however, was not to be so easily put down; error crushed to the earth will often rise again. Besides, Arianism was not unmitigated error. That infinite chasm between God and man was its fatal mistake ; it was this chasm that swallowed it up — not, however, till it rose again after the council that anathematized it. The law 1 *E(Jo^£ yap T(3 'Ayitfi TLvevfiaTi koX rj/uv. (Acts xv. a*^.) 3io The Church of the Fathers. of reaction operates in the realm of mind as in the realm of matter. There was a reaction in favor of Arianism which placed it in complete ascenden- cy. The imperial throne itself was occupied by a series of Arians. But the heretical party came to be rent by internal factions, and, being unable to unite, went the way of every house divided against itself. When in this era Julian *' the Apostate " came to the throne, his pohcy was to tolerate ail Christian parties, seeing they threatened to destroy one an- other. It was an age full of strife. 2. But now an orthodox emperor is on the throne — Theodosius the Great. He is a Nicene Christian, having been educated in that faith. He straightway (A.D. 380) issues an edict requir- ing all his subjects to confess the same faith, and threatening punishment to all who refuse. This is imperial compulsion to uniformity of thinking. After their forty j^ears' supremacy, the Arians are all expelled from the capital, and a council is called to assemble in Constantinople, to put its seal upon the victory of orthodoxy, and to deal with a new heresy. This was the origin of the Second Ecumenical Council, A.D. 387. One hundred and eighty-six bishops assemble, person- ally invited by the emperor; of course they are mostly Nicenes. The thirt3^-six semi-Arians do not see fit to remain, and the ** orthodox" party has complete sway. It is constituted entirely of Orientals; the Latin Church is not represented. Still it is listed as an "Ecumenical" Council. Councils and Creeds. 311 The matter before it was second in importance only to that determined by the Council of Nicsea fifty years before. That council determined the orthodox doctrine of the Son, establishing the fact of his deity; this determined the orthodox doctrine of the Holy Ghost, establishing his deity. And the article embodying this tenet was added to the Nicene Creed. In a series of eight canons seven heresies were condemned, chief of which was the heresy of Macedonius concerning the Holy Spirit — a heresy that repeated Arianism, only that it pertained to the Third Person of the Trin- ity instead of the Second. The emperor then enacted a law that all the churches should be given up to the subcribers of this confession. This was the munificent reward of orthodoxy. The public worship of heretics was forbidden. These were fruits of the union of Church and State. Arianism therefore was stamped out by the tread, as it were, of the imperial army; not everywhere, however, as yet. Many of the barbarian tribes were converted to Christianity when this type of doctrine prevailed, and therefore they were Arian Christians. The Goths, Suevi, Vandals, Burgun- dians, and Lombards did not exchange the faith delivered unto them in the beginning until the last half of the sixth century, and then on the field of defeat in arms. 3. But no council, parliament, or parley of arms ever fixed the bounds of thought; and as long as 312 The Ch urch of th e Fath ers . there is thinking there will be heresy. Apollina- rianism is the name of the next to arise. Apol- linaris, bishop of Laodicea, in his zeal for the Ni- cene tenet of the deity of Christ, went so far as to deny the completeness of his humanity; avoiding Scylla too far, he fell into Charybdis. To Christ he allowed a human body and human soul, but not a human spirit; this last was divine. Hence **he made Christ a middle being between God and man, in whom, as it were, one part divine and two parts human were fused in the unity of a new nature." This was a speculative, but not soundly psycholog- ical, age. This error was condemned by the Coun- cil of Constantinople, but not suppressed. The problem of the twofold nature of the Son, or of the relation between the human and the divine in Christ, was only now raised, not settled. The Council of Nicaga had granted him these two na- tures, and left their relation undetermined. Every problem of thought once solved becomes the basis of another unsolved. And thus the world moves on; thus the building is reared, block by block. Furthermore, they reasoned that, since Christ is God and was born of Mary, then Mary is the mother of God. It is inevitable that this title should in time be bestowed upon the honored Vir- gin. Where should this occur but in Ephesus, where they were in the habit of worshiping the chaste t)iana, divine giver of light and life? It was here the worship of the virgin Mother of the true Light arose. Councils and Creeds. 313 It was quite as inevitable that some persons would object to the title *' Mother of God" be- ing applied to Mary. The trend of thought had reached its reductio ad absurdum. Nestorius, pa- triarch of Constantinople after A. D. 428, a zealot for orthodoxy, and a fierce persecutor of heretics, protested against such blasphemy. He would sub- stitute the title "Mother of Christ." The contro- versy spread and raged. Hence the Council of Ephesus was called, A.D. 431. The disputants came to the council as if to a field of battle. They were attended by armed escorts and a motley retinue of monks, slaves, seamen, and rabble- rout. In moral character this council sinks low- est of all the Ecumenical Councils. Gregory Na- zianzen, who, as archbishop of Constantinople, presided over the earlier sessions of the Ecumeni- cal Council there in 381, declared it to be an as- sembly of cranes and geese. This would have seemed to him an assembly of wolves. Its pro- cedure must not be described. Religious zeal calls forth the deepest passions of the soul, and sometimes they are transformed into the flames of the pit. Nestorius in the end was fiercely anathe- matized. The spirit of the age- — intolerant, fanatical, in- human — is displayed in the traditions of the end of Nestorius. After his tongue "was gnawed out by worms for its blasphemous utterances, so the story runs, he went to the torments of the fire which is never quenched. Even yet from year to 314 T^he Church of the Fathers, year a fanatical sect in Egypt cast stones upon his grave, whereon, they say, the rain of heaven, so impartial commonly to the evil and the good, never falls — making an exception against Nestorius. Yet all historians agree that he was upright and honor- able in his life. His only fault was calling Mary the ''Mother of Christ," instead of ''Mother of God." The sect of Nestorians continues to this day. Upon the coast of Malabar, a colony of seventy thousand persons calling themselves "Thomas Christians," believing they received the gospel from St. Thomas, preserve the traditions of Nesto- rius. The influence of the Nestorians in the East has been very great. Doubtless Mohammed ob- tained from them his knowledge of Christianity, and, in consequence, he always favored and pro- tected them. 4. One controversy follows another. Heresy is hydra-headed — cut off one, and a hundred hiss in its stead. The question of the two natures in the God- man developed into the Eutychian controversy. We have seen one extreme of the development of Ni- cene Christology in which the doctrine of two per- sonalities in Christ was arrived at. This is called Dyophysitism . The center of this development was Antioch, and its -extreme manifestation was Nesto- rianism. We shall now see the other extreme of the Nicene doctrine of Christ developing into the op- posite error in which the human nature of the Son is Councils and Creeds. 3^5 absorbed into the divine : hence this is called Mono- physitism. The seat of this school of Christology was Alexandria, and Eutyches was its chief repre- sentative. According to his view, there was but one nature — the divine — in Christ after the incar- nation; and therefore *'God was born," "God suffered," ** God was crucified," and " God died." Councils were held: one at Constantino- ple, which decided for two natures; one at Ephe- sus, which reversed this decision, declaring for Monophysitism. Pope Leo, protesting against a council that had been held atEphesus in regard to the controversy, which council he terms a '* Robber Synod," urges the calling of another Ecumenical Council. His choice of place is orthodox Italy, but Attila's rav- ages make this impracticable. The Emperor Mar- cian decides upon Nicaea, hoping the memory of the first and noblest of the councils will tend to make the bishops mindful of their dignity. Therefore at Nicaea, in the year 451, bishops to the number of five hundred and twenty (or six hundred and thirty) assemble. But such a turbulent spirit forthwith breaks out that they are summoned to Chalcedon, just across the Hellespont from Con- stantinople, that the imperial court and senate may awe them into moderation. The attempt was made on both sides, it seems, to carry the day by ex- clamations, shouts, and denunciations, rather than by arguments. On the reading of the Nicene-Constantinopoli- 3i6 The Church of the Fathers. tan Creed, the bishops shouted, in the midst of many other things, "This is the faith of the fa- thers ! . . . Anathema to him who beheves other- wise ! " Dyophysitism — that is, the doctrine of two natures in one person in inseparable union — won the day. The council concluded with the adoption of the traditional symbol, or creed, above named, to which it added a number of articles more explicitly defining its doctrine of the two natures. The Eutychians, or Monophy sites, were ban- ished and their writings were burned. Monks en- gaged in bloody fights, and the rabble joined in. This was the last of the councils that dealt with a problem of supreme importance. It completed the orthodox doctrine of Christ. The Monoph3^site controversy continued with great agitation to the whole Church and the empire. Justinian endeavored by all means in his power to effect a reconciliation of the parties, but without suc- cess. An edict known as the '* Henoticon," issued by Zeno in 482, had failed to bring about a com- promise and union ; now another imperial edict in 544, designed by Justinian to the same end, proved equally futile. This edict, known as the *' Edict of the Three Chapters," condemning three Nesto- rian treatises, was confirmed by the Ecumenical Council which Justinian summoned in 553 to meet in Constantinople. By the Dyophysitic decisions of this council many schisms were caused, inas- much as all who were of a contrary opinion were ejected from the Catholic Church. Councils and Creeds. 3^7 One may regret to record or to read the un- pleasant facts of these years of ** theological mad- ness." Doubtless a deep concern for supreme matters of speculation was often degraded by a zeal not according either to knowledge or to char- ity. One laments to see orthodoxy, *' right opin- ion," becoming all-important and the manner of life disregarded. Dioscorus, archbishop of Alex- andria, who presided at the '* Robber Synod" of Ephesus, in 449, surrounded by armed soldiers, dismissed the gravest charges of immorality, in- cluding unchastity, against a bishop, with this re- mark; '' If you have an accusation against his or- thodoxy, we will receive it; but we have not come together to pass jugment concerning unchastity." Purity of faith, so called, has become of such extreme importance that purity of life is not even thought of. A synod held at Illyricum, in 373, or thereabout, showed in one of its utterances the trend of thought: *' For them that preach that the Trinity is of one substance, the kingdom of heaven is prepared." Right ideas about the relation sub- sisting between the two natures of the Son are more important than in right relations with one's fellow- men. Immorality is not to be considered when a metaphysical hair is to split. All this reveals how far the Church has departed from the pure, enno- bling thought of Clement of Alexandria: ''The sacrifice of the Church is the Word breathing as incense from holy souls. The righteous soul is the truly sacred altar, and incense arising from it is 3i8 The Chwrch of the Fathers. holy prayer." And how far it has forgotten the sweet words of the Lord: **Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." 2. Creeds. The Ecumenical Councils defined the moral reg- ulations of the clergy in brief rules known as can- ons. In concise and carefull}^ worked formulas they also prescribed the beliefs which should be held by all bishops who were to be accounted catholic and orthodox. These were called "sym- bols of faith," or creeds. The Creed of Nicaa has already been presented in connection with the Arian controversy, out of which it grew. It needs here only to be added that the Second Ecumenical Council, that of Con- stantinople, reaffirmed this without any alteration; but, in addition to this Nicene formula, framed, in opposition to newborn heresies, another creed, which had its origin in the mother Church at Jeru- salem. The Council of Ephesus, the Third Ecu- menical, also reaffirmed the Creed of Nicaga and forbade the making or using of any other. The Fourth Ecumenical, at Chalcedon, had both the Nicene and the Constantinopolitan formulas brought before it and discussed them at length, with the result that the latter was adopted. Now, this creed of Constantinople, which Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, presented to the council as his pro- fession of faith, and as of ancient authority in the rnother Church, came to be confused with the Ni- Councils and Creeds. 319 cene Creed, which, it was supposed, was revised and reaffirmed, as revised by the Second Council. It was, therefore, called either the Nicene or the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. The two creeds bore important marks of difference only for that age, and a modern reader might pore over them a long time and wonder why they are called separate creeds. Only a close study of the sharp meta- physical controversies of that era will reveal to him the magnitude of syllabic alterations. It was in the Eastth^t the Christological contro- versies of the fourth and fifth centuries engaged the Church ; and therefore it was in the East that the councils were held and the foregoing creeds were formed. In the West, however, at the same time the theoretical doctrines of the Church were likewise taking creedal shape: the result, in the course of several centuries, was the * 'Apostles' Creed." There is an interesting tradition concerning the origin of this honored symbol of the faith to this effect. The twelve apostles, being assembled on the day of Pentecost, after the ascension, before their separation to go into various regions to preach the gospel, desired to have a safeguard of the unity of their doctrines. Hence, inspired by the Holy Ghost, Peter said, '* I beHeve in God the Father Almighty"; Andrew continued, *'And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord" ; James the elder went on, '* Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost"; then followed John, "Suffered under 3 20 The Ch u rch of the Fath ers . Pontius Pilate '* ; Philip, ** Descended into hades" ; Thomas, '* The third day he rose again from the dead " ; and so on , till Matthias completed the work with the words *' life everlasting. Amen." This tradition seems to have originated in Spain along in the sixth or seventh century. Our pres- ent text of the Creed dates probably from about A.D. 500, though some alterations were made after that time. It did not assume its final form until in the eighth century. It had its beginning, how- ever, in the apostolic baptismal formula, and its growth can be traced, phrase by phrase. Igna- tius (A.D. 115) gives all the essential elements of it. Aristides (A.D. 125), Irena?us (A.D. iSo). TertulHan (A.D. 200), Cyprian (A.D. 250), Marcellus (A.D. 341). Rufinus (A.D. 390), re- veal alike the mutability and the development of the Creed, as regards the form of expression and the slow addition of items to its contents. As late as A.D. 550the phrase *' the communion of saints " was added; and *' descended into hell" was first given by Rufinus. Parminius of Gaul (died 75S) is the first to gfive it in its ultimate form. While there is much in common between the classic creed of the East (the Nicene-Constanti- nopolitan) and the classic creed of the West (the Apostles"), they each bear the character of the different races and influences which produced them. Another popular formula in the West is the one which bears the honored name of Athanasius. But Councils and Creeds. 321 as Athanasius wrote in Greek and the original of this was evidently Latin ; as it bears no likeness to the Nicene formula which represented the faith of Athanasius; as it was never accepted in the East, the home of its supposed author; and as it pre- supposes the controversies of the fifth century, it could not have been written by Athanasius. The evidence seems to show that it originated out of popular preaching in Gaul in the sixth and seventh centuries. In about 670 we find a creed like this in that region, attributed to the champion of the Nicene formula. Arianism at this time was strong in the West, and this symbol of faith was formed and recited, probably chanted as a part of the liturgical service, in the churches and monas- teries. It is called by Dr. Schaff a "dogmatic psalm," and by Professor Allen the ''creed of a liberal Christianity in that distant age." Some wise words, about creeds in general, of the first-named historian are worthy to be borne in mind. '' Each symbol," writes Dr. Schaff, *' bears the impress of its age, the historical situation out of which it arose." And again: *'They are mile- stones and finger-boards in the history of Christian doctrine." He also admits that they *'may be improved by the progressive knowledge of the Church." His characterization of a creed as "a doctrinal poem written under the inspiration of di- vine truth" has the same liberal and wholesome tendency. St. Vincentius, in that age of creed-making, gave 21 322 The Church of the Fathers. the Church a safe maxim: '' In essentials unity, in doubtful things liberty, in all things charity." BIBLIOGRAPHY. W. P. Du Boise's " Ecumenical Councils," in "Ten Epochs of Church History," is a comprehensive single-volume treatise. Dr. Schaff' s "Creeds of Christendom " (three volumes, Harper and Brothers) is indispensable to one who would make a thor- ough study. GREGORY THE GREAT— CONCLUSION. CHAPTER XV. GREGORY THE GREAT— CONCLUSION. I. "The government of souls is the art of arts." — Pastoral Care. In great epochs of history some one man, or group of men, will usually be found to have gath- ered up and incorporated in personal character the general trend and potency of ideas that are creat- ing a new era for mankind, bringing out of the past its various products to perfection and shaping out of its converged forces new lines of movement and new organs of work for the future. Such a man was Pope Gregory, called the Great. The son of a noble Roman family of senatorial rank, he was heir to Roman strength and dignity of char- acter and Roman ability for government. Thor- oughly educated in the arts and sciences then taught, and trained to the law, he was appointed by Justinian II. -praetor urbanus at the unusually early age of thirty years. Born some ten years after Benedict of Nursia had founded his monastic order, after the death of his father he displayed a strong bent for a religious and austere life, and betook himself to the monas- tery. But from his cell, where his fastings were so extreme as to endanger his life, he was sum- (325) 326 The Church of the Fathers. moned by the pope to go as his ambassador td the imperial court at Constantinople. Remaining there in this high official capacity seven years, he gained that knowledge of the governmental affairs of the empire, and that acquaintance in particular with Eastern customs and ambitions, which served him well in later years. On returning to Rome he reentered the monastery, probably about the year 585. He records the five years following, spent in the cell, as the most peaceful and happy of his life. But he was again to be called forth to active en- gagements. On the death of Pelagius II., in 590, both people and clergy of Rome clamored for Gregory as pope. He besought the emperor not to confirm the election; he endeavored to escape, setting out to Britain to preach to the fair-faced Angles, of whom he had seen slaves in the mar- ket place; but his efforts proved futile. Before his confirmation he summoned the people to re- pentance and to an earnest seeking of God's favor upon the city and the empire. Organizing seven companies of the people — clergy, laymen, monks, nuns, widows, married women, and children and paupers — he thus instituted what was called the Septiform Litany; and these companies, setting out from different churches, marched through va- rious streets to a common meeting place — the ba- silica of St. Peter, on the Vatican — chanting the litany. Legend adds that then the vision of an angel, sheathing his sword above the statue of Hadrian, appeared to Gregory in token that the Gregory the Great — Conclusion. 327 plague then afflicting the city was stayed; which miracle is commemorated by the Castle of St. An- gelo. Gregory maintained the same character and manner of life in the episcopal chair that he had exhibited in the monkish cell. With him, indeed, as has been said, monasticism ascended the papal throne. He displayed equal zeal for private ascet- ic living, whereby he might live close to God, and for public activity, whereby he might make the Church in all things supreme. A beautiful sen- tence in that excellent book of his — still worthy to be a preacher's manual — the '' Pastoral Care," sets forth the golden mean to be observed in the reli- gious life: *' He, then, who so pants after the beauty of his Maker as to neglect the care of his neigh- bors, or so attends to the care of his neighbors as to grow languid in divine love, whichever of these two things it may be that he neglects, knows not what it is to have twice-dyed scarlet in the adorn- ment of his ephod." We have seen how Leo the Great asserted his right, as the heir of St. Peter, to rule over various ^distant provinces, and exercised that authority al- most with imperial haughtiness. In the one hun- dred and fifty years between these eminent rulers of the Church a continual increase of power had been gained by Rome, until now, conditions great- ly favoring, Gregory converted that papal stool into an imperial throne. Another barbarian invasion had occurred — that 328 The Church oj the Pathers. of the Lombards under Alboin, in 568 ; and there- after one invasion followed another, spreading over the entire peninsula. The seat of empire since Constantine's time had been in the East, and an exarch at Ravenna had ruled the West. But now this government by the Church had become exceedingly weak, being unable to defend the country. This was the Roman bishop's opportu- nity. The city looked to him in all matters, and he assumed entire contol of temporal as of spirit- ual affairs. To begin with, Gregory's own ancestral estates were large in various districts of Italy and Sicily. He administered some of these as property of the Church, others he bestowed upon monasteries. But the whole realm was now governed by him as of necessity the protector of the people, the ad- ministrator of justice, the feeder of the poor, the sole defense against the Lombards, with whose kings he made terms which saved the city. The divers forms of Gregory's extraordinary activity may be stated briefly, while a volume would be required to do full justice to their merits. In the tirst place, he exalted the sacerdotal power of the Church far beyond what it had been. From his time, and because of his influence, the priest- hood had a larger measure of authority, not only in the Church, but in the empire. Secondly, he raised the power of the papacy to all but abso- lute sway. Over all provinces, East and West, as bishop of Rome, the " servant of servants," he Gregory the Great — Conclusion. 329 exercised commanding authority. Thirdly, he en- riched the literature, the ritual, and the service of the whole Church. The Roman Ordinal is his creation. He introduced a new mode of chanting — that is, the *' Gregorian Chant" — richer than the Ambrosian; he instituted a school of choris- ters, and trained them, to accompany the mis- sionaries whom he sent out into the regions of the North. Fourthly, as a converter both of heathens and of heretics, especially the barbarians in Gaul, England, and German}-, and the numerous tribes that had accepted Arianism, his service marked an epoch. The authority of the Church, which had been increasing for generations, now came to be supreme in all the affairs of men — temporal, intel- lectual, and spiritual. Fifthly, as virtual sovereign of Rome he exhibited the same high efficiency which characterized him as an administrator of his own large estates, and as the ruler of the Church in its diverse regions. The first period of Christian history of six hun- dred years was consummated, and the second of nearly one thousand years, known as the Middle Ages, was inaugurated by the papal reign of Grego- ry the Great. A passage of some length from the classic ** Pastoral Care" will worthily conclude our brief account of his life, character, and work. If for *' prelate" the reader will appropriately sub- stitute ''preacher," he will have a characteriza- tion as true and noble as any age or writer has to offer: *'The conduct of the prelate ought so far 330 The Church of the Fathers. to transcend the conduct of the people as the life of a shepherd is wont to exalt him above the flock. For one whose estimation is such that the people are called his flock is bound anxiously to consider what great necessity is laid upon him to maintain rectitude. It is necessary, then, that in thought he should be pure, in action chief; discreet in keeping silence, profitable in speech ; a near neigh- bor to every one in sympathy, exalted above all in contemplation; a familiar friend of good livers through humility, unbending against the vices of evil-doers through zeal for righteousness ; not re- laxing in his care for what is inward from being occupied in outward things, nor neglecting to pro- vide for outward things in his solicitude for what is inward.'* Gregory was pope from 590 to 604. In his Latin epitaph occurs a splendid line which gives him credit of having lived according to the clerical ideal he had outlined — ^'' Implebatque actit quicquid ser7none docebat'' — which ma}' be translated by Chaucer's couplet concerning his village parson, of whom he wrote that Christes lore, and his apostles twelve He taughte, but first he folwede it himselve. II. The writer would gladly hope that whoever has followed him through these pages, because either of interest or strong sense of duty, may have been struck, now with the simple beauty, now with the Gregory the Great — Conclusion. 331 great majesty, yet another time with the penetrat- ing truth, the lofty reach of thought, or noble eleva- tion of passion, which belonged to the many ex- cerpts that have been made herein from the writ- ings of the Fathers. If there is any splendor in this book, it radiates from their thick-sown truths shining like so many stars. If it prove to have any merit, it will be that of begetting a desire to drink further at the sources, to seek inspiration and knowledge and wisdom from the Fathers them- selves. As the authors of Holy Writ spoke the truth without any glozing concerning the grand men of their elder day — Abraham and Jacob, David and Solomon — so, too, it seemed to this writer he should write only truth, having sufficient apprecia- tion of the loftiness of life and aim and general purity of spirit of these great men and good of our elder time, that he thought the whole truth might be told. He has trusted also that the reader has sensibly kept in mind that we have this treasure of heavenly truth in earthen vessels. Both the inward and the outward consolidation of the Church was now accomplished. Her doc- trines were defined and clearly stated, her creeds were formulated and confirmed by many councils. She knew, and the world knew, what Christianity, as a system of beliefs, as a theology, stood for and preached. We may now rebel at the strictness of the molds into which such vast and indefinable truths were compressed; but, for that age, defi- 332 The Church of the Fathers. niteness, compactness, positiveness, were demand- ed. There was a deeper wisdom at work in this formulative process than appears, except to the student who deeply considers the conditions and requirements of the times. That age must not be judged by our own. We advance toward greater freedom ; we are ever coming under the sway of higher purposes and purer motives. The outward organization of the Church was Hkewise now practically complete ; and the firm- ness and rigor of her S3^stem of discipline and gov- ernment, prescription of duties and offices, grada- tion of the hierarch}^ definition of sacraments, and invention of imposing ceremonies, find an equal justification in our minds when we consider the mission of the Church and the character of the peoples she was called upon to civilize, to reduce to order, to teach to obey, and to educate in the Christian virtues. Herein was, to a now almost inconceivable extent, a source of power and im- pressiveness. We learn from history how to judge rightly, in any particular epoch, of the degree of liberty that is safe, or of absolutism that is just; and whether full toleration was always to be allowed, or some enforcement of conformity was required by the ex- igencies of the special time. On these matters some reflections seem appropriate at this place. In ancient times, it is first to be remarked, the union of Church and State, the close and vital connection of religion and politics, made freedom Gregory the Great — Conclusion, 333 of thought a social danger far greater than is easy for us to conceive. Toleration in any government of antiquity was a memorable, because an extreme- ly rare, thing. Intolerance was a policy universally necessitated by the religio-political constitution of society. A religious heretic was a political enemy, a foe to society deserving of banishment or death. Even as late as the era of the Reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth Christian centuries, in Germany, in Switzerland, in France, in England, heretics were punished, tortured, imprisoned, drowned, and burned, according to this theory of Church and State. The republics of Greece, so often held up for our admiration — and justly too — were, on princi- ple, intolerant of new doctrines of the gods, and persecuted heretics. While an admirable liberty in philosophical or scientific thought was permit- ted, an attack, open or concealed, upon the gods as popularly conceived, scoffing at the ceremonies of religion, the dissemination of skeptical notions — this was vigilantly repressed by the civil govern- ment, and offenders were punished with varying degrees of severity. Socrates was but one of many sages who suffered as teachers of new and dangerous doctrines. The most serious crimes were infractions of religious legislation, and death was the penalty of impiety. It was in the Eastern, or Hellenic, Church that theology first arose, that heresies sprang up, that great controversies earhest raged, that, finally, 334 ^^^<^ Church of the Fathers. creeds and rigid statements of doctrine — dogmas — were formulated and orthodoxy was defined. Thus the young Church proved herself the heir to the Greek modes of thought. The Greek race attached supreme importance to right thinking (o/o^o8o|ta, orthodoxy), and dealt vigorously with all heresy (ar/ueo-ts). It is significant that this class of words are of Hellenic origin. Rome, on the other hand, required an equally strict outward conformity. Thought was the first concern of Greece; action was the first concern of Rome. Hence to the latter fell the task of cre- ating institutions which should embody and express Greek ideas and doctrines, and of perfecting an organization and of developing a system of disci- pline and a propaganda which are the most mar- velous achievement in history. Toleration, therefore, neither in the East nor in the West, neither in thought nor in action, could be found in the states of antiquity nor in their heir, the Christian Church. Some of the teachings of this history may be gathered up into a few concluding paragraphs. If the reader has discerned the force and supreme value of personality in the making of history, he has acquired a truth of the highest importance. This book has been made largely biographical be- cause of the extent of individual influence in shap- ing institutions and in determining epochs and events. The fact of popular movements and deep general undercurrents has not been overlooked; Gregory the Great — Conclusion. 335 but at least some man born of and for the time sums all up in himself, adds a personal element, and gives living reality and perpetuity, in the form of an institution or organization, to what before was a mass of chaotic ideas or mere blind feelings. Again, the power of Christianity as a system of truth, and as itself the embodiment of a Life, will impress itself on the mind, along with the fact of the strength and marvelous endurance of the Church as the visible institution of Christianity. The per- petual need of moral heroism and of boldness both of thought and action will be an inevitable infer- ence, since every victory was gained through sac- rifice and every position won and held at the cost of life. Other lessons it is well to look for, and to re- member when learned, namely, that extreme or- thodoxy becomes heterodoxy; that overstrictness drives to revolt; that truth is seldom or never the exclusive possession of one party, and error the ex- clusive portion of the other; that progress changes beliefs and practices, once serviceable and edu- cative, into superstitions and obstacles to further advance; and that, finally, we must strive to make the same advance for our generation that the true heroes of the faith, ** the men of light and leading," in other generations made for theirs. The inculcation of a liberal and charitable atti- tude toward all men who differ in doctrine from ourselves, and the broadening of our minds to a larger appreciation of the many sides of truth and 33^ The Church of the Fathers. the many modes of its expression, should be a chief result of this study. The heretics of yesterday have not seldom been the prophets of to-day, and we *' gather up their ashes into History's golden urn." The profoundly significant saying of TertuUian is worthy of being kept in mind: ** Our Lord Christ has surnamed himself Truth, not Custom. . . . Whatever savors of opposition to truth, this will be heresy, even though it be ancient custom." And Cyprian well says to the same effect: *'For custom without truth is the antiquity of error." Our own poet-prophet, Lowell, has given us a true watchword : New occasions teach new duties; time makes ancient good un- couth: They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of truth. No man, no body of men, no generation of men, were ever yet able to grasp the whole and final truth itself, but were able only to have insights, oftener but glimpses, of some aspects and features of the reflected image. The study of Church his- tory must tend to make all true men humble, free from bitterness in necessary disputes, patient and charitable one with another in all divergencies of thought and practice. Christ rebuked his over- zealous disciples when they related to him their having forbidden others, who were not of them- selves, to cast out devils and to teach in his name. Furthermore, while truth is ever the same, men's Gregory the Great — Conclusion. 337 perception of truth is forever changing and, we be- lieve, enlarging. What suffices for one genera- tion, new enlightenment may make practically false for another. It is now universally discerned that revelation in Holy Writ was progressive — God suit- ing his thought to the minds of men ; far clearer is the fact that discovery is progressive, and that we advance by slow and painful stages toward more perfect knowledge. And to all honest minds it appears as an indisputable fact that every new advance, every new idea, every reform, has been opposed by good men — by good men far more strenuously and successfully than by evil men — good and wise, but in both qualities human and imperfect. The great conflicts of history have never been between wholly wicked men and evil doctrines on the one side, and wholly good men and true doctrines on the other side. It is the rea- sonable part of the student, if he would gather from human history its full results, to seek to un- derstand and to judge justly all men, both in the past and in the present, whether called heretic or saint; and to comprehend what of truth there is, or was, in every cause and every creed, and what of worth in every institution and every doctrine. Finally, the words of Irenasus, spoken in the second century concerning the supreme posses- sion of the world, should fill every Christian with a feeling of praise and a sense of personal respon- sibility — praise for what he has received from the ages past, responsibility to transmit this gift to 22 338 The Church of the Fathers. generations following: "The Church," he says, *' though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received froni the apostles and their disciples this faith." L'ENVOI. One holy Church of God appears Through every age and race, Unwasted by the lapse of years, Unchanged by changing place. From oldest time, on farthest shores, Beneath the pine or palm, One unseen Presence she adores, With silence or with psalm. Her priests are all God's faithful sons, To serve the world raised up-, The pure in heart her baptized ones. Love, her communion cup. The Truth is her prophetic gift, The Soul her sacred page; And feet on Mercy's errand swift Do make her pilgrimage. — Saimiel Longfellorw . APPEl^DIX I. CHIEF AUTHORS AND THEIR CHIEF WORKS. I. Ante-Nicene Period. Authors. Writings. Approximate Dates. /. Apostolic Fathers. Clement, Bishop of First Epistle to the Corin- Rome. thians A. D. 88- 97. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch. Seven Epistles 107-116. Poljcarp, Bishop of Epistles to the Philip- Smyrna. Barnabas. pians , .... 1 16. Epistle 70-130- 100-140. Hermas. Shepherd of Hermas Papias, Bishop of Hi- Expositions of Oracles of erapolis in Phrygia. the Lord (only a few fragments extant) 120-163. Unknown. Epistle to Diognetus Didache, or the Teaching 100-140. of the Apostles 100. Second Epistleof Clement (so called) to the Co- rinthians 120-140. //. Apologists of the Second Century. Justin Martyr. Apology I.; Apology II.; Dialogue with Trypho . 138-165. Tatian. Address to the Greeks.. . 170. Athenagoras. Embassy (or Plea) for Christians; On the Resurrection 170-180. Theophilus, Bishop of Apology Addressed to Antioch. Autolycus 169-181. (339) 340 Appendix /. Authors. Writings. Approximate Dates. Quadratus. Only Quotations in Eu- sebius Extant 1 17-138. 1 17-138. 160-180. Aristides. Apology Melito. r^ oj Fragments ApoUinaris. Fragments Miltiades. Fragments ///. GreeJi Writers of Alexandria. Clement. Exhortation; Instructor; Stromata, or Miscel- lanies; On the Rich Man 190-220. Origen. De Principiis; Against Celsus; Commentaries on the Old and New- Testaments 185-254- 248-264. Dionysius, Bishop of Important Fragments Alexandria. IV. Other Greek Writers. Gregory Thaumatur- Declaration of Faith 210-270. gus, Bishop of Neo- Caesarea. Methodius, Bishop of Symposium; Eulogy on Tyre. Origen; Banquet of the Virgins, etc 295-311- V. Writers of Greek A 71 - tecedents or Culture in the Latin Church. Irenseus, Bishop of Five Books Against Here- Lyons. Hippolytus, Bishop of sies 130-202. Philosophumena; Christ Portus Romanus. and Antichrist ; Against Noetus, etc 200-236. VI. Latin Writers. TertuUian. Works Voluminous 160-230. Appendix I. 341 Authors, Minucius Felix. Cyprian, Bishop Carthage. Novatian. Arnobius. Lactantius. of Writings. Octavius Epistles; Treatise on the Unity of the Church, etc The Trinity; Jewish Meats Disputations Against the Pagans Divine Institutes; Anger of God; Work of God; Manner in which the Persecutors Died Approximate Dates. 160-230. 249-258. 250-260. 295-305- 250-230. II. NiCENK AND POST-NICENE PERIOD. Authors. /. Greek. Eusebius of Caesarea. Athanasius. Basil. Gregory Nazianzen. Gregory of Nyssa. Writings. Cyril of Jerusalem. Ecclesiastical History Against the Heathen; On the Incarnation; On the Council of Nicsea, etc Homilies on the Hexgem eron, etc.; Against Eunomius; On the Holy Spirit; Ethics... Orations and Sermons.. . Book on the Hexsemeron ; On the Formation of Man; Catechetical Oration; On General Notions; Against Eu- nomius; Against Ap- pollinaris Catechetical Discourses. Approximate Dates. 265-340. 296-373- 329-379- 330-390. 334-395- «i 5-386. 342 Appendix /. Authors. Epiphanius. Cjril of Alexandria. Chrjsostom. Theodore of Mopsues- tia. Theodoret. Socrates. Sozomen. Evagrius. //. Latin. Hilary of Poitiei Ambrose. Jerome. Augustine. Writings. Approximate Dates. Against Heresies 315-403- Against Nestorius; Com- mentaries on the Old and New Testaments. 444. Homilies and Commenta- ries 347-407. Commentaries on the Minor Prophets, etc.. . 350-428. Healing of the Heathen Affections; Dialogues; Heretical Fables ; Com- mentaries; Ecclesiasti- cal History 386-458. -440. Ecclesiastical Histoi-y . . . Ecclesiastical History . .. 375-444- Ecclesiastical History . . . 431-594- On the Psalms; On the 368. Trinity .... 3^0-397. Treatises on the Hexaeme- ron and Other Old Testament Themes; On Mysteries; On Sacraments: On the Holy Spirit; Exposi- tion of Psalms; Duties of the Clergy ; Eremit- ic History; Ecclesias- tical History, Apology for His Own Faith; Ex- position of the Symbol . 34-S-410. Lives of Illustrious Men; Commentaries; Trans- lation of the Bible 340-42a City of God ; Confessions ; Enchiridion; On the Appendix /. 343 Authors. John Cassianus. Vincentius. Prosper of Aquitaine, Gregory the Great. Writings. Trinity; On the Spirit and the Letter; On Nature and Grace; On Marriage and Concu- piscence; On the Soul and Its Origin; On Grace and Free Will; On Predestination of Saints; On the Gift of Perseverance; Against Julian; Reply to Faus- tus, the Manichgean; Anti-Donatist Writ- ings; Tractates on the Gospel of John; Expo- sition of the Psalms; Retractions; Numer- ous Sermons and Epis- tles Colloquies; On the In- carnation; Institutes.. Commonitorium Responses for Augustine; On the Grace of God and Free Will; Car- men de Ingratis Pastoral Care; Book of Morals, or Exposition of the Book of Job; Homilies on Ezekiel and the Gospels; Dia- logues ; Epistles Approximate Dates. 354-430. 360-450. -434- 455-463- 540-604. Note. — . large body of apocryphal gospels and acts of apos- tles, hagiography, liturgies, apocalypses, constitutions, canons, and decrees, etc., grew up during the period. The library of 344 Aj>fendix /. the Fathers contains the most important works, genuine and spurious, of all this time. The writings of Dionysius "the Areopagite," dating probably in the fifth century, were a char- acteristic and very important product of the time. (See Allen's "Christian Institutions.") This table is based upon tables in Sheldon's " History of Christian Doctrine," revised according to Stearns's " Manual." APPEI^DIX II. TABLE OF EMPERORS.i The Rulers of the Eastern and Western Empires, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Gothic Kingdom IN Italy. Octavianus Augustus. .B.C. 30 -A.D. 14 Tiberius 14- 37 Gaius Caligula 37- 41 Claudius 41-54 Nero 54- 68 Galba 68-69 Otho January 69 Vitellius April 69 Vespasian 69- 79 Titus 79-81 Domitian 81- 96 Nerva 96- 98 Trajan 98-117 Hadrian 1 17-138 Antoninus Pius 138-161 Marcus Aurelius 161-180 Commodus 180-192 Pertinax 193 Septimius Severus . , . 193-211 Caracalla , 211-117 Macrinus 217-218 Elagabalus Alexander Severus. . . Maximin, the Thra- cian The two Gordians. , . , Balbinus and Pupienus (and Gordian) Gordian Philip, the Arab Decius Gallus Valerian Gallienus M. Aurelius Claudius. Quintillus proclaimed emperor by the troops at Aquileia. . Aurelian Tacitus Probus Carus Diocletian 218-222 222-235 235- 238 ^38 238 238-244 244-249 250-253 251-253 253-260 260-268 268-270 270-275 275-276 276-282 282-284 284 Diocletian'' s Plan of Ejnpire. Diocletian in the East, 284-305. Galerius Maximianus be- comes Caesar, 293; becomes Augustus, 305. ^ Taken and adapted, by permission, from Dr. Stearns's "Manual of Patrology." (345) 34^ Affendix II. Maximianus Herculius, 286-305. Constantius Chlorus be- comes Ciesar, 305; becomes Augustus, 305. Galerius in the East, 305-311. Maximinus Daza becomes Caesar, 305; assumed title of Augustus, 307 (?). Constantius, 306-306. Valerius Severus, son of Galerius, becomes Caesar, 305; proclaimed Augustus by Galerius, 306. Maximinus Daza in the East, 307. Severus in the West, 306-307. 306. Constantius, dying, appoints his son Constantine as his successor. Constantine appointed Civsar by Galerius; saluted as emperor by the soldiers. Maxentius, son of Maximianus Herculius, proclaimed emperor at Rome; supported by Her- culius. 307. Severus put to death at Ravenna by order of Maxen- tius. Licinius appointed Ciesar by Galerius, Herculius assent- ing. 311. Treaty between Maximinus Daza and Licinius; be- tween Licinius and Constantine. 312. Battle of Milvian Bridge: d. of Maxentius; Constan- tine Emperor in the West. 313. Battle of Heracleia: defeat of Maximinus Daza (d. 314) by Licinius. 315. War between Constantine and Licinius, in which the former is victorious, receiving from Licinius Greece, Macedo- nia, and part of the lower Danube valley. 223. Battles of Hadrianople and Chrycopolis; d. of Licinius. Constantine Emperor of the Roman world. Constantine L, the Great 323-337 Constantine n 337-361 Julian the Apostate .. 361-363 Jovian 363-364 Valentinian 1 364 Associates his brother Valens with himself. Double Headship. West. Valentinian 1 364-375 Gratian and Valen- tinian II 375-3^3 Valentinian II 383-39^ East. Valens 364-378 Theodosius 1 392-395 Theodosius I., the Great 392-395 (The last emperor of the whole Roman world.) Appe7idix II. 347 West. Honorius 395-423 John (the usurper). .. . 423-425 Valentinian II 425-455 Petronius Maximus . . 455 Avitus 455-456 Majorian 457-461 Severus III 461-467 Anthemius 467-472 Olybnus 472 Gljcerius 473 Julius Nepos 474 Romulus Augustulus. 476 East. Arcadius Theodosius IT. Pulcheria, his sister, 395-408 408-450 empress after his death; married. Marcian 450-457 457-474 Leo I., the Thracian. . Leo 11. and Zeno 474-491 Odoacer, the Herulian 476-493 Theodoric, Ostrogoth. 493-520 Amalasuntha and Athalaric 520-526 Athalaric 526-534 Theodahad 534-53^ Witiges 536-540 Ildibad 540 Baduila (Totila) 541-552 Teias (Thilo) 552-553 Battle of Mons Lac- tarius; end of the Gothic Empire. Exarchate in Italy, (Dates are approximate.) Basliscus (usurper). . , 477 Anastasius 1 491-518 Justin 1 518-527 Justinian 1 527-565 Longinus 567-585 Smaragdus 585-589 Romanus 589-597 Callinicus 597-602 Smaragdus (again) . . . 602-6 1 1 Justin II 565-578 Tiberius XL, Constan- tine 578-582 Maurice 582-602 Phocas 602-610 THE END. Date Due Qk^ BW921 .K39 The church of the fathers. : A history Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 00034 4202