 Chapter 15, Part 6 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Monsbruhe Helsingfors Finland. Chapter 15, Progress of the Christian Religion, Part 6. 5. But the human character, however it may be exalted or depressed by a temporary enthusiasm, will return by degrees to its proper and natural level, and will resume those passions that seem the most adapted to its present condition. The primitive Christians were dead to the business and pleasures of the world, but their love of action, which could never be entirely extinguished, soon revived, and found a new occupation in the government of the Church. A separate society, which attacked the established religion re-empire, was obliged to adopt some form of internal policy, and to appoint a sufficient number of ministers, entrusted not only with the spiritual functions, but even with the temporal direction of the Christian Commonwealth. The safety of that society, its honour, its aggrandisement, were productive even in the most pious minds of a spirit of patriotism, such as the first of the Romans that felt for the Republic, and sometimes of similar indifference, in the use of whatever means might probably conduce to so desirable an end. The ambition of raising themselves or their friends to the honours and offices of the Church was disguised by the laudable intention of devoting to the public benefit the power and consideration, which, for that purpose only, it became their duty to solicit. In the exercise of their functions, they were frequently called upon to detect the errors of heresy, to oppose the designs of perfidious brethren, to stigmatise their characters with deserved infamy, and to expel them from the bosom of a society whose peace and happiness they had attempted to disturb. The ecclesiastical governors of the Christians were taught to unite the wisdom of the serpent with the incense of the doe, but the former was refined so that the latter was insensibly corrupted by the habits of government. In the Church, as well as in the world, the persons who were placed in any public station rendered themselves considerable by their eloquence and firmness, by their knowledge of mankind, and by their dexterity in business, and while they concealed from others and perhaps from themselves the secret motives of their conduct, they too frequently relapsed into all the turbulent passions of active life, which were tinctured with an additional degree of bitterness and obstinacy from the infusion of spiritual zeal. The government of the Church has often been the subject, as well as the price of religious contention. The hostile disputants of Rome, of Paris, of Oxford and of Geneva have alike struggled to reduce the primitive and apostolic model to the respective standards of their own policy. The few who have pursued this inquiry with more candor and impartiality are of opinion that the apostles declined the office of legislation and rather chose to endure some partial scandals and divisions than to exclude the Christians of a future age from the liberty of varying their forms of ecclesiastical government according to the changes of time and circumstances. The scheme of policy which, under their approbation, was adopted for the use of the first century may be discovered from the practice of Jerusalem of Ephesus or of Corinth. The societies which were instituted in the cities of the Roman Empire were united only by the ties of faith and charity. Independence and equality formed the basis of their internal constitution. The want of discipline and human learning was supplied by the occasional assistance of the prophets who were called to that function without distinction of age, of sex or of natural abilities and who, as often as they felt the divine impulse, poured forth the effusions of the spirit in the assembly of the faithful. But these extraordinary gifts were frequently abused or misapplied by the prophetic teachers. They displayed them at an improper season, presumptuously disturbed the service of the assembly and by the pride of mistaken zeal they introduced, particularly into the apostolic church of Corinth, a long and melancholy train of disorders. As the institution of prophets became useless and even pernicious, the powers were withdrawn and their office abolished. The public functions of religion were solely entrusted to the established ministers of the church, the bishops and the presbyters. Two appellations which, in their first origin, appeared to have distinguished the same office and the same order of persons. The name of presbyter was expressive of their age or rather of their gravity and wisdom. The title of bishop denoted their inspection over the faith and manners of the Christians who were committed to their pastoral care. In proportion to the respective numbers of the faithful, a larger or smaller number of these episcopal presbyters guided each infant congregation with equal authority and with united councils. But the most perfect equality of freedom requires the directing hand of a superior magistrate and the order of public deliberations soon introduces the office of a president, invested at least with the authority of collecting the sentiment and of executing the resolutions of the assembly, at regard for the public tranquility, which would so frequently have been interrupted by annual or by occasional elections, induced the primitive Christians to constitute an honorable and perpetual magistracy and to choose one of the wisest and most holy among their presbyterians to execute during his life the duties of their ecclesiastical governor. It was under these circumstances that the loft title of bishop began to raise itself above the humble appellation of presbyter and while the latter remained the most natural distinction for members of every Christian senate, the former was appropriated to the dignity of its new president. The advantages of this episcopal form of government, which appears to have been introduced before the end of the first century, were so obvious and so important for the future greatness as well as the present peace of Christianity that it was adopted without delay by all the societies which were already scattered over the empire had acquired in a very early period the sanctity of antiquity and is still revered by the most powerful churches both of the east and of the west as a primitive and even as a divine establishment. It is needless to observe that the pious and humble presbyterians who were first dignified with the episcopal title could not possess and would probably have rejected the power and pomp which now encircles the tiara of the Roman Pontiff or the meter of a German prelate. But we may define, in a few words, the narrow limits of their original jurisdiction which was chiefly unspiritual though in some instances of a temporal nature. It consisted in the administration of the sacraments and the discipline of the church the superintendency of religious ceremonies which imperceptibly increased in numbers and variety the consecration of ecclesiastical ministers to whom the bishop assigned their respective functions the management of the public fund and the determination of all such differences as the faithful were unwilling to expose before the tribunal of an idolatrous judge. These powers, during a short period, were exercised according to the advice of the presbyterial college and with the consent and approbation of the assembly of Christians. The primitive bishops were considered only as the first of their equals and the honorable servants of a free people. Whenever the episcopal chair became vagrant by death a new president was chosen among the presbyterians by the suffrage of the whole congregation every member of which supposed himself invested with the sacred and sacramental character. Such was the mild and equal constitution by which the Christians were governed more than a hundred years after the death of the apostles. Every society formed within itself a separate and independent republic and although the most distant of these little states maintained a mutual as well as friendly intercourse of letters and deputations the Christian world was not yet connected by any supreme authority or legislative assembly. As the numbers of the faithful were gradually multiplied they discovered the advantages that might result from a closer union of their interests and designs. Towards the end of the second century the churches of Greece and Asia adopted the useful institutions of provincial synods and they may justly be supposed to have borrowed the model of a representative council from the celebrated examples of their own country the Amphitiktions, the Achaean League or the assemblies of the Union cities. It was soon established as a custom and as a law that the bishops of the independent churches should meet in the capital of the province the stated periods of spring and autumn. Their deliberations were assisted by the advice of a few distinguished presbyterians and moderated by the presence of a listening multitude. Their decrees which were styled cannons regulated every important controversy of faith and discipline and it was natural to believe that the liberal effusion of the Holy Spirit would be poured on the united assembly of the delegates of the Christian people. The institution of synods was so well suited to private ambition and to public interest that in the space of a few years it was received throughout the whole empire a regular correspondence was established between the provincial councils which mutually communicated and approved their respective proceedings and the Catholic Church soon assumed a form and acquired the strength of a great federative republic. As the legislative authority of the particular churches was insensibly superseded by the use of councils the bishops obtained by their alliance a much larger share of executive and arbitrary power and as soon as they were connected by a sense of their common interest they were enabled to attack with united vigor the original rights of their clergy and people. The prelates of the 3rd century imperceptibly changed the language of exhortation into that of command scattered the seeds of future recipients and supplied by scripture allegories and declamatory rhetoric their deficiency of force and of reason they exalted the unity and power of the church as it was represented in the Episcopal office of which every bishop enjoyed an equal and undivided portion princes and magistrates, it was often repeated might boast of an earthly claim to a transitory dominion it was the Episcopal authority alone which was derived from the deity and extended itself over this and over another world the bishops were the vice regents of Christ the successors of the apostles and the mystical substitutes of the high priest of the Mosaic law their exclusive privilege of conferring the sacerdotal character invaded the freedom both of clerical and popular elections and if, in the administration of the church they still consulted the judgment of the presbyters or the inclination of the people they most carefully inculcated the merit of such a voluntary condescension the bishops acknowledged the supreme authority which resided in the assembly of their brethren but in the government of his peculiar diocese each of them extracted from his flock the same implicit obedience as if that favorite metaphor had been literally just and as if the shepherd had been a more exalted nature than that of his sheep disobedience however was not imposed without some efforts on one side and some resistance on the other the democratical part of the constitution was in many places very warmly supported by the zealous or interested opposition of the inferior clergy but their patriotism received the anonymous epithets of faction and schism and the episcopal cause was indebted for its rapid progress to the labors of many active prelates who, like Cyprian of Kartig could reconcile the arts of the most ambitious statement of the Christian virtues which seem adapted to the character of a saint and martyr the same causes which at first had destroyed the equality of the presbyters introduced among the bishops a preeminence of rank and from thence a superiority of jurisdiction as often as in the spring and autumn they met in provincial synod the difference of personal merit and reputation was very sensibly felt among the members of the assembly and the multitude was governed by the wisdom and eloquence of the few but the order of public proceedings required more regular and less invidious distinction the office of the perpetual presidents in the councils of each province was conferred on the bishops of the principal city and these aspiring prelates who soon acquired the lofty titles of metropolitans and primates secretly prepared themselves to assert over their episcopal brethren the same authority which the bishops had so lately assumed above the college of presbyters nor was it long before an emulation of preeminence and power prevailed among the metropolitans themselves each of them affecting the display in the most pompous terms the temporal honours and advantages of the city over which he presided the number and opulence of the Christians who were subject to their pastoral care the saints and martyrs with their eyes and among them and the purity with which they preserved the tradition of the faith as it had been transmitted through a series of orthodox bishops from the apostle or the apostolic disciple to whom the foundation of their church was ascribed from every cause either of a civil or of an ecclesiastical nature it was easy to foresee that Rome must enjoy the respect and would soon claim the obedience of the provinces the society of the faithful bore a just proportion to the capital of the empire and the Roman church was the greatest, the most numerous and in regard to the west the most ancient of all the Christian establishments many of which had received their religion from the pious labourers or her missionaries instead of one apostolic founder the utmost boast of Antioch, Ephesus or of Corinth the banks of the Tiber were supposed to have been honoured with the preaching and martyrdom of the two most eminent among the apostles and the bishops of Rome very prudently claimed the inheritance of whatsoever prerogatives were attributed either to the person or the office of Saint Peter the bishops of Italy and of the provinces were disposed to allow them a primacy of order and association such was the very accurate expression in the Christian aristocracy but the power of a monarch was rejected with abhorrence and the aspiring genius of Rome experienced from the nations of Asia and Africa more vigorous resistance to her spiritual than she had formally done to her temporal dominion the patriotic Cyprian ruled with the most absolute sway the church of Cartig and the provincial synods opposed with resolution and success the ambition of the Roman Pontiff artfully connected his own cause with that of the eastern bishops and like Hannibal sought out new allies in the heart of Asia if this unique war was carried on without any effusion of blood it was owing much less to the moderation than to the weakness of the contending prelates invectives and excommunications were their only weapons and these during the progress of the whole controversy they hurled against each other with equal fury and devotion the hard necessity of censuring either a pope or a saint and martyr distresses the modern Catholics whenever they are obliged to relate the particulars of a dispute in which the champions of religion indulge such passions as seem more adapted to the senate or to the camp the progress of the ecclesiastical authority gave birth to the memorable distinction of the Laity and of the clergy which had been unknown to the Greeks and Romans the former of these appellations comprehended the body of the Christian people the latter, according to the signification of the word was appropriated to the chosen portion that had been set apart from the service of religion a celebrated order of men which has furnished the most important though not always the most edifying subjects for modern history their mutual hostilities sometimes disturbed the peace of the infant church but their seal and activity were united in the common cause and the love of power, which under the most artful disguises could insinuate itself into the breasts of bishops and martyrs animated them to increase the number of their subjects and to enlarge the limits of the Christian empire they were destitute of any temporal force and they were for a long time discouraged and oppressed rather than assisted by the civil magistrate but they had acquired and they employed within their own society the two most efficacious instruments of government rewards and punishment the former derived from the pious liberality the latter from the devout apprehensions of the faith End of chapter 15 part 6 Recording by Monsbrew Helsingfors Finland Chapter 15 part 7 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Monsbrew Helsingfors Finland Chapter 15 Progress of the Christian Religion Part 7 1 The community of goods which had so agreeably amused the imagination of Plato and which subsisted in some degree among the austere sect of the Essenians adopted for a short time in the primitive church the fervor of the first proselytes prompted them to sell those worldly possessions which they despised to lay the price of them at the feet of the apostles and to contend themselves with receiving an equal share out of the general distribution The progress of the Christian religion relaxed and gradually abolished this generous institution which in hands less pure than those of the apostles would too soon have become corrupted and abused by the returning selfishness of human nature and converts who embraced the new religion were permitted to retain the possession of the patrimony to receive legacies and inheritances and to increase their separate property by all the lawful means of trade and industry Instead of an absolute sacrifice a moderate proportion was accepted by the ministers of the gospel and in their weekly or monthly assemblies every believer, according to the exigency of the occasion and the measure of his wealth and piety presented his voluntary offering for the use of the common fund Nothing, however inconsiderable, was refused but it was diligently inculcated that in the article of Titus the Mosaic Law was still of divine obligation and that since the Jews under the less perfect discipline had been commanded to pay a tenth part of all that they possessed it would become the disciples of Christ to distinguish themselves by a superior degree of liberality and to acquire some merit by resigning a superfluous treasure which must so soon be annihilated with the world itself It is almost unnecessary to observe that the revenue of each particular church which was of so uncertain and fluctuating in nature must have varied with the poverty or the opulence of the faithful as they were dispersed in obscure villages or collected in the great cities of the empire In the time of the Emperor Decius it was the opinion of the magistrates that the Christians of Rome were possessed of very considerable wealth that vessels of gold and silver were used in their religious worship and that many among the proselytes had sold their lands and houses to increase the public riches of the sect at the expense, indeed, of the unfortunate children who found themselves beggars because their parents had been saints We should listen with distrust to the suspicions of strangers and enemies On this occasion, however, they receive a very special and probable color from the two following circumstances the only ones that have reached our knowledge which define any precise sums or convey any distinct idea Almost at the same period the Bishop of Carthage from a society less opulent than that of Rome collected 100,000 cisterces above 850 pounds sterling when a sudden call of charity to redeem the brethren of Numidia would be carried away captives by the barbarians of the desert About a hundred years before the reign of Decius the Roman Church had received in a single donation the sum of 200,000 cisterces from a stranger of Pontus who proposed to fix his residence in the capital These oblations, for the most part, were made in money nor was the society of Christians a desirous or capable of acquiring to any considerable degree the encumbrance of landed property It had been provided by several laws which were enacted with the same design as our statues of Mortmain that no real estate should be given or be quitted to any corporate body without either a special privilege or a particular dispensation from the Emperor or from the Senate who were seldom disposed to grant them in favor of a sect at first the object of their contempt and at last of their fears and jealousy A transaction, however is related under the reign of Alexander Severus which discovers that their strength was sometimes eluded or suspended and that the Christians were permitted to claim and to possess lands within the limits of Rome itself The progress of Christianity and the civil confusion of the empire contributed to relax the severity of the laws and before the close of the third century many considerable estates were stowed on the opulent churches of Rome Milan, Carthage Antioch, Alexandria and the other great cities of Italy and the provinces The bishop was the natural steward of the church The public stock was entrusted to his care without account or control The presbyters were confined to their spiritual functions and the more dependent order of the deacons was solely employed in the management and distribution of the ecclesiastical revenue If we may give credit to the vehement declamations of Cyprian there were too many among his African brethren who, in the execution of their charge violated every precept not only of evangelical perfection but even of moral virtue by some of these unfaithful stewards the riches of the church were lavished in sensual pleasures by others they were perverted to the purposes of private gain of fraudulent purchases and of rapacious usury but as long as the contributions of the Christian people were free and unconstrained the abuse of their confidence could not be very frequent and the general uses to which their liberality was supplied reflected honour on the religious society A decent portion was reserved for the maintenance of the bishop and his clergy as sufficient sum was allotted for the expenses of the public worship of which the feasts of love the agape as they were called constituted a very pleasing part The whole remainder was the sacred patrimony of the poor According to the discretion of the bishop it was distributed to support widows and orphans, the lame, the sick and the aged of the community to comfort strangers and pilgrims and to alleviate the misfortunes of prisoners and captives more especially when their sufferings had been occasioned by their firm attachment to the course of religion A generous intercourse of charity united the most distant provinces and the smaller congregations with the arms of their more opulent brethren such an institution which paid less regard to merit than to the distress of the object very materially conduced to the progress of Christianity The pagans who were activated by a sense of humanity while they derided the doctrines acknowledged the benevolence of the new sect The prospect of immediate relief and of future protection allured into its hospitable bosom many of those unhappy persons the prospect of the world would have abandoned to the miseries of want, of sickness and of old age There is some reason likewise to believe that great numbers of infants who, according to the inhuman practices of the times had been exposed by their parents were frequently rescued from death baptized, educated and maintained by the piety of the Christians and at the expense of the public treasure Two it is the undoubted right of every society to exclude from its communion and benefits such among its members as reject or violate those regulations which have been established by general consent In the exercise of this power the censures of the Christian church were chiefly directed against scandalous sinners and particularly those who were guilty of murder of fraud or of incontinence against the authors or the followers of any heretical opinions which had been condemned by the judgment and against those unhappy persons who, whether from choice or compulsion had polluted themselves after the baptism by any act of idolatrous worship the consequences of excommunication were of a temporal as well as a spiritual nature The Christian against whom it was pronounced was deprived of any part in the oblations of the faithful The ties both of religious and the private friendship were dissolved found himself a profane object of abhorrence to the persons whom he the most esteemed or by whom he had been the most tenderly beloved and as far as an expulsion from a respectable society could imprint on his character a mark of disgrace he was shunned or suspected by the generality of mankind The situation of these unfortunate exiles was in itself very painful and melancholy but as it usually happens the Christians far exceeded their sufferings The benefits of the Christian communion were those of eternal life nor could they erase from their minds the awful opinion that to those ecclesiastical governance by whom they were condemned the deity had committed the keys of hell and of paradise the heretics indeed who might be supported by the consciousness of their intentions and by the flattering hope that they alone had discovered the true path of salvation to gain in their separate assemblies those comforts temporal as well as spiritual which they no longer derived from the great society of Christians but almost all of those were reluctantly yielded to the power of vice or idolatry were sensible of their fallen condition and anxiously desirous of being restored to the benefits of the Christian communion With regard to the treatment of these penitents two opposite opinions the one of justice, the other of mercy the primitive church the more rigid and inflexible cassoists refused them forever and without exception the meanest place in the holy community which they had disgraced or deserted and leaving them to the remorse of a guilty conscience indulged them only with a faint ray of hope that the contrition of their life and death might possibly be accepted by the supreme being a milder sentiment was embraced in practice as well as in theory the most respectable of the Christian churches the gates of reconciliation and of heaven were seldom shut against the returning penitent but a severe and solemn form of discipline was instituted which, while it served to expiate his crime might powerfully deter the spectators from the imitation of his example humbled by a public confession emaciated by fasting and clothing and sackcloth the penitent lay prostrate at the door of the assembly imploring with tears the pardon of his offenses and soliciting the prayers of the faithful if the fault was of a very heinous nature whole years of penance were esteemed an inadequate satisfaction to the divine justice and it was always by slow and painful gradations that the sinner, the heretic or the apostate was re-admitted into the bosom of the church a sentence of perpetual excommunication was, however reserved for some crimes of an extraordinary magnitude and particularly for the inexcusable relapses of those penitents who had already experienced and abused the clemency of their ecclesiastical superiors according to the circumstances or the number of the guilty the exercise of the Christian discipline was varied by the discretion of the bishops the councils of Ankira and Iliberis were held about the same time the one in Galatia, the other in Spain but their respective cannons which are still extant seem to breathe a very different spirit the Galatian who after his baptism had repeatedly sacrificed to idols might obtain his pardon by a penance of seven years and if he had seduced others to imitate his example only three years more were added to the terms of his exile but the unhappy Spaniard who had committed the same offence was deprived of the hope of reconciliation even in the article of death and his idolatry was placed at the head of a list of 17 other crimes against which a sentence no less terrible was pronounced among these we may distinguish the inexpeable guilt of culminating a bishop a presbyter or even a deacon the well tempered mixture of liberality and rigor the judicious dispensation of rewards and punishments according to the maxims of policy as well as justice constituted the human strength of the church the bishops whose paternal care extended itself to the government of both worlds were sensible of the importance of these prerogatives and covering their ambition with the fair pretense of the love of order they were jealous of any rival in the exercise of discipline so necessary to prevent the desertion of those troops which had enlisted themselves under the banner of the cross and whose numbers every day became more considerable from the imperious declamations of Cyprian we should naturally conclude that the doctrines of excommunication and penance form the most essential part of religion and that it was much less dangerous for the disciples of Christ to neglect the observance of the moral duties than to despise the censures and authority of their bishops sometimes we might imagine that we were listening to the voice of Moses when he commanded the earth to open and to swallow up in consuming flames the rebellious race to the priest to the Varan and we should sometimes suppose that we hear a Roman consul asserting the majesty of the Republic and declaring his inflexible resolution to enforce the rigor of the laws if such irregularities are suffered with impunity it is thus that the bishop of Carthage chides the lenity of his colleague if such irregularities are suffered there is an end of episcopal vigor an end of the sublime and divine power of governing the church an end of Christianity itself Supriyan had renounced those temporal honors which it is probable that he would never have obtained but the acquisition of such absolute command over the consciences and understanding of a congregation however obscure or despised by the world is more truly grateful to the pride of the human heart than the position of the most despotic power imposed by arms and conquest on a reluctant people in the course of this important though perhaps tedious inquiry I have attempted to display the secondary courses which so efficaciously assisted the truth of the Christian religion if among these courses we have discovered any artificial ornaments any accidental circumstances or any mixture of error and passion it cannot appear surprising that mankind should be the most sensibly affected by such motives as were suited to their imperfect nature in the course of this important course were suited to their imperfect nature it was by the aid of these courses exclusive zeal the immediate expectation of another world the claim of miracles the practice of rigid virtue and the constitution of the primitive church that Christianity spread itself with so much success in the Roman Empire to the first of these the Christians were indebted for their invincible valor which disdain to capitulate with the enemy and were resolved to vanquish the three succeeding courses supplied their valor with the most formidable arms the last of these courses united their courage directed their arms and gave their efforts that irresistible weight which even a small band of well trained and intrepid volunteers has so often possessed over an undisciplined multitude ignorant of the subject and careless of the events of the war in the various religions of polytheism some wandering fanatics of Egypt and Syria were dressed themselves to the credulous superstition of the populace were perhaps the only order of priests that derived their whole support and credit from their sacerdotal profession and were very deeply affected by a personal concern for the safety or prosperity of their two taller deities the ministers of polytheism both in Rome and in the provinces were for the most part men of a noble birth who received as an honorable distinction the care of a celebrated temple or of a public sacrifice exhibited very frequently at their own expense the sacred games and with cold indifference performed the ancient rites according to the laws and fashion of their country as they were engaged in the ordinary occupations of life their zeal and devotion were seldom animated by a sense of interest or by the habits of an ecclesiastical character confined to their respective temples and cities they remained without any connection of discipline or government and while they acknowledged the supreme jurisdiction of the senate of the college of pontiffs and of the emperor those civil magistrates contended themselves with the easy task of maintaining in peace and dignity the general worship of mankind we have already seen how various, how loose and how uncertain were the religious sentiments of polytheists they were abandoned almost without control to the natural workings of a superstitious fancy the accidental circumstances of their life and situation determined the object as well as the degree of their devotion and as long as their adoration was successively prostituted to a thousand deities it was scarcely possible that their hearts could be susceptible of a very sincere or lively passion for any of them when Christianity appeared in the world even these faint and imperfect impressions had lost much of their original power human reason which by its unassisted strength is incapable of perceiving the mysteries of faith had already obtained an easy triumph over the folly of paganism and when Tertullian or lactantius employed their labours in exposing its fault to the next travagance they are obliged to transcribe the eloquence of Cicero or the wit of Lucian the contagion of these skeptical writings had been diffused far beyond the number of their readers the fashion of incredulity was communicated from the philosopher to the man of pleasure of business from the noble to the plebeian and from the master to the menial slave who waited at his table and who eagerly listened to the freedom of his conversation on public occasions the philosophic part of mankind attempted to treat with respect and decency the religious institutions of their country but their secret contempt penetrated through the thin and awkward disguise and even the people when they discovered that the deities were rejected and derided by those whose rank or understanding they were accustomed to reverence were filled with doubts and apprehensions concerning the truth of those doctrines to which they had yielded the most implicit belief the decline of ancient prejudice exposed a very numerous portion of humankind to the danger of a painful and comfortless situation a state of skepticism and suspense may amuse a few inquisitive minds but the practice of superstition is so congenial to the multitude that if they are forcibly awakened they still regret the loss of their pleasing vision their love of the marvelous and supranational their curiosity with regard to future events and their strong propensity to extend their hopes and fears beyond the limits of the visible world with the principal causes which favor the establishment of polytheism urgent on the vulgarest necessity of believing that the fall of any system of mythology will most probably be succeeded by the introduction of some other mode of superstition some deities of a more recent and fashionable cost might soon have occupied the deserted temples of Jupiter and Apollo if in the decisive moment the wisdom of providence had not interposed a genuine revelation fitted to inspire the most rational esteem and conviction whilst at the same time all that could attract the curiosity the wonder and the veneration of the people in their actual disposition as many were almost disengaged from their artificial prejudices but equally susceptible and desirous of a devote attachment an object much less deserving would have been sufficient to fill the vacant place in their hearts and to gratify the uncertain eagerness of their passions those who are inclined to pursue this reflection instead of viewing with astonishment the rapid progress of Christianity will perhaps be surprised that its success was not still more rapid and still more universal it has been observed with truth as well as propriety that the conquests of Rome prepared and facilitated those of Christianity in the second chapter of this work we have attempted to explain in what manner the most civilized provinces of Europe, Asia and Africa were united under the dominion of one sovereign and gradually connected by the most privatized laws of manners and of language the Jews of Palestine who had fondly expected a temporal deliverer gave so cold a reception to the miracles of the divine prophet that it was found unnecessary to publish or at least to preserve any Hebrew gospel the authentic histories of the actions of Christ were composed in the Greek language at a considerable distance from Jerusalem and after the Gentile converts were known extremely numerous as soon as those histories were translated into the Latin tongue they were perfectly intelligible to all the subjects of Rome accepting under the peasants of Syria and Egypt for whose benefit particular versions were afterwards made the public highways which had been constructed for the use of the legions opened an easy passage for the Christian missionaries from Damascus to Corinth and from Italy to the extremity of Spain or Britain nor did those spiritual conquerors encounter any of the obstacles which usually retard or prevent the introduction of a foreign religion into a distant country there is the strongest reason to believe that before the reigns of the Euclidesan and Constantine the faith of Christ had been preached in every province and in all the great cities of the empire but the foundation of the several congregations the numbers of the faithful who composed them and their proportion to the unbelieving multitude are now buried in obscurity or disguised by fiction and declamation such imperfect circumstances however, as have reached our knowledge concerning the increase of the Christian name in Asia and Greece, in Egypt, in Italy and in the West we shall now proceed to relate without neglecting the real or imaginary acquisitions which lay beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire End of Chapter 15 Part 7 Recording by Mons Bru Helsingfors Finland Chapter 15 Part 8 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Mons Bru Helsingfors Finland Progress of the Christian religion Part 8 The rich provinces that extend from the Euphrates to the Ionian Sea were the principal theatre on which the Apostle of the Gentiles displayed his seal and piety The seeds of the Gospel, which he had scattered in a fertile soil were diligently cultivated by his disciples and it should seem that during the first two centuries the most considerable body of Christians was contained within those limits Among the societies which were instituted in Syria none were more ancient or more illustrious than those of Damascus or Berea or Aleppo and of Antioch The prophetic instruction of the Apocalypse has described and immortalized the seven churches of Asia Ephesus, Myrna, Bargamos Theatira, Sardis Laodicea and Philadelphia and their colonies were soon diffused over that populous country In a very early period the islands of Cyprus and Crete the provinces of Trachy and Macedonia gave a favorable reception to the new religion and Christian republics were soon founded in the cities of Corinth, of Sparta and of Athens The antiquity of the Greek and the Asiatic churches allowed a sufficient space of time for their increase in multiplication and even the swarms of Gnostics and other heretics served to display the flourishing condition of the Orthodox Church since the appellation of heretics has always been applied to the less numerous party To these domestic testimonies we may add the confession the complaints and the apprehensions of the Gentiles themselves from the writings of Luchian a philosopher who had studied mankind and who describes the manners in the most lively colors we may learn that under the reign of Commodus his native country of Pontus was filled with Epicureans and Christians within four score years after the death of Christ the humane Pliny laments the magnitude of the evil which he vainly attempted to eradicate in his very curious epistle to the Emperor Trajan he affirms that the temples were almost deserted that the sacred victims scarcely found any purchasers and that the superstition had not only infected the cities but had even spread itself into the villages and the open country of Pontus and Bitunia without descending into a minute scrutiny of the expressions or the motives of those writers who either celebrate or lament the progress of Christianity in the east it may in general be observed that none of them have left us any grounds from whence a just estimate might be formed of the real numbers that are faithful in those provinces one circumstance however has been fortunately preserved which seems to cast a more distinct light on this obscure but interesting subject under the reign of Theodosius after Christianity had enjoyed during more than 60 years the sunshine of imperial favor the ancient and illustrious church of Antioch consisted of 100,000 persons 3,000 of whom were supported out of the public oblations the splendor and dignity of the Queen of the East the acknowledged populace of Caesarea, Seleucia and Alexandria and the destruction of 250,000 souls in the earthquake which afflicted Antioch under the elder Justin are so many convincing proofs that the whole number of its inhabitants were not less than half a million and that the Christians however multiplied by zeal and power did not exceed a fifth part of that great city how different the proportion must we adopt when we compare the persecuted with the triumphant church the west with the east remote villages with populace towns and countries recently converted to the faith with the place where the believers first received the appellation of Christians it must not however be dissembled that in another passage Chrysostom to whom we are indebted to this useful information computes the multitude of the faithful as even superior to that of the Jews and pagans but the solution of this apparent difficulty is easy and obvious the eloquent preacher draws a parallel between the civil and ecclesiastic constitution between the list of Christians who were required heaven by baptism and the list of citizens who had the right to share the public liberality slaves, strangers and infants were comprised in the former and they were excluded from the latter the extensive commerce of Alexandria and its proximity to Palestine gave an easy entrance to the new religion it was at first embraced by great numbers of the Therapute of the lake Mariotis a Jewish sect which had abated much of its reverence from the Mosaic ceremonies there was still life of the Essenians their fasts and excommunications the community of goods the love of celibacy their zeal for martyrdom and the warmth though not the purity of their faith already offered a very lively image of the primitive discipline it was in the school of Alexandria that the Christian theology appears to have assumed a regular and scientific form and when Hadrian visited Egypt he found a church composed of Jews and of Greeks sufficiently important to attract the notice of that inquisitive prince but the progress of Christianity was for a long time confirmed within the limits of a single city which was itself a foreign colony until the close of the 2nd century the predecessor of Demetrius were the only prelites of the Egyptian church three bishops were consecrated by the hands of Demetrius the number was increased to 20 by his successor Heracles the body of the natives a people distinguished by a sullen inflexibility of temper entertained a new doctrine with coldness and reluctance and even in the time of Origen it was rare to meet with an Egyptian who had surmounted his early prejudices in favor of the sacred animals of his country as soon indeed as Christianity ascended the throne the seal of those barbarians the cities of Egypt were filled with bishops and the deserts of Thebis swarmed with hermits a perpetual stream of strangers and provincials flowed into the capacious bosom of Rome whatever was strange or odious whoever was guilty or suspected might hope in the obscurity of that immense capital to elude the vigilance of the law such a various conflicts of nations every teacher either of truth or falsehood every founder whether of a virtuous or a criminal association might easily multiply his disciples or accomplices the Christians of Rome at the time of the accidental persecution of Nero are represented by Tachitus as already amounting to a very great multitude and the language of that great historian is almost similar to the style employed by Livy when he relates the introduction and the suppression of the rites of Bacchus after the Bacchanals had awakened the severity of the Sennate it was likewise apprehended that a very great multitude as it were another people had been initiated into those abhorred mysteries a more careful inquiry soon demonstrated that the offenders did not exceed 7000 a number indeed sufficiently alarming when considered as the object of public justice it is with the same candidate allowance that we should interpret the vague expressions of Tachitus and in a former instance of Pliny when they exaggerate the crowds of deluded fanatics with forsakenly established worship of the gods the Church of Rome was undoubtedly the first and most populous of the empire and we are possessed of an authentic record which attests the state of religion in that city about the middle of the third century and after a piece of 38 years the clergy at that time consisted of a bishop 46 presbyters 7 deacons as many sub-deacons with accolades and 50 readers exorcists and porters the number of widows of the infirm and of the poor who were maintained by the ablations of the faithful amounted to 1500 from reason as well as from the analogy of Antioch we may venture to estimate the Christians of Rome at about 50,000 the populousness of that great capital cannot perhaps be exactly as attained but the most modest calculation will not surely reduce it lower than a million of inhabitants of whom the Christians might constitute at the most a 20th part the western provincials appeared to have derived the knowledge of Christianity from the same source which had diffused among them the language the sentiments and the manners of Rome in this more important circumstance Africa as well as Gaul was gradually fashioned to the imitation of the capital yet notwithstanding the many favourable occasions we might invite the Roman missionaries to visit their Latin provinces it was late before they passed either the sea or the orbs nor can we discover in those great countries any assured traces either of faith or of persecution that descend higher than the reign of the Antonines the slow progress of the gospel and the cold climate of Gaul was extremely different from the eagerness with which it seems to have been received on the burning sands of Africa the African Christians soon formed one of the principal members of the primitive church the practice introduced into that province of appointing bishops to the most inconsiderable towns and very frequently to the most obscure villages contributed to multiply the splendor and importance of their religious societies which during the course of the third century were animated by the zeal of Tartullian directed by the abilities of Cyprian and adorned by the eloquence of Lactantius but if on the contrary we turn our eyes towards Gaul we must content ourselves with discovering in the time of Marcus Antoninus the feeble and united congregations of Lyon and Vienna and even as late as the reign of Dekius were assured that in a few cities only Arl, Ladbon, Toulouse, Limons, Clémont, Tours and Paris some scattered churches were supported by the devotion of a small number of Christians so silence is indeed very consistent with devotion but it is seldom compatible with zeal we may perceive and lament the language state of Christianity in those provinces which had exchanged the Celtic for the Latin tongue since they did not during the first three centuries give birth to a single ecclesiastical overrider from Gaul which claimed the just preeminence of learning and authority over all the countries on this side of the orbs the light of the gospel was more faintly reflected on the remote provinces of Spain and Britain and if we credit the vehement acitations of Tertullian they had already received the first raise of the faith when he addressed his apology to the magistrates to the emperor Severus but the obscure and imperfect origin of the western churches of Europe has been so negligently recorded that if we would relate the time and manner of their foundation we must supply the silence of antiquity of the regions which avarice or superstition long afterward dictated to the monks in the lazy gloom of their convents of those holy romances that of the Apostle Saint James can alone by its singular extravagance deserved to be mentioned from a peaceful fisherman of the lake of Geneseret he was transformed into a valourous knight who charged at the head of the Spanish chivalry in their battles against the moors the gravest historians have celebrated to celebrate these exploits the miraculous line of Compostela displayed his power and the sword of a military order assisted by the terrors of the inquisition was sufficient to remove every objection of profane criticism the progress of Christianity was not confined to the Roman Empire and according to the primitive fathers who interpret fact by prophecy the new religion within a century after the death of its divine author had already visited every part of the globe there exists not, says Justin Martyr a people whether Greek or barbarian or any other race of men by whatsoever appellation or manners they may be distinguished however ignorant of arts or agriculture whether they dwell on the tents or wander about in covered wagons among whom prayers are not offered up in the name of a crucified Jesus to the father and creator of all things but this splendid exaggeration which even at present it would be extremely difficult to reconcile with the real state of mankind can be considered only as the rash sally of a devout but careless writer the measure of whose belief was regulated by that of his wishes but neither the belief nor the wishes of the fathers can alter the truth of history it will still remain an undoubted fact that the barbarians of Skeetie and Germany who afterwards subverted Roman monarchy were involved in the darkness of paganism and that even the conversion of Iberia of Armenia or of Ethiopia was not attempted with any degree of success till the scepter was in the hands of an Orthodox emperor before that time the various accidents of war and commerce might indeed diffuse an imperfect knowledge of the gospel among the tribes of Caledonia and among the borderers of the Rhine, the Danube and the Euphrates beyond the last mentioned river Edessa was distinguished by a firm and early adherence to the faith from Edessa the principles of Christianity were easily introduced into the greek and syrian cities which obeyed the successors of architecterxes but they do not appear to have made any deep impression on the minds of the Persians whose religious system by the labours of a well disciplined order of priests had been constructed with much more art and solidity than the uncertain mythology of Greece and Rome End of chapter 15 part 8 recording by Monsbrew Helsingfors Finland Chapter 15 part 9 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire Volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Monsbrew Helsingfors Finland Chapter 15 Progress of the Christian Religion Part 9 From this impartial though imperfect survey of the progress of Christianity it may perhaps seem probable that the number of its proselytes has been excessively magnified by fear on one side and by devotion on the other according to the irreproachable testimony of a region the proportion of the faithful was very inconsiderable when compared with the multitude of the world but as we are left without any distinct information it is impossible to determine and it is difficult even to conjecture the real number of the primitive Christians the most favourable calculation however that can be deduced from the examples of Antioch and of Rome will not permit us to imagine that more than a fraction of the population found themselves under the banner of the cross before the important conversion of Constantine but their habits of faith and zeal and of union seem to multiply their numbers and the same causes which contributed their future increase served to render their actual strength more apparent and more formidable such is the constitution of civil society that whilst a few persons are distinguished by riches, by honors and by knowledge the body of the people is condemned to obscurity, ignorance and poverty the Christian religion which addressed itself to the whole human race is like the far greater number of proselytes from the lower than from the superior ranks of life this innocent and natural circumstance has been improved into a very odious imputation which seems to be less tenuously denied by the apologists than it is urged by the adversaries of the faith that the new sect of Christians was almost entirely composed of the dregs of the populace of peasants and mechanics of boys and women of beggars and slaves and used the missionaries into the rich and noble families to which they belonged these obscured teachers such was the charge of valice and infidelity are as mute in public as they are locacuous and dogmatical in private whilst they cautiously avoid the dangerous encounter of philosophers they mingle with the rude and illiterate crowd and insinuate themselves into those minds whom their age, their sex or their education has the best disposed to receive the impression of malicious terrors this unfavorable picture though not devoid of a fainter semblance betrays by its dark coloring and distorted features the pencil of an enemy as the humble fate of Christ diffused itself through the world it was embraced by several persons who derived some consequence from the advantages of nature or fortune Aristides who presented an eloquent apology to the emperor Hadrian was an Athenian philosopher with my knowledge in the schools of Zeno of Aristotle, of Pythagoras and of Plato before he fortunately was accosted by the old man who rather the angel who turned his attention to the study of the Jewish prophets Clemens of Alexandria had acquired much various reading in the Greek and Tertullian in the Latin language Julius Africanus and Oregion possessed a very considerable share of the learning of their times and although the style of Cyprian was a little bit like Tantius we might almost discover that both these writers had been public teachers of rhetoric even the study of philosophy was at length introduced among the Christians but it was not always productive of the most salutary effects knowledge was as often the parent of heresy as of devotion and the description which was designed for the followers of Artimon may with equal propriety be applied to the various sects that resisted the successors of the apostles to alter the holy scriptures to abandon the ancient rule of faith and to form their opinions according to the subtle precepts of logic the science of the churches neglected for the study of geometry and they lose sight of heaven while they are employed in measuring the earth Euclid is perpetually in their hands Aristotle and Theoprastus are the objects of their admiration and they express an uncommon reverence for the works of Galen their errors are derived from the abuse of the arts and sciences of the infidels and they corrupt the simplicity of the gospel by the refinements of a human reason nor can it be affirmed with truth that the advantages of birth and fortune were always separated from the profession of Christianity several Roman citizens were brought before the tribunal of Pliny and he soon discovered that a great number of persons of every order of men in Bitinia had deserted the religion of their ancestors his unsuspected testimony may in this instance obtain more credit than the bold challenge of Tertullian when he addresses himself to the fears as well as the humanity of the proconsul of Africa by assuring him that if he persists in his cruel intentions he must decimate Carteig and that he will find among the guilty many persons of his own rank senators and matrons of nobles extraction and the friends or relations of his most intimate friends it appears however that about 40 years afterwards the emperor Valerian was persuaded by this assertion since in one of his rescripts he evidently supposes that senators Roman knights and ladies of quality were engaged in the Christian sect the church still continued to increase its outward splendor as it lost its internal purity and in the reign of Diocletian the palace, the courts of justice and even the army concealed a multitude of Christians who endeavored to reconcile the interests in the present without of a future life this exception are either too few in number or too recent in time entirely to remove the imputation of ignorance and obscurity which has been so arrogantly cast on the first proselytes of Christianity instead of employing in our defence the fictions of later ages it will be more prudent to convert the occasion of scandal into a subject of edification our serious thoughts will suggest to us that the apostles themselves were chosen by providence among the fishermen of Galilee and at the lower we depress the temporal condition of the first Christians the more reason we shall find to admire their merit and success it is incumbent on us diligently to remember that the kingdom of heaven was promised to the poor in spirit and that minds afflicted by calamity and the contempt of mankind cheerfully listened to the divine promise of future happiness while on the contrary the fortune are satisfied with the possession of this world and the abuse in doubt and dispute the vain superiority of reason and knowledge we stand in need of such reflections to comfort us for the loss of some illustrious characters which in our eyes might have seemed the most worthy of the heavenly present the names of Seneca of the elder and the younger Pliny of Tacitus of Plutarch of Galen of the slave Epictetus and of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus a dawn the age in which they flourished and exalted the unity of human nature they filled with glory their respective stations either in active or contemplative life their excellent understandings were improved by study philosophy had purified their minds from the prejudices of the popular superstition and their days were spent in the pursuit of truth and the practice of virtue yet all these sages it is no less an object of surprise than a concern overlooked or rejected the perfection of the Christian system their language or their silence equally discovered their contempt for the growing sect which in their time had diffused itself over the Roman Empire those amongst them who condescended to mention the Christians considered them only as obstinate and perverse enthusiasts who exacted an implicit submission to their mysterious doctrines without being able to produce a single argument that could engage the attention of men of sense and learning it is at least doubtful whether any of these philosophers apologized which the primitive Christians repeatedly published in behalf of themselves and their religion but it is much to be lamented that such a cause was not defended by able advocates they exposed with superfluous eloquent the extravagance of politics their interest or compassion by displaying the innocence and sufferings of their injured brethren but when they would demonstrate the divine original Christianity they insist much more strongly on the predictions which announced than on the miracles which accompanied the appearance of the Messiah their favorite argument might serve to edify a Christian or to convert the Jew since both the one and the other acknowledged the authority of those prophecies and both are obliged with devout reverence to search for their sense and their accomplishments but this mode of appreciation loses much of its weight and influence when it is addressed to those who neither understand nor respect the mosaic dispensation and the prophetic style in the unskillful hands of just one of the succeeding apologists the sublime meaning of the Hebrew oracles evaporates in distant types affected conceits and cold allegories and even their authenticity was rendered suspicious to an uneducated gentile by the mixture of pious forgeries which under the names of Orpheus, Hermes and the Sebals were obtruded on him as of equal value with the genuine inspirations of heaven the adoption of fraud and sophistry and in the defense of revelation who often reminds us of the injudicious conduct of those poets who load their invulnerable heroes with a useless weight of cumbersome and brittle armor but how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the pagan and philosophic world to those evidences which were represented by the hand of omnipotence not to their reason but to their senses during the age of Christ of his apostles and of the first disciples the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies the lame walk the blind saw, the sick were healed the dead were raised demons were expelled and the laws of nature were frequently suspended for the benefit of the church but the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from the awful spectacle and pursuing the ordinary occupations of life and study appeared unconscious of any alterations in the moral or physical government of the world under the reign of Tiberius the whole earth or at least the celebrated province of the Roman Empire was involved in a preternatural darkness of three hours even this miraculous event which ought to have excited the wonder the curiosity and the devotion of mankind passed without notice in an age of science and history it happened during the lifetime of Seneca and the Elder Pliny who must have experienced the immediate effects or received the earliest intelligence of the prodigy which of these philosophers in a laborious work has recorded all the great phenomena of nature earthquakes, meteors, comets and eclipses which his indefatigable curiosity could collect both the one and the other have admitted to mention the greatest phenomenon to which the mortal eye has been witnessed since the creation of the globe a distinct chapter of Pliny is designed for eclipses of an extraordinary nature and unusual duration but he contents himself describing the singular defect of light which followed the murder of Caesar when during the greatest part of a year the orb of the sun appeared pale and without splendor the season of obscurity which cannot surely be compared with the preternatural darkness of the passion had been already celebrated by most of the poets and historians with that memorable age End of Chapter 15, Part 9 End of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire Volume 1 by Edward Gibbon Recording by Monsbrew Helsingfors Finland