 Preface and introduction of a history of the Christian Church during the first six centuries. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. History of the Christian Church during the first six centuries by Samuel Cheatham. Preface and Introduction Preface The intention of this work is to provide a sketch of the history of the Church in the first six centuries of its existence, resting throughout on original authorities and also giving references to the principal modern works which have dealt specially with its several portions. It is hoped that it may be found to supply a convenient summary for those who can give but little time to the study and also to serve as a guide for those who desire to make themselves acquainted with the principal documents from which the history is drawn. The narrow limits of a work, like the present, allow no room for discussion. The author is only able to give the conclusions at which, after considering the various authorities and arguments, he has himself arrived. In the first part of the book, in particular, a controversy underlies almost every sentence. In the notes, however, reference is made not only to those documents which confirm the statement in the text, but to those also which support a different view. As it has been found impossible to give an intelligible view of the great dogmatic conflicts and of the groves of institutions, without following their several courses to the neglect for the time of contemporary events, I have thought it well to enable my readers to gain some idea of the general status of the Church at any epoch by means of a chronological table. The maps will supply a ready means of learning at a glance the early spread of Christianity and the territorial divisions which the Church adopted when it became the dominant religious power in the empire. The books which I have had constantly before me in writing this sketch are Shrocks' Christliche Kirchengeschichte, Neander's History of the Christian Religion and Church, tourist translation, Giselaer's Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte, Kurz's Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte, Hase's Lehrbuch an Kirchengeschichte auf der Grundlage Akademischer Vorlesung, FC Baus' Geschichte der Christlichen Kirche, Alzog's Universal Geschichte der Christlichen Kirche, and, in the latter part of the work, Merler's Kirchengeschichte. References to other histories are given as occasion arises, but to these I owe a general help and guidance which cannot be acknowledged in detail. I have also to express my thanks to my friend Canon Coulson, formerly fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, for his kindness in reading the proofs and making many suggestions. Rochester, 18th November 1893 Introduction The history of the Church of Christ is the history of a divine life and a divine society, of the working of the spirit of Christ in the world, and of the formation and development of the society which acknowledges Christ as its head. The Church is distinguished from the world in which man is regarded as discharging the functions only by natural life, and again from the state which is primarily an organization for the purposes of political life. Yet the history of the Church cannot be treated as if it were wholly independent of the natural and political life of man. For the form which Christianity assumes in particular instances is largely influenced by the natural qualities and the general culture of those to whom it comes. And the Church, composed of men who are necessarily citizens of some state, cannot fail to influence the civil constitution of the states in which it exists, and in many cases to be itself modified in matters not essential to its existence by the civil government. The proper task and constant effort of the Church is to realize in itself the life of Christ and to maintain His truth, and again to bring all the world within the influence of Christian life and Christian truth. Church history has to relate the results of this constant effort to describe the struggle of the Church to maintain at first its very existence, afterwards its proper functions and liberty against the powers of the world, whether political or intellectual, to preserve its own purity, whether against those who would lower the standard of Christian life, or against those who would take away from the truth or add to it, its own unity against those who would rend it, its efforts constantly to extend its borders and to consolidate the conquests which it has already won, and again it has to chronicle the changing and diverse thoughts which have clustered down the face, once for all delivered to the saints and formed the theology of the Christian Church. The present volume is concerned mainly with what may be called the ancient classic period, the period that is during which the old classical forms of literature and civilization were still in a great degree maintained, and this may conveniently be separated into two divisions. First, the early struggles of the Church from its foundation to its victory under Constantine. Second, the period in which the now Imperial Church defined the face in the Great Councils and entered on its task of bringing under the yoke of Christ the northern tribes which everywhere burst in upon the empire. This period may be roughly limited by the accession of Gregory the Great to the papacy. End of the introduction. Chapter 1 of A History of the Christian Church during the first six centuries. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A History of the Christian Church during the first six centuries by Samuel Cheatham. Chapter 1. The Preparation of the World. It was in the fullness of time that the Son of God came into the world. By many influences the way had been prepared before him. The unity of the empire and the general peace favored the passage of the first preachers of the gospel was long ago observed by origin. And not only could an apostle pass from the borders of Persia to the English Channel unhindered by the feuds of hostile tribes, the barriers which varying culture raises up hardly existed among the more educated subjects of the empire. In every large town the Greek language was spoken. Greek modes of thought prevailed. Little links connected the Syrian apostle with the Greek philosopher. A morality not founded on blood relation had certainly come into existence. The Roman citizenship had been thrown open to nations which were not of Roman blood. Foreigners had been admitted by the Roman state to the highest civic honors. So singly were national distinctions obliterated under the empire that men of all nations and languages competed freely under the same political system for the highest honors of the state and of literature. The good Arielus and the great Trajan were Spaniards. Severus was an African. The leading jurists were of oriental extraction. And at the same time the old religions had lost much of their life in force. Probably indeed there never was a time when temples were more splendid or pagan worship more agust than in the days when the Lord appeared on earth. But the educated classes at least had long ceased to believe in the ancient mythology as divine or authoritative. Livy sadly contrasted the ages of faith with his own age which mocked at gods. Philosophers perhaps rarely denied and set terms the existence of deities, but they transformed the old half-human gods into shadows or abstractions. This transformation was for the most part the work of the Stoics. Acknowledging for themselves that one deity, pervading the universe and causing all phenomena, they were yet reluctant to destroy the religion of those who could not rise to this height of contemplation. They therefore laid it down that the ordinary divinities represented different forms of the manifestation of the one. The stars, the elements, the very fruits of the earth might be regarded as deities. Zeus is in this system no longer the president of the gods, but the ruling spirit or law of the universe, of which the subordinate gods represent different portions. Such explanations, however, though they might make it easy for a Stoic to take part in the religious ceremonies of his country, were nevertheless destructive of the old religion. And while the moral philosophers resolved the deities into abstractions, the physicists, like the Elder Pliny, held that speculation about things outside the material universe, itself a deity, lay beyond their province altogether. In a word, the pagan faiths were undergoing a process of gradual destruction, though the people long clung to their traditional observances. But in truth, even in its palmy days, the worship of the Olympian deities supplied nothing to guide man through life or to console him in death. The pagan gods were deities of the tribe or the nation, not of the individual soul. The Greek religion was for the Greek as a citizen. It was an artistic and elevated idealization of Greek life with its excellencies and its failings. So in Rome, the greater gods formed a glorified senate, while the religious ceremonies of the minor deities were interwoven with almost the whole life of a Roman. With this national conception of religion, the deification of the emperor was little more than a natural result of the Roman pride and the greatness of the empire, and at the same time the extension of the empire beyond the nation tended to obscure the old national deities. Roman statesmen were indeed anxious to maintain a religion, the baselessness of which they admitted, because they thought it a necessary prop for the state. But a people soon finds out that it is being governed by illusions. The skepticism of the rulers in time descends to the subjects. In the decay of the religions of Western Europe, the gods of Asia seem to offer more delightful mystery. In particular, the Egyptian legend of the suffering Osiris, originally a mere nature myth, was found comforting by men who sought a religion relief from suffering. And as the worship of Osiris was grateful to the wretched, so was that of the Persian sun god Mithras to aspiring humanity. The unspotted god of light, who was engaged in a never-ceasing struggle against darkness, drew men's hearts to him as the sensuous Olympians had never done. Wherever the soldiers of the empire encamped, rude sculptures testified to the widespread worship of Mithras. The mysteries, too, came into greater prominence in the decay of Greek and Roman religion. Whatever their origin, there can be little doubt that in the mysteries of Demeter, it was taught that the soul of man survived death, and that the initiated would enjoy the light and bliss of the underworld, while the faithless and abominable wallowed in misery. The hope of escaping the fate of the impious doubtless drew many to offer themselves for initiation. Dionysus, also originally a myth of the revival of the vine after the storms and frosts of winter, became in later times the representative and forerunner of man rising again to immortality. Cicero in his day declared that of all the excellent things to be found in Athens, the most precious were the mysteries, since in them men found not only the happiness in life, but hope in death. Yet they not seldom became centers of corruption which rulers repressed and good men abhorred. The conceptions which were found, obscure and mixed with much evil in the mysteries, appeared in a pure form in Platonism. To Plato mainly is due the thought which took so deep root in after ages that in the material world is but vanity, darkness, and decay. In the ideal world, reality, light, and life. In the Platonic school, we find a constant belief in one God, the ground of all existence, in the continued life of the soul, in rewards and punishments after death. And a new influence came into the Roman world through the Stoics, whose most famous teachers were not only Oriental, but Semetic. Such of these has lived on the confines or even within the borders of the Holy Land, may have been in some degree influenced by the Jewish schools, though it was certainly not from then that they derived their main doctrines. In Seneca, St. Paul's Contemporary, a Stoic much influenced by Plato, we find many expressions which sound like an echo or an anticipation of Christianity. When he describes this mortal life as a prelude to a better, when he speaks of the body as a prison and looks forward to the enjoyment of a diviner life when he is freed from it, when he urges that the body of one departed is but a fleeting form and that he who is dead has passed into eternal peace, when he describes the departed soul as enjoying its freedom, contemplating from above the spectacle of nature and of human life, when he tells of the glorious light of heaven, we see that the thoughts of men's hearts were being prepared to receive in Christ the full assurance of those lofty hopes. But it is through Christ that these hopes and much more than these have become the heritage of humanity. Without him they would have remained but the pleasant fancies with which a few elevated souls comforted themselves in the distractions of the world. There are not wanting indications that man felt his need of some greater one to help and guide him. Let the soul have some one to revere, said Seneca, by whose influence even his secret thoughts may be purified. Happy he who can so reverence his ideal as to rule and fashion himself after him by the mere memory of him. But then, where was the pattern to be found? Each school depreciated the ideal with every other. The scheme of the Stoic wanted solidity. It was in Christ that the ideal was found which all men might reverence and to which all men might aspire. And even among the heathen there was in the first century a kind of belief that a turning point in the history of the world had come. The Stoics held that the secular year was drawing to a close at the course of the ages would soon begin to run over again. The ninth month ended with the death of Julius Caesar and the month of Saturn the Golden Age was already returning. With the upper classes this expectation was probably little more than a literary fancy but the lower orders who knew to their costs that they lived in an iron age took such prophecies much more seriously. But the plot into which the seed of the word was first cast was Judaism. Signs were not wanting that the ancient garden of the Lord had lost something of its old fertility. Prophecy had ceased. From the days of Malachi to the days of John Baptist no man had been recognized as a prophet of the Lord. But idolatry against which so many prophets had protested in the name of Jehovah was no more found in the land. Israelites still felt a thrill of pride at the name of the Maccabees. Their fathers had endured torture and death rather than suffer the Lord to be dishonored. The scriptures were expounded by a multitude of scribes and doctors and hundreds of admiring disciples sat at their feet in the schools and the synagogues. The Jew, said Josephus, knows the law better than his own name. No doubt they often used the words of the book as mere charms or amulets but at least a verbal knowledge of the scriptures was widely diffused at the time when he came on earth of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did right. And there was among the Jews of Palestine a general expectation that Messiah would speedily come. The book of Daniel spoke of four kingdoms of the earth the fourth in spite of its iron teeth and brazen claws trodden down by the kingdom of the saints. What was this but the iron empire of Rome overthrown by the kingdom of the Israelites? The readiness with which pretenders drew followers about him showed the excitement of a popular mind. The Jews of Palestine in the apostolic age were divided into parties. The Sadducees, the men of wealth and official dignity were the conservatives of their time. They adhered to the old Mosaic law and rejected all modern additions as innovations. The promises to the faithful people they regarded as belonging to this life and to their own land. They looked for no resurrection, no kingdom of God beyond the grave. They could not question. They probably regarded as theophanies the appearance of angels mentioned in the scriptures. But they believed in no heaven, no abiding world of angels and spirits, nor did they look for a pure and perfect kingdom of God on earth. Such opinions as these were no good preparation for the reception of the gospel of Christ. But the Sadducees, though wealthy and high in place, were comparatively few in number. The National Party, the party which represented the pride of the Jew and his hatred of the Gentiles, was that of the Pharisees. Knowledge of the law, holiness according to the law were their watchwords. Doubtless, too often their minds and their lives were filled with burdensome trivialities. They put the letter before the spirit of the law. Yet to them, mainly it is due that the belief in the world to come and the expectation of Messiah's kingdom took deep root in the minds of Israelites. They did not allow the noblest conception of Israel's future to fade out of memory. From the dark present they looked to a bright future. They made this future kingdom a household word among the people. Thus they laid throughout the land a train by which the fire might be kindled at the word of Christ. Of a converted Pharisee we have a conspicuous instance in St. Paul we can hardly imagine a converted Sadducee. The Essenes formed communities of their own in Palestine and Syria in which they endeavored to reach a degree of ceremonial purity and a complete obedience to the law which was unattainable to the haunts of common life. If with the Pharisees ceremonial purity was a principal aim, with the Essenes it was an absorbing passion. The Pharisees were a sect. The Essenes were an order. They were formed into a religious brotherhood fenced about by minute and rigid rules and carefully guarded from any contamination with the outer world. Jews as they were, their speculations took a Gnostic turn and they guarded their peculiar tenets with Gnostic reserve. They avoided the temple sacrifices, they denied the resurrection of the body and they appeared to have cherished no messianic hopes. A counterpart to the Essenes of Palestine is found in the Therapeutae described by Philo in Egypt. The Samaritan occupied the border land between the Jew and the Gentile. Theologically as geographically he was the connecting link between the one and the other. Half Hebrew by race, half Israelite in his acceptance of a portion of the sacred canon. He held an anomalous position, shunning and shunned by the Jew, yet clinging to the same promises and looking forward to the same hopes. Even in Palestine the Jews of higher rank received a tincture of Greek cultivation in the Maccabeean family itself within a few years after the struggle began in Antiochus. Imitators of Greek customs were found and among the rabbis from Antogonis of Soco, who flourished about two centuries before Christ, took Ameliel, the teacher of St. Paul, a taste for Greek literature was frequently manifested. Nevertheless, in the people of the law and especially in the holy city, exclusiveness and hatred towards the stranger on the whole prevailed. The more fanatical rabbis excluded from eternal life, the Jews who loved the Greek learning. It was through the Jews of the dispersion that Hebrew and Greek thought were brought into some intimacy of contact. The Jews, said Strabo about the time of our Lord's birth, quote, have penetrated into every city and you will not easily find a place in the empire where this tribe has not been admitted and become influential, close quote. In some cities they had a separate civil organization with their own alabarcks or ethnarchs. Everywhere, in spite of the Roman jealousy of private meetings or associations, they enjoyed complete freedom of worship. Where their means did not suffice for a synagogue, they at least fenced off some quiet spot, if possible by the sight of a stream to which they might retire for prayer. Where they were rich and numerous, as at Alexandria, they reared temples which rivaled the magnificent edifices of the Greeks. And out of Palestine, the Jews were somewhat less Jewish. They adopted, for the most part, the Greek language and conformed so far as they might to Gentile usages. The fact that they were removed from the constant view of the temple and the debasing associations which moved the Lord's wrath was not without its influence. It was easy to idealize a sanctuary which was not always before their eyes. Out of Palestine, the proportions of the Jewish law dropped a little out of sight, and the moral precepts were more regarded. In Alexandria, in particular, a very mixing bowl of European and Asiatic thought, Judaism attained a new development. The Greek translation of the scriptures begun probably at Alexandria in the third century before Christ is the great monument of the Hellenizing of the Jew. Through it, the thoughts of Hebrew prophets fell to the Gentile world, and probably to many among the Jews themselves. Similarly, Luther's translation of the Bible is said to have had a great effect upon the Jews of Germany, and it is evident that the Greek translators had breathed the air of Hellenism and endeavored to adapt the simplicity of the scriptural expressions to the Alexandrian tone of thought. But besides the slight changes of the text which were possible in a translation, Judaism set itself to soften or transform its ancient scriptures by means of allegoric interpretation. To men who had adopted the principles of Platonism, the history of the Israelites seemed too mean and petty to be divine. By means of allegory, history and law and poetry were made to speak the language of philosophy. Moses and Plato were found to be at one. The great example of this school of allegories is Philo, who found in Scripture the views of the universe which he admired in Plato and Zeno. In Philo, the conception of a word or reason of God became familiar to the Jewish mind. To many literary artifices, the Hellenizing Jews endeavored to give to their sacred history a form which might be attractive to the Gentiles. And in all such works, they gave prominence to those portions of their theology which were most in harmony with the Greek thought. The pure and exalted conception of the one God, messianic hope, faith in a kingdom of God to come, these are the points which made prominent in pseudonymous Christian literature. The second book of Ezra's or Revelation of Ezra, written almost certainly by an Alexandrian Jew, is a proof that Hellenism had not obliterated messianic hopes. That the Gentiles, for the most part, looked with no friendly eye upon the Jews who dwelt among them is evident enough. Still, the words of Psalms and prophets and the faith of the Jew in his own religion had power to attract many who were astray in an age of doubt. Women especially found comfort in the services of the synagogue. In the great cities, there were always to be found admirers and adherents to the mosaic ritual. Some were merely curious lookers on at the Jewish services. Some, more earnest worshipers, had vowed to abstain from certain Gentile practices which the Jew abhorred. Some, the true proselytes, had been admitted by circumcision to the full privileges of the children of Israel. Thus there was formed in every city a body of men acquainted with the Scriptures who showed by the very fact of their worshiping with a despised race that they were an earnest seeking after God and who were much less fettered by the bonds of the law than those who were children of Abraham after the flesh. Among these worshiping Gentiles Christianity was in first age found its most numerous and most satisfactory converts. Cornelius of Caesarea is an apt type of the class which formed the great link between the first Jewish creatures of Christianity and the Gentile world. Yet paganism was interwoven with the very structure of society. It was environed by splendid temples, a numerous priesthood, costly festivals, hereditary rites, the strains of poets, the mighty influence of use and want. The old beliefs and still more the old customs were not abandoned without a struggle. In many places the rough populace was fanatically attached to the pleasant and stately superstitions of the old religion while the statesmen wished to maintain in the interests of the state the customs which formed the framework of society and the philosopher very often looked on the old mythology under the twilight glow of neoplatonic mysticism with a kind of half believing affection. But there was in the empire a great middle class swayed neither by the unreasoning fanaticism of the populace, the conservatism of the statesmen nor the illuminism of the philosopher. From this class of traders and artisans the least conspicuous in public life the least fettered by social prejudice were drawn in early time the most valuable converts. These men formed the steadfast minute arms of the force which overcame the world. End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Part 1 of A History of the Christian Church During the First Six Centuries This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org A History of the Christian Church During the First Six Centuries by Samuel Cheatham Chapter 2 Part 1 The Apostolic Church Such was the state of the world when in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. John was soon counted as a prophet the first since the days of Malachi who had been so recognized in Israel. Yet he was but the forerunner of the greater one to come, even the light of the world. Probably in the same year in which St. John began his ministry Jesus of Nazareth then about thirty years of age began to preach and say repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He claimed to be the Messiah, the Christ the anointed priest and king for whose coming all faithful Israelites looked and longed. He claimed to be the Son of God. Signs and wonders followed his steps. Multitudes flocked around him. Disciples attached themselves to him, especially from among the fishermen and husbandmen of Galilee. He taught them that the entrance into the kingdom which he was founding upon earth was not as some of them thought through fleshly warfare but through much tribulation through self renunciation following him. But one who claimed to have found a kingdom and yet had neither court nor army, one who gave counsel to render unto Caesar the things that were Caesar's did not satisfy the eager expectation of the Jews. The Jewish leaders condemned him for blasphemy because he made himself the Son of God. They handed him over to the Roman procurator who condemned him because he had made the Romans inflicted on rebels and on slaves crucifixion. And his death was atonement made for the Son of the world. But he could not be holden of death on the third day he rose from the tomb. He manifested himself to his disciples being seen of them at intervals during forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Early in his ministry he had chosen from among his disciples twelve people whom he named apostles to be the especial companions of his earthly life and heralds of his kingdom. To these it now fell to carry on the society which their lord had founded. To these he appeared for the last time on the Mount of Olives and bade them await in Jerusalem the influx of the spirit which he had promised to send from the Father. While the words were yet on his mind they waited in obedience to his words. At Pentecost the spirit descended in tongues of flame on each apostle and henceforth they show no more of the doubt and hesitation of the time before the resurrection but boldly preached that Jesus whom the Jews had crucified was the Messiah, the Christ. In spite of the violent opposition of the leading Sadducees the number of people favored the rising sect. The people thronged to hear when Peter and John preached the word. While the rulers vainly employed threats, stripes and imprisonment to silence them even a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. The believers bore for the present the aspect of a community or brotherhood within the limits of Judaism observing in all points the Jewish law attending daily in the temple but pushing from their brethren by acknowledging Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah whose advent was looked for by all pious Jews. In their fervor of brotherly love they had all things in common. So far the church was composed wholly of Jews either Hebrews or Hellenists. In Jerusalem the former party was probably more numerous and powerful. It is in St. Stephen probably a Hellenist that we find the notion of the growing church breaking the strict bonds of the mosaic law. The witnesses who declared that he, quote, ceased not to speak words against the holy place and the law, close quote, that he said that, quote, Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered us, close quote, were false probably as they were false who accused the Lord. They distorted and gave a false what he said rather than invented what he had not said. Before the Sanhedrin he attempted no denial of their charges. His speech cut short indeed by the wrath of the Jews seems intended to show that God's covenant with man existed before the mosaic law and might again receive an extension beyond it. Not without reason is Stephen called Paul's master. The rage of the Jews destroyed Stephen and dispersed the tribals. Probably the first fury of persecution fell upon those who were suspected of depreciating the exclusive privileges of the Jews, for the twelve still retaining the mosaic observances remained at their post. An ancient authority tells us that their Lord had fixed twelve years as the period of their stay in Jerusalem. But Philip, like Stephen, one of the seven and probably also a Hellenist, preached Christ in Samaria to the half-Jewish, half- Gentile race of its inhabitants, and Peter and John confirmed the work which Philip had begun. This reception of the Samaritans into the church is a further step beyond the limits of Jewish prejudice, for the pure Jew hated the Samaritan who claimed a share of his privileges almost more fiercely than he despised the uncircumcised. In Samaria we meet with a specimen of the kind of imposter which is produced in a disturbed and excited time, a man who pretends to esoteric knowledge and magic power and imposes himself upon the multitude for some great one. Simon, the Samaritan magician, came afterwards to be regarded as the head and fount of Gnostic heresy. A further advance towards the reception of the Gentiles was made when Philip baptized an Ethiopian eunuch, a proselyte indeed but hardly joined to the Jewish church by its characteristic right if the law of Moses was duly observed. But a much more decided step was made when Saint Peter was taught to recognize the absolute universality of the grace of God and to baptize the Roman centurion Cornelius, certainly no Jew, though worshipping with the Hebrews among whom he lived. While these things were going on in Palestine, the church was spreading elsewhere. Certain disciples, unnamed men of Cyprus and Cyrene, preached the Gospel and the Syrian Antioch to the Greeks, seemingly heathens and idolaters, and many of these believed and turned to the Lord. Here we have for the first time a purely ethnic community adopted into the church, and to these pagan adherents of Christ was first given the name Christian formed after the analogy of Roman party names. The Twelve sent Barnabas, a native of the neighboring Cyprus, to report on the astonishing events of which they heard. That large-hearted man rejoiced to see the work of God among the Gentiles, and as the church still grew and prospered, sought help from one whom he had already known in Jerusalem. When the blood of the martyr Stephen was shed, there stood by an ardent young Pharisee named Saul, a man of pure Hebrew lineage, yet a Roman citizen and a native of the Hellenic city of Tarsus educated a Jerusalem at the feet of the great Rabbi Gameliel. This persecutor on his way to Damascus was struck to the earth and blinded by a vision of the Lord in glory. He became the most devoted servant of him who once he persecuted. The eager spirit which led him to persecute did not forsake him when he was set to build up the church. His was one of those natures which move altogether, if they did all. Everything he did he did earnestly and devotedly and he had that remarkable union of the fervid, sympathetic, aspiring, even visionary nature with practical ability and good sense which is so rarely found, and which, when it is found, gives its possessor so extraordinary an influence over his fellow men. It was this, Saul of Tarsus whom the friendly Barnabas brought up from Selecia to Antioch, a journey which forms one of the most momentous epochs in the history of the church for Paul and Barnabas became the chief instruments in spreading the gospel of Christ among the Gentiles. Antioch became the center of a Gentile church. Saul, the great apostle of a Christianity, absolutely free from the shackles of the Jewish law. During this period of his work he is always known by the Gentile name Paulus. Not that Saint Paul lost his love for his kindred after the flesh. His first message was always to them, but the scene in Pisidian Antioch where the apostle turns from his countrymen, who judged themselves unworthy of eternal life to the Gentiles, is typical of what took place over and over again in his sad experience. Proselytes and pagans were more ready to receive the gospel than the pure Jews. His eager labors founded churches among the country people of Asia Minor. The door of faith was opened more widely, and the church of Antioch would probably have rejoiced at the tidings, had not certain brethren come down from Jerusalem and taught the Antioch in converts that they could not be saved unless they received the outward sign of God's covenant with Israel after the flesh. Paul and Barnabas resisted this attack upon Christian liberty, and to put an end to the dissension and party spirit were deputed to confer with the apostles and elders at Jerusalem respecting the observances to be required of the Gentiles. After long discussion both in public and in private the brethren at Jerusalem agreed that circumcision should not be required of the Gentile brethren only let them abstain in deference to Jewish prejudice from blood and things strangled from things offered to idols for they could not be partakers of the table of the Lord and the table of demons, from the licentious life and incestuous marriages which were of little account among the heathen while they were an abomination to the Jew. It must not be supposed that such decision as this was final and conclusive. It does not present itself to us as a universal decree but rather as a compromise entered into between the churches of Jerusalem and Antioch. But even if it were certainly a decree intended to compose the matters at issue throughout the whole church it ought not to surprise us to find the old dispute constantly reviving passion and party spirit are not put down by a decree even of the highest authority. In Antioch and the neighboring churches of Syria and Selecia the decree was doubtless long observed and we read of its being delivered to the brotherhoods of Lyconia and Pisidia. True, some years afterwards refers to it as a document of which the authority was indisputable. But in more remote churches it was not so. Long afterwards the Judaizers in Galatia attempted to force even circumcision on St. Paul's converts. The Corinthians do not seem to have heard of the decree nor do St. Paul and his letters bring it to their knowledge. And again it is not referred to in the apocalyptic rebukes to the churches of the minor for their fornication and licentiousness. The Judaic spirit troubled St. Paul his whole life long. It caused the most noteworthy weakness recorded of an apostle. It interfered with the social unity of churches where Jew and Gentile were found as they were in almost every church together. It died out at last from causes entirely independent of decree or argument. While it lasted the center of the course Jerusalem, in the shadow of the temple the Christian Jew could hardly desert the traditions of his forefathers. In St. Paul emphatically the apostle of the Gentiles God gave to the church its greatest missionary. His early labors have already been mentioned but he was not content with these. Under the guidance of the spirit he carried the gospel into Phrygia, the old seed of many a dark superstition in the churches among the fervid and fickle Celts of Galatia. In Europe the well-known names of Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth marked the direction of his journey. In Ephesus the great seed of the worship of the Asiatic Artemis, a very academy of magical superstitions, he stayed and labored long until the very central worship of the renowned city was thought to be in danger. He remembered his children in the Lord. The wants of the various communities which he had founded were always present to him. He wrote, he sent messengers. When possible he revisited churches which needed his exhortation and instruction. This earnest activity was brought to an end for a time by the malice of the Jews. He went up to Jerusalem for the Passover of the year 58 in the midst of prophecies and forebodings of evil. There his appearance in the Church of the Temple occasions so fierce a tumult that a party of the Roman garrison descended from their barrack and carried him off as a prisoner. His Roman citizenship prevented personal ill treatment but he was detained in custody two years by the procurator Felix and then sent to Rome in consequence of his appeal unto Caesar by the succeeding procurator Festus. After a long and stormy voyage in the course of which he suffered his attack he reached Rome in the spring of the year 61 where he was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him for two whole years working still for the cause which he had at heart both by his personal influence in Rome and by letters to his distant friends. His captivity became the means of spreading the gospel both in the Praetorium and among those who were of Caesar's household. At the end of St. Paul's two years we lose the guidance of the acts of the apostles. Ancient tradition however asserts that he was set free at the end of the two years that he fulfilled the wish of his heart by taking his journey into Spain and afterwards again visited the east. Granting this we find from the pastoral epistles that he established his disciple Titus as head of the community in Crete Timothy to a like office in Ephesus and that after remaining for some time in Nicopolis he again visited the churches of Troas, Meletus, and Corinth. After this tradition tells us that he returned to Rome where the church was groaning under the oppression of Nero that he was again imprisoned and put to death as a Roman citizen naturally would be by the stroke of the Lictor's acts. When St. Paul received the crown of righteousness he had spent the vigor of his days in his service. When he was driven to appeal to his work and his suffering he could refer to a catalog of perils and afflictions such as put to shame those of his opponents. He was hunted from city to city by Jews who hated the apostate. He had to encounter Judaizing teachers in the midst of the church itself. It was against these that the great contest of his life was fought. The great founder of Hellenic churches had to maintain that Christ was a savior for the world and not merely a messiah for the Jews. It is under the pressure of Judaic opposition that his own doctrine takes form. Justification by the faith in Christ without the works of the law is the cornerstone of his teaching. Christ is to him not merely the fulfillment of messianic hopes but the revelation of the great mystery of God's dealings with mankind from the very foundation of the world. Adam and Christ sin and righteousness the flesh and the spirit death and life these are the constantly recurring antithesis in his writings. It is evident that we have here a gospel for the world not for the Jews only. True, St. Paul's thoughts and his imagery are intensely Jewish and he yearns after his kindred in blood with a great longing but in Christ knows of no distinction of Jew or Gentile, bond or free it is in the church of Christ that he finds the true Israel the fulfillment of God's purpose from all eternity. The center of the best and donblest form of Jewish Christianity was naturally the Holy City and the church of Jerusalem was ruled by one who was more than blameless in his observance of the sacred law, St. James the Lord's brother. Accepting all that in early tradition gathered round his name we cannot but believe that he remained in all things a devout Israelite an Israelite in whom was no guile the rights of the converts of the Gentiles to a place in the church he had frankly admitted in the conference of Jerusalem yet the Judaizers who troubled the peace of Gentile churches claimed the authority of James abusing perhaps a vulnerable name to give their doctrine in its own. In his epistle he says nothing of the gospel or of the resurrection of the Lord, dwelling rather on faith in the one God and on obedience to the law but the law is the perfect law of liberty. The true liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and so far as he from leaning to the self-complacent orthodoxy of the Pharisee that he lays it down in the plainest manner that the true ritual of this consists in purity and works of love the whole tone of the epistle recalls our Lord's denunciations of the scribes and Pharisees and seems directed against the kindred spirit. St. James the Just comes before us in the declining days of Jerusalem as a devout soul in the midst of factions whose religion was warfare and when these factions put him to death straight way says Hegesippus quote Vespasian laid siege to their city close quote it seemed as if a guardian angel had departed St. Peter is a less conspicuous figure than St. Paul in the history of the apostolic church we know that he was esteemed a pillar of the church in Jerusalem and that a fear of losing his reputation with the Judaizers at Antioch induced him to comply with their prejudices at the time of writing his first epistle we find him in Babylon and the address to the elect sojourners of the dispersion of Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia Asia and Bethenia may perhaps be taken to imply that he had visited those countries even during the time occupied by the acts of the Apostles we know little of his movements and afterwards much less he is said to have been Bishop of Antioch and of Rome that he was not in Rome at the time of St. Paul's first imprisonment seems an almost certain inference from the silence of St. Luke nor does St. Paul mention him in his letters to or from Rome an ancient tradition asserts that he suffered at Rome at the same time with St. Paul being crucified or impaled with his head downwards and the tombs of the two saints were shown there at the end of the 2nd century the legend of St. Peter's 25 years episcopate of Rome does not appear to be older than the 4th century Ignatius alludes to the authority of St. Peter and Paul for the Romans especially Irenaeus, speaking of the value of apostolic tradition says that these two apostles after founding and building the Roman church gave the oversight of it to Linus distinguishing apparently between the Apostolic and the Episcopal office the apocryphal video speaks of the meeting of St. Peter and Paul in Rome the Apostolic constitutions declare that Linus, the first bishop was consecrated by St. Paul and Clement his successor by St. Peter here too the office of an apostle is something distinct from a local episcopate it is in Jerome's version of Eusebius's chronicle that we first find it distinctly stated inconsistently with Eusebius himself in the history that St. Peter went to Rome in the year 43 and remained for 25 years as bishop of the church in that city but not only does this supposition involve chronological difficulties of the most serious kind but Jerome himself states that the title of bishop was not used strictly in the apostolic age but was applied to several distinguished leaders at the same time in a church when therefore he styles St. Peter bishop of Rome he must not be understood to claim for him the same kind of local preeminence which is involved in the modern use of the term so Epiphanias speaks of St. Peter and Paul as bishops of Rome the truth seems to be that from about the fourth century churches claimed as their bishops apostles or other distinguished teachers who are associated with their early traditions St. Peter and St. Paul are united in Roman tradition and they were indeed one in heart though sometimes they might seem to be divided once St. Peter denied his lord once he impaired the freedom of the gospel but the very narrative of the later circumstance implies that this was contrary to the habit of his life his recognition of Christ crucified as the center of our faith and the source of life is identical with St. Paul's his tendency to speak of Christ under images derived from the older dispensation is the same Christ is the Paschal Lamb Christians are the holy nation the peculiar people the main difference which is no contrarity between him and his great fellow worker is that he speaks rather of the earthly life and sufferings of Christ of the believer and the world around him of the hope of a glorious advent from whom and through whom and to whom are all things St. Peter was no doubt a Hebrew of the Hebrews in thought as in birth yet he was no Judaizer the law he never mentions nor does he insist in any way on the perpetuity of formal ordinances it was without support from his epistles that the Judaizers claimed him as their patron End of chapter 2 part 1 chapter 2 part 2 of a history of the Christian church during the first 6 centuries this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org a history of the Christian church during the first 6 centuries by Samuel Cheatham chapter 2 part 2 the Apostolic Church of the Beloved Disciple of the Beloved Disciple we see no more in the acts of the Apostles after the laying on of hands on the Samaritan Disciples of the date when he left Jerusalem we have no information and for some years we have no record of his work a constant tradition tells us however that he took the oversight of the church in Ephesus after the departure of St. Paul and we may well believe that he extended it to the other 6 churches which are addressed in the Apocalypse of the fact of his vanishment to Patmos there can be no doubt though it is placed by different authorities that dates varying from the reign of Claudius to that of Domitian St. John with his Apostolic authority his purified warmth his heavenly spirit was placed by the providence of God in the very spot which most bubbled over with sects and heresies in Asia he abode says Irenaeus until the days of Trajan when he fell asleep in extreme old age in the midst of his disciples the traditions respecting him show how deep an impression his holiness and his loathing of all that was vile had made upon those who had surrounded him his life falls into two divisions the Judaic period before he left Palestine ended probably with the banishment to Patmos and the writing of the Apocalypse and the period in the midst of Jews and Gentiles of error and heresy in Ephesus and of other cities of Asia Minor in the Apocalypse we see the Son of Thunder here indeed the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy the spirit of Ezekiel and Daniel here too the Gospel is to the Jew first but also to the Greek if we see first the 12 tribes the throne of the Lamb we see also the great multitude which no man could number of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues singing praises to him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb we do not find the disciple who leaned on Jesus' breast giving prominence to the Lord's humanity but rather the contrary he is not merely the faithful and true witness the Word of God in the 30 years which perhaps intervened between the writing of the Apocalypse and that of the Gospel and Epistles Saint John had changed the scene of his life and the church itself agitated by new movements required and used setting forth of old truth these later writings represent a more advanced stage of the church's life than the letters of Saint Paul they set forth the very same view of a Gospel of mankind which is found in Saint Paul not now controversially but positively and with an authoritative calmness which is foreign to the eager style of the Apostle of the Gentiles Saint John does not dwell on the feeling of sin and the need of redemption with the same emphatic earnestness as Saint Paul he rather looks on the world as agitated by the great contest between light and darkness the Word of God and the power of evil he appeals rather to the innate longing of man after righteousness and perfection he speaks less of faith in Christ than of the perfect union in love which is to knit the church to God in Christ as it knits Christ to God yet so little contrarity is there in all this to the Pauling teaching that certain passages in Saint Paul's writings might well be adopted by the Apostle of the Gentiles for Saint John's all the several ways of the Apostles meet in one end the traditions that the Apostles before their departure from Jerusalem divided the several portions of the world by a lot among themselves and that they formed the Apostles Creed by each contributing a clause do not seem to be older than the fourth or fifth century earlier accounts say that Saint Thomas had Partheia Saint Andrew, Scythia the apocryphal acts of the latter describing his martyrdom at Patras were once supposed to be a genuine letter of the witnesses of his death and have certainly influenced some of the early liturgies Bartholomew is said to have preached in India and to have left there the Gospel of Saint Matthew and Hebrew characters there he suffered martyrdom by beheading Philip the Apostle was gathered by Paulus Thaddeus is said to have been sent to Abgaris king of Edessa many later legends have gathered around the Apostles but in fact their labors are written for the most part not in the pages of history but in the book of life the church is a community confessing the name of Christ and pervaded by the spirit of Christ it is of no age or climb but abiding and universal and develops according to its varying circumstances the organs which are necessary for its spiritual life preserving always the ordinances and gifts of its divine founder in the first age as in all ages it was through baptism that believers were admitted into that holy fellowship this followed at once upon the profession of faith in Christ and those who were so admitted are in scripture language the brethren the saints or holy ones as being like the Israelites of old set apart and consecrated to the service of God these saints are one in Christ buried with Christ that they may walk in newness of life these are kings and priests to God a royal priesthood an adopted people not only individuals but admitted at once to baptism into the name of Christ baptism was followed by the laying on of hands that the converts might receive the holy ghost the workings of which were in the apostolic age manifested in various special gifts especially those of tongues and of prophecy from that first day of the week when Christ rose from the dead Christians have eaten the bread and drunk from the cup with the Lord's death till He come the Eucharistic celebration was connected in early times with a solemn meal as in its first institution a custom which at Corinth led to so much disorder that Saint Paul had to rebuke sternly the irreverence of those who turned the Lord's supper into a common and even riotous meal not distinguishing the Lord's body the kiss of love or holy kiss in these meetings the Eucharist was, as it seems at first celebrated in the midst of such a number as could meet in the upper room of some disciple perhaps sometimes in the midst of a single household afterwards as at Corinth in assemblies of a somewhat more public kind to which each brother brought his own contribution in sickness the brethren sent for the elders of the church who prayed over them and anointed might recover gifts of healing were among the special endowments of the Holy Spirit as to the manner of conducting divine worship whether at the celebration of the Eucharist or in other meetings we know that prayer, intercession and thanksgiving were the natural language of the early church when the brethren came together probably portions of the Old Testament certainly apostolic letters were publicly read and sung and before long the Spirit added Christian hymns to the treasury of devotion the word of exhortation was uttered not only by the presbyters but by other members of the community as the Spirit gave them utterance each brother seems to have exercised the gift which the Spirit gave him for the good of the whole subject only to the natural laws of fitness and order one the gift of prophecy another the gift of tongues another the interpretation of tongues the most precious of these gifts was prophecy the power of speaking under the influence of the Spirit for the building up of the church as for the days on which assemblies for worship were held the apostle taught with the utmost plainness that the Christian was not bound to esteem one day above another many no doubt of the Jewish Christians long continued to observe the seventh day Sabbath but the great festival of the church which was to show forth the life of the risen Lord has been from the beginning the first day of the week the Lord's day which seems to have been observed by all Christians whether they also held the Sabbath or not it is probable that a Passover was also celebrated in the church as commemorating the great deliverance from sin and death by the resurrection of Christ in the spiritual hour of assembling nothing can be determined except that the administration of the Holy Communion accompanied or followed the evening meal the Lord before his ascension gave to the apostles whom he had chosen the charge to make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe the laws of Christ adding the promise to be with them at the end of the world to show his presence by signs following to the apostles especially was it committed to commemorate the Lord by the breaking of the bread and the blessing of the cup according to his holy institution to them was committed the power of forgiving sins they were to be as Christ's apostle expresses it servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries instruments of Christ's working channels of divine grace while yet the church of Christ consisted of a single community in Jerusalem all the gifts and offices of the Christian ministry were concentrated in the 12 apostles they alone as it seems preached and taught at their feet were laid the offerings which formed the support of the church while as yet they had all things common the charge of serving tables at the common meals or distribution of food becoming excessive gave occasion to the first committing of a portion of the work of the ministry to others the apostles desired to be relieved of this part of their burden that they might give themselves to the ministry of the word and to prayer the body of the disciples accordingly chose seven apostles consecrated to their office by prayer with laying on of hands these seven are commonly and no doubt rightly called the seven deacons the giving of alms so intimately connected with ghostly consolation that we are not surprised to see Saint Stephen a leading teacher in Jerusalem and Saint Philip preaching the gospel in Samaria we soon find the diaconate in the Gentile churches also a deaconess no doubt especially for ministrations to the last secluded women of a Greek town was found in the church of Senecrae in the Philippian church the bishops and deacons constitute apparently the whole recognized ministry in the first epistle to Timothy towards the close of his life Saint Paul gives very particular directions as to the qualifications both of deacons and deaconesses in terms which imply the dignity and importance of the office the office of deacon was in the main a new one called forth by the needs of the Christian church the office of presbyter on the other hand seems to have been already existing in the Jewish polity in which each synagogue was governed by a body of elders hence when presbyters came to be spoken of there was not a word of explanation it is taken for granted that the familiar word will suggest with sufficient accuracy the nature of the office at Jerusalem the presbyters receive the alms of the Gentile churches they are associated with the apostles in the whole business of the Jerusalem conference they are present when Saint James receives Saint Paul on his last visit to Jerusalem and wherever Saints Paul and Barnabas formed a church there they appointed presbyters the body of presbyters was in all cases an essential and central part of the organization of a Christian community the function of the presbyter was probably in the first instance like that of the Jewish elders rather one of government than of labor in word and doctrine though such labor brought double honor to those who exercised it yet it is required that the presbyter should be apt to teach clinging stoutly to the faithful word that he may be able to exhort in the sound teaching and to confute gainsayers a sufficient proof that teaching and exhortation were ordinarily expected of him it has been assumed in the preceding sentence that the word bishop a term only used in reference to Gentile churches and probably caring with it Gentile associations is in the New Testament absolutely synonymous with the word presbyter this may perhaps be taken for granted but it by no means follows that such a minister as was afterwards designated a bishop was not found in the apostolic age St. Paul delegated to men like Timothy and Titus the same kind of power over particular churches which he himself exercised over all those of his own foundation this is evidently the beginning of the office which in the second century was called by a special name derived from Episcopos and which still bears their appellation in almost every European tongue St. James the Lord's brother clearly enjoyed in Jerusalem the local preeminence and authority which justified later writers in calling him Bishop of Jerusalem and the apostolic authority of St. John was probably in his later days so far localized in Ephesus and its neighborhood that we may well call him Bishop of that city we thus recognize the apostolic age a three-fold order the general superintendence exercised by the apostles themselves whether over several churches or a particular church a power afterwards dedicated to faithful men and in several communities and the powers of administration and teaching committed to presbyters and deacons in each church of other offices or functions mentioned in the New Testament that of the shepherds, presidents and leaders was seemingly identical with that of the presbyters help sent governments probably belonged to deacons and presbyters respectively the work of teaching and evangelizing belonged to all the orders prophecy was not appropriated in the new more than in the old dispensation to any rank or dignity the wonder working power gifts of healing gifts of tongues or gifts bestowed by the free grace of the spirit on various members of the community for the building up and completion of the whole but even in the apostolic age there were spots on the fair face of the church first and foremost was the constant desire of Jewish converts to enforce on all Christians the observance of the Jewish law to import into the Christian church the distinctions of meats and drinks and new moons and sabbaths which were to cease when they had subserved their proper end and the evils of the old man in the gentile churches were even more conspicuous and more fatal the Greek spirit of partisanship the tendency to look upon some higher knowledge or gnosis as the great end and aim of initiation into the mystery of Christ the reluctance of idolaters to forsake the gay festivals of the heathen temples their low standard of morality especially as regards to intercourse of the sexes in a word the desire to compromise between Christ and demons seemed as if it would drown Christianity into paganism even the cardinal doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was denied or obscured by some of the would be wise oriental forms of asceticism and tendencies to the worship and tendencies of supernatural beings intermediate between God and man seem early to have found entrance into the church the epistle of Saint Jude and the apocalypse of Saint John revealed to us a time when deceivers were frequent and men ready to be deceived Saint John's insistence on the reality of the human body of Christ seems to indicate that the heresy which regarded it as unreal already existed in Christ's and false prophets were not wanting when Dosithius in Samaria gave himself out to be the prophet whom Moses declared that the Lord would raise up unto his people and preached the divinity and eternal obligation of the mosaic law Simon Magus came to be recognized as the power of God which is called great and his subsequent history however decorated with fable is regarded by a sect as a kind of incarnation of the creative power of the divinity Menander too seems to have represented himself as an incarnate deity and to have persuaded his followers that he could confer upon them the gift of immortality nor are indications wanting that others also cried low here is Christ and found some at least to go forth to them or told that tears should be mingled with the wheat in the field of the world not to be separated by heasty hands yet he himself gave the precept that the offending and unrepentant brother must be excluded from the community and this power it was necessary to exert in order to maintain spiritual life and sound doctrine the evil deed and foul word eat as doth a canker the apostles for the brethren under their direction excluded from the communion of the church those who were guilty of gross immorality those who denied or deformed the faith those who caused divisions among the brethren yet exclusion from the society of the faithful was only resorted to in the last necessity and the restoration of the offender was always earnestly desired if one was overtaken in a transgression the spiritual to correct and reinstate him tenderly love and comfort were to be bestowed on the penitent if men were judged it was that they might not perish with the world if one was delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh it was that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord in a word the end of excommunication is never merely punishment but the preservation of the church and the reformation of the offender the offender End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3, Part 1 of a history of the Christian church during the first 6 centuries this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org a history of the Christian church during the first 6 centuries by Samuel Cheatham Chapter 3, Part 1 the early struggles of the church the first external enemy which Nassent Christianity had to encounter was the malice of the Jew to the Jews were due the deaths of St. Stephen St. James the Apostle and St. James the Just it was by the Jews that St. Paul was evil and treated almost to the death even where they had no political power their irregular animosity was still active but the most extensive and cruel of all the persecutions which Christians had to endure at the hands of the Jews was that which befell them when Barcopa raised the standard of insurrection against the Romans Christians, of course, refused to acknowledge the pretended son of the star as Messiah their principles forbade them to join in rebellion hence they had to endure the wrath of those who regarded them as renegades while the Roman government simply looked upon them as Jews the rebellion of Barcopa was put down and a new Roman town, Aelia Capitalina built on the ruins of Jerusalem by the direction of the Emperor Hadrian when the Jews could practice no violent persecution they made amends by the circulation of Calomnes their schools of learning at Babylon and Tiberias seemed to have been centers of this kind of manufacture but the great internecine struggle was between the church and the empire the empire was no doubt greatly more tolerant in matters of religion than the small republics of Greece had been it necessarily sanctioned the worship of the gods of the concord nations which were included within its borders but it was not indifferent in matters of religion the Roman gods were the gods of the state and the state by no means looked favorably upon forms of worship which tended to diminish the reverence due to them the world republic was extremely jealous of foreign superstitions and the principle of the law which forbade the worship of foreign gods not adopted by the state was never allowed to drop wholly out of sight in a Roman colony we find the complaint brought against the apostles that they taught customs which it was not lawful for Romans to receive or to observe Pamponia Gracina was accused before a family tribunal of practicing foreign superstition in the days of Nero magic was forbidden under severe penalties the laws of the twelve tables assigned death as the penalty for practicing incantation and probably the miracles of healing attributed to the Christians especially cures of demoniacs brought upon them the suspicion of magic the possession of magical books was also a crime and the sacred books of Christians were often reputed magical we have the testimony of Tertullian that the principle charges against Christians were those of sacrilege and Liza majesty and his words imply that to refuse to worship the gods of the empire was to be guilty of sacrilege the punishment of sacrilege was in the discretion of the proconsul who might apportion it according to the circumstances of the case and the age and sex of the criminal in extreme cases he might sentence offenders to be burned alive, crucified or cast to wild beasts under the head of Liza majestis was brought every act and every word which might tend to impair the authority of the government or to bring it into discredit it is easy to see how wide arranged charges of Liza majesty might have probably the rumor that Christians expected existing states soon to pass away and a new kingdom to succeed was the notice of the tribunals but there was nothing of which the empire was more intolerant than the formation of associations unknown to the law from the very earliest days of imperial rule attempts were made to check the formation of clubs and societies and severe legislation was directed against them one who held an unlawful meeting was liable to the same pains and penalties as one who seized a public place by armed force that is to the penalties of Liza majesty some exceptions were however made religious meetings were not forbidden provided that they were so conducted as not to offend against the laws relating to illicit collegia and benefit societies consisting of poor people and slaves were permitted in Rome to meet and make their payments to the common fund once a month a rescript of Septimius Severus extended this provision to all Italy and the provinces Christian congregations may sometimes have received legal recognition as benefit clubs for they did undoubtedly contribute at their meetings to a common fund for the purpose of mutual succor though they could scarcely have complied with the condition of meeting only once a month but on the whole the church was clearly regarded as a secret society of a very dangerous kind having occult signs and passwords and bound together in a confederation which extended over the whole empire that Christians formed unlawful associations is the first charge brought against them by Kelsus and Tertullian a Christian advocate scarcely attempts to refute it the Roman statesmen saw in the Christian church either the ephemeral product of fanatical folly and delusion or a slinking gang of conspirators a luchifuganaccio which the state must needs put down were it only for its own safety the secrecy of their meetings in time of persecution was a main cause of the columnies which were circulated against them the empire was full of mysteries and secret orgies yet against none do we find such vile accusations brought as those which were reiterated against the Christians they were atheists they indulged in theestian banquets they reveled in horrible incest they worshiped a monster with an ass's head that they should be called atheists was perhaps not altogether unnatural those who forsook the temples of the gods and worshiped no deity graven by art and man's device were to the heathen populace of course atheists their nightly assemblies for the feast of love and the holy communion and a few mystical words relating to the agape the commemoration of the death of Christ and the participation of his flesh and blood grossly misunderstood gave rise probably to the horrible charges of murder strange food and illicit love such rumours as these caused men like tacitus to regard the church of christ the only society in the empire in which a pure and noble morality was taught as a loathsome superstition it was thought to bring down the wrath of the gods on the state if an earthquake shook a city or a river overflowed its banks or the seasons were unpropitious the cry arose to the lions with the Christians and it must not be forgotten that all those who lived by pagan worship found their occupation threatened the makers of silver shrines of the aphesian artemists were but specimens of a class found wherever a temple existed and not only those whose material interests were in danger but paganism in general found its old mythology, its civic feeling, its frank enjoyment of the life of this world called in question by a sect which preached humility and self renunciation offering a distant heaven in return for the pleasures of the present life many Christians felt at perilous to the soul to swear the soldiers oath or to undertake municipal offices true they were submissive to the lawful authority but the general suspicion against them was so strong that their professions of allegiance were thought to savor more of policy than of truth the empire could perhaps scarcely be expected to tolerate in the midst of it such a society it did in fact persecute the rising sect with a very vigorous animosity yet not steadily or continuously but according to the views of various emperors or even of provincial governors what was at first popular hatred of an obscure sect became in less than three centuries an organized effort of the pagan power to put down its growing rival when Suetonius tells us that Claudius expelled from Rome quote the Jews who were making constant uproar with one Crestus as a ringleader close quote he probably refers to the fact that the preaching of Christ set the Jews quarter at Rome in a commotion so far however Christianity appears as a Jewish sect not subject to direct persecution it is under Nero that the Christians first appear as suffering torture and death as a sect everywhere spoken against when Rome was burnt and rumor assigned the guilt of the deed to Nero himself he sought to turn the popular rage from himself to the Christians already the objects of the most unreasonable suspicions they were sewed up in hides of wild beasts and torn by dogs they were crucified they were wrapped in tar cloth and set on fire there quote hatred of the human race close quote was held enough to convict them of this incendiarism all events to justify their punishment the tendency of the Roman populace to wreak on the Christians the wrath they felt at some civic or national misfortune appears here for the first time yet for some time after Nero we hear no more of persecution of Christians even Domitian whom Tertullian calls a quote chip of Nero for cruelty close quote does not appear to have treated Christians more cruelty than the rest of his subjects according to some authorities it was in this reign that the apostle John was immersed in boiling oil uninjured and banished to Patmos that a Flavius Clemens was executed by order of Domitian is an historical fact but we have no authority for identifying him with Clemens the bishop of the Roman church in fact in the authentic records of Domitian's reign the charge of Christianity is nowhere put forward distinctly as a reason for the executions ordered by the tyrant though the atheism and superstition attributed to some of his victims may very possibly be heathen distortions of their Christianity it is of course only too probable that Christians suffered from outbreaks of popular fury both in Rome and in the provinces but we meet with no distinct mention of the state against them until the time of Trajan it was to him that Pliny the Younger much perplexed at the number of Christians discovered in his government of Bithynia wrote his famous letter was he he asked the emperor to punish Christians as such even if they were guilty of no offense against public law or morality he himself held that it was his duty to punish those who admitted themselves Christians and could not be frightened into recanting for he said whatever their superstition might be they deserved punishment for their obstinacy those who consented to worship the gods and the statue of the emperor in a form prescribed by himself and to curse Christ he at once dismissed after putting two deaconesses to the torture he discovered nothing but a perverse and extravagant superstition Trajan approved in general Pliny's proceedings and laid down for his guidance the principle that no search should be made for Christians but that those who were brought to the bar should be punished with death unless they proved their paganism by sacrificing to the gods anonymous accusations were to be altogether disregarded Trajan carefully limited his decision to the particular case and locality still the emperor's rescript furnished a fatal precedent henceforth whenever the magistrates were disposed to persecute Christians there seems to have been no difficulty in finding law against them under Trajan too we hear the ominous cry the Christians to the lions there was no security against the rage of Jews or heathen the aged Simeon bishop of Jerusalem was said to have been crucified to gratify the former the fury of the populace of Antioch caused Ignatius to be torn by lions in the Colosseum as a spectacle for the latter when Christianity itself was recognized as a crime informers were not wanting so that even when the emperors were not active persecutors Christians still suffered from the unreasonable hatred of their pagan neighbors as the mob of the towns fell into the habit of shouting for the blood of Christians for their own amusement or as an offering to the gods in time of public calamity Hadrian issued an edict against these riots and required that in all cases proceedings against the Christians should be conducted with the due forms of law the excellent Antonius Pius is not commonly regarded as a persecutor and has the reputation of a kind and just ruler of pagan and Christian authorities yet it is not altogether improbable that it was in his reign that Justin gained the title of martyr in Rome itself being put to death by Herbicus the prefect of the city mainly in consequence of the hostility of one Crescent's a cynic whom he had denounced as a charlatan and that in his reign also Polycarp the venerable bishop of his own city the successor of Antoninus Marcus Aurelius the throned Stoic disliked religious excitement in general and the enthusiasm of the Christians in particular the wise man should, he thought endure with patience the thought of extinction after death and pass out of life undemonstratively however little belief he had in the old Roman religion should be maintained the proceedings of provincial governors against the Christians were at least unhindered if they were not actually prompted and encouraged by the emperor a terrible persecution befell the churches of Lyon and Vienna in this case the fury of the populace appears to have been unchecked by the magistrates and even illegal methods of proceeding were permitted it was in this storm that the venerable bishop still in spite of losses by death and desertion a remnant was left and these told their own pathetic story in a letter to the churches of Asia and Phrygia to this reign is assigned the miracle of the thundering legion composed partly of Christians who in the campaign against Marco Mani and Caddy are said to have procured reign by their prayers when the imperial army was suffering the last extremity of thirst the brutal Commodus the son of the philosopher is said to have been influenced by his mistress Marcia in favor of Christianity which accordingly made way among the higher classes of Rome yet it was under him that Apollonius, a man of high station and distinguished culture was put to death together with the slave his accuser the reign of Septimius Severus in other respects also an important epoch changed the relation of the state to Christianity he was an African his wife Julia Domna Assyrian and the emperors of their race Caracala Elagabalus and Alexander Severus were much more oriental than Roman men such as these had not the same feeling in favor of the Roman state religion which had so strongly influenced the Antoninis they rather regarded with interest strange forms of belief and worship yet Septimius is reckoned among the persecutors he referred all cases of holding unlawful assemblies to the judgment of the prefect of the city and forbade with equal sternness conversions to Christianity and to Judaism Confiscation, torture and death befell many Christians in Alexandria and Proconsular Africa in particular the persecution was so severe that men thought the times of antichrist nigh at hand Leonides, the father of Origen Potomena with her mother Marcella and the soldier Basilides who was her guard were put to death in this persecution still more famous martyrs of this epoch are the young matrons Perpetua and Felicitas of Carthage and the 12 martyrs of Silite in Africa who bore their testimony before the consul Vigelius Saturninus Ilegabolus was himself a dilettante religion and tolerated both the Jewish and the Christian fraternities intending however in the end to permit in Rome no worship but that of Ilegabolus the emperor Alexander Severus casting about for objects of veneration in a faithless time formed a kind of private chapel in which with Abraham, Orpheus and Apollonius of Tyanna he set up a bust of Christ nay, he is said even to have contemplated building a temple to his honor and adopting Christ among the gods of Rome his mother, Julia Mamea when staying at Antioch summoned to her presence the great Origen of whose fame she had heard such an emperor was not likely to be an active persecutor he practically recognized the right of the Christians to exist and worship the laws against Christians were not repealed but in spite of the existence of these laws there were for some years no persecution except a transitory one under Maximon who was ready to persecute whatever his predecessor had favored one emperor, Philip the Arabian is even said to have been a Christian Christianity was now in the popular estimation no longer the foul superstition that it once had been it had attracted many of the wealthy and educated class it had come to be regarded as a religion whose claims must at least be considered there was no intrinsic reason why it should not take an equal rank with other permitted religions with Deceus came again a change by this time the growth of the Christian church in numbers and influence had become so manifest that Romans began to see the very existence of paganism threatened while at the same time Christianity had lost something of its pristine purity and vigor the world had entered the church persecutions from this time are no longer mere outbreaks of popular fury but direct consequences of the action of the state the earlier persecutions had been partial and the victims comparatively few now persecution was extended systematically to the whole empire and a strenuous effort was made to exterminate Christianity at the very beginning of his reign Deceus issued an edict commanding governors of provinces under the severest penalties to put in force every means of terrifying the Christians and bringing them back to the old religion all Christians were to sacrifice to the gods before a certain day he handed over to torture the bishops in particular were marked out for death many were the instances of Christian heroism in this pitiless storm but many fell away and elapsed outwardly at least into heathenism the persecution did not cease even with the death of Deceus for public misfortunes roused the fury of the city mobs against the stiff-necked people who would not offer propitiatory sacrifices to the tutelary gods of the state among the victims of the Decian period were Fabian Bishop of Rome Babulus of Antioch and Alexander of Jerusalem in this time of distress the legend says the seven sleepers began their long slumber at Ephesus they roused themselves under Theodosius the second to see the despised cross on every coin of vantage after a short period of rest persecution was renewed under Valerian who directed his attack principally against the bishops, priests and deacons of the church and against senators, knights and other persons of rank who had joined the hated community thinking probably that if the more distinguished persons were induced to forsake Christ the multitude would follow of its own accord in this period of oppression fall the deaths of Sixtus of Rome with Lawrence his deacon of Cyprian at Carthage and of Fructuosis at Tarragona with the sole rule of Galienus came remission he put a stop to the existing persecutions and issued a letter to the bishops granting them protection and desiring the pagan authorities to give them back their churches and cemeteries this implies that the Christian communities were regarded for the time as at least lawful associations Toleration continued under Claudius Aurelian's preparations for a renewal of persecution were cut short by his death nor was the church molested by the government in the first 19 years of Diocletian in this period of rest the church spread abroad greatly Christians were entrusted with the government of provinces and even professed their religion openly in the very palace of the emperor this serenity was soon to be broken by the most severe storm that Christianity had to encounter Diocletian the son of a Dalmatian freedman was one of the ablest rulers that ever mounted the imperial throne his leading thought was to organize the unwieldy empire to this end he associated with himself in AD 285 Maximian as a colleague in the empire and afterwards in AD 293 two others Galerius and Constantius Chlorus in a somewhat subordinate position with the title of Caesar's the superior rulers born the name of Augusti Diocletian's love for the old religion or perhaps his policy appears in his taking the name of Jovius while he gave his colleague that of Herculius as if invoking Jove and Hercules for the protection of the empire if the legend may be trusted Maximianus Herculius soon used his power against the Christians two years after he became a ruler he is said to have caused the whole of the Theban legion with their tribune Miritius to be put to death in cold blood near Martigny in Switzerland because they refused to act against the Christians Diocletian however was not disposed to persecute the church on the contrary in the early part of his reign many Christians had positions of trust about his person but the Caesar Galerius who was his son-in-law a burly Ruffian imbued with heathen superstition became the tool of a party which was eager for the suppression of Christianity as the only means of preserving paganism Diocletian shrank from the struggle the horrors of which he clearly foresaw but last with great reluctance yielded to the urgency of his colleague and assented to decided measures for the suppression of the faith of Christ three edicts appeared in rapid succession in the year 303 and a fourth in the following year which in effect delivered over the unfortunate Christians to the fanaticism of mobs and the arbitrary will of provincial governors by the first edict assemblies of Christians were forbidden their churches and sacred books were ordered to be destroyed and church property to be confiscated those who refused to renounce their faith were to be deprived of all civil rights and dignities accusations against Christians were to be entertained and torture might be applied to compel them to recant Christian slaves so long as they remained Christian could not be manumitted the disturbances which arose carrying out this edict occasioned still further measures of severity the second edict directed that all bishops and clergy should be imprisoned the third issued on the 20th anniversary of Diocletian's ascension was a kind of grim jest it bore the form of an amnesty and ordered the imprisoned clergy to be set at liberty if they would but consent to sacrifice to the gods if they refused to this beneficence they were to be subjected to torture under these edicts persecution though no doubt varying much in intensity in different provinces became severe and general many met death with wonderful constancy old men tender women even young children became martyrs often under circumstances of great horror but many denied the faith and many stigmatized as horrors delivered up the sacred books to save themselves still it was felt that the end of all these horrors was not attained and in 304 a fourth edict was published which simply offered Christians the choice between death and sacrifice wherever heathen governors and heathen mobs were unfriendly to Christians the work of torture and death went vigorously on the most weight of this persecution fell on that eastern portion of the empire which was under the immediate rule of Diocletian and Galerius even their own wives who are said to have favored Christianity were compelled to sacrifice and court officials were not spared Diocletian and Maximian abdicated in the year 305 but the work of exterminating the Christians went vigorously on under Galerius and his colleagues the western provinces however Gal, Spain and Britain enjoyed comparative immunity under Constantius Chlorus and afterward under his son Constantine who was elevated to the rank of Caesar by the acclamation of the soldiery on the death of his father at York for some eight years the Christians had to endure every kind of maltreatment and death at last even Galerius was satisfied that it was impossible to annihilate Christianity and give to the gods of Rome their old supremacy sick and weary he consented to put a stop to the massacres which distracted the empire and issued from Nicomedia in conjunction with Constantine and Licinius an edict in which Christianity is recognized as an existing fact the terms of this edict which forms one of the most important epochs in the history of the church are much to be observed the rulers say in their preamble that they had been anxious to bring back to a good mind those Christians who had deserted the old customs of their forefathers when however they saw that the result had been that many ceased to worship the god of the Christians without returning to the due service of their country's gods they thought at most accorded with their well-known clemency and tolerance again to permit Christians to meet for worship so that they did nothing contrary to the peace and good order of the state they felt sure that the Christians being now hurt by no persecution would readily acknowledge the duty of praying to their own god for the emperors and the state that the empire might maintain itself intact and themselves live a peaceable life in their own homes Christianity was thus admitted to be a religio licita for nearly three centuries in actual existence it seemed best now that it could no longer be treated as an innovation which was to an antique Roman much the same as an impiety to attempt to adopt the god of the Christians among those who watched over the well-being of Rome the Cedic did not wholly put a stop to persecution in the Asiatic provinces but in the year 312 Constantine became master of the whole western empire Maxentius, the ruler of Italy at the Milvian bridge it was on his way to this decisive battle that he saw the sign in the heavens afterwards called the Liberum with the words in Tautonica Maximon, the other great opponent of Christianity, was not put down until the following year the result of the defeat of Maxentius was an edict published at Milan by Constantine and Licinius perhaps the most important ever issued by imperial authority in this the emperors give full liberty to all their subjects of adopting any form of worship by which the supreme divinity in the heavens may be propitiated to Christians in particular they grant absolute freedom of worship without any of the limiting conditions to which they had been subjected by previous edicts the churches were to be restored to their original owners without money whether they had been sold on their confiscation or granted freely to some favored person the emperors undertaking to reimburse those whose property was thus taken away the same law applied to other property which had belonged to Christian corporations all these provisions the emperors enjoined their officials to put in force with all completeness and dispatch End of Chapter 3, Part 1