The progress of the Christian religion, and the sentiments, manners, numbers, and condition of the primitive Christians
Importance of the inquiry
A CANDID but rational inquiry into the progress and
establishment of Christianity may be considered as a very
essential part of the history of the Roman empire. While
that great body was invaded by open violence, or undermined
by slow decay, a pure and humble religion gently insinuated
itself into the minds of men, grew up in silence and
obscurity, derived new vigour from opposition, and finally
erected the triumphant banner of the Cross on the ruins of
the Capitol. Nor was the influence of Christianity confined
to the period or to the limits of the Roman empire. After a
revolution of thirteen or fourteen centuries, that religion
is still professed by the nations of Europe, the most
distinguished portion of human kind in arts and learning as
well as in arms. By the industry and zeal of the Europeans
it has been widely diffused to the most distant shores of
Asia and Africa; and by the means of their colonies has been
firmly established from Canada to Chili, in a world unknown
to the ancients.
Its difficulties
But this inquiry, however useful or entertaining, is
attended with two peculiar difficulties. The scanty and
suspicious materials of ecclesiastical history seldom
enable us to dispel the dark cloud that hangs over the first
age of the church. The great law of
impartiality too often obliges us to reveal the
imperfections of the uninspired teachers and believers of
the Gospel; and, to a careless observer, their faults may
seem to cast a shade on the faith which they professed. But
the scandal of the pious Christian, and the fallacious
triumph of the Infidel, should cease as soon as they
recollect not only by whom, but likewise to whom, the Divine
Revelation was given. The theologian may indulge the pleasing
task of describing Religion as she descended from Heaven,
arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is
imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable
mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in long
residence upon earth, among a weak and degenerate race of
beings.
Five causes of the growth of Christianity
Our curiosity is naturally prompted to inquire by
what means the Christian faith obtained so remarkable a
victory over the established religions of the earth. To this
inquiry an obvious but unsatisfactory answer may be
returned; that it was owing to the convincing evidence of
the doctrine itself, and to the ruling providence of its
great Author. But as truth and reason seldom find so
favourable a reception in the world, and as the wisdom of
Providence frequently condescends to use the passions of the
human heart, and the general circumstances of mankind, as
instruments to execute its purpose, we may still be
permitted, though with becoming submission, to ask, not
indeed what were the first, but what were the secondary
causes of the rapid growth of the Christian church? It will,
perhaps, appear that it was most effectually favoured and
assisted by the five following causes:I. The inflexible,
and, if we may use the expression, the intolerant zeal of
the Christians, derived, it is true, from the Jewish
religion, but purified from the narrow and unsocial spirit
which, instead of inviting, had deterred the Gentiles from
embracing the law of Moses. II. The doctrine of a future
life, improved by every additional circumstance which could
give weight and efficacy to that important truth. III.The
miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive church. IV. The
pure and austere morals of the Christians. V. The union and
discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually formed
an independent and increasing state in the heart of the
Roman empire.
I. THE FIRST CAUSE
Zeal of the Jews
We have already described the religious harmony of the
ancient world, and the facility with which the most
different and even hostile nations embraced, or at least
respected, each other's superstitions. A single people
refused to join in the common intercourse of mankind. The
Jews, who, under the Assyrian and Persian monarchies, had
languished for many ages the most despised portion of their
slaves, (1) emerged from obscurity under the successors of
Alexander; and as they multiplied to a surprising degree in
the East, and afterwards in the West, they soon excited the
curiosity and wonder of other nations. (2) The sullen
obstinacy with which they maintained their peculiar rites
and unsocial manners seemed to mark them out a distinct
species of men, who boldly professed, or who faintly
disguised, their implacable hatred to the rest of humankind.
(3) Neither the violence of Antiochus, nor the arts of Herod,
nor the example of the circumjacent nations, could ever
persuade the Jews to associate with the institutions of
Moses the elegant mythology of the Greeks. (4) According to
the maxims of universal toleration, the Romans protected a
superstition which they despised. (5) The polite Augustus
condescended to give orders that sacrifices should be
offered for his prosperity in the temple of Jerusalem; (6)
while the meanest of the posterity of Abraham, who should
have paid the same homage to the Jupiter of the Capitol,
would have been an object of abhorrence to himself and to
his brethren. But the moderation of the conquerors was
insufficient to appease the jealous prejudices of their
subjects, who were alarmed and scandalised at the ensigns of
paganism, which necessarily introduced themselves into a
Roman province. (7) The mad attempt of Caligula to place his
own statue in the temple of Jerusalem was defeated by the
unanimous resolution of a people who dreaded death much less
than such an idolatrous profanation. (8) Their attachment to
the law of Moses was equal to their detestation of foreign
religions. The current of zeal and devotion, as it was
contracted into a narrow channel, ran with the strength, and
sometimes with the fury, of a torrent.
Its gradual increase
This inflexible perseverance, which appeared so odious or so
ridiculous to the ancient world, assumes a more awful
character, since Providence has deigned to reveal to us the
mysterious history of the chosen people. But the devout and
even scrupulous attachment to the Mosaic religion, so
conspicuous among the Jews who lived under the second
temple, becomes still more surprising if it is compared with
the stubborn incredulity of their forefathers. When the law
was given in thunder from Mount Sinai; when the tides of the
ocean and the course of the planets were suspended for the
convenience of the Israelites; and when temporal rewards and
punishments were the immediate consequences of their piety
or disobedience, they perpetually relapsed into rebellion
against the visible majesty of their Divine King, placed the
idols of the nations in the sanctuary of Jehovah, and
imitated every fantastic ceremony that was practised in the
tents of the Arabs, or in the cities of Phoenicia. (9) As the
protection of Heaven was deservedly withdrawn from the
ungrateful race, their faith acquired a proportionable
degree of vigour and purity. The contemporaries of Moses and
Joshua had beheld with careless indifference the most
amazing miracles. Under the pressure of every calamity, the
belief of those miracles has preserved the Jews of a later
period from the universal contagion of idolatry; and in
contradiction to every known principle of the human mind,
that singular people seems to have yielded a stronger and
more ready assent to the traditions of their remote
ancestors than to the evidence of their own senses. (10)
Their religion better suited to defence rather than to conquest
The Jewish religion was admirably fitted for defence, but it
was never designed for conquest; and it seems probable that
the number of proselytes was never much superior to that of
apostates. The divine promises were originally made, and the
distinguishing rite of circumcision was enjoined, to a
single family. When the posterity of Abraham had multiplied
like the sands of the sea, the Deity, from whose mouth they
received a system of laws and ceremonies, declared himself
the proper and as it were the national God of Israel; and
with the most jealous care separated his favourite people
from the rest of mankind. The conquest of the land of Canaan
was accompanied with so many wonderful and with so many
bloody circumstances, that the victorious Jews were left in
a state of irreconcilable hostility with all their
neighbours. They had been commanded to extirpate some of the
most idolatrous tribes, and the execution of the Divine will
had seldom been retarded by the weakness of humanity. With
the other nations they were forbidden to contract any
marriages or alliances; and the prohibition of receiving
them into the congregation, which in some cases was
perpetual, almost always extended to the third, to the
seventh, or even to the tenth generation. The obligation of
preaching to the Gentiles the faith of Moses had never been
inculcated as a precept of the law, nor were the Jews
inclined to impose it on themselves as a voluntary duty.
In the admission of new citizens that unsocial people was
actuated by the selfish vanity of the Greeks rather than by
the generous policy of Rome. The descendants of Abraham were
flattered by the opinion that they alone were the heirs of
the covenant, and they were apprehensive of diminishing the
value of their inheritance by sharing it too easily with the
strangers of the earth. A larger acquaintance with mankind
extended their knowledge without correcting their
prejudices; and whenever the God of Israel acquired any new
votaries, he was much more indebted to the inconstant humour
of polytheism than to the active zeal of his own
missionaries. (11) The religion of Moses seems to be
instituted for a particular country as well as for a single
nation; and if a strict obedience had been paid to the order
that every male, three times in the year, should present
himself before the Lord Jehovah, it would have been
impossible that the Jews could ever have spread themselves
beyond the narrow limits of the promised land. (12) That
obstacle was indeed removed by the destruction of the temple
of Jerusalem; but the most considerable part of the Jewish
religion was involved in its destruction; and the Pagans,
who had long wondered at the strange report of an empty
sanctuary, (13) were at a loss to discover what could be the
object, or what could be the instruments, of a worship which
was destitute of temples and of altars, of priests and of
sacrifices. Yet even in their fallen state, the Jews, still
asserting their lofty and exclusive privileges, shunned,
instead of courting, the society of strangers. They still
insisted with inflexible rigour on those parts of the law
which it was in their power to practise. Their peculiar
distinctions of days, of meats, and a variety of trivial
though burdensome observances, were so many objects of
disgust and aversion for the other nations, to whose habits
and prejudices they were diametrically opposite. The painful
and even dangerous rite of circumcision was alone capable of
repelling a willing proselyte from the door of the
synagogue. (14)
More liberal zeal of Christianity
Under these circumstances, Christianity offered itself to
the world, armed with the strength of the Mosaic law, and
delivered from the weight of its fetters. An exclusive zeal
for the truth of religion and the unity of God was as
carefully inculcated in the new as in the ancient system:
and whatever was now revealed to mankind concerning the
nature and designs of the Supreme Being was fitted to
increase their reverence for that mysterious doctrine. The
divine authority of Moses and the prophets was admitted, and
even established, as the firmest basis of Christianity. From
the beginning of the world an uninterrupted series of
predictions had announced and prepared the long expected
coming of the Messiah, who, in compliance with the gross
apprehensions of the Jews, had been more frequently
represented under the character of a King and Conqueror,
than under that of a Prophet, a Martyr, and the Son of God.
By his expiatory sacrifice the imperfect sacrifices of the
temple were at once consummated and abolished. The
ceremonial law, which consisted only of types and figures,
was succeeded by a pure and spiritual worship, equally
adapted to all climates, as well as to every condition of
mankind; and to the initiation of blood, was substituted a
more harmless initiation of water. The promise of divine
favour, instead of being partially confined to the posterity
of Abraham, was universally proposed to the freeman and the
slave, to the Greek and to the barbarian, to the Jew and to
the Gentile. Every privilege that could raise the proselyte
from earth to heaven, that could exalt his devotion, secure
his happiness, or even gratify that secret pride which,
under the semblance of devotion, insinuates itself into the
human heart, was still reserved for the members of the
Christian church; but at the same time all mankind was
permitted, and even solicited, to accept the glorious
distinction, which was not only proffered as a favour, but
imposed as an obligation. It became the most sacred duty of
a new convert to diffuse among his friends and relations the
inestimable blessing which he had received, and to warn them
against a refusal that would be severely punished as a
criminal disobedience to the will of a benevolent but all
powerful Deity.
Obstinancy and reasons of the believing Jews
The enfranchisement of the church from the bonds of the
synagogue was a work, however, of some time and of some
difficulty. The Jewish converts, who acknowledged Jesus in
the character of the Messiah foretold by their ancient
oracles, respected him as a prophetic teacher of virtue and
religion; but they obstinately adhered to the ceremonies of
their ancestors, and were desirous of imposing them on the
Gentiles, who continually augmented the number of believers.
These Judaising Christians seem to have argued with some
degree of plausibility from the Divine origin of the Mosaic
law, and from the immutable perfections of its great Author.
They affirmed, that, if the Being who is the same through
all eternity had designed to abolish those sacred rites
which had served to distinguish his chosen people, the
repeal of them would have been no less clear and solemn than
their first promulgation: that, instead of those frequent
declarations which either suppose or assert the perpetuity
of the Mosaic religion, it would have been represented as a
provisionary scheme intended to last only till the coming of
the Messiah, who should instruct mankind in a more perfect
mode of faith and of worship: (15) that the Messiah himself,
and his disciples who conversed with him on earth, instead
of authorising by their example the most minute observances
of the Mosaic law, (16) would have published to the world the
abolition of those useless and obsolete ceremonies, without
suffering Christianity to remain during so many years
obscurely confounded among the sects of the Jewish church.
Arguments like these appear to have been used in the defence
of the expiring cause of the Mosaic law; but the industry of
our learned divines has abundantly explained the ambiguous
language of the Old Testament, and the ambiguous conduct of
the apostolic teachers. It was proper gradually to unfold
the system of the Gospel, and to pronounce with the utmost
caution and tenderness a sentence of condemnation so
repugnant to the inclination and prejudices of the believing
Jews.
The Nazarene church of Jerusalem
The history of the church of Jerusalem affords a lively
proof of the necessity of those precautions, and of the deep
impression which the Jewish religion had made on the minds
of its sectaries. The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem
were all circumcised Jews; and the congregation over which
they presided united the law of Moses with the doctrine of
Christ. (17) It was natural that the primitive tradition of a
church which was founded only forty days after the death of
Christ, and was governed almost as many years under the
immediate inspection of his apostle, should be received as
the standard of orthodoxy. (18) The distant churches very
frequently appealed to the authority of their venerable
Parent, and relieved her distresses by a liberal
contribution of alms. But when numerous and opulent
societies were established in the great cities of the
empire, in Antioch, Alexandria, Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome,
the reverence which Jerusalem had inspired to all the
Christian colonies insensibly diminished. The Jewish
converts, or, as they were afterwards called, the Nazarenes,
who had laid the foundations of the church, soon found
themselves overwhelmed by the increasing multitudes that
from all the various religions of polytheism enlisted under
the banner of Christ: and the Gentiles, who, with the
approbation of their peculiar apostle, had rejected the
intolerable weight of Mosaic ceremonies, at length refused
to their more scrupulous brethren the same toleration which
at first they had humbly solicited for their own practice.
The ruin of the temple, of the city, and of the public
religion of the Jews, was severely felt by the Nazarenes; as
in their manners, though not in their faith, they maintained
so intimate a connection with their impious countrymen,
whose misfortunes were attributed by the Pagans to the
contempt, and more justly ascribed by the Christians to the
wrath, of the Supreme Deity. The Nazarenes retired from the
ruins of Jerusalem to the little town of Pella beyond the
Jordan, where that ancient church languished above sixty
years in solitude and obscurity. (19) They still enjoyed the
comfort of making frequent and devout visits to the Holy
City, and the hope of being one day restored to those seats
which both nature and religion taught them to love as well
as to revere. But at length, under the reign of Hadrian, the
desperate fanaticism of the Jews filled up the measure of
their calamities; and the Romans, exasperated by their
repeated rebellions, exercised the rights of victory with
unusual rigour. The emperor founded, under the name of Alia
Capitolina, a new city on Mount Sion, (20) to which he gave
the privileges of a colony; and denouncing the severest
penalties against any of the Jewish people who should dare
to approach its precincts, he fixed a vigilant garrison of a
Roman cohort to enforce the execution of his orders. The
Nazarenes had only one way left to escape the common
proscription, and the force of truth was on this occasion
assisted by the influence of temporal advantages. They
elected Marcus for their bishop, a prelate of the race of
the Gentiles, and most probably a native either of Italy or
of some of the Latin provinces. At his persuasion the most
considerable part of the congregation renounced the Mosaic
law, in the practice of which they had persevered above a
century. By this sacrifice of their habits and prejudices
they purchased a free admission into the colony of Hadrian,
and more firmly cemented their union with the Catholic
church. (21)
The Ebionites
When the name and honours of the church of Jerusalem had
been restored to Mount Sion, the crimes of heresy and schism
were imputed to the obscure remnant of the Nazarenes which
refused to accompany their Latin bishop. They still
preserved their former habitation of Pella, spread
themselves into the villages adjacent to Damascus, and
formed an inconsiderable church in the city of Bercea, or,
as it is now called, of Aleppo, in Syria. (22) The name of
Nazarenes was deemed too honourable for those Christian
Jews, and they soon received, from the supposed poverty of
their understanding, as well as of their condition, the
contemptuous epithet of Ebionites. (23) In a few years after
the return of the church of Jerusalem, it became a matter of
doubt and controversy whether a man who sincerely
acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, but who still continued
to observe the law of Moses, could possibly hope for
salvation. The humane temper of Justin Martyr inclined him
to answer this question in the affirmative; and though he
expressed himself with the most guarded diffidence, he
ventured to determine in favour of such an imperfect
Christian, if he were content to practise the Mosaic
ceremonies without pretending to assert their general use or
necessity. But when Justin was pressed to declare the
sentiment of the church, he confessed that there were very
many among the orthodox Christians who not only excluded
their Judaising brethren from the hope of salvation, but who
declined any intercourse with them in the common offices of
friendship, hospitality, and social life. (24) The more
rigorous opinion prevailed, as it was natural to expect,
over the milder; and an eternal bar of separation was fixed
between the disciples of Moses and those of Christ. The
unfortunate Ebionites, rejected from one religion as
apostates, and from the other as heretics, found themselves
compelled to assume a more decided character; and although
some traces of that obsolete sect may be discovered as late
as the fourth century, they insensibly melted away either
into the church or the synagogue. (25)
The Gnostics
While the orthodox church preserved a just medium between
excessive veneration and improper contempt for the law of
Moses, the various heretics deviated into equal but opposite
extremes of error and extravagance. From the acknowledged
truth of the Jewish religion, the Ebionites had concluded
that it could never be abolished. From its supposed
imperfections, the Gnostics as hastily inferred that it
never was instituted by the wisdom of the Deity. There are
some objections against the authority of Moses and the
prophets which too readily present themselves to the
sceptical mind; though they can only be derived from our
ignorance of remote antiquity, and from our incapacity to
form an adequate judgment of the Divine economy. These
objections were eagerly embraced and as petulantly urged by
the vain science of the Gnostics. (26) As those heretics were,
for the most part, averse to the pleasures of sense, they
morosely arraigned the polygamy of the patriarchs, the
gallantries of David, and the seraglio of Solomon. The
conquest of the land of Canaan, and the extirpation of the
unsuspecting natives, they were at a loss how to reconcile
with the common notions of humanity and justice. But when
they recollected the sanguinary list of murders, of
executions, and of massacres, which stain almost every page
of the Jewish annals, they acknowledged that the barbarians
of Palestine had exercised as much compassion towards their
idolatrous enemies as they had ever shown to their friends
or countrymen. (27) Passing from the sectaries of the law
itself, they asserted that it was impossible that a religion
which consisted only of bloody sacrifices and trifling
ceremonies, and whose rewards as well as punishments were
all of a carnal and temporal nature, could inspire the love
of virtue, or restrain the impetuosity of passion. The
Mosaic account of the creation and fall of man was treated
with profane derision by the Gnostics, who would not listen
with patience to the repose of the Deity after six days
labour, to the rib of Adam, the garden of Eden, the trees of
life and of knowledge, the speaking serpent, the forbidden
fruit, and the condemnation pronounced against human kind
for the venial offence of their first progenitors. (28) The
God of Israel was impiously represented by the Gnostics as a
being liable to passion and to error, capricious in his
favour, implacable in his resentment, meanly jealous of his
superstitious worship, and confining his partial providence
to a single people, and to this transitory life. In such a
character they could discover none of the features of the
wise and omnipotent Father of the universe. (29) They allowed
that the religion of the Jews was somewhat less criminal
than the idolatry of the Gentiles: but it was their
fundamental doctrine that the Christ whom they adored as the
first and brightest emanation of the Deity appeared upon
earth to rescue mankind from their various errors, and to
reveal a new system of truth and perfection. The most
learned of the fathers, by a very singular condescension,
have imprudently admitted the sophistry of the Gnostics.
Acknowledging that the literal sense is repugnant to every
principle of faith as well as reason, they deem themselves
secure and invulnerable behind the ample veil of allegory,
which they carefully spread over every tender part of the
Mosaic dispensation. (30)
Their sects, progress and influence
It has been remarked with more ingenuity than truth that the
virgin purity of the church was never violated by schism or
heresy before the reign of Trajan or Hadrian, about one
hundred years after the death of Christ. (31) We may observe
with much more propriety that, during that period, the
disciples of the Messiah were indulged in a freer latitude
both of faith and practice than has ever been allowed in
succeeding ages. As the terms of communion were insensibly
narrowed, and the spiritual authority of the prevailing
party was exercised with increasing severity, many of its
most respectable adherents, who were called upon to
renounce, were provoked to assert their private opinions, to
pursue the consequences of their mistaken principles, and
openly to erect the standard of rebellion against the unity
of the church. The Gnostics were distinguished as the most
polite, the most learned, and the most wealthy of the
Christian name; and that general appellation, which
expressed a superiority of knowledge, was either assumed by
their own pride, or ironically bestowed by the envy of their
adversaries. They were almost without exception of the race
of the Gentiles, and their principal founders seem to have
been natives of Syria or Egypt, where the warmth of the
climate disposes both the mind and the body to indolent and
contemplative devotion. The Gnostics blended with the faith
of Christ many sublime but obscure tenets, which they
derived from oriental philosophy, and even from the religion
of Zoroaster, concerning the eternity of matter, the
existence of two principles, and the mysterious hierarchy of
the invisible world. (32) As soon as they launched out into
that vast abyss, they delivered themselves to the guidance
of a disordered imagination; and as the paths of error are
various and infinite, the Gnostics were imperceptibly
divided into more than fifty particular sects, (33) of whom
the most celebrated appear to have been the Basilidians, the
Valentinians, the Marcionites, and, in a still later period,
the Manichaeans. Each of these sects could boast of its
bishops and congregations, of its doctors and martyrs; (34)
and, instead of the Four Gospels adopted by the church the
heretics produced a multitude of histories in which the
actions and discourses of Christ and of his apostles were
adapted to their respective tenets. (35) The success of the
Gnostics was rapid and extensive. (36) They covered Asia and
Egypt, established themselves in Rome, and sometimes
penetrated into the provinces of the West. For the most part
they arose in the second century, flourished during the
third, and were suppressed in the fourth or fifth, by the
prevalence of more fashionable controversies, and by the
superior ascendant of the reigning power. Though they
constantly disturbed the peace, and frequently disgraced the
name of religion, they contributed to assist rather than to
retard the progress of Christianity. The Gentile converts,
whose strongest objections and prejudices were directed
against the law of Moses, could find admission into many
Christian societies, which required not from their untutored
mind any belief of an antecedent revelation. Their faith was
insensibly fortified and enlarged, and the church was
ultimately benefited by the conquests of its most inveterate
enemies. (37)
The daemons considered as the gods of antiquity
But whatever difference of opinion might subsist between the
Orthodox, the Ebionites, and the Gnostics, concerning the
divinity or the obligation of the Mosaic law, they were all
equally animated by the same exclusive zeal, and by the same
abhorrence for idolatry, which had distinguished the Jews
from the other nations of the ancient world. The
philosopher, who considered the system of polytheism as a
composition of human fraud and error, could disguise a smile
of contempt under the mask of devotion, without apprehending
that either the mockery or the compliance would expose him
to the resentment of any invisible, or, as he conceived
them, imaginary powers. But the established religions of
Paganism were seen by the primitive Christians in a much
more odious and formidable light. It was the universal
sentiment both of the church and of heretics, that the
daemons were the authors, the patrons, and the objects of
idolatry. (38) Those rebellious spirits who had been degraded
from the rank of angels, and cast down into the infernal
pit, were still permitted to roam upon earth, to torment the
bodies and to seduce the minds of sinful men. The daemons
soon discovered and abused the natural propensity of the
human heart towards devotion and, artfully withdrawing the
adoration of mankind from their Creator, they usurped the
place and honours of the Supreme Deity. By the success of
their malicious contrivances, they at once gratified their
own vanity and revenge, and obtained the only comfort of
which they were yet susceptible, the hope of involving the
human species in the participation of their guilt and
misery. It was confessed, or at least it was imagined, that
they had distributed among themselves the most important
characters of polytheism, one daemon assuming the name and
attributes of Jupiter, another of Aesculapius, a third of
Venus, and a fourth perhaps of Apollo; (39) and that, by the
advantage of their long experience and aerial nature, they
were enabled to execute, with sufficient skill and dignity,
the parts which they had undertaken. They lurked in the
temples, instituted festivals and sacrifices, invented
fables, pronounced oracles, and were frequently allowed to
perform miracles. The Christians, who, by the interposition
of evil spirits, could so readily explain every
preternatural appearance, were disposed and even desirous to
admit the most extravagant fictions of the Pagan mythology.
But the belief of the Christian was accompanied with horror.
The most trifling mark of respect to the national worship he
considered as a direct homage yielded to the daemon, and as
an act of rebellion against the majesty of God.
Abhorrence of the Christians for idoltary
In consequence of this opinion, it was the first but arduous
duty of a Christian to preserve himself pure and undefiled
by the practice of idolatry. The religion of the nations was
not merely a speculative doctrine professed in the schools
or preached in the temples. The innumerable deities and
rites of polytheism were closely interwoven with every
circumstance of business or pleasure, of public or of
private life, and it seemed impossible to escape the
observance of them, without, at the same time, renouncing
the commerce of mankind, and all the offices and amusements
of society. (40)Ceremonies The important transactions of peace and war were prepared or concluded by solemn sacrifices, in which
the magistrate, the senator, and the soldier were obliged to preside or to participate. (41) The public spectacles were an essential part of the cheerful devotion of the Pagans, and the gods were supposed to accept, as the most grateful offering, the games that the prince and people celebrated in honour of their peculiar festivals. (42) The Christian, who with pious horror avoided the abomination of the circus or the theatre, found himself encompassed with infernal snares in every convivial entertainment, as often as his friends, invoking the hospitable deities, poured out libations to each others happiness. (43) When the bride, struggling with well affected reluctance, was forced in hymenal pomp over the threshold of her new habitation, (44) or when the sad procession of the dead slowly moved towards the funeral pile, (45) the Christian, on these interesting occasions, was compelled to desert the persons who were the dearest to him,
rather than contract the guilt inherent to those impious ceremonies. ArtsEvery art and every trade that was in the least concerned in the framing or adorning of idols was polluted
by the stain of idolatry; (46) a severe sentence, since it devoted to eternal misery the far greater part of the community which is employed in the exercise of liberal or mechanic professions. If we cast our eyes over the numerous remains of antiquity we shall perceive that, besides the immediate representations of the gods and the holy instruments of their worship, the elegant forms and agreeable fictions consecrated by the imagination of the Greeks were introduced as the richest ornaments of the houses, the dress, and the furniture of the Pagans. (47) Even
the arts of music and painting of eloquence and poetry,
flowed from the same impure origin. In the style of the
fathers, Apollo and the Muses were the organs of the
infernal spirit; Homer and Virgil were the most eminent of
his servants; and the beautiful mythology which pervades and
animates the compositions of their genius is destined to
celebrate the glory of the daemons. Even the common language
of Greece and Rome abounded with familiar but impious
expressions, which the imprudent Christian might too
carelessly utter, or too patiently hear. (48)
Festivals
The dangerous temptations which on every side lurked in
ambush to surprise the unguarded believer assailed him with
redoubled violence on the days of solemn festivals. So
artfully were they framed and disposed throughout the year,
that superstition always wore the appearance of pleasure,
and often of virtue. (49) Some of the most sacred festivals in
the Roman ritual were destined to salute the new calends of
January with vows of public and private felicity; to indulge
the pious remembrance of the dead and living to ascertain
the inviolable bounds of property; to hail, on the return of
spring, the genial powers of fecundity; to perpetuate the
two memorable eras of Rome, the foundation of the city, and
that of the republic; and to restore, during the humane
licence of the Saturnalia, the primitive equality of
mankind. Some idea may be conceived of the abhorrence of the
Christians for such impious ceremonies, by the scrupulous
delicacy which they displayed on a much less alarming
occasion. On days of general festivity it was the custom of
the ancients to adorn their doors with lamps and with
branches of laurel, and to crown their heads with a garland
of flowers. This innocent and elegant practice might perhaps
have been tolerated as a mere civil institution. But it most
unluckily happened that the doors were under the protection
of the household gods, that the laurel was sacred to the
lover of Daphne, and that garlands of flowers, though
frequently worn as a symbol either of joy or mourning, had
been dedicated in their first origin to the service of
superstition. The trembling Christians, who were persuaded
in this instance to comply with the fashion of their country
and the commands of the magistrate, laboured under the most
gloomy apprehensions, from the reproaches of their own
conscience, the censures of the church, and the
denunciations of divine vengeance. (50)
Zeal for Christianity
Such was the anxious diligence which was required to guard
the chastity of the Gospel from the infectious breath of
idolatry. The superstitious observances of public or private
rites were carelessly practised, from education and habit,
by the followers of the established religion. But as often
as they occurred, they afforded the Christians an
opportunity of declaring and confirming their zealous
opposition. By these frequent protestations their attachment
to the faith was continually fortified; and in proportion to
the increase of zeal, they combated with the more ardour and
success in the holy war which they had undertaken against
the empire of the daemons.
II. THE SECOND CAUSE
The doctrine of the immortality of the soul among the philosophers
The writings of Cicero (51) represent in the most lively colours the ignorance, the errors, and the uncertainty of the ancient philosophers with regard to the immortality of
the soul. When they are desirous of arming their disciples
against the fear of death, they inculcate, as an obvious
though melancholy position, that the fatal stroke of our
dissolution releases us from the calamities of life; and
that those can no longer suffer who no longer exist. Yet
there were a few sages of Greece and Rome who had conceived
a more exalted, and, in some respects, a juster idea of
human nature, though it must be confessed that, in the
sublime inquiry, their reason had been often guided by their
imagination, and that their imagination had been prompted by
their vanity. When they viewed with complacency the extent
of their own mental powers, when they exercised the various
faculties of memory, of fancy, and of judgment, in the most
profound speculations or the most important labours, and
when they reflected on the desire of fame, which transported
them into future ages, far beyond the bounds of death and of
the grave, they were unwilling to confound themselves with
the beasts of the field, or to suppose that a being, for
whose dignity they entertained the most sincere admiration,
could be limited to a spot of earth, and to a few years of
duration. With this favourable prepossession they summoned
to their aid the science, or rather the language, of
Metaphysics. They soon discovered that, as none of the
properties of matter will apply to the operations of the
mind, the human soul must consequently be a substance
distinct from the body, pure, simple, and spiritual,
incapable of dissolution, and susceptible of a much higher
degree of virtue and happiness after the release from its
corporeal prison. From these specious and noble principles
the philosophers who trod in the footsteps of Plato deduced
a very unjustifiable conclusion, since they asserted, not
only the future immortality, but the past eternity of the
human soul, which they were too apt to consider as a portion
of the infinite and self-existing spirit which pervades and
sustains the universe. (52) A doctrine thus removed beyond the
senses and the experience of mankind might serve to amuse
the leisure of a philosophic mind; or, in the silence of
solitude, it might sometimes impart a ray of comfort to
desponding virtue; but the faint impression which had been
received in the schools was soon obliterated by the commerce
and business of active life. We are sufficiently acquainted
with the eminent persons who flourished in the age of Cicero
and of the first Caesars, with their actions, their
characters, and their motives, to be assured that their
conduct in this life was never regulated by any serious
conviction of the rewards or punishments of a future state.
At the bar and in the senate of Rome the ablest orators were
not apprehensive of giving offence to their hearers by
exposing that doctrine as an idle and extravagant opinion,
which was rejected with contempt by every man of a liberal
education and understanding. (53)
among the Pagans of Greece and Rome;
Since therefore the most sublime efforts of philosophy can extend no farther than feebly to point out the desire, the hope, or, at most, the probability of a future state, there is nothing, except a divine revelation that can ascertain the existence and describe the condition of the invisible country which is destined to receive the souls of men after their separation from the body. But we may perceive several defects inherent to the popular religions of Greece and Rome which rendered them very unequal to so arduous a task. 1 The general system of their mythology was unsupported by any solid proofs; and the wisest among the Pagans had already disclaimed its usurped authority. 2 The description of the infernal regions had been abandoned to the fancy of painters and of poets, who peopled them with so many phantoms and monsters who dispensed their rewards and punishments with so little equity, that a solemn truth, the most congenial to the human heart, was oppressed and disgraced by the absurd mixture of the wildest fictions. (54) 3 The doctrine of a future state was scarcely considered among the devout polytheists of Greece and Rome as a fundamental article of faith. The providence of the gods, as it related to public communities rather than to private individuals, was principally displayed on the visible theatre of the present world. The petitions which were offered on the altars of Jupiter or Apollo expressed the anxiety of their worshippers for temporal happiness, and their ignorance or indifference concerning a future life. (55) The important truth of the immortality of the soul was inculcated with more diligence as well as success in India, in Assyria, in Egypt, and in Gaul; among the barbarians; and since we cannot attribute such a difference to the superior knowledge of the barbarians, we must ascribe it to the influence of an established priesthood, which employed the motives of virtue as the instrument of ambition. (56)
among the Jews;
We might naturally expect that a principle so essential to religion would have been revealed in the clearest terms to the chosen people of Palestine, and that it might safely have been intrusted to the hereditary priesthood of Aaron. It is incumbent on us to adore the mysterious dispensations
of Providence, (57) when we discover that the doctrine of the
immortality of the soul is omitted in the law of Moses; it
is darkly insinuated by the prophets; and during the long
period which elapsed between the Egyptian and the Babylonian
servitudes, the hopes as well as fears of the Jews appear to
have been confined within the narrow compass of the present
life. (58) After Cyrus had permitted the exiled nation to
return into the promised land, and after Ezra had restored
the ancient records of their religion, two celebrated sects,
the Sadducees and the Pharisees, insensibly arose at
Jerusalem. (59) The former, selected from the more opulent and
distinguished ranks of society, were strictly attached to
the literal sense of the Mosaic law, and they piously
rejected the immortality of the soul as an opinion that
received no countenance from the divine book, which they
revered as the only rule of their faith. To the authority of
Scripture the Pharisees added that of tradition, and they
accepted, under the name of traditions, several speculative
tenets from the philosophy or religion of the eastern
nations. The doctrines of fate or predestination, of angels
and spirits, and of a future state of rewards and
punishments, were in the number of these new articles of
belief; and as the Pharisees, by the austerity of their
manners, had drawn into their party the body of the Jewish
people, the immortality of the soul became the prevailing
sentiment of the synagogue under the reign of the Asmonaean
princes and pontiffs. The temper of the Jews was incapable
of contenting itself with such a cold and languid assent as
might satisfy the mind of a Polytheist; and as soon as they
admitted the idea of a future state, they embraced it with
the zeal which has always formed the characteristic of the
nation. Their zeal, however, added nothing to its evidence,
or even probability; and it was still necessary that the
doctrine of life and immortality, which had been dictated by
nature, approved by reason, and received by superstition,
should obtain the sanction of divine truth from the
authority and example of Christ.
among the Christians
When the promise of eternal happiness was proposed to
mankind on condition of adopting the faith, and of observing
the precepts, of the Gospel, it is no wonder that so
advantageous an offer should have been accepted by great
numbers of every religion, of every rank, and of every
province in the Roman empire. The ancient Christians were
animated by a contempt for their present existence, and by a
just confidence of immortality, of which the doubtful and
imperfect faith of modern ages cannot give us any adequate
notion. Approaching end of the world. In the primitive church the influence of truth was
very powerfully strengthened by an opinion which, however it
may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, has
not been found agreeable to experience. It was universally
believed that the end of the world, and the kingdom of
heaven, were at hand. The near approach of this wonderful
event had been predicted by the apostles; the tradition of
it was preserved by their earliest disciples, and those who
understood in their literal sense the discourses of Christ
himself were obliged to expect the second and glorious
coming of the Son of Man in the clouds, before that
generation was totally extinguished which had beheld his
humble condition upon earth, and which might still be
witness of the calamities of the Jews under Vespasian or
Hadrian. The revolution of seventeen centuries has
instructed us not to press too closely the mysterious
language of prophecy and revelation; but as long as, for
wise purposes, this error was permitted to subsist in the
church, it was productive of the most salutary effects on
the faith and practice of Christians, who lived in the awful
expectation of that moment when the globe itself, and all
the various race of mankind, should tremble at the
appearance of their divine Judge. (60)
Doctrine of the Millenium.
The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium was
intimately connected with the second coming of Christ. As
the works of the creation had been finished in six days,
their duration in their present state, according to a
tradition which was attributed to the prophet Elijah, was
fixed to six thousand years. (61) By the same analogy it was
inferred that this long period of labour and contention,
which was now almost elapsed, (62) would be succeeded by a
joyful Sabbath of a thousand years; and that Christ, with
the triumphant band of the saints and the elect who had
escaped death, or who had been miraculously revived, would
reign upon earth till the time appointed for the last and
general resurrection. So pleasing was this hope to the mind
of believers, that the new Jerusalem, the seat of this
blissful kingdom, was quickly adorned with all the gayest
colours of the imagination. A felicity consisting only of
pure and spiritual pleasure would have appeared too refined
for its inhabitants, who were still supposed to possess
their human nature and senses. A garden of Eden, with the
amusements of the pastoral life, was no longer suited to the
advanced state of society which prevailed under the Roman
empire. A city was therefore erected of gold and precious
stones, and a supernatural plenty of corn and wine was
bestowed on the adjacent territory; in the free enjoyment of
whose spontaneous productions the happy and benevolent
people was never to be restrained by any jealous laws of
exclusive property. (63) The assurance of such a Millennium
was carefully inculcated by a succession of fathers from
Justin Martyr (64) and Irenaeus, who conversed with the
immediate disciples of the apostles, down to Lactantius, who
was preceptor to the son of Constantine. (65) Though it might
not be universally received, it appears to have been the
reigning sentiment of the orthodox believers; and it seems
so well adapted to the desires and apprehensions of mankind,
that it must have contributed in a very considerable degree
to the progress of the Christian faith. But when the edifice
of the church was almost completed, the temporary support
was laid aside. The doctrine of Christ's reign upon earth
was at first treated as a profound allegory, was considered
by degrees as a doubtful and useless opinion, and was at
length rejected as the absurd invention of heresy and
fanaticism. (66) A mysterious prophecy, which still forms a
part of the sacred canon, but which was thought to favour
the exploded sentiment, has very narrowly escaped the
proscription of the church. (67)
Conflagration of Rome and of the world
Whilst the happiness and glory of a temporal reign were
promised to the disciples of Christ, the most dreadful
calamities were denounced against an unbelieving world. The
edification of the new Jerusalem was to advance by equal
steps with the destruction of the mystic Babylon; and as
long as the emperors who reigned before Constantine
persisted in the profession of idolatry, the epithet of
Babylon was applied to the city and to the empire of Rome. A
regular series was prepared of all the moral and physical
evils which can afflict a flourishing nation; intestine
discord, and the invasion of the fiercest barbarians from
the unknown regions of the North; pestilence and famine,
comets and eclipses, earthquakes and inundations. (68) All
these were only so many preparatory and alarming signs of
the great catastrophe of Rome, when the country of the
Scipios and Caesars should be consumed by a flame from
Heaven, and the city of the seven hills, with her palaces,
her temples, and her triumphal arches, should be buried in a
vast lake of fire and brimstone. It might, however, afford
some consolation to Roman vanity, that the period of their
empire would be that of the world itself; which as it had
once perished by the element of water, was destined to
experience a second and a speedy destruction from the
element of fire. In the opinion of a general conflagration
the faith of the Christian very happily coincided with the
tradition of the East, the philosophy of the Stoics, and the
analogy of Nature; and even the country which, from
religious motives, had been chosen for the origin and
principal scene of the conflagration, was the best adapted
for that purpose by natural and physical causes by its deep
caverns, beds of sulphur, and numerous volcanoes, of which
those of Etna, of Vesuvius, and of Lipari exhibit a very
imperfect representation. The calmest and most intrepid
sceptic could not refuse to acknowledge that the destruction
of the present system of the world by fire was in itself
extremely probable. The Christian, who founded his belief
much less on the fallacious arguments of reason than on the
authority of tradition and the interpretation of Scripture,
expected it with terror and confidence as a certain and
approaching event; and as his mind was perpetually filled
with the solemn idea, he considered every disaster that
happened to the empire as an infallible symptom of an
expiring world. (69)
The Pagans devoted to eternal punishment.
The condemnation of the wisest and most virtuous of the
Pagans, on account of their ignorance or disbelief of the
divine truth, seems to offend the reason and the humanity of
the present age. (70) But the primitive church, whose faith
was of a much firmer consistence, delivered over, without
hesitation, to eternal torture the far greater part of the
human species. A charitable hope might perhaps be indulged
in favour of Socrates, or some other sages of antiquity, who
had consulted the light of reason before that of the Gospel
had arisen. (71) But it was unanimously affirmed that those
who, since the birth or the death of Christ, had obstinately
persisted in the worship of the daemons, neither deserved
nor could expect a pardon from the irritated justice of the
Deity. These rigid sentiments, which had been unknown to the
ancient world, appear to have infused a spirit of bitterness
into a system of love and harmony. The ties of blood and
friendship were frequently torn asunder by the difference of
religious faith; and the Christians, who, in this world,
found themselves oppressed by the power of the Pagans, were
sometimes seduced by resentment and spiritual pride to
delight in the prospect of their future triumph.
"You are fond of spectacles," exclaims the stern Tertullian, "expect the greatest of all spectacles, the last and eternal judgment of the universe. How shall I admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many proud monarchs, and fancied gods, groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness; so many magistrates, who persecuted the name of the Lord, liquefying in fiercer fires than they ever kindled against the Christians; so many sage philosophers blushing in red hot flames with their deluded scholars; so many celebrated poets trembling before the tribunal, not of Minos, but of Christ; so many tragedians, more tuneful in the expression of their own sufferings; so many dancers — "
But the humanity of the reader will permit me to draw a veil over the rest of this infernal description, which the zealous African pursues in a long variety of affected and unfeeling witticisms. (72)
Were often converted by their fears.
Doubtless there were many among the primitive Christians of
a temper more suitable to the meekness and charity of their
profession. There were many who felt a sincere compassion
for the danger of their friends and countrymen, and who
exerted the most benevolent zeal to save them from the
impending destruction. The careless Polytheist, assailed by
new and unexpected terrors, against which neither his
priests nor his philosophers could afford him any certain
protection, was very frequently terrified and subdued by the
menace of eternal tortures. His fears might assist the
progress of his faith and reason; and if he could once
persuade himself to suspect that the Christian religion
might possibly be true, it became an easy task to convince
him that it was the safest and most prudent party that he
could possibly embrace.
III. THE THIRD CAUSE
Miraculous powers of the primitive church.
The supernatural gifts, which even in this life were
ascribed to the Christians above the rest of mankind, must
have conduced to their own comfort, and very frequently to
the conviction of infidels. Besides the occasional
prodigies, which might sometimes be effected by the
immediate interposition of the Deity when he suspended the
laws of Nature for the service of religion, the Christian
church, from the time of the apostles and their first
disciples, (73) has claimed an uninterrupted succession of miraculous powers, the gift of tongues, of vision, and of prophecy, the power of expelling daemons, of healing the
sick, and of raising the dead. The knowledge of foreign
languages was frequently communicated to the contemporaries
of Irenaeus, though Irenecus himself was left to struggle
with the difficulties of a barbarous dialect whilst he
preached the Gospel to the natives of Gaul. (74) The divine
inspiration, whether it was conveyed in the form of a waking
or of a sleeping vision, is described as a favour very
liberally bestowed on all ranks of the faithful, on women as
on elders, on boys as well as upon bishops. When their
devout minds were sufficiently prepared by a course of
prayer, of fasting, and of vigils, to receive the
extraordinary impulse, they were transported out of their
senses, and delivered in ecstasy that was inspired, being
mere organs of the Holy Spirit, just as a pipe or flute is
of him who blows into it. (75) We may add that the design of
these visions was, for the most part, either to disclose the
future history, or to guide the present administration, of
the church. The expulsion of the daemons from the bodies of
those unhappy persons whom they had been permitted to
torment was considered as a signal though ordinary triumph
of religion, and is repeatedly alleged by the ancient
apologists as the most convincing evidence of the truth of
Christianity. The awful ceremony was usually performed in a
public manner, and in the presence of a great number of
spectators; the patient was relieved by the power or skill
of the exorcist, and the vanquished daemon was heard to
confess that he was one of the fabled gods of antiquity, who
had impiously usurped the adoration of mankind. (76) But the
miraculous cure of diseases of the most inveterate or even
preternatural kind can no longer occasion any surprise, when
we recollect that in the days of Irenaeus, about the end of
the second century, the resurrection of the dead was very
far from being esteemed an uncommon event; that the miracle
was frequently performed on necessary occasions, by great
fasting and the joint supplication of the church of the
place, and that the persons thus restored to their prayers
had lived afterwards among them many years. (77) At such a
period, when faith could boast of so many wonderful
victories over death, it seems difficult to account for the
scepticism of those philosophers who still rejected and
derided the doctrine of the resurrection. A noble Grecian
had rested on this important ground the whole controversy,
and promised Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, that, if he
could be gratified with the sight of a single person who had
been actually raised from the dead, he would immediately
embrace the Christian religion. It is somewhat remarkable
that the prelate of the first eastern church, however
anxious for the conversion of his friend, thought proper to
decline this fair and reasonable challenge. (78)
Their truth contested.
The miracles of the primitive church, after obtaining the
sanction of ages, have been lately attacked in a very free
and ingenious inquiry (79) which, though it has met with the
most favourable reception from the public, appears to have
excited a general scandal among the divines of our own as
well as of the other Protestant churches of Europe. (80) Our different sentiments on this subject will be much less influenced by any particular arguments than by our habits of study and reflection, and, above all, by the degree of the evidence which we have accustomed ourselves to require for the proof of a miraculous event. Our perplexity in defining the miraculous period. The duty of an historian does not call upon him to interpose his private judgment in this nice and important controversy; but he ought not to dissemble the difficulty of adopting such a theory as may
reconcile the interest of religion with that of reason, of making a proper application of that theory, and of defining with precision the limits of that happy period, exempt from error and from deceit, to which we might be disposed to extend the gift of supernatural powers. From the first of the fathers to the last of the popes, a succession of bishops, of saints, of martyrs, and of miracles, is continued without interruption; and the progress of superstition was so gradual and almost imperceptible, that we know not in what particular link we should break the chain of tradition. Every age bears testimony to the wonderful events by which it was distinguished, and its
testimony appears no less weighty and respectable than that of the preceding generation, till we are insensibly led on to accuse our own inconsistency if, in the eighth or in the twelfth century, we deny to the venerable Bede, or to the holy Bernard, the same degree of confidence which, in the second century, we had so liberally granted to Justin or to Irenaeus. (81) If the truth of any of those miracles is
appreciated by their apparent use and propriety, every age had unbelievers to convince, heretics to confute, and idolatrous nations to convert; and sufficient motives might always be produced to justify the interposition of Heaven. And yet, since every friend to revelation is persuaded of the reality, and every reasonable man is convinced of the cessation, of miraculous powers, it is evident that there must have been some period in which they were either suddenly or gradually withdrawn from the Christian church. Whatever era is chosen for that purpose, the death of the apostles, the conversion of the Roman empire, or the extinction of the Arian heresy, (82) the insensibility of the
Christians who lived at that time will equally afford a just matter of surprise. They still supported their pretensions after they had lost their power. Credulity performed the office of faith; fanaticism was permitted to assume the language of inspiration, and the effects of accident or contrivance were ascribed to supernatural causes. The recent experience of genuine miracles should have instructed the Christian world in the ways of Providence, and habituated their eye (if we may use a very inadequate expression) to the style of the Divine artist. Should the most skilful
painter of modern Italy presume to decorate his feeble imitations with the name of Raphael or of Correggio, the insolent fraud would be soon discovered and indignantly rejected.
Use of the primitive miracles.
Whatever opinion may be entertained of the miracles of the primitive church since the time of the apostles, this unresisting softness of temper, so conspicuous among the believers of the second and third centuries, proved of some accidental benefit to the cause of truth and religion. In modern times, a latent and even involuntary scepticism adheres to the most pious dispositions. Their admission of supernatural truths is much less an active consent than a cold and passive acquiescence. Accustomed long since to
observe and to respect the invariable order of Nature, our reason, or at least our imagination, is not sufficiently prepared to sustain the visible action of the Deity. But in the first ages of Christianity the situation of mankind was extremely different. The most curious, or the most credulous, among the Pagans were often persuaded to enter into a society which asserted an actual claim of miraculous powers. The primitive Christians perpetually trod on mystic ground, and their minds were exercised by the habits of believing the most extraordinary events. They felt, or they fancied, that on every side they were incessantly assaulted by daemons, comforted by visions, instructed by prophecy, and surprisingly delivered from danger, sickness, and from death itself, by the supplications of the church. The real or imaginary prodigies, of which they so frequently conceived themselves to be the objects, the instruments, or the spectators, very happily disposed them to adopt with the same ease, but with far greater justice, the authentic wonders of the evangelic history; and thus miracles that exceeded not the measure of their own experience inspired them with the most lively assurance of mysteries which were acknowledged to surpass the limits of their understanding. It is this deep impression of supernatural truths which has been so much celebrated under the name of faith; a state of mind described as the surest pledge of the Divine favour and of future felicity, and recommended as the first or perhaps the only merit of a Christian. According to the more rigid doctors, the moral virtues, which may be equally practised
by infidels, are destitute of any value or efficacy in the work of our justification.
IV.THE FOURTH CAUSE
Virtues of the first Christians.
But the primitive Christian demonstrated his faith by his virtues; and it was very justly supposed that the Divine persuasion, which enlightened or subdued the understanding, must at the same time purify the heart and direct the actions of the believer. The first apologists of Christianity who justify the innocence of their brethren, and the writers of a later period who celebrate the sanctity of their ancestors, display, in the most lively colours, the reformation of manners which was introduced into the world by the preaching of the Gospel. As it is my intention to remark only such human causes as were permitted to second the influence of revelation, I shall lightly mention two motives which might naturally render the lives of the
primitive Christians much purer and more austere than those of their Pagan contemporaries or their degenerate successors — repentance for their past sins, and the laudable desire of supporting the reputation of the society in which they were engaged.
Effects of their repentance
It is a very ancient reproach, suggested by the ignorance or
the malice of infidelity, that the Christians allured into
their party the most atrocious criminals, who, as soon as
they were touched by a sense of remorse, were easily
persuaded to wash away, in the water of baptism, the guilt
of their past conduct, for which the temples of the gods
refused to grant them any expiation. But this reproach, when
it is cleared from misrepresentation, contributes as much to
the honour as it did to the increase of the church. (83) The
friends of Christianity may acknowledge without a blush that
many of the most eminent saints had been before their
baptism the most abandoned sinners. Those persons who in the
world had followed, though in imperfect manner, the dictates
of benevolence and propriety, derived such a calm
satisfaction from the opinion of their own rectitude as
rendered them much less susceptible of the sudden emotions
of shame, of grief, and of terror, which have given birth to
so many wonderful conversions. After the example of their
Divine Master, the missionaries of the Gospel disdained not
the society of men, and especially of women, oppressed by
the consciousness, and very often by the effects, of their
vices. As they merged from sin and superstition to the
glorious hope of immortality, they resolved to devote
themselves to a life, not only of virtue, but of penitence.
The desire of perfection became the ruling passion of their
soul; and it is well known that, while reason embraces a
cold mediocrity, our passions hurry us with rapid violence
over the space which lies between the most opposite
extremes.
Care of their reputation
When the new converts had been enrolled in the number of the
faithful, and were admitted to the sacraments of the church,
they found themselves restrained from relapsing into their
past disorders by another consideration of a less spiritual
but of a very innocent and respectable nature. Any
particular society that has departed from the great body of
the nation, or the religion to which it belonged,
immediately becomes the object of universal as well as
invidious observation. In proportion to the smallness of its
numbers, the character of the society may be affected by the
virtue and vices of the persons who compose it; and every
member is engaged to watch with the most vigilant attention
over his own behaviour, and over that of his brethren,
since, as he must expect to incur part of the common
disgrace, he may hope to enjoy a share of the common
reputation. When the Christians of Bithynia were brought
before the tribunal of the younger Pliny, they assured the
proconsul that, far from being engaged in any unlawful
conspiracy, they were bound by a solemn obligation to
abstain from the commission of those crimes which disturb
the private or public peace of society, from theft, robbery,
adultery, perjury, and fraud. (84) Near a century afterwards,
Tertullian with an honest pride could boast that very few
Christians had suffered by the hand of the executioner,
except on account of their religion. (85) Their serious and
sequestered life, averse to the gay luxury of the age,
inured them to chastity, temperance, economy, and all the
sober and domestic virtues. As the greater number were of
some trade or profession, it was incumbent on them, by the
strictest integrity and the fairest dealing, to remove the
suspicions which the profane are too apt to conceive against
the appearances of sanctity. The contempt of the world
exercised them in the habits of humility, meekness, and
patience. The more they were persecuted, the more closely
they adhered to each other. Their mutual charity and
unsuspecting confidence has been remarked by infidels, and
was too often abused by perfidious friends. (86)
Morality of the fathers
It is a very honourable circumstance for the morals of the
primitive Christians, that even their faults, or rather
errors, were derived from an excess of virtue. The bishops
and doctors of the church, whose evidence attests, and whose
authority might influence, the professions, the principles,
and even the practice of their contemporaries, had studied
the Scriptures with less skill than devotion; and they often
received in the most literal sense those rigid precepts of
Christ and the apostles to which the prudence of succeeding
commentators has applied a looser and more figurative mode
of interpretation. Ambitious to exalt the perfection of the
Gospel above the wisdom of philosophy, the zealous fathers
have carried the duties of self-mortification, of purity,
and of patience, to a height which it is scarcely possible
to attain, and much less to preserve, in our present state
of weakness and corruption. A doctrine so extraordinary and
so sublime must inevitably command the veneration of the
people; but it was ill calculated to obtain the suffrage of
those worldly philosophers who, in the conduct of this
transitory life, consult only the feelings of nature and the
interest of society. (87)
Principles of human nature.
There are two very natural propensities which we may
distinguish in the most virtuous and liberal dispositions,
the love of pleasure and the love of action. If the former
is refined by art and learning, improved by the charms of
social intercourse, and corrected by a just regard to
economy, to health, and to reputation, it is productive of
the greatest part of the happiness of private life. The love
of action is a principle of a much stronger and more
doubtful nature. It often leads to anger, to ambition, and
to revenge; but when it is guided by the sense of propriety
and benevolence, it becomes the parent of every virtue, and,
if those virtues are accompanied with equal abilities, a
family, a state, or an empire may be indebted for their
safety and prosperity to the undaunted courage of a single
man. To the love of pleasure we may therefore ascribe most
of the agreeable, to the love of action we may attribute
most of the useful and respectable, qualifications. The
character in which both the one and the other should be
united and harmonised would seem to constitute the most
perfect idea of human nature. The insensible and inactive
disposition, which should be supposed alike destitute of
both, would be rejected, by the common consent of mankind,
as utterly incapable of procuring any happiness to the
individual, or any public benefit to the world. But it was
not in this world that the primitive Christians were
desirous of making themselves either agreeable or useful.
The primitive Christians condemn pleasure and luxury
The acquisition of knowledge, the exercise of our reason or
fancy, and the cheerful flow of unguarded conversation, may
employ the leisure of a liberal mind. Such amusements,
however, were rejected with abhorrence, or admitted with the
utmost caution, by the severity of the fathers, who despised
all knowledge that was not useful to salvation, and who
considered all levity of discourse as a criminal abuse of
the gift of speech. In our present state of existence the
body is so inseparably connected with the soul, that it
seems to be our interest to taste, with innocence and
moderation, the enjoyments of which that faithful companion
is susceptible. Very different was the reasoning of our
devout predecessors; vainly aspiring to imitate the
perfection of angels, they disdained, or they affected to
disdain, every earthly and corporeal delight. (88) Some of our
senses indeed are necessary for our preservation, others for
our subsistence, and others again for our information; and
thus far it was impossible to reject the use of them. The
first sensation of pleasure was marked as the first moment
of their abuse. The unfeeling candidate for heaven was
instructed, not only to resist the grosser allurements of
the taste or smell, but even to shut his ears against the
profane harmony of sounds, and to view with indifference the
most finished productions of human art. Gay apparel,
magnificent houses, and elegant furniture were supposed to
unite the double guilt of pride and of sensuality: a simple
and mortified appearance was more suitable to the Christian
who was certain of his sins and doubtful of his salvation.
In their censures of luxury the fathers are extremely minute
and circumstantial; (89) and among the various articles which
excite their pious indignation, we may enumerate false hair,
garments of any colour except white, instruments of music,
vases of gold or silver, downy pillows (as Jacob reposed his
head on a stone), white bread, foreign wines, public
salutations, the use of warm baths, and the practice of
shaving the beard, which, according to the expression of
Tertullian, is a lie against our own faces, and an impious
attempt to improve the works of the Creator. (90) When
Christianity was introduced among the rich and the polite,
the observation of these singular laws was left, as it would
be at present, to the few who were ambitious of superior
sanctity. But it is always easy, as well as agreeable, for
the inferior ranks of mankind to claim a merit from the
contempt of that pomp and pleasure which fortune has placed
beyond their reach. The virtue of the primitive Christians,
like that of the first Romans, was very frequently guarded
by poverty and ignorance.
Their sentiments concerning marriage and chastity.
The chaste severity of the fathers in whatever related to
the commerce of the two sexes flowed from the same principle
- their abhorrence of every enjoyment which might gratify
the sensual and degrade the spiritual nature of man. It was
their favourite opinion, that if Adam had preserved his
obedience to the Creator, he would have lived for ever in a
state of virgin purity, and that some harmless mode of
vegetation might have peopled paradise with a race of
innocent and immortal beings. (91) The use of marriage was
permitted only to his fallen posterity, as a necessary
expedient to continue the human species, and as a restraint,
however imperfect, on the natural licentiousness of desire.
The hesitation of the orthodox casuists on this interesting
subject betrays the perplexity of men unwilling to approve
an institution which they were compelled to tolerate. (92) The
enumeration of the very whimsical laws which they most
circumstantially imposed on the marriage-bed would force a
smile from the young and a blush from the fair. It was their
unanimous sentiment that a first marriage was adequate to
all the purposes of nature and of society. The sensual
connection was refined into a resemblance of the mystic
union of Christ with his church, and was pronounced to be
indissoluble either by divorce or by death. The practice of
second nuptials was branded with the name of a legal
adultery; and the persons who were guilty of so scandalous
an offence against Christian purity were soon excluded from
the honours, and even from the arms, of the church. (93) Since
desire was imputed as a crime, and marriage was tolerated as
a defect, it was consistent with the same principles to
consider a state of celibacy as the nearest approach to the
Divine perfection. It was with the utmost difficulty that
ancient Rome could support the institution of six vestals ;
(94) but the primitive church was filled with a great number
of persons of either sex who had devoted themselves to the
profession of perpetual chastity. (95) A few of these, among
whom we may reckon the learned Origen, judged it the most
prudent to disarm the tempter. (96) Some were insensible and
some were invincible against the assaults of the flesh.
Disdaining an ignominious flight, the virgins of the warm
climate of Africa encountered the enemy in the closest
engagement they permitted priests and deacons to share their
bed and gloried amidst the flames in their unsullied purity.
But insulted Nature sometimes vindicated her rights, and
this new species of martyrdom served only to introduce a new
scandal into the church. (97) Among the Christian ascetics,
however (a name which they soon acquired from their painful
exercise), many, as they were less presumptuous, were
probably more successful. The loss of sensual pleasure was
supplied and compensated by spiritual pride. Even the
multitude of Pagans were inclined to estimate the merit of
the sacrifice by its apparent difficulty; and it was in the
praise of these chaste spouses of Christ that the fathers
have poured forth the troubled stream of their eloquence. (98)
Such are the early traces of monastic principles and
institutions, which, in a subsequent age, have
counterbalanced all the temporal advantages of Christianity.
(99)
Their aversion to the business of war and government
The Christians were not less adverse to the business than to
the pleasures of this world. The defence of our persons and
property they knew not how to reconcile with the patient
doctrine which enjoined an unlimited forgiveness of past
injuries, and commanded them to invite the repetition of
fresh insults. Their simplicity was offended by the use of
oaths, by the pomp of magistracy, and by the active
contention of public life; nor could their humane ignorance
be convinced that it was lawful on any occasion to shed the
blood of our fellow-creatures, either by the sword of
justice or by that of war, even though their criminal or
hostile attempts should threaten the peace and safety of the
whole community. (100) It was acknowledged that, under a less
perfect law, the powers of the Jewish constitution had been
exercised, with the approbation of Heaven, by inspired
prophets and by anointed kings. The Christians felt and
confessed that such institutions might be necessary for the
present system of the world, and they cheerfully submitted
to the authority of their Pagan governors. But while they
inculcated the maxims of passive obedience, they refused to
take any active part in the civil administration or the
military defence of the empire. Some indulgence might
perhaps be allowed to those persons who, before their
conversion, were already engaged in such violent and
sanguinary occupations; (101) but it was impossible that the
Christians, without renouncing a more sacred duty, could
assume the character of soldiers, of magistrates, or of
princes. (102) This indolent, or even criminal disregard to
the public welfare, exposed them to the contempt and
reproaches of the Pagans, who very frequently asked, what
must be the fate of the empire, attacked on every side by
the barbarians, if all mankind should adopt the
pusillanimous sentiments of the new sect? (103) To this
insulting question the Christian apologists returned obscure
and ambiguous answers, as they were unwilling to reveal the
secret cause of their security; the expectation that, before
the conversion of mankind was accomplished, war, government,
the Roman empire, and the world itself, would be no more. It
may be observed that, in this instance likewise, the
situation of the first Christians coincided very happily
with their religious scruples, and that their aversion to an
active life contributed rather to excuse them from the
service than to exclude them from the honours of the state
and army.
V. THE FIFTH CAUSE
The Christians active in the government of the church
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 of the empire, was obliged to adopt some form of
internal policy, and to appoint a sufficient number of
ministers, intrusted not only with the spiritual functions,
but even with the temporal direction of the Christian
commonwealth. The safety of the 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 had felt for the republic, and sometimes of a 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 or the
arts of faction, 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 innocence of the
dove; but as the former was refined, so 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.
Its primitive freedom and equality.
The government of the church has often been the subject, as
well as the prize, 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
(104) to the respective standards of their own policy. The few
who have pursued this inquiry with more candour and
impartiality are of opinion (105) 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 times 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, (106)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 their pride or mistaken zeal they
introduced, particularly into the apostolic church of
Corinth, a long and melancholy train of disorders. (107) As
the institution of prophets became useless, and even
pernicious, their powers were withdrawn, and their office
abolished. The public functions of religion were solely intrusted to
the established ministers of the church, the bishops and the
presbyters; two appellations which, in their first origin,
appear 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 counsel. (108)
Institutions of bishops as presidents of the college of presbyters
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 sentiments, and of executing the resolutions,
of the assembly. A regard for the public tranquillity, which
would so frequently have been interrupted by annual or by
occasional elections, induced the primitive Christians to
constitute an honourable and perpetual magistracy, and to
choose one of the wisest and most holy among their
presbyters to execute, during his life, the duties of their
ecclesiastical governor. It was under these circumstances
that the lofty title of Bishop began to raise itself above
the humble appellation of Presbyter; and while the latter
remained the most natural distinction for the members of
every Christian senate, the former was appropriated to the
dignity of its new president. (109) The advantages of this
espiscopal form of government, which appears to have been
introduced before the end of the first century, (110) 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 sanction of antiquity, (111) 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. (112)
It is needless to observe that the pious and humble
presbyters 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 mitre of a German prelate. But we may define
in a few words the narrow limits of their original
jurisdiction, which was chiefly of a spiritual, though in
some instances of a temporal nature. (113) It consisted in the
administration of the sacraments and discipline of the
church, the superintendency of religious ceremonies, which
imperceptibly increased in number 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 presbyteral
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
honourable servants of a free people. Whenever the episcopal
chair became vacant by death, a new president was chosen
among the presbyters by the suffrage of the whole
congregation, every member of which supposed himself
invested with a sacred and sacerdotal character. (114)
Provincial councils
Such was the mild and equal constitution by which the
Christians were governed more than an 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
interest 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 Amphictyons, the Achaean league, or the assemblies of
the Ionian 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 at the stated
periods of spring and autumn. Their deliberations were
assisted by the advice of a few distinguished presbyters,
and moderated by the presence of a listening multitude. (115)
Their decrees, which were styled Canons, regulated every
important controversy of faith and discipline; and it was
natural to believe that a liberal effusion of the Holy
Spirit would be poured on the united assembly of the
delegates of the Christian people. Union of the church 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 the form, and acquired the
strength, of a great foederative republic. (116)
Progress of episcopal authority.
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 vigour, the original rights of their clergy and
people. The prelates of the third century imperceptibly
changed the language of exhortation into that of command,
scattered the seeds of future usurpations, 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. (117) Princes and magistrates, it was often
repeated, might boast 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 vicegerents of
Christ, the successors of the apostles, and the mystic
substitutes of the high priest of the Mosaic law. Their
exclusive privilege of conferring the sacerdotal character
invaded the freedom both of clerical and of 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 exacted from his flock the
same implicit obedience as if that favourite metaphor had
been literally just, and as if the shepherd had been of a
more exalted nature than that of his sheep. (118) This
obedience, however, was not imposed without some efforts on
the 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 ignominious epithets of faction and schism, and
the episcopal cause was indebted for its rapid progress to
the labours of many active prelates, who like Cyprian of
Carthage, could reconcile the arts of the most ambitious
statesman with the Christian virtues which seem adapted to
the character of a saint and martyr. (119)
Pre-eminence of the metropolitan churches.
The same causes which at first had destroyed the equality of
the presbyters introduced among the bishops a pre-eminence
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 a more
regular and less invidious distinction; the office of
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
usurp over their episcopal brethren the same authority which
the bishops had so lately assumed above the college of
presbyters. (120) Nor was it long before an emulation of
pre-eminence and power prevailed among the Metropolitans
themselves, each of them affecting to display, in the most
pompous terms, the temporal honours and advantages of the
city over which he presided; the numbers and opulence of the
Christians who were subject to their pastoral care; the
saints and martyrs who had arisen 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. (121) 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. Ambition of the Roman pontiff 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 labours of
her missionaries. Instead of one apostolic founder, the
utmost boast of Antioch, of 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; (122) and the bishop of Rome very prudently
claimed the inheritance of whatsoever prerogatives were
attributed either to the person or to the office of St.
Peter. (123) The bishops of Italy and of the provinces were
disposed to allow them a primacy of order and association
(such was their very accurate expression) in the Christian
aristocracy. (124) But the power of a monarch was rejected
with abhorrence, and the aspiring genius of Rome experienced
from the nations of Asia and Africa a more vigorous
resistance to her spiritual than she had formerly done to
her temporal dominions. The patriotic Cyprian, who ruled with the most absolute sway
the church of Carthage 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. (125) If this Punic 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 indulged such passions as seem much
more adapted to the senate or to the camp. (126)
Laity and clergy
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. (127) 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 for 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 zeal and activity were united
in the common cause, and the love of power, which (under the
most artful disguises) would 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 punishments; the former derived from the pious
liberality, the latter from the devout apprehensions of the
faithful.
Oblations and revenue of the church.
I. The community of goods, which had so agreeably amused the
imagination of Plato, (128) and which subsisted in some degree
among the austere sect of the Essenians, (129) was adopted for
short time in the primitive church. The fervour 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 content themselves with receiving an
equal share out of the general distribution. (130) 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 been
corrupted and abused by the returning selfishness of human
nature; and the converts who embraced the new religion were
permitted to retain the possession of their 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. (131) Nothing, however
inconsiderable, was refused but it was diligently inculcated
that, in the article of tithes, the Mosaic law was still of
divine obligation; and that, since the Jews, under a 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, (132) and to acquire some merit by resigning a superfluous treasure, which must so soon be annihilated with the world itself. (133) It is almost unnecessary to observe
that the revenue of each particular church, which was of so
uncertain and fluctuating a 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 their proselytes had sold their
lands and houses to increase the public riches of the sect,
at the expense, indeed, of their unfortunate children, who
found themselves beggars because their parents had been
saints. (134) We should listen with distrust to the suspicions of strangers and enemies; on this occasion, however, they receive a very specious and probable colour 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 an hundred thousand sesterces (above eight hundred
and fifty pounds sterling), on a sudden call of charity to
redeem the brethren of Numidia, who had been carried away
captives by the barbarians of the desert. (135) About an
hundred years before the reign of Decius the Roman church
had received, in a single donation, the sum of two hundred
thousand sesterces from a stranger of Pontus, who proposed
to fix his residence in the capital. (136) These oblations,
for the most part, were made in money; nor was the society
of Christians either desirous or capable of acquiring, to
any considerable degree, the incumbrance of landed property.
It had been provided by several laws, which were enacted
with the same design as our statutes of mortmain, that no
real estates should be given or bequeathed to any corporate
body without either a special privilege or a particular
dispensation from the emperor or from the senate; (137) who
were seldom disposed to grant them in favour 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 the
restraint was sometimes eluded or suspended, and that the
Christians were permitted to claim and to possess lands
within the limits of Rome itself. (138) 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 bestowed on the opulent churches of Rome, Milan,
Carthage, Antioch, Alexandria, and the other great cities of
Italy and the provinces.
Distribution of the revenue.
The bishop was the natural steward of the church; the public
stock was intrusted to his care without account or control;
the presbyters were confined to their spiritual functions,
and the more dependent order of deacons was solely employed
in the management and distribution of the ecclesiastical
revenue. (139) 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 evangelic 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. (140) 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 applied reflected honour on
the religious society. A decent portion was reserved for the
maintenance of the bishop and his clergy; a sufficient sum
was allotted for the expenses of the public worship, of
which the feasts of love, the agapae, 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 cause of religion. (141) A
generous intercourse of charity united the most distant
provinces, and the smaller congregations were cheerfully
assisted by the alms of their more opulent brethren. (142)
Such an institution, which paid less regard to the merit
than to the distress of the object, very materially conduced
to the progress of Christianity. The pagans, who were
actuated by sense of humanity, while they derided the
doctrines, acknowledged the benevolence, of the new sect.
(143) The prospect of immediate relief and of future
protection allured into its hospitable bosom many of those
unhappy persons whom the neglect 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 practice of
the times, had been exposed by their parents, were
frequently rescued from death, baptised, educated, and
maintained by the piety of the Christians, and at the
expense of the public treasure. (144)
Excommunication
II. 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 of the
episcopal order; and against those unhappy persons who,
whether from choice or from compulsion, had polluted
themselves after their baptism by any act of idolatrous
worship. The consequences of ex-communication were of
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 of private friendship were dissolved: he 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, their apprehensions
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 governors 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, endeavoured to regain 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 those who had 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, divided the primitive church. The more rigid and inflexible casuists refused them for ever, 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. (145) A milder sentiment was embraced, in practice as well as in theory, by the purest and most respectable of the Christian churches. (146) 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.Public pennance Humbled by a public confession, emaciated by fasting, and clothed in sackcloth, the penitent lay prostrate at the door of the assembly, imploring with tears the pardon of his offences, and soliciting the prayers of the faithful. (147) 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 readmitted into the bosom of the church. A sentence of perpetual ex-communication 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 Ancyra and Illiberis were held about the same time, the one in Galatia, the other in Spain; but their respective canons, 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 term 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 seventeen other crimes, against which a sentence no less terrible was pronounced. Among these we may distinguish the inexpiable guilt of calumniating a bishop, a presbyter, or even a deacon. (148)
The dignity of episcopal government.
The well-tempered mixture of liberality and rigour, 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 pretence of the love
of order, they were jealous of any rival in the exercise of
a 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 ex-communication
and penance formed 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 which refused obedience to the priesthood of Aaron; and we should sometimes suppose that we heard a Roman consul asserting the majesty of the republic, and declaring his inflexible resolution to enforce the rigour 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 VIGOUR ; (149) an end of the sublime and divine power of governing the Church; an end of Christianity itself."
Cyprian had renounced those temporal honours which it is probable 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 possession of the most despotic power imposed by arms and conquest on a reluctant people.
Recapitulation of the five causes.
In the course of this important, though perhaps tedious,
inquiry, I have attempted to display the secondary causes
which so efficaciously assisted the truth of the Christian
religion. If among these causes 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. It was by
the aid of these causes - 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 valour, which
disdained to capitulate with the enemy whom they were
resolved to vanquish. The three succeeding causes supplied
their valour with the most formidable arms. The last of
these causes 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 event of the war. Weakness of Polytheism. In the
various religions of Polytheism some wandering fanatics of
Egypt and Syria, who addressed themselves to the credulous
superstition of the populace, were perhaps the only order of
priests (150) 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
tutelar deities. The ministers of Polytheism, both in Rome
and in the provinces, were, for the most part, men of a
noble birth and of an affluent fortune, who received, as an
honourable distinction, the care of a celebrated temple or
of a public sacrifice, exhibited, very frequently at their
own expense, the sacred games, (151) 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 whilst they
acknowledged the supreme jurisdiction of the senate, of the
college of pontiffs, and of the emperor, those civil
magistrates contented 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.
Scepticism of the Pagan world proved favourable to the new religion.
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 employ their labours in
exposing its falsehood and extravagance, they are obliged to
transcribe the eloquence of Cicero or the wit of Lucian. The
contagion of these sceptical 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 or 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 affected
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 their 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
human kind to the danger of a painful and comfortless
situation. A state of scepticism 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 marvellous and supernatural, their
curiosity with regard to future events, and their strong
propensity to extend their hopes and fears beyond the limits
of the visible world, were the principal causes which
favoured the establishment of Polytheism. So urgent on the
vulgar is the 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 cast 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, it
was adorned with 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 devout 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.
As well as the peace and union of the Roman empire.
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 civilised
provinces of Europe, Asia, and Africa were united under the
dominion of one sovereign, and gradually connected by the
most intimate ties of 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. (152) The authentic
histories of the actions of Christ were composed in the
Greek languages at a considerable distance from Jerusalem
and after the Gentile converts were grown extremely
numerous. (153) As soon as those histories were translated
into the Latin tongue they were perfectly intelligible to
all the subjects of Rome, excepting only to 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. Historical views of the progress of Christianity There is the strongest reason to believe that before the reigns of Diocletian 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.
In the East.
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 zeal 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 two first 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, of
Beroea or Aleppo, and of Antioch. The prophetic introduction
of the Apocalypse had described and immortalised the seven
churches of Asia - Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, (154)
Sardes, 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
Thrace and Macedonia, gave a favourable reception to the new
religion; and Christian republics were soon founded in the
cities of Corinth, of Sparta, and of Athens. (155) The
antiquity of the Greek and Asiatic churches allowed a
sufficient space of time for their increase and
multiplication; and even the swarms of Gnostics and other
heretics serve 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 Lucian, a philosopher who
had studied mankind, and who describes their manners in the
most lively colours, we may learn that, under the reign of
Commodus, his native country of Pontus was filled with
Epicureans and Christians. (156) Within four-score years after the death of Christ, (157) 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 Bithynia. (158)
The church of Antioch.
Without descending into a minute scrutiny of the expressions
or of 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 of the 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 sixty years, the
sunshine of Imperial favour, the ancient and illustrious
church of Antioch consisted of one hundred thousand persons,
three thousand of whom were supported out of the public
oblations. (159) The splendour and dignity of the queen of the
East, the acknowledged populousness of Caesarea, Seleucia,
and Alexandria, and the destruction of two hundred and fifty
thousand souls in the earthquake which afflicted Antioch
under the elder Justin, (160) are so many convincing proofs
that the whole number of its inhabitants was 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 a proportion must we adopt when we
compare the persecuted with the triumphant church, the West
with the East, remote villages with populous 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 for
this useful information, computes the multitude of the
faithful as even superior to that of the Jews and Pagans.
(161) But the solution of this apparent difficulty is easy and
obvious. The eloquent preacher draws a parallel between the
civil and the ecclesiastical constitution of Antioch;
between the list of Christians who had acquired heaven by
baptism, and the list of citizens who had a right to share
the public liberality. Slaves, strangers, and infants were
comprised in the former; they were excluded from the latter.
In Egypt.
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 Therapeutae, or
Essenians, of the lake Mareotis, a Jewish sect which had
abated much of its reverence for the Mosaic ceremonies. The
austere life of the Essenians, their fasts and
ex-communications, 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. (162) 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. (163) But the progress of Christianity was
for a long time confined within the limits of a single city,
which was itself a foreign colony, and till the close of the
second century the predecessors of Demetrius were the only
prelates of the Egyptian church. Three bishops were
consecrated by the hands of Demetrius, and the number was
increased to twenty by his successor Heraclas. (164) The body
of the natives, a people distinguished by a sullen
inflexibility of temper, (165) entertained the 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 favour of the sacred animals of his
country. (166) As soon, indeed, as Christianity ascended the
throne, the zeal of those barbarians obeyed the prevailing
impulsion; the cities of Egypt were filled with bishops, and
the deserts of Thebais swarmed with hermits.
In Rome.
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. In such a various conflux of nations, every
teacher, either of truth or of 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 Tacitus as already amounting to a very
great multitude, (167) 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 senate, 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 seven thousand; a number indeed sufficiently
alarming when considered as the object of public justice.
(168) It is with the same candid allowance that we should
interpret the vague expressions of Tacitus, and in a former
instance of Pliny, when they exaggerate the crowds of
deluded fanatics who had forsaken the 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
peace of thirty-eight years. The clergy, at that time,
consisted of a bishop, forty-six presbyters, seven deacons,
as many subdeacons, forty-two acolythes, and fifty readers,
exorcists, and porters. The number of widows, of the infirm,
and of the poor, who were maintained by the oblations of the
faithful, amounted to fifteen hundred. (169) From reason, as
well as from the analogy of Antioch, we may venture to
estimate the Christians of Rome at about fifty thousand. The
populousness of that great capital cannot perhaps be exactly
ascertained; 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 twentieth part.
(170)
In Africa and the western provinces.
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 which might invite the Roman missionaries to visit
their Latin provinces, it was late before they passed either
the sea or the Alps; (171) nor can we discover in those great
countries any assured traces either of faith or of
persecution that ascend higher than the reign of the
Antonines. (172) The slow progress of the Gospel in 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 splendour and
importance of their religious societies, which during the
course of the third century were animated by the zeal of
Tertullian, 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 Lyons and Vienne; and
even as late as the reign of Decius we are assured that in a
few cities only - Arles, Narbonne, Toulouse, Limoges,
Clermont, Tours, and Paris - some scattered churches were
supported by the devotion of a small number of Christians.
(173) Silence is indeed very consistent with devotion; but as
it is seldom compatible with zeal we may perceive and lament
the languid state of Christianity in those provinces which
had exchanged the Celtic for the Latin tongue, since they
did not, during the three first centuries, give birth to a
single ecclesiastical writer. From Gaul, which claimed a
just pre-eminence of learning and authority over all the
countries on this side of the Alps, the light of the Gospel
was more faintly reflected on the remote provinces of Spain
and Britain; and if we may credit the vehement assertions of
Tertullian, they had already received the first rays of the
faith when he addressed his Apology to the magistrates of
the emperor Severus. (174) But the obscure and imperfect
origin of the western churches of Europe had been so
negligently recorded, that, if we would relate the time and
manner of their foundation, we must supply the silence of
antiquity by those legends which avarice or superstition
long afterwards dictated to the monks in the lazy gloom of
their convents. (175) Of these holy romances, that of the
apostle St. James can alone, by its singular extravagance,
deserve to be mentioned. From a peaceful fisherman of the
lake of Gennesareth, he was transformed into a valorous
knight, who charged at the head of the Spanish chivalry in
their battles against the Moors. The gravest historians have
celebrated his exploits; the miraculous shrine of
Compostella 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.
(176)
Beyond the limits of the Roman empire.
The progress of Christianity was not confined to the Roman
empire; and, according to the primitive fathers, who
interpret facts 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 under tents, or wander about in covered waggons, among whom prayers are not offered up in the name of a crucified Jesus to the Father and Creator of all things." (177)
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 Scythia and Germany, who afterwards subverted the 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 until the sceptre was in the hands of an orthodox emperor (178) Before that time the various accidents of war and commerce might indeed diffuse an imperfect knowledge of the Gospel among the tribes of Caledonia, (179) and among the borderers of the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates. (180) Beyond the last-mentioned river, Edessa was distinguished by a firm and early adherence to the faith. (181) From Edessa the principles of Christianity were easily introduced into the Greek and Syrian cities which obeyed the successors of Artaxerxes; 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. (182)
General proportion of Christians and Pagans.
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 the one side, and by devotion on the other.
According to the irreproachable testimony of Origen, (183) the proportion of the faithful was very inconsiderable, when compared with the multitude of an unbelieving world; but, as we are left without any distinct information, it is impossible to determine, and it is difficult even to conjecture, the real numbers 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 twentieth part of the subjects of the empire had enlisted themselves under the banner of the Cross before the important conversion of Constantine. But their habits of faith, of zeal, and of union, seemed to multiply their numbers; and the same causes which contributed to their future increase served to render their actual strength more apparent and more formidable.
Whether the first Christians were mean and ignorant.
Such is the constitution of civil society, that, whilst a
few persons are distinguished by riches, by honours, 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, must consequently
collect a 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 strenuously 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, the last of whom
might sometimes introduce the missionaries into the rich and
noble families to which they belonged. These obscure
teachers (such was the charge of malice and infidelity) are
as mute in public as they are loquacious 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
who their age, their sex, or their education has best
disposed to receive the impression of superstitious terrors.
(184)
Some exceptions with regard to learning;
This unfavourable picture, though not devoid of a faint
resemblance, betrays, by its dark colouring and distorted
features, the pencil of a enemy. As the humble faith of
Christ diffused it self 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. (185) Justin Martyr had sought divine knowledge
in the schools of Zeno, of Aristotle, of Pythagoras and of
Plato, before he fortunately was accosted by the old man, or
rather the angel, who turned his attention to the study of
the Jewish prophets. (186) Clemens of Alexandria had acquired
much various reading in the Greek, and Tertullian in the
Latin, language. Julius Africanus and Origen possessed a
very considerable share of the learning of their times; and
although the style of Cyprian is very different from that of
Lactantius, we might almost discover that both those 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 Artemon may, with equal propriety, be applied
to the various sects that resisted the successors of the
apostles.
"They presume 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 church is 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 Theophrastus 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 human reason." (187)
with regard to rank and fortune.
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
Bithynia had deserted the religion of their ancestors. (188)
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 to the humanity of
the proconsul of Africa, by assuring him that if he persists
in his cruel intentions he must decimate Carthage, and that
he will find among the guilty many persons of his own rank,
senators and matrons of noblest extraction, and the friends
or relations of his most intimate friends. (189) It appears,
however, that about forty years afterwards the emperor
Valerian was persuaded of the truth of 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. (190) The church still continued to increase
its outward splendour 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 endeavoured to reconcile the interests of
the present with those of a future life.
Christianity most favourably received by the poor and simple.
And yet these exceptions 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 that, 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
listen to the divine promise of future happiness; while, on
the contrary, the fortunate are satisfied with the
possession of this world; and the wise abuse in doubt and
dispute their vain superiority of reason and knowledge.
Rejected by some emminent men of the first and second centuries.
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, adorn the age in which they
flourished, and exalt the dignity 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 of concern) overlooked or rejected the
perfection of the Christian system. Their language or their
silence equally discover their contempt for the growing sect
which in their time had diffused itself over the Roman
empire. Those among them who condescend to mention the
Christians consider 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. (191)
Their neglect of prophecy.
It is at least doubtful whether any of these philosophers
perused the apologies which the primitive Christians
repeatedly published in behalf of themselves and of their
religion; but it is much to be lamented that such a cause
was not defended by abler advocates. They expose with
superfluous wit and eloquence the extravagance of
Polytheism. They interest our compassion by displaying the
innocence and sufferings of their injured brethren. But when
they would demonstrate the divine origin of Christianity,
they insist much more strongly on the predictions which
announced, than on the miracles which accompanied, the
appearance of the Messiah. Their favourite argument might
serve to edify a Christian or to convert a Jew, since both
the one and the other acknowledge the authority of those
prophecies, and both are obliged, with devout reverence, to
search for their sense and their accomplishment. But this
mode of persuasion 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. (192)
In the unskilful hands of Justin and 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 unenlightened Gentile, by the mixture of
pious forgeries which, under the names of Orpheus, Hermes,
and the Sibyls, (193) were obtruded on him as of equal value
with the genuine inspirations of Heaven. The adoption of
fraud and sophistry in the defence of revelation too often
reminds us of the injudicious conduct of those poets who
load their invulnerable heroes with a useless weight of
cumbersome and brittle armour.
and of miracles.
But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan
and philosophic world to those evidences which were
presented by the hand of Omnipotence, not to their reason,
but to their senses? During the age of Christ, of his
apostles, and of their first disciples, the doctrine which
they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The
lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead
were raised, daemons were expelled, and the laws of Nature
were frequently suspended for the benefit of the church. General silence concerning the darkness of the passion. 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, (194) or at least a celebrated
province of the Roman empire, (195) 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. (196) 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. Each 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.
(197) Both the one and the other have omitted to mention the
greatest phenomenon to which the mortal eye has been witness
since the creation of the globe. A distinct chapter of Pliny
(198) is designed for eclipses of an extraordinary nature and
unusual duration; but he contents himself with 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 splendour. This season of
obscurity, which cannot surely be compared with the
preternatural darkness of the Passion, had been already
celebrated by most of the poets (199) and historians of that
memorable age. (200)
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