Chapter 3: , page 89 (57)

"Philosophy went on its way among the higher classes, but laid
absolutely no hold on men at large. The reformation which it
wrought in a few elect spirits failed utterly to spread
downward to the mass of mankind. The poor were not touched by
it; society was not helped by it; its noblest men, and they
grew fewer and fewer, generation by generation, bewailed
bitterly the universal indifference. The schools dwindled into
a mere university system of culture; Christianity developed
into a religion for the civilised world. … New ideas it had
in abundance, but new ideas were not the secret of its power.
The essential matter in the Gospel was that it was the history
of a Life. It was a tale of fact that all could understand,
that all could believe, that all could love. It differed
fundamentally from Philosophy, because it appealed not to
culture, but to life. … It was the spell of substantial
facts, living facts, … the spell of a loyalty to a personal
Lord; and those who have not mastered the difference between a
philosopher's speculations about life, and the actual record
of a life which, in all that makes life holy and beautiful,
transcended the philosopher's most pure and lofty dreams, have
not understood yet the rudiments of the reason why the Stoic
could not, while Christianity could and did, regenerate
society."

_J. B. Brown,
Stoics and Saints,
pages 85-86._

The "period, from the accession of Marcus Aurelius (A. D. 161)
to the accession of Valerian (A. D. 253) was for the Gentile
world a period of unrest and exhaustion, of ferment and of
indecision. The time of great hopes and creative minds was
gone. The most conspicuous men were, with few exceptions,
busied with the past. … Local beliefs had lost their power.
Even old Rome ceased to exercise an unquestioned moral
supremacy. Men strove to be cosmopolitan. They strove vaguely
after a unity in which the scattered elements of ancient
experience should be harmonized. The effect can be seen both
in the policy of statesmen and in the speculations of
philosophers, in Marcus Aurelius, or Alexander Severus, or
Decius, no less than in Plotinus or Porphyry. As a necessary
consequence, the teaching of the Bible accessible in Greek
began to attract serious attention among the heathen. The
assailants of Christianity, even if they affected contempt,
shewed that they were deeply moved by its doctrines. The
memorable saying of Numenius, 'What is Plato but Moses
speaking in the language of Athens?' shews at once the feeling
after spiritual sympathy which began to be entertained, and
the want of spiritual insight in the representatives of
Gentile thought."

_B. F. Westcott,
Essays in the History of Religious Thought in the West,
pages 196-197._

"To our minds it appears that the preparation of philosophy
for Christianity was complete. … The time was ripe for that
movement of which Justin is the earliest [complete]
representative."

_G. T. Purves,
The Testimony of Justin Martyr,
page 135._

"The writing in defense of Christianity is called the apology,
and the writer an apologist. … There were two classes of
apologists, the Greek and the Latin, according to the
territory which they occupied, and the language in which they
wrote. But there were further differences. The Greeks belonged
mostly to the second century, and their writings exhibited a
profound intimacy with the Greek philosophy. Some of them had
studied in the Greek schools, and entered the church only in
mature life. They endeavored to prove that Christianity was
the blossom of all that was valuable in every system. They
stood largely on the defensive. The Latins, on the other hand,
were aggressive. They lived mostly in the third century. …
The principal Greek apologists [were] Aristo, Quadratus,
Aristides [A. D. 131], Justin [A. D. 160], Melito [A. D. 170],
Miltiades, Irenaeus, Athenagoras [A. D. 178], Tatian, Clement
of Alexandria [A. D. 200], Hippolytus, and Origen [A. D. 225]."

_J. F. Hurst,
Short History of the Christian Church,
page 33._

Lightfoot assigns to about A. D. 150 (?) the author of the
Epistle to Diognetus. "Times without number the defenders of
Christianity appeal to the great and advantageous change
wrought by the Gospel in all who embraced it. … 'We who
hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their
different manners would not receive into our houses men of a
different tribe, now, since the coming of Christ, live
familiarly with them. We pray for our enemies, we endeavor to
persuade those who hate us unjustly to live conformably to the
beautiful precepts of Christ, to the end that they may become
partakers with us of the same joyful hope of a reward from
God, the Ruler of all.' This distinction between Christians
and heathen, this consciousness of a complete change in
character and life, is nowhere more beautifully described than
in the noble epistle … to Diognetus."

_Gerhard Uhlhorn,
The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism,
page 166._

"For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind
either in locality or in speech or in customs. For they dwell
not somewhere in cities of their own, neither do they use some
different language, nor practise an extraordinary kind of
life. … But while they dwell in cities of Greeks and
barbarians as the lot of each is cast, and follow the native
customs in dress and food and the other arrangements of life,
yet the constitution of their own citizenship, which they set
forth, is marvellous, and confessedly contradicts expectation.
They dwell in their own countries, but only as sojourners;
they bear their share in all things as citizens, and they
endure all hardships as strangers. Every foreign country is a
fatherland to them, and every fatherland is foreign. … Their
existence is on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.
They obey the established laws, and they surpass the laws in
their own lives. They love all men and they are persecuted by
all. … War is urged against them as aliens by the Jews, and
persecution is carried on against them by the Greeks, and yet
those that hate them cannot tell the reason of their
hostility."

_J. B. Lightfoot,
Translation of the Epistle to Diognetus
(The Apostolic Fathers, pages 505-506)._

"These apologists rise against philosophy also, out of which
they themselves had arisen, in the full consciousness of their
faith open to all and not only to the cultured few, the
certainty of which, based upon revelation, cannot be replaced
by uncertain human wisdom, which, moreover, is
self-contradictory in its most important representatives. On
the other hand, they willingly recognise in the philosophy by
means of which they had themselves been educated, certain
elements of truth, which they partly derive from the
seed-corns of truth, which the divine Logos had scattered
among the heathen also, partly externally from a dependence of
Greek wisdom on the much older wisdom of the East, and
therefore from the use of the Scriptures of the Old Testament.
To the reproach that they had deserted the religion which had
been handed down from their ancestors and thereby made sacred,
they oppose the right of recognised truth, the right of
freedom of conscience; religion becomes the peculiar affair of
personal conviction, against which methods of force do not
suffice: God is to be obeyed rather than man."

_W. Moeller,
History of the Christian Church: A. D. 1-600,
page 179._

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"Such a morality, as Roman greatness was passing away, took
possession of the ground. Its beginnings were scarcely felt,
scarcely known of, in the vast movement of affairs in the
greatest of empires. By and by its presence, strangely
austere, strangely gentle, strangely tender, strangely
inflexible, began to be noticed. But its work was long only a
work of indirect preparation. Those whom it charmed, those
whom it opposed, those whom it tamed, knew not what was being
done for the generations which were to follow."

_R. W. Church,
The Gifts of Civilization,
page 159._

"The more spiritual and profound historians of the Church
recognize it as a manifestation of this divine life flowing
into human history. But this is true of the organized church
only with important qualifications. The life must manifest
itself in an organization; but the organization is neither the
only nor the complete exposition of the life. … The life
which creates the organization penetrates and purifies also
the family and the state, renovates individuals, and blooms
and fructifies in Christian civilizations; and these are also
historical manifestations."

_S. Harris,
The Kingdom of Christ on Earth,
page 87._

It was the great formative period of the world's new life, and
all streams tended to flow together. The influence of Greek
thought on Roman law had led, under the circumstances of Roman
commercial life, to the development of an ideal "jus gentium,"
a kind of natural law discovered by the reason. This
conception transformed the Roman law and brought it into touch
with the new sense of human relations. "It was by means of
this higher conception of equity which resulted from the
identification of the jus gentium with the jus naturale—that
the alliance between law and philosophy was really made
efficient."

_W. C. Morey,
Outlines from Roman Law,
page 114._

"There were three agencies whose influence in working
simultaneously and successively at this identical task, the
developing and importing of the jus gentium, was decisive of
the ultimate result. These were the praetorian edict [which
reached its climax under the Republic and was completed under
Hadrian], Roman scientific jurisprudence [which developed its
greatest ability about A. D. 200] and imperial legislation."

_R. Sohm,
Institutes of Roman Law,
page 46._

"The liberal policy of Rome gradually extended the privileges
of her citizenship till it included all her subjects; and
along with the 'Jus suffragii,' went of course the 'Jus
honorum.' Even under Augustus we find a Spaniard consul at
Rome; and under Galba an Egyptian is governor of Egypt. It is
not long before even the emperor himself is supplied by the
provinces. It is easy to comprehend therefore how the
provincials forgot the fatherland of their birth for the
fatherland of their citizenship. Once win the franchise, and
to great capacity was opened a great: career. The Roman Empire
came to be a homogeneous mass of privileged persons, largely
using the same language, aiming at the same type of
civilisation, equal among themselves, but all alike conscious
of their superiority to the surrounding barbarians."

_W. T. Arnold,
The Roman System of Provincial Administration,
page 37._

"As far as she could, Rome destroyed the individual genius of
nations; she seems to have rendered them unqualified for a
national existence. When the public life of the Empire ceased,
Italy, Gaul, and Spain were thus unable to become nations.
Their great historical existence did not commence until after
the arrival of the barbarians, and after several centuries of
experiments amid violence and calamity, But how does it happen
that the countries which Rome did not conquer, or did not long
have under her sway, now hold such a prominent place in the
world—that they exhibit so much originality and such complete
confidence in their future? Is it only because, having existed
a shorter time, they are entitled to a longer future? Or,
perchance, did Rome leave behind her certain habits of mind,
intellectual and moral qualities, which impede and limit
activity?"

_E. Lavisse,
Political History of Europe,
page 6._

Patriotism was a considerable part of both the ancient
religion and the old morality. The empire weakened the former
and deeply injured the latter by conquest of the individual
states. It had little to offer in place of these except that
anomaly, the worship of the emperor; and a law and justice
administered by rulers who, to say the least, grew very rich.
"The feeling of pride in Roman citizenship … became much
weaker as the citizenship was widened. … Roman citizenship
included an ever growing proportion of the population in every
land round the Mediterranean, till at last it embraced the
whole Roman world. … Christianity also created a religion
for the Empire, transcending all distinctions of nationality.
… The path of development for the Empire lay in accepting
the religion offered it to complete its organisation. Down to
the time of Hadrian there was a certain progress on the part
of the Empire towards a recognition of this necessity."

_W. M. Ramsay,
The Church in the Roman Empire,
pages 373, 191-192._

The relations of the laws of the Empire to Christianity may be
briefly stated, but there are differences of opinion which
cannot be noted here: "A. D. 30 to 100, Christians treated as
a sect of the Jews and sharing in the general toleration
accorded to them. A. D. 100 to 250, Christians recognized, …
and rendered liable to persecution: (1st) For treason and
impiety. (2nd) As belonging to illegal associations, but at
the same time protected in their capacity of members of
Friendly or Burial Societies of a kind allowed by the law. A.
D. 250 to 260, Christianity recognized as a formidable power
by the State. Commencement of an open struggle between
Christianity and the secular authority. … The cemeteries of
the Christians now for the first time interfered with and
become places of hiding and secret assembly. A. D. 260 to 300,
Persecutions cease for a time, 40 years Peace for the Church.
Time of much prosperity when, as Eusebius writes, 'great
multitudes flocked to the religion of Christ.' A. D. 300 to
313, Last decisive struggle under Diocletian."

_G. B. Brown,
From Schola to Cathedral._

{442}

"The judges decided simply in accordance with the laws, and,
in the great majority of cases, did so coolly, calmly, without
passion, as men who were simply discharging their duty. …
Not the priests, but the Emperors led the attack. … It is
true the Christians never rebelled against the State. They
cannot be reproached with even the appearance of a
revolutionary spirit. Despised, persecuted, abused, they still
never revolted, but showed themselves everywhere obedient to
the laws, and ready to pay to the Emperors the honor which was
their due. Yet in one particular they could not obey, the
worship of idols, the strewing of incense to the Cæsar-god.
And in this one thing it was made evident that in Christianity
lay the germ of a wholly new political and social order. This
is the character of the conflict which we are now to review.
It is a contest of the spirit of Antiquity against that of
Christianity, of the ancient heathen order of the world
against the new Christian order. Ten persecutions are commonly
enumerated, viz., under Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian,
Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Maximinus the Thracian,
Decius, Valerian, and Diocletian. This traditional enumeration
is, however, very superficial, and leaves entirely
unrecognized the real course of the struggles. … Though
times of relative tranquillity occurred, Christianity
remained, notwithstanding, a prohibited religion. This being
the case, the simple arrangement of the persecutions in a
series makes the impression that they were all of the same
character, while in fact the persecution under Nero was wholly
different from that under Trajan and his successors, and this
again varied essentially from those under Decius and
Diocletian. The first persecution which was really general and
systematically aimed at the suppression of the Church, was the
Decian [see ROME: A. D. 192-284]. That under Trajan and his
successors [see ROME: A. D. 96-138, 138-180, and 303-305]
consisted merely of more or less frequent processes against
individual Christians, in which the established methods of
trial were employed, and the existing laws were more or less
sharply used against them. Finally, the persecutions under
Nero and Domitian [see ROME: A. D. 64-68, and 70-96] were mere
outbreaks of personal cruelty and tyrannical caprice. …
Christianity is the growing might; with the energy of youth it
looks the future in the face, and there sees victory beckoning
onward. And how changed are now its ideas of that triumph! The
earlier period had no thought of any victory but that which
Christ was to bring at his coming. … But in the time of
Cyprian the hopes of the Christians are directed towards
another victory: they begin to grasp the idea that
Christianity will vanquish heathenism from within, and become
the dominant religion in the Roman Empire. … It is true that
the Christians were still greatly in the minority. It is
generally assumed that they formed about one-twelfth of the
whole population in the East, and in the West about
one-fifteenth. Even this is perhaps too high an estimate. But
there were two things which gave a great importance to this
minority. First, that no single religion of the much divided
Heathenism had so many adherents as the Christian. Over
against the scattered forces of Heathenism, the Christians
formed a close phalanx; the Church was a compact and strongly
framed organization. Second, the Christians were massed in the
towns, while the rural population was almost exclusively
devoted to Heathenism. There existed in Antioch, for instance,
a Christian church of fifty thousand souls."

_G. Uhlhorn,
The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism,
book 2._

"The Encyclopedia of Missions" on the authority of the late
Professor R. D. Hitchcock states that there are on record "the
names of churches existing at this period [at the close of the
persecutions] in 525 cities: cities of Europe 188, of Asia
214, of Africa 123." (See Appendix D.) There were tendencies
at work in many of these against that toward general catholic
(universal) organization, but in suffering and sympathy the
Christian Churches formed a vast body of believers. "Such a
vast organisation of a perfectly new kind, with no analogy in
previously existing institutions, was naturally slow in
development. … The critical stage was passed when the
destruction of Jerusalem annihilated all possibility of a
localised centre for Christianity, and made it clear that the
centralisation of the Church could reside only in an
idea—viz., a process of intercommunication, union and
brotherhood. It would be hardly possible to exaggerate the
share which frequent intercourse from a very early stage
between the separate congregations had in moulding the
development of the Church. Most of the documents in the New
Testament are products and monuments of this intercourse; all
attest in numberless details the vivid interest which the
scattered communities took in one another. From the first the
Christian idea was to annihilate the separation due to space,
and hold the most distant brother as near as the nearest. A
clear consciousness of the importance of this idea first
appears in the Pastoral Epistles, and is still stronger in
writings of A. D. 80-100. … The close relations between
different congregations is brought into strong relief by the
circumstances disclosed in the letters of Ignatius: the
welcome extended everywhere to him; the loving messages sent
when he was writing to other churches; the deputations sent
from churches off his road to meet him and convoy him; the
rapidity with which news of his progress was sent round, so
that deputations from Ephesus, Magnesia, and Tralles were
ready to visit him in Smyrna; the news from Antioch which
reached him in Troas, but which was unknown to him in Smyrna;
the directions which he gave to call a council of the church
in Smyrna, and send a messenger to congratulate the church in
Antioch; the knowledge that his fate is known to and is
engaging the efforts of the church in Rome."

_W. M. Ramsay,
The Church in the Roman Empire,
pages 364-366._

"The fellowship … thus strongly impressed by apostolic hands
on the infant Church, is never wholly lost sight of throughout
all the ages, and its permanent expression is found in the
synod, whether œcumenic, provincial, or diocesan. This becomes
fainter as we reach the age in which a presbyter, told off
from the body to a distinct parish, attains gradual isolation
from his brethren. But this comes some centuries later. …
Everywhere, till that decline, the idea is that of a
brotherhood or corporate office, a unity of function pervaded
by an energy of brotherly love. … It is no mere confluence
of units before distinct."

_H. Hayman,
Diocesan Synods
(Contemporary Review, October, 1882)._

{443}

"It is the age when the New Testament writings begin to come
together to form a generally recognized canon. The opposition
too to the sovereign spirit of Montanist prophecy undoubtedly
increased the need for it. … After the example of the
Gnostics, a beginning is also made with exegetical explanation
of New Testament writings; Melito with one on the Revelation
of John, a certain Heraclitus with one on the Apostles. …
Finally, in this same opposition to the heretics, it is sought
to secure the agreement of the different churches with one
another, and in this relation importance is gained by the idea
of a universal (Catholic) Church. So-called catholic Epistles
of men of repute in the church to different communities are
highly regarded. As illustrations take those of Bishop
Dionysius of Corinth to Lacedæmon, Athens, Crete, Paphlagonia,
Pontus, Rome (Euseb. 4, 23)."

_W. Moeller,
History of the Christian Church,
pages 183-184._

"This period [100-312] may be divided into the Post-Apostolic
Age which reaches down to the middle of the second century,
and the Age of the Old Catholic Church which ends with the
establishment of the Church under Constantine. … The point
of transition from one Age to the other may be unhesitatingly
set down at A. D. 170. The following are the most important
data in regard thereto. The death about A. D. 165 of Justin
Martyr, who marks the highest point reached in the
Post-Apostolic Age and forms also the transition to the Old
Catholic Age; and Irenaeus, flourishing somewhere about A. D.
170, who was the real inaugurator of this latter age. Besides
these we come upon the beginnings of the Trinitarian
controversies about the year 170. Finally, the rejection of
Montanism from the universal Catholic Church was effected
about the year 170 by means of the synodal institution called
into existence for that purpose."

_J. H. Kurtz,
Church History,
volume 1, page 70._

"If every church must so live in the world as to be a part of
its collective being, then it must always be construed in and
through the place and time in which it lives."

_A. M. Fairbairn,
The Place of Christ in Modern Theology._

"The Church of the first three centuries was never, except
perhaps on the day of Pentecost, in an absolutely ideal
condition. But yet during the ages of persecution, the Church
as a whole was visibly an unworldly institution. It was a
spiritual empire in recognized antagonism with the
world-empire."

_F. W. Puller,
The Primitive Saints and The See of Rome,
page 153._

All the greater forces of the age, political and legal, and
commercial, aided those working within the church to create an
organic unity. "Speaking with some qualifications, the
patristic church was Greek, as the primitive church had been
Jewish, and the mediæval church was to be Latin. Its unity,
like that of the Greek nation, was federative; each church,
like each of the Grecian states, was a little commonwealth. As
the Greece which resisted the Persians was one, not by any
imperial organization, but by common ideas and a common love
of liberty, so the church of the fathers was one, not by any
organic connection, but by common thoughts and sympathies,
above all by a common loyalty to Christ. Naturally the
questions which agitated such a church were those which
concern the individual soul rather than society. Its members
made much of personal beliefs and speculative opinions; and so
long as the old free spirit lasted they allowed one another
large freedom of thought, only requiring that common instinct
of loyalty to Christ. Happily for the world, that free spirit
did not die out from the East for at least two centuries after
Paul had proclaimed the individual relationship of the soul to
God. … The genius of the Greek expressing itself in thought,
of the Latin in ruling power, the Christianity which was to
the former a body of truth, became to the latter a system of
government."

_G. A. Jackson,
The Fathers of the Third Century,
pages 154-156._

The Apostolic ideal was set forth, and within a few
generations forgotten. The vision was only for a time and then
vanished. "The kingdom of Christ, not being a kingdom of this
world, is not limited by the restrictions which fetter other
societies, political or religious. It is in the fullest sense
free, comprehensive, universal. … It is most important that
we should keep this ideal definitely in view, and I have
therefore stated it as broadly as possible. Yet the broad
statement, if allowed to stand alone, would suggest a false
impression, or at least would convey only a half truth. It
must be evident that no society of men could hold together
without officers, without rules, without institutions of any
kind; and the Church of Christ is not exempt from this
universal law. The conception in short is strictly an ideal,
which we must ever hold before our eyes. … Every member of
the human family was potentially a member of the Church, and,
as such, a priest of God. … It will hardly be denied, I
think, by those who have studied the history of modern
civilization with attention, that this conception of the
Christian Church has been mainly instrumental in the
emancipation of the degraded and oppressed, in the removal of
artificial barriers between class and class, and in the
diffusion of a general philanthropy untrammelled by the
fetters of party or race; in short, that to it mainly must be
attributed the most important advantages which constitute the
superiority of modern societies over ancient. Consciously or
unconsciously, the idea of an universal priesthood, of the
religious equality of all men, which, though not untaught
before, was first embodied in the Church of Christ, has worked
and is working untold blessings in political institutions and
in social life. But the careful student will also observe that
this idea has hitherto been very imperfectly apprehended; that
throughout the history of the Church it has been struggling
for recognition, at most times discerned in some of its
aspects but at all times wholly ignored in others; and that
therefore the actual results are a very inadequate measure of
its efficacy, if only it could assume due prominence and were
allowed free scope in action. … It may be a general rule, it
may be under ordinary circumstances a practically universal
law, that the highest acts of congregational worship shall be
performed through the principal officers of the congregation.
But an emergency may arise when the spirit and not the letter
must decide, The Christian ideal will then … interpret our
duty. The higher ordinance of the universal priesthood will
overrule all special limitations. The layman will assume
functions which are otherwise restricted to the ordained
minister."

_J. B. Lightfoot,
Dissertations on the Apostolic Age,
pages 137-140, 237._

"No Church now existing is an exact counterpart of the
Apostolic Church. … Allusions bear out the idea that the
Church at Corinth was as yet almost struetureless—little more
than an aggregate of individuals—with no bishop, presbyter or
deacon."

_J. W. Cunningham,
The Growth of the Church in its Organization and Institutions,
pages 73, 18._

{444}

"Some time before the middle of the second century heresy
began sadly to distract the Christian community; and to avoid
imminent danger of schism, it was deemed expedient in a few
great towns to arm the chairman of the eldership with
additional power. A modified form of prelacy was thus
introduced."

_W. D. Killen,
The Old Catholic Church,
page 51._

Respecting the rise of the Episcopate as a distinct office
there is a difference of opinion among scholars,—some
holding that it was expressly ordained by the Apostles, others
that it arose quite independently of them; a third class think
that it was developed gradually out of the eldership, but not
without the sanction of one or more of the Apostles. "For the
Church is a catholic society, that is, a society belonging to
all nations and ages. As a catholic society it lacks the bonds
of the life of a city or a nation—local contiguity, common
language, common customs. We cannot then very well conceive
how its corporate continuity could have been maintained
otherwise than through some succession of persons such as,
bearing the apostolic commission for ministry, should be in
each generation the necessary centres of the Church's life."

_C. Gore,
The Mission of the Church,
pages 10, 11._

"Jewish presbyteries existed already in all the principal
cities of the dispersion, and Christian presbyteries would
early occupy a not less wide area. … The name of the
presbyter then presents no difficulty. But what must be said
of the term bishop? … But these notices, besides
establishing the general prevalence of episcopacy, also throw
considerable light on its origin. They indicate that the
relation suggested by the history of the word 'bishop' and its
transference from the lower to the higher office is the true
solution, and that the episcopate was created out of the
presbytery. … They seem to hint also that, so far as this
development was affected at all by national temper and
characteristics, it was slower where the prevailing influences
were more purely Greek, as at Corinth and Philippi and Rome,
and more rapid where an Oriental spirit predominated, as at
Jerusalem and Antioch and Ephesus. Above all, they establish
this result clearly, that its maturer forms are seen first in
those regions where the latest surviving Apostles (more
especially St. John) fixed their abode, and at a time when its
prevalence cannot be dissociated from their influence or their
sanction."

_J. B. Lightfoot,
Dissertations on the Apostolic Age,
pages 151, 190, 191._

"Since then in the constitution of the church two elements met
together—the aristocratic and the monarchical—it could not
fail to be the case that a conflict would ensue between them.
… These struggles between the presbyterial and episcopal
systems belong among the most important phenomena connected
with the process of the development of church life in the
third century. Many presbyters made a capricious use of their
power, hurtful to good discipline and order in the
communities."

_A. Neander,
General History of the Christian Religion and Church,
volume 1, section 2._

"As a rule Christianity would get a footing first in the
metropolis of its region. The lesser cities would be
evangelized by missions sent from thence; and so the suffragan
sees would look on themselves as daughters of the metropolitan
see. The metropolitan bishop is the natural center of unity
for the bishops of the province. … The bishops of the
metropolitan sees acquired certain rights which were delegated
to them by their brother bishops. Moreover, among the most
important churches a certain order of precedence grew up which
corresponded with the civil dignity of the cities in which
those churches existed; and finally the churches which were
founded by the apostles were treated with peculiar reverence."

_F. W. Puller,
The Primitive Saints and the See of Rome,
pages 11 and 18._

"The triumph of the episcopal system undoubtedly promoted
unity, order, and tranquillity. But, on the other hand, it was
unfavourable to the free development of the life of the
church; and while the latter promoted the formation of a
priesthood foreign to the essence of that development of the
kingdom of God which the New Testament sets forth, on the
other hand a revolution of sentiment which had already been
prepared—an altered view of the idea of the priesthood—had
no small influence on the development of the episcopal system.
Thus does this change of the original constitution of the
Christian communities stand intimately connected with another
and still more radical change,—the formation of a sacerdotal
caste in the Christian church. … Out of the husk of Judaism
Christianity had evolved itself to freedom and
independence,—had stripped off the forms in which it first
sprang up, and within which the new spirit lay at first
concealed, until by its own inherent power it broke through
them. This development belonged more particularly to the
Pauline position, from which proceeded the form of the church
in the Gentile world. In the struggle with the Jewish elements
which opposed the free development of Christianity, this
principle had triumphantly made its way. In the churches of
pagan Christians the new creation stood forth completely
unfolded; but the Jewish principle, which had been vanquished,
pressed in once more from another quarter. Humanity was as yet
incapable of maintaining itself at the lofty position of pure
spiritual religion. The Jewish position was better adapted to
the mass, which needed first to be trained before it could
apprehend Christianity in its purity,—needed to be disabused
from paganism. Out of Christianity, now become independent, a
principle once more sprang forth akin to the principles of the
Old Testament,—a new outward shaping of the kingdom of God, a
new discipline of the law which one day was to serve for the
training of rude nations, a new tutorship for the spirit of
humanity, until it should arrive at the maturity of the
perfect manhood in Christ. This investiture of the Christian
spirit in a form nearly akin to the position arrived at in the
Old Testament, could not fail, after the fruitful principle
had once made its appearance, to unfold itself more and more,
and to bring to light one after another all the consequences
which it involved; but there also began with it a reaction of
the Christian consciousness as it yearned after freedom, which
was continually bursting forth anew in an endless variety of
appearances, until it attained its triumph at the
Reformation."

_A. Neander,
General History of the Christian Religion and Church,
volume 1, section 2, B._

{445}

"Though the forms of [pagan] religion had broken away, the
spirit of religion was still quick; it had even developed: the
sense of sin, an almost new phenomenon, began to invade
Society and Philosophy; and along with this, an almost
importunate craving after a revelation. The changed tone of
philosophy, the spread of mysticism, the rapid growth of
mystery-worship, the revived Platonism, are all articulate
expressions of this need. The old Philosophy begins not only
to preach but to pray: the new strives to catch the revealed
voice of God in the oracles of less unfaithful days. … In
the teeth of an organised and concentrated despotism a new
society had grown up, self-supporting, self-regulated, a State
within the State. Calm and assured amid a world that hid its
fears only in blind excitement, free amid the servile,
sanguine amid the despairing, Christians lived with an object.
United in loyal fellowship by sacred pledges more binding than
the sacramentum of the soldier, welded together by a stringent
discipline, led by trained and tried commanders, the Church
had succeeded in attaining unity. It had proved itself able to
command self-devotion even to the death. It had not feared to
assimilate the choicest fruits of the choicest intellects of
East and West. … Yet the centripetal forces were stronger;
Tertullian had died an heresiarch, and Origen but narrowly and
somewhat of grace escaped a like fate. If rent with schisms
and threatened with disintegration, the Church was still an
undivided whole."

_G. H. Rendall,
The Emperor Julian, Paganism and Christianity,
pages 21-22._

"The designation of the Universal Christian Church as Catholic
dates from the time of Irenaeus. … At the beginning of this
age, the heretical as well as the non-heretical Ebionism may
be regarded as virtually suppressed, although some scanty
remnants of it might yet be found. The most brilliant period
of Gnosticism, too, … was already passed. But in Manichæism
there appeared, during the second half of the third century, a
new peril of a no less threatening kind inspired by Parseeism
and Buddhism. … With Marcus Aurelius, Paganism outside of
Christianity as embodied in the Roman State, begins the war of
extermination against the Church that was ever more and more
extending her boundaries. Such manifestation of hostility,
however, was not able to subdue the Church. … During the
same time the episcopal and synodal-hierarchical organization
of the church was more fully developed by the introduction of
an order of Metropolitans, and then in the following period it
reached its climax in the oligarchical Pentarchy of
Patriarchs, and in the institution of œcumenical Synods."

_J. H. Kurtz,
Church History,
volume l, pages 72-73;_

to which the reader is also referred for all periods
of church history.

See, also,
_P. Schaff,
History of the Christian Church;_

For biography,
_W. Smith and H. Wace,
A Dictionary of Christian Biography._

"Missionary effort in this period was mainly directed to the
conversion of the heathen. On the ruins of Jerusalem,
Hadrian's colony of Ælia Capitolina was planted; so that even
there the Church, in its character and modes of worship, was a
Gentile community. Christianity was early carried to Edessa,
the capital of the small state of Osrhene, in Mesopotamia.
After the middle of the second century, the Church at Edessa
was sufficiently flourishing to count among its members the
king, Abgar Bar Manu. At about this time the gospel was
preached in Persia, Media, Parthia, and Bactria. We have
notices of churches in Arabia in the early part of the third
century. They were visited several times by Origen, the
celebrated Alexandrian Church teacher (185-254). In the middle
of the fourth century a missionary, Theophilus, of Diu, found
churches in India. In Egypt, Christianity made great progress,
especially at Alexandria, whence it spread to Cyrene and other
neighboring places. In upper Egypt, where the Coptic language
and the superstition of the people were obstacles in its path,
Christianity had, nevertheless, gained a foothold as early as
towards the close of the second century. At this time the
gospel had been planted in proconsular Africa, being conveyed
thither from Rome, and there was a flourishing church at
Carthage. In Gaul, where the Druidical system, with its
priesthood and sacrificial worship, was the religion of the
Celtic population, several churches were founded from Asia
Minor. At Lyons and Vienne there were strong churches in the
last quarter of the second century. At this time Irenæus,
Bishop of Lyons, speaks of the establishment of Christianity
in Germany, west of the Rhine, and Tertullian, the North
African presbyter, speaks of Christianity in Britain. The
fathers in the second century describe in glowing terms, and
not without rhetorical exaggeration, the rapid conquests of
the Gospel. The number of converts in the reign of Hadrian
must have been very large. Otherwise we cannot account for the
enthusiastic language of Justin Martyr respecting the
multitude of professing Christians. Tertullian writes in a
similar strain. Irenæus refers to Barbarians who have believed
without having a knowledge of letters, through oral teaching
merely."

_G. P. Fisher,
History of the Christian Church,
pages 45-46._

CHRISTIANITY: Alexandria.

"Christianity first began its activity in the country among
the Jewish and Greek population of the Delta, but gradually
also among the Egyptians proper (the Copts) as may be inferred
from the Coptic (Memphytic) translation of the New Testament
(third century). In the second century, Gnosticism [see
GNOSTICS], which had its chief seat here as well as in Syria,
and, secondly, towards the close of the century, the
Alexandrian Catechetical School, show the importance of this
centre of religious movement and Christian education."

_W. Moeller,
History of the Christian Church,
page 105._

"Never perhaps has the free statement of the Christian idea
had less prejudice to encounter than at Alexandria at the
close of the second century. Never has it more successfully
vindicated by argument its right to be the great interpreter
of the human spirit. The institutions of the great metropolis
were highly favourable to this result. The Museum, built by
the Ptolemies, was intended to be, and speedily became, the
centre of an intense intellectual life. The Serapeum, at the
other end of the town, rivalled it in beauty of architecture
and wealth of rare MSS. The Sebastion, reared in honour of
Augustus, was no unworthy companion to these two noble
establishments. In all three, splendid endowments and a rich
professoriate attracted the talent of the world. If the
ambition of a secured reputation drew many eminent men away to
Rome, the means of securing such eminence were mainly procured
at Alexandria. … The Christian Church in this city rose to
the height of its grand opportunity. It entered the lists
without fear and without favour, and boldly proclaimed its
competence to satisfy the intellectual cravings of man.
Numbers of restless and inquiring spirits came from all parts
of the world, hoping to find a solution of the doubts that
perplexed them. And the Church, which had already brought
peace to the souls of the woman and the slave, now girded
herself to the harder task of convincing the trained
intelligence of the man of letters and the philosopher."

_C. T. Cruttwell,
A Literary History of Early Christianity,
book 4, chapter 1 (volume 2)._

{446}

"The question … came up for decision towards the close of
the sub-apostolic age, as to what shape the Church was finally
to take. Two types were set before her to choose from—one the
Hebrew-Latin type, as we may call it, into which … she
finally settled down; the other the Hellenist type of a Demos,
or commonwealth of free citizens, all equal, all alike kings
and priests unto God, and whose moral and spiritual growth was
left very much to the initiative of each member of the
community. In Alexandria, as the meeting-point of all
nationalities, and where Judaism itself had tried to set up a
new type of thought, eclectic between Hebraism and Hellenism,
and comprehending what was best in both, naturally enough
there grew up a Christian type of eclecticism corresponding to
that of Philo. … Into this seething of rival sects and races
the Alexandrian school of catechists threw themselves, and
made a noble attempt to rescue the Church, the synagogue, and
the Stoics alike from the one bane common to all—the
dangerous delusion that the truth was for them, not they for
the truth. Setting out on the assumption that God's purpose
was the education of the whole human family, they saw in the
Logos doctrine of St. John the key to harmonise all truth,
whether of Christian sect, Hebrew synagogue, or Stoic
philosophy. … To educate all men up to this standard seemed
to them the true ideal of the Church. True Gnosis was their
keynote; and the Gnostic, as Clemens loves to describe
himself, was to them the pattern philosopher and Christian in
one. They regarded, moreover, a discipline of at least three
years as imperative; it was the preliminary condition of
entrance into the Christian Church."

_J. B. Heard,
Alexandrian and Carthaginian Theology Contrasted,
pages 37-38._

The two great Christian writers of Alexandria were Clement and
Origen. "The universal influence of Origen made itself felt in
the third century over the whole field of Greek theology. In
him, as it were, everything which had hitherto been striven
after in the Greek field of theology, had been gathered
together, so as, being collected here in a centre, to give an
impulse in the most various directions; hence also the further
development of theology in subsequent times is always
accustomed to link itself on to one side or the other of his
rich spiritual heritage. … And while this involves that
Christianity is placed on friendly relations with the previous
philosophical development of the highest conceptions of God
and the world, yet on the other hand Christian truth also
appears conversely as the universal truth which gathers
together in itself all the hitherto isolated rays of divine
truth. … In the great religious ferment of the time there
was further contained the tendency to seek similar religious
ideas amid the different mythological religious forms and to
mingle them syncretistically. This religious ferment was still
further increased by the original content of Christianity,
that mighty leaven, which announced a religion destined to the
redemption and perfecting of the world, and by this means a like
direction and tendency was imparted to various other religious
views likewise. The exciting and moving effect of Gnosticism
on the Church depended at the same time on the fact, that its
representatives practically apprehended Christianity in the
manner of the antique religious mysteries, and in so doing
sought to lean upon the Christian communities and make
themselves at home in them, according as their religious life
and usages seemed to invite them, and to establish in them a
community of the initiated and perfect; an endeavour which the
powerful ascetic tendency in the church exploited and
augmented in its own sense, and for which the institution of
prophecy, which was so highly respected and powerful in the
communities, afforded a handle. In this way the initiated were
able to make for themselves a basis in the community on which
they could depend, while the religio-philosophical
speculations, which are always intelligible only to a few, at
the same time propagated themselves and branched out
scholastically."

_W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church,
pages 215, 213, 130-131._

"At Alexandria, Basilides (A. D. 125) and Valentine exerted in
turn an extraordinary influence; the latter endeavored to
establish his school at Rome about the year 140. The Gnostics
of Syria professed a more open dualism than those of Egypt.
The Church of Antioch had to resist Saturnin, that of Edessa
to oppose Bordesanes and Tatian."

_E. De Pressensé,
The Early Years of Christianity;
The Martyrs and Apologists,
page 135._

"There was something very imposing in those mighty systems,
which embraced heaven and earth. How plain and meagre in
comparison seemed simple Christianity! There was something
remarkably attractive in the breadth and liberality of
Gnosticism. It seemed completely to have reconciled
Christianity with culture. How narrow the Christian Church
appeared! Even noble souls might be captivated by the hope of
winning the world over to Christianity in this way. … Over
against the mighty systems of the Gnostics, the Church stood,
in sober earnestness and childlike faith, on the simple
Christian doctrine of the Apostles. This was to be sought in
the churches founded by the apostles themselves, where they
had defined the faith in their preaching."

_G. Uhlhorn,
The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism,
book 2, chapter 3._

"Greek philosophy had joined hands with Jewish theosophy, and
the Church knew not where to look for help. So serious did the
danger seem, when it was assailed at once and from opposite
sides by Jewish and Greek types of Gnosticism, the one from
the monotheistic point of view impugning the Godhead, the
other for the Docetic side explaining away [us a spiritual
illusion] the manhood of Christ, that the Church, in despair
of beating error by mere apology, fell back on the method of
authority. The Church was the only safe keeper of the deposit
of sacred tradition; whoever impugned that tradition, let him
be put out of the communion of saints."

_Reverend J. B. Heard,
Alexandrian and Carthaginian Theology Contrasted,
page 41._

{447}

"The interest, the meaning, of Gnosticism rest entirely upon
its ethical motive. It was an attempt, a serious attempt, to
fathom the dread mystery of sorrow and pain, to answer that
spectral doubt, which is mostly crushed down by force—Can the
world as we know it have been made by God? 'Cease,' says
Basilides, 'from idle and curious variety, and let us rather
discuss the opinions, which even barbarians have held, on the
subject of good and evil.' 'I will say anything rather than
admit that Providence is wicked.' Valentinus describes in the
strain of an ancient prophet the woes that afflict mankind. 'I
durst not affirm,' he concludes, 'that God is the author of
all this.' So Tertullian says of Marcion, 'like many men of
our time, and especially the heretics, he is bewildered by the
question of evil.' They approach the problem from a
non-Christian point of view, and arrive therefore at a
non-Christian solution. … Many of them, especially the later
sectaries, accepted the whole Christian Creed, but always with
reserve. The teaching of the Church thus became in their eyes
a popular exoteric confession, beneath their own Gnosis, or
Knowledge, which was a Mystery, jealously guarded from all but
the chosen few."

_C. Bigg;
The Christian Platonists of Alexandria,
pages 28-29._

CHRISTIANITY: Cæsarea.

"The chief points of interest in the history of the Church of
Cæsarea during this period are the residence of Origen there
(first between A. D. 215 and 219 and again after his final
departure from Alexandria in 231), the education of Eusebius,
the foundation of the great library by Pamphilus, and the
martyrdoms during the Diocletian persecution. Most of these
will come before us again in other connexions, but they
require mention here. It would be difficult to over-estimate
the effect of what they imply on the Church at large. Had the
work of Origen, Pamphilus, and Eusebius at Cæsarea remained
unrecorded, there would be a huge blank in ecclesiastical
history, rendering much that is otherwise known scarcely
intelligible. Had that work never been done, the course of
ecclesiastical history would have been very different. In the
whole of the second and third centuries it would be difficult
to name two more influential Christians than Origen and
Eusebius; and Pamphilus laboured earnestly to preserve and
circulate the writings of the one and to facilitate those of
the other. It was from the libraries of Pamphilus at Cæsarea
and of Alexander at Jerusalem that Eusebius obtained most of
his material" for his "Ecclesiastical History," which has
preserved titles and quotations from many lost books of
exceeding value.

_A. Plummer,
The Church of the Early Fathers,
chapter 3._

CHRISTIANITY: Edessa.

"Edessa (the modern Urfa) was from the beginning of the third
century one of the chief centres of Syrian Christian life and
theological study. For many years, amid the vicissitudes of
theological persecution, a series of flourishing theological
schools were maintained there, one of which (the 'Persian
school') is of great importance as the nursery of Nestorianism
in the extreme East. It was as bishop of Edessa, also, that
Jacob Baradæus organized the monophysite churches into that
Jacobite church of which he is the hero. From the scholars of
Edessa came many of the translations which carried Greek
thought to the East, and in the periods of exciting
controversy Edessa was within the range of the theological
movements that stirred Alexandria and Constantinople. The
'Chronicle of Edessa,' as it is called because the greater
number of its notices relate to Edessene affairs, is a brief
document in Syriac contained in a manuscript of six leaves in
the Vatican library. It is one of the most important
fundamental sources for the history of Edessa, contains a long
official narrative of the flood of A. D. 201, which is perhaps
the only existing monument of heathen Syriac literature, and
includes an excellent and very carefully dated list of the
bishops of Edessa from A. D. 313 to 543."

_Andover Review,
volume 19, page 374._

The Syriac Versions (of the Gospel) form a group of which
mention should undoubtedly be made. The Syriac versions of the
Bible (Old Testament) are among the most ancient remains of
the language, the Syriac and the Chaldee being the two
dialects of the Aramaean spoken in the North. Of versions of
the New Testament, "the 'Peshito' or the 'Simple,' though not
the oldest text, has been the longest known. … The
'Curetonian' … was discovered after its existence had been
for a long time suspected by sagacious scholars [but is not
much more than a series of fragments]. … Cureton, Tregelles,
Alford, Ewald, Bleek, and others, believe this text to be
older than the Peshito [which speaks for the Greek text of the
second century, though its own date is doubtful]. … Other
valuable Syriac versions are 'Philoxenian' … and the
'Jerusalem Syriac Lectionary' … a service-book with lessons
from the Gospels for Sundays and feast days throughout the
year … written at Antioch in 1030 in a dialect similar to
that in use in Jerusalem and from a Greek text of great
antiquity." A recent discovery renders these facts and
statements of peculiar interests.

_G. E. Merrill,
The Story of the Manuscripts,
chapter 10._

CHRISTIANITY: Rural Palestine.

"If Ebionism [see EBIONISM] was not primitive Christianity,
neither was it a creation of the second century. As an
organization, a distinct sect, it first made itself known, we
may suppose, in the reign of Trajan: but as a sentiment, it
had been harboured within the Church from the very earliest
days. Moderated by the personal influence of the Apostles,
soothed by the general practice of their church, not yet
forced into declaring themselves by the turn of events, though
scarcely tolerant of others, these Judaizers were tolerated
for a time themselves. The beginning of the second century was
a winnowing season in the Church of the Circumcision. … It
is a probable conjecture, that after the destruction of
Jerusalem the fugitive Christians, living in their retirement
in the neighbourhood of the Essene settlements, received large
accessions to their numbers from this sect, which thus
inoculated the Church with its peculiar views. It is at least
worthy of notice, that in a religious work emanating from this
school of Ebionites the 'true Gospel' is reported to have been
first propagated 'after the destruction of the holy place.'"

_J. B. Lightfoot,
Dissertation on the Apostolic Age,
pages 78-80._

{448}

CHRISTIANITY: Carthage.