The conflict of Christianity with heathenism

II

i

li^v't'^

Wl^ yJi:

wm^

Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries

THE

CONFLICT OF CHRISTIANITl^

'^ And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow, and ft crown wjas given unto Mm, and he went forth conquering and to conquer.''' — Key. vj. 2.

6^,

CONFLICT OF CHRISTIANITY ^ WITH HEATHENISM

BY

Dr. GERHARD UHLHORN

ABBOT OF LOCCUM, AND MEMBER OF THE SUPREME CONSISTORY IN HANOVER lEtitttlr anfi ^TranslateB

WITH THE AUTHOR'S SANCTION FROM THE THIRD GERMAN EDITION

BY

EGBERT C. SMYTH and C. J. H. ROPES

NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

55'\<^

Preface

The woik of which a translation is now offered to the public has been highly commended by leading reviews in Germany, and has been received with much popular favor. It has also been translated into the Danish and Swedish languages. Its author's name is familiar to scholars through his contributions to the first edition of Herzog's Encyclopaedia of Protestant Theology, as well as to the one now issuing ; through his work on the Clementine Homilies and Recognitions ; and through other historical and apologetic publications, one of which has been translated into English by the Rev. Charles E. Grinnell, and published under the title : " The Modern Representations of the Life of Jesus." At home Dr. Uhlhorn is known also as an eminent preacher, and as one of the most prominent of the Lutheran clerg)\ Several volumes of sermons have lately appeared from his pen, and also a collection of addresses on important topics of religious and social life.

Gerhard Uhlhorn is the son of a shoemaker, and was Dorn in Osnabriick, Feb. 17, 1826. From the gjinnasium of his native city he went to the University of Gottingen,

C PREFACE.

where he studied theology from 1845 to 1848. He then became a private instructor in the University, and served successively as a ^'' Bepetent,'' and as a ''' Privatdocent,** until 1855. During this period, besides preparing and publishing a volume of sermons, he was engaged in a critical and thorough study of the earty Christian history. In 1855 he became assistant preacher at the royal Schloss- Kirche in Hanover, and subsequently First Preacher to the Court, and n member of the Supreme Consistory of Hanover. In 1878 he was installed as Abbot of Loccum, a mediaeval Cistercian Abbey which, toward the close of the sixteenth century, accepted the principles of the Lutheran Reformation, and is now a Seminary for the education of evangehcal preachers. Its abbot is ex officio president of the principality of Kalenberg, and at the head (der erste Geistliche) of the Lutheran Church in Hanover.

The subject which Dr. Uhlhorn has treated in the following work is fitted to call into exercise his best powers, — his quick and broad sympathies with humanity, especially the poor and wretched, his ample and thorough learning, and his ability to clothe his thoughts in forms fitted to interest wide circles of readers. Dr. Channing, in his Essay on Fenelon, has recognized the grandeur and importance of this theme, and its need of juster treatment. It is of permanent and universal interest. We are transported to an ancient battle-field, but the cause is our own. Christianity, from the })eginning, had to encounter active, skilful foes. Judaism and Heathenism were no abstractions, but armed warriors. The struggle was a vital one, — not a question of mere organization, or subsidiai-y doctrine, but of the origin.

PREFACE. 7

essence, authority, and power of the Gospel. The contest was also protracted. As it went on, all the forces which could be arrayed against the new religion had time to reach the field of conflict, and mingle in the strife. The \ictorious Roman, the acute and versatile Greek, the Oriental theosophist, the Jewish legalist, the power of the Empire, the learning of Alexandria, vested interests, wit, ridicule, sarcasm, reverence for the past, the pride of human reason, the cunning of covetousness, the accumulated resources of human wisdom and human depravity, were all marshalled md taxed. A conflict so real, so strenuous, so continuous ind vital, deserves the careful attention of every student )f history and lover of truth. And it has special claims iU an age like our own, when the question of the supernatural origin and power of Christianity is so widely discussed.^

In its treatment of this subject Dr. Uhlhorn's book may be specially commended in the following particulars : (i.) its abundant use of the new materials which have been accumulated by the special investigations of Marquardt, Mommsen, Friedlander, Boissier, De Rossi, Keim, Overbeck, and others ; (ii.) the vividness with which the principles and

1 The German edition of this volume bears the secondary title . Bilder aus del Vergangenheit als Spiegelbilder fur die Gegenwart, Picturea from the Past as Illustrations for the Present. This resemblance of the ancient conflict to the modern has also been noticed, on its Apologetic Bide, by Dr. Shedd, History of Christian Doctrine, vol. i., p. 103; and by Mr. Bolton in the Introduction to his useful collection and classification of the arguments of " the Apologists down to Augustine." Mr. Bolton also sketches the peculiar characteristics of the earlier contest, — to some of which, In broader relations, I have alluded.

8 PREFACE.

progress of the conflict are conceived, and the skill with which thej are illustrated by apt citations from the writings of those engaged in it, and b}^ the introduction of strildng personal expeiiences and incidents of the period ; (iii.) the success \\ith which the author preserves the unit}" of his theme, and the consequent distinctness of impression which is produced.

If these merits are justly attributable to the original work, and are not seriousl}" impaired in its translation, it invites the attention of a much larger number of readers than those who may be supposed to have a professional interest in its subject. I cannot but hope that it will prove adapted to the wants of such persons ; that intelligent la3Tiien will deem it not without freshness and value, that pastors may find it helpful in their provision of reading for some who may consult them, and that it may fill a useful place in town and village and parish libraries. I shall be especially gi'atified if any young persons who have not as yet been attracted to the study of Church Histor}' may be allured by this volume to these rich fields of thought and knowledge. Desiring also that it ma}" promote the study of this Histor}" in its sources, special pains has been taken to make the references to authorities exact and copious.

The latter half of the translation (from page 244) , with the corresponding notes, has been prepared and edited by the Rev. C. J. H. Ropes of Ellsworth, Me. The translators have endeavored so far to assimilate their work that the unity of the original may not seem to have be^n greatly

impaired in its English form.

E. C. S

A NDOVER Theological Seminary,

October, 1879.

Chapter I. The Religious Condition Of Tee Heathen World

FAGH

1. The Commingling of Nations in the Roman Empire .... 13

2. Decline of Religion 29

8. Foreign Rites, and the Longing for Redemption 62

4. Judaism 81

CHAPTER n.

THE MORAL CONDITION OF THE HEATHEN WORLD.

1. Faith and Morals 92

2. Marriage and Family Life 97

3. Labor and Luxury 104

4. Public Games 119

5. Slavery 131

6. The Need of Moral Renewal 141

CHAPTER m.

THE CHRISTIANS.

1. The Preaching of the Gospel 150

2. Worship and Church-Life 160

3. Conduct of the Christians ., ... 165

4. Benevolence of the Christians 191

BOOK SECOND. S:f)e Conflfct

CHAPTER I.

THE FIRST ENCOUNTER.

1. Preliminary Survey 211

2. The Persecution under Nero .241 iO CONTENTS.

CHAPTER n.

THE CEBISTIANS BEFORE THE TBIBUITALS.

VA&A

1. Trajan's Legislation against the Christians 251

2. The Increasing Influence of Christianity 264

3. The Persecution under Marcus Aurelius 282

4. The First Signs of Victory ,297

CHAPTER in.

TRE BE- ACTION.

1. The Internal Ee-action in Heathenism 308

2. The Internal Re-action in Christianity 336

CHAPTER IV.

TEE GENERAL PERSECUTIONS.

1. From Marcus Aurelius to Decius 355

2. From Decius to Gallienus 365

Chapter I. The Religious Condition Of The Heathen World

"But, when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman." — Gal. iv. 4.

I. THE COMlVnNGLING OF NATIONS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

Melito of Sardis, one of the earliest Apologists, calls attention to the fact that Christianity was born at the same time with the Roman Empire.^ Indeed the simple statement, in the story of our Lord's birth, of the decree of taxation issued by the first Roman Emperor, affords one of the plainest indications that the fulness of the time had come. The name of the Emperor Augustus marks the meridian of the ancient world ; for the ancient world culminated in Rome, and Roman history in the rise of the Empire. And just at this culmination of the old world, which was also the beginning of its decline. He appears whose coming was the point of transition from the ancient era to the new, the turning-point of the ages. As in Nature new shoots do not first start when the plant they are appointed to succeed is wholly dead, but while it is still outwardly vigorous put forth and grow, feeding upon the life whose dissolution 'they hasten, so was it here. The Christian world did not first appear when the old world was already decayed. To human eyes at least, although destroying forces were secretly at work, it still stood in full splendor and bloom when the germ of the new life was implanted, and henceforth the progressive decline of the old life, and the aspiring growth of the new. went on in constant and reciprocal interaction.

The task of Rome was to unite, — to unite, we maj say as confidently, for Christ. Born at the same time, the Roman Empire and the Christian Church were also pro vide ntiall}^ appointed for each other. The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of seed. If the seed is to be sown the field must be prepared. The Roman Empire was the prepared field. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven. If the leaven is to be mixed with the meal, the meal must be shaken together. The Roman Empire was the shaken heap of meal appointed first of all to take up the leaven. All the peoples of the old world which hitherto had lived and labored apart, all their gains and achievements, their riches and treasures, their works of art and scientific results, their ancient traditions and legends, their gods and rites of worship, all existing elements of culture and forces of civilization, were now comprised in one Empire. Other empires nave exceeded this hi territory and in population, but there has never been a second empire in the whole course of history which so united in itself all the cultivated nations of its time.

The establishment of this kingdom was the historical task of the Romans. Rome's geographical position gave her the expectation of becoming the head of sucli an Empire. Around the Mediterranean, the central sea of the ancient world, dwelt the cultivated nations.

CHAP. ..J ROME'S TASK: CONQUEST OF THE WORLD. lb

Fai" into the midst of this sea projects the long peninsula of Italy, and in the middle of this peninsula stood Rome, the centre of the centre. From this point tie world was conquered and controlled. For this were the Romans endowed. They were not a people of peace but of war, not a nation of thinkers but of deeds, not rich in arts but great in bravery and political sagacity, equipped with a rare power of assimilation, a marvellous gift for organization, and a strong instinct for legislation and government. They produced no philosophical systems, but they carried law to its highest perfection ; they built no Parthenon, but they constructed roads and bridges to bind countries together, and walls and castles to protect them. They were "the robbers of the globe," but in the divine counsel their robberies, unknown to them, had a higher purpose of union, and their Empire, brought together by reckless violence, was constrained by a superior will to serve the kingdom which Eternal Love has undertaken to establish in the world.

When the Republic ended, the conquest of the world was at least substantially accomplished. Then it received, in the Emperor, one ruler. From this point began the fusion of the heterogeneous mass of countries and peoples which at first were only externally united. The first Emperor, Augustus, erected in the Forum at Rome a golden milestone. It stood as a symbol that there was the centre of the world. A net-work of artificial highwaj^s, even then nearly completed, extended from this point through the entire Empire. From Cadiz in Spain, through France, through Italy, away up to the Cataracts of the Nile, from the lands of the Danube even to the pillars of Hercules, the travellei

16 COMMINGLING OP NATIONS. [book i.

could journey over well-built roads, and find everywliere, at certain distances, mutationes for change of horses, and mansiones for lodging at night. THese roads were so many cords binding the conquered world to the centre, Rome, so many channels for the impulses which streamed forth from it. On these roads marched the legions to keep under control a subjugated world, and to protect the boundaries ; on these roads Proconsuls and Praetors went into the provinces to administer law and justice, and swift couriers bore the edicts of the Emperor to the extreme circumference of the broad Empire ; over these highways commerce moved, and Romans of distinction journeyed to gain knowledge of the world; over these highways, too, went the messengers of the Gospel, bearing from city to city the joyful tidings of a manifested Redeemer.

A vast interchange now began tlirough the entire Empire. Hitherto War alone had brought men together ; now for the first time this was accomplished by Peace. For after the fearful assaults and revolutions of the Civil Wars tlie Empire was really peace : " Now land and sea are safe, and cities flourish in concord and peace," exults an inscription in honor of Augustus. "All which has hitherto been concealed comes now into general use," says Pliny. And Philo ; " The noxious elements are driven to the remotest distances, the salutary are gathered together from the ends of the earth into the Empire of the world." 2 To be sure, as compared with the commercial intercourse of to-da; that of the Roman world was but small. The imports, for example, from Asia into England from 1861 to 1869 amounted annually, on an average, to nearly seventy millions of dollars, while the entire Roman Eo

CHAP. I.] linrERCOURSE in the empire. 17

pire, according to an estimate found in Pliny, made use of only about five and a quarter million dollars' worth of merchandise from the East. Yet, in comparison with earlier times, traffic very largely increased during the age of the Emperors, and was of more importance in bringing the nations nearer together because mercantile intercourse was much more personal then than now. Like the great commercial cities of the East, — A^.exandria, Antioch, Ephesus, Smyrna, Corinth, — Rome was a centre of traffic, as no city has been before or since. Every thing rushed to Rome. Whoever had any thing in art or science whose claims he wished to have recognized, whoever hoped to gain any thing by being near persons in power, whoever sought his rights in the highest tribunal of appeal, whoever expected through honest business, or even through adventure and fraud, to become rich, or whoever had obtained wealth and wished to see with his own eyes the wonders of the capital, and to share in the pleasures and luxuries which it afforded, went to Rome. On the streets of this matchless imperial city met the finely cultured Greek who sought here the sources for some history, and the half educated provincial who would gladly pass for a genuine Roman ; the Alexandrian merchant, brought here by the corn trade, and the half savage African who perchance had come with an invoice of lions for the next hunting-show ; the wily Syrian who hoped to propagate the worship of a new god, or sold amulets and charms, and the Gaul who, proud of the Roman citizenship recently presented to him, offered his homage to the eternal city ; the Jew who for the sake of seme pecuniary gain, or even to win proselytes, shunned not the long journey, and the lUyrian and Thracian who followed the Roman eagles.

The current toward Rome had a corresponding one outward into the provinces which, no less than the other, promoted the fusion of the nations. The administrative officers who went forth to govern the conquered lands in accordance with Roman laws, the knights who were drawn to the provinces by their financial operations, the armies and the colonies which Rome sent forth, all promoted that great process of assimilation which was now accomplishing with astonishing rapidity. In its numerous colonies Rome extended itself into the provinces. They were a part of Rome in the midst of Spain, Gaul, or Greece. The colonists carried with them their right of citizenship and their Roman law. Often foreigners were received into the colony, and even when they formed within it a separate community they still came under the constant influence of the Roman spirit. The stations of the legions on the Rhine and in Syria, in Britain and on the Danube, were so many points of support for this Romanizing process. And since the legions were obliged to recruit themselves increasingly from the provinces, they were consequently all the more a school of civilization, especially as it was a principle never to station auxiliary troops in their native cantons. Separated from the soil of their birth by long years of military service, the strangers became Romans, and regarded Roman citizenship as their highest reward. How rapidly this transformation was accomplished in the provinces can be seen in the case of Britain. This country was re-occupied in the year 43. Tacitus gives us a description of it in the year 61. How changed is every thing in these eighteen yea:-s ! A. net-work of camps and castles stretches over the conquered Southern part, individual chieftains have

JHAI. I / PKOGKESSIVE ASSIMILATION. 19

wholly adopted Roman manners, and govern as prefects; the bloody Druid worship is exterminated, Roman customs are diffused ; the colony of Camulodunum (Colchester) has grown to an important city, in the midst of which rises a temple of Divus Claudius. We find circuses, theatres, marble goddesses of victory. Londinium is an influential commercial city, where the fabrications of Roman industry and the products of Gaul find a market, and the people are already accustomed to Italian pleasures.

This assimilation to Rome would naturally advance more rapidly and powerfully in countries hitherto possessed of little or no culture. Spain, Gaul, North Africa, soon became wholly Romanized. It was otherwise in the East. Rome met in Greece a higher culture than its own. Externally the conqueror, it became inwardly more and more subjugated by the Greek mind. What France once was to Europe, Greece was at that time to the world. As philosophers and rhetoricians, as schoo) -masters and physicians, as artists and artisans, even as men-servants and maid-servants, numerous Greeks came to Italy and Rome and diffused there the Greek language and philosophy, Greek morality and immorality. Conversely, it soon became a mark of ton ton to visit the seats of ancient Greek culture. As In the last century people went to Paris to receive the finest polish, so throngs of youths went to Athens, or even to Rhodes and Marseilles, to become acquainted with Hellenic science and art, often enough too with Hellenic excesses. Already gaining ground toward the end of the Republic, Hellenism made more and more rapid progress in the time of the Emperors, especially under Nero.

Thus Roman civilization, while it conquered the world, became itself more and more imbued with that of Greece. From this confluence of two streams issued a third, a new one, neither old Roman nor ancient Greek, but GrsBCO-Roman ; and it was this Graeco- Roman culture which, adjusting the old distinctions, filled the great Empire. Latin, indeed, was the popu lar language only in the Western provinces, almost sup planting there the old native tongues ; yet it was under stood, as the speech of the dominant race, even in Palestine and on the Nile. More nearly even than Latin was Greek raised to the rank of a universal language. Whoever spoke it could count upon being able to make himself understood everywhere in the East and in the West. In the Common Law Rome gave the world another bond of union, whose influence became more powerful in proportion as it was developed. On this firm basis the world became more and more accustomed to the same forms of social life.

The East, true to the stable character it still preserves, adhered most firmly to its peculiarities. And though the Hellenized cities, Antioch, Nicomedia, above all Alexandria, were influential supporters of the Grseco-Roman culture, still the transformation in these regions was far less complete than in the West. The Oriental indeed should be recognized as a third element with the Roman and the Grecian, especially m the sphere of religion, it being faintlj^ discernible fr<:)m the beginning of the time of the Emperors, and more and more clearly so in the second and third centuries, While the Roman spirit ruled in the domain of government and law, and the Greek in that of art and science, the Oriental impressed itself upon religious life. Thus rHAP. I.] RISE OF COSMOPOLITANISM. 21

this part of the mighty Empire had a share in its internal growth, and one all the more important since the real and highest end for which this Empire existed must be sought for in religious development.

It is hardly necessary to suggest what aids to religious progress, particularly to the extension of Christianity, these facts imply. A religious impulse given at one point now, was no longer in danger as it might have been centuries earlier, of perishing in the little circle of an isolated people. If it only had sufficient power it easily propagated itself through the entire Empire. It no longer found anywhere a limit. The abundant means of communication, the wide-spread understanding of the two leading languages, Latin and Greek, the community of interests, the common law, the greatly increased similarity of social customs and forms, all came to its aid. We need only glance at the life and labors of Paul to find this everywhere confirmed. A missionary activity like his was possible only in an Empire like the Roman.

But none of these particulars, however important each may be, is of chief moment. Of infinitely more consequence is it that there was now developing in the Roman Empire a Universalism hitherto entirely unknown, the first step to the Universalism of Christianity. At no point does the providential significance of the Roman Empire stand forth more strikingly than ^ere.

The human race develops as nations in the Christian era, as well as in the pre-Christian. " God hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation." With this word St. Paul, in his discourse at Athens, gives us a glimpse into the divine

22 COMMINGLING OF NATIONS. [mook i

government and guidance of the nations of which they themselves are unconscious. But in the times before Christ, the significance of nationality was entirely unlike what it has been since. In the ancient era the nations were strictly separated from each other. Each nation lived for itself and labored for itself. There was no com mon work of civilization in which the nations recipro cally supplemented each other, and together made prog ress in a common development ; but rather, one nation transmitted its work to another to be continued by it; the Oriental nations to the Greeks, and they to the Romans. In the modern era, on the contrary, nations are interdependent. No one is the sole possessor of culture, so that all the rest must repair to it. Each shares in the work of civilization, and all mutually give and receive. Though distinct as States, and though each preserves its own individuality, their culture is a common one. Nations which have a Christian civilization are united as members of a groat whole. And their inner bond of union, however little inclination there may be in many quarters to-day to recognize this, is in reality their common Christianity. Rome is the connecting link between these two forms of national life, the transition from one to the other. In the ancient era we have only distinct nationalities, no unity; in the modern era distinct nationalities, yet above them a unity. In Rome, there were no longer distinct nationalities, for all were outwardly comprised in one State ; yet a real inward unity, a common bond was still wanting, — it had yet to be developed.

In the Roman Empire the old nationalities declined more and more ; not merely those of conquered nations^ but that (jf Rome as well. The old Roman families

CHAP. I.] DECLINE OF THE OLD NATIONALITIES. 23

died out ; provincials took their places ; and soon tLe Emperors, too, were from the provinces. Romans and non-Romans came to be regarded as equals, and the Roman right of citizenship was shared by provin- Tjials in an ever-widening circle. As ancient Roman art and morality had degenerated, so also had the old Greek character. The Greek spirit in its purity withdrew; Hellenism took its place. The Roman colony Corinth surpassed Athens, the Hellenized cities of Asia Minor were more important centres than the ancient seats of culture in Greece itself. More fully still did the subject nations of the West give up their nationality.

Since all development took a purely national course, a certain narrowness adhered to ancient life. Moderation was the chief virtue of Antiquity. In it was rooted the artistic sense of the old Greek, as well as the strict virtue of the old Roman. This narrowness now disappeared. Through the magnificent intercourse and interchange of the universal Empire, national consciousness expanded into one which was world-wide. In all departments of life there was manifested a freedom from restraints which resulted in a disappearance of the old established forms, in a widening of view and of the entire circle of thought. The sharply disci iminated philosophical systems lost their distinctive peculiarities. A practical philosophy was developed, whicli, far inferior in acuteness and logical consistency to the earlier, obtained for this very reason far wider acceptance. The styles of art commingled. Giecian finish and Oriental massiveness met in the colossal edifices of the Empire. But when purity of art was thus lost, and the Age could no longer rival the creations of classic time, art gained instead a dilfusiou never before attained. Never before nor since, has the world been so opulent in treasures of art. To say Lothing of Rome, even provincial cities so abounded in lofty edi rices, statues, and other works of sculpture, as greatly to exceed those of our capitals which are richest in such treasures. Never again has art so penetrated men's homes, adorning even all the utensils of daily life, and its entire environment. In the countries on the Danube, and on the Rhine, manufactories of earthen ware copied Grecian patterns ; and the streets and public places of Roman colonial cities, in the midst of barbarous nations, were adorned with imitations of works of Grecian art whose originals, perchance, graced some place or palace in Rome.

Culture, in a word, now tended to become universal. Numerous schools afforded to multitudes opportunities for knowledge hitherto available to only a few. The cheapness of books, and easily accessible public libraries, subserved the same end. Martial speaks of books which cost four or six sesterces, a trifle more than twenty or thirty cents.^ The equivalent of a page of print cost from about two to two and a half cents. The diffusion of books was also great. Pliny expresses pleasure that his works are sold by booksellers in Lyons. Already in Rome Caesar had projected the plan of establishing a library. Asinius Pollio carried it into effect, founding in the temple of Liberty the first public libraiy of Rome. Augustus established two others, to which a great number were afterwards added. Learning became somewhat encyclopaedic ; an educated man was expected to be well-informed upon all subjects. E A^ery branch of knowledge was cultivated, Grammar,

CHAP. I.] EXTENSION OF CULTURE. 25

Antiquities, Agriculture, and the science of war. Characteristic of the times was the special attention paid to Universal History and Geography. The view became broader, and whereas the ancient Greek or Roman cared only for his own people and land, the Roman of the age of the Emperors was interested in every thing, in foreign nations and countries, in the plants and animals of distant zones. In Rome unknown animals and other curiosities from far off lands were exhibited as shows to great throngs. Even the Emperors provided such sights. Successful attempts were made to acclimatize foreign plants and animals. The natural products of different countries were also interchanged. Southern fruits were transplanted to Rome, and still farther towards the North. In this way Gaul received the cultivation of the olive and vine. Journeys became the fashion. Whoever had not seen Greece, and visited the East, whoever had not been in Athens and Alexandria, hardly counted among persons of education ; and just as we have to-day our guide-books for Italy and Switzerland, so had the Roman tourist his guide-book which pointed out all the various sights and designated the temples, statues, pictures, antiquities, which were of special interest. We see this fondness for travels, also, in the literature of romance ; whose appearance is itself a sign of the altered spirit of the age. It delighted in narrating fictitious journeys; and "the incredible things beyond Thule," or the like, were eagerly read.