The evolution of the monastic ideal from the earliest times down to the coming of the friars

Front matter

fyxmll WLmvmity pitrtTO

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME j FROM THE

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Preface

I am anxious that the reader, especially the critic — if such should deign to look at my pages — should understand clearly the intentions and limitations of this little book. I have not set out to write the history of Monasticism — a vast task, in some respects rendered needless by the great works that have been devoted to the subject, in other respects almost impossible because of the wide field of detail to be covered. Nor have I attempted a mere criticism of Monasticism, whether past or present. Every form by which human aspiration has attempted to realize the divine seems to me too sacred for destructive, negative criticism, however much we may differ from it. Nor will the reader find in these pages any account of the dress of the monks, the architecture of their churches, or the arrangements of the monasteries, themes that have been amply treated by competent writers. I have strictly confined myself to the history of the Monastic Ideal, tracing out the various stages in its evolution, and drawing attention both to the varying, concrete forms in which the Ideal has embodied itself, and to the effect of the Ideal upon the life and thought of the centuries. Works upon Monasticism abound, sometimes written by enthusiastic defenders, more often by those eager to expose its b

VLU PREFACE

mistakes, both types, for the most part, based upon inadequate material or second-hand authorities. 1 I may at least claim that there is nothing in this book, in spite of imperfections of which no one is more conscious than the author, which is not the outcome of the honest study of the original sources, and of the best accessible modern literature. Throughout the work I have not made it my primary business to praise or blame, or to write as either advocate or judge — for, in such cases, judgement is too often, historically speaking, the result of an anachronistic outlook, of necessity unhistorical because it is anachronistic — but to give an impartial record of the development of a great ideal and of the lessons which it teaches. The Monastic Ideal, whether to-day it be true or false, has played a great part in the history of religion and life. We hold, therefore, that it is entitled to the reverent study of all those who recognize in the formative ideas of the past, whatever be their present value, the workings of one Master-mind, Who at sundry times and in divers manners hath spoken unto us by His Son. If some critics should accuse me of too indulgent treatment I must plead that sympathy seems to me the only key to understanding, and that the object of every historian must be to put himself into touch with the outlook of those whose spiritual experiences he is attempting to unfold.

1 J. 0. Hannay, Spirit and Origin of Christian Monasticism (1903), a work that I did not meet with until the following pages had passed through tho press, is an exception. Mr. Hannay's work is, however, of limited range, and in some places suffers, as the author acknowledges in his proface, by his distance from a good library.

PREFACE IX

The reader will notice that I have called this study, " A Second Chapter in the History of Christian Renunciation." Some explanation is due for this sub-title. Some ten years ago, in the enthusiasm of youth and ignorance, I set out to write a short history of Christian Renunciation, intending, if I remember rightly, to compress it into one volume. But as I wrote the matter grew, and I was driven to alter my plans. In August 1906 I published a "First Chapter in the History of Renunciation," * in a book entitled Persecution in the Early Church. The favour with which critics of all schools, in different countries, received this work led me to hope that a similar welcome might be given to a further instalment of the original scheme. After six years of work, sadly broken by the ever-increasing pressure of official duties, during the most part of which the manuscript has lain upon my desk, oftentimes, alas ! reproaching me for my unavoidable neglect, I have ventured to publish " A Second Chapter in the History of Christian Renunciation." If it meets from the critic the favour which was bestowed upon my Persecution in the Early Church I shall feel that the delay has not been in vain. It has certainly enabled me to make use of some valuable works of but recent publication. " The Third Chapter " of my original design — the history of early missions — will shortly be published, in an abbreviated form, by the Student Volunteer Christian Union.

1 This study of Renunciation was confined to Christian Renunciation, though not so stated. A similar restriction, admittedly unscientific, obtains in the following pages.

X PREFACE

The student will notice that I have stopped short with the Coming of the Friars. I have done so for other reasons than the exigencies of space. With the Coming of the Friars the evolution of the Monastic Ideal becomes complete — with the one great exception of the rise of the Jesuits. The following centuries are, for the most part, the record of decay and death, or the reiteration in new forms of ideas that have already been exploited. It is my intention, should further opportunity be given, in another volume to trace the causes of this decay, and to appraise the event known in England as the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Unfortunately much spade-work is yet required before that amazing revolution can be rightly judged ; nor is it to the credit of English historical scholarship that for the understanding of the financial position of the monasteries we are indebted to the researches of a professor at St. Petersburg. 1

For the numerous notes with which the work is burdened I make neither apology nor defence. For one thing they enable me to express my indebtedness to the many writers on this vast subject by whose labours I have profited — of whom I may perhaps single out, in English, Dom Butler and the late H. Williams of Bala ; of the great host of foreign writers, Harnack, Ladeuze, Leclercq, Griitzmacher, Loth, Zimmer, Zockler, and last, but by no means least, the indispens-

1 A. Savinc, English Monasteries on the Eve oj the Dissolution (Oxford, 1909). Dr. Gasquet's work with a similar title is more that of a partisan than of a scientific student.

PREFACE X]

able Heimbucher. Notes are also useful in that they enable the writer to save the young student from losing sight of the wood by reason of the multitude of trees. The main outlines of the subject can be dealt with in the text ; details, sources, and the outlines of further reading be reserved for notes which the general reader can, if he be so minded, pass by on the other side. 1 The fashion to-day has set in strongly towards the writing of history without note or comment, a method that seems to me both valueless and lazy. Notes are, at any rate, some guarantee to the student that there has been rigid verification of the historical data upon which the inferences of the writer depend ; they also serve to show to what extent the writer is abreast of research and worthy of credence. Even should the critic decide, on the evidence of my notes, that I am neither the one nor the other, I should still refuse to escape his censures by taking refuge in a method which seems to me responsible for a vast output of historical matter that adds little or nothing to historical scholarship, whatever may be its advantages to the publishers, or its favour with the public. May I add that while every care has been taken in the notes to give no reference that has not been strictly verified, it is impossible but that some blunders of printer or author should have arisen. The field that I have attempted to cover is so vast that it is difficult for any one writer to

1 The use of notes has also enabled me to depart somewhat from the strict outline of the work, and to give, hero and there, details and references as to monasteries that specially intorcst English readers.

Xll PREFACE

keep abreast of the most recent research in all its parts. To the critic who will forward the correction of any mistakes he may discern, or will indicate recent monographs that have been neglected, the author, in anticipation, now presents his thanks.

It is of importance that the reader further note that quotations from original sources are always enclosed in ' ' ; quotations from modern writers in " ".

Westminster,

February 1913.

Contents

PAGES

Abbreviations and Editions xv-xxi

Chapter I. — Historic Survey op the Ideas of Monasticisii 1-74

(For " Argument " of the Chapter see p. 2.)

,, II. — The History op Monasticism as an

Institution to the Coming op Benedict . ... 75-136

(For " Argument " of the Chapter see p. 76.)

„ III. — St. Benedict and his Order . . 137-180 (For " Argument " of the Chapter aeo p. 138.)

„ IV. — The Ideals op Monasticism in the

Celtic Church .... 181-216 (For " Argument " of the Chapter see p. 182.)

„ V. — The Development op Monasticism

prom St. Benedict to St.

Francis 217-268

(For " Argument " of the Chapter see p. 218.)

VI.— The Coming op the Friars . . 269-316 (For " Argument " of the Chapter see p. 270.)

VII.— The Message op Monasticism . . 317-352 (For " Argument " of tho Chapter see p. 318)

Appendix A.— The Sources op our Knowledge op

Early Monasticism . . . 353-360

„ B. — Additional Bibliography . . 361-363

N.B. — Works whose titles arc fully quoted in the notes or to which only occasional reference is made are not given in this list. The abbreviations and editions of classical and patristic writers are not given. They are familiar to all students, or easily accessible. The student in doubt as to the best edition of the early Fathers should consult 0. Bardenhewer, Patrology (Eng. trans, by T. G. Shahan, Freiburg in Breisgau, 1908). For patristics my references are, as a rule, to the edition of Migne, though in a few cases I have quoted the superior CSEL.

A. V. G. Allen CI Anal. Boll.

A.SS

E. Amelineau EL

MG E. C. Butler EL

B.M.

Cabrol DACL

CaiSs. Coll.

Christian Institutions (1898).

Acta Sanctorum, the great, incomplete Bollandist collection. Quoted by the month and its volume, or occasionally by the month and its day.

De Historia Lausiaca (Paris, 1887).

In Latin ; with trans, of Coptic fragments.

Annates du Musee Guimet.

The Lausiac History of Palladius (2 vols. ; Camb. 1898, 190- ; in TS vol. 6). See infra, p. 354 f.

British Museum Library.

Diet, a" Archeologie Chrilienne et de IAturgie (Paris ; in progress). Avast work, mainly written by French Benedictine monks of Farnborough, a few volumes only of which have as yet (1912) appeared.

Cassian, Conferences. See infra, p. 359. xv

XVI

CSEL

DB

DACL DCA

DCB

DNB

S. Dill RSWE L. Duchesne EEC

,, LP or Lib. Pont.

W. Dugclale Mm.

ERE

EHR

Greg. Reg. or Greg.

Mag. Reg.

L. Gougaud GC T. R. Glover LLFC

The volumes, unfortunately, are numbered in order of publication, and the works of the same author are often sadly separated. Super - sede3 Migne, PL, wherever issued.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898 f. ; 5 vols.).

See Cabrol, supra.

Smith and Cheetham, Diet, of Christian Antiquities ( 1875 ; 2 vols. ). Will be superseded by Cabrol, DAGL.

Smith and Wace, Diet, of Christian Biography (1877; 4 vols.). Does not go beyond the 8th century.

Dictionary of National Biography (original edition).

Roman Society in the last Century of the Western Empire (2nd ed., 1899).

Early Hist, of the Christian Church (Eng. trans, in 3 vols, from the 4th French ed. ; London, 1910 f.).

Le Liber Pontificalis (Paris, 1886 ;

2 vols.).

R. Dodsworth and W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum (London, 1655 ; better eds. 1817, 1846).

Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion

and Ethics (in progress).

English Historical Review.

P. Ewald and L. M. Hartmann, Registrum Epistolarum Oreg. Mag. in MOH { 1891-9).

Lcs Chretientes Celtiques (Paris, 1911) ; a good little compendium.

Life and Letters in the Fourth Century (Camb. 1901).

xvn

Gr.GriitzmacherP^Z

EE

H. and S.

Councils

Cone, or

E. Hatch OEC

P. Helyot

EL

EL (Gr.)

M. Heimbucher OiLK

C. J. Hefele EC

Pachomius u. das dlleste Klosterlebcn (Freiburg in Breisgau, 1896).

Historia Ecclesiastica (of various writers : Socrates, Sozomcn, Theodoret, Bede, &c). 7

A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs, Council and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland (Oxford, 3 vols., 1869-78).

Organization of the Early Christian Churches (3rd ed., London, 1888).

Hist, des ordres monastiques (Paris, 1714-9 ; 8 vols. ; new ed. by M. L.

Badicbe, Paris, 1858, in 4 vols.).

See the remarks under Heimbucher, OKK.

Historia Lausiaca (of various writers and editions. See especially infra, p. 354 f.).

Historia Lausiaca in the Greek text.

See infra, p. 355.

Die Orden u. Kongregationen der hath. Kirche (2nd ed., 3 vols. ; Paderborn, 1907). An invaluable encyclopedia of literature and information that makes reference to the older works, e.g. Helyot, largely needless, save for the illustrations. For a complete bibliography of the more general works, see Heimbucher, i. 71-84.

Histoire des Conciles (Paris ; in progress ; many volumes, each double).

This translation by H. Leclcrcq of Hefele's great German work, Conciliengeschichte,wit)x valuable additional notes and bibliography, is the one I have always quoted. It is much superior to the German, or to the Eng. trans, of the German.

XV1U

A. Harnack HD Mon.

EC

Holsten or Holsten- Brockie CR

P. Jaffe RP

„ BRG

JTS

P. Ladeuze ECP

J. Loth EB

A. G. Little GEO

Lucot HL

MA

History of Dogma (Eng. trans, in 7 vols, from the 3rd German ed. ; London, 1905 f.).

Das Monchtum, seine Ideate u. s.

Geschichte (4th ed., Giessen, 1895).

Keference always to E. E. Kellett's Eng. trans. (1901).

Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries (Eng. trans. 1904 ; 2 vols. There is a later, improved edition).

Codex Regularum. This invaluable compilation of all the Rules was first published by L. Holstenius (f 1601) at Rome, 1661, Paris, 1663, and in a much enlarged form in 6 vols, folio by M. Brockie at Augsburg in 1759. I have always quoted from the 1759 edition.

Regesta Pontificum Romanorum (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1885).

Journal of Theological Studies.

Etude sur le Cenooitisme PaMiomien (Louvain, 1898).

L Emigration oretonne en Armorique du if au viii e siecle (Paris, 1883).

Grey Friars at Oxford (in Ox. Hist.

Soc. Publications, 1892).

This edition of the Greek text of the Hist. Lausiaca by A. Lucot (Paris, 1912) will bo found convenient, both for the text (that of Butler) and its notes.

Wherever this occurs, whether in English, German, or French, it signifies Middle Ages (noun or adjective).

XIX

MGH

MGH Leg.

MGH rer. Merov.

MGH cliron. min.

MG

Mansi

Migne PL

Moschus PS Mon. Franc.

NJDT

NPN

C. Plummer VSH

Palladius HL „ HP

PEC cited

Monumenta Germaniae historica (Hanover, 1826 £.)■ The earlier volumes are often cited as Pertz.

Mon. Oerm. hist. Leges (Hanover, 1826 f. ; 2nd ed. Berlin).

Mon. Oerm. hist, rerum (Berlin ; cited by author).

lb. Chronica minora (Berlin; by author and volume).

Musee Ouimet. See supra, s.v.

Amelineau.

See PL.

Monks of the West. Ed. F. A. Gasquet in 6 vols. (London, 1896). A valuable panegyric that needs to be read cum grano salis.

Moschus, Pratum Spirituale. See infra, p. 347 n.

J. S. Brewer, Monumenta Franciscana (1858) ; also vol. 2 by R. Howlett (1882), both in R8.

Nicene and Post - Nicene Fathers (Second Series ; Oxford, J. Parker & Co.). A valuable series of Eng. trans., the weak point being that the works translated are generally selections only.

Vitae sanctorum Eiberniae (1910).

A most useful book for Irish history. See infra, p. 190, n. 5.

Eistoria Lausiaca. See infra, p. 350.

Heraclidis Paradisus. Sco infra, p. 356 (2).

See Workman, PEC.

XX

PL PG PRE

RS

W. Keeves AG H. Rosweyd VP

Reg. Ben.

S. Scliiwietz MM

E. G. Smith CM

Sulp. Sev. Dial.

VM

TS

Series Latina (Paris, 1844 f.).

Series Oraeca (Paris, 1857 f.).

Herzog-Hauck, Real-Encyclopadie f. protestant Theologie u. Kirche.

References, except where otherwise stated, are to the third edition. But the articles of Weingarten and others are in the second edition.

The " Rolls Series " of English Historical Documents.

Adamnan's Vita Columbae (Dublin, 1857). See infra, p. 202 n. 1.

Vitae Patrum (Antwerp, 1615, 1628 ; also in PL 73, 74). This invaluable collection contains most of the Latin works mentioned in App. A, also certain translations of Greek works. Rosweyd's VP is very scarce, and Migne's reprint suffers from the fact that it is not complete, e.g. for the Historia Monachorum reference is made to PL 21.

Regula Benedicti. See infra, p. 142 n.

Das morgenlandische Monchtum (Mainz, 1904). (Vol. i. only has yet been published. )

Christian Monasiicism (London, 1892).

Chiefly essays contributed to DOB.

Now out of print.

See infra, pp.

Sulpicius Severus. 101 a, 104 n.

See

Sulpicius Severus, Vita Martini. infra, p. 104 n.

Texts and Studies. Ed. Dean Robinson. Quoted by year of publication and author.

XXI

TU

VM

VP VCH

vs

VA

H. Williams CEB

H. Weingarten UM

J. W. Willis-Bund CCW

H. Zimmer CCB 0. Zockler AM

Texte und Vntersuchuncjen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur. Ed. 0. von Gebhardt and A. Harnack. Quoted by author and year of publication.

Vita Martini. See Sulp. Sev., supra.

See supra, Rosweyd, VP.

Victoria County Histories. Quoted by county and volume.

Verba Seniorum. See A, p. 360.

Vita Antonii. See p. 353.

Christianity in Early Britain (1912).

A learned and valuable collection of essays on the Celtic Church.

Celtic Church of Wales (1807).

infra, App.

infra, App. A,

Persecution in the Early Church (2nd ed., 1906).

The Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland (trans. A. Meyer, 1902).

Askese u. Monchtum (2 vols., paginated as one; Frankfort, 1897). Thismuch augmented edition of his Kritischen Ges. der Askese (1863) covers the whole history of Asceticism from Buddhism to Methodism with select rather than full bibliography.

N.B. — In addition to the above list the student, anxious to obtain a limited bibliography of Monasticism, should also consult Appendix B, "Additional Bibliography," infra, p. 361 f.

CHAPTER I

HISTORIC SURVEY OF THE IDEAS OF MONASTICISM

Mt; crycnrare rhv ttbaiiov, /xi}5e ra iv raj k6o-/aw.

' Fecisti nos ad Te, et inquietum est cor nostrum, donee rcquiescat in Te.' — St. Augustine, Confess, e. i.

happy in their souls' high solitude

Who commune thus with God and not with earth !

Lyra Aposlolica, xxiv.

PAGE

§1. The yearning for self-surrender — Renunciation and

Monasticisra — ' Secular ' and ' religious ' — ' Conversion ' 3

§ II. The rise of Monasticism — Effect of Constantine's adoption of Christianity — Damasus and Ursinus — Ammianus Marcellinus — Protest of Monasticism against worldliness . , . . .6

§111. Monasticism, at first, outside the Church — The failure to reform the Church — The protest of the lay spirit — ■ Montanus — The opposition of the bishops — Nolo Episcopari — Monasticism and orthodoxy — The work of AthaDasius — Of Augustine . . . .11

§IV. The individualism of Monasticism — Monasticism over against the State — The causes and results — The despotism of the State — Its rottenness — Counsels of despair — Monasticism and Neoplatonism . . 22

§ V. Monasticism and isolation — Monasticism and the great cities — The yearning for the simple life — Illustrations : St. Guthlac ; Hugh of Avalon — Absurd tales of beasts — Identification with nature ... 29

§VI. Monasticism and Stoicism — Gnosticism — The defeat of Gnosticism — The C'athari — The victory of Gnosticism — Symeon Stylites — Anti-human ideals — Tales of self-denial — Divergence of East and West. . , 37

§VII. Monasticism and Celibacy — Growth of Celibacy — Absence of social instinct — Exaggerated estimates and absurd relationships — Erotic novels of the times — Essential Dualism — Monasticism and the bath — Militia Ghristi . . , . . .64

§ VIII. Monasticism and Poverty — Connotation of ' Poverty ' — Monasticism and Obedience — Strange exaggeration — Theophilus and Mary — Mucius — Jesuitism . . CO

CHAPTER I

HISTOEIC SUEVEY OF THE IDEAS OF MONASTICISM

IN every human heart, except, possibly, the utterly depraved, we find a yearning for self-surrender rising at times to a passion. Even in the worldling, buried deep beneath the deposits of self, there is an instinct he cannot explain, the power of which he may attempt to laugh away, that leads him, in spite of himself, in a moment of heroic decision to give his life a ransom for others. Few there are to whom there do not come at times visions of a nobler life. Like Bunyan's warrior, we tell the man with the inkhorn to write down our name in the roll of those who would join the immortals.

This imperial note of our higher natures can never wholly be silenced by the lower, and finds expression in every form of religion, however degraded or unreasoning. For the Christian, at least, self-surrender is the imperative call of the Master. ' If a man would come after Me, let him take up his cross and follow Me,' is still the absolute condition of discipleship. ' If a man love father or mother more than Me he is not worthy of Me' is one of those sentences so hard to interpret from the a priori standpoint, so easy to understand when we view its results in the life of the Church. The form this renunciation takes has varied with the changing years, nevertheless its essential feature is always the same ; the print of the nails upon the hands and feet, the mark of the thorns upon the brow.

Throughout the universal Church, for almost a thousand years, there was one word which more than any other conveyed in itself the essential features of this renunciation. This was Monasticism. One word in its time plays many parts, and Monasticism, as we shall see later, came to stand for many different even opposing movements. Nevertheless in the main Monasticism and Renunciation for long ages were looked upon as almost interchangeable terms ; in the sense, that is, that no real renunciation could be conceived of which did not end in some form of Monasticism. In the Middle Ages it is hardly too much to say that " the history of piety is the history of Monasticism." 1 So completely was the monk identified with the renunciant that a priest who was not a monk was regarded as still belonging to the world. He was a ' secular,' not one of the ' religious,' a term strictly confined to those who had adopted the monastic life. 2 In the same way ' conversion ' had none of its modern evangelical significance, but connoted always the renunciation which expressed itself by reception into an order. 3

1 Harnack, HDv. 10.

2 ' Religion ' was used for the monastic life as early as the 2nd Cone, of Aries (443 or 452), c. 25 (Hefclc, HO n. i. 472); 1st Cone, of Orleans (511), c. 11 (' Ascetics faithless to their vows who re-enter the world').

3 ' Conversion ' was used for the adoption of the projessio continentiae as early as the Council of Orange (441), c. 22 (Hefele, HO n. i. 445);

Instead therefore of dismissing Monasticism with the sneer of Gibbon " at the unhappy exiles from social life, impelled by the dark and implacable genius of superstition," l we shall do well to study, with the reverence which any ideal however faulty deserves, what were the causes which led men to the identification of 'religion ' and Monasticism, and what have been the results of this ideal in the history of the Church.

At the outset it is well to point out that the writing of a formal history of Monasticism, much less of Asceticism, is far from our purpose. Even in the briefest outline this would form a task beyond our limits. But the evolution of Monasticism viewed from the standpoint of its inner meaning, that is as the expression in concrete life of the central principle of renunciation, is of more manageable proportions and ought not to be lightly dismissed. In the long story of renunciation in the Christian Church Monasticism forms a chapter even more striking in its variety, though perhaps less heroic in its appeal, than Martyrdom. Both alike sprang from the same root. By concentration upon this inner meaning of Monasticism, its development and varying forms, we obtain also a guiding thread which will save the reader from being lost amidst what, otherwise, might appear to be endless details. The various divisions and orders of Monasticism become correlated together, and the way is prepared, through the reduction to unity

the Cone, of Agde (506), c. 16 ; (see Leclercq's note in Hefele, HG ii. ii. 988). Also at the 4th Cone, of Aries (524), u. 2.

In Benedict's Regula its meaning is already fixed (c. 58, ' noviter veniens quis ad conversionem'). By the time of Gregory the Great we have papal sanction for the identification of the ' religiosa vita ' with Monasticism (Greg. Mag. Reg. iii. 17).

1 Gibbon (ed. J. B. Bury), iv. 62.

of the whole, for the more detailed study, if so desired, of the several parts.

II

In the present chapter we propose, therefore, to enquire into the conditions which led to the adoption by the Church of Monasticism as the best expression in life of a perfect renunciation. Our enquiry, necessarily, will be many-sided. We may approach it from the standpoint of the times in which the idea was born, the environment of the idea ; or from the inner contents of the idea itself. We purpose both.

The rise of Monasticism coincided, roughly speaking, with the loss of the Church in the world. Abandoning its early chiliastic conceptions, the Church had settled down into the acceptance of the ' world ' as a definite part of economy, with which it must come to terms. Whatever the ultimate issue of the adoption by Constantine of Christianity as the official religion of this ' world ' or State, its first effects were to lower the ideal of Christianity itself. Average morality had created the authority of the Church, and she in her turn legitimized average morality. In the striking phrase of Harnack, it seemed as if the net result of Constantine's action was to leave the ' world ' " in possession of all except its gods." 1 The stalwart Christians whom Diocletian had killed had been replaced by a mixed multitude of time-servers and half-converted pagans. 2

1 Harnack, Hon. 28. Cf. ED iii. 131 n.

2 We must beware of attributing the change wholly to Constantino. The amazing canons of the Council of Elvira (c. 300) show that rottenness had already crept into the Church. See Harnack, EG ii. 441, and for the canons of the Council, Hefele, LLC I. i. 212f.

THE IDEAS OP MONASTICISM 7

The conviction of truth gave place to the acceptance of custom, the early chiliastic conceptions of the speedyreign of Jesus to an uninspired contentment with things as they were. " The Church," adds Montalembert, " has never known a period in which she was more tormented, more agitated, or more compromised " 1 — but the agitations were from within. She was garnished with all the resources that a world-empire and an age-long culture could offer her. But she seemed unconscious that she had purchased these things with a great price, a lowered standard of life, and a theology whose simplicity was spoiled by the systems of philosophy that she had tried to assimilate. 2 Once she had descended out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband ; but now the bridal dress was torn, the orange flower faded. She was rich and increased in goods, and knew not that she was poor and naked.

To outer seeming the victory of Christianity was complete. There was truth in the triumphant cry of Jerome :

' Even in Rome itself paganism is left in solitude. They who were once the gods of the nations remain under their lonely roofs with horned owls and birds of night. The standards of the military are emblazoned with the sign of the Cross. . . . The Armenian bowman has laid aside his quiver, the Huns learn the Psalter, the chilly Scythians are warmed with the glow of the faith ' [Ep. 107 (2)].

But no one is more careful than Jerome to point out the superficiality of the success. If Jerome stood alone

1 Mont. MWL 188.

2 " Occupied incessantly with questions as to the divine relationships and processions, the Church had lost sight of the message of Christ, of His history, and of His work of salvation " (Duchesne, EHC ii. 255).

we might discount or even disregard his invectives against the corruption of the Church, for his was the fatal gift of satire, 1 and the rhetorician's love of exaggeration. But, unfortunately, Jerome is not unsupported, and the picture that he draws of the Christian Rome of his time, in spite of its vivid colours, contains no small measure of truth. 2 Heresy mounted in triumph the throne of the world ; Arians monopolized the sees of the Church, and even invaded, in the person of Liberius, the Chair of St. Peter. 3 The followers of Damasus in 366, in their struggle with the anti-pope Ursinus, won for him the papacy, but at the cost of one hundred and thirty-seven lives. 4 Once the Christians had laid down their lives for the truth ; now they slaughtered each other to secure the prizes of the Church. Once Tertullian could record how the heathen remarked : ' See how these Christians love one another.' 5 Now Ammianus Marcellinus, the pagan historian, could write the bitter satire, as he speaks of Julian's recall of the Nicene exiles : ' He knew that fchere are no wild beasts so hostile to mankind as most of the Christians are to one another.' 6 The same writer, as he records for us the fight between Damasus and Ursinus, and the accompanying massacre of both sexes ' in the