Early history of the Christian church : from its foundation to the end of the fifth century

Front matter

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

Preface

At the thne of Diocletian's persecution, when the churches were destroyed, the sacred books burned, and the Christians proscribed, or forced to apostasize, one of their number was quietly working away at the first history of Christianity. His was not a mind of the highest order, but he was patient, hard-working, and conscientious, and during many long years, he had collected materials for his contemplated book. He succeeded in saving these materials from the general shipwreck, and even in turning them to account. Thus Eusebius of Caesarea became the father of ecclesiastical -history. And the first duty of those who take up the same task again — so long after, but in days not much less dark — is to recall his name and his incoihparable services. But for his unrivalled diligence in searching through those Palestinian libraries, where the learned Origen and Bishop Alexander had collected the whole Christian literature of early days, our knowledge of the first three centuries of the Church's life would be small indeed. We cannot of course but lament the destruction of these libraries, yet, thanks to him, and to the remarkable fragments he preserved, we can appreciate in some measure what they were.

Eusebius, however, is not the only witness to the treasures of this ancient literature. Several of the early books he mentions have come down to us, and others have been read, and passed on, by painstaking students like St Epiphanius, St Jerome, and Photius. It is possible, therefore, to write the literary history of Christianity from viii PREFACE

the earliest times, and the task has often been attempted. In recent years a very remarkable treatise on this subject by O. Bardenhewer' has been produced in Germany. During the last thirty years Adolph Harnack and his school have been actively employed, like Eusebius before the persecution, in collecting documents for a great synthesis. And the scientific world has been kept informed of their progress by the publication of the Texte und UnUrsuchungen^ and especially by two preliminary works on the transmission of early Christian literature and on its chronology.*

These works — and it would be easy to add others to the list, of French,* English, or Italian origin — have thrown much light on these ancient writings and their relationship to each other. The knowledge of documents has indeed made great progress. Towards the end of the 17th century, the honest and judicious Tillemont based his treatises on the most conscientious study of all the sources of information then available. He would be much astonished, could he appear in our midst now, to see all that has been discovered since.

Nevertheless, we must not think that the progress of research has essentially, or even greatly, modified the tradition set forth in his learned volumes. The partial results attained by so many discoveries and so many efforts, tend on the whole to justify the views taken by the wise critics of the time oi Louis XIV. There has been a reaction ; we have recoiled from the wild theories emanating from Tubingen, though others have taken their place, the human

■ Geschichte der altkirchlichen Uteratur, Herder, 1902-1903, 2 vols.

* Texte und V titer suchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, Leipzig, Hinrich.

' Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, Pt. I. ; Die Ueberlieferung und der Bestand (1893), Pt. XI. j Die Chronologic (1897- 1904). I must mention also the collection of Christian writings of the three first centuries, published by the Academy of Berlin : several volumes have already appeared.

FKEFaCE ix

brain being always fertile in strange inventions. But there is a middle position, represented by the judgment of serious, right-minded men, which commends itself to the commonsense public. I need not say that I believe that position to be mine ; I may deceive myself. But the folly of some of the theories is as repugnant to me as the foolishness of some of the legends. I think even that if I had to choose I should prefer the legends, for in them at least there is always some poetry and something of the soul of a people.

The task, therefore, which I now undertake — the modest task of merely explaining and popularising my subject — is justified by the great progress of learned research. Yet I have taken up my pen only in response to so many and such insistent entreaties as almost compelled me to comply with them for the sake of peace.^

The people who so pressed me are, for the most part, not literary, and will not therefore defend me against the critics. But sensible and understanding people will comprehend why, for instance, I have not encumbered my text with discussions and bibliography, why I have not lingered long over the very first beginnings, and why, without entirely ignoring theologians and their work, I have not devoted overmuch attention to their quarrels. There is a time and place for everything. I hope I shall also be forgiven a tendency to limit my speculations. I look up to those superior people who wish to know everything, and admire the artistic ingenuity with which, by the help of a little most seductive hypothesis, they prolong into the realm of the imaginary those vistas into the past which reliable investigation has opened out. But for my own part, I prefer solid ground : I would rather go less far and walk securely — non plus sapere quam oportet sapere, sed sapere ad sobrietatem.

^ I have also been influenced, I must confess, by the desire to stop the circulation of some old lecture notes, lithographed about thirty years ago, which it seems to me has gone on too long for my reputation.

NOTE TO SECOND EDITION

This book was so kindly received that a second edition had to be prepared two months after its first appearance. No alterations have been made, beyond slight changes on three pages : — p. 320, the discovery of the Greek Text of Hippolytus has been noted ; p. 460, the biographical details on Julius Africanus given in a recently discovered papyrus are made use of; p. 353, note 2, the original comment on a difference between the translation of the Septuagint and that of St Jerome's version has been modified according to the advice of a learned Hebraist

Chapter I The Roman Empire, The Home Of Christianity

PlOE

The Mediterranean and the ancient world. The Roman Empire and its neighbours. The Jewish people and Jewish religion. The Roman provinces and municipal organization. Manners and customs, ideas, religion, mysteries, oriental cults. Preparation for the Gospel, . I

Chapter II The Primitive Church At Jerusalem

Judaism in the Empire and in Palestine. The disciples of Jesus : their preaching and their organization. Saul of Tarsus. First conversions amongst Gentiles predisposed to Judaism, ....... 9

Chapter III Antioch And The Missions Of St Paul

Hellenist Jews. Foundation of a Christian community at Antioch. The mission of Paul and Barnabas in Upper Asia Minor. The position of pagan converts : i&temal conflicts. St Paul in Macedonia, in Greece, and in Ephesus : his return to Jerusalem : his position among the Jewish Christians : his letters : his captivity, j6

xUi xiv CONTENTS

Chapter IV The Christian In The Apostolic Age

PAOK

The religious tradition of Israel. The Law of Moses, and faith in Jesus Christ. Biblical education. The end of all things. The person of Christ : His divinity. Jesus Christ, Son of God, the Saviour. The Christian life : renunciation of the world ; grouping in local confraternities. Religious assemblies on the lines of the synagogue. The Eucharist, the charismata. Organization of the infant churches, ...... Vj

Chapter V The Origin Of The Roman Church

The Jewish colony in Rome. Aquila and Priscilla. The Epistle to the Romans. Paul in Rome. First Roman Christians. Peter in Rome. Burning of Rome, 64 a.d. Nero's persecution, ...... 39

Chapter VI The First Heresies

Religious investigation and speculation amongst the first Christians. The Epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians. New doctrines. Transcendental Judaism. St Paul's Christology. The Pastoral Epistles and the Apocalypse in relation to heresy. The Nicolaitanes and the Cerinthians. Letters of St Ignatius, . , .49

Chapter VII The Episcopate

Unity of the brethren threatened by heresy. Need of a hierarchy. Situation in Jerusalem and Antioch. Church organization in St Paul's time. Colleges of bishops, deacons. The monarchical episcopate and its tradition. Apparent conflict between collegiate and monarchical episcopate, . . , . , , ,63

CONTENTS XV

Chapter VIII Christianity And The State

Relations with the Jewish Government in Palestine. Religion in the Greco-Roman state. Peculiar position of Judaism and Christianity. The Roman authorities first confuse Christians with Jews, but afterwards distinguish them. Christianity prohibited. , Prosecution of Christians. The rescript of Trajan. State policy and the spread of the Gospel, ....... 71

Chapter IX The End Of Judaic-christianity

Death of James, "the brother of the Lord." Insurrection of 66 A.D. The Church's migration from Jerusalem. Revolt of Bar-Kocheba : JEWa. Capitolina. Judaic-Christian bishops. The Gospel according to the Hebrews. Connection with other Christians. Hegesippus. Ebionites. Elkesaites, ....... 85

Chapter X The Christian Books

St Paul's Epistles. The Gospels. The disciples who migrated to Asia : Philip, Aristion, John. John the Apostle in tradition. Writings of St John, Oral tradition and the Synoptic Gospels. Other canonical books. Miscellaneous writings, the Didache, Epistle of Barnabas, books attributed to St Peter. Clement, Hermas, and other "Apostolic Fathers,'' ....... 97

Chapter XI Gnosticism And Marcionism

The first heresies, and Jewish speculative thought. Hostihty towards the God of Israel. Simon Magus and his imitators. Satuminus of Antioch. Syrian Gnosticism. The Gnostic schools of Alexandria. Valentinus, Basilides, Carpocrates. The essence of Gnosticism. Gnostic Exegesis. The Demiurge and the Old Testament. The

XVI

CONTENTS

Gospel and tradition. Gnostic confraternities. Propaganda in Rome. Marcion. His principles, his teaching, his churches. Opposed by orthodox Christianity. Heretical literature. Orthodox Polemics, ....

Chapter XII Evanoelization And Apologetics In The Second Century

Attractiveness of Christianity ; of its faith ; its hopes ; its martyrdoms and its brotherly spirit. Unpopularity of the Christians. Animosity of the philosophers. Celsus and his True Discourse. Christian defence. "Apologies" addressed to the Emperors : Quadratus, Aristides, Justin, Melito, ApoUinaris, Miltiades, Athenagoras. Marcus Aurelius and the Christians. "Apologies" addressed to the people : Tatian, ......

•43

Chapter XIII The Church In Rome From Nero To Commodus

Aristocratic Jews. Conversions amongst the patricians. Christians of the Flavian family. Clement, and his letter to the Corinthian Church. Ignatius in Rome. The Shepherd of Hermas. Penitence. Christology of Hermas. The first Popes. Heretics in Rome. Visits of Polycarp and Hegesippus. Martyrs. Bishop Soter. The Gnostic Schools of the time of Marcus Aurelius. Evolution of Marcionism. Apelles. The Thundering Legion. The martyrdom of ApoUonius, . . . . .157

Chapter XIV The Churches Of The Second Century

Christianity in Italy and Gaul. The Martyrs of Lyons. Irenzeus. The Gospel in Africa ; the Martyrs of Scilli. The Church of Athens. Dionysius of Corinth, and his Epistles. The Churches in Asia : Phrygia, Bithynia, and Thrace. Martyrdom of Polycarp. The Bishops of Asia : Melito and ApoUinaris, ■ • • , .

uuiMJbiNr& xvii

Chapter XV Montanism

Montanus and his prophetesses. The Heavenly Jerusalem. Condemnation of ecstatic prophecy. The saints of Pepuza. The churches of Lyons and Rome on Montanism. TertuUian and Proculus. Survival of Montanism in Phrygia, ....... 196

Chapter XVI The Paschal Controversy

The Christian Pasch. Various uses. Divergence between the Asiatic use and the Roman use. Pope Victor and St Irenasus. The Asiatic use abandoned, . . . 20'/

Chapter XVII Controversies In Rome — Hippolytus

The Roman Emperors, Commodus and Severus. Pope Zephyrinus and Callistus the Deacon. Hippolytus. Adoptionist Christology. The Theodotians. The Roman Alogi and the Montanists : Caius. The Theology of the Logos. The Modalist School : Praxeas, Noetus, Epigonus, Cleomenes, Sabellius. Perplexities of Zephyrinus. Condemnation of Sabellius. Schism of Hippolytus : the Philosophumcna. The Doctrine of Callistus ; his Government. The Literary Work of Hippolytus; his Death; his Memory. The Roman Church after Hippolytus. Pope Fabian and Novatian the Priest, ....... 212

Chapter XVIII The Christian School Of Alexandria

Egypt under the Greeks and Romans. The beginnings of Egyptian Christianity. The Alexandrian School. Pantaenus. Clement and his writings. Christian Gnosticism. Origen's first appearance and teaching in Alexandria. Rupture with Bishop Demetrius. Origen in Caesarea. His literary activity and end. Origen's writings. The doctrinal synthesis of the First Principles, . . . 237 rmi CONTENTS

Chapter XIX Church And State In The Third Century Taoi

Persecution by special edict. Septimius Severus forbids conversions. Religious syncretism : Julia Domna, Elagabalus, Alexander Severus. Maximin's Edict against the clergy. Persecutions of Decius, Gallus, and Valerian. Ecclesiastical property, ...... 261

Chapter XX

AFRICAN CHRISTIANITY AND THE ROMAN CHURCH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE THIRD CENTURY — CYPRIAN

Native tribes of North Africa. Phoenician colonization : Carthage. Roman colonization and administration. Rise of Christianity. TertuUian. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage. His retreat during the Decian persecution. Factious confessors and apostates. Relations with Rome. Novatian's schism. Pope Cornelius. Schism of Felicissimus at Carthage. Pope Stephen. His controversy with the African Church on the rebaptism of heretics. Martyrdom of Cyprian, .... . . 282

Chapter XXI Christianity In The East, Before Decius

Dpper Asia Minor and its Hellenization. Apostolic Evangelization. The Churches of Bithynia, Pontus, and Cappadocia. Alexander and Firmilian, Bishops of Csesarea. Gregory Thaumaturgus. Antioch after Ignatius. The Bishops Theophilus and Serapion. Edessa and its Christian kings. Bardesanes. Southern Syria. The Churches of Caesarea in Palestine and Jerusalem. Julius Africanus. Beryllus, Bishop of Bostra, ...... 314

Chapter XXII Paul Of Samosata

Novatianism in Antioch. Revolutions in the East; the Sassanides, Princes of Palmyra. Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch ; his conduct and doctrine. Eastern Councils. Struggle for the bishopric of Antioch. Aurelian's '•«='«°»' 337

CONTENTS xix

Chapter XXIII Dionysius Of Alexandria

not Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria. His fortunes during the Decian persecution. His attitude towards apostates and heretics. Exile under Valerian. Alexandrian crisis. The Millenarians of Egypt : Nepos. Sabellianism in Cyrenaica. Dionysius of Alexandria and Dionysius of Rome. Eusebius and Anatolius of Laodicea, ..... 345

Chapter XXIV Eastern Theology After Origen And Paul Of Samosata

The Alexandrian Doctors : Theognostus, Pierius, Achilles. Bishop Peter, the opponent of Origen. The work of Pamphilus and Eusebius at Caesarea in Palestine. Methodius, Bishop of Olympus. Lucian of Antioch, and the beginnings of Arianism, ..... 356

Chapter XXV Christian Practice

Preparation for Baptism. Catechumens. The Apostles' Creed. Canon of the New Testament. Apostolical romances. Encratism. Orthodox asceticism. The discipline of penance. Increase of worldliness. The Council of Elvira, 365

Chapter XXVI The Christian Society

Mother-Churches and Daughter-Churches. First Metropolitan Sees. Development of the hierarchy. Administrative headquarters of the local Church. The Eucharist and the Agape. Different classes of Christians: Confessors and Virgins. The origin of clerical celibacy. Church discipline and the "apostolic" documents. The bishop and the episcopate. The universal authority of the Roman Church, 381

XX CONTENTS

Chapter XXVII The Reaction Against Christianity At The End Of The Third Century

PAOI

General decay of pagan worship. Religion of Mithras. The Magna MaUr and the Taurobolium. Aurelian and the worship of the Sun. Neo-Platonism. Plotinus. Porphyry and his book against the Christians. Mani and Manichaeism. The end of the Gnostic sects. Rabbinical Judaism, ....... 392

Index 417

EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Chapter I The Roman Empire, The Home Of Christianity

The Mediterranean and the ancient world. The Roman Empire and its neighbours. The Jewish people and Jewish religion. The Roman provinces and municipal organization. Manners and customs, ideas, religion, mysteries, oriental cults. Preparation for the Gospel.

At the moment when Christianity came into the world, the Roman Empire was established in peace throughout all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. It coincided almost exactly with what is now the continent of Europe, but was more isolated. The very existence of America was still unsuspected, and the great masses in China, India, and the interior of Africa were as ignorant of the Mediterranean as the people on the shores of that sea were of them. It was indeed possible to communicate with those almost fabulous regions by the Nile, or by the gulfs on either side of the Arabian peninsula, which open into the Indian Sea : it was in fact along these highways of the world that the empires of Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, and Susiana had flourished from remote antiquity. But, notwithstanding their geographical situation, so apparently favourable for communication with distant lands, these states seem always to have been practically closed towards the east Their victorious and civilizing expansion was towards the Mediterranean : and on that side they finally

2 ftOMAN EMPIRE, HOME OF CHRISTIANITY Icb.l

came into conflict with other younger and stronger nations, destined to stop their farther development and history, and to replace them in the political government of western Asia.

In the 6th century before the Christian era, the Nile and the Euphrates were both under the dominion of the Persians, an enterprising race, whose conquests extended to the jEgean and the Danube on the west, and on the east .to the Indus. Two hundred years later, Alexander broke up this short-lived empire, and brought the East into subjection to Greece. This political settlement, which he intended to crown his magnificent enterprises, proved indeed of very short duration. But the Macedonian conquest of Persia remains notable as bringing to the East the spirit of Hellenism. Alexander launched these countries, which possessed an ancient and vigorous civilization of their own, on a course destined to lead them to a fate quite different from that of his own empire. It is true that Iran, carrying with it its former vassals on the Tigris and the Euphrates, soon regained its freedom and lived its own life, independent of the Greek kingdoms. But neither the Parthian kings nor their successors, the Sassanides, ever succeeded in recapturing the position Darius or Assurbanipal had held in the eyes of the western world. That was denied them ; for though the Greek kingdoms fell, the armies of Rome took their place, and the frontiers remained unchanged for centuries. Mistress of Italy, victorious at Carthage and in Greece, Rome broke up the kingdom of the Seleucidae (64 B.C.), and thirty years later inherited the land of the Ptolemies. The whole Mediterranean, from Antioch to Spain, acknowledged her supremacy. Julius Caesar gave her Gaul; Augustus extended her frontier to the Danube, and Claudius to Scotland. On the north the Roman world impinged only on barbaric peoples; the ocean formed the western boundary, the desert the southern frontier. It was but on the east, towards the Tigris and Armenia, that Roman territory was coterminous with that of another empire, and even there, from the Euxine to the Red Sea, a line of small p. 3] JEWISH PEOPLE AND RELIGION 3

tributary kingdoms intervened between the Parthians and the Roman Empire.

It was in one of these small tributary kingdoms, in Judaea, that Christianity first appeared. Judaism, which had preceded and prepared the way for it, was at the outset represented in this corner of southern Syria by the religious life of a little people of various tribes, knit together first into one and then into two kingdoms, which were of short duration, and finally succumbed to the attacks of the Assyrians and Chaldees. When this last catastrophe took place (590 B.C), their religious life, which had been gradually purified by inspired prophets, centred round the national sanctuary at Jerusalem. There, One God only was worshipped : He was worshipped as the only true God and Lord, before whom all other so-called divinities were but idols and demons. Israel recognised this One God as the Maker and Master of the world ; he knew himself bound to this God by ancient and special covenants. Jahve, the Creator, was his own God, as he was the chosen of Jjihv^. Hence arose an exalted sense of his dignity, race, and vocation ; hence came an unshakable confidence in his destiny, and in the God who had ordained it.

The Temple was destroyed, the kingly dynasty suppressed, the whole people dispersed in distant exile ; but Israel still hoped, on, and his hope was not vain. The Persians destroyed the Chaldean Empire, they took and pillaged the hated city of Babylon, and finally they allowed the Jews to rebuild their sanctuary, to settle round it, and even to fortify Jerusalem. National independence was gone, but the Jews consoled themselves by drawing closer and closer the bonds which united the Children of Israel to Jahve, and to each other in Him. The rulers of Susa allowed a considerable measure of local self-government ; so did the Ptolemies and also the Seleucidae, until Antiochus Epiphanes conceived the mad scheme of hellenizing the people of God. Then the Jews' defence of their religion culminated in insurrection. From this insurrection, crowned by success, arose an autonomous state

4 ROMAN EMPIRE, HOME OF CHRISTIANITY [ch. l

governed by the Asmonean high priests, the sons of the heroes of the independence. Little by little, these priests became kings of Judeju Their rule lasted nearly a hundred years, until the Romans came. Pompey, who put an end to the kingdom of the Seleucidae, and took Jerusalem (63 B.C.), practically continued the same state of things. But Antony (40 B.C.) replaced the last Asmoneans by a native adventurer, Herod, the man called Herod the Great. It is with his name that the Gospel begins.^ When he died (750 A.U.C. = 4 B.C.), the vast kingdom assigned to him was divided into three ; the part which included Jerusalem fell to the share of his son Archelaus ; he reigned until 6 A.D. Then he was deposed and replaced by legates, who, except during an interval of three years (Herod Agrippa, 42-44), governed in succession until the great insurrection of 66 A.D.

When this insurrection broke out, Christianity was already in being, and the lines of its future propaganda laid down. They did not lead it at first towards the P3ast ; it was only later that it took root in Parthia. From the first its eyes were turned towards the world of Greece and of the Roman Empire.

This Roman Empire, notwithstanding the many scandals of which Rome was the scene, secured peace, safety, a.d even liberty, in so far as it favoured the growth of municipal organization. The provinces were governed, some by pro-consuls elected annually in the name of the Senate, others by procurators (le^aius pro pratore),3ippointed in that of the emperor, and might be considered as groups of communal districts presided over by magistrates elected in the chief city. In countries where municipal rule was not introduced, the self-government was differently organized. The government officials, excepting those concerned with taxation, were few; the administration of justice,

except in criminal cases — and that not everywhere

remained in the hands of the municipal magistrates. Those, however, who enjoyed the right of Roman citizenship could only be tried by Roman tribunals. Only ' St Matt. ii. I ; St Luke i. 5.

T. 6] PAX ROM ANA 5

frontier provinces were garrisoned by imperial troops ; the maintenance of internal peace was still a local affair, and entrusted to the local authorities. This liberal organization never led to serious disorder; care had been taken that the municipal power should lie in the hands of the upper classes ; the populace had no influence in the communal government.

Under this rule, the world prospered, and the civilization of Greece and Rome rapidly gained ground in lands where different customs, or actual barbarism, had prevailed. The country places still retained their ancient dialects — Celtic, Punic, Iberian, lUyrian, Syriac, and Egyptian ; but in the towns hardly anything was spoken but Greek or Latin. A vast system of roads bound together the different parts of the empire ; along them travelled both private carriages and the imperial posts. The Mediterranean itself formed a great water-way, where travelling was safe and rapid ; intercourse between the various parts of the empire, being made easy, became incessant.

In this great body, however, pulsated more material than intellectual life. The age of Augustus was past ; no poetry or eloquence glowed ; grammarians had succeeded the great writers. Philosophy itself was under eclipse. The most prominent sects, the Epicureans and the Stoics, interested themselves but little in metaphysics ; and those rare souls who still meditated, such as Seneca, meditated only on morality. In Rome, a few noble character*-, Thrasea and Helvidius Priscus, for instance, kept alive the protest of the human conscience against the tyranny of the Caesars and the Flavians, together with a half-appeal to a vanished liberty. But neither their public-spirited protest, nor the speculations ol philosophy, had any appreciable influence on the populace of Rome or the masses in the provinces.

As to religion, the upper classes were generally sceptical. Hardly anything remained of the ancient Roman or Greek rites except the official ceremonies. The old Roman religion had but little besides rites and ceremonies. It adored abstract tiivinities, without form, without poetry, sometimes even without a name. The imagination of

6 ROMAN EMPIRE, HOME OF CHRISTIANITY [oh. i.

the Greeks, on the contrary, had transformed the abstract conceptions of primitive naturalism into briUiant beings — men, but transcendently beautiful, strong, and intelligent. Their poets sang the exploits and adventures of these seductive immortals, but no serious theology ever came from their Pantheon. It is true that philosophy exerted all its ingenuity to connect these religious fables with nature-myths, but the result was rather to discredit than to explain them. Thus diverted from the Olympus of tradition, the religious instinct turned to the mysteries, which claimed to have discovered the clue to the eternal enigmas of the universe, to deliver the captive soul, and to assure it of happiness in another life. But the Greek initiations hardly touched the people ; and some which endangered morality were either restricted or altogether prohibited. The Roman conquest , of the East and of Egypt introduced other religious elements. Noisy, exciting, and immoral cults spread in all directions, and to their ceremonies men and women, rich and poor, free-men and slaves, were admitted indiscriminately. From Egypt came the mysteries of Isis and Serapis, from Syria those of Adonis and Astart6, from Persia that of Mithras, and from Phrygia those of Cybele and of Sabazius. Everywhere endless associations sprang up in honour of these new deities, whose worship soon supplied the common religious instinct with a food sadly wanting in the official ceremonie.s.

The official ceremonies, indeed, were undergoing a transformation. The ancient national sanctuaries, no doubt, were still served, but a new divinity, more present and more potent, was set up beside the old ones, and threatened to supplant them. This was the worship of Rome and of Augustus,^ which first appeared in the provinces, under the Emperor Augustus, and spread with extreme rapidity. In every province an assembly of delegates from the cities met each year in a temple consecrated to Rome

■ In this formula, the name Augustus does not mean the Emperor Octavianus-Augustus in particular, but the living Augustus, the emperor reigning at the time.

p. »J rRJtf AKATION toil THE GOSPEL 7

and the emperor. These delegates elected as priest one of themselves, who for the ensuing year held his sacerdotal oflfice in the name of the province, under the title of flamen or sacerdos, apxiepeus (high pnest). Sacrifices, and, above all, public games, were celebrated in the most solemn manner, and then, having inquired into the administration of the retiring priest, the assembly separated. Besides these provincial ceremonies, the worship of Rome and Augustus had temples and municipal priests in almost every town, as well as religious associations. Following the lines of the municipal and provincial organizations, and connecting them by a sort of sacred bond to the supreme government of the empire, it soon became the most obvious representation of the religion of the State.

All these forms of worship, so various in origin and meaning, existed side by side, and no one of them claimed a monopoly. Every man, according to taste and convenience, made his choice amongst them, and, broadly speaking, all were allowed, according to circumstances. Christianity did not find the ground unoccupied. When the souls of men opened to it, not only had it to root out a special attachment to such and such a form of worship, but also a certain sympathy with the many pagan cults which had gradually won their way into the popular devotion.

From all this it is clear that Christianity found both facilities and obstacles in the Roman Empire. Foremost among the facilities come universal peace, uniformity of language and ideas, and rapid and safe communication. Philosophy, by the blows it had struck at old pagan legends, and by its impotence to replace them, may also be reckoned as a useful auxiliary ; the Fathers of the Church sppak of paganism in the same tone as Lucian. Finally, the religions of the East, by feeding the religious instinct, had prevented its perishing and kept it alive, to await the new birth of the Gospel. These were the facilities, but what obstacles stood in the way! The Roman Empire soon took to persecution, and over and over again engaged

8 ROMAN EMPIRE, HOME OF CHRISTIANITY [CH. I.

in a death struggle with Christianity. The spirit of reasoning in Greek philosophy seized on the doctrinal elements of Christian teaching, and produced plenty of heresies. As to the popular pagan cults, although they had tended to preserve the religious instinct, yet from them could come no assistance in the warfare against those selfish and shameful passions, which in nations, as in individuals, always form the most serious obstacle to the work of salvation.

Chapter II The Primitive Church At Jerusalem

Judaism in the empire and in Palestine. The disciples of Jesus : their preaching and thfir organization. Saul of Tarsus. First conversions amongst Gentiles predisposed to Judaism.

" Salvation is of the Jews," said Jesus to the woman of Samaria. This saying is characteristic of the external aspect of the Gospel mission. Jerusalem was its starting-point, and it was in passing through the Jewish colonies, established more or less throughout the whole empire, that it touched the heathen races.

After Alexander and the Romans had opened up the world, Judaism left the parent hive. Outside Palestine, its cradle, it had had, since the exile, an important settlement in Babylon. Babylon, however, may be ignored in a history of primitive Christianity. Not so the Jewish colony at Alexandria, which formed about two-fifths of the population of that great town. From Alexandria emanated, besides the exegesis of Philo, the canonical book of Wisdom and several important apocryphal books. However, we need not dwell on the evangelization of Egypt either, for it is shrouded in obscurity. All the principal towns throughout the empire had a more or less large Jewish population, engaged in the smaller branches of commerce, and protected by special privileges, which had been renewed several times since the days of Alexander's earliest successors. The children of Israel assembled in their synagogues to listen to the reading and explanation of the Holy Books, to pray in common,