The church of the fathers

Dedication

Having some years ago inscribed a little volume of song — the best that was then mine of poetic thought and feeling to the memory of my first and ever- CHERISHED Mother, I dedicate this more serious effort,

WITH FILIAL REGARD, TO MY SECOND MOTHER, THE EVER- NOURISHING MOTHER OF SCIENCES AND ARTS, CENTRAL COL- LEGE, Fayette, Mo. The Author.

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Preface

A twofold aim has governed the writer of this book. He has desired, first, to awaken interest in the early post-apostolic history of the Church, to open this rich field to new searchers after knowledge, and to be a guide to them to the mines of purest wealth. In the second place, he has sought to bring some shining nuggets from this far-off and dim region, with the hope that here and there a soul, athirst for true riches, may be induced to journey thither to behold those mountains whence he gathered the only precious things he has to display. In plain language, he has culled sayings full of perpetual wisdom from the writings of immortal but unknown men; from heroic, good, and wise men, whose names have become dim in the newspaper age of the world ; but men wholly worthy to be called saints, philosophers, fathers. Avoiding as much as possible all abstruse discussions of doctrine, and writing as a layman for the laity, he has told the story of the Church in the lives of illustrious men, and brought them, not seldom, to speak for themselves in passages of such moral beauty and such intrinsic eloquence as the literature of the world may rival, possibly, but not surpass.

Professing himself to have been for many years a diligent student of this determinative and marvi Pre/add.

velously fruitful age of the Church, interested in every phenomenon of its life as no insignificant thing in its time and import, yet he has not been, he trusts, so fond an historian of ideas and usages as to cause every burial ground of the past to yield up its entire host of forgotten and impertinent dead. The life that has been transmitted; the breathing and embodied doctrines wherein was and is life and power ; the heroic and undying souls wherein the Word that is eternal spoke ; the growing institution ; the Christian conquest of the world — these are the things that have mainly engaged the thoughts of the writer of this book.

Let him add to the mottoes already presented to the reader this one from St. Paul, as of supreme usefulness in all study and practice: " Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

R. T. K.

CHAPTER I. Introduction. _„

PAGE

History the enlightener — The interest attaching to beginnings — Review of the Period — Principle of estimating men and things; their serviceableness to their own age — Sources of knowledge: writings of the Fathers; the fourth and fifth century historians, Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret — Aim and spirit of this present undertaking; knowledge of Christian history — Culture in Christian truths i

CHAPTER II. The Apostolic Fathers

Their importance: historical; ethical — The men and their works: Clement of Rome; Ignatius of Antioch; Polycarp of Smyrna; Hermas, the Didache; the Epistle to Diognetus; miscellaneous writings — Character and value of these early documents 13

CHAPTER III. The Apologists

Greek philosophers converted to Christianity — Employed Hellenic culture in defense of the gospel — Their achievement; the founding of Christian theology, or a philosophy of Christianity — Quadratus, Aristides, Melito, Apollinaris, Miltiades, Athenagoras, Justin Martyr, Tatian, Theophilus, Felix Maximus, Tertullian, Origen; Exposition of Justin Martyr as representative — Summary 35

CHAPTER IV. The School of Alexandria

The City : cosmopolitan in culture ; free in religious thought — Philonism — Neoplatonism — The Catechetical School —

Clement ; Origen 53

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viii Contents.

Chapter V

Early Heresies and the Formation of a Canon. How the question of a canon of Scriptures arose; divergencies in doctrine gave rise to need of a rule of faith (kclvgjv) — Ebionism — Gnosticism — Monarchianism — The formation of a canon, or body of authoritative documents, a gradual process ...... 8 1

CHAPTER VI. Ecclesiastical Organization

Growth: stages traceable ; causes — Priestly orders and their functions: bishops, presbyters, deacons, etc. — Roman empire the pattern of the Church — The rise of Rome to supremacy: favoring conditions; causes and stages — Opposition to growing priestcraft — Montanism ; Monasticism 103

CHAPTER VII. The Church and the Empire

Persecutions — Attitude of the empire toward religions; toward Christianity — Why the Christians were persecuted — The Church's condition from Nero, A.D . 54, to Diocletian, A.D. 311 — The catacombs: the underground age of Christianity — Constantine the Great: Christianity on the imperial throne 117

CHAPTER VIII. The Arian Controversy

Freedom from danger without; foes within — Streams of thought — Monarchianism; two wings — Arianism — Rise — Attempts at settlement — The First Ecumenical Council: character; work; results — Varying party fortunes— Arius and Athanasius 145

CHAPTER IX. Great Men of the East

The epoch one of eminent men — The three Cappadocians, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzum, Gregory of Nyssa; Chrysostom 1 73

Contents. ix

CHAPTER X. Great Men of the West. pAGE

Ambrose — Jerome — Augustine 201

Chapter XI

Worship, Ritual, and Observances. Houses of worship — Symbolism — Overthrow of paganism — Reaction — Julian the Apostate — Pagan survivals in Christianity; numerous; reasonable — Hymnology; earliest Christian usage — Chief hymn-writers of the period — Liturgies and festivals — Saints, relics, and miracles; the gradual corruption of the pure religion 227

Chapter XII. Monasticism

Origin, spirit, and aim — A feature of various other religions — Early Christian hermits in Egypt — Spread — Rationale, and conditions producing Monasticism — The barbarian invasion— Visigoths, Huns, Vandals — Service of Monasticism — Benedict of Nursia and his order — Planting of Christianity in Germany, Gaul, and Britain.. 251

CHAPTER XIII. The Pelagian Controversy

Origin — Outbreak — Pelagius, Synods — Teachings of Pelagius — Estimate of the opposing doctrines 275

CHAPTER XIV. Councils and Creeds

Remarks upon the period — Spirit of fairness in judging of the Church's work — The first five Ecumenical Councils: of Nicsea, of Constantinople, of Ephesus, of Chalcedon, of Constantinople (second) — The various controversies which occasioned them — Creeds: attempted exclusions of heresies by strict definitions of the faith ; the Nicene, the Apostles', the Athanasian 303

J x Contents.

Chapter XV

Gregory the Great — Conclusion. pAGE Significance of great men — Preparation of Gregory for eminence — Kinds of service he rendered the Church — Consolidation and enforcement of conformity — One period of Church nistory closed — Conclusion 325

Appendix I.: Chief Authors and Their Chief Works 339

Appendix II. : Table of Emperors 345

Select Bibliography xi

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY.

History of the Christian Church, Dr. Philip Schaff. Scribners. Encyclopedic, filled with pregnant comment, characterized by breadth of spirit and largeness of aim.

History of Latin Christianity . H. H. Mil man. "Standard Edition "in four volumes. Armstrong and Son, New York. Almost epical, full of learning and of eloquence, written in the finest spirit of ripe scholarship and broad sympathies.

Christian History. J. H. Allen. Three volumes. Roberts Brothers, Boston. An interesting narration from a humanistic point of view, and dealing with salient forces and chief men.

History of Christian Doctrine. G. P. Fisher. In the "International Theological Library." An excellent comprehensive volume.

Christian Institutions. A. V. G. Allen. Another volume of the " International Theological Library." Admirably written.

Manual of Patrology. W. N. Stearns, Ph.D. Scribners. An invaluable handbook that gives a " concise account of the chief persons, sects, orders, etc., in Christian history from the first century to the Reformation."

Library of the Fathers. Edited by Dr. Schaff. Thirty-six volumes. This library contains the most important writings of the Fathers of the first six centuries. It is the storehouse of knowledge for all historians.

The Fathers for English Reader s, edited by G. A. Jackson, is an excellent series of brief monographs, including the following: "The Apostolic Fathers," "The Defenders of the Faith," "Clement of Alexandria," "Saint Athanasius," " Saint Ambrose," " Saint Gregory," " Saint Basil," " Saint Jerome," " Saint Augustine," " Leo the Great," " Saint Patrick," " Gregory the Great." Price each, 80 cents.

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THE CHURCH OF THE FATHERS.

Introduction

" For neither is there life without knowledge nor sound knowledge without true life." — Epistle to Diognetus.

The present cannot be understood, nor the future conjectured, without a knowledge of the past. The simplest institutions among us are a heritage from an antiquity hoary as that of the pyramids. Being the embodiment of ideas and purposes created by the growing mind of man, they have developed in accordance with the laws of his nature and in response to his varying needs, taking, slowly but surely, the characteristic features of the aims and ideals of each succeeding age, all the while, through all transformations, subject to an underlying principle which preserves their identity. To build wisely we must know the architectural plan, the original conception; and this can be discovered only by a careful study of the foundations and a survey of the rising structure. This knowledge as regards the edifice called society, or civilization — this cathedral which is always building, never finished — is derived from a study of history. The laws of development to which future efforts must conform are to be discovered in the records of events and made the common possession of all ; for all have, in various degrees, a determining influence upon progress. Knowledge of history makes this influence an enlightened, conservative, forwarding one. The long look ahead can be obtained only by getting the bearings and line of general direction from the past course of advance. The past is all prophetic; the future lies in the womb of the present.

All origins are interesting. The account of all development is philosophy in the concrete. The history of institutions, of their rise and growth, their functions and purposes, is one of the most instructive, broadening, and liberalizing studies that can occupy the mind. Preeminent among human institutions are those which spring out of man's religious nature. The central fact of his being is his religion ; worship is his most universal trait and most fundamental instinct. Wherever he has built him a house in w r hich to dwell, he has reared him a temple in which to pray and adore. All the facts and phenomena of man's life, social and individual, order themselves about religion as a determining principle. The nature of man is permanently and prevailingly religious.

Therefore no institutions are more interesting to study in their rise, development, functions, and influences — all that make up history — than those most immediately embodying the religious idea. Chief among these for us is the Christian Church, This history we purpose to outline, and its significance to indicate, in a few brief chapters, only designing to win our readers to a recognition of the supreme importance of the subject and to direct

Introduction. 3

them in the way of a systematic and thorough study in the books of the great historians.

Where shall we begin? The true starting place is indeed not this side of Abraham, the father of the faithful and the founder of the congregation of Israel. But our purpose hardly requires an account ab ovo ; though no student of Church history should fail to inform himself as regards the teachings and manner of service in vogue successively in the tabernacle, the temple, and the synagogue. The Church stands, in line of development, the successor of these. Conforming to the prevalent usage, and without any open hostility to the established order, Jesus taught and the apostles preached in the synagogues of their nation. It was inevitable that much in the way of ritual, polity, and doctrine should be carried into the new society, however radical seems the change to a simpler worship and more ethical teaching. Can there be anything in common, it may be asked, between a Wesleyan chapel and a cathedral of the Church of England? Yes, more than a casual observer at first discerns. Whatever of ritual is found in the lowly chapel — and there must be some, and often is much — is derived from the stately cathedral. The Jewish synagogue is no less the mother of the Christian Church. The New Testament is not more truly the logical development of the Old, and Christianity not more the legitimate outcome of Judaism, than is the Church as an organization the offspring of the synagogue. The congregation of the old dispensation becomes the ekklesta of the new. But for a full account of this matter the reader must go to Schiirer's " Jewish People in the Time of Christ" and Toy's "Judaism and Christianity." We pass over not only this important transition period, but also the New Testament times as well, and begin with the Church of the Apostolic Fathers.

What may the reader expect in this history, and what are the inducements to its study? We have limited ourselves to the first six centuries following New Testament times — a period including what is commonly, but ignorantly, denominated the Dark Ages. Never in the history of human life was the human mind more actively engaged on problems of thought which required solution and on the framing of institutions which were necessary; never was there an age more abounding in moral enthusiasm and spiritual aspiration. Keen metaphysicians, bold speculators, prolific writers, eloquent preachers, great ecclesiasts — Origen, Athanasius, and Chrysostom; Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine; Leo and Gregory — belong to this period. It gave birth and direction to monasticism, one of the supreme religious movements of history. It was an era of Christian conquest of paganism and barbarism, of assimilation, organization, and establishment. Creeds had to be formulated; doctrines had to be digested and developed into system; liturgies, ceremonies, and rituals, festivals and observances— for there is no Church with-

Introduction. 5

but these — had to be ordered and brought into service.

It was an age of genius and achievements — not, it is true, in poetry or in any form of fine art, but in the treatment of theological problems and in the creation of fitting ecclesiastical institutions. The usefulness now, or absence of usefulness, of what the men of that time did, must not be taken as a measure of its usefulness then. In view of the conditions of those times and of the work that lay before the Church, the verdict of necessity must rest upon the general character and results of their activity.

Within our survey shall come the literary conflict with paganism; the persecutions which the Christians suffered at the hands of the Empire; their heroic deaths and wonderful triumphs over pain, and the winning of imperial power and final triumph over paganism; the missionary labors which resulted in the Christianization of Europe, the triumph over barbarism; the growth of ecclesiasticism and the origin of the papacy; the work of councils in the settlement of disputes, the promulgation of canons and creeds, and the eradication of heresies. The customs and manner of life, the great words and virtuous works, of believers will engage much of our attention. Examples of heroic fidelity to Christ, legends of beautiful lives, illustrations of the simplicity and sweetness of the disciples' trust in Christ, shall ennoble our pages. It will be a history of beginnings, which should always be interesting; a history of great intellectual and moral conflicts and of illustrious men ; the history of an institution still living and growing, an institution without parallel in origin, in power, and in perpetuity; a history of the Church of Christ.

The author, in writing this history, has first of all sought his information first-hand from the literature of the times, of which he treats. He passes judgment on no book which he has not read, nor on any personage whose life and work he has not studied. The Fathers, as he wrote, were about him in his library. While modern authorities have not been neglected, the early historians of the Church — Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret— have been constantly by his side, his chief teachers. Of this group of historians it is befitting, since we shall have occasion hereafter frequently to refer to them, to give here some account.

Eusebius, after St. Luke, was the first historian of the Church, and is chief of the early group in importance. He was bishop of Caesarea from about A.D. 313 until his death, about 337. His learning is accounted to be very great, and he was fortunate in having access, when he came to write his history of the Church, to the vast library which Origen had gotten together in Caesarea. He was an honored friend of Constantine, the first Christian emperor; he was a distinguished member of the first Ecumenical Council, at Nicaea, in A.D. 325; he was the father of Church history. The conception he had of his task is nobly expressed

Introduction . 7

in his own words: " Other writers of history," he says, "record the victories of war and trophies won from enemies, the skill of generals, and the manly bravery of soldiers, defiled with blood and with innumerable slaughters, for the sake of children and country and other possessions. But our narrative of the government of God will record in ineffaceable letters the most peaceful wars waged in behalf of the peace of the soul, and will tell of men doing brave deeds for truth rather than country, and for piety rather than dearest friends. It will hand down to imperishable remembrance the discipline and the much-tried fortitude of the athletes of religion, the trophies won from demons, the victories over invisible enemies, and the crowns placed upon all their heads."

His history, together with his "Life of Constantine,' ? covers the whole period of the Church from the beginning to the death of that emperor, A.D. 337.

Socrates comes next in order of time. Born at Constantinople about A.D. 380, he wrote a full century after Eusebius, and, treating more fully of certain things, especially of the Arian controversy, than that author, he continued the history of the Church to the year 439. He was conscientious and careful in gathering information and impartial in his treatment of the controversies. He had a wide acquaintance with Greek literature and was broad and liberal-minded. None the less did he have a high respect for the Church and her institutions, although he was no slave to formalism.

Sozomen was born the same year with Socrates. He covered but a period of one hundred years (from 323 to 423) with his history. Being an ardent monk, he wrote to a great extent in the interests of monasticism. He is uncritical and not very learned. His pages throng with accounts of visions, portents, and miracles. Yet he is a valuable historian, especially as giving us an inside view of the mind of the age and of the great institution of ascetics.

Theodoret was born about A.D. 393 at Antioch, and lived all his life in the midst of the most heated controversies. He was a scholar, familiar with the Syriac, Greek, and Hebrew languages. The greatest Antiochian theologians, a distinctly critical school, were his teachers. In his history he is clear, concise, and veracious. He begins his narrative where Eusebius leaves off, and continues it over the space of one hundred and five years, i. e., to A.D. 429. His lofty words in setting forth the design of his history the present writer may humbly choose as his own : " When artists paint on panels and on walls the events of ancient history, they alike delight the eye and keep bright for many a year the memory of the past. Historians substitute books for panels, bright description for pigments, and thus render the memory of past events both stronger and more permanent, for the painter's art is ruined by time. For this reason I too shall

Introduction . g

attempt to record in writing events in ecclesiastical history hitherto omitted, deeming it indeed not right to look on without an effort while oblivion robs noble deeds and useful stories of their due fame. For this cause* too, I have been frequently urged by friends to undertake this work. But when I compare my own powers with the magnitude of the undertaking, I shrink from attempting it. Trusting, however, in the bounty of the Giver of all good, I enter upon a task beyond my own strength."

THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.

" The Apostolic Fathers are here understood as filling up the second century of our era. . . . We thus find ourselves conducted, by this goodly fellowship of witnesses, from the times of the apostles to those of Tertullian, from the martyrs of the second persecution to those of the sixth. Those were the times of heroism, not of words; an age, not of writers, but of soldiers; not of talkers, but of sufferers. Curiosity is baffled, but faith and love are fed by those scanty relics of primitive antiquity. Yet may we well be grateful for what we have. These writings come down to us as the earliest response of converted nations to the testimony of Jesus. They are primary evidences of the canon and the credibility of the New Testament. Disappointment may be the first emotion of the student who comes down from the mount where he has dwelt in the tabernacles of evangelists and apostles. . . . Yet the thoughtful and loving spirit soon learns their exceeding value. For who does not close the records of St. Luke with longings to get at least a glimpse of the further history of the progress of the gospel? What of the Church when its founders were fallen asleep? Was the Good Snepherd ' always 7 with his little flock, according to his promise? Was the blessed Comforter felt in his presence amid the fires of persecution? Was the Spirit of Truth really able to guide the faithful unto all truth, and to keep them in the truth?" — A, Cleveland Coxe, Introduction to Vol. I. of "Ante-Nicene Fathers" (12)

CHAPTER II. THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. (second century.)

"The same [doctrines] commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also." (2 Tim. ii. 2.)

" In them [the Apostolic Fathers] we may discern the tendencies operating from the beginning which are to color the history of the Church in all coming time." — A. V. G. Allen.

Whoever would trace the growth of Christian usages and doctrines, and in any measure understand the history of the Church, must begin with the Apostolic Fathers. On other grounds, especially because of their pure and high ethical utterances, they are well worthy of study. For the culture of the Christian life they stand close, not only in time but in power, to the writings of the very apostles themselves, their spiritual fathers. No theory of inspiration should cause us to be indifferent to this extra-biblical but thoroughly Christian literature, or to restrict our knowledge of Christian origins to the small volume of canonical writings, which scarcely bring us out of the first century. For historical information, if not for the higher spiritual uses, our interest in the Church of Christ and of the apostles should lead us to a study of the words and works, the lives and labors, of those who transmitted to us the influences and institutions of the founders.

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Furthermore, the New Testament itself, giving evidence as it does of a supreme renaissance of the spirit, should lead us to expect some further contribution from the succeeding age to the religious treasures of our race. Surely, one might say, this great movement — using the language of secular history — this unparalleled effort after moral reform and spiritual freedom, has not so quickly spent its force and ceased to bring forth illuminated men, and, through them, luminous records of the inspired life ? The Light of the World that enlightened the minds of those firstborn of the new era, can it have become suddenly extinct and left the infant Church,

Crying in the night, An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry?

Rather should we expect that the promised Spirit of Truth would be present, abiding with the believers, and leading into a fuller comprehension of spiritual realities and a deeper experience of the faith, and causing them to produce a literature, if not worthy to be held sacred, yet u profitable for doctrine, for correction, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness "; or, as Jerome says of the Old Testament apocrypha, "for example of life and instruction of manners."

We indeed find such a literature — as, truly, the known laws of the human spirit would teach us to expect; a literature so noble in tone, so lofty in ethical teaching, so breathing the spirit of the

Master, so animated by large thoughts and fervent emotions, that much of it was read for some generations in the churches equally with the writings of the apostles themselves. Inspiration was claimed for it by the Fathers.

The authors of this earliest literature immediately succeeding the New Testament are known as Apostolic Fathers. They were not apostles, but the apostles' spiritual children of the first generation; that is, their immediate successors. They are to be distinguished from the "Church Fathers" as being included among the latter, as a species within a genus; for " Church Fathers " is a designation applied to all the accepted Christian teachers of the first six or more centuries.

The advantage of the Apostolic Fathers was very great. They received the sayings of our Lord first-hand from those who had heard his very voice and in their hearts had treasured up his precious words. They had been quickened into newness of life by the holy zeal of those who had been for months and even years companions, night and day, of the Christ. They had been touched by the holy fire direct from the altar of God; they had drunk of the fountain of Life near its source. Should the power of this influence fail to manifest itself in their lives, their words, and their labors ? Could the stream of the river of God, "which is always full," bursting, as it were, from the cleft rock of Judaism, sink so soon in the desert sands of heathendom or paganism? The presupposition to the contrary is confirmed by the witness of their writings. Whoever will conceive a sufficient interest in the development of Christianity to lead him to look into the writings of the Apostolic Fathers will find that they possess in large measure, if not undiminished, the moral fervor, the ethical aspiration, the spiritual illumination, even of the first great teachers. Some of their productions, as we shall see, were regarded for three or four centuries with as high esteem as the writings finally adopted into the sacred canon. The period of these Fathers coincides, generally speaking, with the first half of the second century; to speak more accurately, it may be said to lap over the third half-century of the Christian era about ten years at each end. A single volume of five hundred and seventy pages, a product of the ripe scholarship of Bishop Lightfoot, includes .all their writings, both the original Greek and the editor's translation, accompanied by brief introductory notes.

Of this literature I will give a brief account, and seek by the imperfect means of quotations to show what it is worth.

i. The First Epistle to the Corinthians.

This was written at Rome about A.D. 95, by St. Clement, to the church at Corinth, in order to heal a division there and to settle the question of authority in the church. There were two bitterly opposing parties, and the contention was about the power of the elders. There had been a revolution in the church, and the presbyters had been deposed. It seems to have been a rebellion of the early spirit of freedom in respect to preaching, prophesying, worshiping, and living, against a growing orderliness and ecclesiasticism. Clement, after the true Roman fashion, decides against the free spirit in favor of subordination, decorum, and order. The apostles, he writes, appointed bishops and deacons in every city where they preached, and to these gave authority ; they should be obeyed as God himself, inasmuch as their power comes to them through Christ and the apostles from him. This is a truly Roman conception, and the letter is important as showing how even in the first century the church at Rome was assuming an extensive oversight and authority. The natural order and government of the world serves to exemplify and teach how it should be in the Church. Pleadings as well as arguments are used by this great-hearted and wise head of the P^oman Church/

The past, by way of exhortation to unity and long-suffering, is brought before them in these words: "And ye were all lowly in mind and free from arrogance, yielding rather than claiming submission, more glad to give than to receive, and

1 In the half-shadow in which he remained, enveloped and, as it were, lost in the luminous dust of a fine historic distance, Clement is one of the great figures of a nascent Christianity. — Renan.

18 The Church of the Fathei's.

content with the provisions which God supplieth. And giving heed unto his words, ye laid them up diligently in your hearts, and his sufferings were before your eyes. Thus a profound and rich peace was given to all, and an insatiable desire of doing good." The lessons of history, of God's mercies, and of Christ's sufferings are adduced in powerful arguments and appeals. The teachings of providence in nature, too, are invoked to the writer's aid in reclaiming the disrupted Church: "The heavens are moved by his direction, and obey him in peace. Day and night accomplish the course assigned to them, without hindrance one to another. The sun and the moon and the dancing stars, according to his appointment, circle in harmony within the bounds assigned to them, without any swerving aside." The depths of the abysses; the seasons which " give way in succession one to another in peace" ; the winds, which "fulfill their ministry without disturbance " ; " the ever-flowing fountains, created for enjoyment and health"; all these things the Creator and Master of the universe ordered to be in peace and concord, " doing good unto all things, but, far beyond the rest, unto us who have taken refuge in his compassionate mercies."