Ancient history of universalism : from the time of the apostles, to the fifth general council : with an appendix, tracing the doctrine to the Reformation

Preface To The First Edition

The reader will perceive, in the commencement of the lowing work, that I have not introduced a statement

f the Scripture doctrine upon the subject of my History.

: or the omission, which some may consider a defect, I submit these reasons : it seemed to me that a brief statement would prove useless, since every one would form his own opinion from other authority ; and it was thought that a satisfactory discussion of the important question belonged rather to the Polemic than to the Historian. Accordingly, for the commencement of my undertaking, I fixed on a date posterior to the publication of most of the New Testament ; and jet, as it was desirable to take into view every other Christian production extant of the first ages, it was necessary to begin as early as a. d. 90, before some of St. John's writings were composed.

The attentive reader will also discover, as he proceeds, that the Ancient History of Universalism is naturally distinguished, by certain peculiarities, into three successive Periods : the First, extending to the year 190, and embraced in the first two chapters, affords but few indisputable traces either of that doctrine or of its opposite ; the Second, running through the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters, to the year 390, or 394, is distinguished by the prevalence both of Universalism and of the doctrine of endless misery, without producing the least disturbance or uneasiness in the church ; the Third, reaching to the Fifth General Council, in a. d. 553, is marked with continual censures,

IV

Preface

frequent commotions, and some disgraceful quarrels, on that subject.

And, as I have endeavored to vary my general plan, so as to suit the peculiar character and circumstances of each of these periods, I would here bespeak the reader's attention to the method I have pursued. In the first Period, then, I have been careful to state, in his own words, the opinion of every Christian author who has left us any remarks concerning future punishment, or the eventual salvation of the world ; and down to the year 150, I have, with still more particularity, inserted every passage which I thought belonged to either of those subjects. Accordingly, it may be expected that, to many, the first two chapters will prove more tedious than the rest of the work. In the second Period, while it has been my principal object to give a full account of all those fathers who, during that time, advocated or favored Universalism, I have also aimed to present a correct view of the opinions entertained, the meanwhile, by the Christian world at large, on that point. In the third Period, I have pursued nearly the same course ; leaving, however, the common sentiment of the church, concerning the doctrine in question, to be gathered from the controversies and quarrels which then occurred, and which I have minutely described. Thus far, I may venture to pronounce the History complete, in one respect : it contains an account of every individual of note, whom we have now the means of knowing to have been a Universalist.

In the Appendix the plan is very different, since a regular and connected history of Universalism, from the Fifth General Council to the Reformation, is, with me, utterly impracticable. Here, therefore, nothing but a sketch is attempted, pointing out those traces of the doctrine which I have happened to discover in the course of reading.

I would also take this opportunity, once for all, to apprize my readers of the sense in which they will find certain

PREFACE.

Y terms and phrases used in the following work. The title bishop is supposed to have signified, at first, only the chief minister of a city, or territory ; though it afterwards became confined in its application to a distinct and superior order of clergy. By the popular epithets orthodox and heretic, I mean, not the true and the false, but the predominant, or catholic, and the dissenting, or anathematized. To conclude, I have frequently spoken of the Western or Latin Churches, in distinction from the Eastern or Greek; though they were not finally separated from each other's communion, till the ninth century.

Roxbury, Oct 22d, 1828.

A second edition of this work was published in 1842. It always filled an important place in the literature of the Universalist Church ; and it is now republished with such additions to the notes as later researches have suggested.

THE PUBLISHERS.

Boston, Dec. 1st, 1871.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

Appendix

THE

ANCIENT HISTORY OF UNIVERSALISM.

CHAPTER I.

FKOM A. D. 90 TO A. D. 150.

At the date with which this history begins, a.d.9o. none of the apostles are supposed to have been alive, except St. John, who then resided, at a very advanced age, in the great city of Ephesus. St. Peter and St. Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome more than twenty years before ; and St. James the Great, and St. James the Less, at Jerusalem, at a still earlier period. Of the deaths of the other apostles, nothing can be pronounced with confidence, notwithstanding the accounts given of their martyrdom by some ancient writers, and adopted by many of the moderns.

Nor must we pretend to define the extent to which Christianity had now spread; since, on this subject, it is often impossible to distinguish the true from the fabulous accounts of early historians. It is probable, however, that some churches were already established in most of the Roman provinces, especially in the eastern. But the number of professed Christians must still have been very small, compared with the whole mass of the community ; and it must have been composed, with some exceptions, of the lower classes of people. The rich and noble were, for the most part, attached to the ancient forms and institutions ; and the men of great learning, and those of refined tastes, did not depart, as indeed they seldom do, from that popular course where they might find reward, or at least hope for admiration.

The Christians were, nevertheless, not an obscure sect. Their religion was so novel, so different from every other, and they were so zealous and successful in its cause, that it drew much attention wherever it was introduced. It was, indeed, greatly misunderstood by the public at large ; and still more misrepresented by its particular enemies. Of these, the most bitter were the heathen priests, who felt their long unmolested repose disturbed by the growing desertion of their temples, and neglect of their services. 1 Still it must be remarked, that the Christians had suffered very little persecution, except slander, since the death of Nero, more than twenty years before. But the time drew near when they were to encounter proscription, danger, and even death, from the civil authorities. It was but four or five years afterwards, that the jealousy of the Emperor Domitian revived the

1 Plinii Epist. 97, lib. x. and Taciti Annal. lib. xv. cap. 44. Afterwards, or towards the year 150, we find the most outrageous calumny heaped upon the Christians : they were commonly called Atheists ; and all kinds of licentiousness, even such as cannot, with decency, be mentioned, were charged upon them. To refute and expose these slanderous falsehoods was a grand object with several of the early Christian writers.

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storm, which raged, with some considerable intervals, for more than two centuries, till the ominous conversion of Constantine gave to the church the kingdoms of this world, and the glory of them.

As to the system of doctrine held by the Christians at this period, we can determine few of its particulars, if indeed it be proper to say that such a system then obtained. Their religion had not, as yet, been taught on any regular plan, like that of a body of divinity. Its fundamental truths, that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, the Christ of the only true God, and the Saviour of men, and that he rose from the dead, necessarily engrossed the chief attention of its professors, since these were the important facts they were obliged, almost continually, to urge on the people, and to defend against opponents. It is extremely difficult for us, who are brought up in a state of society where Christianity is the original and universal religion, and where our disputes extend only to its particular tenets, to conceive of the simplicity in which the first preachers taught their faith, when, not the doctrine, but the truth itself, of that religion, was the principal point in dispute. When people were brought to acknowledge the mission of Christ, they were considered Christians, and, if their conduct became their profession, they were gladly received into the churches ; though further instructions were then given, or afterwards added as opportunities offered. 1 Such being the liberal con-

1 This was the practice of the apostles. See the abstracts and accounts of those discourses which they addressed to unbelievers ; Acts ii. 14 — 41 ; iii. 12—26 ; iv. 8—12; v. 29—32; viii. 30—38; ix. 20—22; x. 34—48; xiii. 16—41; xvi. 30—33; xvii. 2—4, 18, 22—34; xxiii. 6; xxv. 18, 19; xxvi., xxviii. 23.

ditions on which the churches were gathered, they, of course, admitted persons of different, and even of opposite sentiments, on many points of doctrine. Both the Jewish and Gentile converts retained many of their respective prejudices. The consequence was, that disputes had already arisen among them, particularly concerning the obligation of the Mosaic rituals, on one hand, and the heathen schemes of philosophy on another. The apostles themselves had, years before, interposed to decide these controversies ; but even their authority could not remove the prejudices of the parties, nor silence their contentions. Even at this early period, some of the Gnostic believers, in particular, had probably gone so far as to separate from the other churches and to form themselves into distinct bodies, which, however, must have been small and obscure. We cannot suppose, after all, that the Christians, in general, had so soon obliterated from their faith the prominent features of the apostolic doctrine ; especially, when we consider that most of the books of the New Testament were now in circulation, and that St. John still lived to be consulted, and to give instructions. 1

Proceeding, now, to the particular subject of our history, we shall, in the present chapter, produce all that can be known, with any degree of certainty, of the views entertained by the Christians, from this time till a. d. 150, in relation to a future state of punishment and the eventual salvation of the world. The only direct light that gleams, at intervals, through the

1 The principal facts in this section are illustrated at large hy Mosheim, Eccl. East. Cent. i. ; and more particularly in his Commentaries on the Affairs of the Christians, before the Time of Constantine, etc. Vol. i. VidaVs Translation.

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obscurity of the course we attempt, is derived from the few Christian writings of this period, which are still extant. These are the productions of those commonly called the Apostolical Fathers, the first Christian authors, whose works have reached us, after the apostles themselves. They are the following : The First Epistle of Clemens Romanus; seven Epistles of Ignatius; The Epistle of Poly carp ; The Epistle of Barnabas; and The Shepherd of Hermas. Among these, we should perhaps insert a Relation of the Martyrdom of Ignatius. 1 These writings, composed by men of little learning, and, for the most part, of as little judgment, are still valuable, as they afford some notion of the state of the early Christians, and of their sentiments ; but whoever expects to find them instructive or edifying in other respects will rise from their perusal in disappointment, if not with disgust.

The Epistle of Clemens Romanus is distinguished for the respect it received from the ancient churches, some of which caused it to be read, in public, with the books of the New Testament. It may be allowed, at least, the commendations, that it is simple though diffuse, and that it contains but one instance 2 of those absurd

1 Of the Second Epistle of Clemens Roma?ius, so called, the genuineness is considered doubtful by Eusebius, Jerome, Du Pin, Mosheim, etc., and wholly denied by Photius, Archbishop Usher, Lardner, Brucker, Le Clerc, and others. Scarcely one admits it. There are other writings extant, ascribed to Clemens Romanus, but which are now universally considered forgeries, and of a much later date. I omit The Acts of Paul and Thecla, a forgery of the first century, because our present copy is either a forgery upon that original one, or else so much interpolated that we cannot determine what is ancient. See Lardner's Credibility, etc., Chap. Supposititious Writings of 2d Century. The reason why I place The Epistle of Barnabas, and The Shepherd of Hermas last in this catalogue will be given under the accounts respectively of those works.

2 Clemens' Rom. Epis. § 12. Wake's Translation. The date of this Epistle was allegories which abound in the succeeding fathers. Clement, of Eome, who was bishop of the church in that city, and perhaps the same person whom St. Paul had mentioned (Phil. iv. 3), wrote this Epistle to the Corinthian Christians for the purpose of dissuading them from their quarrels and seditions. Earnestly exhorting them to repent of their mutual envy and abuse, he adduces, among other considerations, the justice of God as a motive of fear, and the terrible destruction of Sodom and its neighboring cities as instances of the divine judgments on sinners. But it is remarkable that, in the whole of this Epistle, about as long as St. Mark's Gospel, there is no expression which discovers whether he believed in any future state of punishment, nor whether he held the salvation of all mankind. 1 There are, indeed, two passages, 2 which may naturally, not necessarily, be understood to intimate that those only who here serve the Lord will hereafter be raised from the dead. 3

probably between A. d. 90 and 95. Lardner places it at A. d. 94 or 95; Junius, at 98; Baronius and Cotelerius, at 92; Dodwell, Wake, and De Clerc, between 64 and 70.

1 He probably believed in the salvation of all mankind. He says, " Let us reflect bow free from wratb He is towards all His creatures," Ep. 1, xix. See also xx., wbere towards tbe last we read, tbat God "does good to all, but most abundantly to us who have fled for refuge to His compassions through Jesus Christ our Lord," etc. See also xxxii. We are "not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart ; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men; to wbom we glory forever and ever, Amen." — A. St. J. C.

N. B. — My notes through this volume are. for the rnostpart, condensed from my MS. History of " Christianity and the Church." — A. St. John Chambr£.

, Clem. Rom. Epis. § 26 and 49. In these two passages, Clemens expressly mentions tbe resurrection of those who " religiously serve the Lord," and are "made perfect in love ; " but nowhere does he assert the resurrection of others.

3 Clem. Rom. Ep. 1, xxviii., however, seems to teach otherwise. In that all are called to forsake sin, since none can escape God's judgments, nor remove them-

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In passing over the time at which St. John is commonly supposed to have written his Gospel and three Jb_pistles, L we may remark that this last of the apostles died at Ephesus, about the year 100. He left the world at a period when old errors appear to have been spreading in the church, and springing up there under new forms and modifications. They were chiefly of the Gnostic kind, derived from the Oriental or Persian philosophy, of which we shall have a more particular account to give in the sequel.

We come next to the famous Ejoisiles of Ignatius; the genuineness of which has been attacked and detended with an immoderate zeal, altogether disproportioued to their worth, or real weight, in any cause whatever. Though the question is still involved in uncertainty, we shall follow, with some doubt, what appears the prevailing selves from hint, here or hereafter. The passage quoted to justify this is Ps. cxxxix. 7— 10. — A. St. J. C.

1 Of the Revelation, the date has beeu a point of much dispute ; but there seems, now, a general inclination to place it before the destruction of Jerusalem. Of tbe date of St. John's other writings, various opinions are entertained : Dr. Witherspoon places the .Gospel at A. D.96,a and the Epistles at 98; Lardner dates the Gospel at A. T>. 68, and the Epistles at 80 and So; by Le Clerc, the Gospel is assigned to the year 97, and the Epistles to 91 and 92; Dr. Owen places the Gospel at about a. d. 69 ; Jer. Jones, at 97 ; and Du Pin, at about A. D. 100.

a The latest and best authorities now attest the Apocalypse to have been written before the destruction of Jerusalem, iu a. d. 70. Internal evidence is conclusive to our mind. For external evidence may be consulted, Grotius, Lightfoot, Sir Isaac Newton, Stewart (Andover), Whittemore, Blunt, Gieseler, Ewald, etc., etc. It was written, probably, about A. D. 67. No doubt Nero's second name, DomiLianus, misled early writers into the idea that it was the production of the age of Domitian. The Apocalypse is positively a sealed book upon any hypothesis that places its production after the overthrow of the city and temple of Jerusalem, when ended the Jewish dispensation. — A St. J. C.

opinion, that the seven, 1 translated by Archbishop Wake, are, in the main, genuine. They were written, if by Ignatius, while he was conducted, partly by sea, and partly by land, on a tardy journey of nearly two thousand miles, 2 from Antioch to Rome, for the execution of the sentence of martyrdom. He is said to have been bishop of the church in the former city, for about forty years, and to have been personally acquainted, in his younger days, with some of the apostles. His writings, however, are not always worthy of his advantages : they contain some puerile conceits, 3 betray an inclination to the Eastern fables concerning the angelic world, 4 and abound with earnest injunctions of the most unreserved submission in reason, faith, and practice, to the clergy, whose authority is often expressly likened to that of God and Jesus Christ.

We cannot ascertain the author's views concerning the final extent of salvation ; and the following is all

1 Even of these there are two very different copies : the larger, which is generally supposed to he much interpolated; and the shorter, which is followed by Wake, and almost universally preferred. Mosheim, however (Comment, on the Affairs of the Christians, etc.), seems to doubt whether the larger be not the genuine, if indeed either be so. a

2 His route, real or fabulous, is traced from Antioch to Smyrna, Troas, over the ^Egean, into Macedonia and througb Epirus, across the Adriatic and Tyrrhene Seas, to the mouth of the Tiber, and thence to Rome. The date of his journey, and of course of his Epistles and Martyrdom, is placed at A. D. 107, by Du Pin, Tillemont, Cave, and Lardner ; but at A. D. 116. by Pearson, Lloyd. Pagi. Le Clerc, and Fabricius. Lf the Relation of the Martyrdom of Ig?iatius, which professes to be written by eye-witnesses, be genuine, this disputed date is fixed at A. l>. 116. See § 3. Wake's Translation.

3 Ignat. Epist. to the Ephesians. § 9. Wake's Trans.

4 Ditto, § 19, and Epistle to the TraUians, § 5.

a Modern researches leave little doubt of the essential genuineness of the shorter recension of these epistles, and of the Syriac versions (discovered in A. d. 1S38, 1839, and 1842, by Archdeacon Tattam, in the monastery of St. Mary Deipara, in Xitrian Desert. Egypt), of the Epistles to Ephesians, Romans, and Polycarp.— A. St. J. C.

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that seems to refer to a future state of punishment : " Those that corrupt families by adultery shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If therefore they, who have done this according to the flesh, have suffered death, how much more shall he die, who by his wicked doctrine corrupts the faith of God, for which Christ was crucified? He, that is thus defiled, shall depart into unquenchable fire, and so also shall he that hearkens to him." 1 In another place he says, in rather a disjointed paragraph : " Seeing, then, all things have an end, there are these, two indifferently set before us, life and death ; and every one shall depart unto his proper place." 2 In the same unconnected manner, he says again : "For what remains, it is very reasonable that we should return unto a sound mind, whilst there is yet time to return unto God." 3 Some of these passages may, indeed, have no allusion to a future state. It must, however, be remarked here, that the author evidently believed that certain heretics, and perhaps the wicked in general, will not be raised from the dead, but exist hereafter as mere incorporeal spirits. 4 The Relation of the Martyrdom of Ignatius, written by Christian eye-witnesses of his trial and sufferings, contains nothing to our purpose ; we, therefore, proceed to

The Epistle of Poly carp, — a piece which evinces a more connected tenor of thought than most of the ecclesiastical writings of that age. The author is guilty of one

1 Epist. to the Ephes., § 16.

2 Epist. to the Magnesiaus, § 5. 3 Epist. to the Smyrneans, § 9.

4 Ditto. § 2 and 7, compared with Epist. to the Trail., § 9, and Epist. to the Romans, § 2.

exception to his usual moderation, when he exhorts his brethren " to be subject to the elders and deacons as unto God and Christ." 1 They who receive this epistle as Poly carp's 2 generally suppose it to have been written soon after the martyrdom of Ignatius, to which it alludes. Polycarp was a bishop of the church at Smyrna, from about the year 100, till after the middle of the second century. He is said to have been the disciple of St. John; and he was certainly regarded, after the death of that apostle, as the most eminent of the Christians of Asia. 3

The following is all that his Epistle contains in relation to the particular subject of this history : " To whom [Christ] all things are made subject, both that are in heaven and that are in earth; whom every living creature shall worship ; who shall come to be the judge of the quick and dead; whose blood God shall require of them that believe not in him." 4 Alluding, without doubt, to some of the Gnostic heretics, he says, " Whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, he is antichrist. And whoever does not confess his suffering upon the cross, is from the devil. And whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says that there shall be neither any resurrection, nor judgment,

1 Polycarp's Epist., § 5. Wake's Trans.

2 M. Daille and Blondel reject it, and Mosheim says it " has merely a questionable claim to credit." But Lardner, on the contrary, asserts that " there is scarce any doubt or question among learned men about the genuineness of this Epistle of Polycarp."

3 By some he is considered the angel of the church in Smyrna, addressed in Rev. ii. 8. This, however, is doubtful, as it is probable that he was not ordained till after the Revelation was written.

4 Polycarp's Epist., § 2.

he is the first-born of Satan." 1 There may also be a question, whether the author does not intimate that the future resurrection depends on faith and obedience in this life. 2

To these dates succeeds a period of several years, from which no Christian writings have descended to us, except a few passages that happen to have been quoted, by later writers, from Papias, Quadratus, and Agrippa Castor ; of which, however, we shall take no notice, as they throw no light upon our subject. But it is important to remark that Papias and Aristides (a writer of whom nothing whatever remains) contributed, undesignedly, to pervert the simplicity of Christianity ; and that they serve, at the same time, to exemplify the manner in which corruptions grew up in the church. The former who was bishop at Hierapolis, near Laodicea, is said to have devoted himself to collecting traditions of the apostolic doctrine and sayings ; but being very credulous and of a weak mind, he received, with little discrimination, whatever was related to him. Having thus formed a collection of idle tales and foolish notions, he published them to the world as the authoritative instructions of Christ and his apostles. Such was the character of the church, that his work appears to have been well received ; and it certainly met with considerable

1 Ditto, § 2 and 7.

2 Ditto, § 2 and 5. If Clemens Romanus and Polycarp, as well as Ignatius, really held a partial resurrection, that of the saints exclusively, the circumstance would seem to prove that the notion of the Jews, or rather of the Pharisees, on this point, had spread pretty extensively in the church, — from Asia Minor to Rome, — at this early period. That such was the notion of the Pharisees, about the end of the first century, see Josephus, etc.

credit among the succeeding fathers, who adopted some of its fictions. 1 But whatever were the injurious effects of these pretended traditions, the cause of truth sustained a much greater detriment from the gradual incorporation of the Grecian philosophy. Aristides was probably the first professed philosopher from the Grecian schools, who took an active part in support of Christianity. But he appears, unhappily, to have clothed it in the robe of the Academy ; for Jerome informs us that the Apology, which he presented to the Emperor Adrian, in behalf of the persecuted Christians, was full of philosophic notions, which were afterwards adopted by Justin Martyr. 2 The Grecian philosophy was nearly as incompatible with Christianity as was the Oriental ; but the corruptions it introduced, flourished in the church, after a few years, as in a congenial soil; and, in less than a century, gave a new appearance to the general mass of doctrine considered orthodox.

The Epistle of Barnabas is the next in order ; i3i unless, as has been hitherto conjectured, it belongs to the first century. 3 It was composed by some Jewish Christian, of mean abilities, for the purpose of representing the Mosaic law and

1 Du Pin's Bibliotheca Patrum, Article, Papias. Papias is said to have flourished about A. D. 116.

2 Du Pin's Biblioth. Pat. Art. Quadratus and Aristides. The Apology of Aristides is supposed to have been written about a. d. 124, or 126.

3 It has been thought, by most of the learned, that the Epistle of Barnabas was written in the first century; and, by many, that it was the work of that Barnabas who was the companion and fellow-traveller of St. Paul. The latter opinion Mosheim treats as scarcely worthy of a refutation; and, though it has had some eminent advocates, it is now generally discarded. That the former opinion is also

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other parts of the Old Testament as containing a hidden account of Christ and his religion. The allegorical and mystical interpretations, of which the Epistle mostly consists, present an extraordinary instance of blind stupidity aiming at discoveries. 1

incorrect, I cannot but think sufficiently evident from the Epistle itself. The author, speaking of the temple of Jerusalem, says, "Again, he [Christ] speaketh after this manner : Behold, they that destroy this temple, even they shall again build it up. And so it came to pass : for through their wars, it is now destroyed by their enemies ; and the servants of their enemies build it up." (Barnab. Epist. § 16. Wake's Trans.) It will not be questioned that the author here speaks, 1, of the destruction of the temple after our Lord's ministry ; that is, of its destruction by Titus; and 2, of attempts at rebuilding it by the servants of the Romans, at the time of writing this Epistle. Now, it is well known that there was no attempt at rebuilding either the temple or the city, after their destruction by Titus, till tbe time of Adrian, who, in A. D. 130 or 136, sent a colony to Jerusalem to restore the city, and on or near the site of the former temple to erect a new one, winch he afterwards dedicated to Jupiter. This circumstance appears to determine the date of the allusion quoted from Barnabas ; and I know of nothing that can be urged against the hypothesis. Irenseus, about A. D. 190, is the first who seems to have imitated any of the expressions of this Epistle; and Clemens Alexandrinus, about A. D. 194, is the first who either mentioned it, or formally alluded to it. It is but just, however, to apprize the reader, that my hypothesis is not supported by the authority of the critics ; who, so far as I know, have taken no notice of Barnabas's allusion to the rebuilding of the temple. Mosbeim supposes the Epistle to have been written in the first century ; and he agrees with Cotelerius, Brucker, Basnage, and others, that its author was not the Barnabas who was the companion of St. Paul. Wake, Du Pin, and Lardner, on the contrary, ascribe it to that Barnabas, and place its date about A. D. 71 or 72.