Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) I. Preparation for the Church

Introduction: The Philosophy of History

I
Preparation for the Church

INTRODUCTION: THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

A. Advent of the Renaissance

(1) MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

Theme: "To emerge from that dust of detail in which special histories are as it were
enwrapped, and to soar up to the primary law which governs the movement of human destiny, to
contemplate from that eminence the catastrophes of falling realms, the ebb and flow of peoples
who come and go, and to regard these as mere incidents in the general view of the universe; to
pursue with an eagle's eye the course of humanity across the centuries, and to show the general
causes of those great upheavals which stand out from afar as steps marked in the kingdom of
time- this is what one calls the philosophy of history" (Alfred Nettement).

Philosophic bases. Mere recording of facts, laborious and necessary though it may be,
gives nothing but the flesh of history. Arrangement into chronological sequence affords some
insight into its skeletal structure. Yet if the historian pauses here, he has missed the soul of
history, he has failed to perceive its inner meaning. He has not plumbed the nature and
potentialities of historical factors. Though he may have amassed a formidable array of facts,
even if he may have welded these together by apt physical and psychological explanations, he
has at most made but an isolated contribution to human science. He has failed to integrate his
science with that synthesis of human knowledge afforded by the study of metaphysics. As Allies
has said, "it may be termed a necessity of modern history that it should be Philosophic. It must
give not only the course of things, but their results; not only the facts, but their reasons." Or as
Chevalier has remarked, "neither sociology, nor economics, nor even psychology can provide
history with its principle; it is metaphysics alone, and in a metaphysics based on facts, that history
can find it. And it is because history is the most metaphysical that it is the most real of sciences,
that science which introduces us the most directly to the very heart of the facts."

Theological import. Perhaps such enthusiasm should be tempered with the observation
that history also owes a debt to theology. And in some respects, indeed, every Catholic
philosophy of history verges on becoming a "theology of history." For as Pope Leo XIII pointed out
in his encyclical on historical studies, Saepenumero, "All history in a way shouts out that it is God
whose providence governs the varied and continual changes of mortal affairs, and adapts them,
even in spite of human opposition, to the growth of His Church." And to perceive the theological-
philosophical overtones of history, the Sovereign Pontiff bade historians take St. Augustine as
their guide; we shall see that the latter's De Civitate Dei ("The City of God") affords the clue for a
"Tale of Two Cities" told and retold by men through centuries of history. Pope Pius XII returned to
this idea in his allocution to historians during 1955: "As the great St. Augustine said with classical
precision: what God proposes, 'that comes about, that happens, even though it happens slowly, it
happens ceaselessly.' God is truly the Lord of history."

(2) THE FACTORS OF HISTORY

The created factor. History, as social memory and experience, is properly of the past,
though pertinent for present and future. Alzog, a pioneer of modern Church history, has said:
"History represents the development of the human mind as it is manifested in the organization
and public functions of the state. Considered as a science, it is a knowledge of the various facts
of this development and their relations to each other, and, as an art, it is the application to current
events of the lessons furnished by scientific investigation." But even when history is considered
as a science, it is ever difficult to define its postulates exactly, or to lay down for it permanent
canons, for history implies change. History primarily has to do with man, a rational animal
endowed with a free will that escapes exact statistical measurement. In one sense men change
because they can and do react to environment, to education, to truth, and to error. Yet in another
respect they do not inasmuch as their adaptation to their surroundings and their reaction to
training are not capable of infinite progress, but are limited by an unchanging human essence.
Still it cannot be denied that what is most in evidence in history is mutation. This should not be
surprising to a philosophic historian, for he has to do with dynamic progress toward realization of
an end. Esse est propter operari, and that essence which would not operate and develop toward
a goal would convict itself of inutility and accuse nature of frustration.

The uncreated factor. Yet amid this constant movement revealed by history, there is at
least one immutable phenomenon. In religion, once careful distinction has been made between
dogma and discipline, between revealed truth and its human expression and explication, it
becomes evident that before, and especially after the lifetime of Jesus Christ there has been a
permanent body of dogmas and morals successively presented by the Mosaic Law and Society,
and through the New Testament as vitally continued in the Catholic Church. Something emerges
as certain, then, not merely with the inductive certitude of history itself, but with a deductive
certitude borrowed from philosophy and theology: there is an immutable factor as well as mutable
ones in history. The former is God; the latter, His creatures. It is often difficult to determine
precisely when God acts; indeed, His intervention in human events ought not to be asserted
apodictically in the absence of revelation. St. Thomas has indicated this in regard to the most
important historical event, the Incarnation: "Those things which proceed from the divine will alone
above all natural exigence cannot become known to us except insofar as they are revealed in
Holy Scripture through which the divine will is revealed to us" (Summa theol., IIIa, q. 1, a. 3). It is
not easy, then, to ascertain when and how far God acts directly, or when man operates with His
inspiration or permission. But long observation of events should make clear that if a good thing
has permanence, it is of God; if it changes, it is of man. History, however, deals with succession,
not with simultaneity. Since God is the uncaused, eternal, immutable Pure Act, there can be no
history of God. He will be a factor in human history but will Himself be without "change or shadow
of alteration."

(3) OPERATION OF HISTORICAL FACTORS

Divine intervention. History is compounded of potency and act, of latent potentialities

resident in man which cannot be realized except through some being already in act. Such
reduction by way of causality belongs primarily by priority of nature and time to the First Cause
uncaused, who in creating men capable of successive, rational, free acts, created history. God
has been pleased not to board His causality; He deigned to grant creatures a secondary,
subordinate causality. Yet He reserved to Himself the execution through these second causes of
His, and none but His, ultimate designs. Bossuet has eloquently described this divine influence;
"From heavenly heights God holds the reins of all kingdoms; He has all hearts in His bands; now
He restrains their passions; now He loosens the bit; and thus directs the entire human race.
Would He have conquerors? He creates consternation before them and inspires them and their
soldiers with invincible courage. Would He have legislators? He causes them to foresee the
evils menacing states, and to Jay the foundations of public tranquillity. He knows human wisdom,
ever short-sighted in every respect: He enlightens it, He broadens its views, and then He
abandons it to its own ignorance. He blinds it, He hurries it on, He confounds it by itself; it
becomes entangled, embarrassed by its own subtlety; and its own precautions form a trap for it.
By these means God executes His awesome judgments, according to the rules of His ever
infallible justice. He it is who prepares effects in the remotest causes, and strikes those great
blows, whose rebound carries so far."
 Human co-operation. God's ultimate design we know. It is the salvation of the human
race. His particular part in each act and every event related to this end we may not understand.
But we need not thereby despair of a relatively adequate formulation of causes and effects in
history. God acts within His own eternal order while man proceeds on his temporal plane, in such
wise that the effect is wholly from the First Cause and wholly from the second cause, but in a
different manner. Since human freedom survives, and is even caused by this intimate
relationship, we can hope by human science to examine a total cause of events, the human, even
if comprehension of the divine exceeds our capacity.

History considered actively. "Objectively, history is the development of the human spirit
and life in their various relationships, presented in a succession of events and deeds"
(Hergenroether). History, then, considered actively is a created participation in God's causality.
Such is the making of history. Insofar as the second cause ordinates his causality in obedience
to that of the First Cause, in that degree does he make the more lasting history. He who alone
adequately approximated the divine causality, Jesus Christ, the God-man, made history for all
eternity. Those whose limited activity approaches the more His causality, will also partake of its
permanence. Though of their reputations it may be true that "the evil men do lives after them; the
good is oft interred with their bones," yet of their works it is the good that longest endures, and the
evil that perishes. The work of Athanasius survives, that of Arius is dead; Borromeo's influence
continues while Luther's wanes; unheralded seeds of Catholic Action today will in future bear fruit
unmatched by Communist dynamics, for the apostle confesses: "I have planted, Apollos watered,
but God has given the growth" (1 Cor. 3:6).

Tale of Two Cities. But do all created factors thus identify their causality with the divine?
Obviously not. Contrast between human reactions has produced two divergent streams of history
which will reach their destination only on judgment day. St. Augustine's penetrating analysis of
these mainsprings of created activity is that "two loves have created two cities: namely, the
earthly love of self pushed to the contempt of God, and the heavenly love of God exalted to the
contempt of self. The former glories in itself; the latter in God. The former seeks glory from man;
God, witness of the latter's conscience, is its greatest glory" (The City of God, XIV, 28). The
founder of the first of these cities is Lucifer, whose craving for autonomy has found human
imitators in every century. The cornerstone of this city is an inordinate desire for the imitation of
God; we can sum it up in the word: Mi-ka-el: "who is like God?"- horrified retort of the leader of
God's legions against this first blasphemous revolt. The second city was established by Christ,
who because He was both God and man, could satisfy man's ordinate aspiration to be like God.
His followers have sought and are seeking that imitation on the model He sketched for them and
with means He merited for them. The basis of this city, then, is an ordinate desire to be like God;
its standard is E-ma-nu-el: "God with us."

To sum up, the key to human activity is the concept of its ends, and of the latter the most
influential will be the ultimate end. Men can have only one legitimate ultimate end, the eternal
contemplation of God, anticipated through temporal knowledge, love, and service. To the degree
they comprehend and desire effectively its attainment, they will order all their activity to conform
to it, or at least so as not to contradict it. Men, however, can reject this ultimate end and abuse
their gift of efficiency. This constitutes them but deficient causes, incapable indeed of entitative
concreation, but proficient by default in erecting themselves into the moral monstrosity of their
own ultimate end. Thus the reward for true making of history will be an inexhaustible object for
man's highest faculties; the penalty for a definitive refusal will be a lasting ban on purposeful
activity.

(4) OBJECTS OF HISTORICAL SCIENCE

History considered passively. "Subjectively, history is the presentation of this

development" (Hergenroether). Passively considered, history is a created participation in God's
eternity. Such is the learning of history. The more one acquires historical knowledge, the more
can he view mankind from God's vantage point, the more he can climb toward the peak whence
God views human progress from Creation to judgment. It is not from the valley that one gains
perspective; only by ascending toward God can the historian detect the silver thread of divine
causality and finality running through the motley quilt of human history. Without such perception
history is but social "marking time," for unless a man see in the record lessons, warnings,
inspirations, analogies, for the guidance of his own life and that of others, he studies history in
vain when study is weighed on eternal scales.

Historical utility. According to Pere De Smedt, "history has for its special object
contingent facts which we cannot perceive by direct observation of the senses, and especially
those which refer to the moral and social life of humanity." History, then, properly concerns
mankind rather than man in particular. It is clearly a moral and social science, but subalternate to
philosophy whence it receives its principles. To the taunts of those impugning its scientific dignity
on the score of inexactitude, historians may reply by paraphrasing Aquinas's defense of theology:
"The least that one can have of the knowledge of highest subjects is more desirable than the
most certain understanding which is had of the least subjects" (Summa theol., Ia, q. 1, a. 5, ad 1).
Theology, indeed, in treating of God affords knowledge of the loftiest Being, but second to God
alone are His intellectual creatures who are the object of history. Historians, therefore, need not
be ashamed if the contribution which their science makes to the understanding of man be less
precise than the information that other sciences supply about bugs and stones and stars- if,
indeed, they do expound it with such exactitude that the next century does not relegate them to
some "Dark Ages."

Definition of history. History consequently may be said to have for its material object,
human acts as social. Its formal object quod will be the temporal causes of social human acts,
that is, the view and comparison in time of such acts as directed to happiness, real or apparent.
its formal object quo-conformable to its etymology of historein: "to inquire"-will involve an
investigation of evidence susceptible of meaning. "To sum up, history, the most inclusive and
many-sided of all the social sciences, may be defined as the science which first investigates and
then records, in their causal relations and development, such past human activities as are: (a)
definite in time and space; (b) social in nature; and (c) socially significant."

In a sense history is composed of the Aristotelian causes: material, events or facts;

formal, motivation; efficient, God primarily, man secondarily; final, realization in time of God's
eternal plan for manifesting His glory and saving mankind, despite a multiplicity of human
intermediate ends, political, social, economic, cultural, or scientific. These may be pursued to
further or obstruct the divine master plan, though ultimately all must yield to:

The Providence that governs the world;

In depth of counsel every created view therein,

Is overcome ere it plumbs the depths.
(Paradiso, xi, 28)

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) I. Preparation for the Church
1. Divine Preparation: Revealed Religion

I
Preparation for the Church

1. DIVINE PREPARATION: REVEALED RELIGION

 Theme: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the
fathers by the prophets, last of all in these days has spoken to us by His Son, whom He
appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world; who, being the brightness of His
glory and the image of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, has
effected man's purgation from sin and taken His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high."
(Heb. 1:1).

A. Origin of Religious History

(1) THE CREATOR

Intrinsic plenitude. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the
Word was God" (John 1:1). Alone in a void of nothingness there existed from all eternity God, the
Supreme Being, completely and self-sufficiently subsisting in three divine Persons. His being
was and is and will be not static, but dynamic. His is a true life of perpetual act wherein it is
eternally true that the Father generates the Son, the Word or personal enunciation of divine
intelligence, and the Father and the Son spirate the Holy Ghost, the Spirit or personal sigh of
divine love, who by passive spiration returns this immanent relation to the spirating co-principle.
In all this there is no cause, for the Father is not properly the cause of the Son, nor the Father and
the Son of the Holy Ghost. In all this there is no succession of acts, no change, no time, no
history. Instead there is but one simultaneous perfect "now" existing throughout eternity.

External benevolence. This all-sufficing God needed nothing outside of Himself; thus in
solitary grandeur might He have lived forever. Yet in order that this dazzling brilliance of life and
of activity might in some manner be reflected to His external, but nonessential glory, "this one true
God by His goodness and omnipotent power, not to increase His beatitude nor to acquire it, but to
manifest His perfection through the goods which He imparts to creatures, by a most free counsel,
at the same time from the beginning of time created out of nothing creatures, spiritual and
corporeal, that is angelic and earthly, and then human, as it were constituted alike of spirit and
body" (Vatican Council, iii, 1: D. 1783). This was the beginning of change and of time; this was
the origin of history.

(2) THE CREATURES

Human beginnings. History deals primarily with mankind. Hence after affirming the
creation of the irrational world by God, the historian need not be concerned prior to man's arrival.
The Biblical Commission sanctions interpretation of the "days" of creation as ages of indefinite
duration. If geology and paleontology can afford any confirmation of the work and order of the
first five "days," well and good; it is not the business of history in a strict sense. But on the sixth
"day" God created man and had this fact recorded in inspired history. Though God thus
condescended to write the first chapter of human history, He has not supplied the date. Biblical
genealogies are not statistical, and vary considerably in the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Greek texts.
Probably they are schematic: arbitrarily fixed according to some norm unknown to us and chosen
for mnemonic purposes. "No proof has as yet been advanced for the origin of man during the
Tertiary Age; nevertheless estimates which placed European Paleolithic man at 20,000 B.C. are
now abandoned. Neanderthal man has been conservatively dated to about 100,000 B.C., with
Sianthropus, Peking man, Protanthropus Heidelbergensis, etc., about 200,000. These figures
apply primarily to Europe where man appeared after he had existed in other parts of the world."
The place of man's origin would seem to be suggested by the reference in Genesis to the
Mesopotamian rivers of Tigris and Euphrates; as equivalents for the unidentifiable Pishon and
Gihon, St. Augustine suggested the Ganges and the Nile (Gen. ad Lit., viii, 7). At least within this
area lies the traditional cradle of civilization.

Origin of man's soul by creation is not open for question on solid grounds of faith and
reason. Nor can true science adduce the slightest evidence of any evolution of man's mental
powers from lower forms. Rather the earliest human remains thus far discovered give
unmistakable indications of rationality in the use of tools and the custom of burial. Measured by
material standards, primitive man may not have been a genius, but there is no ground for
supposing that his spiritual nature was intrinsically inferior in any way to that of modern man;
extrinsically these protopioneers faced titanic obstacles that retarded progress.

Origin of man's body has been the subject of much dispute. The traditional, literal
interpretation that man's body was immediately created by God from inorganic matter obviously
presents no problem for religious history. It would also seem the more easily harmonized with the
descent of all men from Adam and the formation of Eve from Adam (D. 2123). Some Catholic
evolutionists, however, offer hypotheses not contradicted by faith or science for the infusion of a
rational soul into an animal body perfected by evolution in such wise that it could still constitute a
peculiaris creatio required by the Biblical Commission. Father Schmidt, for one, inclines to the
theory that today's Pygmy most closely approximates primordial man, and regards favorably the
theory that man's evolution is recapitulated in the womb. Some evolutionists point out that
Neanderthal man, whose unprepossessing appearance has been exaggerated, was not an
original but a secondary type. In any event gradual evolution of the human body would seem no
more repugnant to human dignity than each individual's embryonic development. Yet however
plausible their arguments, no evolutionist has thus far brought forward incontestable proofs. Pius
XII warned that, "those go too far and transgress this liberty of discussion who act as if the origin
of the human body from pre-existing and living matter were already fully demonstrated by the
facts up to now discovered . . ." (Humani generis: 1950 A.D.).

B. Progress of Religious History

(1) PRIMITIVE REVELATION

Created fallibility. Intellectual creatures were made to God's image in mind and will. But
no created will is impeccable, for He alone is such whose will coincides with the supreme rule of
morality. Hence creatures were rather deficient than efficient causes. Left to themselves, they
can do nothing, but they could sin. Each class in turn succumbed to an inordinate desire of
imitating God. But for the angels, "I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the
Most High," was followed by: "How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, who didst rise in the
morning?" (Isa. 14:12, 14) Again for men, the lure, "God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes
will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:4-5), produced only: "In
the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, since out of it you were
taken; for dust you are and unto dust you shall return" (ibid. 3:19).

The angels, pure intelligences, were incapable of repentance because unable to reverse
their deliberate, unimpeded, intuitive judgments. Hence they went immediately to heaven or hell.
Throughout human history they will reappear in supporting roles, but of them there is no further
chronicle.
Man, laboriously deducing conclusions from premises themselves with difficulty
abstracted from matter, could be deceived. He was capable of pardon because he could reverse
his decision and repent. Man was capable of pardon but not entitled to it. Through a primitive
revelation he had been raised to a supernatural state. He had been given sufficient knowledge of
the existence and nature of God and of man's subjection to Him in virtue of creation and
government. In Eve had been indicated the spiritual affinity of the race to be propagated by these
protoparents. God offered Himself to Adam and Eve as their ultimate end to be attained through
knowledge and love, provided that they would heed God's warning against an inordinate curiosity
about good and evil. But such a command seemed excessive to Adam and Eve, and they were
induced to defy it by an envious angel. Thereby they obtained a knowledge of good and evil,
indeed, but only to become aware of their physical and moral nakedness. In this wholly destitute
condition they and their descendants were worthy of eternal damnation.
 Prospect of redemption. All history hung in the balance, therefore, as the shamefaced
Adam and Eve cowered before their Creator. Then came reprieve: "I will put enmity between you
and the woman, between your seed and her seed; He shall crush your head, and you shall he in
wait for His heel" (Gen. 3:15). God's designs for humanity would not be frustrated by a defeated
rebel. God will give mankind divine assistance to resist their tormentor. This assistance will be
not merely the supernatural accident of grace, but also substantial, incarnate Holiness, the God-
man, Jesus Christ. He will be a "Second Adam," chief-designate of redeemed humanity. The full
implication of these promises was doubtless unknown to the first parents, but they did understand
that they had received another chance to work out their salvation, this time with physical and
spiritual pain, and that their only hope lay in the mysterious Messiah to come.

(2) PATRIARCHAL REVELATION

Rise of the Two Cities. Sorrowful, but not despairing, Adam and Eve set out upon a new
life. It was their business alike to propagate the human race and to band on primitive revelation
with its obscure but glorious promise. One of their children, Abel, dutifully accepted instruction
and honored his Creator with the sacrifice of first fruits incidentally the same used by primitive
tribes long afterwards. Abel was laying the foundations of a City of God. But another son, Cain,
envied this building, slew its architect, and began the rival City of Self which in time assumed the
proportions of a Tower of Babel. Once again God intervened by giving Adam and Eve another
obedient son, Seth, who continued the line of the "children of God."

Henoch. From Cain, however, had gone forth a generation of "sons and daughters of
men" in whom the primitive revelation was progressively blunted. Accordingly God at certain
intervals raised up among the patriarchs men who would preserve the true religion, and gradually
enhance it by divine inspiration. Tradition regards Henoch as the first of such patriarchal religious
leaders.
Noah. The second was Noah, who was preserved from a cataclysm to continue the true
religion. To him after the Deluge God renewed the primitive revelation with some additional
precepts, and restricted the fulfillment of the protoevangelion to Sem's descendants: "Blessed be
the Lord, the God of Sem" (Gen. 9:26). And all Semites seem at least to have preserved a
primitive name of the true God: "El."

Abraham. As time progressed and mankind was again in danger of losing sight of
primitive revelation, God called a new spokesman from Ur of the Chaldees. This Abram,
renamed Abraham, "father of a multitude," successfully passed a test of fidelity greater than that
imposed on Adam. Only after he had displayed his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac to God,
was he assured that, "in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because
you have obeyed Me" (Gen. 22:18). This paragon of divine faith is regarded as the founder of
God's chosen nation, the Hebrews, to whom the Messianic Redeemer was promised anew.
Similar assurance was given to Isaac and Jacob, Abraham's son and grandson, and the latter
was inspired to predict which of the twelve Hebrew tribes would produce the Messiah: "The
sceptre shall not depart from Juda, nor the staff from between his feet, until He comes to whom it
belongs. To Him shall be the obedience of nations" (Gen. 49:10).

(3) OLD TESTAMENT REVELATION

Egyptian bondage. As these revelations receded into memory, the City of God was again
overgrown with the weeds of surrounding infidelity. This was especially the case when the
chosen dynasty sojourned for some four hundred years in Egypt, land of bondage symbolic of
mankind's slavery to Satan. Here the remembrance of the divine promises faded as the
Hebrews', despite their hardships, became reconciled to the easy morality of the Worldly City-as
is clear from their frequent backward glances during their journey to the Promised Land of
Palestine. It was indeed against their perverted inclinations that God intervened to raise them
above themselves, to lead them out of bondage, and rebuild the City of God.

Mosaic covenant. This time, however, God gave them a detailed code with an elaborate
ceremonial. Since the world at large had not yet sufficiently experienced its own religious
incapacity, God chose to manifest this new revelation to a single nation until the time when the
Messiah would make a yet more perfect revelation available to all. Accordingly through His proxy,
Moses, God deigned to sign with this insignificant Semitic people a formal contract, the first or old
Testament: "Therefore, if you hearken to My voice and keep My covenant., you shall be My
special possession, dearer to Me than all other people. . . . So shall the Israelites observe the
Sabbath, keeping it throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. Between Me and the
Israelites it is to be an everlasting token" (Exod. 19:5; 31:16).

Davidic dynasty. To this people God eventually permitted a king, and promised that his
dynasty would be eternal in the person of the Messiah (2 Kings 7:11). Thus did the
protoevangelion receive its final determination in the family of David, whence would come in due
time Christ, "Son of David." But even the citizens of the City of God have ever proved themselves
of a vitiated stock. Neither memory of revelation past nor hope of redemption to come sufficed to
keep them faithful. Repeatedly they broke the Covenant, were chastised, repented, only to fall
again. Yet by means of a series of fearless prophets God kept at least a nucleus, a "faithful
remnant," loyal until the date when the Old Covenant would expire and a new one would be
sealed in the blood of Christ. Under the prophets' inspired gaze the figure of the Messiah, the
"Servant of Yahweh," the "Son of man," was more clearly delineated: His birthplace at Bethlehem,
His Virgin Mother, His Galilean headquarters, His capital at Sion, His preaching career, and its
still mysterious tragi-glorious close. Perhaps even the exact time was predicted. Though many
exegetes would refer the sixty-nine weeks of Daniel (9:25) to the Maccabean era, a literal
interpretation is possible which would compute 483 years from 453 B.C. to 30 A.D.

Fullness of time. Whatever the validity of this estimate, many eminent scholars agree on
30 A.D. as the most likely year for the Crucifixion, and pending precise certainty, this date will be
adopted as tentative. According to this chronology, Christ, Savior of mankind, died at the ninth
hour on the fourteenth Nisan of the year 783 A.U.C.; or at three o'clock in the afternoon of April 7,
30 A.D. This was that "fullness of time" when "the veil of the Temple was rent in two from top even
to the bottom," suggesting dissolution of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New; dividing
history into ancient and modern; closing the restricted milieu of the synagogue, and opening the
doors of the "world-wide Catholic Church."

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) I. Preparation for the Church
2. Human Preparation: Natural Religion

I
Preparation for the Church

2. HUMAN PREPARATION: NATURAL RELIGION

A. Disfiguration of Primitive Religion

Theme: "While professing to be wise, they have become fools, and they have changed
the glory of the incorruptible God for an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-
footed beasts and creeping things. Therefore God has given them up in the lustful desires of
their heart to uncleanness, so that they dishonor their own bodies among themselves-they who
exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the
Creator" (Rom. 1:22).

Introduction: In the preceding topic, God as efficient cause was seen preparing for the
perfect Christian revelation through a series of providential dispositions. But man as deficient
cause also prepared for the Church in a negative way by the errors in which he involved himself.
These were of such magnitude and their consequences so shameful, that man, at last
disillusioned about his own natural religious capacity, was better disposed to heed the Christian
supernatural message when delivered "in the fullness of time." Here, after a survey of the process
of disfiguration of primitive religion, attention will be confined to those peoples that first came into
contact with the Church by reason of their absorption into the Graeco-Roman Empire.

(1) CAUSES OF DISFIGURATION

Primitive dependence on God. "A strong feeling of dependence on the Creator

characterizes the religion of primitive peoples and is shown especially in the first-fruits sacrifice.
The cause of this is certainly not unrelated to the peculiarity of the collecting stage, which is the
economic condition of these peoples: they rely for their food entirely on what nature brings forth of
herself, and nature is evidently ruled by a Creator. This feeling was only intensified by the fact
that the majority of these peoples made no provision for the future and thus had to go out each
day for their means of subsistence; thus each day their dependence on the Creator was borne in
on them anew."

Economic independence. "This idea only underwent a radical change when, in the
primary culture, man began to take in band the active production from nature, and by horticulture,
by the higher hunting, or by raising cattle, to increase and to assure its products firmly. The
accumulation of provisions through their own work and skill naturally had the effect of lessening
their sense of dependence on nature and its Creator, and of increasing their own self-
consciousness. These twin results were not propitious for the development of religion, using the
word to signify the sense of dependence of man on the Supreme Being, and so we must be
prepared to find religion declining in primary cultures. The more the external possessions of man
increase, through richer and more lasting vegetable produce, and through more advanced
methods of hunting and raising cattle, so much the more increases the danger to religion. While
this development gives rise to further self-consciousness on the one hand, on the other it fills
time, takes energy, occupies thoughts, creates desires, and to a great extent at the expense of
religion."

Social inequality. "With the increase of his possessions comes also man's egotism, and
he runs further and further away from the altruistic laws and rites which filled primitive culture and
which attributed all things to the Supreme Being, the ultimate Possessor of all earthly things. This
is shown in the family especially; those who are strong physically or who have become
economically powerful assert their superiority, and the weaker are robbed of their rights, thus
upsetting that organic equilibrium which had previously obtained as between man and woman,
and parents and children, so that now the balance is tilted either in favor of the man, or of the
woman, or of the elders. And this displacement and distortion of the natural family, which had
been in the first place set up by the Supreme Being Himself, has a deteriorating effect on
religion."

(2) TYPES OF DISFIGURATION

Father Wilhelm Schmidt, whose theory we are here following, contends that during the
primary culture-the interval between primitive and secondary, i.e., historical, civilizations-social-
economic-religious development occurred in three main directions.
Matriarchal-agrarian culture evolved from woman's economic predominance in societies
featuring horticulture. Female religiosity tended toward moon worship, passive magic, dread of
ghosts, hysteria, convulsion, and possession. It provoked the socially inferior male to resort to
secret societies, head-bunting, human sacrifice, and cannibalism.
 Patriarchal-totemist culture, on the other hand, evolved from male economic
preponderance through skill in higher hunting. This pursuit prompted men to try to promote
animal fertility by magic or totems; thence a perverted religious trend passed on to human sexual
orgies, sun-worship, active magic, medicine men, etc. The mixture of the foregoing two cultures,
Schmidt believes, produced the city-state in historic times, e.g., in Greece and Italy.
Patriarchal-nomad culture developed from the domestication of cattle. This large-scale
capitalistic venture fostered the formation of large Patriarchal families with great economic, and if
need be, military power. Yet this sort of life was compatible with preservation of a relatively
superior type of religion, e.g., among the Hebrews, since the feeling of dependence on God was
maintained by the close ties with nature. Societies of this type developed a gift for domination
and a love of travel. Eventually they created the great kingdoms of antiquity, e.g., Egypt and
Babylonia, by invading and conquering other cultures. In this process of amalgamation, however,
they took on certain religious elements from baser cultures. The foregoing reconstruction is
based on Schmidt's brilliant hypotheses; it must be remembered, however, that it does not wholly
transcend the realm of conjecture.

B. Aberrations of Secondary Cultures

(1) EGYPTIAN RELIGION

Polytheistic naturalism. Though Egyptians did not adore the sun, moon, heaven, earth,
or the Nile, yet all their religious symbols were borrowed from the visible world. These images
came to be identified with the gods they represented, and during the last centuries before Christ
were scarcely distinguishable from them. Political union of the country seems to have promoted
the fusion of civic and tribal gods into national pantheon. Amon-Ra, the sun-god, though
worshipped under variety of names, was clearly supreme. No creator, he made all gods and men
out of preexisting chaos. Several divine attributes were well understood, but were divided among
inferior gods and goddesses generated from Ra. Of these, Isis, goddess of earth, was wedded to
and made fertile by Osiris, god of water, the Nile. The most celebrated myth represents Osiris as
slain by an envious Set, god of the desert, but revived by Ra at the pious grief of Isis, and made
judge of afterlife. Piety toward the gods distinguished the better days of Egyptian culture and
inspired their great buildings.

Morality. Egyptians firmly believed in the soul's immortality, and accordingly paid great
attention to burial. Belief in judgment after death had a salutary effect on morality. According to
the Book of the Dead, the just were rewarded by a life similar to the present, though free from
suffering: Ra, the sun, spent the night with them in Amenti, the underworld. Degeneration of the
Egyptian religion progressed during the six centuries before Christ. Images of men were placed
in tombs to be animated and enslaved in place of the dead for performance of the labor deemed
necessary in afterlife. Animals were now regarded as sacred, permitted to roam the streets-one
might not resist a sacred crocodile-and finally embalmed in vast cemeteries. The educated
classes abandoned the national religion for Greek philosophy, but all Egyptians relinquished
pagan beliefs with comparative alacrity once the Christian religion was made known to them.

(2) MESOPOTAMIAN RELIGION

Frank polytheism prevailed, a result of the fusion of civic gods under Marduk, god of
Babylon, the dominant city. Parodies of the Creation and Deluge were either disfigurations of
primitive revelation or borrowings from a biblical source. "No student of Babylonian history can
fail to be struck by the many expressions betraying a mentality and a tradition common to both
Sumer and Israel. . . . Christian apologists, curiously enough, have hitherto shamefacedly tried to
explain them away, instead of seeing in them the divine design of a praeparatio evangelica,
conceded so readily to Greek and Latin paganism . . ." All the Babylonian gods were given
female consorts, but only Ishtar, goddess of love and fecundity, had an enthusiastic cult. Often
she was mistakenly honored by sexual perversions.
 Magic. Much of Babylonian and Assyrian attitude to divinity can be summed up in magic.
The gods were to be coerced rather than entreated. oracles and magicians professed to reveal
the divine will through incantations or observations of the stars. Everything had ominous
significance: "If an ewe gives birth to a lion with a pig's eye, the princess will die." Insofar as this
is religion, Babylonians were religious: the gods appear in their own names and their letters
mention prayers for one another. But the afterlife was gloomy for all but the great; lack of proper
burial might transform the dead into vampires. Hence Mesopotamians were chiefly interested in
long life in this world. The Code of Hammurabi stresses secular motives of punishment rather
than religious sanctions for retribution.

(3) SEMITIC RELIGIONS

Polytheism was again the rule among the Semitic peoples of Syria, Palestine, Arabia,
Phoenicia, and Carthage. Prevalence of "El" as a name for deity has been taken as a
remembrance of primitive revelation, but the divine attributes came to be subdivided among many
local Baalim and Astartes. Baal under the name of Moloch often received human sacrifices, and
Astarte-which corresponded to Ishtar-was the object of the foulest of sexual prostitutions.

Morality was permeated with the notion of legal uncleanness, though without the Hebraic
safeguards. Springs, trees, stones, and seasons were sacred. Sacrifices resembled those of the
Hebrews, though little is known of their belief in afterlife. Semites especially needed Christ's
admonition to worship God "in spirit and in truth."

(4) GREEK RELIGION

Mythology. Greek Mythology may be a corruption of primitive revelation. Perhaps the

initial Golden Age during which men lived at ease under a beneficent Chronos was a sensual and
warped view of Eden. Titans and Cyclops, spirits of darkness, who rebelled against heaven and
were deposed, resemble demons. Pandora curiously opening her box of God-given treasures
could be a memory of Eve, for from this box, prematurely opened, escaped all diseases and evils
of the world, leaving only hope. Finally, Zeus, Dis, and Poseidon, sons of Chronos, succeeded to
dominion, punished the Titans by a deluge, and peopled the world with gods of human
characteristics and morality. Heroic men were occasionally promoted to semi-divine rank, but for
the mass of men the next life was to be an unpleasant, shadowy existence. The gods were
supposed to dwell on Mt. Olympus, and give their orders through the Oracle at Delphi. Yet
somewhere in the mythological background were the Fates who could lay down the law even to
Zeus, "father of gods and men."

Mysteries acquired a prominent part in Greek religion when these fables lost their hold on
men's feelings. In the indigenous or imported Orphic cults special revelations were supposed to
be imparted, enabling initiates to strive for special intimacy with the gods and assuring them of
happy afterlife through ablutions, fasts, dramas, etc. From the North came the god Dionysus as
symbol of ecstasy: during the Bacchanalia, feasts of inebriation, wine was supposed to "liberate
the god" within men. Other rites were held at night and produced a high emotional frenzy. Thrill-
seekers or philosophers, such were the Greeks, "always seeking some new thing."

Cult. "We can safely say that the characteristic of the Greek and of his religion was
vitality. In a sense this is universally true; but for the Greek it remained so. His cult was full of
vegetation festivals and women had a remarkable series of festivals of their own"-to implore
fertility. Another feature was the Pharmakos, the symbolic purgation from sin through an animal
or slave deputed somewhat after the manner of the Hebrew emissary goat. Greek heroes were
"so to say, Saints minus holiness ."
C. Roman Synthesis of Paganism
(1) EARLY ROMAN RELIGION

Animism, not excluding belief in the gods Jupiter, Mars, and Janus, was the earliest
Roman religion. "The Roman's world was populated with what he called numina. . . . These non-
material existences knew what was happening and disliked being interfered with. . . . But the
Roman, unlike the Greek, made no myths about them. . . . What was being sought was the pax
deorum--the active harmonious good will between all concerned: 'I have paid my vow with right
good will' said the Roman, 'as was fitting.' There was no emotion, ecstasy, wild superlatives;
everything was done fittingly, but with good will, almost genially. 'A sober cult,' says the Christian
Tertullian approvingly. A men's religion rather than a woman's?"

Degeneration began during the Punic Wars when the desperate Romans sought out
foreign gods and cults. Once an entry had been made, alien religions increased with the spread
of Roman territory. Greek mythology invaded Rome. But while the Greek could mock the gods
and yet believe in them, the Roman could not. Indifferentism ensued and personal religion at
Rome declined with the Republic.

(2) IMPERIAL RELIGION

Emperor-worship. Alarmed at this trend, Emperor Augustus planned a religious revival.

The temples, colleges of pontiffs and augurs, and traditional rites were given external
magnificence. By becoming pontifex maximus himself, Augustus became head of the religious
revival. Cautiously he allowed the hero-worship of his remarkable career to evolve into emperor-
worship, a development not fantastic to pagans who failed to distinguish precisely between
heroes and gods. Orientals had long been accustomed to worship their rulers, and the cult
fostered imperial unity. Hence worship of imperial authority proceeded so rapidly throughout the
Empire that by 79 A.D. even the hardheaded, cynical Vespasian said on his deathbed: "I think
that I am becoming a god" though a few years before Seneca had in satire turned Claudius into a
pumpkin! Worship of the goddess Roma and of the emperor merged to constitute an official
religion for the Empire and to become identified with imperial patriotism. It was an earthly,
businesslike, utilitarian religion appealing to all who appreciated that the Pax Romana was the
best rule the world had experienced.

Deficiencies. Of course this merely formal official cult failed to satisfy true religious
yearnings. In consequence the Romans once again turned toward the mystery cults for "private
religion," and to Stoic philosophy. These substitutes were far from satisfactory, but Romans of the
Augustan Age were still hoping that something would turn up from the East, traditional source of
religion. As from an abyss, bewildered Roman pagans groped with Vergil for a Savior: "Chaste
Lucina, be propitious to the Child now born by whom the Iron Age shall cease, and the Golden
Age arrive for all the world" (Ecologues, 4).

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) I. Preparation for the Church
3. Greek Preparation: Intellectual Environment

I
Preparation for the Church

3. GREEK PREPARATION: INTELLECTUAL ENVIRONMENT

A. Introduction
(1) GENERAL INTRODUCTION
 Theme: "Pilate wrote an inscription and had it put on the cross. And there was written,
'Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.' Many of the Jews therefore read this inscription,
because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in
Greek, and in Latin" (John 19:19).
Three cultures. After the consideration of the religious condition of the Mediterranean
lands before Christ, it will be well to survey the environment in which Christ lived and in which He
established His Church. This background was threefold, for three civilizations were expressed by
the inscription placed over the Cross, three cultures joined in Christ's death, and yet among these
same three environments, with their advantages and their disadvantages, the Christian Church
would inaugurate the preaching of His Gospel. These three cultural settings were the Greek,
predominantly philosophical; the Roman, chiefly political; and the Jewish, providentially religious.

(2) SPECIAL INTRODUCTION

Greek cultural characteristics. "Despite the turn of Hellenistic philosophy toward the
moral and religious, and despite the profound change in its structure brought about by the influx
of Oriental culture, the Greek spirit even in the Christian centuries, remained, above all, the spirit
of science, philosophy, and culture. The problems which arise from contact with Christianity will
be primarily philosophical in nature. The Greeks will seek to harmonize the teaching of the new
religion with their own forms and habits of thought, they will attempt in some way to grasp religion
philosophically. Hence, precisely in this setting arises the fundamental problem of faith and
science and the connected problem of the philosophical foundation and defense of the faith-in
other words, the problem of theology. in this sphere arise doctrinal speculation and dogmatic
controversies. And though it is the sphere of philosophical independence and error, it is also the
sphere of the elaboration and formulation of dogma. Throughout the entire history of the ancient
Church this problem of faith and reason is bound up with the Greek setting." Lortz's analysis
discovers three advantages for Christianity in this Greek setting: (1) in its best philosophies were
elements capable of predisposing men for Christianity and capable of utilization in her theology;
(2) polytheism had been undermined and monotheism at least suggested; (3) Greek intellectual
power was adaptable to Christian truths. Yet there was also one danger--"the urge to know by its
very nature tends to exaggerate the right of reason and leads to heresy" (Ibid.).

B. Political Survey
(1) HELLENIC BACKGROUND

The city-state. Greek political life centered about the polis, or city-state. This cherished
invention of Greek genius survived the attack of Persian monarchy. But city-states, restricted
democracies except for Spartan totalitarianism, were so jealous of their independence that they
proved unwilling to acquiesce permanently in the leadership of Athens, Sparta, or Thebes, which
successively aspired to the rule of Greece. Neither could they unite in time in any effective
federation. Hence eventually they succumbed to the superior might of Macedonia. Hellenic
culture, thereby cheapened and diluted, was nonetheless rendered accessible to all of the
Levant, and ultimately to Rome and the West as well.

(2) PROCESS OF HELLENIZATION

Philip of Macedon. The Macedonians, uncivilized but Greeks, were welded into a
national monarchy by the fourth century before Christ. King Philip II (359-336) applied lessons
which he had learned as a Greek hostage. His efforts to give Macedonia the military leadership
of Greece brought him into conflict with Athens which controlled the Chalcidice, the natural
seaport for Macedon. After defeating Athens, Philip posed as champion of Greek religion by
chastising Phocis for absconding with the Delphic treasury. Phocis was outlawed; Macedonia
succeeded to its membership in the Delphic Amphyctony, and thus entered the Greek cultural
circle. Athens, stirred by Demosthenes to regard this intrusion as a barbarian usurpation,
organized a league of cities against Philip. But by a decisive victory at Chaeronea (338) the latter
emerged as the arbiter of Greek politics and acknowledged commander for a proposed war of
vengeance against Persia.

Alexander the Great. When his father was assassinated before he had a chance to carry
out the latter design, Alexander III (336-323) transformed the war into one of conquest. In three
years of campaigns culminating in the battle of Arbela (331), he subdued Asia Minor, Syria,
Palestine, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Less permanent conquests followed in Persia and Upper
India. Early in his reign Alexander conceived the idea of fusing Greek and Oriental civilizations
into a cosmopolitan culture. By founding or colonizing cities with Greeks, by ordering
intermarriage, by promoting interchange of customs, he achieved a large measure of success
even though political unity barely survived him. The Hellenistic culture thus begun became truly
ecumenical: rapidly embracing the Levant, it eventually passed on to Rome. To a considerable
degree this Hellenistic civilization survived until the capture Of Constantinople by the Turks in
1453 A.D. Thus Alexander the Great is first of the world's imperial statesmen. In the political
preparation for the Church he ranks second only to Caesar. Alexander gave the original impulse
to the Hellenization of the Western world just as Caesar ensured its Romanization. In the
Hellenistic environment founded by Alexander, the Church made its first advance outside
Palestine; it was in its "koiné" Greek that the New Testament and the earliest Christian theology
were composed.

(3) ABSORPTION INTO ROME

Division of Hellas. Wars for the succession to Alexander's vast domain followed his
premature death. Even while his son Alexander IV (323-310) nominally ruled, Alexander's
generals were transforming regencies into separate kingdoms. In 310 Cassander deposed the
boy king and assumed the Macedonian crown; his example was followed by Seleucus in Syria
and Ptolemy in Egypt, as well as by lesser potentates. In spite of intermittent warfare, the leading
states of Macedonia, Syria, and Egypt maintained an uneasy balance of power for a century.

Rise of Rome. Presently fear of what the Aetolian League had termed the "cloud in the
West" induced Philip V of Macedon and Antiochus III of Syria to favor Carthage in her contest
with Rome. Though she was powerless until she had defeated Hannibal, no sooner had she
done so than she acceded to frantic appeals from Pergamum, Rhodes, Athens, and Egypt, whose
independence was imperiled by the predatory royal pair. At Cynoscephalae (197) and Magnesia
(190) Rome defeated Macedon and Syria respectively. Though left independent, they ceased to
be great powers. Greece was ostentatiously freed, but continued Macedonian intrigues for its
control and renewed discord among the city-states led to Roman intervention, annexation of
Macedonia, and erection of a protectorate over Greece by 146 B.C. In 133 the will of Attalus of
Pergamum gave Rome a foothold in Asia. Despite the ambitions of Mithridates of Pontus, this
control was extended and finally rounded out by Pompey's annexation of a much reduced Syria in
63 B.C. Egypt, already a protectorate, was annexed in 31 B.C. and Alexander's heritage fell to
Rome.

C. Social and Economic Conditions

(1) GOVERNMENTAL ABSOLUTISM

Statolatry. Except for a few city-states surviving in dependence, Hellenistic governments

followed the immemorial Oriental model of the bureaucratic monarchy. Eastern peoples took
such regimes as a matter of course, and to them the Greeks gradually and reluctantly conformed,
at least in central government. The Roman conquest was merely to substitute a world emperor
for rival kings, and a single set of officials for several bureaucracies. This system of deified
absolute monarchs finally triumphed in the West also, if not with Augustus, at least with
Diocletian.

(2) URBAN COSMOPOLITANISM

Alexandria was the largest of the Hellenistic cities. Nearly a million people dwelt in this
Eastern metropolis of broad avenues, imposing multistoried buildings, and busy docks dominated
by the Pharos lighthouse. Alexandria had a half million papyri rolls in its library, which attracted
academies of scholars and scientists. It is not surprising, therefore, that this city should become
the chief see of early Eastern Christendom, that here a famous catechetical school should be
established, and that thence would emanate the most learned works of the primitive Church,
works, however, often contaminated by philosophies of the pagan vicinity.

Antioch on the Orontes was the Syrian metropolis. Though but half the size of
Alexandria, it was also an influential city. It had a cosmopolitan population which included many
Jews. Antioch was only a secondary center of learning, but a leading mart. Easy of access to
Jerusalem, it can readily be seen how at Antioch "the disciples were first called Christians"; how
here also a patriarchal see and catechetical academy would emerge; and how these latter would
be prone to continue in ecclesiastical affairs and theology the old secular rivalry with Alexandria.

Athens had lost its commercial supremacy to Ephesus, Miletus, Corinth, and boom towns
of the Hellenistic Age, but had retained its fame as an intellectual center. All the educated,
leisured, and business classes of these cities adopted a common language, outlook, customs,
and pastimes; through these urban centers a veneer of Hellenism was laid on the Near East.
"Trade and finance are stimulated by an enlarged area of the market, while the release of
a great hoard of gold taken from the Persian emperor, aids the development of money and credit.
Postal roads are available, highway maps are drawn. Boats are bigger, harbors are better, and
Egypt or Rhodes sweeps the pirates off the sea for a time." Industry did exist in the large cities,
but the competition of slaves prevented the free workmen from doing more than eke out a living.
The riots and strikes of the latter were frequent, but seldom improved matters; the Hellenistic was
a rich man's world.

(3) RURAL CONSERVATISM

Oriental peasants continued to live in their villages but slightly influenced by Hellenism.
Many, especially in Egypt and Pergamum, were slaves on the domains of the magnates. For a
century or more up to the time of Christ, these peasants were hounded by the publicans or tax-
farmers from whom the Roman Empire belatedly freed them. The rural folk of these Oriental
nations long remained averse to Christian as well as to Greek influence, and this unconverted
national element would eventually take its revenge on both in the Monophysite and
Mohammedan movements.

D. Intellectual Contributions
(1) HELLENIC PHILOSOPHY

Early philosophers, as Maritain has pointed out, at first impressed by what strikes the
senses, sought to determine the constitutive principles of the world. Unable to conceive of
invisible principles, they began by assigning some sensible element, such as water, air, fire, as a
universal material out of which all things were formed. Heraclitus, over-impressed by becoming,
imagined everything in flux; Parmenides, concentrating upon stability, declared that everything
was immutable being-thus were set the extreme limits of speculation. Pythagoras, however, rose
to mathematical abstraction, and Anaxagoras suggested a ruling mind.

Socrates recalled philosophy from the blind alley of Sophistry. By insisting on definition
of the essence, he directed speculation to a search for metaphysical truth. He pioneered in
ethics, though his doctrine that knowledge begets virtue contains a fallacy. Socrates taught men
bow to think, but did not himself construct a complete system of philosophy.
Plato erected a brilliant but unsubstantial metaphysical world with the clues given him by
Socrates. He attained to an Idea of the Supreme Good which all men should imitate. It was this
achievement that recommended him to the Christian fathers, who found him easiest to adapt to
Christian theology. Yet Platonism was erected on a false foundation of eternally subsisting real
ideas, of which all sensible things are but the shadow. Purified later by St. Thomas as divine
exemplars, these Platonic ideas would be of service, but first they contributed to the Origenist
error of pre-existence of souls. St. Augustine's illuminist psychology is also traceable to a
Platonic source. Platonic Ethics developed the Socratic; in sociology it commended absolute
communism. If Platonism had unsubstantial foundations, it yet represented helpful progress
toward a philosophia perennis.

Aristotle successfully refuted most of the Platonic mistakes. A realistic metaphysician

and experimental scientist, he supplied the profound concepts of pure act, the prime mover,
potentiality and act, matter and form, the categories, the transcendentals, the four causes. in
place of Platonic ideas he proposed a theory of universals gained by abstraction from the world of
sense. In politics he criticized absolute communism and made an acute analysis of the types of
government. Errors there were in Aristotle, but in essentials he built a philosophic basis for
Thomistic theology. Yet for centuries the chief Aristotelian doctrines would be ignored or
disfigured; only in the thirteenth century after Christ would he be styled "the Philosopher."

(2) HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY

Pragmatism. Hellenistic philosophers turned from speculative to practical philosophies

more in keeping with the needs of their sensate, busy, and fatalistic age. The Stoics reverted to
sensism, materialism, and pantheism. With some affinity for Oriental thought, Stoic ethics
inculcated a morality aiming at insensibility or apathy to external surroundings. This did furnish a
code of decency for a life terminable at death, and gave some hints for the philosophical
expression of Christian morality, but more and more it degenerated into quietism and fatalism.
The Epicureans, after explaining all things by chance concurrence of atoms, after relegating the
gods to insouciance, after firmly denying an afterlife, bade men concentrate on making
themselves happy. Though Epicurean theory enjoined a certain moderation in this, its practice
tended to license.

Scepticism. Sceptics, finally, by adopting an agnostic attitude toward everything,

precluded genuine philosophy with their pose of bored indifference. With scepticism pre-Christian
research turned full circle to the point where the ancients had begun. Latter day dilettantes asked
of Christ: "What is truth?"

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) I. Preparation for the Church
4. Roman Preparation: Political Environment

I
Preparation for the Church

4. ROMAN PREPARATION: POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT

A. Political Survey
 (1) GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Predominance of politics. In things of the mind Hellenistic civilization was paramount,
and its influence was still alive when the Church was founded. But in political affairs the
environment had changed. The Greek state was gone, incorporated into the Roman Empire.
Adequate understanding of the Christian environment, therefore, demands examination of
another secular culture, the Roman. "The Roman world is not so much theoretical or
philosophical as practical. More specifically it is by nature political and finds its expression in the
Roman State; in fact, one might say it is the Roman State. The Roman world is the world of the
state, of administration, of politics. It is also the world of self-assurance and esteem for positive
law and consequently possesses a strong sense of order and obedience to law. It possesses
likewise a great appreciation for broad and comprehensive unity and for colonization."

(2) THE ROMAN REPUBLIC

Military expansion. The Italian tribes who invaded the Italian peninsula some thousand years
before Christ were of the same race as the Hellenes. But Italy, in contrast to Greece, offered
good prospects for agriculture, and but mediocre facilities for commerce. Early Italians became
farmers, sober and conservative. Among them, the Roman city-state rose to leadership. Unlike
Greek city-states, Rome gained willing subjects by bestowing on them in varying degrees the
chief privileges of her citizenship. Then, provoked by the Carthaginian contention that the
Mediterranean was a closed sea, Rome overthrew this power in a century of war to become
mistress of the West. Shortly thereafter, as already outlined, circumstances invited intervention in
the East. By 133 B.C. Rome had become the chief Mediterranean power.

Social crises. But this constant acquisition of provinces overtaxed the digestive powers
of republican government. The senatorial aristocracy and equestrian plutocracy, hitherto public-
spirited, now exploited Roman dominions for their own advantage. A senatorial clique farmed out
provinces and public lands to financeers and exploiters of the equestrian order, while their own
large-scale Italian farms were worked by slaves taken in war. Thereby was created a class of
landless and impoverished citizens who degenerated into city mobs to be cajoled by "bread and
circuses." Further extension of Roman citizenship ceased, and subjects were governed for
Rome's benefit. The Gracchi, indeed, tried to effect social reforms on behalf of the common
people by resuming colonization. But their effort to convert the tribunate into a prime ministership
provoked senatorial hostility: the privileged classes succeeded in blinding the fickle and selfish
masses into repudiating their champions. Yet the cleavage between a wealthy oligarchy and an
impotent democracy continued. Constitutional reform having failed, the stage was set for
generals and demagogues to essay redress through dictatorship. For a half century or more,
Marius, Sulla, and Pompey plunged Rome into civil war in reaching for power. Though
unsuccessful, they prepared for the Empire founded by Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus.

(3) FOUNDATION OF THE EMPIRE

First triumvirate. About 60 B.C., three political bosses formed an unofficial entente.
Pompey belonged to the senatorial aristocracy but was temporarily at odds with it in his search
for pensions for his troops for the civil wars were producing mercenaries. Crassus, a Roman
Croesus, sought profitable contracts for himself and the equestrian order. Julius Caesar,
impoverished aristocrat but persuasive demagogue, aspired to a military career. By pooling their
resources this trio elected Caesar consul for 59. In office he paid his political debts and secured
for himself the Gallic proconsulship. His genius used this for the conquest of all of Gaul, a feat
that won him prestige and willing clients. Crassus, on the other hand, met death in a Parthian
campaign in 53, thereby dissolving the triumvirate.

Caesar's rise. The Senate, more in fear of Caesar than of Pompey, made overtures to
the latter to protect the status quo. Consul in Caesar's absence, he circumvented the latter's
aspirations to a second consulship in 48 by revoking a previous exemption permitting him to
campaign while still in office. If Caesar could be reduced to private life during his campaign it
would be easy to indict him or assassinate him. Caesar proposed mutual renunciation of armies
and office by Pompey and himself. When this offer was rejected, Caesar was not minded to avert
civil war at the sacrifice of his career and life. To lead troops over the Rubicon from Gaul into Italy
was tantamount to rebellion. Caesar argued with some plausibility that a senatorial clique was
unconstitutionally thwarting the popular will; in any event, on the night of January 11, 49 B.C., he
exclaimed: Alea jacta est, and crossed the Rubicon at the head of a legion. Brilliant, whirlwind
campaigns culminated in a decisive victory over Pompey at Pharsalia, Greece, August, 48,
though,'mopping up" operations required three more years.

Caesar's achievement. From 49 to 44 B.C., Caesar ruled Rome by a variety of titles:

dictator, consul, pontifex maximus, tribune, etc. But his real power lay in the fact that he was
imperator: commander-in-chief of the legions. Popular intuition penetrated to the fact of the
military dictatorship, and thus imperator or emperor became the distinctive title of the rulers of the
new regime. Julius Caesar was in name and fact the first emperor: he sketched the constitution
which his heir Augustus put into effect. The Republican magistrates continued to exist, but as
subordinate and eventually honorary officials. The Senate, "packed" with leading provincials,
remained an imperial council to advise but not to consent. The urban mob was reduced by
colonization; unfortunately this course was not continued by Caesar's successors. Discharged
veterans were also settled in the provinces, and citizenship increased from one to four millions.
The Lex Julia Municipalis prepared the basis for a healthy local community life. Provincial
governors were all named by the emperor and held to strict accountability. Tax farming was
abolished and a census of imperial resources planned: Rome would henceforth consider the
good of her provinces as well as her own. Mercenaries became an imperial standing army, well
remunerated. Caesar's calendar would endure fifteen centuries. As pontifex maximus, Caesar
united religious to secular authority; by sanctioning the statue of Venus Genetrix (Caesaris) he
hinted 'that he aspired to divinity, But his "five year plan' was too rapid, too openly scornful of
cherished traditions. Stubborn but narrow-minded reactionaries like Brutus and Cato slew him on
the Ides of March, 44 B.C.

(4) CONSOLIDATION OF THE EMPIRE

Second triumvirate. Caesar's assassination did not bring back the Republic, but led to a
second triumvirate of Caesar's heir, Octavius; his deputy, Mark Antony, and an opportune ally,
Governor Lepidus. These avenged Caesar's murder by drastic executions. As the second-rate
Lepidus was pushed into the background, friction loomed between the sober, calculating Octavius
and the brilliant but unstable Antony. Octavius publicized the contest as one between West and
East, between old Roman virtues and foreign innovations, represented by Antony's ally Cleopatra.
Actium (31 B.C. favored the West, and Octavius, voted the cognomen Augustus in 27, regained
his uncle's supreme and sole rule.

Augustus now mellowed into a benevolent despot. During his long reign (31 B.c.-14 A.D.
he put most of Caesar's ideas into execution, but profited by the Ides of March in that he cloaked
dictatorship with constitutional forms. Instead of the title of rex to which Caesar had reputedly
aspired, Augustus styled himself princeps: first citizen. The upper classes were given showy
offices but an imperial bureaucracy run by freedmen grew in importance. With an army of
150,000 Augustus advanced and strengthened the frontiers. In this he met with but one check: in
9 A.D. Hermann annihilated the Roman general Varus at Teutoberg and thereby permanently
withdrew the German lands from Roman conquest and culture. Administration, taxation,
colonization, and extension of citizenship followed Caesar's plans, but more slowly. Augustus
permitted divine honors to himself, thus deifying patriotism and making religious dissent high
treason. In 9 B.C. this Princeps Augustus dedicated the Ara Pacis at Rome to symbolize
restoration of public order; soon he would unwittingly command the register at Bethlehem of the
heavenly Princeps Pacis.

The Julio-Claudians, inferior scions of Julius and Augustus, held the throne from 14 to 68,
at least proving the imperial regime solid enough to survive bad rulers. Tiberius (14-37) was at
first able and just, but degenerated into a suspicious, disillusioned misanthrope. Pontius Pilate
preferred to deliver an innocent Victim to death rather than risk denunciation to such a master.
Gaius Caligula (37-41) was a megalomaniac who threatened the Jews for sacrificing "for" rather
than "to" him. Claudius (41-54) succeeded on Caligula's assassination. His mediocre reign yet
saw bureaucratic advance and the conquest of Britain. in 49 he exiled Jews from Rome for rioting
about a certain "Chrestus." Nero (54-68) ruled well for seven years under Seneca's guidance, but
then became a brutal tyrant who yet courted popularity. To divert blame for the burning of Rome
he made Christians, among them Sts. Peter and Paul, the scapegoats. Yet this did not save him
from revolts during which he committed suicide.

The Flavians restored order after a year of anarchy. Vespasian (69-79) reorganized
administration and finances. He had begun the siege of Jerusalem (68-70) which his son Titus
(79-81) completed. The latter's brother Domitian (81-96), at first up to Flavian standards of ability,
developed morbid suspicions to which some Christians, including a cousin, Clemens, were
sacrificed. Vigilance did not save him from assassination.
The Antonines who succeeded in 96 gave the Empire a century of excellent rule, far
beyond the period of Christian foundations. Here it suffices to note that the second Antonine,
Trajan (98-117), seems to have been the first emperor to adopt a fixed policy of repression toward
Christianity.

B. Economic Conditions
(1) AGRICULTURE

Agrarian predominance. The Empire remained basically agrarian. Gradually, however,

the independent farmers of Italy were forced out again by the great estates, the latifundia worked
by slaves. The more enterprising freemen emigrated to the provinces where, along with native
provincials, they survived as a hardy peasantry for two more centuries. Then, however, the
latifundia, together with an oppressive rural regimentation and taxation, extended their economy
throughout the Empire. When this occurred in the fourth and following centuries, medieval
serfdom was at hand. Less energetic displaced persons continued to reinforce the city mob, fed
at public expense. Sicily was Rome's public granary; when the capital was subsequently moved
to Constantinople, Egypt took over this role. Egypt, administered on Ptolemaic lines, prepared
the way for the Byzantine servile state.

(2) INDUSTRY

Manufacturing in the etymological sense was still the general rule. Most artisans worked
in small shops, though there were some brick and pottery factories run by slaves. The
abundance of slave labor and the lack of machinery prevented modern industrial mass production
of specialized articles. The artisans had their guilds or collegia, but more for convivial and social
purposes than to defend their rights. By organizing externally similar collegia, Christians could
gain quasi-legal status which afforded them partial concealment and assured them decent burial.
Skilled artisans organized, indeed, for purposes of monopoly, but in the declining days of the
Empire their guilds were forced into a rigid, heavily taxed caste system.

(3) COMMERCE

The Pax Romana made roads and sea lanes secure. The Mediterranean hummed with
traffic, though this avoided Rome itself. Puteoli, near Naples, where St. Paul landed, was Rome's
chief port. Romans had now entered trade, though it was chiefly administered through freedmen
or slaves. Italian ports were less favored by merchants since they did not provide return cargoes
for the luxuries imported from the East, Money was thus drained to the Orient, Parthia and Persia
serving as middlemen between Rome and India and China. This unfavorable balance of trade
may in part account for subsequent Roman debasement of coinage and partial substitution of
barter.

(4) FINANCE

Partnership with personal and unlimited liability was the standard business unit. Capital
was necessarily limited, for corporations or joint stock companies were allowed only for public
works. There were no large banking concerns, but banks discounted notes, paid interest, made
loans to provinces and foreign states. Their chief concern would be with real estate, for the
Roman invested any surplus capital in land; even merchants who became wealthy aspired to
retire to a country villa.

C. Social and Moral Condition

(1) DOMESTIC LIFE

Marital laxity. Marriage had fallen from the strict ancient Roman connubium to a mockery.
"Lack of sympathy," like modern "incompatibility," sufficed to terminate almost any marriage by
divorce. Roman matrimony had been based on patriarchal institutions, not on religious
conviction. When the old conventions deteriorated no curb to license remained. Adultery,
concubinage, and unnatural crimes for which St. Paul took the Romans to task were rampant.
Birth prevention and infanticide were alarmingly prevalent, and few wealthy families survived
beyond three generations. What children there were, were entrusted to slaves for education. But
slave morality, subject to a master's lust, was likely to be depraved, so that perversion in
childhood might follow. In vain Augustus legislated against immorality and offered privileges to
families of three children; he had to banish his own daughter and granddaughter for violation of
his edicts.

(2) PUBLIC LIFE

Pleasure-seeking. A welter of obscenity was the rule in baths, theaters, stadia, and
imperial and noble courts. "A prodigious contest in wickedness goes on; the greater the daily
avidity of sinning, the less shame. Respect for better and more reasonable things cast aside,
wherever one looks Just vaunts itself. Crimes are no longer furtive, but obvious, and evil is so
much in public and so prevails in all hearts, that innocence is not rare, but nil." This pessimistic
view of Seneca may have been but slightly exaggerated for the upper classes, though it is
unlikely that the poor either could or would be guilty in equal measure.

Slavery. The admitted grandeur of Rome rested on foundations of slavery. Slaves had
no legal place in society: they were but chattels, things. Their souls and bodies, talents and
chastity were at a master's disposal. Public authority need not be invoked to beat or slay them at
home, or expose them for gladiatorial combat, or crucify them, And these slaves were
undifferentiated from their masters by culture; in fact, they were often of superior education.
Small wonder that the despair of the slave and the boredom of the freeman alike often terminated
in suicide. In a moral sense, the whole Roman world seemed to be rushing to suicide in 42 A.D.
when an unknown, lowly traveler trudged into the capital. It was Simon Peter of Bethsaida in
Palestine, arrived to take possession of Rome as Christ's Vicar.

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) I. Preparation for the Church
5. The Jewish Preparation: Religious Environment

I
Preparation for the Church

5. THE JEWISH PREPARATION: RELIGIOUS ENVIRONMENT

A. Introduction
(1) RELIGIOUS PREDOMINANCE
Transitional note. Within this Graeco-Roman secular civilization, but not of it, was
Judaism. Even before the Church encountered Greek philosophy and Roman politics, she had
been established on a Jewish social and religious structure. Especially during the first generation
of her existence the Christian Church lived in a predominantly Jewish environment. In truth, this
Jewish influence was primarily religious, but the Jews made their contribution not in virtue of any
intrinsic genius, but by reason of their choice by Providence as the vehicle for preserving the true
religion until Christ's coming. God's part in this religious preparation has already been treated.
Here, then, we are chiefly concerned with the instrumental role of the Jews themselves in
preparing for the Church, that is, with those human characteristics used by God in making known
His "good news" to men.

Religious characteristics. "A prior two circumstances characterize the situation: First,
Christianity did not come from Judaism from without, but sprang from its bosom; second, Judaism
like Christianity was a purely religious system. It was not a monarchy or oligarchy purely, but
rather a theocracy. God was the ruler of a chosen people, governing them through His law. For
this reason the problems of Church history in the Jewish world are expressly religious in nature.
The advantages which favored the rise of Christianity in the Jewish world as well as the
disadvantages which threatened its existence and retarded its growth have their source in the
strictly religious sphere."

(2) ESTIMATE OF JEWISH INFLUENCE

Advantages. "The main points of advantage are the following: (1) In Judaism religion
was not a mere official appendage to the political system as in other ancient states but the
mainspring of all political and popular activity. It was the end and purpose of every field and
department of life. . . . Christianity too has this same end and aim. . . . 2) The entire teaching of
Jesus centers in a claim that was intimately bound up with the whole history and religion of the
Jews. In Rome His claim to be the Messiah foretold by the prophets would have been simply
incomprehensible. . . . (3) In spite of every tendency toward monotheism among the non-Jewish
peoples in ancient times, the Jews alone professed a moral monotheism that was pure and free
from error, clearly expressed and free from vacillation. . . .

Disadvantage. "Judaism, especially Palestinian Judaism, proved an obstacle to

Christianity, because of its bigoted racial narrowness and its legalistic piety expressed through
external works. . . . Divergence between Christianity and Judaism was reduced to one question:
Is Christianity for all men or only for Jews with their works of the Law?"

B. Racial History
(1) HEBREW ORIGINS

Abraham was called by God into Palestine from Ur to become ancestor of the Hebrews,
themselves presumably named from Heber, Sem's grandson. Abraham's vocation, which
probably took place about 2000 B.C., was confirmed in Palestine where "God made a covenant
with Abram" (Gen. 15:18). His descendants, nomadic herders, went to Egypt to escape famine,
apparently during the domination of that land by their kindred, the Bedouin Hyksos (1800-1500).
The native Theban dynasty which began to regain Egyptian independence about 1580 Naturally
"knew not Joseph." Pharaoh Ikhanaton's unpopular solar monotheism may have owed something
to Hebrew religion, so that reaction against it might have embraced the Hebrews, presently
persecuted as

fifth columnists.
Moses received a divine commission to lead the Hebrews from Egypt. The pharaoh of
the Exodus was probably Rameses II (1301-1234), According to a more recent dating of it at
1300-1290. For forty years of nomad existence in Arabia, Moses initiated his people into an
augmented code and cult. But it was Josue bar Nun who finally led them into Canaan or
Palestine which, with divine assistance, the united nation conquered from petty city-states.
During several centuries the Hebrews lacked centralized government except that occasionally
supplied by the judges, tribal chieftains sent by God to free them from oppression by their
neighbors. Samuel, last of these judges, anointed Saul bar Cis as king. Then under three able
monarchs, Saul, David, and Solomon (c. 1020-926) the Hebrews enjoyed a prosperous
independence while their Egyptian and Babylonian neighbors were weak.

Tribal schism, however, wrested ten tribes from the Davidic dynasty about 926.
Thenceforth the Hebrews were divided among the rival principalities of Judea and Israel. Though
Providence repeatedly preserved them from enemies, frequent religious apostasy at length
delivered them into the hands of their foes. In 721 B.C., King Sargon of Assyria subdued Israel,
deported many of its inhabitants, and colonized the land with aliens. The resulting Samaritans,
mixed alike in blood and religion, were henceforth regarded by the Hebrews of Judea as
heretical. But the latter themselves fell before King Nabuchodonosor of Babylonia in 586.
Another deportation took place, but when the Persians in turn conquered Babylon in 539, they
permitted some of the captives to return. The homecoming Hebrews, thereafter known as Jews,
rebuilt their city and temple, and restored religious observances. To avoid future falls they rigidly
separated themselves from alien influence by insistence on circumcision, Sabbath repose, and
distinction of foods. Palestinian Jewry, therefore, became extremely nationalistic and exclusive.
Many Hebrews, however, never returned to Palestine from these repeated deportations, while
others were induced to migrate by over-population or commercial opportunities in the Hellenistic
world. They and their descendants constituted the diaspora, estimated at four to five millions by
the time of Christ. Though faithful to the essentials of Mosaic religion, these "dispersed" Jews
became socially Hellenized and tended to be more broad-minded than their Palestinian brethren.

(2) PALESTINIAN JEWRY

The Hellenistic regime, unlike tolerant Persian rule, menaced Jewish institutions. It is
true that the Egyptian Ptolemies, to whom Palestine was subject until 198, allowed autonomy
under high priests. But Hebrew became so incomprehensible to the majority of Jews that the
Septuagint version of the Bible was made into Greek at Alexandria, while Aramaic became the
vernacular tongue in the homeland. The Syrian rulers to whom Judea fell in 198 were ardent
Hellenizers. Antiochus IV Epiphanies (174-164) used traitors in the priesthood to introduce pagan
cult into the Temple itself.

Jewish home rule was declared by the Assideans, pious Jews, and their military leaders
of the Asmonean family. A revolt was begun by Mathathias in 167, and continued by his sons,
Judas Machabeus (166-161), Jonathan (161-143), and Simon (143-136). Judas rescued the
Temple; Jonathan restored the high-priesthood in his family, and Simon secured recognition as
autonomous prince-priest of Judea. He and his descendants gave Palestine a brief period of
prosperity.

Herodians. The last of these Asmoneans, John Hyrcanus II (77-40), survived only by
becoming Rome's client, He named the Idumean Antipater his prime minister, and the latter's son,
Herod the Great, supplanted the Asmoneans by shrewd diplomacy. Then at last did the " sceptre
pass from Juda" to a descendant of Esau, a sign that "He who was to be sent" was at hand.
Though Herod enlarged the Temple, he never gained his subjects' love. Ever in fear of plots, he
killed three of his sons and finally the Innocents of Bethlehem. Augustus confirmed Herod's will
dividing his dominions among three sons: Archelaus (4 B.C.-6 A.D.) in Judea-Samaria; Herod
Antipas in Galilee-Perea till 39; and Philip in Iturea until 34. With the last Christ did not come into
contact; Herod Antipas was the Baptist's murderer and would-be judge of Christ. Archelaus was
deposed by Augustus on Jewish complaints of despotism.

Roman rule then appeared undisguised in a series of procurators, lieutenant-governors

under the Syrian proconsuls. They reserved capital punishment to themselves, but delegated
jurisdiction over religious questions to the high priests. The office of the latter became political,
and Annas (6-15) even after his retirement dominated five sons and a son-in-law, Caiphas (26-
37), whom he placed in the high priesthood. Procurator Pontius Pilate (26-36) was a ruler of
good intentions, vacillating between bungling benevolence and hasty violence. Already fearful of
denunciation to the dread Tiberius for mismanagement, he yielded Christ to Jewish demands.
Another blunder in 36 led to his recall in disgrace; legend has him commit suicide in Vienne,
Gaul. It is likely that Stephen was stoned during the vacancy before his successor's arrival. A
grandson of Herod the Great, Herod Agrippa won the Jewish throne through Claudius's favor, but
after his brief reign (41-44) the procuratorial system was restored, though Agrippa's son of the
same name was conceded custody of the Temple.

Fall of Jerusalem. Rapacious Roman governors provoked the Jewish nationalists, the
"Zealots," until Roman intolerance and Pharasaic fanaticism clashed in a Great Revolt (66-70)
which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. Josephus attests the fulfillment of
Christ's prophecy, for the Temple was "so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug
it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had
ever been inhabited" (Wars, VII, 1). By 73 the last Palestinian stronghold had surrendered and
Titus could carry the seven-branch candlestick in triumph through Rome, where the scene
remains depicted on the Arch of Titus. Martial law imposed on Palestine provoked another futile
revolt (132-35) under BarKochba which provoked terrible reprisals. Jerusalem was converted
into the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina, a temple to Jupiter erected on the site of the Temple,
and the Palestinian Jew, denied access to the Holy City, followed his brethren of the Diaspora as
a wanderer on the face of the earth.

C. Social-Religious Institutions
(1) PALESTINIAN CHARACTERISTICS

Palestinian Jewry numbered about a million adherents at the time of Christ.

The Sanhedrin was the supreme council which theoretically had jurisdiction over Jews
everywhere, but in practice ruled only in Palestine. Once composed of priests and elders, it later
included some doctors of the Law. Its total membership was seventy-one, including the high
priest who normally presided. Only the Roman procurators could override the decisions of the
Sanhedrin which ordinarily settled all legal and religious questions. It pronounced Christ's
condemnation, but had to obtain authorization from Roman authority for the desired capital
punishment.

The priests were numerous and took turns in serving the Temple. As sole ministers of
sacrifice, they continued to have influence and prestige.
The scribes, however, had come to share their position by undertaking the interpretation
of the Law. It was their function to expound the Mosaic Code and apply it to current conditions.
Either rigorists of the school of Schammai, or milder exegetes of Hillel's viewpoint, their casuistry
and formalism were notorious, stigmatized for all time by Christ's reproaches.
 The Pharisees, though only a minority, had the greatest popular following. They were a
religious party, successors of the Assidean patriots. They prided themselves on knowing the Law
more exactly than anyone else both in its texts and traditions. The Pharisees were adamant in
preserving Judaism from any pagan stain. Hence they exaggerated rules of legal impurity and all
precepts setting the Jew apart from the Gentile. Though substantially orthodox, they tended to
become formalists and even hypocrites whenever their code of minute prescriptions could not be
observed. Provided religious liberty was safe, they professed indifference to politics. Those of
the party--increasingly numerous after Christ--who championed national independence were
known as the Zealots; the Pharisee himself was a pious idealist.

The Sadducees, on the contrary, were aristocratic "realists." These disciples of the High
Priest Sadoc comprised a majority of the priests, especially the high priests, but the scribes were
usually Pharisees. joined with the religious leaders were those wealthy classes who sought favor
with the foreigner for business or social reasons. The Sadducees were influenced by this
fraternization, for they at least minimized providence, denied the existence of angels and the
resurrection of the dead, and rejected the prophets. Though they scorned pharisaic exegesis, on
what they regarded as the essentials of the Law they could be severe. Those Sadducees who
frankly and actively co-operated with the Idumeans seem to have been called Herodians.

The Essenes, not mentioned in the New Testament, were a sort of religious order. These
"silent ones" retired from the world to the borders of the Dead Sea to practice rigid asceticism.
Their oath of secrecy still binders complete knowledge of their practices. They or a similar sect
have recently received posthumous notoriety as conservators of scriptural manuscripts contained
in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

(3) THE DIASPORA

Social condition. The four or five million Jews of the dispersion throughout the Roman
Empire maintained their connection with Jerusalem by pilgrimages and contributions. Though
they might enjoy special privileges, imperial authority still regarded them as aliens. Their
presence in most imperial cities, however, attracted some sincere seekers of religious truth. A
few of these became proselytes observing the whole Law, but more often "those who feared God"
confined themselves to the Jewish moral code. In any event, these links with the Gentile world
would be of immense service to the apostles when they sought to spread the Gospel beyond the
chosen people.

Synagogue organization. Deprived of ready access to the Temple, the Dispersed

resorted to synagogues, places of prayer. Here they assembled not only for prayer, but for
readings from the Bible and homilies pronounced by leaders of the synagogue or some
distinguished visiting scribe, like St. Paul. Scribes, if any were present, conducted the services.
Officers were the archisynagogus or leader, and the hyperetes or server. The synagogue
became the center of Jewish religious and social life, and St. Paul frequently made his opening
address there.

Foreign influences were naturally greater among the Dispersed, but throughout Judaism
there had been no essential change in the Mosaic religion. Whatever social or linguistic
concessions he might make to Hellenism, the Jew was still devoted to the Law. Only a few, like
Josephus and Philo, took liberties with the traditional cult. The latter tried to blend Platonism and
Stoicism with the Mosaic Law, or more exactly, to expound the Law for pagans in their
philosophical terms.

(3) MESSIANIC EXPECTATION

Belief in the coming of a Messiah was general throughout Jewish communities. But
though a minority expected a spiritual regeneration, the majority had colored the prophetic portrait
of the Messiah with worldly lineaments. His functions were represented in an apocalyptic or even
materialistic sense. He was to be the conqueror who would free Jewry and make the Gentiles
subject to a new Jewish kingdom. Few, if any, understood the expiatory role of the "Servant of
Yahweh." And so, for the most part, "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not"
(John 1:11).

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) II. Foundation of the Church (27-107)

6. King of the Church: Jesus Christ (27-30)

II
Foundation of the Church

6. KING OF THE CHURCH: JESUS CHRIST

A. Prologue: The King's Coming

Theme: "When the fullness of time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born
under the Law, that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the
adoption of sons" (Gal. 4:4).
Introduction: Divine Providence, then, chose for the Incarnation that fullness of time
when mankind had been sufficiently prepared to profit by the complete revelation through Christ.
In this case, as St. Thomas says, the imperfect preceded the perfect that men might be able to
appreciate the latter; it would not have been well, however, to postpone Christ's coming until the
end of the world, for if mankind were left entirely to itself, "the knowledge and reverence of God
and moral righteousness would have been effaced from the earth" (Summa theol., IIIa, q. 1, a. 6).
Therefore, "Jesus came in the fullness of time. The profound philosophical and historical
meaning of this sublime thought of St. Paul becomes evident only if we bear in mind that this
fullness had been attained in every field of culture."

The Nativity. "A decree went forth from Caesar Augustus that a census of the whole
world should be taken. This first census took place while Cyrinus was governor of Syria. And all
were going, each to his own town, to register. And Joseph also went from Galilee out of the town
of Nazareth into Judea to the town of David . . . to register, together with Mary his espoused wife,
who was with child. And it came to pass while they were there, that the days for her to be
delivered were fulfilled, and she brought forth her first born son, and wrapped him in swaddling
clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:1-7).

Chronology. The date of this central event of history is assigned tentatively with La
Grange to December 25, 749 A.U.C., or 5 B.C. It is certain that Herod the Great died in 750
A.U.C.; Christ's birth, according to the Gospels, must have taken place previously. For the month
and day, there is almost no evidence save St. Augustine's vague allusion to an "ancient tradition"
in favor of the present liturgical date. As to the year, the census of Cyrinus-for which La Grange
proposed a legitimate alternate, "this census was made before that of Cyrinus, the governor of
Syria"-could have been between 8 and 4 B.C. But the years 5 or 6 B.C. best fit in with St. Luke's
information that Christ was "about thirty years old" when He began His public ministry. As the
"fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar" remains ambiguous-for it can be dated from co-
regency or sole rule-this date also remains approximate. Most scholars assign the opening of the
public ministry to the autumn of 27 or 28, depending on their estimates of two or three years for
Christ's preaching. St. John's clue of 46 years of Temple construction (John 2:20), going back to
Herod's eighteenth year (20-18 B.C.) would suggest the earlier of these dates. Finally, as already
noted, we have adopted April 7, 30 A.D. as a tentative working date for the fulfillment of Christ's
sacerdotal sacrifice.

B. The King's Mission

(1) ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE KINGDOM

The Herald. "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate
was procurator of Judea, and Herod tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of the
district of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of
Annas and Caiphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zachary, in the desert. . . . In
those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the desert of Judea, and saying: 'Repent, for the
Kingdom of Heaven is at band"' (Luke 3:1-3; Matt. 3:1-2).

The Savior. With this solemn announcement, Church history proper opens, for "Kingdom
of Heaven" will be Christ's term for His Church. Christ began by setting His followers an example
of baptism; not to sanctify Himself, but as St. Ignatius says (Ephesians, 18), to bless water that it
might be instrumental in cleansing sin. Then did God the Father attest Christ's royal commission:
"This is My beloved Son; bear ye Him." Then also did the New Adam retire to the desert to
challenge Satan, the "prince of this world," who had usurped rule over men since the first Adam's
fall. Victorious, Christ was hailed by John the Baptist: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away
the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

Pioneer disciples. Two of John's own disciples, Andrew bar Jona and John bar Zebedee,
left him to follow the Messias-it may be appropriate, then, that the Church begins her liturgical
year near the feast of St. Andrew, proto-disciple. But if first in time, he was not to be first in
dignity; the next day be brought his brother Simon to Christ. The Lord looked this ignorant
fisherman full in the face, and said with prophetic play on words: "Thou art Simon, the son of
John; thou shalt be called Cephas, which interpreted is Peter [Rock]" (John 1:42). The Church's
elements were at hand.

(2) PREACHING OF THE KINGDOM

Christ outlined His Kingdom in parables, lest premature plain speech might excite Jews
expecting a militant Messias to a perversion of His spiritual mission. These parables, now seen
to be profound in meaning, were even then intellectually stimulating. They afforded all men of
good will the incentive to further inquiry which would obtain from Jesus or His apostles the saving
knowledge of the Kingdom. At the same time they allowed the ill-disposed a pretext for rejection
and opposition, for it was never God's plan to force men's free will. in fact, in making known the
New Testament of charity God forsook the awesome height of Sinai for the gentle slopes of the
mount of the Beatitudes.

Christ's word is like a seed sown on different kinds of soil by Himself and His disciples.
The seed is free; its growth depends on human correspondence with God's grace. Some men
will be robbed of it by the devil; others will hear with joy but faint at the sacrifices required; some
will hear only to stop their ears again with the cares, riches, and pleasures of life; others, at
length, will both hear and bring forth fruit to eternal life: thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or a hundredfold
according to the mysteries of grace and free will (Matt. 13).

Christ's Church is like a seed cast into the earth and forgotten. Yet unsuspected by men,
this seed will germinate, for the King can make use even of bad or indifferent instruments to
spread it unwittingly. Not even the faithful disciple will fully comprehend the divine dynamite in
the Good News of the Kingdom: the sermon be thought a failure will touch some heart; the time in
the confessional he believed wasted will reclaim some soul. For it is not his seed, but the King's.
 The Church is like a seed growing up among cockle sown by Antichrist: the devil and his
minions. Nor will this cockle be eradicated in this life: the Church will always exist in a world more
or less alien to her, one with which some of her weaker members will sympathize.
The Church is like a mustard seed, small in the beginning, but growing beyond men's
expectation: stretching out its branches in all walks of life, all provinces of knowledge, all lands of
the earth, so that rulers, philosophers, scientists, reformers will dwell under its shade.

The Church is like leaven put into dough. The yeast is not swallowed up by the heavy
mixture, but when allowed, raises it up above itself and pervades it with its efficacy, keeping alive
the image of God in man.
The Church is like a treasure hidden in the field of human lore. Men not given faith from
birth will find it, and appreciating its surpassing worth, will preserve it though they have to
sacrifice for it all they have of wealth, power, and reputation.

The Church is like a net, cast into the sea of human beings, catching alike good, bad, and
indifferent. She will do her best for them; bear with them, be calumniated on account of them,
until the day of final separation, the day of the King's second coming in judgment.
The Church is like a householder, then, bringing forth dogmas and morals, both new with
Christ's charity, and old according to the irrevocable moral code of Yahweh. (Matt., chap. 13;
Mark, chap. 4)

(3) DOCTRINAL SKETCH OF THE KINGDOM

Christ's Theology: Christ is God: "For from God I came forth and have come . . . before
Abraham came to be, I am" (John 8:42, 58). He is a member of a homogeneous Trinity,
commanding baptism "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt.
28:19). He declared that I and the Father are one" (John 10:30); hence, "no one knows the Son
except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and him to whom the Son
chooses to reveal Him" (Matt. 11:27). Equally intimate are Christ's relations with the Holy Spirit:
"When the Advocate has come, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who
proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness concerning Me. . . . He will glorify Me, because He
will receive of what is mine and declare it to you" (John 15:26; 16:14). All three Persons,
however, constitute but one God, and this "God is spirit, and they who worship Him must worship
Him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).

Christ's Economy: Christ, Son of God, but also "Son of Man came to save what was lost .
. . not . . . to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many" (Matt. 18:11;
20:28). The great effect of redemption will be the prospect of eternal life for mankind: I am the
resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, even if be die, shall live, and whoever lives and
believes in Me, shall never die" (John 11:25-26). The fruits of redemption are to be applied to
men through the sacraments: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the Kingdom of God" (John 3:5); "except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink
His blood, you shall not have life in you. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has life
everlasting and I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:54-55). These sacraments are
administered by men endowed with Christ's powers: "Do this in remembrance of Me" (Luke
22:19). "Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them, and whose
sins you shall retain, they are retained" (John 20:23). In short, all human salvation requires an
infused supernatural principle of grace: "I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in
Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

Christ's Law: "Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophets; I have
not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matt. 5:17). Greater perfection, however, is now demanded: "A
new commandment I give you, that you love one another: that as I have loved you, you also love
one another. By this will all men know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another"
(John 13:34-35). But the test of this love is always obedience: "He who does the will of My Father
in heaven shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matt. 7:21). "In this manner therefore shall you
pray: 'Our Father, who art in heaven"' (Matt. 6:9). Christ's challenge is to humility and suffering:
"Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart. . . . If anyone
wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matt. 11:29;
16:24).

Christian destiny: "The hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear the
voice of the Son of God. And they who have done good shall come forth unto resurrection of life;
but they who have done evil unto resurrection of judgment" (John 5:28-29). Finally, "heaven and
earth will pass, but My words will not pass away" (Mark 13:31).

(4) ORGANIZATION OF THE KINGDOM

Christ is King of the Church, the permanent, though later the invisible head of His mystic
body which is the Catholic Church. He is the vine and His followers are the branches; without
Him they can effect nothing. Though these members are spiritually inadequate of themselves, as
was repeatedly demonstrated during the public ministry and the Passion, Christ will infuse into
this embryo a soul, the Holy Spirit, who will teach them all things and lead them into all truth
(John, chap. 16).

Christ's Viceroy will be Peter. This Church will be built on Simon bar Jona, supernaturally
reconstituted as Peter, that Rock against which rains will come and floods surge, and winds blow,
and the very powers of hell will beat-but in vain, for this Rock is a man and an institution
strengthened by Christ (Matt., chap. 16; cf., chap. 7). Simon the man will yet give proof of
personal weakness, but "once converted" by Christ's grace, Peter the viceroy will "confirm his
brethren" with infallible teaching (Luke, chap. 22). Finally this Peter, having atoned for a threefold
denial by a threefold profession of loving allegiance to his King and Master, will be given the keys
of the Kingdom: be and his successors will be custodians of the sheepfold of the Good Shepherd
(John, chap. 21; cf., chap. 10).

Christ's legates a latere, His apostles, will be authentic teachers and rulers of the Church
under Peter. They will be the light shining in the darkness of error, the salt giving heavenly savor
against the putrefaction of vice (Matt., chap. 5). Under Peter, they, too, will bind and loose from
sin and censure, and if anyone will not hear them, he should be regarded as the Jews esteemed
the heathen and publican (Matt., chap. 18); yes, "be who hears you, hears Me, and he who
rejects you, rejects Me; and he who rejects Me, rejects Him who sent Me" (Luke 10:16).

The Church is one, despite these hierarchical distinctions, as God the Father and God
the Son are one, for "one is your Master, and you are all brothers." The Church will remain one
with Christ that the world may know that God has truly sent His divine Son; for of themselves men
will always disagree and separate, while God alone can bestow that unity and peace that the
world cannot give. The Church will so be one with Christ that He will accept her trials as His own:
"Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute Me?" (Acts 9:4). The world, indeed, will hate the Church
because it hated Christ for opposing its selfish maxims, but let this Church, this relatively "little
flock," have confidence, for Christ has overcome the world; and, as Christ defeated sin and death,
so shall the Church (John, chap. 17).

(5) PROCLAMATI0N OF THE KINGDOM

Christ's divine legation. Throughout His public ministry, Christ spoke with increasing
clearness of His divine commission, reaching a climax in His last sermon on Tuesday before His
Passion: "I have not spoken on my own authority, but He who sent Me, the Father, has
commanded me what I should say and what I should declare . . ." (John 12:49). Finally it was
during His Passion that Christ published His claims to divinity with unmistakeable plainness and
authority: His was the unimpeachable sincerity of a "martyr," that is, a "witness" to the truth.

Declaration to the Jews. Caiphas, chief of Judaism, high priest of the old and dying
Covenant, interrogated Jesus Christ, high priest of the New and perfect Testament: "I adjure thee
by the living God, that thou tell us if thou art the Christ, the Son of God?" Jesus replied with
utmost clarity: "I am" (Matt. 26:63; Mark 14:62). This was received with the scandalized
comment, still the view of many Jews, "He has blasphemed."
Declaration to the Gentiles. Pilate, Roman governor, representative of imperial authority,
spokesman for paganism, in turn demanded of Christ, the coming Lord of the world,
acknowledgment of His claim: "Thou art a king then?" For men of all ages came the calm reply:
"Thou sayest it; I am a king. This was why I was born, and why I have come into the world, to
bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice." And this was greeted with
the cynical retort, still the opinion of many Gentiles, "What is truth?" (John 18:37-38).

For all men of good will, however, there remain historical facts which no "higher criticism"
can erase: testimony sealed in death, confirmed by resurrection from the tomb, banded down by
witnesses who wrote in blood, demonstrated by miracles, whether exceptions from physical laws,
or those superhuman "moral miracles" which cannot be denied in the aggregate without
repudiating history and all human testimony.
Redemptive Passion. Outside Jerusalem, at Golgotha, "place of the Skull"-of Adam
perhaps, of fallen mankind surely-the evangelists relate with stark simplicity: "They crucified Him
there. . . . From the sixth hour there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. . . . He
said: 'It is consummated' . . . and crying with a loud voice, said: 'Father, into Thy hands I
commend my spirit' . . . and bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. . . . And behold the curtain of
the Temple was rent in two from top to bottom . . . and the centurion said, 'Truly He was the Son
of God."' Then the Jewish leaders, "departing, made the sepulchre sure"-well termed by Bishop
Sheen the most ironical sentence written (cf. John, chap. 19; Luke, chap. 23; Matt., chap. 27).

(6) FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM

Victorious Resurrection. "Now when He had risen from the dead early on the first day of
the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene" (Mark 16:9). Christ Himself implanted
unshakable conviction in His apostles: "'Peace be to you! It is I, do not be afraid . . . for a spirit
does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have"' (Luke 24:36, 39). At length even doubting
Thomas shared the conviction of the apostles who would dare assert to the Jews and the
Sanhedrin itself: "But God raised Him on the third day and caused Him to be plainly seen . . . by
witnesses designated beforehand by God, that is, by us" (Acts 10:40-41). St. Paul could stake all
on Christ's resurrection: "If Christ has not risen, vain then is our preaching, vain too is your faith. .
. . But Christ has risen from the dead" (1 Cor. 15:14, 20). Impressed by such unimpeachable
testimony, St. Ignatius could argue on the eve of martyrdom; "If, then, as some atheists--infidels--
say, He suffered only in appearance . . . why am I bound? why do I long to be thrown to the
beasts? Do I die in vain? Have I testified falsely to the Lord?" (Smyrneans, 1-7.)

Final delegation. The risen Christ fulfilled the organizational plan already sketched. He
created His hierarchy in the Cenacle: "As the Father has sent me, I also send you. . . . Receive
the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them . . ." (John 20:21-23). Within
forty days of the Resurrection, one morning after breakfast on the shore of the Galilean Lake,
Christ exacted of Peter his threefold pledge of love, rewarding Him with a triple commission to
care for His flock: lambs, little sheep, adult sheep-all without exception. At length, in the Galilean
region, "Jesus drew near and spoke to them saying, 'All power in heaven and on earth has been
given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them . . . teaching them
to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you all days, even unto the
consummation of the world.' . . . And it came to pass as He blessed them, that He parted from
them and was carried up into heaven" (Matt. 28:18-20; Luke 24:51).
C. Epilogue: The King's Abiding

Christ's Mystic Body. "'Behold I am with you all days even unto the consummation of the
world.' If you ask the Catholic Church to tell us, according to her own notion of herself, what
constitutes her essential nature and what is the substance of her self-consciousness, she
answers us through the mouth of the greatest of her teachers, that the Church is the realization
on earth of the kingdom of God. 'The Church of today, of the present, is the kingdom of Christ
and the kingdom of heaven' such is the emphatic assertion of St. Augustine. The 'kingdom of
heaven' and 'kingdom of God' taken up from the prophecy of Daniel and proclaimed by Christ,
that kingdom which grows great like the mustard seed, and like leaven permeates the world, and
which like a field of corn shelters both wheat and cockle until the harvest, this 'kingdom of
heaven,' is, so the Church believes, implanted in her own being and there manifested. The
Church believes that she is the manifestation of that newness, that supernature, and that divinity
which come in with the kingdom of God, the manifestation of holiness. She is the new
supernatural reality brought by Christ into the world and arrayed in the garment of the transitory;
she is the divine attesting itself under earthly veils. . . Christ the Lord is the real self of the
Church."

Conclusion: When, accordingly, we leave this feeble and abbreviated recapitulation of

Christ's own mission-the thorough treatment of Karl Adam, Spirit of Catholicism, trans. Justin
McCann (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1929), pp. 14-30. which is the proper subject of
scriptural manuals-in order to pursue the history of the Catholic Church, it will merely be to leave
Christ for Christ. In His mystical body which is the Church Christ continues His mission in the
world, and here in all essentials, "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, and today, yes, and
forever" (Heb. 13:8).

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) II. Foundation of the Church
7. The King's Viceroy: Petrine Primacy (30-67)

II
Foundation of the Church

7. THE KING'S VICEROY: PETRINE PRIMACY

A. Petrine Primacy at Jerusalem (30-50)

(1)CHRISTIAN BEGINNINGS (30-36)
Church of the Cenacle. According to the chronology adopted, the date of Christ's
Ascension would be May 18, 30. On this day the Church numbered some 620 members: about
500 in Galilee and 120 in Jerusalem. With Christ's visible departure, ecclesiastical leadership fell
to His viceroy and legates. "All these with one mind continued steadfastly in prayer with the
women and Mary, the Mother of Jesus" (Acts 1:14). Mary would be mother of Christ's mystic
body as well as of His physical. The first disciplinary act of the apostolic college under Peter's
presidency was to provide for its perpetuation: the disciple Matthias was promoted to the
apostolic office vacated by the treason and death of Judas of Kerioth (Acts 1:15).

Pentecostal initiative. Pentecost, May 28, galvanized the Church and her hierarchy into
action. Though she already had her invisible bead, Christ, and a visible bead in Peter, she
remained lifeless until the Holy Spirit, soul of the mystic body, descended on the Cenacle. At
once Peter preached the first sermon of the Church to a group of Pentecostal pilgrims from the
Diaspora. He recalled the Messianic prophecies fulfilled in Christ, and his words were accorded a
divine unction, for on that very day the Christian membership was increased by 3,000. For
continued stress on the Lord's resurrection, several apostles were arrested. But the Sanhedrin
eventually dismissed them, first with an admonition, and then with corporeal punishment. The
Jewish leaders feared to provoke both Rome and the people by another tumult, and the
conscientious Gamaliel was advising caution. But miracles brought human calculations to
naught, and the Church increased rapidly.

Clerical recruitment. In consequence, the apostles became so occupied with preaching

and the ministration of sacraments, that they could not easily attend to the details of temporal
administration. Christian converts, for the most part poor and disowned, had pooled their
resources. But disputes arose between Palestinian Jews and those of the Diaspora about
distribution of the common property. Accordingly the apostles conferred a portion of the
sacrament of holy orders on seven men nominated by the community; these became diaconoi:
deacons or servants of the poor, and apostolic assistants in temporal affairs (Acts, chap. 6).
When it became necessary to delegate sacerdotal powers as well, the apostles ordained priests
as their spiritual aides; before long we hear of presbyteroi other than the apostles (Acts 11:30;
15:4).

Missions. St. Stephen, one of the new deacons from the Diaspora, was less considerate
than the apostles of Palestinian traditions and an irate mob, possibly taking advantage of an
interregnum between Pilate and Marcellus, made him the Church's first martyr. Persecution
dispersed some Christians to Samaria where Peter and John are found confirming those baptized
by Deacon Philip, and rejecting simony incarnate (Acts, chaps. 7-8). This missionary expansion
prompted the Sanhedrin's agent, Saul of Tarsus, to extend the dragnet to Damascus. But on the
way this fiery Pharisee met the King in person, and accepted a divine commission to become the
Apostle Paul. After presenting his credentials to Peter, be retired to mystic communion with
Jesus pending his own hour. The apostolic college was complete; the patriarchs of the New
Testament had all been chosen to provide the foundation of the Church upon Christ as
cornerstone (Acts, chap. 9).

(2) EPIPHANY OF CATHOLICITY (36-42)

Gentile conversion. De jure, the Church had been instituted for all men; de facto, up to
this time all its members were Jews. Now the Christian Church, potentially universal, actually
manifested its catholicity, though not without discussion and argument. About 40, St. Peter set
out upon an episcopal visitation. At Caesarea be received the request of the centurion Cornelius
for admission to the Church. Reminded by vision of the Church's universality, St. Peter baptized
Cornelius. Some Jewish Christians made some demur at this, but were silenced by Peter's
detailed explanation. Yet many probably considered this an exceptional case, and there is no
indication, moreover, that Cornelius did not adopt Mosaic practices. Thus a misunderstanding
remained latent in the Palestinian community: Gentiles might be converted to the Church, but this
ought likewise involve embracing Judaism.

Herodian persecution. The persecution begun with St. Stephen's martyrdom seems to
have subsided, perhaps because the Jews were distracted by Emperor Gaius's threat to erect his
statue in the Temple. But Herod III Agrippa (41-44), client prince of Judea by Claudius's favor,
sought to ingratiate himself with his new subjects by launching another persecution against
Christians. In this James bar Zebedee became the first apostle to suffer martyrdom, and St.
Peter himself was rescued only by angelic intervention. This persecution died out with Herod and
the restoration of Roman procurators (Acts, chap. 12). Once again adversity had but spread the
Christians more widely, this time among the Gentiles. Dispersal of the apostles to their world-
wide missions took place about this time, if we credit Clement of Alexandria's statement that
Christ had instructed them: "After twelve years you shall go forth into the world lest anyone say:
'We have not heard'" (Stromata,VI, 5).

Antiochian Catholicity. In any event many Christians had gone to Antioch to escape
persecution so that the Church's horizon had widened. This Gentile environment called Paul from
retirement and he and Barnabas made many converts from paganism. The entry of the latter into
the Church necessitated a distinctive name for members of the new religion, hitherto confounded
with Judaism in Gentile minds. Thus it came about that "in Antioch . . . the disciples were first
called Christians" (Acts 11:26). This pagan nickname was gladly accepted by Christ's viceroy (1
Peter 4:16) and so became general. Hitherto Jerusalem had been St. Peter's headquarters.
According to the Liber Pontificalis, he then held the see of Antioch for seven years. If St. Peter
went to Rome in 42, his Antiochian episcopate would seem to date from 35. This accords with
the chronology of the Acts, nor is the seven years' stay at all certain. It is sufficient to state that at
some time prior to or contemporaneous with his Roman episcopate, St. Peter also supervised the
see of Antioch. It would seem likely that with Christian expansion from the Palestinian cradle, St.
Peter may have transferred his headquarters first from Jerusalem to Antioch, a Hellenistic
metropolis, and finally to Rome itself. He certainly supervised the organization of the church at
Antioch as apostle and primate, but need not be termed its bishop -- Eusebius's exact words are:
"On the death of Evodius, who was the first bishop of Antioch, Ignatius was appointed the
second" (History, 111, 22). St. Peter could have founded the Antiochian hierarchy and then gone
on to Rome, leaving Evodius as his vicar.

(3) JUDAIZING CRISIS (42-50)

Origin of dispute. During his first missionary journey, St. Paul had been hampered by the
Mosaic persuasions of Jewish Christians; when be returned to Antioch, he found Judaizers active
there. Silenced for a time by Cornelius's admission, they were now alarmed at multiplication of
Gentile conversions. These converted Pharisees not only continued to observe the entire Mosaic
ceremonial themselves, but insisted that: "Unless you be circumcised after the manner of Moses,
you cannot be saved" (Acts 15:1). The dogmatic issue was serious. Did Christ's Redemption
suffice for salvation, or must all become Jews before embracing Christianity?

Apostolic council. Fully aware of the importance of the question, St. Paul beaded a
delegation from Antioch to Jerusalem. Here about 50 A.D. he found St. James bar Alpheus, now
bishop of the Holy City, and St. Peter, who had possibly left Rome upon Claudius's expulsion of
Jews in 49. These apostles at least, and probably St. John, constituted the Council of Jerusalem,
pattern of all succeeding ecclesiastical assemblies. Both parties to the dispute presented their
views and discussion became heated. Were the Church but a democratic congregation, the
difference could have dissolved it into warring factions. But "when there had been much
disputing," St. Peter delivered an ex cathedra decision: "We believe that we are saved through
the grace of the Lord Jesus." And then, the Acts add significantly, "the whole meeting quieted
down." All that remained was to put the decision into execution. St. James made an address, not
to confirm Peter's decision, but to propose prudent formulas for implementing it without undue
shock to Jewish conservatism. Accordingly four disciplinary canons were drawn up, enjoining
that all Christians abstain from: (1) "things sacrificed to idols"; (2) "blood"; (3) "what is strangled";
and (4) "immorality." The first three were temporary prohibitions, regulations of the Mosaic Law
applicable even to strangers dwelling among the Jews; hence the propriety of retaining them as
long as Jew and Gentile intermingled in the new Christian communities. The fourth canon, Prat
opines, refers to marriage with blood relatives. If so, it marks a beginning of ecclesiastical
matrimonial impediments. The Council communicated both dogmatic decision and disciplinary
prescriptions authoritatively: "For the Holy Spirit and we have decided." For all of docile
disposition, the Judaizing crisis was over; obstinate Judaizers gathered into a sect denounced by
St. John (Rev; chaps. 2, 3) and St. Ignatius of Antioch (Magnesians, 8).

Antiochian echo. Apparently soon after the Apostolic Council, Sts. Peter and Paul met at
Antioch. St. Peter followed the conciliar decrees in practice by dining with Gentile converts, but
when some Palestinian extremists appeared he withdrew from contact with the Gentile to avoid
scandalizing the Palestinians. St. Paul, quick to appreciate Gentile mentality, and realizing the
force of St. Peter's example, " withstood him to his face" (Gal. 2:11). St. Paul's action is no
objection to papal primacy, but rather confirms it. St. Peter was guilty merely of trying too hard to
please everybody. Even so, St. Paul cites this incident to the Galatians as proof of his
courageous defense of their interests; evidently this Peter is formidable even for St. Paul.

B. Petrine Primacy at Rome (42-67)

(1) ROMAN EPISCOPATE

Petrine assertion. That St. Peter was the first bishop of Rome is historically certain. He
himself sent greetings from "the church which is at Babylon" (1 Peter 5:13). Since the Babylonian
captivity, this term in Jewish circles indicated a persecutor of their nation. Besides St. John the
Apostle noted below, other writers confirm the identification with Rome in this instance. Clement
of Alexandria says explicitly: "Peter mentions Mark in his first epistle which they say he also wrote
in Rome, as be indicates where be calls the city figuratively Babylon" (Eusebius, History, II, 15).

Apostolic recognition. Writing to the Romans about 57 or 58, St. Paul assured them of
his desire to visit them, though he has not been in a hurry to do so as "I have not preached this
Gospel where Christ has already been named, lest I might build on another man's foundation"
(Rom. 15:20). This "other man," all tradition affirms, must have been Peter. St. John, moreover,
writing after the martyrdom of Sts. Peter and Paul at Rome, after an allusion to Rome a "Babylon
the great . . . on seven mountains," exclaims: "Make merry over her, O heaven, and you the
saints and apostles and the prophets, for God has judged your cause upon her" (Apoc. 17:5, 9;
18:20).

Patristic confirmation. St. Clement of Rome, writing about 96 regarding the Neronian
persecution, asserted that "Peter by reason of unrighteous envy endured not one or two, but
many trials, and so, having borne testimony, passed to his appointed place of glory." This took
place "among us"; i.e., at Rome (2 Corinthians 5). St. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, the only see
that might plausibly challenge Roman primacy, yet assures the Romans that: "I do not command
you as Peter and Paul did," and enthusiastically salutes that church "which presides in the region
of the Romans" (Romans, 1, 4). St. Denis of Corinth about 170 attested that Peter and Paul
"taught together in Italy and suffered martyrdom at the same time" (Eusebius, History, II, 25). St.
Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, St. John's "grand-disciple," and visitor to Rome, wrote of "the very
great, very ancient, and universally known church founded and organized at Rome by the two
glorious apostles, Peter and Paul" (Against Heresies, III, 3). Incidentally, Sts. Peter and Paul
should not be regarded as cofounders or coadjutor bishops of Rome (D. 1091). Tertullian of
Carthage clearly implies that Rome is an apostolic church founded by St. Peter, that his episcopal
chair is still preserved there, and that after baptizing converts in the Tiber, he was crucified at
Rome (Prescriptions, 32, 36; Baptism, 4). All these testimonies induced the first Church historian
to conclude: "Peter the Apostle, having first founded the Church at Antioch, goes to the city of
Rome, and there preaches the Gospel and there abides as head of the Church" (Eusebius,

Chronicle: Olympiad 204).

(2) ROMAN ACTIVITY

The chronology of St. Peter's Roman episcopate is less certainly known. In his first
edition of his Chronicle, Eusebius suggested an implausible 39 to 64 A.D.; in his History (II, 14; III,
13) he assigns St. Peter a stay from 42 to 67. The Liber Pontificalis would have Peter .enter
Rome under Nero Caesar and occupy the episcopal see for 25 years, 1 month, and 8 days."
Such exactitude is suspicious, but the quarter-century pontificate is not without basis in tradition,
if it be not interpreted as a continuous uninterrupted sojourn. The date of St. Peter's martyrdom
must fall within Nero's persecution (64-68) and remains in dispute, but the traditional date, June
29, 67, seems as reliable as any.

Hypothetical reconstruction. Tradition is elusive and vague regarding St. Peter's Roman
activity, but the following account tries to blend the more reliable legends. Whatever instructions
Christ may have given St. Peter about the choice of Rome as his see, legend assigns the need of
confuting Simon Magus as the immediate occasion of the Apostle's coming to Rome. On his
arrival, St. Peter would plausibly at first have settled in the Jewish quarter in Trastevere. Since he
was not a learned scribe like St. Paul, be probably was not invited to speak in the synagogues,
and had to make converts by private contacts. Later legend locates him in the house of St. Paul's
friends, Aquila and Priscilla, on the Aventine, and at the Ostrian Villa of the Acilii, where he is
known to have baptized. There as well as in a subsequent legendary abode in the house of
Senator Pudens episcopal chairs were set up. These were well known to antiquity. One survived
into the sixth century; the remains of the other are today in St. Peter's Basilica. At Rome, St.
Peter sanctioned St. Mark's rendition of his oral catechesis as the Second Gospel, and himself
composed two canonical epistles. The Liber Pontificalis and the Apostolic Constitutions (VII, 46)
may preserve some facts in stating that St. Peter consecrated Linus, Cletus, and Clement, who
served as his vicars during his absences, and in turn succeeded him in the papacy. One of St.
Peter's absences certainly took him to the Council of Jerusalem; the same or another journey saw
him evangelizing Pontus and other Asiatic provinces saluted in his First Epistle. At Rome also be
made converts of such distinction that their "faith is proclaimed all over the world" (Rom. 1:8).
Doubtless most of the faithful saluted by St. Paul (ibid., chap. 16) were St. Peter's converts.
Tradition or archaeology would add the names of Priscilla, Acilius Glabrio, Pomponia Graecina,
wife of General Plautius, and Senator Cornelius Pudens.

(3) ROMAN MARTYRDOM

Neronian persecution. On July 19, 64, a fire of unknown origin broke out among shops
near the Circus Maximus. It raged for five days before halted by demolition squads directed by
Emperor Nero. Though the emperor befriended the homeless, be may have expressed some
heartless exultation over the opportunity of realizing his scheme of rebuilding Rome.
Unsubstantiated rumor spread among the desperate masses that Nero himself had instigated the
fire. To divert suspicion the emperor held an investigation, during which blame was laid on the
Christians. The latter were now accused of "hatred for the human race"; in modern terms, they
were branded as anarchists sworn to arson and massacre. To placate the mob and satisfy their
love of the spectacular, the executions were public. During August the accused were crucified,
thrown to the beasts, or used as human torches to light Nero's gardens. Eventually, however,
Nero overplayed his band. The number of victims exceeded the likelihood of a secret arson plot,
while their intense tortures, Tacitus says (Annales, XV, 39-40), excited compassion even among
bloodthirsty Romans. When this sentiment became common, the persecution boomeranged and
hastened Nero's fall. The persecution seems to have extended beyond the city, but to what
extent it is difficult to estimate.

Martyrdom of Sts. Peter and Paul. Christian loyalty would have done everything to
protect St. Peter, and the legendary Quo Vadis incident of Peter's encounter with Christ while in
flight from Rome may have a basis in this (St. Ambrose, Against Auxentius, 13). St. Paul, who
had left Rome after release from his first captivity, was arrested in the East and sent to Rome for
trial. This time he anticipated an unfavorable sentence (2 Tim. 4:6). St. Peter was eventually
apprehended as well and shared similar anticipations (2 Peter 1:14). Eusebius links the apostles
in death, though St. Peter by crucifixion on Vatican Hill, and St. Paul by beheading on the Ostian
Way (History, II, 25).

St. Peter's tomb on the Vatican was already well known to Father Caius in the second century: "I
can show you the trophies (ornamented tombs) of the apostles. For if you will go to the Vatican
or to the Ostian Way, you will find the trophies of those who laid the foundation of this church"
(Eusebius, History, II, 25). Thereafter a wealth of historical and archaeological evidence, recently
checked by Pope Pius XII, leaves no doubt that St. Peter's body was buried on Vatican Hill, within
the area of the present basilica; whether his actual remains can be identified is another question.
The apocryphal Acts of Peter probably contain a true tradition in affirming that the Apostle was
crucified and buried " near the obelisk between the goal posts" of the Neronian Circus. The same
obelisk that cast its shadow over the dying apostle today overlooks millions who come to
venerate the tomb of Christ's first viceroy.

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) II. Foundation of the Church
8. The King's Legates: Apostolic Missions (42-67)

II
Foundation of the Church

8. THE KING'S LEGATES: APOSTOLIC MISSIONS

A. The Apostolic College

(1)PERSONAL APOSTOLIC PREROGATIVES
Immediate testimony to Christ was the primary personal prerogative of the apostle: he
was sent a latere Christi, His personally chosen representative. Christ selected the original
twelve; Judas's replacement, St. Matthias, though nominated by the apostles, was left to the
providential cast of lots. St. Paul was called by Christ in an extraordinary manner, and it is
doubtful if be actually exercised his apostolic office before the martyrdom of St. James bar
Zebedee. But even if for a time there were thirteen apostles, the numerical parallel with the Old
Testament patriarchs holds, for Jacob adopted Joseph's sons: "Ephraim and Manasses shall be
mine even as Reuben and Simeon" (Gen. 48:5). These legates of the New Testament were sent
to testify to Christ's divinity to those persons who had not themselves seen the Master. Since the
chief proof of this claim was Christ's resurrection, apt fulfillment of this mission called for personal
vocation by Christ and the direct evidence from sight of the risen Savior.

Personal infallibility was a corollary of the legatine commission. The apostles were to
promulgate Christian revelation: "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matt.
28:20). Such an essential ministry required freedom from error; hence Christ promised: "The
Spirit of truth . . . will teach you all the truth" (John 16:13). This is why St. Paul could say: "If
anyone preach a gospel to you other than that which you have received, let him be anathema"
(Gal. 1:9); and St. John could insist: "If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do
not receive him into the house" (II John 10). But this individual apostolic infallibility, unlike St.
Peter's official inerrancy, did not descend to the apostles' individual successors, for St. Paul
warns the prelates of Ephesus: "From among your own selves men will rise speaking perverse
things" (Acts 20:30). Christ's legates, therefore, were preserved from error in promulgating
revelation; with the death of the last apostle, official Christian revelation was closed. The
apostles' successors, the bishops, would be corporately infallible, but not as individuals.
Confirmation in grace is another personal privilege generally attributed to the apostles by
theologians.

Extensive missionary jurisdiction was an apostolic prerogative. St. Paul claims anxiety
for "the care of all the churches" (2 Cor. 11:28); whether this special apostolic jurisdiction was
truly universal or extended merely to all churches founded by each apostle is controverted. It
would seem more probable to conclude with Billot (De Ecclesia, III, 26) that the apostles, while
enjoying an extraordinarily extensive jurisdiction, did not as individuals share St. Peter's exclusive
prerogative of universal rule. From Christ through Peter they derived broad missionary powers to
rule many but not all Christian communities. A natural division of labor would seem to have called
for each apostle to rule under Peter those churches founded by himself.

(2) MISSIONARY EPISCOPATE

 The Apostles were the first bishops. As a rule, they did not reside permanently in one
place, but continually traveled to found new churches and confirm others in the Faith. During the
apostolic period, then, the residential episcopate does not seem to have been the general rule.
St. Peter, indeed, was bishop of Rome, but besides his universal primacy, continued to exercise
direct missionary rule over Antioch, Pontus, etc. St. James bar Alpheus also appears as
residential bishop of Jerusalem as early as the Apostolic Council, though his canonical epistle
indicates a broad solicitude for all Christian converts from Judaism among "the twelve tribes that
are in the Dispersion" (James 1:1). St. Paul's is the classic example of the missionary
episcopate, over the Gentiles of the Hellenistic East. Probably the other apostles exercised
similar missions outside the Roman Empire. During their lifetime these apostles remained the
sole ordinaries of the sees founded by them; that is, though they may have had auxiliaries
possessing episcopal orders, such as Sts. Titus and Timothy, they themselves retained
jurisdiction over all their foundations. Whether or no they collectively composed the Apostles'
Creed-and at least there is good reason to attribute its nucleus to Sts. Peter and Paul-the
apostles personally took care that there should be everywhere "one Lord, one faith, one baptism"
(Eph. 4:5).

The presbyteroi-episkopoi were the apostles' assistants in their missionary labors, but the
exact modern equivalent of this class of ministers is in doubt. The following theory for the most
part follows Prat. There can be no doubt that during the first century the terms, presbyteros, and
episkopos, were interchangeable: St. Paul applies both to the same men (Acts 20:18, 28). The
question remains whether these terms meant the same as they do today. Probably the term
presbyteros or "elder" was originally applied to Christian priests in Jewish communities to
distinguish them from the Jewish hiereus. On the other hand, in Gentile communities, the same
Christian priests were designated episkopoi or "overseers" from a term familiar to pagan
administration. As the exclusiveness of the Jewish and Gentile elements in the Church broke
down, the names became interchangeable. Hence unless otherwise stated the presbyteroi-
episkopoi of the Acts and Epistles are simple priests; only Titus and Timothy and other chosen
disciples had the plenitude of the priesthood, or episcopal consecration. Colleges of such priests
were residential supervisors of missionary churches founded and governed by the apostles. Only
subsequently did it become customary to restrict the term episkopos to those priests who had
received the fullness of episcopal consecration. By analogy, several American states at first
entitled their chief executives "presidents," e.g., Benjamin Franklin was "president of
Pennsylvania." Later this term was reserved to the chief executive of the federal government and
state executives were known as governors. We can only conjecture why episkopos was used to
designate the higher office in the Christian hierarchy. Its meaning of overseer or superintendent
seems better to connote a chief ruler than presbyteros or elder or senator. Perhaps also the term
gained prestige by St. Peter's application of it to Christ: the "shepherd and [episkopon]

of your souls" (1 Peter 2:25).

B. The Individual Apostles

(1) APOSTOLIC DELEGATION TO THE JEWS

St. James bar Alpheus seems to have been designated as bishop of Jerusalem by St.
Peter before the latter's departure for Antioch and Rome: St. Peter bade the Christians report his
escape "to James and to the brethren" (Acts 12:17). St. James was prominent at the Apostolic
Council, and is saluted by St. Paul on his return to the Holy City (Acts, chap. 15; 21:18).
Eusebius places St. James at the head of the list of bishops of Jerusalem (History, II, 23).
Besides his care for Jerusalem, St. James seems to have been assigned supervision over all
converts from Judaism: he appears as their "cardinal protector" in his canonical epistle. While St.
Peter exercised general supervision over both Jews and Gentiles, their special interests in the
Roman Empire would seem to have been committed respectively to Sts. James and Paul. In
keeping with his charge, St. James strove to conciliate the Jews by strict personal observance of
the Mosaic precepts. A man of severe asceticism, he was respected by Jews as well as
Christians. But though the Pharisees tolerated him, the Sadducees, led by the high priest Annas
the Younger, stirred up a mob to stone St. James after his courageous confession of Christ
(Josephus, Antiquities, xx, 4). His martyrdom seems to have occurred about 62, during a
procuratorial interregnum between Festus's death and Albinus's arrival.

St. John bar Zebedee remained in the background at Jerusalem during these same
years, probably because his protective role in regard to the Blessed Virgin prompted a
contemplative life. The apocryphal Dormitio Virginis implies that Mary died at Jerusalem about
48. Though this testimony is far from certain, it is more plausible than the rival legend that the
Blessed Virgin accompanied St. John to Ephesus and died there after 67. Juvenal, bishop of
Jerusalem in the fifth century, informed Empress St. Pulcheria that Mary had died at Jerusalem in
the presence of all the apostles save Thomas. She had been buried in Gethsemane, but when
her tomb was opened three days later for Thomas's benefit, it was found empty. From this and
certain miraculous signs the apostles concluded to Mary's assumption. While the latter dogma is
now beyond question, the foregoing details are but legendary: neither certain tradition nor proven
myth.

After St. Paul's death, Eusebius informs us (History, III, 18, 23-24) that St. John went to
Ephesus where he may have succeeded the Apostle of the Gentiles in a general supervision of
the churches of Asia Minor; the Apocalypse and Johannine epistles seem to confirm this. As will
be seen, he opposed Judaizers and other heretics. He is said to have rejected Cerinthus the
Gnostic at the baths (St. Irenaeus, A. H., III, 3). Other anecdotes report his pursuit and
conversion of a Christian relapsed into brigandage (Clement, Quis Dives, 42); his continual
exhortation to fraternal charity (St. Jerome, Galatians, vi, 10), his pet pheasant (Cassian,
Conferences, xxiv). About 95, during Domitian's persecution, he escaped miraculously from
burning oil at Rome (Tertullian, Prescriptions, 36). Exiled to Patmos, he wrote the Apocalypse
(St. Irenaeus, A. H., V, 30). Afterwards he returned to Ephesus, where he wrote his Gospel at the
request of disciples, among whom were St. Polycarp, St. Ignatius, and possibly St. Papias. St.
John, last survivor of the apostles, died at Ephesus, probably about 100 A.D. (Eusebius, History,
V, 24).

(2) APOSTOLIC DELEGATION TO THE GENTILES

St. Paul of Tarsus, whose conversion has already been recounted, also spent his early
apostolate in contemplative waiting on Providence. About 42, however, he was summoned to his
life work by St. Barnabas, overburdened with Gentile converts at Antioch. Antioch, however, was
to be but St. Paul's base of operations; he was soon on a mission to Asia Minor (Acts, chap. 13).

First Mission (45-49). With Sts. Barnabas and Mark and other members of the Antiochian
Church, St. Paul proceeded to Cyprus where they converted the proconsul Sergius Paulus.
Thence they entered the mainland to preach at Antioch in Pisidia. Here the stubborn resistance
of the Jews prompted St. Paul to turn to the Gentiles, in some instances dispensing his converts
from the Mosaic law. His subsequent missionary journey took him to Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.
In each city, despite opposition, be set up Christian communities and ordained priests to minister
to them. The missionaries retraced their steps, including Perge on the return.

Second Mission (50-52). After the Apostolic Council had absolved Gentile converts from
Mosaic prescriptions, St. Paul set out with the conciliar decrees to revisit Derbe, Lystra, Iconium,
and Antioch of Pisidia. Traveling by land and led on by divine inspiration, he rapidly passed
through Phrygia, Galatia, and Mysia, to arrive at Troas. Here the vision of the "man from
Macedonia" invited him to Europe. In spite of a scourging at Philippi, he succeeded in
establishing a flourishing church. Then his route took him through Salonika, Beroea, and Athens,
where he addressed the Areopagite Academy. Stoics and Epicureans interrupted his discourse
on the resurrection, though Denis the Areopagite and several others were won over (Acts, chap.
17). In all these places converts were won, and at the port of Corinth he founded a large and
polyglot community which was to give him many trials. Here be had to write letters to the
Thessalonians to prevent working-class converts from laying down their tools in expectation of an
imminent parousia: second coming of Christ. Then after a brief visit to Ephesus, St. Paul
returned to Jerusalem to fulfill the Nazarite vow.

Third Mission (53-58). According to promise, St. Paul returned to Ephesus and en route
revisited many Asiatic churches. From Ephesus he directed other communities by letter, and
thence may have sent deputies to regulate serious internal disputes at Corinth. At Ephesus the
tumult of the silversmiths made it prudent for him to return to supervise the Christian communities
in Macedonia and Greece. Having collected alms for Jerusalem, he set out on his return. Still
avoiding Ephesus, be summoned its priests to Miletus for a farewell exhortation.

Last days. At Jerusalem, St. Paul was arrested for alleged violation of Mosaic
prescriptions. During the following years he defended himself from Jewish plots to kill him by
pleading his Roman citizenship and remaining in imperial custody. His case dragged on for two
years under the venal procurator Felix, but the latter's successor Festus promptly granted his
appeal to the imperial supreme court. After suffering shipwreck at Malta, Paul arrived at Rome
about 61. Though the Acts cease their account at this point, we have sound tradition in favor of
his liberation by 63. Thereafter the Muratorian Canon reports a mission to Spain, while his later
Epistles seem to presume a final journey to Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece. Ultimately, as already
mentioned, be came to Rome and perished with St. Peter in the Neronian persecution. His tomb
is outside the city on the Ostian Way; his epitaph might be: "Be imitators of me as I am of Christ."

(3) THE OTHER APOSTLES

St. Matthew, according to Rufinus (History, III, 1), preached the Gospel in Ethiopia, and a
copy of his Gospel was found in Arabia. Later testimonies, which have not the same reliability,
assign him a mission in India.
St. Thomas, according to Eusebius and Rufinus, preached the word of Christ to the
Parthians, which designation may include Medes and Persians.
St. Nathanael bar Tholmai, according to the same authorities, preached in Upper India;
later and unsubstantiated legends assign him other mission fields.

St. Andrew, according to Eusebius, preached to the Scythians, presumably in Thrace and
the Ukraine. Constantinople subsequently invented a claim to him as its first bishop. Though St.
Andrew is revered as a martyr, his Acts are not authentic.
St. Philip and his virgin daughter labored and died at Hierapolis in Phrygia, according to
Eusebius (History, III, 32), who, however, may have confused him with Deacon Philip.

St. Jude bar Alpheus preached at Edessa. Though he could have converted Prince
Agbar of Edessa, the latter's letter to Christ is deemed apocryphal (Eusebius, History, III, 19; cf. 1,
13).
St. James bar Zebedee died at Jerusalem as already noted (Acts 12). Late legends
giving him a mission in Spain cannot be substantiated,
though Compostella claims his body.
St. Simon Zelotes is not mentioned in early tradition; later legends, deemed probable by
the Bollandists, assign him Persia and Babylonia.

St. Matthias is the subject of many contradictory legends emanating from the apocrypha.
The common denominator of these tales is that he labored somewhere in the East and was
crucified.
The Evangelists, Sts. Mark and Luke, are assigned sees at Alexandria and Greece
respectively by Eusebius (History, II, 16; III, 4).
Conclusion: "There were many others . . . who held the first rank in the apostolic
succession. These, as holy disciples of such men, also built up the churches whose foundations
had previously been laid in every place by the apostles. They augmented the means of
promulgating the Gospel more and more, and spread the seeds of salvation and of the heavenly
Kingdom throughout the world" (Eusebius, History, III, 37).

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) II. Foundation of the Church
9. Legatine Overseer: Episcopal Successions (67-107)

II
Foundation of the Church

9. LEGATINE OVERSEERS: EPISCOPAL SUCCESSION

A. The Episcopal College

(1)APOSTOLIC VICARIATE
Residential sees. In thoroughly evangelized Christian communities, the transition from
the missionary to the residential episcopate seems to have been completed by the first decade of
the second century. In other words, instead of the primitive organization of colleges of
presbyteroi-episkopoi ruling local churches under the higher jurisdiction of an apostle or apostolic
vicar, the familiar modern system of the monarchical episcopate appears. Single "overseers" or
bishops in the modern sense presided over dioceses with fixed territorial limits, as contrasted with
the more indefinite missionary jurisdiction still enjoyed today by vicars and prefects apostolic.
This residential episcopate, already anticipated in St. James's special status at Jerusalem, is
common in Asia Minor by the second century. It is probable that the "angels" of the churches of
Asia Minor saluted by St. John are their bishops (Apoc., chaps. 1-3). In any event it is clear from
the letters of St. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch at the opening of the second century, that the
monarchical episcopate had been established at Smyrna, Magnesia, Philippi, Ephesus, Trallis,
and Philadelphia. In these communities, priests and deacons must be subject to the bishop; in
brief, "apart from the bishop, let no one perform any of the functions pertaining to the church"
(Smyrneans, 8). The bishop so personifies ecclesiastical unity, that St. Ignatius says, in the first
recorded use of the term: "Where the bishop is, there is the Catholic Church" (ibid.). In the case
of four sees, Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, Eusebius has furnished unbroken lists of
bishops back to the apostles. There can be no doubt, then, that the episcopal college has
succeeded to all the essential powers of the apostolic college; collectively the bishops are truly
the " successors of the apostles."

B. The Individual Overseers

(1) THE ROMAN SEE

Pontifical catalogue. Patristic testimony is not unanimous about the order of succession
to St. Peter as Bishop of Rome. The old list of the popes, hitherto based on the Liber Pontificalis,
gave the papal succession as: Linus, Cletus, Clement, Anacletus (Loomis, Book of Popes).
Tertullian implied that Clement was the second pope (Prescriptions, 32); and St. Optatus listed:
Linus, Cletus, Anacletus, Clement, while the Poem Against Marcion gave: Linus, Cletus,
Anacletus, Clement. But in 1947 the quasi-official list of the Annuario Pontificio was changed in
accord with the testimony of St. Irenaeus of Lyons: "The blessed apostles founded and reared
this church and afterwards committed unto Linus the office of the episcopate. This same Lyons is
mentioned by Paul in his Epistles to Timothy. His successor was Anacletus, after whom, in the
third place from the apostles, Clement was elected to the bishopric" (Against Heresies, III, 3).
This is both the earliest and most reliable evidence. Modern historians now practically agree that
Cletus and Anacletus were two names of the same man-like Saul and Paul -and that earlier
annalists made two popes out of one. Eusebius, after weighing the early evidence, accepted St.
Irenaeus's list, to which he supplied dates. Eusebius's chronology, which can be only
approximately accurate, would give: St. Linus (67-79), St. Anacletus (79-91), St. Clement (91-
100), and St. Evaristus (100-108). The details supplied by the Liber Pontificalis about these first
successors of St. Peter are quite legendary. For what they are worth, they inform us that St.
Linus ordered women to veil their heads in church; St. Anacletus built the tombs of the apostles,
St. Clement divided the city into seven districts, and St. Evaristus organized Roman parishes.

Primatial assertion. On the other hand, no uncertainty shrouds Pope St. Clement's
authentic Letter to the Corinthians, aptly termed the .,epiphany of the Roman primacy." About 96,
during the lifetime of St. John the Apostle, St. Clement took it upon himself to rebuke the
Corinthians for insubordination to their local clergy. As one charged with their salvation, and in
God's name he commanded prompt cessation of schism, and sent legates to enforce his decision
(Cor., 1, 57, 59, 63). St. Denis of Corinth assures us that the Corinthians obeyed (Eusebius,
History, II, 25).

Primatial recognition. About a decade later (107?), St. Ignatius, who as bishop of Antioch
might conceivably have laid claim to be St. Peter's successor, wrote his Letter to the Romans.
Far from "commanding them as Peter and Paul," be besought them; be saluted their church as
"presiding over the whole brotherhood of charity"; he acknowledged that once his see was
vacated by his anticipated martyrdom, "only Jesus Christ and your charity shall exercise
episcopal power there" (Rom., 1, 9-10). During the lifetime of men who knew the apostles, then,
Roman primatial authority was unquestioned; there is no chance of a usurpation.

(2) THE WEST

Italy. Besides Rome, the only other Italian Christian congregation certainly known to
have existed during the first century is that of Puteoli (Acts 28:14). Many Italian sees claim
associates of the apostles as their founders. While none of these claims is beyond question,
there seems to be some probability for the foundation of Lucca by St. Paulinus; of Fiesole by St.
Romulus; of Ravenna by St. Apollinaris; of Milan by St. Anathalon; of Aquileia by St. Mark; of
Bologna by St. Zamas, of Bari by St. Maurus, and of Naples by St. Aspren.

Gaul. Eusebius (History, III, 4) asserts that Gaul was evangelized by Crescens, a disciple
mentioned by St. Paul (2 Tim. 4:10); but Theodoret (On Timothy, iv) interprets this as Galatia.
Legend, not necessarily false, has it that Lazarus of Bethany was the first bishop of Marseilles,
where he resided with his sisters, Sts. Martha and Mary Magdalen. Arles claims as her first
bishop St. Paul's disciple Trophimus (2 Tim. 4:20). Nevertheless, it is suspected that many
alleged apostolic foundations of Gallic sees are subsequent inventions to bolster claims to
hierarchical precedence. Abelard's denial of the foundation of Paris by St. Denis the Areopagite,
however imprudent for his own career, seems justified.

Spain. The Muratorian Canon confirms the fulfillment of St. Paul's plan of going to Spain
(Romans, 15:29; Canon, vi, 39). But that St. James bar Zebedee preached in Spain prior to his
martyrdom in Jerusalem about 42 seems unlikely; even the possession of his body at
Compostella is challenged on the ground that the apostolicity of that see is a tenth century
invention. Otherwise the history of Spain's Christianity in the first century remains unknown.

Northern Africa, excluding here the oriental see of Alexandria, also remains in obscurity
during this period. Tertullian says that African Christianity was derived from Rome, and
geographical proximity would have made early evangelization feasible.
Domitian's persecution, though it reached St. John in Asia (Apoc. 1:9), and Christ's
relatives in Palestine (Eusebius, History, III, 19), for the most part affected the West. During the
years 95-96 the persecution claimed the lives of the emperor's cousin Flavius Clemens, of Flavia
Domitilla, M. Acilius Glabrio, and "many other citizens who had adopted Jewish customs" (Dio
Cassius, lxvii, 13). Tertullian described the persecution (Apologeticus, 5; Prescriptions, 36), and
Blessed Melito confirms the usual assumption that Nero and Domitian were the only imperial
persecutors in the first century. Pope St. Clement informed the Corinthians that "men who had
led holy lives were joined by a great multitude of the elect that suffered numerous indignities and
tortures"; e.g., Christian women were forced to enact the roles of Dirce and the Danaids in Greek
mythology. These were sobering events, for the pope reminds them: "We are in the same arena
and face the same conflict" (2Cor., 1).

(3) THE EAST

Greece. The European portion of St. Paul's missionary territory has several authentic
notices during this period. Tertullian reminded would-be heretics: "Recall the various apostolic
churches in which the actual chairs of the apostles are still standing in their places, in which their
own authentic letters are read, repeating the voice and calling up the face of each of them
severally. Achaea is very near to you, where you have Corinth. If you are not far from
Macedonia, you have Philippi. If you can travel into Asia, you have Ephesus" (Prescriptions, 36).
Eusebius, moreover, asserts that St. Denis the Areopagite became the first bishop of Athens. St.
Titus became bishop in Crete, while Bishop Denis of Corinth had two predecessors in near
apostolic times, Publius and Quadratus (History, III, 4; IV, 23).

Asia Minor. St. John the Apostle has already been mentioned as exercising patriarchal
authority at Ephesus in succession to St. Paul. His Apocalypse mentions the seven churches of
Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, -and Laodicea. The uncertain
evidence of the Apostolic Constitutions (VII, 46) would supply the names of Sts. Timothy and
John as bishops of Ephesus; of Gaius of Pergamus, of Zoticus of Sardis, of Demetrius of
Philadelphia, and of Archippus of Laodicea. At the opening of the second century, St. Ignatius's
letters mention the bishops, St. Polycarp of Smyrna, Onesimus of Ephesus, Dames of Magnesia,
and Polybius of Trallis. It is not surprising that Pliny the Younger would soon (111) be alarmed by
Christian numbers in Asia Minor (Eusebius, History, III, 18, 23, 24).

Palestine. St. James bar Alpheus, apostolic bishop of Jerusalem (42-62), was
succeeded by St. Simeon, a cousin of Christ, who ruled until 107. During the siege of Jerusalem
be led the Christians to a refuge in Pella. After the destruction of the Temple the Christian
community lost its Jewish character to a considerable degree. Domitian meditated the death of
St. Simeon and other relatives of Christ, but desisted at the report of their poverty. St. Simeon
was opposed by the Ebionites or "poor men," impenitent Judaizers, who eventually formed a
distinct sect which held to the apocryphal Gospel of the Hebrews. They vanished by the fourth
century. With the martyrdom of St. Simeon under Trajan, the apostolic age closed at Jerusalem
(Eusebius, History, III).

Syria. The first bishop so styled by Eusebius was Evodius, apparently named to Antioch
by St. Peter himself. About 98 he was succeeded by Ignatius Theophorus, whom legend makes
the child presented to the apostles by Christ as an object lesson of humility. Arrested about 107,
be was condemned to be thrown to the beasts at Rome. On the way to martyrdom, he wrote
seven letters which, lyric in their vibrant and lofty spirituality, bring the apostolic age at Antioch to
a brilliant close (Eusebius, History, III, 22, 36).

Egypt. Eusebius terms Alexandria's founder and the first bishop St. Mark, sent there by
St. Peter. St. Mark had previously acted as St. Peter's secretary, and in this capacity wrote his
Gospel which, according to St. Papias, faithfully reproduced St. Peter's oral catechesis. Dying
about 63, St. Mark was succeeded in turn by Annianus (63-85), Abilius (85-98), and Cerdon (98-
109), all of whom were said to have been either ordained or consecrated by him. With the death
of the last of these, the apostolic age terminates at Alexandria (Eusebius, History, II, 16, 24; III, 1,
21).

Patriarchal germs. Though there is no evidence that any of three foregoing sees,
Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, claimed patriarchal rank during these years, subsequent
assertions of precedence will be based on the apostolic foundation of their sees. The Council of
Nicea in 325 formally recognized the patriarchal status of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch as of
ancient custom, and the Council of Chalcedon (451) gave Jerusalem special honor. The Holy
See, however, preferred to derive patriarchal status from St. Peter's connection with a see. Thus
Pope Gelasius later declared that "the first see of Peter the Apostle is that of the Roman Church; .
. . the second see was instituted at Alexandria in the name of Blessed Peter by Mark, his disciple
and evangelist; . .. . the third see of the most Blessed Apostle Peter is honored at Antioch . . ."
(Decretals: D. 163). In any event, these nascent patriarchates would play an important part in the
early Church.

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) II. Foundation of the Church
10. Primitive Christian Life and Liturgy

II
Foundation of the Church

10. PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND LITURGY

A. Jurisdiction: The Ruling Power

(1)THE PAPACY
Papal primacy. The history of the papacy is not a record of gradual usurpation by the
bishops of Rome, but exhibits from the first a divinely appointed primatial government. Yet the
details of universal supervision evolved slowly. Habitual and minute regulation of local churches
necessarily had to await improved means of communication. Centralization of ecclesiastical
government in Rome was in part conditioned by thee means: it will be farther advanced during
the Christian Roman Empire than during the Dark Ages. Primitive Christian communities, ardent
in pristine charity, generally required little coercion. The apostolic period accordingly had no need
for titles of "Your Holiness, tiaras, consistorial etiquette, and special technical formulas. These
were accidental trappings of the papacy, added when it became a temporal world power. Yet it is
well to note that even at this early date there was veneration for the material chair of Peter at
Rome and feasts in its honor appear with the earliest liturgical calendars. St. Peter's First Epistle,
of unchallenged authenticity, is alike the first papal encyclical. Therein are found none of the
modern titles, for Peter was ever mindful of his threefold denial which he even published to the
whole Church through St. Mark's Gospel. Yet his own writings lay particular stress on obedience:
to the king, to governors, to masters, to priests. These exhortations come with special fitness
from the chief ecclesiastical authority who, however, did not forget Christ's words: "You know that
the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. . . . Not so is it among you . . . whoever wishes to
become great among you shall be your servant" (Matt. 20:25, 26).

Roman curia. During the apostolic period it would seem to be premature to speak of a
formally organized papal curia: we hear nothing of cardinals and congregations. Yet, if we can
put any reliance on the Liber Pontificalis and Apostolic Constitutions, St. Peter employed Sts.
Linus, Anacletus, and Clement as vicars and auxiliaries. St. Clement certainly sent legates to
Corinth. Both he and St. Evaristus are described as establishing administrative subdivisions in
Rome, and early popes are represented as ordaining bishops, priests, and deacons. The early
lives of the Liber Pontificalis are believed to be a somewhat arbitrary reconstruction and
compilation made at a later date from sources both authentic and inauthentic. While therefore
untrustworthy in details, these accounts may preserve an underlying substance of truth.

(2) THE EPISCOPACY

 Episcopal hierarchy. The period marks the transition from the missionary to the
residential episcopate which may be regarded as virtually complete by the first decade of the
second era when St. Ignatius refers to bishops "to the ends of the earth" (Ephesians, 3). Each
see now had a single bishop, named by the apostles or their vicars, and ruling over priests and
deacons as well as laymen. Except in case of a challenge to their authority or a sudden vacancy,
such sees had little occasion to appeal to Rome; presumably in each see the clergy and people
chose their pastor (Didache, xv) and presented him to the hierarchical superior for confirmation
and ordination. Bishoprics are confined to the civitates, for the country districts are still largely
pagan. Multiplication of Christian communities at first usually entailed the choice of another
bishop. Daughter churches, however, would exhibit a certain deference to the bishop of the
mother church, this, combined with the civic prominence of the metropolis, would in time evolve
the archepiscopal rank. Sees founded directly by the apostles, moreover, enjoyed special
prestige; this when joined to secular influence gave rise to patriarchal dignities. Already bishops
had important social duties: supervision of virgins, widows, and orphans, and care for the needs
of the poor and slaves (St. Ignatius, To Polycarp).

(3) THE CLERGY

The clergy were either missionaries or subordinate ministers of the bishop in the cities.
They were marked off from the laity by their own discipline (St. Clement, Cor., 41-42). Though
there was no obligation of clerical celibacy, the practice was recommended by St. Paul. It was
understood, in any event, that a cleric ought to marry but once, and before his ordination.
Priests were the bishops' spiritual assistants. They were not yet pastors, for the bishop
still ruled directly the city church. They administered the sacraments only with him or in his stead:
usually they concelebrated Mass. They assisted the bishop at baptism and confirmation, though
on missions both priests and deacons baptized (Acts, chap. 8). From the beginning priests were
probably the ordinary ministers of penance and extreme unction. Holy orders has always been
the bishop's exclusive prerogative. In governing the church, the priests constituted the bishop's
advisory council. They were, therefore, rather ratione episcopi than sui juris. But all other
classes, including the deacons, were to be subject to priests "as to Jesus Christ" (St. Ignatius,
Magnesians, 2).

Deacons were temporal aides of the bishops. At this time they seem to have been the
only ministers below the rank of priest, and are undoubtedly of divine institution. The primitive
diaconate was not a mere preparation for the priesthood. Now and long afterwards Christians
regarded the diaconate as a career in itself so that many chose to remain deacons throughout
life. Though the deacons were chiefly charged with the immediate care of the poor and the
community finances, they actually exercised their spiritual functions of preaching and baptizing on
missions, and it was already or soon became their special duty to distribute Holy Communion to
the sick who could not come to church.

B. Magisterium: The Teaching Power

(1) THE ORAL CATECHESIS

Instruction in tie primitive Church was chiefly oral. The apostles' oral catecheses, though
basically the same, varied with their personalities and the needs of their converts. Sometimes
requests for written versions of these catecheses produced, under divine inspiration, the Gospels
of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the latter two depending on the preaching of tie leading apostles,
Sts. Peter and Paul. All essential teaching, whether so written or transmitted orally, constituted a
sacred doctrinal trust, a 'deposit of faith," and St. Irenaeus will later use the apt simile of the
apostles depositing these precious truths as in a bank (A. H., III, 4). Complete with the death of
St. John the Apostle, this deposit has never suffered essential addition, though its contents have
gradually been defined more explicitly as circumstances required.
 (2) WRITTEN TESTIMONY

Tradition, whether written or unwritten, and not the Bible alone has always been the
adequate font of ecclesiastical doctrine, for "even if the apostles had not left us certain writings,
would not one be obliged to follow the order of tradition which they delivered to those to whom
they committed the churches?" (St. Irenaeus, A. H., III, 4.) As long as the words of Christ or of His
apostles remained in the living memory of Christians, they tended to rely on those remembrances
rather than on the Scriptures. Thus writers of this period, the compilers of the Didache, St.
Clement, St. Ignatius, St. Polycarp, often seem to make use of implicit rather than explicit
citations of the New Testament. The patristic writings of the apostolic age may not be profound
theological dissertations, but they are the convinced affirmations of tradition by holy and
courageous men. So great was the esteem which some of these writings enjoyed that in some
Christian communities they were temporarily confused with the canonical inspired writings.

(3) EARLY HERESIES

Heresy, however, was also appearing in various forms to elicit the strictures of St. John,
St. Ignatius, and St. Polycarp.
The Nicolaites are condemned in the Apocalypse (chaps. 2, 3). Their reputed founder
was Nicholas of Antioch. According to some he was a Judas among the first seven deacons;
others believe that he was an innocent man whose name was usurped by the sect. The group
were indifferent to food sacrificed to idols, and guilty of gross immorality.

Cerinthians taught Millenarianism: after Christ's second coming an earthly paradise would
endure for a thousand years. This misconception was derived from a too literal interpretation of
the Apocalypse (20:2). Cerinthus, organizer of the sect, seems to have added alien elements.
He taught that Christ was the son of Mary and Joseph upon whom the Holy Ghost descended at
his baptism. If this be correct we can understand St. John's urging all to leave the public baths
when Cerinthus entered lest the structure collapse with such an enemy of truth within (Eusebius,
History, III, 28).

Docetae, finally, taught that Christ had merely the semblance of a body in such wise that
He only seemed-dokein: appear-to live, suffer, and die. Their error is believed to have
occasioned St. John's insistence in his Gospel on Christ's true divinity and humanity. St. Ignatius
and St. Polycarp also refuted the Docetae (Smyrneans, 2; Trallians, 9).

C. Liturgy: The Sanctifying Power

(1) THE SACRAMENTS

Baptism. In primitive times as well as now, baptism constituted an indispensable initiation

to Christianity. It was preceded by instruction in the truths of faith, though the elaborate course of
the catechumenate had not yet developed. Proximate preparation for baptism involved a one day
fast for candidate and minister. The ordinary method was by immersion in the running waters of a
stream, but in case of need, standing water, heated water, could be used, or water might be
poured on the candidate's head in the modern method of infusion. The form demanded an
explicit invocation of the Trinity: "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost"
(Acts, chaps. 2, 16, 19; Didache, 7).

Confirmation. The only evidence afforded of the bestowal of this sacrament is found in
the Acts (chap. 8) during this period: Sts. Peter and John confirm in Samaria. The form included
an imposition of bands, and was intended to confer the Holy Ghost in a special manner. During
the primitive period the administration of this sacrament was often accompanied by miraculous
signs (Acts, chaps. 10, 19). For long it was conferred immediately after baptism.

Penance. While Scripture testifies to Christ's institution of the power to forgive sins
(John, chap. 20), it is the Didache which gives details of its exercise (4, 14). This Christian
handbook presumes that the faithful normally attend Mass on Sundays, and that before assisting
at it they should, if necessary, "confess your sins in order that your sacrifice may be pure." No
sins were excluded from the power of absolution, nor does there seem to have been any limit to
the frequency of its exercise, since weekly confession seems to be contemplated. Christian
repentance was not merely internal, but required "union with God and the counsel of the bishop"
(St. Ignatius, Philadelphians, 8). And St. Polycarp may have this sacrament in mind when be
urges priests to be "prone to sympathy, merciful to all, bringing [the strayed] back from
wandering" (Philippians, 6).

The Holy Eucharist. Christ's Real Presence is sufficiently clear from the scriptural
evidence of its promise and institution (John, chap. 6; Matt., chap. 26; Luke, chap. 22). The literal
interpretation of the Lord's words was upheld not only by St. Paul (1 Cor. 11:27), but by the
immediate successors of the Apostles. For one, St. Ignatius exclaims: "I desire the Bread of God,
the heavenly Bread, the Bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who
became afterwards of the seed of David and Abraham; I wish the drink of God, namely His blood,
which is incorruptible love and eternal life" (Romans, 7).

The Mass. The Last Supper already included the fundamental parts of the Mass: the
oblation, consecration, and communion. In addition there were accompanying rites, a lavabo, the
breaking of the host, and a concluding hymn of praise and thanksgiving. The apostolic Mass was
usually designated under the expression, "breaking of bread" (Acts, chaps. 3, 20). it is clear from
early testimony that Mass was regularly celebrated at least on Sunday. At first it usually took
place in the evening in memory of the Last Supper, but already there appeared abuses which
eventually imposed a Eucharistic fast and transferred celebration to the morning (Acts, chap. 20;
1 Cor, chap. 11). The Didache (9-10; 14-15) gives evidence of additional prayers, not yet
standardized. There is the Pater with a liturgical response: "For Thine is the power and the glory
forever"; the rudiments of a Preface, and Communion under both species with appropriate
prayers. A graffito recently discovered in the ruins of the Domus Flavia in the Roman Forum
records the reception of Viaticum and appears to date from the consulships of Commodus and
Priscus, 78 A.D. It reads: Panis accept. in luce chrestos susceptus pr. K.M. Com. Pris. CSS.

Extreme Unction, insinuated by St. Mark's reference to apostolic "anointing with oil"
(6:12), is referred to but once in extant documents of the primitive period: St. James declares that
it was intended for the sick, had a spiritual and sometimes a corporeal effect, and was to be
administered by priests (5:14). Probably by analogy with the deacons' administration of
Communion to the sick, the priests rather than the bishop administered this sacrament from the
beginning.

Holy Orders. The Acts and Pauline Epistles make it clear that episcopal consecration
and priestly and diaconal ordination were conferred through imposition of hands (Acts, chaps. 6,
13, 14; 2 Tim., chap. 1). The presbyteroi-episkopoi problem makes it difficult to distinguish
between the first two rites. At first the apostles alone appointed the three orders; later they
provided for the transmission of these essential powers through their episcopal successors (St.
Clement, Con, 42, 44). The Didache (15) indicates that the people were allowed to nominate
their local clergy as in the Acts (chap. 6), though apparently the apostles themselves chose the
first bishops in the modern sense of the term.

Matrimony, according to St. Paul, typified the espousal of Christ with His Church. It was a
sacramentum, though less in the later technical sense, than the more generic meaning of
"mystery" (Eph., chap. 5). it should be contracted before or at least with the consent of the bishop
(St. Ignatius, To Polycarp, 5). Second marriages were permitted to the laity, though they were
deemed less in accord with the symbolism of Christ's espousal with a unique Church.
 (2) LITURGICAL DISCIPLINE

A disciplina arcani, according to some scholars, characterized primitive liturgical practice:

Christian mysteries, especially the Eucharist, were to be guarded from pagan ridicule and
profanation. Hence liturgical meetings were usually held privately, and no publicity given to
Christian practices. When there was danger of misrepresentation or betrayal, Christians
observed silence or spoke in symbolic terms. Converts were initiated into Christian mysteries but
gradually. Indications of such a discipline are seen in the Didache (9), Tertullian (Prescriptions,
41), and Origen (Against Celsus, 1, 7).

Liturgical services were simple and not yet standardized. Mass was said in private
houses, though later the villas of the wealthier Christians would sometimes be placed at the
disposal of the community. Altars were as yet of wood. Liturgical prayer was an adaptation of
Jewish psalmody, directed toward the Holy Eucharist and sacramental rites.

(3) CHRISTIAN PRACTICES

Domestic asceticism. The first Christians at Jerusalem were voluntary communists: all
property was held in common to be administered by the apostles and later their deputies, the
deacons. This practice, however, seems to have been dictated by the special needs of the
Palestinian community whose extreme poverty required alms from Greece (1 Cor, chap. 16). But
if in other Christian churches private property was retained, its use was supposed to be common.
In liturgical services and civic neighborliness, early Christian life tended to be a common life.
Though living in their own houses, they gathered often, if not daily, for religious observances.
They were acutely conscious of their separation from their pagan environment, especially when
persecution brought them to common hiding places. Fraternal charity was externally manifested
in the pax and the agape. But if the average primitive Christian was fervent, quite a few made
particular profession of the evangelical counsels of chastity and poverty. As yet these domestic
ascetics, virgins and widows, lived a retired life with their families.

The laity were distinct from the clergy and bound by their own precepts (St. Clement,
Cor., 42). They were subject to all orders of the hierarchy (St. Ignatius, Trallians, 3). Though the
charismatikoi or possessors of miraculous or prophetic graces were doubtless in some cases
laymen, this privilege did not exempt them from submission to the clergy (1 Cor., chaps. 12, 14;
Didache, 11;13). Such extraordinary graces were granted or at least displayed more abundantly
in the early Church to convince a pagan world. They have never ceased among mystics of all
eras, but now the Church itself by its "admirable propagation, distinguished sanctity, inexhaustible
fecundity, Catholic unity, and unconquered stability" is a sufficient motive of credibility (Vatican
Council: D. 1794). Besides the charismatikoi there were teachers, some of whom were probably
lay catechists (Didache, II, 13). Law-abiding, the Christian citizens prayed: Da concordiam ac
pacem et nobis et omnibus habitantibus terram (St. Clement, Corinthians, 60: K. 15).

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) III. Growth of the Church (107-248)
11. Pagan Environment: Christian Rivals

III
Growth of the Church
11. PAGAN ENVIRONMENT: CHRISTIAN RIVALS

A. Introduction: Religious Contrasts

(1) PAGAN SURROUNDINGS
Christianity was but one of the oriental religions competing for Roman favor during the
first three centuries of our era. For behind the facade of official emperor-worship, a great number
of pagan cults catered to the emotions of the masses, all promising intimacy with the deity and
future happiness after initiation into certain mysterious rites. The more prominent and better
known of these cults will be surveyed presently. in addition to these, a number of philosophies,
ancient or revived, offered the more intellectual a program for human conduct. A melange of the
latter philosophies temporarily obtained official backing as Syncretism. Finally, though treated as
heresies in the present work, Gnosticism and Manichaeism will be noted as incorporating many
pagan elements. To all these rivals of Christianity, history has long since applied Gamaliel's
criterion: "If this plan or work is of men, it will be overthrown," while the Church survives.

(2) ALLEGED CHRISTIAN BORROWING

Certain ritual resemblances between pagan cults and Christian practices have led to
claims by religious evolutionists that the Christian religion is nothing else than a clever eclecticism
from Jewish and pagan sources. A priori, this hypothesis is unlikely: it would appear far more
probable that a bankrupt paganism would borrow from or imitate Christianity. A posteriori, there is
no proof of any essential dependence of Christianity upon these pagan cults; rather, the whole
trend of modern research is to reverse the borrowing. As to certain surviving similarities these
are doubtless to be attributed to that natural religious sentiment common to all men, a sentiment
which grace does not destroy but perfects.

Contrasts in essentials, moreover, exist. For instance, as Father Martindale observes,

"Mithra, like all these eastern gods, was not an historical person and nobody thought he was."
These cults were but a .glamorizing" of ancient mythologies; no matter how attractive their
ceremonial or how lofty the speculation now added to the primitive myths, the core of the religion
remained human invention and wishful thinking. Second, the moral codes of these pagan
religions were in greater or less degree at variance with natural law. If Mithraism was originally
purer than the rest in sexual morality, its eclecticism absorbed aberrations. Its worship was in
large part magical. Yet Reinach claimed that Mithra was mediator between God and man, and
pointed out that his cult involved baptism, fasts, communion, and brotherhood. To this La Grange
has replied: "The fasts and brotherhood we can admit . . . and they are found in every religion that
ever was. Everything else is incorrect. Mithra is called 'Mediator' once . . . in Plutarch, and he is
mediator between the God of Goodness and the God of Evil, We have no knowledge of any direct
relation between the sacrifice of the bull and salvation. Nor is Mithra ever sacrificed as was
Jesus. The Mithraist baptism is a simple ablution in no way different from all the rest; the
communion is nothing more than an offering of bread and water, nor can anyone say that it was
even intended to represent Mithra."

B. Pagan Religious Cults

(1) CYBELE OF PHRYGIA

During the critical days of the Second Punic War, the Romans imported from Pessinus in
Phrygia, Cybele, the Magna Mater. The object of this cult was a black stone, representing the
goddess Cybele, whose saga revolved about the premature death of her beloved, Atys. In the
spring her devotees celebrated a festival to commemorate Atys' revival. Even before his
conversion, St. Augustine was shocked by the indecent words and acts of this feast. Neophytes
dedicated themselves to the goddess by castration, and they and other cultists participated in a
tumultuous procession with symbols of the goddess. This involved self-flagellation, slashing of
flesh with knives, frenzied yells, playing of cymbals, flutes, etc., followed by unrestrained feasting.
The initiation often involved the blood-bath of taurobollium: the candidate took a shower in the
blood of oxen butchered above his head. the authorities of Republican Rome, once the menace
from Hannibal had been removed, tried in vain to ban this cult. Finally Emperor Claudius (41-54)
sanctioned its spring festival, March 15 to 27. Truly it was a bizarre and bloody fortnight.

(2) SYRIAN ASTARTE

From Syria came Astarte, Dea Syra par excellence, with various Baals, This cult in many
ways resembled the foregoing. Perhaps more than any other it was a sort of traveling circus.
"We are shown a beastly old eunuch, his bald head fringed with grizzled curls; a crew of
effeminate, painted young men, wearing turbans and robes of saffron crossed with purple stripes,
and an ass, which carried the sacred image covered with a silken veil, When it came to a village
or to some nobleman's country seat, the sorry procession halted. Then the fanatics, brandishing
swords and axes and emitting discordant howls, would whirl round and round to the
accompaniment of Syrian flutes till their long ringlets stood out. . . . At the conclusion of the crazy
performance, a collection was made among the spectators."

(3) EGYPTIAN ISIS

The Egyptian goddess Isis arrived from Alexandria and her cult was legalized by Emperor
Gains Caligula (37-41). The myth of the Nile was now surrounded with magnificent ritual. In
November was commemorated the murder of Isis's love, Osiris, whom Isis seeks and finds. Loss
and reunion provoked the cultists' frantic lamentations and these were followed by crazy glee. On
March 25, the boat of Isis, decorated and blessed, inaugurated the year's navigation. Daily,
morning and evening services were held in her temples: the statue was decorated and cultists
sprinkled with Nile water. Initiation followed a ten day abstinence; apparently pseudo-mystic lore
was imparted in a melodramatic setting: semidarkness pierced by rays of colored light against a
background of weird music and oppressive perfumes: "the thrill of a lifetime."

(4) PERSIAN MITHRAISM

Mitra, a light-god, is mentioned in the Indo-European Vedas. He reappeared as a fighting

satellite of Ahura-Mazda in Persian religion. King Mithridates of Pontus (120-63) spread the cult,
Though his soldiers were defeated by Pompey, captives communicated the cult in the Roman
army, and by 70 A.D. Mithra shrines appear in Europe. Mithraism was eclectic and adaptable: it
became in Roman times a sort of solar worship and exaltation of fighting courage. Above all it
was a soldier's religion; women were not admitted. Seven degrees of initiates are traced: Crow,
Gryphon, Soldier, Lion, Persian, Sun-Racer, Father. Some scholars think that the seventh degree
Mithraists were beaded by a Pater patrum who dwelt on Vatican Hill, for a shrine has been found
there. These shrines were narrow crypts in which worshipers had seats along the wall; beyond
the railing at the far end was an image of Mithra killing a bull; under it sacrifice to musical tunes
took place. Daily services were held in honor of the "planet of the day," while the great festival of
the sun-god was set for December 25. Bread and water seem to have been the sacrificial matter,
while the moral code stressed loyalty, fraternity, and obedience, to be rewarded at Mithra's
second coming.

C. Pagan Religious Philosophy

(1) STOICISM

Seneca, Nero's mentor, was one of the nobler Romans who refused to give themselves
over to mere emotionalism. Neither would he abandon himself to the hedonistic cynicism of "eat,
drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die"-a sentiment expressed on surviving banquet goblets
ornamented by skeletons. To men of Seneca's disposition, Stoicism offered a stern code of duty.
For Seneca, the world was animated by a force which might be termed a soul. Man himself was
but part of this leviathan. Man's ills arose from his lack of harmony with the universe, and he
must achieve peace and happiness by self-repression, indifference, even insensibility toward
passions. Though such a doctrine was basically atheistic and fatalistic, Seneca sometimes
speaks metaphorically of the deity as a person in such wise as to lead medieval Christians to
assume that he had become a Christian. The pantheistic fatherhood of god rendered easier a
universal brotherhood of man: "Man to his fellow man is sacred; slaves are our humbler friends."
Yet Seneca, though seemingly sincere in his beliefs, remained somewhat inconsistent in his life.
Instead of detachment from material goods, he lived a comfortable existence. That Seneca's
view of Roman society was pessimistic is clear from the estimate already quoted from him. He
willingly became his own executioner in 65.

Stoic luminaries were Maximus of Tyre, a broad-minded philanthropist, Dio Chrysostom

(d. 117), a poor philosophical missionary, Marcus Aurelius, the imperial sage, author of the
Meditations, and the slave moralist Epictetus. The latter once exclaimed: "What can I do, a lame
old man, save sing God's praise and call on all men to join me in my song?" But of them all
Martindale concludes: "Such noble exclamations are but few in their Stoic self -revelation; theirs
was a stunned acquiescence in life rather than an enthusiastic acceptance of a loved and living
Master and His Cross, such as you see in À-Kempis. Yet social conscience was waking up. Both
private and public charities were becoming an institution characteristic of this age ."

(2) NEOPLATONISM

Plotinus was the chief exponent of the Neoplatonic philosophic school organized at
Alexandria by Ammonius Saccas at the beginning of the third century. If Stoicism stressed moral
activity, Neoplatonism tended toward speculation. Plotinus (d. 270) lectured at Rome for some
twenty years and numbered Emperor Gallienus and the Roman nobility among his scholars. His
system was a new theodicy, probably indebted to Philo the Jew and perhaps to Christianity. The
Plotinian deity has a sort of trinity, though its members are unequal: Being in Itself, "The One," is
alike the source of and above being; its image is Nous or Intelligence, which alone is knowable;
then follows a sort of psyche or world-soul from which human souls emanate. These,
unfortunately enclosed in matter, must free themselves before they can achieve union with deity.
The process of liberation requires asceticism, illumination, and ecstatic contemplation, the bases,
once Christianized, of the mystic "three ways." Elements of Neoplatonism were utilized by St.
Augustine and other fathers, despite the fact that Plotinus and his disciple Porphyry had issued
anti-Christian polemics.

(3) SYNCRETISM

Empress Julia Domna, and her Syrian relatives labored to fuse the foregoing pagan
elements into a revitalized religious system. To give the new paganism a counterpart of Christ,
she commissioned Philostratus to write a biography of Apollonius of Tyana (d. 100 A.D.). Though
his contemporaries described Apollonius as an unprincipled impostor, Philostratus embroidered
the data to produce a fictitious hero of the same name who would be an ideal philosopher. While
never mentioning Christ explicitly, Philostratus seems to have borrowed such details from His life
and teaching as suited his aim.

Apollonius of Tyana, according to this retouched account, was born about the beginning
of the Christian era, his advent heralded by singing of swans. After education at Tarsus, be
retired to the temple of Aesculapius to lead an ascetical life. Fruit and vegetables constituted his
food; he went barefoot and was clothed in linen; he gave up his inheritance and vowed celibacy.
After five years of self-imposed silence, he began a tour of temples. Everywhere he inquired into
rites, suggesting improvements and gathering disciples. All were astonished at his wisdom and
gift of tongues. "Do not wonder if I know all men's languages, for I also know their secret
thoughts," was his explanation. Thereupon one Damis adored him as god. His tour took
Apollonius to the sages of Babylon, the Magi of Persia, and the Indian Brahmans; it revealed that
all tenets and rites are essentially the same. On his return to Ephesus, be detected a demon; he
then began to perform prodigies to save men from demons. At Athens be delivered a discourse.
Then, warned by a dream, he went to Rome where Nero was persecuting philosophers. He
braved the tyrant, who became abashed and dismissed him. After raising a girl to life, he
journeyed to Spain and Africa. Domitian cited him to Rome where be was imprisoned. Insulted
by association with malefactors, he comforted his followers. When condemned to death, he still
promised to meet Damis at Puteoli. "What, alive?" asks Damis. "Alive in my opinion, but in yours
raised from the dead," is his reply. Later he convinced Damis of the reality of his escape from
Rome by having Damis feel him. At Ephesus they had a vision of Domitian's assassination.
Nerva now requested advice and Damis was sent back with a message. This was only a ruse of
Apollonius who advised: "Conceal your life, but if you cannot do that, conceal your death." Damis
never saw him again, and no one knows if Apollinius died. Some say that be finally disappeared
in a temple as virgins sang: "Leave earth and come to heaven." Thomas Allies from whom this
summary is derived, comments: "If the manifold resemblances before noted assure us that
Apollonius was intended to be a heathen Christ, the contrast here shown goes to the very bottom
of the fundamental antagonism between philosophical heathenism in what we may certainly call
its highest form, and the Christian faith.

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) III. Growth of the Church (107-248)
12. The Growth of Missions

III
Growth of the Church

12. THE GROWTH OF MISSIONS

A. Introduction: Causes of Christian Growth

(1) THEOLOGICAL CAUSE
The only adequate cause of the rapid propagation of Christianity amid a hostile and
physically superior pagan environment is divine providence which effected through feeble human
instruments a stupendous moral miracle.
The obstacles hindering Christian growth were naturally insuperable. Christ's human
nationality, shameful death, and seeming failure repelled the haughty Graeco-Roman
intelligentsia. His doctrine, however attractive, demanded sacrifice of intellectual pride by belief in
mysteries, and of deeply rooted vices by the acceptance of a strict moral code. Christ, moreover,
demanded man's exclusive religious loyalty: no compromise with other religions, official or
private, was allowed. Prejudices and jealous Messianic dreams deterred Jews, while even well-
disposed pagans were antagonized by calumnies against Christian practices. Finally, for the
masses oppressed with temporal ills, a persecuted Church could offer no material gain, but only a
distant eternal recompense.

(2) HISTORICAL CAUSES

Dispositive instrumental causes employed by Providence are listed by Cardinal

Hergenroether: (1) The spotless life of the average primitive Christian; (2) the invincible courage
of martyrs, especially women and children; (3) the zeal of converts to share their faith with
acquaintances; (4) the international outlook of a Church growing amid a "melting-pot" of peoples;
(5) the sublimity of her teachings, as contrasted with: (6) the empty worn-out misery of paganism;
(7) the undermining of pagan polytheism both by the better philosophies and by agnosticism; (8)
the intrepid zeal of apologists and controversialists; (9) the leniency of certain emperors,
Antonine, Alexander; and (10) the promise of liberty and dignity for women and slaves.

Conclusion: The terminus ad quem chosen for this period is 248 A.D., when Rome
celebrated her thousandth anniversary with great pomp. At the helm of the world empire on this
occasion was Emperor Philip, an Arabian Christian. To be sure, be does not seem to have been
a very exemplary Christian, but that any member of this despised minority religion should mount
the imperial throne within two centuries was startling enough. The mustard seed had indeed
grown rapidly to bring the imperial eagles to rest in its branches. Yet this triumph was but the
early Church's Palm Sunday; in 249 the reactionary Emperor Decius was to inaugurate an
unlimited persecution which would submit the Church to her Passion, and ordeal of great
suffering.

B. The Western Patriarchate

(1) THE ROMAN SEE (108-250)

Liturgical pioneers. The following survey will summarize the known activity of the early
popes; certain pontificates will have more detailed treatment elsewhere in regard to specialized
topics. Practically all details concerning the popes of the first half of the second century are
derived from the Liber Pontificalis. This dubiously reliable source ascribes to them the following
liturgical innovations. St. Alexander (108-18) could have introduced the venerable qui pridie into
the Mass, as well as instituting holy water. St. Sixtus I (118-28) may have added the Sanctus. St.
Telesphorus (128-38) is said to have sanctioned the Gloria at Christmas, though it was not yet
permitted at other times. Pope Hyginus (138-41) is assigned a vaguely described regulation Of
clerical discipline. The same is said of St. Pius I (141-55), best known as brother of the patristic
writer Hermas.

Primatial assertors. St. Anicetus (155-67) gently but firmly rejected St. Polycarp's effort to
extend the Asiatic computation of Easter. When the holy Bishop of Smyrna claimed that he had
been instructed by St. John the Apostle to celebrate Easter on the 14th, no matter what day of the
week, St. Anicetus opposed a Roman tradition from St. Peter which fixed the Paschal celebration
for the Sunday nearest the 14th. The contestants parted amicably without convincing one
another. During the same pontificate St. Hegesippus came to Rome from Syria and compiled a
list of bishops. St. Soter (167-76) wrote a letter to Corinth which was respectfully acknowledged
by St. Denis, bishop of Corinth. St. Eleutherus (176-89) received an appeal regarding the
Montanist heresy, and apparently aided in its condemnation. Rome was visited by St. Irenaeus of
Lyons, who rendered classic testimony to papal primacy, Finally, Pope St. Victor (189-99) insisted
on the definitive settlement of the Easter controversy in favor of the Roman tradition; when
Bishop Polycrates of Ephesus resisted, he and the Asiatic hierarchy were threatened with
censure. The details of the settlement are unknown. St. Irenaeus seems to have intervened as
peacemaker, but in any event the Roman tradition had definitely triumphed by the time of the
Nicene Council in 325.

Defenders of penance. St. Hippolytus, a Roman priest, aided Pope St. Zepherinus (199-
217), who appears to have been a kindly pontiff somewhat imposed upon by heretics. When St.
Calixtus (217-22), St. Zepherinus's deacon and successor, opposed penitential rigorism, St.
Hippolytus became the first antipope, with Tertullian's support. St. Urban (222-30) is said to have
converted St. Cecilia's spouse, Valerian. St. Pontian (230-35) had the consolation of reconciling
St. Hippolytus before their joint martyrdom. St. Anther (235-36) promptly followed them to the
martyr's crown. The period ends with Pope St. Fabian (236-50) who definitively organized
Roman parishes; in his pontificate also mention is made of subdeaconship and minor orders.
From the pontificate of St. Anicetus, comparatively reliable information is supplied by Eusebius,
though it is only with St. Urban that the duration of, papal pontificates can be dated with
exactitude.
 (2) ITALY

Suburban sees. During this period Rome seems to have remained the sole metropolitan
see throughout the Italian peninsula. By the end of the period it is estimated that there were
40,000 Christians in Rome and vicinity. At this time some of the suburban sees, which later gave
titles to cardinal-bishops, made their appearance. Both the Liber Pontificalis and St. Augustine
assert the antiquity of the Ostian see whose bishop acquired the privilege of consecrating the
bishop of Rome. Possibly Porto, Albano, and Tibur also became sees before the end of the
period, for in 251 Pope St. Cornelius held a council at Rome attended by sixty bishops (St.
Cyprian, Letter 13; Eusebius, History, VI, 43).

Peninsular sees. The only bishoprics which certainly appear during this period in lower
Italy are those of Puteoli, Pompeii, and Naples. Probably these churches were founded from
Rome, for some of their legends claim missionaries dispatched by St. Peter. But here
Christianity-as indeed throughout the West-still remained chiefly an urban religion; the country
districts were tenaciously rooted in pagan superstitions.
Lombard sees. Milan, Ravenna, and Aquileia were certainly sees by this time, though
their foundation by apostolic men cannot be established. But episcopal lists are preserved, and
the titulars are often mentioned in councils. The church at Ravenna seems to have been
centered at the port of Classe, and the presence of Orientals at this port may indicate the point of
departure for the evangelization of upper Italy, Christianity also had certainly reached Verona and
Brescia.

(3) GAUL

Provence. The ancient Roman provincia may well have been the first part of Gaul to be
evangelized. Before 250 there seem to have been sees at Narbonne, Arles, and Toulouse. It is
to that year that St. Gregory of Tours assigns the coming of seven missionaries from Rome:
Trophimus to Arles, Paul to Narbonne, Saturninus to Toulouse, Gatian to Tours, Denis to Paris,
Martial for Limoges, and Austremonius to Clermont. St. Gregory appears mistaken about the
date, though not necessarily in regard to the substance of the facts. Gallic episcopal lists remain
fragmentary and unreliable during this period.

Lyons is the principal, and the only certainly established see before the third century. Its
first known bishop was St. Pothinus, who with many of his flock was martyred in 177. Hence
Christianity along the Rhone must date from at least the middle of the second century. St.
Irenaeus succeeded St. Pothinus and before his death in 202 extended the Gallic mission to
Tours, Chalons, and Autun, and perhaps the Rhine. Lyons seems to have retained supervision of
the newer communities for a time, for Eusebius refers to the "various Christian communities of
Gaul of which Irenaeus was bishop" (History, V, 23).

Roman Germany. The flourishing Christianity of the Rhineland at the beginning of the
fourth century argues to early third century origins. The area was evangelized from Gaul (St.
Irenaeus, A. H., 1, 10) and patristic writers refer to it as the Christian frontier (Arnobius, Against
Gentiles, 1, 16). St. Maternus, first known bishop of Cologne, was a contemporary of
Constantine the Great, and a delegate to the Council of Arles in 314.

(4) SPAIN

Fragmentary data about Christian churches in Spain are gained from allusions by St.
Irenaeus (A. H., 1, 4) and Tertullian (Against Jews, 7) about the beginning of the third century.
About fifty years later, St. Cyprian of Carthage (Letter 77) was consulted about Bishops Basilides
of Leon and Martial of Merida. Other correspondence of St. Cyprian pertaining to the baptismal
controversy reveals sees at Saragossa, Tarragona, Galicia, and Lusitania. Reports of various
councils would suggest that the Spanish hierarchy was already numerous, though it is not easy to
identify the sees in the vague ancient references. Long before the middle of the third century,
then, Spain must have been widely evangelized.

(5) BRITAIN

General references to Christians in Britain appear in the works of Tertullian (A. J., 7) and
Origen (On Ezechial, IV, 1). It seems clear that the Britons, kinsmen of the Gauls, received their
Christianity from Gaul, and that the development of British communities must have therefore been
subsequent to those on the Continent. Probably Christianity, like Romanization, was less firmly
rooted in Britain than in Gaul, since it was almost overwhelmed by the Anglo-Saxon invasions.
There can be no doubt, however, that the Faith had been planted in Britain long before her
bishops came to the Council of Arles in 314.

(6) NORTH AFRICA

Christian origins. The first historical notice of the presence of Christians in proconsular
Africa occurs about 180 when a dozen citizens of the little town of Scillium were martyred at
Carthage (Kirch, 78-90). This circumstance would indicate that Christianity had already made
some progress into rural areas. Certainly Tertullian's writings reveal a flourishing Christian
community at the end of the second century, though his suggestion that the Christians
outnumbered pagans is certainly rhetorical exaggeration (Apologeticum, 37; Against Jews, 7).

Carthage emerges as the chief see. It exercised a sort of primatial jurisdiction over all of
proconsular Africa, though it was not formally accorded metropolitan rank until much later. St.
Cyprian states that already in 200 Bishop Agrippinus, the first ordinary known by name, presided
over a council of 70 bishops, but neither date nor numbers can be otherwise checked. Bishop
Donatus of Carthage is said to have presided over a council of 90 bishops between 236 and 248.
He was succeeded by the famous St. Cyprian who convened a like number in 256. Certainly the
subsequent sacramental controversies reveal that the African Church was already one of the
largest and most influential of Christendom, and even disposed to question Rome's lead in the
heat of controversy (St. Cyprian, Letters 55, 71, 73).

C. Oriental Patriarchates
(1) ALEXANDRIA

Hierarchical organization. Beginning with St. Mark, Eusebius (History, I-V) enumerated
eleven bishops of Alexandria between 50 and 190, of whom we know little more than the names.
Yet by the opening of the third century nearly every Egyptian district had a Christian congregation,
and the bishop of Alexandria had many sees subject to his jurisdiction. Thus Bishop Demetrius
(190-233) is virtually a patriarch, and his see will become the second in the Catholic world, to be
formally recognized as such at Nicea in 325. Evangelization continued to advance rapidly so that
at the close of the third century even villages had been converted.

Catechetical school. Alexandria had become a center of profane learning, and it is

natural that the Stoic philosopher Pantaenus, once fired with Christian zeal, would think of
erecting a school in that city. About 180 be laid the foundations of a school which became almost
a Christian university under his successors as rector, Clement and Origen. The latter was the
most learned of Christian exegetes before St. Jerome, and exercised widespread influence, not
wholly confined to Christian circles. His successors as head of the academy, Heraclas and
Dionysius, eventually succeeded to the Alexandrian patriarchate. Alexandria furnished the first
summa theologica in Origen's Peri Archon, though it would also nourish the heresiarch Arius who
pushed the latter's subordinationism to a denial of Christ's divinity.

(2) ANTIOCH

Patriarchal evolution. In regard to Antioch also, Eusebius furnishes little more than the
names of St. Ignatius's early successors from 107 to 171. But St. Theophilus (171-83) was a
distinguished apologist, and his second successor Serapion (190-203) was also an ecclesiastical
writer engaged in combating Marcionitism. By this time Antioch had supplanted Jerusalem as the
chief see of the Syrian littoral. Missionaries from Antioch founded many churches so that its
bishop began to achieve patriarchal status, a position formally recognized at Nicea. Before that
the career of Bishop Paul of Samosata (260-70) would indicate the social prominence of the
Antiochian prelate, not wholly for good.

Edessa became one of Antioch's chief suffragan sees. It was the capital of the client
principality of Osrohoene whose ruler Agbar IX (179-214) became a Christian and promoted the
Gospel. During this reign Patriarch Serapion consecrated the Syrian bishop Palout. After Roman
annexation of the principality in 214 ties with Antioch became stronger. Edessa in turn sent
missionaries beyond the imperial frontiers to Armenia and Parthia.
Asia Minor had been evangelized by St. Paul from Antioch, ecclesiastical control passed
to Ephesus and Neo-Caesarea in Pontus; these sees were recognized as metropolitan at Nicea.
Cyprus, the see of St. Barnabas, also vindicated jurisdictional autonomy. St. Gregory
Thaumaturgus, graduate of Origen's school in 238, became a great missionary in Asia Minor.

(3) JERUSALEM

Gentile predominance. After the suppression of the last Jewish rising of Bar-Kochba in
135, Gentile leadership prevailed in Judea. The Christian community seems to have become
largely Gentile, and Caesarea began to claim metropolitan rights over the apostolic see of
Jerusalem thereby beginning disputes not settled until 451. Little is known of the 27 bishops who
succeeded St. Simeon until we come to St. Narcissus (189-97; 210-12), a great wonder worker.
Calumniated, be resigned to become a hermit, but after his accusers had been signally punished,
returned to his see. He was one of the Palestinian hierarchy that attended a council regarding
the Paschal question about 190 (Eusebius History, V, 23-25).

(4) GREECE

Extra-patriarchal status seems to have prevailed in St. Paul's European foundations,

though Rome claimed them as part of the Latin patriarchate. Eventually they would be embraced
in the Byzantine patriarchate, but during this period Byzantium, the Constantinople of the future,
was not yet a see. Corinth and Thessalonia became metropolitan sees, and Nicopolis came to
the fore in Epirus. St. Paul's apostolic foundations in Greece, Thrace, and Macedonia would
seem to be flourishing at this time, though details of their growth are lacking. Illyricum remains in
obscurity before Diocletian's persecution at the opening of the fourth century, but the number of
martyrs at that time argues to its evangelization during the third century.

Conclusion: Though statistics are not available, it would seem certain that Christian
missions proceeded more rapidly and successfully in the East than in the West. In the latter area
few communities had been established outside the urban civitas, while in the Orient whole
country districts had become Christian. But where results were not yet AP-parent, the Christian
yeast was already working: the mass conversions of later times were being prepared by the
patient labors of anonymous missionaries.
Catholic Church History
Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) III. Growth of the Church (107-248)
13. Growth of Opposition: Early Persecutions

III
Growth of the Church

13. GROWTH OF OPPOSITION: EARLY PERSECUTION

A. Persecution by Western Imperialism

Introduction: During the second century the legal gens of Emperor Nerva gave the
Empire its Golden Age. These "Good emperors," Romanized provincials, combined appreciation
of Roman legal traditions with solicitude for the general good of the world empire. Cultured
agnostics, they regarded the state paganism chiefly as an instrument of promoting imperial unity.
Their opposition to Christianity, then, was motivated more by political than religious concerns:
they seem more interested in curbing it as an alien ideology than in exterminating it as religion. It
may be remarked that St. Augustine's enumeration of "Ten Persecutions" is merely conventional;
local prosecution was intermittent.

(1) EMPEROR TRAJAN (98-117)

Marcus Ulpius Trajanus succeeded his adopted father Nerva. Under this great general
and able administrator the Empire reached its widest extent with the conquest of Dacia, modern
Romania. Though Nero's edict remained imperial policy, its execution depended largely on
provincial governors and local conditions.
Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, reported about 111 what he
considered a serious, if not critical problem: "This is the course that I have adopted in the case of
those brought to me as Christians. I ask them if they are Christians. If they admit it, I repeat the
question a second and a third time, threatening capital punishment; if they persist, I sentence
them to death, for I do not doubt that, whatever crime it may be to which they have confessed,
their pertinacity and inflexible obstinacy should certainly be punished....... An anonymous
pamphlet was issued, containing many names....... All who denied that they were or had been
Christians I considered should be discharged, . . . especially because they cursed Christ, a thing
which, it is said, genuine Christians cannot be induced to do. But I found nothing but a depraved
and extravagant superstition, and therefore I postponed my examination and had recourse to you
for consultation" (Correspondence, X, 96).

Trajan's rescript reflects the opportunism of a secure ruler: "You have taken the right line,
my dear Pliny, in examining the cases of those denounced to you as Christians, for no hard and
fast rule of universal application can be laid down. They are not to be sought out; if they are
informed against, and the charge is proved, they are to be punished with this reservation, that if
anyone denies he is a Christian and actually proves it, that is by worshipping the gods, be shall
be pardoned as a result of his recantation, however suspect be may have been in regard to the
past. Pamphlets published anonymously should carry no weight in any charge whatsoever. They
constitute a very bad precedent and are also out of keeping with this age." Hence Christians were
to be held in check without unduly disturbing public order in their pursuit: shrewd politics but
moral inconsistency later flayed by Tertullian's sarcasm.

Martyrs reported by name during the persecution of Trajan are St. Clement of Rome, said
to have been exiled to the Crimea, St. Ignatius of Antioch, thrown to the beasts, and St. Simeon
of Jerusalem, crucified by Prefect Atticus.
 (2) EMPEROR ADRIAN (117-38)

Publius Aelius Hadrianus, Trajan's adopted son, was also a competent administrator,
though opposed to military expansion. He was a great traveler and in his wake appeared
throughout the Empire better government, more sumptuous buildings, and greater interest in the
arts. In substance, be continued his predecessor's policy toward the Christians. About 125 his
rescript to Minucius Fundanus, proconsul of Asia, confirmed the ban upon anonymous letters as
evidence, though account was to be taken of proven indictments. Rash denunciations were
discouraged by a penalty to the plaintiff in case of failure to prove his charge (Eusebius, History,
IV, 9).

Popular indignation against Christians, consequently, proved more dangerous than

imperial prosecution during this reign. The atrocious calumnies circulated against them were
ignored by conscientious governors, but malicious or weak administrators in sympathy with the
accusers could circumvent the imperial rescripts, or ignore murders perpetrated during riots.
Symphorosa and her seven sons are said to have suffered martyrdom at this time.
Christian apologists tried to defend the Christians against these calumnies by memorials
to the emperor or the senate. The first of these champions, Quadratus and Aristides, wrote
during Adrian's reign. The latter compared barbarian, Greek, Jewish, and Christian religions to
conclude to the superiority of Christianity. Hence, he argued, Christians, far from being
persecuted, ought to be taken as models (Eusebius, History, IV, 3).

(3) EMPEROR ANTONINE I (138-61)

Titus Aurelius Antoninus Pius was perhaps the best of the pagan emperors in
moral character. Likewise an able ruler, he guided the Empire in peaceful and prosperous times.
According to Blessed Melito of Sardis, be sent a rescript to the Asiatic proconsular assembly in
response to Christian apologies, urging forbearance toward the Christians who should be
punished, if at all, by the gods they had offended (Eusebius,,History, IV, 13). The authenticity of
this document has been seriously questioned; perhaps Christian interpolations have overlaid a
basic truth.

Local administrators in any event made use of the anti-Christian laws still unrepealed. St.
Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, was the victim of a popular riot before which Proconsul Quadratus
yielded. With eleven of his diocesans, the bishop was executed after the immortal response:
"Eighty-six years have I served Christ, and He has never done me evil; how could I blaspheme
my King and Savior?" Prefect Urbicus of Rome executed the catechist Ptolemy and two other
Christians, and Popes Hyginus and Pius are reported as martyrs during the reign. At Jerusalem,
Bishop Mark is also said to have suffered.

(4) EMPEROR MARK (161-80)

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was Antonine's adopted successor. He strove to rule in

accord with enlightened Stoic philosophy, but this more positive view toward religion made him
less tolerant of Christians. He took a personal interest in their repression, and issued a new
edict: "Whoever introduces new sects or religions whose true nature is unknown and thereby
excites the people, shall be banished if he be of noble birth, and killed by the sword if he be of
mean extraction" (Kirch, 77). The alarming Teutonic inroads on the northern frontier may also
have made the emperor more apprehensive of internal religious dissent.

The Thundering Legion episode, pronounced legendary by Zeiller, is reported by

Tertullian (Apologeticus, 15) and Eusebius (V, 5). During a Marcomanian campaign, it is said, the
Roman army was weakened by thirst in face of the enemy. At the prayers of the Melitine Legion,
largely Christian, a storm arose bringing rain to thirsty Romans and lightning to terrified Teutons.
The emperor attributed the incident to Jupiter Pluvius.
The Martyrs of Lyons in 177 have acta of unquestioned reliability. During the governor's absence
popular fury vented itself on the Christians, and survivors were denounced to him on his return.
Despite Momentary wavering, all the accused eventually suffered heroically, from the
nonagenarian Bishop Pothinus to the slave girl Blandina (Eusebius, History, V, 24).

Other martyrs known by name are Bishops Publius of Athens, Sagaris of Laodicea, and
Thraseas of Eumenia; St. Cecilia and her companions at Rome, and St. Justin the Apologist,
together with six companions. St. Justin, according to his authentic acta, closed his apologetical
career by a courageous defense of the Faith before the urban prefect (Eusebius, History, IV, 16).

(5) RELAPSE INTO ANARCHY (180-97)

Marcus Aurelius Commodus (180-92), Emperor Mark's own son, broke the record of
"good emperors," for this careless libertine neglected imperial affairs. From 182, plots in the
senate and mutinies in the army were frequent until the mentally unbalanced ruler was killed.
During his reign Senator Apollonius was executed following a defense of Christianity in the senate
itself (Eusebius, History, V, 21). At Carthage, about 180, Sparatus and eleven companions were
executed by Proconsul Saturninus (Kirch, 78). Yet the emperor's fondness for his Christian
concubine Marcia induced him to heed pleas for the pardon of some confessors condemned to
the Sardinian mines.

Anarchy became complete while the senate strove to name successors to Commodus in
Pertinax (192-93) and Julian (193), and the leading generals vied for possession of the capital.
Of these rivals, Pescenius Niger of the Syrian corps, Clodius Albinus of the British occupation
forces, and Septimius Severus of the Pannonian legions, the last emerged as undisputed ruler by
197. Hitherto a senatorial and equestrian aristocracy had co-operated with enlightened rulers;
henceforth the army emerged in control of a sheer military despotism.

B. Persecution by Oriental Syncretism

Introduction: During the second century the Roman melting pot had diluted Roman
with Oriental blood. In the third century many of the emperors themselves were Orientals with but
a veneer of Roman culture. With slight appreciation of Roman political and religious traditions,
they were more concerned with introducing native religious ideas or fusing them into the
philosophic synthesis called Syncretism. When Christians refused invitation to the new pantheon,
they were pursued with the bigotry of thwarted Rotarianism. Legal forms were now less
respected; significantly, the jurist Papinian coined the maxim, quidquid placuit principi legis habet
vigorem.

(1) THE SYRIAN DYNASTY (193-235)

Lucius Septimius Severus (193-211), a native of Africa, secured Rome and senatorial
recognition in 193, but was not without rivals until 197. Perhaps by reason of a cure by a
Christian physician, Severus did not at once persecute the Church. But increasingly he came
under the influence of his wife, the Syrian Julia Domna, devotee of the Oriental mystery cults.
Toward the end of the second century be reapplied the persecuting edicts. With scant respect for
his predecessors' legal scruples, he abandoned the norm of conquirendi non sunt for
governmental prosecution. In 202 be forbade conversions to Judaism and Christianity and
admitted the testimony of informers. Severe persecution continued to the end of his reign,
provoking Tertullian's defiance: Semen est sanguis Christianorum. The School of Alexandria was
temporarily dispersed, and Origen's father Leonidas martyred. Other Egyptian martyrs were
Basilides, the virgin Potamaeia and her mother. At Carthage, Sts. Felicitas and Perpetua beaded
a great number of victims.

Syncretism became Julia Domna's cherished dream. She sought to unite Oriental
paganism and Christian heresies into a latitudinarian religion. All cults were sanctioned and
temples erected to all gods as diverse manifestations of a single pantheistic deity. About this time
Philostratus produced his Apollonius of Tyana, and Ammonius Saccas began to impart
Neoplatonism at Alexandria, for a time numbering Origen among his students.
Emperor Antonine II (211-17), nicknamed Caracalla, followed his father Severus. Chiefly
in order to increase income from taxes, he extended citizenship to all freemen of the Empire in
212. He seems to have been indifferent to Christianity, for there are but few notices of martyrdom
in his reign, and these chiefly from the jurisdiction of Proconsul Scapula in Africa (211-13).

Macrinus (217-18), formerly a Moorish officer, gained the throne by assassinating

Caracalla. But his pusillanimous policy and his parsimony in paying his troops convinced the
latter of the advantage of returning to the old dynasty. They proclaimed a grandson of Julia
Moesa, sister of Julia Domna, as emperor, and slew Macrinus. The latter, then, had little chance
to persecute.
Antonine III (218-22), better known by his priestly title of Heliogabalus, left politics largely
to his grandmother Moesa. Formerly votary of the sun-god at Emesa, he tried to promote its cult
at Rome itself. His immoral and fantastic antics threatened the ancient Roman gods more than
Christianity. There were still enough old-fashioned Romans to assassinate him.

Alexander (222-35), a cousin of the preceding, was then raised to the throne. He was
dominated by his mother, Julia Mammaea, who sought to persuade the Christians into the
syncretist fold. To this end she held discussions with Origen and had a statue of Christ placed in
the Pantheon. Alexander himself was mild and benevolent, but his payment of tribute to
barbarians outraged his troops who killed him (Eusebius, History, VI, 28).

(2) PHANTOM EMPERORS (235-49)

Maximin the Thracian was the chief beneficiary of Alexander's murder. Though never
officially recognized by the senate this giant barbarian was for three years ruler de facto of much
of the empire. Intent on exterminating his predecessor's partisans, among whom he naturally
reckoned the Christians, the usurper promptly issued an edict of persecution which in quick
succession struck down Popes Pontian and Anther, and St. Hippolytus. The storm was violent
but brief, for Maximin had to contend with rivals who at length triumphed over him.

Gordian III (238-44), an ancient Roman whose father and grandfather had been imperial
contenders before him, was something of a " constitutional monarch." But the senate's attempt to
exclude the army from politics proved a failure, for presently the praetorian prefect, Philip the
Arabian, murdered Gordian and took his throne.
Philip (244-49) is reputed to have been a Christian of some sort. At any rate peace
descended on the Church so that church edifices were openly built or rebuilt. But Philip's reign,
reaching its climax in the Roman millenary festival of 248, was but a brief calm before the "Ordeal
of the Church."

Conclusion: This roster of known and anonymous witnesses to Christ, impressive as it is,
yields in importance to their dispositions. This idea is brought out in the response of St. Felicitas,
moaning in prison during the pangs of childbirth. Asked by the jailer how she would ever be able
to face the greater pain of the beasts, she replied: "Now I suffer what I suffer, but then Another
shall be in me who will suffer for me, because I too am ready to suffer for Him."

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) III. Growth of the Church (107-248)
14. Growth of "Superior Knowledge": Gnosticism

III
Growth of the Church

14. GROWTH OF "SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE": GNOSTICISM

A. Gnostic Origins
(1) REMOTE PAGAN SOURCES
Learned speculation in religion and philosophy did not always have happy results. In
religion there was the danger that morbid emotionalism would degenerate into a mere sexual cult.
Philosophic conceit in lofty speculation, on the other band, could beget a contempt for the
masses, and pedants were tempted to construct an esoteric gnosis, a supposedly "superior
knowledge" not communicated to the common herd. Christianity, with its restrained religious
sentiment and lofty yet simple dogmas, would not long satisfy such dabblers in the occult. They
refused to admit that Christian revelation had settled once and for all questions of the divine
nature, of the origin of the universe, of the meaning of evil. Not content with orthodox Christianity,
they proceeded to elaborate on it. But Christianity had given them new terms and opened vistas
which had already achieved popularity. Gnostics, like later "Modernists," did not scruple to
employ traditional Catholic terminology in a secret, perverted sense that threatened to trap the
unwary pious soul.

Hellenistic background. "Recent investigations have proved that ever since Alexander
the Great inaugurated the Hellenistic period with his triumphal conquests of the Orient there
developed this strange mixture of Oriental religion and Greek philosophy which we call
Gnosticism. From the Oriental religions Gnosticism inherited the belief in an absolute dualism
between God and the world, between soul and body, the derivation of good and bad from two
fundamentally different principles and substances, and the longing for redemption and
immortality. From Greek philosophy Gnosticism received its speculative element. Thus the
speculations concerning mediators between God and the world were incorporated from
Neoplatonism; a naturalistic kind of mysticism from Neopythagoreanism; and the appreciation of
the individual and his ethical task from Neostoicism ."

(2) PROXIMATE JEWISH ORIGINS

Simon Magus, according to St. Irenaeus (A. H., 1, 23), was father of all Gnostic systems.
Repulsed by St. Peter, be proceeded to fashion his own cult in which he was not only prophet and
priest, but god as well. on his tours he exhibited Helena, a slave prostitute, as his divine consort.
Legend relates that Simon Magus perished in the failure of an acrobatic feat before Nero.
Menander, another Samaritan, was able to continue the sect with the use of new magical tricks.

Saturninus, a Syrian, made a distinction between Yahweh and an unseen, ineffable god
who sent Christ to free men from the supposed tyranny of the Jewish deity; thus arose the idea of
opposition between the Old and New Testaments.
Cerdon, another Syrian, combined the foregoing notions with other features of Docetism.
This primitive Gnostic taught Marcion at Rome, and thus influenced this half-Gnostic, half-rigorist
sect founded by Marcion (St. Irenaeus, A. H., I, 27).

B. Gnostic Doctrines
(1) BASILIDEAN DUALISM

Basilides flourished at Alexandria during the reigns of Adrian and Antonine. He is said to
have been a disciple of Menander at Antioch or Smyrna. His system is known chiefly through the
descriptions of Sts. Irenaeus and Hippolytus, which vary in certain details, probably because the
Basilidean speculation was ever fluid. The following composite account, then, cannot pretend to
meticulous accuracy.

Cosmology. All things begin with nothing, or the god that is not probably what is meant is
that the first deity is an abstraction. From this emanates a threefold being. Its first part, spiritual,
flies up and is joined with the nonbeing. The second, less spiritual, fails in a like attempt, but
eventually achieves its aim with the aid of an emanation, Holy Breath. The third part, still less
spiritual, completely fails in attempting reunion. In vain does it seek to imitate the second part by
generating Great Archon. The latter, remaining in ignorance of the primordial nonbeing,
generates Second Archon, which produces the upper heaven or ether. A series of generations
result in 365 archons and 365 heavens, each more perfect than the foregoing. Our world,
unworthy of archons, is either self-produced, or according to St. Irenaeus, fashioned by the
lowest archon.

Soteriology. The third filiation of nonbeing still must be reunited with the primordial being.
Salvation is the task of achieving this reunion. Great Archon ruled the world until Moses, when he
was replaced by Second Archon. Only at the appearance of the Christian Gospel did Great
Archon realize that be was not the supreme divine being. This revelation descended down the
archons and reached mankind when Holy Breath descends on the man Savior, a composite of
elements from all the archons. Then the account of the Christian Gospel is followed until the
Savior ascends into heaven where he is successively purified of the material archon-elements,
and thereby rendered capable of reinstating the third filiation into the primordial nonbeing.

Morality. Human morality consists in working out an analogous purification in men. This
is effected by taking out their appendices: by this term Basilides designates material passions
and sins which all have, some from a previous existence. The appendices are pictured in
archaeological remains as small wolves, monkeys, lions, snakes, etc. They seem to have a sort
of independent existence, and must be expelled, if not in this life, at least in another:
metempsychosis is a feature of the Basilidean system. Basilides and his son Isidore
recommended ordinary morality, but their successors perverted this into an immoral cult. When
self-purification is complete, the primordial nonbeing will emit an ignorance-gas so that every
category, filiations, archons, and men will be unaware of the ranks above. Each order, believing
itself highest, will then live happily ever after.

(2) VALENTINIAN NUPTIAL GNOSTICISM

Valentinus is the other indispensable name in Gnostic evolution. This individual was also
born in Egypt. it would be gratuitous to describe him as a disciple of Basilides, though be seems
to have learned of the previous system and tried to improve on it. Valentinus came to Rome
where he tried to convince Pope Hyginus to adopt his theories. After the pontiff had rejected him,
Valentinus retired to Cyprus where be died about 160.

Valentinianism, here Presented in some detail, is regarded by St. Irenaeus as Gnosticism

par excellence. This system as portrayed by the Catholic polemicist, incorporates certain
developments of Valentinus's disciples. Fantastic as this system seems, its pseudo-mystic lore
reappears in different degrees in later historic sects: Albigensianism, Cabalism, Red Masonry, etc.
Theology. All begins with Bythus alias Proarche alias Propator, whom Gnostics identified
with God the Father. For this and subsequent eons, literal English renditions will be used where
possible. Father had a cognate eon, known as Silence. Valentinus adds to Basilidean
progression nuptial pairs. Thus Father and Silence generate Mind. Though Mind is the Father's
sole begotten, from somewhere comes a consort, Truth, with whom be generates Word and Life.
These now generate Man and Assembly, demigods not to be confused with earthly denizens.
These first eight eons constitute the Ogdoad, first grade of the Pleroma, or ring of gods. Word
and Life beget a Decade: ten eons named Deep, Mingling, Undecaying, Union, Self-Existent, and
Pleasure; Immovable, Blending, Only-Begotten II, and Happiness. Then Man and Assembly
generate the Duodecade: Advocate and Faith, Ancestral and Hope, Metrical and Love, Praise and
Understanding, Churchman and Felicity, Desired and Wisdom. The fifteen pairs of eons, male
and female, seem to be concrete expressions of Valentinus's concept of abstract divine attributes.
It is clear, therefore, that Christ lived a hidden life of thirty years in honor of the thirty eons of the
Pleroma.

Ethereal friction. Wisdom, lowest eon, tried to understand the Father. Her vain attempt
to share this exclusive prerogative of Mind threw her into a passion; in her bewilderment she
generated Acamoth, a formless substance at once cast out of the Pleroma. To avert a repetition
of such an incident, Mind produced Anointed (Christ) and Holy Spirit, who purified the Pleroma by
teaching the eons that Mind alone could know the Father. In gratitude for this enlightenment, the
eons produced Savior. The Christian phrase, "for all aeons of aeons," Valentinus points out, is
obviously in honor of these thirty-three eons.

Cosmology. Acamoth lacked form and understanding. The first it received from
Anointed, the second from Holy Spirit. Thereupon it tried to enter the Pleroma, but Horos
frightened it away with "Iao" -a deeply significant term. In despair Acamoth now generated
earthly elements. From her desire of returning to the Pleroma came Demiurge; from her tears,
water-aside by Irenaeus: this will do for salt water, but fresh water must have come from her
perspiration. From her smile emanated light, and from her grief all the sorrows of this world. The
Pleroma, Moved to pity at her state, sent Savior to separate her into two elements: matter which
is wholly evil, and animal, which is mixed. Acamoth was so delighted that new generations
produced angels and men. Her son Demiurge fashioned "right-handed" and "left-handed" men.
Men have matter and an animal soul from Demiurge, but also a spiritual principle from the angels.
By reason of these composite elements, men may be classified into spiritual, the Gnostics who
are saved whatever they may do; material, Gnostic foes and pagans who are entirely evil and
inevitably damned; and animal men, ordinary Catholics, who have a chance of salvation by
conversion to Gnosticism.

Soteriology is concerned with returning Acamoth and her brood to the Pleroma.
Demiurge eventually produces the man Christ into whom the eon Savior descended at the
baptism in the Jordan. The eon Savior left the man Christ in Gethsemane, changing with Simon
Cyrene, who died on the cross while the eon Savior stood to one side mocking the Jews.
Demiurge remained ignorant of all this inside information about Christ until he appeared in the
guise of the centurion and was instructed. Then the eon Savior returned to the Pleroma.

Morality. Gnostic spiritual men, who are above morality, are urged to imitate the sexual
relations of the Pleroma. They make converts, preferably women, and impart some of the
Gnostic lore at the price of their money and virtue. Animal men, however, must strive by good
works, continence, mortification, to get rid of their material element in order to become spiritual
like the Gnostics. According to St. Irenaeus, Gnostic teachers thus constituted an inner circle for
whom all the practices of Christian asceticism are a preparation. All of the Old and New
Testament were adapted in weird fashion to confirm this teaching; e.g., the daughter of Jairus is a
type of Acamoth; Christ's Passion is a type of that of Wisdom, etc.

Eschatology. Finally at the end of the world Acamoth will be taken into the Pleroma as
the bride of Savior, thus making an even number of thirty-four eons. Demiurge will be promoted
to the intermediate state outside the Pleroma vacated by Acamoth, and all animal men will go
with him, for Silence will put invisibility caps on all who weed out matter before judgment day.
Spiritual men, divested of their bodies, will be assumed into the Pleroma. Fire will descend on
the material men, destroy them, and then annihilate itself-a tidy conclusion to the Gnostic
panorama.
C. Decline of Gnosticism
(1) GNOSTIC SCHISMS

The Western School, which continued Valentinianism in Italy and Gaul, was led by
Ptolemy and Heracleon, known to St. Irenaeus. They carried on the perverse interpretation of
Scripture with fantastic allegories, and it is believed that Origen's meticulous care in setting forth
the literal text of all biblical versions in his Hexaplar was intended to offset this abuse.
The Eastern School of Valentinianism was carried on by Axionikos and Bardesanes (d.
222) in Egypt and Syria. They intermingled some elements of Persian magic and reduced the
cult to pure charlatanry.

(2) GNOSTIC REFUTATION

St. Irenaeus (d. 202) was Gnosticism's greatest foe. Though he began his refutation
with a flippant parody-"in the beginning was Proarche and Melon-Rind and Utter Emptiness, and
the latter produced Cucumber to which was given as consort Melon, whence came all the little
melons"-yet be did not neglect careful refutation. In his Against Heresies he challenged the very
basis of this arbitrary gnosis by tracing the whole course and content of the Catholic tradition. If
the Gnostics claim to have "superior inside information," let them prove it by traditions going back
to the apostles; let them name the succession of their bishops going to ordination by one of the
apostles; let them show that their teachings are in accord with the Roman Church, "that very
great and very ancient church, with whom all the faithful must agree because of its more eminent
principality" (III, 3). By the time of St. Irenaeus's death, Gnosticism had been driven into retreat;
at least it had been so exposed that no Christian would be deceived by its parody of Christianity.

St. Hippolytus (d. 235) carried the fight against Gnosticism into the next century with his
Refutation of All Heresies. Though he sometimes disagrees with St. Irenaeus on details, this is
explicable by the rapid fluidity of Gnostic variations under each new teacher. As late as the fifth
century St. Epiphanius still attacked Gnosticism in his Medicine Chest, but by that time it had
abandoned all pretensions at being Christian.

(3) PERENNIAL GNOSTICISM

A Gnostic attitude seems perennial in certain members of fallen humanity; for instance it
reappears in this twentieth-century Rosicrucian advertisement: "What were these
communications which for generations could only be transmitted from mouth to ear? It was the
rare wisdom of the ancients; age-old truths which tyrants and selfish rulers sought to suppress;
knowledge which they knew would give man power, independence, mastery of life, and the ability
to attain his highest ideals. Today, these secret principles once withheld from the masses are
available to the sincere, to you, if you seek the fullness of life. Send for free book. . . ."

Conclusion: Nevertheless in combating Gnosticism, the first wide-spread threat to

Christian orthodoxy, St. Irenaeus had outlined the response that the Catholic Church would make
to all future heresies: not so is it contained in the "deposit of faith" which we have from historical
popes and bishops, who received it from Peter and the apostles, who were sent by Christ, who is
the Eternal Son of God, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) III. Growth of the Church (107-248)
15. Reaction to Simplification: Monarchianism
III
Growth of the Church

15. REACTION TO SIMPLIFICATION: MONARCHIANISM

A. Introduction: Speculative Reaction

Gnosticism had peopled the theological world with a confusing horde of eons. Despite its
Christian terms, practically it amounted to a relapse into polytheism. Then during the latter part of
the second century, just when Gnosticism was at its height, there appeared a severe monotheism
which virtually denied the Trinity. Dearth of documents prevents categorical affirmation of a link
between these two religious trends. Yet it can safely be presumed, by analogy with subsequent
theological controversies, that deviation from the Catholic via media in one direction is ever apt to
prompt a reaction which will veer to the opposite extreme. Thus against Nestorianism arose
Monophysitism; and Fideism attacked Rationalism. It seems legitimate to assume, then, that the
ultramonotheism of Monarchianism was to a degree a speculative reaction to Gnostic polytheism;
that its rationalizing tendency represented surfeit of "superior knowledge."

Monarchianism is the term applied to these heresies which tried to simplify" the divine
Trinity into a Unitarian monarchy, either by denying or subordinating two of the Persons. This
general tendency is sometimes subdivided into Dynamic Monarchianism or Adoptionism, and
Modalistic Monarchianism or Modalism. The first form, which contemporaries, indeed, did not
term Monarchianism, considered the Son as the dynamis or power of the Father, and Christ as
but an adopted son of God. The second group held that the Son and the Holy Ghost were only
modes or phases of the Father. The system of Paul of Samosata, finally, may be considered as a
composite of various elements of the foregoing systems.

B. Adoptionism
(1) ORIGIN

Theodotus the Tanner. According to St. Epiphanius (Panarion, LIV, 1) the founder of
Adoptionism was Theodotus, a rich tanner of Byzantium, who enjoyed a reputation for learning
and piety among his fellows. During persecution, however, he had the weakness to deny the
Faith. Unable to endure the loss of prestige, he moved to Rome. Even here a Byzantine visitor
reproached him for his apostasy. Theodotus made excuse by saying: "It is not God I have
denied, but a man." This assertion be tried to justify by the text, "If anyone blasphemes the Son of
Man, it will be forgiven him, but be who blasphemes the Holy Spirit, it will never be forgiven."
From these efforts at self-justification, the first version of Adoptionism seems to have arisen.
Theodotus claimed that Jesus was but a just man, born of a Virgin, upon whom "Christ"
descended in the form of a dove. This divine descent, attributed to the Holy Ghost, made Jesus
the adopted Son of God. Theodotus, then, certainly denied the divinity of the Second Person of
the Blessed Trinity; whether be held that the Holy Ghost was distinct from the Father is not
entirely clear (Eusebius, History, V, 28).

(2) HISTORY OF ADOPTIONISM

Pope St. Victor excommunicated Theodotus the Tanner about 190, but the latter
organized disciples into a church of his own. Hellenic philosophy was mustered to the defense of
Adoptionist doctrines; in particular, the heretics are said to have made use of the Stoic
development of Aristotelian disjunctive and conjunctive propositions. St. Hippolytus flatly accused
them of rationalism.
Natalis, a Roman cleric, presently appeared to act as bishop of the sect at the reported
salary of 150 denarii a month. But St. Hippolytus says that Natalis eventually perceived his error,
deserted the sect, and after much difficulty was reconciled to the Church under Pope Zepherinus
(199-217) (Eusebius, History, V, 28).

Theodotus the Younger, sometimes called the banker, is said to have been a disciple of
the founder of Adoptionism. To his master's errors he added the assertion that Melchisidech was
greater than Christ, because whereas Christ was priest merely "according to the order of
Melchisidech" and mediator between God and men, Melchisidech was "heavenly power of the
chief grace" and mediator between God and angels. Theodotus's Melchisidechites went so far as
to address prayers to Melchisidech.

Asclepiades and others introduced new variations on this theme. Some identified
Melchisidech with the Holy Spirit, thus reconciling the views of the two Theodoti. At any rate, all
Adoptionist sects denied at least one of the Persons of the Trinity. The original sectaries were
combated at Rome by St. Hippolytus, though the latter's writings seem to have been chiefly
directed against a later member, Artemon.
Artemon is the last Adoptionist known to history. Apparently he taught at Rome between
225 and 235. All that is known of him is that he also denied Christ's divinity, probably with a
different explanation. His chief importance lies in the fact that he links the earlier form of
Adoptionism with the composite variation elaborated by Paul of Samosata, for the Council of
Antioch condemned the latter for following Artemon. Thereafter Artemon disappears from history,
but Adoptionism seems not so much to have ceased as to have evolved into new forms.

C. Modalistic Monarchianism
(1) PATRIPASSIANISM

Noahtus of Smyrna is designated by St. Hippolytus as founder of the "Patripassian" form

of Monarchianism. In contrast to Theodotus, Noahtus began by affirming Christ's divinity. This,
however, did not prevent him from identifying Christ with the Father. For Noahtus, St. John's
Prologue is a mere allegory: the Word is but another name for the Father, who at first unseen,
unknowable, and uncreated, became the Son of Mary and as such seen, known, and created.
Noahtus asserted: "The Father is Christ; He is the Son; He was born; He suffered; He rose
again." Noahtus defended his doctrine by accusing St. Justin and his disciple Tatian of
Gnosticism, a charge not without truth in regard to the latter. Twice Noahtus expounded his views
to the clergy of Smyrna. Upon his refusal to recant, he was excommunicated, Apparently he
continued to

enlist disciples at Smyrna.

Praxeas, according to Tertullian (Against Praxeas, 3), was the first Noahtan disciple to
appear at Rome. Apparently be remained undetected during Pope Victor's pontificate, or was
guilty of material rather than formal heresy. When Praxeas appeared at Carthage, Tertullian was
instrumental in having him sign a retraction. Tertullian's testimony is not in entire accord with that
of St. Hippolytus, and it has been suggested that Praxeas was in reality an anti-Montanist, vilified
by Tertullian, himself on the verge of embracing Montanism.

Epigonus and Cleomenes, according to St. Hippolytus (Refutation, IX, 7-12) were the real
propagators of Patripassianism at Rome. But neither is the testimony of the first antipope above
reproach. St. Hippolytus claims that Epigonus and Cleomenes deceived Pope Zepherinus, ill
advised by his deacon, Calixtus. What clouds this testimony is the suspicion that Hippolytus and
Calixtus were rivals for the pope's favor and for the next papal election; when Calixtus was
actually chosen to succeed Zepherinus, Hippolytus went into schism. Even then the latter admits
that Calixtus did condemn some heretics, the Sabellians to be noted presently, but he implies that
this was done out of fear of his, Hippolytus's criticisms. But no precise heretical expressions are
cited from Epigonus and Cleomenes, and we have no proof that they actually taught the doctrine
of Noahtus, or if they did teach it, did not retract at papal command. Certainly if Zepherinus and
Calixtus opposed the Sabellian type of Monarchianism, as Hippolytus admits, it is not reasonable
to accuse them of countenancing Patripassianism. It is suspected that Hippolytus, however
sincere, became something of a heresy hunter, and that his judgment may have been warped in
the severe clash of personalities between himself and Calixtus. Patripassianism seems to have
merged with the ensuing form of Sabellianism.

(2) SABELLIAN MODALISM

Sabellius was a Libyan from the Pentapolis in North Africa. During St. Zepherinus's
pontificate, be is said to have appeared at Rome and become involved in the suspicions attaching
to Epigonus and Cleomenes. According to St. Epiphanius, there was no basic doctrinal
difference between Noahtus and Sabellius, but the latter used a greater felicity of expression.
After the pope had tried in vain to convert Sabellius to orthodoxy, about 220, Calixtus
excommunicated him-" fearing me," Hippolytus must needs add. Ten years later Sabellius is
reported still at Rome, but is supposed to have subsequently traveled through Asia Minor and
Egypt, dying some time before 260. Though the Sabellians became extinct in the fourth century,
the Arians would attach the stigma of their heresy to Catholic defenders of the Nicene Creed.

Modalism, in brief, asserted that the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity were but three
modes or phases: "The Father is identical with the Son, and the Son is identical with the Holy
Ghost; these three terms are but three different names of one hypostasis person." Sabellius
himself used the word monad for these modes: according to him, God was in the beginning the
hidden and unrevealed monad. When He revealed Himself at creation He took on the modality of
a father; when He worked out redemption by union with the man Christ, He assumed the modality
of Son; now that He continues the work of sanctification and enlightenment in the Church, He
exercises the modality of Holy Spirit. Sabellius, therefore, reduces the three Persons to a single
person with three offices or functions. By using the term hypostasis to designate his Unitarian
divinity with three modalities Sabellius rendered this word suspect for a long time in Catholic
circles.

St. Denis of Alexandria opposed Sabellianism in his own diocese but was in turn
denounced to Rome as guilty of subordinationism. It is true that in good faith be expressed
himself somewhat incorrectly, relying on Origen's faulty theology. When this was brought to the
attention of his namesake, Pope St. Denis, Sabellian teaching was re-examined. About 262 the
pope issued the following condemnation: "We must neither divide the wonderful and divine
Monad into three divinities, nor destroy the dignity and exceeding greatness of the Lord by
thinking him a creature; but must have faith in God the Father Almighty, and in Christ Jesus His
Son, and in the Holy Spirit, and in the union of the Word with the God of the universe, for He
says, 'I and the Father are one,' and, 'I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me.' Thus both the
divine trinity and the holy preaching of the monarchy will be safeguarded." This remarkable papal
definition, which used the controverted terms in a legitimate sense, was loyally accepted by St.
Denis

of Alexandria.

D. Composite Monarchianism
(1) PAULIANIST ADOPTIONISM

Paul, surnamed from his native city of Samosata in Syria, appears about 260 as bishop
of Antioch. Following Emperor Valerian's defeat by the Persians, the Arabian chief Odenathus of
Palmyra occupied northern Syria. His wife and successor, Zenobia, named Paul city treasurer.
As civil prefect of the Syrian capital, Paul assumed unprecedented pomp, while his proximity to
court life led to relaxation of clerical discipline: women not above suspicion were admitted to the
episcopal residence.

Paulianism, as his theology was later called, declared that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
constituted but a single person: prosypon. The Son was only the reason (logos) or wisdom
(sophia) of God, just as man's intellect is not a separate person. The Son may be said to be
consubstantial (homoöusios) with the Father in the sense that He is but a faculty of a Unitarian
deity. Through this faculty God spoke by the prophets and at length through the man Christ.
Mary brought forth merely a man, with whom at the baptism in the Jordan was united this "
reason" of God, though qualitatively, not essentially. Though Father and Son are essentially one
person, in Christ there are two persons: the Word or rational divine faculty, and the human
individual derived from Mary. This Word dwells in the man Christ as in a temple, making him
sinless and giving him miraculous powers. After death, Christ as judge of men is so closely
identified with God, so adopted as his son, that he can be called what be is not-god.

(2) PAULIANIST CONDEMNATION

Conciliar censure. After remonstrance from his suffragans failed to alter Paul's views,
seventy bishops met in provincial council (268 A.D.). They agreed to anathematize Paul's
theology including his use of the term homoöusios. Paul himself was declared deposed, Domnus
chosen in his place, and a report of the conciliar acts sent the Holy See. Though the homoöusios
was correctly censured in the meaning given it by Paul, Rome would later impose it in an
orthodox sense at Nicea some sixty years later-to the perturbation of many eastern theologians.

Imperial expulsion. Secure in Zenobia's protection, Paul of Samosata defied the conciliar
verdict. But when Emperor Aurelian had reconquered Syria in 272, he rightly regarded Paul as a
collaborationist with Rome's foes. The emperor accordingly awarded the church property in
Antioch to that ecclesiastical authority deemed legitimate by "the Roman bishop and Italian
prelates." Imperial troops expelled Paul from the episcopal residence, and he disappears in exile
(Eusebius, History, VII, 30).

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) III. Growth of the Church (107-248)
16. Growth of "Superior Virtue": Montanism, Encratism

III
Growth of the Church

16. GROWTH OF "SUPERIOR VIRTUE ": MONTANISM ENCRATISM

A. Introduction: Pragmatic Reaction

Gnosticism may perhaps be accused of provoking yet another reaction. Besides
reversing the trend toward one of dogmatic simplification, it may have contributed to the growth of
moral rigorism. Against the excessive philosophical speculation of Gnostics, in any event, there
appeared a movement which sought a "superior teaching" not so much for enlightenment of the
intellect by abstruse speculation, as for inspiration of the will toward practical asceticism. What
the varying forms of this movement had in common was the proclamation of a rigoristic code of
morality, supposedly superior to that of the Catholic Christian Church. They would put Catholics
to shame by commanding those evangelical counsels left to the option of orthodox Christians. In
one important respect, however, these new sects were akin to Gnosticism. They as well as the
Gnostics claimed revelations directly obtained from superior powers. Both appealed to the spirit
of emulation in men; both enticed converts under the specious pretext of placing them on a
pedestal whence they might look down on their fellows as either less intelligent or less virtuous
than themselves.

Species of Rigorism. Rigorism is here applied as a common denominator for the

essentially different systems of Marcionitism, Montanism, and Encratism. The first has a Gnostic
origin; indeed, it could justifiably be rated as a species of Gnosticism. The second would seem to
have been an adaptation of a pagan doctrine to Christianity. The third appears less a sect than
an attitude within the Church. Marcionitism had some of the bizarre attractiveness of Gnosticism,
combined with careful organization. The Montanist heresy succeeded in drawing from the
Church the most learned theologian for that day, the austere Tertullian. Encratism is closely
linked with the problems of primitive penitential discipline, treated in the next topic.

B. Marcionitism
(1) ORIGINS

Marcion of Sinope (c. 110-60) was the son of the bishop of Sinope in Pontus. Rhodon
(Eusebius, V, 13) and Tertullian (Against Marcion, IV, 4) describe him as a wealthy ship owner
who gained a reputation for asceticism before becoming involved in a scandal. It has been
suggested that Marcion was his father's auxiliary, a circumstance which would explain the
severity of the bishop's sentence: excommunication without prospect of pardon. Marcion fled to
Rome where he made a donation of 200,000 sesterces to Pope Hyginus. For a time he kept in
the background while attending the lectures of the Gnostic Cerdon. Then be sounded out the
Roman priestly college, probably during the sede vacante following St. Hyginus's death. At first
he was merely refuted, but when Pope Pius I refused to accept him, he left the Church in July,
144, designated as the beginning of a new era by Marcionites. The Roman pontiff-after refunding
his money-excommunicated him.

(2) MARCIONITE TEACHING

Antitheses, title of Marcion's chief work, suggest the basic dogmas of his system, for
Marcion introduced opposition between the Old and New Testaments. According to him, the God
of the Jews was not the God of the Christians. By forced interpretation and deliberate deletion of
biblical texts, Marcion presented the creator of the visible world as Demiurge. Ignorantly
believing himself the supreme being, Demiurge tyrannized over the Jews during the Old
Testament. Though he had given man a spiritual soul, this had been mixed with and degraded by
matter. Envious of his deficient creature, Demiurge denied him knowledge of good and evil,
turned him out of Eden, and kept him in slavery by means of the Mosaic precepts. Finally the
invisible, sovereign Good God, hitherto a "Stranger God," sent His Son, distinct from Himself only
in name, to descend to earth in the synagogue at Capharnaum. According to Docetist notions,
this Son had no human birth and no material body; he merely seemed to die. But when he came
to Sheol, the just of the Old Testament, deceived by Demiurge, refused his call; only Cain and the
wicked were liberated. Similarly all the apostles save St. Paul mistook the Savior for a prophet of
Demiurge. Marcion therefore rejected the whole New Testament except ten selected Pauline
Epistles and a truncated version of St. Luke's Gospel.

Morality. On the principle that matter is essentially evil, Marcion professed to erect an
austere asceticism. Men should abstain from pleasure and practice mortification: they ought to
avoid certain foods and lead a celibate life. Those who do so will constitute a moral elite
according to Marcion's dictum: "Demiurge is with the crowd; the Lord is only with the chosen
ones." It is only this Marcionite elite which shall enjoy immortality in company of the Good God; as
for the majority of men, they will fall back into Demiurge's power when he destroys the world by
fire. Some indication of the severity of Marcionite penitential discipline is gained from the fact that
it was ridiculed by Tertullian, himself excessively rigorous. To evade this penitential burden, many
Marcionites remained neophytes most of their lives.

(3) MARCIONITE HISTORY

Apelles, Marcion's disciple, reduced Marcion's dualism to monism, and mitigated his
asceticism.
Syneros and Lucanus, other disciples, altered Marcion's teaching by introducing an evil
deity. Gradually the concept of Demiurge was lost sight of in favor of Manichaean opposition
between good and evil deities. Marcion had been a careful organizer, and St. Justin describes
his sect as already widespread by the middle of the second century. At the close of the fourth
century St. Epiphanius (Panarion, XLII, 1) still regarded it as important. But by this time it had
already begun to lose some of its members to the Manichees. It is not beard of as a distinct
organization after the seventh century; presumably it merged with the Manichaean sect.

C. Montanism
(1) MONTANIST ORIGINS

Montanism, unlike Marcionitism, was at first merely a movement of religious enthusiasm

within the Church: a sort of revival that professed to retain the entire Christian doctrine.
Montanist votaries harked back to the charismata of the apostolic age. Presently they became
interested in an imminent parousia or second coming of Christ. Once Montanist prophets began
to compute accurately the time of an event that Christ had refused to give, they were tempted to
imagine or invent visions which led the way to heresy. In its developed form, Montanism
professed to introduce a Third Testament of the Holy Ghost, which would supplant the New
Testament of the Son, just as the latter had superseded the Old Testament of the Father.
Montanism took its rise in a pagan Phrygian environment where the natives were predisposed to
acceptance by their cult of Cybele. Pagan priests of Cybele reported her oracles in states of
ecstasy or reverie.

Montanus, founder of the sect, had perhaps been one of these pagan priests. He was
converted to Christianity but was still under instruction when he came into prominence during the
proconsulship of Gratus. This is dated 157 by St. Epiphanius, but Eusebius's Chronicle seems
more plausible in giving the year 172. Then Montanus began to "prophesy" in the remote village
of Ardabou on the border of Mysia and Phrygia. At first be merely claimed to be a prophet
promised by Christ; later he admitted that he was the Paraclete Himself. It was his duty, he
asserted, to announce terrible chastisements, attendant upon Christ's imminent return. Moments
of ecstasy began to seize him; whereupon he excused himself: "It is the Holy Ghost who speaks;
I must take leave of my senses.

Montanist disciples. After Montanus began a tour of Phrygia, he won disciples, notably in
Pepusa. Maximilla and Prisca, two rich ladies who deserted their husbands to join the new
prophet, soon began to experience similar ecstasies. While most, if not all, of the Gnostic
prodigies may be attributed to chicanery, some of the phenomena accompanying Montanism bear
close resemblance to cases of demoniacal possession. The sect made rapid progress
throughout Phrygia and spread to other

provinces of Asia Minor.

Millenarianism or Chiliism in some instances had prepared the way for Montanism by
claiming that Christ's second coming would bring about a thousand year reign of the just in an
earthly Eden. This residue of exaggerated Jewish Messianism was sometimes given a spiritual
meaning by certain fathers, such as Sts. Justin and Irenaeus; more commonly, however, it was
interpreted in a grossly sensual fashion.

(2) MONTANIST DOCTRINE

The teaching presented by Montanus and his prophetesses professed to be a

supplement to Christianity. Maximilla claimed: "After me the end will come." But she proved less
of a prophet than Louis XV with his, apres moi, le deluge, for she died before 180. Yet if the end
were at band, other Montanists argued, there was no time for worldly occupations: marriage was
discouraged, second marriages forbidden, all goods were to be held in common. Montanists
should fast on bread, water, and dried meat. All study was to be forsaken-here a reaction to
Gnosticism seems manifest. Under persecution Montanists should never flee; rather they ought
to offer themselves to the officials Anyone who committed a single grievous sin after baptism was
forever denied pardon.

The practice of the sect, however, soon revealed a caste, if not a racket." Montanist
illuminati were styled "pneumatic"-from the Spirit -and Catholics contemptuously dismissed as
merely "psychic." Soon booths were set up to which converts might bring their worldly goods in
keeping with their profession of the common life. Malicious psychics began to remark that soon
after the leading prophets appeared in fine clothes, amused themselves at dice, and lent money
at interest. But pneumatics ignored such innuendoes to continue gazing serenely at the sky in
expectation of the second coming; sometimes they went part of the way by levitations.

(3) MONTANIST OVERTHROW

Ecclesiastical condemnation. The bishops of the East were not slow in censuring
Montanism, but their action failed to check the progress of the heresy. Thyatira went over entirely
to the sect, despite St. John's warning (Apocalypse, 2:20). The oriental hierarchy accordingly
sent warnings to Pope Eleutherus (176-89) and the bishops of the West. We learn that the
church of Lyons sent St. Irenaeus, then a priest, to inform the pope personally. Later as bishop of
Lyons, St. Irenaeus succeeded in averting the spread of Montanism in Gaul. At first the Holy See
seems to have left the repression of the heresy to diocesan initiative, but when Montanist leaders
appeared in Rome itself, Pope Zepherinus condemned the sect about 200.

Montanist schisms completed the destruction begun by episcopal censure. Tertullian,

indeed, bowed himself out of the Church, but his haughty spirit refused to take a subordinate
position in Montanism. Hence Montanists of Carthage separated from the parent body to become
the Tertullianist sect. Surviving members of this group were reconciled by St. Augustine two
centuries later. Elsewhere schism disrupted Montanist unity, for the trend to private inspiration
became irresistible. The Alogi denied the divinity of the Word; the Artotritae insisted on cheese
and bread as the Eucharistic matter; the Tasco-drungitae called for attention at liturgical services
by placing their forefinger to their nose. These and kindred sects played themselves out by the
sixth century. As in the case of Marcionitism, many devotees were absorbed by Manichaeism
during the third century.

D. Encratism
(1) NATURE

Tatian of Syria, a disciple of St. Justin, is associated with Encratism by St. Irenaeus (A.
H., 1, 28), but he does not say whether he founded the movement. Eusebius (History, IV, 28)
does add this assertion. We know from Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, III, 13) that Tatian
condemned marriage and is believed to have mingled some Gnostic elements in his later
teaching.

Encratism means continence; Encratites so exalted virginity as virtually to deny the liceity
of matrimony. The aversion to marriage may have been derived from Tatian's Gnostic tenet that
matter is evil, though Tixeront would seek the source of this attitude in a misinterpretation of St.
Paul's teaching on virginity. One of their maxims is reported as: "There is no resurrection but for
such as preserve their virginity." Baptism would accordingly involve a vow of chastity. Meat was a
forbidden food for the Encratites, and they are also represented as the first prohibitionists, some
going so far as to substitute water for wine in the Mass. Encratites also are believed to have
stressed good works over theological speculation. They tried to support their views by
composing apocryphal Acts which they attributed to Paul, John, Peter, and Andrew.
 (2) INFLUENCE

Encratite rigorism left its impress on Christian discipline from the second to fourth
centuries. Though the Encratites themselves may have been a small group within the Church,
their rigoristic attitude, like that of the Janenists centuries later, unconsciously influenced the
practice of many Catholics who repudiated their teachings. The restriction of the exercise of the
sacrament of penance seems to be associated with Encratism in much the same way as
abstention from Holy Communion accompanied Jansenist influence. Hermas, Tertullian, and St.
Hippolytus all manifested certain Encratite tendencies in this broad sense of a mental attitude.
Encratite Puritanism constrained other Catholics to unwonted severity.

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) III. Growth of the Church (107-248)
17. Penitential Discipline

III
Growth of the Church

17. PENITENTIAL DISCIPLINE

A. The Penitential System

(1) GENERAL SCOPE
Exomologesis, etymologically confession, came to designate the primitive penitential
system which seems to have been in full observance between the second and fifth centuries.
Those who were undergoing this discipline formed a class of public penitents, debarred in varying
degrees from participation in the liturgy. The condition of public penance involved exclusion from
Holy Communion, although this abstention did not itself constitute the penance, as Sts. Ambrose
and Augustine pointed out. The exomologesis was normally required for all,,capital sins." Now all
capital sins were mortal sins, but all mortal sins were not necessarily capital. They were specially
reserved crimes and their number seems to have varied with different dioceses. St. Pacian of
Barcelona restricted the capital sins to idolatry, murder, and fornication; St. Augustine would
suggest that they included all major sins against the Decalogue, especially those listed by St.
Paul as excluding the sinner from heaven. But St. Pacian's enumeration seems to have been the
one more commonly received, perhaps amounting to a general norm (Paranaesis, 4-5).

(2) ELEMENTS OF THE EXOMOLOGESIS

Confession was necessarily required. This we know from the Tridentine canon
anathematizing those denying the divine institution of "the mode of secret confession to a priest
alone which the Catholic Church has observed from the beginning" (xiv, 6: D. 916). The
existence of confession is also clear from the fathers. From their testimony it suffices to select
two references. St. Cyprian says: "I entreat you, beloved brethren, that each one confess his own
sin while be who has sinned is still in this world, while his confession may be received, while the
satisfaction and remission made by the priests are pleasing to the Lord" (On the Lapsed, 26-29).
St. Augustine, moreover, argued: "Let none say: I do penance secretly, I perform it in God's sight
and He who is to pardon me knows that I repent in my heart. . . . Was it then said to no purpose:
'What you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven?' Was it for nothing that the keys are
given to the Church?" (Sermon 392:3.)

Public confession, however, would seem to be indicated in some patristic documents.

Care must be taken, however, to distinguish public declaration of sins from public satisfaction: the
normal procedure was to confess secretly, but to make satisfaction in public. Even where public
declaration for sins is certainly meant, it must be remembered that the practice was optional.
Sometimes, it is true, pressure may have been brought by the clergy or the community to enjoin
public confession, but this was an abuse, severely castigated by Pope St. Leo I in a letter to the
bishops of Campania: "That presumption against the apostolic rule, which I recently learned is
committed by some with illegitimate usurpation, I decree must be by all means removed. . . . It
suffices that the guilt of conscience be manifested to the priests alone in secret confession"
(Letter 168:2).

Satisfaction consisted in the fulfillment of the penance imposed by the bishop or priest at
the time of the confession. Normally it preceded absolution, and for its duration placed the sinner
in a class of penitents denied the society of the faithful to a certain degree. The penitent was not,
however, excommunicated in the strict or modern sense; indeed, if he had been so censured in
punishment for his crime, this ceased with the inception of the exomologesis.
In the West, we have no indication of degrees among penitents. All were excluded from
communion. They seem to have been assigned a special place at the entrance of the church,
and periodically came forward for imposition of hands and prayers for their repentance.
Tertullian's description gives the procedure at Carthage about 200: "Exomologesis is the
discipline which obliges a man to prostrate and humiliate himself and adopt a manner of life that
will draw down mercy. As regards dress and food, it prescribes that he shall lie in sackcloth and
ashes, clothe his body in rags, plunge his soul in sorrow, correct his faults by harsh treatment of
himself, use the plainest meat and drink for the sake of his soul and not of his stomach; usually
he shall nourish prayer by fasting, whole days and nights together shall be moan, weep, and wail
to the Lord his God, casting himself at the priests' feet, and failing on his knees before those dear
to God beseech them to plead in his behalf" (On Penance, ix).

In the East, especially in Asia Minor, four parts of this public penance are distinguished by
St. Basil, bishop of Neo-Caesarea. St. Basil mentions four "stations" or degrees of penitents:
weepers, hearers, kneelers, and co-standers. He gives an estimate of the duration of the
exomologesis for various crimes: "An intentional homicide, who afterwards repented, will be
excommunicated from the sacrament twenty years. These twenty years will be appointed for him
as follows: for four he ought to weep, standing outside the door of the house of prayer,
beseeching the faithful as they enter to offer prayer in his behalf, and confessing his own sin.
After four years he will be admitted among the hearers, and during five years will go out with
them. During seven years he will go out with the kneelers, praying. During four years he will only
stand with the faithful and will not take part in the oblation. On the completion of this period he
will be admitted to participation in the sacrament" (Letter 217).

Reconciliation, then, terminated the exomologesis. If general absolution from censure

was imparted, it was the Roman custom that this take place on Holy Thursday before Mass, after
recitation of penitential psalms, litanies, and prayers. Then after an exhortation the bishop would
give absolution. But no ironclad rule was to be kept to the detriment of the penitent, as we may
learn from Pope Innocent 1 (401-17): "it is the business of the priest to judge the gravity of crimes
so that he should attend to the penitent's confession and to the weeping and tears of the one
corrected, and then order remission when he sees that satisfaction is fitting. But if anyone
becomes sick and is despaired of, be is to be absolved before paschal time, lest be depart this
world without communion" (Letter 25). Gradually "more urgent cases" sanctioning the advance of
absolution multiplied until it came to be normally imparted before satisfaction.

B. Penitential Problems
(1) THE UNIQUE EXOMOLOGESIS

Public penance, it would seem, could be performed but once. Already in 150 Hermas
asserted: "If after that great and holy vocation (baptism), anyone should be tempted by the devil
and sin, he has penance once. if, however, he sins again and does penance, such penance will
not profit him" (Shepherd: Precepts, iv, 3). Tertullian also concedes repentance after baptism,
"but now once for all . . . for is not even this once enough?" (On Penance, vii.) "In graver faults,"
says Origen (On Leviticus, xv) "opportunity for penance is conceded but once." These do not
seem to be the warped views of rigorists, for St. Ambrose says: "As there is but one baptism so
there is but one course of penance: I mean that which is performed in public" (On Penance, ii).
Only once, then, might one guilty of capital sins perform the exomologesis; did this mean also
that he could be absolved but once? If be sinned a second time was be left without other
recourse than an act of perfect contrition?

Absolution for the dying, surely, was always available. St. Cyprian assures us of this
even in rigoristic Africa (Letter 12/17). It is unnecessary, however, to survey the Christian
churches, for in 325 we have the Nicene Ecumenical Council: "With regard to those dying, the
ancient canon law shall continue to be observed; namely, that if anyone be near death, let him not
be deprived of the last and most necessary Viaticum. But if he recovers after having been
absolved and admitted to communion, be is to be placed among those permitted to take part in
the prayers only. In general, and in the case of anyone dying who wishes to receive the
Eucharist, let the bishop give it to him after due investigation" (Canon 13). It is clear, then, that in
danger of death sacramental absolution was always obtainable to reconcile a penitent in the
internal forum of conscience; yet in the external forum of legal discipline he remained subject to
the penalties of the exomologesis in case of recovery.

Private penance of some sort, moreover, must have existed even if dearth of documents
makes it difficult to determine its precise scope. But it certainly existed for noncapital sins; that is,
for all but the customary reserved crimes of idolatry, murder, and adultery. Origen would seem to
confirm this in a passage immediately after the one cited from him above: "But the common
(faults) which we incur often always receive penance and are remitted without intermission" (On
Leviticus, xv). In the case of more serious, even capital, sins, there always existed a sacerdotal
discretion which could temper the severity of the general norm, at least in regard to the forum of
conscience. To pass over a few earlier testimonies, Pope St. Leo's instruction should suffice:
"The length of penance, with due regard to moderation, is left to your judgment, as you shall see
the penitents' minds disposed; you must not forget to consider old age, illness, and other risks"
(Letter 159). It may be argued that if the priest ought always to take cognizance of the penitent's
needs, even by exemption from public penance, he could at least absolve in the internal forum a
relapsed but truly contrite sinner who found it hard to remain in the state of mortal sin.

(2) THE "IRREMISSIBLE SINS"

Tertullian accused a Roman pontiff, probably St. Calixtus (217-222) Of presumption in

absolving from serious sexual sins: "The Pontifex Maximus-that is the bishop of bishops-issues
an edict: 'I remit to such as have performed penance sins both of adultery and of fornication.' 0
edict on which it cannot be inscribed: approved." Tertullian then proceeds to declare that the
Church could not forgive the "irremissible sins" of adultery, idolatry, and murder (De Pudicitia, 1,
2, 5, 21). St. Hippolytus, moreover, objects that "during Callistus's episcopate they have for the
first time presumptuously administered second baptism" (Refutation of Heresies, ix, 7). "Second
baptism" here seems to mean penance, Tertullian's "second plank after shipwreck."

Catholic tradition nonetheless rejects the biased statements of Tertullian, then a

Montanist rigorist, and of Hippolytus, temporarily estranged as antipope. As a Catholic, Tertullian
had admitted universal pardon: "To all sins, then, whether committed by flesh or spirit, whether by
deed or will, the same God who has destined penalty by means of judgment has also engaged to
concede pardon by means of penance" (De Paenitentia, iii). Nor does be deny that he changed
this opinion: "I blush not at an error that I have ceased to hold" (De Pudicitia, i). What Tertullian
the Montanist pronounces error, be should well have known to be Catholic tradition. St. Paul had
absolved the incestuous man (II Cor. 2:5). Pope St. Clement declared that "in every generation
God gave place of penance to all those who wished to be converted to him" (Corinthians, 7, 8).
St. Ignatius of Antioch stated that: "God forgives all penitents if they are converted to the unity of
God and the council of the bishop" (Philadelphians, 8). Hermas had announced "penance for all,"
including apostates (Similitudes, 8). St. Irenaeus recorded the admission to the exomologesis of
Cerdon the Gnostic and women who had sinned carnally with the Gnostic Mark (A. H., I, 13; III,
4). We need not fear, then, to conclude with St. Augustine: "Let us not listen to those who
deny that the Church of God has power to forgive all sins" (De Agone Christi, 4).

(3) NONSACERDOTAL ABSOLUTION

Martyrs' certificates, libelli pacis, often mention that penitents have been absolved by
Christians under sentence of death, though these were by no means always priests (Eusebius,
History, V, 2; VI, 42). But these certificates, examined more accurately, are but recommendations
by the Martyrs to the hierarchy that the penitents be duly absolved. Despite abuses, the bishops
usually honored these by way of indulgence. Confession to deacons, to martyrs, to the simple
faithful in the absence of priests, mentioned in certain documents, were optional practices lasting
far into the Middle Ages: "So great is the power of confession that if a priest be not at band, let
him confess to his neighbor. Although be to whom confession is made has no power to absolve,
yet be who confesses to his fellow becomes worthy of pardon by his desire of confessing to a
priest" (Pseudo-Augustine, De Vera et Falsa Paenitentia).

(4) COMMENTARY ON PRIMITIVE SEVERITY

Historical perspective is required to appreciate the exomologesis. Though it may appear

harsh to Catholics of the twentieth century, neither was the environment the same as that of
today. The world was pagan, not even leavened by the residue of Christian convention in modern
secularism. Christian converts had often contracted lax views of morality and habits of sin from
pagan upbringing. The pagan world still surrounded them, threatening to overwhelm them. If
converts were permitted great indulgence, they would quickly relapse into their old habits and the
morality of the whole Christian community would be threatened. The gravity of relapse had to be
impressed on them by painful and humiliating penance; for the good of the general body, then on
war footing, repeated backsliding could not be tolerated. If this fell heavily on individuals, the
severity was necessary in the interests of public morality. Some analogy may be drawn from the
Church's determined stand regarding contraceptives today in the face of general laxity outside
her fold.

Extraordinary motives, moreover, tended to inspire Christians of primitive times to

strictness of life. The standard of holiness was high, The memory of Christ, His apostles, and of
men who had spoken with the latter had not yet become dim. At the same time Christians lived
hourly in danger of torture and death from the hands of the state. Serious sins, at least those
designated as capital, were probably a rare occurrence at -first. If primitive discipline was severe,
it was imposed on an austere generation. It is true that with the accession of fair-weather
Christians during lulls in the persecutions and the passage of time this discipline came to be
regarded as relatively severe. Encratite mentality then demanded that no concessions be made
to pleas of "modern weaklings." But the vicars of the Good Shepherd thought otherwise, and they
braved Encratite sneers to mitigate primitive discipline. This process, begun with the decree of
St. Calixtus, proceeded gradually during the imperial period, more rapidly under the changed
conditions of the feudal era when Teutonic neoconverts and turbulent missionary conditions
dictated further relaxation. In substantiation of the reasons for this trend to mitigation, we may
conclude with Pope Innocent I's explanation to Bishop Exuperius of Toulouse regarding
absolution of penitents at the hour of death: "Regarding these, earlier practice was more severe,
the latter more tempered with mercy. The former custom was that penance should be granted but
Communion denied; for in those days persecutions were frequent. Hence lest easy admission to
Communion should fail to bring back from their evil ways men who were sure of reconciliation,
rightly Communion was refused, but penance was granted that refusal might not be total: the
condition of the time rendered remission more difficult. But after our Lord had restored peace to
His churches and terror had ceased, it was judged well that Communion should be given the
dying lest we should seem to follow the harshness and sternness of the heretic Novatian in
denying pardon. Communion, therefore, shall be given at the last, along with penance" (Letter vi,
6).

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) III. Growth of the Church (107-248)
18. Crystallizing Christian Life

III
Growth of the Church

18. CRYSTALLIZING CHRISTIAN LIFE

A. Jurisdiction
(1) PAPAL POWER

Papal primacy had been manifested during the apostolic or primitive period of
ecclesiastical history; now incidents of its exercise multiply. Subsequent documents indicate that
recourse to Rome in matters of faith was of immemorial institution, but disciplinary matters were
left more to episcopal supervision than now. Yet even on this score there is evidence that
variance from later practice was one of degree rather than of kind. St. Clement's classic
instruction to the Corinthians had set a precedent for future intervention in case of need.
Ordinary details may have been entrusted to the patriarchs, but the popes held their intervention
in reserve for extraordinary circumstances.

Various controversies brought this to light. About 155 St. Anicetus had not seen fit to
insist upon St. Polycarp's abandonment of the Oriental tradition in regard to the date of Easter.
But within forty years Pope St. Victor had insisted upon universal observance of the Roman
tradition despite the opposition of Bishop Polycrates of the apostolic see of Ephesus, together
with many other prelates of Asia Minor. Even excommunication was threatened or used to
enforce papal demands, which eventually were met, at least by the fourth century. The
Penitential Controversies also revealed papal leadership. Pope Calixtus persisted in sanctioning
absolution from the capital sin of immorality despite the criticism of the Church's foremost
theologians, Tertullian and Hippolytus. Neither schism nor apostasy swayed the determination of
the Holy See to uphold a moderate penitential discipline. At the end of the period St. Cyprian,
despite his independent attitude, continually consults the Holy See which continues to steer a
middle way between the laxism of Novatus and the rigorism of Novatian. Nor can it fail to be
noted bow various heresiarchs, Valentinian, Marcion, Sabellius, tried to secure the sanction of
Rome for their doctrinal innovations.

The Roman curia remains in obscurity, though there is increasing evidence that the
popes delegated many important matters. St. Hippolytus appears as archpriest and St. Calixtus
as archdeacon under Pope Zepherinus at the beginning of the third century. At this time there is
evidence that at Rome priests still concelebrated with the pope, receiving Communion before
distributing it to the laity. But by the middle of the century chapels of ease had developed into a
permanent parochial system. The earliest of these subordinate chapels were known as tituli, and
their rectors occupied the "cardinal" or "binge" posts in pontifical administration; in modern
parlance, these cardinals were the pope's key men. Even after cessation of persecution
permitted the erection of many new churches, these rectors of the titular churches retained a
privileged position among the Roman clergy and evolved into the college of cardinals, senate of
the Holy Roman See.

(2) EPISCOPAL POWER

The hierarchy. What is the case at Rome continues to be the practice of other churches.
Each has its bishop. Though at first confined to Roman civitates, the bishops eventually followed
the evangelization into the countryside. It is not entirely certain whether these chor-episkopi,
.country bishops," had the plenitude of the priesthood, but they certainly had considerable
autonomy. In some places rural needs were met by periodeutai, apparently itinerant missionary
priests. Lest the episcopal dignity be lessened by excessive multiplication of the office and its
attachment to insignificant hamlets, the parochial and deanery system eventually developed. The
better to preserve ecclesiastical unity despite this multiplication of prelacies, the offices and
prerogatives of patriarchs and metropolitans seem to have been enhanced during this period.
Since the Holy See did not normally concern herself with the choice of bishops outside the Latin
patriarchate, these patriarchs, primates, and metropolitans had important functions in the
selection, consecration, and supervision of suffragan bishops.

Local councils also appear within this period. Aside from the Apostolic Council of
Jerusalem, the first known provincial council was held by Bishop Apollinaris of Hierapolis and 26
other bishops against Montanism about 172. Toward the end of the second century the Easter
controversy evoked other councils in the East, while provincial councils seem to have been a
regular feature in Northern Africa during the third century. At least in the case of the Council of
Antioch in 268 we know that a report of the decrees was forwarded to Rome. About 250,
moreover, a considerable number of Italian bishops rallied around the Roman See during the
second Penitential Controversy, and declared: "We are not ignorant that in the Catholic Church
there ought to be one God, and one Lord Jesus Christ whom we have confessed, and one Holy
Spirit, and one bishop" (D. 44).

The clergy. Priests and deacons now came into greater prominence. The former are no
longer merely assistants at the cathedral, but are placed in charge of local churches. At first they
do not seem to have possessed full pastoral jurisdiction, but by the middle of the third century real
parishes appear. About 259 Pope St. Denis declared: "We have given over the charge of
individual churches to individual priests and have entrusted to them the church buildings and
rectories so that each shall have his rights and no one may overstep the boundaries of his
parish." The deacons' administration of funds and charities required help, and Pope St. Fabian
(236-50) named seven subdeacons to assist the seven regionary deacons of Rome. The next
pope, St. Cornelius (251-53) states that the Roman clergy included 46 priests, 7 deacons, 7
subdeacons, 42 acolytes, and 52 exorcists, lectors, and porters. Lay assistants were chanters,
sextons, diggers, and deaconesses. The latter, the Apostolic Constitutions later affirmed (VIII,
28), "does not bless"; she merely "guards the doors and ministers to the priests when women are
baptized for sake of decorum."

B. Magisterium: Early Patristic Teaching

(1) WITNESSES OF TRADITION

The Apostolic Fathers of the first century from the life of Christ have special importance
as witnesses to the faithful transmission of the Master's doctrine to His Catholic Church. They
are in a pre-eminent degree the "fathers" of Christian theology. Their writings resemble the New
Testament in simplicity of style, and they rank next to the inspired writings in ardor of faith, longing
for the second coming of Christ, and charity.

Individual witnesses. In this category, allusion has often been made already to the
Apostolic Creed and the Didache, which are resumes of apostolic teaching; to St. Clement's
Letter to the Corinthians on hierarchy and obedience; and to the hortatory letters of St. Ignatius of
Antioch, acknowledging Roman primacy and stressing obedience to the hierarchy, while warning
against Judaizers, Docetae, and other heretics. St. Polycarp of Smyrna, addressee of one of St.
Ignatius's letters and echo of his thought, has also been mentioned. He survived until the middle
of the second century to confirm the testimony of his Philippian letter-or letters-by martyrdom.
The Epistle of Pseudo-Barnabas is in part probably copied from the Didache; written before the
Jewish Revolt of 132, it contains a severe indictment of Jewish obstinacy. St. Papias of
Hierapolis, who may have written between 130 and 150, gave valuable testimony on the
composition of the Gospels and the transmission of apostolic tradition, though be entertained
misconceptions about a millennium. Hermas, brother of Pope Pius I (141-55), wrote an
exhortation to penance on the basis of alleged visions delivered by an angel under guise of a
Shepherd-whence the title of his treatise. The work of an earnest Christian, it contains amid
certain exaggerations and inaccuracies, valuable evidence of the penitential discipline in the
second century. About the name of St. Clement are grouped a number of works: a Second
Corinthians, certainly not by St. Clement but conceivably the letter of Pope St. Soter alluded to by
St. Denis of Corinth; and two Letters to Virgins, second or third century ascetical treatises. The
foregoing treatises are to be distinguished from the apocryphal Pseudo-Clementines, composed
either by ancient heretics or medieval canonists. Finally the precious teaching of the canonical
Scriptures and authentic patristic writings is illustrated more clearly in contrast to a host of
apocryphal "Gospels," "Acts," "Epistles," and even "Apocalypses." At best these are pious but
fantastic tales; at worst they are crass or insidious heresy.

(2) THE APOLOGISTS

The Apologists argued legal issues, exposed the absurdities of pagan mythologies,
appealed to truths of natural philosophies, and expounded the less recondite Christian tenets in
an effort to exculpate the faithful from calumnies and obtain from them governmental toleration.
All these writers experienced difficulty in expressing Christian truths in terms understandable to
their pagan audience. Thus they occasionally used some theologically inaccurate expressions,
but for the most part gave an effective case for the Church.

Chief defenders. Of the score or so of men known as apologists, only a few are known
from complete extant works. This is the case of the first known apologist, St. Quadratus of
Athens, who presented his Apology to Emperor Adrian in 124; his work has been lost-unless it
survives as the anonymous Letter to Diognetus. The competent Apologies of two other
Athenians, St. Aristides and Athenagoras, do survive, however, and the latter includes a forceful
defense of the resurrection. Greatest of apologists for his testimony to Christian Faith, if not for
his technique, is St. Justin, who wrote both against Jews and Pagans, and gave a valuable
exposition of mid-second century liturgy at Rome. In his adaptation of Platonic philosophy to
Christology, however, this writer, apparently a layman, was somewhat obscure, and his disciple
Tatian fell into Gnostic and Encratite errors. On the other band, the bishops, St. Theophilus of
Antioch and Blessed Melito of Sardis, were original but more accurate writers on the basis of
surviving fragments. Probably the most technically perfect of the apologies is the Octavius of
Marcus Minucius Felix, who, staying largely within the natural order, vindicated Christianity in
literary debate. Whether this work preceded or followed Tertullian's Apologeticus (197 A.D.)
remains a disputed point. Tertullian, who, indeed, is more than an apologist, presented a learned
legal case for Christians. Written in forceful, if intricate, style, his Apologeticus is another
Christian classic. Here the fiery Tertullian is at best in the most legitimate of his pleas. He
exposed the fallacies of inconsistent imperial policy toward Christianity, and demanded for it
"freedom of religion," since there was already the utmost license for irreligion and caricatures of
religion. Christians are loyal citizens; not "enemies of the human race." Theirs is a sober,
virtuous, patriotic, law-abiding society which elicits even from pagans the exclamation: "Look, bow
they love one another; how they are ready to die for each other." True, Tertullian seems rather
pessimistic of averting further persecution, but he has no doubts as to its outcome. Rather, he
throws down to Roman magistrates an immortal ringing challenge: "Nothing is achieved by your
cruelties, one more severe than the last. They serve as bait to attract men to our camp.
Whenever we are mown down by you we multiply; the blood of Christians is seed" (Apologeticus,
29, 50).

(3) PIONEER THEOLOGIANS

Polemicists of note against the heresies of the second and third centuries include St.
Hegesippus of Palestine, most of whose writings have perished, and the redoubtable Sts.
Irenaeus and Hippolytus, already frequently cited. In Against Heresies, the former does more
than provide an arsenal against the Gnostics; be gives an outstanding exposition of the doctrine
on the Church, and a primitive Christology. Characteristic of him is his thesis of the
"recapitulation" of all things truly human in Christ that what was wounded in Adam might be
healed in Jesus. St. Hippolytus's Refutation of Heresies is little more than that, but the author
made a more positive contribution to tradition in his valuable Apostolic Tradition with its liturgical
data, subsequently elaborated in a variety of works. Perhaps he also compiled the famous
"Muratorian Canon" of the Scriptures.

The African School contributed the mighty Tertullian, the heroic St. Cyprian of Carthage,
and the lay defenders, Arnobius and Lactantius. It was individualistic and original, if not always
excelling in prudence and submission. Tertullian contributed enduring terminology to the Latin
theology of the Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, and the sacraments, but unfortunately his haughty
sarcasm, impatience, and puritanical rigorism paved the way for his defection to Montanism. St.
Cyprian, indeed, remained true to the Church unto martyrdom, but his obstinacy in defending a
speculatively erroneous practice of baptizing heretics anew brought him into clashes with the
Holy See. But he gave the Church valuable writings, especially De Unitate Ecclesiae, with its
maxim: "He cannot have God for a father who has not the Church for a mother." As for Arnobius
and Lactantius, they had more zeal than theological accuracy.

The Alexandrian School as a whole was incontestably superior in pure speculation and
learned research. The founder, Pantaenus, left no writings, but his successor Clement was a
voluminous compiler. Though be never had the time to put his works into a completed synthesis,
he prepared for that undertaken by his disciple Origen. Clement composed a classic treatise on
Christ the Teacher and made an original analysis of the ascetical-mystical life, laying a basis for
the familiar "three ways." Unfortunately his excessively intellectual tradition of the "true Gnostic"
and his overly allegorical use of Scripture were but accentuated in Origen. This most learned of
ante-Nicene writers was a voluminous author and brilliant, if rash speculator. His prodigious
labors on the text of Holy Scripture rendered valuable aid to his successor, St. Jerome. Origen's
Peri Archon, On Principles, is a first essay at a Christian summa theologica. This attempt to
express Christian revelation in philosophic terms anticipated some of the questions treated by
medieval Scholastics, but also included rash errors and material heresy. In his later and wiser
years, Origen put his talents to good use by composing a very effective and "modern" treatise on
apologetics, Against Celsus. Connected with the Alexandrian Academy were Origen's disciples,
Sts. Denis of Alexandria and Gregory Thaumaturgus, both important, if not outstanding writers. A
series of rectors of the catechetical school continued down to Didymus the Blind, who died at the
end of the fourth century. Theology as a technical science had gotten under way.

C. Liturgy
(1) SACRAMENTAL LITURGY

In baptism nothing is changed from the apostolic period, save that the catechumenate
became more elaborate. The Council of Carthage in 252 directed that infants be baptized within
eight days of birth, and Tertullian affirmed that laymen could baptize in case of necessity. St.
Justin described the Roman baptismal rite about 150, and testimonies multiply to the use of
sponsors, imposition of a white garment, and anointing with oil. In the West, public baptism of
converts was eventually confined to Easter and Pentecost, whence the ceremonies
accompanying the vigils of these feasts. In the East, the rite was attached to Epiphany.

Confirmation is mentioned both by St. Theophilus of Antioch and Tertullian, and the latter
mentions unction with chrism and signing with the cross (De Baptismo, 7, 8). Usually the
sacrament was administered immediately after baptism so that it is difficult to distinguish
descriptions of the combined rites.
Penance has been treated at length in the preceding topic.
Holy Eucharist. Tertullian, St. Justin, and St. Irenaeus leave no doubt as to the Real
Presence and the sacrificial character of the Mass. From St. Justin we can reconstruct some of
the Mass of the second century at Rome. It began with a reading from Scripture, taking certain
books in succession. Then came the Gospels according to a fixed cycle. Long prayers or
collects were followed by the bishop's sermon. "Then bread and a chalice with water and wine
are brought to the president of the brethren," and the canon proceeded. St. Justin mentions a
Eucharistic canticle or preface, at first composed ad libitum by the "president of the brethren."
Communion was distributed by priests and deacons. About 200 St. Hippolytus adds the details of
a kiss of peace and mentions that the congregation recited the preamble to the preface with the
celebrant: " and with thy spirit . . . we have unto the Lord . . . it is worthy and just." Communion is
distributed with the words, "the heavenly Bread in Christ Jesus." There is breaking of the Host
and an Eucharistic fast.

Extreme Unction is seldom distinguished by patristic writers from penance. Origen,

however, cited the words of St. James (v, 14) in his Second Homily on Leviticus (J. 495).
Holy Orders are conferred by imposition of hands and recitation of a prayer in form of a
preface. St. Hippolytus gives detailed formularies for the ordinations of bishops, priests, and
deacons; all performed by the bishop alone (Apostolic Tradition).
Matrimony, according to Tertullian (Ad Uxorem, ii, 9) ought to be blessed by the Church.
In case of adultery, there is separation but no divorce. Second marriages were prohibited by the
Montanists, but not by the Catholic Church (De Monogamia, 7). Mixed marriage, Tertullian
warned, had many dangers: a pagan spouse will become suspicious when the Christian arises at
night to pray; takes the Eucharist, conserved at home, before other meals; makes the Sign of the
Cross (Ad Uxorem, ii, 9).

(2) LITURGICAL DEVELOPMENT

Festivals were already observed by Christians. Sunday was to be free from labor and
from fasting. Wednesday and Friday were fast days, the meal being delayed until three o'clock in
the afternoon. At Rome, Saturday was later added to the days of penance. Lent at first
comprised merely Holy Week, and was only subsequently extended to forty days. In the West,
Sundays were excluded from Lenten observance; in the East they were included. Except on
Sundays, the primitive fast was rigorous, but there were many exemptions, and the laity were
usually unable to observe the strict fast except on a few days.

Mass was universally celebrated on Sunday, and usually included the communion of the
entire congregation present, with the deacons seeing to the sick who were absent. Daily Mass
and Communion, if the custom in apostolic times, seem generally to have been impossible during
days of persecution. Only Sunday Mass is clearly mentioned at Rome, though there is evidence
of celebration on various fast days at Carthage and Jerusalem,
Churches or chapels were built during intervals between the persecutions. At first these
were not elaborate, though late in the third century Eusebius speaks of what he terms sumptuous
buildings. Probably there was no standard style, though a common feature would be an elevated
sanctuary at one end. The altar stood at the center of the sanctuary, and behind it was placed the
bishop's chair, flanked by seats for the priests. Deacons are described as standing during divine
services. Separate sections for men and women in the congregation are indicated.
 (3) DISCIPLINARY STANDARDIZATION

Liturgical formulas began to be standardized during this period. St. Justin allows the
celebrant to improvise, but St. Hippolytus, while not suppressing all initiative, gives defined
formulas for consecration of bishops, ordination of priests, deacons, subdeacons, and lectors;
blessings of confessors, virgins, and widows; for administration of baptism, for blessing oil,
cheese, olives. A standard doxology is enjoined for each blessing: "To Thee be glory, Father and
Son, with the Holy Spirit, in the Holy Church, now and always through ages of ages" (Apostolic
Tradition).

Catechumenate. During the first century no formal course of instruction seems to have
been required: Christian numbers were small and prospective converts were introduced by
proven sponsors. But as membership increased and persecution exposed the congregations to
informers and spies, it became necessary to adopt safeguards. A species of disciplina arcani
appeared to prevent exposure of Christian mysteries to the profane, and a definite course of
instruction and probation was imposed upon prospective converts. These were assigned a
special place in the church and dismissed before the principal part of the Mass. Tertullian knew
of such discipline about 200 (Prescriptions, 41), and a little later the "Canons of Hippolytus"
prescribe that catechumens shall spend three years in learning the doctrine; however if a
candidate is docile and well behaved, one need not oblige him to a fixed duration, but decision
can be made according to his conduct.

A biblical canon also begins to be drawn up. The Muratorian Canon seems to have been
a quasi-official list of the Roman Church, not inconceivably compiled by St. Hippolytus at the
beginning of the third century. Its language is apodictic, though there seems to have been as yet
no intention of imposing a uniform canon upon all of the churches.
The penitential system, elsewhere described, also began to take organized form during
this period.

(4) CHRISTIAN LIFE

Civil communication with pagans continued; indeed, it was a necessity. Christians

frequented the market place, the baths, even some shows and festivals for which Tertullian
upbraids them. They continued to care for the poor, and pagans often admired their mutual
charity. St. Lawrence, Roman deacon, is remembered as a martyr to his service of the poor.
Converts were made from all classes of the population, and from all walks of life, as diversified
penalties in the persecuting edicts and inscriptions of the catacombs reveal. Though there were
conscientious objectors, most Christians served in the army, even as volunteers. The Church
was growing in all respects, in numbers, in organization, in extent; both good and bad members
would soon be revealed under persecution.

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) IV. Ordeal of the Church (249-313)
19. Persecution by Roman Renaissance

IV
Ordeal of the Church
19. PERSECUTION BY ROMAN RENAISSANCE

A. Revival of Persecution
(1) CAUSES
Roman Renaissance was imperatively demanded in 248 when the city celebrated its
millenary anniversary. On the north the Germans attacked, while from the east the new Persian
kingdom which had replaced decadent Parthia was a constant threat. Within, ancient Roman
traditions of public service were disappearing with the incorporation of alien and servile elements,
and government by law was threatened by military insubordination and feudal self-sufficiency. In
249 the supposedly Christian emperor, Philip the Arab, was succeeded by Gaius Messius
Trajanus Decius, the first Roman aristocrat for a century. He was prone to lay the blame for
imperial decline to neglect of ancient traditions, and set out to re-Romanize by a return to the old
ways. This involved, in his view, renewed insistence on the official paganism. Christians, who
alone opposed the state religion, must accordingly be dealt with severely, and no longer
according to Trajan's opportunist policy. The Empire was fighting for its life and nothing short of
total prosecution and extermination of all its foes could be contemplated. Thus was inaugurated
a new imperial attitude toward Christianity which, with one notable respite, endured for 65 years.
The issue was no longer whether the Church was to grow or not; now her very survival was at
stake. On the other band, should she emerge victorious from this ordeal, should imperial
resources fail to crush her, she was likely to capture Roman society on the rebound.

(2) TECHNIQUE

Methodical procedure, corresponding to a modern police "dragnet," characterized the

new persecutions. For the first time prosecution was to be universal in enforcement as well as
law. Not only every Christian, but every person whose paganism was in any way suspect was
directed to perform a "patriotic test," that is, signify his allegiance to the state religion by offering
worship to the recognized pagan deities. As in the past, the objective was less to punish
individuals for adherence to Christianity than to secure abjurations. Torture was freely applied to
this end, and records of the official inquest were to be preserved. One of these has survived: "To
the Commissioners of Sacrifice of the village of Alexander's Island, from Aurelius Diogenes, the
son of Satabus, of the Village of Alexander's Island, aged 72 years, scar on eyebrow: 'I have
always sacrificed to the gods, and now in your presence in accordance with the edict, I have
sacrificed and poured the drink offering, and tasted of the sacrifices, and I request you to certify
the same. Farewell! Handed in by me, Aurelius Diogenes.' 'I, Aurelius Syrus, certify that I saw
Diogenes sacrificing. Done in the first year of the Emperor, Caesar Gaius Messius Quintus
Trajanus Decius."' The Church, then, faced an ordeal that would sift wheat from chaff, revealing
heroes and apostates.

B. Military Prosecution (249-61)

(1) THE DECIAN PHASE (249-51)

Emperor Decius set to work promptly after his accession. He had two assistants,
General Gallus Trebonian and Senator Valerian, who were to continue his policy after his death.
The persecution raged methodically and fiercely throughout Decius's reign, but a certain
relaxation became necessary when the emperor began preparations in 251 for the defense of
Dacia against the Goths. His death in the summer campaign brought respite.

Martyrs at Rome suffered almost at once. Pope St. Fabian was executed on January 20,
250, and the rigor of imperial surveillance prevented election of a successor for over a year.
Decius is reported to have remarked that "he would rather hear of a rival to his throne than of the
choice of a new bishop of Rome." During the vacancy of the Holy See it was administered by the
priests, with Novatian apparently acting as archpriest or camerlengo. Other martyrs reported by
name at Rome were Moises, Calocerius, Parthenius, Abdon, Sennen, and possibly St. Agatha.
 In the West persecution extended widely though few precise details are given. St.
Saturninus of Toulouse was put to death, and two bishops in Spain apostasized. St. Cyprian of
Carthage was able to escape by flight, though he continued to direct his flock by letter from a
place of refuge.
In the East St. Denis of Alexandria reports that persecution was particularly thorough. He
himself escaped only because he was rescued against his will by some of the militant members
of his flock. Origen, director of the catechetical school, first at Alexandria and later at Caesarea,
was imprisoned and died later of his hardships. St. Babylas, bishop of Antioch, beaded a number
of episcopal martyrs in Asia and Syria: Carpus of Pergamus, Alexander of Jerusalem; St. Gregory
Thaumaturgus of Neo-Caesarea survived. At Smyrna, the priest Pionius redeemed his bishop's
apostasy by a glorious martyrdom. These are of course but a few of the vast number of victims;
St. Denis declares that "there were others, firm and blessed pillars of the Church and strong in
the strength of the Lord, who became glorious witnesses of His Kingdom."

Apostates, however, also appeared in unusual numbers, for the preceding period of
comparative calm had witnessed relaxation of primitive fervor among many, and accession of
converts with mixed motives. The same St. Denis reported that "many of the most distinguished,
losing courage, presented themselves before the judge. Some were either summoned or waited
upon, and others who were well known were obliged to come forward, and when bidden to do so,
took part in the impure and impious sacrifices. . . . Many held out until frightened by sight of
chains and prison; others, after having endured a few days' confinement, abjured Christianity
when about to enter the tribunal, and still others did not renounce their faith until they had borne
torture a length of time" (Eusebius, History, VI, 41; VII, 1).

(2) RENEWAL UNDER GALLUS (251-53)

Emperor Gallus found that the persecution had practically ceased by the time that he
assumed charge of the administration after Decius's death. During the autumn of 251, however,
an extensive plague excited popular superstitions and Gallus yielded to the demand for a
scapegoat by renewing the persecution of the Christians.
Persecution, however, found Christian courage aroused by the martyrs' fortitude and
stiffened by the apostates' defection. When St. Fabian's successor, Pope Cornelius, was
arrested, so many of his flock appeared in his defense that Gallus deemed it prudent to commute
the pope's death sentence to exile at Civita Vecchia. After St. Cornelius's death, his successor,
St. Lucius, was also exiled, If the object of the persecution was to secure apostates, it seems to
have been less successful than the preceding. It was brought to an end by Aemilian's usurpation
of the imperial throne during 253.

(3) RENEWAL UNDER VALERIAN (253-60)

Valerian, though he soon gained control of the government from the usurper, did not at
first return to a persecuting policy. But in his council Macrinus, devotee of Oriental syncretism,
urged renewal of the edicts of persecution, and, to re-enforce his demands, he used the renewed
invasions by Goths, Berbers, and Persians. Valerian's first edict of August, 257, was directed
against the clergy and the public exercise of Christian worship. Possibly the imperial court
entertained some hope of converting the laity to syncretism once they had been deprived of their
leaders. Both St. Denis of Alexandria and St. Cyprian of Carthage were arrested, and the latter
was subsequently executed. In 258 a second edict was directed against the laity, threatening
them with confiscation of goods, forced labor, exile, and death. Access to Christian cemeteries
was prohibited.

Martyrs were again numerous. Pope St. Stephen was put to death in 257 and during the
following year his successor, Sixtus 11, suffered together with his famous deacon, St. Lawrence,
whose sense of humor lasted until death. Other martyrs known by name were St. Fructuosus of
Tarragona and the clerics, James and Marienus of Cirta. Patroclus of Troyes and Denis of Paris
are said to have been martyred in the same persecution. But it was impossible for Christians to
complete records of their martyrs: at Utica some 153 victims were thrown into a lime kiln; since
their relics were indistinguishable, they were venerated as the "White Mass."

Cessation of actual persecution came about through foreign difficulties. Emperor

Valerian, who had gone to the East to lead the campaign against the Persians, was defeated,
captured, and died in captivity. His son and successor, Gallienus, threatened by foreign foes and
domestic rivals, could not have continued the persecution had he desired.

C. Relaxation of Persecution (260-85)

(1) DECLINING IMPERIAL FORTUNES

Emperor Gallienus (260-68) broke with the policy of his father's advisor Macrinus, Not
content with ceasing to enforce the edicts, he issued in 261 a formal Rescript of Toleration,
probably the first official document of its kind. Addressing himself to Patriarch St. Denis of
Alexandria and his suffragans, the emperor declared that: I have enjoined that the benefit of my
bounty be put into execution throughout the world, that they may keep away from places of
worship; therefore you may act upon the order contained in my rescript so that no one shall
molest you. What you are now legally permitted to do has already for a long time been conceded
by me. Therefore Aulus Cyrenius, the chief administrator, will observe this order that I have
given" (Eusebius, History, VII, 13). Apparently this rescript authorized restoration of confiscated
Christian property, at least in part. Despite the official toleration, Macrinus and other pretenders
continued to persecute.

The lull in persecution inaugurated by the rescript of 261 lasted without serious
interruption until the first edict of Diocletian in 303. During this long period the Church prospered.
Eusebius remarked: "In all the cities large and great churches began to rise from the soil. No
hatred intervened to prevent us from progressing with the times, and each day saw an increase in
our numbers." Many apostates returned to communion and new converts were made, though
once again worldliness began to infiltrate Christian ranks. The shadow of persecution faded as
churches were openly erected, parishes established, and imperial officials began to recognize the
bishops' social functions (History, VIII, 1).

Emperor Claudius 11 (268-70) momentarily halted the anarchy besetting the Roman
world during the mid-third century. Though there were certain instances of mob violence against
Christians, no edict seems to have been issued.
Emperor Aurelian (270-75) also ruled ably and succeeded in restoring imperial frontiers.
His syncretist designs failed to enlist Christian support, and he was preparing a new edict of
persecution when he was assassinated.
Mediocre rulers continued for a decade the apparently hopeless struggle for law and
order against military revolts and barbarian invasions. Tacitus (275-76), a senatorial nominee,
was murdered by his troops, and his successor Probus (276-82) perished in a mutiny. Carus
(282-83) and his sons, Carinus and Numerian, also contended with continual revolts and inroads.
The whole fabric of imperial administration began to break down; the principate of Augustus had
failed, and it remained to be seen whether anything could be found to replace it. Emperors during
this time of "thirty tyrants" had little time to persecute, though popular chagrin at disasters
occasionally vented itself in riots against the Christians.

(2) RESULTS OF THE FIRST ORDEAL

Apostasy during this unparalleled series of persecutions reached unprecedented

proportions. Those who gave up the Faith completely were called lapsi; those who sacrificed or
offered incense were termed sacrificati or thurificati respectively; those fraudulently procuring
certificates of sacrifice were branded as libellatici; still others who registered in obedience to the
edicts were called acta facientes; finally those who delivered the Sacred Scriptures to pagan
desecration were known as traditores. The reconciliation of these classes of apostates would
presently produce a grave disciplinary problem. The attempt to formulate a norm for their
rehabilitation led to the Sacramental Controversies treated in the next topic.

Relaxation in persecution and growth of Christian corporate and private wealth posed new
difficulties for penitential discipline and maintenance of supernatural standards. As the ascetical
ideal of the community was lowered, those aspiring to observance of the evangelical counsels
were attracted to monastic retirement, where they reinforced those who had fled from the
persecutions. Finally, Diocletian's persecution would be the more difficult to sustain in that it
followed upon a lengthy period of comparative peace and relaxation.

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) IV. Ordeal of the Church (249-313)
20. The Sacramental Controversies

IV
Ordeal of the Church

20. THE SACRAMENTAL CONTROVERSIES

A. Theological Background
(1) THE PROBLEM OF RECONCILIATION
Reconciliation of apostates in the foregoing persecution posed a problem for bishops
both during and after the storm. On what conditions, if any, were those apostates entitled to
readmission to communion? The issue was complicated, both at Alexandria and Carthage, by
the practice of the libelli pacis. Those who had weakened under the persecution sought the good
offices of those who had confessed the Faith and lay under sentence of death. These "martyrs
by anticipation" often "received those of the brethren who fell away and had been convicted of
sacrificing; and when they saw their conversion and repentance . . . having proved them, received
and met with them, communing with them in prayer and at their feasts" (St. Denis, cited by
Eusebius, History, VI, 42). Abuses often resulted from this indulgence by the martyrs, many of
whom must have been laymen ill informed of penitential norms. Penitents either acted as if they
had already been dispensed from the exomologesis, or they tried to stampede the hierarchy into
issuing blanket ratifications of these libelli pacis given by the martyrs. This was a challenge to the
power of the keys given to the bishops and priests; what attitude ought the hierarchy to adopt?

Reconciliation of heretics was an analogous problem which came increasingly to the fore
as the sects already noted went into their second or third generation. Whereas earlier heretics
seeking reconciliation were originally baptized in the Catholic Church, now persons sought
admission who had been born and baptized in some heretical sect. Formerly it had been enough
to "impose hands in penance," but could the baptism of these newer converts be trusted? A
considerable number of bishops under St. Cyprian's leadership responded in the negative and
insisted that they must be rebaptized.

Validity of ordination conferred by an alleged traditor, one species of apostate, was later
challenged in Africa when opponents of Bishop Caecilian of Carthage denied his consecration on
this ground. Though the ensuing Donatist controversy lies outside the present period, it is
mentioned here as a remote by-product of the persecutions and as involving a similar dogmatic
principle.

(2) COMMON THEOLOGICAL TRAITS

 Sacramental validity. Though the controversies arising from the three foregoing historical
problems concerned different sacraments, they seem to have a common theological denominator
not clearly perceived by all the participants. For if the sanctity of martyrs could substitute for
penitential absolution; if the validity of baptism depended on the baptizer's faith; if the valid
reception of holy orders depended on the sanctity of the ordaining prelate, then the sacraments
operated ex opere operantis, and the Church was essentially invisible since dependent on an
invisible state of grace. Papal authority rejected such erroneous solutions, though the explicit
definition of the ex opere operato efficacy of the sacraments would await the Council of Trent.

B. The Penitential Controversy

(1) LAXISM OF NOVATUS

Carthaginian apostasy. When the Decian persecution reached Africa in 250, St. Cyprian,
bishop of Carthage, went into biding and remained outside his cathedral until relaxation of the
edicts before Easter, 251. Though he continued to administer his see by letter, rigorists:
condemned his flight and denounced him to Rome. St. Cyprian defended himself successfully,
but experienced greater trouble in readmitting apostates during the persecution. Many of these
secured the good offices of sturdier confessors in prison. The latter's charity was not always
enlightened, for they often issued libelli pacis indiscriminately. The apostates, with the
connivance of certain lax members of the Carthaginian clergy, assumed the confessors'
declaration to be equivalent to reconciliation. St. Cyprian, forced to formulate a provisional policy
during the persecution, decreed that libelli pacis would be accorded purely intercessory value and
would require, in urgent cases, ratification by himself or one of his delegates. Apostates in good
health must await the decisions of a council.

Laxist schism. Novatus, one of the Carthaginian priests, probably belonged to a faction
which had opposed St. Cyprian's episcopal election in 249. Against the bishop's express orders,
Novatus and Deacon Felicissimus honored the libelli pacis as virtual certificates of absolution,
and indiscriminately reconciled all apostates who brought them. Against Novatus and his party,
St. Cyprian convened a provincial council at Carthage in the spring of 251. Though the acts are
lacking, it is clear that St. Cyprian's policy was substantially upheld. Apostates must confess and
perform the exomologesis before obtaining reconciliation; libelli pacis, tolerated during the
persecution, were no longer to be honored. Apostate clerics should be deposed; the libellatici
might obtain absolution after relatively short penance, but thurificati were obliged to lengthy,
sometimes lifelong, exomologesis.

Laxist merger. Novatus responded neither to this legislation nor to St. Cyprian's
arguments in De Unitate Ecclesiae, though St. Cyprian's stand was endorsed by the Roman
clergy, sede vacante, and eventually by the next pope, St. Cornelius. Thereupon Novatus placed
politics before principle. Though Novatian of Rome who now opposed St. Cornelius as antipope
was an extreme rigorist, Novatus joined him in his opposition to the legitimate hierarchy. Novatus
and Felicissimus supported Maximus, named antibishop of Carthage by Novatian, but St. Cyprian
rallied the majority of African Christians to his own authority,

(2) RIGORISM OF NOVATIAN

Novatian had been administering the Roman See since St. Fabian's martyrdom in
January, 250. He enjoyed the prestige of his authorship of a creditable treatise, De Trinitate, and
the reputation of great austerity. Presumably he concealed his rigoristic views in joining the
Roman clergy in endorsing St. Cyprian's stand, but when St. Cornelius was elected pope on
March 5, 251, the disappointment proved more than Novatian could bear. He connived with
certain disaffected Italian bishops to procure episcopal consecration in opposition to the
legitimate pope. "Suddenly," the latter wrote St. Cyprian, "he appeared as a bishop as if shot
forth from some machine." Once in opposition, Novatian developed his rigorism to the extent of
excluding all apostates from any hope of reconciliation forever.

Contest for the East. Though Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian foiled Novatian's ambitions in
the West, he made efforts to win over eastern prelates. Bishop Fabius of Antioch was disposed
to listen to him, but St. Denis of Alexandria would have nothing to do with rigorism. At Alexandria
also apostates were seeking readmission by the aid of the libelli pacis. Whereas Novatian would
refuse them reconciliation, and St. Cyprian proved severe, St. Denis was more lenient.
Absolution was to be granted in danger of death, but not restricted to that case. St. Denis
pleaded: "If we listen to Novatian . . . we shall do the contrary of what was done by Christ. He
was good, He went out to the mountains to seek the lost sheep; if the sheep fled away, He called
it; if He found it, He brought it back with difficulty on His shoulders. We would see the sheep
coming and harshly repel it with kicks" (Eusebius, History, VI, 42, 45). St. Denis, then, was
disposed to accept the martyrs' recommendations by way of indulgence. He expostulated with
Fabius of Antioch for some inclination toward Novatianism: "These martyrs of God who were
among us and are now seated with Christ share His royalty, judge with Him, and pronounce
sentence with Him. They have taken under their protection some of our fallen brethren, guilty of
having offered sacrifice. . . . Let us observe their judgment and charity; let us receive kindly those
whom they treated with such compassion" (ibid., VI, 42).

Repulse of Novatianism. Evidently St. Denis was successful in uniting most of the Orient
against Novatianism, for he presently informed St. Cornelius's successor, Stephen I (254-57):
"Know that all these churches of the East and of more distant countries, which were formerly
divided, are now united; all their beads are unanimous and greatly rejoice at the peace which is
established" (Eusebius, History, VII, 5). The Novatian Schism, nourished by Encratism, continued
nonetheless to exist for some two centuries; Pope Innocent I mentions it at the beginning of the
fourth century.

C. The Baptismal Controversy

(1) CARTHAGINIAN PHASE

Episcopal question. In 254 St. Cyprian strained his relations with the new Pope St.
Stephen I (254-57). Consulted by the communities of Leon and Merida in Spain, he sustained
them in their deposition of their bishops, Basilides and Martial, for defection during the recent
persecution. When he learned that Basilides' appeal had been sustained by the pope, St.
Cyprian not only pronounced the bishop's plea subreptitious, but approved the electors' action in
deposing unworthy prelates. Here St. Cyprian almost anticipated Donatism in seeming to make
episcopal order depend on sanctity. This interpretation is not certain, however, for when similarly
consulted by the people of Arles regarding their Novatianizing Bishop Marcian, St. Cyprian
advised recourse to Rome. Though the precise outcome of these disputes is not known, Pope
St. Stephen can hardly have been pleased.

Rebaptism crisis. St. Cyprian may thus already have been out of papal favor when he
replied on three occasions during 255 that converts from Marcionism and Montanism should be
rebaptized. On the authority of Tertullian and a Carthaginian synod about 220, St. Cyprian
argued that heretical baptism must be regarded as null, and hence ought to be repeated in the
Catholic Church. Though this seems to have been the prevalent opinion in North Africa, more
than one bishop in Mauretania followed the Roman usage of noniteration. To determine a
general norm, St. Cyprian convened a provincial council during May, 256. Here some 71 bishops
upheld his views, which he reported confidently to the pope. In keeping with his mistaken notion
that only a disciplinary question was involved, St. Cyprian termed the conciliar verdict merely
advisory, and allowed each bishop, even St. Stephen, to follow his conscience (Letter 72).

Roman intervention. What survives of St. Stephen's reply is a categorical repudiation of

St. Cyprian's opinion: "If any persons come to you from any heresy whatsoever, let there be no
innovation beyond the rule that has been handed down; namely, that hands be laid on them in
penance." Invoking the power of the keys, the pope directed the bishop of Carthage to
communicate the Roman decision to the African Church. St. Cyprian obeyed, but appended his
own refutation and bitter criticism of St. Stephen's view. Another provincial council in September,
256, moreover, gained the votes of 87 bishops for St. Cyprian's stand. This time his envoys to
Rome were repulsed and we know from a letter of Bishop Firmilian of Caesarea that the pope
talked of excommunication. There is no certainty, however, that St. Stephen put his threat into
execution before his death in August, 257. St. Cyprian's biographer Pontius relates that
subsequently "a messenger came to him from Sixtus, the good and peace-making priest." This
allusion may be taken as evidence that whatever his previous status, St. Cyprian was in
communion with St. Stephen's successor, Pope Sixtus II, at the time of his own martyrdom,
September, 258.

(2) ORIENTAL PHASE

Firmilian of Neo-Caesarea, a disciple of Origen, sustained the bishop of Carthage in his

dispute and surpassed him in violence of language. Defying the pope's claim to Peter's power
and likening St. Stephen to Judas, Firmilian railed against him: "What quarrels and dissensions
you have provoked in the churches of the whole world! What great sin you have committed in
withdrawing yourself from so many flocks! . . . You thought you could excommunicate the whole
world; you have merely excommunicated yourself" (Letter 75 in St. Cyprian's Correspondence).

St. Denis of Alexandria, rather than Firmilian, spoke for the East. He interposed as
peacemaker and it is probably his intervention that brought about St. Cyprian's reconciliation. St.
Denis, when asked to rebaptize one baptized among heretics, "did not dare perform the rite and
told him that his long communion would suffice." Alexandrian tradition was in accord with Roman
practice, and so also, it seems, was the case at Jerusalem (Eusebius, History, VII, 5, 7).

Conclusion: The immediate outcome of the controversies is shrouded in obscurity, but in

314 the Plenary Council of Arles in canons ratified by the Holy See upheld St. Stephen against St.
Cyprian. The eighth canon explicitly revoked the African custom of Rebaptism in favor of the
Roman tradition of penance, except in case of defect of the Trinitarian form. And the thirteenth
canon vindicated the same principle in regard to ordination against the Donatists. In 325 the
Nicene General Council directed that Novatianist converts be reconciled by penance (canon 8),
though Paulianist Adoptionists should be baptized (canon 19) because of their error on the Trinity.
With the development of more precise theological terminology the basic issues involved in these
sacramental controversies were perceived more clearly.

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 AD) IV. Ordeal of the Church (249-313)
21. Reaction of Despair: Manichaeism

IV
Ordeal of the Church

21. REACTION OF DESPAIR: MANICHAEISM

A. Introduction: Background for Manichaeism

(1) IMPERIAL DISASTERS
War dominated the Roman Empire during the third century. Pressure on the northern
and eastern frontiers made the army all-important. During the first two centuries military service
had been an honorable, well paid, and not unduly onerous career. The army had been composed
of citizen volunteers or ambitious noncitizens who aspired to the civil rights generally accorded
with honorable discharge. But by the third century all this had changed. Citizens dodged service;
drafted, they deserted in large numbers. Resort was now had to barbarian troops for the first time
on a large scale, and as imperial resources dwindled it became customary to quarter the
mercenaries on the populace and support them by extensive requisitioning. Such troops would
be unruly and easily rallied to ambitious military leaders who kept the Empire in almost
continuous civil war by their bids for the throne.

Regimentation recast Roman society into new classes. The ideal of public service,
expressed in the unpaid "liturgies," broke down utterly. Men had to be obliged by law to assume
public office, especially in local communities, and such officials were made responsible for the
financial needs of the government at the expense of their own fortunes. Wealthy townsmen
became refugees in other parts of the Empire, or even outside its boundaries. Their
communication by code with friends reminded Dr. Rostovtzeff of the guarded missives of Russian
aristocrats and kulaks under threat of Communism. "Force and compulsion were applied both to
the city bourgeoisie and to the lower classes, and the embittered each against the other. The
result was the collapse of citycapitalism and the acute economic crisis of the third century which
brought about the rapid decline of business activity in general, the resuscitation of primitive forms
of economy, and the growth of statecapitalism. . . . These were the salient features of life in the
fourth and following centuries."

(2) PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTION

Despair and pessimism, needless to say, were fostered by these repeated blows.
Pagans would blame fate; weak Christians were led to question Providence; all would be induced
to examine the problem of evil. Such prolonged affliction, weariness, and satiety of trouble could
not, many felt, be regarded as mere accidents of human life. Rather evil must have a more
positive cause: there was some evil principle involved in the composition of the world which in
turn would be ultimately derived from some malign deity. Pagans would be more susceptible to a
homeless surrender to religious pessimism, but lukewarm and fair-weather Christians would also
be worn out if not by one, at least by a succession of persecutions. Manichaeism offered an
explanation of the problem of evil. It was both a philosophy and a religion; and modern research
has confirmed what was long questioned, that it was also a Christian heresy. Hence it may be
regarded as a reaction to the disasters, secular and religious, afflicting the Roman Empire during
the third century.

B. Manichaean History
(1) ORIGINS

Problem of sources. "Down to the first years of the twentieth century, the history of early
Manichaeism remained very obscure: the writings of Mani and his disciples had been numerous
and widely distributed, but everywhere proscribed and destroyed by Catholics, by
Mohammedans, by Buddhists, by Chinese officials. Toward the end of the last century, numerous
fragments which had escaped destruction were found in Turkestan. . . . These documents were
certainly of value, but they were of comparatively late date and difficult to interpret. . . . We are,
however, already able to establish some points which determine the general lines of the history of
Mani, his preaching, and his doctrine . . ."

Mani is the most commonly used name among Orientals for the founder of the sect. He
is said to have been born at Ekbatana, Persia, about 215. His early history is obscure. Various
legends make him the son of a pagan priest, the slave of the widow of a Buddhist sage, and a
Christian convert and cleric. He seems to have elaborated upon the national Zoroastrianism by
borrowings from Indian and Syrian religions. About 240, in the reign of King Ardaschir (224-41),
he appeared as a preacher in India. In the reign of Shapur (241-72) he transferred his energies
to his native country, where he obtained great prestige at court.

Manichaeism, then, seems to have been spread shortly after the Persian conquest of the
Parthian kingdom in 227. The new Persian monarchy promoted a revival of the native
Zoroastrianism. Mani evidently participated in this movement, though he treated the tenets of
Zoroaster in an eclectic spirit by mingling Christian, Buddhist, Mithraist, and Gnostic elements.
His, then, was a "bigger and better" syncretism. if his account can be accepted, he became a sort
of royal chaplain and toured the realm up to the Roman frontier. Though he does not seem to
have come into the Empire, he is said to have disputed with the Christian Bishop Archelaus of
Cascar. But Mani's views antagonized the Persian Magi who denounced him to the court, already
annoyed at his failure to cure one of the royal family. Bahram I, Shapur's successor, took the side
of the Magi, and had him put to death. We are told that his skin was flayed and put on exhibition,
perhaps in the same museum with the later Emperor Valerian. The date would be between 272
and 275.

(2) DOCTRINES

Dualism of good and evil principles was the basis of Mani's teaching. Even more
definitely than Marcion, whose disciples he eventually absorbed, Mani held that there are two
supreme deities, Hridzai or Light, and Archai or Darkness. The former, like his prototype the
Zoroastrian Ormuzd, was a good principle, represented by the sun. The latter, derived from the
Persian Ahriman, was an evil genius, author of matter and darkness. Hridzai had formed out of
his own essence a First Man, corresponding to Philo's Logos. This Man, about to be vanquished
by material and therefore evil elements infused by Archai, was saved by Pneuma or Spirit,
another emanation from Hridzai. All concrete worldly beings are a mixture of mind and matter.
Adam is begotten of Archai, but composed of elements from Hridzai as well. This gives him two
souls: one, the logike, is formed of luminous particles; the other, alogos, is fashioned of a superior
type of matter. Adam's evil instincts were evoked by Eve, sent for this purpose by Archai.

Christian elements were mingled by Mani who styled himself apostle of Jesus Christ."
According to Mani, Christ was son of Hridzai and took a merely apparent body to free the spiritual
element in man from matter. Christ's passion in this conception was not real; its chief purpose
was to instruct mankind in the Manichaean soteriology. The Manichees, then, were to be purged
by a diminution of the material element in the course of a series of trans-migrations through
bodies successively less material. Like the Marcionites, Mani claimed to have exclusive
knowledge of Christ's real mission, information hidden from the apostles. Like Montanus, he
associated himself with the Holy Spirit, and finally asserted his identity with this emanation from
Hridzai. For Mani, then, Christianity was but another religion to be incorporated into his personal
synthesis.

Morality was to be conditioned by classes. Naturally the Manichaean teachers were "the
perfect ones," distributed among apostles, bishops, priests, and deacons. The "perfected" were
supposed to observe three seals; signaculum oris, manuum et sinus. The first forbade
blasphemy and enjoined abstinence from wine and meat; the second banned handling of certain
objects, and especially slaying of animals and plants which might be souls in migration; the last
prohibited sexual intercourse as ordinated to reproduce matter. But an inferior group of "bearers"
was not obliged by this rigorous code. They might marry, though forbidden to have children.
"They were bound to keep the ten commandments of Mani: to avoid idolatry, lying, greed, murder,
adultery, theft, bad teachings, witchcraft, religious doubt, and laziness. On the whole, their life
resembled that of all men; therefore after their death they had to undergo a whole series of
cleansings, before joining the Elect in the place appointed for their rest. As for unbelievers and
sinful Manicheans, they were condemned after their death to wander until the end of time, then to
be cast into hell. In any hypothesis . . . there was no salvation for the body."
 (3) MANICHAEAN SURVIVAL

Manichaean organization prevented dissipation of the heresy into rival sects. In St.
Augustine's day their hierarchy was headed by twelve doctors, one of whom was the leader. Next
in rank were 72 "sons of knowledge" or administrators; the elders or presbyteroi, and finally the
deacons or missionaries. These grades are in obvious imitation of the primitive hierarchy of the
Christian Church.
Manichaean worship was at first simple, for internal cult was at first exalted almost to a
denial of external. They had no temples, altars, images, or sacrifices. But beginning with the
feast of the Bema (chair) to commemorate Mani's death, festivals were introduced or adapted
from Christianity. A baptism with oil and a Eucharist with water were developed. Prayers and
readings from Mani's letters in time formed a part of the liturgy.

Far Eastern expansion. Mani himself had supervised his sect's organization in Persia
and personally chosen Sisinnios as his successor. But the Persians served him the same way as
his predecessor and Manichees were forced to flee. Some went to the Orient, to India, Armenia,
Turkestan, and eventually as far as Tibet and China. They were readmitted to Persia after the
Saracen conquest, and enjoyed toleration under the caliphate of Bagdad. But there is no
probability that the Manichees ever constituted a majority in any of the eastern lands.

Western Manichaeism. The Manichees appeared within the Roman Empire as early as
280. Their antisocial tenets incurred prosecution quickly: on March 31, 296, Emperor Diocletian
ordered the African pronconsul to prosecute them, not sparing the death penalty. But the sect
survived underground to reappear in imperial favor under Julian (361-63). Valentinian I renewed
the edicts against Manichaeism in 372, and these were repeated by Theodosius (381) and
Honorius (407), and Valentinian III (445). Yet Faustus and Felix could circulate with comparative
freedom in St. Augustine's time. African Manichaeism survived both Roman and Vandal
persecution into the more favorable Mohammedan regime. Colonies of Armenian Manichees
were deported by the iconoclast emperors of the eighth century to the Balkans, where they re-
emerged under the name of Bogomiles. Violent persecution during the tenth and eleventh
centuries drove the latter into Lombardy and Languedoc. In the latter area they came to be
known as Albigenses or Cathari, and provoked large scale missions, a military crusade, and
finally the Holy Inquisition. The friars seem at long last to have converted the rank and file, one
weighty friar meditating deeply on his arguments "to fix the Manichees."

C. Appendix on Priscillianism

Introduction: Though it lies somewhat outside the present period, an alleged Manichaean
survival, Spanish Priscillianism, may be conveniently surveyed here.
"Priscillian . . . was a restless, excitable man, endowed with brilliant gifts of wit and
eloquence, but too much addicted to unprofitable studies. He interested himself in Manichean
and Gnostic literature, prosecuted researches in astrology, and was a diligent reader of
apocryphal writings. Yet though somewhat puffed up with his intellectual attainments, Priscillian
bore a stainless character and was, indeed, a person of sincere and austere piety. . . . The
society which he founded was undeniably eccentric. Its members aspired to a perfection beyond
that attained by ordinary members of the Church, from whom they accordingly tended to
separate. They were rigidly ascetic. They practiced continence, subsisted on a vegetarian diet,
and perhaps fasted on Sundays. Lent and the three weeks before Epiphany they observed with
special strictness, absenting themselves from public worship and shutting themselves up at home
or in hermitages among the mountains. It was their custom to bold meetings by night in private
dwellings, whereat apocryphal books were read and instruction was given by unlicensed
teachers; to these conventicles women were admitted. . . . They preserved a mysterious silence
about their practices and doctrine . . ."
 Prosecution. If Priscillianists were not Manichees, the Christian authorities could hardly
be blamed for their suspicions. The Spanish hierarchy condemned Priscillianism at Saragossa in
380. When the sectaries failed to obey, the bishop of Merida denounced them as Manichees to
the imperial government. Though Emperor Gratian contented himself with imposing sentence of
exile, the Gallic pretender Maximus advertised his orthodoxy by torturing and executing Priscillian
and several disciples in 385. Pope St. Damasus had rejected an apology of Priscillian, but
neither he nor St. Ambrose of Milan had sanctioned the imperial penalty. In fact, St. Ambrose and
St. Martin of Tours sharply criticized those members of the Spanish hierarchy who had
prosecuted the Priscillianists unto death. Quite possibly the punishment had been unnecessarily
severe, but the West would yet revise its judgments on the expediency of capital punishment
against the Catharist version of Manichaeism.

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 AD) IV. Ordeal of the Church (249-313)
22. Reaction of Flight: Monasticism

IV
Ordeal of the Church

22. REACTION OF FLIGHT: MONASTICISM

A. Introduction: Background of Monasticism

(1) DOMESTIC ASCETICISM
Ascetic comes from the Greek asketes, "one who practices"; that is, one who does not
merely admire the evangelical counsels, but tries to live according to them as much as possible.
Since holiness is a mark of the Church, it is to be expected that no Christian generation would be
devoid of those devoting themselves without reserve to Christ. The origin of monasticism during
the third century does not imply an access of fervor in the Church; rather, it denotes the addition
of a new means of attaining an old objective. During the first two centuries asceticism had been
practiced at home, in the environment of the family and the Christian community. Large numbers
of Christians of both sexes vowed themselves to virginity the better to embrace a permanent state
of fidelity to Christian asceticism; St. Justin about 150 says that "many men and women from sixty
to seventy years of age, brought up from childhood in the law of Christ, have kept pure" (Apology
I, xv, 6).

Community life in the strict sense did not exist, but already domestic ascetics tended to
gather for mutual encouragement. The ascetics usually had a special position in the church;
virgins and widows were accorded a distinctive state. The Christian fathers wrote treatises for
their instruction, and the hierarchy watched over their conduct and reputation. When abuses
appeared in the institution, various bishops, such as Sts. Ambrose and Augustine, began to lay
down certain standards and rules of life which provided the basis for regular convents.

(2) MOTIVES FOR MONASTICISM

Flight from persecution is perhaps with justice enumerated last by Pourrat among
motives giving rise to the evolution of monasticism during the third century. Certainly this
arbitrary title is not intended to represent the whole course of the movement; at most it was the
occasion of the vocation of the first hermit, St. Paul of Thebes. But in a larger sense the monastic
movement was flight, flight from the world and from mediocrity. Domestic asceticism has not
ceased today, but it is ever difficult to observe it, for its success demands a "mental hermitage"
and at least a minimum of physical retirement. It was not long before domestic ascetics tried to
remove obstacles by living on the outskirts of towns. But when such habitations became
renowned for virtue, visitors threatened anew the ascetics' peace; moreover, it was difficult to
escape the pagan atmosphere. It is not surprising, then, that eventually some of the ascetics,
reflecting on the examples of the prophets down to St. John the Baptist, resolved to fly the haunts
of men entirely.

B. Monastic Beginnings
(1) THE EASTERN ANCHORITES

St. Paul of Thebes (c. 228-340) is traditionally designated as the pioneer of the eremitical
life. Paul was still young when about 250 he fled from the Decian persecution to a grotto on a
remote mountain in Egypt. Here he became an anchorite, one "living apart," amid a palm grove
which furnished his elementary food and clothing. St. Paul had lived some ninety years in his
chosen solitude before he was discovered by St. Anthony the Abbot, as the result of a private
revelation made to cure him of a momentary complacency. Shortly after their encounter, St. Paul
died at the reputed age of 113. He was to have many imitators throughout the Middle Ages.

St. Anthony (250-356), however, was the publicist of the eremitical life. From youth he
was retiring and for a number of years he lived as a hermit near his village. About 285 he fled
such limited society to the wasteland of Pispir. Here he led a mortified existence at the expense
of violent temptations. But he could not reject persistent disciples and before long his solitude
was shared by many other hermits. Each lived a retired life in his own cell, devoting himself to
prayer, reading, and manual labor of his own choosing. The silent companionship was broken
only occasionally by discourses from St. Anthony. Even this association and the arrival of visitors
proved too much for St. Anthony. He went into Upper Egypt near St. Paul's hermitage to found a
monastery which still bears his name. Yet he could renounce his beloved retirement for the
needs of the Church: he emerged about 311 to encourage the confessors in Maximin's
persecution, and around 338 to confer with St. Athanasius, a great friend, about the defeat of the
Arian heresy. St. Anthony died on January 17, 356, and his Life was written by Athanasius.

The Thebaid and the Nitrian Desert soon housed whole colonies of hermits: 5,000 are
reported in 325 in the latter area alone. St. Ammon (d. 347) and Macarius of Alexandria (d. 394)
vied with St. Anthony's disciples in the practice of austerities. Women also embraced the
eremitical life: St. Anthony founded an institute for his sister and her companions.
The Stylites were the most extraordinary of anchorites. The pioneer, St. Simeon of
Antioch (d. 459), was undoubtedly a holy and obedient man who literally went up to God. After
his youthful enthusiasm of chaining himself to a rock had been rebuked by the hierarchy, he
perched himself on a stylos or pillar, at first ten, later thirty feet high. Thence he preached to
sightseers, confirming his words with miracles. His fame spread even to Gaul. He had imitators
who, however, did not always manifest his spirit of deference to authority. Eremitical life
nourished some souls of surpassing sanctity and self-denial, but it tended to be an uncharted sea
dangerous for ordinary aspirants to asceticism. For most men, some sort of fusion of retirement
and the common life would have to be worked out.

(2) EASTERN CENOBITES

St. Pachomius (d. 348) is styled founder of the cenobitic or common monastic life, since
he resolved the apparent contradiction of the terms koinobion life in common, and monasterion a
solitude. St. Pachomius, a convert from paganism, determined soon after his baptism to give
himself entirely to God. Enlightened by a vision, he joined others in erecting a monastery at
Tabennesi in the Thebaid about 320. His disciples became so numerous that before his death he
governed eight houses, besides the convents for women administered by his sister.

The Pachomium. Rule supplied what was needed by the average student of asceticism.
No longer would a group of hermits be permitted to follow their own immature concepts of the
religious life, but instead a community would dwell under a superior's discipline. This superior,
the abbot, would exercise firm but paternal restraint on the candidates' spiritual exercises and
austerities. This does not mean that the Pachomian life was easy. A postulant was left for a time
outside the monastery door, humbly requesting admission and patiently enduring studied rebuffs.
He was not accepted until the religious had voted to give him the habit. Once admitted, the
novice was assigned to an experienced monk to be trained in the religious life according to St.
Pachomius's norms. With the excesses of certain hermits in mind, the abbot deliberately strove
to combat self-will in the novice, and the novice master was instructed to command precisely
what the candidate disliked, and even actions of no intrinsic value, such as watering a dead bush.
St. Pachomius also supervised his monks closely by having them live in "tribal houses," thirty or
forty monks under a rector. Religious exercises, Mass, recitation of Psalms, and spiritual
conferences were in common. Unlike some solitaries who neglected the sacraments, the
Pachomian monks were to receive Holy Communion at least weekly. A certain minimum of
fasting and mortification was prescribed, but the monks might add to this with permission. The
refectory seems to have witnessed a number of diets and meal times for various individuals.
Sanctions invoked were public penance, fasting on bread and water, and corporeal punishment.
Silence was strictly enjoined.

St. Hilarion (d. 371), a disciple of St. Anthony, worked out a sort of compromise between
the monastic systems of St. Anthony and St. Pachomius. Early in the fourth century he set up
lauras near Gaza in Palestine. These were colonies of hermits gathered in villages and formed of
cells found in a defined area. Life in a laura was intermediate between that of solitaries
independent of one another and that of cenobites living in community. The monks, though living
apart in cells, Were yet gathered around heads or guides. Rule of a superior afforded a curb to
individual caprice, though often the abbots were laymen who lacked the ecclesiastical formation
of the priesthood and tended to neglect the sacramental system for private devotions. Thus a
successor of St. Hilarion in Palestine, St. Sabbas, had to be constrained to receive ordination by
the bishop of Jerusalem.

(3) EARLY WESTERN MONASTICISM

Introduction: During this period monasticism was still in its infancy in the West. Largely a
transplantation from the East, it was not yet perfectly proportioned to Western culture, spirituality,
or even climate. Truly indigenous Western monasticism will not appear before St. Benedict's
work in the sixth century.
St. Athanasius of Alexandria was the friend and disciple of St. Anthony of the Thebaid.
During his exiles in the West under Arian persecution, St. Athanasius familiarized westerners with
the ideals and practices of the eastern monastic pioneers. His Life of St. Anthony, written about

357, was translated into Latin by 379.

St. Jerome was one of the first to popularize the monastic life at Rome about 380-85.
Although he soon retired to the Holy Land, he continued to direct various Roman clerics and
virgins by letter.
St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, was at the same time inspiring maidens in Lombardy with
the ideal of virginity in his sermons. Like St. John Chrysostom in the East, he defended the
monastic ideal against detractors.

St. Augustine, St. Ambrose's distinguished convert, was also greatly influenced by
accounts of the austerities of Eastern ascetics. In Africa he set up religious houses for both
laymen and clerics, while his letter to a convent of nuns became the basis of the so-called Rule of
St. Augustine which guided many later communities.
St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, became a western counterpart of St. Athanasius in the Arian
controversies. Probably he knew the bishop of Alexandria; at any rate he could observe monastic
life during his exile in the East. On his return he inspired and aided St. Martin in erecting
the first known monastery in Gaul.
St. Martin made this foundation at Liguge about 360, shortly after St. Hilary's return.
Subsequently bishop of Tours, St. Martin founded another monastery in his diocese at
Marmoutier. Here he gave as much attention as he could to the eighty monks. Marmoutier was
the parent of St. Germanus of Auxerre, monastic apostle in Gaul and Britain, and of St. Patrick,
whose foundation at Armagh in turn became a nursery for Celtic monasticism.

St. Honoratus founded the abbey of Lerins along the Riviera about 400. When he left
this institute to become bishop of Arles, he was succeeded by St. Hilary. The house had two
famous teachers, Salvian, instructor of many future bishops in Gaul, and St. Vincent, codifier of
patristic traditions. Also from Lerins came St. Lupus of Troyes and Ferrieres, and the great St.
Caesarius of Arles.
Blessed John Cassian contemporaneously founded the monastery of St. Victor at
Marseilles. Not only was this house another monastic nursery, but its revered abbot popularized
Eastern monastic traditions in his conferences, the Monastic Institutions.

C. Monastic Codification
(1) ROLE OF ST. BASIL

St. Basil the Great (329-79), archbishop of Neo-Caesarea, brought Eastern monasticism
to maturity by codifying the best elements that had been revealed by a century of experience in
the Thebaid and in Palestine. St. Basil not only visited existing foundations, but before his
election to the episcopate lived for some time as a hermit in Pontus. To his personal experience
with the advantages and dangers of illregulated monasticism, he added the grace of the
episcopacy and familiarity with problems of legislation and administration. He was well qualified,
then, to write a Rule which eventually became the norm for all Oriental monasticism, much as St.
Benedict's was to become in the West. "St. Basil . . . corrected what was unworkable in the
Pachomian conception . . . . The Rule of St. Basil, just because it strengthens the life of the
community, is of greater moderation than that of Pachomius."

(2) RULE OF ST. BASIL

The Basilian Rule was in the catechetical form, comprising 203 questions and answers
on subjects relating to monastic life and the application of biblical maxims. With but little
modification it could be used by both monks and nuns. It introduced a spirit of moderation into
the arbitrary and often excessive practices of earlier monasticism. Lest absolute solitude harm
the average monk, it envisioned a balance of the active and contemplative lives, which allowed
the monks even to serve as clerical auxiliaries and missionaries in case of need. Labor was to
serve not merely as a means to dispel idleness, but to provide support for the community; in fact,
if fasting hinders you from labor, it is better to eat like the workman of Christ that you are. Less
discouragement was put in the way of postulants, though novices were carefully trained in
obedience and indifference. A rule of order for each day was followed, with liturgical prayers at
dawn, Terce, Sext, None, dusk, and bedtime, interrupted at midnight. Prayer was in common and
at a fixed place, and all meals had to be taken at appointed hours. While manual labor was
highly esteemed, the study of Holy Scripture was also enjoined on the monks. Extraordinary
devotions and mortifications were not permitted, and generally the abbot should know what his
subjects did both within and outside the monastery. To this end, the monastic institutes were to
be small. To this day the Basilian rule remains the common norm of Oriental monasticism.

(3) MONASTIC CHAMPIONSHIP

 St. John Chrysostom, Antiochian preacher and later patriarch of Constantinople, became
a great apologist for monasticism in the Orient, His masterly oratory and excellent commentaries
on St. Paul's Epistles were themselves sources of ascetical theology. He reconciled the monastic
ideal with the priestly charge, and for many years in the East bishops, required to be celibate by
canon law, were selected from the monastic

clergy.
St. Gregory of Nissa, younger brother of St. Basil, defended his memory and doctrine.
Scholar rather than man of action, he was highly revered in the Greek Church, and his writings
also became normative.
Monasticism accordingly became exceedingly popular in the Orient, and increasingly the
cenobites adopted the Basilian rule until it became virtually universal. Emperor Justinian later
imposed certain standard regulations, though leaving the monks subject to episcopal jurisdiction.

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 AD) IV. Ordeal of the Church (249-313)
23. Persecution by Roman Absolutism

IV
Ordeal of the Church

23. PERSECUTION BY ROMAN ABSOLUTISM

A. Absolutist Reorganization
(1) DIOCLETIAN'S TETRARCHY
Emperor Diocletian (285-305) was probably the son of the Oriental freedman Diokles. At
least the system that he instituted in imperial government savored more of Oriental absolutism
than of Roman constitutionalism. Though he had secured the throne by the customary third
century method of successful mutiny, Diocletian was determined to remove the ladder by which
he himself had mounted. He deleted from the imperial office any traditions of military
camaraderie still clinging to it from Caesar's day. Henceforth the monarch was to be absolute
master without disguise or restraint. The crown, monarchical trappings, elaborate court etiquette,
and above all a host of intermediate officials and secretaries were to make the emperor appear a
remote and awesome figure, no longer deified posthumously, but very god on earth.

Administrative reorganization was indeed needed for the unwieldy empire. Diocletian
now divided Roman dominions into four portions, the prefectures. Each of these divisions was to
be supervised by a prefect combining civil and military jurisdiction and immediately subject to the
emperor or one of his colleagues and heirs. The prefectures were the Orient, comprising Asia
Minor, Syria and Palestine, and Egypt, with headquarters at Nicomedia; Illyricum, comprising
Thrace, Greece, and the Balkans; Italy, which also included Proconsular Africa; and Gaul, which
embraced as well Britain and Spain. This tetrarchy of prefectures, each with its administrative
bureaucracy, survived Diocletian's schemes for the succession, and substantially endured until
the dissolution of the Roman Empire. Prefectures were subdivided into dioceses, each under its
vicar, and these in turn were portioned into provinces under praesides chosen from the
equestrian class.

Succession to the throne was minutely regulated by Diocletian in the hope of putting an
end to military usurpations. He chose a junior colleague, Maximian, who was given the title of
"co-augustus" and put in charge of the Western prefectures of Italy and Gaul, Diocletian retaining
personal supervision of the East. Each of these rulers was then to choose a deputy and
prospective heir, entitled Caesar. Diocletian selected Galerius, Maximian, and Constantius. In
305 Diocletian put this plan into operation by himself resigning and constraining the reluctant
Maximian to do likewise. Galerius and Constantius then succeeded to the supreme positions and
were in turn to provide heirs by adoption. But once the government had become an unabashed
monarchy, the trend toward hereditary succession became strong. Though Galerius and
Constantius duly named successors, on the latter's death a year later, his soldiers bypassed the
legal system to proclaim his son Constantine. After a series of civil wars, Constantine was able to
make himself sole ruler and retained the throne in his family until 363. Other dynasties
succeeded, and in the Byzantine East especially hereditary succession became normal, in spite
of periodic palace revolutions. Diocletian's reorganization ` therefore, somewhat checked the
third century anarchy, but did not effect a complete cure: the medicine of absolutism, moreover,
had to be administered in ever larger doses as the body politic became immune to its effects.

(2) EFFECTS OF REORGANIZATION

Religious intolerance is endemic to totalitarian absolutism, and persecution of the

Christians followed despite Diocletian's personal aversion to such methods. His heir, Galerius,
imbibed a fanatical hatred for the Church from his barbarian mother, and consistently strove to
convince Diocletian that they be crushed. Anti-Christian tracts by Porphyry and Hierocles
circulated, and it was only a question of time before imperial regimentation would claim the
Church as a province.

Cultural cleavage had been accentuated by the reorganization. The two eastern
prefectures coincided with the Hellenistic world, and the western ones with the Latinized
provinces. Though separation of administration did not mean division of the Empire, yet the
inaccurate but popular designations of "Empire of the East" and "Empire of the West" are correct
in suggesting a growing divorce that would eventually affect Church as well as state.
Social stratification was a by-product of the administrative changes. If the emperor and
his court were now sacrosanct, the moths fluttering at his shrine must be properly attired. Greater
stress than ever was placed on precedence, titles, court attire. Influence came to count for more
than merit; ancestry was more highly prized than ability. Higher officials were lavishly rewarded
with estates and privileges, but depended precariously upon imperial favor ever susceptible to
flattery, calumny, and every species of intrigue. Espionage and counter-espionage became
regular devices of government, and one authority was checked by another. The East relapsed
rather easily into servility, but in the West the spirit of freedom, upheld by a hierarchy less under
imperial control, was never wholly quenched.

Economic castes were now becoming rigid. The middle class, both of urban artisans and
merchants and of rural independent farmers, was well nigh obliterated in the repeated disasters
of the third to the fifth centuries. The system of latifundia engulfed the provinces so that many
independent farmers began to be reduced to coloni, forerunners of medieval serfs. Whether
personally slave or free, they were bound to the land to assure a constant food supply. Likewise
in towns, artisans were restricted to their hitherto more or less spontaneous collegia or guilds.
Before long men were as much bound to their father's trade as were coloni to remain on the land.
Distribution was another problem settled by the fiat measures of absolutism. In 296 Diocletian
introduced a reformed coinage, based on a gold standard, but his successors repeatedly
debased it. In 301 a price fixing edict was issued and the government embarked on the endless
complications of economic regimentation, with attendant problems of smuggling and black
marketing. Taxes were increased, but often had to be collected in kind rather than in specie, and
officials were sometimes so paid.

Military importance was by no means de-emphasized; rather, the 33 legions of the early
third century had by now reached 60, and to meet ever-shifting barbarian threats the mobile
cavalry reserves had to be augmented. Military magistrates, generically duces, came to be
distinguished for the civil service, corporately termed judices.

B. Imperial Persecution (303-14)

 (1) INAUGURATION (303-06)

Diocletian's edicts. Emperor Diocletian, whose wife and daughter were catechumens, did
not persecute Christians until late in his reign. But his anti-Christian Caesar Galerius enjoyed
great prestige after defeating the Persians in 297. The latter systematically dismissed Christian
officers from the army and viewed with alarm Christian influence in the state. During 302 failure
of the auguries was interpreted by the soothsayer Tagis as an omen of the "Christian menace."
Now Galerius persuaded the emperor to issue a first edict, February 24, 303, which stopped short
of blood. This forbade Christians to assemble for worship, and directed that their churches be
destroyed or confiscated, their Scriptures burned, and their faith renounced. Penalties were
graduated: nobles were to be demoted; citizens enslaved, and slaves denied hope of
emancipation. A Christian of Nicomedia paid with his life for tearing down the edict, and the
cathedral at Nicomedia was burned as an object lesson. Fires in the imperial palace were
blamed on the Christians by Galerius-on Galerius himself by the Christian apologist Lactantius.
New imperial edicts followed in 304. A second decreed immediate arrest of the clergy; a third
extended the same penalty to all recalcitrant Christians. Finally a fourth edict decreed capital
punishment for all those who would refuse to acknowledge the official paganism. The ultimatum
was: "You have heard the law of the Emperor: it commands that throughout the world members of
your society must either sacrifice or perish" (Eusebius, History, VIII).

Enforcement quickly claimed victims. An inquest into the imperial household led to the
abjuration of Diocletian's wife and daughter. On the other hand, Grand Chamberlain Peter, the
court official Dorotheus, Bishop Anthimus of Nicomedia and other clerics and laymen were
executed. Public and private property belonging to Christians was confiscated and the use of
torture to enforce abjuration became a matter of course. During 304 Diocletian suffered a sort of
nervous breakdown; he recovered sufficiently to hand over the government to Galerius and his
colleague Constantius on May 1, 305.

Galerius, the real instigator of the persecution became henceforth the chief ruler of the
empire. Until shortly before his death in 311 he was indefatigable in enforcing the edicts of
persecution, and he found a willing aide and heir in Maximin Daia, nominated Caesar for the East
in 305. In the West, however, he found less support. Diocletian's old colleague Maximian had
dutifully seized and burned the pontifical archives at Rome and had executed Pope Marcellinus in
October, 304; thereafter the Holy See remained vacant for the unprecedented interval of four
years. But Maximian's successor, the new co-augustus Constantius, was a solar monotheist, not
unfavorably disposed to Christianity. During his short reign of a year, he seems to have confined
himself to token observance of the edicts: destroying a few churches. More serious for the future
of Galerius's designs, Constantius's son Constantine, held as a sort of hostage in Nicomedia, had
been a silent witness of the outbreak of persecution. Now he escaped to rejoin his father in
Britain and disrupt the plan of succession by accepting the throne from his father's troops on the
latter's death in July, 306.

(2) COURSE OF THE PERSECUTION

The means employed were most cruel. A first hand account is furnished by Bishop
Phileas of Thmuis concerning martyrs who suffered at Alexandria in 306: "The blessed martyrs
who lived with us . . . suffered for the sake of Christ every pain, every torment that could be
devised, and some not once but several times. . . . They were beaten with rods, with whips,
straps, and ropes. . . . Some with bands tied behind them were placed on the rack while their
limbs were stretched by a machine. On a judge's order, executioners tore with iron rakes not only
their sides, as is done with murderers, but also their stomachs, legs, and even their faces. Some
were hung in the portico by one hand in such wise that the straining of joints was more cruel than
any torture. Others were bound to pillars, one facing the other, without having their feet on the
ground, causing the weight of their bodies to tighten their bonds the more. They endured this
torture not only while the judge was questioning them, but nearly all the day. As the judge passed
on to another, he left some of his assistants to watch the first in order to see whether excess of
suffering would shake their resolution. Without mercy he ordered bonds tightened and the dying
dragged about the room, for he declared that we deserved no respect and all should treat us as if
no longer human beings" (Eusebius, History, VIII, 10).

The martyrs were countless. The prisons were so full of Christians that no room
remained for criminals. In Phoenicia, great numbers were slain by the sword because the beasts
were miraculously held back from injuring them. In Egypt, even the swords became blunted and
broken so that executioners had to work in relays because of sheer physical exhaustion. Martyrs
in the Thebaid were tied to bent branches of trees to be rent limb from limb. A whole town was
burned down with its Christian inhabitants in Phrygia. Christians in the army were decimated,
and the officers, Sts. Sebastian and Maurice, suffered. Bishops and priests who were not put to
death were maimed: many members of the Nicene Council in 325 would display scars from the
persecution. Pagan tactics of committing Christian virgins to brothels sometimes prompted the
latter to leap off cliffs or cast themselves into the sea. These were the heroic years of the virgin
martyrs, Sts. Agnes, Lucy, and others. The number of victims overtaxed Christian piety, for the
catacombs still record mute evidence of the ferocity of the persecution in the hasty burial of
"Marcella and 550 martyrs of Christ"; of "150 martyrs of Christ," etc.

Ecclesiastical government was rendered difficult by the severity of the persecution and
the clamors of apostates for reconciliation. Marcellus, finally elected pope in 308, was exiled by
reason of such riots, while the next papal election was in dispute. Similarly the moderate leniency
of St. Peter of Alexandria provoked the rigoristic schism of Bishop Meletius. Bishop Mensurius of
Carthage replaced the sacred books by heretical works for imperial burning, but the alleged
"treason" of Bishop Felix of Aptonga would presently become the occasion of the great Donatist
schism. Though Constantine did not persecute, Maximian came back from retirement, and he
and his son Maxentius, if less cruel than Galerius and Maximin in the East, were yet unfavorable
toward Christianity.

(3) CESSATION

Galerius was the first of the persecutors to be removed. In 311 he became afflicted with a
loathsome disease. In his agony he issued the following edict of toleration: "Since they
[Christians] still persist in their impious folly and are deprived of public exercise of their religion,
we are disposed to extend to these unhappy men the effects of our accustomed mercy. We allow
them, consequently, to profess their private opinions and meet at their places of worship without
fear of disturbance, provided always that they respect the existing laws. . . . We hope that our
clemency will induce the Christians to offer prayers to the Deity whom they worship for our safety
and prosperity, for their own, and for that of the state" (Lactantius, Persecutors' Deaths, 34). This
muddled edict from a mind in torment was an unwilling face-saving measure. It might grant the
Christians some respite, but could afford them no real security for the future. As a matter of fact,
though Licinius, Galerius's successor in Illyricum, confirmed the edict, Maximin Daia disregarded
it in his prefecture of the East.

Maxentius in Italy allied himself with Maximin Daia against Licinius and Constantine and
this led to renewal of persecution in the West. As will be noted again in narrating Constantine's
career, Maxentius was defeated and killed at the Milvian Bridge in 312, and Constantine and
Licinius united on a policy of relaxation, popularly called the Edict of Milan (313).
Maximin Daia, thus left the sole persecutor, struggled on for a while with dogged
fanaticism. But in the face of repeated victories of Constantine and Licinius, persecution soon
ceased even to be good Politics. Put to flight, Maximin died in exile during 314, possibly by
suicide.

Conclusion: "It was not I who did it, but others," Maximin Daia is said to have exclaimed
in defeat. In a sense this is true. All explanations already offered, Roman revival, absolutist
regimentation, popular bigotry, do not quite explain the bitterness of the ordeal to which the
Church had been subjected. Diabolical forces seem to have been at work to preserve Satan's
age old domination of society. But just as the Church's remarkable growth confirmed Christ's
prophecy of the mustard seed, so the course of persecution vindicated His prediction: "In the
world you shall have distress; but have confidence, I have overcome the world." Several million
martyrs, witnesses in suffering and blood, had reasserted with the centurion: "Indeed, this was
the Son of God." By 313, though Rome was still officially pagan, while a majority of its subjects
were doubtless idolators, yet there could be no doubt that paganism was a dying cause.
Imperialism, without losing its mundane outlook, would soon deem it expedient to profess itself
Christian. Perhaps a final irony lies in the fact that by the sixth century Diocletian's sarcophagus
had disappeared from the sumptuous villa of his retirement, and his private "chapel," a temple to
Jupiter, had been transformed into a cathedral of the Christians that he had tried to exterminate.

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 AD) IV. Ordeal of the Church (249-313)

24. Patriarchates in Evolution

IV

Ordeal of the Church

24. PATRIARCHATES IN EVOLUTION

A. Western Patriarchate
(1) PAPAL HISTORY (250-314)
Sacramental controversy. Pope St. Fabian (236-50) was one of the first victims of the
Decian persecution and the Holy See remained vacant for more than a year. During this time the
priest Novatian headed the administration and aspired to the papacy. When in March, 251 St.
Cornelius was chosen, Novatian went into schism, posing as antipope until his death about 258.
Though opposed to reconciliation of apostates, Novatian made common cause with the
Carthaginian laxists in revolt against St. Cyprian. The latter gave Pope Cornelius his support and
by the time of the latter's death in June, 253, the schism had ceased to be critical. Pope St.
Lucius (253-54) spent part of his short pontificate in exile; relations with Carthage remained
cordial. But under Pope St. Stephen I (254-57) the question of rebaptizing heretics led to a
difference of views. The pope forbade baptisms of converts to the disgust of St. Cyprian and
Firmilian of Caesarea. Though St. Stephen threatened the dissenters with excommunication, he
may have withheld the penalty at the intercession of St. Denis of Alexandria. In any event, Pope
Sixtus II (257-58) seems to have worked out some amicable settlement, though Rome's victory
was not definitively recognized until the Council of Arles in 314.

Trinitarian controversy. Pope St. Denis (259-68) felt obliged to correct his namesake of
Alexandria for expressions verging on Tritheism in his reaction against Sabellian modalism.
Having beard complaints from both doctrinal camps at Alexandria, the pope summoned a Roman
synod late in 262. Thence emanated a dogmatic letter asserting that, "we must neither divide the
wonderful and divine Monad into three divinities, nor destroy the dignity and exceeding greatness
of the Lord by thinking Him a creature, but must have faith in God the Father Almighty and Christ
Jesus His Son and in the Holy Ghost. . . . Thus both the divine Trinity and the holy preaching of
the Monarchy will be safeguarded" (Denzinger, 51). St. Denis of Alexandria, never in formal error,
accepted the papal decision, but his fellow patriarch of Antioch, Paul of Samosata, continued to
hold modalistic adoptionism. What part Pope St. Denis had in a first council held against Paul at
Antioch (264) is not known; but the second council reported to him the deposition of Paul (268).
St. Denis had died in December, 268, so that it must have been his successor St. Felix (269-75)
who confirmed the conciliar acts. Though a supposed letter of Pope Felix to Maximus of
Alexandria on the Trinitarian question is not authentic, we learn of the papal solicitude indirectly
when Emperor Aurelian (270-75) directed that the Antiochian ecclesiastical property "be given to
that party to whom the bishops of Italy and the City of Rome should award it." Paul was expelled,
but his disciple Lucian survived to infect Arius (Eusebius, History, VII, 30).

Catacomb pontificates. The pontificates of St. Eutychian (275-83) and St. Caius (283-96)
were apparently peaceful and relatively uneventful; we know little more of them than their names.
According to Eusebius (History, VII, 32) St. Marcellinus died "through the persecution." Later the
Donatists accused him of offering incense. To this charge St. Augustine retorted: "He (Petilius the
Donatist) accuses Marcellinus of being a traditor, a wicked and sacrilegious man; I declare him
innocent. It is not necessary to weary myself in proving his innocence, for Petilius does not
venture to prove his charge" (Contra Litteras Petiliani, M.L., XLIII, 323). Though there is nothing
in the Liberian Catalogue about the pope's supposed defection, the reconstructed Liber
Pontificalis of later centuries declared: "Marcellinus himself was haled to sacrifice, to offer incense
and he did it; after a few days, inspired by penance, he was beheaded by the same Diocletian
and crowned with martyrdom." On the other hand, Theodoret refers to 'that Marcellinus who had
so nobly distinguished himself during the persecution" (History, I, 2). From such contradictory
evidence no certain conclusion can be drawn; possibly Marcellinus merely gave up some
liturgical books and the Donatists exaggerated the story for propaganda purposes.

Diocletian's persecution was so severe that the Holy See remained vacant from October,
304 to May, 308. The priest Marcellus, newly elected pope, was faced with the reconciliation of
apostates. Many of the faithful, perhaps scandalized by reason of some weakness of
Marcellinus, opposed any leniency. These rigorists went so far as to try to impose their will by
violence, and blood was shed. The Roman ruler, otherwise comparatively tolerant, thereupon
exiled the pope. After his death in exile during January, 309, a Eusebius was elected to succeed
him. But the opposing faction of laxists who had denounced Marcellus to Maxentius now elected
Heraclius. After riots had disturbed the city for four months, both pope and antipope were exiled.
Pope Eusebius died in Sicily in August, 310, and peace among the Christian community seems to
have been restored at the election of St. Miltiades in July, 311. St. Miltiades (311-14) survived the
last of the persecutions and received from the victorious Constantine the gift of the Lateran
Basilica on the Coelian Hill-this was enlarged by the next pope and converted into the Lateran
cathedral. The pope was on friendly terms with the emperor and co-operated with him during the
Donatist controversy which disturbed both Church and state in North Africa. This dispute will be
treated elsewhere; here it is sufficient to note that the pope vindicated Bishop Caecilian of
Carthage against the Donatist rebels in a Roman Synod in 313. Though he died before the
conclusion of the Council of Arles (314), this plenary assembly of the Latin patriarchate, though
imperially inspired, wrote submissively to Rome to his successor, St. Sylvester.

(2) EVANGELIZATION OF THE WEST

General survey. "On the eve of the peace of Constantine . . . there was a much weaker
diffusion of Christianity in the West. But it would be an exaggeration to say that, apart from the
Mediterranean shores, the West was scarcely affected. In Spain authentic data concerning the
Valerian persecution and the large number of sees represented at the Council of Elvira prove an
already deep penetration of the interior of the country by Christianity. Though the number of
bishoprics in Gaul prior to the fourth century was rather limited, there were a few in existence
some distance away from the Mediterranean shores, e.g., at Bordeaux, Bourges, Sens, Paris,
Rouen, Soissons, Rheims, Chalons, and Treves. In Italy, it is hardly likely that Maxentius would
have carried out from the first a policy favorable to the Christians if they had only been a mere
handful of men. In Africa, we have noticed the great number of bishops assembling in a series of
councils held under the presidency of the bishop of Carthage from the end of the second century
until the close of the last persecution; the after effects of this on the whole life of the provinces,
which was to be profoundly upset by Donatism, show the place held by the Christian element in
these countries. Even so, it remains true that there was still much to be done to propagate the
Gospel in the West, where country districts had hardly been touched."

The Synod of Arles, held in Gaul during 314 affords some evidence to estimate the extent
of the Western evangelization at the close of the period of persecutions. This meeting was called
by Constantine for consultation about imperial policy toward the African Donatist rebels. The
gathering cannot, like the great assembly at Nicea in 325, he termed a general council, but it
seems just to describe it as a Latin plenary synod. The acts are in Latin and were sent to Rome
for confirmation, though the pope had been represented at Arles by the priests Claudian and
Vitus and the deacons Eugene and Cyracus. The list of sees represented is by no means
accurately determined, but 33 bishops were at hand, besides priests or deacons representing
other sees. We can identify Syracuse, Capua, Arpinum, Ostia, Porto, Civitavecchia, Milan,
Aquileia in Italy; sixteen Gallic towns, including the sees of Arles, Marseilles, Vienne, Rheims,
Vaison, Rouen, Autun, Lyons, Bordeaux, Nice, Orange; from Germany were Agroecius of Trier
and Maternus of Cologne; three bishops were present from Britain, those of London, York, and
Lincoln; Spain was represented by the bishops or episcopal proxies of Emerita, Terragona,
Saragossa, Baetica and others; Caecilian of Carthage headed the representatives of nine African
sees, and there was one from Dalmatia. Shotwell interprets the Synod of Arles as clear evidence
of Roman leadership in the Latin Patriarchate: "It was . . . an assemblage of western men,
accustomed from of old to defer to the opinion of the one apostolic church in their midst. . . . The
Western episcopate knew where its leadership lay.

B. Eastern Patriarchates
(1) ALEXANDRIA

Evangelization. During the persecution of Septimius Severus there had already been
many martyrs, and during that of Decius papyri certificates of sacrifice have been found even in
villages. The victims of the last persecution were legion. Before Nicea, fifty Christian
communities and forty sees can be identified, and the provincial council of Alexandria in 320-23
numbered 100 bishops. The Pentapolis-Cyrene, Ptolemais, Berenice, Arsinoe, and Sozuse-had,
it would seem, separate sees, suffragan to Alexandria.

Patriarchal rank, therefore, was already assured to the bishop of Alexandria. Demetrius
(190-233) encouraged the Catechetical School, but did not hesitate to depose its rector, Origen,
when suspicions were entertained regarding his orthodoxy. Under Heraclas, rector from 230 and
patriarch from 233 to 248, a reaction against Origen's teaching took place at Alexandria. But with
Patriarch St. Denis (248-65), Origen came into favor again, not entirely for the good of the see.
St. Denis became dean of the Oriental hierarchy, advisor of the Holy See, regulator of the paschal
cycle, and staunch defender of orthodoxy against paganism and heresy. The teaching office
descended to two priests of Alexandria, Theognostus rector from 265 to 280, and Pierius from
about 280 to 310. Of the later patriarchs of this period, the most distinguished was St. Peter
(300-11) who tried to reverse the theological trend to Origenism. He dealt with apostates firmly,
but held out hope of pardon for those willing to undergo the exomologesis for periods varying with
their culpability: whether they apostasized spontaneously, used fraud or evasion, or weakened
only after torture or long imprisonment. This policy was too lenient for Bishop Meletius of
Lycopolis, who began a schism which contributed to the rise of Arianism. St. Peter was martyred
on November 25, 311, in Maximin Daia's persecution.

(2) ANTIOCH

The Antiochene bishopric was also becoming a patriarchal see as the career of Paul of
Samosata revealed. When Bishop Demetrianus died a Persian captive in 260, Paul succeeded
to the see with the favor of the Palmyrian dynasty which had rebelled against Rome after
Valerian's defeat. As Palmyrian chancellor, Paul amassed wealth and courted popularity.
Censured by his fellow bishops in 264, he promised amendment. He failed to keep his pledge
and was declared deposed in 268. He defied ecclesiastical censure until he was evicted by
imperial troops in 272. But his theological errors were carried on by Lucian who paved

the way for Arianism.

Exegetical insistence on the letter of Scripture by the School erred first with Paul of
Samosata, and from him the line runs through Lucian, Arius, Diodore, Theodore of Mopsuestia to
Nestorius. On the other band, Alexandrian stress on symbolism sometimes strayed from
orthodoxy in Origen and St. Denis. If the Catholic Alexandrian doctors, Sts. Athanasius and
Cyril, escaped contagion, the spiritualist tendency worked further harm with Apollinaris of
Laodicea, Eutyches, and Dioscorus.

(3) EVANGELIZATION OF THE EAST

General survey. "Christianity . . . constituted a majority, or almost a majority in the cities

in some parts of the East, and an imposing minority in others. On the other hand, in some great
cities where the old religions still had numerous and earnest believers, as at Antioch for example,
Christians encountered energetic resistance, and the partial success of the policy of Daia, inviting
requests for the expulsion of Christians from their pagan fellow-citizens, testifies to the continued
existence of these civic strongholds of Eastern paganism. Nevertheless, on the whole it is certain
that by 300 the Christianization of the East had gone very far. It had made more progress in
Hellenic or Hellenized parts like Asia Minor, Thrace, Macedonia, and the Greek coasts, than in
Egypt and especially the Semitic countries such as Syria. . . . In the Asiatic and Hellenic East, as
well as in Egypt, Christian communities in villages were no longer an exception." Surely they
could not have been, if there were many bishops like St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. It is said that
when he became bishop of Neo-Caesarea about 243 there were seventeen Christians; when he
died some twenty years later, there were but seventeen pagans.

Catholic Church History

Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 AD) IV. Ordeal of the Church (249-313)
25. Catacomb Christian Life

IV
Ordeal of the Church

25. CATACOMB CHRISTIAN LIFE

A. The Church in the Catacombs

(1) THE CATACOMB SYSTEM
Origin. "The usage made by Christians of catacombs . . . was not at first due to a care for
personal safety on the part of people who no longer dared to live in daylight, and it was only
progressively that such use became frequent at Rome, if not almost habitual in times of crisis.
Christians had used private houses as their first places of worship, and apart from exceptional
cases they were able to continue peacefully until the time of the great persecutions."

Evolution. The catacombs according to this view of Zeiller were developments of

primitive Christian cemeteries, ultimately used as emergency chapels and meeting places. A
catacomb was a network of passages dug underneath cities where the subsoil was adaptable to
the purpose. They comprised narrow passageways intersecting one another on either side of
which were recesses for tombs. The latter were often sealed by slabs of stone or masonry. At
the end of certain passages, chambers or vaults were later hollowed out to serve as chapels.
The first catacombs were dug under the estates of rich Christians, such as Domitilla, for Roman
law permitted citizens to inter any whom they wished on their lands. Christians took advantage of
this to provide for the decent burial of poorer members of the flock. When such private
cemeteries became inadequate, they passed under the supervision of the Christian community,
and therefore of the popes. At the beginning Of the third century, Pope St. Zepherinus named St.
Calixtus, his deacon and future successor, administrator of the catacomb along the Appian Way.
This cemetery, later known by the name of St. Calixtus, is the most famous of the catacombs.
Other well known ones are those of Lucina on the Via Ostia, of Domitilla on the Via Ardeatina, of
St. Cecilia and St. Sebastian on the Via Appia and Via Ardeatina, and of Priscilla on the Via
Salaria.

Expansion. Though the Roman catacombs are the most renowned, similar structures
were in use at Naples, in Sicily, at Alexandria, and throughout Northern Africa and Asia Minor. At
Rome, existing catacombs were often enlarged by superimposing layers or galleries ranging from
22 to 80 feet below the surface. The porous Roman stone facilitated excavations, which were
made by the fossores, whose responsible task ranked them next to the clergy. Monograms and
inscriptions help to identify the tombs placed in the catacombs. Pope St. Damasus (366-84)
fittingly restored those inscriptions after the cessation of the persecutions. During later times the
martyrs' relics were in large part removed to Roman churches. The catacombs were then
abandoned, the silt of centuries covered them, and they were but imperfectly known until De
Rossi's investigations during the nineteenth century.

(2) CATACOMB SYMBOLISM: THE HOLY EUCHARIST

Catacomb artistry can make small claim to accurate drafting and aesthetic finish. Often
the representations are mere sketches or suggestions of an idea or practice. Nevertheless the
dogmatic value of these drawings is immense for they provide lasting evidence of Christian
beliefs, especially in the sacraments of baptism and Holy Eucharist, and in the primacy of St.
Peter. A few examples of this catacomb symbolism will be noted here.

The Milk. In the catacomb of Domitilla there are pictures of a lamb or of the Good
Shepherd carrying a pail of milk. It is important to note that a nimbus surrounds the milk, thereby
indicating its sacred nature. This drawing represents the Good Shepherd nourishing His flock by
the Holy Eucharist. The identification can be substantiated through Clement of Alexandria who
says: "The Church nourishes her children with milk, and this milk . . . is the body of Christ"

The Fish. In the catacomb of St. Calixtus in the crypt of Lucina are two paintings of a fish
against a green background. The fish bears a wicker basket on its back, filled with bread and
glasses of red wine. Now the fish is a symbol of Christ, whether the symbolism be interpreted as
a metonymy springing from use of a fish to suggest Christ's multiplication of the fishes and bread;
or from a typical reference to the fish that healed Tobias; or from the acrostic: Iesous Christos
Huios Theou, Soter: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, made of the first letters of the Greek word
for fish: ichthus. The fish in the drawing bears what is evidently the material for the Eucharistic
sacrifice in the simple vessels necessitated by primitive poverty. St. Jerome alludes to this
usage: "What can be more rich than the man who carries Christ's body in a basket of wickerwork,
and Christ's blood in a glass vessel?" (Letter to Risticius.)

The Tripod. In the same catacomb, in the chapel of sacraments, there are two
representations of a tripod-table with a loaf of bread and a fish. Standing nearby are a man with
bands extended and a woman with arms upraised. It is believed that the man represents Christ
multiplying the loaves and fishes for the woman, who typifies the Church. The tripod-altar and
other pictures refer the symbolism to the Eucharist.
The Fractio Panis. In St. Priscilla's catacomb, in what is called the Greek Chapel, there
appears the famous symbol known as the Fractio Panis, the Breaking of the Bread. Seven
persons are seated at a long table on which are placed two fishes, five loaves of bread, and a
twohandled cup. Along the sides of the table are seven baskets of bread. The man seated in the
place of honor is bearded and of venerable aspect. He is depicted as extending his bands over
the table and its contents. Evidently he is the president of the feast, the bishop or priest who is
consecrating the offering. Though Christ's miracle of the loaves and fishes is suggested, it in turn
refers to the Eucharist by the addition of table, cup, and banquet scene.

(3) PAPAL PRIMACY IN CATACOMB SYMBOLISM

Petrine portraits. "The mark which most frequently distinguishes St. Peter in the earliest
representations is that our Lord is depicted in the act of handing to him a roll or a volume, an act
which is sometimes explained by the accompanying inscription, Dominus legem dat. Of this class
of representation a good many instances have come down to us. The most famous is perhaps
the well-known sarcophagus which came originally from the Vatican Cemetery and is now in the
Museum of Christian antiquities at the Lateran. On this sarcophagus Christ is shown already
ascended into heaven, but handing over to St. Peter as His visible representative upon earth the
volume of the law of the New Dispensation. There is a painting of the same subject in the
Catacomb of St. Priscilla, and on a gilded glass now in the Vatican Museum the volume actually
bears the title, Lex Domini. Most important of all this class, perhaps, is the mosaic in Santa
Constanze on the Via Salaria, where the whole parallel is carefully worked out between the giving
of the law of the Old Covenant to Moses on Mount Sinai, and the giving of the New Law to Peter."

Papal tombs. "The earliest Bishops of Rome were buried on the Vatican close round the
tomb which contained the relics of the apostle. There their bodies were found in the excavations
in 1626, still largely preserved by the quasi-embalming process to which they had been
subjected, and surrounding St. Peter like bishops attending a council." This juxtaposition to St.
Peter is itself a mute testimony to the papal succession. When the Vatican area was filled, the
pontiffs of the third century were laid in what thereby became known as the Papal Crypt in the
Calixtine Catacomb. Recent excavations at the Vatican Basilica during the pontificate of Pope
Pius XII have brought to light a wealth of archaeological evidence which, while still controversial
in certain details, lends substantial confirmation to all the major traditions of St. Peter's Roman
burial and of papal succession in the Roman episcopate.

B. Christian Life Under Persecution

(1) PENAL PROCEDURE

Trial. Legal processes varied with imperial policies and the dispositions of the local
governors. In many if not most cases judicial procedure tended to be summary for the ordinary
Christian. Usually no witnesses dared come forward; no legal defense was allowed; and no
appeal was made, nor would it have been heard had it been made. Christians were quickly
condemned for pleading "guilty": as may be seen from the letter of the Martyrs of Lyons
(Eusebius, History, VI, 1).

Sentence was passed by the judge. The mildest was banishment without loss of civil
rights; e.g., St. John the Apostle, Flavia Domitilla, Pope St. Cornelius. Next deportation entailed
loss of civil rights: such martyrs were classed as criminals, e.g., Pope St. Pontian. Third in order
came penal servitude, in which the convicts, branded and chained, were forced to work in
quarries and mines under subhuman conditions. Finally, the death penalty was administered by
crucifixion for slaves; condemnation to beasts or burning for noncitizens; and beheading for
citizens. But at least as early as 177 at Lyons this privilege was ignored in the case of Christian
citizens. St. Justin declared: "We are beheaded, crucified, exposed to beasts, tortured by chains
and fire, and the most fearsome torments" (Dialogue, 110). Tertullian says much the same: "We
bang on crosses, are engulfed by flames, the sword bares our throats, and wild animals spring on
us" (Apologeticus, 31). Only after 303 was drowning used by exasperated persecutors to carry
out mass executions (Eusebius, History, VIII).

Imprisonment, however, was often by its duration and horror equally bard to endure. The
well-to-do had first to experience confiscation of their property, or the disinheritance and
persecution of relatives still at large. Once arrested, Christians were usually imprisoned under
conditions all the more dreadful because unfamiliar. St. Perpetua exclaims: "I was afraid; never
before had I seen such darkness. O, the day of horror! The overpowering heat caused by the
crowd of prisoners! The soldiers' brutality!" Frequently Christian prisoners were subjected to
irons or stocks: "Let them be returned to prison and be put in irons until tomorrow" (Acts of
Martyrs of Scillium). Solitary confinement was also used; the martyrs of Lyons occupied the
"darkest and worst part of the prison" (Eusebius, History, V, 1). Origen was so treated for many
months. In ordinary times, however, the Christians were held in public prisons to which access
was possible by bribing the guards. Priests and deacons found ways of administering the
Eucharist, through lesser clerics and laymen when they themselves were too well known.
Torture, finally, was routine: "I avow and you torture; . . . we confess and we are tortured"
(Tertullian, Apologeticum, 2).

(2) VENERATION OF MARTYRS

Acts of martyrs include: (a) acta strictly so called, the court records, e.g., St. Cyprian's
trial; (b) the passiones, eyewitness accounts, e.g., St. Polycarp's sufferings; and (c) legends
subsequently composed for edification, e.g., St. Cecilia. It is obvious that the first two categories
are primary documents of the greatest value; however, in regard to the third, it should be stressed
that perfectly historical martyrs may have been the subject of legends, either plausible or
embroidered.

Indulgences granted through the superabundant merits of the martyrs may be seen in the
custom of the libelli pacis, already discussed. When not abused, these certificates were worthy of
mercy, and even the stem St. Cyprian says: "Persons who had a letter from the martyrs and were
near death might confess and have bands imposed in penance and so be commended to the
Lord in the peace promised them by the martyrs" (Letter 20).
Masses in honor of martyrs were eventually celebrated at the Christian liturgical reunions.
The first martyr known to be so honored was St. Polycarp. His authentic Acta relate the objection
that if the Christians secure St. Polycarp's relics, "they will abandon the Crucified and worship this
man." To this the editor of the Acta replied with a prudent distinction: "They failed to realize that
we will never abandon Christ, who suffered for the salvation of all saved throughout the world-the
Innocent One for the guilty-or to worship any other. Him we adore as the Son of God; the martyrs
we love as disciples and imitators of the Lord." And when the Christians were able to obtain the
charred bon, of St. Polycarp, they interred them in a decent place. "There the Lord permitting, we
will meet with joy to celebrate his martyrdom, his birthday, both to recall heroes who have gone
before us, and to train and prepare the heroes of the future" (Acta, 17-18). Thus, indeed, did the
blood of Christ's martyrs become a seed.