Persian, who, by the order of the Most High, || artful men, and were augmented with Jewish declared to inortals the whole doctrine of sal-fables and fictions. He therefore supplied their vation, without exception, and without concealing any of its truths under the veil of metaphor or any other covering. St. Paul, to be the productions of that divine apostle, yet he looked upon them as grossly corrupted and falsified in a variety of passages. We have not any certain account of the judg ment which he formed concerning the other place by a gospel which he said was dictated to him by God himself, and which he distinguished by the title of Erteng. He rejected also. VII. "Those souls, who believe Jesus Christ the Acts of the Apostles; and though he acto be the Son of God, who renounce the wor-knowledged the epistles, that are attributed to ship of the God of the Jews (the prince of darkness,) obey the laws delivered by Christ as they are enlarged and illustrated by the comforter, Manes, and combat, with persevering fortitude, the lusts and appetites of a corrupt nature, derive from this faith and obe-books of the New Testament. dience the inestimable advantage of being gradually purified from the contagion of matter. The total purification of souls cannot, indeed be accomplished during this mortal life. Hence it is, that the souls of men, after death, must pass through two states more of probation and trial, by water and fire, before they can ascend to the regions of light. They mount, there-ency or delight; to extirpate all those desires fore, first into the moon, which consists of benign and salutary water; whence, after a lustration of fifteen days, they proceed to the sun, whose purifying fire entirely removes their corruption, and effaces all their stains. The bodies, composed of malignant matter, which they have left behind them, return to their first state, and enter into their original mass. X. The rules of life and manners that Manes prescribed to his disciples were extravagantly rigorous and austere. He commanded them to mortify and macerate the body, which he looked upon as intrinsically evil, and essentially corrupt; to deprive it of all those objects which could contribute either to its conveni that lead to the pursuit of external objects; and to divest themselves of all the passions and instincts of nature. Such were the unnatural rules of practice which this absurd fanatic prescribed to his followers; but foreseeing, at the same time, that his sect could not become numerous, if this severe manner of living should be imposed without distinction upon VIII. "On the other hand, those souls who all his adherents, he divided his disciples into have neglected the salutary work of their pu- two classes; one of which comprehended the rification, pass, after death, into the bodies of perfect Christians, under the name of the elect; animals, or other natures, where they remain and the other, the imperfect and feeble, under until they have expiated their guilt, and ac- the title of hearers. The elect were bound to complished their probation. Some, on account a rigorous and entire abstinence from flesh, of their peculiar obstinacy and perverseness, eggs, milk, fish, wine, all intoxicating drink, pass through a severer course of trial, being wedlock, and all amorous gratifications, and delivered over, for a certain time, to the power were required to live in a state of the sharpest of aerial spirits, who torment them in various penury, nourishing their shrivelled and emaciways. When the greatest part of the captive ated bodies with bread, herbs, pulse, and souls are restored to liberty, and to the regions melons, and depriving themselves of all the of light, then a devouring fire shall break forth comforts that arise from the moderate indulat the divine command, from the caverns in gence of natural passions, and also from a vawhich it is at present confined, and, shall de-||riety of innocent and agreeable pursuits. The stroy and consume the frame of the world. discipline, appointed for the hearers, was of a After this tremendous event, the prince and milder nature. They were allowed to possess powers of darkness shall be forced to return to houses, lands, and wealth, to feed upon flesh, their primitive seats of anguish and misery, in and to enter into the bonds of conjugal tenwhich they shall dwell for ever; for, to prevent derness; but this liberty was granted to them their ever renewing this war in the regions of with many limitations, and under the strictest light, God shall surround the mansions of dark-conditions of moderation and temperance. ness with an invincible guard, composed of those souls who have fallen irrecoverably from the hopes of salvation, and who, set in array, like a military band, shall surround those gloomy seats of wo, and hinder any of their wretched inhabitants from coming forth again to the light." IX. In order to remove the strongest obstacles that lay against the belief of this monstrous system, Manes rejected almost all the sacred books into which Christians look for the sublime truths of their holy religion. He affirmed, in the first place, that the Old Testament was not the word of God, but of the prince of darkness, who was substituted by the Jews in the place of the true God. He maintained farther that the Four Gospels, which contain the history of Christ, were not written by the apostles, or, at least, that they were corrupted and interpolated by designing and The general Manichean assembly was headed by a president, who represented Jesus Christ. There were joined to him twelve rulers, or masters, who were designed to represent the twelve apostles; and these were followed by seventy-two bishops, the images of the seventy-two disciples of our Lord. These bishops had presbyters and deacons under them, and all the members of these religious orders were chosen out of the class of the elect.* XI. The sect of the Hieracites was formed in Egypt, toward the conclusion of this century, by Hierax of Leontium, a bookseller by profession, distinguished eminently by his extensive learning, and a venerable air of sanctity and virtue. Some have considered this as a * See all this amply proved in the work entitled Commentarii de rebus Christianorum ante Constantinus Magnum. branch of the Manichæan sect, but without || that his opinions were refuted by Dionysius, foundation; since, notwithstanding the agree- bishop of Alexandria. His sentiments were, ment of Manes and Hierax in some points of in some respects, different from those of Noe doctrine, it is certain that they differed in many tus; for the latter was of opinion, that the respects. Hierax maintained, that the prin-person of the Father had assumed the human cipal object of Christ's office and ministry was nature of Christ; whereas Sabellius maintainthe promulgation of a new law, more severe ed, that a certain energy only, proceeding from and perfect than that of Moses: and hence he the Supreme Parent, or a certain portion of concluded, that the use of flesh and wine, wed- the divine nature, was united to the Son of lock, and other things agreeable to the outward God, the man Jesus; and he considered, in the senses, which had been permitted under the same manner, the Holy Ghost, as a portion of Mosaic dispensation, were absolutely prohibit- the everlasting Father.* Hence it appears, ed and abrogated by Christ. If, indeed, we that the Sabellians, though they might with look attentively into his doctrine, we shall find, justice be called Patripassians, were yet called that, like Manes, he did not think that these so by the ancients in a different sense from that austere acts of self-denial were imposed by in which this name was given to the Noetians. Christ indiscriminately upon all, but on such only as were ambitious of aspiring to the highest summit of virtue. To this leading error he added some others, which were partly the consequences of this illusion, and were, in part, derived from other sources. He excluded, for example, from the kingdom of heaven, children who died before they had arrived at the use of reason, upon the supposition that God was bound to administer the rewards of futurity to those only who had fairly finished their victorious conflict with the body of its lusts. He maintained also, that Melchizedec, king of Salem, who blessed Abraham, was the Holy|| Ghost; denied the resurrection of the body; and cast a cloud of obscurity over the sacred scriptures by his allegorical fictions.* XII. The controversies relating to the divine Trinity, which took their rise in the former century, from the introduction of the Grecian philosophy into the Christian church, were now spreading with considerable vigor, and produced various methods of explaining that inexplicable doctrine. One of the first who engaged in this idle and perilous attempt of explaining what every mortal must acknowledge to be incomprehensible, was Noetus of Smyrna, an obscure man, and of mean abilities. He affirmed, that the Supreme God, whom he called the Father, and considered as absolutely indivisible, united himself to the man Christ, whom he called the Son, and was born, and crucified with him. From this opinion, Noetus and his followers were distinguished by the title of Patripassians, i. e. persons who believe that the Supreme Father of the universe, and not any other divine person, had expiated the guilt of the human race; and, indeed, this appellation belongs to them justly, if the accounts which ancient writers give us of their opinions be accurate and impartial.† XIII. About the middle of this century arose Sabellius, an African bishop or presbyter, who in Pentapolis, a province of Cyrenaica, and in Ptolemais or Barce, its principal city, explained, in a manner very little different from that of Noetus, the doctrine of Scripture concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This dogmatist had a considerable number of followers, who adhered to him, notwithstanding * Epiphan. Hæres, Ixvii. Hieracitarum, p. 710, &c. † See the discourse of Hippolytus against the Heresy of Noetus, in the second volume of his works, published by Fabricius; as also Epiphan. Hæres. Ivii. tom. i.; and Theodoret. Hæret. Fabul. lib. iii. cap. iii. XIV. At this same period, Beryllus an Arabian, bishop of Bozrah, and a man of eminent piety and learning, taught that Christ, before his birth, had no proper subsistence, nor any other divinity, than that of the Father; which opinion, when considered with attention, amounts to this: that Christ did not exist before Mary, but that a spirit issuing from God himself, and therefore superior to all human souls, as being a portion of the divine nature, was united to him, at the time of his birth. Beryllus, however, was refuted by Origen, with such a victorious power of argument and zeal, that he yielded up the cause, and returned into the bosom of the church.† XV. Paul of Samosata. bishop of Antioch. and also a magistrate, or civil judge, was very different from the pious and candid Beryllus, both in point of morals and doctrine. He was a vain and arrogant man, whom riches had rendered insolent and self-sufficient. He introduced great confusion and trouble into the eastern churches, by his new explication of the doctrine of the Gospel concerning the nature of God and Christ, and left behind him a sect, that assumed the title of Paulians, or Paulianists. As far as we can judge of his doctrine, by the accounts of it that have been transmitted to us, it seems to have amounted to this:"That the Son and the Holy Ghost exist in God, in the same manner as the faculties of reason and activity do in man; that Christ was born a mere man; but that the reason or wisdom of the Father descended into him, and by him wrought miracles upon earth, and instructed the nations; and finally, that, on account of this union of the divine word with the man Jesus, Christ might, though improperly, be called God." Such were the real sentiments of Paul. He involved them, however, in such deep obscurity, by the ambiguous forms of speech with which he affected to explain and defend them, that, in several councils convoked for an inqui the ancient heresies, have made particular mention * Almost all the historians, who give accounts of of Sabellius. Among others, see Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vi. cap. vi. p. 252. Athanas. Lib. de sententia Dionysii. All the passages of the ancient authors, reed Christopher Wormius, in his Historia Šabelliana. lating to Sabellius, are carefully collected by the learn † Euseb. lib. vi. cap. xx. xxxiii. Hieronym. Catalog. Scriptor. Eccles. cap. Ix. Socrates, Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. cap. vii.; and, among the moderns, le Clerc, Ars Critica, vol. i. part ii. sect. i. cap. xiv. Chauffepied, Nouveau Diction. Hist. et Crit. tom. i. Euseb. lib. vii. cap. xxx. ry into his errors, he could not be convicted of heresy. At length, however, a council was assembled in the year 269, in which Malchion, the rhetorician, drew him forth from his obscurity, detected his evasions, and exposed him in his true colours; in consequence of which he was degraded from the episcopal order.* nent office of which his distinguished merit rendered him so highly worthy. Novatian, upon this, separated himself from the jurisdiction of Cornelius, who, in his turn, called a council at Rome, in the year 251, and cut off Novatian and his partisans from the communion of the church. This turbulent man, being thus excommunicated, erected a new so which, on account of the severity of its discipline, was followed by many, and flourished, until the fifth century, in the greatest part of those provinces which had received the Gospel. The chief person who assisted him in this enterprise was Novatus, a Carthagenian presbyter, a man of no sound principles, who, during the heat of this controversy, had come from Carthage to Rome, to escape the resentment and excommunication of Cyprian, his bishop, with whom he was highly at variance. XVI. It was not only in the point now mentioned, that the doctrine of the Gospel suffer-ciety, of which he was the first bishop; and, ed, at this time, from the erroneous fancies of wrong-headed doctors; for there sprang up now, in Arabia, a certain sort of minute philosophers, the disciples of a master, whose obscurity has concealed him from the knowledge of after-ages, who denied the immortality of the soul, and believed that it perished with the body; but maintained, at the same time, that it was to be recalled to life with the body, by the power of God. The philosophers, who held this opinion, were denominated Arabians from their country. Origen was called from Egypt, to make head against this rising sect, and disputed against them, in a full council, with such remarkable success, that they abandoned their erroneous sentiments, and returned to the received doctrine of the church. XVII. Among the sects that arose in this century, we place that of the Novatians the last. This sect cannot be charged with having corrupted the doctrine of Christianity by their opinions; their crime was, that, by the unreasonable severity of their discipline, they gave occasion to the most deplorable divisions, and made an unhappy schism in the church. Novatian, a presbyter of the church of Rome, a man of uncommon learning and eloquence, but of an austere and rigid character, entertained the most unfavourable sentiments of those who had been separated from the communion of the church. He indulged his inclination to severity so far, as to deny that such as had fallen into the commission of grievous transgressions, especially those who had apostatised from the faith, under the persecution set on foot by Decius, were to be again received into the bosom of the church. The greatest part of the presbyters were of a different opinion in this matter, especially Cornelius, whose credit and influence were raised to the highest pitch by the esteem and admiration which his eminent virtues so naturally excited. Hence it happened, that when a bishop was to be chosen, in the year 250, to succeed Fabianus in the see of Rome, Novatian opposed the election of Cornelius, with the greatest activity and bitterness. His opposition, however, was in vain; for Cornelius was chosen to that emi XVIII. There was no difference, in point of doctrine, between the Novatians and other Christians. What peculiarly distinguished them, was their refusing to re-admit, to the communion of the church, those who, after baptism, had fallen into the commission of heinous crimes, though they did not pretend, that even such were excluded from all possibility or hopes of salvation. They considered the Christian church as a society where virtue and innocence reigned universally, and none of whose members, from their entrance into it, had defiled themselves with any enormous crime; and, in consequence, they looked upon every society, which re-admitted heinous offenders to its communion, as unworthy of the title of a true Christian Church. For that reason, also, they assumed the title of Cathari, i. e. the pure; and what showed a still more extravagant degree of vanity and arrogance, they obliged such as came over to them from the general body of Christians, to submit to be baptised a second time, as a necessary preparation for entering into their society; for such deep root had their favourite opinion concerning the irrevocable rejection of heinous of fenders taken in their minds, and so great was its influence upon the sentiments they entertained of other Christian societies, that they considered the baptism administered in those churches, which received the lapsed to their communion, even after the most sincere and undoubted repentance, as absolutely divested of the power of imparting the remission of sins.* * Eusebius, lib. vi. cap. xliii. Cyprianus, in variis Epistolis, xlix. &c. Albaspinæus, Observat. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. xx. xxi. Jos. Aug. Orsi, de Criminum_capital. inter veteres Christianos Absolutione, p. 254. Kenckel, de Hæresi Novatiana. AN ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY; BOOK THE SECOND, CONTAINING THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH FROM THE TIME OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT TO CHARLEMAGNE. THE FOURTH CENTURY. PART I. THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. Concerning the prosperous and calamitous Events which happened to the Church during this Century. |with condescension and benevolence. This alarmed the pagan priests, whose interests were so closely connected with the continuance of the ancient superstitions, and who apprehended, not without cause, that to their great detriment the Christian religion would become daily more general and triumphant throughout the empire. Under these anxious fears of the downfall of their authority, they addressed themselves to Diocletian, whom they knew to be of a timorous and credulous disposition, and by fictitious oracles, and other perfidious stratagems, endeavoured to engage him to persecute the Christians.* I. THAT I may not separate facts, which are intimately connected with each other, I have judged it expedient to combine, in the same || chapter, the prosperous and calamitous events that happened to the church during this century, instead of treating them separately, as I have hitherto done. This combination, which presents things in their natural relations, as causes or effects, is undoubtedly the principal circumstance that renders history truly interest- II. Diocletian, however, stood for some time ing. In following, however, this plan, the or- unmoved by the treacherous arts of these selfder of time shall also be observed with as muchish and superstitious priests, who, when they accuracy as the combination of events will allow. In the beginning of the century, the Roman empire was under the dominion of four chiefs, of whom two, Diocletian and Maximian Herculius, were of superior dignity, and were severally distinguished by the title of Augustus; while the other two, Constantius Chlorus and Maximian Galerius, were in a certain degree of subordination to the former, and were honoured with the appellation of Caesars. Under these four emperors, the church enjoyed an agreeable calm.* Diocletian, though much addicted to superstition, did not entertain any aversion to the Christians; and Constantius Chlorus, who, following the dictates of reason alone in the worship of the Deity, had abandoned the absurdities of polytheism, treated them ✦ Eusebius, lib. viii. cap. i. p. 291, &c. perceived the ill success of their cruel efforts, addressed themselves to Maximian Galerius, one of the Cæsars, and also son-in-law to Diocletian, in order to accomplish their unrighteous purposes. This prince, whose gross ignorance of every thing but military affairs was accompanied with a fierce and savage temper, was a proper instrument for executing their designs. Set on, therefore, by the malicious insinuations of the heathen priests, the suggestions of a superstitious mother, and the ferocity of his own natural disposition, he solicited Diocletian, with such urgent and indefatigable importunity, for an edict against the Christians, that he, at length, obtained his horrid purpose; for in the year 303, when this emperor was at Nicomedia, an order was ob * Eusebius, de vita Constantini, lib. ii. cap. i. p. 467. Lactantii Institut. divin. lib. iv. cap. xxvii, et de Morta bus Persequutorum, cap. 1. Constantius Chlorus.* Some were punished in such a shameful manner, as the rules of decency oblige us to pass in silence; some were tried by tedious and inexpressible tortures; and some were sent to the mines to draw out the remains of a miserable life in poverty and bondage. IV. In the second year of this horrible per tained from him to pull down the churches of the Christians, to burn all their books and writings, and to take from them all their civil rights and privileges, and render them incapa-put to death after having had their constancy ble of any honours or civil promotion.* This first edict, though rigorous and severe, extended not to the lives of the Christians, for Diocletian was extremely averse to slaughter and bloodshed; it was, however, destructive to many of them, particularly to those who re-secution, the 304th of the Christian æra, a fused to deliver the sacred books into the hands of the magistrates. Many Christians, therefore, and among them several bishops and presbyters, seeing the consequences of this refusal, delivered up all the religious books, and other sacred things that were in their possession, in order to save their lives. This con-thorised to employ all sorts of torments, in orduct was highly condemned by the most steady and resolute Christians, who looked upon this compliance as sacrilegious, and branded those who were guilty of it with the ignominious appellation of traditors.‡ fourth edict was published by Diocletian, at the instigation of Galerius, and the other inveterate enemies of the Christian name. By it the magistrates were ordered and commissioned to force all Christians, without distinction of rank or sex, to sacrifice to the gods, and were au der to drive them to this act of apostasy.†The diligence and zeal of the Roman magistrates, in the execution of this inhuman edict, nearly proved fatal to the Christian cause.‡ and declared himself emperor of the east; leaving in the west Constantius Chlorus, with the ill state of whose health he was well acquainted. He chose colleagues according to his own fancy; and rejecting the proposal of Diocletian, who recommended Maxentius and Constantine (the son of Constantius) to that dignity, he made choice of Severus and Daza, his sister's son, to whom he had a little before given the name of Maximin.§ This revolu tion restored peace to those Christians who lived in the western provinces, under the administration of Constantius; while those of the east, under the tyranny of Galerius, had their sufferings and calamities dreadfully augmented.T Galerius now made no longer a mystery of III. Not long after the publication of this the ambitious project which he had been refirst edict against the Christians, a fire broke volving in his mind. Finding his scheme ripe out twice in the palace of Nicomedia, where for execution, he obliged Diocletian and MaxiGalerius lodged with Diocletian. The Chris-mian Herculius to resign the imperial dignity, tians were accused, by their enemies, as the authors of this conflagration;§ and the credulous Diocletian, too easily persuaded of the truth of this charge, caused vast numbers of them to suffer, at Nicomedia, the punishment of incendiaries, and to be tormented in the most inhuman and infamous manner. About the same time, there arose tumults and seditions in Armenia and in Syria, which were also attributed to the Christians by their irreconcilable enemies, who took advantage of those disturbances to inflame the emperor's fury. And, accordingly, Diocletian, by a new edict, ordered all the bishops and ministers of the Christian church to be thrown into prison. Nor did his inhuman violence end here; for a || third edict was soon issued, by which it was or- V. The divine providence, however, was dered, that all sorts of torments should be em- preparing more serene and happy days for the ployed, and the most insupportable punish-church. In order to this, it confounded the ments invented, to force these venerable cap-schemes of Galerius, and brought his counsels tives to renounce their profession, by sacrificing to the heathen gods; for it was hoped, that, if the bishops and doctors of the church could be brought to yield, their respective flocks would be easily induced to follow their example. An immense number of persons, illustriously distinguished by their piety and learning, became the victims of this cruel stratagem through the whole Roman empire, Gaul excepted, which was under the mild and equitable dominion of to nothing. In the year 306, Constantius Chlorus dying in Britain, the army saluted, with the title of Augustus, his son Constantine, surnamed afterwards the Great on account of his illustrious exploits, and forced him to accept the purple. This proceeding, which must have stung the tyrant Galerius to the heart, he was, nevertheless, obliged to bear with patience, and even to confirm with the outward marks of his approbation. Soon after, a civil war broke out, the occasion of which was as follows: Maximian Galerius, inwardly enraged at the election of Constantine by the soldiers, sent him, indeed, the purple, but gave him only the title of Cæsar, and created SeveLactantius assures us, that Galerius caused fire rus emperor. Maxentius, the son of Maxito be privately set to the palace, that he might lay themian Herculius, and son-in-law to Galerius, blame of it upon the Christians, and thus incense Diocle- provoked at the preference given to Severus, tian still more against them; in which horrid stratagem he succeeded; for never was any persecution so bloody and inhuman, as that which this credulous emperor now set on foot against them. * Lactantius, de Mortibus Persequutorum, c. xi. Eusebras, lib. viii. cap. ii. Augustinus, Brev. collat. cum Donatistis, cap. xv. xvii. Baluzii Miscellan. tom. ii. Optatus Milevit. de Schismate Donatistarum, lib. i. sect. xiii. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. cap. vi. Lactant. de Mortibus Persequut. cap. xix. Constant. Mag. Oratio ad sanctor. Cœtum, cap. xxv. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. cap. vii. et de Martyribus Palæstina. *Lactantius, cap. xv.-Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. cap. xiii. xviii. Eusebius, de Martyribus Palæstinæ, cap. iii. |