blest employments of the mind, that he did to of his doctrines gained him the esteem and conthe innocent enjoyments of life; and gave it fidence of many, who were far from being of as his opinion, that philosophy, arts, and what- the lowest order. The most eminent among ever savoured of polite literature, should be these were Priscila and Maximilla, ladies more mercilessly banished from the Christian church. remarkable for their opulence than for thei! He looked upon those Christians as guilty of a virtue, and who fell with a high degree of most heinous transgression, who saved their warmth and zeal into the visions of their falives by flight, from the persecuting sword, or natical chief, prophesied like him, and imitated who ransomed them by money, from the hands the pretended paraclete in all the variety of of their cruel and mercenary judges. I might his extravagance and folly. Hence it became mention many other precepts of the same an easy matter for Montanus to erect a new teacher, equal to these in severity and rigour. church, which was first established at Pepuza, XXIV. It was impossible to suffer, within and afterwards spread abroad through Asia, the bounds of the church, an enthusiast, who|| Africa, and a part of Europe. The most emigave himself out for a communicator of pre-nent and learned of all the followers of this cepts superior in sanctity to those of Christ rigid enthusiast was Tertullian, a man of great himself, and who imposed his austere discipline learning and genius, but of an austere and upon Christians, as enjoined by a divine au- melancholy temper. This great man, by adoptthority, and dictated by the oracle of celestial ing the sentiments of Montanus, and maintainwisdom, which spoke to the world through ing his cause with fortitude, and even vehe him. Besides, his dismal predictions concern-mence, in a multitude of books written upon ing the disasters that were to happen in the empire, and the approaching destruction of the Roman republic, might be expected to render him obnoxious to the governing powers, and also to excite their resentment against the church, which nourished such an inauspicious prophet in its bosom. Montanus, therefore, first by a decree of certain assemblies, and afterwards by the unanimous voice of the whole church, was solemnly separated from the body of the faithful. that occasion, has exhibited a mortifying spectacle of the deviations of which human nature is capable, even in those in whom it seems to have approached the nearest to perfection.* *For an account of the Montanists, see Euseb. Eccles. History, book v. ch. xvi., and all the writers ancient and modern (especially Tertullian) who have professedly written of the sects of the earlier ages. The learned nious exposition of whatever regards the sect of the Theophilus Wernsdorff published, in 1751, a most ingeMontanists, under the following title: Commentano ( Montanists Sæculi secundi, vulgo creditis Hæreticis. THE THIRD CENTURY PART I. THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. privileges of the Christians were multiplied, in Which contains the Prosperous Events that hap-imagine. In the army, at court, and, indeed, this century, much more than some are apt to pened to the Church during this Century. in all the orders of the nation, there were many I. THAT the Christians suffered, in this cen- Christians who lived entirely unmolested; and, tury, calamities and injuries of the most dread-what is still more, the profession of Christiful kind, is a matter that admits no debate; nor anity was no obstacle to the public preferment was there, indeed, any period in which they under most of the emperors that reigned in were secure or free from danger. For, not to this century. It is also certain, that the Chrisnention the fury of the people, set in motion tians had, in many places, houses where they so often by the craft and zeal of their licentious assembled for the purposes of divine worship priests, the evil came from a higher source; the with the knowledge and connivance of the em prætors and magistrates, notwithstanding the perors and magistrates. And though it be ancient laws of the emperors in favor of the more than probable, that this liberty was, upon Christians, had it in their power to pursue them various occasions, and even for the most part, with all sorts of vexations, as often as avarice, purchased at a high rate, yet it is manifest, cruelty, or superstition roused up the infer- that some of the emperors were very favour nal spirit of persecution in their breasts. At ably inclined toward the Christians, and were the same time, it is certain that the rights and || far from having any aversion to their religion. victorious and unanswerable, as to produce a full and complete conviction; and this is therefore one of those many cases, where a suspension of judgment is both allowable and wise With respect to Gallienus, and some other emre-perors, of this century, if they did not professedly favour the progress of Christianity, they did not oppress its followers, or retard its advancement. IV. This clemency and benevolence, which nity, must be placed, without doubt, among II. Caracalla, the son of Severus, was proclaimed emperor in the year 211, and, during the six years of his government, he neither oppressed the Christians himself, nor permitted any others to treat them with cruelty or injustice. Heliogabalus also, though in other spects the most infamous of all princes,* and, perhaps, the most odious of all mortals, showed no marks of bitterness or aversion to the disciples of Jesus. His successor, Alexander Severus, who was a prince distinguished by a toble assemblage of the most excellent and il-men, and especially from those of imperial diglustrious virtues, did not, indeed, abrogate the laws that had been enacted against the Christians; and this is the reason why we have some examples of martyrdom under his administration. It is nevertheless certain, that he showed them, in many ways, and upon every occasion that was offered to him, the most un-count of this matter. Among the causes which doubted marks of benignity: he is even said to belong to the first of these classes, we do not have gone so far as to pay a certain sort of only reckon the intrinsic force of celestial truth, worship to the divine author of our religion.† and the piety and fortitude of those who deThe friendly inclination of this prince toward clared it to the world, but also that especial and the Christians probably arose, at first, from the interposing providence, which, by such dreams instructions and counsels of his mother, Julia and visions as were presented to the minds of Mammæa, for whom he had a high degree of many, who were either inattentive to the Chrislove and veneration. Julia had very favour- tian doctrine, or its professed enemies, touched able sentiments of the Christian religion: and, their hearts with a conviction of its truth and being once at Antioch, sent for the famous || a sense of its importance, and engaged them, Origen from Alexandria, in order to enjoy the without delay, to profess themselves the displeasure and advantage of his conversation and ciples of Christ.* To this may also be added, instructions. Those who assert, that Julia, the healing of diseases, and other miracles, and her son Alexander, embraced the Chris- which many Christians were yet enabled to tian religion, are by no means furnished with perform by invoking the name of the divine unexceptionable testimonies to confirm this Saviour.† The number of miracles, however, fact, though we may affirm, with confidence, we find to have been much less in this than in that this virtuous prince looked upon Christi- the preceeding century; nor must this alteraanity as meriting, beyond all other religions, tion be attributed only to the divine wisdom, toleration and favour from the state, and con-which rendered miraculous interpositions less sidered its author as worthy of a place among frequent in proportion as they became less ne those who had been distinguished by their sub-cessary, but also to that justice which was lime virtues, and honoured with a commission from above.t III. Under Gordian, the Christians lived in tranquillity. His successors the Philips, father and son, proved so favourable, and even friendly to them, that these two emperors passed, in the opinion of many, for Christians; and, indeed, the arguments alleged to prove that they embraced, though in a secret and clandestine manner, the religion of Jesus, seem to render this point highly probable. But, as these arguments are opposed by others equally specious, the famous question, relating to the religion of Philip the Arabian and his son, must be left undecided.§ Neither side offers reasons so *Lampridius, Vita Elagabali. Lamprid. di Vita Severi, cap. xxix. Vide Carol Henr. Zeibichii Dis. de Christo ab Alexandro in larario culto, in Miscellan. Lips. nov. tom. iii. Vide F. Spanhemii Dis. de Lucii, Britonum Regis, Julia Mammææ et Philipporum, conversionibus, tom. ii. op. p. 400. Item, Paul Jablonski, Dis de Alexandro Severo sacris Christianis per Gnosticos initiato, in Miscellan. Lips. nov. tom. iv. The authors of the Universal History have de- || termined the question which Dr. Mosheim leaves here undecided; and they think it may be affirmed, that Philip and his son embraced the Gospel, since that opinion is built upon such respectable authority as that of Jerom, Chrysostom, Dionysius of Alexandria, Zonaras, Nicephorus, Cedrenus, Ruffinus, Syncellus, Orosius, Jornandes, Ammianus Marcellinus, the learned cardinal Bono, Vincentius Lirinensis, Huetius, and others. Dr. provoked to diminish the frequency of gifts, V. If we turn our view to the human means Mosheim refers his readers, for an account of this mat See, for an account of this matter, the following au + Origen, contra celsum, lib. i. Euseb. lib. v. cap. vii. Cypriani Ep, i. ad Donat. and the notes of Baluze upor that passage. Spencer, at in Origen. contra Celsum great influence in attracting the esteem, and removing the prejudices of many, who were thus prepared for examining with candour the Christian doctrine, and, consequently, for receiving its divine light. The adorers of the pagan deities must have been destitute of every generous affection, of every humane feeling, if the view of that boundless charity, which the Christians exercised toward the poor, the love they expressed even to their enemies, the tender care they took of the sick and infirm, the humanity they discovered in the redemption of captives, and the other illustrious virtues, which rendered them so worthy of universal esteem, had not touched their hearts, dispelled their prepossessions, and rendered them more favourable to the disciples of Jesus. If, among the causes of the propagation of Christianity, there is any place due to pious frauds, it is certain that they merit a very small part of the honour of having contributed to this glorious purpose, since they were practised by few, and that very rarely. the origin of several German churches, suck. as those of Cologne, Treves, Mentz, and others, of which Eucharius, Valerius, Maternus, and Clemens, were the principal founders.* The historians of Scotland inform us, that the light of Christianity arose upon that country during this century; but, though there be nothing improbable in this assertion, yet it is not built upon incontestable authority.† CHAPTER II. Concerning the Calamitous Events which hap pened to the Church in this Century. I. In the beginning of this century, the Christian church suffered calamities of various kinds throughout the provinces of the Roman empire. These sufferings increased in a terri ble manner, in consequence of a law made, in the year 203, by the emperor Severus (who, in other respects, was certainly no enemy to the Christians,) by which every subject of the empire was prohibited from changing the reliVI. That the limits of the church were ex-gion of his ancestors for the Christian or Jewtended in this century, is a matter beyond all ish faith. This law was, in its effects, most controversy. It is not, however, equally cer- prejudicial to the Christians; for, though it did tain in what manner, by what persons, or in not formally condemn them, and seemed only what parts of the world, this was effected. adapted to put a stop to the progress of the Origen, invited from Alexandria by an Arabian Gospel, yet it induced rapacious and unjust prince, converted, by his assiduous labours, a magistrates to persecute even unto death the certain tribe of wandering Arabs to the Chris- poorer sort among the Christians, that thus the tian faith.* The Goths, a fierce and warlike richer might be led, through fear of the like people, who inhabited the countries of Mosia treatment, to purchase their tranquillity and and Thrace, and who, accustomed to rapine, safety at an expensive rate. Hence many of harassed the neighbouring provinces by perpe- the disciples of Christ, in several parts of Asia, tual incursions, received the knowledge of the also in Egypt and other parts of Africa, were Gospel by the means of certain Christian doc-put to death in consequence of this law tors sent thither from Asia. The holy lives of Among these Leonidas, the father of Origen, these venerable teachers, and the miraculous Perpetua and Felicitas (those two famous powers with which they were endowed, attract- || African ladies, whose acts § are come down to ed the esteem, even of a people educated to our times,) Potamiena Marcella, and other nothing but plunder and devastation, and ab- || martyrs of both sexes, acquired an illustrious solutely uncivilized by letters or science; and name by the magnanimity and tranquillity with their authority and influence became so great, which they endured the most cruel sufferings. and produced, in process of time, such remarkable effects, that a great part of this barbarous people professed themselves the disciples of Christ, and put off, in a manner, that ferocity which had been so natural to them.† VII. The Christian assemblies, founded in Gaul by the Asiatic doctors in the preceding century, were few in number, and of very small extent; but both their number and their extent were considerably increased from the time of the emperor Decius. Under his sway, Dionysius, Gatian, Trophimus, Paul, Saturninus, Martial, Stremonius, men of exemplary piety, passed into this province, and, amidst dangers and trials of various kinds, erected churches at Paris, Tours, Arles, and several other places. This was followed by a rapid progress of the Gospel among the Gauls, as the disciples of these pious teachers spread, in a short time, the knowledge of Christianity through the whole country. We must also place in this century *Eusebius; Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. xix. p. 221. Sozomenus, His. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. vi. Paulus Diaconus, Hist. Miscel. lib. ii. cap. xiv. Philostorgius, Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. v. p. 470. See the history of the Franks by Gregory of Tours, book i. ch. xxviii. Theodor. Ruinart, Acta Martyr. sincera, p 109. II. From the death of Severus to the reign of Maximin, the condition of the Christians was, in some places, prosperous, and, in all, supportable. But with Maximin the face of affairs changed. This unworthy emperor, having animated the Roman soldiers to assassinate Alexander Severus, dreaded the resentment of the Christians, whom that excellent prince had favoured and protected in a distinguished manner; and, for this reason, he ordered the bishops, whom he knew that Alexander had always treated as his intimate friends, to be seized and put to death. During his reign, the Christians suffered in the most barbarous manner for, though the edict of this tyrant extended only to the bishops and leaders of the Christian church, yet its shocking effects reached much farther, as it animated the heathen *See Aug. Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, tom. i. dissert. i. p. 7. Jo. Nicol. ab Hontheim, Historia Trevirensis, tom. i. ubi. Diss. de æra fundati Episcopatus Trevirensis. See Usher and Stillingfleet, Antiquit. et Origin. Ecclesiar. Brit. See also Sir George Mackenzie, ae Regali Scotorum prosapia, cap. viii. p. 119. Eusebius, Histor. Eccles. lib. vi. cap. i. Spartianus in Severo, cap. xvi. xvii. Theod. Ruinart, Acta Martyr. p. 90. priests, the magistrates, and the multitude, against Christians of every rank and order.* Africa, many, in order to obtain more speedily the pardon of their apostacy, interested the martyrs in their behalf, and received from them letters of reconciliation and peace, i. e. a formal act, by which they (the martyrs) declared in their last moments, that they looked upon them as worthy of their communion, and desired, of consequence, that they should be restored to their place among the brethren. Some bishops and presbyters re-admitted into the III. This storm was succeeded by a calm, in which the Christians enjoyed a happy tranquillity for many years. The accession of Decius "Trajan to the imperial throne, in the year 249, raised a new tempest, in which the fury of persecution fell in a dreadful manner upon the church of Christ; for this emperor, either from an illgrounded fear of the Christians, or from a violent zeal for the superstition of his ances-church, with too much facility, apostates and tors, published most terrible and cruel edicts; transgressors, who produced such testimonies by which the prætors were ordered, on pain as these. But Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, of death, either to extirpate the whole body of a man of severe wisdom and great dignity of Christians without exception, or to force them, character, acted in quite another way. Though by torments of various kinds, to return to the he had no intention of derogating from the aupagan worship. Hence, in all the provinces thority of the venerable martyrs, yet he opof the empire, multitudes of Christians were, posed with vigour this unreasonable lenity, and in the course of two years, put to death by the set limits to the efficacy of these letters of remost horrid punishments which an ingenious conciliation and peace. Hence arose a keen barbarity could invent. Of all these cruelties dispute between him and the martyrs, confesthe most unhappy circumstance was, their fa-sors, presbyters, and lapsed, seconded by the *al influence upon the faith and constancy of people: and yet, notwithstanding this formidamany of the sufferers; for as this persecution ble multitude of adversaries, the venerable was much more terrible than all those which bishop came off victorious.* preceded it, so a great number of Christians, V. Gallus, the successor of Decius, and dismayed, not at the approach of death, but at|| Volusianus, son of the former, re-animated the the aspect of those dreadful and lingering torments, which a barbarous magistracy had prepared to combat their constancy, fell from the profession of their faith, and secured themselves from punishment, either by offering sacrifices, or by burning incense, before the images of the gods, or by purchasing certificates from the pagan priests. Hence arose the opprobrious names of Sacrificati, given to those who sacrificed; Thurificati, to those who burned incense; and Libellatici, to those who produced certificates.‡ IV. This defection of such a prodigious number of Christians under Decius, was the occasion of great commotions in the church, and produced debates of a very difficult and delicate nature; for the lapsed, or those who had fallen from their Christian profession, were desirous of being restored to the church-communion, without submitting to that painful course of penitential discipline, which the ecclesiastical laws indispensably required. The bishops were divided upon this matter: some were for showing the desired indulgence, while others opposed it with all their might.§ In *Origen, tom. xxviii. in Matth. op. tom. i. p. 137. See also Firmilianus in Cypriani Epistolis, p. 140. Eusebius, lib. vi. cap. xxxix. xli. Gregorius Nyss. in vita Thaumaturgi. Cyprianus, de Lapsis. flame of persecution, which was beginning to burn with less fury; and, beside the sufferings which the Christians had to undergo in con sequence of their cruel edicts, they were also involved in the public calamities that prevailed at this time, and suffered grievously from a terrible pestilence, which spread desolation through many previous of the empire. This pestilence also was an occasion which the pagan priests used with dexterity to renew the rage of persecution against them, by persuading the people that it was on account of the lenity used towards the Christians, that the gods sent down their judgments upon the nations. In the year 254, Valerian, being declared emperor, made the fury of persecution cease, and restored the church to a state of tranquillity. VI. The clemency and benevolence which Valerian showed to the Christians, continued until the fifth year of his reign. Then the scene began to change, and the change indeed was sudden. Macrianus, a superstitious and cruel bigot to paganism, had gained an entire ascendency over Valerian, and was chief counsellor in every thing that related to the affairs of government. By the persuasion of this imperious minister, the Christians were prohibited from assembling, and their bishops and doctors were sent into banishment. This edict was These certificates were not all equally criminal; nor did all of them indicate a degree of apostacy equally enormons. It is therefore necessary to inform the reader of the following distinctions omitted by Dr. Mosheim; these certificates were sometimes no more than a permission to abstain from sacrificing, obtained by a fee given to the judges, and were not looked upon as an act of apostacy, unless the Christians who demanded them had declared to the judges that they had conformed themselves to the emperor's edicts. But, at other times, they contained a profession of paganism, and were either of fered voluntarily by the apostate, or were subscribed by him, when they were presented to him by the persecuting magistrates. Many used certificates, as letters of security obtained from the priests, at a high rate, and which dis-ed pensed them from either professing or denying their sentiments. See Spanheim's Historia Christiana, p. 732. See also Prud. Maranus in vita Cypriani, sect. 6. ◊ Eusebius, lib. vi. cap. xliv. Cypr. Epistolæ. published in the year 257, and was followed, most eminent were Cyprian, bishop of Carthage; Sixtus, bishop of Rome; and Laurentius, a Roman deacon, who was barbarously consumed by a slow and lingering fire. An unexpected event suspended, for awhile, the sufferings of the Christians. Valerian was made prisoner in the war against the Persians; and his son Gallienus, in the year 260, restored peace to the church.* ciently testify. But those very works, and the history of his life, show us, at the same time, that he was a much more virulent, than formidable enemy to the Christians; for by them it appears, that he was much more attentive to the suggestions of a superstitious spirit, and the visions of a lively fancy, than to the sober dictates of right reason and a sound judgment; and it may be more especially observed of the remaining fragments of his work against the Christians, that they are equally destitute of judgment and equity, and are utterly unworthy of a wise and a good man.* VII. The condition of the Christians was rather supportable than happy, under the reign of Gallienus, which lasted eight years; as also under the short administration of his successor Claudius. Nor did they suffer much during IX. Many were the deceitful and perfidious the first four years of the reign of Aurelian, stratagems by which this sect endeavoured to who was raised to the empire in the year 270. obscure the lustre, and diminish the authority But the fifth year of this emperor's administra- of the Christian doctrine. None of these seemtion would have proved fatal to them, had noted to be more dangerous than the seducing arhis violent death prevented the execution of tifice with which they formed a comparison behis cruel purposes; for while, instigated by the tween the life, actions, and miracles of Christ, unjust suggestions of his own superstition, or and the history of the ancient philosophers, and by the barbarous counsels of a bigoted priest-placed the contending parties in such fallacious hood, he was preparing a formidable attack points of view, as to make the pretended sages upon the Christians, he was obliged to march of antiquity appear in nothing inferior to the into Gaul, where he was murdered, in the year divine Saviour. With this view, Archytas of 275, before his edicts were published through- Tarentum, Pythagoras, of whom Porphyry out the empire. Few, therefore, suffered wrote the life, Apollonius Tyanæus, a Pythamartyrdom under his reign; and indeed, during gorean philosopher, whose miracles and perethe remainder of this century, the Christians grinations were highly celebrated by the vulenjoyed a considerable measure of ease and gar, were brought upon the scene, and exhibittranquillity. They were, at least, free from ed as divine teachers, and rivals of the glory any violent attacks of oppression and injustice, || of the Son of God. Philostratus, one of the except in a small number of cases, where the most eminent rhetoricians of this age, composavarice and superstition of the Roman magis- ed a pompous history of the life of Apollonius, trates interrupted their tranquillity.‡ who was little better than a cunning knave, VIII. While the emperor, and proconsuls and did nothing but ape the austerity and sanoemployed against the Christians the terror of tity of Pythagoras. This history appears maunrighteous edicts, and the edge of the destroy-nifestly designed to draw a parallel between ing sword, the Platonic philosophers, who have Christ and the philosopher of Tyana; but the been described above, exhausted against Chris-impudent fictions and ridiculous fables, with tianity all the force of their learning and eloquence, and all the resources of their art and dexterity, in rhetorical declamations, subtile writings, and ingenious stratagems. These artful adversaries were so much the more dangerous and formidable, as they had adopted several of the doctrines and institutions of the Gospel, and, with a specious air of moderation || and impartiality, were attempting, after the example of their master Ammonius, to reconcile paganism with Christianity, and form a sort of coalition of the ancient and the new religion. These philosophers had at their head, in this century, Porphyry (a Syrian, or, as some allege, a Tyrian, by birth,) who wrote against the Christians a long and laborious work, which was destroyed afterwards by an imperial edict.§ He was, undoubtedly, a writer of great dexterity, genius, and erudition, as those of his works which yet remain suffi which this work is filled, must, one would think, have rendered it incapable of deceiving any who possessed a sound mind; any, but such as, through the corruption of vicious prejudices, were willing to be deceived.† X. But as there are no opinions, however absurd, and no stories, however idle and improbable, that a weak and ignorant multitude, more attentive to the pomp of words than to the truth of things, will not easily swallow; so it happened, that many were ensnared by the absurd attempts of these insidious philosophers. Some were induced by these perfidious stratagems to abandon the Christian religion, which *This work of Porphyry against the Christians was burned, by an ediet of Constantine the Great. It was divided into fifteen books, as we find in Eusebius, and contained the blackest calúmnies against the Christians. The first book treated of the contradictions which he pretended to have found in the sacred writings. The greatest part of the twelfth is employed in fixing the time when the prophecies of Daniel were written; for Por Marty-phyry himself found these predictions so clearly and evidently fulfilled, that, to avoid the force of the arguPerse-ment, thence deducible in favor of Christianity, he was forced to have recourse to the absurd supposition, that these prophecies had been published under the name of Daniel by one who lived in the time of Antiochus, and wrote after the arrival of the events foretold. Metho dius, Eusebius, and Apolinaris, wrote against Porphyry; but their refutations have been long since lost. * Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. cap. x. xi. p. 255. Acta Cypriani, as they are to be found in Ruinarti Act. rum, p. 216. Cypriani Epist. lxxvii. lxxxii. Eusebius, lib. vii. Lactantius, de mortibus euutor. Among these vexations may be reckoned the cruelty of Galerius Maximiam, who, toward the conclusion of this century, persecuted the ministers of his court, and the soldiers of his army, who had professed Christianity. See Eusebius, lib. viii. § See Holstenius de vita Porphyr. cap. xi. Fabric. Lux Evang. p. 154. Buddeus, Isagoge in Theologium, VOL. I.-11 tom. ii. See Olerius' preface to the Life of Apollonius by Philostratus; as also Mosheim's notes to his Latin trans lation of Cudworth's Intellectual System, p. 301, &c. |