§ 24. To this century, also, the Greeks and orientals refer the origin of the sect called Messalians and Euchites: and indeed, clear traces of them first appear in the latter part of this century; though their principles were much more ancient, and were known before the Christian era, in Syria, Egypt, and other countries of the East. These persons, who lived secluded from intercourse with the world, in the manner of monks, derived their name from their habits of prayer. For they believed, that an evil demon naturally dwells in the mind of every man, which can be expelled no otherwise than by continual prayers and hymns, but being once expelled, the soul will return to God pure, and be again united to the divine essence, from which it has been torn away. To this leading principle they added, as is clear enough, other strange notions, closely allied to the sentiments of the Manichæans, and derived from the same source from which the Manichæans derived their doctrines, namely, the oriental philosophy. In short, the Euchites were a sort of mystics, who not worship at all with those Christians who were of an irreligious life, or who held communion with the irreligious. Nay, they discarded the name of Christians for that of Audians, because many of them had abused the name of Christians, in order to secure their safety. They were Quartodecimans; that is, they kept Easter at the time the Jews did; and defended the practice, by appealing to the Apostolical Constitutions. They held apocryphal books, and had their own system of church discipline. In general, it may be said, they were rather fanatics than proper heretics. Their errors were proof rather of a weak head than of a perverse heart; and their defence of their errors and contempt for other Christians, were the effects of their [religious or] fanatical pride. Schl.] Epiphanius, Hares. lxxx. p. 1067. Theodoret, Hæret. Fabul. iv. 10. Timotheus Presbyter, de Receptione Hæreticor. in Joh. Bapt. Cotelier's Monumenta Eccles. Græcæ, iii. 403, &c. Ja. Tollius, Insignia Itineris Italici, p. 110, &c. Asseman, Biblioth. Oriental. Vaticana, i. 128, t. iii. pt. ii. 172, &c. and others: [Walch, Hist. Ketz. iii. 481-536. The names Messalians and Euchites signify prayers or praying brethren. The first is Syriac [a participle, from the root oravit], and the latter is Greek [ Εὐχίται οι Εὐχῆται, from εὐχὴ, oratio. See Suicer, Thesaur. Eccles. i. 1285, &c. and Theodoret, H. E. iv. 2. Tr.] They were so called, because they believed the essence of religion to consist in prayer, that is, in that tranquil state of mind in which a person neither thinks nor has volitions. They were also called Enthusiasts, because they pretended to be inspired, and to hold converse with the Holy Spirit; Choreuta (xopevral, dancers), from this motion of their bodies, which they commonly used; the Spiritual (пveνμATIKOì), which was the name they gave to themselves; also Lan petians, Adelphians, and Marcianists, from certain of their leaders. There were both pagan and Christian Messalians. The former acknowledged indeed a plurality of gods, yet they worshipped but one, whom they called & TаVTOKрάTwp, the Almighty. These were more ancient than the Christians, built houses for worship similar to the Christian churches, and assembled morning and evening, with torches and candles, and employed their time in praising God; whence they were called Euphemites. The Christian Messalians were so named from the coincidence of their practice with that of the pagans; they seem to be the offspring of monkish enthusiasm, and to have first appeared in Mesopotamia, and thence to have spread into Syria; but their origin cannot be traced with more particularity. They seem not to have been a party who had determinate, fixed principles of faith, peculiar to themselves. Their number also appears never to have been great. They were all ascetics, though not all monks, in the proper sense of the word. Their religious theory was founded on an impure mysticism, common to nearly all fanatical persons and communities, and which originated, like the system of Manes, from the principles of the oriental philosophy. Yet the Messalians, like all enthusiasts, appear to have relied more upon spirits, apparitions, and revelations, than upon the oriental metaphysics. Their principles did not necessarily lead to vice, yet might afford occasion for it. And, in fact, there were among them many whom idleness and spiritual pride led into gross offences. And there were not wanting imagined, according to the oriental notion, that two souls resided in man, the one good and the other evil; and who laboured to expedite the return of the former to God by contemplation and prayer. This sect drew over many to its ranks by its outward show of piety: and the Greeks waged war with it through all the subsequent centuries. Yet it should be remembered, that the names Messalians and Euchites were used with great latitude among the Greeks and orientals, and were applied to all who endeavoured to raise the soul to God, by calling it away from every sensual influence, though these persons often differed very materially in their religious opinions. § 25. Towards the close of this century, Arabia and the adjacent countries were disturbed by two opposite sects, the Antidico-Marianites and the Collyridians. The former contended, that the virgin Mary did not remain always a virgin; but that she had intercourse with her husband, Joseph, after the birth of our Saviour. The latter, whom females especially favoured, went to the opposite extreme; they worshipped St. Mary as a goddess, and thought that she ought to be honoured and appeased with libations, sacrifices, and offerings of cakes.1 The more obscure and unimportant sects I pass without notice. among them real villains, who abused the mystical stupidity of others, to subserve their own wicked purposes. Heretics, in the strict sense, they were not; although, led astray by their pernicious mysticisms, they embraced wrong fundamental principles in regard to practical and experimental religion; and actuated by these, they, at least in part, fell into heretical opinions. Schl.] See Epiphanius, Heres. lxxviii. lxxix. p. 1033 and 1057. [Koλλupides, in Latin collyride. Tr.- Walch, Hist. Ketz. iii. 577, &c. Walch mentions (p. 598) one Bonosus, concerning whom he also published a dissertation at Göttingen, 1754, de Bonoso hæretico. He was, probably, bishop of Sardica in Illyricum, near the end of this century. He was accused of maintaining that Mary did not always remain a virgin, but bore several children. And this charge seems to have been true. But whether Bonosus denied also the divinity of Christ, and taught that he was the Son of God only by adoption, is very dubious. So much is certain, that in the fifth and sixth centuries there were opposers of the doctrine of the Trinity, and of the divinity of Christ, who in France and Spain were known by the name of Bonosians. Still, it is uncertain whether they derived the name from this, or from some other Bonosus. The reader may consult Ittig's Supplementum Operum Clementis Alexandrini; where, in the annexed Fascic. Observat. Miscellan, ad Hist. Eccles. p. 242, there is an Essay, de Haresi Bonosi. The Collyridianæ (for Epiphanius makes them all females) carried their respect for the mother of Jesus so high, that they were justly charged by the orthodox fathers with superstition. They came from Thrace and Scythia, into Arabia. It was their practice to dress out a car, or a square throne (kepkov), spread over it a linen cloth, and on a clear day, once a year, place on it a loaf of bread, or cake (Koλλupìs), which they offered to the Virgin Mary. Mosheim (in his Lectures) considered them as a set of simple persons, who had considerable heathenism about them; and supposed that while they were pagans, they were accustomed to bake and present to Venus, or Astarte (the moon), cakes called collyrides: and when they became Christians, thought this honour might now be best shown to Mary. The doctor had in his eye, perhaps, the passage in Jeremiah (viii. 18); and it is well known, that the offering of cakes in the pagan worship was a customary thing. See Walch, p. 625, &c.; and Tillemont, Mémoires, xii. 83. Schl.] FIFTH CENTURY. PART I. THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. THE PROSPEROUS EVENTS OF THE CHURCH. 1. State of the Roman empire - § 2. Further decline of idolatry - § 3. Nations converted to Christianity § 4. Conversion of the German nations - § 5. The Franks § 6. The Irish-§ 7. Causes of these conversions. § 1. To understand the causes of such things as were encountered by the Christians in this century, a portion of its civil history must be kept in view. We shall, therefore, first observe concisely that the Roman empire, at the commencement of this century, was divided into two parts, one of which embraced the eastern, and the other the western provinces. Arcadius, the emperor of the East, resided at Constantinople. Honorius, whom the West obeyed, lived at Ravenna in Italy. The latter, commendable for nothing but mildness of disposition, neglected the affairs of the empire. Hence the Goths first laid waste Italy several times, and plundered Rome most miserably. This first great calamity of the Roman state in its western territories, was followed by many others of a heavier kind, under the succeeding emperors. For the ferocious and warlike people of Germany overran those fairest provinces of Europe, Italy, Gaul, and Spain, and set up new kingdoms in them. At last the Heruli, in the year 476, under Odoacer, their chief, having vanquished Romulus Augustus, who is commonly called Augustulus, overturned the empire of the West, and brought Italy under their subjection. Sixteen years after, Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, inhabiting Illyricum, attacked these unwelcome intruders by the authority of the Greek emperor, and vanquished them; in consequence of which, the kingdom of the Ostrogoths was established in Italy, in the year 493, and continued with various fortune till the year 552. These new kings of the West kept up, indeed, an appearance of respect for the majesty of the emperors reigning at Constantinople, and chose to live seemingly under their fealty and protection; but, in reality, they were quite independent, especially Theodoric in Italy, a man of distinguished abilities, and left nothing to the emperors but a certain shadow of supremacy.2 3 § 2. Amidst these wars and the dreadful calamities that arose from them, the cause of Christianity suffered much. Yet the Christian emperors, especially those of the East, continued their efforts to extirpate what remained of the ancient idolatry. In particular, Theodosius the younger has left striking proofs of his zeal in this matter; for we have still extant various laws of his, requiring the idolatrous temples to be utterly destroyed, or to be dedicated to Christ and the saints, abrogating the pagan ceremonies and rites, and excluding the adherents to paganism from all public offices. In the western parts alone efforts of this kind were somewhat less; and we therefore find the Saturnalia, the Lupercalia, the gladiatorial shows, and other idolatrous customs, observed with impunity, both at Rome and in the provinces, and men of the highest rank and authority publicly professing the religion of their ancestors. But by degrees this liberty was more circumscribed, and spectacles too inconsistent with the sanctity of the Christian religion were everywhere suppressed. § 3. The limits of the Christian church were extended, both in the East and in the West, among nations yet addicted to idolatry. In the East, the inhabitants of the two mountains, Libanus and Antilibanus, being miserably harassed by wild beasts, sought aid against them from the famous Symeon Stylites, of whom we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. Symeon told them that their only remedy was to forsake their ancient superstitions and embrace For a fuller account, see the Abbé de Bos, Hist. Crit. de la Monarchie Françoise, i. 258, &c.; and Jos. Ja. Mascov's History of the Germans, written in German. [Also Edw. Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. 29-31, 33-36. Tr.] 2 Car. du Fresne, Diss. xxiii. ad Histor. Ludovici S. p. 280. Muratori, Antiq. Ital. ii. 578, 832; and Annal. Italiæ: Giannone, Histoire de Naples, i. 207. Joh. Cochlæi, Vita Theodorici Ostrogothorum regis, with the observations of Joh. Peringskiöld, Stockholm, 1699, 4to. [A. D. 408-450. Tr.] Codex Theodos. vi. 327, 331, &c. See Macrobius, Saturnalia; in particular, lib. ii. p. 190, ed. Gronovii; Scipio Maffei, delli Anfiteatri, lib. i. p. 56, 57. Pierre le Brun, Histoire Critique des Pratiques Superstitieuses, i. 237, and others; but especially Bernh. de Montfaucon, Diss. de Moribus tempore Theodosii M. et Arcadii ex Chry sostom. which is found in Latin, in the Near the close of the century, Anasta sius in the East prohibited the combats with wild beasts, and the other shows. See Jos. Simon Asseman, Biblioth. Oriental. Clement. Vatican. i. 268, 272. |